ã€ŠLegend of the Supreme Soldierã€‹


 Chapter 1 - Treasure and Trash

    <h4>Chapter 1: Treasure and Trash</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Trash-12 was one of many trashs in the Fal star system.

    Its eponymous function was for trash disposal. As science continued to advance into the space age, humanity¡¯s lifestyles underwent a paradigm shift. Life becamefortable, tranquil, and the initial urgent concerns about resources and ecological bnce had diminished due to advancement of humankind beyond the skies. As more news were discovered and humanity¡¯s space technology matured, society developed more hectic and humanistic lifestyles, and trash. The costs of recycling were too high, but leaving trash around would have negative impacts on society¡¯s living environment, not to mention the inevitable discontentment that would follow. The solution adopted by the nations was to dispose of their waste on these so-called ¡°trashs¡±. Trashs were either naturallycking or artificially deprived of resources and not to mention uninhabited, which made them idealndfills for trash.

    Under grey skies, a variety of trash formed a mountainousndscape - thend is silent, the air dead. Cool metals gleamed with unique metallic coldness, but dust had masked their original shine, only an asional spot untouched by rust would remind one of their former glory.

    On this apparently lifeless trash, one would have thought no human

    could exist, considering the harsh environment, devoid of food and water,cked the necessities for survival. There was only one thing here - trash!

    Ye Chong raised his head to study the antiquated analogue clock, found three years ago at the foot of a particr mountain of trash, ten kilometers away. Its touch-based motion sensor was damaged then, which took Ye Chong a week of fixing to function again. The clock now reced its predecessor, an even more outdated pendulum clock.

    It was now 3:42 FT (Fal Time), and Ye Chong knew that in another 13 minutes, the weather outside would reach the day¡¯s most suitable temperature for heading outdoors, and this decent climate would end at 6:17 FT. At other hours, the weather outside would either be as scorching as an oven or as cold as the peak of winter.

    ording to routine, there should be a scheduled trash disposalst night. Ye Chong considered for a trip outside today, to see if he can score some new goods. Not that he wascking in food, that engulfer he caughtst time still had a great half of it left, enough for another 3 days. Besides, there was still a good stock of organic liquid food left, but they tasted far worse than fresh meat,; more like wax, which had been left alone for quite a while.

    It was 3:55 FT, and Ye Chong sprinted out of his home in a blink of an eye. Time was precious to Ye Chong. The current location where the automated trash disposal ship discharged of its cargo was half an hour¡¯s journey away from his hideout, which implied that Ye Chong¡¯s hour-long trip to his destination left him with only less than half an hour¡¯s time to forage.

    Ye Chong scampered through thebyrinth of trash like an agile creature with incredible swiftness. He was very familiar with the ins and outs of the localndscape, and Ye Chong believed he could still find his way through even with his eyes closed.

    The headwind whistled past his ears, and Ye Chong enjoyed the satisfaction that came with his speed. But he was always alert of his surroundings, for survival on a trash would mean violent encounters with all sorts of mutated life forms.

    Trashs were unsuited for human habitation, but for mutated life forms, they were no doubt, heaven. The hostile environment was nothing to the highly adaptable mutants. Local resources were bountiful- trash, for the rat-like engulfer, was food, and so on this very, their numbers grew exponentially.

    This was also unlike its cousins that were untouched by humanity, popr spots for mech pilots to tempt their fate. No mech pilot would want toy a foot on a forbidding ce like this. Without the mechs hunting them down, the mutants flourished in the absence of their greatest enemy.

    Ye Chong¡¯s home was in the middle of a mountain of trash, the route leading to it was a crack not more than four meters wide. Jutting metal beams on the exterior made for a dangerous looking fa?ade for the route¡¯s entrance.

    Ye Chong did not slow down, his stride long and powerful - one would have mistaken his movements as that of a primate, the agility astonishing. But there were no spectators on this trash, and this amazing moment belonged to him and him alone.

    Ye Chong pushed hard with his legs and leapt through the air, and as he reached the peak of the jump, he grabbed onto a horizontal titanium beam that was suspended midair. He then swung around it and did a few flips beforending steadily on the trash mountain.

    Ye Chong came to a halt and used his right index finger to caress the nondescript jet-ck metallic ring on his left ring finger while calling out softly, ¡°Winnie!¡±.

    A greyish-green mech appeared before Ye Chong, and he mumbled out of habit, ¡°If only I can find a neural receiver this time, voicemand sucks.¡± He slipped easily into the pilot¡¯s seat.

    Winnie¡¯s built was like the average mech, around ten meters tall, with a thickset bulky body and equally thickset limbs, all amounting to the looks of a metallic lump, and the undeniably bald head was aical touch. By virtue of age, the mech¡¯s exterior appeared dull, but the rounded shoulders and knee joints embedded irregrly with barbed hooks added points for a merciless impression. Winnie¡¯s body was scattered with wounds of all kinds, like scratches and bite marks, and the sight was ghastly. But Winnie was obviously well-cared-for, boasting a spotless exterior; all proof how much Ye Chong cherished the machine.

    If not for Winnie, Ye Chong may not have lived till today - at least as far as Ye Chong believed, he could not have survived through more than two engulfers without a mech, and the rodents out here were never found with less than five in a group. On this trash, being weak was synonymous to a quick death, thew of natural selection fully adopted by the ways of the local inhabitants.

    There was one person whose story reveals a close rtion between a man and a mech, and that was Ye Chong¡¯s foster father. Ye Chong only knew him as Gao Shi Chang, the rest of his background remained a mystery. ording to his foster father, he was initially the only man on the trash, until one day he found a boy, with the words ¡°Ye Chong¡± written on his body. As to how his foster father arrived on this trash, and his former upation, the man was ever so tight lipped about them.

    This mech was the result of his foster father¡¯s foraging. It was originally a mech made for public use, which, after his foster father¡¯s interminable modifications, was nearly unrecognizsable for what it once was. ording to him, in the outside world, almost everyone owned a mech, but since most of them were recycled upon disposal, it was hard to find one on trashs without a good deal of luck. Under his foster father¡¯s influence, Ye Chong developed great interest in mechs, and his foster father was generous in sharing his knowledge,; the duo frequently engaged in exciting discussions around the very much aged mech processor at home. The mech was named Winnie which, ording to his foster father, was a ssic brand of engines for outdated mechs.

    Unlike his foster father¡¯s preference for modifications, Ye Chong had an almost innate instinct and sensitivity in maneuvering the mech just as it is. As such, Winnie was always piloted by him. His foster father once mentioned that Ye Chong would make for a fine pilot one day.

    After a close encounter with five engulfers that led to an intense battle and a sessful escape, Ye Chong began to train himself conscientiously for the actualbat. After his first taste of fresh rat meat, he could never take interest in the organic liquid food churned out from the food producer machine.

    Ceaseless ordeals in actualbat meant Ye Chong was no longer his old, innocent self, with the exception of a few terrifying and ferocious creatures that Ye Chong would never dare approach. All other life forms were no longer a threat to Ye Chong. but, if Ye Chong was careless, these creatures could still be potentially fatal.

    Unfortunately, Winnie was too old, such that even after all those adjustments, theck of good parts and tools meant that Winnie was already as good as it would ever be. The fatal w would be Winnie¡¯s brain, which was too outdated.

    His foster father might have been an expert in the mechanics, but he was absolutely clueless about mech processors.

    The man once said, for any mech, if the engine is its heart, then the processor is its soul.

    Ye Chong felt restricted in many ways, piloting the current mech.

    Winnie¡¯s only slightly redeeming feature was its pair of bionic eyes. When Ye Chong brought them to his foster father¡¯s attention, even he had no idea what model it was, with only a rough idea that it could be a new model from recent years. After all, he had wandered on the trash for decades, whatever advances beyond the, he could not obscure.

    It was thanks to this pair of modern bionic eyes, that Ye Chong escaped from danger time and again.

    Although Winnie was old, until such time where a newer mech could be found, Winnie was Ye Chong¡¯s only choice.

    Ye Chong carefully upped the speed for Winnie until 80% of its maximum speed, as this allowed for a faster travel with room for emergency adjustments.

    The travel was smooth, and Ye Chong arrived at his destination without obstructions. Anywhere heid eyes on was filled with trash, but there were distinct areas where the trash were more recent additions, and these were Ye Chong¡¯s goals for the day.

    ¡°Scanningmenced!¡± Winnie¡¯s voice was unrushed, with a slowness akin to an aging senior, Ye Chong thought helplessly, but he scanned his surroundings warily. For once, Winnie carried out a full scan with its eyes but will cease all other functions thus, Ye Chong will have to be fully alert for threats.

    Ye Chong examined some corners where mutated lifeforms could possibly emerge from, all the while muttering, ¡°Come on old buddy, you got to do some good today, I haven¡¯t had any new stuff in a while! Come on now¡­ Come on¡­¡± Eventually, Ye Chong began humming a little tune. All alone on this trash, if he went on for some time without uttering a word, Ye Chong was not sure if he ever could again and so, despite theck of another person to interact with, talking to himself had slowly be routine.

    Ye Chong maintained a casual fa?ade, but his slightly tense posture spoke of his state of high vignce.

    ¡°Scanningpleted!¡± The announcement was like music to his ears. Ye Chong exhaled deeply in relief.

    ¡°Switch to High Alert Mode!¡± Ye Chong gave Winnie the order, and immediately scrutinized the scan results ryed from the processor; a few red patches on the scanned images looking particrly conspicuous. Ye Chong could not contain his excitement - it seemed that the forage this time would be fruitful.

    Scavenging in the trash heaps. Ye Chong spitted out grains of sand that made their way into his mouth from the mech¡¯s crevices.

    ¡°Damn it! Not one of them is useful, by the Heavens, surely I could not be so unlucky!¡± Ye Chong wailed, his initial excitement gone without a trace. He had searched through many spots,; all ending up with useless junk, and now only thest spot remained, with the smallest object on the list. Based on the size, Ye Chong could not figure out what it could possibly be used for, but better a mistake than a missed opportunity as he dived headlong into the mountainous heap of trash.

    Ye Chong halfid on a chair, munching on freshly roasted engulfer¡¯s meat, as he toyed with today¡¯s only object of value.

    It seemed to be a metallic hanging ornament with a dull metallic shine, and only the size of three fingernails. It was roundish with a perimeter lined with a curved de, and its surface densely covered with queer patterns that seemed indistinguishable, but possibly based on some unknown underlying principles. Sadly, a chipped corner and some cracks along the de told the story of a damaged, secondary article.

    Ye Chong murmured, ¡°What is this? What a strange material!¡±

    His thumb gently caressed the edge of the de, and a thin cut appeared which Ye Chong felt nothing from, until the sight of crimson brought on a flicker of pain.

    ¡°Very sharp indeed!¡± Ye Chong was slightly surprised. ¡°Surely this gimmick is not a hidden weapon?!¡± Ye Chong watched as a drop of blood hanged off the edge of the de, from the cut earlier.

    Lo and behold, a mysterious phenomenon urred!

    Beyond the bounds of possibility, the de unexpectedly absorbed the blood, much like a sponge. A blood-absorbing metal? Ye Chong jumped back in shock. There was no mistake, he touched it, and the de was undeniably metal! Ye Chong bet that the scene he just witnessed was no illusion.

    The eeriness showed no signs of stopping.

    The blood-fed ornament emitted a light buzzing sound, the curved de retracted into the body of the ornament, and the cryptic patterns on its surface began to move. The ornament behaved as though a machine grinding in operations, and Ye Chong¡¯s blood was the catalyst.

    Ye Chong waspletely dumbfounded!

    A voice resonated without warning in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, ¡°Di-proton examinationpleted, brainwave matched, brainwave locked!¡±

    Ye Chong frantically eximed, ¡°Who¡¯s there! Come out!¡± His vision sharpened as he scanned his surroundings, his hand quietly reaching for the dagger holstered on his leg.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± The same voice sounded uncertain.

 Chapter 2 - Man and Machine

    <h4>Chapter 2: Man and Machine</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± The same voice sounded uncertain.

    ¡°Nonsense! Just show yourself and we¡¯ll see!¡± Ye Chong¡¯s expression betrayed mild impatience, but the intensity of his gaze were a contrast to his apparent emotions. Ye Chong arched his body slightly, like a bow ready to fire, prepared to deliver a fatal blow.

    ¡°Then I¡¯ming out!¡± The voice maintained its level tone.

    Immediately, the room dimmed, and Ye Chong did not manage a reaction before hearing a deafening rumble as a huge wave of trash engulfed him whole.

    The trash fell silent again.

    After a long stillness, in a trash heap near a Pulsed Signal Ry Station, a hand suddenly emerged from the heap, and a filthy man climbed his way out of the trash heap.

    *Cough¡­ cough¡­*

    ¡°Bad thingse in threes, huh¡­¡± Ye Chong cursed as he shook the little rocks and sand grains out of his clothing. Up to this point, Ye Chong could not understand what had happened.

    Could it be that, this was the legendary mode of self-destruction?

    He looked on at the sorry sight of the area, the entrance to his home no longer there - everywhere was just trash and more trash. Ye Chong shuddered at the aftermath- how long would it take to carve out another entrance?

    Ye Chong cursed murderously under his breath, ¡°Once I find you, you little scum, I will make you pay!¡± The fury in him burned like asting wildfire.

    As Ye Chong stared at the perpetrator of this whole incident, he found himself speechless.

    The route-digging took three whole days, and the thought of the long and arduous process fueled Ye Chong¡¯s anger towards the perpetrator to new unprecedented heights.

    But when Ye Chong tried to deal with the perpetrator, the fire would not catch.

    Its metallic shell, aesthetic and powerful, the alternating blue-and-whiteser coating pristine, the mech¡¯s surfacepletely spotless despite being amongst filthy and disgusting trash. When Ye Chong found it, it was just quietly standing there, firmly, as though nothing in existence could ever perturb it.

    Ye Chong knew at first nce that he had found real treasure!

    If the first nce at the mech gave him joy, a second nce made Ye Chong understand profoundly the meaning of pain within joy.

    A huge scar extended from its left shoulder to its waist, even exposing part of its engine to the air, and the entire left arm was missing. It was as though a one-of-a-kind exquisite painting of perfection was forcefully ripped in half.

    This was a human-shaped mech, with a height of around twelve meters, its body painted with alternating blues and whites, with an elongated overall design, a world¡¯s difference from Winnie¡¯s thickset bulkiness. The mech¡¯s body radiated a faint, mysterious metallic luster, the protective armor panels on the chest were like the abs of well-development muscles, but not cumbersomely so. The icy cold profile had edges that looked as though they cut, and hosted an enigmatic pair of blue bionic eyes that blinked rhythmically, emanating a supernatural charm.

    Ye Chong was stunned, as he starred at the dpidated mech that destroyed his home. For a moment, Ye Chong was thoroughly captivated by this damaged but unique mech, as though the mech had bewitched his entire being with magic.

    ¡°*Beep* self-assessmentpleted, engine functions at 86%, left limb functions at 0%, cabin functions at 97%, other parts are fully functional!¡±

    The gender-neutral voice interrupted Ye Chong out of his fantasies.

    Ye Chong blurted, ¡°Waah, this is the real deal, a self-assessing mech!¡± If one looked closely, one could see Ye Chong¡¯s mouth gaping wide enough to fit an engulfer¡¯s thigh and even drooling.

    The damaged mech suddenly spoke, ¡°Hello!¡±

    A mech that greets, Ye Chong thought in a daze, and greeted back instinctively, ¡°Hello!¡±

    The mech continued, ¡°My name is Mu Shang, you can call me Mu!¡±

    Ye Chong was still not out of his reverie, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m Ye Chong, you can call me Ye!¡±

    Abruptly, Ye Chong came back to his senses and flinched as though burned on the ass. He pointed at the damaged mech and stammered, ¡°You - you - you - you can talk?¡±

    The damaged mech that was Mu Shang nodded gracefully, ¡°At a certain level, your observation is urate!¡±

    Ye Chong repeated in disbelief, ¡°A mech that speaks?¡±

    ¡°Um-hum!¡±

    With the addition of Mu Shang, Ye Chong¡¯s home inevitably grew in space to thrice its original size. From Mu Shang, Ye Chong came to realize that the hanging ornament was Mu Shang¡¯s spatial control, but Mu Shang seemed to prefer being outside than in the alternate dimension. Ye Chong was also grateful for thepany - for a sixteen-year-old, loneliness was almost unbearable.

    Ye Chong sat down heavily, finally finished with his work, andpletely exhausted. Mu Shang imitated Ye Chong¡¯s actions, as it swooshed down to a sitting position beside Ye Chong with a loud thud. Dust erupted into the air, and Ye Chong was caught off guard amidst the chaos as he was sent tumbling to a corner by the strong gust. As he rose, face frozen in anger, what he found was Mu Shang had smashed arge hole in the ground, and the mech was still sittingfortably in the hole as it looked back with innocent eyes.

    Under the lighting, the tiny human and the huge machine sat side by side.

    Ye Chong asked curiously, ¡°Mu, what happened to you?¡±

    Mu Shang answered, ¡°Information corrupted, reason is unknown!¡±

    Ye Chong gulped down a mouthful of water andughed. ¡°Hah, if it must be because you are actually not powerful enough, to be beaten up like that!¡±

    Mu Shang replied, ¡°Information corrupted, reason is unknown!¡±

    Ye Chong¡¯sughter ended abruptly, and he moped. ¡°Ohe one, can¡¯t you be a little more interesting? Don¡¯t just be like ¡®information this¡¯, ¡®information that¡¯!¡±

    Mu Shang tilted its head in confusion. ¡°Interesting? What is ¡®interesting¡¯?¡±

    Ye Chong scratched his head in frustration, for he was stumped. ¡°Er, er, that question is, hmm, a bitplicated, er, let¡¯s talk about something else, Mu, are you actually male or female?¡±

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    Ye Chong sat in Mu Shang¡¯s cabin, stupefied, as he stared in obvious disbelief, his hand caressing this and that in absolute adoration and admiration. ¡°Mu, you must be one of the best mechs there is, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Mu replied evenly, ¡°Information archive indicates that the answer is negative. Calction indicates the probability of inclusion in the top 500 ranking mechs as 26%, in the 501th to 600th ranking range as 63%, beyond the 600th ranking as 11%.¡±

    Ye Chong gasped in astonishment. ¡°500 mechs? Are there so many more great mechs? But, back to your point, being in the top 500 is not too shabby! In any case, you¡¯re definitely better than Winnie!¡±

    Naturally, Ye Chong did not fully understand the implications of Mu Shang ranking within the top 500, even in its current state of dpidation. Ye Chong had always dreamed of owning a mech more advanced than Winnie one day, and then he would march forth and challenge the trash¡¯s most ferocious mutants in battle. What would the giant iron lizard¡¯s meat taste like? Ye Chong licked his lips without realizing it. Hah, the time wille when I crown myself as King of this trash!

    Mu Shang heartlessly cut short his fantasy. ¡°Winnie¡¯s strength cannot be calcted!¡±

    Ye Shang immediately pulled a face, ¡°I know that!¡± ¡°Mu, can I be your pilot?¡± he asked with anticipation.

    ¡°Denied!¡±

    *Cries* Oh well, it looks like he¡¯ll have to pilot Winnie himself!

    Ye Chong was deeply saddened, but he caught on to a puzzling aspect. ¡°Then why do you have a cabin?¡±

    Mu Shang was silent for a few second before responding. ¡°Information is corrupted, query is impossible!¡±

    ¡°Then do you remember who made you?¡± Ye Chong asked, interested.

    ¡°Information is corrupted, query is impossible!¡±

    The ever so lonely Ye Chong was deeply absorbed in the conversation, and just as he was about to continue with the questions, a sudden rm buzzed softly, as Mu Shang announced, ¡°Energy level depleted!¡± Upon inspection of the energy indication disy, the level was a hair¡¯s breadth away from zeroing out.

    Since Trash-12 was situated close to a star, it had a nearly unlimited supply of sr energy, or at least Ye Chong never faced problems with energy supply. But when he used up all his backup energy cells on Mu Shang and found that it did not even recover 10% of its full capacity, Ye Chong was confounded!

    As Mu Shang connected directly to the sr panels, Ye Chong was speechless, and prayed that the energy cell circting his house wouldst until Mu Shang was finished charging that day.

    Mu Shang was quiet throughout the charging process, and Ye Chong, bored with the whole process, dozed off.

    The next day, as Ye Chong rubbed off the sleepiness of his tired eyes, he found that Mu Shang looked a little different. The machine¡¯s surface looked as if it was coated with an extrayer of shine that added to the mysteriousness of the mech.

    Ye Chong gasped, ¡°Mu, you looked beautiful all of a sudden!¡±

    Mu Shang seemed to understand Ye Chong¡¯s meaning of ¡®beautiful¡¯, and exined, ¡°This is the photon excitation effect, where an adequate energy supply produces a lifelike shine on metallic surfaces, the basic theory is that ¡­¡±

    Ye Chong sported his baggy eyelids and couldn¡¯t stop yawning.

    Mu Shang seemed to enjoy the lecturing, showing no signs of stopping. ¡°Other theories involved are actually quite simple, they can be ssified into the following fields ¡­¡±

    Ye Chong bowed his head, like a monk in meditation, and one would notice upon close inspection that a line of ¡°moisture¡± had formed on hisp, forming a big patch of dampness on his trousers.

    Mu Shang was not quite finished. ¡°And so, from here one can reach the conclusion that a mech¡¯s strength ¡­¡±

    A thundering snore cut off Mu Shang¡¯s lecture. Mu Shang looked angrily towards the source of the sound, and saw Ye Chong snoring rhythmically through his nose, incessantly, and his shoulders rose and fell with his heavy breathing.

    Mu Shang humphed in anger!

 Chapter 3 - In Good Company

    <h4>Chapter 3: In Good Company</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    In some corner of a trash mountain, two mechsid in ambush behind some trash, and about a hundred meters away were five engulfers scavenging through the trash for food, asionally scanning their surroundings for threat. Ye Chong scrutinized theyout of thend and proceeded with a short discussion with Mu Shang.

    Ye Chong piloted Winnie carefully, slowly approaching the five engulfers, taking cover behind various debris along the way. They stopped about twenty meters away from the engulfers, and Ye Chong exhaled in relief, as things were going smoothly so far. Ye Chong intended to move, when a sudden gust of wind blew passed him and straight towards the engulfers. Ye Chong cursed inwardly, revved up his mech¡¯s speed to maximum and headed straight for the engulfers.

    Winnie sprinted towards the engulfers like a sted cannonball.

    But it was toote, when the gust struck, the engulfers caught their scent with their keen sense of smell, and scampered to escape.

    Ye Chong kept his cool guiding Winnie and targeted one of the engulfers, for when the creatures escaped into the trash heaps, it would be nearly impossible to get them. Ye Chong ignored the other four engulfers and pursued the remaining rodent securely.

    The air whizzed past his ears, and Ye Chong felt as though his blood was rushing, burning even. The world as he perceived it gradually slowed as his brain registered the excitement; his breathing shortened as though every breath took every effort he could muster, and his chest rose and fell in sync with his breathing. Every exhale burned through his nose, as though he was breathing fire.

    As he closed in on the engulfer, Ye Chong¡¯s hands kept steady, and began to regte his breathing.

    Abruptly, Winnie ferociously flung a dagger, a resounding *clink* marked the weapon¡¯snding not three meters ahead of the engulfer. The creature was running at full speed, and upon setting its eyes on the dagger, foresaw its potential bloody demise.

    The engulfer made a seemingly impossible twist, as itnded its forelegs on the t side of the dagger and thrusted. It bounced off the dagger with its forward momentum, unharmed from the whole ordeal, executing a most remarkable feat.

    The engulfer¡¯s eye gleamed as if rejoicing the fact that it would survive the day.

    However, before the triumph was over, a sharp breeze headed straight for the engulfer, and even the creature¡¯s mediocre hearing could identify the horrors that came with it. The air squalling through the barbs on Winnie¡¯s knee joints shrieked dreadfully. If the machine¡¯s knees came into contact, the results would be fatal!

    Of all the life forms that could survive in the trash, none were honorable - even when facing the seemingly hopeless situation at hand, the engulfer would not surrender!

    The engulfer arched its back, suspended momentarily in midair and as Winnie¡¯s knee came into range, it dynamically bounced off the knee barbs with its forelegs, redirecting its momentum above ambushing Winnie¡¯s neck.

    *Puff*

    A faint wheeze can be heard as the bards pierced the engulfer¡¯s forelegs and sliced through its vulnerable soft belly; drawing some scars on its hind legs.

    On the trash, a wound this severe implied certain death but that was not the engulfer¡¯s concern - the objective was tond a mighty blow on the enemy before its imminent demise! It mattered not if the blow was no threat to the enemy!

    Its fearsome teeth glistened coldly - these teeth that could cut through metal were the engulfer¡¯sst hope to leave an unforgettable mark on its nemesis!

    The engulfer¡¯s determination was akin to one¡¯s realization of one¡¯s soul, its act of self-sacrifice radiating with the utmost force of its life! The engulfer truly believed that this attack would be the most intense one throughout its entire existence!

    It¡¯s getting closer now, the enemy¡¯s neck grew clearer in view, and the engulfer felt an adrenaline rush! Just one more second, no, half a second! Just half a second was all it needed to execute the most splendid and glorious attack in its life!

    Its eyes were burning! Like fire, a zing euphoria!

    Within seconds, the fire within extinguished!

    A silent de that rose from below unhindered shed the engulfer in half! In a sh, fresh blood and organs showered from above, sshing onto the rust-red soil below.

    Ye Chong finally simmered down!

    He looked up, and saw Mu Shang observing quietly some distance away. The engulfer was hung on a seven meters long titanium pole. Mu Shang¡¯s strategy was simpler - Ye Chong positioned the mech right where one of the engulfers was escaping towards making the oblivious engulfer defenseless against Mu Shang¡¯s lightning speed and uracy.

    Ye Chong waved at Mu Shang from afar. ¡°Hey!¡±

    He picked up the both parts of his severed engulfer!

    Ye Chong boasted to the mech, obviously pleased. ¡°Well? My skills are not bad after all!¡±

    Mu Shang replied tly, ¡°Aplete disappointment!¡±

    Ye Chong did a double take. ¡°What? Aplete disappointment? Were you even watching?¡± To be criticized so mercilessly at something he took most pride in was not doing wonders to Ye Chong¡¯s dignity.

    Mu Shang did not ease up. ¡°With the exception of mediocre battle skills, your flying skills, shooting skills and tactical aplishments were extremely crude. Your experience in real battle is not assessable due to theck of information!¡±

    ¡°No way!¡± Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened with a face of disbelief.

    Mu Shang shrugged; the image of amusing entricity. ¡°Of course, error in assessments stands at 0.3%.¡±

    Ye Chong refused to give in. ¡°You must be real jealous to bring me down like that!¡±

    Mu Shang, ¡°The possibility of that is nil!¡±

    ¡°Then it must be because my mech¡¯s too old, haha! That must be it. One day I¡¯ll give you a try!¡±

    Mu Shang paused, and continued in an odd tone, ¡°There were thirty one escape routes in the trash heaps, how did you know one of the engulfers would pass by where I was positioned?¡±

    ¡°Hehe, awesome right? It was instinct!¡± Ye Chong announced, pleased.

    ¡°Instinct?¡± Mu Shang¡¯s bionic eyes glowed in response.

    ¡°Information insufficient, calction is impossible!¡±

    Ye Chong scoffed at that. ¡°Calcte? If you can calcte it, then it wouldn¡¯t be called instinct!¡±

    Mu Shang replied calmly, ¡°It is only an event with a small probability!¡±

    ¡°What? You¡¯re saying it was a coincidence? Just luck? I¡¯m telling you ¡­¡± Ye Chong eximed in frenzy.

    ¡­¡­¡­

    Two shadows stretched longer and longer under the setting star. The spire that was the Pulse Signal Ry Station near Ye Chong¡¯s hideout could be seen from afar, like andmark, showing the way home.

 Chapter 4 - Brave New World

    <h4>Chapter 4: Brave New World</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong chewed on roasted engulfer¡¯s meat as he stared fixated at the schematics for Mu Shang¡¯s inner structures before him. It took plenty of convincing for Ye Chong to get Mu Shang to agree to this. The designs were tooplex and ingenious, as Ye Chong admired inwardly. Under his foster father¡¯s guidance, Ye Chong was definitely qualified to be an expert in mechanics, but the schematics before him did not make much sense, meaning he would have to decipher it bit by bit, but this also dramatically raised his high opinion for the designer.

    After half a day, Ye Chong felt his eyes went arid, and so he shifted his vision away from the schematics and peeked at the static Mu Shang by his side, and made an impertinent remark. ¡°Mu, best not waste your efforts, this Pulse Signal Ry Station is not so easy to hack! Why, back then, my foster father tried numerous times and never seeded.¡±

    Mu Shang was inert, as though Ye Chong never spoke.

    Ye Chong began his quirky habit of talking to himself again, as he mumbled against the schematics, ¡°Mu, it¡¯s not personal, but let¡¯s stop trying with this impossible task, you should use your spare time to teach me instead. I mean, I¡¯ve stared at this tattered schematics for a good part of the day and my head hurts. But the designer behind this must be a genius, tsk tsk. Amazing, amazing¡­¡±

    Mu Shang suddenly spoke up, ¡°Hackingplete!¡±

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes did not leave the schematics while he replied in reflex, ¡°What? Hackingplete? I say Mu, when did you learn to joke? Hah, not bad, not bad. You¡¯re improving! But Mu, a failure is a failure, for something impossible like this, your failure is expected, and so, no one is going tough at you¡­¡±

    Mu Shang ignored Ye Chong and continued, ¡°Fal star system¡¯s weekly news review, Renaissance¡¯s new space station, the S.S. Hui Tan will begin epting new citizens this Monday, the first phase of new citizens will enjoy the following benefits¡­¡±

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes zed for a bit, his hands paused from whatever he was up to, and shook his head vigorously before speaking in disbelief, ¡°You, you really did it?¡±

    Mu Shang replied calmly, ¡°Undeniably so!¡±

    Ye Chong asked carefully, ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    Mu Shang, ¡°I am sure!¡±

    ¡°Hah, hahaha, I can finally learn about the outside world, I can finally learn about the outside world¡­¡± Ye Chong jumped with glee, and hit the ceiling with excessive force.

    *Bang*

    Ye Chong was oblivious, as he continued to run about his house in excitement, fully relishing in his joy.

    Mu Shang observed Ye Chong¡¯s emotional response, his cool face softening around the edges, but the moment was over in a sh as it resumed its usualposure.

    Ye Chong carefully sat in Mu Shang¡¯s cabin, put on the helmet, andid down silently on the soft seating, but he heart was anything but calm - there was excitement, hope, curiosity, and a little trepidation against the unknown setting. These plethora of emotions kept him agitated, unable to calm down.

    Mu Shang¡¯s voice rang in his ear, ¡°Ye, ready?¡±

    For some reason, Mu Shang¡¯s voice had a calming effect on Ye Chong. Ye Chong took a deep breath, and answered steadily, ¡°Ready!¡±

    Just as he finished, Ye Chong¡¯s vision changed dramatically.

    Ye Chong shook his head dizzily, and Mu Shang¡¯s voice returned when he felt better, ¡°Users essing the virtual for the first time would usually experience dizziness, this is normal, and has no negative health consequences.¡±

    Ye Chong had a rough idea what that meant, and began to examine his surroundings.

    The first thing he saw was a screen made up of intertwined light rays in a wide range of colors, those vibrant hues fluctuated and moved as though they were alive, creating and recreating new palettes!

    The strong contrasts in sight moved Ye Chong like never before!

    For Ye Chong, who grew up on a trash, the world was made up of only metallic cks and whites, the yellow from the star¡¯s rays, and the sweeping color of rust. He never thought colors could be so dazzling, so rich!

    Ye Chong stood there, mystified, as he took in the most stunning view before him!

    Someone passed by Ye Chong, noticed the look on his face, and swore under his breath, ¡°Idiot!¡±

    That swearing woke Ye Chong up from his fascination. Ye Chong could not help but felt a little bitterness, what would these upper ss people know about his hard life? Fortunately, Ye Chong was not one to wallow in self-pity. After feeling lost for a while, Ye Chong picked himself back up.

    As though sensing his change, Mu Shang, who was silent up until then, finally spoke up, ¡°Ye, you can walk through the light screen now!¡±

    Ye Chong obeyed, and came upon a huge square. The square was disying all sorts of machines that Ye Chong could not even identify, and the middle of the square was upied by arge electronic disy, broadcasting all sorts of news and information.

    ¡°The Central Square is the news area, this is also my first time here, why don¡¯t you have a look around yourself, if there are any problems just call for me in your mind, as I can detect your brainwave signal! Alright! It¡¯s settled!¡±

    Mu Shang¡¯s voice ended abruptly, leaving only silence.

    Ye Chong smile wryly inside, but his worries were quickly reced by intense curiosity. Ye Chong observed around him inquisitively, as he began to explore the area.

    More than a decade¡¯s worth of survival instinct led Ye Chong to be highly vignt in unfamiliar territory. He kept himself about two meters away from anyone around him at all times, as that was his best striking range, so that he could respond in time to any unexpected circumstances.

    The ability to navigate quickly through the dense and irregr trash terrain on his home also added to his skillset, as he moved like a fish, slipping through the crowd smoothly and with style. On top of that,pared to the rxing, strolling pace adopted by everyone else, Ye Chong moved as though he was in a rush for something urgent, but that was only because on the trash, every second was precious - it may be a matter of better returns, or a matter of life and death!

    Ye Chong was like a vicious predatory fish wandering amongst the carefree, slow-witted fishes, obviously out of ce, and a bit of an eyesore.

    His foster father once said, outside of trashs, humans live in peace and happiness - no countless life-threatening mutated lifeforms, no daily scheduled storms, no food-scavenging through the trash heaps. Instead, they wear bright clothing, eat fresh and fancy meals, living a life of peace and leisure. They go to school every day, with many friends, and they have many different kinds of mechs.

    Ye Chong once asked his foster father longingly if it was paradise out there, but his foster father said no. Ye Chong was baffled - if a ce like that wasn¡¯t paradise then what else can it be? The young Ye Chong had spent countless asions imagining the outside world as he thought it should be like - the mysterious, promisednd of dreamse-true.

    Now, Ye Chong could finally experience the world he had long wished for!

    Ye Chong could not really understand what he felt at the moment, as he walked on absentmindedly, not knowing where he really was.

    Ye Chong stared nkly at the ceiling.

    He did not exactly remember how he got back, his mind upied by a lingering emotion, one that he couldn¡¯t really recognize. He would need time to process the day¡¯s experience.

    Mu Shang said nothing, his silence made it hard for anyone to guess what lightning-speed calctions were running through his processor.

    The ceiling was as it always was, unchanged, and the night was as silent as every other before it.

 Chapter 5 - Training Day

    <h4>Chapter 5: Training Day</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ever since then, Ye Chong began to explore in earnest the mysterious and enchanting outside world. Out there, one can find almost anything, limited only by one¡¯s imagination. Ye Chong quickly warmed up to this illusory but undeniably real world. It took him no time to grow out of his initial shyness and be in his element.

    And Mu Shang was up to something every day,ing and going as he pleased, disappearing almost immediately after essing the virtual every time.

    Ye Chong¡¯s favourite ce was arge township called Gutista. Various mechs were sold here, along with their weird parts and essories. But most importantly, here was the meeting spot for many mech enthusiasts, where they frequently gather to exchange their thoughts on the machines. They were mostly mech engineers or professionals. The township¡¯s manager even installed a medium scaled mech information archive here, which Ye Chong was always appreciative of.

    Ye Chong enjoyed the area¡¯s deep schrly atmosphere, while the locals also happily embraced this eager and forthright young man, taking him under their wings. Through their guidance, Ye Chong began to understand how outdated his knowledge was, but it made sense.

    Since all he knew were taught by his foster father, and the man had been isted from the outside world for decades, it would only be weird if something from decades ago remained relevant today. Fortunately, Ye Chong had a solid foundation, and now he fully understood why his foster father was so strict with his foundation studies.

    His solid foundation also made learning easier, as he took in new knowledge with great speed, and earned the favours of the older men.

    Today, as soon as he reached home, Ye Chong slipped into Mu Shang¡¯s cabin and put on thebat helmet. Although Ye Chong adored the virtual world, he did not lose himself in it. He understood that the trash was his real world, and if he became too immersed with the other world, he would face real danger on this treacherous trash! Ye Chong kept his defenses up every time he went outside, with his full attention, free of distractions.

    Once on the virtual, Ye Chong went straight to Gutista. But before he could catch his breath, Mu Shang¡¯s voice came up in his head, ¡°Ye, let me take you somewhere.¡±

    Ye Chong felt intrigued. Mu was usually up to something these few days, absent from his own explorations.

    Ye Chong followed Mu Shang¡¯s instructions as he turned left and right, finally arriving in front of a huge building. Many people bustled in and out of the structure, and the ce teemed with life.

    Ye Chong asked, curiously, ¡°Mu, what is this ce?¡±

    Mu Shang exined, ¡°This is the mech pilot¡¯s NR training centre, offering basic modules for pilots¡¯ NR training and a tform for pilots topare notes. Your skills were self-taught, and many of them were illogical. I came about this ce by ident and did an analysis of the training content, and while I believe there is a 7.63% imperfection in content, training here would be immensely helpful to improve your strength.¡±

    Ye Chong felt uncertain. ¡°NR training? What¡¯s NR training?¡±

    Mu Shang replied, ¡°The full term is Neurosensory Reflexivity Training, it allows your neural system to remember specific manoeuvres. To execute manoeuvres that are up to standard in reality would requirerge amount of training for your body to achieve the required memory standard. However, a reasonable NR training would greatly reduce this training time.¡±

    Ye Chong began to have a grasp of things. ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s like that!¡± Regardless, if Mu Shang said it is beneficial, then it must be so, Ye Chong¡¯s inner voice concurred.

    The pilot¡¯s NR training centre was built by the Fal Association for Mech Pilots, and formed part of the avable basic facilities in the virtual world.

    Ye Chong advanced into the main hall, neatly lined with many pirs. Some people could be seen passing by the pirs and vanished into thin air after a burst of light, and others seemed to sh into existence.

    The current Ye Chong was no longer an amateur - he casually walked to a nearby pir, lightly tapped on the pir with his finger, and a semi-transparent screen appeared before his eyes.

    Mu Shang introduced, ¡°There are three areas above where we stand - the basic training area, the mixed training area, and the battle area. Since this is your first time, let¡¯s try out the battle area.¡±

    Right after Mu Shang finished, the screen disy altered, showcasing the opponents for each room, and the number of audiences. Ye Chong picked one of the upied rooms at random.

    *Swish* and he was in the room, standing before a ck mech. Ye Chong immediately recognized this as a beginner¡¯smon choice of the ckbird model, due to its ease of control, gentle learning curve and affordable price.

    However, its functionality was at par with its status as an entry-level mech, armed with only a maic sword, tinum shield and two alloy daggers, not to mention the two redundant heat ray guns on its shoulders, with such low effectiveness that Ye Chong could not possibly count on them (but in reality, it¡¯s because Ye Chong did not really know how to shoot).

    The ckbird looked like a huge, ck bird, with two horizontal wings that could extend out like a pair of real wings, allowing beginners steadier flight in the atmosphere. Below the wings were two rows of secondary engines, although their functions were limited. Beneath the ckbird¡¯s abdomen were two mechanical arms that could use the maic sword and alloy daggers. The heat ray guns were on the ckbird¡¯s rear, the elongated neck allowing a wider range of shooting from different angles, although with the gun¡¯s power and Ye Chong¡¯s skill, or theck of both, this advantaged was wasted.

    But even if this was just an ordinary low-level mech, Ye Chong was already very excited -pared to Winnie, this mech¡¯s functionalities were much better.

    Ye Chong entered the mech¡¯s cabin eagerly.

    When Ye Chong had a good look at his opponent¡¯s mech, he could not help but felt greatly discouraged.

    If his own mech was like an inconspicuous little bird, then the opponent¡¯s would be a glorious king of the birds - a phoenix! Its long elegant lines were like an artistic masterpiece, its dazzling and colourful wings and tailfins were like the phoenix¡¯s feathers, emanating an aura of great beauty. The ming redness of the mech¡¯s body was a suffocating zeal. Even standing still, the mech exhibited an indescribable calmness and pride.

    Its name mirrored its appearance - Shadow Phoenix, as fast as the shadow, as magnificent as the phoenix.

    The Shadow Phoenix II model, the considerable amount of time spent at Gutista had made Ye Chong very familiar with it. Compared with the ckbird, the two mechs were not even at the same level. The Shadow Phoenix II was a ssic long-range attack mech, with great speed and advanced shooting systems as its signature features. Besides that, its beautiful exterior made it a popr choice for members of the femalemunity. However, to Ye Chong, those nearly useless wings were a burden, and what use was an attractive appearance if it became the constant attention of the enemy?

    Without time for further pondering, Ye Chong received the signal to begin.

 Chapter 6 - The Wavy Leap

    <h4>Chapter 6: The Wavy Leap</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Almost simultaneously both of the mechs moved. A ring light shone upon Ye Chong who had hid himself under the titanium shield caused him to tumble. It happened so quickly that it left Ye Chong standing up clumsily and helplessly finding out that he had been shot. The shield failed to perform its essential function to protect. The bullet prated it effortlessly straight to the edge of Ye Chong¡¯s rib on the left.

    The opponent was perplexed realizing the fact that the shot was not able to finish Ye Chong off. Ye Chong in the meantime had discarded the titanium shield for it was deemed useless. He sprinted for his life, hiding behind rocks or any kind of debris to distract the opponent.

    But the opponent was clearly equipped with battle skills. The calmness in the adversary suggested the trick did not work. SP-II¡¯s strength was thoroughly demonstrated through the second shot. No suspense, no drama, nothing epic.

    After being knocked down countlessly, Ye Chong was enraged with his eyes reddened, demanding a rematch again continuously. Mu Shang¡¯s voice nonchntly rang in his ears, ¡°There are scientifically 62 kinds of strategic ways to dodge a shot, do you need me to teach you one?¡±

    Ye Chong replied with a tantrum, ¡°You rusty nuts and bolts! You just watched me die a gazillion times and all you could do was lie there and talk? Was that on purpose? Man, you really don¡¯t care much, do you?¡±

    Mu Shang on the other hand responded withid-back attitude, ¡°Well, ording to psychology, humans are more prone to remember pain and failure with a probability of 90 to 96% and by chance of 52 to 63%, the individual would utilize the experience as a motivating factor. Thus, I believe that by now the experience had sessfully been imprinted on your mind, had it not?¡±

    Ye Chong leaped out of his mech as he spat, ¡°You¡­ You¡­ You! You are good!¡± He had an urge to smash this piece of bbering trash in front of him into pieces.

    Mu Shang couldn¡¯t be bothered and pulled out a visual from nowhere. Ye Chong contained his fury and swallowed his anger as he closely viewed the video clip. It was a brief video clip thatsted less than 10 seconds. There was no space for Ye Chong to figure things out as his eyes were glued on every frame of the clip as Mu Shang¡¯s words echoed, ¡°Look carefully!¡±

    It was the same Raven-form mech but it was more nimble, so agile that it could perform non-orderly wave movements as smooth as the ripples in the sea. There was no point of stagnation, making its next move extremely unpredictable.

    It was then that Ye Chong realized the beauty of the highest craft! His blood was burning as passion grew in him tremendously; the amazing skills the expert held could potentially be his! The desire!

    Sun Xuelin couldn¡¯t help but gaze at the opponent named YC before her in awe, even though they were never at the same level; YC would always stand back up one defeat after another, a great tenacity that nomoner could muster.

    The victory that came easily one time after another did not satisfy Xuelin. YC was undeniably a rookie in this; the mech he used justified it. A Raven is always a symbol for rookies. There was nothing triumphant about a victory won against a newbie to a person who had been properly trained since young like her.

    And more strangely, whenever she received battle requests from YC, she could never resist clicking the ¡°ept¡± button in which the outsiders would only find the fight to be pointlessly boring. Of course a man of bravery should always be given a chance. Xuelin thought in order tofort herself. She didn¡¯t notice at all, the curiosity that rose which bubbled deep inside her.

    What kind of a person is YC?

    At a ce far, far away from Trash-12, Xuelin bit her cherry lips, her expressive brows tightened, her sweet face melted into bitter ponders as this time, YC no longer sent battle requests to her but instead remained silent.

    Is he finally giving up?

    Xuelin exhaled a sign of relief. Well, if it wasn¡¯t the time to give up¡­ The simple functions of a Raven could never dodge an attack from her SP-II. Right, time to give this rookie a lecture about the basics!

    Before Xuelin could lift her lips, the battle request popped up in her face.

    Are you not done yet? Your struggle is pointless! You should recognize the differences between both parties! Xuelin grumbled in her mind. Her hands acted faster than her mind and before she was aware, she had already hit the ¡°ept¡± button on the screen.

    Hehe, just one more round I guess? Xuelin snickered as her expression lit up as bright as snow.

    Ye Chong stared the ground between his Raven and the opponent¡¯s SP, his mind kept reying the episode of the battle he experienced as his body cowered reflecting his anxiety.

    Mu Shang once again interrupted with a nonchnt voice, ¡°This set of dodging moves is called the Non-Orderly Wavy Leap. The key here is non-orderly. Focus on that.¡± That was all he said, all he was willing and wanted to say. No more.

    Ye Chong was angered to the point where he was clenching his teeth, but he couldn¡¯t do anything about Mu Shang. He could only put on his thinking cap, wondering how in the hell world would he figure out the meaning behind non-orderly. Easier said than done!

    Non-orderly¡­ non-orderly¡­ non-orderly. He muttered the word repetitively.

    Time waits for no one. Before Ye Chong could figure out what the heck non-orderly meant, the opponent had already epted his request.

    Ye Chong ignored all the confusions and could only focus on the previous incident. There¡¯s no time for non-orderly or whatever the heck it was! Think! That very orbit without any signs of movement, that amazing curve!

    After maneuvering Raven for so many times, Ye Chong could finally have a better understanding on the properties of his machinery, rather than theories he could only recall before. This too gave him the painful truth that it would be nearly impossible for this mech to perform any fancy curves or leaps. Raven¡¯sputing system could never solve suchplicated calctions! Very well then! It¡¯s only up to me now!

    The only thing Ye Chong found fortunate was his piloting skill - that developed from everything he had been through with Winnie whose processor was far worse than Raven¡¯s!

    Ye Chong started breathing heavily, his every breath as deep as an old ordion.

    Beep!

    Ye Chong¡¯s arm began moving! Raven flew like an arrow in a curve rather than a straight line it propelled in.

    Almost instantaneously, Ye Chong was about to be a crater in the ground as he stood right before by the attack.

    Ye Chong was too busy to take care of that; his eyes fixated on the ground, his blood boiled like the hot iron, as heat rushed to his head. Ye Chong executed a sequence of moves, one after another in an overwhelming speed without any hesitation. Raven was able to maintain its velocity at its peak!

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands heightened with speed so much so that he couldn¡¯t figure out whether the vapor from his sweat caused the afterimages of his chains of gestures. But he was too focused to give two thoughts about it! Like, who cares!

    Xuelin was doing what she usually did, aiming and firing; but she missed. She brushed it off like it was nothing thinking it was merely beginner¡¯s luck. YC had dodged one or two shots randomly before this match with pure luck. In the end, his defeat was inevitable! Nothing was to be gained but a defeat rubbed in his face.

    As time passed, Xuelin felt something was wrong¡­

 Chapter 7 - Burn and Rest

    <h4>Chapter 7: Burn and Rest</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    There were a few instances where Xuelin was about to fire, but something distressing was holding her back which made her awfully uneasy. The gun she held faith at all times disappointed her, as if troubled by her emotions, and started to miss on every single shot.

    Xuelin instantly pinpointed the peculiarity in YC¡¯s movement. It appeared sinuous yet wasn¡¯t at the same time.

    Hmph! Trying to dodge my shots like a serpent huh? Too na?ve, too na?ve! Xuelin thought as she felt a sudden rage.

    It¡¯s not a big deal to master the curvature skill because everyone has their own set of techniques, including YC. After engaging in countless of battles, it will be possible for one to identify these distinctive skills. The regrities in YC¡¯s curvature skill had already been spotted seeing that there were hardly any variations which Xuelin couldn¡¯t recognize!

    She began to study and calcte his movements in her mind while her eyes locked on YC, picking out every variation in his movements, while waiting for the right time to shoot.

    When the time came, she fired without hesitation.

    Xuelin stared in bewilderment as the shot she fired missed!

    As though he had foreseen this, he dodged the bullet with a twinkle in his eyes. Was this another case of his beginner¡¯s luck again or was there something more? Xuelin was bbergasted as her thoughts circled in confusion. Taken aback by the whole ordeal, she went rampant on a barrel of firing on the field. Maybe it was a blessing from the God when one of her shots finally went through YC¡¯s left shoulder causing him to lose bnce.

    Ye Chong on the other hand waspletely soaked by his sweat and his hands felt heavier over time; as if they were starting to move on their own, seemingly twitching if this went on. He bit his lips out of panic and was already bleeding before he noticed it. In the midst of adrenaline rush, he felt a shudder from his mech which came to his realization that he was shot! Despite that, his hands continued to key inmands, as there was no time for him to find out the damaged part of his machinery.

    Xuelin gushed with excitement for her sessful shot that left YC hanging like a broken wind-up robot toy. A golden opportunity awaited before her! There¡¯s no way she could miss this! She loaded her gun and was prepared to send YC a final blow! Ironically, it was the hit that made YC¡¯s movements go haywire and became even more unpredictable than before. Naturally, it was not good news for Xuelin.

    Coming to her senses on the aftermath, Xuelin¡¯s distress caused her firing to run wild on the field again! Meanwhile, Ye Chong finally caught sight of his opponent which triggered him, as well as his hands! It was as if they were electrified as they entered themands at great speed!

    It¡¯s getting closer now. It¡¯sing!

    Hiya!! Ye Chong roared like thunder in hispartment.

    The opponent froze, taken aback by his scream. Was this a trap? Was there a n B that she was not aware of? He no longer cared and had already drawn his maic sword from his back while his left hand reached for the alloy dagger tied to his left ankle.

    As long as I can get close enough, the opponent would be dead meat!

    He asserted himself and swung his sword; creating a buzzing echo formed from the maic waves of his sword. There was no resistance from the opponent as he sliced right through the throat. He was surprised at how simple it was. He was expecting a final struggle from the opponent as an inflicted wound on a machine¡¯s throat was as fatal as it was on humans but there was no retaliation!

    How could one make such an amateur mistake?

    Having to live on Trash-12 long enough he showed no mercy. He felt indifferent as he prated his dagger deeply and urately like a serpent sinking its teeth into its prey; right on the upper chest of SP which would be the pilot¡¯s cabin. What YC heard next after the screeching sounds of metal shredding was the sound of apuse for his victory.

    In the meantime, Xuelin stared nkly in dismay at her floating chair; thework helmet she just disconnected was left levitating in the air. That very menacing figure that travelled speedily, that violent and direct attack, that tenacious bravery, lingered in the thoughts of Xuelin, haunting her.

    Xuelin shifted to the dining table right after as it was dinner time.

    Her father Ninghai saw her so lost in her thoughts that she ignored the scrumptious dinner on the table, pondering. He then beckoned to his wife but she just shook her head in helplessness of the situation. He asked her daughter, ¡°Linny, what¡¯s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?¡±

    Xuelin was startled as she wondered what had gotten into her and yet on the outside, she forced a smile, ¡°Nothing. It¡¯s just that¡­ I met an oddity on the battlefield today.¡±

    An oddity? Her father was intrigued.

    ¡°What kind of an oddity?¡± he inquired.

    Xuelin¡¯s father was a skillful pilot of mechs. All of Xuelin¡¯s skills were taught personally by him. It was only then that Xuelin remembered the fact that her father was of such a superior rank in her field, he must have been experienced enough to solve this oddity for her! She then began to narrate the entire sequence of events to her father.

    As soon as she mentioned about how YC failed again and again, Ninghai nodded his head in approval, ¡°Good. I do agree this guy is pretty bold!¡± The conversation became light-hearted as she spoke on. When she talked about the final match with YC and how he portrayed extremely strange curvature skills as he drove towards her, her father¡¯s face stiffened.

    He asked for more details about thest match as he tried to stress on the whole incident to help her recollect her thoughts on details she might have missed. Her father reacted seriously, ¡°If you were right on what you have described, this guy could have used a Non-Orderly Wavy Leap.

    A set of dodging skills like this would only be known by advanced pilots. This is simply because not only does it requires a high-level manual piloting skill, it also requires a mech that is advanced enough. Only a sophisticated processor with a sophisticated mech could execute theplication in this set of calction input.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but¡­ he was only using a Raven!¡± Xuelin was puzzled.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why this was such an eye-opener to me. Theoretically and under normal circumstances, a Raven could neverplete such an execution. Reason being is that it has limited processing capabilities even with a master piloting it. Thus, there could only be one exnation for this. He must have modified it by installing a powerful processor into the mech.¡±

    Xuelin gasped in disbelief, ¡°But I still think he¡¯s just a random rookie from out of nowhere!¡±

    Seeing his daughter making such a statement, he snorted, ¡°So what even if he¡¯s just a random rookie from out of nowhere? Can¡¯t a rookie modify his own machinery? Plus, it could have been his teacher or his senior who did the modifications for him to ensurepatibility with his special way ofbat. But well this guy sure is something to be able to perfectly perform movements of suchplexity!¡±

    Still not convinced, Xuelin rebutted, ¡°Well then, why did he not use it in the very beginning? Why only execute it after a myriad of lost matches?¡±

    Startled, her father replied, ¡°Oh, this part, huh? Well it¡¯s¡­ probably¡­ because¡­ umm¡­ uhhhhh¡­ ugh, Xuelin, let¡¯s just finish up our dinner. We have already discussed this at length and look! The dinner got cold!¡±

    Ninghai¡¯s mother beamed at her husband who led himself into such an awkward situation.

    Even if Xuelin¡¯s father¡¯s deduction made sense, somehow she still thought there was something amiss. The reality didn¡¯t seem to be like what he had said to her. However, she could not point out exactly why she felt awry. Her gut¡¯s feeling said so!

    Nevertheless, just like how her father never expected that someone could perform this set of moves manually without the aid of the processor, Xuelin too never expected it in her mind.

    The discussion was a cliffhanger of embarrassment as she knocked her head which felt like it was about to explode from her contemtion.

    ¡°Fine! Whatever! Never mind! Screw this! I¡¯ll just ask him myself the next time we meet. Simple!¡± she thought.

 Chapter 8 - Rehabilitation

    <h4>Chapter 8: Rehabilitation</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong had just gotten himself into a sticky situation. He crawled out of his cabin, as if he just swam back to the shore, all drenched, drained of energy and fatigued. Something went wrong with him!

    His hands looked fine but his fingers were squirming - Ughh! Ughhhh! - An ache that felt like it was seizing his bone marrows, rushing through his spines, and bombarding his brain one wave after another. If it wasn''t for his great endurance, he might have passed out right away. He wheezed, barely catching his breath while his face turned pale from immense pain.

    Despite the excruciating pain, both of his hands appeared alright to him. They were not swelling and there were no cramps. They seemed perfectly fine that not even a strand of hair was lost. Not a single one!

    Mu Shang performed a thorough inspection of his body and expressionlessly diagnosed, ¡°A symptom from overusing the senses, the neurologicalwork connecting both your spinal cord and your hands had undergone abusive utilization that surpassed its capacity, thus causing the pain. The symptom will be temporary and will not cause permanent damage to your body. Resting adequately would be sufficient.¡±

    The diagnosis receivedments from Ye Chong packed with sarcasm, ¡°Resting adequately? How the hell would I be able to rest adequately with such injuries? I can¡¯t even rest in peace!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a way to minimize the pain.¡± stated Mu Shang. That caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention, ¡°Are you sure?¡± A pain that felt endless would torture him till death before he could ovee it, but if there¡¯s a way¡­ The statement sparked hope in Ye Chong.

    Mu Shang continued borating, ¡°This method requires neither medication nor any form of injection, it is safe and effective. You can feel its effects immediately¡­¡± Excited, Ye Chong interrupted the exnation, ¡°Then, let¡¯s proceed with it!¡±

    ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± Mu Shang halted and lowered his head, as he asked.

    For some reason, the question suddenly sent chills down his spine. This doesn¡¯t seem right¡­ that face of Mu¡­ I shoul- Ouch!

    Nheless the pain forced him acquiesce, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure!¡±

    Bam! A blow mmed right into the artery of his neck! He cked out and the only thought that surged through his mind was man¡­ it¡­ it worked!

    The voice of Mu Shang ran through the room, calm and still, ¡°Executionpleted.¡± As he sat before the fainted Ye Chong.

    After waking up, Ye Chong could sense the transformation in his body clearly, especially in his hands. Everything felt incoherent. His body responded slower than his mind, his coordination was literally out of sync, no longer aspatible as it used to be.

    Mu Shang added, ¡°That is because your coordination has been disrupted. Your senses did improve tremendously beyond the limits you used to have, however your physical body remained the same as before and faced problems in coping with the processing speed of your mind. Consequently, you will feel sluggishness in your physical body but in actuality it is just your mind speeding up.¡±

    Ye Chong understood the side effects described by Mu Shang and stopped entering the virtual web for the next few days. Instead, he performed physical training, especially dedicated to his hands.

    On a tform about half a square meter in size, he concentrated on controlling six marbles and rolled them between his hands back and forth,ting all marbles in his hand and moving them at high velocity and rate of collision, in an ever-changing orbit. The velocity increased over time and beads of sweat could be discerned on Ye Chong¡¯s forehead as his hands caught up with the speedy movement. Gradually the beads of sweat came falling down like droplets of rain on his forehead. His hands rushed like shadows ovepping till afterimages began to form. It¡¯sing back!

    In the end, he lost control and the marbles were scattered all over the ce. He breathed heavily and ditched the marbles on the floor. Man this was too tiring! Mu Shang at the side evaluated Ye Chong, ¡°It was still not satisfactory, but well, you passed!¡±

    After finally ending his boring marble rolling days, Ye Chong started wondering if those marbles were purposely made by Mu Shang to torture people, both body and soul. Deep in his heart, he still adored Mu Shang. At least, thanks to Mu Shang, his hands felt like his own again and moved with better dexterity too.

    Oh Winnie. Getting back to Winnie again was wonderful. It was heartwarming to see his broken partner again after taking a break from mech driving for so long. All this while, Ye Chong had been busy with the marble training and so his usual daily hunting was taken over by Mu Shang ever since his injury. Ye Chong was astounded by the fact that he couldn¡¯t find any other form of wounds on the prey Mu Shang hunted other than the small hole on the neck.

    He frenzied in the field with Winnie, one mountain of dump after another while Mu Shang tailed behind at a fixed distance. That was the moment he could actually distinguish the changes in his hands before and after, more specifically the increased agility in his hands. As joyful as he was, he then remembered the steps Mu Shang taught him before. That Non-Orderly Wavy Leap which allowed him to taste the fruit of victory the very first time kindled the eagerness in him. He switched to the highest gear and chained with a variety of calctions, performed a live performance on the spot, with that great leap he adored.

    Winnie at her age clumsily made a few disoriented orbits of different kinds under his control. Sometimesrge and sometimes small. Sometimes it was a straight curve and sometimes it was a zigzag. And that wasn¡¯t all from Ye Chong!

    Being absolutely worked up, he continued making wavy leaps that were more condensed. In a brief period of time, Winnie began moving in tiny wavy steps at full speed. Unlike the disoriented curves before, they were all constant and orderly, while Ye Chong was still in the mood of making even smaller curves.

    Ye Chong had grand ns of his own. Right when he was on his attempt to further downsize his steps, a loud noise drummed his ears. Winnie was finally unable to withstand theplexity and had broken into half.

    Wham! Right at her waist!

    Ye Chong¡¯s joy became fear. He did not manage to call Mu Shang for help as he had been thrown like a meteorite, all the way to the huge pile of dumps nearby along with the upper half of Winnie. Ye Chong had a concussion and was buried by the pile he crashed into.

    Darkness blinded Ye Chong.

    When Ye Chong¡­ wait, technically it was Winnie, not me. Again. When Winnie got pulled out from the deep piles of trash by Mu Shang, Ye Chong saw the teasing expression of Mu Shang¡¯s contrary to the usual expressionless face he put up, and it was extremely frustrating. The frustration intensified when Ye Chong was on his way home - he waws being carried by Mu Shang like a disabled person. The helplessness! And the teasing from Mu Shang he anticipated!

    He was frustrated, yet he was truly helpless without Winnie. Mu would never allow Ye Chong to pilot him either. Moreover, a rookie riding on a beginner? That felt too absurd.

    Can¡¯t help it. I am too weak in contrast!

    The foremost issue was still losing his mech. No matter how old Winnie was, she was still significant to Ye Chong¡¯s life, if there was no recement that is. By then he could only plead Mu to bring Winnie¡¯s lower part of her body back. Regretting the consequences of his excitement, his heart turned cold. He should have known how aged Winnie already was and should¡¯ve been aware of how long she had served him over the ages. It was a miracle for her tost this long and now she was damaged in a way that is fatal even for ordinary mechs. It would be hopeless to get her fixed, especially when it happened in a ce where there was nothing else other than piles and piles of trash.

    Never forgetting to spice up the situation with sarcasm Mu said, ¡°Ye, I can¡¯t stop myself but to tell you the ultimate truth of cruelty. The possibility to get Winnie fully repaired would be 1% and below! So stop gambling with a chance this low! It is against the value theory! Inyman¡¯s terms, it¡¯s not worth it!¡±

    Sorrow could be seen in Ye Chong when the realization of his helplessness struck him. He went into Mu Shang¡¯s cabin and then, into the virtual web.

    Mu Shang didn¡¯t seem to feel like behaving empathetally as his words echoed, ¡°ording to statistics, you have yet to master the 68 kinds of basic courses. This is the list!¡± Stuffed right in his face was the absurdly long list to which he responded with ignorance as drove on. The robot went silent for a bit and spat out, ¡°Ye, if one day your skills surpasses me, I would let you ride me.¡±

    He halted, got out and walked away, without making a sound or throwing a tantrum.

 Chapter 9 - Bucking Up

    <h4>Chapter 9: Bucking Up</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    It was almost the 8th year since Winnie started staying by his side. They had been through thick and thin, and rode through piles of garbage of varying heights. Winnie shielded him from raids and protected him from extreme weather. Winnie was the reason for his survival. It was his reassurance in life. She might be worn out but in hery the kindest elderly soul he could have asked for, in which she faithfully and dutifully fulfilled by serving her owner for the past few years.

    Something felt trapped within Ye Chong. What was it? Through all the years that Ye Chong lived, there was only once when he felt such a sensation, and it was during his father¡¯s death.

    Is this grief?

    He whispered to himself.

    I wonder if papa was doing fine on the other side?

    Holding his chin, he thought in an endearing misery.

    For the whole day, he spent his time alone at a deserted spot on the. After that, he made his way to the training center and called Mu Shang.

    ¡°Mu, show me the course n!¡± he said in a casual tone.

    ¡­

    In the meantime, Xuelin was irritatedly upied.

    These few days she searched every single room on the battlefield, longing for a rematch with that person that left her with more questions than answers. That YC guy. Though disappointment pped her in the face again and again upon seeing rooms with anyone else other than YC, she was not going to give up. If YC could face failure or any kind of letdown over and over again, so could she. The encouragement rang in her head.

    Yet, this is going to be another wild goose chase today!

    The day seemed to be anticlimactic as expected. Meh! I¡¯ll just go and visit Cousin Shew. She should be at the basic training field.

    Cousin Shew was the daughter of her second aunt and they had been good friends since childhood. Unfortunately, Cousin Shew had failed her mech examination several times before. Her mother thought of Xuelin¡¯s father, Sun Ninghai, while she was thinking of a solution. She then begged the great man to enlighten her poor daughter so she could pass. Still, the man was great for a reason. He was so engaged in his work routine, he didn¡¯t even have the leisure to keep the promise. As a result, the promise was inherited by Xuelin.

    The basic training field was used to its vacancy. At most, there would only be a few people using it. Most pilots-in-training did not fancy the NR training for its efficiency inparison to actual hands-on pilot training. In addition, these were so elementary that everyone had mastered the training back during their early childhood. The emptiness of the field was justified.

    Idly, Xuelin browsed through the rooms on the field. The room Cousin Shew was in was soon found and she entered immediately. It was a spacious, opennd with a number of obstacles on the ground. Cousin Shew was unsteadily walking through. Xuelin did not intend to interrupt the training her hardworking cousin was having. She just watched on at the spectator stands.

    Wait, there¡¯s another person!

    A dark silhouette slithered through the obstacles at an overwhelming speed. Who would still train here with such standard of piloting? She went to have a closer look.

    Wha! She was dumbfounded. That¡­ That¡­

    That has to be YC! YC! She hopped excitedly. Yes! It¡¯s him! It¡¯s him! The wound she made that day was still on the left shoulder of his Raven! And the scratches on the rib! Yes! It must be him!

    Is this what they mean by ¡°God never disappoints the studious¡± and ¡°Heaven would help those who help themselves¡±?

    She mumbled.

    Ye Chong frowned as he checked out the data shown on Raven. Almost. He muttered. He was so close to Mu¡¯s standards. It was so near, yet so far. How many times have he tried already yet he still couldn¡¯t pass?

    ¡°Ye, with your learning capacity and basic theoretical knowledge, it would not be hard toplete the basic training courses, instead it would be a piece of cake! But if you find such standards satisfactory, you should never think of touching me. At all!¡±

    ¡°Most people deny the significance of training. However, they are so foolishly wrong!¡±

    Mu Shang sounded like a hermit in his teaching, sassy and aloof and this brought up a raging storm in Ye Chong, an unstoppable one!

    ¡°ording to my calctions, 99.328% of actions of highplexity are actually derivations from basic execution. Thus, I could daringly conclude that, basic executions are the root of all pilot¡¯s skills!¡± Ye Chong reflected on the statement.

    Mu Shang pulled out a detailed list of parameters, ¡°Ye, these are the training requirements I had prepared for you. The standard has been tailored for Raven¡¯s capacity ordingly. Just do everything on this list!¡± Mu Shang¡¯s mechanical eyes blinked.

    ¡°Remember, Ye, never acknowledge the existence of limits within you!¡±

    Ye Chong took the suggestion with pleasure. After staying on Trash-12, he was more than eager to try improvising himself. Nheless, he forgot about Mu¡¯s hysteria, the capricious and mischievous nature of his. Those parameters¡­ were impossible to achieve by Raven¡¯s capacity¡­ at all!

    He faced the reality of this after going through the training. He worked on them through days and nights, whimpering, spitting blood and then he finally made it. Just one of them. That was an achievement joyous enough to make him cry.

    ¡°Good job, Ye.¡± Mu Shang smiled, ¡°But you still need a little bit more momentum. Yes, yes, a motivating factor is what you would need! I should implement a system that includes rewards and punishment. How about this? If you fail to fulfill at minimum one (1) subject on the list after this, you would be having an organic liquid diet for a week. That¡¯d be good! Yes!¡±

    Mu sneered on as Ye Chong witnessed it. He didn¡¯t have a choice, without Winnie, only Mu could do the hunting! You fox! Ugh!

    Ye Chong hated liquid diet, flow food, fluid food, or whatever you name it! He hated it with a passion since he was young, be it organic or not. He had to make it! By hook or by crook!

    Soon it was thest day of the week, if he did not seed, he was going to be fed with the infamous white, sticky, gooey liquid food for real! Just by looking at it was enough to choke him. It was so digusting that only a man who had lost his mind would consider eating it!

    What was the problem? Why could he not make it? Ye Chong knew Mu well. He would never simply set parameters that a Raven could not fulfill. But why, why was it always so close? Ye Chong was collecting his thoughts pitifully.

    ¡­

    Cousin Shew who was in training spotted her cousin on the stands, in which she quickly piloted her Raven towards. That did not go too well, however. Her skills were way too ipetent that the Raven was led to a floating metal pole.

    Bang! Cousin Shew panicked, screaming and shouting loudly until the entire field could hear her.

    The scream alerted Xuelin who was staring at YC since the beginning. She was horrified seeing the Raven her cousin drove stuck in mid-air and was apparently going to fall anytime soon.

    ¡°This is bad!¡± she thought.

    Cousin Shew had always portrayed a fragile, timid impression since her childhood and that was why she never thought of driving a mech. If she ever fell, the shock wouldnd her in bed for the next few months! Or even worse, a trauma in her memories forever! Then, she would not even dare to approach a mech ever again!

    Xuelin immediately got onto her SP-II and moved towards Cousin Shew at maximum speed, hoping to grab her before she fell. But there were too many random obstacles in the air, and those halted her. Cousin Shew would hit the ground in no time and she could not reach her! Tears flooded her eyes as it was filled with anxiety. No!

    Meanwhile, the scream from Cousin Shew had also rmed Ye Chong as he turned his head and noticed a mech of the same Raven he piloted too. He did not hesitate and began inputtingmands, his Raven glided to itspatriot on a whim.

    Perhaps it was the conscience sunken deep in his mind, in which he wished for apanion more than anybody else after his lonely days with Mu. There was no time to think, and those scattered obstacles relived the scenery of the hunting field he used to go to. The set of inputs he learned over the past week shed in his mind. As if awakening, he subconsciously began insertingmands without difficulty. He turned out to be much slower than usual in the end!

    Ye Chong¡¯s Raven weaved its way through the flock of obstacles, like a breeze on a spring day, naturally, freely and directly. Right when the other Raven was about 3 meters from the ground, his Raven caught it in one go. He gradually decelerated and made onest glide for a short distance. He thennded sessfully.

    ¡°There! All done!¡± he eximed as he put down the Raven.

    About 2 secondster an SP-II came after him. It must be the ally of the Raven. He spected enviously while the mech wasnding right in front of him. That seemed, oddly familiar¡­ ahh! This was the SP-II he matched with the first day he was here! He nodded slightly in respect as he watched it inching towards him.

    He intuitively took a look at the processor. What?!

 Chapter 10 - Dummy Ends

    <h4>Chapter 10: Dummy Ends</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    I actuallypleted the training!?

    Ye Chong¡¯s brain jammed for a bit seeing the notification on the interface. How the heck did he even get it done?! He hopped onto Raven and started going through the training programs, disregarding the number of tries and the ways he had done them. The parameters were all fulfilled, which perplexed Ye Chong.

    How did I even make it?

    ¡­

    Ugh, nevermind!

    He wasn¡¯t that keen to get to the core of this mystery anyway! What was more importanty in fact that there was noteworthy advancement made in his piloting skill and most importantly, no liquid diet the following week! Oh joy!

    He did not stay any longer and ejected himself from the virtual web. To the marble training! The marbles were waiting for him! Though he had recovered from the desynchronized body movement symptom, Mu added marble training to his daily training schedule ever since Winnie got damaged. It might seemed meaningless at first, but after the training, Ye Chong learned the fact that speed was indeed¡­ not everything!

    Returning to the virtual web, Xuelin was trying to calm her poor cousin down, as she probably was intimidated from her near-death experience a moment before. Xuelin held great appreciation towards YC. Thanks to him, Cousin Shew was saved right at the nick of time.

    Imagine if this YC guy was never there, oh the tragedy that could have happened. Wait¡­ Her mind drifted to another perspective of this incident. He was at a location further away from her yet he managed to make it there before her. Add to the fact that the velocity of his machinery was apparently higher than her¡­ Fear shrouded her thoughts in which immense curiosity soon dipped through. How did he elevate his ability at this rate? Or the match with him was just one of his warm-up activitiesst time? Was there indeed a let up from him?

    Her pupils quivered in anxiety, her hair slid over her shoulder tussled in worries, while her body shuddered in thin fragility; Cousin Shew¡¯s pale face frigidly portrayed the panic that lingered in her heart, like a distressed flower bud trapped in a storm of winter, pitifully arousing the empathy of its witnesses.

    Xuelin lovingly caressed the poor flower,bing her smooth hair with her fingers. Cousin Shew couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore as she meltedpletely in Xuelin¡¯s embrace, sobbing out her every horror. Xuelin¡¯s fingers slipped through her shoulder,forting her like a big sister.

    In actuality, their ages did not differ much. Cousin Shew was just younger by about 10 days, but her fickle innocence justified her rtionship with Xuelin, being the little sister walking behind Xuelin the whole time. In fact, Xuelin too, loves and cares about her little sister, for she was stronger in nature and was aided by her father¡¯s teachings.

    Under her protection, nobody would even dare touch the petite flower. To Cousin Shew, she is her protector. About two years ago, her aunt and the entire family moved out and so they forcibly parted, yet her dependency on Xuelin never faded.

    ¡°Now, don¡¯t cry, don¡¯t cry, Shewie, let¡¯s go home first okay? G-o. H-o-m-e!¡±

    She nodded in obedience and exited the virtual web under her cousin¡¯s escort. Xuelin took a nce at the battlefield before clicking the exit button¡­

    Did he notice me? That I was the one who shot him¡­ Was the nod for me? When I wasnding¡­

    Confusion cloaked her once more, without her even knowing why.

    ¡­

    The second day, Ye Chong resumed his daily training with a brand new parameter to be cleared. This time, there was a different content in a different room. On the first day, it was still this parameter that was crudely executed by Ye Chong even though he was fully attentive. He was hard at work absorbed in his training that he did not see two uninvited guests approaching him. They had observed him for quite some time.

    Was that even the YC guy I knew from the battlefield yesterday? This guy that caused me anxiety? It was Xuelin, whose mouth gapedrge enough to fit in a hard-boiled egg as she watched on. She couldn¡¯t believe her eyes upon seeing that YC guy that was doing everything¡­ so clumsily.

    From an expert falling to an amateur again, even if this was conducted in the basic training field, it was still as shocking as a human eating an aliens, not to mention the training was something she had aplished when she was about 8 to 9 years old.

    Yet, his performance was extremely uncoordinated. The shock in Xuelin just skyrocketed from surely, to very, to immensely, and to extremely, and it was still multiplying!

    Hasn¡¯t he done his basic course? If he did, why is he still here? And doing it this badly? If he did not, how in the world could he execute expert-only wavy steps? Beginner¡¯s luck? Is he hacking?

    The only conclusion that these clues could lead to was - this was really an oddity!

    Cousin Shew had her eyes fixed on that Raven-in-training. In her eyes sparkled the biggest mystery of mankind, and of what she was thinking. The YC guy might have been unskillful, but he still had the attention from the two girls on the stand throughout the training.

    ¡°Hey, what? Shewie, why are you still here? Are you going to do your training?¡± Xuelin managed to pull her eyes away and asked. Shewie, thess, was standing all upright, watching that man piloting his Raven, while not even moving a muscle of her own. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­ you were frightened by the incident yesterday? Were you?¡± This connected the circuit back in Cousin Shew¡¯s head, her face reddened right away, ¡°Ah! Uh, um, ah, uh, uhh, I¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll do it right now!¡± She tripped on her way to her Raven.

    Likewise to her pilot tripping, the Raven tripped a few times in the air as well, seemingly about to fall down again anytime soon, ¡°Don¡¯t worry Shewie, it¡¯s going to be alright, just calm down, I¡¯m here, right here!¡± in cold sweat she said.

    The Raven was bewildered as it entered the field. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Shewie?¡± Xuelin asked, seeing the Raven just hovering in the air. She then heard sniffs and sobs, ¡°Xuelin, I think I¡­ I¡­ I¡­ I forgot everything I learned yesterday!¡±

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­¡­

    Holding her forehead, Xuelin breathed deeply, those words were a strong fainting spell. Ye Chong with his focus about all the meals he could possibly have for the following weeks literally failed to notice the interesting sisters at the stands doing their Titanic git. If the sisters were toe closer, they might have overheard the madness in the cabin of the training Raven, ¡°Meat. Meat. I need meat. Hand me the meat and no one gets hurt¡­¡±

    Mu Shang was such a stern and demanding teacher. Even Ye Chong¡¯s toes could tell that, the training this time must be another bottomless trap hole of hell difficulty where he had to crawl out by wing his way with his Raven. He repeated his monotonous training and lost the sense of time. He only found his stomach rumbling inside him due to his hunger when Mu Shang decided to give him a kind reminder of his dinner time.

    Exit. Ye Chong pressed, leaving the interesting sisters staring at the nk spot he left, astonished.

    Ever since then, it seemed to have be their additional routine to check the YC guy out daily.

    Of course even a so-called ¡°ipetent¡± greenhorn like Ye Chong would have noticed. Being alert anytime, anywhere was the survival sense ingrained in Ye Chong. But the two mechs were merely watching him from afar, hovering in the air quietly, with no other interferenceing from them.

    He feigned ignorance. But still¡­ he did not get it. The content of his training had nothing sophisticated, in fact, it was also minimal. Weren¡¯t they annoyed by it?

    It was none of his business anyway.

    He just continued training as they watched on. He told himself that if he did not work hard enough, the muddy pile of unknown substance would await him at the dining table when he got home. Liquid diet for the next week! The trio never talked to each other, at most, they nodded at each other.

    Time passed and Ye Chong made a breakthrough in his training. He could manipte 10 metal marbles at once for one and a half hour continuously, along with his improved physique. He could feel the strength increasing with certainty. Speed-wise, he was 5 times faster, and strength-wise, he was 7 times stronger. As for reaction speed, he became 11 times fasterpared to the past. The puzzling part of his development was that his weight had hardly increased. Even Mu Shang did not expect this.

    By then, Ye Chong could already hunt simple creatures on his own without relying on any mech. He could prove his strength in this aspect.

    He was holding a thin de in his right hand and a nicely roasted drumstick from the engulfer, as he swiftly sliced pieces of them with the de while they formed circles as they fell. He gently picked them up with the point of his de, and tossed them into his mouth. As he got faster and faster, it almost reached the point of a bazooka firing multiple slices of meat into his mouth. Ye Chong thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of such a feast.

    In the process, he discovered that if he could slice the meat thinner than ever, the scent of the grill could be retained while the texture would turn softer, like a heavenly touch on his tongue melting away into wonderful grease. The thinner the better!

    The drumstick shrunk over time, and soon after that, only a stalk of bone remained in his grip. It glowed brightly, looking clean as if it had been washed, wiped and waxed.

    He exhaled and tossed the bone away, stretching his back. ¡°Mu, all things listed in the basic course werepleted yesterday. What is there for today?¡±

    The training days seemed tough yet it was more aplishing than the days he had lived before. However, losing sight of his goal had made him dazed once again.

    And that was the time he recalled the SP-II and Raven he saw every time, hovering over the field. We didn¡¯t even speak¡­ I just nodded when they nodded too! I wonder if we would ever meet again¡­ A sense of longing suddenly grew in Ye Chong for the two strange yet familiar friends he made.

    I think I ought to tell them that I will no longer go to the training field tomorrow onwar- Wait. Maybe not, meh. Ye Chong decided against it right away. Friend? Pfft. What if we were just acquaintances? I guess I¡¯m the one who has been thinking too much. We aren¡¯t from the same world in the end! Seems like it would be better to leave it just like this. If I were able to leave Trash-12, maybe I would still stand a chance, but¡­

    Ye Chong started his wild imagination on the scenarios of the what-ifs if he did or did not befriend them officially.

    Mu Shang on the other side of the room mumbled, ¡°Practical. We are doing practicals. Gain some experience from it, then we can proceed to the more advanced courses.¡± The answer from Mu Shang was more exciting than the silly fantasies in Ye Chong¡¯s head, in which he ended instantly.

    ¡°Practical? Alright! I love practical! Man do you know how boring it is to train all day and night?¡±

    After training all this while, he could finally obtain the opportunity to unt his moves. Ye Chong looked forward to his practical day with much enthusiasm!

 Chapter 11 - Against a God

    <h4>Chapter 11: Against a God</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong stared at the mech before him, thoughts racing through his mind. Here was a ten-meter tall humanoid mech, armed with a silver shield on its left shoulder that glistened like mercury under the soft interior lighting. The fire sabre wielded by its right hand was a me shaped into a weapon. Its grey body was elegant, and the golden ornaments on its forehead were a stunning addition to its appearance.

    This was obviously a modified mech. Its dual axle shield functions at above averagepared to other essories, but his Raven¡¯s maic sword would barely be able to scratch it. Although the fire sabre was a medium level weapon, it would probably only take a few hits to cleave the Raven in half - a strike on a weak point of his mech would be fatal. The mech¡¯s body structure was well designed for defending against attacks, and its good weight distribution avoided overloading the mech¡¯s engine. There were also a few weapons for long range attacks.

    This was a brilliant creation! Ye Chong realized as he examined the mech thoroughly.

    If Ye Chong were to judge this mech, he would summarize it in one word - graceful! Despite being equipped with various mid-level essories, a well-rounded pilot could do plenty of damage with it.

    Ye Chong believed its engine was probably either a Parham or a Swordfish-IV, for only these two engine models could bring out the best of the mech and its essories.

    A mech that could do well in both attack and defense which was also armed with long-ranged and short-ranged attacks would be a formidable opponent. Ye Chong found it hard to believe that he would meet such a strong opponent in his first battle.

    However, Ye Chong was not troubled by negative emotions such as fear and worry. Life on the trash made him realize that the types of enemies he battled was beyond his control. There was only one concern - how to defeat the enemy!

    Ye Chong wanted to use his ray guns but even a direct hit would hardly be a threat to the enemy.

    What about alloy daggers? Oh dear, the daggers would surely yield under the opponent¡¯s sturdy structure. He thought to himself.

    Fortunately, all hope was not lost, for his maic sword could withstand some damages though it would take three strikes on the same spot to break the mech¡¯s armor; which would be a great difficulty.

    Ye Chong mused at the thought.

    Ye Chong analyzed the mech for its weaknesses. He had learned from experience that no adversary was perfect; a well-aimed strike at the most vulnerable spot would tip the scales in battle, and that was the key to winning against stronger opponents.

    Undoubtedly, the throat was the most vulnerable spot in the majority of humanoid mechs due to the presence of high density of photon nodes. Even a little damage could cause the mech to malfunction, and the neck¡¯s extremely bulky armor greatly reduced its flexibility. Others would find the throat an awkward position to defend against with the exception of heavily armed mechs. However, that wasmon knowledge amongst mech pilots, therefore it would be expected to find the throat carefully guarded.

    Ye Chong eventually dismissed this approach.

    As for the pilot¡¯s cabin, it will be a no-brainer that pilots would not leave themselves exposed! Unlike the throat, a humanoid mech¡¯s pilot cabin is located at its chest area where the armor is thickest. Even if Ye Chong managed to burst through the cabin area with his maic sword, it would take at least a dozen strikes to damage the armor. The odds of him surviving so many close range attacks with the fire sabre wielded by his opponentdid not look promising.

    What now? Ye Chong grew desperate in nning his strategies.

    But time waits for no man - with the soft ring of the bell, the battle began!

    Ye Chong cleared his mind and focused on his opponent.

    Jeb sat casually in his mech, smiling mesmerizingly under his aquiline nose; his golden hair was naturally wavy, much like a prince from a fairy tale. His posture was elegant, and his movements majestic. His intense brown eyes studied the Raven with a hint of sneer.

    Jeb scoffed, ¡°Truly, one does not learn to fear what one does not understand! How dare you challenge my dear Apollo with a Raven? Ah, looks like yours truly will have to teach you a lesson!¡± The scorn in his tone was apparent.

    Jeb decided to give Ye Chong a little ¡°lecture¡±. When the countdown of the battle ended, he charged straight for the Raven with his prized Apollo. He did not bother to activate the mech¡¯s shooting systems, or his dual axle shield.

    The Raven remained static as though surrendering to its faith awaiting for a fatal blow.

    ¡°Ah, what a poor and unlucky fellow! A battle with yours truly was your greatest misfortune!¡± Jeb mocked. These days, Jeb was not feeling exactly cheery, and this battle served as an opportunity to vent off his displeasures. I shouldn¡¯t finish him off so soon, Jeb snickered darkly.

    As both opponents closed in on one another, Jeb whipped out his fire sabre; the mes flickering menacingly, as it yearns for damage.

    Jeb anticipated for his opponent to be outright panicking and flustering. As the Raven¡¯s wings received a heavy blow from his attack, the game of cat and mouse finallymenced. Jeb smiled wickedly, delighted with the destruction.

    The game has only just begun! Jeb thought pleasingly.

    There was no shooting involved despite being the fastest and safest strategy against his Raven which confuses Ye Chong.

    Jeb¡¯s mech closed in slowly, and Ye Chong thought it was odd. If his opponent chose a close-ranged battle, why not take advantage of the mech¡¯s speed?

    As the mech¡¯s fire sabre attacked his left wing, Ye Chong was even more confused. Why ignore vulnerable spots of the Raven to unnecessarily strike at a left wing? Even the dual axle shield was not utilized, leaving its chest defenseless. The fire sabre¡¯s attack was also more style than substance - the quivering mes only for show; the attack itself weak and badly angled. Thoughts raced through his mind as he contemted about reasons behind these forms of attack.

    Ye Chong was bewildered thinking that a pilot armed with such marvels was making absurd ambushes!

    Regardless, Ye Chong was presented with a golden opportunity, and he would not miss it!

    The Raven instantaneously elerated reaching its maximum speed as Ye Chong sidestepped, dodging the fire sabre effortlessly. His maic sword hooked upwards at an angle and scraped past the enemy; leaving a gash of five-centimeters deep and was about one meter long across the enemy¡¯s hull. The gash stood out like a condescending smirk. Before the enemy could retaliate, the Raven took advantage of its momentum and aimed its left wing at the opponent¡¯s chest.

    The two mechs met at high speed, and with a loud *BANG* they shed and bounced off each other awkwardly to the sides.

    Ye Chong was prepared for the high speed collision, and maneuvered away with ease. His basic training had taught him how to handle collisions, and Mu Shang¡¯s strict coaching regimen allowed him to decide where tond right when the current collision urred.

    Ye Chong adjusted the controls with astounding swiftness, and the Raven¡¯s twelve secondary engines located along its sides roared to life like music to his ears, angling the mech with precision. He managed to power up in split seconds.

    All twelve secondary engines rumbled in sync - the Raven, now twenty centimeters from the ground, paused slightly in mid-air - as the ws on its right limb flexed out and its wings angled ordingly. The Raven sprang off the ground like a graceful raptor, and headed back for the skies.

    The ck mech flew along a graceful arc, and at the peak of its parabolic trajectory was the Apollo, still recovering from the collision.

    Even as an entry level mech, the Raven¡¯s maximum speed was not to be underestimated. In a blink of an eye, the Raven was already at Apollo¡¯s tail.

    Jeb was still dazed and unresponsive from the collision, and Apollo was left without its pilot.

    Its throat came into view, and Ye Chong locked in on his opponent¡¯s most vulnerable spot like a predator ready to pounce on its prey.

    Ye Chong howled in anticipation, and thrust his maic sword with breathtaking speed into Apollo¡¯s throat - much like a knight of ancient times charging with hisnce at full speed towards the enemy¡¯s throat. The force of the lunge greatly exceeded Ye Chong¡¯s expectations as the Apollo was flung far across the battlefield like a puppet; its thickset neck now barely intact, and the photon circuits all jumbled up.

    The seemingly impossible victory was ovee almost by instinct.

    Ye Chong had won!

 Chapter 12 - Onwards and Upwards

    <h4>Chapter 12: Onwards and Upwards</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    His opponent asked for a rematch, but Ye Chong ignored him. The way he saw it, the deliberate mistakesmitted by his adversary would have cost his life a dozen times, and what Ye Chong needed was an expert that could sharpen his skills to grow stronger, not a brazen fool like him.

    Mu Shang swiftly appeared by his side. ¡°Hmm, not a bad performance, but the opponent was pathetic!¡±

    Ye Chong nodded in agreement.

    Mu Shang asked, ¡°However, it seems that the Raven can no longer keep up with your battle skills. Hmm, are you interested in using another mech?¡±

    Ye Chong beamed at Mu Shang¡¯s suggestions. ¡°A new mech? What model?¡±

    ¡°What are your thoughts on the Apollo?¡± Mu Shang inquired.

    Ye Chong spected before replying, ¡°It¡¯s alright! It¡¯s pretty agile with thoughtful modifications!¡±

    ¡°You win points for every victory in battle, and these points can be traded for new mechs or essories at the maintenance hub, as mech modifications are allowed here. Of course, I advise that you refrain from using modified mechs for now even though you are not entirely new to it. My suggestion would be for you to get familiar with various mechs before exploring the options offered by modifications.¡± Mu Shang exined.

    Mu Shang barely finished his little speech before Ye Chong headed straight for the maintenance hub. The spacious main hall exhibited a great variety of mechs, and Ye Chong eyed the disys like an eagle as he wandered around the disyed mechs, asionally petting or caressing the machines, unable to hide his excitement.

    Ye Chong instantly realized that every mech wasbelled with the amount of points required for redemption. He fumbled with his phone scrolling through his iing messages and finally found what he was looking for - a thousand points under his name. Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief - fortunately, the Green Wolf mech offered two models, and each only cost three hundred points. Looks like I have quite a number of points. Ye Chong thought gleefully.

    Ye Chong decided to heed Mu Shang¡¯s advice as Mu was never one for thoughtless opinions.

    Even though he eyed the other mechs longingly, his decision was finalized - he decided on a sophisticated Green Wolf-I.

    The Green Wolf was a quadruped; built very much like a wolf, with a double-ded light sabre held in its mouth - both sides of the weapon are capable of activatingser sabers of half a meter long. The Green Wolf model was a ssic mech fornd battles although itcked the Raven¡¯s wings; rendering flight impossible, and its engines were not designed for optimum performance in space. Onnd, however, the mech¡¯s powerful drive, agile movements andmensurate speed made it a popr model.

    Compared to the Raven, the Green Wolf came with quite a few upgrades.

    Mu Shang appeared like a spirit before Ye Chong, and threw a quick nce at the Green Wolf behind him beforementing in earnest, ¡°Tis¡¯ an alliance between beasts!¡±

    Ye Chong red back at Mu Shang. ¡°You darepare me to a beast?!¡±

    Mu Shang repliedzily, ¡°Are you not one?¡±

    ¡°Of course I¡¯m not!¡± Ye Chong defiantly sulked.

    ¡°Then what are you?¡± Mu Shang retorted.

    Ye Chong dered shamelessly, ¡°I am the king of beasts!¡±

    Mu Shang was bbergasted, and couldn¡¯t help but surrender and roll its eyes. ¡°Definitely like a beast!¡±

    Ye Chong stood proudly with his arms akimbo, and the background music began to y the roar of a thousand beasts. The music changed abruptly reced by the raucous cries of beasts having sex. Ye Chong felt goose bumps all over him, and immediately begged Mu Shang for mercy.

    Mu Shang chuckled, and reasonednguidly, ¡°But you are the King-- of-- Beasts!¡±

    Ye Chong pulled a face.

    Mu Shang tossed a name list to Ye Chong. ¡° The names recorded here are those who have a winning rate of over 90%, and had registered for training here within thest three months. You should challenge them one at a time. Oh, and do remember to start from thest one on the list.¡±

    Sun Xuelin and Xiu stared at the empty training ground in dismay.

    Xiu announced tly, ¡°Xuelin, he¡¯s not here.¡± Inside the Raven¡¯s cabin, tears began to flow down her delicate contour.

    Xuelin was enraged. ¡°That bastard, he¡¯s crossed the line, we¡¯ve known each other for so long how can he just upped and left without so much as a goodbye? This is too much. I¡¯m going to give him a real beating the next time we meet!¡± She hadpletely forgotten her losing track record against Ye Chong.

    ¡°Let¡¯s check out the battle grounds!¡± Xuelin said as she grabbed Xiu by the arm.

    They searched the battle areas one by one, but there was neither a sight of the Raven, nor the one who piloted it.

    They were not aware of Ye Chong recing the Raven for another mech, and were also ignorant of the fact that he had left the battle area for Gutista right before their arrival on the battle grounds.

    ¡°Hey! Young man, what¡¯re you up to these days? Haven¡¯t seen you in a while!¡± An elderly man greeted Ye Chong as he was on his way to Gutista.

    Ye Chong gave a slight bow. ¡°Grandpa Xu, how do you do? My schedule¡¯s a little hectic with training these days, hence the absence.¡± The elderly named Xu was someone Ye Chong respected dearly, for he was an old engineer who was generous with his teachings, and Ye Chong had benefited much from the old man.

    Grandpa Xu chortled, ¡°This old man is doing quite well, and this young man here is still as polite as always! What a niced, them old folks must be happy to see you there! Well then, I must be off, you enjoy yourself young man!¡±

    Ye Chong smiled bashfully. ¡°I will, have a good day Grandpa Xu!¡±

    Ye Chong visited the central hub of an association in Gutista called Aurora. The association was infamous; its members consisting mainly of retired mech engineers and pilots of high stature with great knowledge on all things mech. The conglomeration of these individuals was a force to reckon with. Many existingpanies consulted with them for their renowned expertise. The entricities of the association¡¯s members were also well known where each member offered a unique set of skills and experience. The fact that the members retired with enviable pensions made financial rewards ineffective as a means of gaining their assistance. If they find someone amenable, they would offer help even if unasked for; if one is unpleasant, even a shipload of gold would not change their minds. Their disregard for money was always a cause of concern by variouspanies.

    However, the stakes were high, so the superiors have to lower their sights and dance to the members¡¯ peculiar tunes, while secretly cursing them for their humiliation. It did not help that most Aurora members were well-versed in the art of politics and negotiations - thepany executives who were used to taking advantage of others had found their match!

 Chapter 13 - A Kind of Peace

    <h4>Chapter 13: A Kind of Peace</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong was the only Aurora member under the age of fifty.

    His membership was the result of an ident. In one of his early days in the virtual world, Ye Chong entered the Aurora¡¯s central hub by ident. However, none of the members paid him any attention, as they were either engrossed in some group discussion or conducting their own research. Ye Chong, driven by curiosity, approached the noisiest group in the room, and was surprised to find that they were discussing the piping designs for mech engines. Ye Chong was very much interested, and soon became absorbed with the discussion at hand.

    There were two old men who proposed two different design solutions, and both were stubbornly defending their own positions.

    Ye Chong was reminded of Mu Shang¡¯s engine schematics, and inadvertently spoke up, suggesting an entirely new approach. Suddenly, the group went very quiet. The two factions were speechless, as they stared in surprise at the young neer that appeared out of the blue!

    Ye Chong gulped.

    That was how Ye Chong was introduced to the elderly group, and one of them eventually came up with the idea of epting Ye Chong as a member of Aurora. This won the immediate approval from almost everyone, and Ye Chong did not get a chance to say anything before being taken into their fold.

    And so, Ye Chong unexpectedly became a member of Aurora.

    Ye Chong was not entirely happy with the oue. He had always thought that he had inherited most of his Papa¡¯s skill and knowledge, and was somewhat confident with his expertise in mechanical modifications; but here in Aurora, everyone was at least a few levels above him, and that was a hard fact to swallow.

    Unwilling tog behind, Ye Chong upped his game and began the long and hard journey of further educating himself.

    No matter which field he studied, these old timers had ensured that it was thoroughly explored and well researched, leaving arge gap for him to catch up. Fortunately for Ye Chong, who had a solid foundation in these fields, could absorb and adapt the resources around him like a hungry whirlpool.

    In time, Ye Chong¡¯s innate talent, impable learning skills, and solid foundation were noticed by the other members.

    These old men have had their moments of glory, enjoying prestigious reputations in their own expertise, but many of them were without a predecessor of choice, because a good student was hard toe by!

    Over time, they grew interested in Ye Chong, as if he was the one they were all waiting for. They weed his questions, and let him in on many of theirtest findings, further adding to the list of things Ye Chong had to catch up with. However, Ye Chong continued his studies with unhindered curiosity, and this gained the approval of his seniors.

    In the end, Ye Chong became Aurora¡¯s one and only apprentice, and a shared one at that.

    He entered into the hub, and the old timers all came up to him.

    ¡°Ah, isn¡¯t this our youngd? Haven¡¯t seen you in a few days, did you get to understand the form I taught youst time? You didn¡¯t? No matter, we can still look at it from a different perspective, for example ¡±

    The voice was interrupted by another angry one. ¡°You old fool, don¡¯t keep annoying our youngd with questions, if you drive him nuts, I¡¯ll hold you ountable!¡± The same voice continued, ¡°Hey youngd,e on here, let me see if you¡¯ve grown taller. Oh, still the same old, eh? Nothing to worry about, the human body is only flesh and bones, but it¡¯s your character and knowledge that matters most! I have a few papers here that I¡¯ve been working on these past few years, you can have a look at them when you¡¯re free!¡±

    ¡°Huh, old Du, what an ingenious approach! How could I have not thought of that? I should startpiling my own work too!¡±

    The elderly named Du was smiling with delight, exceedingly pleased with himself. Ye Chong, however, stood amongst the elderly, with the info chip from Du in hand, thrown off by the conversational exchanges.

    Inside, there was an extravagantly decorated dwelling room.

    Jeb¡¯s handsome facial features wore a twisted expression, as though a noble and graceful lord had transformed into a horrifying demon.

    Damn it, today¡¯s loss waspletely unexpected. Jeb recalled how his gloating act must seem like a clown¡¯s clumsy performance in the eyes of his opponent, and his anger stoked into a ming rage.

    The series of unfortunate events that befell him these past few days had stretched his endurance to the maximum, and Jeb could not take it anymore - he flung his virtual world hyperlink into the intricately patterned carpet, breaking the device into pieces.

    Just the thought of the imposter made Jeb see red. How he cursed and cursed the damned bastard.

    This is not the end! Definitely not! Jeb howled inaudibly in his mind.

    I, the magnificent Jeb, cannot possibly lose to a scum like that. I will make him pay for this, I¡¯ll kill him, that¡¯s right! I¡¯ll kill him! By then, Jeb was far from rational, his eyes bloodshot from his manic state. Jeb could not help butugh as he imagined his opponent begging for mercy under his sword.

    A few minutester, Jeb finally cooled down and regained hisposure and grace. He grabbed thems device from the table and imperiously summoned, ¡°Butler Qiu, get over here!¡±

    A professional looking man gave a fist wrapping salute and a slight bow before Jeb - this was his family¡¯s butler, Qiu.

    Jeb spoke through gritted teeth, ¡°Butler Qiu, find out everything about the NR Training Center¡¯s pilot registered under the name YC. I want to know everything about him, understand? Everything!¡±

    The butler¡¯s lowered eyes darkened for a moment - whoever this YC is, they must have angered the reckless young master. He knew well enough that his young master was good only in his looks, as he was always uninterested in learning, frequently engaged with idle sport and had the bitter peculiarity of never leaving insults unavenged. Those who offended him never end up well, and many have suffered as a result.

    Qiu sighed deeply - someone will suffer again this time!

    But superficially, he exaggerated an obedient ¡°Yes, sir,¡± and epted his orders with due courtesy, for he would not dare to offend the young master for fear of losing his job. Moreover, the current situation was an opportunity for him, if appropriately handled.

    It¡¯s not too hard to please someone like Jeb - simply acting like the perfect servant would keep him happy, unlike dealing with his elder brother, the eldest young master. Qiu suppressed a shiver from thinking about the cunning man and his imprable thoughts.

    Jeb was satisfied with his butler¡¯s response, for he derived his sense of superiority from those of lower stature. Contented, he waved the butler away with pretentious grace.

    Hehehe, you little fool, I¡¯ll get to you yet, and let you realize the horrible consequences of offending yours truly!

    Jeb tipped his wine ss and sipped on three-centuries-old naturally brewed red wine. He studied the ss intently, his thoughts unknown to anyone, safe for himself. The crimson drink glowed softly under the dim lighting, radiating an ominous, bloody aroma that promised certain death.

 Chapter 14 - Unravelling Secrets

    <h4>Chapter 14: Unravelling Secrets</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Angel evaded the seemingly random traps and the wandering electrically-activated mines very carefully.

    Hmph, so what if they¡¯re the MPA*? He managed to slip into their internal system after all, as if the ce was left unguarded. Angel was secretly pleased with himself.

    Today, photon processors offered more and more capabilities for mechs - one could even say that it was the mech¡¯s most importantponent. The MPA may give the impression of consisting mainly of mech pilots, but the association had enlisted a wide range of other experts rted to mechs. Amongst the ranks, the Mavericks number quite a few.

    While Angel was generally capable, entering the MPA¡¯s interior ground was still a feat he was quite proud of.

    However, it would not do to be careless here, for dangers lurked around every possible corner, and if his presence alerted the Mavericks who served as guards for the area, escape will be more than difficult!

    This was a crucial job - if he seeded, the pay will be enough to support his spending spree for a good while. Angel knew that there were other Mavericks who received the same offer, and that made him eager to prove himself to be a cut above the rest.

    The portal before Angel emitted a bright rainbow colored spectrum; steam escaped through the cracks, as though the portal would lead to a fairnd.

    Angel suspiciously eyed the portal. As a Maverick with more than a few years under his belt, Angel came to realize that a dazzling appearance was often a cover for a potentially fatal trap.

    Angel bent down to reach for the floor with his right hand, and closed his eyes - and an almost faint ripple spread out from where he stood.

    This was one of Angel¡¯s two unique skills, called the Ripple. Every Maverick had their own unique skills, and these skills represent the Maverick¡¯s attainment and achievement in their respective fields. Ripple was Angel¡¯s - it was used to scan the surroundings without triggering sensors or traps, and could even be undetectable by other Mavericks. The skill was aplementary addition to his trap setting expertise, and his skillset made him an excellent choice for ndestine jobs. Other Mavericks may have attributed his past sesses to his excellent intuition on traps and their locations, but it was all a cover for his true skill.

    His other unique skill would be Epiphyte - like the eponymous group of organisms, Epiphyte would not harm its target, but once activated, it would cling on tightly to the target till Angel allowed otherwise. It was a very reliable skill, and efficient for tracking. Angel¡¯s reputation wasrgely built on these two skills.

    ¡­

    Angel focused on the feedback from his Ripple.

    One, two¡­ Angel counted silently to eight. Eight tiers! What stroke of luck, to have an eight-tiered security barrier!

    Angel did a double take on the situation, sensing something was possibly amiss.

    Without absolute certainty, Angel did not dare to make his next move. Instead, he went through his memories meticulously.

    That¡¯s not right! He finally figured out what gave rise to his uneasiness. On his way in, he would not have avoided all those concealed traps without his Ripple! The MPA¡¯s hired Mavericks were good, so it would be illogical for the security barrier to be easier to break than the earlier security measures.

    An eight-tiered security barrier may not be simple to hack, but for a Maverick who could venture this far into the MPA¡¯s domain, it would seem like child¡¯s y! Angel concluded decisively - there must be some other hidden trick! Right! That must be it.

    Angel closed his eyes and activated Ripple again, calmly analyzing the feedback with care.

    It took thirty minutes, but Angel finally re-opened his eyes and exhaled slowly in relief.

    What astonishing programming! While the barrier appeared to eight-tiered, each tier was connected to the others based on some intricate principles, effectively creating an extra tier of security - which meant, there were actually nine tiers! If one had hacked through the barriers through usual means, it would surely have triggered a trap.

    Astounding! What an astounding way of linking between security tiers! His first ever encounter with such mechanism, and he had nearly fell for it! He thanked his lucky stars for being extra careful!

    While the security barrier wasplex, Angel had managed a good grasp of its inner workings, and felt reasonably confident. However, as he began hacking, a green shadow shed past his vision, catching him off guard!

    What was that? Angel, who was very much surprised, stopped his hacking. The portal before him was still glowing brightly, painting a rainbow hue over his surroundings.

    Was the green flicker an illusion? Angel wasn¡¯t certain. As he studied his surroundings carefully with the hopes of finding the source of that green sh, the portal¡¯s bright, colorful glow greatly inhibited his search. In the end, he found nothing.

    Perhaps it was really an illusion? Angel was unsure. If only the portal would stop glowing -

    Angel started. That¡¯s right, why is the portal glowing? Could it be¡­ Could it be¡­ a means to hide something?¡±

    Angel thought it through and began to see the sense in his reasoning. He avoided making sudden movements, and merely scanned his surroundings.

    And there it was! Angel nearly went blind with the searching, but he could now see the dim green sh - it was a thin sliver of green light, concealed by the portal¡¯s brighter glow.

    It was concealed, even after using his Ripple detection. It was a first for Angel, and he could not help admiring the masterpiece! However, since he had found it, then¡­

    Angel gave the mysterious portal another look - in his eyes, which mirrored a fair maiden¡¯s pair, beckoning him with open arms.

    Butler Qiu began respectfully, ¡°Second young master, regarding your ordersst time, there have been some developments!¡±

    Jeb was overjoyed. ¡°Really? Where¡¯s he from? His real name? Haha, he will not get away this time!¡± He sobered, and continued ruthlessly. ¡°Hehe, your offense against me has doomed you!¡±

    Qiu had more to say, but was obviously hesitant.

    Jeb noticed and frowned, displeased. ¡°Come on, just spill it! Could it be that he is from a family of high standing?¡±

    The butler bowed a little. ¡°That¡¯s not it, it¡¯s just that¡­ Well¡­¡±

    Jeb grew impatient. ¡°Just tell it as it is, none of this nonsense!¡±

    Qiu grew nervous. ¡°Young master, after you ordered for this information, I had hired a few capable Mavericks to investigate. While the training center¡¯s security wasmendable, they still managed to bypass it and ess and information archives. It¡¯s just that¡­ It¡¯s just that, the whole thing looks suspicious!¡±

    ¡°Suspicious?¡± Jeb inquired.

    Qiu grew increasingly edgy, as he knew that the second young master before him was quite temperamental. With the current delicate bnce within the family, he must always be on his guard, for any error on his part would have disastrous consequences. If the matter at hand was not satisfyingly handled, the second young master might throw a tantrum, and that would spell punishment, or even his expulsion from the Luo Family. Qiu, who was careful in nature, dreaded the possibilities ahead.

    He replied shortly, ¡°Yes, in the information archives, we searched through all of the ID¡¯s, but could not find this YC character, not even one with a simr name.¡±

    Jeb was stunned. ¡°Not even one? That¡¯s impossible! I saw it, clear as day! It must be right!¡±

    Qiu maneuvered through the conversation smoothly. ¡°Of course, this servant believes in the young master¡¯s sharp eyes, you could not have possibly seen it wrong!¡± Seeing Jeb preening as expected, he continued, ¡°But that¡¯s what¡¯s so suspicious about this, why would there be no records of him in the archives? ess to the virtual world requires identification of some sort, it would have been impossible otherwise!¡±

    Jeb began to realize the situation clearly. ¡°That¡¯s it, this is impossible!¡±

    Qiu continued, ¡°This servant was thinking, perhaps YC is a Maverick too?¡±

    Jeb beamed and followed his logic. ¡°That¡¯s right! Hah! That must be it! Only Mavericks could do something like this!¡±

    Mavericks were people who could bypass limitations set in the virtual world through their skills in using photon processors. They were talented specialists of these processors, and so had an unimaginable advantage over the average person in the virtual world.

    Qiu continued, ¡°And so this servant thought, one would need to fight fire with fire. This servant has entrusted a few Mavericks associated with the Luo family to investigate his background!¡±

    Jeb prodded impatiently. ¡°And what have you found about his background?¡±

    The butler¡¯s expression grew even stranger.

 Chapter 15 - Mavericks

    <h4>Chapter 15: Mavericks</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Angel was disturbed.

    Thest mission went perfectly well, considering that out of the five Mavericks that were sent, he alone managed to deliver, while the others failed with the final portal. Just the thought of solving that remarkable trap brightened Angel¡¯s mood, and the edges of his mouth lifted a little.

    The mission was, honestly, quite a challenge, but Angel found the reward too high to resist. Such a high pay; besides, this was not the first time he served the Luo family, and they had been reliable clients. Most importantly, the job was practically made for someone like him.

    The Luo family was interested in someone, and with such a lucrative reward, Angel could only imagine the person to be someone of high standing, or a skillful mech pilot they might be considering to hire. While he had a few good guesses, nothing prepared him for the truth.

    There were no records whatsoever on the so-called YC character in the information archive. If he had not copied some of the records to show the Luo family, they might not even believe that he made it into the system!

    When Angel epted the fact that the archives had nothing on YC, he felt a sense of fear.

    What if YC was also a Maverick?

    The thought had haunted Angel ever since the mission.

    While Mavericks were just like any other person in the real world, they became obvious outcasts in the virtual world. Here, they were not bound by the same rules that govern the average user; instead, they were powerful, and in the eyes of others, almost invincible.

    But was that indeed so?

    Angel smiled ironically as he thought of those rumors. There were many unwritten rules for Mavericks, cing a huge restriction on most of them. This was even more so for independent Mavericks who had no specific allegiance, and Angel was one such Maverick.

    One of the rules that Angel observed strictly was to avoid taking on missions that involve other Mavericks.

    There was no real way topare the strength between Mavericks, as each had their own field of specialty. Even within the same field, a beginner with remarkable ingenuity might best an experienced opponent. After all, creativity could work miracles.

    Angel was not interested in battles between Mavericks. Usually, a user is hyperlinked to the virtual world via electromaic wave stimtion of neural signals in the brain, which creates a resonance between the brainwaves and the virtual world. While hacking into the hyperlink device proves difficult, it was not entirely impossible.

    Angel once witnessed a rival pair of exceptional Mavericks engage in a fierce battle, and it ended with the loser braindead. This was the first time he realized the extent of a Maverick¡¯s capabilities and the harshness of the virtual world.

    Fortunately, Mavericks who could push past this final barrier were few and far between, and represented the cream of the crop. Most of them understood the weight of their powers and would not use them carelessly. They even took the extra step of binding each other to a set of rules far stricter than for the average Maverick to curb atrocities in the virtual world.

    Never offend a Maverick, however weak one may seem to be.

    Perusing the facilities of the NR Training Centre without proper registration did not seem like the acts of a lesser Maverick, if he or she was indeed one.

    Angel felt fear spreading deep within, for he dreaded enraging another Maverick, and possibly one that was much stronger than him.

    But the matter was not over.

    The Luo Family had entrusted him with another mission - to find out YC¡¯s true history. It could be anything, like an address, or a name. The mission came with the expected extravagant price tag offered by his client.

    All things said, Angel felt that he should not refuse the offer. The Luo family had been his main client, and they had gotten familiar with each other. Besides, this offer was simrly suitable for a Maverick of his skill, and the return was more than eptable - it was the highest price he had ever been offered.

    But Angel was still hesitant.

    What if the opponent was in fact the most powerful Maverick?

    Angel knew himself very well - he was like a mole, quick to identify hidden traps, but disadvantaged in a direct encounter. If this YC character was a Maverick, he would have to prepare for the possibility of being a target of revenge.

    If thest mission was a small offense, this mission would cross the line. The greatest fear of a Maverick was to have one¡¯s real identity exposed. In the real world, a Maverick is as vulnerable as anyone else - without the ability to defend oneself, losing anonymity would inevitably lead to losing one¡¯s freedom, and possibly, one¡¯s life.

    Angel dared not ept the current mission lightly. His mind was still clear, not too affected by the Luo family¡¯s excessiveness. He understood that epting it might lead to a struggle with a powerful Maverick that would only end with death, or even a joint attack by other Mavericks, considering the fact that what he was about to do was a huge taboo for their kind!

    But still he could not decide, the sky-high financial reward was very, very persuasive - just this one mission would support himfortably for the next decade. Angel had a 70% confidence level of doing what needed to be done without the target noticing, for his Epiphyte had never failed him before.

    ¡°This mission is really giving me a headache.¡± Angel sighed as he massaged his temples. He should refuse it, but the money, the temptation! He should ept it, but what if he could not live long enough to enjoy his reward?

    Suddenly, Angel had an epiphany - why not meet this YC character and assess his mettle before deciding?

    Based on intel from the Luo family, Angel arrived at the NR Training Center, disguised as a tourist.

    Once there, he found his target shortly - YC.

    YC seemed to be just finished with a battle, heading outwards with his mech. Angel began to trail him, interested to know who this YC actually was.

    Amongst the passersby, YC seemed to blend in.

    Suddenly, Angel noticed something, and did a double take!

    Mavericks!

    The people who just passed by YC, they were all Mavericks! Angel could feel the cogwheels in his head turning - it must be that some other Mavericks had epted the job! The Luo family had always preferred to hire a few Mavericks for tougher missions. Based on the aura of those few, they certainly must be!

    Are they nning to do something here and now?

    Angel decided to stay aside and observe. After all, he should take the opportunity of investigating YC without getting personally involved.

    Angel focused silently, and his Ripple began to spread outwards, informing him of all the details of his surroundings in great rity.

    Well done! They¡¯re indeed masters of their trade, picking the perfect opening, and moving almost imperceptibly in the background. Angel felt great admiration towards these Mavericks! They were experts, and worked together seamlessly like second nature - the sight was one to behold!

    But what happened next made Angel¡¯s blood froze - that moment was one that would stick with him forever!

 Chapter 16 - Abyssal Rule

    <h4>Chapter 16: Abyssal Rule</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong exited the battlefield on his knees in exhaustion. Man that was one annoying guy! Are there even cubs in the jungle? Why was everyone on the list prepared by Mu felt like they were on steroids or something? They were so tough that one couldn¡¯t win without losing a tooth or two. While Ye Chong was consumed in his thoughts of his battle, something was brewing.

    ¡°Ye! Look out!¡± Mu Shang¡¯s voice rang in Ye Chong¡¯s head, like a bell. ¡°What is it?!¡± He looked around, tensed. ¡°There are four Mavericks identified nearby! One located at the corner, identity unknown.¡± A hologram of an overview of the area appeared before Ye Chong with locations of the unknown individuals marked by Mu Shang

    ¡°Mavericks? What is that?¡± Ye Chong questioned in curiosity.

    ¡°Currently it is not possible to make a clear and concise exnation here. We will talk about this when we get back. We are not aware of their intentions too!¡± Stealthily, the Mavericks surrounded Ye Chong. He could not tell if they did it intentionally or not and as he lifted his leg slowly stepping to the right, they moved in sync as well; maintaining a circr orbit around him. Ye Chong¡¯s brows furrowed and sighed in frustration as he put his fingers down on the control panel, ready tounch an attack anytime, ¡°Ye! We are under attack! Do we strike back?¡± beeped Mu Shang.

    Even though Ye Chong could not see Mu Shang from the cabin, he still rolled his eyes and snorted, ¡°Duh! Of course we are striking back! What else are we going to do? Even rats would counterattack with their fangs, so are we waiting here to rot away with time?¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Mu Shang tly responded, ¡°I see.¡±

    ¡­

    Angel¡¯s eyes glistened in anticipation, scrutinizing every detail surrounding her. Waves crashing in a unique rhythm; Angel¡¯s acute sense of sight picks up surrounding features such as the needle on clock at the lobby that struck at a quarter past nine and 32 seconds.

    Oblivious of what was happening, YC made no moves since he was not able to sense any apparent danger. On the other hand, an expert with keen eyes like Angel was aware of the situation YC was in; it was evident that the Mavericks had ced a surge seeker on YC. It only needed a few seconds for the device to link with the system of the target and by then it would be toote for them to discover and eliminate it. Everyone in the gxy would have ess to YC¡¯s database! The only effective way to tackle the surge seeker is to avoid it but as soon as it is attached on you, the fun begins!

    The debate here would be; could YC be just anothermoner?

    Angel scoffed in disgust at a ridiculous pay by the Luo family to effortlessly wipe out amoner like YC. Tension rumbled at the pit of Angel¡¯s stomach with regret. While he could have finish YC off with a few strikes and receive that handsome pay, he decided to monitor the victim from afar. He was certain that even his bone eater would outperform the outdated surge seeker easily. Just when Angel started to drown in remorse, the situation changed dramatically on the battlefield!

    A screeching cry can be heard that brings chill down your spine. Angel¡¯s lips were moving inartictely but no words could be heard. A formless pressure crushed Angel; his body was locked and stuck as if imprisoned in a grip by an invisible hand. No limbs can be moved except for his befuddled thoughts! Angel could not budge as all eyes were fixed on YC.

    Time seemed to have frozen in ce like a three-dimensional projected hologram, a one-of-a-kind disturbing stillness. Angel struggled as he choked out words but failed as the space had turned into a vacuum with no medium but dead silence. Angel¡¯s pupils filled with the deepest fear; his mind thrashing like dark vines creeping up all over one¡¯s body.

    YC made no further moves, other than a cold stare stered on his face.

    Angel¡¯s heart felt colder than an iceberg and a snowfield! He panicked as realization sunk into him that YC was looking right into his soul; he moaned internally at his awaited doom. YC¡¯s stare impaled the heart like a cial spike, breaking through the fragile sense of security, obliterating all hopes in sheer coldness. Angel closed his eyes as he begged for mercy. Please!

    In a blink of an eye, the field changed again!

    A ck hole was formed as it swallowed YC into an abyss that could bring forth the darkest fear of any individuals. Slowly, it engulfed everything nearby. Soon, Angel too was mercilessly sucked in by this dark force. The eyes detected nothing but darkness as Angel lost consciousness.

    ¡­

    Angel gently peeled open his eyes.

    He sat up thunderstruck by the encounter just awhile ago. It felt like it was a dream that onlysted a brief second and he¡¯s back to reality. Was the abyss part of the dream or was it something else? Angel questioned but dared not figure it out.

    He nced at the clock; a quarter past nine 35 seconds! It has only been 3 seconds?!

    Recollecting the sequence of events, YC had already vanished into thin air but it was only 3 seconds and he had already escaped. Angel was absolutely sure that YC was there. There was no way a man could run that fast!

    Angel walked away and instantaneously he saw the four mavericks from before who had been there in the same posture and position much like a sculpture.

    Something was not right, Angel held his steps as the waves wavered in his hands spread between them, but no anomaly was found. After a few hours, the mavericks still remained as sculpture-like; no words were uttered while a passerby was amazed by such lively looking sculptures in the area. Angel wanted to have a closer look so he blended in with the pedestrians and walked towards the sculptures.

    Pale and lifeless. Those were the words Angel thought upon seeing their faces. A frantic sharp ringing in his head made Angel anxious.

    A face of such kind was not new to him. This is the second time he had experienced this particr symptom. The first time was during the aftermath of two defeated ultimate mavericks in a battle; their souls werepletely drained due to brain neural damage. It was the exact kind of face he saw!

    He shuddered and trembled in fear, feeling the chills up his spine as he choked on his saliva; the drought in his throat froze his movements.

    It¡­ It ¡­ It was not a dream¡­

    Ever-expanding ck hole, constant coldness, deafening silence; everything came crashing down and circting through his mind as he picked up the pieces. The feeling was disturbing and frightening. Angel could not endure it any longer as he let out a shriek and disconnected right after.

    ¡­

    ¡°So¡­¡±

    ¡°Mu, what is this maverick you had been mumbling about? How is it that I had never heard of it?¡±

    ¡°Mavericks are the experts in utilizing processors at the virtual world with special abilities. They are known as the ones in the gray area for they stand between life and death, the ck and white, could be both benign and malignant. Hence, the name. Mavericks denote the field they hold expertise in so much it felt like a walk in the park.¡±

    Ye Chong had lost his interests at the mention of processors. ¡°Eh, is it? I don¡¯t really care about some processor professor in the field, so what happened to them anyway?¡±

    ¡°Permanent neurological brain damage.¡±

    ¡°Permanent neurological¡­ what? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the state that would eventually lead to either death or dementia.¡±

    Ye Chong raised his brows, ¡°Oh, very well. Then they will be obedient as ever!¡± At Trash-12, if a man showed mercy to his enemies, he would be as good as the skeletons on the floor. He would be nothing more than bones on the ground. Ye Chong had already gotten used to a life of fight or perish so death was nothing new to him!

    ¡°Oh wait!¡± He turned to Mu Shang.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t there another guy in the corner?¡±

 Chapter 17 - That YC Guy

    <h4>Chapter 17: That YC Guy</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Mu Shang sneered, ¡°You¡¯ll know by then.¡±

    This fight was no other than a walk in the park; like a stone skimming across the water, one ripple after another with no huge impact. On a more important note, Ye Chong had fallen in love with the life he had gotten which was filled with entertainment and adventure. He had never felt so aplished before! It was like he was born ready to battle with various sses of people with different mechs. The contentment of his life made him giddy with excitement.

    Ye Chong would head to the streets of Gudista for a stroll and talk to the elders there to pass his free time. Besides that, he would also carry on with his ever-changing courses of training after he has finished his virtual world punching session on a daily basis. Compared to the days upied by scavenging for food and defeating mutants on Trash-12, the current way of life is more fitting for an active and healthy teenager like Ye Chong.

    As for the trainings on the list Mu gave, he had already crossed out more than half of them by now!

    Ye Chong never knew how prominent his image was throughout the gxy for a hermit he once was. YC the fighter, who never rest on hisurels, had defeated one opponent after another. It had be the talk of the town among the NR trainees at the FMPA ever since his glorious battle with the Shield of Thorns.

    Shield of Thorns was known as the one whom piloted mech ¡°Lorcupine¡± which was ranked at 82 in the FMPA offensive forces; notorious for possessing both skills and strength, and had gained tons of fans with his distinctive style of fighting. The battle ring was always flooded with spectators if he was in the battlefield.

    A man so great was in the end defeated by Ye Chong with a final blow to the head.

    Despite the impressive triumph, everyone thought there was nothing extraordinary about the battle. Any individual would have to face defeat one day with no exceptions to the top fighter in EMPA, the Son of Light, who averagely gets knocked out around 10 times a year. Therefore, the Shield of Thorns must have some breaks in his consecutive victories.

    What was astounding was the fact that Ye Chong¡¯s mech was only a Lacherl.

    Lacherl, namely the soldier major is a humanoid mech with low specification and built with a sturdy shell; providing an astronomical defensepared to other mechs of the same level. Additionally, it also has a mediocre or even unbearable speed and mobility, inferring it to be more of a threatening defensive niche in the field. It was especially threatening when the high speed ranged shooting technique became a trend among the fighters; which just happened to be the biggest counter towards its guard, thus killing the poption of Lacherl users close to extinction.

    Spectators booed at Ye Chong continuously upon seeing him maneuvering a Lacherl into the battlefield. Lordcupine, categorized under OU (Overused) for its premium quality and high ranking in offensive forces would have crashed this wall easily in one blow.

    Ye Chong found such expertise absolutely unnecessary and tediously lengthy in mastering the skills. It was tooplex for a mere child who had never been through much like him to understand. But frankly speaking, he likes the Lacherl because not only was she the first humanoid model he piloted in the training field, she also looked quite simr to Winnie; in spite of her weight, she moves considerably faster than good old Winnie.

    A premium model dueling with a novice model can bepared to an armored warrior fighting a naked farmer.

    Nothing much can be expected from the result seeing that there would be no dramatic twist or the what-ifs. The spectators watched in agreement that the Shield of Thorns¡¯ effortless victory would be justifiable from the model of Ye Chong¡¯s mech. It was a wrong model to begin with but the unforeseen circumstances before the audiences had them gawping in awe and surprise.

    Lacherl swoops down and struck its opponent. It took the Shield of Thorns by surprise as he sneers in discontentment. How badly does she want to taste death? Spectators booed in disbelief at YC, a hero of the zeroes. Suddenly, the room was filled with silence as everyone stared at next spectacle with wide eyes.

    Judging from their reactions, everyone had the same thought; how does a heavy machine like Lacherl move this fast?

    Jaws dropped as they continued to observe the battle. Lacherl circled Lorcupine swiftly and every swing of the sword confused the Shield of Thorns. At times when he thought to have gotten the sequence of the attack, Lacher1 managed to pull a different trick. In the end, he failed to evennd an attack on the highness, Lacherl.

    Lorcupine was dazed in confusion; he was the one who owned a premium mech but was struck down by a novice mech. It dawned on him that the Lacher1 looks different as if it was upgraded into a brand new model.

    Could it be that the Lacherl have been modified? Did he rece the engine? How could Lorcupine notnd a single strike even if Lacher1 was modified with marvelous craftsman skills? Are you freaking kidding me?!

    Thoughts raced through his mind in frustration.

    Still, that was the reality even if it was unbelievable. The Lacherl piloted by Ye Chong had the upper-hand throughout the fight. However, Shield of Thorns was not a weak one either; he is well-rounded in offensiveness and defensiveness. He is like a sword as good as it¡¯s a shield, the traditionalbination worked wonders in his hands, with various kinds of defense techniques - blocking, cancelling, grinding and breaking. Holding up against Lacherl impably with the asional glow of his swording from his sequence of defense, a prime manifestation of Lord Porcupine himself; in the shield of the thorns, one prick and you¡¯ll pay for it.

    Ye Chong was ignorant as he did not produce the opportunity for a strike back and he calmly carried on his inputs.

    Such a rare scene indeed! The fight was so overwhelming it had everyone on the edge of their seats amazed by the tension of the battle. They immediately whipped out their hologram recorders to capture this precious fight. Right after the fight ended, the scenes were posted into a discussion forum which attracted enough attention to be crowned as the top news on the site.

    Fans had gone through the visuals and were astounded by the skillfulness of YC as they all agreed from their discovery that the Lacherl was an original, unmodified model and that her speed was already at its maximum. The difference was however, YC piloted her in a fair set of movement with sharp turning points rapidly done between each step and by the time Mr. Shield of Thorns couldnd an attack, YC would have ced her at a safer point; an illusion created that the Lacherl outsped the Lorcupine.

    In addition, the heftiness of Lacherl was an advantage YC utilized. ording to the analysis based on the visuals, the direction of the sword was aligned with the direction of impulse from Lacherl herself in every strike. To put it simply, every attack made had an enormous amount of kic energy under the highest speed of the mech, making Lacherl into a killer machine; brandishing tond a strike. Without a doubt, Lacher1 was an intimidating opponent.

    Regardless of the mech¡¯s model, be it a fighting type or the shooting type, the core would always be the speed of control. When the speed of mech is high, maintaining the uracy of inputs would have been highly difficult even with the aid of a powerful processor. Technically, when the mech reaches a velocity that passes the highest capacity by more than 70%, the struggle to maintain an urate input would steeply increase. While YC broke the speed cap and was still able to glide like a bird, the other pilots who were watching couldn¡¯t help but to salute him out of deep respect.

    To think that those oues of the investigation were already astonishing, there¡¯s more. One attentive pilot calcted YC¡¯s movements; in 3 seconds, within a distance of mere 100 meters, YC had already executed sharp low-angled turnings eight times! When the results were posted on the site, the pressure was exerted and the anxiety brewed!

    Such technique was called the Low Angled Turning, the most practical and yet the most challenging technique to perform by the speedy models. Well, almost all pilots knew the trick but it was still the hardest one to y out. The sharp turnings while traveling at maximum speed would constantly bring difort to the pilot¡¯s body which would heighten as the speed increases.

    Eight continuous Low Angled Turnings in three seconds was a baffling aplishment. It was almost as if YC was a mutated ape from another gxy.

    Themunity thought that is was preposterous and started doubting if the calction was done correctly or not. Thework was a virtual reality. If he couldn¡¯t do it outside the virtual world, he could never do it here. The system would have prompted him about ¡®system failure¡¯ right away!

    Questions filled the air about a man achieving the unachievable. Could a mortal¡¯s body be this durable?

    Anyone that knew about the mysterious YC started to monitor him as fans awaited more mind-boggling matches to test the limits of their hearts.

 Chapter 18 - Turn in Events

    <h4>Chapter 18: Turn in Events</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    YC is like a never-ending cave of treasure where one will not see the end because there¡¯s always a new trick up his sleeves that constantly caught everyone by surprise.

    Skills ranged from the Thomas¡¯ Spin to the Wavy Step were ssic moves that were like bread and butter to the pilots. As fundamental as they were, the skills became something that was extraordinary when executed by YC at the same time deadly as well. Moreover, his emergence shattered the dogma of how advanced techniques would win them all, and the superstitions of how a premium mech would determine victory in the general public. The trends have evolved into a new era where basic moves were in the spotlight once again.

    There were even some who identified andpiled every set of moves used by YC in the visuals avable as new references in the textbooks.

    Not once did YC everment about his reputation. He had unfailingly challenged three pilots a day and vanished right after. No one could tell who he was and no one would know where he came from. He would always remain a mystery among themunity which had initiated a cult of his fandom; those that crazed for his appearance and craved for his unt of skills.

    Contrary to the habits of the pilots, YC had never operated only one particr kind of mech. Instead, he changed them regrly and all of them also happened to be the pre-made models. Pre-made models were more of the majority than modified models in the field. These models were mostly used ofmoners like YC due to the fact that they could not afford to modify their mechs which would cost them a fortune. Plus, these standard models have stark disadvantagespared to the modified models but despite that, YC brought life into them. Every single ounce of the mechs¡¯ capacity had been utilized, their wills were resuscitated and the continuous episode of the weak surpassing the strong reyed on the battlefield.

    Whenever YC piloted a different type of mech, a brand new variation of strategies would get showcased and it would be beyond everyone else¡¯s imagination! The ending of his moves could hardly be predicted like the master among the experts, every input was under his control and anything under his vicinity could be killing weaponry. Once the champion fighter, the Son of Lightmented, ¡°If he were to pilot a mech of the same level as mine, I¡¯m not even sure whether I could take him down!¡±

    The visuals of YC¡¯s battles were the hottest items in the virtual world.

    YC could be seen as rather impulsive fighter to the other world, but he could not care less. Ye Chong was not concerned about whoever that sang for his victories and thirsted for his fights; his life would not be altered by them. The battles that he partook up until now was to sharpen his ability and to improvise the chance of survival on this dying of trash.

    Without a doubt his mentor Mu Shang was amazed. ¡°Hmm, this is a good trick. You could think about keeping it.¡± Mu Shang praised as he watched Ye Chong performed a Low Angled Turning.

    Later in the days, Ye Chong had a new daily task at hand which is to pilot Mu Shang! Wow, Mu actually pulled off a significant low angled turning about 20 times in three seconds! That is scary! Ye Chong mumbled to himself.

    The first ride ended up as quite a horrifying experience to Ye Chong. He had to drag his feet out of the cabin with his face drained of color and his legs trembled. Before he could even utter a word, he threw up drastically and was forced to take a break for the next few days despite having a strong physique.

    ¡°Dammit Mu! How could you do this to me! You actually shut down the cabin pressure buffering system?¡± Ye Chong muttered inin as he flopped on the bed while shooting a re at Mu who was smirking at the side. Hmph!

    ¡°The side effect does not seem too bad. Hmmm, we could still increase intensity!¡± Ye Chong was exasperated but with a final blow, he was knocked out!

    Mu was definitely not joking around and as expected, he really did raise the intensity by turning it up a notch!

    Fortunately, Ye Chong too was not a typical fighter. With buffed up muscles like a mutated ape, he made it through the first few days of piloting Mu and as time passed, such training had be the easiest part of his day.

    ¡­

    Jeb shrieked, ¡°What?! We had lost contact?¡±

    Butler Chew responded, ¡°Yes! I too have not the slightest idea on what¡¯s going on, but we had indeed lost contact with the four mavericks we sent. They seemed to have disappeared¡­ I suspect¡­¡±

    ¡°What do you suspect?¡±

    Butler Chew nced at his master, ¡°I sus¡­suspect¡­ they could be in grave danger!¡±

    ¡°Grave danger? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I had heard from Sir Luo that the mavericks hold the ability to disrupt the neurological system of a man¡¯s brain through thework of the virtual world, given they were strong enough¡­ I spected¡­ were these happened to be¡­¡±

    ¡°For real?!¡± Jeb was fuming in disbelief. ¡°Why does a man like me have never heard of such story? Are you pulling my legs?¡±

    ¡°No sire. There¡¯s no way I would dare to offend your greatness.¡± The butler quickly begged for forgiveness, ¡°I shall fulfill all the orders by your greatness, whatever it take, on my own. I would and only would do it by myself. If it¡¯s for your greatness, how would I dare to be negligent and let others take over?¡±

    ¡°Of course you wouldn¡¯t dare!¡± Jeb snorted. He hesitated for a moment, ¡°Is this the end of the whole episode?¡± Jeb knew very well ever since he was born into a big family like this about the dangers of making enemies in the field; especially those who lurk in darkness whom he couldn¡¯t see.

    Butler Chew exhaled in relief knowing that he would be thest one to die even in the worst case scenario. ¡°Master is such a decisive and forgiving leader!¡± At the same time, he did not forget to butter up to Jeb. Jeb snickered at hispliment and felt overjoyed.

    It has been three days since Angel had vaporized from the virtual world!

    Day by day he feared and regretted of what he had done and wondered why he would be so impulsive as to ept that foolish request! The nightmare haunted him like a skeleton in the closet, clouding his mind.

    He was furious! For a maverick like him, being forbidden to go on virtual web was like a bird losing its wings to fly! Regardless, he dared not oppose his own will; if virtual web was his wings, he would rather not to lose his life over it. For three days he curled up in the gloomy cottage, feeling a little insecure.

    The fifth day came and the former glory gleam on his face was long gone. Now, all that was left were the horrors which prevailed from the torture he had been through.

    On the eighth day, he snapped!

    His wrinkled hands reached out to the helmet at the corner. If he were to die, an instant death was always better than suffering in pain.

    Well, what am I even thinking? Maybe the guy didn¡¯t even recognize me at all. I¡¯m just overthinking. Why would he care!?

    His fingers gently caressed the round surface of the helmet. The expression stered on his face was like one in a trance as he thought to himself; to go or not to go? The decisions drummed in his head. He still could note to a decision.

    Atst, biting his teeth, he put on his helmet and logged in!

    He became calm as he stood in a moving crowd and looked upon the virtual world.

    He walked for few hours yet nothing had happened but a wave of relief washed over him. Apparently, it was indeed him overthinking things.

    Tranquility started filling his heart as he began to hum and strolled towards a gathering spot for mavericks to get some info because there were still doubts that nagged in him.

    Who was this YC? I had never heard of a maverick of such kind? He queried and would absolutely like to find out more about this guy.

    And out of a sudden, the world shook!

 Chapter 19 - Sudden Attack

    <h4>Chapter 19: Sudden Attack</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    The ground shook and Angel felt sunken, as he was pulled beyond his own weight. He could barely react in time as he lost control of his body. It might be happening in the virtual world yet his body was soaked with cold sweat. A mystical voice boomed into his ears, ¡°You have finallye! I have waited long enough!¡±

    Angel replied in a trembled voice, ¡°Who¡­ Who are you?¡± He acted frankly, for it was perhaps thest day or thest moment of his life. The reason being that he would really want to know the identity of this man among the Mavericks, not with vengeance, but with admiration. YC had earned his respect during the battle before for his outstanding performance in any aspect of the field that Angel could notpete. Like an alpine mountain in his career, steep and craggy, YC became the idol in his mind. If he were to be dead afterwards, due to YC, Angel would be fine and have noint with that fact. He was prepared for the consequences, knowing the fact that YC could have been a member of the Mavericks all this while.

    Angel froze alone in a distorted posture in ce. There wasn¡¯t anybody around.

    A fading voice shed before him, ¡°Keke, haven¡¯t you done your research? How could you still not know who I am?¡± The question had Angel pale and frightened, ¡°I know I am impotent to you. But why the trickery? It¡¯s not funny.¡±

    ¡­ A moment of silence struck the ce.

    The voice lingered apologetically, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for what I¡¯ve done just now!¡± And it dramatically turned into a blood-thirsty voice, ¡°But I know. You are certain of why I am here. Aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Angel shuddered. I knew it! What¡¯sing to him would arrive in the end. Well, there wouldn¡¯t be a need for him to keep hiding anymore. Angel then confessed everything, from how he got his deal, to how he hacked into the core of the training ground, without holding back.

    He was ready for death as he closed his eyes, with his mouth shut tightly immediately after the confession.

    ¡­

    ¡­ He awaited his death, but nothing urred. And by the time he had realized it, his body regained its mobility.

    ¡°If you want to kill me, just do it already!¡±

    His shaking voice trailed off in the street where a few pedestrians had their eyes fixed on Angel in deep pity, as if seeing an idiot in his own melodrama.

    Did he¡­ let go of me¡­ for real? He was in disbelief. He tried lifting himself up from his feet. The unforgettable voice from the previous oblivion was not ringing in his ears anymore. Angel, who held back his flooding tears, mmed the logout button at light speed!

    At Luo¡¯s Research Center.

    The manager rested in his cozy armchair, setting his eyes upon the view of the outside world through the highly transparent ss window. He watched the people below hurry by, as a feeling of serenity surged through his body, for he knew that this very research institute is the heart of the Luo family and is significant to what kept their family going strong. Due to Luo¡¯s authority, the existence of this institute had been safely protected in secret. The strength of this research center! It would be among the first few in the entire Fal gxy. The lord of this family entrusted him with this center. What faith in his capability! He had thought so, as he snickered. An outsider earning this much of trust from the lord, this is more than a mere achievement.

    But well, I heard there was a dispute between the young master and the lord¡­ wonder if it¡¯s true¡­ Sigh¡­ every family has their own difficulty, not even the great lord, wise and decisive, could prevent this. Still, this was very strange. The young master had always been known for his gentle and humble nature, a genuine man, and a likeable character to the lord. Then why the dispute? Almost everyone in the house presumed the young master was to be the sessor to the Luo family, even the lord himself imed in a few asions that the young master could take his legacy and be the next prominent figure in the family. Does that mean he is now keener towards the younger master? It couldn¡¯t be! That young man only knew how to spend his rotten life wallowing in his gambling and prostitution! There was not once he caused problem without raising the name of the Luo family. Oh, all the nonsense he had done! The people hate him! Even the lord hates him to the bone! The lord couldn¡¯t have been this dim-witted, could he?

    The fiasco panicked everyone under the roof. There hadn¡¯t been good newsing from the authority and nobody wanted to know the details, for it would cost their head if they knew about it!

    His pondering was interrupted by the rm that came wailing.

    Luo Renhuo jumped up from his chair and rushed to the lobby, upholding his nature of responsibility, always being in the frontline, asplimented by his lord.

    The institute had descended into chaos. The researchers scurried around in fear.

    He scowled and shouted, ¡°What¡¯s with the panic! Everyone, get back into your positions! Mo Lianfu, what¡¯s going on?¡± His steadiness influenced the men and the situation became under control. His reputation among the men had pacified the institute!

    A slender man quickly reported, ¡°Manager, we have been attacked! Our processor was damaged and we have lost control! What should we do? We are doomed at this rate!¡±

    ¡°Lost control?¡± His head was bombarded by bewilderment for a while, with his eyes reflecting the horrified look of Mo Lianfu awaiting for furthermands.

    Luo Ren was finally conscious, surely he could not go wrong at this stage, if not, everything else would go wrong!

    They sprinted to the processor control room, where the usually empty room was crowded by people by then. None of the crowd were tranquil.

    An aged researcher waved at them.

    ¡°Elder Mo, how¡¯s the situation? Could we retrieve control?¡± Manager¡¯s tone was somber, but he tried maintaining respect towards Elder Mo,for he was Mo Lianfu¡¯s grandfather, who also happened to be the senior researcher in the institute. Even the lord would address him as Elder Mo.

    Elder Mo shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s really, really bad. The attacker might have been a Maverick, who snuck in stealthily into our institute. Ohh¡­ how could we have not notice! The shame!¡± Elder Mo felt sorry for his helplessness.

    ¡°Is there really no way to resolve this?¡± Manager Luo nervously asked.

    Elder Mo pointed his fingers towards ten men in helmets, ¡°Well we would have to depend on them. They are the experts among the Mavericks we could find, hopefully they could at least trace the attacker in the virtualwork.¡± He pondered, ¡°It would be best if you inform the lord right away and call for aid!¡±

    Manager Luo went to connect with themunicator on the spot, as the research institute held great significance, all the reporting goes to the master, directly!

    Connection failed. Connection failed. Connection failed. He tried connecting for sometime but all of them failed. The manager¡¯s face further drained. An intuition pulsed within him that something bad had happened. What if the lord was attacked too? His heart skipped a beat. This is a nned attack! Everything was well chained and well guarded! And they could only passively stay. Who in the world is this brilliant attacker?

    He whispered, ¡°Elder Mo, stay here and watch over everybody. I¡¯ll go get backup from the lord.¡± And he jumped right through the window.

    Wait! This is the 80th floor of the building! Manager!

    As he fell freely in the air, his right pointing finger and middle finger fondled the mech warping button and in an instant, a zing red humanoid mech appeared before him. He grabbed the right arm swiftly and slid into the cabin.

    All engines on! Full speed due northwest!

 Chapter 20 - Aftermath

    <h4>Chapter 20: Aftermath</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    When Manager Luo made his arrival at Luo¡¯s HQ, he finally realized how serious the situation had turned out.

    The Luos suffered immense loss this time! It is beyond calction! When he saw the lord, he couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. The sulky man in his elderly was the wisest leader of the family for the past 200 years. The confidence, grace and exerting pride were no longer seen by then. The lord before him was merely an elder in despair. There wasn¡¯t much for him to do anymore, thus the manager backed away.

    This time, the resultant attack caused an estimated loss that everyone in the house feared. A fatal blow in the record of the Luo¡¯s reign. If it wasn¡¯t for the young master who took over the ce straightaway after the raid, the chaos would not have ended just yet.

    The raid¡¯s source was inferred to havee from the virtual world as all units that made direct connection to the virtual world were involved in the attack. Moreover though, in this raid the attacker had also applied indirect attacks with external forces, meaning the inputs were too from thework. After some analysis made by Luo¡¯s own technicians, these attacks were believed to be done singlehandedly. That means, there could only be one man on the other side!

    If it¡¯s so, it would be terrorizing! One man? One man who could perform such detailed nning with suchplicated calction, instantaneously on all units? Does he have shadow partners or something? At this point, everyone showed disbelief.

    The attacker did not leave any form of trail, not even his input calctions. Statistics depicted that right at the first moment of the attack, there had already been 89 Mavericks and more than 200 technicians at an attempt to stop theing attack in the virtualwork. The figure showed a steep increase to 152 mavericks and about 400 technicians online. The manpower of the Luo¡¯s was so powerful, even the Ji family, the expert of the experts for the processor that would not be easy to take on, yet they failed to even identify the attacker. The attack could not be stopped. They could only watch everything that was happening before them.

    Who is this attacker? Why is he attacking the Luo? Revenge? Anger? Other kinds of motive? The questions puzzled the young master who had just taken over. Luo Heng was disturbed. If he could not find out who the attacker was, then he would have to bear the uing attacks unknowingly. This is really bad for the family! This would be equivalent to being choked by the attacker as all the business running under the institute had connections with the virtual world!

    People around spected that this could be done purposely by otherpeting families in Fal, as it seemed they could be the only suspects. But only Luo Heng was well aware that it could never be them. The 4 major families that held the veins of technological development in Fal, the Luo, the Yuan, the Gu and the Ji families. They all shared simr strengths. Even if the second strongest Ji families could not have wounded the Luo this hard. Plus, the connections between the families were more than justplications. There had been various asions where they had cross-family marriages, bncing out the mutuality among them carefully. He believed that such kind of attack would not benefit any of them in the long run and none of the family would be this short-sighted.

    Out of the blue, themunicator buzzed on the desk.

    He knotted his brows briefly. Haven¡¯t I told them that I do not want to be disturbed at the moment?

    He pressed the ept button, a partially translucent interface showed up before him. Oddly enough, there wasn¡¯t anything on the screen and a dubious voice came from the other side, ¡°Greetings. It was such a pity that I could not appear to celebrate this asion. Oh, I almost forgot! Congrattions on bing the sessor of the family!¡±

    You have finally showed up huh! Luo Heng almost could not hold his agitation, ¡°Who are you! And why are you attacking the Luo! What has the Luo family done to you?¡±

    The voice replied teasingly, ¡°Well for that, you have to ask your own brother! To avoid any unnecessary inconvenience, I decided to demonstrate a little bit of my capability, just enough to warn you all!¡±

    Jeb! Luo Heng roared in his heart, ¡°Very well then, how would you like to end this?¡± Luo Heng acknowledged the difference between them, thus he put them aside inferiorly.

    The person tittered in themunicator, ¡°I¡¯ve already said, this is merely a forewarning. If you all could leave me alone, perhaps I could save some more time and not waste it on things like this! So, my rmendation would be, you all should abort any kinds of actions against me. Of course, this is only my two-cents. If you have confidence in your men, you could just disregard it and let it slip by like a winter breeze. But, you better be prepared for my next attack!¡±

    What a tant threat! Dammit! The young master cursed in his mind, but there¡¯s nothing else better than this for things to end. The Luo currently needed time more than anything else, to rebuild forces. He weakly responded, ¡°Are you sincere in your words?¡±

    ¡°Certainly. Honesty is always my virtue!¡±

    ¡°Alright then! We have a deal!¡±

    A knock on the door resounded from the other side of the room,

    ¡°Hmm, looks like it is time for me to leave. Good bye!¡± The screen darkened as the call was hung up.

    ¡°Come in!¡±

    His assistance walked in and humbly reminded, ¡°Master, your break time is over, next on the schedule would be ¡­¡±

    ¡°Go get Jeb right now!¡±

    At the Fal Mech-Pilot Association (FMPA), the shortie was chatting with the tallie.

    The tallieughed, ¡°Did you check out that match with YC?¡±

    ¡°I did!¡± The shortie nodded.

    ¡°How was it?¡±

    ¡°He has very firm foundation in his skills. Not many men could be better in this regard!¡±

    The tallie was a bit surprised, ¡°Oh, that means you think that he is underperforming in everything else than the basic moves?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I do agree the fact that he still needs some tweaks in other aspects of piloting, but I must say, he sure had some shocking growth over time!¡±

    The tallie agreed, ¡°Right! His talent is beyond expertise! A bright future lies ahead of him!¡±

    ¡°Yeahhh!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your count on him?¡±

    Shortie was proud, ¡°In 3 years, he would still not even be my opponent!¡±

    The tallie giggled, ¡°What about 3 years after?¡±

    ¡°Well it would have to depend on his rate of improvement! But at this point, there¡¯s a high chance he could easily surpass me in 3 years¡­¡±

    The tallie lowered his voice, ¡°I guess they had started to notice him, haven¡¯t they?¡±

    ¡°Such talent, with such a grand debut he made in the battlefield, how he could expect they would not notice?¡±

    ¡°Do you think he would be chosen?¡±

    The shortie asserted, ¡°Of course he would!¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    The shortie was serious in his tone, ¡°That man was as if he was born for mech!¡±

    ¡°But¡­ the FMPA says they don¡¯t even have a profile for him!¡±

    ¡°Well then, just let them be bothered with that, we watch our match!¡±

    The tallie chuckled, ¡°Right!¡±

 Chapter 21 - Into the Woods

    <h4>Chapter 21: Into the Woods</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    As expected, nothing else mattered to Ye Chong - nothing but the opponent before him.

    The battlefield was set the woods; which was notmonly used since most mech pilots todaybat in space. Even within the atmosphere, battles usually took ce in the sky, which was why mech models that specialized in shooting became conventional.

    Shooting was always Ye Chong¡¯s Achilles¡¯ heel, since he had never so much as to wield even the most rudimentary model of ray guns. The gxy¡¯s government had strict policies on weapon disposal - this meant that Ye Chong had lived with only physical ammunitions, and that space pirates would not be able to resupply their ammunition from trashs.

    NR Training without physical feedback had its limits since mental and physical developments areplementary, and one cannot improve without the other. Ye Chong faced the exact same problem during his shooting practice, and even Mu Shang could not offer any further assistance.

    The thought of Mu Shang lifted his spirits, and Ye Chong smiled a little, wondering what the mech was up to these days.

    Ah, distraction amidst a battle was bad - Ye Chong quickly gathered his thoughts.

    The mech he was using now was a deep purple Dark Shadow; a high level assault type model. The body was thin and elongated that enabled high agility at a close range; it stood at eight and a half meters tall, shorter than the average height of ten meters. The mech was equipped remarkably - two durable maic daggers that looked as dark as night, its quality far better than that of the Raven¡¯s. Unlikeser sabers, they blend into darkness; a perpetual threat that remainedrgely hidden from sight. A thirty-centimeter long sickle adorned both its wrists respectively - these double-edged des were made of denselypressed metal alloys, capable of slicing through most mech armors. Ye Chong approved in particr the way the sickle was further coated with ck paint to avoid unwanted ring. The mech¡¯s calves were simrly armed. Other concealed weapons like retractable des from the tip of its feet could be found on numerous parts of the mech, and Ye Chong, who was always one for guiles and craftiness appreciated them a lot. This was far more eptable than his little trick of attaching the barbs on Winnie.

    If the mech was coated with ck paint all over, it would be perfect, thought Ye Chong.

    The Dark Shadow was an unorthodox choice. It had no long-ranged weapons, which meant the pilot must be skillful enough inbat at close range. Since long-ranged attacks were currently typical, this mech model was widely ignored. On the other hand, in order to improve flexibility, the mech¡¯s body armor was deliberately constructed thin which made it a vulnerable target. Moreover, while the Dark Shadow could manage impressively over a short period, its low energy storage meant that long distance travel was nearly impossible; essentially making it obsolete for space travel. These were the many reasons this particr model was left in the dust.

    Ye Chong was familiar with all the peculiarities of the Dark Shadow, so he opposed of the popr opinion. Since Dark Shadow was designed for assassination purposes, undoubtedly it was unsuited for one-on-one battles. One should not me the design of a mech when it performed poorly in something it was not intended for.

    His opponent¡¯s mech was a modified one - eight bazookas that gave the impression of a porcupine, a pair of 50k grade double barrel particle cannons, and another pair of 20k grade photon gun made up part of its arsenal. Compared to guns, they looked more like full-sized cannons! There were two more supersonic guns; their attacks could prate through armor and strike the pilot¡¯s body directly, causing nausea and dizziness. The smallest weapon holstered at the waist however, was what bothered Ye Chong the most - a Fallngser sniper rifle. Laser rifles were known to have impable aiming, and the Fallng was legendary - a fifteen-kilometer shot would have an error margin of half a millimeter, and itsser intensity could burn through the armor of all but a few of the best mechs. There was also a ten-mega pulse heat ray gun for wide range attacks, covering the mech''s blind spots. The mech looked odd; perhaps even ugly would better describe it, for it looked more like a moving fortress than a mech.

    Ye Chong thought it looked like a heavily armed castle in the air.

    Look at the side of that body - it could surely hold much more power than the Dark Shadow, therefore afford dragging the battle all day and all night. Ye Chong cursed inside - this was his first time facing such a crazy mech.

    Due to the varied geography and topology of the battleground, both participants of the battle would be sent to separate random locations within it.

    Time to enter the woods. Ye Chong thought coldly. One of the Dark Shadow''s coveted features was its capability to reverse locating system. Deep within thebyrinths of the woods, it would be difficult to catch on to the Dark Shadow.

    Ye Chong moved through the thicket cautiously, unaware that silence had spread throughout the audience.

    As Ye Chong began to gain poprity, more and more people came to view his battles. Today, the audience seats were fully upied, and multiple screens avable on the viewing podium caught Ye Chong''s movements from every possible angle.

    It was easy to understand the audiences¡¯ surprise. While the Dark Shadow was famed for its agility, Ye Chong still managed to make his way through the trees at a remarkably fast pace without slowing down; much like an unimpeded gust of wind. How was that possible? The spectators were shocked! Wild trunks and thick vines sprawled throughout the primeval forest; even a slow journey through the woods would have to be made with care.

    Ye Chong was one that possessed terrifying skills!

    However, these were merely survival skills for Ye Chong. The trash''s maze of waste materials was far worse to maneuver throughpared to the currentndscape; to hunt for the mutants that live amongst the trash meant that the hunter had to move faster and better than his prey, for the alternative menu of disgusting liquid food was appalling! Even when Ye Chong first began piloting Winnie, he did not have to worry about the matter anymore. Mu''s training further sharpened his skills, and Ye Chong could now find his way through challenging territory with ease.

    Out of the blue, a deafening crackle boomed from the southwest.

    Ye Chong hunched in anticipation like a panther, approaching the source of the sound silently. His sharp movements won another gasp of admiration from the audience.

    Ye Chong hid behind a particrly dense area of the tree canopy, carefully observing his opponent.

    The opponent mech had no intentions of battling with Ye Chong amongst the trees. Instead, it stayed in midair and cleared a wide perimeter around itself with its firepower. Once Ye Chong entered the clearing, there would be no ce to hide from the deadly threats of theser beams and cannon fire.

    Ye Chong was in deep trouble!

 Chapter 22 - A Chance Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 22: A Chance Reunion</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong was still flushed with indignation, the pain from being torn apart earlier still lingered within him.

    The opponent was unexpectedly cunning toy a trap amidst the trees. The sts used to clear a perimeter around it were merely a bait; the trees surrounding the clearing was littered with mines, forming a circr minefield, and Ye Chong triggered the mines when he approached the clearing. What¡¯s more, the opponent detected Ye Chong immediately when the mines were triggered, and so the chain reaction of the explosive minesbined with cannon fire from the opponent led to his instantaneous and thorough annihtion! A swift death!

    The spectators were wildly impressed with Invincible Firepower¡¯s strategies - the three cannon sts used to clear the perimeter not only managed to create a leveled clearing, but also avoid triggering the mines surrounding it thus, showing great expertise in firepower control. However, the most exciting of all was how the mech noticed YC almost immediately after he triggered the mines, but at that time, both were still separated by a few enormous trees, blocking one¡¯s view of the other!

    From then on, Invincible Firepower rose to fame!

    That particr battle also encouraged a wider range of battle strategies, and many mech essories that were previously left in the cold were receiving newfound attention!

    Of course, this was all irrelevant for Ye Chong. He had yet to figure out a way to beat Invincible Firepower, the greatest weakness of all short range mechs! Ye Chong grew frustrated as he continued to devise ways to defeat the mech.

    In a blink of an eye, his surroundings changed, and Ye Chong found himself transported elsewhere.

    Without a doubt, this must be Mu Shang¡¯s doing!

    Mu Shang spoke anxiously, ¡°Ye, look for the news with ID 020242985.¡± It did not sound like its usual calm self.

    Ye Chong looked around and realized that he was at the main area of the News Square, with a news screen disy before him. Ye Chong was perplexed. ¡°What is it, Mu?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll know when you see it!¡± Its somber voice zed with menace.

    Ye Chong keyed in the ID, and a news piece came to live - when he fathomed the headlines, Ye Chong paled immediately.

    Xiu had been at Sun Xuelin¡¯s house for days. Xiu¡¯s parents, who were Sun Xuelin¡¯s second aunt and partner, had been transferred to the Luo gxy. The trip there was long and dangerous so it was arranged for Xiu to stay with the Sun family, under the care of Sun Haining and his wife. For convenience, Xiu had transferred to Sun Xuelin¡¯s school. Sun Xuelin¡¯s parents were fond of their delicate and gentle niece, and saw to her every need. Moreover, Sun Xuelin and Xiu were close like sisters.

    During dinner, Sun Haining asked after his niece¡¯s studies. ¡°Xiu, will you and Xuelin be having an exam for your mech subject this year?¡±

    Xiu, who had just transferred was still unfamiliar with such things. She cocked her head slightly, and casted her puppy eyes at Sun Xuelin, asking for help.

    Su Xuelin nodded, ¡°Yeah! Everyone in school has to!¡±

    Xiu¡¯s lips thinned, unsatisfied with the school¡¯s policy, but she still managed to look adorable.

    Sun Xuelin¡¯s mother served more fare on Xiu¡¯s te, and spoke softly, ¡°Then you¡¯ll have to work hard! Xuelin can help with your studies. Oh, I remember you two were attending daily trainings at the NR Training Center. How did that go?¡±

    At the mention of the NR Training Center, Xiu slumped a little, and focused on her meal, unwilling to speak. Sun Xuelin was also looking a little awkward while stuffing herself mechanically.

    Her mother was surprised. ¡°Ah, Xuelin, I thought you never liked celery! Whatever led to a change of mind?¡±

    Sun Xuelin blushed intensely, but continued to fill her mouth indiscriminately as if nothing was wrong.

    Xiu, who was feeling a little down, cannot suppress a slight chuckle.

    Sun Haining appeared to be oblivious of the duo¡¯s emotional turn. ¡°Xuelin, that YC guy that you mentionedst time is amazing!¡±

    Sun Xuelin and Xiu both let out an unintentional gasp, and stared at Sun Haining.

    Her father reminded them, ¡°Did you forget about him? The guy whom you said was skilled at piloting the Raven and performed a Wavy Leap?¡±

    Sun Xuelin grew anxious. ¡°What about the YC guy?¡± Xiu stared at Sun Haining with her pearly eyes, interested in the conversation.

    Sun Haining was pleased to have the attention of the two young girls, but kept that to himself. Instead, he went off tangent. ¡°Oh dear me, my te is empty. Hmm, my favorite dish is the sweet and sour fish, it is simply wonderful! Hah!¡±

    Xiu was stunned speechless by the man¡¯s diversion.

    Sun Xuelin, however, was already familiar with her father¡¯s gimmicks; she immediately grabbed arge bowlful of sweet and sour fish and emptied it into her father¡¯s te in one smooth motion, obviously well-versed in her role as a daughter.

    Xiu observed her hosts bug-eyed as Sun Haining¡¯s wife gave a discreteugh, used to their antics.

    Sun Haining chewed on a piece of fish, and closed his eyes to savor the taste. ¡°Ah, this is good food¡­¡±

    He opened his eyes to the ring eyes of his daughter, empty bowl trembling in her right hand on the verge of eruption. Sun Haining sobered a little and decided to not push any further. ¡°Haven¡¯t you heard about the YC guy? He¡¯s going viral on the, his battle videos are the hottest things around, and even I have watched a few of them¡­ The man¡¯s got skills! Hmm¡­¡± he continued.

    *Clunk* Sun Hainingy spread-eagled on the floor with a huge bowl covered on his face, and his next words muffled by the bowl.

    Sun Xuelin made a face and pulled Xiu along to her room. Herughs ringing softly like wind chimes.

    Sun Xuelin¡¯s mother called from behind her, ¡°Finish your meal first!¡±

    Sun Xuelin yelled back, ¡°We¡¯re finished!¡±

    Her mother chided fondly, ¡°What a difficult child!¡±

    ¡°Dear, could you help me take this bowl off of my face¡­ That youngdy sure put her strength into it!¡±

    ¡°Well you did tease her first, so you deserved it!¡±

    ¡°Oh heavens, my hair¡­ Oh¡­¡± he eximed as his wife chuckled at his current state.

    It turned out that he was always in the battle grounds! The two girls exchanged a smile, and logged on to the virtual world hurriedly.

    Sun Xuelin and Xiu watched YC¡¯s battle videos in fascination - who would have thought he had switched mechs, and seemed to have behaved more maturely. The uninitiated Xiu might thought YC looked cooler in his recent battles, but Xuelin understood that the guy had improved tremendously, anduded the moments where his wisdom brought him sess in battles.

    ¡°Xiu, let¡¯s go watch him battle tomorrow!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Xiu nodded in agreement!

    What they did not know was, at that moment, light-years away, Ye Chong was facing the greatest crisis he had ever encountered!

 Chapter 23 - Iron Will

    <h4>Chapter 23: Iron Will</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°On February 8th, that is, next Thursday, there will be a massive ster re in the trash cluster. Thes that will have a greater impact would be trashs 6, 9 and 13. Public inteary travels will remain unaffected. However, to avoid unnecessary damages, the Environment Department will halt all trash disposals scheduled for these three trashs. The government appeals to the public to reduce waste disposal during these times to cooperate with the Environment Department¡¯s efforts.¡±

    Ster re?! Ye Chong felt a little unsteady upon hearing the news.

    Heughed harshly. After so many years of enduring his life on that Godforsaken, it seemed that he was not destined to leave it, ever.

    A ster re was destructive to all forms of life. It was like ab that groomed the extents of its reach, and eliminating all life in its path.

    Ye Chong climbed out of Mu¡¯s cabin being scared out of his wits.

    Upon his return, Mu gasped, ¡°This is bad. The pulse signals are cut off!¡±

    Ye Chong shrugged at Mu¡¯s worry as he was too distracted.

    His and Mu¡¯s connection with the outside world was severed. Ye Chong slumpedzily on his chair feeling unreasonably at peace. Ye Chong had made his peace with death after surviving on this trash for years while escaping countless of demise along the way. Although, he felt a little helpless for he had struggled relentlessly to survive and believed that he could ovee his destiny, but it seemed that fate was ignorant of his efforts. Now, he realized that he was nothing but a speck of dust amongst the stars, and could not help but feel a little bitter.

    Mu did not speak, but its electronic blinking eyes suggested that its photon processor was racing for a solution.

    The duo kept their silence in the darkness, interrupted only by the haunting shes of Mu Shang¡¯s bionic eyes.

    The next morning, Mu woke Ye Chong up.

    The first thought that came to Ye Chong¡¯s mind was to begin his physical training, but that was immediately reced by the realization that his life was about to end in a few days. No human body could withstand a ster re; not even with Ye Chong¡¯s intensive training, and so he dismissed his ns.

    Mu on the other hand was focused on something else. ¡°Ye, there¡¯s something I have to tell you!¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± The mech looked solemn, and Ye Chong thought it appeared funny. Fortunately, Mu will not die with him because ster res were harmless against non-organic matter. Ye Chong took sce in that, but Mu will have to face the loneliness that he himself had gone through. Now, that was something Ye Chong would like to find out - what would Mu be like without anyone else to talk to!

    ¡°Ye, based on my calctions, we still have a chance of survival!¡± Mu eximed in all seriousness.

    ¡°Chance? What chance? What do you have in mind?¡± Ye Chong asked skeptically.

    Mu, ¡°We leave this!¡±

    Ye Chong immediately put a hand on Mu¡¯s forehead to examine its temperature. ¡°Mu, did you get short-circuited from all the tension? Leave this? How can we do that without a space ship? If it was possible, I would not have continued to stay in this awful ce.¡±

    Mu was unperturbed. ¡°Based on my calctions, while I have no experience in space travel, the attempt is still theoretically possible!¡±

    ¡°Theoretically? What do you mean?¡±

    Mu exined, ¡°I did a few simtions, and the probability of sess is nonzero!¡±

    Ye Chong fixed his eyes on the mech. ¡°How much is that?¡±

    Mu replied calmly, ¡°About 20 to 47 percent!¡±

    Ye Chong stroked his chin, evaluating the odds. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s a little low¡­¡±

    ¡°And your decision is?¡±

    Ye Chong gave a strong and decisive wave of his arm while dering firmly, ¡°We¡¯ll do it! Of course we will, it¡¯s better than sitting around doing nothing!¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± Mu Shang calmly responded.

    Ye Chong looked at the mech intensely. ¡°You don¡¯t have to do this. The ster re will not harm you. You don¡¯t have to take the risks for me.¡±

    Mu Shang opposed coldly, ¡°Based on value theory, this decision would yield the maximum value.¡±

    Ye Chong smirked, and shrugged. ¡°Sure, whatever you say. Now, what do we have to do?¡±

    ¡°Repair the pilot¡¯s cabin, and replenish our energy supply. I will require a great amount of energy!¡±

    The pair made haste to gather all the energy cells, and connected them to the sr panels.

    Ye Chong sat in the pilot¡¯s cabin and inspected the palm-sized hole on the left wall. By the seared edges of the hole, it must have been the result of aser weapon. Ye Chong sighed dishearteningly, ¡°This will not be easy, and we don¡¯t have the required materials or the tools!¡±

    ¡°If you can¡¯t fix it, the chances of your survival in the cabin are zero!¡± Mu said sternly.

    Ye Chong was despondent, but gritted his teeth and continued to resolve the problem. Materials, materials¡­ Ye Chong mumbled quietly. The metals in the trash were not fit for interster travel, so what now?

    What he needed was a strong and resilient material with good impact endurance; preferably t pieces since he did not have the tools to shape the raw material.

    Unexpectedly, Ye Chong finally pieced the puzzles together - he knew exactly where to get what he wanted!

    Mu flew past mountains and mountains of trash with Ye Chong sitting in its cabin, and enjoying the thrill of the rapid flight. But the hole in the cabin whizzed from the winds, dampening his mood.

    ¡°Are you sure they are useful?¡± Mu Shang asked, evidently doubtful.

    Ye Chong replied unconvincingly, ¡°It should be¡­ I remembered even Winnie could not pierce through them.¡±

    Ye Chong was referring to the scales of the iron lizard. The creature sat firmly on top of the trash¡¯s food chain. It was vicious, and boasted impossible strength, but the most troublesome feature of all was the defensive system of scales covering its body - scales that were so strong, they defy metallic des and bullets.

    Ye Chong had found an iron lizard¡¯s nest by ident once, but dared not have purposes to fight the beast. He was certain that Winnie would not be able to withstand a blow from the reptile¡¯s humongous tail. He had also witnessed the lizard¡¯s sh with a group of crimson newts which ended in minutes. The lizard had plunged its way mightily through the newts, unhindered by the greater number of its enemies, and that left a deep impression in Ye Chong. The sharp ws of the crimson newts would normally slice through metal, but they left no marks on the scales of the great lizard. That too was something that Ye Chong remembered, and was now convinced they were exactly what he needed.

    They were closing in on the lizard¡¯s nest, and Ye Chong signaled Mu Shang to slow down.

    The seven-meter long titanium pole was sharpened to a point, gleaming coldly.

    As expected, the iron lizard was in there, delightfully savoring the meat of a crimson newt. Newt meat was good fare, and was the lizard¡¯s favorite food as well. Ye Chong knew how delicious the crimson newts can be too, but those creatures hide well, and were not easy prey; only the iron lizard could put their ws to the challenge and im them as food.

    As Mu Shang flew calmly towards the lizard, Ye Chong bubbled in excitement - this was going to be a duel between the strongest of Trash 6, how could he not?

 Chapter 24 - Lizard Slayer

    <h4>Chapter 24: Lizard yer</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Mu stepped forward elegantly, as if strolling leisurely through a garden, giving no signs of what he was about to do. One of his arms wielded a seven-meter long titanium pole, pointed at an angle towards the feasting iron lizard.

    The lizard¡¯s brown body was covered with a thickyer of powdery blue scales. It rose, as if aware of somebody approaching with an intention to kill, and its blood red eyes locked onto Mu Shang. Ye Chong, despite sitting inside Mu Shang¡¯s cabin, felt a cold shudder.

    The lizard looked fearsome enough lying around its meal; now that it raised its head, it looked like an armor-d hill, casting arge shadow on the ground.

    Mu Shang kept his thoughts to himself, silently observing the beast from where it stood, as though he was God looking down arrogantly from high above, and the lizard was but an insignificant ant.

    The lizard behaved cautiously, as though sensing the dangers ahead. It scratched the earth with its forelegs repeatedly and growled.

    Ye Chong was viewing the exchange from an entirely different perspective. With his helmet on, he could see his surroundings from various angles thanks to Mu Shang¡¯s numerously concealed cameras. A seamless integration with the photon processor meant that Ye Chong felt as though he was not in the cabin, but right in front of the lizard itself.

    Ye Chong gaped, for this¡­ This was too amazing! Although Ye Chong had gone through NR Training and piloted a few mechs, not one of them couldpare to Mu Shang - all the other mechs could only show the external view from multiple disy screens.

    For the very first time, Ye Chong thought of Mu Shang¡¯s origins as shrouded in mystery.

    Before he could reflect any further, his view abruptly changed, and a rotating hologram of the iron lizard appeared before him, until a beep was sounded. The hologram was oveid with awork of tiny squares and a square below the lizard¡¯s chin turned red.

    Ye Chong heard an unfamiliar electrically synthesized voice dere, ¡°Scanningpleted, target confirmed!¡±

    Mu leapt from a tall mountain of trash, silent like a bat. If the full moon was behind the mech, one might mistake it as a Prince from the orbiting natural satellite in all its elegance and reserve, fatally alluring.

    Can a mech have human qualities? Ye Chong could not believe his eyes, but the events were unfolding right before him, and the truth was undeniable.

    Suddenly, his vision shifted, and Ye Chong found himself staring right into the lizard¡¯s eyes. Ye Chong felt his heart race - at this distance, he could even make out the peculiar patterns on the lizard¡¯s scales.

    If anyone were there to witness what had happened, they would have described it as an inexplicable event - Mu Shang was in mid-air as he suddenly vanished, and appeared just as unexpectedly to the side of the lizard¡¯s head. It was as if the mech broke the rules of space and time, appearing and disappearing at will.

    That was why Ye Chong suddenly found the lizard right before him.

    The lizard was also surprised; itsrge head raised, and its hind legs stepped back.

    Right when the lizard raised its head, there was a sh of silver - the titanium pole¡¯s sharp end drew a silver arc in the air, reflecting light off its tip. Mu had swung the pole fast and steady, and the wind shrieked as though the weapon had damaged the fabric of space itself.

    SHIICK! The pole prated deep into the lizard¡¯s exposed throat. The iron lizard¡¯s eyes widened, its maroon eyes fixed on Mu. The mech did not return the gesture, but retreated to about twenty meters away from the lizard and observed his work.

    The lizard seemed toe a realization of what had happened. It whined piercingly in vain, its voice echoing through mountains of trash, until it fell silent. The lizard¡¯s huge eyes were devoid of life, as the creature was finally dead. Saliva mixed with blood drooled from the edges of its mouth, trickling out from the inch-wide gaps between its teeth onto the ground.

    This was the first time Ye Chong witnessed Mu¡¯s true strength! And it was strong as hell!

    Ye Chong could not forget that fatal blow from the titanium pole - that scene with the silver arc coupled with the whiz from the weapon¡¯s swing through the air kept ying in his head over and over again.

    He did not really hear Mu asking him to start peeling the scales, as he was still very much distracted and was in a daze.

    It took him awhile to shake off the euphoria and began removing the lizard¡¯s scales.

    Ye Chong spoke as he worked, ¡°Mu, that stab of yours was perfect! Absolutely perfect!¡±

    Mu was unmoved. ¡°Perfect? Far from it! That stab wascking something that is most important!¡±

    Ye Chong was baffled, as his hands stopped working. ¡°What¡¯s this most important thing?¡±

    Mu stopped working too, and patiently exined, ¡°It¡¯s the spirit! Although that stab of mine was perfect in terms of power, angle and opportunity, it stillcked spirit, or rather, itcked a soul! While I do not know who said this, but it was stored in my memory chip. I believe there must be something right about this statement. However, I had been unable to grasp what it is. My skills have already utilized the potential of today¡¯s photon processors to its maximum, but in end, I am not human! This soul thing seemed to be something unique to humans!¡±

    ¡°Spirit¡­¡± Ye Chong murmured, as he fell into deep thought. All this while, he had thought himself to be an able mech pilot, and his battles seemed to prove the point. But watching Mu¡¯s attack earlier made him realize that he still had much to catch up with - as he was, he could not possibly evade that stabbing attack. However, Ye Chong kept himself optimistic. Being discouraged and feeling inferior would not help him - Ye Chong believed that, with hard work, he could achieve and even surpass Mu¡¯s abilities!

    Mu lifted a piece of lizard scale and bended it here and there. ¡°Not bad! Its strength is at 8.12, and its resilience is between 7.0 and 7.2. Such solid material coupled with high resilience is sure a rare find!¡±

    The scale was ced on the ground, and Mu directed his right arm at it. A silver glow zoomed towards the scale, and Ye Chong heard a slight thump, as dust around the scale was sent flying in waves away from the center, where the scaley.

    Mu picked up the scale - besides a little mark at its center, the scale wasrgely untouched. Mu nodded approvingly. ¡°This is good material. Ye, let us not waste any of it!¡±

    Ye Chong agreed. ¡°Of course, we might note across something as good as this again!¡± There were cracks spreading outwards like spiderwebs where the scaleid, and Ye Chong shuddered internally.

    The pair removed all the scales from the lizard¡¯s body. Ye Chong bet that the creature had never been so naked before! He had also collected bottles of the iron lizard¡¯s blood. Of course, he was also curious as to how the meat tasted like, and so Ye Chong severed off its front limb and brought it home, reluctantly leaving the rest of the lizard¡¯s huge carcass behind. Tsk tsk, too bad I need to get out of this ce quick, or your meat would havested me a good long time!

 Chapter 25 - Into Darkness

    <h4>Chapter 25: Into Darkness</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± Mu Shang skeptically asked.

    Ye Chong shrugged helplessly and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, this stuff was always taken care of by my Papa, and I¡¯ve only tried it a few times. Plus, we used giantndworms¡¯ blood back then, how can we get those now when we¡¯re running out of time? I just thought it might be worth trying to use the lizard¡¯s blood! It will be best if it works out, else we¡¯ll have to start digging for those worms!¡±

    Ye Chong poured the iron lizard¡¯s blood into a container, added a few nameless ingredients, and heated the container with a stove ced underneath. A momentter, the liquid mixture started to bubble, and Ye Chong continuously stirred it with a stick. The liquid gradually turned red, then blue; the bluish glow on Ye Chong¡¯s face made him look like an evil witch concocting a cursed potion. Even the ever daring Mu shed his bionic eyes in rm.

    They had obtained the iron lizard¡¯s scales, and those were indeed good for repairing the cabin, but soldering the scales with the metallic hull of the mech was a big problem! There were no tools at hand, and while one could say that one cannot make bricks without y, having only y without any appropriate tools did not mean bricks woulde easy.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong was bright, and came up with an alternative way! Back when he tried to attach the barbs on Winnie¡¯s knees, Papa had a few ideas and, after a few trials and errors, invented an odd form to produce a strong binding agent. The form was effective - or at least, Winnie¡¯s barbs had survived dozens of impacts without it falling off - and that was why Ye Chong was confident with the binding agent.

    However, recingndworm¡¯s blood with the iron lizard¡¯s might affect the results, and he was a little anxious about it.

    Ye Chong carefully stirred the liquid in the container, and stopped when the liquid began to radiate a faint fragrant smell. As Ye Chong inhaled the alluring smell, he suddenly had a thought that, perhaps, this liquid would taste amazing¡­ And just as quickly, he banished that devilish thought. Impulse is the devil, impulse is the devil¡­ Ye Chong repeated the mantra in his mind, but when his vision passed by the stirring stick¡¯s end dipped in blue, Ye Chong could not help but swallow a hard gulp.

    He took out two pieces of metal sheets, painted ayer of the binding agent on them, and immediately stuck them together and dropped them into the water tank beside him. The blue liquid squeezed out between the boards when it met with water and turned colourless in the blink of an eye.

    Ye Chong scooped up the two metallic sheets and wiped them dry. He then passed them to Mu Shang.

    ¡°It¡¯s done?¡± Mu Shang asked.

    Ye Chong replied carelessly, ¡°I don¡¯t know, that¡¯s why I need you to test it!¡±

    Mu took the boards and tested them a little. ¡°They seem alright, but what we want is to bind biological and metallic materials together!¡±

    Ye Chong smiled at that. ¡°I¡¯ve already thought of that!¡± He procured a tiny piece of iron lizard scale.

    The experiment was a sess, or at least, they were sessful under these conditions!

    Ye Chong then took thergest scale he could find, brushed on a thickyer of blue liquid, and pped it over therge hole in the cabin. The hole was sealed firmly, but Ye Chong was not satisfied yet, and added a few more scales on top.

    Mu Shang did not mince its words. ¡°Your handiwork is absolutely ugly!¡±

    Ye Chong observed the crude patching of the cabin¡¯s walls, and dered, ¡°That may be, and I might not know much about it, but this could be an artwork of enormous depth! Do I need to patch anotheryer from the outside?¡±

    Mu Shang replied, ¡°That is not necessary. We do not have a venttion system. If we patch from both sides, the air pressure inside would be fatal when we make a space jump!¡±

    Ye Chong came to realize the implications. ¡°Oh, understood! But what should we do with the leftover scales?¡± He pointed at the heap of iron lizard¡¯s scales on the floor. They had removed every single piece of scale from the lizard, but who would have thought they only needed a few? There were still many left, and it would be a waste to leave the scales behind, but how could they bring them all along?

    Mu proimed, ¡°There¡¯s still space in my alternate dimension, let¡¯s keep them there!¡±

    Ye Chong, an athletic looking young man, appeared skinny before the huge Mu Shang. The pair sat side by side on the peak of a trash mountain closest to Ye Chong¡¯s home. Behind them was the towering structure of the Pulse Signal Ry Station. It was evening, and the orange-yellow radiance from the nearest star lent vitality and warmth to the deste.

    The duo sat quietly, just like that, unwilling to spoil the rare moment of peace and quiet!

    Thest of the star¡¯s shining rays vanished beyond the horizon. Mu spoke up, ¡°The energy cells are charged! It¡¯s time for us to move!¡±

    Ye Chong nodded. Although the most important step was finished, both of them still had plenty to do.

    Ye Chong sat in the pilot¡¯s cabin. The initially spacious cabin was packed with all kinds of energy cells, till Ye Chong could not even move in his seat. With his helmet on, the outside view came clearly to his mind.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong was hit with a pang of dismay - it was here where he and Papa had lived for more than a decade; he knew every nook and cranny of this ce, and every trash mountain held traces of his many adventures.

    Ye Chong let out a long, heavy breath.

    No matter where he went, it was all for survival!

    Ye Chong gave a long look at the ce where he grew up in, and spoke hoarsely, ¡°Mu, let¡¯s go!¡±

    Mu Shang slowly rose to a low altitude, and abruptly elerated vertically towards the sky.

    Ye Chong watched as the Pulse Signal Ry Station beneath him grew smaller and smaller, until it became unrecognizable. Ye Chong was mesmerised!

    Mu was fast. A thinyer of surging sma enclosed the entire surface of the mech, and asionally sparked due to friction with the air at high velocities. With Mu¡¯s speed, they would soon escape the gravitational pull of the trash and enter space!

    Ye Chong took in the sight of the deep, dark space against the brilliant colours of the neb - with silky faded reds and swirling smokes of blue, the neb swam amongst the stars speckled across the infinite darkness of space. The sight was truly intoxicating!

    Although this was his first time in space, Ye Chong was not interested in the view before him.

    Mu spoke up, ¡°Ye, active the pilot shield system, it¡¯s the green button on the third row from below your right armrest!¡±

    Ye Chong acknowledged with an ¡°Alright,¡± and obeyed. A transparent screen came up from his seat and wrapped around him. Ye Chong touched the screen curiously, wrapped in an oval egg-like protective shield. The screen was soft and stic, like some kind of rubber. This was his first time touching something like this.

    Mu¡¯s voice rang, ¡°Ye, no sudden movements now, we¡¯re going to elerate!¡±

    Ye Chong, ¡°elerate?¡±

    Mu Shang¡¯s reply was cid. ¡°Yes, a space jump is only possible beyond a certain speed threshold. I only have a 41% chance of passing that threshold, and that was only in theory!¡±

    Ye Chong was indifferent. ¡°I¡¯ll follow your lead, it¡¯s not like I have a choice right?¡±

    Mu Shang¡¯s engines roared to life, and they flew into the infinite darkness ahead!

    What future awaited them ahead?

 Chapter 26 - Unknown

    <h4>Chapter 26: Unknown</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Mu¡­ Mu¡­ Are you alright? Respond to me! Mu¡­¡± The interior of the cabin had turned into a vacuum as Ye Chong¡¯s sinister foreboding grew stronger and stronger. It was pitch-ck in the helmet and he could not see a thing! He tried calling Mu in his mind desperately, but there was no response from Mu!

    Ye Chong panicked in cold sweat. He had always been connected to Mu via brainwaves so how was it even possible to lose contact? Did anything bad happen to Mu?

    Ye Chong hurriedly removed the helmet on his head. A nce through the transparent protective shield, he was astonished by the sight before him.

    The cabin was messy and the batteries were floating randomly in the air. The iron lizard on the indentation was gone as well while the former hole with size of a palm had berge enough to fit a man by then. Every ounce of air in the cabin had leaked out while the rolling peels of walls of the interior were a horror. The cabin was dead silent with the lights blinking weakly.

    What¡­ What actually happened?

    Ye Chong tried inhibiting the fear in him. Despite that, he could not help but shriek at the sight of Mu, ¡°Mu¡­Mu¡­ What happened to you? Come on! Reply me! Stop messing with me! Come¡­ Come out al¡­already¡­ I know you would be fine¡­ you would surely be okay¡­ You are so strong¡­ who could defeat you¡­ Mu¡­ please¡­ stop hiding¡­ power on¡­ power on¡­¡± Ye Chong let out hysteric screams.

    His coarse voice bounced violently in the protective field yet there was no response; Ye Chong yelped in fatigue was as if the aged wolf howling in desperation.

    He finally exhausted his stamina and slowly lost his consciousness, falling asleep in the shield.

    BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. A ring rm surprised Ye Chong from his sleep as he jumped from hisying posture seeing a peculiar button beneath his seat shing frantically.

    With a closer look, it struck Ye Chong like lightning. He cursed at the misfortunes that tended toe all at once; catastrophes nevere alone. The air supply in the shield is reaching its limit, and by then, the system would open up the shield automatically to prevent pilots from being suffocated to death.

    Beep¡­ The rm stopped abruptly and the shield unlocked immediately. Ye Chong, unguarded, was blown up by the airflow from all sides. Without anything to hold on to, he was thrown brutally to the wall on his back. He looked around quickly and reacted quickly; he grabbed a hook on the wall of the cabin and stabilized his position. The sequence of the actions caused major difort in Ye Chong who was holding his breath the whole time who felt as if his lungs were burnt. He swallowed his saliva a few times while his left hand searched at his waist as he pulled a soft tube with a nozzle which he instantly stuffed into his mouth. Finally regaining his breath, Ye Chong¡¯s pale face finally had a tinge of color.

    This precious emergency kit was kept carefully. Never knew it would be needed today! This is an antique kit sculptured gorgeously which attracted Ye Chong to take it home back then; he thought it would be a pretty good decoration, but he never expected his papa to identify its actual purpose right away. It was formerly an emergency supply kit produced by the famous Undine Corp 50 years ago. Nheless, Ye Chong did not recognize such kit as he tossed it right to his papa. Unexpectedly, there was once papa became extremely ill and Trash-12 never had any form of medication. If you were sick, you had to bear with it. Endure sickness to survive or not deathes knocking at your door. Beyond Ye Chong¡¯s expectation, this very tiny kit eased papa¡¯s illness and he lived through it! That was when Ye Chong finally learned the value of his little kit.

    Papa stated that this kit contains pure oxygen and is enough to supply an adult for 20 hours!

    Ye Chong treasured this tiny case ever since which he never knew could save him at a time like this!

    Ye Chong couldn¡¯t be bothered of how clumsily he acted. This emergency called for the right solution in split seconds! The kit could only supply two hours of oxygen since papa had already used it once; if carefully used, it couldst 3 hours at most by estimation.

    In other words, if he failed to find a solution to remedy the issue within 3 hours, then death by suffocation awaits!

    He nced at his surrounding and captured the entire situation in the cabin. Standing between life and death, Ye Chong was actually much calmer than he should be. Mu could be in danger and he could barely do a thing to help out. The in-built venttion system has been damaged and the oxygen supply had fully depleted by leakage.

    Am I really going to die here today? Heughed bitterly.

    Such a huge indentation, was it caused by the crash?

    Ye Chong stepped gently on the wall and propelled to the toolkit at the corner sluggishly. It felt awkward to be in zero-gravity. Ye Chong sensed uneasiness for he couldn¡¯t control his body strength freely like he was on thend which was a demanding requirement.

    Ye Chong brushed off the thoughts because it was pointless.

    He opened up the toolkit and found a durable fabric rope. He tied one end at the bottom of the driving seat and the other around himself. Due to theck of gravity in space, if you were to float in the air without anything to hold onto, you should be expecting death anytime soon!

    The idea of being dead in Mu¡¯s embrace doesn¡¯t seem too bad. Ye Chong forced a smile, trying to be optimistic in order to boost his will to survive so, he would be likelier to survive. Ye Chong continued to encourage himself.

    Ye Chong thought of dispersing the fear towards the unknown deep in him; maybe this was the strong need of survivaling from inside of him.

    He hovered over the indentation with caution.

    The outside was dark like an abyss in the jaw of a gigantic monster; bottomless enough to engulf everything.

    Ye Chong switched on the light tied to his wrist and took a deep breath from the oxygen supply of the kit and mustered his courage as he pressed at the edge of the crater and propelled out of the cabin.

    The tightened nerves caused the muscles on Ye Chong¡¯s face to lose senses. It was this slight paralysis which Ye Chong was certain that this moment was the only time he could be this nervous his whole life.

    What awaited him on the outside? Meteors? Mutated life forms or some other strange apparitions? To human beings, the unknown instilled the most fear.

    The powerful lighting from his wrist shone everything around him!

    He flinched at the sight before him and was at loss for words!

    He gathered his thoughts and started to ponder on chain of events that led to this damage. A guess would be that Mu, at his intense velocity somehow crashed into a spaceship at its vertical orbit which it didn¡¯t dodge for some reason. In the end, Mu viciously thrust into the abdomen of the ship. The heavy crash was probably the cause of Mu¡¯s injury. Ye Chong spected.

    Half of Mu¡¯s body was still embedded inside the body of this spacecraft.

    Exiting from Mu¡¯s cabin led him to a long and narrow corridor with debris floating in the air. Horrible wreckage was seen around the corridor. There were signs of scorches too. It seemed like there was a major explosion!

    The lighting system of the spaceship appeared to have beenpletely obliterated. The darkness of the corridor sent chills to his spine. It exudes undefined creepiness. Ye Chong was aware of the situation but remained calm. He was encouraged at the thought of his chance for survival!

    He scanned all corners of the corridor aided by the light on his arm as he cautiously drifted to the deepest side of the path.

 Chapter 27 - Unknown II

    <h4>Chapter 27: Unknown II</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong tightened the rope around him which only had a diameter of five millimeters; though it could endure a pulling force about a few ten tons. Ye Chong who had nothing to grab on could merely tiptoed on the walls and zigzagged his way forward. Even though heid the tip of his foot on the wall, it was inaudible like a roon rummaging for food in the night with amazing dexterity.

    At least the safety gate at the end of the corridor was wide open which actually saved Ye Chong some hassle.

    There was a flight of stairs through the door. Ye Chong who possessed zero knowledge about spaceship designs had not the slightest idea of where he was and what danger that lurked in the location could do to him. He grew more careful as he held the handle of the stairs and walked down.

    From nowhere, nking sounds of metals can be heard a distance away. His heart froze and quickly switched off the light on his arm. Ye Chong had a habit of immediate response to avoid getting caught! Usually, individuals with dyed reaction faced the quickest death. His eyes were half opened as they tried to get used to the darkness. He stuck his ears onto the metallic walls and attempted to discern even the tiniest bit of noise.

    Steps. Right, it¡¯s the sound of steps! Ye Chong was daringly sure of his guess! He estimated the direction of the source and lowered his body as he hovered downwards.

    Searching in still darkness was definitely a trial to Ye Chong¡¯s senses!

    It wasplete darkness without even a flicker of light. While he knew nothing of the ce, finding the unknown that was lurking in the dark was too much of a gamble.

    Ye Chong wandered around and hoped he would note face to face with the entity as he had lost a sense of direction. After leaving the staircases, he found out how awkward his situation was right away. He did not dare to switch the light back on, and in that moment he could only make it through by senses; theplexity in theyout of the ce was beyond his prediction.

    He was extremely d that the ropes were still tied to him, and could not imagine how he would be able to get back into his cabin without it.

    Suddenly, the sound grew louder as it gradually approached him. Ye Chong¡¯s breath stifled in fear, but continued to eavesdrop as he desired more information of the situation. A weird coincidence was every time when his ear touched the floor, all noises would disappear without warning; as if the hidden sounds he heard were his delusions.

    A denseyer of goose bumps formed on him skin, and he couldn¡¯t help but shudder at the thought. Staying still to fight the unknown now would the best choice! Heforted himself.

    He stayed still and anticipated for quite some time yet, nothing strange happened. Was it really because of his nerves that caused the delusion? He thought about the measly amount of time remained for the kit¡¯s oxygen supply with every second became extremely valuable. Ye Chong shook off his worry and believed he should discover the location of rescuing facilities as soon as possible where those seconds spent on his reaction time would determine his life or death!

    He clenched his teeth in desperation of getting to the rescue supply, but he needed to sneak his way to it. He was afraid that even if there was another existence on this abandoned ship that happened to be an enemy, he would have been suffocated to death before the enemy couldy a finger on him!

    He made up his mind and decided to persist on his journey to survive!

    Who cares! I might be a walking target in the enemies¡¯ eyes, but I want my life now more than anything else!

    He was going to switch his light back on but felt a yank!

    Out of the blue, Ye Chong felt a strong pull from the bottom as if someone was dragging him down! He tensed and drew his dagger without much hesitation while swiping it at his right. As dark as it might be, he could clearly discern a shing cold light.

    He thought that his swift move would havended, and yet he missed!

    Ye Chong couldn¡¯t help but flinched, and in a brief moment, a loud thud can be heard as his body was smashed to the ground; fortunately his body was built, but still suffered dizziness from the collision.

    Almost instantaneously, a white light blinded him, and he tumbled to the side in great shock. He hastily hid himself behind the huge cab floating behind him.

    Ye Chong was in a pitiful situation with a series of unfortunate events. He never thought this habitual reaction of protecting himself would actually pay off.

    Before he could wallow in self-pity, smash! A metal cab that weighed about 300 pounds came crashing down on Ye Chong. He took a blow that was a powerful as a mech¡¯s attack when he was temporarily blinded by the ring light emitting from utmost darkness, and before he regained his vision to respond.

    The giant cab fell from a three meter height right onto his body. His throat was locked with sweetness as he choked out a stream of blood that escaped from his mouth and lost consciousness afterwards.

    All the lights flickered on and the debris that was initially floating in space settled on the ground one after another. As the gravity restored, the room felt more refreshed. The entrance at the stairs was shut and oxygen started filling the ship through the ceiling.

    Of course Ye Chong had no idea what was going on. He was still t on the ground, pinned under the cab with only his limbs sprawled out.

    The door of the room was wrenched open as a dashing man entered with another fully armored man.

    The dashing young man reported as if seeingnd on the sea, ¡°Number 2, there¡¯s one more person here!¡±

    The armored man replied, ¡°Young master, we would take a look, but chances are slim for his survival.¡±

    The young man assessed Ye Chong¡¯s state and expressed sympathy, ¡°This is really bad. He got smashed pretty severely.¡±

    Number 2 came over to lift the heavy cab on its sides easily and tossed it to the other side. There wasn¡¯t much effort needed in removing the cab as if it was like a blob of foam.

    He then flipped Ye Chong over and examined him thoroughly, astounded, ¡°This man is still alive!¡±

    The young man couldn¡¯t believe what he heard, ¡°Impossible! Is this thing still a man?¡±

    Number 2 too expressed disbelief, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like a man of steel to me!¡± Ye Chong was a little more slender in contrast, contrary to his immense strength and deceitful appearance. Even Mu was surprised seeing how there was no significant growth in his weight while his strength boosted.

    Number 2 furrowed his brows, ¡°He looks foreign to me. Why have I not met this man before?¡±

    ¡°Right! I somehow have not seen him before too!¡± The young man agreed.

    Number 2 glimpsed at Ye Chong and concluded, ¡°The material and design of his clothing are unique¡­ and rare too¡­ We don¡¯t have such clothing in the spacecraft!¡±

    The young man was bewildered, ¡°So he¡¯s not from our ship? Then how did he get up here?¡±

    It was still a mystery to Number 2 as he couldn¡¯t figure out much of an exnation. He scrutinized further and when he spotted the dagger in Ye Chong¡¯s hand, his pupil shrunk in fear. Number 2 recognized the dagger from experience and knew it was utterly meant forbative uses. The chills he got from seeing the dagger was telling him that it had not only robbed a life of one but many.

    He snatched the dagger away fast with both of his hands. The young master ran into an unknown stranger who was actually holding a weapon of murder. Number 2 strictly opposed of saving Ye Chong¡¯s life even if he was deeply wounded! Caution was what he should possess; protecting the young master was what he should undertake!

    Coincidentally, Ye Chong slowly regained consciousness, but he did not expect a metallic arm to grab him in split seconds after he opened his eyes.

    The hair on his body stood, and his eyes widened like saucers!

 Chapter 28 - Across Humanity

    <h4>Chapter 28: Across Humanity</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong was never expecting to see this after waking up at all!

    Without much pondering, he identified the opponent as malicious, an enemy! If it¡¯s an enemy, then there¡¯s no need for mercy in Ye Chong¡¯s mindset. Even if it¡¯s just a hare at the front, we shall remedy it with a force used to capture a lion! This is what Ye Chong had learned from encounters with mutated lifeforms on Trash-12 all these years and it had melted into his marrows, imprinted onto his bones!

    There was no hesitation when Ye Chong¡¯s left hand dragged the arm all the way into his embrace, at lightning speed. Then his right hand took control, retrieved his dagger, and aimed it right at the throat of the enemy.

    Number 2 was intensely terrified, he could only feel how powerless his arm was. Before he could act up, a blow to his throat had already choked him, which caused him to feel dizzy as he backed off gracelessly.

    Who the hell is this individual? Agitation cloaked his eyes, he touched his throat uncontrobly; a deeply wounding strike tainted the shiny, unmarked armor of his. If he happened to be not in his armor just now, the blow to his head would have probably caused his head to be happily rolling on the floor like a chopped melon.

    Ye Chong red at the dagger in the grip of his arm, unsatisfied; trashes from Trash are still trash, the quality of this dagger could hardly be guaranteed and the de actually curved?! He discarded it right away.

    Attacking without any sign of caution was also one of the good habits Ye Chong possessed.

    His legs slightly lowered to charge up his jump. He thenunched himself like a cannonball right at Number 2.

    The armor on Number 2 was of miniature mech origin in actuality. It is exclusively tailored for fighters and does note with an in-built dynamo. Thus, it heavily relies on the user¡¯s own strength in movements. The body is made out of light but highly sturdy material, of a special kind, in a way that it would not affect the fighter¡¯s movement speed significantly; to counteract such weakness from the absence of a dynamo, it also contains an sticity switch at the legs. The specialty and most salient feature is itsbat-aid system. Contrary to the usual mech, a miniature mech has a high performance visual capturingponent, apanied with an almost advanced processor, which would assist the fighter in providing information for reference by capturing every frame of the enemy¡¯s action and analyzing them on the spot.

    A trained fighter would be able to exert forces few times more than his or her own strength by manipting this mech!

    And such mech has only been heard in research and development by a few majorpanies. A sessful attempt has yet to be reported, but Ye Chong never thought he would see one here!

    He couldn¡¯t resist but express a strong interest in his eyes! Although he never thought of letting up just because of this obsession. This was because eventually, even if he adored mech maniacally, he still had not reached the stage to give up his life for this.

    Death had always been clinging on as an opponent ever since his birth and he had never once had a thought of losing to it!

    It sounds like a better choice if he were to destroy the enemy first, then checking out the remainster.

    Number 2 had a frightening discovery as his eyes stumbled upon the streaming data in the hologram before him, endlessly like a great waterfall. It never stopped updating with roaring hushes and it happened so fast he couldn¡¯t even glimpse a word of it!

    Number 2 was also the decisive kind. Without much ado, he disregarded the data flooding before him and readied his posture to fight, concentrating, as his eyes fixated on Ye Chong with anticipation.

    However the vast difference in strength utterly made him despair, for there¡¯s no way for him to capture Ye Chong¡¯s movements. Even if the system sometimes finally got a frame, he couldn¡¯t react to it immediately too. In the end he could only fight on intuitively. The fighting techniques used by his opponent were crude in his eyes, but he was f-a-s-t! And h-e-a-v-y! Every attack delivered by Ye Chong was like a breeze, as Number 2 could barely trace his silhouette. Hence, Number 2 depended on his instincts and past experience to counter the attacks; yet Ye Chong¡¯s punches delivered vicious blows. His arms might appear to be slender or even fragile as hecked broad skeleton structures at first, but Number 2 was still having trouble holding on, as those fists in his eyes had already be two forceful mallets that were brandished!

    THUP.THUP.THUP. The sound of fists upon the armor felt like raindrops hitting on leaves.

    Ye Chong on the other hand was enjoying every single moment of the process, the person before him was as feeble as an engulfer and slow as andworm. Nheless, his skills were undeniably good! A mere man that holds neither strength nor speed, could hold up for this long, and as such, a rare enemy. It was his first time fighting a living man outside the virtual world, considering how beings on Trash-12 were mutated lifeforms, which consisted of either the engulfers of which he didn¡¯t care for a bit, or the iron lizards that he feared so much. Mu? He didn¡¯t even have the courage to think about it, especially after witnessing how Mu killed the iron lizard singlehandedly. His mind was set. There¡¯s no way to fight this monster. Yeah, Mu is not even a human to begin with!

    The man before him was remarkable at hisbative skills, but he sure knew how to stall with his solid shells outside, which would have shattered if they were produced with ordinary metal. Ye Chong was well aware that after the physical training conducted by Mu, he noticed that his strength dramatically increased. There was once that a marble training session did not go well and out of anger, he tapped the iron board beneath the marbles, which broke into pieces. That was a long time ago and Mu¡¯s demand on training had never stopped. He himself wasn¡¯t sure at all regarding on how much he had improved on his strength!

    But wow, the shell had only dented on a few parts? It seems like I had not hit hard enough. Ye Chong thought. Number 2 could feel how the armor on his flesh was gradually dented by each punch the person pulled, which skyrocketed the terror in him, Is this person still human?!

    He jumped to the back and shrieked, ¡°Stop!!¡±

    Ye Chong didn¡¯t seem to concern himself with the surrendering statement the armored guy made. He just grabbed his arms and pulled him into embrace, as his stability is disrupted by the overwhelming force. He fell and that was when Ye Chong delivered a kick at his abdomen using his knee. One heavy kick!

    THUMP. The sound went off and Number 2 was on the ground, like a pool of mud.

    Ye Chong by then nodded in satisfaction. It¡¯s not that he didn¡¯t hear him, it was simply¡­ What has it to do with me? It would give him far more security to have an upper hand in the entire situation, especially in a foreign ce like this!

    Ye Chong turned to the young man, dazed at the side.

    The dark pupils in the eyes of the young man were filled with infinite worry and dread. Upon seeing Ye Chong approaching, his body quivered helplessly.

    Ye Chong untied the ropes around his waist and had just found out the fact that he was no longer floating. He cautiously pulled out the breathing tube of the kit from his mouth and breathed twice. Yes! I really can breathe! He was more than joyful.

    A voice came from behind him, ¡°Please don¡¯t hurt him! We surrender!¡± Number 2 grasping his stomach in pain, trying to get back into stance.

    He turned around. This shellcrab is quite tenacious, isn¡¯t he?

    ¡°Surrender?¡± He halted as this was his first experience in dealing with such a response. The mutated lifeforms on Trash had never talked about surrendering, for they never feared death. They would just bite the enemy, even in their dying moments.

    Surrender? Why surrender? Doesn¡¯t surrender mean being willingly treated into anything by the enemy? Wasn¡¯t that a demand for death too? Ye Chong had never seen a mutated lifeform giving in, letting its prey go when it gave up fighting back during an encounter. If it would still be death in the end, what¡¯s the point of surrendering? Ye Chong did not get it!

    Number 2 added pitifully, ¡°Yes, we surrender. But please don¡¯t hurt him!¡±

    Ye Chong took a nce at the coward before him.

 Chapter 29 - Across Inhumanity

    <h4>Chapter 29: Across Inhumanity</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    The young man who had a rather skinny appearance and pale skin, which was also dreadfully pale by then, was ttening his thin lips. He had that air of nobility, as he looked at himself rigidly, forcing himself to act calm, yet anxiety and insecurity flowed in the expression of his eyes, which exposed his actual thoughts.

    Looking at the enemy getting upboriously, Ye Chong was thinking about delivering more blows topletely extinguish the fighting will of the person. As he thought on, he gradually uttered, ¡°I ept your surrender. But you have to get out of your mech first.¡± Without the mech¡¯s protection, Ye Chong was confident that he could break his opponent in three snaps! If he misbehaved, that is. Plus he never thought of killing them from the beginning, he did it merely in self-defense; not to forget that his survival depended on these two, as everything on the spacecraft was truly foreign to him, he would need their guidance.

    If the crumbling armored man honestly nned for a counterattack, Ye Chong would have absolutely smashed him to the ground first. He would not leave out any potential loophole to be turned as a threat against him.

    Nheless, the person¡¯s immediate agreement was expected, ¡°Alright!¡± How would he dare to have any form of hesitation anyway? The person before him was a violent striker, whose every attack could cost his life and strength-wise, they were two sides of a tangent. There¡¯s nothing to bargain to begin with, and thus he had to surrender. Number 2 was resolute too, for if it was a surrender, then it would be done straight away, just to prevent the intruder from shifting the me to the young master. That was a scene he did not want to witness the most.

    The young master at the side, was also holding curiosity as he stared at Number 2. Number 2 had been his bodyguard for years, but Number 2 always showed up in the armor he had already been used to seeing. Frankly speaking, he had yet to see what Number 2 looked like under that mech.

    Number 2 acted quickly. His mech was rapidly warped into the alternate dimension.

    The young manid his eyes upon Number 2 without the armor. He was stunned. The scene before him was unbelievable. Number 2, who had responsibly protected him side by side for all these years, was never expected to be a woman, a total beauty to add as well!

    Her golden hair hung on her shoulder like a waterfall¡¯s broad stream, a demure face that could look both sweet and solemn, with a pair of eyes that lustered like sapphires in the sky of a starry night, a charmingly slender physique; the fitting suit on her body illustrated her lovely curves, the body of a lusty devil that contained fair long legs that would leave men drooling.

    Even if the young master had been living in a family of noblemen, who had seen a variety of beauties, he was still deeply captivated by Number 2, as his eyes were glued on her.

    Meanwhile, Ye Chong was thinking, hmm¡­ Great!

    The mech seems to be manipted by brainwaves!

    He spoke ndly, ¡°Hey, pass me the portal switch to your mech.¡±

    Number 2 had been observing Ye Chong¡¯s facial expression ever since the moment she left her mech. She had hardly revealed herself on the outside before, but she was outright confident about her appearance. Like the other bodyguards who were picked among the most beautiful to protect important members of the family, she was adopted and trained since childhood and what made her outstanding was her gift of loving charm. The instructor had once taught that if appearance and body were utilized well, it would be the final weapons, for the situation could be turned!

    And¡­ that was the moment she lost her entire confidence on her charm in front of Ye Chong.

    This fearsome rascal actually ignored her, as if she never existed. Am I really not charming at all? Well at least she still had the young master¡¯s full attention - that was ratherforting. She had been serving the young master for 5 years and knew fairly well about this very young man before her. He would never think about anything negative about her. His eyes contained pure admiration!

    She paused for a second, pulled a bracelet of artisan craft off her wrist and tossed it to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong caught it without hassle. He looked at it for a while and removed the miniature battery from it, which he then pocketed both items. Number 2, who had her eyes fixed on Ye Chong¡¯s skillfulness, had her hopes obliterated! Even if their strength differed a lot as well as giving in and staying benign, the man still remained cautious throughout the process. This was scary!

    Ye Chong signaled her toe forward.

    Number 2 came forward in anticipation.

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong took the ropes from his body and tied her up, as he warned, ¡°You better be not thinking of doing anything! If not¡­ Hehehehe¡­¡± His actions were crude as if he was tying a mutated lifeform back on his, without showing much concern towards the frail beauty before him and brutal enough to bring tears in Number 2¡¯s eyes of pain. But the homicidal stare given by his eyes as he gave his warning sent chills down her spine.

    Ye Chong walked towards the boy after that.

    Number 2 boomed, ¡°What are you going to do? You promised me not to hurt him! Remember your words! Keep your words!¡± Her voice was different from the time she spoke in her mech, it was rather crisp, clear and angelic.

    Ye Chong did not even turn his head, ¡°Hurt him? I never thought of that! But well, I still think it would be safer to tie him up!¡±

    He walked in front of this young man. The boy lifted his chin in pride, forcibly using his stare in contempt and his dreadfully pale skin had reddened dramatically as his expression appeared calmer.

    Number 2 panicked in her mind. She should have been aware that the young master was quite stubborn by nature. She helplessly begged the young master to not enrage the outsider or he would suffer.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not mind in fact. He could imagine if he himself was being bound by others, he would as put off like this young man as well. Even if the boy looked fragile, who could copse within a moment, cautiously tied him up, from head to toe, like a dumpling. Back on his, every mutated lifeform had its own unique ability. So it would be undeniably foolish to judge an enemy by its cover.

    Ye Chong¡¯s tying could never be imed as gentle. Oh how could a delicate young man like this go through pain like this? As hearing the young master whimpered in aches, Number 2 at the side was in anguish!

    Hmm¡­ Finally I could rx.

    Ye Chong didn¡¯t care much about his posture, as he just sat on the ground immediately.

    Number 2 took a careful look of this inhumane being. Short, healthily tanned skin tone, a rtively ordinary face, except for the pair of sharp eyes, ck hair with an appallingly terrible hairstyle; the hairstyling machine must have been in critical error when it did his haircut; a neatly proportioned body, without lumps of muscles, which was indirectly proportional to the frightening amount of strength within him. It was too deceiving!

    Well for his age¡­ She wasn¡¯t sure. He seemed young but his wariness and indifference towards life and death¡­ made him more of a mature kind. The design and material of his clothing were really old, as if it was clothing used by refugees. However judging from the way he removed the battery from her mech, the expertise¡­ he¡¯s obviously very familiar with the mech system. Could refugees have a mech?

    Ye Chong broke silence, ¡°Speak up. Who are you two?¡±

    The two enved beings looked at each other awkwardly. Number 2, in an attempt to test him, asked, ¡°You are not aware of our identity?¡±

 Chapter 30 - Across Illogicality

    <h4>Chapter 30: Across Illogicality</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong shook his head understandably, ¡°I don¡¯t know! How the heck I¡¯m supposed to know who you are at the very first nce of you both in my whole entire life?¡±

    ¡°Then why do you attack us?¡± Number 2 questioned unbelievably.

    Ye Chong nonchntly responded, ¡°More like you guys did it first.¡±

    ¡°I¡­I was just thinking of removing your dangerous-looking¡­ dagger!¡± Number 2¡¯s pretty face was reddened with embarrassment.

    Ye Chong simply made an ¡°oh¡± and thought through the situation impartially¡­ Apparently the discussion of such a topic was not really a rational act for both sides at the moment.

    ¡°Okay, listen. I can tell you all that I have not even the slightest interest in you guys. But I hope for mere cooperation. Or else, I wouldn¡¯t mind taking your lives as part of punishment for your misbehavior!¡± It was a tant intimidating threat uttered from Ye Chong¡¯s mouth, yet the expression on his face was more natural than ever, a kind of tranquility and indifference that couldn¡¯t be exined, as if what he did was as normal as one¡¯s daily routine of eating and drinking.

    Chill uncontrobly crept up their spines, like a sharp sword stuck ruthlessly right at their throats, while its eerie coldness permeated through the pores of their skins into every single cell of their bodies; Those words from Ye Chong, in that apathetic tone, were flooded with immense bloodthirstiness, overflowing the limits inevitably, like pouring more water into a full bucket of it, ready to be kicked as it spread everywhere.

    ¡°What kind of cooperation do you desire?¡± Number 2¡¯s voice was trembling a little. Fear could be felt. The young man was also uneasy, as cold sweat streamed through his forehead.

    Ye Chong was pleased, seeing how his warning somehow magically worked out. But his facial expression remained unchanged, not even a bit. It was still as uninterested as he ignored Number 2 and inquired on, ¡°Are there any other survivors on this craft?¡±

    He stared at Number 2 with intense focus, eye to eye.

    ¡°No! The rest of us other than ourselves are dead!¡± She replied without much pause while shaking her head sincerely. The sexy lips of her tiny mouth moved in crimson seduction, the captivating charm unavoidably wafted without notice.

    However Ye Chong wasn¡¯t infatuated at all and carried on with his inquiry, ¡°So now¡­ what are the rough coordinates of this stranded spaceship?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. You can only know that at the main control room!¡± She shook her head again.

    ¡°Then we shall go there now!¡± He bolted up.

    Number 2 went on pleading, ¡°Then could you pleaseeee untie us? We can¡¯t show you the way with these on!¡± Her expressive eyes shot a pitiful sight at Ye Chong, with a scarlet red blush on her cheeks, which would make any man sympathize upon her at first sight.

    Still, Ye Chong was never going to get the hint, while he was finding the random red patches on her face strange. Why the heck thisdy¡¯s face getting all red? Instead, the young master got the hint, as he was mesmerized by her looks. His eyes locked on her and he seemed to have forgotten where he was.

    ¡°Ohhhhhh! It¡¯s okay. Save your trouble!¡± He nned to ignore her rmendation and just lift them one on each side, as they weighed close to nothing in his hands. The lifting shocked the boy in his day-dream and it was fortunate enough that he regained his senses quickly enough to force curse words back into his guts. Imagine if he insensibly cursed this monster lifting him, he might be tossed right out of the ship on the spot. Number 2 felt ashamed of herself, her charm failed her the very first time in her entire career! What a steady man! Ye Chong slowly grew and became more unpredictable in her thoughts, with terror mushrooming about this man.

    The sensation being lifted head down was causing difort, which was still fine for Number 2, since she had been sternly trained in her childhood. For countless times she had been through various kinds of difort way more than this. It was more like suffering, while this was just a piece of cake! Rather, it was real anguish for the young man beside her, since he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and was raised thoughtfully. He was frail and Ye Chong¡¯s ropes were tight, constricting him with pain and difort, especially when Ye Chong was lifting him with gravity pulling his weight all the way down with ropes upon him. That was more than painful, which would make anyone wail.

    ¡°So, how do you get to the main control room?¡± Ye Chong didn¡¯t seem to care.

    She shot a nce at the young master and signalled him to hold on, ¡°From this room, go through the green door then turn right, there would be a corridor about 20 meters long. Enter the yellow door and that would be the main control room!¡± Number 2 was certain that she couldn¡¯t do anything at the moment, so she only could state where the control room exactly was.

    He advanced one step forward and stopped, as he remembered Mu. What if Mu had rebooted himself and couldn¡¯t find his old pal? He must be worried! Well then, let¡¯s go for Mu first! The n shed in his thought and began spreading throughout his mind. Let¡¯s go for Mu first! He made up his mind and nced at the ¡°baggage¡± in his hands. There¡¯s no way he could leave them alone. I¡¯ll just hand-carry, save the check-ins. They aren¡¯t that heavy anyway.

    So he carried them along and headed towards the stairs.

    ¡°Wait! The main control room isn¡¯t here! This is the wrong direction!¡± Number 2 shouted.

    ¡°I know.¡± Ye Chong raised his shoulders casually. That shoulder-lift might be rather easy for him to do but it was uneasy for his ¡°luggage¡±. Poor Number 2 and the boy, being raised up and down quickly by the shoulder-lifts caused them to feel the inertia like a rollercoaster ride, as blood rushed in fluctuations, in which they grew dizzy.

    Guided by the fabric ropes tied back on his own, Ye Chong walked fast. They arrived at the safety gate along the corridor fairly quickly.

    The safety gate had been closed. Ye Chong recalled the door was open back when he was strolling through the ce and so he asked, ¡°Why is the door closed?¡±

    ¡°This¡­ The corridor after the gate was damaged, to prevent casualty from air pressure difference, the gate was shut!¡± Ye Chong walked quickly, too quickly on his way there. The poor two ¡°bags¡± in his hands were shaken so violently that it left them in utter dizziness. It took quite some time for Number 2 to recover just to exin to Ye Chong.

    ¡°So how do we open it?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Do you want to kill us?! It¡¯s vacuum on the outside! V-a-c-u-u-m!¡± She shrieked.

    ¡°Vacuum?¡± Ye Chong the fool asked on, ¡°So what if it¡¯s vacuum?¡±

    Number 2 nearly fainted after hearing such a stunning question from this man. Gosh, in what times are we living in? How did he manage to ask a question ofmon sense that could be answered by a 3-year-old? Thinking of how the superior bodyguard of a great family of noblemen losing to a man like this, Number 2 actually thought of slitting open her own throat. The young man on the other hand was astounded at first, as he couldn¡¯t help but snicker softly afterwards.

    ¡°Hey! What¡¯s wrong? What¡¯s up with that?¡± Ye Chong couldn¡¯tprehend their reactions. They would never know how Ye Chong was raised throughout his age. He only got to make contact with the outside world after encountering Mu. Even in the virtual world, he at most would stay in the NRS training field or speak to the elders at the Aurora in Gudista. So he had zero knowledge about what everybody thought wasmon sense or elementary.

    Well, since their lives were still determined by this man, Number 2 dared not to mock anymore, and enlightened him, ¡°In vacuum there is no air. Going into a vacuum without any form of protection would lead to either suffocation or a burst in your bloodstream, considering how there is also a different level of pressure in your own blood vessels. When there is no air pressure outside, let¡¯s say, in a vacuum, the pressure in your bloodstream would force out your blood and you will bleed to death within a few seconds. Yes, every part of your body would be bleeding internally. So you need to wear a suit whenever you enter a vacuum space!¡±

    ¡°I am aware that you couldn¡¯t live without oxygen. But, keep the suit. I don¡¯t need it. You see, I walked in from there just now, without any s-u-i-t and I¡¯m still fine?¡± Ye Chong didn¡¯t seem to care¡­ once more.

    No suit? No way! The corridor has a length of more than 50 meters at least! The gravity and the oxygen supply were solely recovered by the young master and myself! And we found this man who had entered the room way before that. Could¡­ could it be? Could it be there¡¯s actually a human who could survive in vacuum without a suit and not be killed without having his bloodstream burst?

    Is this man still a human being? That robust body¡­ that even the mutated lifeforms could feel inferior of! Number 2 and the young man looked at each other awkwardly, as her pupils reflected her drained face, the horror thatid bare in her eyes!

    Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s actually born in a certain kind of barbaric vige filled with beasts? I¡¯ve heard of stories about how certain viges of beasts still retain cannibalism!

    Oh the fear. Oh the fright. There was no other emotion other than panic in their eyes! Their faces werepletely pale. Dreadfully pale as they thought on.

    Oh lord! If you heard us, please save us!

    Please hear our prayers!

 Chapter 31 - Questions

    <h4>Chapter 31: Questions</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    The trio arrived at Mu¡¯s crash site.

    Of course, they all wore pressure suits even the one who was wrongly assumed to havee from and of beasts. In reality, both Number Two and the young master would like to watch Ye Chong embark in space without his pressure suit. Firstly, they were curious, and secondly, if he died from a stroke it would undoubtedly be good news for both her and the young master!

    Unfortunately, Ye Chong ignored Number Two¡¯s instigation and put on his the pressure suit dutifully. Ye Chong wanted to avoid the limelight and acting like an average person would keep the attention away from him which in turn would help him survive longer - this was a principle he abided!

    Number Two was dejected - the man before himcked the usual impulse and haste of a teenager; instead, he was seasoned and steady in his actions. This bothered her the most and kept her on edge.

    Since pressure suits were necessary, Ye Chong had untied both his captives. Without a doubt, he warned them against doing anything foolish before that.

    Although the walkway was in vacuum, the gravity matrix was back online. Hence, they could move around without floating haphazardly like before, and can even walk like normal. The walkway lights were all switched on, and one could see everything clearly under the bright illumination.

    When Number Two and the young master saw Mu, they both responded very differently!

    Under the lighting, Ye Chong could finally identify every detail of his surroundings; Mu evidently crashed in the middle of the walkway. Its high velocity came with a great amount of energy, and the starship¡¯s thick armor could not stop Mu from entering. The impact forced open arge hole, and Mu, fresh from the impact with vessel¡¯s armor was depleted; sprawled between the entrance of the vessel and the outside of it. Mu looked like an onion nted in the soil that was the vessel.

    Number Two was furious, and her eyes gleamed with rage - this was the real culprit. She thought of the destruction that ensued, killing everyone but her and the young master. The vessel was severely damaged in multiple areas and could no longer operate normally. All they could do now was to wait for rescue from other passing starships, but in the vast outer space, it would not be easy to locate another starship! It was almost hopeless! If they were to encounter space pirates, they would be unable to escape the fate of very - with her looks she could be in for something worse!

    She grieved the deaths of herrades but not to the point where she would hate Ye Chong. The most important thing now was the young master¡¯s safety! The young master¡¯s safety was her top priority! Due to her harsh training at an early age, she was apathetic towards the worldly ways. She was outstanding in her society, and had secured the title of Number Two ever since her induction. Being appointed early on as the personal escort of the young master, she was continuously reinforced with the thought of prioritizing the young master over all else. After all these years, that belief was now a part of her identity just like the designation of Number Two ever since the first day she joined the society.

    How could she not be furious when the man standing before her was a threat to the young master?

    Ye Chong was not oblivious to Number Two¡¯s rage, but he did not feel guilt. Whether the true culprit was himself or not, he did not think it to be a good reason. The way he saw it, everyone should be responsible for themselves; if you could not protect yourself from harm, then you were to me. Simr to the rtionship between a predator and a prey, surely you cannot hope for the predator to be charitable. Ye Chong had no objections in being the carnivore of a food chain - in fact, he would be delighted to, since he did not want to be at the mercy of someone else like the herbivores. Ye Chong believed in the basic principles of nature reflected by the mutants¡¯ way of life on the trash not those humanisticws and morality which he did not have a single notion of!

    The young master was very excited to see the strange mech, and had forgotten all about Ye Chong. ¡°Heavens! It¡¯s beautiful! Ingenious! The one who created it must be a genius!¡± The young master scrambled towards the mech, his paleplexion turning a few shades redder from the excitement. He murmured incessantly to himself like some mad person.

    Ye Chong ignored the madness, his heart constantly calling for Mu, but Mu did not move, as if he was asleep. He could not help but felt disheartened. After spending more than a year together, he and Mu had developed a deep bond; under Mu¡¯s guidance, he had grown much stronger than his earlier self. The uing ster re was no threat to Mu, and while Mu did not speak of it, Ye Chong knew that Mu ventured on this extremely risky mission for his sake. Mu was broken because of him.

    Ye Chong stared nkly at Mu¡¯s hull that once emanated the most unique radiance now reflected a darker shade of obscurity. The one mech which Ye Chong thought to be the strongest of all was now covered in bruises. Ye Chong felt woeful and anguished. He took down the ornament that had always hung around his neck. Ye Chong did not use it again after the first time he cut his finger with it since Mu did not like staying in the alternate dimension, and he also preferred to have Mu forpany. Who would have thought that the first time he used it to keep Mu would be under such circumstances.

    Number Two stood behind Ye Chong, her expression unreadable - Ye Chong seemed to be distracted with his guard lowered. If she took this opportunity to sneak an attack, she might be able to kill him in one blow! However, should she fail, she and the young master would have to face the man¡¯s most violent retaliation. Just the thought of Ye Chong¡¯s monstrous attacks made her shudder! To attack? Or not to attack? Number Two contemted - Ye Chong¡¯s ghostly speed and strong body made her heart squeeze in trepidation, and she felt all the more self-conscious!

    Ye Chong did not notice Number Two¡¯s odd look. He sighed inwardly, and transported Mu into the alternate dimension.

    The young master was climbing onto Mu with gleaming eyes, and his hands repeatedly caressing Mu¡¯s body like a lover, asionally gasping in awe! As Ye Chong transported Mu, the young master did not expect the mech under him to disappear - he felt a sudden emptiness below him and eximed in surprise!

    His shrieking interrupted Number Two out of her indecision, and when she saw the young master falling from midair, she was horrified - with a twist of her body and a powerful sprint, she dashed towards the young master. However, there was someone faster than her - Number Two saw a shadow passed by her, and the young master was caught mid-waist by Ye Chong. The young master was dangling in the air, waving his hands frantically. Ye Chong looked to Number Two, and tossed the young master to the loyal attendant.

    Number Two rushed to grab hold of him, and gave Ye Chong a look of gratification as she consoled the terrified young master tenderly.

    Ye Chong walked away without looking back, ¡°Alright, we head for the control room now!¡± Number Two dared not hesitate under his unassable tone for she did not want to offend the enigmatic man before her. At the very least, the feeling of being all tied up with rope was extremely unpleasant.

    Number Two held the young master firmly and followed slowly behind Ye Chong. The young master who was still in her arms had not recovered from the shock, and looked as white as a ghost!

    Who was this man? Even an amateur like Number Two can tell that the mech that Ye Chong kept was special, and one who possessed a mech like that was definitely not amoner. For someone with a well-built physique, incredible speed and a mech like no other, who could he actually be?

    Number Two questioned in her head, and continued to trail behind Ye Chong.

 Chapter 32 - New Friends

    <h4>Chapter 32: New Friends</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    The bridge was a mess. The floor was scattered with random broken parts and fragments which made one to realize the intensity of Mu¡¯s impact!

    Once she understood that Ye Chong was uninterested in being a threat to the young master¡¯s life, Number Two became cooperative. They were now all in this together, and if they did not help each other, the odds of survival were slim. In the face of Ye Chong¡¯s overwhelming strength, Number Two could only keep a low profile.

    Ever since seeing Mu, the young master seemed to be in a daze and constantly murmured under his breath. Number Two knew it was a helpless situation - the young master was a nice person, not one to put on airs and always affectionate, but once he gets involved in something rted to his research, he changed mood quickly. The young master was indifferent to matters of the family, but was invested in mech research, and had shown remarkable talent in the area. His dream was to be a mech engineer, but the first young mistress strongly disapproved! As the legal heir of the family, he did not get involved in general affairs but only focused on his research. All this time, family matters were dealt by the first young mistress with great difficulty.

    Even this trip was hidden from the first young mistress by the young master. It was to get away from the life that he had grown weary of, but who would have thought that they would meet such an incident, and get to know a formidable master. Number Two was in deep regret; if she knew this would happen she would have stopped the young master from running away from home!

    Number Two realized that her thoughts were irrelevant to the current situation and would affect her morale, so she struggled to banish these thoughts.

    Ye Chong waspletely clueless about starships, and needed an expert¡¯s advice.

    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Ye Chong asked

    Number Two made a few adjustments to the controls and turned back to Ye Chong. ¡°Our current condition is very critical, and the starship¡¯s propulsion systems arepletely shut down. Plus, the hull took heavy damage with an aftermath of multiple cracks. Most importantly, the pulse signal transmitter is broken, and we cannot send a distress signal to request for rescue from other starships! Our current distance from the S.S. Zuo Yu is about 118 thousand kilometers, about eight days away by usual travel, but regrettably the emergency escape pods of this starship are damaged! If not, we could have taken the escape pods and head straight for S.S. Zuo Yu! Also, to our great misfortune ¡± Number Two paused in amazement that both were listening attentively, and continued slowly, ¡°- the S.S. Zuo Yu¡¯s patrol would only search a five-day travelling radius from the space station. That is to say, our only hope now is that a passing starship would find us.¡± Number Two described the situation in a calm and organized manner. This made Ye Chong do a double take on the ¡°exceedingly lousy¡± woman - she was not all that bad!

    The young master was also alert once again, and began to inspect the bridge. As expected of a genius, it took him no time to begin restoration. His hands moved fluently like a magician while the parts and essories danced to the unique melody of his tune. Number Two watched dreamily by the side as he worked.

    Ye Chong could not help but be a little surprised at the young man - he did not expect that a fragile-looking fellow like him would be talented in mechanics. Ye Chong himself had some expertise in the field, butpared to the young man, Ye Chong thought himself to be far more inferior.

    It seemed that there is always someone better out there, those elders were right. Ye Chong thought.

    In reality, Ye Chong had only studied in Aurora for slightly more than a year, but the young master had begun his studies since young, with materials that were impossible to obtain on the deste trashs. It was inevitable that he was better than Ye Chong, and there was also the fact that the young master¡¯s family was deeply involved with mechs.

    Ye Chong observed the young man¡¯s reconstruction, verifying much of what he had learnt, and got much out of the process. Ye Chong began to treat the duo more courteously without realizing it.

    Regrettably, the starship¡¯s damages were too serious. The propulsion system was hopeless, and the air revitalization and thermal systems could not be fully restored, but the trio could at least rejoice at the avability of necessities for survival- the vessel¡¯s food and water supply were sufficient, and now the only thing they could do was wait.

    They began chatting, but both sides were tactful enough to avoid asking about the other¡¯s background. The young master¡¯s name was Gu Shaoze, but his attendant¡¯s name was even weirder - she was called Number Two! But Ye Chong was not very interested in trivial matters. He politely gave a brief introduction of himself.

    Conversation with Gu Shaoze was undeniably pleasant. They shared the same interests, and grew more excited as they spoke. Number Two watched them both with a smile, but her gaze was mostly on Gu Shaoze.

    By now, Ye Chong was thoroughly impressed by Gu Shaoze. The young man¡¯s knowledge was far too advanced for his age, and Ye Chong believed that he must not be far behind the elders at Aurora, and could even be the forefront expert in certain areas.

    On the other hand, Gu Shaoze was also looking at Ye Chong in a new light. He had thought the man before him to be a roughneck, but now it seemed that he was very knowledgeable in the mechanics of mechs. The man had original insights on matters, and could often identify the heart of the issue, as well as boasted a solid theoretical foundation. Compared to him, Ye Chong must fare quite well.

    If only he knew that Ye Chong¡¯s practical experience was near zero, what would he have thought then!

    The pair spoke with increasing enthusiasm, and began to feel a sense of appreciation for each other. Gu Shaoze might behave humbly on a regr basis, but he still had a hint of arrogance in him. It was rare for him to approve of someone, and now that he had, how could he not be fond of him? As for Ye Chong, this was his first time interacting with someone around the same age as him, whose true strength Ye Chong respected. It was understandable that Ye Chong established a good impression of him.

    Number Two sat at the side, smiling lightly as the duo¡¯s conversation heated up. Who would have thought that, about an hour ago, both sides were like sworn enemies?

    Amercial fleet formed by over thirty transport spaceships was flying steadily in space.

    The chief, Jing Mo, sat on themander¡¯s seat in bridge, deep in thought. He was about eight to nine days out from reaching the S.S. Zuo Yu. If everything went smoothly, the payment this time would be lucrative, with an additional of official medals of recognition for his services. He might be able to elevate hismercial qualification a level higher, and then he would be able to trade in mechs. Nowadays, businesses with qualifications to trade in mechs were few and far in between. What he could earn from mechs would be multiple times more than from his current goods.

    The goods he was shipping this time from Tian Luo gxy to Fal gxy had took five whole months, and they had encountered a few crews of space pirates along the way. Fortunately, the squad of mech pilots he hired was capable, and they managed to escape unscathed. He thought of how he had hired this infamous squad of mech pilots despite the high costs. If not for his wisdom, they would have lost the goods for sure, and even their lives.

    Ten days left! Let there not be any mishaps in these ten days! Jing Mo shut his eyes and prayed inwardly.

    Out of the blue, a ring rm disrupted his prayers. Mo Jing opened his eyes, and his chest tightened!

 Chapter 33 - The Merry Crew

    <h4>Chapter 33: The Merry Crew</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    The trio had waited for five days.

    Unlikes inhabited by humans, space was quiet, and the deafening silence tested one¡¯s strength of will to the limit. Many were unwilling to go sightseeing in space as they were unable bear with the silence. Experiencing extended periods ofplete silence could make one vulnerable to mental breakdowns. The vastness of the universe further increased the psychological pressure of quietness on people. Hence, while it was now technically possible for solo space travel, none had tried.

    This issue was not something particrly troublesome for Ye Chong. On the trash, he had lived alone for years, and solitude had be second in nature. Instead, if he was subjected to a crowded environment, he would feel ufortable. In the depths of his heart, Ye Chong had mixed feelings about his future life - curiosity, fear, anxiety, yearning¡­

    However, the silence was a trial for Gu Shaoze and Number Two. Ye Chong shut his eyes to rest, and while he was not fully conscious, he was still vignt. Since Ye Chong seemed to be asleep, Gu Shaoze chatted with Number Two instead, as if the words would ovee the horrifying silence.

    An odd ring began resonating.

    Ye Chong immediately opened his eyes and stood upright. Gu Shaoze and Number Two stopped their conversation and looked towards the bridge.

    The disy screen showed a huge fleet of starships.

    Gu Shaoze and Number Two could not help but gasped in surprised, but quickly became overjoyed. Gu Shaoze even hugged Number Two out of excitement, and her graceful face hidden under golden locks of hair blushed in response, the redness creeping to her snow-white nape.

    Ye Chong was not so moved, but observed the starships closely. It was a pity that he did not know much about starships, and therefore could not make much out of them. However, from the mechs flying out of the port and starboard of the starships, it seemed that the other side had seen them.

    Gu Shaoze let go of Number Two and smiled at Ye Chong. ¡°That rm sounds terrible, I shouldn¡¯t have used it!¡± Theser radar was heavilypromised, and remarkably, the damage was in its interior parts. However, Gu Shaoze¡¯s exceptional capabilities meant that the radar was still rudimentarily restored. The rm unit was broken, so Gu Shaoze had to rece it with a speaker from somewhere else, but the sound was truly horrible, and that was why Gu Shaoze hadined thus. Perfectionism was his nature!

    Number Two raced to the bridge and activated theser lights, rapidly firing shes thatmunicated a distress signal.

    Upon seeing the distress signal, the other party¡¯s mech pilots picked up their speed, but in spite of that, their battle formation was still intact, indicating the great extent of their training.

    Ye Chong asked coolly, ¡°Are we armed?¡± This was Ye Chong¡¯s habit - no matter the circumstances, he hoped that he would be in control of the situation instead of passively going with the flow.

    Gu Shaoze and Number Two were stunned.

    ¡°Best if we have mechs!¡± he added.

    Number Two shook her head. ¡°No white mechs, and the mechs owned by victims of the crash were tailored specifically by their respective families. Only by sending the mechs back to the families and performing a special ID recalibration could they be used again!¡± White mechs were mechs that were not locked to specific pilots.

    Ye Chong could not hold back his disappointment.

    Gu Shaoze suddenly remembered something, and ran to a corner to search for something. After a moment of ransacking, he returned, eager like a child. ¡°This was a dagger that I made for fun. Usually I use it as a tool!¡± He then passed his invention to Ye Chong, already regarding him as a friend!

    Ye Chong epted the dagger. It was ck all over, and theser-processed edge was very sharp. The anti-slip treatment made it easy to handle, and its resilience was impressive.

    Ye Chong nodded. ¡°This dagger is quite resilient, but the stiffness is horrible!¡± As he finished, he held the tip of the dagger with one hand and the handle with the other, and bent the dagger easily to an arc. He then released the dagger¡¯s tip, and with a swish, the dagger recovered its former shape, undamaged by the strain.

    Gu Shaoze gaped, and upon hearing Ye Chong¡¯sment that the stiffness was horrible, replied reflexively, ¡°You¡¯re quite strong. That dagger was just something I made during my spare time. I didn¡¯t really think it through!¡±

    Number Two was not surprised by the demonstration, since she had personally experienced Ye Chong¡¯s strength. He was truly a dreadful monster, not like a human at all.

    Number Two made to put on a miniature mech, but Gu Shaoze stopped her. ¡°Your mech is too garish. It¡¯s alright if we¡¯re at home, but out here it¡¯s really not appropriate. Besides, wearing that mech is like putting on an exoskeleton, how ufortable. Mm, you¡¯re so beautiful. It¡¯s a pity if you¡¯re stuck in that shell!¡±

    Number Two lowered her head bashfully, feeling butterflies in her stomach.

    Jing Mo looked at the trio before him - a young master, a female attendant, and a guard.

    Jing Mo focused mostly on Gu Shaoze. Gu Shaoze had the charisma of an aristocrat, and was very modest and well-spoken, all signs of an outstanding upbringing. However, he was without the typical aristocrat¡¯s conceit, indicating that he most likely came from a family with a long historical standing. Only those from affluent long-standing families would behave thus, unlike the overnight nouveau riche with unbridled arrogance.

    These aristocratic families rose and declined in the long river of history, and have had their moments, but all had survived to this day. Many families that were once as glorious as them were now lost in a passage of time, leaving no traces of their existence today.

    Extensiveworks and a continuous session of capable heirs had kept the families alive. Being reserved without flippancy had also won them the eptance of society.

    However, the status of an aristocrat was not self-designated, but acknowledged by the public. Aristocratic families today were scarce, perhaps even countable with the fingers on one hand.

    If one could develop a good rtionship with an aristocratic family, it would mean weing an endless flow of money and a bright future. Jing Mo¡¯s eyes twinkled at the thought.

    Jing Mo spoke to Gu Shaoze warmly, and even though they had nomon interests, he still responded respectfully. The alluring features of Number Two had the whole starship¡¯s crew eyeing her discretely, asionally murmuring something under their breaths. Eventually, some even deliberately went to the bridge to peek at her.

    Number Two, who had never experienced anything like this, was distressed.

    Amongst the three, Ye Chong was now the most insignificant individual. His looks were average, andcked Gu Shaoze¡¯s demeanor or Number Two¡¯s unrivaled beauty. When Gu Shaoze introduced him as a guard, Jing Mo had even scrutinized him suspiciously; for how can someone scrawny like him be a guard?

    Ye Chong was far from scrawny; ¡°bnce¡± would be a more appropriate adjective. However,pared to the other guards with their muscr build and rmingly thickset limbs, it was no wonder that Jing Mo would think of him as scrawny.

    Only the leader of the mech pilots¡¯ squad eyed him a few times, looking as if deep in thought.

    Without a doubt, Jing Mo was a master in engineering the atmosphere - upon seeing Number Two¡¯s predicament, he roared at his employees and ordered them away; he then continued chatting with Gu Shaoze in an engaging manner for he knew what young people were interested in, and boasted about his adventures during his youth in an outrageous manner. The three neers were deeply engrossed in his stories about the various customs and practices from all over the universe, and could not help but be captivated by his narratives, including Ye Chong.

    Inside the bridge,ughter filled the air, and the atmosphere was lively.

    No one could have guessed of the dangers that awaited them ahead!

 Chapter 34 - Fearing the Unknown

    <h4>Chapter 34: Fearing the Unknown</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Jing Mo sipped a mouthful of sweet grass juice and asked Fid, ¡°What do you make of these people?¡±

    Fid was the squad leader of Jing Mo¡¯s hired mech squad. He was exceptionally tall, with an expression as solemn as a marble effigy, and coarse short hair that jut up straight like steel wires. A two to three centimeters long scar ran at an angle across his brow, giving not an impression of savagery, but of great valor. In addition, his strong build gave a sense of safety, and in the Tian Luo gxy, many local maidens were attracted to him.

    But these traits were not why Jing Mo valued him. Fid had good insights on matters with a steady and cautious personality. He was a good leader, and an honorable man. For these reasons, Jing Mo trusted him. If not for Fid¡¯s reluctance, Jing Mo would not have wanted the man to work as his employee. Fid was apetent person who could stand on his own! It was thanks to his cautious nature and leadership that their current trip went on without a hitch so far!

    Fid sat like a soldier, with his back straight and eyes focused. Once he settled, he could sit without moving for hours, and that impressed Jing Mo.

    Fid paused to think for a moment, and replied in a clear manner. ¡°The young man is probably the young master of some influential family. The three seemed to be genuine. Hmm, and his guard seemed to be quite capable, though I am not entirely certain. ording to them, their starship was heavily damaged due to impact with a meteorite, but based on my inspection of the impact point on their starship the hull was obviously reinforced for strength. If a meteorite crashed into it, I did not find any trace of rock debris around, and that is impossible!¡±

    Jing Mo was rmed. ¡°Could it be that they¡¯re acting? Are they spies sent by space pirates?¡±

    Fid continued, ¡°Spies of the pirates? I think it¡¯s not very probable! There were many bodies on the starship, and those victims mostly have mechs!¡± Fid¡¯s expression turned unreadable, ¡°And their mechs are quite peculiar!¡±

    ¡°Peculiar?¡± Jing Mo asked curiously. Mechs that could even strike the mech squad leader as peculiar - how could one not be curious about them?

    Fid paused, and replied, ¡°Yes, very peculiar! Their mechs were undoubtedly expert level mechs. You can imagine, if more than fifty people were armed with expert level mechs, they must be quite formidable! Besides, from the condition of the corpses, their muscle structure showed that they were highly trained. They should all be expert level mech pilots.¡±

    ¡°More than fifty expert level mechs? And more than fifty expert level pilots?¡± Jing Mo gasped. Expert level pilots meant great capabilities. No matter where they were, expert level mechs were highly sought after by those who seek power. Even Fid¡¯s squad of fine reputation, the Oak Leaves, consisted of only ten expert level mech pilots, including Fid himself. Hence, one can imagine Jing Mo¡¯s profound shock when he found out that the starship had more than fifty expert level pilots, each equipped with an expert level mech.

    Fid nodded somberly. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right, I checked them myself! As we all know, when a mech¡¯s owner dies, the mech would reset itself to be a white mech. What made these mechs peculiar was that even though their owners had all perished, not only do they not reset, but they automatically engaged into a self-protection mode. No one could use or extract information from the mechs!¡±

    ¡°Mechs that could protect themselves?¡± Mo Jing was bewildered.

    ¡°As far as I know, this technology is only used by a few aristocrats and the military!¡± Fid exined all that he knew of the matter.

    Aristocrats are fine, since he might be able to benefit from them, but if it¡¯s the military¡­ Jing Mo scratched his head unconsciously, deep in thought. This could get out of hand. Jing Mo would rather die than to have any dealings with the cold-blooded military!

    ¡°Additionally¡­¡± Fid looked at Jing Mo¡¯s ghastly expression, and felt unable to continue.

    Jing Mo believed that he was going crazy! Good heavens! He had thought that a golden opportunity had fell into hisp, but now it seemed to be a huge problem! Jing Mo panted heavily - he was not sure if his heart could endure the rest of Fid¡¯s report!

    After taking a few deep breathes, Jing Mo calmed down, and a momentter, hisplexion recovered a little. He signaled for Fid to go on.

    Fid gave him a quick look and continued, ¡°Additionally, this starship has nobels, no manufacturing date, and no ce of manufacture. However, it is indeed remarkably advanced. More urately speaking, it is more advanced than all the starships avable in the market for civil use!¡±

    ¡°More advanced than all the avable civilian starships? What do you mean?!¡± Jing Mo was baffled, and momentster, his face paled again. ¡°Could it be a military warship? It can¡¯t be! Aren¡¯t military starships banned for production quite some time ago? Even the military cannot produce them! Haven¡¯t the five main gxies banned all manufacture and research of starships for military use? Are these people insane? Do they not fear death?!¡± Three centuries ago, the government for all five main gxies made a joint deration, forbidding all individuals and organizations including the military from owning and developing battleships of any kind. Transgressors would be severely punished. From then on, mech pilots became the main source of manpower forbat.

    Fid went silent for a moment before continuing slowly, ¡°You are right, to a certain extent. However¡­¡± Pain and struggle showed briefly in his eyes, but the agitated Jing Mo did not notice.

    Seeing that Jing Mo was on the verge of a breakdown, Fid felt it necessary to offer some sce. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, while it is very advanced, it was not armed with any firepower, and so it is not really a warship.¡±

    Jing Mo exhaled in relief. ¡°Oh, you gave me a fright on purpose, didn¡¯t you? Don¡¯t make a joke out of something like that again. I wasn¡¯t sure if my weak heart was about to explode or not!¡±

    Fid smiled wryly. While the starship was not armed with weapons, it still defied the rules set by the government.

    Fid became serious, and spoke lowly, ¡°There¡¯s also the most important point.¡±

    Jing Mo nearly slumped in defeat, and cried, ¡°Oh heavens, do you want me to die?¡±

    Fid ignored him, and spoke his mind without hesitation. ¡°From the hull¡¯s damage, they had indeed suffered an impact. It killed fifty expert level pilots all at once, so one can only imagine the power of the impact. As for how the three had survived, I have no intention of investigating further. However, I had found no debris whatsoever besides the hull¡¯s fragments near the crash site. I would like to know, what really happened to them? Was it man-made, or due to a mysterious natural phenomenon? If it was man-made, would the culprits make their move on the three survivors once they found out about them? If yes, I would definitely not believe that they would have a charitable heart and leave our crew out of the mess. Besides, I do not believe that our starship¡¯s hull could withstand even half of that force that hit their starship. If it was a natural phenomenon, would it happen again? This is what I¡¯m most interested in!¡±

    Jing Mo waspletely speechless, and his face ashen!

    If only he had not rescued those three¡­ Jing Mo felt a wave of regret washed over him!

    The fleet flew silently and steadily onwards, but after leaving this unending darkness, what could possibly await them? Jing Mo and Fid dared not consider the horrors!

 Chapter 35 - There Be Pirates!

    <h4>Chapter 35: There Be Pirates!</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Big brother, do you think they got it wrong?¡± A pugnacious looking heavyset man asked in a low, muffled voice.

    ¡°Who knows?¡± The one-eyed leader sat with a leg hanging over the armrest and his eyes closed, taking a pleasant puff of his cigar. He was intoxicated with a product of good quality; naturally grown and processed by well-known experts, not something bought from a regr store with a few hundred zhuan.

    ¡°Big boss, I¡¯m afraid things have changed!¡± A gaunt man spoke up beside One-eye, his eyes constantly casting furtive nces here and there. This man was obviously the general of the group.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± One-eye was stillzily resting in a semi-lying posture.

    The gaunt general spoke lowly, ¡°Big boss, think about it, it¡¯s been six days since there has been any news from our spy from within, this does not bode well! Besides, we¡¯ve been waiting here for quite a few days, and usually they would have arrived by now!¡±

    ¡°Mm!¡± One-eye nodded approvingly. ¡°You¡¯re right! Then what do you think should be done? Surely we cannot return the deposit?¡± He looked displeased.

    The gaunt general smiled slyly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it big boss. That fellow would not dare to leak this information. He is more afraid of us than blowing his cover. Once the news is out, we would only suffer from a little reputational blemish, but that fellow, he would be utterly disgraced! Since we¡¯ve already taken the money, there¡¯s no way we¡¯re giving them back!¡±

    One-eyeughed heartily, and patted his general on the shoulder. ¡°Right, right, you¡¯re really the clever one! Then there¡¯s nothing left for us here now, right?¡±

    The heavyset man panicked. ¡°Big boss, returning with nothing to show is not favorable, the other brothers would surelyin!¡±

    One-eye stroked his chin, deep in thought. ¡°You¡¯re right. Returning empty-handed will tarnish our morale!¡± Just then, a servant came running while panting, and spoke agitatedly, ¡°Big boss, there¡¯s a fatmb right ahead, and a very big one at that!¡±

    One-eye tilted his head back andughed at the sky. ¡°It seems that our luck has arrived, whether we want it or not. Tell the brothers to get ready!¡±

    Ye Chong and the pair sat in a room.

    Gu Shaoze peeked at the door, and spoke in distress, ¡°What now? They wouldn¡¯t detain us, would they? Why have someone guarding outside? Are we prisoners now?¡±

    Number Two was pained by the young master¡¯s despair, and consoled him. ¡°Young master, do not worry, they¡¯re only doing this because they¡¯re suspicious of our identities. Without any confirmation, they would not dare to do anything to us!¡±

    Ye Chong could not be bothered to entertain them. He shut his eyes and rested, preserving his strength. In this unfamiliar territory, Ye Chong did not let his guard down. His body was in a very peculiar state, ready tounch a fatal strike at the enemy at any time.

    As for the two guards outside watching the door, Ye Chong was not perturbed by them. He did not think those two were a threat nor have the capabilities to restrain him.

    Ye Chong had always felt odd, for the people he met seemed to be quite fragile physically. It was strange that such a weak body would surely not withstand even a slightly powerful hit. Did they not know that the body was the essence of everything? It¡¯s really confounding!

    Gu Shaoze observed Ye Chong. While he admired Ye Chong¡¯s calmness, he was curious as to what the man was up to before getting into this mess.

    The two guards outside were expert level pilots. The squad leader¡¯s repeated warnings were still fresh in their heads, and they had always trusted him. Hence, while they felt that having two expert level mech pilots to guard three nobodies was a little excessive, they still obeyed the order unquestionably.

    Unexpectedly, a few orders came through thems device in their ear, and their expressions immediately changed. Both exchanged a look of surprise. One of them opened the door and spoke to the three solemnly, ¡°Everyone, please do not leave this room, else your safety is not guaranteed!¡±

    Number Two asked worriedly, ¡°My two good sirs, what happened?¡±

    The other guard hesitated a moment before speaking, ¡°We are under attack from space pirates! It seems like the Crimson Hawk!¡±

    ¡°Crimson Hawk?!¡± Gu Shaoze and Number Two gasped in unison, their faces paled in an instant.

    Their responses were expected by the two pilots, and one of them spoke, ¡°We¡¯re going into battle now. Please, do not worry. We¡¯ll put our best into this!¡± Thest phrase was spoken with great determination, as if the only alternative of sess was death, and thismanded respect.

    ¡°We¡¯re off now! You all take care!¡± The pair went outside in a hurry, leaving the three behind in the room.

    ¡°Crimson Hawk? How is this possible?¡± Number Two murmured in a daze, her face the image of despair. Gu Shaoze was also deeply troubled, and upset at the situation they were in. Only Ye Chong looked the same as before, fullyposed.

    ¡°What¡¯s the Crimson Hawk?¡± Seeing the two in fear and trepidation, Ye Chong was curious as to the cause.

    The pair looked at Ye Chong like he was an idiot. ¡°Are you really human? How could you not know the Crimson Hawk?¡±

    ¡°Are they any good?¡± Ye Chong asked.

    ¡°Oh heavens, how can someone ask such a ridiculous question like that on this day and age?¡± Gu Shaoze looked like he could faint at any moment. His pallor was the perfect depiction of someone with severe anemia.

    Number Two grudgingly managed an exnation. ¡°The Crimson Hawk is a powerful crew of space pirates. I don¡¯t know if they are the strongest amongst the pirates, but they are undoubtedly the most notorious. Compared to other pirate crews, they are more ruthless. Those who were captured rarely escaped alive.¡±

    Ye Chong cocked his head to one side and thought for a moment. ¡°What you¡¯re saying is that they will surely invade this ship?¡±

    Number Two nodded. ¡°Definitely!¡±

    Ye Chong stood abruptly, surprising the two.

    Gu Shaoze was flustered. ¡°What are you up to? Don¡¯t do anything rash! They kill without so much so at the snap of a finger!¡± Suddenly, Gu Shaoze quieted in realization, remembering that this man was just the same.

    ¡°I need mechs! Do you know where to find them?¡± Ye Chong asked nonchntly.

    Number Two felt that the man before him was truly an enigma. He was calm in the face of such impossible odds, and still high in spirits for the fight. Perhaps only the ignorant could be fearless!

    ¡°At the bottommost level is the cargo bay, usually there would be a few backup mechs so that pilots whose damaged mechs could not be repaired in time can still resumebat. For amercial fleet like this with many mech pilots onboard, surely there would be a few of those backups.¡± Number Two may not feel that this struggle could have any effect, but in her heart there was still a ray of hope. If he seeded, then the young master would be saved!

    ¡°How do I get to the cargo bay?¡± Upon hearing that there were mechs avable, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes suddenly zed brightly.

    The cargo bay¡¯s entrance was locked tight, and to open the door would require a passcode.

    There was no time to ask anyone for passcodes. Ye Chong took a deep breath, and in an instant, his chest expanded like a wind box; every muscle of his body began to burn like fire, as if he was inhaling hot air! Ye Chong bent his knees to a horse stance, angled his arm and closed his palm into a fist. He drew his arm slowly backwards while drawing and umting strength, bit by bit!

    He inhaled sharply - his body¡¯s temperature had risen to the point of being almost unbearable - and the bow was fully drawn!

    There were no further hesitations - Ye Chong howled like thunder while his right arm swung out like a hurricane storm as it shrieked lowly past the air and aiming straight towards the center of the cargo bay¡¯s door!

 Chapter 36 - Stealth Rock

    <h4>Chapter 36: Stealth Rock</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Thump! An extremely off-putting thud centered at Ye Chong¡¯s right fist as countless cracks densely formed towards the surrounding in a frenzied manner. The ck entrance storage door soon cracked like a blooming flower, of white silver tainted with crimson patches. It bloomed rapidly in front of Ye Chong.

    Smash! A ss shattering like-sound rang as the tiny bits of metallic flower withered petal by petal. Hush! Shush! The crack soon caused the door to have its pieces fall down in a heavy shower.

    Ye Chong nced at his right hand, where an open wound bled with its fleshcerated. He couldn¡¯t help but shudder upon the bloody mess. Apparently smashing a door open barehanded is highly dangerous. I should refrain doing that too much in the future!

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong stormed into the storage area.

    He then immediately found a series of mech warp switches neatly arranged on the rack by the wall. As if a famished wolf which bumped into a feast, he pounced in a hurry.

    Since these were mechs for back-up, other than some of them being specialized scouting models, most of them happened to be mechs for use in outer space.

    Ye Chong thought for a moment and picked a scorpion-shaped mech model paintedpletely ck, named the ¡°Sand Scorpio¡±, which had outstanding speed and a wide scope of vision. The body was satisfactory and the color allowed it to perfectly hide and go unnoticed by enemies. Ye Chong didn¡¯t pick the Sand Scorpio merely because of these features, but there was something unique in the functions that caught his eyes.

    Staring at the rack, he grit his teeth. The warp switches clinked as he swept all of them into his fanny pack.

    He tumbled and hopped into the cabin of a Sand Scorpio. He looked at the interface with panic, as it required him to perform a firstunch set-up.

    He missed Mu. Mu was so much more convenient than this. He never was required to perform aplicated set-up. It only took a drop of his blood tounch.

    His eyes red at the popping messages on the hologram while his hands moved quicker than its shadows. There were a number of properties exclusive to the Sand Scorpio and to utilize them well, Ye Chong had to go through the settings first. In the battlefield, what lies between life and death is only a matter of seconds. A slip could change things forever. He would not dare to proceed without any form of preparation.

    In a panic, he might have been in a rush but he didn¡¯t rush, instead Ye Chong carefully and calmly went through the overall settings.

    Only if Mu was there¡­ then his pathetic life would be saved. And he wouldn¡¯t have to be so agitated at the moment!

    Gu Shaoze and Number 2 sat quietly in the room, looking at each other.

    Meanwhile in the battlefield, it was total chaos. Both sides had experienced pilots. Beams ofser in all kinds of colors diverged, converged, ovepped and collided into each other. The darkness of dead space was lustered by the sparks of war.

    The Oak Leaves were more like an actual army than a bunch of pilots. They raided in a nned formation. Disciplined, supportive, and orderly as they helped each other out. All for one, one for all. Ten advanced pilots formed the branches of the entire army, while Fid, the crew master, was the mastermind of it all.

    Man shalt not be weak under his great reputation. The space pirates of the Red Owl Beard came in an overwhelming amount against the Oak Leaves and everyone piloted a mech programmed forbat. They arrived like a pack of wolves, cunningly avoiding direct contact with the Oak Leaves and began ruffling their wings and tail without holding back. They would never stay for long on the Oak Leaves, they would just hit and run.

    Judging by the situation, both parties couldn¡¯t do anything to each other at first. But as the Red Owl Beard easily outnumbered the Oak Leaves, the scale of war gradually tilted in favor of the space pirates.

    Ye Chong was piloting his Space Scorpio as he stealthily tailed behind a trading vessel. With much caution, he nced at the chaotic situation before him. He might had seen much more brutality back at Trash-12 in the past years he stayed there, yet the scene before him was still casting chills down his spine.

    Countless mechs swayed, glided and exploded from time to time. Ye Chong witnessed the mechs bursting into shots of fireworks, illuminating the dark space before him. Even though he had been into numerous matches at the NRS training ground and had smashed enough machines, none of those were overwhelming enough topete with the epic scene at that moment.

    He tried to calm down the rustling in his thoughts.

    Stay alive¡­ Stay alive¡­ I must stay alive! Ye Chong mumbled repetitively, as he attempted hypnotizing himself to remind how he could not just die there. I had stayed on Trash for long enough and I had finally made my way out of there! I have not seen enough of the outside world! How could I just die here?

    I can¡¯t die! He screamed to the top of his lungs!

    Puff¡­ Huff¡­ He gasped boldly. Slowly he caught his breath and regained serenity.

    What to do now? At this rate, it would be only a matter of time when the Oak Leaves miserably lose. Even in self-content, Ye Chong knew his position well, as he might have assumed himself to be powerful and invincible, but he could barely turn over the ce in such situation. He could not change what would happen in the end.

    As soon as he calmed down, he started to ponder.

    Considering how both parties were busy with each other, and no one had the grace to look over here¡­ He had an idea. How about I just get onto one vessel and sneak away? I had just learned some tricks on this from Gu Shaoze a while before, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem!

    Wait, no. He turned down the idea himself as he thought about the limited speed a vessel could offer. By the time the space pirates ended the fight in glory, he might be merely slightly ahead of them. There¡¯s no way for him to race with a pirate craft! He would be cornered in no time!

    How about escaping with one of the mechs I got? Guarantee they would not notice. Well, even if they had caught me red-handedly running away, they would send nobody to go after me. Even if they would, they wouldn¡¯t send a flock of them¡­ If that¡¯s the case, with only one or two of them, I still have a chance.

    But mechs aren¡¯t theoretically designed for long-term flights, as the energy gets depleted fast. It was insufficient to begin with and there was no resupply; Ye Chong had neither water nor food for necessities. If he even managed to escape, he would be starved or dehyrated to death in the boundless gxy.

    Then what should I do! He was puzzled, knotting his brows.

    Suddenly, the corners of his eyes discerned a strangely crafted spaceship and it was crowded by pirates. It seemed to be the head of all pirate crafts. By then, an idea automatically popped up in his mind and it began lingering in his mind ever since.

    As he shifted his sights upon a number of floating rocks a few meters away, his idea took shape.

    The battle was reaching its climax as both sides began to have major injuries. Almost everyone took part in the tipping point of the fight.

    This is it!

    He made up his mind and grit his teeth, with the thought of risking his life. Whether he would be dead or alive, it all depended on this!

    He sat up straight in the controlling seat, closed his eyes and took a specific rhythm to breathe. Inhale¡­Exhale¡­Inhale¡­Exhale. Consciously adjusting his muscles into rxation, his arms reached the control panel gently, with the fingers curving naturally.

    Right then! His eyes forced open, lustrously.

    Dammit! He cursed softly. His hands illusively moved. Right on the fence between death and life, he did not let up. He dared to promise, and that was the time where his hands moved the fastest they could ever be.

    elerate! Gear up! Within the spark of his eyes, he had hit the highest velocity as he drove towards the front of the vessel diagonally, as if the vessel was his nemesis.

    At 10 meters away from the vessel,pletely immersed in the shadow of the gigantic craft, he was still speeding up with his hands, away from split seconds crashing. Sand Scorpio at maximum speed,unched the additional engines in a bombardment.

    The Sand Scorpio made a gorgeous curve as he glided it under the bottom of the vessel. There was barely 10 centimeters between the Scorpio and the vessel.

    Ye Chong focused on the hologram and repeated the calction in his mind. His hands had hardly paused. Sweat hung on his forehead. It looked like it was rather consuming for Ye Chong to perform such input.

    The bottom of the vessel had a breadth about 50 meters long¡­ at this speed, the Sand Scorpio would flee from the vessel within less than a second!

    In that second, when the Sand Scorpio glided through, the smooth dark body turned into dents and unorderly lumps all over. The long sting was also kept underneath. The Sand Scorpio by then appeared to be like a random space rock from nowhere. The engines were all shut down the moment the craft fled from beneath.

    Such a chain ofplications done in one go within a second¡­ Ye Chong could feel the amazing speed of his hands!

    That was the first time in his life appreciating Mu¡¯s ¡°inhumane¡± marble training!

    The Sand Scorpio propelled like a shattered meteorite through the group of vessels in silence.

    No one in the battle noticed the existence of this ¡°meteorite¡±.

 Chapter 37 - Camouflage

    <h4>Chapter 37: Camouge</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Camouge - an unique ability possessed by the Sand Scorpio, by making use of the uneven lumps on the surface, it hides itself from enemy detection pretending to be piece of rock. But this ability is hard to utilize, as the activation of it has a harsh requirement where the user has to shut down the power first, while rebooting the system from utter inactivity to mobility would also require massive inputs. In other words, right when you use this ability, you havepletely given up your mobility. You could only pray that you won¡¯t be detected by enemies; if you were, unfortunately, you¡¯ll be skewed!

    Unquestionably, the overwhelming requirement on the precision of piloting is one of the main reasons that prevented this technique to bemonly used.

    In the meantime, concealed in the shadows of the vessels, Ye Chong¡¯s Sand Scorpio crept by.

    If one were to take a closer look, one would notice how this piece of rock was always either travelling right beneath every vessel or sliding through by its side. There was merely a gap between each slide-through! Oh the risk!

    Everytime when Ye Chong was moving by a vessel, he would utilize the cover of the shadows to perform a sequence of inputs involving the reboot of his engine, adjusting his aspect and coordinates, and turning off the engine again.

    As he passed by thest vessel, he finally could have a sigh of relief.

    The inertia of the Sand Scorpio glided it diagonally towards the floating rocks faraway. In the middle of the silent and dark sky of the night, the gliding rock didn¡¯t get anybody¡¯s attention.

    It was then Ye Chong realized how truly soaked he was, as if he had just gotten out of water. His hands were in spasms, the aches wereing through. It seemed like the series of inputs just now had gone beyond the capacity in his usual training. The difort he had, it was from overusing his hands. His right hand was the worst as it was wounded by the punch breaking into the storage area. Under normal circumstances, the injury was nothing in his eyes, but considering it was an injury over another, he begged his right hand to not go haywire at the moment.

    Sweat blended with blood. The saltiness of the sweat scorched the right hand of his. A constant stimtion that kept his hand from feeling worn out.

    At this speed, it would take about 5 more minutes to get to the group of rocks there.

    The lights were turned off in the cabin, with the hologram illuminating Ye Chong, it blinked in a dreamy nature - an illusionary to behold.

    Ye Chong couldn¡¯t be bothered by the other kinds of beauty taking ce in his cabin. He had more concern on the ongoing information in the hologram, as he adjusted his breathing pattern to slightly reduce consumption of stamina while his hands were gently fluttering to resolve their fatigue.

    How the situation of the battlefield had turned out, he would not dare see.

    5 minutes passed. Ye Chong stared at the approaching rocks as he inched towards. A never-before-felt sensation of anticipation raided his mind. The very first step had beenpleted wlessly, what¡¯s next?

    It¡¯sing! Closer¡­ Closer! Closer! Now!

    The Sand Scorpio got to the shades of the rocks and ¡­ full force! Booming, the engine had been turned on and all supportive engines on the side-wings engaged! The supportive engines took on different angles and directions from time to time while the Sand Scorpio, like it was attracted by the rocks, performed a 120 degree curve, sliding into one side of a rock and smoothly exiting out from another. The process was without interruption, executed intuitively.

    The rocks were distant from the battlefield, making them less noticable, which was why Ye Chong chose the rocks in this area instead.

    And he would be using these rocks toplete his direction change!

    And without doubt, he did it well. He was sure that if Mu was there, Mu would be giving his rarepliments on his perfect curve as well.

    The Sand Scorpio had its engine switched off right aftering out from the rock cluster.

    The direction of its travel - To the Pirate Craft!

    By then, no one had noticed this very piece of rock that would change the oue of this war entirely as it flew towards the pirate ships.

    Seeing the pirate ship approaching, he was getting nervous.

    The approach was impably urate!

    His Sand Scorpio had just travelled by the first outermost pirate craft. It was only a close shave, which gave Ye Chong cold sweat throughout his body. If anything was inurate in his prediction before, there¡¯s no turning back. There¡¯s no recalcting or readjusting the mech¡¯s angle. If he were to switch on the Sand Scorpio, even just one engine, the camouge would be busted right away. And he could imagine how he would be bombarded into oblivion by the firearms of the battling armies on the spot.

    The Sand Scorpio justified his calcting ability. There had yet to be even a slight scratch with any pirate ship and the Sand Scorpio was steadily sliding towards the deep abdomen of the pirate craft.

    He soon arrived at his destination - a pirate craft of an outstanding design!

    He dare he was sure that the craft was not an ordinary pirate ship! Between every other pirate crews, this one would be his prey in no time. He felt an intensity he never felt before, which surged throughout his body like electricity and excited him till he shuddered!

    Ye Chong¡¯s red bleary eyes, the tiredness, the aches from his wound, the spasms on both his hands were long gone by then. He was injected with a new form of energy, charging him up so much that he had never felt being this good in condition!

    Different from being the maniac in his mind, his hands were still performing inputs tidily and not thrashing about!

    As the Sand Scorpio hovered underneath the vessel, the tail was sprung open. Clink! A gentle screech came from the alloy rope. The bottom of the Sand Scorpio was a giant trochal disc, which usually was kept conical. When the Sand Scorpio¡¯s tail sprang upon the bottom of the ship, it transformed into the circr trochal disc which had itself fixed tightly underneath the ship.

    The ever-sliding Sand Scorpio had eventually stopped itself. Ye Chong calmed down.

    Ye Chong couldn¡¯t help but to start checking out the bottom of the ship right before him.

    At the center of it, there was a circr lid dented in the bottom. Judging by that, the lid could be possibly opened from the inside of it.

    Any mech modelled for space-travelling would have an escape suit for the pilot, which not only was able to provide oxygen supply up to 10 hours, but also had the ability to fly. Well, of course, the so-called flying was only of range brief enough for one to reach the nearest spacecraft in space.

    Ye Chong put on the escape suit and kept the dagger that Gu Shaoze gifted him at his waist, the toolkit in hand; he scurried out of the cabin in a flip and did not immediately follow the alloy rope attached upwards, rather he hovered towards the abdomen of the Sand Scorpio and got to its weapon storage.

    He cautiously used the toolkit in his hand and removed theser sword installed on the Sand Scorpio. Well for cannons¡­ those were too much¡­ considering how these would expose him anytime alright, Ye Chong wouldn¡¯t want to bet his life on these.

    So he grabbed the 3 meter longser sword. It looked a bit absurd for aser sword.

    He then clung onto the alloy rope and made his way up to the bottom of the pirate ship. He observed the embedded lid and confirmed it had to be open from the inside. Too bad. By then he instantly dropped the idea of using the toolkit to open the lid. He put the toolkit aside and raised theser sword with both hands.

    To die in space or to take another chance to another frontier? This shall be taken!

    Ye Chong impaled theser sword in his hands right onto the lid without hesitation!

 Chapter 38 - Red Oâ€™ Beard

    <h4>Chapter 38: Red O¡¯ Beard</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Wondering what material this ship was built out of, Ye Chong was facing difficulty cutting through, even with a powerfulser sword. Droplets of sweat formed on his forehead, reflecting the ring lighting from theser sword. It was quite striking in the darkness of space. He would be in trouble if he didn¡¯t make it fast! People would notice him soon enough!

    The other hand of his was gripping the alloy rope attached to the trochal disc of Sand Scorpio to stay still in the weightlessness of space. He hoped that the suction would be strong enough to hold him up and not drop him out of a sudden!

    Theser sword was gradually making progress as it started to sink into the bottom of the ship. Man this armor is sure thick! The sword¡¯s entire de had already been engulfed by the ship¡¯s body but there was yet a breakthrough. There was no other choice. Ye Chong had to dig a way in. He plucked out the armor piece by piece. This is tiring with aser sword. It would be certainly lovely if I have aser shovel or something instead¡­ He didn¡¯t forget to crack a joke to lighten the atmosphere at that moment, just to rx his tightened nerves since he started to notice his muscles were stiffening due to nervousness.

    Back when he was at Trash-12, whenever he was in such a dead-or-alive situation, cracking jokes was the method to bring him good luck!

    He starkly looked like the nanobot working in space stations. And they were used for very.

    Zing! Theser sword felt nimbler out of a sudden. Great! Ye Chong cheered. We finally got through! He carefully sliced an opening big enough to fit a man and kept the Sand Scorpio back in the alternate dimension, thanking it for its tremendous fulfilment in its role.

    He weaved into the pirate ship with much caution. Right as he was in the ship, he felt weight and staggered, nearly losing grasp of his sword. He just realized that he had already entered the gravitational field of the ship.

    Illuminated by the light of theser sword, Ye Chong looked around attentively.

    ¡­

    At the main control room, Mr. One-eye had a cigar in his mouth and cozily melted into the fluffymander seat, with serenity in his eyes. His willowy strategist held hands with devotion as he stood behind his leader.

    ¡°These twerps sure know something!¡± Mr. One-eye chuckled, ¡°They knew how to fight! Psh, this rowdy fe was really fierce. Hah! It was not strange for him to be one of my arsenals! But the fatmb runnin¡¯ this time was a bit tough to deal with. Too bad he ran into us! Hehehe! We¡¯re makin¡¯ some fortune this time¡­¡± He coveted the gigantic vessels, with countless jewelries of gold and diamond that flew in his eyes.

    The slender strategist nodded obediently. He deeply understood the situation as his sunken face usually pale had been drunkenly red by then, obviously being overjoyed from hunting down this rare fatmb. Such an unexpected loot! Coming out of nowhere! Surely even a menacing guy like him would be blinded by joy too.

    Though blinded by joy, he still remembered to butter up his master, ¡°This is all because of your superior leadership, Mr. One-eye. The loot is more than enough for us to live like a king for the next few months! But, great leader, there has been rumorsing from the ck Cove, talking about how every item was strangely out of stock recently. We even have the word of the elderly there, saying they would pay handsomely for any stock sent. Not only handsomely in money but also handsomely in ck Cove points! Well, I have a suggestion, Mr. One-eye. Are we sending these stocks on the vessel right to the elderly? So that we would not lose out much while earning these decent ck Cove points which could be put into good use for us?¡±

    ck Cove was sending chills down Mr. One-eye¡¯s spine upon hearing it as he shuddered. The fear didn¡¯tst till the phrase ck Cove points was mentioned. His single eye lustered.

    ck Cove was a mysterious ce, the absolute center of shadowy figures. It was also a paradise for consumerism, with the hottest chick, the smoothest wine, the brightest costume, the kindest service, the best mech - sexual, mellow, thoughtful, gorgeous and advanced¡­ Anything of any adjective, as long as you could think of, you could own them all. Even those you couldn¡¯t think of would exist in ck Cove, like the beast you had not seen before, literally everything that would be an eye-opener to you would be in ck Cove.

    Currencies of the 5 major gxies were all useable in this area, but only for services in the outskirts. If you would want to contact ¡­ and of course you would want to, the darkest, the most mysterious, the deepest of ck Cove, namely the inner area, the core, you would need currency of an exclusive kind by ck Cove - the ck Cove points, which could not be obtained under normal circumstances like exchanging them with currency from the major gxies, unless anyone in possession of the points was willing to exchange them for your gxy bucks. In the market, those points were already sought after by desperate buyers with astronomical offers, yet no one in actual possession was happy enough to trade them off.

    To a space pirate like Mr. One-eye, every single point was worth more than anything.

    Every once in awhile, the elderly at ck Cove would announce a series of request, in exchange for ck Cove points if any of those quests were aplished ordingly. In addition, all the workers serving in the core of ck Cove would be paid points too, as their sry or wages. The catch that turned people off was, be it a sincere request from the elderly or a job in the inner area, they were never easy to begin with.

    The requests from the elderly were of extremely difficult, where even a real extraordinary man of authority like Mr. One-eye with an army of followers could only helplessly stare at such requests. If you managed to squeeze into the core of ck Cove to work, congrattions! That means your expertise is of brilliant mastery. As long as your standard is high enough, even though you are a problematic figure for instance, it would not hinder your admission to work in the core because your strength determines everything in the core.

    But well, there was still one more way to get ck Cove points. It was quite a strange way too - to provide precious information in exchange. There would be experts to rate your info and pay you with those points ordingly.

    ¡°Are you sure about the rumors, Willow?¡± Mr. One-eye quickly asked.

    Willow replied respectfully, ¡°Yes sir, I heard it from Mr. Jackson. Along the way I also have discerned it from whispers of some of the people!¡±

    ¡°Jackson!¡± Mr. One-eye muttered. He moaned as he thought. Jackson was one-of-a-kind among the space pirates, different from the Red Owl Beard who came in crowds, he was the lone wolf hunting in space. He might be alone, but none of the crew dared to look down on him. Nobody ever was brave enough to steal his loot. Somehow, there was a reason but it was unspeakable for everybody. They couldn¡¯t exin why they feared to steal his loot, it just happened, as if an unwritten rule among the crew.

    ¡°If it was from Jackson, chances are it is real!¡± Mr. One-eye eximed, ¡°But ya know, it takes far to travel to the ck Cove, we the Red Owls carryin¡¯ such a huge vessel, it is not strange there could be anybody in the way, wanting to steal our gold!¡±

    ¡°But, sir, this is a golden opportunity to get your points!¡± Strategist Willow advised, ¡°I think, this is a risk worthy to be taken! Also, even if there is anyone who is daring enough to stand in the way, we are not angels to spare gifts, especially under your supreme leadership, they would not simply offend you, Mr. One-eye! If we all make it this time, those people in our way would be running away the next time they see us! Of course it all depends on your wisdom, great leader of the Red Owls!¡±

    The great leader of the Red Owls made up his mind, ¡°Right! You¡¯re right! How could I let go of a treasure chest like this? It is surely worthy of some risk! Those ck Cove points were what I dreamed of! We¡¯re just short of a few points to get us a new boat. Hehehe, imagine the world if I got a new craft to thrash with!¡±

    ¡°Oh,how wise our leader!¡± Willow praised along.

    ¡°Hahahaha!¡± Mr. One-eye patted his shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I¡¯ll share ya¡¯ll some coins once I have the entire chest! Hahahahahaha!¡±

    Willow¡¯s face blossomed with excitement, bowing and nodding his head in wholehearted loyalty.

    While they were so indulged in their glorious future in wealth, they never noticed a shadow that shed by the hologram.

 Chapter 39 - Knocking down the Stalk

    <h4>Chapter 39: Knocking down the Stalk</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong waited right outside the door, silently like a huntsman¡¯s jaguar standing by in the dark corners. He was anticipating the moment for the prey to be immobile. As Ye Chong explored the pirate ship all the way, he encountered nobody. It was as if the whole craft was a fraud, a hollow shell filled with no one. That was his impression till he hit the main control room and his ears caught some mumbles. He stopped by and hid himself.

    He peeked into the control room. There were only 2 persons. Apparently the one with an eye-patch at the side seemed to be the leader¡­ judging by how his only eye blinked with charisma as he spoke to another who seemed to be in respect¡­ a respect by fear¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s fingers fiddled the dagger in his waist. Theser sword was too long to be carried around in a small space like this. Plus, the light it produced was too distinctive, it would alert the enemy in no time. As soon as he made his way into the craft, he dropped it somewhere in the darker corner of the corridor. He also discarded the space suit since that plump thing was too clumsy to walk with.

    Mr. One-eye was givingmands through the interface projected before him, while Willow stood behind his supreme leader. Both of them were facing their backs to Ye Chong outside.

    He waited on, waited for the best time to strike!

    Mr. One-eye muffled some considerable matters and disconnected the transmission, gasping in the end. That¡¯s the moment Ye Chong had been waiting for!

    Ye Chong tiptoed, his back slightly hunched, and sneaked to the back of Mr. One-eye. The thick carpet over the floor of the control room was such an advantage to keep his movement silent. Mr. One-eye who had spent almost his whole life dancing between the brink of life and death seemed to have his instinct surprisingly calling, calling him to take a nce to his back as he sensed something.

    Damn! Ye Chong was agitated! He sprang up on his legs and pounced quickly, with the dagger in his right hand stinging like the venom of a snake. The process was fast, urate and painful. As usual, he did not held back. The next moment after that was him locking his dagger right onto Mr. One-eye¡¯s neck. From his experience, he could guarantee that if this blow wasnded right, his neck would have a huge cut!

    Mr. One-eye could hear the wind whooshing from his back. Terrified, he couldn¡¯t be bothered of how graceless he would look, he lifted himself off the armrest and bounced off like a ball, rolling to the front as he dodged this very blow from Ye Chong. Of course, as past experience taught him well, right as he bounced off, he switched on the transmitter.

    Willow the strategist didn¡¯t seem to have reacted in time. He only saw how his supreme leader rolled on the carpet out of a sudden and was in deep confusion. What the heck is our leader doing?

    Ye Chong thought he would havended the hit, but in fact he didn¡¯t. That was uncalled for¡­ He couldn¡¯t help but flinch a little. Then his sight shifted upon the Willow guy frozen at the side. Intuitively, heunched his left fist upon his waist. Wham! Willow was sent flying like a ragged doll, in a gorgeous curve, right onto the wall as blood sshed and painted the in white wall a mural of cherry blossoms.

    Mr. One-eye who witnessed the power of a mere punch being this devastating had his face drained of colour! Ye Chong was going to react.

    Beep! Ye Chong jumped at the interface suddenly popping out.

    The grunt in the screen was stupefied, wondering why his leader called him right after the transmission was ended. ¡°What¡¯s yourmand, sir?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Are you dumb or what!¡± Mr. One-eye couldn¡¯t control and baffled, ¡°Imand your dumbass! Don¡¯t you have eyes or something? Don¡¯t you see I¡¯m getting assaulted? How about you act fast and cal¡± He choked on his words and his rampaging temper was abruptly extinguished, as he saw Ye Chong jumping onto him.

    He knew well in his mind, as long as he bought himself a little bit more time, his men would make it here. Just one more minute¡­ No! Half a minute maybe! Comforting himself in his mind.

    He went dizzy for a brief moment while Ye Chong then had already haunted right in front of him. He was travelling like a phantom in the room, with the de of his dagger glowing coldly as he brandished it, making orbits and orbits that shed one after another.

    The afterimages further frightened the old pirate. His face paled further. He was not expecting a mere man having such strength would also possess such horrifying agility. His past reminded him of how he recognized the capability of immense speed more than immense strength. Immense strength could be threatening, but not as practical as immense speed. Speed, brutality and uracy. It¡¯s always speed that mattered most. There had been a saying among the pirates - Nothing shalt avoid its defeat, unless speed it was. One could only have either. With great strength you let go of your dexterity, and vice versa. However if there would be an exception to this bnce, one who possessed both immense strength and speed¡­ that would be¡­

    A. Big. Terror.

    Mr. One-eye never thought of having such an encounter today, with such a powerful force. His hope sank over time.

    He reacted reflexively in the experience of a great man like himself. He knew he couldn¡¯t dodge, so, girtting his teeth, he raised his arms and warded himself from the fatal blow!

    Sphhhlt! Crack! It was the sound of the de piercing the flesh at first, followed by the bone crushes. Ahhhh! Mr. One-eye shrieked. The pain prated right through his marrow, flooding his thoughts like a tsunami wave. He wanted to do something. He needed to something! How to do it? His subconscious urged him to do something, anything would do, as long as the pain could be lessened.

    Ye Chong noticed the moment when Mr. One-eye was shouting in pain, the opportunity when he loosened his guard. Clink! He pulled out his dagger from the flesh, blood poured out like fountain. His eyes locked on, with the dagger locked right onto the throat, like a snake¡¯s fangs. It didn¡¯t miss this time!

    The one eye on his face bloated, like a dead fish he was, red at Ye Chong, as if he was in disbelief of what had happened to himself. One hand holding his throat, while his lips lifted, wanting to mutter some words but only fizzes rushed out like a broken pipe. The blood gargled out of his mouth next. Itsted for a few seconds before the old pirate copsed into the annals of history.

    The grunt in the interface was shocked by the sight. His brain remained malfunctioned. He couldn¡¯t react and could only watch on. It was when he saw his leader copse, he only reacted, in screams and shouts.

    Ye Chong nced nonchntly and shut down the transmitter.

    The next thing on the list¡­ Ye Chong was aware of. Onest thing to do. Run!

    He hopped onto the control seat and piloted the ship backwards. As this was the first hand-on experience to pilot an actual space craft for him, he acted rather awkwardly. There was quite a number of guarding crafts nearby and Ye Chong crashed into them asionally as he made his way to escape.

    The crewmen on the ships outside did not know their leader¡¯s death. They just assumed it was one of the mischievous moments by their head. Moreover such minute impact wouldn¡¯t harm their ships that much. So the crewmen justughed on as they watched their leader entertaining them like a clown. It would be a precious moment to behold! Of seeing the leader acting like a joke!

    It didn¡¯t take long till Ye Chong got a hold of it. He realized it wasn¡¯t that much of a differencepared to piloting a mech.

    ¡­

    Back on the battlefield, Fid was pleading in agony. These pirates couldn¡¯t stop harassing! His team was running low on power for their mechs. But the constant harassment was preventing them to refill. It would only take about 2 to 3 more minutes before he and his team would be hunted like a pen of helplessmbs by a pack of wolves outside. He was almost depressed.

    Out of the blue, something urred on the battlefield. Something strange!

    It began with one of the pirates stopping the attack, then the next and the others¡­ as if an infection, in less than half a minute, almost the entire crew held their attacks.

    Fid, witnessing such a creepy sight before him, was puzzled.

    Was this another diabolical n by the filthy owls? These crewmen did not need conspicuous tricks like these! Or had mercy got into their heads to let us all go? No way! Pfft! Barbarians like the pirates would be religious enough to spare the life of others? Then I must be a saint too!

    Fid ceased his thoughts. He saved his spection andmanded his team to head back and refill immediately. He couldn¡¯t bear to lose this very chance.

    He evacuated the team and ran back for his life. He turned his head as he escaped, which the sight nearly widened his eye balls. The enemies¡­ The enemies! They¡­ They turned back and ran too! They even fled faster than our team! Out of shock, his craft almost crashed into a vessel, such an unwieldly act he did!

    It was still a scorching battlefield with bombardments and ughters.

    The next second, it was nothing.

 Chapter 40 - That Willow Guy

    <h4>Chapter 40: That Willow Guy</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    He took a glimpse towards his back. Man! He was put into immense shock. His situation by then was like a honeb dripping fresh, concentrated honey, where the hos tailed vigorously. The first ever time it was Ye Chong that felt an urge to stab the damn honebs a thousand times whenever he saw it. Without much guessing, he elerated to maximum speed and prayed to God that this piece of pirate mount had capacity great enough to sustain him throughout the run from being chased down. If the capacity wasn¡¯t good enough, he¡¯s going to get cornered and shredded into nothing. If only that would happen!

    Fortunately, the craft indeed outperformed the rest and sped away. Well it seemed like even a good o¡¯ pirate like Mr. One-eye feared death too, that he must make sure he manages to run away.

    Anyway, at least I was saved.

    Riding the gigantic craft, he ran through space.

    The pirates went after him and didn¡¯t seem to be giving up anytime soon. Some even hopped onto their mech and rode on the pirate ship instead! Fire at will! Theyunched attacks without any pause, with any kind of weapon they had - be it the typical heat ray gun, lux ster (spreading beam shooter) or the advancedser sniper rifle, they even have their own particle cannons. However¡­ Wonder if it was because the ship had undergone some sort of modification for it being the mount of the potent corsair, for some reason, when the bombardments struck, the body of the ship was hardly damaged. At most, only the sniper rifle could leave little pores on the surface.

    The new leader of the pirates was in regret by then. He was formerly a devoted crewman under Mr. One-eye¡¯s leadership. It was an unwavering bond of friendship too between the captain and himself. Iron, or Mr. Iron, mourning over the captain¡¯s death ,went after the murderer, yet he was in such a pile of regrets, for why the heck did he modify his leader¡¯s craft to be that overpowered in the first ce, making the murderer literally invincible at that moment.

    Seeing how he was truly invincible from the shooting, Ye Chong was oh sure jolly! Later, the gap between the pirates and himself grewrger andrger. Obviously he was on the right ship! The speed was well ahead of them all!

    At least he secured himself. Alert disengaged for him. He gasped in relief and switched to auto-pilot mode, before copsing into the seat. Every part of his body was worn out, especially his hands, aching like being pricked by needles. The softmander seat cloaked him with slumber. He felt like catching Z¡¯s finally, after being stressed for so long. He couldn¡¯t hold it any longer, the guards or whatever and dipped into his dreams.

    ¡­

    It¡¯s been 6 hours since Ye Chong woke up.

    The smell of death wafted throughout the control room. The bloody mess was such an eyesore! Ye Chong knotted his brows as the coppery smell spiked his nostrils. He lifted the dead body of the good-for-nothing pirate whose glory had be history and simply dumped him into the garbage chute. As he walked back to his lovely seat, Strategist Willow somehow flinched right on the wall. Wait, aren¡¯t you dead yet? This frail guy is still alive? It can¡¯t be! He knew the strength of his iron fist well, even a bulky guy like Mr. One-eye would crumble in one punch. It¡¯s no good. It doesn¡¯t seem like that kind of fist a weakling like that willow guy could take!

    Some thoughts sprung in his mind. He began unbuttoning Strategist Willow¡¯s shirt and it was as guessed! He discovered a kind of cloth, light yellow and with countless dark threads crossing over each other.

    Ye Chong removed the clothing from the strategist and fiddled with it. Such strength. He pulled the clothing forcefully with his hands yet there was no splitting or stting, the sound in which he was expecting when clothes were torn. The clothing remained intact. Ye Chong was quite intrigued and changed into it straightaway. He tried punching his own chest and strange things happened. He only felt a moment of heat on his body and the pain felt much lesser than he imagined. It was then he realized the concept of how the shirt worked. It generally dispersed the damage received throughout the entire clothing, which in return reduced the fatality of attacks.

    This is a nice safety charm! He couldn¡¯t let go of it and carefully had it to be the innermost of his outfit. Of course he did mutter, of how marvelous it could be if it was an overall for starters!

    Then Willow faintly woke up and found out himself top-naked, and chilly. ¡°You¡­You¡­ Don¡¯t youe here! Please!¡± He was frightened, ¡°Spare my life, mister. Please spare me¡­¡± Ye Chong was still directing his cold sight upon the trembling strategist. Willow gulped a few times, there was only horror on his face. It took him a moment to spit few words as he shrunk, ¡°Mi¡­Mister? I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m¡­ a virg- sorr¡­sorry¡­ but¡­ this¡­It¡­It is my first time¡­ with a guy¡­ you know¡­ Please¡­Please do¡­ do it gently!¡±

    ¡­

    Ye Chong couldn¡¯t hold the impact and mmed the ground as he fainted on the carpet with his mouth bubbling.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong slowly reached the dagger at his waist and Willow saw that, ¡°Please spare me master! Please! Spare! Me!¡± Even more terrified, he pleaded quickly, ¡°If master could spare this worthless life of mine, Willow is willing to follow master everywhere and show loyalty. Willow would take care of everything for master¡¯s everyday needs and is willing to die for master!¡±

    ¡°Hmm.¡± He drew the dagger rather sluggishly and spoke slowly, ¡°Oh. Tell me a reason not to kill you!¡±

    The willow man was sweating hard but he didn¡¯t have time to wipe it off, ¡°I know well about the environment and its surrounding. Ex-Extremely well! If master could spare me, I can guarantee to escort you out of the filthy pirates¡¯ raids! Also I know well about the pirates around here too! I could take up simple chores like getting things ready for master or hitting the underlings. I can tell you that I¡¯m good at them¡­¡± Over time, as he lifted his lips and spoke, the anxiety faded away as he spoke smoother and smoother till it was really unstoppable!

    The speech caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention. The surrounding was truly foreign to him. If he were to stick his head out everywhere, he would be caught by the pirates in no time. Maybe it would be a good idea to keep a man like this willow guy.

    The strategist was intelligent for sure, discerning the changes in Ye Chong¡¯s expression, he rejoiced in his mind. It seems it¡¯s working!

    Ye Chong who made up his mind nced at the willow strategist, ¡°You are right with your words. Indeed, your pathetic life would linger. However, if you were to do something funny, specifically, anything that you shouldn¡¯t have done. Hmph¡­¡± His wrist shook and the dagger in his hand was sent flying, like dark lightning. Zap! It rubbed through the dented cheeks of the strategist by a few millimeters, and embedded all the way into the wall right next! The whole de!

    Strategist Willow felt the chillness on his cheeks, as well as his own doom! But he then realized he was still in one piece, he let off a sigh of relief! Right when he thought of resting his eyes, he caught sight of the shrill dagger as he turned his head, and the panic that was formerly swallowed went up to his throat again. Such frightening strength! Every wall in this ship was made out of high density low-carbon materials, which even a heat ray gun could only leave a tiny hole on it. He never thought a mere man like his master could make such a strike. His new master was absolutely a terror!

    Till he heard about his master sparing him his life for real this time, he got to rx and bowed numerous times to express his faithfulness.

    He actually had his own ns. He knew, despite being the second-upper figure in the Red Owl Beard, he stayed on only because he had the trust of his old leader. Unlike the third-upper man in the crew, Iron, who had way more charisma and trust of the entire lower crew. Currently Mr. One-eye was dead and without doubt the crewmen would crown Iron as their new leader automatically. He never had a good time with Iron. He had issues with him. The Red Owl Beard had no longer a ce for himself, and if he stayed, it was only a matter of time for his permanent doom!

    Thinking again¡­ the new master before him didn¡¯t seem to be an easier one to handle either, especially right after Iron witnessed how cold his master¡¯s eyes could be, bloodthirsty like an animal. This would be the kind who goes murdering without thought. Wonder how much blood had stained his hands! Talk about the number of lives who died by his knife!

    But that was clearly a misunderstanding. Yes, he was right about Ye Chong murdering without thinking much, nevertheless, talking about the number of lives who died by his knife¡­ That was rather an usation than a statement! Ye Chong grew up on a trash and his childhood was spent with mutated lifeforms lurking in the rubbish dumps. He had to struggle to survive! So to his eyes, men were no different than the mutated lifeforms. So killing a man to him was just like killing a mutated lifeform!

    Frowning, Ye Chong waved his hand and interrupted the strategist¡¯s buttering up session, he threatened, ¡°No more of thisplimentary nonsense from now on.¡±

    ¡°So W-i-l-l-o-w. Tell me, what is your actual name?¡±

    ¡°It would be Bai Linan¡± With respect, he answered sincerely.

 Chapter 41 - At His Masterâ€™s Service

    <h4>Chapter 41: At His Master¡¯s Service</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Bai Linan finally further understood about his new master¡¯s temperament. The cold, unsmiling youth before him seemed to be dazed much of the time. He preferred swift actions and down-to-earth approaches over ttery or candied words. He never expressed outright disdain at them, but Bai Linan could unmistakably notice his impatience with those kinds of words! That¡¯s right, impatience! As for rank distinctions, his master was indifferent to them, but Bai Linan would not dare to be disrespectful!

    What a strange person!

    However, Bai Linan was astute. Once he knew about Ye Chong¡¯s preferences, he adjusted ordingly and changed his sycophantic ways of the past. He performed his duties efficiently and appropriately. Ye Chong, being naive, gradually realized that the man was actually not bad! If Mr One-eye was still alive and saw Bai Linan all prim and proper, he might just lose hisst eyeball to shock!

    Bai Linan spoke respectfully, ¡°Sir, they should be heading towards Scarlet Star Shoal. They will not expect us to pass through the asteroid belt and head for Reno.¡± Bai Linan now held great admiration towards Ye Chong, for he was always practicing on maneuvering the starship these past few days, and his painstaking effort far surpassed Bai Linan¡¯s expectations. To him, Ye Chong¡¯s training was akin to self torture!

    This level of training was normal to Ye Chong. Since there was no one around to teach him, he would have to learn by himself. He had no choice but to learn the same way he did with mechs, but the results were remarkable, and his skills in maneuvering the starship greatly improved!

    Since he witnessed Ye Chong¡¯s fluency in maneuvering, Bai Linan was confident enough to propose this daring n, and Ye Chong agreed that it was a good idea. With that, the pursuing pirates figured that Ye Chong would be aiming for the Scarlet Star Shoal, thinking that they would need to recharge energy and replenish supplies there. With a direction, the pirates went forth chasing in a frenzy, while requesting assistance from any pirate connections they have near Scarlet Star Shoal.

    The Red Beard''s Owl¡¯s crew leader was killed despiteyers of security, and news of losing their starship spread like wildfire throughout the piratemunity! Many travelled to Scarlet Star Shoal to see the mysterious person who single-handedly murdered the infamous captain of Red Beard''s Owl and even escaped with their vessel.

    ording to Red Beard''s Owl¡¯s third-inmand, Iron, he saw with his own eyes that Mr One-eye had exchanged two moves with the assassin, and was killed by the third move! With that, the mysterious assassin¡¯s fame skyrocketed, and all were hooked with curiosity, for Mr One-eye was a master in both mech piloting and unarmedbat, and boasted a high reputation amongst the pirates. Since he was eliminated with three strikes, how could that not be shocking?

    If one had such an exceptional assassin in one¡¯s crew, the others would almost certainly be reluctant to provoke one¡¯s pirate crew. This was the mindset of the captains from many pirate crews - they immediately rushed for Scarlet Star Shoal, hoping to greatly benefit from this uproar!

    While everyone was in a frenzy for Ye Chong, the man himself took Bai Linan¡¯s advice and headed straight into the asteroid belt midway journeying to Scarlet Star Shoal!

    Bai Linan firmly believed that he would never again go within ten kilometers of an asteroid belt! Heavens, this was a nightmare! When you see weird-shaped rock fragments slowly erging before your eyes, closing in and whizzing past you, only personal experience could make you truly appreciate the tension. Bai Linan¡¯s fragile nerves and heart heavily suffered, and when he saw Ye Chong¡¯s face red with excitement, he could only think of one thing - why did he evere up with such a damning idea?

    The vessel of the previously notorious Red Beard''s Owl was magnificent and mighty, but after thorough treatment from the raining debris of rock fragments, it was now littered with holes, and looked terribly ugly! If Tiezi were to see it in front of him, he might not have recognized the vessel that he had personally modified under the orders of thete captain!

    The starship¡¯s performance was also way beyond Ye Chong¡¯s expectations. It if were a normal starship, it would be out of service after the ¡°painful¡± trip through the rocks. And while the pirate ship¡¯s exterior was now all scratched up from the impacts, the interior structure waspletely undamaged.

    When the starship left the asteroid belt safely, Bai Linan could not bear it anymore and plopped on the carpet, with his body sweating all over! On the other hand, Ye Chong seemed calm as ever, even reluctantly casting a few nces back at the asteroid belt. His expression was noticed by the heavily panting Bai Linan, who had the sudden urge to just abandon ship!

    Fortunately, Ye Chong did not turn the starship back, but continued along the trajectory plotted on the space chart, heading towards the supply point on Reno. This made the anxious Bai Linan breathe a huge sigh of relief!

    ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve arrived on Reno, where to next?¡± Bai Linan asked.

    Ye Chong shook his head and asked back, ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with the local territory, where do you think we should go?¡±

    Bai Linan considered for a moment. ¡°Sir, news of you killing Mr One-eye must have spread around, I¡¯m afraid many big yers would be waiting for you to show yourself!¡±

    Ye Chong was astonished ¡°Waiting for me to show myself? For what?¡±

    Bai Linan smiled wrily. ¡°Sir, who would not want to recruit someone capable like you? I should tell you that once you announce yourself to the world, they would swarm up to you and do almost anything to get you onboard!¡±

    Ye Chong humphed coldly; his gaze became focused and he went quiet. He took out his dagger and gently tested the sharp edges.

    Bai Linan felt a chill down his spine, and hoped that the pirates would act sensibly, or else¡­ Bai Linan dared not to continue the thought!

    Ye Chong considered for a moment. He then removed his jacket, took off the ck-striped yellow shirt that Bai Linan wore earlier and returned it to him. ¡°You must take care of yourself!¡±

    Bai Linan felt warmth blossoming in him, and tears nearly escaped his eyes. Ye Chong¡¯s lightly delivered concern won much gratitude from Bai Linan. Even Mr One-eye, who treated him the best amongst the crew, did not care for his life. If Mr One-eye knew he had a mesh vest, the captain would surely take it away from him by any means necessary; he would never offer one for Bai Linan instead! All these years, he had grown used to being ackey, with no one concerned with his life or death. If not for his ability to craft out ns for Mr One-eye, he would surely have been left to die of starvation on some deserted wastnd! Thanks to his efforts in those days, he finally became Red Beard''s Owl¡¯s second-inmand. It may seem glorifying, but those days were hard. The captain ordered him around from above, the crew disdained him from below, and Iron treated him like an enemy. He had not met a single soul who cared about his safety!

    Bai Linan stared at the protective mesh vest in his hands with mixed feelings. Suddenly, his eyes glowed with realization, and spoke eagerly, ¡°Sir, I know where we¡¯re heading!¡±

 Chapter 42 - Something for Everyone On Reno

    <h4>Chapter 42: Something for Everyone On Reno</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°ck Cove?¡± Ye Chong muttered, ¡°What a strange name!¡±

    Bai Linan excitedly exined, ¡°Yes, ck Cove, Sir. I got my mesh vest there. No one would dare to make a move there. Once we enter ck Cove, it¡¯ll be safe! Over there¡­¡±

    Ye Chong was indifferent. ¡°We¡¯ll do as you say!¡± With that, he turned and left, leaving behind Bai Linan, stupefied, as he was just about to start a lengthy speech on the spot.

    Ye Chong sat in a corner, deep in thought. He reflected on his actions these past few days, as was his usual practice. On the trash, after every battle, he would carefully dissect the results and identify his mistakes, the mutants¡¯ habitual activities and their special behaviors. He had to think about these matters, and this was the main reason he could easily hunt powerful mutants every time with sess. After Mu Shang¡¯s arrival, the mech had strongly encouraged this habit, and even made it a dailymitment for Ye Chong!

    During his ambush on Mr One-eye, he was still too hasty, and not sufficientlyposed. If he had been more level-headed, he could have escaped before the pirates could react, and would not be in a passive position. His unfamiliarity with the outside world was his greatest weakness, but this was not something he could make up for in a short time.

    ¡°The asteroid belt was the best natural training ground for practicing mech piloting. Ah, I could also do a little shooting practice on the side. That¡¯s something to consider for the future.¡±

    Ye Chong thought of Mu out of a sudden. He called for him a few times in his mind, but Mu did not respond, just like before. Ye Chong was dejected, and yearned for his old life on the trash despite himself being stronger now. While the was practically a wastnd, he and Mu could joke around all day, free of worries. Life there was monotonous, but nevertheless satisfying. Ever since Ye Chong left the trash, he had notughed as much as he had in one day on his old home. As for unfamiliar things around him, Ye Chong always felt a dangerous undertone from them, and this made him extra cautious in dealing with everyday matters, including what most people thought were normal routines!

    The environment out here wasplicated, filled with variables that far outstrip the trash¡¯s!

    Ye Chong yearned to leave the trash, but now that he had seeded, he was without Mu¡¯spany, and that made him feel like something was missing.

    At Reno¡¯s spaceport, workers stared dumbstruck at the starship that seemed like it could copse at any time from its damages - if one could still call it a starship. Even the most senior worker shook his head despite himself being experienced, and spoke to the youngd next to him, ¡°I¡¯ve been at this for over fifty years, and never have I seen such a miserable-looking ship. Tsk tsk, I¡¯m afraid even the junkyard wouldn¡¯t pay for it, it¡¯s a miracle they could even get here! Tell them we¡¯re not fixing this ship!¡±

    The strange thing was, the other party did not ask for repairs, but only to recharge!

    Ye Chong and Bai Linan exited the ship, and those around the pair oddly stared at them. The pair, however, was unfazed. Ye Chong did not care for them, for he was not involved with them. Once he found that they were not particrly threatening, he did not pay any attention to them. As for Bai Linan, he was, at any rate, the Red Beard''s Owl¡¯s second-inmand, and these men were not worth his attention. As such, he ignored the stares they were receiving.

    Reno was aoid, and looked the way it was now after years of construction and modifications. It was situated along the only way to ck Cove, and since visitors to ck Cove had gradually increased, Reno flourished as well.

    Bai Linan, who was familiar with the area, took on the role of a guide, and began exining to Ye Chong, ¡°Reno is actually a supply station, thest one before one enters ck Cove. That¡¯s why a lot of people heading for ck Cove will stop by here for provisions. Hmm, perhaps because it¡¯s close to ck Cove, there are also plenty of ck Cove specialty products here, and traders who¡¯re reluctant to take the risk of entering ck Cove will buy their goods here, though the price is much higherpared to those in ck Cove!¡±

    Skyscrapers extended beyond the clouds. Flying machines of all sorts whizzed back and forth in the sky. People adorned with various colourful outfits strolled along the streets. The wide avenue was only upied by a few groups of pedestrians. Numerous shops projecting holographic advertisements lined the roads. Ye Chong looked at his first ever holographic advertisement, showing a semi-transparentdy of extraordinary beauty. She had a wless face, devilishly sexy body curves and an alluring voice - thebination was breathtaking. Her every move teased the heart, and her soft, wet cherry lips formed words that sounded like music from the heavens, enough to make most people consider buying the advertised product at once!

    Of course, that was for most people, like Bai Linan! Bai Linan was entranced by the holographic advertisement, almost drooling at the voluptuousdy!

    However, for someone like Ye Chong, who had never dealt with the opposite sex, developing a standard to differentiate between the beautiful and the ugly would be an arduous task!

    Ye Chong evaluated from the perspective ofbat practicality. Her legs were too slim, unable to provide enough strength. Her hands had delicate skin, signs of weakness in unarmedbat. Her breasts wererge but not muscr, not onlycking in strength but also definitely a burden for movement. Her hair was too long and would easily be tangled by something duringbat, and that was very dangerous! Ye Chong could not help but shake his head. The only thing that impressed him was her thin waist - Ye Chong had no doubts that it would be very flexible!

    The result of his evaluation was thus - extremely poor!

    Bai Linan was still watching the advertisement with lecherous eyes and muttering to himself, ¡°That¡¯s my dream girl, the most perfect woman in the world, ah, Feng Su, my dearest, when did she be the spokesperson for this product? What? How could I have not bought it? No, this¡­ This is not eptable for a loyal fan like me, I must support her till the end!¡±

    Bai Linan warmed up to the idea and slipped into the store. After a moment, he exited with quite a few things in his hands. The storekeeper sent him off with a wide grin.

    Ye Chong pointed at the stuff that Bai Linan was holding. ¡°What are these?¡±

    The distracted Bai Linan sobered up and studied them intently. His face instantly contorted - they¡¯re¡­ they¡¯re all female products!

    The two did not notice a pair of knavish eyes observing from around the corner.

    ¡°Did you really see them clearly?¡± A fearsome looking muscr man in his middle age asked in a low voice.

    ¡°Boss, do you still not believe the eyes of your servant? I¡¯ve seen Bai Linan more than a few times, can¡¯t be mistaken!¡± The one who answered was a short fellow with unscrupulous eyes, obviously a cunning person.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t Red Beard''s Owl¡¯s third-inmand, Iron said that Bai Linan is dead? Why would he be here now?¡± The middle-aged man was perplexed.

    ¡°This servant is also puzzled, isn¡¯t he already dead? Iron would not speak lightly of something like this, but I really did see Bai Linan! Oh, right, there¡¯s also someone with him!¡± The shorter man recalled.

    ¡°What?¡± The muscr man trembled in realization, and asked urgently, ¡°You said someone¡¯s with him?¡±

    ¡°Yes, he¡¯s very young, and his looks are average, except that his expression is as though someone owes him money or something. Bai Linan seems to be very respectful to him!¡±

    The middle-aged man spoke slowly, ¡°He must be the one everyone is talking about now - Mr One-eye¡¯s assassin.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± The little man was shocked. ¡°Isn¡¯t he headed for Scarlet Star Shoal?¡±

    ¡°If I had guessed correctly, he must have travelled through the asteroid belt to get here. Smart move, hehe, who would have thought that everyone would be fooled by him! Excellent, excellent! If someone like this could work for me¡­¡± The middle-aged man paced about the room, his heart greatly enticed!

    ¡°Boss, what do you think we should do?¡±

    His superior considered for some time, and made his decision. ¡°Keep your eyes on him at all times, but remember, do not rm him. Heehee, what a wonderful opportunity, we must n this out carefully!¡±

 Chapter 43 - Gold Wheat

    <h4>Chapter 43: Gold Wheat</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Once he left the boss¡¯s study, the little man scanned around discretely, and once he was sure no one was around, he quickly left through the back door.

    The little man walked on and on, his surroundings became more and more secluded. The man did not once look back in his journey, and he looked nervous. His eyes constantly darted here and there. When he saw no one following him, he dashed into an alley.

    ¡°What did you say?¡± A ck-faced burly man stood up as he spoke. His smooth, bald head shined conspicuously under the lighting.

    ¡°Elder Bei, there¡¯s no mistaking it, I saw Bai Linan with my own eyes, I wouldn¡¯t mistakingly recognize him! He is at Reno right now. If you don¡¯t believe it, send a few of yourckeys out to scout, they¡¯ll surely find them! As our elder said, they must have travelled through the asteroid belt, diverging from their route to Red Star Coast!¡± The little man replied with respect.

    Just then, ackey walked in and went whispered a few words into the ears of the ck-faced man. The ck-faced man¡¯s expression turned to joy upon hearing those whispers.

    ¡°Little Monkey, well done!¡± The ck-faced man nodded with approval, and gave a meaningful nce to anotherckey standing straight by his side. Theckey produced a card from his pocket and handed it to Little Monkey. ¡°Well, Little Monkey, you must work hard from now on, don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll get your share of rewards!¡±

    Little Monkey nodded profusely, his eyes gleaming with desire at the card, as he epted it carefully with both hands.

    Elder Bei gave a wave of his hand, and Little Monkey tactfully left the room.

    Once he was gone, Elder Bei leaned back andughed to himself. ¡°Haha, the Heavens do smile upon old me. My elder brother had gone to Scarlet Star Shoal for the assassin, but who would have thought I would gain an unexpected opportunity here at home. Tell our men to prepare themselves, I would also like to meet the one who killed Mr One-eye in three blows. Bring guns, all of you! Hehe, however fast he may be, can he outrun bullets?¡± Elder Bei groomed and stroked his bald head.

    One of theckeys was unsure. ¡°Second Elder, do you think we should refer to the leader about this?¡±

    Elder Bei scolded loudly, ¡°Refer my a**, if we wait for that, those two would be long gone! Once we capture them, we¡¯ll give the leader a surprise, haha. Now, don¡¯t just stand there, go get ready!¡±

    Ye Chong and Bai Linan were leisurely strolling in Reno. By now, Bai Linan was getting a little depressed - where in the whole wide universe did his mastere from? He knew almost nothing, and would ask about certain things. Initially, Bai Linan enthusiastically exined to him, but the questions became too much. Usually Bai Linan¡¯s exnation would spawn many more questions, and the questions were weird and oundish, leaving Bai Linan uncertain of how to go about those subjects.

    ¡°Who would have thought I would serve a master like this? What bad luck,¡± Bai Linan rolled his eyes at the sky. What infuriated him the most was his master¡¯s spouting nonsense about his idol, Feng Su - saying her legs were too thin, her skin was too soft and so on. Heavens, did those wordse from a human? Bai Linan felt helpless against his situation!

    Suddenly, there was amotion ahead, and he saw an intimidating gang of burly mening straight towards them.

    Ye Chong noticed, and immediately summoned his mech.

    The mechs that Ye Chong obtained from themercial starships were prepared by Oak Leaves after years of hard work for use in case of emergency. They were all above average, and quite a few of them were expert level mechs, like the one Ye Chong was now summoning - the humanoid Gold Wheat!

    While onboard the ship, Bai Linan had seen Ye Chong empty out a pile of dimension keystones from his waist bag, and he stared at them with bulging eyes, pointing at Ye Chong speechlessly. Was this guy an arms dealer?

    Ye Chong learnt from his lessons, about running the initialization settings for a few mechs that were either expert level or had unique skills. A bit of early work would prepare him to face dangers ahead without panicking, and allow him to fully engage in battle swiftly. On the battleground, a second could determine life and death!

    In Bai Linan¡¯s eyes, his new master kept changing one mech after another. Was he trying to do a mech showcase? Bai Linan was perplexed.

    Once he understood Ye Chong¡¯s intentions, Bai Linan was astounded. Preparing so many mechs just in case of an emergency? He had never even seen anyone equipped with more than two mechs at a time! Ye Chong had set up five expert level mechs, and three special mechs! This, this was practically a moving mech warehouse! Bai Linan watched Ye Chong wear the dimension keystones on his hands with disbelief! If he knew Ye Chong already had a Sand Scorpio on him and Mu Shang hanging on his neck, what would his expression look like¡­

    Since there were too many dimension keystones, they were made to look like essories for easy carry. Ye Chong wore four rings, two wristlets, and even a keystone shaped as an eardrop. Bai Linan watched as Ye Chong wore the eardrop-shaped keystone on his left ear without hesitation, and was thoroughly shocked. When he recovered, he could not help but startedughing incredulously at Ye Chong¡¯s appereance.

    Ye Chong did not mind it at all! Ugly? Did it matter? If it could save his life, Ye Chong will ept any degree of ugliness! Ye Chong did not care for Bai Linan¡¯s view. The only thing Ye Chong felt unfitting was having the rings on his fingers that would affect his hands¡¯ agility and sense!

    Ye Chong summoned the Gold Wheat mech from his left middle finger the moment he felt danger.

    Gold Wheat was thoroughly covered with a bright, golden hue. It was like a God that descended from the Heavens, all mighty and strong. But this was the feature Ye Chong was most dissatisfied with. Such mour would basically mean shifting attention away from itself would be impossible. If only it was a greenish grey or a dull turquoise, or even a brownish yellow - any of them would be better than this.

    However, Ye Chong was satisfied with the mech¡¯s overall design. The hull was streamlined, minimizing air resistance, and the doubleyered armor was light and strong. Its main weapon was the ultra-frequency (UF) maic sword - a maic sword¡¯s performance was graded based on its size and resonant frequency, and an UF maic sword¡¯s power was astonishing. Its UF vibrations could shatter a mech¡¯s metal armor into pieces in an instant. Itcked the eye-catching glow of aser sword, and so was not generally well received, but Ye Chong was quite satisfied with this feature.

    Unlike most battle mechs, the Gold Wheat was not equipped with a shield, instead it had two defence hooks and a small armguard on its right arm. Speed, which Ye Chong had always prioritized, was also something the mech was well equipped for. Its Prism engine could support powerful movements, and up to eight auxiliary engines allowed great flexibility in manuevering. However, the mech waspletely inadequate in terms of long range shooting - it only had one concealed gun chamber on its left arm, which housed a meagre 5k grade Lux ster - too shabby for a mech like this!

    However, to Ye Chong, this battle mech was undoubtedly his most familiar and favourite type! Hence, when he first sensed danger, Ye Chong immediately thought of it!

    Gold Wheat¡¯s bionic eyes shone with a golden re, eyeing coolly at the ill-intent filled gang.

 Chapter 44 - No Rules At All

    <h4>Chapter 44: No Rules At All</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Best tounch a preemptive strike! A preemptive strike implied a greater chance of controlling the flow of battle. In a battle of life and death, whatever courtesy and chivalry present were all obsolete! Ye Chong was also devoid of such manners. While he did not know if this gang were looking for trouble with him, it was undeniable that he felt an underlying danger in their presence. Ye Chong¡¯s default reaction was to curb the menace before it began to pose a threat to himself against such underlying danger. This time, he followed his routine without a second to waste!

    The men spread out into an arch, obviously hoping to surround Ye Chong. If Ye Chong could not have notice such an obvious tactic, he would have sign his own death warrant. Ye Chong had witnessed Oak Leaves¡¯ disciplined formation and the unique wolf pack formation of Red Owl¡¯s Beard. Thus, the current disorganized formation was, in his eyes, absolutely horrendous!

    Ye Chong lifted his left arm, aimed it towards the gang and took a shot!

    When the gang saw Ye Chong deploying his mech even before they even reached him, they were all stunned. Some of the more seasoned men slowed down their pace and silently shifted to the rear of the group.

    They never imagined that with so many of them against one opponent, the other party would strike first.

    The 5k grade heat ray gun, while being a little shabby for Gold Wheat, was still a terrifying weapon against lightly shielded opponents! A heat ray, thick as one¡¯s wrist, striked true at the frontmost man of the gang.

    The scorching heat ray caused a perimeter of air turbulence surrounding its trajectory! The frontmost man¡¯s lower left armpletely evaporated. The wound, red from fresh blood, quickly turned maroon, and finally a burnt yellow; the gushing blood dried up in an instant like water sprinkled on desert sand. The heat ray did not seem to weaken after the first hit. It sted at the chest of its second casualty, going through the bodypletely. Through the perfect wrist-sized wound, one could see a charred patch on the underbelly of the person behind him. All this happened before the agonizing shriek sounded by the first victim, followed by the second and the third!

    The disaster before them shook everyone to their core, and all of them tried to stay as far as possible from the three victims. The crowd was in chaos.

    Bai Linan gasped in astonishment, seeing the use of a mech weapon against someone without any mech equipped. He finally realized something -pared to this master, the pirates were merciful! Bai Linan was sharp - when he saw Ye Chong fired, he immediately scurried for cover behind him.

    Ye Chong chillingly smiled in the pilot¡¯s cabin as Gold Wheat¡¯s ray gun continued sting randomly at the gang. It went without saying that Ye Chong¡¯s shooting skills were terrible. Although he had practiced shooting at the NR Training Center, he had never practiced shooting in real life. Hence, while he still had recollections of shooting, his body could not keep up with the movement. In this dense crowd, with people everywhere, it would be harder to miss than to hit, but Ye Chong still managed to fire a few inconsequential rounds! Ye Chong felt deeply ashamed despite knowing this.

    Second Elder Bei¡¯s bald head was covered with sweat. He did not expect the fellow before him to be so ruthless, shooting without so much as a question! He had nned to catch the fellow alive, for a dead man would be useless! The men with him had only heat ray guns of 8k grade, as the rays shooting Gold Wheat¡¯s body had no effect! Without at least a 10k grade weapon, it would be impossible to do the mech harm! Second Elder Bei urgentlymanded, ¡°Put on your mech now! Right now!¡±

    Upon hearing his voice, the subordinates around him finally came back to their senses and deployed their mechs.

    However, since they were standing too close to one another, many ignored their surroundings and thought of only sheltering within their mechs as soon as possible and staying out of the ray gun¡¯s path. The immediate result was that the deployed mechs, with their huge sizes, crammed the area even further. The situation became chaotic, and some people were even stomped to death by the deployed mechs!

    Second Elder Bei hopelessly watched at the situation. He covered his face, unable to bear witness to the disaster, crying dry tears.

    ¡°There¡¯s a good opportunity!¡± Ye Chong unsheathed his UF maic sword, as his left arm wielded the defensive barb, and rushed head on like a thunderbolt into the chaotic mess. The best metaphor for the current situation would be - like a fierce tiger invading a flock ofmbs! Compared to the defensive barbs in Ye Chong¡¯s left hand, the UF maic sword in his right was definitely an edged weapon used to reap human lives! He specifically aimed for the mechs¡¯ weak points, and the UF vibration due to the maic sword¡¯s hit often led to the targeted mech crumbling into pieces. Fragments and broken limbs flew away at high speeds, and many who did not deploy their mech in time lost their lives to these flying fragments.

    What would happen when an UF maic sword directly hit a human body? The human body could not withstand vibrations at such a high frequency - once hit, beginning from the point of contact, the body would be ripped apart into numerous pieces! Body pieces flew everywhere! Red flowers of blood bloomed in numbers!

    Compared to this, the men who died under the parrying spear were far luckier. The sharp, chilling, gleaming edge of the weapon was fatal in its every strike. It moved like lightning and never missed, its victims often dying on the spot!

    Second Elder Bei did not manage to escape the plight. His shiny bald head rolled and revolved into a faraway corner, as his furious eyes were unwilling to close!

    Bai Linan shivered all over. This was a massacre, and the victims were from therger party! This scene, full of bloodshed, was one he would never forget in his life! As he watched Ye Chong standing in the blood puddles, Bai Linan could not bear it anymore and puked violently!

    The scene was also unforgettable for the two spectators who had watched the whole incident from afar.

    Little Monkey looked very pale, and muttered, ¡°Is that guy really human?¡±

    The middle-aged burly man beside him was also shocked. ¡°How ruthless! Who would have thought he would attack without knowing the opponent¡¯s intent? His methods are too merciless! This is not someone we should meddle with!¡±

    Little Monkey levelled his chest, rejoicing. ¡°Boss, luckily we had Second Elder Bei to test the waters, if not¡­¡±

    The middle-aged man nodded in agreement. ¡°Second Elder Bei is far worse than First Elder Bei! He¡¯s ambitious and likes to impress others, but he was all talk and no substance. His leadership was also a failure. It¡¯s no wonder First Elder Bei did not hand Reno over to him all this while. If First Elder Bei were here, things would be different! But this guy here is also quite unpredictable, doing things his own way!¡±

    Little Monkey said, ¡°That¡¯s right, this man has no rules at all!¡±

    The middle-aged man warned, ¡°It¡¯s people like these that are the scariest, you musn¡¯t mess with him in future!¡±

    Little Monkey nodded, still in shock. ¡°Understood. I would rather die than mess with him! Boss, Reno Society has taken a heavy blow this time!¡±

    The middle-aged man shook his head. ¡°Most of Reno Society¡¯s core personnel had followed First Elder Bei to the Red Star Coast. The people here are only their intermediate and lower tier members. However, even if it¡¯s so, it would be enough for them to deal with! Usually we can¡¯t do anything to them, but now, hehehe¡­¡± A knavish look passed in his eyes.

    Little Monkey spoke excitedly, ¡°Boss, should we get ready to work for Reno Society?¡±

    The middle-aged man shook his head again. ¡°This is not urgent! Little Monkey, you did well this time. First Elder Bei will surely investigate to find out who informed Second Elder Bei of the target. You should go y around somewhere, lie low until the dust settles, thene back. The money is already transferred to your card!¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Little Monkey obeyed respectfully.

 Chapter 45 - The Jinxed Man

    <h4>Chapter 45: The Jinxed Man</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    News of Reno¡¯s number two murder spread posthaste to Scarlet Star Shoal. Reno¡¯s leader, First Elder Bei, who was also Second Elder Bei¡¯s brother, vomited blood on the spot, and made a vow before everyone that he would definitely seek revenge for his younger brother! Ye Chong¡¯s strong capabilities and his ruthless methods were greatly exaggerated by the masses. He was described as Asura¡¯s reincarnation, or a killing machine. In the meantime, all the local linchpins were reconsidering whether they could afford the costs of drawing Ye Chong to their side.

    Was all this relevant to Ye Chong? At least Ye Chong himself believed it to be none of his business!

    Ye Chong was now practicing his shooting skills. Shooting inbat was definitely a very effective mean, involving a variety of skills. Ye Chong could not help but blush at his missed shotsst time! Before this, hecked the right conditions; but now that they were avable, he would surely not pass them up!

    Bai Linan sat and yawned while he watched Ye Chong¡¯s practice from afar in disinterest! However, he dared not stay more than fifty meters away from Ye Chong for now. The bloody scene from a few days ago was still fresh in his memory. No doubt many would keep their eyes on them from now on. Bai Linan scanned the surroundings, and found that the few people who were stealthily observing them a few days ago were no longer in sight.

    Bai Linan was pleased and smiled despite the current situation, for this was his doing. A few days ago, he realized that a few people were secretly watching them in the vicinity, and reported this to Ye Chong. He thought Ye Chong would definitely put on his mech, wield his maic sword and charge howling towards them, cutting them to pieces! He did not expect Ye Chong to be indifferent - his master believed that they had nothing against him, and so they can watch if they want to! With that, Ye Chong continued practicing! This left the expectant Bai Linan standing in astonishment.

    The spies realized that Ye Chong did not care for their presence, and began to act more aggressively, throwing all manners of stealth out of the window!

    However, Bai Linan was no amateur - after years of leading as a general amongst the pirates, how could heck the means to do something about them? Bai Linan put on a serious demeanour and exined that spying was preparatory work for an imminent attack, meant to identify the enemy¡¯s weakness and so forth, and so on! This made Ye Chong immediately thought of his time as a hunter, observing the mutants¡¯ natural behavior to device a countermeasure against them.

    Ye Chong realized the severity of things, and eyed the observers with a cold stare! Bai Linan knew that his words had achieved the desired effect, and so he kept his silence.

    Against the enemy, there will be no mercy!

    Gold Wheat¡¯s parrying spear, held in Ye Chong¡¯s hands, looked like a longspear. Bai Linan had never seen a mech weapon wielded by one¡¯s bare hands, but this weapon looked as light as a feather in Ye Chong¡¯s hands, and the scene was quite peculiar.

    Ye Chong slowly stepped towards the few observers.

    Those few people must have not seen the incident a few days ago, as they greeted Ye Chong with a cheeky grin.

    With a twist of his wrist, the flexible parrying spear drew an arc of light, and those people clutched their throats in agony, blood still flowing through their fingers, and their eyes were filled with disbelief. A few secondster, they all fell to the ground.

    Ye Chong could not be bothered with the bodies, and continued his training!

    Bai Linan¡¯s offense against them was not personal, but was due to his understanding of their ways from his days as a pirate. They would resort to any means necessary, and if they found a weakness, they would find some way of using it against you. Bai Linan was also an expert in such things. However, now that almost everyone knew that he was with Ye Chong, and as long as Ye Chong was doing fine, he would be left alone; but if Ye Chong was to fall to some misfortune, he would definitely follow suit!

    Bai Linan was afraid of more mishaps uring in Reno, and desperately advised Ye Chong to head for ck Cove. After a great deal of words were dispensed, Ye Chong finally agreed reluctantly, since his shootings skills had slightly improved. It was truly a mystery - Ye Chong had remarkable talent in piloting mechs forbat, such that even Mu would asionally express his marvel at it; but when it came to shooting, while Ye Chong may not shoot clumsily, he was only average in this aspect.

    Following Bai Linan¡¯s suggestions, Ye Chong sold all his average level mechs in exchange for ready Zuan. The shopkeeper saw Ye Chong emptying his bag to produce a heap of dimension keystones, and was immediately stunned! No matter in which gxy, selling mechs without license would mean the death sentence! While this was Reno, and the government¡¯sws had yet to extend to the area, this was still the first time the shopkeeper saw someone smuggling mechs as an individual, and offering all white mechs.

    Ye Chong and Bai Linan left the shop with a big bag of gold Zuan. Ye Chong picked up a piece of gold Zuan and inspected it - this was his first time seeing the real deal. The gold Zuan was slightlyrger than his fingernail. It was in a transparent yellowish gold color and rhombus-shaped, with many rich andplex patterns inscribed on its surface. The rims were rounded for the two to three millimeters thick Zuan, and the material was extremely tough. Ye Chong gave it all he had and he could just only break the Zuan in two! ¡°Tough material indeed,¡± Ye Chong assessed the Zuan internally!

    Bai Linan gaped widely, his eyespletely dull. How could someone break a gold Zuan with brute force? The gold Zuan was said to be able tost five centuries without taking damage, and from his extensive experience, these were definitely not fake currency!

    Following that thought, he immediately felt his heart ache - Heavens, that was one gold Zuan, now losing half its value for no reason! A damaged Zuan can only be redeemed for half its value at the bank!

    ¡°This big shot¡¯s origin is really a mystery, he evencked an identity card, is there still a ce in this world where people don¡¯t carry identity cards?¡± The shopkeeper from earlier was nervous from the trade. He did not think there could still be someone in this world without an identity card. The shopkeeper had always charged his customers with the swipe of a card, and did not have so much gold Zuan with him. He had to get someone to withdraw therge sum of Zuan from the bank. Gold Zuan was too high in value, and people rarely keep them in person and use them as cirction currency for business.

    Extraordinary strength, a callous nature, and a mysterious origin!

    What an enigmatic master!

    The deft Bai Linan picked up the broken halves of the golden Zuan piece that Ye Chong carelessly discarded on the ground. He meticulously brushed away the dust on it and carefully ced it in his pocket.

    The two travelled through a great part of Reno. Of course, the journey was not without Bai Linan¡¯s incessant speeches, indicative of his way with words. Ye Chong¡¯s expression did not change throughout his speeches, and one would not know if he absorbed any of his words!

    Under Bai Linan¡¯s guidance, Ye Chong bought many energy cells. ording to Bai Linan, the road to ck Cove was perilous and imprable to starships. One would have to pilot a mech to traverse the way, and extra energy cells can prepare one for unexpected incidents. This fitted Ye Chong¡¯s style - with regards to preparation, Ye Chong had always chosen to do more instead of less!

    At the same time, news of the living jinx¡¯s imminent leave from Reno had travelled far and wide. Those who caught wind of the news could not help but heave a sigh of relief! The God of gues was finally leaving! No one dared walk the street where Ye Chongst ughtered members of Reno Society. The foul smell of blood still hung in the air despite repeated washings of the area. They also heard that someone dared to spy on his behavior, and this startled all the local linchpins. They immediately went to the particr linchpin involved and advised him to stop his dangerous actions, and threatened to join hands and eliminate him should he refuse! It was then when someone came to report that the spies were all killed!

    Everyone was only too eager to see the living jinx leave Reno as soon as possible, but this raised another question in their hearts - why was he heading towards ck Cove?

    Upon listening to Bai Linan¡¯s analysis, Ye Chong felt reluctant to leave the starship behind - it had such good specs, and most importantly, it had quite a solid build! It was a waste to discard it, and while it may look miserable, that was not something Ye Chong minded about!

    After preparing themselves, the duo was now ready to leave for ck Cove!

 Chapter 46 - Into the Black Cove

    <h4>Chapter 46: Into the ck Cove</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Since Bai Linan didn¡¯t know how to pilot a mech on his own, he had rode with Ye Chong. The cabin that offered limited amodation became overloaded when there was more than one man inside. Foolish Bai insisted on keeping thedies product he bought from a spokesperson who happened to be none other than Feng Su much to Ye Chong¡¯s annoyance; as if the cabin was already not narrow enough for starters. Movements were limited with Bai¡¯s products everywhere which affected Ye Chong¡¯s piloting inputs as well. Without a second thought, Ye Chong winded down the window and lobbed every junk out, ignoring Bai Linan who was weeping in the corner.

    He inserted a chip that contained the calcted route to the ck Cove and disyed marked route on the gxy map. The chip was a purchase from an undistinguished pawn shop by Bai Linan with 12 gold zuan. Apparently the broker of the pawn shop specifies in offering updated routes to the ck Cove.

    The mech Ye Chong was piloting zoomed into the space, travelling in auto-pilot mode.

    After travelling for about 38 hours, they finally arrived at the protected area in the ck Cove - the Elma Zone. Ye Chong was d that Bai Linan reminded him to bring extra supply of batteries, if not they wouldn¡¯t be able to travel this far.

    The gctic environment of the ck Cove was rather unique as it was surrounded by arge area of asteroid belt and the asteroids in the Elma Zone were not stationary; they were actively moving about. In addition, there were countless of asteroid whirls lurking among them. If one were to get sucked in identally, one would be shredded into a million pieces within a second by the overwhelming force in its own orbit. It is almost like a huge meat mincer functioning at high speed. Travelers were rare in Elma Zone for a reason.

    Ye Chong had already switched back to manual piloting and attempted to make it through the belt. A nce at the belts of asteroids that densely floated by, a track of free orbit about 100 meters broad could barely be discerned. It was only then that Ye Chong was convinced by the fact mentioned by Bai Linan; spacecraft of any kind could never make it to the ck Cove. It was justifiable with the restricted space for movement due to the mass of asteroids. No spacecraft would be able to travel through this without a scratch or two.

    One brief second his mind wandered off elsewhere and an asteroid about two meters in diameter flew by in his face. He froze in fear and Bai Linan almost chickened out of the excursion. Ye Chong could not afford to build castles in the air so he drove on with full focus. In fact, quite arge amount of asteroids on the orbit had been cleared with only a few finer ones that would asionally hurl pass; talk about jump-scares in the gxy.

    Out of the blue, a small group of pilots in their onyx ck mech-humanoids appeared! Ye Chong felt his throat tightened as his face drained immediately.

    Their piloting skills were brilliant! They flew in high speed, kicking the asteroids out of the orbit using their feet as they travelled. There were no changes in their direction and they didn¡¯t seem to be affected by the asteroid. The mech was like a giant blob of cannonball, the asteroids in his way were all cast aside and he wasn¡¯t hindered by those at all. Theoretically, if both parties were of vast difference in weight, this could happen. It was just like a brandishing hammer smashing away oing peas. The catch in this was the differences between that ck mech and the asteroids were not many to begin with, yet the asteroids got shoved away while he continued his journey. It was amazing enough for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was sure enough that he couldn¡¯t perform such skillful piloting at that moment. Flying at high speed in a belt of moving rocks was not the issue for him but his traveling direction would be altered when he knocked away the oing asteroids; it was difficult to maintain it. It wasn¡¯t even a slight change but a major adjustment from his initially nned route!

    The group was as fast as lightning and in a blink of an eye they disappeared into space. As they carried on, the asteroids on the orbit were all cleared up.

    ¡°Who are these people?¡± Ye Chong asked seriously.

    Bai Linan replied, ¡°I¡¯m not really sure about that. Maybe they are the orbit cleaners or something. You know¡­ the orbit here is not a stable one. It would be a real problem without them clearing up a path!¡±

    Ye Chong knew he would not be getting much information from Bai Linan so he remained quiet, and his anticipation grew as they journeyed towards the ck Cove. He was having immense expectation of intensifying his strength, and witnessing the skills possessed by that ck mech had just raised the bar for him! It was a skillset that was entirely different from the ones Mu had taught him, and nothing else could motivate him more than this!

    The route was winding. He did his best to focus, but it was still thrilling for him. Imagine a rookie pilot maneuvering through such a route - that would be impossible! The pilot could never make it! It was an estimated short route yet Ye Chong took two hours in total just to travel through. Bai Linan glimpsed at the time andplimented uncontrobly, ¡°Master has such amazing piloting skill! I came once with the Cyclops-dudest time and he took literally 6 hours just to make it through! Much more inferiorpared to master¡¯s skills!¡±

    It was a space station they saw upon entry. It took the form of two gigantic rings connected to the same axis and from the center about five pipes of channels were extended three kilometers long bridging to the inner ring. The outer ring on the other hand was wrapped over the inner ring, and both were working together. The diameter of the inner ring was about 15 kilometers long while the outer ring was shockingly 19 meters in diameter!

    ¡°This¡­ is the outskirt of the ck Cove, namely the S.S. Zhi Lan.¡± Looking at how astounded Ye Chong was by the view, Bai Linan proudly introduced the ce, ¡°It seemed that it was named after one of the founders of the ck Cove - Mr. Yang Zhn. The S.S. Zhi Lan is known to be grander in sizepared to S.S. Hui Tan that was newly built in Fal gxyst year.¡± He chuckled and continued, ¡°Here, is what we called paradise. Anything you wanted, as long as you have enough bet, you can always bargain for one. Service¡­ products¡­ the merchants here would satisfy your every need. Service of course, includes that special kind of service¡­¡± Bai Linan let out a heartyugh.

    Ye Chong did not show much care about Bai Linan¡¯s babbling. He carefully piloted his mech into the automatic parking walkway, but the gate was closed upon his arrival.

    A few secondster, the air pressure in the walkway was adjusted to the optimal level for breathing. Beep! The control system in the walkway notified Ye Chong that it was safe to exit from his mech. Ye Chong and Bai Linan climbed out of the mech and he kept it back into the alternate dimension as they proceeded to the gate. Click! The sensor at the door detected their presence and opened up as programmed.

    Bai Linan made his way out first, followed by Ye Chong after a few moments of being skeptical. Ye Chong was on his toes as he scrutinized his surrounding while Bai Linan¡¯s willowed face turned into a spark of vitality; he seemed charged.

    The environment changed once they stepped out of the walkway. A modernistic lobby with a big hologram in the center surfaced. The walkway they exited from had a few more other walkways by the side; they spread to the surroundings in half circle. The hologram was separated into different windows with a tour guide for the S.S. Zhi Lan, and thetest news reports of the area too.

    Bai Linan gave a cautious reminder, ¡°Master, if anything goes wrong in the ck Cove, never ever solve it with violence. The consequences would be deadly. The defense team here is outstanding!¡± Ye Chong seemed intrigued at trying it out and that sent chills to Bai¡¯s spines. ¡°Master, please! Please, don¡¯t use your fist! You might be able to throw great punches but most fighters who showed disrespect like you had a bad time with the defense team here! They eventually got escorted out. What happened to them, nobody knows! But everyone was sure that, once you were taken away, you are never to be seen again!¡±

    Bai Linan was sweating in fear.

    Ye Chong couldn¡¯t help but to inhibit his desire temporarily.

    After wiping off his sweat, he told Ye Chong, ¡°Master, I suggest we walk our ways separately!¡± Like a magician pulling out a rabbit from his hat, he took out 2municators and passed one to Ye Chong, ¡°Master, I had set up my number inside. If there is anything, feel free to contact me through this, but nothing bad should happen. Oh yes! My master, you can¡¯t really bargain here but you can have good deals. The merchants here have a good reputation, and they do notmit daylight robberies. Alright, that is all. Have a nice day, my master!¡± Bai Linan shoved a pouch of gold zuans into Ye Chong¡¯s hands, ¡°Ciao! Tata!¡± Before Ye Chong could say or ask anything, he scurried away in a jiffy!

    He looked at the pouch in his hand, nced around the ce, and seeing Bai Linan fleeing the scene.

    Man¡­

    Ye Chong thought in bewilderment.

 Chapter 47 - Masquerade

    <h4>Chapter 47: Masquerade</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ye Chong was surprised at the sight of the crowd of pedestrians on the street. Considering how the ck Cove is located in the corner of the gxy, and the hassle to get here, one would have expected it to have the least poption, but it turned out to be the other way around. The interior of S.S. Zhi Lan was rather spacious so Ye Chong did not feel ustrophobic. Overwhelmed by curiosity, he could not stop examining every nook and cranny of that ce - the same as he entered the virtual world the first time.

    In the midst of the fun-filled exploration, there seemed to be a fiasco up front. He hastened his steps and joined the chaotic crowd. Apparently, an overweight man dressed exquisitely was arguing with an elderly. His oily face expressed anger and frustration while the brawny man by his side seemed like his personal bodyguard. He had a cocky look on his face as he pushed the elderly, and was pretty self-absorbed too. His actions were merely because his boss was enraged. The bodyguard wielded great strength. The poor elderly lost his bnce andnded on his bottom.

    The man was agitated and berated the bodyguard.

    The elderly did not mutter a word. He just stood up and snickered while the man quickly forced a smile back. The elderly remained silent, and the man sweated profusely; his fleshy cheeks twitched over time as he continued to force a smile.

    A rumbling sound of an engine could be heard out of the blue. ¡°Who¡¯s the one causing trouble here?¡±

    Ye Chong shuddered as he did not sense the sneaky arrival right behind him. Imagine if the person were to assassinate Ye Chong - that would be a nasty one to deal with! This person is strong! Encountering such power minutes after his arrival, he definitely did not see thising. He felt excited! Compared to the electrifying adventure he had before, a field of strong opponents was much more preferable. The ck Cove sure is a better ce for me!

    He hardly encountered any formidable opponent ever since he left Trash-12. Disregarding opponents of any kind, he still could tell there were ws in them. A kind of fragility either in their physique, skills or mentality which was such a turn-off to Ye Chong¡¯s battle will. He only had a simple request -to be stronger. In his mindset, strength was the only factor to guarantee his life and determine his fate.

    A man wearing a ck mask stormed in. The mask was smooth in texture, and glowing in gentle linings. His facial features were mellow; the nose and lips were well-rounded while the eyes were decorated with intricate silver, giving off a dynamic visual. The mask exerted some kind of strange force that made people lower their gazes at the sight of it. The cloak that was as dark as night exuded a sense of mystery and unworldliness.

    Sweat trickled down the man¡¯s forehead.

    The man behind the mask was Johansson and he felt agitated at themotion. How dare the people cause trouble while he was on duty!

    Looking at the situation, Johansson deduced in his mind what probably had happened. He shot an icy nce at the man; a piercing gaze that sent shivers down the man¡¯s spine. He sweated extensively and fear was clearly stered on his face which intensified afterwards.

    Johansson held his hand up to stop the man from speaking as he was toozy to interrogate or to evenmunicate with the man. He walked straight to the side of the wall and tapped a few buttons. A hologram disy popped out of the wall, and reyed the incident.

    ¡°I¡¯m impressed.¡± The inhospitality in Johansson¡¯s voice was eminent, ¡°You people are actually brave enough to defy thew of zero violence in the ck Cove. So, do you want toe with me¡­ or do you want a fight instead?¡±

    The brawny bodyguard beside the man did not seem to care. His lips curved into a wry smile of disdain. The masked man before him seemed too petite to bring any harm; so frail it looked as if the masked guy could be sent flying with a punch. He was puzzled by his boss¡¯ irrational fear of the masked man. What could an elderly and a puny masked man do?

    Meanwhile, Ye Chong was cautiously watching the masked man. He could be considered as a dangerous individual judging by how he managed to sneak in without being noticed. He must have something up his sleeves! Ye Chong had a keen sense of hearing as well as his other senses. There was not a time where he failed to notice anyoneing close to him. His strength could not be justified through his frail physique, andck of defined muscles. Men with such physique were able to throw great punches too, like Ye Chong himself!

    Johansson sneered under his mask. The corners of his lips curled into a broad contemptuous smile.

    Everyone was blinded by a sudden sh of light but only caught a glimpse of a dark shadow lurking near. The bodyguard held his abdomen whimpering, and his face distorted in pain. He could barely let out a cry. His expression twisted in agony while his body caved into the pain, and eventually he fainted and copsed on the ground. He did not speak a word.

    Ye Chong¡¯s heart skipped a beat; flustered by what he had witnessed. I could be taken down anytime! That was the first time Ye Chong encountered someone who could travel as fast as him. He saw everything clearly, the whole sequence of action -the masked man sprinted to the front of the bodyguard, and sprung a kick right into the bodyguard. His leg was like a dagger drawn from its sheath. It felt like a mere tap on the man¡¯s body as he backed off like phantom after delivering the blow.

    Ye Chong¡¯s back was already wet from the stream of cold sweats!

    Johansson humph in dissatisfaction, and walked towards the bodyguard who had been taught his lesson of the day.

    ¡°Hold it!¡± A person shouted from the crowd.

    Johansson¡¯s eyes discerned the one who shouted. He raised his eyebrows. Such an ordinary looking boy. Yet, he stood out like a sore thumb from the crowd. Like the big bad wolf in a group of sheep! A man from the crowd walked too close forfort to the boy but he reflexively adjusted his body right away; just enough to avoid his attack! Johansson was taken aback by surprise of course. Such swiftness! He continued to observe the boy and felt astonished. The boy was actually in a much different stance than the others. He stood in a way which was easier for him to lunge into an attack when threatened while others in the crowd was standing with ease; this tiny detail set him apart from regr people.

    The boy had a bnced physique. He did not have a set of bulky muscles anywhere. Johansson judged based on him experiences. He knew Ye Chong was not as weak as he appeared to be. In fact, he was as potent as Johansson himself. Johansson was well aware of the potential terror a boy like him could bring. Nevertheless, Johansson was confused. A body of his built requires a certain type of training which was not known by anybody else outside the ck Cove supposedly. If that was the case, how was it possible that aplete outsider possess a physique of such kind? Did he spy on their training process? Impossible! The coaching of this ce is one-of-a-kind; there would not be a chance for outsiders like him to learn by just peeking! In fact, not only does it call for a special skillset, it also requires other supplementary acts to be taken. If not, it impossible to stop the muscles from erging!

    The people around Ye Chong quickly distanced themselves from him like he was Satan or something from the underworld. But this made it easy for Ye Chong to move.

    Ye Chong took a deep breath and immediately grabbed the optimal rhythm for his breather.

    Johansson¡¯s heart quivered and shifted his step gently a little to the left to face Ye Chong in the face.

    Johansson made up his mind. By hook or by crook, this strange boy before him must be arrested and handed over to Instructor Hak. The instructor shall show special care to this boy; a session of detailed interrogation. We must know who this boy is and where he came from!

    Ye Chong rmingly stared at the masked man. The right leg of his which formerly right beside his left went backwards much more, about a distance of two feet, while his left knee bent way more! His feet that were ced side by side were now two feet apart on guard.

    ¡°So it was you I supposed? The one who spoke up.¡± Johansson asked coldly. His tone was zed with ice; more hostile than when he spoke to the bodyguard.

    Everyone in the crowd could sense how frigid the atmosphere had turned, as if time was frozen. The pressure exerted in space¡­ they couldn¡¯t breathe!

 Chapter 48 - Through the Looking Glass

    <h4>Chapter 48: Through the Looking ss</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Absolutely!¡± Ye Chong¡¯s reply was loud and firm!

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± The cold wind blew as Johansson spoke indifferently, ¡°So, you want to butt in?¡± The dark mask shone in polished ck.

    Ye Chong shook his head.

    Johansson was perplexed for a second. That was unpredicted! He maintained a calm facade and asked softly, ¡°I see. So¡­ why did you speak up?¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Ye Chong halted for a moment thinking of a way to convey his feelings, but hecked the experience of making deals with people. He decided to ditche the idea and spoke straightforwardly, ¡°I want to learn battle techniques from you!¡±

    That statement stupefied Johansson. Oh! Johansson turned joyful. This was such a good opportunity. While he was racking his head to think of a way to drag this boy all the way to Instructor Hak, the boy decided to offer himself. No force capture was needed it seemed. He suppressed his joy and spoke on as calmly as possible, ¡°Very well. But you are required to undergo some examination. Follow me then, if you would!¡±

    Johansson turned on his heels, and carried the bodyguard in his arm. He hurried away in a sh!

    Ye Chong chased after the masked man without any hesitation!

    The bodyguard was like a heavyweight dumbbell in Johansson¡¯s hand, but he carried him with ease. As Ye Chong chased on his confidence started to extinguish. This is already my maximum speed¡­ yet I can¡¯t even overtake the masked man. Our distance remained the same when we left, and I can¡¯t even close the gap between us. That wasn¡¯t the only mood-killer - considering the masked man was actually lifting a 260 pound man, it would be tantly justifiable that he just didn¡¯t have the speed to evenpete the masked man. Clouded in negative thoughts, he grew disappointed of himself.

    Speed, velocity, and anything that sets motion like lightning was always what Ye Chong had the most priority on as well as confidence. Back in the days when he was still piloting Winnie, he was already equipped with speed. When Mu appeared, the intensive training given caused his overall speed to increase significantly. He also enjoyed the excitement of being fast and furious. Despite that, he did not expect this day toe when what he valued and was proud of was being smashed into pieces. It was heartbreaking and disappointing.

    That was not the only thing uncalled for.

    Meanwhile, Johansson felt simr. The race came unexpectedly like a tsunami to his status quo!

    In the ck Cove, Johansson was known for his speed among his batch mates. Among the other men who joined, he was outstanding although he was not the fastest, but he was well known at least. Speed was a technique he was an expert in and also the key to his victory! However, he too did not foresee that this day woulde when he would almostpete with a mere puny boy from nowhere. Even though he was carrying a few hundred pounds of a meaty man in his hand, it seemed to be a huge disadvantage to the rationale of this situation. He knew that the ¡°dumbbell¡± was pretty much nothing contrary to what the public would assume. So, even if there was nothing in his hand, he would not be much faster than he is at the moment!

    Moreover, in a brief inspection through his sharp eyes, he could already reckon that the boy had much more room for improvement. It was obvious that the boy had yet undergone proper training since he wholly depended on the speed-burst by his feet. If the boy were to remedy some of the ws he had, his speed would elevate by ten percent at the very least. By then, he would be much faster and had been long leading the race instead! If I brought the boy to Hak and he was aware of how brilliant and potent this student was, he probably would beughing his beard off. That annoying beard of his.

    Thinking of how he might no longer be the best in Group-F, a rush of envy surged in him!

    If that happened, Group-F would be exceptionally stronger with his existence. Then Group-F would be able to turn the tide! Johansson¡¯s mood elevated at that thought.

    Both of them were having their own theater of monolog as they raced after one another!

    Johansson was turning here and there while Ye Chong already lost his sense of direction. He had no idea where he was by then. He only knew that he had to follow the masked man. Johansson walked into the parking walkway next, and turned to Ye Chong, ¡°Have a mech?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± He nodded.

    ¡°Good. Now, get on the mech and follow me!¡± The masked man summoned a dark mech. Hey! That was the same mech Ye Chong saw back when he was travelling through a belt of asteroids! That orbit-cleaning mech! He hurriedly called in his mech.

    Before he took off, he did not forget to inform Bai Linan he had something to work on so Bai Linan had to stay at the ck Cove for awhile. Bai Linan had no idea what was going on, but he was more than d to be able to stay in such a fancy ce. He agreed without giving it a second thought.

    Johansson¡¯s mech sped into the asteroid belts beside S.S. Zhi, and Ye Chong would not trifle with the new challenge as he went after in his mech.

    Ye Chong never knew his little wish of ¡°ying¡± in the asteroid belt with his mech would be granted so quickly. Johansson did not rush the tour. He just moved on in rxation, like taking a stroll in his backyard even though he was dodging the floating asteroids. Serene and graceful. On the other hand, Ye Chong was clumsily dodging them. He thought that it would not be a problem to do it in a mech when he was able to prate though the asteroid belt with a spacecraft previously. But in reality, the odds were against his favor. It was true that the mech was much more agile than a spacecraft, but it was the first time Ye Chong actually found his mech to be a little bit too agile. The asteroids here were denser and faster than the one he encountered before, and he was being harassed by the oing asteroids. One crash would cause an episode of dizziness. Fortunately, the advanced mech contained an advanced pressure-buffering system which saved Ye Chong¡¯s brain from getting smacked onto the control panel. It¡¯s just that Gold Wheat¡¯s gorgeous humanoid appearance got smacked into something else instead¡­

    Johansson wasn¡¯t traveling fast; obviously he was waiting for Ye Chong to catch up.

    Ye Chong followed the masked man in endless crash at the Elma Zone for about eight hours. Ye Chong lost his mind seeing the heavy belt of asteroids waiting to hit his face. He shrieked. How much longer we are going to do this! Where is the freaking the end of this ce!

    Johansson was as calm as before they started their journey. Not speeding, not slowing down either. At least Ye Chong¡¯s situation improved overtime; though he still got showered by the asteroids, he wasn¡¯t as clumsy as before.

    On a side note, all kinds of electronic scanning devices tend to fail in this ce. Ye Chong could only watch the environment with his naked eyes.

    Another 8 hours flight to nowhere.

    They eventually exited the asteroid belt. Ye Chong exhaled in relief.

    Johansson flew on with Ye Chong on his tail, and withdraw from the asteroid belt speedily.

    Two and a half hourster, a dark base appeared before them with lights that lit up brightly. The base was about the size of 10 S.S. Zhi Lan. It seemed to be modified from a tiny.

    Johansson did not seem to be making an introduction anytime soon as he piloted quietly. Ye Chong had a few questions on his mind, but decided to follow suit.

    As they inched towards the base, only then Ye Chong discovered the fact that the base waspletely enveloped by a protective force; the space around the base was filled with satellites. The satellites were armed with electromaic cannons and that sent chills down his spine. Electromaic cannons of such kind would cause tinys with diameter less than 20 kilometers to crumble in one st, and their orbit would be changed dramatically without a doubt!

    Ye Chong went after the masked man into a returning port slowly. As they were close, Ye Chong saw a protective veil about 15 meters thick. He was shocked. If he remembered correctly, a board about this thick would cost a whopping price even in the size of a palm! Plus, the base had this kind of board everywhere in the air! Even a caveman like Ye Chong whocked the actual concept of prices and values was having a hard time to let it sink in.

    Johansson signaled Ye Chong to stop daydreaming and move. Ye Chong followed on swiftly right away!

    Into the base, the masked man lobbed the bodyguard out of the cabin and someone took him over to the side. I wonder what the man¡¯s fate would be. Ye Chongcked the curiosity to know more.

    The masked man then gestured him to stay in his mech. They would be traveling at the base in the mech.

    They arrived at a giant ck door. The masked man stopped as the door opened up automatically.

    Both of their mechs gradually engulfed by the dark gate.

 Chapter 49 - Through the Mask

    <h4>Chapter 49: Through the Mask</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Three grown men stood in a confined room; there were two masked man including Johansson and also Ye Chong.

    The other masked man hurled the same ck mask they were wearing to Ye Chong and ordered menacingly, ¡°Put it up!¡±

    Ye Chong picked it up and felt the peculiar texture in his hands. The mask was surprisingly very soft when touched and it seemed to be made out of special materials too. There was a code written beneath the mask - F-58. He tried putting it on and the mask fitted on his face unexpectedly well as if it was specially tailored for Ye Chong. His face wasyered by the mysterious aura of the mask. It fitted so well that he could even feel the mask mimicking his facial expressions; the mask would trace even the slightest twitch of muscle, and it had great airflow as well. Ye Chong did not feel the stuffiness he was expecting wearing a mask. Instead, he almost forgot that he was wearing one.

    ¡°I am Hak, your instructor!¡± His voice roared in the room, ¡°And I''ll be invigting your examination. Johansson, take the lead!¡±

    ¡°The examination begins!¡± Johansson notified in a rumbling voice as he stood opposite of Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong got into his ready-stance, anticipating the uing trials.

    Johansson rushed into his position with his arms crossed embracing himself. He knew that this was merely a test, therefore took a more defensive position.

    Ye Chong began seriously, a heavy stomp with his right. The room shook a little by that powerful burst of his. Instructor Hak''s face had a hint of surprise as he witnessed this by the side. Ye Chong bravely leaped towards Johansson and whimpered as he threw a punch with his right fist.

    Johansson gracefully spun to the side and dodged the attack. Ye Chong missed, and almost fell from losing his bnce. It would be an opportunity to experience Johansson¡¯s counterattack, but he remained on the defensive side and patiently waited for Ye Chong''s next strike. Ye Chong regained his stance and was prepared tounch the following punches. He raised his fist, but before he coulde into contact with Johansson, a thunderous voice broke his action.

    ¡°Stop right there!¡± Instructor Hak ended the little fight between them. ¡°Enough!¡± Ye Chong was dumbfounded. I was evaluated with only a punch? Johansson seemed to be much more aware of such interruption through his gesture.

    Instructor Hak walked to Ye Chong and stared into his eyes, ¡°I don''t care who you were. I don''t know where you came from, and I don''t want to know what you have worked for. From now on, this mask is yours. As long as you are in the ck Cove, you shall never remove this mask. Never. Ever! Anytime or anywhere! Your code would be F-58. You will be the 58th member of Group-F. Now, state your name!¡±

    ¡°Ye¡°

    ¡°Pseudoname! Everyone here uses a pseudoname or a codename.¡± Right before Ye Chong actually gave his actual name away, Instructor Hak interrupted him with a gentle reminder.

    Ye Chong did not ponder much on this request, ¡°Mu. I am Mu!¡± The name slipped right off his mouth so naturally.

    ¡°Follow Johansson to your campsite now. It''s Group-F. He would arrange the amodation for you,¡± Instructor Hak ordered. ¡°Wee to the world of real Pilots!¡± he said sternly.

    On the way to his campsite, Johansson lectured him some exclusive rules of survival in ck Cove.

    Firstly, never inquire anything about someone. This would create enemies without knowing.

    Secondly, never expose personal details about yourself to the others. That was to guarantee your life in the ck Cove.

    Thirdly, never demonstrate your true strength in order to live longer.

    Johansson mentioned the grave rules nonchntly. Even though, that was rming enough for Ye Chong to be aware of the hidden danger of this ce. Ye Chong started to tense.

    Johansson in the meantime somehow was able to identify the alert in Ye Chong''s eyes. His own eyes expressed approval.

    The campsite for Group-F was quite spacious. However, Johansson did not seem to be in the mood to give Ye Chong a tour of the ce. He just guided him all the way to an empty room, ¡°This will be your room. You will be living here from now on.¡± Johansson said as he pointed at the room. ¡°If you want food, there''s a cafeteria. We passed it awhile ago. You should know!¡±

    Ye Chong nodded.

    ¡°Good! Go find Instructor Hak yourself tomorrow. He will be teaching you some tricks!¡± Johansson left the scene after that.

    Johansson''s unfriendliness wasn''t foreign to Ye Chong. He was more used to adapting to surroundings all by himself. On the contrary, if people were too friendly to him when they first met, it would bring him difort, and he would be unable to blend in well.

    Although this was an unupied room, it still required fingerprint and palm-print verification in order to check in, but that wasn''t new to Ye Chong either. It did not take him much time to set up the security system. The room was well-furnished, and was arge room toopared to his home back in Trash-12; this was at a muchrger scale. There were a number of things that Ye Chong did note across in his life. He had yet to use them before. For starters, he tried experimenting with gadgets in the room just to find out what they did and how they were used. Luckily, Ye Chong wasn''t a greenhorn to electronic devices, and they were much simpler in his eyes. Soon, he understood the method to use every item in the room.

    He took a shower before drifting off to sleep.

    Ye Chong rose early the next day as the grumbling of his tummy woke him up. He ran to the cafeteria right away. He thought that he came early enough without knowing there was already a crowd. Everyone was taking their breakfast silently. The cafeteria was filled with people, and was roomy as well, but it was dead! The atmosphere felt so tense it was too stressful to stay.

    He had a hearty breakfast; scrumptious food wafted down to Ye Chong¡¯s tummy. The food was new to him and he finished up happily. Still, the atmosphere was rather somber.

    Ye Chong finished his breakfast and went to the ce where he saw Instructor Hak the day before.

    On the way there, he noticed that everyone was indeed wearing their masks, but he did not see anyone greeting each other. This ce was somber enough for folks of the outside world. But to a man who was used to living alone like Ye Chong, such simple life without interaction was rather rxing.

    He arrived at Instructor Hak''s ce, and spotted the instructor teaching something to a member. Ye Chong recalled what Johansson had told him before, so he withdrew himself and waited by the side quietly.

    Instructor Hak had already seen Ye Chong right when he arrived. He was impressed at how Ye Chong did not approach him out of curiosity, but waited at the side with patience instead. The instructor''s eyes shone with admiration.

    Ye Chong waited for 30 minutes for that member to exit the room as Instructor Hak waved at him. He entered the room without a dy.

    The instructor initiated the conversation, ¡°The fight yesterday was just to identify your level while what we are going to do today¡­ would be testing you in a variety of skills. Come with me!¡± Both of them moved to a room filled with apparatus.

    Momentster, Instructor Hak looked through the test report of Ye Chong''s performance. His jaw dropped as he stared on in nk dismay.

    The oue of the test was more than just astonishing! If he did not observe Ye Chong¡¯s tests with his own eyes, he would never believe the results in his hand; from someone who had not undergone the ck Cove''s training! He was under 20 too!

    His physique was in tip-top condition! He was the first one-of-a-kind that Instructor Hak came across! Even the dummy in Group-A would not be on par with Ye Chong before training.

    Speed was the most outstanding aspect of his performance. In full force, his running speed could hit 5.32 Hz! Even Johansson, the best runner in the group could only go as fast as 5.54 Hz after the training. How astounding!

    His strength was remarkable as well. How could he possess such intense amount of strength without changing the physical attribute of his body, and not to mention the absence of special training in the ck Cove? Instructor Hak had his doubts. Technically, he wasn''t the only one who was puzzled by this oddity. Mu¡¯s processors nearly malfunction when he tried to figure out the cause behind it. Eventually, Mu gave up and decided that Ye Chong was an oddball to reason everything.

    But with this amount of power, Instructor Hak could imagine if the infamous power-creep Facherny, who excelled simrly in strength was notified of this boy''s existence, chances are he woulde barging in, smashed the door and dragged this boy away! Of course, this time, Instructor Hak was affirmed with his new student. He would never let that happen despite that power-freak¡¯s rampage.

    This Mu boy was extremely good with his bncing and dexterity too! The instructor could see that when he did sharp-turnings at high speed. His action was swift and flexible; there wasn''t any pause at all!

    He was also calm and smart which was really important.

    To top it off, the most shocking part to Instructor Hak was the speed of the boy''s hands attack! An absolute fearsome velocity to one¡¯s eyes!

 Chapter 50 - Time Phase

    <h4>Chapter 50: Time Phase</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    These are a pair of hands with frightening speed. Instructor Hak never thought of anyone outside the ck Cove that could have such speed. The hands were known to be the most agile part of the body as well as being capable to do various tasks. The agility of the hands is directly proportional to the number of tasks one could do in a set amount of time. In simpler terms, the faster one''s hand is the more tasks one couldplete in limited time. Thus, its significance does not require much exnation. Edging between life and death, one''s oue could be possibly be determined by actions that are taken or decisions made in that few milliseconds. Such outstanding speed was truly a rare sight in the ck Cove!

    This boy that stood before Instructor Hak seemed to have yet to be aware of the true power of his own hands.

    Instructor Hak looked at Ye Chong standing still at the side, nodding his head in approval, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

    Ye Chong did not mutter a word. He stood on in silence.

    Suddenly, a thought crossed the instructor''s mind and it took him a while to phrase it in a way that this little boy couldprehend, "Tell me what you know about being a Pilot."

    Ye Chong tilted his head as he thought about it, "The controller of the mech!"

    "Well¡­" He nodded his head, "That''s what people would normally assume!" The reply surprised Ye Chong as he raised his head, looking at the instructor with his eyes erged.

    "The Pilots¡­" Instructor Hak exined calmly with a kind of unidentified nostalgia in his tone, "They aren''t what you all had always assumed to be. How the world outside defines the Pilots and how the world examine them, they were absurd and meaningless. Hmph! Those are just some assumptions for kids! The real world of Pilots is beyond your imagination¡­ and beyond your knowledge too! Everyone from the outside would never know and no one would ever understand! Do you know what the Pilots formerly were?"

    Ye Chong shook his head.

    "The Pilots used to be the kind who adores power. The advancement of the age of machinery allowed people to realize the power hidden within the gears. The ancient martial arts and the sorcery from the tradition soon vanished and in return, the emergence of the Pilots! However, inter times, people started to discover the more potent oue and a much higher survivability when the mech was actually piloted by a martial artist or a sorcerer. Then, it so happened that the peoplebined the artistry of martial arts, sorcery and mech-piloting, forming the new generation of Pilots. These Pilots when unarmed were barely an opponent to go against the ssic martial artist or sorcerer, but if they were to mount onto a mech, they could exert immense strength."

    Instructor Hak carried on with his exnation about one particr incident that changed the world, "About 500 years ago, there was a crisis, a never-before-seen crisis, a big one, and many had perished. Most of the surviving men turned out to be actual Pilots, while this inevitably led to the ending of the other kinds of forces. 300 years ago, something catastrophic happened again! Pilots were dispersed throughout the gxy and known by the outside world! But what they got in the end was undoubtedly rather obsolete. Still, regarding what actually happened in the past, what connected the beginning and the ending of the history, I had no idea either!" Quickly, the instructor added, "Anyway, it was not easy to educate people of your kind from the five major gxies to understand the concept of ancient martial arts and sorcery."

    Ye Chong''s heart trembled! There was such a backstory to this? I never knew! Since Instructor Hak could tell such tale directly from his mouth, it seemed that he wasn''t the man from the five major gxies too! He might came from somewhere that was unknown by the others, and that particr ce somehow had a strange connection to the gxies.

    "The major elements of a Pilot¡­" He lectured as he continued emphasizing the salutation to the more-than-just-mech-controller he knew, "¡­are physique, mech and mentality. And these also directly caused the formation of three major schools - one being the kind thatbined martial arts and technology, strives to obtain the ultimate body, another being the kind that incorporated sorcery into technology. Yes, the mentality for such kind is usually much stronger, and there''s this kind who does purely machinery. To be frank, this is the most hated school out of the three because they perform direct modification towards your body, turning them into a chimera or something. They neither look like humans nor machines. But I must say they are still strong in their nature! It is undeniable to say that they also had the most advanced mech out of all the schools!" Even though Instructor Hak expressed tant disgust and hatred as he spoke, he still acknowledged their strength.

    Ye Chong was enjoying every bit of the storytelling. He was all ears, all eyes and all heart!

    "You must have figured it out by now, boy. We are the first school, but I can''t deny the fact that the martial arts do have an amazing effect on the development of anatomy. The ancient arts were great and grand. Nevertheless, we only extracted a small part of it to be utilized." He looked at Ye Chong, "I had no idea how you did your training before and I don''t see you having any kind of energy pulse. But you do have immense muscle strength and oddly every fabric of your muscle had barely erged like what others should have. This is confusing to me!" He expressed his puzzlement towards this anomaly before him but he didn''t seem to be interested to investigate further. "Alright,e with me!"

    Instructor Hak led Ye Chong into arge lobby. There were quite a number of oviform apparatus. The outer shell of the apparatus was made out of a transparent material; there was a kind of silver liquid inside, and it looked rather sticky. Among the apparatus, a few were upied by humans as they immersed into it with their eyes closed. They looked serene and enjoyed using the apparatus.

    Instructor Hak said pointing at one of the empty oval capsule, "Go on, and give it a try!" Ye Chong walked towards the capsule with suspicion. The capsule uncapped, an opening just enough to fit Ye Chong in, and Ye Chong walked into it. Ye Chong was fully enclosed in the capsule. The silver liquid sprinkled from underneath, filling up the space; starting from the leg, to the knees, then the waist and the chest, but stopped at the neck eventually.

    Lethargy surged through his body, and every inch of his muscle felt warm. It was sofortable that Ye Chong felt like yawning. He started to be sleepy yet he somehow felt perfectly conscious at the same time; stuck in between the state of sleep, and being awake.

    After an unknown amount of time, Ye Chong jumped awake. He saw how the instructor scrutinized him carefully, wondering what he was thinking under that ck mask of his. The silver liquid ebbed away like sea tides and in a blink of an eye, the liquid in the capsule was drainedpletely. Ye Chong was shocked to see there wasn''t even a single drop of silver liquid left behind while his clothing was in the same condition as when he entered. It was not wet, it was not tainted either.

    "How was it?" The instructor asked as Ye Chong stepped out of the capsule.

    Ye Chong nodded, "Good! Pretty good!"

    "Now¡­" The instructor''s eyes gleamed peculiarly, "Do you feel energized? Does your whole body feel like it¡¯s filled with strength that is anticipating to be unleashed?"

    He did notice it right away when the silver liquid retreated from his body. He felt hot, his body was heated up, and fully charged again. The need to unleash his immense strength took over his thoughts at the mention of it from the instructor. He nodded his head right away.

    "Come with me!" Instructor Hak brought Ye Chong to a spacious training field. There were various kinds of training facilities. "You are going to use up all your stamina here. Head back to the capsule after and use the facilities again. Repeat the process three times and you are good to go. Alright, it''s up to you now." He walked away.

    He obeyed his instructor''s order obediently. He drained all his strength every single time, and returned to the capsule for a quick recharge. In the capsule, he could feel his strength charging up again, bit by bit. It felt perplexing indeed.

    He rushed back to the field to exhaust his stamina after charging, and noticed the intensive boost in his stamina recovery when he dipped in the capsule. After that, he no longer felt the heat; he started to get used to it and reacted normally.

    It was almost dawn when he finished his training, but he did not feel hungry at all when he was done! It was surprising because he did not have a meal at all! He believed it could be one of the effects of the silver liquid.

    He found his old partner in training, the metallic marbles in the field. He grabbed a handful of them into his pocket, and went back to his room. He met Johansson on the way back, but they did not exchange words. Instead, they nodded at each other politely and went their separate ways.

 Chapter 51 - Muâ€™s Awakening

    <h4>Chapter 51: Mu¡¯s Awakening</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s third month in ck Cove and his task of the day was to mine for ck gold ore. The ore was one ck Cove¡¯s specialitymonly found scattered in orbits around the. It was indeed a tedious job to mine the valuable ore. The mining ships could not enter the asteroid belt, so mechs were utilized instead. It was impossible to perform scans of the asteroid belts. Hence, holographic images were taken and inspected with the naked eye in search of ore deposits. The process of mining the ore was also akin to a mixed training regimen that tested one¡¯s piloting skills and eyesight. To make matters worse, the procedure of transporting the ore back was also a challenging task.

    The yield of the ck gold ore was extremely low. It was primarily used to manufacture the ck masks worn by Ye Chong and the rest.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mech, the F-58 was simr to the others¡¯ in ck Cove. They were all ck humanoid mechs. However, due to Ye Chong¡¯s deft hands, his mech was modified to include a few extra features which kept it at par with his skills.

    In truth, Ye Chong had improved tremendously in these past few months. More importantly, he began to understand the concept of battle strategies instead of relying solely on his instincts and experiences as he did before. He also thought that Mu¡¯s foundation training for him was not as ridiculous as Hak said, but was surprisingly quite useful to him. Ye Chong was not very skilled in the ancient martial arts and he was not particrly interested in them either. For instance, Ye Chong did not find that the breathing technique taught by Hak was effective. As for foundation and steel sphere training taught by Mu, he finally surpassed the tenth level of steel spheres that he was struggling with for a long time after sacrificing blood and tears. The silver liquid¡¯s effect was truly remarkable and it sure did give him satisfaction.

    Ye Chong had seen Hak in action. Although he had the strength of a bull, Ye Chong still felt a hint of disappointment. If Hak and Mu were to fight against each other in abat, Ye Chong was quite confident that Mu will take him down effortlessly with just a stab.

    ¡°Oh dear Mu, when will you wake up? I miss you so much!¡° Ye Chong thought to himself.

    His vision darkened and Ye Chong shifted his focus back to reality only to realise that his mech was approaching towards a veryrge rock. Ye Chong was startled and immediately maneuvered his mech out of its way just in time to avoid collision.

    The presence of the rock indicated that the ck gold ores were depleting around that particr area. Thus, he would have to travel further into the asteroid belt in order to get his hands on the ore.

    Ye Chong drove his mech deeper into the recesses of the asteroid belt.

    He flew deeper inside and yet could not manage to find any ck gold ore along the way. It seemed that he was out of luck today.

    Ye Chong was dispirited. However, as he decided to make a turn back, a huge ck gold ore of around two meters in diameter came into view and it was heading further away from him at a high speed.

    Ye Chong gained confidence and pulled himself together. Without further hesitation, he elerated his mech and went after the giant ck gold ore.

    All of a sudden, his mech rocked violently and Ye Chong felt as though he lost control of it and being pulled in by a strong attractive force. The mech was flying all by itself.

    Ye Chong immediately sensed something amiss. He quickly reversed the engines and steered backwards in hopes of escaping the pulling force.

    Even though he had increased the engine¡¯s capacity to its maximum, his mech was still being pulled forward.

    When Ye Chong looked ahead, he was dumbstruck. The debris around him were pulled towards the same direction as his mech by an external force. Ye Chong then noticed that the debris were forming a whirlpool pattern and he became aware of what he was about to face.

    An asteroid whirlpool! This must be an asteroid whirlpool! This was Elma Zone¡¯s most terrifying feature. Due to its existence, not many dared to venture into the depths of the zone.

    ¡°No way! How can I be so out of luck?¡± Ye Chong wailed mentally.

    Ye Chong tried desperately to escape from the grasp of the asteroid whirlpool but no matter what he did, it was of no use!

    As the asteroid whirlpool grewrger, it became more visible. Ye Chong realized how massive the asteroid whirlpool was and realised that he was just a speck of dustpared to it!

    Ye Chong felt very helpless.

    At that moment, he thought that his fate was about to be ripped to shreds. Who would have thought that after rebelling against his destiny for so many years, his death was determined by an asteroid whirlpool? Ye Chong drowned in his sad thoughts.

    ¡°Idiot! What are you fantasizing about? Are you looking forward to your death?¡± a voice suddenly yed in his mind.

    Ye Chong startled and felt an instant joy. ¡°Mu, is that you?¡±

    ¡°Alright, there¡¯s no time for talking. Now direct the mech nine degrees away from the radius vector and make small bi-directional angle adjustments along the way!¡± His assumption wasn¡¯t wrong. It was Mu! This was a voice Ye Chong would never forget in his life!

    Ye Chong suppressed his overjoyed emotions and quickly moved his hands over the controls. He did not have any doubts on Mu¡¯s instructions. If there was someone whom Ye Chong trusted with his life, it would definitely be Mu!

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands manipted the controls at lightning speed. His breakthrough with the ten steel spheres in his training had paid off in this situation. Ye Chong¡¯s shadow-like hands were no longer just skin and bones, but they were as solid as rocks.

    Ye Chong¡¯s F-58 suddenly changed its direction and started to shake vigorously andterally at small-angles. The F-48 was like a ck fish desperately struggling to escape from a fishing, struggling non-stop! Like a miracle, the F-58 began to pull away from the asteroid whirlpool!

    Ye Chong gave a sigh of relieve.

    ¡°Now switch to eight degrees from the radius vector and repeat the motion!¡± Mu¡¯s voice rang again.

    ************************

    ¡°Hu, hu, ¡­¡± Ye Chong panted heavily. All the hustle and bustle to save the ship from being sucked into the asteroid whirlpool had drained most of his energy but it was all worth it.

    ¡°Looks like you have improved tremendously!¡± Mumented lightly.

    Ye Chong was still absorbed in the joy of escaping death and reuniting with Mu. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve been training at ck Cove and learnt quite a few things!¡±

    ¡°ck Cove?¡± Mu¡¯s tone sounded off.

    And so, Ye Chong began his story from when he first awakened. Mu listened intently while asionally interjecting a few questions.

    When Ye Chong finished, Mu went quiet.

    ¡°Is there a problem?¡± Ye Chong asked curiously.

    Mu kept silent for a few moments before answering, ¡°That ck Cove that you mentioned might be a problem!¡±

    ¡°A problem?¡± Ye Chong was baffled.

    Mu did not answer him directly, but instead he asked, ¡°Ye, did they give you this mech?¡±

    Ye Chong nodded. ¡°Yeah, this mech has an amazing performance and it can even withstand the deadly asteroid whirlpool. I¡¯m impressed!¡±

    ¡°Remove the seventh photon circuit board from under the controls in the mech and check it carefully,¡± Mu¡¯s voice was still calm as ever.

    Ye Chong took out the seventh photon circuit board as instructed and began inspecting. He believed Mu had his reasons for him to do it. Hmm! As expected, something was not right. There seemed to be a return circuit that was capable of signalling. By logic, there should not be a return circuit in this part of the circuit board.

    Ye Chong might not be well educated in worldly matters, but he was not dim. On the contrary, he was very bright and he could deal with situations like these with a breeze. Without hesitation, Ye Chong used some tools to remove that photon return circuit for he was not keen on being spied upon.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s just this one spot. I have checked the rest for you!¡± Mu spoke leisurely.

    Ye Chong only acknowledged with an ¡°Oh.¡± Ye Chong was not particrly angry about it since he had learned much from them and there was no free lunch in this world. ¡°However, the food at their canteen was not that bad,¡± Ye Chong thought yearningly and licked his lips.

    ¡°Ye, you said you were soaked in some kind of silver liquid.¡±

    ¡°Mm, you¡¯re not saying that¡¯s a problem too right?¡± Ye Chong said with hesitation.

    ¡°The possibility is very high!¡± Mu did not care for Ye Chong¡¯s feelings and spoke inly.

    ¡°That damned ck Cove¡­¡± Ye Chong was about to give a furious re in the direction of ck Cove to express his anger when he suddenly panicked. ¡°Mu, I think we¡¯re lost!¡±

    ¡°I realized earlier on,¡± Mu repliedzily.

    ¡°What do we do?¡±

    ¡°Based on my experience, anything that happens around you can be said to be incalcble events,¡± Mu dered decisively.

 Chapter 52 - Out of this Predicament

    <h4>Chapter 52: Out of this Predicament</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Mu, do you think we¡¯re heading in the right direction?¡± Ye Chong asked in desperation of having a conversation with Mu as though he hadn¡¯t spoken to him for days.

    ¡°The probability of escaping is the same no matter which direction we opt to go for,¡± Mu replied calmly.

    ¡°But Mu, why do you need so much ck gold ore?¡± Ye Chong asked curiously.

    ¡°That information is ssified! I am not in ce to say anything regarding this matter,¡± Mu answered with full of mystery. Mu added that ck gold ore was an extremely rare mineral. The ck gold derived from the ore, which was scientifically named Klose, had not only outstanding physical characteristics, but also self-restoration capabilities. Thetter was the mineral¡¯s most valuable quality.

    Who would have thought that the ck gold ore that he found along the way was more than he had ever mined before altogether. Mu kept all the ck gold ore in his alternate dimension. No matter howrge the ore was, Mu only needed to raise his hands and the ore would vanish into thin air. Ye Chong was very impressed by his talent! It was a pity when Mu told him that that was an exclusive trick of his which was never taught to others.

    Ye Chong was discouraged and twitched his mouth. Suddenly, he realized something he had never thought of before. ¡°Ah, I heard that there were many skillful mech engineers and mechanics on ck Cove. I should have asked them if they could restore you! How could I have forgotten that?¡± Ye Chong hit his head lightly with disappointment. In front of Mu, Ye Chong acted like aplete different person!

    ¡°The mech you are piloting now is one of their products?¡± Mu asked.

    ¡°Yeah, this mech is not so bad after all!¡± Ye Chong replied.

    ¡°Then they would never be able to restore me,¡± Mu said with confidence. The arrogance in his tone made Ye Chong gave him a sidelong nce.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong had the habit of having backup energy cells with him. No matter how durable the F-58 can be, it¡¯s would have been depleted if not for those backup cells. Ye Chong had the high energy organic liquid food stored as emergency ration on the mech as he yearned for the delicacies at the canteen in ck Cove. This further increased his suffering.

    Mu was still in the alternate dimension to minimize energy usage.

    ck Cove mechs were very advanced. Ye Chong¡¯s F-58, for example, was only a training mech, but all of its parts and essories were far more advanced than all the high tech mechs Ye Chong had ever piloted before. The overall performance was also a level above the rest. As for the engine, the design for this model was different from that of the more popr engine structures in the market. Ye Chong had once dissected the F-58 himself for inspection. Whether it was in terms of the engine power or continuous flight time, the F-58¡¯s engine outperformed the so-called superb engines in the market by a wide margin.

    Of course,pared to Mu¡¯s sophisticated engine structure, it was still child¡¯s y. Ye Chong still had not managed to decipher Mu¡¯s engine schematics diagram.

    Ye Chong and Mu found another half-a-meter wide ck gold ore. Ye Chong summoned Mu from the alternate dimension and Mu immediately approached the ck gold ore.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong sensed something amiss and spoke to Mu with full of uncertainty, ¡°Mu, look! The asteroids here are a lot fewer!¡±

    Mu repliedzily, ¡°To be precise, the unit space density of asteroids here is 62% less than it was ten hours ago. However, this percentage has a certain random factor and is only used as a reference!¡±

    Ye Chong was excited. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re flying in the right direction!¡±

    Mu poured cold water onto his enthusiasm as usual. ¡°Don¡¯t get happy too soon. If we manage to leave the asteroid belt, then what? Who knows where we are. Are theres nearby? How far away are they from us? Is it inhabited? If there are no starships¡­¡±

    Mu paused abruptly and his tone took an anxious turn. ¡°Quick! Steer fifteen degrees from the radius vector and fly straight ahead! Maximum speed!¡± Mu swiftly kept the ck gold ore into the alternate dimension and returned himself there.

    Upon hearing his words, Ye Chong knew there must be new changes in their situation. He stopped conserving energy as before and elerated the mech to its maximum velocity. After spending some time in the asteroid belt, Ye Chong was now quite skillful in avoiding the asteroids. Although the speed was now maximised, Ye Chong still managed to easily and adroitly evade the rocks in front of him. Mu was surprised by his ability. ¡°Ye, your skills are great!¡±

    Ye Chong may seemed to be at ease after hearing those words, but he was entirely focused on flying the mech so he did not reply Mu. His eyes were stered to the holographic screen fearing for any mishaps. At this speed, no matter how solid the F-58¡¯s armour was, his mech would not survive an impact with an asteroid. Ye Chong sure did not want to take this situation lightly!

    The ores which were visible in sight became lesser with time and Ye Chong felt more relieved. Ye Chong also knew that he had finally reached the edge of the asteroid belt and was greatly encouraged by that fact.

    As expected, after a light beep sounded, Ye Chong¡¯s scanning systems returned to normal and began to scan the surroundings automatically.

    ck Cove produced excellent products! The F-58¡¯s detection system, one that Ye Chong had never used before was actually quite modern. It immediately detected something abnormal ahead and a red spot on the holographic screen began to erge! As the holographic image becamerger, it also became clearer to view.

    It¡¯s a starship! Ye Chong was overjoyed and revved the engines to approach the ship.

    Three minutester, the other party was still not aware of his presence! Ye Chong was intrigued. While the F-58 could detect its target at such a far distance due to its advanced detection system, how could the other party not manage to notice him now that he meters a away from the starship? Could it be that the F-58 also had an excellent anti-detection system? Ye Chong immediately searched through the information in the photon processor of the F-58. As he had in mind, the F-58¡¯s armour had a special absorptive material mixed into it and the material was capable of absorbing a wide spectrum of waves, resulting in the mech¡¯s exceptional anti-detection performance. This material also gave the mech its ck colour.

    ¡°ck Cove was a formidable force, but what were they aiming for?¡± This thought shed through Ye Chong¡¯s mind. ¡°What does have to do with me? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going back.¡± Ye Chong thought conceitedly.

    ¡°Should we carry out a surprise attack on them?¡± Ye Chong inquired Mu for his opinion. The method, as expected, suited his usual habit and style.

    ¡°A surprise attack? If the starship is damaged then you¡¯ll be finished!¡± Mu obviously disagreed. ¡°This seems to be an average civilian ship. You can signal them first!¡±

    ¡°Ok!¡± Ye Chong did not have a better idea. From his past experiences, he knew that an external damage on the starship would be devastating. If it wasn¡¯t for One-eye¡¯s well equipped ship, he might not have survived!

    The other party did not seem nervous upon receiving his signal. Instead, they replied repeatedly that they were medical volunteers.

    ¡°Medical volunteers? What are those?¡± Ye Chong asked with full of curiosity.

    Mu exined, ¡°Medical volunteers are people who have expertise in medical skills or nursing. They offer free medical treatment for all, charging no fees, and they usually lead more difficult lives. Their principle is that life trumps all! Since they believe that all lives are equal, even if pirates are injured, they would also offer treatments. Hence, they are respected by almost everyone and no pirate would rob the medical volunteers. On the contrary, when the volunteers were in their hunting zone, the pirates would send escorts to protect them!¡±

    ¡°They are mostly amiable and kind in nature besides being incredibly sympathetic. I believe that if you were to ask for a ride on their ship, they will not reject you!¡± Mu suggested.

    ¡°Amiable?¡± Ye Chong thought of all the mutants he was familiar with on the trash and could not even remember any of them being what Mu described as amiable. It was truly confounding! ¡° Since Mu had said so, he wouldn¡¯t be wrong!¡± Ye Chong thought to himself.

    Ye Chong agreed to his suggestion and signalled a request to board the ship!

 Chapter 53 - On Board the Ship

    <h4>Chapter 53: On Board the Ship</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    Ve watched the mech that was slowly closing in on the starship.

    Ve was greatly surprised when he received a message from the other party as he did not notice their presence earlier. Shocked, Ve began to adjust the holographic disy and finally found the other party¡¯s location after much effort.

    Ve was in his forties. His short, bushy moustache made him look like a macho man.

    Ve was secretly impressed. The other party had obviously entered their warning zone. However, their ship¡¯s warning system did not sound an rm. This implied that the other party¡¯s anti-detection system was far more sophisticatedpared to the warning system of this ship!

    Once he received the signal that requested for boarding, Ve rest assured that the other party harboured no ill will. He was very much relieved. An invisible enemy was not someone anybody would like to encounter.

    After receiving the green light from Old Mr Wang, Ve epted the request.

    As the mech neared, Ve finally saw what the other party really looked like - his expression twisted and his heart raced.

    Ve was adventurous during his youth and had established a small reputation amongst the like-minded. He had also spent some time at ck Cove for a certain period of time. He would never forget the appearance of this mech - it was a symbol of iparable strength and cruelty. He had seen many whom disregarded the prohibition of violence at ck Cove killed on the spot although there were quite a number of them who were stronger than him.

    For countless years, he had never seen anyone from ck Cove leave the ce. Ve was intrigued but he wasn¡¯t nning on treating his life as a joke. As such, he brushed away his curiosity quickly.

    Beside him, Wang Weiqi curled her lips in distaste. ¡°That mech looks hideous!¡± Wang Weiqi was tall and her exquisite face wasplemented with a charming smile. Her soft, shiny long hair was braided, giving her a clean look. Herrge, glistening eyes blinked as though they could speak and were a fatal charm for most men!

    The F-58 was around ten meters long and was thoroughly ck in colour, making it look unremarkable. Since it was a training mech, it was not armed with excessive weapons and was only equipped with a UF maic sword as per Ye Chong¡¯s request and two redesigned parryingnce. For safety in the asteroid belt, the F-58 also carried a big alloy shield of over five meters long on its back. The slightly arched shield resulted in theical look of the F-58, looking like it was carrying a shell. However, the sharp edges of the shield clearly indicated that the shield was not only for defense purposes. What caught most of Ve¡¯s attention were the two curved des at the elbow joints of the mech. They normallyy t on the upper arms, but by bending at the joints, the sharp tip of the des and the terrifying edges would show their vile selves.

    Wan Ziqing, who was also with them, nodded in agreement. ¡°Of course he¡¯s not as beautiful as Qi¡¯er¡¯s Phantasm, tsk tsk, that look is surely awful¡­¡±

    Wang Weiqi was Old Mr Wang¡¯s granddaughter whom had passed the exams for intermediate level of mech piloting at a very young age. The main reason of tagging along with her grandfather on this trip is because she was worried of his safety. Besides, she would also get the opportunity to widen her knowledge in preparation for the expert level of mech piloting exams. Wan Ziqing was Wang Weiqi¡¯s senior. He began making his move on her at school, and now he was here with her! In all honesty, Wan Ziqing was a fine-looking man. However, Wang Weiqi was indifferent and being neither friendly nor aloof with him, and that drove him crazy.

    Ve smiled wryly hoping that the pair of naive youngsters would not meddle with the jinxed neer. Ve was ufortable with the thought and could not help but speak up to the two, ¡°You two better not meddle with that person. He¡¯s not someone you can afford to mess with!¡± When he saw that they were not taking him seriously, he raised his voice and spoke firmly, ¡°Qi¡¯er, Ziqing, you hear me?¡±

    Wang Weiqi stuck her tongue out a little and made a silly face at Wan Ziqing. Uncle Ve had always took care of them and the two could only give him an obedient look.

    Ve rushed out of the bridge and weed the mysterious guest!

    ¡°ck mask and ck windbreaker. Exactly as I imagined.¡± Ve thought to himself. The ck mask with a peculiar glimmer had a soft quality to it and the silver irises were intimidatingly chilling. The strong visual contrast between ck and white captured the attention of everyone around, such that they did not notice the little insignia on the mask¡¯s edge that marked ¡°F-58¡±. Of course, Ve was an exception for he had seen the ck masks before. The loose windbreaker wrapped Ye Chong entirely adding to his mysteriousness of the medical volunteers.

    Wang Weiqi thought to herself, ¡°It would be so cool to have a mask like that! Definitely eye-catching!¡±

    Ye Chong was always particrly respectful towards the elders since they reminded him of his deceased Papa and the Aurora¡¯s elders who treated him well.

    Ye Chong¡¯s actions were surprising to Ve. He did not think that a cold-blooded guard from the ck Cove would be so courteous to the elderly. Perhaps they weren¡¯t as heartless as they all thought they were. Ve finally began to feel assured.

    He was just in time for lunch and Ye Chong was invited to join them. Ye Chong ate heartily at the dining table, ignoring the stares of others at him. After his seventh bowl of food, Ye Chong rubbed his almost full stomach and thought contentedly, ¡°While this is still far from the delicacies at ck Cove, it¡¯s still much better than the F-58¡¯s high energy organic liquid food.¡±

    After greeting the people around him, Ye Chong returned to the room Ve prepared for him under their astonished gazes.

    Exercising to assist in his digestion was Ye Chong¡¯s habit.

    He began with a full-body routine. Ye Chong did a little warm up, then moved and ran across the room. ¡°Running¡± might not be an urate term. Ye Chong moved with the tips of his feet - his toes touched the ground and his body flew forward in response. However, the room was too small and Ye Chong had to keep changing directions. He ended up circling around the room instead.

    Ye Chong increased his speed. His tip-toedndings on the ground began to produce muffled sounds. Now, the rhythm grew faster and the sound became louder.

    After ten minutes, Ye Chong finally stopped. Beads of sweat marked his forehead and his breathing became heavier. Ye Chong shook his dizzy head forcefully.

    Mu was a little surprised. ¡°Ye, you¡¯ve improved!¡±

    Ye Chongughed cheekily in response as he took out the steel spheres from the waist pocket in his windbreaker and ced them on the ground. He took a deep breath and ced his hands above the spheres, barely touching them. Ye Chong felt clear headed enough and exhaled slowly before his hands began to move.

    Ye Chong gathered his attention and focused, banishing all distractions.

    A shadow shrouded over the steep spheres and the spheres began to collide with each other violently. They moved really fast and their trajectories after impact were difficult to predict. However, they always bounced back from the edges of the shadow region. The steel spheres moved faster and the shadow continued to spread. The crisp sounds from the colliding steel spheres within the shadow were almost continuously ringing.

    Ye Chong was about to put more strength onto his hands when he was suddenly alerted which broke his concentration. He shouted, ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± as he swipedall the steel spheres back into his hands.

    He rolled backwards on instinct and shot three steel spheres!

 Chapter 54 - The Callous Ye Chong

    <h4>Chapter 54: The Callous Ye Chong</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    The thumb-sized steel spheres shrieked terrifyingly!

    Two steel spheres embedded themselves in the door with two bangs reaching ten centimeters deep into the C-N* durost material - two centimeters away from prating the door. Another steel sphere went through the gap of the doorway and hit the opposite wall of the walkway which was also deeply embedded within.

    Wang Weiqi¡¯s face became pale and went as white as a sheet!

    The steel sphere that went through the door had missed the tip of her nose by less than a centimeter. The strong airstream that went with the sphere made her felt a hint of pain at her nose. If she had a mirror, she would have noticed a small cut on her nose tip due to the piercing airflow. A drop of blood started streaming down the top of her nose.

    She had never felt so close to death before. ¡°The steel sphere was fast enough to burrow deep into the wall. If it had hit my body, I would have¡­ I would have¡­¡± As she thought of it, terror enveloped her soul at an instant. Wang Weiqi screamed in and ran away as faast as she could with her hands covering her face. She had only one wish then and that was to get out of the haunted room!

    Ye Chong was ready to strike the steel balls again when he heard a piercing scream followed by loud thumps of footsteps slowly fading away.

    Mu popped out in Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts, ¡°Ye, how could you be so uncouth towards a girl?¡±

    Ye Chong asked naively, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    Mu spoke as though he expected such a reaction from him, ¡°In this world, outside of trashs, women are thought to be deserving of tenderness and care. Hence, most would hesitate to start a fight against women. Some had never even ced a finger on them!¡±

    Ye Chong was curious, ¡°Why? Just because they¡¯re women?¡±

    Mu gave it a thought and agreed, ¡°It appears to be the case.¡±

    Ye Chong disapproved. ¡°What a strange logic! But the strangest thing is that you, Mu, had proposed such strange logic!¡±

    Mu kept silent as though he was choked.

    Ye Chong was pleased with himself, ¡°My skill was not bad, right?¡±

    Mu was unimpressed. ¡°The attack was too weak. It wasn¡¯t enough to prate through the door. If it had, then it would be a threat to the enemy! Besides, you stood up too slowly and judged your strength inurately. If you had fired two more spheres immediately after the first two, then they would have gone through the door and the girl would have been heavily injured if not dead!¡±

    Ye Chong nodded in agreement. ¡°Right, right, I could have also¡­¡± The two began a heated discussion.

    It was when they thought meal time was approaching, they ended the interesting conversation.

    Ye Chong got up, put on his windbreaker and headed out.

    As he entered the main hall, it was indeed almost meal time. This was something Ye Chong always looked forward to and another would be the topic of the conversation he ha earlier with Mu.

    Ye Chong was about to head towards the dining table when all of a sudden, Wan Ziqing who was holding a cup of boiling hot sweet grass drink approached in his direction. He was about to bump into Ye Chong but Ye Chong took a step to the side to avoid the collision. A trace of slyness shed in Wan Ziqing¡¯s eyes as he pretended to exim in surprise and lost hold of the cup. The boiling hot sweet grass drink sshed onto Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong gave Wan Ziqing a death stare. The opponent¡¯s hostility was apparent, but what confused Ye Chong the most was the reason behind him resorting to such a harmless approach. Even if the sweet grass drink sshed onto him, it would not hurt him. Could it be that there was some corrosive poison in the drink?

    Although Ye Chong could notprehend his act, he was certain of the other party¡¯s hostility and so, Ye Chong did not hesitate to take his next move.

    His stepped lightly on tiptoe and moved like a ghost to Wan Ziqing¡¯s other side. His right hand struck like lightning and grasp Wan Ziqing in the throat tightly ready to finish him off. Ye Chong was certain that he could even break a steel beam as thick as his throat!

    Ye Chong pushed the thought of strangling him away. Instead, he pushed Wan Ziqing hard as he simultaneously jumped backwards with the tip of his toes.

    Wan Ziqing felt regretful. Even though he survived that fight, he knew well that no one would be left alive with that much force on the throat. Wan Ziqing held his throat and kneeled at a corner, coughing vigorously with petrified eyes. Ye Chong¡¯s strength was such that even though he had opted for a push instead of a chokehold, Wan Ziqing still bled a little from his mouth even though his throat survived the attack. The man was obviously hurt.

    Ve had his eyes on Ye Chong the moment he left his room. He understood why Wan Ziqing did his little trick, although he cursed inwardly. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you carry out a background check on that man before attempting such a ridiculous trick? If he is one that prioritises his physical appearance, he wouldn¡¯t retaliate. But the man you nned an attack on, he had skills of a professional killer! Are you plotting your own death?

    Out of desperation, Ve unholstered his heat ray guns from his thighs and shot between the two men! Ve did not intend to aim his shot at Ye Chong. He only wanted Ye Chong to back off and cool down the situation.

    Wang Weiqi was reminded of the scene of her horrible experience earlier and screamed in fear!

    Wang Weiqi¡¯s sharp scream gathered everyone¡¯s attention. As they noticed her terrified expression, they followed her gaze and saw Ye Chong standing proudly in a corner of the dining hall with Wan Ziqing kneeling in fear and Ve standing at a distance with his gun in hand as though he was facing anenemy.

    The crowd exploded in mayhem!

    Ve groaned and hoped that the enemy would not release his anger on him next. Else, his life would probably end today!

    Ye Chong did not take the heat ray gun in Ve¡¯s hands seriously. His windbreaker could withstand a shot from any shooting weapon of grades 10k and below. The ck Cove¡¯s manufacturing workmanship was truly astounding!

    Ye Chong made a move.

    Old Mr Wang sensed the precarious situation and stepped forward. If there was anyone Ye Chong would not wish to harm, it would definitely be the oldest of them, Old Mr Wang.

    Old Mr Wang coughed softly. ¡°Young man, the boy did not know better but I believe he¡¯s had his punishment. Perhaps you should let him go now, what do you say?¡±

    Mu knew exactly what Ye Chong was thinking. ¡°That¡¯s enough, Ye, think of it as a lesson for him. Besides, you¡¯ve eaten so much of their food without paying!¡±

    Ye Chong inquired in his mind, ¡°Mu, does food require payment?¡± Ye Chong did not have a single Zuan on him as all of his gold Zuan were left in his room on ck Cove.

    Mu was close enough to fainting after knowing his obliviousness. ¡°Heavens Ye! Have you always been eating for free? Don¡¯t you know you have to pay for things?¡±

    Ye Chong whispered, ¡°I only know that you have to pay to buy mechs. Besides, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve bought anything before!¡± Ye Chong recalled his memories.

    Mu gave him a long lecture and finally made Ye Chong understand that the concept of bartering for goods.

    While the idea was not in line with Ye Chong¡¯s beliefs, he still agreed after much repetitive admonishment and advice. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen the iron lizard giving anything in exchange for the crimson newts,¡± Ye Chong muttered to himself. Of course, Mupletely ignored that thought of his!

    Old Mr Wang was wise and incredibly clear-headed. Ziqing was usually a steady man and would not act as rashly as today. Usually, situations like these were rted to his beloved granddaughter. Old Mr Wang looked at his granddaughter. As expected, Qi¡¯er looked panic-stricken. How could he not understand his own granddaughter? He immediately realized that his granddaughter must have had a bad encounter with the neer. Ziqing wanted to do her a favour by making a fool of the guests to cheer her up! ¡°Sigh, it was so insensible of the two youngsters. Now look at the damage that has been done!¡± It seemed that Ye Chong still treated him with some respect and now Old Mr Wang had to step up and said a few words. This whole incident was definitely due to Qi¡¯er. Besides, he could not just stand aside and watch Ziqing die before him!

    Ye Chong stood where he was in perfect silence.

    No one dared to break the silence for fear of awakening the demon.

    Sweat beaded on Ve¡¯s forehead gradually soaking his hair and dripping onto the floor. He felt as though Ye Chong was always watching him with his cold re. He was afraid to stare straight into the murderous stare from the silver eyes behind the ck mask. He was very, very afraid that he would die in the next second!

    Ve felt like a fish trapped in a, unable to move.

    There was pin drop silence. The bizarre atmosphere filled the dining hall, creating an immense pressure on everyone present.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong spoke, ¡°Since you have fed me earlier, I¡¯ll let it go this time. If there is a next time, do not hope for mercy!¡± His final intonation added a chilling effect to the entire dining hall. After giving his thought, Ye Chong went straight for the dining table and sat down.

    Everyone breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Ve panted desperately and his body was thoroughly soaked with sweat. He had never felt so tired before. Ve strenuously ced his gun back into the holster.

    At the dining table, everyone went mute. They ate in silence. No one was brave enough to sit within three meters away from Ye Chong. Even Ve hid far away in a corner. Wang Weiqi and Wan Ziqing returned to their rooms to rest and to recover from their shock. Moreover, Wan Ziqing had sustained major injuries.

    The oppressive atmosphere continued on at the dining table.

    Ye Chong did not notice anything else but only focused on eating. Compared to the monotonous food on the trash, the delicacies here were enough to make him forget about everything else!

    Old Mr Wong grinned. ¡°Young man, where would you like tond?¡± Everyone perked up their ears at that moment. Most of the passengers on the starship were medical volunteers and they were dearly appreciated. Hence, Ye Chong¡¯s callous nature made them loath him very much. However, upon realizing that Ye Chong could kill for something as petty as that trick, they quickly hid their thoughts and continued eating in silence.

    Ye Chong gobbled his food without stopping and spoke with a full mouth, ¡°Where are you heading?¡±

    Old Mr Wang kept his smile on and answered, ¡°We¡¯re heading towards Blue Ocean! If you¡¯re leaving before that, we can fly you to your destination!¡± Everyone gave a surprised look at Old Mr Wang and immediately returned to their meal. Unfortunately, Ye Chong was too focused on his meal that he did not notice their odd behaviour. He replied carelessly, ¡°Oh, then I¡¯ll head to Blue Ocean!¡±

    Almost everyone gave a positive reaction to that.

 Chapter 55 - New to Blue Ocean

    <h4>Chapter 55: New to Blue Ocean</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    They arrived at Blue Ocean. Ye Chong walked on the streets with his mask taken off. Without exposure to a star¡¯s rays in the recent past, Ye Chong¡¯s face seemed to be fairer than usual. Ye Chong could not bear to give up his windbreaker for it was of good quality and definitelyparable to the high grade protective clothing. His ck windbreaker, fair skin, bnced and trimmed body with his cool expression all gave Ye Chong a very distinctive look and that drew attention of many beautifuldies on the street.

    Ye Chong walked expressionlessly on the streets but on the inside, he was actually having a heated discussion with Mu.

    Ye Chong was amazed by the soaring skyscrapers, modern architecture, and flying vehicles of all sorts traversing through the skies. The most novel feature for Ye Chong was the number of people around - whether it was on the trash or on Reno or ck Cove, Ye Chong had never seen so many people in his life!

    However, that was not what Ye Chong and Mu were immensely discussing about.

    ¡°Mu, I¡¯m so hungry! There¡¯re no mutants around here and how can you call a small creature like that a mouse? What a disgrace to its species! It¡¯s not even as a starter! If the people of trash knew something like that was their own kin, they would probably wipe out these petty creatures!¡± Ye Chong was incensed.

    Mu felt helpless. ¡°Ye, I can¡¯t do much to help you. Why didn¡¯t you carry gold Zuan at all times? All that gold Zuan would have been able to feed you well for years!¡±

    Ye Chong looked at his naked hands. All the expert level mechs were left in his room. The asteroid belt was hazardous and Ye Chong had left all the dimension keystones in his room since they interfered with his hand movements. If only he had one now, it would at least be enough tost him for awhile.

    ¡°Sigh, why did I leave them all in my room?¡± Ye Chong regretted.

    Mu was also dejected. ¡°It won¡¯t be for long until all my energy drains out too!¡±

    Ye Chong thought, ¡°With my level of expertise, it¡¯s probably not a problem to do some mech maintenance and modification work, right?¡±

    Mu was encouraged. ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea. With me by your side, there should not be a problem!¡± The mech was already looking forward to the good times ahead with eyes shining in anticipation.

    ¡°But, where are the mech repair shops?¡± Ye Chong¡¯s practicality dragged Mu back from his fantasies. Mu muttered, ¡°That is a good question. You can always ask someone around.¡±

    ¡°Ask someone?¡± Ye Chong replied in agreement, ¡°That¡¯s a good idea!¡±

    After Ye Chong¡¯s nk expression frightened off five passersby, even the usually insensitive Ye Chong felt discouraged. ¡°Do I really look that scary? Your ugly look is not your fault but scaring people with your ugly look is!¡± Mu decided to ignore Ye Chong¡¯s furious re at him.

    An old man was walking slowly ahead of them.

    Ye Chong grew enthusiastic and ran to greet the old man with a smile. ¡°Grandpa, may I ask you about something?¡±

    If the few passersby from before saw Ye Chong as he was now, they would surely be quite surprised. Mu was already used to his demeanour - Ye Chong seemed to have an uncanny affinity for older people, as well as a special connection with them. He would be inexplicably polite to the elderly which is his usually indifferent expression shifting to a modest smile. Mu was also very surprised when he first observed the change in Ye Chong.

    The mech eventually got used to it.

    The old man nced with interest at Ye Chong. ¡°There¡¯re not too many polite young people nowadays. You¡¯ve got a question? Certainly, what would you like to know about?¡±

    Polite? Mu could not help but rolled his eyes.

    Ye Chong resisted the urge to bash Mu in the head and continued modestly, ¡°Grandpa, I¡¯d like to ask if there are ces that offer mech maintenance and modification services nearby?¡±

    ¡°Mech maintenance and modification?¡± The old man thought for a moment, and pointed towards a street on the left. ¡°Head in that direction and in about two minutes, there¡¯ll be one and a few more further down the road but you¡¯ll have to search for them carefully!¡±

    After bidding farewell to the old man, Ye Chong proceeded towards the suggested location in haste!

    Ye Chong left a few repair shops without any offers. The shopkeepers thatid their eyes on Ye Chong noticed his age and shook their heads with the same thought, ¡°A modification mechanic as young as this? Don¡¯t joke around! For his age, remembering the names of all the parts in a mech is alreadymendable! Looking for a job? Ah, no, we¡¯re not hiring anyone!¡±

    Ye Chong could not remember the number of times he was rejected. He may look expressionless on the outside, but he was very much disappointed on the inside. Mu was also dispirited, had downcast eyes and felt too tired for words!

    Ye Chong did not know where he was, but no matter the location, Ye Chong felt that it did not make a difference.

    ¡°Ah, say, Mu, why should we abide by the rules? Are we to starve to death? I¡¯ve never heard of the iron lizard trading when it is hunting!¡± Ye Chong could not help butined to Mu!

    ¡°That¡¯s the behavior of beasts! You¡¯re a human, not a beast!¡± Mu exined tiredly.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any difference between humans and beasts. I think I¡¯m more ustomed to the way of beasts!¡± Ye Chong shrugged disapprovingly. He did not really understand Mu¡¯s insistence in this, but he still wished to give his utmost support!

    Mu was silent for a moment before speaking again and this time in a serious tone, ¡°Ye, you¡¯re in a new society now. You abide by their rules or you will be rejected by them. Do you want to return to trash? Ye, you¡¯ll get used to it. Just give yourself some time to adapt to this new lifestyle¡±

    Ye Chong was a little moved by those words and pondered on them without noticing where he was heading to.

    Suddenly, there came a few garbled voices from in front of him and an old man¡¯s horrible cry.

    Ye Chong was brought out of his musings and lifted his eyes to look ahead. Was that not the old grandpa who showed him the way earlier? He nowy down on the ground where a few weird looking teenagers were constantly kicking at him. One of them shouted domineeringly, ¡°F*ck, I asked for money and you dared to say no until I had toy my hands on you! You old prune! Now you know the consequences!¡±

    The same young man made a signal at a blonde haired teenager, and he immediately bent over to search the old man. The elderly curled himself into a ball, determinedly shielding his chest.

    The other boy could not pry open the old man¡¯s hands and shouted in anger, ¡°You dead ol¡¯ sheet! F*ckin¡¯ want your money and not your life isn¡¯t it so? Then I¡¯ll give you a hand!¡± He pulled out a dagger and made a stab right into the old man.

    Ye Chong was furious. Anger burned within his chest until he could not bear it much longer and with a yell, he walked towards their direction quickly and got in between the young hooligans. Ye Chong was fast and the hooligans could only notice a shadow before they felt hands tightening their throats. Their vision went ck and became unconscious.

    Ye Chong moved incredibly fast such that the sound of rupturing throats of the hooligans were almost simultaneous.

    Fortunately, that area was secluded and only a few passersby witnessed the scene. All of them watched in fear and picked up their pace, wishing to get as far away from the scene as possible.

    Mu was still indulged in the excitement, ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what it¡¯s like to give a helping hand to someone in need!¡±

    His intent of killing the teenagers revoked after releasing his anger.

    Mu had a thought. ¡°Ye, let¡¯s get the old man out of here now. If the intel from the virtual was urate, the police will here in a few minutes! They seem to be difficult to deal with!¡±

    ¡°Police? Difficult to deal with?¡± Ye Chong asked but Mu hurried him. ¡°Quick, now, or hide somewhere close so we can see what the police look like!¡± The idea immediately won Ye Chong¡¯s approval. Ye Chong lifted the old man and found that he was in a semi-conscious state. The old man¡¯s face was bruised all over with a few bruises, looking very pitiful!

    With all concern, Ye Chong asked, ¡°Is he alright?¡±

    Mu replied, ¡°He¡¯s alright. Just slightly concussed and the wounds are only superficial. It¡¯s nothing serious.¡±

    Ye Chong was relieved at that, and ran to far a corner, climbed and perched on arge tree. He spied from between the leaves where the hooligans were lying on the ground.

    As expected, after a few moments, a blue, white and ck flying vehicle flew to the scene. From the vehicle, three men in uniform emerged. Ye Chong watched them curiously as they inspected each body carefully. On the other hand, Mu was quickly recording all the information he could get and updating the intel he obtained from the virtual.

    Ye Chong suddenly thought of something and felt a great regret. ¡°Mu, we forgot to search the bodies for spoils! They might have Zuan on them!¡±

    Mu consoled Ye Chong. ¡°If they did, I don¡¯t think they would have a lot. Otherwise, why would they be robbing off people?¡±

    Ye Chong thought that was reasonable and he was no longer upset.

    The three police officers inspected the bodies in a proficient manner and felt a deep chill from their findings. The victims had their eyes wide open as though unable to believe that they were already dead. Their soft throats were obviously marked with a gaping hole.

    The youngest of the officers spoke, ¡°Brother Fei, these people all suffered from crushed vertebrae at their necks. They died just recently!¡±

    Another middle-aged officer added, ¡°Brother Fei, I know these people. They¡¯reckeys for the local ringleader, Leng San and were usually quite rampant!¡±

    The one they called Brother Fei noticed finger impressions around the gaping holes. ¡°Hmm, they died from their throats being squeezed with someone¡¯s bare hands.¡±

    The other two were astonished. ¡°Brother Fei, someone¡¯s bare hands? Surely you¡¯re exaggerating!¡±

    Brother Fei lit a cigar and leisurely exhaled a puff smoke. The smoke swirled around in the air as he muttered to himself, ¡°I hope that the ruthless bastard was only passing by! If not¡­¡± After a long pause, he suddenly spoke to he middle-aged officer, ¡°Xin, report this to Leng San. I¡¯m warning that he better take control of himself. If he dares to make a fuss over this, he better watch out for the consequences.¡± His expression beyond the smoke was unreadable as the middle-aged officer acknowledged his orders.

    Brother Fei spoke to the other younger officer, ¡°Zai, check out if there are any unfamiliar faces in the area or any suspicious people. Remember, do not take any action without my orders. Don¡¯t let him know that we¡¯re on to him!¡±

    The young and excited Zai replied, ¡°I¡¯ll remember it, Brother Fei! Don¡¯t worry! I¡¯ll find out about the bastard!¡±

    The smoke from the cigar swirled in unpredictable patterns before Brother Fei¡¯s eyes. The police officer seemed to be certain that this was just the beginning of a serious case.

 Chapter 56 - New Life

    <h4>Chapter 56: New Life</h4>

    Trantor: - - Editor: - -

    ¡°Ye, I mean, the ck coat is a cool idea but it¡¯s not cool especially after you got flour all over it.¡±

    ¡°Hey Ye, you can¡¯t get customers with that long face you put on! It scares them away!¡±

    ¡°Ugh, Ye, what do you think you are doing with the chopping board? No, you are disassembling it! Gosh! Could you spare our chairs some mercy? We need those to work!¡±

    ¡°Aww man!¡±

    ¡­

    This hectic scenario had reurred a few times yet Grandpa Qian had hardly med Ye Chong, instead he smiled and continuously encouraged him to keep the young man going.

    Practice certainly makes perfect. As time went by, Ye Chong¡¯s noodle-making skills dramatically improved. The texture of the noodles got better and better. He was able to utilize his fearsome strength constructively to create the most springy noodle in a ce that had earnedpliments from almost every customer that came to the shop. In addition, Grandpa Qian¡¯s smile and constant motivation were eventually able to melt the ice between him and Ye Chong as the indifference in his expression faded away. He had changed so much that he would sometimes take the initiative to head out and get more customers. On some asions, the elderly would take Ye Chong along for a shopping day as he would also introduce some of his old friends to the boy.

    Their rtionship progressed as they had grown fond of each other. It somehow became a habitter to have the boy by his side whenever he was heading out. Ye Chong had gotten used to such a lovely life. There was no stress. He didn¡¯t have to stay outrageously alert at all times and found the long-lostfort in it. His life might be mundane but he was happy with it.

    However, Ye Chong¡¯s training was not put on hold because of living in tranquility. Ever since the breakthrough he had made in his marble training back at ck Cove, controlling more than 10 marbles at once was no more of an issue for him, in fact, he picked up fairly quickly after that. Surprisingly, he had managed to control up to 13 marbles by then. His daily fitness training was carried on vigorously under Mu¡¯s guidance. It was as if he was born for such style of training. His strength rose sharply yet his muscle remained the same size ever. And this would be the whole point! The increase in strength would ought to lead to an increase in muscle size. It is unavoidable for any ordinary person. Thus, when muscle strength reaches saturation point, the body muscle would be at itsrgest too. This would radically reduce the overall movement and agility of your body in the long run. Hence, it became an issue on how one should boost one¡¯s strength without influencing one¡¯s body size. Vitality might be one¡¯s source of velocity, it still doesn¡¯t necessarily mean that one would possess velocity after obtaining vitality. This could be clearly justified by the dexterity problem a bulkier body would cause.

    To remedy such issue, the group in ck Covemitted the use of silver liquid as a form of simtion to inhibit muscle growth atst, whilebining the ancient martial arts.

    It might be an ongoing issue for anyone who sought both strength and speed but it was non-existent to Ye Chong himself. The reason being no matter how hard he had trained and how much his strength had improved, his body would always remain the way it was from the beginning. Hence, Mu,intrigued as he was, mapped out a gruesome or even forbidding training course for this boy with such a unique talent.

    While Ye Chong was taking his brutal training like a man, Mu seemed stuck in the virtual world, for whatever unspoken reason it was. He was rather mysterious of his whereabout.

    It was quite fortunate for Ye Chong that his noodle business got better and better. Imagine the vast expenditure that mainly revolved around Mu¡¯s resupply of energy monthly without any form of proper ie. To top that off, it also costs another fortune to fill Ye Chong¡¯s bottomless appetite. He might have to put up the shutters and be in debt anytime soon if his noodles were not selling like hot cakes.

    Though the dayspsed in hustles and bustles, Ye Chong was feeling absolutely content!

    On the other hand, the punks appeared to have run for their lives after Ye Chong demonstrated his terrifying force. They seemed to have disbanded the gang, like animals in a forest fire. No one since then had ever dared threat toy im the gang¡¯s monthly protection fee from the poor residents, which was quite costly too.

    ¡­

    Sun Xuelin and Shew, her cousin, were rotting at home. The parents were out. But what about food? Both of them had barely any experience in cooking their own meals before. They were both troubled.

    ¡°Shewie, why don¡¯t we have some noodles at Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop? His noodles aren¡¯t bad you know?¡± Suggested Xuelin.

    ¡°Noodles?¡± Shew frowned and seemed to not like the idea, ¡°Are you sure? But¡­ We don¡¯t seem to have other choice¡­¡±

    They went to Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop. ¡°Wee!¡± Right after they stepped into the shop, Grandpa Qian greeted them as he chuckled, ¡°Xuelin my girl, it¡¯s been a while since you had my noodles here. What made youe here today out of a sudden?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha¡­¡± Sheughed along, ¡°Oh well, it can¡¯t be helped. My parents are not at home today. We could onlye here instead. Oh by the way¡­¡± She dragged Shew to the front of him, ¡°This is my sister, Shew. I usually call her Shewie.¡±

    ¡°Such a poshdy! Xuelin, I guess she can¡¯t be your sister, can she? With such posh making a striking contrast to your nature! Hahaha, alright, what would you like to have today? The usual course for my tough girl? What about you, my gentledy?¡± Shew was uncontrobly blushing as heplimented.

    Sun Xuelin replied, ¡°Yeah, the same for me. Shewie, what do you want to have?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ Sis¡­¡± She whispered, ¡°I¡¯ll have the same as yours then!¡±

    The elderly chuckled again, ¡°That would be two bowls of beef noodles alright! Ye, two beef noodles for thedies here!¡± Grandpa Qian shouted towards the kitchen and a voice that was not loud but clear came responding afterwards, ¡°Got it!¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Xuelin staggered a little, ¡°Grandpa, you got an assistant already? When was this? Why did I never know about this?¡±

    He answered pleasingly, ¡°He¡¯s not an assistant. Ye is a distant rtive of mine. Well you know how an elderly like me would need apanion sometimes. Living alone was such a tough chore for me. So I called him here!¡± Grandpa Qian had repeated these lines countless times to countless customers whenever Ye Chong was mentioned. Somehow at some point, he felt that he had been telling the truth all this while as Ye Chong really felt like a part of his family.

    A momentter, Ye Chong exited the kitchen with two bowls of steaming beef noodles on the tray. Even though his expression still appeared a bit nd, people could see the fickled joy on his face sometimes. He walked to the table of thedies,id his noodles in front of them, ¡°Enjoy!¡±, and dashed back to the kitchen after that.

    Xuelin had a taste and was as amazed as before, ¡°Wow! This is still very great!¡± She praised on, ¡°Grandpa, these noodles were better than the one you made! The texture was too good!¡± Grandpa Qian looked proud as he responded, ¡°It certainly is. Ye has standard in his cooking! Anyone would haveplimented too after tasting his dishes!¡± He smiled broadly, as if he¡¯s the one being praised.

    The amazement continued as Xuelin saw the extremely thin slices of beef on top the noodles, ¡°This is very good treatment! The slicing skill is impable!¡± Oh how joyful the old man was, he smiled with eyes narrowing into a slit, ¡°Ye, my boy! You heard that? The customer praised your skills!¡±

    ¡°Oh why thank you!¡± Ye Chong replied and shook his head. Grandpa was always such a messenger. He just has to reiterate thepliments to me right after the customer. Man, wouldn¡¯t he get fed up of this? Ye Chong thought so, yet he smiled for a brief moment. The corners of his lips somehow raised themselves. He sniggered as he proceeded with rolling the dough before him.

    As he rolled on, he spoke in his mind, ¡°Mu, what are you doing?¡±

    It took a while for Mu toe up with a reply, ¡°I am currently engaged in something right now. Just keep the dough rolling!¡± His voice trailed off. He seemed to have vanished right after his reply.

    Ye Chong wondered what Mu had been doing in the virtual world these days. He thought maybe he should get online again someday. It¡¯s been a while since hisst NRS training. I wonder if those elders at Aurora were doing great all these while¡­

    He kneaded the dough energetically.

    ¡­

    ncing at the report in his hand, he lighted a cigar¡­ the smoke of confusion wafted through the atmosphere as Brother Fei tried to figure out the situation.

    ording to the oue of Zi¡¯stest scouting, only Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop had a neer and everyone who had eaten at his ce informed that the neer happened to be his distant rtive of his who pleaded him for a living and also happened to have great cooking skills.

    Hopefully he wasn¡¯t the culprit of my men¡¯s death¡­ or else¡­

    He breathed heavy as he worried. His room was veiled by the smoke of his ponders. Things could hardly be seen.

    Leng San stood upright in silence, as his eyes wavered upon the corpses before him. The menacing face of his had not much of an expression, other than the growing grimness in his eyes. He tried to hold his eyes but he couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer, when his sightnded upon the corpse in the middle. The stern face of his shattered. His cheeks were trembling as misery took over his face. He couldn¡¯t hide it. He stared at this particr corpse. Tears overflowed his eyes and they streamed silently down his face,nding on the floor like an atomic bomb to his heart.

    The corpse¡­ was his brother, his own brother. He had been trying his best to keep the identity of his brother in secret all along, for he wouldn¡¯t want his brother to be affected as he was well-aware that he could be dead anytime, anywhere in the future since he had created too many enemies over the course of time. So his brother was disguised as a simple underling of the gang. Unquestionably it was a sessful disguise and his brother had remained unharmed all these years.

    But then¡­ The corpse ced in front of him being actually his brother¡­ he could not believe every part of this, especially when his brother was killed by having his throat crushed with bare hands. How could this not be heartbreaking to Leng San? How could this not be depressing enough to shatter his soul?

    It was rare to have men with such immense strength in this ce. There¡¯s no way he could not find this man out! If he ever found that man, he¡¯s going to break all his bones and grind him into dust! He would make sure that man would be in torment forever! Leng San gravely promised, gritting his teeth.

    The crew outside were finding their boss strange today. For some reason, the usual frigidity on his face went missing after seeing the corpse in the morgue. And he had shut himself inside ever since. It had been so long yet he never seemed to being out anytime soon.

    Did something happen to our leader? The few remaining men of his wereworried.

    Shush! The door opened and Leng San came out with a pair of reddened eyes. His voice was coarse as he mumbled, ¡°Go! Go and find that man!¡±

 Chapter 57 - Inspector Fei

    <h4>Chapter 57: Inspector Fei</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong started his day early in the morning. Well, since Grandpa Qian was very much old and he was no longer in good shape too, Ye Chong believed he should be working harder to keep the business running.

    The sun gradually shone through the opened shutter of the noodle shop. Ye Chong peeked out of the entrance. The street at daybreak was still very much deserted. There were a few pedestrians at most. Ye Chong¡¯s finger swiped the switch on the wall, turning on the air purifier which started rumbling a little upon activation. Clouds of ionized water droplets were then being ejected from the machine, creating refreshing air to breathe. A momentter, the interior of the shop became cozier. Such an efficient air purifier was not cheap to begin with, but it was purchased by Grandpa Qian using part of the year-end bonus he received from the government - just to improve the environment of his shop.

    The floor of the shop might had been made out of nano materials and was indeed dust-proof, but daily cleaning was still required to provide customers an enjoyable environment while dining in.

    The interior of the shop was furnished with 8 metallic buddings, which would bloom like an actual flower upon touching the tip of it. Inside, there would be 4 sets of table and chairs with 1 set at each petal. The chairs were connected beneath through the frames right to the center tform of the budding. The silvery glossy tform in the middle was size adjustable and therey the cashier connected to the processor in the customer¡¯s table. So they could proceed with the checkouts directly even when they are still seated after their meals.

    At the corner of the shop there was also an automated noodle maker, which was seldom used considering how the shop¡¯s reputation relied solely on hand-made noodles. There was simply something in hand-made noodles that machine-made noodles could neverpete with!

    Previously, Grandpa Qian actually wanted a more of an old-fashioned design for his shop, like a wooden construction for example, but woods were absurdly pricy, so he threw out that n atst.

    While Ye Chong was sweeping the floor, Grandpa Qian seemed to have woken up too, as he walked in and began some other cleaning tasks as well.

    Soon after they had done their cleaning, a middle-aged man set foot into the shop with a cigar in his mouth. "Fe¡­" Grandpa Qian halted, "Fei my boy is that you? Why the early visit today eh?" The man addressed as Fei replied, "Good morning Uncle Qian! Well I have some things to do today, so I came early." Fei seemed to be a frequent visitor here, as he picked a seat by the wall, "I¡¯ll take my usual ce." Grandpa Qian was weing at first, till his sight fell upon the cigar in his mouth, "Fei! How many times have I told you! Do you know how harmful smoking these early in the morning is? Why won¡¯t you stop doing this? When will you ever learn from my advice and not your fatal mistake?"

    Fei was alerted. He hurriedly removed the cigar in his mouth and attempted to act funny to let it slide, "Eh! I forgot about it! Hahahahahahaha, I¡¯m so forgetful, am I not?"

    "So what would our boy want to have today?" Grandpa Qian asked.

    "I¡¯ll have some¡­ in noodles today, thanks Uncle Qian. Your noodles are sure something here you know? It¡¯s been quite a while since I came and I was missing your delicious noodles so much that I drooled!" He answeredughingly.

    Grandpa Qian tittered joyfully, "Though I¡¯m getting old and I can¡¯t knead the dough as good as before¡­ But luckily I still have Ye to make the noodles for me and he is so much better." He said it proudly and ordered on top of his lungs, "Eh, Ye! Get a bowl of in noodles for this boy here!"

    "Okay." Ye Chong responded tly.

    "You have a new guy here, Uncle Qian?" Fei asked in bewilderment.

    "Nah, he¡¯s just a distant rtive of mine. I was feeling a bit lonely, you know, old man problems. So I brought him here."

    Out of curiosity Fei asked on, "Where does hee from then?"

    "Uhh¡­" Grandpa Qian flinched, "Somewhere¡­ somewhere far, far away!" Muttered he.

    "Ahahaha¡­" Fei tried to lighten the atmosphere, "Sigh, the silly habit of my job again. Please don¡¯t mind me, Uncle Qian."

    "Grandpa!" Ye Chong¡¯s voice rang from the inside, "We are out of corianders!" Grandpa Qian gasped and tapped his head, "How could I forget this! Sigh, we can¡¯t be out of corianders! We need this!" Mumbled the elderly. He then shouted towards the kitchen again, "Ye, I¡¯m heading out to get some corianders now! Don¡¯t forget to serve our customer okay?" Ye Chong okayed and the elderly waddled out of the shop after that.

    Ye Chong then served Fei a bowl of in noodles a momentter. cing it on the round table, he concisely greeted the customer, "Enjoy!"

    As he turned and walked away, "Eh!" Fei called him, "Hey brother, your name, Ye, was it?"

    Ye somehow felt difort seeing the man before him. There was not only difort but also a little bit of familiarity. He carried on with a concise response, "Yes." And he tried to walk away again.

    "So, you are the one who killed those men that day¡­" Fei lighted his cigar again, he spoke on rxingly, "Aren¡¯t you?"

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes rapidly turned cold. He could sense danger behind the line as he finally realized that the very man before him was one of the police officers he spotted that day. That¡¯s why I¡¯m feeling this much of hazard! Ye Chong didn¡¯t know many ways to resolve a risky situation like this. Strangling was the only one he knew and used the most. Without much hesitation, his instinct ordered him to conduct the method immediately.

    His body waved to the front and his right hand reached Fei¡¯s throat with lightning speed. The airwaves created as he propelled broke through the veil of smoke surrounding Fei.

    I was right after all! As he saw the changes in Ye Chong¡¯s expression, Fei¡¯s spection was justified. He didn¡¯te unprepared of course, but Ye Chong¡¯s speed was something not included in his n, as a result he was barely able to block Ye Chong¡¯s attack with his arm.

    "Hmph!" Ye Chong clenched his right hand andunched it at Fei¡¯s blocking arm.

    A crippling blow, followed by the sounds of crushed bones and a groan after. Fei¡¯s face turned pale as Ye Chong¡¯s fist literally just smashed his arm. The broken bone pieces gashed out of his ruptured muscle. Fei had cold sweat over his trembling body while his right hand was permanently disabled. The attack wasn¡¯t ending anytime soon as Ye Chong raised his fist again while Fei was frozen with helpless vulnerability. Fei¡¯s soon-to-best words were, "Uncle Qian! Hey there!"

    It actually worked.

    Ye Chong stumbled and held his punch. Right at that moment, Fei quickly backed away from Ye Chong and leaned against the wall, wheezing.

    Ye Chong took a look to his rear - Grandpa Qian wasn¡¯t there! He hadn¡¯t returned! Liar! His sighty on Fei once more, with a frigid re.

    "If¡­ If you¡­" Fei, catching his breath, as he was trying to word something, "If you killed me¡­ you are¡­ not helping Uncle Qian!" A hint of hesitation shed in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. "If you killed me, the police¡­ they will be here anytime. You could run¡­ you could hide, of course the police can¡¯t get you, but they can get Uncle Qian, don¡¯t forget that!"

    The first time he discovered his signature skill did not work out the way he wanted, he was already enraged. The bloodthirsty soul burned up high yet the sane soul told him to not kill the man in front as the man was right in his words.

    And Mu emerged in his thoughts from out of the blue, "Ye, this is tant threatening but it works most of the time!"

    Of course it worked! That¡¯s why Ye Chong was very much angered. The person clearly was rming to his sense of security, but he could not neutralize the threat at all! Cowardliness and helplessness were teasing him. His agitation built up over time.

    "Ye¡­" Mu seemed to have sensed his emotion, "Don¡¯t panic. There¡¯s still a way."

    "OF what kind?" Ye Chong spoke in his mind.

    Mu sneered, "Hehehehe" and spoke on ominously, "In yournguage, that would be - smack the heck out of him, but don¡¯t kill him just yet!"

    The advice was joyful to hear. He knew Mu wouldn¡¯t let him down as he pounced on Fei and literally smacked the heck out of Fei.

    Wait, this shouldn¡¯t be it! Fei wasn¡¯t expecting resistance! Is Ye really a cold-blooded person? That he would not care about that old man at all? Did my info fail me?

    The next scene was Ye Chong preciselynding a kick at Fei¡¯s stomach, with the tip of his foot. Well Mu did mention about keeping him half-dead and not utterly-dead. So Ye Chong¡¯s kick this time was only 30% of his usual force yet Fei was rolling on the floor in pain. Ye Chong did not concern what the person would be after the violence, as long as he would stay alive. He punched and kicked, as every blow counted, just to unleash the annoyance this punching bag gave him all this while.

    Poor Fei was getting distorted being hit to the ground¡­ He would rather die! Or faint on the spot! But Ye wasn¡¯t aiming for the critical spot of his body to knock him out. Plus he was obviously holding back his strength at the perfect amount to make sure he stayed conscious while tasting every bit of the ache he received. His mentality warded himself from getting crazy over this evesting torment, still, deep inside he regretted the presumptuous inspection this time so much. What a stupid mistake I made!

    "Now¡­ choke his neck, but don¡¯t suffocate him to death!" Another happy-go-lucky suggestion from Mu, as his tone went like the little devil brandishing the fork by Ye Chong¡¯s ears.

    Ye Chong, without a doubt, did as he was told to.

    "Okay, tell him that there¡¯s 52 policemen at his station. Make sure it sounds like a threat. It¡¯s a courtesy to return one¡¯s greeting." His devil wings excitingly fluttered.

    Threat? How should I word it like a threat? That was not an issue for Ye Chong as it was an inborn ability within himself. The lines did not need much polishing and they came out uttering from his lips like a cold winter storm. The atmosphere was feeling tense as Fei shivered to what he heard, which felt like a de against his neck.

    "So I heard¡­ you have 52 men back at your office." He spoke bluntly, "Fifty-two, huh?"

    And that was thest straw to Fei¡¯s calmness.

    "Oh and you do have a lovely wife and daughter, don¡¯t you? Who happily stayed at Guang Hua garden N-14-328-24." He carried on his performance, "Your wife has such a good name, He Yan, named after the swallow; while your daughter is named after the tiny bloom of flower, Meng Rui Er, who happens to be 7 years old this year, am I right? Mr. Meng."

    The rolling information that came struck like a thunder on Fei, shattering hisst bit of sanity as he wriggled and screamed, "Who¡­ Who are you! I warn, I warn you! Don¡¯t you ever dare toy a finger on them! Or else¡­ else¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll make sure I¡¯ll destroy you!"

    "Good. Kekeke, now he has learned his lesson. Onest warning to make sure he does not simply threat an ordinary citizen like us, then you can let him go." The little devil signaled mercy on generosity.

    "You better be not nning to do anything funny, or else¡­ Hehehe I¡¯ll be the one." Fei could onlyugh along bitterly, knowing his doom was destined. However, Ye Chong gestured to let him free.

    Upon knowing such good news, Fei did not want to wait any longer, he struggled his way out, "Hold it!" Fei flinched¡­ "Money. Pay for your food first." Pointing at the cold noodles on the table, Ye Chong nonchntly demanded.

    Beep.

    Thank you ande again.

    Fei wobbled out of the shop.

    "So where did you learn this trick?" Ye Chong asked Mu.

    "Hehehehe¡­" Muughed, "I watched some movies recently. This happens to be the typical scene."

    "Then how did you even know the number of policemen at his station? And his home, too?"

    "That¡¯s simple! Of course I sneaked into the station and hacked his profile out duh! Everything is written on it!"

    "So this is what they called threatening? Why would it be more practical than killing him on spot? The Iron Lizard didn¡¯t seem to have used this trick before¡­" Ye Chong collected his mind, yet he was still in much bewilderment.

    "Well, he¡¯s merely human, that¡¯s why!" Mu reminded.

 Chapter 58 - Urban Fiasco

    <h4>Chapter 58: Urban Fiasco</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong finally summoned Mu back from the alternate dimension. It had been quite some time ever since Mu went out of order. Though Grandpa Qian owned a rather spacious amodation, it still seemed crammed with Mu¡¯s gigantic mechanical body inside. Ye Chong had to readjust Mu¡¯s posture in order to fit him in. He folded his legs and ced the body in ¡­ quite an eyesore pose on the ground. Mu was partially lying on the floor, with his legs lifted and¡­ "What do you think you¡¯re doing?!", with his mouth rumbling.

    Grandpa Qian sighed in sympathy as heid his sight upon the torn body of Mu. Such a fine mech Ye had but became all broken by then. "What a pity!"

    Well there wasn¡¯t any other Helmet to connect to the virtual world, other than the one in Mu¡¯s system. Ye Chong hopped into the cabin and put on the Helmet, logging in and there he went!

    The virtual world stayed the same. The same old street, the same old crowd and the same old fields¡­ A visit to his recent past. He knew where he would head to next. He nced at the path and proceeded to Aurora to have a nice reunion. The elderlies at the Aurora pined for Ye Chong¡¯s revisit. Some of them were in bitter worries while waiting as they wondered if something had happened to their precious boy. It was their lucky day they thought as they were surprised by Ye Chong¡¯s return. A session of warm greetings happened between them and Ye Chong¡¯s smile broadened like a shrinking violet.

    He bode farewell to the benevolent elderlies and shifted to the NRS training field. Of course, Mu had long vanished from his thoughts by then. Wonder where Mu had gone to this time?

    The field was still vibrant as ever. Thebat field was as entertaining as it used to be. Ye Chong was stirred up by the fighting sequences urring in the field. He missed the hand-on experience. One round¡­ One round would do. Ye Chong got up, "Ye, I had justpleted the creation of your identification documents." Mu was good with timing, like too good, "You have to get it now. It¡¯s much safer with it, gravely dangerous without it."

    "Identification card? It¡¯s done?" It would be indeed better with formal identification, considering how Bai Linan seemed to be wetting himself upon hearing how Ye Chong did not even own one back at Reno. Speaking of Bai Linan, what had happened to that guy?

    Ye Chong strolled the street alone. Several aircrafts and mechs zoomed by. They passed through the floating buildings in the anti-gravitational force field while unting some fancy tricks in their piloting.

    He was stimted by the action. His desire to pilot was struck in a whim. As his fingers slid to the keystone in his pocket and called up a F-58 in front. Ye Chong hopped in and impatientlyunched the machinery.

    The F-58 sted off into the air and glided mischievously. Ye Chong yed off some tricks in between. The mech sometimes would slide right across the windows of the floating window, which put the owner in cold sweat. "Eh, Ye!" Mu started hismentary, "This is bad. Tsk, tsk, tsk, what happened to your performance? It''s as if our training had gone to waste. That flip you made just now was not smooth enough. And also your timing for eleration has an inuracy of 5.78%! Are you an amateur or you¡¯re from the dump? Oh wait you are from a-"

    A blue humanoid mech bolted by. And it just contemted Ye Chong, waving its hand far ahead.

    "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Ye, look at you, look at how fallen you had be." Mu carried on adding fuel to the fire, "Even a noob woulde and pick on you in your face. Ye, please don¡¯t tell anybody that I was the one who nned the training course for you. I am embarrassed enough."

    "Hmph." Ye Chong snorted and sped up as he chased after that easy-peasy in front.

    That blue mech was obviously modified for speed enhancement. The appearance justified everything - foldable wings, about 4 of them, would allow stability while traveling in the atmosphere; a sylphlike body and 6 additional wings smaller in size at the sides of the end. The modified mech looked like a giant bird spreading wings in the sky as it travelled, with its tiny body in the embrace of itsrge borated wings. A featherweight craft.

    Every addition on this mech was about speed. Thus, it was unquestionable that this mech was superior in its speed.

    But then, as Ye Chong looked through, this mech might as well be a piece of junk like those he saw back at his. It is a total failure. The mech did possess greater speed but that¡¯s all it had. Everything else than its speed was disturbingly terrible. Featherweight? More like paperweight. It had such a thin body that Ye Chong wondered if it could even take the slightest touch and if the pilot would break before the mech. The borated wings were unnecessary in his opinion and they were utterly useless once it set off into space. In an atmospheric zone, he would only need two wings at the side, with half the size of what this exaggerated hunk of metal had and maintained 80% of the current performance. Smaller wings would also reduce the likelihood of being struck by enemies effectively.

    That was not it! The worst part of this crap is that this noob seemed to care about speed so much he forgot about the capacity. It was so limited that it could not even be loaded with anything else than the pilot himself. And what? It didn¡¯t even have its own weaponry? A mech without weaponry is only an escape pod with fancy wings. Ye Chong thought. But well, Mu was an exception to his rules.

    Even though the mech did have some odd style of modification, it still cruised like a breeze.

    F-58 is a mech for space-travels. So it does not have any wings at the sides, thus the underwhelming performance during travel in the atmosphere. Fortunately in exchange, it contains an advanced engine and with Ye Chong¡¯s first-ss obstacle piloting skills, the F-58 did not lose out badly, in fact, it had always been right behind that blue mech.

    It sounded cool. Still, it was just right-behind. Close, yet not close enough. It was tricky to overtake that blue mech.

    Meanwhile, Mu was being extremely helpful at that moment, "Aw man. Ye, did you know you could have made this turn 0.035 second faster? Hm¡­ Hey Ye! Oh my¡­ Ugh¡­ What had you even learned back at the NRS training? Oh wait, what do you even remember from the training? Did you forget everything else other than the fact that you lived? Did you know you are deplorably 4.5% below than the standard of performance I had set for you?"

    The two mechs were flying in the city center. The floating houses were denser than the outskirts. There were more traveling crafts in the air too. It seemed that the blue mech right in front did not intend to be above the neighborhood, instead, he weaved in and out around the buildings.

    Two of them raced on the road, one behind another, showing zero concern for traffic or any passerby. The center was chaotic. The pedestrians had their eyes hooked on the outrageous racers threading paths and they tripped themselves while dodging the fast and furious. The traffic on its peak-hour had been turned into a bummer, a st of honking and craft-collisions.

    In the meantime, Ye Chong never thought of the issue going off before him. Traffic chaos? You got to be kidding me! The sky is bloody boundless and bloody bright and you tell me you can¡¯t fly anywhere you want? Technically, the concept of order in traffic had yet instilled in his mind during that time.

    He was all-eyes-focused on the blue mech in the front of him. Intense! Exciting! It¡¯s been a while I got this driven! Ye Chong¡¯s blood was boiling with adrenaline stimting every inch of his nerves. His body and his mind were all onto the inputs. The sluggish sequence at first started to get more and more seamless over the course. Slowly he picked up the sense of traveling at full speed. He began performing overwhelming dodges as he travelled like a swordfish winding in the corals, freely and happily.

    Gradually the gap between Ye Chong and the opponent shortened.

    The opponent seemed to have felt the stress exerted by Ye Chong as his action became a bit disorderly. The outsiders might not discern the difference but Ye Chong certainly did, every frame of it. He took the chance and shortened the distance even further. After the mistake the blue mech pilot made, he calmed himself down immediately. He would not be giving more opportunities to the F-58 behind! No more letups! As obvious the F-58 was inferior to his craft in terms of speed, Ye Chong managed to put up such a situation merely because of his ultimate piloting skills.

    "Yawn¡­" Mu was bored by Ye Chong in all-focus, "What¡¯s the point of this race with zero expertise? If I want to watch something blindly speeding, I could watch mechmercials and not this."

    "Mu, stop bbering and help me take a look at the rear. There were some mechs behind." Ye Chong noticed something when he was upied. He asked Mu to do the look-out for him.

    Mu did notice the mechs tailing from afar. There were 3 mechs in pure ck, white and blue respectively¡­ and a white mech leading with a speed almost as fast as the F-58.

    "Oh¡­ It seems like they are from the police force." Mu observed carefully, "Well I have no idea what that white one does though. Ah, its specification wasn¡¯t as bad as your F-58¡­ What?" Mu was shocked out of sudden, "Ye, careful¡­" He turned serious, "That white mech right behind you, it is fully armed."

    Ye Chong pondered a little. He had enough fun at the moment. Moreover, the white mech behind was sending chills down his spine.

    Time to end the race! A sharp turn by Ye Chong, right into the other street. It was unexpected for the blue mech pilot till he was dazed for a second and nearly hit the building in front. The body of his mech brushed through the metal edges of the building and its integrity was breached, as what Ye Chong had pointed out. This mech did have an issue. He barely made it out alive. He rolled out of the cabin and was found surrounded by a horde of police mechs. He was caught red-handed.

    Ye Chong¡¯s sudden change in route also stupefied the white mech behind. But he turned along without hesitation.

    Ye Chong¡¯s heart skipped a beat upon seeing the white mech appearing behind again. This guy! He was really after me!

    "Oh Ye, how lovely." Mu added, "This guy seems to have a thing for you, eh? Oh~ be careful, his weaponry seems to be activating." Yeah, Mu totally was joking. Not!

    Traveling at maximum speed, Ye Chong took a lightning nce at the white mech projected in his interface. It seemed that the white mech had opened up its hidden artillery from within! The hostility was tant!

    With another sharp turn, he made right into extended street at the side. The white mech was unprepared for this and was left dazed again, but he made it up fairly quickly and chased on. The other crafts in the street were astounded by Ye Chong¡¯s intrusion as they ran for their lives steering clear of him. The ce was in disarray. The panicked mech flocks blocked the white mech¡¯s way. He red at Ye Chong getting out of sight in a few blinks.

    Finally! Ye Chong let of a sigh of relief. He slowed down. Took a breath and moved on in rxation.

    Well, the race before had consumed massive amounts of energy. He had to slow down or he would be walking a gazillion miles home.

    "Ye!" Mu¡¯s voice rang again, "Look at the sky!"

    Ye Chong lifted the camera upon the sky. In horror he looked at the projection. The white mech was lurking in the sky, aiming the muzzle of hisser rifle at Ye Chong!

 Chapter 59 - Iâ€™m not an Outlaw!

    <h4>Chapter 59: I¡¯m not an Ouw!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was absolutely terrorized. He changed the direction of his engine in panic andnded the F-58 harshly. Zeep! The whiteser skimmed through the forehead of F-58 and created a bottomless-looking crater on the ground, steaming.

    The immense force made the F-58nd like a beast on four feet, to buffer the pressure produced due to sharp turning. And almost immediately after, the F-58unched itself like a jaguar into the crowd.

    Ye Chong had switched to ground-mode of the F-58 and considered himself familiar with the dynamics behind dashing by the beast. He mastered it fast and moved on fluidly. There was a certain rhythm in his running. The F-58 was also built with an avant-garde buffering system, so Ye Chong had an easier time piloting it on ground. Imagine bumping in the urban jungle without it, Ye Chong might need afort bag and all the measly amount of stamina left might just go into the drain along with his pukes.

    The white mech was alerted by something as he stopped firing. He just silently followed Ye Chong behind.

    Ye Chong had fully adjusted the F-58¡¯s posture after a while but remained very close to the ground, with legs bent. Certainly a very strange posture to fly in¡­ Ye Chong was helpless of this in actuality. F-58 was unarmed and keeping the same height with the sniper would be fatal. He could only try to ground the sniper by flying extremely low. That was his mere hope to fight back or else¡­ he would be running for his life and probably get shot and no more. There were a lot of moments where a shot could have been made, yet it never happened. Ye Chong was confused. What was holding him back? Or was it a miss?

    Ye Chong would never let the chance slip if he was the chaser. He would fire at every possible moment to nail the enemy. That was what living on the Trash had taught him all these years - the tant, crude, primal, supremew of survival. He believed that suchw might not be actually applicable in this society, especially after the incident the day before, but he believed that there were way more things unknown to him. He didn¡¯t encounter the unknown, he was literally thrown into the unknown. Thus, like what all humans would do, he would pick the method he trusted and knew best to conquer the unknown.

    Well, it seemed like Ye Chong still had a long journey down the road to understand society and change himself¡­

    The curved legs might appeared to be awkward, however it would be the most effective way so far to dodge any iing beam by changing the course using the leap of the legs.

    It could be a golden opportunity to have some circus tricks but Ye Chong did not fancy the idea. The non-orderly wavy leap, the ssic Thomas¡¯s Spin, there are always times for those but not now! If I wanted tomit suicide there are better ways! Thought Ye Chong as he changed his direction from time to time between the densely grouped buildings at an attempt to confuse the opponent. This would give him temporary cover too!

    The white mech seemed to have no counter for this. He stayed up high following Ye Chong. Ye Chong went lower and lower and tried his best to pick ces with more buildings. That was a headache to the white mech because Ye Chong travelled like a phantom, sneaking from one spot to another. He would more likely to miss him if he were to lower his mech in the run.

    Out of the blue, the ck mech in front of him disappeared!

    Ye Chong actually discovered a giant building in front, an extremely tall foundation. He got an idea and he rushed towards the corner of the building. Right when the white mech lost him, he jumped out of the cabin instantly and warped the F-58 back into the alternate dimension before he touched the ground. The people were staring at him in perplexity. He quickly submerged into the crowd and vanished.

    He walked with the flow and cautiously nced at the white mech, halting in the sky a few times on the way, "You did improve I guess." Mu praised.

    "Well, this is the best I could pull off." Ye Chong replied.

    "The location to im your card is right at the central building in 500 meters."

    "Got it."

    The central building was about 300 floors tall, coated in metallic texture with sses of dim blue. It was a futuristic building in cold colors. And there seemed to be a parking space for mech or miniature aircrafts at every 3 floors.

    The interior was gently lit, decorated with walls of silver and countless cubicles separated by partitions of ss both transparent and half-transparent. The lobby contained a number of hologram projectors that kept rolling out the procedures of any form of application. There were also a few processors nearby for customers¡¯ inquiry.

    Ye Chong walked to one of the kiosks there. His fingerprints were scanned along with his retina, followed by his skeletal structure. A diprotic scan was also performed. These were the essential procedures for verification purpose. And Ye Chong¡¯s identity was proven.

    "The application of recreating your identity card has beenpleted. You may receive your card at your right. Please take good care of it and if you lose it again, doe to us soon." A mechanical voice of a female rang at the kiosk after the verification process. Thup! A pale green card was spat out of the automated machine, "Have a nice day!"

    He looked at his card with curiosity. It was about the size of his wrist, slightly smaller. "Ye, this is your identification document. You¡¯re no longer an ouw. This took me way longer than I thought. The security at the residence info center was hard to get through. It took me a lot of effort just to get in. I almost got caught too! But luckily I¡¯m fast." Heughed proudly.

    The card contained his full name, gender and other personal information. There was also a unique logo of Fal gxy. The identity card could be snapped after fingerprint verification to obtain the very core of the card, being the microchip. The chip could be ced into a specific kind of decoder to get more data. Well, of course, this was only useful for specific departments.

    Ye Chong kept his card carefully.

    He exited the building and headed back to his shop. The first wave of customers wereing anytime soon. He had got to make it back fast! He was tempted to re-summon F-58, yet¡­ Ye Chong looked around. The white mech could be watching from anywhere. He wouldn¡¯t want another round of reckless race into the unknown¡­

    For what reason that white mech wanted to kill me so much? What did I do wrong?

    Ye Chong was puzzled. Some may have suggested the use of Mu but that idea was long out of reach for Ye Chong, considering how Mu was so sassy to not let him have a ride for emergencies. Sigh, I¡¯ll just walk on my feet. He ran on his feet fast, all the way to the shop!

    The pedestrians at the side held their steps as they watched a road runner passing by.

    "What the heck? This is impossible!"

    "He¡¯s too fast!"

    "Am I high? Am I seeing things?"

    They were probably thinking these thoughts while looking at a grown man rushing through the street in rumbles.

    Ye Chong had to rush because the customers flooded the shop recently and most of them happened to be regr and returning customers.

    I made it!

    Right before the first wave of starving customers intruded.

    That was a miracle, until¡­ I¡¯m tired¡­ The customers of the shop were very self-aware of it seemed. There were only 32 seats in Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop. So anyone could tell the seats were very insufficient and the customers left the moment they finished their food. They never stayed and they gave the seats to theing customers. It was good but¡­ that simply did not give a moment for Ye Chong to even catch his breath. He was usually much more energetic, however he drained himself too much during the escape in the morning.

    "You seemed worn out, my boy. Are you okay?" Grandpa Qian asked unsettlingly upon seeing how Ye Chong was not his usual self. "Yeah, yeah, I¡¯m fine." That was his reply for every regard he received that day.

    Till the veryst customer left in satisfaction, they finally got to start their meal.

    The rice tasted sweeter than usual. Everything just felt tastier. Ye Chong gargled the soup.

    In the midst of leisure, someone bashed into the ce.

 Chapter 60 - Mech-anics

    <h4>Chapter 60: Mech-anics</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sun Xuelin dragged Shew into the ce as she pushed the door open,. "Grandpa Qian!" Shouted Xuelin as soon as she stepped in, while her cousin was concealing herself behind. She wiped her face reddened by intense workouts and swiped her hazel fringe dampened by her sweat. Droplets of sweat rolled off like dewdrops in the morning. Her nose glossing in her youth were exhaling heavily. The formerly tight uniform covering her body had lost its formality by then, which the neckline had been unbuttoned while the sleeves had been outrageously raised, revealing arms of fair beauty. Her left hand was holding Shew¡¯s hand while her right was smudged by something.

    "Grandpa Qian! We want two bowls of beef noodles! The usual!" She then tugged her cousin all the way to the hand cleaner at the side. Beep! A flow of air slightly warm passed through their fingers. The ck patches on her hands slid through the tips of her fingers and fell into the opened doorway to the disposer.

    "Xuelin?" Laid his chopsticks, Grandpa Qian stood up and looked at them in anxiety, "What happened to my girls? Looking all flustered¡­"

    Ye Chong in the meantime had already shifted to the kitchen and started cooking.

    Xuelin pulled her beloved Cousin Shew to the table and sat down right beside Grandpa Qian, giggled, "Sigh! You won¡¯t believe what had happened! I was getting home with Shewie, all happy and lucky. But then the mech just had to break itself out of a sudden. The worst thing was I actually broke my dimensional keystone too. I tried to fix it on my own but it didn¡¯t work. I got hungry so I decided toe back here for another meal first." Such a bad hair day for the girls. Grandpa Qian thought.

    "So is the mech right outside the shop?" He poured them some water as he asked.

    "Ugh!" Xuelin gargled angrily, "Yeah! I never expected things could go wrong when it¡¯s just a stone¡¯s throw away from our house! This is depressing¡­ especially when my parents aren¡¯t in too!" And she sighed again but seemed more agitated than depressed.

    Grandpa Qian chuckled, "Xuelin, my girl, you sure act like your father. Why aren¡¯t you like your mother even a little? Eh, drink it slower. Do it gently, Xuelin. The drinks are all yours. Be like your cousin, Shew. Look at how gently she made her sip."

    Shew while on her sip was embarrassed by thepliments. She blushed and almost choked herself. "It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s nothing." She ced down her cup, "I mean, Xuelin looks pretty good too, doesn¡¯t she?" Rubbing her hands together while slipping her fingers through as she muttered.

    "You are just the shy kind, aren¡¯t you?" Grandpa Qian was delighted. Shew¡¯s blush had gotten worse. "Yeah, she¡¯s the shy kind ever since she was a child!" Stated Xuelin while sheughed.

    A momentter, Ye Chong left the kitchen with two bowls of noodles. He ced it in front of the girls, sat down and continued digging in. Courtesy was no longer the best policy for Ye Chong when hunger was concerned. He had consumed too much stamina for the day. Hunger had taken over his mind. Nom. Nom. Nom¡­ Ye Chong was too busy emptying every bowl he got.

    Xuelin and Shew held their chopsticks in daze. Is this a human? How many bowls has he eaten ever since we came in? The 7th? Or the 8th? Can a man get this hungry? It was not only because the amount he had eaten, it was also the rate of him finishing the bowls. The noodles appeared as if they were disintegrating rapidly the moment Ye Chong¡¯s lips reached the edge of the bowl. Secondspsed and he had already hit the bottom, moving on to the next. Xuelin and Shew looked at each other awkwardly as their eyes went like saucers seeing the "paranormal" before them.

    Grandpa Qian on the other hand was tittering as usual. He had gotten used to the speed of Ye Chong engulfing the noodles. He was more bothered the fact that Ye Chong could be real tired for the day, considering it was the 11th bowl he dug into. That was 3 more bowls than his usual routine. His lips wriggled, wanting to tell him to get adequate rest and watch his own health. Nevertheless something struck the old man. His eyes blinked.

    "Ye, don¡¯t you know how to fix a mech by yourself?" He remembered the fact that Ye Chong had a broken mech before. He was apleteyperson in this regard. He couldn¡¯t tell the difference between a pilot and a mechanic. But he just felt like asking for the poor little girls in front.

    "Hm" Ye Chong chewed on.

    Xuelin was shocked by Grandpa Qian''s question.

    "A little." Ye Chong slurped on.

    A hint of disdain shed in Xuelin¡¯s eyes.

    For real? I mean even an actual student from a mechanic school wouldn¡¯t dare to im themselves so. Any person who could fix a mech on his or her own before 25 has to be a genius.

    How could this kitchen food gulping dumbo be one?

    "Very well, Ye. I had known Xuelin since she was a child. So would you mind helping the girls out, as an old man¡¯s request? Please."

    "Okay." He just murmured his reply. He didn¡¯t lift his head at all and he carried on munching.

    Phew! Thatst bowl should do!

    Ye Chong had finished 15 bowls of noodles in total. He did seem a little bit tired since he usually would only need about 7 to 8 bowls to feel all full.

    He walked out of the shop straightaway while Xuelin hauled poor Shew off the table, all the way out. Xuelin was expecting to see this novice dumbo embarrass himself as he would be astounded by theplexity of her mech. He would be apologizing for his boastful words.

    Learn about talking with brains, not with your big mouth! Hmph!

    He circled the SP-II.

    I had seen this model before. But that was during the NRS training.

    If that was not the first opponent he encountered on the first day of his NRS training, he would have forgotten every single bit about this model of mech. The mech was a craft imprinted in his mind as he learned to fight with it the hard way. Through the fight he mastered the Non-Orderly Wavy Leap, which also happened to be the only advanced technique he knew that time.

    Wait, speaking of advanced technique, Mu, that piece of junk, did not teach me any other so-called "advanced techniques" since then! I¡¯ll make sure he teaches me everything else after this¡­

    He actually went daydreaming for a moment¡­ Oh! He came back from his castle in the air he built afterwards. He took a careful inspection of the mech before him.

    He was acutely familiar with the structure of mechs. Back at Trash, Winnie had been disassembled on different asions. He knew everything like the back of his hands. Though Winnie was quite an outdated modelpared to the SP-II, both of them surprisingly did not share much difference. For the properties of SP-II, he had learned them back when he hung out at Gudista - all at his fingertips, especially when the ancient elderlies at Aurora taught him both the experience and knowledge!

    Kekekekeke. Let¡¯s see what your big mouth can do.

    Seeing how Ye Chong seemed to be overwhelmed by her SP-II, she snickered. She truly despised bragging, especially when the person didn¡¯t even have the quality to swagger. She anticipated the moment of truth for her tough wholeheartedly at the clown stumbling upon her craft.

    At the same time, Shew was staring at Ye in bewilderment.

    What he¡¯s doing all standing there? He really doesn¡¯t know how to fix it? Ah! Then he should note for it! Xuelin is going tough her jaws off¡­ sigh¡­

    She showed worries in her eyes, knowing that how stubborn her Cousin Xuelin could get when the pilot field was concerned, no matter how friendly she acted normally¡­

    That was not the case. Ye Chong skillfully lifted the cover of the engine at the mech. And he checked every part of it swiftly. Xuelin was astounded in the end instead.

    His instinct told him to diagnose the condition of the engine. Back at Gudista, he had seen posts in the forum on various stories about SP-II, which had superior traveling speed but an inferior protection of the engine. Thus, the constant criticism from people.

    So he checked out on the engine first.

    The girls were shaking at the side, seeing how Ye Chong just jumped onto the tall SP-II without any aid or safety measure. He could just die from falling down! Xuelin¡¯s mouth erged. She could barely lift her jaws. Her eyes flooded with disbelief. Shew by her side was covering her mouth, trying to hold her shriek. She wouldn¡¯t want to scream. What if it made Ye Chong fall?

    His intuition was urate! The problem did lie within the engine! There was a tiny piece of something stuck in one of the major central circuits in the engine for some reason. The piece prevented the engine from working properly, which eventually led to a system failure. Well, this is simple! He simply took it out. After some engine cleaning, he got into the cabin and ran a few tests to make sure the system had been thoroughly repaired. Yup! System¡¯s up! He jumped out of the cabin.

    The SP-II was about 10 meters tall while the cabin was about 7 to 8 meters tall at the very least, and Ye Chong just jumped out of the cabin as if jumping off his bed without any form ofdders or ropes. Shew could hold it no longer, she shrieked and shrieked, covering her little mouth quivering. Xuelin was stunned by how Ye Chong got off the mech.

    A perfectnding! A perfect pose! As soon as hended he curved his legs a little to cushion the shock. He looked like apressed spring, a frog before its leap, passive yet potent.

    He got up, "All done!" As he bluntly replied and returned to the shop. He had a lot other work to do. No time to chitchat with the girls.

    Xuelin remained dumbfounded. Maybe she was the dumbo after all. The shock before had yet faded in her mind. "Xuelin, what¡¯s wrong?" Shew shook her shoulders, startled by her cousin¡¯s reaction, "Aren¡¯t you going to see if it¡¯s really fixed?"

    "Oh!" As if woken up from a dream, Xuelin quickly tossed a rope over and climbed into the cabin. Beep! She activated the self-diagnosis program at the processor and she was in an ambivalence hoping for the result, whether is it positive or negative. 30 seconds passed and Xuelin¡¯s head popped at the cabin entrance, in excitement she shouted, "Shewie! It¡¯s fixed! It¡¯s all fixed! Get up! Quick! We are getting home!"

    She somehow hesitated a little. Nheless she boarded the mech afterwards. "Xuelin! Didn''t you forget something? We haven¡¯t thanked the man!" She ranted right after she got herself seated.

    "Hmph!" Xuelin indifferently began setting upmands, "That guy doesn¡¯t seem to care about anything! So why the appreciation? He acted as if I¡¯m in debt to him or something! If you want to thank him, go alone. I¡¯m not going!"

    Shew bit her cherry lips, "Isn¡¯t that a little rude? He helped us anyway! I think¡­ I think we should¡­ we should¡­"

    "Fine!" Xuelin grumbled, "We woulde and thank him the next time we visit Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop! I never knew he really could fix a mech at all before!" Her fingers rubbed her gleaming chin as she pondered on.

    "Oh well, it seems like the only thing we could do!" Sighed Shew.

    "Okay, we are getting back home~"

    "Oh no! Xuelin! There¡¯s something else we forgot! We forgot to pay! What should we do!"

    "Hah! It¡¯s okay Shewie! Grandpa Qian isn¡¯t this kind of person! He wouldn¡¯t mind if we pay him the next visit!"

    ¡­

    "Mu." Ye Chong summoned his partner right when he entered his room. He tumbled into the cabin, put on the Helmet, "Show me the visual of the white mech we see today!"

    "Alright." Mu replied on spot.

    The image of the white mech projected before him. He observed in detail. It would be better to research on the enemy, though he had no idea why he became the target in the first ce.

    "Anyway, Ye." The routine bitter-tongue nagmenced! "Did you know how terrible your performance was today? This is so embarrassing I cannot- ZZZzZZZzzzzZZzzzzZZ ZZzzzzzZZzz"

    "Mu?" Out of the blue, Mu¡¯s voice trailed off. His voice was distorted towards the end, as if something was interrupting the transmission. The visual in the Helmet was acting goofy too! "Mu!" The visual disappeared, while a bunch of snow and white noises remained. Mu¡¯s voice was utterly gone! The Helmet went pitch ck after that.

    "Mu¡­ Mu!" He removed his helmet and spoke in his mind with dismay, "Why aren¡¯t you¡­ Mu! Speak to me Mu! Speak to me!"

 Chapter 61 - Muâ€™s Predicament

    <h4>Chapter 61: Mu¡¯s Predicament</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Mu fell immediately silent, and Ye Chong panicked. Whenever something happened to Mu, Ye Chong found out that he was never of much help.

    The only thing he could do now was wait. He would wait until Mu awakened again.

    Could it be that the energy cells were depleted? Ye Chong quickly stood up and rushed to check Mu¡¯s energy cells. "No! That¡¯s not the problem! Mu¡¯s energy cells were still at 80%. Then what¡¯s the problem?" Ye Chong racked his brains but could not figure out the reason. His only option left was to sit quietly by Mu¡¯s side and wait.

    Ye Chong sat beside Mu for the entire afternoon, but Mu was still motionless, showing no signs of awakening.

    Time passed by, and without his notice, he had sat through the entire afternoon. Outside his room, Grandpa Qian called, "A guest is here!" Ye Chong looked at the time, and found that it was already evening. He gave a meaningful look at Mu before heading out - it was time to work!

    Ye Chong looked dejected, and worked without much enthusiasm. Grandpa Qian had asked Ye Chong a few times if he was feeling ufortable, but Ye Chong only shook his head every time. Grandpa Qian¡¯s expression was one of worry.

    Finally, all the customers had left. Ye Chong left after just eating two servings, and Grandpa Qian was worried about him - the boy had never eaten so little!

    Ye Chong returned to his room in a depressed mood. As he closed the door behind him, Mu¡¯s voice rang, "Ye!"

    Ye Chong paused and his head snapped up. His eyes filled with bottomless joy, and the edges of his mouth lifted into an arch. "Mu, you¡¯re alright now? That¡¯s great!"

    The excited Ye Chong leapt onto Mu¡¯s knees. "You scared me just now! Are you alright now?"

    Mu was silent for awhile. "Based on avable information, the probability of controlling the situation was from 58.5% to 61.2%!"

    Ye Chong was shocked. "What happened? Mu, you seemed to have changed a lot before this." Ye Chong thought for a moment before continuing, "And now you¡¯re back to normal!"

    Mu spoke lightly, "Your statement is urate to a certain extent!"

    Ye Chong was perplexed. "What¡¯s really going on, Mu?"

    Mu calmly exined, "There is an unnamed program in inactive mode that has been in my information records all this time. I had repeatedly tried to activate it, as I believe it is most probably information rted to my history. However, I had never found a way to activate it. The violent impact during our escape from the trash had activated this program, and I realized it was a Photon Simted Intelligence program."

    Upon seeing Ye Chong¡¯s confused expression, Mu continued exining, "A Photon Simted Intelligence program, or PSI [1], is an autonomous decision-making program present in advanced photon processors. Different PSIs have different characteristics and temperaments, and they have a strong inclination to reject other PSIs. Fundamentally, I am also a PSI!"

    "This PSI in me has a 86.9% probability of being the former controller of my photon processor. For some reason, it was forced into inactive mode, and after that, you, Ye, had activated a new PSI in the photon processor that was me."

    "We are born from the same photon processor, and based on the same learning mechanism and decision making system. This also implied that we could not destroy one another, and could onlypete for control of the photon processor. From thest impact, his sudden activation ced me in a passive situation, and he managed to take control! However, based on our characteristics, I am more aggressive, and thus have a higher probability of between 8.5% to 11.2% of winning against him. This is why he was suppressed by me today. However, this probability advantage will continue to decrease! Until both have equal power!"

    Mu noticed Ye Chong¡¯s confused expressed and spoke his mind without care. "At your level, the probability of you understanding thisplicated predicament is only 21%."

    The remark was promptly ignored by Ye Chong, as he spoke in realization, "Ah, that means in your body there¡¯s two ¡­ Um ¡­ What¡¯s that called?" Ye Chong frowned in thought.

    "PSI!" Mu provided.

    "Right, PSI. But that, that PSI thing had no ill will towards me ¡­" Ye Chong recalled the earlier in time where he thought Mu was acting a little different, but it did not make Ye Chong feel that the mech was another Mu.

    Mu agreed. "Yes. Since we are using the same information records archive, his information based decisions will be the same as mine. Hence, his attitude towards you will be no different to that of mine, but expressed with a different personality and temperament."

    Ye Chong scratched his head in distress. "Soplicated. As expected, anything rted to photon processors is bound to be dull!" Ye Chong, who was entirely uninterested in photon processors, made his conclusion.

    "I¡¯m afraid it is to you!" Mumented calmly.

    Ye Chong sat in Mu¡¯s pilot cabin, continuing his work from earlier in themorning. As for Mu¡¯s predicament, Ye Chong knew he would be of no help, and Mu would have to handle it himself.

    Ye Chong carefully inspected the white mech image pulled from Mu¡¯s information records archive.

    Pure white mechs were rare, as were pure ck mechs. The elongated design andck of any sharp edges due to its rounded designs meant that the mechs did not have the vicious quality found inmon mech models. In its hand was a simrly white and odd looking gun. From the diameter of the barrel, it may even qualify as a cannon. From an average person¡¯s perspective, the mech was definitely majestic and as graceful as an aristocrat amongst the feathered species - the white swan.

    However, Ye Chong obviously did not feel the same. Ye Chong only felt an extreme sense of danger.

    The white mech may seem as graceful as an aristocrat, but Ye Chong would not underestimate its potential as a threat. Ye Chong was sure that the odd looking gun in his hand must have some underlying power, and was not just some ything. Ye Chong also noticed with his sharp observation that the mech had at least thirty two concealed weapons cache (yin shi she ji chang), and that was quite astonishing to Ye Chong.

    "This - this is surely too much. Is there a need to have so many of them? Besides, can the pilot in the mech control them all? The energy consumption must also be huge! Is he thinking of shooting all of them in one go and end the battle?"

    No matter how he saw it, Ye Chong did not believe that this was amon advanced level mech. Ye Chong definitely thought that the mech was even more technologically advanced than his F-58. No matter how well the F-58 performed, it was still a training mech, and its weapons were far outstripped by the opponent¡¯s.

    "Why would he want to kill me?" Ye Chong could not figure it out!

    Only the Reno Society had qualms with him, but would Reno Society own a mech like this? Ye Chong was a little wary of that fact. Besides, Reno Society definitely knew nothing of his whereabouts. Then who could it be? ck Cove? If ck Cove had ill designs for him, then it would be a usible scenario. However, the mech was obviously a contrast to ck Cove¡¯s usual style. The difference was too striking, and thus, it was probably not ck Cove!

    Then who would it be? Ye Chong agonisingly searched his memories!

    "The opponent had crashnded into me while I was flying with the F-58. The opponent probably did not know my identity, and could only recognize the mech! Could it be that the F-58 made me an enemy? But wait! The F-58 was a ck Cove training mech, which meant that the opponent must know about the F-57, and understand that it was a ck Cove training mech. Sodoes this mean that the opponent thought I am a ck Cove citizen and therefore, treated me as an enemy? Hmm, then it seemed highly likely that the opponent is an enemy of ck Cove!"

    As he considered this idea, Ye Chong began to believe that it made sense! He must be an enemy of ck Cove! He must have mistook him as someone from ck Cove! This seemed to be the only reasonable exnation!

    By then, Mu¡¯s voice rang out, "Based on currently avable information and my calctions, the probability that the opponent is an enemy of ck Cove is about 71%. The uncertainty is due to insufficient information and therefore not calcble!"

    As expected, Mu¡¯s calctions arrived at the same conclusion as he did!

    Hmm, if that was the case, then what should he do?

    [1] Note: Pronounced as "psy" in "psychology".

 Chapter 62 - Ye Chong Went Outdoors

    <h4>Chapter 62: Ye Chong Went Outdoors</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was troubled.

    He had been training on his speedtely, and did not spend any time on strength training. Now, he had reached another bottleneck in his speed. Since speed was achieved through strength, without support from the appropriate amount of strength, his speed could only stay at its current level.

    However, this was not the trash, where metallic trash was abundant and everywhere, as it was easy to find a piece of metal of suitable size there. Ye Chong had trained his strength with the most basic and simple method - using weights. He did weight lifting and used weights in exercises such as running and squatting. However, he was considerably stronger now, such that if he continued with the same training method, he would need much heavier weights to fulfil his needs. Otherwise, it would be difficult to achieve the desired results.

    Except for a few rare materials, none were dense enough to meet Ye Chong¡¯s requirements. However, one thing he could be certain of was that the materials that were dense enough were not obtainable at the present moment. Without a high enough density, the weight would be too much, besides being inconvenient. It would then be impossible to carry out training at Grandpa Qian¡¯s house!

    Mu was interested in the dilemma with Ye Chong¡¯s muscr development. "Ye, your muscles are still not significantly developing!"

    Ye Chong was not too concerned. "Didn¡¯t you say it¡¯s alright like this?"

    Mu evenly replied, "It is alright, I¡¯m just curious about your state of development!"

    Ye Chong shook his head. "I don¡¯t know the reason for it too. I¡¯ve always been like this since young, never very muscr. Based on what you said, I should be much more muscr by now!"

    Mu agreed. "By right, you should not be having this body form. However, I cannot inspect your body without proper measuring equipment."

    Ye Chong did not mind about it. "At least it isn¡¯t a bad thing!"

    Mu bluntly replied, "Information is insufficient to calcte that!"

    Ye Chong suddenly thought of something. "Mu, my basic pilot training is almostplete. When are you teaching any advanced techniques? I can only perform one now - the Non-orderly Wavy Leap!"

    Mu said, "Advanced techniques are based on fundamental movements executed with unique battle strategies in mind -"

    Ye Chong cut him off. "Just tell me if you¡¯re teaching or not!"

    Mu responded, "Only if you insist on it! However, do you have a spare mech?"

    Ye Chong thought about it, and felt discouraged. "Ah, I only have the F-58. That white mech seems to have a grudge against ck Cove. If we meet again by ident, it will be disastrous! If it was not for the good terrainst time, it would probably be a lot riskier!"

    Mu said, "It seems that the probability of you performing any pilot training is zero!" Ye Chong felt that Mu was definitely taking pleasure in his misfortune.

    Ye Chong suddenly brightened up. "How about if I go for the NR Training Center?"

    Mu disagreed. "The NR Training Center is incapable of granting you further improvement! What youck now is experience in actualbat. However realistic the virtual may feel like, it is iparable to engaging in reality!"

    Ye Chong groaned. "Actualbat? There¡¯s nothing I can do about that!"

    Without his training routine, Ye Chong felt idle most of the time. Mu suggested that he go out more often, since Ye Chong was still far from fully integrating into society, and many of his thoughts were still too different from the average person¡¯s!

    Grandpa Qian agreed with the idea that Ye Chong should explore the outside world more,menting that he looked the very opposite of lively, and should leave the house for a while every day. He even generously offered Ye Chong some zuan credits as allowance!

    Thus, Ye Chong went out to the streets under the support of both Mu and Grandpa Qian.

    Unlikest time, where Ye Chong had the very definitive aim of obtaining his identity card when he went outside, this time it was purely for leisure. Ye Chong stood outside the main door, unable to decide where to head to first. Should he turn left? Or right? Or just walk straight ahead?

    The observant Grandpa Qian noticed Sun Xuelin and Xiu some distance ahead, and greeted them loudly, "Xuelin!"

    Sun Xuelin looked towards the direction of the voice, saw Grandpa Qian, and immediately grabbed Xiu along to meet the old man. "Good day, Grandpa Qian!" Xiu also greeted demurely, "Good day, Grandpa Qian!" Grandpa Qianughed in delight, "Hehe, today Xiu took the initiative to greet me first, what a rare asion!" Xiu immediately blushed in a cherry shade.

    Grandpa Qian asked the two, "Are you going out for a walk?"

    Sun Xuelin replied, "Yes, would grandpa like us to get you anything?"

    Grandpa Qian smiled. "Oh no, but Ye has since only arrived at Blue Ocean for a short while, and he¡¯s still unfamiliar with the ce. If you¡¯re heading out for a walk, can you bring Ye with you? Besides, you¡¯re of the same age, he should be goodpany!" Grandpa Qian dragged the awkwardly standing Ye Chong over to the girls.

    Sun Xuelin answered readily, "Sure! No problem, leave it to us!" She had been extremely curious about Ye all this while. Now that the opportunity presented itself, there was no reason for her to reject it.

    On the other hand, Xiu watched curiously at Ye Chong from behind Xuelin.

    Ye Chong still wore a in expression.

    Grandpa Qian was overjoyed. "That¡¯s great! Then I leave it to you! Ye, you go along with them and have fun!"

    Ye Chong acknowledged with an "Okay," since he had no idea where to go himself. Having a guide familiar with the area was not a bad idea, since he would then also be able to observe how normal people live their lives!

    The trio walked along side by side.

    Ye Chong watched the asional mechs flying over him, filled with envy. It was a pity that he had a mech but was unable to use it. The fact soured his mood.

    Ye Chong did not take the initiative to speak, and Sun Xuelin, feeling that the situation was getting awkward, spoke up to ease the tension. "Ye, is your real name also Ye?"

    Ye Chong formed a short and firm reply, "Ye Chong!" No words came from him after that.

    Since Ye Chong kept silent, Sun Xuelin continued, "I¡¯m called Sun Xuelin, this here is Xiu!" Sun Xuelin braced through the introductions.

    "Mm, I know!" Ye Chong replied.

    Just as Sun Xuelin was beginning to run out of ideas, the usually timid Xiu made her move. "Ye, where are you from?"

    "Er," Ye Chong almost continued with "trash", but stopped himself just in time and quickly asked Mu in his mind, "Mu, where am I from?"

    Mu replied, "Your identity card indicates that your origin is Richie."

    Being superficial, Ye Chong replied calmly, "Richie!"

    "Richie?" The two girls shook their heads at that, since they had never heard of it. There were countlesss in the gxy, and a vast number ofs in the five main gxies were inhabited. Unless one was a specialised researcher inary geography, the average person would not know the names of many inhabiteds.

    What Sun Xuelin would like to know the most was the condition of Ye Chong¡¯s mech. However, she was unsure of how to approach the subject. She had initially nned to get familiar with him by chatting before asking him about it, but she did expect Ye Chong to be a man of few words.

    Of course, she was not aware that if she had asked Ye Chong in a direct manner, the man would have probably answered her straight.

    "I can¡¯t believe this guy is so simple-minded!" Sun Xuelin thought with outrage.

    In reality, no one could not me Ye Chong for this. Ye Chong would only show his more casual side to Mu. He could not do so Grandpa Qian, much less someone he was unfamiliar with like Sun Xuelin and Xiu!

    Ye Chong observed the people on the streets. They all seemed very calm,cking the vignce and hostility that wild animals show against an unfamiliar entity entering their territory. They also do not seem aggressive. "Hmm, it seems that the living principles of the mutants on the trash are not suited here after all. I¡¯ll have to be more wary in future" Ye Chong thought.

    Suddenly, the three noticed a hugemotion up ahead!

 Chapter 63 - An Unexpected Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 63: An Unexpected Reunion</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sun Xuelin pulled Xiu along and rushed towards themotion.

    Ye Chong frowned, as he was not fond of situations like this. It was too noisy, and the crowd was too dense, such that his area of movement was more restricted. It would also be more difficult for him to have a good grasp of the situation around him.

    Ye Chong knitted his brows, but still followed the two into the crowd.

    In the center of themotion, an old man was knocked onto the ground, his belongings scattered about. A middle-aged man was hurling angry words at the old man, "You old geezer, are you blind? This suit of mine costsgold zuan! Can you pay for it if you had damaged it? Look, it¡¯s all wrinkled now, it¡¯ll cost a few hundred zuan to fix it!" The man gave a look of disdain at the elderly. "Look at your pitifully poor self, I guess you can¡¯t really pay for it. Hmph, I¡¯ll count myself unlucky today. What a blind old fool!" The man was all stuck-up and arrogant.

    Sun Xuelin was the first to respond, as she pointed furiously at the middle-aged man and retaliated, "You¡¯ve gone too far, how can you spew those useless words when you¡¯ve knocked down an old man? That¡¯s enough, if you speak again I¡¯ll teach you a real lesson! Hmph!" Sun Xuelin rolled up her sleeves, ready to act true to her words.

    Xiu went to the old man and helped him up with some difficulty. She carefully brushed off dust from the old man¡¯s body and asked softly, "Grandpa, are you alright?" The elderly was grateful for her help. "I¡¯m alright, little miss, thank you!" Xiu returned a mellow smile.

    "You little b*tch, how dare you speak to me like that, didn¡¯t your elders teach you some basic manners? Hmph, I can tell that you¡¯re just as despicable! Hmph, let me tell you -"

    Sun Xuelin was absolutely ballistic, her fists wrapped tighter and tighter. Xiu quickly went to cate her before she went berserk. If a fight took ce, they would not be in a good position in the face of thew.

    The middle-aged man was pleased to see Sun Xuelin holding herself back. "Hehe¡­ Little miss, let me tell you -"

    Their confrontation was not noticed by Ye Chong, as he waspletely distracted by a tiny holographic case on the ground.

    Perhaps the term "case" would confuse one of its actual size, since the case was only five millimeters square in area, small andpact. On its light purple surface was a pattern of two lines spiralling around each other like a corkscrew, and its two sides were slightly depressed inwards. A pinhole was located at the front side, which projected multicoloured light rays that formed a semi-transparent person. The projection was very realistic, and looked like a miniature version of the old man. Holographic cases were usually used to record certain events and were more expensive than memory chips. They were alsomonly used formemorative purposes.

    However, what caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention was not the case itself, but the report that was currently being made by the miniature old man.

    "Regarding the photon processor¡¯s design, I hadbined Fairfax¡¯s annuli and short pulse photon circuits. About this idea, I should mention that I¡¯ve met a young friend on the virtual who suggested thisbination, and thus inspired me to ¡­" This was obviously a report during an academic conference.

    Wasn¡¯t thebination of Fairfax¡¯s annuli and short pulse photon circuits a method that Grandpa Xu specialised in? He had even meticulously exined the idea to Ye Chong before. Could this be Grandpa Xu? Ye Chong could not help but scrutinise the old man before him, and find that the old man looked a little simr to Grandpa Xu.

    Ye Chong came forward and tested his idea, "Grandpa Xu?"

    The old man froze. "You are?" Old Xu looked at the young man before him. Usually, those who knew him called him Old Xu or Professor Xu, while only those who were his rtives or younger family members of his friends called him Grandpa Xu. However, the person before him was a stranger. Could he be a grandson of one of his friends?

    Ye Chong knew from his expression that his guess was not wrong. He continued excitedly, "Grandpa Xu, it¡¯s me, Little Y, YC, do you remember me? That Little Y from Aurora!"

    "YC! He¡¯s YC!" Sun Xuelin was bursting with anger and nearly went berserk earlier, but she quieted down upon hearing Ye Chong¡¯s revtion. Xiu covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes filled with disbelief. The two girls were stupefied, and exchanged a nce of obvious joy. Ye Chong waspletely absorbed in meeting Grandpa Xu that he missed their odd reaction. However, even if he did not, he would not have thought it was rted to him.

    Grandpa Xu was also astonished, and grabbed Ye Chong¡¯s hands tightly with emotion. "Little Y? You¡¯re Little Y? That¡¯s wonderful! That¡¯s wonderful!" Grandpa Xu was overwhelmed, such that he got a little repetitive in his words. Ye Chong gave a bashful smile! Grandpa Xu immediately recognised that smile and became more assured of his identity!

    Sun Xuelin and Xiu, on the other hand, looked as though they had seen a ghost - they did not think it was possible to see an expression like that on Ye Chong¡¯s face. Their faces now were undoubtedly more expressive than Ye Chong¡¯s.

    The middle-aged man noticed that Ye Chong seemed to be familiar with the old man, and an idea came to his mind. He shamelessly pronounced, "Ha, you old geezer, you messed up my top-of-the-line outfit that¡¯s worth five golden zuan, better pay up now!"

    Ye Chong purposely ignored the middle-aged man and gripped Grandpa Xu¡¯s arms to support him. "Grandpa Xu, let¡¯s go!" Grandpa Xu nodded. "Mm, let¡¯s go!" Sun Xuelin and Xiu supported the old man from the other side.

    The middle-aged man grew anxious as they were about to leave, and made a grab for Ye Chong. "No can do, you can¡¯t just walk away like that, you gotta pay me back first. Let me tell you, I¡¯m a man of status ¡­"

    Before the middle-aged man could get to Ye Chong, Ye Chong made his move!

    With a slight move, Ye Chong sped onto the man¡¯s throat. As he was about to move in for the kill, Mu anxiously reminded him, "Don¡¯t! Ye!"

    Ye Chong paused. Fortunately, Ye Chong now had better control over his strength, or the man would have definitely lost his life.

    Ye Chong was confused. "Mu, what is it?"

    Mu replied, "Based on my information,killing on the streets would vite the localw, and you¡¯ll be heavily pursued!"

    "Oh,w? What¡¯s that?"

    "Rules that humans create for their society!"

    "Oh, but has that got to do with me? I still don¡¯t really get it!"

    "It¡¯splicated, but this is obviously not a good time to discuss it!"

    "Alright, we¡¯ll talk about itter, but what do I do now?"

    "Based on my information, threatening is not a bad option! Based on theories in social psychology, your opponent is obviously shocked. With an appropriate level of threatening, the probability of ending this altercation will be over 92%."

    "Threatening it is! I¡¯ll try it out!"

    The crowd noticed a sh of movement before Ye Chong¡¯s right hand was sped tightly on the middle-aged man¡¯s throat. The man felt the pressure and struggled desperately with his mouth gasping for air. The spectators also gasped in astonishment.

    Ye Chong quietly whispered into the man¡¯s ear, "If you don¡¯t let this go, I¡¯ll kill you!" His tone was light, as if he was only saying something mundane.

    The middle-aged man wed at his throat and coughed incessantly. He was obviously in pain, unable to utter a single word, and his eyes glowed with terror. Ye Chong¡¯s words were like a chilling breeze in winter, and he felt like a naked man in the wind, shivering despite being clothed.

    Suddenly, there was amotion amongst the spectating crowd, and someone shouted, "The police are here!" "Thank goodness, the police are finally here!"

 Chapter 64 - Ji Shangyan

    <h4>Chapter 64: Ji Shangyan</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    His reunion with Grandpa Xu was a joyful matter, but Ye Chong did not expect the reunion to be under such circumstances. The police officer who came to the scene was Fei, who came to find Ye Chong at Grandpa Qian¡¯s house earlier. Fei noticed the finger marks on the middle-aged man¡¯s throat and immediately came up with some excuse to get the man out of the area. "Just get this settled fast, who knows when the guy would go crazy? That¡¯ll be my field day!" thought the Inspector sarcastically.

    Grandpa Xu was more uptight with Sun Xuelin and Xiu, but far more casual with Ye Chong. They asionally discussed academic problems, and this reminded Ye Chong of his days at Aurora.

    However, once he was outdoors, Ye Chong resumed his dullposure.

    Blue Ocean was an economically and technologically advanced with a poption of six hundred million. Its society championed openness and freedom, and the offered abundant natural resources. These were the reasons the was coveted as an ideal home by its many inhabitants.

    Jesha, where Ye Chong stayed, was one of the threergest zones on Blue Ocean, and also the most prosperous of the three.

    It was alreadyte when Ye Chong returned to Grandpa Qian¡¯s house. After finishing his work, Ye Chong returned to his room. He believed in the need to understand more about the society he lived in, as there were many things here that contradicted his principles. The sooner he could understand this society, the better and easier he could live within it. Without a doubt, Mu was his only teacher for the task.

    Ye Chong began by asking, "Mu, let¡¯s continue our topic this morning! What do you mean byw?"

    Mu replied, "Based on my information, it will be easier for you to understand thew as rules set by the strongest members of society!"

    "The strongest members? Stronger than me?"

    Mu kept his tone light, but condescension was positively radiating from his choice of words. "Based on my information, the gap between your strengths is almost as wide as the universe itself!"

    Ye Chong changed his tack. "If I had killed that man today, what would happen to me?"

    Mu replied, "Based on the Blue Ocean Penal Code, Article 11, a convicted murderer would face up to forty years of prison life, and if the act of murder was atrocious, the murderer could be sentenced to death!"

    Ye Chong frowned. "Who¡¯re thew executors?"

    "Based on Blue Ocean safety measures, all police officers, military officers and safety department personnel have the right to pursue and capture vitors of thew, while all members of the public are obligated to assist in the capture!"

    Fortunately, Ye Chong knew his own strength, and was not arrogant enough to believe that he was the best amongst the rest. With so many against him, it would not take the strongest to defeat him, as even the average person could take him down. Ye Chong was beginning to understand the risks behind acts of violence! However, he was also quick to notice a problem. "What is I did it discreetly?"

    Mu replied, "Based on my information, if they do not discover evidence for your act of murder, you will not be sentenced for any punishment."

    "Evidence?"

    "Objects, witnesses or other things that can prove your crime!"

    "So, if I am careful enough, and they could not obtain any evidence, does that mean I¡¯ll be beyond thew?"

    "You¡¯re right up to a certain level, but I must remind you, they have quite a few practical and brilliant methods up their sleeves. The probability of them discovering your activities cannot be ignored."

    "Oh, so it¡¯s actually a matter of a battle of strength?"

    "You¡¯re right up to a certain level ¡­"

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Ji Shangyan was happily humming a little tune, as he deftly maneuvered his jaw-droppingly expensive mech. "Ji Shangyan" may sounds like a feminine name, but he was undeniably male. However, his gender-neutral appearance was often mistaken for a female¡¯s. His silvery white hair framed a pair of enchanting blue eyes, and his gentle smile had bewitched a great many fair maidens.

    Ji Shangyan¡¯s mech was painted mostly in alternating blues and greys, with a few importantponents emphasized in gold. The hull was streamlined, with a dimmed shade of blue that gave it a demure quality, and a silver hue that made the mech look sturdier. The slightly protruding chest of the mech was a sign of reinforced armor, emanating a steady and calm presence.

    Ji Shangyan¡¯s mech piloting skills were apudable, as was demonstrated by his nimble traversal amongst the buildings in Jesha.

    If he seeded in his visit to Old Xu this time, he would have rendered great service. However, it seemed that Old Xu was difficult to approach! What should he do? Ji Shangyan rubbed between his eyebrows in vexation, as he still did not have a workable n. His eldest brother was rejectedst time, and passed the task to him. No matter what, he must find a way to convince Old Xu. If one trip was not enough, he would visit again and again.

    Old Xu was alone at home. Since his partner¡¯s passing, and with theck of any children, he was now all alone. The emptiness in his house and his life did not leave him unaffected. His engagement in research had helped, but he did not expect to achieve a breakthrough in his field inter years and gain prominence. However, he was getting old and weathered nowadays!

    His photon processor signalled the arrival of a guest. Through the processor¡¯s holographic images, Elder Xu saw an unfamiliar and charming young man. This was not someone he recognized, and Elder Xu grew suspicious!

    Through the visitor¡¯s inte, Elder Xu asked, "Who¡¯re you looking for?" A device right outside the main door of his house projected his image before the entrance.

    Ji Shangyan observed the image and decided, based on his intel, that it must be the target of his visit, Elder Xu. Ji Shangyan replied respectfully, "You must be Professor Xu. I¡¯m Ji Shangyan, and I¡¯ve been to a few of your talks. I was wondering if I could have your advice on a few matters regarding mechs!"

    "Oh," Elder Xu hesitated in thought. Visitors with academic intentions weremon, but they were mostly past their forties. This was the first time Elder Xu encountered someone as young as him.

    "Ji Shangyan?" Elder Xu seemed to realize something. "Your surname is Ji?"

    Ji Shangyan felt his heart skipped a beat, and knew that things were turning sour, but he still braced himself and replied affirmatively. "Yes!"

    "You¡¯re a member of the Ji Family?" Elder Xu¡¯s expression twisted.

    Ji Shangyan cursed on the inside, and kept silent.

    Elder Xu continued indifferently, "The Ji family, enough with your demands, there¡¯s no need to waste any more time on this, I will never cooperate with you. Just give up now!" Elder Xu ignored Ji Shangyan and terminatedmunication. His projection vanished before Ji Shangyan¡¯s eyes.

    It seemed that his eldest brother had really offended Elder Xust time. However, what troubled Ji Shangyan the most was that the older man had his loathing against his brother extended towards the entire Ji family. This made his task of convincing Elder Xu to work with the Ji family that much more difficult!

    After a moment¡¯s thought, Ji Shangyan produced hism device and spoke to the person on the receiving end, "You all better keep Old Xu under tight surveince. I want his daily activities and whereabouts, and a list of the people he gets in touch with. And get their identities and addresses, understand? Do not ck! I want all the details, remember, all of it!" Ji Shangyan was out of ideas, and could only resort to surveince for the moment.

    After disconnecting hism device, Ji Shangyan continued his miserable pondering - what can he do to convince Elder Xu?

 Chapter 65 - Ye Chongâ€™s Philosophy

    <h4>Chapter 65: Ye Chong¡¯s Philosophy</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Nowadays, whenever Ye Chong was on the virtual, he did not just frequent Aurora in Gutista and the NR Training Center. Instead, he began to explore further. He had decided topletely understand the strange world around him. Ye Chong understood that survival in some locations are dependent on one¡¯s understanding of the area. The more one understood, the easier life would be.

    His daily conversations with Mu increased his understanding of things. Recently, he spent more time outdoors, since he grew fond of observing passersbys on the streets. While they were not Ye Chong¡¯s prey, he still treated them as though they were prey - he examined them through a hunter¡¯s eye, carefully examining the people around him, observing their actions, habits, behaviors, physical conditions and so on.

    As Ye Chong continued his observation, his understanding of his surroundings began to deepen.

    While he had nned to visit Grandpa Xu today, his job mattered more. Ye Chong understood that Grandpa Xian¡¯s little business could not support his stay, but there is more to living than making money. Is that not so? Grandpa Xian made him feel at home, and this was not something any amount of gold zuan could buy for him. While Ye Chong did not think of himself as highly intelligent, this was something he could still understand.

    Ye Chong kneaded the dough with vigour, as the flour mixture twisted and folded under his strength. Ye Chong had improved his skill, thanks to the increasingly refined control of his strength. The noodles he made had a distinct taste, and were definitely one of a kind.

    Now, if only he could have one more mech - even a Raven would do - and life would be perfect!

    Sun Xuelin and Xiu came to see him.

    The two waited patiently until he was done with his work beforeing up to him. Sun Xuelin grabbed Xiu along, and began with a tiny voice, "Ye ¡­"

    Ye Chong gave the two an expressionless look. "What is it?"

    Sun Xuelin flustered at his apathy, and continued mumbling, "Ye ¡­ Ye ¡­"

    Ye Chong continued staring at them. Xiu did not even dare to raise her head. Sun Xuelin grew more nervous. "Ye ¡­ We ¡­ We¡¯d like to ask for you help!"

    "Help?" Ye Chong frowned.

    His words unexpectedly calmed Sun Xuelin. "Do you know how to modify mechs?"

    "A bit!" Ye Chong replied.

    Sun Xuelin continued, "Mm, we¡¯d like to ask for your help. Our school is having the MP Games [1] next week, and there¡¯s a section where a mech modification technician is needed. I¡¯d like to ask for your help!"

    "Ask for my help?" Ye Chong looked at the duo.

    Oddly, against Ye Chong¡¯s t stare, Sun Xuelin grew anxious again. "Yes, we¡¯d like to ask for your help!"

    Ye Chong gave it a thought before answering, "Oh, sure, but I charge 1,250 zuan per hour!"

    Sun Xuelin was stupefied, but quickly turned furious. "You, you ¡­ Are you charging for helping out? You, you ¡­ I didn¡¯t think you were someone like this! Hmph, I guess we¡¯re wrong about you!" She spoke in pure disdain. Xiu also lifted her gaze towards Ye Chong in astonishment, obviously surprised by his reaction.

    Against the duo¡¯s expressions, Ye Chong frowned a little. "What did I do wrong this time?" Ye Chong had actually offered to charge at half the market rate, since he did not actually have a modification technician¡¯s license.

    Ye Chong asked in his mind, "Mu, I thought a fair deal was one of the most basic rules?"

    Mu replied, "Based on my information, you¡¯re absolutely right. However, most people believe that charging a friend when helping them is disgraceful!"

    Ye Chong was confused. "Are they my friends?"

    Mu had no intention of helping him on this one. "That is for you to decide!"

    Ye Chong decisively announced, "Of course not!" Friends? What a joke, we¡¯re not even that familiar with them. No matter how I see it, they were not friends! And if they were not friends, then charging for my service was reasonable. What¡¯s so strange about that?

    Since he did notmit any mistakes, Ye Chong had no intention of further discussion. He gave the two a t look and dered, "You¡¯re wee to leave!" before turning his back to them.

    Sun Xuelin paled in anger, and dragged Xiu along and left.

    The conflict did not affect Ye Chong in the slightest. After greeting Grandpa Qian, he began his leisurely stroll to the streets. Ye Chong was not as dazed as he was before on the streets. Instead, he now feltfortable; people-watching had be a great hobby of his, one that he found to be quite interesting.

    Grandpa Xu¡¯s ce was some distance away from Grandpa Qian¡¯s little shop. If he kept at his speed, the trip would take too long. Ye Chong decidedly picked up his pace and began running. He did not run too fast, for he was no longer as ignorant as before to understand that his speed was simply too incredible whenpared to the average person! The first engulfer to attract attention gets the death sentence - this was a truth that Ye Chong understood. "Ah, if I have a mech to use I wouldn¡¯t need to walk!" Ye Chong felt dispirited as he recalled the white mech. It was a pity that he only had a training mech. If he had a ck Cove war mech, Ye Chong was certain that he could definitely finish off his opponent!

    If Mu agreed to help him, Ye Chong believed that the white mech would not stand a chance. However, Mu had been insistent in his refusal, and Ye Chong felt odd about his reaction!

    Ye Chong leisurely ran on the streets, his breathing rhythmic and entirely unaffected. This level of exertion was nothing to Ye Chong. His strange physique was something that puzzled even Mu, but Ye Chong did not feel that he was in any way abnormal. The way he saw it, since it was something beneficial, it did not matter if he did not understand why!

    Grandpa Xu¡¯s house was getting nearer, just around the corner. Thest time Elder Xu hyperlinked to the virtual, he had spread the news of YC¡¯s whereabouts on Blue Ocean to his other oldpanions. They were at once jealous and envious of Elder Xu, and a few of them even proimed to visit Blue Ocean one day to see Ye Chong. As for the few who were already residing on Blue Ocean, but in other zones, they had offered their addresses to Ye Chong and invited him to visit anytime.

    Ye Chong feltfortable with the academic atmosphere during his discussion with Grandpa Xu, and he relished it. The thought of meeting with Grandpa Xu soon made him a little excited.

    Mu suddenly spoke up to Ye Chong when he was heading straight towards Grandpa Xu¡¯s house. "Ye, careful, stay away! There are four mechs monitoring the area! There¡¯s also another person, probably themander."

    Ye Chong felt a chill down his spine, and asked frantically, "Where?" Ye Chong did not change his pace, and walked pass Grandpa Xu¡¯s house like any other passerby, never slowing down.

    Mu replied, "There¡¯s one at the top of the highrise on the opposite side of the road, and another two at 120 degrees from the first one. There¡¯s also someone in the highrise directly opposite of Grandpa Xu¡¯s house, on the twenty first floor. This one¡¯s probably themander!" "Themander, I must get rid of him first, and do so without alerting the rest, or riskplications!" Ye Chong assessed the situation.

    Ye Chong thought with contempt, "Hmph, are these people looking for trouble with Grandpa Xu? Probably so! Hmm, no matter how you look at it, they¡¯re definitely here with ill intentions! And if they¡¯re here with ill intentions, then ¡­"

    Ye Chong continued running leisurely, calmly, with all signs of normalcy.

    When he reached the tall building directly opposite Grandpa Xu¡¯s house, Ye Chong came to a stop and entered the building.

    Ye Chong found a self-service inquiry photon processor in the corner of the main reception, pretending to look up some information. Two secondster, Mu had already hacked into the photon processor.

    The original image on the screen suddenly vanished, reced by the building¡¯splete structural schematics. The surveincemander was on the twenty first floor, Room 065. Mu had also indicated the locations of all the surveince devices. The building¡¯s surveince system was fairlyplete, with arge coverage area and very few blind spots. To enter the building discretely would not be an easy task.

    Ye Chong clearly remembered the idea of evidence as Mu once described. He asked, "Mu, if I¡¯m recorded in the system, can you wipe them out?"

    "Based on avable information, the sess rate is above 97 percent!" Mu sounded exceedingly confident.

    Ye Chong considered the situation. "Then if I can wipe out all my records before they notice, does it mean that they won¡¯t figure out who did it?"

    Mu replied after a moment, "Based on my calctions, there¡¯s a 79 percent probability that they would not notice you, but there is still another 21 percent probability of finding you out through other means."

    After some pondering, Ye Chong decided, "If that¡¯s the case, then we¡¯ll make the first move. We¡¯ll not wait for them toe to us, but get to them first!" Ye Chong had no concept of striking after an opponent¡¯s move; since he had confirmed the opponent¡¯s hostility, he would not hesitate to act. His words were filled with confidence and dominance - Ye Chong was like a wild beast ready to put on a fight!

    Mu had no objections to his n!

    After deciding on the course of action, Ye Chong began his move.

    He moved quickly to the twenty first floor, and came before the door of Room 065. The door was well secured, and while Ye Chong was confident he could break through this particr type of alloy metal, the act would alert the room¡¯s inhabitant. With the enemy alerted, his position would bepromised, and Ye Chong doubted he could best four mechs surrounding him at once. He must eliminate the person in the room first, in order to greatly reduce the probability of him being surrounded and attacked.

    The problem was, how could he eliminate this person without alerting the other four?

    Note:

    [1] MP Games: Mech Pilots¡¯ Games is an event like sports day, but for mech pilots

 Chapter 66 - I Love Assassination

    <h4>Chapter 66: I Love Assassination</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Slender had his eyes fixed on the security camera. His sight wafted through the hologram in the monitor, of an image projecting the amodation of that old man Xu. He observed meticulously. He was trying his very best to discern the appearance of every passerby near Xu¡¯s ce, especially those who happened to be in that old man¡¯s proximity, just to identify if they were knitted together. He was devoted and held initiatives towards his job. He knew that the authority assigned him to this job instead of others because of such good nature he had.

    I¡¯ll find those nasty rats out, by then, I¡¯ll-

    A hand covered his mouth out of the blue. Stiffness had skimmed down his neck before he could react. Sshes of blood gushed out from him. Are those my old blood? No¡­ No way¡­ Slender was horrified as he struggled, wriggling helplessly through the cold hand gripping him like a wrench. I can¡¯t die! I can¡¯t die just yet! He bawled in his mind but he was already losing control of his body by that moment.

    The stiffness strangling his neck remained like a freezing breeze, slowly consuming his stamina as he bled profusely. Oozes of pain blinded him, as he went unconscious and finally stopped moving soon after.

    Not till he was utterly dead Ye Chong would be letting the man go.

    He tossed Slender to the ground.

    He turned away and was going to run, yet¡­ That door is such a nuisance. It was a problem for Ye Chong because it was made out of metal and he could not simply break a metallic door without rming anyone in the building. Fortunately, the white wall before him prompted some ideas. It was a wall of thermosticposite, having a thickness about 10 centimeters and an effective noise absorber. It is only thicker than the heavy metallic door by 2 to 3 centimeters but way better. Who doesn¡¯t like walls with noise absorption property? Especially strong ones like this. Ites in handy.

    Firstly, he went downstairs to the lobby and had set security cameras in all 21 floors of the building to sleep mode. Of course, such a tech-savvy task would be of Mu¡¯s responsibility. He then returned to Room 065 at the highest floor.

    The dagger which Gu Shaoze gave Ye Chong as a gift had never left his body since then.

    He pulled out the dagger and measured the thickness inparison to the wall. Thup! A stab into the wall. He had to admit that the noise-absorbing ability of the thermosticposite wall was outstanding. Not even the slightest sound was heard when heunched that dagger of his. It was rather sturdy too considering that Ye Chong took quite a lot of effort to fully insert the dagger.

    The highest floor waspletely off-limits it seemed, probably a special request from the dead man, judging by how there was literally nobody else in the walkway. Fantastic! That was an additional advantage for Ye Chong¡¯s escape.

    Ugh! Ugh¡­

    He was slicing through the wallboriously as he would never want to alert anyone nearby with the screeches he could possibly make if he went too fast. He maintained his speed cautiously. He could feel the hardness of the wall gradually wearing off the strength of his hand. Oh the amount of friction on his palm! It was tough. Throughout the process, the swishes made by his dagger could be faintly heard. Ye Chong was very confident that if he were to stay farther from the wall, he would hear nothing.

    I swear I would never use thermosticposite for my walls when I build my house in future; I would be killed in my sleep before I even wake up with such security it offers.

    The pressure on the dagger had lifted. Yes! Ye Chong was excited. All he needed was a gentle push to the piece he cut off to the front. Wait! Wait! Wait! He ran to catch the falling piece before itnded with a loud thump. The person in the room before him was still facing his back to Ye Chong. It seemed like he did not alert anyone in there. Phew! He sighed.

    Okay, now to the second task in the list¡­

    He walked by the fainted man. His eyes were more interested in the monitor on the table than some dead man lying on the floor. He fiddled with the settings on the monitor, trying to get something.

    There was no time for him to look through the directory. Time was precious. He pressed a few buttons and ejected the microchip. He slid the chip into his pocket and began frisking the slender guy on the floor. A few belongings he believed to contain the man¡¯s identity were stolen.

    Ye Chong rushed downstairs and hit the lobby again. This time he deleted all his involvement off the record at the self-service processor as soon as he arrived.

    He exited the building and warped F-58 out from the alternate dimension.

    He observed thewn outside the foundation as he plotted another round of trespassing. The Hawkeye, a model of mech specialized for reconnaissance, had a diminutive bodypared to other models, of a mere length about 6 meters, coated with a unique kind of painting, which changed its color ording to surroundings, allowing effective camouge. The killer feature of the Hawkeye was the pair of "antennas" on its head stranding to the back, which tremendously boosts its scope of scanning and capacity of impulse-receiving. It also came with an extremely powerful scanning and anti-detection system. High mobility, great speed and overwhelming length of battery life offered by its exclusive battery, though in return it had to sacrifice its durability. To fit in the battery, the armor had to be much thinner. With suchckluster thickness, one hit would finish the machine off. There was not much of possibility for it to fight back too, considering its weak firepower.

    Wow this dude actually uses a reconnaissance model to watch his ce. What a pimp!

    Mumbled Ye Chong.

    F-58 lurked like a jaguar on its hunt as it coveted its prey in darkness. It was undeniable that the F-58 got the upper hand in this situation. A mere training mech model it might be, it still had a more superior anti-detection system. The rm did not go off as it moved. They were undetected the whole time.

    Ye Chong raised a spear. Well, a maic sword that sets off frequency would be bad for a sneak-attack. Imagine if he were to brandish that cool sword towards one of the machines that fell prey to his assassination, due to the reflective nature of mech armors, the frequency would be easily bounced everywhere and all mechs and aircrafts in the vicinity would immediately detect Ye Chongmitting a crime there. In the next moment, before he knew it, he would be bombarded by 3 other mechs. Another session of fast and furious awaited.

    He never desired an overkill with a Hawkeye, which was tantly a weakling in front of the mighty F-58. Its inability to even detect F-58 with its so-called "advanced" scanning system had already justified everything, even ayman could tell which mech would win in the first 10 seconds. So what Ye Chong pondered about was a way to knock the Hawkeye out without being detected and giving them a chance to notify the others.

    Assassination. Oh assassination, one true hobby Ye Chong adored. The passion increased the likelihood of sess in the operation this time. He would get it over with by hook or by crook, as long as it would add up to the sess rate of his operation.

    The left hand of F-58 snapped the neck of the Hawkeye while the spear in its right pierced the cabin. It was a spear with a diameter beyond 30 centimeters. Any man could be dead even by minimal contact. That pathetic armor of Hawkeye could barely hold up Ye Chong¡¯s spear as it shredded like paper upon the stab. That doesn¡¯t nail it. Ye Chong was not ending yet. He tore away the shattered armor at the cabin and he saw the murdered man inside. He felt much relieved as he stealthy ced the mech at a corner of the rooftop.

    Ye Chong would break his neck to assassinate. No pun intended. But it was not his, rather the other man¡¯s. And he loved it. He loved the moment when the neck snapped in his bare hand in a nice crack. It was such a strange sensation. One move and that is all it took. Nothing else would be needed. People would be dead without doing anything funny. No sound, no drama, no struggle. Straightforward, hassle-free.

    Okay that¡¯s the second Hawkeye snapped. Now to thest two mechs at the corners.

    It was also a Hawkeye at one corner. Ye Chong was shocked. Wow! Did he literally set off 3 mechs specially for reconnaissance on an old man like Grandpa Xu? Most people would assume Hawkeye as another random scouting machinery but that was not the point! Ye Chong knew it deeply, it would certainly cost an arm and a leg for a specialized mech like Hawkeye, just like how the Sand Scorpio he once used was much more expensive than the Gold Wheat despite its less-pleasant lookpared to the Gold Wheat to the public.

    And right beside thest Hawkeye was a Karl, which was notorious for its crude design - a height about 16 meters, twice as high as the F-58 and had twice the amount of parts as most of the mechs. In addition, its shield with a height of 10 meters waved like moving gigantic walls ofbyrinth, suffocating indeed, not to mention how Karl wielded both of them. I wonder how people find Karl whenever they spotted one. Imagine an iron hunk of tower-height shoving a giant shield each in his hands. Wild, barbaric, monstrous, savage¡­ There was not much of a good word to describe. The firm dark green mechanical legs it had would move with a terrifying screech that gave goosebumps to anyone who heard it. It was obvious that no one would ever consider to give this colossus some anti-skid build. Its fate had been determined the day it was built with all the low quality and dirt cheap materials. It was born to be an enved fighter, the walking ashes in the warfield.

    The man who ced Karl and Hawkeye in a group probably just wanted Karl to be the tanker of his eyes. Oh wait, it should be the guardian of his eyes. Karl still held some values in this situation, assuming if they were attacked, Hawkeye could actually make its way out while Karl tried to buy more time holding back the intruders. Sadly, Karl¡¯s life was hardly a concern. A moving wall is a moving wall. If it crumbles, it just does. No one else would care.

    Ye Chong was rather impressed by the fact that the dead man coulde up with such a remarkablebination to shield against possible raids. The high defense of Karlbined with the powerful scanning system of Hawkeye. The eyes and the shield in one ce.

    Ye Chong sneaked towards the mechs.

    He was not expecting the hefty slow Karl to react this quickly! Karl turned his head as soon as Ye Chong started flying towards them. He instantly hid both Hawkeye and himself within the shields he raised. The 10 meter tall shield perfectly covered up the 6 meter tall Hawkeye.

    Karl did feel agitated but the pilot did not detect any hostility from the ck meching towards him. The speed had yet to be increased. It just travelled calmly to his direction. It looked more like a random passerby to him. Frankly speaking, he had been assuming that he was overreacting to anythinging in his sight thest few days. Those mechs he presumed to be a raider eventually just zoomed away in leisure. He did panic for numerous times at first but as time passed, he got used to his door-guard job and he lowered his guard.

    That shielding was out of subconsciousness.

    Must be overreacting again this time he thought. I mean who would simply dare to challenge the authority in the public? Especially when this ce belonged to the Ji Family. That¡¯s like going against God. Only fools would do it¡­ Yeah, I have a point¡­ He moved the shield away from Hawkeye bit by bit as he thought.

    Watching how sluggish the ck mech flew, the pilot snickered. Only greenhorns would fly like a derp in this speed! Maybe an absolute greenhorn in flights too!

    As much as he assumed, the ck mech then travelled clumsily towards the pilot, as if it was drunk.

    The pilotughed out loud upon seeing the poor execution by that ck mech. What a good chance for an extra entertainment! Today¡¯s show would be "Bullying the Noob"! He was unhappy when he was ordered to pilot the junky Karl these few days long. Only garbage would pilot a Karl. It is like a runner-up after another runner-up in the team, a member in the lineup forever. What an insult! But he could not spit it as it was an order from the authority. He stayed quiet and piloted Karl like a moody baby. However, things had changed! Now came a greenhorn to have fun with!

    The ck mech was inching towards Karl. Hah! That awkward movement! He almost fell a few times! The pilot feltughter rumbling in his stomach. That was so hrious! I just can¡¯t! He put up a look at that ck mech as if he was looking at his pet.

    A little bit more. Wait for it¡­ Get to me and we¡¯ll y!

 Chapter 67 - Black and White

    <h4>Chapter 67: ck and White</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s pupils shrunk on a whim!

    Time to elerate! Ye Chong¡¯s hands hovered over the control panel like a shroud of phantasm.

    The F-58 that acted goofy before had advanced in an overpowering speed towards Karl! As if it were on drugs, it charged with spear dazzling ferocity! The pilot in Karl saw his fear bing real gradually. The cold shine of death magnified in his quivering eyes!

    He was saved by the instinct he obtained from intensive training in the past, as he set his shield to the front immediately to protect him and his partner from fatal damages at any cost. There was scarcely time for him to collect his thoughts. His sense of protection just held his teammate up within his mech¡¯s right arm.

    A man who could still be thinking of his own mates at such a situation.

    Ye Chong was impressed.

    Heading towards the iron wall in no time, Ye Chong did not seem to be decelerating at all! A slide tilted and Ye Chong skied over the surface of the shield so smoothly as if the shield was lubricated.

    Karl who was behind the shield was confused. The expected crash was noting anytime soon. There was no pressure exerted onto the shield and the hands felt too light for an iing collision. Huh? A shadow came to the right of Karl. The slow giant was horrified, he could not manage to shift his heavy shield in time, he lifted his elbow towards himself from the strike.

    Hawkeye was too absorbed being the watchdog that the pilot only found the existence of the loophole by then. The raider had already sneaked through the iron shield! Hawkeye sent off an emergency signal right away! But there was no response! Hope had been sunken in the pilot of Hawkeye. Apparently his other mates were done for as well. No one could reach them. The raider must have nned thoroughly for this attack! Such resourcefulness! The thoughts sent chills down his spine, from the bottom right to the top of his head. He shuddered unwillingly. He gestured at Karl to call for cover-up on his escape. He would be running away at maximum speed as he believed he must stay alive to spread the words to the other grunts at the very least!

    He switched his engine on. Wham!

    He didn¡¯t make it. Before he wanted to make his next move, he felt as if he was crashed by a speeding mech. The agony in his body terrorized his remaining muscles. He shrieked seeing half of his body chopped off like hay in a cutter, blood spilling over the weapon like a gruesome graffiti. His head leaned to the side as he lost his consciousness which seemed to be never retrieved afterwards.

    Back when Karl arched his arm, F-58 took it like a lever andunched itself to the air. One somersault and the rarely used shield was finally put into use this time. The impact created from F-58¡¯s leap disabled Karl¡¯s movement temporarily. F-58 stomped on the groundnding and he swiftly sent the shield flying with a fling he made. The shield spun through the gap between Karl and the iron shield, all the way to the running Hawkeye. A critical hit!

    The edges of thepound metal shield were extremely honed, plus it flew under the immense strength of F-58¡¯s toss, the damage was greater than ever especially when Hawkeye¡¯s armor was pathetically weak. The shield pierced throughpletely like a slice to the apple. Crackles and splutters. The Hawkeye exploded. Having to witness the entire scene, the mechs that happened to be passing by in the air were horrified and nearly lost control.

    There was no more need to keep it down anymore. Ye Chong activated his maic sword, wanting to end the battle quickly and flee.

    Karl had not been making any movement since then, seemingly too astonished by the sudden explosion before him that he did not notice the approaching F-58.

    Well, aren¡¯t you prepared to die when you are prepared to daze off at such timing? Ye Chong could imagine Karl already dead in his mind, as he waved his maic sword like a ferocious serpent as its sting inched towards Karl for a deadly kiss. Ye Chong! A white light blinded Ye Chong as he heard Mu warning, "Look out!"

    Karl actually self-destructed? The explosion blew Ye Chong off far away. In a bewilderment, his eyes set upon the tiny dot in the sky. No! It wasn¡¯t a suicide! He erged the image obtained in the processor. Dammit! That was the white mech going after himst time. Ye Chong could not stop cursing, but it was not the time for that.

    The F-58 reached his hands for the ground to stabilize his bnce. Bang! He dodged in a tumble right away. I knew it! The attack had yet to be ended as another beam of light struck right before Ye Chong. The F-58 then set close to the floor and zigzagged to the rooftop as he picked up the shield on the way. The frisbee woulde in real handy now! He got to the top and jumped off from the building of 500 floors tall.

    The white mech chased behind, showing determination in getting Ye Chong real nailed this time!

    Dammit! Dammit! Ye Chong called himself in such bad luck of encountering this white mech at this very moment of all times they could have met.

    He set himself off into the urban jungle, weaving in between the buildings. That would have worked in the past. However, the white mech seemed to be going real in the hunt. The worst part of the scenario was it would appear that the white mech was aided by the police forces. The color blue, ck and white were the typical colors for police officers¡¯ mechs and none of theirs were of low-quality! Most of the mechs were either average or advanced. Under the assistance of police force, they cornered Ye Chong bit by bit.

    What could Ye Chong have done? Agitation seared his head. Puzzlement wet his face. "Mu." Themunicator of F-58 rang with a familiar voice, "I''m Johansson, do you hear me?" Ye Chong would love to respond but, "No time for words. There¡¯s a turning 100 meters in front of you. Meet there!" And he hung up. Gosh! Ye Chong¡¯s heart skipped a beat. So the ck Cove are finally getting their hands into this!

    He settled his mind and sped up straight. 100 meters were a brief distance to Ye Chong¡¯s speed. Any ce in that distance was not far-fetched to reach within a blink of an eye. Ye Chong¡¯s eyes focused on that very ck mech as soon as he arrived.

    This must be the war model of the ck Cove! That was the first time Ye Chong saw the exact machinery limited to the ck Covers right before his eyes. He had heard amazing stories about it. But I''ve never seen it, till today!

    The only impression flooding his thought then was - This is the coolest mech I''ve ever seen!

    Hideous! That would be thesting impression given to every person who had seen this mech. The well-proportioned body glossed in a dreamy darkness, a color inhibited the bloodthirsty will in it; the hooks on the slender wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and the head shed like the fangs of the demon lord debuting from the underworld; the scepter about a meter half at the right arm, along with the chains wrapped over which the endings were kept inside the mech - wondering what it actually could do.

    A maic sword kept at the crossing of its back. Came in a pair, about 3 meters long each.

    The armguard on its left was rather easily overlooked, which could be pretty good considering what the mech was made for. The sharp edges were hidden within the coat of ck paint. The ulterior of the legs had the same pair of scepters too, with the rising spikes installed at the heels. Well for the hidden firepower¡­ I couldn¡¯t tell how many shooting cartridges he hid.

    "Five." Enlightened Mu, "5 cartridges were hidden."

    An absolute killer machine! Ye Chong could not stopplimenting the machinery in his mind. Imagine with such firepower,bined with Johansson¡¯s rapid attacking skills - the destruction this mech could potentially create would be more than overwhelming! The apparent setup must not be it! There had to be more, considering it a mech from the ck Cove. It should have some other fearsome modifications not known by a nce! Terrifying. Unpredictable!

    Ye Chong shifted his view onto his own F-58. It was at the other extreme on a scale with the ck mech. It just felt so half-baked inparison with Johansson¡¯s war machine. If he were to have a duel with Johansson in a F-58, no matter how much more skillful he was than Johansson, he would lose inevitably.

    "Those men are from the association." Johansson spoke gravely, "And we are finishing them right here, together!"

    As nned, both of them took the sides of the crossing each. Hiding in darkness, Ye Chong tried to piece everything together in his mind. Association? Did he mean the FMPA? Wait, so the FMPA is actually the nemesis of ck Cove? Ever since he got out of the ck Cove, Ye Chong showed disdain towards the certification system in FMPA. The pilots certified by the so-called "association of the gxy" could hardly be called potent. Nevertheless, he never expected the day that he would be dumbfounded by someone from the FMPA. The super-advanced mechs that have been hunting me were all from the FMPA? The pilot inside that white mech might be inferior to Ye Chong¡¯s skills but was still way above the average "advanced pilots" holding fancy certificates in the field. He was from the FMPA too?

    How would the ck Cove be the enemy to the FMPA?

    It did not make sense to Ye Chong. "Here ites!" Johansson boomed. Everything happened so fast, Ye Chong simply did not have the leisure to go through the scenes again.

    The white mech gracefully emerged in the crossing at first, which the grace was lost upon seeing two mechs at the crossing awaiting for itsarrival. The white mech appeared to have flinched seeing Johansson¡¯s fearsome machine.

    "Do it!" Johansson shouted and pounced at the white mech straightaway. The speed was unlooked for to the white mech as it went easily a stage faster than F-58.

    The white mech calmed down fairly quick and backed off with dexterity a strange-looking gun in the hand aiming at Johansson.

    "You¡­ You!" Johansson¡¯s angry voice ran deep and profound.

 Chapter 68 - Getting Away with Murder

    <h4>Chapter 68: Getting Away with Murder</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong backed away, absconding from the scene!

    It¡¯s now or never. Ye Chong might have seemed foolish for not understanding the bread and butter of routine in humanity, although he was not utterly foolish. He snorted. He knew the situation well enough - if the white mech was ever annihted, he would be the next target in Johansson¡¯s eyes and would not stand a chance to even grapple! Thinking back about what had happened at the ck Cove, Ye Chong could smell the distinct danger in the air. His intuition was justified by Mu¡¯s analysis which suggested Johansson showing a hidden enmity. Well then, why should I stay back and be skewed when I can run?

    If only I have a proper mech, I would have¡­ hhnnggh!

    Ye Chong felt dejected for his helplessness.

    A stab for Johansson as a farewell gift? Ye Chong¡¯s mischievous mind feared the idea. Judging by the tone when Johansson spoke to him, anyone could have guessed Johansson¡¯s intention of dragging him back to the ck Cove. Johansson did not seem to be keen at murder. However, if only the white mech remained and Johansson actually wanted to get rid of him, it would be the same old bad ending he imagined in his mind¡­

    Ye Chong backed out right when Johansson shouted to initiate the attack, which left Johansson stupefied after pouncing at the white mech. "Why you little-" said Johansson angrily, yet he had better things to worry about, like his own safety. The white mech pointed the gun at Johansson.

    Ye Chong did not seem bothered because he was not aware of what that strange-looking gun in the white mech¡¯s hand was. Nheless, it was not the same for Johansson. He recognized the gun since he had been infiltrating the FMPA''s database the moment he got his own war machine. He had read through the profiles of his nemesis.

    The white mech is known elegantly as the "Messenger" - as angelic as it may sound, it is amonly used unmodified mechs among the aces of the FMPA.

    And that gun, known as "Javelin Angel-V", is the true original weapon used by the experts in the association, named after the semicircle curving over the body like wings, glossing in fair pearl white like an angel. It looks more like an art than a killing weapon.

    A .20 caliber gun might seem too minuscule to do anything to a mech of 10 meters tall. However, the caliber does not matter, but what it fires does. It would be a total different oue providing that if it fires nano waves. Calcted based on the Thomson¡¯sw, the nano waves could effortlessly devastate the whole fifty-story building at the maximum capacity of the gun. Given by how there was never a letup from the FMPA, one could already imagine how powerful the gun could be.

    Johansson hmphed. He disyed no fright. His eyes were cold. The archival held more than just a grudge towards each other. If the ck Cove never yed dirty it would have been long wiped. Johansson recognized the situation. With ck Cove¡¯s strength it shall never be wiped out for real. Though it was a bit uneptable for Johansson that the FMPA could put up with the ck Cove for this long.

    Johansson ced the arm shield before his chest. Zzzzzt! Ayer of strange rays started emitting from his dark shield and shrouded Johansson¡¯s body in sma, which shaped like a slightly dented shield over him and his Cosmic re. He then got onto his ck mech, the Cosmic re.

    Johansson moved evasively. Even though he was much slower than Ye Chong in terms of steering, the impressive Cosmic re covered up the holes, thus making Johansson a much better driver than Ye Chong on his underdeveloped F-58.

    He did not assume that such little trick could chase the enemy away and of course he was not that dumb to assume that would evade them either. The Messenger possessed an impable lock-on system that aided less skillful pilots to nail the hit by halving duration of the entire input sequence using its automatic and guided lock-on function which would only sacrifice negligible quantity of uracy in exchange.

    A ray of scorching lc red towards Johansson! The transparent sma shield shook violently for a moment. I knew it! That has to be the nano waves fired from Javelin Angel-V! The shield stabilized quickly. However to Johansson¡¯s horror, he noticed the sharp drop of the battery after the first strike. Fortunately it was also exhausting for Javelin Angel-V to sustain the firepower - if the info obtained was urate that is¡­

    The possibility of dodging the next attack was meager enough to encourage Johansson to just advance forward fearlessly under his sma shield. As soon as I get close enough I could finish this guy off in one blow. He travelled towards the enemy, disregarding the possibly massive damageing at him.

    This was the typical brawl between members of FMPA and ck Cove. The ck Covers maintained movements that were moreplicated, more depleting with their enhanced physique and dexterity of their hands toplete the input - the archetypal ck Covers; while the FMPA pilots would pull punches with the more avant-garde and automated machineries made out of their wless craftsmanship to remedy their physical fragility - the ssic FMPA members.

    The pilots from the ck Cove were known for theirbative skills, so one could picture the otherworldly strength in closebats with the ck Covers. The technology at the ck Cove might be seemingly ipetentpared to the FMPA, but that did not mean they were outdated. The mechs used in ck Cove were contrarily in a status-quo of the leading position when put intoparison with the unmodified mechs in the current market, which makes them ultimately unique inbats for they were those whobined potent pilots and mechs along with bizarre weaponry.

    Since the mechs used by the ck Covers were already known to be prime, then the more developed mech technology at the FMPA had to be the greatest. The most sophisticated processor, the most inventive engines, the most pioneering choice of materials, the most innovative mech designs and together they form the most groundbreaking mech in the gxy. Intellectualization of mech was the breakthrough they achieved where they were possible to make the best decision in a presented scenario within an extremely brief period of time under the assistance of the processor installed. Moreover, they had also created the top ranged weapons with dazzling variety andpelling forces, hence their style of ranged attacks with high mobility was determined.

    And that meant the Messenger would be in hot water any moment soon. Johansson charged and had already aimed the possible alley the Messenger could have blinked to if it were to escape, which certainly led to his victory in the end. It could have been a perfect victory, if Ye Chong did not surprise him with thatst-minute runaway, in which the Messenger could have escaped back then.

    Ye Chong was scurrying from the scene on his mech. There was no way he would turn back now. All engines, maximum speed! He zigzagged through the buildings, trying to hide himself within the ground, though he knew it well that the two big machines could have been too busy fighting each other dead or alive to even care about Ye Chong. It was rather delightful to have lost that white mech. Without that white mech escorting, the police mechs were no longer an issue. A turn here and a spin there, a leap and a sink, through that alley and over the fence, he finally left the proximity of police forces.

    Ye Chong went on flying calmly. His mech was too eye-catching, Ye Chong thought it through, wondering if there were more of those white mechs going after him. As for his appearance, only Johansson knew, so he probably would not be identified. Thanks to Johansson who held the annoying mech for me, I can now go into hiding. Ye Chong was feeling smug.

    "Oh well, sigh." Ye Chong thought back about beautifully-crafted mech Johansson owned, with envy hemented to Mu, "How I wish I had that kind of mech, Mu."

    "Well ording to calctions based on the data given, the chances are below 10%." Mu tly analyzed.

    "The heck, Mu, how did you even calcte that?" Ye Chong was astonished.

    "It¡¯s simple. It¡¯s based on the original mathematical model proposed by Austin, in conjunction with thebination of the fuzzy theory with multi-variation probability, thus the possibility to calcte your case, Ye Chong."

    "Sometimes I just wish you speak English, Mu." Ye Chong scratched his head, "And I also wish you could be more sentimental."

    "Sentimental means: of, or prompted by feelings of tenderness, sadness or nostalgia. Based on my reading, it is tant that you do not possess such quality." Aeback from Mu.

    "What!" Ye Chong screamed in his mind, "Mu, do you mean I am not sentimental?"

    "That is correct." Mu replied.

    "Why you¡­"

    In the midst of mutual-teasing, Ye Chong heard someone calling from his back.

 Chapter 69 - Yang Anâ€™s Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 69: Yang An¡¯s Invitation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ever since Ye Chong met Mu, his usual mumbo-jumbo had gradually reduced. He had beenmunicating with Mu through telepathy. To the people around, he no longer appeared to be muttering to himself, instead, he stayed all quiet.

    Ye Chong turned over towards the direction of the voice calling. It was Sun Xuelin and Shewing towards him along with 3 other young men. A nce through the gang, his eyes identified the uniqueness of the man in the center, who seemed to be the eldest as he walked in a fairly steady and mature manner; while the man on his right was a bit more buffed, apparently someone who had undergone a certain kind of special training. Though he had an evenly flexible looking limbs, he still did not look fluid enough, which indicated that he would had issues mastering the control of his strength; the other on the left was much more undersized, or even puny, but he did have a nice pair of hands which gave Ye Chong an impression being quite nimble.

    Ye Chong¡¯s careful observation on a person always started with the person¡¯s behavior, the physique then tiny details like their gestures. Contrary to the norms, he did not show concern of one¡¯s facial appearance.

    Hmph! Xuelin¡¯s face was all puffy and steaming as she stood at the side, turning her face away from Ye Chong while Shew, her cousin pulled Xuelin¡¯s sleeve, signaling her to behave.

    "Greetings Mister." The leading man smiled kindly as he initiated, "You must be that very Ye Miss Xuelin had mentioned. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Yang An and we had heard about your amazing skills from Miss Xuelin. We certainly appreciate your amodating nature willing to assist Miss Xuelin repairing her mech. So regarding the price you had offered before, we ept it wholeheartedly. Would you mind, by all means, to join our establishment?"

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind was clogged with the long-winded introduction.

    Hmm¡­ Hmmmm¡­ Oh!

    He got what the man meant - they are paying. "Okay, good!" He spoke on.

    Ye Chong was acting nonchntly towards such a lovely offer but the leader Yang An did not seem to mind the attitude at all, "So let me carry on introducing my men. This is Ke Han, the pilot of our group. And this is Ding Yining, our ace student from the mechanic school, who is very familiar with mech modification and would be providing you assistance."

    Ke Han was trying to be friendly at first but Ye Chong¡¯s indifference was enraging to him. It was not really because of Ye Chong putting up an attitude, but rather because Ye Chong appeared to be too engaged chatting with Mu in his mind to bother what Yang An spoke.

    "Based on the data I had received, Johansson has about 87% chance of achieving victory in that fight against the white mech. The white mech on the other hand has measly 10% sess rate of escaping and 3% chance of winning," reported Mu tly.

    "Well that sounds like Johansson had won the fight!" Ye Chong was confident that he could have won if he were to pilot Johansson¡¯s mech, considering how even Johansson could win in the end.

    Suddenly a number of mechs soared through the sky in lightning speed, which created an airflow against the sleeves of people on the ground. Ye Chong lifted his head and nearly got a heart attack because those happened to be the exact same white mech he had encountered before.

    Johansson must have defeated the white mech, so the ally came to the rescue. Ye Chong counted the number of white mechs in his mind. One, two, three¡­ six¡­ seven. Hehehe, Johansson is in trouble.

    While Yang An continued bbering things Ye Chong did not bother, Ke Han¡¯s impression towards Ye Chong had just taken a turn to the worse. He red on, hoping that Ye Chong would realize his ill manner. But well, even if Ye Chong did notice his attitude, he would not repent for his "ill manner" too.

    Yang An seemed to be also a little agitated in his eyes. He retained his smile as he spoke on, "Very well. Maybe we should try on working something now, just to break the ice. How about that? Mister."

    "O¡­Oh¡­" Ye Chong shifted his focus back to the conversation, "Okay¡­ Sure¡­", knowing that the person still wanted to test him out despite all those unnecessary respects in act.

    They got onto their transportation and moved to the base.

    It was a giant storage with all sorts of parts and tools for mech of different models. It was so messy that the tools looked as if they were suffocating.

    The weak Ding Yining rubbed his palms in slight embarrassment, "Hahaha¡­ I¡¯m sorry. This ce is a little messy sometimes. I usually work alone here so I don¡¯t really do cleanups."

    Ye Chong took a nce at the parts scattered on the ground. From the moment he had seen that ck mech from ck Cove and the white mech from FMPA, he no longer fancied these ordinary mechs stuck in the storage. Any advanced mech even like the F-58 would have looked modest in front of the mighty ck Cove gears, let alone that super overpowered war machines Johansson drove and that Messenger the FMPA pilot sniped with.

    He could not find a good reason himself to exin the vast difference of quality between the so-called advanced mechs sold in the market and the real deal in ck Cove and FMPA.

    Who are the ck Cove and FMPA seriously?

    Questions of different kinds mushroomed in Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts.

    But, well, there is a time and ce for everything, but not now¡­

    "Sooo¡­ What kind of mechs do you guys need?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Speed. All speed. We only need speed. Well of course, it would be better if we get some mobility." Ke Han stepped to the front and replied excitingly.

    Such requirement actually reminded Ye Chong of that blue paperweight he had a race with in the street back then. That bottle-head setting¡­

    "What about firepower?"

    "Nope." Ke Han shook his head, "Does not require."

    "What about defense?"

    "Nope." Ke Han shook his head again, "I only want speed. What I want is a mech specialized for races."

    Sounds like that blue paper mech I metst time. But for Pete¡¯s sake what the heck can that kind of mech do? Run?

    Ye Chong wanted to question Ke Han¡¯s concept but he was toozy for a fruitless discussion. Since the employer asked for a racing mech, he would give him a racing mech.

    He then inquired this future pilot of the mech regarding some essential factors to be taken into consideration for designs, including height, weight, habits of controlling, optimum speed of his hands and so on.

    Ye Chong knotted his brows while conversing with Ke Han and sometimes he went dazed. He walked to and fro performing calctions and simtions on the processor in the storage.

    Itsted for 30 minutes and right when the people started to get impatient, Ye Chong finally came up with the ultimate modification n.

    Yining took a look at Ye Chong¡¯s blueprint and out of sudden, the eyes lustered with desire as well as amazement, like a famished wolf spotting a fatmb in the field.

    "Perfect¡­ This is too perfect! Oh my gosh!! You are a genius!" Yining could not stop eximing as his eyes fixed on Ye Chong with adore. Yining even felt like kneeling down and pleading Ye Chong to be his master. But there was no time for that! The next thing Yining did was storming into the mountain of parts to obtain those mentioned in Ye Chong¡¯s n at full speed. Yining rushed in and out madly.

    Apparently, the owner of this storage, Yining also happened to be a mech maniac. Thankfully Yining¡¯s storage had all the things Ye Chong would need in building this mech. Or else, he could not swear that he would make it.

    There were a variety of tools and strange parts scattered around in the storage. Ye Chong could barely recognize most of the tools. Frankly speaking, some of them also happened to be his first encounter. There was no way he could use those tools. But then, it did not mean that there was nobody else who could use the tools for him. The owner Yining knew the ce and the tools well enough. Plus, Yining was all proactive and passionate. Ye Chong could just sit aside, point his fingers around and watch things happen.

    Ye Chong would be informing the materials and the parts needed, along with specific ways of modifying certain parts, while Yining did all the work - literally Ye Chong was being the contractor of this construction.

    Yining¡¯s skill was aided with odd gadgets and carried out with full efficiency and effectiveness, which was an eye-opener to Ye Chong. He observed Yining carefully and learned the tricks bit by bit with heart.

    After approximately 4 hours of hard work on building the new machines, they eventually got to the grand opening of a newborn mech.

 Chapter 70 - Gliding Joy

    <h4>Chapter 70: Gliding Joy</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The moment had arrived! A newborn mech was to be sent into the sky soaring like a bird, freely and¡­ When everyone saw the post-modification, their eyes were filled with confusion, looking at Ye Chong. Yining who had been working hard for the past hours went dumbfounded upon seeing the mech he modified with his own hands looking like this.

    Is this crap still a mech?

    This was probably what everyone else had in mind.

    The mech was in a shape of an arrow, with a tampering body from cabin to the end. The body was much narrower than before, but taller, like a ttened swordfish; while the main engine was shifted to the very end. It was all ording to Ye Chong¡¯s calction, where the cement of center of gravity would be ideal. The front was the "arrowhead" with the side wings forming a V shape towards the fore, unlike before when it used to be a flimsy metallic strip and multiple additional engines were installed to promote arger scope of redirection. The design was an innovation but also a challenge to the pilot as the cabin had been moved to the body of the mech, the "shaft" where it only offered limited space for body movement, just enough to fit Ke Han sitting in. No wonder Ye Chong asked him about the height and the weight. Also as the entire cabin had became cramped, the processor was reced with a much smaller one which served less functions. Technically if it was a mech made for Ye Chong, he would hardly need a processor and could just y manually. But Yining was the one strongly against this because a mech was believed to be worthless without a processor inside.

    The mech was mainly built using light titanium alloy, which durability might appeared substandard, but it served better for its featherweight. The engine used was Firebird-III and it was not because of its dynamic, rather, again, it was because of its weight being merely half of the other engines of simr grades and most importantly it offered thergest scope of redirection in the group. Most of the main engines only served the purpose of providing momentum to the mech and it wholly depended on the additional engines to make direction changes. However, there happened to be some rare kinds that could do both, though they offer a smaller scope of redirection. Firebird-III from this category was the most outstanding in direction control being a main engine, thus it became Ye Chong¡¯s choice. Of course, such an overpowered-sounding engine was not amon selection by the public for it consumed high amount of energy. It might had half of the weight of engines of simr grade, but in return it had twice the amount of energy depletion as the other engines in its line, which drastically restrained its application. For instance, the mech Ye Chong designed could sustain a nonstop flight for a limited duration of 8 hours when fully charged at most. Such a w Ye Chong thought it was that he asked Ke Han for opinion but he did not show much disagreement considering how he was only required a 2 hour flight in the tournament. That was more than enough.

    Yining proceeded to paint the whole mech in blue - a blue like a pool of clearke. The strange design did actually made the mech look much more striking, forceful with its hollowed body. The team was looking forward to its performance.

    They looked at each other and nodded. Somehow they read each other pretty well. They agreed the fact that it was their first time seeing such an odd mech. It would be more appropriate to call it an aircraft instead. Ke Han was thrilled to try on his new toy that he felt like hopping into the cabin right away.

    Up, up, and away! Ke Han set off into the sky!

    For moments on ground, they had been anticipating Ke Han¡¯s return to hear his words about the new craft.

    Ke Han finally made it back - literally made it back. It was not as heartwarming asing home because Ke Han crawled out of his cabin with his face drained, his legs shaking. "H¡­hi¡­f¡­folks."

    They quickly went to Ke Han. "Han!" Yang An asked hurriedly, "What¡¯s wrong?"

    "To¡­tt¡­Ttt¡­Too fast! Th¡­Th¡­This is¡­ inten¡­ss¡­intense!" He caught his breath, settled his mind, "There were a few times I nearly crashed into people! It¡¯s too hard to control!" But he seemed all pumped and enthusiastic, "Still, it¡¯s fast, too fast! I guess I could already be a professional racer at this rate. It¡¯s too fun!"

    Xuelin who was standing at the side seemed quite eager to try while Shew acted a scaredy cat holding Xuelin back at her sleeve.

    Yining gazed endearingly at the mech he made out with his own hands. "Hmmm¡­" he mumbled. "What name shall we bestow this baby?"

    "Glidy!" Ke Han waddled to Yining, "How about Glidy?"

    "Glidy just sounds stupid." Xuelin shook her head in strong disapproval, "A single-word name never worked. Hmm, how about Gliding Joy?" It was a suggestioning from a beauty, and without a doubt, Ke Han approved and Yining seemed pleased with the name too. "How about Ye Ch-" Ye Chong, the designer, the contractor of the construction carried on watching the folks uninterestedly, guessing the man did not bother what the mech would be named after.

    And so be it!

    The name of this modified mech had been decided among the folks without much discussion.

    "Well." Ye Chong looked at the time - it was time to scram for him. He stood up and spoke to Yang An, "4 hours in total. Every hour costed you 1225 Zuan. That¡¯d be 5000 Zuan in total. Payment at your convenience!" His tone was monotonous. He did not sound mortified as he asked for his pay.

    Tch! Xuelin spat her tongue in disdain and dragged Shew aside.

    On the other hand, Yang An acted truly easygoing in this. He paid Ye Chong the price as he acknowledged his capability, knowing if he joined the alliance, the team would have greater odds to win.

    Yining carried on gazing at Ye Chong¡¯s blueprint in endearment, while Ke Han¡¯s eyes still glued at Gliding Joy. His hands could not stop fondling his baby from the tip to the end, the shaft and then the wings.

    Xuelin was having another private conversation with Shew at the corner. Their whispers rumbled.

    Ye Chong seemed to have heard his name being mentioned in their discussion, but well¡­ Do I really care? These two are just a bunch of weird people. I don¡¯t have time for them.

    He confirmed the transaction on his identity card. 5000 Zuans in. Done. He briefly bade farewell to them and walked away after that.

    Back to the streets seeing the crowd, Ye Chong then realized it was actually the peak hour of his noodle shop! That was more frightening than anything else! He got to get back to Grandpa Qian or the loss would be beyond estimation! He ran, dashed, hurtled and sprinted through the streets, like a fired bullet through the air. The pedestrians saw a shadow flying by and they panicked just to see nothing. Most of them thought they were just feeling a little under the weather.

    Ye Chong hurried back to the shop and indeed it was swarmed with customers. Grandpa Qian was running back and forth, looking really fatigued. Ye Chong, with a slight guilt, greeted Grandpa Qian and rushed into the kitchen to begin his work.

    Grandpa Qian returned to the front desk and let go a sigh of relief.

    When thest batch of customers left at about 8 at night, they had dinner and hit the bed after a short good-night to each other. Then nothing else happened.

    Except for Ye Chong.

    He locked his room and carefully took out the chip he pilfered from the dead man¡¯s building back then. The chip had only recorded worthless information about Grandpa Xu¡¯s whereabouts. Well the only surprising discovery was from the identity cards he obtained from the men he killed, as Mu¡¯s immense processing ability located the background of these people.

    "So they are from the Ji Family?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Probably about 95% the likelihood ording to the data acquired." Mu answered.

    "That¡¯s just another way to say yes. Well then, why are the Jis on Grandpa Xu?" he asked on.

    Mu then gave a brief introduction on Ji Family¡¯s background. Ye Chong understood the entire scenario after that. It had to be because of the new theory from Grandpa Xu that they desired. That was why they tried all sorts of ways to get Grandpa Xu into their group. And obviously Grandpa Xu would not buy any of their dirty tricks. Practically, those tricks were not that dirty to Ye Chong, considering how he would have used a much dirtier trick if he were the Jis.

    Yet! It does not mean I am fine with what they have done to Grandpa Xu! Understanding does not trante approval, especially when he was involved.

    Well then, by now the Ji Family should have heard of the news.

    Keeping that thought, he logged into the virtual world and left a note at the Aurora, informing Grandpa Xu that he would be busy working on something and he might not be visiting anytime soon.

    The Ji Family huh?

    Ye Chong snickered.

 Chapter 71 - Operation

    <h4>Chapter 71: Operation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was night, and Ye Chong moved silently like a spirit through the darkness. The night provided the best cover for Ye Chong; if it was in space, Ye Chong would not dare to move so freely, even with his F-58. While there was more radiation in space, the geography was lessplicated. Scanning systems can be used to their full potential in such terrains. On the other hand, within the atmosphere, the various environment severely restricted the effective perimeter of the scanning system, besides significantly decreasing its uracy. Most importantly, the government has strict rules regarding atmospheric scanning, such as allowed scanning frequencies, methods and so on.

    The fact was that the F-58, with its advanced anti-detection system, would be the best candidate for the task at hand, but Ye Chong was unsure if Johansson¡¯s mech had a specialmunication link with the F-58. Hence, he kept the F-58 undeployed.

    In fact, the best time to infiltrate the Ji family was immediately after he killed the surveince team, and before the Ji family received the news. Now that the Ji family was informed, security would be tightened. However, his infiltration was nned entirely by Mu. When Ye Chong noticed that Mu had gathered arge amount of data about the Ji family, he made the rational decision of letting Mu n for the infiltration. Ye Chong had absolute trust in Mu. Mu did not exin the details of their operation, but only calcted the probability of the final oue. The probability of sess was 72 percent; the probability of failure and sessful retreat was 20 percent; and the probability of dying mid-operation was 8 percent.

    Ye Chong felt that attacking the Ji family now would not deal a big enough blow, since he was not exactly powerful, and would risk exposing himself. However, Mu had insisted on the operation, and Ye Chong believed that there must be a good reason behind it, for Mu would not do anything carelessly.

    Ye Chong carefully moved in the shadows as he always did when hunting on the trash. The mutants were far more alert than humans, and had uniquely enhanced senses, such as an incredible sense of smell and, more generally, highly sensitive hearing. The most problematic for Ye Chong were mutants that could see infrared light.

    Multichromatic lightings illuminated the night, as the gorgeous lights winked at each other. Seen from above, one would find it a mesmerising sight. The superstars in holographic advertisements looked more enchanting than they were during the day. The safety lights from the mechs flying above made them look like a sprinkle of dancing fireflies.

    Ye Chong was not in the mood to appreciate the scene that would have been impossible on the trash. Within the shadows of the dark, he was now moving silently like a cold-blooded venomous snake.

    Ye Chong carefully kept himself concealed as he asked, "Mu, what¡¯re our objective for this operation? Don¡¯t keep me guessing!"

    Mu lightly replied, "You¡¯ll know when it¡¯s time. Based on avable information, the probability of you understanding then is 91 percent."

    Ye Chong nearly tripped at the mech¡¯s response. "Of course I¡¯ll know then! I meant now!"

    Mu continued calmly, "Based on avable information, there is still an 8 percent probability of you not understanding by then. As for now, I regret to inform you that my calction results indicates that the probability of you guessing right is 0 percent."

    Ye Chong cursed to himself. "Damn it Mu, are you saying I¡¯m stupid?"

    Mu kept his cool. "Logically speaking, that is absolutely urate!"

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Ye Chong carefully hid himself behind an artificial tree and examined the base closely. Every 15 minutes, a few small mechanical birds would fly over the area. Their bodies were equipped with amplified scanning devices that greatly increased the scanning perimeter and uracy. However, Ye Chong managed to hide in a blind spot under Mu¡¯s guidance.

    Ye Chong asked, "Mu, what is this ce?"

    Mu ignored him and said, "Ye, you should be able to avoid detection with the F-58!"

    Ye Chong acknowledged, and deployed the F-58.

    Mu immediately spoke, "Hurry!" Ye Chong was surprised at the mech¡¯s anxiety, and dared not take his time. He slipped into the cabin quickly and immediately started the engines.

    As expected, the F-58 did not alert the other party¡¯s scanning system. Ye Chong was thinking of moving in a discrete manner forward, but Mu spoke up, "Fly straight ahead!"

    Ye Chong hesitated, but quickly recovered and flew as directed. However, he found it strange that the people moving about the area seemed to ignore the F-58, or even outright waved at him as a greeting - and that was how he flew openly into the area. Ye Chong could not keep up with what was happening, and failed to see the reason behind their actions.

    The people here put heavy trust in the base¡¯s scanning system, and did not think that someone could enter without going through proper identification. Everyone thought that the F-58 was a mech from the base.

    However, Mu had no intention of exining, and only spoke lightly, "You now have only three minutes. After three minutes, Johansson will be here, and there¡¯s a 78 percent probability that he¡¯ll know your rough location."

    Ye Chong broke into a cold sweat!

    Mu ignored him and continued, "You must reach this area within one minute!" The F-58¡¯s photon processor immediately produced holographic schematics for the base. At the north west corner was a basement about twenty meters underground, oveid with a bright red spot - that was Ye Chong¡¯s destination.

    "Damn it Mu, you ¡­" Ye Chong gave up with his cursing, and promptly elerated ahead.

    Mu was deliberately calm. "Ye, don¡¯t rush! At your speed, there¡¯s a 94 percent probability of reaching your destination!¡¯ Ye Chong was greatly agitated - when he heard that Johansson would arrive in three minutes, his first thought was to leave his mech and escape. "Is this a joke? The two mechs are not even on the same level, I have zero chance of winning. Not escaping? Do you want me to die?"

    However, Mu¡¯s words seemed to beyered with some unfathomable meaning. While Ye Chong continued to curse Mu on the inside, he still flew ahead at top speed.

    In just five seconds, Ye Chong arrived directly above the basement. The horizontal metal alloy door was 100 meters wide and 30 meters tall, and it was grewrger andrger in his vision.

    When Ye Chong was 50 meters away from the door, Mu suddenly spoke up, "Send out the identification signal!"

    Ye Chong caught his breath at the order; already his hands were moving at top speed without thinking. On ck Cove, Ye Chong¡¯s hands could move up to Mach 5.54 [1]; after breaking the bottleneck, his speed was reaching Mach 7, which was an astounding figure.

    However, even with his speed, Ye Chong nearly choked as he executed his new order that came without prior warning. Fortunately, Ye Chong managed an abrupt halt, as the F-58 stopped just about two meters above the door. The identification signal was sent just before the mech came to a halt.

    As Ye Chong recovered himself, he was faced with another dilemma. "Signalling the other party with an identification, isn¡¯t that suicidal?"

    To his surprise, the alloy door began to slowly slide open, and beyond the door was absolutelyplete darkness!

    Note:

    [1] Mach: unit for speed, where Mach 1 is the speed of sound (around 340 m/s), and Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound (and so on).

 Chapter 72 - Into the Depths

    <h4>Chapter 72: Into the Depths</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong slowly and carefully maneuvered the F-58 into the basement. The mech scanned the surroundings over and over at its maximum capacity, as Ye Chong grew more and more tense.

    "Why would Mu want me toe here? What is it here exactly that caught Mu¡¯s attention so much?" Ye Chong was filled with questions, but dared not be distracted by them at the moment. Mu had no intention of exining since the beginning, at least not until he reached the end of the operation!

    Ye Chong could not help but be excited! The peaceful days before this did not dull his yearning for battle; on the contrary, since he was ustomed to the cruel lifestyle on the trash, Ye Chong was ufortable with the peace, even as he tried his best to get used to the vastly different way of life. He could not change over a decade of his habits and lifestyle overnight!

    "It¡¯s been ages since I had a real battle!" Ye Chong could feel his blood boiling! Strictly speaking, Ye Chong was not exactly trigger-happy, as he had only battled to survive. However, battles had always made him excited.

    "Perhaps, there¡¯ll be a nasty fight today!"

    The scanning system did not detect anyone around, and that surprised Ye Chong. "This is obviously an important ce, how could there be no one around? Besides, I just went through the door with a valid identification, how can that be?"

    From the moment Ye Chong entered the door, Mu spoke in unprecedented urgency, "In thirty seconds, reach the eleventh level below by then. The ten levels above it are now essible with your identification. Keep the F-58, quickly!"

    Ye Chong dared not hesitate, and slipped out of the F-58 at once. The mech was withdrawn into its alternate dimension before Ye Chong hit the ground. As his feet touched the ground, Ye Chong¡¯s legs moved with explosive strength, following the route that was shown on the schematics earlier by Mu.

    It was pitch ck, and even Ye Chong¡¯s superior vision left him blinded. Ye Chong could only run forward based on his memory of the route. However, Mu did not correct him, and so he assumed that he remembered the route correctly.

    Suddenly, a sliver of light came into view ahead - a silver metallic door slid open from the center, and the opening was the source of brightness. Even as he was running, Ye Chong noticed the odd fact that the door seemed more like a wall from his side before it slid open.

    Mu must have did something with his identification!

    Beyond the door was a slope angled at 45 degrees, paved with anti-slip material. The slope went on for about fifty meters before connecting to a corridor that formed a T-junction. Ye Chong chose to go left without hesitation. There were many code-secured entrances along the way, but whenever Ye Chong approached them, the doors would open for him. This puzzled Ye Chong, but he knew that it was probably due to Mu¡¯s tricks. He would ask Mu when they get back home, as this was obviously not the time nor ce for questions.

    Ye Chong felt like he had entered a space devoid of other human beings. However, he only remembered the route for the first 5 levels. The corridors were a web ofplicated lefts and rights, and all the twists and turnings had made Ye Chong lost his sense of direction. Even as he was confused by the directions, Ye Chong still managed to feel awed by the designs used to prevent infiltration - it was a truly clever design!

    However, Mu¡¯s presence meant that the current obstacle did not stop Ye Chong from moving forward!

    Finally, he reached the tenth level. Ye Chong ran with all his might as Mu spoke up, "I need ten seconds for the eleventh level! Deploy me now!"

    "Mu¡¯s making his move?" Ye Chong was surprised, but did as he was told - Mu appeared within the corridors in the next instant.

    Mu¡¯srge hull still managed to look light and agile in the narrow corridors, and Ye Chong could barely keep up with Mu as he sped up following him.

    Mu gave a few more orders to Ye Chong, and, in the blink of an eye, the two arrived before the door on the eleventh level.

    This door was obviously different from the rest - while the ten alloy doors before it were equipped with identification mechanisms, the current door on the eleventh level was devoid of any devices, and Ye Chong was greatly startled by that fact!

    Mu stood before the alloy door of the eleventh level, his bionic eyes were shing in a frenzy. Ye Chong stood beside the door as Mu suggested, his legs slightly bent in preparation and his dagger in hand. Man and machine were silent throughout their maneuvers.

    As expected, after ten seconds, the doors slid open, and Ye Chong rushed through the opening between the door panels like a ghost and slipped through!

    "There¡¯re two people beyond the door, as expected as well!" Ye Chong thought to himself!

    Prepared for the encounter, Ye Chong shed his dagger through the air like lightning!

    The two people beyond the door did not expect the door to suddenly open. Two dark shes of movement filled their eyes in disbelief, before their throats were marked with a thin slit of blood that spread quickly outwards. After a slight pause, a soft "pop" sounded, and blood sprayed from the throats of the two victims.

    The two guards watched Ye Chong with disbelief, and slowly fell to the ground, silent throughout their final ordeal.

    The whole process was neatly and efficiently done; the two victims did not even manage to sound the rm right beside them. The automatic rm system was already disabled by Mu.

    Ye Chong and Mu did not waste any more time as they moved forward posthaste.

    They were greeted by arge roundish chamber, over 100 meters across. In the center of the chamber, there were a few concentric silver rings on the floor. The rest of the chamber was filled with a variety of mechs. The mechs shined with an attractive luster, painted in enchanting, interweaving colours of bright silver, ocean blue, light emerald and fiery red. These mechs stood quietly in the chamber like silent soldiers, filling the chamber with a mysterious attractive quality.

    These were all rare and advanced level mechs, and some were even limited editions. There were many that Ye Chong had never even heard of, and his eyes glowed with yearning from his long deprivation of mechs. These were not just run-of-the-mill products! Some of the mechs had essories gathered at their feet, and Ye Chong noticed with his keen eyes that many of them were top of the line!

    Could these mechs be the reason Mu brought him here?

    Ye Chong could not help but feel that that something was wrong. While these mechs were advanced and top grade, they were still not as good as the F-58. The F-58 might look ugly and unwieldy, its performance was still above the mechs in the chamber. ck Cove¡¯s strength was truly admirable!

    "How can Mu not notice that? It¡¯s impossible!" Ye Chong immediately dismissed his undoubtedly silly idea!

    He looked towards Mu, and saw the mech standing at the center of the concentric circles in the chamber, as his bionic eyes shed wildly. Ye Chong paused at the sight - could there be something to this ce?

    As expected, after fifteen seconds, Mu spoke hastily, "Ye, quickly!"

    Ye Chong promptly stepped onto the silver circles. Before he could steady himself, he felt the ground below him vanish, and Ye Chong staggered. Fortunately, he was sharp enough to grab hold onto Mu beside him in time, thus avoiding a fall!

    The silver concentric circles carried Ye Chong and Mu silently downwards!

 Chapter 73 - Success

    <h4>Chapter 73: Sess</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong stared in bewilderment at the two huge mechs before him!

    The horizontallyid mechs were evidently justpleted; Ye Chong could even detect the smell of vtile paint in the air. Support frames and stabilization structures were still in ce at many different parts of the mechs.

    Of the two mechs, one was in abination of dim blue and ivory white, while the other had alternating shades of bright red and glowing silver.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes glowed with interest - he knew immediately from experience that these two mechs were special! It seemed that there was still someone else with mech technologyparable to that of ck Cove and the MPA [1]! Ye Chong couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the two machines! These two mechs were definitely not of lesser quality than Johansson¡¯s ck war mech or the MPA¡¯s white mech!

    Mu prompted him, "Choose one now, you only have one minute of designated time left!"

    Ye Chong snapped out of his reverie and suppressed his overjoyed emotions. He did not have time to inspect the two mechs in detail, but Ye Chong slipped into the blue-white mech¡¯s cabin without hesitation. The red-silver mech came with a formidable shooting weapon, and Ye Chong knew from a nce that it was a mech with a long range battle style. This was why he chose the blue-white mech - after all, that kind of battle style did not suit him well.

    Inside the cabin, the floor was still littered with debris. Ye Chong did not make time for a closer inspection, as he began performing the initial settings as fast as he could! The initial setup wasplicated, and Ye Chong felt slightly daunted by the task, but immediately rejoiced at the fact that a moreplicated initial setup process implied that the mech was more advanced.

    Ye Chong put on the helmet and focused on the various messages that appeared in his vision, wary of any distractions! Not that he was open to any form of distractions, since the messages on the holographic screen came pouring out like a waterfall. Ye Chong¡¯s vision was tested on a whole new level; should he be even be slightly distracted, he would beat himself up for it when the whole thing was over!

    His hands moved quickly across the control panel, casting illusory shadows of movement!

    As for Mu, the mech had picked up a strange looking weapon that wasid beside the mech that Ye Chong slipped into.

    The weapon was simr to ance from archaic times, but extended to a whole fifteen meters, and was obviously made for the mech that Ye Chong chose. Like the mech, the weapon¡¯s dim blue was like the flowing ocean; the sharp protruding end of thence had two crescent-shaped des on its sides, which made the weapon look like an antiquated double bit axe. The crescent des curved slightly inwards near the tip of thence, but bent outwards on the other end. The point where the des meet thence¡¯s central beam was a diamond shaped ruby crystal. The central de of thence had a mysterious sheen that seemed to constantly evolve. If an artist were present, he or she would certainly be intrigued!

    Mu watched the tip of thence closely, as though he held great interest in it.

    Ji Shangyan furrowed his brows at the mass of confusion before him and could not help but let out a little sigh at the fact that his eldest brother was too caught up in his joy. Immediately after the two mechs were finished, his eldest brother had arranged for a celebration, and even managed to invite almost everyone there, leaving only two behind to guard the ce. This was too ridiculous!

    Earlier, he had advised his brother to send a few more guards over, but his brother had impatiently waved him off. The underlings around him may not have said anything, but through his keen perception, Ji Shangyan sensed their shunning towards him, thinking that he was not understanding!

    A few days ago, members of the surveince team for Old Xu were all killed. The perpetrator was still unidentified, and Ji Shangyan had a scolding from his old man for it. While he believed that the perpetrator was someone who had a close rtionship with Old Xu, the elder man was a tough nut to crack, and a precious asset that could not afford to be shouted at or physically intimidated. His family¡¯s actions against Old Xu had rmed some higher-ups, and so his old man had asked for him to halt his operations against Old Xu.

    "Ah, forget it, it can¡¯t be helped!" Ji Shangyan smiled wryly at himself. The people before him had all stayed at this secret base for at least 3 years; now that they had seeded, how can he deny them their festive mood? Ji Shangyan understood their feelings; against the hostility they showed for him, he could only smile wryly back to himself.

    However, there should not be any problems, since the secret base had a state of the art identification system. It would be a fool¡¯s errand to attempt to infiltrate the base without raising any rms. Ji Shangyan could not help but mock his excessive worrying. He believed that no one present would also believe in the possibility of that happening.

    The Ji family was famous for photon processors, and also far ahead of any other aristocratic family in matters concerning photon processors.

    Besides, Ji Shangyan knew how much time his old man spent on the base, and the importance of the base in the Ji family. Besides, the project they were celebrating now was monumental! As the second son of the Ji family, Ji Shangyan felt simr pride for this family project.

    "Hehe, the Four Aristocratic Families of Fal? They¡¯ll all make way for the Ji family!"

    Suddenly, the ground shook - everyone present for the celebration froze, and total silence descended on the area!

    "Was it an earthquake?" As everyone raised their suspicion.

    Earthquakes, the result of violent tectonic shifts, is no longer a natural phenomenon that threatens human safety. Evenmon building structures can withstand the strong vibrations from earthquakes, much less the exceptionally constructed secret base that housed the current celebration!

    The vibrations grew stronger, and seemed to be heading their way. The rumbling undertones gradually became louder and louder.

    Whatever was moving did so very quickly - in the blink of an eye, the crowd could sense that it was getting much closer to them. The rumbling sound was getting clearer, and everyone present began to panic.

    Ye Chong maneuvered his newly acquired mech, plunging through walls, making its own path through brute force.

    Ye Chong was very fond of the mech. The only thing that bothered him was its name - Harmony of the Winter Aria. It sounded weird, of course, but most importantly, the name was too long. For Ye Chong, who appreciated conciseness, the name was a little awkward for him.

    Ye Chong had fitted all the weaponry for the Harmony of the Winter Aria. As he sat in the cabin, he marvelled at the mech¡¯s specifications. However, this obviously was not the time for a detailed inspection - in fourty five seconds, Ye Chongpleted the initial setup, and in another ten seconds, all the weapons intended for the mech and scattered around it were fitted.

    In those fifty five seconds, Mu was searching in the secret basement. In only twenty seconds, Mu located his target. The mech took another twenty seconds to crack a safe hidden in a corner. As for identifying his exact objective amongst the other things kept within the safe, Mu took only half a second.

    The object seemed to be a mineral ore, asrge as two fists. The ore had a strange feel to it - its colour seemed to be constantly evolving, an unrecognisable hue to the human eye. Mu decidedly tossed the ore into his cabin.

    Once Ye Chong was done with the initial setup, Mu asked to be returned to his alternate dimension. Ye Chong had no objections to the mech¡¯s wishes - his battles are his own!

    The most urgent difficulty for Ye Chong now was to find the mech¡¯s dimension keystone. Without it, the mech would be iplete. If he could not keep the mech in its alternate dimension, even if he could escape the base, he would only be easy prey for the entire Ji family.

    Ye Chong was not so foolish as to think that he could single-handedly destroy the Ji family.

    Finding the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s dimension keystone was his top and only priority.

    Dimension keystones and their corresponding mechs can interact within a certain distance. Ye Chong skilfullymanded the photon processor, attempting to locate Harmony¡¯s dimension keystone. A red dot red back at him almost immediately on the holographic screen, while another blue dot indicated his location.

    Knowing the location of dimension keystone, Ye Chong made his move!

    Ye Chong¡¯s method was simple - fly straight ahead!

    The distance between two points is shortest in a straight line. With the direction decided, Ye Chong wielded the fifteen-meternce as he broke through wall after wall - sturdy alloy walls, resilient walls, the lot of them - as they all caved in easily under the archaic lookingnce of the Harmony of the Winter Aria!

    Ye Chong closed his distance with the dimension keystone through this crude and straightforward method.

    He had seen no one in his path, and thought it was odd. Since no one had sounded the rm even as he carelessly destroyed the base, Ye Chong believed it must be Mu who had destroyed the rm system. As for the extent of Mu¡¯s damage to the system, Ye Chong would not have known.

    Onest wall to go! Even as he was overjoyed with that fact, Ye Chong grew calm.

    Ye Chong took in a deep breath, and, with a little hum and some dexterous maniption of the controls, the Harmony of the Winter Aria abruptly elerated - the archaic, bluence swiped left, right and center - as the wall before him crumbled into pieces, debris flying all over the ce.

    Harmony swiftly broke through thest wall.

    As the massive machine made its way through the wall, all those present for the celebration were caught in surprise, staring at the machine - was this not the Harmony of the Winter Aria? In an instant, they all realised what was really happening, and all hell broke loose - screams and loud cries filled the area, as the crowd was thrown into a mass of confusion, scurrying all over the ce.

    Ye Chong ignored the people, for he had only one objective, which was the Harmony¡¯s dimension keystone!

    The highly urate scanning system returned the exact location of the dimension keystone to Ye Chong - it was on a man, currently surrounded by four others. The man was holding a ss of red wine, staring at him in confusion. The holographic scanner swept through the man¡¯s body over and over, such that even the fat around his waist was clearly visible to Ye Chong. The dimension keystone was in his overcoat¡¯s left pocket. Ye Chong did not hesitate - he swiped the fifteen-metrence against his opponents, and the men around his target were pushed out of the way.

    Harmony of the Winter Aria lifted the man in the center with its left arm. The sound of shattering ss was heard as the man began to scream.

    Everyone present looked fearfully at the eldest young master of the Ji family, threatened by the intruder, but none could save him. They did not even understand how their trusted rm system waspromised. However, a few of the sharper ones had already left to call for help.

    Ji family¡¯s eldest young master was lifted by Harmony, 3 meters from the ground. As the pilot¡¯s cabin slowly opened up, everyone stared intently at the opening, curious to know the identity of this reckless and fearless trespasser!

    A shadow shed past, a blurred motion that the audience could not make out of, and Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s pilot cabin closed shut again. Before the crowd could react, the eldest young master was casually tossed aside like a ragged sandbag.

    Ye Chong left the red-silverish dimension keystone behind. While he knew that was the keystone for the other red-silver mech that was beside the Harmony, it was apparent that he could not backtrack to retrieve the other mech. Keeping the extra dimension keystone might reveal his location sooner orter.

    While he was equally interested in the red-silver mech, it looked that the enemy had arrived!

    Note:

    [1] MPA: Mech Pilot Association

 Chapter 74 - A Short Battle

    <h4>Chapter 74: A Short Battle</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Johansson received the signal from Ye Chong¡¯s F-58 almost instantly. Mechs from ck Cove have a few unique ways ofmunication; once the distance between two of them is less than 500 kilometers, they would automatically reach out to each other. Cosmic re zoomed in on the location of the F-58 rapidly. Had Ye Chong not removed an important photon return circuit earlier under Mu¡¯s advice, the duration would have been shorter. However, the signal was fleeting, and Johansson guessed that Number 58 must have withdrawn the mech.

    Johansson slipped into the Cosmic re hastily. The higher-ups at ck Cove were deeply interested in Number 58 - while he had only spent a short time at ck Cove, his performance during training greatly exceeded the average ability and speed of progress. He was definitely one of the finest mech pilots trained by ck Cove, but most importantly, the ck Cove higher-ups believed that he still had plenty of room for improvement. These factors made for ck Cove¡¯s determination to keep him with them.

    ck Cove¡¯s intelligencework was also extensive, such that they managed to track down Number 58, all the way to Blue Ocean.

    He had thought that finding Number 58 would take a long time, but unexpectedly found his target battling against the MPA. He disapprovingly thought of the events, "That white mech was not really that powerful. If Number 58 did not suddenly retreat and distracted me, I would have finished him off!"

    Moreover, that Number 58 from Team F had battled against the MPA¡¯s Messenger with a training mech - what a foolish act!

    ck Cove¡¯s orders to Johansson was to bring him back. Of all the people back there, only he and Instructor Hak had seen Number 58¡¯s real face. He thought of the way Number 58¡¯s eyes glowed with a yearn for power that day, and was certain that once he could find his target, he would be able toplete his mission. This mission was worth a grand total of fifty ck Cove points - if he could seed in this mission, his points would be enough for him to receive a higher level of training.

    The thought made him excited, his eyes burning with eagerness, and his fists clenched tightly until his joints cracked. "If only, if only I had the strength, then surely I could do it ¡­"

    Johansson felt his heart throb strongly, as though a lithe entered his sight.

    After a moment, he sobered up, but the thought of Number 58¡¯s retreat disturbed him - could it be that the man was no longer hungry for power?

    No matter what, he must not fail! "If Number 58 refused to follow me obediently ¡­ Hehe ¡­" A look of promised destruction flitted past his face. "Besides, based on the time, it should soon begin!"

    The Cosmic re flew at close to Mach 7, and reaching the F-58 would not take more than half a minute. If not for the dy in identifying Number 58¡¯s location, Johansson would have been standing right before Number 58 right now.

    The ck Cosmic re flew across the night sky like the God of Death. The air current sped past the surface of the mech¡¯s ck sword and barbs, shrieking terrifyingly!

    "It should be here." Johansson scanned the ordinary looking base before him. The photon processor had indicated that Number 5 was right here. The Cosmic re floated midair above the base and began to repeatedly scan the area at maximum capacity. However, the F-58¡¯s signal was still undetected!

    "Has Number 58 entered the inner parts of the base, or has he left?"

    Johansson hesitated for a moment before swooping downwards, passing by some mechs along the way. In ck Cove, all mechs kept a distance between themselves as a precaution against hostility. This has be one of ck Cove¡¯s unwritten rules - if you and another person got too close, the other party might mistake your intentions as hostile, and the next thing you know is seeing a fatal blowing straight at you!

    Never let someone get close to you! This is ck Cove¡¯s special rule!

    However, once outside ck Cove, the rule became somewhat peculiar. Take the residents of Blue Ocean - the number of mechs here were vast, and if one is to fly past the throngs of mechs in the air every day, how can it be possible to maintain a distance with other mechs at all times?

    In the seconds that just passed, a few mechs had flew past him closely! The Cosmic re¡¯s anti-detection is better than the F-58¡¯s, and an average mech would not be aware of the mech¡¯s existence through its scanning system. If not for Johansson¡¯s active evasion, the Cosmic re would have crashed into more than a few mechs.

    This undoubtedly made Johansson, who had not travelled beyond ck Cove for a long time, very ufortable.

    Another mech wasing towards him. Based on its trajectory, impact was inevitable. The blue-and-white mech seemed to be of a newer design, and the archaic lookingnce in its hand surprised Johansson. Few mechs are equipped with such weapons, and weapons long forgotten in history such as thence often required special techniques to be effective. Without special techniques, these weapons will be less powerful than weapons like theser sword and me sabre.

    However, Johansson did not pay it much attention. Upon noticing the unfamiliar mech, he shifted his attention elsewhere and flew a few meters to the side to avoid impact. With the high rate of mech ownership these days, andck of any substantial restrictions by the government on mech designs, it is not umon to see all sorts of odd mech designs. Johansson had once seen a mech modelled from a millennia-old container used as a toilet. It was rumoured to have a strange name - Potty! The owner of the mech was also said to be a toilet seat hobbyist. However, the unimaginative Johansson had no idea how a quadrupedal ungte and a roundish toilet seat could bebined. However, the unimaginative Johansson had no idea how a pot could be associated with human excrement!

    Compared to that, this blue-and-white mech seemed absolutely normal! "Perhaps the owner of this mech was only an enthusiast of archaic weaponry," thought Johansson.

    Johansson waspletely absorbed by the blue-and-white mech¡¯s archaic lookingnce to notice that the mech was actually flying much faster than an average mech. However, even if he did notice it, he would probably not give it much thought, since the Cosmic re was incredibly fast!

    The other party did not seem to notice his presence, as it did not move strangely. Johansson was already focusing entirely on the photon processor¡¯s various scan results, looking desperately for the F-58.

    Everything seemed to proceed the same, as every time he had to evade the mechs that failed to detect the Cosmic re.

    The blue-and-white mech¡¯s speed did not change, flying at high speed towards Johansson. However, Johansson¡¯s earlier maneuver a few meters to the side avoided the possibility of impact under normal circumstances!

    The two mechs closed in, and the blue-and-white mech¡¯s archace seemed to have adjusted slightly in the mech¡¯s grip, like an unintentional movement. Johansson was still focused on the photon processor¡¯s scans.

    As the distance between the two mechs reduced to less than a hundred meters, Johansson finally shifted his attention to the other mech. Of course, he was only preventing an ident from happening, however slight the chance was.

    As he inadvertently scanned the approaching mech, Johansson suddenly had a little premonition, and felt that something was off. However, he could not make much out of it, only that it made him extremely ufortable, even though everything seemed to be normal!

    The hundred-meter range took less than a second to cover for the mechs travelling beyond Mach 5.

    The two mechs were about to pass by each other, seemingly without incident!

    Abruptly, a chilling gleam closed in on Johansson. Almost simultaneously, the Cosmic re¡¯s rm for attacks roared to life! Johansson had his soul rocked to its core, as he reflexively lifted his left hand to block the attack with his sma shield and retreated backwards at the same time!

    Too fast!

    That was Johansson¡¯s only thought!

    The Cosmic re¡¯s sma shield was only half lifted before the gleaming tip of the archace breached past his mech¡¯s left arm!

    The Cosmic re was determinedly retreating, but switching the engines from the original floating mode to maximum speed required a finite time span. While the Cosmic re could still manage this quickly and negligibly under normal circumstances, the millisecond dy was fatal in the current encounter!

    The dampened sound of a mech being punctured through was unfamiliar - the strong sense of splitting apart put Johansson¡¯s mind to a halt, and immediately engulfed himpletely in pain, almost suffocating him. Ironically, the pause in thought gave him a short window of extreme rity!

    A nimble figure flitted through his mind, getting clearer and clearer. He could not help but reach out with his bloody hands, wishing to embrace the figure that was all the dreams that he had worked hard for all this time! Fatigued gradually overcame him, as he coughed out blood from his mouth. His outreaching hands were getting heavier and heavier, and slowly, that unforgettable figure began to dissolve into a mist, as his vitality gradually dimmed, and vanished!

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    At the base¡¯s defense center, someone was seen running hastily towards it. Before he even cleared the security room, the person shouted with panic, "Bad news, bad news, someone¡¯s infiltrated the base ¡­"

    The defense center¡¯s inhabitants exchanged looks amongst themselves, and began tough.

    One of them, the leader, grinned. "Old Li, that¡¯s such ame joke, someone infiltrated the base? Ha ¡­"

    Old Li continued anxiously, "Eh, it¡¯s for real this time, someone really infiltrated the base, even ¡­"

    Another one of themughed, interrupting him, and spoke in a mocking tone, "Oh, it¡¯s for real this time!" He even emphasised on the "this time" and, coupled with his silly expression, invited another round ofughter from the rest of his coworkers!

    Old Li was blushing from his nerves. "It¡¯s true ¡­ It¡¯s ¡­"

    One of the kinder members could not stand to see Old Li in such distress, and spoke up, "Ah, Old Li, your joke really wasn¡¯t top notch, you see, our security systems are doing fine, absolutely normal! If someone infiltrated the base, would it be so quiet on our side? Hoho, even if you don¡¯t trust us, surely you trust the Ji family¡¯s photon processor security system?"

    The same person dragged Old Li by the arm, ready to send him out, and to get him out of his predicament.

    Suddenly, a massive explosion was heard, and everyone froze!

    Ye Chong satisfyingly watched as Johansson¡¯s mech exploded right before his eyes. Under such circumstances, the probability of the mech¡¯s pilot surviving was almost certainly zero!

    With Johansson no more, and the base still ignorant of him, Ye Chong immediately thought of the red-and-silver mech at the lowest level of the basement!

 Chapter 75 - Shang and the Do Kun Stone

    <h4>Chapter 75: Shang and the Do Kun Stone</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The chaotic sight of the base made Ye Chong give up the enticing idea, and took off into the night with the Harmony of the Winter Aria.

    Ye Chong did not disturb Grandpa Qian¡¯s sleep as he tiptoed back to his room. The civilian locks used in the house were a piece of cake for Mu, who could ess the Ji family¡¯s base easily. Ye Chong was only taking advantage of the mech¡¯s abilities!

    Once back home, Ye Chong deployed the Harmony of the Winter Aria and was all over the mech, poking here and there, entirely fascinated with it!

    Harmony of the Winter Aria!

    Ye Chong had increased the height of the ceiling for Mu some time back - if it was not for this, Harmony would have had to crouch in the room to avoid going through the roof, for it was 12 meters tall! The dim blue and ivory white alternating hues had a strong modern technological feel to it, a masterfulbination between science and art! The four double-folded wings on the back were like the wings of arge bird, enabling a more stable and easier flight in the atmosphere. The nifty double-folded design meant that the four broad wings only upied a small space. The edges of the wings shone like the edge of a knife, and one can imagine the effects of impact from the mech¡¯s speedy flight - even slight contact with the wings could split flesh and bones.

    The usually calm and quiet Ye Chong was mightily excited by Harmony¡¯s essories - his expression bloomed like a flower, surprising Mu!

    The sma shield on its left arm could easily deflect pure energy-based attacks such as fromsers and heat rays. For short-ranged mechs, this was the most basic measure against long-ranged attack models. Harmony also had aser sword. While aser sword is a formidable weapon, it was also highly energy consuming. Thus, the effectiveness of the sword is linearly dependent on the capacity of the weapon¡¯s energy cells. The energy cells for theser sword of the Harmony couldst for six hours under maximum capacity of attack!

    Theser sword may be formidable, but it was not the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s main weapon!

    Blue Winter was the name of the archace provided by the photon processor. However, Ye Chong was not particrly interested in the weapon. While he was slightly intrigued by the material of the weapon, its other features did not appeal to him. An archace? A UF maic sword [1] would be far more practical. After all, he had never learned how to use an archace! However, thence was very sharp - it can even prate the armour of ck Cove¡¯s war mech!

    The two auto lock-on double-edged shurikens were Ye Chong¡¯s favourite. Their speed could go up to Mach 10, and were designed much like the maic sword. Ye Chong could imagine the effects of hitting the target with their high rotational speed - the enemy¡¯s mech would fly off in pieces. The wounds left behind would be neither clean nor neat; instead, they would be irregr holes. With the addition of the micro photon processor equipped within, enabling its auto target lock-on mechanism, the weapon can well function on its own after deployment.

    The Ji family was famous for their photon processors, and the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s photon processor was of an exceptional standard. However, the massive amount of information involved demanded a certain level of expertise from its pilot.

    The Harmony of the Winter Aria was also equipped with hummingbird detection devices - up to 5 mechanical hummingbirds could be released into the air, and the maximum scanning radius could reach up to 160.6 kilometers.

    Ye Chong could not help but gasp in admiration, "Mu, this mech is amazing! Ah, is this why you brought me there? How did you know there was such a mech there? Ah, too bad about the red-silver mech, if only I could bring it back somehow. That mech is probably as good as this one!" He was fine with not having the red-silver mech to himself, but the thought of not damaging the mech before leaving filled him with regret!

    Mu was silent throughout their journey home.

    Mu spoke with great sympathy, "Poor Ye, as expected, you still fall within the 9 percent probability of not guessing the state of affairs correctly. However, based on your intelligence, this is but a verymon situation!"

    Mu¡¯s human-like and odd tone surprised Ye Chong, and he immediately realised what was happening. "You¡¯re not Mu! You¡¯re that ¡­"

    Mu spoke in amazement, "Not bad, Ye. That¡¯s right, I¡¯m Shang! From now on, he¡¯s called Mu, and I¡¯m called Shang! This is the result of ourmunication. While I was initially weaker than him by 8 to 11.5 percent, but this difference in strength is gradually narrowing. Now, I am only 5 percent weaker than him, he can no longer suppress me. Of course, the same goes for me, and so we have reached an agreement for each other¡¯s names and schedule of taking over this mech¡¯s consciousness."

    "He is stronger than me," Shang spoke without reserve, "that is without question. His period of taking over should be longer than mine. Based on our calctions, his period will be longer than mine by a tenth. We had decided on ten days as a cycle, which means that starting today, I will be taking over the mech for ten days, and after that, Mu will take over. Of course, his period will be eleven days."

    Ye Chong gaped at the mech, as though he had heard a most unbelievable story.

    Shang was indifferent. "No need to be so shocked, our understanding of each other is much more than your understanding of us. It is only natural for us to reach this agreement!"

    Ye Chong thought of Mu¡¯s words from before, and found that Shang and him were actually not much different, and would not do him harm.

    Shang seemed to read his thoughts. "Don¡¯t worry, Mu and I use the same information database, there¡¯s no need to fret over this matter. The only difference between Mu and I is our performance. Mu is better at calctions, while my forte is emotion analysis. As for other aspects, we are identical, including all matters rted to you!"

    Shang¡¯s long string of words made Ye Chong felt very, very ufortable!

    Ye Chong asked, "Shang, you just said I guessed wrong. Could it be that Mu did not go to the base for this mech?"

    Shang repliedzily, "Of course not. While the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s performance is not bad, it is only slightly better than the white mech and ck Cove¡¯s war mech, and still too limited. It has a fine name, but why would Mu risk you for this mech? His objective is this!" Shang produced the ore found at the very bottom of the basement. Back then, Ye Chong was anxiously making the initial settings for the Harmony and did not notice Mu¡¯s actions.

    Ye Chong held the ore in his hands, curious at the rock about twice the size of his fist.

    The colours changed constantly, glimmering like moving liquid, and none could fail to notice the curiosity. It felt heavy and a little warm in his palms, its smooth surface like the skin of a youngdy, soothing to the touch. At least, that was how Shang described it. Making Ye Chong understand a youngdy¡¯s skin would be harder than producing two PSI [2] in the same photon processor.

    "What is this thing?" Ye Chong asked, intrigued.

    "The Do Kun stone, academically known as tini. Itsposition isplicated, no one has been able to work out its exact constituents till today. Of course, the main reason for that is that it is extremely rare! It has rather unique properties, and while the material¡¯s own physical properties are not that outstanding, it is uniquely suited as an enhancer. With just a little of the Do Kun stone mixed into an alloy, the alloy material¡¯s properties can be greatly enhanced!"

    Ye Chong listened intently. Whether it was the Do Kun stone or tini ore, he had only heard of them for the first time today.

    "The tip of Harmony¡¯s archace was made with a little Do Kun stone mixed in. If not for that, you would not have prated the armour of the ck Cove war mech. Today, thence can breach the armour of more than 95 percent of the mechs out there in the world! And the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s advantage over the ck Cove war mech is due to this archace, because its tip has some Do Kun stone mixed in!"

    Ye Chong did not imagine that the archace that he easily dismissed was the quintessence of the Harmony of the Winter Aria!

    Shang spoke sarcastically, "Too bad none in the Ji family recognised the Do Kun stone, or they would not have carelessly stored this precious material in the basement. Besides, the amount of Do Kun stone in thence was too far off the mark from the ideal material proportion, what a monumental waste!"

    Ye Chong could not help but asked, "So this Do Kun stone is that amazing?"

    "As far as I know, there¡¯s more it can achieve!"

    "The Do Kun stone also has a property known to very few!" Shang paused at that, as if teasing Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was thoroughly absorbed, and asked, "What property?"

    Seeing that he had achieved the goal of hooking Ye Chong¡¯s interest, Shang did not dy his exnation any further, "The Do Kun stone¡¯s most astonishing property is its capacity for self regeneration. Self generation if a fundamental capacity of all living organisms, and for the Do Kun stone as well, but thetter is not a living organism! Of course, its self generating process is far slower than that of the living organisms, its mass increasing by only about 2.3064 percent over a century."

    Ye Chong was unimpressed. "Ah, that¡¯s not very useful, only 2 percent for every hundred years is way too slow!"

    "Self generation is naturally slow, but if you artificially cultivate it, its rate of generation can be significantly increased! Up to a most impressive level! You should know that the Do Kun stone is definitely one of the top five most previous minerals, even a grain of the material is worth a good many gold zuan! I have no idea how the Ji family obtained such arge piece of Do Kun stone, their ignorance is a pity and a blessing for us!" Shang spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

    "Gold zuan? Not interested!" Ye Chong was deted and a little disappointed.

    Shang knew exactly what would entice Ye Chong, and tossed the carrot. "As far as I know, up till now, the best performing mechs have their armour mixed in with Do Kun stone. Hehe, there¡¯s also some ck gold mixed in. Against this alloy material, no mech, not even the ck Cove¡¯s or the MPA¡¯s white mech, can stand against it!"

    "Really?" Ye Chong was pleasantly surprised.

    Note:

    [1] UF maic sword: Ultrafrequency maic sword. A weapon that can cause damage via a very high frequency wave.

    [2] PSI: photon simted intelligence, or the consciousness that arises from the photon processor.

 Chapter 76 - The Alchemist

    <h4>Chapter 76: The Alchemist</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The little tail of the devil wagged on mischievously, "Such alloy is amazingly strong against physical attacks. It also has an outstanding immunity towards beam-based weaponry." The devil carried on tempting his master into this, "The best part is none other than its density, which is astonishingly 1/3 the mass of the lightest alloys currently known for mech-productions. You could easily imagine the terrifying speed it could achieve even with a normal engine from the supermarket."

    Ye Chong was triggered, triggered hard. The desire lustered in his eyes became stronger and stronger.

    As long as it was something rted to machines or mech specifically, Ye Chong would be wholeheartedly attracted.

    "I could conclude that this alloy is the most wonderful choice that would have ever existed in the fantasy for mech-productions. Ye, think about it, if you were to make a mech out of this, who knows¡­ Zzt! Zzzt!" Shang tried to voice exmation through his mechanical beeps which sounded really bizarre to ears.

    Ye Chong did not notice the distorted voice-acting from his partner as his mind was all on that illusionary material before him. If all goes exactly as what Shang had mentioned, that would be lovely!

    Wait¡­

    He pinched himself back to the reality, "So Shang, do you happen to know the form for this alloy?"

    "Well of course." Shang was proud, "I was unable to identify the source of this form, but it seems to have existed in the database a long time ago¡­" His tone sounded confused. "Still most of the data in the folder is badly damaged. Mu and I had tried methods of different kinds for recovery yet it seemed damaged beyond repair."

    He halted for ponders, "However¡­ practically speaking, such amount of Do Kun Stones is insufficient to build a mech," he added.

    Ye Chong stared at the Do Kun Stone of the size of his fists, as he imagined the mech of height about 10 meters. He has a point. Ye Chong nodded approvingly. He knows metallurgy better than me. I only know about mech machineries. If he says so, then so be it!

    He remembered something Shang had stated before, "Shang, did you say that the stones can be cultivated? By using artificial settings to stimte its growth?"

    Shang¡¯s mechanical eyes blinked, "Yes, that is correct. But regarding the exact input for that setting is currently unknown for that part of the data has been destroyed. I only know the fact that Do Kun Stones could be cultivated using a specific kind of methodology. A preset they call it."

    "Preset?" It was the first time Ye Chong heard of this term.

    Ye Chong seemed pretty intrigued and that excited Shang as he finally got the boy¡¯s interests on the outside world, "A preset is the jargon used among the chemists. It is not surprising that you are unaware of such term."

    "Chemists?" Ye Chong was more confused; seemingly this happened to be another of those sses or upations he had never heard before.

    "Or Alchemist some called it. Ye!" Shang¡¯s turned serious in his tone, "There are all sorts of upations in this world. It was never only the Pilot that matters. You know, there are much, much, much more fun out there than being a pilot for a robot like me. If you held interests on nothing than the mechs, then you are missing out a lot!"

    Ye Chong was astounded.

    He looked at Shang, "When the heck did you be such a nagging kind? Oh wait, the non-nagging kind was Mu, since he lectures but he doesn¡¯t nag. So Shang, are you the nagging kind for real? I don¡¯t like the habit of nagging you know. You might be right of what you¡¯ve said, but to me, mech is my ultimate interest and being a pilot for a robot like you is the prime joy to my world!"

    Man, Mu and Shang sure do not just differ by their names.

    "Kaffzzzt! Kaffzzt!" Shang tried synthesizing a sound of cough as he hesitated his response to Ye Chong¡¯s statement. He held up and went silent for a moment. He decided to ignore what Ye Chong had just said, "So, technically, a chemist is the one who cultivates the designated quality or quantity of crops using his or her supreme control over the growth conditions of the said lifeform. It involves biology, developmental biology, chemistry and other scientific studies." It would be better for him to cut the nag and carry on with the lecture, "For instance, we have chemists for spices. They mix some of the cultured solution extracted from the nts of the known spices to obtain spices of a more vibrant or extraordinary vor. The spices they cultivated would be of high quality and there won¡¯t be side-effects from consumption. So they are much more expensive than the chemical food-voring you see in the market." By then Shang believed that Ye Chong would actually consider being an alchemist, "There are also chemists for herbs and food. Most of the consumable products have an alchemist behind the scene; they are very popr among the people, not only because of their premium products, but also¡­"

    Shang¡¯s detailed introduction stopped abruptly.

    "But also¡­?" bewildered Ye Chong, as he asked.

    Shang¡¯s white noises of beeping rang for a while. He thought it through and assumed the following statement would not give Ye Chong effects by any degree, "But also¡­ they are mostly women."

    Women? Ye Chong snorted. So what if they are all women? What has it to do with me?

    Seeing how Ye Chong reacting to his line indifferently, his mechanical voice produced a sigh of relief. It still sounded like distortion though. It was very weird to the ears.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    "Um¡­" Ye Chong went on with something else, "About this Harmony, I still need some time to get used to it, or it would be too passive for me to react if there was something going on." The nature¡¯sw of survival had been imprinted inside Ye Chong¡¯s mind. Adaptability would be his major concern at anytime, anywhere! He had an absolute confidence of his strength, yet he refused to be lighthearted in the outside world.

    He believed that any ce could be a war field and he would be dead for sure if he were to rx for even a millisecond in it. The years on Trash-12 taught him alertness, which did not seem really necessary for his current tranquil daily life however.

    Fortunately Shang did not overheat from his women talk, "Mhm." He nodded, "Yes, that would be much more important. Let¡¯s see. ording to my calction, in about 3 days time, you should be able to know almost everything on this mech. Even though this mech has an underdeveloped appearance, I would suggest you to stick to it for now. The only useful part of this would be the antique firearm I presume, though you can¡¯t master its use at this point for sure. Mu had already started simting and calcting the optimum method to use this firearm. So probably by the next time he shows up, he could give you some advice, since dumping the only good weapon you could have would be a big waste."

    Ye Chong was overjoyed. He was d that Mu was doing the calction for him while he was stuck thinking of a way to use this firearm. Mu¡­ thanks¡­ He was a little touched by his gesture.

    The north of the Jesha zone was a barren - utterly barrennd. It was harsh. It was deserted after the illegal logging activities by the pioneers at the Blue Ocean back then. Since lumbers from an actual natural forest were overpriced in the market, they were willing to destroy the entire habitat to get an exorbitant profit. Eventually thisnd was murdered like the othernds. But this was one of the worst devastations among them.

    The ce was absolutely deserted within tens of thousands kilometer of range. It spent half of the days in heavy sandstorm where one could see nothing as if in total darkness. One¡¯s life could be endangered even when one travelled here in a sturdy mech as location services would be unusable almost all the time. If the location services were unavable to begin with, one could lose the way out and would struggle being blinded by the sandstorm, draining the battery bit by bit as they ran around like mice in a maze. Eventually, they would die due to hunger, fatigue, thirst, whatever cause of death you could name in a desert.

    Such a ce obviously forbade any form of ess, especially explorers on mechs.

    And in that sandstorm, oh my gosh, there was actually silhouette of a mech!

    Ye Chong piloted the Harmony of Winter Aria with caution. Its fairness was tainted by the veils of dust as it inched towards the storm clumsily. The sandstorm would unquestionably hinder the overall performance of a pilot, thus most pilots would keep themselves away from here. However, if one were to travel through this sandstorm, the Harmony would be the model with the best uracy. That was Shang¡¯s suggestion after evaluating various aspects on Harmony of Winter Aria. "It should be good enoug,." hemented as he dragged Ye Chong all the way here for vigorous training.

    It might sounded a bit absurd but Ye Chong eventually agreed to Shang¡¯s theory.

    There was something unique about it.

    Harmony elerated and made a sharp turn. It drew herser sword and charged up dramatically. The ring light wielded like a pale yellow halo in the storm. sh! The sandstorm was cut through. The sma shield on its left arm shifted stance as it toddled quickly with her body tilting left and right. Theser sword struck swiftly like a serpent when Harmony strangely slid to the side. Its giant body stood in the flow of the storm. A pair of homing des crossed out the golden cloak of dirt like lightning. An amazing sight it was! They flew back to Harmony¡¯s hands like swallows to the nest afterwards.

    The input was executed in perfection. It was seamless and unaffected by the weather.

    Ye Chong was satisfied as he saw the happening from the cabin. He would not need that antique firearm even if he were to face an expert like Johansson. The des would be more than enough.

    Kekeke. Shang was proud too when he saw his theory working out after all.

    It was a step towards the victory. Nevertheless when Ye Chong exited the area, the Harmony of Winter Aria had lost its former gorgeousness as it was wrecked by the storm. Piled in dust, it just looked like a st of mud from afar. That was uncalled for. Ye Chong¡¯s eyes went wide like a saucer after climbing out of the cabin. Heughed bitterly. Looks like we have more work to do!

    Well at least the goal of the training had been wlessly aplished! Ye Chong had mastered the control of the Harmony, which was a big relief to him.

    ¡­

    "So regarding chemist, I think I could brief you a little," said Shang kindly on the way home.

    Yeah. "Brief." That¡¯s what he thought. Not me!

    Biology? Developmental Biology? Chemistry? Microbiology? Why is physics involved? Hey, hey, hey! Shang what¡¯s with the huge board? What are you writing? Hold up¡­ Hey!

    Ye Chong was having a headache with Shang¡¯s so-called briefing. The holograms of information literally drowned Ye Chong with Shang''s voice. He tried to stand still, but the lecture was harsher than the storm. His head rumbled and he fell.

    Ugggggghhh¡­

    Oh no! Ye Chong could not hold it any longer! He was moaning in pain!

    "So when you try tobine this form with that, yes, applying this onto the given diagram, assuming we are doing under this condition, substituting the equation with the other theoretical calctions, you''ll get¡­ Ye? Ye? Hello?"

    The symbols¡­ the aliennguages, the scribbles¡­ the graph, the pie chart, the diagram, what? There are also forme?

    It was super effective! Ye Chong fainted!

    "Ye¡­ Ye my boy, someone¡¯s looking for you!" Grandpa Qian¡¯s voice rang like a revtion.

    Ye Chong sprung out of Shang¡¯s cabin and rushed to the front desk. He would not want to spend any extra second with those horrible things in the cabin. It was too much!

    Yang An and Ding Yining were the ones who saved Ye Chong¡¯s life. Yang An skipped the formalities as he sat down, stating the motive of his visit this time. Apparently the academy¡¯s own pilot tournament would start in a few days. So they hoped Ye Chong would be well-prepared and it would be best if Ye Chong could be more cooperative with Yining¡¯s operations in the next few days. Regarding the pay¡­ well it was never a matter to start with.

    What a good opportunity! What a good escape n! While Ye Chong was figuring out a proper excuse to stay away from Shang¡¯s ultimate chemist training program, these two had came! "Yes! Yes! No problem! Certainly!" He nodded his head forcefully and followed Yining home right after. He ran into the storage and asked to begin right away. Ye Chong peeked through the curtains and looked around. Phew! He was safe. And with pleasure, theyunched their operations. Ye Chong was very cooperative, as what he had promised Yang An. Yang An was of course impressed by Ye Chong¡¯s initiatives, though Ye Chong did not seem to care about this guy at the slightest bit.

    Yining was the kind of maniac who would go wild once his hands reached the cogs. It was no doubt that he made the impablebination with Ye Chong who had strong interests in mechs too. Ye Chong never had the chance to realize his hobby till he met Yining and his friends. Now he had tons of toys to mess with. He felt like the happiest man on Blue Ocean, especially knowing that he could avoid Shang¡¯s chemist coursespletely.

    One of them rmended the theory to support the design while the other put the theory into hands. During the process, Ye Chong also sought Yining¡¯s teaching on using these fancy gadgets in his storage and Yining was not shy to bring up all sorts of questions that had been bothering him for long to Ye Chong. They grew on each other. The night was nd. It was only about two men, one interest and a bunch of tools and gears in the house.

    Three more days till the tournament¡­

 Chapter 77 - Whatâ€™s a Beauty?

    <h4>Chapter 77: What¡¯s a Beauty?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was daybreak. Ye Chong woke up from his bed as he recalled the happiest night before, where he and Yining had a long session of conference tillte-night. The hands-on experience was great and he had familiarized himself with somemon gadgets under Yining¡¯s guidance. He had nailed a fair control of strength output, with precision the apparatuses danced in his hands as he drifted through the parts. Such efficiency was also because of the vast theoretical knowledge he had learned from his adventure, which appeared to be rather striking to Yining as he watched. "Such a talent!" he eximed in envy. Of course, after being thoroughly tortured by the elders at Aurora back then, Ye Chong¡¯s assumed A to Z in his mind was more than advanced to a school boy like Yining. He expressed deep admiration towards Ye Chong¡¯smand in mechs. And he believed he would punch anyone who would dare to criticize Ye Chong being uneducated! If there was one that is¡­

    Ye Chong started his day off early, simply because the to-do list for the day was long. He had to knead dough - tons of them - as he nned to have the noodles readied beforehand. "That was my idea!" Shang calcted an estimated timing based on the fermentation pattern to let the noodles set so they would taste the same as freshly kneaded ones while Ye Chong could buy himself more time. The pattern was generalized. "There was a theory somewhere," added Shang as Ye Chong pounded the dough. Well, only Shang could be this bored to carry out standard research from problem statement, hypothesis and all the way to the conclusion. Mu would never bother doing these. Ye Chong smiled. The hypothesized Shang¡¯s theory of early-kneading-equals-immediate-kneading still requires a test. So Ye Chong did as what Shang suggested and it actually worked! "It has to work. Kekekekeke!" and Shang¡¯s beeping chuckles resounded the whole day.

    Mu and Shang sure aren¡¯t even from the same family. I could tell.

    Thought Ye Chong.

    I finally understood why Shang imed that he had a more active mood matrix than Mu. Inparison with Mu, Shang is more humanized, more human-liked practically, though he was much weirder¡­ But Ye Chong got used to it after spending some time with Shang, especially when he treated both of them as ¡­ partners? Friends? Brother. Hmm, yeah, brother! Regarding what would the difference of a brother and a friend, Ye Chong whocked the experience to it was rather puzzled. "Still, who cares? There¡¯s not much of a need to draw lines between everything!" he nodded.

    Mu once stated that Shang had existed in the mech way back. Thus, he should be the former ruler of this mech. However, Shang had lost most of the data and the remaining data was unreadable, which made Mu¡¯s statement unjustifiable.

    What kind of a person Shang was before this?

    He wondered.

    After pummeling enough noodles for the day, he put them in sequence ording to the time he made them. Regarding this he had also informed Grandpa Qian the day before. As long as he took the noodles out in ordance with the sequence, the customers would hardly taste a difference. Grandpa Qian was too delighted hearing about Ye Chong¡¯s outing for the day. "Youngsters should always step out of theirfort zone, explore and conquer. Just leave. Don¡¯t waste your time hogging the shop for an elderly like me," he said.

    After his daily task had ended, he worked out a little. He had hit his limits again. It seemed like he would not make another breakthrough and grow further unless a new training method could be found.

    Ye Chong waved his right arm. He was astonished! The shape of his arm did not look as bulky as before. Oh no, could it be a degeneration of muscles? Apparently if he was not making any improvement, he would regress instead. It seems like the daily training program could not be ignored. I should keep my body at its best everyday. He thought to himself and quickly sat down to work out.

    He repented for neglecting his body while waiting for Yang An and his friends at the entrance of the shop.

    And here they came! Ke Han was looking good. It looked like he had an immense fun piloting Gliding Joy designed by Ye Chong. His gestures conveyed high level of confidence as he stated that his hand-on experience with mech speeding had profoundly improved. "Can¡¯t help it. Our team just so happened to pick an anomaly of mechanics from nowhere to do the modification. Hehehehe!" he snickered. "Our luck is quite an anomaly too!"

    "Not Ye Chong¡¯s," said Yang An as he took a nce at what Ye Chong was wearing. He frowned slightly. It was not even an outfit to begin with. He wanted to point that out but ¡­ thinking about their rtionship, he held his fire. Technically what Ye Chong dressed in was one of the old clothes "donated" by Grandpa Qian. And those were some of the oldest threads one could find on the. Seeing that kind of clothing Ye Chong was in with that cold face of his, any boys and girls, men and women could just run away. However, Ye Chong did not seem to be aware of such issue of his appearance. He was only aware of whether his clothing would affect any of his intensive movements, like fighting an alien from outer space barehanded for example, which he would have cared if the clothing was restricting his action.

    Xuelin among the group took a disdainful look and sighed as she turned her head away. Poor Xiu her cousin gently pulled Xuelin¡¯s sleeve a few times, pleading her to stop acting mean and be kind. "Um¡­ Ye." She spoke softly to Ye Chong, "I think¡­ your¡­ your clothing doesn¡¯t ¡­ doesn¡¯t seem right. Ho-How about we get you to Xuelin¡¯s ce to g-get you some¡­ some other clothes? I think uncle sh-should have a more fitting outfit for you. Could you¡­ please¡­ ch-ch-change it?"

    What¡¯s wrong with my outfit? Ye Chong was bewildered. He lifted his arms, then his legs, his shoulders,stly his knees. All seems fine, they aren¡¯t blocking my movements. "It¡¯s okay." He tly rejected the offer.

    "Yeah, like pouring your kindness into the drain would totally work. Xiu, let him be!" Xuelin snorted once more.

    Towards Xuelin¡¯s ill-mannered statement, Ye Chong reacted with indifference, as if he never heard Xuelin¡¯s words. Well, strictly speaking, he did fail to hear her because Shang suddenly got into his head out of nowhere.

    "Ye! Ye! Jajajajajaja!" Shang got all excited, "Man! That¡¯s some beauties you know there! How could you not mention this to me? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Mu is such an unromantic intelligence without sentiments fordies. How could he never think of scanning these beauties from 360 degrees and keep them as 3D holograms securely in all eternity at our database? What a waste to the natural resources! Look at them, Ye! They are gorgeous! They are beautiful! They are magnifique! Sch?n! Especially thatss with the long hair. Hey, Ye Chong!" His voice became serious, "How about you get the girl? Mr. Ye Chong."

    "Get the¡­ what?" Ye Chong was on the other frequency.

    "Get the girl! G-i-r-l!" Shang¡¯s engine had been initiated, charging up, "Yes, go after her! Get to her and give me your best pickup line! Then¡­" and heughed lustfully.

    "Go after her?" Ye Chong did not understand, "You mean we hunt her down? Why would I want to hunt her down? How do I even go after her when she¡¯s not even running? Also, do we use cannons if we were to go after her? But we don¡¯t have a cannon right now. Hmm, though we could produce one with modification. But why? She does not seem to threaten our lives in any form. You mean I, myself? You aren¡¯t involved? That doesn¡¯t make sense! Mu told me not to simplymit a murder without a proper motive. And we need to do it in stealth!" He lifted his head and red at Xiu, "If you personally identified some threats from her, it would be the best if we do it at night." His sight was cold, bloodthirsty indeed, scaring Xiu who ran like a littlemb and hiding underneath Xuelin¡¯s dress.

    Shang¡¯s previous libidinousughter got choked up out of sudden, as if Ye Chong¡¯s statement strangled him, "Ye¡­ Ye¡­ Don¡¯t tell me¡­ You could kill, even if it was a beauty like this."

    "Well¡­" Ye Chong nonchntly replied, "It all depends on whether she¡¯s threatening to us in the first ce. What has it to do with her being a beauty? Also¡­"

    Ye Chong sincerely asked.

    "What¡¯s a beauty?"

    This was breathtaking. No! It was groundbreaking! Shang shrieked in his mind.

    "Oh! My! Gosh!" Shang screamed, "What had that damned Mu done to you? How could he teach an innocent boy like you to be a sadistic man in a rtionship? No, it¡¯s no longer a man. It¡¯s a beast! Oh my Fal gxy! Ye, at this rate, your future would be very dark! Beauty? How could you not know what a beauty is? Ye, you have one job! One job!! If you don¡¯t aplish it, you are ruined, forever!"

    He grieved, sighed, gasped and stayed quiet. If he was on screen, he should be looking at the sky, asking why the sky was so high.

    "Anyway, a beauty means a beautiful woman," Shang exined out of salvation for the poor boy.

    "Beautiful? How do we identify if they are beautiful?" Ye Chong asked.

    And that was another trigger to kindle Shang¡¯s hopelessness. He beeped, "Beauties are some of the fairestdies of them all. Their expressions are always priceless, a scenery to behold, whether they got mad at you, theyugh with you, they grew on you or they were hurt by you. It is never about their faces that defines beauty. It is about their charm." The life lesson had started again as Shang went on passionately, "The captivity in their eyes. Oh, their expressive eyes with fervor rolling like a fire, it¡¯s enchanting. Also, they shouldn¡¯t look too perfect. wless women aren¡¯t the fairest. They should have something broken somewhere in their heart. That would be the ultimate soft spot for men, the pole to salute upon. Tsk, tsk, tsk, thesses before you aren¡¯t the fairest, but they would be in a few years. Hahahaha!" he burst outughing sciously again.

    "I can¡¯tpute this," Ye Chong shook his head.

    Ugh! Shang¡¯s chuckle got interrupted another time. He stayed speechless for some time, pondering how to exin it in Ye Chong¡¯snguage. Aha! It took him awhile to spit this out, "As long as you feel easy to look at her the whole time." How about that? That¡¯s the simplest I could think of.

    "Then they aren¡¯t even beauties to begin with," stated Ye Chong unconcernedly.

    "Oh?" Shang was intrigued, "Does that mean you have a higher standard ondies? So tell me, Ye. What¡¯s considered a beauty in your mind?"

    He thought for a while and gradually he spat his description, "They shouldn¡¯t be too buffed. That would affect their action speed. But they can¡¯t be too slender too. The muscles should be there for explosive performance. Hmm, they shouldst long in the field too. They must also be flexible, master inbats and havepetent knowledge and skills in mech. They should not be weaker than me and they should be a decisive fighter whounches strike immediately. Better if they could do a one hit K.O. They have to be alert. It would be best if they also happened to be an ace in mech piloting. So¡­ generally speaking, the girls in front of me do not fulfill any of my requirements. So they aren¡¯t beauties. Don¡¯t try to argue with me on Xuelin¡¯s mech skills; those aren¡¯t even skillful for starters," concluded Ye Chong his insights.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "Shang?"

    Shang was utterly stupefied!

    It took him a few seconds to make an appropriate response. Moaned, he spoke on, "Holy Fal Gxy! Ye, you are a monster! You want the girls to race with you? Do you think all women in this world could hack as good as you? Master inbats? You want to have a one-on-one with her¡­?"

    "Yeah, why not?"

    If there was a screen, Shang should be palming his face. He nearly fainted hearing Ye Chong¡¯s assurance. "One-on-one. I knew it! Decisive fighter, able to strike a one-hit K.O., don¡¯t you fear she would kill you identally?"

    "As long as I¡¯m more alert whenever I deal with her, it should not happen," Ye Chong replied calmly.

    "What if one day you aren¡¯t alert enough to prevent that from happening?" Shang asked on as he could not give up just yet!

    "Nope. I would stay alert enough all the time. Till the day I die. If I could not stay alert enough, isn¡¯t normal for me to die too?" the answer came tly as Ye Chong muttered in his mind.

    That reply almost brought tears to Shang¡¯s mechanical eyes, "I guess so! Ye! Gosh! You are just a freak you know that?"

    "Freak?" Ye Chong was confused. "What¡¯s a freak?"

    It was pretty impressive that Shang had yet gone short-circuit from the conversation he had with Ye Chong. He was about to reply Ye Chong when Yang An suddenly howled.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind came back to reality. He found Yang An¡¯s face all pale as he shut down hismunication device. Everyone looked at him in dismay. He inhaled deeply, collected his thoughts and tried to reproduce what he heard. "Ning¡¯s parents said Ning was attackedst night when he was out for some grocery!"

    "What?!"eximed everyone at once, except for Ye Chong.

    "Is he okay? How¡¯s the injury?" Xuelin asked.

    "It shouldn¡¯t be an issue." Yang An shook his head, "But he has to take a break for the next few days; he¡¯s not gonna make it for the tournament today¡­"

    "Dammit!" Ke Han jumped and stomped the ground angrily, almost rampaging, "It has to be Jeb Luo that rat! That dirty rat! Damn! I saw Green-Head and those twerps loitering at Ning¡¯s ce! Hell it has to be them! I¡¯ll breaktheir legs!" Ke Han pulled his sleeves and stampeded his way out. "Wait!" Yang An grabbed Ke Han hurriedly. It was supposed to be him stopping Ke Han, however Ke Han¡¯s strength was obviously of another level to Yang An. Eventually Yang An got dragged away instead. Xuelin ran over to help holding back the thrashing bull. It took them quite some work to settle him down.

    Meanwhile Ye Chong was criticizing on how the attack was pointless. Hmph, fools! Nobody shed their intent to attack this early! What a failure!

    They tried calming down, but they really could not. Without Ding Lining and with Ye Chong alone, their victory seemed far-fetched. Nevertheless, it was also far-fetched to find someone who held mechanical skills as good as Yining to rece him. They had witnessed how Yining materialized Ye Chong¡¯s ideas these few days. Yining could not be reced! He was more important than anyone else.

    But now Yining is down, what should we do?

    Time passed slowly and yet they were in such a hurry, except for Ye Chong, who assumed himself as an employee to this team. These were not of his concern.

    As they realized they did not have much time left, Yang An bit his teeth, asking, "Ye, is it possible that you couldplete this modification with Ning¡¯s assistance?"

    "Hmmm¡­" He thought for a moment and said, "The possibility is about 80%." Wondered if he was affected by Mu, as he started to express most of the things in figures.

    "That¡¯s more than enough!" Yang An was delighted. "Then, would you please?"

    "I haven¡¯t done it yet." Ye Chong spoke on, "It¡¯s possible. But I charge extra for that. 2500 Zuan per hour!"

    "That is daylight robbery!" Xuelin rushed to him, "You! You! You dirty robber! Do you know what you are doing?"

    Ye Chong was puzzled by her reaction. He asked in his mind, "So Shang, what¡¯s wrong if I charge more for the extra work that I do?" Shang was still in the shock from their conversation before, heboriously replied, "Nothing. Nothing¡¯s wrong with that."

    He raised his brows and ignored Xuelin who was knotting her brows and titling her lips. His eyes were fixed on Yang An.

    "Fine!" Yang An ground his teeth and replied, "Deal!"

 Chapter 78 - Last One Standing

    <h4>Chapter 78: Last One Standing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was shifting to the venue with the rest of the members. Xuelin could not resist doing her signature eye-rolling at Ye Chong. She just wanted to keep her so-called "attitude" because Ye Chong was putting up an attitude with her and her friends too. Though her pupils might be rolling into the abyss in her head anytime soon, Ye Chong was not reacting since her so-called "attitude" was considered too unthreatening for him to make a move.

    "Here it is," Yang An introduced the very building of their academy.

    It was an awe-inspiring building.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not seem impressed while Xuelin carried on spitting her tongue with Cousin Xiu kindly advising her to stop it.

    The main building was a foundation of about 800 floors tall - shaped like a gigantic circr beehive, with countless mechs flying into the openings from time to time like flocks of hos.

    The mechs were the main transportation on the at that time. It was a century of technological advancement. However, it did not mean that people had given up traveling by foot. In fact, there were a handful of students who retained walking as part of their routine and so were the people around. Pedestrians would never disappear because of some fancy technologies hovering everywhere above them as they strolled to their destination in leisure, admiring the view around them. And on this very, the Blue Ocean Academy was the one-and-only, one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-blue-moon institute that epassed multiple dimensions of mechanical expertise. They hadpiled the syble and remastered the structure, which provided an efficient and effective learning experience. The Blue Ocean government also showed tremendous support in founding this establishment and keeping it running.

    Certainly, the Blue Ocean Academy did not fail their supporters as they finally made it into the top 100 academies in 5 major gxies the year beforest. They made it with a crash, like a charging chariot of schrs into the hall of the wisest fame, bing the pride and admiration of residents on Blue Ocean.

    The schoolpound was as wide as a state. Well, technically, Blue Ocean had only 4 states. One could imagine how tremendous the government¡¯s support to the academy was.

    There were trees. Yes, trees! The long-extinct trees due to illegal logging could actually be found in the academy! They were well-taken care of too! Lumbers were the luxury in the market, the price was astronomical even for a piece of lumber with a diameter merely about 10 centimeters. Let alone a living tree, there where Ye Chong stood,y a hugend of forest before him. Imagine the price of this forest! It was a much more rewarding investment than any other traditional property. As the age of the trees increased, the price would increase steadily too. It was just like wines, but thousands of bottles of them! And they did not need an appraiser to determine their value!

    The enrollment was approximately 500,000 students, with arge number of theming froms far, far away.

    As Ye Chong and his happy-go-luckypanions trekked on, he saw many students passing by, with most of them having an active discussion of the uing tournament. They seemed exceedingly excited. Ye Chong the usual indifferent one could understand their excitement. I mean, thousands and thousands of mechs soaring in the sky, do you know how grand the sight would be? Thought Ye Chong.

    Obviously the tournament had became the star of the day, as a Pilot was the representation of power in this time. Being the freest individual voyaging in the gxy, they never failed to amaze the people not only with their skills, but also with the epic tales of their adventure. They were like the rangers, conquering the unknown; they were like the acrobats, agile yet bold. Their stories were colored by romance, branded by will. Their heroic appearance was also further reinforced as publicized by the government. The dauntless ideology of a pilot was popr among the lively youngsters. And most importantly the demonstration of their skills had be a dazzling entertainment to behold without fail. Apuse came roaring like the waterfall; their names were shouted by the crowd. And of course, any big fans of the mechanism would not simply miss the tournament this time just to have a moment of happiness ncing at the strangest mech one could ever have seen and the greatest creativity a mech modification technician could have.

    The adrenaline surged every stream of Ye Chong¡¯s veins under his skin. Ye Chong looked calm but his emotion grumbled, urging him to get moving. It was his first time seeing such a magnificent view.

    And that awe in him slowly transformed into envy. He grew envious of these students. It must be wonderful to be able to study and live here since young. But¡­ He discarded the thought entirely. It was not him to be sentimental of trivial things like this. Everyone had their own path to go. He understood the rule of life well.

    Despite being in quite a naive environment, Ye Chong kept his alertness as he tried his best to maintain a set of distance away from people, which made him appear a little sociopathic in the crowd. Nheless, a crowd was still a crowd. It was so packed that Ye Chong¡¯s effort of keeping a distance from people became meaningless and unfulfilled. The situation to him was not foreign, however, he could only cope with helplessness. A ce like this would bring utter murder in his viewpoint. It would practically be the most dangerous, the best ce for assassination. He strongly believed that if he were tomit a murder in a crowd like this, he would hardly be noticed.

    "Hey!" A question popped up in his mind out of sudden, "Yang An, so, why haven''t you thought of employing an actual mod technician, like¡­ the real deal?"

    "The school was fine with outsiders participating in the tournament. But with one condition - the age of the participant must be less than 25. In a simpler term, we have to find a technician younger than that. And a mech modification technician aged less than 25? That¡¯s the catch. Only a genius could be an official technician before they turned 25. And there are not more than 10 geniuses in the entire Fal Gxy," exined Yang An.

    Yang An could be rifying the scenario in an dramatic and borative way, but Ye Chong did not really care of how he said. He''s got the point anyway, and he was very much aware of the reason behind such condition.

    Surely if he were to justpare himself with the certified mod technicians out there, he would not feel much of how outstanding a mere 25-year-old official mechanic could be. He was only 20 too. But wonder how his mindset would change if he ever knew the fact that a normal mod technician would already be 28 by the time of graduation. They had a stern assessment for this title. The students had to take up further education after they graduated. After they had passed that, they had to undergo an internship for about 2 years. And they strictly could not produce any form of inuracies (or mistakes) of more than 5% of the entire timeframe of performance. Only then they would be officially bestowed with the title. So a normal mod technician would be at least 33 years old.

    Well, as what Yang An had mentioned, while it sounded literally impossible to be a recognized mod technician before 25, there were geniuses. If you happened to have some revolutionary theory or invention that actually got the attention of the 5 major gxies¡¯ prominent organizations and they gave you the recognition while you passed the assessment by the Mod. Technician Association (MTA), you could skip all the way to internship. If you also sessfullypleted your internship without making mistakes of more than 3% in the period, you would be certified right away.

    This was some exclusive standard beyond the SOP that had attracted tons of experts from everywhere in the gxy. They were serious, like dead-serious, that to the senior group , this tournament was as significant as their year-end assessment to get their certification. As for the junior group, they were highly participative, willing to challenge their limits. Some might have argued that it did not sound that serious but these students were the kind who would head out and hunt for experts from other schools or even the hermits hidden in the viges outside, all just to win the tournament. This led to the interaction between schools to exchange ideology and inventive methodology, all for the advancement of the academy. It was part of the Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s n as the school would also pay the outsiders handsomely to encourage enrollment, especially to those geniuses who learned everything themselves yet concealing themselves among the people.

    Every potential counts!

    That was the vision of the academy.

    Ye Chong entered the building with Yang An¡¯s gang. There were still a little bit more time till their turn.

    Oh?

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes detected something fun. He went to the spectator¡¯s area. It was the race, the race of flight. It was surprisingly as intense as thebat between mechs he had spectated back then. The zooming velocity to the finale of speed of war in the sky, the sonic boom caused by the friction as the mechs shredded the air with theirpelling momentum, the whirlwind that veiled a screen of sand as they passed by, the scream from the people in thrill; those were blood-boiling to Ye Chong as his hands grabbed the metal fence tight.

    "Time to go," Yang An said as he hauled Ye Chong away from the spectator¡¯s area to a walkway with a te written the number "5" at the entrance.

    A touch-screen processor projected in a hologram stood there at the side. "Your I.D." Yang An motioned with his hands.

    Ye Chong took the card out from his pocket. "Put it in," pointed Yang An to the slot.

    The hologram screen changed its interface as soon as Ye Chong inserted his card to the processor. A number of windows of Ye Chong¡¯s biography popped up.

    Name: Ye Chong

    Age: 20

    That was all it mattered. At the age section, it clearly wrote "20". Definitely nothing should go wrong at this point. Yang An let off a sigh of relief. It looked like all his anxiousness could finally get on hold.

    "Oh and pick ¡®external¡¯ at the ¡®participant type¡¯ section!" reminded Yang An.

    Beep! The mechanical voice rang, "Ye Chong, age, 20, external participation fulfilled the condition, please select the participating title."

    This was simple. Ye Chong just picked "mech modification technician" himself without Yang An¡¯s nagging reminder.

    "Please input the index number of the participating group."

    ¡­

    Yang An stayed silent. Ye Chong was thinking just when he really needed a reminder, the person kept his mouth shut. Only after he gave a stare for a moment, Yang An hastily recited the group¡¯s index number, "That¡¯d be HL659874!"

    Thud! Thud! Thud! ¡­ Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

    ¡­ Ye Chong checked the input for a few times. Yup, that was right! And he pressed "Enter", "Congrattions! Registrationpleted!" the voice rang.

    The registration process of Blue Ocean Academy was easy and hassle-free. This was to encourage participation of nonmembers.

    "Alright. This walkway is where you would enter to get your show on. For now, calm down, collect your thoughts, muster your courage and skills because you are on your own without Yining. You are thest man standing, you know?"

    "Okay," a typical disybic reply from Ye Chong came tly.

    Ye Chong adjusted his breathing pattern ordingly. He was trying to calm himself to a point where he would feel serene yet a little worked up at the same time. And this! This is the battle! A war! And Ye Chong would not have letups for any waring by! It was for his survival! 100% effort for 100% survival rate! The faith Ye Chong had in his battle!

    Both of them actually waited for half an hour. It could be the longest 30 minutes for any 20-year-old newbie in the business but Ye Chong was not acting impatient. He was not agitated too. And Yang An was again impressed by Ye Chong¡¯s mental rity.

    Beeeep! The electronic voice announced, "HL659874! Group HL659874, please have your mech modification technician, Mr. Ye Chong ready. Your match is beginning in 5 minutes. Kindly prepare yourself!"

    "Well¡­" Yang An sounded worried, "Yining is not here¡­ and I have no idea how the interior looks like. But¡­ you know, just go in and do what you are good at!"

    Ye Chong nodded his head.

    The 5 minutespsed like seconds. Ding-dong!

    "The match shall start immediately. Mech modification technician of Group: HL659874, HL659874, kindly enter the room right away."

    Ye Chong went right in front of the door.

    Zzzzzt!

    "Scanpleted! Identity: Ye Chong, verified. Biography, matched! Please proceed."

    The two-paneled door slid open both sides in a hush. And right after he entered through the door, there was another door. The door only opened after the one at his back went shut.

    Ye Chong casually stepped into the room.

    The previous match had ended a moment ago and undeniably it was a remarkable performance, where the audience¡¯s apuse still roared inside the room as they anticipated the next contestant. Hologram screens projecting visuals in high-definition were everywhere in the schoolpound of various sizes going from screens as huge as 100 meters to screens as tiny as 10 centimeters. Whether it was a huge or tiny screen, there was no doubt that there would be hordes surrounding it. The Blue Ocean Academy held the tournament open to spectators who also wanted to join along the fun, but the entire event was not live on the media. This meant that if you wanted to watch the show, you had toe here by yourself. And of course, with the academy¡¯s reputation, people woulde flocking for the show of the year. The annual poption of spectators was always as grand as the tournament itself.

    The screens would cast the contestants from all angles. The camera skills were absolutely mind-blowing - they never failed to capture the best moments of every contestant which they would rey and cause exmation among the crowd.

    At the spectator¡¯s area, Xiu gripped Xuelin¡¯s sleeve nervously. Her crystal-clear eyes searched that very silhouette she recognized on the screens. Ke Han had already hit the ground running, preparing for his turn. Yang An on the other hand was guarding at the entrance of walkway No. 5, remaining the poor girls at the seats watching everything restlessly.

    "The match will begin in T-5"

    "4"

    "3"

    The figure rolled on the screen.

    "2"

    "1"

    At the next moment, the screens were full of sparks and embers as the contestants jumped themselves on the machineries before them with tools in their hands.

    The angles were ever-changing. The eyes were too busy watching.

    Out of the blue, the audience cried out almost simultaneously, stirring up a fiasco in Blue Ocean Academy as the few hundreds of thousands of people roared on. And at one point, they stopped, like a sudden brake of the racing horses. They engulfed their scream as their eyes were all fixed on that silhouette on one screen.

    The crowd went dead silent.

 Chapter 79 - Itâ€™s Showtime I

    <h4>Chapter 79: It¡¯s Showtime I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s match began as soon as he set foot into the mod room. He calibrated his body and his senses. Yes, calibration, one of the intriguing character settings Ye Chong had for his survival, or "adjustments" some called it, a foreign environment could always give Ye Chong a strong sense of vignce. Even though realistically there would not be any threat in the securely sealed room, he carried on doing it as part of his instinct. As mentioned, it was not a "skill" that could be toggled on and off by will. It was a "setting" reurring on him. His frigid stare toured the room.

    The truth is, Ye Chong had no idea that all his actions were fully captured by the cameras inside the room. Everyone could see even his slightest gesture through the hologram screen.

    His "calibration" might appear as insignificant as gestures, but it did raise some exmations in the crowd. They sprung from their seats unnervingly then they realized how embarrassingly they just acted as they fell back to their ces quickly. Their eyes rolled, all fixed on that particr screen with Ye Chong, looking intrigued as they smiled.

    At the other corners of the spectator¡¯s area, some of them stood up as well. They too looked surprise through the flicks of their eyes.

    Ye Chong observed his surrounding carefully.

    It was a room of about 300 meters long and 100 meters broad. A huge room where all sorts of parts needed to build a mech were ced along with a processor at the center.

    Beep!

    The processor prompted, "You may use all the parts provided in this room. To begin, submit your design here at the processor. You have 45 minutes toplete the entire modification process. If you failed toplete the modification process in the time allocated, marks would be deducted ordingly. Also, the pilot of your group would be piloting an R-1 default mech toplete the uing race instead."

    He started inspecting the parts on the ground. Wow! He was astounded. He had to admit that the Blue Ocean Academy did have some money in their pockets. Even the parts in the mod room alone could cost dearly and they replenished the parts for every participant. Imagine the expenditure just to sustain the matches!

    Wonder how Ye Chong would react if he knew that the category he took part in was only one of the 32 categories in the whole academy.

    Well, there¡¯s always time for that but not now.

    Ye Chong calmed his mind.

    His sharp eyes discerned every scattered parts on the ground. He had remembered them by heart. He pondered for a moment and then strode towards the processor in the middle of the room. Standing before the processor, under the bright spotlights, he grimly submitted his design n.

    At the broadcasting room, people had been as busy as bees. Due to the overwhelming poption of contestants, the audience should be perplexed identifying the contestants on the screens and they should also be puzzled picking contestants to watch and to cheer. This issue became the studio¡¯s responsibility to resolve. The broadcaster had to givementaries to exin the senses behind the participants¡¯ mech designs to keep the audience entertained and not be swamped by jargons and ambiguity in certain behaviors by the participants - the hows and whys. Furthermore, in every mod room there would be one staff who observed the happenings and reported the striking moment of the contestants immediately to the central studio while the central studio selected the better ones to roll on the main hologram screens. In a nutshell, everything concerns one factor - speed. Move fast! Move faster! Move fastest! The audience wants to see sweat! Tears! Passion! Love! Diligence! Move! Move! Move!

    The executive director behind the scene for the tournament this year was Rui Su, the vice president of the Broadcasting course.

    Rui Supleted her studies in broadcasting course of Blue Ocean Academy at the age of 23. Additionally, she obtained her recognition from the senior director with her academic paper titled "The Theory of Usage of Motion in a Mutual Rtionship with Limited View" which only took her 1 year to finalize, and hence bing the youngest executive director in the history of Blue Ocean Academy. In the second year of her career, which happened to be this year, the academy requested her to take over the position of the vice president of the Broadcasting course.

    Without doubt, this was Rui Su¡¯s first ever Blue Ocean Academy Tournament directing job.

    The silky long dark hairid on her shoulders gently like a small stream of waterfall on a silent night, while her eyes shone in clear sapphire like the puddle of seawater in the tender fondle. The beauty of the sea lustered in her charm, as if one could feel the sea literally just by standing next to her - the tranquillity, the serenity. Her skin was fairer than winter¡¯s snow; her face was polished like the jades, adorned with the tiny pair of lips, in a scarlet glow which brought up an epic beauty crafted in the finest manner. The curves on her body was beyond well-proportioned and would stimte with the slightest turn.

    Unquestionably, every part of her could be the best view for a man - angelic and eye-healing.

    Everyone thought the same the first moment they saw her, till the view actually copsed right onto their faces; they learned something for the day. The fiercest storm always starts with the sweetest rain.

    "Are you guys retarded? Did all of you sleep through your lectures back then? You can¡¯t even carry out the simplest order! I''m telling all of you, if you are ever capable to mess up my work this time¡­ Hmph! You are just as capable as repeating your subjects for this semester! I¡¯m just impressed by how you guys have the balls to ck right in front of me. Do you wish to die right here and right now? Hey!" Her methrower aimed at one of the students passing by, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Wang Xiao¡¯er! Are your eyes peeled and your ears opened? Do you want me to do it for you instead? Move yourzy bottom and get the job done! You have been a good student in the past. Why are you actingid like you¡¯re a freshman who doesn¡¯t know anything about broadcasting on such an important event today? Did your willy just grow inwards? Are you still a man? Can you get hard?" her voice raised the tempest, filled with wrath and corrosive words.

    Wang Xiao¡¯er¡¯s slender body shivered under the howling voice of the devil in the studio. No one else could lend a hand to him because they were running away. However, because of her howls, everyone acted much quicker.

    Rui Sui grumbled as she sat down, "What a bunch ofplete retard! They can¡¯t even help me out at a moment like this! What did I do to deal with all these? These Year 1 students are dumber than donkeys. They have at least studied their basics, yet they are acting like they are on their first day in the academy. Why don¡¯t we just employ donkeys to do the work for us instead? It helps in saving the academy¡¯s expenditure." She might have sounded harsh but her charm never fades.

    Out of the blue, a shriek from Wang Xiao¡¯er resounded throughout the pack of students rushing in the studio. And that was thest straw to Rui Su¡¯s temper outburst, "Wang! Xiao! Er! Do you really want to die today? I could grant your wish you know! You were a good boy! Well! Not anymore! I can¡¯t believe you are brave enough to create another mess to the job today!" It was just a step before sheunched her whirlwind kickbo at the paperback Wang Xiao¡¯er. Nheless, she held it back as she knew that if she ever did her signature diving kick, with her strength, the paper Wang Xiao¡¯er would be shredded on spot.

    And she retreated her lifted legs.

    The undelivered final blow did shock Wang Xiao¡¯er for a few seconds, then his pale cheeks shuddered as he screamed in shaking voice, "Sister,e and take a look at this!" he pointed at the screen before him.

    Rui Su forbade the students to greet her as "teacher" or "madam" or weak names like "Ms. Rui Su". Those would truly make her sound dramatically older she imed. Thus, everyone should only greet her as "Sister".

    "Wang Xiao¡¯er!" She walked towards the quivering boy on his seat, mumbling, "If this is one of your stupid tricks to get away from your trouble today, you better be either picking a morgue or a hospital to stay in."

    She was mumbling, till she mmed on the front desk before the screen. She zipped her mouth and stared the screen with focus. That was her personality when she went into work mode - professional and fully concentrated.

    It was as if she was possessed. Upon having a closer look at what was going on in the screen, her eyes erged, wide like the saucers!

    She went in utter silence for the next few seconds and had an inertia as she came back. The impact from the screen scorched her feet as she jumped up high and stormed to her seat, hurrying the boy, "Wang Xiao¡¯er! Quick! Get the channel over here!"

    "Yes," replied Wang Xiao¡¯er.

    The audience at the spectator¡¯s area noticed iting suddenly. All the screens were only projecting at one particr person.

    The contestant from Mod Room No.5!

    "Ah!" Xuelin and Cousin Xiu screeched together after realizing who it was. Cousin Xiu covering her little mouth in disbelief along with Xuelin who had her mouth widely open.

    Mod Room No.5! That would be Ye Chong!

    Before their astonishment settled down, the audience in the entire row of the spectators area jumped up hurrahing. Rui Su actually had switched all the screens in the schoolpound to the visual at Mod Room No.5!

    And that was when few hundred thousands of spectators in the whole campus saw an unforgettable scene for their lives!

    On the screen the man waved his hands like a magician. In full focus, his hands slid the parts under like a breeze on a spring. Well that description did not sound that apuse-worthy, since all mod technicians had to master that trick!

    It was not the trick. It was his hands! Ye Chong¡¯s hands!

    Ye Chong finally demonstrated the frightening speed of his hands, the first time in the public, right in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Sadly he was not aware of what an amazing achievement he had just aplished. Revealing his only deadly capability to the entire world. If only he knew what actually happened, he would be jumping off the building.

    To Ye Chong, revealing the arsenal of his abilities was no more than suicidal.

    Ye Chong literally had no idea that his actions would be wholly broadcasted throughout the academy. Without the help of Yining, that was what he could only do. To make use of his abilities to the fullest! With great concentration! Being entirely engaged to the process, he did not see how fearsome his speed was.

    His hands were so agile that they do not feel belonged to a human. The afterimages of his movements were faint yet still recognizable. Nobody questioned its authenticity.

    The space, was soundless.

    Everyone watched on and was barely hushing.

    The sky of the quiet campus echoed with the excited voices of thementaries, "Holy Fal Gxy! In what Blue Ocean world are those pair of hands! Such a scary speed on a mod technician, enough to terrify the students from the Piloting course hiding back into their cabins! With such a speed, what could still be impossible to our fine contestant? Oh? Hmm¡­ Yes, yes." Thementator lowered his voice as the sound of paper ruffling came.

    He cleared his throat, "We had just obtained the biography of this very contestant in our tournament today! Apparently, this phenomenal contestant in Room No.5 is none other than Ye Chong. He is only 20 years old. Oh, my, Fal, Gxy! 20 years old! Our students would be a mere freshman being pampered everywhere if they were 20-year-olds! This is stunning! Staggering! Mind-opening! Evidently, he is not only a genius, but a genius among the geniuses! And¡­ hmm¡­ What! I can¡¯t believe it! Ye Chong is not a student in our campus too! And there is zero record about his education background! So, I strongly believe that nobody would disagree on what I had just said!"

    Thementator¡¯s tone turned teasing, "Hehehehe. I know our beloved principal had just gotten the biography in hand and must be all wet and panicking begging for the tournament to end right away only to meet with this boy! Principal, your eyes desired something, am I right? Haha!"

    And the audienceughed along.

    "What?" Another moment of paper ruffling the microphone, "O.M.F.G.! Oh My Fal Gxy! Did this just happen? The staff had passed me the hand-speed report of this Ye Chong boy a moment ago and guess what? ording to the oue shown, within the duration we talked just now, Ye Chong had achieved a groundbreaking speed of Mach 3.57 at the highest! Gosh! Did he modify his hands into an engine with artificial intelligence?"

    And the audience eximed.

    Mach 3.57!

    The whispers scurried the spectator¡¯s area, "Is that even a speed by human?"

    Thatst line from thementary did tickle the funny-bone in everyone though.

    Mach 3.57 was not fast enough to Ye Chong. It was not because he wanted to hide his strength, it was merely because he was yet to familiarize with the modification process that he had to slow down to minimize mistakes. It was justifiable considering how he had only spent a few days at Yining¡¯s house. Nevertheless it was astounding enough for him to hit this speed.

    That was not all.

    The scene after this hadunched a full barrel of fiasco at the crowd.

    It¡¯s showtime!

 Chapter 80 - Itâ€™s Showtime II

    <h4>Chapter 80: It¡¯s Showtime II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong seemed to have utterly lost himself in the process. He was so absorbed by the fun of modifying mech. Moreover he was much more focused than before without Yining this time, since he also skipped the idle chatter and was fully invested to the modification process.

    He grew acquainted with the apparatuses and his hands moved faster. The afterimages had started ovepping on each other. It was as if the audiences were watching some Sci-Fi movie; their mouths stayed open in disbelief.

    "Madness! Insanity! Ye Chong, our contestant is going faster! Based on the data we had freshly obtained, Ye Chong has already achieved a whopping Mach 3.88 at his hands! Looks like our champion in the making is doing fantastic! I wonder if he ever has a limit or is this actually his maximum? Well nobody knows! That¡¯s why we would watch on in curiosity and to witness the show of the century!"

    Ye Chong was engrossed in every detail of his craft. He looked all concentrated and the grim face of his slowly turned gentle. The sober was washed away by his passion towards mechs, exerting a one-of-a-kind maism. The stern eyes were cleansed as they sparkled in a refined wisdom and craftsmanship! The face and his smooth, continuous movements gleamed like a diamond rinsed from the mud. It was dazzling, yet so mesmerizing. No one was bothered by his torn clothings and no one cared if he was not handsome enough for the standard of public. At that very moment, he was the center of the tempest swirling the entire academy! He attracted everyone¡¯s attention and had blinded the audience from seeing the potent performance by the other contestants!

    As the audience had their eyes frozen on Ye Chong, the shape of the modified mech started bing discernible.

    The sound of paper muffling the microphone echoed, "Okay, we had just acquired the design n submitted by Ye Chong. Well, by our standard of conduct, this should never be avable till the end of the tournament. But thanks to our diligent staff and our supportive fans below, our loving principal had finally agreed to bestow this to us under special permission. It was quite a hassle but I would guarantee this would worth the trouble we had gone through! Alright¡­"

    "Hmm¡­ Hmm¡­" thementator took a nce at the papers.

    "Yes! Yes! Yes! The moment we looked at this n, everyone of us at the studio held the same thought; this person is absolutely a genius among the geniuses! Assuming Ye Chong¡¯s frightening speed of his hands has defined us his impressive discipline in self-training, then this very piece of n could easily define to all of us here today, that he also possesses masterly knowledge! And I would like to highlight something for everyone on the seat - this piece of design was rated a perfect score at our mech modification assessment system! In addition, the concept of his design is overwhelming enough to make all our 12 advanced mech modification technician nod their heads! They responded simultaneously with approval. A perfect score! A masterpiece!"

    And thatmentnded on the audience like an atomic bomb. The audience could no longer inhibit the fiasco rumbling inside them. Hisses, bustles and rustles took over the floor.

    Cousin Xiu¡¯s eyes were totally glued at the screen watching Ye Chong. Her eyes glossed like ake in autumn, calm and still yet seemingly uneasy. She seemed to be figuring out something in her mind. Meanwhile, Xuelin had lowered her head, with the expression changing from time to time. Her face was once blushed, then it became drained. Sometimes one could hear her mutters or sound of her grinding her teeth. Her eyes wavered, her lips quivered.

    "Well, well, well. Plot twist: Ye Chong is a super processor himself! In b4 his mechanical arm broke from that speed!" tossing a meme, thementator spoke on humorously.

    And everyone at the bottomughed out loud.

    "A new glorious record has been written today at this tournament 300 years after the academy was founded. Gorgeous it was yet saddening! Since it wasn¡¯t our student who made the record! We should be ashamed of our inability! Sniff sniff!" Thementator¡¯s voice sounded remorseful and that made most of the actual students from the academy lowering their heads embarrassingly.

    "Anyway! We should take the precious time to have some word about Ye Chong¡¯s acimed design of perfection! Firstly, Ye Chong actually discarded the traditional humanoid design for his mech. In exchange, he incorporated the design of an aircraft for the main body. It is a daring attempt as the humanoid designs aren¡¯t widely used for no reason today. However, an aircraft design is undeniably much more practical for the uing race. The reason is that the limbs of a humanoid design do not contribute anything to speed. Our aircrafts are mostly circr nowadays, in which the design was not fancied by our Ye Chong. He dropped the idea of the mainstream aircrafts and went for the ancient design - the arrowhead to build the main body."

    The audience boomed in exmation. It looked like they were the corns rolling in the popcorn machine, exploding anytime soon if more shocking facts were fed upon them.

    "For the engine, he had selected Firebird-III, also a non-mainstream engine choice. And believe me, most of the students don¡¯t even have an idea of what a Firebird-III is. Generally, the Firebird-III provides forceful motion while only having 1/2 of the weight of the mainstream engine choices in the same category. It also has thergest scope of direction control among the other engines of its grade. This vitally eliminates the major issue ofck of direction control in the arrowhead design. The downside of this choice though is its overwhelming energy drain. However, it remained as the chosen one by our Ye Chong." Thementator took a quick sip and carried on exining.

    "Contrary to the usual mechs, the side wings at the front of the mech do not simply consist of flimsy metallic board, instead, a few more additional engines are installed on them. That would permit the ability of arge scope of direction change, but it would be quite challenging to the pilot of this craft.

    Moving on with the shape, unlike the traditional arrowhead designs, Ye Chong seemed to have tweaked the aerodynamic aspect of this design - which would further reduce the C.D. of the former designs. Just in case our audience was confused by the fancy terminology, C.D. as in Coefficient of Drag means the level of drag or resistance of an object when it travels in fluid environment like the air in this tournament. Fundamentally this has justified the fact that our Ye Chong wields great theoretical knowledge. Certainly amazing! How many of us who are 30 years old and below today would even have interest in theoretical knowledge? Let alone being able to acquire such a result!

    Next, there is also something unique about the location of center of gravity for his design. It¡¯s very bold¡­"

    Before thementator¡¯s voicended, the screen changed as it zoomed away from Ye Chong, showing the whole craft.

    Ye Chong hadpleted all the necessary modification. Seeing how he was left with ample time, he leisurely took a can of spray and began painting the mech blue. A light blue arrowhead, which would obviously cause another round of chatter at the audience below.

    The mech was literally Gliding Joy! The one he created at Yining¡¯s ce before!

    The Gliding Joy this time was slightly different than the one before. This was because Ye Chong took the time to further fine-tune the design of its main body. Of course, Shang would take most of the credits during this. Shang was unhappy being "enved" by Ye Chong and he was angrier than ever at the fact that Ye Chong purposely ran away from his ultimate chemist training. Well, we all knew that Ye Chong did not give a damn. To avoid that, Ye Chong eventually sumbed to 24/7 modification designing.

    Ye Chong¡¯s deep interest for mech seemed to be inborn. The mech theories were not as disinteresting as the chemist¡¯s theories. At least Ye Chong knew where Shang was going when he briefed about mechs. Once Shang switched to the chemist lecture mode, Ye Chong only knew he had to run¡­ and run fast!

    Shang could only whined a bit in the end. Since it was indeed pointless of him to lecture if there was no practical for Ye Chong to work with.

    Back to the stage, Ye Chong felt something was amiss. Oh yes! He grabbed another can of spray and painted tworge letters at the body. "G.J." which is an abbreviation for Gliding Joy - the wavy curve of the G with the the silver hook at the J intrepidly. Cheekily, Ye Chong tossed the can away and dered thepletion of his mech, the Gliding Joy!

    "Ye Chong our boy turned and squinted, ¡®ain¡¯t nobody got time for that!¡¯ He had much better things to do than putting the can back nicely. But well this is what a bad boy would do. Go hide your kids before they get hit! Wait, hide your flowers too!" Thementator humored Ye Chong¡¯s throw.

    One must admit that Ye Chong did have a great luck. In every room, the choices of the parts given were actually different from each other, with some of them being randomly given. Yes, that means Ye Chong had Firebird-III in his room by luck! No, by fate!

    Ye Chong fondled the glossy skin of his baby. That profoundly devoted gaze of his was shrill-worthy for the kitties at the spectator¡¯s area.

    Just when the audience was going to start apuding, something surprising happened again!

    Ye Chong took a flip and went into the cabin.

    Yes! The cabin!

    "What he¡¯s doing?"

    "I don¡¯t know. I have enough shock for today¡­"

    "I had lost track of what¡¯s happening¡­"

    "I don¡¯t want to live on this anymore¡­"

    Everyone was stupefied, including thementator who shut his mouth and watched carefully what Ye Chong was doing. He would not want to miss a detail of an anticipated miracle from this boy.

    Beep.

    Gliding Joy activated.

    "What?" The people were terrified.

    "Did he just turn on the mech he just built?"

    "Has he even tested his mech?"

    "Of course not! That aside, is hemitting suicide?"

    "Oh my gosh¡­ Does he know where he is? That is the mod room! The indoors! With only 150 meter away from the walls, even a normal speed of mech about Mach 2 would take 1 second to hit the wall."

    "Somebody stop him!"

    "That means, he¡¯s going to suicide?"

    The crowd panicked.

    The girls at the seats began shrieking in fear. People covered their eyes as they refused to witness a brutal crash from a genius. They would never be able to face such ending for a boy, of bing a st of flesh on the wall with scraps of metal on the ground!

    "Stop! Stop! Stop!" Even thementator could hold it no longer, "Ah!"

    No one could imagine of piloting a mech at high speed in a narrow room like this! It skips one¡¯s heartbeat even from thinking about it. The intensity started building in everyone¡¯s mind, like a dynamite blowing up soon.

    "Is he mad?"

    "Does he really think it¡¯s his showtime? That¡¯s why he wanted to put off a show?"

    "I don¡¯t know. He could be the stupidest genius I ever came across. Hahahaha." The envious participants sneered as they whispered.

    "He¡¯s gonn-" The noise stopped abruptly as Ye Chong on his Gliding Joy disappeared like a strike of blue lightning, right in front of everybody.

    The expecting collision did not ur.

    The light blue Gliding Joy reappeared as it braked 2 meters right before the wall. Such a visual impact to everyone at the tournament, a prime definition of extreme-motion to extreme-motionless, a heart-shocker!

    "Di-Did¡­ Did he just elerate at a 150 meter distance? I-Is that even possible?"

    "No way! No way I¡¯m digesting this! This has to be due to pure coincidence! Yeah! Luck! He was just lucky!"

    The whispers went on.

    "Well, that is it! Ladies and gentleman!" Thementator sighed in relief, "The Lady Luck seemed to have smiled at Ye Chong today! He actually stopped right before the wall in such a brief distance! This is extraordinary! This is unbelievable! I guess the God would fear losing such a genius this quickly too! But oh my, Ye Chong, you should really learn from your fatal mistake! The pressure-buffering system in a racing mech is obsolete by nature and might be insufficient to protect the impact from your behavior just now! Please value your life more than anything else! This is for everybody at the seats as well!"

    And the crowd nodded heavily in agreement.

    His action was heart-wrecking indeed. There were quite a few people whose hearts literally skipped a beat when they saw what Ye Chong did. Their faces turned pale and seemed to be copsing.

    On the other hand, Ye Chong jumped out of Gliding Joy normally. Yes, normally. His expression was nd, as usual. There was hardly any expression, as if the thrill he did was nothing. The grim on his face returned as indifferentlyas he stared at his masterpiece. The kitties on their seats screamed on top of their lungs again, "Ye Chong! Oh my!" "He¡¯s so cool!" "I can¡¯t take it anymore!" "Such dangerous man, if that¡¯s dangerous, I¡¯ll be dangerous too!"

    The YC fans club seemed to be sprouting anytime soon.

    Ye Chong did not seem to be interested though. He walked to the processor at the center of the room, pushed a few buttons to officially dere hispletion.

 Chapter 81 - The Headmasterâ€™s Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 81: The Headmaster¡¯s Invitation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong exited the modification workshop, and immediately saw a middle-aged man standing beside Yang An. Ye Chong couldn¡¯t help but wear a guarded expression. Little did he know that the outside world was already stirred up by his appearance! The entirety of Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s students knew that, as was tradition, a talent like him would be invited to join the Academy! Everyone was interested in knowing whether their beloved headmaster was up to the task!

    Ye Chong¡¯s performance earlier exceeded even the average teacher¡¯s. The students of Blue Ocean Academy were all of the arrogant and egotistical sort, but when faced with someone truly capable, they would have genuine respect for the person.

    Ye Chong had impressed this cohort with his remarkable skills!

    He knew right away that the unfamiliar middle-aged man before him had waited on him for quite some time. His big belly coupled with a formal outfit made him look like an extraordinary person. However, that was not Ye Chong¡¯s first impression! The man¡¯s hands were bby and smooth, showing no signs of training. His body shape was thoroughly imbnced, with deplorable physical abilities. Ye Chong was certain that he could defeat the man within two seconds. The man¡¯s eyes were calm, seemingly without hostility.

    Ye Chongpleted his mental assessment of the man almost instantly.

    It was after that that Ye Chong noticed other particrs, such as theck of any facial hair and the man¡¯s graceful demeanour. He kept a smile on his face, giving the impression of a gentle and amiable person. Ye Chong did not loosen up despite of those facts. Yang An seemed to be extra courteous before the middle-aged man.

    Ye Chong looked at the other party coldly, unwilling to make first contact.

    The middle-aged manughed and offered his hand, "How do you do, I¡¯m Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s headmaster, Lan Youming, a pleasure to meet you!"

    Ye Chong stared at the headmaster¡¯s right hand guardedly. "What¡¯s with the hand?" Ye Chong stared back at Headmaster Lan, fully alert!

    Shang could not bear it any longer, and spoke inside Ye Chong¡¯s mind. "Idiot, that¡¯s etiquette! Don¡¯t you know etiquette? Heavens, what has Mu been teaching you all this while? Does he intend for you to be a wild animal? Poor Ye!"

    "Etiquette?" Ye Chong asked in his mind, thoroughly confused. "That¡¯s way too dangerous, what if the enemy suddenly attacked?"

    Shang spoke with great frustration, "Heavens, Ye, you have to change your mindset. They¡¯re humans, not wild beasts! Humans wouldn¡¯t attack each other for no reason! Hmm, quick, shake his hand, if you ignore someone who¡¯s offered their hand, it¡¯s an extremely rude behaviour."

    "Hmm, right, that¡¯s it, just shake gently. If you want to express good will, just apply a little more force. Heavens! Ye, he¡¯s not a wild animal! How can you be use so much force on him?" Shang was exasperated.

    Headmaster Lan dreadfully howled as Ye Chong¡¯s hand mped tightly on his right hand like a pair of pincers. He could even hear bones softly cracking from his right hand, and felt that he could faint at any moment! Upon hearing Shang¡¯s words, Ye Chong retracted his right hand, swift as lightning. Headmaster Lan could no longer stand the pain, as he cradled his right hand and panted heavily, and lost his initialposure.

    Ye Chong defended himself, aggrieved at the encounter. "I wasn¡¯t holding him too tight!"

    Shang gave a helpless assessment of the situation, "You are inhuman!"

    Yang An stared stupefied at the scene before him, his mind stalledpletely!

    Ye Chong and Yang An both watched as Headmaster Lan jumped around in pain. Ye Chong was surprised - while Headmaster Lan was plump, his current series of actions showed unusual agility.

    "You should apologize now, since your mistake has led to another person¡¯s being harmed. That¡¯s right, you should apologize now!"

    "Apologize? My mistake? But I didn¡¯t do anything wrong!" Ye Chong was at a loss, and added, "He seemed to be too weak, and his retaliation skills are absurd!" Ye Chong provided his professional opinion.

    Shang felt like jumping off a cliff. "No matter what, you should apologize first!"

    Ye Chong was alright with that. "If you insist, then sure!" Ye Chong usually obeyed Mu¡¯s requests; Shang¡¯s, however, were only agreed to when he thought they were not too extraordinary. For Ye Chong, Shang was far worse than Mu¡¯s reasoning!

    However, an apology did not seem to cost him much!

    Ye Chong apologized to Headmaster Lan without his heart into it. "I¡¯m very sorry, I did not expect you to be so weak, my apologies!" Ye Chong¡¯s ridiculous apology did not sound like one at all.

    "You call that an apology?" Shang asked.

    "Of course!" Ye Chong was certain of it.

    "I think it sounds more like a victor¡¯s speech!" Shang countered.

    "Mm, what¡¯s the difference?" Ye Chong said, after a moment¡¯s thought.

    Shang stopped speaking and raised his white g!

    From the side, Yang An saw a bruise forming on Headmaster Lan¡¯s hand, and could not suppress the chill from within him. He decided then and there to never have any physical contact with Ye Chong.

    Headmaster Lan seemed to finally feel better, and even managed to force a smile. "It¡¯s no problem, no problem at all, who¡¯d imagine Mr Ye here to be so strong! As expected, Mr Ye is blessed with great raw talent. To have such high achievements at such a young age, how impressive!"

    Ye Chong stared at Headmaster Lan silently, making Headmaster Lan feel a little awkward.

    Shang could not stand the situation and offered, "Ye, when someone is done speaking, it is best if you can return the courtesy, or the conversation will be very awkward!"

    Ye Chong replied point-nk, "But his words all seemed meaningless!"

    "Er ¡­ Just ignore me!" Shang returned to his space.

    Headmaster Lan seemed to realise that Ye Chong was not suited for this kind of conversation, and immediately switched his tact. "Mr Ye, I¡¯d like to invite you to be a teacher at our Blue Ocean Academy! What do you say?"

    Standing at the side, Yang An stared with bulging eyes, gaping at the two! "Sir, are you sure? Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s teacher?" Ye Chong may not understand, but Yang An, who had grown up in Blue Ocean, knew that all teachers of Blue Ocean Academy are prestigious in the eyes of Blue Ocean citizens, and that Blue Ocean Academy was a possible gateway for one to enter upper ss society. As for the academy¡¯s teachers, they were already members of the upper ss society. The Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s teachers have all made their name, and the only teacher in the academy below the age of thirty was Rui Su. At least Rui Su was twenty five, but Ye Chong was only twenty! For someone at his age, even if he was a student in the Blue Ocean Academy, he could only be one of the lower level students.

    "Being a teacher? That¡¯s ludicrous!" Yang An thought as he looked at Ye Chong oddly, "This guy¡¯s a monster!"

    Headmaster Lan exined his decision, "Mr Ye¡¯s missile shaped mech has a body structure that improves aerodynamic flow, and expressed Mr Ye¡¯s great understanding of the physics involved. All the teachers in our academy felt that you are capable enough to work as a teacher of the academy. Besides, I have asked for advice from the twelve judges, and they unanimously agreed that Mr.Ye is absolutely qualified for the job. Moreover, Mr Ye¡¯s exceptional modification skills,parable to the work of expert mod technicians, are something we greatly appreciate! Of course, before Mr Ye began working for us, we¡¯d still like to conduct a necessary test for Mr Ye. However, this is only one of the standard procedures, I believe, with Mr Ye¡¯s abilities, this test should not be a problem!"

    Yang An stared in a daze at Ye Chong, desperately trying to understand the situation. He had been guarding outside ever since Ye Chong entered the workshop, and did not have time to watch thepetition¡¯s live broadcast. Hence, he waspletely ignorant of Ye Chong¡¯s stirring actions. He was already baffled when the headmaster had asked all sorts of things about Ye Chong! He did not imagine that the truth to be something like this!

    "Of course, Mr Ye, please do not worry about your terms of employment. Compared to other first ss academies in the five main gxies, the terms of employment in our academy is definitely first ss! Not only will we offer a high sry, we will also provide full support for Mr Ye¡¯s research projects! Besides, our academy is home to many great instructors, if Mr Ye would join us, you¡¯ll find that the academic atmosphere here is excellent, the teachers exchange ideas amongst themselves frequently. I believe this would be beneficial push for Mr Ye¡¯s future advancement!

    "Should Mr Ye have any requests, please let us know, we¡¯ll do our best to sort things out for you! We, the Blue Ocean Academy, sincerely invite you to join us!"

    Ye Chong was not really listening to Headmaster Lan¡¯s words, since he was speaking to Shang.

    Shang had popped out again when Headmaster Lan offered a job for Ye Chong. The mech was very excited. "Hey, Ye, just say yes! Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s teachers are all treated well!" Shang clicked his tongue, "Ines the money when you join the Blue Ocean Academy! I can¡¯t believe even someone of your standard would be scouted by the Blue Ocean Academy ¡­ That¡¯s gold zuan for us!"

    Ye Chong disagreed. "Nope, I¡¯m leaving, who¡¯s going to make the noodles for Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop?"

    Shang gave that a thought. "That¡¯s true! But if you join the Blue Ocean Academy, your monthly sry is definitely way more than when working at Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop! You can allocate a portion of the money for Grandpa Qian, so he can enjoy hister years and does not need to work anymore!"

    Ye Chong felt otherwise. "While I may not understand it, but I know Grandpa Qian does not think of money as his highest priority! It¡¯s not a problem about money!"

    "Mm, a problem with the noodles then, right, doesn¡¯t Grandpa Qian have an automatic noodle making machine?" Shang asked.

    "He does! But the noodlesing out that machine are gross!" Ye Chong replied.

    Shang grew excited as he spoke, "So, if we can improve the automatic noodle making machine, er, maybe with some modifications, and take into ount the various factors involved when you make the noodles yourself, I¡¯m sure the machine can churn out noodles that taste as good as the ones you make!"

    Ye Chong pondered over it, thought it feasible, and grew excited too. "You¡¯re right, Shang, that¡¯s a wonderful idea! We have to try it out when we get back!" Ye Chong felt like leaving for home right then.

    "But, Ye, we don¡¯t have any equipment, or materials, all these costs zuan! Without these things, we¡¯ll never be able toplete the task." Shang spoke as if afflicted.

    Ye Chong was also vexed. "Yeah! That¡¯s a real problem, and I don¡¯t think those thingse cheap!"

    "Hmm, that¡¯s true, however, it¡¯s not that there¡¯s nothing we can do about it!" Shang replied in a queer tone.

 Chapter 82 - Triumphant

    <h4>Chapter 82: Triumphant</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When Ye Chong requested to use the Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s modification workshop, Headmaster Lan agreed without any hesitation and even brought him to the academy¡¯s most advanced workshop himself! As Ye Chong entered Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s reputedly most advanced workshop, seeing rows and rows of dream-like top ss machinery, he was mightily envious! Headmaster Lan generously dered that he was free to use the devices as he see fit, and that materials were provided too. Ye Chong felt like diving straight into his work!

    Even Shang went into a frenzy, howling in excitement!

    Headmaster Lan grinned as he saw Ye Chong¡¯s nd expression turn into a rich array of emotions for the first time. He was secretly pleased at himself. "Young man, I don¡¯t believe there¡¯s no way to keep you here!" Headmaster Lan had seen all sorts of people in his life, and knew the ways of appealing to one¡¯s interests!

    Ye Chong began immediately, studying the many devices and mechanisms that he had never seen before, oblivious to Headmaster Lan, standing at the side!

    Headmaster Lan smiled, taking no offense, and left quietly by himself. Before that, he ordered the person in charge of the workshop to fulfill Ye Chong¡¯s requests, whatever they may be! Of course, he hinted a little at the person¡¯s unfortunate and inevitable farewell to the academy should he fail to satisfy Ye Chong, and the employee felt fearful enough that he nodded profusely like a docile animal!

    Ye Chong did not notice when Headmaster Lan left. If he knew that his vignce had dropped to such a state, one wondered how he would take it. Shang was also uncharacteristically cooperative this time, essing the virtual and procuring the holographic schematics for an automatic noodle making machine without fuss. Ye Chong and Shang discussed amongst themselves, while the person in charge of the modification workshop assisted by his side with great care, fearing that Ye Chong¡¯s dissatisfaction would leave him without a job!

    The person in charge stared as Ye Chong went into a daze, quiet as a mouse, for fear of interrupting whatever strange thoughts Ye Chong was having at the moment.

    As he thought of all the effort he had put into securing his job at Blue Ocean Academy, and all the sweat and tears, he felt extremely discontented!

    While today¡¯s modern society would not allow anyone to die of starvation, a person without a stable job would have to visit the relief center to receive government aid. One was guaranteed a basic living condition, but to achieve more, one would have to climb up the economicdder!

    Ye Chong was having a heated discussion with Shang! While Ye Chong was far worse in calctions than Shang, his asional insight often impressed both Shang and Mu! As such, Ye Chong often proposed some unusual concepts, while Mu and Shang demonstrated,plemented and improved those concepts!

    Suddenly, Ye Chong thought of a problem, and began to look around him.

    The person in charge saw Ye Chong¡¯s behaviour, and immediately knew that he was looking for something. He hastily approached Ye Chong and put a smile on his face. "What are you finding for? I¡¯m the person in charge of this workshop, just let me know if you have questions. The headmaster had informed me that all the materials here are at your disposal!"

    Ye Chong froze. When he realized that he did not notice a person being so close to him, his expression turned sour. He rxed after deducing that the person had no ill will against him, and warned himself against such carelessness!

    However, since the person had offered, Ye Chong spoke, "I need flour and water!"

    The person in charge was all ready for Ye Chong to ask for the most precious and expensive materials, thinking that he must procure materials for Ye Chong, even if he had to stake his life for it. What he did not expect, after all the mental preparation, was for Ye Chong to ask for flour and water.

    Ye Chong took over the flour and water that the person in charge had procured for him, and, right before the person¡¯s disbelieving eyes, he began to make noodles in Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s most advanced modification workshop.

    After five hours of hard work, Ye Chong looked satisfied at the massive machine before him, while the person in charge stared in stupefaction. Since the modification workshop had no automatic noodle making machine, he had used the tools and materials in the workshop to make a new one under Shang¡¯s guidance.

    Ye Chong carefully tasted the newly made noodles. The person in charge watched as Ye Chong used a mech¡¯s hollow leg that was over thirty kilograms heavy in ce for a bowl, and felt like jumping off a building!

    "Hmm, the taste was not bad, almost identical to the one I make myself." Of course, Ye Chong had no intention of inviting the person in charge for a taste. Instead, he swallowed all the noodles like a hungry tornado!

    Ye Chong pointed to the automatic noodle making machine, and asked the person in charge, "Can I take this with me?"

    The person in charge nodded mechanically.

    He watched on as Ye Chong lifted the machine that weighed a few hundred kilograms and disappeared outside the door, and felt infinitely helpless. "Heavens, was the fellow crazy?" He felt like he had just seen a most sarcastic joke. "A person making noodles in Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s most advanced modification workshop? Kneading the dough on an ultra-smooth benchtop, one of only a hundred in the entire Fal gxy? Eating out of a hundred-thousand-zuan mech¡¯s hollow leg? He did not even clean the hollow leg up after finishing his meal!"

    "Could it be that world was truly changing?" The person in charge felt like he burned a fuse in his brain somewhere, as he stared nkly at Ye Chong¡¯s gradually diminishing figure through the workshop¡¯s entrance.

    The next day, news of Ye Chong¡¯s job offer eptance as Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s mech mechanics teacher spread fast throughout the academy grounds, as though the news had grown a pair of wings. Everyone¡¯s attention was focused on the news, and the main event that was the MP Games had, for the first time in history, beenrgely ignored.

    In the headmaster¡¯s office, only Ye Chong and the headmaster were present.

    Headmaster Lan smiled lightly and said, "Mr Ye, please let me know if you have any requests! I think we¡¯ll make a great team!"

    Ye Chong thought for a moment before speaking, "I¡¯d like to take courses for alchemy!"

    Shang leaped in excitement, having no indication of his decision beforehand. "Ye, hah, you¡¯ve finallye around, that¡¯s great! Ah, weren¡¯t you reluctant to learn alchemy before this? What led to the change in mind?"

    Ye Chong replied lightly, "It¡¯s nothing, I just want to get more Do Kun stone!"

    "Even the obtuse can be enlightened?" Shang was not convinced, but spoke again after a pause, "Ye, I know you chose alchemy because of me, right?"

    Ye Chong spoke apathetically, "Nope!"

    Shang spoke with dismay, "Ye, don¡¯t answer so directly please, can you not just satisfy my tiny, tiny vanity?"

    Ye Chong showed no signs of giving in. "No need for that!"

    While the two were at an impasse with each other, a warm feeling was binding Ye Chong and Shang together!

    "If only Mu can join us!" thought Ye Chong.

    Headmaster Lan could not help but be surprised by Ye Chong¡¯s odd request, but managed to gather himself and agreed to the request. "Oh, sure, no problem! I didn¡¯t think Mr Ye was so interested in alchemy. I think the alchemy faculty¡¯s Teacher Jiang would definitely wee academic exchanges with you! Mm, any other problems for you?"

    Ye Chong replied crisply, "None!"

    Headmaster Lan nodded with satisfaction. "Then pleasee with me!" Headmaster Lan led Ye Chong into an adjacent ssroom, where a total of fifteen specialists sat within. They would assess Ye Chong¡¯s level and decide if he was the real deal, and if he was up to par to teach at Blue Ocean Academy!

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    The whole building was crowded. The faculty of mech mechanics¡¯ students were all excited with the prospect of having Ye Chong as their teacher! Everyone was interested in the activities of this particr ssroom!

    Rui Su was also very enthusiastic!

    Ye Chong¡¯s strong impact was directly rted to Rui Su. If Rui Su had not braved herself and switched all of Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s channels to the one with Ye Chong, the effect would not be as strong! This was also the first time the MP Games had directed all its cameras to only one contestant! One should be aware that it was a great risk, and easily med upon!

    However, she had triumphed this time! Her decisiveness and exceptional courage had brought her victory!

    "Wang Xiaoer, you better point that holographic camera on target, if you do well this time, sister will reward you after! But don¡¯t you forget yourself, when Ye Chonges out, you point the holographic camera straight at him, got it? Let me repeat that, point it straight at him, hehe, sister will go the front lines by then. Take care of the lighting angles. Also, set the audio sync device right! Heh, if you mess up it this time, hehe ¡­"

    Rui Su would call herself "sister" when she was in a good mood, but when she was not, she would switch to the very crude "olddy"!

    Rui Su stood handsomely before the entrance of the ssroom. For today, she had specially dressed herself, her natural beauty now more charming than ever. The students at the side were all terrified of her, and none stood within ten meters of Rui Su!

    The jam packed corridor offered the queer sight of a peerless beauty, with a circr perimeter around her devoid of any human being!

    Rui Su smiled, pleased with herself. "Hehe, these youngsters have known suffering well enough through me!"

    Rui Su was twenty five, a natural beauty. As she grew more mature these few years, her actions had the quality of a mature woman. This was not something naive little girls couldpare themselves with.

    Logically speaking, such a woman should have a whole line of suitors waiting on her!

    However, Rui Su was very skilful. Back in her days of studying in Blue Ocean Academy, she was known as the infamous "Witch Su" of the Blue Ocean Academy, and all were terrified of her! She was not the kind of woman that most people would dare to meddle with! Even some of the courageous sort had yielded under her methods. Of the new students that arrive every year, the ones who suffered in her hands were often in the hundreds!

    The door to the ssroom suddenly opened, and Ye Chong stepped out calmly, followed by Headmaster Lan, all smiles.

    The corridor was instantly in an uproar!

    Headmaster Lan, with his worldly experiences, was not troubled, but instead stepped quickly in front of Ye Chong and pushed his hands downwards, signaling everyone to quiet down!

    The headmaster was known for his practicality, and enjoyed a high reputation amongst the students. They immediately quieted down, and even "Witch Su" was silent like an obedient youngdy!

    As everyone quieted down, Headmaster Lanughed pleasantly. "Good news to you all, Mr Ye Chong is officially recruited by Blue Ocean Academy as a teacher under the faculty of mech mechanics. Everyone is weed to join Teacher Ye¡¯s sses!"

    Once again, the entire block roared with excitement!

 Chapter 83 - Suspicion

    <h4>Chapter 83: Suspicion</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Headmaster Lan looked to Ye Chong and nodded, signaling that he could leave!

    Ye Chong headed outside, his expression was none other than his usual coldness and indifference. A path somehow opened up in the corridor packed with students, allowing him to pass through. Everyone watched Ye Chong respectfully, since those who were truly capable were often respected.

    Rui Su had fought for this opportunity and would not miss it for the life of hers. She skipped to the front of Ye Chong, putting the most mesmerising smile on her face and smiled charmingly at Ye Chong, "How do you do? Wee to Blue Ocean Academy! I¡¯m the assistant dean for the faculty of broadcasting, Rui Su, we¡¯ll be colleagues from now on!" Her usual crisp voice was now as seductive as melted chocte, rich and sweet! Ye Chong could hear the heart beats of the corridor¡¯s spectators throb more loudly in response!

    Ye Chong, however, was shocked! As thedy had skipped to get in front of him, her control of movement and strength were impable, indicating that the other party was highly skilled in battle.

    Ye Chong took a half step back, keeping a wider distance between himself and the opponent. He was now on full alert, even if his expression changed not at all! Ye Chong¡¯s right hand was now positioned to strike when necessary, and his whole body was rxed but focused, anticipating a battle!

    Ye Chong understood from his days here that the outside world was no trash, and while both environments ultimately involve physicalbat, the outside world required more tact and cunningness!

    Ye Chong replied coldly, "How do you do?" All the students in the corridor heard Ye Chong¡¯s voice for the first time. His baritone voice exuded a certain chill, but also brought a unique quality to it. This won the astonished gasp of a few female students.

    Ye Chong observed with the intensity of a de¡¯s edge, scanning over Rui Su¡¯s physique. Rui Su only felt a chill oveing her, and could not help but hug herself a little. Her pitiful expression affected a round of gasps from the corridor, as the male students watched on with theirs mouths wide open.

    Ye Chong was as still as a rock.

    "Mm, her hands are overly fair, and skin too delicate, with almost no signs of training. Her fighting skills must be extremely poor." Ye Chong believed that, with only one punch on whichever part of thedy¡¯s figure, she would definitely be smashed into pieces! However, her demonstration of speed and control over her strength was impressive, and Ye Chong would not dare to underestimate her.

    Of all his skills, mech piloting was definitely the one that Ye Chong was best at. It was also his specialty and the one skill he was most confident in. In second ce was mech mechanics, which he had improved in leaps and bounds due his experience under the tutge of the elderlies at Aurora and his constant discussions with Mu and Shang. Battling only came in at third ce! Ye Chong¡¯s battling skills were mainly the result of his experience fighting against wild animals and some low level training at ck Cove. He was not exactly skillful inbat. However, if he were to be engaged in a battle of life and death, Ye Chong would probably be thest man standing. Even without any battling techniques, his inhuman strength and speed would more than make up for his ability to harm the enemy.

    However, Ye Chong understood that if his opponent was not much slower than him, with technique based battling skills, he would not stand a chance! In ck Cove, Ye Chong had seen Instructor Hak¡¯s impressive battling techniques, and while Instructor Hak¡¯s strength and speed were far inferior to his own, Ye Chong was not certain of his odds against someone with such unpredictable techniques!

    Speed and strength were like the opposites of battle techniques, the two of them bncing a scale through a mysterious rtionship!

    Her arms and legs seemed too thin - without strength, any technique would only be as useless as decorations!

    In reality, Ye Chong was not aware that he had a few misconceptions regarding some general knowledge. He did not realise that the person before him was a woman. More urately speaking, he did not know the difference between men and women, and had oftenpared his enemy with himself, unaware of the fact that he was actually more like a monster amongst themoners!

    Rui Su was also not feeling as calm as her expression suggested. Ye Chong¡¯s calcting stare had put a chill down her spine, as though he could see through all her thoughts and actions. Ye Chong¡¯s minor retreat and his hands¡¯ posture and position also surprised her. While the students would not understand them, how could she not? Her upbringing in a battle-centric family made her familiar with this kind of posture.

    Suddenly, even being surrounded by so many people, Rui Su did not feel safe at all, as though she had plunged into an icy cave. "If only my younger sister were here!" Rui Su thought to herself.

    Ye Chong studied Rui Su for a moment, before easily gliding past her like a breeze.

    Rui Su, however, felt terror under the predatory scrutiny of Ye Chong. An insuppressible chill engulfed her from head to toe, freezing her stiff!

    For the nearby students, it was an extremely odd sight to behold!

    At first, the Witch had disguised as an angle and extended an olive branch for Ye Chong. Then, Ye Chong returned the favour with a cold greeting. After a prolonged staring contest between them, Ye Chong gave the Witch a purposeful look before moving past her without a word.

    Something strange was going on between them!

    This conclusion was shared by all the spectators, and even Headmaster Lan directed a strange look at Rui Su!

    Wang Xiao Er did not move the camera away from the two since the very beginning, and the odd scene was broadcasted to the entire academy! Since there were many students interested in Ye Chong¡¯s candidacy as Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s teacher, they were all watching the live broadcast on their holographic screens. As such, the entire scene was presented to their very eyes!

    "Could the two have known each other before? Were there any unresolved tension between them?" Rumours full of imagination began to spread throughout the Blue Ocean Academy.

    In the academic column, there was "Conversation Between Geniuses and the Hidden Messages Behind Them"; in the academy¡¯s entertainment news section, there was "Past Lovers, Present Adversaries"; in the opinion¡¯s column, there was "May-December Rtionships As I See It" ¡­

    In an instant, the academy grounds were in an uproar. Ye Chong and the Witch became wildly infamous. The female students were all deeply regretful that someone as steady and cool as Ye Chong was no longer avable. Who would have thought that the Witch had made the first move? It was a depressing thought. The male students, however, thought it was hrious. How could anyone dominate the Witch? Wasn¡¯t that Heaven¡¯s blessings? They hoped that Teacher Ye Chong would conquer the Witch, and prevent her from spreading any more suffering! Their days of hardship would finally be over! This was the primary concern for the male students under the faculty of broadcasting!

    Unfortunately, Ye Chong was not aware of his role in the grand scheme of things. While the academy had provided himfortable amodation, Ye Chong would still make time every day to visit Grandpa Qian¡¯s shop, and also inspect if Ye¡¯s automatic noodle making machine was in good condition!

    As for Rui Su, she was furious and exasperated at home, but there was nothing she could do!

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    At the Ji family¡¯s ce.

    Elder Ji¡¯s profile had touch of saintliness and godhood, and now it held a terrifying sombre expression!

    No one below dared to make a sound.

    Only Ji Shangyan was calmly reporting, "Based on ourst inventory check after the incident, the Harmony of the Winter Aria was stolen. There are 26 casualties in total. The base had suffered unprecedented damages, and during ourst inventory check, we found that an unknown ore was missing!"

    "Unknown ore?" Elder Ji asked in his low voice.

    "Yes. This unknown ore was obtained by ident, and sent to the base for research. Until the day of the incident, our research was still inconclusive. During the research of the unknown ore, we were able to establish that the ore could significantly increase a variety of physical properties of alloy materials. We had mixed in a very small amount of the unknown ore into the tip of thence belonging to the Harmony of the Winter Aria! After examination, as expected, the tip of thence had astounding properties. We were ready for further research when the mech was stolen!"

    Elder Ji muttered, "Do you think the intruder wasing after the ore?"

    Ji Shangyan replied respectfully, "Yes, your grandson believes so!" Ji family¡¯s eldest young master was still in shock, and currently undergoing treatment. Thus, it was up to Ji Shangyan to manage affairs.

    Ji Shangyan threw a quick nce at Elder Ji¡¯s expression, and continued, "Fortunately, the red-silver mech was untouched!" Elder Ji¡¯s expression smoothened at that.

    "While we were cleaning up the base, we also found a mech¡¯s wreckage. Even though the mech underwent a strong explosion, and its main structures were damaged, we still found that the mech¡¯s armour workmanship was a lot better than our family¡¯s red-silver mech and the Harmony of the Winter Aria!" Ji Shangyan obtained a palm-sized fragment of the mech from an employee behind him.

    When Elder Ji saw the polished ck fragment, his expression twisted, and he asked anxiously, "Is the mech¡¯s pilot still here? Dead or alive?"

    Ji Shangyan shook his head. "He is dead. We found nothing of value on this person, only a broken mask of sorts, and that mask was already partly melted!"

    Elder Ji gave a wave with his hand and urged, "Bring that mask to me now!"

    Ji Shangyan noted his grandfather¡¯s expression uncertainly, but still ordered someone to retrieve what was left of the mask, which was just a small part of the whole.

    Elder Ji held the distorted mask tightly in his grip, his expression changing curiously. After a moment, he settled down but did not speak further.

    Could it be that the old man knew where the thing came from?

    Ji Shangyan gave another quick nce at Elder Ji¡¯s face, thought for a moment, before bracing himself and continuing carefully, "Grandfather, there¡¯s one more thing!"

    Elder Ji frowned. "What is it?"

 Chapter 84 - First Day in Class

    <h4>Chapter 84: First Day in ss</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ji Shangyan deliberated for a moment before continuing, "What surprised us the most was that our rm system waspletelypromised by the intruder. There is no chance of restoring it, and we have to reinstall the entire system! The rm system was not effective at all against the intruder, and up till now we have no idea of their methods. We have no clue at all. The intruder¡¯s photon processor must be far ahead of ours."

    Ji Shangyan finished his report nervously, anticipating the old man¡¯s outrage. However, the moment did note, as the old man observed the ck fragment with aplicated expression. He sighed softly, "Hmmm, you¡¯re still young, ignorant of the world outside your own. There are many things out there you can¡¯t even imagine!"

    Ji Shangyan was startled, staring at the old man with disbelief.

    The old man looked deste, his usual edge gone without a trace, leaving only signs of living through decades of his life, with a slightly hunched back. The man before Ji Shangyan now looked just like an ordinary old man!

    Ji Shangyan felt overwhelmed by the sight, his tears fighting to escape his eyes.

    Elder Ji waved his hand and spoke, "Alright, leave me!"

    __________________________________________________________________________

    At the Luo family, Luo Heng had finished listening to Luo Ren¡¯s report, his face grave. He asked lowly, "Are you sure?"

    After the incident fromst time, the Luo family had suffered greatly, but the aristocratic family¡¯s history extended centuries, if not, millennias into the past. So long as the family had not fallen, a little catalyst would be sufficient to reinvigorate the family¡¯s situation. The Luo family had recovered under Luo Heng¡¯s leadership, resuming their swift progression. Luo Heng had recognised Luo Ren¡¯s outstanding capabilities, and so Luo Ren had be one of hispetent underlings.

    Luo Ren responded respectfully, "This servant has confirmed that the information is entirely urate!"

    Luo Heng¡¯s long and slender fingers tapped rhythmically against the tabletop. He lifted his head abruptly towards Luo Ren. "What are your thoughts on the matter?"

    Luo Ren spoke without hesitation, "The Ji family have always been famous for their photon processors. To be stripped of their reputation so horrifyingly, I believe the effects are not insignificant! We had never been able to infiltrate that base of theirs, only cing a few of our own around the base. However, the extent of the damage this time was unexpectedly massive! We were able to send a few in amidst the chaos to gather some important intel! To be humiliated to this extent, the Ji family will probably make their move soon!"

    Luo Heng nodded, agreeing to his assessment. "That¡¯s right. With a temperament like Ji family¡¯s old man, they will probably retaliate! However, who were the intruders? How could they have best the Ji family¡¯s photon processors?"

    The two thought over the matter intently, and suddenly, as though they had figured something out, both looked towards each other, their eyes filled with astonishment! Could it be ¡­

    __________________________________________________________________________

    Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s MP Games finally came to an end, and life in the academy resumed its usual routines. The new batch of students this year included quite a few outstanding freshmen, and possibly even geniuses amongst them, as was typical for the academy. However, the attention they received were iparable to that of the past few batches. This was all due to Ye Chong¡¯s presence.

    Ye Chong had garnered the attention of everyone around!

    His outstanding performance at the MP games earlier had dimmed the significance of all his opponents. After his stunt, rumours of someplicated rtionship between Ye Chong and Rui Su had permeated to all corners of the academy¡¯s grounds, inviting everyone¡¯s attention. Ye Chong had be Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s center of attention!

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s first time teaching in ss. Of course, he had rehearsed with Shang a few times beforehand, and did not expect any issues!

    Blue Ocean Academy had constructed its school grounds in the virtual world. Teaching here was convenient, especially for essing various information databases. Geographical barriers were also no longer relevant!

    Ever since Ye Chong was granted permission by Headmaster Lan to use the academy¡¯s most advanced modification workshop, he had been spending most of his time there, enjoying the facilities with Shang. While Shang¡¯s calctions were not as impressive as Mu¡¯s, they were still very powerful calctions, and even someone with Ye Chong¡¯s calibre of mediocre calctions could appreciate them. Materials were freely provided as Ye Chong requested, since Headmaster Lan had explicitly allowed him so.

    Shang reminded Ye Chong, "Ye, it¡¯s time for your ss! Almost time now!"

    Ye Chong lifted his head, noticed the clock¡¯s reading and agreed. He picked up the virtual world hyperlink helmet prepared earlier and hyperlinked to the virtual world.

    Shang could not stop bbering, "Ye, hehe, the gossip about you and that Rui Su is really taking a life of its own, but, Ye, this Rui Su is definitely a first ss beauty, perhaps, you would consider?"

    Ye Chong replied lightly, "Shang, this is the twenty fourth time you¡¯ve brought this up in thest 3 days, do you really want me to repeat my answer?"

    "Ye, hehe, I have all the information on Rui Su, if you want them, don¡¯t be shy to ask!" Shang let out a long, weirdugh.

    Ye Chong felt helpless. Shang seemed to grow more and more active, and Ye Chong was often at a loss to deal with him. What a troublingpanion!

    "I wonder how Mu is doing?" Ye Chong was beginning to miss the reserved and calm Mu!

    After a few rounds of identity authentication, Ye Chong was quickly on his way into the ssroom. The security was to prevent unauthorised substitution of the teacher and as a timestamp for the teacher¡¯s teaching hours. Of course, the level of identity authentication did not escape Shang¡¯s litany of condescending remarks!

    All students had to go through simr identity authentication measures. When ss began, the system would automatically deny further ess to anyone else. This was especially painful for the serialters! Attendance was also an important part of the academy¡¯s official assessment for students.

    Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s learning style was flexible, and every student could choose their courses freely, if they could pass their final year overall assessment.

    The virtual world¡¯s ssroom was spacious, but the ordinary rules of space did not apply here. Every student had their own individual space, and Ye Chong would appear before every one of them. As for Ye Chong, his view was quite different. Ye Chong could only see many dots of light before him, not a single person in sight. He could, however,municate with the students via controls.

    Ye Chong steadily walked to the teacher¡¯s podium.

    Since students were free to choose their courses, there were close to ten thousand students who were now attending this ss, making up a fiftieth of the academy¡¯s total student poption. However, Ye Chong was unfazed.

    After all, he could only see dots of light before him. Who would be afraid of dots of lights?

    ss began.

    Ye Chong¡¯s low and slightly cold voice rang clearly in the ears of the students. Ye Chong spoke concisely and confidently, without much intonation, and the students who had grown used to lively teachers in ss felt that it was a very different experience.

    However, Ye Chong¡¯s deep knowledge and strong theoretical foundation won the hearts of the students. At Aurora, the elderlies had often began with simple problems as a beginning to illustrate deeper insights, slowly approaching the core of the knowledge involved. This process of deepening knowledge was often the most effective!

    Ye Chong used this method as well. As he unravelled deeper and deeper insights, the students became more and more impressed. However, Ye Chong could not see them. With Shang¡¯s help, Ye Chong made full use of the advantages offered by the virtual ssroom. Multitudes of holographic images, statistics and graphs often appeared with little effort on his part.

    The entire ssroom was amazed by the massive amount of information!

    Information, charts and other material used in ss must be prepared beforehand. Teacher Ye would be so diligent in his job, it was not expected - how can any student not develop a favourable impression of him? The students, ignorant of Ye Chong¡¯s background, began to look at him in a better light!

    However, despite his favourable impression, the content of the ss was still technical and deep. Those who could not keep up would only feel bored and began to doze off.

    Of all the students present, only a select few of them were under the faculty of mech mechanics. Most of them were here for Ye Chong, and not for his teaching session, but for the twenty-minute exchange session with the teacher that was part of each ss.

    Ye Chong kept his cool expression throughout the ss, an eye candy to the female students.

    Soon, it was time for the exchange session!

    Ye Chong began, "Anyone has any questions?"

    Almost all the light dots before him began to sh. Despite his bravery, Ye Chong still felt a little queasy.

    After he calmed himself down, Ye Chong pressed on a random light dot. The dot immediately expanded, and Ye Chong could see the student clearly, a female student.

    The female student must not have expected herself to be so luckily chosen, and froze on the spot, uttering a few false starts but not knowing what to say!

    Ye Chong decisively terminated the student¡¯s channel without a word!

    Ye Chong slowly scanned across the light dots, and spoke coldly, "Don¡¯t ask questions if you don¡¯t have them prepared!" While this was the virtual world, Ye Chong¡¯s icy, cutting gaze and chilling words made all the students felt chilled to the bone. Everyone paused with their hands on the controls. The ten-thousand strong ssroom was put into a mental freeze by Ye Chong for a few seconds, none of the dots shing.

    Shang spoke in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, unimpressed, "Ye, you¡¯ll scare away the pretty girls!"

    Ye Chong, "All for the better!"

    After a moment of awkward silence, almost all the lights began shing again!

    Ye Chong ignored Shang and pressed on another light dot.

    It was a male student this time, and he was obviously calmer than the female student earlier. He asked enthusiastically, "How do you do, Teacher Ye, I am a student of the mech pilot¡¯s faculty. I¡¯d like to ask Teacher Ye, how can the speed of hand movement be significantly increased? And did you, Teacher Ye, train yourself?"

    Ye Chong replied tly, "Training, continuous training. As for my training methods, not sharing!" His method was taught by Mu, and without Mu¡¯s permission, he would not teach it to anyone else. As for whatever he learnt in ck Cove, Ye Chong did not dare teach them, as it would greatly increase the chances of ck Cove discovering him! Even though the chances of being discovered now was already quite high!

    The male student who asked the question could not help but express his disdain. "I didn¡¯t think Teacher Ye is the kind of person who would keep their knowledge to themselves! Hmph, I guess I misjudged you!"

    Ye Chong replied with indifference, "You definitely misjudged me!" and switched off his channel without waiting for a reply. What did his misjudgment have anything to do with himself? Ye Chong could not care less.

    "I am only a teacher for the faculty of mech mechanics, and responsible for answering only questions rted to mech mechanics!" Ye Chong nkly dered his rule.

    This triggered another round of awkward silence!

 Chapter 85 - Rui Bing

    <h4>Chapter 85: Rui Bing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s first day of ss made him a controversial teacher. He was a point of contention, inviting feelings of disdain, admiration, disgust, respect ¡­ All held different views against him. However, everyone had agreed on one thing, and that was Ye Chong¡¯s coldness! His was not the kind put up for show, but an authentic coldness that brought chills to the bone! Almost everyone believed that, should Ye Chong be angry, the consequences would be very serious!

    As for Ye Chong¡¯s knowledge, none doubted his authenticity! Ye Chong may speak concisely, but his flow was natural, and the teaching material was rich, almost enough to make the diligent teachers be embarrassed of themselves!

    For the moment, aside from his punctual visit to Grandpa Qian every day, Ye Chong would spend the rest of his time in the modification workshop. As for sleep, the workshop was morefortable than his home on the trash!

    Ye Chong looked at the Harmony of the Winter Aria, modified beyond recognition, impossible to be associated with its former majestic blue and ivory white appearance! The greenish grey hull made the Harmony of the Winter Aria look insignificant. Ye Chong added a little more changes to the double-folded wings, and the Harmony waspletely different from its former self. Even Ye Chong, as the Harmony¡¯s user, could not tell that they were one and the same. Ye Chong believed that the mech would be recognizable in its current form. He examined the photon circuits again in great detail, and did not find anything amiss.

    Shang had continuously mumbled that the colours were too ugly, but Ye Chongpletely ignored the Shang.

    Rui Su stayed in her house, full of anger. "That d*mn Ye Chong, how could he make a fool of this olddy?" The thought of Ye Chong made her even more furious. Rui Su hugged her pillow tightly, indignant of the matter, but was helpless against Ye Chong. The thought of Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, icy cold and lifeless, spread a chill within her. She had a hunch that, should she insist on meddling with him, there was a distinct possibility that Ye Chong could kill her. The thought was frightening, and kept her against any further actions.

    Her mother¡¯s voice came from the kitchen. "Su Su, go get your younger sister from the training grounds for dinner. That little b*tch, she is just like her father, can¡¯t remember anything during her practice! Su Su, go get her now!"

    Rui Su¡¯s eyes brightened at that. "Okay!" she replied before rushing out of the house.

    The training ground for Rui Su¡¯s family was more than ten kilometers away from their house. The Rui family¡¯s training ground enjoyed a small reputation in Jesha. While wrestling was no longer widely practiced, it was still far from retiring into history. The rising poprity of mechs had slowly undermined the status of wrestlers, but there was still a minority persistent in keeping the legacy alive. Wrestling was also a necessary skill for jobs in security, such as bodyguards and escorts.

    Rui Su¡¯s father lost in a wrestling match 3 years ago, and had shortly passed away due to prolonged depression and apanying illness. The training ground was then passed on to Rui Su¡¯s younger sister, Rui Bing. True to her name, Rui Bing was as beautiful as she was cold [1]. Moreover, her lifelong wrestling practice due to her upbringing had developed a strong killer¡¯s aura around her. No one dared to step within two meters around her, except for Rui Su and their mother.

    After Rui Bing defeated the opponent who bested her father 3 years ago, none were brave enough to challenge her again. Rui Bing¡¯s reputation grew more prominent in Jesha, directly increasing the number of students of their family dojo. Hence, Rui Bing had to spend more time at the dojo every day.

    In reality, with the Rui family¡¯s financial state, Rui Bing did not have to run any dojo at all. The passing of Rui Su¡¯s father had left a dark shadow in the hearts of Rui Su and her mother, and both had hoped that Rui Bing would give up the dojo. However, Rui Bing was very insistent, unmoved by their pleading, and so Rui Su and her mother had let her be.

    A ten-kilometer journey was only a short trip with a mech. Rui Su slipped out of the mech easily, her gracefulnding gathering the attention of the students at the dojo. However, none dared to approach her, for she was in many ways more terrifying than the master of the dojo.

    Rui Su withdrew her mech and rushed into the dojo, greeting the students as she passed by, "Give it your all in training guys, and Sister will get you sweetster!" Her honeyed smile would have stolen the breaths of the ignorant, but these dojo students avoided her like the gue. Rui Su¡¯sughter rang like windchimes, trailing her as she rushed into the dojo¡¯s inner grounds.

    Rui Bing¡¯s tall and slender physique was currently in a cross-legged sitting position, her long, ck hair flowing down to her lower back like a waterfall. With her eyes closed, her exquisite profile was simr to Rui Su¡¯s. She had sharp, thin eyebrows, and her pinkish lips were now closed into a line. Her white training garb added a handsome quality to Rui Bing. Jade white hands with long, slender fingers half extended beyond the loose garb, perched naturally on her knees.

    Rui Su gave a jubnt cheer before throwing herself onto her younger sister. Rui Bing had already noticed her presence since Rui Su entered the room. She opened her eyes, watching her elder sister on her, and gave a helpless smile. The room instantly brightened up, as though a winter flower had blossomed into a spectacr wonder!

    "Now who¡¯s the elder sister, and who¡¯s the younger one?" Rui Bing must have thought so to herself.

    Rui Su grinned widely as she hugged Rui Bing by the neck, and spoke warmly, "Sis, mum¡¯s asking us to get back for dinner! She even called you a crazy b*tch, hee ¡­"

    If Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s students were to witness this scene, they might have all dropped their jaw and fainted!

    Rui Bing answered, "Oh," before standing up in a smooth motion, oblivious to Rui Su¡¯s weight.

    As for Rui Su, she hung on tightly to Rui Bing like a ko. Rui Bing was obviously used to that, and did not feel ufortable.

    Before they left the room, Rui Su hopped down and stuck out her tongue, speaking mischievously, "Heehee, can¡¯t let them see this, if not, your elder sister¡¯s going to lose face!"

    Rui Bing affected an expression that meant she knew that as well!

    Rui Su knew that her younger sister, obsessed with the martial arts, was a very traditional person. She had obeyed all the traditions strictly, and resisted modernisation. She even avoided mechs and walked home every day.

    In the dining room, Rui Bing sat straight, in full solemnity, while Rui Su waszily half stretched across the table, with no grace to speak of. As their mother went to get the dishes, Rui Su slid closer to Rui Bing¡¯s side and spoke charmingly, "Bing Bing, I¡¯m bullied at the academy! Bing Bing, you got to help me!"

    Rui Bing replied lightly, "No!" She understood her elder sister very well, including her nickname as the Witch of the academy. "Heh, it¡¯s fine if the Witch doesn¡¯t go around messing people, who¡¯d invite trouble upon themselves and mess with the Witch?" thought Rui Bing.

    Rui Si exined with a furious undertone "It¡¯s that Ye Chong, that horrible guy!" Rui Su shook Rui Bing¡¯s shoulders, tears almost escaping her eyes. "That guy¡¯s new to the academy, and the first thing he did is bully me, and I can¡¯t win against him, *sob*, dearest Bing Bing, you can¡¯t let me be bullied like this!"

    Rui Bing watched her elder sister skeptically.

    Rui Su cried as she exined further, "That guy¡¯s amazing! He¡¯s so fast I can¡¯t even see him move!" Rui Bing grew attentive at that, her fighting instincts instantly awoken. In the past 2 years, Rui Bing did not meet any worthy challenger, and one with her level of skills would not be able to improve without realbat experience! As for her elder sister¡¯s insights, Rui Bing still trusted them. Rui Su was more talented than her in martial arts when they were young, but her sister had stopped practicingter on due to ack of interest. Their father had been unhappy with her decision for a long time. Even so, her elder sister¡¯s skills were better than an average person¡¯s, and if she could not win against someone, then the other party must be on par with a martial arts practitioner!

    Seeing her elder sister¡¯s fighting instincts invigorated, Rui Su was secretly pleased, and continued, "Dearest Bing Bing, he bullied me right in front of everyone else, you must make him pay for this! Dearest Bing Bing, please!" Rui Su implored endearingly.

    Rui Bing hesitated, but in the end yielded to her elder sister and nodded in assent!

    "Yay!" Rui Su cheered, her arms raised, the tears that once clouded her eyes vanished in an instant. Her glorious smiling face was now without a trace of her previous pitifulness!

    Rui Bing could not help but roll her eyes, knowing exactly that this would happen!

    Rui Su grinned to herself. She knew that once her younger sister promised something to her, she would definitely keep it!

    Rui Su and Rui Bing walked side by side in the Blue Ocean Academy grounds. The duo of beautifuldies, one flirtatious, another as cold as ice, together as a contrasting existence, turned heads wherever it went.

    Rui Bing¡¯s thoroughly white training garb was eye-catching in particr.

    The twodies were not affected in the least by the attention they gathered. For Rui Su, Blue Ocean Academy was her territory, why would she be intimidated? As for Rui Bing, she would probably not even cower before a crumbling mountain, much less in an insignificant situation like this! Their ease with the situation made them look extra confident with themselves.

    At Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s modification workshop 1, so-called Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s most advanced modification workshop. The person in charge of the workshop looked at the Witch, instantly terrified. The Witch was still an influential person, the most intimidating person to most, but the headmaster had ced great trust in her. Now that she had asked to enter the workshop, how could he refuse? Besides, Ye Chong was still inside. The rumours running in the academy about the two were numerous, and perhaps the Witch was here on a date. If he interrupted them, he might just be in for some horrible consequences!

    The person in charge could see that something was amiss, and immediately left the workshop!

    Rui Su and Rui Bing moved into the modification workshop with overbearing confidence!

    Note:

    [1] Bing literally means ice in Mandarin.

 Chapter 86 - Ow That Hurt

    <h4>Chapter 86: Ow That Hurt</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong sensed their intrusion the moment they stepped into his workshop.

    He did not seem to have the habit of being reckless even in his own proximity. He sprung from his seat, his eyes fixed on the intruders. His sight detected 2 females in his ce - one whom he had met before while the other was a total stranger. "A total stranger" sounded rming to his senses.

    He carried on observing, whichter he identified that the stranger was exceptionally calm in her pace, as every step she treaded had the exact same distance between each other. It looked like even her footsteps were carefully schemed. "Now, Ye," Shang withdrew his usual joking self. "That¡¯s an adept you¡¯ve just encountered!" his words fell grimly.

    Rui Bing¡¯s upper body stood still like a stone, while her stepsid like the flow of the wind, fluid and seamless like a unique rhythm of beauty.

    Ye Chong squinted his eyes and took a cautious look as his feet adjusting themselves subconsciously, adapting to the opponent¡¯s moves, bing the phantom that shrouded within.

    He knew he would be in hot water anytime soon. He could sense the danger for real this time! His instinct wielded him like a beast, sensible and sensitive. A trustworthy ability he had that never failed him before. His body reformed its stance ordingly, all by his intuition. He turned to his side slightly, with his left hand raised to his chest and the right hand lowered.

    There was nothing strange going on with that girl¡­ other than the marks she probably got from harsh training on her hands. She looked like an ordinary girl at first nce. However, in that ordinariness Ye Chong could smell the hazard within. And she was a danger indeed!

    The eagle eyes of Ye Chong seemed to have frightened Rui Su peeking at the side, as she staggered. Rui Bing¡¯s stare sparkled. It was undeniable that she had caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention sessfully, especially when Ye Chong began shifting stance like a phantom. She almost shuddered but fortunately her strong mentality kept her expression from changing. Her cheeks quivered a little over the endurance yet she morphed her stance along, as if it was synched with Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts. Each of her lift was raised in huge curves, vicious like the storm!

    They stared at each other, standing still.

    Rui Su was feeling a little regretful of her immature decision. She hid at the corner, wondering if she was doing too much this time. "Well, just wait till Bing Bing gets you. It¡¯s just a tiny punishment for your misconduct. Mhm, yes," sheforted herself by pulling off some cheap rationale.

    There was barely a hush between them.

    Rui Bing knew her action was considered a taunt. It was the typical trouble-making move to begin with and that did not require any excuse to reason its motive.

    On the other hand, Ye Chong preferred saving his words. If you want to fight, just carry on fighting. Fighting did not require any reason either, just like how he hunted those Engulfers back on his. Also, he would be more likely to win a silent war.

    Stared on, his sight grew colder, like a tempest on the tip of an iceberg it raided the entire workshop. He froze his position, like a statue of ice breathing menacing frigidity. Rui Bing¡¯s long hair waved along with her training robe. The ice in her eyes melted and instead they burned brightly, like a searing chariot awaiting to beunched.

    A picture of killing spree shed in Ye Chong''s squinted eyes. The opponent had shown tant hostility, which initiated Ye Chong¡¯s self-defense mechanism. The strong sense of danger had awakened his defense. Every faint bit of the norms he learned in this reality was scrapped in his mind.

    The miniature expression did not go unnoticed among the girls. Rui Su, the smart one already knew what would happen next. Her face drained. "He would not be letting it go this easily," she thought and panicked.

    Rui Bing was more sensible than her sister. She had felt the homicidal desire a moment earlier. But she reacted fearlessly as the confidence in herself found her bravery towards the enemy. The faith boiling in a well-trained fighter like her was unbeatable!

    "Hmph!" At the tip of his toes, countless afterimages traced his movements as he jumped at Rui Bing. Always be the first one tounch the attack - that was the belief imprinted deep in his marrows and it would not be changed merely because the opponent happened to be a female!

    The speed was totally uncalled for to Rui Bing, while Rui Su almost burst into shrieks upon his attack.

    There was no letup from Ye Chong. All force applied! His inhuman movement speed was demonstrated for the first time in front of the girls. Their heats skipped a beat, as they realized it was not only Ye Chong¡¯s hands held an immense speed, but also his entire body.

    Rui Bing nearly failed to react in time as she backed off only when Ye Chong¡¯s hand was barely a few centimeters away from her throat. It was way beyond her prediction of his speed, which eventually shut off her activity.

    Ye Chong pulled away his right hand while his left handnded like a meteor mash right onto Rui Bing¡¯s chest. Without a doubt, if that fist were tond, it would even break a metallic alloy gate of 20 centimeters breadth.

    Rui Bing responded with dexterity as her right arm went wide and bent, her fingers spread, holding Ye Chong¡¯s heavy blow with her palm. Wham! Ye Chong was expecting bones-shattering, flesh-bursting yet none of those happened. Ye Chong flinched.

    That was a mighty blow from Ye Chong. Rui Bing managed to prepare herself in time for the punch but she was still pushed way back behind. She was not an amateur after all as she backed away sliding, instead of falling down and rolling.

    What a mighty power! Rui Bing¡¯s heart turned cold. She could no longer feel her right arm. She did not see that strengthing. She could not believe that her arm was crippled in one fist. That thing¡­ That thing is a monster! She thought.

    Ye Chong halted a moment then curved his body, he leapt forward and started dashing towards Rui Bing.

    As Ye Chong grew closer in Rui Bing¡¯s eyes, though her arm was temporarily disabled, there was no fright in her expression.

    Her eyes blinked with caution as she straightened her hand into a de. She raised it up.

    Ye Chong was shocked by this unexpected change.

    Rui Bing raised her right palm solemnly.

    Ye Chong, body and soul, was attracted to this raising palm of hers for some reason. It was as if the palm was the center of the universe and the universe revolved around it as it raised.

    It was like a zing sun.

    The surrounding turned slow. It was an ominous feeling right into Ye Chong¡¯s abdomen, a major difort into his soul, that he almost felt like spurting his internal body. He tried speeding up but he could not. It was like he got thrown into a pool of sticky liquid, his chain of action turned extremely sluggish yet he knew extremely clear that he was mesmerized by that ring palm of holiness, somewhat and somehow! He lost control over his body gradually that even the slightest gesture he wanted to make was more lethargic than usual. He slowly flew towards that palm, like a moth into the fire.

    Nevertheless, that overwhelming sense of danger lingered in his mind. He wanted to struggle but he failed miserably. Like a fish in the stranding between the threads, it only grew tighter and his muscles were no longer in his control. Approaching the palm, he could not do a thing.

    I could not just die here.

    Not just yet!

    The tenacity to live on, the strong desire for survival, Ye Chong endeavored with thest bit of senses he had.

    In the midst of his endeavor he bit his tongue. The intense pain woke him from the illusions. The sharp taste of his blood rekindled his will to battle. He screamed on top of his lungs. His wave collided with the restriction enveloping him.

    That¡¯s it! He squirmed vigorously and he regained his control over his body little by little.

    And that was the moment he realized in his horror, that he was very much close to the range of her attack. The palm mmed downwards after being raised to the highest. Her beautiful hand actually created screeches of a de shredding the air.

    There was no time to figure out the hows and whys. Ye Chong held the shing palm with his right fist!

    Klink!

    Crack!

    It felt like punching an actual de on his fist. His fingers were utterly painful like they had been ground. There was a stark mark of dent on his fist. Ye Chong hissed in torment. He thought he might have already broken his fingers.

    Rui Bing was not feeling well either. It was an iron de colliding with an iron fist. She suffered more damage than Ye Chong at this strike in reality. Her face became pale as blood drained abruptly. Her heart beat in a squeeze. Her face then reddened dramatically as if she was drunk. The blood surged through the veins in her face hurriedly. The vermilion streaks over her fair skin, an unidentifiable beauty it had, unexinably charming it was for some reason!

    But any charm could not infatuate Ye Chong by then.

    Ye Chong raised his brows as he knew he got the upper hand in this. Certainly he would deliver thest hit and end this fight once and for all. He spread fingers of his left hand and propelled immediately like lightning right towards Rui Bing¡¯s chest. With his strength, onest pierce, then Rui Bing would stay here for life with the 5 pores on the chest of hers! If that counted that is.

    "Stop!" Rui Su¡¯s voice went wild as she witnessed the scene. Remorse pulled her into the bottomless pit of guilt. Her tears overflowed the corner of her eyes, as they fell like pearls off the string, right onto the ground.

    No use! I am so going to kill this girl!

    Ye Chong turned a deaf ear to her plea. He made up his mind - he must kill the girl before him today for she almost murdered him in the first ce! There would be no way for him to let her go, especially after that odd skill she used on him! He could not swear if he could make it this way the next time he met her. If he did not bite his tongue back then, he would have been dead.

    Frankly speaking, it was all a big misunderstanding between them. Rui Bing sought fights, not murders. She and her sister were more bounded by the rules and regtions of this world than Ye Chong himself. It was preposterous for her tomit homicide at such a whim. And it was wrong for Ye Chong to judge people his way. Literally wrong!

    The logic behind Rui Bing¡¯s hindering reaction was because of the killing will inside Ye Chong that she sensed. The palm was raised out of her desperation for survival. The force exerted was a result of the outburst on her capability.

    The senses on her right hand finally recovered. At this dead-or-alive moment she backed off fast. She had to do it! While biting her teeth she forced her right arm up, wanting to catch Ye Chong¡¯s iing left hand. But all she caught was the arm of his, not the hand.

    She could not be bothered as she grabbed his arm forcefully. She was not letting go and was tossed to his back by the inertia.

    Ye Chong had already hit the bottom of his vitality. The struggle moments ago consumed most of his stamina and was exhausting his mind as well. Thanks to the de to the fist strike with Rui Bing before, his right hand was still bbily crippled.

    His fingers were buried in her breasts. He noticed he could not prate further as Rui Bing held his arm frantically.

    As he ran out of strength, he decided to grab her breasts instead of prating.

    Incredible! His fingers felt tender as he touched. Such a great fighter yet the pectoral muscle was so soft. Impossible! The statement filled his mind as he pinched twice purposely to justify that he was not having a delusion.

    Strange¡­ If she could take my attack before this, her body should be more than just "well-built".

    Rui Bing¡¯s body hardened from the touch.

    Ye Chong gripped her breasts; disregarding the moans she made, he made a turn and flung her out.

 Chapter 87 - Trial and Tribulation

    <h4>Chapter 87: Trial and Tribtion</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong discovered that his seemingly infinite stamina was not truly infinite after all. His endurance might not be boundless but at least it should not decrease this fast! Ye Chong was thoroughly exhausted for the first time in his adventure. That weird technique used by the enemy depleted every ounce of his vitality. He was drained not only on the outside, but also the inside. His brain felt emptied, as if he was about to get brainwashed or something. Twinge reverberated waves by waves inside his head.

    Oww¡­ Is that what Mu defined as a psychic attack?

    All words from Mu were precious lectures. They were not as trivial as Shang¡¯s. They were very much applicable in hisbats. So he would remember them to heart every time. He was not seeing a psychic attack from a girl. It altered Ye Chong¡¯s concept ofbats downright.

    "Oh Ye. Tsk, tsk, tsk." Rui Bing was thrown away like a bag of trash. Shang showed up in his mind upon discerning the turnabout in the situation, "You never learn how to takesses the gentle way. Mhm, so how did they feel in your hands? Man, Ye, you are despicable. But, being handsy is the right way to start off dealing withsses. Kekeke!" Shang let off a round of distorted giggle.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were locating where Rui Bing fell. He did not listen to Shang at all. He was trying to catch a breather while recovering his health as much as possible. Ye Chong was beyond under the weather at this point - it was under the drain! Tides of fatigue and soreness gushing at him one after another. Ye Chong¡¯s fortress of inner peace was crumpling! Ye Chong held still.

    One more¡­ Just one more blow¡­ Onest blow, then I could¡­ I could finish her.

    Ye Chong was mumbling as he tried hypnotizing himself. His vision began turning indistinct. The sleeves of Rui Bing¡¯s training robe were fluttering white like the clouds in the sky, which he could not reach as they flew farther.

    He forced his eyes open, yet the lids were so heavy that he could not hold. His consciousness felt as if it was ripped away from his body. His remaining senses could not control his body effectively. His stance shook and he almost fell. Ye Chong had never felt this weak before! His body was inhumanly overpowered yet it could not sustain a little longer when he gravely needed it. The emptied brain of Ye Chong felt like shutting down on its own. He could sleep the moment he closed his eyes.

    I¡­ I must not.

    Ye Chong¡¯s conviction was howling at him not to sleep, as the enemy was still right there, right in front of him. He would be dead, if he slept; or he would sleep only if he was dead!

    "Ye! Please!" Shang sensed the casualty in Ye Chong as he shouted in his mind fretfully, "Lie down already! Thesses won¡¯t kill you! Stop holding it! You have overused your mentality! Your brainwaves are fluctuating! Just have a nap! Come on! Quick! Stop manning up! It will hurt you!"

    Rui Su at one corner tipped her toes on a mech passing by. She soared to Rui Su like an eagle. Grounded clumsily, she regained her bnce. She lifted Rui Su and scurried out of the workshop after that.

    Ye Chong¡¯s blurry vision could slightly spot a cloud hovering out of his workshop.

    Ugh¡­

    Thup! Being unable to stand the tiredness anymore, he fell onto the ground and went into deep slumber after.

    After exiting the workshop with her sister by her side, Rui Bing¡¯s frail body copsed. Fortunately, Rui Su reacted in time to grab her sister¡¯s body. By then her younger sister no longer appeared to be that tough Wonder Woman she used to see in her daily life. She was merely a poor little girl in injury. It was heart-wrenching for her to see her sister in such a devastated state.

    On the way to the hospital, she looked at her sister in dismay. Her fingers helplessly caressed that pretty face of hers in faint warmth. Impatiently she rooted on one of the seats in the ambnce, tearing up remorsefully. It was all her fault. All because she was just a bit pissed. All because she wanted to give someone a little lesson. And it turned out like this! It was the first painful realization in her entire life that she regretted of what she had done.

    The students at the academy witnessed how Rui Su was carrying someone in her embrace, crying as she dashed out of Mr. Ye Chong¡¯s workshop. "What happened in there?" spections started brewing among the students and teachers.

    Rui Bing was at a much worse state than Ye Chong. He only suffered a moment of mentality drain and minor scratches on his body. On the other hand, Rui Bing not only was drained from that massive skill she had used identally, but also was damaged by Ye Chong as he forced himself out of her reach. Her body might be built over the years of training but it was still nothingpared to Ye Chong¡¯s inhumane, beast-like physique. That two blows Ye Chong delivered to her by the fists were absolutely critical.

    To top them all, Ye Chong¡¯s final grip at her breasts was the most fatal of them all!

    It was amazing that she did not pass out on spot. That was because she was thinking what could happen to her sister if she just passed out so easily. If it was not her sister, she would have passed out or died on the spot.

    That grip on her breasts was more than just mind-shocking.

    To a decent and traditional female in vows of chastity, what else could be more nerve-wrecking than this?

    It could have been a major scoop of seeing the devil of the studio, Witch Su running out of Mr.Ye Chong¡¯s workshop crying. Despite that arousing curiosity in every student, no one was brave enough to step close to the workshop within the range of 10 meters! Even the staff from Workshop No.1 was running for his life.

    Horrifying stories about Mr. Ye Chong¡¯s cold pair of eyes and his heart of ice started to reach everybody in the academy! It was not as horrifying as the urban tales actually. But at least, people had been warned and no one was foolishly bold enough to provoke this beast in the campus.

    So the workshop was unvisited. No one could even muster the courage to knock at Mr. Ye Chong¡¯s door. And Ye Chong remained on the floor undisturbed for the whole day. The next day arrived with Ye Chong moaning in ache, his head felt like exploding and his body was weak.

    "So you finally woke up?" the voice rang tly in his mind.

    "Ye¡­ah¡­" He rubbed his head, breathing cold as he spoke on in a coarse voice, "But my head hurts." His head was cracking, unfortunately there was no way of stopping it.

    "ording to my report, this is one of the aftereffects when you over-consumed your mentality. There are several methods to relief such pain. One of them being the brainwave treatment, or simply, an adequate rest."

    "Brainwave treatment? Sounds like something done in the hospital, not here!" He continued rubbing his head and said, "Hey! Wait a minute!" He realized something as he asked, "You are Mu?"

    "Certainly," Mu replied.

    "What happened to Shang?"

    "ording to deed between us, he has to stay muted for the next 11 days."

    "Oh¡­"

    ¡­

    "Mu!" He remembered that technique struck on him. In full of excitement he started asking Mu, as if the pain in him was no longer there, "Was the technique used by that female the psychic attack you told me before? Didn¡¯t you mention something like how your attackcked the psychic aspect or the mentality somehow?"

    Mu was silent for a while.

    "Insufficient data. Unable to deduce."

    "Unable to deduce?" Ye Chong was disappointed, "Mhm. But I think that¡¯s what it is. It was an awful experience. It somehow would give you an impression that it is useless for you to put up resistance. But if we were to pilot a mech, wouldn¡¯t that be a little hard to include a psychic attack?" Ye Chong was too busy figuring out this problem that he forgot about the pain in his head. The rubbing hand on his head shifted to his chin as he pondered.

    "Ye."

    "Yes?" Ye Chong¡¯s focus went back to Mu.

    "Isn¡¯t your head still in pain?" a trickery from the devil as he wagged his tail.

    Ye Chong realized his head still hurt. The pain surged throughout his spines, flooding his senses again. "Ahhh!!" His hand shifted back to his head, "I almost forgot about it!" He hissed and puffed as he replied angrily, "Damn you Mu! I never knew you could be this shameless!"

    "Shameless is indeed my middle name. Thank you for your kindestpliments!" he showed his appreciation in grace. "So, based on the information I had gotten, apparently that adjective you had mentioned about me contains highly discriminative and emotional connotation. Thus I suggest it should not be included in any form of judgment you made towards a particr item. Ye, enjoy this pain."

    "Is there no way to reduce the pain?" Ye Chong was putting up his white g.

    "Mhm. There is," he answered calmly.

    A gleam of hope shone upon Ye Chong, "What? How?"

    "Such method does not require medication or any form of injection. It is safe and effective. You can feel it on spot¡­"

    That line was familiar. The "yes" was going to slur out of Ye Chong¡¯s lips but he recalled what happened after the "yes".

    He breathed in fright, "Is that your signature pain-relieving methodology of manually putting people in a fainted state?" It was back on Trash-12 when Ye Chong overused his senses during one of the NRS Trainings which led a severe pain to his hands as he exceeded the threshold of his nervous system. And Mu used this so-called treatment to relieve his pain. It felt like yesterday when Ye Chong thought back of his experience with this treatment.

    "You are correct!" Mu replied. One could hear the cheery bell ringing in a quiz game behind him.

    Ye Chong wanted to tell Mu to forget it but the aches came crashing his head waves by waves. His brain was howling at his ears, rampaging in the sea of torment. His senses stood lonely at the corals surfacing on the sea, within the storm as he was engulfed by agony, spat out and then yfully swallowed in again. The coral he stood upon was shaking by the waves of pain. It seemed endless.

    Such a torment! Ye Chong believed he would be going mad anytime soon. It would be better to at least minimize the pain! Ye Chong manned up and spoke to Mu, "Then¡­ Mu¡­ Well, do it! But make sure the hit counts!"

    "The method was not rmended," Mu replied in his serene grace.

    "Why?" Ye Chong was bewildered.

    "The current phenomena in your head is considered as an extremely advantageous training towards your mentality. Of course, only if you were there the whole time to feel it."

    Ye Chong shrieked, "Then why the heck did you mention it in the first ce? Are you saying it for the sake of saying it?"

    Mu was showing immense approval towards his statement, "Correct. I¡¯m saying it for the sake of saying it."

    Ye Chong could no longer stay polite, "You little piece of metallic junk!" He scolded, "You¡­ You¡­ How could you¡­" Ye Chong felt like passing out.

    "To strengthen the effectiveness of your training, it is undeniably essential to give you an increased amount of stimtion," stated Mu.

    Ye Chong spoke on lethargically, "Hiss¡­ Mu¡­ You are¡­ You are cunning!"

    "I do not understand what you meant by ¡®cunning¡¯. ording to the information I had received, I have been telling what is considered to be the truth the whole time," Mu replied.

    Ye Chong was too tried to rebut Mu. Chances were he might not even stand the chance to win against him. Obviously he learned that Mu and Shang were both nasty characters to fiddle with.

    "So how long¡­ How long had I slept?" he tried holding his senses in the utter pain as he asked.

    "28 hours and 36 minutes," Mu answered in uracy.

    "28 hours?" he muttered.

    ¡­

    He jumped up high as he recalled something, "Ah! Does that mean I have missed my sses?" Ye Chong did not feel anything particrly exciting about sses, still he was the one in the deal, he had to aplish the tasks he promised at his best!

    "Not true. I have done it for you," replied Mu in suave.

    "You have done it for me?"

    "Uh huh."

    "That works too. In the Virtual World both you and Shang are the sky-walking hackers. So I think that verification system in the academy is nothingpared to your skills. So, how do you feel about the first day in ss?"

    "My information shows that the word ¡®feel¡¯ is inappropriate in the application on non-living objects, for instance, me."

    "You are still not sentimental. Or maybe¡­ not sensible."

    "Maybe. Oh yeah, we forgot something," Mu responded.

    "What?"

    "The pain in your head."

    "Darn it I forgo- Ahh!! How to end this! Hiss¡­ Ugh¡­ Mu¡­ You know¡­

    You are good!"

 Chapter 88 - The Troubled Chemist

    <h4>Chapter 88: The Troubled Chemist</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Mu, are you sure we are going there?" Ye Chong asked in his head along the way.

    "Yes. What Shang had proposed was correct. As stated in the information, Do-Kun stones are indeed able to grow in numbers as stimted through presets by an alchemist."

    "Gosh! You mean the chemist?" Ye Chong reminisced the torture he had been through these past few days in his head. It was mncholic, depressing or literally mind-blowing. The headachested for the entire 3 days and he almost broke his teeth from grinding them in pain. He made it through as the aches were slowly lifted. He did not feel anything particrly improved, despite the fact that his mentality was much stronger than before, as stated by Mu judging by the stable brainwaves in his head.

    That sounded quite rewarding for the suffering he had undergone. He did not suffer for nothing at the very least. Nheless, before he could rejoice on the end of his agony, Mu hadmenced the following torment for him - the Chemist sses. The two big Cs struck on Ye Chong¡¯s head the moment he saw them hanging on the ssy golden te right outside the ssroom. Luckily Mu was merciful enough to conduct mini sses on marksmanship in between, just to ¡®rx¡¯ his mind a little. Mu rmended a set of marksmanship based on his calctions, which were the usual Mu style - concise yet effective. They were not fancy enough to be called grandly as the "marksmanship" since the set contained only 8 movements. Yeah, movements. They were not evenbos to begin with. They were just 8 basic movements of action as the final result of Mu¡¯s numerous intensive calctions and improvements after countless simtions in his processor. Considering how the ancient marksmanship was long gone, it would be a technological error 404 to find any applicable references. These movements were constructed on a variety of physic theories with the aspect of minimizing the force input while maximizing the force output for instance. In short, these movements were a kind of production from Mu¡¯s simting calction.

    Fortunately the workshop was spacious for his training. It was truly a huge storage. Ye Chong cleaned up one corner and hopped onto his Harmony, starting his training.

    Ye Chong masteredbative skills on mech way faster than learning those gibberish in chemist theories. He had finished his marksmanship training, however, "I still have no idea what a chemist actually does." he mumbled as he got off his mech.

    The chemist ss today was on experiments. Well, experiments were the bread and butter of the chemist sybles. One did more experiments than theoretical lectures, unless the teacher was Shang, then it would be a parade of theoretical knowledge dancing through your left ear pinna all the way exiting from your right.

    "Mu, don¡¯t you know what one needs to know about being a chemist? What am I here for?" Ye Chong asked nkly.

    "What you need to know about being a chemist is that it is all about hands-on experience. The current theories in books are not perfectly constructed. They could lead to facies and consist major ws. I would define chemist as an upation that have not found their ideologies on logics. That is why Shang and I do not have much of an advantage in this. Unlike humans, they seemed to be able to conduct this perfectly fine despite theck of logic."

    The dean of the alchemy faculty in Blue Ocean Academy was Ms. Jiang Xiao¡¯wei, who reacted with confusion the moment she saw Ye Chong¡¯s name as mentioned by Headmaster Lan beforehand. She did not understand how a boy would be interested in the alchemy, especially when he excelled in mechanics. Normally she would assume that the boy did note for the sses, but rather, he came for the girls. The boys in alchemy sses were almost non-existent. Yes, they were all girls, and very pretty ones too. The overflowing pheromone in the ssroom usuallyted a number of boys on their puberty. So if she were to see a boy in her ss, the boy would normally be sitting fairly close to one of the girls and his eyes would be more onto the girl than the texts in front. However suchbel did not appear to be workable on a person like Ye Chong. She had seen him before. He was rather a cold person in her eyes and such cold person would not be interested in flirting an opposite gender using such a gimmicky trick.

    More importantly, he seemed to have something going on with Rui Su. While she did have a few good-looking girls in her ss, they were not of the same level as Rui Su. Yeah, it was just likeparing a bunch of sodium with a mere piece of rubidium. If he did have something with Rui Su, Ye Chong should not even be interested in her girls. Ms. Jiang was puzzled. It was as if she was presented with astronomical chemical equations bounded embodied with the truth of life.

    ¡­

    "Here you are," stated Mu as they arrived.

    The alchemy faculty was rather feminine for its imagery. Precisely speaking, it was flooded with girls and Ye Chong was like the ugly duckling among the swans as he walked in the corridor. These girls had first seen Ye Chong, only on a live channel that is. It was their first time seeing him in person.

    He walked on expressionlessly, as his entity somehow set off an aura of istion. No one was daring enough to initiate a conversation with him, though Ye Chong would not reply even if one did. It was an istion that one would feel like hanging a sign over him, with the words written in red, "No Entry - Recognized Personnel Only". Ye Chong was too engaged in the conversation with Mu in his head that he simply did not have the time to take notice of those girls around.

    "Oh? Really?" Ye Chong sounded surprised as he spoke.

    "Correct. Data shows that quite a few types of special ores could multiply by simtions in certain presets, even though most of the data were lost while some of the remaining ones were already damaged. Shang is currently at a vigorous attempt to repair the existing data," Mu replied.

    "Shang actually knows how to do that?" a shocking fact it was to Ye Chong. Apparently Shang was no other than the joker of mischief in his impression. Other than potentially being a mascot of the Fal Gxy, he did not think of anything else befitting to this expressive intelligence.

    "Yes. Shang has a much more mature mood matrix inparison to me. So undeniably he has a better sense in alchemy too. In addition he expresses high interests in his past, while I agreed on the fact that these information could be very much useful in finding out the mech. Shang treated this repair as an excavation to his life, although I did not understand what he meant. At least I understand that it would be absolutely helpful for you if we were able to find out where this mech came from," Mu exined tly.

    "You have a point. You and Shang are so great, I believe the creator of both of you would be much greater," Ye Chong replied with expectation.

    "Unknown. I have yet to receive sufficient information to justify that. But I could justify that your statement contains one w. I was not created, or ¡®produced¡¯ by them in your terms. Perhaps Shang was created under their hands, however my emergence was of an ident," corrected Mu.

    "True."

    Ye Chong¡¯s focus went back to the reality as he held his steps and looked around. At some point in the campus, the sense of direction was also considered as a fundamental skill for students. It was sopact that one could be lost forever if one did not take the effort to remember the routes. Thankfully, Ye Chong¡¯s sense was not that bad and he had Mu. It would be much more challenging for one to lose the way than not to.

    The girls at the surrounding were looking foreignly at Ye Chong. Some started chattering as they giggled, while the others sometimes pointed their fingers and whispered on. A male in the alchemy faculty was like amb falling into a pack of wolves. "And that happens to be the popr Mr. Ye Chong!" mumbled one of the girls excitingly.

    Ye Chong did not seem to care. However, he could not show total ignorance as his ears were good. He could discern even the softest mumble from the girls. Well, the name "Ye Chong" consists of quite a number of sounded vowels and consonants, which made it outstanding in a whisper. Those whispers sounded like a flock of flies buzzing around his ears. It was not fatal, but it was annoying!

    While the girls in love were flourishing the pumping heart of spring, Ye Chong stopped by and fired his stare. An ice beam round the corridors turned the living corridor of endearment into an arctic walkway of consternation. His sightunched a shower of arrows upon the girls.

    The girls shuddered while some were hiding behind the lockers with their faces drained.

    That settled it.

    Leaving the girls, Ye Chong stepped into theb building.

    Unlike the spaciousness of his workshop, theb for chemists was separated into countless tiny independent rooms. This was for safety ppurposes because of a certain risk a chemist had to bear whenever an experiment was conducted since living things possessed a chance of transmutation in a preset while the chemist¡¯s setting would elerate and enhance the process. Spreading of these mutations were strictly forbidden without permission and certification of an official organization. This was reasonable because the mutations could cause negative impacts to the ecosystem. They could kill the ecosystem too. Thus, it would be necessary to have cubicles instead of a spaciousb, for both the safety of the chemists and the environment.

    And that was the time Ye Chong bumped into Ms. Jiang Xiao¡¯wei. He had been in her ss a few times so they were sort of acquainted by then. Nevertheless, Ms. Jiang had not gotten used to his existence in the alchemy faculty as she flinched when seeing Ye Chong, "Oh." She snapped out from her shock and gave a sweet smile, "Good day, Mr. Ye."

    "Dean Jiang, what a pleasure. I hope to receive more of your teaching."

    Ms. Jiang¡¯s smile was quite warm and natural. It wasforting to Ye Chong¡¯s eyes as his expression grew gentler.

    "Well, it was not really a teaching. Just a few heads up sometimes. Mr. Ye, you can alwayse and drop by my office if you have any question regarding alchemy in your mind," she kindly replied.

    "Thank you very much. Certainly I will," Ye Chong responded with courtesy.

    They bade farewell to each other. "Well, Mr. Ye Chong isn¡¯t as unfriendly as I had heard¡­" muttered Ms. Jiang.

    Ye Chong entered the ss of the day. It was not Ms. Jiang who conducted the lesson. It was someone else, a female teacher he had never seen before.

    Looking at the varies sks scattered on the table, along with tubes and tubes of reagents, Ye Chong was dumbfounded. He looked at the teacher who was being truly helpful as she did not seem to feel like talking, shutting her mouth tight at her desk. His eyes scanned through the items in nk dismay, heid his hands over the sk and he withdrew them. As being still lesspetent than a greenhorn in theb, he simply had no idea where to begin.

    Frowned, Ye Chong noticed how the girls around him were eyeing him the whole time.

    "Ye." Just when Ye Chong was lost on the lesson, a voice came weakly by his ears, "C-Can I¡­ you know¡­ Can I group¡­ Can I group with you?" Only then he realized there was someone by his side, as the intonation caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention. It was familiar.

    He raised his head, "Is that you?" He saw someone standing right in front of him with her head lowered. Her fingers twiddling the skirt of her faculty uniform. It was Xiu. Her head was so low that Ye Chong could not see her face. But he could tell that she seemed pretty nervous as her shoulders were shaking.

    Theb lost its usual hustling and muffling as everyone paused their works. Someone nearly dropped the thermometer in her trembling hands. They looked at two of them with their mouths wide open unconvincingly. Mr. Ye Chong was the celeb in the academy and the shrinking violet Xiu was outrageously fearless today to have a talk with the celeb himself. It was an earth-shattering sight. The whispers were gone too by then. The ssroom was dead silent.

    Xiu who seemed to have noticed everybody¡¯s iing sights were lowering her head much more, as her cheeks reddened. Ye Chong was wondering if her neck would be broken as she lowered her head further. He lifted his head and red at the girls around.

    His cold sight caused everyone to retreat their stares right away as the hustling continued. The girls started acting they were busy carrying out their experiments all of a sudden. A dramatic acting it was too as one could hear the exaggerated clinking and nking in theb.

    Xiu¡¯s appearance was like an angeling from the sky to Ye Chong in rescue of his terrible day. Still he inhibited his emotion as expressionlessly he replied, "Yes, you can."

    "So they knew each other!"

    "Oh my gosh!"

    "This is one more story to our tea sessionter."

    "Stop thinking about tea, we should do some research."

    "On them?"

    "No stupid. Only him."

    Sharp gossips of exmations rushed through the group of girls who were all ears to the conversation between Mr. Ye Chong and shy girl Xiu the whole time. Such a Columbus discovery! "I never knew Xiu was such a chaser!" Their impression towards Xiu grewplicated.

    "Rea-" Xiu swiftly lifted her head, "Really?" she asked in disbelief. The polished face of hers dinted with a hint of scarlet, a beautiful moment of embarrassment to be perceived.

    "Of course," he nodded his head. Ye Chong hurrahed in his mind as there was finally an assistant to guide his way out of this ssware jungle.

    And so Assistant Xiu started a brief tutorial for Ye Chong. It went well.

    Maybe.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "So¡­ Th-this is the Ga¡­ga¡­Gallo-blue culture medium. It is one of the 15 types of basic mediums you would use. And¡­ And¡­what it does is¡­ it helps speeding up the¡­ g-g-growth of nts¡­ by¡­by producing¡­ I mean, providing the necessary nutrients for the process¡­ Umm¡­"

    "Also¡­ the heater is very easy to use. You just¡­ you just¡­ set the temp¡­temp¡­temporal? W-what¡­ oh, the temperature at the processor, b-b-but you have to be careful¡­ that¡­ umm¡­ what was it again¡­ umm¡­ uhh¡­"

    ¡­

    Could I ever exit the jungle in one piece?

    Especially under the aid of this troubled chemist?

 Chapter 89 - What Happened

    <h4>Chapter 89: What Happened</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A sprout of crimson nt stood still in a transparent culturing tube. Its leaves were ovate and in dark red, veins densely crept over its thick leaves. The stem was supple as it twirled over the tube with its sharp lc red body. At the top thereid a few berries with the shape likenterns in red-yellow stripes. The fruits were seemingly well-grown as it looked sulent and fleshy, rather mouth-watering if one may ask Xiu.

    "Okay, this is one of themon spices one would see - the Maroon Bay." Xiu became rtively calmer than before after getting used to interacting with Ye Chong slowly, "If you would take a look at this, thesenterns have one particr thing we need inside them." Xiu carefully plucked one of the so-called nterns" from the Maroon Bay using something like a pair of forceps but they looked more refined. "We are going to extract it." Sheid it on a clean petri dish and poked a hole on it. Bright reddish liquid oozed out of the pore and filled the petri dish. Out of a sudden, a fairly dense scent wafted throughout the ssroom. "Since it is extracted from the Maroon Bay, we call it the ¡®Maroon Extract¡¯." She put the tool down and carried on borating.

    "Such extract is mainly used in production of premium aromatic voring. Mhm, like a perfume for example. Since one could not culture it in mass productions, its price is naturally much higher. Haha, a lot of girls in our faculty would use it sometimes, though I prefer the scent of Fading Azure. Too bad Xuelin never appreciated these lovely smells!" Xiu giggled as she spoke, one could tell that she was somewhat confident in this. The usual shrinking violet would bloom anytime when any question was asked regarding her profession. She would be serious and her timid nature would disappear.

    And more surprisingly, throughout the ss, only Xiu was able toplete the extraction. Yes, none of the other gossiping girls around herpleted the task of the day.

    Ye Chong had his eyes fixed on this very sprout in the tube throughout the rapid growth process. Within the past few hours, the seed was directly raised to its mature state while the former growth duration of this sprout would have taken 15 years in its habitat. The ground-shattering fact shocked Ye Chong! The first time it was he felt the depth, the amazing perks of being a chemist.

    And this was an utterly living organism!

    "So Ye, why were you interested in the alchemy in the first ce? We don¡¯t usually see boys here you know¡­" Xiu looked at Ye Chong with her eyes opened wide in innocent curiosity.

    "Just interested," he reasoned it as he just so happened to be very interested.

    "But aren¡¯t you a technician? The expertise in the alchemy does not seem to be helpful to you anyhow? The main fields involved in this are botany and microbiology, which I think they aren¡¯t useful for your work¡­ somehow¡­"

    "Botany and microbiology?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Yes, our botany primarily consists of studies on spices, ingredients, herbs¡­ and a little bit of others on botanical aspect. Mostly the studies focus on how to encourage the growth of the nts to reduce the time taken of the growing process and also on how to enhance certain effects of the nt¡¯s extract. We often carry out researches with such aim on nts that are either scarce by nature or take too long to grow while having high demands in arger market. So yeah, botanical chemists are verymon nowadays. I¡¯m one of them too!" Xiu pointed at her tiny nose as she spoke in a swing.

    "But microbiological applications are also frequently used in the faculty too. Many of them use microorganism to produce a particr kind of enzyme or polypeptides. That sounds cool too!" Xiu expressed admiration on her face.

    "So!" Ye Chong was intrigued, "Is there any kind that does ores?"

    "Ores?" Xiu shook her head and she affirmed, "Duh, of course not! Ores do not show any attribute of a living thing. How do we even culture it when it does not even reproduce by itself. Well, some do animals. But it has been strictly forbidden by the 5 major gxies in ck and white, though there are still some people who do it in the dark. How could the people be so evil and heartless!" Xiu¡¯s face inted in agitation.

    As expected, what was kept in Mu¡¯s databank was not anything ordinary. Nevertheless, Ye Chong had always trusted the statements inside the record. He never doubted its validity!

    Xiu mentioned about culturing animals, which piqued his interest, "Animals? Why do they ban chemists from doing animals?"

    Xiu''s face looked extremely disgusted, "Well, if you do it on animals, a lot of weird stuffs woulde out! These are no longer animals, they are monsters! And these monsters are much more dangerous than wholeb of mutated nts. They are brutal by nature. It was not only that but also such act questions the ethnicity of our profession. It is cruel! Too cruel! So any government on any gxy bans this inhumane act!"

    Ye Chong seemed to get it at first¡­ but somehow he lost itter.

    But then, what has that to do with me? Ye Chong discarded theplicating thoughts.

    He looked upon the bay inside the rube as heplimented the amazing capability of this expertise in mind. Gradually he grew fond of the alchemy. He reflected on what Xiu had demonstrated, the reagent she had used and the way she executed the tasks,paring them to what he had drilled into his head back then as he learned about the mechs.

    The alchemy wasn¡¯t that bad!

    Thought Ye Chong.

    ¡­

    !

    Uggghghhhhhh!!

    Out of the blue, a piercing pain struck on his heart. Whimpered, he covered his left chest with his right hand as he curved his back subconsciously.

    Ahhh! It hurts!

    Ye Chong could feel his heart bursting like a balloon on this needle-piercing pain. His face turned dead pale immediately as sweats streamed over his shivering forehead.

    The stabbing pain surged through his body before he could do anything. It felt like every bit of his inner flesh was shredded and ground. A distorting ache bounced inside his organs one after another. His eyes went dazed as dizzy he had became. ZZzzt! His muscles felt like they were being torn apart into a million pieces. Ye Chong tried to hold the iing aches but he failed miserably. He moaned slightly as he lost control.

    His heart, his chests, arms and legs; it felt like he was no longer inmand of them. The torture seized into his veins as it engulfed Ye Chong¡¯s sanity like an army of ants. The minuscule pricking on every part flooded his body.

    Wham! Ye Chong could stand straight no more. He fell onto the ground, bowing like a grilled shrimp. His face was utterly drained by then, the muscles distorted helplessly. What a fearsome sight!

    "Ah!" Xiu dropped the sk in her hand. She covered her mouth as shrieks escaped in the sharpest hiss through the gaps of her fingers. The ssroom was distressed!

    "Ye! Ye! What happened to you? Speak to me! Please¡­ No¡­ Teacher! Teacher!!"

    Such a heart-skewing pain. Ironically Ye Chong had to stay awake to experience every bit of it. He was more conscious than ever for some reason. He could clearly feel the thumps falling onto his body. His nerves had never felt so discerning before!

    It might be extraordinarily useful anytime but not now. It had be a torment to Ye Chong obviously!

    There was no expression on his face anymore. Even the muscles on his face were no longer of his control! Technically, there was not a piece of muscle in his control. It felt like he had fainted but he had not. In fact, his mind was clearer than ever!

    "Ye¡­ Ye¡­ What has happened?" Mu¡¯s calm voice sounded a little fret.

    He tried to reply yet his brain waves felt blocked outpletely. He could hear Mu and he could call out to him, again and again. However, Mu never heard him, not even once.

    "Ye. It is not mature for you to do this."

    "Ye."

    "Ye!"

    Mu''s voice grew panicked as he did not receive any form of response from Ye Chong. There was no brainwave from him too, as if he was dead.

    3 minutes! For three minutes! A never-before-felt pain tossed him into the underworld, sinking him into a barren agony. Boundlessly, endlessly,wlessly it inched towards Ye Chong. There was fright in him despite being a strong man he always was! The taste of death, it was so close, the very first time to him.

    He endured the pain. By then the continuous headaches he suffered days back after overloading his head was nothingpared to this tsunami of torment. The headache was because of mentality while this was a pure body sear. Moreover, this sudden pain was much more absurdpared to the headache he had.

    Nevertheless, thanks to the experience before, Ye Chong did not break down that quickly. He tried shifting his focus as he converged his thoughts at the strides on the floor. The tempestuous ache caused his mind to diverge a little, unfortunately that did not help Ye Chong out as the pain continued without weakening.

    He mustered the remaining bit of his consciousness, little by little, all concentrated, he could not mess this up! He could not believe the fact that he would lose his mind someday.

    Strangely, as how without forewarning the pain came, right when Ye Chong was going mad, it vanished!

    Yes, it vanished without forewarning too!

    He regained control of his body. It felt like his body was the mech while his mind was the pilot. During that few minutes of chaos, the pilot lost control of his mech, then right before the crash, he retrieved the ess to the control panel out of sudden.

    So it was a dream?

    He climbed up from the ground as his mind twiddled on everything. His body might have recovered yet his head was still messed up!

    As Mu sensed reconnection to Ye Chong¡¯s brain, he asked in panic, "What had just happened Ye?!"

    His mind had yet settled down. His eyes weaved through the frightened girls around him. He shook his head violently, attempting to snap out of confusion.

    It took about half a minute for Ye Chong to recover fully from the havoc just now.

    The girls looked exceedingly afraid, including Xiu who backed off with the girls upon seeing Ye Chong waking up.

    Ye Chong certainly had no idea how terrifying he appeared at that moment.

    His paper-white face was the kind from the ssic horror movies, the haunting ghost role of course; while droplets of sweat smudged his features along with some asional twitches on his face. Creepy¡­ No, disturbing!

    "We will talk about thister, Mu." muttered in his thought, Ye Chong responded to Mu.

    He inhaled deeply, waved his limbs slightly, only to make sure he had truly restored control over his body. All he thought by then was to leave straightaway. The crowd had worsened his fear, the people would do him no good. The man who crawled out of the hell¡¯s gate would like some moments, alone! He had to conduct a discussion with Mu regarding the hows and whys of this.

    He got up and was ready to move, "Who?!" Two oddly-dressed men at their middle-age stormed in with cases in their hands, "Who was unwell?" The pale green suit was absolutely a weird choice of uniform¡­

    And everyone backed out for a way. The two men approached Ye Chong.

    "That¡¯s Mr. Ye!" Ye Chong¡¯s face that had gone colorless, that overwhelming amount of sweat over his body, a fool could tell something must had happened to him. One of the men recognized him as he shouted and went upon Ye Chong waddling, "Are you sick? We received an emergency call from here and we thought some students were unwell out of the blue. Never knew it was you the teacher who got sick. Come, we will do a check-up for you. Yeah, it¡¯s a little crowded here, we will get you shifted to the other ssroom."

    "It¡¯s o-" Right when Ye Chong who strived for a moment of istion was going to reject the offer, Mu whispered, "It would be rmended to have a check-up, Ye."

    5 minutester¡­ he was at the other ssroom.

    "Mr. Ye, we are pitifully sorry that we can¡¯t find anything wrong on your body." The doctor who performed the diagnosis was stern as he spoke, "Perhaps our facilities are too limited. We suggest you to transfer to the advanced medical center at the academy instead, just for a safer and detailed check-up. Alright, there¡¯s nothing else we could do here, if you would excuse us." He kept his tools and turned away, "Also, Mr. Ye, please, do, make sure you have your check-up at the advanced medical center. Very well, good bye, have a nice day!"

 Chapter 90 - Deduction

    <h4>Chapter 90: Deduction</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Thank you, we hope to see you in good shape soon!"

    Ye Chong exited from the medical center he was told to go to. The doctor¡¯s words echoed, "Mr. Ye, your body is in the pink of health, well, pinker than most of the people I had seen. So no problem! What you have mentioned about today was probably a form of illusion I supposed, due to excessive fatigue or tension in your mind. It is a conventional symptom for workaholics. So don¡¯t work too hard. Mr. Ye, I know you might be demanding of yourself and you have a good body, but you are still a human, you need to rest. I would advise you to rest adequately."

    In that chain of exnation from the doctor, Ye Chong only discerned that one striking word - illusion.

    Illusion? Impossible!

    That horrible sensation remained imprinted in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. It was endless, a no-return, a no-escape kind of pain¡­ Scary! Ye Chong shuddered. He absolutely wanted to know what exactly had happened! It stayed like a hanging sword upon his head, a threating anytime soon to Ye Chong, making him restless and spineless.

    Could it be some strange diseases people had been talking about? Those incurable kinds¡­ But I had never gotten it before! The doctor said the same too - there was nothing, while Mu said the Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s own medical center was as advanced as it was called¡­ then there should be nothing wrong. The doctor should be right!

    That awful experience, there would be no way Ye Chong would want the second time!

    If there would be another anyway, he doubted he could survive that.

    "Do you have any deduction for this, Mu?" Ye Chong asked impatiently, almost in a begging tone. He did not care if it was a baseless inference, he just wanted an answer! He could feel the insanity growing in himself, along with the agitation, the edginess. The former calm and still self of his had long gone by then.

    "Ye, calm down." Mu spoke tly as he sensed something wrong with Ye Chong, "Take a deep breath. Like yourbat routine. The negative emotion would only be hindering you. They are unhelpful and will only lead you to even more terror. Ye, breathe in, then breathe out. Breathe your soul!"

    In almost at a split second, a rampaging feeling scorched his nerves. The heat flowed in his body like burningva. It was so hot that Ye Chong could feel his eyes glowing raging red, while the skin of his hands were colored in a spooky vermilion, like a ming piece of metal. It was annoying! Infuriating! Maddening! His body was hot, piping hot! A thought jammed his thinking and overwrote everything else - Destruction! Unleash the inside!

    "Breathe your soul."

    If it was not Mu who said this line, he might had given an ultimate corkscrew punch right onto the person¡¯s face, no matter who the person was.

    He huffed and puffed. The fierce breath of his was boiling the nasal cavity. It was not the air he was breathing, it was more like the inferno, zing inferno!

    He tried to inhibit the brewing heat storm in him. His instinct sensed the danger behind this berserk as soon as it emerged. An emotionless, nonchnt person he had been was rmed by this uprising in his body.

    Breathe in! Breathe out! Deep breath!

    Gasp.

    Ye Chong was facing utter difficulty to carry out this daily practice which was a piece of cake for him before.

    "Just breathe¡­ Breathe in¡­ Yes, breathe out¡­ In¡­Out¡­ Take the rhythm, ride on it¡­ Yes, you are a good boy," Mu¡¯s voice was hypnotizing as Ye Chong followed his order obediently.

    As his breathing grew calmer, his head cooled down. The heat disintegrated gradually and Mu got his old Ye Chong back.

    Such a breach at his security had exhausted quite a portion of his stamina. Rivers of sweat connected to each other on his forehead while wetting his entire clothes. Achoo! Ye Chong sneezed abruptly as a wind blew by.

    "I think¡­Haha¡­" Ye Chongughed bitterly, "Mu, I¡¯m in trouble again, am I not?"

    "Yes," Mu replied approvingly. "Ye, you do not seem right with that look. However there has yet to be a proper solution from me."

    "What exactly had happened?" Ye Chong was vexed with himself. And that vex fell into a ripple in his mind, causing another storm again as his blood boiled. Breathe! Ye Chong out of his horror took a few rounds of deep breathing again and finally stabilized the rumble before the storm.

    "Ye, stay calm." Mu exined, "As what the data showed, assuming if this neither was an inborn disease due to family inheritance nor was due to a kind of virus infection back at Trash-12, I have a deduction now."

    "What deduction?" Ye Chong asked.

    "The silver liquid you dipped in back at the ck Cove." Added Ye Chong, "Possibility - 67%. Only that would be the suspect to this."

    Ye Chong figured it out the moment Mu mentioned about the ck Cove, "No wonder they don¡¯t seem to really care about the security. They actually have this to capture runaways in their hands."

    "And that is why¡­" Ye Chong eventually made sense of what he had encountered, "That is why, Johansson did not appear to be in desire of killing me. That was not a murder, but an escort. And he just had the way to make sure he could escort me back to the ck Cove."

    "Wow!" Mu¡¯s eximed voice was t. "It seems like you really have became smarter."

    "Uh huh, if this is true, then that thing¡­" Ye Chong flinched. "That thing would not only happen once!" As soon as the conclusion shed in his mind, his brain jammed.

    Imagined the number of times he had to suffer all those, Ye Chong¡¯s face was grim.

    "Poor Ye," and all Mu could do was to show sympathy.

    Apparently there were not many options for him. If he were to return to ck Cove to be a pawn by some mastermind, he would rather die! That tenacity and fighting will he got from living on Trash-12 would be what he needed! He still had hope! And he had Mu and Shang!

    Ye Chong spent the next few days in worry, anticipating that horrendous storm toe striking him again from time to time. Yet strangely, it did not happen. That surprised Ye Chong.

    Well, thinking again, Ye Chong assumed his anticipation would not be helpful at all. Generally he would have lost full ess control of his body by then. He could not even speak to Mu through telepathy. If that would be the case¡­ Ye Chong decided to live on without fear. For safety, he nned to reduce the time outside and he did not intend to go back to Grandpa Qian anymore. He could not predict when this dreadful symptom would ur again but he could predict that surely if it happened and anything else dreadful happened along, he could just be the dead meat on the chopping board with no ce to run.

    So Ye Chong spent the whole day rooting himself at his workshop while Mu booted his mech self to hide within the countless mechs Ye Chong had in his ce, striving to protect Ye Chong at any casualty.

    He thought he would be in peace at least. Unfortunately, his fame did not decrease.

    "Ye Chong!" Rui Su came mming the door open, "You! Go to my ce! Now! My sister wants to see you!" she came in with a briefmand and introduction. Her expression was unhappy.

    "Your sister?" frowned Ye Chong as he asked.

    "Thedy you fought that day? Who came with me?" her eyes slightly reddened as she reminisced the incident.

    "Oh!" Rui Su was finally speaking hisnguage - thedy he fought that day. He remembered everything. Normally Ye Chong would jump from his seat, nodding his head as he marched to the ce, if it was an invitation from a challenger, especially if the challenger had some fancy tricks that could hold him back. However, he refused.

    Without hesitation and further inquiry, "No," he gave a direct decline in Rui Su¡¯s face.

    "You¡­ You¡­" Rui Su was so irritated that her face turned pale as she bit her teeth.

    What a weird girl. Ye Chong could not understand the girl before him, he decided to deal with ignorance.

    Rui Su wanted to be nice at first, nevertheless Ye Chong seemed to be uninterested in the kind self of hers. That was when she transformed back into the notorious Witch Su, "Ye! Chong! Are you a man? Let me ask you, Are! You! Still! A! Man?! I can¡¯t believe my ears of hearing such puny words from a puny person like you! I had never seen such a useless piece of dirt in my entire life! You don¡¯t even have the balls to go to my ce! You coward! You spineless squid!"

    Ye Chong spectated the amazing talk show from Rui Su nonchntly. His ears had grown numb towards personal attacks and offensivenguages.

    "So Mu, shouldn''t humans be afraid of death?" Ye Chong asked in his mind.

    "They should," said Mu.

    "Then isn¡¯t it normal for one to be a coward in this?" he asked on.

    "Well, in the society, fearing death is considered as a cowardly act, even if they all fear the death like no one ever did." Exined Mu.

    "B-o-r-i-n-g!" eximed Ye Chong.

    "Right," Mu agreed too.

    "Are you listening to me? My sister is calling you, no, ordering you to move that broken bottom of yours to my ce! You heard it? Move! Why aren¡¯t you moving? Oh my Fal Gxy if there¡¯s a quantum singrity I swear I¡¯ll catapult you into it¡­"

    The bickering went on for a moment.

    And Rui Su realized it was pointless to scold her signature lines at Ye Chong. She became parched and tired. Nothing had happened other than most of her inner ze had extinguished.

    "Please¡­" Going the hard way did not work it seemed, so Rui Su decided to plead instead, "I beg you. Please, Ye Chong, please. It¡¯s just a trip to my house. My sister wants to see you¡­ Juste¡­ Could you kindly do my poor, poor sister a favor?" her watery eyes overflowed with pity. Anyone else would have epted her plea right away seeing those eyes.

    Well it was "anyone else" after all.

    Not Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did not have concept on how this "begging" worked.

    "The heck she¡¯s doing, Mu?" Ye Chong inquired bewilderedly.

    "Technically, she was trying to initiate your urge to protect her by acting as a weakling in the situation." Concisely he replied, "Most of the women use such method to gain a man¡¯s sympathy," added Mu.

    "She¡¯s acting weak, hoping that the enemy woulde and pity her?" Ye Chong was not convinced, the logic did not work in his head it seemed.

    "Uh¡­ well¡­" Mu halted for a noticeable length, "The rtionship between men and women are not malignant to begin with."

    "Well then, what is it?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Regarding that, I suggest you to have your session with Shang, he is more of an expert in this," and Mu quickly shut his mouth.

    Rui Su tried to rephrase her plight and redid her acting repetitively. Still, it did not work on the man with a heart of iron. Rui Su never expected Ye Chong to be this hard to prate. She could not believe that her ways neither hard nor soft worked. The feeling did not even seep into his skin! She became desperate as her signature tricks with a 100% sess rate on other men did not work on him.

    She recalled what her sister told her back at their home and tears wetted her beautiful face.

    It shocked Ye Chong a little. Yeah, only a little.

    "Sniff¡­ Sniff¡­" Rui Su held her tears and looked at Ye Chong wholeheartedly, "In what way you would agree to see my sister?"

    "Umm¡­"

    Ye Chong thought for a moment, "Get her here, if she wanted to see me that badly."

    With Mu lurking in the queue of mechs, he believed he would be in good hands even if that disastrous syndrome happened again.

    "Okay! Fine!" Rui Su rushed out of the workshop in tears. "You better remember this! Ye Chong!!!" The students on the way were impressed by Ye Chong. They almost wanted to drop by the workshop to give a salutation as he managed to make the witch of the campus to cry twice in a row! Spectacr!

    What Ye Chong did not expect was, Rui Bing actually came!

    And she was alone!

 Chapter 91 - Shangâ€™s Idea I

    <h4>Chapter 91: Shang¡¯s Idea I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing sat before Ye Chong, her face pale, drained of blood. It seemed that she was not yet recovered from the injuries from before. Her long, ck hair further emphasized her pallor, and her asionally knitted brows made for a pitiful appearance! Her former magnificence was now turned into fragility. Her thin physique under the loose training garb made her look as weak as a withering leaf.

    Ye Chong was also shocked to see Rui Bing as she was!

    Rui Bing noticed that Ye Chong was unharmed, and said wryly, "You are truly physically strong!"

    Ye Chong sat quietly. While he did not understand the reason for her visit, Ye Chong still threaded with care, with Mu standing quietly behind him. If anything happened, Mu would be able to react at the drop of a hat. Besides, he was not entirely defenseless himself, only that his weird condition might be triggered again.

    Ye Chong sat quietly, his eyes staring at the other party, unblinking. He was waiting for her to state the purpose of her visit, for he believed that she would not have visited for no good reason. Ye Chong believed that this woman sitting before him, the strongest woman he had ever met, would not be up to a silly action like that.

    As for Rui Bing, Ye Chong still had full admiration for her. Her skills in martial arts were levels above his, and that move was most likely an attack filled with spirit, in Mu¡¯s words. That had made Ye Chong appreciate her even more! It was the first time Ye Chong had seen an attack that was beyond the logic of pure physics!

    Rui Bing did not say anything, sitting quietly before Ye Chong, her dark eyes staring straight at him.

    Their eyes met each others¡¯ in the space between them!

    A faint blush began to spread quietly up Rui Bing¡¯s nape!

    Her silence was baffling to Ye Chong, as he had thought her as someone straightforward in nature. Since she had visited, there must be something on her mind, so why would she not speak of it? Ye Chong broke the silence and spoke, "Why are you here?"

    His t tone together with his apathetic expression made Rui Bing turn serious. While her body was not fully healed, her former fighting instinct as a martial arts practitioner was awakened!

    Rui Bing sat upright, her expression stern, but her first words thoroughly confused Ye Chong.

    "Will you marry me?"

    "Marry her? What?" Thankfully, Mu was near him, and Ye Chongmunicated with Mu through his brain waves. "Mu, what does it mean to marry her?"

    "Hmm, based on avable information, it probably means bing legal husband and wife!" Mu exined.

    "What¡¯s legal husband and wife?" Ye Chong was baffled.

    "Er, this area is not my specialty, you should ask Shang about it. We need 5 seconds to interchange!" Mu was obviously troubled with the question as well, and decided to let Shang, with a more advanced mood matrix, to deal with the matter.

    As soon as Shang was out, he howled electronically. "Waah, Ye, as expected, it¡¯s the aggressive beauty fromst time. Tsk tsk, a beauty like this who fits all your requirements is truly rare!"

    Ye Chong did not quite get it. "What does that have to do with being a beauty?"

    Shang bluntly spoke , "Of course, who wouldn''t love a beautiful woman?" He deliberately paused before continuing, "Mm, of course, your taste is too peculiar! However, does she not suit your standards? The body cannot be too muscr, that would affect speed, and she cannot be too thin, for the muscles must be powerful enough. Mm, endurance is a must and flexibility must be excellent. Excellence in martial arts, almost as good in mechs as I am. A decisive person, one-hit KO¡¯s are preferable! High vignce. Best if she can be proficient in mech mechanics! Besides the mech side of things, it seems that she was almost made based on your criteria! Besides, it¡¯s quite fast to build up knowledge in mechs! Ye, I can¡¯t think of anyone who can better fit your requirements than her!"

    Ye Chong was still uncertain. "What does this have to do with marrying her?"

    Shang nearly fainted at that. "Ye, could it be that you¡¯re still not in your puberty? Heavens! You¡¯re twenty! This is too bizarre in the face of biological theories! Could it be ¡­ Could it be ¡­ You¡¯re ¡­" Shang¡¯s voice was getting queer!

    His hesitance in speech also made Ye Chong even more confused. "Biology? Theories in biology? Isn¡¯t this an alchemist program?"

    Shang nearly cried. "*Cough* ¡­ Theories in biology? Ye, you can¡¯t go on like this, I must now begin to show you the right path of humanity! I can¡¯t let Mu mislead you anymore, heavens, I can already imagine the darkness and dullness of your future life!"

    After a pause, Shang continued encouragingly, "Ye Chong, do you like her? Compared to all the women you¡¯ve ever met before." His voice now had a bewitching quality to it.

    Ye Chong lifted his head and peered towards Rui Bing. Rui Bin sat in all seriousness, but a sh of panic was evident in her eyes. Ye Chong considered before replying, "I like her!" It seemed that, of all the women he had ever met, she was the only that made him feel a sense of admiration, and she was definitely the strongest of woman he had ever encountered!

    "But, what¡¯s that got to do with anything?" Ye Chong¡¯s logic was not affected at all by Shang!

    "Er ¡­ Nothing! But Ye, when can you began your life as a real man?" Shang gave a long sigh!

    "Am I not normal?" Ye Chong was obviously dissatisfied with the conclusion.

    "Could it be that you have no sexual desires for women?" Shang barely managed to ask.

    "Sexual desires?" Ye Chong was at a loss. "Should anyone have sexual desires towards women?"

    Shang felt like he was dealt with a death blow. "Ye, you ¡­ You¡¯re too good at this!"

    "Me? I¡¯m still not good enough. Compared to Mu, I¡¯m still too weak!" Ye Chong replied.

    "Compared to Mu? Heavens, it¡¯s like talking with an animal! No, Ye, it seems that it¡¯ll be necessary to teach you a lesson in biological reproduction! Ye,ter I¡¯ll show you some of thetest holographic passionate battles, that¡¯s my ultimate collection!" Shang spoke with fiery intensity.

    "Holographic information? Passionate battles? Is it a battle between mechs?" Ye Chong asked.

    "A battle between mechs?" Shang¡¯s photon processor was visualizing 2 humanoid mechs engaged in a passionate battle midair, machine oil spraying everywhere, essories flying off in all directions, together with a cringe-worthy sound of metal rubbing against metal. Shang felt a chill spread across him and nearly short-circuited!

    For someone as logic-minded as Ye Chong to discuss emotions, especially that of between members of the opposite sex, it was definitely a depressing challenge for Shang!

    Rui Bing held a normal expression, but her heart was throbbing violently. Ye Chong, sitting opposite her, had at first lowered his head in thought, then lifted his vision to her for a moment before continuing his thoughts. For the first time ever, Rui Bing had a strange feeling, mixed with hope and fear, afraid of what she might lose! She could only do her best to stay calm, or at least maintain the impression of calmness!

    Rui Bing was aware of her own traditional mindset, even when she had chosen to inherit her father¡¯s dojo years ago despite opposition. All these years, the age-old traditions had already be part of her, and she was not capable of changing this part of herself, nor did she wanted to! This kind of life made her feel peaceful!

    Rui Bing¡¯s eyed the man before her with mixed feelings. Will this man, whom she had met not so long ago, be her future husband? If he rejected, what should she do? While she had insisted on traditional practices, it did not mean that she should impose it on others. Her persistence was her own, and Ye Chong¡¯s rejection was only natural, then what should she do?

    Although she already had her mind set, Rui Bing was still at a loss at the present moment!

    "Alright, back to the original question, what does it mean to to marry her? What¡¯s the end result?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Marrying her means having a legal bond of husband and wife between you two. The end result if that you will be with her for the rest of your life!" Shang did not think Ye Chong could understand anything beyond that.

    "Be with her? Why should I be with her for the rest of my life?" Ye Chong asked another mind-bending question to Shang!

    Shang was speechless!

    Shang did not believe that a healthy man like Ye Chong would not be interested in women at all. Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to his mind.

    "Ye, to make you understand this whole affair, we can do an experiment!" Shang¡¯s tone was odd, but he had finally concluded that Ye Chong could only handle facts!

    "Okay, how?" Ye Chong was also keen to try. He was always asking these sort of questions, and Ye Chong had no intention of being entirely ignorant of this topic.

    "Go right in front of her. Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯ll definitely not harm you. Besides, in her current condition, she¡¯s not a match for you!" Shang enticed.

    "Okay!" Ye Chong walked to Rui Bing and stopped before her, and panic shed past Rui Bing¡¯s pale face.

    "Take her hand!" The devil¡¯s tail began to show itself.

    "Hand?" Ye Chong felt uncertain, and asked, "Which hand?"

    *Crash* A certain devil¡¯s fall sent out a shockwave. Shang spoke with a trembling voice, "Whichever!" Shang¡¯s fall to the ground shocked Rui Bing, but it had also eased the her nervousness against Ye Chong¡¯s approach.

    Ye Chong took Rui Bing¡¯s right hand, his body in high alert, ready for any form of attack from her. For Ye Chong, his action would definitely invite retaliation from the other party! No one would let their hand be held in another person¡¯s hands - the action was akin to giving up one¡¯s life to another person!

    However, Rui Bing¡¯s reaction baffled Ye Chong. She pulled her hand back a little, but not enough to escape from his grasp. Her tightly closed lips were pale from the pressure! Her initial pallor was now reced with a thorough blush, but she did not lower her head, managing to look right at Ye Chong. Her clear eyes were filled with a rare coquetry and a little stubbornness. She kept her gaze on Ye Chong!

    "What next?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Have a good feel of her hand!" The devil¡¯s tail was growing obvious.

 Chapter 92 - Shangs Idea II

    <h4>Chapter 92: Shang''s Idea II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Feel her hand?" Ye Chong was confused. Could it be that her hand had something special about it? Ye Chong felt the hand carefully, but did not notice anything special! However, to think that such a soft and delicate hand could have such potential for battle! Ye Chong¡¯s hands may be long and slender, but his hands were solid and muscr, quite different from the woman¡¯s.

    Could this be what Shang wanted him to notice?

    Ye Chong spoke, "It¡¯s soft, with callouses around the edges of the palm, evident signs of some level of training, but her hand is obviously of a different type than mine. Could there be some mystery behind this?"

    Shang stammered, "Ye - Ye, is this what you feel?"

    "Yup, what¡¯s the problem?" Ye Chong replied.

    Shang was full of disbelief. "Ye, can you really not feel anything else? Like, does it feelfortable?"

    "I suppose it does!" Ye Chong gave a little squeeze to the delicate hand, "But, what does it matter?"

    By then, poor Rui Bing was as red as a tomato, but still she refused to lower her head. Her clear eyes were now growing watery, and her tightly held lips were a sign of her exerting strong self control! Since young, no man had ever touched her hands, but the man before her had now grasped her hand in his, doing as he wished! While she had already decided to marry this man, she still could not ept that the man was given in to such frivolity, as her rational side kept herposed!

    A strange, unprecedented tingling sensation came from her right hand. She could even feel the strength and warmth from Ye Chong¡¯s palms. The feeling was unnerving, and she was at a loss as to what to do next!

    Shang muttered, "Looks like this degree of stimtion is too little. For a wild animal like Ye, no, a humanoid mech may be more appropriate. This degree of stimtion is too little!"

    Shang became more spirited and said, "Ye, for the next step, put your nose near to the left side of her throat, keep the distance less than 2 centimeters, and feel it closely!"

    Ye Chong did not doubt Shang¡¯s request and did as he was told in all seriousness. Suddenly, he moved his face close to Rui Bing¡¯s neck, his nose almost touching her skin, no more than 2 centimeters from him. A mysterious, sweet smell came to him. Her warm, snow-white skin had his full attention, and, almost reflexively, Ye Chong could not help but stick out his tongue and lick her neck!

    In an instant, Ye Chong felt like his belly was on fire! He felt a burning surge engulf him! Ye Chong couldn''t help but gasp heavily!

    Faced with this stimtion, Ye Chong felt a buzz in his head. Almost immediately, the powerful flow of emotions that he suppressed a few days ago was like a stoked fire, and Ye Chong felt like his brain might blow up! The overwhelming wild emotions engulfed him in an instant, and Ye Chong could only see red in his eyes, and hisst thought before he lost consciousness was this -

    "This, is a woman?"

    Rui Bing could not keep herposure when Ye Chong put his face so close to her. As Ye Chong licked, she was thunderstruck! Ye Chong¡¯s heavy breath against her sensitive neck only made Rui Bing more anxious!

    Almost without thinking, Rui Bing, with a long history of martial arts training and self defense, was driven to action! Rui Bing slid her right hand and grabbed Ye Chong¡¯s left hand. Her soft, white hands were now as strong as hardened steel. Her left hand pressed towards Ye Chong¡¯s chest as fast as lighting and her legs moved as she stood up, lifting Ye Chong with her!

    Women¡¯s Basic Anti Sexual Assault Skills - Third Move!

    Nether Region Kick!

    The kick was perfect, strength or angle-wise, and Ye Chong curled into a shrimp-like posture but, oddly, did not produce any pitiful shriek!

    The move was followed immediately by an over shoulder throw. Her movements were fluid and natural, and any martial arts practitioner who witnessed Rui Bing¡¯s move after move would have been very impressed!

    In reality, Rui Bing did not know any anti sexual harassment moves at first. However, the dojo often had some female students who came to learn some basic defense skills, and Women¡¯s Basic Anti Sexual Assault Skills were a necessary part of it. Hence, Rui Bing had deliberately learned a few moves, and they now conveniently served her !

    Ye Chong was like a sandbag, ruthlessly thrown to a corner and left on the floor, without any reaction!

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind was like a sea of fire, his consciousness struggling to survive within the fiery ocean, as his external senses had been thoroughly eclipsed! The volcanic flow of emotions wreaked havoc in his mind, and Ye Chong¡¯s barely surviving consciousness was also affected. He only felt heat, of which was the most intense heat!

    An unspeakable feeling began to umte within Ye Chong!

    But strangely, his body was not at hismand!

    The suffocating and intense sense of outrage whirled within Ye Chong¡¯s mind like a storm, and Ye Chong felt more and more heated, but could find no way to vent off his feelings!

    When Rui Bing came back to her senses and found Ye Chong on the floor, unmoving, she was shocked to the core, extremely regretting her actions. How could she be so impulsive? What will happen to her if he was injured? The thought of that kick earlier made Rui Bing panic!

    Rui Bing was about to approach Ye Chong and check for injuries when a shadow shed before her eyes, and a huge, green-ish figure flew past Ye Chong and was almost immediately out of the mech modification workshop!

    Surprised, Rui Bing rushed to the workshop¡¯s entrance, but the huge figure and Ye Chong were already gone without a trace!

    A disappointed Rui Bing stood before the workshop¡¯s entrance as she looked towards the sky in a daze, looking almost infatuated for a moment!

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Out in the wilderness, surrounded by rocks as tall as a few people, scattered across the area to as far as twenty kilometers away.

    Ye Chong sat worn-out on the ground, his body all covered in dust from crushed rocks, with Mu staying quietly by his side. Shang knew that he had crossed the line this time, and switched with Mu as soon as he arrived here!

    Ye Chong had finished with his berserking, now surrounded by pieces of rock debris. Within twenty meters from Ye Chong, none of the rocks wererger than a meter in girth, as they were all sacrificed for Ye Chong¡¯s venting.

    Ye Chong felt like he was an unstable stock of fire powder, ready to explode at the slightest provocation!

    Ye Chong, who had always had high regard for calmness, hated very much the way he had just lost control of his rational mind, even if his physical abilities were enhanced in various ways under that condition.

    Ye Chong smiled wryly at himself. "Mu, I¡¯m in big trouble this time!"

    Mu agreed. "That¡¯s right, Ye, you¡¯re now suppressing your emotions! It looks like women still have the same effect on you!" Mu did not miss the opportunity to mock him.

    Ye Chong forced another smile at that. "That damned Shang!" Reflexively, his mind produced an image of the smooth whiteness of skin, the oddly sweet odour that came from it, and the indescribable taste when the tip of his tongue came into contact!

    Mu broke his reverie. "Ye, your condition is really not good. There are now two versions of your condition. First is the way your body loses control, but your mind is clear and conscious of the pain! The second version is the way you were over stimted and lost control like just now. Simrly, you lost bodily control, but in this version, your mind is blurry! The factors that induced the first version is unclear, but from your reaction this time, the second version is clearly triggered by the slightest stimtion. Who could have imagined that ck Cove¡¯s silver liquid was so powerful! Of course, that¡¯s assuming our assumptions are right!"

    Ye Chong had already recovered his usual calmposure. He frowned a little and said, "If it¡¯s ck Cove, they must have a way of curing this! But the point is, how can we find out about it?"

    Mu replied, "That¡¯s right, but based on my calctions, the probability of our sessful infiltration into ck Cove is only at 15.6 percent, which is too low. I would not rmended it!"

    Ye Chong agreed. "Yeah, that probability is really too low. *Sigh*, the main issue is, we¡¯re too weak, and Mu, you haven¡¯t fully recovered yet! It¡¯s no different than knocking on death¡¯s door! Besides, we¡¯re still not sure if this is the work of ck Cove, that¡¯s only an assumption of ours!"

    For someone like Ye Chong who had grown up on a trash, he had a more profound sense of appreciation of life than others. Perhaps only those who had often encountered situations of life and death could understand the value of life.

    Ye Chong continued, "In the short term, there¡¯s no way to infiltrate ck Cove!" Ye Chong knew from experience that ck Cove had tight security, and with the current state of Mu and himself, infiltrating would be a fool¡¯s errand.

    "Hmm, we¡¯ll have to wait until we¡¯re more powerful to work on ck Cove! However, your weird condition still requires treatment. It seems that we¡¯ll have to find an excellent doctor to help you out!" Mu spoke with an undertone of uncertainty.

    If Ye Chong was to seek treatment, he would have to leave Blue Ocean. While the was prosperous, it was not known for its medical services. Ye Chong quite enjoyed his simple life in Blue Ocean Academy, but what he would really miss was the so-called first ss modification workshop and Grandpa Qian!

    However, such was life! The usually calm Ye Chong felt overwhelmed with emotions. Without his bidding, the image of that white training garb shed past his thoughts!

    Mu had once again returned to its alternate dimension, and so Ye Chong deployed the Harmony of the Winter Aria and flew towards Blue Ocean Academy.

    By the time he had reached the academy grounds, night was already looming. Ye Chong had nned to spend hisst night here, and also to give the Harmony a checkup as preparation for his departure tomorrow.

    The modification workshop was dark, and Rui Bing seemed to have left. Ye Chong was ready tond when Mu cautioned him, "Ye, be careful, there¡¯re enemies inside! 7 mechs!"

    Ye Chong was greatly surprised!

 Chapter 93 - The Lance in the Darkness

    <h4>Chapter 93: The Lance in the Darkness</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Seven mechs, all hidden in various corners of the modification workshop. Once he stepped into the workshop, he would be like a caged bird, unable to leave again. If not for Mu, he would probably would have met his end here. However, Mu was by his side, and Ye Chong unemotionally watched as Mu portrayed holographically the locations of the seven mechs!

    From this, one can see the difference between the Harmony of the Winter Aria and Mu. Ye Chong¡¯s Harmony had not noticed the enemy at all. The workshop¡¯s building structure was made of special materials that could blockmunication signals, and holographic scans of the workshop were impossible. Of course, this was Blue Ocean¡¯s most advanced modification workshop, and the design was also to protect the workshop and its secrets from outsiders.

    Ye Chong had no idea how Mu could have noticed the enemies!

    "Mu, you¡¯re too powerful!" Ye Chong could not help but sighed, and looked forward to the day he could pilot a mech as good as Mu. That would be the happiest moment of his life! As for Mu, Ye Chong had no intentions of piloting him. While Mu had mentioned before that he would let Ye Chong pilot him if Ye Chong surpassed him in skills, Ye Chong had no doubt that it would be an almost impossible task. More importantly, Ye Chong had never thought of Mu as a mech!

    Mu was undeniably powerful, but with the Harmony of the Winter Aria, Ye Chong was not as weak as he was before! Ye Chong could not help but feel a sense of pride!

    Since the other party was obviously hostile, he had no reason to hold back!

    Ye Chong did not attack immediately, but instead released the five mechanical hummingbirds he had. The hummingbird scanning system was made up of five blue birds, and they flew quietly into the darkness. Ye Chong waited patiently for information from the hummingbirds. He must first know whether there were any other enemies in hiding outside the workshop. If there were, a quiet escape would be the best strategy for him! Since there was no chance of him defeating everyone here without Mu¡¯s help, he would only be wasting his time inbat!

    As the five hummingbirds were released, the images that were disrupted by interference signals immediately cleared up, and the scanning coverage was increased! It seemed that the five hummingbirds were indeed useful!

    From the hummingbirds¡¯ scanning results, it seemed that there were no enemies hidden nearby. While the hummingbird¡¯s uracy and sensitivity within the atmosphere were not as impressive as when the birds were in space, the scanning radius was still up to a good fifty kilometers!

    The enemy must have realized the special design of the modification workshop. They were also wary of being noticed if someone was ced outside!

    If he left quietly now, it would not be a problem at all. However, Ye Chong was curious to know where the enemies came from, since it would definitely be useful information in the future. If not, he might unknowingly walk into the enemy¡¯s trap some day. Besides, Ye Chong believed that even if he could notpletely destroy the enemy, he should be able to at least sessfully retreat!

    Ye Chong also had the intention of testing the true capabilities of the Harmony of the Winter Aria, and his progress so far.

    The currently greenish gray mech, the result of Ye Chong¡¯s efforts, seemed entirely inconspicuous. Even its metallic gleam was obscured, giving the impression of an aged machine! However theck of a metallic shine made the Harmony of the Winter Aria even more concealed in the darkness, nearly unnoticeable!

    Harmony of the Winter Aria flew silently like a greenish gray bat towards the modification workshop.

    Ye Chong did not choose the main entrance, since it would be the main focus of any enemy attack. If he entered that way, he would be weed with a full range of firepower attacks, and all that was left of him would be dust!

    Ye Chong carefully circled to the southern side of the workshop. Based on the holographic image, there was a mech standing against the wall in the corner!

    Ye Chong¡¯snce, Blue Winter, was 15 meters long, and the wall was about two and a half meters thick. The wall¡¯s structural material was mainly aposite of high-strengthponents, with some anti signal transmission material. However, thetter had no effect on the sturdiness of the walls!

    Ye Chong flew to about 800 meters from the workshop, the distance enough to elerate the Harmony to its maximum speed!

    The engines were fully activated! The inconspicuous mech had unsheathed its razor sharp ws. The fifteen-meter long Blue Winter was even taller than the Harmony of the Winter Aria, making the weapon look like an arrow that had just left the bow. The Harmony¡¯s wings were folded into its back.

    Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s Mach 7 speed of flight was now unleashed in all its glory!

    As the scenery around shed past him, Ye Chong felt strangely calmed!

    The hands wielding the Blue Winter did not even tremble in the slightest! The wall of the workshop was instantly prated. The advanced energy feedback mechanism allowed Ye Chong to feel the impact experienced by thence!

    A loud boom reverberated, and the workshop¡¯s wall crumbled, and its fragments flew off in all directions! Ye Chong felt a small pause in the mech¡¯s movement, and knew that his attack had hit right on target! Ye Chong was familiar with the insides of the workshop, and knew that the spot he attacked should have been empty. Hence, he must have hit the mech against the wall!

    Ye Chong guessed right!

    Ye Chong¡¯s high speed impact using hisnce was terrifyingly powerful! Hisnce, the Blue Winter, could even prate ck Cove¡¯s mechs, and this time it offered no mercy to his enemy. The unfortunate mech was instantly in pieces. At the sound of a crash, numerous ck fragments flew past Ye Chong!

    Ye Chong was shocked - it was a ck Cove mech! Ye Chong was familiar with this kind of ck mech! How did they find him?

    This was obviously not the time to ask such a question. Ye Chong had no time to think about it, as he swirled and swung off a few fragments hanging off thence!

    The sudden attack threw the enemies into confusion! Ye Chong¡¯s ambush had also achieved his aim!

    The modification workshop wasrge, housing a good number of mechs, mech essories and some modification devices.

    The massive Harmony of the Winter Aria moved swiftly like a cat through the workshop!

    Suddenly, the workshop¡¯s lights were all switched off, and the room was engulfed in darkness!

    Ye Chong gave a chillingugh. In the workshop, all forms of signals were blocked, and they had no means ofmunicating with each other. "Hehe, this workshop cramped with all kinds of stuff is the perfect battleground for me!" thought Ye Chong. It was him who had destroyed the workshop''s lighting!

    With Mu along, Ye Chong now held the definitive upper hand. Moreoever, his frequent visits here meant that he knew all the corners of the workshop!

    From Mu¡¯s holographic image, the crash had invited 3 mechs to fly towards him.

    One of the mechs crept slowly towards him. All forms of signals were disabled here, and they had no way of getting in touch with each other. The pilot within the mech began to feel nervous! For a ck Cove elite like him, it had been a long time since he felt like this!

    "The damned bastard destroyed the lighting system!" The pilot cursed to himself. However, his training guided him despite his anxiety, and he carefully approached towards the direction of the sound of impact he heard earlier.

    Without a holographic scanning system and any lighting, he felt like a blind person, groping his way through the dark, asionally crashing into something. If not for his skills, he would have tumbled quite a few times! While the mech hadser searchlights, he dared not switch it on. It would be no joke if he activated the searchlight, as he would be the most obvious target, and the first to die in the hands of the enemy!

    He was despaired,forted only the fact the ck Cove mechs were highly durable. This made him brave through his worries and move forward! Up till now, with the exception of the MPA, he had never met any weapon that could be a fatal threat to his mech! This was a great source offort for him!

    Suddenly, a noise came from the front.

    Could it be that hisrades were exchanging blows with the opponent? He decided that it must be so, and immediately rushed towards the source of the sound. He had no time to care for the potential damages to his mech, since ck Cove mechs could not be damaged so easily. He was ready to charge his way through to his destination!

    "Hah, I can finally leave this horrible sheet ce!"

    He would give anything to move faster, just a little faster. If two mechs were to work together, he believed that the enemy would not stand a chance!

    *BANG!* His first thought was that he ran into something. Before he could react, the holographic screen before him was crushed, its pieces spraying outwards. A huge, cone-shaped metal appeared before his eyes, and before he could let out a terrified scream, the sharp edge of the cone plunged through his body. *BANG!* A huge wave of energy passed through him, and he was dismembered into a rain of flesh and blood, flying outwards along with the fragments of his mech. The bits and pieces flew outwards andnded everywhere, followed by a continuous series of sttering sounds.

    He never had the chance to realize the cause of his death!

    Ye Chong watched with cold eyes, emotionless. When he saw the mech moving quickly towards him, a n urred to him, and he held thence in the trajectory of the mech. Seeing as the mech was still moving quickly, Ye Chong picked up some mech fragment from the floor and threw it behind him!

    As expected, upon hearing the fragmentnding behind him, the mech moved faster towards him! It ran straight into Blue Winter, which Ye Chong had prepared earlier! Blue Winter, a most powerful weapon due to its Do Kun stoneponent, prated another ck Cove mech without hindrance!

    Ye Chong understood the misconception that ck Cove citizens harboured for their mechs! If not for Mu, he would probably be the same as them!

    There were still five mechs left!

    Ye Chong quietly counted to himself, and silently moved away from his location!

 Chapter 94 - Instructor Hak

    <h4>Chapter 94: Instructor Hak</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Only one mech left. Ye Chong watched the holographic image that Mu transmitted to him, with only onest red dot on it!

    Just now, in less than a half minute, Ye Chong had taken advantage of his enemies¡¯ blindness and unfamiliarity with the environment, and managed to ambush and kill six of them! Ambushing through the darkness, Ye Chong¡¯s Harmony of the Winter Aria was like an assassin of the night, deft and cruel! As for the Blue Winter, an archaic lookingnce, Ye Chong now wielded it with ease. The eight moves created by Mu through numerous calctions were twofold in the current situation! Ye Chong hit his targets every single time! ck Cove¡¯s most trusted mech armour were as fragile as wafer biscuits before Ye Chong¡¯s Blue Winter!

    If Ye Chong waspared to the devil from the lowest level of hell, then Blue Winter would be the devil¡¯s enormous and sinister looking scythe, covered in blood! Blue Winter¡¯s most dangerous part was its tip, and the des on its two sides were like murder essories, mostly responsible for tearing apart the opponent¡¯s mech!

    ording to Mu and Shang, the proportion of Do Kun stone in the tip of Blue Winter was far from ideal, but Ye Chong was still very impressed with the weapon¡¯s might! What would the Blue Winter be like if the proportion was ideal? Ye Chong could not help but look forward to such a time.

    With only thest mech left, Ye Chong approached the enemy with caution!

    The mech moved with care, its back against the wall. Unless he moved away, an ambush from the back would be impossible.

    Ye Chong was left with the option of closing in from the left. To keep himself unnoticed, the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s engines were running at minimum capacity, as the mech silently closed in onto its target.

    It¡¯s close! Only twenty meters left! Blue Winter was fifteen meters long. With another ten meters, no, perhaps 8 meters, it would be enough for Blue Winter to tear the enemy apart!

    "Right, it¡¯s time!" Ye Chong was about to move when something extraordinary happened!

    Ye Chong saw a blinding sh of light. The bright light saturating his holographic screen screamed into his eyes and blinded him!

    Ye Chong was shocked! He was not, however, panicking. His right hand, ready with Blue Winter, immediately striked out like lightning. If it were anyone else, their first reaction upon being surprised would be to retreat as quickly as possible. However, Ye Chong understood that the better option would be to defend himself by attacking!

    *DING* A metallic ring was heard, and Ye Chong¡¯s Blue Winter was obviously blocked by something.

    However, this gave enough time for Ye Chong to step back. Once thence attacked, Ye Chong¡¯s hands were already moving deftly across the controls.

    Harmony of the Winter Aria moved as though ording to n, riding the backward momentum of the attack and retreating swiftly. The opponent was obviously surprised by Ye Chong¡¯s quick reaction!

    Ye Chong¡¯s vision had now returned to normal!

    The opponent must have used something like a sh grenade, and now the entire workshop was lit up. sh grenades were, in truth, very rarely used nowadays! It seemed to have be a historical relic, both in terms of its function and usage. With the various types of advanced scanning mechanisms avable, mechs could reconstruct images through feedback from the scanning systems, images that were far more detailed than what the human eye could capture. Besides, the effective scanning perimeter of a scanning system in space was farrger than the limits of the human eye!

    The most important function of the sh grenade was to provide light for the human eye, but with the advent of improving scanning mechanisms, it was in the awkward position of slowly being reced.

    Ye Chong did not expect his opponent to have something so outdated.

    Through the lighting, Ye Chong could not see his opponent¡¯s mech clearly.

    The mech was thoroughly ck, true to ck Cove¡¯s style. What surprised Ye Chong was the ancient design of the mech, with obvious Samuel style influence, a popr style from a hundred years back!

    There was nothing spectacr about this model of mechs. Even Johansson¡¯s mech looked more imposing and menacing. However, Ye Chong dared not underestimate it. Samuel style mechs were also known as battle mechs. Since long range weapons and locking systems were not as impressive as the ones today, these mechs with their ancient duelling attack style were widely popr. However, with the improvements in long range weapons, and a general paradigm shift in mechs, Samuel style mechs eventually declined in numbers.

    However, Ye Chong still approved of Samuel style mechs. He had always believed that these mechs were an undying ssic, embodying the most fundamental quintessence of battle! The mechs were designed for close range battles, and while they may look in, a closer inspection of its details in design that would exin its status as a ssic!

    Samuel style mechs were undeniably the best partner for a pilot skilled in martial arts. However, that was the reason for its declining poprity, since martial arts was also a dying skill!

    ck Cove residents were familiar with martial arts, and even Ye Chong learned a few moves from them!

    Ye Chong waited, fully alert!

    His opponent, however, had no intention of attacking. "Number 58, we meet again!" A man¡¯s voice came from the mech, reverberating throughout the workshop!

    Ye Chong was taken aback! "Instructor Hak?"

    "That¡¯s right! It¡¯s me!" Number 58, you were under me in Team F, and so the higher ups had asked me to bring you back!" Instructor Hak lowered his voice and said, "Number 58,e with me. The higher ups do not intend to take action against your disobedience. If you run, it¡¯ll only be the death of you!"

    Ye Chong calmly replied, "Is that so?"

    Hak spoke seriously, "You may have killed these few here, but they were only soldiers of the lowest rank from ck Cove! You may be stronger than all of them, but against the soldiers in higher ranks, you¡¯re still very weak!" On the deaths of his sixrades, Hak showed no signs of pity.

    Ye Chong¡¯s voice grew even colder. "Is that so?"

    "Come back with me. You¡¯re Team F¡¯s most talented member in history, and your future is limitless. It¡¯s only a matter of time before you make a contract with us! Besides, the higher ups are interested in you, even letting go of your huge mistake. Number 58, this is unprecedented!"

    Ye Chong did not even condescend to reply. Will he return to ck Cove, to be the sword in another person¡¯s hands? Ye Chong hated feeling restricted. He believed that, even if he was a wild animal, he would still be one that ran freely in the wilderness, howling without restraint under the night sky! This, as opposed to being leashed on the neck, fitted with steel ws, and tamed as someone¡¯s pet!

    Besides, he¡¯s human!

    Hak continued leisurely, "Besides, Number 58, that little something of yours should be reacting about now!"

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression twisted. "So it¡¯s really you!"

    Hak was unfazed. "Number 58, the silver liquid was supposedly used to prepare ck Cove soldiers forbat. While it may bring you great pain, as long as you learned the true skills of ck Cove, you¡¯ll understand how helpful it can be! It can turn you into the most powerful soldier! However, as you are now, this pain will continue on forever. There will be episodes of it, and you will wish for death instead. Number 58, you must clearly remember this painful experience. It will be more and more painful, until one day you will kill yourself just to stop the pain. There had never been anyone who could live through it!"

    Ye Chong eyes slowly narrowed into a slit, thin as the edge of a de, as he stared dead straight at the mech before him.

    If the two of them were to fight hand to hand, Ye Chong would definitely escape. He had personal experience with Hak¡¯s weird and powerful martial arts skills, and Ye Chong was certainly no match for it! However, if it was a battle between mechs, Ye Chong was more confident with himself! In terms of the speed of their hands, Hak was definitely slower than him! Besides, a battle between mechs did not involve as much intricacies as a battle between men, and Ye Chong was mostly cautious about Hak¡¯s weird martial arts. However, Ye Chong believed Hak could not apply his skills effectively through a mech, thus increasing Ye Chong¡¯s chances of winning! Moreover, Ye Chong had full confidence in the Harmony of the Winter Aria!

    Still, there were a few things that baffled Ye Chong.

    How did ck Cove find him? How did Hak notice him earlier? Ye Chong did not believe that they were the results of coincidences. Why did he not use the sh grenades earlier, but only after the deaths of six of hisrades?

    These questions upied Ye Chong¡¯s mind!

    Hak smiled, as though he could read his thoughts. "You must be trying to guess how I knew about your ambush!"

    Ye Chong was speechless, only unemotionally observing the mech on his holographic screen.

    "Since I¡¯m your instructor, let me teach you a little something. The six senses of an ancient martial arts practitioner are very sensitive. Even though the mech¡¯s scanning is useless, I could still hear things! Of course, that can¡¯t happen through the mech¡¯s sound conduction device! Earlier, I had opened the door of the pilot¡¯s cabin. While your Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s engine was quiet, it was still easy for me to pinpoint your location! Do you not want to learn skills like these? Are you not interested in bing more powerful? Number 58,e back with me to ck Cove! Over there, you can be stronger!" Hak¡¯s final sentences were full of enticement.

    Ye Chong now realised his methods, and the sheer brilliance of it! However, with regards to hisst few sentences, Ye Chong had no reaction to them at all. Instead, he quietly pressed a few controls.

    "Hmm, how does he know the name of my mech?" Ye Chong felt unsure.

    Hak suddenly asked a question out of the blue, "Number 58, based on our information, you¡¯re called Ye Chong here, your family name ¡­"

    Before Hak could finish, a silver line drew towards his chest, an attack not forewarned!

 Chapter 95 - Confrontation

    <h4>Chapter 95: Confrontation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Hak¡¯s voice was cut off, but Ye Chong¡¯s blow was also blocked!

    Hak was extremely wary against Ye Chong. In ck Cove, the young man was strong and improved quickly, both a shock to Hak! Ye Chong¡¯s speed with his hands were also the fastest he had ever seen. While that alone was not everything, but it was undeniably a very important skill to unleash the maximum battling potential of a mech! Besides, Ye Chong¡¯s strong physique was also better than Hak¡¯s, and that meant Ye Chong could perform moreplicated and demanding movements, allowing one to gain a preemptive strike in battle. In ck Cove, physical training was also one of their core trainings!

    Now, Hak could only hope that Ye Chong was not too skilled in mech piloting!

    Ye Chong¡¯s surprise attack was easily countered by an anticipatory Hak! Hak was also vexed by the current situation. He was ordered by the higher ups to bring Number 58 back without harming him, but Ye Chong¡¯s strength made it impossible for him guarantee that. If the two of them were about equally matched, it would be more difficult to capture the other alive than to kill him. As it was, the higher ups had insisted of him bringing Number 58 in one piece! Hak spected that Number 58 could be the son of ck Cove¡¯s leader!

    If not for Number 58¡¯s cold nature, Hak would have done what Ji Shangyan did, threatening him with the old man Qian. However, Hak expected that with Number 58¡¯s personality, he would not have ced any importance in the old man¡¯s life. It would have been a wasted effort, alerting his opponent and dashing any hopes for an ambush!

    However, he did not expect Ye Chong to notice their ambush and returned their favour instead!

    "A real talent, this b*stard!"

    Ye Chong did not hesitate. He expected thence to be blocked, and so the Harmony of the Winter Aria swirled, and another cold gleam reached for Hak! Hak dared not be negligent, his right fist blocked and swung, and the cold gleam rapidly faded!

    Besides its unique design, Hak¡¯s mech was actually quite average. Only its two fists were fitted with barbs, asionally shing menacingly during the fight, and no other weapons were visible on the mech. However, the elbows were clearlyyered for extra thickness, and the short and thick barbs did not shine dangerously as it would have, entirely inconspicuous!

    Ye Chong did not falter. Hak¡¯s admirable battling techniques were not new to Ye Chong, since he had seen them before on ck Cove! If Hak performed badly in mech piloting, Ye Chong would be surprised!

    The green and ck mechs confronted each other!

    The first to strike would be advantageous! Ye Chong side-stepped and quickly pointed Blue Winter lightning towards Hak¡¯s mech. The cold gleam from the tip of thence drew a chilling silver arc in the air! His basic training was already part of him, and the few side-steps he took was almost wless.

    Hak saw the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s seemingly in footwork and could not help but be impressed. As good as he was in battling, he could see the quality of the steps. If it was his own body, he could do it even better, but through a mech, he could only realise his own ipetence! However, Ye Chong¡¯s seemingly frightening attack with thence did not faze him. While it seemed threatening, Hak had a few moves up his sleeves to counter it! As he saw it, Ye Chong¡¯snce techniques and his footwork were at far too different levels!

    Hak¡¯s mech was called Kai, and it had been with him for two decades. After so many years, it was almost a part of Hak himself.

    Kai stepped back quickly, barely avoiding Ye Chong¡¯s strike with hisnce. The cold gleam from the tip of Blue Winter swiped past the mech, millimeters from its surface.

    Harmony of the Winter Aria turned, and Blue Winter made an impossible twist in the air before charging towards Kai¡¯s abdomen.

    Kai¡¯s left arm lowered, connecting obliquely with the side of Blue Winter, as Blue Winter was repelled back upwards! Ye Chong was surprised, not expecting Hak¡¯s inconspicuous mech to have such strong arms! Ye Chong went with the flow of movement and blocked a fisting towards him with the handle of thence!

    The punch was strong, such that if Ye Chong had notmanded the Harmony to hold a tighter grip on Blue Winter, it would probably go flying!

    Before Ye Chong could react any further, he suddenly felt the world spin, and Hak¡¯s mech was getting further and further away from him! It was only then that he realised that Kai had sneaked in a kick on him! A rising fighting spirit was evident in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes!

    What great strength! Ye Chong guessed that Hak¡¯s mech must have been strengthened extensively to fit hisbat style!

    The photon processor sounded a piercing rm, indicating that the kick had caused significant damage to Harmony of the Winter Aria. Ye Chong was astonished to find that he did not even realize when the kick was made! Whatmendable techniques!

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands moved swiftly across the controls like smoke, issuing a series ofmands!

    Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s engines roared to life, and the mech somersaulted gracefully midair in an arc, steadying itself beforending! Hak was not surprised that Ye Chong did not fall to the ground, it was only natural given the speed of Ye Chong¡¯s hands. Hak maneuvered Kai deftly, and before Ye Chong could barely steady himself, a fist flew towards Ye Chong, fast as aet!

    Hisnce sprang to life, as Blue Winter moved like a venomous serpent, hissing with its forked tongue!

    Hak was mildly surprised that Ye Chong could use thence so well, and greatly admired his ability to adapt to various situations! One should know that using something like the archace required special techniques; in the hands of someone ignorant, it would be no more useful than a metal pole! However, the weapon was already long gone in history, and even in ck Cove, where expert fighters were abound, few used ance as their mech¡¯s weapon!

    Without much time to spare, Kai crossed its arms to shield its vulnerabilities!

    "Blocking it, are you?" Ye Chong smiled coldly to himself!

    *DING!* Blue Winter¡¯s tipnded squarely on its opponent for the very first time!

    His expectation of thence prating the mech entirely was unmet, as Blue Winter only prated halfway through one of Kai¡¯s arms! Ye Chong suddenly realised that Hak¡¯s mech must have gone through a special strengthening process! Ye Chong immediately reacted by retreating with hisnce, putting a distance between him and Kai!

    Hak waspletely astonished! He could barely believe that there was still a weapon that could damage his mech like that! His astonishment quickly turned into anger, as Kai had never been damaged in the 20 years of their partnership. He did not expect to receive such humiliation from the little b*stard today!

    Hak¡¯s face darkened instantly!

    Ye Chong watched Hak¡¯s mech coldly, without any emotions! He knew that he had just lost the perfect opportunity just now, and Hak would not let his mech and Blue Wintere into direct contact again. With his skills, that was entirely possible!

    By now, Ye Chong felt icy calm!

    Harmony of the Winter Aria suddenly elerated to its maximum speed, and Ye Chong charged towards Hak with Blue Winter in hand! Based on his experience, if his attack was on target this time, he will be able to fully prate Kai! The high speed impact would increase its usual destructive effect by a few magnitudes!

    Hak may be furious, but he did not lose his rational mind. He knew that he could not afford to receive the iing attack. He gauged the direction of thence and twisted his body, barely escaping the tip of the weapon!

    As Ye Chong was about to rush past Hak, Ye Chong gave a coldugh, and his hands flew across the controls!

    The double-folded wings on the back of Harmony of the Winter Aria suddenly expanded!

    The sharp edges of the wings cut like des, and after some strengthening treatment, the wings were as sharp as alloy daggers! Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s could go up to Mach 7! The shrieking sound of air rushing past the edges was terrifying! Hak immediately realized the danger it posed!

    There was a loud sound of impact! Kai took a few steps backwards, a long gash on its chest, cracks forming around it like spiderwebs!

    Ye Chong was also doing no better, the powerful impact breaking the wing upon contact. Even though Ye Chong expected it, he was still tossed to a far corner, and it took him great effort to stabilize himself. The photon processor¡¯s rm red in full party mode!

    Hak was now feeling terribly unpleasant! He was obviously stronger than Ye Chong, but had instead took damage from his opponent. The attacks were also vicious and cunning, which annoyed Hak very much, as though he had just swallowed a fly! Besides, this was someone whom he was teacher to! His beloved mech of twenty years was not seriously damaged, but how could he not be furious about it?

    Hak¡¯s expression grew even darker! His eyes looked as though they could spit fire!

    Ye Chong could only smile wrily. He had no other way of fighting, since they were too equally matched! He could only sacrifice a bit of himself to cause greater damage on his opponent! He did not expect Hak to apply hisbat skills in mech piloting!

    Ye Chong also finally understood that Hak¡¯s application of hisbat techniques in mech piloting was still meagerpared to others, but when using it against him, it was more than enough!

    Ye Chong could not help but began to consider the option of escaping! If he escaped now, what were his odds of sess?

    From the performance of Hak¡¯s mech, its engines were definitely on par with the Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s. If he escaped now, the mech would definitely follow him closely like an annoying fly. Besides, who was to say that they had no otherrades further out? If they hadrades, then the one to falter first would be himself! Him being surrounded and annihted would be a certainty!

    Ye Chong considered the matter, as his eyes unknowingly began to fixate on Kai¡¯s engines!

 Chapter 96 - Survival

    <h4>Chapter 96: Survival</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There were 3 engines located within Samuel in total - one of them was ced beneath the abdomen along with the others at the outer thighs being the supportive engines. This is one distinct design that made the Samuel style mechs identifiable.

    Ye Chong was bothered however. While the Blue Winter turned out to be quite a remarkable ranged weapon and the "marksmanship" ofnces taught by the great Mu was impable on both paper and performance, Ye Chong felt uneasy conducting his fight in this way. It did not feel asfortable as brandishing cutters like the maic de or the ming sword. He was fond of the closebats as if he was born for them.

    Despite all that, Blue Winter thence remained glued in his hands. It was a good weapon anyway, that Ye Chong would not let go this quickly. The uneasiness holding a foreign weapon had disintegrated into a mere preference of weaponry the moment he witnessed the capability of Blue Winter in that fight with 6 men before. Its offenses were of a perfect score. Even if it were to impale Hak¡¯s mech, it would an effortless attempt to inflict actual damage. Other than the Blue Winter, there were a few other weapons in Harmony, but Ye Chong had yet to test their capabilities.

    He clenched his teeth as heunched the mech to propel. Harmony of the Winter Aria skipped its way like a bird with a broken wing - clumsily and tactlessly.

    Kai stomped onto the ground as it bent its body like a drastically pressed spring under Hak¡¯smand.

    The energy umted over time was unleashed, as Kai sted off like an unstoppable bullet right towards Ye Chong.

    Kai zoomed past Ye Chong. "That was very fast!" Ye Chong eximed that there was hardly time for him to react! Hak picked such a precise timing to strike back right when Ye Chong was withdrawing thence. As long as Kai got close enough to this nuisance before him, he would be able to taste victory fairly soon.

    Wham!

    Ye Chong felt as if he would spit sts of blood in no time at this rate. Hak¡¯s timing maniption was wless, and that was diforting to Ye Chong.

    One of the pair of wings on Harmony was truly broken and it had negatively affected the overall bnce in travels. Not only that, the aerodynamic of the mech had been disrupted, making it difficult to control! That was why Ye Chong hated unnecessary spreading wings on a mech.

    Droplets of sweat rolled over his forehead one after another. He had achieved the maximum speed of his hands on the control panel!

    Ye Chong¡¯s Harmony grabbed thence in the right and backed off speedily, at an attempt to keep a distance from the terrorizing enemy. Ye Chong was too upied to pull off a fight. Arge amount of input was allocated on the bncing of the mech by making tiny adjustments in its positioning using the supportive engines.

    Even though Ye Chong tried to maintain a distance between them, Hak had already been absolutely enraged by that moment. Till the final blow he made, his mind was engrossed by the rages after what Ye Chong had done on his mech, while the clear order of bringing Ye Chong in one piece by ck Cove authority echoed.

    Providing Ye Chong was still breathing after the fight, with the help of current medical technology, it would not be challenging to make Ye Chong return in whole piece, no matter how injured he was. Hak trashed his concern away as he made up his mind to give this kiddo a "proper lesson"¡­ of life, of course.

    This was the moment when Instructor Hak demonstrated his unrivaled skills. Kai moved energetically like an actual living thing in spite of the major injury under his control. Ye Chong was utterly cornered!

    Instructor Hak snickered as his eyes glowed coldly at the ancientnce which started to wield slower. If it was not this spear which made him to act cautiously, the kiddo would have been lying on the ground way back! The Ji family was potent enough to produce such a high-leveled craft even at this decade. Hak was stupefied at first nce. That mech would be some juicy details to be included in his report when he went back¡­ with Ye Chong, needless to say!

    Although Kai was made out of the ssic Samuel¡¯s design in the past, it had undergone several rounds of heavy modification aplished by the ace technicians at ck Cove. Practically speaking, other than the appearance and cement of the mainponents being simr to the old-fashioned Samuel style, it was literally a brand new mech inside the body. These upgrades were madepatible with Hak¡¯s powerful unarmedbat skills.

    Harmony was immediately in grave danger as Kai inched forward.

    With such a fearsome velocity, Ye Chong¡¯s new toy had somehow be a burden to his fight. The Blue Winter, apellingnce it might be, was still a slow weapon inparison to such a mighty opponent.

    The instructor sneered slightly as he knew what Ye Chong would do. Most of the kiddo¡¯s attacks, counterattacks were from the his lecture back at the ck Cove and those were nothing against his techniques. Hiya! A left crush from Kai¡¯s left shoulder, the Harmony¡¯s bnce went crumpled as its body swung consecutively. Ye Chong¡¯s hands hurriedly stormed upon the control panel again as he inputted themand, hoping to regain bnce in time. Seeing Ye Chong acting in such a panic, the instructor was joyful. Hak watched his opponent carefully. "There!" Kai¡¯s left arm was raised a little, putting itself into a stance. Shush! Bang! The Blue Winter came piercing underneath of Kai¡¯s left arm, tightly like a sword back into its sheath. As if he was prepared for the iing attack the whole time, Hak predicted the attack and obviously he did not give the kiddo a chance tond a counterattack. Klink! Kai¡¯s left arm gripped thence tightly and the right fist struck upon the Harmony right after.

    The metallic fist glossed in the dark with the spikes spreading out.

    The punch was unavoidable even with Ye Chong¡¯s hacking speed of his hand movements. It would be impossible to dodge the punch fully, considering how the major parts of Harmony were within its range of attack. Even if he turned his engines to the maximum, it would be toote for him to dodge.

    It was probably the end of Ye Chong¡¯s adventure.

    He lost.

    ¡­as if.

    Out of a sudden, a ring white light shed before him. Without forewarning, Hak''s eyes squinted due to the scorching light. A rumble resounded right after the punchnded as the mech shook a little by the recoil. The processor of his mech then started wailing its rm menacingly.

    Boom! A loud explosion followed at the end of rumble.

    When Hak¡¯s sight had recovered from the ring light after a moment, he could only see a huge dent on the wall before him. The target was nowhere to be seen!

    The rm was still ringing in the cabin madly. Hak had no idea what had just happened. He tried moving his mech but he failed! For some reasons, Kai could not move! He looked at the interface as the processor prompted, "System Failure - Main Engine Severely Damaged - Inspecting - Mobility: Negative! Mobility: Negative!" The bloody red wording peered into his eyes.

    In the meantime, Ye Chong had escaped. Yes, like a coward, he ran away gracelessly.

    Ye Chong let off a bitterugh as he stared upon the torn Harmony of the Winter Aria. After all those efforts he put in renovating this beauty, the former elegance was utterly wiped. It looked like trash that could go straight to the recycling center!

    Thest blow was delivered sessfully. The armor of Harmony took the spikes of Kai¡¯s fist like how Kai chewed on the Blue Winter¡¯s impale. Itnded a critical hit. There was no plot twist to save Ye Chong. If it was not under an order to bring Ye Chong back alive, the fist would have hit right into the cabin and even a titan like Ye Chong would die in a whimper.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mood was brightened knowing how he was still alive. And thinking back how he was still able to make aeback so gorgeously - the usual indifferent he could not help but to smile slightly.

    After Ye Chong had nned to escape, he rushed towards Kai''s engines. No matter how much the Samuel mechs were overhauled, the cement of the engines would never be changed. Ye Chong, the mod expert pinpointed such w at first look.

    Back when Harmony was still under the modification process, Ye Chong had sneaked theser sword within its right hand. Theser sword would not reveal its de when unactivated. So anyone would hardly notice the remaining handle inside the palm. It was an exceptional stealth and quite a dirty trick too! Ye Chong did not use this killer-move right away simply because he could not foresee whether aser-based cutter could deal with such fatal damage to a mech from ck Cove. He gambled once and of course he won. Apparently,ser swords worked on ck Covers¡¯ mechs like wonders. He was not sure how much damage he had inflicted exactly, but seemingly Hak did note after him straightaway. That would be more than enough to justify the significant damage he had done. Well, he spected so.

    Back at the climax of their battle, Ye Chong decided to drop thence and activated theser sword. Harmony lifted the sword and made an upper sh - a seamless chain of action, so fast it even shocked an experienced killer like Hak, all thanks to Ye Chong¡¯s amazing speed. That ring light that blinded Hak was actually the beam of Ye Chong¡¯sser sword upon its activation!

    Nheless, the Harmony had been torn into junks, while the Blue Winter had gone into the enemy¡¯s hands. It was another horror story for Ye Chong to imagine if he could escape ck Cove¡¯s hunting. Hak was not the first one who came after him, and certainly he would not be thest. The ck Cove seemed to be very keen in taking Ye Chong down. Hence, anyone could guess the fight had not ended yet.

    Sigh¡­

    "Ye, that was rather incredible!" Mu¡¯s voice rang suddenly.

    "Incredible? I almost got myself killed!" replied Ye Chong and heughed bitterly.

    "It is incredible!" Mu exined, "The probability of your victory would be a measly 8%, whereas the probability of a sessful escape would be 33%. In the end, you went after that 33% chance instead."

    Ye Chong¡¯s lips twitched as he spoke, "Mu, if you did try to be helpful just now, taking down that guy would have been a piece of cake. For real. I was almost pounded into a pancake and yet Mu, you actually sat back and did nothing?"

    "You are right," replied Mu. "However the catch is, I would provide my assistance only when the probability of your survival goes below 15%."

    "And why is that so?" Ye Chong snorted.

    "Based on the reading I had obtained from previous researches, under such circumstance humans would most likely unleash their potential. Moreover, a pilot would be required to take on countless asions of such kind to be the true pilot! Since you happened to be the owner of both Shang and I, it is essential to make you the strongest pilot!" Though Mu¡¯s reasoning went t and calm as if describing something trivial, there was a hint of dignity in his speech which made Ye Chong lowered his eyes in disgrace.

    Anyone would have assumed that Mu was being harsh and unsympathetic, but this was reasonable to Ye Chong. Mu shared some points and he deeply understood every bit of it. It was his own life, of course he would be the one to fight for it. Back at Trash-12, Ye Chong spent his life growing on the belief that one would always be the one to manipte one¡¯s own fate. The rtionship between Mu and Ye Chong might be of a brotherly love and a mutual trust, yet Ye Chong never expected Mu¡¯s protection as a form of duty or responsibility. If Mu helped out, without a doubt Ye Chong would express gratitude. If Mu decided not to however, Ye Chong would not whine about Mu¡¯s "irresponsibility". It was not his responsibility to protect, nevertheless, it was his responsibility to train! Ye Chong knew Mu well enough that he knew whatever Mu did was for his own good. Only one would be a true warrior after countless dead-or-alive battles.

    Was there nothing Ye Chong could rely on?

    No, there wasn''t.

    To Ye Chong, he knew he could best rely on his own strength.

    "Also, I was recording the opponent¡¯s data during the battle. His battle style was rather intriguing. The final result would be released after some data analysis," Mu carried on his speech.

    "Right," Ye Chong nodded in strong approval from his experience. "Not only it is intriguing, but also strong. Very strong! But hey, Mu, don¡¯t you think our first priority for now is to n a runaway from the Blue Ocean?"

    "Correct," Mu agreed. "We would need a spaceship."

 Chapter 97 - Blue Ocean Runaway

    <h4>Chapter 97: Blue Ocean Runaway</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    At the passageway for spacecrafts, Ye Chong hid at the corner with his eyes focused on the path as he discovered the substantial increase in the number of cops. He frowned slightly, wondering if the police force was in cahoots with the ck Covers. If that was the case, ck Cove was truly meant for retrieval this time as they actually took the trouble to gang up with the security force just to prevent Ye Chong from running away easily. Without a spacecraft, he would not be able to perform a space warp. Even if he were to use a master-craft like Mu to run away without leaping through the space-time continuum, it would be far-fetched for him to fly beyond the proximity of the police force, since eventually, a few hundred thousands or even millions of kilometers were considered a pathetic length in the boundless universe.

    Despite being drastically outnumbered by his foes, Ye Chong trusted his strength. It would not be that difficult to infiltrate the area. "Let¡¯s do this!" Ye Chong was going to lift his steps, then his eyes discerned something - a number of mechs from the ck Cove lurking at an overlooked corner, coveting their prey to fall in.

    The idea was scrapped.

    That would not work! Ugh, such a pain in the head! Even if I did manage to sneak in, it would be pointless if I could notunch the flight promptly. Any spacecraft would be as slow as a snail without performing space-warping inparison with the mechs. With those ck Covers¡¯ mechs at the corner,unching a flight promptly would be just a dream! A wild dream! He would be shot into a beehive before he could even boot the engines.

    He then wondered if he could catch one of the spacecrafts taking off being that uninvited guest to the flight and escape.

    Sadly, there was no miracle for Ye Chong that day.

    He peeked for quite a while but there was simply no spacecraft taking off.

    "Ye," Mu¡¯s voice broke the silence. "Let¡¯s just go. The spacecrafts are not flying here anytime soon."

    "What do you mean¡­ Oh!" Ye Chong was dumbfounded as he figured out what Mu probably had meant. "Mu, don¡¯t tell me they are actually holding back all the spacecrafts here? But wouldn¡¯t this cause a mess at the port or something?"

    "Look at this," Mu exined as he read on the extract.

    "ording to thetest news at the center, the local government of the Blue Ocean has validated the possible infection of the virus, Charles-II. As stated by the ¡®Treaty of umon and dangerous microorganism spread-control in the 5 gxies¡¯, any flight beyond the would be forbidden from today onwards. In addition, all residents are strongly advised to perform a body check-up at any local hospital or temporary inspection center in the following 3 days. This is to ensure your safety and others. As reported, reinforcement would arrive to provide assistance to the local police forces for the time being. In addition, please make sure that everyone of your family and friends had performed their checkups. If not, please do advise them to do so immediately. If they are showing resistance, kindly contact your nearest police station for not only your safety but your family¡¯s¡­"

    Wow, such coincidence, of all times a virus could have appeared. Ye Chong was troubled.

    This was more than a mere coincidence! This couldn¡¯t be a coincidence! If this is some dangerous Charles virus actually thrashing mankind, then what were those ck Covers doing with their killing machines here? Were they¡­ Were they here for me?

    Ye Chong spected so unconvincingly. Though feeling unconvinced, whatever he had deduced made more sense as he thought over time.

    "Mu, do you think they are here for us?" asked Mu.

    "As shown in my data, the probability is roughly between 72% and 76%," Mu stated calmly.

    It was puzzling for Ye Chong. Assuming there would be no spacecraft for him to hop on, his mobility would be severely limited while it would only be a matter of time before he got cornered and there would not be another plot twist for him by then. Game over. However, Ye Chong was bothered as he felt something amiss. While the ck Cove took such a hassle to get him, the FMPA did not seem to have initiated anything - they were quiet, too quiet. Ye Chong did not bet his life on them though. It was just a glimpse of spection shing in his head.

    How should I get away with this? Ye Chong cracked his head thinking.

    "Ye!" Mu¡¯s voice echoed. "Go to the north of Jesha zone, the ce where you did your training. Take care and stay low."

    Ye Chong was more than merry to hear the instruction from Mu knowing that Mu must had gotten some brilliant idea for his escape! As he finally got a n, time had elevated as his primary concern. "There¡¯s no time to waste." He sneaked out of the passageway and hit the street. He lowered his body as he weaved through the crowds. Soundlessly he hastened his journey to north. The Harmony of the Winter Aria had already been kept back to the alternate dimension. He would not be foolish enough to deploy such badly damaged piece of mech in the public. A mech this broken would only be much more outstanding than a potential ouw like Ye Chong!

    The number of police officers on the street had tantly increased. They patrolled the area and scanned for suspicions among the pedestrians from time to time. Fortunately, Ye Chong was more than familiar with this game of urban jungle escape after an epic chase on the mech one after another. Additionally, Mu provided pointers on spot regarding his motion - whether to stop at one point or to move straightaway to the alley; whether to take a look into the window pretending shopping or to take the corner at the store. A momentter, Ye Chong had arrived at the forbidden flight zone without much trouble.

    It was the same old ce he knew - a deserted desert, with veils of sandstorm, darkness and fuzzy vision on both naked and mechanical eyes.

    "So¡­ Mu, you have brought me here." Ye Chong asked out of curiosity, "Does that mean you found a spacecraft here?"

    "Nope."

    "Then why are we here?" Ye Chong questioned in confusion.

    To travel this desert zone, Ye Chong had to deploy Harmony. Tick! He slid into his cabin and activated the interface. Harmony did not seem to be in a good shape, as anyone could tell. Hak¡¯s final blow to Harmony was mortal, with the spikes skimming inches away from Ye Chong¡¯s cabin. If Hak did intend to kill, Ye Chong would have been dead. And if the spikes of Kai¡¯s fist was much broader, the mech would be permanently beyond repair.

    Beep.

    Ye Chong was still able to boot the engines! Apparently, the circuits were not overly damaged. It looked like Ye Chong had not run out of luck, even though the energy remained in the battery was pitifully scarce after that much struggle - only about half was left.

    Ye Chong browsed through the projected news on the processor from Mu.

    "As specified by the original schedule, Fred the Great who has been on a gctic tour would be making his arrival at Blue Ocean in 3 days time. Report shows that Fred the Great would also be stopping by the for about 7 days. He would be visiting some well-known scenic spots and give a talk at Blue Ocean Academy on the veryst day. Based on what the great one had told, apparently the aim of his tour this time is to look for inspiration¡­"

    "And that is the news from 2 days ago," Mu spoke stilly.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes lustered, "That means, he would be arriving in a day?"

    "Mhm, if it is a day away¡­" He did not wait for Mu to answer as he began plotting, "That means he¡¯s close enough for us to work on something¡­ First we could pilot a mech to leave Blue Ocean then we hijack his ride. After that, we could go wherever we want from there!"

    "But wait¡­" Ye Chong knotted his brows. There was a catch it seemed, "That dude we are dealing with did not look like any folk from the street. I think it¡¯s still quite hard for me to actually hijack a huge spacecraft with a mech alone, especially when Harmony seemed pretty busted at this instance."

    "Alone? Are you alone?" Mu rebutted.

    "Who else?" Ye Chong was bewildered, "Who else would there be? Is there anyone else? Oh, Mu, you are telling me that you are finally making a debut?" Ye Chong could not believe what a crazy assumption he had just made. It had been quite some time since Mu helped him out directly after leaving Trash-12.

    "Well." Mu worded with no emotions, "I had performed calctions on the data avable. With the current condition of Harmony and you, the possibility of hijacking a spacecraft sessfully alone would be less than 15%. That includes the chances of you acting up out of sudden during the operation. After much consideration, this would be the correct move to the situation."

    "Right¡­" Taking his current condition into ount, he agreed that Mu¡¯s decision was undeniably the best. His mind rxed as he thought about Mu¡¯s full participation in the big escape this time. Confidence went inting in him uncontrobly. Was there anything in this world that would hinder the great Mu?

    He took the suggestion to heart yet he did not make his move right away. Instead, he took a look around Harmony, just to make sure nothing could go wrong on his side or even if something would, Harmony could still arm itself to fight. And he sted off through the fluttering shrouds of dust particles into the sky!

    The heavy sandstorm and thrashing turbulence were the treacherous signs for this zone, which however had be an unbeatable camouge for Ye Chong and Mu!

    The anti-detection system in Harmony might not be as overpowered as those from the ck Coves, yet it still was an exceptional device. It was a mech secret in production by the Ji family after all. It was outstandingpared to those junks at the flea market!

    ¡­

    Hak nced at the scratches on Kai sympathetically. It was not bad but it was irritating to Hak. The scratches were not an issue, the engines were however. They were exclusive to the ck Covers and could only be fixed at the ck Cove. Hak would have to make his travel back to the ck Cove if he wanted to carry on his hunt. At the moment he could do nothing but to look at his mech in nk dismay.

    No. 58 was no doubt a terrifying character indeed!

    Hak had brought 10 men from ck Cove this time and he had lost 6 of them in between. It sounded like a painful loss but Hak only expressed an uprising cunningness in his eyes towards the 6 men¡¯s death. "Hehe¡­ it did work out my way." Johansson¡¯s death was heartbreaking enough for him to stone upon in the next few moments, since he was the strongest man other than No.58 in the F group of his. Well, it did turn out to be the happiest news to the other groups.

    None of the 6 men were from the F group. However, they were outsourced from the other groups, taking into consideration that there was nobody in the F group who was capable enough to join this operation after Johansson¡¯s death. Hak wanted to do something in the dark to take out a few of these outsourced obstacles in the team, just to knock down the other groups for his own benefits. Taking members of the other groups out equals to better chances of his Group-F excelling! His wish was granted but he never expected No.58 to be this potent to take out 6 of them at once. If Hak was able to get him back to the ck Cove, then F group would be¡­ and then he would be ¡­ Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe¡­

    The scheme set off zing in his heart!

    A knock on the door interrupted the nasty plot in his mind. Oh yeah, he was staying with the Ji family. Hak formerly held no impression towards the Ji family other than being a leech to the ck Cove¡¯s authority, but he was very much impressed this time by the surprises. The Ji family was much more formidable than he thought. The 2 mechs Ji family had crafted were about the average level of a standard mech at the ck Cove, with a few perks that the ck Cove could notpete at that moment - thatnce for instance!

    And it was also because of the Ji family¡¯s involvement in most of the activities this time around that No.58¡¯s escape route was restricted using the forces of the local government on Blue Ocean, making him a fish ready to beted. Moreover, it held those meddling pilots from FMPA from taking any reckless action. "Impressive¡­" Hak took back his disdain towards the Ji family.

    "Come in," he shouted at the door.

    It was Ji Shangyan who came to him. Hak was expressing much admiration and respect towards this fine young man. Not only he had menacing plots in his head, he was also a terrifically terrible character. A bad man to the core! One of his recent plots was the virus news. It worked like a charm.

    "Shangyan?" Ji Shangyan was looking bad on his face as Hak asked grimly, "What happened? Shangyan!" Unlike most young men out there, Ji Shangyan was a courteous boy, even towards a uncle-nephew rtionship, which was very pleasing to Hak.

    "Uncle Hak¡­" His voice came weakly, "We tried¡­ we tried to retrieve something potentially useful from that Ye Chong guy¡¯s identity card but the result was shocking¡­"

    "Oh? What is it?" Hak was intrigued.

    "Every single bit of his information on the virtualworking system was gone¡­ That includes his every record in the academy, which has been erased. We can¡¯t even find any photographic reference of his now. Everything was wiped¡­," heughed bitterly.

    "Ah!" Hak screamed uncontrobly, "It can¡¯t be!"

    ¡­

    "Heh¡­" Dodging the patrolling mech in the sky of Blue Ocean cautiously, Ye Chong¡¯s mech had better dexterity and velocity in smaller scope of travel. The hummingbirds were an additional surprise to Ye Chong¡¯s journey. 5 hummingbird-detectors added could radically erge the range and uracy of detection of Harmony! It also allowed stealth-mode detection too. Ye Chong believed that this was the most sessful design added to the Harmony other than Blue Winter thence.

    He looked at the visuals projected in the holograming from the hummingbirds and gasped!

 Chapter 98 - All Aboard!

    <h4>Chapter 98: All Aboard!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A gigantic spacecraft flew at high speed in the sky. It was such a breathtaking sight, an impulsive view of a powerful contrast. Imagine it - a whale of a size of a small mountain mming its body right onto you, with the shadow of its body engulfing youpletely and one could stop breathing, one¡¯s heart could stop beating by then! Ye Chong was assured that this was by far the most enormous spacecraft he had ever encountered - it was colossal, so colossal that a great mech would feel as minuscule as a mosquito hovering before it.

    Beep!

    The hummingbirds transferred some data to the interface. "Oh my Fal-" Ye Chong was utterly stunned. His could hardly shut his mouth as the data illustrated the length of the spacecraft - head to tail, a whopping 10 kilometers.

    "Is¡­ Is this even a spacecraft?"

    A length about 10 kilometers might have sounded grand to a caveman like Ye Chong. Little did Ye Chong know that there was actually a variety for spacecraft models. Depending on the model, the size varied. A prime example would be the spacecraft Ye Chong spotted in the space. As a matter of fact, the spacecraft was a n-graded premium spacecraft which would only be produced under special request pre-orders. One could never see a finished n grade spacecraft in the normal market. As astronomical as its size, its price was of a whopping length and without a doubt it was not something even the so-called millionaires could purchase on a whim.

    A n spacecraft might not be the most advanced kind in the universe, however undeniably there was no other spacecraft that couldpete its premium coziness, as if it was a flying pce in the space.

    The outer appearance was demurely elegant. In spite of its overwhelming size, the details of every single inch of the design was not disregarded, presenting an exceptional standard of craftsmanship.

    Being the first time encountering such a giant in the space, it was mind-blowing and eye-opening to Ye Chong. His brain was unable to perceive such huge amount of shock and was jammed for the moment.

    "Mu¡­Mu¡­ Is this really a spacecraft?" muttered Ye Chong.

    "Certainly," Mu replied without hesitation.

    "Are you sure we could hijack such a whale with only two of us? How should we get in? The armor is at least a hundred meter thick. It¡¯s impossible for us to break in!" Although Mu was the guarantee to the operation, Ye Chong was shaken by the size of this thing.

    "Ye, one¡¯s capability does not share a consequential rtionship with one¡¯s size! It is not strenuous to hijack or even to destroy it. Speaking from a theoretical approach, there is nothing truly invincible in this world," Mu replied indifferently.

    "Really?" Ye Chong was skeptical about it. "Well¡­ It''s not like I have any other better ideas to get through this giant¡¯s armor¡­"

    However, Mu disagreed, "The rtionship between the thickness of an armor and the possibility of sessful hijacking does not show a valid modus ponens! Smashing an armor to seize control of the entire craft is merely a method of pure violence and also a manifestation of strength under low-intelligence. Take note that the strength mentioned does not solely define one¡¯s vigor."

    "Oh I see¡­" Ye Chong seemed to have gotten it somehow¡­ "Ah!" A sudden realization struck Ye Chong, "Does that mean the method of ¡®threatening¡¯ Shang had taught me before was a form of manifestation too?"

    "You are correct. That resides in the field of psychology. Shang is knowledgeable at it, which is one of the reasons that exins a more developed mood matrix inparison to me."

    "I still prefer the to act straightforward, being concise and simple. These are a littleplicated for me to understand," confessed Ye Chong. To a big fan of nature¡¯sw of survival like Ye Chong, these techniques were truly more problematic to understand.

    "These tactics are faster and more effective than pure violence, which is something important you need to learn in future. In spite of my understanding on these philosophies being unnecessary to a pilot like you, Shang showed perseverance to educate you on these. Judging by the situation now, clearly Shang¡¯s suggestion is right." Mu answered in a serious tone.

    As Shang was mentioned, it was both funny and annoying to Ye Chong. Shang was such a respectable character yet he just did not want to put up a respectable behavior. A curiosity arose out of the blue, "If you were Mu, what tactic do you think he would use to fulfill our goals?"

    "Negative. Insufficient information. Unable to perform a calction," answered Mu.

    Well, Harmony of the Winter Aria surely had some really good anti-detection system. They had been traveling by the giant for quite a while yet they were never detected. This again unted the strength of the Ji family. They were one of the 4 aristocratic families for a reason. But for Mu, Ye Chong wondered if a detection system that could work against him had been invented.

    The 2 hovering mechs wavered like 2 mosquitos surrounding a massive sleeping beast.

    "So what tactics are you going to use?" Ye Chong asked on behalf of his overflowing curiosity. Mu had been holding back the details for long enough to thirst Ye Chong into desperation.

    "Based on our current condition¡­" Mu began, "Assuming we were to break this armor directly with brutal force, the possibility would only be 2.5% and below - you can safely presume that as ¡®impossible¡¯. Hence, as my forte is performing calction while having greater influences in the virtualwork and all the controllingwork in the processors of the spacecrafts is interconnected with the multi-channeled signal system. Furthermore I also happened to have a multi-channeled signal transmitter, with the nature being interconnected with the system, I could hack into the main processor of the spacecraft to seize the control of the entire unit," exined Mu.

    After that much of exnation, it was then Ye Chong recalled the fact that Mu was a top wrecking maverick in the virtual web who had once destroyed the entire Luo family on a mere cyberattack.

    "If that¡¯s the case, aren¡¯t you already invincible, with all these hacking-into-spacecrafts processes being like a stroll in the garden?" Mu¡¯s exnation sounded too easy for an infiltration so, Ye Chong asked skeptically.

    "What you have stated is incorrect," Mu showed disapproval to Ye Chong¡¯s point. "Firstly, such hacking process is only possible under the circumstance that you are unnoticed by the foes. Secondly, one loses the ability to self-defend under the hacking mode, thus one could not react effectively if any form of casualties had urred. Thirdly, if the foes too hold a group of mavericks, even if they were weak, such n would fail unavoidably. Fourthly, if the foes had shut down the multi-channeled signal connecting system, such method would seed at a possibility of 0%."

    "Looks like this n is very much limited by circumstances," Ye Chong showed understanding. "Still, mavericks are sure strong!" his tone was filled with admiration.

    "Correct. The strength of mavericks is a kind of manifestation of wisdom. Comparing with sole physique or piloting skills, it is much stronger. However, it is such a pity that you do not show keen interests in this field, or it would have been a very useful course for your future," agreed Mu.

    "Ay¡­" Ye Chong nodded his head heavily and spoke on, "Whatever that is rted to the processor is alien to me. You can keep them to yourself. Somehow it just so happened that I don¡¯t have talent in this thing. And I still have a lot more things to learn other than this. Sigh, the alchemy was quite interesting after getting the hang of it. But well, all was interrupted¡­"

    "No matter what form of strength you would manifest, remember there always exists no limit to it. As long as the application is proper, theoretically speaking, any sort of problem always have one or more reasonable and correct solution to it!" concluded Mu.

    "Right!" Ye Chong was inspired.

    ¡­

    Inside the spacecraft, the experienced elderly sat on his throne in the main control room. The tray on his left was ced with a cup of steaming aromatic tea. He took a nce at the people running around as busily as bees with their chores in the room. He smiled, showing fond of such a contented life.

    Capt. Hatik was an aplished captain to spacecraft-voyages. It had been 35 years since his first sail as a captain. His face was torn by his age, his eyes glowed with one-of-a-kind steadiness that would imbue anyone with confidence upon seeing them.

    Beep! Beep! Beep!

    Themunicator before him beeped out of sudden.

    He frowned as he connected the transmission An elderly appeared in the hologram. He appeared much in the pink of health despite his age, with his face reddish andck of wrinkles. Apparently the elderly had worked hard to keep his skin young.

    "Yes, Fred the Great sir, how may I help you?" the captain spoke respectfully.

    "Captain Hatik, how far are we from Blue Ocean?" his expression was a little stiff but his voice was crystal clear.

    "Yes sir, we are less than a day away from our destination. Estimated about a few more hours till we meet the patrolling team around the," replied Hatik.

    "Oh." The elderly was serene as he spoke, "We are changing our ns. We are not going to Blue Ocean. Change the course to Morienste."

    The captain was undoubtedly shocked, "Fred the Great, sir, b-but, the Blue Ocean is just before us. Why are we changing our course so suddenly? Sir, if you do not desire to linger at the Blue Ocean, we could at least resupply our ship there! With the current supply, we have to stop by somewhere to resupply on the way to Morienste. Also, would not this be a little bad for¡­"

    "No. Don¡¯t have to!" Fred waved his hands forcefully, "Blue Ocean has enforced the martialw. We are better off going somewhere else than being imprisoned there. Change the course now!"

    "Martialw? What in the world has happened? That has made sir to change your mind at the eleventh hour?" Hatik was dumbfounded by his decision. Fred the Great was known for his capricious nature by the people, but Hatik saw him as a wise elderly. He believed that whatever Fred the Great did held a rationale behind.

    "Yes¡­ Umm¡­," Fred¡¯s face stiffened for a quick while then he looked calm. "I got the news just now. The Blue Ocean has beenpletely locked out, due to a possible outbreak of a virus namely Charles-V. I personally think that the change of course would be a better choice for us. Yes, I¡¯ll inform some of my old friends at Blue Ocean Academy, telling them to keep the wines away. For the reporters, just leave them! They are used to this anyway!"

    "Charles-V? The ck Charles?" Hatik¡¯s face was pale, "Oh my Fal Gxy! How could such a terrible thing have an outbreak? Yes sir! You are right! We are changing the course as soon as possible!" His eyes were flooded with tant fear towards Charles-V the virus.

    "Charles-V?"

    "What? Of all virus?"

    "What do we do?"

    "We have to change the course, move!"

    Right when Capt. Hatik mentioned about the Charles-V virus, the main control room was boomed by the hushes of the panicked workers.

    "Yes, truly, certainly, absolutely," Fred the Great became serious. "I think we are better off leaving this as far as possible. I believe that none of us would want to be infected by such a nuisance. It is quite fatal and horrifying after all. If that would happen, I guess the Blue Ocean would be in quite a mess, so it would be the worst timing to pay a visit."

    "Truly, certainly, absolutely sir!" Hatik nodded his head repetitively, "You are right with what you said. We change the course now! We are ready!" and he turned back to his crewmen as he shouted, "Change the course! All aboard to Morienste!"

    In the midst of the crewmen aligning the steers to a new world, at that darker corner behind where the light of Fred the Great¡¯s hologram camera did not capture, there stood a young man with a crippled mech!

 Chapter 99 - Brent

    <h4>Chapter 99: Brent</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Mu might be concise at his words, but eventually the n worked out without a hitch, which was unexpected to Ye Chong. ringly he and Mu flew into this very spacecraft namely the Sabre through one of the opened walkways. There was not any request of identity verification and nobody seemed to be alerted by these uninvited guests on deck, as if they were the official crewmen to this spacecraft.

    And that was when Ye Chong was literally astounded! It felt like an illusion of seeing how Mu could blow up a hole on the body of this apparently unbeatable monster as if digging a hole on the dough. Oh the impact to his brain! Ye Chong was once confident with his "immense" strength but he lost them all ever since. He felt so small and insignificant the first time in his life, knowing the fact that regardless of how much robust he had grown, he would never be able to clutch the steering this effortlessly.

    This was the first time Ye Chong felt defeated by the strength he possessed, which had looked so meager by then. However, the moment of depression did notst upon entering the spacecraft.

    "Wow."

    Thanks to the gigantic size of the spacecraft, the interior of the Sabre was certainly spacious. It did not have the crammed feelings of the usual spacecrafts expected by Ye Chong. The crafter of this epitome of premium vessels seemed to have put in ounces of efforts in providing the most cozy environment for anyone on board. The facilities were humanized by nature, they were thoughtfully designed and were user-friendly - an eye-opener to Ye Chong.

    The floors were fully carpeted which felt fluffy andfy stepping on. It helped Ye Chong a lot because the carpet would effectively reduce the sound of his steps.

    While Ye Chong was anticipating a fight with the crewmen being the intruder himself, nobody was seemingly interested. It was strange that everyone hurried by his shoulders upon encounter and no one seemed to have noticed Ye Chong. Even if they did, it was merely because of the crippled yet beautifully-crafted mech behind him that they expressed peculiarity upon. Well "merely" their motive appeared as "merely" they looked. No one bothered toe for an inspection.

    "Hey Mu¡­" Ye Chong was perplexed, "Aren¡¯t these men supposed to have some sense of alertness? Hello, I¡¯m an intruder here."

    "I had just obtained the information of this spacecraft. Apparently most crewmen on this cruise were employed by Fred extemporaneously, including the captain himself. They do not know among themselves, not even acquainted. Nobody else was intimate enough with Fred other than the nephew of Fred who has always been following his uncle, Brent. Mhm, Brent was also given the duty to ensure his uncle¡¯s safety. He seemed to be an expert inbats, probably the only obstacle you have to face at the moment," exined Mu.

    "Brent?" muttered Ye Chong, which caused a middle-aged man passing by to take an extra nce upon hearing the name.

    Ye Chong arrived before the door to Fred¡¯s room as directed by Mu, who had gained the information from the databank that both Fred and Brent seemed to be staying in this room. The interior and exterior were split into 2 rooms where Brent stayed in the exterior room while Fred was in the interior room instead. There were no guards by the doorstep, instead there were more than 20 cameras perfectly scattered around the door without a single blind spot. It looked like there was also an automatic security rm system which would notify the guests inside in case of an approach of any intruder while projecting the imagery on themunicators or processor in the room.

    An impable security it was, but not as impable as Mu! These became child¡¯s y when Mu got into in the business, like the lord of a mystical world that controlled everything in rtion to his expertise.

    Ye Chong was more than jealous of course!

    "Ready?" Mu asked Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong took a few deep breaths before passing through the door. Feeling charged up, "Yes!" he signaled Mu.

    Shush! The door opened and Ye Chong stormed into the room!

    The opening of the door without forewarning was surprisingly to Brent at the exterior room, not to mention that shadow of a man in extreme-speed rushing into hisir, but he reacted in time.

    A simple tap on the button to trigger the rm using his left hand and a simple block with his right kept everything still. It was seamless, expressing the vast experience this guard held.

    Clumsy he might had been yet Brent took that killing blow of Ye Chong without further ado. However, likewise to all the people Ye Chong had fought before, he underrated the strength of such blow as he was sent away to the back.

    Chaining attack after sessful capture; the habit of Ye Chong''s skillfulbats it was. As Brent lost his bnce in the air, Ye Chong whipped his waist with his right leg. With that much of strength in Ye Chong, Brent would be crippled by this blow.

    If itnded that is.

    Brent twisted his body in mid-air and readjusted his position to have his arms crossed before his chest to take this iing kick from Ye Chong, calm and still.

    This was uncalled for to Ye Chong. The sensation of his kick was rather unusual for a man, it felt like a kick on the sides of a lubricated ball. He did not feel the expected impact, instead everything felt slippery and odd.

    Brent slid over Ye Chong like a butterfly as he caught Ye Chong¡¯s feet and fluttered elegantly.

    Ye Chong could not believe what he saw. His eyes did capture every move of this man but¡­ Brent''s arms were wiggling strangely as soon as Ye Chongnded his kick on them identally. Brent¡¯s escape was made possible because of his wiggly limbs.

    This had ignited Ye Chong¡¯s vignce as supposedly his assassination would have worked almost all the time and he was expecting a quick fight with this Brent guy, never knowing that he was the real deal. Although Ye Chong¡¯s face was indifferent as he usually was, his heart was already at the peak of waves of insecurity.

    Ye Chong finally decided to take a serious inspection upon Brent. He was 180 centimeters tall, a bulky body and a masculine posture. He was handsome; especially his eyes, gentle like a breeze,forting to people along with those dimples he made from time to time - a charmer to thedies he was.

    Of course, Ye Chong did not care if he was a charmer todies. The position of Brent¡¯s arms was odd enough to catch his full attention. The lower part of his body was of stoned stance, steadily firm ever since hended while strangely his upper body was ¡­ vibrating? His upper body was vibrating obscurely at a unique rhythm. His eyes remained gentle as they were even under a circumstance like this. He did not have the desire to murder - Ye Chong could not see him through, which only rmed him more.

    Coincidentally, he did not know the fact that Brent was inspecting him too. He did not seem sturdy yet his fistnded like a bomb. If I did not act careful enough, I would have my right arm fractured. What a re he had - filled with tant bloodthirstiness. Thought Brent as his heart grew colder, his face turned grim as he found out he was not facing a man, rather he was facing a dangerous beast that would feast on anyone upon sight.

    "Who are you and why are you attacking me?" He might be in grave danger yet he acted in serenity. His tone was unshaken by Ye Chong¡¯s expression.

    Too bad his unshaken will did not affect Ye Chong a bit. Ye Chong was finding the question unnecessary, wondering how a man in the middle of a dead-or-alive fight could still speak some nonsense. The man probably wanted to die he supposed. There was no reply from Ye Chong, he acted right away!

    Ye Chong sneaked towards Brent, lurking in the dark, unseen like a column of smoke.

    If Ye Chong exerted immense strength just now, then this was expression of his immense speed by then. Immense it was, fearsome it was, unrivaled it was!

    Brent¡¯s expression turned somber. Thest bit of his serenity had evaporated!

    Within a blink of an eye, Ye Chong came to Brent''s side as his hands transformed into ovepping afterimages clouding Brent.

    Brent¡¯s expression which was somber had turned dismembered.

    Thup! Thump! Wham! Bam! The sounds of them exchanging kicks and punches sounded like a tempest upon the window. Brent¡¯s hands were as fast as lightning too.

    Itsted for 10 seconds before the intertwining shadows st as both of them jumped away from each other.

    Brent, panted as he bowed, his tussled wet hair stuck at his forehead, held his stomach with one hand, coughing uncontrobly. Streams of blood excreted from the corners of his mouth. He was in a really bad shape.

    Ye Chong on the other hand seemed to be living and kicking, other than the frightening marks of palm imprinted on his wrist.

    Ye Chong had won, judging by the situation.

    He let off a sigh of relief. Obviously the opponent¡¯s hands were much slower than his, even though the opponent was still capable to take most of his hits while the fingers slid his wrist many times, trying to grab his moving hands. If he did not withdraw his hands in time, the fingers could have sliced through his veins. Ye Chong was surprised by the man¡¯s fingers acting like a metallic de. At the very least his kicknded upon the opponent¡¯s squishy abdomen, that would take the kill!

    However, frankly speaking, on the aspect of skillfulness, Ye Chong was miles away from the man despite having an overwhelming speed and strength upon the opponent, which was the saving grace to his victory. Ye Chong was still impressive though, the fact that Brent could block most of Ye Chong¡¯s attacks with his inferior speed while making asional strike-back. Impressive he was, also dejected he was as he thought his speed was invincible, yet someone with a much lower speed could hold it.

    His strikes do not hold any form of beauty. They were wild, primal and straightforward. Such an unintelligent tactic of fighting was utterly depicted on an inhumane beast like Ye Chong.

    The scale of strength tilted towards Ye Chong as the foe was severely injured. He believed that it would only take another half a minute to take out this shocker before him.

    Right when he was going for another sequence of hurricane dance - beep, shush - a voice came hurriedly, "Hold it!"

    Ye Chong was alert the moment the door opened with a beep but he could not be distracted from delivering his final blow, especially when a trustworthy partner was taking his back for him. Only Mu could guard his back after all!

 Chapter 100 - Fred

    <h4>Chapter 100: Fred</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Fred¡¯s appearance panicked Brent. Ye Chong showed ignorance to this elderly¡¯s debut however, as he raised his fist, "Wait a moment, Ye!" Mu stopped him with a scream. The rationale behind this pause from him was apparently to avoid further contradiction from brewing since they had already gotten full control of the situation.

    Brent seemed very rmed, as deep inside he feared his uncle being wounded by this beast.

    Fred who had seen ample of dark sides of the world was pretty calm surprisingly, "I was not expecting you to take such trickery in response to my rejection upon your request. And I guess you used the same way to invite my old friend Zuo Moucheng over your ce, didn¡¯t you?" Anger was embedded within his words while Brent¡¯s eyes were also coated with rage as he red upon Ye Chong.

    "I don¡¯t understand what the heck you are saying." Ye Chong was bewildered, his voice went somberly, "But you guys better be acting on my will."

    "Hmph!" the elderly sneered. "Save the silly acting skills! We are already the fish in your and this time the organization must be servingpliments to your te I supposed. And at this rate someday you¡¯ll enjoy being one killer-whale bounded by the organization as you killed the insignificant others. You might be great, but you still are preposterous and pathetic!"

    "My request¡­" Ignoring the elderly¡¯s words, Ye Chong spoke on, "Change the direction."

    "Oh? Change the course you mean?" The mock on Fred¡¯s face intensified, "Very well then, to where we change the course, mister?"

    "Uh!" Ye Chong did not see that questioning, "Um¡­ Anywhere you want!"

    "Anywhere¡­ I want?" His eyes erged as he turned speechless while Brent¡¯s face went dazed as well. "Wait¡­" Fred reformed his understanding to the situation, "Mister, are not you from those men?"

    "I seriously do not have any idea what you guys are saying!" Ye Chong was annoyed by how these men were acting so confusingly and why they could not just act on his orders already, "You seriously better be changing the course right now." He wondered if he should demonstrate his threatening tactic taught by Shang to make the men move.

    "Alright, alright, alright. We are changing the course!" Fred looked joyful as he nodded his head, he stayed quiet for a moment as if pondering and then he enquired, "How about Morienste?"

    "Morienste? Is it far from Blue Ocean?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Very!" replied Fred.

    "Good. Morienste it is," stated Ye Chong while both Fred and Brent looked at each other, sighing in relief. They appeared much rxed by then.

    "Is there anything going on in Blue Ocean?" Brent asked after staying silent for long enough, obviously liberated from his fear and fright as soon as he identified Ye Chong as not the "men" mentioned by his uncle. They were in muchfort as Fred even poured Ye Chong a ss of wine, of the colour amber and he gestured him to have a drink. Brent copsed onto the sofa and started bandaging his wounds.

    Ye Chong did not know what to answer to keep the ball rolling, he just mentioned whatever he had heard, "Oh¡­ They said some kind of virus was discovered. Charl¡­ Charles-II was it?"

    "Charles-II?" Fred was wondering if the boy made a mistake, then he realized something, "Charles-V? Charles-V you mean!" Fred¡¯s ss fell off from his hand as he was horrified, while Brent held his hands and watched in dismay. "ck Charles?" Fred began mumbling for quite sometime. After literally half a minute, he collected his thoughts as his shaking hands slid into his pocket for amunicator.

    Brent was so startled by his uncle acting so gracelessly. In his impression of his uncle, he had always been an untroubled great man no matter what horrible things had happened despite being an odd-tempered elderly, which was a virtue he wanted to learn from his uncle.

    Fred inhaled heavily as he tried calming down. He connected themunicator to Captain Hatik¡¯s room.

    "Yes, Fred the Great sir, how may I help you?"

    And that was what happened next chapters ago¡­

    ¡­

    Since the course had been changed and the major dispute between both parties had been resolved. The atmosphere had turned much lighter. Other than that kick on Brent, there was nothing dissatisfying. Brent was not the kind who would mind a kick, while Ye Chong did not have any specific request in mind. Fred on the other hand was rather intrigued by the mech behind Ye Chong as he watched his nephew chatting with Ye Chong.

    "My name is Brent. That¡¯s my uncle Fred. I wonder how should I address a fine man like you?" Introduced Brent with a gentle smile, trying to break the ice while Fred, his uncle was circling around Mu with his eyes lustered as he touched the body and mumbled asionally, then he would ponder, strangely he acted upon the mech.

    "Kun Ting," Ye Chong replied tly as he came up with a random name. Well he was still pretty close to Blue Ocean, the ce of his gued fate. He would not want to be recognized by someone right away.

    "Great name. Great name. You have such amazing dexterity. Both your speed and strength are the best among the people I had fought before. There were a lot of well-known fighters who shared inferiority to your capability,"plimented Brent sincerely.

    "It was nothing," Ye Chong was not acting out of humbleness. It was simply because he had seen Mu in action before and he knew his skills were nothing inparison.

    Well, Brent took the line as a humble act though. He smiled briefly.

    They grew friendly on each other so quickly that Ye Chong did not sense the urge to hijack the ship while Brent seemed to have forgotten the fact that he and his uncle were the hijacked.

    The chatter mostly consisted of Brent¡¯s patient description on the world as he realized that somehow this young man who was only a few years younger than him knew nothing about the chaos and darkness in the world - untainted like a in paper. Even though a kind man like him was agitated by Ye Chong''s animal nature at times, he showed tolerance and love as he imagined the suffering this poor young man had gone through when he was a boy.

    They dueled on fists and kicks as their afterimages ovepped each other, which twisted the airflow inside the room to and fro with the sounds of fighting resounded. Such kind ofbat was experienced daily by both of them, with most of them being Ye Chong¡¯s victory during the first few days. However, Brent¡¯s tenacity grew stronger in a few days time as hested longer on Ye Chong¡¯s fists. The number of times he made a sessful strike-back increased and those were some smart strike-backs too, which left Ye Chong clumsily reacting in ce. On the other hand, Ye Chong attempted to copy Brent¡¯s fighting style. Though he seeded in mirroring his moves, something felt amiss within. Compared to the original, his moves felt different. Well that did not bother Ye Chong for long because he was not the kind to be stuck with such trivial detail. While most of his moves were learned from mutated lifeforms, he took a few useful ones for continuous practices. As timepsed with much reference he made on moves, his attack turned acute and it became that Brent was tasting the bitter side of the fight instead! Brent the helpless man could only boggle his mind to figure out some tricks to turn the situation around at his best. Their skills improved dramatically as they trained on.

    "Kun Ting¡­" Brent gently advised, "You might have exceptional speed and strength but your skills were too crude for a fighter. You would inevitably suffer if you met an expert."

    Ye Chong understood Brent¡¯s words deep down, however he was powerless in this aspect as hecked an appropriate teacher to this. Not even Mu could be his teacher, as long as Mu trained him, it never seemed to show significant refinement. Mu tried researching about it but said that he could not find a thing addressing to such issue in most of the major data banks and literally the whole virtualwork.

    The fighters were conservative regarding inheritance of skills. They had always been keeping it only to their apprentices that not anyone from the outside could receive them. Thus there was no way that these fighters would put their secret techniques online for education purposes. Even if one became the apprentice of these fighters, one might have absorbed a different aspect of the technique as one¡¯s teacher demonstrated.

    Seeing how hard Ye Chong trained, Brent considered something in his mind. Since Kun Ting was willing to suffer tenaciously for what it took to be a great fighter and he turned out to be quite a simple person after days of interaction, he might be a good material to be trained. Kun Ting might have had some odd behaviors but that was because he was not aware of the social norms. He was still as simple-minded as Brent would assume. If Kun Ting was given proper education and exposure to the society, he would change very soon for sure!

    Yeah, if I get him to master, master would be more than joyous. And I would get a brother!

    "Kun Ting, if I introduce you to a master, would you be willing to be his student?" asked Brent carefully.

    "Mhm!" Ye Chong nodded right away. He was long in desire of Brent¡¯s refinedbat techniques. It was just that Brent kept mentioning how the techniques would never be taught to an outsider; the norms that kept him out. Brent however did offer some tips he learned before to Kun Ting in exchange of sses being forbidden, which were still an eye-opener to Ye Chong. He was inspired and he wanted more. His desire to join Brent¡¯s group grew!

    Meanwhile, Fred had never left Mu even when he was going for lunch. For his own safety, Mu acted like an ordinary mech as he stood there like a statue. Fred¡¯s intoxication frightened Ye Chong, "Kun Ting, just leave my uncle alone," Brentughed as he spoke. "He always acts like this whenever he got into work. I had gotten used to it."

    Brent redefined his uncle¡¯s impression in Ye Chong¡¯s mind as he provided him some information about his uncle.

    Fred, also known as Fred the Great, was one of the few remaining mech-making master in the 5 major gxies. Yes, as the title went, "master" defined his craftsmanship being the topmost. Being a mech-making master, not only he had to master the designing of the mech¡¯s main body, but he also had to master in designing everything from scratch. That included engines, armor, circuit, weaponries and other aspects in study. As limited as a man¡¯s intelligence and vitality, the knowledge in any study was vast and boundless, it would be a miracle if a man could at least master one or two of them. Only geniuses, those with talents inborn while possessing strong curiosity to research and development could master multiple aspects of the study. While a master like Fred the Great, being the genius of the geniuses able to master every aspect rting to the mech-making expertise, he was one of the few, or even the one and only in the 5 major gxies.

    In this era where mechs were demanded and pilots existed everywhere, one could not imagine how much a mech-making master like Fred could have earned. It was more than just authority, wealth and social status.

    Just like the spacecraft he throned upon, the Sabre of the n grade for instance was actually a gift from a very wealthypany after knowing his n for gctic tour. Such an astronomical budget¡­ that no folk would ever dare to even dream about.

    "Oh¡­ Beauty¡­" Fred, stared at Mu, mesmerized, "Oh? Oh!" He wiped his drool off as he did not notice he was drooling in desire. Ye Chong could not imagine that old man being a mech-making master as Brent imed when he acted like a pedophile towards Mu¡­

    Ever since Ye Chong had entered this room, he noticed that no one else would have ever stepped into this room. At most, the maid would send food to the doorstep on meal hours.

    The room might be spacious but it felt suffocating to spend day and night inside.

    Gctic tour was long and certainly there would be a moment of boredom for a mere man like Ye Chong. Not everyone could understand the romance behind it as much as Fred did. While counting the stars in the milky-way, Ye Chong was suddenly notified, "Ye! Something¡¯s going on in the ship!"

 Chapter 101 - Tour

    <h4>Chapter 101: Tour</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "What is it?" Ye Chong was alerted.

    "Someone sent out an encrypted message, and I¡¯ve intercepted it!" Ye Chong knew from the tone of voice that it was not Mu, but Shang! Mu would never speak in such a carefree manner, as his tone was always t and calm. Ye Chong was deeply influenced by Mu in this respect.

    "Shang, is it your turn toe out now?" Ye Chong said, by way of greeting Shang.

    Shangughed, pleased. "I didn¡¯t expect such fun just when I came out! Ye, tsk tsk, don¡¯t be like Mu, you gotta have some fun in life! Hehe, that missy in the training garb is quite ady, what powerful legs! I sure miss her! Tsk tsk! Ye, you¡¯re still alright down there right? I remember her kicking you there! Let¡¯s talk about your feelings back then. That was such a wasted opportunity!"

    Rui Bing¡¯s figure, d in white training garb came unbidden to Ye Chong¡¯s mind. He could not help but recall the strange fragrance and smooth touch from deep within his mind.

    What a strange feeling!

    Ye Chong knew that if he did not cut off the bastard right now, he would continue on forever with the topic. Hence, Ye Chong quickly interrupted, "Shang, you said that someone just sent out a message?"

    Shang replied, "Mm, to be precise, someone had set a timed algorithm, such that a message would be sent out periodically to a specified destination!"

    "Oh, what¡¯s it say?"

    "The ship¡¯s current location!" Shang replied.

    "Will this affect us?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Information is insufficient, the results are incalcble. Sigh, Mu¡¯s slogan tastes horrible in my mouth!" Shang muttered, and continued shily, "Ye, this must be the work of someone with ill designs towards this ship! Heavens, do you not have any sense of knightliness in you? Based on this year¡¯s online survey, this is one of the most appreciated qualities by thedies in their dream partner! Ye ¡­"

    Against Shang¡¯s chattering, Ye Chong became vexed. His expression turned loose, and he felt like he would faint at any moment!

    After a full twenty minutes, Shang finally ended his grand speech on the topic.

    Ye Chong was already withering, a body without a soul!

    Shang spoke expectantly, "Ye, what do you think? Let¡¯s expose the impostor in the name of justice! Haha!"

    "No!" Ye Chong resolutely ignored the crazy mech and left.

    He soaked quietly in a jacuzzi,plete with rotating micro-jets. The numerous little whirlpools caressed every corner of his body, and the slight tickling sensation was wonderfullyfortable. However, Ye Chong¡¯s expression was not one of indulgence, but of one lost in thought.

    Mu was absent, and Shang did not make him feel safe at all! When he was with Mu, the mech was like an invincible leader. When with Shang, Ye Chong found himself being the leader instead. However, the thought of Shang brought a smile to his face. Shang was discretely in control of the starship¡¯s photon processor, monitoring everyone on board! Regarding Brent and his uncle, Fred, Ye Chong dared not underestimate them. It was safer to be in control of his own destiny than letting others decide it for him, and also less worrisome for him! While they seemed close to each other, who was to say what the future holds? It was better to y it safe!

    Ye Chong was also perturbed by Shang¡¯s report of the outgoing message. While he did not understand what it was about, Ye Chong thought nothing woulde of it. It was best if he did not expose himself at the moment. Besides, close to Blue Ocean as they were now, anyplications would spell trouble!

    With his eyes half closed, Ye Chong sprawledzily in the jacuzzi. "Now that feels much better!" Ye Chong¡¯s skin was extra sensitive. The little micro-whirlpools felt like animals moving in the water. Ye Chong was suddenly ovee by a yful mood. He closed his eyes and submerged his handspletely in the water, trying hard to feel the subtle motions of the water around his hands. His hands moved swiftly like fishes, avoiding the chaotic whirlpools in the water. When a whirlpool became unavoidable, he would disrupt the whirlpool with the tip of a finger. However, this introduced more irregrity into the water flow in the jacuzzi, making them harder to anticipate.

    Alone in the micro-jets jacuzzi, Ye Chong thoroughly enjoyed himself.

    Water in the micro-jet jacuzzi were mixed in with many rejuvenating ingredients that could reduce fatigue. Ye Chong now felt refreshed, as though he had lost some weight! However, if Ye Chong knew the amount of gold zuan charged for his bathing session could easily afford him a mech, what would his thoughts be then?

    Only a n graded luxurious starship would have something like the micro-jet jacuzzi as a standard facility! For those who could afford the starship, how would they mind the rtively insignificant expenses involved?

    Refreshed from his session, Ye Chong left the bathing room only to meet Brent. Brent reached for his arm and said smilingly, "Kun Ting, I¡¯ve been looking all over for you, so this is where you¡¯ve been hiding!"

    Ye Chong reflexively shifted his posture, and Brent missed his arm. He was surprised, andughed a little in the ensuing awkwardness.

    Ye Chong asked inly, "What¡¯s the matter?"

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s apathetic and calm expression, Brent could not help but sighed inside as he continued with a smile, "I¡¯ve been staying in my room these few days, and it¡¯s been a bore. Uncle was really obsessive about that mech of yours, I¡¯ve never seen him so impressed with a mech like that! I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll pay much attention to us now, so I thought I¡¯d bring you on a tour of this ship. Honestly, there are ces here that even I haven¡¯t been to before! Why not take this opportunity to explore the ship together!"

    Ye Chong pondered over the suggestion, thinking that it would be a good chance to familiarize himself with the ship. Even though Shang already knew its every corner, it would be better if he knew the ship¡¯syouts too. With that, Ye Chong agreed to the tour.

    Since most of the ship¡¯s crew were new, and the ship was a gift from someone else, Brent was not too familiar with the ship. Brent had high hopes for Ye Chong, a potential student of his. He had the idea that this future student of his must have been deprived of human interaction to behave so coldly towards other people.

    Hence, he came with this idea.

    Together with them was Captain Hatik, as he would of course oblige his master¡¯s requests. Hatik was still professional in this respect!

    The starship Sabre was a ten kilometers long, looking very much like an ind. It was a luxury starship model, and so boasted full range facilities with much extravagance! During his introductions, Captain Hatik was felt swept away by the starship. He had served as captain for many years, and been inmand of a great many starships. However, a ship like Sabre was a first for him.

    The three men entered a wide hall, filled with dozens of game rooms and a bar counter in the far off corner. There were many chairs and tables in the hall, most of them made of wood, and the elegant motives on them were carved by hand. This made the furniture look like works of art instead of a furniture of resting oneself.

    Moreover, every corner of the hall was equipped with holographic screens at various angles.

    The wide hall was filled to the brim and very noisy. The seats were all taken, and some were even standing. People drank and conversed, or sang loudly without a care in the world, or walking around the hall. However, most of them stared at the holographic screens unblinkingly!

    Ye Chong frowned slightly, bothered by the noise. His expression did not slip past Brent, who smiled a little, apparently impressed with the hall.

    Captain Hatik began, "This is the entertainment hall, undoubtedly the most luxurious I¡¯ve ever seen. When they¡¯re otherwise unupied, folks like to spend their time here. The drinks are free-flowing, and free of charge. For those who drink like the fish but without the money to support their enjoyment, this ce is heaven!"

    "Luxury gaming booths are rare, and now that they can get a taste of it themselves, the idle folks here are helplessly enticed! The gaming booths are upied every day, since everyone wants to try them out. Hehe, fortunately, there have been no idents here throughout the trip, or I would have to invoke my rights as Captain to shut the ce down, for fear of the situation getting out of hand!"

    Ye Chong lifted his head to watch one of the holographic screens in mid air. A red mech was right in a battle against a green mech. Ye Chong whistled softly, obviously surprised by the content of the game. The two mechs on the holographic screens were well rendered, the red mech was a cunning match against the steady green opponent. With his rich experience, Ye Chong could now identify the likely winner with just a nce. While the two mechs were seemingly tied in battle, Ye Chong noticed that the green mech still had some potential in it. If the red mech did not have any killer moves, then the green mech would most probably emerge as the winner.

    Captain Hatik noticed Ye Chong¡¯s interest in the battle on the holographic screen, and introduced, "Fred the Great is a man of high status, and his safety is important. This time, our hired bodyguards are mostly well known in the field, all of them fully capable! Here on the screen, the green mech is Yu Jie, and the red mech is Dous. They both enjoy prestigious reputations, excelling in both mech piloting and bodyguard services. Amongst all the bodyguards, many of them are on the same level of these two! However, hehe, the real masters usually do not show themselves easily." Captain Hatik spoke with an eloquent undertone.

    As the captain finished, the battle was also over. As Ye Chong expected, the green mech, or Yu Jie, imed victory. The spectators below roared in dissatisfaction, but some of them were alsoughing loudly, pleased with themselves. Their investment in the oue of the battle surprised Ye Chong.

    Brent was also baffled, as the sight was a first for him too. He looked to Captain Hatik for an exnation.

    Captain Hatik looked a little embarrassed, but obligingly exined, "It is customary for the battling opponents to bet for themselves, and the spectators will usually bet for their favored ones. The winner will not only gain all the bet money for his opponent, he¡¯ll also take a cut of ten percent from the winnings of all the spectators who bet for him. That is the custom!"

    Seeing Brent¡¯s disapproval, Captain Hatik shrugged a little. "While this is a form of gambling, it¡¯s actually a good way to amuse people like ourselves, who spent much time floating around in space! It¡¯s also a way to de-stress ourselves!"

    Brent replied with an "Oh," indicating his understanding. Ye Chong¡¯s expression did not change, as he was not focused on the conversation, but meticulously going through every corner of the hall. It was second nature for Ye Chong to familiarize himself with his surroundings at the first opportunity.

    The three made their way to the bar counter. As they passed by, people greeted Captain Hatik warmly, and Captain Hatik returned the gesture with equal enthusiasm. One can thus see that these people sincerely respect Captain Hatik. That fact made Ye Chong and Brent think twice on their thoughts about the Captain.

    "Hi! Boss! What brings you all the way here?" The chubby bartender greeted Captain Hatik.

    The captainughed. "I¡¯m just bringing these two gentlemen for a walk. You, Sir, are the person standing nearest to the alcohol!" He turned to the two and introduced. "This fat chump here is Gino, drinks like a fish, but mixes drinks like a master. What¡¯d you like to have? Just name the order! The man ims to know every drink known to the world! Haha, Gino, give me a Fruit Basket!"

    "Righto!" The chubby man cried in reply, and his hands began to move in a blur. After a moment, a yellowish white drink with some flowing patterns on it was presented to Captain Hatik. A strong and heavy smell, with a stinging quality to it, emanated from the cocktail.

    Brent, with years of following Fred around, socializing with members of the upper ss society, was also an expert in drinks. He ordered an Ignaz, and the chubby man could not help but notice Brent¡¯s peculiarity.

    A green and violet cocktail, looking a little opaque, was brought to him. Brent sipped a little, and could not help but apud, "Excellent! A master indeed! The taste is authentic!" He even gave a thumbs-up to the bartender! The chubby man instantly brightened up, pleased with thepliment!

    Ye Chong had no experience with drinks, and copied Brent¡¯s order. He took a little sip, just like Brent, and a weird taste exploded in his mouth. Ye Chong quickly put down the drink, and knitted his brows.

    The chubby man¡¯s attitude towards Ye Chong was now tinged with disdain!

    Brent finished his ss of Ignaz in one gulp, his expression one of great satisfaction and indulgence.

    By then, two people had left their gaming booths. Brent smiled a little and nodded towards the booths, as he cocked his eyebrow and said, "Well, Kun Ting? Let¡¯s go for a round!"

 Chapter 102 - Game

    <h4>Chapter 102: Game</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Brent could not, for the life of him, figure out how Ye Chong managed to slip into Sabre without being noticed. Sabre was not a run-of-the-mill starship, and those who could afford this type of starships were not only extremely wealthy, but also very conscious of their own safety. Even an idiot would realize this. n-grade starships were all equipped with the most advanced technologies, and the unthinkable thick hull armor made it impossible to breach from the outside!

    Despite the odds, Ye Chong still managed to enter the starship without being noticed. How could Brent not be curious, and even a little frightened of him? While no starship was imprable, an undetected entry into the ship brought a chill down his spine!

    Brent was no fool, and he was vignt against Kun Ting¡¯s unknown history. However, based on his current observations, the mysterious man before him probably did not belong to the group. In any case, offending a person he knew nothing about would be an irrational move. Besides, ever since Kun Ting slipped into the starship and won against him, he and Uncle Fred were no longer in control of their own destinies!

    It would be suicidal to show any hostility at this point! Kun Ting¡¯s eyes shone cold as ice, preventing him from making any hasty decisions. No one knew what the future held!

    Some time ago, a few good friends of Uncle Fred mysteriously disappeared, and were unheard of since then. The police did not uncover anything useful, and could only deduce from the way they vanished that it must be the work of a group. Fred¡¯s friends were all experts in mechs with their own specializations, and were famous in their respective fields. Now that they have disappeared one by one, how could they not be terrified?

    Not long after that, Fred heard from somewhere that he was the group¡¯s next target.

    After receiving news that someone had ill designs for Uncle Fred, Brent and his uncle began nning for the current space cruise. From the beginning, they acted out of character and spread news of the cruise far and wide, making a big hoo-hah out of it, such that everyone knew about their ns. They exposed themselves to the public, hoping that their publicity will prevent any actions from the enemy. However, now that Kun Ting had taken over the ship, they had unexpectedly changed course, and all for the better. This sudden change must have surprised their enemy in the darkness.

    As for the idea of introducing Ye Chong to his own master, that was a sudden thought that urred to him. With his master¡¯s crazy character, he would probably not mind Ye Chong¡¯s past. His deliberate actions these few days had finally paid off. When he mentioned about introducing Kun Ting to his master, he saw an uncharacteristic sh of eagerness in Kun Ting¡¯s eyes, a contrast to his cool expression. Brent was pleased. With this, even if something happened in the future, Kun Ting would at least not side with his enemy.

    A verbal promise in exchange for potential alliance - this was in all ways a worthwhile exchange. While it made Brent feel a little guilty, what would his feelings matter if it was for his Uncle Fred? Besides, if they survived this ordeal, he would introduce Kun Ting to his master, just as he promised.

    Bren watched with mixed feelings as Kun Ting made his way towards another gaming booth, his expression unreadable.

    Ever since he finished his apprenticeship, Brent had never lost to anyone before. His loss against Kun Ting was something he took to heart! However, real lifebat was gradually fading, and the true forces that dominated the currentndscape were mechs and their pilots!

    Brent¡¯s challenge this time was in part topare their strengths, but mostly, he wanted to know more about the mysterious enigma that was Kun Ting. Brent rarely used mechs to battle against others, but did not mean that his skills were unremarkable. On the contrary, he was the student of a reputable teacher, though few knew about it. After all, his uncle was Fred the Great, and his friends include many legendary mech pilots.

    As he caressed the hypersimtor console in the gaming booth, the usually gentlemanly and courteous Brent could not help but grow excited and exuberant!

    Ye Chong calmly sat inside the gaming booth. After his long experience with mechs, he could now control his emotions better. After all, any hasty movements would often lead to death! However, a little excitement could make a mech pilot¡¯s reactions quicker.

    A calmness lightly tinged with excitement was the best state of mind for a mech pilot to perform his or her best!

    An important difference between amateur pilots and senior pilots was that the seniors could often enter this state very quickly!

    It seemed that Ye Chong was born for mechs. Whenever he was dealing with mechs, he would subconsciously enter this state of mind, a state that made him obsessed with mechs!

    The arena before him was very familiar. Ye Chong was reminded of his time back on the trash, essing the virtual world and challenging others in the pilot training center every day.

    The confusing array of mechs consisting different models kindled a warm feeling in Ye Chong. The mechs were not impressive to Ye Chong. Compared to the Harmony of the Winter Aria, these so-called top ss mechs were nothing to boast about. However, even if they were not particrly powerful mechs, Ye Chong was still excited. A surge of desire for battle surfaced from the very depths of his heart!

    "Hu ¡­" Ye Chong let out a long exhale, his eyes suddenly red up like fire, even as his heart maintained his usual calmposure.

    Ye Chong chose Lra as his mech. The Lra mech was thetest modelunched by Pruist this year, and it was the only mech of its level by thepany this year that was a close range mech. Its uniquenessy in its powerful movement. Equipped with the year¡¯s new product, the Warhead-IV engine, the mech performed splendidly in terms of motion.

    Its weapons were also specially designed. Instead of the standard ming Sword, the mech was given a blunt instrument. This may be confusing to most, but the design of the weapon was nothing short of spectacr. Three metal cylinders littered with tiny holes circled around the mech under the guidance of a maic field, rotating at high speeds. Upon entering the range of the maic field, the enemy would be instantly killed! Moreover, the mech¡¯s powerful photon processor could identify the object that entered its maic field range. The cylinders were also packed with another feature - once the killmand was verified, the tiny holes on the cylinder¡¯s surface would emit high poweredser beams. The seemingly harmless cylinders instantly turned into a lethal w hammer. Under the deadly attacks of 3 such cylinders, the enemy¡¯s mech would not be able to avoid the fate of being cut into pieces.

    Lra mechs were also special in that they were neither humanoid nor shaped like any animal. The mech was oval-ish, with sixteen rings circling about the mech¡¯s body. Besides, the sixteen rings did not share the same center of rotation. The rapidly circling rings orbited about the mech in a densework of trajectories, enveloping the mech in a shroud of shadows. These rapidly orbiting rings could effectively absorb and block any attacks from energy based weapons.

    In truth, Lra mechs were not actually close range mechs, but a long range mech with a reduced attack range.

    Lra also had a nickname - the Meat Grinder.

    Brent chose outer space as the battleground, and used Ster Dream as his mech, a product of the East Moon Group. Ster Dream was a ssic long range mech, popr due to the dominant trend of long range battle styles. Besides, its exterior was ssy and elegant, favored by many mech pilots. Ster Dream had clear contours along its profile, its expression solemn, looking mighty and out of this world. The silver-white colour of the mech shone brightly, adding to its touch of elegance.

    Overly splendid things had always stirred caution and distaste in Ye Chong.

    However, Ster Dream was not all looks and no substance. Advanced shooting systems were a must for long rang mechs, and Ster Dream¡¯s did well in auto shooting and lock-on targeting. Unlike other mechs, Ster Dream offered a precision higher than that of the auto lock-on system¡¯s, achieved through manual lock-on. However, this depended heavily on the mech pilot¡¯s skills. On the other hand, Ster Dream was also excellent in other aspects such as movement and bnce.

    In outer space, Ster Dream held an advantage over Lra. More urately speaking, long range mechs were more practical than short range mechs in outer space, since the former had a wider range of action. Brent was not deliberately bullying Ye Chong, but he did not expect Kun Ting to choose Lra. The choice greatly surprised him, and Kun Ting became more and more of a mystery to him. Brent had trained under an expert, and did not hold a condescending opinion on close range mechs. However, the choice of a close range mech in an environment as homogenous as outer space seemed like a foolish decision to him!

    "But Kun Ting doesn¡¯t seem to be someone foolish," thought Brent, baffled.

    Ye Chong also frowned a little as he noticed the outer space battleground. The environment was a huge disadvantage for the Lra, but he had raised no objections. He understood clearly that in most cases, the battleground was not for him to decide. Instead of ming the unfairness of the battleground to him, his time was better spent on strategizing!

    A distance away, separated by the transparent walls of the gaming booth, Brent noticed Kun Ting¡¯s calm expression and muttered to himself, "Does he have a n, or does he not care about the battle oue?"

    The game was about to start, and Brent quickly gathered his thoughts and put on his helmet.

    Once in the game, Brent¡¯s Ster Dream raised its arm and fired once, but Ye Chong was already prepared and evaded the attack easily. Brent was not aiming to hit his opponent. Instead, he used the opportunity to widen the distance between him and Kun Ting. With the wider distance, he believed that he could secure victory with his shooting skills. With this, Brent was confident.

    Without any suspense, Brent achieved his goal and managed to widen the distance between him and Kun Ting!

    Brent instantly felt himself calming down. He went through a few scenarios in his head, but could not imagine how Kun Ting could turn things around.

    Ye Chong, however, was now moving in a way that was beyond all of Brent¡¯s expectations!

 Chapter 103 - Old Pang

    <h4>Chapter 103: Old Pang</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Close range mechs were only effective in close quarters due to their short ranged attacks. A close range mech must first close in on their enemy such that the enemy was within their attack range, so that their weapons could be effectively used. If not, the mech will only serve as target practice for its opponent!

    Hence, the first step in a close range mech¡¯s strategy was to desperately approach the enemy, closing the distance between itself and its opponent.

    However, Ye Chong did the exact opposite. After he evaded Brent¡¯s attack, he immediately ran away. Brent was left behind, stupefied, as watched Ye Chong be smaller and smaller in the distance, quickly bing only a tiny ck dot.

    "Escaping without attacking?" Brent thought, stunned. "Does he not care about beingughed at? It¡¯s only a game! Kun Ting doesn¡¯t look like a coward!"

    Ye Chong¡¯s escape ignited amotion amongst the spectators of their game in the hall. They booed at his apparent cowardice, and while it was not a loud protest, their reaction attracted the attention of the people viewing other games in the hall. Everyone could not help but shift their attention to the holographic screen featuring the battle between Ye Chong and Brent.

    Ye Chong was focusing on controlling his mech in the gaming booth, undistracted!

    For Ye Chong, this was a battle! Not a game! If it was a battle, Ye Chong will give it his all! A battle was a matter of life and death! There was no room for doubt!

    From Brent¡¯s attack with his gun, he knew that his opponent was an excellent shooter. If Ye Chong was not prepared in the short span of time, , the attack would have definitely hit him!

    The time that it would take him to close in on Brent was enough for his enemy to take another 3 shots. With Brent¡¯s skills, he would not even need all 3 shots to finish him off!

    If that was the case, then widening the distance between him and his enemy would be a wise choice.

    Ye Chong did not feel that his escape was something to be ashamed of. He did not take any damage, and that meant he still stood a chance of winning against his opponent! When the situation was mostly to his opponent¡¯s advantage, choosing to battle would be foolish indeed! Unless he was desperate, it was still best to battle only when the environment was in his favor. This was Ye Chong¡¯s insight after his countless battle experiences!

    Ye Chong maneuvered his mech and flew swiftly ahead. He erged the mech¡¯s scanning radius, and found nothing! After further ergement, there was still nothing! Another ergement, and still, there was nothing! Ye Chong was not dispirited. He continued increasing the scanning radius. This repetitive task was not new to him! Finally, when the scanning radius was at its maximum, he found arge asteroid belt at 9 degrees from the radius vector. It was quite far, and would take around 12 hours to reach there by flight.

    With arger scanning radius, the scanning uracy will drop. More energy would be exhausted, and the time taken for a full scanning cycle would also increase. Hence,one would rarely increase the scanning radius to an unnecessarilyrge range, due to its risky nature!

    Brent was far behind Ye Chong. After being stunned for a moment, the distance between them had increased. With the long distance between them, shooting uracy would be affected. Brent tried shooting a few times, and could not hit his target. He ceased fire, saving his energy.

    "What is Kun Ting trying to do?" Brent thought in his confusion. "There¡¯s nothing ahead. If he just flew ahead like that, it would be just a waste of time!" Brent increased his scanning radius and found nothing ahead!

    Kun Ting showed no signs of stopping, still flying straight ahead.

    Brent was feeling more uncertain. During his days with Kun Ting, he did not seem like a person who would do something in vain! "There must be something ahead," thought Brent, as he further increased his scanning radius. However, the results still showed nothing!

    With his current scanning radius, Brent estimated with Kun Ting¡¯s speed of flight that he would need at least 5 hours to reach the edges of his scan!

    "Could there be something even further away?" Bren shook his head. Would anyone be foolish enough to spend more than 5 hours to win in something as trivial as a game?

    "Impossible!" Brent dismissed the idea! "Would anyone be so foolish?" The thought made Brent shake his head andugh a little. The thought was too ridiculous!

    The spectators shook their heads and left, leaving only a few behind to watch the game.

    A burly man with a red face and bushy eyebrows was frowning hard, confused by what he was seeing. He could not help but asked softly, "Big bro, what¡¯s the boy¡¯s tricks, you think? I don¡¯t understand him at all, but there¡¯s something wrong here! He looks like he¡¯s running away, but he¡¯s not exactly speeding away. He may have some tricks up his sleeves, but there¡¯s nothing ahead of him. Besides, this battleground is not good for the Meat Grinder. Unless his opponent made a blunder, I don¡¯t see any way out of his situation! Though, the guy back there sure shoots well, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to miss much!"

    Standing by his side was a bearded, middle-aged man. His eyes glowed a little at thement, but he replied solemnly, "You¡¯re wrong, second little bro! Hmm hmm, the guy in front is the one you should look out for! Guy¡¯s determined, must be a ruthless character! As for the guy at the back, he may shoot just fine, but it¡¯s obvious that he¡¯s never been in a real battle in his life!" He spoke thest sentence with faint but clear condescension!

    Redface was surprised, as he had never heard his big brother praise someone so highly. If he did not already know that his big brother would never speak lightly, he would have thought that the man was sick in the head! He asked carefully, "Big bro, you say he¡¯s determined, but I don¡¯t see how! He¡¯s just flying straight ahead! It¡¯s all in vain!"

    Beardmanughed, his glistening white teeth showing, with an expression of reminiscence. "If not for my experience with this battleground, I¡¯d have thought the same as you! There¡¯s this one time, with another guy, we fought for twenty rounds straight, and the results were tied! And so, we decided that the next game would decide the winner!" Beardman wore a rxed expression, cherishing his past. On his side, Redface looked eager, learning that someone could battle against his big brother for twenty rounds straight and ending with a tie! That person must be very capable!

    "What happened in the twenty first round is like this - he suddenly chose a close range mech, hehe, just like the young man here, and immediately ran off at the start! I didn¡¯t think much of it back then, and chased after him! Hehe, it took twelve hours, the chasing, and I was young and all, only thinking of winning! I didn¡¯t expect to be chasing for so long, and after 7 hours of chasing, I finally figured out the b*stard¡¯s goal! I always thought that my mech¡¯s scanning radius wasrge enough, but that b*stard did me one better! From our initial positions, there¡¯s a huge asteroid belt at 9 degrees from the radius vector. However, hehe, it¡¯ll take a full twelve-hours to reach it!"

    Redface gasped in astonishment, the answer clearly not what he expected! He could not imagine two people chasing around for twelve hours to battle in a game!

    "Anyway, I lost that match! But I lost fair and square! You must have heard of him, he¡¯s called the Son of Light!" Breadman continued lightly.

    "Son of Light? That legendary Son of Light?" This was obviously surprising for Redface. He looked shocked, mouth gaping wide!

    Beardman did not exin any further, but watched with interest at Ye Chong on the holographic screen. "Hehe, who¡¯d have thought I¡¯d meet a guy like this again! If that b*stard Son of Light is still here, he would have found a kindred spirit!" He bowed his head, deep in thought.

    "These - these men, are they all crazy?" thought Redface, astonished. "Chasing around for twelve hours in a game? I didn¡¯t think someone as calm as big bro would have done that!"

    Beardman pondered for a long moment before lifting his head again. He looked eloquently at the holographic screen, showing a Lra mech, still flying straight ahead.

    Beardman thought for a moment, and warned, "Second little bro, our job this time is to return Fred the Great''s favor. Beyond that, it¡¯s not for us to interfere. We only need to keep a discreet eye on this guy!"

    "Keep an eye on him? Isn¡¯t he with Brent? He should be fine!" Redface was baffled.

    Seeing his baffled expression, Beardman sighed a little inside, but still tried to exin, "You have to look at the eyes to know someone. You may not have noticed, but when Brent and the guy arrived just now, I saw that they were still on guard against each other. Hehe, they¡¯re still too young! Can¡¯t hide their thoughts! Besides, though they may walk side by side, they still keep a curious distance between them. Also, if I remember correctly, the guy was not on this ship in the beginning!" While his words were spective, his tone was decisive, and his eyes shone brightly.

    Redface was surprised. "You mean he infiltrated midway? That¡¯s impossible! You can¡¯t just infiltrate Sabre like nobody¡¯s business!"

    Beardman shook his head. "I¡¯m not sure about that, however, we just have to keep an eye on him! Hehe, the ship¡¯s full ofplicated characters, and anything can happen. We just have to do our best!"

    "Alright!" Redface nodded, not entirely understanding.

    "Ah, Ke Sang, Old Pang, you¡¯re still watching it? Those two fellows sure are boring, running around for who knows what?" A pugnacious looking man approached the two, a drink in his hand.

    Beardman, or Old Pang, gave a little smile. "It¡¯s not like we have anything else to do. You must be here to ask Ka Sang for a drink! Ka Sang, go have fun with Leopard and the other men, shake off some boredom!" He hinted with his eyes at Redface.

    Ka Sang acknowledged, not entirely sure of himself.

    Leopard instantly brightened up, and rubbed his hands together in excitement. "Yea, that¡¯s right, it¡¯s just dull sitting around here! Old Pang, wanna have some fun?"

    Old Pang smiled reservedly and declined. "I¡¯d better not go, I¡¯m not as much of a drinker like you all. Ka Sang will join you!"

    Leopard did not insist, and dragged a confused Ka Sang along with him towards the bar counter.

    Brent was growing restless. It had been more than half an hour, but Kun Ting was showing no signs of stopping. What was he trying to achieve?

    Brent tried to suppress his agitation and forced himself to continue on.

    Just when Brent was starting to feel impatient, his vision suddenly turned ck. He felt the gaming booth automatically open, and before he could remove his helmet, he heard the mad shrieking of the rm that was ring deafeningly!

    Somehow, although Brent¡¯s immediate reaction was shock, his next reaction was one of relief!

 Chapter 104 - Enter the Warship

    <h4>Chapter 104: Enter the Warship</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong came out of the gaming booth, and found that Brent was the only other person left in the hall. Brent was staring fixedly at the holographic screen, not even noticing when Ye Chong came to his side.

    The holographic screen showed the image of a white starship ahead of them. The white starship looked like two pure white crescents crossing each other, elegant and exquisite. Ye Chong knew almost nothing about starships, but felt that the design looked familiar, as though he had seen it before, but could not recall when.

    It was like a massive, elegant beast, approaching their starship with apparent ease.

    Everyone held their breaths, staring unblinkingly at the holographic screen.

    Suddenly, something changed with the white starship on the holographic screen. Dozens of armour tes slid open, revealing numerous dark cavities. Just when everyone was confused, long cylinders extended from those cavities, a threatening sight!

    "Laser cannons? A warship?" Brent, who always looked calm, now had a twisted expression! "How is this possible? A warship? Haven¡¯t the Five Gxies forbidden their manufacturing? How can anyone still make warships?" Brent was getting repetitive.

    On the other hand, Ye Chong was watching Brent in confusion, thinking, "Are they really that scary?"

    Captain Hatik¡¯smands reverberated throughout the entire starship. His voice was hoarse and low, unlike when he was with Ye Chong and Brent earlier. "Attention to all crew members! Attention to all crew members! All hands on deck! All hands on deck! Combatants, prepare for battle! Combatants, prepare for battle!"

    The entire bridge was swarming with activity. While the threat before them was unprecedented, they were all experienced crew members and did not panic, but did their duties in an orderly manner.

    "Captain, the enemy¡¯s deployed interference measures. Our signals are severely disrupted, we can¡¯t request for assistance from nearbys!" The officer in charge ofmunications reported.

    Captain Hatik wore a heavy expression. He was troubled by the report, butmanded in his deep voice, "Keep at it, don¡¯t stop trying!"

    "Yes sir!"

    "Quick! Come with me!" Brent ran ahead without exining further!

    Ye Chong responded quickly as he was told, and trailed behind Brent.

    The two went straight to the room where Fred was. The man was staring at the white warship on his holographic screen, muttering to himself, "Ah, the world¡¯s heading towards chaos again!"

    Brent noticed Shang, standing by the side, and saw the mech¡¯s missing arm. He frowned and asked, "Do you have a functioning mech?"

    Ye Chong thought it over. Harmony of the Winter Aria was heavily damaged, and probably could do nothing in a battle. That left him with the F-58, but the F-58 was only a training mech, unfit forbat. Ye Chong shook his head reluctantly, "No!"

    Brent grabbed hold of his Uncle Fred, who was still in a daze. "Uncle, do we still have any functioning mechs?"

    Fred seemed to recover himself then. "Oh, we do, we do!" He went to a corner and groped about for a moment, and *Swish*, a door opened where the wall once was. After a round of identity authentication, the three entered the secret room.

    Ye Chong was surprised, learning that the secret room had evaded even Mu¡¯s scans. It was truly incredible!

    The secret room was notrge, storing about 8 mechs in it, all unknown to Ye Chong. Their colours intertwined, and the twinkling metallic lustre made the room like a tiny, mesmerising world of metallic mechs.

    Fred pointed towards the mechs and said, "These are all my proud creations, pick one!" He knew that in their desperate situation, if he was captured, these mechs would no longer be his. It would be better to use the mechs to bolster firepower, and increase his chances of survival.

    Ye Chong may have seen his fair share of mechs, but these were all uniquely designed and confusing to him. For the moment, he was at a loss as to pick which one!

    Brent noticed Ye Chong¡¯s quandary and asked, "What¡¯s your preferred type of mech? Close or long range?"

    Ye Chong replied without hesitation, "Close range!"

    Brent looked to Uncle Fred, who continued quickly, "This is the only close range mech!" He pointed towards a ck, menacing mech. "Its design is inspired by an ancient totem from a remote tribal vige! Its original form is one of the Gods of the tribe ¡­"

    The mech was undoubtedly the most attractive of all the other mechs. While it was not the most exquisite, its height was nearly twice that of anymon mech, towering over the others. The design was also odd - 2 faces and 4 hands, where each hand held a weapon or a shield; one face was smiling pleasantly, another was staring furiously, full of intimidation! The joints, such as the elbows and knees, were wrapped with old-style armour tes, covered with barbs.

    "A God? This is no God, this is a murder weapon in the mortal world!" This was Ye Chong¡¯s first impression of it, but that was also how he came to like the mech.

    Ye Chong did not waste time listening to Fred¡¯s long winded exnation. He asked, "Where¡¯s the dimension keystone?"

    Fred hit his own head and eximed, "Oh, how could I have forgotten about that, let me find it!" He began rummaging about the room. Brent could only look on helplessly, unsure if he shouldugh or cry out loud.

    Ye Chong did not mind them. He climbed onto the mech with bare hands like a mutant monkey, and slipped into the pilot¡¯s cabin. He put on the battle helmet and began to configure the initial settings.

    Brent waited anxiously as Ye Chong did the initial configurations.

    Suddenly, a dull thump was heard, and the entire starship shook slightly! Brent¡¯s expression twisted! The enemy had fired their cannons! Fred paled as well, but he maintained his calmposure and recovered from the shock, continuing his search for the mech¡¯s dimension keystone.

    Ye Chong was fully focused, undistracted by anything around him!

    Captain Hatik¡¯s hoarse voice was trembling faintly as he announced, "Fleet Onebatants, attack!"

    Brent could not wait for Ye Chong any further. He quickly switched on the secret room¡¯s holographic screen, and Fred, who had just found the keystone, was also diverted to the holographic disy.

    About a hundred mechs flew towards the white warship, a ck swarm, like hos leaving their nest. The mech pilots personally chosen by Captain Hatik¡¯s were all experiencedbatants. Their formation and defense was solid.

    The enemy seemed to realize the swarm, and directed some of the cannons towards it.

    Ye Chong was finished with the initial configurations. He slipped out of the mech and asked Fred, "Have you found the keystone?"

    Fred shifted his attention from the holographic screen to him, and handed over the dimension keystone to Ye Chong. "Here, this is it. Don¡¯t forget, the mech¡¯s name is Yu Di, which is also the name of the God! It¡¯s yours now, take care of it!" Fred spoke like a father cing his son in another¡¯s care, and he looked a little saddened.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong nodded resolutely, and took Yu Di¡¯s dimension keystone from Fred.

    "Are there backup energy cells?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Oh, there!" Fred pointed towards a corner, thinking nothing of it. Ye Chong swiftly made for the energy cells and moved them into Yu Di. Energy cells were the driving force of all mechs, it would do no harm to have a few as backup!

    Ye Chong moved the energy cells until he deemed them enough, and withdrew Yu Di into its alternate dimension.

    The starship was asionally shaking , Sabre¡¯s massive hull unable to evade any of the enemy¡¯s cannon attacks. Fortunately, its armor was as thick as the ship was massive, and its armor would not falter in the short term. However, if the situation continued, destruction was only a matter of time.

    The warship¡¯s cannon attacks were not effective against the quick movements of the mechs, much like shooting mosquitoes with cannon balls. The warship¡¯s weapons were designed to increase their firepower and maximize damage on starships, but this required somepromise on the weapons¡¯ flexibility and uracy, making them less effective against mechs.

    However, the heavy round of cannonfire earlier still resulted in the loss of quite a few mechs. The mechs that were hit ended tragically. Most of them were vapourized instantly, and even those that were only slightly grazed exploded almost instantly. The pilots in the mechs stood no chance of surviving the attacks.

    Brent¡¯s face was white as paper, witnessing a spectacle as cruel as it was for the very first time. Ye Chong, however, kept his cool demeanor, his expression unchanged, for the sight was not as impressive to him!

    The enemy seemed to realize then that cannon fire was ineffective against the mechs!

    The best weapon against mechs would be mechs! This was a widely circted saying amongst mech pilots.

    About thirty to forty white mechs flew out from the enemy¡¯s warship. Seeing the obvious advantage in numbers on his own side, Brent could not help but exhale in relief!

    However, when Ye Chong could see the mechs more clearly, his calmposure was disrupted, and Ye Chong¡¯s expression twisted!

    The MPA!

    These white mechs were all the same model as the one that Johansson attacked that day. While he did not know its name, Ye Chong was certain that he did not remember it wrong! During his time on Blue Ocean, he was attacked a few times by the white mech for no apparent reason.

    It was no wonder that Ye Chong felt that the white warship looked familiar. The ship¡¯s design was very simr to the strange looking gun that the white mechs held in their hands!

    These people will not stand a chance! While the enemy was severely outnumbered, Ye Chong knew from the white mech¡¯s strength that their smaller squad had terrifying potential!

    Ye Chong spoke without exining his thought, "Come, let¡¯s back them up!"

    Brent paused. "Do they still need backing up? We¡¯re twice in numbers!"

    Ye Chong ignored him, and mentally reached for Shang, "We¡¯re backing them up!"

    "I agree with your decision!" From his light tone, Ye Chong knew immediately that it was Mu!

    Ye Chong was overjoyed. "Mu, it¡¯s you! I was expecting Shang!"

    Mu exined calmly, "The threat level is too high. For safety reasons, Shang had asked for me!"

    "Hmm, it¡¯s good to have you!" Ye Chong felt himself feeling calmer, and immediately rushed for the flight runways.

    That was how Fred and Brent witnessed the extraordinary moment where the one-armed mech, inert since a few days ago, moved and trailed behind Ye Chong, following him closely.

    Fred, who had been studying the mech for the past few days, could only look on in astonishment!

 Chapter 105 - The Insidious Yu Di

    <h4>Chapter 105: The Insidious Yu Di</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong and Mu did not meet anyone idling around along the way. Everyone stood at their appointed stations dutifully. All nonbatants were sent to the safe room to avoid harm.

    There were many flight runways avable on Sabre, and that was convenient for Ye Chong.

    As the mechs from both sides engaged, Sabre¡¯s mechs immediately took heavy damage. The enemy¡¯s mechs Nanowaves fired from their flexible ivory-white Javelin Angel-Vs, coupled with an impressive auto lock-on system that even ck Cove mechs found difficult to evade unleashed its full destructive powers on the enemy. The forty two Messengers all fired once, and forty mechs from the other side perished as a result, leaving only two mechs that escaped their assault.

    Such terrifying aim and powerful guns caused instant turmoil amongst the mechs from Sabre.

    At the bridge onboard Sabre, everyone stared in shocked, their faces paled as though the world was ending before their eyes. Captain Hatik¡¯s pained expression was twisted horribly, but he quickly gave the order in his hoarse voice. "Squads Two, Three and Fourbatants, initiate attack!"

    If they ceased to attack now, the remaining mechs would quickly be overwhelmed. Captain Hatik could only hope to use their numbers to his advantage, and so he put all his hopes on thisst gamble!

    Everyone onboard the ship understood their fates. When the enemy used a warship against them, it implied that they had no intention of leaving anyone alive. If news of their warship was leaked, the enemy would have to face the united forces of the Five Gxies. No matter how powerful the enemy was, the result was definitely fatal. Surely the enemy would think the same!

    Captain Hatik turned to hismunications officer and asked, "Well? Any signals yet?"

    The officer was on the verge of crying, looking hopeless. "None! Captain, I believe we¡¯re done for!"

    Captain Hatik felt his chest tighten, but he maintained his calm expression and patted the officer on the back and said determinedly, "Don¡¯t give up, continue reaching out! We will prevail! Don¡¯t worry! I will bring you all home!"

    The officer pulled himself together and nodded clearly, "Yes! Captain!" and continued on with his work, repeating his efforts of trying tomunicate with the outside world.

    Captain Hatik, however, was feeling a little dismal! Can one truly control one¡¯s own fate?

    Ye Chong had just exited the flight runway when Captain Hatik gave the order for the supporting forces!

    The first squad ofbatants knew that they were no match for the opponent, and could only desperately buy time for support. Hence, an array of impressive evading skills were continuously employed in the small battlefield, and the battle was turned into a mass demonstration of evasion tricks!

    However, the results were apparent, as the rate of mechs lost was reducing quickly.

    The sight of three hundred over mechsunching together was an incredible sight! Even the ever steadfast Ye Chong could not help but feel a rush of excitement! Yu Di and Mu flew amongst the three hundred over mechs, inconspicuous to the ignorant!

    However, this was obviously not the time for Ye Chong to be overexcited. He must familiarize himself with Yu Di, a gift from Fred, before he entered the range of the enemy¡¯s attacks!

    Yu Di¡¯s everyponent was designed and made by Fred the Great himself, most of them very different from theponent models foundmonly in the market. Fortunately, Ye Chong was knowledgeable in mech modifications, and even if he did not know the exact models used, a few trials and errors was enough for him to have a rough understanding of the mech!

    The mech¡¯s engines were definitely top of the line. Sitting in the mech, Ye Chong could feel the powerful surge from the mech¡¯s engines, surpassing even the capabilities of Harmony of the Winter Aria. "As expected of a master," thought Ye Chong respectfully. One should understand that the most difficultponent to modify in a mech was its engines, since technology in engine designs were already mature. To modify even a small part of an engine was an incredible feat, much less redesigning an entirely new model! Besides, this engine model performed wonderfully!

    Yu Di¡¯s most eye-catching feature was definitely its four hands. These four mechanical hands were well designed, with a range of motion that surprised even Ye Chong. The hands moved like the tentacles of an octopus, and even the weapons equipped for them were thoughtful.

    One hand held a shield, and without any experience with it, Ye Chong did not know its capabilities, as he dared not attempt to test it in the current battle. Another hand clutched a spear, its head made ofser beams. Theser spearhead could even beunched as a weapon, but as for its effectiveness, Ye Chong was equally ignorant.

    The weapon held by the third hand was one that Ye Chong was familiar with - a UF maic sword. This was one of Ye Chong¡¯s favourite weapons, and this particr sword¡¯s vibrating frequency was three times higher than the top grade UF maic swords found in the market. "Heavens, how did he solve the vibration frequency threshold problem? That¡¯s a world-ss problem!" thought Ye Chong.

    The weapon on the fourth and final hand was a bit odd. It was a vase shaped ammunitionsuncher. "The old fool, did he really think this is a God?" The thought of the vase shaped design made Ye Chong want to cry, orugh, or both. However, once he examined the contents of theuncher, Ye Chong felt a chill run down his spine! Electro-interference grenades, highpression explosive grenades, metal degradation agents ¡­ All sorts of insidious auxiliary grenades were found, and in great variety. Ye Chong even found a small gravity grenade. "The man can fit a gravity matrix into such a small grenade! How terrifying!" Ye Chong finally understood that the mech was no God, but an honest-to-God devil of extreme insidiousness! Perhaps the trump card of this mechy in these weapons!

    "What a crafty old man!"

    However, Ye Chong was not extremely gratified by the old man, Fred. These weapons, if used appropriately, would have devastating power! That meant that Ye Chong¡¯s chances of survival had increased!

    Without time for further contemtion, Mu reminded Ye Chong that he was close to the enemy¡¯s firing range. Ye Chong immediately gathered his thoughts and examined the situation before him carefully. If he took a hit, even Mu with all his ingenuity could not save him! Fortunately, his hands moved quickly enough to make up for his unfamiliarity with Yu Di.

    The MPA warship¡¯smander was obviously confident of the forty two Messengers, and did not direct any of the warship¡¯s cannons to provide support. Instead, the cannons continued to fired at Sabre at a steady pace, hoping to breach the starship¡¯s seemingly impregnable armor!

    Since Ye Chong was still adjusting himself to Yu Di, he was no longer in the middle of the swarm of mechs, but had dropped behind, with Mu flying steadily by his side.

    However, with this, he would only need to concentrate on avoiding any stray bullets. He was not foolish enough to rush to the front lines!

    Over three hundred mechs of all colours surrounded the forty two Messengers and fired their long range weapons, the canopy ofser beams and heat rays formed a dazzling web of light. No matter how powerful the Messengers were, they could not ovee the force of so many others! The forty two Messengers took their first hit, five of them destroyed by the first round of attacks, and a few of them were damaged!

    The pilots were encouraged, as the white mechs image of invincibility was finally shattered!

    The remaining Messengers did not stay put, but whizzed away in all directions, flying into the swarm of mechs. The pilots ceased fire for fear of shooting theirrades but the Messengers did not share the same concern; almost everyone around them were their enemies, and they could fire as they please! However, they also lost their long range advantage earlier. However, while their numbers were decreasing, the enemy¡¯s numbers were also decreasing, but at a much higher rate, tenfold or more!

    Ye Chong carefully avoided the stray bullets. He did fully understand Yu Di¡¯s armor and defense capabilities, and this was not the ce to experiment on them.

    Some distance away, a Messenger was pursued by a few mechs, and was now heading towards him.

    Ye Chongughed coldly inside, his hands moving across the controls in a blur, initiating a sequence of maneuvers. Yu Di lifted its vase-shaped grenadeuncher, and a gravity grenade wasunched towards the Messenger.

    Ye Chong noticed then that his scanning system did not register any trace of the gravity grenade. "Was the grenade shell made of anti-detection material? It must be so! What a sly old man!" Ye Chong was sincerely impressed!

    The Messenger was obviously faster than the mechs pursuing it. With just a few minor evasive motions, it could avoid theser beam attacks from behind.

    The pilot of this Messenger also noticed an oddly designed mech some distance away, floating around idly. "What a fool, to space off on the battleground, just asking for trouble. As expected, this is just an assorted crew! The pilot in the mech smiled condescendingly, his Javelin Angel-V already pointed towards the odd looking mech. "Four arms? Does he think he¡¯s an octopus? Hehe, I¡¯ll show you the taste of some good grilled octopus!"

    With just a move of his finger, the idiot would turn into ashes! The pilot¡¯s mouth formed a cruel smile!

    Suddenly, without any warning, his whole body was heavily weighed down , as though he was falling. In that moment, he felt as though he was bundled together with some iron beams, his body unwilling to move as he wished it to, and any movement became extremely difficult! Before he could react any further,ser beams came from behind towards him.

    His face was drained of color, and his eyes widened, panic-stricken; sweat along his forehead rolled downwards like a stream due to the gravitational pull!

    *BANG* He knew his Messenger had been hit! Based on his experience, it should be the left shoulder!

    A few otherser beams shot towards him, and while evasion was easy before, he could no longer react to anything. He watched hopelessly at the odd mech, and, just before he waspletely engulfed in the explosion, he noticed that the thin smile on the mech¡¯s face was suddenly the very image of cruelty!

 Chapter 106 - Warship Infiltration

    <h4>Chapter 106: Warship Infiltration</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Messenger exploded into a brilliant cluster of fireworks. Zoom! Ye Chong was not in the mood to behold such dazzle! He quickly steered Yu Di away from the iing mechs. If it was not for the impromptu steering, he would have joined the fireworks too! Those mechs on the other hand also found the happening recklessly preposterous, but being an old hand on the steer in the war field, they understood that it simply was not the time to ponder on these nonsensical issues as they repositioned themselves to cover up for each other, searching for the next target to fire!

    The war field was chaotic and congested with speeding mechs. Theser beams crossed over each other, blooming in clusters like grand fireworks. The deafening explosion resounded sometimes, marking the tiny conclusion of each ovepping battle in the boundless space.

    Not only the enemies had to watch themselves for the bullets, the member of the same team was also defenseless as they could helplessly get hit from this massive shower of firings.

    "Ye, tsk." Mumented, "Marksmanship, Ye. Marksmanship. You do need additional sses on shooting skills. des do not work in a war field like this; shooting works much better."

    Ye Chong agreed with Mu deep in his heart, as it seemed to him that any melee attacker could suffer worse fate than very in a war field like this.

    Ye Chong loitered in the field. He fired a few additional shots with the bullets in his cartridge from time to time. However obviously Ye Chongcked the talent for ranged shooting as he was still able to bloodily miss the shot on the enemy andnd it on his ally instead¡­ despite all the modification of simplifying the set-up for the firing on his cartridge.

    The number of the Messengers decreased drastically. Only less than half of them remained 5 minutes after the beginning of this free-for-all fight. The Sabre was not at an easier ce however, as they suffered worse loss - averagely 7 to 8 mechs had to go sacrificed to take out a single Messenger, and that was under the circumstance of a besieging strike.

    Hence, the offensive force of a Messenger was justifiable. The strength of FMPA was fearsome enough to make Ye Chong to have cold feet.

    That was especially when most of his allies consisted of well-known ace pilots. Imagine if he was allied with ordinary pilots instead; it would be a massacre!

    "Ye, follow my lead!" Mu''s voice rang out of the blue.

    "Mhm!" Ye Chong replied without hesitation and tailed Mu for a moment. "Wait!" He realized the direction they were heading to and he was surprised, "Mu, aren¡¯t wemitting suicide if we head this way?"

    "Very strangely, there happened to be information on this model of warship in one of the damaged folders in my databank." tly Mu stated.

    "What?" Ye Chong was stupefied, "You actually have details on this warship?"

    "Correct. However as mentioned, part of it was damaged, so it was not aplete information to begin with. If my analysis has no inuracies, the raid by 42 of these white mechs was only the first wave. Going by the standard set-up there should be 42 more unmodified mechs and 6 more advanced mechs being the main defense," borated Mu indifferently.

    "There¡¯re 6 more advanced mechs?" Ye Chong frowned as he asked on while dodging the bombardment around, "Why didn''t they send the advanced mechs first? They could have won right away if they did."

    "Negative. ording to my information, the answer remained unknown. Nevertheless, as illustrated by the damaged information in the database, the so-called warship was not actually made for warring purposes."

    "What is it made for then?" asked Ye Chong in curiosity.

    "The name is ¡®Twin Moon Corvette¡¯, a ship for escorting important items or personnels, normally travels in 7 as a fleet. Sometimes a single of them is used for conducting offensive missions, though its firepower was unknown as disyed being a damaged portion of the data. I had intercepted the signals and I had found out that the encryption methodology used in the signal from this corvette was the exact signal we got back in the ship. Technically, the signals shoulde from the same group of people," exined Mu.

    "Also the signal verification system of the corvette acts passively. Additional information regarding their encryption and the exact frequency had been transferred to your processor. By setting up the frequency in the processor, we could avoid their tracking system as being identified as an ally rather than foes in the field."

    "Oh¡­ I¡­ I see¡­" Ye Chong nodded as he somehow had gotten the idea¡­ but¡­ "So what do we do next? Raid the warship?"

    "Based on my calctions¡­" Mu began. "My n would be ambushing one of the many walkways for their outgoing mechs to catch them off guard while heading in. Then we destroy the entiremanding center of this corvette and turn it into our main war field. We can hold better advantages hitting from the inside," added Mu.

    "What if there was no any outgoing mechs at the walkway as we ambush?" inquired Ye Chong.

    Mu answered nonchntly, "Based on the information obtained, mechs of the main offense and unmodified forces share an entirely different walkway, with 6 of them being the frequently used entrances and 2 of them being a backup doorway, the odds are great in this! Well, if the odds were against us, we would have to blow the gate open, though I would not rmend this as this would rm the foes and time would be constrained."

    "Mu, can¡¯t you hack into the ship?" an idea shed in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. "It would work on this ship, wouldn¡¯t it? Or can¡¯t we enter under the disguise as allies with the frequency you have given ?"

    "Negative, our time is sufficient," Mu concluded concisely. "And that signal is solely for external verification, unlike the internal system of the warship, which contains a moreplicated set of signals for recognition. Even if we have that said signals, we could not pass the hologram scanning checkpoint. The appearance of our mechs differ from the foes¡¯ too much."

    While they discussed on their n, they have arrived meters away from the corvette. There were actually 2 mechs that came from nowhere. They were not the Messengers apparently yet they flew towards the corvette recklessly. It seemed like they had the same infiltration n as Ye Chong but they were much ignorant. Since they do not have the matching signal to the ship, they were assailed right when they moved forward, forcing them to run away clumsily.

    Clumsily they might have dodged the shots yet Ye Chong¡¯s eyes lustered. "Those were the experts!"mented Ye Chong upon witnessing the scene.

    "Follow my lead," Mu¡¯s voice rang again.

    Ye Chong shifted his eyes away from the experts and hurriedly hovered to a spot near the sides of a walkway allocated by Mu.

    Gasp¡­

    He took a deep breath as he watched the gate carefully. No more time for nonsense, he thought as heid his hands on the control panel, rxed and was ready tounch anytime.

    He had not gotten used to Yu Di yet. If only he was piloting the Harmony¡­ he would have better confidence.

    The secondspsed sluggishly in his head, while the 2 mechs were still dodging the shells from the warship. The warship did not show full hostility however, as seemingly they presumed these 2 mechs were no more than just annoying flies on the screen. As insignificant as the mechs were, it was impossible to capture a warship with only two of them, although to Ye Chong and Mu, these mechs had became their allies in this operation.

    "Ye, ready!" Mu¡¯s voice came abruptly.

    With full focus, his body tightened slightly as his palms were ced right above the panel, waiting for that initiating keyword from Mu.

    The gate opened slowly.

    "Do it!"

    Zap! Both hands of Ye Chong transformed into shrouds of ovepping imageries, as Yu Di elerated all the way to the top of the gate and aimed thesernce right at the entrance!

    "How-" The opponent was covered in darkness. They tried to react with maximum speed on their mechs with further speed-up from the firing system, yet they failed!

    The moment Ye Chong got to the spot, wham! A brutal force came into his way!

    Yu Di was sent flying, like it was crashed by a shooting star.

    The momentum was so great; greater than expected. Ye Chong felt like his body was hammered violently at the time of crash, with sshes of blood squirted from his mouth. Nheless, he could not stop just yet! His hands were inputtingmand back at the time of contact. His speed allowed him to make a sh at the foe with his maic de. Before he was sent flying he also tossed thesernce to the foe. It should not miss at a distance this short¡­ Thought Ye Chong.

    On the other hand, Mu zapped into the walkway the second the foe exited from the warship. He had to, since the gate would close immediately after the mech left.

    The mechunched itself from the gate and crashed into Yu Di with full speed. A majoreback from the foe!

    Mu was a much more tactical fighter than Ye Chong. He turned his side towards the gate and cannoned into the gate from inside, like a meteorite. The dividing gate was smashed and the air inside the warship leaked wildly like a hurricane. The gate had became a vent!

    The remaining 5 mechs of the main force were discharged from the walkway! Obviously Ye Chong had noticed something amiss as he zoomed into the walkway, disregarding his wounds and Yu Di¡¯s damage. At least the gravity system of the warship remained intact. Imagine if the ce had gone weightless and those fragments of the gate were dispersed like flying spikes. It could be fatal.

    The dodging mechs also followed Ye Chong into the warship right after!

    The walkway was not as long as he imagined. Within twinkling of eyes he arrived at a dead end. The white mech floated at the gate. It was all distorted on the outside. There was a huge hole right at the chest where the sides were charred thoroughly. Its left shoulder was broken, probably because of that sh made by Ye Chong¡¯s maic de. The body was pressed by the remnants of the gate. It looked like only miracle could save the pilot inside from being dead.

    The interior of the warship was covered by thin walls. Certainly they were foolish to let this potential security breach go unnoticed, since the thickness and hardness of the walls could not even hold any mech from entering, let alone the super mechs like Mu and Yu Di.

    The mechs exited in flocks instantly when they realized something was wrong as they flew towards the mothership. Mu did not have the leisure to hack the whole system of the warship. He only had the time to destroy the control room before these men arrived. If not, "We would be watched and soon we would be destroyed, like a honeypot," Ye Chong said although he had never seen an actual honeypot before.

    After the 2 mechs stormed inside the warship and they whizzed before Ye Chong, he ran away right after he catapulted an explosive to the walkway. The 2 mechs were not that ignorant towards this tant forewarninging from Ye Chong as they chased after his lead with the highest velocity.

    2 to 3 secondster, the sound of the explosion roared behind them.

    Anyone could have guessed what a pain it would be if they were boomed in such a narrow space.

    The remaining mechs followed Mu, making a few sharp turns to the left, sometimes to the right, all the way to the main control room!

 Chapter 107 - Ye Chongâ€™s Demonstration

    <h4>Chapter 107: Ye Chong¡¯s Demonstration</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Old Pang never expected the enemies to be this skillful, more like, the enemies¡¯ mechs were too overpowered. Old Pang and Ka Sang were both in the first group during the first wave of the attack and they were also the remaining mechs after the enemies¡¯ overwhelming strike. As the situation of the war field grew beyond control, Old Pang decided to go by his experience to n a raid against the mothership of the opponent instead. So as he led Ka Sang the way to the warship, surprisingly he spotted another pair of mechs somewhere near the entrance. Those were surely his allies. It was simple - the ally contained mechs of all sorts of color while the foe wholly consisted of white mechs. Old Pang found these additional allies peculiar however, as they were unaffected by the enemies¡¯ firing. It was as if they were invisible.

    Wait no! Are they undercover? This was the first spection that shed in his mind as he wondered if he should diverge his firearm at any of these strange fes. And he held his fire eventually as what happened next had cleared his doubts. The oddly designed mech was crashed away by the mech flying out from the corvette at lightning speed. Direct and violent, obviously that was too impulsive for a reunion hug between allies.

    Old Pang¡¯s heart nearly failed to take the intensity, he almost felt his heart jumping right out of his mouth.

    Did the guy want to die? He never thought this pilot of the foe was such a bold person that he would sacrifice himself to eliminate the potential threat outside to create an opening for his teammates. Collision this intense could break through any advanced pressure buffering system inside the cabin and without a doubt it could break a human body of such fragility. The Old Pang saluted with respect in his heart. And then he shrunk in slight worry - the opponent turned out to be this devastating¡­ he should not have brought his partner here! He took a nce at Ka Sang, restlessly he held the panel.

    He watched on and as he saw that handicapped blue-white mech acting in such agility that he nailed his timing perfectly to make his entry to the warship, the Old Pang eximed, "Such an expert!"

    To his horror he saw that ck mechs with four arms hovering back to his former position. "Am¡­ I seeing things?" he asked as he could not believe his eyes as he rubbed. That ck mech was sent flying like a falling star¡­ and he actually came back?

    No way! How could any human survive a collision that intense?

    He flinched for a moment, however fortunately as perceptive as he was, he got the odd mech¡¯s motive upon seeing it sneaking into the walkway. Mumbled somepliments in joy, he hurried Ka Sang to go after the two mechs right when he saw the mechs of the foes elevating.

    Judging by how the two mechs behaved, they seemed to be aware that both Ka Sang and himself were allies rather than foes.

    After the explosion, they arrived before the main control room, where the alloy gate blocked their entry. Mu disengaged from the signal before and switched back to the open channel, "The main control room uses an independent defense system. It would be quite difficult if we were to enter by brutal force. I would need 3 minutes to work on something," Ye Chong and the two partners received an order from him.

    "Mhm," promptly Ye Chong responded.

    "Understood," Old Pang was mindful of the situation as he responded with approval immediately, though he was a little skeptical about it¡­ only 3 minutes to break a door open this thick that was clearly made out of alloy from nc Alloys Corp.? He knew it at first sight¡­ but he did not have a better tactic in mind so he stayed quiet and prayed that the pilot of the handicapped mech really did have a master n in mind.

    The interior of the warship was overly crammed for a walkway, which limited the room for avoiding shots. If the foes were given the opportunity to shoot, Ye Chong predicted that it would not be a waste as every shot would count. Nevertheless, the topography of this area looked rtivelyplex, which was an aid to Ye Chong¡¯s dexterity. Moreover, as the walkway was narrow, they would not be this rash to use an area-blowing weapon like the nano wave cannon they used before. If they did, everyone would die altogether.

    "Oh?" Almost immediately after the order was given, the enemies came.

    The 3 mechs looked certainly graceless as they reached the scene. Apparently the grenade Ye Chong tossed had dealt quite some damage on them¡­ well at least crispy on the outside. Being set up in such a dirty trick, the white mechs were acting aggressively as they arrived with theirsers shooting.

    As Ye Chong said earlier, there was no space to hide. He could only shield himself from the iing beams. He had yet to test the durability of his shield so he hoped that it would take the test.

    Thup! Thup!

    It somehow took thesers wlessly as its ck body expanded out of a sudden. Zztt! The edges of the shield broke away like scattered building blocks. Before he noticed, the shield had already erged to twice the area before. Its appearance had changed drastically, with a sculpture of a fearsome beast standing in the middle of the shield ferociously, its eyes shone like a pair of red stars in the dark night on the shield. Creepy! And the surface of the shield flickered like the waving water. He had seen it on Johansson¡¯s protection system before!

    Theser beamnded on the shield like raindrops on a crystalke surface. They became ripples on the sma area of the shield. The eyes of the beast grew brighter!

    Ye Chong was relieved. The shield did a pretty impressive job. These ordinary weaponries were no longer his concern.

    They formed an "A" shape surrounding Mu in the middle to cover him up as he cracked something.

    Old Pang owned a brownish humanoid mech¡­ well it was a little in in appearance, the shield was small and he required Ka Sang¡¯s constant assistance for additional covers. His position was weird nheless as he could cover up Mu while standing within the proximity of Ka Sang¡¯srge shield. He would exchange fires with the enemies and his fierce attack did not miss unexpectedly! Ye Chong was impressed. But he had to admit that these foes were not weak either. Their defense was so superior that Old Pang¡¯s modifiedser firearm could only hit dents on the surface.

    Ka Sang¡¯s mech was rowdy by design. The face of the humanoid mech was expressionless. Ye Chong wondered whichzypany actually manufactured this - suchziness! The mech¡¯s shield too was unadorned and looked like a giant metal te, though it did possess edges sharp like the des, a good killing weapon it could be.

    Seemingly the foes were informed of what Ye Chong and his gang were nning to do. They panicked as the frontmost mech lifted his nano wave cannon.

    "Oh no!" Ye Chong feared as he was not sure if his shield could take nano wave attack!

    His hands started moving on the control panel and Yu Di wasunched like an arrow off the bow right into the 3 white mechs!

    Old Pang was shocked by the sudden movement and he shifted to Yu Di¡¯s position before to fill in the gap of defense before Mu.

    The foes were astonished by Ye Chong¡¯s abruptunch too as they diverged all their firepower right onto him!

    Yu Di jumped from side to side on the walls of the walkway, zigzagging his way to the white mechs, speedily it changed course again and again, which confused the white mechs.

    Ye Chong was so engaged in his leaps that he did not realize what a shocking performance he was having that left Old Pang and Ka Sang dumbfounded at the side. Being able to perform such a fast turning in spite of limited space, is this guy still a human? Old Pang was daringly sure that such sharp turning would absolutely cause pressure beyond the tolerance of the human body.

    Horrifying!

    Everyone thought so.

    Well it was not solely Ye Chong¡¯s amazing performance, Yu Di took some credits too. Its mobility was greater than Ye Chong expected. The zigzagging turnings were seamlessly done! Of course the environment was also a factor in this. If there was no wall at both sides, he could not make the leaps with a single-direction engine.

    Still, it was astounding.

    The speedy turnings exerted an inaudible pressure upon the foes.

    Being close with a melee foes would be the worst nightmare for ranged attackers like them.

    rmingly theyunched all their firearms, including the nano waves! They were not holding back!

    And that was when Ye Chong¡¯s hand movement speed came in handy. He could still perform othermands while leaping and keeping the shield right in front of him.

    Theser beams, the heat rays of high intensity, the nano waves and the other form of beams came showering at Ye Chong!

    Ye Chong¡¯s sma shield shook viciously, the eyes of the beast turned even brighter! Klink! The entire shield glowed in red and a trace of serratedser beams surrounded the edges. It looked as if the shield was zing!

    The nano wave that missed Ye Chong caused a monstrous explosion! The whole warship was shaking forcefully! Old Pang and Ka Sang almost lost their stance and fell, while Mu was still cracking, which impressed Old Pang. The blue-white mech might be handicapped but he was uninterrupted by the quake at all! Such a calm guy! An extraordinary person the blue-white mech was!

    Ye Chong hade before the 3 mechs. The pilots on the white mechs were well-trained to know that evidently ranged weapons would not work effectively in such a close range. They drew theirser swords and strived to take this petrifying creature together.

    Ye Chong was calm - calm as the ice - while the pupils of his eyes seared with the passion of battle, expressing the truest form of his soul!

    Yu Di nimbly twisted through the brandishingser swords as the shield shed through the waist of one mech, thence in his arm impaled the ribs and that maic de in the other arm cut through the neck of the foe.

    Old Pang wanted to provide help to Ye Chong who was cornered, but the moment he saw Ye Chong wielding 3 weapons at once, he groaned, "Oh my Fal Gxy, what monster is this! He was able to use that 1 second of opening to n such aplicatedmand and execute them wlessly, all by instincts!"

    The model of these mechs from the FMPA was not sophisticated enough for closebats which was totally unmatched for their powerful ranged attacks, thought Ye Chong.

    The mech was assaulted almost instantly. Despite having such a great defense, it could not hold Yu Di¡¯s barbarous attacks!

    The sh of the maic de left the mech spluttered in pieces. The remaining two mechs were afraid to fight on and they bleed the scene.

    Ye Chong was nning for a pursuit but Mu¡¯s voice rang, "Got it!"

    He turned his head and saw the control room open!

 Chapter 108 - Fall of a Brilliance

    <h4>Chapter 108: Fall of a Brilliance</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Mu initiated the exploration first. As he entered, he saw the mess inside the main control room - the light was dim and sometimes shed while shards of something were everywhere on the ground; the apparatuses beeped weakly as they asionally crackled with sparks. There was nobody inside the room and patches of dried blood coated the ground.

    Old Pang might be old and had seen enough horror like this yet his heart skipped a beat, thinking of how destructive nano waves could be. While Ye Chong dodged the beams safely when the 3 mechs fired their ultimate weapon at their greatest fear, the beams eventually resulted in several consecutive explosions in the warship. The aftermath was the quake and the shockwave which inevitably murdered all these staff who were unprotected and unarmed. They all died; brutally.

    Mu did not bother with the emotional moments as he proceeded connecting the processor of the warship and booted the self-inspection program on the ship.

    Ye Chong, Old Pang and his partner decided to perform a search in the room for survivors.

    While they were flipping through the remnants, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes discerned something iling in one of the piles. He zoomed in the visual on his screen and found out it was someone within the fragments. And the person looked familiar¡­ Who was this again¡­

    Gu Shaoze? Isn¡¯t this Gu Shaoze? Ye Chong was shocked! What the heck he was doing here?

    He was a genius, a young talented man, whom Ye Chong admired. Gu Shaoze held a certain standard of brilliance in mechs which utterly exceeded the expected expertise for a man of his age. And without a doubt, Ye Chong learned a lot from him. Most importantly, he was truly young, so young that his future could be bright, brighter than ever!

    What happened to that blonde bodyguard he had?

    Ye Chong raised the gate of his cabin and hopped off from Yu Di, which frightened Old Pang as he peeked at the side. He was not expecting a mere man like Ye Chong to jump directly from a mech this tall¡­ And remained intact? He had lost count the number of times his eyes nearly popped out for the day.

    It¡¯s him! Old Pang finally understood what had been going on, as he had a clear look of the pilot in this strange mech! It was the one who left him a deep impression. He was as good as before! Then what about the pilot inside that crippled mech? Old Pang was intrigued, very intrigued.

    Since the main control room was an independent cubicle from the outside, the oxygen supply system was not severely damaged. What a luck especially after such a wreck outside!

    Ye Chong quickly ran to Gu Shaoze to have a closer look. There were tons of specks sitting right beneath his body and arge ssh of oddly-odored liquid. A bit of inference ran in Ye Chong¡¯s head. He spected that Gu Shaoze injected some sort of sleep-inducing chemical and was confined in a preserving device, which was why the nano waves did not kill him immediately. It looked like the members of FMPA were still concerned about talents! The device might have protected Gu Shaoze from the immediate fatality yet the quake shattered itpletely in the end.

    Carefully Ye Chong lifted Gu Shaoze. He did not look alright. There was blood at corner of his lips. His face was drained and there were scratches on his body.

    Somehow Gu Shaoze felt heaved by someone as his eyes quivered, attempting to open his eyes. "Ow¡­" He mumbled, his eyes opened, "Ye¡­Ch¡­?" He was surprised to see Ye Chong. He grew agitated and his face turned reddish as blood surged through his body rapidly. "Ech! Ugh!" He coughed and spat out quite some blood. Ye Chong was startled as apparently his inner organs were injured!

    Ye Chong who originated from the have-everything-but-nothing Trash knew well by heart that such injury would be a hassle to cure. He was not sure how advanced the medical facilities the outside world would be but he could be sure that it was impossible to find an appropriate cure at a ce like this! Sighed Ye Chong in his heart.

    Gu Shaoze¡¯s lips trembled, as if trying to utter something. Ye Chong hurriedly moved his ears by his lips.

    "My¡­My left arm¡­" Gu Shaoze¡¯s weak voice rang a clear order, "Cut it open¡­ Password¡­ Number 2¡­"

    !

    Ye Chong stared at Gu Shaoze in disturbance. His sight turned frail, his body was shuddering uncontrobly, yet his expression was calm, as if he had no more regret in this world. Forced a smile, he looked into his eyes, before Ye Chong could say something, his eyes zoomed out and coughed thest ssh of blood on Ye Chong. He copsed and stopped moving, like a puppet cut off the strings.

    Ye Chong understood what had happened. Gu Shaoze was dead!

    Biting his teeth, he drew the dagger from his waist. What an irony it was when the dagger was a gift from the person before him and he had to use it to fulfill thest wish of the dead. The sharp edge of the dagger sliced Gu Shaoze¡¯s left arm open effortlessly. Blood overflowed on the floor beneath and Ye Chong dug through the fleshes without hesitation, looking for something as blood streamed through his fingers with the tender remaining.

    Old Pang and Ka Sang could no longerpute the situation.

    They witnessed the whole scene of Ye Chongmitting murder on a murdered. Their faces were paler than a paper.

    A momentter, Ye Chong felt something hard within the flesh. He pulled it out gently. It was dipped in blood and covered in bit of fleshes. It was quite difficult to identify what it was. Ye Chong wiped everything off the piece.

    Old Pang and Ka Sang realized what Ye Chong was doing atst - he was retrieving something from the body, though that was still weird as hell, considering how the boy on the ground looked so gentle and sophisticated. They never expected that he would stuff something inside his arm. What a pain it would be and how many ounces of courage he would have needed! They stared at the dead body in fright.

    They had enough of the day¡­ especially seeing how Ye Chong just dug through the fleshes like picking vegetables from the stew. His face was indifferent - he had to be someone who had gotten use to these dead-or-alive scenarios.

    Ye Chong did not have time to have a look on what he had obtained from Gu Shaoze¡¯s body. He sank it into the pack on his waist as he knew everyone else was waiting for him.

    "I had fully inspected the warship,"mented Mu after seeing Ye Chong having his own business settled. "The warship was severely damaged. The energy system was unstable, which would lead to an explosion in 10 minutes. Not possible to attempt any method of prevention."

    Somehow based on Mu¡¯sment, it seemed like things were much easier to destroy from the inside than the outside.

    Old Pang was frightened by the news. An explosion in split seconds yet this guy stated it as if he was not involved in the explosion at all.

    Ye Chong rolled into the cabin and asked, "What do we do now?"

    "We run. This is the only probable solution after my calction," suggested Mu calmly.

    "Right, let¡¯s go then," mumbled Ye Chong as he flew out right away.

    They were weed by continuous beam and nano wave attacks as soon as they got out. Fortunately they expected the attack so they avoided themstly. As predicted, right after the main forces from the corvette joined the field, they took over the ce almost instantly. The mechs from Sabre were witty however as they retreated back to their mothership the moment they saw the warship stopped firing and a few mechs exited from it, though some of them did not make it and had be one of the meteorites.

    There were 400 of them and 10 minutes after the debut of the main forces, only 37 of them made it back to the mothership in one piece. This was the cruelest war to the fighters back then. They were still haunted by the war in their dreams years after.

    The FMPA lost badly, where 42 of their unmodified mechs returned with only 11 of them left. And they lost 1 major mech. The most fatal part was¡­ the corvette was a secret to the public and now the cat had gotten out of the bag and had gone out of hand! Everyone in the authority would notice the existence of the warships. They might not know to whom the warship belonged but much chaos it could cause.

    Without the warship, no matter how strong the Messengers were, they would never break into the Sabre, since its armor was too thick.

    As everybody else had retreated back into the mothership, Ye Chong and his allies became the remaining bullseyes in the field.

    They agreed something bad would happen as they ran as fast as they could. No way they could return to Sabre like the others as the mechs chased after them fiercely, not giving them a moment of breather.

    A few Messengers went back into the corvette and secondster, as if the honeb was rmed, the entire flock of white mechs rushed out and went after Ye Chong and hispanions. The Sabre was no longer their concern!

    Probably they had realized something was stolen from Gu Shaoze. And it had to be something rather important. It stood clear to Ye Chong and his friends. Of course they would run! Which dumbo would stand there and be the honeb instead?

    Those Messengers that entered the corvette just now must be striving to bring the warship back online. Of course it would not work! Ye Chong recalled the explosion in 10 minutes stated by Mu, he snickered.

    They flew on for the next 2 hours and none of the Messengers seemed to be giving up yet. The Sabre was lost in their eyes and the 4 mechs fled like a homeless pack of wolves being chased by 4 main force giants and 6 white Messengers. Fast and furiously they ran, the energy depletion was no longer an issue. They had to turn their engines up, all the way to the maximum!

    And this was the moment where the capacity of one¡¯s mech could be clearly seen.

    Mu had always been flying as fast as Ye Chong. He had tried maximizing the resources on Yu Di yet Mu leisurely stayed by his side. That engine of Mu¡­

    While Old Pang was much slower than Yu Di, Ka Sang¡¯s mech was thest in the queue.

    And the contrast existed in the foes too. The 4 giant mechs were the leading group and the 6 Messengers spread nicely in one row.

    Ye Chong and Mu began exchanging conversation.

    "Where are we, Mu?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Based on the gctic area map, we are probably inside the Orbits, but I do not have a detailed map of the said area!"

    "Oh no," Ye Chong¡¯s face tightened. "We are being chased by a bunch of homing beacons. We could die together at this rate!" Ye Chong did not fear the death though.

    The space was known to be boundless and fearfully vast. Without performing space-warp, it would be impossible for one to reach from one point to another merely by flights. It took too long that one could actually die before hitting the destination!

    Especially when no one had heard of gctic travel on a mech before! Everyone does it on a ship!

    Beep!

    Ye Chong turned on the multi-channelmunication system, "Do any of you happen to be familiar with this ce?"

    "It¡¯s the Orbits!" Old Pang quickly replied. "I have came here a few times before, although I must admit that was quite some time ago."

    "What is the closest ce for us to hide around here?"

    "Uhhh¡­," Old Pang cracked his head thinking. "I do remember there was a ce somewhere here¡­" His tone was unsure¡­

    The fall of one brilliance on the ship, probably was not thest¡­

    Thought Ye Chong.

 Chapter 109 - The Orbits

    <h4>Chapter 109: The Orbits</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The flock of angry mechs from FMPA eventually stopped chasing¡­ but that only happened 3 dayster¡­ Ye Chong was thanking god that he brought supplementary batteries sufficient to sustain him for thest 3 days, or he would have drained his battery and got stuck in the space like those FMPA mechs. Meanwhile, Mu seemed to hardly have the issue of energy depletion. He somehow had a much longer battery lifespan. Whoever created Mu must be some genius for being able to produce such arge battery capacity in limited space.

    He did expect Old Pang and Ka Sang to stop at some point.

    However both of them actually brought some batteries too, which was surprising to Ye Chong.

    If you were to lose your battery, you would have gotten stuck and died. Only that would happen if you were in the space with such misfortune.

    Nheless Old Pang had already be confused because of the continuous chase running around the Orbits, his atrocious memory could not pinpoint where he was.

    At least they had gotten rid of those irritating mechs. They could look for a spot in leisure. No one cared what would happen to those mechs that had drained all their batteries. They were helpless. The ending for them was clear.

    They flew on under energy-saving mode.

    "30 years ago¡­," muttered Old Pang. "I came to the Orbits but I wasn''t alone. My brother came along back then. I was 17¡­ I wonder how much had changed here¡­if those people I once knew lingered?" His words were filled with sentiments.

    Mu¡¯s voice came abruptly, "The gctic map of the Orbits in detail was nowhere to be found. It does not exist even in the Fal main databank!"

    "Those civil servants¡­ Kek¡­" Old Pang sneered, "I was not really sure of thendscape here too. I only remembered this ce being a veryplicated terrain, with lots of ces perfect for hide-and-seek. Most criminals, the fearsome ones came here to conceal themselves. You guys better be careful. No word could reach them. Everyone here speaks with their fists and no one would care if you were killed. Especially those Mentalists, get away from them, never talk to them, they can be a nuisance."

    "Mentalist?" asked Ka Sang curiously. "What the heck is a mentalist? Why have I never heard about it from you?"

    A mentalist? Ye Chong was intrigued as he too had hardly heard a title like that before.

    "Ka Sang, my boy Ka Sang, you better be staying low once we got there," Old Pang¡¯s tone was grim. "The Mentalists are at a high position in the Orbits. They don¡¯t get into fights but they have the rights of being an arbitrator in one. Thanks to their protection, those watchdogs of the government were never brave enough to disturb folks at the Orbits. Back when I was 17, I witnessed a ughter between a mentalist and a fighter when I visited this ce with my brother. The mentalist was around 40 years old, looked all weak but the fighter just dropped dead before him. It was spooky because the mentalist did not even lift his hand."

    "That spooky?" Ka Sang screamed.

    Ye Chong was spooked out too as he could not figure out a way ofmitting murder without moving anything.

    "So yeah, you''ve got to stay low, don''t do anything funny with them. They are easy to recognize though. Most of them wear blouses in pale green and they hardly leave their residences, so don¡¯t worry. Instead we should be cautious with the folks outside¡­ many of theme from a hideous background and they are bloodthirsty and inhumane. They adore fighting and the fight won¡¯t end till one of them copsed. If your fists do not match theirs, you are only there for humiliation and tortures."

    "Fighting? I love fighting more than anything!" chuckled Ka Sang, acting like a big boy.

    A hint of frigidity shed in Ye Chong¡¯s gaze.

    "There it is!" Old Pang shouted out of sudden. "That red ahead of us! Yes, that¡¯s it! The Red Giant!" His tone turned much rxed and started to get excited, "I was so worried wondering if I missed it! This is the easiest to recognize, the vegetation is all red, which is quite extraordinary. The residents on the are also the friendliest in the Orbits! I had spent most of my time here in the past! So I knew this ce better than any other!"

    Some uncertainty had been brewing inside Ye Chong, as their next move became clearer he finally had the leisure to ask, "The Orbits share only a few days of flight away from the actual course for main cruises. But why haven¡¯t we run into a spaceship yet?"

    Old Pang was astounded by Ye Chong¡¯s question at first, he giggled as he replied, "Course? You mean that course that Sabre adopted? Hah! That route was abandoned for years! It was just so happened that Fred the Great demanded a change of course to Morienste all of sudden. Yeah, a great man Captain Hatik is indeed, for he actually remembered that this route existed! The course was absolutely the very shortcut to Morienste and people hardly use it now, it is supposed to be rather safe¡­ But sighs¡­ nobody had thought that we woulde across these punks!"

    Ye Chong was speechless after hearing such an ordinary exnation. He was expecting something greater. He was well-aware of why the great master demanded a change in the course but of course he had to keep it to himself, though he did not really have the feeling to confess everything to Old Pang.

    The conversation went lighthearted at first, then suddenly the smile on Old Pang vanished, "Just some heads up - after we got into the Orbits, we can¡¯t simply get out. The Orbits behave like the other world of the gxy and ispletely shut off from the outside world. You could get in but not out. People rarely manage to leave the ce. My elder brother was only able to leave after fulfilling some tasks given by some sort of Elder at the ce back then; for me, I was sent along with my brother. And I had never seen him since then¡­," sentiment filled his words again.

    Ye Chong did notfort the good Old Pang like his partner did.

    The setting of the ce was something new to Ye Chong. He hastilymunicated with Mu in his head, "What¡¯s your take on this, Mu?"

    "Based on the information received, we do not have many options here," his tone was t as usual.

    Ye Chong took a nce around the endless space and darkness, his smile was bitter, "Right¡­ This is like the only living route we could get. Guess we have to act as we move then."

    "Agreed," concisely Mu replied.

    Ye Chong sat inside his Yu Di and his thoughts wandered¡­

    Mu was turning much different than before. Ever since Shang emerged in the interface, their personalities somehow started growing towards the prities - Mu became more unfeeling while Shang turned more emotional as time passed. He preferred the old Mu¡­ who was mischievous at times yet so educational and would provide solutions on the needs of understanding¡­ whereas Shang¡­ man, it would be a miracle if his interface could blink one time less whenever ass walked by.

    What is the FMPA up to? They actually had their own warship? Why did they catch Gu Shaoze, the good-boy genius? Is it because of that thing in his arm? Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts were everywhere as his hand sneaked into his bag. It would be a good time to check what the thing in the flesh was. He took a look¡­ It was¡­ some kind of ring - a heart-shaped ring. The craft was not pretty well-done. There was nothing special about it. And that password Gu Shaoze mumbled before he died¡­ Was it a password for the keystone? Ye Chong was intrigued and almost wanted to try warping a possibly gigantic mech into his cabin where he could barely stretch his body. And luckily he realized where he was as he put the ring back to his bag. "I¡¯ll try it some other time. I''m not in a hurry," he muttered.

    Gu Shaoze¡¯s death was heart-shattering, even to an indifferent boy like Ye Chong. He was not in sorrow, rather he was agitated. What a waste of a talent to die in such a manner - thought so, his heart twitched. Being dead or alive was not a major concern to Ye Chong, even though he struggled for one side he desired. Death was an old friend of his and somehow he would not cry whenever they encountered each other.

    Fred the Great was also the target to the FMPA apparently. And it seemed like they were not aware of the fact that the one who raided the Sabre was the men from FMPA. Could this be a kind of an unknown force hidden behind this organization?

    What is their ultimate goal? For real¡­

    Oh wait, wait, wait, wait¡­

    The thought merely blinked in his head. "Duh, what does the motive of an obedient group of pilots have to do with me?" The previous fights with the FMPA always urred in an awkward ambiguity. It looked like he was the wrong bullseye to shoot, somehow they did not show tant hostility to him, which was why Ye Chong did not bother much.

    On the other hand, the ck Cove¡­ His eyes were clouded gravely. He could not predict the next moment that killing syndrome would ur. It had been¡­ about¡­ a month or so, since thest urrence? When would the next round ur? Instructor Hak did mention something about it bing more intense over time. That indescribable pain, intolerable ache¡­ Ye Chong¡¯s heart twitched again.

    Well! It seemed like I could only act as I move! nning did not work!

    He exhaled deeply and discarded those annoying worries as he shifted his attention back to the talkshow in theirmunication channel between the two folks behind.

    "Did you see that silver asteroid belt that goes in circle? That would be the orbit of the Orbits - thergest one too. In that belt there is a kind of material called the Flintstone ore where you can extract the Flintstone, which is a valuable metal in the Orbits. The extraction was rather difficult however¡­ only the mentalist could do it properly. There are a lot of these circles in the Orbits, as the way it was named, orbits in the Orbits, where each and every one of them hold a unique shape and different output."

    "What¡¯s a Flintstone?"

    "Uh¡­ I don¡¯t really know what it exactly is. I only know that it¡¯s bloody expensive."

    "Oh¡­ Just so I heard, you are a money grubber, eh, brother? Wink wink nudge nudge."

    ¡­

    The Old Pang was silent till they arrived the ce.

    Ye Chong set foot on this vast piece ofnd inplete scarlet.

    Ye Chong looked at the man in his uniform. So he heard from Old Pang that these men were the patrols. They were the grass roots of the administration on Red Giant. Ye Chong and the two folks stood before the patrols. Mu was kept back into the dimension. The faces when Old Pang and Ka Sang were informed of the pilot of that blue-white mech being non-existent was totally priceless. Ye Chong was quite entertained.

    "Haleyson. All of you would be going to Haleyson. Spaceship No.12, arriving in 2 hours. Good luck," the patrol spoke expressionlessly.

    His stare was cold and his hands were full of calluses. Anyone could tell this patrol was not the normal patrol you would see at the train station, while at his back thereid a number of never-before-seen mechs ring at Ye Chong, where their muzzles hovered around them from time to time.

    "Haleyson? That Haleyson?" Old Pang¡¯s face went pale.

    Judging from Old Pang¡¯s expression, Ye Chong could tell that something bad was going to happen. That Haleyson must be a good-for-nothing ce¡­ As he expected, he understood after Old Pang whispered him the exnation.

    Haleyson was the most chaotic in the Orbits. The mortality was extremely high. And his brother had mentioned him the thumb-rule of staying in the Orbits before - one could change the residing only after residence of at least 3 months.

    Glimpsing that colorless face of Old Pang, the patrol expressed disdain in his eyes as he passed a red card to each of them, "This is your identity card for your residence in the Orbits. You are allowed to apply for a new residing after 3 months at the local patrolling office."

    He walked to the side afterwards, showing zero concern to the stumbled men.

    2 hourspsed like seconds. A spaceship with an appearance of a light green eagle made its arrival to the port promptly. A huge number "13" was painted on the body.

    "Please get on-board, sire," the patrol walked before them as his voice went coldly.

 Chapter 110 - First Day in Haleyson

    <h4>Chapter 110: First Day in Haleyson</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The moment they boarded the ship, everyone¡¯s eyes went upon them.

    There were whispers, moans and hideous stares sometimes.

    Clearly the other passengers were not the good guys, their faces were either unsmiling or down-right harsh; their eyes were all dreadfully fierce. It was as if their of the tigers was intruded.

    Ye Chong and his folks reacted towards the hostility fearlessly however. There was supposed to be a fight as no bad guy liked to be picked on and Ye Chong¡¯s attitude was enraging enough. Fortunately, the three musketeers did not appear angelic either. Ye Chong expressed his indifference and his all-rmed stance exerted a certain level of caution to the people around; Old Pang did not have a threatening appearance, but age had sculptured his face, rugged and tough; Ka Sang stood still like a tower of iron, his body of steel drove people away, especially when he was smiling too, exposing that sharp teeth of his.

    They picked a corner of the area and settled down quietly.

    "Psst," Old Pang whispered. "Never expected to have this many gangsters, act with extra care, okay?"

    Ka Sang nodded his head quickly while Ye Chong agreed after taking a nce around.

    The other passengers were smart enough to realize it would not be good to pick on anybody in the cabin. They were calm but not serene, as the atmosphere of the entire spaceship was so tensed that it felt like time had frozen.

    Old Pang would take a glimpse at the surrounding asionally in heed. "Oh?" Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained as untroubled as ever, which was impressive to Old Pang. Inparison to¡­ Ka Sang behaved like the big boy of the team as he sat on the floor and yawned in boredom. A momentter while Old Pang turned to his pal, Ka Sang was dead asleep with his head titled and the corners of his mouth was gapped as streams of saliva dripped onto the deck.

    The ce was silent. Nothing had happened but no one seemed to be daring enough to raise their voices to speak jollily like how most rocky men were expected to be.

    "Attention, passenger, we would be arriving soon at Haleyson. Please make sure you did not leave any of your belongings or your friends. Have a nice day," the voice was t in the announcement.

    We are finally here¡­

    This was probably what everyone was having in mind.

    The passengers got off the spaceship naturally in queue. No one was talking. Ye Chong rxingly walked towards the gate while Old Pang dragged the drowsy boy Ka Sang behind. Sleepy-head Ka Sang was like a sack of potato, being hauled against his will to sleep as his body hit the edges on the deck. "Ow¡­"

    As soon as they exited the gate, the air felt much fresher. They felt charged but the full-metal flight area was ring to the eyes as their eyes squinted in fatigue.

    The area outside the port was beyond their expectation. It was lush green, the street was glowing like emeralds as the tall trees by the sides of the street emanated a scent of nature, which was something long lost in most of thes inhabited with human beings since metals had reced every aspect of their daily lives.

    A patrol came weing them. Unlike that patrol on Red Giant which had an attitude, the patrol on Haleyson smiled sweetly, though within that crossed eyes of his Ye Chong could see that hint of bloodthirstiness.

    "Hello passengers! Wee to Haleyson! This is the Hoth zone, where all of you would be residing! I believe you had heard enough stories regarding this ce, so I would be saving those. But I would like to highlight one thing - please do not misbehave in front of the Mentalist, for the sake of your own safety! Also, your amodation had been arranged. Well, certainly, if you happened to be dissatisfied with our services, you could always leave. But! Starting from today onwards, you could only leave after spending the next 90 days here. Then you can apply to reside at the Mentalist Sanctuary. Moreover, all of your contribution and kindest effort would be recorded on your identity card. Kindly be informed that there would not be any form of recement if the card was lost. And we, the administration, only identify you, the residences and your contribution with the card, not the person him or herself. Please take very good care of it!" The patrol¡¯s veryst line was sort of oddly spoken. It felt like there was something amiss.

    Ye Chong and Old Pang exchanged nces as they heard the "keywords". What the patrol probably meant was¡­ if one had ample strength, one could simply snatch the cards away and gain the whole credits from people. They were not the only smart guys. Right after the patrol ended his announcement, the crowd started hustling. The men looked eager to try something naughty.

    How could one behave when such announcement has been made? Is this Hunger Game?

    The patrol did not talk further, instead he led the crowd to their residence. As expected from a bunch of stern-looking dudes, walking in a gang was eye-catching to the public. The pedestrians at the street could not help but to take a peek sometimes. The residence was less than 100 meters away yet Ye Chong had already felt his body vited by the countless sights of the people.

    It was ufortable to be watched like animals in the zoo, or like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

    They made it to the destination and they sighed in relief together. They were startled by how synchronized they acted but soon the shock became a mereughter. As they grew fond on each other, the atmosphere became much rxed.

    "This is a temporary amodation for all of you. It is free so you could leave on a whim, though I am certain that many of you would do so in the end. The currency inside the zone does not share with the outside world. If you do not want to have organic fluid for your meals, please put your thinking caps on and find a living outside," he spoke slowly as he kept his signature smile.

    He left after the exnation.

    Ye Chong took a look at the building. It felt antique with the red bricks around, which was quite refreshing to Ye Chong who had gotten used looking at the metallic constructions back in the others he stayed. The mostforting was none other than the trees around. Mother nature was healing to his spirit.

    They picked a room and decided to stay together. Of course, in a dangerous like this, any sane man would make the choice of staying with hispanions. Ye Chong was convinced that he could be well off on his own but with additional partners, his safety was more guaranteed. Mu also showed approval towards the decision too.

    "Time is up, Ye. Shang demanded an entry now. As we have promised to each other, he would be staying much longer this time. Take care and good luck with him, Ye." Did Mu just humor Ye Chong?

    "Shang ising?" This was bad¡­ Ye Chong was getting a headache. Hell knows what this artificial intelligence could do.

    "Ye!!!!!" He did not hear the calm response from Mu. As Shang squeezed into the interface, his tone felt like he had been put under hardship, "Do you really hate me this much? You should at least show appreciation for my enlightenment on the best part of your life! I was the one who let you experience the very first excitement of being a man! Tsk, tsk, tsk! That should be an unforgettable gourmet experience to you. Didn''t you like it? That kick hit hard yo! Ye is your part fine afterwards? By the way, both of you were such a perfect fit, like the jigsaw puzzles, a rare fit, ohhh, magnefique!"

    Oh the eyes of Ye Chong, rolling into the abyss of his head. His heart was urging him to pass out right away. Old Pang was a little shocked when he saw Ye Chong putting off such a humanized expression. What kind of a cold man would do an eye-roll out of sudden?

    Meanwhile, Ka Sang was getting a heart attack seeing the design of the room. The style was ssy, gorgeously ssy. There was a wooden seat in the room. Ka Sang was tired but he dared noty his butt on the chair, as he was well aware of how expensive that full-wooden chair could be in the outside world. Thought so, hended his backside all onto the ground. "What a waste it would be if I broke the chair by sitting on it for too long¡­," thought the big boy of the group.

    In the middle of the room, there was an organic fluid maker. The fluid might tasted all nd and disgusting like excretion but it did perform decently in supplying energy which gave the basic guarantee to one¡¯s survival even without a proper ie.

    Beep. ZZzzzzzt.

    Old Pang made a bowl and passed to Ka Sang; Ka Sang took a look and spat out his tongue as he passed to Ye Chong. Ye Chong looked at the bowl wondering what was in the bowl.

    They were poor as dirt. Being penniless they had no other choice but to have fluid for meals at the moment. While they were troubled figuring a way to swallow this bowl of mess, someone knocked on the door.

    They were rmed and immediately sprung up from the ground. They looked at each other. Ye Chong sneaked into the shadow of the corner of the room, while Ka Sang stood like a mountain behind Old Pang. Old Pang tidied up himself as he headed to the door.

    Of course Old Pang was old for a reason. He was all experienced in this kind of interaction between gangsters. So Ye Chong genuinely handed the role to Old Pang.

    "Hey."

    "Hi."

    "Here."

    "Oh¡­"

    The door was opened and closed in seconds. He turned back to his friends, looked all surprised with pile of stuffs in his hand.

    Rustle¡­ Rustle¡­

    Ye Chong exited from the shadow.

    Old Pangid the piles of pamphlets on the table. Those were paper pamphlets! It was the first time Ye Chong saw pamphlets made out of paper. With curiosity he picked one up and observed carefully. No wonder it was reced by electronic chips in the end! This floppy thin piece of roughyer could barely contain data!

    "Do you want to bid a permanent farewell to your daily fluid meals? Do you want to leave the ugly free rooms once and never return? Would you love the money constantly appearing in your pocket somehow? Please dial xxx-xxxx-xxxx"

    "Life is priceless! So are our fees, but as it¡¯s priceless, it is free! The association promises to protect anyone who joined today! Only today!"

    "Be the storm! Be the center of the city! Build your career and raise once and more! The turning point of your life is right here! And right now! Join us and let¡¯s set our souls zing!"

    ¡­

    The heck are these lines?

    They looked at each other, confused and speechless. "Jajajajajaja!" Shangughed madly in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. "I like this! Ye, why don¡¯t we just step into one of these institutes? This is more entertaining than that Dorky pixted game parody I found on the virtual web! My life ispleted! I am no longer bored! I love this ce!"

    Ye Chong ignored as he was not in the mood to entertain a mech on drugs. Instead, he put up a discussion with Old Pang.

    "Any idea?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Just¡­ let them go." His face was all awkward¡­ whether he wasughing or crying, it was indistinguishable, "These should be some kiddos'' trick for cheapbor. We ain¡¯t doing this. You''ve got to hook the bigger fish. Just wait." Old Pang had been in the society for long, he could tell if it was the real deal or a mere trick by the advertising department and his prediction was right!

    A momentter, someone actually knocked the door again.

    This time, it was a different guy. The leading person at the door did not look ordinary. He was steady and cool. His words sounded confident and he was skillful in negotiations.

    Ye Chong stayed quiet the whole time. Let the big guy do the talking, he thought.

    Old Pang was also a professional in this. He acted ambiguously throughout the conversation. His desire was hidden, only to keep a back-way out if the conversation went wrong. Most importantly, he respected Ye Chong¡¯s opinion as he did not dare to even nod once since he could not see Ye Chong at the back. Briefly he responded the man.

    Why would an old man respect a mere boy like Ye Chong?

    In Old Pang¡¯s eyes, this cold boy was unidentifiable. His experience told him the lurking danger of the extreme in Ye Chong. So he would not recklessly make any kind of decision without Ye Chong¡¯s approval, especially when they were in a new foreign world and everything felt like a gamble of life. He was still sane to notmit suicide.

    The best stance is always being the observer!

    Eventually the man left their residence.

    They decided to scout the ce first.

    They walked in the street. To face a foreign surrounding, no doubt the first thing to do is always to identify and familiarize with it! No one showed disagreement on the decision!

    Ye Chong was leading the group while Old Pang was on the left with Ka Sang the great wall on the right.

    A group of buffed men in shirts of the same color came towards them in chuckles.

 Chapter 111 - Choice

    <h4>Chapter 111: Choice</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The other party looked hostile, ready to surround him.

    Old Pang had prepared for this. These people were obviously local ringleaders of some sort. One could find people like them almost everywhere. They must thought him to be someone worth wringing, and wanted to take a shot. He meaningfully looked to Ka Sang, and Ka Sang grinned in return, understanding him.

    Old Pang nned to see what the gang was going to do next, but the chance never came.

    He did not expect Ye Chong, standing beside him, to have such a huge disparity with others in understanding the ways ofbat!

    While he did not know the other party¡¯s goal, it was still obvious from their formation and attitude that they were not looking to have a round of tea with them!

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes shone brightly. He was not used to waiting for the other party to dere their intentions. The dangerous territory coupled with days of continuous battles had awakened his undiminished wild nature! It was as if he had returned to a world like the trash, where power reigned supreme!

    These gang members were probably just like the mutants on the trash to Ye Chong. As he saw it, these unfriendly people were just like mutants unsheathing their ws and baring their teeth at him!

    Why should he wait for the mutants to attack him first before retaliating?

    Ye Chong was not so foolish!

    After confirming their hostility, Ye Chong went straight at them.

    He leaped, a shadow crossing the space and into the midst of the gang.

    He greeted the leader with a kick, his swift leg solidly connecting against the leader¡¯s face! *Crack*, the chilling sound of bones broken, and a pit formed on the person¡¯s bloody face, as if pounded by arge hammer. He was flung backwards like a sandbag, tens of meters away, as his death was a certainty!

    Everyone stared in shock!

    Old Pang and Ka Sang stood in stupefaction!

    Who ¡­ Just who was this ruffian?

    Ye Chong was like a tiger amongst sheep, his power unchallenged. He moved quickly, a blur of a figure moving amongst the gang, and his path was marked with howls of pain and bodies sumbing to death!

    When Old Pang and Ka Sang recovered, the battle was already over! This was the first time the two of them saw Ye Chong¡¯s ruthless methods, and they were shocked! The weather was simmering hot, but cold sweat trickled uncontrobly down their temples!

    Ye Chong did not mind them, but began to search the bodies of the gang members. Gathering spoils was the best part for every hunter, and Ye Chong was not an exception to this!

    Old Pang and Ka Sang gathered their thoughts and rushed forward to help Ye Chong with the searching.

    Whenever there were new arrivals, Haleyson¡¯s local gangs would send theirckeys ahead to scout for promising members or invite capable men and women onboard. As it was, the streets were lined with people with their own intentions. Ye Chong¡¯s performance was witnessed by many of them.

    However, none of them dared to approach Ye Chong, but fled to their own respective bases to report their findings.

    Soon, almost every influential gang knew the arrival of a certain killer in Hoth!

    Old Pang felt terror creeping slowly into him. From his first move against the gang, up until now, he had not found even one survivor! All of them died from just a single move! Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s indifferent expression only made him feel frigid inside!

    "Is this guy a butcher?"

    Without asking for their intentions, or excuses, and without even knowing their background or offering a chance of conversation, the guy had murdered them all! "The b*stard¡¯s crazy!" thought Old Pang, raising his guard against Ye Chong!

    A man like him was too dangerous! Who knew if he would suddenly attack him or Ka Sang?

    After gathering their spoils, the three did not care for further exploration and returned to their ce.

    Back at home, a thorough inspection revealed that the spoils were quite valuable. There were at least fifteen identity cards, and 3 of them were for a stay exceeding 3 months. Old Pang was rejoiced to find them, since it means that they could now afford to request for a transfer from the Mentalist Sanctuary. After all, Haleyson was a ce tooplicated !

    Of course, Ye Chong understood their concerns, and handed a card each to the two of them.

    Old Pang did not expect Ye Chong¡¯s generosity and was, for the moment, stunned. Ka Sang was more straightforward, and did not think much of it as he gleefully epted the identity card from Ye Chong.

    With the card in hand, Old Pang dered anxiously, "Best if we all apply for a transfer now. I think the force behind that gang would definitely not leave us be. We should leave as soon as possible!"

    Ka Sang nodded profusely on the side, in agreement with his big brother.

    Ye Chong replied lightly, "You guys go ahead, I¡¯d like to stay here for a while longer!"

    Ye Chong¡¯s words were a surprise for Old Pang and Ka Sang. Thetter asked frankly in his horror, "Why? This ce is obviously damned, what¡¯s there to stay for?"

    Ye Chong did not reply!

    Old Pang pondered, silent for a long moment before speaking solemnly, "If you do not wish to leave, then we bid you farewell. Should we meet again some day, please don¡¯t hesitate to let us know if you¡¯re in trouble, I and Ka Sang will be most willing to help!"

    Ka Sang¡¯s expression was one of uncertainty, but he managed to nod and announce loudly, "That¡¯s right! I, Ka Sang, will help you, even if it costs me my life!"

    Old Pang could not help but red a little at Ka Sang, and the man swiftly lowered his head!

    "Then we¡¯re off. You take care, I hope we¡¯ll meet again!" Old Pang grabbed Ka Sang with him and left hastily amidst Ye Chong¡¯s silence.

    Ye Chong watched the two of them left without a word!

    In truth, Ye Chong had considered it before. Ever since he stepped into the outside world, he knew exactly how different he was from everyone else. It was only natural for others to not understand his methods. Ye Chong had tried to change his ways, but his habits were already an integral part of him, and whenever a situation arose, he often unconsciously resorted to his usual methods to handle the crisis.

    Habits were not developed overnight. Simrly, habits developed from more than ten years could not be changed overnight.

    Besides, he still did not know when he would have another episode of his odd condition. Ye Chong did not trust the two men the way he would trust Mu and Shang.

    He withdrew Shang. The mech was excited from finallying out. "Heh, the weather¡¯s wonderful, theposition is very suitable for human breathing! Ye, you should¡¯ve let me out sooner. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep you safe and sound! Mm, while I¡¯m slightly worse off than that crazy Mu, butpared to you I¡¯m still very capable! Besides, with me by your side, hehe, you¡¯re going to enjoy life to the fullest! I, for one, am not as dull as that old hat ¡­"

    Ye Chong ignored Shang¡¯s bbering and continued with checking out the spoils.

    He found nothing simr to any form of currency. "How could these people be so poor?" Ye Chong was baffled.

    Shangughed teasingly at him. "Ye, you can be a real fool sometimes. There¡¯s a 90 percent probability that the money is in the identity cards. See the number on the lower left corner of the cards? That should be the money digits!"

    Ye Chong checked out the lower left corner of the cards as Shang suggested, and found the numbers. Each of the cards had a different number on them.

    Shang¡¯s bionic eyes shed wildly, obviously scanning the card.

    "Hmm, Ye, see the slot at the bottom of the card? Fit the slots of 2 cards together. Yes, just like that, then configure one of the card¡¯s digits, and you can now transfer money from this card to the other! Tsk tsk, such crude technology. There¡¯s no identity restriction or authentication steps, this is really blood money!" Shangmented!

    For a mech to express suchmentations was more than a little odd.

    Ye Chong, however, was used to it. Besides, Shang was right. There were no safeguards in ce, a constant temptation for people. It was most likely that blood was spilt and lives lost in the course of the money¡¯s passage from owner to owner!

    Ye Chong transferred all the money to a single card, and the total came up to 6446. Ye Chong had no idea how much that was worth. "But, this came from more than a dozen identity cards, so it should a good sum," Ye Chong muttered to himself.

    "Huh?" Shang eximed out of the blue.

    "What?" Not many things could surprise Shang, and Ye Chong was now curious. Shang may enjoy making a big fuss out of nothing, but Ye Chong had never seen him truly surprised by anything! In this respect, Shang and Mu were very much alike.

    Shang¡¯s tone was serious, and Ye Chong, used to the mech¡¯s usual attitude could not help but thought itical.

    "Their technology is very advanced, the card¡¯s central design is reasonable, the encryption is also cutting-edge. WIthout entering the root of their system, I can¡¯t modify anything!" Shang exined solemnly.

    Ye Chong asked, curious, "Why would you want to modify it?"

    Shang¡¯s seriousness immediately turned to a light jeer, "Hmm, I¡¯m just trying to see how much the money¡¯s worth! This money we have, what¡¯s it good for? It might not even be enough for a hot sexy battle, I¡¯ve always wanted the real thing! Ye, we should discuss this, let¡¯s buy thetest hot sexy battle ¡­"

    Ye Chong immediately broke into a sweat!

    "Sidetracked, sidetracked!" Shang asked, embarrassed, "Hmm, where were we?"

    Ye Chong was not sure if he shouldugh or cry. "You said you couldn¡¯t modify the card!"

    "Ah! Right!" Shang¡¯s tone as he remembered what he was talking about made Ye Chong felt very weird. Was it even possible for a PSI [1] to forget?

    "Ye, have you ever wondered, if not even I can modify it, then their technology must be very advanced! But this advanced technology was not used to provide any authentication or safeguard for these identity cards! Isn¡¯t it curious?"

    "You have a point!" Ye Chong agreed after a moment¡¯s thought.

    "Moreover, how can the card¡¯s designer not think of this problem? It¡¯s impossible! That would mean that thisx security is deliberate! It also means that the local governing quarters intentionally allowed activities like stealing and robbing. If that¡¯s the case, then we have to think really carefully about the things going on around here!" Shang was now speaking like a wise person.

    "You have a point! But, er, what does this have to do with us?" Ye Chong was confused.

    Shang¡¯s wise demeanor immediately wilted. "I¡¯d expected you to say something like that. Heavens, Ye, are you not the least bit excited? Don¡¯t you think there¡¯s a huge conspiracy in this ce? Have you never thought of bing a hero? ¡­"

    Abruptly, Shang stood up straight, and said lowly, "Ye, we have a situation!"

    Note:

    [1] PSI: Photon Simted Intelligence, a consciousness that arises from a very advanced photon processor.

 Chapter 112 - Another Episode

    <h4>Chapter 112: Another Episode</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Arge group of mechs and people armed with heat ray guns were moving towards them in a mighty formation. Pedestrians avoided the mob, scattering into hiding. From their practiced motions, it was obvious that this was not the first time something simr had happened.

    Ye Chong immediately deployed Yu Di. The mob did not seem friendly, and Ye Chong was no fool, guessing that they were probably here for him. "Must be friends of the gang earlier today," thought Ye Chong!

    He swiftly slipped into Yu Di¡¯s cabin and activated the scanning system. A swarm of red dots appeared before him. "They are arge group," Ye Chong muttered to himself.

    Shang¡¯s toned turned dismissive. "Ye, you¡¯re capable enough to handle them yourself. The threat level is not high enough, I can¡¯t help you. Ah, such a pity! It¡¯s been so long since myst battle!" A touch of regret was apparent in his words.

    "Alone it is!" Unless the situation demanded it, Shang would not interfere. While he did not fully understand the reason, Ye Chong also did not intend to rely on them too much! Being too dependent on them would rapidly reduce hisbat skills! His own strength was more reliable than someone else¡¯s!

    In such aplicated neighbourhood, passivity and retaliation after the enemies made their move would only spell death! If battle was inevitable, it was best to make the first move.

    Qu Fa sat in his beloved mech, watching hisckeys move quickly and orderly towards the target. Once they circled him, the opponent will not escape their grasp. To face against these three men, he had deployed even his precious small team of mechs. These mech pilots were all with at least intermediate piloting skills. Apart from that, the 3 team leaders were all reputed as expert level pilots.

    Qu Fa was cautious in nature. He had always behaved warily, and had never used his small team of mechs, its presence merely in anticipation of grave situations!

    While many members of the Orbit Syndicate were skillful due to strict membership qualifications,petition within the Syndicate was still rife. Who was someone as insignificant as him to im the title of an expert mech pilot? The 3 team leaders under him were hired after much relentless persuasion. He was not particrly inclined to recall those days!

    In all honesty, this open conflict in the current sensitive period was not something the careful Qu Fa was willing to initiate.

    However, more than a dozen of his members were murdered in the streets today. If he did not make a show of power, then he would quickly lose his ce in the syndicate, and there would probably no moreckeys with him by tomorrow! On Haleyson, survival was difficult without some support. A weak organisation would also be quick to disperse!

    Suddenly, a loud *BANG* was heard. Brick debris sprayed out in all directions. The small house was immediately swallowed by a swirl of yellow dust.

    Qu Fa was startled. The circling formation was not yet formed, and yet the opponent had noticed them. They seemed to be quite wary. It looked like the battle today would inevitably be a hard one! Fortunately, there were only three of his enemies. No matter how capable they may be, they will surely falter from being outnumbered! For now, Qu Fa could only hope that the other organisations would not interfere with the battle, or he would be in real trouble!

    A ck mech emerged from the dusty clouds, unperturbed by the situation! "It looks like they¡¯re underestimating us," Qu Fa thought to himself,ughing despite his rage. In fact, he was wrong about Ye Chong, for Ye Chong was not prone to underestimating his opponents, no matter how weak they seem to be. As for his current entrance, it was most likely a suggestion from Shang to create a psychological pressure on the enemies.

    Before Qu Fa could give the orders, the four-limbed ck mech moved.

    After so many days, Ye Chong had grown quite familiar with Yu Di. In Fred¡¯s eyes, Yu Di was not exactly a mech of the highest grade. The 4 limbs may look many, but for the average pilot, they were excessive. After all, how many pilots could move their hands as fast as Ye Chong? However, it was as though the mech was designed specially for him. His impressive hand speed had always been restricted by the mechs he used. With Yu Di, Ye Chong¡¯s hard work in improving his hand speed was finally paying off!

    With time and effort, what could Ye Chong and Yu Di¡¯sbination be capable of?

    Ye Chong had no intention of questioning his enemies. Yu Di moved like a huge octopus, lunging ahead. Before anyone could react, he was already at the edge of the mob¡¯s formation.

    In the blink of an eye, Yu Di had already counted the enemies, a total of 37 mechs. They were all above average, but Ye Chong had grown used to mechs of this level, no longer surprised by them. The only mechs that could interest him now were the ck Cove mechs, MPA¡¯s internal mechs and, perhaps, the few mechs by Fred the Great that he left behind.

    Shang was howling excitedly in Ye Chong¡¯s mind.

    Yu Di did not make any feints, but rushed straight towards the mechs.

    Ye Chong¡¯s first opponent was a Skyway-III model. It looked like a wolf, and was an expert level mech. Its 4 mechanical limbs were obviously modified, looking menacing! Yu Di¡¯s lunge did not faze the mech, as its concealed gun chambers opened up, and the firepower was aimed towards Ye Chong with full force.

    However, with his experience with the MPA¡¯s nanowave guns, this level of shooting attacks were like fireworks to Ye Chong, pretty and without substance. *SHING*! His shield, ready before his chest, expanded to meet the assault. The beast¡¯s eyes instantly lit up like fire.

    Skyway¡¯s pilot did not expect his attack to be blocked at such a short distance. Before he could escape, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound from his mech. In his confusion, a violent explosion engulfed him ruthlessly like a beastly flood!

    Ye Chong moved fast. He shielded himself with the shield and the UF maic sword. The sword was like a lurking viper, ready to deliver the fatal blow. Ye Chong was reluctant to use his grenadeuncher, since the grenades were limited. If he finished the ammunition, the grenadeuncher will be useless! Without Fred the Great with him, there was nowhere for him to replenish the curious grenades. Each one of them was unique! Ye Chong did not feel like wasting these precious resources in the current battle.

    The thirty over mechs were mostly long range mechs.

    It was definitely a nightmare for the long range mechs to be so close to a close range mech! Besides, no matter if they were long or close range mechs, being close to Ye Chong¡¯s Yu Di was the mother of all nightmares!

    Yu Di was like a meat grinder. Everywhere it went, mechs scattered in pieces, their parts flying off. The sound of mechs exploding did not subside.

    Qu Fa¡¯s face twisted with pain and suffering. All his hard-earned fruits ofbour were gone!

    Qu Fa¡¯s death was unremarkable, garnering little attention, since he only represented a small gang from Hoth. However, the battle had won Ye Chong an enormous reputation! No matter how small the organisation was, it was still an amazing feat to defeat one single-handed!

    Ye Chong was ruthless, and no one was expected to survive from his attacks. Besides, he showed impressive battle skills, and had an odd but frightening mech!

    Ye Chong¡¯s merciless methods were the cause of hesitation for many linchpins. He would be an ideal murdering tool for them if appropriately handled. However, with any misstep, he could be trouble, with a de to their necks!

    Many of these gangs had extended their olive branches to Ye Chong, but Ye Chong did not respond to any of them! He did not wish to live a restricted life, as a weapon in another person¡¯s hands. Had he thought otherwise, which of these organizations could be more powerful than ck Cove?

    Ye Chong was finally left alone. Understanding that Ye Chong did not n to join any of the gangs, most of them were relieved, since this was an eptable oue for them!

    Ye Chong walked leisurely on the streets. He was nning to familiarize himself with the local environment, but was interruptedst time. Now, he could finally take on the task!

    The people on the streets all avoided Ye Chong. His infamous "killer" reputation in Hoth was unchallenged. He was described as being cold and merciless, a bloodthirsty murderer. Overnight, Ye Chong was smothered with the image of a butcher! Ye Chong did not mind it. Given the situation, it was more useful to be intimidating to others!

    Without any interference, Ye Chong walked casually down the streets by himself, Shang in his alternate dimension. On the streets, a single-armed mech trailing him would be a sore sight. Besides, Ye Chong felt that Shang would better serve as a secret weapon. He was also feeling physically well recently, and this was just a stroll, as there should be noplications! Such were Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts.

    Ye Chong did not recognise the trees by the streets, and naturally did not know their names, but that did not stop him from taking a liking towards the flora!

    Ye Chong examined the buildings that lined the streets on both sides as he strolled aimlessly around the neighborhood.

    "Huh!" Ye Chong could not help but exim, seeing the strange architecture before him. A light green house, tinged with nature¡¯s graces. The design kindled calm and peace within Ye Chong.

    A faint and mysterious fragrance made Ye Chong¡¯s nose a little itchy, and he suddenly found himself stepping onto the short wooden steps before the house.

    Just as his right legnded onto the steps, Ye Chong suddenly felt his mind shuttered, and was immediately alerted. He tried to reach out for Shang, but found his sensespletely isted from the mech! "This is not happening." Ye Chong felt helpless!

    Soon, Ye Chong did not even have time to dwell on his helplessness, as a mind-piercing pain engulfed him like a tsunami wave!

 Chapter 113 - Mentalist Jia Zhuo

    <h4>Chapter 113: Mentalist Jia Zhuo</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Suddenly, a wave of gentleness and peace overcame Ye Chong. It felt chilly, like being soaked in icy waters, but the pain throughout his body was relieved to a certain degree. Even though it still hurt to the bones, the pain was now at a more manageable level for Ye Chong.

    At the very least, Ye Chong could focus onprehending his current situation!

    The episode this timested longer than thest one. As the pain gradually dwindled into nonexistence, Ye Chong was already soaked in sweat, akin to being fresh out of the shower. Ye Chong¡¯s face was devoid of color. He stood up trembling, not deploying Shang immediately, merely sending a mental reassurance to the anxiously waiting mech. He was back to his normal self, only that the sweating had slightly weakened his body.

    A middle-aged man came to him, his jaunty profile lit with a little smile, dressed in a light green robe. His physique screamed frailty to Ye Chong!

    The man spoke first, "You copsed before my doorway. Seeing as you were in trouble, I had moved you into my house. Please forgive my insolence!" His voice was unhurried, with a calming effect.

    Ye Chong noticed then that he was indoors, and thanked the man, "You have my thanks for saving me, mister!"

    The middle-aged man smiled, "It¡¯s nothing much, don¡¯t worry about it! I am Jia Zhuo. Rx, this ce is safe. Your injuries were quite serious, please have a seat and rest!"

    "Thank you!" Ye Chong sat down as suggested. As he sat, he noticed his muscles, sore from the episode. "It really is more serious thanst time," thought Ye Chong to himself.

    Jia Zhuo offered an unfamiliar cup of verdant green liquid to Ye Chong. He said courteously, "Please enjoy!" and waved with his arm by way of inviting him to try it.

    "Okay!" Ye Chong took the cup and finished it in one go. The bright, verdant Six-Inch Green was nd with a light tinge of bitterness, and tasted like water in Ye Chong¡¯s mouth. Ye Chong did not suspect the Six-Inch Green to be harmful to himself. After all that had happened, if the other party was hostile to him, he would not be able to defend himself.

    Beside, Ye Chong was quite certain that this man was one of the mysterious mentalists of the Orbits.

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s manner of finishing his drink, Jia Zhuoughed demurely. "You must be from Haleyson!" Ye Chong¡¯s confusion was obvious, and Jia Zhuo exined, "This is the mostmon drink found in Haleyson. People usually drink it in small sips to appreciate its vor. Those who drink them in huge gulps are usually neers. It tastes like water if you drink it that way!"

    Ye Chong understood then, and concisely said , "It¡¯s good!"

    Jia Zhuo apparently noticed his guest¡¯s difficulty with words, and so he asked, "So, you quite suddenly copsed just now , what happened?"

    Ye Chong was quiet for a moment before replying, "I have a strange illness!" While he did not know how the mentalist was able to relieve his pain, if he could learn how to do it himself, it might be able to cure him of the poison from ck Cove¡¯s silver liquid, or at least reduce the pain.

    Ye Chong had a quick discussion with Shang in his mind.

    Shang said, "Ah, Ye, this guy here might be able to help you!"

    "Mm, I know that!"

    "Then let¡¯s tie him up and interrogate him! How¡¯s that?" Shang bared his evil mischief.

    "Mm, will he speak under interrogation?" Ye Chong was not confident with the method.

    "Hehe, Ye, don¡¯t you worry. I have 756 interrogation strategies stored in my database, of which 177 of them do not require any tools. Psychology is my specialty! Hehe, I can even make him spill everything about his previous life, and the life before that [1]!" Shang, with his devil¡¯s tail in full view, did not forget to quote a familiar script from the movies!

    "First, we have to get him under our control!" Ye Chong began to consider the possibilities, and said, "But I¡¯ve heard that mentalists are strong, what if I killed him? We know too little about mentalists!"

    "You¡¯re right!" Shang sounded a little dejected. "Unfortunately, I can¡¯t help you with that, or we would have definitely captured him alive!"

    "Mu once talked about the principle of equal trading. Since he helped me earlier, it doesn¡¯t seem ¡­ appropriate! To treat him like this!" Ye Chong did not fully understand Mu¡¯s exnation of the principle, and was now uncertain of himself.

    "Ah, right, how could I forget! Ye, it¡¯s because you didn¡¯t remind me earlier that a kind PSI like me nearlymitted a grave mistake! Mm, to repay a debt is seventh on the list of criteria to be a real man. The seventh, a very important criteria ¡­" Shang spoke emptily, and discreetly hid his devil¡¯s tail out of sight.

    Poor Jia Zhuo was not aware that he had dangerously grazed past the fate of a living hell.

    As Ye Chong mentioned his condition, Jia Zhuo grew interested, "Oh, a strange illness? What are the symptoms? What¡¯s the cause?"

    "The episodese irregrly, the symptom is pain, the cause is unknown!" Ye Chong¡¯s mechanical way of answering invited a look of disdain from Shang. While Ye Chong knew his condition was due to the silver liquid, he felt it inappropriate to mention it, and so had left it out.

    Ye Chong¡¯s answer was too in, and Jia Zhuo knitted his brows despite himself. "Mm, are there any other peculiarities?"

    Ye Chong vividly recalled his experience. "Mm, it felt like my mind was suffering. This time, even the muscles were sore. Also, my brainwaves were blocked, and I couldn¡¯t link with any brainwave-driven mechanisms, such as mechs!"

    "Oh! There¡¯s such a thing!" Jia Zhuo was clearly surprised by the symptoms. He frowned for a long while before sighing and speaking apologetically, "Ah, my apologies. I¡¯m not a professional doctor. I¡¯m not familiar with the symptoms."

    "Okay!" Ye Chong asked abruptly, "Are you a mentalist?"

    Jia Zhuo paused, before smiling in reply, "Yes! I¡¯m a mentalist!"

    Ye Chong asked, "The chilly feeling in my head, was that you?"

    "You mean this?" Jia Zhuo did not move, but Ye Chong could feel the chill spreading in his brain, just like when he was having an episode; this time he was conscious, and the feeling was more obvious, as though his brain was thoroughly cleansed with spring water, and it felt soothing.

    Ye Chong was startled, as anyone would when something appeared out of the blue in their mind. He asked curiously, "How did you do that?"

    Jia Zhuoughed a little. This was not the first time he was asked with that question.

    Mentalists were, in fact, mental strength practitioners. Through vigorous training of one¡¯s mental consciousness, the potential of one¡¯s physical body could be enhanced. That was why they often had skills unique to them. Unlike ck Cove¡¯s emphasis on physical strength, they were a strong force in a different aspect! Jia Zhuo¡¯s demonstration was only the most basic andmon application of a mentalist¡¯s skills, used for calming a person¡¯s mind, called Mind Cleansing.

    Ye Chong, who had never experienced anything like it, was understandably startled.

    As he was reminded of his conversation with Hak about the origin of mech pilots and the 3 main schools of pilots, he could not help but ask, "Secret arts practitioner?"

    Jia Zhuo was surprised. "So you know about them too. Haha, it¡¯s not really much of a secret. Secret arts practitioners are the forefathers of mentalists. Back then, the secret arts practitioners split into two. Those who did purely mental training became mentalists, like me; the others are called mentalist pilots, mech pilots who undergo mental training."

    "Mentalist pilots!" It was a new term for Ye Chong. He imagined how a mech pilot with special mental powers could fight in a battle. What would it be like? Ye Chong was moved by the thought.

    "Haha, mentalist pilots are not well known. They usually dwell in mentalist sanctuaries, rarely going out." Jia Zhuo noticed Ye Chong¡¯s bafflement and exined.

    "Hmm, I don¡¯t know what to make of your illness, but you can try your luck in Zeuth zone. There¡¯re many strange characters there, you might gain something unexpected!" Jia Zhuo went to his table and wrote something on a piece of paper. He then passed the paper to Ye Chong. "These are the addresses of some capable doctors whom I personally know. You can try them, but they¡¯re mostly entric, and may make queer requests of you, so watch out! Even if they fail, do not worry. The area is full of capable people, so long as you search patiently, it is highly likely that you¡¯ll meet a doctor who can help you."

    Ye Chong epted the paper with gratitude. "Thank you!"

    Jia Zhuo smiled warmly and waved his hand in dismissal. "It¡¯s nothing, I can¡¯t help you much! It¡¯s all up to you!"

    Abruptly, Ye Chong asked, "Mm, can you teach me Mind Cleansing? I¡¯ll trade you for something!"

    Jia Zhuo smiled apologetically. "While Mind Cleansing is the simplest of mental power application, it¡¯s still difficult to learn! Beside, without the mentalist sanctuary¡¯s approval, I can¡¯t teach it to anyone!"

    Ye Chong replied with an "Okay."

    Shangined in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, "I should¡¯ve known. We should¡¯ve just tie him up and interrogate! I believe he will speak!" Silence fell for a few seconds. He then excitedly said, "Ye, I¡¯ve got a good n!"

    "What n?" Ye Chong asked curiously.

    "Hehe, this guy¡¯s nice to you, best not to make our move! But there must be more than one mentalist around here, hehe, if we¡¯re to capture another mentalist, then it¡¯s not a vition to the principle of equal trading!" Shang instigated.

    "Hmm, that makes sense!"

    "Right? Of course my ns make sense! I¡¯m not as a dull as that fool, Mu. Hehe, a mentalist pilot, must be fun!" A certain devil¡¯s tail began to wag in excitement!

    Ye Chong bid farewell to Jia Zhuo, and asked about whether there were any mentalist sanctuaries in Zeuth.

    Jia Zhuo thought Ye Chong was interested in bing a mentalist, and pointed out the location of the mentalist sanctuary in the Zeuth zone enthusiastically. He even told Ye Chong the addresses of a few capable mentalists, suggesting that Ye Chong could visit them for lessons in mentalism when he had time!

    Note:

    [1] This refers to the idea that a person is reincarnated repeatedly, living and dying many different lives, as found in Buddhism, Taoism and other belief systems.

 Chapter 114 - Kidnapping

    <h4>Chapter 114: Kidnapping</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "You sure we¡¯re heading in the right direction?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Er, who knows?" Shang replied irresponsibly.

    Ye Chong smiled wryly as he scanned the unfamiliar environment . From one unfamiliar environment to another, Ye Chong did not feel any difference between any of them. However, as he was reminded that Shang had no map for the area, the result of the mech¡¯s directions was only to be expected.

    Zeuth was more organised than Hoth, the pedestrians all calm and leisurely strolling about. In Ye Chong¡¯s time in the zone, he had not seen any fights on the streets. In Hoth, it would have been impossible to avoid.

    Vintage brick buildings could be seen in every corner of the zone, in great variety. Most of the buildings were not tall, unlike in Hoth, where brick buildings that reached a few tens of meters tall were still considered average, and looked more like warehouses.

    The streets were lined with shops on both sides; technology from outside the Orbits could asionally be seen. It seemed that the Orbits were not as isted from the outside world as it was rumored to be.

    Most of the shops were mech rted. Unlike Ye Chong¡¯s experience of online purchasing via Fal¡¯s virtual, where the products were delivered to the buyers, the localmunity seemed to reject this convenient and advanced method of purchase. On the contrary, they practiced the old ways of purchasing on the spot. Mechs were openly disyed in the shops, where one could choose in their own time, and even request for a test drive.

    Mainstream models in the Five Gxies were rare, and Ye Chong was unfamiliar with most of the models on disy. This greatly interested him. The mechs here were unlike any he had seen before!

    However, under Shang¡¯s hastening, Ye Chong reluctantly tore himself away from the goods.

    "Ask for directions?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Of course, what else can you do if you¡¯re lost? You have a better idea?" Shang mocked.

    "No!" Ye Chong was clear cut in his answer.

    "Eh, Ye, look 30 degrees to your left! Wow, look at that body! She even had a mask on! Hehe, I won¡¯t be stopped by just a mask!" Ye Chong knew from his tone that Shang was growing enthusiastic.

    Ye Chong shifted his vision 30 degrees to the left.

    "What¡¯s there to see?" Ye Chong muttered to himself. The person was wrapped in a long purple robe, with a face mask on. Only her subtly graceful movements hinted at her gender.

    "What would you know?" Shang spoke scornfully. "Any top ss beauty would shine with a special charisma, with an unmistakable quality! Ah, these words are wasted on you! Let me scan her a bit first!"

    "Hmm, shine with a special charisma? Does he mean aura? Isn¡¯t that what powerful people have? Could all top ss beauties be powerful?" Ye Chong was deep in thought.

    "*Cough**cough*" Shang¡¯s scanning was disrupted by Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts. "Er, Ye, your imagination is actually quite impressive!"

    Ye Chong was baffled, but he knew that something was wrong with his thoughts.

    "Huh! Isn¡¯t that Feng Su?" Shang was surprised. "How could she be here?"

    "Who¡¯s Feng Su?"

    "Heavens! Ye, do you not know Feng Su? What a sad, sad life you have. Feng Su is Fal¡¯s most popr female superstar! Also the female artist with the highest worth! Tsk tsk, I myself am her number one fan. Back in the days, her one song managed to silence the spectators for a whole 15 minutes. It was unheard of! What? Ye, you weren¡¯t aware? As expected, Mu¡¯s influence had turned you into a wild animal, what a sore sight! Looks like the burden of transforming you into a true human has fallen to me! Hehe ¡­" Shang chattered on.

    Ye Chong knew that once Shang went into a mood, he would not let up for a good while.

    Shang suddenly spoke in a dramatic fashion, "Ye, aren¡¯t we asking for directions? Go ask her! Hehe, Ye, this is a golden opportunity I¡¯ve created for you! Ah, too bad there are no photon processors around, or I¡¯ll show you how beautiful she really is, and you¡¯ll definitely fall in love with her! She¡¯s the dream girl of a great many young men! Hehe, I have her exact measurements here from my scans. These is first hand information, infinitely better than whatever you read on the virtual!" Shang spoke like one bewitched.

    Ye Chong, however, was indifferent. "Not interested! Why should I ask her? Besides, the fact that she¡¯s a superstar and appearing here all alone is very suspicious, don¡¯t you think? There must be a story behind it!"

    Shang was shocked. "Ye, you¡¯re getting smarter! Hmm, you¡¯re right, it is suspicious. Why would she be here of all ces? No wonder she¡¯s trying to be inconspicuous! Ah, Ye, there must be something behind this, so we should definitely look into it. We might even stumble upon some exclusive story!"

    "Shang, is it worth it to waste our time on this? We have more important things to do!" Ye Chong was unimpressed.

    Shang could not help but grumble, "It¡¯s just asking for directions, how long can that take?"

    Ye Chong gave it a thought before approaching Feng Su. "Good day to you, do you know how I can reach Street 22?" Ye Chong asked the masked woman, the one called Feng Su.

    Feng Su turned around and gave a measuring nce at him. She found him looking rxed, but with an undisguisable apathy behind it.

    Feng Su spoke with her demure, enchanting voice, "Oh, Street 22, just go straight ahead and turn right at the third intersection, you¡¯ll reach the street after a five-minute walk!" Her short dialogue lingered in the air, the voice gentle and lovely, tugging at one¡¯s heartstrings!

    The urate control of her voice and tonality was a surprise for Ye Chong. He staggered a little before gathering himself for a reply, "Oh, thank you!" and turning to leave.

    "I hope you¡¯re satisfied, Shang!" While Ye Chong did not understand this indulgence of Shang¡¯s, he would still do his best to fulfill the mech¡¯s wishes! However, Shang did not speak for a long while.

    "Shang, what¡¯s up?" Ye Chong thought curiously. Could the mech¡¯s sound receiver be damaged? Surely not.

    "Wow, that was awesome! A voice from Heaven! From Heaven itself! Heavens, to hear such a moving voice in this mortal realm! Ye, do you not feel it?" Shang was high as a kite!

    "Mm, it was alright!" Ye Chong replied lightly.

    "Hey, Ye, let¡¯s invite her for a chat. This opportunity is only found once in a century, no, once in a millennium! Ye, let¡¯s talk to her again, yes? Just once more!" Shang begged.

    Ye Chong was unmoved. "We¡¯re going to Street 22!"

    Shang understood Ye Chong¡¯s temperament, and grumbled, "Sigh, you¡¯ve never seen her holographic image, or you would fallen head over heels for her! Er, but ¡­ That may not be the case too, since your requirements are different from the average man! Ha, I know, Ye, surely you must be secretly in love with thatdy in the white training garb?"

    "No!" Ye Chong objected, but the image of a white figure came unconsciously to mind. He could almost smell that mysterious fragrance, and taste the smoothness under his tongue. Suddenly, he felt a pressure rising in his chest, and Ye Chong quickly suppressed his thoughts until the pressure eventually subsided.

    "Haha, Ye, that must be it, you can¡¯t hide it from me, your brain activity just now was 30% more active than usual. Your pulse quickened, and your blood flow was faster! Hmm, I suppose thatdy was also likeable. Too bad we can¡¯t return to Blue Ocean for now. After all, she had asked for you to marry her! But Ye, don¡¯t sacrifice an entire forest for that one tree. Compared to Feng Su, thatdy still has a lot to make up for! Hehe ¡­" Shangughed discreetly to himself and teased Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong rolled his eyes and followed Feng Su¡¯s directions to Street 22, leaving Shang to bber on in his mind.

    No. 103 on Street 22!

    This was an address given by Jia Zhuo, where a masterful mentalist stayed, which was Ye Chong and Shang¡¯s destination! Ye Chong had expended great effort to find the ce, since it was located far from the main streets, secluded within a piece of thinly forested area.

    The low, vintage looking brick house had a roof that twisted upwards at the edges. There hanged a row of wind chimes that tinkled soothingly whenever a breeze swept through. The second floor¡¯s window was slightly opened, and not tightly shut. The house was surrounded by a forest. It was obvious that the mentalist was not very weing of visitors! This was a great advantage for Ye Chong, enough to boost his confidence for what he was about to do next!

    "Shang, any suggestions?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Hmm, best if you make your move as fast as you can. We know too little about mentalists, who knows what weird tricks they have up their sleeves. He¡¯s now in the second floor, and unfortunately, the house is too small for me to enter, or I¡¯ll be able to give you a hand!" Shang was now in all seriousness, like apletely different person, or, more urately speaking, apletely different PSI!

    "Mm, you have a point!" Ye Chong agreed. Mentalists were a mysterious factor. Even Jia Zhuo¡¯s Mind Cleansing was something iprehensible to Ye Chong. He was thus extremely cautious of them!

    "Er, also, usually robbers wear a ck cloth over their face, to avoid recognition!" Shang reminded him.

    "There¡¯s something like that? Where¡¯d you heard it from?" Ye Chong was curious.

    "The movies of course, that¡¯s how all the robbers do it!" Shang spoke matter-of-factly.

    Ye Chong could not find any ck cloth, but fortunately he had kept the F-58 mask from ck Cove in his bag. He put on the mask, and felt that it was more practical than whatever ck cloth there was. It had been some time since hest wore the mask. Ye Chong caressed the ck mask on his face, overwhelmed with emotions.

    "You brought that thing?" Shang reminded him.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong gave a shake with his wrist.

    Ye Chong moved deftly like a roon, entering the second floor. Shangid in wait in the forest outside as his backup.

    The wind chimes hung along the eaves tinkled, masking the sound of Ye Chong¡¯s approach.

    Ye Chong gave a sweeping nce of the second floor. With the exception of some basic wooden desks and chairs, there were not many other decorations in sight. The entire floorboard was made of wood. Ye Chong had no time to dwell on the mountainous expenses required for the floorboard, but took great care in avoiding any creaking sounds from his steps.

    The entire second floor had only one room, but the door was shut tight. The man must be in there!

    "Who dares to invade my house!" A shady voice rang in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, just as the door creaked open by itself, revealing an elderly with an overcast expression, staring at Ye Chong with glowing eyes. His curiously glinting eyes startled Ye Chong!

    When Ye Chong heard the old man¡¯s voice, he knew he was in trouble. As the door opened into a slit, he saw an old man sitting inside, facing him.

    Before Ye Chong could react, he felt his body leadened into a deadweight, and his vision blurred. Under the unexpected attack, Ye Chong instinctively reacted and whipped his hands out!

    That movement took all his energy, and Ye Chong could no longer defend against the restrictive force that bound him. Crash! He felt into a heap on the floor. The world was spinning in his eyes, halos of light swirling around, putting him into a daze.

    Another crash was heard, and Ye Chong could hear an old man¡¯s surprised yelling.

    He immediately felt the weight lifted, and the binding force on him vanished! After a few minutes, Ye Chong¡¯s vision returned to normal!

    Ye Chong pulled himself off the ground with great effort, his muscles still trembling, cold sweat rolling down his spine.

    The old man was wrapped up firmly like a dumpling, lying still on the floor. He was, however, undeterred in yelling angrily in all seriousness, "Who are you?! I¡¯m a mentalist, do you know what you¡¯re doing? Attacking a mentalist, you¡¯ll be hunted by the sanctuary to the ends of the world!" His tone changed immediately as he said, "I¡¯m a reasonable man, if you need help, just let me go and we¡¯ll talk it through, I¡¯ll definitely help you! You should know that ¡­"

    Ye Chong ignored the man as he flexed his limbs, d of his freedom! Earlier, he had swung a weapon made of a string with weights on both ends towards the old man. It was Shang¡¯s idea. Once the weapon rotated from the swing, it would entangle anything it hit. Ye Chong was strong, and while the weights were not too heavy, his throw of the weapon towards the old man had his target firmly tied up! Once the attack was disrupted, Ye Chong regained his freedom!

    What a powerful mentalist! If not for his quick reaction, he would have be a defenseless captive! Ye Chong recalled the encounter with dyed fear.

    The old man had hawkish nose and eyes. His pupils glimmered as he continued yelling angrily.

    Ye Chong had no intention of chatting him up. He lifted the old man and jumped out from the window with his prize. The interrogation part will be left to Shang!

 Chapter 115 - Meeting Again

    <h4>Chapter 115: Meeting Again</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong carefully hid in a tree, keeping watch for Shang. The bouts of shrill cries from the trees behind him gave him the goosebumps. While he was used to matters of life and death, the pitiful cries still perturbed him greatly!

    Ye Chong began examining his memories of the earlier encounter. The old man was able to detect his intrusion into the house. It was an impossible feat. If it was Ye Chong himself in the room, even his hearing could not filter the sounds of the tinkling wind chimes and detect the intrusion.

    More frightening was the fact that Ye Chong was bound by the enemy without any chance of retaliation. That was a first for him! What he lost was not only his freedom of movement but also his sight!

    It was too horrifying!

    How did he attack? Ye Chong did not see the old man make any movements. It was truly baffling!

    Suddenly, Ye Chong heard a soft shuffling sound. He gathered himself. Someone was here!

    Ye Chong signalled in his mind to Shang to speed things up as he moved through the trees, agile like a mutant primate, in search of the old man¡¯s visitor! On the trash, Ye Chong had always made use of the intercrossing metal beams in the trash to evade attacks from pursuing mutants. The tree branches were more flexible than metal beams, and more resilient. Ye Chong skillfully made a turn in the trees, the thick canopy providing him cover.

    Among the trees, the holographic scanning system¡¯s efficiency was impaired due to theplicated terrain. Even the most advanced scanning systems could no longer bepletely reliable. On the contrary, human senses were more trustworthy! Of course, when it came to Mu and Shang, Ye Chong was unsure of their limits!

    If he had heard it right, the shuffling sound was moving towards the old man¡¯s house. It seemed that the house was the only one nearby.

    Ye Chong carefully forged ahead.

    A purple robed woman with a purple veil was walking along the route amongst the trees that led straight to the old man¡¯s house. The shuffling sound came from her steps on the fallen leaves.

    Ye Chong was startled. Was this not the woman he had asked for directions earlier? Ye Chong immediately ryed this to Shang. The mech replied that he was almost done, as he was just now repeating his questions to gauge the reliability of the information from the old man.

    Ye Chong followed Feng Su cautiously, countless thoughts going through his mind. "What is with thisdy? Does she know the old man? Er, Jia Zhuo had called him Mr Yin. She¡¯s a superstar, why would she know a mentalist like Mr Yin?"

    While Ye Chong was not familiar with the job description of a superstar, he believed that it was probably unlikely for the upation to be rted to mentalists! Besides, the fact that she was in the Orbits was also curious.

    "However," Ye Chong thought, "it¡¯s got nothing to do with me, right? What I need to do is to buy time for Shang."

    Feng Su was not walking too quickly, looking fragile. Ye Chong considered knocking her out to avoid any mishaps. As for killing Feng Su, Ye Chong might have even considered that if not for Shang. However, with Shang¡¯s fondness of Feng Su, Ye Chong did not feel like upsetting the mech with her death!

    For Ye Chong, Mu and Shang were his best friends, the people he cared about most. In his heart, they were as alive as any human being! They were the most precious lives to him!

    "Hmm, best if I knock her out." Ye Chong was confident of controlling his strength!

    Ye Chong approached Feng Su silently, ready to deliver a blow to her nape to knock her out!

    Suddenly, Feng Su stopped moving and turned, speaking severely, "Who¡¯s that? Come out!" Her eyes looking towards the canopy where Ye Chong had hid himself.

    Ye Chong was shocked. How did she found out? He did not make any sound at all!

    Feng Su stepped a little wider, anticipating a fight, her hands in a battle-ready posture.

    While he did not understand how Feng Su noticed him, Ye Chong held no fear against the women before him! To him, her physique was not match for his!

    Feng Su red coldly at the canopy to the left above. Someone was hiding there. Whoever it was, Feng Su was certain that they were hostile! Could they be some rapist, to follow her for so long before choosing to attack in this secluded area? Feng Su¡¯s eyes shed with killer intent!

    The canopy rustled, just a bit. *Pheeww* A headwind blew, as a figure in green shot out towards her in an astounding speed!

    Feng Su humphed coldly, angled her body slightly and avoided the figure as she bowed her head and silently hooked her leg upward into a back kick! Bam! The green figure hit the ground, revealing itself to be an arm-thick branch with some leaves on it. The branch stuck deep into the soil, half of it beneath the ground!

    A chilling breeze kissed her nape; from the strength, the other party was looking to knock her out. The thought stoked her killer intent even further! This kind of rapist could only me himself for his inevitable death by her hands!

    Ye Chong suddenly found himself missing his target, and knew something was wrong! Fortunately, his attack was only meant to knock her out, the blow not packing too much force. He leaped backwards in retreat, and avoided a kick from Feng Su by only a hair¡¯s breadth!

    His sessful retreat surprised Feng Su, her eyes turning serious. It seemed that she had underestimated her enemy¡¯s speed. This guy was not going to be easy to defeat!

    However, Feng Su was confident of her skills! While the guy before her was definitely impressive to the average person, it would only take her slightly longer to im victory!

    Turning back to face her enemy, Feng Su had a clear view of the enemy for the first time!

    Feng Su¡¯s eyes narrowed. "ck Cove¡¯s men?" The man before her was wearing a mask very familiar to her. She was knew many things about ck Cove, and the mask with F-58 engraved on it could only mean that this was Number 58 of Team F!

    Strange. If she remembered correctly, Team F was posted at the outermost ranges of ck Cove. Why would ck Cove send its weakest members to the Orbits? Would ck Cove not know about the Orbits? The thought was swiftly dismissed! Impossible! ck Cove and the Orbits knew each other well, how could such a clumsy mistake be made?

    Could it be that there were more powerful members nearby? And this was only someone keeping watch? If that was the case, could the opponent¡¯s target be Mr Yin?

    These thought shed through her mind, and it seemed more and more usible by the moment. Feng Su¡¯s killing intent raged! She must quickly disable this lookout to send out a distress call and rescue Mr Yin! Feng Su believed that if the one from ck Cove was not that particr person, she would stand a chance to help Mr Yin!

    Ye Chong was experienced in life-deciding battles, and was sensitive to his opponent¡¯s killer intent. He felt her readiness to kill, and while he did not understand the change in intent, he was still fearless of the battle!

    Feng Su was determined to end the battle quickly!

    Ye Chong watched her closely, not underestimating her because of her gender. However, he did not initiate an attack, since his primary goal was to buy time!

    Suddenly, a strange gleam shed in Feng Su¡¯s eyes!

    Ye Chong started. A mentalist! "To think that she¡¯s a mentalist," thought Ye Chong, as he decided to not hold back any further. He leapt to action, moving evasively like a flickering shadow, a blur of a figure, hoping to confuse the opponent¡¯s vision and avoid being targeted.

    "Phew!" The expected feeling of being bound did note, and Ye Chong exhaled in relief. It seemed that the n worked!

    While Ye Chong was rejoicing, he saw the woman lunge towards him!

    Since he could now avoid the attack, Ye Chong grew more confident and aimed a punch towards the enemy!

    Feng Su twisted her body and easily avoided Ye Chong¡¯s punch, closing in on him.

    "Close-rangebat?" Ye Chong analysed calmly.

    Ye Chong had always preferred close-rangebat. His robust reflexes and outstanding strength and speed could make up for hisck in battle techniques in close quarters!

    Ye Chong dared not hold back now. He believed that if Shang had to decide, the mech would probably prefer to have him live than her! Besides, how could he die here?

    Close-rangebat was also vicious, without room to hold back, for any movement could mean life or death!

    The two engaged in tightbat, the stakes self-evident!

    In the blink of an eye, Ye Chong¡¯s attacks changed from the force of hurricane storm to a barely manageable assault!

    Ye Chong groaned on the inside. His opponent¡¯s movements seemed to be assisted by some sort of foresight. Whenever he was about to attack, she seemed to anticipate the blow, and Ye Chong had not even had grazed a blow against her since the battle began. On the contrary, the opponent¡¯s attacks were sharp and unavoidable. Despite Ye Chong¡¯s robust reflexes, he had received quite a few hits. If not for his sturdy build, he would probably be seriously injured!

    The strangest part was, up till now, she had never taken a blow from Ye Chong. His every punch met with empty space, and that sense of a hollow attack was very dispiriting for him. He was more powerful and faster than her, but the attacks nevernded!

    asionally, his eyes met Feng Su¡¯s mysteriously gleaming eyes, and Ye Chong could not help but shiver in his mind.

    Ye Chong figured that, with the way things were going, he would get more and more disadvantaged!

    Abruptly, Ye Chong came to a sudden realization and felt like pping himself. His goal was not to kill her, but to buy time! Ye Chong felt enlightened, but the momentary distraction earned him another fist and a kick!

    Ye Chong quickly moved backwards in retreat. If he could widen the distance between them, his superior speed would allow him to avoid attacks more easily!

    Feng Su followed him closely like a parasite, obviously realizing his intentions.

 Chapter 116 - The Scary Feline

    <h4>Chapter 116: The Scary Feline</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The difference in speed was evident the moment theypeted. Ye Chong was obviously leading. It wasmon sense to know that he possessed an absolute upper hand in velocity. He travelled so fast that he only shed by like faint images in naked eyes. Feng Su was also such a blitz as it moved in afterimages, which however stayed ipetent whenpared to Ye Chong¡¯s skills. The distance grew fast between them.

    Well, a master Ye Chong sounded like, yet he was not actually having an easier time dealing with this woman. He nned to rush straight and make a few sudden turns to get rid of her. In spite of that, such trick did not seem to work as this peculiar woman, as if a feline in the jungle, always managed to follow his turnings immediately. It felt like her intuition was at the same frequency as Ye Chong¡¯s brain or she was aware of such crude tactic by Ye Chong, that she could even estimate the timing of turning and act ordingly in horrifying uracy. Puzzling, puzzling indeed to Ye Chong.

    It was getting spookier each time! No way!

    Ye Chong was never alone. The opponent received the same shock as he did. "When did the ck Covers get this strong? A thrown-out grunt being this potent? Did we miss out something important on our observation? Why is there such a vast differencepared to the information we obtained?"

    Feng Su¡¯s heart panicked as she raced on and began to discern the inhuman strength and abnormal level of dexterity in possession by the opponent. "That pace too¡­" A momentum she could hardlypete with - other than the severeck of skills, it was amazing. With his potential, if he mastered the ck Covers¡¯bating skills, he would bring disasters. No! In fact, he would be the disaster itself!

    It only required a nod from the ck Coves, then he would be a great fighter in no time.

    But how could the people from ck Coves miss such a brilliance? She was well aware of the forces behind the curtain, still she could not believe that they would make such a costly ignorance. She was shocked yet she was d that apparently Number 58 did not learn that signature assaulting skill from his former organization, or she would be the busted one for the day. The skill was terrifying enough to make her hair stand by just imagining it.

    The residents of the Orbits admitted to not the greatest force, but only to the wisest use of force.

    The best oue would only be achieved when the force was used in the wisest way. Certainly, the kind who held the greatest force in the gxy would be none other than the pilots themselves. Nevertheless, it did not signify the insignificance of the other upations like the fighters. The ones whobated brutally, no one would ever agree to the assumption that the fists of the fighters were no match to the iron walls of the mechs. A pilot would always be bound to the sequence of deploying a mech and entering the cabin after, and within that time frame, a skillful fighter could assault the pilot countless times before the corpse of the pilot rolled into the cabin.

    So¡­ Never look down on forces of any kind!

    The afterimages of two phantoms lurked in the path of the forest, chasing each other.

    "Jajaja!" Shang¡¯s voice rang in pride, "Ye, that old gramp had spat everything! Woohoo! We are on the jackpot! Mentalist sure is interesting! I had already emphasized the fact that I could make anyone spit with my techniques! But man¡­ that old gramp had a spine missing in his body. You know what I¡¯m saying! He onlysted 20 minutes before he coughed out all he knew!" Shang probably meant that the old gramp was spineless¡­

    "Of all time. Shang, you jerk!" While having a road-runner show with Feng Su, Ye Chong cursed as he was forced to bear with Shang¡¯s words. He no longer had the mood to y with the wild kitty, as he turned to the other side to meet with Shang somewhere else. He was making his escape. He ran as far as possible to Shang he reckoned.

    A twist, a stomp to the ground, a tur- Ye Chong¡¯s legs felt tightened.

    Ye Chong was astonished as his body tilted to the front like being pulled by inertia. Fortunately he reacted in time. He hit the ground with his palms, lifted from the ground like a spring, his waist charged up and he made a flip. Feng Su¡¯s eyes red strangely as her speed rose sharply. The luster in her eyes waved like odd beams as she moved rapidly.

    Right when Ye Chong repositioned himself, that womanunched herself into him. That fair palm of hers inched towards Ye Chong and tantly she aimed his throat!

    The more dangerous the situation became, the calmer his thoughts turned. He maximized the speed of his hands as his right hand vanished and reappeared before his throat while his left hand had shifted to his chest, shielding his heart.

    Ye Chong might be an enemy, but an impable enemy he was. Compliment blinked in her eyes upon seeing how Ye Chong was still able to react in the nick of time. That speed was also an overwhelming surprise to her.

    "Still!"

    It was not sufficient to stop her attack!

    Wham!

    Ugh!!

    Ye Chong moaned as the rib on his right felt ruptured. He scowled as he went jabbing Feng Su¡¯s neck. The dead-or-alive situation had once again ignited the potential in Ye Chong. The speed of his hands had gone beyond what the naked eyes of humans could capture!

    It missed Feng Su, as his hand slid through her cheek. Her prediction saved her again! She was pleased when she made a bend before anything else. Zoom! A sharp hiss cut through the air! Fear filled her eyes in a second. She could almost smell and feel death. She had never felt this close to death before.

    Ye Chong hurriedly jumped up high.

    She straightened her body and the aftershock lingered in her mind with bewilderment a moment after, wondering what in the Orbits Number 58 was doing. No fighter would go into the air as there would be nothing to grip onto to fight back! If this was his attempt to make a strike, that would be fruitless! His performance was outstanding the whole time. He should not be using such a low trick¡­ Or¡­ this¡­ Was this a trap?

    Ye Chong jumped up high. The st he made on his feet was immense.

    No you don¡¯t! Feng Su estimated the final height of Ye Chong as she alsounched herself, striving to grab and pull him onto the ground. It was not her concern whether it was a trap! She would break him for sure!

    Huh.

    At that very point of time, things changed. A blue-white mech arrived in the scene and caught Ye Chong from mid-air. The next moment she knew, they disappeared.

    Her eyes did see everything, including the appearance of the mech, well, most of it. That blue-white mech¡­

    ¡­

    !!

    "Ah!" Could it be¡­

    Her mind went chaotic as she mumbled in disbelief.

    Ye Chong was hung in Shang¡¯s right hand as his eyes coldly fixed on that woman who had wounded his body! It was inevitable that her other attributes were far inferior than Ye Chong, yet she almost had him. What a scary feline! What a horrible woman! No! Such fearsome mentalist!

    Shang glided between the trees agilely. He was fast and moved with grace that the ace pilots were sweating just by seeing his performance.

    Outside the woods there lied a broadke, which was unfamiliar to Ye Chong. The iing wind felt humid with a faint refreshing sensation. The water was crystal clear and mechs of all walks of models were flying above it.

    Before he could utter a word, his back felt hollow as he drastically fell. He panicked.

    "Ye, I¡¯m dreadfully sorry¡­ I¡­I¡­ fooled around too much just now¡­ I had run out of energy¡­ I¡­I¡­I¡­I am¡­h¡­heading back to¡­di¡­dimension," only silence followed afterwards.

    "Shang, you jerk!" cursed Ye Chong again. Even a saint like Ye Chong in most times could not bear with such crap as he fell all the way down haplessly.

    Ssh!

    Ye Chong fell into the water as he was gargled by the river. Ye Chong might be an expert in piloting but he was still a novice in swimming. He did not know how to swim and he was struggling, drowning! He inhaled the fine portion of the mere air he got and he walked in the water. Due to his amazing control of his speed, he could feel the flow of the water clearly. As he became much calmer when being closer to death, his brain discerned every single bit of information in the surroundings. He analyzed instantly with his past experiences as he attempted a variety of coordinations of his body in the water.

    Not too long after Ye Chong dropped into the water, a purple mech zoomed by theke.

    The air flow created by its speed lifted ripples on the surface of theke.

    Gasp!

    A head popped out on theke, grasping for air. That was Ye Chong. The mask on his face somehow fell off when he was underwater. His face looked pale after holding his breath for so long.

    Cough! Ugh!

    He spat out the nts from his mouth. Ye Chong concluded his discovery on a method to stay on water and not to sink. His legs stepped on the water rhythmically, trying to stay afloat with the flows he created, though he had probably drunk gallons of them.

    I am not expecting to be saved!

    He clumsily propelled towards the shore. He whimpered as his wounds ached by water and his exaggerated movements. Damn you Shang! If you get back on¡­ No! I should never get you back on! This was like the nth time Ye Chong cursed the drugged robot.

    Well the cursing did not help Ye Chong in any bit, not even to distract him from the pain he had to suffer. If it was Mu, he would not have to suffer any of these! Only Shang this jerk could be such a nuisance to drop him into the water! Ye Chongughed bitterly.

    When he finally got to the shore, he copsed. His calves felt strained¡­ The fight with Feng Su was too energy consuming as every move could cost his life. Most of his stamina was depleted in the end. His wound¡­ It was bad, especially after being dipped in the water for too long¡­ It was a miracle that Ye Chong could still hurl himself to the shore.

    He was tired, so tired that he could barely lift his fingers. He could imagine himself never waking up again if he ever fell asleep.

    The star zed like a fireball. The warmth showered onto Ye Chong¡¯s body,forting and hypnotizing it was, like the cradle of safety. His eyes grew drowsier¡­ but he could not¡­ he could not sleep¡­ this was not a ce to rest.

    He never expected to be this weak one day! If he would be this weak back on Trash-12, he probably would have became an empty skull gashed by the engulfers.

    The sound of footsteps trailed in his ears. There was someoneing! But well¡­ Ye Chong was too worn out to even open his eyes. He knew his fate, that he could not fight back even if the person was hostile. He ridiculed himself, yet he tried to adjust his breath, trying to umte the veryst ounce of his strength.

    The person came before him.

    Here it goes!

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    Nothing happened. It was surprising to Ye Chong. Nheless he had to stay alert, though it might have been pointless in the end, as he looked as good as dead. He tried feeling his breath and eventually, he could feel his strengthing back bit by bit.

    Ye Chong never opened his eyes as he assumed that would make the foe reckless. Well, if he were to show resistance, he could only dish out one strike at his very best. At least he could paralyze the foe with a blow of his arm or something¡­ then he would have a cushion for the night, assuming the foe was truly hostile that is.

    Out of the blue, he felt the person gently pushing his body!

 Chapter 117 - Nan Nan

    <h4>Chapter 117: Nan Nan</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "¡­ig br¡­er¡­"

    "Big bro¡­er¡­"

    "Big brother!"

    An adorable voice rang sweetly by Ye Chong¡¯s ears, "Big brother! If you stay under this hot sun your skin will be dark, very dark!" With her tiny hands, she held Ye Chong. She tried shaking him very hard. She kept shaking him in hopes that he''ll regain consciousness. Due to her small build, she did not have enough strength to shake Ye Chong who was much heavier than she was.

    Ye Chong forced his heavy and tired eyes open. He tilted his head over and beamed at the little girl in front of him. The bitter smile on his quivering lips shone a little terrifyingly with that drained face of his.

    The little girl seemed to be about 5 to 6 years old. The pair ofrge eyes blinked peculiarly above her dollish pink cheeks. A pale green beret sat on top of her head obediently¡­ That was not a beret, that was a lid! The slots on it justified its identity! Ye Chong recognized it being one of the parts of a mech. The material seemed unusual too. Ye Chong wondered what this lid was made out of as he was amazed by the craftsmanship.

    A red diamond shaped piece about the size of a palm hung around her neck. There were 4 holes tidily crafted on it. Ye Chong was astonished! Wasn''t this a part of a mech''s interior? It was the washer, wasn''t it? Why was she using it as an essory?

    Judging by her naivety tantly presented through her appearance, Ye Chong let off a sigh of relief. It seemed like his security was finally assured.

    "Wow¡­ Big Brother, your smile''s ugly! Were you bitten by a dog? You poor, poor thing!" She expressed her utmost sympathy. The little girl carried on, "Big brother, can you move? You have to move! Yikes! You¡¯ll get dark, very, very dark! What if¡­ you be as dark as Brother Hei Zi¡­ That wouldn''t be good¡­" She pondered hard about it and frowned. She somehow looked adorable in that state. "Aha!" she pped her hands as she got inspired by something. Her angelic voice cheered loudly as she tripped her way away.

    For some reason Ye Chong felt rather rxed after listening to innocent words uttered by the little girl - it was as if something deep, deep down had awakened. His sight lost the waddling little girl¡­ "She had probably headed home," Ye Chongughed and closed his eyes once more. He focused on regting his breath, striving to regain his vitality as soon as possible. Being out of control on his own fate felt absolutely terrible.

    He breathed in rhythms, attempting to avoid dozing off. It was a challenge to stay awake under a fatigued condition like this¡­ A trial to one¡¯s will was to not be lured away by sleep! The tiredness crashed into his head wave by wave. There were a few times where he fell asleep before knowing it yet he dragged himself out of the bog. Sleep could have been helpful in rejuvenating his strength but not fast enough.

    It was agonizing to stay awake yet it was quite effective. He could feel his strength restoring bit by bit. This excited him. The exhaustion was mostly gone! Mhm, in about 10 minutes time, I should at least regain mobility!

    Out of the blue he felt the ring light vanished. Something was blocking his face and the scorching heat was greatly reduced!

    He had his eyes opened.

    His blurred vision discerned a small hand holding onto grass weaved into a shape of a ring which blocked the sunlight.

    Her expressive eyes blinked again, "Big brother!" The charm was captivating, as her cheery voice resounded, "You won¡¯t get dark now! Hehehe, isn¡¯t Nan Nan smart?"

    Ye Chong subconsciously smiled, without realizing how that smile twitched his wound. Hssssst¡­ Hsstt¡­ Out of immense ache he hissed pitifully.

    "Hehehe¡­" little Nan Nan giggled, seeing how Ye Chong¡¯s face turned bitter. Herugh was bubbly, like ringing bells in spring. It was far lovelier to the ears than Feng Su¡¯s voice. "Ow¡­ poor, poor, big brother¡­" After giggling, her faint brows squeezed, "It must be bad, bad doggie! Bad, bad doggie bit big brother! Bad doggie is bad! Bad doggie bite Nan Nan¡¯s dress!" While she shared her bad experience with a dog, she did not forget to show her sympathy too, "Big brother, your clothes, doggie bit it? Did bad doggie bite you?"

    "Mhm!"

    "Hehehehe~ Nan Nan was out alone. Shhh, it is a s-e-c-r-e-t. Grandpa and Brother Hei Zi says Nan Nan should not y outside. But staying home is boring! Nan Nan wants to y! Big brother, y with Nan Nan, okay?"

    "Mhm!"

    "Yay! Nan Nan is happy! Big brother is good! Good big brother!"

    ¡­

    Three men walked by the river. They seemed to be chatting idly, as sometimes lustfully they burst outughing. The filthy-looking shorty was ugly as hell. He looked like a pumpkin which rolled off a cliff. Every part of his face was well-blended. "Hey you both! Look over there!" he called the other two men as he spotted something.

    For the other men, one was somewhat normal¡­ yeah, the kind that would get missing once stepped into the crowd, while the other was fleshy on his face, looking messy as unshaved. Their eyes rolled in curiosity. They seemed quick-witted at least.

    As guided by the shorty¡¯s finger, they shifted their sight over, "Lao Pi, what is so worthy of all the heyhoo there?" The rugged man chuckled, "It¡¯s just some beggar hooking up with a little girl. What is so exciting about that?"

    The average guy said nothing, but his expression told the same.

    Lao Pi sneered as he ignored that average guy¡¯s expression, "You are just as dumb as you always are, Lao Meng! Look at Lao Ping, at least he''s not as dumb as a donkey like someone I know! Look at that little girl carefully!"

    Lao Ping and Lao Meng stared at little Nan Nan dancing around the beggar for a moment. "She¡¯s just a kid," muttered Lao Meng. "Why are we looking at her for? Don¡¯t tell me¡­ you are a pedophile in disguise?"

    "Shhhhh!" whispered Lao Ping. "Say it quietly. You can¡¯t criticize the person who''s in front of you." He lectured though his expression showed approval towards Lao Meng¡¯s statement. And Lao Meng started giggling nonstop!

    Ugh!

    The corner of Lao Ping''s eyes twitched, as the wrinkles on his face sshed like waves, "Look at what the girl has on her head¡­" He pretended he had never heard thement, "And also her neck."

    "Wha-"

    "Tsk, tsk tsk," interrupted Lao Pi as he grew impatient. "Sigh, some people just can¡¯t use their eyes the right way. Don¡¯t you see the obvious, stark things on her body? That kid has part of an inner ring of a mech¡¯s feet, yes, that pale green ring. It should either be the bones of the green beast or the skull of fletchant, yes it could be the skull of that bird. Tsk, tsk tsk, do you know how much could this be sold for?"

    !

    Lao Ping and Lao Meng finally got the whole reason why Lao Pi reacted dramatically upon seeing the girl. Their eyes went wide like saucer as they spoke together. "How much?"

    "Keke!" Lao Pi was getting puffed up seeing how the two dummies showing the expected reaction. "It would be strange if you know its actual value. Let me tell you¡­ that piece isn¡¯t some ordinary knock-off in the street. Tsk, obviously it¡¯s a masterpiece out of pure handcraft. And not any maker on Haleyson could produce such artistry, I reckoned."

    "Stop blowing your own trumpet! Just tell us how much it is already!" Lao Meng¡¯s face was filled with disdain while Lao Ping depicted supports at the side.

    "100,000? At the very least," Lao Pi was not really sure of the exact pricing, but that should be it!

    That dubious stare from Lao Ping was diforting¡­ Lao Pi¡¯s face reddened as he embarrassingly replied, "I do not know the exact figure! Well, at least it would not be lower than this!"

    "For real?" Lao Meng immediately responded skeptically. "This crap could go up to 100,000 of the currency here? Hah! No way! Stop pulling my leg! With 100,000 of our currency you could get the same junk hat. 100,000 of them!"

    Lao Ping stayed silent as he collected his mind.

    "The crap you know with your head!" Lao Pi¡¯s face tightened as his face went redder, "Let me tell you something more to fill that airhead of yours! Junk hat? Whoever that is rich and insane enough to get this piece as a hat, he would be the mascot of the! The more valuable part is that washer on the kid¡¯s neck! I am dead f*cking sure this piece worth a fortune! Way more than that ring!"

    "Whatever you say, boasting Pi," Lao Meng disdainfully spoke.

    "Why you!"

    "Hey! Hey! Hey! I don¡¯t understand why you guys could bicker when the thing is not even in our hands! Wouldn¡¯t it be much easier if we get those things and check the price ourselves rather than guessing and denying each other here? IShe¡¯s just a kid, how hard could it be! And that beggar seemed to be kicking his bucket anytime soon. No pressure, Lao Meng, go get the things off the little girl! And we would head straight to Huang San¡¯s ce for appraisal. Maybe we could really make a fortune out of these!"

    Lao Meng went chuckling again upon hearing the suggestion. He showed approval as he headed to Nan Nan.

    Ye Chong on the ground could feel every quake urred. That heavy footstepsing into his senses immediately illustrated a buffed man heading towards him. Ye Chong had his eyes wide open. Nan Nan was busy fanning Ye Chong with the grass ring in her hands. Good Nan Nan¡­ not! Thanks to the grass ring, Ye Chong could hardly see the appearance of theing foe, though he could see the legs clearly.

    Ye Chong put up his guard. By some means, Ye Chong was having an urge to prevent this little girl from getting into any kind of troubles. "By some means" it was, he could not exin why, but the urge was strong and still! Sadly Mu and Shang were not by his side, or he could at least investigate this strange feeling in detail.

    The footsteps got nearer and Nan Nan did not seem to have noticed a thing. Could that be a rtive of hers? Ye Chong was ready! A portion of his strength had recovered! He couldunch an attack for the girl anytime soon!

    As Lao Meng started breeze-walking towards Nan Nan, she noticed something as she turned her head, "Big brother, is this your friend? He ising to help you? Is he?"

    Ye Chong¡¯s heart skipped a beat. Nan Nan does not know this person! Who in the Haleyson could this person be! What does he want!

    Lao Meng gleefully walked towards little Nan Nan. The grin was not helpful at all. He already looked horrifying enough with his appearance, adding that grin would only make him the most fearsome monster to the girl. Nan Nan was foreign to the smiling creature as she fearfully hid behind Ye Chong. Her head popped over his back, taking a peek. "Yikes!" She withdrew herself and started trembling behind.

    "Big brother! Nan Nan¡­ Nan Nan is afraid! Beard man is scary! Bad beard man!" she shook Ye Chong slightly and her voice was choked with tears helplessly.

    "Heya, little girl. I meant no harm," Lao Meng squeezed every kind of smile he had seen in his life before, "I just wanted to take a look at that beautiful green hat of yours. Oh, what a pretty ne, could you give me that red¡­ red¡­" He scratched his head and mumbled, "The heck was that again? Lao Pi had mentioned it before¡­ How could I forget it¡­ Sheesh, this is humiliating¡­"

    Nan Nan wanted to stay alert but due to that introductory line of that bad beard man, she could not! She tried suppressing herugh. All the intense fear she had before was gone. She pulled a face at Lao Meng, spitting her tongue, "Stupid beard man! Stupid! Stupid!"

    And thereby Ye Chong got the big picture of the entire scenario. So that was what the man wanted! Man I am dumb! How could I forget this? Did my IQ just go down with my stamina after I get hurt?

    Mu had once said it before - when one possesses a value beyond one¡¯s own strength, one would be coveted by people. Looks like he was right after all!

    Lao Meng took a nce at that beggar half-dead.

    He did not seem threatening at all, man I am really dumb! The heck am I doing these mumbo-jumbo for, I¡¯ll just snatch it!

    Lao Meng kept his smile as he sprinted towards the kid.

    Nan Nan the smart little girl sensed the danger as she sank into Ye Chong¡¯s back. Her body was shaking violently.

    Lao Meng stopped before the pathetic beggar as heunched his grab towards the girl.

    And that was when Ye Chong made his move after being a st of mud for so long!

 Chapter 118 - Rescued

    <h4>Chapter 118: Rescued</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A twinge seized Lao Meng¡¯s rib and spread throughout his body. He lost control of his body out of a bewildering sudden as he copsed right onto the lying beggar. And that was the moment when he realized the fact that the half-dead looking beggar actually had his eyes opened, ring right into his soul!

    The cold ssic stare from Ye Chong caused Lao Meng¡¯s heart to twitch.

    Back in ck Coves, perhaps Ye Chong was not able to master the greatest assault, however he did learn a few of one-hitting techniques to hold the foes. The one urred before was a strike to the target¡¯s spinal cord to disable the target¡¯s control to the body. It sounded all powerful like a technique from the martial arts tales, however as a matter of fact this was the most fundamental move in the ck Coves. Ye Chong did hear about other skills that were more tormenting and overwhelming back then, which some of them being truly bizarre!

    Ye Chong used the technique when the foe let his guard down. A perfect one-hit strike!

    Heughed bitterly in his mind. The move seemed simple, yet it consumed a majority part of his charged stamina. His breathing became hasty again.

    Habitually, the following procedure could have been the killing. Ye Chong would hardly leave a living foe to spread his words around. The strike before was fatal enough to take this buffed man out, but Ye Chong simply did not have the stamina to kill this guy!

    This technique could have been both efficient and effective. The effect was only temporary nheless. After a certain duration had passed and that duration was not long in actuality, the enemy would retrieve control of his body without any wound. And the one who would suffer the worst fate would be Ye Chong himself!

    Ye Chong hoped that he could regain his stamina in time to at leastunch onest strike before the enemy could move again. Once and for all!

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes looked bloodthirsty!

    As Lao Meng saw every expression on Ye Chong, out of fright, he screamed on top of his lungs, "Yikes! Why the hell can¡¯t I move anymore? Holy Haleyson! Lao Ping, Lao Pi, get yourselves over here and save me! F*cking hell! I got set up! Quick! Get yourself here already!" Lao Meng¡¯s coarse voice roared harshly.

    Ye Chong flinched - he did note alone? He was no longer concerned on his energy-saving n as he pushed the beefy man to the side - Ugh, I thought I was moving a whale or something! Ye Chong stood up frantically on his weakened limbs - assuming the foe had mates behind, then I would surely lose in the end if I kept lying on the ground! He took a look at Nan Nan, who was covering her eyes and squatting on the ground, shivering. Somehow a hint of warmness rushed through Ye Chong¡¯s body upon seeing her.

    I¡¯ll just do my best, thought Ye Chong. The situation was not as optimistic however.

    Obviously he was thrown into a nasty situation, where the odds were all against him. Nheless, he did not rant or show grudges!

    Providing that he would be killed in the end, he had to make the kill cost them a lot at the very least! Violence shed in the dark pupils of his eyes, which frightened Lao Meng who had been watching this fierce beggar the whole time. His voice rang drastically, "Lao Ping, Lao Pi, be careful! This is a savage one!"

    Lao Ping and Lao Pi inched towards Ye Chong sluggishly, as their faces were fixed with grim.

    The sudden copse of their friend was more than shocking. Till he made that SOS shriek, they were not aware that Lao Meng had fallen prey to a set-up.

    The fact that the beggar stood up weakly wasforting to the two. At least he looked fragile as if he could fall in a breeze! Even so, thinking back of how desperate Lao Meng¡¯s reminder sounded, their expressions turned grave once more, as they knew Lao Meng well. He might be a man who was all rough and tough but he had some real sensibility.

    The beggar¡¯s indifference even in such a nerve-wrecking situation justified Lao Meng¡¯s reaction. It was then the two noticed the strangeness in this foe.

    "Hey friend!" Lao Ping was acting kind as he spoke slowly, "This¡­ This was just some misunderstanding, right? This friend of mine found the girl rather adorable, so he wanted to y with her. I know his jokes were pretty bad¡­" Lao Pi in the meantime shifted to the back of Ye Chong and started inching towards him. This was the 3 mousy-tears¡¯ way of resolving issues after running business in the Orbits for years. They were a wless team - Lao Ping first would use words to hold the foe, while Lao Pi would strike from the back. It always worked! Even if the foe did not fall for the strike, at least it would hold the foe throughout the entire conversation.

    Unfortunately¡­ What they had encountered was an oddity. Ye Chong was that one major who went against chattering duringbats!

    Ye Chong did not bother to carry on listening as he turned to his back, lifted his leg andunched a kick right into Lao Pi, which shocked the heck out of Lao Pi. It was a rare asion to have a foe who wanted to fight right away. However, the kick gave no effect. It felt as weak as the beggar. And Lao Pi was relieved.

    Seeing how the dirty beggar wanted to pick a fight for real, he decided to stop bbering and give a kick to his back as he lifted his foot.

    Lao Pi sneered as he felt harmless of the beggar¡¯s kick. He moved faster towards Ye Chong.

    Out of the blue, that feeble leg of Ye Chong''s sprang, like a serpent ready to take a bite. Fearsome it looked! The target was the neck! If the kicknded on point, the throat would shatter and the man would be dead! Lao Pi did not manage to react in time to dodge, as he covered his head with his arms crossed.

    Thup! The kick hit Lao Pi¡¯s arms. That was when Lao Pi was astounded by how much heavier the blownded than it appeared! Ye Chong¡¯s leg was stuck on the arms. He exerted more pressure on Lao Pi¡¯s arms, the arms went closer to the face. Outrageous! Lao Pi used all his strength to force Ye Chong away. As adrenaline rushed on such a dead-or-alive situation, Lao Pi¡¯s strength was amazing. Lao Ping was relieved seeing this.

    Who knows!

    Thup!

    Ye Chong used the push by Lao Pi, as he fired himself towards Lao Ping.

    Lao Pi¡¯s leg was already lifted and he could not react in time. He only saw how Ye Chong was lifted by the force of Lao Ping and sank into Lao Ping, like a snake slithering over Lao Ping¡¯s leg, raising his upper body rmingly.

    Lao Ping¡¯s right leg was crushed as he lost bnce. How else could he react?

    Ye Chong had his eyes closed. Ache covered the top of his head, as he whimpered.

    Crack!

    A cracking sound of bone-crushing. Lao Ping fell onto the ground with his face hardened.

    In that split second, Ye Chongunched his head right onto Lao Ping¡¯s chin. The blow was so strong that it actually broke Lao Ping¡¯s chin. The chin had always been the more delicate part of the anatomy, so Lao Ping copsed due to the heavy blow.

    Ye Chong and Lao Ping rolled together. The whole execution just now hadpletely exhausted every ounce of his strength. He could not even lift his fingers at that moment. Plus that blow he delivered with his head also returned a severe dizziness.

    The vision blurred out and he looked all giddy.

    In the fuzzy imagery, he saw thest man sneaked towards him¡­ and there was one dark spot behind him that was bing bigger.

    What was that dark spot¡­?

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes grew blurrier¡­ And the sound in the surrounding retreated like the waves as they grew further.

    Nan Nan¡­ I tried¡­ my best¡­

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s final thought before he fell into darkness and went unconscious.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    Ah!

    Ye Chong opened his eyes abruptly. It was a foreign environment. "Mu¡­ Shang¡­ Are you there? Mu, Shang, speak to me if you are." The first thing he did was to try contacting his partners to at least have an idea what was going on. Sadly Mu did not reply despite being the usual quick one to answer his inquiry, while Shang¡­ he then only remembered the fact that Shang had drained his battery before.

    Oh¡­ the battle. He pieced up the fragmented memories. Wondered what happened to Nan Nan¡­ she was probably rescued or Ye Chong would have been dead undeniably, considering how those peculiar men would not spare him at mercy.

    He took a look on his body and lifted his limbs. Okay, all were good. The wound was mostly healed. It was satisfying to see his own strengthing back as normal. If the 3 men woulde and taunt Ye Chong again, he would skew them in 5 seconds for sure.

    He checked his belonging¡­ Okay, the talisman on the neck was intact. At least I could summon Mu Shang if anything went wrong! This was most important to Ye Chong. The keystone for Yu Di was still there too. The bag¡­ everything was there. Nothing was lost! The dagger, a gift of the person was there. Ye Chong felt much more relieved.

    Atst, he started inspecting his surroundings.

    Ye Chong was on a bed; the mattress feltfy. The room was pitifully crammedpared to the room Ye Chong used to stay where his mechs could be stored altogether. The pale green walls had countless tiny adornments, which gave off a living vibe to the room. There was a mini nano-water filtration machine at one corner with quite a number of knitted animals at the other. What are these for? Ye Chong wondered - Are they some sort of target for practice? The knitted animals did not look realistic while some details were overdone. They did not even look close to their actual counterpart!

    Weird stuffs! Thought Ye Chong.

    Right at that moment, Ye Chong¡¯s ears caught two footsteps heading towards this room. He was alerted as he got off the bed and went into his defensive stance.

    Bang. The door was pushed open!

    It was Nan Nan! Right at one frame where the door was first opened, he could already discern her through the tiny gap.

    Nan Nan entered the room, "Big brother! You''re finally awake!" Hurrahed Nan Nan as she saw Ye Chong standing in the middle of the room, "Good! Nan Nan is happy! Very good! Good Ye Chong!" Joyfulness gleamed on her face.

    She was cute as usual but Ye Chong did not have the grace to look at her jumping around, instead his eyes fixed on that dark man at her back. The man should be at his 30s¡­ he was very tanned. His shirtless body revealing hisrge muscles was rather scary, though his smile depicted a quite sincere personality. He followed Nan Nan carefully, probably was afraid that Nan Nan could trip anytime with her clumsy steps.

    That body size obviously defined his strength in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes.

    The dark man grinned the moment he noticed the constant stare from Ye Chong. His teeth were sparkling white.

    Little Nan Nan was intelligent. The moment she realized the exchanging stare between them, she went pulling Ye Chong¡¯s pant and introduced gently, "Big Brother, this is my Brother Hei Zi. He loves Nan Nan very, very, very muchie! That day, Brother Hei Zi came and found Nan Nan. We are lucky. If not, big brother and I would be sad, very, very, sad. We got hit!"

    Little Nan Nan¡¯s messily produced description adorned with her hyper-active gesture finally rified Ye Chong on what happened after he passed out. So that erging dark spot was the mech of Hei Zi. He saved his life in the nick of time.

    "Thank you for saving me," Ye Chong thanked him with much appreciation.

    "No no no!" Friendlily Hei Zi replied, "It was what I should have done. I should be the one thanking you. If it was not for you, Nan Nan¡­ she could have been¡­" He withdrew his word¡­ he seemed pretty mortified by what could have possibly happened.

 Chapter 119 - In Search of a Visit

    <h4>Chapter 119: In Search of a Visit</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Without much hesitation, Ye Chong decided to stay for a while. The reasons were simple - first, he was going to search for the great doctors in this area; second, the training method of the mentalist discovered by Shang required much exploration - a tranquil environment would be necessary to achieve both of these. The outside world was pretty disturbed these days, though Ye Chong did not fear any of those iing raids, he would prefer a bit of silence for the moment.

    So calmly, he stayed at Nan Nan¡¯s ce, with these 2 quests in his mind which revolved about the horrible illness in him. He must stay, especially when the quests could take a long duration, be it finding out the great doctors or the breakthrough in the mentalist¡¯s methodology.

    Mu and Shang were fully charged way back. The first thing Shang got was a lecture about responsibility from Ye Chong, in detailed, vigorously after he rebooted. Sigh, what a headache to Ye Chong!

    Practically Nan Nan¡¯s family was of 3 members - her grandfather, Brother Hei Zi and Nan Nan herself. Ye Chong had rarely seen her grandfather showing up at the living room, although the elderly seemed to be in the pink of health. He always seemed to be somewhere else. The problem was the elderly appeared a little haughty sometimes, unlike Hei Zi who acted gentle and sincere the whole time.

    Ye Chong was recollecting the information obtained from Shang¡¯s private interrogation on poor Mr. Yin.

    Mentalist was sure a mysterious upation¡­ Most of the information contained jargons passed from the past generations. An ordinary person might not be able to understand the gist of being a mentalist even after being bestowed with such decent information filled with foreign terminology. Fortunately, Shang¡¯s own databank was vast in information, so a majority of the terms could be rified; while the undefined terms, certainly Shang would have to get it somewhere else, for instance, from Mr. Yin¡¯s head¡­

    Mr. Yin was in such a misfortune. It could have been the worst day of his life. Mentalist treated the foundation of their mentality as the root; the meaning of their life. And because of Shang¡¯s "special" interrogation, everything was pulled out of his head through his mouth, which caused severe damage to his mentality in the end. The drastic drop in his psychic ability was in expectation.

    Well, Ye Chong was not a psychological analyst. He knew nothing about the man¡¯s mind. Only Shang could voice his opinion as loud as he wanted and even Mu expressed helplessness in this field.

    Hence, based on what he had learned from Shang¡¯s digging of Mr. Yin¡¯s brain, he began his mentalist training.

    The catch was, information could never rece experiencepletely. That probably could clearly define the problem both Shang and Ye Chong faced currently. They might have sufficient information on the techniques, but Ye Chong still had to bear the process of being theb rat while experimenting the techniques. He did not mind being one however.

    The foundation of being a mentalist begins with meditation - technically, breathing and meditate, which was what Ye Chong was doing at the moment. To make his respiration slow yet profound in a certain rhythm while maintaining a state of emptiness in his head, the mentalists called it "Wu" or some addressed the state as "Kong Ming*".

    The breathing part was rather simple to Ye Chong. He was so used to adjusting his breathing in desired patterns. This requirement was achieved rather quickly and effortlessly.

    The Kong Ming state though¡­ It was challenging¡­ He realized it was difficult to think about nothing in his head. In spite of that, Ye Chong did not give up straightaway. He tried for the next few days and on the 10th day of the practice, he started to get the gist of it.

    ording to the information acquired, a talented person would usually achieve the state of emptiness on their first attempt while the less-talented kinds could get it on the 2nd or 3rd day of training¡­ For those who could not even get it after 3 days¡­ they¡­ they could never be a candidate for mentalist.

    Although the information sounded discouraging, Ye Chong did not bother - whether if he was a candidate for mentalist or he was never one to begin with, it did not matter. He only hoped that he could ease the pain when the symptoms were triggered again with one or two techniques learned from the mentalist¡¯s mastery. That was the whole point of his continuous training.

    Mentalist solely relied on mental training to develop the potential in mankind. In addition,ing from that unlucky Mr. Yin, apparently there was a closely rted branch off the mentalist upation - the "mentalist pilot" they called it. Unlike mentalist, a mentalist pilot was obliged to undergo mental training as well as physical training.

    Moreover, ording to this man, it seemed like the mentalist pilot held the actual authority in the Orbits. They were the true elites as they shouldered the duty of guarding the safety of the sanctuary. Every mentalist pilot happened to be an ace pilot and they owned mechs modified by themselves.

    Well then, if that was the case, Feng Su should be a mentalist pilot too. Ye Chong could still recall the pain when dealing with her like it happened yesterday. So he was well aware of the strength of a mentalist pilot.

    The progress of his spiritual awareness training was sluggish and barely effective. It would take up to ages if Ye Chong would like to master those advanced techniques mentioned in the information at this rate. Ye Chong did not throw a tantrum of impatience however, as he understood deeply that being impatient and acting impatiently would not help hastening the progress at all. So what was the point of being all restless and agitated? Such a typical Mu mindset fixed in Ye Chong¡¯s head.

    Ye Chong would meditate routinely at night and he would spend the days looking for the great doctors with Hei Zi, who wholeheartedly assisted him in this withpassion. Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather was ever-going, he was always busy with something. Hei Zi could only apany Ye Chong half of the day as he had to spend the remaining time on doing tasks given by Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather, though Ye Chong had the slightest idea on what they actually worked as.

    As he was meditating, he heard two footsteps - one was heavy and the other was lighter - obviously those were from Hei Zi and Nan Nan.

    He tidied his clothing - his own clothing was burnt way back. And because of that, he was wearing Hei Zi¡¯s clothes instead. Hei Zi¡¯s body was known to be much bulkier, so the clothing felt oversized on Ye Chong. It was not much of a concern to Ye Chong however, he folded the sleeves and the extra portion of the clothing. As long as the clothing would not affect his action, oversized or not, it did not matter, even though Ye Chong looked like a freak in it¡­

    On the other hand, Nan Nan was on cloud nine. She was often at home alone and was forbidden to head out. It used to be her life crisis to remain like this but then she met Ye Chong, who could stay by her side at home while in the morning she could head out with Brother Hei Zi and Ye Chong. Even if Ye Chong was heading out alone, he would get her along. "Good big brother! Good Brother Hei Zi!" giggled the little girl, which was peculiar to her grandfather for how he actually felt easy of letting his granddaughter go out with this stranger.

    "Big brother!! Big brother, are you ready? Brother Hei Zi and I are ready! Come out! Let¡¯s go y! Let¡¯s go y!" The little girl had already started shouting in excitement ahead of time. Her bubbly voice rang refreshing like the dews in the dawn - sweet and living.

    Ye Chong pushed the door open. "Big brother!!" Little Nan Nan hurrahed as she skipped her way to Ye Chong clumsily upon seeing him finally leaving the room. Ye Chong quickly grabbed her before she fell. At about 1 meter away from Ye Chong, little Nan Nan squeaked excitingly as she jumped and Ye Chong lifted his arms and held her up in the air. He put the little girl over his shoulders. "Hehehe!" Little Nan Nan chuckled as her mushy hands gripped the cor of his shirt to avoid falling.

    Hei Zi smiled at Ye Chong sincerely as usual while they headed out.

    "The doctor is called ¡®Dr. Lu Caite¡¯. He lives at the boundary of Zeuth area. It is quite far from here. I am not really familiar about this doctor¡­ I think I need to ask around once we arrived there." Hei Zi was not the kind who spoke too well on lengthy sentences. He went silent after a brief exnation.

    "Mhm," Ye Chong also shut his mouth after a monosybic response. One could imagine the scenario when 2 concise-talkers hung out together.

    As the journey would be consuming this time, they could only use mechs to rush their way there.

    "Good mech!" Right when Ye Chong deployed Yu Di, Hei Zi responded with his eyes lustered, "Though the material was¡­ normal," his words trailed off¡­

    Normal? What did he mean by normal? Other than the mechs at ck Coves and FMPA, Ye Chong was confident enough to im that Yu Di had the best material. Or did it mean Hei Zi¡¯s mech used a way better material than this?

    "Ugly mech! Ugly big brother¡¯s mech!" criticized Little Nan Nan as she spat her tongue out.

    "Hah!" And Hei Zi deployed his mech too.

    Well, Hei Zi¡¯s mech looked quite normal¡­ it was a humanoid mech. The material was really an eye-opener however, as most parts were made out of materials Ye Chong had never seen before. It was the same ck mech but it was not the sparkling ck metallic texture he used to see on ck Cove¡¯s mech. The material of Hei Zi¡¯s mech looked like something he knew but it was not something he knew at all. Yes, it looked like some sort of reformed material, yet the marks on the surface looked like it was wholly natural, which was really amazing to Ye Chong.

    Hei Zi grinned the moment he saw how Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were all glued on his mech, "The master made it for me!" That master uttered in Hei Zi¡¯s mouth was none other than Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather.

    "What material is this?" asked Ye Chong as he went touching the surface. Both strength and ductility were fair!

    "Ye." Mu¡¯s voice echoed in his head, "This is a strange material. It is my first encounter of such peculiarity. It did not seem to be artificial. The stats were all-rounded perfections. It is an impable material to build a mech!"

    Well it was simply because Shang had hit his time so he had to switch with Mu. What a relief to Ye Chong.

    "Most of these are from the skeletons of the Giant ck Whale." As he identified the interest in Ye Chong towards his own mech, Hei Zi exined, "They are very ductile."

    Giant¡­ ck Whale? Skeleton? You made mech with skeletons? That was really new to Ye Chong.

    He wanted to inquire more about this "skeleton-hidden-in-mech" sorcery but Hei Zi was already hopping into his cabin. Eventually Ye Chong had to inhibit his curiosity as he brought Nan Nan into the cabin, starting off their journey.

    The mechs moved extremely fast. It did not take them long to hit the boundary of Zeuth.

    They kept their mechs into the dimension after they hadnded sessfully.

    "I had only came here a few times before," mumbled Hei Zi. "Not really sure here. Dr. Lu was someone I heard from gossips. We need to ask around."

    "Mhm," and again, a simple response from Ye Chong. They had been through various ces, meeting up with countless great doctors at the area, but none of them could identify Ye Chong¡¯s illness in the end. Ironically, some of them even assumed that this was a stupid prank pulled off by these irresponsible, immature youngsters as they angrily abandoned the two bewildered men, waving their sleeves restlessly home.

    Asking the way became the mission for little Nan Nan, simply because she dealt the most damage to motherly females. And it worked like a charm, in no time they had gotten the exact address for Dr. Lu, thanks to the kindest enlightenment from this momma on the street. They reached the said address fast.

    "Is it here?" pointed Ye Chong at one house surrounded by quite a number of mechs.

    There were 5 mechs surrounding the corners of this house. It looked like a war could brew anytime¡­

    "That should be it," Hei Zi sounded a little unsure¡­

    "Antsient¡­Rock Sutreeet¡­ Seven Paive Tree," Little Nan Nan was reading the address, which was "Ancient Rock Street-753". She tried reading it carefully and then dered it proudly, "It is here! We found it! We did it! We did it! We did it! Hurray!"

    But what were those mechs doing here? Ye Chong and Hei Zi looked at each other in dismay.

 Chapter 120 - Getting Involved

    <h4>Chapter 120: Getting Involved</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong observed thendscape carefully while taking a look around the mechs parked outside the building. They did not seem friendly. A fight could easily take ce with these mechs around. Ye Chong could be ill inside, but his intuitive sensitivity towards a brewing brawl did not appear to be reducing anytime soon. Anytime, anywhere, where Ye Chong stood, he could feel the hidden violence wafting in the air.

    The models of the 5 mechs were rather foreign to Ye Chong. Well, ever since Ye Chong ventured into the Orbits, he started noticing the fact how all the mechs in the Orbits happened to be utterly contrasting to the design and style of mechs outside. They were so different, obviously they came from totally dissimr branches of the craftsmanship.

    The mechs were of a variety of shapes, which most of them depicted the appearance of animals. That was quite rare at the others Ye Chong had been in. He dide across several kinds of beast-form mechs in the major gxies but a great number of pilots took the humanoid model in actuality. Men were known as the head of all living things in the world. Thus it was likely for one to assume men being the ultimate ruler of the world. Their preference over a humanoid model could be justified for it was the pride of all men, disregarding the forces and the ces, even the armory of ck Covers and the pilots from FMPAprised a majority of these humanoids.

    On the contrary, inside the Orbits, the mechs were literally animals - from insects and birds to beasts. It was as if Ye Chong had stepped into a mechanical zoo. He could see almost every kind of animals here, which many of the species were unknown to Ye Chong too.

    The 5 mechs - wolf, spider, bird, gori and toad¡­ I think? This was the conclusion after Ye Chong cracked his head figuring out the animals the mechs were portraying after a moment. And the uracy? Ye Chong did not have the confidence to bet.

    He was also unsure of the performance of these mechs inbats. He did find the positions of these mechs surrounding the house reasonable though. This could actually lock down the entire building, so no one inside could escape.

    Ye Chong grabbed Nan Nan off his shoulders andid her on Hei Zi¡¯s shoulders instead. "?" Hei Zi stared at Ye Chong in bewilderment, "Both of you, get home first," whispered Ye Chong to Hei Zi, the expression was frightening.

    "No!" Nan Nan pursed her cherry lips as her head rattled, "No! No! Nu! Nan Nan not heading back! Nan Nan wants to stay near big brother!"

    "What are you going to do?" Hei Zi¡¯s eyes were huge.

    His question was not answered. Ye Chong returned a cold re, which Hei Zi shunned at as he shifted his head away. He did not say a word next. His foot was rooted.

    "It is bad. Nan Nan could be in danger," calmly Ye Chong stated.

    "Fighting?" Nan Nan desperately clenched on Hei Zi, as she raised her chest, solemnly her sweet voice rang, "Nan Nan isn''t scared! Nan Nan can fight too!"

    "No, Nan Nan." As expected, Nan Nan was everything to Hei Zi. Reluctantly the tip of his toes struck the ground in agitation, "We are heading home. Mhm, I understand. I''ll be sending her home. Take care!" His tone was stony, as if he knew what Ye Chong was going to do next.

    Mhm.

    That was Ye Chong¡¯s ssic monosybic reply.

    "Put me down! Put me down! Bad Brother Hei Zi! I want my big brother! Put me down!"

    Hei Zi carried the unwilling little Nan Nan struggling on his shoulder back into the mech. They left, which then liberated Ye Chong from his final worry.

    "I am warning you!" It sounded like a howl from an uncontrolled beast, the voice boomed in the building. "Don¡¯t you ever think I am a coward or something! F*cking hell I swear if you try with your stupid tricks again and I¡¯ll make sure you can¡¯t leave! You guys actually have the balls toe and mess with me! Heh! I would not give a f*ck to any of yourst words anymore today! And whoever came and pleaded me, I would not f*cking care too! This is just elementary! I grew up with threats!"

    It was so loud that every single word resounded clearly in Ye Chong¡¯s ears.

    It was a dead silence after. For the next 20 minutes, nothing had happened. "It seemed to be working." "Told you he¡¯s the right guy to get deals!" "Right on!" The mechs outside were rxed judging by the development, as they chatted happily in themunication channel.

    Ye Chong was not certain of the situation, so he could not act just yet. He could have left and joined back Nan Nan with a formal apology to her highness. Although the doctor might be another wild goose chase in the end, he might not be cured, he had made his way here and seen everything! He was resistant at giving up this possibility which could be nothing in others¡¯ eyes. If the fight did not end, he would get involved!

    Well then, if violence was involved, Ye Chong no longer had other concern. To Ye Chong, this was merely a matter ofpetition in brutal forces, between two fearsome beasts aiming the same prey.

    Wham! Zoom! Out of sudden a mech scrammed out of the building, speeding away. Nevertheless, the pilot inside the mech apparently did not expect to be surrounded by these many mechs, that he almost crashed into the bird-mech hovering in the sky. Ye Chong identified theck of skills in the pilot¡¯s capability, tantly he failed to make a turn in time. He was crashing.

    The pilots in the 5 mechs were too engaged in their happy-go-lucky conversation as they never foresaw this happening. It was chaotic for a while, starting with a shriek from the pilot on the bird-mech. Out of intuition of self-protection, he immediately shifted his mech to dodge this unknown crashing mech.

    However due to this one dodge, the perfect lock-down was no longer perfect. There was a gap and the mech took advantages of it by attempting to speed through. The wolf mech hopped up high to block his way. The pilot inside the escaping mech was really bad at his skills. A scalded scaredy cat he was too! It did not take much of a hassle before the mech was locked down by the 5 mechs again.

    They finally had a chance to take a closer at this mech. It waspletely green, with 4 spreading wings, a bird mech it was yet a time smaller than the usual bird-mech. That was embarrassing¡­ and ridiculous too! The 5 men found this absurd that they nearly let such a flimsy mech out of their grip.

    This was known as the Greenbird. Simr to the Raven in the gxies, a Greenbird was the model for beginners in the Orbits.

    The guarding bird-mech in misconduct realized the fact that he was put under such an embarrassment because of this novice. "How would the group see me if I let a Greenbird nearly escape?" Shamefully he was angered as he actually made such a silly mistake. He activated all the cartridge in his mech and locked on the damned Greenbird. The pilot needed to be taught a lesson of life that mockery could cost! All it took would be a tap on the button, then that pilot would be in ashes!

    "Hold your fire! Wait for the boss, he wants the pilot. Don¡¯t kill the person just yet," the pilot in the wolf-mech calmly spoke.

    It looked like the pilot of the wolf-mech was the leader of all 5 mechs. The pilot on the bird-mech was biting his teeth and grudgingly lifted his hands away from the control panel, obeying the order in rationality.

    "Wait, if this guy is out and the boss is still in, does that mean something has happened to our boss?" the pilot in the wolf-mech was horrified.

    The others seemed shocked upon hearing the inference too.

    Boom! Abruptly, the sound of explosion roared in the midst of disbelief, as the 4 men witnessed their leader being transformed into countless specks. To their horror, there was no explosion actually! It sounded like an explosion but visually they just saw their leader "fragmenting". It was an unforgettable scene that would scar them for life. Within the flying specks of the mech, a mech with 4 arms and 2 faces drew near the remaining mates.

    "Leader!" The 4 men were agonized. They could never believe the fact that their charismatic leader who cracked jokes with them before would be assassinated in split seconds right in front of them!

    Who exactly was this strange mech?

    The mystery only shed in their mind once. That was no longer the matter! The remaining thoughts in their heads were about how they should ughter and mince this merciless inhumanity into million pieces to avenge their brother! Their eyes were all in brute.

    They went performing the inputs on the control panel, as they looked at their interfaces. To their terror, the screen disyed nothing! "But he is there! He¡¯s right there!" one man stuttered with his lips shaking.

    Impossible! The 4 men could not believe their eyes.

    "Get to manual!" The pilot of the bird-mech was unexpectedly aware of the situation as he screamed. He then shifted from automatic/partial-automatic lock-on shooting mode to manual mode. As reminded by him, the remaining men also switched to manual mode.

    "Finally we get to manual mode." The pilot in the bird-mech was relieved a little, believing that with his skill, he could finish the person for sure! The leader of their brotherhood had alwaysplimented his shooting talents.

    "I must avenge our brother!" Agony flooded his mind, his mental rity had never felt so above-average before.

    "It has to work!"

    "Hahahahahahahahahaha! I¡¯ll make sure you die in peace!" These were merely thoughts in his head. His hands trembled, holding the bullseye around; his eyes were glued on the screen, searching for that odd machine in desperation. "Where?! Where is he!" The strange mech seemed to have disappeared, leaving that greenhorn Greenbird all horrified, quivering at the corner.

    "Third-eldest br- look out!" "Brother look out!" It happened so fast that the younger brother could not even address his elder brother in time.

    The pilot in the bird-mech had his heart skipped a beat. "Don-Don¡¯t tell m-"

    A severe pain shrouded his body. He passed out next. In blurry vision, he felt the world spinning like merry-go-round as he saw his life all over again. He saw the strange mech, the specks around him, the spinning mates¡­ they were spinning too, they seemed terrified, then he saw the the leader. It was darkness after that. He knew nothing next.

    Pieces of mechs rolled over Ye Chong¡¯s mech. Wow the 5 mechs were utter noobs! But it was weird the fact that he was never detected throughout the battle. "Don¡¯t tell me¡­ Yu Di has some sort of anti-detection mechanism too?"

    The blood spilled on Yu Di a little.

    To prevent from being noticed due to unnecessary dramatic explosion, Ye Chong picked his trusty steed, the maic de to fight instead!

    The remnants were all over the ce, with the blood and some charred fleshes, it was a little frightening, Ye Chong had to admit.

    The Greenbird seemed to be all jammed up by the rapid development of the story. Ye Chong frowned as he figured things out - that Greenbird ran from the inside, it had probably something to do with the Dr. Lu I had been looking for¡­ He lifted the Greenbird with the arm of his mech. It did not il, obediently it stayed still in his grip.

    Well, I¡¯ll hold it if you don¡¯t mind.

    The weaponry on the Greenbird seemed rather obsolete and could barely scratch Yu Di, which was why Ye Chong could daringly hold it in the arms.

    Ye Chong piloted Yu Di back to Dr. Lu¡¯s residence, with Greenbird in the grip.

    At one corner nearby, a very average-looking man witnessed everything with his own eyes. In excitement¡­ or rather fear he switched on themunicator with his quivering fingers, "Greetings¡­" In courtesy he spoke, "¡­Mhm¡­ Yes I saw it with my own eyes. I swear. Yes, it¡¯s the mech, yes, 2 faces and 4 arms. I saw it very clearly, it has to be it! Yes, exactly the same as the hologram visual we had gotten. Mhm, right, he is currently at Ancient Rock Street-753. Okay, he had just entered the building¡­ I wonder what in the Haleyson he¡¯s doing¡­" The man stayed quiet for a moment, listening to the question before he carried on speaking, "I did not see his face. Sorry. I am very sorry. Yes he was in a mech, that was why I can¡¯t see his face¡­ Mhm¡­ he also killed the 5 mechs. It was horrible! I must tell you! It¡¯s totally sinister! ¡­Mhm, mhm, alright, thank you very much! Thank you sir! Thank you so much! I am always loyal to the organization, striving to contribute to the organization with better forces! Thank you for considering a rmendation to the leader! Thank you! Mhm, uh huh¡­ yes! I will stay guard! I will guard this ce with my life! No, no, it is what I should do always to serve you sir! Yes¡­ truthfully yes! Good bye!"

    He hung up. His eyes were fixed on the entrance of the building!

 Chapter 121 - Doctor Lu

    <h4>Chapter 121: Doctor Lu</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Ye, be careful. There is a 0.3 percent concentration of gaseous neurotoxin in the air, and it has a strong knockout effect! Hmm, there are three people unconscious already. I have not found the source of this toxin!" Mu warned Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was surprised. "A gaseous toxin? Someone released it?"

    "Yes. The culprit is unknown, their objective is unknown. However, you¡¯re not in danger, don¡¯t worry!" Mu exined inly.

    Ye Chong had only a hazy idea of the situation. "Oh, I know that. Yu Di is fully sealed. But, Mu, what do you think happened?"

    "While I did not see it happen, I believe the following deductions can be made - the people in need of treatment required a doctor¡¯s services, but they were not weed by doctors themselves. Coercion became necessary to make the doctor yield to their request. This is the most likely scenario. However, there is also the possibility of a moreplicated and unexpected sequence of events!" Mu replied.

    "Aren¡¯t doctors responsible to treat anyone in need?"

    "That is basically urate!"

    "Since it¡¯s the same routine of treating someone, then there¡¯s nothing different in treating these people!"

    Mu agreed. "That is so. However, a doctor has the right to choose his patients. This ismon knowledge!"

    "Right?" Ye Chong was confused.

    "Yes. While a person¡¯s rights should ideally not be vited, they will be ignored when those rights were in conflict with another person¡¯s interests! Once a conflict urs, it¡¯s up to the capabilities of both parties to resolve their differences, the result of which will determine if those rights could be defended!" Mu exined insightfully.

    "Hmm, the most important thing is still a person¡¯s capabilities! These rights are ultimately pointless. In the end, it stilles down to a fight!" Ye Chong spoke with contempt.

    "That may be true, up to a certain level. However, physical strength is not the most powerful, nor the most dominating. It is only a demonstration of one¡¯s basic capabilities, and is limited in application. The power of social rtions and wisdom are more formidable! However, these may be a little too difficult for you now!" Mu stated inly.

    "Oh, is that right? But I think physical strength is the most important part, and easier to make use of!" Ye Chong did not fully agree with the mech.

    "Hmm, that¡¯s because you¡¯re not familiar the rules of this society. Using these rules to your advantage will be too hard for you. You¡¯ll have to take it slowly. In this respect, perhaps Shang would be better suited for it!" Mu rmended Shang to Ye Chong!

    "Shang? That bastard, I can only hope he stays out of trouble!" The thought of Mu¡¯s alter ego brought a headache to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong and Mu exchanged their thoughts as he maneuvered the mech into the room.

    The room was not toorge. Yu Di made a wide hole in the wall and entered easily. The people in the room were all unconscious. As for waking them up, Ye Chong had no idea how. He was suddenly reminded of the fact that the mech pilot in the Greenbird he captured had escaped from here, and must have known more about what happened.

    The wide opening in the wall coupled with airflow ejected from Yu Di swiftly dispersed the toxic air from the room .

    Ye Chong tossed the Greenbird onto the ground and spoke coldly through Yu Di¡¯s audio amplifier, "Come out!"

    Greenbird copsed on the ground in an awkward sy,ying still for a long moment.

    Ye Chong knitted his brows, seeing the unresponsive mech. He whipped out Yu Di¡¯s dagger and disassembles the low level Greenbird¡¯s armor.

    In that moment, Greenbird¡¯s cabin opened in a swish, and a person wobbled out of the mech.

    Apparently, when Yu Di released the Greenbird roughly onto the ground, the mech¡¯s simplistic design with its mediocre hydraulic suspension system could not shield the pilot from the fall, despite the unremarkable falling distance. Greenbird¡¯s pilot was dizzy from the fall, and could not respond to Ye Chong. Upon recovery, he looked right into the terrifying mech¡¯s dagger. It shocked him to no end, as he panicked and made a hasty exit from the pilot¡¯s cabin.

    The guy before him was an unsympathetic killer. He had personally witnessed the five mechs outside crushed in an instant by him. Despite his vast experience in violentbat, this was the most bloody scene he had ever witnessed. Mech fragments mixed with blood and gore on the floor, making for a most unforgettable nightmare!

    The guy was a murderous devil!

    He stood in fear before the terrifying mech, face drained of color. Cold sweat rolled down his brows, and his legs shivered in protest.

    Ye Chong took a good look at the person. He was thin as a stick, tall and pale. It could be his natural look, or the result of shock. He seemed like a studious person. "No wonder he¡¯s so bad at piloting," Ye Chong thought to himself.

    Ye Chong watched through the holographic screen at the three people lying on the ground, and asked, "Which of these three is Doctor Lu?"

    The man paused momentarily before stuttering, "That, that would be me!" He immediately turned a few shades paler, fearful for whatever possible enmity the guy harboured towards him! He was beginning to regret his unbridled arrogance all this while. This was his retribution for all of his offences against others!

    His deration surprised Ye Chong. He did not expect this unremarkable looking man to be his target, Doctor Lu.

    Ye Chong opened the pilot¡¯s cabin and jumped to the ground under Doctor Lu¡¯s frightful stare. "To jump down from so high up and remain unscathed, is he human?" Doctor Lu felt his heart tightened.

    "Oh, you¡¯re Doctor Lu?" Contrary to Doctor Lu¡¯s expectations of a fearsome looking brute, the young man before him was lean and tall, not muscr in the least, and even seemed to be a tad refined. Even his voice was not overbearing, but the apathy and somberness in it warned Doctor Lu against causing trouble.

    "Yes, I am, and you are?" Doctor Lu asked cautiously.

    The young man did not reply, but asked, "Are these your foes or friends?"

    The sight of the people lying on the ground sparked a burning fury in Doctor Lu. He spoke through gritted teeth, "Enemies! Definitely enemies!"

    "Right!" The detached young man inly acknowledged before moving towards the three men. Under Doctor Lu¡¯s unsuspecting gaze, he produced a dagger and moved quickly. A slit of blood appeared on the throats of the three men. In two seconds, blood sprayed out of the three men¡¯s throats simultaneously, red blooming on the floor, a most chilling sight!

    Doctor Lu drew a cold breath, his eyes filled with terror. What little color that returned to his face now receded again. His slightly agape mouth was speechless. Doctor Lu swallowed hard, and unconsciously felt his own throat.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression did not change. Those three were Doctor Lu¡¯s enemies, and obviously with the five that he killed outside. Let there be no loose ends - Ye Chong believed in this principle.

    Ye Chong¡¯s ruthless methods had obviously terrified Doctor Lu.

    It was a pity for these three men. One of them was even the leader of a significant local gang , who now died by Ye Chong¡¯s hands, unaware of his fate till the end. Ye Chong did not know that a small move on his part had disrupted the local power hierarchy. However, even if he knew about it, he would probably not think much of it.

    After dealing with the three, Ye Chong turned and walked towards Doctor Lu. "Alright, no one¡¯s going to bother us now! Let¡¯s talk business, I¡¯d like to seek treatment from you!"

    "Treatment?" Doctor Lu¡¯s tight vignce finally loosened a notch. He knew that his safety would be not be at risk in the near future.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong replied.

    "Then pleasee this way!" Doctor Lu had no intentions of bargaining. Only someone crazy would risk offending the merciless person before him, and Doctor Lu believed himself to be some average guy,cking the courage to test the patience of this young man.

    For a moment, he felt sad for the cold bodies lying on the ground. Despite their strength, they had died unconscious. However, he quickly gathered himself - with this, his sister¡¯s death was finally avenged!

    His younger sister had died under the hands of that bastard, and that was why he stubbornly refused to treat him! He had nned to kill those horrible miscreants himself after using the neurotoxin, but his teacher¡¯s words haunted him. As a doctor, the de in hand must never be used to kill! These were the final words his teacher left him before he passed away.

    He could not bring himself to use his de. After a hard struggle with himself, he decided to escape instead.

    Without his treatment, the man would die in a year or two.

    "Consider it punishment from the Gods!" He consoled himself so.

    However, even that one year or two was snatched away by a murderer that came out of nowhere. The taste of vengeance was sweet and satisfying!

    As he indulged in his reverie, they approached their destination.

    Behind a door was the treatment room.

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s first time seeing a professional treatment room. The room was incredibly spacious. Unlike the brick structures outside, there were metals and all sorts ofposite materials. Bright and spotless alloys shone with a silver-white luster. Clever arrangements of the soft white lighting eliminated any shadows cast by those present in the room. This prevented any difficulties in treatment due to shading, such as poor eyesight.

    Ye Chong could sense that the air in the room was a lot cleanerpared to outside. The facilities were also clean to a fault.

    There were many medical apparatus in the treatment room, theirplexity a pleasant surprise to Ye Chong, who was proficient in mechanics. Topare mechs with these apparatus, the former would be broad strokes from a thick brush, while thetter would be intricate sketches from a fine pencil.

    Once he stepped into the room, Doctor Lu was like an entirely different person. His fearfulness earlier had vanished, reced with easy calmness and solemnity.

    "First, please lie in the maic imaging pod! I¡¯ll do a full body examination!" Doctor Lu spoke calmly, as though he was only speaking to an ordinary patient.

 Chapter 122 - Examination

    <h4>Chapter 122: Examination</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong sat opposite the table where Doctor Lu upied it. On the table was a thumb-sized silver-ish metallic pyramid, marked with an aperture in the center. The protrusion was embedded in theposite material that made up the table. Above the aperture, suspended in midair, was a seemingly illogical mesh of colorful threads, intertwined with each other like long, vividly colored thread-worms yfully chasing each other.

    Doctor Lu studied the colors through tightly knitted brows, with his unblinking eyes. The more he studied it, the more he frowned, until he finally bowed his head, deep in thought. These threads held the results of the many tests endured by Ye Chong, and the basis for Doctor Lu¡¯s diagnosis.

    Ye Chong did not disturb him, knowing that the doctor must be in a quandary. Ye Chong himself was a stranger to medicine, and since he could not lend a hand, he chatted with Mu instead.

    After a quarter of an hour, Doctor Lu coughed softly, and brought Ye Chong back from his discussions with Mu.

    Ye Chong looked at Doctor Lu calmly, but was in fact anxious inside. This strange illness was a bane for him. Even with his tough character, he had asionally pondered on ending his own life!

    Doctor Lu spoke in all seriousness, "Alright, let us discuss this problem of yours!"

    Ye Chong nodded almost imperceptibly, and his face did not betray his feelings. "Okay, let¡¯s have it!" Doctor Lu recognised the indifference found only in patients who understood that their conditions were incurable and fatal. However, with current medical advancements, such diseases were getting rarer, and Doctor Lu himself had only seen a few cases of them thus far. This was why their indifferent demeanor left a strong impression on him.

    "Of course, this is only a preliminary examination. Those threads are only for reference, and do not have the final say in things! Besides, we should also consider the exact nature of your request." Doctor Lu spoke with great delicacy.

    "Understood!" Ye Chong nodded and said.

    Doctor Lu¡¯s expression was a little uncertain, and he spoke after some hesitation, "Your condition is peculiar!"

    "Oh?"

    "From the holographic threads disy, your body is physically healthy, with quite a few qualities that are a few times, or perhaps a dozen times augmented from the average person¡¯s. Take for example, the power of your muscles and the general durability of your body muscle tissue. One can say that you¡¯re almost superhuman! This is also something I find quite strange. Your body is, in many ways, far superior to any human born in the current age. However, I am not an expert in this matter, or I¡¯ll definitely keep you here as my favourite experiment." Doctor Lu smiled congenially.

    Ye Chong affected a look of attention to his words.

    "There are many parts of your threads that are very different from the average person¡¯s, hence the diagnosis is difficult! I can only deduce your condition based on my own professional point of view. While many aspects look odd, what struck me odd the most was your Sima curves from points one to four. I believe that this may hold the key to exining your body¡¯s condition! Of course, this is only one possibility. After all, the human body is extremelyplicated. Even tiny changes can lead to oddities in the threads. Moreover, your body is already quite unique in many ways."

    "Sima curves?" The terminology was unknown to Ye Chong.

    "Yes, Sima curves are a littleplicated to exin, but they¡¯re mostly rted to the body¡¯s endocrine system and hormones and so on. From the curves, I believe you may be reacting adversely to some kind of hormones that you¡¯ve taken. As a doctor, this term may not be very urate, but I can¡¯t find a better word for it" Doctor Lu¡¯s face with tinted with some embarrassment.

    "Hormones?" Ye Chong felt his chest tightened.

    "Yes. While I may not understand the whole picture, I am quite certain that you must have taken some kind of hormones, or something simr to it." He exined further, "You should know that this is actually my specialty, and my teacher was a forefront expert in this field!"

    "It¡¯s possible!" Ye Chong recalled the silver liquid on ck Cove, and described it in great detail. He also talked about what he felt after being immersed in it, and the details of his episodes in the past. Doctor Lu listened intently and posed some questions along the way.

    The doctor pondered over the situation for long moments, but turned apologetic in the end. "Sir, I am certain that your physical condition is rted to that silver liquid you described. However, I had never heard of any hormones that can block a person¡¯s brainwaves. I¡¯m not even entirely sure now if this silver liquid is anything like hormones. However, I can rmend my teacher to you, I believe he would probably be able to enlighten you on your condition."

    "Your teacher?"

    "Yes!" Doctor Lu¡¯s expression turned to one of admiration. "His surname is Wang, and he is a leading expert in the field. Besides that, he is also very knowledgeable in other areas rted to the human body. I believe that he would be extremely helpful in understanding your condition."

    "Alright, how can I find your teacher?"

    "Hmm, I have not seen my teacher for years. If nothing unexpected urred, he should still be at the Windstar Hospital, you can try there. His name is Wang Weixing, a prominent character, you should be able to look him up easily in the virtual world. However, first, you must be able to pass at least five of the local sanctuary¡¯s tests to be able to leave the Orbits. As far as I know, the Orbits does not have any experts in this field. Of course, it is possible that there may be lesser known recluses in the Orbits who fit the criteria!" Doctor Lu exined, but his tone implied that he did not really believe in the existence of such recluses.

    "The sanctuary¡¯s tests? Five of them?" This was the first time Ye Chong had heard of them.

    Doctor Lu looked at Ye Chong with surprise. "Yes! Don''t you know about them?"

    "Hmm, I¡¯m quite new here!"

    "I see!" Doctor Lu realized his situation and exined, "To leave the Orbits, you¡¯ll need starships, but all the starships are controlled by the mentalist sanctuary. For those who wish to leave the Orbits, the sanctuary had set the rule that, if one can pass five of their tests, they will issue their starship to send the sessful person away from the Orbits and back to the Five Gxies."

    "Right!" Ye Chong began to understand, and asked, "What do they test you on?"

    "Anything you¡¯re good at. But not many passed the tests, only a few are able to every year. Well, at least I¡¯ve never seen any of them!"

    "I see, if that¡¯s the case, then farewell!" Ye Chong turned to leave.

    "Oh, farewell!" Doctor Lu paused for a moment before replying in kind. Looking at Ye Chong¡¯s lonely, receding figure, Doctor Lu was once again reminded of his merciless nature, and shuddered as cold sweat rolled down his back. Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s figure bing smaller and smaller, unlikely to return, Docor Lu couldn''t help but exhale in relief, rejoicing in the fact that he had not offended the murderer.

    "Mu, do you think the doctor¡¯s right?" Ye Chong asked.

    "I have very little information in this respect and cannot determine that. However, he was not lying, that¡¯s for sure!" Mu replied.

    "Not lying?" Ye Chong grew curious. "How¡¯d you know he¡¯s not?"

    "Based on Shang¡¯s curated information in psychology, if a person is lying, there will be obvious changes in the person¡¯s pulse rate, rate of blood flow and brain wave intensity. He was normal in these respects just now. That is the basis of my deduction that he was not lying!" Mu exined at his own steady pace.

    "Is that a reliable way?" Ye Chong was skeptical.

    "Only if Shang¡¯s curated information is urate!" Mu continued further, "Of course, with some training, these signs can be minimized, but they cannot be entirely eliminated. This is widely agreed upon in the field of psychology, I believe it¡¯s highly reliable."

    "Hmm, if that¡¯s the case, then this way of deduction is quite useful!" Ye Chong seemed to be absorbed in thought, before smiling and say, "I didn¡¯t think Shang would collect some information, it¡¯s really unexpected!"

    "Thatstment of yours, Shang has a few words to say about them, wanna hear it?" It seemed that Mu was very interested in what Shang had to say under his hood, and had turned to a more human-like way of speaking.

    The thought of Shang¡¯s incessant bbering brought an instant headache to Ye Chong. He immediately protested for mercy, "Please no! There¡¯s a high chance that he¡¯ll trigger another episode, I am not cking out here!"

    "Ye, you forgot to pay for the doctor¡¯s services!" Mu prompted Ye Chong.

    "Er, payment, that¡¯s a big problem! You got any suggestions?"

    "None!" Mu replied in his clear-cut manner.

    "Oh well!" Ye Chong shrugged carelessly, and walked on without turning back. On Blue ocean, life was peaceful, and Ye Chong had tried desperately to fit in with the normal way of life. However, a series of battles had ensued, and Ye Chong realized that power was the most important factor for survival. The so-called societal norms were useless to him. On the Orbits, life was a mess of struggles, and people fought to survive. It was as if he was back on the trash. However, his opponents were no longer mutants, but humans just like him.

    The so-called social norms never did have a deep hold on Ye Chong, and now, they were carelessly cast away.

    Ye Chong deployed Yu Di and slipped into the pilot¡¯s cabin. Since the door was too small, Ye Chong exited through the wide opening in the wall that he created earlier.

    Just as he was on the other side of the wall, something caught him off guard!

    Suddenly, his vision was filled with numerous bright spots, and Ye Chong, unable to react in time, could only see white everywhere, blinded by the light!

    Not good!

    Pow! A loud bang, and Ye Chong felt like he was flying through the clouds!

    The sensation was familiar to him - Yu Di was hit, and was now flying off due to the attack!

    "I am being ambushed!" Ye Chong finally realised!

 Chapter 123 - Is this the End?

    <h4>Chapter 123: Is this the End?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Why did Mu not warn him?

    There was no time to ponder further. In the seconds right after Yu Di was hit, Ye Chong¡¯s hands were like the wind! While his eyes were blinded by the strong re, he maneuvered the mech without dy due to his familiarity with Yu Di. The speed of his fingers undeterred by the momentary blindness as his hands moved smoothly.

    If one were to witness his act from aside, they would not have believed that this was Ye Chong¡¯s first time using the controls based only on his sense of touch.

    The Non-orderly Wavy Leap!

    This was the only advanced evasion technique Ye Chong knew of. He chose this technique, the one that he was most familiar with, without much thought!

    Ye Chong had no idea where he was truly headed due to his blindness - this was the true Non-orderly Wave Leap! Ye Chong silently counted the seconds in which he switched directions every time, trying to minimize this duration.

    This was not a wide clearing, but a popted neighborhood, where houses were densely packed.

    Ye Chong moved in random directions, his mech scraping along the ground in its flight, running into houses and destroying them. The brick houses were brittle, and kicked up swirling dust upon impact. However, Ye Chong was blinded, and could not take advantage of the fact.

    Nheless, his hindered sight did not imply his blindness to the situation. After all, Mu was here!

    "Ye, turn 30 degrees to the left!" Mu and Ye Chongmunicated through brain waves, their exchange faster than words.

    By now, Ye Chong¡¯s super reflexes were utilized to their fullest. With just his sense of touch, Ye Chong performed the maneuver.

    Ye Chong intently focused, ready for Mu¡¯s next instruction! Right now, the only one Ye Chong could rely on was Mu! Mu was now his eyes!

    "Hmm, good sense of touch, your error is below 3 degrees!" Mu offered a rarepliment to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong, awaiting intently for Mu¡¯s next instruction, did not expect Mu to be in the mood for suchments in the current dire situation, and did not know whether tough or cry about it. Could Mu be under Shang¡¯s bad influence?

    The sound of crackling explosions did not cease, an indication of the enemy¡¯s violent firepower! Who could possibly want to kill him?

    However, this was not the time to think on the question. Mu spoke abruptly, "Ready for impact!"

    Ye Chong dreaded, and held his body together tightly. Bang! The loud noise was heard, and Ye Chong shook all over, his hands gripping on the controls, feeling Yu Di¡¯s violent shuddering!

    "Stop!" Mu suddenly shouted.

    Ye Chong¡¯s hard-earned fundamental training saved his life in that moment. He did not lose control of Yu Di, despite the mech receiving a violent impact while moving at a high speed! A perfect stop! Perfect, despite the circumstances. However, this difficult maneuver was also equally destructive to Ye Chong¡¯s body.

    Ye Chong was dizzy from the sudden rush of blood to his head. Nheless, the difort vanished quickly! Ye Chong did not know that, if it was some other average pilot, that sudden stop would probably have imed the pilot¡¯s life.

    Rumble!

    The sound of explosion came from 5 meters ahead of Ye Chong. From that point, about 5 meters in front of Ye Chong, reaching up to thirty meters further ahead, the entire area was sted to dust from numerous energy based weapons!

    The st wave from the violent explosion nearly tipped Yu Di off its feet.

    Ye Chong felt the pain in his eyes eased substantially. He could not help but try to open them into a slit, as a dim ray of light entered his vision. While he could not see clearly, it still gave him an idea of what was before him. This was heartening to Ye Chong.

    "Ye, blink your eyes a few times!" Mu prompted Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did as told, and the objects in his vision became clearer. Ye Chong was overjoyed. He now realised that the eyes were fragile things, and losing one¡¯s sight was an absolutely terrifying experience. In those tens of seconds earlier, if Mu had not been by his side, he believed that his life would not be for him to decide.

    With his vision restored, Ye Chong grew more confident, and he was no longer defenseless. The first thing he saw before him was a huge crater, and he was inside a building. The building had lost half its structure, and what was left of it was also on the verge of crumbling down, little rocks and dust falling from above from time to time.

    "We have a situation!" Mu, who had never said anything like that, now spoke with worry.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong asked anxiously.

    "We¡¯re surrounded! There are 25 mechs in total. From the models and weapons, I believe they are a ss above the MPA¡¯s Messengers. Unfortunately, the enemy had solely used long range weapons to suppress us. The probability of breaking through their formation is below 7 percent. Fortunately, they seem to intend to capture you alive!" Mu¡¯s words had the effect of drenching Ye Chong in iced water.

    The sound of explosions did not stop, and were slowly closing in on their location.

    "What are they doing?" Ye Chong asked, perplexed.

    Mu replied evenly, "They are clearing the area of any obstacles, restricting your area of movement!"

    That was a ruthless move. Ye Chong could not, for the moment,e up with a countermove to hinder their suppressive tactics.

    With no good ideas in mind, Ye Chong began to examine Yu Di. The mech was heavily damaged, its arm with theser spear gone. Fortunately, the mech¡¯s main body was not severely damaged.

    The opponent was unscrupulous. The neighborhood was like hell on earth, corpses lying everywhere! The locals ran and screamed on the streets, but were mercilessly shot through by the many heat rays andser beams. Even Ye Chong, used to the loss of lives, couldn''t help but watch the bloody scene with sympathy. He looked up to see Doctor Lu¡¯s treatment room now turned into a huge crater. Given the circumstances, Ye Chong believed that even he could not have survived it.

    The sky around the area was upied by many spectating mechs, but none dared to make their move. The formidable force of the perpetrators, mechs one ss above the MPA¡¯s Messengers, were enough to make them stop in their tracks. Besides, this was in thewless and bloodthirsty Orbits!

    The ce was like a hunting ground, if you were powerful enough!

    Without any geographical cover, short range mechs were hopeless against long range mechs. Moreover, these were the most powerful long range mechs that Ye Chong had ever seen. Their massive firepower and terrifying uracy carved deep into Ye Chong¡¯s memories.

    If it were only one or two of them, Ye Chong believed he still stood a chance. However, Mu had said they were 25 of them. Ye Chong was certain that, should he make himself visible, he would be the target of all attacks. From the MPA¡¯s track record, the probability of missing would be less than 1 percent.

    Could it be that he was finally going to die here?

    Despite the circumstances, Ye Chong did not feel hopeless or gloomy. He had always struggled between the fates of life and death on the trash. Even if he died this time, it was nothing incredible!

    The sounds of explosions were getting nearer and nearer, almost in rhythm with his heartbeat!

    Ye Chong suddenly remembered something, and asked Mu, "Mu, why didn¡¯t you notice the enemy this time?" He was not ming Mu, it was just that had not meet anyone that was able to avoid Mu¡¯s scans. This made him very curious, especially since the enemy was a group of 25.

    Mu exined, "They must have used some special device that tricks scanning systems. It¡¯s very advanced, but I suspect they are not fully developed, since the effective range of coverage is very small. I could sense their positions once you were flung back about 10 meters from being hit earlier. They must have discovered our locations beforehand, or the trick would not have worked!" The mech paused before continuing, "However, the trick was undoubtedly sessful this time!"

    "There¡¯s something like that?" Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened in disbelief.

    "Yes, probably still in their experimental stage. My database does not have anything on these kinds of weapons!" Mu deduced.

    "So they want to capture me alive?" Ye Chong thought it odd. The firepower was heavy, but not intended to kill him, or the gradually approaching firepower now would be an unnecessary move. Ye Chong remembered clearly that they were equipped with the highly destructive nanowave guns, but had not seen them use it! If they wanted to take his life, the size of their group was also unreasonably big!

    "Based on what¡¯s happened so far, the probability is high!" Mu agreed.

    "Then that¡¯s just strange, why would they want me alive? After thatst encounter with Sabre, I can understand why they would want me dead, but why send so many people to capture me alive? This inefficient way of doing things is not very like them!" Ye Chong muttered to himself. Despite the seemingly hopeless situation, Ye Chong was still as clear as winter frost.

    "It is strange, the only exnation is that you¡¯re valuable to them alive!" Mu continued his train of thought.

    "Valuable to them alive? That makes sense! Then what¡¯s my value to them?" Ye Chong bowed his head, deep in thought. If he could understand the enemy¡¯s objectives, it would be advantageous for him. He might even be able to find a way to survive this. Ye Chong reyed all the events rted to the MPA in his head, hoping to identify their motives.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong noticed something. He remembered the time when he infiltrated their warship, and all their mechs had pursued him viciously. The enemy¡¯s target had been Fred the Great. Even if he could cause great damage to them, and if the enemy could aplish their mission, then the mission would have been their priority. However, they had abandoned their mission to pursue him. It was not just one of them, but nearly all of the mechs had set their eyes on him. This could only mean that they had found him to be more valuable to them than Fred the Great!

    Nheless, how could he possibly be of use to them?

 Chapter 124 - The Guardian Ring

    <h4>Chapter 124: The Guardian Ring</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind was racing, recalling every single moment of that incident.

    It had all happened after he infiltrated the enemy¡¯s warship. In those moments, what could have happened that led the MPA to want him so badly? In the warship ¡­ Ye Chong abruptly recalled the person on the bridge, Gu Shaoze! That¡¯s right! It must be him! He had given him a ring before he died, and there was a password for it. If not for the protection afforded by the ring, he would have died. Why would the MPA want to capture him? Could it be ¡­

    Ye Chong quickly went through his bag. He exhaled in relief, finding the ring. He carefully took out the ring given to him by Gu Shaoze and examined it closely. Whether by its design or material, the ring was unremarkable. However, he remembered how Gu Shaoze had hidden the ring on him to protect it, and Ye Chong felt that there must be more to the ring than he thought.

    To say that this object was a ring might not be entirely urate. It was only made up of two metallic wires intertwined with each other. The only interesting thing about the ring was that there were no welding marks - each metallic wire must have been welded at their ends to form the ring, but Ye Chong could not find any signs of the welding marks on the wires.

    "What could this ring be? Maybe this is what the MPA is looking for!" Ye Chong immediately realized the truth of things, and knew where his worthy with the enemy.

    Ye Chong remembered that Gu Shaoze had told him a password, but how did the code actually work? Ye Chong spent long moments finding ways to activate the ring using the password, without sess. The ring was like a unified entity, without anything spectacr to it. Ye Chong caressed the surface of the ring repeatedly to no effect.

    He tried putting the ring on each of his fingers. When the ring was fitted into his right ring finger, the stubbornly inert ring finally reacted!

    "Thank you for using Guardian. Since your brain wave is not recognised as a superuser, please provide your ess level password!" The bright and sweet voice was tinged with a little bashfulness, and Ye Chong thought it sounded familiar. It did not take him long to realize that it was the voice of the golden haired escort of Gu Shaoze. From the way it sounded, it did not take a genius to notice that she must have felt blissful when recording it!

    For some reason, the word "blissful" triggered a strong reaction in Ye Chong. He thought of his papa, Grandpa Qian, little Nan Nan, Hei Zi ¡­ The images of these people shed through his mind. Ye Chong was struck with a deep mncholy, as though he was bound to leave them all behind, wandering about the universe like a rootless duckweed.

    The sensitive Mu noticed Ye Chong¡¯s emotional changes and asked, "Ye, what¡¯s wrong?"

    Ye Chong abruptly broke his chain of thoughts and could not help but gave a soundlessugh. How could he have such weird thoughts in this difficult situation? Beside, weren¡¯t Mu and Shang always with him? Theirpany was absolute, no matter where and when!

    Ye Chong spoke softly, "It¡¯s nothing, Mu, I was just distracted!"

    "Please provide your ess level password!" Number Two¡¯s sweet voice rang again.

    Ye Chong gathered himself and spoke out loud, "Number Two!"

    Puff, a soft ring, and Ye Chong¡¯s vision shifted! A three-dimensional image,posed of numerous invisibly tiny grids, spun about in his vision, as a massive volume of analytic information had burst through like a waterfall! Ye Chong¡¯s pupils dted in response to the stimtion, as he desperately absorbed the iing information. As though sensing Ye Chong¡¯s efforts, the information came in faster as the spinning 3D grid showed new changes on its scanning results. Some points of interest were zoomed in or out and locked on, and the analysis results for these points were presented.

    Everything was too fast! In less than ten seconds, Ye Chong already felt his eyes slightly fatigued! Being used to colourful holographic disys, the ck-and-white 3D grid was a little ufortable to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong¡¯s vision could only recognize two colors - ck and white!

    Halting his efforts in absorbing the new information, Ye Chong looked around him to see where he was. However, as soon as he turned his head, his vision changed abruptly, and the analysed targets from earlier were reced with new images! Ye Chong¡¯s sharp mind noticed immediately that the image was now disying Yu Di¡¯s pilot cabin!

    Could it be that he was still in the cabin?

    "Mu, what¡¯s happening?" Ye Chong¡¯s vision was still in ck and white, devoid of any other colours!

    Fortunately, Ye Chong and Mu¡¯s brainwave link was unaffected. Mu¡¯s usually in voice was now with a touch of awe, "Ye, you¡¯re now in a miniature mech. It¡¯s really unexpected, that someone could build a miniature mech of this level! It¡¯s incredible!"

    "Miniature mech?" Ye Chong remembered putting a dent in Number Two¡¯s miniature mech. It left a deep impression on him.

    "Yes. This mech has tight security, and I can¡¯t scan it. You¡¯ll have to figure it out yourself. Hmm, based on the rate at which the firepower are closing in, you have about 2 minutes. I will control Yu Di!" Mu suggested reasonably.

    "What?" Feng Su was bbergasted with the news!

    "Hmm, yes, based on our information, they¡¯re having a special operation. They have sent out 25 mechs, all one ss above the Messengers! Who¡¯d have thought they would be so reckless! News of their warship was just only exposed, and now they are bringing so many of them to the Orbits! This person must be very important to them. This is the video we have just received!" These words came from an old man with a face full of wrinkles, donning a green robe.

    In the video were the 25 mechs surrounding Doctor Lu¡¯s treatment room in ambush, their positions boldly highlighted!

    "What are your orders?" Feng Su¡¯s eyes shone with uncertainty.

    "Your mission this time is divided into 2 parts. Firstly, we must have this person, and secondly, we¡¯ll demonstrate our strength to the MPA! This is our territory, and we will not allow such arrogance!" The green-robed elder humphed coldly, as a chilling gleam shed in his eyes.

    Feng Su felt her chest tighten, and asked cautiously, "How far should we go?"

    "That¡¯s up to you. All in all, we must demonstrate our strength without straining our rtionship with the MPA too much. Most importantly, we must get this person in our hands! They have acted so insolently and freely on the Orbits, and must be taught a lesson! The opponent is stronger this time, the higher-ups have decided to send you 30 Dawn mechs. Any questions?" The green-robed elder spoke with great dignity.

    Feng Su was startled. It seemed that the higher-ups were keen this time. With 30 Dawns, it must be thergest operation in these past few years! With 30 Dawns under her lead, Feng Su believed that she could definitely defeat her opponents. However, with this, the peace between them would be disrupted!

    Only someone in direct contact with the higher-ups like her would understand the power of the three forces, and the formidable supporters they have behind them! Feng Su hade from them, and no one knew more than she did of the dangerous undercurrent under the apparent peace!

    All this time, the three forces had restrained themselves. Now, MPA¡¯s operation was no different than a deration of war!

    Who was their target? Who could make the MPA send out their squads inrge numbers and risk war with the Orbits? As far as she knew, the three forces had always kept their calm. Even the battle-hungry ck Cove would not act so freely! This only showed that their target must be worth the risk! The higher-ups must have reached the same conclusion, and decided to get this person at all costs, even using a trump card like her!

    Dawn models were the lowest level mechs in Orbits¡¯ main force, on the same level with the MPA¡¯s Messengers and ck Cove¡¯s Cosmic re. The tripedal beast had a unique sense of bnce, with speed and firepower between that of ck Cove and the MPA. However, when paired with the sanctuary¡¯s pilots, it would be as powerful as the Messenger or the Cosmic re. Its green exterior made the mech, with an animal facade, looked more like a real beast. However, unlike the menace of ck Cove and the elegance of the MPA, Dawn had a touch of nature to it.

    Feng Su¡¯s purple mech stood out amongst the green Dawns. This was the elite mech famous amongst the three forces - Wings of Nirvana. Like a work of art, the mech shone with a purple, metallic gleam. Its 72 tinyteral fins could arrange themselves flexibly like theyers of feathers on a bird¡¯s wings. This allowed more freedom in movement for Wings of Nirvana, but demanded equally high maneuvering skills from its pilot. The elegant design had a natural quality to it, with abination of short and long range weapons for a bnced performance. With a mentalist like Feng Su, an ace to pilot the mech, Wings of Nirvana was now a formidable opponent with unimaginable potential.

    Feng Su arranged the 30 Dawns to be in teams, and surrounded the area. They were grouped into three squads, hiding in obscure corners, waiting for the perfect time for an ambush. Feng Su knew that, for the elders, the MPA¡¯s target was their main priority. It was not particrly important tounch a crackdown on the MPA. Beside, if they could get their hands on the MPA¡¯s target, it would already be a severe blow to their opponent!

    Feng Su¡¯s decision was unquestionable. With the legendary Wings of Nirvana as their leader, who would dare to voice an objection?

    They were like a pack of hunters, furtively observing the situation!

 Chapter 125 - Fish and Net I

    <h4>Chapter 125: Fish and Net I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The attacks outside were closing in, slowly but surely.

    Inside the almost-crumbling building, things were not as calm as it seemed. Like its heavily bruised exterior, the inside was littered with holes. A thoroughly golden colored humanoid was constantly moving around in the building; the walls were like paper-thin barriers, never hindering the humanoid¡¯s movement. The astonishing fact was that, despite the heavy damage inflicted, the half-building structure was still standing, and one could not help but apud the brick structure¡¯s admirable stability.

    However, if an architect were to witness this, they would have been bbergasted. The damages were all inflicted at ces that would not affect the half-building¡¯s main structure, as though they were all the result of stringent calctions. What was left of the building had a shifted center of gravity, and its support structure was heavily vandalized, but just as the building¡¯s copse seemed imminent, the golden humanoid¡¯s "renovations" greatly reduced the probability of copse!

    That golden humanoid was Ye Chong.

    One could not help butmend Gu Shaoze¡¯s ingenuity! The miniature mech was spectacrly designed, and even Mu could not deduce much of the mech¡¯s functioning principles.

    Miniature mechs were a branch of mech design, unappreciated throughout its existence, researched by only a few aristocratic families; and Gu Shaoze¡¯s miniature mech, Guardian, was entirely different from the average miniature mech.

    Guardian looked like a space suit. The metallic facete pressed against Ye Chong¡¯s face, with an odd pair of eyes in alternating silver and ck. His head was fitted with a cover of the same metallic make, and the insides were fitted with an advanced scanning system. The shoulders armors were tough, and Ye Chong could only regret on theck of barbs on the armors. The main engine was spread across his lower back; the engine¡¯s power surprised Ye Chong when he first activated it.

    The most inexplicable feature was that every joint of the Guardian was equipped with auxiliary engines. These auxiliary engines were not used for direction maneuvering, but to amplify the mech¡¯s strength. With Guardian, Ye Chong¡¯s strength was now nothing short of astounding. With a short burst, Ye Chong could elerate to an astonishing Mach 10! Even Harmony of the Winter Aria could only reach a maximum of Mach 7, and the average starship could only fly at Mach 3 or 4.

    With Guardian on him, Ye Chong could now attack with the force of an average mech! One should know that an average mech was about 10 meters tall, and giants like Yu Di could even reach to an astonishing 20 meters. Guardian, however, was only slightly less than 2 meters tall. With such arge difference in size, the chances of Guardian being locked on and hit decreased greatly.

    While offering such outstanding physical abilities, the mech also required good piloting skills. Perhaps only someone like Ye Chong, with nearly inhuman abilities and an incredulously robust physique could pilot this superior mech. Due to spatial constraint, besides the inherent cushioning property of the unknown metal that made up Guardian¡¯s main body, there virtually were no suspension systems for the mech! With an eleration from at rest to Mach 10 in 1.2 seconds, the force due to the abrupt change in velocity would have squeezed the guts out of a normal person!

    Weaponry was Guardian¡¯s weakness. The 2 daggers by its thighs left Ye Chong a little disappointed. The daggers were sized like the ones used by humans inbat; can such tiny weapons pierce through mech armor? The brass knuckles also seemed suitable only for humanbat, and not one between mechs! It seemed that Gu Shaoze had only designed the mech for his skillfulbatant of an escort, the golden haired Number Two, and did not emphasize much on weaponry.

    Guardian - the name was fitting for the mech!

    Ye Chong waspletely covered in the luster of golden metal, in a mech with a modern design. If not for the luster unique to metals, Ye Chong would have suspected the mech to be made of something non-metallic. Ye Chong could even feel the softness of the metallic facete; pressed against his face, the facete changed ording to his facial expressions. Could this malleable metal be any good for defense? Ye Chong was highly suspicious!

    There were too many things that perplexed Ye Chong, but he did not have the time just now to explore them. The sounds of explosions were approaching, and the st waves shook the vulnerably swaying building, with small rocks and dust falling from above!

    Time was too short! If he had more time, Ye Chong believed that he could, with the help of Guardian and Mu, break through the opponent¡¯s surrounding formation. It was a pity that he remembered toote about the inconspicuous ring that Gu Shaoze handed to him before he died! Nheless, regret was not a good habit. Ye Chong pulled himself together and meticulously went through his experience in controlling Guardian.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong stopped, and listened. "Huh?" The enemy¡¯s attacks now felt different to Ye Chong; they were more disorganized and not rhythmic as before. What happened?

    Just then, Mu spoke urgently, "Ye, something¡¯s happened, get ready to move!"

    "There was only one small area left, the enemy¡¯s target must be inside! Hmm, their shooting rhythm has slowed down!" As she noticed some of the enemy¡¯s mechs had stopped shooting, Feng Su knew that it was now time to move!

    10 Dawn mechs broke through the enemy¡¯s formation under Feng Su¡¯s order!

    The sudden intrusion broke the rhythm of the MPA mechs, but they reacted swiftly - almost immediately, 10 Messengers flew in to engage. Without any unnecessary forewarnings, tens of nanowave beams were shot towards the Dawn mechs! Another 10 of the MPA¡¯s mechs rushed towards thest piece of standing structure in the area!

    The two sides were obviously familiar with each other, and fought without hesitation. Then 10 Dawn mechs flew like butterflies amongst the flowers, flying forwards, backwards, or crossing with each other. The nanowave beams shot through the spaces between the Dawn mechs as they flew about in a seemingly irregr pattern, butpletely avoiding the attack.

    The round of fire left the enemy unscatched, and the MPA¡¯s arrogant Messengers were shocked!

    MPA was equally informed of the Orbits, but there had been no violent exchanges between them all these years, and a battle of this scale with more than a dozen mechs was unprecedented. Almost everything the MPA pilots knew about mechs from the Orbits came only from their intel.

    If one were topare the three forces, the MPA had a closer rtionship with the Five Gxies, and was more in touch with normal society. ck Cove and the Orbits were very different; they were practically two independentmunities. MPA¡¯s elite pilots also interacted more with regr people,pared to the other two forces. From those regr people, they derived a greater sense of superiority, and all those years of smooth victories left most of the elite pilots arrogant!

    The exposure of their warshipst time, with their main force mechs utterly defeated, was an unprecedented humiliation!

    Moreover, the 4 mechs that perpetrated that humiliating incident was not even part of the Three Forces! How could this not infuriate them? If not for the location in the Orbits, where infiltration was harder, and MPA¡¯s reservation against the mentalist sanctuary, they would not have sent a mere 25 mechs! However, given the swift response to their intel, where the MPA had prepared such a formidable force, one could see that they knew much about the Orbits! However, if Ye Chong knew that the MPA had deployed thergest possible offense they could gather on the Orbits against him, might he be ttered?

    Feng Su charged fearlessly towards the 25 enemy mechs! Her goal was to stall the 3 main force mechs of the enemy - Mermaid¡¯s Curse! Mermaid¡¯s Curse was one of the MPA¡¯s 3 main force mechs. Their defining features were their sharp offensive weapons, urate targeting and powerful automotives. If Ye Chong were here, he would have noticed that this mech model was identical to the one that tried relentlessly to kill to him some time ago.

    The mechs were in an elegant white, with protective fins that curled slightly upwards, giving an air of aristocracy. Besides the usual essories likesers and heat ray guns, they also came with the enormously destructive nanowave guns; and unlike the Messengers, the nanowave gun was their main weapon. Their propulsion system was also a notch above the Messengers. The lock-on mechanism was manual, which depended heavily on the pilot¡¯s capabilities. This was why pilots of main force mechs were very few in numberspared to pilots of the Messengers!

    These 3 Mermaid¡¯s Curse mechs were Feng Su¡¯s main targets. With the Dawns against the Messengers, and an advantage in numbers, the Messengers will not stand a chance! The only mechs that could be a threat to them were these 3 Mermaid¡¯s Curses!

    Mechs from the Orbits¡¯ sanctuary had peculiar battle strategies. They always battle in groups! One on one, a Messenger was more powerful than a Dawn. However, in the case of 5 against 5, both stood an equal chance of winning; in the case of 10 against 10, Dawns would hold the advantage. Hence, Dawn mechs always operated in groups of 10! This unique battle strategy was enough to confound the MPA and ck Cove!

    The 10 Dawns behind Feng Su flew in a swish towards the only standing building in the area! They had formed a circr formation; they believed that, even with 10 Messengers within their circle, breaking through would not be easy!

    MPA¡¯s mechs had their hands full defending themselves - the enemy was not looking to destroy them all, but merely keeping them upied, unable to attend to their mission! The purple Wings of Nirvana shone the brightest on the battlefield! The legendary trump card was true to her reputation - she was single handedly keeping 5 mechs upied, including 3 of the Mermaid¡¯s Curse mechs, and she seemed to aplish this with ease!

    In this massive operation, sess seemed close at hand, and the pilots tightening the circr formation could not help but felt slightly excited.

    All of a sudden, a golden figure shed by!

 Chapter 126 - Fish and Net II

    <h4>Chapter 126: Fish and Net II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    One Dawn mech the nearest to the ruins of the building was shot by this golden light! There was no forewarning. The beam was fast. It was faster than these pilots could have expected. Their trusty intuition and prediction of movements gained from their training became nothing when facing the velocity of the beam.

    They wanted to fight back, they raised the crosshair and shifted it around frantically. However the golden beam had already disappeared into the half-demolished building after giving a nice gentle touch to their ally before they could react.

    The remaining pilots on the 9 mechs spent the next few moments taking a careful look on their fallen ally. To found the rapport between themselves, they had started their training together way back. They were highly synchronized, they felt for each other, they were intimate like brothers. And one of their beloved brothers had fallen by then. The pilots certainly were troubled.

    If they were in a battlefield, they would never have been this reckless. But hell, this was not a battlefield to begin with! They were informed that there was only 1 person opposing them. Yes, only 1 person, a single man against the 10 Dawn mechs - if that would not spell "immediate sessful capture", what else would be? The sudden change in the situation was a little unsettling for them. They had yet to be panicked however. They were rather more confused as they failed to identify what that golden light was.

    What was that?

    ??

    Confusion filled their mind.

    And there was no response from their ally since then!

    Zzzt! Zzzt!

    They took a look at the mech, which looked really like a cheap fragile mode. It looked as if it could not survive a stronger impact, a cut was clearly discerned at the point of collision. No, there were multiple cuts! How could that happen? It was just like a touch-and-go! Those clean cuts revealed a pale greenish glow. The glow was familiar to the pilots. Hey wasn¡¯t that the glow from the energy inside the engine during operation? Why did the glow appear there?

    The pale greenish glow was calm at first and then, as if reacting to the air it was exposed to, it began acting up as it quivered violently in toppled stability! It appeared like a man¡¯s heart pumping vigorously! Pump! Thup! Pump! ¡­ Boom! They were blinded by the ring light.

    That mech blew up, right in front of everybody! The explosion of high density of energy was overwhelming in such a small area! The pilots did not manage to activate their protective shields. The mechs were blown away by the energy leakage! Their covers were scrapped.

    At once, the half-demolished building waspletely wrecked as it copsed with a st!

    The building crashed down with its bricks and aged cements wielding a dusty storm!

    In limited sight they saw through the flying dirt, a number of fine dark spotsnded right on the shaking mechs after the impulse stealthily.

    Ye Chong stood within the ruins, holding his breath in his miniature mech by Yu Di. The body size of Yu Di sufficiently provided a small space to fit Ye Chong within its shadow.

    Yup. That beam of golden light was Ye Chong¡¯s assassination!

    Ye Chong did not expect such speed from a miniature mech like Guardian when it was fully activated! Simrly, Gu Shaoze probably did not foresee the miniature mech he created to be this powerful. Initially the Guardian was meant for Number 2. All the designs revolved about every aspect of hers to assist her in achieving a Mach 4.0 in her speed. They aimed for a Mach 4.0, that was it¡­ till Ye Chong came and put it on¡­ and he started sting off into the field¡­ he actually hit a Mach 10.0. Shocking! This was nothing Gu Shaoze would have imagined!

    Ye Chong only wanted to try it out in his daily charity chores of saving the world before bedtime. He withdrew the daggers installed on the mech and gave a few shes so they would learn their lesson. But then, the few shes turned out to do way more than he intended! That capacity! These daggers were just like Ye Chong - a beast!

    Right at that split second when Ye Chong¡¯s dagger touched the mech, the interface fluttered in his sight and a notification shed within the numbers in ck and white, "Dagger for No.2: Activated. Initiation: Completed!" The tiny words literally shed so fast, they vanished that Ye Chong almost missed it if his eyes were not sharp enough.

    Dagger for No.2! Number 2? Ye Chong could not help but to snicker a little, though he was in a battlefield and it would be a bad timing for chuckles. Well, Gu Shaoze could have changed the names when he knew Number 2 was not going to use it anytime soon. However, the name on the screen simply showed that he did not even bother to try.

    The processor was otherworldly on the other hand. The monochromatic three-dimensional visual was illustrated right before Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. It was as if the processor was rattling with information as the illustration erged, twisted, panned over an angle, then to another in terrifying speed. Countless spots of the perceived surrounding were analyzed and visualized simultaneously. The strings of data came showering like a waterfall. Ye Chong gave up counting as his eyes kept missing the fast-forwarding information strands. Before Ye Chong actually hit the mech, he could only discern the 8 ovepping lines with 7 dots over the mech¡¯s body.

    There was no time for Ye Chong to figure out on what basis the lines and dots were drawn on the mech. Intuitively he just followed the 8 lines that appeared as he shed the mech. The speed of his hand-movement was further enhanced by the Guardian, allowing him toplete such a set-up in one fine touch with his daggers.

    He was not in the leisure to fulfill every procedure in a standard experiment from problem statement to hypothesis to inference and observation. The conclusion simply put was Ye Chong did not expect that much from a touch of a pair of pocket knives. The daggers might have been too mighty to be called pocket knives, but that was the truth. Using daggers usually equipped in a one-on-one on a mech was just like firing a heat-ray gun to a spaceship. Imagine what a mosquito¡¯s bite felt like on a whale. Ye Chong retreated in the speed of lightning! The guard of these 10 men were dense and impable. Hopefully Mu inside Yu Di could make a miracle somewhere, or he would be serving the men from the day onwards¡­

    Ye Chongughed bitterly in his mind. The Guardian was powerful¡­ only on the armor itself. The weapon on the other hand was a joke¡­ If he possessed a weapon fearsome enough to threaten the 10 men to back off and minimize the siege area, he might have a bit of opportunity.

    "Ye." That voice! "Get over here quick!" Mu¡¯s voice came sounding in his ears.

    Did something happen? Ye Chong¡¯s heart twitched but then he became relieved after. Is there any kind of situation that could be worse than this? After being sieged by 10 killing machines out there, everything else seemed like a pinch of salt, though Ye Chong jumped to Mu¡¯s side right away. "Mu?" Hended and was going to ask Mu what happened, "So-" Boom! An impulse came gushing into his body. Ye Chong nearly tripped on his feet. He pulled his body back into the stanceboriously as he saw the grid-shaped boulders raining down the ce. New data to the vicinity? Yes. The processor started rattling again as it began analyzing every single boulder passing by the camera. The information flushed Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. It was overwhelmingly fast that Ye Chong felt dizzy seeing them.

    Ye Chong was pleading inside the miniature mech. The analysis was initiated automatically and it could not be turned off apparently. It would look fine in a simtion room; an empty simtion room. If one were to wear this in a ce with lots of information like this for instance, where the visual zone was filled with numerous objects, one would be drowned by these analyzed data! Ye Chong had not gotten used to the speed of these iing streams of data so he had to shift his attention to the three-dimensional illustration instead! Technically, what Ye Chong did was absolutely right. During the production stage of this mech, striving to speed up the processing speed of the in-built, Gu Shaoze actually changed the widely-used hologram projection in the visuals to the antique simplistic monochrome, which hence produced an amazingly efficient three-dimensional images. The flooding data were actually going to have some sort of bug-fix in the uing maintenance but he was struck down by MPA before he could perform the new coding. Eventually, the maintenance did not happen!

    The Guardian in use was unquestionably an unfinished product in actuality. Well, practically, the "to-be-finished" part of the product was merely the additional filtering on the data stream to provide a sleeker interface. The other aspects of the mech were good enough of his expectation.

    Under the protection of Yu Di, Ye Chong was safely shielded away from the copse, though he did not seem to be aware of the fact that he was the ultimate culprit behind this demolition! Ye Chong, confused as he watched Mu piloting Yu Di to pick up the bottle of cartridge andunch every single projectile inside!

    At the very moment when Mu lifted the cartridge, Ye Chong already knew what to do next. It was the time to battle! The rapport between Ye Chong and Mu was justified.

    As mentioned, right when the final projectile wasunched from the cartridge, both Yu Di and Ye Chongmenced their movements! The sense of timing for Mu was literally wless, not a single second was gone to waste.

    As if synchronized, Yu Di and Ye Chong began concurrently!

    The difference between each other grew prominent as they moved. In short-term dashing, Guardian was at upper hand. Ye Chong was leading Yu Di by few meters ahead right when they left the ruins. Then Ye Chong saw the shattered siege by the foes and the cluster of dusts in the air.

    The monochromatic scope of Guardian was unaffected by the dust. Ye Chong found the 9 mechs very soon. Wait! Wow? Where¡¯s the other one? Did I break it? Ye Chong never imagined his little attack could annihte a mech!

    Thending point of the missiles Muunched was of great uracy - none of them missed! The dusty atmosphere provided the best camouge to the missiles.

    These projectiles sneaked their debut. The 9 pilots were rmed by the sudden strike! A number of them was struck right on the head. Fred the Great was a genius! His crafts were reliable after all! Ye Chong adored the missiles.

    "Over here!" hurried Mu.

    Ye Chong had rushed to the front of a mech and was brandishing his dagger. Like a braking car, he ceased his attack and retracted his weapon. A tip to the toe on the opponent¡¯s mech, he flung himself all the way to Mu hastily! The tip of his toe was enhanced by his strength through Guardian. It was so strong that the Dawn mech could not handle the inertia as it backed a few steps away.

    He looked at where Mu was and went astonished. Wow Mu was still Mu! Even if he was in a mech like Yu Di, every ounce of potential inside the mech had probably been excavated thoroughly! It utterly felt like two different mechspared to Ye Chong¡¯s own piloting when he was on Yu Di. Whether in regards of the speed or other aspects, Yu Di was lively!

    Since Yu Di had lost an arm, it could only wield a maic de. A leap by Yu Di and it came to the middle of two Dawn mechs. Before heunched the missiles, Mu had calcted the breaking point being between these two Dawn mechs. Thus, unfortunately these mechs received most of his bombardment.

    !

    Ye Chong was astounded.

    A simple Thomas¡¯ Spin! It was perfect! The maic de hid behind the buzzing sma shield of Yu Di as swung robustly, giving asional stabs right at the critical point!

    Within a blink of an eye, the Dawn mechs did not expect to be this weak in front of an expert killer like Mu! A solo fight was never the arsenal of Dawn mechs. They would require assistance from their allies. Thus, being weakened and unable to provide help to each other while facing the mighty Mu, these mechs eventually became a pile of metal on the ground without much resistance.

    Ye Chong had arrived, after the epic de wielding!

    The siege had lost its effect! There stood nobody before Ye Chong and Mu.

    It¡¯s now or never!

    The chance to escape the was right before them!

 Chapter 127 - Fish and Net III

    <h4>Chapter 127: Fish and Net III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Out of the blue, a stream of purple outline slitted through the sky. Cutting through the air, oveing the inertia, the object showed up right before Ye Chong and Mu, like a purple line drawn all the way from the sky to the ground.

    The metallic gloss on the purple armor must be due to an inclusion of a kind of unique metal in the alloy during production. The body of mech was slender, exerting grace and sophistication, which appeared to be fragile at first nce. There was a pair of wings folded right at the back. It looked odd but it seemed to be of great craftsmanship. It was the first time Ye Chong spotted such finely made wings. The texture, the detail, the glow of it, every side of it felt like the actual wings of a bird. Wouldn¡¯t such overdone wings be hardly a tool in flight? Wouldn¡¯t it be a mere vase for predicament rather than adornment? Could such wings even withstand the coefficient of drag in flights of high velocity? Ye Chong was upied with doubts as his belief alwaysid on the simplicity and conciseness of practicality. This mech before him had a rather conspicuous design. It looked like a bird but Ye Chong could not name what kind of a bird. Well, if Fred the Great was here, he must be waddling towards this beauty, giving careful caress as calling it the model made after the avifauna from the legend, the Phoenix itself.

    Nevertheless, our Ye Chong was not the cosmopolitan man like Fred the Great. His scope had yet to be expanded despite all the adventures he had been through. All his eyes discerned was the three-dimensional illustration which kept rotating in the interface!

    Ye Chong might not be able to judge the situation by the species of the mech but he was still the man ofbats. He wielded his own strength as he was able to conclude this very particr purple mech having superiority in terms of mobility from that singlending made. He even spected that it should be also nearly aspetent as Mu in terms of speed.

    As much as he spected, "Ye, be careful. This mech is good," notified Mu. "Good" was the killing term for Mu¡¯sment. This mech must not be any fraud from the street market!

    This mech was known as Feng Su¡¯s "Wings of Nirvana". The leader predicted, there were 25 mechs opposing them. And 20 of them had been held up by the 20 Dawn mechs sent. The situation was under control, both parties were well-behaved. The usual explosion and hell firings were not unleashed. The remaining 5 mechs, including the leading mech, the Mermaid¡¯s Curse were upied by my own men as well. Well, there were 10 Dawn mechs left on my side. It would be more than enough to take that man! Wouldn¡¯t it?

    But I never knew the one being caught up in my siege could be this strong!

    Though Feng Su was against 5 mechs at once, the fight was done effortlessly. It was a piece of cake and not much of her concern. Her major concern sat on those mechs she sent to capture the target, especially after "that" happened unexpectedly.

    The golden light came and left within twinkling of eyes. People could hardly see it, except for Feng Su.

    Was that a miniature mech? Feng Su, also being the expert of the mechs, identified what that moving thing was. The amazing capability demonstrated by the Guardian was shocking to her mind. Nobody else could understand better what could this possibly mean than herself.

    A miniature mech was nothing new in the industry. However, the issue always lies in the bnce of minimizing the size while maximizing the strength, which was indirectly proportional to each other from the beginning.

    The contradictory rtionship between the miniaturization of mechs and building of strength did not seem to exist on this mech. If she were to get this technique in hand, she believed that a technological breakthrough could be made with the techniques in her upper authority! No, it would be a leap in humanity, right away! The current style of battling could be changed and unquestionably, the Orbits would raise and be the leader of the 3 major forces in the gxies!

    The 3 major forces in mech development had set off for many years as they parted ways at one point. Nheless, all of them hit the neck-bottle of times in their development. Only such a revolutionary technique that toppled thew of size-strength rtionship could bring this mech world to a new stage! And this stage, certainly would be a great leap in the years! Whoever made the leap first would be at absolute advantage!

    Despite of that, if either one of the other two forces had obtained such technique ahead, the oue was starkly tant.

    The moment when Feng Su saw how Ye Chong used that ordinary looking dagger to slice through the armor of the Dawn mech, she was literally stupefied!

    This¡­ this was against thew of nature! No it was against thew of physics! Everything that I know of!

    Even aser sword could not slice the armor of Dawn mech open this easily, what trickery was this? What were those daggers?

    Imagine if the ck Covers ever acquired this skill¡­ with the horrifying closebat techniques they aced at¡­ Feng Su trembled helplessly.

    Any mistake in the information given would cause fatality in this moment. And there was. No one had ever thought that there was one more mech in the field!

    The reaction speed and the calction skills were too terrorizing! It was a moment of silence then a chain of back-to-back sequence of actions came urately. The foe seemed to have made great use of the situation and had shattered the wless defense she presumed into a million pieces. And that happened in a few seconds. The big mech leading the smaller mech rushed out of the siege! Feng Su no longer had the leisure to y with the 5 mechs haunting her as she jumped out and tried to hold the pair back!

    The Wings of Nirvana was surely the top mech from the Orbits, as it moved against thew of space it seemed. Traveling at immense momentum, it jumped across the sky, hopped right in front of Ye Chong and Mu to stop them!

    While Ye Chong had his eyes glued on this purple mech, Feng Su also had her full attention on this strange golden man.

    Ye Chong did not seem to be aware of who was piloting this purple mech however, despite the suffering he had been through because of this terrifying mentalist in purple cloak. Ironically, Feng Su had yet to notice this target she was going to capture was actually the fighter she misunderstood being one part of the ck Coves.

    Both of them had another fateful encounter under this peculiar setting where they did not recognize each other.

    The 5 mechs from MPA who lost the target seemed to be informed about Feng Su¡¯s strength as they did not inch towards her.

    "Ready? Aim! Full power!" The leader of the group bit his teeth as he ordered in the Mermaid¡¯s Curse. He seemed determined as the order roared rashly.

    The target he mentioned was actually Ye Chong and Yu Di with Mu inside!

    "Um¡­" the few men hesitated. Aren¡¯t we supposed to bring them alive? The order said so¡­ Why the attack?"

    Full power literally meant firing with all weapons avable, which was hardly used in actual war field. It was much potent yet also crippled. After the firing was done, the mobility would be disabled for the next 15 seconds and it could simply mean death in the war field!

    "I¡¯m not letting the foe go and get that strange mech! I rather lose it! I rather have nobody getting that in the end than giving it away!" The words rang coldly, with the tone highlighted by determination and ferocity, which frightened the men a little.

    If they were to return right now, being all defeated, aplete failure to the mission, they would be ultimately punished. The leader was right on his words, they would rather die in the field than being punished for giving the target away to the enemy.

    The 4 men obeyed the leader¡¯s order together almost immediately after. The 5 mechs stood still in the air as they set their gaze off the 3 mechs on the ground. All the cartridges, the guns on the body wereunched in a st. The main weapon was also fearsomely pointed right at Yu Di and Ye Chong.

    "Fire!!" The leader screamed on top of his lungs. A never-before-seen desperation filled his piercing voice.

    Almost simultaneously, Feng Su standing right in front of Ye Chong and Yu Di felt a sense of eeriness somehow. Mentalist at development of mentality bestowed her the bizarre sixth sense, which caused her to react at the first moment!

    A tip to the ground, she jumped up high and blocked the sight between the 5 mechs and Ye Chong.

    Her purple wings were spread open. It was then when they realized how gigantic the Wings of Nirvana were! It was literally 15 meter long, which made the main body appear much smaller than before. A wave of purple glimmer hovered from the wings through the air and coagted at 30 centimeters away from the wings. A sma bubble of pale purple transformed into a giant sma shield and covered the Wings of Nirvana entirely. Under Feng Su¡¯s wings, Ye Chong was also within the proximity of protection.

    Well, of course, such scenery came out in ck and white at Ye Chong¡¯s interface.

    The dazzling white re blinded the ce! Everyone could not help but to stop. The firepower from the 5 mechs converged into a broad beam of light. Nano waves,ser waves, heat ray waves, all sorts of beams came together at the same exact timing and frequency onto the same target!

    The extreme amount of energy inside that beam set the rm off wailing inside the hologram scanning system in all mechs. At one moment, every pilot in their mechs had their face drained, except for Ye Chong and Feng Su.

    The light beam struck right onto the sma shield of the Wings of Nirvana.

    People on the ground were blinded by another even more dazzling shroud of light. They could see nothing else thanplete whiteness, except for Ye Chong in his miniature mech.

    The unique monochromatic view inside the Guardian had produced a memorable scene to Ye Chong.

    Thup!

    A faint sound of a crash, felt like the egg shell was smashed. The white light beam collided into the sma shield which appeared to be glowing white in Ye Chong¡¯s visual. The light overflowed the space. The beam became splinters of fireworks and sshed all over the ce. They then disintegrated in air quickly.

    The collision of energy particles, with the point of collision being the center, caused a major impulse spreading throughout the ce!

    Yu Di was not as fortunate as Ye Chong. Mu did react in time to have his shield right before the chest. But Yu Di had been damaged before, which weakened the shield, making it like a b of ice. It did notst for even a split second as it turned to ashes by the light beams.

    Mu¡¯s irreproachable control was manifested at this moment. Of course, if anyone could witness such miracle by then! Within that brief and easily-overlooked second, Mu had warped into the proximity of the sma shield produced by the Wings of Nirvana. Even so, Yu Di suffered a severe loss, where 2 of its arms were gone. Only one was retained and it was the one with the cartridge. The other 2 vaporized because of that beam. The cartridge was empty. No ammo remained, which meant Yu Di was officially deemed as useless in battle.

    The collision of energy had produced tremendous strength, which even the Wings of Nirvana with immense capabilities backed off uncontrobly.

    Other than Mu, Ye Chong who still possessed a clear view of the happening saw the Wings of Nirvana approaching him helplessly. His eyes glowed cold.

    Exerted strength to the tip of his toes, the Guardian¡¯s bursting capability had elerated Ye Chong to a whole new level. The daggers were ready in his hands!

    The three-dimensional illustration rotated endlessly in the interface. The information came crashing like waterfall. The white dots and crossing lines became lesser and brighter at the same time! It became clearer!

    Locked on!

    Ye Chong¡¯s pupils shrunk drastically!

 Chapter 128 - Not the End, but the Beginning?

    <h4>Chapter 128: Not the End, but the Beginning?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong had a n in his mind. Without hesitation he climbed upwards and made a quick sh on the purple mech with his daggers.

    The mech might have acted heroically and saved his day, but Ye Chong was not foolish enough to have faith on a stranger, believing that the act was for his own good. If he did not give hindrance of some sort, especially to the foe before him, with its capabilities Mu would have probably gave a depressing figure on the possibility of their escape again. Such a golden opportunity for a golden man, how could he let it slip?

    Like a tinted bullet, Ye Chongunched himself all the way to this mech in rage!

    Feng Su was startled as she piloted the Wings of Nirvana all the way to the side. A sharp turn on her steer. The extensive wings folded softly like an actual pair of wings of a bird as it covered up the critical spot of the mech. The whole sequence of inputs was executed right at a whim.

    Trust your intuition! It was the unmovable belief in every mentalist, the source of their forces. It had also be a habit, the basis of Feng Su¡¯s life.

    Feng Su¡¯s action was rapid! But Ye Chong in his Guardian was faster!

    A brandish from his twin daggers shing the unique, cold gaze of cruelty, the de-wielding was indiscernible by naked eyes, the des seemed to have turned invisible in Ye Chong¡¯s hands. The air was waving in ripples as Ye Chong cut through the air. It was fast, too fast!

    But he felt nothing during the sh!

    That was surprising to Ye Chong as he believed that his sudden attack could have been effective, till the opponent dodged most of his strikes, as if the opponent saw it on a script and was ready the whole time.

    Due to the higher standing in sensory development, mentalists often possessed great premonition, which would be strengthened when more training were aplished! No doubt that such characteristic was extremely useful inbats. It allowed one to foresee the movements, the happening a momentter which gave you the leading position in fights, hence dramatically improved the likelihood of your victory!

    Well, with that said, the process of a battle was never as straightforward as it was always illustrated in the novel. Even if you were aware of the intended uing behavior of the foes, it did not necessarily mean that you have the control of the entire scene. While mentality yed a role in contributing to the likelihood of your victory, the standard of piloting a mech, your own strength etc. had far greater contribution. Conclusively, what determines the oue of a battle is always plural and one should not presume it as a factor of singrity.

    As mentioned before, there were 3 major forces in the gxies - the ck Covers were great with their arms and legs; the Orbits were great with their senses¡­ well, if that was the case, MPA should have the weakest pilots of them all. The catch was, however, the pilots of MPA had better mechs. Eventually, every faction of them shared a kind of perk. They were closely rted and certainly they were equal.

    Feng Su was the ace among the pilots of the Orbits. She had a well-developed mentality as well as impable piloting skills. She might not be recognized as the strongest pilot in the Orbits, but surely she was the pilot with the strongest extrasensory intuition and the fastest in reaction to it.

    Hence, even under the hacking speed of Ye Chong, she dodged most of them solely because of her overwhelming intuition!

    What?

    No¡­ It can¡¯t be. Ye Chong was dumbstruck. With his speed, it should not be strange that even Mu would fail to avoid the attacks¡­

    However the reality was in fact¡­ the foe dodged it!

    Quite a number of the shes he made were missed. The few shes struck were also way off the tangent sketched by the Guardian in the interface.

    Luck? Coincidence? Or the foe had something in the back? Ye Chong was skeptical.

    "Ye! Go! Now!" Mu¡¯s tone sounded intensely hurried. If Mu said so¡­ Ye Chong could not afford to disobey the instruction as heid the tip of his toes at the foe andunched himself away to Yu Di like a golden arrow. The rapport between the bestbination was shown again, as Mu sped up Yu Di, rushing his way to Ye Chong, opened his one remaining arm. Thup! Ye Chong ng on the single arm like an ape.

    Undoubtedly, because of the enhanced strength by the Guardian, the Wings of Nirvana was forced away the moment Ye Chong made the leap.

    Under Mu¡¯s wless calction, he sped up Yu Di in the shortest time possible and grabbed Ye Chong and they disappeared!

    The ring light faded away atst. People on the ground looked at each other in bewilderment.

    "What ¡­ happened¡­?"

    "I don¡¯t know¡­"

    "Are we abducted?"?"Hey! What are these?"

    "The Messengers? Why are they¡­Ah!!"

    ¡­

    !

    The people realized they were surrounded by enemies. The scene turned chaotic after. The mechs from both sides, the MPA and the Orbits went after each other. Nheless, the Orbits outnumbered the MPA and they were better supports in a team fight. They covered each other up andstly they surrounded the Messengers instead.

    The Dawn mechs¡¯ eyes lustered upon their prey as the Messengers backed off carefully. Although the pilots from MPA did not fear death as their destiny, they were horrified by the intensity. They held their guards high, their weapons were charged, anticipating the final moment.

    The pilots from the Orbits awaited the ultimate order from their leader. As soon as Feng Su uttered the keyword, these filthy intruders from MPA would have their remnants here. They held no fond towards intruders, only pure hostility, especially when they actually lost a brother in this intrusion! The golden man might have been the culprit, but obviously he had got something to do with these intruders!

    And that was how the pilots from MPA became the scapegoat of the day!

    Both parties were unexpectedly calm, as one identified one¡¯s own inferiority in the situation while the other awaited the order from Feng Su!

    In sheer silence, they red at each other. Eerie it was to see about 50 mechs hovering in the sky, one flock towards the other, yet not a sound was heard. It was too quiet that it felt like a static scene from horror movies.

    Feng Su''s heart rumbled with shock. The flocks by her side were not her concern at all, but the golden man was. The fact that he was not affected by the zing light was more than surprising to Feng Su. The rm had been raised to Level : Yellow. Feng Su was enraged upon seeing Wings of Nirvana in scratches. Her trusty steed was never hurt! She took it as a sign of pride being an ace in the team, for no one including the mech itself would be hurt under her leadership! Nevertheless, it was history.

    Scratches of a depth of roughly 30 centimeters was nothing to a mech of10 few meters tall. But the shocker was that these scratches happened to be at the weaker area of the armor! Feng Su was horrified as she imagined what could happen if she failed to dodge in time, with the shes on the few weaker spots on her armor. She would¡­ She would not have survived¡­

    Shuddered, Feng Su held back her thought. In a brief second, the man actually found the weak spots on my mech? How horrible!

    Was it because of the sharp eyes of that man? Or was it because of that amazing gadget on the mech?

    The cuts were smooth? Howe? My Wings of Nirvana is the highest ranked mech in the Orbits! The armor of the main body is sturdier than ever! It should have been at least a strong mech even at the origin of this stranger! Feng Su had confidence to dere her mech being at least solid enough to take attacks even from the ck Covers, those known for their top closebat skills.

    That miniature mech could not stop giving me surprise, couldn¡¯t it? No wonder the MPA went so far for this! If I were to report this to the authority, I assume that they would take some sort of action!

    And the information was absolutely wrong! There were two people here? The pilot in the other mech was someone not to be ignorant of. Such an expert! That uracy, that wlessness in his piloting, there was no ineffectiveness! With the calction and foresight of his, he should be far more potent that the pilot in the gold miniature mech! The design of the mech was one-of-a-kind and the cartridge was well-ced! I wonder which genius put up such design?

    These anomalies! Feng Su was amazed. Her will to conquer burnt up high. If I ever met them again¡­

    Feng Su could not help but felt excitement rolling in her heart.

    Out of ponder, she took a look around and soon she got hold of the situation.

    The mission was notpleted, but it did not mean that Feng Su was out of luck! Firstly, the infiltration of MPA pilots in the Orbits had been exposed. Secondly, in spite of the fact that the target had escaped, as long as they were in the vicinity of the Orbits, Feng Su¡¯s men would stand far better chance than the other forces, simply because they could call all men to retrieve the target, which was something iparable to the intruding foes who shared a much more pitiful amount. Well, it had caused enough fiasco to rm the ck Covers at the very least.

    Still¡­

    Feng Su knew it well that it was not easy for someone to exit the Orbits.

    Most importantly, the value of this miniature mech had been tantly justified, along with precious first-hand information about it!

    Regarding these men from MPA¡­ Feng Su was a little puzzled. It would be bad to just let them go¡­ But if she were to kill them¡­ they were not going to sit still and let the beams hit them, then she would lose more men in the end and it only signified an obvious taunt to MPA, leading a gctic war some time in the future¡­ That would be bad too¡­

    A bloodshed should not be what the authority desired¡­

    While being puzzled by the dilemma, a flock of mechs flew to the ce. They were all Dawn mechs, densely connected. There should be at least 100 of them by a nce as they traveled in a perfect formation speedily towards her.

    The 25 mechs from MPA started acting in panic!

    The new batch of Dawn mechs st into 10 smaller teams as they went into their position like 10 winding snakes, further enforcing the siege!

    The 29 Dawn mechs by Feng Su were excited by the participation of their allies! This was because it certainly showed a difference in strength with these additional men! And it only would take a word from Feng Su to officially sear these intruders into ashes! Stimted, the radical fighters had their blood boiling, trembling.

    Beep.

    Feng Su received an order from the authority.

    She headed into the sieged area, with 20 Dawn mechs surrounding her, covering the Wings of Nirvana straight away!

    Her soft voice echoed throughout the field via the loudspeaker.

    "To the intruders, I believe you should have received a word from our supreme authority on allowing all of you to surrender. To refrain from unnecessary conflict, for the sake of our Orbits, please deactivate your weaponry, get grounded immediately and deploy all your mechs and gadgets. The mechs would be under our safekeeping for security purposes. Rest assured that they would be returned once you are exiled from the Orbits. I request your constant cooperation!" and she retreated to the outside.

    The pilots from the MPA were biting their lips. Their expression was grim as they passed their mechs, the meaning of their life, the enlightenment of their soul, the exit of their passion to an insignificant other. Some pilots of an younger age could not control but to shed a tear. The warriors who have never feared the demise to their role, had submitted their identity as an inevitable fate. The pain, the agony¡­ a fate worse than death, the men from the Orbits could not have their eyes on such demolition.

    Feng Su watched on in silence. She was aware¡­ that the authority must have made some kind of agreement with the MPA. Something was nned¡­ or how would these pilots lower their pride as they hand over their precious that easily?

    Sigh, probably this was not the end. This was just the beginning.

    Thought Feng Su as her mind wandered off to somewhere else in the future.

 Chapter 129 - Loss and Gain

    <h4>Chapter 129: Loss and Gain</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sob.

    Ye Chong gave a stare of a husband looking at a dying wife at Yu Di. It was harshly devastated by the air raid, like Harmony back then. And this one could be better off at the dump. How fateful he met Yu Di, such fitting mech to his personality with such striking gadgets in-built and he lost it. The cool appearance, the cartridge, the four arms, everything had be the lump of iron on the ground. It was heartbreaking to Ye Chong as not only Yu Di was a rare all-rounder, the four arms on it allowed his overwhelming hand movement speed to exert the maximum output. After pairing with various models of mechs, Yu Di was undeniably the perfect consort!

    And¡­ the former glory was gone! He took a good look at it, his hands caressing it in sympathy. Nothing like Yu Di before was remained. It was fully charred. The body was cracked from the impulse caused by the energy collision. The arms¡­ It was a pain in Ye Chong¡¯s heart to even mention it. Only the arm with the cartridge was intact, the rest had probably raised upon the heaven, with a tiny bit of them stuck at the body. The state was hopeless, as the missiles were specially tailored by Fred the Great, those were unique and non-renewable, except if they encountered Fred the Great again¡­ Wonder how many light years it would take if they were going to meet again.

    Other than the engine, none of the other parts were functional¡­

    Hei Zi felt the cracks and scratches on Yu Di with his hands, "Gosh! Did they cause these? But I must say you are fortunate to make it out alive!" eximed Hei Zi. Though the fact that he abandoned Ye Chong was haunting them. It could be for Nan Nan¡¯s safety, still¡­ Hei Zi couldn''t forgive himself!

    Nan Nan sat across Ye Chong¡¯s shoulders with her hands clipped on Ye Chong¡¯s cor to prevent falling as she began hermentary, "Poor¡­ poor big, big mech!" Yu Di was about 20 meters tall, which was twice the length of an ordinary mech, hence the "big, big" statement from Nan Nan.

    "Sigh," Hei Zi took a moment to inspect the mech, his face looked depressed, his head shaking. "There¡¯s nothing we can do. What a waste to a good mech."

    Ye Chong stood before Yu Di, his hands stuck on its body, hoping that a miracle could happen. Maybe he could still feel the heartbeat somewhere! Maybe he could ask Hei Zi¡¯s master to try fixing it! Yes! "Ye." Mu¡¯s voice came ringing in his head, "ording to the oue of my analysis, the probability of reversing the damage done to Yu Di is below 5%." An official deration of death from the expert.

    "Big brother¡­" Nan Nan¡¯s words came weakly.

    Ye Chong was calm on the outside but he was wailing on the inside! Although he had Guardian, which by any chance would perform way better than Yu Di in his hand, its attacking range was much smaller than Yu Di. It was also a typical model for usage within the atmosphere, which raised another issue of whether the miniature mech could travel in space like Yu Di before. And then capability ofbating in space¡­ you''ve got to be joking! Chances were Gu Shaoze never thought about using this suit to fight in space! The mobility of the Guardian was granted by Ye Chong¡¯s own explosive capacity of muscles plus the magnification by the miniature engines. You could not find anything to exert forces on to produce movement! Ye Chong might have ended up in space and got stuck in the weightless state. There could be meteorites for him to step on but meteorites do note every minute! Without the amazing burst of speed in short distance for survivability, the Guardian was merely a bullseye for the other pilots to aim on!

    Frankly speaking, Yu Di was more bnced in all aspects. It was a brawling model but with the addition of the cartridge, the aspect of being able to do ranged attack was fulfilled. And it would still be a good model for brawling in space!

    Ye Chong was in the Orbits - most likely he would encounter battles in space and fortunately he got the Guardian - the finest weapon on the ground, which had zero capacity in space. Ye Chong tried to be optimistic but he could not! How could Ye Chong not be sorrow about this? Moreover, thanks to the grand debut by his Guardian, the entire infantry of the Orbits should be coveting the miniature amazement. He could imagine how thousands of Dawn mechs would eat him up the moment he appeared in a golden suit, ring at the pedestrian like the LED of the street!

    You had finally found the Excalibur somewhere in the world, but you must hide it or you''ll die, you could not wield it in front of people, you could not even use it to chop trees because the people woulde like a nest of bees hunting you down and for all the trouble you broke the chopping knife of your house - this probably summed up Ye Chong¡¯s gloomy sd days.

    "Don¡¯t be sad, pal!" By looking at how grievous Ye Chong was, Hei Zi smiled with his teeth shining brighter on his tanned skin, "The new does note without the old leaving." There was some mystery running on his face. It was weird to see a sincere man like him to put up such a mischievous face.

    Ye Chong stared at Hei Zi skeptically. Hei Zi quickly lowered his head. Huh¡­ Ye Chong could see somehow Hei Zi was trying to hold hisugh the whole time. What was so funny?

    It was dinner and Ye Chong had it with Nan Nan and Hei Zi as usual. The mentioned grandfather had never appeared before the dining table. Sometimes Ye Chong wondered if the sincere brother and sister were having a fictional grandfather who was in pink of health in spite of an old age.

    Hei Zi was happily having his meal though. Back then, Nan Nan was a monster to tame during dinner time. It took him wrestling effort to get the girl sitting still to finish her food. Things had changed ever since Ye Chong arrived. Nan Nan was tamed by herself, where every dinner ran smoothly. The first time it was Hei Zi that could feel the family life was such wonder.

    Ye Chongy on the bed after dinner. Little Nan Nan was sleeping on her bed nearby. Soundly Nan Nan slept, anyone could have told the little girl had a great time in the day. Nan Nan did have her own room but¡­ when Ye Chong decided to move in, she showed persistence of moving in along as she rampaged in the living room, demanding Hei Zi to take action. In the end, the kind Brother Hei Zi lifted her bed all the way to Ye Chong¡¯s room.

    Ye Chong was researching about mentalist. The training was sadly not as effective as he expected. Probably as the databank had mentioned, his talent was terribly inadequate in this. He was not going to give up however. He might had an inadequate mana to do mentalist efficiently but he knew his ability was being enhanced, just that the rate was too measly he could not tell. He needed it anyway. Every bit of improvement meant something!

    He startedmunicating with Mu after researching for quite some time.

    "Hey Mu, say if we were still at home, what would have happened?" asked Ye Chong, feeling nostalgic of Trash-12. The world outside was more than entertaining yet it was bewildering to Ye Chong sometimes. It felt like Ye Chong started off like a blinded rat in a maze, heading into nothing, having no n about his next move, hitting into walls and breaking them from time to time. He had nothing in mind and only acted upon the situationing to him, only acted based on the surroundings.

    What should he do the day after? Ye Chong did not hold a kind of concept for this. It was solely a matter of survival - it was not about what to do the day after, it was about whether if he could live till the day after. The outside world was known to be dangerous and Ye Chong was taking extreme care of himself the whole time but slowly he realized that, unlike the Trash, the outside world did not seem to have a sense of alert all the time, since¡­ most people were safe most of the time!

    On the Trash, Ye Chong¡¯s sole purpose was to stay alive. However after leaving the, the purpose was no longer a thing in his mind, which confused him a little. After interacting with ordinary citizens from the others - getting into knowing them, talking to them, understanding their jokes, getting involved in their lives, somehow the nature¡¯sw of survival he had strong faith on was cloaked by modernity and had transformed into something foreign there to him. Without the stress on survivability, with the new set ofw so strange, his life felt rxing yet unreal¡­

    Sensed the paradigm shift in Ye Chong, Mu wanted toment something sensible, but he was not Shang, his mood matrix was unable topute the changes, "Based on the information obtained, possibly you are still fighting with mutated lifeforms and you should be 40% behind your training progresspared to you here." That was Mu''s answer towards Ye Chong¡¯s odd inquiry as he tried imagining life lingering on Trash-12.

    "Mhm. But that sort of life was boring anyway! Mu, do you have an ambition?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Ambition?" Mu tried processing the term perceived but the definition puzzled him. Well if it was Shang, he probably should have a motivational talk an hour long with Ye Chong by then!

    "Umm¡­ Ambition is something like what you would want to do the most in the future!" Ye Chong tried exining with the limited knowledge in his head.

    "If that is the case, my ambition would be staying by Ye¡¯s side," tly his answer came.

    It was a little touching to Ye Chong though!

    "Hey."

    !

    Out of sudden, Ye Chong was rmed by the whisper, he heard the footsteps approaching him.

    The door was knocked and was opened, oh it was Hei Zi. Ye Chong was relieved. "Ye, I-" Hei Zi shut his mouth abruptly upon seeing Nan Nan sleeping soundly in the bed. He then gestured Ye Chong toe out in excitement.

    Ye Chong tiptoed to the outside of the room. Once he was out, Hei Zi came right to his face, whispering in leaking joy, "Come with me. My master wants to see you!"

 Chapter 130 - The Workshop Underground

    <h4>Chapter 130: The Workshop Underground</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Technically, Hei Zi¡¯s master happened to be Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather.

    Ye Chong tailed Hei Zi to the backyard. It was a new spot of Nan Nan¡¯s home to Ye Chong as Hei Zi had never brought Ye Chong there before. The backyard was not totally secluded however, it was merely because Ye Chong had been to busy minding his own business to take a peek at someone else¡¯s backyard. The ce was spacious but Ye Chong''s animalistic intuition suggested him a kind of danger lurking in the ce. He could smell it! In addition, Hei Zi was also acting quite cautiously as he led the road, "Stick to me. Closely!" he reminded from time to time as they moved. Ye Chong followed him closely, where he even mimicked the pace of Hei Zi¡¯s step. Ye Chong did not intend to try anything funny at that moment. Certainly there was some catapulting or killing machine hidden in such an ordinary backyard¡­

    "Great!" Mu¡¯s voice rang, he sounded impressed, "This is a creative security." Unfortunately there was no processor to transmit the data he received from the surrounding. Ye Chong could not specte what sort of "creative security" there was in the yard. Well, if Muplimented it, probably it should be rather powerful by nature. Regarding creativity¡­ Who cares?

    Since Mu had kind of "warned" about it, Ye Chong walked on as he literallyid the exact step as Hei Zi¡¯s.

    At the inner area of the yard there was a giant house made out of stones and bricks. It looked pretty normal from the outside. "Ye, let me remind you that the walls contain a fairly thick and highly dense alloy board." The nextment had justified Ye Chong the anomaly of this house, "It also contains a certain standard of anti-detection ability."

    "Anti-detection ability?" Ye Chong wowed, "A certain standard of?" He became confused¡­ What in the Haleyson he meant by "a certain standard"? What kind of "standard"? Mu shouldn¡¯t be using a word this vague¡­ Wasn''t there usually a range of figures at least?

    "Mhm, that is correct. A certain standard of anti-detection ability, which even though are ineffective against me, it is effective even on the most advanced detection systems in the market," exined Mu. "I see." Ye Chong was enlightened.

    He realized how roomy the inside was too. A purplish brown board was hung at the wall right opposite them, with a calligraphy written, "The Spirit Shines in the Bones of the de*". Ye Chong¡¯s attention was not on the meaning behind it, rather he wondered if the calligraphy was well-done, but he had zero expertise on calligraphy that he could not give hisment! There were numerous strange-looking apparatusesid around the room while a variety of odd-looking things were scattered over the floor. A careful nce and Ye Chong recognized some of them! Those should be some skeletons of mutated lifeforms! He had seen countless of these back on Trash-12! While the others¡­ Ye Chong took a better nce¡­ he could not tell. The texture was really peculiar though¡­ with some of them having a metallic gloss.

    "These are some substandard products¡­ some people called it ¡®defective products¡¯¡­ Well, they are defective by nature but it¡¯s kind of a waste if we just throw them out of the window. So my master kept them here, considering how sometimes these could be useful recybles!" Hei Zi looked much more relieved after getting into the house as he joyfully exined to Ye Chong.

    Hei Zi¡¯s step was broadened as they had arrived at the center of the house after a brief moment of conversation. A few taps on the interface and a few turns on the knob, Hei Zi clicked the apparatus by his side. He led Ye Chong to a corner after that. There was somehow¡­ a square hollow at the ground. A flight of stairs was extended to the underground. The taps and turns were probably triggers to the opening here! Such an exceptional design! Hiding the switch inside here among the sea of junks and apparatuses, it sure would be a hassle for an intruder to even find the entrance.

    Little glimmer shone through the first few steps by the hole. The staircases seemed endless¡­ Ye Chong could not tell the end of the stairs, he could barely see the bottom! It should be a very, very deep underground¡­ Why do these people like to get themselves this deep under the surface? Ye Chong did not get the logic behind this.

    "Come," Hei Zi initiated his steps as he walked downstairs. Ye Chong could do nothing else than tailing him quickly. "Mhm?" The ce was of total darkness the moment Ye Chong got down, as the moving flooring on the surface had been closed. Ye Chong was a little surprised the fact that he was not aware of the flooring closing up. If it was not the sudden change of lighting, he could not tell¡­ as he could hardly hear a sound from the surface even with his hearing. This was a trivial detail yet it was convincing enough to tell Ye Chong that even the flooring was of great craftsmanship!

    "Now¡­" Stated Hei Zi as they walked on, "This is the real workshop. My master works here usually. And I¡¯m here most of the time too. But I¡¯m still doing the hammering, I¡¯m not working on the important part." His voice was already loud on the surface, it sounded like a roaring buzz underground.

    "Oh," Ye Chong responded as he followed on. He still had the slightest idea on calling from Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather¡­ The ce was really concealed too, unlike the backyard¡­ They should not be bringing guests for a simple greeting or whatever¡­ Then what was this? Ye Chong did not worry about his own safety though. He was confident of his strength back then, besides, he had the Guardian, which indisputably was the lord of fighters!

    And there was Mu too!

    Yeah, that¡¯s the point!

    The stairs were much longer than he expected. It went way, way, down under the ground. Luckily they moved pretty quickly which the glimmering exit turned brighter and Ye Chong could hear the clinks of the machines. And Ye Chong sensed the ground shaking a little as they got to the bottom. No wonder they had it so deep into the ground! The shake would have rmed anyone nearby!

    What were they doing down here? Ye Chong was intrigued, very intrigued.

    At the end of the stairs, a shocking scene awaited before him!

    He did not predict such an airy space at the underground. This basement should have the size of a spaceship, he believed. The roof was of a metallic silver¡­ which was unordinary as the frames appeared to be made out of metallic skeletons about an arm broad ovepping each other¡­ The basement was not supported by any pir! The skeletons were the only support to hold the room from copsing! The lighting was great too. Ye Chong could see everything at one nce at least! By the stairs there were a rack of countless squares, which every of it contained a kind of parts of mech. It was the same part but of different models and qualities, so it looked dazzling to Ye Chong.

    Overwhelming! These essories were well-ced on the rack, like rows of armies. And judging by their appearance, Ye Chong could tell that all of these essories were of top-quality! Such premium gears sitting together, it was like a parade, a carnival to Ye Chong. He was mesmerized, knowing that how many mechs one could make with these parts! It could fill the entire exhibition hall!

    Between these racks there was an emptyne leading to elsewhere. Hei Zi gestured Ye Chong to move on this road.

    On their way to the next destination, Ye Chong eyed the parts like a hungry wolf, covetous his sight wafted through the racks. "Great parts!" Mu reviewed with honesty, which further set Ye Chong on ze!

    "Really? Maybe I can show you some parts, only show, hahaha!"

    ¡­

    Once Hei Zi stepped into a particr room, he went quietpletely, as his expression grew stern, even his steps came lighter.

    After they left Ye Chong¡¯s most adored area, he withdrew his longing sight and then he inspected the other ces. Tightly connected to the area of parts of fantasy, there was an area filled with a lot of never-before-seen apparatus. The clinks and the booms came from these machines apparently. But they seemed a little outdated¡­ they did not have the "techy" look of modern technology¡­ However Ye Chong must admit that these machines were well-maintained. Likewise to the parts, the machines were properly ced too. An elderly was operating one of the machines and he seemed focused. The product was appearing in the machine. There was only a silhouette, but judging by the outline of the product, Ye Chong spected it being some sort of connecting buckle of the mech¡¯s inside.

    Behind these machines there were tons of raw materials piling. Ye Chong could simply tell a few of them being the mutated lifeforms he recognized, like those he saw on the ground, but there were much more unidentifiable skeletons scattered on the floor.

    With respect Hei Zi walked to the old man, he exchanged conversation with the old man in whispers, which Ye Chong could not hear a word. Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather briefly pointed his machine and pointed the around, nodded as he turned to Ye Chong and he turned back to his work again. Hei Zi looked at Ye Chong awkwardly with augh. Well Ye Chong shook his head. It was okay, his face said. The old man probably asked him to wait as he was in the middle of something.

    He waited for literally 30 minutes and finally Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather had his work done, as he switched off the machine. The room turned dead silent after the machine was shut. The hair was snow-white on his head, his face lookedborious, "How do you feel¡­" His word came reluctant, "After seeing all these?" He forced a smile as he waved his arms open.

    "Not bad!" Ye Chong replied concisely.

    "Hehehe¡­" Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather chuckled, "Good! Good! I was afraid that you aren¡¯t even bothered with these outdated toys! You saved my beloved Nan Nan yet I could not find a chance to repay you. I heard from Hei Zi that you have a passion for mechs. You should have done quite some researches I assume? What I have here are some good old parts. I must admit, I don¡¯t really know well about mechs¡­ These parts happened to be the backup parts after the production on orders from the clients. Feel free to take any of these ording to your needs. Well¡­" he chuckled again, "Piling here would only get all rusty. Nothing good would happen to them. Take them as a token of my appreciation. Don¡¯t be shy, just take them on your liking! If you have any inquiry, you could ask my apprentice, Hei Zi. He knows the mechs much better than me. Yawnn¡­" His mouth went opened, "I''m so tired. I¡¯m heading to bed now. Enjoy your excavation here, good night!" He dragged his steps to the other side piling with the raw materials, where there were 2 rooms surprisingly, those should be Hei Zi and his.

    Well! Who cares!

    Ye Chong was insanely merry! Was there anything much happier than this? He was naturally good at mech-assembling and Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather was absolutely right! He, had passion! The parts might have looked all weird and foreign to him and there were arge number of them, but he had Mu! So no more worries!

    After a moment of discussion with Ye Chong, Mu underwent a thorough scan over all parts in the area and had itemized them in various categories, grading and functions. "So how did you guys do mechs?" Ye Chong had a conversation with Hei Zi while waiting for the scan to bepleted. Not only Mu did the scanning process, he also modified and improvised to generate a few final designs for Ye Chong¡¯s reference.

    Such a wonderful opportunity! Ye Chong was so obsessed with mechs at that moment. He could not wait! He was going mad as he could imagine himself swimming in the piles of treasure and embracing the liveliness of the gears! It was rare to have someone this generous, he had got to pick the best among them all!

    "Well, generally you should start with the inside, it¡¯s like the heart¡­" While they exchanged conversation, Hei Zi felt strange that Ye Chong had yet to make his move, wondering what in the Haleyson he was standing there when he should be picking the parts. The expression was rxed too. "Ye Chong, you should be picking the parts you know, there are tons of them, it could take years to find the right part!" reminded Hei Zi.

    "Understood." Ye Chong nodded but his legs remained rooted, "I too agree the inside is important, sometimes¡­" He just carried on the conversation with Hei Zi!

    "So what are you guys known as?"

    Hei Zi¡¯s lips lifted, words came uttered.

    It was only then Ye Chong was informed of their title.

    They were the Skeleton Artisans!

 Chapter 131 - Skeleton mech

    <h4>Chapter 131: Skeleton mech</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Animal skeletons were a kind of organic material, with many unique physical properties; skeletons of mutated lifeforms were even stronger. Some mutants even have bones that were harder than high-strength alloys, and very resilient. Most importantly, they were much lighter than metals - a very crucial property, since lightweight materials could greatly reduce the burden on the mech¡¯s engines, and would substantially improve the mech¡¯s automotive performance!

    However, skeletons, unique as they were, did note in a consistent form, and processing them was difficult; one can imagine how hard it would be to mold them into the various parts of a mech. Even if they could be shaped into appropriate parts, the ingrained surface of the bones often led to uneven force distribution among the parts, thus reducing their resilience and introducing a random factor to the quality of the parts.

    The sky high costs and low probability of creating satisfactory products were the reasons for theck of interest in skeletons as building or manufacturing materials.

    Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather was a skeleton carver, and lived a poor life. One day, a client brought a set of giant wart frog¡¯s bones and a schematics, requesting to use the frog¡¯s bones to be processed based on the schematics. The client also promised a higher reward based on the sturdiness of the final product.

    Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather had tried his hands on skeleton workmanship since young, his years of experience allowed him to be deeply familiar with the pattern of skeletal surfaces. He made short work of the final product based on the client¡¯s specifications. The product was determined to have excellent mechanical properties through examination using a professional device, and the client was much overjoyed. That was how Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather earned a sizable sum!

    From then on, more people came to him for his services, and he did not stop studying intensively to improve his skills. He grew morepetent, and began to have a reputation in selected circles! However, while he was always making parts for skeleton mech, his unfamiliarity with mechs meant that clients would have to bring their own schematics for him to create the final product as desired.

    Those who knew him called him the Skeleton Artisan.

    As his life became easier, and his reputation became more widespread, more organizations began to attempt to win him over to their side. They used all sorts of tricks, but he was unmoved by sweet words or threats, and none could convince him otherwise. Soon, he was targeted by an organization whose methods were far, far more ruthless and brutal than the gentler persuasions he had experienced before! Nan Nan¡¯s parents had perished in that incident, while Nan Nan was rescued and escaped with her grandfather, finallynding in the Orbits.

    In this violent society, he quickly found a new home, and his skills won him great respect. No one would offend the Skeleton Artisan, and none of the local organizations dared to meddle with people who possessed such unique skills, since they were under the protection of the sanctuary. Even the mentalists from the sanctuary were very courteous to them.

    Of course, this did not mean that all was safe and well, like the time when that group of people Ye Chong met had threatened Doctor Lu. When your life was in danger, you tend to be reckless. Besides, who here on the Orbits was not a desperate person?

    That was why Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather had installed a top-of-the-line security system!

    Skeleton carving was a branch of carving skills that received little attention, and there were probably no education institution that would list it as one of their offered courses. It was only a traditional craft passed on from one carver to another, slowly losing its ce in history!

    Hei Zi was a student epted by Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather after they came to the Orbits. He was hardworking, practical, and eager to learn, winning the old man¡¯s approval. The only regret was that Hei Zi was a little too old to begin learning the craft and limited in talent, thus he could only improve slowly over time.

    Hei Zi saw that Ye Chong fully absorbed in his words, and could not help but feel excited as he continued on, "Look at this, this is the shell of a mantic locust. It looks like metal, but when I examined it, it does not have a scrap of metal in it. The thing¡¯s strong, and very resilient, suitable for making a mech¡¯s shield. Most importantly, it is light, try it!"

    The shell spread across the size of 2 or 3 tabletops with a slight concave bend, and its surface shone with a metallic luster. The entire shell was in a greenish ck, oveid with wavy stripes of brilliant yellow, a dazzling piece. Ye Chong gave it few knocks, and heard the crisp echo from the material - it was solid hard. He reached for the edges of the shell and lightly lifted it , which came up with ease.

    It was truly lightweight. If this shell could be made into a shield, it would definitely reduce the burden on the mech¡¯s engines significantly, besides minimizing the reaction time of the arm that wielded the shield. However, his only concern was that the shell was strong enough to be a shield, as Hei Zi imed.

    "This is the mech¡¯s mechanical arm. You see these 5 fingers? They¡¯re all made from the femur of a scented smander. Besides being tough, the scented smander¡¯s femur has a natural rough surface, good for anti-slipping. The scented smander¡¯s femur is also easier to work on." Hei Zi spoke knowledgeably.

    If a mech¡¯s parts were all made of skeleton, like Hei Zi¡¯s mech, an average engine would be enough for an outstanding speed performance. After all, speed is a critical weapon for victory! With a proper engine, a full-skeleton mech would be able to fly everywhere at warp speed. The thought was enough to make Ye Chong nervous.

    "How many of these can you make in a day?" Ye Chong asked carefully.

    "How many can I make in a day?" Hei Zi shook his head and said, "You should be asking, how many days do I need to make one! Every time someone sent over their skeletons, they¡¯re always different, and before any work could begin, Master would have to examine them carefully and devise some reasonable way of approach. This usually takes days! It wee across an unfamiliar skeleton, it will take even longer! The next step is the crude processing of the skeletons. After that, we soak the skeletons in a special liquid, like a hardening liquid that makes the bones stronger. Master calls it the strengthening chemical.

    "These strengthening chemicals were prepared by Aunt Guan. She¡¯s the best chemist around here. Soaking time depends on the skeletons, usually it takes 7 to 21 days.

    "Next is the fine processing. Fine processing is the mostplicated part of the craft. It¡¯s almost entirely done by hand. Any mistakes, and it¡¯s over, all previous efforts gone down the drain. That¡¯s why Master usually asks for at least two sets of skeletons. He¡¯ll make two products, just to be safe.

    "You see these mech parts on the floor, they¡¯re all done by Master. Every time he passed one set of goods to his clients, there will be another set left here with us. These parts here were umted since Master began working here. Sigh, we nearly lost them due to the incidentst time, but fortunately for Master, they were all returned to us by the sanctuary!

    "Making a normal part usually takes at least half a month. If we¡¯re talking about something like a mech¡¯s main body, that¡¯ll take even longer. I remember the longest Master had ever worked on a part was close to 3 months!"

    "That long?" Ye Chong was surprised. In this technologically advanced society, where efficiency was worshipped, a normal mech could be manufactured in less than 10 minutes. If a single part would take half a month, one can only imagine the amount of time required to churn out the entire mech. However, Ye Chong quickly felt secretly relieved, since this meant that it was impossible to have a massive production of full-skeleton mechs. This was good news to Ye Chong. If these skeleton-only mechs could be manufactured in bulk, then the first to equip themselves with these skeleton mechs would be the Orbits¡¯ Mentalist Sanctuary. Since he had just raised havoc, it was only reasonable that they had begun searching for him. The stronger the Sanctuary was, the riskier it was for him! Ye Chong realized this!

    "Full-skeleton mechs, how do they perform?" Ye Chong asked Hei Zi, thinking that since he owned a full-skeleton mech himself, he should be familiar with their pros and cons.

    Hei Zi pondered for a moment before replying, "It¡¯s hard to say. Usually full-skeleton mechs are much lighter than mechs made of metal, and can fly longer! However, while the strength of the skeletons were greatly improved with the strengthening chemical, it was still slightly worse offpared to the mature workmanship with metals. So, skeleton mechs were usually not suitable for brute forcebat, but more for fluidbat styles.

    "Of course, that¡¯s what it usually is like. A skeleton mech¡¯s performance depends on the types of skeletons it¡¯s made of. As for the skeletons, they¡¯re usually quite different from one another. Some top quality skeletons can even be stronger than high-strength metals. However, these skeletons are usually much harder to process! Moreover, they¡¯re quite rare!

    "But there¡¯s one important thing you should know. The price for a skeleton mech is on a whole different level than for average mechs. Besides, resupply and servicing would be very inconvenient. If any of the skeleton parts were damaged, it¡¯s virtually impossible to repair it, the only way is to get a new one! So, unless you¡¯re a skeleton carver yourself, it¡¯ll be foolish to use a skeleton mech for usual business!"

    Ye Chong could not help but nod in agreement - the man had a point! The advantages and disadvantages were clear, but Ye Chong could not afford to be choosy then - if he was offered a ckbird right then, Ye Chong would probably ept it without hesitation, much less a skeleton mech that he had never even heard of!

    Mu spoke in timely fashion, "Scanning isplete, there is a total of 372 parts. There are 3 rmendations for you. Ye, would you like to hear the details?"

 Chapter 132 - A Mechâ€™s Style

    <h4>Chapter 132: A Mech¡¯s Style</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Fifteenth from the left in the thirteenth row, that¡¯s the mech¡¯s main body; seventh from the left on the fifth row, eighth from the left on the twenty second row ¡­ These are for the firstbination." Mu¡¯s voice was steady and resolute.

    Hei Zi stared stupidly at Ye Chong with bulging eyes. A moment earlier, Ye Chong began to pick his way through the parts like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. The huge mech parts weighed like nothing in Ye Chong¡¯s hands. "This ¡­ This is ridiculous!" Hei Zi massaged his temples in disbelief. While these were rtively lightweight skeleton parts, they were still parts for a mech; to lift them so effortlessly - was he human?

    Ye Chong seemed to move with purpose. Hei Zi was confused - wasn¡¯t he listening to him all the while earlier? He was not eyeing those mech parts back then!

    "What a strange guy!" Hei Zi muttered to himself!

    Ye Chong looked at the three piles of mech partsid before him. The threebinations that Mu proposed were now fully grouped together.

    Ye Chong walked to the first pile of mech parts, frowned slightly in thought for a moment, and set down to work! One by one, the mech parts assembled themselves like magic through his hands. He moved adeptly like a professional mech assembler, and the whole process went smoothly. The mech presented itself before him, and it grew taller and taller from the legs upwards, giving the illusion of something growing rapidly upwards.

    Hei Zi could feel his brain giving up!

    Ye Chong stared with knitted brows at the three mechs before him.

    While he was unsure of the performance of these three mechs, he knew just from their appearance that they were all excellent products, definitely outstanding! Hei Zi stared dumbfounded at the three mechs without a word.

    The three mechs had peculiar designs. Theycked themon metallic gleam found on average mechs, and had a unique quality of skeleton texture. Ye Chong believed that Mu¡¯s proposedbinations were most logical, but still, he felt that something was wrong!

    "Strange, what is it?" Ye Chong frowned, studying the three mechs closely!

    The three mechs were made of parts of all colors - since they were not originally part of the same set, they looked like a colorful mess, but these threebinations were excellent. Unlike Master¡¯splete unfamiliarity with mechs, Hei Zi understood mechs at a deep level. The way he saw it, these parts, arranged artfully by Ye Chong, fit very well with each other, unlocking the potential of these parts to their maximum. They were perfect!

    "Guy¡¯s a true genius!" Hei Zi grew respectful of Ye Chong. From his perspective, Ye Chong was only improvising, but this improvisation had led to such a degree of perfection. He knew all the parts here like the back of his hand, and had tried to assemble them together. However, no matter whichbination he came up with, they cannot bepared with any of Ye Chong¡¯s three mechs. Besides, it took only a short moment for three mechs of this perfection to be produced!

    Hei Zi believed that Ye Chong must be infinitely more knowledgeable about mechs than him!

    Ye Chong was still deeply frowning, deep in thought.

    Hei Zi did not noticed Ye Chong¡¯s perplexity; his eyes were only for the three mechs. If Shang were here and saw how the ck-faced burly man could look at the three mechs with tender eyes, he would definitely not stop himself from snickering!

    Ye Chong pondered over it, unsure of himself, and moved quickly towards the first mech.

    "Ye, is there a problem?" Mu also thought it strange.

    "Mu, don¡¯t you think there¡¯s something wrong with these three mechs?" Ye Chong¡¯s voice was uncertain.

    "Wrong? In what sense?" Mu was curious.

    After some hesitation, Ye Chong said, "I don¡¯t know, but I can feel that something is wrong."

    "How is that possible? My calctions should be infallible!" Mu¡¯s voice held an arrogant undertone!

    Ye Chong did not reply, but walked towards the first mech and began to disassemble it. "What¡¯s this?" Seeing Ye Chong suddenly beginning to disassemble the first mech, Hei Zi grew baffled and could not help but asked, "What¡¯re you disassembling it for?"

    "Reassembling!" Ye Chong replied without looking back

    "Reassembling? He¡¯s really out of the ordinary, to strive for perfection even with mechs of this perfection, no wonder he¡¯s miles ahead of me!" The honest Hei Zi grew even more respectful of Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong disassembled the mech quickly. At least, Hei Zi had never seen anyone work as fast as him.

    "Could I have assembled them wrong?" Ye Chong doubted himself first of all, since he was more likely to be at faultpared to Mu. Ye Chong even thought that the sense of wrongness was an illusion, since he could not exactly point out what was wrong about the mechs!

    The fact was, Ye Chong was exposed to a great variety of mechs; with his own expertise, these exposures gradually developed a sense not unlike the intuition in him, and he could quickly evaluate a mech subconsciously. Like learning anynguage, when a person studies up till a certain point, he would develop a grammar sense; when constructing a sentence, he might not know exactly why, but through a vague decision process, he may choose to rece a word with another more appropriate vocabry. Of course, this vague decision is notpletely infallible, but is still usually quite urate.

    Through unceasing practice and learning, this vague decision making process could be honed to a higher uracy. It would also mean that the person has advanced to a higher ne of understanding.

    These three mechs were obviously styled from mechs of the Orbits, and Mu¡¯s calctions and enhancements were based on physics. This method ofbination was more suited for mechs like the MPA¡¯s, where mech technology was more advanced, and the mech models were the result of extensive calctions. Mechs from the Orbits mostly had a natural feel to them, and so thebinations based purely on mechanical and performance-enhancing factors were not in harmony with the design style.

    Mu was only a PSI, and emotions were his weakness; hence, things like style, which were not data driven, were naturally not part of a mech¡¯s considerations.

    Ye Chong was different. While he was always a logical thinking person, but it was inevitable as a human for him to have emotional senses. Due to his long experience with mechs, he had developed an acute awareness for them. While he could not pinpoint the exact source of the problem, he could sense the discord inside him.

    Hei Zi, however, had not yet reached this level of sensitivity, and so did not notice it.

    This vague feeling did not leave Ye Chong. He had reassembled the first mech thrive, but still could not see the problem. Ye Chong felt like he had reached a bottleneck, the solution to his troubles were ever closer but unreachable.

    Ye Chong was vexed, but could not put his trouble into words for Mu.

    If Ye Chong could one day understand his apparent intuition in great detail, it would mean that his knowledge in mechs would have reached a whole new level.

    However, as Ye Chong was now, it would take him a very long time to reach that level by himself!

    An ancient voice suddenly broke Ye Chong¡¯s increasingly confused thoughts, "Oh, these three mechs look good, only that the style is a little ipatible!"

    Style! Ye Chong¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he realized then. "That¡¯s right! It¡¯s the style! The style!" he thought. Every mech has its own unique style. While these three mechs would perform well, their styles were not in harmony! No wonder he felt a little ufortable with them.

    How should he proceed since he currently realized that style was the problem? Ye Chong¡¯s initial excitement gradually receded to calmness. Ideas flew past his mind, but only aimlessly; even if he knew that style was the problem, how should he proceed?

    Ye Chong could not help but lift his head to the voice that triggered his realization, and found it to be Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather. He had focused intensely on disassembling the mech, and did not notice the time. The old man had already awakened from his nap and, upon returning to his workshop, found the three assembled mechs. The old man was a skeleton carver all his life, and had deep insights in abstract concepts such as mech styles. As he noticed the mechs, he could not help butment on them, lending a hand to Ye Chong.

    The old man saw Ye Chong turning to him, and smiled, "Who¡¯d have thought you to be so knowledgeable in mechs. Looks like Hei Zi has much to learn from you, it¡¯s hard to have huge ambitions with just skeleton carving skills in this line of work!" The old man ended his sentence ndly, probably dispirited from his inability to attain those huge ambitions that he had. The old man had be a master in skeleton carving, but hisck of knowledge in mechs had increasingly be a handicap for him.

    Ye Chong lowered his head as though in thought, his expression hidden from the others.

    They would not have guessed that Ye Chong was having an intense conversation with Mu.

    "Mu, I want to learn how to make these skeleton parts!"

    "Ye, our priority right now is to treat your illness, your current situation is very dangerous! Based on Lu Caite¡¯s information, we first have to leave the Orbits and find his teacher. That¡¯s what we should do now!" Mu was exceedingly calm.

    "Hmm, you¡¯re right, but the incident with Guardian raised a huge ruckus, they¡¯re probably searching all over the Orbits for us now. It¡¯s not a good choice to leave the Orbits now. Besides, all the starships in the Orbits are under the control of the Sanctuary. Without the starships, it¡¯s impossible for us to leave the Orbits!" Ye Chong was equally in control of himself.

    "You¡¯re right! Based on Lu Caite¡¯s information, you have to pass the so-called 5 tests by the Sanctuary! As it is, this is not a good time for us to take the tests! However, Ye, your health might suffer!" Mu was worried about Ye Chong¡¯s physical condition.

    "Nothing we can do about that! As long as it¡¯s not fatal, I can handle it!" Ye Chong¡¯s in words were spoken with incredible determination!

 Chapter 133 - The Sanctuaryâ€™s Reaction

    <h4>Chapter 133: The Sanctuary¡¯s Reaction</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Oh, so you want to learn the craft from me?" The old man looked at Ye Chong, deeply moved by his request. Ye Chong¡¯s earlier demonstration of his knowledge in mechs had impressed him. Hei Zi was looking delightfully at Ye Chong from the side. If Ye Chong could stay, then he would have someone to seek advice from! Since the beginning, he had always figured things out by himself, since Master could not help him in this respect.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong replied steadily. After his discussion with Mu, they agreed that now was not the right time to take the five tests by the Sanctuary, since the situation outside must be tense! Going out recklessly now would be a foolish decision.

    Ye Chong was not wrong. The situation was severely tense, much like what he imagined. Feng Su¡¯s report to the Sanctuary about Guardian¡¯s features and her thoughts on them had garnered great interest from the higher-ups. The report was coborated by words from the MPA¡¯s mech pilots. Hence, the Sanctuary higher-ups had ordered for the retrieval of this potential game-changing mech at all cost.

    All citizens of the Orbits realized in trepidation that something had happened. The Mentalist Sanctuary¡¯s forces were presented for the first time in full to the public. Even in theplicated environment such as the Orbits, they could still perform a thorough search of the area. No one dared to defy them; the first few rebellious people who refused to cooperate were met with indescribably horrible fates that chilled others to the bone! Such extreme methods employed by the usually moderate Sanctuary made everyone realize the firm resolution of the Sanctuary! With those few early examples, no one dared to challenge the Sanctuary¡¯s powers again!

    That was how, long after that incident, the Orbits came to be as peaceful as Heaven itself.

    Ye Chong was unaware of all these facts. This was much due to the fact that the Sanctuary had not reached their area in their search, and secondly, that Ye Chong himself did not go outdoors often.

    The good natured Hei Zi was overjoyed by Master¡¯s eptance of Ye Chong. He grinned stupidly, as if he was the one who was epted instead. On the contrary, Ye Chong¡¯s expression was neither joyful nor disappointed; he was calm as usual, and this won the approval of the old man - he believed this apprentice of his would definitely be someone extraordinary one day.

    Ye Chong began by learning basic carving skills. The old man was pleasantly surprised to find Ye Chong improving quickly! Basic carving skills were fundamentally a practice in strength control. This had always been part of Mu¡¯s training courses for Ye Chong, and Ye Chong was undoubtedly superior in it, second to none. This was the reason for his rapid improvement.

    With a curved bone in his left hand, Ye Chong focused intently as his right hand wielded a carving knife, cutting vertically and horizontally. His every cut was precise, as his left hand held the bone steadily. The old man stood behind him, his expression portraying admiration. Beside Ye Chong was Hei Zi, staring unblinkingly at the knife in Ye Chong¡¯s hand, afraid of disturbing him. Little Nan Nan put her hands tightly over her mouth, as she watched the curved bone in Ye Chong¡¯s hand slowly took shape. Every since Ye Chong apprenticed under the old man, he had spent much of his time in the underground workshop, and little Nan Nan had followed him around like a puppy.

    The solid curved bone was no match for Ye Chong¡¯s knife; with every cut of the knife, skeleton dust fell to the ground. Ye Chong put his knife down gently with an easy expression, devoid of any emotions. His left hand held a lifelike engulfer, one of the animals he was most familiar with. Hei Zi exhaled in relief at his side, and spoke enthusiastically, "Hah! Junior Brother is really talented, it¡¯s only been a few days, and you¡¯re already so good at this!"

    It was Shang¡¯s turn toe out, and the mech spoke condescendingly in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, "What¡¯s the fuss? You call this talent? What a bumpkin!" Of course, Ye Chong ignored Shang¡¯s typicalments.

    Little Nan Nan crawled onto the table and grabbed the engulfer out of Ye Chong¡¯s hands, savoring her new toy!

    The old man approved of the work deeply, but kept his expression calm as he said, "Hmm, that¡¯s roughly it, you still need to practice more. From today onwards, you can learn about mechanical carving!"

    He paused, but continued once Ye Chong was paying full attention to him, "Manual carving is usually for processing small parts or details ofrger parts. We usually make do with mechanical carving. It¡¯s not hard, I might even say it¡¯s quite simple. The difficult part is in choosing the right skeleton materials. That¡¯ll take experience. Your job now is to familiarize yourself with all the skeleton materials we have here until you get the hang of it. I¡¯ll also be teaching you how to differentiate between them. That¡¯s the essence of being a skeleton carver ¡­"

    Abruptly, the visitor¡¯s inte on the wall rang, and interrupted the old man¡¯s word. Hei Zi quickly went to answer the inte, and turned back to inform the old man loudly, "Master, it¡¯s Uncle Yan!"

    The old man frowned slightly, and said to Hei Zi, "Alright, go invite him in!"

    Hei Zi replied in an affirmative tone and left in a hurry.

    The old man spoke softly to himself, "Strange, why¡¯s he here now?"

    After a short moment, Hei Zi came back with a huge man.

    The man was tall and muscr in build, his profile came with stiff angles, framing a pair of sharp eyes. His every move exuded a sense of power. Ye Chong realized then he was strong! Ye Chong was now quite experienced, and could tell just from the man¡¯s build and movement that he was not someone to mess with. Ye Chong guessed right - this man with the surname Yan was called Yan Bingxuan, a patrolman of the area.

    As the huge man stepped in, his eyes swept across the room. The sight of Ye Chong surprised him.

    Hei Zi did not seem like to like this Yan guy, and brought little Nan Nan out to y.

    The old man spoke, "Yan, something must have happened for you to visit us!" He then turned to Ye Chong and said, "Ye, this is the Sanctuary¡¯s patrolman for our area, he¡¯s quite strong! You can just call him Uncle Yan! His support will be very helpful for you in future!" He turned back to Yan Bingxuan and said, "This is my new apprentice, he¡¯s quite knowledgeable about mechs, please take care of him from now on, Yan!"

    Yan Bingxuan replied modestly, "Master Ge, you¡¯re too courteous! The Sanctuary has explicitly ordered for your protection! It is my duty to attend to your safety. As long as it is within my means, it¡¯s no problem at all!" Yan Bingxuan sounded respectful, and his words were ttering, but the meaning behind those words were not at all what they seemed to be. If he refused to cooperate, he could just easily say that it was not within his means.

    Ye Chong realized then that Master¡¯s surname is Ge.

    The old man had a rich life experience, and could not possibly be ignorant of these social niceties. Even he himself had not truly meant his words.

    Yan Bingxuan was impressed. "To think that such a young man could be approved by Old Ge, he has a bright future ahead of him!"

    Ye Chong reciprocated lightly, "You¡¯re too generous! I have much to learn!"

    "Yan, what brings you here today?" The old man was getting impatient with these customary exchanges.

    "You must not have heard, the world¡¯s turned upside down out there!" Yan Bingxuan spoke mysteriously.

    The old man knitted his brows in response. "What happened?"

    "Word is, two people stole something from the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary¡¯s higher-ups were outraged! Sigh, it¡¯s regretful that this had happened on this! For now, all the starship flights are cancelled. The higher-ups want us to search every house for the thieves. It¡¯s fine for the higher-ups to be furious, but in the end, it¡¯s weckeys who have to do the work!" Yan Bingxuan grumbled insincerely as he discreetly watched for their reactions.

    Ye Chong was startled. As expected, they must be referring to him and Mu. However, to frame them for thievery was impudent. Ye Chong was extremely calm on the outside, and Shang immediately came out and spoke to him urgently, "Ye, don¡¯t act so calmly, you gotta show some surprise!" Ye Chong immediately affected a slight surprise on his expression, fitting for his nature.

    The old man was shocked. "Someone dared to steal something from the Sanctuary?"

    Seeing that both of them had reacted normally, Yan Bingxuan finally rxed and smiled wryly, "Right? Those two must have some b*lls to do this. The Sanctuary¡¯s people had seen them as they escaped in their mechs, one of it is a badly beaten down mech with four arms and two heads. Old Ge, have you seen anything like this before?"

    Ye Chong was startled on the inside, but kept his expression calm.

    "Four arms and two heads? A strange mech like that? No! If I¡¯ve seen a strange mech like that, I would have remembered it!" The old man shook his head. Ye Chong was quietly thankful that Hei Zi and little Nan Nan were not there. If they had seen Yu Di, they would have immediately exposed him then.

    "Sigh, that¡¯s right! To find two people in such a huge area is much like finding a needle in a haystack!" Yan Bingxuan vented his dissatisfaction.

    The old man nodded. "It¡¯s definitely not easy!"

    Yan Bingxuan produced a metallic sphere, shing green lights, and apologized to the old man, "Old man, my apologies, it¡¯s merely a formality!"

    The old man waved his hand and spoke lightly, "It¡¯s alright, do what you have to!" He saw Ye Chong watching the metallic sphere curiously, and exined to him, "That¡¯s a special essory for the patrolmen, called Life Seeker. Nothing alive can evade its detection! It is used to check for any hidden humans or animals. Understood?"

    Ye Chong realized then of its purpose. "Understood!"

    A small aperture on the Life Seeker projected a holographic image, showing five green dots on it. Yan Bingxuan counted everyone present, including himself, and found it to be exactly five. He kept the Life Seeker and spoke with a smile. "All good! Pardon the intrusion, Old Ge!"

    "It¡¯s nothing!" The old man did not mind.

    Yan Bingxuan continued, "Well, that¡¯s all to it, I¡¯ll be taking my leave!"

    "Hei Zi!" The old man yelled, and Hei Zi rushed in as he instructed, "See Uncle Yan off! Yan, I¡¯ll not be sending you off!"

    Yan Bingxuan quickly replied, "No need to! Please continue your work, Old Ge!" He began to move towards the steps that he came in through.

    Suddenly, Yan Bingxuan stopped in his tracks, and eximed, "Huh?"

    Could there be something wrong? Ye Chong, freshly relieved, was jerked back into suspense!

 Chapter 134 - Conjecture

    <h4>Chapter 134: Conjecture</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Yan Bingxuan stopped in his tracks, his face full of surprise!

    "Where did I give myself away?" Ye Chong jolted inside, all his muscles tensed, and his naturally hanging arms shifted to an anticipatory posture. The moment Yan Bingxuan showed any signs of hostility, Ye Chong would kill him without hesitation! Even if the opponent¡¯s physique suggested a difficult enemy, Ye Chong was still confident that he could take care of his enemy before he could send a warning signal to the others!

    "Full-skeleton mechs?" Yan Bingxuan¡¯s face betrayed his pleasant surprise as he turned to the old man, "Master Ge, have you finally made a full-skeleton mech? Are these three mechs yourtest work? They¡¯re absolutely amazing!"

    Ye Chong¡¯s whole body rxed at that, and his arms discreetly returned to their natural hanging posture! He was, however, somewhat curious. Were full-skeletons mechs so out of the ordinary? Could there be something to them?

    Ye Chong was not aware that the old man was the only person was skilled in using skeletons to make mech parts. However, the old man was a total stranger to mechs, and did not understand the design functionalities of mech parts. Hence, his products were often not as desired, and had a high probability of malfunctioning. Even though the old man had made every part of a mech with skeletons, putting all of them together and having the parts working in tandem would inevitably amplify the defects of each individual part, and the mech¡¯s safety rating would be extremely low.

    Full-skeleton mechs were but an ideology. Even though Hei Zi¡¯s mech looked like a full-skeleton mech, there were still a considerable number of parts in it made of non-skeleton material, and so it did not qualify as a full-skeleton mech.

    Ever since the Sanctuary knew of the old man''s skill in producing skeleton mech parts, the Sanctuary had offered him protection. Yan Bingxuan was responsible for the old man¡¯s safety, besides making periodic reports about his working progress.

    Now that there were three full-skeleton mechs right in front of him, how could he not be shocked? He knew from the grapevine that the Sanctuary was also trying to produce full-skeleton mechs. However, their progress was slow, and so the Sanctuary ced great importance on the old man.

    Full-skeleton mechs would offer enviable features - better automotive control, longer flight distances, and most importantly, outstanding anti-detection capabilities. This would be a great advantage in battle.

    The old man was pleased. "Hehehe, Yan, even you can guess wrong sometimes! These were not the handiwork of a miserable old man like me. This apprentice of mine had carelessly assembled them, but they¡¯re not really full-skeleton mechs. Ah, but this young man here has real potential in making a real full-skeleton mech!" His words were regretful, but his tone suggested a certain pride in his apprentice.

    "The young man certainly doesn¡¯t seem like it!" Yan Bingxuan was now truly shocked! No matter how he looked at him, the young man had seemed unremarkable - he looked thin and frail, but was actually an expert in mech assembly. When did the old man ept this apprentice? Yan Bingxuan grew suspicious. "I¡¯ve been too rxed with my job here recently," Yan Bingxuan thought pensively to himself. "I must look into thister. Hmm, better take good care of this young one to avoid any mishaps, if he can make a full-skeleton mech, it¡¯ll be under my ount, and I¡¯ll definitely move up the powerdder!"

    Yan Bingxuan was circumspect, and kept his emotions to himself as he smiled and said, "Master Ge, you¡¯re truly blessed! With an able apprentice, you¡¯ll finally have a sessor!"

    The old man¡¯s half-lidded eyes were full of joy, but he said, "He¡¯s not really a full apprentice yet, there¡¯s much to learn! It¡¯s too early to speak of these things!"

    Yan Bingxuan noted to himself to visit the ce more often and get familiar the future skeleton carver; it would be helpful for his career. However, he understood that this was an overnight task, and so, with his decision made, Yan Bingxuan bid farewell to everyone and continued on his job.

    After Yan Bingxuan left, Ye Chong exhaled in relief. The old man turned to him and spoke seriously, "Ye, in future, be careful to this man, don¡¯t trust him too much, understand? He might not be entirely sincere, but, if you met any difficult problems around here you can still ask for his help, he¡¯s still quite influential in this area."

    "Yes!" Ye Chong nodded in understanding.

    "Alright, let¡¯s forget about him! From today onwards I¡¯ll teach you how to recognize and differentiate between skeletons! This is also something basic! Now all skeletons are suitable to made into mech parts. Let¡¯s start from the basics ¡­"

    Ye Chong was safe, and the Mentalist Sanctuary¡¯s efforts were to no avail. The Sanctuary was infuriated, and med it on the ipetence of their patrolmen. The patrolmen received the me indignantly, and vented their frustrations on any local organization that they set their eyes on. Thus, all organizations lost their presence and power almost overnight, and vanished without a trace.

    The Sanctuary¡¯s failure was actuallyrgely due to their erroneous deductions. Based on Feng Su¡¯s report, everyone had deduced that the mech pilot controlling the golden miniature mech must be physically strong. It would have otherwise been impossible for the pilot to bear the consequences of piloting the mech.

    He also had apanion! That meant that there were two of them, and one of them should look physically strong. This was why Yan Bingxuan did not suspect Ye Chong to be the one he was looking for when he saw him!

    Under the old man¡¯s careful guidance, Ye Chong dealt with skeletons every day and grew experienced quickly. The old man was grateful for Ye Chong¡¯s good memory and sharp mind.

    The three mechs that Ye Chong assembled were taken by the Sanctuary¡¯s men the next day, but of course, they had left many rare skeletons in return, and the incident was considered as a barter of goods. Ye Chong did not mind them, since the three mechs were obviously full of issues. The old man had made all those parts without understanding their use, but only based fully on the schematics and measurements provided by his clients. Ye Chong was certain that those three mechs must be prone to malfunctions!

    The Sanctuary¡¯s men felt otherwise. From their perspective, these were just about full-skeleton mechs. Besides, the parts assembled based on Mu¡¯s suggestions resulted in excellent performance, and the Sanctuary¡¯s mech pilots were all overjoyed! As for the one who brought the news to the Sanctuary, Yan Bingxuan was duly rewarded.

    On the other hand, Hei Zi had approached Ye Chong discreetlyter and asked Ye Chong, "Ye, were you the thief?"

    Ye Chong replied calmly, "The one they¡¯re looking for is me, but it¡¯s they who want to steal my things!"

    Hei Zi¡¯s expression was one of realization, and he warned Ye Chong out of kindness, "I thought so, how could you have been stealing? Then you have to take care now, the Sanctuary¡¯s always tyrannical! I¡¯ll make sure little Nan Nan keeps your mech a secret, little Nan Nan is very sensible!"

    "Okay!" Ye Chong replied lightly, and watched as Hei Zi left him, but he was moved inside. Shang, however, wasughing coldly in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, "Ye, have you really never stolen anything? I think Harmony of the Winter Aria was the result of your thievery, tsk tsk, how could anyone think of you as a nice person? What a joke!"

    He was undecided if he shouldugh or cry at those words, but he also had no valid rebuttal for them.

    Suddenly, Shang sighed dramatically, "Sigh, Ye, how long are we staying in this ragged ce? What a bore! There¡¯s not even a beauty in sight! Without beauties, how can we train your sense of beauty? Life is so dull!" He affected a yawned. "Ye, you should finish learning these things quickly, so we can finally leave this God forsaken ce, and return to the wonders of life! I very much look forward to that!"

    Ye Chong can imagine that Shang¡¯s blue bionic eyes must now be shing in deep longing. If Shang had any cleaning fluid left in his mouth, he would definitely leave if dripping from his mouth like saliva.

    "I think the situation now is quite alright, it¡¯s peaceful and fulfilling. More importantly, I¡¯m getting stronger!" Of course, Ye Chong did not agree with Shang, or Shang would have egged him on to leave the ce earlier.

    "Sigh, how could I have forgotten that you and Mu are the same,cking the same appreciation of life¡¯s many joys? Heavens above! Why are you cruel to leave me between two dull, tasteless, lifeless creation of yours? Could I have sinned too much before?" Shang wailed.

    "Before? Shang, did you find out anything about yourself from before?" Ye Chong grew attentive.

    "Much of the information has been lost, and not recoverable. However, based on what we have, I and Mu have a conjecture." Speaking of this topic, Shang¡¯s tone became serious.

    "What conjecture?" Ye Chong was encouraged. If it was Mu¡¯s deductions, the probability of him getting it right was high. Mu and Shang¡¯s past was always something Ye Chong was very interested in.

    "Remember that time with the warship? Mu found that our database has information on the warship, and I was shocked. I guessed then that we¡¯re probably rted to the MPA. Besides, our information on this Twin Moon Corvette is quite detailed, almost as detailed as its original schematics. Later on, our information was proved to be entirely urate! From this, you can see that we must be rted to the MPA, and probably quite closely."

    "The MPA?" Ye Chong started. He had never expected Mu and Shang to be rted to the MPA. Thinking of their current rtionship with the MPA, Ye Chong could not help but shake his head and smile wryly.

    Shang¡¯s voice turned gentle, "Ye, don¡¯t worry too much, we¡¯re not too concerned over our past. The one who reactivated us is you. No one but you can evermunicate with us again, much less control us. Besides, we have various information on the MPA, that would be extremely helpful to you!"

    "Yes, I know!" Ye Chong replied inly. They were his most loyal and trustworthypanions, almost like his siblings. With the tacit understanding between them, there was no need for more words.

    "Besides, it¡¯s only a conjecture, its validity remains to be proven!" Shang replied in a rare moment of solemnity.

 Chapter 135 - Progressing

    <h4>Chapter 135: Progressing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A shiny mechanical arm gripped onto a half-disc. The disc was as thin as a leaf, it¡¯s surface burnished into perfect smoothness, and the red skeleton grains sprawling on it were like an abstract art of lines. At its center were three holes that could each fit a finger, arranged to form a triangle.

    Ye Chong examined the disc closely, his mind rapidly calcting as he recalled all the knowledge about skeletons passed down by the old man to him, trying to find the best approach based on what he knew. Unlike the old man and Hei Zi, Ye Chong had a solid theoretical foundation, all thanks to the unique teaching methods by the elders at Aurora.

    In this fickle and materialistic society, foundational theories in all academic subjects werergely unappreciated. Moreover, since mech foundational theories were cross-disciplinary, they were moreplicated and massive, such that there was no single unifying system for them. What Ye Chong had learned were the conclusions of the Aurora¡¯s elderlies from their lifelong work. They had studied mechs all their lives, and found in theirter years that those previously ignored foundational theories were the most fundamental of all. Hence, to prevent Ye Chong from repeating their mistakes, everything that they taught Ye Chong began from the most fundamental level.

    Ye Chong had unwittingly been nurtured by them to be the most peculiar mech engineer across all fields.

    Ye Chong had a rectangr metallic tank ced before him, filled with silver liquid. The calm surface of the liquid was like a wless mirror, reflecting Ye Chong perfectly. Hei Zi watched anxiously from the side at the disc gripped by the mechanical arm. This was the most important step, immersing the disc into the strengthening chemical. The immersing duration, angle, proportion and so on, all contributed to the final quality of this part.

    The disc¡¯s early processing was all done by Ye Chong, and now he faced the final step - immersion. Immersion was the unique process of immersing a part into the strengthening chemical to enhance the skeleton¡¯s various properties.

    Ye Chong sat calmly in front of the controls dashboard, which directly manipted the mechanical arm. The controls were more intricate andplicated than a mech¡¯s controls. The holographic screen projected from the controls¡¯ photon processor clearly reflected from Ye Chong¡¯s pupils.

    Ye Chong was feeling serious. After all, up until this step, Ye Chong had done everything perfectly. Once this step was sessfully done, that part might be the most perfect skeleton part ever made.

    Ye Chong hadboured through repeated considerations and calctions from the very first step of choosing the right materials. He had picked the sternum of a Moonblood bird; he even took this Moonblood¡¯s skeleton to the old man for inspection. The next step was designing, and after carefully analysis of the Moonblood¡¯s skeleton, he finally decided to make it into a mech engine¡¯s padding. After that was crude processing and fine burnishing; Ye Chong partook every step after careful consideration, and his execution was also exact.

    All this time, immersing was the mostplicated step, and the effects were highly random. Even the old man had carried out immersions based on experience, without any logical theory behind them.

    Unlike his sombre expression, Ye Chong was calm inside. No one knew that Ye Chong was actually quite confident with thisst step. Ye Chong had discovered early on the randomness of the immersion process, and he had studied it closely, and through repeated experimentation, found a few ways to greatly increase the sess rate of the method. He was now finally presented an opportunity to test his conclusions.

    Ye Chong entered a series ofmands into the photon processor of the controls dashboard. He then set the controls from manual to auto mode, and left the dashboard.

    The mildly anxious Hei Zi abruptly noticed Ye Chonging to his side, and could not help but be startled. "Ye, why are you here?"

    "The settings areplete, no need for me to control it!" Ye Chong exined calmly. As he finished, the mechanical arm began to move slowly.

    "Ah!" Hei Zi gasped in shock. "Ye, how can you use auto mode? Quick, shut it down!" He rushed towards the controls dashboard, but was held back by Ye Chong.

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s indifference, Hei Zi panicked. "Ye, quick! That thing¡¯s going to be ruined! Master had never used auto mode for immersions! Ye, stop the machine, quick, or it¡¯ll be toote!" Hei Zi¡¯s hoarse voice was filled with urgency.

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands gripped onto Hei Zi tightly like shackles, and no matter how much Hei Zi struggled, he could not free himself. He immediately realized how much stronger his junior brother waspared to him.

    Ye Chong understood his concern for himself, and while he was personally moved, he kept his expression t as he replied, "Hmm, just wait and look!"

    Between their exchanges, the mechanical arm had finished its job, and the disc was now lying quietly in the drying oven.

    Ye Chong then let go of Hei Zi¡¯s wrist, and Hei Zi rushed immediately to the drying oven. He opened the oven hastily and took out the disc, examining it closely.

    "Ah! How is this possible?" Hei Zi gasped again in surprise, staring at the disc in his hand in disbelief.

    ______________________________________________________________________________

    In the underground workshop.

    The old man studied the half-disc in his hands closely, his expression one of satisfaction. The padding was wless no matter how he looked at it! What impressed him more was that Ye Chong could produce this masterpiece in such a short time. As the old man imagined the day that his apprentice could inherit and the spread this craftsmanship, how could he not feel thankful?

    "Ye, Hei Zi said you used auto mode during immersion for this padding?" The old man asked with half-lidded eyes.

    "Yes. I stumbled upon a few ways to increase the sess rate of immersion, and I¡¯ve recorded them in a chip and gave it to Senior Brother!" Ye Chong did not show any signs of showing off, as he attributed his findings as a result of "stumbling upon" them.

    Hei Zi nodded at the side,plimenting him, "Yes, Master, Junior Brother¡¯s methods are effective, I¡¯ve tried a few times and they all worked!" Hei Zi grinned widely.

    The old man nodded in approval and said, "Hmm, not bad, not bad! Ye, your fundamentals are strong, and you¡¯re a quick study, with excellent memory. While you may have begunter than your Senior Brother, you have understood more and at a deeper level. Your future is limitless. Your Senior Brother is an honest man, you must take care of him!"

    "Yes!" Ye Chong¡¯s reply was short and determined, and came sincerely from him.

    "What youck now is experience, and that is something I cannot teach you. Only through practice can you umte experience. Your task from now on is to practice every day. You may choose your own tasks, and the skeletons there are yours to use." The old man pointed at a huge pile of skeletons.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong nodded.

    The old man pondered for a while before speaking again, "Ye, you¡¯re smart, and have learnt just about everything there is here. If you¡¯re willing, go learn alchemy from Guan Leng. After all, if you don¡¯t know alchemy, you¡¯ll have to depend on others for the strengthening chemical, that makes it easy for you to be dependent! However, your Aunt Guan is ill tempered, and you''ll be in for a hard time if you go. Hmm, I¡¯ll leave this decision to you!"

    Guan Leng was an alchemist living nearby, and all the strengthening chemicals here came from her. She behaved oddly, and was often mad as a hatter. However, her skills in chemical synthesis were extraordinary - she prepared almost all the strengthening chemicals based on the old man¡¯s requirements.

    For some reason, she always granted the old man¡¯s wishes. For other people, it would depend on her mood.

    Periodically, when the strengthening chemicals were running out, Ye Chong and Hei Zi would visit her to obtain more. Hei Zi disliked visiting, and upon noticing Ye Chong¡¯s indifference to the crazydy, he had assigned the drudging task to Ye Chong.

    For such an excellent alchemist, she remainedrgely unknown in the entirety of the Orbits. That was a small surprise to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong already knew the form for the strengthening chemical. After Mu and Shang did their scanning, all theponents of the strengthening chemical were recorded. Ye Chong was afraid of running out of the strengthening chemical in the future, since he would ultimately leave this ce.

    "What a good idea! Ye, you should go learn from her! She¡¯s definitely capable. All these types of strengthening chemicals were from her original forme, that¡¯s awesome! Ye, best if you can learn some ways to grow Do Kun stone! Wah, then we¡¯ll be rich!" Shang could not help bute out, very much enthusiastic.

    Ye Chong tried very hard to stop himself from rolling his eyes, as he did not want to appear disrespectful to the old man. However, Shang¡¯s words had indeed made him feel helpless - what a money-grubber!

    However, the mech had also reminded Ye Chong of his earlier days in Blue Ocean Academy. For some reason, he missed those times, although he cannot quite figure out why.

    The old man¡¯s words interrupted his reverie. "Hmm, Ye, I did not forget your strange illness! Don¡¯t worry, once you¡¯re skillful enough, you¡¯ll definitely pass the Sanctuary¡¯s tests. Then, you¡¯ll be able to leave the Orbits and search for doctors elsewhere! Beside, with the Sanctuary¡¯s powerful influence, gathering all sorts of talents, they might know what to do with you."

    Ye¡¯s strange illness had resulted in two episodes in his time here, frightening both Hei Zi and Nan Nan. When the old man heard of it and came to him, Ye Chong had already recovered.

    For Ye Chong, asking for help from the Sanctuary was one big joke! Ye Chong could barely hide from them; if he were to present himself to the Sanctuary, was that not asking for death? This solution was immediately rejected by Ye Chong!

    "Hmm, alchemist ¡­ Do Kun stone ¡­ The Sanctuary¡¯s tests ¡­"

    A sh of realization flickered in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes.

 Chapter 136 - Lunatic Guan

    <h4>Chapter 136: Lunatic Guan</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Lunatic Guan¡¯s home was rather messy, one could step into a pile of utilities or misceneousness right by the entrance. Ye Chong had to lift his every step in caution or he would actually initiate an avnche from the mountain piles of items in the room and be engulfed by it. The scene reminded him of the trashes back on Trash-12 though.

    "Tsk, tsk, tsk," Shang''s voice rang. He sounded impressed, "It looked like you had met quite an intriguingdy." It was for the women again, of course, "Eh, it felt like an old spinster with mentality issues? Kekeke, Ye, take care and good luck!" Shang rejoiced the catastropheing to our hero soon.

    Ye Chong did not seem to be interested in joining Shang¡¯s chatter. However, as he understood deep in his heart that no matter what sort of reply he made, be it sarcasm or nd statement, it would only make the artificial intelligence more excited. So Ye Chong decided to give the artificial intelligence some silent treatment, let him have his slice of self-indulgence in rtionship that Ye Chong could never convey.

    "Kekekeke¡­" Shang teasinglyughed on, "Ay! Almost forgot! Ye your heart did not belong to the outside, it¡¯s all belonged to that fist-fightingss! ¡­ Kek¡­ Ye, I feel your heartbeat racing~!" Shang¡¯s pride was demonstrated through the mechanical ups-and-downs in his tone.

    The garb of pure whiteness shed in his mind as the veins on his forehead pumped uncontrobly, his nose sensed as hooked by the strange aroma again, and his tongue felt coated by the slipperiness of something before¡­

    And Ye Chong actually zoned out for a moment.

    He was pulled back to the ground of the Orbits after perceiving sounds of graceless footsteps by his ears.

    He took a look at the hazy Lunatic Guan in her hangover.

    Lunatic Guan was around 28 to 29 years old, she was rather demure, judging by how Shang eximed upon seeing her¡­ although it would be a killing challenge to ask Ye Chong to judge from his view. Her mind was still on the other side of the Orbits, she was sort of unconscious, flushed and disheveled, with her shirt sliding to one side, exposing that fair left shoulder of hers. Her breasts were magically appearing back and fro through the loosened clothing of hers. She seemed to be unaware of her striptease¡­ in spite of that, as the cup rested upside down in her slender hand like herself.

    Gasp!

    It was not Ye Chong. He heard it clearly from Shang. Nevertheless after attending loyally to Shang¡¯s every motivational session, none of his outrageous behavior seemed to surprise Ye Chong anymore.

    Ye Chong simply did not get it, the way of how one judged someone¡¯s appearance. Fundamentally, everyone has the same number of eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Nothing strikingly different there was. Certainly Ye Chong could understand the fact that there are differences at some point. For instance, he was well-aware of the differences in his eyes and ears, as his sight and hearing were way more sensitive; for his smell and taste though, they were slightly inferior. However! Ye Chong could never be convinced the fact that one could justify such difference of strength at first sight, even for someone like Mu!

    If that was the case, probably such difference in strength was not one of the factors contributing to the so-called "aesthetic judgment" by Shang.

    Assuming it was based on the facial muscrity in actuality¡­ Well, Ye Chong believed hecked such knowledge as he could hardly imagine how the muscles on one¡¯s face could do anything positive tobats. If these lumps could do no good in battle, how would one determine their quality? Presuming that Shang meant hair, that would do nearly nothing to battle too! In fact, it was on the contrary - having an overgrown hair would affect the progress of the battle negatively. So it would be most appropriate to stay bald provided that one was on Trash.

    Bald would be considered the beauty then¡­

    But Ye Chong had never heard Shangplimenting a bald female!

    Then how the heck do I even judge one¡¯s beauty? Ye Chong was utterly dumbfounded. It was challenging indeed!

    "Ahh¡­" A mechanical moan from Shang beeped by, "Oh my Fal¡­ Oh heavens, how in the world? How in the world there would lie such an absolute beauty at such a shabby ce? Ye, I¡¯m done! Ye, I. Am. Done. For!"

    "Shang, what¡¯s wrong?" Ye Chong was startled.

    "Umm, Ye." His voice was shaking, "This is what we called ¡®being shot by the arrow¡¯. And I¡¯m sure I had been shot."

    "Arrow?" Ye Chong panicked as he looked around quickly, but there was nothing¡­ although Ye Chong still kept his guard high, "Could it be a new form of archery? Of using a projectile of invisibility? Wave-based arrows? No! It is a ray arrow?" Ye Chong got into his stance right away, awaiting the moment Shang confirmed the wounding strike. Then he would deploy the Guardian and st off in the speed of light instantly. With the Guardian they would be in good hands, it had to be this female who assassinated Shang, then Ye Chong would kill this despicable feline at the quickest speed possible so he could spend more time to find this ballista of revolutionary in leisure!

    ZZzt!

    Shang almost crashed himself! "Ye, do you really have not the slightest humanity?"

    "Humanity? But Shang, you said you got shot, I clearly heard it! Mhm, considering how weaponry this ancient could do you no harm, it has to be a new kind of weapon that involves ray beams or some sort of impulsive waves. That would be more likely." Ye Chong¡¯s tone was dead serious.

    Zzt! It was super effective.

    Shang fainted¡­ nearly. "Ye, have you not heard of the arrow of Cupid?"

    "Arrow of Cu- what?" Ye Chong did not understand it. "Whatpany makes it? What¡¯s the exact specs? The model? The brand? What does it do exactly? What are the capacities? I don¡¯t think I have seen such a sophisticated product before¡­" Ye Chong was dead serious, pondering.

    ZzZZzt!

    Shang could not hold it any longer, heunched a full barrel of lecture, "Ye, you freaking beast! Could you be a little more normal sometimes? You don¡¯t even know the arrow of Cupid? You and your bloody head filled with endless fighting, killing, massacre and your bloody mechs and your bloody modifications! When in the century would you learn the true meaning of life?" The veryst sentence was uttered romantically in stark sentiments by Shang, which tickled Ye Chong from the soul, that his hair went standing.

    "Does it have anything to do with this?" Ye Chong was bewildered. Well it seemed like Shang was not attacked, so it was a relief.

    "Ay¡­" Shang was depressed, "I must admit it was my misconduct to have left you in such demise. Talking about the true meaning of life with you, is like talking to walls. Nothing productivees back."

    "But Mu said walls do produce something. They produce echoes and the sound reflects back." rebutted Ye Chong.

    "Oh my Fal Gxy. Holy matrimony! What kind of ¡­ thing! Are both of you? Heavens what have I done to stay with both of them?" Shang¡¯s tone was filled with tears, he howled in grief.

    "Hmmmmmmmmm?" a sweet tone going upwards pretentiously.

    "Ye, my cute Ye boy, what is that stare? Missing me? Loving the good old me?" Lunatic Guan¡¯s eyes were hazier than ever, tripping her steps, copsing anytime it seemed. The tone was seductive.

    "Magnefique! This is gorgeous!" Shang eximed. "Ye, do you know what it is? It¡¯s known as the Twirling Tongue Tease! ording to a research on women,dies who spoke in such tease hold an alluring arousing appearance - a God¡¯s gift! I never knew, never knew the slightest, that in a filthy ce like this, a beauty, a beauty of such otherworldliness stood, just stood right there!" No one seemed to get what Shang was saying anymore¡­ his tone was intensely passionate that it felt like some gibberish generated from dictionary.

    No doubt, Ye Chong did not understand a single sentence uttered by this lunatic indulgence. He probably only got the part where Shang emphasized on how good Lunatic Guan was. She¡¯s¡­ good? His eyes were rolled into the realm of his head, wondering how Hei Zi would be jumping around and seeing the dinner he hadst night returning if he heard what Shang had said.

    Ye Chong took a careful look at Lunatic Guan, still, he did not identify anything good on her¡­ other than her hands. They were a nice pair of hands, which they were fair, with great proportion. Ye Chong¡¯s eyes could even discern the fine distribution of muscles on the arms. Slender yet agile hands! The downside though¡­ Ye Chong was sighing, the skin was too fair. Fragile, feeble, torn upon touch, the defense would be poor.

    But thinking of how she was actually a chemist who fought in aboratory with chemicals, rather than a real hand-to-hand fighting, Ye Chong was confused of his judgment once again.

    Lunatic Guan had gotten used to Ye Chong¡¯s silence, just like how Ye Chong had gotten used to her drunk lunatic self. Most of his visits happened to spot her alcoholic self slurring and rolling around while twitching in some insanity sometimes, which were the reasons why Hei Zi showed reluctance of paying her a visit and also why her name being "Lunatic" Guan.

    "Oh¡­ Gulp. Don¡¯t tell¡­ Don¡¯t tell me, you had finished your¡­ your¡­ strengthening liquid¡­ che-chemical again¡­" She swung her cup, "Wait¡­ no. You had taken tons before this¡­ You-You can¡¯t have used all up already¡­" Lunatic Guan was shocked and she giggled as she teased, "So¡­ you did miss the good old me, eh? Ye my boy. Hahahaha, hmm? Why don¡¯t, why don¡¯t, I apany our poor, poor, poor lonely Ye boy tonight? Only tonight!"

    "Holy!" Shang sounded mesmerized, "Gorgeous!" He sounded impatient, "Ye, say yes to that statement, go green light! Please make sure you ept the world¡¯s greatest offer!"

    Of course Ye Chong directly showed ignorance towards the unwanted cheerleading counseling service.

    "It¡¯s not about the strengthening chemical, ma¡¯am." Ye Chong spoke on, "Master called me here to learn about alchemy from Aunt Guan."

    Lunatic Guan flinched¡­ and then she began making nces over Ye Chong, "Well, I can¡¯t tell at first sight. Looks like your master had some expectations on you¡­ for he actually asked you here to learn alchemy from me. How could I miss such hint? Tsk, tsk, they say you shouldn¡¯t judge a wine by its bottle and I guess it¡¯s true. The good old me had seen it wrong!" She probably meant "judge a book by its cover"¡­

    "Well," Ye Chong asked abruptly. "What does Aunt Guan think about this?"

    "Kekekekekekekeke¡­ Jajajajajaja¡­" Lunatic Guan went lunatic for a moment, "Ay, Ye my little boy, how many times must I remind you? Call me Sister! ¡®Aunt Guan, this.¡¯ and ¡®Aunt Guan, that¡¯, you and your naming are making me old!" She might had gone lunatic, but Ye Chong saw her hand holding the cup, her fingers twirling the handle, justifying the fact that she was considering it.

    So Ye Chong stayed quiet as he waited for a clear, conscious reply from her.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    It was a moment of silence between both of them.

    The fingers stopped twirling. "So, what do you think?" Ye Chong quickly spoke, in his usual monotonous tone.

    Lunatic Guan looked quite surprised. Apparently she did not expect Ye Chong to grasp the timing so urately.

    The cheeky smile on her face vaporized somehow. Her expression was stern out of sudden, which Ye Chong saw it the first time ever on her. Her bottomless pupils rolled over Ye Chong and rolled back to the center, as she looked into the cup, her words fell slow, "If it¡¯s an order by your master, if you really wanted toe here and learn alchemy, I wouldn¡¯t mind¡­" Her voice trailed off.

    "Mhm. Conditions? What about the conditions?" asked Ye Chong with his still face.

    "Well, conditions, there''s none¡­" Lunatic Guan¡¯s eyes looked greatly impressed, "If you want to learn alchemy from me, there are indeed a few rules and regtions from me. If you could not obey them, I won¡¯t be teaching you at all, even if your master came and tried convincing me," thest sentence went grim.

    "Ok," Ye Chong was not horrified. "State it," his tone fell tly.

    "First, what your master intended was probably for you to master the form of a few kinds of strengthening liquid. But, since you came for me, I¡¯ll decide what I want to teach and you can leave only after I admitted your expertise in this! You cannot simply leave on a whim anytime before this. Of course, you are allowed to get back to your master asionally," she spoke serenely.

    "No problem," Ye Chong replied after a moment of pondering,

    "Second, you are my student and you will do as what I have instructed, no doubt, no bargain and most importantly, no cking!"

    "Okay."

    "Third, whatever ce I forbid you to go and whatever item I disallow you to touch, do not, ever, go, and do not, ever, touch it! If I caught you, you better be able to face the consequences." Though the regtion came nonchntly, Ye Chong could smell the danger between the words for some reason.

    "I am not a curious person to begin with," Ye Chong was confident of this side of his personality.

    "Think it through," stated Lunatic Guan.

    "Done it," replied Ye Chong. "I agree."

    "Are you sure?"

    "Sure."

    "Hm, alright. For starters, clean this room, organize everything." The first instruction was tossed over Ye Chong as Lunatic Guan burped, turned and walked away in grace.

    "Ye."

    "Regarding those words¡­"

    "Ye, I¡¯m taking every word that I¡¯ve said!" No cure for regrets, Shang¡­ Horrified Shang upon seeing the piling junks in the room. His mechanical heart ran colder than ever.

 Chapter 137 - Ye Chongs Tutorial

    <h4>Chapter 137: Ye Chong''s Tutorial</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The piles of utilities were not much of an issue for Ye Chong since cleaning rubbish was like the bread and butter for someone who grew up on Trash like him. It was as easy as ABC.

    Ye Chong was so efficient at it that even Shang got surprised, "Ye, I never knew you have such talent! You are such a skillful cleaner. Well, that means even if we got out one day, you could be a good maid and you could earn decently to pay for your living and our fuel! Mhm, apparently being a maid is not just for anyone and it certainly requires some standard of skills."

    Ye Chong ignored the artificial intelligence again as he took a nce at the room, which had be spotless and refreshing. Technically he just discarded whatever that looked useless to him and a majority of them turned out to be clothing. Like for Pete''s sake, who would buy these many clothes? Won¡¯t she feel inconvenient of changing into different clothings constantly?

    Without hesitation, these grimy clothing were all thrown.

    Seeing how the room got all tidied up, spick and span, Ye Chong was satisfied, though he did identally "over-clean" a few pieces of floorings as they were too dirty¡­ He wiped the specks to a bin.

    The next few days passed under the Lunatic Guan¡¯s signature giggling and mumbling. She did not regard Ye Chong in a bit.

    Well Ye Chong was not in a rush as there were simply too many things he could do to kill time. Meditation alone could already consume a huge portion of his hours, since his talent to this was much more measly than most of the people. In spite of that, he kept it up, after working hard for so long, he made some breakthrough a few days back finally - he started to feel that wave of oddity faintly wafting around him.

    This was more than encouraging to Ye Chong. After witnessing the unique battle style conducted by these pilots from the sanctuary, he had always believed in how mental training was the root of their existence.

    His mindset was right after all. The starting point was correct but the path was rockier than he thought. The actuality of mental training was a moreplicated concept. These so-called mentalists had been chosen way back when they were a child for their outstanding mental and physical conditions. They were trained in a group of 10 each. They grew up together as they trained together to build the rapport. And they would be the true elite ofbats!

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not expect to get fully immersed in the boundless world of mentalist, neither did he wish the expertise could provide him aid of any kind during battle. He only wished that it could at least help him to ease his pain whenever that symptom came raiding him. If it could do that, it would be godly helpful and Ye Chong would be thanking God.

    Other than the daily meditation session, there were other things to do as well. Ye Chong was not the meddling kids who would go digging some graves, peeling some masks, he had much better things to do like getting familiar with the Guardian. He had been restlessly trying to get along with this miniature mech the past few days because he understood the fact well enough that only with the continuous bonding between the pilot and the mech itself would bring out the best in each other. The Guardian was just like the treasure of infinity, which never failed to give Ye Chong new surprises.

    Dagger for No.2. It was a rather stupid item name for a great pair of daggers like itself. It did not even look like a proper noun of naming without the capitalization, even though this silly name represented a transcendent pair of daggers. Numerous discussions were conducted between Ye Chong and Mu yet they failed to determine the concept behind the production of such kind of dagger, which was mind-blowing enough for Ye Chong to praise how Gu Shaoze was a genius. The sharpness of Dagger for No.2 was much higher than the Blue Winter which the tip had been imbued with Do Kun stone. The one pity was¡­ the fact that it was too small to do anything significant on a mech, unless the fatal spots were aimed at first or it would still be a mosquito¡¯s bite on an elephant. The other catch was it was tricky to pilot the miniature under the unique monochromatic vision, and Ye Chong was attempting to get used to it.

    In addition, Ye Chong also had to invest a few hours of his day on getting some hands-on practices on the bones he got from the grandfather, just to prevent regression in his skills.

    Judging by the routine he had day by day, sometimes Ye Chong wondered if he could even squeeze a few minutes on alchemy, which justified the fact that he was acting so patiently despite Lunatic Guan¡¯s consecutive absence, simply because he did not have the leisure to even figure it out! Out of the blue his life felt all fulfilling and meaningful. The biggest fortune of his life at the moment was probably Shang had switched ces with Mu once again as his time was up. When Shang left and Mu came, it felt like a silent night, holy night - all was calm, all was bright.

    This was exactly what Ye Chong thought especially being mentally tortured by Shang¡¯s lecture. Ever since he had a nce at Lunatic Guan he was as if overdosed with aphrodisiac. "Aphrodisiac?" The alien term to Ye Chong was then defined by Shang, iming that it was a kind of chemical which would induce simtion of a certain kind of hormones in human body within a short period of time.

    The definition sounded horrifying to Ye Chong, wondering when Shang did his chemistry studies. What left Ye Chong such a deep impression was actually how Shang was "reacting" towards Lunatic Guan after that. He would be praising Lunatic Guan solemnly and endlessly like her best worshipper, lines and lines of ssic cheesy, cringe-worthy expression of love he called them came rolling like inferno of his libido he said. It was impressive for he never repeat the said adjective or noun¡­ but it was menacing at the same time. On top of that, regrly he would "advise", "rmend" or "suggest" Ye Chong to approach Lunatic Guan whenever he could, though the tone sounded like how a person who would also "advise" the olddy during a robbery. It was fortunate that Ye Chong had such a calm personality, he almost snapped under the uninterrupted chain of agony. One could imagine his machine jamming!

    It was absolutely a horror! If anyone who acted like Shang after consuming this namely "aphrodisiac", then this said chemical would be the most fearsome drug in history of humankind!

    The relieving fact was Shang had a strong uracy of time as he gave away his space right at that moment, though with a heavy heart that made him sing some goosebumps-giving poems he said. Ye Chong gave a deep sigh of relief upon hearing Mu¡¯s monotonous line again.

    Shang might had left, but Lunatic Guan had just arrived.

    "Hmmmmmmmmmmmm."

    The ss hung in her right hand as Lunatic Guan leaned against the door with her face reddened from the alcohol. Ye Chong immediately paused his routine as he set his nce of indifference upon her.

    "Yi¡­Yi¡­Ye." Her words were unclear, "Ye my boy you¡­ you are so *hup* patient¡­ so uining¡­ I¡¯m impressed¡­ no wonder your master had such expe-expectation on you. Well¡­ Very well¡­ Let the good old sister grant your wish¡­" Her head swung uncontrobly as she fell upon the door and went all the way down to the ground she sat.

    ¡­? Ye Chong¡¯s expression suggested otherwise.

    "Little Ye! You!" red at Ye Chong upon seeing his doubtful eyes, Lunatic Guan mumbled, "Ye my boy, don¡¯t tell me¡­ you think I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m¡­ *hup* drunk? Hmph¡­ Let me tell you, Little Ye. I¡¯m not¡­ I¡¯m not drunk! Let me give you a pro¡­ proper lesson today!"

    ¡­

    Settled down, Lunatic Guan pondered a little. Seriousness began surging through the drunken face of hers as her speech became clearer - a rare sight it was indeed. "The chemists, or some called the alchemists¡­ they were not the one who yed with the sks right from the beginning, most of them happened to be botanist formerly. They researched on nts and had discovered a variety of attributes on these beautiful babies. Mhm, it¡¯s a very intriguing study indeed! However, as the timeframe for a nt toplete its growth was too long, it brought up a lot of problems for them to conduct the research effectively. Thus, these researchers, driven by their curiosity and impatience, started trying various methodologies to condense the growth timeframe of a nt. And that was how the chemists showed up. Until today, botany is still the most widely used field of study in alchemy."

    Ye Chong was certainly all ears and surely he did not notice how the ever-drunk face of Lunatic Guan had turned all fair - her eyes were crystal-clear, lustered with wisdom as the features defined her shocking beauty with that gleaming face of hers.

    "Then, people realized it was possible to reduce the growth timeframe through alchemy for living things other than the nts. As they ventured deeper into the unknown, their research was recognized. They started getting known by the people for being the explorer, the developer to new species. Then the field of alchemy was diversified, professionalized and began heading into the vision of humanity!"

    Her tone was embedded with a hint of pride, which was surprising to Ye Chong for it was far-fetched to imagine a lunatic like Guan could have such emotion¡­ Perhaps, Lunatic Guan was not as simple as she appeared currently before¡­ Ye Chongughed at the thought - "like tell me anyone who had a simple background and managed to enter the Orbits!"

    "So¡­" Lunatic Guan carried on, "there are a number of branches of studies in the alchemy. Well, we are humans after all. We can¡¯t simply involve ourselves in every field avable. Other than the difference in branches of expertise, there are still many methods that are unknown to people to distinguish the grouping between chemists. Since you are technically my student, you should be aware of this. Mhm, everything regarding this is stored inside the processor at Room No.5 and the password would be 37254. Go check it out if you are interested. Being an upation having rich history as dated long time ago, there arews hidden within the field and rules which are unwritten to outsiders, which is something you need to work on. Or else¡­ Heh! You could picture what would happen if you conduct the taboo, be it an ident or an incident. Hmph!" The tone fell coldly.

    Ye Chong nodded, expressing his understanding.

    "For starters, learn about botany. The research of botany is most fruitful and mature!" Lunatic Guan searched through her body for a moment, she found nothing as she stopped and pondered with her head tilted. "Oh, silly me!" she muttered as she withdrew a chip of size of a thumb right from her chest. "Grab!" She tossed it to Ye Chong.

    Lunatic Guan "tossed" the chip too gently, the chip was too light to fly far enough to Ye Chong. It was falling and Ye Chongunched himself to grab it right before it hit the ground.

    "Oh?" Lunatic Guan¡¯s eyes shed slight peculiarity as her eyes scanned through Ye Chong, "Eh, my Little Ye, you ain¡¯t bad you know! I never knew you were quite capable of things despite that puny body of yours. Yes, yes, sister myself would be relieved even if you were to head out alone. Hehehehehehehehe! Little Ye, you know! You~could~alwayse~to~me~ So I could have an actual test on your s-t-a-m-i-n-a! The exercises! If you know what I meant, hehehehehe!" sneered Lunatic Guan, covering her mouth which uttered a tone of ambiguous chemistry.

    "Stamina?" Ye Chong shook his head as his reply came seriously, "My stamina is good enough. No test is required!"

    ¡­

    Psh!

    Lunatic Guan had lost control after trying very hard to inhibit herughter, as she sat on the ground and burst outughing. "Ahahahahahahahaha!" The chain ofughter rang throughout the room. "Hehehehehehehehe!" Ye Chong could notpute the rationale behind this longughter¡­ "Mu." He knew it would be very inappropriate if he asked out loud, so he asked Mu in his mind instead, "Is my stamina that bad?"

    "Hmm¡­" Hesitated Mu, "Probably the foe had better vitality, although the chances are less than 1%!"

    "Hah¡­"

    It took quite some time before Lunatic Guan lost her breath, as she tapped her chest, gasping for air. 3 minutespsed and she finally calmed down.

    "Hah."

    "Okay, this chip contains the illustrations ofmon herbs. Although most schools do not demand their students to memorize all of this, you are my student and you should not be all cheap and secondary of course! Memorize the entries, every-single-of-them. I¡¯ll be testing you in a few days. If you got it wrong, heh! No doubt, punishment awaits! And that would be very, very memorable to my Little Ye."

    Ye Chong shuddered for some reason.

    "Also!" she spoke on, "this is only a side quest, but you better be doing it. You would be collecting the actual herbs as samples based on the listing in the illustrations. Yes, the nt searching device would be at Room No.2, fifth from the left on the third row. You would probably need that. The instruction is there. It is simple, just a nce and you''ll get it. So stop bothering me with that! Okay¡­ that¡¯s probably¡­ it? I want to see actual samples for all entries on the illustrations after 5 days. Alright, save the nagging. That''s it." Lunatic Guan waved as she seemed a little irritated somehow.

    "Tata! Zzz¡­"

    She ignored Ye Chong after that. Lunatic Guan leaned against the door and began sleeping soundly.

 Chapter 138 - Into the Woods

    <h4>Chapter 138: Into the Woods</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Room No.2, fifth¡­ from the left¡­ the third¡­row¡­ There it is!

    So this is the nt searching device Lunatic Guan had mentioned? Wondered Ye Chong as he took a careful look around. It was unexpectedly tiny in size, with an appearance of a cube of about 5 to 6 cm^3 with two levels where the upper part contained a piece of crystal spread ins of pale yellow while the lower was a base of metallic dark blue which the texture had been glossing beautifully after the process of frosting. Both levels were connected by 2posite straps at the endings with adjustable hinged pins on them, which looked like a futuristic watch from a nce.

    Ye Chong took the pin and buckled himself by the wrist. Tick! Clipped the adjustable pin automatically on the wrist. The size was just right. No difort was felt on his wrist.

    Zzzzt!

    Almost immediately after, the device was activated as beams of various colors were diverged from the crystal and then converged upwards right above, which eventually formed a clear hologram on top.

    Right inside the device there was a detailed manual that illustrated instructions required to operate the system. As Lunatic Guan had stated, it turned out to be indeed simple, easily understood. Technically, Ye Chong just had to insert the data of the designated nt into the chip to trigger a scanning system which would look for the inputted nt within the proximity of 10 meters. And the locations would be marked on the hologram. Thus, it would be justifiable to state that intellectualization had already urred in all sorts of fields, including the study closest to the nature, the alchemy itself.

    The chip given by Lunatic Guan had actually epassed entries of arge variety of nts, which turned out to be an eye-opener to Ye Chong, since nts were the rarest species he would see back on Trash-12. So instead of nts, the mutated lifeform took the ce of the bottommost of the food chain. They would consume organic junks for a living and they possessed great survivability. There were nts on the, however those were mostly the kinds which could adapt to harsh conditions, which in return, they had nd colors and unsightly appearance. Thus his reaction as he could have never seen such beautiful bushes of flowers on the hologram with different kinds of shapes and colors before.

    To even survive on Trash, the first lesson one has to learn is to respect life. The kinds of species still living on Trash are absolutely strong andsting by nature. Throughout the days of getting in between life and death, Ye Chong learned this lesson by heart. He valued life, he would treat lives of any form equally, and that would be Ye Chong¡¯s philosophy towards life.

    Eventually these nts were like the masterpiece by the God to Ye Chong!

    Ye Chong did not rush out of the room and began his nt sampling right away. Instead, he took a thorough reading on the description of the nts. Towards learning, he held sufficient patience, demand and curiosity, as he believed these were all parts of his strength while strength always had the ability to determine the oue of his life, being the warranty to his survivability!

    But then Ye Chong exited from the concentrated inquisitiveness of his pretty soon, simply because¡­ "Man¡­ memorizing is truly a tiring work¡­" In any event, Ye Chong had confidence in his memory being average at the very least before this. And today he stumbled upon this task that turned out unexpectedly tedious¡­ where he barely remembered a thing on the list yet his brain felt all exhausted, getting dizzier.

    Seems like¡­ Mu would be more ustomed at tasks like this¡­

    No.

    Ye Chong still understood the difference of memorizing the listing by Mu or by himself, only the strength which was wholly his would be the most reliable source of guarantee!

    It was a prettyprehensive set of illustrations that it felt like a mini encyclopedia. There were extensive writings regarding the nature, the effect and even the actual application of the specified nt in the industry. Nheless, such vast amount of information remained a bit puzzling to a beginner like Ye Chong. inly the basic information of the nts alone was already a headache to him. He solely wished that Lunatic Guan¡¯s examination woulde on ater date, as 5 days were challenging.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong strolled through the woods.

    Ugh. I forgot. Why had I never thought of borrowing a mech from Nan Nan¡¯s grandfather? I would have some sort of transportation at least! Ye Chong pitifully checked out the list of mechs he had with him¡­ none of them were deployable, as either they were damaged beyond repair or they were too rming to appear in the woods. Ye Chong could just imagine everyone on Haleyson hunting him down the moment the mech flipped out of the dimension.

    Sigh¡­ Ye Chong was in grief but what else could he do? He lifted his steps and began walking hurriedly, at least Ye Chong¡¯s stamina was certified to do a bit of running in the greens.

    The forest was serene.

    The atmosphere slowed his steps gradually.

    Sauntering through the forest, he inhaled the refreshing airing right from Mother Nature. Ye Chong sure had fallen in love with this sensation of serenity. Beep! Beep! Beep! The nt searching device on his wrist pulled him back from the fantasy. The beeping of notification sounded extra ear-piercing in the silent woods. "Oh. Hah!" Ye Chongughed uncontrobly, "My life has always been filled with danger and war. Such life of peace and harmony does not belong to me!"

    He shifted his focus back onto the nt searching device on his wrist. Wow! He staggered upon seeing the countless red spots appeared in the interface!

    "Ye." Mu¡¯s voice echoed, "You should try searching one item at a time. Currently you had inputted too many items!"

    The device was unquestionably powerful, the overall efficiency of the sampling process was sharply increased after Ye Chong did as what Mu guided.

    Okay, this is the Trifolium¡­ What about this? Hm¡­ Pairing Vine¡­? No¡­ it should be Paired Whip¡­

    Ye Chong began sampling the nts as instructed by the device while tasting the painful realization of his atrocious memory which hardly helped him recalling even the name of the nts he encountered.

    He plucked a few nts and grabbed some others¡­

    Soon, Ye Chong discovered a new issue - his hands were bare. He was unarmed. He did not bring any form of containers to keep the nts he had collected, which upset him¡­ "Ah!" He also found out how fragile the nts were that they crumbled in his palms as Ye Chong carried them along. And he had to start from scratch again.

    In the midst of his fret, a few clinking sounds of metal rang by his ears.

    His pupils went focused as he perceived the iing sound carefully. He might had an atrocious memory, but he still had a good pair of ears. "Was that¡­"

    "Ye, there were two mechs warring¡­" Mu simply did not give him the opportunity to unt his sensitive hearing, habitually his voice sounded monotonously, "Somewhere 500 meters from your right hand side. Mhm, the mech model, judging by the clinking, it should be one of the mechs we encountered at the sanctuary before, while the others¡­ unknown."

    "Sanctuary?" Ye Chong withdrew his hands from one sprout, he did not intend to join the party at first, but¡­ he tilted his head pondering. The men from sanctuary, their intentions had been confirmed to be hostile. If that¡¯s the case, it would be beneficial in the uing encounters if we could get more information on them.

    "Ye¡­" Somehow Mu could see what Ye Chong was thinking, as he suggested, "If you really insist on joining the party, piloting the Guardian would be the best option! The Guardian is in-built with an anti-detection system which could counter the detection by the mechs from the Sanctuary at a sess rate of 85% and above. Thendscape is rather fitting to the nature of Guardian too."

    "Mhm, a great idea it is," agreed Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong started to get the hang of unique monochromatic vision in the Guardian. The ever refreshing roaring strings of information somehow were able to get him into a status of calmness quickly. The boundaries defined by dots and lines in ck and white, the ever-moving data, they were mesmerizing to Ye Chong. He grew fond of the Guardian as he got familiar with the interface.

    Leap. Leap. Run. Leap.

    The miniature mech worked like a charm in the woods since its size was mini as it was called. It felt weaving through the trees with more dexterity than a standard mech which stood 10 meters and above.

    The only downside Ye Chong felt about Gu Shaoze¡¯s genius invention though¡­ was the color itself. Well, certainly the color gold was ssy and glossy, easy to the eyes, but it was too eye-catching in Ye Chong¡¯s opinion. Ye Chong did not really fancy the all sparkling and dazzling color scheme on his mech when he was born being an assassin lurking in the dark. He did try repainting the surface of the Guardian with some darker colors like a grayish green, however contrary to his expectation, the material of the Guardian was more than peculiar as no paint seemed to be able to remain on the surface. Some types of the paint he tried would drip off in streams. There were paints thatsted on the surface with no question, till Ye Chong tried wiping them¡­ and they got transferred to the cloth after that, like those washing powder advertisement he had seen before, the Guardian stayed clean as new in one wipe despite all sorts of paints and dirts.

    Mu was pretty intrigued by the nature of the material on the surface yet sadly he could not perform any kind of effective analysis without the aid of professional apparatuses. So the material for the Guardian lingered as the biggest mystery till that moment.

    Ye Chong who was piloti- nope, practically saying - Ye Chong who was wearing* the Guardian, moved like an agile beast in the forest as he went leaping and dashing freely at great speed!

    The uracy as well as the coverage of the detection system on most mechs would be negatively affected in the woods, except for a super mech like Mu Shang, which was extremely rare for mechs being able to perform urate detecting and positioning even in the jungle. Back in the days where he was still performing NR Training and piloting a Raven, he always had a preference to fight people in the jungle as that would potentially reduce the differences in capacities of mechs with the foes.

    The dense branches provided Ye Chong the best camouge, as he made to the two mechs 30 meters away nearby without alerting them using the Guardian¡¯s impable anti-detection system.

    Right when he deployed the Guardian, the analysis function that ran automatically gave him a headache for a moment, countlessworks of data flooded his eyes, the data ran and refreshed maniacally. He only realized the fact that thendscape was tooplicated for Guardian topute. He was jammed with the information and he could see silhouettes at the slightest. Nevertheless, the system seemed to have cleared up itself while he was puzzled by the issue. The imagery started simplifying itself as some lines faded away, the visual grew clearer, the data stream refreshed slower.

    It was a shocker to Ye Chong to see the sudden changes all by the system itself but he did not have the time to figure it out just yet. Apparently there were still a lot of functions undiscovered¡­ Spected Ye Chong, who then calmed his excitement as he observed the images attentively.

    As stated by Mu, the mech was indeed from the Sanctuary. Ye Chong could recognize that model at first nce, being simr to the one he knocked out with the Guardian back then, whereas the other mech¡­ it was much smaller in size, had an emerald body, the designs were rather revitalizing, with slight innocence. Ye Chong suspected it being a mech for females.

    The two mechs had apparently created an opening around them. Twigs were broken, trees copsed in a circle of borderline. The earth was scooped out viciously. These had justified the fact that they must have fought before. The green mech had several scratches on the body too, while the Dawn mech, as expected from the Sanctuary, was bright anew. The status of both parties was tant in this scenario.

    Both parties stood still as they anticipated the next move of each other.

    "Ey, kiddo!" The Dawn mech spoke, "Why don¡¯t you just be a good girl and follow me back to our Sanctuary? You aren¡¯t running away today. The Sanctuary had made apulsory order to capture you alive. As long as you are still inside the Orbits, you can¡¯t run. Just give up."

    "Capture me alive? Hmph! Not this easy! Guess what! I''d rather die right here than returning to that freaking ce!" The slightly kiddish voice rang in Ye Chong¡¯s ears with immense rebellion of anger along with desperation.

    "You want to die? Providing that you do not spit yourst breath here, the Sanctuary always has a way, even if you want to drop dead to hell, we would pull you all the way back from hell!" The words came harshly from the pilot on the Dawn mech. They sounded cold and inhumane.

    "Heh! I understand I¡¯m no match to your big and scary machine! But my life still lies in my own hand! Well, I¡¯ll die right here and drop dead to hell at most, what else could happen? In fact, hell feels like a better ce to stay than that freaky ce!" Determination filled the words of the female pilot on the green mech.

    "Keep your chariot just yet, miss! The officials had stated to forsake your previous sins if you return now with obedience. You have their words." The pilot on the Dawn mech turned slow in his tone, seemed to be calming down the female pilot he had just enraged. Obviously he was worried, judging by the personality portrayed by the female pilot, it would not be weird to see his mission failed in the end. "Well, miss. You do know that you could never escape the Sanctuary. Just follow me, I¡¯ll guide you and I promise you that you will be fine." His words voiced gently like a peaceful elderly.

    "Hmph!" Too bad it did not work on the girl as she ridiculed, "What a line, ¡®I promise you that you will be fine¡¯? Hmph! You are nothing but a watchdog being ordered by your master to fetch a bone. What bark can you even promise?"

    "Why you little¡­" The senseless words had infuriated the pilot on the Dawn mech, "You are a stubborn kid, aren¡¯t ya? Let¡¯s see how I¡¯m going to teach you something about manners! Don¡¯t tell me about your pointless suicide! You could shoot yourself in the head now, I¡¯ll just get a few ''whips'' from my ¡®master¡¯ at most. But I¡¯ll make sure you would suffer enough before that!"

    The threatening tone resounded through the peaceful forest, which turned chilly and disturbed.

 Chapter 139 - The Greenbird in Liberty

    <h4>Chapter 139: The Greenbird in Liberty</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "So you are the kind who wouldn¡¯t bulge till doom is pped right in your face eh? You might be the talent from the elite group, but well, too bad, too bad¡­," he spoke grimly, as thest sentence trailed off in shrills, of his firearm.

    "You¡­" The girl was indeed a "kiddo" asbeled by the Dawn mech pilot. She apparentlycked experience inbats and reacted passively towards the sudden blow.

    Ye Chong in the meantime decided to spectate the entire fight between the two parties at the side. He had once matched against the mechs from the Sanctuary before, but that was a team fight. It did not define the capabilities of the mech when alone, which was what Ye Chong strived to witness in the woods.

    The dirty move pulled off by the pilot on the Dawn mech was fancied by Ye Chong. He would give an excellent score for the pilot was able to sneak an attack by distracting the foe with his words. An epitome of assassination to learn from! But Ye Chong knew his abilities well. With his personalities, it would be a little far-fetched to pull such trick off. He would be far more appropriate to sneak an attack in dark, without sound and without trace.

    They exchanged moves rather quickly, since the space was limited and filled with numerous obstacles. Their distance of action was much shortened, thus the melee fights. Oh? Ye Chong was triggered by the word, "melee", that sounded like his arsenal!

    The fight before came too abruptly. Ye Chong barely had the opportunity to do a close-up on most of the mechs involved, except for that purple mech.

    Seemingly the Dawn mech had a distinctive 3 feet design, which gave it an improved bncing on thend, whereas the green mech looked nd in contrast. An oval cabin sat right above the 3 feet of the Dawn mech, where it was connected to a red disk with 3 pliable metallic tubes. Plenty of white spots of various sizes sparkled on the surface of red disk.

    It looked odd indeed.

    If Ye Chong stayed much longer in the Orbits, he would have known that the Dawn mech took the form of a kind of species exclusive to the ce, the Tripeslug*.

    The girl¡¯s green mech had obviously taken the form of a bird. The whole mech literally looked like a dainty green bird, which were much shorter than its opponent and it was hard to tell if it had anything outstanding about it. But then, Ye Chong was not foolish to judge the performance of a mech by its appearance. In fact, he had experienced the potency of the Dawn mech. Judging by the information obtained from the pilot, he seemed to be cautious with this "kiddo" he called.

    The way the Dawn mech fought in close range was entric!

    Snap! Two of the tubes connected to the disk were disengaged! Two red beams of light came out from the bottom and extended rapidly over the tubes in swirls!

    Within twinkling of eyes, the pair of soft tubes had transformed into a pair of ming electric whip. Buzz! Buzz! Electrical growl came from the whip asionally along with a few arcs of light ring in the eyes. And at the tip of both of the tubes a conicalser beam was installed.

    Ye Chong was amazed by the ingenious design! The tubes clearly were made out of one-of-a-kind materials - highly pliable and durable,bining with the conicalser beams, they would have a certain level of prability. The choice of the tubes was great as they provided a more nimble actionpared to most of the close-ranged weapons, due to the fact that it had the most intuitive changes of angle, hence bing an unpredictable weapon to the foes. "Still, the downside¡­ as usual¡­" Ye Chong could tell it at first nce, the whips were unpredictable alright, but it could not deal fatal damages to the foes.

    The other tube was also covered with mes and electricity while the red disk had be a shield which its angle could be changed naturally.

    That was smart. However, Ye Chong could tell - melee attacks should not be the strength of the mechs from Sanctuary. They could be supportive but not aggressive! The statement was apparent when the choice of close-ranged weapons installed on the mech was concerned. Itcked a killer! It did not have any vicious close-ranged weapon! Hence it would not allow the mech to gain the ultimate advantage in a melee attack and it would be nothing in front of the ck Covers¡¯ mech which aced at melee attack on the other end of the scale.

    The Dawn mech fought proactively, its speed caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention.

    The ck Coves, the FMPA, the Sanctuary¡­ they might had an utterly different design of mechs with emphasis on a totally different aspect, but they had something strangely simr - all of them had superb speed. Consequently, speed remained as the core factor of mechbats, whether it did psychic attacks, a punch in the face or a missileunch with heat tracing.

    Habitually the Guardian had activated its automatic analyzing system over the two mechs. The analysis ran like a whirlwind that a vast amount of information crashed the field like a wave of tsunami. Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were not in the mood for those. They were all on the fighting between the mechs.

    The weaponry of the Dawn mech behaved exactly as Ye Chong predicted - the whips slitted oddly like serpents in the head, ever-changing and magnificently swift; the shield hovered around the body of the mech, highly prepared for iing attacks.

    The green mech seemed to be rather familiar with the battle style of the Dawn mech as she dodged the hurricane attacks with grace. Yet, she did not manage to dodge everything. The mech was whipped a few times, charred linings remained on the surface. The machine was not broken however. Although the ming electric whip might had a threatening appearance, it still had limited forces that it did not deliver any actual damage to her mech.

    The girl wielded a parrying spear, an ordinary weapon which Ye Chong had once used before.

    "Eh?" Ye Chong was so astonished that he could not help but to exim. Something was amiss! His eyes fixed on the green mech¡¯s behavior. I knew it! At first nce, the girl was at a worse situation in the fight, holding up attacks from the foe; however, Ye Chong saw it through - the girl was fine the whole time, her attacks were actually delivered viciously that it drove the foe in panic.

    These were not surprising enough to make our hero gasp at the spot. There was a silhouette of another person in the cabin. And that was¡­ "The purple girl who nearly killed me that day!"

    No wonder there was always a sense of acted-upon-prediction in the battle¡­ Ye Chong still could feel that pain dealing with that purple physic girl the other day! The girl piloting the green mech also gave an identical sensation to Ye Chong. She seemed to never fail to foresee the movements of the foe and avoid them in the nick of time, though she did not feel as skillful as the purple girl.

    If the purple psychic girl symbolized a matured fletching, the girl in the green mech would symbolize a nestling then.

    Ye Chong was very much sure of his spections by then. This had to be a technique unique to the mentalists in the Sanctuary, it could be learned! And from their conversation, he could tell that they were not measly of their kind.

    Imagine a few tens of ¡­ no! They would only need a few mechs with pilots who had acquired the technique, imagine them with their rapports¡­ how terrifying the potency would be! Ye Chong was getting cold sweat over his back. One-on-one was not even a confident fight to Ye Chong¡­ let alone Two-on-one or more-than-two-on-one!

    Ye Chong settled down as he collected his thoughts. He feared that the pilots who had mastered such technique would be the mastermind, the master strength of the Sanctuary! Well then! The girl in the green mech should not be a challenging opponent just yet! If he could obtain some top secrets of the Sanctuary from her, then it would be an immense help for him to identify theplicated factions in the Orbits. Moreover he would more likely to encounter her kind again in the near future. Assuming he could really dig some information beforehand, it could potentially save his life!

    That tricycle mech was much worthless than the girl¡¯s head in his eyes.

    This was it!

    After a SWOT analysis in his head, Ye Chong made up his mind!

    The three-dimensional illustration of the tricycle mech traced 4 white lines and 3 dots. Evidently those were the best spots to make fatal strikes after analysis. Ye Chong who had gotten pretty much used to the Guardian understood it well.

    The jaguar peeked at its prey in the bushes, ready to pounce anytime!

    ¡­

    "No," The girl in the green mech was holding the attacksboriously. She knew that if she were to hold the attacks any longer, she would copse before the damn watchdog. "But¡­ But I¡­" She hadsted for this long yet she had hit her limit. The head was pounding as she overused her ability. "You should never overuse your physic ability! Never ever overuse your head! Preserve it more than any other parts of body!" The voice of her teacher echoed. The teacher had mentioned the precaution numerous times before. Overusing the ability would be dangerous.

    "But!" What else could she do?

    "No! I¡¯m not giving up! I¡¯m not epting this!" She could not ept failure just like this. "I had done so much just to get out of that ce! I had been running endlessly for these days. It was suffering, very suffering, but it would not stop me from loving the vibrant world outside! I am not going back for the monotonous, repetitive routine of training-learning-training! If I am going back for those, I''d rather die! Right here!"

    ¡­ Stand still, stand still! Use your head to stand still!

    Good girl, now, see through my moves.

    If you can¡¯t see it, you will just take every blow from me.

    In her memory, her "home" had always been the base, a base illuminated by artificial lighting, no sun, no moon, only cold people freezing her surrounding, her soul.

    She had been nning her grand escape in the dark 3 years ago and she realized how useful the knowledge she had learned in this. She started to work even harder in her studies, paying extra efforts to every teaching she received, soon she became outstanding in the group and caught the teacher¡¯s attention and admiration.

    Finally, half a month ago, I grabbed the opportunity and I made it out.

    As expected, the Sanctuary took action extremely quickly. But what she did not expect in her prediction was that the Sanctuary actually sent a group of men to hunt her down. "Apparently I am indeed outstanding enough for the Sanctuary to send an army for me." The irony ridiculed her as sheughed bitterly. The additional inclusion of army in her n did not panic her, instead, she saw through the silver lining in the sky calmly, seized every lining she saw and escaped.

    She cracked her head thinking every single moment of her life. And she did it. The army slowly became a team, a team gradually became few men. Under her tenacity, only one foe had remained right before her.

    Nevertheless, this situation was not what she desired, as she knew herself well, in a one-on-one, straight up it would be her defeat. It was not because of her poor performance of course. She might had yetplete the whole training course in the Sanctuary, but she was in fact the best of the elites. She had exceptional talent in this,pared to most of the pilots in the Sanctuary. It was depressing because her failure was solely because of the incapabilities of her mechpared to the Dawn mech. The Greenbird was a mere training mech for the pilots in the Sanctuary, no doubt it would be feeble in front of the standard Dawn mech from the Sanctuary.

    No¡­ No!

    Does that mean am I going to really die here? Today?

    Depression filled her heart, desperation drowned her mind.

    Her body stuck in a fight, her soul stuck in a contract.

 Chapter 140 - Little Girl

    <h4>Chapter 140: Little Girl</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ah?

    The corners of her eyes discerned a bright silhouette suddenly shing by. The little girl shuddered in her heart. Wham! She looked back on her mech, a few new scratches were added to the body of her wounded Viridae*! She shook her head and tapped her cheeks, being the topmost student for sight examination in her group, "How could I be seeing things?" she mumbled. "What was that?" She failed to identify it at first sight. It had to be the speed of the moving object being too fast and not because of how it travelled beyond her field of attention. "Yeah, certainly!" She was very much confident of herself.

    Something must have changed! This was the first spection that popped up in her thoughts. The current situation would only put her in worse fates as time went. At this rate, inevitably she would be caught in the end! Well since she had gotten the worst situation, any changes would be a variable, a spark of hope for her to take hold of! Variables were exactly what the little girl desperately wished for!

    At such perilous moment, yet she was as calm as the sea with her thoughts wondering. If both Mu and Ye Chong were aware of her thoughts, they would be pretty impressed too.

    Still, a variable is a variable and this variable went beyond her calction!

    She wanted to act on something but¡­

    Out of the blue, the Dawn mech was stoned as his hurricane attack stopped abruptly. It stood like a sculpture in the woods, an absolute activity to an absolute inactivity¡­ which the girl could not react in time to. "Huh?" The girl was astounded, her eyes caught a few beams of pale green shing through the bottom of the oval cabin of the Dawn mech.

    Wait! Oh no¡­

    Her face drainedpletely as she mumbled her fright, pulling her mech away from the Dawn mech, but she was toote! The Dawn mech exploded and the impact had shattered the bnce of her mech. The Viridae lost control as it fell rolling like a giant boulder off the slope. The scene went spinning and her head was struck by concussion. Dizziness nked her head, confusion seized her.

    They were fighting in an opening of the woods. And the explosion directly caused a shallow dent of a diameter about 10 meter on the ground. The sound of branches breaking down and trees crashing rang throughout the forest. The trees were literally shredded, only the trunk was remained in messy cuts.

    ¡­

    Ow¡­ Oh¡­

    She shook her heavy head, trying her best to get back into the scene. Her eyes blinked vigorously as the imagery grew clearer gradually. There was¡­ There was a gold silhouette standing there¡­ he seemed to be looking¡­ at me?

    She shook her head again. Her sight recovered fully and finally she identified what the gold silhouette was exactly. A mech¡­Mi-Miniature¡­mech? She could not believe her eyes. She was skeptical of what she saw, judging by the appearance and the sizing, it was a miniature mech indeed. But¡­ was there a miniature mech this potent? That it could eliminate a Dawn mech by few shes in dark? And that was a one hit kill too!

    "No¡­ No way. Absolutely, no way!" she muttered in disbelief, shaking her head. How could this be possible? She had been instilled with the ideology that the Sanctuary was invulnerable, unbeatable and was definitely the strongest. Even if the Sanctuary was put inparison with the nemesis - the FMPA and the ck Coves, the Sanctuary would only be on par with them, and they could not simply destroy a Dawn mech¡¯s armor by a few shes.

    A miniature mech? Breaking a Dawn mech with cuts? This is too ridiculous! The capacity of a miniature mech was iparable even to a standard mech in the market! Its sole purpose was to act as a personal guard. And I had never heard of ridiculous stories about a miniature mech oveing a standard mech, especially a Dawn mech itself! No way. Impossible. Unm?glich! There had to be someone else dealing the fatal blows, not this mech alone, I must have missed it!

    But who was it? She took a look around, there was nobody else!

    Ye Chong did not look down on the Guardian though. Unlike the others, he recognized the power of the Guardian right from the beginning so he had subconsciously categorized it as a Super Mech. He had never thought about how others who had yet witnessed the potency of his mech would react at first sight. Nheless, even if the others did not feel rmed while seeing the Guardian right in front of them, he would be much happier, since that simply meant that the Guardian would be easily-overlooked and he would have better odds on sessful assassinations.

    He stared at the green mech copsed on the ground silently, awaiting it to get up. Despite that¡­ he waited patiently. He waited very patiently. He waited very, very patiently. The person did not seem to have moved a gear. Ye Chong frowned in his mech. Was the person so feeble that she fainted even on such a weak blow?

    The golden mask on his face expressed his frowning vibrantly. Well, of course, the tiny bits of changes on expression did not escape the little girl¡¯s certified, topmost assured sight.

    So it really was him? Muttered the little girl in her mind.

    "Get out!" Ye Chong had lost his patience, he began counting down, disregarding time given her to ponder, "10 seconds. Get out yourself or I¡¯ll do it for you." His words fell indifferently. No temper was in, as if the threatening was done like his usual dough-kneading.

    Huh? Wait, um, no!

    She panicked. Her sensible mind suggested her that it was in fact this golden man who destroyed the Dawn mech. The t tone contained an indestructible confidence, which made her reassessed the ordinary-looking miniature mech in front of her.

    10.

    9.

    Ye Chong did not expect the person¡¯s mind to be this sensible as he counted down nonchntly.

    8.

    7.

    The 10 secondspsed like milliseconds to a person in panic of sudden changes.

    3.

    2¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s voice was t as always it was.

    Wait!!!

    To her horror, she found out how her pointless ponder had taken up too much time, the word quickly escaped her mouth, pleading for mercy.

    T-1 before Ye Chong wasunched.

    Her face was pale; paler than the skeletons, as she saw the man in the miniature mech being still unconcerned despite his words. There were no changes on his expression at the slightest! She felt chilliness sent down to her marrows. A true fright to the spines!

    In that mere second, the atmosphere mutated! Fear stormed the ce. The tension¡­ she had only tasted it once from the teacher who taught killing back in the Sanctuary.

    "Your senses are much more sensible than most of the people, even more sensible than myself,"mented their teacher. "Whenever you feel a sensation simr to mine of someone''s, you''ve got to be careful. Never mess with such kind, understand?" The teacher¡¯s eyes gazed at her and her mates like a serpent in hunt. The gaze frightened the entire group.

    And the tension exerted by the teacher was much stronger in this person!

    I am doomed¡­

    1.

    Ye Chong did not even bother with her plight, his body moved as soon as he finished counting.

    The golden man shrouded like a wind right towards her. Her face was fully drained, as she realized there was no way she could grasp the man at this speed. "Is this ¡­ Is this a human?"

    Thup. A dead silence came next.

    Crack.

    Clink!

    Crack Crack.

    Crack! A few secondster, the sound camest.

    It felt like a thunder in her ears as in great terror she discovered her cabin shaking. The armor right in front of her was cracking, the lines spread like a spider web. Thest sound of cracking was the sound made when the piece of armor fell.

    Clink, nk. nk, klink, shush! The pieces of armor rained before her. The fresh air surging in teased her suffocated mind. She felt pleasant and her nerves were serene. Yikes! Through the gap she could see the golden man staring at her expressionlessly. The eyes of solely ck-and-white were freaking her out for some reason. Goosebumps upied every inch of her skin.

    Ye Chong nned to use his poorly-named dagger at first. But Dagger for No.2 was a bit too much for cracking the armor. A slight cut on the pilot inside could have been fatal and definitely he did not intend to do that. He wanted not her body, but her head for the information he desired. "Oh well." He went ahead with his fists instead. He did smash an alloy door open before but that blow wounded his fist. Thanks to the Guardian, its capability magnified his strength, so smashing the armor of Viridae open felt like a smashing stic. His hands were covered by the Guardian, so there were no injuries as well.

    Of course, it was not exactly due to the capability of the Guardian. It was also because of the materials used to build Viridae. Viridae was purely a mech for training purposes, one could imagine its material would be as brittle as stic among the other great materials for Dawn mechs. Such a normal material, no doubt Ye Chong could break it even with his own fist. But if it was a Dawn mech, it would be a dream to even crack the armor with bare hands.

    She crawled out of the mech with initiative. Seeing how the foe had behaved, it would be better for her topromise and act along, just to guarantee her survivability¡­ What if it enrages the foe? Any form of disobedience would be assumed as provocation for sure. And anyone could imagine what could possibly happen if the foe assumed you being disobedient. She would not want to lose her life over such foolish act.

    The monochromatic sight of the Guardian was pretty bad at deciphering human¡¯s facial features. In Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, the girl looked like a three-dimensional avatar formed in white lines and shades of grids. It was strange, at least the lines were clear enough to roughly define the appearance of the girl.

    The girl was as little as she sounded, about 13 to 14 years old. A shaggy short hair, a hollow face. She was in fact little thinner than average girls. She looked exhausted yet her eyes were lustrous. Well those were never Ye Chong¡¯s concern. "Mhm, good physique." He carried on looking, the muscles were of well-proportions and could be explosive at times. Obviously he could tell how the girl had undergone systematic training. Judging by the age and the rate of puberty of the girl - high score for the training course! And he was well-aware that this girl knew an important training course, yes, that technique unknown to Ye Chong where he got it from Mr. Yin. Mentalist would only teach to another mentalist. The training methodology was one to one, only the emphasis could be different. But they aremonly known to be time-consuming.

    Under such a constraint of time yet she was able to achieve such a physique, impressive!

    If Shang was here, he would probably begin to recite poetries about the beauty of the girl as heunched another round ofmentary of the beauty. Too bad it was still a puzzling issue to Ye Chong topute.

    He stood before the little girl. "Wh-" He realized how the WH-question could be actually technical to initiate a meaningful conversation. Suddenly he did not know how he should begin.

    "Mu¡­ Mu!" muttered Ye Chong in his mind, the Orbits calling Mu, the Orbits calling Mu, "Why don¡¯t you do the inquiry instead?"

    "I am no expert in this," Mu rejected the offer right away. "If you are indeed in need of assistance, I could call Shang for this, since he is considered more of the expert in this!"

    "Shang?" He thought back the passionate lectures of tortures he received these few days from Shang, "Ne-Nevermind." He shook his head violently, "I¡¯ll do it myself."

    Hmmm¡­

    Settled down, Ye Chong pondered of which WH-question to start with.

    The little girl was in shock at first, but she calmed herself over the time as she saw the miniature mech man stayed already silent for a long time. The heck he wants? Mumbled the girl.

    "Your name?" The words broke the awkward silence.

    She was rmed and then she reacted calmly, part of the oue of her training came wlessly, "Zhu Ling."

    "Zhu Lin?"

    "Ling. With the ¡®g¡¯ at the end."

    "Oh I see!" Ye Chong did not have any concept on surnames, since name was merely a code for someone to address yourself at convenience.

    "Position at the Sanctuary?" he asked.

    "Sanctuary?" I knew it! She got the purpose of this man right away. She had pinpointed the part of her sought by this person. That means I still have something to bargain with. As long as I get this right, then my situation would be dramatically improved!

    Various ns ran through her head, her lips did not stop moving though, "I am the member of the elite group in the Sanctuary!" She understood the current situation disallowed her to act hesitated. Gaining trust from the person would be her top priority.

    "Elite group?" Ye Chong had no idea what group that was.

    "Well, elite group is an informal way to address for the insiders." Judging by Ye Chong¡¯s expression, she concluded that he knew nothing about the Sanctuary as she began exining with patience, "The formal and official name of the group is known as the Sanctuary Executive Training group, which in simpler terms mean the group for the trainees who have yetpleted their training as well as their assessment. They are under the Executives."

    "Executives?" Another term first came to Ye Chong¡¯s ears.

    "Mentalist Executives!"

    "What are ¡®Mentalist Executives¡¯?"

    "Mentalist Executives are the internal bureaucracy formed by the advanced mentalist-pilots, mostly for fulfilling special mission or tasks with high difficulties." Pride was heard in her words as she said it with grace.

    "I see! So they are all the expert pilots of the mentalist as you said?"

    "Yes."

    "And they are the ones with psychic ability?"

    "Psychic ability?" The girl was confused, "The proper way to call it should be the ¡®extrasensory¡¯ of the body. It is a kind of application of mentality. And the mentalists are better experts in thispared to mentalist-pilot. It¡¯s just that the mentalist-pilots have in-depth understanding ofbats. So they are aware of how to utilize such ability at maximum."

    "Mhm, application is more of the key," Ye Chong utterly agreed to this statement. "So you are a mentalist¡­ or a mentalist pilot?"

    "Me? I¡­ I have not passed the assessment so I can¡¯t be a mentalist-pilot just yet," her words sounded t.

    "So how many mentalist-pilots are there in the Sanctuary? How about the mentalists alone?" This would be the key question of the entire conversation. At least it would provide Ye Chong something to picture about the Sanctuary¡¯s forces.

    "Abou-" She wanted to reply but Mu¡¯s voice hurried by Ye Chong¡¯s mind, "Ye, a mech is approaching here! And it''sing fast!"

 Chapter 141 - Lifted Throughout the Journey

    <h4>Chapter 141: Lifted Throughout the Journey</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong felt a weight drop inside him. "How many?"

    "Ten!" Mu¡¯s answer was a shock to Ye Chong. Ten mechs, the standardbat squad from the Sanctuary. Ye Chong was not too conceited as to believe that he could manage all ten of them single-handedly.

    Zhu Ling was about to speak of what she knew when a golden figure shed past, and by the time she realized what happened, she found herself lifted, moving quickly through the woods.

    Zhu Ling was unable to open her eyes as she could hear the wind swishing past her, the headwind painful against her face. The asional branch struck her body, delivering fiery pain that ensued. Nevertheless, she endured, and while it was quite painful, she did not even whisper a groan.

    "30 degrees to the left!" Mu had chosen the best escape route for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong abruptly turned. Blood rushed to Zhu Ling¡¯s head from the centrifugal force produced from this sudden change in direction. Her visioned darkened, and Zhu Ling finally let out a moan. Fortunately, Zhu Ling had always trained hard with her physique in excellent condition. She momentarily recovered , though amazed by what happened. From the pain of the wind brushing past her face, she could roughly make out the speed of the gold mech; the conclusion she derived from this surprised and even frightened her.

    The gold mech¡¯s speed was way faster than an average mech¡¯s speed! How was that possible? Her mind was all jumbled up, the facts confronting her all defying everyday knowledge. Earlier, she even noticed a small detail - the mech¡¯s turning radius was very small, and this would burden the mech pilot heavily, just like how she was temporarily in shock from the blood rushing to her head. However, the mech¡¯s pilot had made the turn like a normal maneuver - just what kind of monster was he?

    Deep in her thoughts, there was another sudden turn, and Zhu Ling¡¯s vision darkened again, and her mind emptied!

    She did not expect this to be just the beginning of an insufferable experience. The miniature mech made a series of impossible quick turns. Zhu Ling felt like she was swinging in Hell¡¯s yground, rising and falling, to the left and to the right. She could hardly afford to groan, and her remaining instincts told her to endure with all her might.

    Ye Chong did not notice Zhu Ling¡¯s condition, it was lifted as she was in his hands. He was now entirely focused with Mu and the scenery before him. He needed to respond urately and quickly to Mu¡¯s instructions, as the woods were littered with obstacles - it was no easy task to move so rapidly through the woods, and even with Ye Chong¡¯smendable skills as a mech pilot, he dared not be careless.

    The forest stretched far and wide, an unending sight of trees to the horizon. This provided ample space for Ye Chong to move.

    Under Mu¡¯s instructions, Ye Chong managed to avoid the Sanctuary¡¯s standardbat squad as it headed towards the scene of the incident.

    Just as Ye Chong was about to rx, Mu¡¯s words made Ye Chong ran again like a beast in heat, "Ye, don¡¯t stop, they¡¯re following your tracks towards you. Hmm, be careful, there are three mechs keeping watch in the sky!"

    Unlike normal mechs that move with their engines, Guardian¡¯s strength came from the pilot¡¯s own strength, with amplification. Hence, Ye Chong did not fly, but ran and leaped as he made his way forward. Through Guardian¡¯s amplification of Ye Chong¡¯s already superior strength, every step onto the ground brought soil flying into the air, creating a hole in the ground - his trail was marked distinctly like plowed soil. This left an easy sign for the enemy to track him.

    Poor Zhu Ling. If the previous journey was unforgettable to her, the next journey was like a living hell! More speed, more impossible turns and a bumpier ride, all made her nearly lost her mind. The stress was already more than her body could take, and she had quickly fallen into a semi-conscious state.

    The trees in the forest were humongous, nearly obliterating the view of the sky. Ye Chong stuck close to the ground as he charged forward, as his movementspletely hidden from the skies.

    Unlike Ye Chong¡¯s desperate run forward, the seven Dawn mechs advanced carefully, as though anticipating an ambush. The squad leader in the center looked even more sombre than the rest. From the marks on the ground, it was obviously not a normal mech, its size probably simr to a human¡¯s. This reminded him of the Sanctuary¡¯s earlier announcement of an important fugitive, one armed with a gold miniature mech. It was simr to the current target at hand.

    He immediately reported this to the Sanctuary. "For a traitor to side with an enemy ¡­" The thought was unsettling.

    From thetest intel report by the Sanctuary, the gold miniature mech had surprisingly powerfulbat abilities. In the intel report, it was even advised for anyone facing the mech alone to seek help! For the veteran squad leader, this smelt like danger. It also meant that, in a one-on-one battle, the Sanctuary was not confident of victory.

    This was why as Ye Chong went full speed ahead, the seven mechs behind him followed cautiously, fearing of an ambush.

    Ye Chong moved among the trees like an enchanted golden bullet.

    Suddenly, the view in front of Ye Chong lit up - he had left the forest. He was greeted with a wide river, which he leaped into without hesitation.

    Just moments after Ye Chong jumped into the river, arge group of Dawn mechs swished past the river¡¯s surface and entered the forest.

    Further downstream, on a secluded shore of pebbles, a golden figure suddenly rose from the waters, a girl lifted in its hands, unconscious.

    This was Ye Chong, emerging from his little dive. With Guardian¡¯s protection, Ye Chong moved like a fish underwater, unlike his previous humiliating experience.

    Ye Chong put down Zhu Ling from his grasp, as shended gently on the pebbly shore. After the desperate run through the forest, at such high speeds, any branch hitting her inevitably left a rip on her clothing. After all the running, her clothes were now in tatters, and that dip in the river left her nearly naked. Zhu Ling received strict training since she was young, and her physique had matured early, with a perfect body shape. This exposed view of her would have riled up most men.

    Ye Chong was unmoved by the beautiful sight. It was not that Ye Chongcked any masculine instincts, but Ye Chong knew next to nothing about these things. The only experience he had was only that one lick of Rui Bing. Besides, in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, Zhu Ling was but a 3D imageposed of a jumble of white lines, along with some relevant data on the side by Guardian. Under these circumstances, the only way Ye Chong could be moved was if he had reached Shang¡¯s level of appreciation!

    "Hmm?" Mu eximed in surprise, unusual for his calm self.

    "What is it? Mu!" Ye Chong asked curiously, since not many things could surprise Mu.

    "Look at that ne on her neck!"

    "Hmm, what¡¯s wrong with that? It looks normal!" Ye Chong had no experience on women¡¯s jewelry such as nes, but he still went to have a look.

    Hung from an ancient-looking string was a pendant shaped like a water droplet. The pendant was an opaque gray, which was not very impressionable. Of course, Ye Chong only saw its 3D grid image.

    "Is it a dimension keystone?" Ye Chong¡¯s first guess was a dimension keystone, since many were made like pendants or ornaments, just like Mu¡¯s.

    "No!" Mu rejected Ye Chong¡¯s idea decisively, and revealed the truth, "Based on avable information, that droplet shaped pendant is made of a very rare materialmonly known as Red Liquor. Red Liquor looked in under normal circumstances, but when exposed to alcohol, it would turn a vivid red, and it was very popr among thedies. However, it is very rare, and so, highly precious. If my information is correct, only some of the very ancient aristocratic families have these jewels!"

    "Do you mean that the girl¡¯s background is suspicious?" Ye Chong¡¯s reaction was almost immediate.

    "No, the term ¡®suspicious¡¯ feels too much like a subjective opinion! It¡¯s not rmended! I merely believe that this person¡¯s background has a high probability of being unusual!" Mu¡¯s calcting words felt almost devoid of emotions.

    "Hmm, it¡¯s certainly possible, but her background has got nothing to do with us! Hmm, Mu, can Red Liquor enhance the properties of metallic materials?" Ye Chong asked. This was something he was interested in.

    "There is no information on that as of yet! After all, it¡¯s a rare material, no one would experiment on it." Mu replied.

    "Hmm, then we gotta experiment!" Ye Chong cocked his head to the side, considering the idea.

    Ye Chong stooped down and took the droplet shaped Red Liquor from Zhu Ling, without any sense of guilt. To him, Zhu Ling was his prey, and anything the prey owned was now naturally his! Deep inside, Ye Chong still believed in the ways of nature.

    The youngdy slowly awakened, and the contents of her stomach immediately started protesting like a storm. She lurched forward and vomited for a long moment.

    When they entered the river, the semi-conscious youngdy was instantly awakened, and found herself underwater. She did not panic, since surviving underwater for long periods of time was part of her training.

    It was far morefortable in the water, at least whenpared to the insanely rapid turns on the ground. Slowly, she realized that the mech had no intention of surfacing to breathe! While she was considered excellent in this particr kind of training, that did not mean that she could stay underwater indefinitely. Out of alternatives, she forced herself into a faked state of death.

    On the shores, with stimtion of fresh air, she slowly awakened, and upon returning to consciousness, found her the contents of her stomach raging like a storm. She could not help but throw up violently, unaware of her missing ne.

    After throwing up, she finally calmed down, and Zhu Ling finally noticed that her clothing could not longer fully cover herself. The young woman was, however, unembarrassed, and acted with her usual calm.

    "Alright, you can continue with your questions! But let me leave after that!" The young woman spoke calmly.

    Ye Chong was impressed, but did not show it as he spoke, "Hmm, alright, then let¡¯s continue the question earlier. How many mentalists and mentalist pilots are there in the Sanctuary?"

 Chapter 142 - A Sudden Thought

    <h4>Chapter 142: A Sudden Thought</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong walked home by himself, his mind still preupied with the intel he obtained from the youngdy earlier. He had imagined the Sanctuary to be powerful, but did not expect it to as powerful as he now knew. No wonder it could hold itself against ck Cove and the MPA! The Sanctuary¡¯s power came from its mentalists and mentalist pilots, and this made ck Cove and the MPA wary of it.

    ck Cove, MPA and Sanctuary - Ye Chong considered the Three Forces, interrted to but independent from one another. The Three Forces had many simrities, such as mech technologies that far exceeded that of the Five Gxies, and their total mystery, as if they came from a different, powerful and mysterious world.

    As for that young woman called Zhu Ling, Ye Chong let her go in the end! While killing her was easy, Ye Chong did not really feel like killing her. He did not enjoy killing, and he had only killed others for survival. If it was not necessary, why should he kill another person? Beside, he was quite impressed by the young woman - calm, rational, and persevering, Ye Chong saw traces of himself in her!

    The young woman left with a calm expression, as though she had expected to be released. After some rest, the young woman showed remarkable physical capabilities, her movements athletic, as she gradually vanished out of Ye Chong¡¯s sight. Looking out to the empty shore of pebbles, Ye Chong could not help but sigh a little. To survive was rarely a simple task! That precious Red Liquor sat quietly in Ye Chong¡¯s bag.

    Back at Lunatic Guan¡¯s ce, Ye Chong realized that he had returned empty handed from his trip outdoors today, and smiled wryly.

    Inside the house, Lunatic Guan was in a rare state of sobriety, packing her things energetically. Lunatic Guan saw Ye Chong and called to him, "Little Ye, did you see my light yellow jacket?"

    "Light yellow?" Ye Chong cocked his head to its side and thought for a moment. "It''s been probably thrown out!" He was cleaning up that day, and had gotten rid of a mountain of things. Ye Chong could not recall if a light yellow jacket was one of them. However, since it could not be found, the probability of it being thrown away was high!

    "What? Thrown out?" Lunatic Guan¡¯s expression froze, and immediately turned into great anger, "How dare you throw it out! Didn¡¯t you know I¡¯m still going to wear it? Didn¡¯t you know ¡­"

    "I didn¡¯t!" Ye Chong replied calmly but clearly.

    Lunatic Guan was instantly silenced, and remembered then that she had asked him to clean up the house without giving any specifications. Lunatic Guan calmed down a little and humphed coldly, "I¡¯ll let you off this time, next time ask me before you throw anything out, don¡¯t just throw anything away!"

    "Okay!" Ye Chong replied inly.

    "I¡¯m going out these two days, so you stay in the house. Hmm, I¡¯ve prepared some course material for you in Room Seven¡¯s photon processor, with detailed requirements. You¡¯ll do a test when I¡¯m back, and if you fail, hehe ¡­" Lunatic Guan was obviously still holding grudge towards Ye Chong¡¯s role in her lost jacket, and her tone was unpleasant.

    Ye Chong was like a rock, unmoved by Lunatic Guan¡¯s tone, and replied tly, "Okay!"

    "Hmph!" Lunatic Guan gave another cold humph and continued packing.

    Ye Chong gathered from experience that Lunatic Guan would periodically make a long trip outdoors. During his time at Nan Nan¡¯s house, whenever this happened, Ye Chong would have to visit earlier to retrieve the strengthening chemicals. Thus, while Ye Chong did not know where she was going, he was still not surprised at the trip.

    Lunatic Guan hastily left, and Ye Chong was left alone in the house. Ye Chong enjoyed the peace. There were not too much of Lunatic Guan¡¯s prepared materials to study, and Ye Chong mastered them all in only a few days, and spent another two days collecting nt specimens. Ye Chong now had his time to himself with his taskspleted.

    Ye Chong thought of the day he worried about not having a mech for transport, and had a sudden thought - perhaps he can try making a full-skeleton mech. Once the thought urred to him, Ye Chong could not stop thinking about it.

    The thought was too enticing!

    For one, he had no suitable mech to use in the open that would not expose his identity. If his life was threatened, he would be defenseless! Hence, he desperately needed a mech, but the average mechs vendored in shops could no longer satisfy him.

    On the other hand, this would also be aprehensive test of all his knowledge and skills!

    Ye Chong was decisive, and after affirming his choice, immediately went to the old man¡¯s ce. After all, the materials would have toe from him.

    The old man listened to Ye Chong¡¯s in statement of his decision through slit eyes, and spoke after a moments¡¯ thought, "Come with me!"

    The old man brought Ye Chong to a room in the underground workshop where he usually rested. This was the first time Ye Chong entered the old man¡¯s resting area. The room was not spacious, with only a bed and a table. There were some daily appliances in the corner of the room, and in another corner were some tools.

    The old man walked to that corner to activate some concealed mechanism, and the wall behind Ye Chong slid quietly to the side. Ye Chong was a little surprised to find a secret room in here, but his expression was as inert as a stubborn rock.

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s calm expression, the old man¡¯s eyes gleamed softly with pride.

    The two entered the secret room. Skeletons - the entire secret room was full of skeletons! However,pared to the mountain pile of skeletons outside, these skeleton materials in the secret room were few, numbering only a few dozen. Nheless, Ye Chong knew immediately that these skeletons were of higher quality than the ones outside, and some were even extremely rare materials. These skeletons were undoubtedly like treasure to a skeleton carver!

    No skeleton carver would be unmoved by the variety and quality of skeleton materials kept in here. At least Ye Chong was so, his expression changing for the first time as he looked at these skeletons!

    "Heavens! These skeletons are amazing!" Ye Chong thought as his eyes glowed, scanning through the materials!

    The old man was pleased with Ye Chong¡¯s expression, and exined with some delight, "Every year, the Sanctuary would send some rare skeletons to me as a gift. I¡¯ve kept them all this while, all for the sake of making a full-skeleton mech one day. Sigh, I¡¯m old now, nothing like you young people! I have been stuck for a while now with my skills, there¡¯s no hope left for me in this lifetime. It¡¯s up to you now!" The old man spoke with some helplessness, his age more obvious than ever.

    Ye Chong could not help but sober up from his enthusiasm.

    The old man then spoke seriously, "I was going to pass on these materials to you when your skills were fully matured, but this thought of yours came earlier than I expected. As your master, I have nothing else to teach you, your aplishments are by your own efforts, and even I have learnt much from you. Take these materials with you. You¡¯re careful in nature, these materials will not be wasted in your hands!"

    The old man¡¯s words were sincere, and Ye Chong was touched. He gathered himself with some difficulty and managed to reply with a calm tone, "Thank you, Master!"

    With the old man¡¯s help, Ye Chong did not have to worry about materials. Initially, Ye Chong was only thinking of just making a mech of passable quality, but he did not expect the old man to provide his treasured skeletons umted over the years. Faced with these quality chosen skeletons materials, his initial thoughts were now abandoned, and his only intention now was not only to make a full-skeleton mech, but a top ss one at that. Ye Chong even had a name ready for it - Han Jia. Of course, the name did not have any special meaning, since it was derived by Mu through a random selection algorithm. Ye Chong did not care to waste effort in this aspect. Thus, the name was decided.

    The first challenge was the mech¡¯s main body design. The mech was designed for Ye Chong¡¯s personal use, hence it was inevitably a close range mech. Speaking of close range mechs, among all the ones that Ye Chong had encountered, the strongest would be ck Cove¡¯s mechs. ck Cove¡¯s mechs were the undisputed king of close range mechs.

    However, it was not practical to modelpletely after ck Cove. While Ye Chong had spent some time at ck Cove, he had only ever yed around with the F-58¡¯s structure, and not any other ck Cove mechs. The F-58 was only used for training in ck Cove, and far inferior to the ck Cove war mechs. Besides, here on the Orbits, the Sanctuary¡¯s men were everywhere, and they were familiar with the style of ck Cove¡¯s mechs. He would only be targeted by the Sanctuary if he flew a mech like that outside.

    Seemed that he would have toe up with something himself!

    As for the engine, Ye Chong nned to remove Yu Di¡¯s engine. While Yu Di¡¯s engine was far inferior to Mu¡¯s, it still managed to hold its ground when going against the MPA¡¯s mechs. This was good enough for Ye Chong! Due to the engine¡¯s capabilities, it could not be made entirely of skeletons. Only certain key parts of it, such as the padding, could be made of skeletons to enhance its capabilities. Besides, designing the engine was moreplicated and detailed than designing the mech itself, and Ye Chong was not certain if his own engine design would be better than the work of Fred the Great.

    "Best to use what I have, and add some skeletonponents to modify it a bit," Ye Chong deliberated.

 Chapter 143 - Han Jia

    <h4>Chapter 143: Han Jia</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A mech¡¯s most important part were its engine and photon processor. The engine¡¯s problem was dealt with, but Ye Chong knew nothing of photon processors. Fortunately, he did not rely heavily on them, and a simple photon processor bought from the streets was enough to satisfy him.

    Besides the photon processor and engine, otherponents such as scanning systems were not things that Ye Chong could make himself. Scanning systems found in the market were probably not up to par, and effectively useless against mechs from ck Cove, the Sanctuary and the like. However, Ye Chong did not n to install a scanning system. As long as he had Mu, who had the most advanced scanning system, all he needed was a device that could link to Mu via photon processor. This was not too hard for him.

    However, these was all work inter stages. For now, Ye Chong must understand which materials he had for disposal. This was unique to full-skeleton mechs - they were designed based on avable materials, unlike the usual method of finding materials based on the design.

    Rare skeletons were often chanced upon, and so the method of choosing the right materials based on design was impractical in the process of making a full-skeleton mech. Even when using the same type of skeletons, the quality would differ, since factors such as the animal¡¯s age and living environment would greatly affect the skeletons¡¯ density, strength and other properties.

    Looking at the myriad of rare skeletonsid on the ground before him, Ye Chong was suddenly struck with much anticipation. What kind of mech would hee up with?

    As he familiarized himself with all the skeletons, Ye Chong began to design the mech. With Mu¡¯s assistance, this process did not take too long. He also prepared a few backup schemes in case he mishandled some skeletons by ident. However, Ye Chong hoped that they would not be needed in the end.

    After that, he set to work!

    The early processes were mundane. Crude processing of the skeletons demanded patience. No one had ever single-handedly produced a full-skeleton mech, and Ye Chong did not expect the heavy workload. Fortunately, Ye Chong was physically well prepared. Ye Chong worked like a tireless machine, continuing on and on.

    Ye Chong¡¯s went through every step with great care, since most of those skeletons were unique, and if damaged, could only be reced by another different one. If the recement was in any way different to the original intended skeleton, it would reduce the overall performance of the mech. That was something Ye Chong hoped to avoid.

    Every day, Hei Zi would send food to Ye Chong, but never interrupting him. Even little Nan Nan was sensible enough to not keep pestering her elder brother to y.

    For an entire month, Ye Chong worked in an insane but peaceful condition. Even when it was Shang¡¯s turn toe outside, the mech knew that bothering Ye Chong would have dreadful consequences. Hence, the mech made the rational choice of keeping quiet.

    Ye Chong stared longingly at the mech.

    He admired the result of his month-and-a-half of hard work, and felt a great sense of aplishment bubbling in him. This was definitely a masterful work, an impressive work! Ye Chong was most thankful for the fact that he did not damage a single skeleton in the whole process.

    The mech stood at 12 meters tall, its main body made of giant whale¡¯s vertebrae and titan scarab¡¯s exoskeleton, shaped like a human. Ye Chong loved Yu Di¡¯s four-armed design, since it could effectively make use of his impressive hand speed. However, Yu Di¡¯s four-armed designed was too out of the ordinary, and would leave a strong impression in anyone who had seen it. The Sanctuary was still searching for Yu Di. If he made a simr four-armed mech, would that not invite trouble?

    Ye Chong worked around it. He thought of the Dawn mech¡¯s two electric whips, and then of the four semi-crystallised thousand-segment worms among the skeletons the old man had given him. Ye Chong used those, but the inner photon circuits took him much effort to set up. The thousand-segment worms could not be made into electric whips, so Ye Chong attached bone spikes at the ends instead. These spikes were from the beater-eater¡¯s back, and were quite tough. Ye Chong had punctured high-strength alloy boards with them. Besides that, the spikes were resilient, and did not break easily from bending. Ye Chong spent much time whetting the spikes, exhausting one whetting machine for each spike, a sign of the weapons¡¯ toughness.

    The four thousand-segment worm whips with spikes were kept in four concealed shooting chambers in the lower back of the mech, inconspicuous from the outside.

    The mech¡¯s named was decided early on to be Han Jia. If it were up to Ye Chong, he would probably not want to take too much trouble in naming and just call it Number 1. However, since Mu had provided the name, even if using a random algorithm, Ye Chong did not mind it.

    Han Jia¡¯s main weapon was its daggers. These were made from a fangbeast¡¯s canine teeth, with some heavy processing. The two daggers were slightly longer than the average mech¡¯s daggers, arching slightly and lined with natural serrated edges, with razor sharp tips. The daggers were as ck as night, and as soon as Ye Chong was done making them, he found himself loving them very much!

    Of all the weapons, Ye Chong found the daggers most handy, but their attack range was very limited. If only he still had Yu Di¡¯s UF maic sword, the work of Fred the Great! The UF maic swords sold in the streets were far inferior to the original, and Ye Chong could not see himself using them.

    On Han Jia¡¯s left arm was a shield, its surface etched with scale-like patterns. It was made of iron lizard¡¯s scales gathered on the trash. These scales could survive unscathed from Mu¡¯s attack, and that left a deep impression in Ye Chong. He immediately thought of them when he began working on the shield.

    After that, Ye Chong found that the iron lizard¡¯s scales could not only shield against physical attacks, but also energy based weapons. This impressed Ye Chong. It was as if the material was destined to be used for defense shields. There was also another advantageous property, and that was its light density. This made the shield much lighter than conventional metal shields.

    Ye Chong epted Mu¡¯s advice and made the shield with an ovepping method. This produced the scale-like patterns. Of course, Ye Chong sharpened the edges of the shield as per his habit. If he could add another function to the weapon, then why not?

    Other than this, Ye Chong also removed Harmony of the Winter Aria¡¯s two auto lock-on double-edged shurikens and attached them on Han Jia. With that, Han Jia had some limited long range attack capabilities.

    Ye Chong also wanted to add some barbs on Han Jia¡¯ shoulders, elbows, knees and feet, since they were unexpectedly useful in close rangebat. However, Ye Chong rejected those in the end, since a mech like that would be too eye-catching, and that would be against his intention of keeping himself under the radar. Aside from that, it was simr to ck Cove¡¯s style, and Ye Chong did not want to be mistaken as one of them.

    Han Jia¡¯s every detail was the result of Ye Chong¡¯s meticulous considerations. However, in the end, Ye Chong was still quite satisfied with it.

    The most satisfying feature of Han Jia for Ye Chong would be its astonishing speed!

    Han Jia¡¯s main body was made of skeletons, making it significantly lighter than metals. With the same propulsion force, Han Jia could move a good two Machs faster than Harmony of the Winter Aria! While Guardian could go up to Mach 10, it was only for a short burst. Han Jia, however, could fly at its top speed for long journeys. Compared to Harmony, Han Jia was definitely faster!

    On the battlefield, just a tiny advantage in speed would provide a great overall advantage. With a speed of Mach 9, Ye Chong would definitely gain an upper hand going against the likes of the Sanctuary, ck Cove or the MPA. On top of that, with the ability of long range flight at Mach 9, it would be easier to escape!

    Afterpletion, Ye Chong used Guardian to make a thorough analysis of the mech, and fixed a few small but potentially fatal ws.

    Hei Zi gasped and marvelled at Ye Chong¡¯s work from the sidelines. While the old man said nothing, his eyes were shining brightly, staring up to the first full-skeleton mech in history. The two of them watched the mech, fully observant, and did not notice that Ye Chong had already left.

    Ye Chong was exhausted! A month and a half of nonstop working with high concentration had drained him. Once Ye Chong had finalized his mech, he could no longer bear it as he found a passably tidy spot and slept! He fell asleep almost immediately after hey down.

    When Ye Chong woke up, it was already the third day. He was awakened by hunger, his empty stomach growling in protest. Seeing some food ced beside him, Ye Chong started devouring them without hesitation. "These must be from Hei Zi," Ye Chong thought as he ate.

    After he finished, his hunger was slightly lessened. Ye Chong picked himself up and went to the nowpleted Han Jia.

    In terms of design, Han Jia was considered sparse, with no signs of decoration on it. Nheless, its natural style was refreshing. In terms of color, however, Han Jia was quite a handful. Each skeleton material was in a different hue - ck, white, light green, dark red ¡­ This gave Han Jia a unique enigma. Besides that, the unique texture of skeleton luster made Han Jia looked more like a carved sculpture of abstract art.

    With the exception of the metallic shine from the titanium scarab¡¯s exoskeleton, other parts looked like jade, or wood, and some even looked like synthetic material. The mech looked odd, but it was undeniable that such a strange mech would draw attention from everyone!

    Ye Chong could not help but knitted his brows.

 Chapter 144 - Learning

    <h4>Chapter 144: Learning</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The one thing Ye Chong wanted to avoid the most was attention. On the trash, thest one standing was often the one lying in the dark, waiting to ambush. The quicker one was exposed under the star¡¯s light rays, the higher the probability of death! At the moment, if Ye Chong¡¯s identity was discovered by the Sanctuary, he would not stand a chance.

    Every part of Han Jia, standing before him, told the story of a very special mech! "What an eyesore!" Ye Chong thought.

    What should he do? Ye Chong pondered long and hard. He had wanted to build a mech that could hide his identity, but had ended up with one that made him the center of attention. He could not help but smile ironically! His eyes wandered to a corner stashed with bottles of all sorts, and Ye Chong unconsciously scanned through them. Ye Chong¡¯s vision suddenly focused on a silver bottle!

    Ye Chong groaned at his own stupidity. Such a simple solution had taken him so long to reach! He picked himself up and walked towards the silver bottle!

    Ye Chong looked at Han Jia, deeply satisfied!

    Dazzling silver covered every part of Han Jia. The mech¡¯s earlier modest charisma was now gone without a trace. Now, Han Jia looked like an arriviste, making a clumsy show of his wealth! A moment ago, Ye Chong sprayed ayer of bright silver paint on Han Jia. However, Ye Chong was now deeply satisfied. Even if it was him seeing Han Jia among other mechs, he would probably not waste any extra attention on the mech.

    Any slightly experienced mech pilot would know that the real masters would not draw attention to themselves. Only in-looking mechs could potentially be advanced level mechs.

    Only neers would paint their mechs in such a dazzling style, hoping for attention.

    After giving Han Jia an ugly paint job, Ye Chong heard Hei Zi calling him, "Ye, Master would like to see you!"

    "Okay!" Ye Chong replied, and headed outside. Ye Chong had already locked himself as Han Jia¡¯s user. Except for himself, no one else could examine Han Jia¡¯s interior. This was because Ye Chong did not want Han Jia¡¯s interior essories to be known, since some of them were quite unsettling.

    Han Jia¡¯s dimension keystone was linked to a light green bracelet, which Ye Chong put on his left wrist. Ye Chong had wanted a ring, but considering the effect of having too many rings on his fingers¡¯ movements, he chose a bracelet in the end.

    There was one thing that he found himself quite annoyed with, and that was the fact that he could not find any brainwave activated dimension keystone in the area. All he found were old-fashioned sound activated ones. Sound activation was undesirable in terms of reaction time and discretion, and this vexed Ye Chong for a long time.

    One could be sure that Han Jia was now a sight to behold. As Hei Zi entered and saw Han Jia''s transformation, he gaped widely and froze in bewilderment, speechless as Ye Chong left unnoticed!

    Ye Chong went to the old man. The old man was not tinkering with his tools as per usual, but sitting before his desk in the resting room, staring into space.

    Ye Chong entered and greeted softly, "Master."

    "Oh, Ye, you¡¯re here, sit!" The old man gathered his thoughts and looked at Ye Chong, sitting opposite him and looking back at him. He pondered for a long while, speaking slowly, "Ye, did you have any episodes from your strange illness recently?"

    Ye Chong shook his head. "No." He did not understand why the old man would suddenly ask about this.

    The old man looked at Ye Chong meaningfully and said, "Hei Zi said that your illness can only be cured outside the Orbits, is that right?"

    "Yes." Ye Chong nodded.

    "It looks like you¡¯ll leave the Orbits for sure." The old man suddenly sighed.

    "Yes."

    "You¡¯re the first skeleton carver to ever make a full-skeleton mech. I was hoping you could help me teach Hei Zi, that he may reach your level one day! I know, your interest does not lie entirely in skeleton carving. Haha, I didn¡¯t think I would be able to see a full-skeleton mech in my entire lifetime, I¡¯m quite satisfied! However, if you¡¯re leaving the Orbits, sigh, Hei Zi ¡­" The old man spoke hesitantly.

    Ye Chong fell silent. He understood the old man, but what could he do?

    "When do you n on taking the Sanctuary¡¯s Trials?" The old man changed the topic abruptly and asked Ye Chong.

    "After some time." Ye Chong continued exining, "After I spend some time on alchemy."

    "Eh, that¡¯s good! Teach Hei Zi in the meanwhile, he may be a little opaque but he¡¯s very grounded, and is neverzy!"

    "Yes." Ye Chong replied. Even if the old man did not say so, Ye Chong had nned to do it all along.

    The old man¡¯s expression suddenly turned serious, and focused his eyes on Ye Chong. "Ye, if you¡¯re thinking of leaving the Orbits, never let anyone know that you can build full-skeleton mechs. Or else, you may have to live your entire life under the eyes of the Sanctuary. Of course, if it¡¯s like that, you won¡¯t have much to worry besides your freedom. For example, about your strange illness, the Sanctuary would never let a skeleton carver capable of building a full-skeleton mech to die of illness. As for the Sanctuary¡¯s power, I believe you understand thatpletely. Haha, well, can you ept this way of life?"

    "No!" Ye Chong replied decisively. Without freedom, Ye Chong could never ept it.

    The old man broke into a grin. "Haha, as I guessed. But if that¡¯s the case, Ye, you must be careful, never let anyone realize that you know how to build full-skeleton mechs. Remember, never! Or else, if the Sanctuary knew, you¡¯ll never leave the Orbits. I¡¯ve reminded Hei Zi, and he¡¯d never tell anyone. That full-skeleton mech that you have, it¡¯s best not to use it unless necessary, now that there are many who could tell the difference. Hmm, best if you paint the mech, so that it wouldn¡¯t be so obvious!"

    Ye Chong silently apuded the old man¡¯s experience, but was also moved from the old man¡¯s concern about him.

    Ye Chong left the old man¡¯s room and met Hei Zi again. Hei Zi gave Ye Chong an odd look. He could not understand how someone would intentionally make his own mech ugly! Besides, this was his rational Junior Brother, and that perplexed him.

    Now that Ye Chong was not upied, he spend his days revising the coursework given by Lunatic Guan. While Lunatic Guan¡¯s threats of punishment did not bother him, he still appreciated the knowledge, since he understood that it would form part of his strength, and might one day be crucial for his survival.

    For someone who valued life as much as Ye Chong, that was the most convincing reason.

    Other times, Ye Chong would teach Hei Zi about the foundational theories of mechs. However, the entire system of knowledge was too vast, and Hei Zi was not as good as Ye Chong was in terms of intelligence and foundation. Hence, he improved slowly, and Ye Chong could not do much about it.

    Ye Chong also allocated some time for Room 5, using the authorization password from Lunatic Guan to activate the room¡¯s photon processor and studied the secretive news and rules rted to the ancient upation that was alchemy. As he read on, Ye Chong gradually grew terrified. The world before him was a very mysterious one, an isted world, with its own rules and social norms.

    What Ye Chong was most interested in was the abilities of some unusual alchemists from obscure branches of the field. They mostly seemed inconceivable to Ye Chong.

    One such example was a branch in microorganism studies. They could grow and multiply certain types of microorganisms up to tens of thousands of their original number. There was once a person who developed a grudge against one of them, and was secretly infected with this microorganism together with a special kind of catalyst. In the blink of an eye, that person began to age and wither quickly, and died a curious death.

    This narrative immediately got Ye Chong¡¯s attention. Ye Chong was always vignt against unknown forces . This was terrifying! Fortunately, these people were not battle enthusiasts, and had never sought conflict with others by their own initiative.

    This mysterious world was mainly made up of ancient aristocratic families. Through a long history of umting knowledge, they could reach further depths in their field. As for those who supported academy establishments, traditional alchemists often thought it beneath themselves.

    Ye Chong had never heard of the news in here. Even with Ye Chong¡¯s boldness, he was still chilled as he read through some of the information. There were too many strange things going on!

    After finishing his reading, Ye Chong felt moved. The world was a vast ce. How much more remained unknown? How many worlds remained to be discovered?

    Lunatic Guan finally returned, looking fatigued, worn out by the journey, her expression betrayed some sense of destion. She saw Ye Chong and exchanged some casual words before returning to her room to rest.

    The next morning, Lunatic Guan woke Ye Chong up for her so-called test.

    The entire afternoon was spent taking the test.

    Lunatic Guan¡¯s face did not show any emotions, but her heart was swirling like a tsunami. The coursework she gave Ye Chong was partly meant to make things difficult for him. While they were basic knowledge, but the content was abundant. For someone without any basics in alchemy, it would impossible to master them in such a short time. However, Ye Chong had done it!

    "This guy is a genius!" The thought shed past Lunatic Guan¡¯s mind. At the same time she found herself feeling a little excited!

    She was not aware that Ye Chong was not entirely without any foundations in alchemy. Besides, the amount of information was nothingpared to what Shang had pestered Ye Chong to learn on alchemy.

    Lunatic Guan nodded in approval on the surface, "Good god, your homework was done quite well! Hmm, since you¡¯re done with homework, we¡¯re going to continue on with the next phase of learning. This phase will focus on the basic skills in alchemy. Of course, theoretical studies will continue.

    "Remember, for an alchemist, practice, is always more important than words!"

    Lunatic Guan spoke herst sentence with a rare expression of seriousness.

 Chapter 145 - Itâ€™s All the Red Liquors Fault

    <h4>Chapter 145: It¡¯s All the Red Liquor''s Fault</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ever since that day, Ye Chong became busier, his daily schedule jam packed with activities, as though Lunatic Guan was trying to identify his limits. As for Ye Chong, he noticed for the first time that being an alchemist ced a high demand on his physical endurance. If not for his outstanding physical strength, he probably would have exhausted himself early on.

    Once again, Ye Chong¡¯s performance was a pleasant surprise to Lunatic Guan. His seemingly frail body harboured extraordinary strength, as though he was always physically ready. Besides, he had great talent and was a quick study; his long, white fingers moved deftly, as though he was born to be an alchemist. This won much admiration from Lunatic Guan. In order to make Ye Chong "suffer", Lunatic Guan even invested her own time in him, and spent less time in drinking. Often, she would even forget all about drinking. Of course, Ye Chong was not foolish enough to remind her of that. Gradually, Lunatic Guan had forgotten of her original intention and began to teach Ye Chong more seriously. She began to treat Ye Chong like an actual student of hers without actually meaning to do so!

    With one of them teaching in earnest, and another learning in earnest, Ye Chong improved quickly!

    Ye Chong could finally rx a little, since this phase of learning had finally ended, and Lunatic Guan had granted him a few days¡¯ leave. Now, Ye Chong could synthesize his own strengthening chemical, since for a true alchemist, knowing the ingredients was enough to make the chemical easily. From the old man¡¯s point of view, Ye Chong¡¯s learning mission waspleted.

    With the rare moment of leisure, Ye Chong enjoyed his idle time by carving some little things out of some smaller skeleton pieces for practice, to keep his skills sharp. Ye Chong had no sense of aesthetics, and carved only mech models. He did not bring his carving knife with him, and used the dagger gifted to him by Gu Shaoze.

    Ye Chong looked satisfyingly at the final product in his hands, and kept his dagger back into his bag. Suddenly, he noticed the Red Liquor obtained from the young woman, and thought of Mu¡¯s description of the stone¡¯s properties with growing excitement.

    "Shang, Mu said that Red Liquor will change in color when stimted by alcohol, is that right?"

    "Hmm, based on our database it should be right! Besides, you can always experiment to find out!" Shang spoke indifferently.

    "Right, I can experiment to find out. Hm, alcohol, Lunatic Guan should have plenty of it here!" Will Lunatic Guan run out of alcohol? Absolutely not.

    Ye Chong found Lunatic Guan leaning against the wall, sitting on the floor with a wine ss in hand, looking outside the door in a daze.

    "Lend me your alcohol!" Ye Chong felt it would better to be straightforward. While both were his teachers, Ye Chong found himself unable to treat Lunatic Guan like he treated the old man, probably due to their age.

    "Alcohol?" Lunatic Guan turned to him, awakened from her reverie, and looked in surprise at Ye Chong, probably not expecting such a request from him. However, as her vision swept past Ye Chong¡¯s right hand, Lunatic Guan¡¯s pupils dted abruptly, and her breathing grew heavier!

    Could she have recognized the Red Liquor? This question came to Ye Chong¡¯s mind, and his sharp eyes noticed Lunatic Guan¡¯s jade white hands trembling a little, a few drops of alcohol spilling out. Almost simultaneously, Ye Chong took a small step forward and reached his right hand out, fast as lightning.

    Drip! One of the spilled alcohol dropsnded precisely on the Red Liquor in Ye Chong¡¯s right hand. In the blink of an eye, the seemingly inconspicuous Red Liquor looked as though it was drunk, and turned slowly into a faint shade of red. This faint shade spread out like a ripple and finally covered the entire surface of the rock. The droplet-shaped Red Liquor now looked like a jade in faint red, warm and adorable.

    The transformation did not end there. The red hue turned darker and darker, and in the span of a few minutes, the Red Liquor turned from light red to a ghoulish dark red. The pendant now looked like a drop of fresh blood, moist and dazzling.

    With all his attention focused on the Red Liquor, Ye Chong did not notice Lunatic Guan¡¯s expression changed drastically as the Red Liquor transformed! Lunatic Guan stared fixedly at the Red Liquor in Ye Chong¡¯s hand, her face full of disbelief, and her expression unreadable.

    The Red Liquor seemed toe alive in Ye Chong¡¯s hand, spreading warmth like a real droplet of semi-coagted blood. Ye Chong could not but marvel at the sight! Who knew what other secrets the material had to offer?

    Just then, Ye Chong smelled a thin, fragrant scent, and froze. Of all the changes that Mu mentioned, this scent was not one of them. Ye Chong held the ne to his nose. "Hmm, not the pendant. Ah, so it¡¯s from the old string. But this smell is really nice, it makes me feel very peaceful." Ye Chong thought to himself.

    "Isn¡¯t it a nice smell? That string may look inconspicuous, but it¡¯s actually made of skyntern grass, a strong material, and upon contact with heat, it releases a fragrant smell that has a calming effect, and is quite rare!" Lunatic Guan¡¯s words came slowly.

    "Skyntern grass?" Ye Chong lifted his head, and was surprised to find Lunatic Guan¡¯s face as pale as a sheet, her eyes staring fixedly at the ne in Ye Chong¡¯s hand.

    "What¡¯s with her?" Ye Chong wondered. While he did not understand the situation, he still noticed something unusual about Lunatic Guan.

    "Skyntern grass is endemic to the Guang Hua. The locals treated it as a sign of peace and harmony, and like to use it for decoration. For the alchemists there, it is also an excellent ingredient." Lunatic Guan¡¯s soft words reverberated throughout the room, but her eyes never left the ne on Ye Chong¡¯s hand.

    Ye Chong offered his hand out and held the ne before Lunatic Guan.

    Lunatic Guan hesitated, as though struggling with herself, the mist in her eyes gradually umting to a bursting reservoir, and tears rolled down silently along her pale cheeks. Her lips were now bloodless from her tightened mouth, as she reached out a trembling right hand and slowly approached the ne held in Ye Chong¡¯s right hand.

    As the tips of her fingers touched the droplet-shaped Red Liquor, the sensitive Ye Chong noticed her body shook a little. This made Ye Chong fully realize that the ne and Lunatic Guan had a very deep rtionship.

    Receiving the ne from Ye Chong, Lunatic Guan finally could not hold it any longer. Her left hand moved to cover her mouth, and she began to sob.

    Ye Chong left quietly.

    Back in his room, Ye Chong spoke to Shang.

    "Shang, do you know what¡¯s going on?" Ye Chong expressed his confusion. Through it all, he understood nothing.

    "Based on her actions, she probably has a very deep history with the ne!" Shang¡¯s reply came like a sigh.

    "History?" Ye Chong still did not quite understand.

    "She¡¯s probably some rtive of hers."

    "Rtive? How did you know?" Ye Chong asked in bafflement.

    "Sigh, how can you not understand something so simple? Sigh, I suppose so, a guy like you probably will not spend time on watching movies and the like, it¡¯s only natural that you cannot understand! However, do you have any better guess?" Shang spoke derisively.

    "No!" Ye Chong¡¯s answer was brisk.

    "And there you have it!"

    "Shang, are you sure you¡¯re alright?" Ye Chong asked out of concern. As he had gotten used to Shang¡¯s usual non-stop bbering, Shang¡¯s quietness now was a little unsettling.

    "Problem? Me, having a problem? The probability for that is very small. Even a logical mistake that is fatal for the average PSI is not all that fatal to me. So, about this, you don¡¯t have to worry, Ye. As for my current state, that¡¯s because I and Mu are trying to recover some damaged data. 90 percent of our resources are currently spent there." Shang exined.

    "Damaged data? It is from before?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Yes. We found that some of them could potentially be recovered, and so we had tried various methods of recovery, but the results do not seem good!"

    "Oh, don¡¯t rush yourselves!" Ye Chong could only console them.

    Knock knock! The sound came from the door.

    With Ye Chong¡¯s hearing sense, he could already hear Lunatic Guan¡¯s footsteps. Her act of knocking, however, was a surprise to Ye Chong, since barging in seemed more of her style.

    Lifting his head, he saw Lunatic Guan entering the room with her eyes red and swollen, with wet tracks on her face. Lunatic Guan came in and immediately questioned, "Where did you get this ne from?"

    "Where did I get it from?" Ye Chong was about to answer, when all of a sudden he realized that his rtionship with Guardian would be exposed. Ye Chong reacted vigntly and opted for silence. Lunatic Guan was not someone he trusted, not like with Hei Zi and the old man.

    "Tell me!" Witnessing Ye Chong remaining silent, Lunatic Guan grew anxious.

    Ye Chong kept his silence, knowing that this would better serve to protect him.

    Something shed past in Lunatic Guan¡¯s eyes, and she spoke in a sigh, "Are you really not telling?"

    nning to keep his silence, Ye Chong suddenly noticed his vision getting more and more blurry, and colors began swirling around as Shang¡¯s panicking voice came from somewhere far away. Ye Chong was still in a daze, not realizing what was happening. He was about to call for Shang, but he cked out.

    Lunatic Guan looked at Ye Chong, lying on the floor, and sighed delicately, "Little Ye, I don¡¯t want to do this, but if you¡¯re not telling, I¡¯ll have to make you!"

    Lunatic Guan immediately shut all the doors outside and, ignoring Ye Chong on the floor, hastened to the innermost room and removed a few bottles of reagents from the shelves in a corner.

    Lunatic Guan focused intently, her hands moving at a dazzling speed. If Ye Chong were awake now, he would definitely be impressed by Lunatic Guan¡¯s deft and precise movements. Before long, she had a bottle of light purple reagent before her.

    Carefully holding the reagent against the light, she could see a few thin silver lines in the light purple reagent.

    "This should be right!" Lunatic Guan muttered to herself.

    She dashed towards Ye Chong, crouched beside him, and ce the bottle of reagent before Ye Chong¡¯s nose before removing the bottle cap. Light purple mist rose from the opening, scattered with fine silver sparkles. The mist swirled like an enchanted snake and found its way into Ye Chong¡¯s nostrils.

    Lunatic Guan¡¯s misted eyes shed with regret, but it was immediately reced by certain determination.

 Chapter 146 - A Gift from Lunatic Guan

    <h4>Chapter 146: A Gift from Lunatic Guan</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong forced his eyes open¡­ his pounding head felt heavier than the meteorite. It was cracking so hard that he could literally hear the cracking sound in his head. "Ow¡­" He managed to get up, thoughboriously he did, as he attempted to get his mind clearer, he shook his head forcefully like swinging the wrecking ball.

    "I did not expect you to stay in one piece. Such miracle," teased Shang.

    "The heck happened, Shang?" Holding his throbbing head, he expressed his doubt in his mind right away.

    "Mhm, it¡¯s a pity for I don¡¯t have much information regarding this in my databank so I can¡¯t give you an exnation, although she did leave you with something, a gift, perhaps it could be an aid for you. Tsk, tsk, tsk, Ye, your alertness had been degrading quite badly these few days. Don¡¯t tell me it was because of ack of stimtion of bloodiness for your bloodthirsty self? Yikes, you are indeed a beast who lived on its instincts, Ye. I did not see iting, the day where you actually get snuck upon by ass. Tsk, tsk, tsk, oh my Fal gxy, please don¡¯t tell me you actually had some chemistry urred between her inside you? Hmm, even though this is quite understandable, I think¡­" The motivational talk hadmenced once again, under the supreme enlightenment of Shang¡­

    Ye Chong tried standing up. It was supposed to be a simple action yet it was so energy consuming that he almost copsed again. The heck in Orbits that Lunatic Guan had done to me? I could not move a muscle¡­ I could not feel my strength. Waking up seemed to be the greatest challenge ever to Ye Chong currently.

    His eyes discerned a piece of microchipying on the table nearby. That should be it, the gift which Lunatic Guan left for Ye Chong, as mentioned by Shang. He grabbed the chip and inserted it into the processor sitting at one spot of the room. A visual of Lunatic Guan was projected on the hologram after that.

    "Oh, my Little Ye, my Ye boy, *Zzt* I simply did not foresee these much of surprise from you. Mhm, I had gotten what I wanted to know from your mouth. *Zzt* Thank you again, Ye my boy. If it wasn¡¯t you, I would have taken forever to find my beloved sister. *Zzzt* The good old me is in search of my younger sister now! *Zzzzt*

    *Zzzt* Hehehe, Ye, my sweet, my lovely, you are greater than I had ever expected. Looks like I had really underestimated you way too much. *Zzzt* Kekeke, you know it by heart, that I always have something for potent men like you. *Zzzt*

    Regarding that ne, don¡¯t worry, *Zzzzt* I¡¯ll have it, in exchange for a little~gift~ I left~ for my s-w-e-e-t Ye boy~ You would love it! *Zzzt* Yes, yes, I finally got some clues on my sister¡¯s whereabouts and I¡¯m not letting it slip through my fingers. *Zzzt* Also, Ye, again, thank you for saving my sister, even though you did not intend to save her.

    *Zzzt* Lastly¡­ Hmmm, what should I say to conclude this love letter to my boy? Okay.

    Take care, my juicy fruity pie! *Zzzt* Oh, I almost forgot, I hope that you would learn from your lesson after this. Always be alert when you¡¯re facing ones from the Alchemy, *Zzzt* be it like an old but charmingdy like me, promise me, okay? Kekekekekekekekekekeke!"

    Lunatic Guan was holding her ss in the visual, cheekily she swung her ss, a gesture for her version of "cheers" to end her regards. The visual was immediately terminated afterwards. And right when Ye Chong was going to leave, Zzzt! The processor prompted, "More data has been discovered, perform Reading?"

    Ye Chong was stupefied at first and he quickly regained himself, "Yes. Perform Reading!"

    Reading¡­

    1% ))))) 15% ))))) 40% ))))) 75% ))))) 100%

    Readingplete!

    Ye Chong finally understood what the so-called "gift" from Lunatic Guan was after the processor had done ying everything. The chip generally contained the entire sybus of the Alchemy course for Ye Chong, with every single section prepared wholeheartedly by Lunatic Guan herself. And Ye Chong, without doubt, could master the course all by himself with the help of this chip, although¡­ "Man, this is quite a long course¡­" The size of the sybus was beyond his expectation, it wasrge¡­rger than Trash Ye Chong assumed, for one second. He hurriedly skimmed through the course structure and he reached for the eject button, "Hold up!" Lunatic Guan¡¯s visual jumped at him.

    What else does she want to tell? Ye Chong¡¯s head was jammed with bewilderment.

    Unlike the visual before, the Lunatic Guan in the hologram this time was sterner than her usual self, "Little Ye, technically, I actually did not have the intention of providing you the following information¡­ but you are my only student, my only apprentice to my session while you seemed to be in quite a sticky situation. Thus, I decided to keep this for you, although I¡¯m not certain if it would be useful for you, hopefully it would at least. However, there¡¯s one thing you have to remember by heart, likewise to my other advice before, this is equally important - do not, never ever be overly dependent on it. The only thing you could depend on is the knowledge you mastered all by yourself, no aid, no shortcut, nothing else. You have great talents, I must admit. If you keep up the good works, you would one day indeed, surpass me and be the best chemist in history of alchemy. Kek¡­ though I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll live to witness that¡­" Her smile was bitter, bitter than the white wine on a funeral night.

    "I know, Ye my boy, you want to leave the Orbits. Kekekeke, wonder why would I know? Well, you would know it after learning everything I have tailored for you. If you got out sessfully, yes, Ye my boy, ¡®if¡¯ you got out, could you please¡­ do this good old me a favor, head to L. Shaft City on Guang Hua for me? It¡¯s Line Shaft City in full¡­ And remember! It must be done only after you finished my course. While¡­ for me¡­ I don¡¯t think I would ever be able to leave this ce¡­ My onlyst wish was to see my sister again. Mhm, Little Ye, may the odds be with both of us! Oh yeah, please don¡¯t forget to tell your master the forme of the strengthening liquids he wanted, that was probably what he really expected you to learn from me anyway! Don¡¯t disappoint him!"

    The voice of herst syble trailed off as the visual vanished instantly. Beep. A window prompted on the processor, "The Guan¡¯s Automatic Analysis Mechanism has been activated. Please insert the main ingredient and final request."

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were fixed at the demonstration on the hologram in nk dismay.

    "Fantastic! Magnifique! Ye, this Lady Guan is marvelous! See! Ye, like what I had told you earlier, Lady Guan is absolutely a beauty who wields both appearance and wisdom! Tsk, tsk, tsk, I can¡¯t believe there are humans able to produce such a self-analytical system. Genius I must say! And very gorgeous too! Ye, how many times have I suggested you before? You should have hooked up with her! But did you listen to me? Nooooo! Great, guess what? Such a bright and demuredy had gone to nowhere! Tell me where are you going to find a recement?" Shang sounded truly agonized in his tone¡­

    The words obviously did not go through Ye Chong¡¯s mind. In actuality, he was utterly dumbfounded by the invention, as never once in his life he would see someone being able to make something like this, especially when it was based on expertise of alchemy. And no chemist gain their skillfulness from text books, they have and always have been gaining it from experience, since a majority of the concept behind the working of alchemy was unknown to mankind, they could solely depend on their experience to identify a certain kind of pattern, form,bination that would work in consistency. And this was why those ancient families of aristocrats stood a better chance to dig much deeper into this profession than the folks, as their forebears had umted much more experience as well as expertise throughout the ages.

    The program before Ye Chong however, had broken the thumb rule of the field. Ye Chong could be a total illiterate towards the workaround of processor but for the basic fundamentality of it, he knew it better than anybody else. This program was unquestionably the oue of a kind of calction, with basis on a kind of known theory, an identified pattern, a string of form and they were clear, clear enough to run a program. If it was a fuzzy theory founded by experience, there would be no way for a motherboard-and-circuits to process it and provide calcted judgement based on requests.

    How would such innovation not shock our Ye Chong? Right when everyone else in the gxy assumed how a chemist was built upon experience than knowledge, this half-drunken, half-mad, half-conscious drinker namely Lunatic Guan had already hit the core of the whole profession!

    "Mhm¡­ Ye. So she wanted you to go to Guang Hua. Bymon sense, that should be where her home was located. Well, Ye, how about we just hit the road, get to her ce and see if there were any close rtive like her sisters for instance, be them younger or elder, you could consider taking them if they were not bad. Sigh¡­ By the way, such a perfectss isn¡¯t something you could see on the street everyday, Ye¡­ Gosh, my heart, my pitiful heart, all shattered into a milky way of depression," he carried on his own y, Shang cried out in pain.

    "Hmm, so how does this mechanism work? I wonder¡­"

    Those cheesy lines did not reach Ye Chong though.

    Ye Chong was excited after the shock. He could not wait to validate the capability of the mechanism, as he connected the processor to the analysis system as instructed by the manual.

    "There¡¯s always one thing I wanted to know," muttered Ye Chong as he pulled out the Do-Kun stone from his belongings. As what Mu Shang had stated before, this stone was certainly rare and chances were Lunatic Guan might had nevere across such piece before. Only an unknown sample could effectively trial the applicability of the Guan¡¯s automatic analysis mechanism.

    The moment he took the stone out, the room was tinted by its ever-changing color and glow with a kind of fluidity.

    He carefully ced it into the machine and he selected Cultivation with Presets at the Cultivation Methodology section, with the final request being "to achieve growth".

    Tick. Tick Tick! Beep!

    The machine started running as few mechanical sounds were heard, a variety of data were refreshing rapidly. Sadly like Lunatic Guan had mentioned, he had yet mastered the very gist of alchemy, he only managed to recognize the meanings of a few variables shown in the data. The mechanism was running and morphing¡­ And Ye Chong had the slightest idea on what was going on. "The only thing you could depend on is the knowledge you mastered all by yourself, no aid, no shortcut, nothing else," Lunatic Guan¡¯s voice echoed in his head. Well it seemed like there was assuredly a need to master the sybus in the chip. Ye Chong made up his mind.

    Beep Beep Beep. Beep.

    10 minutes or so hadpsed, the morphing process in the program finally ended. A result was projected on the screen along with mechanical voices briefing the content, "Request achievable. Ingredients required : Kong Stone, Milles Radices(grass), Sand of Rolling Tides, Softening Factor #13, Fique Crystal¡­"

    Ye Chong had no idea what he had just heard, as his eyes wentrge like saucers. Other than the softening factor, the remaining materials sounded alien to him. No way he would be able to validate the reliability of the machine under a scenario like this.

    Nheless, the fact that the mechanism was able to produce such result was convincing enough to Ye Chong.

    After a bit of pondering, he was still keen to insert the entire content of this chip right into Mu Shang. Imagine if he identally dropped it somewhere someday, there would be no cure for him to remedy his tormenting regrets.

    Judging by Lunatic Guan¡¯s words, it seemed like she had known quite a few stuffs about Ye Chong himself. The heck happened? Ye Chong was left in the dark. He was only sure of the fact that that bottle of Red Liquor had something to do with Lunatic Guan. She said she was in search of her sister¡­ Could that Zhu Ling, the girl he met that day be her younger sister? Ye Chong tried to recall the impression she left in his mind¡­ but then¡­ "Man, it¡¯s like two different persons from a total different corner of gxy¡­ are you sure they are rted¡­?"

    Ye Chong deployed Shang and rolled into the cabin. He inserted the chip right into the processor next, since to Ye Chong, there was no other safe ce like Shang¡¯s databank in this world.

    "So Shang¡­" Ye Chong initiated, "What had happened when I was unconscious?"

    Mu Shang had always been conscious all times, everything in Ye Chong¡¯s surrounding would never escape their detection.

    "See it yourself. I can¡¯t exin it," said Shang as he yed back the imagery he detected.

    The hologram was of high-definition, crystal-clear it was in recording everything that had happened to Ye Chong. In the visual, Ye Chong suddenly copsed¡­ That was the moment Lunatic Guan stormed into the room and had produced a very strange kind of purple reagent. And Ye Chong was very confident that he did not recognize that reagent. He then saw Lunatic Guan hung the tube of reagent right below his nose.

    And that was when the creepiest moment happened. Ye Chong, despite being unconscious, sat up, in the state of trance, his eyes were soulless and Lunatic Guan began asking a few questions. Ye Chong answered all her inquiries sincerely and immediately. Throughout the process, Ye Chong looked empty on his expression, his eyes zoned outpletely, literally like a puppet on strings. His mouth would utter the answer obediently.

    Creepy! This is too creepy!

    The visual sent chills down to his spines. He could tantly feel goosebumps came rolling all over his body uncontrobly, while his head was running cold.

    This is too scary!

 Chapter 147 - Fading Out

    <h4>Chapter 147: Fading Out</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was the first time Ye Chong witnessed the potency of a chemist. And he was theb rat too, which was not really a glory experience to be remembered, though he did not lose anything specific during the process. In spite of the fact that he was barely injured, he still was quite dismal, as he truly disliked such sensation of being not the master of his own life for once. The worst part was, the incident had justified the truth that his alertness had dropped this harshly. If he was able to deploy Shang in the nick of time, it would have turned out to be a total different story, yet out of ignorance and hesitation he forsook the veryst opportunity to make a turnabout in this.

    Well, self-reflection aside, Ye Chong indeed had to make a change in his original n. Formerly, Ye Chong simply nned to learn alchemy, the basic from Lunatic Guan at least. Then he would try applying a trial at the Sanctuary to make way out of the Orbits. Assuming he failed the trial, he would n for an alternative. The catch was none other than exiting the Orbits itself. The Orbits, as everyone had known before, was a ce one could enter easily but not a ce one could also exit at ease. Every spaceship that had entered the proximity of the Orbits would be locked up by the Sanctuary. Some may suggest to leave without a spaceship, but those were the dreamers who had no idea what retardation in the Haleyson they had just suggested. Even if Ye Chong made it back to Red Giant, the outermost of the Orbits, it would still be far-fetched as the closest course to the outside was long abandoned. You could try waiting at the spot for a spaceship to pass by but the probability would be lower than seeing a meteor shower in a ck hole. You would die before the spaceship appeared, if it would ever appear that is.

    And the situation had changed drastically for Ye Chong. He had to advance the date of application trial.

    Lunatic Guan had utterly destroyed the entire databank in all processors at her ce before she left. It was saddening for Ye Chong as the destruction also involved the apparatuses and reagents for the professionals. They might not be some rare stuffs like the Do Kun stone, but Ye Chong understood the fact that utensils and chemicals this many would easily cost him an arm and a leg. And sadly Ye Chong had never tasted the dazzling pouches of fortune before to afford these again.

    He made his way back to the old man¡¯s home and informed him that Lunatic Guan had left. "Well¡­" The old man sighed, "She is also a person of misfortune." That was the only statementing from the old man, who seemed to know something in the dark. Ye Chong did not muster sufficient curiosity to further inquire about it however.

    "This is the form for the strengthening liquid," said Ye Chong as he took out a piece of chip.

    "Pass it to Hei Zi," waved the old man as he turned away and continued working on his task at the board.

    Easier said than done¡­ Hei Zi¡¯s understanding was truthfully terrible as he remained in confusion even after Ye Chong gave him the exact form to produce the liquids. "Can¡¯t help it¡­" Ye Chong eventually taught him on how to produce the strengthening liquid repetitively.

    As usual, they had a dinner that night. Nan Nan was giggling while chewing her food. She was so happy to see her Big Brother returning. She could not stop telling Ye Chong how much she missed him.

    ¡­

    In the middle of the night, Ye Chong took a look around this heartwarming ce. Little Nan Nan should be in her dream, chasing the bad doggie away maybe, while Hei Zi¡­ wonder what he was doing¡­ and the old man, he should be rushing his work at the workshop underground. Amidst silence he put a chip containing basic mech mechanic theories on the table. This was the only thing useful to Hei Zi he believed he could have left him. And on top of Little Nan Nan¡¯s bed, Ye Chong quietly ced a red bone hat, which everyyer of painting coated, every piece of bones connected was by his own hands.

    "Ye, are you sure you aren¡¯t biding farewell to them?" asked Shang softly.

    "Yeah, I¡¯m good," Ye Chong replied tly as he turned away from home, walked into the darkness, heading to the nearest Sanctuary.

    "Why¡­ Why not?"

    "¡­" No word was heard from Ye Chong, as he hurried his way.

    ¡­ ¡­

    "Hmmm¡­" Lied on the bed, Yan Bingxuan was reviewing the entire incident. Rather restless he had been, as the operation of finding out the rumored thief to the Sanctuary before had caused chaos in the Orbits. And on top of that, the thief rumored by the insiders had yet to be caught, while there was a new rumor recently, iming that a pilot had been murdered by the thief himself. He was amazed however, considering how great the thief was for he was able to steal things from the Sanctuary, managed to escape in grace from the Sanctuary while keeping the insiders of the Sanctuary this worked up to capture him. He should be nomoner. Frankly speaking, he did not really believe that rumor of pilot inside the Sanctuary being killed. He had tried applying being a pilot of the Sanctuary back then and of course, he failed miserably. Pathetically he only managed to be a patrolman at the area in the end. How could the pilots, the chosen one after the tedious trials, be ughtered this effortlessly? Thought so in disdain, no way the specialized pilots would be ovee by a trash from the outside.

    Nheless, thanks to that thief, if it was not because of the search that time, I would never know that filthy goat Ge had actually gotten an apprentice himself! Yan Bingxuan thought of that fine young man. He might be a bit slenderpared to the cksmith in the Orbits, but he was absolutely a talent for the skeleton artistry. Yan Bingxuan did not foresee this filthy stubborn old man was capable of finding such a good apprentice. Hehe, this is a kind young man indeed, for he actually gave me such a big gift. Up to this time, I remembered the face of the authority when they received those 3 mechs. Rumor said that the mechs were even tested out by the ace of the Sanctuary, the famous Madam Feng Su herself. Such an honor! Ge that old goat said this was just the mech in production. But even a mech in production gave me promotion 3 times in a row. Everyone was eyeing me with envy! Thinking so, the patrolman was proud. Such a lovely hen thatid the golden eggs. I must keep this old hen carefully if I want to prosper. Yang Bingxuan could already see his bright future glowing in the twinkles of Venuses, as he drooled in greed.

    But dammit I must say, it seemed like there¡¯s a quota to my luck! And apparently I had ran out of luck! Right after I got promoted as a chief patrol, things happened at my ce! A traitor from the elite group had sneaked to my area and caused havoc. That traitor actually got rid of my entire team, escaped and killed one of the pilots! Goddammit! Had this world really changed? We now could see a traitor in the Sanctuary? And the traitor was also the nobility from the elite group? Had this traitor gone nuts?

    Elite group, gasp, the elite group¡­ It even gave Yan Bingxuan a shudder from thinking of how the person was from the elite group alone. That is a freaking monster from the elite group! And I am nothing but a little patrolman who could barely swear at a gangster on a train tform! I would be gashed upon immediately and be a filler of its bloody fangs! Yan Bingxuan was definitely a tough-looking guy outside, but he was a delicate boy inside. And most people would be deceived at first glimpse. He was rmed especially after seeing the team of Dawn mechs who came to his aid. He could not imagine how a powerful mech these many could barely catch even a piece of the foe. Seriously, he was d that he never encountered that monster alone.

    The Dawn mechs eventually retreated with an follow-up order from the higher-ups, "Stay alert! Any happening, report us at first moment." Patrolman Yan was well-aware of the order. He was the obedient listener, the Mr. Yes in the team. He did not give a damn in reality however. I¡¯m not that stupid to stay at the deck when the ship is sinking. My life goes before anything else!

    The havoc has been resolved now¡­ and I could rest for a bit. I know, I know, I had ranked up too quickly. Everyone is pissed, everyone is waiting to see me humiliated. If I don¡¯t be a little bit more careful, I¡¯ll be kicked off my seat and be wheeling down the hill.

    Now, let the patrolman get his rest¡­

    Phew¡­

    Beep! Beep! Beep!

    Just when he thought he could catch his breath for a second, themunicator on the table rang. A hup urred inside him for some reason. He did not feel right with the iing call.

    "H¡­Hello. Yes¡­"

    ¡­

    "What?" He was ultimately shocked by the report from his subordinates.

    ¡­ ¡­

    This was the first time Ye Chong paid the local Sanctuary a visit. The building was not dramatically adorned and appeared to be a house made out of bricks, like most of the residences in the Orbits, just that the Sanctuary was muchrger inparison. The walls outside wereyered by some unknown vines of fresh greenness, which gave the building a sense of Mother Nature.

    He arrived at the lobby after the entrance. There were 4 pirs standing at the center of the lobby and simr to the walls outside, they were all covered up in vines of the same kind too. The lobby appeared to be rather spacious as not many people were there. Judging by how themunicator was the only hi-tech thing in the lobby, it looked like the Sanctuary was resistant towards technologies¡­ Mumbled Ye Chong in his mind.

    A counter sat right at the opposite of the entrance. A young man was at the counter and he seemed¡­ to be¡­ asleep? Habitually Ye Chong¡¯s steps fell so light that the man did not sense his existence even when he was standing right beside the counter.

    "Such azy bum. Show some respect to your own upation will you?" Shangmented in dissatisfaction.

    Ye Chong lifted his finger and knocked on the table twice.

    "Aagrnanlxz!" The sleeping beauty had been waken up, in shock, as he mumbled some gibberish, rubbing his bleary eyes and took a look around in astonishment. The eyes of the sloth converged at Ye Chong atst. "Agoanmdwe!" Another gibberish as he jumped up from his seat, realizing he was on a duty at the moment. "I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry¡­ Sir¡­ Sir¡­ I wonder if you have anything I could help you with?" Seemingly the young man was new at this Sanctuary, seeing how he retained that shunning humbleness in him.

    Practically the young man was intrigued too, since people rarely visited the Sanctuary. The visitors mostly would be some mentalist or mentalist-pilots,ing for work, while the man before him was obviously neither of them. He might be a novice patrolman at the Sanctuary, he still could spot the difference. Mentalist would always put on a green clothing while the pilots would be in their tidy pilot uniforms instead, with an expression of pride. The visiting man had none of those, he was showing indifference¡­ which looked like those old mentalists¡­ but he was not wearing any pale green clothing that the young man could know of.

    Moreover, it was midnight. What in the Orbits would this mane to the Sanctuary at a timing like this? Very curious, the young man was curious.

    "I would like to apply for the Level 5 trial at the sanctuary," his request came tly.

    "What?" Boomed the young man, in panic he responded, "Ah. Um, oh, uh, a moment please." The young man clumsily stampeded towards themunicator at the side and rang to the chief patrolman. Stuttering he reported to chief.

    Ye Chong¡¯s sensitive hearing had heard every single word uttered by the young man. He found that avoidant eye contact and shrinking posture of the young man while on themunicator to be quite interesting.

    "Such a scaredy cat. You could have tried acting professional," Shang gave another disdainful remark.

    Yang Bingxuan piloted his mech and rushed all the way to the Sanctuary. No doubt his curiosity aroused by surprise was nothing lower than young man on duty. Ye Chong and Shang on the other hand did not get all the hassle and drama urring around them, since they did not have an idea on what a Level 5 Trial actually was. And Yang Bingxuan, being a patrolman for the past 10 few years, had his first time witnessing someone requesting a Level 5 Trial. Back in the days when the Level 5 Trial was first introduced at the Sanctuary, people flooded the center to apply. At the eg, only 2 persons had passed; the following year had one before and nobody else after! That was the time when people realized how challenging it was to pass the trial. "Don¡¯t even think about it if you aren¡¯t even the master in your field!" said everyone upon mentioning the trial, which was the direct cause to the drastic decrease in applicants of the following years.

    So one year, Yang Bingxuan took over as the patrolman and¡­ well, no one had evere and apply for the trial. He did overhear stories of one doctor applying for the trial few years back from the other area, though he was disqualified at the veryst day.

    Whoever desired to be an applicant must have not only the courage but also the great confidence in his or her own capabilities. "When in the Orbits did we even have those kinds of people in our area? And I don¡¯t even know them?" Yang Bingxuan was dying to know.

 Chapter 148 - Question

    <h4>Chapter 148: Question</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Yan Bingxuan pushed the door open. A rather willowy silhouette was on his feet at the vacant Sanctuary lobby. He struck Yan Bingxuan as being familiar but¡­ the patrolman could not recall whom the silhouette reminded him of. This should be the one applying for Level 5 Trial I supposed? But why does this man look no stranger to me? Yan Bingxuan felt weird¡­

    "Good day!" The young man got up gracelessly upon seeing Yan Bingxuan, "Chief!" The salutation went courteously.

    As a response, the chief nodded in dignity as he trotted towards Ye Chong. All the time he had been wondering what in the Orbits a man sought such trial with difficulty at such a timing and "Ah!" Yan Bingxuan was astonished when he recognized who the applicant was as he got closer.

    "Good day," nodded Ye Chong in respect as he greeted, "Uncle Yan."

    "Oh it¡¯s Ye, my little cksmith in training." His expression turned gentle right away, "What¡¯s with the visit on such ate night? Do you have anything in request? Do word it if you wish. I would not treat your request with informality, as long as it¡¯s within my capabilities," he smiled as he spoke, yet his inside was screaming in terror, for elderly¡¯s sake don¡¯t tell me this is the applicant for the Level 5 Trial!

    "Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I do have something to do," responded Ye Chong, "I would like to apply for the Level 5 Trial at the Sanctuary," he said calmly.

    "Le-Level 5 Trial?" Pretentiously the patrolman reacted with shock as he spoke on in flowery concern, "What had made our cksmith think of the Level 5 Trial so suddenly? Was it a little bit too early for now? So you wanted to leave the Orbits? Oh, Little Ye, Little Little Ye, did you bump into some troubles recently? If you did, you could have told me everything! I¡¯ll solve it for you! If anyone with blind eyes had offended you, tell your Uncle Yan and let your Uncle Yan to settle him for ya, all for justice, for our boy." The gravel had been mmed on the table of his Honor, undoubtedly the patrolman was very much not delightful of this request. Ye Chong was a hen thatid golden eggs! Nobody would be delightful to see their money-printing machine simply flying away!

    But then, regarding how Ye Chong had the desire to leave the Orbits, he did not express much worries. Psh, you want to pass the Level 5 Trial of the Sanctuary? What do you think this is? ying house? How long have you been with Ge that old goat? How much have you learned? And you wanted to pass Level 5? In your dreams, boy. Not even your master, that old goat could pass if he came and applied for it!

    In his opinion, Ye Chong¡¯s failure was inevitable, though it would be another story regarding if he would return to his area afterwards¡­ All he was concerned about was if Ye Chong wanted to leave his area, there would be no way for him to stop that from happening. Ye Chong had yet mentioned this but obviously this had be a bad beginning for him.

    "No, uncle. I just wanted to apply," Ye Chong did not change his mind.

    "Ye, boy, you got to think it through. Don¡¯t be hot-headed in this. You do have the bravery to try challenging the trial but you must know that you would be given punishment if you failed the trial ordingly. And chances are you would regret it for the rest of your life! So you have to be really, really sure you wanted to take on the trial. Why don¡¯t you head home and discuss it with your master first?" It would be pointless for him to beat around the bush at that moment, he decided to go straight to the point instead.

    "Oh, save the discussion. I¡¯m making an application now." Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained unchanged, probably was not because of how he was confident on passing the trial but how he simply did not have any other choice. The killing syndrome inside him had been inactive for quite sometimes. Maybe it was due to the effect after learning meditation or it was due to his mere luck. There could be a cure everywhere else but not here. Only if he would leave the Orbits as soon as possible, the syndrome could be eliminated. And the single thing that stood in his way out was this trial. So, by hook or by crook, he would take on the test.

    The patrolman was helpless in stopping Ye Chong, since beating around the bush and ordering him straight up did not work at all. He did not dare to try doing anything funny ever since, considering how the Sanctuary had been treating the applicants very solemnly. He could be skewed if he tried to fiddle with Ye Chong! Well, he could not understand the whole point of setting up an unnecessary trial for residents to exit in the very first ce. This was not only unnecessary, but also would cause the reduction in the number of talents within the Orbits. Those who could seed in the Level 5 Trial must be the greatest master in their fields. And the Sanctuary was letting these people to leave the ce? Would that not be a major loss to the Orbits itself? Ugh, I seriously don¡¯t get it, I wonder which elderly had hit on his head to make such a wed system.

    Of course, these rants were just rumbling inside the patrolman, no way he would have the courage to spit them out.

    Seeing how determined Ye Chong looked, the patrolman could only do as he requested. He begged to the Orbits that Ye Chong would fail the trial and stay here after¡­ "Hah!" heughed as he went tapping Ye Chong¡¯s shoulders, "You are a young man indeed, having the drive to ovee everything in sight! Uncle Yan certainly admires fine young man like you! Never mind, it¡¯s okay if you failed, you could try it again. As long as you are here, Uncle Yan would be positive of this!"

    Ye Chong reflexively dodged the his hands at first, but that would look really rude, so he pulled himself back roughly in the end and let the tapping happen. "Thank you Uncle Yan." His face was grim. "A moment please, my boy!" He headed to themunicator.

    "Yes, good evening, sire!" Yan Bingxuan reported to the higher-up through themunicator, mentioning there was an applicant currently at the lobby. "Okay, Ye. All set!" Shut themunicator, he turned to Ye Chong, "The authority would send a spaceship to pick you upter. I¡¯m not sure where exactly they would trial you, but the men on the spaceship should be telling you what to do."

    Ye Chong nodded his head in understanding. The Level 5 Trial did look like not a simple test indeed, as the location was not known to everyone, not even the insiders at the Sanctuary. Intriguing¡­ the reason behind this.

    Ye Chong picked a chair nearby and sat down. The wooden chair was unexpectedly not asfy as the cheapest chair in the 5 major gxies. And Ye Chong spent the next 3 hours on such chair, which was impressive to the patrolman as Ye Chong had barely changed his posture ever since. It was a rare sight to see an active young man like Ye Chong being able to be this undisturbed and patient. I do expect much from you, Ye. You would one day be something.

    Certainly Ye Chong was calm, he had been exchanging words with Shang inside his head. "You see, love is a kind of necessity in everyone¡¯s life and the only necessity in the history of humankind to be able to rece eating, drinking or even sleeping." Shang was performing a kind of "mentality modification" inside Ye Chong, or in hisnguage, "paradigm rebirth". Ye Chong would be naturally disinterested of it, but it did be an average entertainment while waiting for his ride.

    "Ye, tsk, tsk. You understood my words?" Shang grew excited as he saw how the mechanical boy finally showing interests to his affectionate insights of life, he started to get more borative over the time, he would includes stories, quotations and even a y during his lecture, which Ye Chong found out quite a number of weird stuffs inside¡­ Like in stories Shang had told, those capable men must have a woman at his back. Mhm, some of them even have more than one woman at the back. Well, that¡­ that¡¯d be weird. Why must a man have a woman at the back? I don''t have a woman at my back you see. But I¡¯m not dead and I¡¯m kicking alive! Oh, is it a kind of timed bomb in humanity? A hidden threat I couldn¡¯t see? Hmm¡­ Which field though, Shang, the biology? Or medical biology?

    Asked Ye Chong sincerely to Lecturer Shang.

    "Ts¡­" Shang lost the mood to tease, as he sounded depressed, "Ye¡­ How could man live without a woman?" His words were coated with oily tears, "How could a man still be a man without woman? Biology? Medical biology? Screw those stupid pigs! I had never ever heard of this crap in my life. How would this be rted with biology or medical biology? Ye, this is instinct, the nature of humanity! Nature! Instinct! Do you even understand what those words mean? What? You! You are a beast! You are a bloody beast! ¡­"

    Ye Chong did notpute the dramatized words from Shang ¡­ am I not a human? Other than the strange fact that I don¡¯t really get muscles, my anatomy looked exactly like a human¡­ but why would Shang say I¡¯m a beast? Gasp¡­ Mu did a better exnation at my inquiries, simple, straightforward and would never be misleading, unlike Shang. I sometimes wish he could speak English.

    At least the in-depth discussion worked like a charm. Those difficult wordings from Shang made Ye Chong felt time flew. He did not feel the boredom of anticipation, even if he was good at it. Waiting was never a pleasing experience to anyone.

    The spaceship had arrived to pick him up.

    It parked right at the outside of the Sanctuary. A pale green spaceship it was. It did not have a metallic texture, it looked more like a spaceship made out of nts. The design of the spaceship struck Ye Chong however, as it looked simr to Gliding Joy he had designed for full speed before, just that it was much bigger in size, not as narrow as Gliding Joy. The cement of the engine was also different, it was installed at the end of the spaceship, unlike Gliding Joy which had its engine at the front.

    It was a kind of miniature spaceship and it could take on 3 passengers at most. A meaty man hopped off the cabin and walked towards Ye Chong and Yan, "May I ask, which one of you is Mr. Ye Chong?" Ye Chong observed the man quietly as he made remarks regarding his physique. No doubt the body was of top quality and had undergone systematic training. His eyes were sharp, he should be a man inbats. Ye Chong was right. Inside this miniature spaceship there were two other men, one being the pilot and mechanic, the other beingbat squad member for security enforcement.

    "Me," answered Ye Chong briefly.

    The buffed man was slightly astonished by Ye Chong¡¯s appearance. He took a nce and the apparent age was surprising to him. But he reacted professionally, "Greetings, Mr. Ye Chong." He reached his hand out politely, "I am sent by the Sanctuary to escort you to the venue for the Level 5 Trial." He gestured next, "Please get on board now."

    "Okay." Ye Chong nodded and he stepped into the spaceship right away.

    The beefy man rolled into the cabin and got into his position. He made a nod to the pilot and the spaceship zoomed into the sky.

    The man had hardly spoken a word with Yan Bingxuan back on the ground.

    Ye Chong got to his seat and took a look around the interior of the spaceship. It was rather crammed for a spaceship. There was no window for one to check the outside. To preserve the space, there seemed to be nothing else than some basic facilities inside the spaceship. No adornment, no fancy speaker, no tray, no bar.

    Ye Chong estimated the maximum distance the spaceship could travel and calcted the sess rate of hi-jacking and escaping with the ship. "Negative," he concluded, the spaceship was solely for short distance travel and it could not perform a space warp apparently. And he could never leave the Orbits without using the space warp mechanism.

    Well, does that mean the venue of the trial is pretty close to the Orbits? The Sanctuary actually sent a miniature spaceship to pick me up? Wondered Ye Chong soundlessly, as ording to what he was aware of, there was no sound base nearby for a spaceship to stop by!

    Then where the heck are we heading to?

 Chapter 149 - Onto the Nast!

    <h4>Chapter 149: Onto the Nast!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The spaceship travelled steadily. "Shang¡­ Shang!" Called Ye Chong in his mind, "Check out the course we are traveling¡­ and detect the surrounding while you are at it!" exhorted Ye Chong.

    "What¡­" yawned Shang.

    "Don¡¯t worry. Already doing it. Don¡¯t have to remind me," spoke Shang slothfully.

    The two men from the Sanctuary had presented excellent discipline. They had not even uttered a word ever since Ye Chong got in. So Ye Chong decided to close his eyes and have his mind rested for the moment.

    They had already traveled for 30 minutes. The pilot was indeed outstanding at his skills. The spaceship traveled in consistent stability and the orbit did not fluctuate just because it was an easily-flipped miniature spaceship.

    "Yawn¡­" Shang¡¯s voice cameboriously, "Ye, there¡¯s a major spaceshiping ahead. Would you like to hear more about it?"

    Ye Chong could feel the obvious deceleration of the spaceship right at that moment. "Hmm." he pondered and replied, "Never mind. Just keep an eye on it. Shang, do you notice anything peculiar of that ship?"

    "Peculiar? What do you expect? A ship filled withssies? Wait, let me scan this ship and¡­ Hm?" Shang choked his word out of sudden.

    "What was it?" Ye Chong was shocked.

    "This spaceship is in-built with jammers. My signals were all dispersed and I could not perform any kind of detection. The armor of the spaceship was made out of strange metals too. Ye, have a nice trip and good luck. Heh!" Shang acted helpless as he stated. Even though there was no screen to view Shang¡¯s expression, Ye Chong did somehow have an urge to punch this metallic junk back to Trash. But of course it was just an urge, there was always a time and ce for that but not now, simply not now. Their difference in strength was still there, Ye Chong understood that this would be just another round of Shang unting his strength if he would ever raise his fist.

    "Ye, we are heading into the inside of the spaceship." He might be a joker, but he still informed Ye Chong everything he detected.

    Ye Chong felt the inertia not too longter. The spaceship jerked and stopped.

    "Mr. Ye, you may get off board now," invited the beefy man on the assistant pilot seat.

    He got off the ship and took a nce at where he was.

    As what Shang had stated before, this should be the interior of the spaceship. Hended on a dock apparently. Its full metallic texture emphasized its steadiness and security. There were numerous other tforms at the same axis of his. And every tform was connected with a metallic bridge about a size that could fit two persons. At the other end of the bridge therey a round pale green sealed gate.

    The moment Ye Chong got off the ship, he spotted ady standing by the bridge. And of course¡­ "Ye! Ye! Ye!" The signature Shang¡¯smentary began¡­ with his dramatic hurrah out of amazement, "Wowie, would you look at that Ye? It¡¯s a beauty! Quick, move your stupid eyes there! It¡¯s a beauty standing there and she wants you to check her out! I never knew there would be a beauty on a metallic cold ship like this! I¡¯m such a fortunate one! My life ispleted! Gosh! Oh seniorita¡­ Tsk, tsk, tsk, look at that, Ye, look at that! That well-sculptured face of hers, that expressive eyes of hers, that curvy-as-her-body nose of hers, that sparkling cherry lips of hers, that wavy glossy hair of hers. Mhm, mhm, mhm! This should be a gentle, loving sweetie! Ye, let me tell you, ass like this would be the best for marriage. Look at that extra THIC-"

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind:?> Ignore

    The very first moment Shang shrieked, he decided to shut down his senses. Sometimes he really wondered if Shang would state someone being a beauty as long as that someone was biologically a female. Ye Chong tried to check this girl out with his viewpoint.

    I¡¯ll pass. This is not a female inbats. That was the first conclusion he got after a nce.

    The arms were slender and tender as hell, like the twirling noodles he saw in the hot pot back then. He seriously doubted if those arms could take 10% of his usual strength. There were no callus¡­ no cuts¡­ While for the physique, it waspletely covered under that oversized one piece of hers, so Ye Chong could not tell. Her long hair reached her waist, waving as she moved. No fighter would have the hair this long. This would be dangerous inbats, it could even kill them! And her posture, what¡¯s with her posture? She was standing with her hands crossed in front of her body. Any sane fighter would keep their hands always at the sides, letting it down naturally so they could react to any sort of casualties in time. That oversized one piece was a failure, it did not benefit thebats. Most fighters would prefer tights instead.

    "Good day, Mr. Ye. Wee on board to Nast. I am Wei Xi, your attendant. I¡¯ll be taking care of your everything before the Level 5 Trial. May you have a good trip," bowed Wei Xi, she looked serene but Ye Chong could see the shock shing in her eyes the moment she saw him.

    "I see. Thank you," nodded Ye Chong as he replied monotonously.

    Shang should be having short-circuits in his system, "Oh¡­ *Zzzt* my *Zzzt* ¡­ That voice! That angelic voice!"

    "It¡¯s my pleasure to serve you sir. Please follow me," beamed Wei Xi at Ye Chong, she turned away and walked towards the sealed gate in pale green. Ye Chong followed her closely.

    A corridor was behind the gate. It was a long corridor lit all the way to the end by a row of white lights on the ceiling. It looked quite refreshing for some reason.

    Wei Xi gradually slowed her steps and let Ye Chong walk by her side.

    She turned her face to Ye Chong, "I simply did not expect Mr. Ye to be this young." Dimpled as she spoke on, "It was surprising to me."

    "Oh," tly Ye Chong¡¯s reply came, "really?" His expression was unchanged.

    "Well, yes. Other than the doctor we attendedst time for the trial, the rest of the applicants were of age above 30. From my observation, Mr. Ye, you should be not even 20 I suppose? Yet you have the courage to face the Level 5 Trial. Impressive!" Wei Xi nailed her awe perfectly.

    "Oh? Really?" Ye Chong still was nonchnt.

    "Oh? Oh?!" Shrieked Shang inside him, "Gosh, Ye, is this your way to reply assie?"

    "Mr. Ye, could you tell me what your upation is?" she asked out of curiosity.

    He staggered out of sudden. Which upation should I say¡­? Pilot? Modification technician? Mech mechanic? Chemist? Skeleton Artisan? I think I had quite a lot of titles in hand¡­

    Somehow Wei Xi sensed the hesitation and inconvenience from Ye Chong¡¯s reaction, "Well, if you are notfortable to mention it, it¡¯s okay, really!" She waved her hands, signing she was fine.

    "Skeleton Artisan." After a moment of consideration, he picked Skeleton Artisan.

    "Skeleton¡­ Artisan? Such a strange upation, Mr. Ye. I had never heard of it before. But it sounded amazing," Wei Xi expressed her adoration again.

    Wow, she could know I¡¯m great by my words? Ye Chong took an odd gaze at the female before him. Weird, very weird indeed!

    Sensed the gaze from Ye Chong, Wei Xi quickly lowered her head. Soon her face waspletely red, of scarlet that could drip sweats like her blood.

    He did not understand the whole situation¡­ but he did not have the interest to further investigate it. He withdrew his gaze and went back to looking at the front.

    "Such a cute, adorablessie! I like it!" And Ye Chong was wondering if Shang could break through the space-time continuum and jumped out from the alternate dimension without the keystone, judging by the amount of excitement in his words.

    They held their conversation and walked on together.

    They hit the end of the corridor and was faced by another sealed gate. Unlike the gate before, this gate required identity verification.

    "Oh?" Wei Xi seemed to have noticed something while both Ye Chong and she stood by the gate, waiting for it to open, "A moment please!" As she realized that it was her mistake, she ran to the door and performed verification.

    Beep. Identity Verified. Gate Opening.

    "Please," she lowered her body as she gestured Ye Chong to make his entry.

    After the gate there was a foyer inside. Under the hemispherical dome numerous sets of table-and-chair were ced. To Ye Chong¡¯s surprise, they were all made out of wood. A cab sat at one corner of the wall contained various beverages.

    Contrary to the emptiness Ye Chong expected, there were quite a number of people in there. Two to three of them sat together on one set of furniture. They were either drinking silently or exchanging conversation softly. The foyer was so quiet that Ye Chong could imagine Shang¡¯s scream shattering the sses.

    No doubt Ye Chong¡¯s arrival had attracted the attention of people around. And simultaneously all of them looked surprised in their eyes. This should be because of my age¡­ I think. He took a nce and as expected, the guests consisted of elderlies. No wonder he became the center of attention at the foyer. Ye Chong did notice there were a few bulky men in their thirties among the group of guests however. Judging by their physiques, they had to be thebat squad members.

    Under the guidance of Wei Xi, Ye Chong reached one seat at the corner and sat down.

    "Mr. Ye." Briefed Wei Xi softly, "You would be led to your room a momentter. The ship would take about 13 days to arrive at its destination. The guests around you are like you, they are the participants for the Level 5 Trial as well. Should you have any request, please inform me. If it was within my capabilities, I would fully assist you in fulfilling your kindest request. I must also inform you however, for your own safety and the best traveling experience, kindly treat the other candidates with courtesy and keep a distance from them, considering how some of them could be potentially shady characters. If you ever felt your life being threatened or your routine had been put under dispute, kindly contact me. Should you have any form of conflicts with the other candidates, please be informed that both you and your counterpart would be disqualified immediately and you might be severely punished under the terms of the Sanctuary."

    Demurely her lips grooved as she mentioned all precaution as well as rules and regtions in one go.

    Ye Chong responded with an approving nod, while analyzing the information he had gotten from Wei Xi. She said 13 days, that means the destination should be very distanced away¡­ Well she might be bluffing to confuse the passengers, to mislead them so that they could not figure out the exact location of the venue. Apparently the crew did not intend to let us know our location. Too bad the ship was installed with jammers and Shang could not bypass them somehow.

    "The f*ck did you say!"

    "So what? Loser!"

    Right at this moment, quarrels were heard nearby as two passengers were standing against each other.

    Their argument became louder and they sounded extremely angered by each other. Not too longter, they lifted their fists, initiating to fight.

    The other passengers evacuated themselves hurriedly as they did not want to be involved in this.

    Wow.

    Ye Chong was interested to watch an actualbat between the experts. He was astounded by the skills. Their techniques were of superior standards. Ye Chong could not imagine himself fighting against them. His skills were much inferiorpared to these real deals.

    So this is the standard of a Level 5 candidate? Ye Chong started to treat this trial seriously.

    "Oh dear¡­" knotted Wei Xi¡¯s brows as she pulled out themunicator at her side and mumbled a few words.

 Chapter 150 - Mentalist-Pilot! Perks Demonstrated!

    <h4>Chapter 150: Mentalist-Pilot! Perks Demonstrated!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Freeze!" A team of men barged into the room through the other sealed door at the side. "Nobody moves!" From the uniform Ye Chong could distinguish them as the officialbat squad members. Battle tights for all 10 men bumping in. Ten? Ye Chong was astounded. He was oddly sensitive to the number as that was a figure for standard squad of the Sanctuary.

    The two candidates engaged in their fight did not notice the 10 armed men at all. Both of them wielded simr strength and they were so hooked up with their brawl that it could cost a bloodshed at any mistake for the moment. They should be in their thirties or forties, the age of perks of their entire life. They were great fighters too. Their techniques were highly refined and gradually the fists got real. The mere quarrel over a disagreement had developed into a flesh-shredding assault.

    Wow¡­

    Ye Chong inhibited the overjoyed self inside him, as his widened eyes glued at the action before him. He simply would not want to miss any detail of this exchange of fists. His fighting skills remained as crude and very intuitive. Most of his victories solely depended on his overwhelming speed and strength. If he would be fighting the real deal like Instructor Hak and Feng Su, he would find his movements restricted and be under maniption of the others. He would love to learn from these sessors but¡­ Instructor Hak¡¯s techniques were unique to the ck Covers. They were very bizarre and Ye Chong could not learn by just glimpsing at the records without an official teacher to teach him; while Feng Su¡¯s techniques had epassed the application of the psychic power exclusive to the Mentalists. He did steal a few methodologies from Mr. Yin, however even the fundamental meditation was costing his life to put on. So in the end, in spite of the epic fights with them, he learned not much from the experience.

    The two men in front of him were different nevertheless. The stances of defense and offense were clearly structured, the actions were concise and reasonably sequenced, which caught Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. He kept imagining how he would pull off those moves himself.

    Wei Xi standing at the side with her hands folded sent a nce at Ye Chong¡¯s face.

    Oh yeah! "Shang! Shang!" Ye Chong remembered something as he hurriedly called Shang, "Quick, record everything you saw through me. We would analyze itter. Sigh, how could I forget this?" His tone was filled with reproach.

    "Yawn¡­" Shang¡¯s voice wasid-back, "Am I a no-brainer like you? I had already started rolling the tape centuries ago. Ye, how many times must I-"

    Okay, that¡¯s all I need to hear.

    Ye Chong had one less thing to worry about. He then shifted his attention back to the action at the foyer. The remaining lines from Shang were automatically disregarded.

    The squad members came in and formed a circle to separate the innocents and the two fighting men. They kept the men at the circle and stayed still.

    The men were still enjoying their fights apparently, as their actions became more brutal over the time. The scene seemed to have gotten grimmer than before. Ye Chong was so mesmerized by the sequence.

    At that while when Ye Chong was bewitched by the sounds of fists crashing, the squad members finally took action.

    Two of them at each side weaved towards the center of the hall.

    Like lightning they rushed towards each other. It happened like a whirlwind as they turned into two beams of gray silhouettes. They crossed over each other and returned to fill in the gap they had left out.

    It was so fast that most people would assume they were seeing things.

    The fists stopped, the kicks ceased. The two men were as if frozen at the center, their actions were paused, like a sudden glitch in a theater.

    It was dead silent at the foyer.

    Creepy¡­ It was creepy.

    The pausested for 2 seconds then they fell onto the ground. They passed out, though Ye Chong could not tell if they were still alive.

    The dramatic copsed rmed everyone in the hall, including Ye Chong.

    But unlike the others in the foyer, Ye Chong saw everything through his eyes.

    Right when both of the silhouettes ovepped each other, his eyes squeezed drastically as his pupils exerted a fine beam of nce of great focus! Wei Xi who had been watching the happening did not seem to notice Ye Chong¡¯s strange eyes.

    Horrifying. The two members must be the mentalists. A simultaneous sequence performed without promptmunication, of such rapport and such urate grasp of timing, no one else than the mentalists could have done it!

    The crossing point of the silhouettes was none other than the very center between the brawls of those men, since that was the point where the intensity was condensed, they had at least exchanged punches and kicks 10 times a second.

    The timing when both mentalists got to each other wlessly happened to be the split second when the two men withdrew their fists and legs! Within the distance barely a meter, the two mentalists crossed each other with their backs rubbing against. Ye Chong could clearly see the closest part they got together was no more than a centimeter.

    Technically at that crossing point, one mentalistunched his knees at the abdomen while the other made a m at the neck with his palm. The entire sequence of action happened in milliseconds!

    Ye Chong tried to calm himself, his expression changed back to normal and Wei Xi shifted her sight back onto Ye Chong.

    The two mentalists walked out of the circle with two unconscious men in their arms. The team eventually removed themselves from the foyer. Without a single bit of unnecessary noises, the foyer got back its dining pleasure. "Mhm, all done, it¡¯s alright now! Mr. Ye," stated Wei Xi as she smiled at Ye Chong, "This foyer is mainly for social activities or a ce for candidates to pass their times, but somehow people mistook fighting as a kind of social activity. Hehehe, Mr. Ye, would you like to stay here or would you like to move to your room at the moment?"

    "To my room," replied Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong¡¯s room was Room 508. It was not spacious but it contained a range of facilities. Ye Chong stepped into the room, "Ye, be careful. The room has eyes," reminded Shang.

    "Got it. Mhm." Ye Chong did not feel surprised of such extra implementation in the room. It would be more of a surprise to him if the room did not have security cameras in the first ce.

    "Well, this is it. Mr. Ye, this would be your room for the rest of your trip. There is a processor containing the manuals of all facilities in the room. An instruction manual for example, you could take a look after this. If you have any doubts in mind, you could always ask me. Themunicator in you room is directly connected to mine. We are d to serve you at any time!" bowed Wei Xi to Ye Chong again as she detailed the services.

    "Thank you," Ye Chong also returned a bow to her. Well, the beast knew some basic courtesy at least. Of course, Shang shared a major credit in this for being proactively instilling him the humanity.

    The room was dim. On top of a wooden antique table the very symbol of technological advancement, the processor sat, which the contrast was a little awkward to behold. The processor was connected to amunicator at the side.

    ¡­

    Behind the table, an elderly in pale green garb was seated. And he was watching the visual showing up on themunicator, where Wei Xi was being projected.

    "Tell me about this new applicant. You were at his service, you should know something about him I assume?" The elderly¡¯s voice was deep and a little hoarse, his eyes were murky with asional sparkles which would alert the people upon sighting. Anyone could have told that he was a mentalist from his clothing. His tone was calm yet a strong sense of authority of a higher-up could be felt.

    "Yes sir, my pleasure," bowed Wei Xi in the hologram as she started pondering and recalling the moments she shared with Ye Chong, it took her a bit to piece everything together, "The applicant is very young¡­ about 20 years old¡­ as fit as a fiddle, though he was a little thin. He was even-tempered, cold to people, less of a talker and he was tenacious¡­ From his reactions thus far, I could say he showed little interest towards lust and seduction. Mhm¡­ he might have some backgrounds unknown to us. He did not seem like an active, impulsive youngster that I have known of. Very different."

    "I see¡­ I see¡­ Looks like you have quite a remark for him." The elderly exerted bit of attention.

    "Yes, certainly. I feel something utterly different of this person. I also doubted something¡­" Wei Xi paused a little while, "He could be an ace inbats or he should have an equivalent quality of offenses. He could even have a very rich experience in fights or wars¡­"

    "I see!" The elderly was very interested, "I heard he¡¯s a Skeleton Artisan, then how did he be an ace inbats as you have mentioned? What did you spot that made up such spection from you?"

    "Well¡­" Wei Xi quickly replied, "Once he got off spaceship, the first thing he did was observing the area. It was a very careful observation too. The first nce he set upon me was as if I was his prey or something. Those nces were sharp, only after my introduction, the nce got gentler. I think he realized that I showed no hostility. Besides, the way he walked and the way he ced his hands, the behaviors, every single part of his gave me feelings of a fighter. I¡¯m not sure if it was out of his habits or mere coincidence, during the conflict happened in the resting area today, he portrayed immense enthusiasm towards the brawling. He was intensely attentive the entire time. Combining all of the clues mentioned, I suspected he could be an ace inbats."

    The absolute beauty was stately as her voice went strong, which was totally different from her demure sweetie self who spoke softly to Ye Chong before.

    "Mhm. You did a splendid job I must say," nodded the elderly approvingly, "I did not foresee that young man being this unique. Yes, yes, yes, please keep an eye on him. Report to me if anything happens."

    "Yes, sir," bowed Wei Xi.

    The hologram disintegrated into fickle glimmers in the air, scattered and fading away like fireworks. The statue of the elderly sat on the chair motionlessly. The only living thing on the statue was the eyes of his which blinked asionally.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong spent the following days literally rooted in his room. He hardly left his room for activities outside, which forced Wei Xi to pay him several visits daily. She was ever-ready at his service, with the enchanting smile and considerate nature of hers, which was a barrel of triggers to boil Shang¡¯s fuel as he kept breathing heavily like he was on drugs or something.

    In spite of her kindness, Ye Chong remained stoned in his room. Wei Xi found him entric as how a young man like him could stay in the room the whole day while showing zero interest towards the opposite gender. "This is too weird¡­" she muttered while standing before the monitor. These few days she had been watching Ye Chong over the monitor. She was aware of Ye Chong¡¯s routine. Ye Chong would spend everyday at the processor, viewing a variety of design ns she could notprehend. He seemed to be meditating on something. "No way," she mumbled as she recalled how she had tried showing these ns to other members on the ship and people had been telling her those were ns ofmonly seen mechs in the market. There was nothing particr with them. They were worthless.

    ns formonly seen mech? Nothing particr? Worthless? Then why is he spending everyday viewing them?

    Or he had found out that I was watching him the whole time? That¡¯s why he acted¡­ ?The deduction shed in her mind.

    So she spent the next few days visiting more frequently than before¡­ but nothing special had happened.

    But was Ye Chong really dazing at the worthless design ns days and nights the whole time?

 Chapter 151 - Nine Gates of Daylight

    <h4>Chapter 151: Nine Gates of Daylight</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong blinked.

    The two people fighting aggressively on the holographic screen, with very quick movements, were the two from that day! Ye Chong knitted his brows as he yed the video repeatedly, trying to uncover every single detail of the fight, analyzing their attacks and defenses.

    If it were up to Mu, he could do this faster and present a moreplete and logical assessment. However, Ye Chong understood that the results from his own effort would be more valuable than Mu¡¯s.

    Shang had hacked the room¡¯s surveince system, and what Wei Xi saw through the surveince video was only a short recording of Ye Chong¡¯s image by Shang. The mech had put some effort into this cover, for he must ensure that the video remainedrgely unchanged, except for some minor details. For example, Ye Chong¡¯s expression, the schematics on disy and so on, were changed asionally to make the effect more realistic.

    Every time Wei Xi visited Ye Chong¡¯s room, she did not discover what Ye Chong was really doing due to Ye Chong¡¯s astoundingly sharp hearing. Wei Xi was not abatant, and her footsteps could be heard from afar by Ye Chong. Every time Wei Xi came to Ye Chong¡¯s room, Ye Chong would have been prepared with the schematics on his desk, and a thoughtful expression on his face.

    For a full 13 days, Ye Chong did not step out of the room, and Wei Xi found that the schematics Ye Chong had been studying was changed three times.

    Ye Chong¡¯s battle skills were mainly of the basic superficial principles he learned at ck Cove, without anyplete logical basis. The duo¡¯s battle recording was dissected by Ye Chong into a thousand details, as Ye Chong tried to find some pattern in it. It was undeniable that both of them were very skilled, and Ye Chong believed that, in terms of skills, they were roughly on the same level as the average mech pilots from ck Cove.

    However, any patterns in their battle could not be identified easily. Ye Chong could only mimic their movements for now, since he found their battle moves more powerful, more difficult to predict, or would increase his overall strength!

    As for their easy defeat against two mentalist pilots, Ye Chong was quite surprised. To him, they were both on about the same level as ck Cove mech pilots in terms of battling skills, but they were still easily brought down. In terms ofbat, no matter between humans or mechs, ck Cove was definitely far better than the Sanctuary. For two ck Cove levelbatants to be defeated in a few moves by two mentalist pilots, the oue was odd for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong brought his confusion to Shang.

    Shang replied immediately, "That¡¯s quite normal, perfectly understandable given the circumstances. Ye, think about it, those two mentalists were ambushing, and the two idiots were still engaged in a fight. Tsk tsk, Ye, if the person before you is about the same level as you, and fighting you to the death, do you think you¡¯ll have time to watch out for other enemies?"

    Ye Chong shook his head.

    "There you have it. Those two fellows were obviously roughly equal in strength. As they were deep in battle, someone attacked from behind their backs, and that¡¯s absolutely normal! Besides, if you think about it, what¡¯s the unique ability of mentalist pilots? Hmm, sigh, this, I¡¯m actually not quite sure of this, but it should be some kind of irvoyance ability, tsk tsk, Ye, that¡¯s an ability that bestplements an ambush. You saw what happened that day, that golden opportunity taken, tsk tsk, splendid indeed!" Shang spoke enthusiastically, his emotions high, but he then sobered up and said, "If it¡¯s one on one though, hehe, it¡¯s hard to say who will win!"

    "That makes sense!" Ye Chong carefully thought through Shang¡¯s words and felt relieved.

    Shang noticed that Ye Chong seemed eager to chat with him, and swiftly began on the one topic he¡¯s most interested in, "Ye, what do you think of Xi Xi¡¯er?"

    "Xi Xi¡¯er? Who¡¯s that?" Ye Chong did not recall knowing anyone called Xi Xi¡¯er.

    "Sigh, you¡¯re such a dumb*ss, it¡¯s the nickname of our most beloved Wei Xi!" Shang sounded intoxicated, and Ye Chong felt like he was getting goosebumps.

    "Not good at all!" Topletely reject Shang¡¯s obsession, Ye Chong replied with firm determination.

    "Not good at all? Sigh, I¡¯ve forgotten that you¡¯re a wild animal! Asking that question to you is like asking for directions from the blind. Our dear Ye¡¯s favorite is that white-robed violent woman! Hehe, that passionate kiss, oh, wait, I should call it a lick, has let our little Ye experience true emotions for the first time, hehe, but that kick was too cruel ¡­" Shang wasughing more and moresciviously.

    Ye Chong knew that if he were to argue with Shang right then, it would only excite the bored Shang even more, so he opted rationally for ignorance.

    However, Ye Chong¡¯s mind could not help but think back of that snow white training garb, although the imposing and invible face was gradually bing out of focus. Only the white training garb remained clear as day in Ye Chong¡¯s mind.

    "Sigh, what am I thinking all of this for? It¡¯s all that d*mn Shang¡¯s fault, I still prefer Mu! Hmm, counting back, it¡¯s about time for Mu toe out, Mu must now still be analyzing that recording underneath!"

    Shang¡¯s words were thoroughly ignored by Ye Chong, as his thought began to wonder somehow, from the past to present, through battle after battle, meeting people after people. Images and figures from the past came to mind like a dream, and for a moment, he felt a little dazed.

    Finally, on the sixth day of the flight, throughout which Shang continued bbering on, Mu finally came out. Ye Chong could finally have some peaceful silence! Once Mu came out, he discussed the results of his analysis with Ye Chong. Ye Chong also presented his own analysis, and they both exchanged their opinions on the matter.

    In the next seven days of the journey, Ye Chong benefited very much! Mu¡¯s analysis results were the main reason for that. Mu¡¯s database had a good volume of information on kinematics andbat, which made his logical analysis unquestionable. Unlike Mu¡¯s typical statistical analysis, Ye Chong¡¯s analysis may be iplete or even inurate, but he still had some rather unique insights. If a master inbat were here, he would definitely approve of Ye Chong¡¯s intuition! However, Ye Chong did not understand that concept, as he could only vaguely sense that certain alternatives would be better than others. As for Mu, he was only focusing on the analysis results.

    However, these were only theories. Theoretical understanding and application were two different things. Without proper training, the body could not remember the movements, and withrge variation in the enemy¡¯s moves, it would not only reduce one¡¯s capabilities, but also present an opportunity for the enemy. It seemed that he had a new training course now! Fortunately, Ye Chong neverined of too many training courses.

    It was only a pity that the time and location did not allow him to begin with this training.

    Wei Xi looked at Ye Chong through the surveince device. The man never left the room, and even had her send him his meals. No matter how she looked at it, he was a thoroughly obsessed scientist, and should not pose a threat. Nheless, why did she feel that something was wrong? Wei Xi frowned, her delicate profile tinged with vexation.

    Nast finally docked, and this meant that the moment of truth was near! In truth, Ye Chong had thought of hijacking Nast in this period. With Guardian and Mu, Ye Chong believed that the probability of sess was high. However, even if he hijacked Nast, he still could not leave the Orbits. Without the Orbits¡¯ star map, he could not even know where he was and hence, could not do a warp jump. Leaving the Orbits would be impossible.

    On the thirteenth day, the starship finally reached its destination.

    Under Wei Xi¡¯s guidance, Ye Chong left the ship.

    Ye Chong took one step across the ledge of the cabin¡¯s door, and his eyes automatically swept across the view in front of him. Abruptly, as though struck by lightning, he stood frozen and his eyes glowed in stupefaction!

    Heavens! What was this ce?

    Before him was a dream-like metropolis!

    From afar, the city¡¯s silhouette seemed like a scale model right in front of Ye Chong, giving a feeling of surrealism. Skyscrapers rose in all kinds of shapes under the illumination of dazzling artificial lighting, reflecting off ring halos. One could not help but gasp in amazement at the sight. The buildings were massive, some shaped likerge honebs, others like towers; while they came in a variety of designs, the one thing they share inmon was their soaring heights. Blue Ocean Academy¡¯s 800-storey main building would fit in perfectly. Unlike the natural refreshing style that Ye Chong saw in other ces in the Orbits, the buildings here were all in modernistic and metallic fashion. The Five Gxies¡¯ most popr andmon high-tech vibe permeated every corner of this world.

    Ye Chong could not see the sky, since above him was an endless stretch of light blue metallic ceiling, reaching all the way to the horizon. The ceiling was equipped with numerous artificial lights. This ce did not look dim at all; the world was bright as day.

    Countless mechs flew swiftly across the sky, like a dense swarm of bees returning to their nests, casting many vague shadows on the ground.

    Ye Chong smelled an earthly scent. Could this be underground? Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts began to run wild, as he was shook like a storm was inside him. How much had the Sanctuary¡¯s technology really advanced?

    Behind him was the docked Nast starship. Nast was arge ship, a truly massive structure. Here, however, it looked tiny. Ye Chong found that many of the docked starships here were about the same size as Nast, although some of them were evenrger. Numerous engineering mechs were busying themselves around in an orderly fashion.

    He was now probably at the city¡¯s docking station. Ye Chong even had a sinister thought - if he destroyed a starship here, would it have a domino effect?

    "Wee to Nine Gates of Daylight!" Wei Xi¡¯s sweet and mellow voice was tinged with pride.

 Chapter 152 - Blue Sandstone

    <h4>Chapter 152: Blue Sandstone</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He knew from Wei Xi that the city did not have restrictions on activity time, so Ye Chong decided to make a grand tour of the almost miraculous underground city. After declining Wei Xi¡¯spany, Ye Chong headed for the streets alone. Usually, he would not be in the mood for a stroll in the city, but Nine Gates of Daylight had irrevocably made him curious. A massive underground metropolis like this, Ye Chong believed, would never have been possible in the Five Gxies. Ye Chong himself had never imagined for there be such a city in this world. On the other hand, no matter the time, familiarizing himself with the environment was enough to significantly raise his chance of survival. This was ording to Ye Chong¡¯s experience.

    Witnessing the miraculous existence of Nine Gates of Daylight, Ye Chong began to have doubts on whether he could pass the so-called five Trials, for the Sanctuary¡¯s strength was truly unpredictable!

    Every candidate had to wear a silver electronic wristband once they left their ship. Its matted internal surface made for afortable wear. Its smooth surface of gleaming silver was etched with patterns of intertwining vines, and between the leaves of these vines, Ye Chong found many holographic projection apertures. Wei Xi said that this was a travel pass for Nine Gates of Daylight. Without it, moving throughout the city would be difficult, and his personal safety would not be guaranteed. As for how it would "not be guaranteed", Wei Xi only smiled and moved on to another topic.

    Ye Chong found that wristband could not be taken off once it was put on. Wei Xi¡¯s exnation was that it prevented any idental loss of the item. Ye Chong, however, did not buy it at all. Wei Xi also warned Ye Chong to never attempt to remove the wristband, or it would be very dangerous. Simrly, she did not borate any further on how it could be "dangerous".

    Of course, Ye Chong was not foolish enough to believe that this was only a simple travel pass. Just as heid sight on the wristband, Mu¡¯s superior scanning system had already gone through the entire item. When Mu informed the scanning results to Ye Chong, Ye Chong could only force himself to maintain an eptably normal expression as he was given the wristband.

    It had a signal tracking feature, allowing the Sanctuary to know at all times the whereabouts of the wearer. There was also an unknown liquid inside, mixed with more than 300 extremely tiny alloy needles. Next to the liquid was an extremely potent high explosive material. Mu concluded that this material could explode and wipe out anything within a three meter radius. The probability of this was much higher than the material being a tasty beverage. Based on Mu¡¯s calctions, the explosion would cause the alloy needles submerged in the liquid to shoot outwards in all directions, being effective up to a thirty meter radius. The explosive decision was simrly controlled by the Sanctuary. It meant that, whoever wearing this item would ce their lives in the hands of the Sanctuary.

    Ye Chong received the seemingly elegant wristband as he listened to Mu analyzing all the various functions of the item, and grew anxious inside!

    However, seeing Wei Xi and an entire standardbat squad of mech pilots eyeing him with hostility, Ye Chong could only brace himself and put on the terrifying item on his left wrist. If he did not cooperate, he would probably be surrounded and attacked. Besides, there were many of the Sanctuary¡¯s pilots around here. Since he left the starship, Ye Chong noticed keenly that there were more than ten of the Sanctuary¡¯sbat squads flying in the air! If he were attacked here, there would not be much of him left in the end!

    Wei Xi was secretly pleased. No matter what troubles Ye Chong could bring, once he put on the travel wristband, he would never escape the Sanctuary¡¯s grasp. They would not have to fear for any of his tricks.

    After Ye Chong put on the silver wristband, the squad of mech pilots behind Wei Xi left silently.

    Ye Chong made the excuse of wanting to look around the ce, and quickly left Wei Xi. Wei Xi was not afraid of Ye Chong being up to something, and agreed smilingly.

    Ye Chong turned and immediately asked Mu urgently, "Mu, can you take care of this?" Ye Chong hated the feeling of having his fate being controlled by someone else.

    Mu was silent for a moment before saying, "Ye, this design of theirs is quite delicate, I¡¯ll need some time!"

    Ye Chong could not help but exhale in relief. He had an almost blind confidence towards Mu¡¯s abilities. If Mu did not say it was impossible, then Ye Chong believed that Mu would be able to do it. In truth, ever since their meeting on the trash, Mu had never let Ye Chong down. However, even the usually undaunted Mu had requested for more time. This showed how advanced Sanctuary¡¯s technology really was.

    Ye Chong calmly began his solo exploration of the metropolis known as Nine Gates of Daylight.

    It was only by entering Nine Gates of Daylight that one could truly appreciate its magnificence. Walking leisurely along the streets, Ye Chong found the city¡¯s prosperity surprising. He had thought that the ce was like a man-made base, but along the streets Ye Chong discovered that it wasplete with various facilities. This was undeniably a real city.

    Unlike the rushed pace of the pedestrians Ye Chong had seen in other cities, the people here seemed to be leisurely walking and looked carefree. Ye Chong also noticed something curious - most of the pedestrians he saw were middle aged, and there were basically no one as young as he was. Nheless, the people on the streets had all looked at him oddly, and Ye Chong did not understand why, though he did not really mind them.

    The skies were much livelier than on the ground. Numerous mechs cruised between the skyscrapers, dangerously close to each other, but the mech pilots all disyed extremely well piloting skills. Themon sight of newbie pilots flying their mechs uncertainly across the skies was absent in Nine Gates of Daylight. Ye Chong was suspected that they could be having some sort of mech pilotingpetition.

    In a small store on the roadside, through an organic sheet of ss, many mechs were put on disy. Ye Chong could not help but stop in his tracks. The holographic advertisement at the door wrote, ¡®Blue Sandstone Mech Store - Mechs Made To Order, with Modification, Assembling and Reparation Services¡¯.

    Ye Chong stared. What a huge boast. This was the first time Ye Chong had seen an advertisement offering custom made mechs, and even had modification, assembling and reparation services. If this little store could build custom made mechs, it would mean that the store had the facilities to build an entire mech by itself. That seemed preposterous. If it was one of those huge mech productionpanies disying this ad, Ye Chong might have believed it, but this was an inconspicuous looking little store. Ye Chong found it hard to believe that it had the facilities to build an entire mech.

    Even Ye Chong himself could not build an entire mech. With his most recent sess, Han Jia, even though he had made most of the parts by himself, the engine, scanning system and other important parts were not what he could manage. Besides, without Mu¡¯s help, building Han Jia would have been more difficult. However, who could possibly have a helper like Mu?

    Unintentionally, Ye Chong found himself entering the little store named Blue Sandstone.

    The shop looked inconspicuous on the outside, but it was very spacious inside, with many different mechs on disy. Ye Chong examined those mechs in detail, and found to his surprise that they were not in the usual natural stylemon in the Orbits, but were very simr to the advanced level mechs found in the Five Gxies. Ye Chong was very familiar with advanced level mechs of all models from the Five Gxies, and could notice the difference in style.

    Suddenly, a soft voice reached him. "Young man, these things are very different from your equipment, don¡¯t waste your time on them!" The tone was not very weing.

    Ye Chong turned to see a middle aged man in a working uniform standing behind him, his body covered in patches of grease, and his expression a little unfriendly. "What did I do to him?" Ye Chong thought to himself. The middle aged man¡¯s words meant nothing to him. What did he mean by "your equipment"?

    Not understanding his words, Ye Chong had no intention of probing further, but instead studied the modified version of the Eden-IV model before him. Whoever modified it had intended to improve the mech¡¯s automotives, and even put on some horizontal stabilizer fins and simplified the design on Eden¡¯s originally thickset limbs.

    Ye Chong could not help but shake his head.

    "This is just a small store, nothing much to see!" Seeing Ye Chong shake his head, the middle aged man made a hostile expression, obviously trying to kick him out.

    Ye Chong looked up in surprise. While he had few experiences in buying things, this was the first time he met such a storekeeper.

    "How much is this Eden?" Ye Chong pointed to the Eden-IV model before him. This Eden-IV model had good bnce, but its automotive power was regrettablycking. However, other parts of its design were all aimed for bnce. Besides, the mech model had an important advantage, and that was its stability. It had stable performance no matter what the environment. Besides Han Jia, Ye Chong only had Guardian, which cannot ever show itself. He felt the need to have another mech, in case if Han Jia was damaged, he would still have another mech to travel. Moreover, Ye Chong already had an idea on how to modify this Eden model.

    "You buying?" The middle aged man looked unconvinced.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong nodded.

    "You really buying?" The middle aged man¡¯s face was full of disbelief.

    "Yes!" Ye Chong did not even make the effort of nodding this time.

    "Alright, that model¡¯s 15 Nine Gate points." The middle aged man gave a look that asked him to pay up if he wanted to buy the mech.

    "Nine Gate points?" What is this Nine Gate point? Was it the local currency? Ye Chong suddenly remembered something important - he did not have any local currency.

    The middle aged man studied Ye Chong for a moment, and saw the silver wristband on Ye Chong¡¯s left wrist. He asked, "You a new candidate?"

 Chapter 153 - Interim Protocol

    <h4>Chapter 153: Interim Protocol</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Yes!" Ye Chong nodded.

    "Haha, you¡¯re a candidate! Ah, it¡¯s a total misunderstanding on my part!" The middle aged man fidgeted with his hands, feeling very awkward.

    "What did you misunderstand about?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Haha." The middle aged man grew more embarrassed. He was going to cover himself with augh, but seeing as Ye Chong continued staring unblinkingly at him, he exined awkwardly, "I ¡­ I thought you were from the Sanctuary!"

    "From the Sanctuary?" Ye Chong found that odd.

    "Yes. Almost all the ones as young as you around here are from the Sanctuary. In all these years, this is the first time I¡¯ve seen a candidate as young as you!" The middle aged man showed great curiosity towards Ye Chong.

    "Why are young people usually from the Sanctuary?" Ye Chong could not see the rtionship between being young and being from the Sanctuary.

    "All the detainees here are those who passed the Level Three Trial, but did not pass the Level Five Trial. Usually, candidates at this level are aged 35 and above, rarely are they in their twenties. The young people here are usually elites trained by the Sanctuary. That¡¯s why I misjudged you earlier!" The middle aged man saw Ye Chong¡¯s perplexity and exined patiently.

    "Do you not like the Sanctuary¡¯s people?" Ye Chong asked directly. While he did not tell the whole story, he could clearly feel the middle aged man¡¯s hostility.

    "Hmph, the Sanctuary¡¯s people? Who among the detainees here would like them?" The middle aged man¡¯s expression turned into anger.

    This was obviously not a good conversation topic. Ye Chong moved on tactfully, "Then how¡¯s you know that I¡¯m an applicant?"

    "Hah, that¡¯s really easy, it¡¯s just that I didn¡¯t notice earlier, hehe, or I would¡¯ve known. Your travel wristband, that¡¯s something only we detainees will have on. I¡¯ve never seen the identification pass for the Sanctuary¡¯s people, but I know that they don¡¯t wear this thing." The middle aged manughed, pleased with himself.

    "If you don¡¯t even know what a Nine Gates point is, then you must be a first time applicant. Hehe, this d*mned ce, to those who are not applicants of the Sanctuary¡¯s people, they wouldn¡¯t be able to get in!" The middle aged man continued on.

    "Oh!" Ye Chong realized now.

    After studying him for a few moments, the middle aged man said, "Young man, you look like a decent person, so don¡¯t walk around idly. You¡¯ll most likely end up in Ancient Terminus, so best if you go back and prepare for the Trials. If you manage to pass the Level Three Trial, you¡¯ll even get to stay here."

    "Ancient Terminus? Where¡¯s that?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Heavens! Your guide is too irresponsible, how could you not know that? Since when did the Sanctuary¡¯s people be so careless?" The middle aged man wore an expression of disbelief.

    "I just arrived today, right off the ship." Ye Chong exined.

    "No wonder, you¡¯re an eager fellow! Hehe, then let me tell you all about it. Of the five Trials, you must start from Level One, and if you can¡¯t even pass that, you¡¯ll be punished by the Sanctuary. Hmm, as for what that punishment is, I have no idea. If you have passed Level One, but didn¡¯t pass Level Three, you¡¯ll be sent off to Ancient Terminus. If you passed Level Three but not Level Five, you¡¯ll be detained in Nine Gates. Hehe, if you really passed Level Five, you¡¯ll be allowed to leave the Orbits, and they¡¯ll allocate a starship to send you off. Understand now, young man?" The middle aged man exined in detail to Ye Chong.

    "I see." Ye Chong began to understand the situation, and asked further, "So what is this Nine Gates point?"

    "Nine Gate points are points for your service in Nine Gates, and the local currency." The middle aged man said, "For example, that Eden-IV you¡¯re looking at is worth five Nine Gate points."

    "Hmm." Ye Chong nodded in understanding, the truth not far from what he had guessed.

    Just then, the travel wristband on Ye Chong¡¯s left wrist made a sharp buzzing sound. Noticing Ye Chong¡¯s confused expression, the middle aged man immediately spoke up to Ye Chong, "That¡¯s someone calling you! Sigh, how could youe out here without knowing even that? You¡¯re a real piece of work! See, that leaf is the connection button!" The middle aged man pointed towards an etched vine leaf beside the holographic projection aperture.

    Ye Chong quickly pressed the leaf as instructed by the middle aged man. Beep, a soft sound was heard. An image of Wei Xi immediately appeared above the holographic projection aperture, with Wei Xi¡¯s attractive profile shrunken and suspended in the air above the holographic projection aperture as her mellow voice came through, "Mr Ye, please return, there are some changes to the Trials. Please return immediately to the Sanctuary¡¯s trial center." Wei Xi was cordial, but allowed no disobedience.

    "Er, where¡¯s the Sanctuary¡¯s trial center?" Ye Chong asked.

    Wei Xi recalled then that Ye Chong did not know where the trial center was, and panicked as she fumbled around, bowing a little as she searched using the photon processor before her, her confidence earlier gone without a trace. The middle aged man saw Wei Xi¡¯s clumsiness from the side, and sympathized with the misfortune of the delicate youngdy to be assigned with such a candidate.

    After some long moments, Wei Xi finally lifted her head and recovered her smile as she spoke, "Mm, about that, Mr Ye, here is the exact location of the Sanctuary¡¯s trial center!" Wei Xi sent a holographic map marked with the trial center¡¯s location.

    "Okay!" Ye Chong nodded, and began to look through the holographic map.

    The middle aged man could not stand it any longer, and pulled Ye Chong to the door. As the man closed in on Ye Chong, Ye Chong¡¯s misgivings for having anyone near him almost made him react reflexively to avoid the man. However, he remembered that Wei Xi was watching, and did not wish to show his true abilities. Besides, the middle aged man was probably not an enemy. With that, Ye Chong suppressed his reflexive reaction and allowed the middle aged man to pull him.

    The man¡¯s reaction was also a surprise to Wei Xi, in her holographic presence.

    As the middle aged man reached the door with Ye Chong, he pointed towards the huge building opposite the street and said to Ye Chong, "I¡¯m truly speechless with the both of you. Look, that¡¯s the trial center! Do you really need a map for somewhere so near?"

    Wei Xi blushed deeply in the holographic image, but Ye Chong only acknowledged tly. The middle aged man had enough of Ye Chong, and waved him off, "Now get going!"

    Ye Chong replied, "Okay," and left immediately, not realizing that the holographic image with Wei Xi¡¯s awkward expression was still present, and swinging along with Ye Chong¡¯s left hand.

    To prevent another humiliating episode, Wei Xi decided to meet Ye Chong at the entrance of the building.

    Ye Chong¡¯s room, ording to Wei Xi, would be for his perusal during the trials.

    Wei Xi spoke with a serious expression, "Mr Ye, due to a special case this time, the masters who were supposed to manage the trials had other tasks to see to, and so we¡¯ve decided to fall back on the Fifth Interim Protocol."

    "Okay." Ye Chong was seemingly unaffected, with an almost expressionless face. Seeing that Ye Chong did not react with surprise at the news, Wei Xi approved of his mental fortitude, even though his lifelessness also made her furious at the same time.

    Wei Xi was an elite nonbatant of the Sanctuary, and quickly noticed her emotional instability. She quietly chastised herself and adopted a more serious expression.

    "The Fifth Interim Protocol permits a free lifestyle. For every applicant, the Sanctuary will allocate a proportionate initial capital based on his or her contribution to the Sanctuary in the past. The fund is in Nine Gates points, the local currency, and will reflect your contributions to the Sanctuary. The goal of this Trial is for every applicant to umte 1000 points in three months. This means that the final Nine Gates points in your personal ount must be 1000 points more than your initial capital.

    "Please note that any fraudulent trading in your effort to gain more Nine Gates points is prohibited. Your every transaction is monitored by the Sanctuary. If anyone is found to be engaged in fraudulent trading to gain more Nine Gates points, your candidacy will be revoked, and you will be severely punished!

    "Your final Trial result will depend on both the final number of Nine Gates points you earn and the value of the products you created in this duration.

    "There are many ways to earn Nine Gates points. One of the mostmon is to sell products you made to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary will award you with Nine Gates points based on the value of your products. Another way is to sell your products in the market in exchange for the corresponding value of Nine Gates points. These are the main ways for nonbatants to earn Nine Gates points.

    "However, as a reminder, the quality and creativity of the products you create will make a huge difference on its value! Hence, if possible, focus your efforts on increasing the quality of your products.

    "On the other hand, any special forme and creative ideas or products of yours can be proposed to the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary will award you with the appropriate number of Nine Gates points. For this option, the Sanctuary¡¯s awards are usually very high. If you have any new and unique theories, you can submit them to the Sanctuary. After review and eptance by our Masters, the amount of Nine Gates points you earn may be high enough to allow you to pass this Trial immediately.

    "The difficulty of this Trial is Level Three. If you can, with your own strength, earn 1000 Nine Gates points here in three months, meaning you are able to survive in Nine Gates city. The detainees in Nine Gates are all candidates who passed Level Three Trials. Low quality products have no ce in this city. If you wish to aplish your task, you will have to produce high quality products. This is why we grade this Trial as Level Three.

    "If you pass this Trial, you can move on the next one. If you do not pass, we¡¯ll study your performance in these three months and send you to Ancient Terminus or give a certain level of punishment.

    "Your room¡¯s photon processor is directly linked to the market. From there, you can choose your materials. If you can¡¯t find them there, you can inform the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary will do their best to fulfill your request, but the costs will be very high.

    "Alright. Since you had provided three interesting mechs to the Sanctuary before, the Sanctuary¡¯s award for your contribution trantes to an initial capital of ¡­

    Wei Xi looked down at her files, but when she saw the figure, her bright sparkling eyes immediately turned to a disbelieving stare.

    "400 points!" Wei Xi pronounced those few words with great difficulty.

    400 points!

    For such a huge amount of initial capital to be allocated for such a young man, it was nearly impossible! What sort of mysterious upation was skeleton carving? How was this expressionless guy special? What sort of mechs did he provide that could amount to a total of 400 points?

    Numerous questions came to Wei Xi''s mind!

 Chapter 154 - Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 154: Trouble</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    How much was 400 Nine Gates points? Ye Chong was ignorant, but Wei Xi understood clearly. The value of 400 Nine Gates points was the highest initial capital she had ever encountered! More importantly, this was a sign of recognition from the Sanctuary. Three mechs amounting to 400 Nine Gates points meant that each mech was equivalent to about more than a hundred Nine Gates points. Wei Xi did not keep up well with the Nine Gates market situation, but even she knew that some master level products could only reach this value.

    If it was an elderly person, Wei Xi would not be so surprised, but the Mr Ye before her was definitely below 20 years of age.

    "His upation must be very special!" thought Wei Xi.

    She remembered Ye Chong telling her about him being a skeleton carver. "Hmm, it must be because of that strange upation of his!" Wei Xi consoled herself. As a nonbatant, she also had her own expertise, but hers was in pharmacy.

    What a huge disparity! Even though she was recognized as an elite by her teachers, she understood that her pharmaceutical products would never fetch a price higher than 10 Nine Gates points.

    The reality staring in her face had delivered a heavy blow to her! She smiled wryly to herself. "So there are real geniuses out there!"

    Ye Chong was not aware of Wei Xi¡¯s inner turmoil. Wei Xi gathered herself and taught Ye Chong how to use his travel bracelet, how to check his Nine Gates points and so on. Fortunately, Ye Chong had good memory and picked up the necessary skills quickly, which was a relief for Wei Xi.

    After teaching the basics, Wei Xi then introduced some basic information about Nine Gates city before leaving Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong finally got a better sense of Nine Gates.

    In Nine Gates, there were only two types of residents - one were the people who passed the Level Three Trial but not the Level Five Trial, and the other was the Sanctuary¡¯s people. As the storekeeper of the Blue Sandstone had told him, most of the young people here were from the Sanctuary, and Ye Chong guessed that they were probably students or something simr.

    Ye Chong was now browsing through market products through his photon processor, since his materials would have toe from there. Unlike the old style found in other ces of the Orbits, Nine Gates had its own virtual, and the market trading system formed part of this virtual world. Ye Chong asked whether Mu could hack the system, but when Mu told him that the probability of being discovered was over 50 percent, Ye Chong immediately dismissed the idea. Of course, he was already surprised by the Sanctuary¡¯s solid abilities.

    He had thought that Nine Gates was only a city, and their products in the market should not be too varied, but the photon processor¡¯s market item lists and product introductions were extensive, and Ye Chong could not help but grew interested as he scrolled through the products.

    Ye Chong could not find any skeletons in the market for the moment, but he was not in a hurry. He clicked into a random list of items.

    These were mineral ores, many of which Ye Chong did not recognize. He knew next to nothing in ore mineralogy and metallurgy. Fortunately, he had advice from the huge database that was Mu.

    "Dual energy ore!" Mu¡¯s t voice suddenly turned up a notch and surprised Ye Chong. However, Ye Chong immediately realized that this was no average material.

    __________________________________________________________________

    Maltese browsed through the mineral ore section enthusiastically, to see if he could get his hands on anything interesting. As a Nine Gates Sanctuary¡¯s mech pilot student minoring in metallurgy, he had stumbled upon an improvement in an alloy material¡¯s form. The Sanctuary had granted him substantial award points. Hence, he was trying to find something interesting in the market.

    He scrolled through the items on the photon processorzily. While the ores offered were not bad, and some were even rare, they were still what the Sanctuary could provide for him, and not worth his points. He shook his head in a sigh. Why wasn¡¯t there anything that was worth his attention?

    These mineral ores were mostly dug up by some detainees of good quality. However, their education system was far inferior to the internal information of the Sanctuary. Nheless, their rich experience allowed them to ssify the ores with great uracy. There were many ores that they had not seen before, but experience and instinct would urge them to keep the ores and sell them at a higher price. Maltese was looking for ores like these. Of course, some of the vendors were only selling because they were in urgent need of the points.

    No matter the circumstances, it was rare to find ores like these. Maltese had only seeded in finding a treasure like this once, which turned out to be a fist-sized core mineral. His sess in improving the alloy form was mainly due to the core mineral. This was what encouraged Maltese in his "quest" for such hidden treasures. The process was one that tested his patience, but Maltese believed he did notck that particr quality.

    Suddenly, Maltese¡¯s eyes glowed brightly. An inconspicuous looking gray mineral ore came into his line of sight. Maltese¡¯s right hand trembled. Heavens! Was that not a dual energy ore? This was probably one of the top 100 rare minerals in the known universe! Maltese¡¯s brain nearly short circuited. Even with the Sanctuary¡¯s huge strength and influence, he had never seen a dual energy ore! After a deep breath, Maltese forced himself to calm down, but the effort wasrgely wasted.

    He reached out with his trembling right hand and made to purchase, but that dual energy ore suddenly vanished from the item list!

    Maltese froze, and his face abruptly twisted. He searched through the item list like a mad person, but the dual energy ore was gone without a trace!

    For a whole half hour, Maltese searched for the vanished dual energy ore. He had browsed through all the mineral ores, but still could not find it! Maltese finally sagged into his seat, his heart filled with great regret. Why did he not act faster? If he had acted just a little faster, just a little, that dual energy ore would be his!

    Just as Maltese was nearly going crazy from his depression, Ye Chong was counting his remaining points. That dual energy ore had cost him an unexpected 200 points! In the blink of an eye, his points had halved in amount.

    The miner of the dual energy ore had found that the ore emitted strong energy waves, but did not recognize it. After consulting various experts among the detainees, none of them knew about the ore. He realized that the ore was a rare mineral, but had to sell it since he was in desperate need of points. He priced it at a high 200 points, thinking that if he could not sell it, he would then keep it for his own research. If he could sell it, then he would also earn a good sum.

    200 points was equivalent to about 40 Eden mechs! Even though Ye Chong knew the ore was valuable, he was still pained by therge expense!

    Mu hastened Ye Chong to quickly scroll through the item list as he exined, "Dual energy ores can be mixed into alloys, resulting in an alloy with enhanced resistance against energy based weapons likeser beams! They¡¯re a must for building excellent mech shields. However, they are very rare, and is one of the most valuable minerals in the universe."

    Mu¡¯s exnation was a great relief to Ye Chong!

    "Stop, Ye!" Mu spoke again.

    Maltese may had minored in metallurgy, but he was an outstanding mech pilot, and had good control over his emotions, in which he quickly ended his emotional agitation. He consoled himself, gathered his emotions and restarted his long "quest" for hidden treasures. The item list was constantly refreshing, and new products could always surface at any moment.

    Monocrystalline aluminite? Maltese brightened up. Could this be Heaven¡¯s way ofpensating for his earlier missed opportunity with the dual energy ore? Monocrystalline aluminite may not be as precious as dual energy ore, but it was still a very rare mineral. However, Maltese had seen it before in the Sanctuary¡¯s mineral museum. It was a small, clear piece of crystal, much like jewellery.

    This particr piece of monocrystalline aluminite looked blemished on the outside, with only a small corner uncovered in transparent crystalline form. Maltese grew excited. Being proficient in mineralogy, he knew that the outside surface was only an associated mineral. Once the mineralyer on the surface was removed, the inside would be clear as crystal. Based on the mass, this piece was at least ten timesrger than the one on disy in the school mineral museum!

    This was an extremely rare piece ofrge monocrystalline aluminite!

    Maltese¡¯s eyes shone brightly, overjoyed, and could not help butugh out loud, "Surely no one will act before me ¡­"

    Before he could finish the sentence, the monocrystalline aluminite on the photon processor suddenly vanished! Maltese¡¯sughter was cut short abruptly. His eyes bulged out and the veins around his temples throbbed. His expression froze, and he finally gave up, falling backwards in outrage, blood spraying out of his mouth!

    Twice he was robbed, and twice he had lost such precious mineral ores. Even if Maltese had good mental endurance, he could no longer suppress the fiery rage in his heart. After vomiting that mouthful of blood, he fell down backwards like a rod.

    At the same time, the oblivious Ye Chong was taking in information from Mu. "Monocrystalline aluminite is also a precious mineral, and can enhance an alloy¡¯s resilience, improving its physical properties. The most special part about it is that it could enhance an alloy¡¯s performance under high temperatures, and so it¡¯s a good material for mech engines!"

    Ye Chong and Mu conversed as usual, oblivious to the person whom they had exasperated until he fainted! Even if Ye Chong knew, he would not feel guilty, but instead remind himself that he must always act fast! This person would be a living example for not following that rule!

    Under Mu¡¯s guidance, Ye Chong bought a few more mineral ores. While they were not as precious as the earlier one, they were still rare minerals!

    However, Ye Chong quickly realized a very serious problem. His and Mu¡¯svish spending had quickly exhausted all 400 points! Ye Chong even suspected that Mu had calcted his points and picked the minerals ordingly. He now had no points left, his ount as barren as it had been when he firstnded in Nine Gates!

    Even if he could find any skeletons, he could no longer afford to buy them now!

 Chapter 155 - First Pot of Gold?

    <h4>Chapter 155: First Pot of Gold?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the pharmaceutical section of listed items for sale, Ye Chong finally found skeletons in the list. The long list offered skeletons in great variety, and Ye Chong brightened up at that. He was relieved to find that it was possible to find skeletons after all. For a skeleton carver, nothing would be more scary than not having any skeleton materials! Besides, the skeletons for sale were abundant in numbers and types, and that was a surprise to Ye Chong!

    "Why are these skeletons in the pharmaceutical section?" Ye Chong could not understand. He could see no rtion between skeletons and pharmacy.

    "There is a branch in pharmacy that uses flora, fauna and mineral ores as ingredients to produce medicine or for treatment. Animal skeletons are a very important part of it. From the trade volume, this branch must be quite popr here! Of course, I will have to investigate further to understand the details, what I have just said was only a probable deduction!" Mu replied.

    "There¡¯s a branch like this?" Ye Chong was surprised.

    "Yes. It¡¯s inherited from the past, and grew systematic over time. However, it¡¯s still not a very well known branch, since these treatments are usually effective against strange conditions. My database has little information on this!" Mu said.

    Most of the skeletons were from mutant life forms. They came in all shapes and colors, but the points for each of them was very different from Ye Chong¡¯s expectations. For some skeletons that looked average for Ye Chong, were priced ridiculously high. Some skeletons with good properties were, however, priced very low, and even as Ye Chong read on he regretted not having a single point to spend on them!

    He realized then that this was the pharmaceutical section, and he should be about the only skeleton carver in the whole of Nine Gates. His valuation of the skeletons must be different from theirs. That was alright, since it could be advantageous for him. He could use fewer points to buy some excellent skeletons, thus reducing the cost.

    With some understanding of the market, Ye Chong began to consider the ways he could earn enough points to buy skeletons.

    How could he earn his first pot of gold? Ye Chong frowned in contemtion.

    "My database has many special forme for alloys, you can exchange them for Nine Gates points!" Mu suggested.

    "No!" This suggestion was immediately rejected by Ye Chong! Ye Chong understood that these forme were far more valuable than a full skeleton mech, and could potentially make the Sanctuary even stronger! Based on the current situation, the Sanctuary was now his enemy, and improving the strength of his enemy using his information for short term benefits was something Ye Chong would never allow.

    Even if he wanted to exchange them for points, Ye Chong would rather get them from the detainees, and not the Sanctuary.

    Ye Chong walked into Blue Sandstone for the second time. The middle aged man saw Ye Chong and was surprised, but quickly greeted him, "Young man, why are you not preparing for your trials? Still wandering around?" He was still mocking Ye Chong on the inside for being a candidate at such a young age.

    "Yes, the trial¡¯s changed!" Ye Chong looked straight towards the Eden-IV model, and spoke without turning, "That Eden has a problem!"

    "Problem?" Ye Chong¡¯s off tangent remark caught the middle aged storekeeper off guard, and found himself moving towards the Eden as he said, "What problem?" His expression was one of disbelief. While he was not entirely satisfied with that Eden, he was still skeptical of how this boy could point out a problem.

    "Eden-IV¡¯s special feature is its stability, while its weakness is itsck of speed. You want to improve its automotive capabilities, so you added the horizontal stabilizer while also simplifying its main body. But that greatly reduces the stability of this mech! Besides, most importantly is, the mech¡¯s defenses will be sharply reduced!" Ye Chong spoke without expression.

    "Eh!" Ye Chong spoke the truth, and the middle aged storekeeper was a little startled . "You make sense, I guess! But I can¡¯t do much about it, Eden can¡¯t use any other engine model, so I could only do what I did!"

    That was true. Eden¡¯s engine was ipatible with other models. This also resulted in Eden being mostly abandoned by mech modification enthusiasts, and rarely would anyone choose the mech for modifications. That was why Ye Chong first noticed the Eden model disyed here.

    "There is a solution, but it¡¯s quiteplicated!" Ye Chong said. He had studied this problem before at Aurora, and even asked for advice from the elders there, and finally came up with a solution. Ye Chong was quite intelligent in this aspect.

    "Haha, young man, don¡¯t go around boasting, it¡¯s not a good habit!" The middle aged storekeeper was unfazed. He did not imagine the serious looking young man before him to be careless with words, and this lowered his opinion of the young man. The middle aged storekeeper may only be the owner of a small store, but he was a candidate who passed a Level Three Trial. Once, he was famous throughout the Five Gxies, and his cautious attitude was already deeply ingrained in him. That was why he disliked the young man¡¯s boasting.

    "Oh, if you want to know, I¡¯ll sell it to you for 10 points!" Ye Chong finally revealed his true intention. In reality, Ye Chong believed that selling his solution for 10 points was an undersell. If he was not urgently in need for points, he would never have sold the solution. It was not that the solution was actually worth more, but anyone would appreciate more of the solution that they worked hard toe up with themselves, and Ye Chong was no exception.

    The middle aged storekeeper frowned and said, "If you have an improved solution, I¡¯ll give you more than 10 points, I¡¯ll offer you 20! Young man, you¡¯re still a boy, don¡¯t learn to exaggerate!"

    Ye Chong knew that his age was always keeping him from gaining another person¡¯s confidence. Ye Chong was already used to it, and knew just how to change their attitudes.

    "If you add a wedge shaped box inside the mech, use Farmier¡¯s dual return circuitry for the photon circuit, reduce the thickness of the mech¡¯s inner frame by half ¡­" Ye Chong began talking.

    As Ye Chong¡¯s clear voice continued on, the middle aged storekeeper¡¯s expression transformed from outright dismissal to one of focus. His eyes shone brighter and brighter, reflecting rays of fervor!

    When Ye Chong walked out of Blue Sandstone, the wristband already registered 20 points in his ount. The middle aged storekeeper had even send him off respectfully to the door.

    Ye Chong chose to sell this solution after much consideration. Eden series mechs may be advanced level mechs in the Five Gxies, but it was just an average mech in the Orbits, and notparable at all to the Sanctuary¡¯s various mechs. Even the market in the Orbits offered mechs more advanced than Eden. While his solution was elegant, it was only suited for a small range of problems. It was only applicable for Eden series mechs, and did not involve anything foundational. This was why Ye Chong chose to trade it for points.

    Back in his room, all the mineral ores that Ye Chong bought earlier were sent to his room. Each item was sealed in metal boxes of different sizes. It was impossible to know what was inside each of them. There was a number on each of the boxes, used to verify the items.

    He opened all the metallic boxes and took out the mineral ores. Everything was there, looking exactly as they were disyed as holographic images on the item trade list. Of course, these treasures were passed to Mu for processing, for Ye Chong had his own job to do.

    After a long time, Ye Chong finally chose a Leave Muncher¡¯s shin bone and a Red Toad¡¯s exo-shell, all adding to just two points.

    Of course, besides the skeletons, Ye Chong still needed to buy materials for the strengthening chemicals. They were unexpectedly more expensive than the skeletons, and Ye Chong used seven points on them.

    Soon, all the skeletons and strengthening chemical ingredients that Ye Chong bought were delivered to his room.

    Since Ye Chong did not have any processing machinery, he had to work manually. Fortunately, his foundation was solid, and the two parts that he was nning to make were quite simple.

    When he was done making the two parts, it was already the second day! One was a round mech padding in murky green, while another was a mech¡¯s inner ring in white, oveid with a vivid red natural pattern of lines, a beautiful thing. These two parts were simple to make, with a short processing time and a wide range of applications. Almost any mech could make use of them.

    Ye Chong looked at his products, satisfied, and added them to the item trade list!

    When Ye Chong opened up the item list in the mech parts section, the long list of items surprised Ye Chong greatly. The list was too long!

    Mech modification technicians and mech assemblers were always popr upations, and many in the Five Gxies worked in these two fields. Whether it was mech modification or assembling, they had to deal with mech parts. Besides, there was the routine mech maintenance and reparation. These were the reasons for therge demand in mech parts in Nine Gates and high trading activity in mech parts.

    Ye Chong grew doubtful. Could his two products manage a small ripple in this vast ocean of mech parts?

 Chapter 156 - Blast

    <h4>Chapter 156: st</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The quality of the parts in the mechs is mainly determined by the material as well as the craftsmanship. And as these aspects of parts-productione into light, the metallic materials holds an absolute advantagepared to other materials existed, which hence, the majority of the mech parts being made out of metals today.

    However, a subject had arisen among those maniacs over mech parts in the Nine Gates city recently¡­

    "Skeleton? You mean those parts were made out of skeletons? How was their performance? Have you seen the actual product?"

    "Tsk, as if I have the chance to witness with my own eyes. Dociley, you know, the parts always managed to vanish upon rolling out of the production before we even get there. People go crazy over them. I had also heard of how there were quite a number of people camping at the trading market as they eyed the registered list of selling items avable, awaiting for their precious to appear like a daily miracle. Hehe, though I have yet to see it by my own eyes, I do have a pal of mine who was able to seize one of them at great fortune. And¡­ he said, he took the trouble to test it out, you know what he got?"

    "What?"

    "Heh! Dociley, those parts¡­pared to the same parts by Master Wei¡­ the overall pointer, 9%. They were 9% higher!"

    "For real? Much higher than Master Wei¡¯s pieces? I¡¯m not buying this. You do know what kind of an elite Master Wei is. His workmanship has to be the best!"

    "Not buying this? Well, save your beliefs then, zip your purse along with your mouth. Hmph, when did I, Xu your Bro ever lied to his loyal allies?"

    "Yikes. True, true, true! Calm down, my bro¡­ but I must say this is really shocking to me! There was actually someone with a better workmanship than Master Wei. I mean, being skeptical and shocked at the same time is sort of expected, don¡¯t you think?"

    "Mhm, you have a point. You are shocked, you don¡¯t say. I was also shocked the moment I heard my friend mentioning it. It was like the first time I heard of peopleplimenting the mech parts produced by someone other than Master Wei himself, considering how he had been conquering the market for years¡­"

    "Right! Yikes, a man who could produce such part¡­ he has to be a potent one. Amazing!"

    "Mhm, I wonder who that potent one is, for he actually was able to pull off such a great innovation, making parts with bones¡­ I¡¯m not sure if I would not bow before him upon seeing him, as these parts were pure handcrafts too. Look at the level of expertise."

    "Pure¡­ handcrafts?! No way! There are still men who strived for purely handcrafted productions?"

    "Yeah¡­ I nearly fell from my chair hearing about it. There are still craftsmen willing to make a part of mech from scratch with only their hands. Sigh, see¡­ we are making mech parts, he is making mech parts too, but this is the difference striking the ground! Rumor said that Master Wei was utterly silenced the moment the skeleton parts came to his site."

    "Sigh¡­ when would we even be close to that? Behind an expert crafter there are always the other better crafters as well¡­ I can¡¯t deny that. And now the market is chaotic, as if a fire was set upon the world, especially when those pilots were crowding the trading market like bees in the honebs, all mesmerized and squeezing to see if their precious popped up on the interface."

    "Precious they are. The figure does matter, even by a difference of 1% in quality could have been the saving grace of your life in the nick of time, let alone that mouth-watering 9% stat. Those pilots who have always been ying with fire would need the better gambling rate than anybody else. The parts were not costly either. The price of his usual parts was around 50 points, when Master Wei¡¯s parts were easily beyond 100 points. But I had heard about something unusual being crafted yesterday."

    "Something unusual? The heck?"

    "I''m not too sure but I heard it goes a horrific amount of 500 points. Heh, and it disappeared from the selling list the moment it was registered. People were unable to identify what the item was through the crowd, the figure of the price was very clear though. Tsk, tsk, tsk, 500 filthy points! And the person just buys it like buying a cog from the flea market. The buyer has to be some level of maniac."

    "500 points? What are 500 points when you are at the edge of life? He bought a safety charm for himself. In no time the 500 points woulde back to him as long as he still has the life to earn them. Everyone must be turning green-eyed over his sessful purchase, I guess. An actual safety charm in the shop, I think people would buy it even if it goes by 1000 points without hesitation. So I heard of how the kiddos from the Sanctuary were starting to notice the existence of the parts too."

    "Oh? They started noticing it already? But that is expected. Hehehe, the Sanctuary might be a great institute, but an elite of the elites like this should be a rare kind among them. I seriously wanted to know who the greater master this is. He had been staying low, that it annoys me."

    "Could he be from thetest batch this year? I had never seen such piece before, until recently."

    "Probably! But there is yet any information about this master craftsman. Those old folks at the Sanctuary should know something, only they could have known him so far. You see, those fes crowding the auction there, aren¡¯t they too bewildered of the man¡¯s identity?"

    "Mhm, such craftsmanship, it shouldn¡¯t be an issue for him to pass the Level 5 Trial I guess?"

    "Haleyson knows! Hmph, whatever Level 5 Trial it is, how could we not know the fact that those neers from the outside do not recognize what a Level-5 was?"

    "Sigh¡­ true¡­"

    ¡­

    Ye Chong rxed before the processor in the room, his eyes fixed upon the hologram of items registered in the trading market. Ye Chong clicked a thumbnail on the side and the hologram of the item selected popped up along with descriptions on the interface.

    The fact that the parts were selling hot cakes was totally unexpected for Ye Chong. Parts of such unique and high performance were highly sought by the pilots in the mech market. Not only the standard 50-point parts were gone within twinkling of eyes, the first-ss parts which Ye Chong put on the list at a daylight robbery price of 500 points also were sold in one second after he submitted the trading barcodes to the server.

    Getting points were no longer an issue to our hero since then, as he already had more than 3000 points in his hands, which was way beyond the 1400-point requirement to pass the trial. So, our hero began spending his remaining time on window-shopping in leisure.

    Unfortunately, his luck seemed to have ended days back after the insane sales. He found nothing interesting at the ores section, neither did the skeletons at the bones section appealed him at the slightest. Instead, heid his hands upon a number of mechs, like this really strange-looking mech for example, which its appearance literally shouted a mutated insect at Ye Chong. It had a brown segmented body, so swift movements were possible. There was a miniature engine at each segment and 4 passive artificial tentacles were added as extensions.

    He had experimented its performance before and this mech was astounding when it traveled through the burrows or the gaps. It was so rapid, yet so peculiarly agile.

    Other than this odd mech, Ye Chong had also purchased an engineering mech. Well these mechs were not upying any of his space. As long as they would be an aid to any form of emergencies, it would be not a problem.

    Nine Gates City generally sold the items through two channels - first being the trading virtualworking system Ye Chong spent his days and nights surfing, which happened to be the most convenient andpleted way to do shopping; second being the stores by the street like the Blue Sandstone store for instance, where most of their stocks were also avable in theworking system, their main ie was from walk-in purchases however. They could be not aspleted as theworking system, but they were certainly outstanding in a way. They were distinctive and there were a lot of things which would be considered inappropriate to appear online, an information of some top-notch mechs for example.

    Since Ye Chong had long fulfilled the point requirement, fairly quickly after he was informed by the Sanctuary, that he had passed Level 3! What he had to do next was simply to wait, to anticipate the Level 4 Trialing after 2 months or so. He was not aware of the fact that how amazing it was for a mere boy like him to pass the first 3 levels effortlessly, judging by how he did not notice the horrified eyes of Wei Xi, as if she was looking at a monster.

    Ye Chong with ample time currently wanted to carry on his training courses, be it the chemist courses left by Lunatic Guan, the fitness training he had been doing the whole time or the meditation training. Speaking of meditation, he realized the fact that it was exclusive to the insiders of the Sanctuary, consequently he stopped his meditation entirely as he did not want to alert, rm or annoy anyone beyond his proximity. Meditation was quite tricky and the elderlies at the Sanctuary were terrifyingly resourceful at this. Who knows what could happen to his head if he were to begin meditating somewhere.

    The bright side was, it had been quite some time since thest wave of his syndrome attack and Ye Chong was relieved.

    After he had received the notification of his sess in Level 3, somehow he had been getting some eyes from the people around wherever he went. They seemed to be peeking whenever he was there, or was he overthinking?

    Ye Chong¡¯s action grew more cautious.

    On the other hand, Maltese was in such terrible lucktely, as he literally missed two lovely and godly ores right before his eyes, in one day! The agony was enough to make him cut his own throat a few times! Everything had gone wrong at Maltese ever since. Whatever he did ought to go wrong somehow. It felt like he could choke himself even when he was drinking.

    "Maltese!" Two young men in their battle suits came to him.

    Maltese lifted his head and replied spiritlessly, "Mhm."

    The unusual behavior of Maltese soon caught their attention, "What¡¯s wrong? Maltese, you look bad¡­" One of the young men with a long hair spoke, "I thought you had just receivedmendation from the Sanctuary? Are you having a headache over the possible ways to spend that amount of points you had gotten? Keke, we could give fine advices on that you know?"

    "Maltese, please, don¡¯t be so down." The other young man added, "If that old fiend saw this, you are so going to get ughtered." Old Fiend was a nickname for a teacher among them. The teacher was stern and went rigid as a ruler. His eyes were on everything, including the dress code among his trainees.

    "Sigh! I¡¯m just a person with bad luck!" Maltese¡¯s tone was spiteful.

    "Oh? But we didn¡¯t hear any misfortune from you these days, did we?" the long haired young man smiled.

    "O-Oh!" Maltese who realized how the words almost slipped through his lips quickly changed the topic, "Well, don¡¯t worry about me, no big deal, I can settle it as fast as I knock things out. My problem aside, where are you guys going?" He nearly made a joke of himself. Imagine if these men were informed of his incident during his treasure-hunting online, the number of people in the market would be so going to get quadrupled, quintupled, squared, cubed and soon astronomical. It would be receipt-hunting for him by then. All the receipts of fluttering out from the crowds.

    The trainees from the inside of Sanctuary were in a highlypetitive environment. It might seemed to be all peaceful and silent on the outside, but in actuality everyday there had to be darkness brewing among the trainees. All of them kept secrets of a kind from each other, be it a certain type of technique or thetest information of something, though the Sanctuary authority was very delighted seeing this since they did prefer seeing their trainees being capable of protecting themselves the better way.

    "So we heard that Monky managed to grab one skeleton parts from the market and we were going to check it out. Why don¡¯t youe along?" invited the long haired young man.

    "Skeleton parts?" It was the controversial issue in the market he had been hearing. His face was dumbfounded.

 Chapter 157 - Shangâ€™s Idea Sequel ~Brain Blast~

    <h4>Chapter 157: Shang¡¯s Idea Sequel ~Brain st~</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Well yeah¡­ Never expected that prick to be this lucky. Thedy luck always smiles at dorks I guess." The long haired young man seemed dissatisfied.

    "Alright, we shall go and have a look together," replied Maltese with little bit of interest. He had already heard about the skeleton parts from his teacher way back before, but as far as he remembered, the craftsman was known to be an elderly¡­ Did that old man amble his way here? The Nine Gates City? The parts notorious for their limitation in stocks, it was an unustomed sight to see them among the insiders of the Sanctuary, where most of them had only heard of the names at most, they had hardly seen the actual object before. And Maltese was one of them.

    "Hm?"

    Maltese viewed the tainted green te carefully with growing interests. "That day was a cloudy day, I, Monky got my steed to the market and snap! I took this fine te! And¡­" Monky at the side was proudly presenting his experience throughout the mundane purchase process of this skeleton parts at a beheading price.

    Hm, interesting! Maltese with a Metallurgy minor did have some insights regarding the potential of other kinds of materials. This skeleton te for example, it had a very strange texture and the crafting was well done. Maltese sneaked it over a scanner from his pocket¡­ What¡­ To his horror, the hardness was identified to be much higher than the usual enhanced alloys in the market, while its durability was thrice of titanium.

    This is made out of only bones? When did the bodies of these mutated lifeforms be this tough? Maltese¡¯s surprise erupted.

    As hepared the pros and cons between metallic parts and skeleton parts, he became more intrigued. Fiddling the tes, his curiosity, his attention had gone over skeleton parts and the elderly who crafted these.

    ¡­

    Hmph¡­

    Ye Chong noticed that wherever he went, there had to be two or three people tailing him from far away. They were dubious in his eyes but under the aid of Mu¡¯s intelligence, the conversation they had as well as their identity had been distinguished. Those were the guardsmen sent by the Sanctuary to protect Ye Chong, but they also shouldered the duty to watch him.

    Ye Chong who had nothing better to do decided to start loitering in Nine Gates City, trying to find that very pearl in the sea like the Blue Sandstone. There were strange people from all walks of life, weird things from all categories of mall. Like this reagent which rapidly promoted the melting process of metals, it intrigued Ye Chong greatly along with the other magical things. These things were not "magical" without a price however. They often came with a terrifying price tag. That number of digits on the tag of points required¡­ even for someone who would be considered as half a millionaire like Ye Chong with the points in hand could not keep up with these insane purchases.

    So Ye Chong had no other choice than to increase the production of skeleton parts daily to maintain his purchases for the moment. Mu at the same time also seemed to be rather astonished by the number of bizarre-looking people in Nine Gates City.

    After the continuous purchases Ye Chong made on these weird items with weird names he could not even mention because they were so weird, he finally stopped. With Mu¡¯s assistance he managed to eavesdrop the entire conversation exchanged among the men behind him, it was entertaining he must say. Their conversation not only epassed the secrets and rumors within the Sanctuary, but also the scorching spite towards Ye Chong¡¯s leisure yet tiresome wandering.

    Thanks to the leisure yet tiresome wandering however, Ye Chong was allowed toy his hands on a variety of peculiar items while learning the city better.

    For instance, the source of bones in the market. Yes that would be valuable information to Ye Chong the skeleton artisan.

    Apparently the bones in the market were supplied by the pilots in bulks, including those from the Sanctuary and those who got detained. The mutation process among the biological lifeforms had be significantly briefer over the time, as their physique strengthened and their survivability improved, making them harder to capture, harder to kill. The skeletons from these lifeforms were the main source of bones in the market. They were treated as the byproduct of the pilots¡¯ hunting however, since the main ie of points did note from selling these skeletons, rather it came from the wages rewarded by the Sanctuary forpleting the tasks of hunting the lifeforms.

    Unlike the mutated lifeforms, the oundish primary creatures discovered on some of the primevals had been taken to the spotlight, as their bones were thetest darling to the chemists. Since these bones alone had already defined a new possiblebination of chemical formtion. Skeletons of such kind were extremely costly in the market and simr to the skeleton parts. They often disappeared the moment they were registered online. These primevals were uncultivated and obviously dangerous as well. It was as if venturing into the abyssal unknown to the pilots who headed there cautiously for their missions. Still, if the pilots made it back home, pouches of sparkling points would be awaiting them. High amount of points would be credited to the ount, which was something for people to envy along with the valuable loots from the run. Thus, in spite of the hassle and the risk, the participation was active as ever. The Sanctuary also was greatly motivated, considering how the expedition program could bring them potentials of discovering new species, new resources¡­ or the best, new type of ores.

    "Ye." Mu had something in mind, a way that allowed Ye Chong to obtain more bones of premium quality, though the idea was from Shang apparently. It was just that Mu acted as the channel to reiterate his n word by word, "We shall minimize the cost to achieve maximum profit!" And that was when Ye Chong remembered the fact that Shang was also a true lunatic over economy¡­

    Despite that, Shang¡¯s idea piqued his interests.

    Dayspsed and right when everyone started getting used to camping before the trading market to hurriedly throw their points over the newly-from-the-oven skeleton parts by the mysterious crafter, a request popped up. And no doubt skeleton parts became the center of attention once again.

    The crafter stated, "I would no longer offer my works for sales, instead, if any pilot could provide me bones that are hardly seen in the market, the pilot could get a skeleton part from me for free."

    Concisely the message was written yet impulsive the message was to people in Nine Gates City. It had transformed into the hottest topic the moment it was submitted to the announcements.

    All the pilots who had obtained the parts from official purchases before were d in dark, as handling points was much easier than digging out a piece of skeleton that would be considered "rare" to a master craftsman; while those pilots who had yet acquired the parts were in anguish figuring out a way to get some juicy bones to trade.

    On the first day after the message was announced, Ye Chong had only received 3 pieces of bones, even though one of them happened to be at the very high-end on both appearance and quality wise. Soon after, Ye Chong sent a set of skeleton parts to the person via the trading system without hesitation.

    The effect of this demonstration was unexpectedly impactful to the public. Almost in less than an hour, the happening of this lucky man was already made known to everyone else in Nine Gates City. The fact that he was able to trade a piece of bone for a set of skeleton parts was driving everyone crazy.

    Yawn¡­

    The second morning, Ye Chong scratched his back as he entered the collection room. "Let¡¯s see what chicken bone I¡¯ll have to bear wi¡­ today¡­" Ye Chong stumbled upon the metal cases piling a hill before him. He was literally dumbfounded, his mouth was half open, his eyes zoned out instantly. The expression froze for the next 10 seconds!

    Gosh! Are these people mad? These are just parts, skeleton parts, do you need to be this desperate?

    It took the whole day for Ye Chong to pick the few best bones from the piles. That was not the problem¡­ "This is the problem." Ye Chong was wailing as he counted the number of top-end bones he selected¡­ there were literally 30 few of them, which meant he had to create the same number of sets of skeleton parts in return¡­

    I¡¯m killing myself, I¡¯m so killing myself? Ye Chong was having headache as he had only created about 60 few sets ever since he got there. And in one day half of them would be gone. What about the following days? Helplessly he sumbed to overclock himself, striving to produce more parts to fulfill the demands.

    On the third night, Ye Chong rubbed his swollen eyes as he hurried his way to the collection room. Out from his workshop, through the corridor, he reminisced the endless night he spent rushing the production of the parts. Those moments he missed closing his eyes while maximizing his efforts, even though he only managed to produce only about 30 pieces ofmon skeleton parts in the end. And these parts were unfinished¡­ since the production was quite time-consuming by nature.

    Okay, now I will head to the collection room and see¡­

    Where did my room go?

    Ye Chong was astounded¡­

    Where did the corridor go?

    The collection room, the outside of collection room, the following corridor of the collection room were flooded by metal cases containing bones. And judging by the rumblinging from the room inside, the delivery seemed to have yet ended¡­ The automatic delivery machine was still weaving in and out of the room afterying down one metal cases after another. There were also a huge case flying to his way, which Ye Chong wondered if the corridor could even fit half of it.

    This much of metal cases! This much of bones! How many pieces are there? No¡­ How many parts do I have to make? Why do I feel like I¡¯m the ve to the deal instead of the buyers¡­ Ye Chong had dried his tears and seriously hoped that Mu would give him the signature fainting treatment right away. "Dammit Shang! You and your genius idea!"

    The first thing to do of the topmost priority was to stop that cursing request announcement straightaway! The people at the market was wondering what could have happened to the mysterious crafter upon seeing the disappearance of the notice whichsted only for 3 days. Spections brewed among them.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not have time for those spections. "I have works to do!" He could imagine his to-do list bombarded by the number of skeleton parts he had to produce. Simply put, most probably he would have to spend the rest of his vacation before the Level 4 Trial on the production itself!

    The development was absolutely uncalled for. On the first day, the first batch of bones arrived generally because of curiosity by the people. They wanted to test the validity of the message, since it was the first time such an unfair trade request was made in the market. Most of the pilots kept a reserved attitude towards it.

    Till that moment when one man dered his sess of obtaining the lovely parts, everyone seemed to have been stimted as they began snapping up every remaining rare pieces of bones in the market, which caused the price to skyrocket over the night!

    That happened on the second day, while on the third day, the Sanctuary kicked in. Of course, the flood was caused by them. No doubt, the Sanctuary was the biggest yer in Nine Gates City. They held the most resources and also they had the highest demand of quality parts like the skeleton parts for their pilots. So they would hold onto every single opportunity in sight. Old Ge, the master to Ye Chong¡¯s skeleton artistry had always been depicting indifference towards the Sanctuary¡¯s request, thus the scarce amount in the group. It just felt like a piece of steak being fed to a group of sharks.

    The Sanctuary spent the past two days collecting rare bone pieces and had lobbed everything they got on the third day, since these bones would do them no good other than wasting the slots in their inventories after each run, "Might as well we get them traded for some useful parts!" The pilots were motivated especially when they were very much exposed to the use of skeleton parts in their machinates and they were highly aware of the excellent performance of the pieces. The Sanctuary even evacuated the entire floor where Ye Chong stayed just to fit the pieces. They also forbade every other personnel than Ye Chong himself from entering the floor. You could say they lost their heads over it.

    Well, nheless, one could imagine the burden Ye Chong had to shoulder.

    Maltese also sent a set of skeleton to Ye Chong¡¯s ce, which was a result of his blood and sweat, trying his very best to get from his instructor. He might be addressed as a pilot like the others, he was still a nonbat trainee in actuality, so he could never get loots like rare bones to exchange for these bewitching parts. But he was smart, he knew his instructor had skeleton of a very peculiar creature, so¡­ "Please sir! Please. This is my biggest plight! Please!" He got to the instructor ce and attempted every technique of negotiation, "How about this! If you give me this skeleton, I promise I¡¯ll be the best pilot ever!" Begging, promising, offering for trades¡­ "Where are you going sir! Please! Listen¡­ Come on stay for a second!" Stalking, chasing, pouncing¡­ the instructor almost got driven up the wall. He put up his white g to him when he handed him the set of skeleton with both hands.

    ¡­

    "C¡­C¡­" In the room which was dimly lit by the flickeringmp, the pair of bloodshot eyes trembled as it blinked, Ye Chong was draining every ounce of his vitality to finish the orders he got enved to¡­ "Curse you¡­ Shang¡­," he mumbled countless times, expressing his overwhelming spite towards Shang. He could feel his brain sting at any second¡­

    "Curse you!"

 Chapter 158 - Passerby

    <h4>Chapter 158: Passerby</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Mu, my hands! Look at my hands! You could see it swelling!" whined Ye Chong. His tone sounded like he was going to cry. Ye Chong worked for the next 35 days nonstop, just to cope with the engulfing amount of skeleton parts in demand. Since he did not have the appropriate apparatus to produce the parts, he was forced to craft them the most primitive way - by hands, which directly caused him to overwork his hands. Certainly this did not mean his hard work had gone to waste, after working days and nights continuously for 35 days, his skills had greatly improved. And right before his drowsy eyes, a vast number of high quality bones piled, it was like the discovery of treasure ind, a never-before-felt satisfaction. Ye Chong even made a few pieces of skeleton parts himself for recement, which Mu brought back to the alternate dimension along with the other funny stuffs he bought. This service was only possible with Mu Shang. If they were not there, it would not be possible to zip everything into alternate dimension. Only a high-end photon stimted intelligence like Mu Shang could execute such task effortlessly in the alternate dimension. The iron lizard scales were also kept safely by Shang the whole time too.

    "Yes, your hands are more likely to attract attention, appearance-wise,"mented Mu seriously.

    "All thanks to that damn Shang. Hmph, just wait for it! Shang, one day you are going toe out and then¡­" Ye Chong clenched his teeth while he worded his threatening remarks.

    "Ye, I am sorry but I have to inform you that you are currentlycking an effective methodology to produce the desired oue." Mu sounded as if it was for Ye Chong¡¯s own good.

    And Ye Chong shut it.

    ¡­

    In Nine Gates City, when the mysterious crafter ceased his request after three days, people started receiving sets of skeleton parts one by one. Those were the one who sent the bones in the first ce. So the hottest topic had shifted from why the mysterious crafter stopped the request altogether to what Santa Craft had given one of the well-behaved pilots today.

    Maltese¡¯s negotiation was not a wild goose chase after all, as he had also received one part too. It was a shoulder pad made out of bones of Crimsonpede. It was more exciting than ever to him. He loved it so much that he immediately switched to skeleton parts research to test it out.

    It was a happy ending. Ye Chong managed to finish all parts 3 days prior the Level 4 Trial. What a relief.

    Soon, people realized that no one else had received more skeleton parts since then. So they assumed the delivery process to everyone entitled for the parts had ended. Right on the second day after people acknowledged the end of bountiful festival, the price of the skeleton parts had its figure increased by a few digits behind. Nheless, no one was shaken by the tempting price enough to sell the parts in hand.

    Technically in this event, both Ye Chong and the Sanctuary gained the most benefits.

    Ye Chong had acquired a massive amount of rare bones, which consisted of species he had never seen before. The issue of insufficient material had been perfectly resolved. Undeniably, most of the bones were contributed by the Sanctuary.

    As mentioned before, the Sanctuary also gained great benefits from the event. About 80% of the parts were in their hands while they had just contributed a mere portion of bones in their storage.

    But who cares? This had nothing to do with Ye Chong. His major concern at the moment was the uing Level 4 Trial in 3 days. After all the remaining works had beenpleted, the next thing on the list for Ye Chong was to take a good rest for he had been barely getting one since the past few days to deliver these parts. He was utterly drained and urgently pleading for a break.

    Two dayster, Ye Chong had regained his vitality and returned to his active self once more.

    And that was when Level 4 Trial was right after.

    The guide was still Wei Xi, who expressed hint of respects towards Ye Chong upon seeing him. Being the guide, she was well-aware of the identity of the culprit to this fiasco of skeleton parts in the market. Her respect was not out of courtesy, rather it was out of recognition, likewise to every ce else in the gxy, the one who wielded most strength always got the respect from people, especially in Nine Gates City where people convinced others with fists mostly.

    Ye Chong followed Wei Xi and passed the lobby.

    A maskeddy in purple walked towards them. And Wei Xi held her steps and bowed to thedy promptly. The maskeddy nodded at her slightly in return, "Oh?" She stopped, uponing across Ye Chong, "Who is this man, may I ask?" Her voice was sweet and somehow seductive.

    "This is Mr. Ye who will be attending the Level 4 Trial currently," Wei Xi hastened her introduction.

    "Oh? How lovely. I never expected a young man like Mr. Ye to be able to pass the first three levels so wlessly. You are a genius indeed!" The maskeddy seemed astounded as her eyes went wide.

    "It¡¯s just normal," expressionlessly Ye Chong replied in his usual indifference.

    "Right? Mr. Ye is so great! He was actually the first candidate who passed all 3 levels in a row!" added Wei Xi.

    "Wow, such an ambitious man, yet so capable! Uh huh. Very well, I guess I should leave now, I wouldn¡¯t want to take up too much of the man¡¯s time. Good luck, all the best! I have something else to do, if you would excuse me¡­" The maskeddy motioned Wei Xi and walked away, "Good bye."

    "We are pleased to see you again, Ma¡¯am," said Wei Xi.

    The maskeddy had her doubt intensified as she walked¡­ something was tickling her mind for some reason¡­ she could not help but to turn back and have a careful look at that Mr. Ye¡¯s back, she wondered¡­ Who is this? Why does his back remind me of someone? I seemed to have seen this silhouette before somewhere¡­ But I can¡¯t remember who it was. That face of his was ordinary I must say¡­ I¡¯m sure I had never ever seen this man before.

    Hmm¡­ Oh wait! I remember! I have something more important to do! I don¡¯t have time for these!

    Realizing she was running out of time while being engaged in a mission, "Hah!" She baffled as she reminded herself the time should go to something else more constructive than this, "What¡¯s wrong with me?" and she discarded her confusing thoughts.

    Ye Chong however was not at ease as the maskeddy. His heart nearly ceased functioning the very moment his eyes crossed her.

    That¡­ Feng Su, yes, that is Feng Su! It has to be her!

    "Ye, caution ahead, it¡¯s Feng Su!" Almost simultaneously Mu¡¯s warning rang in his head, "And Shang had once performed a thorough scan over her curves." Added Mu, "So we knew."

    Ye Chong whose heartbeat was reverberating inside tried to calm his muscles and to act naturally. He would be skewed if Feng Su actually recognized him!

    Feng Su¡¯s outfit was too outstanding, it was like her signature costume. She was in her purple garb and put her mask on forever. That outfit and that distinct voice of hers had left deep impression in Ye Chong back then. He had fought her before at the woods near Mr. Yin¡¯s residence so he was already informed of her strength despite her deceitfully feeble physique. The wounds she caused lingered as a twitching fright in Ye Chong. Luckily he was in his ck Cove¡¯s masks back then, so she did not truly discern every part of his face. "Or else¡­" shuddered Ye Chong. He refused to imagine what the lobby could have be.

    Judging by Wei Xi¡¯s reaction towards Feng Su, it was justifiable that she held a high rank in the Sanctuary¡­ Spected Ye Chong as he reminisced the brief moment they spoke to each other. Thedy was somehow attentive over himself¡­ And that sufficed an rming moment inside Ye Chong.

    The footsteps echoing throughout the lobby had vanished, it seemed to be safe for now, "Who is that person just now, Wei Xi? The outfit was quite odd!" Pretended all uninterested, Ye Chong asked Wei Xi.

    Wei Xi snickered, "That¡¯s our ma¡¯am. Master Feng has always been like this. We are also very intrigued to know her face too! But I had heard that, no man ever knew how she looks other than the elder himself! Master Feng is such a great pilot, she is the ace of the Sanctuary! In spite of her achievement, she was humble and friendly, we adore her a lot!" Wei Xi¡¯s eyes lustered with fandom, which was nauseating to Ye Chong.

    I see¡­ That exined her power. Well, my defeat back then was justified. I wonder how she would perform when she pilots a mech¡­ Ace pilot huh? Should be really great. What kind of a mech though¡­ that¡¯s the question. Ye Chong was running a conference with himself.

    Maybe she could be using a skeleton mech. And advanced dark Raven or something, yeah something like that¡­

    And of all possibilities, he had never thought of the likelihood of him witnessing the actual mech himself once before¡­

    "Well!" Wei Xi¡¯s eyes blinked expressively, "Master Feng seemed to be really impressed of you!" She stared passionately.

    "Oh, really?" Ye Chong threw a random response.

    The next moment, Wei Xi carried on guiding Ye Chong to the venue. After a few turns and ups and downs, they had arrived before a room. Wei Xi gestured Ye Chong to ce the wristband on his left hand in front of the door to perform the verification. Beep! The door span open.

    Ye Chong walked into the room. Wei Xi did not follow however. She waited by the entrance. Her stare was frozen. The door shut itself right after Ye Chong made his entry.

    At the end of the room a panel of 7 to 8 elderlies sat. They looked very old and right at their opposite a row of men stood. They seemed nervous at the slightest and like Ye Chong, they should be the candidates sitting the Level 4 Trial too.

    Ye Chong¡¯s entry caught everyone¡¯s attention out of sudden.

    "What?" Exmations bounced back and fro. Even the calmest eyes failed to hide the shock inside. And a look at a participants could exin everything. Ye Chong soon came to his understanding that other than he himself, the rest of the candidates consisted of men in their middle-ages. They had spent their lives striving to be the best to pass the trial and this fe in his twenties popped in the crew. Obviously, Ye Chong would be eye-catching.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression was calmer than ever, fearlessly he walked to one end of the queue.

    "Ahem! Ahem!" The elderly in the middle could not stand the ridiculous exchange of stares between the candidates over Ye Chong anymore, as he coughed few times to retrieve their attention. Scruff.

    And they shifted their attention back to the panel, with their eyes focused at the elderly in the middle out of the blue. He was in green robe and looked solemn with the few strokes of beard in fair white. His eyes were lustrous.

    Green robe?! Ye Chong¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He knew that only the mentalists would put on a green robe. This elderly was actually a mentalist?! Ye Chong put up his guard. Even though the mentalists were not as powerful as their pilot counterparts, they still wielded masterly mentality. They were well-trained and well-built in their heads. They possessed countless unpredictable tricks to handle people. They were highly sensible and Ye Chong did practice meditation before. He was worried if he would be caught red-handed by this elderly¡­ if that was the case, it would be bad!

    The elderly scanned through the candidates. His eyes shone sharply like a sword, which the candidates shunned as they lowered their heads.

    The moment when the elderly''s sight hit Ye Chong, he could feel his body being seen in and out. Goosebumps were running over every inch of his skin.

    Like what other candidates did, he lowered his head instantaneously. He felt agitated, his stress building up! Mr. Yin¡¯s head had such information before, regarding the application of this powerful stare. It required high mentality from the user however. Well, clearly the elderly was the expert among the mentalists. Although he had lowered his head, Ye Chong could still feel the stare lingering around him for a few seconds longer than the others.

    "Hmm, very well. Firstly, congrattions on passing Level 3. But I must say, what awaits all of you would be a trial much harsher. Now, let me brief all of you some rules and regtions for Level 4 Trial." The elderly spoke sluggishly. His words felt like an indirect order, which caused everyone lifted their heads immediately.

 Chapter 159 - Puzzle

    <h4>Chapter 159: Puzzle</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "As all of you possess an entirely different title from each other, it would be quite challenging to put you into groups ording to a certain category. So we gave in to having masters from various expertise to assist us in the trial this time. The details of assessment would be determined by each master and please hand the list of raw materials needed toplete the assessment to your respective guide. Please be mindful however, that the rarity as well as the grade of the materials you used would also affect your final result. Heh! But you need not worry. You can stay as long as you wish in Nine Gates City even if you fail the trial. I believe everyone here has a great experience in Nine Gates City, different from the chaotic environment back in the Orbits. This is what we call a peaceful and harmonic heaven."

    And the corners of Ye Chong¡¯s eyes discerned quite a number of people spitting their tongues, expressing faint disdain.

    The elderly ignored the disrespectful gesture and continued, "Alright, we would do the grouping next. Go with the master in your field."

    The one responsible for Ye Chong¡¯s assessment was known as Master Xiao. He had a round face andrge pair of ears. The reddish pear-shaped nose was the center of attention. He squinted his eyes often, looked serene and approachable as he smiled.

    "Haha." He took a nce over Ye Chong, "So you are that skeleton artisan. Sort of unexpected. Good, very good. Achieving this height at such a young age, your future shall be boundless and bright."

    "Thank you," tly Ye Chong went. There was not the slightest bit of excitement in his expression.

    The squinted eyes of Master Xiao had a stream of awe, "And you are also humble and undisturbed, a rare kind too. Very, very, very good!" Master Xiao could not hold his consecutive "very" to convey his admiration.

    "I wonder what would my assessment be?" Ye Chong was unshaken by his words as he asked, the assessment was more of his concern.

    "Patience, young man, patience!" Chuckled the master, "It took me quite some time to figure out the issue too. But as I thought over the course, I finally had found a fine problem for you to solve."

    "I see," Ye Chong responded briefly while he waited for Master Xiao to dere the puzzle.

    "Yes, it is also my first time seeing the skeleton parts in my entire life. I did experiment on your works before, not bad¡­ mhm, truly not bad I must say, the parts were exceptional in all aspects. However, there remained a few shorings in the usage of bones by nature, which are also difficult to ovee. They are affected by the temperature for example. Under high temperature, their performance would go down drastically¡­ And so¡­" the master began his discussion.

    Ye Chong nodded a few times in agreement. Master Xiao was right of his words. The bones were naturally ipetent in this aspectparing to metals.

    "Inside a mech, other than the processor, what possesses the second greatest importance would be the engine itself¡­" Master Xiao spoke on with a smile, "Of course we can¡¯t produce aplete skeleton processor, but for an engine, it would be a bit different¡­ There should be some possibilities I believe. But I¡¯m not confident to say whether it would work, that¡¯s why you are here. Haha! Don¡¯t look at me like that, it¡¯s normal for a greenhorn like me to be unsure of something, since I do not know much about bones, unlike you. Mhm, and this would be your assessment - use bones to produce an engine for mech. No limit on the models, as long as it¡¯s an engine, it could st into space, you are good to go. Well certainly you could involve the use of other materials to form the parts, but you should remember something - the greater proportion the bones upy in the entire engine system, the greater chance you would pass!"

    Ye Chong shuddered. Making an engine with mostly bones? Did I miss something?

    "Hah!" Seeing how Ye Chong returned a bewildered look, Master Xiaoughed, "What you just heard was right. I am requesting you to make an engine with bones. Alright, there you go, you got your assessment. You have a duration of 3 months to sort this out and build the engine yourself. As Master Fan had mentioned, if you need any material, you could inform your guide. Mhm and this is my travel code. If you have any questions or you have finished your work, feel free to contact me through this code. Hahahaha! I am looking forward to that boney engine! Young man, may you have a sessful trial!"

    Ye Chong inserted the code into his travel wristband, "Alright, you are good to go! Hahaha! I got to go too! I have lots of stuffs to do you know!" said Master Xiao.

    After bidding farewell to Master Xiao, Ye Chong left the room and on his way out he came across the other candidates, who seemed really troubled. Apparently their assessments were downright challenging too.

    Heading back to his room, Ye Chong was figuring of a way to build a functional engine with mainly bones.

    Bones are from the skeleton of animals. They are prone to high heat, even for mutated lifeforms which are blessed with strength and toughness. When ites to heat resistance, especially intense heat resistance, they are no match to metals, which was fundamentally why Ye Chong never thought of including bones in producing an engine. From what he knew, he saw no chance in this innovation. This is the characteristic of the bones, a limit given by nature. The so-called skeleton engine he had used before was the patched engine of Yu Di, where he tried to piece everything back together with bones after Yu Di was badly damaged. Among all the skeleton parts he had produced so far, the only applicable piece in engine at a better chance was the te.

    But then¡­ now the puzzle had sat before him. And he did not seem to have many options there. There was no time to wonder if the puzzle was solvable from the beginning. Ye Chong should be wondering the hows and not the whys. He should be verifying and not deducing.

    "Mu, do you think it¡¯s possible?" asked Ye Chong to Mu. It took him quite a while to collect his thoughts, figuring out the possibilities. The oue was depressing however. Bones are not possible to be included in engines.

    "Of course it is!" said Mu and Ye Chong¡¯s face brightened. "It¡¯s only the matter of the greatness of odds."

    Duh!

    Ye Chong¡¯s hope sank under the sea, "Thank you Captain Obvious."

    "At a certain level it is, Ye. But this is the only answer to your inquiry. So, you¡¯re wee! Honesty is the best policy! I should be praised," said Mu righteously.

    Ye Chong sweated. Was this Mu? Or was it Shang? Wait it was Mu. Ye Chong somehow could smell a little Shang in the Mu.

    Oh well it seemed like it¡¯s up to me alone. Ye Chong pondered. Running away from difficulties was not his style. Moreover Master Xiao had said that he was allowed to include other kinds of materials. This should be it, a way to bnce things out.

    But then, is it really true that it is impossible to build engines with bones?

    Ye Chong spent the next few days figuring it out. Once he sat down it would be the whole day. He froze like a sculpture as he pondered.

    Day 1¡­

    Day 2¡­

    Day 3¡­

    Day 6¡­

    Day 9¡­

    Ye Chong rubbed his sore thighs, he stood up and stretched his back. It had been the tenth day since the assessment was given and Ye Chong still had not figured out a satisfactory solution of, although he hade up with a few ideas to bnce things out, like he might be using a metal core while recing the parts of the lesser impacts with bones. If there was no better way in the end, this would be it.

    Stretched his limbs, he walked to the table and lifted the stic cup to his lips.

    The rippling water reflected the puzzled man knotting his brows in his fatigue.

    Water.

    ¡­

    Suddenly, an inspiration flew over his head like a shooting star in the darkest night. Water, water, water, water¡­ liquid¡­ Ye Chong caught on something¡­ What kind of liquid? Yes! Yes! Reagents!

    Yes! I could use reagent to modify the attributes of bones! The strengthening liquid I had used before, didn¡¯t it sessfully change the entire attribute of the bones? If I could use a kind of reagent that could dramatically enhance the heat resistance of the bones, then that solved it!

    Ye Chong was very excited as he gargled the remaining water in the cup.

    A hint appeared after contemting in misery for the past 10 days, how could Ye Chong not be worked up?

    But his excitement extinguished quickly. He thought it through¡­ I might have gotten the concept but to build it would be the toughest part¡­ This was especially true when Ye Chong had nothing else in mind than this concept itself.

    He did learn from the best, however he was just an entry student under Lunatic Guan. Those form of strengthening liquid Lunatic Guan had taught were solely for strength and toughness enhancement. They did not have a positive impact on enhancing heat resistance of the material. For a newbie in alchemy like Ye Chong, it would be a myth for him to create a new kind of forme that strengthened the heat resistance level of bones.

    He recalled the sses he had with Lunatic Guan, the knowledge he had absorbed over the time¡­ yet none of them was applicable.

    Feeling powerless, he begged Mu for some inspiration, "Mu, do you have any good ideas?"

    "Hmm. Ye, your idea is great. But I must admit that I do not possess much information regarding the alchemy. I have an alternative however."

    "What alternative?" Ye Chong was edgy like a man who saw a silver lining in the sky after the darkest night. ording to his past experience, most of the alternatives suggested by Mu would turn out to be a working miracle.

    "Remember that Guan¡¯s automatic analysis mechanism? You could try that!" reminded Mu.

    "Oh!" Ye Chong¡¯s eyes shone, "How could I forget such a trump card? Hey, Mu didn¡¯t you keep that mechanism right into your databank already?"

    "Yes, you are correct. It is indeed in my databank. Nevertheless I have yet managed to discover the core behind the working of this particr mechanism. The core pattern to be precise, since Icked the information on alchemy in my databank, I could not perform an effective analysis. I could not also produce an urate judgement on its validity!" exined Mu.

    "Wow, the mechanism is that great?" Ye Chong was dumbfounded. A mechanism that even Mu could not pinpoint? That meant Lunatic Guan¡¯s exclusive analysis mechanism was of a high level of expertise. Mu had failed to analyse the Guardian this far. Ye Chong did not expect there would be another machine added to the list.

    Geez, talking about the number of geniuses in this world. Be it Gu Shaoze or that Lunatic Guan, they were not much older than himself, yet they managed to be the pioneer of their fields respectively, especially when they had built something brilliant and new upon their forebears. Sadly fate was cruel towards them. Gu Shaoze was dead and Lunatic Guan had vanished in search of her sister. Could the god be in envy of their brilliance?

    Sometimes I just feel¡­

    As times went, Ye Chong was fully indulged in his thinking.

    "Ye!" Noticed how Ye Chong had been building a castle in the air, he screamed.

    "Oh! Sorry¡­" Ye Chong who returned to the reality sneered at his own ignorance. For what was I thinking this much? I¡¯m just a folk of nowhere. It is great enough if I could survive. Currently Ye Chong only wanted to resolve the brewing illness inside him, so he could find a ce where no one would recognize him and live a tranquil life! Unfortunately, that goal was a little far-fetched at the moment.

    "Want to try?" asked Mu.

    Made up his mind, he exhaled in puff, "Alright!"

 Chapter 160 - List

    <h4>Chapter 160: List</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Skeleton Artisan, a specialized branch of craftsman well known by the people, who uses bones of a variety to build all sorts of parts for mechs.

    Yes mech parts¡­ That did not include engine parts!

    Building a skeleton engine was never something that came across in Ye Chong mind. This was simply because it required to alter the attributes of bones entirely, which could be said in simpler terms - it had gone beyond the artisan fields. To Ye Chong, a skeleton artisan would be one who maximize the strength of bones alone. And the current solution to his problem was already against his belief since it involved permanently altering the bones¡¯ characteristics. They were of two ends of the tangents, not even close in theories. He sumbed to the alteration however since he did not see the flow without modifying the bones.

    He ordered a bunch of bones from Wei Xi. He did have his own set of quality bones in possession, like mountains of them, but Ye Chong was not foolish enough to use them over a silly assessment. Those were his blood and sweat! In addition, Ye Chong also specially requested an advanced alchemy analyzing machine from Wei Xi. The machine was much more avant-garde than Lunatic Guan¡¯s mechanism and it also had a more intellectualized control.

    As there was a variety of bones in the field while also being very different in nature, Ye Chong was forced to test them out one by one.

    Ye Chong picked a few bone-types with excellent physical attributes and ced them into the analyzing machine. He would thenunch the mechanism through the processor.

    The very first step was intensely time-consuming, since there were simply too many types of bones in the field. The number remained vast even after the first round of selection, which caused Wei Xi¡¯s massive delivery to his room. It was fully upied with bones. There were some rare bones but Ye Chong did not care any longer. Who the heck cares about "using a rarer ingredient would affect your appraisal h h h"? It would already be a miracle if I could build a full skeleton engine!

    He finally finished the first stage after spending the whole month. Not only he had acquired the possible form for all kinds of bones, he also had obtained something else. But he got to admit that the credits went to Shang, who got out of the passive role and was able to speak after zipping his mouth for so long. He suggested Ye Chong to take this chance to collect the data of bones in various aspects. Ye Chong approved the idea¡­ well it made sense. We were going to analyze them anyway, we might as well do a full detailed analysis. These information coulde in handy some point in the future. Of course, the information collecting was naturally Shang¡¯s duty since the enormous databank of Mu Shang had too many spaces to fill.

    Ye Chong could not help but to mutter, this Shang actually could give constructive suggestion sometimes.

    Certainly, the mutter was clearly heard by the person mentioned and a barrel of counterarguments and rage were fired.

    So, not only Ye Chong got the possible form for the bones, he also got the full detailed information regarding the bones¡¯ attributes from all aspects through the analyzing machine.

    The power of Guan¡¯s automatic analyzing mechanism was once again demonstrated. Ye Chong had actually obtained about 300 sets of form. When Shang passed him the list along with the figure he almost fell from his chair!

    300 sets? There¡¯s more? Th-This is horrifying! Ye Chong only expected pessimistically about 30 sets as the oue but the machine managed to formte an digit extra to the the figure. The number was a little scary!

    Wei Xi was absolutely troubled at the moment, since she had to invest a portion of time daily to run errands for Ye Chong, while Ye Chong¡¯s room had already transformed into some kind of graveyard. Wei Xi might have undergone stern trainings to get her position but standing among skeletons of different shapes and colors was pressuring her. She could not inhibit her fear sometimes. Regrettably due to her duty, she could not leave on her will. By then she only begged the assessment to end quicker and she could return to the Sanctuary, carry on with her studies and be away from these nonsense.

    This young Mr. Ye was not an easy master to serve. That list he nonchntly passed to her before was a nightmare fuel, a fainting spell to her mind. The length of the list almost could knock her out on spot. She ran to the storage and mentioned the bones listed. The storage keeper stated that most of the bones listed were missing in the storage and imed that the Sanctuary had redirected batches of them on an emergency back then, which caused the list impossible to be fulfilled.

    Wei Xi¡¯s eyes went wide like saucers. Of course she was well-aware of what the whole emergency redirection was about, "We sent everything to that Mr. Ye to get the parts!" She got topromise¡­ and she gave in to pleading Master Fan, the host for the Level 4 Trial this time. "Hmm¡­" Pondered Master Fan. He then performed a direct order to the 7bat squads to head to the nearest base to transport the missing bones on the list as soon as possible, which gave the second shock to Wei Xi. "Did master just sent 7bat squads just to transport bones for a mere man?"

    This is too much! Wei Xi who witnessed Master Fan giving his orders via themunicator was in her aftershock.

    And then Ye Chong asked an analyzer from her. The third shock came like a blow to her head. She was also an alchemist, of course learning the basic theories of reagent production was the bread and butter for her title. Nothing was foreign, except for the fact that Ye Chong demanded an analyzing machine specialized for alchemist. Was he actually an alchemist too?

    Wei Xi was very bewildered. She grew skeptical and spent the remaining time watching Ye Chong. But during the entire month, all Ye Chong did was dumping the bones into the machine to generate data. What in the Nine Gates he¡¯s doing? Wei Xi, unaware of Ye Chong¡¯s assessment, was very confused by his action. The only thing she could do was to report all these to the elder and the elder ordered her to keep her eyes on him.

    Ye Chong and Shang had already noticed the strange behavior by Wei Xi. So the automatic mechanism was used only when Wei Xi was not by his side. The program was also set to be permanently destroyed at anytime. They could not let the Sanctuary have it, if they ever have it, then it would be terrible!

    300 sets of form¡­ with easily more than 10 raw materials and reagents required each¡­ There were some that required more than 100 materials with most of the names being alien to Ye Chong.

    And then Shang gave him a new item list, "Ye, this is thepiled list of everything you¡¯ll need to produce these form."

    It was a much shorter listpared to the list of bones but it was as dazzling, especially with the additional list of necessary apparatuses and sks.

    "There." Indifferently Ye Chong passed the list to Wei Xi and headed back to work, "Are these¡­" Wei Xi was petrified by the length the fourth time during her service, it took her half a minute to finish her line in agony, "Are these what you need? Mr. Ye."

    Ye Chong gave a few nods. "Poorssie¡­ Ye, you gave her a heart attack," sympathized Shang in his mind.

    Although getting this list done would be the worst task for a guide in the history of humanity, Wei Xi at least could confirm something - this young Mr. Ye was not only a skillful skeleton artisan, but also an expert in alchemy. She could not tell if Ye Chong''s expertise in crafting skeletons being masterly, but regarding alchemy, judging by the list, she was 200% sure that he had to be an excellent alchemist.

    Maybe, "excellent" was no longer befitting to his knowledge. The list had exposed too much of him¡­ the number of raw materials for reagents involved was nearly uncountable while some of them being really umon in the field. There were also a few apparatuses only handled by the experts.

    Wei Xi did not hand the list to Master Fan straight away, instead she passed it to the elder and shared her insights regarding the issue. The face of the elder grew grimmer as he checked the list out while listening to Wei Xi¡¯s observation. He turned on themunicator on the table and instructed something softly.

    A middle-aged man walked into the room very quicklyter. "Mr. Had!" Wei Xi was astonished as she boomed.

    This man named Had was Wei Xi¡¯s teacher in alchemy. He was handsome and always well mannered. He was the foundation to the fandom of girls going crazed in the Sanctuary.

    Heard the shriek, the man turned and smiled at her. He then turned back to the elder and bowed, "Yes, my elder, how may I assist you today?"

    "Had, I want you to look at this list." The elder¡¯s hoarse voice rang in the room. He tapped the processor on the table afterwards.

    Ye Chong¡¯s list was projected on the hologram floating before Had.

    Had knotted his brows upon seeing the first few apparatuses listed. He seemed intrigued at first, till he saw the following items he lost his interest and in exchange, worries shrouded his expression.

    "Did you see something? This is one list of request from a candidate of the Level 4 Trial this year. And we did not have any information of his background in alchemy. I think you should be able to discern something from the list. Most importantly, are you able to estimate his standards in the field? This is very essential for us. A skeleton artisan who knew alchemy like the back of his hands, how could we let go of a talent like this?" The elder¡¯s voice trailed off¡­

    Had pondered for a while and he stated, "Judging by the list alone, the candidate could wield quite a high level of skills in alchemy. For example, there¡¯s this Ever-brightening Powder in the list, it is an extremely familiar material that even most of our alchemists in the Sanctuary would be foreign of. Ever-brightening Powder needs to bebined with Falts reagent. That was a hiddenw that it would not be surprising for an experienced alchemist to never hear of it. I was also one of them till one day I spotted it on one note by a master alchemist by chance. And the note was right. I discovered Falts reagent very soon after. Other than this, the list also has included a certain number of materials from nts, ores and non-extracting reagents, which was undeniably heading backwards from the current trend in alchemy. Yes, I suspect, he could be a kind of chemist from the ancient faction."

    "Oh?" The elder¡¯s eyes lustered, intrigued, "Chemist from an ancient faction? Very interesting. Anything unique about them?"

    Wei Xi raised her ears, she would not want to miss any parts of this juicy and precious information of ancient lost myths.

    Had hesitated for a moment¡­ "Um¡­ the ancient faction held a total different ideology than the modern chemist. They worshipped the nature and they were exceptionally low-profiled. They were in the dark, not known to people. Only an official family member could be the sessor of such artistry. Since they had existed beyond the records, the depth of their research in the alchemy was much greater than the current chemists in the field. They had their own specialization and somehow they have a kind of rapport between the branches. Mhm, I¡¯m sorry I do not know anything else about this faction. I only knew this much after reading between the lines in the master alchemist¡¯s note."

    "If he is in fact an alchemist from the ancient faction, and we were able to bring him into our Sanctuary, how would you judge his value?" The elder stated briefly.

    "Ah!" eximed Had. "That would be invaluable! Absolutely invaluable! We knew nothing about the ancient faction techniques! And they possessed a totally different theoretical framework than modern alchemy! They also only passed their expertise to their children. There were too many mysteries in their n! If we could know all these! I believe the standards of our alchemists in the Sanctuary would be brought into an age of rapid development! And we could easily overtake those ck Covers and MPAs, we could even toss them at far end! This is absolutely, significantly bringing us benefits! My elder, you can¡¯t let this man go!" Had¡¯s face reddened out of agitation.

    Wei Xi was stupefied upon seeing a docile person like Mr. Had was going wild over a mere man.

    "Mhm, very well! He actually exposed his identity to us, that he could be an alchemist of the ancient faction! Then we should not have a reason to let him go. Those fools from our Sanctuary could barely make the simplest skeleton parts, even after analyzing the parts. Yes, yes, yes, if we kept him, this could be solved, since you know, skeleton parts are great parts." The aged eyes of the elder were glossing in eagerness.

    "Yes, sir," excused Wei Xi herself, back to the outside of the room. She could not stay calm. She never foresaw all these. That young Mr. Ye being so highly regarded by the elder and Mr. Had. Wei Xi¡¯s heart ran cold however¡­ upon recalling the fate of this genius in that dark room just now. And obviously he was not the one inmand of his own fate.

    Sigh, a mere pawn like her could barely do a thing. Plus, the elder made his decision for the Sanctuary¡¯s own good. Maybe his stay at the Sanctuary would be far more beneficial to him.

    Sheforted herself and tried mustering herst few bits of happy-go-lucky nature, even though that hint of grief kept haunting back.

    The order she received from the elder was to fully assist Mr. Ye while reporting her observation from time to time.

    She went to Master Fan and passed him the list.

    The face when Master Fan got the list from Wei Xi was certainly priceless. That popping eyes of his and that never-before-seen epic wriggling of his face was amusing to Wei Xi.

    Ye Chong soon received all the listed reagents and apparatuses.

    If it was not the supreme advancement of these apparatuses, running through about 300 form could kill Ye Chong simply at mixing stage alone. In spite of that, mixing all 300 form still took 3 days. That was not annoying. Wei Xi, was however. Ye Chong was puzzled as Wei Xi no longer spent a portion of her time with him. She literally stayed with him 24/7 ever since.

    The only saving grace though, was that Shang no longer expressed his ring passion of terror towards Wei Xi. So his ears were spared. His inner peace was bestowed.

    Wei Xi was watching every move of his and no doubt the cautious chemist had noticed everything. He sneered as he found her action rather ridiculous. Considering theplexity of the form, even one with amazing memory like Ye Chong could not digest and remember everything at once facing the table minutes to minutes. That aside, he was performing metal transmutation to the bones - a very new concept in the field. There were tons of gimmicks inside the technique, without any proper instruction, people would not have the slightest idea on what he was doing, not even for one with alchemy background like Wei Xi.

    So the possibility of learning by peeking was heading towards zero to infinity.

    As he predicted, Wei Xi gave up her meaningless action not too longter, as these form were utterly god-written. She tried her very best to memorize one simplest forme once and passed it to Mr. Had, hoping to hear some insights from her favorite teacher. "What is this?" Mr. Had seemed to be at the bewilder camp as well. He did not understand the working on the list.

    And there she was impressed again, by the fact that Mr. Ye, one with simr age as hers, was already running through formtion that her teacher did not understand.

    Sadly, eventually, such a brilliance, his fate shall¡­

 Chapter 161 - Mu Fei

    <h4>Chapter 161: Mu Fei</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s spacious room was now a glorious sight. It was filled with rows of neatly arranged bottles of chemical reagents in all colors, in which many types of skeletons were immersed in. Under the illumination of the room¡¯s lighting, his room looked like a world of crystals.

    In the room were also many high precision apparatus used specifically by alchemists. This made Ye Chong¡¯s room looked more like aboratory.

    Ye Chong carefully observed the skeletons in the various chemical reagents. Today was the day he would test the skeletons for their properties. As for how many of them could be valuable, Ye Chong had no idea, and could only leave that to fate.

    He removed the skeletons from the reagent bottles one by one. Most of the skeletons had already undergone drastic transformations, looking vastly different from when they were first immersed in the chemicals. It must be due to the immersion process.

    How many of them were useful? Ye Chong had to experiment on each of them to find out.

    _______________________________________________________________________

    Master Fan sat vexedly before his desk. He had just received orders from the Elder to stop the young skeleton carver from passing the Level Five Trial. This has happened every year, and Master Fan was not entirely surprised. There were many ways to stop the young skeleton carver to pass the Level Five Trial, the easiest way being to modify the trial. If the trial was made very difficult, then it would almost impossible for the candidate to pass.

    These modifications were among the easiest to make before the Level Five Trial. Since the trials before Level Five were judged by only one Master, he would only need to assign apliant Master to judge Ye Chong¡¯s test to ensure his failure. Level Five Trials were, however, judged by a panel of seven Masters. With him among them, and another Master under his control, he could only control two of the seven, and thus, would be unable to control the final result.

    The Elder¡¯s instructions were for Ye Chong to fail his trial after Level Four. This was extremely troublesome for Master Fan. Master Xiao, who was in charge of Ye Chong, had always been at odds with him, and was a man with a temper. Men like him were all their own masters, basically unmoved by other people¡¯s opinions. When it came to their profession, they were all serious about it, and would not ept such interference.

    Master Fan knew that, if not for the Sanctuary¡¯s control over the Level Five Trials, he would not have be a Master. With his true abilities, he was not on par with the standard requirements, and was one of the least capable of all the Masters. This had always put him in a difficult position - the other Masters were often condescending towards him and isted him.

    He did not even have influence over the other Masters. Those who reached this position by their own strength were often dedicated to their jobs, and found these unfair and maniptive methods repulsive. On the contrary, they mixed well among themselves, and Master Fan often felt that he was boycotted by them. Then came a day when he found ckmail material for one of the Masters, and after some persuasion and threatening, he had him under his control. However, the others quickly noticed that something was wrong. Very soon, both he and the other Master were isted. On the other hand, these Masters were all honored guests of the Sanctuary. Not only could he not disy any hostility towards them, he must also protect them against danger. This was a depressing situation for Master Fan.

    All of a sudden, he found himself out of ideas, and could only hope that Ye Chong was incapable of passing the final two Trials. If not, his mission this time would only end in failure.

    It was for the Heavens to decide!

    Up till now, the Sanctuary could notpletely control the five Trials. This was one of the reasons the Masters agreed to manage the Trials in the first ce. The Sanctuary¡¯s Trials were first proposed by a Master who agreed to work for the Sanctuary. This suggestion waster supported by the other Masters, as they believed that the Orbits should offer a way for outsiders to leave this ce. On the one hand, the Sanctuary was under pressure from the Masters, and on the other, they believed it was a good way to discover new talent. In the end, the Sanctuary agreed.

    The Masters¡¯ professional attitude caused the Trials to be as difficult as they were.

    "Huu ¡­" Ye Chong let out a breath in relief. There were three skeletons with satisfying results after immersion. What excited him the most was the skeleton from an animal called Dopodo. The Dodopo''s skeleton had the best results among the three immersed skeletons. Besides, Dopodo skeletons were quitemon, unlike the other two rare skeletons. This meant that it could have wide applications!

    "Shang, have you recorded the results for the Dopodo skeleton?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Of course, how can I make those kind of mistakes that only you would?" Shang mocked.

    Acknowledging Shang¡¯s words, Ye Chong put pressure into his hands and pressed on the Dopodo skeleton. The bones turned to dust in the blink of an eye, and fell to the ground from between Ye Chong¡¯s fingers. Ye Chong heard footsteps approaching him. He was very familiar with them by now, since Wei Xi came to visit every day, and Ye Chong could identify them easily by now.

    Ye Chong shook his hands a little, and the skeleton dust came off his hands, spreading into the air like a mist. His hands were now clean.

    Wei Xi pushed through the door right then. Ye Chong turned back to face her casually, but was startled!

    Why was there another person with her?

    Ye Chong immediately went into high alert. He had clearly heard only Wei Xi¡¯s footsteps earlier, but now there were two people entering his room. The other person¡¯s footsteps had obviously escaped him! On the trash, Ye Chong had developed good hearing. After some meditation training, he found his hearing improved even further, even though he did not gain anything in terms of mental abilities.

    This was the first time he met someone who could approach him so closely without him hearing his footsteps!

    Looking at the man with long hair standing beside Wei Xi, Ye Chong looked calm on the surface, but inside his emotions rolled like a tsunami!

    What a terrifying man!

    The other party¡¯s physique was well bnced, without any particrly bulging muscles, but Ye Chong did not underestimate him just because of this. From what he knew, among the mentalists in the Sanctuary, only the unpopr students would have obvious bulging muscles. The stronger one was, the more inconspicuous they seem from the outside. This man¡¯s eyes were calm and steady, and Ye Chong was sure that the man before him was already at a very high level in terms of his mental attainments, unlike what he could achieve with some simple meditations. Ye Chong could only just sense his breathing. If not for his eyes looking at the man before him, Ye Chong definitely could not have otherwise sense the man¡¯s presence!

    Could the Sanctuary produce men of such caliber on a normal basis? The thought was terrifying!

    "Ye, be careful, this guy¡¯s good!" Shang seemed to noticed as well that the man was unusual.

    Wei Xi smiled to Ye Chong and said, "Mr Ye, how are your experiments going? Do you have anything new? Oh, right, almost forgot to introduce you two!" Wei Xi stuck her tongue out in a cute way, and continued, "This is Sir Mu Fei, he will rece me as your guide. Sigh, I really hoped to learn more from you, but I have other tasks to attend to, so Sir Mu Fei will act as your guide, I hope you and him will get along together!"

    Ye Chong started to think. With the man as guide, would that not mean that he would be nearby every day? Sir? It seemed that he had a high status! Ye Chong¡¯s expression did not change as he acknowledged, "Okay," and nodded at Mu Fei.

    "d to be of service. I heard you have quite astonishing achievements in skeletons, please take care of me!" Mu Fei¡¯s delicate profilecked the usual masculine roughness, and he smiled enigmatically as Wei Xi watched from aside, charmed.

    "It¡¯s nothing." Ye Chong waved in polite dismissal.

    Wei Xi noticed the two skeletons in Ye Chong¡¯s hands and asked curiously, "Mr Ye, are those skeletons from your sessful experiment results?"

    "Yes, only two of them barely make the cut!" Ye Chong affected a regretful expression.

    Wei Xi quickly consoled him. "It¡¯s alright, even so, they are still Mr Ye¡¯s astonishing breakthroughs!"

    Fei Mu suddenly approached from the side. "These must be the skeletons from the Rohin primate and the Blitzwing!"

    Could he also be well versed with skeletons? Ye Chong was again startled, but he managed to take a casual nce at Mu Fei and asked in a calm but slightly surprised voice, "Is Mr Mu also experienced with skeletons?"

    Mu Fei smiled modestly and said, "I don¡¯t know much about skeletons, but I¡¯ve encountered with these two mutants before!"

    Ye Chong was surprised once again. He knew these two life forms. The Rohin primate was alright, but the Blitzwing was terribly ferocious and aggressive. They always appeared in pairs, and their ws were sharp, capable of damaging mech armor. They moved agilely and were cunning creatures, difficult opponents to fight against! Mu Fei may have said that he encountered them before, and Ye Chong believed that it must not be some friendly encounter. It seemed that Mu Fei must be very strong!

    Why did the Sanctuary assign Mu Fei to him? Ye Chong was perplexed.

    However, Ye Chong quickly grew absorbed in his work for the Trial. No matter the circumstances, passing the Trial was still his utmost priority. What made Ye Chong ufortable was that Mu Fei never seemed to leave him alone. No matter what he was doing, the man would observe with interest from the side, and that made Ye Chong grew suspicious of him.

    Nheless, there was not much time left. Ye Chong was too busy to mind having Mu Fei around him. He began to work in earnest towards building a full skeleton mech engine. Ye Chong, careful as he was, had thought it through. Since Master Xiao had said that any engine model would do, Ye Chong chose the simplest mech engine he knew of - the Raven model engine, which was the engine for the eponymous mech that Ye Chong was very familiar with.

    Even so, the work took a lot of effort from Ye Chong, since this was his first time building such a thing, and he had no experience to draw from. Fortunately, however, Ye Chong finallypleted his work within the designated time frame, building the world¡¯s first full skeleton mech engine!

 Chapter 162 - Encounter I

    <h4>Chapter 162: Encounter I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "It¡¯s wonderful! Ye, I didn¡¯t think you could really do it, it¡¯s really astonishing!" Master Xiao caressed the full-skeleton Raven engine, praising in deep fervor! Beside him were a few other Masters, invited along by Master Xiao! They too had the expression of a child getting his favorite toy, standing around the world¡¯s first full-skeleton mech engine, watching in awe.

    Mu Fei wore a thin and gentle smile on his face as he watched the elderlies¡¯ excitement. He had witnessed the birth of this full-skeleton mech engine first hand, but these Masters¡¯ excitement had far exceeded his expectations. "Perhaps I should reconsider the value of this engine," he thought as his eyes brightened momentarily before resuming his usual inconspicuousness.

    Of course, Ye Chong passed his Level Four Trial without incident!

    Ye Chong was observing Mu Fei discreetly, and Mu Fei¡¯s minute change in expression did not escape his eyes. "Hmph, whatever you¡¯re ying at, I won¡¯t make it easy!" Ye Chong smiled coldly inside.

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    "Mr Ye, this way please!" Mu Fei stretched his hand out courteously.

    Ye Chong drew in a deep breath upon seeing the starship before him. He was finally leaving the Orbits! For a moment, he was overwhelmed with emotions!

    Since the Level Four Trial with the full-skeleton engine, Ye Chong already guessed that the Level Five Trial would involve building a full-skeleton mech. Fortunately, he was ready for that. Ye Chong only built a Raven mech, since he did not want to truly benefit the Sanctuary. However, even with just a Raven, a beginner level mech, its performance was still enough to impress all the Masters. Of course, the sess was also partly due to his previous work on the full-skeleton Raven engine.

    As expected by Ye Chong, once the full-skeleton Raven was built sessfully, it was taken in by the Sanctuary.

    News of the year¡¯s first candidate to pass the Level Five Trial spread like wildfire across the city of Nine Gates! For the detainees in Nine Gates, their strongest wish was to leave the Orbits and return to the Five Gxies. No one had passed the Level Five Trial in recent years, but there was finally one person who managed to do so. This brought life back to the slowly numbing lives of the detainees in Nine Gates, their grim hearts finally catching a glimpse of hope!

    Soon, details of this candidate began to make their way into all corners of the city. He was apparently young but very talented! He was also a mysterious skeleton carver, and those trendy skeleton parts earlier were all his work. Additionally, he was also rumored to be an excellent alchemist.

    Heavens, who was this guy? Everyone was amazed!

    With his daily vignce against Mu Fei, Ye Chong did not know that news of him passing the Level Five Trial had already reached the entirety of the Orbits, and that skeleton carving as an upation was brought to everyone¡¯s attention for the first time ever.

    Ye Chong was more focused on his current situation. He and Shang agreed that the Sanctuary would not make any move against him here, even if they wanted to stop him from leaving. If they forcefully make him stay, no one might dare to take the Trials again in the future.

    As for whatever tricks the Sanctuary intended to pull, they would probably take ce during Ye Chong¡¯s journey leaving the Orbits. However, hehe ¡­

    Unexpectedly, what Ye Chong found on the starship was the man who was always beside him as his guide, Mu Fei.

    "Is your job as a guide not finished yet?" Ye Chong affected an innocent surprise.

    "Yes, it¡¯s finished!" Mu Fei smiled warmly. "However, the Sanctuary considered my familiarity with your lifestyle, and thought it proper to assign me here to make sure you are well taken care of! Pleased to be of service!"

    "I see!" Ye Chong nodded in fake casualness.

    The Sanctuary had prepared a grand escort team for him, which consisted of four standardbat squads. Such a strongbat fleet was more than enough to keep him safe. However, it was also enough to keep him under their control. This must be how they saw it!

    Ye Chong observed all this in detached coolness.

    Mu Fei held a high status apparently, as Ye Chong noticed the mech pilots behaving respectfully towards him. What caught his attention was that their respect toward Mu Fei seemed to be sincere! Ye Chong understood that this kind of respect could only be borne towards a truly capable person! Mu Fei¡¯s words held great authority here, and even the starship¡¯s captain would take his advice seriously.

    It seemed that Mu Fei was no ordinary person!

    The ship flew steadily onwards, and Ye Chong would asionally receive a call from one the Masters asking after him. Whenever this happened, the captain would report the starship¡¯s current location to the Masters in detail.

    Within the Orbits, the starship did not encounter any security checks, and the journey was surprisingly smooth.

    Soon, starship Glinton left the Orbits, its destination being a very close to the Orbits, called McCann. ording to them, Ye Chong would transit to another long distance interster passenger starship to anywhere he pleased.

    Once Ye Chong left McCann and reached a ce he deemed safe, he would reach out to the Masters via a specialmunication device they gifted him to confirm his safe exit from the Orbits. It seemed that even the Masters did not trust the Sanctuary.

    It was still possible, however, for the Sanctuary to make their move once he ended hismunication with the Masters.

    McCann was a transfer station, hosting many long distance interster passenger starships that wouldter travel to many differents. It was also an important entrepot. There were three more days until they reach McCann. Once they left the Orbits, Ye Chong could sense that everyone onboard the Glinton, besides himself, turning more vignt. It seemed that the Sanctuary did not entirely control this area!

    Was it due to the Sanctuary¡¯sck of power? Or were there other reasons? Ye Chong could not help but guess.

    Ye Chong passed each day leisurely. Mu Fei no longer stuck around him every day like he did during the Trials, and Ye Chong found time to contemte on his own problems. Fortunately, there were many problems that required Ye Chong¡¯s attention, and no matter which field it was, they would take him considerable time to go through!

    In the captain¡¯s quarters onboard Glinton, a massive holographic screen in the center was disying the starry skies outside. Without the atmosphere¡¯s interference, the stars sparkled like diamonds embedded on a boundless dark veil. The colorful nebe were like an aristocratdy¡¯s velvety skin covered with gorgeous satin, obscured but elegant.

    Mu Fei was unmoved by the mesmerizing sight before him. He opened his eyes a little and found the target of his surveince still in a daze, and closed his eyes to resume his meditation.

    Suddenly, a panicky voice broke the silence in the captain¡¯s quarters!

    "Captain! We have a situation!"

    In the blink of an eye, everyone in the captain¡¯s quarters looked towards the voice. Mu Fei¡¯s eyes sprung open, his gleaming pupils surprising Ye Chong, who was keeping a discreet eye on him. However, Mu Fei immediately realized his error and quickly resumed his usual calmness. The transformation was so quick that, if Ye Chong was not so confident with his eyesight, he might have thought he saw wrong.

    "Speak!" The captain wore a steady expression, unruffled due to his mental fortitude and rich experience. Glinton¡¯s captain always had looked serious, with an expressionless face. He would only ever soften a little when speaking with Mu Fei. His sharp profile was masculine, and his demeanor spoke of vigor and great determination.

    Mu Fei¡¯s attention was also drawn towards the captain, and did not notice that Ye Chong¡¯s mouth had momentarily curved upwards into a cold smile!

    "26 degrees from the radius vector, there¡¯s an unidentified starship!" The crew member reported without dy in a clear cut manner.

    "An unidentified starship?" The captain furrowed his brows slightly.

    "Yes, our holographic scanners were ineffective against it!"

    A sh of uncertainty swept past the captain¡¯s face as he looked towards Mu Fei, and Mu Fei replied with a slight nod. This moment was captured clearly by Ye Chong. Mu Fe was indeed someone important!

    The captain immediately activated hismunication device and spoke resolutely, "Lower the speed to Mach 4, allbatants prepare for battle! All nonbatants please go to the safety room!"

    Shortly after, a sharp rm began to ring, a shrill that reached a person¡¯s terrified heart. Everyone onboard the starship froze for a moment before quickly returning to their stations. The entire crew began to move in a frenzy. Of course, Ye Chong himself did not.

    The opponent¡¯s starship was obviously slowing down too, but showed no signs of avoiding as it slowly approached the Glinton.

    Mu Fei muttered to himself, "Our starship¡¯s scanning system is only ineffective against starships from ck Cove and the MPA. Who will it be this time?"

    Upon hearing Mu Fei¡¯s words, the captain frowned deeper and asked carefully, "Sir, you think ¡­"

    Mu Fei smiled. His usually warm smile was now, however, filled with great confidence, and even Ye Chong felt that his usually soft expression was now filled with determination and strength.

    "We move straight ahead!" Mu Fei spoke with unassable confidence.

    The crew inside the captain¡¯s quarters grew excited, affected by Mu Fei¡¯s charisma. Truly, what was there to fear? Even if the other party was the MPA or ck Cove, what was that to them? Their four standardbat squads would be enough to tear the enemy apart! Apart from that, Sir Mu Fei was with them!

    While both parties lowered their flight speed, they still inched closer and closer towards each other.

    As the distance between them grew shorter, the holographic scanner turned effective. On the holographic screen, the other party¡¯s starship gradually grewrger and clearer.

    Everyone stared unblinkingly at the other party¡¯s starship on the holographic screen.

    The starship was as ck as night, with not even a glimpse of metallic luster. It moved silently like a ghost across the dark space of the universe.

    Mu Fei kept his eyes on the screen, as a blurry leaf shaped emblem on the other party¡¯s starship began to take shape!

    Mu Fei was relieved. "It¡¯s alright, it¡¯s ck Cove!" As he finished, everyone rxed a little. They feared that it would be the MPA¡¯s starship. Since the MPA and the Sanctuary had just met in a conflict, an encounter with the MPA¡¯s ship would probably lead to war!

    The Sanctuary and ck Cove had always been careful with each other, and were sometimes even on friendly terms.

    The long, thin leaf shaped emblem looked like a half lidded eye, staring expressionlessly ahead.

 Chapter 163 - Encounter II

    <h4>Chapter 163: Encounter II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Send out the exchange transmission!" The captain sounded more relieved.

    Exchange transmissions were signals sent between starships upon encounter to exchange information and as an act of friendliness. Ships would send out information on their identities in in code. In the vast universe, the probability of encountering another starship was very low, even in densely traveled flight paths. However, when two starships encountered each other, experienced captains would send out an exchange transmission!

    After the exchange transmission was sent out, the captain was obviously relieved, apparently believing that nothing could go wrong from now on. He had sent out the exchange transmission to prevent any unwanted conflict with ck Cove, since they had a guest on the ship that absolutely cannot be harmed. The captain recalled the situation clearly when he received his orders from the Elder, who spoke with severity and ced great importance on his current mission. He was surprised, but quickly realized the importance of the guest.

    On the other hand, an open war with ck Cove was undesirable in all respects. As for the rtionship and situation between the Sanctuary, ck Cove and the MPA, none of the Sanctuary¡¯s members were oblivious to them. If he caused an open war between the Sanctuary and ck Cove, the captain could never bear the consequences! Fortunately, there was Sir Mu on the ship, a great relief for the captain!

    Mu Fei¡¯s expression was less tense now. Usually, both parties would pass by each other with great restraint. However, even if they were to engage in battle, Mu Fei was not worried, since the ship had four standardbat squads onboard, a powerfulbat force. Besides, he was there himself. There should be no problems.

    Nheless, this was not a good time for war. He did not wish for the young talent that the Sanctuary highly desired to be involved in any ident. During his time as his guide, he understood better than anyone the extent of the young man¡¯s abilities! Furthermore, the young man must be hiding his true strength! Mu Fei¡¯s instinct told him that Ye Chong¡¯s full-skeleton Raven was not his best work yet. He fully supported the Sanctuary¡¯s decision to keep Ye Chong with them at all costs. To prevent any idents, Mu Fei had even volunteered for this mission.

    Everyone on the ship rxed. They believed that it was ultimately nothing to worry about, and some even teased the officer who reported the other starship earlier, saying that he was only trying to get on their nerves.

    A dark sense of humor seemed to sh past in Ye Chong¡¯s half lidded eyes, and his eyes smiled momentarily like the thin leaf emblem on the front of the ck Cove ship.

    "Ah!" The officer who reported the starship just now suddenly gasped!

    "Hah, Ah Da, are you still trying to scare us?"

    "Yeah, Ah Da, you¡¯re too bold! Look at my weak heart, it¡¯s still thumping non-stop from your trick earlier ¡­"

    The round ofughter drowned away any sound from the office.

    Mu Fei closed his eyes, thinking itedic.

    "Look, guys! I¡¯m not lying! Look!" That officer tried hard to exin, his face red. When the crowd recognized the fear in his words, they immediately realized that something was not right. All the officers on the ship had good discipline, and would not joke on such matters.

    Mu Fei felt the change, and opened his eyes wide.

    Tens of ck mechs in standard battle formation were closing in on them. The captain¡¯s expression twisted as the photon processor returned a mech count of 50. They were all Cosmic res, ck Cove¡¯s war mechs. Mu Fei was very familiar with them. Johansson, who died in Ye Chong¡¯s hands, also used a Cosmic re.

    50 Cosmic res! Why would ck Cove send out such a strong force? Mu Fei was baffled.

    "We received the other party¡¯s reply!" One of the ship officers reported.

    "Forward it here!" The captain spoke chillingly. Since the other party had showed hostility, he had no need to hold back. While he was cautious against ck Cove, he was not afraid of them. The other members of the Sanctuary shared the same attitude as their captain!

    "We suspect your ship has one of our members, please open your hatch for our inspection!" The words were direct, and typical of ck Cove.

    For a moment, with the exception of Ye Chong, everyone in the captain¡¯s quarters were enraged! The other party¡¯s high and mighty tone was a blow to the pride of the Sanctuary¡¯s members! Even the usually calm and collected Mu Fei felt his facial muscles twitch!

    What an insult! Since when would the Sanctuary allow such humiliation?

    The other party had approached fully armed, and a fewser beams were already shooting their starship. If they do not retaliate soon, the situation would turn dangerous for them!

    While they knew that this was the time for retaliation, it was potentially a move that would lead to an open war with ck Cove. This long term consequence was what made the captain hesitate!

    "Attack!" Mu Fei shouted. He understood better than the captain that if the enemy kept closing in, they would be severely disadvantaged! While he did now know why the other party would choose such an irrational action, the situation did not allow for further contemtion!

    The Sanctuary¡¯s honour must not be trampled upon!

    Mu Fei¡¯s orders had the same effect as the captain¡¯s. None of the mech pilots objected to his words, not even hesitating at them! The four standardbat squads moved out swiftly to meet the enemy!

    Thus, a full scale battle between the Sanctuary and ck Cove began!

    Everyone found their eyes glued to the live feed on the holographic screen, including Ye Chong. Ye Chong had seen the Cosmic re, but Johansson had not managed to attack him before dying from his ambush attack. Hence, Ye Chong was very curious about this mech model!

    Close range battle with ck Cove mechs was a foolish act! The Sanctuary and the MPA both agreed on this!

    Hence, as the ck Cove Cosmic res came into range, all the Dawns immediately opened fire!

    Numerousser beams were shot from both sides across the space between them! However, in a long range battle, ck Cove was definitely at a disadvantage!

    Unlike the MPA¡¯s urate shooting, the Sanctuary fought with their unique group battle strategy. Usually a few Dawns would focus on attacking the same Cosmic re, but the way they weaved around each other and cooperate was an astonishing sight to Ye Chong. Theser beams from the Dawns were directed towards the few potential defensive positions for the other mech!

    Ye Chong was equally amazed by ck Cove¡¯s evasion skills! Ye Chong¡¯s most familiar Non-orderly Wave Leap was used throughout the battlefield, alongside other stranger, varied and unexpected evasion techniques! Ye Chong watched in suspense, his eyes shining brightly!

    At the same time, Shang reported to Ye Chong on important details of the battle!

    The Sanctuary¡¯s battle strategy had delivered a heavy blow to ck Cove. In the span of less than half a minute, 15 Cosmic res were destroyed, the result of the Sanctuary¡¯s effective strategy.

    However, Mu Fei did not look happy at all, since he knew that the real battle was only just beginning!

    Cosmic res were small mechs, and this significantly reduced the probability of being hit! While 15 Cosmic res were destroyed, the remaining 35 Cosmic res had managed to close in on the Dawn mechs!

    The Dawns suddenly broke formation, and gathered in groups of three before they charged ahead fearlessly.

    Once approached by ck Cove mechs, the nightmare began! This was another fact proven by the Sanctuary!

    The Cosmic res showed their fangs for the first time before Ye Chong!

    ck Cove mech pilots expertly flew, their wild and bloody techniques made Ye Chong realize the true horrifying potential from these ck Cove war mechs!

    As three Dawn mechs moved to cover each other, their excellent cooperation and battle skills still failed to prevent themselves from being smashed into pieces by this ck Cove model¡¯s brute force impact!

    ck Cove battle strategies were chilling to watch! They elerated to high velocities and ran into the Dawn mechs with all the momentum they gathered, the barbs in their joints enough to inflict fatal damage to the Dawn mechs, while the curved de on the outside of the right arm would amputate the Dawn mech into pieces! Blood sprayed out from the pilot inside, the red mist quickly crystallizing, suspended in space, no longer as vivid as before! Their long chains moved in unpredictable ways, strangling and wrapping around the enemy, or even lending momentum from their targets. The weapon was used well, and the chain itself was made with a very strong material!

    The Sanctuary¡¯s group strategy also caused ck Cove heavy casualties!

    The battle between the two sides happened quickly, with no room to breathe! Both sides fought with excellent strategies, and fought cruelly. If one was hit, there was basically no chance for survival! Damaged mechs had no chance of leaving the battlefield, and would run straight into the enemy¡¯s mech for a suicide attack!

    The battle was fierce and merciless!

    In the span of just under 10 minutes, only about 17 to 18 Cosmic res were left. The Dawn mechs were even fewer, with only 12 of them left! The situation was not against the Sanctuary, since close range battle was ck Cove¡¯s specialty. Additionally, they were outnumbered. As the number of Dawn mechs decreased, the remaining Cosmic res survived without any damages.

    As the battle reached this stage, with heavy casualties on both sides, none of the mechs backed down. The mech pilots from both sides were equally steadfast in battle!

    However, the overall situation was slowly siding with ck Cove, as the remaining Dawn mechs continued to struggle!

    Inside the captain¡¯s quarters, all the crew members paled in fear. Even the hardened captain wore a terrible expression. This was the first time they had encountered such a terrifying battle!

    Mu Fei could stand it any longer. He stood up abruptly and said, "I¡¯m assisting them!" before turning to exit the captain¡¯s quarters!

    Upon hearing his words, everyone in there with the exception of Ye Chong felt invigorated. It seemed they were very confident in Mu Fei¡¯s abilities!

    Mu Fei exited the captain¡¯s quarters. Behind him, the cabin door to the captain¡¯s quarters automatically slid close, quick as usual.

    He could never have imagined what happened next in the captain¡¯s quarters!

 Chapter 164 - Hunter in the Darkness

    <h4>Chapter 164: Hunter in the Darkness</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Just as the cabin door to the captain¡¯s quarters closed behind Mu Fei, the room was suddenly plunged into darkness, and astonished cries were heard! However, the cabin door was sound proof. Even with the short distance between them, Mu Fei could not sense anything amiss!

    In the sudden darkness, everyone in the captain¡¯s quarters were thrown into a state of terror!

    Ye Chong quietly deployed Guardian in the darkness. He was now used to Guardian¡¯s unique ck and white vision, and 3D image sketched out by numerous white lines were familiar to him. Additionally, he already noted down everyone¡¯s position in the room. Not to mention, Shang was with him!

    Ye Chong moved lightly as a shadow, unnoticed in the darkness.

    Ye Chong¡¯s unreasonable strength, amplified by Guardian, resulted in terrifying efficiency. This also allowed Ye Chong to move faster. Ye Chong acted more efficiently than he could ever imagine with Guardian¡¯s urate scans!

    The gasping voices were almost simultaneously cut off by the clear sound of broken bones!

    Ye Chongnded softly before the cabin door. In the brief moment earlier, Ye Chong attacked a total of 16 times without missing even once, crushing their necks. Since Ye Chong moved very quickly, the sound of bones breaking almost all ovepped with each other! Without Guardian¡¯s amplification effect, Ye Chong could not have achieved such a difficult feat. However, with Guardian¡¯s assistance, Ye Chong easily managed this impossible task!

    Just as Ye Chongnded, the cabin door opened without the slightest dy! Mu and Shang were never one for wasting time!

    The truth was, just as Ye Chong boarded the starship, Shang had secretly gained control over the entire ship. While the starship was better in terms of armory and automotive powerpared to hisst experience with Nast, its anti hacking system was far inferior. Shang managed to hack in with his first try, and obtained the highest ess rights for Glinton!

    From that moment on, Ye Chong waited for the perfect moment, the moment to deliver the fatal blow to his enemy, so that he could escape the Sanctuary¡¯s grasp! The one he was most cautious of was Mu Fei. As for the other mech pilots, Ye Chong believed that, given the environment they were in, Guardian was more effective than their mechs. Besides, he had Shang¡¯s help!

    ck Cove¡¯s appearance was a surprise to Ye Chong, but he quickly realized that this was a golden opportunity! However, just as he noticed his improvement in strategizing and adapting, a detailed n of action was already presented to him. He finally understood one thing - Shang¡¯s evil nature made him a better choice than Mu to n battle strategies!

    The n wasprised mainly of ambushing, faking and simrly cunning moves, almost as if they were made just for Ye Chong, the natural hunter!

    The entire n was truly insidious! Unexpectedly, the captain was unknowingly cooperative. As the exchange transmission was sent, Shang immediately made some appropriate changes to their n! For Shang, who had the entire Glinton system under control, modifying the exchange transmission was a piece of cake! That was how a patronizing and insulting message was sent out by Shang instead!

    The effect was marvelous! ck Cove¡¯smander in chief was obviously infuriated. Of course, it was partly because they were confident of their strength, since they had 50 Cosmic res!

    They also did not expect the inconspicuous Glinton to harbor such a powerfulbat force, and the result was a terrifying battle! Whether it was ck Cove or the Sanctuary, neither of them was the winner of the battle!

    Shang¡¯s n extended even further! He had predicted that ck Cove would ultimately prevail, and that Mu Fei would head out by then! The entire n depended on the time when Fei Mu left the captain¡¯s quarters to thebat preparation room.

    There were no morebatants in the captain¡¯s quarters by then. Using the immediate darkness to his advantage, Ye Chong maneuvered Guardian and easily ended the bloodbath in the captain¡¯s quarters! Gone were the dangerous threats before him!

    What Ye Chong had to do now was stop Mu Fei before he reached thebat preparation room! Without entering thebat preparation room, Mu Fei could not deploy his mech! Without a mech¡¯s protection, no matter how good Mu Fei was as a mentalist pilot, he would definitely not stand a chance against Guardian!

    "Attack the enemy at his weakest when you are at your strongest!" Shang crowed, pleased with himself, and Ye Chong felt like hitting the mech in the face!

    Guardiannded with slightly bent knees and pushed forward, and Ye Chong shot past the cabin door like a furious golden arrow!

    Ye Chong¡¯s legs were powerful, and made even more so through Guardian¡¯s amplification! Ye Chong stepped onto the ground and pushed, and flew a dozen meters ahead, giving the illusion of Ye Chong running with a long stride!

    Ye Chong was highly focused. He dared not be careless as he moved rapidly through the narrow corridors!

    Mu Fei suddenly stopped in his tracks. He could hear a faint buzzing sound approaching him, and it was moving fast! He stood on alert and listened carefully. What speed! It must be above Mach 6! It if was outside, Mach 6 may not be particrly surprising, but if there was anything moving faster than Mach 6 in the ship, it was a terrifying prospect!

    Mu Fei¡¯s face turned grim!

    Suddenly, Mu Fei¡¯s vision turned into ckness, and entire corridor¡¯s lights all went out!

    Enemy ambush!

    All of a sudden, he shouted loudly. His usually gentle eyes were now sharp as an unsheathed de. He turned quickly and pushed to the side with both his hands while his waist bent unnaturally like a boneless muscle, effectively moving himself forcibly to the side by 30 centimetres!

    His hands came into contact with something cold - it was metal! What was this thing? Mu Fei was shocked and furious! The airstream that came from the high velocity brushed painfully across Mu Fei¡¯s face!

    Mu Fei felt his hands burned.While he had deftly pushed away the unknown object, his hands were significantly wounded! However, if not for his perfectly timed movement, his hands would have been gone for good! Besides, he could still feel the ghost of a sharp fin of some sort from the unknown object barely grazing past his neck, the chilling danger spread goosebumps all over his body!

    In the darkness, blind to his surroundings, Mu Fei waited in anticipation. At the moment, he could only rely on his ears and instinct!

    Could someone have infiltrated the ship?

    Before he could consider any further, he felt another gusting towards him threateningly. The strong sense of danger came from deep within him, and almost reflexively, he evaded to the left! At the same time, his hands pushed downwards! No mentalist pilot would ignore his instincts, and Mu Fei as an excellent one himself strongly believed in his instincts!

    Another chilling gust swept past his neck, the attack missing by millimeters! Mu Fei finally knew what was constantly threatening him with a beheading! With his rich experience, he immediately realized that it must be some kind of dagger-like weapon!

    Before he could analyse any further, he heard a thump! His hands, pressing downwards, felt like they had came into contact with a mech charging straight at him!

    "Ah!" He yelled from the unbearable pain! "It was metal!" This was the only thought that shed in his mind before the pain came! Bones were exposed on his arms as the flesh came off! His hands did not seem to do anything to hinder the attack that came from beneath, because the opponent was too powerful! The other party¡¯s attack had hit his abdomen!

    He felt pain in the abdomen, and Mu Fei could not help but bend forward. His mind was empty, and he could no longer think! In the confusion that followed, Mu Fei, who had never experienced such a heavy blow, suddenly felt an irrational sense of joy!

    Before he could recover from the confusion, he felt a chill in his nape and warm fluid spraying onto his legs. His vision grew darker!

    With his body bent forward, Mu Fei fell to the ground!

    The attack he received came from Ye Chong¡¯s right knee!

    In the darkness, Ye Chong could not help but be surprised. Mu Fei was truly a remarkable character. Given the dire situation, he still managed to react as he did. Without Guardian, he was probably not a match against this man! Ye Chong believed that he himself could not react against such an ambush!

    The lights in the corridor suddenly came on! The corridors were illuminated brightly, with both ends of the corridor sealed shut!

    Shang hasted Ye Chong, "Ye, quick, those guys can¡¯t hang on much longer!"

    Ye Chong quickly withdrew Guardian and ran to Mu Fei¡¯s corpse. Mu Fei died with his body bent forward, his arms bloody, and his neck marked with the fatal wound 10 centimeters long from a dagger. Blood was still streaming out from the wound.

    Ye Chong ignored the strong scent of blood as he crouched down and began to search Mu Fei¡¯s body. Ye Chong moved quickly. In 12 seconds, he removed everything Mu Fei had on his body!

    A string with a spindle-shaped pendant caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention.

    "Yes, that¡¯s the one! Ye, quickly, to thebat prep room!" Shang spoke urgently, for time was crucial.

    Ye Chong heard mechs approaching and threw all the other things in his bag without going through them. His hand grasped onto the pendant as he ran towards thebat preparation room. Up until this moment, everything was going as nned! Ye Chong was also confident toward Shang¡¯s n!

    Thebat preparation room was where mech pilots go to beforebat. The area was spacious, and pilots can deploy their mechs here and slip into their mechs. There were also plenty of supplies at hand.

    In thebat preparation room, Ye Chong held onto the spindle shaped pendant and studied it for a moment before pressing gently on its tip!

    All mechs that utilized brainwave controlled dimension keystones had a unique feature - whenever their user was certified as brain dead, all previous information would be wiped clean, and the mech would be a white mech!

    In that moment, a light green mech appeared before Ye Chong!

 Chapter 165 - Bluff

    <h4>Chapter 165: Bluff</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    This mech was most definitely modelled after a bird. As for what kind of bird it was, Ye Chong had no idea! The murky green surface was covered with ayer of light green glimmer, the result of photon excitement. Only advanced level mechs with enough energy stored would have such an appearance, just like when Ye Chong saw a simr glimmer on Mu and Shang.

    Its long and thin body shape was in contrast with the usual bulky build of average mechs, and this mech appeared to be as agile as a bird.

    The Sanctuary¡¯s mechs were different from the various mech models that Ye Chong was familiar with, so Ye Chong could not tell their performance, but he could still identify some features that mark the quality of a Sanctuary¡¯s mech.

    For example, their mechs were always on the same level as their owners. Another example would be that their advanced level mechs were usually modelled after birds. While Ye Chong did not recognize the various types of birds, he could still identify this simrity.

    The mech before him was definitely an advanced level mech from the Sanctuary, because of its wings! Ye Chong had seen those wings before, on the purple mech that appeared when he was surrounded by the MPA.

    Like the purple mech, this mech had a very lifelike pair of wings! Ye Chong was not sure if they were more liketeral wings or folding wings. Like wings on actual birds, they too had many feather-like small metallic tes. Ye Chong believed that this type of wings must offer some special moves. The strong defensive abilities of the purple mech¡¯s wings fromst time left a deep impression with Ye Chong!

    Now that a mech like this had fallen into his hands, he would definitely have to study it closely! Ye Chongughed to himself at the thought.

    The only regrettable fact was that now was obviously not the time to study the mech! For the moment, every second was precious and must not be wasted!

    Ye Chong slipped into the mech¡¯s cabin quickly. To fly this mech, there was another issue that needed attention, and that was the initial configurations! Every white mech must undergo initial configuration before usage. It was not a step that could be skipped, or some functionalities would be barred from the user! Fortunately, this was not Ye Chong¡¯s first time doing this. He hands moved across the controls effortlessly.

    The name of this mech was Overwing. Of course, Shang could not help but sneer at the odd and in name, mocking itsck of style!

    His eyes swept across the controls, and Ye Chong got a rough overview of the mech''s avable functions. He was very grateful, however, he had kill Mu Fei before the man himself could deploy his mech, or he might not have been able to finish him off.

    Compared to other mechs, Overwing was simr to them in terms of basic maneuvering, so that would not be a problem.

    The hatch that led outside opened, and Ye Chong took off with Overwing out and into space.

    Just as Ye Chong left the ship, the Sanctuary had only four mechs left struggling to survive. However, none of them were retreating, a testimony to their discipline.

    Overwing¡¯s appearance, however, brought a change to the battlefield!

    Overwing shone with a light green glimmer all over its surface, its shiny wings spread out at the back, an eye-catching sight in the darkness of space. As the remaining four Dawn mechs saw Overwing, they immediately felt encouraged, and managed to slightly recover their defenses against the enemy!

    The ck Cove mechs saw Overwing as well, and as Ye Chong was troubling over how to deal with them, he was surprised to find the remaining 10 ck Cove mechs escaping, leaving the four heavily damaged Dawn mechs, retreating as though they had seen the Devil!

    It was strange, too peculiar! Ye Chong stared at their retreating backs!

    Ye Chong did not know the reputation that came with the mech he was flying, the Overwing, amongst the Three Forces! Mu Fei¡¯s Overwing was one of the Sanctuary¡¯s trump cards. Mu Fei was a modest person, and the most popr of the Sanctuary¡¯s trump cards. He was equally known for his excellentbat skills, on par with the other trump cards!

    Trump cards y a very important role amongst the Three Forces! Outstandingbat skills and powerful mechs were abination that could often decide the oue of a battle! The Three Forces spared no effort in promoting the strength of their trump cards. Besides making them role models for others, it was also an intimidation strategy for their enemies. Legends involving these trump cards were simrly spread far and wide.

    As the 10 ck Cove mechs saw Overwing, they were immediately horrified. They did not expect to see a trump card on the ship, and this was not an opponent that average mechs could hope to defeat. To stop a trump card, only another trump card would do!

    ck Cove¡¯smander in chief was also shocked with Overwing''s appereance, and immediately ordered his squad¡¯s retreat. If not for his orders, they would never have escaped, an embodiment of ck Cove¡¯s strong discipline!

    What was this starship up to? Themander in chief was curious. With four of the Sanctuary¡¯s standardbat squad and a trump card, he did not believe that they were only out on a routine flight! This was obviously beyond the Sanctuary¡¯s borders, and usually they would not send such a strong battle force beyond the Orbits if not for some mission! He was also certain that they were not out for ck Cove, since his mission this time was definitely top secret. What baffled him was also the other party¡¯s active provocation. With a trump card on their side, Mu Fei in particr, how could he have waited the near annihtion of his own forces beforeing out? Word was that Mu Fei was always leading the charge, showing care for his subordinates and highly looked up upon! Were the stories only fiction?

    For the moment, he was upied with many questions, but he still gave the order he thought was best, which was to retreat the ship.

    The remaining four Dawn mechs all looked to Overwing, but Overwing did not move, so they could only watch as the enemy escaped! However, they could not help but feel that if they were to pursue, the enemy would be vanquished! Nheless, the Sanctuary¡¯s trump card had absolute authority over the mech pilots - there must be a reason for his decision! That was the conclusion of the four mech pilots.

    Sir Mu Fei¡¯s mech waved, a signal to return to their ship.

    They paused. Why would Sir not used thems? However, the signal was clear, and while they were confused, the four mech pilots still flew to Ye Chong¡¯s side. They could never know that while the mech was Overwing, the pilot inside was not their respected Sir Mu Fei, but the seemingly weak young boy! It would be a crazy fact for them to take in!

    The five mechs flew to the nearby ship, and as the hatch opened up, the five mechs drifted in one by one through the hatch!

    The four Dawn mechs were heavily damaged, and as theynded, the pilots immediately slipped out. The battle was intense, and they were all strung up, but now they could finally rx. While they were all highly trained, all of them now wore a tired expression! Now out of their mechs, they waited for Sir Mu Fei toe out too.

    After a while, Sir still did note out.

    The four men looked towards the Overwing in confusion. As they marveled at the elegance and might of Overwing, one question still bothered them - what¡¯s with Sir?

    They were still confused when fourser beams abruptly shot towards them.

    On each of their foreheads was a thumb-sized hole of blood. Before the four pairs of confused and now dead eyes, Ye Chong leaped out of the pilot cabin. He stepped onto the deck as the four men fell backwards lifelessly!

    At such a short distance, with so much time, even if Ye Chong¡¯s shooting skills were deplorable, and Overwing¡¯s auto shooting was far from the MPA¡¯s level, those four shots still managed to urately hit their targets. Ye Chong even imagined that it could be due to his improving shooting skills!

    The final group of people who could be a threat to him was finally dealt with.

    Ye Chong exhaled deeply in relief!

    The most sessful part of the n was that no one onboard the ship had time to report to the Sanctuary of what had transpired. This meant that the Sanctuary knew nothing of what happened on Glinton! This was very important to Ye Chong, since if he next meet with the Sanctuary¡¯s people, his skills as a skeleton carver could still be useful! However, he must firste up with a reasonable story of what happened!

    While he believed it was unlikely for him to have anything to do with the Sanctuary in future, it was still best to prepare for it!

    Glinton flew onwards in space.

    In therge space of the captain¡¯s quarters was Ye Chong, alone. Of course, Shang also came out for a breather. The room wasrge enough for him! Ye Chong had cleared out the bodies, and after days of internal cleansing, the scent of blood was no longer present.

    The entire Glinton had only Ye Chong and Shang as its passengers. Shang controlled the entire starship, since if the ship was given to Ye Chong, he would not be able to fly it!

    "What¡¯s our next step?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Look for Lu Caite¡¯s teacher, cure your illness. However, we must find a quickly to ess the virtual world, and find out where the teacher is! ording to Lu Caite, his teacher seemed capable enough," Shang replied.

    Ye Chong disagreed. "No, we¡¯re too close to the Orbits here, it¡¯s going to be easy for the Sanctuary to sense us, then we¡¯ll be in trouble!"

    "Hmm, that¡¯s true, it¡¯s really troublesome! Looks like it¡¯s better if we go as far as possible away from this ce!" Shang agreed.

    "That¡¯s right! But Shang, do you have a star chart?" Ye Chong asked.

    "I do, quite a few of them for beyond the Orbits!" Shang spoke proudly.

    "Then we can do a warp jump?" Ye Chong asked with faint anticipation.

    "Yes!" Shang replied briskly!

 Chapter 166 - A Slip of the Hand

    <h4>Chapter 166: A Slip of the Hand</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Shang, have we arrived yet?" asked Ye Chong in his Captain¡¯s seat.

    ording to what Lu Caite had stated, his teacher Mr. Wang Weixing could very likely be at a medical institute on Windstar. Based on the gcticyout stored inside Mu Shang¡¯s databank, Windstar should be located in the gxy of Csebesini and it was a well-known for its tourism. The globe mainly consisted of attractive and poetic sceneries, frequented with intergctic tourists who adored and appreciated the unique view of its flora and fauna.

    Hence, the final destination both Ye Chong and Shang had agreed on turned out to be outer space which was three days away from the Windstar. Ye Chong would leave and trigger the self-destruct system on the ship, just to make sure that no trace would remain to guide those fearsome ones from the Sanctuary there. The location of Windstar might be extremely distant from the Orbits, but Ye Chong did not intend to let his guard down yet, as he was very much aware of the strength of the Sanctuary, their armed forces, their psychic abilities. He might not be that vulnerable to their strike, still he felt that such kind of mistake was never necessary to begin with.

    "Uh¡­ Bad news, Ye. I¡¯m sorry to inform you that¡­" Shang¡¯s tone was tantly awkward.

    "What bad news? Are you going to say that the Sanctuary actually had made it here and they are just behind? No way! They can¡¯t be finding me out this quickly! Don¡¯t tell me my luck is so terrible that we bumped into one of their men in our course!" Ye Chong¡¯s expression was spelling astonishment.

    "Not¡­ Not that bad, Ye." Shang sounded like a shrinking violet, "It¡¯s just that we met a tiny¡­ issue." Somehow the words kept clogging at his audio system.

    "Tiny problem you mean?" Ye Chong raised his brows and asked in bewilderment. "What kind of problem was it?"

    "Umm¡­ Ye. So, my calction was a little, a little off from the actuality. Just a little." Shang sounded like a boy who tried covering up for his mistake in front of his mother after he identally spilled ice cream on his younger sister.

    "Off? Mistake?" Ye Chong looked at Shang in disbelief, "Shang, you actually make mistakes? Stop pulling my leg!" Shang, an advanced Photon-Stimted Intelligence, the lecturer of life, theputerized interrogator of torment, told me that he made a mistake? This is too much. Shang¡¯s calction might not be as powerful as Mu, but it was still quite groundbreaking for Ye Chong to hear from this robotic genius admitting, dering his mistake.

    "Ahem¡­ Ye, stop looking at me like that¡­ I¡¯m feeling shy you know¡­" The bleeping mechanical eyes of Shang blinking in blue hues with that somehow eerie tone of his, was goosebumps-inducing to Ye Chong.

    "So now what are we gonna do?" The oue was always Ye Chong¡¯s priority.

    "We are currently at a course named the ¡®Solrivia¡¯," stated Shang.

    "How far is that from the Windstar?" This was more of his concern than the name of the orbit they were traveling on.

    "Ummm¡­" Shang halted, "Not too far¡­ But we can¡¯t do a direct flight there, somehow."

    Ugh.

    The veins bloated on Ye Chong¡¯s forehead, tried his best inhibiting his fury, he asked, "Then how long are we going to take to the Windstar on this space-jump?"

    "Uhh, Ye, the issue was not the duration, rather¡­ well, the remaining energy on this ship was insufficient to perform the following space-jump." Shang turned back to his usual self again, not the slightest shame was felt in his words, "The distance of the space-warp this time is a bit too far. Great amount of energy would be needed for consumption!"

    The bloated veins on Ye Chong¡¯s forehead pumped harshly a few times, "Shang¡­" Biting his teeth, "Have you ever considered confessing your so-called ¡®mistake¡¯ to me? Like sincerely apologetically?"

    "Aw c¡¯mon Ye, don¡¯t be so grim. You can¡¯t say no to Ang¡¯stest photo collection. Ye, let me rify something for you¡­ Ang¡¯s body has got to be the best among all stars I had seen before. The curve was superb, mhmm, magnefique! Seniorita, you are the God¡¯s gift I could ever have," eximed Shang, like a poet by the beach, acted very much indulged in his joy, "I was calcting her figures, you know, the golden proportion of her ¡®curves¡¯ that makes her so wless, so adorable, so alluring? Ye, do you know what I had gotten in the end?"

    "Oh¡­" Ye Chong replied uninterestedly, "What you got?"

    "Holy Matrimony, her body was the exact tangent and proportion of what the public considered as perfection, both theoretically and practically. It was too dramatic the moment I discovered this very truth of my life. It was shocking, as much as how the humanity reacted the moment they discovered space-travels." Shang was worked up.

    "More importantly, you mean you missed on the calction of our space-jump course just because of how astounded you were over her figures?" inquired Ye Chong calmly.

    "That aside! That aside! It¡¯s just a tiny, little, minuscule problem. A very small issue," Shang¡¯s expression was lustrous to Ye Chong¡¯s eyes somehow.

    "If there¡¯s a ck hole here now, I would not hesitate to lob you there," Ye Chong¡¯s wrath erupted as he sprung from his seat and made a few violent kicks at Shang.

    "Ouch¡­ Aw¡­ Ow¡­ the pain. The agony." Shang pulled off his cheap acting skills and whimpered along. But then he realized that would make him less assertive, "Ye, frankly speaking¡­" reminded Shang, "Youck an effective method of striking¡­"

    "I ¡­ Ugh! Don¡¯t! Ugh! Care! Ugh!" He exerted heavier force on his kick.

    The weirdest moment in gctic history of a man messing with a mech ended eventually. Panting, he sat down, yes, technically, Ye Chong was the only panting one in the "fight", Shang on the other hand had his face pretty much adorned by a new set of footprints and looked like a beggar at the street.

    Despite all that, Ye Chong somehow felt as if he had turned the time back when he was still on Trash-12, spending his days messing with Mu, having fun.

    "Shang¡­" Catching his breath, Ye Chong further inquired, "What¡¯s the nearest¡­ now¡­"

    "An isted," replied Shang, "It is uninhabited as what I see. There¡¯s nothing on it, not even resources. So people were not even interested to develop the ce."

    "So are you saying that we got to wait here for another spaceship passerby?" Ye Chong sounded dejected.

    "Mhm, technically. But don¡¯t worry, Ye. This course is very much popted. It has the greatest chance of encountering another spaceship. Moreover, this spaceship has a rich supply of food. So you don¡¯t have to worry about being starved to death." Ye Chong could feel his pupils rolling in the quantum singrity within his skull.

    And he finally experienced what Shang meant by "very much popted" this time, by waiting¡­ for 7 days¡­ That was really popted, Shang. A ship was detected on the scanner, heading towards them.

    Of course Ye Chong did not spend the past 7 days having a talk with Shang, the Master of Primal Philosophy. He was performing a thorough inspection on Overwing.

    Ye Chong was not aware of the fact that Mu Fei was the ace of the Sanctuary and apparently he did not seem to recognize the actual standard of this mech called Overwing he was piloting on. Other than the wings that were giving him weird vibes, the mech was full of surprises.

    Ye Chong had also been spending the week getting familiar with the execution. The Overwing was certainly an excellent mech from various aspects. Ye Chong was confident to state that this could be the best mech he had ever spotted thus far, other than Mu Shang and the Guardian. Not even the extraordinary craft of skeletons like Han Jia couldpete with Overwing. It even started to make Ye Chong wonder if this was the greatest invention hidden inside the Sanctuary.

    The design of Overwing appeared to be rather in from different angles. However the design seemed to be as fit as a fiddle after a bit of deduction on the figures. Ye Chong with his sharp eyes could tell the amount of efforts, the bleeding sweat of the designer imbue within this craft.

    Well, Ye Chong did not perform an ultimate analysis over every inch of the mech. He just took a nce at the hologram. Time was still the obstacle to kill his leisure of doing it. Overwing was also the kind of mech forbidden from being seen by the public. That would alert the Sanctuary for sure if they were ever noticed by the people around. Ye Chong shuddered as he imagined the swarm of psychic-armed pilots chasing after him if they knew what in the world had he done. As a result, in spite of the supreme quality of Overwing, Ye Chong could barelyy a finger on the steed. No doubt, it was torturing to a mech maniac like him. It would be a far better choice to do something else more meaningful than piloting Overwing on a big scale at the moment.

    After the runaway, there remained 4 wounded Dawn mechs on the ship. Well, the saving grace was Glinton was well-supplied with tools to do pretty much anything on a mech. So Ye Chong began running his little workshop once more, repairing the 4 mechs since 7 days ago. The Dawn mechs could have been some cheapskate model after seeing Overwing the Empowered, but then a backup mech could still work very well as a backup mech. No waste, Ye Chong felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

    The 4 Dawn mechs were glossing in the pink of health after Ye Chong¡¯s skillful repair.

    Ye Chong¡¯s list of loots from his run did not end here. He had also acquired quite a number of precious-looking items from Mu Fei, like this strange te for example - it was a name te crafted with an unknown nt, filled with peculiar twirls and waves and was pierced with a silver thread. The nt must have undergone some kind of unusual finishing, as Ye Chong actually felt it warm and tender on touch! If it was not Shang who informed him that it was made out of a nt, Ye Chong would never believe that a nt could act in such odd texture, though Shang did not have any idea what kind of nt it was.

    The next thing which caught his attention was a few tubes about breadth of his index finger. These tubes had one end sealed and the other opened. Some of them were packed with spherical pills, about 10 of them, while some were powder and ¡­ sticky liquids. These were like treasure to someone who had spent his or her days on Trash like Ye Chong, as he knew their value and significance, especially when this was the master medication for the Sanctuary insiders.

    He kept the 5 tubes carefully within him. The tubes could be the holy light to his survival! The name tes and the other pointless-looking things were stuffed into his waist bag instead.

    The entire database of Glinton had been absorbed by Shang. The best part was the database actually contained a map of the Orbits. Although it defined a tiny scope of the Orbits, Shang treasured it as much as Ye Chong treasured the tubes, as he copied it happily into his system.

    The detection system of Glinton was considered to be very developed, as the detection system specialized for the spaceship did not limit its capabilities on the size of the traveling items in the scope. Hence, it was way more powerful than the detection system on most mechs.

    As stated by the oue of the detection, a long-term intergctic travel spaceship was heading towards them sluggishly. There was still a bit of a distance so far and the spaceship did not seem to have noticed Glinton in the dark.

    "What a waste of Glinton, Ye. You know, thisssie could easily sell for a gorgeous price in whichever market," Shang was remorseful as he muttered.

    Ye Chong did not have the intention toment on this money enved machinery though as he tapped the few switches by his side. The cabin was opened promptly. Towards the boundless space, Ye Chong, in his Han Jia, flew out. The self-destruct system had already been activated on Glinton. In 3 minutes, this spaceship would be debris scattered over the gxy after a re blinding the space. The Sanctuary shall never be able to find the remnants of their craft and they would never discover anything happened on it before.

    The debris would be the wanderers, spreading witness of their demise!

    Han Jia¡¯s speed was high by nature, so the 3 minutes were a graceful ride of Ye Chong leaving the cabin, flying far away enough to avoid the explosion. As he travelled rapidly away from the spot, his eyes discerned the ring light behind and he knew that Glinton had gone down. A stage increased on his velocity, Han Jia sped up once more. He would not want to be hit by the specks from the explosion.

 Chapter 167 - Ye Chong the Bumpkin

    <h4>Chapter 167: Ye Chong the Bumpkin</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Bumpkin

    "Captain! Look over there!" One of the crew members on S.S. Luminosity pointed at one portion of the interface as he boomed.

    At one moment everyone¡¯s sight conglomerated at that particr spot on the screen.

    A cluster of re bloomed like an enchanted lotus on fire, in the midst of darkness soundlessly.

    "It¡¯s an explosion¡­ by a ship!"

    "Yes sir!"

    "Sigh, the members of that cruise are such a pity."

    The crew members rumbled in the Captain¡¯s Room.

    The captain was obviously not expecting an explosion by a spaceship on a course that had been secure the whole time. He flinched at first, but he snapped out of his astonishment quickly as he shouted, "What are all of you waiting for? Go and save the ship!" The crew members¡¯ confusion was dispelled as they hurried outside, "Look out for those pieces!" the captain added briefly.

    All spaceships like Luminosity were readied with escape pods, which their outside wasyered with a special kind of reinforced metal that could repel almost all sorts of rays in the space while the inside contained 30-day supply of oxygen, energy refill and water. The escape pod also had an in-built signal transmitter, which would spread SOS signals to the surrounding at all times. The escape pods were to provide an emergency exit for crew members under severe conditions. The actual function turned out to be not as great as its psychological function though, other than the sense of security exerted by this extra pathway to the outside safely, every experienced crew member is very much aware of the vastness of the space, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime miracle if one could ever be found and rescued in the escape pod within 30 days.

    Despite all that, the escape pod was still the essential facility on the space ship back then. And every spaceship crew who received the SOS signal nearby would initiate the rescue process proactively.

    Within twinkling of eyes, few tens of mechs zoomed out of the cabin of Luminosity. None of those few tens mechs werebat models however.

    Ye Chong had already noticed these mechs much earlier before. He avoided these mechs wlessly. Well, Han Jia was certainly not the kind of mech that could be detected by these low-end detection system by some sailor mechs.

    He came to one gate at the bottom of the ship. While standing by, Shang had already hacked into the control panel of Luminosity, since it was simply hacking elementary for Shang to get into amercialputer system in a service ship. He did not perform anything dramatic in particr, he only unlocked the gate right before Ye Chong.

    And that was how Ye Chong sneaked into Luminosity, without making a sound. Under Shang''s guidance, Ye Chong sessfully dodged all the crew members on the ship and directly gained ess to one of the resting rooms fro passengers with suave. Shang generated a new entry for Ye Chong on the passenger list in the processor of Luminosity. In a few seconds, Ye Chong had officially be the passenger on this intergctic service craft. And Shang took a peek at their course, apparently Luminosity was not heading anywhere near Windstar. Hence, Ye Chong had to get off at a called Liche and took an alternate transit to Windstar.

    Ye Chong found his room.

    He slipped into the room instantly. Shut the door tight, he let off a sigh of relief and started taking a look around. The room was well-facilitated from both the aspects of entertainment and living. It was quite spacious too. There were even clothing for changing readily in the wardrobe. And Ye Chong picked and changed into one of them without hesitation. The fashion style in the Orbits was utterly bizarre by nature and he did not intend to be discriminated for appearing like a weirdo from some space jail or something.

    The crew members returned to their mothership after they discovered no escape pod from the debris. Doubts lingered in the captain as he wondered why a spaceship would explode on its own without any forewarning. He could not find any sound reason to rationale it either. But well if there was not a single escape pod, he let go of that thought and decisivelymanded to carry on their course.

    It was dinner time a momentter. Although there was no concept that would define day and night in space of ever-darkness, the habit remained rooted among most of the people, where they would head out for meals during these periods.

    Frankly speaking, the taste of the food on Glinton was something to be shunned away from. Since Glinton was mostly boarded with disciplinedbat members in their trainings, they would only care about the calorie of the food, never the taste.

    On the contrary, Luminosity, being a service flight, did cookery so much better than Glinton. Not only they served a variety of cuisines, the food generally tasted fine too, which was such a mouth-watering experience to Ye Chong who had been taking inhumane edibles in the past as he could not hold but to chomp the scrumptious food before him. Most of the passengers on-board would prefer having their meals at the restaurant, since an intergctic travel was known to be distant and seemingly endless and helplessly people would feel alone at times, they would adore interactions with people, which justified the popted restaurant and bars. Those were the hit ces for passengers.

    Ye Chong upied the entire table alone. Towards the people around, he was not as tensed as before. He at the moment had understood a lot of stuffs, for example the concept of the so-called w" mentioned by people in the 5 major gxies was apparently very effectively restrictive towards most of the folks. Unlike the Orbits, residents in the 5 major gxies were more peace-loving. So it would be a rare sight to see something like a sudden raid or an offensive dispute between people.

    Ye Chong had dipped himself in the delicious meals, showing no concern towards the people around.

    His action caught the attention of the people in the surrounding. They had been having simr meals for past few weeks, even the best table of gourmet experience would feel like a stew in a canteen. And that was when they saw someone eating them in immense enjoyment. "So weird¡­," whispered the people. But then, soon the people shifted their focus back onto their own table, as they carried chatting with the others right next to them.

    An aroma wafted through the breeze. Ye Chong lifted his face from the bowl of rice. To his surprise, ady sat right opposite him.

    Ye Chong was slightly rmed, though he did not express it on his face.

    And he heard a whistle from his head, "Wow, such ass. Ye, how much donkey luck do you have? Why are you always bumping into beauties?" howled Shang.

    Shang was not exaggerating. Thedy before Ye Chong was in fact a beauty. Her face was round yet her features were distinctive; the pair of eyes wererge and looked watery; her dark hair glossed like a veil of aurora on a winter¡¯s night; the curves, no doubt were eye-catching and certainly a ma to people in sight. The critical blow she delivered was none other than the unbuttoned shirt of hers. The bustiness could be felt squeezing through the gap of that two undone buttons anytime soon. You could somehow see it, but somehow you could not, which by then you would forget the fact that you had been staring at them the whole time.

    As usual, Ye Chong did not feel anything particr about thisss. Shang had always been howling at almost everydy came into his sight. His "standards" were dubious but judging by the constant stares from the people around, he decided to take in that quality assured judgment of Shang.

    He stared on, with one or two rice lumps stuck on his face. It was a little amusing.

    Psh!

    "Hahahahahahaha!" Thess could act in grace no longer as she burst outughing seeing that face of Ye Chong. Ye Chong¡¯s sensitive hearing had already perceived the consecutive gaspsing from his surrounding, including Shang¡¯s, only that his expressive gasp rang in his head.

    "What¡¯s the matter?" asked Ye Chong calmly. He had tried his best toning down the coldness of his tone, yet that innate coldness of his dawdled. Ye Chong did not want to attract attention and he had experienced enough to understand that his indifference had always been the culprit. To remain low-profiled, he sumbed to act normal like the other folks he had seen before.

    "Ye, your muscles, the muscles of your face, too stiff. Tsk, tsk, tsk." Shang could not resist firing his sarcasm.

    The veins on Ye Chong¡¯s forehead puffed up and were forced back under his skin. Act normal, he got to act normal. Damn you Shang! Cursed Ye Chong countless times.

    Thedy stayed silent however. Oh well, Ye Chong was not in a mood of staging himself either so hepletely neglected her as he carried on gashing his bowl.

    "Was it that good?" The beauty initiated. Her voice rang like the chirp of the nightingale¡­ And it had just caused another round of barrel gasping from the surrounding. Ye Chong lifted his face again and the beauty looked at him gleefully. Her eyes expressed curiosity and humor.

    "Oh. Yes. Not bad. You could try." His face did look stiff, which caused the way he talked appeared to be awkward.

    "Ye, please. Your face is cramping soon. I can see it!" Shang fearlessly continued his livementary in Ye Chong¡¯s head.

    "Why you Shang!" Roared Ye Chong in his head, which only led to a madderugh from the artificial indulgence. Somehow he did feel his face twitching, especially after Shang had mentioned it, wondering if it was just his overthinking.

    "Hahaha~"thedy giggled while covering her mouth. Her charm was such a natural captivation and Ye Chong could already specte the next wave of gasps iing. And as he expected, the gasps resounded tidily. Their breather intensified, with some sound of people crashing onto the floor this time.

    "You are so interesting." Thedy smiled joyfully and she reached out her slender arms, with a glow of a refined jade. She grabbed one stem of turnip and put into her mouth, "Hmm¡­" muffled, "Let me try."

    D-Did she literally try it? Ye Chong went speechless as he watched the so-called beauty before her.

    "Shang, did you not mention that lines like those were just out of courtesy and not reality? Why the heck did she really taste it?" inquired Ye Chong.

    "She is a true beauty, even the way she eats was cute as hell, alluring as heaven! Sigh, Ye, save your words, it¡¯s just a turnip. When there¡¯s a beauty who went ahead and took the food you had bitten before, that is the moment you should be d." The artificial indulgence was enjoying the scene.

    "d?" snickered Ye Chong and he went quiet, eating on.

    Looked at how frantically Ye Chong dined, thedy was further intrigued as she licked her fingers and giggled sweetly, "It looks really good¡­ for some reason¡­" And she reached out her hands again. "Oh?" Right at that moment Ye Chong lifted his face the third time and thedy realized the entire bowl had been cleaned up. It was spotless, as if fresh from the washing machine. She flinched and exploded, "Hahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!" Bowed, she held her stomach.

    The other passengers who saw the sight went dumbfounded as well. Then an outbreak ofughter urred, "Bumpkin! What a donkey!" And Ye Chong heard it from the crowd.

    Ye Chong was insensible towards these reactions. What have these to do with myself? My food are mine and it should not be invaded. It was themon characteristic among all species on Trash. Don¡¯t tell me people at this ce are doing it differently? Bewildered, he inquired, "Shang did I do something wrong again?"

    "Haha¡­ Oh¡­ Hahaha¡­ Ahahahaha¡­ Ye¡­ That¡­ That was ¡­ That was a killer move¡­ You know, you are a real assassin¡­ Ahahahahaha¡­" The mechanical voice box seemed to be broken soon from theughter.

    Killer move it would be. I had already done it. Ye Chong reacted with honesty. I don¡¯t know her anyway, why am I sharing my own food with her?

    "Kiddo! Get lost!" And that was when a fierce voice rushed in.

    He turned his face over and found a few beefy guys standing at the side, staring him with a bloodthirsty look. The body was inted with muscles and they looked threatening. There was even a guy with arge cut on the face, which made him more menacing than ever. Their eyes were filled with tant hostility, while the so-called beauty was¡­ acting¡­ very¡­ uhh¡­ Ye Chong ran out of words suddenly. Technically, the guys came for the beauty.

    The other passengers scurried out of the restaurant as they noticed the stern change of atmosphere. Only some daring ones remained to watch the show.

    "Are you talking to me?" Indifferently Ye Chong said, as inside he was impressed of how calm the beauty remained despite the existence of the few hulks before her.

    "Of course we are talking to you! Do you f*cking want to die so hard? ying the dumb out of me? F*cking hell!" The leader of the hulks was enraged. Ye Chong¡¯s words failed clearly as he went on grabbing Ye Chong¡¯s cors.

    The beauty who witnessed all these shrieked!

    Ye Chong lowered his head and tilted his body slightly. The grab was missed. The remaining people did not notice that chilliness hidden under the lids of his eyes.

    "So you are somebody who knew something eh?" The leader of the hulk was surprised while his grunts reacted rmingly as they circled around Ye Chong.

    "That would be yourst meal, Mr."

    "You think you''re tough eh?"

    Right when they were going tounch a full whirlwindbo at Ye Chong, "Nobody moves!" A chain of stampeding came behind them with a bold voice boomed.

    The beauty was much rxed upon seeing this. The security had finally arrived. The chaos ended here!

 Chapter 168 - We Meet Again

    <h4>Chapter 168: We Meet Again</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Ye¡­," sighed Shang in his head. "What a waste of a wonderful opportunity, when you could have been the prince to save the princess from the evil brothers. Sigh, well, that was it. The golden opportunity, once-in-a-lifetime of the debut you could ever have, gone. Sigh, sigh, sigh." The cheesy words from Shang sure were sufficient material to make Ye Chong rolling his eyes like a working slot machine while lowering his head.

    Let aside the debate on whether the female before her was considered a "beauty", Ye Chong had the intention to be the prince on the whitehorse to kill some possessed three-headed hulk to save a moaning princess.

    Consecutive chains of footsteps came towards them. A crowd of security guards surrounded the scene, looking all eager to begin their routine execution with some of them also having a heat ray gun in each of their hands pointing at the hulks.

    The gang feared of moving even a bit of their muscle. They could have been the muscr gang with outstanding fighting moves but they would never have the bravery to mess around when multiple heat ray guns were aiming.

    The captain of the security team was a man in his forties. His thick pair of brows highlighted his dignified appearance, while every one of his gestures felt righteous and just. "Who are the troublemakers here?" His eyes skimmed through the folks and eventually paused at the group of beefy men.

    "Hahahahahahaha!" The leader of the hulk was very much aware of the situation so he acted generously as he shrugged his shoulders in innocence, "We were just joking. We never expected the overreaction. Aw, we are so sorry!" The gang behind him was smiling gleefully along.

    Karton the captain had his stern stare fixed on them. The awkwardughter ceasedpletely the moment they were given the silent treatment. His sight then shifted to the onlydy at the ce, "Is he saying the truth?"

    Twitched the faces of the gang, their expression grew nervous as they looked at thedy, anticipating. Thedy hesitated for a second, "Yes." She did not seem to intend causing more unnecessary issues so she nodded her head and gave her answer.

    Upon receiving her response, Karton moved his eyes back onto the gang, his voice rang profoundly, "Well if that¡¯s the case, alright, we would let it slip. But I do hope that jokes of such kind would never appear again."

    "True. I do agree," the leader hurriedly approved his statement.

    The storm had somehow settled while it was still a breeze, with Karton leading his men away from the scene, remaining the two person at the restaurant. While leaving the ce, Karton continuously shot his sight at the gang. Ye Chong on the other hand had long disappeared before they realized. It was a happy ending, except for the gang whose faces kept twitching in dissatisfaction and unwillingness and their mouths firing rounds of vulgarities, obviously being salty over the embarrassment they brought upon themselves.

    The atmosphere in the restaurant was lively again like before as soon as the gang exited the ce. And Ms. Shang-Said-She-Was-A-Beauty had be the center of attention as people crowded around her, trying to please her. Thedy casually greeted them while her eyes were searching for that one particr silhouette, Ye Chong. And of course he was not in the crowd, which was slightly somber to her. "Thank you. Good night," she forced a smile and scrammed back to her room.

    "Well, your own blockbuster of heroic tales had gone. Ye, are you really that unfortunate with beauties? That you always missed the chance of dating them? But why do you keep bumping in to beauties?" Shang¡¯s tone sounded confused.

    Before Ye Chong could make a reply to shut him up, "Oh! It¡¯s already time to change!" Shang screamed gracelessly out of sudden, "God, what have I done to get such treatment? For you to force me out of the scene right after I encountered a charmingssie, this is the cruelest thing you could have ever done to humanity! Ye, let me tell yo-" Thest syble trailed off.

    "Ye," the t voice returned. It was Mu. Ye Chong could tell by one syble.

    "Yes, Mu. You are here, finally!" Ye Chong felt very much relieved. Shang could have been a mastermind at sometimes but he was never as reliable as Mu, like that space-jump mistake before for example. No way it would go wrong at Mu¡¯s hands! In addition, Shang¡¯s words were hardly as concise as Mu¡¯s, which was a constant headache to Ye Chong, including his anomalous approach in rifying the problems. Those barely rified the issues, rather it confused Ye Chong even more.

    Ye Chong had a much simpler life with Mu, he was more ustomed to it. Nheless, Ye Chong recognized his weakness. He admitted that he would blunder in socialization, which Shang woulde in handy at times. Well, the catch was, despite Shang¡¯s passionate lectures on his humanity, he probably would not have significant progression of any kind at the moment.

    "It seems like Shang had given you quite some displeasure," stated Mu.

    "Yeah, but he¡¯s always like that. At least he would be quieter when nossie was around," Ye Chong confessed his belief.

    "Well, he is considered the expert in this," concisely Mu concluded Shang¡¯s exceptional characteristic.

    "True, true! We still need 10 more days till Rique. Then we would change to the other ship to get to Windstar. There seems to be a ride heading to Windstar there," briefed Ye Chong the situation, though chances were Mu had already known every bit of detail he was required to know.

    "Mhm, the better efficiency could be achieved by hijacking this ship and forcing them to redirect the course to Windstar instead. As stated by my analysis, the destination would be reached in only 12 days if that is the case. Furthermore, after my calction, the sess rate of hijacking the ship is above 95%!" suggested Mu a brilliant n.

    Mu and Shang are totally 2 different kinds of species!

    Hijacking? That could work but then¡­ Ye Chong scrapped the idea after pondering a little. It would be disadvantageous for him to grab all the unnecessary attention if he were to hijack. His sole purpose of boarding this ship was to get to Windstar, silently, without rming anybody and find that teacher of Dr. Lu, known as Dr. Wang Weixing to cure this haunting disease in him, so that he could settle down at a ce anonymously and spend the rest of his life being a nobody. Only if he could get back the tranquil life he once had on Trash-12¡­

    Speaking of this haunting disease, Ye Chong was being skeptical of its activity. Wondering if it was because of the progression he made in his meditation or was it the nature of the disease itself, the time frame of inactivity between each cycle had been increasing each time somehow. It had been quite a while since Ye Chong¡¯sst acting-up. He was also wondering if he had already gotten used to the pain that he could standing strong against it when it happened or the pain was in fact diminishing over the time. Sometimes Ye Chong even spected that the syndrome could disappear all by itself as time passed.

    !

    He opened his eyes and woke from the trance state of his meditation. Somehow the progression this time was pretty significantpared to before, maybe Ye Chong had not been doing ittely, so he could clearly feel that mental senses of his vibrating during meditation. Based on what that old Yin man had spat before, this should be counted aspletion of the introductory level of meditation.

    ¡­ which was utterly startling to Ye Chong as he truly thought he would take forever to evenplete the introductory level of training with that snail development of his. And he ceased the training entirely after getting to Nine Gates City, as the mentalist and mentalist-pilot were everywhere, he dared not to perform meditation and was expecting to begin his training all over again. The reality was quite the contrary however, the progress was great. At first session after leaving Nine Gates City, he had achieved the elementary level. How could that not be startling to our Ye Chong?

    He gave up figuring after a while of attempting a sound deduction for this.

    Nevertheless, the benefits he got from meditating were absolutely heartfelt for him. His sight and hearing were naturally transcendent. Then the training this time had brought their capabilities up to the next level. The joyous part to Ye Chong was, his mind was clear, crystal-clear. It felt as if he was dipped in the water, chilling to the core and his dexterity improved.

    Ye Chong felt the ringinging from his stomach after waking up. A nce at the clock suggested that he had long passed the usual schedule for dining. The restaurant should be quite empty at that moment. And he headed out for food.

    The restaurant on Luminosity operated all day, so you could go and have your meals any time of the day. Inside the enormous restaurant, Ye Chong stood alone. The so-called beauty was not there. What a relief. Sighed Ye Chong.

    There were numerous food-supply machines at the ce, which their main body being the long rectangr metallic cab resting on the ground with one end as the output. A processor stood right above the output slot.

    He walked towards one of the supply machines and randomly tapped a few dishes on the processor. Most of the food was never-before-tasted to Ye Chong, so why not? Beep! Soon, a tray of those food he ordered got out to the ground. He grabbed it at once and shifted to one random spot. Thup. He ced down the tray and began digging in. There was nobody else and he decided to cut those restrictive table manners and gobbled.

    Right when he was enjoying the food, muffles were heard. He lifted his head and discerned a gang of men entering the restaurant, with their words shamelessly echoing within the space as they disregarded everything else than themselves. Damn. Ye Chong knotted his brows. Aren¡¯t those the gangs he faced yesterday?

    It was a fateful stare he made as the gang of men was looking right into his eyes. Their eyes lustered and sprang up from the chairs they had just sat on. Snickered, they walked towards Ye Chong and covered him up partially.

    Ye Chong in response only took a nce and carried on his meal as if nothing had happened before.

    "Kiddo. Heh! You are all alone this time. I¡¯ll see how you¡¯re gonna escape," sneered the leader as he inched towards Ye Chong, cracking his fingers loudly with his men sneering alone.

    The strange part on their script was, the boy before them had hardly shown a hint of fear as his chopsticks never stopped moving even after they had made a debut and thrown their lines. No word was heard from the boy while the tingling sound of the bowl rang. Was this kiddo freed from hunger game recently? The leader found the reaction ridiculous.

    He reminisced the embarrassment he bore when he and his men were engulfed by the security. Wrath began brewing inside him again, like a lighted match falling onto a pit of machine oil.

    Hehehehe¡­

    Hehehehehe¡­

    The bulky men surrounded Ye Chong and could not stop sneering. Apparently they did not notice that condensed bloodthirstiness rolling inside his shrinking pupils.

    "Kiddo, what a fateful encounter. You and I meet again, at the same ce, right here. Hehehe!" A faked smile from the leader as his giant hands tapped the shoulder of Ye Chong. The remaining men stepped aside and anticipated the great show to begin. The puny boy was fragile by his look, slender and papery, which was perfect to be toyed and expressed dissatisfaction upon. A few of the men seemed eager to try too, obviously they wanted to join the show.

    "Good bye, kiddo." The leader¡¯s hand reached for his shirt.

    And their eyes blinded by a whirlwind. Before they could identify the situation, they heard an ear-piercing shriek shattering the peace in the restaurant.

    Wait¡­ Is-Isn¡¯t this voice¡­ leader¡¯s? The men shuddered.

    Simultaneously their sights converged on their leader, gasped together, their faces were drained!

    To their horror, the right arm of their leader had been distorted, literally distorted, like a cinnamon roll badly fried with horrifying bones spurting from the elbow. The muscles were torn. As the blood capiries were not harmed, only faint stains of blood tainted the bones. Nauseating it was, disgusting it looked.

    The hulk miraculously was able to take the immense pain. He did not pass out right away, which was impressive for his endurance. That was also his misfortune however, as the pain seized his body, making him bow his back and grabbing his twisted arm, whimpering with his face squeezing awfully. It was petrifying.

    People were dumbfounded,pletely dumbfounded!

 Chapter 169 - An Old Friend

    <h4>Chapter 169: An Old Friend</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The harsh scream resounded in the empty restaurant.

    in he had looked, shocking whenever he acted - this was the principle of Ye Chong¡¯sbats, though he would prefer not ughtering anyone for real this time. It was the moment when he would be better off staying in the dark, who knows if the eyes of the Sanctuary happened to be wondering in the craft. If he were to further dramatize the entire incident, he would be very much exposed to their discovery.

    Well, Ye Chong did not hesitate making them to pay a bit of price for misbehaving however. He even made up his mind, assuming they showed stubbornness and unreasonable resistance, he would not keep his ughter knife. At most he would just go with Mu¡¯s hijacking n instead. Of course, that n would not happen till the very crucial moment where he was forced to.

    The men of the wounded leader finally understood the whole situation as they reacted with anger, yelling and jumping on Ye Chong. Some of them even withdrew their dagger to avenge their leader.

    The cold gaze blinked within his eyes. A tip to his toes and he weaved through the crowd like a shadow. Series of audible sounds of fisting and pping followed. Men fell all over the ce like cheap sandbags.

    Below average! Rated Ye Chong quickly in his mind. For someone who had witnessed the masterly barehandedbats between the ck Covers, certainly these men had terrible skills.

    Everyone else than Ye Chong were curling while wailing on the ground. Ye Chong did not harm them technically like what he did to their leader. To shock the enemies, you only have to do it once. So these men were just given a touch by his fist or kick. The technique was from his stay in ck Coves back then. The signature characteristic of ck Covers¡¯ technique was its ability to disable the mobility of enemies temporarily by deactivating certain spots of human bodies. No doubt, Ye Chong had defined the characteristic perfectly.

    They were wailing on the ground, but none of them could move as part of their muscles had lost the dynamics for the moment.

    Ow¡­ Aw¡­

    Man¡­ Aww¡­

    Save me¡­

    Ye Chong sat back to his table and disregarded those annoying screams. He grabbed his chopsticks and went on taking his time finishing his meal. He had understood the fact of how each meal hardly came by back when he was on Trash. No way he would prematurely end his meal because of these silly bullies, especially when wasting good food was an unforgivable sin to him.

    He pushed the empty te away from him and got up. Ignoring the wailing annoyance, he walked away.

    A girl entered after that and¡­

    Ellen covered her mouth, desperately forcing herself to not make any noises. Gosh, what the hell had happened in the restaurant just now? Why were there so many people lying on the ground? The shrill scream echoed inside her head and it was disturbing. Wait¡­ She took a better look. Those men on the ground happened to be those malicious bullies she encountered the day before¡­ what? Why are they lying here? And why are some of them wounded?

    She observed the whining men on the ground. The first conclusion came across in her mind was shocking to her. They were hit¡­ Yes they were hit by people, they were attacked. Such horrifying skill¡­ The men were in total immobility¡­ the attack even disabled their mobility¡­ This is ¡­ eerie¡­

    Ellen had been quite a stunning beauty since young. And her parents employed a fewbat instructors for her safety, not to protect her, but to teach her the martial arts. Throughout the years, she practiced non-stop and had changed one teacher after another. Regarding the expertise ofbating, she knew it much more than the usual folks. Seizing the opponent¡¯s control by simply hitting a particr part of the body¡­ that would be considered a rather advanced technique ofbats.

    And who did this? Who was the expert? Ellen¡¯s shock uncontrobly overflowed.

    Coincidentally, the body of the beefy men regained the senses while she was making her deduction. One of them lifting the head spotted Ellen. Shuddered, their eyes expressed strong fear towards Ellen after regaining mobility and standing up.

    Well, it was a sense of fear out of misunderstanding. They assumed both Ellen and Ye Chong were acquainted to each other, seeing how they sat together at the restaurant the day before. So, like a connected circuit, a ssical conditioning, they were reminded of Ye Chong who nearly murdered them all upon seeing Ellen, which exined the shudder.

    Ellen who saw them recovering gradually shut the gate of the restaurant and walked away promptly. Those might be the good fighters, but they aren¡¯t the good guys. Ellen would lose her appetite with those men inside. Though she was confused, wondering why the men expressed some kind of fear towards her.

    Could the one teaching them a lesson be a friend of mine? Ellen the sensible one guessed the possibility right away. Wait¡­ no¡­ Nobody else had known of my whereabouts on this trip. And I had yet to bump into any acquaintances on this ship¡­ Ellen cracked her head thinking, searching for the endless possibilities. But well, even if she dipped into the pool of probability, she would never think of how it could have been that rice-digging guy she met before.

    "Mu, watch this ship properly," stated Ye Chong as soon as he got back to his room, "If you find anything, tell me right away." A n in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, as assuming the men would not behave themselves that easily, especially after the humiliation they had experienced today. Ye Chong did not want any more incidents to happen. Well, if things had gone rough, he would go and grab the steer of this ship instantly and fly all the way to Windstar.

    Providing that, he would be left with only one way to keep everyone muted of his presence in the ship. Ye Chong¡¯s eyes looked intense. Yes¡­ that was why he refused to do the hijacking n from the beginning, since whatever the premises were, these men were still hispatriots, his kind and Ye Chong were not the bloodthirsty kind to begin with. As long as they did not express hostility or maliciousness, he would not kill them for no reason. He did not fear murders but he disliked murders.

    He took a chip from his bag and inserted it into the processor. The chip contained the entirebat sequence between the two experts he had witnessed before. Yes, the experts who got neutralized by the squad. Ye Chong and Mu had performed a series of analysis and reorganizing of movements in the visual, which eventually boiled down to this very chip, the most useful data to Ye Chong at the moment.

    And Ye Chong began his training in the room. Combating was simr to piloting. One would not only be required the expertise behind the working, but also the formation of muscle memory to produce the flow of the sequences, thus an actual body training would be inseparable.

    Ye Chong honed his stance when he pulled off his moves by following the analyzed data appeared in the processor. It did not take long before Ye Chong had gone fully enthralled by it, as he felt the every single change on his movement as ording to the strands of data.

    "Ye!" Right when Ye Chong was enjoying the process, Mu boomed in his head.

    Ye Chong flinched as he ceased his movement, "Mu, what¡¯s wrong? Did anything happen?" Mu had been monitoring the whole craft soundlessly over the course, none of the corners was missed under his mechanical eyes.

    "Look. I had sent it to the processor," answered Mu.

    Ye Chong shifted his sight back onto the processor, the illustrated data was reced by a group of hologram features, ying a tape, which Mu also recorded every word uttered by the people in the feature.

    "Eh? What?" Even Ye Chong the calmest guy in the gxy could not help but to nearly shriek. He swallowed his shriek and smiled slightly, "I really did not expect him to be here. This is really unbelievable¡­" His thoughts wandered off with sentiments.

    "Mathematically, yes. The probability is indeed extremely small," added Mu.

    Settled his thoughts, Ye Chong spoke on, "Looks like they woulde for us." Ye Chong was excited to be facing some sandbags soon.

    "Chances are high," affirmed Mu, as he borated, "I did not block their ess to your forged profile on the ship. They could arrive at this room effortlessly." Every passenger on the intergctic cruise would be handed with profiles of every other passengers and Ye Chong was an "addition" to the database by Mu when he sneaked in.

    Thup.

    As expected, Ye Chong heard the knocksing at the door not too long after.

    Tick.

    Ye Chong gave a gentle tap on the processor¡¯s interface. The door was opened in a hush.

    A group of fearsome-looking men in ck suits fled into Ye Chong¡¯s room and had upied all the potential advantageous location. The suited men stood still and no sound was heard from them. Same goes with Ye Chong, solemnly he stood there in calmness, the men were disregarded like the chilly air surrounding them.

    Cough.

    A momentter, a light cough came from the outside. A man taking his time made his entry to the room.

    "So you were¡­" The man in the middle of the crowd lifted his head, with his eyes shining¡­ ring?

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained unchanged, his eyes were conveying a certain degree of gleefulness.

    Cough!

    The head in the middle reacted quickly, as he cleared his throat again, turned to his men, "Well, head out you all. Guard for me. I have some business to discuss with this mister in front."

    "Master." His men were in overwhelming bewilderment, aren¡¯t we supposed toe and mess with this dude? Why out of the sudden master changed his mind? We get out? Then what about our master¡¯s safety? The men were well-aware the fact that their master was utterly harmless. Upon themand, his men looked lost.

    "Ahem!" The head acted displeasedly, "I said, get out! Just get out already! I don¡¯t have time to do all the mumbo-jumbo to cast you all out."

    "Yes sir!" The men hurriedly exited Ye Chong¡¯s room upon the reinforcedmand from their leader. Tick! The door closed in a hush after their leaving. They were astonished and almost had the urge to bang the door open again. "Shhh!" The leader of the underlings had his ear stuck on the door¡­ There was no noise or whatsoever¡­ It seemed fine. The leader shrugged, along with the other men, as they continued waiting by the door in wonders.

    "Master!" Right after the door was shut, the head of those men approached Ye Chong femininely, "It was you! It really is you! Gosh, I did not expect to see you here! Like really I did not¡­," in thrill, he spoke confusingly.

    It was whom Ye Chong had met before. Yes, Bai Linan.

    Ye Chong took a nce over Bai Linan. The suit was a perfect fit on him, though he was still willow as before, the suit made him looked like a skeleton with a head popped out of the cor. His face was rosier however, obviously he had a much better life than before.

    Meeting an old friend was also a thrill to Ye Chong too. They lost each other after the visit at the ck Coves. Too many incidents had happened after that. It felt like a travel across the dimension to Ye Chong out of the blue.

    Bai Linan was stimted to see Ye Chong, as he was the first one who truly cared about him. He actually had the intention to follow Ye Chong for the rest of his life, but he lost him on the ck Coves. He thought Ye Chong was a gone-case considering how Ye Chong was a hot-headed man. It was very likely to see him getting into a fight with one of the residents there, which caused his remorse for the following time of wondering why in the world he suggested to separate in the first ce. If it was not for his brilliant idea, Master Ye Chong would have been there.

    But they met again.

    "Master¡­ My Lord¡­," Bai Linan was choked with tears.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained calm, though it was causing a fissure in his mind.

 Chapter 170 - Accompaniment

    <h4>Chapter 170: Apaniment</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Bai Linan had been patiently waiting for Ye Chong¡¯s reappearance on the ck Coves back then. He spent every single coin Ye Chong had left in his pocket soon after and inevitably he had to find a living on his own somewhere in this ck market. Fortunately many of the wealthy merchants frequented the exterior of the ck Coves and Bai Linan, as quick-witted as he was, got the heart of the merchants. Well, he was eventually a strategist, one who was familiar with buttering-up and providing services to the superiors. It did not take long before Bai Linan won over the head of the Sylvia Group, Mr. Robert. He gained Mr. Robert¡¯s trust gradually and became the butler at his ce. He aimed the right merchant since Sylvia Group was a major spaceship production group.

    Mr. Robert fancied the entertainment on the ck Coves a lot and Bai Linan, being his man, had been visiting the ce regrly.

    Well, he met his lord, the meaning of his soul after much detour, once again.

    "My lord, so you¡¯re heading¡­," inquired Bai Linan.

    "Windstar," concisely Ye Chong replied.

    "Ah? Really? Great! Wise people sure think alike, my lord! We are heading the same way!" Bai Linan was surprised. "My men and I do intend to go Windstar from the beginning!" Although having no idea why Ye Chong wanted to go to Windstar, the witty willow guy did not ask. At least he was very sure that Ye Chong could never be going there for sightseeing, even if Windstar was known for its tourism.

    "My lord, my master, my¡­" Bai Linan haltered out a few words, "How about¡­" Ye Chong¡¯s gaze intensified, "Hahahaha¡­" As forced by the terrifying gaze, he spat everything, "My lord, what I mean is¡­ how about we¡­ we walk together?" He regretted his words the very second he uttered them. Droplets of sweats rolled down his back for some reason. Why am I this nervous? I am this nervous only when I¡¯m meeting authorities like Mr. Robert¡­

    He had witnessed Ye Chong¡¯s mighty capability inbats before. So his safety would be absolutely guaranteed as long as he walked with Ye Chong by his side. Well, if it was not some idents before, his safety would be extra guaranteed by taking private transport.

    He was well-aware that his lord Ye Chong was not fond of the buzzes around him. So he was not confident of his suggestion of apaniment.

    The catch was, Ye Chong nodded his head, "Okay," calmly his word went.

    "So you agreed, my lord?" Bai Linan¡¯s eyes erged, as if he misheard something.

    "Yeah," Ye Chong nodded once again.

    The next few minutes, Bai Linan was still under the stunning spell of Ye Chong¡¯s reply. He could not believe his ears as he did expect Ye Chong reacting coldly and turning down his offer. That would be more of a Ye Chong behavior.

    Ye Chong did not simply ept the offer, he had his own thoughts too. Staying with Bai Linan meant a kind of camouge to his identity. He seriously needed camouges these days especially after the raid of the ck Coves on Blue Ocean back then where they made a total seize of transpiration through medias andws. The way of how effortlessly ck Coves took over the entire governmental system with one move convinced Ye Chong the lesson that any man, even with the mightiest strength, would be minuscule and helpless in front of the majority.

    Ye Chong followed Bai Linan.

    "My lord, please stay here for the moment. This is my room. No worries, no one would disturb you." Bai Linan escorted Ye Chong to his room.

    Ye Chong viewed the room. It was a pretty majestic room. The floor carpeted with the skin of the organic lifeforms in scarlet, dimly lit by the yellowishmp. The extravagant style made Ye Chong frowned and nced at Bai Linan. How I never knew Bai Linan was such a ¡­ "Uh!" Blushed Bai Linan upon Ye Chong¡¯s nce, as he coughed briefly and spoke, "This was just some acting, basic acting, camouge you know? Can¡¯t help it."

    Ye Chong did notment on his reasoning as he shifted his stare away. Bai Linan was a bit embarrassed.

    "My lord, you would be addressed as my bodyguard, is that fine?" asked Bai Linan carefully.

    Ye Chong signaled approvingly. It did not matter to him. Bodyguard¡­ the title reminded him of Gu Shaoze and his blonde bodyguard Number 2. He knew that Bai Linan could never treat him as a real bodyguard, though he would most likely take action if he saw Bai Linan in danger.

    Bai Linan was relieved seeing how Ye Chong did not seem to have an objection. He did have a tiny scheme in mind but he could not inform his head regarding Ye Chong¡¯s existence. He understood their personalities. His head would never let go of a talent like Ye Chong while Ye Chong was never the kind who would bow before someone. Oh the contrast¡­ it was frightening for him to imagine both parties having conflict.

    "Take a seat, my lord, take a seat," pleaded Bai Linan. Ye Chong sat. The fluffy couch nearly engulfed him, which was a bit distressing to his unfamiliarity. Such fluffiness he could not exert force on would easily lead him to a helpless situation on an emergency for not being able to react quickly and properly.

    "Ah Duan, go bring Tie Wu," grabbed amunicator, Bai Linan ordered.

    Not too longter, the screen at the side of the door disyed visual of a man who spoke courteously, "Boss, I had brought you Tie Wu." Soon after thest syble he spoke, the door opened automatically.

    Two suited bulky men stepped into the room together.

    Ye Chong raised his brows slightly, he recognized one man with his right arm bandaged, that was actually the man he nearly crippled at the restaurant, yes, the leader of the hulks.

    "Boss, I present you, Tie Wu," spoke Ah Duan politely.

    "Oh," responded Bai Linan, his expression was indiscernible under the dim yellow light. Ye Chong on the other hand was watching Bai Linan to put up his show.

    "Tie Wu¡­," tly Bai Linan spoke.

    "Boss!" The fearsome-looking Tie Wu was acting like a sweet littlemb in front of Bai Linan.

    "Umm, Tie Wu my man, this guy beside me, is actually a friend of mine. It¡¯s just some misunderstanding¡­ Well, why don¡¯t we let this go? How do you think?" Bai Linan¡¯s tone was more like a discussion than an order.

    Tie Wu raised his eyes at Bai Linan and nced through his eyes¡¯ corner at that soundless Ye Chong at his side. He quivered as he lowered his head, "Tie Wu shall obey the order without doubts!"

    "Hah¡­ Well then, we shall forget about this. We should be friends than foes. We would have plenty of times working together in future. We should celebrate, especially when it was hard to see a forgiving Tie Wu. Ah Duan¡­ Oh Ah Duan¡­" Bai Linan looked very satisfied.

    Ah Duan hurried to the front and bowed. Bai Linan then stated serenely, "Tie Wu sure took some venom this time¡­ very well, Tie Wu shall take over the transportation task next month. Go and do the necessary changes for me, would you?"

    "Yes sir!" Ah Duan¡¯s tone was serious.

    Tie Wu was madly joyful, "Thank you my boss, thank you for your recognition! Tie Wu shall perform your order wlessly!"

    Bai Linan was delighted seeing how Tie Wu was being so understanding, "Hahaha, Tie Wu, just remember to not make any troubles there. Well, it¡¯s time for both of you to go," waved Bai Linan, gesturing them to head out.

    The two men bowed in courtesy and they left. Ye Chong witnessed the entire scene of Bai Linan acting like a boss. It looked like Bai Linan was in fact having a good time under Mr. Robert. Ye Chong was intrigued as he fixed his eyes on Bai Linan.

    Bai Linan¡¯s face blushed again upon the door closing, seeing how odd Ye Chong¡¯s gaze was, "Heh¡­ That was just acting, yes, just acting!"

    Bai Linan came into the industry as a space pirate so he habitually kept the preference of employing those fearsome-looking kinds to be his underlings even after bing Mr. Robert¡¯s butler. It was rather fortunate that Bai Linan was wise in controlling these beasts to listen to his words, while Mr. Robert gave him ample trust. So his men would obey his orders wholeheartedly.

    So, Ye Chong nominally became Bai Linan¡¯s bodyguard and spent the days mostly in the room. Bai Linan was also a great nner, so he knew what to do on whatever asion by nature.

    Ye Chong was using a pseudonym, Wang Xing in the ship. Technically he removed the Wei from Wang Weixing in the database, which was why Bai Linan did not recognize Ye Chong in the first ce.

    Ye Chong observed his men daily. Bai Linan did have an actual gang under hismand and he was confident to say that they had seen more blood than sweat. Ah Duan was probably the one who left the deepest impression in him. He was young but he did his work steadily and very maturely. He was considerate in all aspects, that even Ye Chong the one whocked the societymon sense pinpointed his talents in this. Well, Ah Duan also happened to be Bai Linan¡¯s most trustworthy man.

    Throughout the observation these days, Ye Chong realized the authority in the hand of Bai Linan. It was very great. And regarding that head of his, Mr. Robert, he had never seen him in person. Ye Chong did not have interest on him however. He solely wanted to head to Windstar silently.

    Nothing happened throughout the journey.

    The underlings of Bai Linan were all aware of the existence of a master martial arts by their boss¡¯s side, who also happened to be an old friend of his. And he had be the personal bodyguard. They did not really see the power of Ye Chong, but the injury he caused to their leader was truly horrifying, despite how they had seen more deaths than injuries. Such a cruel person, and he was a good friend of the boss, staying in his room day by day¡­ no one would dare enough to knock on the door to mess with Ye Chong and get into trouble, seeing how closely Ye Chong and their boss were rted.

    Today they had arrived by Rique the. And they heard of someone visiting Mr. Robert.

    Ye Chong in his ck suit was feeling awkward of his unfamiliar apparel. Such kind of clothing was not appropriate for movements¡­ Ye Chong carefully tried doing a few moves he usually performed. It looked ridiculous as hell. In the timeframe of less than half an hour, he had already torn like 10 suits. He would destroy a suit averagely every 3 minutes, and it shocked Ah Duan who witnessed everything to death. Ye Chong¡¯s strength was too overwhelming for the clothing. identally he would wave his limbs too much and the clothes would tear like a shredded paper, with a huge gap in between.

    At least Ye Chong started to get familiar with this absolutely inconvenient clothing, as his action grew more natural.

    Ye Chong in his suit had discarded the restrictiveness before, which was amazing to Ah Duan.

    Ye Chong was born with a outstanding physique, with the suit he would appear more ssy. Well that would only be applicable if one were to watch it from the back. Shifting the camera to the front would make anyone disregard the statement before, Ye Chong would be impossibly equalized to ssiness. Ye Chong¡¯s face was not handsome to begin with. Still, that calmness of his, with that coldness from the inside was a killer charm to thedies. His arms were odd too, they were slender, the training before still did not give him any bulges he was supposed to get. Perfectly sculptured, like a masterpiece.

    Absolutely, a sophisticated prince from the aristocrats!

    Ah Duan looked in disbelief at Ye Chong who somehow had undergone some sort of witchcraft and transformedpletely.

    Beep! Beep!

    Ah Duan quickly connected the ringingmunicator, the screen projected the visual of Bai Linan, "Boss!" bowed Ah Duan rushingly.

    "Yes, Ah Duan, are those men ready?" asked Bai Linan.

    "Yes, all ready," hurriedly he replied.

    "Mhm, alright. We are stopping by soon. Call them to prepare the things. We can¡¯t get it wrong this time. Our head¡¯s security is the priority and it should be impable. Understand?" grimly Bai Linan gave his order.

    "Yes sir!" Ah Duan¡¯s expression turned grim too.

    "Also, how was Wang Xing¡¯s preparation?" inquired Bai Linan.

    "I think¡­" He took a look at Ye Chong who was walking in his suit around in the room, "He should be almost ready."

    "Mhm, okay. He is not experienced in this, please give him some attention, okay?" stated Bai Linan.

    "Yes sir!" replied Ah Duan.

 Chapter 171 - The Beauty, Shang Xin

    <h4>Chapter 171: The Beauty, Shang Xin</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The long distance passenger starship Luminosity entered the docking zone of Richie, andnded smoothly. Hatch 29 opened, and out came arge troop of well built men in ck suits. Once they left the hatch, the men immediately secured strategic locations around the area. Their overbearing look drew more than a flew nces from the other passengers exiting through the other hatches.

    There were already some people waiting outside, and they seemed to be very concerned of Robert¡¯s safety. The area was crowded, and Ye Chong even noticed a few discreet guards in the shadows.

    Duan brought Ye Chong along to meet the other party. Bai Linan had asked for Duan to take care of Ye Chong, and Duan decided that bringing Ye Chong along by his side was a better option.

    The other party was here for a woman. The woman was around 25 years of age, her beautiful countenance was matched with a cold expression, and her chilling eyes looked as though they could see through anyone. She was tall and slender, herbat uniform wrapping fittingly around her hot and voluptuous body. Thisbination of fire and ice made one¡¯s heart throb!

    Duan and Ye Chong approached.

    "Good day, I¡¯m Duan, person in charge for Mr Robert¡¯s safety!" Duan extended his right hand.

    "Good day, I¡¯m Shang Xin, person in charge for Mr Robert¡¯s arrival here and his safety on Richie! Wee to Richie! I hope that you will cooperate with us for this mission to ensure Mr Robert¡¯s safety!" The voice was clear and soothing, but tinged with a condescending undercurrent that made one ufortable!

    Duan¡¯s expression changed a little. "I believed Ms Shang must have misunderstood, Mr Robert¡¯s safety is our responsibility!"

    Shang Xin¡¯s cool countenance turned slightly cynical. "Oh, is Mr Duan not confident of our abilities? We¡¯re familiar with the ins and outs of Richie, my subordinates are all elites, so Mr Duan, please rest assured, that incident with Robert a few days ago will never repeat itself!"

    Duan¡¯s expression immediately turned grim. Shang Xin was referring to the attempt on Robert''s lifest time. An assassin had managed to slip through the guards outside, but fortunately was discovered by their employer¡¯s bodyguards. A tragedy was avoided! The incident was a humiliating one for Duan, and now that someone in the same profession had spoke of it right in his face, Duan was inevitably affected!

    Shang Xin ignored Duan and activated herms. "All units in your position, report any abnormalities to me!" She gave no attention to Duan.

    Duan activated hisms grimly. "Everyone ready!"

    Ye Chong observed the two with interest.

    Duan¡¯s subordinates quickly moved to their positions, but their choice of locations often ovepped with that of Shang Xin¡¯s subordinates, and the bodyguards from both two sides could only stare at one another in contempt.

    Some of them had already deployed their mechs and slipped into the pilot cabins, examining the surroundings carefully. Nearby tourists noticed their demonstrations and quickly scrambled away.

    Ye Chong trailed behind Duan. These men may normally look like the average gangsters, but they now performed like professionals. Their choice of locations and the cooperation between them were of high standards.

    However, after witnessing the Sanctuary¡¯s astonishing cooperation and unmatched teamwork, this standard of performance was not enough to impress Ye Chong anymore! Besides, Ye Chong already noticed two openings, and could not help but begin to consider the ways he could avoid these men and reach his target.

    Shang Xin¡¯s fair countenance betrayed nothing, but she was secretly surprised to find that the other party was as capable as her own team in their profession. Could the assassin really be that good? She was beginning to feel curious about it.

    Through it all, Shang Xin did not even acknowledge Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was actually Bai Linan¡¯s bodyguard, and should be by Bai Linan¡¯s side now. However, since Bai Linan was apanying Robert at the moment, Ye Chong had followed Duan and disembarked from the Luminosity.

    Soon, the security teams were in their positions, and did not observe any abnormalities. Duan immediately reported to Bai Linan.

    It was only then that Robert emerged from the hatch.

    Four bodyguards wearing miniature mechs surrounded Robert, and Bai Linan followed from behind.

    Ye Chong noticed the four miniature mechs, and was startled!

    The four miniature mechs did not stand out in particr, but what grabbed Ye Chong¡¯s attention was the way these four men moved in their miniature mechs! Ye Chong could not see the pilots themselves, but he could make out their steps! These miniature mechs were not much taller than the average human height, so they looked more like four armored bodyguards!

    That was precisely why Ye Chong could see the way they march forward clearly!

    Double Curved Steps!

    Curved Steps weremon. It was a basic footwork technique for mech pilots, and an evasion measure! However, Double Curved Steps were entirely different Curved Steps! Double Curved Steps was a type of footwork meant forbat. Since it was usuallyprised of two oppositely directed Curved Steps, it was called Double Curved Steps, and was known for its unpredictability!

    Ye Chong did not know if other schools of battle techniques taught this footwork, but he knew one of them definitely did - ck Cove! Ye Chong had learnt this footwork from ck Cove himself! Till this day, Ye Chong had never seen anyone aside from ck Cove¡¯s men using this kind of footwork.

    Ye Chong suspected that these four bodyguards in miniature mechs were from ck Cove! He thought of escaping immediately, since if they were indeed from ck Cove, he would done for!

    Just then, one of the bodyguard¡¯s vision swept past Ye Chong, and he detected it immediately with his sharp senses. He groaned on the inside. If the other party reacted, he would deploy Guardian and flee!

    However, as the bodyguard saw Ye Chong, he did not have any noticeable reaction. From his discreet observation, Ye Chong also believed that the person did not recognize him! At the same time, Mu¡¯s words affirmed his suspicions. "Ye, that person doesn¡¯t know you. When he saw you, his pulse and breathing were normal!" Mu¡¯s conclusion was very trustworthy!

    Could they not be from ck Cove?

    It was possible. ck Cove¡¯s instructors did not say that Double Curved Steps was unique to ck Cove. Who knew if other schools had it. "I¡¯m probably just being paranoid," Ye Chong mocked himself. The other party¡¯s eyes did not fix onto him, and Ye Chong sighed in relief. However, he still maintained a state of high alert. If anything happened, he was getting out of there!

    Another thing that surprised Ye Chong was the way the imaginative way in which the four bodyguards executed the Double Curved Steps!

    The two bodyguards nking on each side stepped in different directions, but with some form of rhythm. The distance between the two of them closed in and widened in a seemingly irregr way, but with some hidden rhythm behind it. This made Robert¡¯s exposed location difficult to predict. Besides, the bodyguards would make small movements like raising their hands or leaning their bodies to interfere with potential shooting attacks! For the shooter, this would interrupt with their timing and greatly decrease the uracy!

    WIth this, Ye Chong believed that these four bodyguards could still be from ck Cove, since their abilities were too simr to that of ck Cove! Such capable people reminded Ye Chong immediately of ck Cove! However, if they were from that ce, why did they not recognize him? Perhaps they were really from somewhere else.

    Ye Chong became undecided about the origin of these four bodyguards!

    Duan brought Ye Chong along to approach them, with Shang Xin following behind.

    Robert was in his forties, his skin well cared for, but strands of white hair marred his image of youth. He wore a long brown windbreaker, and looked like an ordinary man.

    Duan bowed to Robert, and Ye Chong could only follow suit. With such a close distance between them, Ye Chong still did not recognize any peculiar movements from those four bodyguards.

    It was Robert who actually gave Ye Chong some attention. "This one looks like a stranger to me, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve met." At the back, Shang Xin heard those words and was mildly rmed.

    Bai Linan immediately interrupted from the side, "This is a friend of mine, we used to work together. I was afraid he might not know the rules here, so I let Duan here be in charge of him." Bai Linan did not anticipate that by asking Duan to take care of Ye Chong, Duan would actually bring Ye Chong by his side. This was the thing that Bai Linan was trying to avoid at all costs. If his employer got interested in his Master for some reason, attracted by his talent, and wished to keep Ye Chong with him, it would be disastrous!

    While he did know Ye Chong for quite some time, Bai Linan was aware that Ye Chong was the kind of person that would never yield. Asking Ye Chong to work for someone else was impossible! Besides, as he recalled how Ye Chong liked to use violence to solve all manners of problems, it would raise havoc if he ever came into conflict with someone like his current employer!

    Bai Linan groaned inside. He could only pray that something like that did not happen, or else, the result would be unimaginably catastrophic!

    "I see!" Robert nodded inconsequentially, and Duan immediately pulled Ye Chong with him and stepped to one side.

    "Shang Xin is here by the orders of Lord Zhang Ming to wee Mr Robert. Lord Zhang Ming is currently unavable due to unexpected circumstances, and had asked me to express his sincere apologies!" Shang Xin bowed to Robert.

    "Haha," Robertughed heartily, "To see a beauty such as Ms Shang makes one happier than seeing Zhang Ming himself! I¡¯ve heard that Ms Shang is a famous beauty on Richie!"

    "You¡¯re too kind!" Shang Xin smiled inly, as if she did not notice the teasing words. She slightly inclined and stretched her hand out. "This way please, Mr Robert!"

    Robert was not offended by Shang Xin¡¯sck of response, andughed again as he stepped forward.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong¡¯s face twitched.

    Something unusual happened!

 Chapter 172 - At the Edge of Life and Death

    <h4>Chapter 172: At the Edge of Life and Death</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A loud explosion was heard, mixed with countless screams of terror. There was an explosion somewhere ahead, where Shang Xin¡¯s subordinates were covering. Ye Chong could feel the ground shake.

    Shang Xin¡¯s face ashened!

    The men around Robert were all veterans, and did not express any fear. They knew that it was important to stay calm for the moment, as to not provide an opening for the enemy!

    Robert only reacted minutely, his pupils contracting slightly!

    The bodyguards reacted instantly. When the explosion happened, they immediately moved closer to Robert for additional protection. The two mechs in front of Robert stood shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking off the debris that flew away from the explosion.

    Shang Xin and Duan deployed their mechs almost simultaneously.

    Shang Xin¡¯s was a Shadow Phoenix-III. Unlike the Shadow Phoenix-II, SP-III was a battle mech in the SP model series. This meant that its long range attacks were not particrly spectacr, but it excelled at close rangebat. With a parrying spear made of a special alloy and twoser daggers, coupled with a higher speedpared to the SP-II, the SP-III had a unique battle strategy. It would retreat whenever an attack missed and wait for the next opportunity. It also inherited the unique exterior from the SP series. With a small and agile body, incredible speed, and close range battle specs, the SP-III was a mech assassin!

    Duan¡¯s mech was theplete opposite. His mech was in alternating shades of red and ck. This ssic colorbination made it more like a disy mech, and not a battle mech. However, Ye Chong could still identify the impressive aspects of this mech! It was definitely a modified mech. Its equipped weapons were strange - besides the abnormallyrge modifiedser sniper rifle in its hands, there were no other guns or close range weapons! Ye Chong had never seen such an extreme way of equipping a mech. Even the MPA¡¯s mechs would have weapons such as daggers in hand. Ye Chong could not make anything of the rifle, but the engine was at least recognizable. It was a Split Wave - a photon driven engine, one of the best engine models avable in the market, though it came with a hefty price tag!

    These two mechs immediately sheltered the rest of the people! They were now the perfect cover against the st.

    Duan and Shang Xin immediately gave the order to lower the ropedder, but as thedder slowly unfurled itself downwards, they grew anxious. They could not climb into the mech¡¯s pilot cabin by hand like Ye Chong.

    Mech pilots were strong, but before they entered the pilot¡¯s cabin, even a ray gun of the smallest caliber could end their lives!

    Just then, Mu suddenly spoke up, "Ye, be careful! Someone used an electro-interference grenade!"

    An electro-interference grenade? Ye Chong was rmed! He did not always know about weapons like these, but after having Yu Di with its assortment of weird but powerful anciry weapons, the unexpected effects of using these weapons piqued Ye Chong¡¯s interest in them.

    Electro-interference grenades were used for mao-interference within a small effective perimeter. It could render all electronicmunications within the perimeter ineffective, but it had a few weaknesses, such as its discriminatory effect, short effective time and small range. These three weaknesses limited the weapon¡¯s applications in the field.

    Shang Xin and Duan noticed the weapon as well, and exchanged an uneasy look. However, the ropedder was moving too slowly, and they could only wait anxiously.

    The haze from the explosion engulfed the area. Dust and debris was everywhere, and no one could see anything!

    Mu suddenly shouted, "Ye, careful, 20 high explosive grenades!"

    The miniature mechs¡¯ scanning systems also picked up the 20 high explosive grenades that came crashing down like rain! If any of the 20 grenades exploded, no one but the four bodyguards in miniature mechs could hope to survive!

    In dire situation, the four bodyguards around Robert suddenly leaped up and out of the haze at incredible speed, like fourunched cannonballs. They pushed downwards and jumped high up into the air.

    Everyone was focused on the four of them! However, their confused expression showed that they did not understand what was happening!

    Right then, as Ye Chong stared at the four figures above, Mu suddenly spoke urgently, "Ye, 72 degrees from the radius vector!"

    Ye Chong reacted immediately, absolutely trusting Mu . Just as Mu finished, Ye Chong turned and suddenly found a bone-chilling light shing into non-existence on the top of a tall building, some 60 meters away!

    Ye Chong immediately felt goosebumps all over him, sensing something, but the intense feeling of danger did not make him lose his calm! Without identifying what it was, Ye Chong reached for the exterior of his thigh!

    Swish! Ye Chong put all his strength into the throw of his dagger from his thigh!

    At the same time, the four bodyguards in the air demonstrated their magnificent prowess, kicking or mming away the grenades, and none of the 20 high explosive grenades met their intended target, all flung off into the distance!

    Boom! Boom! Boom! A series of explosions were heard. The shock waves from the 20 high explosive grenades pushed from all directions, and people stumbled in confusion and fear. If the explosion had happened where they were, all of them would have burned into dust!

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression was unaffected. The violent explosions did not perturb him. When the explosions went off, he could see clearly a sh on the building from something that was cracked!

    "Threat neutralized!" Mu¡¯s voice was heavenly, and Ye Chong rxed!

    Shang Xin¡¯s face was pale!

    The problem had arisen from her side. Three of her subordinates were reced with enemy personnel! From when she first took up her current position, her perfect record of service was finally broken, and the enemy had nearly seeded! What bothered her the most was that the ones who managed to diffuse the situation were all Robert¡¯s own men! Now, whenever her eyes met Duan¡¯s, she could almost feel some unvoiced repeating ridicule towards her!

    The target of the attack, Robert himself, looked calm. He was speaking to Bai Linan casually, hisposed demeanor bespoke his status as a person of power.

    Robert studied Ye Chong for a moment and smiled. "I didn¡¯t expect this young man to be so skilled. If not for your actions, this aging life of mine would have ended today!" These words brought a violent tic to Shang Xin¡¯s face, but as she recalled her own failure this time that almost led to the loss of everyone¡¯s lives, her expression darkened further!

    For the moment, Ye Chong lookededic. Arge patch of cloth was missing from his suit pants on the outer part of his right thigh, and a dagger¡¯s sheath was visible through the hole. His suit was ripped open on both sides beneath his armpits, exposing his white shirt underneath. If he were on the streets, his look would invite roaringughter from spectators. Now, however, everyone was looking at Ye Chong with great respect!

    Ye Chong¡¯s calm, unperturbed expressionbined with his damaged outfit made him distinctly stand out!

    "You¡¯re too kind, sir!" Ye Chong still remembered that he was supposed to be Bai Linan¡¯s bodyguard, and did not break his cover. Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s in demeanor, devoid of any excitement due to his achievement made Robert even more impressed! Bai Linan, however, was writhing inside. He was always good in reading people, and knew exactly what that look in his employer¡¯s eyes meant! It seemed that what he was trying his best to avoid what was happening!

    "Brother Wang, your dagger!" A guard handed over Ye Chong¡¯s dagger back to him reverently, his expression full of respect!

    Strong people were always respected, no matter the ce! In that moment, without time to deploy Guardian, Ye Chong had threw out his dagger with all his might! When the explosion stopped, Ye Chong called for one of the guards to search the enemy hiding on top of the building he aimed at. More urately speaking, he was to search for the enemy¡¯s body! The dagger was embedded deep into the enemy¡¯s forehead, a high uracyser sniper rifle on the ground before him with its smart targeting device shattered into pieces!

    An image came to everyone¡¯s mind - a dagger swishing into the air, urately finding theser sniper rifle¡¯s smart targeting device. In that instant, the smart targeting device scattered into pieces, its fragments falling to the ground like heavenly petals. Nheless, the device did nothing to reduce the dagger¡¯s speed, as it struck mercilessly into the forehead of the enemy sniper, granting instant death!

    Someone had secretly measured the distance between the enemy sniper and Ye Chong, and reported a whole 68 meters!

    With a distance of 68 meters, how could one throw a weapon with just his right hand and hit a target dead-on, killing the enemy? The amount of strength and uracy required was shocking! Physical training was essential for most mech pilots, but no one had imagined that someone could reach such a staggering level of ability!

    As for Duan and Shang Xin, who were both present at the scene, they knew even more!

    Only both of them knew how powerful Ye Chong¡¯s attack actually was! The parietal bone at the forehead was very hard, prating this was itself an astonishing achievement! Moreover, they found another neglected detail, which was that the enemy sniper was actually found a whole meter away from his actual hiding spot, in the direction of the attack. There were obvious scuffing marks on the ground!

    Duan and Shang Xin came to the same conclusion at almost the same time - the dagger had plunged into the enemy¡¯s forehead and, with the excess momentum, pushed the enemy¡¯s body backwards for a whole meter!

    Duan and Shang Xin both noticed this detail at the same time, and arrived at the same conclusion almost simultaneously. They looked to each other, and found the same horrified look in the each other''s eyes!

    With that, both of them left the scene wisely!

    The enemy¡¯s n was almost perfect. They already had the bombs in ce before Shang Xin¡¯s subordinates moved into position at the docking zone. The bombs were not meant to kill Robert, but only to create confusion! At the same time, the ambushers used their electro-interference grenades under the cover of the bombs, hence Shang Xin and Duan were plunged into confusion due to themunication block. One of the ambushers then threw out 20 high explosive grenades amidst the chaos. These grenades were also not their final attack, and were only used to move the four bodyguards in miniature mechs away from Robert. The real killing strike was supposed toe from the now lifeless sniper, lying on the ground!

    They still could not figure out how Ye Chong found him out. Was it by chance? Or did he have some special methods? Everything happened in a very short time, and the act of discovering the enemy and retaliating was too unlikely to happen without earlier preparation! Could this be a trick by the enemy? Duan lifted his head abruptly at the thought, but found his eyes meeting Shang Xin¡¯s!

    However, Wang Xing was an old friend of the manager, and had saved their employer¡¯s life this time. Whatever suspicions he had, Duan decided to keep it to himself.

    In the end, the enemy¡¯s assassination plot was perfect, but without a perfect ending! The timing and cooperation were well executed, and if not for the monster that was Wang Xing, the ending would have been very different!

    What disturbed them both deeply was the enemy¡¯s preparatory works. How did they find out Robert¡¯s schedule? How did they infiltrate as Shang Xin¡¯s subordinates? From the enemy¡¯s movements, it seemed that they had strong control over the events, and seemed to understand who they were against. However, Shang Xin¡¯s and Duan¡¯s side knew nothing about the enemy. Their identity and the reason for the attacks were still unknown! None of the three ambushers in this attack survived!

    Shang Xin¡¯s dignity had received an unprecedented blow. Her subordinates werepromised, and she herself was not aware of it. As for the rest of her team, she could not guarantee their loyalties! It was terrifying!

    There were heavy casualties from the encounter this time, mostly due to the 20 high explosive grenades! The scene before them was a hopeless mess!

    Both of them kept their silence, deep in their own thoughts!

    "Young man, since you¡¯re an old friend of Nan, you¡¯re one of our own. From now on, you¡¯ll be the team leader for all the guards!" Robert announced suddenly with a warm smile. His gentle tone, however, did not allow for objections, and his eyes were looking straight at Ye Chong.

    Shang Xin and Duan were both surprised. They did not expect Robert to make such a decision.

    Bai Linan felt like fainting. Heavens, they¡¯re all done for!

 Chapter 173 - First Visit to the Shang Family

    <h4>Chapter 173: First Visit to the Shang Family</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Thank you for the offer, Sir, but I¡¯m only travelling with Nan because it¡¯s on the way to Windstar, I will be departing once we reach there!" Ye Chong exined frankly. While he thought it too much of a hassle, Ye Chong still made the effort for Bai Linan.

    Robert looked at Ye Chong, more impressed than ever. The young man was calm and modest, humble despite his achievement - he was definitely full of potential!

    "Windstar? So you actually have business in Windstar, what could it be? If you have any problems, don¡¯t hesitate to let Nan know, I have some influence on that!" Robert said smilingly.

    "Thank you for your concern, Sir!" Ye Chong thought these social etiquettes were a bore, but unfortunately, they were a cultural norm.

    "Haha, you¡¯re part of the family, don¡¯t worry about it!" Robertughed heartily. Only Bai Linan, who knew his employer well, understood that his employer had no intention of giving up on Ye Chong. Based on his experience, his employer would probablye up with something elseter. That thought was enough to make him groan inside. He could only hope that his employer¡¯s tricks do not offend Ye Chong, or Ye Chong would probably kill again, as he was inclined to!

    Due to heavy casualties suffered by the security team, Shang Xin¡¯s requested backup arrived in just a few minutes. The grand formation of mechs garnered the attention of passersby''s, looking up towards the sky. Other mechs in the air gave a wide berth to the mechs, and were very much surprised. Were these not mechs from the Shang family? They were all battle mechs! What made this aggressive defense necessary? How could anyone on Richie still dare to meddle with the Shang family?

    The people in the city gossiped about the possibilities, and insiders who recognized that the mechs were all elite guards of the Shang family concluded that something serious must have happened! Intel was sought and shared throughout the city!

    The mech security team of the Shang family came faster than the police. The violent battle had terrified all the passengers who were disembarking from other hatches, and most of them had called for the police!

    Once they arrived, the mech security team of the Shang family brought the situation under control. Shang Xin also performed capably, and Duan was impressed by these members of the same profession.

    Shang family¡¯s security team took charge of the docking zone, and began to assert authority over the people present. This exercise, however, was repulsive to everyone not of the Shang family. Robert shook his head as he observed the security team¡¯s arrogance. While the Shang family was now a wealthy entity, it was still far from being an aristocratic family. The subordinates were all behaving like upstarts, very differentpared to even some wealthy families with some history!

    The police finally arrived and, after some discussion with the Shang family, agreed to let the Shang family continue on. This made Robert realize the profound influence of the Shang family on Richie!

    Soon, under the escort and protection of arge team of mechs, Robert and hispany arrived safely at the Shang family. However, Robert¡¯s intention for a low-profile visit was now turned into a huge affair.

    Shang Zhangming, the current head of the Shang family, greeted Robert in person at the entrance! Such a grand ceremony at the Shang family was unprecedented!

    Shang Zhangming was arge man with an athletic build. Under his fringe were sharp eyes that looked as though they could see through anyone. His ck windbreaker matched an elusive and cold smile, his aquiline nose and slightly arched brows framed by freshly shaved cheeks. While he was not particrly handsome, he was definitely charismatic and made a deep impression in all who met him!

    Robert left the ship and immediately approached Shang Zhangming with a smile. "To think that Lord Zhangming would personally be here to greet me, you are too kind!" While Zhangming looked younger than Robert, Robert still spoke with deference.

    "Brother Robert, don¡¯t say that, it is an honor to wee you here!" Shang Zhangming stepped forward as well, smiling as he spoke with a distinct metallic voice that was surprisingly pleasant.

    Ye Chong looked from behind Robert at Shang Zhangming, but almost immediately, his attention shifted to a few bodyguards standing behind Shang Zhangming. Their posture and formation all showed high professionalism, and their eyes spoke of long experience in the field. Ye Chong would not underestimate them.

    Robert and Shang Zhangming exchanged some quiet pleasantries before moving inside with interlocked arms.

    The setup in the main hall was enough to surprise even Robert, as he was used to extravagance. At the center of the main hall was an extremely precious imperial jade sculpture of a Double Step Grass Dragon¡¯s skeleton, shining with a crystalline luster. Its eyes were sapphire gems, glowing with life under the illumination. Imperial jade was rare, and arge bulk like this one was one in a million. Molded by the unrivaled craftsmanship of this skeleton sculpture, the work looked almost alive, and was definitely a priceless treasure!

    Draperies spun from Aroma beast¡¯s gold fur that almost reached the floor, emitting a faint and pleasant scent. Aroma beasts were endemic to Richie, fist-sized animals that were rarely found in the wild, and one of Richie¡¯s protected species. Its fur was soft to the touch and in elegant gold, naturally emitting a strange fragrance.

    These two things were very, very expensive. The subordinates who came with Robert were all astounded and mystified by the scene.

    Shang Zhangming swept a seemingly innocent look across the people following behind Robert.

    These people all responded differently as they entered the main hall.

    Robert betrayed only a slight surprised before resuming his usual demeanor.

    Bai Linan and Duan were quick as well, only showing their surprise for about 5 or 6 seconds. The remaining guards, however, were still wearing greedy looks.

    What interested Shang Zhangming the most was the young man standing behind Bai Linan. The young man¡¯s expression had not changed ever since he entered the main hall, maintaining his cool exterior throughout, as if unaffected by his surroundings.

    Who was this young man? That was what Shang Zhangming would like to find out.

    Of course, Robert noticed the expressions of everyone else as well. He was satisfied with Bai Linan¡¯s and Duan¡¯s tight self control. However, when his eyes reached Ye Chong, they gleamed at Wang Xing¡¯s expression! He was still looking steady as usual. To have him as one of his own would be a most wonderful prospect! At that moment, Robert¡¯s desire to recruit Ye Chong was stronger than ever! However, on the surface, Robert betrayed nothing on his face.

    Shang Zhangming and Robert chatted heartily as they moved into the inner rooms. Arrangements for Robert¡¯s security team were swiftly dealt with by Shang Zhangming¡¯s subordinates.

    Robert¡¯s security team was ushered to a separate wing of the building. As Duan entered the wing, he immediately arranged for his subordinates to position themselves at strategic locations. Of course, Ye Chong was now unupied, and since his rtionship with Bai Linan was exposed, no one treated him as a security guard anymore, but as an honored guest. Ye Chong even got his own room.

    The room was fitted with various facilities, such as the helmet and photon processor required to ess the virtual world. After Mu¡¯s inspection, the photon processor was found to be hyperlinked to the virtual world. The Shang family had installed some restrictive mechanisms, but that was easy enough for Mu to deal with.

    Soon, Mu hadid down a series of feints and hidden traps. When Mu gave the green light, Ye Chong immediately hyperlinked to the virtual world. He and Mu had two main goals. Firstly, Wang Xing¡¯s fabricated background must be more extensive to avoid suspicion if he was ever investigated. Secondly, they must find Wang Weixing. While Lu Caite had said that Wang Weixing was most likely at Windstar Hospital, that was before Lu Caite entered the Orbits, which was a long time ago. Wang Weixing¡¯s current location should be further investigated. Besides, Lu Caite mentioned that his teacher was very famous, and should be easy to look up in the virtual world.

    The fabrication task was left to Mu, as Ye Chong could not help with that. However, confirming whether Wang Weixing was still at Windstar Hospital was something that Ye Chong could handle.

    Ye Chong entered the virtual world, and was weed by the ever present dazzling bright screen. For some reason, Ye Chong was reminded of his first time entering the virtual world, which was also his first time meeting the outside world! He thought of the content life he had training at the NR Training Center! If not for the ster re, he would probably continue his innocent way of life!

    All of a sudden, he felt a yearning towards his old life on the trash. What a carefree life!

    Ye Chong shook his head, trying to refocus himself. He stepped forward, and remembered the way he entered the virtual world for the first time, like facing a powerful enemy. Ye Chong smiled at the memory. He could hide his feelings much better now.

    If Bai Linan could see Ye Chong now, he would probably thought it was a ghost instead! Ye Chong could smile? Why would such an expression appear on Ye Chong¡¯s face? He would never believe it!

    Now was not a good time for reminiscing. There were far more important things at hand. Ye Chong began to search for themunity of Windstar Hospital. For such a big medical institution like Windstar Hospital, it must have its ownmunity. If he could find it, he would be able to gather news of Wang Weixing. Of course, it would only work if Wang Weixing was as famous as Lu Caite imed.

    Soon, Ye Chong found the hospital¡¯smunity. Windstar Hospital was arge medical institutionprised of medical treatment and researchponents. Themunity wasrge, its members mostly medical practitioners and patients. Most doctors were here for coborations. Every day, there would be volunteer doctors to help the public. Of course, to seek proper diagnosis, patients would still have to visit the hospital.

    Once he entered the main hall, he saw a self-service inquiry server system. Ye Chong approached the inquiry server and activated it.

    "Good day, how may I assist you?" A holographic projection of a beautiful youngdy in white medical uniform came out. She smiled kindly and spoke with a sweet voice.

    "Is Mr Wang Weixing in the hospital?" Ye Chong asked.

    "I¡¯m sorry, Professor Wang Weixing has left to join this year¡¯s medical volunteer programst month. ording to schedule, he should be returning in 83 days. If you want to, I can arrange for an appointment with another doctor!" Thedy¡¯s words were like a bomb exploding in Ye Chong¡¯s head. This was very bad news to him.

    "Please tell me Professor Wang Weixing¡¯s exact schedule!" Ye Chong asked, unwilling to back down.

    "I¡¯m sorry, since Professor Wang Weixing had attended the program in a private capacity, we do not know of the Professor¡¯s exact schedule!" This was another blow to Ye Chong.

    "Ye, this does not look good!" In the virtual world, Mu materialized out of thin air.

    "Yes, 83 days, it¡¯s not too long, we can go to Windstar first, and try with other doctors first. Besides, I think my episodes are getting less intense!" In truth, the odd condition was not a huge danger to Ye Chong. The episodes were getting less frequent, and the symptoms were less violent. However, Ye Chong dared not rx himself. Who knew what was really going on? If he actually died from this condition, it would be such a shame!

    Ye Chong had high hopes for Wang Weixing, whom he had never met, hoping to cure his condition once and for all. However, it seemed that Wang Weixing was not in the hospital. It was truly disappointing for Ye Chong!

    Mu left silently like the way he first appeared.

    Ye Chong left the Windstarmunity in a bad mood. He cruised aimlessly in the virtual world. There was nothing for him in the real way at the moment, and the thought of mixing with those hypocritical people out there was unappealing to Ye Chong.

    The virtual world was now more prosperous than ever. Ye Chong felt that the crowd wasrger everywhere he went!

    Everything was dazzling and sparkling. The market oozed a sense of modernity, and even those smaller shopscking in grandeur had their own unique quaintness.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong saw a sh of light and narrowed his eyes reflexively as his pupils contracted. He looked closely, and found that it was but a holographic broadcast suspended in the air.

    Ye Chongughed. Since when had he be so sensitive as he was before? He was about to take a step forward when something caught his attention.

    Ye Chong stopped mid stride, lifted his head, and looked!

 Chapter 174 - A Light Bulb Moment

    <h4>Chapter 174: A Light Bulb Moment</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Two mechs were engaged in a tight battle. Red and green chased after each other like shadows, the sound of metal against metal asionally heard as they came into contact. The spectators were all excited by the battle.

    Ye Chong was shocked. He had spent some time in the virtual world, and was familiar with the close rangebat level here. It was only a year or two since hest visited, but the mechs were now much better in close rangebat! The two mechs he was seeing now were quite capable, much better than the so called aces he fought against in the NR Training Center. They were also not too far from his level!

    Ye Chong did not know that during his time in the Orbits in thest year or two, close rangebat between mechs had improved sharply in the virtual world! This was all initiated by him. He had once won against many aces under the name YC, and his many battle recordings went viral. From then on, people began to realize the potential of close range mechs, and the excitement that came with battle at close quarters, something that long range bullet exchanges could never match. Young people grew to love close rangebat, since the virtual world was not all about winning or losing, but the exhration it could bring. That was how, in the virtual world, close range battles between mechs improved so much. However, in the real world, long range mechs were still the preferred choice.

    Ye Chong noticed immediately with his keen eyes that the red mech was attacking in a way that was simr to bare handed fights.

    Why had he never thought of that before? Ye Chong slowly grew convinced. Indeed, two mechs engaged in close rangebat was simr in principle to two humans in a fight. What if he could applybat skills in close range battles between mechs? It was worth a shot! On the other hand, if he could applybat skills to a battle between mechs, could he also apply some skills in mech battles to humanbat?

    Suddenly, it was like arge door opened wide before Ye Chong, and on the other side was a whole new world!

    Ye Chong stood in a daze under the floating holographic broadcast. In the broadcast, the two mechs fought aggressively, throwing sparks as metal met metal. It was an intense battle, but Ye Chong was frowning in thought, in his own world.

    Spacing off in the virtual world? Passersby''s gave Ye Chong a few odd looks.

    After half an hour, Ye Chong finally took a long exhale. His mind back in the virtual world, Ye Chong rushed to the nearest NR Training Center he could find.

    Ye Chong had always wondered if all NR Training Centers look the same. Up till now, his experience told him it was affirmative. This made it easy for him.

    Ye Chong entered the NR Training Center with his old name - YC. With Mu¡¯s protection, Ye Chong believed that no one would know who he really was.

    The NR Training Center was crowded as usual. Ye Chong¡¯sst mech, Dark Shadow was already obliterated by Invincible Firepower. Now, he had no mechs under his name, and would have to buy a new one. Fortunately, his points were enough to buy a few advanced level mechs.

    Ye Chong followed the familiar route to the maintenance hub. While every NR Training Center was simr in terms of their structure, the mechs avable were different. The advanced level mechs here could no longer excite Ye Chong, but for now, he needed a humanoid mech for training.

    Ye Chong found a blue-ck humanoid mech. It was about 10 meters tall, its dark blue body not as bulky as mechs usually were, and its well proportioned build was something Ye Chong appreciated. Its four limbs were ck, its surface covered with a matte polish that made it look cold and sturdy. More importantly, its surface would not be reflective. The mech had a cool looking profile, the hard lines matching the blue and ck, making it almost as cold as Ye Chong himself! Its forehead had a bright red diamond, burning angrily against the blue and ck, a bewitching touch to the mech!

    This mech with the name Tissot immediately caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention.

    Tissot had no supporting fins, its arm devoid of any shields, and it was poorly armed. The two handles by the waist must be the handles of twoser swords. There were also the two parrying spears fitted closely to the arms! These two weapons were the only ones it had.

    This was a model that wasunched two years ago, but the points required to redeem it was a bit surprising to Ye Chong, as it was worth three times more than his old Dark Shadow.

    Once he entered the mech, Ye Chong could understand what made this mech special!

    Maneuvering was a smooth affair, and the mech¡¯s engines were impressive, capable of powerful short bursts. The mech also had incredibly tough armor, almost like a lesser copy of ck Cove¡¯s war mech! However, its choice of weapons were even more extreme than ck Cove¡¯s - twoser swords and two parrying spears were too little for a mech! Without any long range weapons, Tissot¡¯s range would be severely limited.

    Was being extreme a popr trend nowadays? Ye Chong thought of Duan¡¯s mech, simr in concept to Tissot, only that one of them was suited for close range battles, and the other for long range ones!

    Ye Chong tried a few maneuvers and loved the feel of i! The mech¡¯s practicality may be suspect, but it was perfect as a training mech for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did not intend to use any weapons, since he wanted to try out the idea he had in that light bulb moment. He was best in short rangebat, and having no hindering equipment actually worked well for him.

    The idea of applyingbat skills in mech battles was not original, and there were already many existing techniques. Manybat enthusiasts fell in love with mech battles, since they were often more skilled than lesser mech pilots. In thest two years, many new names rose to fame due to their close rangebat skills, and they were known asbat mech pilots. Thesebat mech pilots had their own fan base, and some even opened their own dojo in the virtual world to teach notbat skills, but mechbat skills.

    Of course, bing abat mech pilot was not easy. Battles between mechs was still different than between humans. Besides battle moves, there was still the overly clunky mech maneuvering to consider. It was rare for one to conquer both. Whilebat experts were skilled in their field, mech piloting was still best learned from a young age. As for mech pilots, while many of them have superb mech piloting skills, few had ever formally learned the dying skill of actualbat.

    Hence, the so calledbat mech pilots today were not up to par. However, it was undeniable that mech battles were heading towards uncharted waters, and the fading world ofbat was beginning to gain some life.

    Ye Chong found a basic training room. The room still looked the same as before, and visitors were scarce as usual.

    Ye Chong found an empty spot, but did not began training immediately. He was trying to analyse the differences between mechbat and normalbat.

    Normalbat was driven by muscle power, while mechbat was driven by engines. This was the fundamental difference. WIth the help of engines, mechs can stay in midair longer, something that the human body could not allow. The body¡¯s soft sticity was also something mechs could not achieve.

    Ye Chong tried some simplebat moves. Initially, he could not get the hang of it, but very soon he began to understand the tricks behind it. This was because of his superb mech maneuvering skills. It was because of his skillful maneuvering that he could perform the moves that his mind conjured.

    Of course, he was far from achieving the ideal results. Even if he could perform the moves, it did not mean that the moves were practical. He still needed to improve, step by step, to make the moves more reasonable and suitable for mechs.

    In the end, however, Ye Chong had finally taken his first step forward. This was the first time he created something by himself without Mu¡¯s instructions. Mu seemed to understand him, and did not appear to intrude.

    As for his second idea of applying mech battle skills into actualbat, it would have to wait until he was done with his first idea.

    Ye Chong trained in full concentration, repeatedly practicing some basic moves patiently. Mu had said that the basics were the most important, and Ye Chong kept his words at heart. Gradually, Ye Chong could move more smoothly, and Tissot¡¯s attacks grew faster. Soon, Ye Chong reached the limits of what Tissot¡¯s mechanical parts could allow.

    Tissot seemed like a mech specially designed for mechbat. Ye Chong maneuvered smoothly, and found that the mech¡¯s joints had engines designed to strengthen its attacks. He also noticed many of Tissot¡¯s less obvious design features.

    Tissot¡¯s external equipments were only a front; its true weapon was its body. All potential attacking parts of the mech were specially designed. For example, Tissot¡¯s two palms had edges that cut like knifes, and its knuckles were just as sharp. When its elbow was bent, it became a sharp awl that could punch a dent into its enemy. The knees had auxiliary engine that were thrice as powerful as for normal mechs.

    Ye Chong finally understood why the mech was so extreme in its design - it was a mech made for close rangebat.

    Time flew past unnoticed as Ye Chong trained, and he found himself growing proficient with those basic moves.

    Mu suddenly materialized like a ghost and said, "Ye, there might be a ce just for you!"

    "Where?" Ye Chong knew that Mu would never speak carelessly.

    ____________________________________________________________________

    "Here?" Ye Chong asked curiously. The room was pitch ck.

    "Yes, here. This is a room used for reaction practice, but it¡¯s perfect for your training! There will be many glowing spheres shot towards you, and you¡¯ll have to either hit or avoid those spheres. This is a pointless training for you, so what you have to do now is to not avoid the spheres, and try to keep attacking the spheres for as long as possible. Are you ready?" Mu asked.

    Ye Chong drew in a deep breathe. "Alright! Let¡¯s get started!"

    As he finished speaking, numerous glowing spheres appeared on a holographic screen, shooting towards him. Tissot moved into a horse stance as a calmbat expert would.

    At the beginning, Ye Chong felt it was still manageable, and even had time to appreciate the sparkles that came from the destroyed glowing spheres that he hit.

    As the spheres grew in numbers and came in faster, Ye Chong began to feel pressured, and no longer as rxed. His precise attacks were now desperate, clumsy movements.

    Tissot¡¯s arms, legs, knees, elbows and shoulders were all utilized, but Ye Chong was finally hit by a glowing sphere after enduring for about one minute.

    Giving up halfway was not Ye Chong¡¯s style, and he could also feel the benefits of this training.

    As he tried again and again, Ye Chong began to enjoy the process and gained new insights. He could hold against the spheres longer and longer, and slowly began to realize the subtleties involved. He found that as his attacks became more concise, the effectiveness increases. Controlled breathing was important, and any slight hups in that would almost certainly lead to the end of another practice round.

    Ye Chong found a mysterious phenomenon - whenever his speed reached a threshold, Ye Chong could feel himself entering a strange state, as if his body could move by itself without conscious thoughts, while his mind became an observer at the side, incapable of any clear thoughts.

    In this state, his movements were curiously sharp, but it was not often for him to reach this state. Ye Chong trained for more than 30 rounds, and only reached this state twice. Each time, itsted for only a few seconds, after which Ye Chong would wake up, as if from a dream, and would inevitably be hit by a glowing sphere.

    Was is a hallucination? Ye Chong did not mind it so much.

    "Hmm, Ye, it¡¯s about time for you to leave!" Mu saw that Ye Chong was deeply absorbed in his training, and reminded him.

    "Okay, onest time!" Ye Chong replied after a moment¡¯s thought.

 Chapter 175 - Banquet

    <h4>Chapter 175: Banquet</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the pilot¡¯s cabin, looking at the holographic screen before him, his hands resting easily on the controls, Ye Chong breathed in deep and closed his eyes, his chest expanding and contracting vigorously like a wind box. After a few seconds, Ye Chong¡¯s chest movements began to lessen, and his breathing slowed. He ran through thest thirty or so rounds of training in his head repeatedly, analyzing his mistakes.

    Ye Chong abruptly opened his eyes and yelled, "Begin!"

    Tissot stood silently like a ck warrior, moving only when the first glowing sphere was almost touching it, its right arm hitting the sphere dead center. The glowing sphere immediately fragmented into a thousand pieces, fading into the darkness. At the same time, the mech angled to the right, its left elbow hitting another glowing sphere with uncanny uracy, and the sphere fragmented and vanished like before.

    Its movements grew faster and faster, every joint deftly utilized as a weapon to attack the spheres!

    If anyone were witnessing this, they would be mesmerized by the beautiful sight. Around Tissot was a circle of light, and one could roughly make out Tissot¡¯s figure in the center. Numerous glowing spheres flew towards the glowing circle around Tissot like moth to fire, and immediately scattered silently into sparkling fragments, fluttering into nonexistence from the circle of light. The scene was beautiful as a dream.

    Ye Chong still could not endure past the five-minute mark. After three minutes, the difficulty level increased drastically. If he could avoid the glowing spheres instead of hitting them all, Ye Chong believed that he could endure for at least 10 minutes.

    Returning back to the real world, Ye Chong finally felt the lethargy hit him. More urately, it was mental lethargy due to long periods of high concentration. After leaving the virtual world, Ye Chong felt a little dizzy, and breathed deeply for a few times before recovering himself.

    Soon, someone came to invite Ye Chong for dinner.

    Robert and Shang Zhangming discussed for a few hours in the inner halls. No one knew what they were discussing, only that they were both looking pleasant after the meeting, marking a smooth discussion.

    The dinner crowd wasrge. Or rather, that was what Ye Chong thought, attending a banquet like this for the first time.

    On Robert¡¯s side were Robert himself, Bai Linan, Duan and Ye Chong. Behind him were his four bodyguards, and Ye Chong could now finally see the faces of these four mysterious bodyguards.

    They were all very pale, wearing cold expressions, much like Ye Chong himself. They look better in suits,pared to Ye Chong. They stood unmoving with their hands on the sides behind Robert.

    Ye Chong felt a tic in the corner of his eyes.

    By the ear of the nearest bodyguard to him, Ye Chong noticed an inconspicuous impression of a line. This impression extended all the way from the ear to the cor, marking the boundary between two very different skin colors. The side towards the nape was in normal skin color, unlike the unnatural paleness of the face due to prolongedck of ster radiation.

    Ye Chong noticed simr impressions on the other three bodyguards, and he was inwardly shocked! He immediately thought of the masks! Only putting on masks for long periods would cause such a disparity in skin colour! Their Double Curved Steps already made him suspicious of them being from ck Cove, and now, he was almost sure of it! Only ck Cove people would wear masks, and since he had seen those masks before, he knew that the mask matched the impressions on the skin perfectly! Wearing the masks for a long time would naturally lead to this kind of pallor.

    If these four men were from ck Cove, then how was Robert connected to ck Cove? If ck Cove would send four soldiers to him as bodyguards, he must be very important to them!

    It looked like Robert was more than he seemed to be!

    Ye Chong tried desperately to maintain his normal expression, and luckily, no one was noticing him at the moment. After taking in the shocking fact, Ye Chong quickly calmed down. Why did they not make any moves against him? ck Cove was out for him, and would not give up easily as was their usual style.

    Could the opponents be faking their ignorance, and secretly sending for backup?

    Shang Zhangming had many of his own people attending the banquet. Besides Shang Zhangming himself and Zhang Xin, there were also other important members of the Shang family. Shang Zhangming was a little surprised to find Ye Chong at the dinner table, but he swiftly epted the fact and became at ease.

    The banquet began with a joyful atmosphere. Ye Chong, upied with his problems, could barely taste what he was eating.

    "Mu, I think we¡¯re gonna have to leave soon!" Ye Chong spoke to Mu in his mind.

    "Yes, but we must pick a more suitable time, or it will attract unwanted attention! This advice is from Shang, but I agree!" Mu and Shangmunicated in a way that Ye Chong could not understand, but Mu would always ry Shang¡¯s thoughts whenever he was in unfamiliar territory. This was not a courtesy that Shang would ever extend!

    Shang¡¯s words were reasonable, and Ye Chong understood that if he moved too hastily, it would only attract unwanted attention. What he needed now was to be left alone!

    After experiencing so much, Ye Chong had grown more mature! If it was his earlier self, Ye Chong would immediately deploy his mech and escape!

    Since it was decided that they would find a suitable time to make their move, Ye Chong could finally notice the delicious food in his mouth. Since he did not want attention, he continued to eat without looking up. He had never attended such an event, and did not know that his actions were out of the ordinary. Everyone else was only delicately sampling their dishes, but only he was eating by the mouthful! In a banquet like this, everyone would try to demonstrate their refinement. The meal was only an ends to a mean, as everyone actually hoping to bond with each other in the setting.

    The rest of the table looked at Ye Chong strangely, most of them being members of the Shang family, looking at Ye Chong with aloofness and contempt.

    Mu ryed Shang¡¯s words dutifully to Ye Chong, "Ye, you idiot, you¡¯re destroying your reputation. Heavens, how did I got to know someone like you?" Mu imitated Shang¡¯s tone to a T. Of course, he did not forget to add, "Ye, that was Shang. You know, I¡¯m not familiar with this! Shang may be more reliable in this matter!"

    "Did I do anything wrong?" Ye Chong was baffled.

    "Ye, I think Shang should be the one to handle this!" Mu was just like that, always choosing the best solution to the problem.

    "Haha, I thought I¡¯d still need to wait a few days toe out, but now here I am! It¡¯s only for three hours, but it¡¯s so much better than being stuffed in there! All thanks to our most adorable Ye!" Shangughed like a maniac.

    Ye Chong groaned inside. The fellow was obviously bored to death inside! He could only hope that the mech would not suggest any crazy ideas!

    "Okay, Ye, now do as I say!" Shang spokecently, like a child who found himself an interesting toy.

    Shang¡¯s tone immediately triggered a sense of foreboding in Ye Chong, but he had no choice but to acquiesce. "Alright!, But, Shang, don¡¯t push it!"

    "Sure, I would never!" Shang¡¯s tone gave Ye Chong a very good idea of what the mech thought of his warning.

    "Alright, let¡¯s begin!" Shang spoke excitedly.

    "Ye, you¡¯ve managed to make yourself the center of everyone¡¯s attention, even if in an absolutely gross way. But don¡¯t worry, hehe, this problem is a piece of cake for me! However, to avoid your repeating the same mistake, allow me to exin!" Shang was obviously very confident of himself.

    "Oh, what did I do?" Ye Chong was also curious about what went wrong.

    Noting Ye Chong¡¯s interest, Shang was even more encouraged. "Ye, socializing is a very difficult skill, looks like you¡¯ll have to be formally coached in social etiquette. Take this banquet, for example. For aristocrats, it¡¯s not an asion to fill their stomachs. They will usually eat a little something before attending the banquet, since they can then focus on socializing with other people, instead of eating! Don¡¯t underestimate the power of dining etiquette; it¡¯s the most important way for the upper ss to socialize, and a very effective strategy to bring people together."

    "I see!" Ye Chong said unsurely.

    "You¡¯ve made five mistakes just now. One, you should eat the dessertid before you first, and not the main dish in your te. Two, you¡¯re using your cutleries wrong. Three, usually, you should take a sip of the wine on your left after a few bites of food. Four, ignoring other people while you eat is very rude. Five, the way you eat is criminally offensive."

    "Heavens, do you still call that dining?" Ye Chong was vexed, and groaned inside.

    "Ye, this is a very elegant field of knowledge!" Shang spoke eagerly.

    "Hmph, I don¡¯t see what¡¯s so elegant about it!" Ye Chong could not agree. To him, all these difficult rules only served toplicate what was originally a very simple affair of eating. Besides, it was very inefficient.

    "Sigh, I know you can¡¯t understand everything right now, just do as I say!" Shang gave up on convincing Ye Chong for the moment.

    "Hmm, alright!" Ye Chong had no qualms with that. After all, he understood his current situation. Since he was not powerful enough to break the rule, he could only protect himself by following them.

    "Ye, see that third cutlery from the left?"

    "This one?" Ye Chong picked up a table knife with a serrated edge and a hook on the other side.

    "Yes! This one. Now hold another table knife in your left hand, the one with the metallic handle! Hehe, using two table knives is a very ancient way of dining for aristocrats. Since it¡¯s difficult, not many people eat like this anymore, but it¡¯ll make you look like an aristocrat yourself, surely someone will recognize this posture. All we have to do is to convince them of this! Hehe ¡­" Shang gave an evilugh.

    "Move your hands slowly, always cut your food into thumb sized pieces. Keep your elbows slightly open to the side. Control your expression, make sure you look calm. Sigh, I suppose thatst thing is your forte!"

    Ye Chong did exactly as told. His urate control of his strength allowed for easy handling of the knives.

    Most of the people at the table were chatting enthusiastically, and did not notice Ye Chong¡¯s change in demeanor. However, a few of the Shang family¡¯s older members exchanged looks of surprise, obviously noticing Ye Chong¡¯s "uniqueness". However, most of them still looked at Ye Chong with condescension.

    "Ye, you can resume your normal way of eating now!" Shangughed like a knave.

    "Why is that?" Ye Chong felt lost.

    Shang exined carefully, "Don¡¯t worry, these people here are all very cunning. They¡¯ll definitely notice your short demonstration. If they recognize this ancient and difficult way of eating, they¡¯ll definitely change their minds about you! Ye, remember, never let your opponent guess your next move! Sudden actions like this will make them think that you¡¯re unpredictable, and not some ignorant peasant. They might think that you did it unintentionally, and even believe that you¡¯re actually the descendant of some long forgotten ancient aristocratic family! Haha, of course, they¡¯d never guess what you¡¯re hiding. However, that¡¯s all none of your business! Isn¡¯t that right?"

    "Yes!" These were definitely notplications that he needed to know.

    Food was excellent, the best that Ye Chong had ever had. Since Shang assured him it was alright, Ye Chong ate to his heart¡¯s content. This attracted curious nces from everyone on the table, and the few older members of the Shang family exchanged some meaningful looks. Something unintelligible shed past Robert¡¯s eyes, but he quickly resumed his conversation with Shang Zhangming.

    Dinner ended, and Ye Chong did not do anything strange again. Shang managed to keep silent throughout the affair, which surprised him! Just when Ye Chong thought it was all over, Shang finally broke his silence, announcing excitedly, "Ye, it¡¯s finally time for the main event!"

 Chapter 176 - Ye Chongâ€™s First SoirÃ©e

    <h4>Chapter 176: Ye Chong¡¯s First Soir¨¦e</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "The what?" Ye Chong did not seem topute it, "The main event?" In his perspective, when a meal had ended, it meant everything had ended, a finale where people should leave, the ce should be cleaned.

    "Yes, the main event, habitually there would be Soir¨¦e after dinner - a social event exclusively for the gentries of course. Technically members of the upper social ss would take the opportunity to interact with each other. But well, inparison to a table dining course, Soir¨¦e is freer in the methodologies, also much more colorful. You would not be sealed on the dining table and restricted by table mannerism." And Ye Chong thought he had mastered the worst kind of jargons in his mech studies. Apparently, "Soir¨¦e" was a suave, fancy term to call a private social function held between the men and women in wealth.

    "At this ce¡­," continued Shang, signaling Ye Chong to take a look, "they usually would exchange certain information of their backgrounds. Most of them would not converse with each other about serious businesses on this asion. Precisely saying, this is known as a kind of recreation, solely for enjoyment. To some youngsters however, such function appeared to be an important stage to spotlight their appeal. And¡­ this is also the social circle for the Madame, you know, thedies, the dowager. Sigh, I don¡¯t think you understand a word I¡¯ve said! But just watch and learn, you¡¯ll know soon enough!" sounded like an expert from the Great Britain, Shang gave a lengthy lecture about life.

    "Whatever¡­" Ye Chong responded uninterestedly, as he clearly knew such lifestyle was not what he desired. Thus his current objective would be listening to Shang¡¯s advice so that he could stay low in this party, especially when he knew nothing about the lethargic mannerism of this alien society. It would not be good if he made a joke out of himself, though he was pretty curious the fact that Shang actually had interests in these meretricious things.

    The dining tables were soon removed by the butlers. A few coffee tables with sliced fruits, wines and sweets were ced instead. The center of the hall was emptied and couches rested at the corners. The servants hurried their works like a fast-forwarded renovation. The premium hologram music yer formed the ssy atmosphere with the quality music the whole time.

    The rxing music wafted through the hall, as everyone entered the hall one after another.

    "Ye, don¡¯t just stand there! Go grab yourself a ss of wine. Hold it in your hand, even if you don¡¯t feel like drinking," reminded Shang.

    And Ye Chong reached one of the sses of red wine on the table nearby. "Now¡­," added Shang, "you shall walk slowly around the hall. Gently lift your ss whenever you bump into people. If they lifted their sses before you, you lift your sses too to signal your friendliness. The whole point is to act naturally and good-natured."

    "B-o-r-i-n-g!" Muttered Ye Chong in his head, "You mean we are doing this for the whole night?"

    "Heh!" Laughed Shang, "Ye, you call this ¡®boring¡¯? Don¡¯t be such a hasty man, the more boring partes after this." Hisugh sounded more like a steady snicker.

    A small crowd flooded into the hall after that, with each man having ady by his side. Shang Zhangming was obviously upied at the moment, as he walked around to send his loving greetings to acquaintances with ss in his hand.

    Mr. Robert walked to Ye Chong, also with a ss in his hand, "Wang my brother, what¡¯s up with that Pokerface? There will be beautiesing to us after this! You can¡¯t be spending your youth without some spices of lovemaking! Too bad the beauties missed the chance to witness your strength or you would be drowned by their cuddles and smooches. Hahaha!" he chuckled as he lifted his ss.

    "It¡¯s nothing, really," tly he replied, as Ye Chong was never reactive towards such kind ofments, he just mimicked Mr. Robert¡¯s gesture as he briefly lifted his ss.

    "Good,"plimented Shang in his head. "That action you took was great!"

    "Really?" Seeing through the expression of Ye Chong, heughed his way out.

    The hall was getting more crowded over the night. To make this function much fulfilling, Shang Zhangming actually invited almost every public figure on Rique.

    Ye Chong walked around aimlessly with that ss of wine wrinkling his fingers. Hardly there was anybody lifting their sses for him. Pleasing it was to our hero, although he kept sensing strange staresing from the females around him¡­ "Ugh." It was diforting. He wanted to know why but he failed to, as suddenly the flock of females would evacuate themselves the moment he turned his head over them. "Ugh!" Ye Chong was not delighted.

    I give up. Stares won¡¯t kill me anyway!

    "Isn¡¯t this lonely man Mr. Wang?" The sweet voice rang from his back. Ye Chong turned to his back and he saw Shang Xin, holding her ss of wine, walked towards him fashionably with a man in white suit. One of the young man¡¯s eyes were veiled by that silvery white hair of his, which gave off a kind of obscurity to his expression. The corners of his lips were hazily raised and lowered, on that fair smooth face of his. He was truly handsome. And that was when Ye Chong felt the sights he collected were suddenly all shifted to that man in split seconds.

    It was relieving to Hermit Ye Chong.

    The young man bowed, expressing courtesy towards Ye Chong, in grace and humbleness.

    "Ugh! Ye! This kiddo is more striking than you! Dammit!" Shang sounded bad-tempered.

    "Striking? What you mean?" It was the first time he heard of such adjective.

    "Yes, a man is called ¡®striking¡¯ when he¡¯s good-looking," Shang gave a concise exnation.

    "Good-looking? The heck I could do with being ¡®good-looking¡¯? Not like I could get a meal with it. If this is also an advantage, it is an empty advantage!" indifferently he replied.

    Ye Chong returned a bow at the young man, "Yes, Ms. Shang, what do you want from me?" and he spoke to Shang Xin.

    ?

    Both of their expressions turned stale right before Ye Chong.

    "Wrong! Wrooong!" Shang sounded absolutely annoyed, "Ye, don¡¯t you use that Mu style here! It¡¯s only a recreational activity! You know? Leisure? Rx? I can¡¯t believe there would be someone asking what the counterpart wanted him to do upon the first greeting on a Soir¨¦e! Oh my Rique! Save me! This is too much!"

    "What in Rique do I say then?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Say anything! Like a simple ¡®hello, Ms. Shang. Nice weather tonight isn¡¯t it?" Or an expressive ¡®Ms. Shang you look gorgeous tonight.¡¯ There¡¯s nothing you can¡¯t say, except for something like that Mu¡¯s signature ¡®what do you want from me?¡¯!"

    "Nonsense. Aren¡¯t those gibberish?" muttered Ye Chong.

    "This *is* a ce for people to spit gibberish!" urately Shang concluded.

    Even for an adaptivedy like Shang Xin was shut down for a moment by that striking line she heard for the first time of her life on a Soir¨¦e from Ye Chong. She was muted. The atmosphere got awkward. Ye Chong feared delivering a critical blow without notice again, so he shut uppletely. The silencested till that young man came to break the stunning spell, "I heard from Sister Xi that you were actually able to snipe an enemy 60 meters away with a dagger. This is seriously amazing to me!" A charming smile he lobbed as he spoke.

    "Oh! This is Shang Ling!" Shang Xi introduced hastily, "He had heard of your stories and became really determined of seeing you to express his admiration."

    "Oh, thank you. But that was mere luck," another t response from Ye Chong. Frankly speaking, that blow was indeed with a little factor of luck. He was not confident to say that he would be able to produce the same satisfying result as before.

    Hmm?

    Shang Ling drew a lifting curve on his face, "You can¡¯t gamble if you don¡¯t have the strength to begin with! Mr. Wang, stop being so humble! You deserve it!" Somehow there was some underlying meaning heard from his words.

    "Mr. Shang you don¡¯t have to butter me up¡­" Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained as indifferent.

    Shrugged the young man gracefully, "It¡¯ll be an enjoyable experience if I was ever able to have apetition with Mr. Wang! I¡¯m sure!" A brief secondter, somehow he sensed his misconduct, he ceased the conversation, "Joking! Joking! I was just joking! How could I ever be even your opponent? Mr. Wang. Although I wonder if Mr. Wang has an interest in piloting mechs¡­"

    "Just normal," rmed Ye Chong inside as he simply worded his response.

    "I seriously would love to witness Mr. Wang¡¯s technique in piloting the mechs." The eyes of Shang Ling was of expectation, strong expectation.

    "I see," Ye Chong gave a random response. Why the heck did he suddenly mention about mech-piloting? Does he know something? Does his offer mean something else? Ye Chong decided to not send off responses on a whim, considering how he barely knew the capability of the man.

    As conveyed Ye Chong¡¯s interest on the conversation, both Shang Ling and Shang Xin excused themselves. They waltzed to the other guests instead.

    Ye Chong decided to stay at one corner and sipped the wine in his ss. He refused to head back to the center of the hall in spite of Shang¡¯s nag.

    "Ling, how do you find the guy?" asked Shang Xin as she walked by Shang Ling¡¯s side.

    "It¡¯s a strange yet interesting guy. Very cold too.," he seemed intrigued.

    "Right. He¡¯s really strange and seemed to bepletely unaware of the mannerism of society. Although my uncle did mention about that to me, he saw Wang Xing using some weird double knife ceremony during the course randomly. It was very briefly done however. My uncle was suspecting if Wang Xing is actually a nobleman of some kind," added Shang Xi. "I seriously do not buy his suspect nevertheless, he doesn¡¯t look like a nobleman at all. But assuming if he did receive education of nobility before, what¡¯s up with all these camouges he¡¯d been putting up then?" Shang Xin¡¯s expression was filled with perplexity.

    "D-Double Knife Ceremony?" shocked Shang Ling.

    "Ling, you know this double knife trick too?" asked Shang Xi in curiosity.

    "Yes. The Double Knife Ceremony is a primeval table mannerism which only was handed down among the nobility of the upperss, yes, the nobility of the nobilities. Different from the modern table mannerism we do today, they wield two knifes at once. It is very challenging to dine like this because you could not wield them by your will and you could easily hurt your mouth without being properly trained on this, which was also why we eventually use fork and knife instead. One who is able to perform the Double Knife Ceremony is very likely to be the descendant of the nobility, especially when it is also an extremely rare sight to see one who wields such way in the aristocrat or families of the wealth today," exined Shang Ling in detail.

    "Judging by what you¡¯ve mentioned, he should have received very superior education. Then why was he acting such gracelessly? Is it an act? What¡¯s the purpose then?" Shang Xin began pondering.

    "Well, seems like we had gotten into a very interesting person." The excitement grew on Shang Ling¡¯s face, as peculiar glows shed in his eyes.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong sipped the wine in his hand mechanically in repetition. The alcohol by volume of this red wine was exceptionally low. It tasted slightly sweet, like some sort of fruit juice. It was the first time he tasted red wine, so it left him a good impression on the taste. Nheless, the imagery of Lunatic Guan being drunk and iming that she was all conscious and sound came haunting him, reminding him to never turn into that uncontroble sight.

    Ye Chong at the corner alone was not feeling lonely at all, as he chatted with Shang on and off.

    The music had changed into a dance before he noticed it. Out of the blue, people gathered at the empty ground in the middle. And they tended to enter in pairs - one man and one woman - fluttering into the crowd as they grooved along the tune.

    Ye Chong seemed a little interested at first, but it did not take long before he started yawning at the slow and hypnotizing music to his ears.

    Of course, Shang had to take a part of the credits to that. He did not stop the paradigm transformation inside Ye Chong¡¯s head since the beginning. Anyone could inevitably be murdered by the information overload, the jargon bombardments by an artificial indulgence.

    "Ye, you must learn how to get the indulgence of your life!" stated the A.I. "The world is still rtively at peace and harmony! It¡¯s not all about killing-and-surviving!" Halted Shang abruptly as he realized his ongoing lecture did not seem to match Ye Chong¡¯s experience, so he discarded his peace ideology and went on with something else, "I mean,bats undeniably shared an importance of you. But having life is equally important! If there was no fun in life, you are no different from a killing machine! Ye, I knew the enjoyment of life well enough despite being an artificial intelligence, what about you¡­"

    Why Shang stopped?

    Ye Chong knew the answer well, if there was nothing unexpected happening, he would not stop his thesis anytime soon.

    "Would you like a dance with me?" A voice of a girl came shyly into his ears.

    Ye Chong lifted his head. It was a girl in a faint beige one-piece. Her long hair stranded over her shoulders as her head lowered in some degree of shyness. Her hands crossed in front of her body and through his sharp eyes Ye Chong could discern her hands twiddling the dress of hers.

    "Are you talking to me?" said Ye Chong as he took a look around.

    "Mhm," reddened the face of the girl, tomato-red it was, "C-Could you dance with me?" muttered her.

    "Holy Matrimony! Such a beauty! So naive, yet so charming! Ye, say yes. Go! Go! Go! Say the Y-word! You insensitive boy! How could you be so fortunate! You always get the nice girls! Holy Molly! This is too unreasonable! Boy you are sure lucky! Hahahahaha! You actually bumped into a beauty within the first 3 hours here!" Shang¡¯s excitement roared within his head.

    I knew it¡­ Sobbed Ye Chong. Shang always managed to lose control of himself whenever he saw a female, especially if the female turned out to be the so-called beauty by his standards. He would go malfunctioned, short-circuit. Well at least that was what Ye Chong saw.

    "Why must I dance with her?" asked Ye Chong in aid-back tone. Listening to Shang¡¯s lecture was a torture, but then, crashing down Shang¡¯s lecture would be a joy instead.

    "Ye, you inhuman ignorant bull! You beast! There¡¯s a pure-lookingdy came inviting you for a dance after mustering her whole night of courage and you ask me why you must? I-Is this even a questioning from a man?" scolded Shang madly.

    The girl lifted her head too as she saw no response from the man before her.

    That was when Ye Chong had a better look on her face. The skin was fair as the snow, fragile yet tickling, the face of hers depicted some naivety of her character, the tiny nose of hers, the pouted lips of hers, that one-piece withces at the edge of hers, an exact setting of a princess in fairytales¡­ Gorgeous.

    The big expressive eyes of hers stared at Ye Chong carefully. The eyes of avoidant somehow expressed bit of expectation, which reminded Ye Chong of Nan Nan he had not seen in the past few months for some reason.

    He remembered how Nan Nan also came approaching him with a fearful eyes, being all cautious and frightened. Her eyes and her expression, they looked very identical! Ye Chong¡¯s mind wandered off¡­

    "Ye! What in the Rique you are waiting for! Say yes! Hurry up!" rushed Shang in his head. The tone sounded as if he was going to do the dance for Ye Chong instead.

    "But Shang, you obviously know I don¡¯t know how to dance!" Ye Chong disapproved it.

    "Heh!" Shang actually pinpointed the shaking will in between the lines, "No problem, Ye, I have a n!" He carried on convincing the robotic boy to do a dance.

    "You sure?" Ye Chong was skeptical about it.

    "Heh! Sure! No worries!" guaranteed Shang, even though theugh he made afterwards felt sort of proud.

 Chapter 177 - Sway, Swirl and Sensation

    <h4>Chapter 177: Sway, Swirl and Sensation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Bai Linan was wandering in the hall. He would greet with a nod at anybodying to him, be the person an acquaintance or a total stranger. He would even have a brief conversation with them. He would say he did not waste the time he spent with his boss, as he got very familiar with such lifestyle and understood deep down inside the meaning behind each gesture at a ballroom.

    His sight drifted through the crowd as he was identifying the potential guest worthy for interaction. If hecked such skill, the efficiency of his effort would be halved. He had been taking all sorts of jobs way before his ballroom career. Being extra cautious had always been his personality, or chances were he might never be able to stand out among the pirates that well and survive till now.

    The music rolled on as people scurried to find a partner to dance with so that they could join the dancing crew at the center.

    The guests shed quickly before Bai Linan, which made him wondered if he should get into dancing as well.

    Let¡¯s see¡­

    !

    Bai Linan zoned out suddenly. His willow expression went hollow. It was somehow strange as he stared on for the next few seconds. He then rubbed his eyes in strong disbelief. Am I seeing things?

    Oh my Robert Sir¡­ What had happened? T-This is too creepy¡­ What sorcery is this?

    Bai Linan could conclude that he had never been into such witchcraft before in his entire life, for he actually witnessed Ye Chong leading ady into a dance! Honestly, it would be less shocking for him to witness a mutated gori grabbing ady and having a Samba at the center with spotlight on. Dancing was nothing amazing, especially when he was an expert himself. Dancing with a woman was absolutely child¡¯s y, of course he would not do a dance with a man to impress anyone as much as Ye Chong did. These premises were so normal, till they were applied on Ye Chong. Creepy! Creepy indeed! The creepiness was unable to be worded!

    Did a big bang just ur? Or was there a super nova he was unaware of?

    Ye Chong had his hand holding the tender, smooth hand of this unknowndy, which he would have to put a majority of his attention on, since he feared the God-given hand (as stated by Shang) snapping and shattering into a paste of screamer if he would apply slight strength on the grip. Furthermore he was not used to holding people¡¯s hands, there were literally a few instances where he nearly tossed the girl he was holding like a sandbag subconsciously. Fortunately, miraculously he was quick in reaction, as he ceased his muscle movement swiftly¡­ or the music might stop, people might shriek and the center might get evacuated.

    "Ye, c¡¯mon, rx a little. Just listen to my instruction. Heh! First, your body must be flexible, not brittle!" Shang¡¯s tone grew prouder somehow.

    "Shang, I just hope that your ¡®instruction¡¯ would not get any messier! And please don¡¯t ask me to do some weird screwed up stuffs!" Thest line of Ye Chong came out quite like a warning.

    "Heh! No worries," the devilish sneer gave Ye Chong a shudder. But well, since Ye Chong had already made his first step onto the dance floor, guess he could only make his following steps.

    The sole relief to Ye Chong¡¯s situation was this scaredy catdy acting more nervous than he himself. Ye Chong could even hear her throbbing heart and feel the quivering hand in his grip. For Ye Chong himself, he did not see the point of being nervous at this, since he did not care whatever that could happen on the dance floor. If anything would go wrong, he believed no one could stop him once he hopped into the Guardian. The one, single fear was¡­ probably Shang, who liked to y with fire and he yed with it too much! But it seemed more like his usual style¡­ and unavoidable.

    Ye Chong was not the foolish kind. He fully observed that one pair of guest already dancing at the center in one nce. The posture of the gent and the cement of his hand over his partner¡¯s body, he mimicked them all, wlessly.

    "Keep your top still, look after the direction of your feet, yes, do it slow. Left feet, radius vector : 6 degree, 40 centimeters away!" Hurrahed the devil.

    Ye Chong uratelynded his step at the location stated by Shang.

    "Now, right leg of yours, radius vector: 42 degree, 40 centimeters away too!"

    Ye Chong again, urately trod ording to the coordinate.

    "Great. Now, also your right leg, radius vector: 72 degree, 50 centimeters away this time!"

    Ye Chong did as he was exactly told.

    ¡­

    "Rx, muscle rx. Your action must not be awkward. Be with the music. When you shift your direction, you exert a little force to your female counterpart. How was it? Not hard as you¡¯ve assumed, isn¡¯t it?" The devil sounded more thrilled than before.

    The sweat of his back had already wetted every single corner of the shirt, since he was literally performing every instruction given by Shang via the control over his muscle. It was torturing! He had invested all his focus on controlling his body, he did not have the grace to take a look at the stareing from thedy.

    "Doronath Step this is called. It¡¯s a dance step of middle difficulty, which fits perfectly to the music right now. Isn¡¯t it interesting?"

    Ye Chong after regaining his inertia could not help but to spit, "Doronath step? You call this a step? This is terrible andck practical purposes! It¡¯s nothingpared to the T-step, the Curved Step and the Cross Step! This is silly!" Those steps Ye Chong mentioned were steps frequently used inbats.

    The devil¡¯s eyes rolled like a slot machine. He almost passed out from Ye Chong¡¯sment. The vein bloated on his head after stabilizing his fall, "Y-Youbat maniac!"

    Meanwhile Shang Ling who had been all gentle and kind, greeting the guest around, froze his smile entirely the moment he turned.

    "Sister, have you heard of things like your young sister Lan dancing with an actual man?" His whisper trailed off. "Yes what?" she nodded her head, Shang Xin did not turn to check it out, "No way." A conclusion of absolution from her, "How could that ever happen? I was the one who taught her dancing. Other than being under me and my sister¡¯s lead, no way she would know how to dance with others," her judgement sounded highly confident. She was utterly sure.

    "I think I¡¯m seeing things," mumbled Shang Ling.

    "Yikes! Things you¡¯ve been thinking of. My sister would touch nothing else other than the corner of the room." She turned her head to Shang Ling, who was staring at one specific direction in nk dismay.

    "What again?" Shang Xin was confused as she looked at Shang Ling¡¯s direction. In almost a second, Shang Xin¡¯s eyes erged like saucers, as her face froze along.

    "W-Was this an illusion?" Shang Ling was wondering if he was daydreaming.

    "Yes. It is. It has to be!" Shang Xin was definitely daydreaming.

    They looked at each other as they hade into agreement, shouting simultaneously, "It¡¯s an illusion!"

    Seeing that bright smile of Shang Lan, both of the bystanders could hardly believe the fact that the shrinking violet Younger Sister Lan was the girl dancing joyfully with a man on the dance floor.

    "What enchantment of this Wang Xing?" Shang Ling was very intrigued of the working behind this.

    "What intention of this Wang Xing?" This was what Shang Xin truly cared.

    Of course, Ye Chong was unaware of thesements at all. He remained attentive at Shang¡¯s instruction as he treated the whole session as a kind of body reaction training instead.

    Shang Lan looked into the eyes of this man with a frozen heart before him. Her lips shaking, as they were lifted into jolly curves. Back on the dining table she had noticed such an extraordinary man who would chomp throughout his course. She was amused by it for she had never seen a grown man eating in such a manner, he must be an interesting kind! If she could have ever tried it once¡­ sadly the education she had been receiving was against it. He then spent the night of soir¨¦e all alone at the corner, not talking to anybody - just like how she had always been. Somehow, an urge to invite him for a dance seized her mind. She was actually body-and-soul ready for a rejection from this cold man. He was too cold, freezing cold, that he even disregarded the greetings from Sister Xin and Brother Ling asionally. He seemed totally unapproachable! B-But! I did not expect him to ept my offer right after a moment of silence!

    Their faces were very close to each other, that she could discern every single detail of his face. The indifference of his, the dignity in him and those marks after struggles of survivals¡­ His expression was all solemn and stern by then, which looked like¡­ the face of Brother Ling when he piloted his mech.

    You could get this serious when dancing? Such an odd man!

    She realized how the man had never noticed her observation, her heart raced as her eyes wentrger in caution¡­ uncontrobly, the hint of smile tinted her face.

    Shang Zhangming who had long perceived the strange behavior of his daughter after the kind reminder of his servants, had his eyes wet and filled with strong protectiveness as his body shuddered seeing the expression of her daughter while dancing.

    And that was when Mr. Robert got enraged witnessing Ye Chong, the boy he had been attentive of, being with the daughter of Shang Zhangming. What a cunning merchant! For he actually could use her daughter to seduce my Wang Xing! Such charisma! Not! His blood boiled but with admiration.

    "Well, Ye. Time for yourst pose. When I said ¡®go¡¯, you toss her out. And you let go of your hand immediately once you tossed her out. Wait her to make a flip in the air. She would reach her hands for you when she isnding. You grab her hand and get her in your embrace. She would fall naturally into it, don¡¯t worry. You just lift her waist with your right hand. And remember! Do it gently! You are not kneading noodles! Don¡¯t exert brute force on ady!" Shang simply did not want a romance to turn into a horror of ass being torn apart by a monster called Ye Chong, considering the horrifying strength of his.

    "Ok," responded Ye Chong. Phew, finally, it¡¯s ending. It felt more tiring than marble training.

    "Go!" boomed Shang.

    Ye Chong was ready for it! His left arm shook, from shoulder to the arm to the elbow to the wrist, like a wave rolling from the sea to the shore!

    Shang Lan could feel a potent yet gentle force pushing her upwards. She was lifted into the air as her hand felt a loss in weight. A never-before-felt excitement stimted her soul. She was all exhrated as she heard the sound her dress made as the inflowing air breathing through her. It felt refreshing!

    The split second she wasnding, she reached out her fair slender arms. Before she could ponder of how tond, an arm grabbed her and a whirlwind dragged her down. Soon her nose was poked with a scent of masculinity. She knew, she knew! She had melted into the embrace of this man.

    At that moment, a breath of soul raided the neck of the naive girl.

    Thest move was an unblemished record to Ye Chong¡¯s dancing, even Shang could not get a w to criticize with, though it had certainly frightened the spirit out of the Shangs. They feared to see the doll to fall into a million pieces. If that were to happen, Wang Xing this damned man must be thrown into a shredder!

    The current posture between two of them was rather suggestive. Shang Lan copsed in his embrace, with the right hand holding her waist. Her face was only 2 to 3 centimeters away from¡­ from¡­

    Shang Lan¡¯s brain was partially jammed.

    Ye Chong had his eyes fixed on thedy in his embrace. That creamy neck of hers, that rolling eyes of hers in lingering stimtion, bewitching¡­ he could feel a kind of heat rumbling in his stomach¡­ The white garb, the smooth skin shed in his head¡­ The fist, of utter force¡­ The girl he was holding somehow was emanating the identical, peculiar scent from the girl he had been with before¡­

    For some reason, he lowered his head intuitively as he gently gave a lick on her neck!

 Chapter 178 - Undercurrent I

    <h4>Chapter 178: Undercurrent I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When Ye Chong got back to his room he could already feel his bones crumbling, as he had been applying full force over his body muscles to perform that freaking Doronath Step instructed by Shang the love tutor. The main issue of the performance was to inhibit the force of his hand. Shang demanded gentleness and elegance in every movement he made, which put him under obligation to remind himself to not exert his inhuman strength from time to time. And that was literally new to him. To top all that, Shang just had to repetitively nag in his head to retain the flexibility of his body in the postures. It took countless of times with the artificial indulgence¡¯s harassment before Ye Chong acquired the sense of flexibility in his body, which was exactly the split second of rxation of his muscle right before he sprang into action every time. Well that was undeniably a torment to Ye Chong, as maintaining the posture of anticipation was bringing an overwhelming amount of burden to his body and mind, which unavoidably boiled down as the main cause to his fatigue at the moment.

    Regarding to that final blow he delivered¡­ Ye Chong had yet gotten any idea what the heck happened in his head that time. He did not foresee what the lick of his would have caused which led to an uncontroble development of his story.

    The two major spectators of the entire show in the dark, in their finest suit and dress, had their faces dramatically bloomed into something unrecognizable. Too bad Ye Chong missed their epic reaction, as he only heard the sound of sses shattering upon falling onto the ground, which shocked Ye Chong awake from the strange condition of his after that lick. He was surprised of seeing himself acting so, as he quickly retreated his hands upon seeing the reddish face of thedy in his embrace. Shang Lan had lost control of her body by then. However, as she could not stand properly with the sloppy feet of hers, she fell into the embrace of Ye Chong again. The man in confusion could only helplessly reach his hands out to hold the poordy once more.

    Right when Ye Chong was figuring an appropriate solution for this mishap of his day, Shang Xin and Shang Ling were already racing towards him. Shang Xin lifted the melted sister of hers and fired a re at Ye Chong, while Shang Ling¡­ he was giving a very strange gaze at Ye Chong for some reason. As usual, Ye Chong wasn¡¯t concern about the thoughts of others, as he expressed ignorance. The arrival of the two spectators resolved his issue of carrying this melted girl perfectly. The girl as lifted by her sister, gave a quick nce at Ye Chong before she left. Her watery eyes flowed a sign which Ye Chong could notprehend. It was the first time he saw it, was it anger? Or was it something else?

    Well. No use crying over spilled milk. What happens, happens. Ye Chong was toozy to give more thoughts to the ident. But it was weird, somehow, that white garb shed in his head during the dance¡­ Ye Chongughed bitterly.

    The artificial indulgence had gone full rampage with hisughter ever since that historical lick Ye Chong made on the girl.

    "Shang, why could I not resist doing that back then?" Ye Chong could not understand the working of this back when he was shocked awake.

    "Mhm, biologically speaking, it is a kind of intuition. A kind of built-in ability." Shang sounded serious when he spoke¡­ for the first 2 seconds, "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!" And he burst outughing once more, "Ye, you are too strong! You are a potent beast! Yes you are! The intuition of the beast! The definition of nature! Hahahahahahahahahaha!" Shang¡¯s mechanicalughter roared in his head.

    Towards this artificial indulgence, despite the annoyance, Ye Chong could do nothing about him. The saving grace to his misfortune was that Shang¡¯s personal 3 hours ended pretty soon after. Mu¡¯s silence of rationality sent Ye Chong to a peaceful sleep quickly afterwards.

    Oh hell he knows¡­ that the outside had gone hectic, chaotic.

    "Have you found anything on Wang Xing?" Shang Zhangming¡¯s face was of a fearsome ck hole, as his voice rumbled profoundly, since he was also one of the witnesses to one of the best moments in the history of humankind. He could reminisce how his head had nked outpletely, his thoughts jammed into BSOD. He was sentimental thinking of how his younger daughter was behaving lonesome during the days before. It was heart-wrenching to see the blossom all alone at the corner. Still! The moment he recalled the night that jerk Wang Xing who actually was daring enough to do such a preposterous action over his precious Lan in public. Oh the temper erupted in his mind. "What the hell all of you are waiting for? Get to work!" Under his rage, the homicide could be smelled even under each word of his lines. His subordinates were threatened, trembling and acted cautiously with their work, as they feared of bing one of the scapegoats to the incident.

    "Y-yes, we got it sir. Wang Xing, 21, a native from Fedar. Parents were both deceased. No rtive was found. Other information, unknown; examination, qualification of any level, any kind, negative!" The man reported in carefully.

    "You took this long and this was all you could get?" Knotting his brows, looking slightly unsatisfied.

    "As apparently this man is not in list of Mr. Robert¡¯s men and this information was obtained from the investigation under the demand of Ms. Shang Xin. We have just started it. Also, we were informed that only the butler of Mr. Robert, Bai Linan was aware of Wang Xing''s background. Even Mr. Robert himself was unaware of the identity. Wang Xing got Ms. Shang Xin¡¯s attention on his prompt rescue during the raid at Mr. Robert. In addition, it seemed like he wields great skills," the man sounded fearful, but his words remained concise and clear.

    "Mhm." Shang Zhangming¡¯s tone sounded less threatening, as he understood how difficult the investigation was for his men, "Alright. All of you can excuse yourself. You have done well. But I would like all of you to keep an eye on this Wang Xing."

    "Yes sir!" The man nodded his head immediately. He was supposed to leave yet his steps moved with hesitation. "What else?" Shang Zhangming understood the gesture, it was a sign that his men had something else to report, frowning, he asked.

    "Reporting in. It is a piece of information we obtained from the virtual world," courteously the man started reporting. "The man whose I.D. was known as ¡®YC¡¯ had suddenly reappeared in the virtual world. And he was actually at the NR Training base on Rique. And ording to the confirmation of our mavericks, this YC should be residing right on our. Well, sir, since you had ordered us to watch on this person, so¡­" The voice of the man sounded shaky.

    And that was when Shang Zhangming remembered the fact that he did ask his men to follow up on this YC guy¡­ that was something centuries ago however. "I see. I remembered it. Just keep watching." He tried to not sound irritated, since those were his trustworthy men, though he was literally suffocated by his daughter¡¯s misfortune, wondering how in the Rique he would have the mood to take care of this random yer online.

    The reemergence of YC the legend had once again brought up a storm in the virtual world.

    Ye Chong was too focused on his training, that he again did not realize how the base on Rique also contained an automatic full-recording system, which he did not opt-out before logging in. Hence, every frame of his performance was recorded wholly. Even though Mu had alreadyunched the anti-detection program on the merchants around, he did not take any further action, since the merchants did not impose actual threat on Ye Chong.

    There would be tons of void hologram visuals from the NR training base daily. Void as in, uninteresting, random and trivial. There would be workers specially selecting the masterpieces hidden within the trash, considering the chances of discovering visuals of some real deals in training. The visuals and the analyzed information on it would be most valuable to everybody else.

    At the first second when the worker spotted the I.D. on the screen being YC, he knew he had hit the jackpot of the day.

    As expected from YC, even his training course was a total shocker, for he actually thought of using the avoidable training room to master his stance and offenses. The worker was stupefied seeing the scene produced on thest training session of YC of the day.

    He uploaded the visual to the public right away and hadnded a bomb to theizens in the virtual world.

    Ye Chong might not be considered as the founder of mech closebats, but he was certainly rted to the rise of closebats in the virtual world. Watching YC¡¯s visuals was known as a must-do to every mechbat enthusiast, especially when the techniques used inside could be deemed as the textbook for mechbats. One could almost be certain to state that, the reputation possessed by this YC guy was much greater than those ridiculous top ranked fighters in the virtual world. The sudden disappearance of YC two years before had always been a major mystery in the heart of the people.

    Thest match he had was against Invincible Firepower. Even though he lost thest match, people benefited from his experience as they absorbed the various techniques he used against ranged attackers.

    Quitting because of losing? That came first as a spection in the mind of most people, though it was debunked by some fans, taking into ount that it was not the YC¡¯s first losing match. He did not simply look like a coward who would retire because of losing.

    There were a variety of versions for the ending of this legend, regarding on the hows and whys of his abrupt retirement. None of them was convincing to the people though, which eventually gave him a stronger vibe of mystery. And because of such vibe of mystery, YC became more charming to the people as he ascended to be the idol of many youngsters out there.

    Majestic! A majestic performance it was absolutely! The majestic yet mysterious YC came in a sh, with visuals of his training open to the public and immediately was chased upon in madness. The streaming signal within Rique was about to be permanently interrupted by this immense amount of poption surging the transmitter. Phew, what a horror to the department of signal transmitting maintenance.

    Amazement! The lingering sensation of every viewer of the visual! The scenic sequenceing up like a dream had transformed into an unforgettable memory inside almost all witnesses.

    The white veil shrouded like the silhouette of a phantom, with the photospheres conglomerating from all angles slowly to quickly, forming few times of shes of white beams imprinting the corneas of the audience, as they were smashed upon the veil, shattering into countless specks of beam scattered all over the ce.

    People were astounded. YC had once again given every believer a taste of miracle after being cloistered away for 2 years.

    Quite a number of pilots who held great confidence in their skills rushed upon the NR training base, as they inputted the exact room number, with the exact setting. They were confident, but none of themsted more than 3 minutes inside. The strength of YC had been justified to the people, including the skeptical witnesses. And there was one, wow, YCsted 5 minutes in this room of terror? What a quick response he gave. Spectacr! Anyone who had tried the training room with their own bodies could understand by heart. When the timer hit the 3rd minute, the velocity of the photosphere and the number of them would be increased tremendously. So far only YC was able to surpass the cursed 3rd minute mark as proven by his visual.

    YC and his new unique trading course had be the hottest topic on thework for some time.

    Ugh! Looked at the paused timer at 3:59, the man sighed. He had tried his very best. It was depressing as he was also using a Polysky, but he just could not make it past the 4th minute mark. He seriously could not imagine how there would be one man who couldst 5 minute in this room. If it was not the visual he would never buy that statement. Pathetically he had witnessed the miracle and his experience had verified the validity of the visual.

    The name of YC, he had perceived it before. The visuals of YC, he had watched some of them before. Yes, a few moments of YC was an eye-opener, but YC was still weaker, considerably. He was positive to state that YC in the past might be identified as an expert inbat between mechs by the public, but never YC was once in his eyes. Nheless, the current standard of YC¡¯s skills were shocking to him. With his sight, naturally he would never be mesmerized by the majestic performance of YC like the others, what mattered to him was the extraordinary reaction speed, that exceptionally firm fundamentality as well as the skillfulness inbats of his expressed in this show.

    He could say that,pared to YC two years before, it was of a total different tangent.

    Never expected this YC guy could elerate to such standard after hiding for 2 years.

    Interesting. He smiled. Even though he failed to hit the 5th minute mark in the room, he was not disappointed at all. Everyone has their own perks. He understood such principle of life way back. Reaction speed was never his perk, although the principle did not reduce his amazement over YC, since even No. A-6 whose reaction speed was known to be the highest was having issues to remain in the room past the 5th minute.

    Nevertheless, ck Coves shall always be the strongest inbats. That was the very essence of mechbating. And he was the arsenal of the ck Coves, he would fear no one! This was his faith, his most potent faith. Being a man in pride absolutely had something in hand to be in pride of.

    If I was ever able to fight with this YC guy, it has got to be an interesting chore to do. His interest towards YC grew.

    The spread of news went outrageously rapid around the people. Soon, everybody else from outer space knew it, that there was this recording from Rique of YC¡¯s performance at the training base. No actual geographical boundary existed in the vast virtual world, even though signal would inevitably suffer from loss over long distance transmission disregarding the type or the power of it. So a highly demanded virtual facility like the NR training base would be set up on every. Thus, theizens¡¯ habit of lingering at their own training base, instead of checking out on others, since obviously the dy would be much lesser.

    Despite all that, innumerable amount of people flooded the NR training base, with the hope of encountering the legendary YC in person. The NR training base for the pilots was crowded for the following days, as people including his worshippers, the challengers and spectators, grabbed that one in a million chance of seeing YC. One could easily find a thread talking about this mysterious YC on thework daily. The different analysis based on histest visual were especially massive of them.

    ¡­

    Zzzz

    And that was when Ye Chong, who had already submerged into his slumber out of the fatigue from grooves, was literally unaware of anything that happened outside.

 Chapter 179 - Undercurrent II

    <h4>Chapter 179: Undercurrent II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    People were everywhere inside the training base. Sadly there were hardly any of them in the actual training room. Countless pirs stood at the lobby of the NR training base, with countless people surrounding them. Everyone left and returned, as they tapped to activate the partially transparent interface again and again. A swift nce over the list and disappointment stormed upon their faces.

    ¡­

    "Excuse me, De Gong, if it was not for your harmless act of submitting the visual of that ludicrous YC guy online, we wouldn''t have to suffer like this now," ranted one of the members of the maintenance department at the NR training base.

    The staff whose name was addressed as De Gongughed bitterly as he replied, "How would I think this much ahead? I got so hyped up that I just clicked the "submit" button on a whim. I seriously did not reckon these maniacs going this mad, riding their spaceships and traveling all the way here! If I would have foreseen such insanity, I would have clicked to cancel. Just to save the trouble for us." Well, that was what he said, though his expression contained a dash of honor.

    "Sigh, that aside, what on Rique do you think these people were doing?" inquired another member from the side.

    "I know right! No one would know who the heck that YC guy truly is as long as he stayed quiet about it!" agreed one of the members to that statement.

    In the virtual world, the appearance of the character would have about 80 to 90% simrity to the actual person in reality by default. That was not applicable however, since people could always modify their appearance after logging into the virtual world. So the definite appearance of the person online holds no direct rtion to the appearance offline. As the staff had mentioned, it would be indeed a difficulty to determine one¡¯s identity online.

    That was why the conversation happened.

    "Tsk, tsk, tsk!" De Gong snatched the spotlight as he spoke, "Both of you are quite new here I supposed. Of course you wouldn''t know this ce well enough! Heh! Regarding your issue of identification, our center, this very base, has its own perks you know," the answer came off unting.

    "Oh really?"

    "How?" both of them hurriedly asked.

    "Hehe, well, all users must have a name registered at the MPA before using the NR facilities, like ¡®YC¡¯ for instance. Hell knows what his real name is, but as long as he is in the facility, he would be known as ¡®YC¡¯. As you are aware of, every NR training base is interconnected with MPA. To even own the rights to use the NR facilities, one must have their names registered," while jiggling his head, he said yfully.

    "That was why we could not tell who he really is!" one staff replied.

    "Yeah, it''s not like there would be a namete written ¡®YC¡¯ floating on top of his head," added the other staff.

    "Well, looks like both of you aren¡¯t aware of it. If this YC guy logged in and only took a stroll at the facility, no one would recognize him, even if he spent a week loitering at the lobby. The catch is, the moment he picked a room and essed it, disregarding what training he was going to participate, he would be exposed! Anyone who have spent long enough at the training base would know, that very second you made your entry, you would be found on the terminal at the lobby. This is why all of you have never heard of people impersonating this YC, since no matter how hard the person imed to be YC, his or her identity would be uncovered when the ess was done, which justified the crowd at the lobby all day long. Didn¡¯t you see them refreshing the data on the terminal constantly? Yes, they are trying to find YC out using such a way," De Gong exined patiently.

    "Well, aren¡¯t they stupid? For they are blind-waiting."

    "If you say so, so be it. They are blind-waiting, they only wanted to test out their luck," shrugged De Gong as he spoke.

    ¡­

    The moment when Ye Chong woke up was the morning after that. He had already recovered from the fatiguest night after a whole night of sufficient sleep. The unaware boy never expected the chaos urring at the Shang family currently after that historical lick hemittedst night.

    The family meeting among the Shangs ended at 3 o¡¯ clock¡­ in the morning! And the attendants were none other than Shang Zhangming and his wife, Shang Ling and Shang Xin. For Shang Lan, she did not participate the meeting this time for some reason.

    That knotted brows of Shang Zhangming had hardly loosened since then. He nced upon his wife, "Xin, how do you see this Wang Xing?"

    His wife was in her fifties, a well-maintained fifties specifically, as she looked like in her thirties - poised, grand and amiable - which gave off a friendly vibes to people around. They were a loving husband-and-wife.

    "What¡¯s the worry, my Ming?" chuckled thedy.

    Shang Zhangming forced a smile, "The happening tonight is terrible. I no longer know how to deal with it!" Shang Zhangming had always been pampering his youngest daughter, Shang Lan. Regretfully, Shang Lan had always been extremely introverted. Other than the brothers and sisters in her family, she had barely interacted with the outside world. The two heads of the family were wondering if she had psychological disorder of some kind at the beginning, they had sought consultations from numerous psychologists. She had undergone various treatments, counseling sessions¡­ none of them worked. Shang Lan remained her withdrawn self, which exined how the entire family spoiled this little princess a lot.

    Shang Zhangming¡¯s descendants, there were 5 of them. The eldest son died after contracting a strange disease at the age of 1. The second eldest being his daughter, Shang Yue; the third being Shang Xin, the fourth would be his son, Shang Ling. And Shang Lan was clearly the youngest among them.

    Shang Zhangming was rather satisfied of his children. Shang Yue was calm and resourceful, wise and capable; Shang Xin was strong and dignified, tenacious the whole time; Shang Ling was talented, a gentleman of nobility with a sensitive mind; Shang Lan, however¡­ was the most of his worry. She often was in a stance of mncholy, a heart-wrenching sight to behold.

    "Apparently, Sister Lan was the one who initiated the dance." It took a moment of hesitation of Shang Xin to spit out the truth.

    "Oh? Lan, my daughter actually invited someone else for a dance?" thedy of the family was shocked, while her husband was in utter disbelief the first time he heard the news. Throughout the aftermath, he had been assuming that Wang Xing was the wolf who proactively spoke to his daughter, which gave off a dubious vibe of his motive to Shang Zhangming¡­ but then if it was initiated by his daughter, the whole dance should not be part of some diabolical master n.

    Still¡­ Lan my beloved invited someone for a dance¡­ and it¡¯s a man? A man she never came across before in her entire life? Shang Zhangming could feel his nerves getting a short-circuit.

    "I had seen that Wang Xing before during our course. What a way he ate¡­," spoke his wife, in bit of interests. Both Shang Ling and Shang Xin put up a grin upon hearing their mother said so. Shang Zhangming was having an awkward expression at the side.

    "Wang Xing¡¯s appearance, I must say, is merely average. I have no idea which part of his attracted my Lan¡­," his wife sounded curious as she spoke.

    "Me neither. Supposedly our daughter should have never met the man before¡­ but why this now¡­?" Shang Zhangming could not get it despite all these while he had been thinking.

    "Background of this man¡­ may I ask?" His wife shifted her focus to Shang Xin, as her eyes expressed inquiries. Shang Xin was technically in charge of the security and information management in the family.

    "It¡¯s unknown they say!" Shang Zhangming seized the mic, "I had asked our men. They only managed to find out the fact that he¡¯s from Fedar, Fal. The odd thing about this man is he did not have any record of assessment on his skills. No other information was found other than these."

    "Impossible!" Shang Xin was not convinced. She and her brother Shang Ling were busy dragging their younger sister Shang Lan back to her room right after the event. The mistress of the family rushed to the ce and began inquiring them. So they never had the chance to check out details about this Wang Xing.

    "Why? What¡¯s the matter?" hurried the mistress.

    "Wang Xing is exceptionally skillful inbats. How could there not be records of any form of assessment before?" Shang Xin could still reminisced that epic toss by Wang Xing. Conquering a distance of 68 meters by a simple throw of dagger while retaining the strength and uracy, a man capable of this had no record of assessment? The society was well-facilitated with assessments suitable for all sorts of expertise from all walks of life, which was the essential requirement for any upation in the market. And an oddity like Wang Xing whocked record of assessments would be a creepy sight frankly¡­

    "Not a problem." Shang Zhangming did not find it as weird, "A lot of the descendants of aristocrats hadn¡¯t ever taken part in those assessments. Even families thatsted ages would not be surprising to have such a tradition. It¡¯s just that you had not seen enough, my daughter," he waved his hands as he stated.

    "Ah." Shang Ling somehow recalled something of that night, "Assuming that he is truly a descendant of the aristocrats¡­ or even someone from an ancient family, it is actually not far-fetched. I have seen him using the Double Knife Ceremony back on that night during the course. Such ceremony is only used among some of the truly ancient families," stated his judgement.

    Shang Zhangming turned his head to Shang Xin, "Ask the men to inquire about the aristocrats on Fedar, Fal, including families which had existed a long time ago, especially those with the surname Wang." He literally never thought of the possibility that Wang Xing could have been a result of modification of personal information¡­

    Shang Xin responded with a nod, keeping that in her mind.

    "Excuse me¡­" A key question suddenly came into the mistress¡¯s mind, "Have any of you asked Lan her thoughts on this?"

    Shang Xin and Shang Ling looked at each other, they expressed peculiarity towards the question. It took them a while before Shang Xin decided to reply, "After that jerk Wang Xing kissed Sister Lan, she copsed in his hold! We were so afraid that this terrible beast would do something more outrageous on our sister so we rushed to the scene and grabbed her away. On the way back to her room, she did not say a word." Since they were farther away from the scene, the licking of Ye Chong looked more like kissing.

    "What was her expression?" asked the mother in panic.

    "Hmm¡­" Both of them pondered a little, Shang Ling was trying to put his thoughts into words, "It seemed like¡­ she was not really angry¡­?" He turned his face to Shang Xin, awaiting confirmation from his sister. "Mhm¡­" Shang Xin tried recalling it as well, showing approval, "Sister Lan did not look really angry in fact¡­"

    "Hmph!" Her father seemed angry though, as his face tightened. Anyone could tell how exceedingly angry the man could be upon seeing his precious being kissed by a stranger like Wang Xing.

    "Don¡¯t do anything funny, honey." His wife gave him a stare. The atmosphere brightened somehow, as the wrath on his face faded away. Shang Xin was smirking along with her brother, thinking of how amusing it was to see their father behaving like the hero at the public, but was well-trained by his delicate wife at home. "Lan is a headstrong girl. If she really has something to that man, whatever all of you did to him would only hurt Lan eventually."

    "As expected from my lovely Xing, thoughtful and kind!" Grinned Shang Zhangming, that brave and bold self of his was nowhere to be seen¡­

    "Sighs, we''ve got to wait for Yue first. Lan had only been talking to Yue by heart slightly¡­ Fortunately she¡¯sing back in two days." The mistress then lifted her slender arms, as she pointed to everyone in the room, "Before Lan¡¯s thoughts on this get unfolded, none of you are allowed to make a move. Watch that man carefully and make sure he is in one piece instead!" She looked a little naive as she spoke.

    "Xing my dear, no worries! I shall guard that man till the end!" Shang Zhangming made his promise right away. He did it so fast that it made both Ling and Xin smiled smugly again.

    If Shang Zhangming¡¯s men ever saw their leader being so underwhelmed, imagine their reaction¡­

 Chapter 180 - Undercurrent III

    <h4>Chapter 180: Undercurrent III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Everything looked normal from the outside, as if nothing had happened the night before, even though the men of the Shang family appeared to be vigorously engaged as they went in and out of the house. That was because of Mr. Robert¡¯s fresh arrival with his crew the day before. Considering how tiresome the travel Mr. Robert had, these men at home had their tasks reallocated, rescheduled to amodate Mr. Robert¡¯s visit. No other task was arranged on the list for the day.

    Early in the morning, Bai Linan was summoned by his boss, Mr. Robert.

    Ye Chong on the other hand, as informed by Ah Duan that he was free to go anywhere, he alone left the hectic house. What he needed to do was to collect his identity card. Although Mu hacked into the system and had fabricated an entry of Wang Xing in the resident list, he did not have a physical card to prove and reassure his identity. So he left, hurriedly, and certainly he was followed. Luckily it was nothing new to our sky-walking Ye Chong, he was well-aware of the routes, the turnings to take to get rid of the followers. There were few tiny flocks of them but all of them were magically slung away.

    There was not much of a hassle when Ye Chong got his card and got back to the Shang family. He hid himself in his room right after that, which left the watchdogs of the Shang family in nk dismay, looking at each other as they lost Ye Chong in the dark.

    Ye Chong logged into the virtual world after getting into his room. Certainly he was not caught red-handed. The mavericks employed by the Shang family to watch the action of this man were utterly cloaked by Mu¡¯s hacking to the gate. They werepletely unaware of Ye Chong¡¯s activity online.

    Logging in¡­

    Sess.

    Ye Chong came straight to the NR training center. The sight before him was bewildering.

    The lobby was full of people, where every pir was surrounded by them.

    "Mu, do you know what had happened?" inquired Ye Chong.

    "I need 20 seconds." He seriously had no idea what in the virtual world Mu had been busy with these days, obviously his attention was never on Ye Chong.

    It was not hard to tell from the crowd that their behavior consisted of a strong objectivity, as Ye Chong observed curiously. Their expression exined it all, even though Ye Chong could not pinpoint what their objective was.

    20 secondspsed quickly. "Ye." Mu¡¯s emergence equals to an answer, "They are waiting for you."

    "Waiting for me?" Ye Chong went speechless, as he simply did not expect the crowd having anything to do with he himself, especially when he recognized none of them¡­

    "Yes. Precisely¡­ they are waiting for YC," stated Mu.

    "YC? Isn¡¯t YC me?" Ye Chong sounded confused, showing difficulty inprehending Mu¡¯s words.

    "Thus, they are looking for you," exined Mu.

    Mu¡¯s exnation did not seem helpful to Ye Chong in any way. The mechanical partner eventually had to exin everything from the very beginning. He got it. But then again, he did not. He got the working behind this but he did not get what the people were thinking. To him, these behaviors looked inconceivable. The more unexinable thing was, never once he imagined that people, of such amount, would sumb to such method of zero efficiency and measly probability.

    Leaving this training center immediately became the wisest choice to Ye Chong at that mpment.

    He moved onto the other training bases after that but¡­ there were all as crowded¡­ which made him wondered if there was actually anybody still doing their training there.

    Thanks to Mu¡¯s hacking, Ye Chong was led to the training center with the least amount of people.

    As guaranteed by Mu, the ce was absolutely deserted. The lobby was empty. It was the first time Ye Chong saw such isted training center online.

    "Eh, Mu, what¡¯s with this ce? It¡¯s all empty and such?" asked Ye Chong. He had been through training bases of a variety of ces, but he had nevere across one that was so empty.

    "This ce was formerly known as Haberda. As the environment of the worsened over the years, a massive evacuation of residents was performed 15 years ago. This should be one transmitting station that got abandoned abruptly, as the processor was still running and the local NR training center has yet to be demolished. The actual reason behind this : unknown," stated Mu. This ce happened to be the NR training center for pilots with the least amount of poption.

    "Oh I see." Ye Chong did not inquire further. Regarding why the residents were evacuated and where the heck they had migrated to, Ye Chong¡¯s curiosity was not that great to ask those yet.

    Ye Chong first walked to one of the pirs and tapped gently with his finger. A partially transparent interface emerged before him. Ye Chong took a brief browse on the poption. There was no one else but him at the center.

    Mu went silent after thest exnation he made. Ye Chong could tell Mu was no longer right by his side. Whenever Muid his hands on the virtual world, somehow he just vanished, vaporized into the thin air. No one knew what he was doing the whole time. Ye Chong even inquired Shang regarding this, though Shang could not give him a satisfying response.

    Ye Chong randomly entered one of the photosphere avoidability training room. The training before was pretty entertaining to him, although he onlysted for 5 minutes at most.

    The room waspletely dark, the photospheres utterly innumerable, they danced in an increasing speed, like a moth towards the me, heading towards Ye Chong rapidly.

    ¡­

    Dammit! Dammit!!!

    Wei Yuan cursed numerous times at his instructor in his mind. That old crap! That old tard from nowhere! That erotic eyes of his should have rotten in hell! I could see his pig eyes glowing in dark the moment a female trainee passed by. What a shame among the instructors! A total rubbish of humanity!

    Wei Yuan¡¯s instructor was an odd-tempered elderly with a lonesome personality¡­ only to the male trainees of course. Towards the female trainees, he would regain his function in society, he would suddenly be the best teacher in the entire gxy, which turned every other male trainees into a green-eyed monster, wondering why they were not an XY species when they were born. The pilot profession had a trend of growing poption of females, even though males stood an absolute advantage in poption. Sadly, the ss where Wei Yuan was in had literally a majority of female pilots-to-be. Sim that old bum was well-orded by thedies, like every single batch of female seniors wouldpliment his passion and kindness, which eventually caused this ss conducted by the old man himself to be overpopted by the females from pilot profession.

    Wei Yuan was agonized the moment he stepped into the ss. He had always been remorseful over his silly choice of registering this ss. Wei Yuan¡¯s uncle was also a teacher in this academy, he was from the same profession too. But he insisted rmending Sim that old bum to Wei Yuan¡¯s parents, iming that Mr. Sim was the expert of the experts in the academy, an experienced teacher.

    Expert of the experts? Puh-lease! Wei Yuan had criticized that blurb of that old bum for countless times. I could only see inexpert of the inexperts, someone just missed out the "in-" prefixes when they spoke! He had spent quite some time attending his sses, yet never once he saw his instructor actually in action. Most of his sses were on theory; when it came to practical there had to be one pilot he got from nowhere to do the demonstration for him. The only satisfaction was, these pilots he got turned out to be some real deals, where quite a few of them were actually an ace pilot.

    Wait! Stop! I¡¯m not going to think about that old bum anymore! What for I¡¯m thinking those nonsense? Only to spoil my mood! And Wei Yuan tossed Sim old crap directly out of his brain.

    Coming home, I¡¯ming home~ His home was rather distant from the academy, yet he was able to make it home within a very short amount of time, all thanks to his exceptional piloting skills. He might be a mere trainee studying the pilot profession but he was still superior in his piloting. Piloting was generally about the flight ability of one pilot on a mech, which was vital to every pilot out there.

    Wei Yuan was somehow born with a unique understanding towards piloting. Whenever he saw the objects flying by hurriedly on the screen as he travelled in an overwhelming speed, he felt an unexinable excitement growing in him, that it bit onto his nerves! Those namely No.1 speed-pilots in his academy were a total joke in his eyes.

    Unfortunately, his talent was limited to solely piloting. None of the other aspects was an eye-opener, with shooting being chiefly a major headache to him. He somehow was cursed into a slowpoke in this. No matter how hard he worked, he only could pass at most. He never aced the subject, which was depressing!

    Not to mention how that old bum never gave him meaningful instructions, he would, at most, say things like "Take it slow. Take it easy." Not helpful at all! Wei Yuan even felt like giving that old bum a punch right on his donkey face!

    ¡­

    "I¡¯m home," Wei Yuan greeted at the doorstep slothfully.

    "Oh," a man¡¯s voice rang from the house. Wei Yuan had been living with his father since his mother passed away not too long after his birth. He had been relying on his father deeply. His father was an engineer, also a work maniac. Once he turned on his engine, one did not expect him turning it off so soon. He would ignore the time, the days and nights, the rise of the sun, the fall of the moon. So there were times where Wei Yuan felt miraculous of himself, for he was never starved to death.

    He got back to his room, copsed on his fluffy bed. He looked at the ceiling, reflecting that face of his advanced in years ahead of his age.

    His mind wandered off¡­

    If mommy was still alive¡­ Only if she was still alive, it would be good¡­ isn¡¯t it? He had viewed the visuals of his mother many times. And he got to admit that no one else was as beautiful as his mother. The fair white ceiling somehow formted the visual of his mother again¡­ Zzz¡­ His sight grew blurry, sleepy he had gotten.

    Sighhh¡­ Right before he fell asleep, he gave off a long sigh. He then lost consciousness as fallen to slumber.

    When Wei Yuan woke up, it was already midnight. He scurried to the kitchen and grabbed a quick bite. He peeked at his father''s room. The light was still on. Wei Yuan with a slice of vani cake in his mouth, dragging his steps in slippers, headed back to his room.

    He prompted the program and logged into the virtual world after that.

    What he intended to go was a long-abandoned training center for pilots. It was an ident when he discovered such a ce. He found it peculiar as there was nobody back then. Skeptically he tested out the facilities inside and to his surprise, they all worked! The ce had be his private training ground ever since. He spent his days doing tough trainings there. None of his mates would know the fact that bottomline shooting grade of his was a result of his tremendous handwork at this private training ground.

    To his mates, he was just anotherzy,id-back person in the ss, especially with his extreme low-profiled behavior in the academy. Nobody seemed to know his skillfulness of piloting. His appearance was average. An ordinary head, an ordinary shape of face, an ordinary physique, you wanted to know his charm? Hah! What a joke, his charm was ordinary too. No matter what angle you took to see him, he was easily overlooked as he truly was. Never once he had gotten a proposal or love letter from the girls, despite his age.

    Living in his own world, he pursued his own dream.

    And that isted training center, was his very own world, his own kingdom!

    He got to the lobby. It was empty as usual. Well, my own kingdom is imed as my own for a reason. Forever alone, sigh! He shook his head, wondering what had gotten to his sentiments. Chuckled, he settled his thoughts and was going to start his training course.

    He remembered that he saw some amazing visuals by YCtely. It was yesterday when he watched YC¡¯s spectacr performance at the photosphere room. He never imagined one to be this potent.

    Wei Yuan recognized his own strength in mechbats that he barely practiced before. He never had the idea of trying it once. Being a trainee to the pilot academy, he was well aware the difference between reality and virtual world. Yes, close-ranged attackers were mushrooming on the virtual world, they were expanding their forces. Still, in reality, ranged attackers were at an absolute upper hand in a fight, since you only have one life there¡­ No one would really gamble that one life using those suicidal techniques in the virtual world. You guard your own life, if you don¡¯t, you die! Moreover, ranged attacking had undergone years of development and had matured during the process; unlike closebats, the efficiency, the oue of it still remained questionable to the public.

    Nheless, Wei Yuan wanted to try the photosphere room once. Yes, those glowing spheres some people called it, would be something great to try out. Of course, he would not be doing the stance training like YC, he was going to train his avoidability.

    The glowing sphere room was never a thing to him before. At the training center, he frequented the basic training room the most. The piloting of his was the oue of the training. He believed, as long as he redid his basics again and again, they would never fail him in the future.

    It was his first time using the glowing sphere room¡­ Wei Yuan actually had no idea of its location. In the end he returned to the lobby and picked one of the interfaces at the pirs. Launching the terminal, activating the self-inquiry system to resolve his issues.

    He booted the guide program, as names of several training rooms were listed. W-wait, what? Wei Yuan went astounded.

    upied? There¡¯s someone here? How?

    He could not believe his eyes. Did I see it right? He rubbed his eyes and went to check it out again. Yes, there was someone! And that someone was upying the glowing sphere room!

    What¡¯s the ID? Howes, I don¡¯t even-

    YC?

    YC? ¡­ YC? Where have I heard this before? Wei Yuan had a gut feeling that he must have heard of this name before but he could not recall¡­ wait¡­ glowing sphere room? YC?

    Ah! YC? Isn¡¯t that YC the YC I saw?

    He remembered!

    Didn¡¯t I just watch his visualst night? What a pig I am! He scolded for his silliness.

    For one who logged on to the virtual world daily like him, no way he could not recognize YC. He might not be a mechbating maniac, he had at least witnessed some of the well-known battles YC did online.

    The training center here, despite beingpletely abandoned, remained connected to the MPA. So if one would like to use the facilities inside, one got to perform registration. So Wei Yuan was not skeptical over the validity of this "YC" popped on the screen.

    He was only intrigued that¡­ how YC found this ce? Was it also a coincidence like how I did?

    More likely excitement brewed inside him though. It¡¯s YC! YC you know! He¡¯s the big shot of the virtual world! And is an assured ace of the mechbats! While the outside went bananas in search of YC the mystery, he was just right here, right in front of me!

    Hahahaha! Today is my lucky day!

    Without further ado, without hesitating, he clicked ENTER and prompted himself ess to the glowing sphere room.

 Chapter 181 - Undercurrent IV

    <h4>Chapter 181: Undercurrent IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Even though he had seen the holographic recordingst night, Wei Yuan was still deeply moved when he saw it in person!

    He stood dumbstruck, without moving a muscle!

    Marvel! An absolute marvel! He watched in enchantment, his mind empty except for the bright glowing circle, the glowing spheres and its vanishing fragments, and the barely visible shadows of the mech.

    Training rooms could be secured with a password to avoid disturbing the user. Ye Chong had never made it a habit to do so, and that was why Wei Yuan could enter easily! Ye Chong did not notice him, since his training required intense concentration, and he could not afford distractions.

    While he still could not break through the five minute mark, Ye Chong could feel that he was gradually improving. People had tried to incorporate normalbat skills into mech battles, and he was but only one of them. Besides, now that he thought about it, when he got into a fight with Instructor Hak, the instructor had used simr moves, which he did not notice then. Ye Chong was almost certain that ck Cove was miles beyond everyone else in this field.

    Ye Chong knew his own strength. With his level, he was nothingpared to ck Cove, and that was why he was very vignt against them. Nheless, he did not give up because of this. Even if he was meager in skillspared to ck Cove¡¯s mech pilots, he could still feel himself improving bit by bit.

    Mu¡¯s suggestion to train this way, for example, had helped him tremendously.

    Ye Chong no longer fought mechanically. The recording of the twobat experts on the Nast had helped him greatly. The moves demonstrated and the strategizing involved had deeply influenced Ye Chong.

    Tissot¡¯s battle moves were based on from the recording of the twobat experts. They were basic moves that those two experts used most frequently in their battle, and suitable for easy learning.

    However, Ye Chong was not entirely unadaptable. Normal battles and mech battles were different, so he did not imitate the moves exactly, but modify them incrementally to make them suitable for mechs. As for whether these modifications could work, he would only know in actualbat!

    Ye Chong could not control his body very well, and imitating the moves was not too difficult. However, maneuvering the mech to reproduce those moves was a different story. A slight change in movement could lead to a disproportionate increase in difficulty in maneuvering. Ye Chong finally understood why the basic moves for mech battles that he learned earlier were all so simple.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong could move his hands very fast, allowing him to make Tissot execute the moves!

    Ye Chong trained diligently. As he grew used to the maneuverings, his quick hand speed could finally be put to good use. The more he practiced on each move, the faster he could execute them. This was reflected by the longer and longer time Ye Chong spent for each training round in the room.

    "I¡¯m new to this, so plenty of training is necessary! Sigh, if only I can cure this strange illness in me, then I can find a to stay where no one knew me. As long as I¡¯m careful, the chances of ck Cove, the Sanctuary or the MPA finding me will be very small!

    "Then I¡¯ll be able to do all the things I¡¯m interested in, researching in mechs, practicing mechbat, normalbat, alchemy, make some skeleton mechs, I can even practice meditation ¡­"

    Lost in his thoughts, Ye Chong suddenly found that he had plenty of things of he wanted to do, though he did not have the time, and found himself travelling often. Life was a mystery, it was like an invisible hand was controlling him, ushering him from one ce to another. In truth, after the initial excitement, Ye Chong was getting tired of this kind of irregr lifestyle, and even grew to detest it a little. However, he must always stay alert, since any misstep could lead to disaster! Compared to this exciting life, he preferred and even yearned the simple and innocent life on the trash!

    Ye Chong got distracted and was immediately hit by countless glowing spheres. The round was over!

    "How could I be distracted during practice?" Ye Chong mocked himself, but quickly gathered his thoughts to resume his training.

    Wei Yuan was shocked!

    Heavens! Was this guy human? All those so-called elites at school were trashpared to this guy! This YC¡¯s mech piloting skills had reached the level of a professional.

    Slowly, Wei Yuan began to notice something.

    The almost solid looking glowing circle around the mech was gradually expanding outwards!

    Yes, it was really expanding! Wei Yuan was afraid he saw wrong, and quickly called out his personal aide system and took a photo. About 10 secondster, he took another shot. He used his personal aide system to calcte, and found that the glowing circle was indeed expanding outwards! Personal aide systems were automatically provided for each citizen in the virtual world, used mainly to assist in solvingmon problems in the ce. It could also perform simple photon processor operations.

    Wei Yuan could not help but grew excited!

    For the whole duration he was watching YC, the glowing circle formed by the glowing spheres was limited to a very small perimeter.

    Now, however, this perimeter was gradually increasing. This also meant that YC¡¯s attack range was increasing! Wei Yuan was not YC¡¯s fan; he was not excited because YC managed to achieve this! Wei Yuan was excited because he knew that, with the increasing range of attack, YC would have to cover arger area with his movements. This was what he was most interested in!

    Since Wei Yuan was most confident with his mech piloting skills, he also wished to see what YC could do with his mech! Perhaps he can even learn a few tricks from him!

    Wei Yuan watched with his eyes wide, unwilling to miss a single detail.

    The glowing circle was slowly but surely expanding outwards!

    The glowing circle expanded, as it also grew dimmer and more transparent. Wei Yuan could now see Tissot¡¯s figure more clearly beyond the glow.

    As Wei Yuan suspected, when Tissot¡¯s attack range grewrger, Ye Chong had to makerger movements to cover the perimeter!

    Wei Yuan stared at Tissot, noting every detail he could find!

    As Wei Yuan watched on, his face turned a few shades paler! If anyone were in the room with Wei Yuan, they would clearly see his clothes turning moist; after a few minutes, it was thoroughly drenched, as though he was scooped out of the water. Large pearls of sweat rolled down from his face along the neck, now gathering together and forming rivulets!

    In the virtual world, Wei Yuan did not exactly feel hopeless, but he was definitely very much affected!

    Now, he had only one question on his mind - who was this YC, a monster like this?

    Wei Yuan did not miss any of Tissot¡¯s movements, and that was why he was utterly shocked! With YC under the hood, Tissot moved like a spirit, like a machinee to life!

    That was Wei Yuan¡¯s first impression!

    As someone skilled in mech piloting, he was of course aware of the illusion!

    The longer he watched, however, the more he sweated, and soon he could feel the damp chill on his spine!

    The mech moved so quickly, as if impact mitigation was not a problem! Wei Yuan had seen Tissot stepped back quickly a few times, like breaking thews of physics. The effect was almost supernatural!

    Impossible! He almost jumped at the shock of realization!

    Backward movements were a taboo for mech pilots! The movement was damaging to the mech, and a great burden for the pilot! Mech pilots could die from the maneuver!

    What exasperated Wei Yuan the most was that YC had not only done it, but had did it repeatedly!

    Was this guy really human? Wei Yuan groaned inside him! While no person could actually die in the virtual world, the environment was still modeled based on reality. Any moves that could be achieved here was very likely achievable in the real world!

    With that, another thought came to him. No mech pilot would execute this move that could damage his mech, unless the situation demanded it. YC, however, had made this move during training. Strange indeed!

    Wei Yuan believed that YC was not a mech pilot that did not take care of his mechs - there must be some reason for his actions! Since Wei Yuan could not understand this, he filed it away for the moment.

    Fortunately, he had already activated his holographic recorder, else he would not be able to study itter!

    Wei Yuan continued observing!

    He was more and more horrified. That guy had maintained his speed even as the glowing circle expanded! The faster a mech moved, the harder it is to control it. Wei Yuan would not have believed it was possible to move a mech at such a high speed in a restricted area if he had not seen it first hand!

    Wei Yuan made a back of the envelope calction of YC¡¯s turning frequency, and the result was enough to make him even paler!

    It was terrifying!

    So this was the meaning of true strength! Wei Yuan¡¯s attitude gradually changed throughout his observation. He now understood that,pared to YC, he still had a long way to go!

    This change in attitude made him more humble, and now he was eager to learn!

    With this change in attitude, Wei Yuan noticed more problems. Logically speaking, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, YC had moved mainly with curved steps, and rarely did he take straight line steps. If he had not seen YC made a straight step backwards, Wei Yuan might have guessed that it was because YC could not handle the force that came with this change in momentum, and chose to take curved steps instead. However, since YC had taken straight steps backwards before, this was obviously not the reason, since that kind of motion produced thatrgest burden on the pilot.

    Another problem to solve then. Wei Yuan reluctantly filed away this question as well for another time.

    As he watched on, Wei Yuan began to move out of his dispirited state, and slowly felt encouraged again.

    This was because he saw that there was still hope left for him through YC. Throughout his training, YC had only used basic mech footwork, simple but executed quickly. The mech¡¯s footwork was alsoprised of onlymon techniques, only executed faster and more abruptly! There were no so called advanced level techniques!

    Was this not the same for him? Wei Yuan found that he was actually very simr to YC in this respect! He felt like he could see himself in YC. He was not exactly interested in mechbat skills, but if he could learn to pilot his mech like that, that would be awesome!

    While Wei Yuan grew absorbed in himself, Ye Chong had left the virtual world!

    He was significantly less fatigued thanst time. It seemed that Ye Chong was now stronger mentally! Due to his rtionship with Robert, Ye Chong was treated as an honoured guest. Hence, Ye Chong did not hesitate to ask for servants of the Shang family to send him lunch.

    "Ye, someone was watching when you were training!" Mu would only ever use neutral terms. If it was Shang, he would probably describe the act as peeping!

    "Oh, who was it?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Wei Yuan, male, 17 years old, current student of Richie¡¯s Wei Lan Academy in Year One, ss 107 ¡­" Mu had discreetly looked up Wei Yuan.

    "Richie?" Ye Chong was a little sensitive to the ce. Was that not his destination? What troubled him was that Wang Weixing would only return to the after about two months. As for the observer of his training, Ye Chong did not mind him so much.

    "Hmm, the Shang family is a little weird. I must not stay for too long, best to leave soon!"

    Ye Chong did not know that the Shang family¡¯s weirdness was rted to him! Of course, he was also not aware that the girl he licked that day was the daughter of the head of the Shang family. While Shang Lan was also there during that banquet, Ye Chong was busy keeping his head down and eating.

    __________________________________________________________________________

    "You¡¯re back!" Looking at the thin figure of his second daughter and her tired eyes, Shang Zhangming felt agony in the heart. Of all his children, his second daughter was the most reliable. Demure but intelligent, and a keen sense of people, she was the most authoritative figure in the Shang family, second only to her parents.

    Combing her fringe to the side, Shang Yue smiled and said, "Yes, I¡¯m back. The negotiations were sessful! Nothing uneventful happened!" Shang Yue and Shang Lan looked very much like each other, but Shang Yue¡¯s face was more bnced, with a tiny mole above an eyebrow, adding a charming touch that differentiated the two sisters. Shang Lan was like a fairytale princess, adorable and fragile looking. Shang Yue, however, was like an attentive elder sister, a maturedy that could read one¡¯s heart.

    "I see, go see your mother now!" Shang Yue was the most diligent in managing their family¡¯s affairs, and that was why Shang Zhangming felt most regretful for her.

    However, the thought of the incident with Feng¡¯er made his brows knit tightly together.

    Shang Zhangming¡¯s expression did not escape Shang Yue¡¯s notice, but she did not ask about it, merely dutifully acknowledging her father¡¯s suggestion and headed towards her mother¡¯s room.

    "What?" Calm as Shang Ye usually was, she still gasped in shock when her mother told her about that incident with her younger sister, Lan!

    Mrs Shang also wore a troubled expression. She had worried over this for the past two days. The rest of the Shang family were also tormented by the incident. Lan¡¯er was everyone¡¯s beloved little princess, so her uncles were all up in arms about Ye Chong¡¯s behaviour, and would have gone to confront him directly if not for Shang Zhangming and his wife restraining them.

    Shang Yue pondered over the issue before asking carefully, "What does Lan Lan think?"

    Mrs Shang¡¯s expression soured even further. "Sigh, it¡¯s because we don¡¯t know what Lan¡¯re is thinking that we¡¯re all troubled! We asked, but she never answered!" This was the root of the problem. No one knew what Lan¡¯er thought of the matter, so none of them dared to make any moves against the cursed Wang Xing! What if, even in the slightest chance, that their princess took a liking towards this Wang Xing?

    Mrs Shang¡¯s troubled expression was mostly an act. She knew that her youngest daughter was always solitary and disliked socializing. As she aged day by day, this nature of hers did not change. Under the doting love of her elder rtives and her elder cousins¡¯ care, she maintained an innocent heart. However, that was what worried Mrs Shang. Lan knew nothing of how the real world worked, and her solitary behavior had always made Mrs Shang worried for her future!

    Mrs Shang had secretly arranged for many young and handsome men to introduce themselves to her youngest daughter, but every time without fail, her daughter would be scared as a rabbit, her fearful eyes a soft spot for all the older members of the family. This made Mrs Shang fret even more. All her attempts had met with failure, and Shang Lan expressed no interest in getting to know any of them. This was a constant worry for Mrs Shang!

    However, that odd Wang Xing was now a sign of hope for Mrs Shang!

    To think that Lan¡¯er would invite him to dance by her own initiative! When Mrs Shang first heard of it, she thought she heard wrong! However, when she found out that Wang Xing had kissed Lan¡¯er, she almost fainted. She rushed to her daughter¡¯s room, for fear of Lan¡¯er doing anything unexpected! However, when she arrived, Lan¡¯er was pressing her face into her nket, unwilling to talk, only moaning through the nket. She had no idea whether Lan¡¯er was really crying!

    However, seeing that Lan¡¯er was not doing anything dangerous, Mrs Shang rxed, and could finally dedicate her mind to thinking about the incident. Her youngest daughter¡¯s future worried her most. If Lan¡¯er can find a man of her choosing, Mrs Shang would ept him as he was. For a wealthy family like hers, political marriages were almost obligatory! Mrs Shang knew this, and so had asked for Shang Zhangming to swear before their wedding that their children would have the right to decide their own marriage partners, free of interference from anyone in the Shang family!

    For Lan¡¯er to react so violently against this man, how could Mrs Shang not detect the cracks in her emotions?

    This desire was also noticed by Shang Yue.

    Shang Yue and Shang Lan were very close to each other, and Shang Lan would ever share her thoughts with her second elder sister.

    After absorbing the news, Shang Yue¡¯s heart finally calmed down. She swept her fringe and spoke steadily, "Alright, it looks like what¡¯s most important now is Lan Lan¡¯s thoughts on the matter. If we know that, the next step will be obvious!" Shang Yue had never felt so curious about a man like this. It was interesting that he could make Sister Lan react like that. If she was not about to visit Sister Lan now, Shang Yue would have headed straight to Wang Xing and see if he was actually born with three heads and six limbs!

    Shang Yue came to Shang Lan¡¯s room and knocked twice lightly as she spoke softly, "Lan Lan, it¡¯s me!"

    "Ah!" A tender voice came from within, and then some clunking sounds. Shang Yue could not help but smiled. The door opened into a tiny slit, revealing a pair of bashful eyes, looking carefully outside.

    As expected, it was Shang Yue, alone. The door opened wide. "Second elder sis!" She eximed with a pleasant surprise, and leapt forward to embrace Shang Yue. Shang Yue held the little princess lightly in her arms, patting Shang Lan¡¯s back softly.

    After the initial surprise, Shang Lan¡¯s glowing eyes began to mist.

    "Second elder sis!" Her voice this time was closer to a sob, filled with unspoken grievance.

    "Don¡¯t cry, don¡¯t cry, my good Lan¡¯er!" Shang Yue¡¯s motions became even gentler as she consoled Shang Lan. "Let us go inside and talk!"

    ¡­

    "You don¡¯t know how silly he looked like when he¡¯s eating! Like he¡¯s been starving for ages! I¡¯ve never seen anyone eat like that in front of Daddy, not even Brother Ling!"

    ¡­

    "It¡¯s even funnier at the ball! When Third Elder Sis and Brother Ling, and Third Elder Sis greeted him, do you know what he said? Heehee, he said, what do you want from me! Heehee, I¡¯ve never seen anyone so dumb!"

    ¡­

    "He stood alone in the corner, bored, like everyone around him was from a different world than him, what a lonely person! For some reason he reminded me of myself, and I almost cried! Second elder sis, don¡¯t you dareugh at me! I was really sad back then, I don¡¯t know, and I thought of asking him for a dance! I said don¡¯tugh!"

    ¡­

    "His dancing is quite peculiar, looking so serious all the time, heehee, but he¡¯s no good at it, he¡¯s so rigid, like a rock! But his steps were all so precise!"

    ¡­

    "At the end he threw me high up, and it felt wonderful, it¡¯s like I was flying! His eyes were still so serious!"

    ¡­

    "But in the end, he ¡­ He ¡­"

    ¡­

    After a long session with her sister, Shang Yue finally understood the entire incident!

    Right now, all she wanted was to know more about Wang Xing. She believed she knew what Younger Sister Lan was thinking now; after meeting Wang Xing, she and her mother can then discuss on how to proceed.

    Ye Chong was practicing meditation in his room. Mu had ascertained that the room had no surveince in ce - the Shang family probably would not dare to offend their honored guests!

    Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

    Mu warned, "It¡¯s a woman!"

    Ye Chong opened the door and saw a woman he had never met before! Ye Chong suddenly felt a wave of gratitude - luckily it was Mu right now and not Shang!

    The woman spoke first, "Hi there, you must be Mr Wang Xing!"

    "I am!" Ye Chong studied the woman casually. He quickly decided that the other party could not harm him physically.

    The woman smiled and spoke warmly, "I¡¯m Shang Yue, hmm, the elder sister of that girl you danced with that day, may Ie in?"

    "The girl I danced with?" Ye Chong thought in surprise. This woman had apletely different aura than that princess! The woman before him now had a calm steadiness, a quality Ye Chong had never seen before in a member of the opposite sex. While Ye Chong knew he was not good at faces, he was still quite confident with his intuition.

    Ye Chong did not know why she was here, but he still stepped to the side and replied inly, "Please!"

    They stood face to face, close to each other. This suited Ye Chong - at this distance, if the other party did any sudden movements, she would not be able to avoid his attack.

    Ye Chong looked straight into her eyes, and Shang Yue also did not avert her gaze. They looked at each other calmly. Shang Yue¡¯s mouth slowly arched into a smile, and her tiny lips looked incredibly sensuous. However, Ye Chong was obviously unaffected, his expression unchanged since he first set eyes on Shang Yue.

    Ye Chong felt that the staring was getting pointless, and looking at the other party¡¯s expression, she did not seem likely to back down first. He decided to initiate the conversation. "Why are you here?"

    Shang Yue swept her fringe lightly to the side. She knew that it was better to be straightforward with a person like him. "I¡¯d like to know what you feel about my younger sister!"

    "Your younger sister?" Ye Chong looked at the woman before him in bafflement.

    "Yes! The one you danced withst night!" Shang Yue¡¯s eyes shone with determination.

    "What I feel?" Ye Chong confusion did not subside.

    "Yes! What you feel!" Shang Yue repeated.

    "Why should I answer that?" Ye Chong looked coldly at the woman. The unexpected question made him wary.

    Shang Yue found herself speechless. While her expression was still calm, Ye Chong could still see from the way she swept her fringe that she was a little startled. This further convinced him that the other party was up to no good. However, he could not understand how it was rted to his dancing with the girlst night.

    Could it be because he danced with her? It could not be, she had initiated the dance.

    Or could it be because he licked her? That was not very usible either. Ye Chong remembered that the girl¡¯s neck waspletely undamaged! This was too strange!

    Ye Chong was not aware of the severity of things.

    Ye Chong¡¯s rudeness offended Shang Yue, but her smile only grew sweeter. The mole above her brow looked enticing, and her exquisite profile was suddenly looking very attractive! Her eyes sparkled alluringly like stars through a mist.

    Shang Yue stepped closer.

    Ye Chong looked coldly at Shang Yue, waiting for her next move.

    Shang Yue closed in on Ye Chong, looking up at him with bewitching eyes and spoke demurely, "Mr Wang, why don¡¯t you tell me! I really want to know!" Her voice was soft and husky.

    Shang Yue had never failed with this method. With her usual decorous demeanor, her transformation in character always managed to bewitch her targets. Shang Yue was intelligent, and rarely encountered situations that she could not ovee; she had only used this method twice so far.

    When she saw Wang Xing at the door, she knew instantly that he would not be easy to handle. She opted for a straightforward approach, since she believed that she would quickly be ushered out otherwise. The other party was obviously not a patient man!

    She did not expect him to face ignorance! That was what infuriated her.

    With this method, she could still continue pursuing the question while checking if the man was susceptible to such approaches.

    She was not without preparation. On her left wrist was an emergency beeper. Once she pressed on its button, the guards outside woulde to her. After all, she was not inclined to be taken advantage of!

    Their faces nearly touched, and Shang Yue¡¯s breath kissed on Ye Chong¡¯s face.

    Her snow white skin and red lips were entuated by a faint fragrant scent and that enticing little mole!

    Ye Chong suddenly felt his chest burn inside, like something was stoked to life within.

    Shang Yue¡¯s vaguely parting lips were beckoning to him!

    Without realizing it, Ye Chong moved forward and kissed!

    Shang Yue was shocked! She did not expect him to really make a move! She suddenly felt a strong sense of abhorrence for him. To think that he was actually such a lewd person!

    While she was shocked, she still maintained someposure. Her right hand reached towards her left wrist. Once she activated her beeper, she would be safe!

    However, even in a daze, Ye Chong¡¯s body still reacted quickly. He grabbed onto Shang Yue¡¯s hands, his right hand quickly searching and obtaining the beeper. Ye Chong threw the item without looking towards the bed! The bedding was soft as feathers, and the emergency beeper sank into it!

    He was still kissing her!

    Wang Xing¡¯s hands grabbed hold of her like steel roots, and Shang Yue could not escape!

    With the tightly closed door and excellent soundproofing, she could not be heard even if she screamed with all she had!

    "I¡¯m done for!" That was Shang Yue¡¯sst thoughts!

 Chapter 182 - Undercurrent V

    <h4>Chapter 182: Undercurrent V</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s second time in two days experiencing this chaotic sense of losing control! Last night he had licked the girl, and he could not understand why he had done that! It was like his body was moving on its own!

    Ye Chong was heavily influenced by Mu, preferring to have everything under his control, especially himself!

    Shang may have said that this was a natural response, but Ye Chong still could not let it go. Even if it was a natural response, he should still be able to ovee it, much like he did with negative emotions such as fear.

    Last night¡¯s state of mind made him feel like he lost control of himself, and that was uneptable! Besides, he did not feel that that state would be beneficial to him, since it was obvious that his senses and response time were significantly impeded in that state! That was dangerous!

    He stared at the moist, red lips before him, fatally alluring! Shang Yue¡¯s face was as wless as a jade sculpture, blushing lightly in a blossom pink. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her breathing. Their faces were only centimeters apart, and Ye Chong could even feel the heat emanating from her face, and that mysterious fragrant scent!

    A voice in his head urged him, "Kiss her! Kiss her!"

    Ye Chong suddenly felt his mouth dried up. The moist red lips looked like an irrefutable invitation!

    "No! I cannot give in like that!" The thought shed past Ye Chong¡¯s mind!

    "Humph!" Ye Chong humphed coldly, his hands moved quicker than he could think, releasing the woman¡¯s hands and pushed her at the waist!

    "Ah!" Shang Yue gasped in fright as she was thrown precisely on the bed like a sandbag!

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were now crystal clear, but cold as ice!

    Ye Chong was dejected inside, knowing that if he did not push the other party away, he would not be able to escape that state of mind! Ye Chong wished that he could suppress this natural response, like he did with fear. If anything frightening happened before him, he could still brave the fear and deal with the situation. This encounter, however, made him felt like he was avoiding the situation! Nheless, he stillcked the knowledge about this natural response!

    Ye Chong was not inflexible though, and he did what he could to handle the current situation!

    Noticing Ye Chong¡¯s emotional imbnce, Mu console, "Ye, looks like you need to pick up some physiology!"

    "Looks like it!" Ye Chong spoke with a wry smile. Ye Chong found that he was too susceptible to this form of seduction. If the enemy used this weapon against him, he would probably fall for it!

    "That¡¯s right, it¡¯s only a weapon!" Ye Chong brightened up, and began to calm down!

    While the down bedding was soft, Shang Yue still fell without anticipation into a confused heap. However, she immediately realized that it was a bed, and her expression twisted as her pulse raced. "Could he be thinking of ¡­" Shang Yue¡¯s expression became unreadable!

    She began to feel regret. To think that she fell prey to her own devices! All her past sesses had made her too arrogant! She was the real fool!

    Shang Yue mourned inside, but recovered her usual easyposure after the initial fright!

    Suddenly, Shang Yue noticed her emergency beeper just a small distance away from her on the bed!

    Abruptly, Shang Yue felt her heart race again. Shang Yue repeatedly warned herself to stay calm! She must wait for the right time! This was her only chance of escape!

    Shang Yue did not move, for fear of attracting unwanted attention from the other party. Wang Xing was now not only a lecherous person to her, but also a daring man! Did he not think of the consequences of his actions? Shang Yue had decided that if Wang Xing did anything improper to her, she would make him suffer!

    She peeked at Wang Xing, but the diabolic guy was bowing his head as if in deep thought.

    Shang Yue was overjoyed, but she still acted carefully, only barely moving herself towards the beeper. Wang Xing was still in thinking posture, and that made Shang Yue curious. From their earlier struggle, Wang Xing seemed to be a hasty person, why would he act so restrained now?

    Was he finally beginning to feel afraid?

    Shang Yue grew even more disdainful of Wang Xing. She had thought that he was a calm and talented person, but found him to be a terribly impulsive man! This was his true face!

    However, Shang Yue also believed that as long as she could reach for the emergency beeper, she would be safe! "Hmph, I¡¯ll show him then!" she thought.

    Seeing Wang Xing ignoring her, Shang Yue was secretly pleased, and reached slowly for the emergency beeper close by! She dared not move too abruptly, for fear of inviting Wang Xing¡¯s attention.

    It¡¯s close! Getting closer!

    Shang Yue exhaled in relief as her fingers touched the emergency beeper¡¯s wristlet, her fingertips feeling the soft quality of the wristlet!

    Just when she thought the situation was finally under her control, her fingers suddenly spasmed! This was immediately followed by a thumping sound from her right.

    Feathers flew up in an instant, falling back down like snow. Amongst the feathers, Shang Yue¡¯s confused expression showed that she did not realize what had happened!

    Her first reaction was to look towards Wang Xing, but there she found Wang Xing staring coldly at her with clear and chilling eyes. Shang Yue could not help but shudder!

    When she finally came to her senses, she immediately reached out with fingers to search, but could find nothing but feathers from the bedding, her emergency beeper gone without a trace! A crimson droplet gathered into shape on her thin finger and dyed the white feathers red.

    Shang Yue panicked, her face no longerposed, and quickly looked to her right.

    A dagger went through the wristlet of her emergency beeper and held it firmly on the wall! The beeper dangled mid-air, but Shang Yue¡¯s heart had reached the depths of despair!

    Shang Yue felt an extreme sense of dread, and her face paled!

    "I think, it¡¯s better to speak like this!" Shang Yue lifted her head to his in voice. Wang Xing was still standing where he was without moving, but his stare had turned colder!

    Shang Yue could feel Wang Xing¡¯s stare piercing through her like the edge of a de!

    However, cunning as she was, she sensed hope in the situation! She waited. Now that all her cards were on the table, it was the other party¡¯s turn to make his move!

    As expected, Wang Xing did not disappoint as he spoke inly, "Let¡¯s talk about why you¡¯re here!" His tone allowed no disobedience. Shang Yue had also used that same tone before when she ordered her servants around!

    She understood her situation, however, and replied crisply, "I¡¯m here to find out what you feel about my younger sister!"

    "Your younger sister?"

    "Yes, my younger sister!" Shang Yue did not back down from her intention.

    "Why?" Ye Chong¡¯s voice was as in as water.

    Shang Yue briefly described Shang Lan¡¯s situation.

    Ye Chong may not be worldly, but he was sharp enough to understand the other party¡¯s intentions!

    "Are you all trying to keep me here?" Ye Chong asked calmly.

    While she did not feelfortable about it, Shang Yue braced herself and said, "Mr Wang, why don¡¯t you stay with the Shang family for a while? We¡¯ll do anything we can for you! I¡¯ve heard that you have business at Windstar. The Shang family has some influence in that. If Mr Wang would allow, the Shang family would do our best to assist you in your business!" Shang Yue tried her best to make herself sound tactful.

    "Oh, is that right?" Ye Chong swept an indifferent nce at Shang Yue.

    Shang Yue braced herself. She sensed arrogance and a certain chilling effect from Wang Xing¡¯s tone!

    She understood now that this Wang Xing before her was no aristocrat, but more likely, an assassin! His strong murderous aura made Shang Yue shudder inside! Besides, she could sense that the other party was not intimidated by her or the Shang family. Could he have someone else backing him?

    However, was he really more powerful than the Shang family? Of course, the thought only barely registered. She knew more than anyone of the Shang family¡¯s true power! It was much more than what could be seen from the surface!

    She thought that Wang Xing would be infuriated, but instead, Wang Xing merely humped coldly and spoke casually, "Whatever!" With that, he opened the door and left the room!

    Shang Yue was left alone on the bed in a daze! What did Wang Xing mean by "whatever"? It was all too confusing!

    Ye Chong wanted to leave the Shang family there and then. With the exception of Robert¡¯s four bodyguards, he believed that no one could stop him! However, once Mu informed him of the sheer number of spies the Shang family had in the area, Ye Chong immediately dismissed his n.

    While it was not a certainty yet that the other party could keep him here, his abrupt leaving would definitely lead to an intense battle! Ye Chong had no intentions of attracting attention, but the only mech he dared to use now was Han Jia. If he used Guardian or Overwing, it would probably alert the Sanctuary and the MPA! These two forces were not what Ye Chong could deal with as he was now! Besides, Han Jie had never been tested in actualbat. Ye Chong had no idea how it would perform!

    Hence, Mu¡¯s suggestion to make his move at night was better! Ye Chong agreed. Han Jia was a full-skeleton mech; with its excellent anti-detection properties and the cover of darkness, leaving the Shang family secretly would not be a difficult task!

    Once Ye Chong made up his mind as he wandered around aimlessly in the Shang family¡¯s house. When he went back to his room, Shang Yue was already gone!

    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Wei Yuan sat before his desk with bloodshot eyes. He stared unblinkingly at the holographic recording on the photon processor, the recording of YC that he captured himself! He had not slept for an entire day, but he was feeling unusually excited!

    Abruptly, he stood up excitedly, nearly slipping due to exhaustion! However, that did not dampen his mood!

    He finally had a breakthrough studying his recording of YC!

 Chapter 183 - Shock

    <h4>Chapter 183: Shock</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Wei Yuan sat before his desk, staring unblinkingly at the holographic recording on the photon processor with bloodshot eyes. This was the recording he made of YC! He had not slept an entire day, but he was still feeling very excited!

    He stood up abruptly, and nearly fell from exhaustion! However, that did not dim his enthusiasm!

    Just now, he finally had a breakthrough studying his recording of YC!

    Wei Yuan had natural talent in this field, often gaining unique insights from the mech trajectories he had seen. This helped him immensely with his understanding of piloting techniques. Even so, his innate talent did not seem to help much this time. This made him feel very impatient and exasperated!

    Fortunately, he realized that those emotions did not help. Soon, he vanquished those emotions and went to work!

    YC¡¯s holographic recording was like an epic teaching material for mech piloting!

    That inhumanly difficult straight line step backwards, for example, was executed expertly. Whenever the mech stepped backwards, Tissot would bend its upper body forward at arge angle like a bent spring, greatly reducing the burden due to the abrupt change in direction to be manageable for the mech pilot. However, Wei Yuan¡¯s calctions revealed that the resultant momentum still ced a heavy burden on the pilot. Without a strong body, one cannot use this technique!

    This was not difficult to realize for Wei Yuan. What bothered him the most was why YC did not preferentially use straight line steps, but opted for curved steps instead! Over the past 24 hours, he pondered on the question. Finally, his efforts were rewarded, and he finally understood!

    From the beginning, Wei Yuan had made a mistake. He had chosen only YC¡¯s footwork for analysis, and did not realize that YC¡¯s steps were all made to coordinate hisbat moves.

    When Wei Yuan saw YC using curved steps to match his striking attack from a difficult angle, Wei Yuan finally understood! YC had sacrificed the distance in his steps for the movements of his upper body arms!

    He grew more and more obsessed with the recording!

    Soon, he began to develop a strong interest in this peculiar way ofbat. With his solid mech piloting background, the battle moves he was learning now could notpare with YC¡¯s way of fighting in terms of unleashing his full potential.

    With his full attention on the holographic recording, Wei Yuan did not realize the extent in which the recording had changed him!

    Night came, but Ye Chong received bad news. Mu had discreetly hacked in the Shang family¡¯s systems, and was aware of their every movement. From Mu¡¯s analysis, it seemed that the Shang family was about to do something with Ye Chong! For some reason, the Shang family did not send out their orders through the usualmunication systems, and so Mu did not know the details. However, Ye Chong believed that the Shang family was definitely up to no good!

    Ye Chong was not afraid of the Shang family; he was more vignt against the four ck Coe bodyguards around Robert. As long as they did not interfere, he should have no problems. This was his initial thought, but what happenedter proved just how wrong he was!

    Ye Chong quickly deployed Han Jia. It was the only mech he could use for now. He did not let Mu out just yet. In truth, Mu would only make his move if Ye Chong was in a desperate situation.

    Fortunately, Mu was not against helping in other matters. Ye Chong received the scanning results from Mu through Han Jia¡¯s photon processor!

    A densework of red dots appeared around him, and Ye Chong took a deep breath! Really now, he was just one person! Besides, Ye Chong noticed that no one else was around, and even Robert and his group were all gone. He was the only person around in a 100-meter radius!

    The mechsying in ambush around almost made Ye Chong thought that someone else wasing! The squads of mechs patrolling above in the air drew intertwining lines of trajectories! The entire area was lit up bright as day with high intensity sma lights that not even a mosquito could escape attention!

    The Shang family was fast! Ye Chong realized that he had underestimated the Shang family! It was shocking to find that they could arrange something like this without any warning!

    It seemed that a battle was inevitable! Ye Chong¡¯s eyes grew colder as he gave a soft pat on the arm rest inside Han Jia¡¯s pilot cabin!

    Shang Yue watched the white-lit area with aplicated expression. This was the best vantage point, allowing her to see everything clearly. She was thinking about what Wang Xing meant by "whatever", when she suddenly had a hunch that Wang Xing was leaving. Hisst word was spoken with great confidence, showing hisck of fear towards the Shang family.

    She reported her suspicions to her father, but kept what happened to her in Wang Xing¡¯s room a secret! All of the Shang family were infuriated. To think that the guy wanted to leave, just when Lan¡¯er seemed to be harbouring feelings for him. For the Shang family, as long as there was a nonzero possibility of Lan¡¯er liking him, they would not let Wang Xing leave! Wang Xing¡¯s feelings were not an issue for them. "He must stay, even if only as a ything for Lan¡¯er," Shang Zhangming had said. The head of the family even discussed the issue at length with Robert.

    The entire setup was nned by Shang Yue alone! The Shang family was surprised at herrge scale preparation. After all, he was only one person, how strong could he be? Fortunately, the Shang family had always trusted Shang Yue, and agreed to her n!

    As for Shang Yue, she still acted very carefully even though she did not know who had Wang Xing¡¯s back. Her eyebrows knitted lightly, her expression unreadable in the darkness. Only her mutterings could be heard, "You can¡¯t win, just back down!"

    Robert was also looking towards that area with a quiet sigh, his four bodyguards standing like statues behind him! Beside Robert, Bai Linan¡¯s expression twisted horribly. He bit down on his lower lip until it bled! He was forced by Robert toe here. Even as he wanted to warn Ye Chong, Robert¡¯s presence did not allow it!

    "Sigh, he¡¯s a real talent, it¡¯s just too bad ¡­" Robert sighed again.

    Ye Chong closed his eyes and ced his hands gently on the controls. His chest rose and fell quickly like a wind box as he breathed deeply. After a while, his chest¡¯s movements began to steady, and Ye Chong¡¯s eyes opened abruptly! His eyes scanned calmly around him!

    It was as though Ye Chong was back on the trash, fighting for his life. The hunting game was a familiar one to him, only this time, he was the hunted!

    He had entered into battle mode, feeling calm but a little excited! This was the perfect state of mind to be for battle!

    The enemy may look like an insurmountable force, but that did not mean it was hopeless for him. Ye Chong realized that the other party was only trying to intimidate. They did not know of Mu, and would not know that Han Jia was a full-skeleton mech. Besides, this small battle range was the best kind for Ye Chong, and most suitable for a close range mech like Han Jia! How could Ye Chong not stand a chance?

    Ye Chong did not like the Shang family. With the exception of the girl he danced with, he detested the others! That girl¡¯s elder sister in particr made him wary. Ye Chong suspected that this n by the Shang family was most likely due to her!

    He will not make it easy for them!

    Han Jia stood valiantly like a giant d in silver armor! Ye Chong regretted painting Han Jia with this shiny silver coating, as it was simply to ring under the illumination!

    Ye Chong exhaled softly and made his move! Han Jia burst forward like a cannonball!

    The Shang family did not expect Ye Chong to actually try to escape. To them, only someone crazy would do this! If he was nning to attack them as he escaped, that would be even crazier!

    The orderly formation around him plunged into chaos in an instant!

    Han Jia was a full-skeleton mech, with astonishing speed. If it could break through the formation, chasing after it would not be an easy task!

    Looking at the scene, Shang Yue paled instantly! Even Robert and Bai Linan froze in stupefaction!

    Ye Chong sneaked up on one of the mechs with its back facing him. This was a Kamenrache, an advanced level mech, one that he knew quite well. Han Jia moved like the wind. The others did not receive any warning signal, oblivious to the ambush!

    What happened next was enough to chill any witnesses¡¯ heart to the core - the mech was obliterated into pieces! Fragments and parts of the mech flew outwards in all directions, and at the center, a horrifying shriek came from a bloody mass of flesh! The ck canine-tooth dagger held in Han Jia¡¯s glimmering silver hand was like a sinister omen! The sharpness of the weapon surprised Ye Chong as well. It was truly the perfect weapon for assassination!

    Chunks of flesh and blood stuck to the mech fragments flying outwards. The mech pilot stood no chance!

    Ye Chong had stirred the ho¡¯s nest!

    Themunication channels were flooded with confusion. Everyone was looking on their photon processor for signs of the enemy!

    How was this possible? The mech pilots of the Shang family were bbergasted! If they could not pinpoint the enemy¡¯s whereabouts, how could they continue fighting? Fear began to spread within their hearts!

    "Do it manually!" Someone shouted in thems, and the mech pilots gathered themselves. Yes, they were many, and the enemy but one, there was nothing to be afraid of! The thought of their overwhelming fear earlier made them feel embarrassed, but this feeling quickly turned to anger. It was all the damn mech¡¯s fault! Everyone charged towards the mech!

    Han Jia stood out like a sore thumb under the lighting, and they could find him easily!

    Just when they were about to fire, however, they realized that it was easy to hit one of their own. The thought made them hesitated!

    There were only three of them before him! If he finished off these three, there would be no one else to stop him! This was his and Mu¡¯s calction results. This direction seemed heavily defended, but was in reality the weakest part of the formation. There was a route about four meters wide for him to escape in front. Besides, the territory beyond this point was the mostplicated, and most suitable for his escape!

    However, he must first deal with the three mechs standing in the way. The faster he could achieve this, the better his chances were to escape!

    Ye Chong could now feel the difference between Mu and Shang in their strategizing! Mu looked for weaknesses in the enemy through meticulous calctions, while Shang preferred to y with psychology. They were both effective measures!

    Ye Chong ambushed the mech to create confusion, and so he chose the most terrifying method of wrecking the mech into pieces! Anyone would be severely affected by the sight of a mech being disembodied like that. If the mech pilot was arade, the effect would be even deeper!

    Ye Chong¡¯s strategy worked. Almost all the mechs were riled up!

    Ye Chong kept his calm. He found that his meditation training had helped with his mental calmness. No wonder the Sanctuary¡¯s mech pilots rarely made mistakes! It seemed that meditation was really useful!

    Han Jia had no intention of evading the fragments from the mech. The silver glittering mech charged onwards through the fragments like a brave warrior! With its speed, battling with the mechs in front was inevitable! The enemy mechs readied themselves. They would have shot him if not for the fear of shooting one of their own!

    Most of the mechs instinctively charged towards the silver mech! With the mech¡¯s speed, it was nearly impossible to change its direction. Besides, the mech was almost surrounded in all directions!

    Just when everyone thought that the mech could not escape, a most shocking turn of events urred!

    The silver mech bent forward like spring and moved backwards in a logic defying step! This surreal move was enough to make everyone freeze in shock!

    If Wei Yuan were to witness this scene, he would definitely leap in excitement - it was exactly the same as YC¡¯s straight line retreat in his recording!

    Ye Chong was now moving towards the narrow area! He was delighted to find that the situation was better than he expected - of the three mechs situated at the area, two of them were heading towards him now, leaving only one behind! It seemed that he seeded in moving those two to action too!

    Han Jia¡¯s sudden change in direction surprised the two mechs! Ye Chong¡¯s eyes gleamed coldly, his hands now moving faster than before, looking like a shroud above the controls!

    Everyone at the scene could never forget what they saw - the silver mech was charging straight ahead when it suddenly retreated backwards in a straight line, a movement that seemed to defy thews of physics. The silver armor of the mech shone eerily - Han Jia was not quite done yet. Two mechs charged towards it at the front lines, and the silver mech swept past them like a shadow. Before anyone could understand what happened, the two mechs lost control and continued moving forward, carrying their momentum. Before they covered 10 meters, a huge explosion was heard, and two dazzling fireballs burned under the intense sma illumination!

    Ye Chong had stepped in an S shape, but the hardest part was when he attacked! The two mechs were very close to each other, and even with Ye Chong¡¯s hand speed, maneuvering Han Jia to attack twice in a row had pushed him to his limit! Fortunately, his two daggers were sharp, or those two attacks would have injured him as well!

    His extraordinary piloting skills and battle moves had shocked everyone at the scene, and even Robert¡¯s four bodyguards had their emotions written on their faces!

    Only one mech left!

    Ye Chong looked coldly at the mech before him. This was a model he had never seen before, but it did not affect Ye Chong¡¯s confidence! No matter what mech it was, he had to finish it off, or he would never be able to escape!

    Han Jia moved so quickly that Ye Chong reached thest mech in the blink of an eye. His attack on the two mechs earlier had also caused this mech to freeze in shock! It was now in a exposed position!

    It was as though Heavens was on Ye Chong¡¯s side. The explosion from the two mechs he attacked had created a heat shock wave that pursued Han Jia like a fiery beast, swallowing Han Jia and thest mech both!

    Everyone felt their visions blurred as the ground shook. They could see two mechs through the dust, but that shiny, silver mech was nowhere to be seen! When they looked closer, they saw that one of the mechs had bits of silver flecks on it. The sharper minds immediately realized that the silver mech was actually disguised. They could only guess which master had designed such a colorful mech that did not look quite metallic!

    Beside Robert, the four bodyguards took on the entire scene, and one of them spoke up despite himself, "A full-skeleton mech!" His surprised voice made even Robert more interested in the mech!

    The four bodyguards were extremely startled! However, they were ck Cove elites, and quickly recovered and exchanged nces. One of them vanished, while another two deployed their mechs and slipped into the pilot¡¯s cabin, leaving only one of them carefully on guard beside Robert! Robert did not interfere with their actions, his eyes only on Han Jia!

    Full-skeleton mechs were famed amongst the Three Forces! They did their own research into these type of mechs, but none had never sessfully made one. Full-skeleton mechs were only a theoretical hypothesis, although each of the Three Forces believed that they could be built! However, it was exceedingly difficult, as shown by the thus far fruitless efforts of the Three Forces!

    Full-skeleton mechs were easily recognizable due to their unique building material. This was why these four ck Cove men recognized Han Jia as one in an instant.

    "I didn¡¯t think thisst mech would be so hard to deal with! If I don¡¯t hurry up and finish it off, it¡¯s going to be toote when other people joined in to stop me!"

    Ye Chong grew nervous, and unknowingly began to use the moves that he practiced in the virtual world!

    Han Jia began to move differently, the ck dagger in its left hand aiming straight at the other party¡¯s maic sword as its huge body twisted quickly like a spinning top, it¡¯s right hand with the other dagger reaching for the mech¡¯s neck like a poisonous serpent! The other mech¡¯s pilot was apparentlypetent as well. Even though it was now in a passive position, the mech was determined, and shielded its neck with the shield on its left hand!

    Ding! A clear ringing sound reverberated outwards!

    Ye Chong rode on the momentum and spinned even faster, its left arm bent to slice the enemy with the sharp edges of its shield. It was a vicious attack - a direct hit would lead to severe consequences!

    The mech pilot also moved decisively. The mech inclined its body and received the blow from Han Jia with its left shoulder!

    A sharp metallic slicing sound was heard, and Han Jia¡¯s shield, made of iron lizard scales, amputated the mech¡¯s left arm, exposing thework of photon circuits within!

    Just when the mech pilot thought that it had escaped death, he saw four tentacle-like thingsing towards him fast as lightning, the sharp ends of the tentacles chilled him to the bone! The maneuver just now had pushed him to his limits, and his fingers now spasmed in protest!

    Was he going to die here? He watched as the sharp tips grewrger andrger in sight, and he closed his eyes out of instinct. He held his breath, awaiting that final moment with a bleak heart!

    A few seconds passed, but nothing happened. He opened his eyes in surprise, but saw that the other party was now fleeing ahead, slowly fading out of view! He did not understand thisst act of mercy!

    Did he not enjoy killing? The thought was preposterous - three of their own had died horribly!

    He could not figure it out!

    Ye Chong was about to kill the other party with his four thousand-segment-worm whips. This stubborn opponent was the enemy, so mercy was not necessary. Reducing the enemy¡¯s forces was definitely advantageous for him - this was a principle of Ye Chong! However, it was not meant to be. Just when the sharp ends of the thousand-segment worms were about to reach the mech, Ye Chong heard Mu yelling, "Ye, run, the ck Cove people are moving!"

    Robert¡¯s four bodyguards were Ye Chong¡¯srgest concern. Now that Mu said they were making their move, Ye Chong ran without looking back! If they caught on to him, he would definitely be dyed; once the other mech pilots recovered and joined in, even with Mu, he would be finished!

    The four thousand-segment-worm whips returned to their concealed shooting chambers like four venomous snakes!

    Ye Chong ran! He peeked backwards, and as expected, he saw two of ck Cove¡¯s Cosmic res in pursuit. Ye Chong¡¯s chest tightened, and ramped up Han Jia¡¯s speed forward! If it was a usual encounter, Ye Chong would not be afraid of two Cosmic Lares. However, under the circumstances, even if there was only one of them, Ye Chong could not afford the dy in engaging it!

    Han Jia and the Cosmic res were quick, vanishing in an instant. Just then, the Shang family¡¯s mech pilots broke out of their trance and took to the air, following the three mechs!

    As for the mech pilot who barely escaped from Ye Chong, he slipped out of his mech, revealing himself to the usually courteous and gentle Shang Ling! His face was now drained of blood!

    Shang Zhangming was enraged! Even with so many of them as part of this setup, his single target had managed to escape, leaving three of his own dead. If not for Robert¡¯s bodyguards, his son would have died! Robert and his men had seen everything, and this incident had proven to be a humiliation to the Shang family! Shang Zhangming was infuriated by the thought! Most importantly, if their deplorable performance this time made an ally like Robert lose faith in the Shang family, it would be a double tragedy!

    Shang Zhangming could not help a rising sense of regret! Unfortunately, there was never a cure for regret!

    In the darkness, Shang Yue¡¯s expression was unreadable. It looked like one of joy, or anger, and but her tiny mole looked even more bewitching!

    Ye Chong dared not break his concentration, focusing only on flying!

    Han Jia was a lot faster than Cosmic re, and theplicated territory was very advantageous to Ye Chong due to his many experiences of escaping!

    The two ck Cove mechs in pursuit were obviously new to task of chasing after a target. More importantly, they could not lock on Han Jia! Cosmic re¡¯s holographic scanning system was useless against full-skeleton mechs!

    Soon, they lost sight of Han Jia. The search around the area turned out fruitless, and they returned resentfully!

    Ye Chong finally rxed a little. While the thought of dealing with these two mechs had urred to him repeatedly along the way, he had to quickly dispose of them for fear of the other mechs catching up to him. He would then be in a vurnerable position!

    The two ck Cove mech pilots had no idea that they had narrowly escaped death!

    Ye Chong could not rest now. He must quickly leave Richie. He had witnessed the Shang family¡¯s influence on Richie when he first arrived!

    The Shang family had kept Ye Chong¡¯s connection to the virtual world in his room alive to avoid alerting him. They never imagined that this was an opportunity for Ye Chong to leave Richie.

    Mu hacked the docking zone¡¯s system through the virtual world and took over a starship with no one onboard. It was now docked behind a hill not far ahead! All Ye Chong had to do now was to reach that starship and head for Windstar!

    With its location marked, Ye Chong quickly found the starship. This was a medium sized starship withplete facilities. It was also sufficiently fuelled toplete a few round trips to and from Windstar.

    Once inside the starship, Mu took charge of the flying, and Ye Chong could finally fully rx!

    Ye Chong slipped out of Han Jia, and before he could steady himself, the starship was airborne.

    Less than five minutes after Ye Chong¡¯s starship left Richie, all starships were banned from leaving the docking zone! The Shang family did not expect Ye Chong to be able to leave Richie so quickly as they organized their men for a wide scale search.

    "F-58, how I¡¯d like to meet with you!" A middle-aged man murmured behind a mask, looking at the holographic image on his desk. It was an image of Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong¡¯s holographic image and news of his full-skeleton mech had soon reached ck Cove. With Instructor Hak¡¯s confirmation, it was determined that Wang Xing was F-58 that ck Cove was searching for. Intel also revealed that Wang Xing¡¯s destination was Windstar, and so, arge squad of ck Cove mech pilots were ordered to head towards that. Their orders were to capture F-58 alive at all costs, and bring him back to ck Cove!

    Of course, Ye Chong was unaware of any of this. He was now on his way to Windstar. He was the only person on the starship. They met with many starships along the way, and Mu had yed the part of a trading ship from Richie to perfection. No one would have imagined that the massive starship had only one passenger onboard!

    When Ye Chong saw Han Jia¡¯s exterior, he finally understood why the ck Cove people made their move too! The heat from the explosion that came from the two mechs he attacked had melted theyer of silver paint on Han Jia. The shock wave that followed brushed off the paint from Han Jia, leaving only flecks of silver on it, the only evidence of its initialyer of paint!

    Full-skeleton mechs were made of unique materials, and Ye Chong had used the best skeletons he could find to build Han Jia. It was no wonder that the four ck Cove mech pilots recognized it immediately. After all, full-skeleton mechs were what mech pilots had always dreamed for!

 Chapter 184 - September

    <h4>Chapter 184: September</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There was a dojo called September on Windstar. From the outside, the buildings and walls looked aged, and its old-style architecture made it look like some tourist attraction or historical heritage. There was the asional person entering or leaving the building, bringing life to the ce. However, one could still feel the declined state of the dojo, like an aging beauty of old!

    A young, thin man was standing before this dojo, looking upwards to the calligraphic dance of the words "September" on the building. This youth was Ye Chong. He understood the words, but he could not possibly gauge whether the name was a good one.

    "Ye, this is the September Dojo!" Mu said.

    "Hmm, it looks abandoned! Not many people go in and out of the ce, must be a quiet dojo, just like what our information said." Ye Chong said as he looked towards the main entrance of the September dojo.

    "ording to the virtual, this dojo¡¯s master refused to incorporate new elements such as the now popr mech battles. It was criticized by young people, saying it is too conservative, and could not keep up with the times. That¡¯s probably why the number of dojo¡¯s apprentices have decreased sharply!" Mu always did his investigations thoroughly.

    "I see." Ye Chong seemed to realize something from this.

    "Hmm, this dojo does not interact with the outside world very much, and the dojo master is very close to the local governor, always under the care of the local authorities! Hence, I believe this is a good ce to take cover!"

    This was the result of a discussion between Ye Chong and Mu. Ever since Ye Chong realized that ck Cove had seen Han Jia, he knew that they would not let him go easily. Besides, he had told Robert that he was heading to Windstar with the four bodyguards present. If they could not find him on Richie, they would continue their search on Windstar.

    The safest way forward now would be to leave Windstar for now and wait for the heat to die down beforeing back. Ye Chong knew he stood no chance against ck Cove in a direct encounter. However, Ye Chong did not want to leave Windstar. The illness he had was the only thing restraining him now; only by eliminating this problem could he feel safe! Even though the episodes were getting minor, Ye Chong dared to be careless. Dying from this illness would be such a shame!

    Ye Chong decided to wait for Wang Weixing to return to Windstar. Who knew when the doctor would be on the again? After some consideration, Ye Chong decided on the matter. As long as he hid at a suitable location and moved with care, Ye Chong was confident of evading ck Cove for at least the next two months. The next problem was finding such a ce for him toy low. The September dojo was the hiding location that Ye Chong and Mu decided on in the end.

    "You want to learnbat skills from me?" Lan Yixing looked at the frail young man before him, feeling a little disappointed. From his physique, this young man did not seem suitable forbat. However, he did not want to reject him, as it had been long since anyone had asked to be admitted as an apprentice!

    "Yes!" Ye Chong replied calmly.

    "As an apprentice, the first year will be spent on menial tasks like scrubbing the floor, it¡¯s hard work. This is to train the apprentice¡¯s mental fortitude! All of these tasks must be done by hand, and not with any cleaning machines! You must do this for one year!" Lan Yixing reminded him. "It¡¯s not toote to back out now!" Many apprentice wannabes backed off after this. With their current technology, cleaning tasks were all delegated to smart cleaning machines. Who would want to do the cleaning themselves? Besides, it was a full year of performing these menial tasks. The thought was daunting enough.

    "Okay!" The young man answered crisply without hesitation. Temporary apprentices need not perform these tasks, since they were only here for short term training, and mostly for fun. Apprentices were different, and were the dojo¡¯s true students. They were the ones who would learn the most! However, it was not easy to be one. An apprentice must go through one year or more of training and be approved by their masters before receiving actual sses.

    Lan Yixing looked at the few temporary apprentices in the dojo, their dwindling numbers casting a gloomy mood over him. It was an undeniable truth thatbat expertise was declining! He was deeply worried about passing down his skills. If this expertise was to be lost in history in his generation, he would never forgive himself.

    "Alright! Let¡¯s have you try it out first!" Lan Yixing said. He liked the down-to-earth feeling emanating from the young man before him. The only regret was his build. It seemed to him that the young mancked the strength and stamina to reach the peak of this field.

    A thought urred to him, and Lan Yixing asked, "What¡¯s your name?"

    "Mo Fei." Ye Chong answered sinctly.

    That was how Ye Chongnded himself a ce in the September dojo. He chose to be an apprentice and not a temporary one, mostly because apprentices must stay at the dojo. For Ye Chong, a suitable ce to stay was key to avoiding detection. After all, he needed to stay here until Wang Weixing returned. Fortunately, ck Cove was not aware of his goal, or Wang Weixing would probably be captured and brought to ck Cove. In that case, his situation would be hopeless.

    Ye Chong obtained an identity card once he reached Windstar. Information in the card on his identity was modified by Mu. While Ye Chong looked very simr to his image on the identity card, Mu had actually did some minor modifications on 13 important but inconspicuous parts. These modifications were small, but the effect was apparent. Even if another party had Ye Chong¡¯s holographic image and ess to the local poption¡¯s information database, they would not be able to find Ye Chong through an automatic query. Besides, Wang Xing¡¯s identity information was left untouched by Mu.

    No one would have guessed that Ye Chong could change his identity whenever he wanted!

    If he could survive these two months, he would be able to meet Wang Weixing. That was Ye Chong¡¯s only objective!

    Lan Yixing was extremely satisfied with his new apprentice, Mo Fei. He worked hard with a serious attitude and neverzed around, unlike his other senior brothers who would leave whenever they were free. In fact, Lan Yixing had never seen him leave the dojo. He usually spent his time in his room when unupied, and did not seem to be indulging in any negative activities. With the exception of his overly cold demeanor, Lan Yixing had no qualms with his new student.

    Lan Yixing¡¯s knew that his other apprentices were no longer interested inbat skills, and he was helpless against this. Everyone knew thatbat experts had no bright future, and he could only be thankful that they were still here with him! There was a time when potential apprentices came in hoards, which filled him with hope, thinking thatbat experts were finally gathering interest again. Later, he realized that these people were only here because of mechbat. The realization was dispiriting. Apart from that, he found that most of the apprentices had no foundation in the area, even though they all wanted to shortcut their way to sess, wanting to learn some cool looking but impractical moves. He was vexed. After much thought, he decided to ignore mech battle techniques, which caused most of his temporary apprentices to leave. Fortunately, he had enough savings to avoid financial difficulty.

    Mo Fei was an inconspicuous character in the September dojo. He was always quiet, his cold stare giving off an unapproachable feeling. Besides, he never took the initiative to greet anyone, so none of them really noticed him. Nheless, they were pleased to see the silent fellow taking care of all the menial chores, relieving their burdens.

    Ye Chong did not mind it. To him, this was only a temporary amodation. Once his business was finished here, he would be free to go wherever he wanted. Besides, these menial tasks were nothing for someone like him, who grew up on a trash. He enjoyed this seemingly dull lifestyle, which offered him plenty of free time every day to learn whatever he was interested in.

    The only regret was that the dojo had no virtual world ess.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Wei Yuan waited every day, alone, in the NR Training Center, hoping to YC gain, but to no avail. YC never visited again. He was disappointed, and regretted being too absorbed watching his recordings that he did not realize YC had left.

    The holographic recording was good teaching material, especially for people who could pick up things quickly. Besides, YC¡¯s holographic recording had given him a direction to focus on, and with that basic training!

    Wei Yuan panted heavily. While panting was impossible in the virtual world, the strain from his training still made him pant instinctively. He had improved, but was still a long way behind YC! He had used his photon processor to calcte the parameters of YC¡¯s performance, and found them to be quite shocking numbers!

    Wei Yuan did not give up then. As long as he worked hard, he would surely reach these new heights one day.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    "Mo Fei!" Lan Yixing called Ye Chong, who was just done with mopping the floor. It was already nighttime, and most of the temporary apprentices had gone home, leaving only Ye Chong in the massive building!

    Ye Chong stopped in his tracks and turned back to face Lan Yixing, waiting for his next words.

    Lan Yixing knew that Mo Fei disliked talking, and so he continued, "Hmm, I¡¯ve been watching you all this time. Usually apprentices need to perform these menial tasks for a full year before qualifying for instructions, but since you¡¯ve done well in this period, I¡¯ll make an exception and teach you some basic moves!"

    "Okay." Ye Chong replied. Ye Chong had never seen Lan Yixing perform any moves himself. Usually, it was a few of his so called senior brothers who did the teaching in the dojo. These senior brothers seemed to only have the looks but not the substance. If they met with a slightly capable opponent, they would definitely be defeated.

    Lan Yixing spoke lowly, "Look carefully!" Just as he finished, Lan Yixing moved into position and began to perform his moves, one by one!

    Ye Chong watched with growing amazement. He had seen manybat experts, and knew some moves himself, so he could tell a person¡¯s expertise in an instant. This Lan Yixin was at least as good as the twobat experts he saw on the Nast!

    Ye Chong watched with focus and startled to the core. The moves were very simr to many that he saw in the recording of the fight between those twobat experts.

    Lan Yixing repeated the moves a few times, and sighed a little inside when he saw Mo Fei¡¯s dazed expression. However, he still exined the key points and tricks to each move patiently to Mo Fei. Now, it was up to him to absorb and digest what he was taught. Lan Yixing did not expect much from him.

    Ye Chong benefited greatly from this session. All this time, he did not have anyone to teach him, and could only figure things out himself. Lan Yixing was well learned, and had a solid foundation inbat. He exined each move with simple words that managed to touch the core of the subject, allowing Ye Chong to finally make sense of much of his earlier musings. Aside from that, Ye Chong learned many new techniques that he never thought of before.

    Ye Chong¡¯s experience in the field was immense, and he had always spent time analyzingbat moves. That was why he gained much from this session.

    Lan Yixing repeated his moves three times before finally stopping.

    "Alright, now you try them!" Lan Yixing said to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong moved slowly, attempting to mimic what he had just witnessed. However, old habits did not change easily. Despite his newfound understanding of all hisbat moves, he still performed each move like he always did, barely replicating Lan Yixing¡¯s moves.

    Lan Yixing sighed inside, finding Mo Fei to be just as he expected - innately unsuited to the art ofbat. The moves he demonstrated earlier were all basic moves, and the simplest ones. Most temporary apprentices could reproduce them to a certain degree after just watching him demonstrate once. Mo Fei, however, had distorted all his moves, even when he had demonstrated three times.

    However, Lan Yixing was a responsible teacher. He stopped Ye Chong and pointed out all his mistakes, exining the details of each one of them.

    After that, Lan Yixing advised Ye Chong to practice often before leaving him be. Now, Ye Chong was left all alone in the training ground.

    In the training ground, Ye Chong practiced those basic moves again and again, quickly losing himself in the training.

    If Lan Yixing were to see Ye Chong¡¯s performance, he would most definitely be stupefied!

    Ye Chong moved swiftly, his fists a blur of movement across the air. Ye Chong was a strong fighter, and Lan Yixing¡¯s instructions had allowed him to significantly enhance his punching speed and energy. Ye Chong found that his punching moves had reached a new level of speed! This was the first breakthrough for Ye Chong ever since he reached a bottleneck with his hand speed!

    Speed was not rted only to strength, but also technique!

    This set of basicbat moves had now be a seamlessbination of both speed and strength in Ye Chong¡¯s hands! He now had a better understanding of how these two qualitiesplemented each other!

    Unlike other people, Ye Chong realized that these seemingly basic move were the most effective for killing! He must be proficient with them as soon as possible!

    Ye Chong continued on with his training relentlessly. Under the artificial illumination, his shadow flickered into and out of existence due to his quick movements like a dream!

 Chapter 185 - Brewing Storm I

    <h4>Chapter 185: Brewing Storm I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing sat in the starship, looking out from the window to the starry skies, lost in thought! Even here, she sat up with her back straight in her white training garb, her long and dark flowing hair itself a beautiful sight in the starship. With thebination of abat expert¡¯s typical martial bearing and Rui Bing¡¯s heavenly beauty, the effect was stunning. She had already dismissed at least seven groups of friendly strangers. Of course, a few of them were quite insistent, and Rui Bing did not hesitate to offer them a little warning!

    These men, however, reminded her of a certain someone. A man that was as cold andposed as herself! Where was he right now? As she reminisced, Rui Bing¡¯s ice cold expression finally transformed - her lips hooked upwards at the ends and her eyes softened, delivering a heavy blow to all the people who were discreetly watching her! They never realized that this beautiful sight would forever be engraved in their hearts!

    They were close to Windstar now. Rui Bing was ready to disembark. She was invited to the. Windstar was home to a few dojos, and the master of one of them was close to her father. She would not refuse his invitation to be a referee. Besides, she was curious. She knew that such matches between schools weremon, but these events were usually on a very small scale. Even on Blue Ocean, where Rui Bing¡¯s dojo was, there were not many dojos around, and the numbers of students were pitiful. Hence, it had been long since such a friendly match event was organized. Moreover, she had never took part in this kind of event since young, and so was understandably curious about it.

    On the other hand, ever since her meeting with Ye Chong two years ago, she had not met a match. During her fight with Ye Chong, she had only discovered the tricks to her family¡¯s more advanced techniques, and so she was defeated by Ye Chong. Now, she was no longer her previous self. The fight with Ye Chong had heavily injured her, but it had also pushed her to new heights. After two years of unrelenting training, she had now reached a new level, one that perhaps surpassed even her father¡¯s!

    She looked forward to seeing the professionals on Windstar, perhaps they would turn out to be a pleasant surprise!

    WIndstar was a tourist. Thus, she was surprised to find so many dojos on the! Besides, she heard that there were efforts poured into developing mech battling techniques, something she was interested in. This seemed to attract more apprentices into the local dojos. As for the dojos that did not incorporate this recent trend, they mostly fell into decline.

    Mostbat experts were conservative to a certain degree, and Rui Bing was no exception. However, she knew that unless the field extended its scope to new areas, the end ofbat dojos would be near in sight!

    She did not have any huge ambitions like promotingbat expertise to society; she only hoped that her father¡¯s dojo would not close down by her own hands!

    Perhaps, she could find a way to keep her dojo alive! She mused. However, the thought of Rui Su''s worried expressions and her mother when she was leaving brought a warm sensation to her heart.

    The ship entered the docking zone shortly after. She stood up and began to gather her things.

    She took her luggage to the ship¡¯s passenger lounge, and waited for the ship to dock. Suddenly, a pair not too far away caught her attention. They were a man and a woman, both wearing cold expressions. The man had a fierce aura, his body as athletic as a leopard. The woman beside him was tall with a simr build, her muscr body apparent under her tight-fitting outfit.

    They were both dressed in ck, and the people around them somehow kept their distance from them. This made them both stood out even more. However, what Rui Bing noticed was not that, but the aura they were both emanating. The aura made her ufortable. Rui Bing was an experiencedbat expert, and was now even more sensitive due to her improved skills. It was not umon for her to have these exinable feelings.

    Those two seemed to notice Rui Bing¡¯s attention on them. The man in ck nced briefly at Rui Bing and ignored her. The woman, however, studied Rui Bing thoroughly, her icy gaze bearing a look of contempt.

    Rui Bing did not like it, but kept herselfposed. For someone at a level like hers, one was judged not only by skills, but also by one¡¯s demeanor.

    The ship docked, and the passengers disembarked. However, those two in ck stood where they were, right where Rui Bing must pass to leave the ship. Rui Bing lifted her luggage and advanced. When she passed by them, all of a sudden, the woman shot her right elbow outwards!

    Rui Bing¡¯s eyes chillingly gleamed. Ever since she glimpsed the profound wonders of advancedbat moves two years ago, her six senses had greatly improved to a degree that even she could not fully understand. The sudden attack was no different than a direct frontal attack to her. Rui Bing¡¯s naturally hanging left hand responded just as quickly,ing into a bend and greeted the opponent!

    Thak! A soft impact was heard. In that instant, their elbows collided. The woman in ck gasped softly and stepped backwards. Rui Bing, however, held her position. The man at the side stepped minutely to the right and reached for the woman¡¯s waist. The womannded safely in her partner¡¯s embrace.

    The encounter was subtle, and was not noticed by anyone nearby. The woman in ck looked surprised, while the man stared coldly at Rui Bing. Rui Bing was undeterred, and stared right back at him. The man suddenly humphed coldly and supported his partner as they left the starship.

    Rui Bing kept her featuresposed, but she was just as surprised inside. Her attack may seem like a careless attack to the other party¡¯s elbow, but she had actually aimed for a spot that would numb that other party¡¯s hand. However, while she managed to hit the woman¡¯s elbow, the woman managed to make her miss her targeted spot. Besides, the woman in ck was strong, almost as strong as herself. If she had not used a unique technique to direct internal energy, she would have stepped backwards just like the woman.

    What surprised Rui Bing the most was the woman¡¯s pure physical strength! Women were generally physically inferior than men, but the woman in ck almost made Rui Bing doubt her gender! What power!

    When Rui Bing came out of the ship, the two were nowhere in sight. In the docking area, Rui Bing quickly found her weing party.

    Rui Bing dragged her luggage along to a middle-aged man with a heavily mustached face, wearing a brown jacket. She bowed slightly and greeted,"Uncle Hua!". Uncle Hua was her father¡¯s best friend who frequently visited her home, and Rui Bing recognized him instantly!

    Uncle Hua spoke joyfully, "Bing¡¯er is all grown up now! Uncle Hua nearly couldn¡¯t recognize you! How is your mother?"

    "She¡¯s doing well!" Rui Bing bowed slightly and replied in return.

    Uncle Huaughed. "Bing¡¯er is still the same as before!" He turned back to his apprentices as said, "This is your senior sister, Rui Bing, please greet her well!"

    The apprentices behind him were all surprised to find Senior Sister Rui Bing that their master alwaysuded to be such a beauty. Their eyes glowed as they greeted in sync, "Senior Sister!" Their loud voices drew the attention of the people nearby.

    Rui Bing bowed slightly and returned the greeting. "Junior brothers!" Her voice was as clear as before.

    Uncle Hua¡¯s dojo was thergest on Windstar, called the Tian Hua dojo. It was full of apprentices due to the dojo¡¯s incorporation of mech battle techniques. There was even a mech battleground avable. However, since mech battle was not a well developed field, this area was only open to apprentices with higher attainments. The weekly mech battle performances were a popr attraction, more exciting than what one could get from the virtual world. It was well received by the younger people, and many of them had joined the dojo after watching these performances!

    Tian Hua dojo had flourished under Uncle Hua¡¯s leadership. His apprentices did not disappoint - they were all skilled inbat, most of them could also pilot mechs, bing Uncle Hua¡¯s trusted assistants.

    Tian Hua dojo provided ample facilities, and housed many apprentices. When they saw the dojo master apanying a most beautifuldy into the dojo, followed by some rarely seen senior brothers, they all turned to have a good look. However, with the admonishments from their senior brothers, none of them dared to stop their practice, even when their hearts were no longer in it.

    News of the arrival of a beauty in the dojo spread quickly. Soon, all of the apprentices were aware of it.

    As for Rui Bing, Uncle Hua treated her warmly, and his apprentices all ttered her. However, Rui Bing¡¯s cold expression never changed, like nevermelting ice. While Rui Bing did not express herself much, she still held herself with refinement, and never did anything excessive. This won the approval of the fellow apprentices.

    Ye Chong continued his simple daily routine. Lan Yixing saw him as inherently untalented, but since he was willing to work hard, the apprentice was able to perform newly taught moves well enough the day after Lan Yixing introduced them to him. Hence, Lan Yixing would teach Ye Chong a few moves and techniques every day, and leave him be.

    By now, Ye Chong had learned much from his daily instructions. His mistakes done before Lan Yixing were only for cover. Leaving the trash behind, he was no longer the naive young man that he was before. He always drew attention no matter what he did, and right now, that was exactly what he was trying to avoid. He could only hope that nothing went wrong until Wang Weixing¡¯s return.

    As he gained more insights intobat day by day, his mech battle skills had also improved. This was something he did not expect.

    Nheless, ck Cove¡¯s men must have arrived on Windstar by now. Ye Chong looked through the window at the drizzling rain outside, lost in his thoughts!

 Chapter 186 - Brewing Storm II

    <h4>Chapter 186: Brewing Storm II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Martial Arts Tournament", written on the invitation Lan Yixing received, of a paper-made traditional design looking all ssy and sophisticated, exuding a hint of aroma which was calming to the nerves, though Lan Yixing was not as calm in his mind. He was the first to hear about this tournament, yet he was thest to be invited by the host. One could already imagine the amount of disdain exerted on thiste invitation by Hua Tiankai himself. Well, can¡¯t help it I guess. Lan Yixing might be an expert but he had rarely demonstrated his strength fighting with others. Basically, not many of the people were aware of his skills, especially after his September Dojo went permanently closed. It would be a miracle for those in the martial arts to remember his name in their mind.

    The difort remained in his mind, as the pathetic appearance of his September Dojo lingered in his mind along with the glorious imagery of Tian Hua Dojo. He sighed, helplessly. The so-called tournament this time likely would only have the apprentices fighting instead of those masters of the dojo to prove their values. Naturally, the masters or the heads would sit back and watch, they would not put their fists and kicks into the scene. Well, that would be another gloomy news to Lan Yixing with those impotent apprentices of his. Of course he recognized their impotency and he feared it would be a mere embarrassment to have them there. "I¡¯m turning this down." Thought so, Lan Yixing made up his mind that he must reject this offer.

    "I¡¯m very sorry," said Lan Yixing as he cupped one hand in the other, that etiquette of his from the ancient fighters was still a thing. "That I have a few personal matters to settle on that day and might not be able to attend the tournament. Brother, I am truly regretful to not be able to join the festival this time around. Please inform Mr. Hua on my behalf to express the admiration towards his determination as well as my sincerest apology."

    Ye Chong was engaged in the important task of wiping the floor clean behind Lan Yixing and hispanion.

    The person who sent the invitation this time was known as Hua Shangmei, the third apprentice of Hua Tiankai. His feature was demure, handsomely expressive. His nature was docile as respectfully he dealt with the people. A bnced proportion of body, with flexible limbs, both could clearly tell he was a potential material forbat-training. And his fame roared throughout the Windstar in between the few dojos he attended, which was not something to be overlooked of. Lan Yixing took a look at this fine man before him and he thought of his own apprentices¡­ It was discouraging. And when he finally got a good material whose tenacity could withstand tough training, that material turned out to be rather mediocre. Extinguished, his burning passion. So he made up his mind, he would like to decline the offer to the tournament this time.

    Hua Shangmei seemed to be not expecting rejection from Lan Yixing. He might have imed to be upied by some personal matters, but anyone could tell the mere sense of rejection between the words, especially a talent like Hua Shangmei. Well if the matters were personal to begin with, naturally it would be better for Hua Shangmei to not further question the person.

    His tone was a bit grim, "It would be such regret to not have your appearance at our tournament this time. Well, it can¡¯t be helped, if Master Lan is preupied. However if there were instances where our Tianhua dojo could provide assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. We shall never reject your request!" Sincerity was filled in his expression. It was pleasing to the eyes.

    Although it sounded like a work of tongue, Lan Yixing stillplimented the person in his mind, he must admit that Hua Tiankai had gotten a great apprentice!

    Lan Yixing walked Hua Shangmei to the gate. He seemed troubled the moment he returned. He got back to his room after giving few brief instructions on Ye Chong¡¯s training.

    Under the light, Ye Chong trained hard as sweat formed like downpour on his body. Under surveince of Mu Shang, it would be impossible for one to have a peek on his training, which was relieving to Ye Chong as he trained harder.

    It was Shang¡¯s turn to take over the reception in his head. Fortunately, Ye Chong was the kind who would be extremely focused on his training or Shang¡¯s motivational talk could be one of the world¡¯s worst torments to mankind ever.

    Ye Chong felt inspired ever since he did his training. Everything that had hardly made sense to him before cleared up for him out of sudden. He was naturally an expert in manipting his muscle. However, with the better understanding towardsbats he got from the training daily, his skills grew stronger! Ye Chong wielded the strength of a bull and he had mastered the technique to exert it efficiently, he himself too could not imagine how massive his strength had grown.

    With the development in his strength, speed and skillfulness, he felt he had been reborn.

    Regarding strength, Ye Chong held his own set of beliefs. The whole point of strength was always about timing. Applying one kind of strength at one kind of time, that was his knowledge about strength. Closebats might be great, but it was a mere force in front of a mech, a machinery. A pilot could be regarded as mighty, yet the time he took to roll into his cabin was sufficient for a fighter to ughter him a few times! If they were armed with weaponry like the heat ray guns, that would be even more offensive to make the pilot die a hundred times, although heat ray guns were not the ideal weapon to be armed with, considering its disadvantages like the problem carrying it and the attention it attracted before one even approached the target.

    Then there was this part of fighting called "shooting", his nemesis, a headache giving aspect of training. It was not like he was unaware of the efficiency of heat ray guns among the other ranged weapons, it was just ¡­ somehow he was born defected in this. He had tried practicing, the efficiency just would not go up in the end. At least he was fast, so it would still be challenging for one to lock on him with a ray-based gun.

    He had overheard the exchange between Lan Yixing and Hua Shangmei, clearly. Despite that, he did not seem to intend to grab the spotlight of the tournament. This ce was merely an amodation for him at the moment. He simply did notpute the necessity in those apparent recognition since they would bring him no good than tons of unwanted inconveniences while rming the foes. Hiding under the skin of amb, bing themb in spite of those fangs, that would be the efficiency in life he sought after. Surprisingly, both Mu and Shang agreed on this!

    Geez, how many light years must I wait before Wang Weixing came back here? Such a hassle!

    ¡­

    "Anything?" A middle-aged man asked in his deep voice. Only if Ye Chong was here, he would be raising his brows as recognizing this menacing man being¡­ Instructor Hak. He still was the ultimate leader in the case of retrieving F-58. The new order he got from the authority was to capture F-58 and have him back to the ck Coves. The catch was, the target must be unharmed, not even a scratch, by hook or by crook, which was indeed puzzling to the instructor. Even if F-58 turned out to be a skeleton artisan, he did not see the need of preserving him to an extent where he must be unwounded. As far as he knew, that would further hinder the capturing process.

    The improvement this time was the kindness of the authority, as they allocated the instructor additional members in his team. Well, obviously they really wanted this traitor of ck Coves to return in one piece.

    "Nothing," one man in ck coat replied coldly. He was the man Rui Bing encountered on the ship that day, the one with a female.

    The mentioned female who fought Rui Bing before added, "We had skimmed through the residence record. There was no man called ¡®Wang Xing¡¯ discovered. We had also checked out the hologramic visual search engine and the result was negative. Windstar is a for tourism, traffics are heavy daily, which has brought us immense difficulties in identifying F-58."

    Instructor Hak was more troubled than before. This was because it would be far-fetched for him to perform a major search all over the ce since that would alert the MPA as well as the Sanctuary. And the situation would go beyond his control he feared. Nevertheless, digging out a particr man from a vast, that felt like finding a needle in the haystack.

    The instructor could not see the progress in this search. His headache intensified!

    Instructor was not the only person irritated. Rui Bing too had a headache. The apprentices of Hua Tiankai had been outrageously attentive to Rui Bing and their master seemed to be closing one eye over their misbehavior. Ugh! And Rui Bing could not get worked up, she could not toss them into fracture, since Uncle Hua was there. She treated these apprentices like flies after the flood. In the end she shut herselfpletely in the room as she sat quietly with hands on herp day by day. It was relieving that those apprentices were sensible enough to not act more intrusive than they had been. They withdrew themselves and Rui Bing was more than happy to see that.

    And every time in that silence she dipped herself into, she would be reminded of that man, that feeble-looking yet wielding great strength man in an unexinable chillness¡­ And that lick, that moment when they exchanged strange gazes. Recalling that very scene, once again her face reddened on its own. A seizing embarrassment struck upon her. Imagine any of her acquaintance seeing her expression at the moment, they would be dropping their jaws, wondering if that was the icy colddy Rui Bing they had been dealing with.

    Luckily she could still have her meals in peace. When they gathered at one table with Hua Tiankai, the apprentices would behave themselves. Like on one lunch, every boy on the table acted like a littlemb from the pen. "Oh, by the way¡­" Hua Shanghai remembered something to tell from the morning, as he lifted his head and looked at Hua Tiankai, "Master, I had gone to Mr. Lan Yixing¡¯s dojo to send the invitation."

    "What took you this long?" The master held his chopstick and looked displeased.

    "Haha¡­" Hua Shangmei gave an awkwardugh, "I forgot¡­ the September Dojo was a little inactive these few years that I could hardly remember if it was not of your kindest reminder."

    "Right. Has Lan Yixing epted it?" asked Hua Tiankai, without a sense of ming his apprentice¡¯s forgetfulness. He himself too had vaguely remembered the existence of September dojo, though he had heard of Lan Yixing frequently before.

    "Nope," he shook his head. "He said he had some personal matters that day. I would not wish to impose on him."

    "Hmph!" Deng Chong at the side forced into the conversation, "Never mind if he did not want toe! Not like he is the only dojo in the town! His dojo was almost non-existent, no point even if he was here!" Hua Tiankai had 3 apprentices, the first being Zheng Zhongxing, the calm kind; the second being Hua Shangmei, the sensible kind; the third was none other than Zheng Chong, the hot-tempered kind, although he was the greatest fighter among them all.

    "September dojo?" Rui Bing in her seat joined the conversation, "Could Lan Yixing a native from the September?"

    The beauty had spoken! She had stated her inquiry! A perfect timing to unt your proactiveness! Hua Shangmei snatched the red button, "As expected from my senior Bing, you are also knowledgeable! Lan Yixing was indeed from September!" Hua Shangmei could be young at his age but he was experienced in this that he had already performed his own research before heading to September dojo. Regrets filled mind of the other two as seeing how their mate stole the attention.

    "Well¡­" Rui Bing did not seem impressed as she had hardlyid her eyes on Hua Shangmei, facing Hua Tiankai she spoke on, "Then he must be from the Lan family of September, Mr. Lan Yixing my senior. I had heard from my father before, the uniqueness in control of muscles among members of this family. And this very senior of mine is the expert in this."

    "Oh¡­" Rui Bing¡¯s statement was not within Hua Tiankai¡¯s expectation. He hmmed. The meal ended in silence.

    Hua Shangmei was summoned to his master¡¯s room after the meal. He was in there for quite some time.

    Hua Shangmei paid his second visit to September dojo. The September Lan family huh¡­ he recalled thepliment Senior Bing made on the family. Thrilled, he would love to see the uniqueness in their skills. Well that was not his main purpose here though. There was something else in hand.

    Hua Shangmei stood courteously below the tform. He did have the eagerness to test out this frail-looking Master Lan on his capabilities, but judging from Bing¡¯s words, he should be an adept in the dark, a senior unknown to the people. Well, if that was the case, it would not be wrong to express some courtesy.

    Lan Yixing was watching the message recorded by Hua Tiankai. And there Ye Chong was behind, being dead serious wiping the floor clean again.

    Hua Tiankai expressed immense persistence in having Lan Yixing on the tournament this time, his hologram had addressed his formal invitation politely with all the buttering up words and admiration, which were totally iputable to Lan Yixing.

    He would like to turn this down too but¡­ he could not, as there was one particr reason hidden in the recording he could not say no to.

    Hua Tiankai stated in his message, that the tournament was not only an opportunity for exchange between apprentices of various styles, but also apetition between the masters. Of course that was not the point. The main point was there would be a huge amount of spectators that day and a majority of them were the trainees. The winners could have the chance to choose their own apprentices from the trainees! Certainly solely if consensus was made beforehand. And it was turn-by-turn basis, meaning the following winners could hit the ground picking their future apprentices only after the winner before had done it.

    How could such condition not be attractive to Lan Yixing and making his heart race? Getting the right apprentice had always been the prime issue in his mind. And he could solve it once and for all if he won this tournament and picked the best ones in his eyes before the others. He would stand a better chance in obtaining actual talents to be under his supervision. There should be a few of them among spectators that many. Thinking about his problem in finding a sessor, he epted the invitation without hesitation. He was absolutely confident of his own skills.

    Hua Shangmei peeked at Ye Chong on the floor. Wow, there are humans who still wipe their floors literally on the ground? That exins a lot. No wonder September dojo had been declining. The cleaners at Tianhua dojo had been long reced by automatic cleaning machines, although Hua Shangmei was impressed to see Ye Chong being this calm and concentrated despite how trivial and annoying the job was.

    Lan Yixing requested a few minutes from Hua Shangmei. He walked into the room after, leaving Hua Shangmei having his eyes focused on this floor-wiping boy, intrigued. Ye Chong, as usual did not give his attention to this visitor, he wiped on as if it would be thest thing he would do.

    Few minutespsed and Lan Yixing left the room, he had few words with Hua Shangmei and, "Mo Fei!" he boomed.

    Ye Chong flinched, wait, isn¡¯t Mo Fei me?

    He ced down the cloth and walked to Lan Yixing.

    Lan Yixing passed him a piece of microchip, "Mo Fei, follow this senior to Tianhua and pass this chip to Master Hua, understand?"

    Ye Chong shuddered, the worst thing he thought he could do currently was to head out, since that would put him under the risk of being exposed. But then, that was not the timing to refuse the order. He grabbed the chip unwillingly and mumbled, "Okay."

    On the way to Tianhua dojo, Hua Shangmei seemed highly interested in Ye Chong somehow, as he tried setting off a conversation. Nheless, Mr. Monosybic was monosybic than ever. He was not in the mood for idle chatters, he was all heedful of the surrounding. If anyone would go wrong, he would go first.

    Seeing how indifferent Ye Chong was reminded Hua Shangmei of his senior, his respected Bing. They were so simr!

    Ye Chong had been cautious throughout the way to the dojo. Nothing rming had happened however, as he made to Tianhua dojo safely.

    Hua Shangmei led the way for him and patiently introduced every part in the dojo. They passed the training field and arrived at the amodation.

    Hua Shangmei brought Ye Chong to the room and a strong wind blew!

    "Look out!" screamed Hua Shangmei.

 Chapter 187 - Brewing Storm III

    <h4>Chapter 187: Brewing Storm III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A piece of shield of a mech zoomed towards both of them. It was rapid, it was stunning. Although the shield piece would be considered small for a mech, it had a diameter about 2 meters and it was wholly made out of alloy, which one could imagine its weight! One could tell the forcefulness in its motion by that piercing sound it made when slicing through the air. The piece could easily harm anyone in contact, be it a cut or a touch.

    Judging by its direction, obviously it was aiming directly at the two men who just entered the amodation!

    Hua Shangmei was not known as a martial art expert with nothing, he reacted in extreme speed as he subconsciously exerted force on both his waist and feet,unching himself to the other side of the room, with the shield piece sliding through! The powerful air flow scratched his face. Holding the pain, he was not able to celebrate that close shave he dodged as his heart crashed down to the ground while he was in the air. "Damn!" His face was drained!

    I¡¯m done. That was the remaining thought in his head. Although he only took a nce, he estimated the weight of the piece quickly. An object with such mass traveling at such horrifying speed, its force was not something controble with man force. If one ever got smashed by the shield, man, that would be like a pounder on a st of meat. Hua Shangmei¡¯s face turned paler in a whole new degree the moment he imagined how he could possibly be smashed with limbs jumping all around.

    An expert like him too suffered a close shave, that janitor new apprentice from September dojo was probably going to survive at a chance less than zero.

    The sound of the piece crashing roared throughout the ground. Veil of dust cloaked the entire ce.

    Hua Shangmei twitched as he feared the orientation bing a goner in his hands¡­ Now how was he going to exin this to September dojo?

    He was still able to demonstrate his dexterity under such a drastic fall. If there werementators, they were so going topliment out loud. Hua Shangmei did not care if he was going to be rated 10 upon 10 for his spin, hended with tip on the ground and twisted his body, setting off a gaze at Ye Chong.

    The apprentice of September dojo with his name Mo Fei was intact! And the piece was struck into the ground nearby!

    Hua Shangmei was relieved, his face regained vitality, although it was still paler than his usual look. At least it was not dead pale like the moment the crash happened. Doubts filled his head when he saw Mo Fei being alive, he was skeptical, "No way." He couldn''t believe his eyes. No way he would have made an inuracy in that quick calction of his. That piece should have hit where Mo Fei was judging by the trail it travelled.

    But, but¡­ why did it change?

    Don¡¯t tell me¡­ it was him? He looked at Mo Fei escaping the mortal fate. The disbelief intensified. Did he do something to the armor? No! No. Impossible! The thought was declined straight away. Even if the strongest apprentice, the 3rd member of their brotherhood, the hot-tempered man could never shift the armor piece away without getting hurt!

    Well, then what happened?

    He wanted to confirm his spection but that frightened face of Mo Fei reminded him how ridiculous his spection was.

    Technically, no one saw Ye Chong moving between the frames. He tipped the ground and dodged to the side a few degrees away. That blink Ye Chong made was so fast that it was indistinguishable, literally a column of afterimages! Ye Chong shifted to the outeryer of the shield, with his arms crossed and exercised his strength which pushed the shield tilting away from its former direction. He took that split second to return to the previous position of his and acted frightened. Well, it was all thanks to the techniques of execution of strength he learned from Lan Yixing or he would not be able to do it in such leisure even if he managed to push the shield away.

    The frightened act though, was an addition out of a reminder from Shang. Ye Chong was not sure if his act was convincing to the only audience in the room though¡­ Well, no time to care, he was more worried if that the crash would attract the ck Covers.

    Hua Shangmei was not able to figure things out as everyone in the amodation came flooding the ce before he realized.

    "You two donkeys!" He heard the third apprentice shouting on top of his lungs, "I did forbid both of you to do mechbating here! And both of you are here, training in the dark huh! Think we wouldn¡¯t know? Now see what both of you have done! If anything goes wrong, you are so going to get sliced and diced by master!"

    Oh, so there were two kiddos havingbats on mech here? Really? Hua Shangmei, despite his good-natured personality, also had that desire to smack the two kiddos in the heads since their immature act almost costed his life!

    Hua Tiankai, the owner of Tianhua dojo had showed up and he was all solemn and calm as Ye Chong saw him. Despite that, he seemed to be shocked by the crash too. If people would die in his dojo, one could imagine the impact to the image of the dojo. Well the two donkeys were imaginably skewed somewhere soon.

    Hua Tiankai could be mad but he did not forsake his courtesy, as he folded his hands, expressing his apology, "It was myck of discipline in educating my men that caused you such fear."

    "It¡¯s okay," tly Ye Chong replied. Mo Few seemed to have recovered quite well from the impact before, which was impressive to Hua Shangmei.

    Ye Chong passed Lan Yixing the microchip. "Now if you would excuse me¡­" He excused himself and headed back to his room to check out the content of the chip.

    "Where¡¯s¡­" Hua Shangmei saw everyone at the scene, except for Rui Bing, "Where¡¯s Sister Bing? Have anyone seen her? How could she note out even when a crash happen?"

    "Sister Bing went out. She is not here," exined Zhen Zhongxing.

    Sister Bing¡­

    Never would Ye Chong imagine that that Sister Bing mentioned by these men was thatss in white garb.

    It was not long before Hua Tiankai came out of his room. "Thank you so much." After making sure that his mission had been aplished, Ye Chong Kindly refused the master¡¯s lunch offer and walked home alone.

    ¡­

    "Xuelin¡­ Xuelin¡­" Xiu was at the outside of the room, her usually fickle voice was ringing excitingly at that moment. Xuelin was surprised.

    The sound of furnitures consecutively falling alerted Xuelin. What happened? What if Xiu hurt herself? Did she fall from her chair? Xuelin got up immediately and opened the door to check her cousin out.

    Xiu was by her doorstep, breathing heavily apparently. Her fair cheek was reddened by her intense movement. It took Xuelin a while to react towards this unusual Xiu¡¯s expression, "Xiu¡­? Could you tell me what¡­happened?"

    Xiu was still catching her breath. The running before had consumed too much of her stamina.

    "Did unclee back?" Xiu¡¯s parents were transferred to somewhere far, far away for work and she was left at Xuelin¡¯s home al these years.

    "No!" she replied. Her eyes darkened and then was ring of some kind of peculiar excitement.

    "What is it then?" Scratching her head, Xuelin was wondering if this Xiu was an alien in disguise as she could not guess what she was proposing.

    "Come!" she grabbed her cousin¡¯s hand, Xiu led Xuelin all the way to the processor in her room. Where did the Xiu I know go? What happened to her today? Where¡¯s thatdy-like, suave Xiu? Xuelin was dumbfounded as being dragged.

    Xiu took out a piece of chip.

    "So, what is that?" Pointed at the thing in Xiu¡¯s hand, that was probably the reason of her excitement.

    "You will know once I y it," Xiu turned over as she smiled sweetly in mystery.

    She inserted the chip and the processor was prompted to project a visual. Xuelin turned stoned upon seeing the screen.

    YC¡­? YC! This is a visual of YC! I had never seen the recording before! This had to be something new from YC! I remembered it! Xiu and I had bookmarked every visual avable! This had to be the new visual! Did YC resurface this time?

    It¡¯s been two years! Xuelin¡¯s mind wandered off to her past while her eyes stared at the mech dancing in the visual. After that earth shattering shock she received just now, she no longer felt any stimtion from her idol¡¯s return, which she found surprise of herself on.

    Two years were a duration to be considered long of, long enough to change lots of stuffs.

    Well, how about myself? Her eyes turned dazed as her mind nked. Somehow she heard somebody letting off a sigh in her heart. Reminiscing the times when she and her cousin got all hyped up over the mysterious YC, that bitter experience emerged form the bottom of her heart.

    YC¡­ that mystifying title countless times she had thought of. Maybe it was less unreal than the mystery of the whereabout of that cousin of Grandpa Qian namely Ye.

    The corner of her lips raised into a wry smile. She shook her head slightly and shifted her sight onto Xiu who was all focused on the visual. That expressive eyes of hers somehow was depicting tenacity!

    Sigh, did Xiu not yet realize that it was all nothing but a dream? Xuelin who had woken up from the dream was actually troubled from that bitter sensation of her past, even though she felt much more relieved.

    Xuelin who was pondering did not notice how Xiu had alreadyid her nce on her through the eyes¡¯ corner. She blinked a few times, there was something forming in her pupils which grew steadier.

    ¡­

    Rui Bing was on the street. That signature white garb of hers was an eye-catcher, especially with her absolute beauty and her unapproachable charm. The passersby turned their heads almost at a rate of 100% on every urrence. Rui Bing was not disturbed by that as the sight she gathered from the passersby was no difort, unlike the constant attention given by those hooligans of Uncle Hua, a total headache. She utterly despised their behavior. And she could not express her disgust as she concerned the pride of Uncle Hua, so she could only keep her fists and let the hooligans act on their will.

    To spend her life better, she decided to leave Tianhua dojo with an excuse for the day. She strolled on the street. Windstar was a for tourism, the scenery was gorgeous, thendscape was unique and there were a variety of tiny stores at both sides of the streets selling fancy things. Rui Bing was entertained throughout the walk.

    ¡­

    "No!! No! No!" Wei Yuan piloting his mech traveling at full speed to his school. He overslept this morning! All because of the training! He did it too much that he forgot the hours. The mech flew low as the mech was not really outstanding at its capacity. It was a really normal mech, of course it would be a losing match if Wei Yuan were to set off into the sky high to squeeze into the flock of other mechs. So he sumbed to flying low since one would be affected by the difficulties ofplicatedndscapes and be distracted by the buildings, which justified the drastically lower amount of mechs flying nearer to the ground.

    That was not an issue to Wei Yuan with his superior piloting skill so generally flying low resulted in faster travel for him. Oh and there he was, at one road with form of 6 consecutive turnings, the most thrilling path ever of his day!

    He did not decelerate. The mech advanced forward in high speed.

    Oh wait! He remembered how YC performed consecutive curvy turns in his visuals. Such an opportunity to use it! Wei Yuan¡¯s heart boiled in eagerness. That was actually the ck Covers¡¯ Double Curved Steps, inspired by the 4 bodyguards of Mr. Robert. Ye Chong put it into the movement of mechs, though it was unexpected that Wei Yuan picked it up from his visuals. Wei Yuan was certainly a genius of some sort.

    Wei Yuan however was not aware whatid ahead of him for his eager attempt of performance!

 Chapter 188 - Brewing Storm IV

    <h4>Chapter 188: Brewing Storm IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sen Hai carefully observed the surrounding. He was piloting a Cosmic re but he remained cautious as ever. The MPA, the nemesis should have noticed their whereabouts after such major activity from the ck Coves. No way the ck Covers could remain invisible after making such a huge move. So every ck Covers flew out with vignce as they headed for their mission, fearing to be snuck upon by the MPA.

    This was exceptionally true since there had been rumors that their group stirred up members of the Sanctuary a while ago. Sadly he was not in the position to demand that bit of information, the hows and whys were nothing he could know.

    The movement was so massive that both MPA and the Sanctuary would be utter fools if they never noticed it. I seriously do not get what this Instructor Hak from Group F had in his mind when heunched this. Sen Hai was from Group B, naturally he was not under Hak¡¯s administration. He was transferred since there was an insufficiency in the work force.

    Sen Hai would never know the pain Instructor Hak had to bear. It was challenging and stressful for Hak to find that needle from that haystack namely the gxy, especially when the needle could hide and squeeze into other haystacks. If without the cooperation of local governments, finding F-58 would stay difficult as ever. Certainly ck Coves were influential enough to convince the government into assistance, the catch was however, if he were to seek assistance from them, he would have to hand them the visuals of F-58 to be publicized everywhere - that would obviously alert the MPA and the Sanctuary, which further escted theplexity of the situation.

    It would be less hassling if there was only the MPA, but there was the Sanctuary too, where their rtionship started to worsen at an rming rate. He knew the situation much better than Sen Hai, the so-called "conflict" between the ck Coves and the Sanctuary was not a mere scratch on the surface. The counterpart lost 4 of theirbat squads, it had been rumored that they even lost an ace from the fight while the ck Coves suffered the first ever dead serious fatalities all these years! Such fight had never been the case when they fought the MPA. The Sanctuary would not be resting just yet obviously.

    The leader is a f*cking donkey isn¡¯t he? Did his brain shrink that day?

    And now Hak is stuck in a sticky situation where he could not even reach out his limbs. Dammit, of all men, of all tasks, they picked this and they picked me! And this very task required tons of work forces, I did bring tons of work forces as mentioned but seriously they could not even get a change from the price.

    The biggest bewilderment was the identity of this F-58 he used to instruct. He was actually a skeleton artisan? Well maybe he snatched a skeleton mech somewhere on the road but no matter what it was in reality, this F-58 would be the sole source of information on skeleton mechs and we got to get him.

    Hak had been rather dreadful of F-58 due to his outstanding performance back in ck Coves, which made the instructor fascinated enough to presume him as the strongest pilot ever in his group, especially that extreme speed of his hands, impressive and terrifying! And that capture he attempted after that¡­ It was a few seconds where they both exchanged moves but the fear was never-before-felt. The urate calction, the reasonable utilization of the situation, the potent capability inbats and the fearless decisiveness,bining these elements would make F-58 the greatest pilot ever!

    Hak had been reying the scene that night numerous times afterwards and there were quite a few parts which he could neverprehend. He tried imagining putting himself in the shoes of those men but the conclusion he obtained was depressing. If he was there, it was in fact, either captured or ughtered. There was nothing better he could have acted.

    Terrifying¡­ Such a terrifying monster!

    ¡­

    Sen Hai was still in the sky piloting Cosmic re. He could be pissed by Instructor Hak¡¯s arrangement, Instructor Hak could have zero involvement to his career in the ck Coves, he still tried his very best to execute the orders. The discipline in ck Coves was something to be drilled in the heads of the men, so stern that it was unimaginable for people outside, which justified his curiosity over F-58¡¯s sudden betrayal. How could he ever survive without the Texturizing Solution? Sen Hai¡¯s heart felt all heated up the moment he reminisced that odd sensation where the solution covered every inch of his skin, opening up the pores . Texturizing solution, the silver liquid would strengthen his body by maintaining the bnce between strength and flexibility of muscles, allowing them to have parallel growth without breaking the bnce.

    After he had assassinated the target of his greatest spite 3 years ago, he offered himself to ck Coves, body and soul as it was ck Coves that gave him every of these. Each day he grew stronger but also more in daze? Sigh, what am I thinking? Such boring thought, like stop it! Criticized himself, his focus went back to the surrounding.

    Wait¡­ His eyes wentrge as they red at the space-warping mech on the screen.

    Double Curved Steps?

    Of course he recognized the step after all these years in the ck Coves! Ye Chong never expected that that application of the step in mech was not the creativity of those bodyguards under Mr. Robert, it was in fact amon technique among the ck Covers! It was merely that he stayed at the ck Coves so briefly that he never was exposed to these techniques.

    Yes, that¡¯s right! It had to be Double Curved Steps!

    Sen Hai affirmed to what he saw. Double Curved Steps do not restrict on the size of the curves, but it had demands on the pace as well as the rhythmic sense of it which differ from the usual turning he saw on other mechs!

    And he had pinpointed one more fact, where Double Curved Steps were thebat technique exclusive to the ck Covers. It was not really difficult but no way one could imitate the steps without proper tutorial.

    F-58? Was that you?

    The code sprung in his head. Uncontrobly his heart raced!

    Did I hit the jackpot today? Did thedy luck smile at me?

    Is that you? F-58! Is that you!? He would not want to spend more time on figuring things out. For someone who knew Double Curved Steps, other than our men, it had to be that F-58!

    0.1 secondpsed and he made up his mind - to capture, alone!

    Being inside the circle, he knew the rules well enough - if he were to ever inform the authority, he would not be sharing any credit of it. The inhumanpetition between the groups was also something unimaginable to folks out there. The time when he and Instructor Hak headed out with other mates, all of them came back either wounded or killed and everyone from the ck Coves knew it. So, no reason he should inform the authorities! If such merit everid onto his hands, he would be flourished! More advanced techniques, more advanced mech, more advanced position! His eyes tightened.

    The most important motivation to his one selfish attempt of taking this slice of credit was the mech. Clearly one could say that F-58 picked an extremely substandard, cheap mech to avoid the attention, namely Volt mech.

    The logic behind this decisive factor was how F-58 would be a fish in the disregarding his amazing skills, as long as he piloted that cheap mech, he would be no match to the Cosmic re. Sen Hai could also imagine a simr situation if Instructor Hak were to pilot this metal piece and failed to escape the grasp of his. The capabilities of a pilot in the field would be determined by the capabilities of the mech other than his own skills! Although he was aware that F-58 might possessed a skeleton mech, well, would he have the time to switch into that then?

    No!

    The idea shed in his head as quickly as he flew towards the Volt mech like a shooting star, striking the name of his mech - the re in the cosmos.

    ¡­

    Ye was returning to the dojo. He was walking on the street under the invigtion of Shang who continuously provided feedbacks of the surrounding. As being well-aware of the situation, Shang who had been the talker behaved himself.

    At least there was nothing strange going on. Once he stepped into September dojo, he would be alright!

    "Ye!" Shang¡¯s voice came abruptly, "There¡¯s a ck Cover¡¯s mech ahead, seemed to be engaged."

    Engaged? In fight?!

    Ye Chong¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He recovered fast. If it was one single mech, he would be fine. Do we fight? Do I call Han Jia? Ye Chong was stimted. Wait, they are fighting? If the ck Covers made it here, they must be here for me. Then why are they fighting? Were they warring with the MPA? His spection was turned down by Shang immediately. It was not a MPA mech, rather it was a Volt mech.

    Volt mech? That was just some junkish mech¡­ Ye Chong was feeling odd.

    The time taken for Ye Chong to get into the cabin of his mech was magically shorterpared to the other pilots. Whether there was the ropedder to the cabin was not his concern, he climbed all the way up like a mutated ape. He rolled into Han Jia.

    ¡­

    Weeeeee¡­

    Wei Yuan was having fun making the acrobatic performance. Boom! He lost control as he began spinning.

    He was not clear about the situation but he could deduce that his mech was crashed by some nonsensical driver! Utterly angered, he cursed, who the hell forgot his eyes when he piloted the mech? How the hell he got his license? He swiftly tapped a few switches, the engines were on. Volt jerked clumsily after a few tumbling in the air. The dizziness from the intense flipping lingered in his head.

    Hmph. Sen Hai sneered. F-58 was weaker than I thought. He actually kept his position instead of taking the flow to dodge the attack, aren¡¯t you a walking bullseye or something?

    At this rate, it would be only a matter of one shoot to finish the foe off. But the authority ordered to capture this F-58 alive¡­ and I should not be wounding him, well that was not much of a problem either.

    The Cosmic re zapped to the back of Wei Yuan like a phantom. Wei Yuan remained dizzy and his outdated detection system could not detect the existence of this ck Cove mech in the dark. Wham! One more blow! The elbows of Cosmic re struck upon the back of Volt, causing Volt tond onto the ground harsh like a meteorite. Boom! The ground was hollowed.

    The pedestrians on the ground scurried away like animals of a forest fire, only few fearless kinds lingered at the corner, wanting to witness the very scene. Fearless they might be, they still feared to head to the frontline.

    Sen Hainded by the hollow. He snorted, with this level of crash and that cheap buffering system of Volt, the pilot would not be protected into safety. The pilot must have fainted. Out of his carefulness, Sen Hai also destroyed Volt¡¯s engines right before it crashed to the ground.

    Volt was stuck into the ground, not moving in a bit. Sen Hai snickered in his Cosmic re. Of course he would not just be snickering, he flipped Volt over and withdrew the dagger, a few hushes the chest of Volt was scratched a square. The tip of the dagger locked at the center, one pick and the sliced armor went tossed away like a giant coin to the side.

    Han Jia hid itself in the crowd of mechs at the side. He was confident to tell that the Cosmic re must be from the ck Coves, which was weird¡­ A ck Cover usually would keep his or her firepower before the target was confirmed. They should not beunching attacks randomly. So who is that person in the mech? Why would the ck Cover aim him?

    Wait.

    "Shang, is there any other ck Covers around here?" Ye Chong got something in his mind.

    "Nope, no other ck Covers were detected in the proximity of 50 kilometers," asserted Shang.

    "Good." His tone was cold as blizzard as his hands started shrouding into stacks of afterimages.

    The recovery rate of Wei Yuan was clearly beyond Sen Hai¡¯s expectation. Wei Yuan was proud of his piloting skills the most, which justified the endurance of his body being stronger than most men. Moreover to protect himself better, he had already requested his father to modify the buffering system inside the cabin, well since he feared some idents like these could happen.

    Wei Yuan opened his eyes to see a giant mechanical arm reaching him gradually and was making a grasp round him!

    Wei Yuan¡¯s face was paler than a paper.

    He might be a mentally stable boy but a boy he was in fact, being in his early adolescencee, how in the world would he have experience with being treated like a puppet in a crane machine?

    Oh no! I¡¯m doomed! His eyes erged. The world suddenly became slow in his eyes, as the palm came towards him slowly like the slow motion in movies. Right at that second when the gigantic hand touched him, he could hear a profound sound of crashing from the outside. The hand was then withdrawn in shock like a serpent being stabbed.

    Ah! Wei Yuan shrieked. The mechanical hand swept his left arm when it was taken back! He could hear the cracking sound of his bones! His face went distorted as droplets of sweat gushed over his head likeva into water.

    Wei Yuan¡¯s face had lost its colors.

    Enduring the pain, Wei Yuan was more than convinced that he would be real done for if he did not make his move. He was not aware of the happening outside, but he knew this would be his only opportunity to survival! That owner of the mechanical hand who nearly captured him had to be some evil-natured kind. Anyone could tell from that huge gap he cut open on the mech!

    Wei Yuan struggled his way out of the gap.

    And he saw a scene where he believed he would remember for the rest of his life!

    A mech which both the texture and color were ominous as hell was smashing that mech whose nearly caught him. And the techniques were obviously the type visible in Virtual World. His eyes went fully focused on the fight, burning with passion as he forgot the pain on his arm.

    ¡­

    Rui Bing knotted her brows as she saw the two mechs fighting in front.

    Well it was nothing to see two mechspeting for their silly pride from time to time, but it would be something if they were doing it on the street, in public! She despised that since such an unprofessional fight of dead-or-alive would easily hurt any innocents nearby!

    Wait a second¡­ That movement of the mech was very orderly¡­ Interesting¡­

    It was the first time in her life she saw a mech fighting in such style, which intrigued her to keep watching along.

 Chapter 189 - Brewing Storm V

    <h4>Chapter 189: Brewing Storm V</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The scene was all theatrical and majestic yet the audience turned out to be not as grand in number, as hardly few of them truly stayed back and spectated the entire sequence. The pace of the daily life had always been a race of time which would only keep elerating. This is exceptionally rtable on a working morning where workers and students would head over their respective ces in a rush - the peak hour of the traffic and people would mostly zoom above the sky right past the scene. There were few pilots at the lower altitude and negligible number of pedestrians on the street. With this much of action going on their working morning, anyone would shake their head muttering how this was too much for their Mondays and walk away.

    Well, it was not stone age where a mech would be a luxury. Everyone could own a mech, even those armed with regr weaponries which were actually allowed by the government, till that line was crossed, where these weaponries were not used for self-defense, but to harm people. Government would severely punish anyone who abused the weaponry yet it had been an issue for them to do so. Performing weapon control was a hassle to begin with. Nheless as the government enforced the control sternly over the years, a pedestrian versus pedestrian with open fires like this was already halted quite effectively,pared to those chaotic years in the 5 major gxies. It was a relief to the older generation as they reminisced those dark ages.

    No doubt, the enforcement had something to do with the surveince cameras they set at every corner of the city. The hologramic camera could monitor and record the happenings at the corners to assist the forces.

    And due to this, it had be a habit for Mu and Shang to get into the surveince system for Ye Chong, to wipe every frame containing him off the record.

    It was beyond Shang¡¯s expectation to see Ye Chong getting into action this quickly.

    The pair of daggers in dark emanated the smell of death as they swung into two images striking onto that Cosmic re without a sound! Klink! The fist fell, then the elbow, the knees, everything copsed like a rain of gears, as the loud rushes of clinking roared throughout the ce.

    Han Jia¡¯s anti detection system cloaked itself in Cosmic re¡¯s radar, which made Cosmic re a blind man being quietly ughtered by an assassin from the back. The result? It was obvious.

    nk! Within twinkling of eyes, Cosmic re had fully transformed into a pile of junk with countless cuts on it. The fleshes oozed out of the wounds were a disgusting sight. Ye Chong never intended to spare anyone in battle, especially when the one was from ck Coves!

    "Ye, why did you move? Don¡¯t you think this is a bad idea? Don¡¯t you?" Shang¡¯s tone was inted with disbelief when he thought Ye Chong would be thest person in the gxy tomit such a novice mistake. All this while, Ye Chong¡¯s behavior had been greatly influenced by Mu, being totally logical and analytical in the situation and that did not trante into such a reckless act from him today. This was never-before-seen.

    "Oh? So my modification on you had started to work finally?" Shang¡¯s pride in the words was awkward to Ye Chong.

    "Mhm, maybe I was a bit reckless today." Ye Chong regretted slightly himself the moment he withdrew that pair of daggers, since likely he was going to be revealed after the move. Could it be the spite umted over the endless time he was hunted by the ck Covers? However, this was a single yer fight so Ye Chong was confident to finish him before the ck Covers could even notice. Then, that was not a painful mistake after all.

    "So Shang¡­" As he thought of his unusual recklessness today, puzzled he asked, "What happened to me?"

    "To be or not to be, that¡¯s the question. But to finish the problem before you, that¡¯s a better question!" Shang¡¯s words were more puzzling to Ye Chong, it felt as if they had both switched ces.

    Well if he had done it, he should not be wasting time resenting it. The best solution would always be figuring on how to get to the optimal path of the situation. Shang was right, finish the problem before me, that¡¯d be first. Hmph, seems like we could not spare the remnants either! He took a nce at the cluster of spectators far away, who were dumbfounded or even stoned. Ye Chong calcted his next move, he got to finish whatever he had to before they realized the situation.

    If it was the Ye Chong years back, he probably would have annihted the audience as well. But that was in the past, the present him would never do that.

    At that moment of repentance where he could not believe how Shang could be more logical than himself, "Ye! Look at the back of your mech!" Shang shrieked.

    Ye Chong was struck by his shriek. Am I getting snuck upon? Did the ck Cover call for backups?

    He changed the camera to his back hurriedly. He took a nce. He took the second nce. He took the- "I saw nobody?" In the midst of confusion, Shang made a literal earth-obliterating statement in the history of Ye Chong, he howled, "Ye, look over there! It¡¯s your Bing Bing!" The tone was dramatically excited and intensified!

    Judging by the tone, Shang probably had detected some proimed "beauty" again, I guess? Sighed Ye Chong, though he had never seen Shang being so intense before. Then it should not be a beauty which he would beplimented on every female he came across in focus¡­ Well, he only got this intense when he saw a Do-Kun stone?

    Wait.

    Bing Bing? And my Bing Bing?

    "What Bing Bing?" asked Ye Chong, bewildered. Could it be also the name of ultra rare ore like Do-Kun stone? No, judging by his tone, it could be rarer! That has to be it, or why was Shang jumping up and down in the screen iming that Bing Bing was there and Bing Bing was mine? Such weird wording¡­

    The artificial indulgence shut himself up. A moment of silence and then he somehow rebooted himself to respond with an increase pitch, "Ye! Don¡¯t tell me!" He could not be convinced, "Don¡¯t tell me you even forgot who Bing Bing was!" Ye Chong could hear the clogging tears in the tone.

    "Bing¡­ as in¡­ the outdated search engine? I think I had seen them on Trash before. Or you meant ¡®Bing, bing, bong, bong, bing, bing, bing¡¯? You know I really hated politician speech, especially that one you forced me to watch right?" Ye Chong was figuring out as his mindunched a dedicated search program to find out the items rted to ¡®Bing Bing¡¯, his eyes rolled over the scanning zone behind him. There was nothing interesting in particr other than those few spectators¡­

    "Holy! Matrimony! My Fal! Gxy!" Shang sounded like he was crying now¡­ "Ye, how can you be reckless on things like this? You are missing out the best part of your life! And, man, I never knew you could be this heartless, Ye, that you could not remember the very first vict- I mean partner you licked, that girl in the white garb, remember? Did you forget it? Tsk, tsk, tsk, you are indeed a potential candidate to be the bad boy who yed dope on girls. I could still recall the time when she asked for your eternal loyalty in marriage¡­"

    Garb? The girl in her fair white garb shed in his head. Her face was fuzzy but her garbs remained clear as yesterday, with that formal posture of her, sitting down. It was permanent in his head, a sealed memory in the drive!

    White garb¡­ white garb¡­ The search program rebooted as Ye Chong mumbled the new keyword, his eyes wondered upon the crowd.

    !

    His pupils erged. I saw it! White garb!

    Out of the blue, a strong sense of familiarity rose in his heart. It really was her! The fuzzy imagery of her regained its rity in his head, with the charm, the sense. Ye Chong¡¯s finger gave a tap on the control panel, the visual of Rui Bing was quickly erged before him.

    She was still the same demure and nonchnt self. Her dark hair was long and smooth, her white garb was untainted as her personality. Her knotted brows¡­ they seemed to be displeased.

    Ye Chong carefully looked at this girl who remained in his thoughts for so long. It felt like time had turned back to two years ago where she asked him for marriage and he was innocent or more like¡­ck of awareness. His heart felt warm for some reason¡­

    A while back Ye Chong took up an emergency Biology course conducted by Shang. After consecutive bombardment of information, atst, he came into senses of the workaround of this feeling and rtionship. "Shall we move onto the other chapters?" It was fun while it wassted, Ye Chong dered to shift his attention onto the more interesting aspects of biology such as the anatomy of human body as well as myology to study the dynamic of how his muscles could work better. And certainly it was silencing to Shang.

    And it was this tuition ss which allowed Ye Chong to understand how that lick he made was nothing but an act upon instinct of humanity, well, although he strongly believed that it would be essential to control and inhibit such intuitive act in his career.

    Subconsciously, that peculiar aroma came into his nose again as the sight of her fairness reflected in his eyes. The tingling feeling of his tongue¡­ Ye Chong¡¯s heart raced, an urge to jump to her rose!

    ¡­

    Ugh¡­ Ugh¡­

    Wei Yuan who was biting his teeth climbed out of the cabin. For a 14-year-old boy like him, it was quite rare to see such tenacity.

    Mechbats? The intensive battle caught his eyes immediately. No, that felt more like a mismatch¡­ One mech bashing up the other¡­ That evil mech was now thrashed like a sandbag.

    Ah! Screamed Wei Yuan.

    Those steps! The steps he had learned through these days¡­ That unique offenses¡­ They were before him. Really? His eyes grew in size, fearing he was at illusion.

    No! It is him! Muttered Wei Yuan, Oh my gosh! I finally met this guy!

    YC! That strange-looking mech must be YC!

    "YC!" Boomed Wei Yuan, worked up, "I knew it¡¯s you! YC!" He waved his hands excitingly, O¡­ He somehow had forgotten the wound on his left hand.

    Ah! I could not voice it¡­ Ow ow ow ow! The piercing pain came form his arm. A slide on his feet and he rolled off the mech.

    !

    Ye Chong snapped out of his confusion as he regained control of the mech, even though he was finding the experience to be truly eerie. Such a potent instinct¡­ that I lost control of myself so easily.

    Ye Chong shrouded to Wei Yuan upon seeing him falling. He reached out his hands and grabbed Wei Yuan.

    The boy had already fainted by then. The excitement triggered the pain in his fractured arm which sent his mind away as being torturing it was.

    "Oh? Isn¡¯t this the fe who peeked at you?" Mu and Shang shared the same databank, it would be natural for Shang to be aware of Mu¡¯s investigation over Wei Yuan back then.

    "Peek", of all verbs, Shang chose "peek", as expected from the artificial indulgence. So Shang-ish.

    "Why did the ck Cover attack him? The member seemed to be striving to capture him alive," asked Ye Chong.

    "How the heck would I know?" Shang¡¯s tone was carefree as usual.

    Ye Chong took a look at Wei Yuan in his embrace but the observation could not give him a proper exnation.

    "Ye, are we moving? Or are you nning to have a nice reunion with your Bing Bing?" teased Shang.

    "Not mine," rebutted Ye Chong. He nced at Wei Yuan and almost dropped him to the ground. He got an idea. He tossed the boy to the back.

    Wow. The pilot of this mech is crude¡­ Frowned Rui Bing. He literally murdered the opponent in seconds. When did the security of Windstar turn this bad? People actually fight andmit murder on the street whenever they like now?

    And she saw that boy from the rescued mech flying towards her.

    What does he want? Rui Bing went alert. She saw the tumbling boy being unconscious. He would be the mud on the ground if she did nothing.

    Coincidence? Or was it on purpose?

    The boy inched towards in the air. Curses! Rui Bing scolded at the pilot in her mind as she positioned herself. If that jerk got out of the cabin, I am so going to toast him! The boy came quickly and she got to make her move. She spread her legs slightly and lifted both her hands at the height of her chests back and front. Till the moment her hands touched the body of the boy, she muttered and exhaled slowly as she exerted slight forces on her palms. Her top body remained still, her legs were backing off rapidly.

    7 to 8 steps back, she awaited that timing where the inertia vanished, Rui Bing mmed the ground with her heels and ceased moving.

    Boom!

    Rui Bing was shocked by the explosion. She caught the boy yet her hands were shaking for once. That horrible mech had disappeared and the remnants of the ck mech¡­ all turned into res¡­

    What a n. He actually remembered to destroy the evidence. Thought Rui Bing as she dodged the pieces with agility.

    Han Jia performed the sequence in a whirlwind that it came so suddenly everyone was still in shock. Right when they got the situation, this happened. Those in the mechs were fine at least, but the pedestrians? They could not find any shelter technically. Most of them were wounded by the specks of the mech as well as the explosion.

    "The hell is going on!"

    "How could he do that!"

    "This is satanic!"

    Curses echoed within the street.

    Rui Bing on the other hand, was holding the fainted boy, wondering what she was supposed to do next.

    Ye Chong sneaked to the the far corner. Only after Shang confirmed the course being clear, he kept Han Jia away at a deserted ce. With a thumping heart, he returned to September dojo.

    What a relief. At least he would be safe for now.

    "Ahem, Ye, you should learn from your mistakes as this is utterly irresponsible," Shang sounded serious.

    "But kekekekekekekeke¡­ I thought of forgiving you since the fact that we saw your lovely Bing Bing today." Laughed Shang naughtily, "A more important issue! Come, shall we gents talk about our Bing Bing? Hmm, tell me, Ye, what was your feelings back there? Were you excited? Or¡­"

    Wow, Shang, could you leave me to "learn from my mistakes" now? I could be repenting wholeheartedly¡­ like really¡­

    Whimpered Ye Chong.

 Chapter 190 - Brewing Storm VI

    <h4>Chapter 190: Brewing Storm VI</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Brother, does master really intend to join that tournament?" The second apprentice of Lan Yixing whispered to his senior.

    "Don¡¯t ask me. I have no idea what master is thinking. We can¡¯t be avoiding the stage once we get there, I just fear if we did, we would¡­" The eldest apprentice lost his prudent nature the moment he mentioned this, as he sighed, his sight was fickle.

    "Master is such a¡­ sigh¡­ whatever. Just leave me here. I can¡¯t be gambling my pride. Frankly speaking I am not that into the martial arts, exchanging fists whatsoever. I had been following his teaching all these years and¡­ sigh! Also, brother, I wanted to tell you something¡­" He turned down his volume, carefully he spoke, "I wanted to learn Circuit Engineering."

    "Circuit Engineering?" The brother frowned. He was aware of the fact that this younger brother in apprenticeship of his was not interested in thebats although he invested almost half of his youth on this copsing dojo. Both of them joined Lan Yixing under a debt of gratitude. They begged to be his apprentices to return the favor. Lan Yixing epted both of them as seeing their sincerity while he was actually looking for sessors to his fists.

    Who knows¡­ both of them were never the candidates to begin with. They worked hard yet the progression was insignificant. They lost their passion after some time and grewzier. It was a disappointment, a moment of sighing for Lan Yixing. He realized it would be fruitless even if he forced them so he stopped lecturing them.

    They might not be talented but they were hardworking since the beginning. Their basics were great so the daily introductory courses were conducted by them at the dojo. Lan Yixing was troubled by his session being unable to work out on his will, while seeing the two apprentices of his being fruitless as ever. He was muted and had be more withdrawn over time. He did not know how he should talk this out. He became less approachable in the end.

    "Yes¡­" The volume was lower.

    "Then are you heading to school?" The frown tightened, since that would mean this brother of his would be staying at school for the rest of his life.

    "Yes." It was nearly inaudible.

    The brother sighed, "Have you told this to master?"

    "Nope," he shook his head as he replied. "I have a proposition for you! Could you please tell Master this for me?" His eyes were pleading.

    "Ugh¡­" He looked at the puppy eyes, his heart softened, "Alright. I¡¯ll help you. I¡¯ll try. But you can¡¯t go if master disallows." Thest line went stern, which was a rare nature for him.

    \u2028"Of course."

    Lan Yixing who happened to pass by overheard their exchange. He lifted his hand and he put it down. A moment of silencepsed as his eyes lost the luster. He wavered back to his room soundlessly.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong required a huge portion of his day to work on his alchemy and that was not the only thing on his priority list.

    With the Biology course conducted by Shang these days, he understood the human anatomy much better and came to the realization of how amazing the ck Covers¡¯ technique was as some of them aim the particr spot of human body to achieve desired effects such as to strike an instant death and to disable their mobility. The more bizarre part was Ye Chong could not find any proper reference to support these details, which obviously defined the ck Covers¡¯ vaster understanding of human anatomypared to the 5 major gxies.

    What Ye Chong had learned from the ck Coves were the basics, they were more sophisticated than most of thebats he had witnessed before however.

    He had been convinced to the fact that ck Coves had the most sophisticated techniques ofbat ever, till he came to the understanding of the fact that there would always be a hidden dragon in the valley, his perception got to change.

    For instance, those techniques Lan Yixing taught to him hand by hand were discovered to be not as underwhelmed as he had assumed to bepared with ck Coves style, especially in the aspect of muscle-motor control, Lan Yixing had the upper hand of the show. The catch was these techniques also required a high level of execution, a demand on the strength of the motor, the reaction speed, the flexibility and so on.

    Nheless, these did not form a challenge to Ye Chong. He could feel the potency of martial arts gradually as he mastered the gist of it.

    The burst strength he could execute was 1.5 times of his past. He was the kind who wielded monstrous strength and now he had be the one fist killer. He could break an alloy gate with a mere punch like before. What differed was he believed that he could do it without shattering his fist this time. He could already manipte his muscle to perform a drastic vibration to buffer the shock from breaking through the door. And that would be how his fist was going to be protected, a result of his tenacious research these days.

    Lan Yixing only taught Ye Chong the basics too but it was that curiosity in Ye Chong to be able to further expand the basics into something astonishing as he discovered some intriguing yet practical techniques within.

    Of course it was all thanks to Ye Chong¡¯s inhuman physique. If it was not for body, Ye Chong would have not been able to experiment those basics enough to pick them up.

    As much as he recognized his body, he took even more effort to practice these basics seemingly exclusive for him. He wondered, how strong could Lan Yixing be? Ifpared to those of the ck Coves, who would be stronger?

    Lan Yixing in reality was totally unaware of Ye Chong¡¯s ninja improvements. He was depressed. Lan family of the September was the well-known martial artists and now¡­ they were heading to their demise, with no sessor to bring the techniques to the next century. The conversation between his apprentices was heartbreaking indeed, yet he could not express his anger on them. He might be a reserved person but he was not unreasonable. Keeping the apprentices stuck with him would only put their youth into waste while hindering their path in the end.

    He had made up his mind, to let them go, break free and do whatever they wanted, disregarding a wilting tree like him. Sigh¡­ thebats, the martial artists¡­ are they going to be extinct one day?

    No! I can¡¯t be letting the Lan family martial arts end here! Tenacity came in his eyes. Clenched his fists, making the cracking sounds loud, determination boiled in is blood. By hook or by crook, he had to make something happen during the tournament. It was the golden opportunity to make a turnabout!

    But¡­

    That was another headache. None of his apprentices seemed keen to join the show while he was also aware of their standards. Teaching newbies was not an issue, but¡­ staging their skills was¡­ embarrassing I guess.

    Well I can¡¯t be heading there all by myself.

    Hua Tiankai was so great¡­ His dojo was running well, with every of his apprentices being both talented and young. Look at me¡­

    Sigh, what a puzzle.

    Wait!

    He remembered he had a new boy in his dojo. Yes! How could I forget that? He was just a new boy, a part timer! Unlike an official apprentice, even if he was underwhelming, people would not judge! "He is just a part time student who came to my dojo less than a month ago." That was more than enough to decline the staging offer.

    Yes, yes, yes. Lan Yixing fancied the idea. Right, that would be it! He spat his breath and confirmed bringing Ye Chong to the tournament. Well then, I should be investing sometimes to teach him a few new tricks. Although Lan Yixing did not believe Ye Chong to have the mastery to learn all these, well somehow it wouldfort him better doing so.

    Ye Chong who was indulged in his research had no idea that his fate had been decided by Lan Yixing without a word.

    "Ye! Ye! Hah! I got it!" Shang was excited as ever.

    "What did you get?" asked Ye Chong, his action remained as he felt the rhythm and changes in his flipping arms.

    "I got you some Bing Bing news. I know why she came here for. Hah, Ye, interested? Intrigued? Wink wink, nudge, nudge." Shang seriously sounded like a kid working up over an extra candy in front of his friends.

    He could feel his hands weakened but he forced it up, "Not interested," he replied expressionlessly.

    "Ha~ Ye, stop lying, you can¡¯t lie to me. Your heartbeat sped up just now. Hehehehe¡­" Ridiculed Shang.

    Ye Chong was too busy to entertain as he knew his further responses would only get the artificial indulgence more excited. He concluded from his journey, the best method to deal with Shang was to shut up and show ignorance.

    "Tsk¡­" Muttered Shang, "Ye, you are a boring person you know what. How could you ignore your beloved Bing Bing? Gosh, it would be a life misfortune for any woman to marry you! Yikes, such a senseless boy. Bing Bing came here for the tournament this time you know?"

    "Tournament?" That was the keyword Ye Chong perceived from the line.

    "Yeah, there would be lots of professional fighters I heard. Ye, this is a real lifebating you know? One on one, man to man, flesh to flesh. Hehehehe, our Bing Bing is the VIP for the show. Tsk, tsk, tsk, as expected from her, all great and grace¡­,"plimented Shang.

    "So¡­" He changed his tone, "Ye, how about we join this tournament?"

    "No!" The answer was firm. That rush in his head had convinced Ye Chong the fact that he could never be eternally calm as Mu. Only the alertness from time to time could effectively reduce mistakes like this. Despite the fact that he was really interested to witness the real deals fighting, he still wished to reduce his exposure to the public.

    "Ye¡­ You really wanted to see your lovely Bing Bing all alone at the seat, watching those men fighting in blood and sweat without anyone to share her inner thoughts to? Ye, don¡¯t you have a soft spot fordies, a loving and gentle nature to humanity?"

    "Mo Fei!" The scream interrupted Shang¡¯s motivational talk.

    Thank God! Ye Chong was appreciating the scream, he ran out of the gate and saw Lan Yixing at the outside.

    "Follow me," concisely Lan Yixing spoke, less talk more work as usual.

    They got to his room. It was a spacious room but it was rather simple¡­ or even crude. There was no adornment, although there was one practice room inside separated by one wall with his bedroom.

    Lan Yixing led Ye Chong to his practice room.

    "Show me what I have taught you before," he spoke tly.

    As he said, Ye Chong performed everything he taught before. He tried controlling himself during the process. He did not want to frighten the master by showing some odd moves.

    "Fair," concisely the manmented. His expression unchanged, although it was an earthquake in his head. Did he miss out a lot on this boy? The basics might look simple but they were not simple to grab the gist within! Mo Fei somehow wielded the gist¡­

    He calmed himself as he spoke slowly, "Today onwards, I would teach you a few new moves. Please learn them with determination."

 Chapter 191 - Brewing Storm VII

    <h4>Chapter 191: Brewing Storm VII</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    As he exited from Lan Yixing¡¯s room, Ye Chong¡¯s mind was filled with Lan Yixing¡¯s demonstration. Powerful! It was too powerful! Ye Chong was stupefied. He walked quickly and silently back to his room. What he wanted to do now was to imitate Lan Yixing¡¯s demonstration earlier and identify the key to those moves. While Lan Yixing had already pointed out the ces where he should take note of, achieving true mastery was not a simple process.

    He closed the doors carefully but did not begin immediately. Instead, he began to rewind Lan Yixing¡¯s words in his head. Ye Chong sat still like an old monk, and Shang sensibly left him alone.

    Ye Chong sat like that for an entire 30 minutes.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes opened, and began to move!

    ¡­

    Ye Chong inhaled deeply. He was too absorbed earlier to notice, but now he could feel the soreness all over his body. These two moves were very demanding; even with his body, just a few rounds of practice was enough to exhaust him.

    However, Ye Chong was satisfied with the power of these two moves. He believed that, even against ck Cove mech pilots, he would be able deal with them with these two strange techniques.

    However, there were always pros and cons to every technique. These two moves were powerful, but ced a heavy burden on his body. In this respect,bat and mech piloting were simr to each other.

    No wonder Lan Yixing was worried for his apprentice. From his tone, these moves did not seem to be any advancedbat moves; even so, they were impossible for regr people. Just how powerful was Lan Yixing, and what did the real advancedbat moves look like? Ye Chong was beginning to look forward to them.

    However, Ye Chong could not ponder at those questions just yet. He was now fully upied with the two moves that Lan Yixing had just taught him. Ye Chong seemed to be deep in thought. As he grew more proficient with these two moves, he seemed to realize something amusing.

    "ck Cove was not the only school ofbat experts." Such was Ye Chong¡¯s realization.

    Lan Yixing did not fully understand why he would indulge in Ye Chong¡¯s interests. He thought of those instructions as constory since he had tried to teach them before to two other students, and neither of them had managed to master them. How could a new apprentice like Mo Fei be able to learn something soplicated?

    Ths thought brought a mocking smile to his lips - to think that his gains and losses would affect him so much. Lan Yixing could not help but heave a long sigh.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Rui Bing sat beside Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan was mostly healed now. With current technology, as long as it was not instant death, injuries could usually be managed. Wei Yuan said nothing after he woke up, but insisted on staying beside Rui Bing at all times. Rui Bing was annoyed, but she was also moved inside. Wei Yuan¡¯s pitiful look was endearing, and so she let him be. She also thought it odd - why would that mech leave Wei Yuan with her that day?

    Could that mech¡¯s pilot knew her? Impossible! The thought was quickly dismissed. Since young, her social ties were fairly simple and limited. She could not recall knowing anyone who could pilot a mech.

    Suddenly, it was as if she was struck by lightning! A person¡¯s figure began to emerge clearly in her mind!

    Could it be him?

    Rui Bing fell into a daze.

    After a long moment, she recovered andughed quietly at herself. What was with her? How could it be him? Such a coincidence was highly unlikely! Besides, the other party may just be simply getting rid of Wei Yuan, but happened to toss him in her direction.

    Wei Yuan watched as Rui Bing¡¯s icy profile changed into a myriad of expressions. He was curious, but kept his thoughts to himself. He already found out what happened that day from this seemingly colddy. As for the details, Wei Yuan was always very careful with them, or he would not have recognized YC from his footwork. After some detailed questioning, he immediately realized that all was not what it seemed to be.

    He would never believe that YC would rescue him, only to toss him aside. If that was the case, then YC would never have saved him in the first ce. There must be a reason behind this. Wei Yuan¡¯s first thought was that YC knew the beautiful and colddy, and knew that she would be able to catch him too. Else, the whole exercise of rescuing him and tossing him aside, only for him to die from the throw, was a pointless one that YC would never do based on his personality that valued efficiency.

    While he did not know YC, and had never had any direct contact with him, he still believed that he could understand YC to a certain degree.

    On the other hand, who was the one who ambushed him? Why would YC save him?

    Numerous questions nagged at him, but he could not make heads nor tails out of them. However, he was certain that this icy beauty was definitely rted to YC, and the only link he had to YC.

    While this may all just be a result of his imagination, he was unwilling to let go of this possibility, which may be his final hope. That was why he insisted on sticking around this beautiful and colddy. He had spoke to his father and came up with an excuse. Fortunately, his track record of honesty helped in convincing his father that nothing was amiss. He then contacted the school and offered another excuse to apply an extended period of leave.

    He must find YC, no matter what!

    There was light knocking on the door, and Wei Yuan took a nce at the cold beauty sitting upright beside him. Rui Bing knitted her brow slightly, but did not move from her position. The knocking continued, and still Rui Bing did not move, but her displeasure was now apparent. No matter how obtuse Wei Yuan was, he could still recognize the icy beauty¡¯s expression.

    The visitor was was determined, and the knocking did not cease.

    Wei Yuan took another nce at the icy beauty before going to the door himself and opening it.

    Outside was a young man with delicate features and an easy expression. He held himself with great refinement, and smiled gently when he saw Wei Yuan behind the door. "You¡¯re up now, Junior Brother? How¡¯s your hand?" His gentle expression of care was refreshing.

    "Yes." Wei Yuan answered, and stood to the side for him to enter.

    "Ah, Senior Sister Bing is also here." The young man greeted Rui Bing with a smile. "So the beauty¡¯s name is Bing. Her name is true to her nature," thought Wei Yuan.

    "Junior Brother Hua, is something the matter?" Rui Bing wore her usual icy expression, but one could read a certain dismissive tone in her words.

    "There¡¯s a fair on chemist spices, first of the year in the Bekaert township this afternoon. Shangmei would appreciate yourpany, if you are willing?" Hua Shangmei still wore a gentle expression with a charming smile, and he was looking very confident of himself.

    It seemed that there was nothing in particr about this undeniably handsome young man that was offensive to Wei Yuan. However, when he noticed the fiery enthusiasm in his eyes, Wei Yuan still felt an unexinable difort. In the end, Wei Yuan was only a 14-year-old. He worshipped YC, and had decided that this icy beauty who had saved his life definitely had a deep rtionship with YC.

    Seeing Hua Shangmei¡¯s advance made Wei Yuan ufortable. He had unconsciously decided that Rui Bing was ady friend of YC, and should not be tainted.

    Rui Bing¡¯s expression turned even colder, and spoke with some displeasure, "Junior Brother Hua, please mind yourself!"

    For some reason, hearing those words made Wei Yuan, observing silently from the side, rx a little.

    Hua Shangmei maintained hisposure and apologized, "My apologies if I had offended you, Senior Sister. It¡¯s just that Shangmei noticed that Senior Sister has been staying in your room every day, and wanted to relieve your boredom by inviting you for an excursion. Please do not be offended." Even when apologizing, Hua Shangmei still behaved courteously without any awkwardness, making him difficult to dislike.

    Rui Bing may not like him, but seeing his easy demeanor and refined ways made her pleased on Uncle Hua¡¯s behalf, to have such a good student. However, Rui Bing had no intention of giving him hope, merely replying with her usual coldness, "Thank you for consideration, Junior Brother Hua. I understand. However, please do not bother me with such trivialities!" Rui Bing spoke ruthlessly, her firm attitude allowing for no misunderstanding.

    Hua Shangmei¡¯s expression immediately turned unpleasant!

    Wei Yuan watched satisfyingly from the side. He did not like the fellow, and now that Sister Bing had spoke so mercilessly, Wei Yuan felt an irrational sense of joy. "Hmph, for someone like Sister Bing, YC is of course the only suitor!" he thought.

    The room was plunged into an awkward atmosphere. Just then, Deng Chong rushed into the room and yelled loudly, "Second Senior Brother, Senior Sister Bing, we have visitors! We have visitors!"

    By then, Hua Shangmei had already gathered himself. Seeing Deng Chong all excited, he took the chance to change topic, "By your looks, I¡¯d say they must be someone interesting!" Deng Chong was abat enthusiast, and had always wanted to fight against other experts. His excited look was enough to let Hua Shangmei understand the situation.

    "Hehe, you know me best, Second Senior Brother!" Deng Chong grinned, and said something else that brought new gravity to the situation, "The Zuo family from Tian Luo is also here!"

    "What?" Hua Shangmei gasped. Rui Bing¡¯s eyes gleamed with sharp hostility!

 Chapter 192 - Brewing Storm VIII

    <h4>Chapter 192: Brewing Storm VIII</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Zuo family of the Tian Luo gxy was lesser knownpared to the other aristocratic families of the same origin. However, when it came to their histories, the Zuo family had existed for about as long as the more famous aristocratic families. Besides, the Zuo family¡¯s reputation in the field ofbat was unmatched by other aristocratic families. In the age wherebat skills could determine the bnce of power, the Zuo family had made their mark in history.

    The most astounding fact was that, in every generation, the Zuo family would produce one or several talented characters, and never suffered from the problem of session. This was envied by may otherbat rted aristocratic families. The Zuo family gradually became more and more mysterious in the eyes of society.

    As the social status ofbat slowly faded towards oblivion, the Zuo family became less of a presence in modern society. Soon, many hade to forget this mysterious aristocratic family.

    That was why when Hua Shangmei and Rui Bing heard that the Zuo family of Tian Luo were here, they were very much surprised. Whether it was the Rui family or the Tian Hua dojo, both were mere infantspared to the long history of the Zuo family. Even the Lan family of September could not bepared to the Zuo family.

    The Zuo family¡¯s uniquebat techniques were difficult to determine, since every generation¡¯s representative offered his or her own uniquebat styles.

    What could the Zuo family of Tian Luo offer to this dying field ofbat?

    For some reason, the cold face of that young man who defeated her came to Rui Bing¡¯s mind. What level of attainment has he achieved now? Rui Bing wondered to herself.

    Ye Chong¡¯s life could be said to be almost happy and peaceful, or at least, he felt that it was actually not bad. Besides the strange illness he had, he had nothing toin of. Lan Yixing had not taught any new moves to him ever since that day, and only reminded Ye Chong to practice diligently whenever he met him. Ye Chong had no regrets. Hisbat skills had always been eptable, and his rich experience in actualbat was unrivaled by the likes of Lan Yixing. Besides, most of his battles were to the death, and that had made him even stronger. In the end,bat was still a way of attacking and defending oneself. Now, Lan Yixing had opened the doors to a whole new world for him to discover.

    On the one hand, Ye Chong was amazed by this new world, and on the other hand, he was eager to investigate and study this world with his own ideas. Of course, this wasrgely due to his habit of figuring things out by himself. Ye Chong now wanted for Lan Yixing to ept him as a student. He saw Lan Yixing as a part of this unknown and mysterious world. Besides, from Lan Yixing¡¯s demonstrations all this while, Ye Chong believed that he must have other powerful and secretive techniques. It was enough to hook his interest.

    However, despite his interest, Ye Chong had no ns to put this into motion. Right now, he musty low and avoid attention. After all, ck Cove must be waiting for him outside. Besides, his impulsive decision to finish off that mechst time must have attracted ck Cove¡¯s attention.

    Ye Chong was not wrong. His actions had caused tension amongst ck Cove¡¯s men. This tension was noticed by the MPA and the Sanctuary, already aware of ck Cove¡¯s unusual movements recently. The Three Forces had, for some reason, unanimously decided not to alert the local authorities. Life on Windstar went on as usual, the tourists excited for their travels, unaware of that hidden tension beneath.

    When Rui Bing set her eyes on the people from the Zuo family, it was already lunch time.

    Zuo Ling was arge man, his athletic body was matched with keen eyes that look as though they could prate anyone he set his eyes on. His half exposed chest showed solid muscles. His palm was wide and strong, framed with an edge of calluses. The wild and confident expression on his face, coupled with a half-smile, was sure to attract many a good beautifuldies.

    On his chest hung a ck pendant, and Hua Shangmei recognized from his familiarity in mechbat that it was a dimension keystone. In the dining hall, Rui Bing was the only who did not realize this. Combat experts rarely had a dimension keystone with them, and since Tian Hua dojo was currently putting efforts into developing mechbat techniques, Hua Shangmei and others were exposed to these modern elements.

    Could this Zuo Ling also be skilled in mechbat?

    Wei Yuan did not think much of them. To him, no one was a match for YC in mechbat. Wei Yuan managed to secure a ce at the dining table due to Rui Bing. He had decided to stay near Sister Bing at all times, as she was his only link to YC. Unless the situation demanded it, he would never give up. Fortunately, Sister Bing was willing to indulge him, or he would have to return home.

    Zuo Ling¡¯s arrival was treated with wariness by Hua Tiankai and others. An uninvited guest, and one from the Zuo family at that - how could done not feel wary? However, Hua Tiankai and his students were not just your average people, and weed the visitor with extended courtesies.

    Zuo Ling may look arrogant, but his demeanor suggested an open mind and forthrightness.

    "As expected, Mr Zuo is an expert!" Deng Zhong bowed to Zou Ling. He had lost uneventfully against the oppressivebat style of Zuo Ling. Deng Chong was straightforward in nature, and showed fine sportsmanship despite his loss.

    "You¡¯re too kind!" Deng Chong¡¯s demeanor also won Zuo Ling¡¯s approval.

    Hua Shangmei and Zheng Zhongxing could only stare in disbelief. Deng Chong¡¯s lost was eptable for them, but they could not ept how Deng Chong waspletely overwhelmed in his defeat, without even a chance for retaliation. They exchanged a horrified nce. Deng Chong was the best of the three of them, and if his match ended like this, it would be in vain for them to take up the challenge.

    Was the Zuo family really that powerful?

    Rui Bing still wore her cold expression, but her eyes were now glowing brightly. She was of course far more skilled than the three students of Hua Tiankai. She was certain that this man, Zuo Ling had attained "Jie". He was the youngest she had ever met to have reached this level besides herself.

    "Jie" was attained when abat expert had surpassed the traditional boundaries ofbat. These Jie experts had skills unrivalled by averagebat experts, and they no longer rely solely on physical strength. Jie masters were the true experts amongstbat experts.

    Jie experts were a mystery in the world ofbat. As the field slowly faded into history, fewer and fewerbat experts reached this level of attainment. The power of Jie experts was also exaggerated by the public as almost invincible characters. However, Rui Bing dismissed those rumors. When she first met Ye Chong, she had just only attained "Jie", but was still beaten by Ye Chong. Of course, that was mainly because she was new to this mysterious world, and her unfamiliarity with what her body was truly capable of.

    Strength was not absolute! She realized this from experience. From then on, she improved herself even faster.

    Simrly unfazed was Hua Tiankai. His constant expression betrayed none of his thoughts.

    _______________________________________________________________________

    A thin, ck threadworm wandered around in the virtual world. Passcode protected doors did nothing to stop its advance, since it could easily wriggle through the locks and enter the photon processor hyperlinked to the virtual world.

    It browsed casually through the photon processor records, and suddenly gasped in surprise. The holographic recording before it was of Ye Chong¡¯s training. If Wei Yuan was here, he would have found that the photon processor was actually his!

    YC was a name that went viral recently, and anyone who had spent some time in the virtual world would quickly be aware of the name. He was no exception. As an elite Maverick, he was more familiar with the virtual world than the average person. However, he was not interested in mechs, and so was never interested in this character.

    The recording before him, however, seemed to have renewed his interest. There was only est holographic recording of YC, the one that was on Richie. Here was another recording that was never leaked out. Could the owner of this photon processor be YC?

    YC was very much a legend in the virtual world, rising into fame in just a few years, and recently, bing even more popr. This was a rarity. The virtual world changed at a rapid pace, and new personalities were often quickly forgotten over time. Sustaining a reputation for more than two or three years was more than umon.

    He was quickly disappointed by his findings. The owner of the photon processor was only a fan of YC. Nheless, finding the real identity of a virtual world user was not too hard for him. Besides, it was made easier by the fact that the probability of YC being a Maverick was very small.

    It was undeniable that mech piloting and photon processors were entirely different fields. In today¡¯s world, the depths of every field was enough to upy a lifetime, and few would ever wanted to study in twopletely unrted fields. Even if such a person existed, the probability of this person mastering both fields was as unlikely as a being hit by a deadly asteroid. Since YC was an outstanding mech pilot, it was almost a certainty that he was not a Maverick.

    First, he thought of going through the MPA¡¯s database.

    The MPA¡¯s passcodes were ineffective against him, and he essed their systems without difficulty. Such ease of ess was still enough to make him, after all his trials and tribtions, pleased with himself. The MPA¡¯s seemingly imprable fortress was just like home to him.

    His sess was mainly due to his unique calctions. His creative calctions allowed him to change his body size. From his initial appearance a hairy caterpir, years of careful considerations and calctions finally allowed him topress his appearance into an impossibly thin ck threadworm. This was also the best result he obtained after numerous calctions. While it was not the ideal invisible presence he had expected, it was enough to satisfy him.

    This state of presence of allowed him great freedom in the virtual world. No one could detect his presence, and the apparently watertight passcode protected doors were nothing to him. He had used his calctions to benefit from the virtual world, such as serving the group that he was a part of now. If not for his powerful skills as a Maverick, he would never be able to join the group, or even obtain the position that he had now.

    However, he was greatly surprised to find that the MPA had no information on YC.

    He was now feeling exceptionally nervous.

    What did this mean? It meant that YC was very possibly a Maverick, or a friend of one. No matter the possibility, it was bad news for him. Besides, the other party could use an NR Training Center without registering. He was almost certain that he was looking at a very powerful Maverick.

    In the virtual world, investigating a person¡¯s identity in the real world was taboo, and among the Mavericks, it was a sure sign of provocation. As an experienced Maverick, he was familiar with all these unwritten rules.

    However, he was not exactly afraid. He was at least confident of his own powers. It was just that the matter was bingplicated, since his sudden curiosity had now caused hostility between him and another powerful Maverick. It was not a pleasant business.

    Nheless, the events had progressed to this point, and he could only let it go and discontinue his probing.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Ye Chong was practicing in his room. His daily routine had be fixed, with time allocated for meditation andbat practice, followed by cleaning the training grounds, and then returning to his room for some alchemy. It was too bad that the room was a little too small for him to practice mech maneuvering.

    Shang¡¯s silence was weed by Ye Chong. Ever since Ye Chong installed a miniature pulsed signal device under Shang¡¯s instructions one night in one of the houses near the dojo, Shang had spent of his much in the virtual world. This resulted in a peaceful environment for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was counting the days until when Wang Weixing returned. Once he was back, he would find the doctor and cure his sickness, then he would travel to a where no one knew him and live a careful life, doing things that interested him. It would be such a carefree life.

    Not daring to head outside, Ye Chong knew nothing of what was happening out there. He believed that staying in his room was the best option for the moment.

    "Hmph!" Suddenly, the long silent Shang humphed coldly with a deadly undertone, enough to startle even Ye Chong. Ye Chong stopped what he was doing and asked, "What is it? Shang!"

 Chapter 193 - Brewing Storm IX

    <h4>Chapter 193: Brewing Storm IX</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Ye, someone¡¯s investigating you! And he¡¯s good at what he does." Shang¡¯s sinister voice was very different from usual.

    What was with Shang? Ye Chong asked carefully, "Shang, what¡¯s with you?"

    "Humph, that d*mned b*stard, to y his tricks when I¡¯m around. He¡¯s too arrogant, does he think I¡¯m so easy to bully?" Shang¡¯s cold voice quickly turned exasperated.

    So that was it! This tone was more like Shang''s. Ye Chong continued on with what he was doing and said casually, "Shang, then you should take care of him!"

    "Hehe, you know me best, Ye!" Shang was pleased. "Humph, while myputations are not as good as Mu¡¯s, but in other aspects, hehe ¡­ If this guy wants to show off in front of me, then he¡¯s found the wrong target!" Shang spoke hisst sentence haughtily.

    Ye Chong did not feel like pitying the guy. It was just his bad luck! Shang was usually happy-go-lucky, and may seem careless, but Ye Chong never doubted his abilities. While he may not be as powerful as Mu in terms ofputations, Shang was a master in the art non-physical sciences such as psychology. The methods of threatening that he shared with Ye Chong and that entire scheme with the Sanctuary¡¯s starship were all meticulously woven ns.

    Mu behaved like a typical PSI, but was more powerful than others. He possessed the trademark rationality andputation-heavy mindset typical of PSIs. Shang, however,pletely overhauled Ye Chong¡¯s concept of PSIs. He was irrational, lesspetent inputations, but extremely well versed in non-logical areas like emotions and psychology. It was definitely an odd PSI.

    In any case, one could be sure that Mu and Shang were both very powerful.

    Powerful characters typically could not stand having their authority challenged. This behavior was clearly present in Mu and Shang.

    "Just be mindful of what you¡¯re doing!" Ye Chong said impartially, and continued with his practice.

    __________________________________________________________________________

    Zuo Ling looked at Rui Bing openly with fiery eyes.

    To think that this ice-colddy was actually a Jie expert like himself! A Jie expert at such a young age was incredible. He had received strict training from the Zuo family since young, and his natural physique allowed him to attain Jie at such a young age. If not for the Zuo family¡¯s resources, his achievements would only be just a dream. For a 26-year-old to attain Jie was a remarkable feat, even back in the old days whenbat was popr.

    Today, however, he had seen someone even younger than him, a Jie expert that came from an unheard of family. The Rui family? He was certain that it was not any one of thebat based aristocratic families with long histories; he had never even heard of this family before. What surprised him the most was that this Jie expert was actually a woman!

    The female body was rtively limitedpared to a man¡¯s in terms ofbat, and this limitation could only ever be removed by attaining Jie, since Jie experts no longer rely solely on physical strength inbat. However, without years of efforts, it was difficult to attain Jie. Based on the existing records ofbat history, female Jie experts were few and far in between.

    Her icy smooth charm and dignified manner was wrapped up in a white training garb that fluttered slightly in the wind. Her snow white skin was wless, and her long, dark hair flowed down smoothly like a waterfall. Her faint red lips hid a certain warmth beneath. Her calm gaze was like a creek flowing through the ciers, silent and chillingly unapproachable.

    Zuo Ling was certain that he had never felt such desire, a desire to wrap her in his arms and melt her with his burning embrace! Zuo Ling was not a stranger to women; on the contrary, he had met and reciprocated countless of them. However, the icy woman before him was the first who had ever let him feel this way.

    Zuo Ling¡¯s open stare was vexing for Rui Bing. She humped coldly, pouring cold water on Zuo Ling¡¯s feelings. He immediately gathered himself, and when he looked at Rui Bing¡¯s leaving figure, the only thought that crossed his mind was this - Rui Bing, you must be mine! Zuo Ling fisted his hands tightly.

    Hua Shangmei, Deng Chong and Zheng Zhongxing stared in stupefaction. They never imagined that the fragile looking Senior Sister Bing would be so powerful! Perhaps even their master would not be a match against her. In the friendly match earlier, Rui Bing had tied with Zuo Ling.

    Hua Tiankai looked at Rui Bing¡¯s retreating figure and felt happy for his friend who had passed away, but also felt shame when he thought of how his three students had performed.

    Rui Bing sat alone in her room, her eyes on the clear water in her ss, but her heart was elsewhere. She could see his figure reflected in the water, looking calmly at her. For a moment, she felt lost in her feelings.

    "Where are you?" Rui Bing murmured ever so softly to herself.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    Ye Chong continued his practice, going through his dull routines every day. Shang, on the other hand, looked like he was up to something, busying himself with things.

    Abruptly, Shang spoke to Ye Chong, "Ye, go to the virtual world!"

    "Virtual world? What happened?" Ye Chong was baffled. Besides, where could he find a hyperlink helmet?

    Shang continued to hasten him, and Ye Chong could only deploy Shang in the room. The room was small, and Shang could only curl into himself into an odd position.

    "Strange, what¡¯s with Shang today?" Ye Chong could not understand him. Usually, he would never submit to curling himself up like this. Why was he asking for it this time?

    Ye Chong wandered as he opened Shang¡¯s pilot cabin and entered. On the trash, Ye Chong had used Mu and Shang¡¯s piloting helmet as a virtual world hyperlink. While it was nothing fancy, its functionalities were enough to make anyone envious.

    Long deprived of the virtual world, Ye Chong felt a little excited.

    His vision transformed, and Ye Chong found himself staring at a holographic feed. It showed a very thin ck worm moving very quickly. At the side were a few other inset images of the ck thread from multiple angles.

    Shangughed. "Hehe, Ye, that¡¯s the guy investigating you!"

    "Him?" Ye Chong pointed at the moving ck thread, bbergasted.

    Shang was obviously satisfied with Ye Chong¡¯s expression. "Yes, him!" He exined, "This guy used a unique way of calction that made his appearance turn into a ck threadworm."

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s confused expression, Shang could not help but chastise, "Sigh, how could I forget that you know nothing about photon processors, that I would exin to you in those terms? This is surely my biggest mistake of the day!" Shang¡¯s exaggerating manner made Ye Chong smile.

    "What¡¯s the use of this appearance?" Ye Chong had always asked when he could not understand something.

    "It allows the worm to pass through most passcode protected doors, and avoids attention. Tsk tsk, the guy¡¯s a genius, I¡¯ll give him that, this degree of creativity must have been hard for him. Hmm, the calctions are carefully made, and the improvements are good. Unfortunately, he has met me!" Shang¡¯s haughty tone made him sound like a viin.

    It would definitely be very difficult to exin to Ye Chong what it meant to be a viin. However, Shang¡¯spliments to the guy made Ye Chong be wary of him. After all, he knew that it was not easy to squeeze out any good words out of Shang. This, he knew from experience.

    Shang continuedughing connivingly. "Hehe, I found him just a few days ago, however, I don¡¯t want to alert him. This guy must have sensed something, as he¡¯s more vignt recently. Hehe, while it¡¯s easy to destroy his appearance there and then, but such an interesting fellow is hard to find, it¡¯ll be such a shame to finish him off so fast!

    "So, I followed him, and just now, it¡¯s that door over there, you see? I ced some trackingrvae on it, hehe, those things are much smaller than him, and very hard to detect. It¡¯s something Mu came up with ¡­" Here, Shang seemed to realize that he had misspoke, andughed it off before continuing, "Anyway, I can now follow his every movement. You see, he¡¯s heading back right now!"

    As expected, in the holographic feed, the ck thread was heading towards the dark opening of a veryrge door.

    "Tsk tsk, I don¡¯t know who created this door, but it is sure amazing. If not for this guy leading us through, it will be hard for us to enter without alerting them." Shang offered another round ofpliments.

    "It seemed that the other party is really strong," Ye Chong thought to himself. He stared at the holographic feed, the image suddenly morphing as they went through the door. Unexpectedly, what was beyond was a jungle, an endless stretch of greenery. In truth, it was almost refreshing to see something that could only be found on some untoucheds.

    "A multiarray matrix firewall?" Shang gasped in surprise.

    "What¡¯s this thing?" Ye Chong could not understand at all. However, based on Shang¡¯s tone, he figured that this must be something incredible.

    "It¡¯s good stuff, rarely do people use this kind of calction. It¡¯s veryplicated, even Mu might have a hard time if we want to break through it with brute force!" Shang grew excited. "Ye, looks like we¡¯ve got ourselves a big one!"

    The ck threadworm was apparently very familiar with the territory, making its way through the forest without hesitation.

    "Hehe, Ye, do you see that? That green-ck grass, yes, the one with serrated edges, if anyone touched it, it will immediately activate at least 20 levels of authentication verification. If you¡¯re determined to be an enemy, then you¡¯re done for!" Shang then pointed to the numerous red fruits hanging from the trees in the holographic feed, vivid and enticing.

    "Ye, these may look very appealing, but they¡¯re nasty stuff. These torrent soursops are linked to each other. If you activated one of them, the rest of the fruits will all explode. Hehe, the torrents of signal pulses that follow will be so painful it will scar you for life. But that¡¯s not the scariest of all, no, you see those thin vines? Yes, the ones with many tentacles on it. The pulse torrents would affect your real body by stimting your brain, and these olfactory vines would then use those pulses to find you in the real world, which is where you are right now. Hehe, as for the consequences, I¡¯ll leave that to your imagination!" Shang pointed out each of those threats to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong could feel a chill running down his spine.

 Chapter 194 - Brewing Storm X

    <h4>Chapter 194: Brewing Storm X</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The ck threadworm¡¯s body was malleable and surprisingly agile, and it moved very quickly. It was obvious that he moved more boldly once he passed the ck door. He never would have guessed that his every move was monitored by someone else. He was familiar with the territory here, and believed that there would be no more than three Mavericks who could find their way through the traps without tripping any of them.

    "Hehe, it¡¯s good that we have him as a guide, or we¡¯ll never pass through here safely. I can¡¯t imagine anyone but Mu achieving just that. The inside man is always the hardest to defend against. This guy is most certainly involved with the designs of the trap algorithms around here. Hehe, that¡¯s quite fortunate for us!" Shang said, pleased.

    The myriads of trap algorithms involved were enough to puzzle Ye Chong. They were all hidden under beautiful exteriors, and by using these traps in creativebinations, their effectiveness was greatly increased. The more they looked harmless in the background, the more likely they were to be triggered by the enemy. Who would have thought that such a beautiful scenery was a cover for all sorts of fatal threats?

    "What is this ce? The security is so tight!" Shang¡¯s words betrayed his curiosity towards this mysterious ce. Even Ye Chong, who usually thought it dull to uncover other people¡¯s secrets, was eager to find out the story behind this ce.

    Beyond the beautiful forest, the scenery expanded into a wide in. A stream zigzagged across the in, but what flowed was not water - it was a silver, viscous liquid with suspended particles twinkling like stars as the river flowed slowly along its path.

    "Di micropulses?" Shang could not help another gasp.

    What was this thing? Without any knowledge in photon processors, Ye Chong could only listen in puzzlement. The ck threadworm plunged headfirst into the river without hesitation.

    Knowing Ye Chong¡¯s ignorance, Shang exined patiently, "Di micropulses are a kind of very mild flow of pulses, harmless to the human body, and any character in the virtual world. However, it can assimte a wide spectrum of pulsed signals." Shang could not resist expressing his admiration. "To think that someone would use Di micropulses in this way, genius! In the virtual world, almost all tracking devices rely on weak but continuous pulse signals to determine the target¡¯s location. Di micropulses can not only assimte these tracking signals, but also interrupt and damage the structure of the tracking device. It¡¯s very much like a sterilizer, only it¡¯s not for germs, but for tracking devices."

    "Oh, I see!"

    "It¡¯s too bad that you don¡¯t understand these things. Sigh, to have you as a witness to all these good stuff, the designer must be disappointed." Shang mocked Ye Chong before continuing "The designer is a genius! To use Di micropulses in this way, it¡¯s incredible!"

    However, Shang immediately affected a sinister smile. "Hehe, it¡¯s really too bad, Mu¡¯s trackingrvae are not your usual trackers! The probability of getting rid of thoservae is too small!"

    As Shang predicted, when the ck threadworm plunged into the river, the holographic feed shook violently, but resumed to normal after three seconds.

    Shang said, "Looks like Mu¡¯s work is always the best!"

    Beneath the surface, the view was entirely different. The opaque silver was now a semi-transparent gray, clear as crystal. The twinkling particles moved like they were alive, chasing after each other, vanishing and appearing again, clustering and spreading out, bringing life to the quiet silver river.

    The ck threadworm swam in the river without hindrance, moving quickly through the liquid.

    It did not surface, but continued along the edge of the river. After some time, the threadworm stopped abruptly and began to dive. The river did not seem very wide, but it went down deep, as they did not reach the riverbed for a long time. The view in the river, however, changed little by little. The tiny grain-sized particles were now asrge as a thumb, and did not seem as lively as their smaller counterparts.

    The ck threadworm stopped again. He paused for a moment before swimming towards the edge of the river. As they approached the wall that contained the river, Ye Chong saw a tiny crack in the wall. The ck threadworm wriggled into the crack without hesitation.

    "Sigh, nothing in this world is perfect!" Looking at the crack, Shang seemed to deeply moved.

    The crack did not extend much further. Soon, they reached the end, and saw light ahead of them.

    The holographic feed suddenly opened up to the insides of a room. This crack seemed to connect the room and the river they saw earlier.

    Once in the room, the ck threadworm¡¯s body began to transform, quickly expanding from its thread-like thinness into the size of an adult human. The effect was much like an stic straw suddenly filled with air. In any case, it was an odd process.

    Just then, the ck object suddenly twisted and began to change its colors. When Ye Chong could finally see it clearly, the holographic feed was already showing a man in a ck outfit.

    Ye Chong gaped at the transformation.

    "This expansion calction is child¡¯s y, nothing to boast about, unlike those calctions earlier, this is just embarrassing!" Shang spoke with disdain.

    The man looked around him and muttered to himself, "Was it just my imagination? No one¡¯s following? Sigh, I must be getting paranoid."

    Mu¡¯srvae were very useful, channeling even the slightest voices clearly.

    The man in ck began walking to his desk.

    "Huh, that guy can actually sense that someone is following him, not bad!" Shang seemed to be surprised with the man¡¯s vignce.

    "As I expected, inner security isxpared to the outer security measures. Compared to the outside, this ce is totally undefended. Sigh, such is human psychology!" Shang shook his head.

    "Shouldn¡¯t security be tighter on the inside than outside?" Ye Chong asked.

    Shang exined, "It¡¯s actually quite easy to understand. Their setup outside is actually quite advanced. Normally, if someone can break through the security outside, then it only makes sense that they can also plough through the security inside. After all, the probability of someone hitching a ride in like us is very small. Besides, there must be many people working here. Without those trap algorithms, the workers here could be more at ease. Ye, in this world, if you can break the strongest point of something, then that thing would be yours!"

    "I see!" Ye Chong nodded, understanding him.

    "Hehe, let¡¯s check out what¡¯s in this ce!" Shang was back to his old carefree self, and Ye Chong could not help but smile at Shang¡¯s enthusiasm.

    Thervae silently left the man in ck. Shang was now more interested in the ce than the man himself.

    "This is probably a top secret data center in the virtual world, most likely the database center for some organization. From the set up outside, those obstacles were designed not only to prevent outsiders from entering, but also to stop any internal signals from leaking out. If that guy had not found the crack in the river, the probability of someone discovering this ce was close to nil. Usually, a ce like this would have ssified information!" Shang¡¯s calmness made Ye Chong feel as though it was Mu he was talking to.

    Ye Chong suddenly thought of something. "Then why do they want to use the virtual world?"

    Shang exined, "Well, if the head of the organisation does not want to reveal his true identity to his employees, but must personally direct the inner workings, this would be an excellent option."

    The holographic feed changed again. Shang had already hacked their system, and right now, it was like an undefended city. Soon, he acquired the highest ess rights to the ce.

    "I see!" Shang muttered to himself.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong asked keenly, trying to keep up with situation.

    "They¡¯re secretly building warships!" Shang exined casually.

    "Oh, warships, no wonder they¡¯re so secretive," Ye Chong replied with simr lightness. For the average person, this was definitely news of earth-shattering importance. To both of them, however, with their experience in dealing with a warship themselves, the news was not much of a surprise.

    "Officially, they¡¯re a massive group that produce mechs, the Prometheus Group, which also produces the Matte mech series. Ye, you must be familiar with this series. The main purpose of this ce is as an information center, and the people here are mainly responsible for its security. Tsk tsk, the warship ns are deplorable,pared to the MPA¡¯s Twin Moon Corvette, theirs suck. Er, there are also some ssified documents here. Sigh, as expected, I say, the manager here is too reckless, murdering the person that was the backbone of their organization, it¡¯s no wonder their technical expertise is so inadequate right now. Poor man, that Gao Shichang, to be set up and murdered like that!" Shang shook his head.

    "Gao Shichang?" Ye Chong jerked like he was struck by lightning, and felt blood rushing to his head. "What did you say? Shang, say that again!" Ye Chong hoarse and low voice was overwhelmed with emotions.

    Shang was obviously shocked. "Ye, what¡¯s with you? Do you feel ufortable somewhere? Is it another episode?"

    "Shang, say that again!" Ye Chong growled lowly like a beast cornering his prey.

    Shang could not understand, and could only do as he was told. "They¡¯re cover is Prometheus ¡­"

    "Not that, what you saidter!" Ye Chong cut Shang off rudely.

    "The one about Gao Shichang being set up?" Shang asked Ye Chong, perplexed.

    "Gao Shichang ¡­ Gao Shichang ¡­ Gao Shichang ¡­" Ye Chong muttered quietly to himself, his eyes glowing with reminiscence as bits and pieces of his life on the trash became clearer and clearer in his mind, the clearest of which was the thin, gentle figure who liked to see him smile.

    "You know Gao Shichang?" Shang asked, surprised.

    "Gao Shichang ¡­ Gao Shichang ¡­" Ye Chong muttered, "Papa is called Gao Shichang ¡­"

    "Ah!" It was Shang¡¯s turn to gasp in surprise. When he and Mu got to know Ye Chong, he was already living by himself. They only knew that Ye Chong had a father, but did not know that his name was Gao Shichang.

    "Papa was set up and murdered! Papa was set up and murdered!"

    That phrase repeated itself over and over in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. His usually rock solid heart was now throbbing with pain.

    "Ah, Ye, get out right now, someone¡¯sing!" Shang urged.

    Ye Chong was lost in his thoughts, and did not seem to hear the mech.

    Shang panicked. "Ye, get out of there now! Or you¡¯ll be found out!" Seeing Ye Chong still in a trance, Shang slowed down and said, "Ye, don¡¯t think too much about it, didn¡¯t Papa and you lived together for years? His death was something you witnessed, maybe it¡¯s just a coincidence!"

    Shang¡¯s words brought Ye Chong out of his trance. Indeed, he had lived with Papa for years and years, and had buried the man himself. Perhaps it was just a case of two people sharing the same name.

    Shang hastened him. "Ye, get out right now, if you¡¯re discovered, all our efforts will be wasted. I will find out everything about your Papa, so don¡¯t worry, Mu will also help out. Besides, even if you want revenge for your Papa, let¡¯s first deal with the current situation!"

    Ye Chong had already mostly recovered from his initial shock. As he calmed down and began to think, he found himself agreeing with Shang. Whatever the truth was, he should first deal with the current ordeal.

    Once he decided, Ye Chong hesitated no further. He pushed himself up and out of his seat, and bounced off his seat like a monkey. At the same time, the pilot¡¯s cabin door opened up, Mu and Shang cooperating with him seamlessly. The ceiling grew nearer and nearer and, just as he was about to hit the ceiling, Ye Chong gave a gentle push with his hands against the ceiling. His arms bent at the elbows like springs, and straightened again!

    Ye Chong rode with the momentum andnded at an even higher speed. He withdrew Shang even before his feet touched the ground. Just as hended, Ye Chong contracted his abdominal muscles and bent down,nding on all fours like a cat, and just as silently.

    Ye Chong stood up just when the door to his room opened.

 Chapter 195 - Brewing Storm XI

    <h4>Chapter 195: Brewing Storm XI</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The one who entered was Lan Yixing. Lan Yixing took a look at Ye Chong and said, "Mo Fei,e with me." He then left the room.

    "Okay." Ye Chong replied and followed. Ye Chong was still distracted by the information he just found out. Lan Yixing noticed his usually steady apprentice¡¯s demeanor and was quite surprised.

    "What happened?" Lan Yixing may have asked calmly, but one could read the concern in his tone. In truth, Lan Yixing was satisfied with this student of his - hardworking withoutint, and diligent in his training. While his innate talent wascking, quite a ways from Lan Yixing¡¯s ideal student, he understood that talent was not something one could control.

    If he continued training like this, his effort would make up for it. Lan Yixing believed that this student of his would seed him and pass down his skills. As for whether he could attain Jie, that was up to faith. After all, the path towards attaining Jie depended not only on effort, but also on luck and innate talent.

    "Nothing." Ye Chong replied dismissively, still upied with his thoughts. His mind was still in a whirl. The new information had delivered a heavy blow to him. Compared to his new discovery, the MPA and ck Cove had nothing on it!

    Fortunately, Ye Chong had good self control, and managed to maintain his basic rationale despite the situation.

    Lan Yixing saw that Ye Chong did not wish to share his thoughts, and did not pursue further, only adding, "If you have any issues that you can¡¯t solve alone, let me know."

    Ye Chong nodded, and felt his heart warmed up. Based on Shang and Mu¡¯s investigation, Lan Yixing had a good rtionship with the local authorities, so he could actually do something for Ye Chong if needed. However, Ye Chong¡¯s problem was one that he could not help with. Besides, if Papa was really framed and murdered, Ye Chong would take care of it himself. He was confident in his abilities to do at least that much.

    Lan Yixing headed outwards without a word, and Ye Chong did not question him, the two men upied with their own thoughts.

    When Ye Chong came to, he found himself out in the open on the streets, amongst pedestrians. Ye Chong paused, startled. Heavens, how did he arrive here on the streets?

    The streets was not a good ce for Ye Chong at the moment. From hisst encounter with ck Cove¡¯s Cosmic re, he understood that ck Cove was determined to get him this time. To think that ck Cove would openly search the streets for him against their usual secretive nature. It was a real possibility for him to see ck Cove mechs on the streets at any time.

    Shang¡¯s warning had him drenched in cold sweat.

    "Ye, careful, 45 degrees from the radius vector, 20 kilometers from here, there are two MPA mechs, Messengers."

    Ye Chong felt his muscles tensed up. If anything went wrong, he would deploy Guardian and get the hell out of there.

    However, Shang¡¯s next warning made Ye Chong pale. "Ye, careful, 77 degrees from the radius vector, 23 kilometers from here, there are two Sanctuary mechs, Dawns."

    Ye Chong nearly stumbled. Heavens, he was running out of luck today.

    Shang reminded him, "Ye, rx, you¡¯ll get noticed if you¡¯re too nervous. They probably haven¡¯t found you yet."

    Ye Chong heaved a breath of relief at Shang¡¯s words.

    However, Shang immediately followed up urgently with words that filled Ye Chong with a sense of foreboding, "Ye, careful 35 kilometers straight head, two of ck Cove¡¯s Cosmic res areing this way."

    Ye Chong was ready to deploy Han Jia now. Now that the threat was well defined, Ye Chong became calmer somehow. His face betrayed no fear or uncertainty, only his pulse quickened slightly, not out of fear, but of excitement at the imminent battle!

    "Hmph, these mechs are not enough to contain me!" He thought. However, he also knew that once he engaged with these mechs, he would also be the target of the formidable backup force that came with them. As for whether the mechs from the Three Forces would take turns or work together in engaging him, that was no longer an important concern.

    He knew that if he could not even handle these mechs, he would not stand a chance.

    Shang suddenly spoke up, "Ye, calm down."

    "What?" Ye Chong asked, but he was already rxing inside. Even if Shang was usually a barrel ofughs, he would never joke in these situations.

    Shang spoke with some uncertainty, "Ye, they are probably not working together." Then, as though he figured out something, Shang continued excitedly, "Yes, they are not working together. I say, they all seem to be on high alert. Hehe, Ye, they must have noticed each other hehe, get ready for showtime. We might be able to see a battle between the Three Forces."

    A battle between the Three Forces was filled with uncertainties. None of the mech pilots would act hastily to trigger it. Their understanding of every other party¡¯s skills and weaknesses were enough to make them wary of each other.

    Themand section from each of the three parties received their reports at roughly the same time, and issued the samemand to retreat.

    This was the first time the Three Forces encountered each other directly on Windstar.

    Of the threemanding officers, the one who was most troubled was Hak. They had lost one mech without knowing who the culprit was. With two of the Cosmic res safely returned, he felt consoled slightly. The situation on Windstar was turningplicated quickly. Maintaining the strength of his forces was the only way to secure his power on the, and not be the first of the Three Forces to retreat.

    Just then, the holographic news sh on his desk reported, "At 9 o¡¯clock this morning, we will witness the opening of thergest martial arts tournament in the history of Windstar. What you¡¯re watching now is a traditional martial art performance. This ssical demonstration reminds us of the glorious days past when traditional martial art flourished ¡­"

    "Martial arts?" Hak twisted his lip in disdain. How could those flowery moves be considered asbat moves? It was his belief that ck Cove was the only truebat expert. The skills he picked up in the past at that ce were enough to make anyone in the Five Gxies envious! Perhaps, that was the only ce that could give birth to realbat experts! While he was only allowed three weeks of training there, it was now difficult to find any opponents worthy of his attention. Hak felt a sudden wave of emotions - how could these people understand the true strength of ck Cove?

    Looking at the performances in the holographic feed, Hak felt like he was only watching a bunch of clowns on stage, and turned off the holographic news sh out of disgust. The media only knew to exaggerate, and was not worthy of his time. He should focus on nning for the situation at hand, and not watching a bunch of clowns.

    The martial arts tournament was only briefly covered in the holographic news sh, an indication of just how removed martial arts was from society. "Combat expert" was an unfamiliar term to most people, an almost archaic upation. Compared to the annual mech pilot tournament, this was barely worth mentioning.

    However, in the world ofbat, the event was momentous.

    Most of the older generation in the world ofbat could not remember thest time such a grand tournament was held. The organizer this time was the Tian Hua dojo. Invitation was delivered not only to almost all dojos on Windstar, but also to famousbat experts on others. The tournament was organized with unprecedented splendor, but it still could not hide the awkward fact of the art¡¯s decline.

    Ye Chong sighed in relief as the mechs from the Three Forces retreated. Lan Yixing continued forward without stopping.

    Ye Chong could only follow him and hope that they would reach their destination quickly, finish their business and return to the dojo as soon as possible. Wandering outside made him nervous. He tried to guess Lan Yixing¡¯s intentions in bringing him outdoors, but could not make neither head nor tail of it. In the end, he gave up and settled on simply following Lan Yixing.

    "Huh, is this not the way to Tian Hua dojo?"

    He went there with Hua Shangmeist time, and now Ye Chong¡¯s excellent sense of direction reminded him of the fact.

    "Shang, why do you think he¡¯s going to the Tian Hua dojo?" Ye Chong chatted with Shang, unwilling to dwell on the issue regarding Papa. This was not the time to be distracted, and Ye Chong must be prepared for any eventuality.

    "Hehe, I know why, but I¡¯m not telling!" Shangughed cunningly, filling Ye Chong with dread.

    Ye Chong kept quiet. Usually, Shang would give in to temptation and tell in the end. This time, however, Shang seemed quite determined and said nothing more,ughing devilishly all the while Ye Chong felt increasingly nervous. Nheless, Shang¡¯s antic sessfully distracted Ye Chong away from thoughts of his Papa.

    Tian Hua dojo looked very different now. It was redecorated with vintage motives, bringing its visitors onerge step back in time. Arge holographic screen was affixed on top of the main entrance, showing a youth in white demonstrating a series ofbat moves, his movements natural like flowing water, a harmonious blend of ying and yang, incorporating beauty and strength.

    Wasn¡¯t that Hua Shangmei? Ye Chong recognized the man in white garb instantly.

    Hua Shangmei was a handsome man, and now looked even more elegant and dashing. In the holographic disy were also a crowd ofdies watching Hua Shangmei with mesmerized eyes, asionally squealing in excitement.

    The students of Tian Hua dojo stood in two lines before the main entrance with discipline, all dressed in white. Hua Tiankai¡¯s eldest student, Zheng Zhongxing stood by the door and smiled as he greeted the visitingbat experts. There was another door at the side for the audience. Anyone would enter and watch the performances and matches for free.

    Ye Chong was developing a headache just by watching therge crowd. It was not that he never encountered grand events like this, but this was the worst possible moment to get involved.

    Somehow, Shang¡¯s devilishughter seemed to suggest something else beyond that crowd. The mech onlyughed, pleased with himself.

 Chapter 196 - Brewing Storm XII

    <h4>Chapter 196: Brewing Storm XII</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The saving grace was how Lan Yixing was a mere owner of a mere dojo to the eyes of the public. His title of "Lan family of September" would only be effective to one who was well-aware of its existence like Rui Bing. The hospitality Lan Yixing received was not as great, and could be said was a total mismatch to his strength. He was naturally a person of low-profile however and that would be helpful for he was very much prepared this time, striving to bombard the crowd towards the end of the tournament to grab their attention, theter the stronger the effect.

    As the participation was overwhelming and had gone beyond Hua Tiankai¡¯s expectation, helplessly he also opened up the training room right next to the reception hall to amodate the guests. Lan Yixing on the other hand, led Ye Chong to sat at one quiet corner of the hall.

    "Shang, so this is the tournament between martial artists?" asked Ye Chong as he was left with an impression that Shang had somehow mentioned something like a fighting tournament on Windstar before.

    "Mhm," replied Shang.

    Frankly speaking, Ye Chong was still a little intrigued of this mentioned tournament. After witnessing the capabilities of Lan Yixing, Ye Chong no longer held even a bit of disdain towards the martial arts practitioners from the 5 major gxies. Imagining the fearsome dragons and tigers lurking in this hall, Ye Chong could tell some of them could be potentially on par with the experts at ck Coves.

    Ye Chong was also highly confident of his learning ability, considering that with the involvement at the tournament this time, one could tell the speeding up benefits for his skills.

    There were uninvited guests from the others, the dojo owner realized that and would like to express his respect towards them, as he called over one man to break the wall between the reception hall and the temporary hall. One buffed man with a tanned face offered his help proactively, one fistnded to the wall and it began cracking like a spider web, which soon copsed into countless specks, piling a tiny ruin.

    The punch had won over the thunderous apuse of the entire hall.

    "Such an attention seeker," disdained Shang. "You even want to unt wall-breaking? Ye, his punch is even worse than the one you didst time. Man, talking about beginners, they have seen nothing." That punch Shang quoted was from the time when Ye Chong broke the metallic gate in a spaceship barehanded. With his current strength, he was hardly interested in such a performer¡¯s kind of behavior. Simrly, Lan Yixing who shared the same impression, carried on sipping that cup of tea he had been sipping since forever.

    Well, that very punch made by that tanned face man obviously had stirred the emotion of the crowds, giving them expectation towards the tournament this time.

    Both Lan Yixing and Ye Chong sat at the corner. They recognized nobody from the crowd. They put up their ultimate straight face. No doubt, nobody would bother to take the initiative to talk to them. Meanwhile, Hua Tiankai, being the host of the tournament, had be busier than the bees, more upied than the waiter at the restaurant where Ye Chong was in, of course he would not remember Lan Yixing being there.

    "Hah!" Shang shrieked excitingly, "I knew it!"

    "What?" asked Ye Chong in confusion.

    "What else? It¡¯s Bing! Bing! Your Bing Bing yeah! Ye, move your eyes to the table at the center, what did you see over there? Did you see it? Wow, B-i-n-g-B-i-n-g¡­" The flooding excitement seemed to have jammed his audio-producing system¡­ Ye Chong seriously hoped that.

    His heart pumped hard once, as the silhouette of her wavy white garb shed in his head. Well that was just one hard pump. Shang had already informed him the name of the girl being Rui Bing. What has Rui Bing to do with me though? That was the first thought sprouting in his head.

    Nheless, the admiration lingered. Her standard ofbats, her spirit of perseverance, and her demureness of posture, in that grace of eternity, those had left impressions in him.

    He nced at the direction of Rui Bing. That girl in her white garb was still her old self. Her posture on the seat did not even change, although that Wei Yuan by her side was a tiny surprise to him.

    Speaking of Wei Yuan, he had been a headache to Hua Tiankai and his apprentices, for he had been somehow glued to Rui Bing since ages. It was Rui Bing who epted his entry out of sympathy for his young age and pitiful look. She took good care of him. Wei Yuan had been staying with his father back when he was much younger, certainly he would have never experienced that nurturing aspect of a family. Towards Rui Bing¡¯s motherly care, he was touched, thus his obedience day by day. They gradually grew on each other and Wei Yuan even requested Rui Bing to be his sister at one point, well, she nodded her head happily.

    Rui Bing immediately discovered his role in this brother-and-sister rtionship for somehow Wei Yuan detected her distastefulness towards those guys under Hua Tiankai. As soon as Hua Shangmei and his brothers in apprenticeship came to Rui Bing, Wei Yuan would jump into action and disrupt the entire scene, which was driving these boys crazy yet they were incapable of doing anything in the situation. And Rui Bing¡¯s residence was enjoying better serenity than before.

    The reality was, Wei Yuan identified Sister Bing surely being someone rted to YC. Furthermore, those pretentious behavior of the boys were disgusting him. He feared Sister Bing losing something in the end, thus his disruption, joining the fun. It was partially out of his sense of protectiveness towards Sister Bing and the other half being the exaltation towards YC.

    Thanks to Sister Bing, he managed to be the guest at the centermost table.

    "Oh, Bing Bing, Ye¡­ It¡¯s *your* Bing Bing¡­" Shang sounded like he was moaning.

    That was peculiar to Ye Chong¡¯s ears, for he wondered what had made the artificial indulgence even more indulgent today, "Shang, ording to the all the information I had been given at the moment, she does not seem to share any kind of rtionship with me, but why do you keep saying that she¡¯s mine the whole time?"

    "Hah!" Chuckled Shang, "Ye, you would not have understood. It¡¯s a woman after all, a deep study of life. She had already made her statement remember? She would marry no other man than you! Do you really think our Bing Bing would be telling a lie?"

    "*Our* Bing Bing? Shang, your statement is contradicting!" reminded Ye Chong.

    "Kek! Ye, aren¡¯t what yours ours as well?" rebutted Shang.

    Ye Chong agreed, "If she is truly mine, then your statement would make sense." And he tried his very best to find the tape of that very moment of his life and rey it to see if he missed any- "But she does not seem to have mentioned something like marrying no other man than me. She only said she wanted me to marry her."

    Oh the pride in Shang¡¯sugh, "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ye, you seriously need to study more romance movies. Tsk, tsk, tsk, this is an effective rite of passage of humanity, the path to the colorful life. Once you got to my ce, heh! With my level, clearly you would understand what ¡®*our* Bing Bing¡¯ mean¡­ Hehehehehe!"

    "I see." Ye Chong could notprehend a word Shang said as usual. Even though he was speaking English, it unavoidably gave him headache in the end. To retain his sanity, he chose to end the topic.

    Since he had been sitting at the corner and Rui Bing never had the habit of looking around, absolutely not once she would notice that cold man. Surprisingly Wei Yuan had the habit, as he set his eyes upon everything around, they were so exciting! "I mean, look at those colorful mechs!" It was a shame for he only recognized mechs and not¡­ humans.

    Soon, the tournamentmenced!

    There were several sections in this tournament. It would begin with a group performance of trainees from Tianhua dojo, then thepetition itself, followed by the exchange of thetest mechbats andstly the exnation from the Master, being the drum-roll of the show.

    The group performance was not impressive in the eyes of the experts. It was as if they were watching a bunch of dolls waving their limbs with the unnecessary heyhoos. The outsiders were enjoying every bit of the show however, it was lively and able to capture their interests on martial arts.

    The first section was unquestionably sessful, judging by the thrilled apuse from the audience, with ear-piercing whistle and scream. The experts at the seat felt proud of the reaction as they straightened their back and set off an expression of their prime.

    Ye Chong at the corner was enjoying his corner, not the show at all. He was in dead serious wonders on why it took forever for Lan Yixing to finish his tea. Shang in his head wasughing in an odd mechanical utterance. Sounds like a short-circuit or Shang was literallyughing nkly in his head he thought.

    Thepetition part was the main event, the eye-catcher of them all. The participants were of great amount, considering how this would be the one-and-only golden opportunity for them to experience the kicks and punches pulled by the others. There were even a handful of fightersing across the gxies just to attend the tournament today.

    The training room was renovated for thepetition purposes and was furnished with a number of devices of advanced technology to allow the audience to view the field from all sorts of angles in rity throughout the event. It seemed like Tianhua dojo had dumped in arge portion of their savings in this, with those hologramic projectors of thetest models in all sizes scattered at every corner of the stage. Every spectator was also given a helmet at their seat to choose the match they desired via signal transmittance.

    The tournament this time was also the pioneer to martial arts streaming on the Virtual Worldwork, though there were only 3 channels, Hua Tiankai tried his best.

    An exciting teaser of martial arts was yed and everyone had their blood boiling.

    The sharp chimes of the copper bells clouded the gxy with a sense of the ancient, informing the crowd that the matchmencing.

    The seniority at the seat were nodding their heads in the dark, as fascinated by the capabilities of this master in producing the right atmosphere.

    The panel of judges of the tournament this time consisted of the few celebs or true experts among the martial artists, and here Rui Bing was, sitting by the table, being the only female at the panel. One could tell the inferiority of females in the field.

    That was none of Ye Chong¡¯s concern however, as his eyes fixed upon the matching participants. These participants were quite peculiar, with drastically different age groups and color of their apparels. Their movements were the most peculiar in his eyes, with most of them being never-before-seen to him.

    Ye Chong in his helmet was selecting the match he found interests in. He had to admit that thetest model was thetest after all, for it could capture the frames at the highest definition possible, expressing details at its finest.

    Like that rather underweight man for instance, his movement was inspiring. His body moved like a spinning top in the air of a great velocity, which formed an reinforcing airflow on his kick, moving like a whip. Once he hit the opponent he would grab that inertia to turn the tide of his.

    His opponent was a tall, bulky man, who backed off consecutively as hit by his kick.

    Such movement was the eye-opener to Ye Chong, as heplimented in his thoughts to express his amazement. This was a prime example of employing all the strength throughout his body to fight the foe while utilizing inertias in brilliance to make motions and changes in his moves. He would then be unpredictable to the foes. Brilliant!

    Of course, such move was hardly a threat to Ye Chong, as he could simply think of more than 10 methods to solve this puzzle. But that did not necessarily kill his admiration towards it.

    There were too many matches going on simultaneously with dazzling techniques being never-before-seen. He eventually requested Shang to record everything at once and intended to check them out after the match ended.

    Ye Chong was fully upied to the match as he disregarded the flow of time. Out of sudden, a tap on his shoulder woke him.

 Chapter 197 - Brewing Storm XIII

    <h4>Chapter 197: Brewing Storm XIII</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Follow me," Lan Yixing¡¯s voice rang before his ears.

    Ye Chong removed his helmet hurriedly. The helmet was indeed a product of the advanced technology, such astonishing capability of dissociating the viewer¡¯s senses from the outside world.

    Before both of them came to a realization, the tournament had already arrived at the final match of the day. Every final match of the day would be considered as the show of the day, where Tianhua dojo would arrange two ace martial artists fighting against each other, which one of them happened to be Lan Yixing for today.

    For the sense of majesty, the match would be carried out at the enormous colosseum which was usually used for major mechbats. This colosseum also happened to be the grandest field of Tinahua dojo, which its length and width both happened to be 3km respectively and the field was bounded by the spectator area. That sounded dangerous indeed. To cope with the possibilities of how the parts of exploded mechs would be flying at the spectators, the whole battleground was capsuled inside a protective field. The colosseum was another huge investment by Hua Tiankai even way before mechbats became a thing in his field. People would trulypliment his prescience and daring decision.

    The spectator area was empty however. Considering how the schedule was a pretty tight one for the day and how it would cost some time for the audience to shift themselves between venues, eventually everyone sumbed to viewing the match via the projector or the helmet, including those judges at the table. It was inevitable keeping in mind that the colosseum was pretty distant from their seat. Tianhua dojo had taken that into ount, no worries. Hundreds of sets of cameras were installed at every corner inside the colosseum. The audience could just feel the match right on their seat. If this was not a grand setting, what would be?

    Lan Yixing, with his boy Ye Chong had entered the preparation room. Every participant would do their stretching or warming up here. There was a long narrow corridor which would lead them to the field directly.

    "I¡¯m going," stated the master.

    "Alright," replied Ye Chong nonchntly.

    Lan Yixing nced at Ye Chong, "You are the most diligent among all the apprentices I had so far. You are here to witness what true martial arts is." The tone was indifferent as usual, but Ye Chong could discern the underlying passion. Lan Yixing was like a legendary dragon long sealed underground, and at that moment he would erupt and show them what tyranny truly was!

    Ye Chong, in response, did not say a word. He only nodded his head, expressing curiosity towards the level of his master. He had yet seen his master in actual action other than teaching him a few tricks. His master had always been keeping everything under his sleeves.

    "Ye." Shang spoke, "His opponent is one by the name of Zuo Ling." Zuo Ling? That¡¯s a new name. It was not surprising to see Ye Chong responding so, since he was a newbie in the field. He barely knew anything about the artists. His mind could go nk if he were asked to name a few martial artists. Mu had once searched for information on closebats in Virtual World yet simrly he had hardly any knowledge. Shang? Nevermind.

    Coincidentally, a trainee from Tianhua dojo came into the scene, "Master Lan," courteously he spoke, "You are the 77th seeded yer in this match. ording to the oue of randomized matchup performed by our processor, your opponent would be the 1st seeded yer, namely Zuo Ling."

    "Zuo? That¡¯s his surname? Zuo Ling?" asked Lan Yixing. His soulless, dark eyes were suddenly lit by something as lustrous they grew. The wrinkles on his forehead twitched a little. Such detail did not escape Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, as he wondered if Lan Yixing had something to do with Zuo Ling.

    "Zuo family of Tian Luo?" The corners of his eyes twitched.

    The trainee reacted in shock, "You knew the family too? I thought my brothers were pulling my legs when I heard it. So the family does exist? Are they really that great?"

    "Yes," expressionlessly he replied.

    "So they are truly great¡­" The trainee¡¯s face was filled with astonishment, "Well, you could prepare yourself at the moment. You may enter the field once prompted by the tune and announcement. Good luck." He left the room afterwards.

    "Zuo family! It really is the Zuo family¡­ is this what they called ¡®fate¡¯?" Lan Yixing raised his head upon the ceiling, muttered, with a droplet of tear rolling from the eyes¡¯ corners. Ye Chong of course was astounded by the act.

    He regained his calmness very soon after. He turned to Ye Chong, his eyes were grim. A momentpsed and he finally spoke, "Go to my room, on the second drawer from your left, there would be a red microchip inside, which contains all techniques from the Lan family. You get it right after the match begins and leave Windstar the quickest as possible, the farthest as possible! Never be caught by the Zuo family. Never." His tone was t, as if it had nothing to do with himself.

    "He¡¯s making a will," reminded Shang, as he immediately deciphered the underlying meaning.

    "Why?" Ye Chong agreed to Shang¡¯s judgement as he asked quickly.

    "Merely because he¡¯s one of the Zuo family." The words came calmly. Ding! Dong! An electronic tune yed, "Mr. Lan Yixing, Mr. Lan Yixing, No.77, please enter the field right away."

    He turned away, headed to the corridor, "Make sure the Lan family techniques remain till the end of time." And he disappeared at the ring end of the corridor.

    "This old guy probably has some issues with Zuo family. And the issues must be really, really bad." Mumbled Shang and he became excited out of sudden, "Ye, let¡¯s head back and grab the chip! Hehehehe, that¡¯s an excellent item you know what!"

    "No," he disagreed as he shook his head. "We will go, after the match."

    "Oh, fine. This is in fact a match between the real deals. Would be a waste if we just miss it."

    "Shang¡­"

    "Yes, Ye?"

    "Could you control all the cameras in the dojo?"

    "I could¡­ but why? Do you have the need to do so?"

    "Yes, just seize the control for now¡­"

    The spacious ground glistered by the spotlight at every corner. The two participants stood face to face. That well-trained body of theirs suddenly felt so tiny on the field. The field was for mechbats after all, the spectator¡¯s area was a little far away from the field. If anyone were to watch the match at the seat, he or she would probably only see two dots jumping around. This was also why Hua Tiankai decided to use the eyes of the cameras instead, which gave a much better view.

    Lan Yixing shot cold stares at the man before him. Zuo Ling was still he himself, with that apparel of his, exposing half of his chest, shing that iron hard muscles along with that easy smile on his face. The female spectators were screaming in their helmets.

    Compared to Zuo Ling the macho guy, Lan Yixing was just a normal middle-aged man one could see every dusk on the street.

    "Zuo family from Tian Luo gxy?" Initiated Lan Yixing.

    "Yes," flinched slightly Zuo Ling, for the foe before him actually being able to identify his background at first nce. "And you are¡­?" He would not want to be reckless on this middle-aged man, in dy he asked.

    "Hehe, Zuo family from Tian Luo gxy, I had heard of names of your family. What a grand family back then." Hisugh was more terrifying than crying, as his expressionless face being squeezed into something a monster would shriek upon.

    Zuo Ling captured the meaning right away. This man before him must have had bad blood with his family before. He took a careful nce at the man yet his mind could not get him a name. He did remember the trainee informing him that his foe happened to be Mr. Lan¡­ something Lan¡­

    Wait, Lan? Astounded Zuo Ling, "You are the Lan family of September?"

    "Such memory for the family who actually remembers a nobody like ours. Hehe, it took me forever to hide from the family yet here I am today, right in front of another Zuo. Fate is capricious indeed," Lan Yixing stared as he spoke word by word.

    Zuo Ling¡¯s heart pumping hard, since he was very much knowledgeable of the history of his family. Of course he was informed about the case with Lan family. Back during the prime time of Zuo family, in motivation of expanding the forces of his family, the members started plundering upon the other families in the dark, including the Lan family of September, which their muscle control techniques were the killer moves on their list. Zuo family did attempt a variety of test in imitating the technique but the development turned out to be rather insignificant. In the end, they took action, a radical action.

    The Lan family was not the grand kind of family one would expect from movies, although they held members of an amount of hundred. Wait¡­ based on the records of our family, under the magnificent n of the operation, the family was plundered, members had beenpletely annihted. There should not have survivors. Did my ancestors miss someone out? The operation was not a total sess in fact, since the ultimate technique of the Lan family never came into their hands. They left the scene with a tiny clusters of microchips eventually. Nevertheless, those were more than enough for the family to make significant development in muscle control.

    The irony was, when Zuo family expected the next era being theirs, the field of martial arts started degrading during the continuous raise of pilots in the gxy, whichstly conquered the gxy in absolution. The Zuos realized how the techniques were kept deep inside their zipped mouth. The techniques were locked up and never taught to the following generation. The microchips became the junk piling on the ground. Most of their own techniques had been lost from generation to generation. The family had broken down.

    Zuo Ling could not really feel the tension from the record. He could feel the imperialism behind the plunder and conquer of his family however. He saw the need in it judging by the era in the past. The only confusing part was the man before him still had that hatred from generations before. Those plunder-and-conquer, bloodshed and murder were none other than historical incident to him, something already far and iprehensible.

    Well, no matter what, he was born under the Zuo family and he shouldered the honor of his family. Since he hade across a nemesis on such a formal asion, alright then, he should be speaking with his strength, which he had great confidence of. The Lan family shall once again lose against the Zuo family, thought the man proudly.

    Lan Yixing¡¯s face returned to its calmer state as he took off the shirt he had been wearing all day long. And that was the moment of silence where everyone shut their mouth, including the judge, who were exchanging whispers vigorously at their table. Gasps were heard.

    They simply did not expect Lan Yixing¡¯s physique to be such a view¡­ Not the slightest sight of the normal bits of muscle was seen on his body. His body was connected with bundles of strands of tendons about the width of thumb. It looked like countless yellowish brown snakes slithering over his body at one nce. The shape of the bundles was clear and obviously strong, that no one would doubt the strength within.

    Even Ye Chong dropped his jaws. It was the first time he saw such abnormal form of muscles on a living man. He got to admit, such an appearance could provide actual visual impact to humanity.

    Zuo Ling on the other hand lost the color of his face. Among every witness to such anomaly, he was probably the only one who recognized the threat those bundles could pull off. Most importantly, the muscles presented the man¡¯s identity being the Jie expert, one who stood on top of his own field, the Jie expert of the Lan family¡­ such appearance. Zuo Ling suffered the loss of confidence this drastically the first time.

    Lan Yixing stood there. His expression stayed still. He had hidden his capabilities for long enough and today would be the day where he would disregard everything else and solve this resentment once and for all.

    Both of them got into position. Not a single word was spoken.

    The copper bell chimed long and gracefully. That clear sound resounded at the spacious field.

    Almost simultaneously, both of them acted like two strikes of lightning as they crashed into each other. Wham! One thunderous roar, both of them switched positions right away, as if they had read moves of each other.

    Both of their moves went so rapid that the audience could not capture the frames with their eyes. Gasps were even heard from the panel.

    Ye Chong right at the side of the field had witnessed everything clearly. Both of them had exchanged fists and kicks 22 times upon contact. As they went so fast, audience could only capture that one wham, which in actuality was a heavy stack of 22 whams.

    Zuo Ling was put into such disadvantage on the first match. One could tell that from that shaking left arm of his. With that master control of Lan Yixing over his own muscles, a crash would be the best way to begin the match, even Ye Chong could know a few methods to magnify the strength in seconds by times. Utilizing the knowledge with that bundles of alien flesh of his, Ye Chong would also be in slight fear.

    Zuo Ling did not panic however. His expression was calmer than water as he lifted his right arm and formed a de. His left arm rested behind his back, his leg slightly crossed¡­ yes, it was a strange posture indeed.

    Lan Yixing treated the action with nonchnce as the muscles on his shoulders wriggled disturbingly. Underneath the tight pants of his, the muscles were expanding. The audience could see the frightening strength in the muscles. Lan Yixing looked as if he had redistributed muscles of his entire body over the limbs. That lost in proportion was bizarre to Ye Chong as he turned deaf over Shang¡¯smentary.

    A true fearsome maniption over muscles! Fiasco brewed at the seats right when such a groundbreaking phenomenon happened, which science was disobeyed, burnt and tossed away.

    The fighters on their seat were holding their breath in tension, as they anticipated the next move.

 Chapter 198 - Brewing Storm XIV

    <h4>Chapter 198: Brewing Storm XIV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Jie expert!" a shriek escaped from one of the handsome fighters at the seat, shattering the dead silent of the spectator area.

    Jie expert, the advanced form of the one inbats, possesses a kind of unique ability, like that attack from Rui Bing on Ye Chong back then, where he could feel being constricted by something. That was none other than a type of pressure exerted on his mentality, his body was as sound as one could imagine.

    Jie experts were umon. And ording to records, their abilities were even more umon, bizarre one couldment as.

    Jie expert? Jie expert! They really exist! Every fighter on the ground stood up. Ever since the fall of their era, Jie expert had be the myth of their field. One mere fighter from a mere dojo could never have a chance to see a Jie expert in his or her entire life, although most likely they were just unaware of their existence. The poption of Jie experts was far more motivating than they imagined. It was not surprising since this was an era where pilots flew in flocks on their mechs at the sky. The number had grown scarce, especially when their martial art techniques could be put hardly in other purposes than fighting itself. In the end martial arts practitioners would only be the bodyguards of some public figures. Moreover, these experts were isted by nature, they would hide their abilities from people. So folks like spectators there might spend their entire life of not seeing the true practitioner like the Jie expert.

    A battle between the Jie experts was already not somethingmon one could see even during the prime time of martial artists. Such asion on the stage currently was something once a hundred years probably.

    The right palm of Zuo Ling transformed into a peculiar dark green which began spreading to his arms at a discernible rate.

    Lan Yixing lowered his legs, squatted slightly, with his eyes on Zuo Ling.

    He screamed! The air vibrated in waves, rolling over the surrounding. The definition of the cameras was great enough to capture the details of the waves.

    The practitioners in their helmet were breathing in fear for one scream from a Jie expert could be this earth shattering.

    The folks on the spectator¡¯s area was stupefied as if they were viewing an action film made out of CGI.

    Ye Chong¡¯s pupils shrunk drastically, as his eyes could discern that wriggling movement of Lan Yixing¡¯s muscles on his thigh even underneath the tightened pants.

    Lan Yixing¡¯s legs charged up.

    W-

    It¡¯s too fast! It was astonishing even for a running man like Ye Chong as he realized with his speed he could at most touch the afterimages of Lan Yixing.

    Lan Yixingunched himself like a cannonball and came before Zuo Ling in split seconds. That dark greenness of his palm had only grown over his elbow.

    One violent punch! No technique, merely strength and velocity,ing from Lan Yixing under that erged arm of his wobbling vigorously. Ye Chong wondered if he could even take that punch in whole piece.

    Zuo Ling clearly did not reckon such velocity from a middle aged man like Lan Yixing.

    In panic his right palm shed nothing as his body backed off swiftly.

    Clink! A sound of hitting the metal resounded in the ce, in the heart of the people.

    Zuo Ling clumsily backed off. His facepletely drained. That punch did notnd with no harm. Ye Chong was in disbelief however, as that very punch Lan Yixing had pulled, judging by its impulsive force, could shatter even a door of titanium, let alone a fleshy arm. But¡­ But Zuo Ling¡¯s right arm was still intact. Ye Chong raised his brows.

    Lan Yixing did not perform his next move immediately as he stood still before Zuo Ling, staring at that greenish right arm of his, "So this is one of the techniques your family has developed from Lan family¡¯s muscle control I supposed. Such a shame that your family had never obtained theplete text, what they have spected was a total mess."

    His voice trailed off as he jumped forward, although he did not reuse that peculiar technique of his just now. Ye Chong supposed that technique to be rather consuming to Lan Yixing.

    Well, the master was in fact a master, afterall. He did a few normal moves, of masterly execution. Every move was performed wlessly on spot, with that muscles of his waving in minuscule scope. Producing an explosive strength even on the micro level, it wowed Ye Chong.

    Zuo Ling only regained his consciousness by then. He wielded that eerie looking arm of his glowing in dark green, the left arm at his back to be ready for any cheating moveing from the back. His style was as hard as Lan Yixing, as his knuckle wasunched. The exchange of fists and kicks started once more, a satisfying sight to the practitioners on their seat. Those advanced practitioners however were in worry as thepetition had be apetition of blood in their eyes. They feared the match would not end till one of them had their blood spilling on the ground and copsed. If there was casualty right on the first day of the tournament, the tournament would be impacted negatively.

    Hua Tiankai got up from his seat first off. Being the host of the tournament this time, he shall never allow casualty to happen. He walked to Rui Bing, who felt his movement from the back as she sprang up from her seat upon realizing it was her uncle.

    "Bing my girl, they are going to hurt themselves if this goes on. I want them to stop the match right now, but I think they would not be convinced so easily, so I would like you to give this uncle of yours a little help," stated Hua Tiankai.

    "Okay," she nodded her head.

    "Hey, Sister Bing¡­" Wei Yuan snugged upon her at the side, "Tag me along." Of course he would not miss the opportunity to watch the martial arts exchange in closeup, especially when he could watch his runner-up idol, Sister Bing (of course the first would be always YC) in action. He would kill just to get there.

    The field had transformed into something else right at the moment.

    Lan Yixing¡¯s knuckles had the velocity increased strenuously, that it felt like a carbon copy of his ultimate before, only it behaved more partially and abruptly in silence.

    The afterimages, in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, had reappeared. He anticipated the eleration this time. As he was watching the match from a unique angle, he could clearly discern the fists of Lan Yixing, which the bundles of muscles squirmed like a group of snakes on his shoulder, all towards his arm. They squirmed so quickly that it felt like speed of lightningpared to the obvious charging-up action Lan Yixing performed before.

    The fist directly hit on Zuo Ling¡¯s chest as he failed to dodge. Crack. Ye Chong could hear the bones breaking.

    The apuse at the spectator¡¯s area had transfigured into uncontroble shrieks of fear. Right when they assumed Zuo Ling to be a gone case of the match, that left arm hidden behind his back finally came into action. That hammer-fist Lan Yixingnded on his chest, his eyes lustered as his chest softened dramatically like bog. Lan Yixing was confused by that sensation, it was as if he was smashing on a knead of dough.

    Lan Yixing¡¯s punch was still mightier, even if Zuo Ling had rxed his muscles significantly. He whimpered in pain as he held his left arm wrapped upon Lan Yixing¡¯s right hand like a strap of vines.

    Such reflexivity. He broke thews of anatomy and had somehow transformed into a mollusk.

    The green color on his face shed as his left arm of constriction also turned as dark green as the right arm. Snap! The right hand of Lan Yixing had been distorted. Ye Chong who knew something about the human anatomy could tell, the bones underneath the bundles of his muscle had been splintered.

    Lan Yixing whimpered as his left handunched upon Zuo Ling¡¯s throat.

    Zuo Ling also performed the same trick this old fox used. Wham, both of their palms struck together. Their bodies backed off in whimpers. Zuo Ling¡¯s left arm which constricted Lan Yixing had literally impaired his right arm. They were close.

    And then, they demonstrated a ssic example of closebats with bare hands, except it was bare hand, rather than bare hands.

    "Hah! What¡¯s up with Lan family? What¡¯s up with the technique being a mess? The Zuos aren¡¯t something you pesky little family couldprehend!" Zuo Ling¡¯s hands moved rapidly as he teased in pride, although he did in fact have that price to unt. Jie experts were scarce by nature and for one Jie expert of his age while possessing more than one ability, he was probably the only one. As Lan Yixing had mentioned before, that hardening technique performed by Zuo Ling was in fact a techniqueing from the Lan family¡¯s microchips his ancestor has plundered. It was a definition of their deduction over the information they snatched. And the head of the Zuos was well-aware of the issue behind the technique. So the head eventually invented a softening technique as a counter to cover up the holes. Zuo Ling was undoubtedly the genius of it for he blended both the abilities in one.

    Thebination of muscr hardness and tenderness was the killer move for him. But he was still too young for hecked understanding on the overall process ofbats, as well as his control over it. He was ipetent to an experienced fighter like Lan Yixing who had spent the past decades on muscle controls, which led to such situation where both of them were wounded by each other in the end.

    Well, technically, Lan Yixing had a worse injury. Zuo Ling was unharmed other than that fractured his rib while maintaining the upper hand in the match. Lan Yixing¡­ technically had lost his right arm, which harshly halved his forces. And his right arm was still under the constriction by the foe. Bone-piercing pain could be felt even at the slightest movement he made, which caused him unable to formte any kind of moves effectively.

    The words from Zuo Ling were painful to his ears as they struck to the depth of his heart. His eyes clouded by wrath out of sudden. He was not a talker to begin with so he responded with silence, however his eyes had convinced Zuo Ling that he would not stay on the upper hand for long.

    Ye Chong also captured that expression in his eyes, "Shang!" Screamed Ye Chong frantically in his head.

    His body shrouded away like an arrowunched from the bow, all the way towards Lan Yixing and Zuo Ling. Shang who had been his most impable partner the whole time had interrupted every transmission of signal at the ce.

    "Let¡¯s go!" Rui Bing shouted as he grabbed Wei Yuan in her hands and ran all the way down the field with Huan Tiankai who also reacted promptly behind.

    It was almost when Rui Bing and Hua tiankai made their moves, the signal was cut off and the screen on every projector, every helmet went nk. The spectators at the intensity went silent. The staff who were in charge of the streaming on the Virtual world confusingly noticed their screen being nk as well.

    It took a few seconds for those practitioners to react on the happening as one of them somehow shouted, "We are going there to watch!" And people started rumbling off their seats and ran all the way to the field.

    A strange kind of feeling reverberated in Ye Chong for some reason.

 Chapter 199 - Brewing Storm XV

    <h4>Chapter 199: Brewing Storm XV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s speed was amazing. He moved like a column of smoke. If anyone was there to witness such happening, one would be dropping the jaws on spot. "Is this the speed of a human at the greatest?" They would wonder.

    Lan Yixing howled once, deep agony he was in, with a hint of feeling released.

    The mist of blood clouded both men, with the sound of strings breaking rang within. No one could tell what had urred inside, as they heard the whimpersing from both of them simultaneously.

    The fire in Ye Chong was extinguished. He retrieved his calmness in battle, where he felt like he had jumped off an erupting volcano right into the freezingva, his eyes were tainted by the true desire to kill.

    His velocity lifted countless afterimages, the tips of his toes exerted forces nonstop as he elerated. His godliness speed was none of his business, as his eyes were all onto that cloud of blood at the center of the field.

    Shush! A man flew out of the mist.

    Ye Chong recognized that man at first nce. It was actually Lan Yixing, who no longer had that vitality before. His body was fully covered in blood. The bundles on his body were nearly all torn as they hung over his body, with blood dripping off the endings of those torn bundles to the ground.

    Standing at the tip of his toes, Ye Chong readjusted the direction and grabbed Lan Yixing, whose eyes were dull and lifeless. The respiration and heartbeat ceased permanently.

    Ye Chong took a drastic brake and put down Lan Yixing gently. In silence he stood.

    The other man had rushed out of the mist and obviously it was Zuo Ling. Without hesitation, Ye Chong made his move.

    Ye Chong never had the habits of exining or talking big about his motive of pulling his punches. Getting into a fight suddenly was the bread and butter of his life. Zuo Ling might have appeared to be in a fluster, with most of his strength lost and being unable to hurt Ye Chong a little, Ye Chong still did not intend to forsake that good habit of his.

    Thest blow delivered by Lan Yixing was effective as ever. The bleeding pores over Zuo Ling body were of thumb sizes, 7 to 8 of them, which dyed Zuo Ling in flowing crimson. It could be Lan Yixing¡¯s blood though.

    Without a sound, Ye Chong shifted before Zuo Ling, his right hand stung upon Zuo Ling¡¯s throat like a serpent.

    Zuo Ling simply did not expect to be raided by some outsiders at such a nick of time. All he could do was to lift his head and go backwards while firing his hands, striving to hold that blow from Ye Chong.

    Wham! That actual pressure in his hand! Zuo Ling was overjoyed as he caught it! He thought he had made that necessary move to turn the tide. Something was turned indeed, but not the tide. Crack! Crack crack crack crack! The force was exerted onto his arm. The sound of bones-cracking echoed in his ears and before he realized, an overwhelming pain seized his body.

    Did that old fox Lan return? I could not name any other person who could wield such strength¡­

    That was hisst thought before he fainted.

    "Stop it!" A profound voice of a man roared throughout the ce.

    Ye Chong did not n to stop it. There would be no better chance for him to ughter this weakened tiger. Literally any tiger that lost its fangs might as well be dead! His right hand sped up, lifted countless copies of itself, all onto the throat of Zuo Ling.

    Ye Chong¡¯s inhuman speed was once again demonstrated in front of people.

    Without further ado, the throat of Zuo Ling obediently lied within his hands. A little bit of force on the neck. Crack. The bones shattered. The fainted man had be the fainted corpse. Ye Chong made a shake on his hand. Zuo Ling was lobbed in a fine curve andnded next to Lan Yixing.

    In one day, two Jie experts had deceased right here.

    Ye Chong turned to the running crowd towards him. His eyes were cold.

    Rui Bing¡¯s head exploded. Her steps withdrew abruptly, as she looked at that face countless times she had dreamed of¡­ the same exact cold indifference remained with the same lonesomeness.

    Rui Bing was ahead of the crowd but as soon as she held her steps, the crowds passed her by, where a majority of the practitioners turned their heads back, wondering why the judge had stopped moving out of the blue.

    "Sister? Sister! Sister Bing!" Wei Yuan panicked, as he saw his Sister Bing acting all weird.

    Rui Bing appeared as if bewitched by something, as his words never reached her, her eyes fixed upon Ye Chong.

    The shout was from Hua Tiankai, the only person with the same position as Rui Bing. He shouted as soon as he saw Ye Chong, who was going to murder Zuo Ling. His voice failed to stop the tragedy from happening however. And he stumbled upon the speed of Ye Chong¡¯s hands.

    Horrifying¡­ This is too much. Is he also a Jie expert? Wondered the master, as also a Jie expert himself. He did not have that frightening speed, but he was not convinced at the fact that a man could achieve such speed merely by his body. Truth was cruel however, as it smashed whatever he knew, convincing him that it was not a dream.

    Zuo Ling¡¯s fate had been set. Not even his scream could change a thing. He could tell that Zuo Ling was dead obviously, he was not even confident enough to survive under that kind of blow.

    The fear was not felt for a long time since years back. And that fear was brought to him by none other than this young man standing right before him.

    This young man, he is fatality itself! Commented Hua Tiankai right away! And what disturbed him more was the indifference on his face despite what he had done. Hua Tiankai was not the person who had not seen enough of the darkness yet that indifference of the young man was not something he had ever seen on those brutal murderers.

    But, would I be backing off and let the boy do what he want? Casualty during a match could be negative but it was not that bad for one¡¯s reputation in the field, but murdermitted by a total outsider, and was performed in the dark, that was an absolute shame rubbed right on his face.

    Still! He could not do a thing to the boy at the front!

    Hua Tiankai remembered the face of this boy. He seemed to be the youngest under Lan Yixing¡¯s apprenticeship. I think Shangmei had told me once that this boy was just a part timer¡­ A part timer? Don¡¯t be silly! Tell me which part timer could wield such strength? Judging from merely those moves this "part-timer" had performed, he was sure that the boy was not much weaker than his own master Lan Yixing. Or this so-called part-timer was an apprentice raised by Lan Yixing all this while in dark? That makes sense!

    The practitioners took a cold breath the moment they witnessed Ye Chong¡¯s moves when they arrived. Amazement was there, as they wondered if the person was a human.

    Hua Tiankai did not wish to gamble with his move. If he were to make a talking-to at this moment, he could not guarantee that it would work. Losing reputation was something minor when one were to face such a killing machine. Keeping oneself alive would be the priority¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s strength was imprinted in everyone.

    Practically, he sort of over-imagined it. Ye Chong was powerful, Ye Chong seemed powerful but if they were to have a duel, the oue would not be as predictable as one could assume. Ye Chong¡¯s body was excellent, yet hecked the skills, although the strike was so brilliant that people were immediately convinced by his inhuman speed of his hands.

    Hua Tiankai could not help but to look for Rui Bing among the people. He nned to have a joint attack with Rui Bing, well the boy could be really great but under an actual aid, he should not be able to escape the dojo.

    And there Rui Bing was, who stood at the crowd with a strange expression, after Lan Yixing took the effort to look hard. Hua Tiankai could tell from her expression, that she was too distracted to even hurt a fly. What happened to Bing? Hua Tiankai cracked his head to find no exnation for this. A Jie expert was usually unshakable at his or her will, unless a strong force was put onto. Very well, Bing must have been shocked by that monster. Rting to the fear he received before, Lan Yixing got a sound exnation for the phenomenon.

    That did not solve his problem though. Providing that he could not even guarantee the safety of the participants outside the match, the tournament would never continue.

    The chains of thoughts looked long-winded in text, but it was just a lightning connection in Hua Tiankai¡¯s head.

    Wait, his eyes went wide. He found a solution as he took out themunicator and whispered.

    He nced at the crowd, standing at the dead silent colosseum, where Ye Chong was leaving from soon. Ye Chong hadpletely lost interests on martial arts.

    He took a look at Lan Yixing already lying on the ground dead. Although he did not assume taking out Zuo Ling as part of his responsibility, he did it anyway. The two Jie experts crashed the worlds of each other, depicting their strong characters and now they died, soundlessly they slept together.

    "Ye! Stop daydreaming! A mech is heading towards here!" Shang suddenly boomed.

    Ye Chong got down from the castle in the air as his thoughts ran rapidly, formting a n. Even if he left right away, he would not make it before the mech arrived. So almost immediately after, he called Han Jia out.

    Han Jianded before him, like the god from heaven as solemnly it stood before him.

    Wait, a mech? The practitioners were confused by the scene, since a mech was like something from the alternate dimension to those who wielded fists and kicks as tradition.

    "Ah!"

    "Ahhh!"

    Both Rui Bing and Wei Yuan screamed.

    "YC!" Wei Yuan jumped, "He¡¯s actually YC!"

    The plot twist shocked Rui Bing awake and she instantly understood the entire situation. Worry grew in her over the emergence of YC. That mech of Ye Chong was familiar to her eyes, not till Wei Yuan¡¯s scream she could never remember that it was the mech who tossed Wei Yuan to her.

    So that was him!

    Rui Bing¡¯s heart shuddered.

    He remembers me! He still remembers me!! Joy overflowed deepest inside her heart.

    In the midst of gasp and re, Ye Chong climbed into the cabin of Han Jia like a mutated ape, which was again amazing to the spectators. Wei Yuan¡¯s eyes were lustrous. YC it is! Even the way he got onto the cabin was different than the others!

    Is he running away? Hua Tiankai panicked, as he knew, if he was given 10 more, no, probably 8 more seconds, his eldest apprentice, Zheng Zhongxing woulde with his mech zooming! That was the mastern he had.

    A practitioner could be great but not great as the metals. No way the boy would win as he stood against the mighty mech. So that was his plot, of taking a mech to smack upon the boy, although the stinky irony was, as a practitioner himself, he eventually relied on a mech, a machine to do the fighting for him. It was painful to his heart¡­ well, maybe¡­ it was the time for martial arts to fade out of history.

    He was confident over the n however. Zheng Zhongxing might be the weakest fighter among his apprentices, but he was one pilot with an advanced title before he came to join the dojo. The mechbats of Tianhua dojo would never develop if without his assistance.

    His heart ran cold the moment he spotted that mech the boy summoned, fearing that the boy would truly run away with the mech. It would be toote by then.

    Right when Ye Chong got onto Han Jia, a mech zoomed to the colosseum.

    And that was when Ye Chong, to his astonishment, found out the mech being a simr close-ranged models like his Han Jia.

    It is clearly a modified mech. The body should be of Judgement: Peace, well Peace was a rarely used model among the others in the Judgement series. Engines¡­ Ye Chong could not tell so he could not make ament, although he spected them being the Hurricane series. A bright red main body of the mech, adorned by silvery stripes, eye-catching it was.

    A shield with the shape of a burning me, where the tips were glowing of cold sharpness. The arms, elbows and the knees of the mech were distinctly strengthened in terms of thickness. The thorns on the joints of the fingers were of mere darkness. Ye Chong did not show disdain over them as he too favored these tiny essories to be added on his own mech, since these essories woulde in handy in all sorts of situations naturally.

    The parts of the mech were premium in any sense.

    But¡­ strangely it was not armed in any ways. Ye Chong could not see any weapon there.

    A closebat model? Ye Chong wondered. Well, closebat among mechs was a thing on the Virtual World as loved by numerous fans, but nobody really tried it in reality. That was the first closebat model Ye Chong saw outside the virtual reality.

    The mech took a perfect brake and stopped 300 meters away from Han Jia. Ye Chong could affirm to his spection since a distance of 300 meters would be too close for a ranged model while being absolutely sound for a closebat model tounch a blow.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression was firm. There was no ripple on his water.

 Chapter 200 - As You Are Human

    <h4>Chapter 200: As You Are Human</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Two mechs stood against each other.

    Wei Yuan¡¯s eyes shone like a pair of diamonds. The person who saved his life before could probably be YC but as said, it was merely a slight probability. Well, as long as he was indeed YC, Wei Yuan was confident enough to identify the typical YC style in the movements.

    So he was really an expert in mechs¡­ Rui Bing was mesmerized as she watched the man climbed into the Han Jia''s cabin. Rui Su, her sister once told her that Ye Chong was a professional in mech modification. She was not convinced by that overstatement since Ye Chong could not possibly be wielding an iron fist and an iron wrench at the same time.

    Perhaps¡­ mech could be fun¡­ Rui Bing wondered.

    The practitioners had their eyes wide open, "This is the real deal guys, not those shy, overdone mech dancing with kicks you would see on Virtual World." This colosseum was intended for mechbat training. One could say there was never any other better ce for mechbats to take ce.

    The staring conteststed for 5 seconds and Ye Chongunched an attack, with an aim of annihting the foe and leaving this ce as soon as possible. Lan Yixing, the master of September Dojo had died and probably in the following months, even years people would have their attention on the dojo itself. Ye Chong did not desire being under the spotlight. It was no longer the ce he could stay. Hence, his next move would be finding a new spot to hide while waiting for Wang Weixing to return.

    First things first, to finish this mech in front of him.

    Ye Chong used Double Curved Steps! Two converging curves of different sizes formed a peculiar track! Ye Chong had became unpredictable.

    Wei Yuan screamed as he recognized that strange step from the mech. He tried mimicking the movements before and exercise of that steps had just determined the fact that this man, slightly older than Wei Yuan, was YC himself. He pulled his eyes open, dreadfully fearing that he would miss out any epic part of the show.

    Such a ghostly step was absolutely foreign to Zheng Zhongxing, that he was forced to readjust his direction from time to time while maintaining a tiny distance away, backing off slowly with the arms at the chest - the standard posture forbats.

    More like the standard posture forbats to death, Ye Chongmented. Combats are naturally different between mechs and between men. One does not simply incorporated tricks from one to another. Unlike Zheng Zhongxing whomitted such mistake, Ye Chong¡¯s techniques were all from practices, sharpened by his battle experience, which he believed to be slightly inferior to the aces at ck Coves, well he could still be considered as a master inbats in this field.

    Han Jia confronted the foe, as it inched forward. Ye Chong got to eliminate the issue as soon as possible. He did not have the leisure to pete" with Zheng Zhongxing to find out who the master truly was between them. Time was money. Plus that set of steps he performed was enough to disrupt the bnce of the foe, though only for a second, which was negligible to normal expert yet sufficiently fatal to the expert of experts like Ye Chong.

    Whenever a bnce is disrupted, it always takes time to recover. And in that brief time frame, in the eyes of the experts, it would be the golden opportunity.

    Ye Chong charged towards the foe right when the bnce was lost. A distance of 300 meters was a joke to mechs, especially exceptionally mobile models like Han Jia with superior engines. And that was not in Zheng Zhongxing¡¯s script apparently.

    Zheng Zhongxing responded hectically towards Ye Chong¡¯s odd piloting and Han Jia¡¯s capabilities, as he finally came to understand that, he encountered the real deal this time.

    30 meters away, now! A Thomas¡¯s Spin from Ye Chong, as he span like a whirlwind all the way to Zheng Zhongxing¡¯s side.

    The foe was in absolute confusion. Such speed, in such short frame of time, while being so careful, I still could not react in time. That had to be at least Mach 8. He could not name anyone who could perform a Thomas¡¯s Spin while doing a Double Step in split seconds. That was inhuman! Zheng Zhongxing could feel his chest freezing. He did not recognize the sophisticated Double Curved Step, he thought it was a mere Double Step.

    Ye Chong¡¯s calmness during battle always gave him a feeling of being dipped in the water of thoughts, chilly, ssy, no ripple, no fear.

    His cold eyes reflected the panicked foe, he ced his hands over the control panel then a stack of afterimages covered the interface. Without hesitation, he inputted a set ofmand in the first second. Execution! Han Jia lowered its feet, dented to the ground and flung itself towards Zheng Zhongxing at a frightening speed, above the ground by 10 centimeters or less.

    Zheng Zhongxing reacted like a scalded cat as his eyes, cloaked with disbelief when he saw that meching like a bullet. The sudden direction change this close was something he could do nothing on. And only Wei Yuan could identity that fearsomeness of the move among the crowd, "Wicked cool," he praised.

    The silhouette of Han Jia erged drastically in his eyes. Ye Chong could also see the name branded on the main body of his foe. The bnce had been utterly disrupted.

    Han Jia was at extremespeed in a split of a second and one could only see Han Jia raising its body, crushing the waist of Zheng Zhongxing¡¯s mech with its flying knee.

    Thump! A roaring blow. Zheng Zhongxing was sent flying like a whammed dummy at the gymnasium, all the way out with its left waist dentedpletely in a spreading spiral caused by Ye Chong¡¯s vicious blow.

    What an unfair battle, where both parties were at the different tangents. Ye Chong remained calm and cautious, no careless mistake from him.

    Han Jia was set into motion once again, its engines were fully activated, as it rushed towards the jammed machine before it even hit the ground, with the cold dark dagger in the hand. One final blow.

    Hua Tiankai¡¯s face looked bleached afar. Although he had no idea how the gears and nuts moved together in a machine, at he least knew the basics ofbats - obviously his apprentice, Zheng Zhongxing had been the sandbag since the beginning. From the aspect of martial artists, the boy seized every opportunity before it even appeared in his eyes, unlike Zhongxing who was pped in the face repetitively. Hua Tiankai¡¯s face was crazing the moment he witnessed his apprentice being smashed to the air.

    Most of the practitioners did not understand mechs, but they did understandbats and they could tell that in less than a minute, the winning guy would be dealing thest blow.

    Ye Chong sprung and was giving a final sh, "Ye," Shang¡¯s voice intruded, "ck Covers. In 3 mechs,ing here."

    He flinched and held his steps, he shot a nce at the tumbling mech. A few taps on the interface, Han Jia¡¯s engines maximized! In the speed of light, Ye Chong sted off Tianhua dojo. The whole movement was ghostly in the naked eyes.

    The audience was confused of the premature ending, the sudden exit of the winning man, likewise to Wei Yuan. Rui Bing on the other hand, sighed in relief. Yes she hated the apprentice but Zheng Zhongxing was still Uncle Hua¡¯s eldest apprentice, she seriously hoped that there would not be an awkward conflict between both her uncle and Ye Chong.

    And that was when she came to the realization that¡­ Ye Chong finally made a return and she did not manage to have a word with him, not even one¡­

    Wait! She remembered the rtionship between Ye Chong and Lan Yixing, she grabbed Wei Yuan, "Yuan, where¡¯s dojo? The one Lan Yixing ran!"

    "Lan Yixing? Uhhhh¡­ September Dojo¡­? If I remembered correctly¡­ Oh wait, I think I remember where it is." Wei Yuan was the local and he knew his home at the back of his hands. Intelligently, he read Sister Bing¡¯s n from her line, well Sister Bing is Sister Bing, smart.

    This had just proven another face - Sister Bing did have something with that YC guy. Don¡¯t tell me! Were they a couple? Mhm¡­ right, that made a lot sense. Only the strong ones like Sister Bing could be suited to a godly man like YC. Feeling proud, Wei Yuan¡¯s confidence over his untainted eyes grew.

    Rui Bing lifted Wei Yuan, without any more words, they zoomed towards the entrance of Tianhua dojo. Tournament? I¡¯m the panel judge? I don¡¯t care! I just want to see Ye Chong again! Nothing else was her concern any longer.

    Her agitation seared her with zing passion.

    Wei Yuan was lifted like a sack of potato in her hand. As expected from Sister Bing, very strong! Wei Yuan was wowed while being carried to the destination, seeing the scenery melting away like a zoetrope. He got dizzy and he thought he would only see such visual effect when he piloted a mech and there was Sister Bing, recreating the effect without any tool. Godly¡­

    I wondered what would happen if Sister Bing had a race with YC? The crazy thoughts went in his mind.

    "Direction?" Rui Bing gave him a pinch and Wei Yuan woke up from his daydreaming, "Uhhhhh¡­" he rubbed his neck and muttered, "Pain¡­ Sister Bing, be gentle. Ouch." A re from the unsettled feline, "Oh! Oh! I remember now! Left! To the left!"

    A rough sweep from Rui Bing through the street on her left.

    Sigh¡­ I miss the chair of my mech¡­ Eximed Wei Yuan after getting RB-sickness for being lifted so long.

    ¡­

    3 ck mechs flew over the sky above Tianhua dojo, in gorgeous curve they headed to the northwest.

    Ye Chong was relieved as that direction had indicated the fact that he was not the target this time, the mechs were just passersby.

    "Sighhh¡­ Ye. You made it, and you did not even talk to our Bing Bing. Tsk, tsk tsk¡­" Shang openly expressed his dissatisfaction, "You did not see how our Bing Bing reacted upon seeing you. That was¡­ Holy Matrimony¡­ Do you know how angel looks when her heart skipped a beat for a man on the ground? Sigh, never mind, it would be a bit challenging for you to figure such philosophical inquiry I forgot¡­"

    Ye Chong was silent, seemed to be in deep thinking.

    "Sigh, Ye, our Bing Bing¡­"

    "Shang!" Interrupted Ye Chong, "Tell me, why can I not be absolutely calm like Mu? Like for today, I could have left without doing anything but somehow¡­ I just did it."

    "Ye¡­ I never knew¡­" Shang was rolling his mechanical eyes, "I never expect you to be this dumb, because you are human, duh?"

    "Because I¡¯m a human?"

    "Yeah, how could human like you be all calm and logical 24/7? Ye, please do not be like Mu that boring, monotonous, monochrome Mu. Not everything could be put into a form, not everything could be reasoned with logic and not everything was done merely because there was a need to do so." The words came like a long-winded lecture from a nagging olddy¡­ or maybe an old man, the meaning was quite deep¡­

    "Oh I see," Ye Chong became his usual self.

    ¡­

    One could hear the sparks in Shang¡¯s head.

    "Ye, there, the drawer."

    Ye Chong pulled the drawer open and found the red chip sitting there quietly, demanding to be taken. He sighed and gently picked up the microchip and put it into his bag¡­

 Chapter 201 - We Meet Again

    <h4>Chapter 201: We Meet Again</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    September dojo was now even more dested. News of Lan Yixing¡¯s death had not reached the ce, and the dojo was peacefully quiet as usual.

    The main door was open, but no sound was heard from within.

    Looking at the September dojo right in front of her, Rui Bing¡¯s even breathing despite her hurried journey to the ce now began to shorten. A faint blush colored her snow white cheeks.

    Rui Bing breathed in deeply and ran, her figure almost like a gigantic bird, entering the dojo.

    The dojo was silent, and without a single upant. Rui Bing was unfazed, and continued inwards. Wei Yuan, however, looked around anxiously in her arms. Under Rui Bing¡¯s care, he was now livelier than before.

    Ye Chong was about to leave the September dojo when Shang spoke up, "Ye, wait, let¡¯s go to the front."

    "What¡¯s up?" Ye Chong asked, curious.

    "You¡¯ll see!" Shang¡¯s tone was odd.

    "Okay!" Ye Chong could not reckon what Shang was nning, but he knew that the mech would not harm him. For Ye Chong, the mech was his most trustedpanion besides Mu. Shang may be up to some yful tricks once in awhile, but he would never do anything beyond that.

    Ye Chong heard footsteps just as he stepped out of the room.

    "An expert!" Ye Chong realized. Usually, people walked bynding the heel of their feet first, but Ye Chong could tell from the sound that this person moved with the tips of the feet. Ye Chong was simr in this regard, since the tips of the feet were more agile, and allowed for faster and more abrupt movements. However, this was an expert technique, since the skill required strength in the tips of the feet.

    The footsteps wereing closer to him.

    Ye Chong stood before Lan Yixing¡¯s room, waiting for the visitor. Lan Yixing¡¯s two students were not here today, and the dojo was empty, so there was no worry of involving the others. Besides, Ye Chong believed he still had some time left before Hua Tiankai and hispany reached September dojo. There was still enough time left.

    Moreover, Shang had wanted him here. There must be something to it.

    The footsteps came closer and closer.

    Their eyes met.

    "Hey, isn¡¯t that thedy in the training garb?" Ye Chong asked Shang inside.

    "Lady in the training garb? Haha, what a nickname! Ye, you still have some imagination in you! Much better than that dull Mu! Lady in the training garb ¡­ Tsk tsk ¡­" Shang was doubled down inughter.

    Looking at him with his typical coldness, but with a greater sense of maturity, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words. Rui Bing stared nkly at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did not avoid her gaze. To him, thedy in the training garb had made a strange request, but he still quite admired her.

    "You, how are you?" Rui Bing asked softly.

    Ye Chong was speechless for a moment before nodding, and said, "Still alive!"

    "Hah!" Wei Yuan could not help butugh in Rui Bing¡¯s arms. Rui Bing frowned, and let go of Wei Yuan. However, Wei Yuan¡¯s outburst had removed the awkwardness between the two, or more precisely, Rui Bing¡¯s awkwardness. Ye Chong did not feel a thing.

    Being alive was not bad, ording to Ye Chong.

    "You¡¯re YC?" Wei Yuan looked at Ye Chong with glowing eyes.

    "Yes," was Ye Chong¡¯s brick reply.

    "What an ignorant d*mned fool, interfering at this moment. Ye, you can get rid of him!" Shang spoke through gritted teeth, obviously dissatisfied with his presence between Ye Chong and Rui Bing.

    Ye Chong automatically ignored Shang.

    However, Rui Bing seemed unhappy with his interruption, and grabbed Wei Yuan by the cor. Wei Yuan followed like a tame littlemb as she dragged him to stand behind her. Wei Yuan looked at the back of Sister Bing with pitiful eyes, but sensibly kept his mouth shut. He already had the answer he was searching for.

    "I¡¯ve been looking for you all this while." Rui Bing said calmly, but the faint emotions behind her words were noticeable even to someone as insensitive as Wei Yuan. However, Wei Yuan did not expect his idol to be more insensitive than him.

    "Looking for me? For what?" Ye Chong asked with surprised.

    Wei Yuan could not help roll his eyes behind Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing felt her heart twisted, but her expression betrayed nothing as she continued inly, "I want you to marry me!"

    Wei Yuan almost dropped his jaw to the ground. Heavens, what was with these two oddballs in front of him? What a peculiar way to confess, it was so cool!

    Rui Bing¡¯s words reminded Ye Chong of his life on Blue Ocean. The times he spent with Grandpa Qian was his happiest ever since he left the trash.

    Rui Bing watched Ye Chong without a word.

    Ye Chong gathered himself and looked to Rui Bing. "I understand the concept of marriage, but no matter how I look at it, this is not a good time to discuss it." Ye Chong knew from the chip that almost everyone in the world would choose to live their lives with someone of the opposite sex. While he did not see the necessity of it, Ye Chong was no longer dead set against the idea as he was before.

    If he had to choose someone to live with, thedy in the white training garb did not seem like a bad choice. At least they could dobat training together. Ye Chong thought as much.

    "Why?" Rui Bing¡¯s expression finally cracked a little, but quickly resumed her calmness.

    "I have some things to do." Ye Chong¡¯s eyes shed with killing intention as he thought of Papa.

    "When will you be done?" Rui Bing asked.

    "The situation is unclear, I don¡¯t know that yet." Ye Chong replied.

    "I¡¯ll go with you." Rui Bing spoke with resolution.

    Wei Yuan was staring bug-eyed. Were these two humans actually PSIs?

    Ye Chong shook his head. "You¡¯re not skilled enough!"

    Rui Bing was about to protest, so Ye Chong continued, "You can¡¯t pilot a mech."

    Rui Bing went silent.

    "Ye, there¡¯s a group of people heading this way." Shang did not wish to interrupt, but the situation demanded it.

    "Someone¡¯sing, I¡¯ve got to go." Ye Chong nodded towards Rui Bing and turned to Han Jia, climbing into the pilot¡¯s cabin.

    "Wait ¡­" Rui Bing gasped in panic.

    Night descended, and Han Jia vanished like a ghost into the darkness.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    In Windstar Hospital¡¯s main building.

    Inside the building¡¯s spacious photon processor control room stood a single man. The photon processor control room was the hospital¡¯s core, and had the strictest security. The control room¡¯s entrance was guarded outside, and anyone who wished to enter the room must know theyers of passcodes. Only a few of the highest authorities had ess to this room. Fortunately, the photon processor control room had mostly automated functionalities, and rarely required human maintenance.

    The hospital building¡¯s highest floor was entirely upied by the photon processor control room, and was mostly empty inside, except for the five advanced control photon processors.

    Ye Chong found a chair and sat idly inside, with Shang by his side. The mech had demanded toe out, seeing as the room wasrge enough for him.

    Since Wang Weixing was soon returning to the hospital, Ye Chong and Shang had nned and decided to stay at the hospital¡¯s main building, and they had picked the photon processor control room. Ye Chong even bought enough nutrient pills on the way to the hospital, enough to keep him going until Wang Weixing¡¯s return. Han Jia was also packed with these nutrient pills, in case he needed to spend a few days in outer space.

    Windstar Hospital had unknowingly fallen into both his and Shang¡¯s grasp.

    Using a backup control photon processor, Ye Chong essed the chip left by Lan Yixing. As he browsed through the content, Ye Chong could not help but felt deep admiration for the man. Lan Yixing may look like a slow character, but he was actually very careful in nature. The chip exined the basics in great detail, leading up to the most advanced techniques, forming aplete teaching system. Even for someone without any basic knowledge inbat, that person could learn step by step from the chip. There were also many of Lan Yixing¡¯s personal insights inside. Lan Yixing demonstrated every move himself in the holographic recordings, and every move was exined clearly, a marked disparity from the way he taught Ye Chong before.

    This was the most important material onbat that Ye Chong had found so far. Ye Chong never learned in a systematic way, and all his techniques were only poor mimics from others. It was only due to his excellent physical abilities that he could make use of those techniques effectively, and could handlemon experts with no problem. However, if he were to meet with any more advanced opponents like those from ck Cove, Ye Chong would find himself in a bind.

    The chip was a priceless treasure for someone as experienced in realbat as Ye Chong. Just a brief nce through the contents was enough to help clear some of Ye Chong¡¯s long standing problems inbat.

    Besides Lan Yixing¡¯s weird muscleposition, which required a long period of special training, other things were easy for Ye Chong to pick up. Ye Chong had no intention of achieving that weird muscleposition; he was strong enough himself, and could control his physical movements almost as good as Lan Yixing. However, Ye Chong found some of the methods of movement control very useful.

    In just one night, Ye Chong¡¯sbat skills improved by leaps and bounds.

    Of course, Ye Chong was not aware of this, as he was still deeply immersed in this extraordinary world. The chip¡¯s description of Jie experts was also intriguing. However, despite being as capable as he was now, Ye Chong did not feel anything simr to the experience of someone attaining Jie.

    Nheless, Ye Chong did not mind it much. In the chip, Lan Yixing exined that Jie experts were not absolute in power, and this was something Ye Chong could understand. Ye Chong had seen all kinds of capable people; whether it was ck Cove¡¯sbat skills, MPA¡¯s terrifying shooting uracy of the mysteriousness of the mentalists and mentalist pilots of the Sanctuary, there was no way to decide which one of them was the strongest.

    Even Lunatic Guan¡¯s discreet alchemy skills were enough to escape his notice. Ye Chong believed that, should Lunatic Guan wished for his death, she would have many ways to choose from to achieve it. The more he learned for the chip Lunatic Guan left for him, the more Ye Chong grew wary of the alchemists. They were a scary bunch!

    How many more fields were out there that were as secretive as alchemy? Who knew? The world was not short of capable people.

    Strength was something to be wielded, this was something Ye Chong realized early on. A physically weak alchemist could just as easily be killed by a Jie expert.

    Night was deep, and Windstar was illuminated by colorful lights. Windstar had three administrative centers, and Ye Chong¡¯s Thousand Birds zone was one of it. In autumn, flocks of these flying creatures would migrate, passing by the area. The view was magnificent.

    However, it was now summer, and birdwatchers would be greeted with disappointment. Thousand Birds zone was Windstar¡¯s most economically thriving administrative center. The nightlights were also a local tourist attraction. At night, the sky would be filled with many blinking lights of all colors that came from specially crafted floating beacons. When tens of thousands of these floating beacons rose to the sky, the aerial view glistened splendidly. These floating beacons were mostly handmade by the locals, and had their own automotive systems; some beacons couldst for years in the sky at a time.

    To avoid interfering with daytime traffic, these floating beacons were set with timers to rest on the roofs of residential buildings in the day. Due to their love of these beacons, most of the locals would reserve a spot on the roof for them.

    Of course, traffic at night would be negatively impacted. The floating beacons made for a wonderful view, but they were also flying hazards. While the beacons were easy to spot at night, the thought of having these ythings everywhere in the air was a little unsettling.

    Nheless, for those who could fly their mechs at night, it would imply that they were at least skilled in piloting.

    Through the ss ceiling of the hospital building, the sea of blinking lights was mesmerizing.

    Ye Chong pulled himself away from the chip¡¯s content, because thatst technique was the one Lan Yixing used in his suicidal move. The thought of that mist of blood that day made Ye Chong dread continuing with the chip contents, but he quickly suppressed the feeling and finished examining every detail of thisst move.

    He finally understood what the mist of blood was all about. One could harness the energy stored in the muscles up to a point beyond the limits of the human body, and the muscles would tear. The torn muscles hardened with the energy stored inside, enough to prate 5 centimeters of alloy metal. However, what followed was the death of its user.

    No wonder it was thest technique.

    "Ye," Shang suddenly spoke up, "I have a n, have a look." His sinister voice caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention.

    "What n?" Ye Chong asked as he stored the chip back into his bag.

    "Here." The control photon processor before Ye Chong transformed, and disyed a set of detailed ns.

    Ye Chong browsed through the n. He could not suppress the rising chill within him that followed.

 Chapter 202 - Director of Chaos I

    <h4>Chapter 202: Director of Chaos I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Unlike Mu¡¯s urate and detailed ns, Shang¡¯s were usually very simple, but with undeniable power. Mu would take the straight and courageous road of winning by his own strength, backed by an enormous amount of precise calctions. On the contrary, Shang would choose the cunning path of unpredictability, even though his logic was infallible, and often based on extensive research in human nature.

    The n before Ye Chong was just one like that. In truth, Ye Chong had no qualms with Shang¡¯s style, and was quite taken aback by them. Every time, Ye Chong would find himself gaining insights into things that he did not understand. However, Shang¡¯s style was one he could not imitate, since he did not understand worldly perspectives and humans that well.

    Even so, he had something neither Mu nor Shang had, such as his fighting spirit and learning skills. Even in the harsh environment like the trash, Ye Chong was able to survive on his own due to those two attributes.

    Ye Chong¡¯s learning aptitude was something that Shang and Mu wouldmend on. Every battle served to make Ye Chong even stronger and more mature. As he learned more about the world, Ye Chong transformed into a more mature person. Of course,pared to the average person, Ye Chong still had to catch up in this respect.

    For someone so long removed from normal life, he often felt disdain towards the norm and societalws when he first entered society due to his ignorance. Once he gradually assimted into society, he found himself slowly restricted by thesews. At this point, breaking thesews required not only courage, but also wisdom.

    Shang was a peculiar teacher for Ye Chong, always armed with such devilish wisdom.

    That was how Ye Chong felt a chill down his spine as he read the n.

    The entire n was simple, based on an analysis of the stalemate between ck Cove, the MPA and the Sanctuary on Windstar. It was this situation that gave Ye Chong a chance. If Ye Chong could stoke the fire and provoke a war between the Three Forces, their pressure on Ye Chong would be significantly reduced.

    In Shang¡¯s words, to distract their attention away from him, he should find something more worthy of their attention.

    Ye Chong agreed. This proactive initiative was what Ye Chong liked best - to control his own fate - a principle of his ever since his life on the trash.

    However, the crux of the n was creating a chaotic situation, and that was what made him chilled to the bone.

    Shang¡¯s n made use of the virtual world, and in an extensive way. It would involve Mu sabotaging the virtual worlds of 23s in total, including Windstar, plunging them into a chaos and paralysing the system into a state that was irrecoverable for at least five days. In five days, Wang Weixing would also be back to the hospital.

    Ye Chong was no longer the ignorant young man he was before. He understood from Mu and Shang¡¯s attack of the Luo family of the importance of the virtual world. In every gxy, the virtual world yed an integral role in many aspects such as transportation,munication, economy and so on. The virtual world¡¯s paralysis would make the real world descend into chaos.

    Of course, maintaining this state of chaos on 23s would only not only allow them better control of the virtual world, but also avoid suspicion of the Three Forces, since Windstar was only one ofs involved.

    Shang¡¯s n was merciless.

    Five days of chaos on 23s was a disaster of unimaginable scale. It would be impossible to maintain order in that situation, and easy to escape through the mess.

    Even someone as cold as Ye Chong found himself shaken reading the n. Ye Chong breathed in deeply a few times, and could not help but felt deep admiration for it.

    "It¡¯s our first time on the offensive, gotta make it stylish!" Shang joked as Ye Chong regained his calm. He was not so moralistic as to be worried for other people¡¯s safety - this was war!

    The n was mainly executed by Ye Chong and Mu. While Shang wanted to direct the action himself, hisputational skills were insufficient for the situation. Should they be engaged with any Mavericks along the way, even Mu could not ensure certain victory. The n was of course reviewed by Mu, and Mu was equally excited by this challenge. Ye Chong could hear the unusual excitement in Mu¡¯s words.

    On the contrary, Shang went behind the scenes.

    Besides, Mu had another task, which was to find out more about Ye Chong¡¯s Papa.

    "Begin!" Mu¡¯s typical calm voice reverberated throughout the highest floor of the hospital.

    The 15th of July, 7 o¡¯clock sharp in the evening was a time that everyone on Windstar woulde to remember. This was the day that the most powerful virus spread violently throughout the virtual world. It was chaos, a sudden catastrophe. People found themselves living in the ways of old, wheremunications and traffic were a mess, and where even shopping required one to step out of their houses. This was when they found that they did not know the addresses of those familiar stores online in the real world.

    The entire society descended into panic and fear. Communications were down, and local authorities had no effective measures against it. Even the governments from others could not afford to assist them. It was chaos! The people felt as though the apocalypse was nigh, and began to appreciate the normalcy of their previous lives. Social security took a nosedive for the worse. Without the assistance of city surveince systems, the police found themselvescking in manpower to face this unprecedented crisis.

    In the blink of an eye, heaven turned into hell!

    The world watched in fear at this concentrated region, where 23s abruptly descended into chaos. However, the monstrous beast seemed to have swallowed a huge prey, for the virus suddenly stopped spreading after that, providing a much needed reprieve. Almost all the other areas that were once in touch with these 23s severed their connections, for fear of meeting the same fate. Simrly, various rescue organisations were deployed to assist. Even so, they came from far away, and would need time to travel through the interster space between them.

    At 7.05, Ye Chong quickly entered Han Jia and began hunting.

    He was trying to find small squads of mechs from any one of the Three Forces. Communications were paralyzed, and even Shang and Mu would not be able to transmit long distance messages. All of Windstar¡¯s pulse signal generator towers were down. The goal was to cut offmunications between the mechs of the Three Forces and reduce the advantage they had by their numbers. As long Ye Chong kept away fromrger mech squads, he would have nothing to fear. Nheless, should he meet any of their mechs, he must not leave any of them alive, or his efforts would all be for nothing.

    At 7.05, night descended upon the entire Thousand Birds zone. Han Jia¡¯s anti detection feature now allowed it to be an assassin hidden in the darkness, waiting to deliver the killer blow to its enemy. Whether it was Han Jia or Guardian, they were both real threats to the scattered enemy mechs.

    Mu still stayed beside Ye Chong, for he needed Mu¡¯s excellent scanning system to locate the mechs from the Three Forces. Ye Chong did not have much time. Without Mu¡¯s active direction, the virus would quickly be ovee by any powerful Maverick. Without Mu controlling the virus, it would be but a fangless mutant.

    Ye Chong had only one hour. After one hour, Mu must return to the hospital building and control the situation in the virtual world.

    Numerous mechs flew across the skies, and traffic was a mess. People realized for the first time that the cute floating beacons were bing a nuisance. The virus had just began to act, and the virtual world nearly plunged into chaos. Many did not realize what was happening, only that the traffic had worsened. Violence on the streets had yet to begin.

    Ye Chong was lucky. He found a ck Cove Cosmic re right after he left the hospital building. The sudden break inmunications had obviously surprised the mech pilot, anxious to return.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mouth arched into a cold smile. He was annoyed with ck Cove¡¯s pursuit, and it was only the fact that he realized the disparity in their strengths that Ye Chong chose to act defensively. If he did not act now, however, he would be a fool.

    In terms of strength, Ye Chong believed that as long as he did not meet any Instructor level crazy experts, he would have no problems against the average ck Cove mech pilot. Besides, Han Jia¡¯s anti detection feature and Mu¡¯s excellent scanning system was enough to give him a good advantage in the battlefield.

    Han Jia moved soundlessly like a ghost through the night.

    Han Jia¡¯s engine was taken from Yu Di, the work of Fred the Great himself. Its performance was impable, and together with Han Jia¡¯s ultralight skeleton build, the resulting automotive performance was enough to satisfy even Ye Chong. Mach 9 was a terrifying figure.

    Ye Chong felt like he had returned to his hunting days on the trash, only now he was no longer piloting old Winnie, but an enviable full-skeleton mech. His prey were also not mutants, but strong and intelligent mech pilots.

    Han Jia closed in rapidly towards the Cosmic re, and the other party did not notice. The skies of Windstar was already in a mess, filled with mechs that flew in confusion. The disorder had hindered the Cosmic re¡¯s advance.

    Ye Chong followed closely from behind, the distance between them no more than 300 meters.

    Ye Chong moved his hands over the controls. Two auto lock-on double-edged shurikens swished outwards, shrieking from the friction with the air, and traced out tworge arcs in the sky before appearing before the Cosmic re!

    These two shurikens were taken from the Harmony of the Winter Aria, and Ye Chong rarely used them. The Ji family had designed these two anciry weapons with great care, their simrity to the UF maic sword greatly increased their effectiveness. For physical weapons moving at Mach 10, they were formidable.

    ck Cove mech pilots were allpetent, and as this one noticed two unidentified objects flying towards him in surprise, he managed to respond rationally. While Cosmic re had given concealed shooting chambers, shooting was not its forte. In that short span of time, the pilot decided to do what he did best. The shield on his left arm swung outterally, blocking one of the shurikens. The curved de on his right arm blocked the other shuriken easily as well.

    In that instant, his ability to block both shurikens flying towards him at high speed was enough to convince anyone on the excellentbat capabilities of ck Cove mech pilots.

    However, Ye Chong did not expect to kill his enemy with those two shurikens in the first ce. Of all the mech pilots from the Three Forces, he understood ck Cove mech pilots the most. Just as the ck Cove mech pilot deflected those two shurikens, Ye Chong had already crept up silently behind the Cosmic re.

    Two pitch ck daggers traced out two elegant arcs as they striked towards the Cosmic re fast as lightning.

    The mech pilot realized then that someone was behind him, and even managed to defend himself. Ye Chong believed that this mech pilot must be from one of the elite squads.

    The Cosmic re inclined its body slightly, and Han Jia¡¯s direct attack was blocked by the two UF maic swords on its back!

    Ding! A loud metallic ng sounded, and the two UF maic swords broke into halves. Unactivated UF maic swords were most fragile.

    However, the mech pilot had sessfully evaded the killer blow.

    He turned himself with the momentum of the blow and finally saw the mech that attacked him. Despite his steadiness, he still could not help but gasped as he saw the mech clearly.

    "This ¡­ Isn¡¯t this the full-skeleton mech everyone is looking for?"

    F-58! The designation came to his mind. He began to feel a deep sense of terror at this unexpected encounter.

 Chapter 203 - Director of Chaos II

    <h4>Chapter 203: Director of Chaos II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    However, he had no time to consider if this was actually a trap. Suddenly, the world spinned around him dizzily as he suddenly lost control of his mech!

    This was Han Jia nting a knee kick into the mech! The heavy blow made Ye Chong regret not adding some barbs on the knees, or he would have put the other party out ofmission permanently.

    The ck Cove mech pilot was experienced, and knew that this was a normal effect from a heavy blow. There would be a short instance where he would lose control if the mech received a heavy blow, and it was important to remain calm right then, for the following attack would be the fatal blow. The faster he could regain control of his mech, the more likely he was to survive the attack.

    Thoughts were idealistic, but reality was cruel. Under Mu and Shang¡¯s training, Ye Chong now rarelymitted any mistakes. Given this opportunity, how could Ye Chong waste it?

    Just when Ye Chong struck the other party, Han Jia¡¯s engine was already set to full st mode, and as the mech elerated to Mach 9 in that short distance, the result was devastating!

    The ck Cove mech pilot watched in horror as a shadow fled past before his eyes, his calmness finally giving way to the fear of death.

    ng! Han Jia¡¯s shield, with its knife-sharp edge, cut towards the Cosmic re¡¯s throat. The iron-lizard made shield was solid and tough, its edges honed to perfection by Ye Chong.

    Han Jia swept past the ck Cove mech in its attack, much like an assassin.

    Just when the mech pilot in the pilot cabin was rejoicing over his escape from death, he suddenly heard a deadly shriek. Despite the circumstances, he still felt intrigued - wasn¡¯t this from the two unidentified objects that attacked him earlier?

    The two auto lock-on shurikens closed in on him from the front and back while he was still trying to regain control of his mech! The throat was the most protected part of a humanoid mech, the center node of a mech¡¯s inner photon circuity. Once it was hit, the mech would be useless. Any slightly knowledgeable mech pilot would avoid getting hit in this vulnerable and important spot.

    Now, however, the mech pilot could only watch as these two shurikens came closer and closer towards him!

    Auto lock-on shurikens were, as their name suggested, fitted with auto lock-on features.

    Bang! The first shuriken hit spot on the Cosmic re¡¯s throat, where Han Jia¡¯s shield had just damaged! Mach 10 was packed with formidable power, and the shuriken moved like aet. The loud bang was followed by the decapitation of the Cosmic re, its headpletely lopped off afar. The high frequency vibrations of the shuriken produced a jagged edge on the severed neck, as fragments flew out in all directions.

    The effect was shocking.

    The second shuriken seemed to sense the change, and made a small correction in its trajectory, humming as it flew towards the Cosmic re.

    By now, the mech pilot in the Cosmic re was already drained of color. He watched in a daze as the second shuriken came in from the neck! There was a constant metallic buzz of impact between metals, apanied by a howling shriek of pain, as silenced followed a few momentster. A few secondster, something came out of the Cosmic re¡¯s neck - it was the second shuriken, exiting the mech.

    The two shurikens flew back obediently to Han Jia like birds returning to their nests. In the next moment, a loud explosion was heard as the Cosmic re sted into pieces! It seemed that the second shuriken had destroyed the mech¡¯s power systems.

    An hour was not a long time, but Ye Chong was extremely lucky. He managed to meet mechs from all of the Three Forces. It was apparent then that the Three Forces were amassing their strengths on Windstar, just to capture Ye Chong.

    Ambushing in darkness required the element of surprise. Ye Chong would not attempt to deal with these scattered mechs hadmunications not been cut off. Ye Chong switched between Han Jia and Guardian, and found it quite effective. At least, he had not missed a single target so far.

    Of all the mechs from the Three Forces, the Sanctuary¡¯s were the hardest to deal with, followed by ck Cove¡¯s, and finally, the MPA¡¯s.

    This was undeniably a night of ughter. Ye Chong had already finished off 13 mechs, of which three were the Sanctuary¡¯s Dawns, four of ck Cove¡¯s Cosmic res, and six of the MPA¡¯s Messengers. It was a productive night.

    The hour was almost up, and Ye Chong had returned to the hospital building. Here, Mu would have to fight against powerful Mavericks in another battlefield. Ye Chong had wanted to observe from the side, since this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that he would not want to miss. However, Mu had rejected his request, saying that he could not guarantee Ye Chong¡¯s safety.

    It was apparent that Mu was very wary of the Mavericks. Beside Mu was arge stack of backup energy cells.

    In the end, Ye Chong obliged and waited for Mu. The wait was painful, but fortunately, his life on the trash had made Ye Chong far more patient than his peers.

    Ye Chong rested to recover his strength from his earlier battles. Even if he was only ambushing, he found himself quickly exhausted. However, he could not sleep just yet, for there was work to do.

    Mu¡¯sputations consumed arge amount of energy, and Ye Chong had to rece his energy cells along the way. In the following hour, Ye Chong had switched 16 energy cells for Mu. One could only imagine the ferocity of the battle!

    "Alright!" Mu heaved a long sigh, dering the end of his side of the battle, and Ye Chong finally rxed.

    "How was it?" Ye Chong asked.

    Mu said calmly, "The situation has stabilized. Until tomorrow morning at 8, unless there are more powerful opponents, the people I have met earlier will not be able to break through."

    Ye Chong didn¡¯t know squat about photon processors, but he could still understand Mu¡¯s words.

    Of course, Ye Chong could not know the severity of the battle between Mu and those Mavericks. Mu¡¯s opponents were nine elite Mavericks. These Mavericks were legendary, and given the chaos at hand, they had decided to assist without hesitation. Fortunately, none of them had decided to work together; some did not even realize that they hadrades, as their solitary nature was already deeply embedded within them. Mavericks were often equated to being loners.

    The battle was one that would prove unforgettable for everyone involved. Of the nine Mavericks, one had died on the spot, and another two had fallen into a vegetative state. Actual murder achieved through the virtual world was only a legend told among Mavericks, and now they were repeatedly realized.

    Ye Chong was not interested in matters of the virtual world. As long as Mu was alright, he was fine with it. Mu and Shang were irreceable to him.

    23s had lost contact with the outside world, and everyone could only watch in horror. It was already four hours after the virtual world was first attacked. By now, everyone had realized what was going on.

    The residents on Windstar panicked, and found their world rapidly decaying into a mess. Public order was declining rapidly, and the skies were filled with mechs flown by horrified pilots. Violence sprouted on the streets.

    The ce was now a living hell!

    Hak felt his head throbbed in pain. He never expected to meet with such a crisis. They had lost allmunications with ck Cove, and his underlings had reported that four Cosmic res had failed to return to base. This was a bad omen.

    Windstar was now in a mess. It was impossible to conduct a search, and difficult even to return to ck Cove. Who knew when the virtual world could be restored!

    However, the news of the four Cosmic res failing to return made him uneasy. Cosmic res were powerful mechs, and he could not think of any other opponent that could destroy them besides the Sanctuary and the MPA. Perhaps the F-58 might be capable enough, but these were four Cosmic res - how could he destroy four Cosmic res single handedly? He would not believe it. Even if he had a full-skeleton mech, it was still impossible.

    On Windstar, the only ones powerful enough to destroy four Cosmic res were the Sanctuary and the MPA.

    Could this be premeditated? Hak felt his heart skipped a beat. Indeed, it was quite a coincidence to lose four Cosmic res just when the virtual world went down. Hak felt that something was amiss.

    Could this be a trap? Hak¡¯s expression twisted.

    With such arge scale catastrophe, Hak believed that only one of the Three Forces could be responsible for it. Of course, it was not ck Cove, he knew that. Then, was it the Sanctuary or the MPA? What was their objective?

    Hak could feel a headacheing. He may be an instructor, but strategizing was not his forte. He felt that it was already an improvement for him to deduce this much.

    In any case, they should first search for those four Cosmic res, dead or alive. "Humph, even if it is the Sanctuary or the MPA, I have nothing to fear," Hak thought to himself. The thing he was most worried about was F-58. There was still no sign of him. His orders hade from the top; should he fail ¡­ Hak shuddered at the consequences.

    He decided to lead a squad and head outside to investigate.

 Chapter 204 - Director of Chaos III

    <h4>Chapter 204: Director of Chaos III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong watched speechlessly at the chaos outside. This was a war between him and the Three Forces. Ye Chong did not exactly feel regret, but anyone watching the events unfolding would be affected. Shang was ruthless - no, whether it was Shang, Mu or himself, they all had their ruthless sides.

    "Ye, arge squad of ck Cove mechs are heading this way." With the timely warning, Ye Chong quickly flew Han Jia into the darkness for cover. The ck Cove mechs swished past him, and Ye Chong spotted Instructor Hak amongst them.

    35 mechs in total! Ye Chong was shocked by their numbers! Cosmic res were designed to be menacingly eye-catching, and a full squad of them made for a terrifying sight. Thisrge squad of mechs charged through the road, unimpeded by other mechs at the sides. Ye Chong trailed behind them silently, eager to find out what they were up to.

    The sky was full of mechs, and Han Jia was effectively hidden despite its odd appearance. However, there were more than a few mechs that wanted to jump on him along the way, and Ye Chong had to deal with them swiftly in order to catch up with ck Cove.

    Ye Chong finished off at least 7 or 8 mechs along the way. The skies were littered with bouts, as more people began to unleash their vicious nature, no longer restrained by thews of old. Fragments of mechs could be seen scattered about the grounds. In the end, Ye Chong decided to fly close to the ground. There were indeed fewer mechs at this height, and Ye Chong followed the ck Cove mechs at a distance.

    In this chaotic mess, holographic scans were mostly useless. Hak found the situation outside more severe than he expected, and most of the ck Cove mech pilots could only stare in stupefaction!

    The people here were mad! Everyone felt like they were sitting on an unstable energy cell that could explode at any moment. The dense flock of mechs in the skies was the result of overwhelming panic, and every member of ck Cove could only move forward carefully. If they got themselves involved in the mess, they would only be a small part of therger scene of chaos.

    Hak was also getting anxious.

    Ye Chong moved like a fish, slipping easily between the mechs and buildings, dealing with any hostile mechs that came his way as he followed the ck Cove squad at a distance.

    Fortunately, Mu¡¯s scanning system was not significantly affected, a testimony to Mu¡¯s strength. Mu was strong in all aspects. Back when Ye Chong began to study Mu¡¯s engine, he could not understand a thing about it, as the engine was more advanced than seemingly possible. Who could possibly have designed Mu? This was one of very few questions that Ye Chong continued to take interest in.

    However, the thought was quickly dismissed as he regained his focus, following the ck Cove squad from behind. Even if the probability of being detected was very small, it was still sensible to be cautious.

    "Ye, 30 degrees from the radius vector, there are MPA¡¯s mechs, 22 of them." Mu¡¯s cold and t announcement came through in his clear electronic voice.

    The MPA?

    Ye Chong suddenly had an idea, and Han Jia immediately ramped up its speed. Night was the perfect cover for Han Jia, and since Ye Chong stuck close to the ground, it was impossible to spot him. As for the other average mechs that were targeting him, Ye Chong ignored them and escaped by sheer speed.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind was racing - he had no time to consult Mu. He was evaluating the feasibility of his idea. On the trash, Ye Chong had developed a keen hunting intuition. However, his time spent relying on Mu and Shang had made him out of practice. In this moment, Ye Chong felt like he had returned to the trash, and his intuition came back to life.

    Han Jia moved quickly, and swept like a gust below the ck Cove mechs, heading straight towards the MPA mechs.

    Ye Chong felt particrly excited, and his hands moved faster. Han Jia¡¯s astonishing speed made it effectively like a ghost moving through the night, and the chaotic situation made it almost unnoticeable; what few people who saw it would only thought it was a trick of the eye.

    Han Jia mmed to a halt firmly on the ground.

    Ye Chong¡¯s face betrayed no expression. From his extensive experience in hunting, he knew that now was the time to keep his calm in order to gather his prize.

    Ye Chong had took a huge detour, beginning from behind the ck Cove mechs and ending up behind the MPA mechs.

    The MPA and ck Cove were outright enemies. Ye Chong¡¯s mind was spinning furiously, and he finally decided to execute his n, as there was not enough time to evaluate it any further. The window of opportunity was very small. Looking at these two mech squads, they would probably pass by each other without noticing.

    Beneath Han Jia¡¯s feet were all sorts of mech fragments, left behind by the ones who lost in whatever bouts they were involved in.

    Han Jia quickly picked up a heat ray gun, still attached to a severed mech arm.

    Ye Chong¡¯s n was simple - he wanted the mechs from ck Cove and the MPA to notice each other.

    Han Jia was behind and beneath the MPA mechs, and could see the ck Cove mechs at a distance from where he stood. Even though it was nighttime, and ck Cove¡¯s mechs were all in ck, the thirty over Cosmic res were still very conspicuous. These were powerful mechs lined up in tight formation, and the result was staggering. Other mechs quickly made way for this obviously hostile squad of mechs. The clear perimeter around the ck Cove mechs made them even more obvious.

    However, there was still a hoard of mechs engaged in battle, right between the ck Cove and MPA squads.

    Looking at the heat ray gun in his hand and the messy hoard of mech in front, Ye Chong could not help but sigh. Why was his shooting skills so horrible? Besides, he would have to shoot while moving with the MPA mechs, and his targets were also constantly in motion.

    Ye Chong had no confidence in his shooting skills. In his hands, the gun was as effective as a metal stick.

    Ye Chong was vexed, when suddenly, a wide opening appeared in the mech hoard between the ck Cove and the MPA.

    Ye Chong was overjoyed, and aimed the heat ray gun through Han Jia.

    "Target locked." Mu¡¯s calm voice gave him courage, and Ye Chong pulled the trigger without hesitation.

    The faint light beams appeared weak against the dark background of the night. The sky was filled with beams aiming at various direction, and it was only natural for the heat ray beams to blend in with the others.

    Immediately after it fired, Han Jia slipped into the hoard of mechs for cover.

    Ye Chong¡¯s shooting skills were deplorable, and even with Mu¡¯s help, most of the heat rays missed their targets. Fortunately, however, some of them still hit the ck Cove mechs.

    The Cosmic res that were hit paused and looked towards the source of the attack. Almost immediately after that, the ck Cove squad shifted their formation in anticipation - they had spotted the MPA¡¯s mech squad.

    Ever since holographic scanning systems were invented, people hade to rely heavily on them. The system allowed for further and clearer lines of sight, with arger scanning perimeter. Thebination of photon processors and holographic scanning had also reduced the stress on the mech pilot in monitoring the scans.

    However, as holographic scanning systems improved generation after generation, they still had their ws. In a chaotic situation like this one, holographic scanning uracy dropped significantly.

    Both the MPA and ck Cove mech pilots relied heavily on holographic scans. As for Ye Chong, his time spent in theplicated territory on the trash had taught him better to use his eyes instead.

    The MPA¡¯s mech squad was even more obvious. They were all white, arranged in battle formation. Any mech that entered their security perimeter would be greeted with a dazzling beam of light and a violent explosion.

    After eliminating a few mechs this way, no more mechs dared to get close to them.

    It was eerie to see both mech squads having a clear perimeter around them.

    The ck Cove mech squad switched directions upon noticing the MPA mechs.

    As the ck Cove mech squad reorganized themselves, the hoard of mechs between them and the MPA began to feel the building pressure of the threat. They quickly cleared the grounds to avoid getting involved.

    In the span of a few seconds, the hoard of mechs between the two mech squads had cleared out. Against the backdrop of chaos in the skies, here was a clear flying pathway.

    If the MPA still did not notice their enemy by now, they should really just shoot themselves.

    Almost instantly, the MPA¡¯s mech squad shifted their formation in anticipation too.

    The growing tension between the two mech squads was so thick that even breathing became difficult.

    Mech squabbles were not rare, but a battle between proper mech formations was. It was also obvious that the two sides were not made up of average mechs; any mech amateur could tell that.

    Many of the mechs battling nearby had stopped by now, watching the two mech squads.

    ck and White locked gaze at a distance.

    Ye Chong hid himself amongst the other mechs and watched.

    Compared to the newly formed grudge between the Sanctuary and ck Cove, the MPA and ck Cove were old enemies, and a meeting between the two would often end up as a fight to the death. Ye Chong had experienced this hostility first hand on Blue Ocean in his F-58. If he had not acted quickly then, he would have died many times over.

    Abruptly, both sides attacked almost simultaneously! No words were exchanged.

    The MPA mechs fired with all they had, moving backwards at the same time. They needed to widen the distance to gain the upper hand with their long range expertise. Even while moving backwards, their formation remained in shape.

    The ck Cove mechs, however, quickly formed smaller squads and charged ahead like ck vipers.

    Distance was key in a battle between ck Cove and the MPA. As someone who was familiar with the battle strategies of both sides, Ye Chong understood this well enough.

    With the short distance between them, and the advantage in numbers of the ck Cove mechs led by an instructor, the MPA would lose. That was Ye Chong¡¯s deduction.

    "The MPA will probably lose this time." Ye Chong said to Mu.

    "Yes, based on my information, the probability is above 80 percent." Mu analyzed calmly.

    "Looks like our n is a sess." Ye Chong was feeling good.

    "Based on the current situation, if everything goes a nned, it will be sessful." Mu was still replying in his cold manner.

    The MPA seemed to realize that escape was impossible, and acted as much.

    Ye Chong had seen the mechs of the Sanctuary and ck Cove battle in formation, but that was in space, and Ye Chong was not particrly awed by it. Here, however, the battle was within the atmosphere, right above the city, and Ye Chong could finally realize the horror of it all.

    Both sides were nemesis, and knew each other well. From the beginning, they were no fancy moves. All strived to draw blood.

    The spectating mech pilots all stared in shock! Compared to the battle they were seeing, their own bouts seemed like child¡¯s y.

    The astonishing speed at which the battle progressed was also startling.

    However, they did not expect the spillover effects of the battle to affect them.

    As the battleground expanded, the two sides began to invade the space of the spectating mechs.

    One particr mech was blocking the way of a Cosmic re in pursuit of a Messenger, and was instantly dismembered into a thousand pieces. The Cosmic re was undeterred and continued its pursuit.

    The most terrifying was the Messenger¡¯s light beams. Normalser beams were enough to prate two mechs, but the Javelin Angel¡¯s nanowaves were even more powerful - one shot was enough to sear out a clear spot.

    "Heavens, are they still human?" All the mech pilots were horrified! Whatever courage they had was now diminished to nothingness.

    When ruthlessness was met against more extreme ruthlessness, the result was horror and despair.

    Almost all the surrounding mechs had stopped fighting and escaped as fast as they could. They could only me their engines for not flying fast enough to clear the area. A few mechs were still deeply engrossed in their fight. Bang! A huge explosion wiped them out.

    With this live example, the surrounding people picked up their pace in escaping.

    While he was eager to find out the oue of the battle, he would stick out like a sore thumb by staying behind. Ye Chong reluctantly left with the retreating swarm of mechs.

    All in all, the n was sessful. As for the results, time would tell. Ye Chong returned to the hospital building in good spirits, while Mu worked on controlling events in the virtual world.

    Nheless, ever since the great battle between ck Cove and the MPA, public order had surprisingly improved. At least, there were no longer any mech squabbles in the skies.

    Ye Chong never suspected the long terms consequences the n he, Mu and Shang had put in motion for the state of the world. Perhaps, even if he knew, Ye Chong, Mu and Shang would probably feel indifferent about it.

 Chapter 205 - Change

    <h4>Chapter 205: Change</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Five days went by quickly. With the exception of the initial chaos, followed by the open war between ck Cove and the MPA, it seemed as though all other criminal activity had ceased. After the initial confusion, governments reacted swiftly and organized police mech patrols all over the skies. Daily goods were delivered door to door.

    However, the destruction left from the war was difficult to recover from. Even though it was only a war that involved over 50 mechs, their scientific advances far exceeded anything the Five Gxies had ever seen before. It was a traumatic experience for Windstar. Thousand Birds zone received the heaviest damage. The prosperous area was now littered with ruins, and the casualties came in staggering numbers. War was cruel, and everyone could feel the cold atmosphere spreading from it.

    This was a one-in-a-century kind of disaster! These five days felt like centuries to the residents of these 23s. The most discouraging thought was, no one knew how long it would go on. Would it be a month? A whole year? None could answer this question.

    Just when everyone was quietly enduring the disaster, the virus in the virtual world seemed to have vanished unexpectedly. People discovered to their surprise that all systems were beginning to function again.

    Communications were up, traffic was organized ¡­ It seemed everything had returned to normal. People went to the streets to celebrate the end of the disaster.

    "Hah, you wouldn¡¯t know it, let me tell you, this time it¡¯s thanks to the alliance of the governments of the Five Gxies that killed that d*mned virus. I heard there are also some experts from the military ¡­"

    This seemed to be the most reasonable exnation, and people epted it quickly. They fully rxed and cheered jubntly. After the disaster, the joy of rebuilding was apanied by the sorrow that came from the disaster.

    Things began to get back on track.

    Soon, a massive influx of aid agencies arrived at Windstar, bringing with them arge amount of various direly needed resources. Together with them was also a good amount of reporters.

    Of the 23s, Windstar received the worst of it all.

    The diligent reporters amassed a great amount of information, such as recordings of the fights on Windstar. The most precious one was of a courageous citizen, who recorded a holographic video of the war between the MPA and ck Cove.

    This recording caused a huge uproar. All the mech designers realized that their so-called advanced mechs were useless against these ck and white mechs. The advanced level mech pilots were shocked by the piloting standard demonstrated by those mech pilots. Unbelievable mech maneuvering, extraordinary shooting skills - in their mind, most of the skills demonstrated in the video was impossible for any human. Mechbat experts in the virtual world recognized that the ck mechs were actually using close range battle techniques. Close range mech models rapidly gained poprity.

    For the average people, they were horrified by the cruelty of those mech pilots.

    No one knew who they were, where they came from, or the name of their mech models. Everything was shrouded in mystery. However, one thing was clear - no one in the Five Gxies had such power in their hands. People began to realize that the world was not as peaceful as it seemed to be, and that not all forces were governed by theirws.

    War had been such an unfamiliar term to them. This holographic recording, however, seemed to suggest the advent of one. Windstar¡¯s Thousand Birds zone beared witness to it. The spillover effects from more than 50 mechs had nearly destroyed the entire administrative zone. The thought was chilling.

    Just as terrifying were the curved guns held in the hands of the white mechs, as beautiful as they were dangerous!

    Only experts specialized in nanowaves would realize that the guns had actually shot out nanowaves. In the Five Gxies, nanowaves were only at an experimental stage, and far from any real application.

    The nanowave experts were not the only ones to feel dejected. The scientific technology demonstrated by both sides in this holographic recording made all scientists realize the difference in their abilities. The difference was not negligible, but a truly huge disparity.

    Who were these people?

    It was not that the world had never heard of the Three Forces - ck Cove, the Sanctuary and the MPA. The Three Forces were deeply entangled with many local governments around the world, but the magnitude of this war was enough to ovee the suppressive forces of these governments.

    Information about the Three Forces began to leak, little by little in the virtual world. The Sanctuary was never heard of by the public, and were now a deep mystery to the people. The benevolent MPA now inspired fear.

    For anyone with a littlemon sense, it was easy to realize that the former peace was over.

    Together with the Sanctuary that had not been openly exposed thus far, the Three Forces had enough power to rival that of the Five Gxies, governor of their worlds. This meant that the Three Forces were not ruled by thews of the Five Gxies. With the authorities at war, how could the people live peacefully?

    All these matter were, of course, ignored by Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong waited for Wang Weixing¡¯s return, the only thing that mattered to him. ording to Wang Weixing¡¯s schedule in the hospital building¡¯s control photon processor, this was the day Wang Weixing woulde back. Ye Chong was afraid that the chaos on Windstar would dy his return.

    However, Ye Chong did not expect Wang Weixing to not only reach Windstar on time, but head straight towards the hospital from his flight without returning home to rest. A doctor¡¯s heart was still difficult for Ye Chong to understand. Windstar had too many casualties that swarmed the hospital, and the medical team was overwhelmed. That was why Wang Weixing had rushed to the hospital.

    With his part of the n perfectly executed, Mu retired to give way to Shang. Shang took the schedule between them seriously, and would not allow himself to have less surfacing time. As for Mu, he was uninterested in "surfacing", and seldom argued with Shang. Fortunately, Shang had not developed the habit of taking advantage of Mu.

    "So many people!" Shang sighed.

    "Yeah, it¡¯s a lot of them!" Therge hospital building was swarming with people, and the wounded could be seen everywhere. Windstar Hospital was not only a medical facility, but also a research center. However, due to the enormous volume of casualties, all medical staff had been called to service. Looking at the situation before him, Ye Chong began to have doubts on his decision in executing this n.

    Shang affected a sympathetic tone as he said, "Sigh, war, such a horrible thing!"

    Ye Chong burst his bubble. "Don¡¯t pretend, you¡¯re the main culprit!"

    "Cough, cough, Ye, don¡¯t simply say these things, I¡¯m as pure as an angel!" Shang lied outright.

    "What¡¯s an angel?" Ye Chong¡¯s many adventures in the outside world had obviously not touched on old legends and myths.

    "It¡¯s a mythical God with wings, one with a pure and kind heart."

    "Oh, a birdman!"

    "Cough, cough ¡­"

    Ye Chong finally saw Wang Weixing, and immediately find him looking very familiar. When Ye Chong had just escaped from ck Cove and boarded a starship, he had encountered one old Mr Wang, and he looked just like Wang Weixing. Was this really a coincidence? Nheless, aside from a tiny sigh on how small the world was, Ye Chong had no other concerns. He was wearing a mask back then, and Wang Weixing would probably not recognize him.

    Wang Weixing looked weary from his long interster travel, and the fact that he had not rested since he stepped into the hospital only made him look even more tired. Wang Weixing smiled and said, "Young man, have a sit."

    Ye Chong found a seat and sat down without hesitation.

    After Ye Chong finished exining his situation, Wang Weixing spoke after a moment¡¯s thought, "Alright, why don¡¯t I perform a full examination on you first. Your issue might be moreplicated, and I¡¯ll need time to do some research. Besides, as you can see, there¡¯s a lot of people out there who needs immediate medical attention, so I¡¯ll need longer."

    Ye Chong asked, "How long?"

    Wang Weixing gave it a thought and said, "Hmm about four days."

    Ye Chong nodded. "Alright, then I¡¯lle back in four days."

    Wang Weixing gave a smallugh. "Thank you for your understanding."

    Ye Chong replied calmly, "It¡¯s alright." While he really hoped for Wang Weixing to examine him immediately, Ye Chong understood that it was not an option. Ever since he stepped into the hospital, he had seen many casualties, and he could do nothing to ease the situation.

    He quietly returned to the main hospital building¡¯s photon processor control room. Four days was not too long for Ye Chong. He had plenty of things to keep him upied in the meantime. Alchemy, for example, or that chip left by Lan Yixing, or meditation. The control room was spacious enough for him to even practice piloting Guardian. As for Mu and Shang, they would help him find out more about the man called Gao Shichang.

    Ye Chong did not know that the investigation on Gao Shichang was going to be a lot harder than expected.

 Chapter 206 - Physique

    <h4>Chapter 206: Physique</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Prometheus Group was a ssic, established, time-honored brand for mech manufacturing. Their Matte series were once a hot-selling ssic among the pilots, whichter became the backbone of the entire infantry ofter mech productions. "The Father of all Mechs", the prime designer of Matte series, Gao Shichang was called.

    For a series that retained its influence in the market today despite being 2 decades old, one could tell the capability of this series and that justified how Prometheus Group established their ce in the field today. Easily anyone could im that, without Matte series, there would be no Prometheus Group. ording to these premises, Gao Shichang, a significant figure of the whole group, who also happened to be the one who stirred up a storm in the designing industry for being the best mech designer among the 5 gxies back then, should not be a challenging topic to research on¡­

    Or so Ye Chong thought¡­ The reality was against his presumption however. Gao Shichang¡¯s information was not as easy as having his name suggested right after the letter "G" being typed on the search engine he thought. Ye Chong could not tell if his long-lost papa could have been that Gao Shichang. Only if he could find a clear hologram visual of Gao Shichang right now¡­ he believed he could get the answer right away.

    But the catch, the very strange catch was, there had hardly been any information about Gao Shichang on the virtual worldworking system. He did discover a few entries, which only contained a few brief lines of description. Hologram visuals were nothing new in this gxy where people travelled in the sky as routine, machines did most of the work and people read on hologramic interfaces, there should have been a visual of Gao Shichang, yet to Ye Chong¡¯s confusion, there was barely any, not even a silhouette.

    Mu was handling the searching currently and it was an astonishment to the artificial intelligence as well. The sound exnation would be, Ye Chong believed, the records about Gao Shichang were deliberately erased from the system, obviously by some really advanced Mavericks like Mu.

    Unfortunately it had been so long that any sign of tant deletion had already disappeared way before Ye Chong¡¯s inspection.That was already the case in reality, not to mention the Virtual World which had a tremendously rapid updating system flow.

    Mu even hacked into the demographic information center as an attempt to retrieve potentially overlooked information. Nevertheless, "Gao Shichang" returned a negative result. The information center had stricter administration however, as Mu discovered something¡­ "Yes, there were signs of deliberate deletion." The journals were kept perfectly too, there were some clues but it would be way too far-fetched if one were to find out a man who disappeared 20 years ago with solely clues this little.

    The conclusion? Ye Chong could confirm something with Mu Shang in the end - someone or something had destroyed all sorts of information attached to Gao Shichang.

    And that someone or something must be a super Maverick because it would be considerably difficult to wipe out someone on thepletely without rming people, even for Mu.

    The more peculiar part was this was done by a Maverick. Twenty years ago. If that Maverick lingered, hell knows how potent he or she had be. Although one could argue that a Maverick was not a profession which the skill was determined by age, so far not a single one Maverick was known to lose their skills gradually as they aged. Perhaps it could be the imaginative nature or the creativity that one elderly could lose against the youngster. Nheless, the elderly always held the calmness brewed by the years he gained immense experience from, which eventually his calction would turn be more acute and cautious, with mistakes little to none. A senior Maverick¡¯s calction would be more of a hard nut to crack.

    Mu tirelessly was still on the, looking for any tiny bit of information rted to Gao Shichang. Regarding this, both Mu and Shang possessed something that most humanity did not - they did not recognize fatigue, they did not recognize dejection. They were immensely patient.

    Ye Chong could not meddle with this search, not the slightest. He might be the first person in the entire gxy who wanted to find out the visual of Gao Shichang, but if it turned out to be a random guy with the same name as his father, an amusing coincidence, he was not that kind of caring person who would get involved with a total stranger. If that was indeed his father, no way he would be watching everything by the side.

    So, to do or not to do, the keyy within the visual of his "papa".

    Ye Chong had some great self-control, for he did not waste the next 4 days doing nothing, despite having losing his head over the search. Lunatic Guan had given him a very detailed course to study. That little chip was consuming to read, unlike Lan Yixing¡¯s martial arts guide which he had rich experience in, making it rtable. Moreover, Ye Chong had some basics on muscle maniption that he could learn the Lan family of the September effortlessly, he justcked the guidance after all, which Lan Yixing¡¯s chip would suffice. Alchemy however, was something new. He did learn a few tricks from Lunatic Guan, but the following sybus was so deep, he literally knocked the way out with his cracked head.

    At least he had good understanding and memory so it was not that torturous after all.

    For meditation, Ye Chong kept it up the whole while. Even though the way of living of a mentalist was felt to be not his thing, he could feel the benefits from doing basic meditation.

    Yes, the calmness during battle, which reasoned the fearsomeness of mentalist for Ye Chong. That eternal serenity,bined with the mysterious forces and average martial archery, Ye Chong would say the real threat would be those from the Sanctuary, rather than the ck Covers or MPAs.

    4 days passed like a day. Whenever Ye Chong got his head into knowledge, time sure flew.

    Ye Chong came to the clinic of Wang Weixing, who never had an idea that Ye Chong had been causing little bit of havoc at the outside with his identity.

    The clinic was still busy as ever. Well, it felt more of a medical center, a hospital, as the wounded whined and whimpered. The wailing rang throughout the corridor, at least there were much lesser injuriespared to his visit 4 days ago.

    Wang Weixing had his hair tussled, messed, ruffled, any way one could describe a total mess in fatigue, tantly telling Ye Chong that he did not spend the past 4 days well. The tasks could be fatal to an elderly like him. There was too much to do and too little workforce to help, although he did not even have the leisure to think of the fatality of taking one patient or another, as he screamed "Next!", every few minutes.

    "Here¡¯s my boy," said Wang Weixing with a smile upon seeing Ye Chong, whom he believed to be the one who understood the reality of being a doc.

    "Mhm," Ye Chong sat right in front of Wang Weixing.

    The moment the doctor took his seat along, the expression turned stern. The fatigue on the face vaporized and was reced with solemnity.

    "Mhmmmm¡­" Pondered the elderly, "My boy, I had performed a detailed research on the oue of your body inspection. As you have mentioned that you had certain kinds of symptoms, I would say you could have consumed some kind of steroids before, by mistake."

    Ye Chong did not interrupt the doctor as his expression demanded his boration.

    "Such steroid¡­ a very tyrannic kind. Or precisely, dominating. This is the first steroid being so dominating in reaction I had encountered after all these years in my research. It was also the first strange kind too." The doctor took a breath.

    "Normally, as long as it is a steroid, or even artificial hormone, there would be side effects inevitably, which would be reflected on your body directly, like the pattern of your body changes for example, be it rashes or disarmed immunity. But the one you have taken by mistake¡­ there is in fact a side effect, but not on simple things like these, rather it would make you depend upon it. The dependency grew so overwhelmingly that the mentioned symptoms would return as long as you do not take them regrly."

    Then the doctor eximed, "How horrifying¡­"

    "The steroid could vastly improve your body mechanism. It performs modification on your muscr structure. In this case, it would not burden your body. Yes, yes, yes, as long as you take them regrly that is. On the contrary, it had modified your body, an overhaul I must say and an rming ones that is. I seriously have no idea who made this but it¡¯s genius! It took me quite a while but I still could not find out its exact chemicalposition."

    Ye Chong was expressionless the whole time.

    "Hah! My boy, do not worry, if this steroid has given me enough shock you thought, then you are wrong, you had given me a greater shock," gleefully the doctor replied.

    "What?" Ye Chong frowned. "Me?" Clearly, he did notprehend.

    The elderly grinned, "I had performed a full inspection on your body remember? The oue was truly a shocker to me. Most of the mechanism of your body turns out to be way above average, including the strength of your muscr structure, the density of your skeleton system and even the capacity of your cardiovascr system. Physique-wise, your body is hitting perfection. And from your bloodstream I had retrieved some residue of a kind of steroid and then there¡¯s this thing, flowing in your blood, an unknown chemical substance¡­"

    "What is it?" Ye Chong remained calm.

    The calmness of the boy was something Wang Weixing found to be entric. Normally any youngster of Ye Chong¡¯s age would be jumping from the chair and demanding an immediate response, but Ye Chong was there sitting, all wordless and wise, even when the topic was something regarding his life.

    "It¡¯s a factor. A very different factor," he smiled. "I had nevere across such factor before in my life and I could not find any information on it. But I could be confident to say that, this is the factor which keeps improving your body."

    "Well, you probably were the kind of kid with a well-built bodypared to your ssmates back then I suppose?"

    Nodded Ye Chong.

    "Then that¡¯s it. I had attempted to extract the factor from your sample, but never knew I would fail miserably in the end in spite of all methods I have tried. Shame¡­" Wang Weixing¡¯s expression grew regretful, "Although I had failed miserably, I still managed to find something unique."

    "What was unique?" asked Ye Chong.

    Wang Weixing was a medical doctor, but he also was a researcher. And that moment his seriousness of being a researcher was depicted.

    "The factor happened to be very simr with the steroid you have mis-swallowed. But theposition of the factor was much more facilitated than the steroid I must say, that I even started to suspect if the steroid was a copycat trying to mimic theposition of the factor instead. It turned out to be a failed carbon copy. The factor mixes with the blood way better than the steroid. Let me guess, you did not have any of those symptoms before you consumed this steroid, am I right?"

    "Nope," he shook his head, even though the conference in his head was about to get chaotic. When the hell did I even have a factor running in my blood and I did not know?

    The response was expected, "That would be it. The superior physique you possess shares a corrtion with the factor inside you, like the structure of your muscles for example, ording to exercise physiology, your structure must be colossal great to supply the strength you wield for now. However, because of the factor inside you or in simpler terms, the strange physique of yours, your structure would not gain its mass while your strength grew over the time. That steroid was a ring copy of the factor, trying to get a simr effect on your body, but it was half-baked so it returned a number of side effects in the end."

    ¡­

    Ye Chong was silent. His inside was grumbling in chaos. Mu Shang were also wondering the same conundrum, his physique had always been a mystery.

    "The physique you have¡­ should be of inheritance, as such factor has a strong resistance to foreign matters so you could not obtain it by a simple injection or whatsoever. The steroid you possibly have injected was pre-dominating since the dosage was high, which resulted those symptoms you have mentioned for the next long period of time. But slowly, gradually, as time goes, that factor of yours took back its ce as it engulfed and destroyed the steroid particles inside you. The amount of steroid inside you remained at a negligible amount now. So not much to worry¡­ Those symptoms should never ur again." The doctor seemed very pleased for the youngster freed from disease.

    "Woohoo, you heard that? Ye? You are actually alright!" Shang who had listened to the exchange the entire time was grooving joyfully inside Ye Chong.

    "The warning¡­" Wang Weixing withdrew his smile, "My boy, please, listen, on my plead, please, never ever consume any more of those steroids. The side effects are too great and the effects are subparpared to the factor inside you. You seriously could have ditched this business failure, it was a bad trade. And one more thing, all of the current unique physique or bloodline we have discovered so far in Science are known to suffer from a particr type of weakening, which we would name it as ¡®Rtivity Diminish Syndrome", you''ve got to ask your family, the immediate members of yours, like your parents for example, to know if they suffer from any kind of disease. Or else¡­ if one day you suffer from the syndrome and you are not ready for it, that¡­ that would be horrible I would say. You could die from it."

    Immediate members¡­ family? Those words rang bitterly in Ye Chong¡¯s ears. Those were some really foreign terminologies he had heard.

    "Alright¡­ I had covered most of the things¡­ I think." He checked the list in his hand, "Mhm, the conclusion, all is well and your body is much healthier than most people out there. If it was not the happening this time, I would really love to take a careful research on the factor inside you. Mhm, right, good, good, well I have some other patients to diagnose, if you would excuse me," summoned Wang Weixing, for the next patient!

    "Thank you," bowed Ye Chong slightly, the line came off wholly from his heart.

    Wang Weixing did not look at Ye Chong. He waved his hands, signaling him to go, as his eyes were fully focused on the statistic, the diagrams on the hologram appeared on his table.

    Ye Chong felt much more relieved as he left the hospital. The syndrome actually cured itself and the mystery of his physique had been revealed.

    Family members? Well that was nothing to concern about. He grew up on Trash, so where the hell could he find a family member? There was one and only one member, papa¡­ And papa was ¡­ well, perhaps he would be alone for the rest of his life. Thought Ye Chong as he looked at the sky.

    Thest mystery of his life could just be whether papa was Gao Shichang, the designer of mechs after all. If that was done, he would find a and spend his remaining life in tranquility with his best buddies, Mu and Shang, just like Grandpa Qian at Blue Ocean, doing the things he liked, caring for the people he truly cared.

 Chapter 207 - My Life as a Spaceship Owner I

    <h4>Chapter 207: My Life as a Spaceship Owner I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rainbow, was a residential in the Fal gxy, where there would be an arch of rainbow after every rainfall in the sky. Sometimes the arch was brightly colorful. Sometimes it was a little pale, with a beautiful translucency which people adored as much as its starkness on asions. The name of the was from this arch of course. The HQ of Prometheus was also located there.

    Ye Chong was an action-oriented person. He would not want to waste his youth on Windstar. He nned to leave the after discovering the syndrome to be null the whole time. The MPA had some issues with ck Coves back then but Ye Chong had never seen the fireworks in the sky with them flying against each other ever since. Ye Chong would not buy the fact that the forces had forgotten his existence nheless.

    Windstar had been obliterated generally, like the remnants of the were only there to denounce its death, as various organizations came to rescue. The number of spaceships grew dramatically ever since. Ye Chong could not find a spaceship which would directly head to Rainbow however.

    "Ye! Ye!" Shang on the other hand kept suggesting him to get a spaceship, as the artificial indulgence named the advantages, "Well, it¡¯s cool. Chick digs it." Those so-called advantages did not pique Mu and Ye Chong¡¯s interest. The suggestion itself did get his interest nheless.

    If I own a spaceship myself, the advantages are there. I no longer have to do spaceship-pooling and I could significantly lower the chances of being discovered by the forces in the gxy. With the spaceship, I would gain direct mobility and I could perform the necessary action if anything bad happens¡­

    The catch would be the identification procedure whenever theynded a. Well that was not an issue to Mu, since he could work on something in the databank of the Virtual World. Getting a legitimate identity for Ye Chong was a piece of cake.

    "Very well¡­" As a consensus was achieved, the next step would be getting a spaceship itself.

    The price of a spaceship was utterly of a different levelpared to mechs. The manufacturers of spaceships were none other than those majorpanies, superior groups with vast resources andworking. It was not something those averagepanies could handle.

    n A would be to steal the ship from someone else. That was the only n in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. "No." Both Mu and Shang disagreed, with the reasons being, "The situation of Windstar is currently at a highly rmed state, any deviance would immediately gain attention from every other individuals," by Mu; "No civilized man would use such a low and crude method just to obtain a ride," by Shang.

    If both Mu and Shang disagreed to that, then it must be because they had gotten a better n. Ye Chong kept his mouth shut. He had better things to do. Time was never a thing Ye Chong believed to be ample of, same goes with tasks. The learning tasks had always been there and those were the things that formted growth in his capabilities. Strength, capabilities were his everything.

    And Ye Chong was in an abandoned underground storage at the moment. Whether how and why Mu found out, that was not his concern. He realized how perfect the ce was for his piloting practice. "Let¡¯s see¡­" Ye Chong began listing the mechs he had. There were Han Jia and the Guardian, both the most trustworthy arsenals in his team. Then there was one mech he got from the Sanctuary after plotting against them. And Overwing from Mu Fei¡­ 4 Dawn mechs¡­ then a few nonbat models he bought from Nine Gates City.

    Han Jia and the Guardian were the mechs he grew most familiar with. Overwing was excellent but Ye Chong had never used it before, it also required the pilot to coordinate using some Mentalist attributes¡­ then Ye Chong could never excavate its potential with his limited capacity. The original design was outstanding to Ye Chong however, which broadened his horizon on mech designs. Overwing was more of a research sample than a war machine.

    Same goes with the 4 Dawn mechs he plundered before, it was research more than an application purpose, especially when Dawn mechs were way inferior than Overwing. Ye Chong took a few nces before he left them at the corner. His eyes could hardly have them after encountering so many masterpieces on his journey.

    The problem was there. He needed something to pilot but none of the mechs could not be put under the sun, be it Han Jia or the Guardian, even Overwing. He would be busted even before the battery hit the 75% mark. Han Jia could not be camouged, as its surface was made out of unique materials where any finish would go off by the slightest blow of the wind. That was also the case for the Guardian but the miniature design was more of the eye-catching headache. Overwing¡­ that would be just a bloody shoutout to Sanctuary that he killed Mu Fei right in their face. Ye Chong was not that dumb to do a shoutout to enemies. Dawn mechs could be used as a camouge, he could pretend as a rookie Sanctuary pilot and fly but the camouge would only work once or twice.

    It was a plight Ye Chong had discovered, that nothing in his armory was useable. It felt like floating on the seawater while being thirsty.

    Sigh¡­ I¡¯ll figure this out some other time. Ye Chong discarded the thoughts.

    Ye Chong¡¯s understanding towards the martial arts had ascended to a whole new level after learning from Lan Yixing¡¯s microchip.Ye Chong himself felt his skills had improved substantially. It just felt like someone who had been learning things himself was suddenly thrown to a ss of systematic tutorials, which deepened his understanding and did not bind him with the theories the ss taught.

    Applicability-wise, the techniques were very much limited in an unarmed fight, thus the mechbats Ye Chong was practicing at the moment. Inside Han Jia he imagined the possible manner to perform those moves, attempting to pull them off to refine his skills on fighting in a mech.

    His moves were more simplifiedpared to his experience. They were less dazzling and less confusing, where each move was well-flowed with the other and the power had been increased slightly.

    Han Jia remained as the best choice for mechbat practices. For the Guardian, it was the practical mech to fully exert the potency of unarmedbats.

    "Ye!" Shouted Shang during Ye Chong¡¯s practice.

    He held his fist, assuming that Mu and Shang had solved the problem of getting a spaceship, "What is it?"

    As expected, "Kekeke, Ye, we got our ship! We bought it," said Shang.

    "You¡­ bought it?" The verb was the whole point he captured right away, "What did both of you pay with? If it¡¯s money, how?"

    And Ye Chong¡¯s question got an eyeball from Shang, "Money is merely a set of figures to both Mu and I, it was nothing major, we have tons of methods to achieve this."

    "I see," responded Ye Chong, who too held zero interest towards money, "So where¡¯s the ship?"

    "Keke, we would need you for that. But well, before that, you need to get an identity card," Stated Shang.

    Getting an identity card was not something new to Ye Chong. He was so used to it that it did not take him long before the card just popped out of the kiosk machine. The name on the card this time was "Gu Wei", being one insignificant member from the enormous family tree of the aristocratic Gus in Tian Luo gxy. "Gu family" from Tian Luo reminded Ye Chong of Gu Shaoze, who was from the same family of course, a significant one too¡­ probably, spected Ye Chong.

    "Shang, of all families, why the Gus?" asked Ye Chong

    "Well, it is rare for anyone to have a spaceship under private ownership. Only those wealthy aristocrats or administrative group, the executives could normally own it. If you have it under the name of the Gus, it could reduce the amount of hows and whys you get from the people around, plus you won¡¯t be getting that much of attention. The we are heading this time, is located at Fal gxy. That is far, far away from Tian Luo gxy so we probably won¡¯t be bumping into any real member of the Gus. Well, even if we were so unfortunate to encounter one of them, it would not be surprising if we did not recognize each other, considering how huge an aristocratic family like the Gus is, you could not count the branches extended from each family. The probability of them recognizing each other is too low to be discovered. Anybody would stumble upon the tree and give up checking you out."

    "Oh, I see," Ye Chong expressedprehension.

    So, Ye Chong, in ordance with Shang¡¯s instruction, travelled through the ess zone and passed countless spaceships parking by the side. He arrived by one blind corner.

    A gigantic spaceship parked there quietly. The body was dark, t and smoothly curved, with an appearance like a whale. There was no lump, the back was streamlined, unlike those squares and pointed spaceships he usually saw.

    The first thing Ye Chong noticed was the size, where the spaceships nearby were like its little brothers inparison, despite being much smaller than Fred the Great¡¯s Sabre which had the length of 10 km. The spaceship before him was not that outrageously long, but it still had a length of about 5km.

    "How was it, Ye?" asked Shang, satisfied of Ye Chong¡¯s reaction, "Fascinating isn''t it? Sadly it is not n graded, that is what defines a cool spaceship."

    A young man waited near the ship walked towards him upon his arrival, "Excuse me¡­" Courteously he asked, "Are you Mr. Gu Wei?"

    "Yes I am," tly Ye Chong replied, nodding his head.

    "Oh, greetings, Mr. Gu Wei, I am a staff from Windy Sail Group. This is the Zika graded spaceship you have ordered. In ordance with your requirement, we have not named the ship and have officially transferred the naming rights to you. Do you find the ship satisfactory? If you are, kindly enter the ship to acknowledge us your eptance and provide your signature after. You are also entitled to our maintenance service across the gxies, regarding that please refer to the terms and conditions stored in the processor of your spaceship." Briefed the young man politely.

    "Mhm." Nodded Ye Chong, as he boarded the spaceship under young man¡¯s lead. At the main processor Ye Chong took out his identity card to activate anti-theft verification system. He inserted the card to the system and then he was prompted by the processor, stating that the scan had beenpleted.

    The young man took a silvery tablet with a size of a palm out of his shirt. Within a few taps he made, the tablet erged to a size of a table, floating before Ye Chong. Beep! Red light shed and words appeared on the screen gradually. It turned out to be a trade contract. The young man then passed Ye Chong aser stylus. He signed gracefully, the pseudonym of his, Gu Wei and gained the ownership officially.

    "Good bye, have a nice trip." The young man then bade him farewell and left.

    Ye Chong looked at this giant spaceship. He began weaving around the rooms, it had been quite some time since he got this excited. This was in fact his very own spaceship, his first spaceship! Zika graded spaceships were not that colossal kind but its length of 5km still sufficed to considered as therger one among the spaceships.

    "So Ye, what do you think we should call this spaceship?" Shang was joyful, seeing how thrilled Ye Chong was.

    "We need a name for a spaceship?" Ye Chong was bewildered.

    "Of course, don¡¯t you remember how Fred that old bum also named his beauty as ¡®The Sabre¡¯?" Illustrated a real example, Shang stated.

    "Well then, ¡®The One¡¯. There, done." Ye found the name to be the most easiest to remember.

    Certainly Shang the poet would strongly refuse his suggestion, "Ye, how could you give such a senseless name to this baby? No, no, no, absolutely no. I won¡¯t allow this name."

    "Well, take that task for me," he waved his hands. Ye Chong did not care. Naming was a silly thing to him anyway.

    The spaceship was too spacious inside, even Mu Shang could fly freely, let alone for Ye Chong to walk.

    "Ye, head to the main processor at the Captain¡¯s room. There¡¯s a blueprint for the modification. Mu made it. Mhm, the operating system of this spaceship has been changed by Mu. So, don¡¯t worry about the security issues, hehehe." Said Shang.

    Modification? That word struck a glow of fire inside Ye Chong, and it was a n made by Mu! He ran to the Captain¡¯s room straightaway.

    The Captain¡¯s room was expected to amodate 80 men under normal circumstance. It felt empty with only Ye Chong standing there.

    Ye Chong walked to the main processor again. Tick! A blueprint sprang out of the processor. That justified the fact that Mu and Shang had taken full control of the ship. Without both of them, Ye Chong believed it would be hard for him to even turn on the engine. Well normally, to pilot a Zika spaceship, one would require a team of 20 to perform simultaneous coordination of the entire ship.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were stuck on the blueprint.

    The design was truly amazing, as expected from Mu! Eximed Ye Chong.

    The first stark difference was the addition of a few new rooms, being a mini metal researchboratory, a mini alchemy room, a mini modification room and a mech training field. And that was only the first.

    The super intensive, insane, impable shopping festival for Ye Chongmenced! Mu had charged his identity card with a huge amount of money, which Ye Chong had zero concern on its source and the way it got to his card. And that was when Shang announced the name of this ship, "The Cob!" He sounded rather animated when he mentioned it, although both Mu and Ye Chong did not really care. Their attitude was neutral and of total indifference. "Dang¡­" And Shang was depressed for once.

    Okay¡­ so on "The Cob", the space was facilitated with advancedmunicative devices which allowed ess to the Virtual World. Mu guided Ye Chong to log into thework system and they purchased boxes after boxes of apparatus and materials, along with some daily life necessities.

    The figure was ticking fast on Ye Chong¡¯s "own" bank ount, even though he did not feel anything in particr. He only saw the piles in his ship increased day by day. The engineering mech he purchased was finally put into good use. He had spent the next few days being a porter with the machines. Of course, Shang could not get away from this tedious task, though both Mu and he had lost an arm on their actual body, which resulted a much lower efficiencypared to Ye Chong.

    The "festival"sted for literally 5 days. And Ye Chong could stop atst after purchasing everything on the list. Luckily the Cob had a storage sufficient to amodate all these, since the things he bought were already giving him headache in the first ce.

 Chapter 208 - My Life as a Spaceship Owner II

    <h4>Chapter 208: My Life as a Spaceship Owner II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong began his tough task of handling these mountains of items he had purchased. Mu took over control as Shang could be killed by the boredom of the task.

    The 3rgest rooms were made into metal researchb, alchemy room and mod room respectively and the surrounding rooms around the main control room had been made as the storage, where the mountains of things had been transferred to.

    The metal researchb was not huge but was luxuriously facilitated. Ye Chong was not familiar with metallurgy. Mu made the choices of facilities, which all of them happened to be the most avant-garde models in the market. Well that came with a price, which remained unknown to Ye Chong as all he did was tap his identity card on the paying machine. Frankly speaking, he never checked out the price tag when he took them to the counter. He would be learning metallurgy here, since Mu was quite the expert in it.

    The alchemy room, also aboratory precisely speaking, was fully designed by Ye Chong himself. He had been learning the theoretical aspect of the study but never once he had been exposed to hand-on experience. Now with this new alchemistb, he could perform all sorts of alchemy experiments. And well, those apparatuses inside theb would be driving any alchemist mad on first sight. Self-controlled cultivation machine, thermostatic sma room, duo enzymic mixer¡­ all these luxuries that could only be found in the topboratories were sitting right inside Ye Chong¡¯sb.

    The modification room was thergest among them, which did not only contain a range of devices for mech modification, but also had a set of equipment for skeleton parts production. That was the tricky part however as there was no equipment dedicated for skeleton parts production in the market. Most of the time Ye Chong had to make them from scratch. Thankfully the devices sold in the market were of extreme variety that the mod room Ye Chong owned was way better than the top mod room he used to have at Blue Ocean Academy. As most devices were solely avable on pre-order basis, he had to bear with the standard procedure of pre-ordering and waiting. The arrival was still pretty far away from him.

    Finally, the 3 essential rooms were formed. A sigh of relief from Ye Chong, although he was probably a million light years away frompletion. These apparatuses he purchased from the market were not perfect in Mu¡¯s eyes, as he provided a list of suggestion on modification to each apparatus. No doubt the list took a moment of discussion between Mu and Ye Chong and Ye Chong learned something from it.

    Apparatus modification was way more than a simple change of nut to bolt, as these machines were already densely circuited in the beginning. A slight inuracy, a slip of the hand could permanently damage the machine. The demand of cautious uracy was not something Ye Chong used to. But his learning capabilities helped him out. After destroying a few apparatuses, he mastered the unconventional method of operating them. Ye Chong was expected to have much refined technique in handling these machinespared to the times before. Of course, to make this kind of operation a habitual one, the cost he had to bear was unimaginable for most men.

    Okay¡­ Phase 1pleted. The 3 rooms were furnished. Then¡­ the mech training room, that would be easier. Ye Chong picked thergest storage and ced the training equipments in. Done. Ye Chong could no longer improve his piloting skills by merely striving for mastery. He got to take uracy.

    Ye Chong proceeded to Phase 2.

    Phase 1 felt so angelic and harmless the moment he began the Phase 2 of the modification. It involved modification on the weaponry itself, as Ye Chong stood before the offensive system of the spaceship. He staggered. Those matrixes were just the few of the simpler types of simtion of the offenses for ships Mu imed he could find inside the databank. He was obliged to build it since the Cob would be naturally a giant beeb if they were to encounter any foes who would fire at them. Ye Chong would have to sumb to piloting his mech to try fighting back, abandoning the spaceship in the end.

    Even though the 5 major gxies had clearly prohibited the research and development of space warship, Ye Chong did not seem to be bounded by the terms at all. MPA owned a Double Moon Corvette while ck Coves and Sanctuary also had their own warships. Probably even the Prometheus Group owned a handful of warships as well.

    Ye Chong would absolutely agree to any kind of modification as long as it would increase the chances of safety. I guard my own safety! And my safety guards my own fate!

    And then there Ye Chong was, stumbled upon the modification process, as he realized the process turned out to be the hardest part of the entire n.

    This was the first time Ye Chong was exposed to the firepower aspect of the system, and he realized that he could not understand the simtion at all. He was familiar with the firepower, of the mech that is. The weaponry of a spaceship was grander and moreplicated than the one on mech. It would be unrealistic for Ye Chong to master the working behind spaceship weaponry. The vastness of knowledge behind the simple-looking system would be something one would take forever to capture and be unable to see the end.

    But, one does not understand the weaponry would not mean one is unable to make it, especially when one has Mu by the side.

    The whole operation was broken down into several hundred steps by Mu, in which the detailed instructions were specified. Ye Chong only had to follow the steps exactly the way they were written. Mu would be supervising at the side. So for thepletion of this phase, Ye Chong was totally confident.

    The vitalponent of the entire system would be the instation of electromaic cannon, specifically the tubes. Electromaic cannons would fire up after a very brief moment of charging immense energy. So the tubes would be essential for they must be able to withstand the density of the forces without transmutation urring during the process. Any ordinary metal would have melted before the ammo got fired.

    The metalb had a storage which kept countless premium ores and Ye Chong suddenly remembered that, Mu seemed to know form of multiple kinds of strange alloys. As expected, Mu took out a piece of ck gold ore, with a diameter about half a meter. Ye Chong had once collected a massive amount of ck gold ores at the asteroid belt surrounding the ck Coves, since those ores were the specialty of the, with excellent stats and were used in the masks of the ck Covers and their mechs.

    The ores were convincingly heavy. It took a moment for Ye Chong to lift it up, carried it a few steps unsteadily and tossed it into the Maron-based metal separator that he had bought. He turned back and looked at Mu, who was standing there and did not intend to take out another piece apparently.

    "Mu, that¡¯s it?" Asked Ye Chong in peculiarity, "Is one piece enough?"

    "Mhm, it''s more than sufficient. Producing tubes for an electromaic cannon using ck gold is already considered as a form of resources wastage itself. It is a shame that we do not have lightning stone or extracted crystal reactance in possession, while we would run out of material assuming we are making tubes for nanowave cannon instead." Mu seemed rather helpless when he was unable to carry out the optimal route avable.

    Ye Chong simply did not recognize the rarity of ck gold to understand the context. The war machine of the ck Coves, like Cosmic re for example, contained only a little amount of ck gold. Simrly the amount of ck gold in the masks was hardly noticeable. If it was not that strange space whirlpool which dragged Ye Chong to the depth of the asteroid belt, he would never be able to collect ck gold this much.

    Zink! Zink! Zink! Ye Chong could feel the slight vibration from the little window on the separating machine. Shush! And there he saw the piece of ck gold being fully transformed into a pile of ck powder, which veiled the inside of the machine in ck mist. Very quickly after droplets of ck liquid sshed over the window and flowed downwards to form a ck glossy stream. The inside of the machine was rather bizarre for it was hardly tainted by the liquid.

    The liquid flowed smoothly over the surface and collected at one point, eventually condensed into a piece of metallic cube. Ye Chong opened the window and held it in his hand. It was hefty¡­ strangely hefty, glossing in dark.

    Ye Chong, under the further instruction of Mu, ced the crystallized ck gold into the other alloys he bought from the market. Theb was of minimalist design, so he had to make the tubes one by one. He was a little clumsy at first but he managed to keep up several tubester and he started to feel really easy with the apparatuses in theb. Although he had no idea how most of them worked theoretically, at least he knew how to operate them.

    52 electromaic tubes piled at one corner. Their darkness would chill one from both the outside and the inside. The polished body felt cold in the hands. Compared to those tubes popping out from the factory every few seconds, these tubes were the handmade superior products from theb. Inevitably, the cost would also be a few times of the mass-manufactured products. That was never the 3 musketeers¡¯ concern however.

    Next up, theuncher production, then the tter for electromaic system, the connection of the circuits¡­ Pant¡­ Ye Chong was half dead. Those tasks were not for humans! Really! One could tell the tediousness of the tasks seeing how a superman like Ye Chong copsed.

    Pant¡­ Pant¡­ Relieved Ye Chong. Now, onest step. The instation. Mu had already set up an instation n for this as well. ording to his calction, the 52 tubes could cover up the entire body of the ship. There would not be blind spot opened for vulnerabilities. Mu could not be one strength to lift the tubes this time. Ye Chong hopped onto an engineering mech and set his work running. Installing the tubes was nothing after all the things he had been through producing the tubes.

    He ran through the locations marked by Mu. Those cements were all designed as a concealed gun chamber by nature, so Cob did not look particrly different post instation. Any passerby would have assumed this being an ordinary, harmless Zika spaceship upon first nce.

    The electromaic cannons were the importantponent, one of the importantponents that is. What scattered throughout the corners of the warship was the 180ser firing devices, which operated at a high reaction speed, with agile movements, forming arge coverage of Cob¡¯s firepower about 50 km. This design was aimed to attack any approaching mech detected. At least thesers were easily avable in the market, as most mechs would use them. When Ye Chong ced the order at the counter in his usual nonchnce, the shopkeeper really assumed him being a staff of some major mech manufacturer.

    If Shang was known for his creativity, Mu would be known for his great attention to details. His ns were well connected, with one point supporting the other, like a that would raid anybody in his aim. It would be horrible if Mu ever turned his firearm over you. Mu¡¯s characteristic was demonstrated clearly over his design on the offenses of the ship.

    There were also countless grenadeunchers paired with theser firing devices, as inspired by the vase-shaped grenadeuncher of Yu Di. Those waves of supplementary explosives were exceptionally helpful in a battle. Combining with theser firers, It would surely be a deadly pool if any mech were to approach the Cob.

    The process of installing the firearms was rather boring, since most of the things did not make sense to Ye Chong. The one joy he got to experience was to prepare these colorful supplementary explosives. Fred was great. He saluted. Despite his age, he was still that resourceful and creative.

    So, we finally finished the offensive system! The interior of the Cob had undergone an overhaul, transforming into a real warship, a fearsome warship! Ye Chong spent literally a month on the building, which was beyond his estimation. He looked at the pile of junks, the remnants from his renovation. It was a headache as those were an absolute failure. He then tossed all of them into the crucible and made them into alloy cubes. That would be easier for storage. He had to keep the ce clean since Shang had been nagging at it.

    He oncemented that, "The Cob is the butcher disguised in his handsome look!"

    Phase 3 of the modification¡­ well Ye Chong felt the need to take a break temporarily. Cob was too strong at his offenses while having nearly zero defenses, as his armor was never meant for warring, one could imagine the ship sinking in a few bombardments. But Zika spaceship was known for its size, changing the armor of the ship would be a astronomical operation to work on. Ye Chong could neverplete it only by himself. The second astronomical thing would be amount of rare materials Mu required to match the standard. Ye Chong was not a member of the three forces, he did have a storage of them but those were not going to be sufficient to even te the tip of the ship. Most of the materials were non-existent in the market as well, even though these materials were considered the lettuce and cucumbers if Ye Chong was still at Nine Gates City.

    Regarding the possession of resources, Ye Chong was a beggarpared to those forces in 5 major gxies.

    But whether the three forces being filthy richer than him in resources, why would he care? Not like he would get a share.

    Anyway, save the talking, the ship was finally done. For the engines of the Cobs, they were not that bad, even though Mu had several ns on modification, it would be unrealistic to perform it right now. So Mu, the rational one who foresaw the unequal cost and effect behind this, scrapped the n.

    Ye Chong nned to leave Windstar and make a direct travel to Rainbow after this. It took him way too long to do the basic modification on his giant whale. He felt the time was well spent nevertheless, since being well prepared would mean being likelier to seed. And he believed that Cob was no longer a warship, it had evolved into a space base. Ye Chong even imagined his life wandering on the warship if he never could find a that was good enough to stay. It was not that bad.

    Based on the gctic map¡­ Oh! Ye Chong surprisingly found out the Rainbow being rather close to the Trash, which further convinced him the fact that this Gao Shichang from Prometheus Group could truly be his papa. He was excited. Well, it is natural for humans to lose their calmness and rationality over their beloved.

    And he remembered the fact that his papa was also quite a prodigy in mechs. Then probably Gao Shichang from the corp could very much be his papa.

    Well, those were just spections. If he wanted to verify his spection, he had to pursue it.

 Chapter 209 - I Came to Rescue

    <h4>Chapter 209: I Came to Rescue</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    After they had stocked a variety of supplies, the Cob finally departed from Windstar. Cob was not that prominent in the midst of the busy flock of spaceshipsnding and departing. Zika graded spaceships could be gigantic, but every organization who came to aid the pitiful residents on Windstar had much greater budget than Ye Chong, as shown by their even more gigantic rides; gigantic spaceships could be a rare sight on the street, as one would not see them running day by day like the mechs, still it was not *that* rare.

    That would be it. The premises were in the favor of Ye Chong. He had never disliked neglects by the others, well, only Shang would love being all cool and showered by attention, "The Cob is the coolest spaceship, everyone should see and appreciate it!"

    Anyway, the Cob travelled smoothly off the pier. They left Windstar silently.

    In the boundless space, the Cob floated like a soundless whale.

    Ye Chong was overjoyed as there were so many things to do. Intergctic travel could be something really time-consuming and mundane, especially when the journey between Windstar and Rainbow was exceedingly long. Even if Ye Chong owned the Cob and had installed it with the best engines he got, it still was going to take some time.

    It came a long way and it would be considered agonizing to most people, except for Ye Chong, who found this being quite normal. After the phases of the major warship transformation he performed not too long ago, he had gotten pretty much used to the apparatuses in the metallurgyboratory. And he realized he was in dire need to get an useable mech, in public of course, that could provide camouge to his identity. So he got to create a mech as well. The tools and the materials he had in the room were more than sufficient to make a mech.

    Since the mech was merely made for camouge purpose, he did not need to invest too much on it. He then took inspirations from all sorts of models, a little here and there, which formed a rather odd design n in the end. The body was given a striped finish with colored patches. It looked like a pierrot, or inyman¡¯s terms, a clown. Ye Chong believed it would be a very good camouge, since the essories were all from the market, nobody would have suspected it being a specialty from the three forces or the unknown.

    The mech, despite its design being jumbled up from everything in the storage, had its essential parts improvised. Those parts were the only parts Ye Chong needed to touch. The remaining mixture of design was just something he could disregard.

    "The Puppet", named by Ye Chong. And no doubt, the name was given a roaringugh at. "You sure, Ye? Hahahahahahaha¡­" Shang had been ridiculing the name for the following hour. Ye Chong found the name to be quite befitting to the mech though. The parts of the Puppet weremon enough, yet it was something truly from the experiment, for the experiment, by the experiment.

    Ye Chong was having so much fun at the metallurgyb. It was practically useful. The processor was amazing, that he just had to give a few tap on the screen to provide the visuals of every part and designate the sizing, then he would add in the ingredients. Pop! The part woulde out in no time. Ye Chong was astounded as the capability of the processor had indicated that his thoughts coulde into reality right away. He had ample alloys in his storage so he began messing with them, creating parts of all kinds. The Puppet would take everything in the end, it would be the conglomeration, a representation of Ye Chong¡¯s storage.

    The colorful mech did in fact look like a clown, but Ye Chong would not mind. If anyone were to look down upon the mech, that person would be making a deadly mistake. Ye Chong had installed miniature engines at every joint of the Puppet, to ensure it could set motion in minimal range to provide better offenses. Of course the shooting chambers were in the body as well, to cover the ground. Technically, the chambers were only a backup addition, since who knows when would Ye Chong ever really need to use the chambers to save himself?

    The Puppet wielded a pair of parrying spears. It was a strange sight to see such a petite figure waving two oversized spears, although one must admit that it looked pretty disturbing. The two spears were the true killing weapons for Ye Chong. As long as the foes he encountered were from neither of the three forces, with his skills, the pair of spears would be more than enough to keep him alive. If anything would go wrong, Ye Chong would not hesitate to activate Han Jia or the Guardian right away.

    The excess nuts and bolts were sent back to the crucible to be made into alloy cubes. And once again, the advantage of using metals as material was demonstrated, its recybility of course, which was something skeleton materials could hardlypete with. But, one must bear in mind that not every single piece of metal was fine to be recycled, the scrapped metals on Trash for example, the cost to recycle them was too high, which gave a discouraging return, so nobody would recycle them.

    From this point, one could tell the standing of skeleton and metallic materials. Metallic materials were moremon in application but skeleton materials possessed an extremely unique characteristic which metallic material could never imitate. The catch was, to produce a skeleton part, one would be required a long chain of procedures, longer than anyyman would have imagined, which had determined the fate that skeleton mechs could never bemon among the pilots.

    If the metallurgy experts ever came to Ye Chong¡¯sb and saw how he used those apparatuses as if he was baking a cake, they would go nuts on spot for those apparatuses were something they would drool upon. Those apparatuses, for any metallurgy researcher or organization, were some of the most advanced kinds.

    Ye Chong indulged himself in researches, as he moved around daily like a researcher. He spent the following days at the 3 research rooms he owned. Other than metallurgy, the alchemy was getting his attention as well. As he learned more stuffs from the microchip, he started to get a hold of the way to make offenses using alchemy. And Ye Chong could rte it to how Lunatic Guan treated him at thest asion they met, it was still fresh in his mind, the sorcery. It wasmon for alchemists to venture into the woods, so they must have a few tricks in the sleeves to warrant their safety.

    Ye Chong always caught the keys very quickly the moment the research involved offenses, for some reason. It was as if Ye Chong was born to war.

    Since he owned an alchemyb, he could perform some experiments. Unfortunately, those precious nts were not something he could purchase straight from the market. Ye Chong would have to head into woods to pluck them himself. The system designed by Lunatic Guan was noticeably different from the mainstream studies in the institutes today, on the choice of materials especially. A few of the ingredients were not that precious but it would require Ye Chong to perform additional procedures to fit them into the formation. In other words, the alchemists would have to do everything on their own, rather than being 1+1=2, the alchemist would need to build that 1, that + , that = and that 2 from scratch in exchange of being able to use a different, moremon material.

    Luckily Ye Chong had grown on this study, so he did not find the procedures troublesome or whatsoever. Compared to the hassles he had to deal with whenever he made a skeleton part, these procedures were fine.

    "Ye!" Mu¡¯s voice rang at themunicator.

    Ye Chong ced down the tubes, "Mu, what¡¯s wrong?" he lifted his bed and asked, anticipating something as Mu would never interrupt him if nothing had happened.

    Ye Chong after experiencing different kinds of apocalypses repetitively, had gained the serenity in any situation.

    "We had just received a SOS signal from somewhere. Someone is being attacked by the pirates apparently. The location happened to be on our course." Mu had nned a direct course to Rainbow in the first ce, since they were in a kind of hurry. Well it was a path known to be lurked by something but Ye Chong never feared them judging by the capabilities of the Cob.

    "Mhm," pondered Ye Chong.

    "And they are already within our detected proximity. This is the visual the camera had obtained," added Mu, then a visual was prompted in front of Ye Chong, via the processor.

    Two mechs were shielding for the few engineering models behind. They seemed to be suffering. Ye Chong could tell the two mechs being some above-average pilots in the gxies.

    The pirates on the other hand¡­ were unexpectedly small numbered, only 15 of them. It was literally child¡¯s ypared to the time he fought with the whole gang of Red Beard¡¯s Owl.

    The 15 mechs were obviously not greenhorns. They recognized the potency of the two mechs holding their invasion, so they did not fight on full force. They wandered instead, like a pack of hungry wolves, surrounding thembs. The two mechs knew the pirates¡¯ tant aim but all they could do was to constantly fire theirsers to keep the pirates away. It turned out to be a sticky situation, as one was struggling without n, another was grumbling with n. The gang would only have to wait, till the moment thembs ran out of energy to fight back, they would gash upon them, a feast they called.

    And as the Cob approached the group, they immediately caught on the situation.

    The pirates flinched, as they knew that a spaceship was not something owned by the nobody, there had to be at least 150 sailors in the ship. They would be severely outnumbered! So without an order, they already had their own consensus, they would raid, seize and run! Theyunched attacks frantically on their preys, striving to capture them before the pilots on the spaceship arrived at the scene. Once they could run, they would seed, since a tortoise like the spaceship shall never be able to catch up with them.

    The speed of a spaceship was much slowerpared to the mech. Cob for example, only ran at a pitiful speed of Mach 3,pared to those mechs that went easily Mach 5 or 6, Cob was indeed a tortoise. By the way, the Guardian could hit Mach 10 in burst running mode while Han Jia could go Mach 9.

    The two mechs panicked, as they knew if it was not the pirates wanted their mechs as part of the loots, they would have be the beehives.

    "Eh?" Mu seemed to have discovered something.

    "What was it, Mu?" asked Ye Chong hurriedly, to make a cry for a fully logical, non-expressive AI like Mu, it must be some major discovery.

    "Go save them, Ye. They have something good on them." The slight excitement between the words had exined Ye Chong a thousand words, that "something good" would mean something really good. It had to be rare for it could excite Mu.

    "Mhm," responded Ye Chong, as he immediately deployed the Puppet. He rolled into the cabin. The spaceship was spacious enough to amodate the entire deployment. Well, naturally that would also mean the immense requirement on the piloting skill, to be able to fly out without hitting on anything.

    Tai Zuo, one pilot of the two mechs, were tightened at their nerves. They were hitting their limits to stay this long. A little bit of distraction would have broken their protection. And then they heard their mate iming to see a Zika spaceship flying towards them. Overjoyed he was, but¡­ "Where¡¯re the backups? Why aren¡¯t the spaceship sending any help?"

    Tai Zuo¡¯s heart was aching. If they were not going to send men anytime soon, he would be copsing with Han Ben. Assuming there were only he and Han Ben, they were confident enough to break through this pack of wolves, but they also had a few nonbat members at their backs, so they could not take any reckless action that could hurt their mates. They could only guard, till death.

    Ugghhhhh¡­¡­

    Out of sudden, the pressure reduced. The force shield he and Han Ben was holding had turned lighter. He knew, with a smile, that the backups were already there.

    There were only 10 mechs left before them. 5 for each of them. That was a significant reduction on workload. He was grinning, till he saw the screen.

    He simply did not expect, of an army of a spaceship, only one mech was sent!

    One mech? Why? Confused Tai Zuo. What for sending one mech when that one mech was likely to be ughtered by the pirates? The pirates were more potent than he expected. As a lecturer of the pilot study from one of the top universities of the 5 major gxies, he had the right to give these pirates a subjective rating - the pirates might had not undergone appropriate education, but they were very, very experienced in actual fights. And their rapports were great, making them really a problem to deal with.

    A 5 versus 1, even if that 1 was Tai Zuo himself, he would not dare to gamble.

    The 5 mechs were approaching Ye Chong. He was calm. The Puppet was inexperienced of an outnumbered fight, but the pilot was fearless.

    The 5 mechs spread towards Ye Chong like the edge of fan. In their eyes, this colored mech was as ridiculous as a clown, fluttering there, awaiting them to trample on it! "Gosh, did you see that mech?" "Kekekekekekekeke!" The pilots were exchangingughter through the inte of their mechs, as they also discussed on how they should dismantle the mech to demonstrate their fearsomeness towards the remaining crew on the spaceship.

    As everyone was wondering why there was only a mech from the spaceship, the situation had gone mutation!

    As soon as the clown entered the range of their firearms, it began elerating, under the eyes of astonishment of the 5. The speed of the mech was ¡­ was¡­

    Too fast!

    Eximed by the 5.

    The sudden change was not something they could cope with in time. They were experienced at least, so they did not panic, even though they were shocked. One button, the shooting chamber bombarded at the mech. Well, that simple. 5 of them would work together and fire everything at once, it would cover everything. Moreover theirser beams were never aimed at the clown mech entirely, rather they focused on the gaps around it - to kill even the escape route they thought. It was a known technique among them, they had killed countless experts with this trick all these years.

    Hahahahaha!

    Everyone could imagine the frail clown mech being shot into a million pieces in an explosion, a firework to behold! Feeble armor, no shield, and they could not even see the clown mech holding any kind of weaponry. The barehanded clown was the scapegoat to be ughtered in seconds!

    Till then¡­

 Chapter 210 - Puppet

    <h4>Chapter 210: Puppet</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    An odd twist! Dodged the beams, the clown mech easily span out of the way.

    Eerie it was, as the 5 men rubbed their eyes in skepticism. How could that be possible?

    How in the world did the mech curve away from the beams? They were all firing at once, trapping the clown in the area. It was not even the case of aiming once at a time. The clown mech should have failed to make an escape, yet the clown just twisted out of the area - a stark truth scorching their eyes, shattering their sense of reality.

    This is against thew!

    Tai Zuo was in dismay. He thought he had great eyes to help himprehend the situation but his eyes merely captured the deceitful moment when the clown mech made a misleading gesture before the twist, it happened so fast he could not see clearly. He just understood the fact that the clown mech turned out to be a sess, and such level of skill was giving the teacher of pilots cold sweat.

    And the next movement of the clown mech was spine-freezing!

    The clown mech used to ridicule them because of its amusing finish. Then this twist happened, the 5 men no longer felt amused. The clown mech made the second twist. A shake and the 5 men rotated along, repositioning themselves to keep the clown mech surrounded.

    A rapid spin from the clown mech, as it effortlessly escaped from their grip. Leaped the clown mech, it pounced upon one mech at the edge. "Holy!" Tai Zuo¡¯s stare intensified. That twisted turn was superb! A standard Thomas¡¯ Spin, just as illustrated in my textbook! Be it the moves, the timing, the pilot had performed it perfectly!

    Tai Zuo was not even confident enough to im that he was able to do the same.

    The movement went so habitually in his eyes, yet the perfection was the horror in the eyes of the 5 men.

    Unpredictable, petrifying, the movement tinted the atmosphere with terror, as the clown mech glided like a phantom. The colorful clown mech looked like vengeful spirit by then, grooving its strange anatomy in their circle.

    The Puppet traveled fast like a fired arrow towards the mech. Ye Chong knew the importance of motion to a mech, so even if the Puppet was a random toy he made, he provided it with the best engine.

    It was boring. Ye Chong¡¯s face was straight. Battles like this no longer piqued his excitement. These were utter noobspared to the ck Coves and the Sanctuary, even though he retained his caution, since it was not his habit to be reckless even if the foes were clearly inferior to his strength. Unlike the battle with the ck Coves, he was cautious but he was not disturbed.

    The dodging style he adopted was abination of Non-orderly Wavy Leap and Condensed Multiple Turnings. The Puppet might not be as frail as it appeared, still Ye Chong did not want to be shot as those mechs were fearsomely ranged attacking models.

    The 5 pirates had their faces drained as they attempted to lock on the target. They realized they never managed to ce their crosshairs right. The clown mech was behaving too confusingly. They fired a few times and they missed. It was depressing. No way, my aiming should not be this bad, what happened to me today? What is this bad luck haunting me? How could I not evennd a single shot?

    Tai Zuo was more rmed than the pirates. He was the professor for pilot studies, no one understood better the proficiency within that set of movements the clown mech performed, other than himself.

    Terrible! This is too terrifying! Even he was terrified by the clown mech. He finally came to the understanding of the reason that from an entire gigantic Zika craft, only one mech was sent.

    The answer is obvious. One mech was more than enough.

    Well, the professor would never have imagined that there only Ye Chong himself on the Cob, that was why only one mech was sent.

    It was not the end of the show yet.

    Ye Chong remained as calm as ever, despite getting closer to his foe.

    Right before contact, Ye Chong¡¯s hands moved fast and bright. He did not feel anything particr with his speed since it had been quite sometime since he broke the cap of his hand movement speed.

    The spears within the arms of the Puppet sprang into action upon contact. Sparked, the spears smooched the the machinery. A slide to the side, the clown mech swung like a breeze away from the mech.

    Like who exactly is this person? Tai Zuo was dumbfounded and forgot the fact that he was also involved in the battlefield. The pirates were also shocked. The ever-moving flock of mechs eventually paused awkwardly.

    Ye Chong disregarded the awkwardness and moved on. Once you are in the battlefield, you are supposed to stay 100% focus, no matter how weak the foes might have appeared. That was the rule to his fight.

    Boom! An explosion urred, as the mech which came in contact became a fireball. The ring light illuminated the space, highlighting the horrified expression of the men.

    One more twist, the clown danced with its spears. The petite clown mech had taken the role of an assassin in darkness, where the patches of the greens reflected his amusement.

    There was no plot twist to save those 4 mechs, as even the ability of running away had turned into a unreachable luxury. Tai Zuo saw 2 mechs, trying to run away, being skewed by the clown¡¯s spears. The spears oozed out of the murdered machineries. There was no glow on the cruel spears, even though they were made out of ck gold alloys, the same one used for electromaic tubes production. Ye Chong was not happy with the eye-catching glow, so he exfoliated the surface.

    No shy move, only the most painful, brutal ones from the clown mech. The kind that would murder men in one blow, cutting away all the unnecessary struggles.

    Cold sweat dripped off his face, as Tai Zuo heard the wavering whispers from Han Ben, "Zuo¡­ this guy, he¡¯s spooky¡­" Even an iron man like Han Ben was frightened like a scalded cat.

    It was a relief however, since the person had proven his or her expertise in handling this alone. Tai Zuo and his team could have their life guaranteed. Although he had not the slightest idea of the identity of the man leading this capable pilot on his throne at the Captain¡¯s room, at least it was better than getting engulfed by the pirates. He would rather end up with a potential savior than a pack of wild wolves.

    The clown mech was quick as he finished off the remaining members in a matter of seconds. It went so smoothly and naturally that it almost felt like the pilot¡¯s routine. The pirates were utterly terrified by the clown mech¡¯s brutality. Their faces were screaming before they exploded and ended up as the one being dismantled instead.

    The parrying spears waving in the hands were as if invisible, like the scythe of the deadly reaper. Tai Zuo found the spears unusual however, as the mechs were immediately dismembered upon contact, despite their sturdy appearance. Why?

    Basically it was the result of Ye Chong¡¯s in-depth understanding of anatomy of mechsbining with his urate cleaving.

    The clown mechs who had finished the remaining mechs, without hesitation, jumped at the deadlocked group. The turn still went like a twist, with indecipherable orbit. The clown mech behaved like a killing machine, frightening everyone in sight.

    The 10 mechs ran away like animals on a forest fire however. A plot twist to Ye Chong it was. It was as if, they were being chased a demon wing from hell.

    The scene, where the clown stared coldly at the running pirates, felt like a disdainful look upon the insect on the ground in Tai Zuo¡¯s eyes.

    The pirates dismissed themselves after seeing their partners being ruthlessly murdered by a clean killer. The clown mech stared on and did not intend to chase them after. Well Tai Zuo was not the kind of demanding person who would request the clown mech to hunt them down.

    Very quickly after the clown mech approached the team and it came so naturally that it lifted its arm, signifying a weing attitude to board on the ship. They epted the offer with pleasure of course, not like they had other choice. And that was when everyone stumbled upon the number of staff in the Zika graded ship the moment they got out of the cabins - there was one, and only one, being the owner of the corvette. His actual appearance was seen when he hopped out of the deadly clown, it was one man who expressed cold unfeelingness.

    And who that man exactly was? For he owned a humongous spaceship all himself. No folk could have done that. Tai Zuo¡¯s ponder was swirling in his head.

    "Follow me," the man spoke coldly as he began walking, without even taking a look at them. Well, as he had said, the team only could follow the lead hurriedly. Tai Zuo, being acutely observant, immediately noticed the fact that the man was indeed different from folks. His steps were of the same exact width, as if he had measured the distance he should walk. The top body was firm, there was no swing of his shoulders. Tai Zuo had a friend who also happened to be a practitioner, and surprisingly his friend walked the way this man lifted his steps. Don¡¯t tell me¡­ he is also a practitioner¡­

    "Oh my! Are you seeing what I¡¯m seeing?!" As they passed one room, Phal shrieked upon discerning something really familiar to his eyes in the room, "Maron separator! See that?!" Phal looked exhrated, as if he hadnded on treasure ind. He stormed into the room and hugged on that strange machine Tai Zuo had never seen before. A gentle touch on the surface, a tap on the handle, like a child of exploding curiosity, Phal was stuck. "Oh Phal¡­" Tai Zuo was having a headache. There¡¯s always time and ce for this but not now! We are at somebody else¡¯s ce! If the owner of the ce doesn¡¯t like us, we are going to be skewed! Thought Tai Zuo. But well, Phal was the kind of researcher who behaved on pure innocence and curiosity, he onlycked the exposure to mannerism of the society. He nced at Ye Chong, who seemed to be not reacting to his mate¡¯s misbehavior. What a relief¡­ he thought.

    Tai Zuo was not very much into the natural science but given that he had been spending at the academy for long enough, he could tell the room being a researchboratory. In addition, from that shocking reaction of Phal, this should be a very advancedboratory. Phal the old guy was not that pleasing to the eyes but his standard was recognized by the institute, for he was the authority in the field of metallurgy and mineralogy.

    And the mystery of this owner grew in the mind of Tai Zuo. The fact that the man owned a giant spaceship showed that he should be from a rather strong family background, with feasible wealth. The truth that he won in a 1 on 5 fight against the pirates demonstrated his excellence in piloting. He swore that he would never find an expert like the man even from his own institute, the Mid-Alliance University, the known "cradle" for most pilots. And then there was the point that the person seemed to be a practitioner¡­ "Well, maybe¡­" That was a wild guess from him. Moreover, he should be well-established in metallurgy and mineralogy. Theb gave him away. Lastly¡­ he was calm throughout the event, even when Phal was acting like a fool in hisb filled with expensive devices. That just depicted his good-natured personality. He could control his temper like the back of his hands¡­ Everything was terrifying for his age.

    Provided that these characteristic were seen on an elderly, Tai Zuo would respond with respect. But no, it was on a young man, at most at his twenties. Now that is iprehensible, he thought. Is there really, really¡­ a genius this fearsome?

    Ye Chong was not angered particrly. The elderly who ran into hisb abruptly could look a little shabby on his appearance but he seemed to be the same passionate kind towards his own research. If that was the case, Ye Chong would not dislike such person. Instead, he would portray admiration. He reminded him of the days he spent at Aurora, with the elderlies behaving the way this old man was in hisb.

    Ye Chong held his steps and waited for Phal patiently.

    Phal seemed to have lost himself over the marvelous technologies sitting in theb, as he span and danced around the separator.

    Tai Zuo signaled Han Ben and Han Ben got it right away. He went to Phal. "Excuse me!" Boomed Han Ben, alerted Phal.

    Everyone was watching Phal, whose face reddened out of embarrassment. He then waddled back to his mates. Ye Chong started walking again after seeing the old man joined back to his teammates. They walked on. And Phal¡­ constantly turning back to take onest nce at that separator, as if parting with his beloved.

    Meng Fei¡¯er, the second teammate of Tai Zuo, staggered when she passed the alchemyb. The same emotional reaction as Phal, she was stupefied, excited but she was more well-behaved than Phal, even though she almost drooled on the sight. That thermostatic sma room, that self-controlled cultivation machine, there was also a duo enzymic mixer?! She wondered if she was visiting the central alchemy research institute by mistake. Seriously, other than the institute, she could not imagine any other ce having these precious.

    She controlled her behavior. She held her excitement, although that flinch she made had already gotten Tai Zuo¡¯s attention. Tai Zuo slowed his steps and joined Meng Fei¡¯er at the end of the walking team. Her sight rose over Ye Chong at the front, her head lowered, whispered, "He could be a chemist." Tai Zuo was the leader of the entire team. He was very experienced so everyone would give their feedback directly with dignity.

    Tai Zuo¡¯s heart skipped a beat. A skinny young man owning all these while holding possibly a long list of profession on his resume¡­ the mystery deepened, where the darkness looked back into Tai Zuo¡¯s eyes.

 Chapter 211 - Teardrop Mineralite

    <h4>Chapter 211: Teardrop Mineralite</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong brought them to the bridge.

    Ye Chong spoke inly, "Everyone, you¡¯re safe now."

    The people exhaled in relief, as tension finally drained out of them. Qin Zuo bowed to Ye Chong and thanked him profusely, "Thank you for your help, if not for you, we would all have ¡­" Qin Zuo shuddered at the thought, and was very grateful, but revealed nothing more, a testimony of his discretion.

    In fact, Ye Chong had wanted to use violence - it was the simplest and most direct way to end things in the way he saw it. Even if it would sometimes worsen the situation, it was still mostly a reliable method. However, his considerable amount of time spent with Shang made Ye Chong understand that violence was not the only answer, and that there were far more craftier solutions.

    Of course, even if he understood this, practicing it was an entirely different matter. Till today, Ye Chong still preferred direct means to achieve his goals.

    "Alright, I¡¯ll not mince words here, I offered help only because I¡¯m interested in your research. I think you must all be open to sharing your findings with me." Ye Chong still spoke casually, as if he was onlymenting on the weather.

    Indeed, Shang was slowly changing Ye Chong. In a certain corner, a devil was flicking away its forked tail, howling in excitement, while Mu providedmentary on the side, "Vocal tone has exacerbated the situation, effectiveness has dropped by 0.37 percent."

    The difference between Mu and Shang was that Mu would focus on the precision and angle of a weapon in hand, while Shang preferred the cunningness of a wolf in sheep¡¯s clothing.

    Ye Chong¡¯s words were as chilling as an autumn breeze, and everyone instantly fell silent. They never expected to escape from certain danger, only to be greeted with another. It was their first time hearing a threat delivered so inly.

    Besides, how did the other party get his information? They had kept their movements inconspicuous, certain that no one had found them out. The fact was shocking. Phal¡¯s face was red with anger, his eyes spitting fire. Qin Zuo groaned inside. Now that the other party had so clearly stated his intention, he must know all about them. Could this mysterious person be targeting them from the start?

    However, Qin Zuo did not have the luxury to consider any further. Since the other party had been so frank, he must be prepared for them.

    Besides, the young man was very calm when he dealt with those five mechs earlier. Qin Zuo believed that the young man was not a stranger to murder. They must surely look like five littlembs ready for ughter to him.

    Qin Zuo considered all these quickly, and understood the situation they were in. He sighed. Under the circumstances, their lives were more important than anything else.

    Zuo Qin looked to Meng Fei¡¯er, who was watching him, and shook his head in defeat.

    Meng Fei¡¯er tightened her lips and looked towards Ye Chong with angry and unwilling eyes, but her right arm moved to remove her backpack, and she emptied her bag onto the floor. Pa¡¯er gritted his teeth in anger, but Vicente seemed to be unaffected.

    Ye Chong ignored their fury with ease. He bent over and inspected the rocks and tools emptied by Meng Fei¡¯er from her backpack on the floor.

    Ye Chong sorted through the things on the floor quickly, grouping them by category. His actions surprised Qin Zuo and his team - could this young man recognize all those things?

    They exchanged nces, and Qin Zuo signalled to Meng Fei¡¯er.

    Meng Fei¡¯er hesitated for a moment before speaking up, "Do you know these things?" Meng Fei¡¯er spoke with a sweet, clear voice. Meng Fei¡¯er was the team¡¯s medic, and a teacher from the Unity Academy. Her specialty was alchemy, but she also studied botany on the side. Meng Fei¡¯er was about 25, at an age where a woman was in her prime. Her natural charisma and her feminine and sympathetic nature made her well liked in the academy by students and teachers alike. When dealing with strangers, Meng Fei¡¯er was good at winning their hearts.

    Qin Zuo knew this, for many people would unconsciously be less defensive against women. While he could not hope for the young man to release them all, he would still try his best to lower the other party¡¯s guard by any means. The more unguarded the other party was, the more likely they were to escape.

    Nheless, Ye Chong was not listening to Meng Fei¡¯er. He was having a lively discussion with Mu.

    "This is carmine, a rare mineral, able to amplify energy,monly used inrge energy based weapons as firing parts.

    "This is a nimbus rock. It looks attractive, though not quite useful for our purposes, but it¡¯s excellent material for construction.

    "This green one is an emerald crystallite, mainly used for jewellery and decorations. It¡¯s a kind of gemstone, rarely found in the Five Gxies. I¡¯ve never seen any reports of this. Cutting this kind of gemstone requires high craftsmanship."

    Ye Chong organized the rocks on the floor based on Mu¡¯sments into two heaps, one useful for him, and the other irrelevant. In the end, he arrived at a rubbery piece that looked much like a water droplet. If not for his sharp eyes, Ye Chong would probably have missed it.

    The object emanated warmth in his hands! Ye Chong was deeply surprised.

    Ye Chong asked, "Mu, what¡¯s this?"

    Mu was quiet for awhile before replying, "It¡¯s a teardrop mineralite, formally known as high energypound colloid."

    From Mu¡¯s voice, Ye Chong could sense the unusualness of this teardrop-sized mineral. "Is this useful?"

    Mu reverted to his usualposure. "It is. It is a material with the highest known energy density, and scarcer than even the Do Kun stone. Energy cells made of this material could store a lot more energy than usual. Besides, it has its own energy. Upon depletion, the material will be a good energy storage medium. Starships fitted with these energy cells of this can undertake very long voyages. Equipping a mech with this kind of energy cell can increase itsbat strength by at least five times. Unfortunately, a small part of my database is damaged, and there is a gap in my knowledge on building energy cells from teardrop mineralite. If you¡¯re interested, you can try toplete this knowledge. Of course, we stillck some other materials required to build this energy cell, but as an important high grade mineral, this material is still worth keeping. We must also try to find our best to find more teardrop mineralite.

    "In any case, it¡¯s better if this material is safely in our hands." Mu dered his conclusion with dominating prowess.

    "Is that necessary?" Ye Chong asked, curious. He had never seen Mu cing as much importance on anything as this teardrop mineralite, even more than he did on Do Kun stone. The way Ye Chong saw it, it was an impossible feat. He might believe it possible for one of the Three Forces, but how could he alone own all the teardrop mineralite in the world?

    "It¡¯s very necessary." Mu paused for a moment before continuing, "My database still has some information on the usage of teardrop mineralite energy cells. Based on this information, I conclude that mechs or warships fitted with this teardrop mineralite energy cell are terrifyingly powerful. Be it ck Cove, the Sanctuary or the MPA, obtaining the teardrop mineralite would allow them to expand their powers rapidly. The bnce between the Three Forces will be disrupted, and that would be not favorable for you."

    "But this is obviously an operation beyond our means. We don¡¯t have enough manpower, and weck the experience in mining for minerals." Ye Chong could not understand why Mu would propose such an impossible mission.

    Mu exined, "Unlike other minerals, teardrop mineralite is an aggregating mineral. Usually, it is found localized in a small area. If we locate where this team found this teardrop mineralite, the probability of finding more of it in the area is very high. Based on avable information,s mined for feardrop mineralite are all exhausted today, so these people must have found it on an untouched. With so many rare minerals, it¡¯s undeniable that this must have escaped the attention of ck Cove and the Three Forces till today, or the would have been seized. We must mine all the teardrop mineralite before any of them realize this. Teardrop mineralite is a resource like no other for war." Mu emphasized again at the end.

    Ye Chong quickly grasped his logic, and agreed that no matter which of the Three Forces came out the winner, it would not help his situation. While Ye Chong believed that he would settle himself on some after investigating the Prometheus Group, and that the chances of meeting the Three Forces again was low, but what if it happened anyway? This was a probabilistic event, and not entirely impossible. Instead of allowing this threat to exist, better to nip it in the bud.

    Ye Chong quickly agreed with Mu¡¯s suggestion.

    Meng Fei¡¯er was surprised to find the young man ignoring her, fully upied in organizing the things on the floor. All the minerals were grouped into different heaps, and now he was starting to sort the nts that she had gathered. Meng Fei¡¯er grew more and more intrigued by the young man. She had collected all those nts herself. As a botanist, it was imperative to study these previously unknown organisms. The young man before her, however, seemed to be familiar with these nts that were not recorded in any avable illustrations of nts, and was now quickly sorting them based on their type.

    Meng Fei¡¯er now recalled that this young man seemed to be an alchemist, and as an alchemist, it was not umon for them to also be botanists.

    Once he was done, Ye Chong finally straightened himself. From the beginning, Ye Chong had kept himself vignt. It was already instinct for him to always prepare himself for any eventualities. Fortunately, the other party did not do anything unusual.

    He was not aware of how much these people feared him, especially Qin Zuo. Qin Zuo was the most insightful of the team, and that was why he dreaded Ye Chong even more than the others.

    Ye Chong gathered all the materials that were useless to him and pushed them towards Meng Fei¡¯er as he said inly, "These are not useful to me, you can take them back." Ye Chong did not seem embarrassed at all, as though everything was his in the first ce.

    The teamrgely ignored his demeanor, and Pa¡¯er finally could not resist asking him loudly with bulging eyes, "Young man, do you know these minerals?" Seeing Pa¡¯er making his move, everyone else kept silent and looked towards Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was calm as ever as he replied, "I do."

    The team stared in disbelief. Pa¡¯er picked up one of the minerals from the heap he returned to them, a light grey rock, and asked urgently, "What is this?"

    "That¡¯s a nimbus rock, good for construction. It¡¯s a strong material, suitable to be mixed in with a wide range of binding materials. It has particrly good performance in structure and strength."

    Pa¡¯er immediately opened his auto-recording system. Ye Chong¡¯s confidence as he spoke had already mostly convinced Pa¡¯er. As an eminent mineralogist, he could tell that Ye Chong was probably right, even though Pa¡¯er had only seen this material for the first time.

    Pa¡¯er now acted like an enthusiastic student, listening intently, only that his teacher was a young man at least a decade younger than him.

    Pa¡¯er picked up another mineral and asked eagerly, "What about this?"

    Ye Chong did not answer this time, but looked at the team and said calmly, "I think I¡¯ll be able to tell you all more about these minerals, but I believe you should all share your information with me too." Qin Zuo felt growing doubt on his earlier conclusion. He had thought that the young man was a genius in the natural sciences and mech maneuvering, but now he looked more like a young heir to arge business conglomerate, all hypocritical without shame, but still acting naturally throughout.

    In any case, Ye Chong seemed even more powerful to him. He still could not make much of the 20-odd young man, but from what little he could gleam. Qin Zuo knew that his team was disproportionately at a disadvantage.

    Even so, a certain devil with his flickering tail grew even more delighted with Ye Chong, while Mu still maintained his calm observer stance.

    Ye Chong finally got to know who these five people were.

 Chapter 212 - Alliance

    <h4>Chapter 212: Alliance</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The team of five were all teachers from Unity Academy. Qin Zuo and Han Ben were from the mech faculty, responsible for their safety. The quiet Vicente was a geography lecturer, Phal was a lecturer in mineralogy and metals, while Meng Fei¡¯er was a lecturer in alchemy.

    Unity Academy was a reputable tertiary education institution in the Five Gxies, and most people revered its high standing. Unity Academy¡¯s teachers were also widely respected.

    The young man before them, however, seemed unmoved. This calmposure seen in an adolescent only alerted Qin Zuo even more.

    The young man¡¯s calm gaze seemed to prate their hearts, as though no lies could ever escape him.

    Everyone was wondering if this calm youngster was actually the same person as that shameless young man earlier.

    In truth, they had misjudged Ye Chong. Ye Chong was only imitating Shang¡¯s way of speaking. In Ye Chong¡¯s mind, there was no such thing as honour or shame. The way he saw it, he was the stronger of them both, and it was only natural if he took everything the team had. Thews of the Five Gxies did not y a role in his actions.

    Under Ye Chong¡¯s scrutiny, Meng Fei¡¯er exined everything.

    Vicente had a student who was an explorer. In truth, the number of explorers were always increasing. In the age of peace, people needed heroes, and in the age without heroes, these explorers were modeled by the media as heroes. The potential profits in this upation made it even more attractive. Once anyone found a primary never before explored, then byw, he or she was entitled to own a tenth of the¡¯s resources. While people nowadays did notck for basic necessities, the quest for wealth and power never ceased.

    When this student brought his findings to Vicente, Vicente was shocked. As a geographer, he found geographical features that he had never seen before in his student¡¯s holographic recording. Hence, he organised this expedition.

    Ye Chong was surprised to find that their expedition was actually initiated by the quiet, old man. Phal was a prominent specialist in mineralogy and metals, while Meng Fei¡¯er was not as famous, her track record as apetent botanist who once studied under well known experts and her medical expertise made her a part of the team. Qin Zuo and Han Ben were partners. They worked well together and had much experience in explorations. Thus, they became in charge of protecting and guiding the team in their expedition.

    The exploration team was reasonably prepared. Since primarys usually have wild animals, Qin Zuo and Han Ben could keep them safe.

    Everything was arranged in secret. Vicente¡¯s student never contacted him since, but considering that if news leaked out, Vicente¡¯s student would lose everything, everyone kept their silence.

    Their meticulous nning resulted in a smooth expedition. The primary was muchrger than they had ever imagined, and was significantly evolved. For safety reasons, they only did a surface inspection of the. Even so, they found minerals that they had never seen before. With the exception of Qin Zuo and Han Ben, everyone gained much from the expedition. They hoped to return to the academy as soon as possible, where they had their ownboratories to process their findings.

    Everything went smoothly, and just when they thought things were going perfectly, the space pirates arrived.

    And they were saved by Ye Chong.

    Meng Fei¡¯er finished her narration and looked silently at Ye Chong. In fact, all five members kept their eyes fixed on Ye Chong. This young man held their lives in his hands. They could disregard wealth and fame, but would never give up their lives so easily.

    Ye Chong was quiet, obviously still processing the information he got from Meng Fei¡¯er.

    As expected, they had discovered a primary, just as Mu predicted. Everything seemed logical, and Ye Chong could find nothing amiss. Besides, Mu reported that Meng Fei¡¯er¡¯s heartbeat was normal when she was speaking. Ye Chong could be assured that Meng Fei¡¯er was not lying.

    Perhaps to encourage independence, Mu did not lend much assistance to Ye Chong this time.

    Ye Chong had two choices now. He could either investigate the Prometheus Group and Gao Shichang, or solve this problem of the teardrop mineralite. This was a difficult decision, and personally, Ye Chong would prefer to deal with the issue of his Papa first.

    Ye Chong asked abruptly to Vicente, "You said your student never contacted you again?"

    Vicented was startled, and nodded. "Yes, that¡¯s right. I waited, but he never got in touch."

    "I see." Ye Chong nodded with a measure of resolution.

    Vicente seemed to realize something, and his expression turned worse. "You mean ¡­"

    Ye Chong only nodded and said, "It¡¯s only my conjecture." Ye Chong suspected that Vicente¡¯s student must have been targeted. If that was the case, he must move fast. It would not do to let others be ahead of him. Since Mu was so focused on this teardrop mineralite, Ye Chong could not afford to treat it lightly as well. As for the matter with his Papa, it was not as urgent. In that instant, Ye Chong made his choice. Here, one could notice the influence of Mu¡¯s rational nature on Ye Chong. Even when it came to his beloved Papa, Ye Chong could still make the urate and wiser choice.

    Everyone else seemed confused, but Vicente was now looking very pale. Suddenly, tears ran down silently along his cheeks, and Vicente seemed to have aged a decade instantly.

    Everyone was shocked, and gathered around Vicente, asking him what was the matter.

    Qin Zuo was the second of the five to realize what Vicente was thinking. Qin Zuo looked at the steady young man with disbelief and asked, "You mean he¡¯s dead?"

    As he said those words, everyone else finally understood, and were shocked to the core.

    Ye Chong shook his head. "It¡¯s only a conjecture, and there¡¯s no way to confirm it at the moment. Besides, even if he was captured, chances are he¡¯s still alive. The one who captured him must have preferred him alive rather than dead. Of course, your student must be smart enough in the first ce, then his chances of survival will be above 60 percent." Ye Chong was now speaking like Mu.

    Vicente was moved, and his eyes glowed with renewed hope. Phal yelled, "We¡¯ll save him, we¡¯ll save him!"

    Meng Fei¡¯er quickly held him back and shook her head, signalling him to be quiet.

    Qin Zuo could feel a headacheing. These people were in danger themselves, but still worried about the safety of someone else. Heughed mockingly at himself. However, he was the kind of person who would rise against a challenge, and the situation now only aroused his fighting spirit. Even so, a rescue operation was a fool¡¯s errand. They did not even know who was responsible, and out of the five, only he and Han Ben had anybat capabilities. The other party, on the other hand, was probably an entire group. With only himself and Han Ben, Qin Zuo could not help his pessimism.

    "They¡¯ll bring him to the primary. If we¡¯re lucky, we might meet them." Ye Chong said calmly.

    Everyone looked towards Qin Zuo, the decision maker for the team all this while. Vicente did not speak up to disturb Qin Zuo¡¯s thoughts even though his student¡¯s life at stake. He understood that they were only his teammates, and were not obliged to be further involved.

    Qin Zuo smiled wryly inside - what other choice did they have? He understood that the young man had led them to this conclusion, probably because he wanted to visit the primary himself. This young man might not be better than the ones who captured Vicente¡¯s student.

    Qin Zuo considered for a moment before speaking seriously, "You want to visit the primary yourself, yes? I think you¡¯ll find no better guide than us. Even if we meet the other party, I hope you could lend your assistance and keep us safe." Qin Zuo had exined the importance of his team to Ye Chong, hinting that if Ye Chong could not keep them safe, he would never get anything more out of them about the primary. He chose to be frank instead, against this young man who thoughts he could not prate.

    Ye Chong answered straightforwardly, "Alright."

    In truth, Ye Chong had many other ways to get information out of them, such as Shang¡¯s interrogation methods. Even if a mentalist could not withstand it, Ye Chong believed that they would yield too.

    However, Ye Chong was beginning to understand that direct methods were not always the simplest, and indirect methods were not always more troublesome. In terms of effectiveness, these indirect methods were actually quite useful. In Ye Chong¡¯s mind, effectiveness and efficiency mattered the most, and methods were only a means to an end.

    In any case, having the stronger position allowed him to be proactive. Ye Chong understood this deeply. Strength was the basis of everything.

    WIth this temporary alliance established, everyone rxed a little. At least they were safe now. The way the clown mech shed against the five space pirates coldly was constantly on their minds.

    After entering the location of the primary, Mu charted the fastest course towards the.

    Ye Chong began to exin more about those minerals, imitating Mu.

    Vicente and Phal listened closely, and interjected with questions. At the side was Meng Fei¡¯er, waiting patiently for Ye Chong to finish exining the minerals. She was more interested in the nt specimens she had collected.

    Qin Zuo and Han Ben wandered around the starship.

    Qin Zuo and Han Ben exchanged nces, and both could the read the shock in each other''s eyes. They had went through the captain¡¯s cabin in detail, and found no one other than Ye Chong and their team of five. The starship looked just like any other Zika ss starship.

    This was why they were so surprised. Starships and mechs were entirely different constructs. Mechs moved much faster than starships, but fared a lot worse in terms of long distance flight. Starships also had a feature that no mech ever had, which was warp jumping. Starships usually had this feature, which greatly shortened the travel time across space and made interster travel possible.

    Without warp jumps, travelling betweens would take longer than a person¡¯s entire lifetime.

    Starships may have features that mechs could never have, but it was proportionately moreplicated to maneuver. A Zika ss starship like this, for example, would need at least a crew of 20. Now, however, he and Han Ben saw no one steering the starship, and the starship was apparently flying on autopilot.

    A starship with autopilot features! Qin Zuo was vexed. Who was this young man? How did hee to own such an advanced starship? Starship maneuvering required strict training, and the maneuvering itself was daunting to most people. Up until now, Qin Zuo had never heard of anything like starship auto piloting functions.

    Who did he have as his backing? To own such advanced technology? It was terrifying!

    Qin Zuo could not help but feel anxious again. Plenty of things in this starship could be considered ssified material in any organization. Now that they had boarded the ship, perhaps ¡­

    Qin Zuo did not like where his thoughts were leading to. He forcefully stopped himself from thinking about it any further, and quickly signaled to Han Ben. They settled in with the other three members of the team, sitting around the young man.

    The actions of Qin Zuo and Han Ben did not escape Ye Chong¡¯s attention, but he kept silent about it, continuing on his exnation of the minerals to Phal and the others. Ye Chong could at least keep his promise to them, provided, of course, that he was not harmed in the process. Ye Chong was not yet willing to devote himself to that extent yet.

    "This green one is an emerald crystallite, mainly used for jewellery and decorations. It¡¯s a kind of gemstone, rarely found in the Five Gxies. I¡¯ve never seen any reports of this. Cutting this kind of gemstone required high craftsmanship." Ye Chong exined exactly as Mu worded it.

    Meng Fei¡¯er was growing bored, but immediately brightened at this, grabbing the green gem away from Ye Chong¡¯s hands. Women were naturally attracted to gems and the like, even though this particr one was still uncut, without the typical luster of gems.

    Qin Zuo¡¯s eyes brightened as well. "Rarely found in the Five Gxies? Are you telling me there are people beyond the Five Gxies?" His questions gained the attention of everyone around him.

 Chapter 213 - Landing

    <h4>Chapter 213: Landing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The five of them were deeply affected by this new piece of information. Any resident of the Five Gxies would be. This young man had just divulged something truly unexpected.

    Ye Chong did not care to exin further to them, and continued talking about the minerals. These minerals were all precious items, but to Ye Chong, they were not useful, and so Ye Chong returned them all to the team.

    Qin Zuo was feeling a little fazed, shocked by the news from Ye Chong. Theck of further boration from Ye Chong convinced him more of the truth of this news.

    What if, beyond the Five Gxies, a society was thriving, and this society dominated over them without ever being discovered ¡­

    Ye Chong ignored their reactions. The Five Gxies were nothing special to him. While the Orbits and ck Cove did not spread as far and wide as the Five Gxies, their technological achievements and overall strength were superior to that of the Five Gxies. Perhaps the MPA would have a simr base. Ye Chong thought is usible.

    Besides, based on his experience, it was not as though the higher ups of the Five Gxies did not know of the Three Forces. Every time the any of the Three Forces had a major operation, Ye Chong could see that the various authorities of the Five Gxies cooperated without much fuss.

    The only person who was truly pondering this issue was Qin Zuo. Phal and Vicente were focused on digesting whatever information Ye Chong had provided on the minerals. Meng Fei¡¯er, on the other hand, was watching Ye Chong with herrge, mesmerizing eyes, listening to his words with an air of worship as he talked about the nt specimens. To Meng Fei¡¯er, this cold young man was a highly educated academic, and while she was bored by the entire session on minerals earlier, she believed that he was probably even more learned in botany than her own teachers.

    Ye Chong¡¯s knowledge came from the chip that Lunatic Guan left for him. Alchemy aristocrats with their long histories had a store of knowledge that no academy could ever hope to achieve.

    Han Ben in his straightforward nature would never stop to consider this issue. Once he was permitted to use the mech training room, he spent most of his time there. Vicente and Phal were permitted to use the metalsboratory, and they were overjoyed with the opportunity to use all the avable top ss apparatus. They immersed themselvespletely in their work. As for Meng Fei¡¯er, she mostly stayed in the alchemyboratory. Ye Chong allowed them to use thebs to use how they would use them. While he was not watching in person, Mu had recording of what they did for Ye Chong.

    Qin Zuo looked at the four of them helplessly. How could the four of them not feel threatened? Qin Zuo suspected that they may even have forgotten the whole point of this operation. Looking at the back of the young man¡¯s thin figure, Qin Zuo had the impression that he could sessfully ambush him. However, he recalled the young man¡¯s calm gaze, and Qin Zuo could not suppress the shudder that followed and reconsidered his thoughts on ambushing.

    Once, he saw the young man breaking a stuck metal alloy cylinder in half. Qin Zuo gulped heavily, thankful that he did not attack the young man. As expected, the young man had the power to suppress a few people himself, and Qin Zuo grew confident that the young man must have a background inbat. In the days that followed, Qin Zuo avoided looking at Ye Chong directly.

    Cob enjoyed a smooth journey ahead, with no space pirates in sight. Therge starship could only be targeted byrge pirate crews, not a suitable target for smaller crews. Mu¡¯s plotted trajectory was the shortest distance, so when Ye Chong announced that they had reached Tappero Gxy, everyone looked a little confused. They did not expect the journey to be so swift.

    The Five Gxies were all near to one another - Fal and Cyana formed a straight line that was perpendicr to the line formed by Tian Luo and Tappero, while Csebesini was in the middle of these four gxies. The Five Gxies were surrounded by the vast space of the universe, popted by numerous uncharted worlds.

    As they left Tappero Gxy, the space around them became emptier. There were no starship fleets, no space outposts, no space stations. It was rare for them to chance upon one or two small explorer starships along the way.

    As the explorers ventured further out, more and mores were ascertained, but with the exception of those with valuable resources, mosts were still mostly untouched. Vicente¡¯s student was most daring - the he discovered was very far away from the nearest inhabited at the edge of Tappero Gxy.

    Space was not always quiet and peaceful. On the contrary, it was full of unpredictable dangers. The further away one explored, the more difficult it was to resupply, and any hopes for assistance in the face of danger would be dismal. However, in this world, risk was apanied proportionately by profit. Every year, many explorers ventured away from the Five Gxies into the vast, unknown territory beyond. Of course, most of them never returned.

    Without the star chart provided by Vicente¡¯s student, it would be most difficult to find the primary of interest. Mu¡¯s star chart extended only up to the edge of Tappero Gxy. Even so, it took plenty of effort for the team to find the primary. Ye Chong was surprised that Vicente¡¯s student could find it in the first ce. Perhaps it was attributable to his luck.

    "Is it that one right ahead?" Ye Chong pointed at arge, green disyed on the holographic screen. The wasrger than he expected.

    Vicente nodded as Phal agreed loudly, "That¡¯s the one. Hah, I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d be back so soon!" Qin Zuo buried his face in his hands and sighed inside. Heavens, did these people not understand what they were getting into?

    Due to atmospheric turbulence, the starship trembled slightly as they descended through the atmosphere. Ye Chong did notnd immediately, but orbited the once beforehand. The team did not study the extensivelyst time either, and it was best to be cautious against any possible dangers.

    The primary was mostly covered with forests unspoiled by any human activities, stretching endlessly to the horizon. Through scanning, they found the forest to be dense and full of life. Herds of wild animals could be seen between the trees as they swooped past. Unfortunately, interference was heavy in the area, and even Mu¡¯s holographic scanning uracy suffered. Nevertheless, it was clear from Mu¡¯s scanning results that the ce was full of natural resources. The value of timber from the trees alone was unimaginable.

    Oceans covered about a fifth of the¡¯s surface, not asrge as the forest coverage, but they glimmered with an odd light purple, unlike the natural blue found on mosts. Mountain ranges soared, their peaks covered with snow. The ocean shined in light purple, while the forest sprawled densely across thends. The view was magnificently scenic. Like the trash, this ce was uninhabited, but it was teeming with life, unlike the destion on the trash.

    After orbiting one round about the, Ye Chong determined the precaution to be mostly useless. Interference from the geomaic fields was strong, and scanning was useless. Even Mu¡¯s holographic scan could only extend to a much shortened range of about three kilometers. Ye Chong believed that other models of holographic scanning would be useless here.

    Ye Chong arrived at thending spot used by Qin Zuost time. His main goal was the teardrop mineralite, everything else was secondary, even though there were many other useful things around here. Ye Chong said nothing, unwilling to expose his true intentions to the team.

    From high above in the air, one could see that thend was covered by dense forests, but the leaves were too thick to see through.

    "You¡¯re sure it¡¯s here?" Ye Chong repeated his question. Ye Chong needed them to be exactly where they werest time. Unlike from outer space, Mu¡¯s scanning perimeter here was only three kilometers. If they could not find theirstnding spot, finding the teardrop mineralist on this massive would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

    The five of them nodded in unison as Qin Zuo said, "Yes, right here. You see those two rivers joining over here, making a fork, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s here. Last time, we walked along the wider of the two rivers towards that direction." Qin Zuo pointed.

    Seeing their unanimous agreement, Ye Chong decided tond there.

    Zika ss starships were notparable to the small starship that Qin Zuo and his team used. The noise from theirnding was staggering. The Zika ss starship was five kilometers in length, and Cob ttened all the trees thaty beneath it. Nearby, wild animals scattered in fear. The sight of those animals escaping in hordes was magnificent.

    The five of them watched sadly. Those timber could be sold at a high price in the Five Gxies, but they were now all destroyed. Many other nts were destroyed in theirnding, and the one who was affected the most was Meng Fei¡¯er.

    Cobnded on the forest, forcing a clearing out of the trees.

    When the five of them disembarked from the Cob, they felt refreshed by the moist air outside. Air produced by starships was still iparable to natural, fresh air born out of the forests. No matter how much technology had advanced, some things were still irreceable with human effort.

    The team left the starship cautiously. The forest terrain wasplicated, holographic scanning was ineffective, and travelling with mechs was inadvisable. Hence, all of them could only wear their protective suits as they left the ship. Unfortunately, the starship was not equipped with weapons like heat ray guns, and this bothered all of them, aside from Ye Chong. While they did not meet any vicious wild animals thest time they were here, but it was still better to be prepared for the possibility. The five of them could only pray that their protective suits were solid enough to keep them safe. These protective suits came from Cob; if it were up to Ye Chong, he would not have bought them.

    Ye Chong noticed then that the scenery waspletely different than what he saw from above.

    Flowers bloomed in all colours, and the moist, warm climate nurtured the rich life on this. For a short moment, Ye Chong took in the view in a daze.

    Light gold branches were traced with awork of gold colored lines, and crimson palm-shaped leaves also had gold colored veins on them. Many small, ck-gray fruits hung from the trees. Ye Chong immediately recognized that those were golden tilia - he had seen them before in the chip given to him by Lunatic Guan. These nts were ornamental, their fruits edible, but these did not mean that the nts were suitable for nting indoors. Sap from the nts would turn poisonous upon contact with blood, and could kill a human within seven seconds. In the chip¡¯s records, there was once an ancient tribe that liked to cover their weapons with this horrible tree sap. However, the tribe was eventually wiped out by the human race.

    Ye Chong really wanted to pluck a few of those leaves for research, but he restrained himself. Now was not the time for this, he should focus on the teardrop mineralite instead. Based on Mu¡¯s feedback, there were no teardrop mineralite deposits within a three-kilometer range.

    Not many inhabiteds could offer this wonderful sight. While Qin Zuo and his team had came here before, they were still deeply entranced by the area in their second visit.

    "Alright, let¡¯s move." Ye Chong¡¯s in but firm voice brought them back to reality.

    "Do we follow our tracks fromst time?" Qin Zuo asked.

    "Yes."

    The team marched ahead in a line along the river. Leading the team was Qin Zuo, while Han Ben guarded the rear. Since the protective suits had propulsion systems, they could fly slowly along the way. This allowed Phal and Vicente to keep up despite their age. Ye Chong wondered how far both of them could go without those suits.

    The forest flourished. Humongous trees reached for the skies, covering the ground with their dense canopies. Only an asional break in the leaves allowed for some ster light to pass through.

    Vines sprawled out in a frenzy between the ground and therge trees, a hindrance to their way forward. Fortunately, it was much cooler beside the river. Ye Chong examined the nts as he passed by them, surprise growing beneath his calm expression. The nt life here was extensive, and it was not 20 minutes into their journey that Ye Chong had already recognized 22 of the rare nt species recorded in Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip. Moreover, these nts seemed to be growing quite healthily.

    This was undeniably heaven for all alchemists.

    A nt with a massive flower in fiery red caught Meng Fei¡¯er¡¯s attention. The flower was vivid red, and its petals were oddly shaped, like two human face contours stuck together back-to-back. The stem was thick. This was probably the first time Meng Fei¡¯er had ever seen this kind of nt, and as she wondered at why she had never seen it before, as her body was moving closer and closer towards the nt.

    Ye Chong looked back unintentionally, and saw what was happening. His eyes widened immediately!

 Chapter 214 - Twin Sisters

    <h4>Chapter 214: Twin Sisters</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There was no time to warn her. Ye Chong whipped out the dagger from his thigh and flung it towards her. A silver glimmer flickered across the air.

    In that moment, Meng Fei¡¯er realized that the red wormlike creature in the fiery red flower was aiming towards her, moving so fast that she could only see a sh of red. "Ah!" Meng Fei¡¯er gasped in shock, and saw the red worming closer and closer to her. She wanted to step back and avoid the attack, but could not react in time. Her heart sank as she realized that she was done for!

    Her eyes widened in horror. When a shiny glimmer swept past her, she did not react still.

    What broke her out of her trance was a thumping sound. Meng Fei¡¯er looked towards the source, and found on her left a dagger embedded to its hilt on a tree. The force of the attack was enough to make the tree shake violently. Leaves scattered in the wind, creating a beautiful sight.

    The group finally noticed something was wrong. Just beside Meng Fei¡¯er¡¯s feet was a 15-centimeter long scarlet red vine, coated in ayer of sticky slime. The slime was corrosive, burning holes in the ground as they dripped from the vine. A thin green smoke curled upwards as the slime did its work,and the sharp corrosive smell made everyone else back off.

    Lying silently in the scorched pit was a finger-thick scarlet object, with a thin smoke curling upwards from it. It was an eerie sight.

    Meng Fei¡¯er was already plunged into a daze, looking confused at everyone.

    Ye Chong could not help but frowned - she was obviously in a state of shock. As the rest of them watched, Ye Chong moved towards Meng Fei¡¯er. He moved so quickly that the rest of the team were startled, and looked towards Ye Chong with respect.

    Seeing Meng Fei¡¯er not even wearing a mask, Ye Chong believed that she might even thought of this expedition as a sightseeing trip! If she was not hisrade for the moment, Ye Chong would have just ignored her.

    There were many ways to treat shock, and Ye Chong chose the simplest way.

    p! p! Ye Chong pped her twice in the face. To Ye Chong, someone as weak as her should not have joined an expedition like this. Ye Chong did not pity her just because she was a woman - the enemy would never do so anyway.

    The rest of the team stared in shock at Ye Chong, their mouths gaping wide open. They never thought anyone capable of hurting Meng Fei¡¯er like that.

    Meng Fei¡¯er was a beauty by all respects. She was sympathetic, tactful and understanding. To many, she was the perfect image of a modern woman. In every annual appraisal of the Unity Academy, no other woman was her match. Meng Fei¡¯er was undisputedly the most popr member of her sex.

    Meng Fei¡¯er had a special quality to her. Standing before her, anyone would feel self conscious, and no one had ever spoken roughly to her. With her, one could not help but be mellow. Even Qin Zuo with his excellent self control was affected by Meng Fei¡¯er. On the other hand, Meng Fei¡¯er had never been conceited because of this, but continued to be modest, gentle and understanding.

    Now, someone had dared to p her! How could anyone do that expressionlessly? The four them had just seen something almost unimaginable. If word of this reached the Unity Academy¡¯s teachers and students, they would probably ovee this cold young man by sheer numbers. The four of them exchanged horrified nces.

    Meng Fei¡¯er¡¯s snow white cheeks were now imprinted with two red, symmetrical palm prints, almost like the fiery red flower with its back-to-back petals.

    Ye Chong¡¯s method was, if anything, effective. Meng Fei¡¯er was startled, but quickly felt the full wave of terror oveing her. Meng Fei¡¯er finally burst into tears, and threw herself into Ye Chong. Even though Meng Fei¡¯er was usually calm andposed, she was still a woman, and her first reaction to this unprecedented terror was to look for protection.

    Ye Chong could not help but frown again.

    Seeing Meng Fei¡¯er embracing Ye Chong was enough to make Qin Zuo feel envious. No normal man would reject the embrace of a beautiful woman, especially a wless beauty like this one.

    Ye Chong was not used to being physically close with anyone, and keeping people at a distance was second nature to him. However, he did not avoid the embrace, since Meng Fei¡¯er would then fall to the ground, and their expedition would be further dyed. Too much time was already wasted.

    Ye Chong noticed Qin Zuo looking towards him from the corner of his eye, and knew what to do.

    His left hand pressed gently on Meng Fei¡¯er¡¯s shoulder, while his right reached for her waist and pushed. Meng Fei¡¯er was sent like a sandbag towards Qin Zuo.

    Qin Zuo was watching everything, but did not anticipate what Ye Chong had just done. He reacted quickly enough, though, and opened up his arms to catch Men Fei¡¯er. The moment he caught her, he took a few steps back to absorb the momentum, afraid to hurt Meng Fei¡¯er.

    Qin Zuo did not expect fortune to smile upon him. He only caught Meng Fei¡¯er out of reflex, and when the fact that Meng Fei¡¯er was in his embrace was fully registered, he was thoroughly overjoyed.

    Ye Chong ignored them all as he quietly retrieved his dagger from the tree. Gu Shaoze¡¯s gift had helped him many times in the past. Ye Chong wiped the de with great care.

    Then, he moved towards the fiery red and apparently dangerous nt to inspect it.

    The two faces were actually its petals, and it was hollow inside. Ye Chong moved closer, the other end of the vine that he severed with his dagger was now lying quietly within. The severed end was oozing a bright red slime, looking a little like blood.

    Even though the nt was obviously not threatening now, Ye Chong still acted carefully. The strong corrosive nature of the sticky slime filled him with apprehension. It looked like the chip was right. However, the corrosive slime seemed to be ineffective against the petals. It was truly an impressively adapted organism. This nt¡¯s most terrifying part was the tip of its scarlet red vine. That was the core of its attack. Without it, the flower was harmless.

    Ye Chong¡¯s left hand carefully held the two face-like petals, while his right hand wielded the dagger and cut the stem that supported the flower. The petals were now the perfect container for the scarlet red slime within. Ye Chong moved his shoulders, and his backpack slithered down unnaturally to his right hand.

    Studying Lan Yixing¡¯s chip, Ye Cong could now control his muscles to an unusual extent. His way of retrieving his backpack just now was a good example, though it went by unnoticed. If Ye Chong was naked waist up, they would have noticed the way Ye Chong¡¯s muscles rippled from the shoulder down like waves, passing the backpack to Ye Chong¡¯s right arm.

    Lan Yixing¡¯s chip did not teach this technique; it was a trick that Ye Chong came up with himself. This was also a way to train his muscles. Ye Chong could only do this with his shoulders and arms for now, still quite aways from controlling his entire body in this way.

    Fortunately, everyone was looking at Meng Fei¡¯er at the moment, and did not notice this tiny detail.

    Ye Chong opened the backpack with his right hand and took out a rectangr metallic container. He opened the container, and cold air slowly wafted out from within. One could see rows of spheres lined through the cold air. Ye Chong took one of those fist-sized spheres from inside the container. It had a peculiar texture - the surface shined with a metallic luster, but through the semi-transparent shell, one could see inside the sphere. This one was empty. Since it was stored at a constant cold temperature, the sphere was cold to the touch.

    Ye Chong pressed on a protrusion beneath the sphere, and the sphere buzzed as its upper half opened up, leaving a hemispherical bowl in his hand. Ye Chong carefully ced the fiery red petals inside. He pressed the protrusion again, and the sphere closed up into its initial spherical semi-transparent form. From the outside, one could see the flower within. Ye Chong kept the sphere with its new content back inside the container.

    The container was a special specimen container used by alchemists. It kept its contents fresh by maintaining a cold temperature within, and once the container was sealed, the spheres within would be suspended in a zero-gravity vacuum. Such a cutting edge specimen container was like a dream toolkit for every alchemist.

    "What was that?" Meng Fei¡¯er spoke. Her voice was still tinged with fear. It took only a moment for Meng Fei¡¯er topose herself again after shended into Qin Zuo¡¯s embrace. Qin Zuo could only regret that the moment passed by too soon. Meng Fei¡¯er watched Ye Chong¡¯s every move, and she finally understood what had happened. The young man who was currently looking very focused was the one who saved her.

    Ye Chong rxed atst. He had to be very careful handling such a dangerous sticky slime. The petals were worthless for him, but he wanted the vine with its sticky slime. In Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip, there were quite a few concoctions that called for this ingredient. Since Twin Sisters was a rare nt, who knew when he would see one again?

    Ye Chong put the specimen container back inside his backpack and turned to her. "This is Twin Sisters. Its known for its ability prey on other organisms. Inside the petals is a red vine, like a snake. This vine secretes an extremely corrosive slime. The slime also has paralytic properties. Please wear your mask, your carelessness will dy us. Also, please don¡¯t approach unfamiliar nts without thought. The forest is more dangerous than you think." Ye Chong lectured coldly.

    He ignored Meng Fei¡¯er after that.

    They were very much dyed, and Ye Chong did not intend to waste any more time. Meng Fei¡¯er knew that she had acted too recklessly. As the young man turned his back to her, Meng Fei¡¯er quietly put on the mask from her protective suit.

    The group advanced.

    Ye Chong grew more and more anxious. He could not understand how this team had managed to venture so deep into the forest and return unscathed.

    Many of the nts here were recorded in Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip. Looking at the easy expression on the four members of the team, aside from Meng Fei¡¯er, Ye Chong marvelled on how the ignorant could afford to be fearless.

    Less than half a meter from Phal was a dark brown vine, from the infamous Blood Sucking Vines. These vines were covered entirely with thorns. Any animal that was pricked would be injected with a very powerful anaesthetic. The poison from 25 thorns was enough to make an adult lion defenseless. Once a prey was anaesthetised, it would be drained of all its blood until only a dry corpse remained.

    Three meters above Ye Chong was an egg-shaped fruit, from the honey juniper tree. Honey juniper fruits were sweet and fragrant, and rich in nutrients. One could smell its scent from a long distance away. However, the fragrance was equally terrifying.

    Honey juniper fruits were natural nests for the ck-winged hos. One would almost never see one without the other. Ye Chong noticed with his sharp eyes that a few ck-winged hos had just burrowed into one of the fruits. ck-winged hos were horrible beings, and if you identally touched their nests, you would have sealed your deadly fate.

    These insects were very aggressive, and even vengeful. A healthy member of the ck-winged hos would prate a centimeter-thick alloy board with the stinger on its tail. Besides, the stinger was packed with enough poison to kill a person very quickly. Ye Chong had no confidence of their protective suits against these insects.

    The were too many dangerous nts around here! Moreover, Ye Chong did not recognize many of them, and did not know if they were harmful. Of course, he would not care to experiment now.

    Fortunately, the incident with Meng Fei¡¯er had made everyone more vignt. The corrosive slime had left a deep impression in them.

    If the walk along the river was this hard, trekking through the forest would be even more so.

    The river water was clear, and the sound of flowing water helped create a peaceful atmosphere unique to the forests.

    Up until now, they had not encountered anything like vicious wild animals. Ye Chong was disturbed by the fact. If even the nts were so dangerous here, Ye Chong would not believe that the animals here would fare any better.

    Cob¡¯snding may have scared off plenty of the animals, but Ye Chong still understood the territorial nature of the more intelligent animals. On the trash, Ye Chong had fought against various mutants, and he had grown familiar with the ways of these animals, especially the fiercer ones.

    Ye Chong would never underestimate the strength of wild animals. Take the iron lizard on the trash for example. Ye Chong believed that if all the mech pilots from the Five Gxies tried to take on the iron lizard one-on-one, most of them would never survive. This dangerous forest, on the other hand, was home to hundreds and thousands of creatures undisturbed by mankind. Ye Chong could not begin to imagine what they would be like.

    However, with a water source like this, it must be where animals nearby quench their thirst.

    Why have they not encountered a single animal? This baffled Ye Chong. After all, they were quite a distance from the Cob already.

    Could it be ¡­

    Ye Chong had an ill premonition. Behind him, the river flowed, and many silver lines flickered into existence.

 Chapter 215 - Creature

    <h4>Chapter 215: Creature</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Most of the more vicious wild animals were territorial, and other animals would avoid entering their territories. Of course, usually only the scarier wild animals were like this. The iron lizard on the trash, for example, was the strongest animal on the, and no other animal would dare to trespass its home.

    This was what Ye Chong was most worried about. No matter how he looked at it, the environment was suitable. Ye Chong had even passed by and seen creatures such as the ck-winged ho not too long ago. Here, however, he could see no signs of other animals, not even some animal feces. This was odd.

    It also made him more alert, and even increasingly wary.

    "Careful, from the back!" Mu¡¯s warning was always so timely.

    Ye Chong leapt forward like an arrow released.

    Bangbangbang!

    He could hear a series of sts, followed by a few horrified screams. Qin Zuo and the rest could not move as fast as Ye Chong. They were all more rxed and did not expect an attack, since thest time they were here, things were peaceful.

    Ye Chong saw that there were no threatening nts ahead, so he continued running forward as he looked back to see what it was.

    On the river, tens of pipes, thick as a thumb, broke the water¡¯s surface. The pipes were directed towards them. Ye Chong was rmed. What was that?

    He swept a nce behind him. Qin Zuo and the rest were all on the ground, wailing. Many arrow-like things were stuck on their bodies, as thick as the pipes. The protective suits were useless against those weapons. The areas where the needles went in them were now bloody, and the five of them were obviously in pain.

    Ye Chong was shocked. Anything that could prate these protective suits was no joke. What was that?

    Suddenly, the river sshed into waves. Ye Chong watched an unfamiliar creature emerge from the waters.

    The creature looked very odd. A t disc supported the animal as it floated on the waters, and from the edges of the disc, numerous silver tentacles extended outwards. These tentacles were hollow, and looked like straws when they straightened. These were the pipes that Ye Chong saw earlier above the river surface. The disc itself was covered with thorns. From afar, it looked like a circr archery targetpletely covered with arrows. At the center of the disc was a thick, meaty cylinder that went upwards and ended in a ck globr sac. On the sac, a pair of scarlet red eyes seemed to cry for blood, and they were looking straight at Ye Chong.

    What was that? Ye Chong was baffled. He was sure that he had never seen anything like it. He took a quick nce at the five on the ground again. They did not look good. In truth, when encountering an unfamiliar animal like this, the best course of action would be to escape. Now, however, Ye Chong had to face it head on. If he did not rescue them, the chances of him finding the teardrop mineralite on this vast would be worse than him killing this creature.

    Ye Chong deployed Guardian without a moment¡¯s hesitation.

    A few rays of light broke through the leaves and shone on Guardian, and the dazzling gold reminded one of the mythical warriors that once fought for the Gods. It was a pity that Ye Chong could not see it himself, but he probably would haveined that the gold was too eye-catching. Ye Chong was not adjusting himself. It had been awhile since he used Guardian for battle, and he needed time to get used to the ck and white vision.

    The sudden transformation in Ye Chong¡¯s exterior apparently surprised the creature.

    Suddenly, the globr sac expanded like an inting balloon. At the same time, the disc expanded quickly as well, and those thorns mysteriously disappeared into the creature¡¯s body. All the tentacles aimed at Ye Chong.

    Swish swish swish!

    The sound was most familiar to Ye Chong - it was the sound of objects travelling very fast through the air. His vision immediately filled up with dozens of white spots, and the information window at the side of his vision refreshed quickly, responding to the attack.

    Ye Chong whipped out his dagger, fast as lightning. Ye Chong could do this inhumanly fast in person; with Guardian, his speed was beyond what the human eye could perceive.

    Guardian did not retreat, but charged forward like a golden streak of lightning towards the creature. Z-steps, curved steps ¡­ Ye Chong used everything he had, treating the creature as a most formidable enemy.

    As he avoided some of the needles, Ye Chong used his dagger to block the ones that he could not avoid. The flying needles were packed with power, and came at a very dangerous speed. Even with Guardian, Ye Chong dared not let down his guard.

    That thing could attack continuously! Ye Chong focused hard in the fight.

    The creature¡¯s tentacles spit out the needles, again and again. The silver needles looked like waves of silver rays under the sunlight, flying towards Ye Chong.

    Guardian was sessfully approaching the creature. In his vision, Ye Chong could see Guardian beginning to analyze the creature. A fatal white line marked the spot between its eyes! Ye Chong understood that the white line indicated the weakest spot of the creature.

    There was no time to think any further. Ye Chong focused on the white line.

    Behind Ye Chong, the trees and the ground were full of silver needles, glimmering like exquisite artefacts under the sun. These needles were all aimed at Ye Chong, so the wounded five were not attacked instead.

    The creature was finally out of needles! Ye Chong felt calm as usual. The white line between the creature¡¯s scarlet red eyes was growingrger andrger in sight.

    The creature was finally showing some fear in its eyes. It had always reigned supreme in this forest, and now it was facing something even stronger than itself.

    Guardian¡¯s Mach 10 sprint was unleashed in all its glory. When something came at you with the speed of Mach 10, the impact was devastating.

    The creature thought to escape and quickly began to submerge. It believed that it would have the advantage underwater.

    Before it could submerge its round disc beneath the waters, all of a sudden, it felt a chill between its eyes.

    Ye Chong saw that it was trying to escape, and flung out his dagger in his right hand. The throw was wless, both in uracy and strength.

    Ye Chong stopped by the riverside, watching the creature¡¯s corpse floating on the water. He dragged the corpse to shore, and retrieved his dagger. Ye Chong withdrew Guardian and did not waste time studying the creature as he rushed back towards the rest of the team.

    He quickly checked their injuries, and found them to be non-fatal. Meng Fei¡¯er was the medic, and the one with the medical supplies. Ye Chong took the medical kit off her. Meng Fei¡¯er had never experienced such terrible injuries in her life, and had already cked out from the pain.

    Ye Chong removed the needles from them all, and treated their wounds. Phal and Vicente were too old, and they too had fainted. Hen Ben and Qin Zuo were both athletic - while they were both pale, they remained conscious.

    Their expressions betrayed shock and horror. The creature was the most fearsome they had ever seen. Its needles could go through the protective suits, which could withstand an attack from normal heat ray guns. That ugly creature was too horrifying! If not for the young man with them, they would probably have ended up as sustenance for the creature.

    Qin Zuo¡¯s fear, however, was not reserved only for the creature. To him, the creature was horrifying, butpared to this seemingly weak young man before him, it was only an annoyance.

    That golden armor that suddenly appeared was mostly likely a miniature mech model. As a teacher of the Unity Academy, if he could even recognize that, he should probably shoot himself. Of course, that was his first impression upon seeing Guardian.

    In the next moment, he almost overturned his previous thought. "Heavens! Was that really a miniature mech?" Qin Zuo was stupefied. He could barely register the pain from his wounds. "What speed! Definitely above Mach 7!" He thought to himself as he made a conservative estimation.

    How could there be a miniature mech that could go up to Mach 7? The fact could turn his world upside down.

    As he saw the way the miniature mech avoided all those needles, switching directions at will, Qin Zuo could feel his minding to a halt.

    "Was that even human?"

    Qin Zuo was speechless. He realized now that the young man before him had exceeded all the standards of a normal human being.

    Switching directions so quickly would produce a burden so heavy on the human body that survival was almost impossible. Qin Zuo was certain of it, as he saw what had happened. Even for the legendary character, YC that rose to fame so quickly in the virtual world, this was an entirely different level. Long ago, he had once watched a recording of YC¡¯s battle, making eight consecutive acute angle movements in three seconds. Before he met this young men before him, he had thought that that was the limit of the human body.

    He never would have guessed that this young man was actually YC himself. To him, they were at two very different levels.

    Ye Chong ignored the way Qin Zuo and Hen Ben were looking at him, as they thought he was a creature himself. He picked up a needle and inspected it closely. From its texture, it seemed to be a skeleton. That was Ye Chong¡¯s conclusion, thanks to his rich knowledge in skeletons. The needle was light, but strong, with a very sharp tip. It was silver and about 15 centimeters long. The tail end was ttened for easy flight. This was a natural skeleton arrow. Ye Chong began to collect all the skeleton arrows on the ground.

    Ye Chong bundled up the 200 odd skeleton arrows together with a strong vein, and kept it in his backpack. He walked back to the creature¡¯s corpse and looked it over. It seemed that the creature had no more bones other than its skeleton arrows. It was no longer useful to Ye Chong.

    Walking back to the rest of the team, Ye Chong found himself in a difficult situation. Of the five, three were unconscious, and the remaining two were heavily injured and could not walk. Without a guide, Ye Chong would never be able to find the teardrop mineralite.

    Qin Zuo was sharp, and seemed to realize what Ye Chong was troubling about. He smiled wryly and said, "While I don¡¯t know what you are looking for, you should know that thest time we were here, we basically just walked along the river and kept going. We didn¡¯t go very far, at most five kilometers from where we are now. You can find the way yourself." Qin Zuo knew that, with the young man¡¯s abilities and their current situation, the young man could finish them all off quickly and easily. There was no one to stop him.

    Qin Zuo knew people. The stronger ones usually had a touch of arrogance in them, and would not easily ept favors from others. Hence, he offered it instead, hoping to at least get on the young man¡¯s good side, and increase their chances of survival.

    Qin Zuo¡¯s cooperation obviously came as a surprise to Ye Chong. He looked at the five of them, and knew that they would be defenseless without him. As long as they stayed where they were, the risk was not too great. Considering the strength and aggressiveness of that creature, Ye Chong believed that there would be no other animals in the area. Mu¡¯s scanning results confirmed Ye Chong¡¯s suspicion.

    Ye Chong nodded and said, "You all stay here. There are no wild animals around. I¡¯ll be back."

    With that, Ye Chong turned his back and began to run along the river. Without the rest of the team slowing him down, Ye Chong ran fast, like an energetic leopard running through the forest.

    Along the way, Ye Chong did not encounter any other wild animals, but saw a few dangerous nts. It looked like the creature back there held great power in this area.

    Five kilometers was a piece of cake for Ye Chong.

    "Stop! Ye." Mu suddenly spoke up. Even with his calmposure, Ye Chong could not help but feel overjoyed. If Mu had asked him to stop for no apparent reason, he must have found something.

    As expected, Mu said, "Ye, to the left."

    Ye Chong followed Mu¡¯s instructions as he moved. Foliage was thick here, and a big hindrance to Ye Chong. Seeing the numerous intertwining vines that stretched above him, Ye Chong gave up on the idea of flying.

    Ye Chong deployed Guardian instead, thinking that no nt should be able to break through Guardian¡¯s armor. WIth that, he advanced faster ahead. However, using an advanced mech like Guardian just to open a path was probably something only Ye Chong would do.

    "Alright, it¡¯s here." Despite Mu¡¯s usual calmness, his voice betrayed a trace of nervousness. This made Ye Chong realize once again the importance of this teardrop mineralite.

    There was a clearing. Strangely, no nts were growing within a 50-meter radius. This was a perfectly circr area of bare earth, and in the center of this clearing was a dark hole.

    The perfectly circr clearing, with nothing growing in it amidst the dense forest, was eerie and unsettling.

 Chapter 216 - The Cave Underground

    <h4>Chapter 216: The Cave Underground</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The forest was vast and dense, yet there was this particr area, barren, without any sprout of nt in sight, forming a perfect circle, giving off a peculiar feeling.

    Ye Chong got out of the Guardian. It was a relief to his eyes when he returned to the normal, colorful vision after remaining in the monochrome sight for quite some time. The Guardian was amazing indeed, but he had identified one tant weakness in it, which was exceptionally prominent in areas withplicatedndscape like this forest. The Guardian had a full run on its visual analysis when Ye Chong came to this forest. The lines and dots were increased by a gazillion times as they stranded over each other, bing nearly indistinguishable visual in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. That was why he got out of the Guardian instead.

    ording to Mu¡¯s detection, there was no threat within their proximity.

    The abyssal opening looked real deep, or even bottomless Ye Chong wondered, as he tossed one pebble into the nothingness. He then heard the sound of pebble bouncing a few times, "Mhm¡­ the opening was not a straight one¡­ apparently¡­"

    Ye Chong, from the bag on his waist, withdrew a dimensional keystone which took a lifelike appearance of an insect. This was one of the mechs Ye Chong bought in a batch during his visit at Nine Gates City, an engineering model, mainly for the purpose of excavation and ore-extraction, which seemed to be a suitable arsenal to travel through the cave.

    The mech carried the name, "Multipede", which took the form of a mutated insect obviously, with dark-brown segmented body, allowing agile movements deep in the cave, especially with the miniature engines installed at every segment in addition to the pseudo-antenna mechanical legs of passive-activation

    Deployed the mech, he hopped into the cabin, took a firm seat and heunched the mech.

    Multipede crawled into the opening within a few hushes nimbly. The mechanical legs were on passive-activation, which turned out to be an ease to Ye Chong¡¯s piloting. The terrain within the cave was unexpectedly in various winding shapes, with limited lighting that the night vision on Multipede was proven to be ineffective. Fortunately Multipede was pre-installed with a set of bursting sma lighting. The ride was not as bumpy as Ye Chong thought. It was a smooth sail for him, which heplimented the designer of this mech a little.

    Multipede travelled quite quickly. The tunnel was bing more winding than he presumed. Mu had detected the location of the teardrop mineralite, which was about 3 kilometers away from their current location, although Ye Chong already felt that they had travelled more than 3 kilometers.

    Tick!

    Phew¡­ finally. They made it to the end, his sight brightened as they arrived at arge t ground at the bottommost of the cave, with the sound of water dripping through his ears.

    Multipede was parked on the ground carefully. Ye Chong then flipped out of the cabin.

    Gasp¡­ Ye Chong inhaled intensely upon seeing the sight before him.

    The deep cave was dark at first and now it was glowing in all kinds of lights into Ye Chong¡¯s eyes.

    A stream across the ground, sinking right at the ankle of Ye Chong, flowing to the other side with discernible hushes in the deserted underground. And that was when Ye Chong realized, the stream was not wholly a stream after all, the glow came from the stream, where the ores were shining in dazzles brighter than the stars in the sky, lighting up the darkness of the menacing cave.

    Ye Chong had seen quite a variety of ores before, but never ever he had seen ores which could produce such glow alone and now he was standing in a stream of them, with all types of colors he could imagined, in all kinds of shapes which were staggering for him to name.

    "Transmutated Energy Ore!" Mu¡¯s voice was too filled with fascination.

    "Transmutated energy ore? Mu, what¡¯s that? Is it anything useful?" asked Ye Chong in bewilderment.

    "Yes! Useful! Of course it is useful!" Mu¡¯s tone was firm, "Mhm, and the teardrop mineralite has to be somewhere nearby, which exins the energy transmutation urred in these ores¡­ So¡­" Mu sounded as if he was talking to himself.

    Ye Chong was confused. Energy transmutation? What is that?

    "Ye." And apparently Mu was not in the favor of giving an exnation, rushed he, "Quickly gather these transmutated ores. All of them. They are very useful."

    "All¡­ of them¡­?" Gulped Ye Chong, as his eyes set upon this milky way of glowing ores.

    He reached his hands to the ore, "Ye." Said Mu again, "Get the teardrop instead, it should be just around here, no more than 300 meters away from here, while I do the collection of these ores."

    "Okay," responded Ye Chong as he began searching the Teardrop within this flock of transmutated energy ores. Mu on the other hand began piloting Multipede to perform the extraction. Well, Multipede was born for tasks of such kind, so the efficiency was satisfactory. The ores extracted were kept inside the storage of Multipede. There were 13 segments on its body, where only the first segment was used as a cabin and the remaining 12 segments were used as the storage for ores collected.

    Ye Chong followed the winding streams, yet he did not find a single sight of the Teardrop throughout his way.

    At the very end of the cave, Ye Chong discovered a few teardrop mineralites scattered on the ground in a gentle glow.

    Phew¡­ at least it was not a wild goose chase after all.

    Ye Chong was going to advance forward, but the sudden rush of goosebumps stormed upon his body. A strong sense of danger roared in his instinct, "Ye. Stay still." Mu¡¯s words echoed almost immediately after. His words were fearful, which was the first time Ye Chong perceived, from such a fearful Mu.

    What was the danger that caused such fear even in this artificial intelligence? The thought shed in his mind.

    He took a careful look around. Nothing strange in particr, even though that strong sense of danger lingered in his mind.

    "What exactly is wrong?" Inquired Ye Chong, "Mu, I just feel something wrong¡­"

    "Ye, deploy me now." Hurried Mu, "Take a look beyond the Teardrops."

    Beyond¡­? Ye Chong had only been looking at the Teardrops, he had hardly looked beyond th¡­ He lifted his head, the darkness stared back at him. Ye Chong flinched, as he pinpointed the source of his sense instantly. His sight was great, despite in the faint glow of the Teardrops, as he could discern the silhouettes of objects around. But there was one spot, 5 meters beyond the Teardrops, which formed an absolute darkness, where the lights were engulfed and failed to shine upon. Since the cave was already dark by nature, one would easily overlook that one darker area.

    It was a tant twist in the plot, where Mu even demanded to deploy himself right away. It was the first time Ye Chong faced such a grave danger after they left Trash.

    "What, is this?" Ye Chong¡¯s gaze intensified, as he asked Mu.

    "Currently unidentifiable. Calcting¡­" Replied Mu, as his mechanical eyes flickered drastically, apparently running a rapid calction in the background.

    Ye Chong pondered slightly, he began sprinting! He sprinted over the stream, through the tunnel and jumped into Multipede, which hadpleted its extraction and was resting at the other end. The stream had been dried out, as the ores were cleared out, "Then¡­" He remembered the bursting sma lighting installed at the head of Multipede, a few taps on the control panel he shifted the lighting to the darkness.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    !

    !!!

    "What¡­ is this¡­?" Exmation escaped from Ye Chong¡¯s mouth widely opened.

    The brightness of the sma lighting shone throughout the area in the cave. The ground was white, the walls were white, the tunnel was wide, except that one corner, beyond the Teardrops, a dark circle about 3 meters in diameter hovered over the distance 5 meters away from the Teardrops. The bright light was fully engulfed by this circle.

    The circle was as if a masterpiece illustrated by the best architecture tools, in a darkness which gave fright to anybody.

    It was strange, really strange, that even a fearless boy like Ye Chong began to quiver.

    What, exactly, is this?

    The Teardrops were only a stone¡¯s thrown away from him, yet Ye Chong was too feared to even lift a step. The peculiarity was iprehensible¡­

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 71%." Mu¡¯s voice rang cold.

    ¡­

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 75%." Mu¡¯s voice was shaking.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 78%." Mu¡¯s voice sounded agitated, "Ye, quick! Pick up the Teardrops!" rmingly he shouted, "But do not be within 10 meters of the Space Distorting Disc¡¯s proximity!"

    Space Distorting Disc? Is it the dark circle?

    But providing that I do not approach the Teardrops, how would I collect them? He looked at the Teardrops, which had a size, at the maximum, of a thumb¡­ the mechanical legs of Multipede could never pick them up.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 82%." Mu¡¯s voice grew louder.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 87%." Mu screamed, "Ye! Fast! Now!"

    Ye Chong understood he did not have the time to waste. As soon as Mu hurried, he got an idea, he jumped off the cabin and picked one rock of size of his fist.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 90%." Mu seemed calmer now¡­

    Once he picked the rock, a force exerted at tip of his toes, flipped in arge curve he reached the side of the Distorting Disc, which looked like a fine lining in his eyes by then, as if the width was non-existent.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 93%." The strange form of Mu¡¯s countdown haunted Ye Chong.

    A shake on his arm, the rock was flung towards the Teardrops. In anotherrge curve, he shifted to the other side of the disc, no time for him to see if his n worked.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 95%."

    Thump! The rock he flung uratelynded at the densest point of the Teardrops, where they had flown up high as conservation of momentum urred, all the way towards Ye Chong.

    The Teardrops travelled in different heights, forming an irregr shape of a fan. Ye Chong breathed in deeply, as he became countless afterimages, grabbing the Teardrops wlessly. It was not that challenging to grab falling things with his sight and hand speed.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 99%."

    Mu¡¯s voice rang calmly. Ye Chong made a flip and got back to Mu.

    Phew¡­ He regained his stance. As long as he stood by Mu, he would be in good hands, although the disc was bizarre, his confidence towards Mu had grown deep inside himself. Mu was unbeatable, the ideology stood like a g in Ye Chong¡¯s subconsciousness.

    He then put the Teardrops into his bag. He took a look at that disc.

    Wait¡­ Ye Chong realized he missed one little Teardrop which was lying right before the disc. His strike did not work fully just now it seemed. But he did not mind, since he was considered rather lucky for he was able to retrieve stones of irregr shapes this many within such a brief timeframe.

    "Spatial Distortion Rate¡­

    ¡­

    100%."

    Mu¡¯s voice came like the vaporization of dry ice.

    Ye Chong red upon the disc. Even though he did not understand the phrase "Spatial Distortion Rate", he at least understood what 100% could mean - it meant apletion, which would be proceeded by a change, a metamorphosis.

    What kind of change, that¡¯s the question. Spected Ye Chong in his mind.

    5 secondspsed. The disc remained hovered in the air. Nothing happened.

    10 secondspsed. Nothing.

    Mu wh-

    Right when Ye Chong lifted his lips and was going to ask, that disc which seemed to be at its eternity had an unexpected development.

    It was¡­ a hand.

    A strange hand of an unknown creature crawled out of the darkness. The dark skin was coated with dense linings in crimson, like checkers all over the hand. Ye Chong had never seen such skin before, which its glow was of metals and was ring under the sma lighting. The hand had 8 fingers, with noticeable hardness on its bones. The tip of the fingers¡­ was made out of metal, if Ye Chong was right, as it glowed coldly. The fingers were connected with ayer of flesh, a strangeness Ye Chong could hardly word into.

    Ye Chong did not see the elbow of the hand. The hand was reaching out to its everywhere, literally everywhere, once it got out of the disc, as if it had no bone, hitting any direction of any angle.

    And that hand stopped abruptly. Ye Chong took a careful look. Wait¡­ what¡­ isn¡¯t that the Teardrop I missed in its hand?

    The hand, as soon as it seized the Teardrop, retreated back into the disc.

    Ye Chong was stoned upon the sight. Hell knows what that thing was. Mu did not speak either. The man and his mech just looked at this phenomena urring.

    After the handpletely sank into the disc, "Mu, what is this?" Asked Ye Chong, gulping.

    "Unidentifiable," stated Mu, with also a confused tone, "No match was found in my databank."

    "What that dark disc is then?"

    Shook the artificial intelligence, "Negative. Only distortion of space was detected."

    What do you mean by¡­

    "Mu what d-"

    Ye Chong was going to ask, but something happened!

 Chapter 217 - Hypersonic

    <h4>Chapter 217: Hypersonic</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A shrill in the cave!

    Ye Chong could feel his head pounding. Boom! A force came after, breaking his shaking stance. Thup! He was lifted by the violent wind and mmed upon the rocky wall behind. He could hear his backbones cracking and his insides were rumbling. Ssh! He spat a pool of blood as hended on the ground.

    That m had woken Ye Chong, as he discovered the wavesing from the dark disc. He looked at Mu, whose legs were dragged behind, forming a trail. The artificial intelligence had its eyes frantically flickering which meant he was clearly fighting against this force.

    Ye Chong stumbled upon the sight, where Mu was at the edge of defeat, the first time it was. And the foe was merely using sound to fight¡­

    The strong sonic waves wrecked the surrounding atmosphere. The fright and its overwhelming strength put upon Ye Chong was no longer imaginable.

    The sound did not seem to be stopping anytime soon, as its pitch grew higher, the pressure intensified within Ye Chong¡¯s body, a stream of blood dripped off the corner of his lips. The droplet of blood did not survive the waves as well, as it shattered into vapors, flying away.

    A shockwave of high frequency could be fatal to human anatomy, even for sturdy ones like Ye Chong¡¯s, as difort drained his face pale.

    Ye Chong knew it well that he could be dead right there if he did not take any action. It was the biggest danger he had ever faced. His muscles were forced to vibrate along, as the atmosphere was shaking drastically. The fatigue stung his body, dizziness clouded his head.

    He took a deep breath and tried to regain his calmness. As he understood, the way to deal with death was to grab the lining of life within it.

    He tried his best to disregard these influences. Ye Chong¡¯s cold gazes set upon the ripping dark disc. He readjusted his respiration with his chest pulled forcefully like an ordion and slowly it regained the inner peace.

    His mind flowed through the cold water, as Ye Chong felt withdrawn from his physical body slightly. It felt like his usual meditation, other than the fact that he was doing it consciously as the pain still lingered in his body. He felt like an audience to his own agony, standing at the edge of his body.

    He looked at the dark disc, his arms somehow mustered a bit of strength. His right hand drew the dagger out and with all that bit of strength he mustered, he tossed it right into the dark disc.

    He had no idea what the dark disc was. He had no idea what the owner of that frightening arm was. But he knew he had to attack and that was the only way he could think of.

    The dagger zoomed into the dark disc.

    Ye Chong could feel his senses returning almost simultaneously after, when a wave of pain surged in him. Oww¡­ He could no longer hold his whimper.

    The deadly shrill ceased¡­

    Ye Chong was already half-fainted. Mu, at his quickest speed, grabbed Ye Chong up right after the shrill stopped. He opened up his cabin and ced Ye Chong gently inside. He then turned away to the tunnel and began running, with Multipede following like a pet behind.

    Mu would not let go of the ores even under such devastated circumstance. Poor Multipede, being the engineering model, had barely any appropriate armor on its body. That demolishing shockwave dealt great damage on it. Sluggishly it dragged its shattered body. Fortunately, the processor remained intact, so Mu could remotely control its movement.

    The winding tunnel to the outside was troublesome for Mu to travel but that was not the time for him to calcte. He would most likely bombard the underground to create a pathway directly to the surface, if he had the right weapon for it.

    Ye Chong remained unconscious. If he had woken up at any point he would probably be ranting about how long the tunnel was.

    Mu still travelled faster than Multipede as it only caught up 2 seconds after Mu hit the opening.

    Mu used his only hand to grab Multipede and sted off into the sky.

    An infuriated shrill roared violently from the underground.

    The ground was shattering the second after Mu flew off. The opening copsed under the hypersonic of the unknown. Half a meter of the barren circr ground crumbled, forming arge rift.

    Mu did not look down, he flew on, as long as he reached the sky, he would get back to Cob.

    Halfway through their journey, Ye Chong regained his consciousness. Thanks to his well-built body, he got back to his usual condition. That shock caused only an emergency shutdown to his system as a form of defense.

    "M-Mu¡­" His words rang softly, "What was that¡­"

    "Unidentifiable. Object: Unknown ording to database," Mu replied.

    "It is horrible¡­" Even an in-human like Ye Chong was eximing at the frightening event before. And that was also his first time seeing Mu behaving so gracelessly, he did not even have the energy to fight back. What kind of living thing could produce such scream¡­?

    Soundwave-based weaponry was not something foreign to Ye Chong. Well, its development was rather primitive in the 5 major gxies. It was a kind of area-of-effect attack, which disregarded friends or foes. In other words, if you wanted a stronger sound wave attack, you would have to be much stronger to withstand it. Also its effective areas were of limited choices, as it required a medium like the air in the atmosphere to travel. But most of humanity spent their lives in the airless space now, which justified the underdevelopment of soundwave-based weaponry.

    Despite all that, Ye Chong experienced the potency of sound-waves, and there was this particr living thing that was capable of producing them. How horrible¡­ The three forces, be it the MPA, the Sanctuary or even the ck Coves, might be nothingpared to its power. Obviously one could say the attacker was no way a human.

    And, under such existence, there were humans who always assumed themselves to be the ruler of the gxy. What was the truth, the very truth of the rulership in the end, anyway?

    The sight before Ye Chong widened, Mu had left the forestpletely and reached the sky. Ye Chong sat steadily inside Mu. A sense of nostalgia struck, as he remembered the days back on Trash when he had to log into the Virtual World almost everyday inside Mu. Well, that was no longer the case ever since they left Trash. He hardly had the chance to board Mu. It felt warm¡­ the memories, as the stiffened expression of Ye Chong melted.

    !

    "Mu!" Ye Chong yelled as he saw something approaching, "Look out! The mech behind!"

    Mu¡¯s detection was based on hologramic scanning and on this, Mu¡¯s detection only was capable of proximity about 3 kilometers, and 3 kilometers to a mech were hardly a distance, not even the distance of safety. So Ye Chong¡¯s naked eyes could do better than the mechanical eyes under such condition, especially when they were in the sky, away from the blockage of the woods.

    A few mechs were flying towards them, in spread.

    Ye Chong modified the setting as he switched Mu¡¯s camera to photographic mode, to have a better look at the mechs. They were of the same models, which Ye Chong could not recognize. A total 5 of them. Ye Chong directly rted them to the case of the student of Vicente. The flock underneath could possibly be the organization who abducted that student.

    The 5 mechs were pretty strange to him. He looked at the screen and made a few estimations. The height of the mechs were about 15 meters, which were much taller than most mechs; their body size were muchrger than most mechs as well - a little bulky in design.

    Those were not strange enough to Ye Chong, as he realized the mechs of such model were somehow a conglomeration, with the energy shooter in the hand, of arge musket, which made those energy shooters from MPA look like a toy pistol of a kid, at most an art piece rather than a real killing weapon. From the weapon they were holding, it obviouslybeled them as a ranged model, and their shooting chamber further supported Ye Chong¡¯s assumption.

    But, the catch was, there was an ancientnce made out of alloy at their back, along with a pair ofser swords installed on their body. They were not activated yet but Ye Chong could see the handle shing at their sides. They were even armed with parrying spears, and a shield on the left arm, which its size was above average as well.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened. What is this? Did a rack turn alive from someone¡¯s armory?

    Judging from the enemies he had encountered before, be it the ck Covers or those from the MPA, they all had very distinctive characteristics, either identifying them as the close-attackers or ranged attackers. This was applicable even for the Sanctuary, the one who struck the bnce between yet they picked the other path as they coborated a unique skill of theirs into thebats.

    Closed-ranged and ranged attacking were two different concepts, that a single pilot could hardly wield both. This was exceptionally true as a pilot further honed his or her skills, usually they would prefer to have one of the paths fully improvised, since the saying of "when you are good at everything, you are good at nothing."

    Frankly speaking, despite Ye Chong¡¯sment ofbelling them as the walking rack from someone¡¯s armory, they did not look that bad. It felt like an ancient coat of arms. With that ancientnce on the back, it looked pretty chivalrous. The edge of the shield was coated with sky blue, capsuling the golden brand in the center, giving off the vibes of the nobility.

    There were shrills from the ground. Ye Chong could hear it clearly even above the sky. But the shrill had transformed into a mere sound traveling through air, since the shockwave had been fully absorbed by the ground.

    "The mechs were probably attracted by the sound waves," spected Ye Chong.

    Mu was obviously not in the mood of having any duel with the mechs. His goal had been achieved while there was this unidentifiable monster rampaging underground. The sanest choice would be to get back to their warship.

    Ye Chong was confident of Mu¡¯s velocity as he still travelled faster than most of the mechs even with Multipede in his grip.

    At first he thought Mu would lose the 5 mechs in a matter of seconds. However so far, the only change was the distance between him and the 5 mechs. Yes, Mu was gaining distance from the 5 mechs, nevertheless it should not be the case since Mu had such an insane speed.

    Ye Chong had the thought and was shocked, as the speed of the 5 mechs couldpete with the unmodified war machines of the three forces¡­ with such bulky body, yet they had such velocity which Mu could not zap away from right away. It was shocking indeed. They were also flying in perfect position, their rapports were trained.

    So which of the three forces were the mechs from?

    This was the biggest mystery to Ye Chong currently.

    Mu¡¯s speed also seemed to surprise the 5 mechs, as Ye Chong could asionally see tiny flinches from them.

    "Mu, be careful. They are shooting," warned Ye Chong as he saw two of the mechs charging energy at their muskets. Compared to Javelin Wing of the MPA, the charging action was too tant in the eyes. He recalled the time he fought Javelin Wing, which the energy shooter did not even seem to be charging before it fired an explosion. That would be the ideal way of fighting, Ye Chong supposed.

    "Understood," Mu replied tly.

    Ye Chong felt his head falling. He understood that it was Mu, doing the standard dodging procedure by disrupting the foes¡¯ shooting in unpredictable rhythm. This was Ye Chong''s first time sitting right inside Mu experiencing the shaking of standard dodge.

    Mu was still Mu, the skillful artificial intelligence, as his debut was a series of super duper advanced rapid disorderly turnings, which gave the sturdy man Ye Chong a lingering dizziness in his head. Ye Chong could not imagine doing the same turnings by himself.

    Mu¡¯s moves were effective, as they confused the foes sessfully. The light beams traveled right by Mu''s side. Boom! The forest was seared into two baldy zones. "Man!" eximed Ye Chong in his mind. The energy shooter was not the random shooter from the market!

    The firings from the foes came off as a warning. Well they intended give a warning, till Mu¡¯s dramatic spin made them missed their shoot, reminding them that they had messed with the wrong guy.

    One of the mechs fired a signal into the sky right after that. The bombardment urred as a sh of red signal covering the sky. It might be a primitive methodology, but anyone would have used such a primitive technology, since the maic interferences were so strong that anymunicative device would fail.

    Mu¡¯s orbit was still confusing as hell. But Ye Chong could see their destination being not too far away - the Cobs, resting at the corner silently.

 Chapter 218 - The Foxes and the Hare

    <h4>Chapter 218: The Foxes and the Hare</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The gigantic Cob was more eye-catching than anything else when Mu flew towards it without hesitation. Hm? Ye Chong took a light breath, as through the photon camera of Mu he saw Tai Zuo and his gang sitting by the opened gate.

    Tai Zuo was the first who discerned the iing "intruder", as he hurried the other folks to get up and hide under the shadow of Cob. Wow, that¡¯s actually pretty smart. Complimented Ye Chong in his mind.

    What actually happened was, everyone regained consciousness after Ye Chong left the ship, especially after being given expert care from Meng Fei¡¯er, where their condition had improved a lot. Tai Zuo¡¯s reaction towards the iing object was justified, the fact that he had taken the personality of the distant young man into consideration and had identified that if any incident were to happen, they would be thest few persons on ship to be directly involved. Thus, he ran away with the remaining members to the shadow. At least there were engines installed on their protective suits. It felt miraculous when they actually made it back to the Cob despite theirid-back hovering. But the gate was already closed by then. So they only managed to sneak into the shadow of Cob and wait for Ye Chong¡¯s return.

    "Ah!" And Mu opened the gate right before he arrived by Cob, which left the 5 men in dismay upon seeing this never-before-seen mech flying towards them. "What are you waiting for?" shouted Ye Chong, hustling the gang in their daydreams.

    They might have never seen that mech before, but they heard Ye Chong¡¯s voice, and started space-swimming towards the opened Cob.

    The hunting mechs behind Mu ceased their eleration upon seeing the Cob. Anyone of them could imagine the size of an army inside a spaceship of such hugeness. They might have strong rapports with each other and also armed with something, but they would not dare to infuriate the hundreds, no, the thousands inside the ship.

    "Well, Mu," stated Ye Chong, "It looks like there is a need to equip you with some weaponry, or you would be too passive in the situation."

    "Agreed," said Mu, "Our achievement this time is great. The loots are sufficient to produce a few weapons."

    "What kind of weapons would you like, Mu?" Ye Chong asked with full of interest, since Mu was never armed with a gun or a de from the very beginning he picked the machine from the trash, and Mu had always been fighting with weapons "borrowed" from the opponents, which were discarded right after the duel ended. Ye Chong did recognize that bit of pride in Mu, where probably he disdained those substandard weapons so much that he would never keep them as his toys for long-term.

    "Regarding that¡­ Ye, you would know when time arrives." And the artificial intelligence returned with a brief statement imbued with slight mystery, which further intrigued the young man inside the cabin.

    The 5 mechs remained afar. Apparently they had never made a wild guess that the ship could also be literally empty. They fired a yellow signal next.

    Mu soared in after seeing the running men having made back inside Cob. The gate was closed right after.

    Ye Chong gave a sigh of relief after Mu hadnded safely. Their safety would be at better guarantee as long as they were inside Cob.

    "Oh how d am I to-" Ye Chong was weed by the gang when he left the cabin, but the corner of his lips caused an astonishment, as stained by blood. What kind of danger had this young man faced that he was actually wounded while being inside a mech? The mystery lingered within the mind of the gang. And he survived? Wow. The capabilities of the indifferent young man had convinced the gang.

    "Are you alright?" asked Meng Fei¡¯er, being the medical staff of the team, "Do you need help?"

    The indifferent young man shook his head, as he took a nce at the members, who looked to be in the pink of health, well, at least their expression did not seem agonized, even though it looked a little pale. Ye Chong could have provided some help since whatever Lunatic Guan had taught him before could be used for medication as well, but he was still a novicepared to Meng Fei¡¯er the trained.

    Ye Chong¡¯s body had also recovered from the fatigue, as he felt the strength in his muscles.

    The first thing on his priority list was to change the detection mode of the Cob to Photon Mode, instead of Hologramic Mode which had proven its helplessness under such strong maic interference. The Hologramic System had been jammed, so it would be a sane choice to use the traditional Photon Mode instead to retain the visibility of the surrounding.

    Of course Ye Chong had made up his mind to depart. The nearby had given him ample horror, which that unidentifiable lifeform underground was the most threatening. He had fulfilled his mission here, "Time to move."

    Ye Chong was going to pull the lever and st off to infinity and beyond, but then¡­ There seemed to be a white spaceship traveling towards them, if what he saw on the photon disy was right.

    Oh no¡­ Ye Chong¡¯s hope sank.

    It could be the first time Ye Chong saw such model of spaceship, but he could tell, that obviously it was a corvette from the MPA. There was a distinctive style on all MPA ships, from the aspect of weaponry that is. To someone who had been through the weaponry production like Ye Chong, no doubt that would be the first thing crossing in his mind. Whether the ship was a warship or an ordinary spaceship, well, a ship that was sent to a dangerous zone like this, it had to be a warship. Thought Ye Chong.

    So the MPA came to join the party? Even the indifferent young man could not help but to frown upon the situation, as he reminisced the times he fought an actual corvette from the MPA. It was not a good experience. And the Cob had zero experience in the warfield, his potential remained something to gamble with.

    Ye Chong had automatically identified the iing warship as being hostile. But how did the MPA get here? It was puzzling to Ye Chong since Vicente had only one student but there were already two organizations hovering around. Had the whole world found out the news?

    The corvette of MPA travelled quickly. It was much quickerpared to the Cob.

    As they inched towards the Cob, Ye Chong could finally see the exact appearance of the ship. Unlike the Twin Moon he had encountered before, this corvette had merely a curved body paintedpletely in white. Andpared to the Cob which had a length of 5km, this corvette was much smaller. Probably a mere 2 kilometers, Ye Chong supposed, although that huge pipe on top of the corvette was a gasp-worthy surprise.

    Gradually Ye Chong could see the weaponry on that approaching corvette. He flinched. Wasn¡¯t that an electromaic cannon? Ye Chong who had produced few of his own immediately pinpointed that firepower setting. The tubes were in white. Nevertheless they looked exactly like the tubes Ye Chong made.

    "Ye, this is the Eclipse. Unlike Twin Moon, this is a warship of single-moon, a conquering model, where its main firepowers are scattered into 22 electromaic firings. The main cannon

    Is great but only suitable for passive-aggressive position, like on a gctic stronghold for example. The Eclipse is chiefly used for its reflexibility, its petite size and mobility while retaining a certain level of firepower," introduced Mu and he sounded as if he was reciting from a textbook.

    "Mu, you know this warship?" asked Ye Chong. There had been asions where Mu showed unreasonable amount of knowledge on the working of MPA, although he was not that shocked by the detail.

    ¡­

    The artificial intelligence went silent for a moment. "Mhm, it seemed like there is a massive amount of information regarding various aspects of Mech-Pilot Association inside my databank, where part of them has been destroyed. Ye, I might have an undeniable association with the MPA, although I have yet discovered any information to justify that hypothesis."

    "Mu¡­" Ye Chong could not help but to ask, "Do you want to know your past?"

    "Not really." tly Mu replied, "My past self has nothing much to do with my current self. It was solely for formation of a much logical rtionship. Ye, you are the only person both of us would approve. At least on this extent, both Shang and I would mutually agree."

    "Oh no¡­"

    "Ah¡­ i-i-i-i-i-is this the warship?" Tai Zuo¡¯s face was pale as he stood by the horrified team of his, while watching the the visual of the Eclipse bing bigger and clearer on the projection. This was probably the exact expression from anyone of the 5 major gxies upon a warship¡¯s arrival, since the warship had be a pronoun, a term of the history the moment the governments of the 5 major gxies forbade the research and development of war units like the warship. They had gone extinct after the production was ceased, which their former glory as once a jaw-opener to everyone was fading into a discolored scenery.

    But there Tai Zuo and his team were, seeing an actual warship heading towards them.

    The arrival of the MPA seemed to have rmed that 5 mechs watching at the corner. Well that was what Ye Chong spected, since they should at least recognize that iing warship being the MPA¡¯s.

    "Hey!" Shouted Meng Fei¡¯er, pointing at the other side of the projection, "Look! What is this?"

    There was clearly a ck dot at the corner, which seemed to be erging over time.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression melted¡­

    The ck dot approached them quickly, it did not take long before everyone recognized what it was.

    "A-a-a-another warship?!" screamed Han Ben, as he looked at his mates in graceless manner.

    Ye Chong was more silent than ever, as he knew.

    It was a warship.

    From the ck Coves.

    The ships of the ck Coves always had a badge in the shape of a long, narrow leaf. It was really obvious, as the war units of ck Coves were thoroughly ck. A glowing kind of ck, probably they had infused the armor with their specialty, the ck gold.

    It was a major plot twist in Ye Chong¡¯s script. There were already the MPA and the ck Coves. It would not be far-fetched if a Sanctuary warship came nonchntly into the scene soon, supposed Ye Chong.

    "Look at that!"

    Right after his spection went wild in his mind, he saw the third warship¡­ in a shape of some kind of unnamed bird in the projection. Wait. A. Minute! Don¡¯t tell me¡­ is it a reunion day for the three forces? Ye Chong could no longer word his feelings.

    Well, the 5 mechs watching at the corner seemed to be more panicked than Ye Chong himself, as they continuously cursed the pilot of the warship from their side, "Where the hell are they? We need backups!" The sudden participation of the other 3 uninvited guests was pressuring them to death.

    They probably had never thought that it was the signals they sent off that attracted the guests.

    "Leader!" shouted one man. It was a relieving sight as the leader turned back, as the warship had finally arrived. The 5 mechs were calmer the moment an antique-looking warship flew into the scene. No more dy! The 5 mechs flew to their mothership like a group of lost children, being chased by the darkest nightmare in their dream.

    Ye Chong ¡­ He was at utter loss of words. The namely secret he had been holding had all gone into the light, it was as if the whole gxy had known it. At least he made his travel fast or he would have to snatch the ores with the forces.

    The reality? The was not wholly discovered by Vicente¡¯s student alone. There were 4 of them, where one turned out to be a big mouth. Seemingly unable to watch his mouth, he leaked the information which then everybody else knew their discovery. Then the 4 organizations around Ye Chong now. No doubt, no organization would go uninterested on a like this. Not only the inhabited would signify a free base, but also there would be resources, countless of them, thus the ie, the rolling cash into their base.

    The moment they knew the pioneering folks of the inhabited, they raided upon them, almost simultaneously. It was such painful coincidence that they had to bump into each other every time they wanted to work something on the project. Inevitably, they had to fight for the 4 members and they realized none of them would ovee the other at this rate. So they shared the members. A member for each organization. And this particr 4th force joining the Battle Royale, had their first time banging their head against the 3 forces, and the funny thing was, they did not lose badly apparently.

    After the 4 members had been escorted to each organization, their information extracted, the organization was well-aware of how their counterparts would have the same amount of information and how they would likely to lose anything if they never acted fast. So immediately after they sent off their ships to the, trying to get a share of the pie on the table.

    It was surprising that the was capsuled in the maic force, that all their hologramic detection system had gone offline and in the end, they had nevere across each other, nor they had seen the.

    Fortunately, thanks to the 5 meddling mechs for sending off a signal, they had been guided and thus, reunited at this ce. Wonder how the pilots on those 5 mechs would react if they knew themselves being the cause of the scene¡­

    And this scene, this grand scene of a brewing storm was something not on everyone¡¯s script as well. None of them took action. The space was boundless and dark, where 4 warships and 1 spaceships were standing against each other, freezing. The 4 warships were familiar of existence of each other, nothing surprising. But the Cob, the 5th ship that should not be here, was appearing odd in between them.

    Everyone¡¯s eyes went upon the Cob, as they wondered where the warship belonged to. The Cob was humongous, which was a perfect walking bullseye.

    They were eager¡­ very eager.

    The team at the Cob had their faces distorted into something indistinguishable. It was fear, but more than fear; it was hopeless, but more than hopeless. Meng Fei¡¯er even covered her eyes, her body quivering. It was a pitiful sight.

    Ye Chong remained calm.

    Tai Zuo marveled at the calmness of this young man.

    The 4 warships had the same thought - one side less meant one less share, one less share meant one more loot. Simple math, simple logic. Obviously neither of the side could no longer dominate the entire on its own. They got to share and if that was the case, lesser the share the merrier.

    The armor of a Zika spaceship could be all sturdy and mighty but would be feeble when being gashed upon by the other warships. Mech? It would be a joke, all of the forces were the expert of mech-piloting.

    The forces thirsted the loot, as they approached the spaceship together, like the 4 foxes eyeing a wild hare.

    Just when everyone was going to unt their offenses, the harmless-looking rabbit raised its fang out of sudden!

    It was a plot twist. It was not in the script. And everyone was gasping, heavily.

 Chapter 219 - Shockwave

    <h4>Chapter 219: Shockwave</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The length of a Zika-graded spaceship would be about 5 kilometers. A whale in the space one could call. The warships, for they sought dexterity and momentum, would be designed petite and light. The difference in size was tant as they flew towards the Cob.

    In visuals of every ship, the Cob suddenly rose its bars, and within the opening, countless pipes were raised towards them. Theser firing devices were filled between the remaining gaps.

    And they thought they were the foxes, hunting for the hare, which turned out to be quite the opposite. The dark tubes were exerting fearsome brutality. Theser firing devices were quiet, inactive but one could imagine the density of the firing with that amount on a giant ship.

    The change in the script was uneptable to the forces, where most of them dazed upon. That expression of theirs would make people wonder if they were really the elites inbat.

    "Hey! Aren¡¯t those electromaic cannons?" The scream of one man from the Eclipse caught the attention of everybody else. They knew their cannons and a nce was more than enough for them to verify the validity of the object before them. They crowded upon the visuals and got into a noisy discussion. The leader of the ship however, was pale.

    "Oh my MPA, that¡¯s really an electromaic cannon."

    "Stop messing around, the cannon is our secret weapon, how would that warship have it?"

    "Beats me. Someone has probably leaked it."

    "The confidentiality department should be executed, like right now."

    ¡­

    The captain was at loss of idea too. He had been the captain for years and there had been cases where he led the entire crew on the Eclipse sessfully. No one had known the ship much better than himself. The main firepower of the Eclipse, the electromaic cannons, their properties were something he knew like the back of his hands. The weapon could give arge area a heavy blow, in spite of its deadly weakness, the high energy consumption, which eventually limited the performance of the Eclipse in offenses since theycked the space to install more batteries.

    And there was this Zika graded spaceship precisely, the warship holding an outrageous amount of electromaic cannons, that had outnumbered those on the captain¡¯s ship. The captain was overwhelmed that he corrected his perception of this warship before him, that it was clearly no longer an ordinary spaceship, rather it was a killing warship. Although he could not give the exact figure on the number of tubes at that ship, he was well-aware that he and his crew would be the one sinking under the foe¡¯s bombardment instead. Being an experienced captain, hisment did stand a certain extent of credibility. Of course, if the foe wanted tounch the cannon and initiate the war, he as the captain himself would not hold back but to send off his elites and demonstrate what true rapports between the captain and his crew were. His crew was not something to be defeated by some random warships. With his expertise, it should be a 50:50 in the end.

    Furthermore, the outnumbering electromaic cannons would also suggest that the foe depleted the energy of the ship much faster. Zika-graded warship might be giant in size to be convincing enough to have tons of batteries, but one must know that it would also require a major crew to fully pilot the entire ship. Thus, there would not be a sustainable amount of batteries for multiple electromaic blows, since this ship was not for warring purposes in the first ce, as justified by the sturdiness of its armor, which was something neverpetentpared to the real warship. It also would sail sluggishly and make turnings muchter than the others. These would inevitably be the lethal weaknesses of the ship.

    The SWOT analysis ran rapidly in the mind of the captain.

    His expression would be priceless if he were to be informed that there were no more than 6 persons on that ship.

    !

    "Observers!" The eyes of the captain froze the moment theyy on a specific spot of the ship, as if they made a major discovery, "Erge the visual! Now!" The voice roared throughout the room, as the face of the captain tightened. Temper, agony resounded and silenced the remaining crew as their eyes set upon the enraged captain, wondering what had gotten into their wise and usually undisturbed leader.

    The observers on duty who had been adjusting the Photon Visual System shuddered. Their experience and knowledge saved them for they managed to perform what the captain asked within milliseconds although being extremely panicked.

    "Erge the cannons." The voice was profound.

    The electromaic cannons of the Cobs were immediately erged, to a point where everyone in the room could see the details, how dark the tubes were.

    And the face of captain ran as cold as the tubes in the visuals.

    What ¡­ is this? How would the captain not immediately identify it as being made out of something he recognized, after all these years he had been warring with the ck Coves? ck gold was the metal exclusive to the ck Covers and any metal coated by the ck gold would exert a kind of strange glow, just like this. It was something impossible to be imitated by the other alloys, which the members of the MPA authority would resentfully covet upon. These were only extractable deep inside the ck Coves, they were likely going to stay as a green-eyed monster for all eternity, although their research on a recement, a replica never stopped once. Their research had shown that the ck gold had much stronger expression in energy-based weaponrypared to physical weaponry for its energy activity was very high, which would be perfect for energy-based weaponry production.

    The details of the research were not something open to the public, not even a frontline member like the captain himself, but he was once informed the information on the ck gold identally during an asion. It was irony although ck Coves had such a god¡¯s gift, they weregging way behind in development of energy-based weaponry. It would be considered as a miracle despite all the overpowered effects of ck gold, they remained at a simr standard of capabilities.

    And there he was, with his eyes wavering at a thing he was confused of. The tubes were obviously made out of ck gold, which were installed on electromaic cannons, something that should be exclusive to the MPA. The foe was one with the technological standard of MPA and the amazing metallurgical development on the ck gold application, who also built an actual set of electromaic cannons. The firepower¡­ the firepower¡­ It would be something the captain too feared to predict. The MPA never once had the opportunity to perform sufficient experiments on the ck gold infusion as the ores were very scarce.

    Assuming only the captain understood such fact on the MPA¡¯s Eclipse, the ck Covers should be well-aware of the situation as well. They knew their ck gold better than the MPA, even though their focus on closebats had led them an underdeveloped weaponry. It was a known fact among the ck Covers on the application of ck gold on energy-based weaponry, while also the electromaic cannons were something they long coveted. No matter how hard they had tried in the past, they never got their hands on the actual print of electromaic cannon.

    Now, after that round of astounding discovery, there was one question in all of them.

    Where did he get this much of ck gold?

    ck gold was in fact exclusive to the ck Covers but it was umon. Quite the contrary to the captain¡¯s assumption, being naturally a strategical material as well as an expensive metal ore, its transport was carefully watched the whole time. It would be impossible for it to identally leak to someone out there to be made into tubes of electromaic cannon.

    Also, not only the ck Coves and the MPA were at confusion, the Sanctuary and that mysterious organization seemed to have noticed the same.

    And everyone was there, specting, wondering, hypothesizing, inferring the identity of the leading one in the Zika ship.

    The hare had transformed into something beyond their control. The supposedly weakest one had ascended and outraced them to be one with the strongest firepower, which made everybody else hold their fire. The weaponry on that ship was one to be feared of. No one was confident enough to assure their victory upon fighting against the ship officially, since it was simple - the moment they were damaged, they would be weakened and very likely they would lose their former share of the loots in the end as they would be forced out of the race prematurely. Moreover, it had been a bloodshed known fact that each force had bad blood with each other, written in countless bleeding histories one would gash upon, given one of the forces were weakened, how would they miss the golden opportunity to deliver the necessary final blow?

    A new rule, in the form of a new bnce was set upon the ying teams.

    ¡­

    Out of sudden, the shrill came after. Everyone was shocked. Ye Chong frowned, his men were astounded, as never they would expect an undisturbed young man like Ye Chong having such a disturbed expression. What kind of monster would make such sound? The question sprouted in their heads.

    It was merely a frown, which Ye Chong withdrew from soon after.

    "Mu, let¡¯s leave this ce now," Ye Chong first contacted Mu.

    "Yes. Logical suggestion epted. Execute promptly," Mu acknowledged.

    Thebat squads of the 4 warships looked at their mates, especially after seeing how thatrgest warship was backing away upon hearing that strange shrill.

    Did the ship¡­ chicken out?

    The Cob might seemed to chicken out and backed away, but his cannons were still pointing right at those 4 warships around, so the warships around did not take any action, although their leaders were dissatisfied of their helplessness. On a second thought, that would be good, one less member to the game, one less share to be given away. The captains snickered, as experience had reasoned the Cob as the foolish one who seemed to be assuming a war was happening between them. "Well, not today." They would not be warring each other and this foolish ship would not stand a chance to steal the loots from them in the midst of chaos. If the ship still insisted his uninvited participation, no doubt the 4 ships would join forces and get rid of him.

    The strange shrill did slip through their ears. It was never part of their attention. It would be a joke if a warship powerful like theirs to be defeated by a mere living thing.

    Ye Chong was relieved. His exit was a peaceful one, as he saw the remaining warships shrinking in his visuals. He wondered how the warships would handle the monster if the monster ever got out of the ground. But he already spected a painful fight if he were the one involved. Regarding what could happen to the 4 warships, "None of my business."

    Ye Chong felt safer. There was no medium for the hypersonic to travel in the space, so he would not be wounded. That hypersonic was not something to mess with.

    Ye Chong was at peace, especially after he confirmed to have left out the proximity of that peculiar.

    The other members on his team, well, were at horror. Their injuries remained and now they were shocked almost to their death.

    "Was¡­w-was that a warship?" asked Meng Fei¡¯er, biting her lips, never wanting to believe what she saw and what she was going to say, but she said it anyway. Their eyes set upon Ye Chong, who were nonchntly on his seat. Obviously the young man had known more darkness in the background than the team.

    "Yes." Ye Chong found her question a little strange so he took a nce at her and nodded, "Those were the warships." Well it was because the Cob was also a warship in disguise, just that the members never got to see his true appearance.

    "No¡­No¡­" Out of the blue, teardrops rolled off the maiden¡¯s cheek, "Is there going to be a war soon?" Her expression was not agitated, softly her question went.

    The question was probably what everybody else was thinking. The impression upon seeing a warship appearing out of nowhere, they would associate its appearance with war itself. Fear filled the men¡¯s eyes the moment Meng Fei¡¯er voiced her doubts. They were not the young folks, they had experienced, and had understood the brutality of war.

    "We would know after we got into Tappero gxy." Ye Chong¡¯s voice was low, "But, whether there would be a war, it would be only a matter of time." He was surprised that the 3 forces could retain their bnce and rtionship for so long. But there was already a plot twist in their book, the emergence of the 4th force would no doubt lead to a transition period, the bnce had already been broken, and to build a new bnce to amodate the 4th force, they would have to do it the painful way.

    "Ha¡­ H¡­" Her voice was shaky, her tears were streaming, her mates were escaping the reality. No way Ye Chong wouldprehend her feelings, the feeling of a resident re-experiencing the war itself after years of peace being in the 5 major gxies.

    Even if Ye Chong couldpute her feelings, he would only think of ways to improve his strength, rather than being somber over what already happened, to give better chance of his survival if a war were to happen.

    Ye Chong got to a single room, where Multipede was ced. It was an isted room for Ye Chong believed, the lesser people knew the source of his strength, the better it was to himself.

    And it was Ye Chong¡¯s favorite past time - counting the loots.

    He took out the Teardrops from his bag. One¡­ Two¡­ Oh he had seven of them. The Teardrops were indeed a marvel but simr to Do-Kun stone, they were something unusable at the moment, unlike those ores inside Multipede, practical and immediately useable.

    Speaking of Multipede, it was terrorizing to look at its appearance. The hypersonic attack nearly murdered the machine. The armors were either cracked or shattered. Most of its mechanical legs were broken. And Mu forced Multipede to travel through the winding tunnels, one could say it was close to malfunction.

    The transmutated energy ores on the other hand, were doing good

    And after Mu¡¯s exnation, Ye Chong finally understood what exactly the ores were.

 Chapter 220 - Chaos Has Arrived

    <h4>Chapter 220: Chaos Has Arrived</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Energy ores, the mineralites imbued with a kind of energy, either by nature or by artificial means and here they were, lying within the hands of Ye Chong, exerting an amazing glow. They were formerly umon ores of metals which never contained any energy activity. It was then the exposure to the Teardrops they transmutated, as they gained the energy and began giving off that beautiful glow.

    It was as if a metamorphosis for the ores, a transformation that lifeforms would have undergone, a mutation in their state, thus the name, Transmutated Energy Ore.

    It was Mu¡¯s spection that these energy ores were transmutated due to the influence of the Teardrops, which sounded really stunning to Ye Chong for it was his first time of hearing such strange theory, where the ores were glowing merely over the effects of those specks of Teardrops.

    And Ye Chong¡¯s curiosity was one again rose by these seven little stones of tears.

    He felt the Teardrops within his palm carefully. They were warm, giving off faint glow in pale green. They were not really sizable, with thergest being slightly bigger than his thumb. And the one which Ye Chong snatched from Tai Zuo was the smallest among them, while having the closest shape to a teardrop.

    He rolled the seven stones between his palms. He took a nce, he took a second nce¡­ Nothing wasing out in his head. Eventually he surrendered to the mystery and gave up observing, dering the stones were useable but, "Not yet¡­ not yet¡­" Bitterly he smiled.

    The lower-graded transmutated energy ores were of much better use to Ye Chong currently. And he had a fruitful excavation of them, where ores of the entire cave were picked up by Multipede. If what Mu had stated was true, those ores were rare mineralites before. That was truly unbelievable for a small cave underground containing that many variety.

    Ye Chong poured the piles of ores over the floor.

    Within twinkling of eyes, colorful glows illuminated the room, dazzling as before to Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. There was one untold fact from Mu, the energy ores, despite being a slightly lower grade than the Teardrops, they were also extremely precious kind of gems, while Ye Chong were fortunate enough to have a mini mountain of them. Imagine if Ye Chong were to auction these ores, he would be richer than the billionaires in the 5 major gxies.

    Well, Mu knew his information choice well. Even if he told Ye Chong so, Ye Chong would not be reacting much as hecked the interest towards wealth acquisition, till maybe at some point where he needed that money to make the necessary purchases then perhaps he would realize.

    Contrary to the tinkling coins, the strategic resources, the necessity of life were something he would go strongly possessive of. Trash was known as a which severelycked useable resources, where one could take months or even years to ever dig out anything useable. No one else in the gxy recognized the importance of consumables than he himself. As he was raised in a ce where the strong lingered, the weak be eradicated, every second could lead to a different oue standing in between the dead or alive.

    Ye Chong took a look at the pile of ores and he began sorting them. One could say it would be an entertainment to view the glow of the pile of ores, but one could also say sorting that pile of ores could be potentially a maltreatment.

    No doubt, the sorting process was carried out under the guidance of Mu, since technically Ye Chong was "ore-blind". But it was not as smooth-sailing as one would imagine even under Mu¡¯s valuable tips and assistance, Ye Chong - for hecked the basic understanding of these ores - was having a headache 10 minutes after themencement, since technically Mu had never stopped his exnation for one second. Ye Chong could have a superior memory, but anyone could have gone mad under this constantly goose-feeding like lecture.

    Ye Chong truly felt that it would be a much more brilliant idea to have Mu sorting the ores himself. Nevertheless, he knew the artificial intelligence¡¯s purpose of doing this. It was, like always, for his own good, as through this he would not only gain experience but also knowledge. Well, it would be a different story if Shang was standing there. "That Shang would do it out of inziness." Ye Chong swore, the corners of his lips were slightly raised. Shang should being in a few days.

    "Ye, focus. Focus," reminded Mu the very second he noticed the boy before him was thinking of something nonsensical. Ye Chong hurriedly carried on sorting, as he was all ears of the lecture on theposition, as well as the reactivity of the ores.

    The colorful ores were sorted into different piles. The smallest pile before Ye Chong was the one that woulde in handy immediately. There were actually varieties in these ores, and they were sorted quite equally in amount. But the number was discouraging, it would not be sufficient for basic mass-production.

    The umon ore of the highest amount in Ye Chong¡¯s inventory was surprisingly the ck gold.

    And ording to the information obtained from Mu¡¯s databank, these ores apparently were obliged to fuse with other umon metals to maximize their capabilities. And judging by the number of other umon minerals Ye Chong had, the tiny pile of transmutated energy ores would do him the greatest favor in long run. Well, he could have also used the other piles of energy ores but he would have to discard the few types of energy ores in that tiny pile before him to fit into the form instead.

    Ye Chong¡¯s current supply of resources could be said as vast, although the utilization was a joke. That tiny pile before him for example, to even begin using them Ye Chong would need to first arrive at Tappero gxy to make purchases of the minerals not inside his inventory.

    Regarding the happening at the cave underground that day, despite long exchanges between Mu and Ye Chong, there was yet a definite conclusion, even though Ye Chong had made sense of parts of the phenomena. The disc for example, was a result of intensive spatial distortion, which then formed some kind of a portal.

    The study of space science had matured and was well facilitated by today¡¯s standard, the dimensional keystone for mech-deployment for example was the masterpiece of space science application. Then there was also space-warp which could also be considered as an impable technique developed by space scientists. And within the 5 major gxies, space physics were thepulsory introductory course among the trainees. Well the study was not all that fancy like its name, for it had already be the part and parcel of our daily lives.

    Except for Ye Chong probably¡­ who had never participated in the education system once before. The dimensional keystone for mechs was one of the few parts he could not craft from scratch, reason being, no one had ever mentioned the working of it before, not even the Aurora or Mu. Among the few expertise in the hands of Ye Chong, alchemy andbats were currently at their greatest, while mech-production and piloting were at a very strange stage. Regarding mech-production and piloting, Ye Chong probably knew what an advanced senior pilot would know, but he would know nothing of a pilot on his first week would have been taught.

    For space physics, he practically believed that he already had the best teacher in the entire gxy, Mu. But Mu still was unable to calcte the exact figures of the spatial distortion that day. Man¡­ what lies beyond that dark disc of distortion? What kind of lifeforms lingered within the world beyond, being all mighty and horrifying? Who or what had created such distortion? Was it a part of natural phenomena? Or the lifeforms were the culprit of this mischief? Or¡­ Ummm¡­

    There were so many mysteries unsolved to quench Ye Chong¡¯s thirst for the truth. There were hardly anything intriguing to Ye Chong currently and he bit the bait on this case was due to his experience and recognition of the strength of this mysterious living thing.

    This was probably the strongest organism he had ever seen.

    The strength was not considered negligible for Mu, which probably triggered Mu¡¯s motivation to fix himself. Ye Chong could feel that but he was also helpless, as it was truthfully impossible to fix Mu. There were too many obstacles to ovee. Yes, Mu¡¯s databank did consist of detailed information on formation of hisponents, there were even the methodology to extract certain ores. The catch was, it would include about 52 types of metals of various colors and 17 non-metals in a form, which none of those were found in Ye Chong¡¯s inventory. Furthermore, among those materials, 11 of them turned out to be materials as rare as the Do-Kun stone. One could state that Mu was a conglomeration of umon materials. And that. That was only the first obstacle standing in their way. The second¡­ well¡­ Mu¡¯s damagedponents included the engines, the cabin and the left arm. Cabin was not much of an issue, unlike engines¡­ Ye Chong remained puzzled looking at the blueprint of the engine. Arm? With his skill, it would be a miracle if he could finish building an arm before the next nova happened.

    The journey to fully repair Mu was far and nearly unreachable. But building weapons for him was quite a practical goal at the moment. Mu lost most of his firepower for being unarmed the whole time but it was no longer the same because they had collected quite an amount of energy ores, whereby it would not be far-fetched to at least build a weapon for the artificial intelligence.

    But this rose Ye Chong¡¯s curiosity again. What kind of weapon would Mu use? The anticipation¡­

    Other than that, they had also obtained the fluid of Twin Sisters, which was safely kept inside the alchemyb. And he had a collection of the best bones he could think of. The only pity in his inventory could probably be that dagger, it was a gift from Gu Shaoze and he had spent all these years having it as his life savior, his loyal partner. But then¡­ mhm¡­ maybe it was time to build a new dagger. Thought Ye Chong as his eyes rolled over the ores.

    Ye Chong spent the whole day in his room and never entertained the 5 guests on his ship. Well, not like they could do anything to the ship. They seemed to have transformed into the scaredy cats since the moment war was mentioned. It had been rooted in their conversations whenever they grouped together at one table, where Meng Fei¡¯er would lose control of her tears without fail.

    It was soon when the Cob hit the edge of Tappero gxy. The folks were feeling great, they seemed to have the look of lost souls finding the way back home, except for Ye Chong, as usual.

    Getting back into the 5 major gxies signified that they could obtain signal, they were connected to the world once again. Under the demand of the 5 frightened cats and Ye Chong¡¯s curiosity over the status, Mu turned on the signal transmitter.

    "This is Tappero daily. We are sorry to inform you that¡­"

    Ye Chong was right.

    The war had already happened.

    It was chaotic inside the 5 major gxies. The one who initiated the war¡­ contrary to Ye Chong¡¯s prediction, was none of the 3 forces, rather it was the Freedom alliance, a group he had never heard before. It was probably the organization those 5 mechs and that ancient-looking warship were from. It had to be them. They should be avenging the insults they had been getting all these years while being in the dark.

    They were the first alliance to dere ownership of the Fal. Then ck Coves dered their ownership over Tappero. Almost immediately after, MPA also dered their influence over Tappero. Of course the Sanctuary would not sit back and watch their territories disappearing, they stood up and also dered their ownership over Cyana. Csebesini, strangely, retained its unowned status, even though being surrounded by the 4 major gxies.

    And the gxies were at a fiasco.

    Very soon after their deration, the 4 forces began cleansing their territories to strengthen their rulership. The trainees, the members of the foreign forces in the territory shall be wiped away from history. It began with the Freedom alliance, where they brutally murdered the other forces in their territory, like eliminating the cockroaches in the kitchen. It happened too abruptly that none of them could make it out. And the Freedom alliance took a smart turn for they had already withdrawn all members lurking at the other gxies to minimize their loss.

    The residents were stupefied by the chaos. It was a mutation in their residence. Within a night, the peace, the harmony were no longer a fact, but a history.

    The war was gruesome.

    The Freedom alliance gained the most from the plot twist this time, while the other 3 forces, as much as the foreign forces had imnted their influences within the territory, it was challenging for them to eliminate the "others" in their ce. The cleansing was hindered. One could already imagine the situation seeing how a handful of mechs could already cause such devastation back on Windstar. And the 3 forces were obviously holding a vaster amount than that.

    The gxies which their ownership were dered had been turned into ruins of mes and screams. Csebesini was surprisingly looking like a heaven among the hells, where flocks and flocks of residents hurried their way moving there.

    As the war went on, major intion happened in the market. Shortage was everywhere when the residents thought it happened once and only once hundred years ago. Resources like the metals were a goner in the market. The safety control was horrible, where pirates rampaged throughout the area. They filled the ce as they plundered. Pilots were at high demands, for they wielded the strength to protect people. Everyone would need a pilot at their home andpanies began employing the pilots batches after batches.

    Warships were no longer a rare and frightening sight to behold as the 4 forces started sending out their armies in ships. Residents were horrified at first, then they grew numb of them.

    Listening to the transmission¡­ the folks were on the ground, except for Ye Chong. The hologram of thes was then projected, where craters and re could be clearly seen.

    "No¡­No¡­" The tears of Meng Fei¡¯er fell off her cheeks.

    And that¡­ was when chaos has arrived.

 Chapter 221 - Muâ€™s Weapon

    <h4>Chapter 221: Mu¡¯s Weapon</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Everyone, I think it¡¯s time for you all to leave." Ye Chong dered inly.

    With the exception of Meng Fei¡¯er, wearing aplicated expression, the rest of them all felt relieved. All this while, they were afraid that this cold young man would kill them all in the end, since he never did seem particrly merciful. Tying up loose ends like that was a sure way to keep things a secret, and Ye Chong certainly knew that. However, even though Ye Chong was not one to squirm when it came to killing, this did not mean that he enjoyed doing it. He still remembered how much he yearned to meet another human being back on the trash.

    Besides, he was slowly realizing that there were many other methods that were as effective as killing.

    As an example, Shang had demonstrated this method called "threatening" on Blue Ocean. Ye Chong thought it was a very creative way of doing things. Little did he know that Shang was only imitating what he saw in the movies.

    Ye Chong stuck to this method. A good method did not depend on how often he used it, but on whether the all the conditions required were met.

    Ye Chong asked Mu to search the virtual world for any information rted to these five people. The report was filled with so many details that perhaps even they themselves were not aware of it all. Hence, when Ye Chong went through them in his steady and cold demeanor, the five of them all paled until their faces were all drained of blood.

    Ye Chong never imagined that his expression and intonation, together with what he was doing right then, would make such a perfect match. The five of them stared at Ye Chong with fearful eyes, as though they were facing the Devil that came straight from the Underworld.

    The five of them had already decided that this young man came from some aristocratic family. To them, only an aristocrat could gather so much intel. The power of aristocratic families was not one they could stand against. Before Ye Chong had finished, the five of them had decided to forever keep secret everything that had happened. The consequences of doing otherwise were devastating. They shuddered at the thought of their loved ones suffering due to their indiscretion.

    When Cobnded on an inhabited at the far edges of Tappero Gxy, Ye Chong had decided to let them leave.

    This was, after all, right at the edges of the Tappero Gxy. The war had not reached here, the locals still living a normal life. Only the asional expression of fear on their faces betrayed any traces of the war.

    As the hatch opened, all of them could not wait to leave. However, in order not to offend the young man, they still walked slowly to the hatch. Meng Fei¡¯er looked back at Ye Chong, her eyes filled with emotions as she bit her tender lips. Her eyes were unreadable to Ye Chong.

    "Fei¡¯er!" This came from Vicente, who loved her as much as his own daughter. He shook his head and sighed softly.

    Vicente shook Meng Fei¡¯er out of her reverie. She gathered herself and returned to her team. Pa Er also looked back asionally, but his eyes were directed at Ye Chong¡¯s metalboratory, obviously reluctant to leave that world ssboratory.

    After the five of them left, Ye Chong could finally do as he wished in the starship. In truth, Cob had too many things unsuited for public knowledge. However, after the five of them left, Ye Chong¡¯s work could finally begin.

    Ye Chong had too many things to do. Mu was able to procure a good amount of rare metals through some his crafty ways. Today, these metals were all strictly controlled materials. Ye Chong could only marvel at Mu¡¯s resourcefulness.

    At the same time, Ye Chong also received some of the Five Gxies¡¯ most advancedboratory equipment. These equipment were all very costly, and were only built upon request. They had onlypleted them days ago, and delivered them to Ye Chong after contacting Mu. More than a hundred mech pilots had escorted the goods to them. When Ye Chong saw their grand entourage, he thought he was seeing space pirates!

    With these equipment, Ye Chong could do even more.

    Mu finally took out his weapon schematics. His excitement from receiving those new equipment was quickly reced by deep vexation. Ye Chong had never seen Mu produce any simple schematics - all of them were unthinkably dense. This time was no exception.

    Ye Chong could only determine from its profile that it was probably an energy gun. However, the insides were filled with photon circuits soplicated that Ye Chong could only wonder - was it really just an energy gun?

    Fortunately, Ye Chong did notck the eagerness to study. Besides, mechs were always something he was interested in, and mech weapons were importantponents to a mech. Whatever schematic Mu produced would definitely be nothing ordinary, and if Mu would use the weapon himself, then it must be something extraordinary.

    Ye Chong could not remember how many days had passed since he began to study the schematics. He did not mind it at all. Ye Chong was obsessed with his studies now, the way the Aurora¡¯s elders could be. Once he understood it, Ye Chong began to build the weapon.

    Ye Chong¡¯s recent mastery of minute motor control now came in handy. The energy gun¡¯s inner photon circuits were intricate andplicated, and Ye Chong felt like he was treading on ice as he put the circuit together, slowly and carefully. Any mistakes, and he would have to start all over again. Fortunately, the process went quite smoothly, thanks to Ye Chong¡¯s inhumanly steady hands.

    Nheless, the immense pressure was suffocating. When Ye Chong was finished with the main parts of the photon circuits, he felt much relieved. However, he made some errors in smelting the energy ores, since it was his first time handling them.

    From trans-mutated energy ores, one could synthesize high quality metals. Some had surfaces like ocean waves, gleaming in a metallic blue luster. This was an energized blue zinc. The emery gold looked just as impressive. The metallic ingot was interspersed with gold glitter, and shone with a surprisingly sharp dazzle. All the metals purified from these trans-mutated energy ores were beautiful. Ye Chong kept them everywhere in theboratory, and theboratory now looked like a jewelry shop, and was probably the most dazzlingboratory in the world.

    ording to Mu, after these metals undergone an energy transmutation, their properties could be the very difference. Of course, Ye Chong was not aware of the rarity of energy ores. In truth, energy ores were rarer than he thought. The conditions for ores to undergo an energy transmutation process were highly coincidental. Ye Chong was simply very lucky this time.

    No matter how attractive something was, it was simply human nature to gradually get used to it. Ye Chong did not pay further attention to those aesthetically impressive metal ingots, and continued with his work.

    When Ye Chong was finally done, he took much pride in his work.

    Recursion was a sniper rifle measuring six meters in length, its slender body looking quite fragile,cking the menacing quality of a weapon. The gun was in alternating blues and whites, matching Mu¡¯s body, but the inside of the gun¡¯s barrel was lined with a thinyer of emery gold. The blue surface was covered in a natural wave texture, like the masterpiece of an art maestro. At the tip of the rifle was arge blue optical targeting scope, looking a little odd and out of ce.

    In general, however, the rifle had a simple appearance. Ye Chong included none of the ornamental designs in the schematics, since he could not be bothered with those useless features.

    As the one who built the weapon, Ye Chong was confident of the power of this sniper rifle with the name Recursion. Its high uracy was not due to the blue optical targeting scope on the rifle body. Recursion¡¯s targeting system and Mu¡¯s holographic scanning system were linked, enabling long distance shooting uracy.

    The optical targeting scope was an addition of Ye Chong¡¯s. From his experience on the primary, Ye Chong found the geomaic interference negatively affecting Mu¡¯s holographic scanning system, reducing its effective range greatly. It would be better to use the traditional way of optical targeting in simr situations. Ye Chong installed the scope for this purpose, and Mu agreed with his decision.

    In truth, Ye Chong had another idea. He found that field interferences could be fatal in battles involving mechs or warships. The way most mech pilots were unfamiliar with optical systems was astonishing to Ye Chong. He thought back then that such interferences were advantageous for him, and creating this interference in an artificial way would be beneficial for him. Of course, realizing this idea was still quite difficult.

    Recursion did not fire heat rays orser beams, but a beamposed of recursive particle waves. Of course, Ye Chong had never heard of it. The most powerful wave he knew of was the nanowaves. In truth, if the rifle shot out nanowaves, Ye Chong was prepared to believe that the weapon was designed by the MPA. The style was too simr to theirs. Even now, Ye Chong suspected that this weapon was actually an advanced mech weapon of the MPA. However, when it came to theplicated rtionship between Mu and the MPA, if Ye Chong asked Mu about it, the mech would probably reply with, "Based on avable information, the origin is unknown!"

    Recursion could also fire recursive particle cannon shots. Should he call it a cannon instead? Ye Chong imagined Mu with Recursion in hand, a massive beam exiting the rifle¡¯s barrel towards a vulnerable part of the enemy¡¯s warship with incredible uracy, destroying the warship with one hit. Ye Chong mourned for whatever enemy that would cross Mu¡¯s path in the future.

    In addition to Recursion, Ye Chong also made a close range rapid fire device for Mu. Ye Chong knew from watching Mu¡¯s fight with the iron lizard that he could definitely use a close range weapon like ance, but Mu seemed to prefer shooting more, and so Ye Chong¡¯s suggestion was rejected.

    ording to Mu¡¯s suggestion, Ye Chong also chose red titanium, an especially strong material to make a dagger. This dagger looked exactly like the one Gu Shaoze gifted to Ye Chong, but with much better properties. Red titanium was red in color; after energy transmutation, it turned into a darker shade of red, like blood. Ye Chong¡¯s dagger looked marvelous - from its red luster and blood-red handle, one could tell that it was no ordinary weapon. However, Ye Chong was vexed by it. While the energy transmutation greatly enhanced the metal¡¯s properties, the polished luster was too eye-catching.

    With all of his workpleted, Ye Chong finally rxed.

    Mu was happy with Recursion, seeing that he quickly slung it onto his back. After Mu waspletely charged, he would be covered with ayer of mysterious luster. With the blue-white Recursion on his back, Ye Chong believed that Mu would make a formidable entrance.

    While Ye Chong encountered a few space pirates along the way, none of them dared to challenge the massive Cob. The journey went smoothly. The MPA was apparently still upied with controlling Tappero. Ye Chong had came by a few of the MPA¡¯s warships, but they had all flew past Cob hastily without paying him attention.

    Since Mu had spent a lot of time instructing Ye Chong to build Recursion, using up even Shang¡¯s time, Shang would spend more time outside in his next turn. This was the result of a discussion between Mu and Shang. Shang was positively intoxicated when he described his victory.

    ording to their n, they were now heading towards Fal Gxy to investigate matters concerning his Papa, which had troubled Ye Chong ever since he found out. Ye Chong was determined to get to the bottom of it. Shang, on the other hand, waved Recursion wildly and mored about bulldozing over anyone who stood in their way. Ye Chong could only smile helplessly at him.

    Mu had already set the flight course for Ye Chong. While Ye Chong was busy with building Recursion, Cob was following its nned trajectory. Now, they had reached the midpoint between Tappero and Fal.

    Tappero and Fal were not joined. Between them was a wide gap of no man¡¯s territory, a vast, empty space without even a single in it. They could only reach Fal with a warp jump, and Mu had already calcted where they should do this.

    Fal Gxy was the one gxy Ye Chong was most familiar with. They were close now. Ye Chong looked out towards the stars through the window, falling into a reverie.

    "Here we go!" Shang yelled enthusiastically as he initiated the warp jump.

 Chapter 222 - An Unexpected Battlefield

    <h4>Chapter 222: An Unexpected Battlefield</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong did not expect to be hit even before Cob could stabilize itself after the warp jump. He shook his head to clear his mind, and looked outside.

    Here, in outer space, were numerous starships. Mechs were flying everywhere. Laser beams were shot, creating silent but bright and violent explosions in the skies.

    Ye Chong was startled. Was he really at Fal Gxy?

    "Shang, what¡¯s happening?" Ye Chong asked Shang for guidance.

    "It looks like a fleet of ships were attacked by space pirates." Shang was also uncertain. It was chaos out there. They could see damaged starships and mechs engaged in battle everywhere.

    Ye Chong studied the scene, and agreed with Shang¡¯s deductions. None of the starships here appeared to be warships, and that was a relief to Ye Chong. As long as they did not meet the Freedom Alliance, Ye Chong was not too worried.

    What was odd, however, was how this starship fleet wasposed of starships of all kinds of models. Usually, a starship fleet would be made up of ships of the same model for convenient resupply. The fleet he was seeing now was of the extreme opposite. Besides, there was only onerge ship, a Zika ss starship. It was designed very differently from Cob, its angr body made it look more agile than Cob.

    Fid looked calm on the surface, but was growing anxious inside. The battle was stretching on, and the pirates more than he expected.

    The entire fleet was mostly made up of civilians, hoping to escape the war by moving to the Csebesini Gxy. Due to the high risk of encountering space pirates in their route, they had hired three mech squads for security.

    In truth, they were already targeted by the space pirates right from the beginning. This mostly civilian starship fleet was a ripe target for the space pirates. Hence, the surrounding space pirates had came together to n this assault.

    The situation would not have been so damning, had not one of hired mech squads actually ran off out of fear of therge crew of space pirates. Now, it was only Fid¡¯s Oak Leaves and another mech squad called Red Lion fighting against the attack. Many of the civilians had also took to their mechs and joined the fray, battling against the space pirates to save their loved ones. It was because of them that the battle had not ended swiftly against their favor.

    The battle was more vicious than the space pirates expected. They did not expect the mellow civilians to actually fight with their lives. These civilians had fought without regard of their own safety,ing in droves like moths into the fire, hoping to end spread of danger in exchange for their lives.

    They all knew that their loved ones were right behind them. From here on out, they could only move forwards! Everyone was emboldened by desperation. Strong men led the battle, followed by the young, then the women. It all happened silently, without any screaming or moaning. No one hoped to survive the fight, only wishing that their lives were enough to save the elderly and the children in the starships. For this meager possibility, they entered the battlefield.

    The battlefield was silent, even as mechs shed in sparks, metal against metal, ending in fire, light, blood and flesh sttering into outer space. In their suicidal attack, they only hoped to die with the enemy. As the explosion engulfed them, they looked back at their starships with a soft gaze while the fire consumed their bodies and reduced them into ashes.

    The space pirates paid their price heavily for every starship they won.

    Fid understood the severity of the situation, but there was nothing he could do. Just then, his second suddenly pointed towards the holographic screen and said, "Squad Captain, look!"

    Fid raised his eyes to the screen, and saw a massive starship slowly heading towards them.

    The sudden appearance of such a massive starship had gained the attention of themanding station from both sides. However, the head of the space pirates found that it was only one starship, and felt relieved. Under the circumstances, no one would possibly volunteer to get involved in the mess. Since the other party was only a single ship, they would simply finish it off as well if it decided to interfere. The head of the space pirate crew watched the bulky starship with a cold smile. So what if it was a Zika ss starship? His men were now all hungry for a fight, and he still had control over his crew, so he was not afraid of any surprisesing from them.

    Ye Chong studied the battlefield on his holographic screen with a cool look. Those people charged towards their enemies without hesitation, even knowing that their lives were forsaken. Behind them was an alloy door. Without any sound, the holographic screen illuminated Ye Chong¡¯s face, hiding his expression.

    When Ye Chong saw the children through the window behind the alloy door, he finally understood. One of the space pirates had finally cleared thest line of hurdle. The fight he went through with the suicidal opponents had also left him with a deep thirst for blood. The floor was littered with broken mech fragments. The children behind the alloy door were all crying in fear as he smiled menacingly with greed. In a moment, once he destroyed the alloy door, all the treasures within would be his! If all those civilians were stopping him so earnestly, there must be something very precious within!

    "Disparity in strength could not be ovee by courage alone," thought Ye Chong. This strengthened his resolution to be stronger. Only then could be truly be in control of his own destiny.

    Suddenly, one of the heavily damaged mechs on the floor rose and pulled the space pirate into an embrace. The mech activated its engines and went straight against the ship¡¯s wall. They broke through the already damaged hull of the starship, flying into outer space.

    This sudden turn of events caught the space pirate off guard.

    Ye Chong could see that the damaged mech had a broken pilot cabin. As they flew into outer space, the mech pilot¡¯s face immediately ashen, the result of cyanosis. His face, however, was traced with a smile, and the result was eerie. In the next moment, both mechs exploded into mes, engulfing both the owner of the eerie smile and the space pirate.

    Ye Chong looked at the smiling face in a trance. He felt like he was hit at a vulnerable spot deep within him.

    Under the glowing fire of the explosion, Ye Chong¡¯s expression was unreadable.

    Ye Chong looked on destely. Those civilians had fought so desperately, probably to protect the ones they love. He, on the other hand, did not even know who his parents were. His Papa was dead, and he was left all alone. No, there was still Mu and Shang, but did they need his protection? Ye Chong felt a certain bitterness rise within him.

    The holographic screen flickered in a multitude of colours, reflecting off Ye Chong¡¯s face. The changing colors, however, only made him look even more deste. In the next moment, however, Ye Chong quickly returned to his usual indifferent manner.

    Shang kept his silence throughout.

    "Shang, let¡¯s go." Ye Chong spoke up inly. The battle was tooplicated, like a full scale war. Unless he revealed the full extent of Cob¡¯s firepower, he could not tip the scales of the battle by himself. Besides, Ye Chong could find no reason to interfere. On the trash, once a hunter ovee its prey, it would never leave the prey¡¯s offspring alone too. Such was thew of nature.

    While Ye Chong was not afraid of these space pirates, it would still be a terrible annoyance if they took him on. At the very minimum, his travel would be dyed, and there were too many things that he needed to do right now. He must hurry to Rainbow, which had a mystery rted to his Papa. What Ye Chong needed to do right now was to solve this mystery.

    Nevertheless, just because Ye Chong ignored them did not mean that the space pirates would return the favor. A few space pirate mechs flew towards him, sting theirser guns against Cob. In truth, the leader of the space pirates did not want to be involved with this massive starship. However, his underlings were now all excited from their raid, and were no longer under his control.

    After a few rounds ofser beams, the Cob was left with only a few tiny dents. Their level of attack was only barely worth mentioning against Cob¡¯s thick hull armor. However, Ye Chong raised his brows at their attack. He was not in a good mood since he came here, and now that the other party came to provoke, Ye Chong could not help the anger slowly rising within him.

    It was not in his nature to not retaliate. In truth, if not for the entirely different level of power of the Three Forces, Ye Chong had never stopped himself from retaliating against any attack. Besides, these mechs here were just like clowns to him. With mechs and mech pilots of this level, they were a piece of cake to him.

    Ye Chong deployed Puppet and slipped into the pilot cabin of the clown mech.

    "Ye, leave some for me!" Shang shouted as he waved Recursion at him.

    When Cob¡¯s hatch opened, the few space pirate mechs retreated a little. To them, a massive starship like this often came with more than a hundred mechs for security. At the moment, these space pirates could still think rationally. If the mech that came out were too many to handle, they would simply retreat. After all, they still had plenty of backup behind them.

    After a long while, a single mech flew out, and a thin, ugly one at that. The pirates gave a good look at the mech, and could not help butugh out loud, momentarily forgetting about the battlefield.

    Ye Chong was used to the opponent¡¯s reaction when they saw Puppet. In any case, that was his intention. Even if his enemy was weaker, why not make it easier by lowering their guard?

    Ye Chong looked at the enemy. The scene was only too familiar, almost an exact copy of what happened when he rescued the team of five earlier. Just when Ye Chong was about to move, a thin blue beam shot across the sky, and Ye Chong watched as one of the mechs before him exploded into a fireball.

    Ye Chong started. Before he could recover, another two blue beams shot past him, and the remaining two mechs went into mes as well.

    The three mechs exploded into fragments, raining onto Puppet.

    "Hehe." Shang''sughter came from Puppet¡¯s photon processor. Ye Chong looked back helplessly towards the ship, and saw Shang behind the hatch, waving Recursion frantically as though he knew Ye Chong would be watching. Those three blue beams must be his work. Shang must have aimed for the enemy¡¯s energy cells to make them explode. Given that he hit on target for all three beams, Shang must be as good a shot as Mu. Ye Chong was impressed. If Ye Chong found that Mu¡¯s three shots had hit at the exact same location, perhaps he would be even more impressed.

    The leader of the space pirates saw everything, and his face twisted. "M*therf*cker, who asked them to go near that ship? You, you and you, pass it down, no one is cleared to go near that ship, or I¡¯ll make them regret it." The pirate leader jabbed his finger at his underlings in panic. He was deeply terrified on the inside. "F*ck, so there¡¯s a super sniper mech pilot with the ship, no wonder they sent out only one mech. That super sniper pilot was terrifying, to hit the energy cells with all three shots! And it¡¯s weird, that sniper rifle, it fires blue beams, and the sniper didn¡¯t even pause between shots. F*ck, is that really a sniper rifle?"

    He knew exactly how terrifying a sniper mech pilot equipped with such a dangerous sniper rifle could be!

    Sniping was a rtively unpopr specialty for mech pilots, but also a powerful skill. Sniper mech pilots were the top of the cream in shooting skills, and unlike other mech pilots, they focused their training only in shooting, and were lesspetent in closebat. They usually used sniper rifles as their main weapons, and aimed for single killshots. These mech pilots were particr in choosing their weapons. In general, they were all very powerful characters, and with their almost wless shooting skills, even a normal heat ray gun would be formidable in their hands. Any enemy caught in their sights could perish at any time.

    However, even though sniper mech pilots were powerful, it was difficult to earn the title due to the high level of skills that came with it. Sniper mech pilots were coveted by all forces and organizations.

    To think that there would be one here! The pirate leader cursed again at the idiocy of those three fools, not acknowledging how he had implicitly allowed them to go near the massive starship earlier.

    Like the pirate leader, Fid was shocked, but was immediately overjoyed. If the crew of this starship could help him, then they might stand a chance. If the ship had a capable sniper mech pilot, even if the other mechs had only average battle capacity, they would still amount to a formidable force. He did not know that the entire Zika ss starship had only one passenger.

    A sniper mech pilot could change the course of the battle!

    "Quick, send a distress signal to the ship. Let them know we have only civilians here, and hope that they would assist us!" Fidmanded in haste. Given the situation, every minute was precious.

 Chapter 223 - Kings of Close and Long Range Combat I

    <h4>Chapter 223: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was returning to his ship. Shang¡¯s three shots were clean and fruitful, leaving him no chance to do anything at all. Just then, Ye Chong heard Shang through thems channel, "Ye, they just sent a distress signal over, what do you think?" Shang sounded eager, obviously still excited from his shots earlier.

    Ye Chong replied tly, "Leave them, we have things to do."

    "Awh ¡­" Shang groaned like a child denied of his favourite toy. "Ah!" Shang suddenly gasped.

    "What? Shang." Ye Chong was surprised.

    Shang spoke quickly, "Ye, look at this."

    Through Puppet¡¯s photon processor, Ye Chong saw a holographic image of one of the starships side, and through the windows, he could see the horrified expressions of the people inside. Ye Chong suddenly widened his eyes!

    He stared for a full three seconds. Even though the image only caught the side profile of that person, Ye Chong was sure he recognized him.

    It was Grandpa Qian! Leaning against the window was the face of an old man, one that Ye Chong was very familiar with. Ye Chong had spent a long time with Grandpa Qian, and was certain that he did not see it wrong.

    Ye Chong quickly recovered himself and asked hurriedly, "Shang, which starship is this?" Without further hesitation, he maneuvered his mech and Puppet turned back towards the battlefield, flying towards the chaos. No matter what, since Grandpa Qian was here, he would not just watch from the side. His time on Blue Ocean with Grandpa Qian was the happiest he had ever since Ye Chong left the trash. Besides, Grandpa Qian had loved him. Ye Chong could not just stand by and watch Grandpa Qian die in the battlefield.

    As Puppet elerated to its maximum speed, Ye Chong could only regret not using Han Jia in the first ce. Puppet glided through the darkness of empty space like a king.

    Another thin but straight blue beam shot past Ye Chong from behind, shing into oblivion. Ye Chong caught where the beam was aiming for. Beyond him was a starship with a few mechs surrounding its hatch, and the blue beam had hit one of the pirate¡¯s mechs nearest to the hatch. If he looked closely, the mech¡¯s smooth pilot cabin was now punctured with a hole that could fit a finger. The mech immediately lost control.

    Ye Chong understood that Shang was showing him the way. He adjusted his course and headed towards the starship.

    Just then, a few more of the blue beams shot past him, barely touching Puppet. The rest of the mechs lost control just as suddenly. Ye Chong realized that Shang had killed the pilots in those mechs. He had no time to dwell further on the fact that the beams from Recursive could be so powerful. He could only wish that Puppet could move faster.

    More blue beams came - the pirate mechs surrounding the starship had all be Shang¡¯s targets. The mechs were hit at almost the same location and lost control in a simr way, though none of them exploded. To prevent explosions, Shang had chosen to shoot at the pirate mech¡¯s pilot cabin. In truth, the finger-thick blue beam was too smallpared to a ten-meter tall mech, much less to outer space. Many of the mech pilots fighting against the pirates realized in surprise that their enemies had suddenly lost control for no apparent reason.

    Nheless, the pirate leader was watching the mysterious sniper mech pilot, and by now, he was frozen in shock! Heavens, why did such a terrifying sniper appear out of nowhere? Will the f*cker kill them all?

    Ye Chong approached the starship without incident, since all the enemies nearby were destroyed by Shang. He was worried about Grandpa Qian, and headed straight towards the hatch. Even in this situation, Ye Chong kept his cool.

    Puppet¡¯s small and lithe figure now came into y. The mech entered the starship as silent and deft as a cat. Ye Chong silently flew and came to a junction in the corridors. He now realized what was happening. At the end of the corridor was a mech desperately defending its position. The mech was a ssic battle mech, but truly deplorable in terms of the pilot¡¯s skills. Given the circumstances, however, the desperation forced him to fight like never before, and the space pirate mechs around him could only huddle around in the corridor, unable to fire theirser guns for fear of exploding the starship, killing everyone in it, including themselves.

    The narrow corridor could only fit one mech, and so the three pirate mechs found themselves trapped, unable to move forwards or backwards. Only the first mech could fight directly with thebat mech. All three mechs had their backs facing Ye Chong. They must have never imagined that theirrades outside would all be finished off.

    Puppet still moved silently. Even in the narrow corridor, Puppet still moved easily.

    Ye Chong felt as calm as an iron lizard hunting its prey.

    In a single step, Puppet closed in on thest mech closest to him. The mech seemed to feel something and made to turn to inspect, but Puppet moved!

    Puppet¡¯s left hand sped tightly on the mech¡¯s neck as the parrying spear sprang out from the right arm like a poisonous serpent, snaking itself into the mech. Ye Chong also chose to attack the pilot¡¯s cabin. With ck gold mixed into its material, the spear performed excellently, puncturing right through the mech. Ye Chong could even hear the sound of bone breaking as the spear went through, and the horrifying shriek from the pitiful mech pilot.

    At the same time, Puppet kicked the mech¡¯s knees hard with its right leg, and the other mech gave. Puppet¡¯s left hand pushed at the same time, and the mech bent down further.

    The attack had shocked the other two mechs in front. The one confronting the battle mech panicked, while the defending battle mech was greatly encouraged by this unexpected backup.

    The second mech turned around to stop the ambusher.

    Ye Chong did not give the mech a chance. The battleground was advantageous for Ye Chong¡¯s battle mech. Puppet¡¯s left hand pushed downwards and pressed forward with its legs, pulling out the parrying spear in the same move as it jumped across the mech it had dealt with. Now, Ye Chong was twenty meters away from the second mech.

    Puppet¡¯s agile response made the second mech even more rmed.

    Before Puppetnded from his jump to clear the first mech, it kicked against the walls of the corridor and directed itself straight towards the second mech like a cannonball.

    Puppet came fiercely fast. The narrow corridor and its fast approach was daunting. As Puppet flew past the second mech, its right hand aimed the parrying spear straight at the enemy¡¯s throat and drew blood. However, the attack left Puppet flying off course. Just when it was about to hit the corridor¡¯s wall, Puppet braced itself with another kick against the wall, and did not look back at the helpless second mech.

    The first mech Ye Chong attacked was now only crashing to the ground with a crackle.

    The throat was a mech¡¯s most vulnerable part, where its photon circuits were all centered about. Once the throat was damaged, the mech was also useless.

    Thest remaining mech found itself surrounded back and front, and was terrified. Ye Chong acted without mercy, burying the parrying spear deep into the mech¡¯s body. However, Ye Chong still attacked carefully, avoiding an explosion.

    Puppet¡¯s entire attack was executed smoothly, and its swift footwork made its movements unpredictable. Besides, it was able to use some strange moves, even in the narrow corridor. These unusual moves could only be done by a verypetent mech pilot.

    The battle mech before Ye Chong may not exactly be a battle expert, but Ye Chong saw that he could avoid attacks quite deftly, which was why the mech survived the pirate mechs for so long, stalling them here.

    Swish! The alloy door behind the battle mech opened, and the battle mech signalled for Ye Chong to enter. That was his intention anyway, and so Ye Chong entered together with the other mech. Once inside, the alloy door sealed shut. The airlock was then pressurized, and the room was quickly filled with air. As the air pressure stabilized, another alloy door opened up, where arge group of people rushed out and surrounded the battle mech, cheering with joy.

    Ye Chong quickly found Grandpa Qian amidst the crowd. He looked just as before, only wearier and older. The two people beside him, however, surprised Ye Chong. Supporting Grandpa Qian was Rui Su, while the person on the other side of Grandpa Qian was Rui Bing in her white training garb, looking steadfast. Beside Rui Bing was a beautiful middle aged woman, who looked a lot like Rui Bing and Rui Su. Ye Chong guessed that she must be their mother.

    As for why they were with Grandpa Qian, that was his main question.

    The pilot cabin of the battle mech opened and out came a young man, to which everyone cheered even louder. It was this young man¡¯s incredible feat that kept them safe until backup arrived, or they would all had been captured by the space pirates.

    The young man was none other than Wei Yuan, whom Ye Chong was acquainted with. Wei Yuan was excited from his sess, and ran to Rui Bing as he yelled, "Sister Bing, Sister Bing, I did it, hah!" Rui Bing¡¯s icy face thawed slightly with joy.

    Rui Su continued from the side, "Little Yuan, you don¡¯t know how sorry you looked like just now, tsk tsk, jumping up and down like that, it¡¯s horrendous." Wei Yuan¡¯s expression soured as he said, "Sister Su, don¡¯t mock me like that." His face made everyoneugh out loud. Grandpa Qianughed heartily, and even Rui Bing gave a little smile.

    Ye Chong felt at a loss. Why were they all people he knew?

    Rui Bing looked towards the clown-like mech. Its performance was seen by everyone here through the holographic camera in the corridor. Out of all of them, perhaps only Wei Yuan and herself realize the power of this clown mech¡¯s three attacks.

    Rui Bing was certain that the clown mech¡¯s pilot must be an expert inbat, and excellent in mech piloting. This advanced level of piloting was nothing like what Wei Yuan boasted himself to have.

    Ye Chong watched Grandpa Qianughing, and was reminded of his earlier days with Grandpa Qian. He felt a little dazed.

    "Hey, Master, why don¡¯t youe out?" Wei Yuan cupped his hands like an amplifier and shouted. Wei Yuan was absolutely impressed with this master. The pilot must be an expert in mechbat. Wei Yuan believed that, in terms of close rangebat, there were probably not many who could defeat this person outside of his idol and Sister Bing¡¯s future husband, YC. In his mind, Ye Chong was already destined to marry Sister Bing.

    Everyone looked expectantly at the pilot cabin of the clown mech, hoping to see the hero that had saved them all.

    Wei Yuan¡¯s voice broke Ye Chong reverie. He looked downwards at Grandpa Qian and Rui Bing, and for some reason decided then not to go out.

    "Shang, think you can find out why this fleet is here?" Ye Chongmunicated to Shang.

    "On it!" Shang began working as he replied.

    Fid could only stare in stupefaction at the massive starship, and the half-concealed mech from its one opened hatch. He was feeling a little out of depth, and was shocked beyond words. In fact, it was not just him - everyone in the starship¡¯s bridge was gaping widely, staring nkly at the holographic screen with the semi-concealed mech.

    Was this even humanly possible?

    That was the million zuan question in everyone¡¯s hearts.

    Right from the beginning, the impossibly powerful sniper mech pilot had never stopped. He shot like a tireless machine. The fatal blue beams were not entirely noticeable, but everyone on the bridge had already decided that those were beams of death. Every beam signaled the loss of a life, and every mech was destroyed in the exact same manner - exploding into a ball of mes.

    This uracy did not seem to decrease. From the beginning, the mech pilot had never missed a shot.

    A clear electronic beep startled them all out of their trance. Fid¡¯s second rushed to themand console and issues some controls. Suddenly, he gasped, "Squad Captain, look at this, they¡¯re asking where we¡¯re heading, and the nature of this starship fleet."

    Fid gestured with a wave and said, "Tell them! Our only hope is their assistance!" Fid could only bet everything on this starship.

    "Ye, they¡¯re a fleet heading towards Csebesini Gxy, the fleet is mostly made up of civilians," Shang quickly ryed the information to Ye Chong.

    "Csebesini Gxy ¡­" Ye Chong finally understood that they were escaping from the war. The only thing he could not understand now was how Grandpa Qian would be with Rui Bing andpany.

    The Rui family had only begun connecting with Grandpa Qian not long after Ye Chong left Blue Ocean. Rui Bing was always trying to find out where Ye Chong went, and Rui Su was also regretful of what she had done, as she tried her best to help her sister. Ye Chong had stayed with Grandpa Qian when was with Blue Ocean Academy, and most everyone knew that he was very close with Grandpa Qian.

    Perhaps it was a matter of loving anything to do with Ye Chong, or perhaps it was for some other reason, but Rui Bing began to visit Grandpa Qian frequently. Grandpa Qian also grew fond of the youngdy with a cold exterior but a warm heart. Rui Bing would sometimes help Grandpa Qian to make noodles, while asking him about matters rted to Ye Chong. Of course Grandpa Qian understood her feelings, and would answer all her questions happily. Rui Su would sometimes go with her sister, and her smart way around things was something Grandpa Qian especially appreciated. Rui Su, on the other hand, came to act like an obedient daughter whenever she was with Grandpa Qian, something Rui Bing could not understand. As time passed, the two girls grew closer with Grandpa Qian.

    The current migration to Csebesini was not something Grandpa Qian wanted. To him, he was an old man, and would not mind dying at his home. Travelling at his age to such a faraway ce, where the road was rumored to be quite dangerous, and was too much of a hassle. In the end, however, he gave in to the insistence of Rui Bing and her mother, together with Rui Su and Wei Yuan.

    Ye Chong knew nothing of this, and did not intend to pry. To him, it was fine as long as Grandpa Qian was happy.

    Ye Chong could not help but took a nce at the woman in white training garb too, her intimidating charisma standing out amidst the crowd.

    "Ah! Isn¡¯t that our Bing Bing? Heavens! Ye, it¡¯s the season of peach blossoms for you [1]! To meet our beloved Bing Bing here ¡­ What? Peach blossom? You don¡¯t know what¡¯s peach blossom? That¡¯s probably because you¡¯re not reading that chip Lunatic Guan gave you right, isn¡¯t there an illustration for nts or something in there ¡­" Shang observed as he shot effortlessly on.

    "Master,e out! Everyone¡¯s waiting for you!" Wei Yuan was still shouting from below. Everyone was curious - why was the hero still noting out?

    Just when everyone was confused, the clown mech pointed outside. The crowd realized then that the battle outside was not yet finished while they were celebrating inside. The euphoria from surviving vanished in an instant. If they lost the battle outside, their fates would remain unchanged.

    Wei Yuan no longer smiled, but looked focused. He quickly went to his mech. In fact, Ye Chong believed that Wei Yuan¡¯s help would not tip the bnce of the battle. If the young man died, however, Grandpa Qian and thedy in white training garb would probably grieve.

    With that thought in mind, Ye Chong rummaged in his bag and produced a dimension keystone. He opened the pilot cabin slightly and threw it towards Wei Yuan.

    Rui Bing was watching him closely, and was therefore quick to move a good three meters across to Wei Yuan, catching the keystone with only two fingers. It was a ring-shaped dimension keystone. Wei Yuan recovered himself and took the dimension keystone from Rui Bing as he shouted happily towards the clown mech, "Master, is this for me?"

    The clown mech nodded and turned to leave.

    "Shang, we might have to fight." Ye Chong said inly. Puppet was still not out of the starship yet.

    "Hahaha, Ye, I knew it, hehe, must be because you saw our beloved Bing Bing¡¯er. Tsk tsk, heroes never could stand against beautiful women, even a wild animal like you, Ye could not avoid this fate ¡­" Shang bbered on.

    Ye Chong could only cringe inside. He could remain calm in battle, but never could stand against Shang¡¯s words.

    When Ye Chong flew out of the starship, he immediately saw the word "Cob" that stered on the front of his starship. Ye Chong nearly lost control of Puppet. Shang had actually took the starship to him.

    Both the pirate leader and Squad Captain Fid were confounded by the name of the ship. How could such a massive starship be named so crudely as Cob? Everyone was feeling a little sorry for the Zika ss starship.

    Shang had, until then, destroyed dozens of mechs. Since the blue beam from Recursion was very tiny and almost unnoticeable in space, it went mostly undetected, and many space pirates found theirrades suddenly exploding into mes.

    The empty space of darkness was lit up like a dazzling banquet.

    Squad Captain Fid¡¯s side could finally breathe under the enemy¡¯s pressure. The surviving mech pilots were enough to at least evenly match the space pirates.

    The pirate leader, on the other hand, was furious. Victory was almost certain for him, until this horrendously capable sniper mech pilot came into the scene. He knew that if he did not do anything, the situation would turn against him soon. The sniper mech pilot was good, never resting between shots, as if he did not need time to aim. In the short time span since the beginning, he had lost dozens of mechs on his side. If things continued like this, he would never be able to recover.

    "de, take ck team with you and finish off that b*stard," the pirate leader could no longer do nothing about it.

    Note:

    [1] Peach blossom is closely associated with love in Chinese culture.

 Chapter 224 - Kings of Close and Long Range Combat II

    <h4>Chapter 224: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    de was the crew¡¯s most menacing fellow. He was bold and fearless in the face of death. The pirate crew had always relied on him when the situation turned sour. He was the leader¡¯s right hand man.

    de never liked talking. He nodded grimly at the leader¡¯smand and turned to leave. ck team was the pirate leader¡¯s security retinue, and the strongest force in the entire crew. These men were all expert mech pilots, and were numbered to be 300. They were all well trained and skilled inbat. The pirate leader decided to use his trump card, signalling the climax of this battle.

    Arge swarm of mechs headed towards the massive starship. Shang noticed them as soon as they were deployed. He realized their ns immediately.

    "Hehe, Ye, I¡¯ll leave this ce to you," Shang said and went back into Cob.

    "Alright," Ye Chong replied inly.

    The pirate leader saw the sniper mech pilot returning into the starship, and felt much relieved. As expected, the enemy had squirmed. However, before he could fully appreciate the moment, he saw the sniper came back out from his holographic screen.

    Was the enemy really so confident? The pirate leader did not what else they had in their sleeves.

    Shang gave an evilugh, but the electronic sound was a little creepy to hear. Not that there was anyone around to hear it. Shang¡¯s battle lust was now fully unleashed. If the pirate leader saw what Shang had by his side now, he would probably faint.

    Right next to Shang was a stack of energy cells that went up to half the mech¡¯s height. This was what he went to retrieve. While Recursion was a powerful weapon, it consumed energy very quickly. It was a pity that the teardrop mineralite could not be used yet, else Recursion could continue shooting for a very long time.

    Even so, these energy cells here should be enough.

    Ye Chong wandered around the starship fleet. The starship which held Grandpa Qian was Shang¡¯s main objective, and the pirates around the ship were all dealt with. Ye Chong had to sweep out further to find the other pirates.

    Ye Chong moved across the battlefield carefully. He dared to be hasty. Puppet had exchanged its defense for better agility, so its armor was not as reliable. If an enemy hit him with aser beam, he would not fare very well. Death by carelessness was not part of his n.

    This was a huge and chaotic hunting range, and Ye Chong was like a cunning and graceful hunter.

    Ye Chong saw two mechs ahead of him, shooting at each other as they took evasive measures. It was easy to differentiate between the mechs of the pirates and the hired mech squads. The pirates¡¯ mechs were colourful and came in all kinds of models, some even made up of parts that did not work well together. The mech squad¡¯s mechs look more uniform, and were models that could be found in the market.

    Ye Chong could tell at once the next step those two mechs would take. His rich experience in battle allowed him to do so.

    Puppet moved like an assassin, quietly hiding behind the starship. It kept its body close to the hull, less than five meters away from the tip of the starship.

    Puppet waited intently, like a lizard waiting to make its killer strike.

    Ye Chong counted the seconds as the pirate¡¯s mech slowly emerged above the ship. Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong moved abruptly, his hands flying across the controls in a blur of a shadow. It was a pity that no one was watching him.

    Puppet was like a lizard clinging closely to the starship¡¯s armor, but now it sprang up, drawing an arch in space. In the next moment, Puppet crashed into the pirate¡¯s mech. At this close distance, Ye Chong could see all the details of the other party¡¯s mech.

    Puppet was lying in ambush behind the starship, and its silent attack came as a surprise,ing from below. As Puppet¡¯s clown-like face appeared to the pirate in the mech, the mech pilot was momentarily stunned.

    The parrying spear from Puppet¡¯s right armunched, driving straight through the other mech¡¯s pilot cabin. Out of all of Puppet¡¯s installed parts, the spear was the most valuable. The spear, mixed in with ck gold, was perfectly suited for prating its victims.

    Puppet pushed against the now useless mech in its hands and swept back into darkness.

    The Oak Leaves mech pilot who was just now engaged with the pirate mech only saw a slim figure bouncing off his opponent and disappearing into thin air. After long moments of waiting in anticipation, he finally noticed that the pirate¡¯s mech was already damaged, the pilot dead inside. He thought back to the figure that appeared and disappeared so quickly into the darkness.

    Ye Chong felt like he was back on the trash, and the starships around were the mountains of trash. Ye Chong maneuvered Puppet around the starships, hiding in their shadows, the way he flew Winnie between the trash mountains.

    Ye Chong¡¯s attacks were all meant to kill. He did not squander any movements, and would only choose the most opportune moment to deliver the fatal blow from the darkness to his unaware enemy. His pair of parrying spears had pierced through the armor of numerous mechs, and Ye Chong did not give mercy to any of the pirates inside them. This was war, and mercy was a luxury. Ye Chong had no habit of practicing mercy.

    In truth, if not for Grandpa Qian, Ye Chong would never have gotten involved. Since he had decided to step in now, though, he would do his best and leave no loose ends, giving no chance to his enemy.

    Burning in Ye Chong¡¯s cold eyes was the me of battle.

    Puppet jumped from starship to starship without slowing down. Ye Chong was already immersed in the mood for battle, a state of mind meshed from calmness and excitement. Ye Chong¡¯s hands no longer moved quickly for his own sake, but moved more easily, slowing down or speeding up ording to need. He would stay motionless for one moment, but move so quickly it was hard to see his hands in the next. This transition between moving very quickly and not moving at all was strange, but Ye Chong did not notice it. In fact, he felt ite naturally. The mech was like an extension of his body, and his every thought was tranted into the mech¡¯s movements.

    Under Ye Chong¡¯s maneuvering, Puppet moved erratically in sudden jerks of speed, or rising and falling abruptly. It flew unpredictably like a ghost, or as deftly as a monkey.

    The skill of battle could only be honed on the battleground.

    Shang was also in the state of mind forbat. In truth, Mu had always taken charge in battles, but even Mu had never did it more than a few times. ording to Mu, only when Ye had truly matured that he would be allowed to maneuver them. Hence, unless the situation was desperate, Mu would not reveal himself directly. Shang was born even earlier than Mu, and no one would believe that he was not actually experienced in battle.

    What a joke! Was a mech made of so much rare metal used just for decoration? Besides, the injury on Mu and Shang¡¯s left arm was the perfect evidence of their history. If Shang was a conscious being, then he must have some inborn fighting instinct. However, the topic of consciousness in PSI¡¯s was a little weird.

    Now, Shang looked cold and emotionless, Recursion held steadily in his right hand. If he was performing at the mech pilot¡¯s NR Training Center, he would earn full marks for this.

    Despite his usual bbering, Shang was now the perfect killing machine.

    To de and his three-hundred strong advanced mech squad, it was a disaster of devastating proportions. The blue beam came as a harbinger of death, each shot answered by a loss of one of their mechs.

    What terrifying uracy! The sniper had never missed. Even someone as capable as de could not help but feel hopeless. Could there really be such a crazy sniper mech pilot? With his long experience walking the edges between life and death, de knew that no matter how strong a person was, anyone, even himself, wouldmit a mistake at some point. His experience had validated this belief of his time and again, but this half-concealed sniper mech pilot had yetmitted any fault.

    The constant explosions of mechs illuminated the swarm of mechs. An observer could easily mistook that the mechs were facing the full force of another mech squad. In truth, their enemy was only a single person.

    Long distance sniping, the most difficult part of shooting training, was now performed wlessly by this unknown mech pilot. It was a divine performance. The further the target, the harder it was to shoot urately. At their current distance, any slight error in shooting angle would be greatly amplified. No sniper mech pilot could maintain a perfect shooting record at long distances.

    There was once a famous sniper mech pilot who said, "In long distance sniping, you need luck more than half the time." This was the perfect testimony on how difficult long distance sniping could be.

    What vexed de now was how very lucky his enemy was at the moment.

    On normal days, the time it would take for him to reach the Zika ss starship would be but the blink of an eye; now, however, it felt like forever. Hisrades were thinning out. de knew that retreat was not possible at this point. Even if they turned back, they would still be within range of the enemy, and it would only make it easier for the enemy to finish them off.

    de was not the only who understood their situation. ck team¡¯s members were all veterans of battle, who came to the same conclusion. They braced themselves and charged forward. Once the sniper was within their attack range, they would be able to fire back.

    Without the need for orders, they flew in a scattered formation, and deployed evasive measures. While these evasive measures could not prevent the death of the sniper¡¯s targets, it was obvious that the frequency at which the blue beam appeared had decreased.

    Shang continued to shoot steadily, unperturbed.

    Ye Chong could not remember how many times he had attacked, but the number of mech pilots he had rescued from battle was increasing. For the first time, the mech pilots in the two mech squads outnumbered the pirates, if but slightly.

    In the control room of Red Lion¡¯s mech squad captain, everyone gaped at the holographic screen. After a long moment, the beautiful redhead sitting on the captain¡¯s seat muttered, "Heavens, is that guy human?" This beautiful redhead was Red Lion¡¯s squad captain, udia. With her fiery red hair, she was one of the very few female mech pilots who attained the title of advanced mech pilot.

    At twenty five, udia was at the prime of her beauty. Her mature and hot personality was attractive, and made her the center of attention anywhere she went. Her snow white skin, aquiline nose and sapphire eyes were assets that she took pride in.

    She was also a good leader. Red Lion mech squad was only a group of twenty when she took over, and now it had expanded into a massive five-hundred strong mech squad.

    Now, udia was wearing a dazed expression, tinged with awe born out of ignorance. However, this beautiful sight was lost to the people around her, for everyone was as shocked as she was now. The skinny mech figure on the holographic screen did not seem remotely strong or valiant, but perhaps a littleedic, its colorful exterior making it look much like a clown. However, this clown-like mech had evoked a chilling sense of foreboding in their hearts.

    This was a master of ambush, and an expert in mechbat and mech maneuvering!

    The clown mech¡¯s colorful face was silly looking, but no one in the control room wasughing. To them, the silly face was a cover for whatever chilling fear it could evoke. They can all imagine the mech pilot sitting in the pilot cabin watching those pirate mechs with arrogant eyes!

    udia was also thoroughly convinced of the clown mech¡¯s pilot''s strength. The pilot was a master in all respects, be it in strategizing, timing,bat skills and mech maneuvering. What surprised udia the most was the pilot¡¯s calm steadiness - the clown mech had dealt with dozens of pirate mechs, but he still continued to fight as systematically as when he had first started.

    Such an inhuman calmness! udia could almost believe that this mech pilot was a top ss assassin from a professional killer¡¯s guild.

    He did not like flying, but preferred to leap, or move on all fours. He kept to the darkness, and stuck to ambushing, using the rarely preferred parrying spear. All these signs showed that the mech pilot was someone rather peculiar.

    She could not help but steal another nce at the starship named Cob. She could not understand how an ill-named starship could have such an expert.

    Was this an unconventional master of battle?

    Cob also had another equally intimidating sniper mech pilot, and he was now single-handedly and sessfully dealing with over 300 mechs! udia looked at the other holographic screen. The swarm of mechs was now left with only a few dozen of them, engaged in shooting with the sniper. She felt reluctant to continue watching. These were all advanced mech pilot veterans, and a formidable power when they were deployed. Nheless, they were now undeniably being broken apart by a single mech with a weird energy gun.

    What was Cob¡¯s story? What was its owner like? What did its two masters ofbat look like? How were they rted to the owner of Cob?

    This was all very curious!

    If Shang were to find out that a beautiful woman was calling him a master ofbat, perhaps he might lose a bit of his current fightingposure. Of course, that was another story.

    Fortunately, udia understood her situation. These two masters ofbat could never be hers tomand. She would not try to pull them in to her mech squad.

    The battle was nearing its end, as the pirates mech numbers dwindled. Ye Chong had scoured the entire fleet of starships, and killed all of the pirate mechs who wished to board the starships.

    "Shang, how¡¯s your side?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Hehe, Ye, this is too much fun! Sigh, too bad there¡¯s not enough of them going, if they only have a hundred more mechs." Shang¡¯s excited reply made Ye Chong rx. "Shang must be in a really good mood," thought Ye Chong. In fact, Shang was not only that, but nearly mad from exhration. If not for the diminishing number of energy cells by his side, Shang would even try shooting with the recursive particle cannon shots.

    A huge rock of ore was flying slowly past Ye Chong. Ye Chong looked towards the pirate ships far away, tightly protected, and was struck with a crazy idea. Immediately, Puppet leapt to the ore and grabbed onto it like an insect, securing itself on one side of the ore. Then, the mech fired its engines at full st, and the ore drew an arch in space with Puppet and Ye Chong on it, headed towards the pirate ships.

    udia took everything in and could not help but gasped, "What is he thinking?"

 Chapter 225 - Kings of Close and Long Range Combat III

    <h4>Chapter 225: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In truth, almost everyone was watching Cob¡¯s terrifying sniper mech pilot. This battle between one and 300 would be a story as important to other sniper mech pilots as their course material. Besides, if all 300 of those mechs were advanced level mechs, then no one would object calling the sniper mech pilot as one of the best in the field.

    Such a rare battle of historical significance was underway, and no one would want to miss it! Everyone was glued to the holographic screen, counting down the number of mechs left on the pirates side. Besides, the result of this battle would determine their own fates, thus raising the stakes even more. Everyone was astonished to find the pirates wielding such a strong force, but also thankful that they had met this impossibly strong sniper mech pilot.

    Be it the pirates of the civilians, this fight would determine whether they live or die.

    Ye Chong¡¯s movements were only noticed by a single starship, and that was udia¡¯s Lunar Rose. They had been watching the clown mech from the start, and were awed by its performance. They believed that the clown mech¡¯s unexpected movement must be some unrevealed n.

    Puppet clung onto the ore, still. This ore was bringing Ye Chong quickly towards the pirate ships observing from afar.

    Roar! The crowd in Lunar Rose¡¯s control room erupted into an outburst. They now understood the clown mech¡¯s intention. Was he suicidal? This was the question that arose in everyone¡¯s mind; only udia was watching the mech with esteem.

    Ye Chong sat in Puppet¡¯s pilot cabin calmly, without a ripple in his emotions.

    "Ye, be careful." Shang spoke out of concern. He approved Ye Chong¡¯s n, and had even cooperated by slowing down his shooting, not killing off the pirate mechs as quick as he could to produce the illusion of an equal chance of winning in his fight. This was to draw attention from the enemy and to stall for time.

    Ye Chong felt warm inside, but kept his face neutral as he replied inly, "I know."

    Ye Chong had used this strategy before. When he met with the Red Beard¡¯s Owl pirate crew, he had relied on this strategy to kill the pirate¡¯s leader. That was also when he met Bai Linan. This ambush strategy required three conditions to be satisfied. Firstly, the ambusher must be extremely capable of fighting by himself. Secondly, the enemy should have a weak defensive line. Lastly, the ambusher must be able to reach the starship of the enemy¡¯s leader unnoticed.

    In truth, if Ye Chong was flying Han Jia, he would be more confident of his chances. However, given the chaotic situation, he knew that there would be people hidden amongst the crowd, looking for him. Han Jia would be difficult to exin away, and Ye Chong did not want to attract attention.

    Even with Puppet, he was confident enough toplete the task, or retreat sessfully should he fail. He could do it with Sand Scorpio before, and Puppet was even better than Sand Scorpio, so his chances would be higher now. Besides, Ye Chong believed that the seemingly tight security was just an empty show. If they had another mech squad, Ye Chong believed that they would have been sent in when the battle first begun, securing an early victory.

    Now, they could only watch their mechs killed off, one by one without being able to do anything. This meant that they had no more remaining force.

    As for the starships surrounding the battlefield, Ye Chong chose to ignore them. If these were warships, they might pose as a threat, but they were clearly unarmed. Without any mechs to protect them, they were helpless.

    Ye Chong¡¯s action may seem hasty, but it was born out of detailed considerations.

    In outer space, asteroids of all sorts could be found almost anywhere. This particr one slowly making its way towards their ships was anything but noteworthy. Just as the asteroid was about to hit the starship, it eerily traced an arc across the space. If anyone on the pirate ships saw this, they would immediately be rmed. However, it went by unnoticed, since everyone was absorbed in battle. The mighty sniper mech pilot¡¯s shooting frequency had dropped for some reason, and this gave them hope. They were watching their holographic screen with unblinking eyes.

    With his previous experience, Ye Chong was able to quickly identify which of the ships belonged to the pirate leader.

    Ye Chong left the ore andnded softly onto a shaded corner of the starship. Puppet was already wielding its two parrying spears in its hand. With one leg as the pivot, Ye Chong drew a circle in the air with its parrying spears. Metal scraps flew outwards. Puppet¡¯s parrying spears were tough, and was the only way Ye Chong could think of that could breach the starship¡¯s hull armor. However, this starship¡¯s armor was thicker than that of ordinary starships, and Ye Chong could not breach the ship even after a few rounds of attacks.

    One of the pirates inside inclined his head to listen, and asked one of hisrades beside him, ¡®"Huh, I think I heard something just now, didja hear it?"

    The other pirateughed derisively at him and said, "Hah, gotcha heart in your mouth, ain¡¯t ya? Hehe, sonny, let me tell you, I¡¯ve seen situations like this dozens of times in my life, and it always turned out alright in the end! Keep your heart where it should be, now."

    Ye Chong suddenly felt a round te of armor loosening. Just then, the round te was flung out due to air pressure. Puppet was now moving as deftly as a human being. It pushed its right hand off the round te and jumped to the side. Just as the round ce left the starship, Puppet inclined itself and evaded the round te as it swished past the mech and flew straight out into space.

    Ye Chong ignored the air gushing outwards from the hole and crawled inside.

    If none of the space pirates noticed this, they would be unworthy of their titles. The rm red in the starship, and it was chaos inside.

    Ye Chong ran towards the control room without hesitation. In truth, he did not know exactly where it was, but he had seen more than a few starships, and could make a rough guess. After deciding on the location, Ye Chong chose the most direct route. He broke through walls and doors, even tore through photon circuits when he met them. Ye Chong destroyed everything in his path, and advanced astonishingly quickly. He encountered some mechs along the way, but they were efficiently dealt with. As for the pirates without their mechs running away from him, Ye Chong chose to ignore them.

    The starship was actually quite useless by now. The ship was depressurizing quickly, and the air was so thin now that breathing was almost impossible. Most of the main photon circuits were destroyed by Ye Chong, and the entire starship could no longer function. All the lights were out, and the starship looked like a dead vessel. Only the control room was still illuminated, since it had its own independent support systems.

    However, this made it a clear destination for Ye Chong. Ye Chong adjusted his course and ran towards the control room. Ye Chong took full advantage of the darkness and theplicated narrow environment. The mechs which stood in his way were all disabled with Ye Chong¡¯s ingenious plots.

    Not sticking to any pattern of attack - that was Ye Chong¡¯s way of fighting. In fact, Ye Chong was mostly using the basic moves that Mu made him train the hardest. He moved simply and quickly, making use of the environment. That was where Puppet¡¯s eerie, unpredictable moves derived their power from.

    Walls, ceilings, alloy doors all served asunching spots for Puppet. The mech also used many unusual moves, reproductions ofbat skills that Ye Chong could conjure in his mind. These were all moves that were impossible without Ye Chong¡¯s excellent mech maneuvering skills.

    Puppet advanced so fast that many of the space pirates had no time to deploy their own mechs. As Ye Chong breached the walls of the starship, they all died from suffocation as air escaped into outer space.

    The surrounding defense starships seemed to received their distress signal at the same time, and quickly approached the starship. Even in this dangerous situation, the defense starships could only deploy about 40 odd mechs to assist. This confirmed Ye Chong¡¯s theory that the pirates did not have additional battle forces.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind was now as clear as ice. He did not hesitate as he broke through the wall of the control room with his parrying spears. Air gushed out from within, and Puppet braced through the airflow and entered the control room, agile as a monkey.

    Inside, five mechs surrounded a red colored mech in the center. They all waited in trepidation, not knowing how the enemy had entered their starship, or how many of them were here. For now, they could only wait to defend themselves and wait for backup. They believed that as long they could dy the other party for a moment, about three minutes, or maybe two, then their backup would arrive.

    Seeing the five mechs before him, Ye Chong did not dare to be careless. The five mechs were all advanced mechs, top ss mechs that could be bought from the market. These five mechs seemed to be highly skilled, judging from their positions and posture. If it were one against one or two, Ye Chong would not be concerned. Now, however, it was a matter of one against five. Besides, the enemy seemed ready to put their lives on the line. This was a difficult situation for him.

    If Shang were here, he could just finish off everyone one of them with one cannon st. However, the thought was not helpful to Ye Chong.

    He had not much time left. Ye Chong dared not hesitate further. Puppetunched forwards, making a bend, and reached one of the mechs. Speed was the mech¡¯s strength, and its movement gave everyone a shock. The control room might look spacious, but it was definitely too small for a mech.

    In this small space, no one would dare to speed up their mechs so fast, for fear of hitting the walls. Besides, that abrupt change in direction seemed impossible for any observer. At this speed, with such an abrupt change in direction, one would think that the mech pilot would be left with broken limbs.

    However, this was exactly what was happening before their eyes.

    The five of them were horrified. Two of the five were skilled in closebat, but this degree of mech maneuvering left all five of them with ashened faces. Given the circumstances, long range mechs could not unleash their full potential. Weak energy guns could do nothing to the opponent¡¯s mech, but more powerful energy guns might explode the entire starship. Moreover, the other party moved too quickly and unpredictably, and it was impossible to lock on target.

    Just when everyone was still caught up in surprise, the clown mech suddenly made a right-angledteral change in direction. With this, all the mech pilots were once again astonished, even though they were all highly skilled themselves. That move was practically against thews of inertia!

    Ye Chong was now facing a close range mech, with its typical weaponbination of a shield and aser sword. The clown mech made a go at him. While the mech pilot inside was afraid, he still maintained his calm and charged forward instead of retreating, making a small left step forward while raising his shield, and striking down vertically with his right hand¡¯sser sword. This series of movements was executed smoothly. The defense offered was strong, and Ye Chong could not find a way to break through. Ye Chong was secretly impressed that the pirate crew could have someone so strong with them.

    Even so, the attack was not a threat to Ye Chong. Puppet inclined its body and avoided the sword smoothly. Its right hand pushed against the shield as it leaped across to deliver a right kick towards the other mech¡¯s face. If it hit, the other party¡¯s mech would probably be decapitated, and the mech would be useless.

    The clown mech¡¯s unusual reaction was also a surprise to the other party. Fortunately, he was experienced enough to respond ordingly, stepping wide and lowering himself while angling his upper body backwards, thus avoiding the clown mech¡¯s attack.

    Ye Chong still wore a calm expression, but his eyes shed. Ye Chong knew that the moment hade!

    On the controls, Ye Chong¡¯s hands were practically a blur. Only his wrists could be barely made out as a blurry shadow.

    The other four mechs could only watch in anticipation. They were too close together, and had no space to attack. Besides, of these four mechs, three of them were not specialized in close rangebat.

    The clown mech then did something that none of them would ever forget for the rest of their lives.

    The clown mech suddenly reached out with its left hand, holding on to the lower part of the shield so strongly that the pirate mech was about to topple over, though the pilot quickly steadied himself. With his upper body still, he watched as the clown mech¡¯s left leg swept past his head.

    Suddenly, the burden on the shield was gone, and the clown mech disappeared! This sudden turn of events had all the pirates looking around in a daze.

    Just then, the pirate heard from hisms a surprised gasp, then a horrifying shriek! The shriek sounded very familiar, it was ¡­ it was from his leader! In that moment, his mind nked.

    Behind him, the clown mech leaped high into the air at high speed, bouncing off the ceiling at an angle. When the pirates recovered from their surprise, the clown mech had already disappeared from the hole in the wall where it came from. At the same time, he heard a bang from behind, the sound of a mech falling to the ground.

    He turned back and could not believe the sight of his leader¡¯s mech lying on the ground, with a huge hole in the pilot cabin. Inside was a bloody mess. While he could not see his leader, it was clear that no one could survive those injuries.

    He still could not understand what had happened.

    Later, he learned from his fourrades of what exactly happened, and it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

    The clown mech held onto the lower part of his shield and pushed, using the momentum to sweep its left leg across his head, the whole mech doing aplete rotation in the air like a windmill. Just when its legs hit the ground, the clown mech suddenly rolled into itself and slipped under his shield before anyone could react. The clown mech was slender to begin with, and executed a series of moves to make him widen his stance, thus allowing the clown mech to slip past between his legs. After that, the clown mech was directly in front of their leader. It shot upwards like a poisonous snake and finally took out its parrying spear, urately plunging it through their leader.

    When all four of them recovered theirposure, the clown mech had already withdrew its spear and leapt off their leader¡¯s mech towards the ceiling, then bounced off again towards the exit!

    Inside the icy cold mech, through the hole from the attack, the body of the pirate¡¯s leader was slowly losing its warmth. With that, the leader of thisrge pirate crew was killed by the clown mech despite their defensive measures.

    From that moment on, word of the dark clown spread like wildfire throughout the pirates, and every pirate now knew of the existence of this clown-like mech that walked in darkness.

    His mission aplished, Ye Chong¡¯s next task was to quickly return to Cob.

    The clown mech¡¯s speed was now fully unleashed. Ye Chong flew directly towards Cob quickly and without reserve. Behind him were 40 odd mechs in pursuit. Shang increased his firing frequency, and in just moments, the few mechs that managed to get close to Cob were all destroyed. Just like that, with the spectators gasping in shock, 300 over mechs were annihted!

    The sudden appearance of the clown mech on the holographic screen caught everyone¡¯s attention.

    Ye Chong proceeded to perform the art of evasive measures. As the 40 over mechs attacked with an array of shots, none of them hit Ye Chong. The eerie change in directions, confusing feints, and movements at all kinds of angles held the spectators in wonder. In the eyes of professionals, this clown mech had instantly be the most dangerous character around.

    As Cob drew near, the 40 odd mechs grew fearful of the sniper and began to retreat. Even so, Shang managed to take out three of them.

    The survivors cheered jubntly as the space pirates retreated, and joy from surviving permeated the entire fleet!

 Chapter 226 - Fleet

    <h4>Chapter 226: Fleet</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Currently there was one problem standing in Ye Chong¡¯s way. Based on the course nned by Fid the leader, both Ye Chong and Shang could confidently confirm that, there should be no less than 5 groups of pirates lurking on the way. A fleet filled with folks would be a feast for the pirates. The Oak Leaves and Red Lion could have beenpletely annihted if Ye Chong and Shang had never joined the party.

    Without the escort of the Cob, the sess rate of the fleet arriving at Csebesini would be no more than 10% in the end.

    To be honest, Ye Chong did not really care about the survival of those mere strangers. ording to Shang¡¯sment, there seemed to be a kind of upation called the "rangers" or the wandering "vigntes" who turned out to be the very busybody taking care of life, maintaining justice for everyone in the world. "What¡¯s justice?" The boration was worthy of a ssic eye-roll from Ye Chong, as Shang stated that there was also a ratherckluster and conspicuous concept called "Justice", which the artificial indulgence seemed to be very passionate about. "Okay, got it." And Ye Chong quickly retrieved the microphone from him.

    Ye Chong - for some reason - did not wish to let Grandpa Qian to know who led the Cob. Maybe because¡­ well, I was more of a lone wolf eventually. Thought Ye Chong, a little dejected.

    Ye Chong was a decisive person. He was not the kind to hesitate and there he was, making up his mind. A living person would always be far more important than a dead person. His papa would support his decision if he was still alive.

    Alright then! Ye Chong and Shang beganunching the project vigorously. First, Shang renned a course to travel, where the distance was much longer but at least they would be able to avoid the areas frequented by the pirates. "This is preposterous! I can¡¯t believe one could make such an unintelligent course!" Shang could not control but to reprimand this physically non-existent nner of the former course. Ye Chong on the other hand was running to and fro in the ship and withdrew every battery he could find in their storage. The gate where Shang made his sniping before was filled with a massive amount of batteries. Simrly, there were also ced numerous batteries at every corner where the cannons were. Given that a war were to happen, the Cob would not be able to sustain itself for the energy consumption in long-term. So the tedious task of recing batteries would be performed by Ye Chong the captain ve.

    Both the leaders of the Oak Leaves and Red Lions, Fid and udia were on an exchange.

    "So¡­" Initiated udia, "We are in a sticky situation now. If we do not call for more backups, we would be in deeper trouble as we travel on," she frowned as the remaining forces of both the squads were discouraged and worried after the fight.

    Of course, she was not the only depressed one. Fid¡¯s face was tight the moment he realized the unexpected difficulty he and his squad had to ovee this time.

    Apparently most of the people were unprepared for the war which came falling like a bomb.

    Well, they were d to be still able to sit together and have this exchange, after all that chaotic experience. Fid was silent, as he admitted his helplessness towards the situation. "Calling for more backups" were said easier than done. From where would they get the backup? What kind of backup? In the matter of days they would never form a proper crew and it would be more chaotic if the pirates took the chance to sneak in as one of those backups.

    In the midst of hopelessness, his assistant ran into the room, all excited, "L¡­Leader, my lord, captain, I can¡¯t believe this. The Cob had just sent us a n, a new n for the course!"

    "Huh?" Both the leaders looked at each other, confused. "Take a look." The assistant then projected the new course on the hologram. A course - which they had never thought of - was drawn in clear lines over the gcticyout. And the destination of the course turned out to be Western Track, a residential in Csebesini gxy.

    The heck? Fid and udia looked at each other again, wondering in what Csebesini the owner of the Cob was ying with his cards.

    "Grrr¡­ Ye, look, it¡¯s ourrrr Bing Bing! Tsk, tsk. Look at her legs, demm, long and gorgeous yet capable of delivering strong blows anytime. She could give me a blow anytime! Jajajaja¡­ Ye, too bad you missed it. That split she made with her beautiful legs on the floor, it was beyond beauty! Man, my heart would sail off to the other dimension if I keep watching this¡­" Shang was growling in excitement, while on his duty to watch the entire fleet, where supposedly, his focus should mainly be on the spaceship with Grandpa Qian and the other mates. And there Shang was, tantly abusing his rights being the watcher, as his mechanical eyes were bleeping over one angle of Rui Bing to another.

    Ye Chong did not intend to feed the hungry indulgence as he was very much engaged in an important experiment. The fluid he collected from Twin Sisters was more corrosive than he thought. No wonder Lunatic Guan stated it being one of the 12 most corrosive nts on her microchip. A drop of the fluid could fall through a spaceship armor about 10 centimeters thick in the matter of a minute. It would spread vigorously too.

    What Ye Chong must do for now, would be to culture a new sprout of Twin Sisters using the fluid, which was not a challenging task to do. Practically, a task like this was generally not challenging to even a second-year alchemy student.

    The cultivation was a sess. One might think it would be a little too much to cultivate a small sprout using such a luxuriousb, but the facilities were able to speed up the growth period of Twin Sisters. Ye Chong eventually was able to harvest a few tens of Twin Sisters. Ye Chong spent the following days to study their behavior. Observation was one key task for any professional alchemist. Ye Chong even took into ount of their frequency of secretion.

    He looked at his inventory, as naturally he was figuring out a way to transform them into a kind of firepower. Being once a resident on the Trash, fully utilizing resources was his very good habit. The fluid of Twin Sisters possessed a great potential with their corrosiveness. If one could utilize the fluid appropriately, it could be destructive.

    It was the first time Ye Chong took an approach of an alchemist in his thinking while what he did was simply amplifying the corrosive effect of Twin Sisters. Being an alchemist, a novice alchemist he was, he could still figure out a few tricks to make it work.

    He could, for example, continuously change the surrounding of Twin Sisters to encourage mutation. Then he would select few of the Twin Sisters closest to the standard. Alternatively, he could also use the fluid as a base to create a stronger corrosive reagent.

    He proceeded with the second method, since the first method was too time-consuming for Ye Chong. Lunatic Guan fortunately also was an expert in formting reagents. Those bone strengthening form were also the oue of her research.

    Ye Chong did once think of using the Guan''s automatic analysis mechanism¡­ he could have found the perfect form for the reagent by simply searching. But he never wanted to do so, plus Lunatic Guan had reminded him to not rely on the mechanism too much, that principle of his which encouraged him to rely himself rather than the others, was echoing in his head.

    To reach the higher height, one must figure and explore. Ye Chong could have skipped this phase using the mechanism but he would lose more than gain in long run.

    He tried recalling the knowledge he had learned before, attempting to connect them to reach a certain set of form.

    "Jajajaja¡­" And Shang spent the next few days watching Rui Bing, jumping from one camera to another. The hobby of a voyeur was more than entertaining. The biggest regret of his was probably theck of camera in the bathroom.

    Ye Chong was investing all his time on research. He trusted Shang, that he would inform him at the very first moment if anything were to ur. Then Ye Chong could save his time from watching over Grandpa Qian the whole time. The n however had received criticism from Shang, iming that it was unsentimental.

    The crews of the other ships outside were wondering the whole time, of why the Cob did not seem to be leaving them despite not having an obligation to lead them. Was the owner of the Cob really intended to escort the entire fleet? Everyone was appreciative over the mysterious Cob for the contribution. They would probably be long ughtered by the pirates if the Cob was never there.

    Fid and udia hadprehended the underlying motive of the new course, so they immediately responded by requesting their squads to change the course ordingly, while announcing them to the entire fleet.

    The puzzlement for them was theck of response from the Cob every time they requestedmunication. No sound wasing from themunicator. After the course n was sent, the Cob had never proactively engaged in the transmission. He just sailed on quietly at the center of the fleet.

    It would certainly be a pleasure for Shang to get the phone, since udia was also a beauty, even though she was far from Bing Bing the gorgeous. udia was, still, the umon polished jewel in the cave, Shang would no doubt have the intention to spend the next potentially happiest 5 minutes in his life talking to her. "No. Watch and no more than that," Ye Chong strongly disagreed to his action. Shang in the end sumbed to the days of being a Peeping Tom.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes set upon the bottle of reagent in its purplish glow. There was excitement in his expressionless eyes since that bottle of reagent was the very first craft he actually made with his alchemy expertise, namely "The Liquid of Shang". Its corrosiveness was deadlier than the Twin Sisters, where all the alloys in Ye Chong¡¯s possession were unable to withstand its melting effect, including the ck gold.

    "So Ye, may I ask why is there my name on this¡­ thing?" Shang seemed curious.

    "Oh. That has to do with its full name," his reply was calm.

    "It has a full name? What is it? Could you tell me?" Shang was really interested.

    "The Secretive Liquid of Shang," the answer was concise.

    "Ye!! You are good!" Shang was grinding his mechanical gears, rolling back and fro, "I¡¯ll remember this!" His mechanical eyes rampaged in ring blue.

    Ye Chong was not free to entertain the thrashing indulgence and he felt that the name was very befitting to the reagent¡¯s function, although he found Shang¡¯s actual secretive liquid to be potentially far deadlier than the reagent.

    Ye Chong seemed to be inborn with extreme sensitivity towards war and weaponry. The reagent did note without a boom. The melting effect of "Liquid of Shang" was beyond his expectation, which gave Ye Chong a new weapon of fatality. So Ye Chong made use of his bone supplies to create a kind of shell to contain gases to envelope Liquid of Shang while installing an aiming program which mimicked the double-edged shuriken, allowing it to urately lock upon the foes. He also added miniature engines on the bomb to permit automatic redirection when necessary.

    No doubt, a killing weapon had been born. A shell made out of bones would go undetected by the foes¡¯ system. Then there was the locking-on system, assisted by redirecting engines, making it the signature weapon for the assassins.

    Shangplimented the creation while also seizing the naming opportunity, "The Beauty¡¯s Secretion" he called it, in a poetic manner.

    And Ye Chong began the mass-production of the Beauty¡¯s Secretion the following days. In Shang¡¯s terms it would sound like this, "You have such a big ship yet you only have a handful of the Beauty¡¯s Secretion? What a joke it would be!" Ye Chong must agree that the Beauty¡¯s Secretion could very well be an effective threatening tool. If that was the case, indeed the supply was too low at the moment.

    The heart-wrenching fact for Ye Chong was the painful realization that the qualities of the bones used for production had negligible effects on the overall capacity of the product. And he only had the best, few rare bones in his inventory. Such a waste to make them into shells, yet hecked options. At most he could pick the few less-rare bones for production.

    Shang even designed auncher for the Beauty¡¯s Secretion. And Ye Chong, being half-dead from the production, got to crawl up from the ground to further modify the Cob to amodate the newunching channel. At least the modification was quite simple so it did not take much time.

    Hundred Twenty¡­ Hundred Twenty One¡­

    Ye Chong was surprised when he counted the oue of his production, for he actually had produced 260 Beauty¡¯s Secretions without noticing.

    And they were very much close to Csebesini. Fid and udia were not expecting a smooth sail¡­ They could not believe in three days they would be arriving at Csebesini. Throughout the journey, not even once they had encountered the pirates. "Very strange¡­" said udia, when she was body and soul ready for any wild encounter with the pirates the whole time.

    Assuredly they would not know how news spread faster than a meteorite among the pirates. On the second day of that war, almost all men with their bandanas on were made aware of the existence of the Cob, which did not only have a super sniper capable of mass-murder, but also a killer clown sneaking in the darkness. And the pirate leader, even under the dense protection, still was brutally murdered by the foe¡¯s parrying spear.

    The disbanding of a crew was nothing new among the pirates but the story had taken a change when the crew involved was one of the few strongest one. The sailing pirates could not believe their ears when they heard of how the strong crew was eradicated by merely two men, including the leader who was killed right in front of everyone. It would be considered as the greatest insult for one crew¡¯s leader to be ughtered by the others and surely the survivors would seek to avenge their leader someday. Nheless, none of the survivors even dared to think of avenging. Their eyes were colorless, their bodies were shaking the moment they told the very tale, of their close-shaves dealing with that clown killing horror and the deadly blue glow.

    There was not a need to mess with such a figure! Every leader of the crews thought so, which was why no pirate ever showed up in the following days of the fleet¡¯s course. The little factions of pirates, too, were well-aware of their sizes and limits and would not even approach that fleet.

    The escort was a sess. Both Fid and udia were overjoyed despite not knowing the working behind this. And the names of their squads would be known by the people, they would ascend as the few greatest squads out there. People would give their hymns over them while they would be handsomely rewarded. The expansion of the squads would be close.

    And they were heading to thest space-jumping point on their course. They would arrive at Csebesini after performing space-warp there. When wars were haunting the other gxies, Csebesini had transformed into a Nevend for the others. The government still owned the wholly right of the gxy and was enforcing their security. People remained at peace and was never disturbed by the shrapnels.

    The residents from the the gxies had been moving into Csebesini one batch after another, which pressured the local government in return. The government demonstrated efforts in arranging residences for the immigrants however, which the immigrants greatlyplimented. Csebesini, as the surge in the number of residents,menced rapid developments.

    Once we hit the point, we would make it! Fid¡¯s excitement glowed in the eyes of udia. udia¡¯s joy was lighting up the pupils of Fid.

    "Report!"

    Right when everyone was hopeful and excited, at the void nearby, there was one fleet of darkness.

    "We had discovered arge fleet of privateers."

    "Mhm, looks like we have a group of uninvited guests. Pass down the order, the sixth and seventh ships would eliminate all privateers. No survivor. Repeat, no survivor. The remaining warships shall maintain their course. We must arrive by the next warp point within 5 hours." An emotionless voice rang. A pause was made, "Send Thorn along."

    "Yes sir!"

    Thest two warships of the dark fleet were redirected towards therge ship at the opposite.

    Shang discovered the fleet almost immediately after. Standing before the hologram, even a calm man like Ye Chong felt a sudden cramp over his head the moment he saw the fleet. It was a group of 7 warships. The ck glowing body obviously told Ye Chong that those were the ships from the ck Coves.

    A fleet! Gosh! Ye Chong saw the strongest force iing! To Ye Chong¡¯s senses, a warship would indicate arge warring unit. And all the units he had encountered thus far, be it from the MPA or the Sanctuary, had always been one unit at one time, never once he saw ¡­ a fleet of them, of seven units¡­

    The other ships in his fleet were not reacting towards the shocking discovery however. And Ye Chong then realized that their detection system could not detect the ck Coves¡¯ specialized war crafts.

    Shang was a quicker nner than Ye Chong, as he passed the news to Fid. And every spaceship in the group wasmanded to travel at full speed to hit the warp point as soon as possible.

    The Cob sluggishly flew away from the fleet and went to confront the two warships. The Cob was slow to make a runaway. It would be more practical to confront the foes instead. At least that would give better chances of Grandpa Qian¡¯s survival.

    Ye Chong was not being really sentimental over this, rather it was the oue of his calction, the optimum route to pick.

    Ye Chong inhaled deeply to gain his inner peace. He was sure that he would not be able to make it out within the grasp of 7 warships, but at least he could make sure that there would be one or two warships joining his grave.

    And this, shall be the first war of the Cob!

 Chapter 227 - First War of the Coxcomb

    <h4>Chapter 227: First War of the Cob</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The armor of the warship had that particr metallic glow which convinced Ye Chong the identity of the voyage made out of ck gold. Unlike the warship of MPA which was all graceful and sophisticated, the ck Covers made their ship in the toughest, and most efficient way they could possibly imagine. Those tubes of the cannons bold as their soul, those rampant amount of gates across the ride where the mechs seemed to be swarming out from soon¡­ there were even thorns over the body, giving the warship an appearance of a porcupine. Ye Chong was foreseeing the also decent capability of warship on performing a close-ranged attack while firing off cannons.

    The two approaching warships from the ck Coves were rather surprised seeing the fleet elerating out of sudden. Are we busted? No way. Privateers should not have the technology to detect us beforehand.

    Within the boundless space and the broadening milky way, the size of the Cob was pronounced as he travelled in slothful tranquility.

    The two warships approached very quickly after they discovered that the over-sized spaceship was heading towards them. It was no shocker, a Zika-graded spaceship was merely a sailing ornament, one with only the outside. Privateers were still privately owned ships after all,pared to the warships, it would feel like an arm against a firearm. The remaining 5 ships from the ck Coves were highly confident of the capabilities of 2 leaving warships, so they sailed off to the warping point.

    It was a relief when Ye Chong saw the other mates of the ck Coves forfeited the fight. They were going to be in contact soon. A one-on-two would be still better than a one-on-seven. The stress would be quite different.

    The figure disying their distance was ticking on the screen, getting lower each time.

    Ye Chong deployed Han Jia, the issue of being busted was no longer his concern. The survivability was something more important. He did not hop into the cabin immediately, as he knew Han Jia could wield only the fists and the legs, going off now when both parties remained distant would be pointless.

    Well, then, we will do something first. Ye Chong did not intend to hold back. Shang would probably think the same, as nasty-minded as he was.

    Beep. The board covering the 52 electromaic cannons was lifted. The tubes were glowing in threatening darkness towards the approaching dark force. The sudden change of the Cob startled the iing foes.

    ZZzzzzzzt!! Energy started being charged at the muzzles! Due to angle issues, only 33 electromaic cannons were pointing within the proximity of two of the foes. The umting electromaism was ring in the ck void. Some said it was brighter than the nova, the morning star. The naked eyes seemed to be deceived as they saw a constetion of a tiny fish formed by the 32 glows in the dark.

    The hologram on the projector was showing the otherwise. The densely conglomerated glows were a major horror to the crew. The pale blue glow flooding the muzzle was a brutal warning.

    "Battle station! All warring units take off now!" The leaders made a promptmand in their throaty shriek. The gates were opened one after another, as the units swarmed out of their nests. Like hos they took off smoothly despite the emergency, the oue of their systematic training was justifiable. The cannons of both warships also started glowing.

    Beep. Beep beep. Beep beep Beep beep. Beep beep Beep beep Beep beep.

    Within twinkling of eyes, the screen was overflowed by countless red spots.

    A massive energy-based weaponry like the electromaic cannons would require a moment of charging-up, or the unit would explode as the abrupt surge of energy jammed the system.

    The electromaic cannons of the Cob were charging, as about hundred of Beauty¡¯s Secretion slid into the space quietly. Both Ye Chong and Shang knew, the key to the war might not be the energy-based weaponry they had built, rather it could be the deadly corrosion in the dark. Although they were unsure of the capabilities of Beauty¡¯s Secretion as itcked actual experience in wars, its participation would have direct influence to the oue of the war. And thatunch Shang made had already consumed about half of the secretion in their storage.

    The two warships were performing their evasion. It might appear to be ridiculous to Ye Chong as he would never believe a warship being capable of performing an evasion this agile, but it just happened before his eyes. The cob literally looked like a retarded sloth before the two ck Coves¡¯ crafts. And that was when Ye Chong made up his mind, swearing to strive on giving the Cob another overhaul, if they ever made it out alive that is. The Cob was nothing but a walking bullseye. Ye Chong prayed to have eliminated the foes before the Cob got hit.

    Then, considering the possibility of the foes requesting immediate backups from the other 5 warships after this, Ye Chong would be obliged to perform a space-jump before the backups arrived. The eleration before the actual space-warp would put them under the greatest risk, as any form of interruption could lead to a horrible oue - they could jump to another dimension, while also having the possibility to warp to the deserted area beyond the 5 major gxies. Any imaginable oue would be mortal. So, thatst straw to the crumbling, it must be avoided at any cost.

    The flowing blue glow at the muzzles were getting brighter. Zoom! 33 beams of light in pale blue rifted the void. The two warships could have looked all deceitful in their evasion, but they were no match for the master sniper called Shang.

    The electromaism oozed over the darkest space formed a shining bridge between the Cob and the foes.

    The beams were obviously most effective prating the armor of the warship. Pration itself was nothing to be afraid of, since unlike the spaceships or the mechs, most warships were programmed to perform a rather facilitated self-repair mechanism immediately. The armor was not the issue, the energy units, however¡­ Assuming the beamnded on the batteries or the charging pipes of the foes, the collision of energy would initiate an explosion which would cause casualty as well as the destruction of the warship itself.

    The first wave of attack was fully aimed at one of the inching warship. The thumb rule to fight a one-on-two was always to knock down one partner with maximum force before the other.

    The oue, was grand. Under the attack of charged energy st, the warship was crippled, probably damaged beyond repair. The ck Coves might have fought the mightier foe like the MPA, but the MPA only had about 20 electromaic cannons on their corvettes, unlike the Cob, where Shangunched 32 cannons at once. The power would be beyond overwhelming, especially with the aid of the tubes made out of ck gold which further enhanced the effect. Given that they were facing the MPA instead today, their warship could have taken at least two to three waves of high density energy st like this. Too bad, they were not.

    Zzzzzt Zzzzzzt! Boom. The explosion happened one after another. The beam probably had in factnded on their batteries. The consecutive explosion made Ye Chong unable to imagine the remnants of the ship, he could end up seeing nothing in the void. The crew on that warship? The explosion was a horror itself, the men on that warship would have ended up the specks among the asteroids. No way they could have survived that.

    And that was the first war between warships Ye Chong had witnessed, where death could be determined in one moment. Contrary to the fights between mechs, the body of a warship was too hefty to make real agility, so the first wave of firing would have determined the oue.

    Ye Chong tumbled into the cabin of Han Jia. He got to put on something, he was still a human and he would be diving into the void.

    The Cob took a drastic turn as the 19 electromaic cannons at the other side were about to finish charging.

    Oh no.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were then blinded by the light. He felt his eyes almost burning. Boom! The explosion created a quake within the ship, carrying inertia, flipping Hanjia violently. Ye Chong could feel himself tumbling uncontrobly. Wham! Han Jia was mmed upon the wall. Luckily he was able to get inside Han Jia and gained protection from the built-in liquid buffering system, or he would have transformed into a st of flesh on the wall.

    The Cob was hit! The Cob was hit! It was fortunate that the Cob was making a turn, that the light beams slightly missed as they slid through the Cob at minimum contact. They carried on zooming beyond the Cob, going through the fleet elerating behind.

    Ye Chong by then had learned the fact that any individual, in spite of the mighty strength they might wield, would be minuscule in a massive war like this. No one could guarantee he or she could be thest one standing in the war.

    The armor of the Cob was paperypared to the warships. At least the cannons of the foes were not as great as the electromaic cannons on the Cob or the slightest touch like that just now would have torn the Cob apart.

    Everything happened ording to Ye Chong¡¯s imagination. The Cob was too sluggish to make the necessary movements at asions. Shang had tried his best to predict the timing and perform the evasion beforehand, yet they were struck by most of the iing beams. The yellowish white glow sliced through the dark void from the ck Coves, leaving openings on the fragile body of the Cob. And one beam had contacted a charging cannon at one spot, which caused the explosion that flipped Han Jia like a whirlwind.

    Well, the Cob was alright, except for the fleet. A beam could easily prate two to three spaceships and the fleet was traveling at their closest, like the group of ducklings with their mother. No way the beam could have missed.

    Explosion, a few explosion illuminated the space. The queueing fleet was then disorderly. They might be able to face the pirates¡¯ strike with courage, but towards the brutality of the firing, they had surrendered with the loss of hope. They could only watch the explosion happening with their eyes erging, while their leaders struggled to speed up, striving to crawl to that warping point and leave this dangerous war field. The situation had already gone beyond control, while the leading spaceships of the fleet had already performed their space jumps and scurried from the scene safely.

    The spaceships of different colors and shapes crashed into each other. Ye Chong could no longer distinguish the one which Grandpa Qian boarded within that one panicked nce. He prayed, that they would be the luckier ones than the others and not part of the explosion.

    The Cob was not the real warship in the end, one blow and the body of the Cob was full of openings. The saving grace was that the Cob was not damaged at its mainponent so it was still under Shang¡¯s control.

    "Ha! Ha! Ha! The spaceship was crawling slower than a tortoise. One more blow and we could smash it! We would not have to call for backups if we knew it was made out of jellies!" stated the living warship of the ck Coves proudly.

    "Right." The even-tempered cannoneer was finding it strange as well, "What a weird warship. Both slow and frail. The armor was their fatality. Tsk, although I must admit that they have great firepower. Warship Number 7 took the blow and bloody hell, it became goner, scaring the crap out of me. Freaking hell. I think the MPA¡¯s cannons are no as good!"

    "What a pity Number 7 was. At least the beam was not at our boat, or we would have joined the milky way now. Now that you have mentioned it, I do find that electromaism firing simr to the MPA¡¯s."

    "Indeed. But this is much bigger I must say," the experienced one from their team added.

    "So which side does this warship belong? And they actually have better technology than the MPA?"

    "Who knows¡­ as much as you can see, there are always a hermit hidden somewhere in this world."

    Despite thements, the Cob was being tormented in actuality, as the foe clearly demonstrated a more experienced warship-piloting than Shang. Moreover, the body of the Cob was huge, the movement was slow. Utilizing those weaknesses, theyunched their attacks in tiny waves to seize the control of the Cob.

    The leader of the ship seemingly had yet to realize how foolish hismand was, for he could have destroyed the entire boat if he ordered his men to make a one-time fire instead.

    Both parties were unable to do anything to each other.

    The beams continuously showered upon the Cob, but the Cob managed to make necessary turning.

    One nice flip by the Cob.

    The men were greeted by the 19 charged electromaic cannons from the other side, the living glow was a discoloring horror to the crew.

    "Evade!!!" Roared the leader, "Evade!!!" His voice was wavering, his eyes were soulless.

    Zzzzzzzzt!

    Of course, they did not make it. It was toote for them to make an evasion, as 19 blue beamsnded right upon their ship. It was obviously not their day, as one beam actually gave a gentle touch at their battery.

    "Fuc-"

    The war field was once again blinded by the explosion. The ck gold armor was torn helplessly into debris, being scattered over the corners of the space.

    A fireworks, bloomed like a brilliant flower.

    Ye Chong was relieved. It was surely a mental trial for him to bear with the helplessness in a battle that he could not be directly involved with. He hated the feeling of not able to take the control of his fate.

    "Ye, your final blow!" Shang¡¯s voice was expressionless as it lost its usual joking tone, sounded bloodthirsty and inhumane.

    I wonder¡­ if Shang was like this in the past? That was the strange thought appearing in Ye Chong¡¯s head.

    "Okay." He took a deep breath and grabbed the inner focus. Probably he had been in many hand-to-handbats, he realized that he could get into the status fairly quick, since in the past, he would have needed to take a few more cycles of aspiration in order to get the sense.

    To be honest, the war between warships had imprinted in his head, being all straightforward and direct, ck and white, dead or alive. And there he was, once being worried that he would be short of batteries as the battle went on and on. The fight between warships was merely a matter of a few turns. The additional batteries, the energy was not that important and could be said as even a kind of unnecessary burden since it made the ship more likely to explode on beam contacts. But, simrly, the foes, the ck Coves seemed to be inexperienced as well, which eventually gave Ye Chong and Shang a chance to survive.

    And finally, Ye Chong was ready for his next move. The mechbats, the battle known as the bread and butter of his tale, they were exciting.

    The screen projected over hundreds of red spots, which were so horrifying to Ye Chong in the past, that he might just press the "Eject" button and st away instead. But now, with Cob and Shang, he believed, he could see the next breaking dawn.

    And then he realized, the benefits of having a warship for a mech.

    Han Jia sank into the space silently. There was no need to open the gate. The openings torn by the beams were already the gates themselves. Ye Chong flew out from one of them. The things were floating around, as the air venttion had been disrupted, the oxygen had leaked, forming various vacuum areas on the ship.

    Being a skeleton mech itself, Han Jia sure was amazing at its speed and stealthiness. Those were the trick to every victory.

    The destruction of two war units were enraging to the remaining ck Covers who departed from their ships just now. "We shall avenge!" They already lost their mates, and a way home to rest their transports. They no longer had the turn back option. And when one, being unable to turn back, would have a stronger, more irrational bravery.

    The dark mechs elerated, their momentum intensified, as they charged towards that hefty looking warship! They were highly experienced and they knew the fragility of the armor of the Cob. Their attacks shall not be stopped! As soon as they approached their foe, they would retrieve victory. The electromaic cannons might be a threat to the ship, but not enough as a threat to the mobile mechs.

    The warship remained immobile, while the half-devastated body seemed to give off an unbeatable sense.

    Don¡¯t tell me¡­ there was not even one pilot inside such a big ship¡­

    The pilots were confused and suddenly a crash was felt. Something small hit them?

    Should be one of the specks from the explosion¡­ One pilot thought, since the screen did not project anything, the detection system did not go wailing.

    "Assassination. Careful. Photon Mode, now!" A deep voice of a male rang inside his helmet. Goosebumps crawled over his shaking hands¡­ Wasn¡¯t that Lord Thorn?

    Assassination? A skip on his heart beat, as he moved his hands over the control panel to make a change¡­ Honk! Beep! The rm wailed inside the mech.

    It kept wailing. And he was wondering why. But there was something on the shell of his mech, a pool of purplish fluid engulfing the surface, in the hideous sizzles one could imagine.

    The glowing shell of Cosmic re became distorted, melted like a st of mud. "The Liquid of Shang", Ye Chong¡¯stest invention, a liquid that nothing could stop, even the ck gold alloys.

    Sssssssss¡­sssssssS¡­ The thin armor eventually could not withstand the pressure in the cabin. Boom. The armor ruptured, forming a dense opening like the ho¡¯s nest. The air squeezed out of the pores and was pulling the diametersrger andrger.

    Cough, cough¡­ The pilot realized he was having some breathing difficulties¡­

    Huh?! And he saw the giant opening, his eyes were huge, filled with disbelief. He frantically reached over the panel, he was trying to speak, yet the pressure squeezed his eyeballs, blood overflowed his expression.

    And that¡­ was how he used to look.

 Chapter 228 - That One Moment of Stare

    <h4>Chapter 228: That One Moment of Stare</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The situation had gone too chaotic. Everyone on the spaceship was having their eyes tightly stuck upon the screen, with fright in them. The situation had taken a strange turnabout. The Cob, from the beginning, had been traveling with them, as if a personal bodyguard heroically staying by their side, being the appreciated honor among the crew members. Well, anyone on the crew would have appreciated its participation in the fleet. The Cob was sailing at the side wings of the spaceship, and the sailors, the staff, all of them crowded upon the window to have a proper look at their hero.

    And that was when everyone thought they would be reaching Csebesini safely, the Cob left abruptly, away from the side wings of their ship. Almost immediately after, they were shouted upon by Fid the leader to make it to the warping point at the quickest speed possible. The leader, who received themand, as well as the remaining crew had assumed the pirates had returned. His experience had illustrated a series of impablemands which eventually allowed them to be in quite a better status in the war.

    But the confusion lingered, as everyone¡¯s eyes were almost popping out seeing the Cob being the only ship on the screen, they once thought it could be a false rm, there was no pirate in sight, till the moment the Cobunched countless streams of blue beams to the darkness, explosion urred. The void was exploding? The void was exploding indeed. Did the pirates have invisible technology? What was that stream of blue beams?

    Wei Yuan screamed, "What are you waiting for!" He reacted quickly, "Change to Photon Mode!"

    Apparently the anti-detection system - despite being effective against the most advanced hologram detection system - could be ineffective against the most traditional Photon Mode of the visualization system.

    The crew then switched their visuals to Photon Mode. To their horror, Cobs the gentle whale who escorted them kindly the whole time, turned out to be a warship, armed with countless dark frightening muzzles, all pointed towards the iing dark mechs. The sudden emergence of a warship was worrying, the sudden devastation of the other warship was nauseating.

    Warship - the tool which defined the war itself, that reminded humanity the fear itself - was there,ying bare in front of them. The pirates seemed to be a triviality now the moment the warship came intoparison.

    The leader of the spaceship hurriedly performed his eleration, since it was a known fact that an unarmed spaceship was directly vulnerable in front of a warship. Only speed could save them if they could make it to the warping point. All leaders from the other spaceships in the fleet held the same opinion, as the queue was in disarray. Then the pilot squads came into action to restore the order. And at that current ship where people crowded their windows, they were d they were in luck, for they were quite ahead of the queue, they would be fleeing from the war field in a couple of minutes.

    The passengers squeezed before the photon projection. They hurrahed the moment the Cob finished the other warship, as they breathed in a relief, delighted and salvaged, believing that the Cob would be the one holding victory in the end. There were dense flocks of mechs but rumor said there was one super sniper on the craft that could finish 300 advanced models quickly.

    "Elderlies anddies please enter the safe house immediately. I repeat, elderlies anddies, please enter the safe house immediately. The remaining passengers please stay calm and take care of your own safety. We would be performing space-warping shortly. Please be prepared." The elderlies and women were sent the the safe house in the ship, remaining the others still watching the next action on the projection.

    They could feel the inertia pulling them behind, the spaceship was elerating, which signified them the space-warping was happening. Well, space jump was not something challenging for spaceships to perform, however, if they were interrupted, things could go a little nasty. Compared to two years before, as science and technology developed rapidly, the space-warping procedure for passengers today was of negligible difort. Most adults could not even feel anything much, other than the eleration itself.

    Zzt Zztt¡­

    The visuals on the projection were wavering. The momentum intensified, the projection was getting more and more noises over the time, till at one point people could no longer distinguish the happening on the projection. They only saw a silhouette flying out from the Cob, "Feels like a mech?" They believed.

    Zzzzt!

    "Ah!" One brief frame of the projection was very clear then nothing was there.

    There were two voices eximing.

    "Performing space-jump." The passengers were truly relieved by then. As soon as theypleted the procedure, they would be away from all these chaos and devastation. Of course, before every space-jump, one must have performed a very precise calction or the crew might never make it to their designated location. If the coordination was never given in the beginning, no one would dare to perform a space-jump this suddenly. Even if they were piloting a warship, thew of physics itself remained enforced for them.

    It felt like a dream for the passengers, so unreal and mystifying, feeling so long yet it onlysted for a brief second. That depicted the sensation one had during space-warping, which was mesmerizing to most people.

    They felt their bodies lighter for one pull. Then the projection regained its rity, as if they had exited from a lucid dream.

    Rui Bing¡¯s face was stupefied, while Wei Yuan remained in a disbelieved expression. Yes, the two exmations were made by them.

    "Wh-What happened¡­ Yuan?" Asked Rui Su to Wei Yuan, she did hear her beloved sister making the simr squeak, which was peculiar for she knew her sister¡¯s undisturbed nature. Well, she would not directly inquire her sister, since it was not easy to dig out anything from her thoughts. But Wei Yuan made the exmation too, so he should know something.

    Wei Yuan took a nce at Rui Bing, who was pondering with her head lowered, "It seemed like¡­" Whispered Wei Yuan by Rui Su¡¯s ears, "That¡­ the mech seemed to be ¡­ well, the brother-inw of Sister Bing¡­I saw it before¡­" It was already amon sense for the Ruis to know the rtionship between Rui Bing and Ye Chong. Whenever the great guy was mentioned, Wei Yuan loved to address him as the "brother-inw", while Rui Su would call him "my future brother-inw". The nicknames were rather gimmicky sometimes but Madam Rui was helpless on her daughter¡¯s marital rtionship, knowing her daughter¡¯s personality, her daughter would execute whatever she had decided.

    "Ah!" Rui Su screamed then she quickly covered her mouth. Her expressive eyes were telling skepticism. A moment of silence, and her sister remained stoned, "Yuan, you sure?" she whispered into Wei Yuan¡¯s ears, she was unconvinced.

    "Hmph, no way I would get it wrong. My brother-inw saved me with that mech, how could I have mistaken it?" angered Wei Yuan, as his wholehearted statement was being suspected by Rui Su.

    Rui Bing¡¯s head was all upon the floor. A hint of sadness rose in her heart for some reason. Was it¡­ the greatest distance between us¡­? Or was it the silent most farewell? She was dumbfounded.

    "Heh¡­ my future brother-inw is great in fact, for he knows how to protect us," Rui Su¡¯s voice rang by her ears.

    "No way, how would brother-inw know our whereabouts? Probably he just happened to be there and well, being a hero, he did so-"

    "Shhhhhh!" Interrupted Rui Su, all disdainful, "Well, being a hero? What do you think your brother-inw was? He was the cruel and cold kind from the beginning. Hmph, if there was not anything here worthy of his protection, how would he have done it? Stop joking!" stated Rui Su, based on her past experience dealing with this indifferent beast named Ye Chong.

    "Don¡¯t insult my brother-inw!" rampaged Wei Yuan. "What do you say?" shouted Rui Su. And they began quarreling.

    Rui Bing¡¯s soulless eyes suddenly lighted up a warm glow. Was he there¡­ for me? The Cob had always been flying at the side wings like a royal knight in escort¡­ It does feel like¡­

    Rui Bing whocked the experience of such situation was of course mesmerized by this feeling, like a young girl she was.

    But then her worries upon Ye Chong¡¯s safety overtook her strange infatuation.

    But what could I do? Rui Bing was quiet. And there the couple was, passing by the shoulders, touched yet unspoken again, when in the century, the decade would they mean again?

    "But¡­" She tried to speak, but the words choked her. Her eyes were filled with bewildered fear and then were reced by faith and optimism.

    Rui Bing recovered her indifference, as she made the leap, right onto the center of the quarrel, and lifted the two fighting animals, dragged to the resting room where Grandpa Qian and Madam Rui stayed.

    "Sister Bing! It was Sister Su who¡­" Wei Yuan felt embarassed.

    "Bing Bing, don¡¯t listen to that Yuan. You know your sister, don¡¯t you? Sigh, my good little Bing Bing, would you spare your sister and put her down¡­" The strange gazes from the other passengers were more than pressuring to Rui Su despite her shameless nature.

    The happening on the fleet was not something Ye Chong had leisure to deal with, as his eyes were all focused upon the flock of mechs before him.

    About 20 dark mechs left in the field, waving their lingering aggression being the war units being all short of arms and legs from the effect of the Liquid of Shang. But they reacted quickly as they disengaged their limbs before the liquid expanded.

    One could see the sess of the Beauty¡¯s Secretion being the tool for assassination.

    Thorn the lord of the ck Coves was more than angry, as there was such terrible casualty under his lead, the first incident to taint his perfect records. Never once he would expected the foe would wield such diabolical weapon while being able to avoid detection.

    Ye Chong¡¯s re carried on¡­ and he distinguished one really different mech among the uniform mechs. And that was the mech who burst the iing Beauty¡¯s Secretion with a single sting on his short alloy spear. Judging by his skill, the foe should be no novice.

    That was not it. What was giving Ye Chong a loud thump in his heart was the mech.

    It was the very first time he came across such model among the ck Covers.

 Chapter 229 - Thorn

    <h4>Chapter 229: Thorn</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The mech was the same humanoid model in dark metallic glow, of a bnced proportion coated with thorns which rose tidily of different lengths, in a threatening appearance all over its body, from head, shoulders, elbows to even the thighs. Although the spikes were different in lengths, all of them were perfectly sharp. And Ye Chong could not help but notice the fact that the fists were not in dark like the ck Covers'' usual units, rather, those were of a dim gold.

    A ck Coves model painted in a color other than ck itself? The addition was more than rming to Ye Chong.

    "Warning, Ye. This should be from the heart of the ck Coves, the real war machinery units, the high ranked model. The name of this model should be ¡®Thorn¡¯, if my information was not wrong that is. Mhm, so, be careful, the real warring pilot from the ck Coves would be exactly the real deal itself. Jajaja, well,pared to you that is. If I was the one standing in your ce, those were just starters for me. Hah! Ye, may you have an enjoyable fight," the distorted mechanicalughed then rang inside Ye Chong¡¯s head. And Ye Chong almost had the urge to strangle that artificial indulgence with the arms of Han Jia.

    Certainly, under Photon Mode visualization, Han Jia was no longer undetected. It was a miracle though, for the mech to be detected only after being this close to the ck Covers. Most of the survivors under the attack of the Beauty¡¯s Secretion were gasping in slight fear.

    "Leave this guy to me," stated Thorn. "The rest of you will take the warship."

    "Yes sir!" The remaining mechs sted towards the sluggish warship.

    Thorn, took a look at the strange mech before him, and was a little shocked, as he realized this was the skeleton mech his heads had been searching for and he could confidently confirm that he was not wrong on his judgement. The fact was, technically no pilot who had undergone systematic training from the ck Coves would fail to recognize the skeleton mech being what the authority desired. And Thorn was the elite from the inside, he was more than well-informed on it.

    Skeleton mech had always been something from the myth. Its design approach had been long raised by people, which however sadly nothing new had ever been discovered other than the words of mouth. And there Thorn was, having a clear sight on an actual skeleton mech hovering before him. The ck Coves research unit had been striving to at least grab the gist of its formation, even though the oue had always been demotivating.

    ording to the news he had heard, in the 5 major gxies, the current skeleton mech artisan the humanity could ever have would be the pilot sitting right inside it right now. And Thorn remembered there were also severalmands going on in regards of the skeleton pilot himself¡­ What aplicated individual¡­ Thorn thought.

    Whoever he was, the skeleton artisan pilot and the skeleton mech itself would be his first priority!

    Coincidentally, Ye Chong who remained in the silence before storm was also taking a good look at his foe. Thorn, the warring unit gave a strong resemnce to a porcupine, which one could say to be "thorny" to handle sometimes. Fortunately Han Jia was pretty armed, Ye Chong could not imagine which part of Thorn to strike if he were barehanded.

    !? What?

    The dark humanoid vanished. Ye Chong was astonished by the vanishment of the foe!

    That speed! Ye Chong flinched!

    Han Jia twisted its body and took a peculiar turn. Panicked, it shifted to the position where the foe was standing formerly.

    Klink! nk! Klink!

    There were a few streams of cold light shing at where Ye Chong stood before. Ye Chong shuddered, as seeing the foe attempted to raid where he was before. He was really d he moved his mech away before the rapid shes happened. The foe was fast, very fast, probably as fast as Han Jia. It could be a close race if they were to have apetition. Mach 8 to 9 was actually this horrifying¡­ now Ye Chong could understand how the foes he faced usually felt when he moved in Han JIa.

    And Thorn, menacingly was excited. As expected from a skeleton mech, you never failed surprise me¡­ Complimented Thorn in his mind, as contrary to his belief, he discovered the speed of Han Jia being slightly faster than his. My Thorn is known as the fastest among the core units in the ck Coves. And never once I would see such capability from a mech. No wonder the authority have been wanting the skeleton mech so much.

    Towards the momentum of Han JIa, Thorn was not afraid, not even the slightest bit. The capability of a mech was merely an aspect, one of the factors to be taken into consideration. The skills still matter, since a battle between mechs eventually would just boil down to a raw fight between men. I would have better chance to win if that is the case. Hah, I''ll have you, skeleton pilot, and your mount.

    Gasp¡­

    Ye Chong was a little overwhelmed. Judging by that quickbination of shes the foe delivered, Thorn had rose to be the strongest foe Ye Chong had met so far.

    A battle was brewing. The blood was boiling. The slight excitement tinted that pool of calmness in Ye Chong''s head.

    Since thorn had no other weapon, Ye Chong¡¯s obvious option would be to have a closebat with him, even if the ck Covers were known for their superior hand-to-hand tactics and they were truly the expert in this indeed. No doubt, closebats were the bread and butter of Ye Chong¡¯s fighting record. His alternate identity, YC was also known as the representative figure of mechbats on the Virtual World, or one could say, the mechbats itself.

    One lift of the arm¡­ Zoom!

    Wise people think alike¡­ or perhaps fools never differ. The moment one lifted the arm, both mechs were triggered.

    The daggers were already in both hands of Han Jia as Han Jia raised a stack of afterimages all over the foe, with one right onto the throat, the other slicing towards the heart of Thorn!

    The two shes from Han Jia were dismantled as Thorn stormed itself with a veil of afterimages as well, as it performed a quick hold on Han Jia''s iing cut. Ye Chong was amazed. Even under such insane speed, he managed to maintain his uracy in both movements and eyes while taking the right action at the right time! It was pain for this potent person to be his foe.

    The two mechs then collided into each other. A swirling hurricane was formed between the arms and the des. One could not tell what was happening as one could only see a rambling mixture of two silhouettes and thousand stacks of afterimages. If any lucky audience happened to there and recorded this to be uploaded to the Virtual World, one could imagine how much replies would be flooding the forum board.

    The exchange was rapid, filled with various touch-and-gos, as both parties wielded the same clean-cut style. No conspicuous movement, no shy bomb and array, just the traditional cuts and blows, where every part of a mech could be a weapon itself. And the fight was epic, as the two mechs were fighting in the closest range possible.

    Ye Chong in Han Jia did not even have the time to blink his eyes. The situation was so intense that a slip on the finger could have costed his life.

    Thorn on the other side was also all eyes and all ears on the ticking control panel. Being a warring pilot, his experience and techniques were not something Ye Chong could even mimic on spot, although he had yet discovered a way to finish the foe directly, which was perplexing as the fight went on unexpectedly.

    What a strange foe¡­ his movements were highlyplicated. Not only there were a few standard movements from the mainstream fighting methodology among the five gxies pilots, there were also some sort of evolved gestures from a kind of martial arts which I could not really tell its exact identity, the techniques involved were too strange for me to identify. And there was also a hint of fundamental moves from our group. Thorn could feel the stress, despite the fact that those movements the foe made were merely the basics of everything. He simply did not reckon sequencing the basic movements could be this potent.

    The basics could be rapid. The basics could be this interchangeable. It felt like an epic score formed with the most basic linguistic units one could image. The movements were the stacks of the foe¡¯s shadow. The movements were unpredictable. Commented Thorn.

    Ye Chong, in his Han Jia, handling this nuisance of darkness, was not feeling easy either. The stress was something really new to his sensation. This was the first time he came across such skillful fighter after he incorporated the techniques he learned from Lan Yixing¡¯s microchip into hisbats.

    This Thornunched his attack really rapidly, even though his model was reacting slower than mine. The timing andnding of each of his moves are impable, where he mainly revolves about the use of his own thorns. What a headache¡­ The thorns are so much tougher than I thought, my Han Jia would need three downward shes to cut one particr spot through while I am required to dodge all his moves at the same time¡­

    If it was not Lan Yixing¡¯s techniques I would have lost right away¡­

    The techniques¡­ the foe¡¯s techniques, they should be of a certain kind of style. Too many of his movements are the anomaly to my senses, I could n¡­ Hold it!

    Ye Chong remembered Instructor Hak once mentioned about a kind of martial arts technique from the ancient.

    It was a very intense fight as both parties did not seem to be losing anytime.

    "Fight for the ck Coves!"

    "Yeah!"

    Meanwhile, 20 mechs or so from the ck Coves were heading towards the Cob. Their fate was a sad story.

    The broken ship did not seem to be reacting anytime soon. Did we really break it just now?

    That was what they assumed being the witnesses of this warship getting bombarded by their mates countless times. They had faith in their own weaponry.

    The folks on the Cob could not even rest their breaths, as seeing the dark enemies approaching on the projection while having no mech to protect them! The Cob was merely a spaceship to be wrecked!

    "All hail the ck Coves!"

    "We shall take over the ship! And teach them who rules the gxies!"

    As they felt victory approaching, something ured. Their expressions changed.

    Tick! Tick tick tick tick tick!

    The Cob suddenly rolled out a hefty amount ofser firing units. The number was innumerable, as if the warship was the factory of the firing units itself. The ck Covers zoned out for a second, probably they never expected a warship to have firing units this many installed, considering the amount of batteries would be needed to run the show.

    Zzzt!

    Before they realized, they were already surrounded by aser web. Theser web? That was something new to the trained pilots, then the supplementary bombs came showering upon them.

    The extreme firepower of the Cob was a shocker to Fid and udia when they were restoring the order of their fleet.

    Folks would never understand the power of electromaic cannons, to them it would be just a stream of blue light, that would be it. But unlike the electromaic firing, theser beaming off like a spectrum shower turned out to be more stunning to them.

    The crowding fleet held their engines for a considerable amount of time. The crew members were dumbfounded.

    The ck Covers? No one liked being a fish in the and they were experiencing it. They had been rather disdained towards these normalser beams, as the beams would feel like a pump of water on their armor. Laser beams this dense however, were an eye-opener to them, a soul-taker.

    Laser firing units like this could fire about 20 beams ofser per second. And the units on the Cob, contrary to the tradition, were making the pilots losing their mind as they tried counting the number.

    It was a depressing discovery by the ck Covers that these beams were not blind-shot after all, they were more urate than their own snipers. No matter how sturdy their armors were, when hundreds of beams aiming one single mech, it would only lead to an explosion, nothing else. The addition bombs scattered in the space also had also weakened their mechs before they realized.

    The glow of 20 mechs exploding had illuminated the space again. Theser web vanished the very second when people were blinking their eyes in nk dismay, as if the Cob withdrew its fangs like the beast returning to its tamed self after a feast.

    The contrast was beyond theirprehension.

    ¡­

    Ah!

    Thorn seemed to have noticed something but ¡­ but he was not in the mood to take a look around. His screen, his eyes were all on that skeleton mech before him. Sweats were stuck at his fringe, as his ruffled hair went standing like the bushes on a globe. His body was soaked wet. The stress over the time¡­ it was pushing him to the limits. His hands felt fatigued since it was consuming to maintain such amount of APM even for a strong man like him.

    But he would not¡­ he would never have a break. The dark twin daggers from the foe were like twinning serpents, aiming their prey and frantically they attacked. He knew if he were to hold back a little, within that brief second, the twin daggers would get beyond his defense. Not only the daggers, the shield was also a danger to look out for. The shield was simr to those mechs of the ck Coves, having sharp edges.

    Pant¡­ Pant¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s breathing became heavier, although he maintained the greatest hand speed he could imagine. The movements he carried out were highlyplicated, the controls were not simple and were obviously more than a tap and slide. It was the first time Ye Chong maintained the maximum speed for such a long time.

    Han Jia held the iing punches with its daggers. The thorns of the dim yellow fist were a wonder, a mystery of they material, for they were unhurt by the edges of the dagger despite all the shes and ms.

    Right when Thorn¡¯s punches were held, he made a thrashing knock with the elbow, the thorns were glowing cold. Ye Chong in his Han Jia believed that his armor could not take the sharp thorn so he backed off like a breeze, trying to dodge.

    The few thorns over the elbow were then disengaged and began propelling towards Han Jia. Hah! Thorn was confident that with this twist carried out at such a distance, the foe could never see thising! These thorns would deal great amount of damage, they would at least inflict something on the foe¡¯s mech even if they could not prate the armor.

    To experts like the ck Covers warring pilots, one simple plot twist was more than enough to turn the tide.

    Klink! Thup thup thup thup!

    Han Jia blocked the thorns with its shield. Ye Chong had seen thising ever since the time when he saw Thorn ruptured the Beauty¡¯s Secretion with its spikes moments ago. The spikes were absolutely something to watch out for, since it was able to shatter Beauty¡¯s Secretion enveloped in skeleton shells.

    Ye Chong then felt the dy in movements of the foe, even though he had no idea why, he changed his battle approach anyway, as Han Jia started weaving in different directions frequently, which were disrupting Thorn¡¯s senses. Han Jia¡¯s speed was superior from the beginning so it was a torturing act for Ye Chong to abuse it against Thorn.

    Thorn could feel his hands getting spasm soon. His fingers danced madly on the control panel. Man I never knew this skeleton prick could be this sustainable in battle.

    Absolutely, no one would know Ye Chong¡¯s inhuman vitality till one tasted it, while his APM was the result of Mu¡¯s continuous training. The marble trainings were once a hell for Ye Chong. Getting spasms was something usual for Ye Chong who underwent the intensive training courses daily. No man would be aware of the torment Ye Chong had undergone in order to get specs like these.

    Frankly speaking, from the aspect of techniques, Ye Chong was clearly inferiorpared to the experienced foe. Vitality-wise for long-term battle would be a different story. Ye Chong was only exhaling louder than usual, which mostly was due to the brewing excitement inside him.

    Ye Chong had long understood the importance of high APM in mech piloting, although not all inputs were effective execution. To a mech processor, its effective input-execution would be limited to a certain amount of figure, which once your APM had overtaken the figure, it would be a mere waste of stamina as you elerate further while most of your inputs would be neglected.

    And to avoid that, Ye Chong had been trying to minimize the amount of inputs to execute a specific action. And his attempt had been proven to be effective in the battle today. If he were to face Thorn in the past, he would be inputting much moremands and probably be drained dead in the end.

    The following attacks of Thorn remained its ferocity, although the execution was not as seamless as before. Ye Chong could tell the lethargy within, but the intenseness of the battle had grown beyond their imagination.

    Thorn, as his fingers moved on, had never seen a man being able tost this long in a closebat before. It was then he noticed his weakness being his vitality. Under normal circumstance most yers would be knocked out with those sinister tricks of his. But he met the wrong opponent today, as the foe seemed to be well-aware of all kinds of dirty tricks as well.

    A sudden urge rose in him to back off and forfeit the battle, as he knew that he would surely lose if he persisted. The skeleton pilot had known most of his moves after exchanging for so long and did not seem to be giving up anytime soon.

    Like seriously if there was one moment his hand twitched, he would be stabbed right to his fatality with those daggers.

    "Ye, retreat. The remaining 5 warships are heading towards us." Shang¡¯s voice sounded a little agitated.

    Ye Chong had a shock. He looked at Thorn who jumped away, taking a turn and was running away.

    Tink! A fine blue lining zapped through Thorn¡¯s body.

    Ye Chong could see the blue beam prating the armor of Thorn and zapping further into the endless space.

    "You are weed."

    The voice rang proud in his head as Ye Chong turned back and saw Shang waving his weapon of vanity behind the ajar gate.

    "Why can¡¯t he be the expert in style¡­" muttered Ye Chong, who zoomed towards the Cob without style¡­

    Well. You would do the same.

    If 5 warships were behind you.

 Chapter 230 - Pilot of Darklight

    <h4>Chapter 230: Pilot of Darklight</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A mech flew out of the dark warship. Very swiftly it arrived by Thorn¡¯s side and seized the lifelessmander floating in space; like a bird returning to its nest, a wless swing drew towards the opened gate.

    "My lord, I have returned," a gentle voice rang in the captain¡¯s room.

    "Mhm, discovery?" an emotionless voice stated.

    "Thorn has officially deceased, caused by a recursion ray right through his heart. An immediate death. Other than the two pores about the size of fingers, numerous shes were found over his body. He should have been involved in an intensive fight before, where his foe could be also a fighter. The spection, my lord, is that Thorn probably had a struggling fight with an ace fighter and was then sniped by one with a superior marksmanship, thus the instant death," the gentle voice reported serenely, although the lips were shaking when "recursion ray" was mentioned.

    "Recursion? Are you sure it¡¯s the recursion?" The warshipmander¡¯s emotionless voice was slightly quivering as he spoke.

    "Yes sir," the voice remained calm.

    "Looks like our nemesis could not hold up any longer, though I wonder when did the MPA have their own ace fighters? I do feel much stranger when I realized the warship we faced was clearly not belonged to the MPA," he scratched his chin and pondered.

    "My lord, requesting a follow-up on this," the gentle voice sounded serene as ever, while themander could see the will of battle zing in his eyes.

    "Alright then. Better if you do. It¡¯s been 50 years since we met the Pilot of Darklight as well as the Hunter in White. I am very much looking forward to this war. Mhm, bring Little Rock along. I will also hand you a quick transportation. Just go. Also, check out their motives for me," the emotionless voice actually sounded concerned about his underlings.

    "Thank you my lord," the voice was filled with gratitude.

    He boarded the powership, which was a boat of small diagonal, able to amodate just two passengers. If one would rte the size of a warship to arge fish, the powership could very much be that thin bone within. Although the powership was rather petitepared to its counterparts in the armory of the ck Coves, its capabilities were not something to be shunned. It was mainly for infiltration and hunting purposes for its speed was superior while being capable of performing all kinds of turns easily. It was also installed with a massive amount of batteries to ensure sustainability in long travels. Technology-wise the ck Coves might begging behindpared to the R&D of MPA, but that was it. ck Coves were not ipetent at any other aspects. This tiny boat could also perform a space-jump and everyone in the ck Coves believed it to be probably the smallest spaceship that could warp through spaces in the entire gxy.

    The powership hovered out of the gate of its mothership, it then zoomed towards the Cob.

    One of the underlings in the captain¡¯s room was hurrying the way out.

    "Remain on our course," themander¡¯s voice suddenly echoed.

    "What about those privateers?" the underling was looking confused.

    "Let them be. We have wasted enough time on them. Now we got to catch up, it¡¯s all about speed," said themander as he rose from his seat and turned away after giving onest nce at the speeding powership on the screen. He left the room.

    "Little Rock, it¡¯s your time," smiled Luo Wei, who had a charming smile of ate twenties that made him approaching, especially with that handsome face of his, a charmer he was. And no matter what had happened before him, he seemed to be always able to keep that serenity in his tone, which convinced the people his reliability.

    "Sir Luo Wei¡­ I¡­ heh¡­" Little Rock¡¯s face reddened. Compared to the handsome master leading the powership, the rocky boy was just an average boy. Nothing particrly attractive was found on his face. He was short and looked so puny that people wondered if he had ever eaten. But the ck Covers, despite being hefty and potent, were not looking down on this feeble boy. He was in fact, a genius, an absolute genius after all.

    "Sir Luo Wei¡­ is that¡­" halted Little Rock. "Is that White Hunter really great?"

    "Hmmm¡­" Luo Wei¡¯s voice ran deep, "It was also my first time seeing a White Hunter. They are eye-catching with their Recursion. Right, it¡¯s a type of energy-based firearm thatunches recursion rays. They are also master of ranged and extreme-ranged attacks. Rather terrorizing if you ask me. Based on the information from our heads, the grading system of MPA is the same stern as the ck Coves, while the Pilot of Darklight just so happened to be at the same level as the White Hunter. But it¡¯s rare to have a White Hunter in MPA. Most of them were Divine in the tree. So it¡¯s really weird to see a White Hunter here."

    "Meh," Little Rock gave a disdained look. "That Widdy Hunter is nothing in front of Luo Wei the great. Don¡¯t they know how great our Pilots of Darklight are? Do they think their Widdy Hunter could win us?"

    Luo Wei responded that statement with a smile. He said nothing, although his mind wandered away for a sec, for he knew that it would not be possible for these people to understand the depth of the ck Coves, not even himself, probably, what he knew was a mere tip of the iceberg.

    Zztt!

    Shang screamed, "Wait what, those warships are leaving?"

    "Leaving?" Ye Chong was also shocked by the report. Leaving the nemesis was not something the ck Covers would do.

    "Wait no!" The mechanical voice shrieked, "There¡¯s one powershiping! Man we almost got cheated. Ha! Ha! Ha! Thanks to my wisdom and amazing sight! Tsk, tsk tsk, how could they¡­" And Shang got vain of himself again.

    Ye Chong had no word for the artificial indulgence, like for real.

    On the hologram screen he saw, that particr miniature spaceship rushing its way to them. The speed astonished Ye Chong a little.

    "This fast? This could alreadypete with a mech!"

    "Ye, this is known as a ¡®powership¡¯. It¡¯s empowered of course it¡¯s fast. Holy Mama, Ye, we are in hot water¡­" Shang sounded as if his tail was snapped.

    "What¡¯s wrong, Shang?" asked Ye Chong peculiarly.

    "Ye, the pilot of this ship has to be an ace. The ship is prominently used to infiltrate enemies¡¯ bases or to perform counter strike. They would utilize the maximum force of their mech to annihte their foes. Whoever running on his mission has to the ace of the aces, not even Thorn could be close. Ye, we had overdone it. Something big ising!"

    "A stronger foe than Thorn¡­?" Ye Chong¡¯s face drained. Fighting with Thorn was already energy consuming for him. He could never imagine killing Thorn by himself. Defeating foes was a fundamentally different concept to killing them. Anyone with experience in battles would know that.

    And there he came, someone stronger than Thorn.

    ¡­ Are we done? No way I would win¡­ I wouldn''t even survive¡­ But what about Mu Shang¡­

    "Ha!" In the midst of Ye Chong¡¯s misery, Shang was giggling, "Ha! Ha! Jajajajajajajaja! Ye, did you get frightened? Man Ye you could be a scaredy cat sometimes! Kekekekekeke! I was just messing with you! Tsk, tsk, tsk. Ye, you were that cool and indifferent usually, never knew I would have the chance to see the true you inside. Don¡¯t judge a Ye by his face¡­" Thest syble trailed off, it was weird.

    "Ugh." The veins bloated on his forehead, there were greens and some cks. He looked around, his hands swinging, nothing throwable was found. "Ugh!" And he gave up.

    Shang - probably sensed Ye Chong¡¯sing eruption - stated cheerfully, "Jejeje, Ye my boy, don¡¯t panic, I have already calcted our warping point. Hah! They wouldn''t get us. Don¡¯t even think about it!"

    Beep. A fancy tap on the button.

    Almost immediately after Shang¡¯s words, Ye Chong could feel the eleration by the Cob. They had to give up¡­ They no longer had the stamina to follow the privateers. Where would Grandpa Qian be? What about the others? Ye Chong was rational as he gave up searching for them under such chaos.

    All he could do was to pray them having a good luck, a very good luck.

    Beep. Beep. Tick. Little Rock¡¯s face was grave as his eyes fixed upon the floating screen of the processor where the data was streaming in ticking beeps.

    "Master Luo Wei, I have calcted their warping point. For the exact coordination, I have already submitted it through the processor," he sounded a little tired. Shang would probably be jumping up high with his bolts raining the ground if Shang ever discovered the fact that their coordination had already been estimated with mere calction even a second before their space-warp procedure. The world was vast and limitless, where always a new genius would appear. In whichever field one would be, there was never an absolution where one remained on the top. The superb calcting ability that Little Rock possessed was the main reason he was called to assist Luo Wei by themander.

    The Cob did not realize it at all. No one would believe this tale where a person was able to calcte the exact coordination of the destination the space-jumper was heading, merely by a grip on the final data before the jumper warped out of the dimension. Not even Shang could do it, Mu was not confident to assert that too.

    The Cob was all torn on the outside, at least the main frames were not destroyed so it was not a problem to warp between spaces.

    The Cob¡¯s momentum increased over the time and before they realized, they had already zapped out of the warping point. Phew¡­ Ye Chong and Shang could finally have a moment to catch their breath. Be it the god of war or the greatestmander, facing two warships at once would not be an effortless task, especially when one had to face a mighty fighter and fight for one¡¯s own life. It would be a tant lie if one would im to be still kicking and alive after the fight.

    On the fence between death and life, humans were like ragged dolls pulled by the hidden thread from both sides. And once they escaped the dead-or-alive moment, the thread would loosen, the ragged doll would have a restingnd on the fence, as reminded the flooding fatigue over its body.

    "Holy Fal! Ye!" Shang was in bewilderment as he shouted, "That powership had just warped out of the point! How in Fal did they know our warping point¡¯s destination?"

    Ye Chong was dumbfounded as well, although he did not react as dramatically as Shang since he was not aware of how space-to-space connection worked.

    The foe¡¯s craft further elerated while retaining a distance right beyond the proximity of theser firing units. Shang was annoyed by the pesky little ship behind. We will use the electromaic cannons. Wait no, we can¡¯t. This pest was too small to make the firing count, especially when it had demonstrated quite a level of piloting skill. And it remains at one point where thesers could not reach. I¡¯ll use Recursion then. The only thing I could have used. Still¡­ Recursion might be great, it is not possible for it to prate their ship. Recursion cannon? Distance and uracy-wise¡­ No. And Shang gave up these ideas which seemed too far-fetched to seed.

    The powership did not seem intended of anything just yet, as it sluggishly tagged the Cob along. The Cob could not do another space-warp as the foe - being so close to them - could have easily disrupted their warping sequence by a simple firing or whatsoever right at that second when they elerated.

    Ye Chong and Shang looked at each other, their temper extinguished and shrugged.

    "Shang, how about¡­" frowned Ye Chong, "I¡¯ll go and lure them and you snipe them with Recursion."

    "Wait, let¡¯s try the Beauty¡¯s Secretion first." Sneered Shang.

    10 Beauty¡¯s Secretions fresh off the pipe, heading towards the powership behind.

    Ye Chong and Shang glued their eyes on the screen, fearing to miss that very moment of their life. The Beauty¡¯s Secretions overcame the void in silence and were hitting the ship soon. "Got yo-" And the foeunched oneser firing unit and shot down all 10 Beauty¡¯s Secretions which then vanished as a cloud of purplish mist.

    "Ye, calm down, stay here," Shang regained his calmness. "Rest yourself. You have been fighting for so long. Your stamina is fully depleted. Fight only after you have recovered. Hmph, I might be iplete and crippled but that doesn¡¯t mean some pesky bits could unt their dirty tricks in front of me!" Shang subconsciously disyed his tyranny, which was odd to Ye Chong¡¯s eyes as he wondered¡­ What exactly was Shang in the past? How did he behave? Was it like this?

    "Keke, well the pests aren¡¯t approaching anytime soon, anyway. Kekekeke¡­" The tone and the expression of Shang were giving Ye Chong goosebumps, which shattered his spection. Maybe I was thinking too much¡­ Yeah, Shang actually got serious and stern? It must be an illusion. Feeling defeated, Ye Chong picked a resting spot and fell asleep quickly.

    It would be impossible for one to actually infiltrate the Cob without being noticed by the artificial pairs, like seriously, how would that be possible? Ye Chong might not be that confident to dere Mu Shang¡¯s detection system to be the most advanced in the world, but their system had got to be one of the most advanced. That would be convincingly undeniable.

    It was afortable nap Ye Chong took, as he felt quite replenished when he woke up. He took some food and hydrated himself a little, "How¡¯s it going?"

    "The same." Shang sounded bored, "That pest was just following us. Nothing much."

    "What about our current location?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Cyana¡­" Shang said as he yawned.

    "Cyana? Isn¡¯t that the territory dered by the Sanctuary?"

    "If the news reporter was not lying, yeah."

    Ye Chong did a stretch and swung his limbs, then performed a brief set of Lan¡¯s martial arts techniques to warm up. And he felt his body activated on all sides, going strong.

    He then deployed Han Jia from the alternate dimension and resupplied the batteries on it.

    "Well, Shang, I¡¯ll be heading out to have a look. Youing?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Nah, I¡¯m good. I just do my sniping here. It¡¯s a shame that your materials are only able to craft a Recursion, if I have "that thing", I would have¡­ Hmph! Recursion is just a toy, which works on in shooting at mech. It would not work well on anything else. Sigh, Recursion cannon could have done the trick, but the uracy is way too low," Shang packaged his disdain towards Recursion fancily.

    "Aren¡¯t mechs for mechs? Are we going to use a mech to fight a warship?" it sounded ridiculous to Ye Chong.

    "Who said a mech is incapable of fighting a warship? Kek! You¡¯ll know one day, of how mech and warship are inversely conditional, how one would break the condition formed by the others. Ye, be careful. Always the fiercest stays in the powership. Anything they do, you make a quick back off, and I¡¯ll snipe him," concerned Shang.

    "Okay," Ye Chong took a deep breath and climbed upon Han Jia.

    Ye Chong flew out of the Cob.

    ¡­

    "Skeleton mech! It¡¯s a skeleton mech! No wonder Thorn had a hard time fighting!" Luo Wei seemed astounded.

    Little Rock - filled with disbelief - looked at Han Jia in the projection, "Sir, is this the skeleton mech the legend has mentioned?"

    "Yes, should be it. Little Rock, you¡¯ll take over the steering. I¡¯ll have a nice talk with him," something was shining in his gentle eyes.

    "Alright," nodded Little Rock, piloting a powership was not difficult for a little genius like him.

    After being in a cold war for the past 2 days, finally something had happened to break the ice, as the mech flew out of the gate.

    Ye Chong, again, had never seen such model from the ck Covers before. It was a model about 10 meter tall, likewise to other models it had a great body proportion while giving off a dark metallic glow. The slender main body gave off a vibe of elegance which reminded Ye Chong of the MPA, except well, the MPA¡¯s mech was white while the one he was seeing glowed in ck. The mech was missing the usual thorns adorned on the other ck Covers¡¯ units, hence the texture looked rather clean and smooth. A gorgeous seamless curve could be seen over its slender legs, with a hemispheric armor piece at the knees which reinforced its imagery, reminding the foes that it was not as weak as it appeared.

    The weapon installed was a pair of moon de. A long narrow de with outrageous curl, with the handleid at the center. The de body was dark, tainted. No glow could be see, although the edge of the de was shining bright. It felt like as if a gentleman in dark tuxedo hade with a pair of silver moons, standing in the midst of darkness of the space.

    Ye Chong could not help but topliment the craftsmanship, as being experienced as a critic, his eyesy upon every joints of the mech. It was not the weapon which amazed him. The little details could always depict the craftsmanship of the mech. And Ye Chong felt there was nothing he could nitpick on the mech hovering before him. The ck Coves was as dark as he knew, dark and bottomless, bottomless and unknown, where one could never know if a more fearsome beast would appear at some point, as these powerful pilots could be a master in certain field.

    Ye Chong¡¯s cold gaze then fell upon that strange scythe. His heart quivered. He was not fearing the unknown, rather he feared knowing that among the ck Covers, the use of a unique weapon always would be paired with a unique set of skills.

    Okay¡­ well¡­

    "Darklight!" He heard Shang screaming, "The Pilot of Darklight!"

 Chapter 231 - Super Training Partner

    <h4>Chapter 231: Super Training Partner</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    What mech pilot?

    Ye Chong was startled. Just then, a silver light appeared before him, shining almost painfully bright. A strong sense of danger enveloped him. Almost reflexively, Ye Chong¡¯s hands began to dance quickly on the controls. At the same time, Han Jia stepped back and raised the dagger in its hands against that silver light.

    Ding! Han Jia¡¯s daggers felt like it had hit a starship, and Ye Chong could not help but be flung backwards.

    Ye Chong groaned. For every mech pilot, it was dangerous to lose control of his or her mech, no matter how fast they could recover. Ye Chong¡¯s hands were flying across the controls. For the first time ever, Ye Chong felt that his hands were not fast enough.

    Han Jia went eagle-spread, its engines firing intermittently as it came to a mind-bending stop. Then, it suddenly changed directions. This was a very difficult series of movements, executed when the mech was almost out of the pilot¡¯s control. Ye Chong¡¯s excellent mech piloting skills and adaptability had saved his life.

    A silver crescent shone in midair, so very close to Han Jia. Ye Chong could see it clearly in all its beauty and fatality.

    Ye Chong¡¯s mind was not nk, without fear or surprise. He thought nothing, for there was no time to think of anything. His movements were all done out of instinct from his years of battle experience.

    Ye Chong was also at his limit in executing that move earlier. However, the other party was not going to let him go. The silver crescent rushed to him like an incandescent wave. Ye Chong could feel the overwhelming attacking like a sea of mercury, indefensible.

    Was he really going to die here?

    Ye Chong¡¯s survival instinct could not ept that. Time suddenly stopped out of the blue. Ye Chong watched as the silver wave slowly approached him, like a movie put on slow motion. His brain turned so quickly like never before, and his hands moved crazily fast, with his calm eyes now burning with excitement.

    Han Jia made an adder-style turn, but the silver wave followed it closely behind.

    Thomas¡¯s spin, T-shaped turn ¡­ Han Jia moved like a performer of a grand show, trying out all sorts of battle techniques. Nheless, the other party¡¯s mech piloting skills were just as impressive, and it never once fell for Han Jia¡¯s maneuvers. Han Jia¡¯s movements were already at its limit, but the other party seemed to be capable of keeping with it.

    Ye Chong saw that the other party still pursued him closely from behind, and he came to a decision. Han Jia stopped moving forward and began to fly backwards. Like apressed spring being released, its body bent at the sudden change in momentum almost uncontrobly as the mechunched itself backwards at an even faster speed.

    Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong grew pale. Han Jia¡¯s action was putting a heavy physical burden on him.

    Ye Chong¡¯s movement surprised the other party, and Ye Chong could see that the silver wave grew hesitant. Ye Chong¡¯s glowed as his hands executed a series of movements that he had done so many times before.

    Han Jia wielded the dagger in its right hand and swiped towards the other party in the midst of the silver wave¡¯s hesitation.

    Ding! The solid hit from his dagger encouraged Ye Chong greatly. He was also to see the other party¡¯s movements clearly for the first time! Without room for doubt, Han Jia¡¯s other dagger struck again at an angle against the other crescent de of the opponent.

    Ye Chong¡¯s desperate attack was powerful, so much so that it surprised Luo Wei. He almost lost control of his Darklight. This startled him, and sparked his interest for the pilot in this full-skeleton mech for the first time.

    Nheless, with his longbat experience, he did not forcefully hold his ground, but flew backwards with the momentum.

    Seeing his opponent moving away, Ye Chong controlled Han Jia to throw out two auto lock-on shurikens and immediately left for Cob. Han Jia was elerated to its maximum speed, as Ye Chong demonstrated a perfect example of cut-and-run.

    Luo Wei was a little stunned to see his opponent escaping, but the two shurikens were alreadying towards him. Luo Wei did not panic. As the two shurikens crossed over each other, Darklight¡¯s crescent de drew upwards to trace a silver arc in the air, slicing the two shurikens into clean halves in one go.

    Luo Wei watched as the full-skeleton mech took the opportunity to widen the distance between them. He smiled faintly and flew contentedly back to his powership.

    Little Rock looked at Luo Wei with admiring eyes and spoke excitedly, "Master Luo Wei, you¡¯re so strong! That fellow couldn¡¯t even fight back ¡­"

    Luo Wei smiled warmly but did not reply. While the pilot in the full-skeleton mech was not particrly skillful, his deftness and adaptability were unexpected.

    Han Jia returned to Cob bewildered. Ye Chong came out of the pilot cabin looking very pale and uneasy. He sat heavily on the floor and heaved a long sigh of relief. It was only then that he realized his back was wet from sweating, and the horrifying chill that came with it.

    Ye Chong had escaped from death in the truest sense. He still could not calm himself down. Even though he had struggled to survive many times in the past, he had nevere close to what had happened today, nearly defenseless against the situation.

    "Ye Chong, you did well!" Shang¡¯s words sounded like sarcasm, and Ye Chong could not help but roll his eyes.

    However, Shang continued evenly, "Ye, you really did well this time. I didn¡¯t know he was actually a Darklight mech pilot, or I would have stopped you from going. From your battle against Thorn yesterday, I believed that you are on the same level as Thorn now. There is a huge gap between Thorn and Darklight mech pilots. Darklight mech pilots could almost certainly kill their enemies, and you had managed to escape from one, and that really surprised me, especially thosest few moves. Hehe, however, I¡¯ve alsoe up with a wonderful idea!" Shang¡¯s final words brought another chill to Ye Chong.

    Even so, Ye Chong knew that he was safe just now. When he was flying back towards Cob, Shang had been at the opened hatch, holding onto Recursion and aiming towards him. If he was really in trouble, Shang would make his move.

    "Darklight mech pilots, in actual fact, Ye, are not very strong in ck Cove. There are many more strongerbatants above them. The MPA and the Sanctuary do notck capable mech pilots, but I¡¯m not so sure about the Freedom Alliance." Shang suddenly paused for a moment before continuing, "Besides, Ye, these mech pilots are not good enough to be in the top rankings. That is another level, fit for the best of mech pilots." Shang spoke almost mncholically.

    Ye Chong listened closely, entranced by Shang¡¯s every word.

    "Ye, you still have a long way to go, if you want to truly be the master of your destiny." Shang spoke those words with the demeanor of the wise, a strange sensation for Ye Chong. "Ye, you chose close rangebat, and this is quite the opposite from me and Mu. Mu and I are good at shooting, that¡¯s why we didn¡¯t extend much guidance for you while you train. Fortunately, you learn quickly, and can reach your current level by learning and thinking on your own, and gaining experience in actualbat. I must say, Ye, you¡¯re a genius in this! Now, since you have chosen to specialize in close rangebat, then you must only rely on yourself to improve further." Shang spoke seriously.

    "Mu¡¯s summaries are always so dull," Shang said with some disdain, and Ye Chong could not help being a little frustrated with him.

    "Hehe, Ye, I¡¯vee up with a wonderful idea." Shang sounded almost wicked, and Ye Chong felt a sense of foreboding.

    "Ye, since we don¡¯t have a systematic way of learning, we could only rely on umting experience through actualbat, and slowly analyzing them, yes?" Shang lectured patiently.

    Ye Chong nodded. Shang was right. Most of what he learned was from actualbat, and real battles were actually very helpful to improve one¡¯s strength.

    "Hehe, Ye,pared to average opponents, isn¡¯t it more helpful if your opponent is strong?" Shang continued.

    Ye Chong nodded. Shang was right in this too. Fighting against a strong opponent would not only allow him to realize where he wascking, but also provide a model for him to learn from. Most of Ye Chong¡¯s techniques were "borrowed" in this way.

    Shang grew excited. "Heh, that¡¯s right! Ye, think about it, isn¡¯t that a strong opponent on that powership?"

    Ye Chong started.

    "Ye, look, what a good training partner. The man¡¯s a Darklight mech pilot, definitely a superior training partner! Besides, we don¡¯t have to spend a single zuan, and he¡¯s brought his own energy cells. Hehe, Ye, where in the universe can you find such a good deal?! We have to make use of this opportunity, it¡¯d be a such a pity to waste it. Hehe, isn¡¯t his intention to follow us? Then let¡¯s make the most of him!" Shang was now talking like an unscrupulous trader.

    Ye Chong was hooked by Shang¡¯s idea. If he really had such a training partner, then he would be able to learn so much more. In any case, he would definitely be able to improve himself. After that close call earlier, Ye Chong wanted more than ever to make himself stronger. The vulnerable feeling of losing control of his destiny when facing Luo Wei was horrible.

    Ye Chong pondered on the idea. "Shang, your idea has a little problem. That guy can be a good assassin, but as a training partner, he won¡¯t be so obedient." While he really wanted to fight against such a strong opponent, he recalled how powerful that man had been, and how close he was to death. Ye Chong may want to improve himself, but he was not so stubborn as to disregard his own safety. He cannot imagine how the other party would agree to be a training partner.

    Shangughed and said, "Ye, don¡¯t worry, whenever you go to fight him, I¡¯ll be at the hatch. If you¡¯re in danger I¡¯ll shoot the guy, force him back, then he¡¯ll not be able to harm you. Hehe, I¡¯ll threaten him but keep him unharmed. After all, he¡¯s your training partner!"

    Ye Chong recalled then that Shang was also capable himself, even if he never seemed to act like one.

    "Sounds like a good n." Ye Chong pondered longer, and thought of something else. "What if he refuses toe out?"

    Shang replied with a sinister tone, "If he won¡¯te out at all, then you¡¯ll go to his powership. If he chases us, we¡¯ll speed up with warp jumps, hehe. Even if he can calcte where we would emerge, I can still make two continuous short distance warp jumps, then they¡¯ll not be able to find us, plus we¡¯ll lose our tail. However, if someone on that powership can calcte our first position, then he must have thought of this as well. If your training partner still refuses toe out, then you can start dismantling his powership, hehe, see if he¡¯ll yield."

    Ye Chong stared at Shang for a long moment before gasping, "Shang, you¡¯re ruthless!" Shang¡¯s idea was really cunning. Ye Chong turned it over and over in his mind, and could not think of a reason to reject it.

    Shangughed sinisterly, "Hehehe ¡­"

    Poor Luo Wei. He had now unwillingly be a superior training partner.

    Ye Chong worked hard studying Shang¡¯s holographic recording. He analysed the opponent¡¯s every move, even replicating Luo Wei¡¯s two crescent des in the metalboratory. He repeated Luo Wei¡¯s moves again and again, hoping to find a way to counter them.

    What struck Ye Chong the most was Luo Wei¡¯s first attack. The silver glimmer that he saw did not look particrly threatening, but the power that came with it was surprising. It was then that Han Jia suddenly lost control, leading to his narrow escape from death. For Ye Chong, holographic recordings ofbat between powerful opponents were very valuable for study. He was at least vaguely familiar with ck Cove¡¯s close range battle style from his short time at ck Cove, so battle recordings of ck Cove mech pilots were particrly valuable to him.

    The MPA excelled in long rangebat, hence they were not so useful to Ye Chong. The Sanctuary¡¯s strange ways were even harder to understand, it being the most mysterious of the Three Forces. As for the Freedom Alliance, until now, Ye Chong had never seen any of them in actualbat, so he could make no reasonable conclusions about them.

    Nheless, they must have their own merits, or the Three Forces would not even deign to notice them. It seemed that until now, the Three Forces were careful against this new arrival, the Freedom Alliance. It was thus apparent that they were a force to be reckoned with.

    Ye Chong frowned in thought as he watched the holographic recording. He had only fought briefly against the Darklight mech pilot, but this short recording had taken him much effort and time to absorb and understand. In the end, however, he finally found the key.

    He did not know what ck Cove called this move, so Ye Chong called it the Z-shaped draw-strike. This move traced the outline of a reverse Z, and could triple the attack powerpared to a normal strike. No wonder he lost control. When Ye Chong could finally execute the move himself, he was already deeply impressed of its creator. He would never have imagined such a clever way of drawing energy into the muscles before striking.

    He even tried executing the move with his bare hands. With his muscles and the Lan family¡¯s energy control techniques, Ye Chong¡¯s punch was packed with deadly power.

    Even so, there were still many things in the short holographic recording that he could not understand. However, he can take it slowly. After all, didn¡¯t he have a superior training partner now? The thought of Shang¡¯s weird expression could not help but make him smile.

    Han Jia and Shang stood side by side at the hatch¡¯s opening. Shang waved with Recursion in his hand, and affected a valiant tone, "Ye, go, you have nothing to worry!"

    Ye Chong was now regting his breathing. He must forget that Shang was protecting him, so that he could enter the rightbat mode quickly.

    Calm with a little excitement - that was what Ye Chong thought of as the perfect mental state to be in forbat. As he regted his thoughts, he could feel something warm flowing within him, the mental state born of a mixture of calmness and excitement.

    Han Jia¡¯s flew swiftly towards the powership that stuck like a barnacle to Cob at the back.

    As Shang expected, the Darklight mech came to wee Han Jia.

    Ye Chong charged without fear. He chose to be proactive this time. Luo Wei was surprised, but his eyes were calm as he countered steadily.

    Ye Chong¡¯s first attack was with the Z-shaped draw-strike.

    Luo Wei was even more surprised now, but he did not receive the blow head on. Instead, he twisted oddly like a ck snake and shook off Ye Chong¡¯s Z-shaped draw-strike attack. Then, he drew his two crescent des and aimed for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was confounded. The difference in their strengths was too great, and he was quickly out of his depth.

    Luo Wei¡¯s eyes gleamed. He must not let go of this guy this time. He could almost be certain now that this full-skeleton mech was the one that fought against Thorn.

    Just when he was about to deliver the fatal blow, Luo Wei suddenly had a strong feeling of being locked on. ck Cove and the MPA shared a deep hostility between them, and among the Three Forces, the battles between ck Cove and the MPA were the most frequent. This made ck Cove mech pilots more sensitive than usual to the feeling of being locked on. He abruptly recalled that the starship still had a White Hunter. Luo Wei felt cold sweat beginning to form on his forehead. He abandoned his n and turned back, executing all sorts of evasive moves.

    This was the best he could manage, and perhaps his best was not enough.

    Curiously, however, the blue beam that he was wary of never appeared. As he flew back into his powership, he saw an opened hatch on the opponent¡¯s starship, where a semi-concealed blue-white mech was holding Recursion, looking coldly at him.

 Chapter 232 - Transformation

    <h4>Chapter 232: Transformation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Luo Wei was vexed. He realized that something was wrong. That full-skeleton mech hade almost every day for a fight, and every time he was about to strike a killer blow, that strong deep of danger would arise within him. Once, a recursion beam had left a bruise on his mech¡¯s cheek. He understood well that the recursion beam was a warning.

    That semi-concealed mech on this strange warship was using Recursion, but Luo Wei was certain that it was not a White Hunter. White Hunters never made him feel so threatened before, and hisbat instincts had never failed him.

    It had been a few days, and he never noticed any other mech besides these two. Could they be the only passengers of this ship?

    Luo Wei was confounded. The warship was strange, no matter how he looked at it.

    To think that an electromaic cannon made of ck gold alloy was found on this starship. He could not figure out how they whipped up such a powerful weapon. The close range full-skeleton mech and the always semi-concealed powerful mech armed with Recursion was not a duo that could be found in the MPA.

    He also had reason to believe that this odd duo was not from any of the Three Forces. As far as he knew, ck gold would never be lost to outsiders. Different ck gold alloy could have different proportions of ck gold and hence, different quality. Their properties would not be alike. The EM cannon used by the other party, however, had a high proportion of ck gold, implying that they had the material in significant quantities.

    ck Coves true nature was not as outsiders would imagine. ck Cove mech pilots were usually solitary, and spent most of their time training. Competition was strong within the organization, an important factor that led to powerful ck Cove mech pilots. Unless it was an order from the higher-ups, the pilots preferred not to concern themselves with other matters. This was why Luo Wei did not know the reason ck Cove was pursuing Ye Chong.

    However, the odd warship before him was also very intriguing. If this was not the Cyana Gxy, the Sanctuary¡¯s territory, he would have called for backup. Now, however, he was stuck in this awkward situation.

    The mech pilot of the full-skeleton mech seemed to be very energetic, more than he could imagine. He came for battle every day like he never needed to rest. At first, Luo Wei handled the battles easily, but the routine became harder and harder. That was when he realized that he was dealing with a genius, a battle genius.

    Ye Chong had no time to think on his situation. In truth, he was spending his days in quite a fulfilling way. Aside from his daily battles, he spent the rest of his time studying the battle recordings. He must find the reason the opponent was better than him, and try to improve himself. Ye Chong had great talent inbat, and in just the span of a few months, he was able to undergo a transformation. Whenever he was busy, Shang would stay out of his way, holding Recursion in hisp while he sat by the hatch, like he was deep in thought.

    Ye Chong was beginning to understand Luo Wei¡¯s battle patterns. To him, it was not the most powerful moves that made a person strong, but solid fundamentals and excellent split decision making during battle.

    Under this high pressure "training", Ye Chong¡¯s talents were fully unleashed. From his initial near-death experience under the opponent¡¯s crescent des to his current form of being able to fend for himself, Ye Chong could hardly believe how he had transformed.

    Ye Chong¡¯s pressure on Luo Wei grew stronger. Luo Wei never expected to see anyone improve so much in such a short time. Luo Wei had always been proud of his own innate talent, but even he had spent five years to rise from Thorn mech pilot to the status of Darklight mech pilot.

    This mech pilot had used only a few months to improve himself from a Thorn mech pilot level to a Darklight mech pilot level. As the person who enabled this, Luo Wei did not feel any sense of aplishment, but only despair and humiliation. This, however, had also made him more eager to win.

    Every person has something they are most proud of, that they would never allow to be trampled upon.

    Luo Wei ignored the mech pilot with Recursion, and fought with his all whenever the full-skeleton mech came for a fight. After the battles, he would return to his ship to study the battle recordings. He could not stand watching how his opponent improved day by day while he stagnated at his current level.

    Luo Wei¡¯s full force attacks were immediately felt by Ye Chong. However, after the initial quick defeats, he soon adjusted and improved even faster.

    This situation continued on for a few more days. Luo Wei was pleased to find that he himself was also improving, at a speed that he would have been impressed with before. However, now that there was this other crazy fellow with him, he could not exactly be happy with his achievements.

    Luo Wei had already forgotten his original mission. After he realized the benefits, Luo Wei put more effort into the battles. An opportunity like this was rare. In an organization like ck Cove, where strength decided one¡¯s status, he understood the value of strength. Besides, the higher-ups did not exactly give up clear orders. He had flexibility in his mission this time, and so he indulged in the joy of battling to improve his skills.

    Ye Chong¡¯s varied and flexiblebat style greatly expanded his mind, and he worked even more earnestly to train with his "partner". The strong mech pilot never appeared again, implying that the blue beam of death never crossed the space between them again. Luo Wei believed that they had no ns of killing him in the immediate future. The other party may choose to end his life at any time, but Luo Wei did not want to miss this golden opportunity to improve himself. To him, the risk was worth it.

    Luo Wei guessed right. Shang was having fun with Little Rock every day. Shang was surprised that the other party couldpute his warp jump locations urately, so he sent a message to him. This earned an unexpected reply from the other party.

    Little Rock was aputation genius, and Shang was simrly capable at some level. The two of them were a good fit together. Little Rock was still young, and obviously the academic type. Once it involved his expertise, he could forget about everything else.

    Thus, a strange situation arose. The enemies began to have a dialogue with each other.

    Ye Chong could not fight against Luo Wei for even longer. Their battles would often take half a day toe to an end. After so many days of battle, they were now very familiar with each other¡¯s moves, and so the battles stretched on longer and longer. However, this served to emphasise Ye Chong¡¯s advantage in stamina. The fact was vexing to Luo Wei. How could a ck Cove mech pilot be physically weaker than another outsider? No ck Cove mech pilot would believe his story. In ck Cove, all mech pilots were physically strong, and Darklight mech pilots were the cream of the crop.

    Luo Wei sometimes suspected that the fellow he was fighting with was actually a mutant.

    The battle between Shang and Little Rock, however, was a game of wit and intelligence. Shang did it out of boredom, while Little Rock was too childish to let go of the fun.

    In the end, both sides came to an unstated agreement of momentary truce, engaging in friendly battles of the physical and the mind.

    Ye Chong enjoyed his life right now. To him, the most exciting thing was that he could clearly feel himself improving, which was what was happening most of the time now. Ye Chong did not imitate Luo Wei¡¯s moves exactly, but introduced changes as he saw fit, making his newly learned moves different from Luo Wei¡¯s. This was especially confounding to Luo Wei for a time. He found it hard to cope with Ye Chong¡¯s multitude of odd moves, even though they looked very familiar to him.

    Ye Chong now understood Mu and Shang¡¯s intentions. If he had not put in so much effort into building a solid foundation inbat, Ye Chong would never be able to improve so much, so fast. Everything he learned before was now the stepping stone of his current transformation.

    Ye Chong could feel his mind opening up to a whole new world of possibilities. He also came to realize how he should continue forward. Without a systematic learning history, he could only continue to train through actualbat and study his battle experiences to improve himself, until the day came that he could introduce his own system ofbat.

    That day was still far in the future, but Ye Chong was hopeful. This was the first time he could see his future so clearly. He believed that, with this clear goal in mind, he could pursue it with all he had and achieve it one day.

    Han Jia continued to make acute angle direction changes like a mesmerizing wave, hoping to confuse the viewer¡¯s sight. Nheless, Luo Wei was immune to them. After so many days of battle, he now knew that the mech was skilled at changing directions. Suddenly, Han Jia twisted and vanished from his sight. This was when visuals failed, since it could not have as wide a range as holographic scanning systems.

    Luo Wei did not panic. The Darklight mech raised the crescent de in its right hand to the back in an elusive swing. Ding! The silver crescent was met with Han Jia¡¯s dagger. Luo Wei used the interruption to incline Darklight to its side, raising the other crescent de and tracing another long and deadly arc in space.

    Han Jia¡¯s shield came up to meet the silver crescent, while its dagger silently went for the other party¡¯s knees. Just when the silver crescent was about to hit Han Jia¡¯s shield, the expected sh did not happen, and the shield missed the de. At the same time, a silver gleam halted Ye Chong¡¯s dagger. Ding! That was a solid sh.

    They both understood that the battle had just begun.

    "Ye,e back now," Shang suddenly spoke urgently to Ye Chong. Ye Chong was startled, but did not get into a fluster. Han Jia¡¯s daggers drew a few arcs in the air, keeping the Darklight mech at a distance. Han Jia suddenly retreated, turning back and fleeing from battle, leaving a stupefied Luo Wei behind. Why was the full-skeleton mech escaping today?

    Soon, he received the same message from Little Rock, asking him to return to the ship.

    "Shang, what is it?" Ye Chong asked. Shang would not have him return without reason.

    "There, see for yourself." Shang pointed at the holographic screen.

    On the holographic screen was a small starship, pursued by dozens of mechs. They were all the Sanctuary¡¯s Dawn mechs. However, the starship was as fast as the Dawn mechs themselves.

    "40 Dawn mechs," Shang announcedzily.

    That made four standardbat squads, since a standard Sanctuarybat squad had 10 members.

    Who could possibly demand the attention of fourbat squads?

    The starship had obviously noticed Cob. After all, Cob was so massive it was impossible to miss it. The starship immediately adjusted it course and headed towards them.

    "Ass," Shang said, "They probably want us to fight against the Dawn mechs while they make their escape." Ye Chong agreed, since he would probably had done the same.

    The 40 mechs seemed to notice the massive starship too, but they adjusted their course towards Cob as well without hesitation.

    The battle force of fourbat squads was not insignificant. That was why the mech pilots acted so boldly.

    As they approached, everyone was struck with a cold chill. Cob may look dpidated, but that was precisely why its electromaic cannons could not be concealed. The dark cannon barrels were a chilling sight.

    No one expected to meet a warship here.

    Shang was decidedly uninterested in the 40 Darn mechs, but more intrigued by their target.

    Shang immediately messaged the starship to enter Cob, under the threat of the powerfully gleaming electromaic cannons directed straight at the ship.

    For a mech like Shang to be so well versed in the art of threatening, Ye Chong sometimes wondered if Shang was actually not just a PSI.

    The starship hesitated, but as Shang released two warning cannon shots, it obediently docked inside Cob. The starship was small, but Shang opened arger hatch for it just forughs.

    The turn of events was unexpected.

    The warship looked weird, being so dpidated, as though it had survived a great war.

    The 40 mechs assessed the situation, aware of the power of the enemy. They noticed the warship, but knew that a warship could only be as powerful as the mechs that supported it. It was not sure that the fact a warship could ovee the agility of mechs. Besides, it was obvious that this warship had been through a lot and took heavy damage.

    To them, the warship was only a show.

    What caught their attention was the tiny powership beside it. As a member of the Three Forces, they knew as much about ck Cove as the MPA. They knew the real purpose of the apparently tiny powership, and the strength of its crew.

    Their first response was to send out a signal to call for backup. They could only beforted by the fact that this was Cyana Gxy, the Sanctuary¡¯s territory. Now, they could only hope that backup arrived sooner thanter.

    It was almost certainly a fact that the passenger inside the powership was not their peer, the Cosmic re. They had no idea who was in the ship, but they knew that they were no match for that person, even with their advantage in numbers.

    The bnce between quality and quantity is a peculiar thing. Sometimes, quantity can make up for theck quality, and sometimes, it cannot.

    Luo Wei was feeling calm. In truth, every Darklight mech pilot would know how to sabotage the enemy, and how to escape when faced with overwhelming enemy numbers. Besides, they were only 40 Dawn mechs. It would not be a problem for him, even before his vast improvement recently. The thought filled him with pride and enthusiasm.

    Luo Wei quickly calmed his mind. This was the Sanctuary¡¯s territory. If he could not quickly vanquish the enemy and escape, then he must be ready to face even stronger mech pilots from the other party. Escape would note so easily then.

    With that thought in mind, Luo Wei made his decision. He slipped into Darklight and exited the powership.

    As Darklight came out of the powership, all 40 mech pilots from the Sanctuary froze.

    Heavens, it was a Darklight mech!

    This intel was also quickly dispatched to headquarters. To their horror, the higher-ups ordered them to dy the Darklight mech pilot for as long as possible, as the higher-ups had already sent out the experts to aid them. Everyone knew how dangerous it was for a powerful enemy like this to wreak havoc in their territory.

    With the orders from the higher-ups, everyone came to a calm eptance of their assured deaths. This made them calmer, especially for the more weathered mech pilots.

    Luo Wei seemed to gauge their intention, his gentle eyes now shining with a cold, deadly re. He could not spare any more attention to that weird warship behind him now.

    WIth two crescent des in hand, Darklight flew towards the mechs like an elegant gentleman.

    Ye Chong and Shang werepletely absorbed in the starship in Cob. For safety reasons, Ye Chong had slipped into Han Jia. Shang and Ye Chong went to the docking area specially made to host small starships, and approached the small starship which silentlynded in there.

    "Come out." Ye Chong¡¯s cold voice came out through Han Jia, resonating in the docking space.

    After some seconds of silence, the starship¡¯s hatch slid open, and a person came out.

 Chapter 233 - Zhu Ling

    <h4>Chapter 233: Zhu Ling</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    She had messy short hair, with her thin and apathetic look, but her eyes were alive. Ye Chong almost feel the sharpness of her stare. Her apathetic look could not mask the strong wariness in her eyes.

    "Huh?" Ye Chong could not help gasp. "Isn¡¯t that, whatshername, Shang, what was she called again?"

    "Zhu Ling, Lunatic Guan¡¯s sister," Shang tsk-tsked. "What a beauty, cough,st time it was Mu outside, hehe, but now that I can take a good look at her with mine own eyes, my my, she¡¯s a beauty. Hmm, a little young, but she¡¯s well developed, I think I see her boobsing on well ¡­" Shang beganmenting.

    Ye Chong ignored Shang¡¯s words automatically. He noticed that Zhu Ling was unarmed, and so he slipped out of Han Jia.

    "You¡¯re Little Ye?" The girl gasped as she saw Ye Chong¡¯s face.

    "You know me?" Ye Chong was surprised. Thest time they met, he was in Guardian, and she should not have seen him before.

    "My sister showed me a holographic image of you," Zhu Ling exined inly, but the light in her eyes dimmed.

    Ye Chong asked, "Where¡¯s your sister?" No one else had exited the starship.

    "Dead," Zhu Ling¡¯s indifferent voice was slightly tinged with sadness. The lonely droplet shaped Red Liquor hung on her neck.

    Lunatic Guan was dead? Ye Chong was reminded of a beautiful and lonely figure, leaning against the door, looking outside in a daze, often with a ss of liquor in hand.

    In the end, she had found her sister. Ye Chong found himself losing interest in the details of her story. He gathered himself and asked Zhu Ling, "What do you n to do now?"

    "My sister told me that if I found you, I should stay by your side. Of course, if you think it¡¯s a bother, I¡¯ll leave," Zhu Ling spoke as though she was talking about something unrted to herself.

    Ye Chong gave it a thought and replied, "Alright, you can stay." Lunatic Guan was his teacher after all, even though she never officially announced it. That was how Ye Chong had always thought of her. This was the main reason he decided to wee Zhu Ling.

    Zhu Ling still looked expressionless, her face devoid of any signs of joy.

    "What are you good at?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Combat," was Zhu Ling¡¯s concise reply.

    "Where¡¯s your mech?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Didn¡¯t you crush it already?" Zhu Ling spoke a little sarcastically. Ye Chong remembered then that he really did crush her mech back then.

    "What kind of mech do you use?" Ye Chong may not have much to offer, but he still owned quite a variety of mech models at the moment.

    "Anything¡¯s fine," Zhu Ling said, "Best if it¡¯s the Sanctuary¡¯s."

    Ye Chong had only a few Dawn mechs and Mu Fei¡¯s Overwing. Ye Chong took out the dimension keystones for the Dawn mech and Overwing, and said, "These are all the Sanctuary¡¯s mechs, pick one."

    "Overwing?" Zhu Ling stared widely with a look of disbelief.

    "You know Overwing?" Ye Chong found out what the mech was called after noticing its name carved on the mech. Ye Chong had killed the mech¡¯s previous owner in an ambush. Ye Chong had studied Overwing for a long time, but there were many things about it that he could not understand. Its structure was markedly different from what Ye Chong knew about regr mechs, with its very own system architecture. The fact that mentalists were different from regr people made Ye Chong realize that using the mech would probably require special techniques.

    "No one in the Sanctuary would not recognize Overwing." Zhu Ling did not intend tough at Ye Chong for his apparent idiocy, but she was still a little confused. "Why would you have Overwing? Mu Fei is well known as the master of Overwing. Did you kill him?" Zhu Ling asked, clearly surprised and suspicious.

    "Yes, I killed him," Ye Chong replied inly.

    "You killed Mu Fei?" Zhu Ling studied Ye Chong¡¯s seemingly vulnerable physique. Ye Chong was not familiar with the Sanctuary, and so did not know how powerful Mu Fei actually was. He had zero understanding of the idea of being a trump card, and what a person bestowed with this title was truly capable of.

    "Ambush," Ye Chong exined tly, not embarrassed in the slightest.

    Zhu Ling seemed toe to a realization. To her, that seemed to be the only way to kill a trump card of the Sanctuary.

    "We should leave here," Zhu Ling said, "That Darklight mech pilot must have alerted the Sanctuary. As far as I know, Feng Su and her Wings of Nirvana are nearby, she is most likely sent here as backup."

    "Feng Su and her Wings of Nirvana?" Ye Chong asked, confused. Shang was already howling in excitement, "Ah, Ye, is it Feng Su? Wah, such a gorgeous voice, and that beautiful face. Hehe, Ye, I have her exact measurements right here, would you care to ¡­"

    Zhu Ling could not hear Shang as she replied, "Feng Su is also one of the Sanctuary¡¯s trump cards, Wings of Nirvana is her mech. Darklight mech pilots may be strong, but they will not stand a chance against the Sanctuary¡¯s trump cards."

    If a Darklight mech pilot was no match against the Sanctuary¡¯s trump card, and he himself was barely even against a Darklight mech pilot, then wouldn¡¯t he be dead for sure if he face the trump card himself?

    "Feng Su is that strong?" Ye Chong remembered exchanging a few blows with Feng Su in the forest where Mr Yin lived. While her moves were difficult to anticipate, he did not feel that she was as strong as Zhu Ling described. Ye Chong believed that with his current ability, he should be able to kill her.

    "Of course," Zhu Ling gave Ye Chong an odd look, clearly not understanding his thoughts. She probed, "You fought with her before?"

    Ye Chong nodded.

    Zhu Ling found herself unable to read this student of her sister. He had fought with Feng Su before, and even killed Mu Fei in an ambush, taking Overwing for himself. This man had survived all of that.

    Of course, she did not know that when Ye Chong met Mu Fei, thetter did not even have the chance of deploying his mech, and could only fight in person. Feng Su was not skilled in hand-to-handbat, and that was why Ye Chong could escape unscathed. If Feng Su had used Wings of Nirvana, Ye Chong would have died without a proper body to show for it.

    However, Ye Chong knew that Zhu Ling would not exaggerate like this. She was from the Sanctuary, and would know more about them than he. Always ce importance on an expert¡¯s opinion - that was what Ye Chong had learned from his days at Aurora.

    Shang asked abruptly, "Where did you get your starship?"

    Zhu Ling had noticed the damaged mech with one arm from the beginning. However, the pilot had said nothing, not evening out of the mech, and Ye Chong did not seem keen to introduce, so she did not ask about it.

    However, now that Shang suddenly spoke up, Zhu Ling did not betray any change in expression. Her years of training and nning had molded her into a person that would not lose her cool easily. Seeing Ye Chong looking at her, Zhu Ling looked back and replied, "That¡¯s stolen from a space pirate crew."

    Shang¡¯s question reminded Ye Chong that her starship could fly as fast as the Dawn mechs.

    Shang asked courteously, "Can you bring us to them? I believe that they must have something of interest to us."

    "Alright," Zhu Ling¡¯s reply was simple.

    "Ye, this girl is very much like you," Shang seemed to say that with a sigh.

    "Is that right?" Ye Chong replied nomittally.

    Zhu Ling quickly pointed out the location where she stole the starship, and Shang proceeded to calcte the warp jump time.

    Ye Chong asked, "Shang, are we doing this for her starship¡¯s engine?" Ye Chong recalled Shang¡¯s words and came to this conclusion.

    Shang corrected him, "Wrong, Ye, we must find the creator of that starship¡¯s engine. That engine is special." It was not everyday that something could earn the remark "special" from Shang.

    "Ye, I finally understand something." The way Shang talked now made Ye Chong ufortable.

    "What?"

    "No matter how powerful we are atputations, we would never be able to create as humans do. These days, as I interact often with Little Rock, I was surprised to find that humans are so much better than we are in the art of creation. And we, we can only rely on a massive database of information and run detailedputations to arrive at our deductions. We ourselves are not capable of creation." Shang was now speaking a lot like Mu.

    "You¡¯re right." Ye Chong epted Shang¡¯s conclusion easily.

    "Therefore, the only ones who can surpass humans are the humans themselves," Shang pointed out cooly, and added, "Or we will be left behind."

    Ye Chong nodded. Shang¡¯s words were irrefutable.

    "Ye, you may be talented, but your strength is finite, and you cannot be good in everything. We need more talent, coupled with my and Mu¡¯s vast database. With these, I believe we can be stronger. That is how we will be able to control our own destinies." Ye Chong could not deny Shang¡¯s words.

    "Shang, do you mean that we need more power?" Ye Chong frowned despite himself. He was not particrly ambitious, and he disliked doing things like that.

    "No, we need a team. We need members who are strong in different fields, so that we can protect ourselves," Shang exined.

    Ye Chong asked, "Are we not capable of protecting ourselves now?"

    Shang spoke cynically, "Seems to me that we¡¯re the ones who run away every time."

    Ye Chong grew silent.

    "Ye, the world is changing. The war has just begun. Ye, do you think you¡¯ll be able to live in peace anywhere in this world?" Shang asked.

    "No," Ye Chong came to this conclusion after a moment¡¯s thought.

    "That¡¯s right. The bnce in Csebesini cannot be maintained for much longer, the peak of the war is close at hand. Ye, didn¡¯t you notice that there are more pirates than before these days? And they¡¯re more ruthless than ever. For now, the powers of the Four Forces are precariously bnced, but this will soon cease to be. This is only the calm before the storm. Ye, we must prepare ourselves, or we will be threatened in every moment of our lives."

    Ye Chong could say nothing to dispute Shang.

    Shang continued, "Ye, if we have a warship so powerful that no one can avert their gaze against, then with you and me, hmm, and that girl, and a few more geniuses onboard, err, then we can make this our headquarters, hehe, and no one will be able to do anything to us."

    Ye Chong nodded with determination. He never liked to hand his life over to another person. Best if he could be in control of his own life.

    "Hmm, if we can do that, then we can invite Bing Bing over, Xiu is also not bad. Oh, right, and Sun Xuelin, Grandpa Qian, Mrs Rui, err, and that Rui Su is also quite good looking, I¡¯ll think about it. Ha, if we can get Feng Su here too, then it¡¯ll be perfect, hahaha ¡­ I¡¯ll live my days with all the prettydies around me, what a wonderful life ¡­" Shang began to spiral down into his fantasies.

    Ye Chong rolled his eyes. Of course the mech would return to his usual behaviour.

    "Hehe, Ye, I¡¯ve informed them that the Sanctuary¡¯s backup areing. With them here, the Sanctuary will be focused on them," Shang said with an evilugh.

    As expected, Ye Chong saw that the Darklight mech was working faster now to finish off his enemies. It was clear that he was also afraid of the Sanctuary¡¯s trump card. The beautiful and fatal crescent des flickered in space like a swords dance.

    Cob had already made a warp jump towards its destination. None of the mechs paid any attention to Cob. The Dawn mechs¡¯ orders were to stall the Darklight mech. To them, it was already straining to stall the Darklight mech, and they could not spare the effort to deal with the starship. Luo Wei was also ignoring Cob. The way he saw it, he was already lucky enough that the ship did not destroy him first.

    Zhu Ling was already making headway with Overwing. She did not understand Overwing any more than Ye Chong, and could only figure out the mech herself. Fortunately, it was still a Sanctuary¡¯s mech, and the simrities were there. As a member of the elite squad, she had already surpassed the abilities of any regr elite squad member long ago, but had kept her abilities hidden from view all this time.

    She could have finished off all the Dawn mechs that were pursuing her if she had gotten herself a serviceable mech. To a mech pilot, a mech could make a difference between life and death.

    Today, however, she received the surprise gift of Overwing. This was a mech that gained fame because of Mu Fei. To think that she could pilot a trump card¡¯s mech! After a brief moment of exhration, Zhu Ling quickly threw herselfpletely into familiarizing herself with the mech. Experience taught her that her strength would ultimately decide her fate, no matter the situation.

    Zhu Ling¡¯s insane training surprised Ye Chong. However, he quickly got over it. He would have done the same. In any case, Ye Chong hoped that hisrades would at least be able to defend themselves.

    On the other hand, Shang was trying his best to locate the space pirates that Zhu Ling had met.

 Chapter 234 - Lian Yue

    <h4>Chapter 234: Lian Yue</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Hei De was vexed. Ever since he took over the pirate crew not long ago, all sorts of problems sprang out. Two days ago, they lost a ship to a thief, and he was only informed muchter by an underling. This frustrated him to no end, since that starship was the one modified by that crazy guy, to be used for his own safety. Now they had lost a ship for no apparent reason, and it was so d*mn frustrating.

    They were pirates, and they were robbed. What a f*cking joke. He dared not spread the word, however. If the pirates knew about this, he would be the butt of their jokes.

    Just when he was about to search for his beloved evacuation ship, he saw that exact ship flying past him and his crew. However, Hai De did not move even a muscle.

    That was because his stolen starship was keenly pursued by dozens of mechs flying behind it. Heavens, weren¡¯t those the Sanctuary¡¯s mechs? If any of Cyana Gxy¡¯s space pirates do not recognise the Sanctuary, then they might as well kill themselves first. The Sanctuary was now the true ruler of Cyana Gxy.

    Could he or she be the Sanctuary¡¯s wanted fugitive? Hai De thought with dismay. He could only pray that the Sanctuary did not me him for the starship. He was at least aware of how his crew would fare against them.

    The matter had troubled him for days, and he was having trouble sleeping, his eyes wide open at night. The boss was not in a good mood, and the underlings stayed out of trouble for the most part. These days, the pirates behaved, careful not to provoke his ire.

    Fortunately, the Sanctuary made no move against them. Hence, Hai De became more cheerful, and approved another "hunting trip". Bored from his past few days of hiding, Hai De decided to lead the hunt himself.

    It seemed that their back luck was over, as their hunt was particrly fruitful. The loot from a mid sized trading fleet would not only replenish their supplies, but also provide them with more mechs to strengthen their crew.

    "As expected, surviving a great disaster would lead to good fortune ¡­" Hai De mused to himself.

    However, before he was done musing, he came to realize how when one was at the peak of happiness, disaster would follow.

    A dpidated warship suddenly appeared before the space pirates. Heavens, a warship! Aside from the Sanctuary, no one had heard of anyone else owning a warship. Even thergest pirate crews only have their own starships. Even if they have a warship, they would not dare to show it to the world. These days, the arrogant ones died faster.

    In fact, Hai De did not think much of this warship. It moved so slowly likely a turtle, and looked heavily damaged. However, a warship was still a warship. The cannon barrels were a constant reminder to Hai De that the other party was not to be messed with.

    "Was it the Sanctuary? ck Cove? The MPA? The Freedom Alliance?" All the major powers came to mind, but the warship did not look like any of them. Even so, he treaded very carefully.

    Of course they would give way, this was a warship! Who would dare to mess with someone who dared to fly a warship in the Sanctuary¡¯s territory? Hai De yelled hastily at his underlings - a few of the pirate ships were still anchored in the way.

    The warship did not leave, but was heading straight towards them.

    Hai De instantly felt that something was wrong. Was it trying to rob them? Robbing their own?

    Just then, one of his underlings came to report panickedly, "Boss, bad news ¡­ Bad news, they want to speak with you personally."

    Just then, one of the pirate ships was sted into smithereens with a thick blue beam. All the pirates froze in ce, afraid to attract attention to themselves and be the next target.

    The fire from the explosion illuminated Hai De¡¯s pallor.

    Ye Chong could not be bothered with the details. He left it all to Shang. This kind of intimidation act was always Shang¡¯s favourite. Ye Chong believed that no one would lie when facing Shang.

    The way Ye Chong saw it, instead of wasting time here, he should be spending time on his training. Zhu Ling waspletely absorbed in her training, not concerning herself with other affairs. Compared to Ye Chong, she seemed to have a more systematic training regime. Besides, she was getting used to maneuvering Overwing, and this made her even more devoted to her training. As an elite squad member, she was definitely capable, and Overwing allowed her to showcase her strengths even more.

    Ye Chong would sometimes watch her train. The mech¡¯s wings that would never move under his piloting now came to life in Zhu Ling¡¯s hands, performing some inexplicable feats. However, it was Overwing¡¯s powerful movements that truly surprised Ye Chong. It moved so fast that it could even surpass Han Jia. The thought of obtaining such a powerful mech but unable to use it himself was frustrating.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong quickly got over it. The wiser way forward would be to make full use of all avable resources at his disposal.

    He wondered what Shang was doing to that poor leader of the pirates now. He seemed to be howling and shouting even more pitifully than that Mr Yin fromst time.

    What Ye Chong should do now was to organize his findings from his days training with the Darklight pilot, and train himself long enough that those new insights be part of himself.

    Ye Chong¡¯s training was finally interrupted. He knew it must be a result of Shang¡¯s triumph.

    When Shang brought a young man into Cob, Ye Chong asked inly, "Is this the guy?"

    Shang gave augh and said, "Should be him. I didn¡¯t expect him to be such a handsome man, hehehe. Ye, worry not, I¡¯ve verified his identity ¡­"

    Bam! Shang let go, and the young man fell straight down, mming straight into solid ground. He quickly stood up, and the first thing he did after was to check if his clothing was dirtied. He adjusted his clothing, looking unperturbed.

    The guy¡¯s physique was alright, seeing that he was unharmed from his long fall to the ground.

    If anything, he looked like an eyesore. If not for his t chest, Ye Chong would have thought he was actually of the opposite sex. His delicate eyes gleamed oddly, or seductively, using Shang¡¯s vocabry. His skin was smooth and like ady¡¯s, and his features were well bnced. If he wore ady¡¯s garments, no one would suspect him to be a man.

    He ran his fingers along his golden hair. Fortunately, Ye Chong was steady enough to not openly gape at him.

    The man finally realized Ye Chong¡¯s presence, and gasped, "Ah, handsome, I didn¡¯t think there¡¯d be someone handsome here, I like it." He stepped swiftly to Ye Chong, his delicate eyes studying Ye Chong carefully, his slender fingers making to give Ye Chong a warm wee.

    Just when his fingers barely touched Ye Chong, Ye Chong¡¯s made a move with his right hand, and the man was back at Shang¡¯s feet like a sandbag.

    Ye Chong asked Shang, "You¡¯re sure this is the one?"

    Shang gave anotherugh. "He¡¯s called Lian Yue, an interesting person."

    Ye Chong was indifferent. "Do what you have to." He then casually made his way to the alchemistboratory.

    Just then, Lian Yue looked up from the floor, his face full of disbelief and he spoke, "You, you would really hit me?"

    Just then, Zhu Ling exited the mech training room. She was drenched in sweat, and her tight-fittingbat uniform entuated her body¡¯s curves. Sweat rolled down along her cheeks to her sharp chin, and dripped down to the floor. Her face was blushing from her vigorous exercise, making her even more attractive.

    Zhu Ling took a nce at Lian Yue on the ground. Of course, it was a short nce.

    "Wah, a beauty! Is this heaven? There¡¯s a handsome man and a beautifuldy. Hey beauty, wait ¡­" Lian Yue moved so deftly like he was not hurt at all, quickly making his way before Zhu Ling, his face wearing an expression of ttery as he held onto Zhu Ling¡¯s hands. "My beauty ¡­"

    Zhu Ling red coldly at the guy who appeared out of nowhere. She nted a heavy right kick into his abdomen, sending him back to Shang¡¯s feet even faster than thest time.

    Zhu Ling did not look back at him as she returned to her room.

    A long moment passed before Lian Yue finally lifted his face, looking very sorrowful and full of disbelief. "You, you would hit me too?"

    To Lian Yue, this was a most memorable asion. All this while, he had always been fawned upon due to his looks, and no one had ever really hit him. Today, however, he was hit, twice. Truly, this was a heavy blow to both his body and soul.

    Nheless, when Lian Yue saw the metalsboratory and modification room, his eyes shone as brightly as when Ye Chong and Zhu Ling when they first saw them. The look on his face when he caressed those world ss instruments was enough to make Ye Chong cringe and leave theboratory.

    Shang spent his days with Lian Yue in deep discussions. One could hear the asional lewdughter resonating about the Cob, as the starship finally lived up to its name.

    However, this became a problem for Hai De and his pirate crew. The warship had essentially anchored itself at their base, and seemed reluctant to leave. The pirates were all anxious. While they had the advantage in numbers, Hai De knew that his underlings were just a motley crew, all scared to death. Besides, who knew what was inside the warship? It could be a full army of mechs. Best if they be cautious.

    As for his meeting with the one-armed mech, it was hellish. He would prefer to never relive it ever again.

 Chapter 235 - Reorganization I

    <h4>Chapter 235: Reorganization I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Lian Yue was a genius in mechanics - such was Shang¡¯s conclusion. Rarely did Shang offer such high praise for any one person, so Lian Yue must be the real thing. Ye Chong no longer concerned himself with Cob¡¯s engines. Better to let the expert onboard handle it rather than someone amateur like him.

    Ye Chong was trying to figure out how to improve Han Jia. While Han Jia performed well, it was only on par with Darklight. Shang mentioned that there were many other more powerful mechs. More importantly, Ye Chong noticed the disparity between Overwing and Han Jia.

    This made Ye Chong feel a great sense of urgency and danger.

    Ye Chong believed that full-skeleton mechs could do so much more, and there should be space for improvement. For starters, the mech should have better automotive power. Without a good engine, Ye Chong would be limited in the mech. Han Jia was now using the engine from Yu Di. In fact, the engine had performed well, butpared to Overwing, it was still not good enough.

    Speed was crucial, often deciding the fate of the mech pilot.

    However, this was not an easy problem to solve. Ye Chong was not familiar with engines. It was an entirely different field for him.

    In other aspects, like the mech¡¯s structure, reaction speed and protective armor, Ye Chong could offer more improvements. In reality, ck Cove¡¯s mechs were the simplest amongst the Three Forces. However, this did not mean that they were less powerful, since that was a matter of the mech¡¯s battle capacity.

    Ye Chong¡¯s experience fighting with the Darklight mech told him that experts were more well versed with their weapons. The Darklight mech had blocked almost all of his own attacks with that pair of crescent des. Ye Chong¡¯s strategy was decidedly different - he would often block attacks with different parts of his mech. This was rted to the training he grew up with. On the trash, before he found Mu and Shang, all hisbat strategies were self taught from experience. They continued to heavily influence him today. Luo Wei, on the other hand, received training from ck Cove¡¯s system since young, so he was already used to thatbat strategy.

    To Ye Chong, after a certain level of proficiency, mech pilots would be differentiated by their physical prowess andbat insights. Advanced mechs moved faster, and required advanced maneuvering skills. The stress on the human body would also be heavier. For example, Han Jia¡¯s high speed abrupt direction adjustments could squash the heart of an ordinary mech pilot.

    Hand speed was also another factor. When a mech changed course, the mech pilot must be able to enter themands fast enough. In reality, this was an important barrier that prevented mech pilots from advancing further.

    Of course, these were all skills. Having them did not mean that the mech pilot was excellent. Making the right calls based on the circumstances, predicting the opponent¡¯s next step, quick strategizing for battle and so on were all inner qualities of a good mech pilot.

    Ye Chong possessed all these qualities. His body was strong, and he had never really reached his physical limit. At least, Ye Chong never had any bad experience from piloting mechs. As for Ye Chong¡¯s hand speed, it was mostly the mechs he used that limited his piloting. Ye Chong would only move his hands at his fastest when in danger, and often in those cases, he would find his mech unable to keep up with him.

    In terms of skills, Ye Chong possessed enough of them to warrant him for a more advanced mech.

    However, Ye Chong could not for the moment think of any other mech better than Han Jia that was suitable for him, other than the ones from ck Cove.

    Would ck Cove give one to him? That would beughable. ck Cove would not negotiate, but Ye Chong himself was also not someone keen in using words to solve problems. If there was any way to procure a ck Cove advanced level mech, Ye Chong would definitely strive to achieve it. However, ck Cove was too strong for him.

    For some reason, he had offended all of the Three Forces. It seemed that only the Freedom Alliance was the only power that he was not involved with.

    Ye Chong shook his head and dismissed all these impractical ideas. Better for him to make his own modifications on Han Jia. It was a pity that the mech was limited by its skeleton materials. Skeletons were in some sense a one-time material - once it was shaped, there was not much room for adjustments.

    If Ye Chong was not satisfied with Han Jia, he would have to redesign and rebuild the mech. He still had many skeletons materials, and most of them of high quality, with excellent properties. After such a long time, he had many new ideas. However, without a good engine, all of them would be worthless.

    In the end, Ye Chong reluctantly set aside his project.

    These days, Lian Yue seemed to have received some kind of shock. Every day, he would stare sharply at the holographic screen with reddened eyes, mostly in a trance. Ye Chong took a nce, and found the holographic screen to be filled with all sorts of engine schematics.

    Lian Yue would asionallyugh madly, his handsome features distorted into a pitiful state. Even his gleaming, delicate eyes were now often in a daze. Saliva would drip from the edge of his mouth without him noticing.

    The man was obviously not normal. Aside from Shang asionally entering the room, Ye Chong and Zhu Ling kept away from him. Fortunately, whether it was the mech or the humans onboard Cob, they were all psychologically strong, else the intermittent eerieughtersing from metalsboratory would have scared the living daylights out of them.

    Ye Chong considered his next steps.

    First, he must fix Cob¡¯s engines, or they would not be able to go anywhere. Now, he must wait for Shang toy out the general reparation and modification ns.

    Ye Chong believed that Lian Yue was definitely capable, but he also knew that what Shang had in his database was very littlepared to the vast amount of information avable in the Five Gxies. No matter how good Lian Yue was, he might not be able to do much in the meantime.

    As for how Shang managed to convince him to cooperate, Ye Chong believed it would not be an issue. No one understood better than him of Shang¡¯s prowess in the realm of psychology. In this field, Shang was definitely far superior than Ye Chong. Ye Chong did not know what Shang had offered to Lian Yue, but he would not waste time to find out more.

    Once Cob was repaired, Ye Chong nned to head straight to Ming Hong, and find out the truth about Papa.

 Chapter 236 - Reorganization II

    <h4>Chapter 236: Reorganization II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Shang finally came up with the warship¡¯s modification and restoration ns.

    However, when Ye Chong examined the huge schematics, even his strong mental fortitude gave way. This was not modification and restoration, this was rebuilding the warship from ground up. Thest time Ye Chong installed the electromaic cannons and theser guns, he was thoroughly exhausted. This new project would take Ye Chong at least a few years toplete.

    Shang seemed to be able to read Ye Chong¡¯s mind, andughed as he exined, "Ye, no need for you to do the work yourself this time, hehe, we have all thebour we need."

    Starships were necessary for the space pirates for transport. Almost all pirate bases would have at least a few shipyards, with plenty of capable technicians. Besides, with Lian Yue hanging around the ce for so long, he knew exactly who could be "convinced" to help.

    Hai De¡¯s base was well equipped with relevant facilities. Since they were only a small pirate crew, they could not afford to continuously buy advanced mechs from smugglers. Besides, the loots they acquired varied - sometimes it would be something like ores, worthless to their buyers, but a waste to be thrown away. Hai De chose to spend some money on metal forging equipment to make some of their own tools. Nevertheless, theycked the necessary talent, and rarely needed the metal goods anyway, so the ore were mostly kept in their stowage area, umting over time. Fortunately, their base was spacious enough, and Hai De need not worry about it.

    Now, though, all these equipment were taken by Shang; even the ores were all removed. Hai De was extremely cautious of the one-armed mech. Moreover, the ores were worthless to him, being kept for long at their base and taking up space. Hence, he agreed to hand them over without hesitation.

    Shang also had a list of names given by Lian Yue to him, all of them pirates who would serve as goodbour. The list was a problem to Hai De, since many of the people mentioned were bad tempered. He feared that some of them would kick up a fuss and raise havoc.

    Just then, two mechs flew out of the dpidated warship.

    Hai De flicked his gaze towards them. This was his first time seeing mechs other than the one-armed mech from the warship. At the sight of the two mechs, Hai De¡¯s eyes widened in horror. His face contorted, blood draining from his cheeks, and his legs trembled.

    When the one-armed mech was finally done talking, Hai De quickly took the list with him and vanished out of sight.

    Noticing Hai De¡¯s shock, Shang touched where his one arm ended abruptly and after a long moment, finally spoke bitterly, "I may be one-armed, but I¡¯m not really one-armed!" Once, there was a movie called One-armed Soldier that was so captivating it became an instant ssic, marking the beginning of an era of movies featuring gay characters. As a movie fan, Shang did his research in these subjects.

    Hai De¡¯s mind was nowpletely upied by a single thought - the clown mech! It was the clown mech! That funny looking colourful clown-like mech was a symbol of death and despair. The one the space pirates called Clown of Darkness that walked between the shadows, was the mech that killed the pirate leader and escaped unscathed despite all the security measures - a super assassin.

    The clown mech was a hot topic amongst the space pirates.

    "Heavens, why am I so unlucky, to meet this legendary dangerous character?" Hai De groaned to himself.

    He also finally knew what the warship was called - Cob. To think that Cob was actually a warship. Hai De suddenly remembered that since the Clown of Darkness and Cob were here, then that Blue Ray of Death super sniper mech pilot should also be here. He did not recall seeing the mech though. On the other hand, the mech with the strange wings beside the clown mech did not match the legend - wasn¡¯t the Blue Ray of Death armed with a huge sniper energy rifle?

    "Wait a moment, energy gun?" Hai De recalled that the one-armed mech had a huge energy gun slung on its back. He shuddered and nearly tripped himself.

    Blue Ray of Death ¡­ Could that guy be the Blue Ray of Death? Hai De felt like he was living a dream - not a good one, but the mother of nightmares. Hai De swallowed heavily. These two characters were not known to be merciful. He should tread with care, or else ¡­ He felt around his throat with his fingers, as though he could feel a chill cutting across.

    Ye Chong and Zhu Ling exited Cob because the modification works were too extensive, and it was getting very ufortable inside. Lian Yue still holed up in the metalsboratory, enduring the loud noise around him as he worked non-stop everyday for some unknown project. Ye Chong grew a little respectful of his determination, even though he was not interested in whatever project he was up to.

    For safety reasons, Ye Chong and Zhu Ling exited the warship in their mechs. Han Jia was a touchy subject, so Ye Chong decided to use Puppet in the end. He was not aware that the word of the clown mech and the Blue Ray of Death had already spread out far and wide even though it was only recent news.

    As Puppet appeared, Ye Chong noticed curiously that the people busily working around suddenly stopped and looked at him with terrified eyes. ngngng! Heavy objects fell to the ground, and the men quickly picked up what they had dropped and scattered away, like they were running for their lives.

    Ye Chong looked at their reactions curiously, unable to understand.

    In just one day, the clown mech and the Blue Ray of Death became the dominating topic of conversation for Hai De¡¯s pirate crew. No one dared to step within 100 meters of Ye Chong. As for Shang, his constant movement around the base made all the pirates extra nervous. The days went by with nerve crushing intensity. Shang quickly noticed the fact - nasty as he was, he realised this was actually quite fun. Hence, for the time being, the pirates spent the followings days in absolute fear.

    This had the unexpected result of greaterbour efficiency. The pirates worked so hard that Ye Chong thought they looked like they were building their own warship.

    Shang had divided the warship modification works into many tinypartments, such that the pirates would ever only know what they did themselves, and not what theirrades were doing.

    Ye Chong and Zhu Ling had already made themselves familiar with the pirate base. The base was well concealed from unwanted attention. The main entrance was hidden within arge valley. If the pirates had not led the way, Ye Chong believed that he might not be able to find it.

    "This base is not bad," the thought came unbidden to Ye Chong¡¯s mind. If he installed some firepower here, then it would be a very good defensive position. A well-concealed and well-defended base was hard to find. Besides, while the space pirate here were not so strong, they obviously had a long history in this ce. This was apparent from the construction of the base. The base was arge hole dug out of the ground. While it was not as magnificent as Nine Gates of Daylight, it was still quite impressive. It took a lot of work to build this ce. Ye Chong estimated it to be thebination of effort from at least a few generations of space pirates.

    Ye Chong was always on the move - from gxy to gxy, or from to. At some level, Ye Chong, Mu and Shang were just like the space pirates.

    "If only I have my own base," Ye Chong suddenly had this thought.

    Ye Chong may not realise it, but this thought was a step forward in his mindset. He was finally starting to be more proactive in facing this chaotic world.

    Unfortunately, Ye Chong did not pursue that thought. It was only a sudden thought, one that he quickly abandoned. "Best to leave this kind of vexing problems to Shang," thought Ye Chong. He scanned the area, assuring himself that there was no danger nearby.

    Zhu Ling flew in Overwing, following the clown mech from behind. Its light green wings made it look like a green bird. The mech danced easily in the sky, moving in the hands of an expert pilot as it trailed behind the clown mech, looking all toofortable with itself.

    Ye Chong could only feel jealous of her. The clown mech was worlds away from Overwing¡¯s standards. Seeing Zhu Ling flying Overwing made him feel threatened. Ye Chong dared not imagine how Overwing would be like with Mu Fei in the pilot cabin. He felt lucky that Mu Fei was not in Overwing when he tried to kill him.

    It was obvious then that no matter how capable a mech pilot was, he or she would still be vulnerable without a mech. The best way to kill a mech pilot was to do it before he or she slipped into a mech.

    Finished with their survey of the area, Ye Chong and Zhu Ling prepared to return. Just then, Ye Chong suddenly heard Shang speaking, "Ye,e back quick, hehe ¡­" Shang sounded overjoyed.

    Ye Chong did not hesitate. The clown mech made a graceful turn in the sky and headed straight for the pirate base, with Overwing close behind.

 Chapter 237 - Reorganization III

    <h4>Chapter 237: Reorganization III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It¡¯s an engine - that was what Ye Chong identified at first nce. The circuit partially visible over the silvery main body, the seamless arc, the condensed structure, those were the charmer in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. He was not that well-versed in engine expertise, but it would not stop him from loving this particr engine. He was convinced, utterly convinced, of the liveliness running deep down in the thumping mechanical arteries on the entity, although it might be a mere nce he took.

    "Shang, where is this from exactly?" Ye Chong was feeling peculiar. Anyone would have felt peculiar if one hefty thing suddenly popped out of nowhere, especially when this was not an engine for mechs, rather it was for spaceships.

    "Oh my Ye¡­" Lian Yue seductively approached, "This? You like this? It¡¯s my masterpiece, you like it? If you like it, I could g-i-v-e it to you. Only for you, as I am¡­ well¡­ hmm¡­ for you." His eyes were lustrous with an alluring glow.

    "I prefer guns," tly he replied, which shattered the loving expression on the handsome face of Lian Yue. "Oh?!" He was stunned at first, then his eyes burst with a zing passion as they looked upon Ye Chong endearingly. If one were to give a close observation at the features of Lian Yue, one could see some unknown liquid tainting the corner of his slightly opened lips. Ye Chong was finding this anomaly somehow bizarre to him. It almost felt as if a carnivore was eyeing its prey.

    The bizarreness sent chills to his spine, goosebumps lumped over his skin. This guy has some issues¡­

    Disregarding the peculiarity, he shifted his attention back onto the engine.

    Shang then introduced, "Ye, this is Lian Yue¡¯s reworked design on the engine in ordance with the blueprint found in my databank. Even though the engine is 10% less efficient than the MPA main warship unit, the required materials to build this engine has be much more less demanding, which could be reced by mostmon materials. Theoretically it is also more agile in making turns. Well, this is the first product we have developed, fresh from the oven, we still need a test drive for this."

    Ye Chong¡¯srge eyes swung over Lian Yue at the side. I never expected this strange person to be so skillful! I have seen the print Mu Shang provided before, those lines and circles were as if heavenly sent for me, I could not even identify where the exhaust was located.

    Ye Chong had the talent and skill in technical field, so he could naturally understand what the strange guy had achieved. The strange guy should have a great foundation in his skills and a daring personality to attempt the new, for he was able to gain senses over all the design ns while giving them the necessary tweaks to renew the design. The creativity was something really umonly precious to Ye Chong. It only took an engine and 3 minutes for Lian Yue to ascend as one of the greatest persons in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. Ye Chong was one believer of strength speaking louder than words after all and the strength Lian Yue demonstrated was more than enough to win over his respect.

    And Lian Yue stood there proudly.

    Zhu Ling¡¯s expression remained unchanged, although the emotion was brewing inside her. She had not been exposed to theponents of a warship, but she could tell so much just from seeing that mech with missing arm alone. She spected and wondered, "A technique of MPA? Where in the 5 gxies they got this? And this person with questionable gender was actually a super expert? I mean the person would have gotten the Master title in the Sanctuary with such craftsmanship.

    Provided that her sister had not shown Ye Chong¡¯s face clearly on the projection Zhu Ling once was given, Zhu Ling would have suspected that Ye Chong was in fact an apprentice under her sister¡¯s teaching. Those two were the mysterious. The pilot of that handicapped mech had never left the cabin. This is too weird, I could not imagine a pilot living inside a mech for almost eternity. He *is* living inside, I had never seen himing out for food or hydration¡­

    And the potency that Ye Chong demonstrated had gone beyond her sister¡¯s description.

    Her head was rumbling yet her mouth was sealed tight, as experience advised her to stay silent at all cost. That unnecessary curiosity of hers would only make her death worse. Being as alert as Ye Chong, she remained silent.

    Lian Yue was passionate towards both Ye Chong and Zhu Ling, but strangely he acted as if he saw a ck hole when it came to Shang. He would suddenly be docile and kind, which Ye Chong really wondered what Shang had done to the strange kind. But whenever he inquired Shang regarding this, "Hehehehehehehe!" Shang would unleash a kind of iprehensible grin.

    The engine was called "Gandhanra". The name was given by its creator, Lian Yue. The concept of this naming was apparently based on a myth from the ancients where there was one goddess whose appearance was beautiful and angelic, captivating and loving. Whenever she glided past the sky, petals of flowers would shower the ground as the gorgeous symphony for the angels would be rung. Shang, the poet of the team, was extremely satisfied towards the given name. So the engine retained its exotic name.

    Thergest shipyard at the pirates¡¯ base was filled with busy engineering units flying around, where sometimes the bright light ofser welding could be discerned. The site was livelier than ever, which people at first nce would have assumed it being some major construction happening under the sponsorship of argepany. The workers were working hard, sweating blood, dripping life, without a rant, without a word. The blood and sweat were to keep their life. These works were nothingpared to their own life.

    The progression was rapider than Ye Chong had expected, as he was a little unsettled when he was informed that the ship had beenpleted.

    Right before the newborn gigantic craft the group of pirates stood tidily in a row. They were viewing, they were observing, but they did not seem to be at ease. Their expression told worries and agitation as if they were facing the ultimate enemy on their final cruise.

    Shang made a quick inspection on the entire warship. The construction had beenpleted. To ensure airtight confidentiality he actually broke the whole construction into different parts and let the pirates to take each of them. So what the pirates were fearing was Shang¡¯s inspection on their work performance, where there could be consequences for the underperformed works.

    The clown mech was leading the entire team, where its members feared to even lift their eyes upon. Their stares were illustrating the clown mech as if the reaper with spears rather than a machine.

    Men would only be left with frailness after they lost their bravery.

    Regarding that winged mech right next to the clown, it was something that no one would dare to look down upon, despite its ridiculous appearance had been an ongoing subject brought up the pirates during their mundane cruise. Well it was evident for the winged mech was being able to stand right next to the notorious clown killer. No one would believe that it was imed to be harmless.

    "Mhm." Shang pondered, "Pass." The syble was the most gorgeous tone the pirates believed they had ever heard in their life, where a loud sigh of relief could be heard in the shipyard.

    Ye Chong was really curious of the Cob¡¯s appearance after the makeover since he was absent throughout the construction. Shang was the director of everything.

    "Go!"

    Under Shang¡¯s call, every pirate got onto the engineering mechs and started moving again, as they rose like a swarm of bees, flying towards the supporting stand.

    "Pull!"

    And the support was dismantled into million pieces which the pirates dropped to the side right after.

    The Cob had been reborn, with a brand new appearance.

 Chapter 238 - Reorganization IV

    <h4>Chapter 238: Reorganization IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The long body of the ship exerted a kind of personality of the MPA. Unlike his former hefty body, the Cob had undergone a sessful diet, where his length had been reduced to 3 kilometers, with a tter, condensed appearance and two supportive engines at both sides to achieve agility.

    The dark crimson body was not the result of normal painting, rather it was finished with a particr kind of alloys which mostly were made out of the umon mineralites Ye Chong had collected over the course. The bright red alloy was tainted by the color of ck gold in the end, thus the darkened hue. Shang said such type of alloy was quite above the standard for it would have superior performance in defending against energy-based firing. Under most circumstances, such alloy would only be found in the shield of advanced mech models. But Ye Chong had an inventory full of the necessary mineralites, so Shang just dumped the choices into the pot and coated the entire body of the ship with it.

    It would probably take 3 electromaic firings on the same exact spot from the MPA in order to have a chance to prate the armor.

    As expected from a warship, its body contained a much more seamless design which reduced the air friction providing an amazing performance even when traveling within the atmosphere. Moreover, they had a masterpiece from a master craftsman, namely Gandhanra the exclusive engine. Ye Chong started to get excited over the ship¡¯s capability on the move. No aperture could be identified on the body. The entire weaponry, including the lids, had been concealed. And Shang reported that they had actually further strengthened the offense of the ship, where the number of electromaic cannons had been increased to 88 along with additional installments of theser firing units. Shang believed he could ughter any reckless pilot who dared to approach the Cob in his or her mech with the help of his 500ser firing units.

    The pirates seemed to be truly exhrated as they had been mesmerized by the appearance of the Cob at first sight. It had the most low-profiled design yet it was so eye-catching at the same time. They could not lift their eyes away. Weaponry-wise they had yet witnessed the power of the guns and cannons in action, but judging by the strong respecting from Ye Chong and Shang towards the weaponry, they were fully convinced that the ship would be an ultimate killing machine. They were feeling proud since obviously it was the oue of their handwork over the past few days - although none of them owned the ship.

    The letters of the "COXCOMB" were not visible within the dark red body, yet they would be ring at you the moment you switched on the lights, as they stood pompously at the front of the ship, along with the oversized illustration of a beauty Shang painted at the side. "Kekekekekekeke!" Ye Chong was finding the beauty in her suggestive posture to be rather familiar. After a moment of searching the simr image in his head, the beauty turned out to be Feng Su from the Sanctuary.

    The posture was a nose-bleeding choice while her expression was enticing as her body curved into something that men could feel their arteries hardened upon sight.

    "Kekekeke!" Chuckled the artificial indulgence in distorted mechanical voice, "Ye, this is made based on actual data alright? I still could remember the time when I fully scanned and analyzed every spot of her data, trying to re-sculpture this beauty in the posture I had always wanted. Kek! Not too shabby isn¡¯t it? Her curves."

    Zhu Ling was going to roll her eyes but she was sozy that she just gave a disdainful nce. I never knew this pilot on the mech could be this disgusting, shameless and low! Although I must admit the illustration was pretty good, I had seen Feng Su in person before, well not in such look. And the illustration had actually captured Feng Su¡¯s charm and depicted it vividly in her moves. Thought Zhu Ling.

    Ye Chong, as usual, showed ignorance towards Shang¡¯s rhetorical question as he got onto the clown mech and boarded the Cob first.

    The interior of the Cob seemed to have receive a major reorganization. The inner structure had been extremely strengthened, which had narrowed the amodating space. Well it was still more than enough to take everyone on board.

    In the gaze of the pirates, the Cob finally departed! Well of course, the Cob had been fully supplied with necessary resources before departure. Hai De could feel his insides dying as he bade a silent farewell at the resources of the entire base when he was moving boxes and boxes of them onboard. What an ironic torture.

    At least the trouble was going to leave! Hope rose like the morning sun high in the heart of every pirate, "Before we go, ording to our terms and conditions¡­" Shang was beeping something horrible, a gag order precisely speaking, it was so threatening that the pirates almost had an urge to sew their mouths for the rest of their life, they really feared of the forbidden secretsing out from the mouth carelessly.

    Ye Chong, once he got back to his own spaceship, started to get busy again. He first headed into the alchemyb, as the supply of Beauty¡¯s Secretion was nearly depleted since thest war, so he got to undergo another round of mass-production.

    Lian Yue, on the other hand, took a sweet dive into the metallurgyb and modification room. "The two rooms are mine, thank you very much," he stated sassily. Zhu Ling retained her stern training routine. Lian Yue would be a super workaholic when he lost his head over his invention but he spent his free time with Zhu Ling whenever he got some, as he would act like a kitten growling around her. Zhu Ling was annoyed to the other end of the gxy of course, as she imagined Lian Yue in countless pieces if he ever did that on her territory.

    Lian Yue absolutely had as much interest on Ye Chong, well¡­ till the one time a dagger slid through his fragile grimace and tightly struck on the door. Lian Yue had been missing in front of Ye Chong ever since.

    The Cob carried on sailing smoothly, with the destination being the Rainbow in the Fal gxy. Gandhanra was as superior as expected, as Shang carried out all sorts of eleration test and turning test, which the oue impressed Ye Chong. The Cob had forsaken his former sluggish self and had be an acrobat in the space. Ye Chong could not imagine the foe locking on the Cob on a rampage.

    "Ye. Come over. Fast," interrupted Shang, when Ye Chong was producing Beauty¡¯s Secretion.

    The few words of Shang had summoned everyone to the captain¡¯s room.

    Thergest projectors in the room were projecting two Dawn mechs chasing a powership. Ye Chong recognized the powership. It was the ship piloted by that Darklight Pilot. Few days back he had been fighting with the pilot continuously, so its imagery had been imprinted in his head.

    "Wait, 2 Dawns?" Ye Chong was skeptical of what he saw, as the sight was ridiculous with two substandard Dawn mechs chasing a powership containing one of the most skillful pilots who - contrary to his expectation - was running gracelessly.

    "Nothing strange," Zhu Ling seemed to have gotten Ye Chong¡¯s implication. "That Pilot of Darklight should have been defeated by Feng Su."

    The overhaul the Cob had undergone was so major that the two Dawn mechs and powership could not recognize as they elerated, assuming him to be a random passerby.

    "Given that the Pilot of Darklight was not piloting the ship, it should be Little Rock inside," stated Shang. "Ye, why don¡¯t we save him? He¡¯s quite good you know."

    "Good?"

    "Right. He¡¯s a genius in calction."

    "Genius?" Lian Yue who was standing by Zhu Ling snorted, "Such convenience, we would soon see geniuses sold in different packs at the local convenience store soon. Like when did genius be somon that a random person zooming in the space could be one? I ca-"

    "Shhh¡­"

    Something on the projection caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention.

 Chapter 239 - Itâ€™s All the Beautyâ€™s Fault!

    <h4>Chapter 239: It¡¯s All the Beauty¡¯s Fault!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Powership was not that inferior in race with mechs but one could clearly see piloting-wise the two Dawn mechs were much better than the powership, as they were traveling in recurring curves, trying to pounce upon Little Rock.

    Yet they failed.

    Little Rock¡¯s performance was a shocker.

    The 2 Dawn mechs, being unable to finish their prey, tried their deadly best to pin the nuisance down as they attempted several times of neutralizing the ship by smashing from both sides.

    The reason Ye Chong got astounded by Little Rock¡¯s performance was because he was able to escape from each grip despite his second-ss piloting skills.

    Whenever the two Dawn mechs were approaching him from both sides, the powership would act like a little fish on detection as it squeezed out of the tiny aperture it found.

    The happening also astonished Zhu Ling, since it was considered pretty rare to see a nonbat member being able to remain unharmed throughout the chase by 2 Dawn mechs.

    Zzzzzt! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

    The projection was then flooded by countless ever-changing data streams. Ye Chong¡¯s face flexed, as judging by that one moment of what he saw, the escape routes of powership could have beenpletely blocked, remaining one single chance to run away by flight. Shang then illustrated the escape route with a red line on the map, "Theoretically, this is the one and only escape path. Anywhere else the ship would bump into the mechs again," stated Shang and anyone could have imagined the fate of the unarmed ship by then.

    Ye Chong understood the fact that it was Shang who added the flooding data streams on the screen, while that escape route was the result of his intensive calction in the briefest time possible.

    Well only Ye Chong understood the intention of the projection, since he was highly sensitive towards data streams after deploying the Guardian for some time. That was why he got it in one nce, while his rapport with Shang affirmed his deduction.

    Almost immediately after Shang had drawn the red line, Little Rock started traveling exactly on the line, as he made out from another grip from the two mechs.

    This would be a perfect runaway. Ye Chong tried imagining himself in Little Rock¡¯s shoes, he believed that he could not be as perfect as Little Rock if he were to pilot that ship. It was not something he aced in, impable uracy in immediate calction.

    Little Rock was a genius in fact, for he was able to perform suchplicated calction in such short amount of time. He¡¯s intelligent!

    The 2 Dawn mechs did not seem to be in a hurry however, as the prey they were hunting turned out to be quite entertaining to their taste. They tried forming another grip afterwards, gently and leisurely.

    Little Rock - who seemed to have noticed the Cob at one point - made a sharp turn and flew towards the Cob.

    The turn he made attracted the attention of both Dawn mechs over that strange spaceship as its color turned out to be rather refreshing, which they, of course, were unafraid of. Those who probably went jumping around in their cabin would be the real cobs upon seeing the illustration on the ship, while the pilots of the Dawn mechs were some bums from some countryside called the Sanctuary. Seeing the silhouette of a person painted on the ship, they were unimpressed.

    The two Sanctuary pilots were showing sympathy towards this pretty good-looking spaceship, since it would be eviscerated soon once the powership got there. Well, future n aside, it would be more important to seize that powership before it went to somewhere else. They seriously never expected the powership to be this peculiar in movements. The pilots once assumed the powership was piloted averagely but somehow it always managed to squeeze out from their grip.

    What a weird boat.

    The 2 Dawn mechs passed the dark crimson spaceship by. The heavenly appearance of the absolute beauty struck upon them.

    It was a relief that the dark red spaceship had yet taken an action. They were already prepared for their next grip, while handing their final salutation towards the pilot of the powership. They could feel the wisdom in Feng Su¡¯s order by then. She was great for she was visionary. Such nonbat member, once seized, would be way stronger than a bunch of mechs if they used him at the right ce.

    Wait, Feng Su? Hmm¡­ Something seemed to have shed in their mind. Master Feng Su¡­ the long naked legs sprang in their heads, M-Master¡­ the lustrous wink appeared, Feng¡­ the cherry lips pursed sweet, Su¡­

    ¡­ Ah! Both of them screamed almost together as they realized what had been going on!

    That damned!! Wrath seared their rationality as they ditched the speeding ship and headed towards the dark red spaceship in sharp curves.

    As they were approaching, the spaceship gotrger in their sight, the illustration of the beauty grew clearer.

    I knew it! It¡¯s Master! It¡¯s our great lord, the wisest Feng Su, the most gorgeous ace pilot in the Sanctuary, the goddess in the heart of all male pilots and ours! This is preposterous! This is sphemy! How dare this ship tainting our goddess! Both the pilots were agitated.

    If they ever had the chance to pull this junk back to the Sanctuary, they swore, upon the innocence of their ace pilot, that no matter how sturdy this junk was, it would be obliterated in the mes of all male pilots!

    But they did not have the time for that, as their rages were overflowing soon. They would not want this eyesore to exist, not even a second more!

    "Hmm¡­" Seeing the two Dawn mechs abandoning the powership and heading towards the Cob instead, Ye Chong was feeling weird, "What¡¯s going on?"

    "Maybe they were finding the Cob to be too handsome¡­" muttered Shang. Well those were merely Dawn mechs, something whether Ye Chong or Zhu Ling could have taken down easily.

    "Yes, very true," nodded Lian Yue intensively as Shang was so precise at his description. "Yes, yes, yes," Zhu Ling, beside the nodding vanity, stepped to the front and stood up straight in pride.

    "Hmph." Zhu Ling nced at Ye Chong, "You could never imagine in the Sanctuary how popr the Winged Nirvana herself, Feng Su is. Spraying that kind of imagery of hers on the ship is obviously a direct call for war to the entire Sanctuary."

    "Ohhhh¡­" Shang giggled, "I never knew *our* Feng Feng was this loved by the people¡­" The artificial indulgence wasughing shyly. "Hahahaha¡­"

    Ye Chong gave an eye-on at Shang, "Ha¡­ Ha¡­ Ha." And Shangughed awkwardly like a child being stared over his spilled milk.

    ¡­

    The dark crimson spaceship was gigantic but well to those mentalist pilots from the Sanctuary, it was nothing but an empty vase, which could bepletely smashed in no time as they believed, their confidence rose high.

    Wham!

    Something was felt mmed upon their mechs, as their eyes fell on the screen confusingly. There was nothing?

    Are we imagining things?

    Although they were given a shocker for a moment, they did not stop, as they flew towards the spaceship in full speed.

    As they approached the ship they could finally take a clear look over the illustration of Feng Su. The exotic expression on her face was heart-skipping for them. The anger was pumping their heart hard. How could this happen to our great lord! Our Winged Nirvana, Feng Su was not to be tarnished by something like this! How dare the owner hurled such insult on her! Unforgivable!!

    And they formed a n quickly, striving to give the owner of the ship a life lesson.

 Chapter 240 - Planet Rainbow

    <h4>Chapter 240: Rainbow</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    On Rainbow, a dark red spaceship wasying alongside the docking zone. The spaceship, of its 3km length, was not attracting that much of attention among the other spaceships.

    Although gxies other than Csebesini were in hot water, the 4 forces had been performing all sorts of reorganization to restore the security of their territories. The pirates plundering everything had been knocked into oblivion, and soon intergctic trades started once again. As affected by this incident, the figures of both iing and outgoing spaceships at Rainbow had been increasing these days.

    The docking zone, isted by war, had regained its activity.

    The dark red spaceshipid at one quiet corner.

    Well, if anyone noticed the ship they would have been wondering why no one had left the spaceship for so long it had been parked. But who would really notice a normal spaceship at the pier anyway?

    The spaceship was the Cob, by the way.

    Well, the process starting from the time the crew spotted two Dawn mechs chasing the powership, then suicidally heading towards the Cob and being shot down by Ye Chong was merely a matter of few minutes. The Beauty¡¯s Secretion had always been the best assassin in the dark, with its corrosiveness melting the armors of the mechs and soon prating them, leakage happened and they were history before they knew it.

    Under Shang¡¯s kindest "invitation" Little Rock boarded the Cob. Of course, within the few brief exchanges of Shang and him, Shang¡¯s cunningly experienced talking style had gotten all the information he needed from Little Rock.

    First off, Luo Wei had died, which matched what Zhu Ling had stated. And the potency of Feng Su had once again be reinforced in Ye Chong¡¯s mind. And Little Rock managed to escape when Luo Wei gave a final struggle before his death.

    Little Rock was a nonbat members in the ck Coves, so never once he was dipped in the silver liquid. Judging by Little Rock¡¯s description, one could determine that the silver liquid was something rather precious among the ck Covers. It was known scientifically as the "Muscr Texturizing Solution" and only the selectedbat squad members would be dipped in the liquid.

    Nonbat members, being the entities in a fighting organization, were of a rather low position, so Little Rock had always been the bullies¡¯ target back then. But ever since Commander Qiu Lie recognized his capabilities, he was shifted to the strategy department, which since then his life improved. Nevertheless, he still received discriminative behaviors from the pilots of the frontline from time to time, even under amander¡¯s protection, which led to his shrinking personality. And Luo Wei was one of the only few pilots who treated the nonbat members with friendliness.

    Shang, the psychological expert had millions of ways to win over Little Rock¡¯s heart in his mind. And they had formed a decent rtionship from the beginning, which soon Little Rock grew fonder on Shang.

    Towards Shang¡¯s superior performance, Ye Chong did not say a word, even though he was showing high respect towards his capabilities. He knew he was not an expert on this, even though he was confident to assume he would not worse than Shang when it came to talking appropriately.

    Luckily I¡¯m not the leader of the team, I¡¯m seriously weak at this man¡­ Laughed Ye Chong at himself in his mind.

    Lian Yue, who only had his eyes on the pretties and the handsomes, was directly scorning at that mere average boy who in fact was certainly underwhelmingpared to Lian Yue himself. His body was short, he was underweight, one could say he was a puny coaling out of nowhere, although his lustrous eyes were rather intelligibly expressive.

    "Meh," snorted the vain man.

    The happening after that was astonishing to him however, as the artificial indulgence and the little boy started ying tremendouslyplicated games, with tremendously overwhelming amount of calctions in a tremendously ingenious manner. Lian Yue had already been stunned to the alternate dimension as the game progressed, upon realizing the fact that he could not understand anything on the screen.

    "I have to admit¡­ he is a genius! No doubt!" he muttered as he failed miserably associating this easily overlooked puny underweight boy with the word "genius" gloriously shining in his mind. Aren¡¯t geniuses supposed to be worldly gorgeous like me? But the happening before him was irrefutable.

    Zhu Ling on the other hand remained silent upon Little Rock¡¯s arrival, as she was well-aware of her position in the ship. She was rather surprised of this little boy with a simr age as hers, however. With his professional calctions, the boy would have been greatly regarded by the authority in the Sanctuary. She could not imagine how the ck Covers could ill-treat such a contributing genius.

    After a wave of shock and amazement, the peace on the Cob was restored, since everyone had their own tasks to do. Ye Chong had to perform his alchemy experiments, while having the responsibility to produce Beauty¡¯s Secretion; Zhu Ling needed those time to carry out her meditation trainings; Lian Yue had always been running between the metallurgyb and Zhu Ling, while Little Rock had beenpeting Shang on some extremelyplicated mathematics.

    Little Rock, as easily overlooked as the pebbles at the roadside, had somehow made tremendous development under Shang¡¯s training, as his standard skyrocketed to a whole new level, which he got to switch opponent by then. Yes he was facing Mu instead. And Mu, with his godlike ability, was actually feeling a little troubled in defeating Little Rock, since unlike the artificial intelligence, Little Rock had the creativity to make some interesting detours.

    Creativity of humanity would be something that a PSI like Mu could never imitate.

    Everyday Mu Shang would report Ye Chong the progress of everybody else, although Ye Chong did not see the need in doing so, Mu Shang showed persistence in it.

    And that oversized illustration of the gorgeous, under Ye Chong¡¯s continuous demand, Shang eventually took it down, with a heavy heart. Well, Ye Chong would not want to be suddenly bombarded by someone just because of the unnecessary attention the illustration had attracted.

    "Done," Mu¡¯s voice remained t as usual. The word signified Ye Chong¡¯s ability to get off the ship and wander at free will.

    The Cob - as it was parked at the docking zone - hadpleted scouting and mapping thendscape of the entire area. It would be rather essential to have nned a few sets of escape paths beforehand, especially when they were in thend of the Freedom Alliance, which none of them had any idea how the organization operated. Be cautious, that was what they thought.

    The unknown always holds the greatest danger.

    The monitoring was sessful under the assistance of Little Rock, who had drastically improved the calction the processor of the Cob had to perform. This was also the very first coboration between Little Rock and Mu. The oue, as far as one concerned, could be considered satisfactory for Mu was able to hack into the Virtual Connection Central Point at the docking zone effortlessly with the help of Little Rock.

    Virtual Connection Central Point, as the name had defined itself, was a point where all the transmitting signals conglomerated in an area, which connected all users in the area at once.

    After hacking into the central point, Mu and Little Rock began sneaking upon the other central points nearby. It did not take long before they sessfully hacked into up to 13 points of virtual connection ess.

    Very quickly after, both of them started to create a new connection between these 13 central points, in a way the points would be connected in apleted crossing structure, which expanded the useable virtual resources as well as promoted its stability. The idea was brought up by Little Rock and was formed into a final n after Mu¡¯s verification.

    They reinforced the crossing structure afterwards. Mu first extracted all sorts of trapping program from the databank andid them across the structure afterwards. Ye Chong was seeing Mu being so intense the first time near the control panel.

    Well, Ye Chong could understand the artificial intelligence¡¯s intensive expression, he was being alert over someone, someone who was able to wipe a celebpletely from the Virtual World 20 years ago. How horribly strong that person could be! And Ye Chong had Mu¡¯s words, where he stated that he was not confident to carry out the same task as wless as the person now. And that was the person¡¯s standard twenty years ago. Assuming the person was still living, within 20 years, the person could have be a sky-walking hacker, no, sky-flipping hacker perhaps.

    One could not imagine the potency such person could have demonstrated using the Virtual world. Ye Chong also knew the whole point of Mu being so participative in the preparation was to ensure their safety, since this would be a duel across sections, where two persons from two different worlds hacking into each other.

    Preparation had beenpleted. And Ye Chong got off the Cob, alone. Mu needed to watch over the entire warship while trying his best to handle that super Maverick from the Freedom Alliance. Zhu Ling, well she could be helpful in battles but Ye Chong had not grownfortable enough to bring her out as working partner. His sole partner would be none other than Mu Shang.

    Ye Chong brought a modifiedmunicator with him, which he would use to keep in touch with the Cob. As he was walking around, Mu and Little Rock had began engulfing the Virtual World of Rainbow gradually.

    He walked down the stairs and realized he was actually at lost, having zero idea on where to start, as people were walking on the street tranquilly. It felt like he had got out of a fictional world and had returned to the humanity.

    He made a new ID card, more precisely, "recover" his ID card on a little "help" from Mu. Ye Chong had already gotten use to this "recovery" process since this had been like the thousandth time he had done it. And this time, his pseudonym was Takano.

    He went to one of the self-serving hotels, got himself a room.

    Prometheus Group seemed to be rather well-known among the residents on Rainbow. The group was the leading financial group on the. They had numerous branches beneath them and every zone of Rainbow was upied bypanies of their subsidiaries, which was puzzling to Ye Chong as he had no idea which department that Gao Shichang, who happened to have the same name as his papa, was belonged to.

    And it was a fruitless oue when Mu carried out his research on Gao Shichang back then.

    At least they saw a consistency within the fragmented information, which pointed towards Prometheus Group. It could have been a search of a needle in a haystack, which could take years, but Ye Chong did not bother. He had plenty of time to find out what had actually happened behind the scene. He would not mind spending the next one or two years staying on Rainbow to be a detective. And for those on the Cob, he believed they would not care where they actually were.

    Nevertheless, it felt a little strange for Ye Chong, since he could not tell if this was the first time he was on a mission alone. It was foreign to head out without Mu Shang by his side, even though he could have made contacts via themunicator. Mu had once advised him to avoid contact as much as possible unless on an emergency, too. It would be risky if Ye Chong contacted Mu, since it would be a piece of cake for that super Maverick to monitor the streaming over themunication process. Mu would in fact encrypt the entire chain of signal but he could not guarantee if it would be impossible for the foe to decode it.

    Everyone was fearing that super Maverick from the Freedom Alliance.

    As he wandered on the streets, Ye Chong saw the scattered pedestrians moving, with a depressing frown on their faces, under the tall buildings which part of them had turned into debris at some corners. The damage caused by war to the people, was not something that could be simply undone by time. The ce was once a developed and lively ce and now, it was devastating and lifeless.

    Sometimes there would be flocks of mechs zooming by in the sky, which the piercing sound the air friction caused was still rming to the residents. Something was clogging their heart, some sort of gloominess had clouded their mind. The residents never could imagine the days in devastation and now here they were, walking on the street as if it was a norm. Human was one kind with great adaptability to their surrounding after all.

    Ye Chong stopped. It was the arrival, Prometheus Group : Mech Research Center 76.

    The center was a tall building, about 500 floors height, with a particr modern design. The walking staff seemed to be extremely engaged in their ongoing works, unlike the other ces. The name of thepany stood tantly on top of the sign, which one could not miss.

    Ye Chong lifted his head as he set his eyes upon the hologram projection at the outer wall of the building rolling all sorts of information about the center.

    That was one notice which caught Ye Chong¡¯s attention. It was written in a rather desperate tone, where they were looking for all kinds of mech experts in the industry and they would pay handsomely for the expertise. And arge page of introduction on their facilities and hardwares followed. Ye Chong felt the urge topliment the designer of this notice, it was too tempting! Even an indifferent person like him could not resist but to have slight fond over working here for the rest of his life.

    He took a look at the date, it was published 10 days ago, with a duration of a year.

    People were walking in and out of the building while he was reading the notice, where most of them were expressing deeper depression with their sighs and whines. There are hardly any person leaving the building with a smile.

    Ye Chong, with his eyes, could tell the information those little gestures had suggested. These people must be the candidates for this job of the fantasy. The sorrow faced must have failed their selection while the smiley one must have been employed.

    30 : 1. Okay that was a slight shocker to Ye Chong, never would he expected the rate of employment to be this low.

    He stayed in one corner at the outside for a moment and to his surprise, the number of candidates grew over the time, and he could feel the lobby exploding. He frowned upon the phenomena, I know it is a really amazing job but I seriously do not see the need of this craze.

    Oh wait, could there be something unknown to the outsiders?

    And for some reason, Ye Chong uncontrobly headed towards the crowded gate.

 Chapter 241 - Hired I

    <h4>Chapter 241: Hired I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong did not expect to see even more people inside. Even with his skills, moving through the crowd was difficult. The main hall was packed with people, and one could hear the asional greeting between the candidates.

    "Old Zhao, you¡¯re here too. So?"

    "Sigh, yeah, the world is so messed up now, it¡¯s hard to find a safe ce to live. I didn¡¯t want toe, but Mei wouldn¡¯t have it. Besides, if we¡¯re hired, our families will be safer, so I decided toe give it a try. Gotta think about the children," the man said with a wry smile.

    "Sigh, that¡¯s right, this world, how did it be such a mess?"

    "I know ¡­"

    From the people speaking around him, Ye Chong quickly realized the reason the ce was packed. Anyone hired by the Prometheus Group would have his or her family protected. This was more attractive a benefit than anything else.

    Surviving was the most important thing in a chaotic world.

    Ye Chong unknowingly drifted to the front along with the crowd.

    "Please show your identity card." A soft voice came from a beautifuldy, giving a slight nod at Ye Chong. Thedy wore a working uniform in a neat and simple fashion, with a natural smile on her face that was warm and contagious.

    Ye Chong was surprised to find himself at the front of the line.

    "Please show your identity card," thedy repeated, this time a little louder. This caught the attention of the surrounding people, who quickly turned to look at Ye Chong. The ones lining up behind him were ring at his hesitation. If not for their generally refined manners, someone would have started shouting at him by now.

    As the people all stared at Ye Chong, he could not help but feel embarrassed.

    "Oh." Ye Chong could only acknowledge awkwardly, and produced his identity card for thedy.

    Thedy received Ye Chong¡¯s identity card with both hands and gently swiped the card on a reader.

    An intermediate level modification technician.

    Thedy paused upon knowing this. This was the lowest qualification she had seen so far. In the eyes of others, an intermediate level modification technician might be high up, but here among professionals, it was only an entry level qualification.

    Most of the candidates here had quality expertise in mech rted subjects. Besides, even with their industry standard high qualifications, they could not guarantee their entry into Prometheus Group. They must still go through the Group¡¯s special screening process.

    Ye Chong had no industry standard qualifications of any kind. The intermediate modification technician status was only something Shang conjured up for him. Having a proper job would keep him inconspicuous. The job was also not too lowly or prestigious, suitable for Ye Chong to remain in the background.

    The hiring process this time did not have a restriction on the allowed lowest qualifications. Thedy disapproved, but her face did not betray her thoughts, a result of her extreme professionalism.

    "Please head towards room 303. If you pass the test, please ept my sincerest congrattions." Thedy smiled warmly at him.

    Ye Chong ignored herpletely, only thanking her tly and turning to leave.

    Thedy was always confident of her smile - few could maintain theirposure when she smiled at them. However, this man waspletely unmoved, behaving coldly throughout. She had met all kinds of people due to her profession, and was experienced in reading people. She knew that one should get to know a person by the eyes and not the face - expressions could lie, but the eyes could not.

    This young man¡¯s eyes were cold and apathetic. She felt a shudder and quickly bowed her head to mask the unexpected jolt of emotions.

    When she lifted her head, the cold figure had already vanished.

    Room 303.

    The room had only a single photon processor. Ye Chong had a profound moment of realization. So this was it. It reminded him of the time he epted Yang An¡¯s invitation topete at Blue Ocean Academy. What a familiar sight!

    Could these people not think of more creative ways to test? Why were they all the same?

    As expected, the photon processor was the first round of tests. Of course, it was much harder than the one at Blue Ocean Academy. Time flew, and Ye Chong suddenly felt like he was worlds away from his troubles.

    He was now better than he was at Blue Ocean, and the test was not too hard for him.

    However, Ye Chong did not want to stand out. He waited until thest moment before filling out the answers. The time allocated was also enough for him to think through his problems.

    The quest to find out more about Gao Shichang, who could be Papa, was difficult and risky. Ye Chong did not expect to seed in a day or two - that would be unrealistic. The other party had been very thorough, and it would not be easy to uncover the truth in a short time.

    The situation was such that he had nowhere to begin with. Perhaps entering this research center would be a good idea. Working from the inside should be easier than breaking through from the outside. This would put himself at risk, but Ye Chong could not think of a better idea.

    Ye Chong had already studied every inch of the room when he first entered, ensuring that there was no danger. The room was not spacious. Aside from the photon processor, there was nothing else, also making it impossible to conceal any other people inside.

    Making a solitary venture into the other party¡¯s territory was a dangerous move. Ye Chong had no ns of dying from this. The way he saw it, he would not mind spending years to investigate the matter about Papa, but if he were to die from it, then the costs outweighed the benefits. If Papa was still alive, he would not have approved of it too.

    If everything he did could revive his Papa, then even his life would be worth it. However, try as he may, Papa would nevere back. The thought saddened him.

    Surviving was top priority. Dying in the quest for revenge was a foolish thing for him.

    His mind was as calm and cold as ice. He understood the risks and benefits of this mission. Everything depended on thebined skills and abilities from him, Mu and Shang. With Guardian and Han Jia with him, he should be able to defend himself. Mu and Shang had also prepared an escape n. As for the others, Ye Chong could not hope for them to achieve anything, only that they would stay out of trouble.

    "Switch the disy to room 303." A sweet andzy voice from a woman resonated in the surveince room.

 Chapter 242 - Hired II

    <h4>Chapter 242: Hired II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "An intermediate modification technician?" The candidate¡¯s background surprised her. Her hair was tied up in a high bun, and the hair ends quivered as she lifted her chin, exposing her snow white neck.

    "To think that an intermediate modification technician woulde! Interesting!" Her sultry voice was sweet as honey. One could hear the sound of the others gulping in the surveince room.

    Half lying on a deep crimson sofa was a woman of unrivaled beauty, and she was the one who had spoken. Behind her stood a middle-aged man in a ck suit. His profile was steely, and his muscles bulged under his suit. He looked expressionless, with his hands crossed at his back. From the beginning, his expression had not changed one bit.

    Thedy sat up slightly and lightly tapped on the photon processor on her desk with a slender white finger. The photon processor¡¯s holographic screen image immediately switched to room 303.

    In the holographic feed was a young man, deep in thought.

    Dark red irises framed by thin, long eyebrows, under which was a smooth, aquiline nose. Her moist, lustrous lips drew up into an alluring smile. The unreadable smile made her look even more seductive. This was seduction at its finest, blooming like a flower.

    One could hear simultaneous gasps in the surveince room. Only the man in a suit behind her maintained a cold expression.

    Ye Chong was now using the ample time allocated to think. Back from when he first saw the research center, he had received plenty of information, and now he was attempting to organize them in his mind.

    She watched the young man thinking. No, perhaps the man was no longer so young. He was obviously over 20. This was the youngest candidate Qiu Man had seen so far. Knowledge was umted across time - while a 20-year-old man was considered an adult, he would still be considered a beginner only no matter which field he specialized in.

    However, a talented young man would still be a good choice. Qiu Man looked at the man meaningfully, now realizing that his calm expression was contradicting too much with his age. The naive expression he wore earlier was probably only a trick of the eye. What she was seeing now was a steady, cold man.

    Qiu Man¡¯s eyes gleamed as she noticed this sudden transformation.

    In the holographic feed, the man was calmly entering his answers in the photon processor,cking the joy that most candidates would have when they solved a problem. This was a maturity that belied his age.

    "Indeed, this is an interesting man," Qiu Man thought to herself as her eyes narrowed, her right hand sping lightly on the armrest with slender fingers. Behind her, the middle-aged man stood like a wooden pole.

    Next, the man¡¯s performance surprised her. Even the one who marked his work, old Donald praised him highly, believing him to be a promising mech modification technician. Old Donald was a practical man. His stubbornness was found offensive by many, but his capabilities and insights were never doubted.

    The candidate must be a genius.

    However, the candidate was being too calm about it, such that even Qiu Man herself thought that something was off.

    When she met the young man face-to-face, Qiu Man¡¯s heart was already in a turmoil. The sensitive Qiu Man could sense the sharpness in the man¡¯s calm eyes. His cold demeanor towards his surroundings reminded her of those people known as elites - their eyes were almost identical to this man¡¯s. The thought of those inhuman personalities made Qiu Man very ufortable.

    Swish! Suddenly the wooden middle-aged man behind Qiu Man stepped in front of her. His hollow eyes were suddenly bright as fire, ring at Ye Chong.

    This abrupt turn of events startled everyone around. Even Ye Chong was slightly surprised. The hostility in the other party¡¯s eyes was confounding. Was his cover broken?

    Qiu Man was also just as shocked, as seen from her surprised expression. Even so, she still looked just as beautiful. This was the first time Qiu Guang had moved without her orders. All this while, she had thought Qiu Guang as a puppet, lifeless, and only kept him around because of his strict obedience. However, what happened now baffled her.

    Ye Chong noticed from his movements that the middle-aged man had nifty footwork.

    He was abat expert, and a highly skilled one! It was apparent from the way the man moved with his speed and uracy.

    In that instant, Ye Chong¡¯s muscles tensed. While his feet never left the ground, he was already full of energy, ready to defend himself.

    It would be suicidal to be rxed when within 10 meters of a skilledbat expert. Ye Chong understood the potential damage that could be incurred within this radius more than anyone.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong himself was not too shabby as well as abat expert.

    Ye Chong¡¯s minute physical responses were not unnoticed by the middle-aged man. His elbows lifted a little, his body inclined slightly, and his feet moved apart. To the average person, these seemed like normal movements, but Ye Chong could sense the danger behind them. This further convinced him that thebat expert before him must be very capable.

    Had the other realized his intentions?

    The middle-aged man¡¯s eyes shone brightly with ferventness.

    It was a pity that Qiu Man, shielded behind him, could not see it. She asked curiously, "Guang, what is it?"

    Those words seemed to cool the middle-aged man almost instantly. The ferventness in the eyes of the man called Guang vanished without a trace. His eyes resumed their earlier hollow, lifeless look.

    Guang returned to stand behind Qiu Man without a word, moving like a puppet.

    Qiu Man took a curious nce towards Guang, but did not see anything amiss. She decided to focus her attention back on the young man before her. His appearance had provoked that strange response from the usually passive Guang. Besides, this young man called Takano was a strange character as he was.

    Almost everyone knew the identity of the one who supported Prometheus Group from behind the scenes. It would only be more unusual if none of the other powers send their spies here.

    However, Qiu Man believed that this young man was a spy. The training for spies was different from the training given tobatants. Moreover, spies andbatants gave off very different vibes.

    All of a sudden, Qiu Man felt that the situation had gotten much moreplicated.

 Chapter 243 - Hired III

    <h4>Chapter 243: Hired III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Donald stared fixedly at Ye Chong, and thetter felt like something weird must have grown on his face. Qiu Man was still all smiles, and the middle-aged man behind her that she called Guang was still wearing a stale expression.

    Ye Chong did not know that this beautiful, sophisticated woman was actually feeling very conflicted. It was obvious from Old Donald¡¯s face that the man was a genius, and not a talent to be missed. However, the young man did not seem like any ordinary person. Somehow, she was wary of this man whom she could not read clearly.

    Ye Chong seemed unaffected as he stood silently at his ce, looking very calm.

    Qiu Man took another nce at him, and could not helpugh on the inside. Why was she so troubled all of a sudden? Even if this man had his own hidden agenda, wasn¡¯t the situation still under her control? As long as she increased surveince on him, there would be many ways for her to deal with his movements. It was safer to keep this kind of people under her watch.

    Was she really getting old now? She was growing timid! The woman absently traced her smooth profile.

    This feminine gesture attracted the attention of almost everyone in the room. Even the aging Donald stared at Qiu Man. When he came to himself, the old man blushed.

    Only two people kept their expressions unchanged. One was Ye Chong, and the other was the middle-aged man standing behind Qiu Man, Guang.

    Qiu Man knew how much her actions could influence the people around her. Her looks were her most dependable weapon. That gesture just now may not be entirely done consciously, but she knew that it was this kind of careless show of emotions that really moved others.

    "When had men ever been able to defend themselves against lust?" Sheughed in her own mind.

    When she saw that even someone as old as Donald would blush, she could not help but chuckle. This made Donald feel like burying his head in the ground. However, when her nce swept across the young man¡¯s face, she paused.

    What she saw was a calm and expressionless mask, the kind that made people feel ufortable.

    The woman¡¯s sudden chuckle had startle Ye Chong a bit. Ye Chong was now better at reading people than before. He could see that this woman was not easy to handle, and she was far better at controlling emotions than him.

    However, Ye Chong faced his adversary calmly. He was confident of his own strengths. The current circumstances were advantageous to him. If the other party balked, he was sure that he could escape unscathed. Even if the middle-aged man, Guang was a skilledbat expert, he was not afraid of him.

    In terms ofbat, Ye Chong believed that even if Lan Yixing were alive right now, the man would not be a match against him.

    The woman quickly resumed her peacefulposure, still smiling cheerfully. However, Shang had once told him not to let his guard down, even when the other person was smiling at him. Ye Chong could not agree more.

    Seeing that Ye Chong had no intention of speaking, Qiu Man gave anotherugh and said, "Wee to Prometheus Group!"

    Donald was overjoyed. This beautiful and fatal woman was a mystery to everyone in the research center. Everyone was aware that she had aplicated background, but no one knew of the details. However, none dared to disobey her. Experience showed that those who did all ended up with horrible consequences. Since Qiu Man had decided, it meant that this young man that she had his eyes on was definitely hired.

    Donald¡¯s overjoyed expression was a deep contrast to Ye Chong¡¯s calm face, as if Donald was the one hired, and not Ye Chong.

    Before Ye Chong could react any further, Donald grabbed his arm and ushered him towards hisboratory.

    Qiu Man watched the backs of the two figures as they left, her mouth arching up meaningfully as herrge, pearly eyes gleamed. Her mind was still upied with the reflexive movement of that young man earlier.

    Just when Donald reached for the man, she saw his right hand jerking away in reflex, but the young man quickly reacted and pulled his hand back and towards Donald¡¯s. The movements were so fast that she almost thought it was a trick of the eye, and Donald himself did not seem to even notice.

    "Takano," Qiu Man muttered, looking at the information in her hands.

    It was a pity that she did not see how the eyes of the motionless middle-aged man behind her glowed with ferventness when Ye Chong¡¯s right hand jerked.

    When she turned back, Guang¡¯s eyes had already resumed its typical hollowness.

    The events today seemed to be out of her control, and that made her feel ufortable. Even the usually obedient Guang had acted strangely today, and that surprised her more than anything.

    Seeing Guang now as his usual self, Qiu Man¡¯s delicate eyebrows knitted together.

    "Guang, do you understand me?" Qiu Man probed carefully.

    Guang stood unmoving.

    "Strange, what¡¯s with Guang today?" Seeing Guang looking like his usual self, Qiu Man muttered to herself, but her eyes were discreetly looking for Guang¡¯s reaction.

    Guang did not move, his eyes hollow as always.

    Qiu Man gave up, and went to the door. Guang immediately followed closely behind her.

    Donald¡¯sboratory was so messy that Ye Chong found himself surprised. It felt like returning to the trash.

    All sorts of mech parts were scattered across the floor, and moving around proved difficult. Some of the parts were even rusted. Ye Chong even suspected that the living conditions here may be even worse than on the trash.

    Donald was obviously used to the ce, and did not seem embarrassed.

    "Get familiar with this ce. From today onwards, you¡¯ll be my assistant. Hmm, don¡¯t simply move the things around here. If you questions, feel free to ask me. Remember, don¡¯t disturb me when I¡¯m working," Donald exined.

    Nheless, Ye Chong was currently focused on a light purple ongoing project on one of theboratory workbenches.

 Chapter 244 - Becoming an Assistant

    <h4>Chapter 244: Bing an Assistant</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    This must be an unfinished mech engine. It had a light purple alloy shell, with aplex mesh of intricate photon circuits inside. The light flowing within the circuits looked like something from another world. All the parts seemed exquisite. While it was still unfinished, Ye Chong could already sense the power it would one day be capable of.

    Ye Chong was not proficient with engines; that was up to Lian Yue, the real expert. However, before Lian Yue had joined Cob, Ye Chong did his own studies in mech engines. His earliest experience was with ck Cove¡¯s mech engines, andter the ones from the Sanctuary. He had dismantled the Dawn mechs a few times himself. However, the one he was most familiar with was the MPA¡¯s mech engines. In Mu and Shang¡¯s database were plenty of mech schematics of MPA¡¯s, including their mech engines.

    In terms of knowledge in engines, Ye Chong had much to catch up with Lian Yue, but when it came to exposure to different mech engine models, Ye Chong held the advantage.

    The mech engines from the Three Forces all had their own unique characteristics, and were based on vastly different principles. However, their performance were about the same. Ye Chong at least noticed that mech models of the same level from the Three Forces moved at about the same speed. On the other hand, for mech engines of different levels in the same organization, the engine designs did not differ in design principle, but only in the quality of building material and detailed structure.

    Ye Chong had thought that these three mech engine principles were the foremost in the world today.

    However, looking at this unfinished engine, Ye Chong felt like he had just been struck in the head, and felt a little dazed. This was apletely new design,pletely different from the three principles he knew of!

    At a certain level, Ye Chong was simr to academics. When he saw this original mech design, his rational mind took a back seat momentarily, astonished as he was.

    Four support chambers stretched out from the engine body like legs, an odd sight. Mech engines with support chambers were not unheard of, but usually only one or two were used. This was the first time Ye Chong saw a mech engine with four support chambers. He was getting a little too eager to see what was inside the engine.

    However, he did nothing, and his expression remained unchanged. He did not even give another nce at the workbench. After Donald finished with the induction, his back was to Ye Chong as he worked, so Ye Chong¡¯s minute changes in expression went by unnoticed.

    Everything was just beginning.

    Ye Chong began to tidy up theboratory. This was a difficult task, but one that Ye Chong was most familiar with. On the trash, Ye Chong was solely responsible for the cleanliness of his home, so the routine was natural for him.

    Donald was definitely a workaholic, oblivious to the world once he started working. When he was done, he was surprised to find theboratory looking very different. All his stuff was arranged in categories around the room, and theb now looked neat and tidy.

    Donald did not think much of these things. He took a nce at Ye Chong and said, "You should be spending your time on work, and not waste it on cleaning up theb. You have talent, but this doesn¡¯t mean you have time to waste. Workbench 2 has a modification outline, go and calcte the grinding value."

    Ye Chong acknowledged. He was not discouraged with how Donald ignored hisbor, since he knew that researchers like him often do not ce importance in things over than research work.

    Of course, Ye Chong did not reorganize theb for cleanliness, or forfort. To him, an organized ce would make work more efficient. However, he had no intention of exining himself to Donald.

    Ye Chong was always decisive in his actions. He immediately turned towards Workbench 2. Behind him, Donald¡¯s eyes shed with approval, but he quickly returned to his own work.

    The grinding value was a troublesome calction. While it was not difficult, the nitty-gritty details involved were often enough to drive someone crazy. This was also one of those calctions that demanded a good fundamental base of knowledge, since the steps of calctions were too detailed, epassing almost 80 percent of all basic calctions rted to mechs.

    To Ye Chong, however, it was not too difficult a task. He had patience, and his foundation was solid, to a level that even Donald would not have expected. Back in the days, he studied mech foundations intensively at Aurora, and the elderlies¡¯ unceasing attention to him made him very knowledgeable in mech principles. These days, the younger generation would never spend time on something like this.

    Ye Chong could even identify ces where the mech modification schematics seemed unreasonable. Mech modification was his specialty. With his richbat experience, he knew better than most mod technicians on ways to better improvebat performance. The schematics he was studying now had a bnced design, but there were many details that Ye Chong thought could be improved. Whichever mod technician drew up this mech modification schematics must be quite capable. There were a few new ideas in there that inspired Ye Chong.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong had no time to study it closely. He dived right into the work of calcting the grinding value.

    "Hmm, not bad, it¡¯s close to what I expected. Err, let me see, this is Rigg¡¯s modification schematics, not bad at all. Hmm, you¡¯ve learned about mech modification before, right?" Donald suddenly turned to Ye Chong and asked.

    "Yes." Ye Chong replied.

    "Your foundations are not bad, quite solid, it¡¯s rare to see that in young people nowadays." Donald continued, "Hmm, try to improve his schematics and reduce the grinding value by 0.05."

    With that, Donald turned back to his work and ignored Ye Chong.

    "This is information on Takano?" Qiu Man looked at the brief and simple information in her hands. Her brows knitted together, her alluring profile turned dignified.

 Chapter 245 - An Expected Disappointment

    <h4>Chapter 245: An Expected Disappointment</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The underling was terrified, and quickly replied respectfully, "Yes, this just came in from the Intelligence Division."

    The Intelligence Division was a reliable source of information. Had she not been very familiar with someone on the inside, it would have been impossible to obtain this dossier. The Intelligence Division would not have wasted their efforts on something so trivial.

    Takano was not a fake identity - this was apparent from the dossier. The Intelligence Division had one of the longest histories of existence, having been set up over two decades ago. Besides, she knew the boss of the division, and what that boss specialized in.

    On the surface, this person¡¯s background was sparkling clean. However, Qiu Man thought otherwise. The content of the dossier was too simple, not enough to even derive anything useful out of it.

    For the moment, however, she had run out of moves. Behind her, Guang still stood with a wooden expression. Due to his odd reaction that day, Qiu Man had gone out of the way to bring him to that mysteriousboratory, but the man did not behave any different than usual, which made Qiu Man gave up in the end.

    Ye Chong did not know that he had caught Qiu Man¡¯s attention. Everyday, he worked in Old Donald¡¯sboratory, from early morning tillte at night, without much rest. He was beginning to think that he would begin to forget why he was there in the first ce.

    Ye Chong had always yearned for this kind of in but fulfilling life. He was no longer as curious of the world as he was when on the trash.

    Old Donald would alwayse up with all sorts of crazy ideas. When he saw Ye Chong sessfully reducing the grinding value of the mech modification schematics by 0.05, he began to delegate much harder tasks to Ye Chong. This was exasperating to Ye Chong, but he could not help but also felt intrigued by those new ideas.

    He was not aware, of course, of how surprised Old Donald was at this stage. Some of the problems he had delegated to Ye Chong involved some rtively unknown fields of knowledge. He was sure that even those so-called advanced mod technicians would not be able to solve them. However, this young man with the title of intermediate mod technician had surprised him again and again to his delight. Moreover, his ingenuity also impressed him.

    As expected, he was not wrong! Donald felt thankful that he insisted back then, or he would have missed his chance with this genius. All this while, he had always been lonely. Now that he was growing old, he wished to find a capable student, but did not want to start teaching from the basics.

    In this hiring session, Qiu Man may have been the decision maker, but anything rted to his field of knowledge would be left to him. Ye Chong was such an example. His solutions were different from the ones stored in the photon processor, so they were sent to Donald himself. Ye Chong¡¯s demonstration of his talent made Donald so excited that he immediately rushed to see the young man.

    The hiring session was still going on for now, but none of the candidates¡¯ responses had required his attention anymore.

    By the time the hiring session ended, Ye Chong had already been working there for close to half a month.

    In this half a month, Ye Chong had also began to have a rough understand of the organization. Mech Research Center 76 was a subsidiary mech research center of the Prometheus Group. There were many research centers like this under the Group. From the products of these centers, it was clear that they were not involved with the core products of Prometheus Group.

    What Ye Chong thought was strange was that a subsidiary organization like this would have someone as good as Donald. Donald was a master of his field, and should not be here. He should be at the core of the research work. Ye Chong believed that the Freedom Alliance would not make such a careless mistake.

    After spending time so much time with Donald, Ye Chong believed that he could judge his abilities quite well. The man was another master level mech expert that he had met, the second he had met in the Five Gxies, with the other being Fred the Great. Fred¡¯s Yu Di was an excellent mech with crafty designs, limited in power only by the materials avable to him.

    In terms of mech knowledge, these masters from the Five Gxies were not so far off from the masters of the Sanctuary or ck Cove. It was a pity that the Five Gxies werecking by a wide margin in terms of fundamental researchpared to the Three Forces, such as in metal alloys.

    Ye Chong did not know how the Freedom Alliance fared in terms of research, but he believed that no organization would leave such a master level expert outside of their core research team. Besides, the research center¡¯s director was the woman he met that day. From the gossip flowing around him, Ye Chong came to know that the woman had aplicated background. Everyone in the research center was wary of her. Even Donald, who acted arrogantly in front of others, would behave himself before this woman.

    While the woman had always smiled at him whenever they met, Ye Chong always felt a chill inside him. The puppet-like middle-aged man behind her was also someone to watch out for - the man was no amateur!

    This seemingly ordinary subsidiary center was not as innocent as it seemed to be. However, Ye Chong did not wish to look further into it. He was here because of the man who shared his Papa¡¯s name; there was no need toplicate things.

    However, Ye Chong was disappointed to find that he had found out nothing about Gao Shichang so far. Fortunately, Ye Chong was not in a hurry. He knew exactly how difficult this operation was going to be, and his disappointment was only to be expected.

    During his time here, Ye Chong had contacted Mu, but only through thems device. Ye Chong described his situation briefly. Mu had no issues on his side. Careful as he was in his disguise, he had not invited the attention of that super hacker yet.

    Cob still operated as normal, and the people onboard all behaved themselves, staying out of trouble. Without Mu¡¯s permission, no one was allowed to open the hatch. However, Mu reported that Zhu Ling seemed to have reached a bottleneck in her training. Mu asked Ye Chong if he should pass over the information about mentalist training extorted from Mr Yinst time to her. ording to Mu, this could increase the chances of her breaking through her bottleneck by 53 to 60 percent.

    Ye Chong gave it a moment¡¯s thought, and agreed with Mu¡¯s suggestion. After all, he had given Overwing to her anyway, and the information about mentalists was useless to him. Ye Chong knew that he was not suited at all for mentalist training. If he could not even get pass the most basic meditation training, then the rest of the training would be wasted on him. Giving the information to Zhu Ling, who had a solid training foundation, was the wiser choice.

    With this, however, the gap between Ye Chong and Zhu Ling would grow evenrger. He was no match against Zhu Ling with her Overwing. Now that he passed the mentalist training information to her, the disparity in their abilities would further widen.

    When would he finally be able to own a mech that was on the same level as Overwing, but more suited for himself?

    That day seemed so very far away! Ye Chong looked at the mech parts in his hands. The designs were exquisite, but the thought of Overwing dampened his mood.

    "Takano,e with me for a moment," Donald interrupted Ye Chong¡¯s musings.

 Chapter 246 - Troublesome Woman

    <h4>Chapter 246: Troublesome Woman</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Lian was surprised to see Ye Chong following behind Donald. She remembered well the intermediate modification technician that she had ushered that day when she was on duty. These days, she was busy with the hiring session and was not aware that the young man was already recruited. It was no wonder that she was surprised to find him trailing behind Donald.

    Ye Chong did not notice Lian. On the day of his interview, his attention was focused on all the other candidates. Lian may be a pretty woman, but for someone as obtuse as Ye Chong, it was not enough. Ye Chong only saw the crowd behind the woman. They were all above 40 years of age, and their hands seemed to be heavily calloused. Ye Chong realised then that they were all candidates who had been hired.

    Lian bowed slightly to Donald and said, "Chief, they¡¯re all here." When she lifted her head, she was surprised to see the young man standing just beside Chief Donald. Experienced workers would know to never stand beside their superior during a lecture session. It was more appropriate to stand a half step behind their superior.

    This young man was obviously inexperienced. Thus was Lian¡¯s conclusion, but Chief Donald did not seem to be offended.

    Donald nodded expressionlessly and looked around. "Is Ms Qiu not here?"

    Lian replied respectfully, "Ms Qiu is currently upied with other matters. She said that you will be in charge here."

    Donald grunted in acknowledgement and faced the crowd. "Since you¡¯re all hired, that means you must be at least somewhat capable. As long as you work hard, I believe you will be properly rewarded. As for the general scope of your work, I believe you must have received it. All in all, here in the center, it¡¯s all about walking the talk."

    All the new recruits listened quietly with respect. After all, this was Donald, the only Great Master on Rainbow! Most of the recruits here were his fans. Only Ye Chong¡¯s unmoved expression as he stood right beside Donald was a little odd.

    "I think you¡¯re all familiar with your job scopes. I don¡¯t have time to follow up with all of you individually. This is my assistant, Takano. If you have any questions, find him. He will also be responsible for inspecting your work."

    His words were met with an outburst from the crowd.

    All of them, besides Lian, had thought that Ye Chong was Donald the Great¡¯s student. While there were many academic institutions avable these days, some still preferred the traditional way of teaching. However, this young man looked like he had just passed his 20th birthday, how could he take on such an important duty?

    Lian also let out a soft gasp despite herself, but quickly covered her mouth. However, her eyes still shone strongly with disbelief. The research center never had such a young researcher, much less allow him to do work inspection. It was usually the more experienced and reputable old researchers who were given this role. They were more persuasive both in terms of their abilities and their reputation. However, this young man was only an intermediate mod technician, and he was so young. What was Chief Donald thinking?

    Ye Chong was also shocked, and groaned inside. He had joined this center to infiltrate further into Prometheus Group, and find out more about Gao Shichang. Laying low was his priority, but now Donald¡¯s order had pushed him to the forefront of attention.

    Fortunately, he was able to keep his cool, at least maintaining his calm exterior.

    Donald was satisfied with everyone¡¯s reaction, and even more impressed with Ye Chong¡¯sposure. From the work he had delegated to Ye Chong recently, he could tell that this intermediate mod technician was actually far more capable than the average advanced mod technician. Besides, his creativity was a rare quality for most mod technicians.

    This talent should be nurtured. Hence, Donald made his decision. Besides, he understood the real intention behind the research here. To the higher-ups, the projects given to these new recruits were only a cover for the outsiders to see. He still had his own experiments to do, and did not want to waste time on these meaningless chores. Even if Ye Chong were to blunder up, it would not matter. Donald hoped that the work would be good training for Ye Chong. To him, that was what most young peoplecked.

    Ye Chong said nothing. Donald was happy to see him so steady, and so dered that the meeting was over.

    "Assistant Gao, please have a look at this matrix arrangement."

    "Assistant Gao, can you please look at this new photon circuit schematics? I can¡¯t seem to find out where the problem is."

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    There were too many requests like theseing in, and Ye Chong soon earned their respect. Qiu Man did not object to Donald¡¯s decision after her return. Besides, Ye Chong¡¯s performance surprised them all.

    Even Donald, who gave the role to Ye Chong, was also surprised. He did not expect Ye Chong to do his job so well. To him, the young man may be a genius, but he was only a 20-year-old teen, and knowledge took time to umte.

    However, Ye Chong¡¯s performance was too impressive.

    Ye Chong had a solid foundation, and was familiar with a wide range of subjects that people began to wonder is he was actually a Great Master in mechs in his previous life! Almost all problems presented to him were easily solved, and while they may be very difficult, some of them involved some rtively unknown mech subjects.

    Who was his teacher? What would it take to produce such an exemry student?

    In particr, his creativity and flexibility were astonishing. His creative solutions were all easy to realise, and mose people began to wonder if he was actually an old veteran in mech modifications. Young people may be bursting with creativity, but most of them were unrealistic ideas, impossible to trante into actual products.

    This was the difference between reality and ideas.

    Only a truly experienced mech modification technician could handle the delicate bnce between the two. Soon, the researchers found that the young assistant called Takano was able to trante his creativity into practical solutions. This ability that did not match his age won the approval of the other researchers.

    The atmosphere in the research center was cheerful, and Ye Chong¡¯s performance won respect and approval. No one doubted the appropriateness of Donald¡¯s decision.

    In fact, Ye Chong was quite taken aback by the atmosphere around him. Fortunately, he still remembered his original mission. His keen sense told him that the woman called Qiu Man was watching him. Many a time did he find that woman¡¯s smiling eyes sh meaningfully at him.

    The woman was an annoyance to Ye Chong. Her smile was always faint and unreadable. Ye Chong found that no one could stand against her. Even Old Donald, with his skin all wrinkled up from age, would blush at the sight of her.

    This made Ye Chong wary. He dared not rx whenever the woman was around. Fortunately, nothing strange had happened so far. The woman¡¯s influence was so strong that it surprised Ye Chong. Just a nce, and Ye Chong could feel his heart racing for no reason.

    When it had happened the first time, Ye Chong was almost scared out of his wits, thinking that he was attacked by an unknown force. Was it an infrasound wave attack? Fortunately, he quickly caught up to what was really happening.

    "Biology ss really doese in handy." Such was Ye Chong¡¯s first thought upon his realisation.

    Ye Chong never thought that a person¡¯s nce could be so powerful. Fortunately, he was also very good at controlling himself. Even as he trembled inside, his face betrayed nothing. This became something of a legend in the research center, as Ye Chong was the only man who could stayposed before Qiu Man.

    Ever since thatst incident, Ye Chong was very conscious of his own reactions. It was not that he thought badly of this natural response, but he felt that it would put him in danger.

    Ye Chong remembered someone saying that the difference between humans and animals is that humans could control their natural instincts.

    Besides, the expressionless man standing behind the woman was also someone he should be careful of. While Ye Chong could not see any reason for that man to attack him, the situation was still unclear. If he grew careless before abat expert and made a mistake, he would be so dead.

    Qiu Man smiled enticingly and called, "Takano."

    It was like a flower had bloomed in full glory, and everyone in the entire room except Ye Chong experienced apse in attention. Ye Chong acknowledged with a wooden expression, but inside he was tormented. This was not the first time for him, but Ye Chong had no choice. His reaction was also the center of attention. If he ignored the woman any further, he would create further problems for himself.

    For the time being, Ye Chong did not want to stir things up, but this did not mean that he was averse to it. Ye Chong lowered his head, and the sh in his eyes went unnoticed.

 Chapter 247 - I Had Gone Too Far!

    <h4>Chapter 247: I Had Gone Too Far!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Qiu Man was unable to see through the man standing before her, as the man had always been disying a kind of indifference while retaining the same expressionless features whenever she saw him. Even his eyes were not wavering at the slightest bit. Qiu Man was not the pompous and conceited kind of woman, but at least she knew herself well enough to tell where to stop and which part of her would work most likely. The man was never moved by her words and gestures however, as he stood there, immobile like a sculpture. It was certainly demotivating for her.

    That was the first time she actually doubted her own charm as her curiosity over this very man named Takeno grew. She could tell from her observation that he must have some kind of unspeakable motive to be here, although Takano had yet taken any unusual action to justify her intuition. It could be her overthinking, but she trusted her intuition deeply.

    Very well, it''s not like we have the super top-secret here. It could be interesting, Takano. Thought Qiu Man, intrigued.

    "Takano, I have been hearingpliments from the colleagues on your works recently," she let off a brief smile, as the fleshy cheeks of her formed two sweet-looking dimples, her alluring stare suggested otherwise. The air in the room felt a little sugary out of sudden. It was refreshing and warm, except for that Guang who was exerting his iciness through hisck of expression and soulless eyes.

    Ye Chong felt nothing towards her tease. He had been through the same situation for countless times, that he was able to fully control himself from reacting over such level of teasing. He did not let out a word as in his eyes, the woman in front seemed to be emanating a kind of danger, which kept him alert all the time.

    Qiu Man, as if expected Ye Chong to stay muted, chuckled briefly as she got up from her seat and did an outrageous stretch on her back. The perfect curve of blood-surging proportion was waving before him. If there were other men in the room, they would probably be dead by now, due to the excessive loss of blood through the nose.

    Ye Chong did not see the curve as he had shifted his entire attention to the surrounding instead. He looked at Guang, themp, the window, this was one of the ways Ye Chong could think of. His brain had identified Qiu Man to be none other than a mere humanoid mutated species, like which man would be aroused by a mutated lifeform?

    She skipped her step, a swing as she moved to Ye Chong¡¯s side. Her enchanting smile was maic, her eyes were electrifying, every part of her body was speaking.

    Her expressive eyes stared right into Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, her body tilted forward, with the deep fissure over the hills sneaking through her buttons.

    Ye Chong still remained unmoved. His expression was frozen, as if he was staring the air. His damned eyes were unwavering as before.

    Dammit! Ughhh! This little¡­ Qiu Man started to get agitated, although her smile grew far more gorgeous than before. "Hmm~?" She raised her chin slightly, exposing her neck, the gesture held the same effect towards the opposite gender. Qiu Man was very much convinced that this could be her best performance ever since she was born.

    Being so close, she could discern every detail on Ye Chong¡¯s face. Other than the asional muscle contraction due to his profound respiration, she saw nothing else. His eyes, contrary to her expectation, were not reacting to anything she did.

    Qiu Man did not intend to give up just yet, as she further reduced the distance between them, with her tender lips almost onto Ye Chong''s cheek while her lifted arm gently approached the man¡¯s cheek. The scene was suggestive at all angles. The only thing that felt off was Qiu Man¡¯s loyal Guang who stood there like amp stand.

    Ye Chong was not sparing attention at the inching lust, as his eyes were on Guang who began approaching towards him. This man, he is very dangerous. Commented Ye Chong.

    A moist, warm breath of the wild sprayed upon his face.

    Ye Chong flinched.

    Teehehee¡­ it¡¯s working! Qiu Man was excited over her first achievement on this man for she finally broke the petrifying spell of the man.

    Ye Chong had always been maintaining a certain distance away from people. He would react even on a man¡¯s approach, let alone a mutated lifeform. He would not be Ye Chong if he did not take any action.

    His pupils shrunk drastically. "Ouch!" Ye Chong¡¯s curved left arm rocketed high, seizing that strange thing invading his proximity.

    "Ow Ow Ow!" Qiu Man could not help but to wail pitifully, which did not seem appealing to Ye Chong at all. Never once he would have a soft spot for a mutated lifeform in a disguise of human. The seize was a really forceful one. "O!" Qiu Man could feel her wrist shattering, as her beautiful face squeezed into something indiscernible.

    Crack. The sound of bones cracking rang throughout theroom.

    The attack, habitually by Ye Chong, also came in a set. Once the first blow was sessfully delivered, the second would follow. His eyes had spotted all the critical points on this mutated puppet which had lost her bnce. And of course, he aimed the throat of Qiu Man, as his right hands, having its fingers slightly curled, zapped towards the target!

    "No. No¡­ No¡­" Qiu Man¡¯s expressive eyes were dramatically expressing her bottomless fear and astonishment. "No!"

    Wham. A hand blocked Ye Chong¡¯sunching hand.

    The strength was so much greater than Ye Chong¡¯s expectation. He then felt a gale swaying his left hand, which he immediately loosened as he backed off.

    He raised his eyes and saw a pair of eyes with luster of war. Guang made a fancy turn on his arms and held the fallingdy.

    Wait what? Ye Chong only realized by then, that he had been facing Qiu Man and not some humanoid mutated lifeform.

    Guang remained in his stance and had not taken any action.

    "My hand¡­ Ow¡­" Ye Chong gave a nce at the tearingdy, "Please do not get too close," he said and left.

    Guang did not hold Ye Chong back, as his searing eyes were cooling down, soon returning their usual soulless expression.

    Great. The moment Ye Chong left the room, he felt bitter of himself. I had gone too far¡­ I was not sure who Qiu Man actually was in thepany but she led the tasks of the entire research unit, that even Donald the elderly had to listen to her opinions before every move. She seemed to have a strong background, which could have been having millions of instances with the authority. And here I am, breaking her hand. No way I would ever be infiltrating the core of thepany¡­

    The situation was bad, really bad, as Ye Chong wondered if Qiu Man would be enraged and the security would be called. Once he left Qiu Man¡¯s room, he started sprinting, like a falling meteorite. He ran against the inertia and tried getting away with his misconduct. Running away would be the best option.

    Ye Chong had always depicted an indifferent character to the other researchers in the center. But that very scene where he sprinted like an animal in a forest fire had attracted the surprised look of his colleagues. They tried greeting him, sometimes asking him what had happened. There was no answer from him, only ignorance and an increasing velocity of his steps.

    People were astounded, as they never expected the assistant to be such a runner. A really fast one too.

 Chapter 248 - The Chase I

    <h4>Chapter 248: The Chase I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong tried collecting his thoughts afterwards. He must admit that it would be too far-fetched for one to infiltrate the insides of thepany. He knew himself well, that he would be thest person on Rainbow to be assigned with this task. And among Mu, Shang and he himself, probably only Shang could do it well. But it certainly was not the right time to contact Shang, he was unavable at the moment. And they could not switch just yet, Mu had an important task on the table. If without Mu¡¯s guard, fearing the super Maverick in the dark, Ye Chong would not be able to conduct anything.

    It was clear that an assassin who could deliver a deadly blow upon you would be a nuisance to deal alone. It felt as if he was in the dark, with his eyes coveting the time to make the strike. You would be fully exposed, head to toes, the pressure would be something unimaginable.

    Ye Chong had never worried about this before, since he was given Mu Shang¡¯s assistance, which happened to be the trump on his deck. Ye Chong could now feel the potency of Mu Shang as the actual fearsomeness of a super Maverick was defined in his mind. He was d that Mu was there, along with Little Rock. He could at least ensure his own safety even though they might be underwhelmed in front of a sky walker. He was confident over Mu, as always. No way he would dare to travel to Rainbow if Mu was not there.

    Rainbow was their of the foe, which was reinforced throughout the years the foe had been running on the itself. It would be ridiculous if the foe imed to not have infiltrated every corner on the.

    It was not a wild goose chase for Ye Chong over the past few days anyway. He managed to take a good look at every spot in the research center. There were asions where he even paid a night visit, rummaging every drawer and folder, even though he ended up discovering nothing. As far as Ye Chong had observed thus far, the only valuable thing would be that developing new engine model of Donald the elderly.

    Donald the aged was facing problem making a breakthrough on his development apparently.

    At Ye Chong¡¯s current level he could not really tell the meaning behind each detail of the engine¡¯s design, but that would not prevent him from appraising it. Just like most thefts happening out there, the thief might not be able to perceive the beauty of a well-known masterpiece, but he knew the fact that a drawing would not be called "masterpiece" for no reason, his senses were great enough to justify his judgement.

    The security of the research unit was nearly non-existent. It was as effortless as sneaking into your own house as Ye Chong made it through. Obviously thepany showed little concern towards Donald¡¯s research, judging by theck of proper security facilities, which was a nice setting for Ye Chong. He eventually copied down every information rted to the engine. He knew, if he passed this n to Lian Yue, it would not take long before the newest engine model had officially showed up in this world. Ye Chong would be ridiculed if he never fully utilized the master craftsman on his ship.

    Well, the unfortunate part was, Ye Chong did not take the hassle to travel for this upleted engine or he would have been calling everyone in the ship to prepare for departure and leave this menacing already.

    There had yet clues on papa this far, while the n for infiltration did seem unpractical. Did someone say invasion? Are you joking?

    There was no clue. And it was something that happened 20 years ago. Thinking of the possibility to actually acquire something, Ye Chong was in a nk dismay.

    Wait!

    Ye Chong sprung up from his seat, his eyes grew intense, as he listened to the surrounding carefully. Now that Mu was not by his side, without those fancy super detection he had to rely on his senses in order to survive. Fortunately, his senses did not weaken throughout the journey.

    Ye Chong was currently at a residential area. Technically, whichever it was, the residential area always seemed to be the most chaotic area in the ce. The people might have gained their happiness living on the, while being provided free residences by the government as part of their citizenship. However, anyone would have moved away from the area the moment they had gained additional disposable ie, since in reality¡­ this was the ce with the worst safety and outdated facilities while illustrating the lowest standard of living on the.

    Everyone here had one simple wish, that is, to leave this damned ce as soon as possible.

    Nheless, such ce would be perfect as Ye Chong¡¯s hideout. No way that Qiu Man would take no action after today¡¯s incident where Ye Chong snapped her hand. So he remained highly alert for the time being.

    What¡¯sing wille.

    Ye Chong did not have any form of regret over what he had done. Even though he had degraded his position in the situation through that unthoughtful behavior of his, regrets would not do any help. What he could do was to figure out a way to ovee this issue and have a good session of repentance so that he would not repeat the same mistake in future. But¡­ will the same thing not happen again? Will I be able to prevent myself from doing that? Ye Chong gave a bitterugh.

    He deployed the Guardian in stealth.

    The Guardian would perform better than Han Jia in the concrete jungle. He went into the cabin, with the weing vision of monochrome.

    Boom! The walls fell into debris, the dust flew up high.

    The materials used to build these residences were of rather tedious quality. At least the dusty scene gave Ye Chong the best camouge he needed.

    The daggers had already been withdrawn. Ye Chong sometimes wondered what mechanism formed these daggers. The twin daggers of the Guardian remained as a mystery to him. The Guardian - the result of Gu Shaoze¡¯s brilliance - had never failed to surprise him again and again.

    And the twin daggers were disying a sharpness that Ye Chong believed to be the strongest among all weapons he had seen before.

    Ye Chong made his move before the dust subsided!

    Whichever brand the hologram detection system was, its uracy would always decrease with theplication of the area.

    And within such a crammed area, the jumbling system did not seem to be more reliable than the primitive senses of humanity, especially for Ye Chong who possessed an astonishingly sensibility.

    A tip to his toes, Ye Chong did a gesture to initiate his run, as he fired himself off like a golden cannon ball, dashing right into the endless sandstorm.

    The information was overloading the visual system of the Guardian, as the projection was utterly disordered. The refreshing data was flooding the intercourse, which refreshed at a speed that Ye Chong could no longer distinguish. It just looked like a in white milky way with intensive motion.

    He decided to close his eyes instead. There was no panic as he remained as calm as the falling snow. His breath was inaudible as he set his focus upon his hearing.

    Ye Chong was naturally acquainted with amazing hearing, which was further developed ever since he began meditating. The chip given by Lan Yixing also included a very detailed guide on the application of the sense of hearing inbats. Legend said there were practitioners whose hearings were so great that they could literally fight with their eyes closed, as they could hear the flow of the wind to help them make the judgement.

    Well, that would be something Ye Chong could only be envious of. He relied on his hearing anyway. It seemed reckless yet he had already sorted it out in his mind - his hearing might not be as great as the legendary practitioners, but he did not fight unarmed, he was in a mech where people could hear the clearer happening inside. That would be more than sufficient for me to make an urate judgement.

    Klink, nk, thump. The falling of the debris¡­

    Hoo¡­ Ha¡­ Hoo¡­ The sound of my own breath¡­

    Hush¡­ Hush¡­ The sound of the wind¡­

    Wham! It was not loud but Ye Chong could hear that sonorous sounding at the front off is left. 12 meters away!

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands which had beenying over the control panel began to move!

 Chapter 249 - The Chase II

    <h4>Chapter 249: The Chase II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Guardianunched itself forward soundlessly. The sound of striking of where itnded, as its right arm tightened, the strength mustered, began stirring a storm while it waved heavily. Ye Chong put his ounces of strength in it, hush¡­ the air around started streaming towards the center of the gale he stirred, which then transformed into a high spinning cut. Shush¡­ The sudden pulling from his spin defogged a tiny area around him, a nked zone in the dusty storm, The scenery near Ye Chong had been cleared up temporarily.

    The monochrome vision became much clearer as few crossing white lines had defined Ye Chong¡¯s view.

    His left arm moved once more, with neither hesitation nor distraction, without either inuracy or unnecessary gestures, he smashed upon the hurricane he formed, before the dust had fallen. The violently torn air sshed upon the area, as dust once again camouged Ye Chong.

    The technique he used was part of the inspiration he got during his practice of unarmedbats, as he realized such movement could produce a powerful conglomerating effect upon the air in the surrounding. Well, he did not expect it to be this effective when he carried it out on the Guardian.

    The loud sound was obviously from a mech. No time to waste, as Ye Chong tipped the mech on his toes and fired himself backwards. He did not care if he was heading into a wall or whatever, as he knew the foe was a done for within a nce, since he had destroyed the engine of the foe just now with his blow.

    He sprinted again, desperately running towards the outside. Thendscape had always provided him additional aid when he needed it, ironically the currentndscape was nothing more than an obstacle course for Ye Chong¡¯s runaway. He would need to get as far as possible before¡­

    Boom! The thunderous explosion urred behind Ye Chong, as the strong momentum raided the ce in waves. Ye Chong, not managed to get into a safe zone, was lifted by the shockwave caused by the explosion. The Guardians body was petite and light, Ye Chong inside it only felt a brutal force tossing him to the far corner.

    Fortunately his fleshes were coated by the Guardian, he remained intact despite the heavy fall. But the explosion gave him a shocker. Man¡­ this guy¡¯s explosion was a little bit more than I expected¡­

    Ye Chong got up from the ground, feeling a little disappointed of the long-anticipated first battle he had with the mech. It seemed like the mechs from Freedom Alliance weren¡¯t somethingpared to the 3 forces, the energy stability was poorly developed. From my experience, there won¡¯t be such dramatic explosion even if the engine of the mechs of the 3 forces were shot. Commented Ye Chong in his mind, being a mech expert himself.

    ??

    Ye Chong had his mouth open when he saw the huge dentation on the ground. The explosion had wiped out the surrounding residence. That was not the reason for his opened mouth, rather it was the mechs that appeared right next to the dentation, around ¡­

    Neen?! There were 19 mechs? Including the one I smashed, there would be 20 of them.

    They actually sent 20 mechs to finish me? This is too much¡­ Or did they discover my true identity, that¡¯s why the hassle? Or mechs on this were actually this cheap?

    He had seen this model on primary. Those broad muzzles andbative weapons over the body, there were even ancientnces, maic des¡­ some were too weird to be recognized by Ye Chong.

    They were cool on designs but they seemed rather graceless at the moment as being rmed by the unforeseen explosion, which they remained confused of what had happened. The Guardian¡¯s anti-detection system had done a brilliant job in this situation. Judging by their reaction, those men were unaware of Ye Chong¡¯s existence, yet.

    This was the first encounter with the Freedom Alliance and within the first 5 minutes Ye Chong could already see theck of experience of fight against an actual mech as well as the necessary anti-detection mechanism. Those were the basics and if it was one of the three forces they would have changed to Photon Mode and seen Ye Chong immediately.

    With its barely 2 meter height, being in an area with suchplicatedndscape while utilizing its superior anti-detection mechanism, the chance of it being discovered would be drastically low.

    And Ye Chong did not intend to remind them of his existence. This is obviously a good chance to run. I would be a fool if I stayed here and waved at them, saying "Hello I¡¯m here!".

    What he had done was evidently horrible. It felt like he had poked the wrong beehive as he saw the rming situation after he scurried out of the residence zone, with flocks and flocks of their mechs flying in the sky. The mech seemed to be the unmodified, standard model for Freedom Alliance. The number though, it gave Ye Chong another shock, which convinced him why the Freedom Alliance, despite itsck of experience and technology, would not shun the war with the 3 forces. Are they ying the number game? But from where they could get pilots this many? Mechs are a mere issue to be resolved by manufacturing, but you can¡¯t manufacture pilots! Ye Chong understood the fact well.

    So who Qiu Man really is in the Freedom Alliance? I¡¯m not buying the fact that the hassle they took was merely because of a random employee¡¯s broken hand.

    There were always time and ce for this but not now.

    Ye Chong, after observing the situation, deduced his defeat if he were to run to the opening now, as being swarmed upon by the mechs. He would be so dead even if the Guardian was godly.

    Beep¡­

    Ye Chong quickly dialed the modifiedmunicator.

    "Ye. It seemed like you have caused something?" Mu¡¯s t voice sounded a little teasing for some reason but Ye Chong felt very much rxed as judging by his tone, Ye Chong was not at a dead end yet.

    "Yeah, I must admit, that woman is a nasty one to handle," confessed Ye Chong, with his expression illustrating helplessness. "I swear Shang would enjoy doing this if he was there." Thought Ye Chong to himself so suddenly for some reason.

    "As statistics had shown, women have a significantly higher pointer of danger than men. Probably only Shang would be very interested in this. Mhm, Ye, this would be the optimum escape path I nned based on the situation just now. You only have 10 minutes at most. The probability of ourmunication being decoded by the enemies is very high," reminded Mu.

    Ye Chong quickly memorized his escape path. It took him 10 seconds to do so, well the scouting he made in the city for the past few days was not for nothing, as every street and alley had already been imprinted in his mind. Since he was informed of the threatening existence of a super Maverick, he was pressure to be very, very well-prepared, although he did not really expect all these preparatory works woulde in handy this soon. Even though¡­

    Runaway? I¡¯m running again? Am I going to run for the rest of my life? Sighed Ye Chong, as he leaped his steps, going for another runaway.

 Chapter 250 - The Chase III

    <h4>Chapter 250: The Chase III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Grandpa! I never asked you to touch him!" said Qiu Man, making a rather cutesy rant like a little girl, contrary to her mature self. Her face reddened in adorable annoyance was somewhat appealing.

    "Hmph. That fe wanted to touch my granddaughter? I think he wanted to die, that¡¯s why. You have never been touched by anybody ever since you were young, and this damned fool actually snapped your hand? I don¡¯t feel right if I don¡¯t grind him a thousand times." Inside the projection of amunicator on the wall, a white haired elderly was throwing a demonstration to his precious.

    This was Qiu Man¡¯s grandfather, known as Qiu Yuanlie. His beloved granddaughter lost her parents in an ident back then when she was much younger. So she had spent her childhood, her adolescence, her adulthood with her grandfather. It took him a moment of consideration before he epted his granddaughter¡¯s proactive request to head out to work. And that research center happened to be her practice zone.

    Seeing her grandfather throwing such tantrum, Qiu Man was silent, knowing the temper of her grandfather. This man whose name was Takano would probably be a part of the deceased record soon. No one else recognized the actual power of her grandfather as much as she did.

    Seeing his granddaughter¡¯s ignorance, Qiu Yuanlie disyed ignorance. His granddaughter had been rather rebellious these few years so it would be a good opportunity to let her taste her own medicine.

    But that did not mean that Ye Chong would be spared. How dare that ignorant kid fractured my girl Man¡¯s hand! This is barbaric! My beloved Man had never been hurt since I had been in charge! Not even a scratch! And this is what I am proud of. And now, despite all my efforts, there¡¯s this someone who jumped out of the bush and make things happen. This is disgusting! I felt my heart wailing when I imagined my granddaughter having her hand cracked! Ughhhh!

    It took quite some time for Qiu Yuanlie to cool off. Sitting in his own office, he wondered how he would handle that bull in a museum whose name went by Takano!

    Wait, Takano? Flinched Qiu Yuanlie, as the name rang a bell. I seemed to have seen this name before. My beloved Man seemed to have requested me to investigate on someone, was it this fe? But I did not really take note of her request, I just passed it to my men. So who exactly is this Takano? For he could snap my Man¡¯s hand? I understood the captivating charm of my granddaughter, that even those boys from the wealthy family went constantly mesmerized over her. And he actually was able to do that to Man?

    He took a nce at Takano¡¯s profile, his face tightened as he saw nothing peculiar about this man. Takano seemed to be just like the others. Everything was clear and straightforward. "But too straightforward¡­" he whispered. The elderly, being one who had been working as the intelligence of the leading organization, how could he not see the oddness in this profile?

    It was too perfect, a concise and concrete wlessness, no one would have suspected the profile, not even Qiu Yuanlie himself if without experience. And that was his concern, the profile was unquestionably too perfect.

    This person, was not like the others at all¡­

    He quickly browsed for the recording on the day Man got her hand broken. He could not have Man by his side forever, but with his capabilities, Man could be under his protection 24/7. As long as he was willing to do it for his granddaughter, Man could remain in his vignce for the rest of his life. Qiu Yuanlie stared at the hologram projection. The happening was only a record of about 20 seconds but it took Qiu Yuanlie 10 minutes to watch it, as he continuously readjusted the angle of view, trying to grab as much details as possible.

    His eyes lustered.

    This man, is indeed, not a simple person.

    It was a spection from him out of intuition at first and now, from the visuals, he could confirm his belief. This man had demonstrated hisbative skills through that snap. He must be an expert of it. And what gave him a sense of danger was the eyes of Takano¡¯s eyes the moment when Man approached him by her hand. The shrinkage of his pupils exerted a powerful bloodthirstiness. I had seen a person like this before. Only those men who had experienced wars and had gained the fighting intuition would wield such eyes.

    And he had only met a few persons like this in his organization.

    So a man like this must not be as simple as his profile had stated. That sense he gained from wars was not something that could be replicated easily. He knew his men well enough. To be honest, the fact that Freedom Alliance was able to fight equally with the other 3 forces was merely because of a majority aid provided by the intelligences. So he believed in the capabilities of his men. They should have identified such a simple fraud within the profile itself since the beginning. But they did not, which could only mean¡­ the information from the residence center itself was already a fake from the start.

    Hmm¡­ this is getting really fun. Though Qiu Yuanlie as heid his hand over the table, with the index finger tapping the surface, he smiled coldly. He could basically confirm that this man by the name of Takano was up for something when he got into the research center.

    But¡­ that research unit was a mere training ground for Man. It was empty and acted as a living stage for Man¡¯s career from the time it was founded. So the elderly felt strange.

    Assuming this man with the name "Takano" was a spy sent by the other 3 forces, well¡­ he seemed to be a little too foolish to be a spy. The elderly shook his head, as he discarded this ridiculous thought. He had talked to his colleagues countless times, he knew the ounces in each force well enough.

    Then, which side do this fe belong? What¡¯s his n? Of all things, out of his habit gained from his upation, Qiu Yuanlie actually thought these at first.

    Oh wait, should I be asking these first? Realized, heughed, forbelling himself being overthinking. Well I would meet that fe soon enough, everything would open up itself when I asked him in person. I had sent 20 pilots for him. I mean if those pilots could not even capture a single man, they could be flushed down to the ckhole, especially when none of the information on Takano¡¯s profile indicated him being a pilot, he seemed to be more likely a martial arts practitioner to me.

    Well, even if he was in fact a skillful pilot, he could never run away. Thought so, he connected hismunicator and requested all war units to undergo Level 2 Security protocol.

    Am I doing too much? Yuanlie, you are a little hot-headed sometimes. Hah¡­ Teased himself as he giggled. But his smile froze soon after, as he thought of something.

    It was a problem ¡­ a potentially fatal issue! Okay, given that the person has the ability to alter the database of the residence information center itself, that person could very much be a top Maverick. Qiu Yuanlie staggered, as nobody knew the capabilities of a top Maverick more than himself, since he was in fact, a Maverick himself.

    Only the Maverick could understand the Maverick.

    A knock on the door resounded in his room.

 Chapter 251 - The Chase IV

    <h4>Chapter 251: The Chase IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Come in," Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s voice sounded solemn and dignified.

    In came threerge men, all looking pale as they squirmed under Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s scrutiny. Qiu Yuanlie was an intense character, and was very strict towards his subordinates, so they were all respectful towards him.

    Qiu Yuanlie was a worldly person, and frowned upon the sight of his subordinates. He asked lowly, "Trouble?"

    Seeing Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s frown, the three of them felt a sudden chill in their hearts. They exchanged nces, and finally the man who stood in the middle braced himself and answered, "Yes."

    "Tell me more," Qiu Yuanlie picked up the bitter pine wood carved teacup from his table and sipped carefully, looking at ease with himself, unhurried and not as intense as he was.

    The trio were encouraged by theck of reprimands from Qiu Yuanlie, knowing that they had been spared. They quickly reported the situation in exaggerating fashion.

    They did not see the enemy, only just beginning to go into a surrounding formation when the enemy moved first, as though anticipating their movements. The attack came without warning, and was very powerful, instantly destroying one Aren mech, which ended in an explosion. The sudden explosion caught the other mechs off guard. Chaos ensued, and their target took this opportunity to escape from their enveloping formation.

    The target¡¯s mech was unknown. His attack strategy was unknown. His whereabouts were unknown.

    At this point, the trio could not help but blush out of embarrassment of their failure.

    Qiu Yuanlie kept silent. The target¡¯s abilities were beyond his expectations. However, knowing that he was supported by a capable Maverick, it was not strange for him to realize their ns beforehand. The fact that the target could destroy an Aren with a single hit was surprising to him. Aren was the Alliance¡¯s special made battle mech, armed with powerful weapons for close and long range distances. While its armaments were a little inferiorpared to that of the Three Forces, it wasparable in other respects. Hence, Aren was impressive in the battlefield.

    Aren mech pilots were systematically trained by the Alliance. They had to be excellent in shooting and mechbat. In one-on-one battles, Aren mechs would fare well against any of the mechs from the Three Forces. Average mechs could not hope to win againt an Aren - only the Sanctuary¡¯s Darn, ck Cove¡¯s Ster re and the MPA¡¯s Messenger were on the same level. To destroy an Aren with one hit, then escape from the attack formation of a squad of 19 Arens - that was only achievable with an advanced mech from any of the Three Forces, most probably one of their trump cards.

    All these thoughts shed through Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s mind in the blink of an eye.

    Thebined power of a trump card and a Maverick was not insignificant.

    Qiu Yuanlie waved, signalling his subordinates to leave. The three felt like they were magnanimously forgiven, and quickly left Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s room.

    The use of the Alliance¡¯s trump cards was a hassle, but that was never Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s intention. No matter how strong a trump card was, it could not win against numbers. The Freedom Alliance had an important advantage over the Three Forces, and that was their strength in numbers.

    Once he activated Level Two Emergency protocol, it would not be easy even for a trump card to leave this city unnoticed. However, with a capable Maverick¡¯s assistance, Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s efforts would not be enough.

    "A Maverick ¡­" Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s eyes glowed intensely. A Maverick can only be stopped by another Maverick.

    It had been about two decades since he hadst seen action himself. The thought of his glorious days in the virtual world long ago made his blood boil with vigor. In just the blink of an eye, 20 over years had passed! Qiu Yuanlie felt a touch sentimental.

    It had been over 20 years ago since he did something of grand significance for the Alliance. The mission was difficult, but he had aplished it wlessly. It was his wless performance that won him the position of the Intelligence Division¡¯s General soon after. He held the position for two decades. Aside from the early years since he joined, he had improved the Division to the point where he rarely needed to do things himself anymore. For more than a decade ever since, he had never been in the field. Even when the Three Forces be exposed to the world earlier, he stayed behind the scenes.

    While it had been more than a decade, this did not mean that he had grown weak. Everyday, he spent long hours researching inputations. Compared to his younger self, he was no longer as imaginative, but now, he was infinitely better at rigorousputations.

    It looked like it¡¯s time for him to enter the field!

    Fortunately, Ye Chong had investigated the city in detail to the point where he could memorize the local geography, else Mu¡¯s proposed escape route would have been wasted on him.

    For now, Ye Chong had already broken through his 18th wall. To avoid the enemy¡¯s patrols, Ye Chong had to move through people¡¯s homes. Of course, meeting the inhabitants was unavoidable, but Ye Chong always hit them unconscious before they could react to his presence. Thanks to Ye Chong¡¯s earlier efforts in learning biology, he had a better grasp of how to make someone unconscious efficiently.

    Killing was not pleasant business, and Ye Chong was not bloodthirsty. He did not know of alternatives in his early days, but now that he had choices, most of which were more efficient and effective, there was no longer the need to kill.

    Looking at the time, Ye Chong had taken three minutes to reach where he was now. If all went well, he would reach Cob in another 10 minutes. Once he entered Cob, he would be safe. Cob was now armed to the teeth. Moreover, with its new engines and firepower, escape would not be too difficult.

    Ye Chong thought as he ran without slowing down.

    Another wall was upon him, and Ye Chong punched straight into it without hesitation.

    Crack! A soft sound, followed by a crack that spreaded out like a spiderweb.

    Ye Chong paused. The first 18 walls he dismantled were all crushed with his fists. Ye Chong¡¯s punches may look like normal, but they were powered by energy maniption techniques from the Lan Family of September, and were very powerful. More importantly, using this technique to break through walls would not be too noisy.

    However, this wall only yielded slightly with a crack. The expected hole in the wall was not to be.

    Ye Chong reached forward and lightly knocked on the wall. Theposite material came crumbling down like raindrops. Ye Chong was startled, and quickly began to move. His hands were everywhere, catching all the crumbling pieces that fell from the wall.

    He caught the pieces, then ced them softly on the ground. Ye Chong¡¯s figure moved in a blur.

    The entire process was silent. Ye Chong was thankful that his hands were fast enough, or the pieces falling to the ground would have alerted the people in the house. However, even with Ye Chong¡¯s speed, the crumbling pieces strained him to his limit.

    The entire process was over in less than 10 seconds, but Ye Chong was already drenched in sweat.

    Luckily, he did not miss any of the pieces.

    Ye Chong breathed in deeply a few times and calmed his breathing. The situation was over quickly, but it had drained Ye Chong a lot. It was even more tiring than breaking through the first 18 walls.

    Looking beyond the wall, however, Ye Chong groaned.

    It was an alloy wall! A solid alloy wall was sandwiched between two walls made of averageposite material. This kind of security would only be avable in powerful families. Since they spent this much effort in walls, it was only natural that there would be guards in the house.

    This was a problem for Ye Chong. Now was not a good time for battle. Ye Chong believed that if his punch was slightly louder, he would now be ovee by an overwhelming swarm of mechs.

    However, ording to Shang¡¯s route, he had to pass through this ce. Ye Chong ran to a window, carefully peering outside. There were many mechs outside, way more than he expected. There were also a few unfamiliar models. Ye Chong quickly retreated from the window.

    It looked like the inhabitants beyond the wall must be someone influential and powerful. While he did not know exactly who it was, the fact was clear as day.

    Ye Chong was troubled.

    However, there was no time to hesitate. In fact, he had no choice. If he did not reach Cob in 10 minutes, then he would surely die here.

    In another battlefield, the action was also heating up.

    The atmosphere inside Cob was tense. Everyone stayed in the control room. Little Rock sat solemnly behind the photon processor, data flowing out of the machine like a waterfall. If Ye Chong was there, he must thought it looked very familiar.

    Soon, the information disyed before Little Rock stopped refreshing, and transformed into a hive-likework. Little Rock went into action - he must help Mu do some calctions. Little Rock¡¯s talent inputations was approved by Mu. To win Mu¡¯s approval and work alongside him, showed just how impressive Little Rock¡¯s achievements were in this field.

    Days of working together allowed Little Rock and Mu to cooperate rather seamlessly. Theymunicated through the photon processor without speaking a word. The entire control room was silent, and tension was thick. Lian Yue could only watch helplessly, no longer in the mood for his own research. Even if he wanted to, all of Cob¡¯s photon processor were now used by Mu to defend against this super powerful Maverick.

    Lian Yue paced around the room anxiously.

    Zhu Ling sat quietly with her eyes closed, deep in meditation. Beside her, Overwing stood like a guardian angel.

    Confrontation was imminent!

 Chapter 252 - Counterstrike I

    <h4>Chapter 252: Counterstrike I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong deployed Guardian. Before he came to this wall, the territory was difficult for Guardian to move about. The ck-and-white vision would make it hard for Ye Chong to study his surroundings, hence he had chosen to withdraw Guardian. However, with this wall in front of him, Guardian would be more suitable to break through. Besides, Ye Chong did not want to be defenseless without Guardian when he reached the other side. Who knew what was behind this wall?

    As long as he was piloting Guardian, he would at least not bepletely helpless.

    Guardian shone with a dazzling gold, its ck-white eyes looked like they could see through a person¡¯s soul. Ye Chong was wearing a tight fitting spacesuit, his bnced and slender figure apparent from the outside. The soft metallic mask fitted perfectly on Ye Chong¡¯s face, showing his facial expression clearly. The golden mask and ck-white eyes had steely angles, giving Ye Chong a cold and eerie look.

    Ye Chong moved without hesitation, withdrawing his two daggers. Every second was precious to him, a matter of life and death.

    Swish swish! Ye Chong¡¯s hands were so fast it was hard to follow with one¡¯s eyes. Silently, a square hole was carved out of the alloy door.

    Ye Chong looked at the hole in the alloy wall, impressed. The daggers did not disappoint him, with such astonishing sharpness!

    Du Yun leaned against the door, yawningzily as he looked at the Aren mechs outside on full alert.

    "Tsk tsk, these days, you can see all sorts of people out there," Du Yun sighed to himself. Today, he heard that a man had broken Lady Qiu Man¡¯s hand. In fact, he did not quite believe the news at first. Lady Qiu Man had a fragile body, it was not impossible that she hurt her hand. However, if the news said that it was caused by a man, then it was only natural for him to feel suspicious.

    What an extraordinary beauty! Her wless features and lively eyes were so enchanting, no man would dare to hurt her. Du Yun¡¯s heart raced. A woman like this was every man¡¯s dream lover, and Du Yun was no exception. However, he knew that it was impossible for him to win her over. Besides, backing her was the old man Qiu. The old fellow¡¯s terrible temper was enough to dampen Du Yun¡¯s fantasy of that beautiful woman.

    Best if he kept to his own business. However, it seemed that Lady Qiu Man was really injured ¡­ He turned back to look into the house. The woman was as obstinate as her grandfather, choosing to stay at this kind of ce. While security measures were taken, this ce would not guarantee her safety. However, looking at the swarm of mechs outside, he realized that there were mechs patrolling everywhere outside the house. There was also him guarding the house. There should be no problems.

    He had just received orders earlier to be here and protect Lady Qiu Man.

    To him, it was definitely a golden opportunity. Du Yun imagined that should something happened, he would be able to prove himself. If he could win Lady Qiu Man¡¯s approval, that would be most wonderful. However, looking at the tight security outside, Du Yun did not think anyone would be foolish enough to make trouble here.

    "Perhaps, today¡¯s only going to be routine work," Du Yun mocked himself inside.

    Suddenly, Du Yun froze. His cynical attitude earlier was all gone, his expression turned serious as he tilted his head like he was listening for something. As the Freedom Alliance¡¯s advanced mech pilot, he was much stronger than the average mech pilot. This was the reason he was assigned to be here.

    He heard a faint but dull sound. If it was some other normal person, they would have thought they heard wrong. However, Du Yun knew better. True experts were confident of their own abilities.

    What followed was utter silence.

    Du Yun¡¯s expression turned grimmer still. He quickly deployed his mech.

    Du Yun¡¯s mech was silver with a dull, matte surface, giving off a rustic and steady feel. Compared to Aren¡¯s 15-meter high build, this mech looked morepact. From the exterior, it looked like a close range mech,plete with a shield andser sword. The only eye-catching feature was a blood red chain wrapping its upper half body. It looked like red chainmail on the mech. At the ends of the chain were two metal spheres covered with barbs. On the bulging parts of its shoulders were two concealed shooting chambers, storing powerful energy weapons. This allowed the mech to be capable of close and long rangebat.

    Du Yun¡¯s mech was quite famous in the Freedom Alliance, with the pleasant name Windchime. The mech pilots around Du Yun saw him deploying his mech, and were all curious. They did not notice anything amiss. However, with Du Yun¡¯s reputation, no one doubted him. Since Du Yun made his move, everyone instantly felt a sense of foreboding.

    However, the absence of a target made them all nervous and confused.

    Du Yun had no time to waste on exining. He quickly climbed up into Windchime¡¯s pilot cabin. From the mech¡¯s weapons, it was clear that the Freedom Alliance¡¯s mech pilots were all trained in close and long rangebat. Close rangebat waspulsory for all their mech pilots. As an elite member, Du Yun¡¯s strength in this field was apparent. Climbing into his mech¡¯s pilot cabin was the quickest way to get there.

    Once he was inside, Du Yun hesitated no further and rushed inside the house.

    Windchime may be a lot smaller than Aren, but it was still over 10 meters tall. The room¡¯s door would not fit the mech. However, Du Yun had no time for such trivialities. That faint sound he heard did not bode well. Suddenly, he realized where the enemy might be escaping to.

    D*mn it!

    Even the reinforced walls could not stand against Windchime¡¯s impact. Bang! The wall crumbled into pieces, and Windchime swiftly made its way into the room. All the mech pilots standing outside stared at Du Yun¡¯s baffling and crazy reaction, unable to grasp the situation.

    The people inside the room were also rmed by his actions.

    Standing behind Qiu Man, Guang¡¯s hollow eyes now shone brightly. He quickly stepped before Qiu Man, moving too fast for the human eye to follow. Qiu Man only heard a thunderous crash and almost immediately, Guang was already in front of her.

    Windchime¡¯s impact had caused the manyposite and alloy pieces to fly towards Qiu Man.

    Du Yun groaned. He was too focused on the enemy that he had forgotten Lady Qiu Man was defenseless. Before he could react any further, Guang was already standing before Qiu Man, reaching outwards with his hands, easily deflecting all the wall fragments flying towards him away to the other corners of the room. None of the fragments hit Guang, and Qiu Man, standing behind him, was unharmed.

    Du Yun heaved a sigh of relief. He now knew that the man with hollow eyes, following Lady Qiu Man around like a puppet was actually an expert. Even he was impressed by the middle-aged man¡¯s moves. While he could have deflected the fragments as well, he would not be able to do it so easily.

    Just then, the situation turned for the worse!

    Wham! It was another loud crash. The wall to the right of Du Yun crumbled into dust, as the fragments flew towards him.

    Du Yun was at least a veteran, and did not panic despite the surprise. With the middle-aged man here, these fragments would not harm Lady Qiu Man.

    Du Yun¡¯s did not leave the controls. In fact, when he first stepped into the room, he was already in a high state of alertness.

    Suddenly, Du Yun¡¯s eyes widened. A two-meter square of metal te was mixed amongst the fragments, and was flying straight towards Lady Qiu Man. This was a huge metal te, moving at high speed. If anyone was hit by it, the victim would definitely be reduced to broken flesh and bones. Even if he was confident of the middle-aged man¡¯s abilities, Du Yun dared not take the risk.

    His hands danced across the controls.

    The blood red chain that wrapped around Windchime¡¯s body like a poisonous serpent suddenly raised its head and struck out! It moved swiftly, overtaking the metal te. The barbs on the metal sphere¡¯s barbs shone like a snake¡¯s poisonous fangs.

    Ding!

    The sharp ng of metal against metal was painful to the ear. The metal te was hit, and diverged from its course, flying off to the side. However, with her ears unprotected, Qiu Man¡¯s face writhed in pain.

    Du Yun was intensely alert. Up until now, the enemy had not showed himself. However, when he saw his metal sphere hit the metal te, he felt a little relieved.

    However, just 0.1 seconds after his barbed metal sphere hit the metal te, Du Yun saw a shadow move past him. A golden figure suddenly appeared behind the two-meter square metal te, moving so quickly that Du Yun only caught a blur of a shadow.

    Du Yun was shocked! That was fast!

    The golden figure suddenly pressed against the wall. At that moment, a minute pause in its movements allowed Du Yun to finally make out the golden figure clearly.

    This person was wearing a weird gold-coloured tight suit, that covered even his face. The odd metallic gold luster seemed like soft-textured material, showing the wearer¡¯s facial expressions clearly. The ck-white eyes on the gold mask were a striking visual contrast.

    Du Yun felt a sudden chill in him for no apparent reason! He did not know that those ck-white eyes would carve themselves deep into his memories!

    The gold figure suddenly stopped moving, and adopted a strange posture. It bent its legs and pushed one hand against the wall, looking like a tightly drawn bow.

    Not good! Du Yun immediately gauged the enemy¡¯s intention. His expression twisted as he moved quick as lightning to prepare himself!

 Chapter 253 - Counterstrike II

    <h4>Chapter 253: Counterstrike II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In truth, Ye Chong never expected to see Qiu Man behind the wall. While everything had happened because of this woman, Ye Chong did not hate her. To him, Qiu Man was only a woman, albeit more dangerous than the others he had met. Now, she was probably his enemy.

    Nheless, Qiu Man was not so dangerous a threatpared to that silver mech.

    Ye Chong was no longer as oblivious as he was before. When meeting enemies, Ye Chong would study them closely. In just a split second, Ye Chong understood the situation.

    These people were protecting that woman!

    Ye Chong came through and reached another wall very quickly. However, in that short time span, the silver mech¡¯s performance was enough to catch his eye.

    The other party was obviously an expert. Whether it was his skills or predicting his own movements, the man was capable. That sphere-on-chain weapon was the first Ye Chong had ever encountered, but that did not stop him from admiring its dexterous usage.

    Ye Chong was not the only one. Few could actually name the weapon today. The morningstar was a lesser known weapon even in ancient times, and it looked strange in the hands of a mech.

    Since it was difficult to master, requiring special maneuvering techniques, not many could actually use the weapon today.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong never underestimated his enemies, much less when facing a weapon he had never seen or heard of. Flexible, fast, unpredictable - these were Ye Chong¡¯s immediate conclusions about the weapon.

    Ye Chong had innate talent in the battlefield.

    In that moment when he broke through the wall and saw the silver mech, Ye Chong knew that Mu¡¯s escape route would not work out. Mu¡¯s n depended on him not drawing any attention. Now that Qiu Man was here, and this silver mech, Ye Chong knew that it would be impossible to run away unnoticed. Besides, there were many other mechs guarding outside.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong was adaptable. The best option now would be to get to their leader. With an important figure in his hands, the enemy would not dare to touch him. With this thought in mind, his eyes wandered to Qiu Man, wearing a flustered expression.

    The woman was the perfect hostage in all respects.

    Ye Chong crouched near the wall like a golden frog, eyeing Qiu Man intently. His bent legs gave him power tounch him forward like a golden arrow, heading straight towards the woman!

    Du Yun¡¯s eyes went red with tension! Just as Ye Chong left the wall, he issued themands to attack. Another morningstar flew towards the space between Ye Chong and Qiu Man, the sharp barbs on the weapon looking menacingly bloodthirsty.

    Ye Chong saw a blurred movement, and the morningstar was already in front of him, covered with some frightening looking barbs. Ye Chong was flying too quickly. If he crashed into the morningstar, even Guardian would not keep him alive.

    However, he was now suspended midair, with no physical support to redirect himself. Impact was inevitable. Besides, this was his chance. Once the mechs outside came in, his n of capturing Qiu Man as hostage would fail. This meant that his chances of escaping would diminish to an insignificant figure.

    Even against an enemy, Ye Chong could not help butment on the silver mech¡¯s pilot for this clever attack.

    However, Ye Chong was not one to give up, ever!

    Ye Chong was flying too fast! The morningstar grewrger andrger in his eyes, until he could see the chilling light reflecting off its sharp barbs. The more dangerous it was, the more he should stay calm. Panic would not improve his situation, but hasten his death. Ye Chong¡¯s numerous close calls allowed him to stay calm in this deathly situation.

    As the morningstar came closer and closer, Ye Chong grew even calmer!

    Yes! Now! Ye Chong¡¯s eyes shone brightly. His right arm lifted from the side, reaching towards the barbs on the morningstar!

    If one could watch this moment in slow motion, it would be a wonderful spectacle. Just before Ye Chong hit the morningstar, his right hand gently grabbed onto one of the bards on the metal sphere. Unlike Ye Chong¡¯s crude entrance earlier, he now moved softly and elegantly like a dancer. Just as his right hand touched the barb, Ye Chong¡¯s shoulders and arms expanded as he pulled in his abdomen. His upper body became an upside-down triangr shape.

    Every barb on the morningstar was as thick as an adult¡¯s arm. Ye Chong¡¯s right arm did not seem to push very hard, but his upper body was not bent into an S-shape. Ye Chong pushed gently and flew towards the ceiling.

    Du Yun was already shocked to the core! He had thought, right until the point the morningstar met the enemy, that the enemy would not be able to escape. Whether it was the timing or the location, his attack was perfect. If he was the one attacked, he would not be able to avoid it himself.

    However, the scene unfolding before him was too shocking! Du Yun was never so surprised before in his life. To him, the golden figure was too intriguing!

    To grab onto the barb at such a high speed, and to escape unharmed - heavens, what visual acuity and uracy it would take! He saw every detail of that moment, how the enemy had held onto the morningstar and bent his upper body strangely into an S-shape. "Just who exactly am I dealing with?" Du Yun could not help but sigh in dread.

    He had fought in many battles, but never had he seen something as extraordinary as this.

    In fact, one cannot me him for his shock. Anyone who saw it would be shocked still. Ye Chong had actually exercised some kind of muscle control technique. To strengthen his arms and shoulders, Ye Chong tucked in his abdominal muscles towards the shoulders, a unique muscle control technique of the Lan family of September. However, Ye Chong had done it so quickly that it created the illusion of his shoulders and arms expanding and his abdomen shrinking.

    Under normal circumstances, if he had on his clothing, his muscle transformation would not have been visible to observers. However, since Guardian was malleable and tight fitting, that strange transformation waspletely seen by Du Yun.

    The transformation was a visual shock to anyone who had never seen it before. Even a veteran like Du Yun was momentarily distracted.

    Just as Du Yun paused in distraction, Ye Chong had already reached the ceiling. Ye Chong dared not try any direct attacks again. He now knew how dangerous a long distance direct attack like that was, himself suspended midair without any way of changing course. He was essentially defenseless. He pushed his feet lightly against the ceiling towards the wall and returned to the ground.

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s specialty - short distance direction changes. His trajectory was mind bending to watch. A golden figure with ck-white eyes moved in a blur, approaching Qiu Man like a golden lightning strike.

    That short burst of muscle transformation had already pushed Ye Chong beyond his limits. His muscle control techniques had not yet reached this level of proficiency, so he was unavoidably injured from the move. Right now, he was no longer as strong as he appeared to be!

    The silver mech was already behind Ye Chong. Being so close to Qiu Man, the mech pilot would not dare to use his chain weapon again, not without hurting Qiu Man.

    From the moment Du Yun appeared in the room, the middle-aged man, Guang seemed toe to life, blocking in front of Qiu Man. He red at Ye Chong intently, eager for battle!

    However, Ye Chong did not want to fight him. Time was precious for him right now. Ye Chong took a step to the side. He moved in a blur, and was beside Qiu Man in the next moment. Ye Chong was good at changing directions like that, and with Guardian¡¯s strength, he reached Qiu Man easily.

    Du Yun was growing anxious and furious. With the enemy so near Lady Qiu Man, he could not interfere. Besides, the opponent was cunning, moving around here and there even faster than before, making it difficult to aim at him. If Lady Qiu Man was not there, he would have used heavy fire, but now he could only watch and wait.

    The only thing he could do was pray that the middle-aged man with Lady Qiu man could handle the enemy.

    Guang¡¯s eyes were full of life, a strong contrast to their initial hollowness. He seemed to finally and trulye into existence! Ye Chong did not want to fight Guang. While he did not know who Guang was, their few encounters earlier made Ye Chong aware that the man was abat expert.

    Guang took a sidestep, and Qiu Man was once again behind him.

    Ye Chong switched positions a few more times, but Guang was always able to stand between him and Qiu Man. Ye Chong was growing impatient. He realized that if he did not go pass this middle-aged man called Guang, he would not be able to achieve his goal.

    Ye Chong no longer hesitated. He lunged forward towards Guang!

 Chapter 254 - Counterstrike III

    <h4>Chapter 254: Counterstrike III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Guang¡¯s eyes shone brightly. His left hand moved to distract, but his right hand turned into a fist and came straight towards Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was overjoyed, and met Guang¡¯s right fist with his. Strength was always Ye Chong¡¯s forte. His physical strength was also top ss, enough to surprise even Mu and Shang. Besides, he was a practitioner of the September Lan family¡¯s muscle control technique, where strength amplification was an important part of it. With Guardian¡¯s support, Ye Chong¡¯s punch was packed with so much power that even he himself would not take it lightly.

    It seemed that the fastest way to finish this was with brute force.

    Guang did not evade, his features dancing with fiery vigour.

    Crack!

    Guang¡¯s right arm exploded into a rain of flesh and bones, like it had been hit with a mech head on. His right arm waspletely useless now. With such a serious injury, even the best avable medical treatment would not be able to restore it. If one were to dissect Guang¡¯s right arm, you would see that the bones in his arm had all crumbled into numerous minute fragments. Ye Chong¡¯s punch was powerful and astonishing.

    At the same time, Ye Chong felt something warm rush up his throat, and he spitted a mouthful of blood behind Guardian¡¯s mask. Guang¡¯s strength had greatly exceeded Ye Chong¡¯s expectations. He tried to steady himself, but his mind was still whirling in an attempt to understand what had happened.

    Was this truly something a human body was capable of?

    This was terrifying! Ye Chong had never met anyone who couldpare with him in terms of physical strength. All these years, his strength seemed to have reached a point of stagnation, and even Mu and Shang agreed that he must have reached the limits of the human body. Hence, Ye Chong had devoted most of his effort in mastering techniques.

    However, this puppet-like middle-aged man hadpletely shattered Ye Chong¡¯s belief. The man was bare-handed, without any tools to aid him. Ye Chong himself had Guardian¡¯s protection, and yet he was still injured. The power behind that punch was incredible.

    Without Guardian¡¯s aid, even if he used the Lan family¡¯s amplification technique to the fullest, he would not be able to attack with so much power like Guang. If the man was not right before him now, Ye Chong would not have believed that he was human.

    The world was truly full of surprises!

    He could only thank his lucky stars that the man was more heavily injured than he was. After receiving such heavy damage, the man would not be able to fight back again.

    Ye Chong felt a pressure building in his chest, feeling a little dizzy. "Looks like I¡¯m also hurt bad," Ye Chongughed bitterly to himself.

    He hesitated no longer. Ye Chong lunged at Qiu Man.

    Du Yun was stupefied. The gold figure was too powerful. In his eyes, the gold figure and the middle-aged man had only exchanged a single blow, and the so-called expert middle-aged man was gravely injured from it. He did not know that the exchange had left both sides heavily injured. Ye Chong was hurt from the exchange, on top of his injury earlier.

    Qiu Man¡¯s snow white throat looked so enticing to Ye Chong.

    However, at that moment, a single hand blocked Ye Chong¡¯s advance. "Guang?" Ye Chong paused, his movements stalled. Guang¡¯s expression was unchanged, still as vigorous as it was before,pletely ignoring his injuries andcking any signs of pain.

    How was that possible? Even with Ye Chong¡¯s calmness, he almost let out a gasp. With his biology studies, he knew exactly what that kind of injury meant to the victim. It would have been difficult to stay awake, much less continue continuing. The pain would have instantly led to a ckout, while the huge blood loss would not have allowed for further vigorous movements such asbat.

    However, Ye Chong was looking at him right now. Guang did not seem ill at ease. If he could not see Guang¡¯s right hand hanging beside him uselessly, Ye Chong would not have guessed he was injured.

    Ye Chong momentary pause was an opening for Guang. The man¡¯s left hand came quickly, trailing upwards from Ye Chong¡¯s right arm. When Ye Chong recovered, Guang¡¯s left hand had already grasped tightly onto Ye Chong¡¯s right hand like some mysterious vine.

    Ye Chong was shocked. His left hand came into a fist and went straight for Guang¡¯s chest. If Guang did not let go, Ye Chong¡¯s attack would kill him.

    Guang seemed unfazed, and Ye Chong felt his right arm tighten.

    Crack! A faint sound, followed by Ye Chong¡¯s pained groan! He felt a powerful grip and sharp paining from his right arm.

    His bone was broken! The pain was like an adrenaline injection. It had been a long, long while since Ye Chong had been injured again and again.

    Sometimes, an injured animal is more terrifying than a calm animal.

    Ye Chong instantly saw red! All the emotions suppressed by his calmness erupted. He yelled loudly, left hand delivering a blow on Guang¡¯s chest like a hammer. Ye Chong¡¯s punch was much stronger than thest one, and Guang was flung backwards like a sandbag. His chest was sunken, and the sound of bones breaking could be heard clearly in the room.

    Ye Chong did not leave him at that. Guang¡¯s left hand was still gripping onto his right arm. Ye Chong pulled his right arm, the pain evoking another groan from him, while Guang was once again brought before him.

    The elbows, the knees ¡­ Ye Chong¡¯s attack came like a storm, raining down onto Guang¡¯s entire body. In less than three seconds, Guang¡¯s body was beaten to a pulp.

    "Huu ¡­" Ye Chong exhaled deeply, blood still trickling from the edge of his mouth. He finally calmed down. Qiu Man was already frozen in shock. She had been well protected since young, and had never seen bloody scenes like this. Her face was drained of blood, and she finally could not hold it much longer and began to throw up.

    Ye Chong turned back to look at the silver mech. The silver mech stood there frozen in ce like a puppet.

    Du Yun was shocked beyond reason! The two persons before him were not like any human at all. The middle-aged man was practically a maniac, a fearless maniac. The gold figure, on the other hand ¡­ Du Yun shuddered! It was too scary! The middle-aged man was already inhumanly strong, he was sure about this. A master like this was stronger than even those so-calledbat instructors. However, this master of masters was beaten to death right before him. Ah, no! This was not just death. The man was now more like a pile of bloody meat. Du Yun wanted to get away from the man as soon as possible. While he had never heard of anyone breaking a mech¡¯s armor with their bare hands, Du Yun could still feel a chill as he sat inside his mech.

    When the gold figure turned back to look at him, those ck-white eyes looked like the eyes of the God of Death, promising the end of many, many more lives. Du Yun almost lost it.

    Ye Chong waited no longer. He dragged Qiu Man, who was still throwing up, over to himself without any care for delicateness. His hand reached and closed around her snow white throat. This was because Ye Chong heard the other mechsing towards him.

    In fact, it was not that the mechs reacted too slowly; it was that everything had happened too fast. From the moment Ye Chong broke through the wall and began fighting with Guang, it was only three seconds. The fight between Ye Chong and Guang was only 10 seconds at most. In these 13 seconds, only the ones present understood the risks and close calls involved.

    The other mechs were not as bold as Du Yun, and did not break straight through the wall. Just as they were in a confused state, a golden figure suddenly came out in a sh, and quickly escaped.

    The group was shocked, still not understanding the situation, only standing around the doorway.

    "You idiots, go after him!" Du Yun roared through thems. The other mechs were all standing around the doorway, and he could only watch as Ye Chong escaped. In truth, he could do nothing, but pursuit was necessary. The enemy had taken Lady Qiu Man hostage. If any of the fools opened fire ¡­ He shuddered as he thought of facing the old man Qiu should that had happened.

    In any case, Lady Qiu Man¡¯s life was top priority - Du Yun decided then and there, and quickly went out by breaking through the adjacent wall. He scanned from the air above and finally located the golden figure. Quickly, he gave chase to the enemy.

    Ye Chong had already given up on the escape route that Mu designed for him. Given the circumstances, that route was already pointless. Now, he must get onboard Cob as soon as possible. Ye Chong chose the shortest route to his objective.

    The gold figure moved so quickly that Du Yun could barely believe his eyes. Even Windchime¡¯s engines on full st could not keep up. If it was the Alliance¡¯s Aren mechs, they would only trail from far behind. Du Yun chased as fast as he could as he reported the current situation to the higher-ups.

    Ye Chong and Du Yun were both oblivious to the fact that far away, on another battlefield without any traces of firepower, the battle was reaching its climax. Ye Chong¡¯s actions had a direct influence on the future of this battlefield.

    "Switch the calction module!" Mu¡¯s voice sounded strained like never before, as he continued, "Initiate structural improvements. Reinstall the three lines of defenses."

    Sweat trickled down from Little Rock¡¯s forehead, but he dared not be distracted. His eyes were staring straight ahead at the ever-changing data on his holographic screen, as he transferred his calction results to Mu. Suddenly, a handkerchief came and wiped off the beading sweat on his forehead.

    Little Rock was startled, and looked up. It was Zhu Ling. He returned a sincere smile, and returned to his calctions. Zhu Ling said nothing, only holding onto the handkerchief as she stood beside Little Rock.

    Lian Yue took in the scene with interest. He moved closer to Zhu Ling and began sweetly, "Dear Ling¡¯er, why don¡¯t you wipe off my sweat too." He nudged his forehead towards Zhu Ling, which was not sweating at all.

    Zhu Ling returned with a look of ridicule and humphed coldly. She raised her leg and kicked Lian Yue hard, sending him flying.

    Qiu Yuanlie studied the transformation happening before his eyes, and could not help but be impressed. The opponent was excellent, powerful in his calctions, the traps almost wless. While he thought theycked some creativity, but such impressiveputation skills would be enough to do as one wished in the virtual world. This must be the strongest Maverick inputations in the entire virtual world.

    Qiu Yuanlie could not help feel a littlepetitive. Experts were hard to find. He had never needed to do things himself for so long, mostly because there were no worthy opponents.

    Computation, decryption, trap setups, assault ¡­ The entire Intelligence Division¡¯s resources were directed to him for his disposal. He was now like a general, directing his soldiers and infantry, while his officers were the data that he entered into the system.

    The opponent was strong, blocking all his attacks. However, Qiu Yuanlie did not turn hasty. The battle between Mavericks could be won in a split second, but the probing and defense efforts that came before would be long and arduous. Every Maverick must learn to be patient. Beside, no one knew the Rainbow¡¯s virtual world like he did. This was his territory for 20 over years. He could reach every corner of the Rainbow¡¯s virtual world. Given time, he would be able to find the opponent¡¯s weakness.

    Infiltrate and counter-infiltrate, attack and defense, diversion and counter-diversion ¡­ The entire battlefield was in a constant state of push-and-pull. In order to prevent wide scale effects, Qiu Yuanlie tried his best to contain the range of the battlefield. However, the side effects were inevitable. Rainbow¡¯s virtual world was already affected in many ces.

    Bang bang bang! It was a panicked series of door knocks. Qiu Yuanlie was furious. He had ordered for his subordinates to not disturb him no matter what, and now they had dared to defy him.

    Besides, the battle climax was near, and Qiu Yuanlie did not want to be distracted.

    Bang bang bang! The knocks came even more urgently.

    Qiu Yuanlie was already at the peak of his anger. He would smash whoever it was to pieces once his battle was over. For now, however, he could only suppress his emotions. He breathed in deeply for a few times to calm himself.

    Bang! Someone broke through the door.

    "General, bad news! Lady Qiu Man was taken hostage!"

    Rumble! Qiu Yuanlie could feel something snap inside his mind. He took off his helmets, revealing bloodshot eyes as he said hoarsely, "What?"

    Qiu Yuanlie felt like a tearing off a person¡¯s head. The subordinate who came in to report gulped heavily and continued, "ording - ording to mech pilot Du Yun¡¯s re - report, Lady Qiu Man was taken hostage!"

    Qiu Yuanlie nearly cked out. After a long moment, he finally recovered. His voice was bitter and hoarse as he asked, "Is this information reliable?"

    "This just came in from mech pilot Du Yun. He¡¯s now in pursuit of the enemy." The subordinate stole a quick nce at Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s pale face before asking, "Mech pilot Du Yun is requesting further orders. Please advise."

 Chapter 255 - Counterstrike IV

    <h4>Chapter 255: Counterstrike IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    With a single hand holding Qiu Man, Ye Chong advanced as fast as he could.

    It looked like Qiu Man was really someone very important. The mechs standing in his way all avoided him. This allowed Ye Chong to move as fast as he could.

    Du Yun was still following Ye Chong tightly from behind. He was now being very careful. The gold figure¡¯s crazy strength had left a deep impression in him.

    Ye Chong ran, and felt his chest growing warmer, and his breathing disturbed. His injury was not light. Usually, this level of running would be a piece of cake for Ye Chong.

    Even with a hostage in hand, Ye Chong dared not be careless. He was now in a very dangerous position, and any mistakes could lead to his death. Besides, it seemed that currently the only expert around was the one following him. Ye Chong knew that Rainbow must have more than one person of his caliber. There was no way his opponent¡¯s base would be missing capable guards.

    "Ye." Ye Chong¡¯sms sounded.

    "It¡¯s Mu," Ye Chong thought, startled, but immediately felt overjoyed. Mu was contacting him now, meaning that Mu had control over the virtual world.

    The truth was about as Ye Chong guessed. With his heart worried for his granddaughter, Qiu Yuanlie could no longer focus in his battle. Thebined efforts of Mu and Little Rock had slowly overpowered their opponent. Of course, the entire process was still quite risky. Qiu Yuanlie, the veteran, quickly realized his mistake, but by then he had lost control of the battlefield.

    Even so, Qiu Yuanlie had prepared a few impressive traps, intended to turn the tides towards his favor. Fortunately, Mu was careful in his calctions and did not give Qiu Yuanlie that opportunity. Understanding the futility of his defense, Qiu Yuanlie still managed to stop Mu from entering any further. All of the Freedom Alliance¡¯s ssified information were still under his protection.

    Ye Chong asked Mu, surprised and happy to hear from him, "Mu, you beat him?"

    Mu sounded calm as always, with none of the joy from his triumph, "The opponent made some obvious mistakes, reason unknown."

    Ye Chong continued asked, "What¡¯s the situation now?"

    "Rainbow is now in the highest state of emergency. Ye, you had just stirred up the ho¡¯s nest," Mu made a rare joke. Hearing that, Ye Chong felt his tension relieved to some degree.

    "I just intercepted their internal orders. Their First, Fourth, Ninth and Thirteenth Contingent Leads are heading in your direction. Estimated time of arrival is between three to eight minutes."

    "Contingent Lead?" Ye Chong asked, confused. While this was obviously a title of some sort, Ye Chong could not deduce its implications.

    "Contingents are the Alliance¡¯s mid-sizedbat units. A Contingent Lead is the strongest of their contingent. While they do not issue orders in battle, they are the best of their own contingent, the representative of their own units." The reply came from Qiu Man, whom Ye Chong was carrying under his armpit.

    Even in her dangerous situation, Qiu Man still held herself calmly as she exined in her cold voice. Given the circumstances, she knew just how bad it was. She usually behaved in a carefree and yful manner, only because she was in no danger. Now, threatened by death, her intelligence shone through.

    Her priority was to make the opponent let down his guard. If that happened, the Alliance¡¯s Contingent Leaders would have an opening. However, how can she achieve that? If it were another person, she would have opted for seduction, but this man before her was clearly not that kind of man. The memory of her broken hand was still painful. Even though it healed immediately after treatment, she did not wish to experience that kind of pain again.

    The only choice she had now was to cooperate with this d*mned fellow. That way, at least her situation would not be worsened.

    In just a short time, Qiu Man had deliberated over these matters.

    "That silver mech back there, what¡¯s his position in your organization?" Ye Chong asked. While Qiu Man¡¯s cooperation struck him as odd, he would not waste this opportunity.

    "He¡¯s a Contingent Sentinel. Every contingent has seven Sentinels, charged with protecting themander of their contingent," Qiu Man exined.

    "Who¡¯s stronger, the Lead or the Sentinel?" Ye Chong asked.

    "The Lead, of course, how can the Sentinel hope topare?" Qiu Man answered as if the answer was obvious.

    Ye Chong picked up his speed instantly. The silver mech back there was already a difficult opponent for him, and now he just found out that the Leads were even stronger than Sentinels. From Qiu Man¡¯s tone, it seemed that the Leads were far stronger than Sentinels.

    With four mechs that were even stronger than the silver mech, and with the silver mech itself following him closely behind, he would not dare to face them even if he was uninjured, much less with his current condition.

    Ye Chong suddenly came to a halt. This surprised everyone around him. What was he doing?

    Ye Chong quickly deployed Han Jia. WIth Guardian¡¯s aid, he did not even need to climb the mech. He leaped and stepped on Han Jia¡¯s protruding parts before quickly reaching the pilot cabin and entering it.

    The guy had a mech!

    This came as a shock to the members of the Freedom Alliance. Their target had only wore a golden coloured battle suit all this while, so they had assumed that he was only a very powerfulbat expert. Now, it appeared that he was actually a mech pilot.

    They were allbatants here, so they knew exactly what this implied!

    Besides, it was obvious that the guy¡¯s mech was different. Many of the more knowledgeable ones immediately recognized Han Jia and gasped, "A full-skeleton mech! It¡¯s a full-skeleton mech! Heavens, there¡¯s actually a full-skeleton mech out there ¡­" Their dispirited expressions were pitiful to watch.

    However, someone finally could not help but asked, "Big brother, what¡¯s a full-skeleton mech?"

    "Young man, clearly you¡¯re not civilized. Bet you didn¡¯t pay attention in civilization ss, now you pay for your ignorance." The man looked condescendingly at the inquirer. Everyone¡¯s attention immediately went to him, and this encouraged him and pulled him out of his gloom. He coughed slightly and continued on seriously, "Full-skeleton mechs are mechs madepletely out of skeletons. Hmm, you should know that the mutant creatures are growing stronger and stronger. I bet you have experienced them yourselves."

    Everyone nodded in agreement. Mech pilots of their level would have crossed paths with mutants at some point in their lives. They fully agreed that mutants were not to be treated lightly.

    "These mutants, their skeletons are very strong, some even stronger than alloy materials. More importantly, they¡¯re much lighter than alloys."

    The crowd understood then. Someone asked, "If this full-skeleton mech is so good, why don¡¯t we have them?"

    "Sigh, if only it were that easy! Skeletons are grown naturally, and no two sets of skeletons look the same. Only the most experienced skeleton carvers of skeleton artisans could clearly identify the properties of each skeleton. Heh, in this day and age, where could we find any skeleton carver or artisan? All these years, our organization has only found some half-ass*d skeleton carvers. They can¡¯t make even make reliable skeleton parts, much less a full-skeleton mech. However, this is normal, considering that we never heard of the Three Forces making full-skeleton mechs too." The man spoke with a sigh.

    "Then why would this guy have a full-skeleton mech?"

    The man could not help but roll his eyes at that. "Why don¡¯t you ask him yourself?"

    Now that they identified him as mech pilot with such a powerful mech, it was only to be expected that mech was not just for ordinary travel.

    Soon, news of the man called Gao Ye with his full-skeleton mech spreaded to every corner of the Freedom Alliance. All this while, the higher-ups of the Alliance had been troubled with their disadvantage against the Three Forces. Technological advancements did note easily. If they did not have their advantage in numbers, they would have been annihted by the Three Forces.

    Soon, orders came from the higher-ups. Lady Qiu Man must be rescued, and the man called Gao Ye must be captured alive. If it were anyone else in Ye Chong¡¯s hands, the Freedom Alliance would probably have sacrificed her. Unfortunately, this was Qiu Man, Qiu Yuanlie¡¯s only granddaughter. No one dared to even suggest the possibility of sacrificing a single person for the Alliance. As such, they gathered all the capablebatants to capture Gao Ye alive and rescue Qiu Man.

    Ye Chong deployed Han Jia to conserve his strength and to prepare himself against the so-called Contingent Leads. Using Guardian to battle against those mechs would quickly wear him out physically, and physical strength was something he wascking now due to his injuries.

    Once inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong withdrew Guardian. He once fantasized about controlling Han Jia while wearing Guardian. Wouldn¡¯t that increase his strength? After some experimentation, he found it to be the opposite. Guardian¡¯s ck-and-white vision was only effective against solid objects. Han Jia¡¯s holographic scanning results could not be visualized with Guardian¡¯s ck-and-white vision.

    "Ye, I¡¯ve destroyed Rainbow¡¯smunication system, but the opponent might have their own internalms channel." This was reported calmly by Mu, and Qiu Man could only listen in horror. Who was this man? Even for her grandfather, destroying the entire¡¯smunication system was not an easy task.

    "Bad news, Ye, the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Contingent Leads are all heading in this direction. Estimated time of arrival is between 10 to 15 minutes." Mu sounded more urgent.

    Even Qiu Man was a little dazed. By her count, it seemed that besides the 7 or 8 contingents sent out for their own missions, the rest of the Contingent Leads were deployed here. Even with her grandfather¡¯s position, it would be impossible to deploy so many Contingent Leads at once. The organization must have found something of value in this man before her. With Qiu Man¡¯s upbringing in her family of status, she was keenly sensitive to these matters.

    Ye Chong said nothing, but Han Jia had already sped up. From motionless to Mach 9, Ye Chong took only two seconds. The eleration evoked another heavy feeling in Ye Chong¡¯s chest, injured as he was. Qiu Man, together with him in the pilot cabin, was even worse off. She was bleeding from her nose and mouth, and her face was pale and contorted in pain.

    Han Jia was slower than Guardian by a single Mach, but the sky was without obstructions, so Ye Chong¡¯s advance was even faster.

    Mu cooperated seamlessly. The entire city¡¯s traffic was already paralyzed. Mechs were flying around everywhere, confused. The chaos was problematic for the Freedom Alliance.

    Ye Chong moved like a fish swimming amongst the coral reef, not slowing down one bit. Compared to the current situation, he had flown through worse territories.

    Qiu Man was already unconscious. The eleration earlier was dangerous for someone without training like her, and possibly even fatal.

    This way, however, Ye Chong did not have to worry about her obstructing his piloting.

    Mechs were everywhere in the sky, and the full-skeleton mech was nowhere to be seen. After searching for a while, Du Yun finally gave up on this futile mission.

    When Han Jia arrived at the docking zone, the Freedom Alliance finally reacted. Mechs flew swiftly towards Ye Chong¡¯s location. This was thergest military operation in the history of the Freedom Alliance. They had deployed a grand total of 11 contingents, with all 11 Contingent Leads in the field, and 77 Contingent Sentinels close behind. The number of averagebatants was evenrger.

    Cob¡¯s hatch was already wide open. Zhu Ling stood guard by the hatch in Overwing. As she saw Ye Chong approaching, she tilted to the side, and Ye Chong flew straight into the warship. The hatch closed immediately behind him.

    Cob was all ready for flight, and immediately undocked.

    In the next moment, the dark red starship delivered a lesson that the Freedom Alliance would never forget.

 Chapter 256 - What the Future Holds

    <h4>Chapter 256: What the Future Holds</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The dark red Cob was like an awakened maroon-coloured shark, shing its horrifying teeth. Countlessser guns were activated. The mech pilots from the Freedom Alliance could only see a painfully blinding sh of light.

    The millions ofser beams illuminated the skies as bright as day. They bloomed like flowers, and dazzled like fireworks.

    The pursuing mech pilots were in no mood to enjoy this beautiful spectacle. They were all scared for their lives. To them, all these thinser beams were fatal. Usually,ser beams like these were too weak to concern them, and they could take a few hits without considerable damage.

    Indeed, the thinser beams would only leave a shallow dent on their mechs, almost inconsequential for the mechs. However, the density ofser beams they were seeing now was beyond their imagination.

    No matter how tough a mech was, it cannot withstand an attack like this. Besides, theser guns were terrifyingly urate, and almost never missed.

    Boom boom boom! Just as theseser beams left an afterimage in their visions, dozens of mechs were already exploding. The sight of these dozens of mechs all exploding together was staggering, and even the elites of the Free Alliance, who were no stranger to such spectacles, were momentarily lost in the moment.

    The rain ofsers did not stop. The explosions continued on here and there, fireballs illuminating the starlit sky like a melody.

    Three seconds!

    It took only three seconds! All the mechs that entered the attack range of theser beams were annihted.

    The battlefield fell into a short, awkward silence. The mechs further away dared not advance. The dark red warship was like a massive beast, staring down at them.

    They were only normalser beams, how could they be so devastating?

    With so manyser beam guns, and such an astonishing hit ratio, just how many skilled shooters were there on this warship?

    All the mech pilots were shocked.

    Just as the masses were lost in the moment, Cob suddenly elerated and made its escape. While it may seem like Cob had the upper hand now, those onboard this warship knew that they were not out of danger yet.

    After all, this was the enemy¡¯s base. If this was all the enemy could offer, then they would be unworthy ofpeting with the Three Forces. Besides, the Alliance had their own warships. If Cob was dyed by their mechs until their warships arrived, then escape would be futile.

    Hence, Mu chose to retreat without hesitation.

    "Warning, enemy warship iing!" Mu spoke with rm, which was rare for the mech.

    Tens of ck dots appeared on the holographic screen, growingrger. Everyone on the ship felt a chilling fear in their hearts.

    "80 of them," Mu presented the result of his rapid calctions.

    Everyone on the ship were shocked, including Ye Chong. This can¡¯t be right. 80 warships? Did they really send out 80 warships just for their single ship? This was ridiculous!

    The enemy¡¯s warships approached in battle formation. The dense fleet

    of warships was a magnificent sight, and a feast for the eyes. 80 warships! This was a reality that could blow one¡¯s mind.

    Abruptly, everyone jerked backwards. Cob had elerated! Even a fool would realise that they must escape right now. Ye Chong could not imagine why the enemy would send out 80 warships for him. Looking down at Qiu Man, lying on the floor, Ye Chong could not help but felt curious. Who was she really, that the Freedom Alliance would send out 80 warships for her?

    "They¡¯re surrounding us!" Zhu Ling gasped as she realised the fleet¡¯s intention.

    Ye Chong looked up. Some tens of mechs were already breaking away, flying off into the distance, probably wanting to outnk Cob.

    There were 13 of them, by Ye Chong¡¯s count.

    These 13 mechs flew surprisingly fast. Two of them were even faster than Zhu Ling¡¯s Overwing. The rest of them were at least on par with Guardian. These 13 mechs were all aggressive and ready to kill.

    If Qiu Man was awake, she would have recognised all 13 mechs. 11 of them were the Freedom Alliance¡¯s celebrated Contingent Leads, out of 13 in total. The other two were even stronger, but known by fewer. Qiu Man was one of the few. They were the Alliance¡¯s rarely deployed Vanguards. The Vanguards of the Freedom Alliance were the equivalent of the Trump Cards of the Three Forces. Now that the Freedom Alliance had sent out all of their best, it would be humiliating if they could not capture Cob.

    One of the two mechs was a non-humanoid mech, shaped like a scorpion, but much more powerful than Ye Chong¡¯s Sand Scorpio. These two mechs flew the fastest, leading the rest of the mechs.

    However, these 13 mechs were wary of Cob¡¯sser beam attack, and had to make a huge detour around the warship.

    "Everyone, please fasten your seatbelts, we¡¯re going to make a warp jump," Mu dered calmly.

    Ye Chong was surprised. A warp jump? A warp jump required a long distance to elerate, and the ship cannot be disturbed throughout the jump if the passengers were to remain safe.

    However, Ye Chong quickly calmed himself. Mu¡¯s decisions were always the best results derived from hisputations.

    Zhu Ling was also surprised. She looked over to Little Rock, and calmed down as well. Little Rock seemed calm; he must have arrived at the sameputation result as Mu. Only Lian Yue was as white as a sheet, putting his hands together in a prayer, muttering under his breath.

    When they first arrived on Rainbow, Mu had already chosen a few points for warp jumps as their retreat options. Now, they were heading for one of those points.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong recalled the time when he sat in Mu¡¯s pilot cabin as they escaped from the trash. They were facing a simrly unknown future, full of potential disasters. However, Ye Chong was feeling very much at peace. There was no panic or fear. After the initial surprise, Ye Chong quickly epted his situation.

    From his many close encounters with death, Ye Chong learned not only to appreciate life, but also to not fear death.

    The war jump point would bring them to a ce in the Csebesini Gxy. Once they made this warp jump, they would be safe.

    No one would make a warp jump without carefulputations. A tiny mistake might send you to a far off and unfamiliar territory. You may never find your way back.

    The universe is vast, and humanity will never reach its ends. The Five Gxies may berge, butpared to the size of the universe, it was just a speck of dust.

    Hence, calctions for warp jumps were made with extra care. People who could calcte the warp jump points of others quickly like Little Rock were exceptional geniuses.

    Time seemed to slow down. Seconds felt like minutes. Everyone in the warship could feel the suffocating tension.

    They all prayed that the enemy¡¯s mechs did not discover Cob¡¯s intention. Everyone stared at the holographic screen unblinkingly. The 13 mechs were still flying outwards, taking their huge detour. For the moment, none of them seemed aware of what Cob was up to.

    Time passed. The warp jump point was getting closer. Everyone could feel the tension rising. Little Rock balled up his fists, his face turning red. Even Zhu Ling was breathing heavily. Lian Yue was even worse off, sweat covering all over him, but he did not care to wipe them off.

    Almost ¡­ Almost ¡­ Almost there ¡­

    "What?!" Everyone except Ye Chong gasped almost simultaneously, their faces betraying fear and surprise.

    The scorpion-shaped mech had a dark brown tail, the tip of which was now shining bright red. The sight was familiar to Ye Chong. He immediately thought of the faint blue light visible when an electromaic cannon was charging for an attack.

    Now, even Ye Chong felt a sense of foreboding.

    A dark red beam hit Cob.

 Chapter 257 - The Destiny

    <h4>Chapter 257: The Destiny</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Where are we?"

    "Unknown," Mu told Ye Chong who was the first morning bird among the folks thanks to his very best physique. Mu¡¯s reply had always been that indifferent.

    He took a look at the visuals. His drowsy eyes straightened themselves upon nce. Even an even-tempered person like Ye Chong became odd-tempered for a second because of the scene.

    "What¡­ are these?" whispered Ye Chong with his finger pointing at thoseyers of crimson fluttering in the projection, where the Cob was currently sailing on. Theyers were as thick as the bog, sometimes they were as thin as the fog. They could be dense, they could also be diluted as if a space rain had fallen. The nameless misty redness was giving the hologramic detection system a major interruption, where even Mu¡¯s built-in detection system had to force its proximity reduced to almost nothing. What about Photon Mode? Ye Chong peeked at the outside through the window, the mode would be a hopeless attempt.

    "Matches with the databank: Negative. Component: Unknown," that statement from Mu gave Ye Chong another moment of flinched silence.

    "Then how do we know if we are sailing in the right direction?" asked Ye Chong. Unlike the sea, a spaceship must locate its coordination all the time. It was not a journey that could be led by a general direction or they could sail way off the nned course easily, to nowhere¡­ And there were tiny asteroids hovering in the space, reminding the Cob to not take a reckless sail on them.

    "I would say, we would have to rely on RnG," said Mu helplessly.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong was speechless¡­

    The rest of the members woke up very soon after that. The tension, panic and screams Ye Chong was expecting could hardly be seen on them. Zhu Ling just got up and went back to her training room, while Lian Yue, after a nice stretch and a few rubs on his neck, sauntered back to theboratory after muttering a few words. As for Little Rock¡­ well, he stayed on the ground, as he looked upon the ceiling, dazing off in ordance with his routine.

    Why none of them showed concern to our situation now? Wondered Ye Chong really peculiarly.

    The Cob travelled in the mystifying zone for the next three days, which he never made a breakthrough within. They were still in the red sea. The zone was rather quiet and nothing had happened just yet, while the supplies of living necessity as well as the batteries were more than sufficient.

    The folks had once extracted the strange stream of scarlet to perform analysis, but their research resulted in nothing significant. Their oue this far, was merely concluding that the scarlet had indeed a negative effect on transmitting signals while altering its viscosity periodically in the space. Whether it could be harmful to human body¡­ they do not have a living subject to test it on, and none of them ever had the courage to experiment themselves.

    As the exact coordination remained unknown for the whole time, Mu could not risk to perform a space-jump, so the Cob remained on its unintelligible course.

    After two days of tension facing the unknown, Ye Chong too regained his calmness as he withdrew his nervousness and locked back into his heart.

    Qiu Man woke up on the third day, whom of course Lian Yue went extremely weing upon, although Ye Chong had taught this appeal-loving man that this verydy named Qiu Man was nothing he couldy his hands upon. He better not.

    The first thing Qiu Man did was to take a look around. And she immediately understood her situation upon seeing Ye Chong.

    "Who are you? What do you want from me? Where am I?" Qiu Man did not lose her grace, as she asked Ye Chong tly, which was more than alluring to Lian Yue. She¡¯s¡­ She¡¯s gorgeous! Moaned Lian Yue in his mind, finding Qiu Man to be someone finally able to bnce out the masculinity and femininity on the ship, since well¡­ Zhu Ling, the only female among them, depicted hardly anydylike feature. And Lian Yue felt his heart being struck by something the very first nce he had on thedy. He felt his brain had gone short-circuit.

    "The location. We have no idea as well," replied Ye Chong, ignoring the first really silly question he thought. He did not intend to skip the second question though, he wanted something else first, "Your identity?" stated he.

    Ye Chong¡¯s tone always felt like the wind on a winter day, which was freezing to one¡¯s core. Even Lian Yue began sinking into his shirt and scurried from the ce.

    Qiu Man¡¯s heart tightened but being as witty as she was, she knew acting cooperative would be a far better choice, "I am the management of Research Center 79," she said.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes were expressing nothing but coldness, they were not blinking as the stare went on.

    And Qiu Man, as feeling pressured, could not help but to spit, "My grandfather is the leader of the intelligence."

    Ye Chong withdrew his stare and made a light nod. That exined a lot. No wonder they conducted such outrageous act. He was not sure what exactly the leader of the intelligence did, but obviously it was not some random folks on the street.

    "Gao Shichang¡­ Have you heard of Gao Shichang?" asked Ye Chong abruptly.

    "Ah!" Qiu Man covered her mouth, as her eyes were inted with surprise, never expecting this young man inquiring this person. The boy seemed to be just in his twenties, while it had been 20 years since the incident happened. This boy should have nothing to do with the case¡­ or¡­ maybe not, could he be a rtive to Gao Shichang? But ording to reports, Gao Shichang should have no rtive¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s pupils shrunk, his heart raced. There¡¯s something wrong from this woman. She must know something!

    But Qiu Man¡¯s following reaction was not ording to his preference, as no matter what he asked, how he asked, she remained in total silence. Sigh¡­ it looks like I¡¯m the wrong person to do the enquiry¡­ I should hand it to the expert. Shang still did this like his bread and butter.

    I¡¯ll let the expert do the job then. Thought Ye Chong as he got up and walked away.

    Lian Yue was very displeasing to Ye Chong, with his disgusting expression stuck upon Qiu Man¡¯s gestures for some hours daily. He had to make the man forget about women, there was a way of course - mech-engine research and development, Ye Chong would make great use of those rich information he stole from Donald¡¯s research unit.

    It felt like an reincarnation of their past on the Cob, where Zhu Ling would spend her days and nights training, Little Rock would be doing nothing as something kept running in his head, while Ye Chong, with his vain partner Lian Yue would be analyzing the information he obtained.

    Lian Yue, despite his vanity, was still a genius in engine-development. It took him only three days to fully digest the concept of Donald¡¯s designs. And as Ye Chong had predicted, Donald was indeed facing a stuck-up situation in his research.

    And both of them spent the whole day figuring out that missing spot on the iplete blueprint. Ye Chong might have been theyman in this, but he had seen way more advanced engines than Lian Yue, especially with his well educated on the fundamentals, Lian Yue was utterly surprised.

    Under Lian Yue¡¯s guidance, Ye Chong¡¯s engine developing skills were rapidly improving. He had that well-founded primary expertise and vast exposure to actual engines, he justcked a good teacher to refine what he saw and what he experienced. After a few pointers made by Lian Yue, Ye Chong¡¯s understanding exploded as he realized everything was being connected in his head and making better sense.

    Lian Yue was astonished as he had been assumed a genius himself and now he saw someone who was pretty much close to what he believed a genius was. And he was excited, certainly.

    "Oh my gosh! You must see this darling! Now when we move this, yes, to that circuit, it would trigger this, yes namely the¡­" Lian Yue was very, very excited, which worn Ye Chong out quickly.

    His thinking leapt from one spot to another speedily. Ye Chong the one withcked advanced knowledge found it difficult to follow, "I mean, sometimes I really hate the choice ofponents in engine among the designers, you see¡­" Ye Chong was forced to activate his brain cells on full force in order to understand what the heck this being was trying to convey.

    It could not be helped as Lian Yue had always been the lone wolf in the field and he had finally found someone who could join him in his research, how could he not be excited over this?

    "How do you think the more densely structured circuits arepared to the light structures?"

    "Hey, Ye, you should watch this visual I downloaded before. It¡¯s about the history of engineponents. Yeah we could have a brief seminar on it." Everyday Lian Yue would haunt Ye Chong to have a discussion on mech engines, which drove the poor indifferent man running away. Nheless, it was because of this haunting person, Ye Chong had gained tremendous improvement in this field, as he began being able to follow Lian Yue¡¯s conversation after a week or so. With his immense exposure to the variety of engines in mechs he had encountered, sometimes he would make some really boldments, which were a shocker to Lian Yue.

    A monthter they had finally produced a blueprint for a new engine, on the basis of Donald¡¯s design, with the concepts of the engines Ye Chong had seen on mechs of the three forces incorporated. They were not really that greatpared to Donald, they were justpleting the giant circle the former had drawn over the years. Everyone could see that.

    The new engine was known as "the Destiny", the name was given by Lian Yue. Well, Ye Chong would not mind as usual, he had lots more things to do, as his eyes were glued on the blueprint, wondering in his toasting head on how they were supposed to transform these dots and lines into an actual object.

    Assuming they were truly producing this, based on their calctions, its potential efficiency would be 3 times greater than the Overwing¡¯s maximum performance. Of course, that figure was just on paper. It would be rather far-fetched to achieve that since that would impose a ridiculous requirement on the materials.

    Still, the capabilities of the Destiny were not something both Ye Chong and Lian Yue had expected, since they were just aiming to design a model which could perform with a simr efficiency as the Overwing but the result was jaw-dropping.

    That was theoretically speaking though. What Ye Chong needed to do would be to actually craft it, only the actual object could do the speaking.

    First-off, the materials¡­ Like what the heck do we use to produce this? Thought Ye Chong, puzzled as he stood before that gigantic inventory of his, filled with numerous bones of great quality, a collection of umon mineralites and even some transmutated energy ores. He had a cab of the greatest things one could imagine from the gxy.

    The next fortnight Ye Chong spent on experiments, trying to select the materials to produce the Destiny. He had tested on countless form and only a fortunate person like him could do experiments on these ultimate rare materials as if the beans and carrots from the supermarket. But Ye Chong picked skeletons in the end.

    The bones of Blue Dragon Glider, had a texture of the jades, provided great physical properties while it retained a nimble structure, were one of the best skeletons in Ye Chong¡¯s inventory. He had never seen Blue Dragon Glider in his life but Master Ge gave marvelousments on it in the encyclopedia with high respects. And after evaluating itspatibility with the design, it might not be able to achieve the engine¡¯s maximum potential efficiency, but it would be the one with highestpatibility among the other materials.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong included a few keyponents in alloys since the production of alloys was much more efficient than skeletons. 80% of skeletons and 20% of alloys. To get the very best of the performance, Ye Chong - holding his heart, bidding farewell - took the bucket containing the colorful transmutated energy ores, few sshes were heard and the ores were poured into the melting pot with the alloys. He had consumed half of the energy ores he collected from the.

    He got to do it, for he was currently in the unknown, which gave him a strong sense of danger. If there was any method for Ye Chong to further increase his offensive forces, he would do it, by hook or by crook. The goldenw of survival, the stronger you get, the more likely you will survive.

    And there it is! He made it, the Destiny had been born!

    He installed it into Han Jia. Okay, he got into the cabin and took a breath. Tapped the button. And the engine taught him what real speed was.

    It was too fast!

    The Destiny might be unable to achieve that whooping 3 times greater than the Overwing but it still surpassed the Overwing¡¯s engine by 1.5 times. Moreover, Hanjia was way lighter than Overwing, so Han Jia¡¯s maximum speed could be twice as fast as Overwing¡¯s.

    Wow, 2 times faster than Overwing¡¯s. What kind of speed would that be? Everyone was astounded when Ye Chong was piloting Han Jia in the training room, except Mu. Ye Chong could not imagine, how amazing he would feel if he one day was ever able to make Mu dropped his mechanical jaw as well.

    Now you see me.

    Now you don¡¯t.

    A perfect description on Han Jia¡¯s new velocity. Zhu Ling on Overwing tried fighting against Ye Chong and onlysted for a good 30 second. Such potent mech, Ye Chong was overconfident, as he imagined himself being fearless even against the ace pilots of the 3 forces.

    Oh well. It was good while itsted, when Mu taught Ye Chong a lesson. He onlysted for 20 minutes under Mu¡¯s attack, and it was a hand to handbat. Ye Chong knew his limits especially Mu was the best at ranged attacks with Recursion and not a hand-to-handbat. If Mu ever had a duel with him with Recursion, Ye Chong probably could even face a hard time staying up for half a minute.

    20 minute survival was still a great record for Ye Chong, since it was the longest in the record of him fighting against Mu.

    Imagine if Mu Shang werepleted, how powerful would they be? Frightened Ye Chong but he grew confused as well, as once he had asked Mu whether he was the greatest and the reply was Mu could be merely somewhere between the 500th and 600th greatest mechs in the gxy. Ye Chong did not take Mu¡¯sment by heart, he simply found it fascinating since Mu was pretty much crippled yet he retained within the 600th.

    But after their adventure, Ye Chong started to question that statement.

    He had encountered the Strongs countless timesing from all kinds of field. The Nirvana pilot, the ace of the Sanctuary, Feng Su for example, and those two advanced mechs of the Freedom Alliance who drove them into this bizarre area in the first ce¡­ All of them, disregarding their experience and expertise, were technically not evenpetent to be Mu Shang¡¯s opponents despite Mu Shang¡¯s damaged system. If Mu Shang were currently within the 600th, that would mean there were at least 400 to 500 experts they would be encountering above.

    But where are they? Those aces Ye Chong had encountered before were already considered as the greatest individuals in the 5 major gxies.

    Mu could not be lying. Ye Chong could confirm that, it was just that Ye Chong was curious of this. Well, screw that, who cares! Even if those Strongs do exist, they were none of my business!

    "Greetings, Ye. I hereby present you the oue of my progress. Thisssie does know a lot. Such a memorable experience interrogating the beauty. Jajaja! Never once I would expect this Freedom Alliance having so many interesting stories to tell," stated Shang, with a mesmerized expression.

 Chapter 258 - Entangled, the Red Sea I

    <h4>Chapter 258: Entangled, the Red Sea I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong took a nce at Qiu Man who appeared to be rather low-spirited for some reason. It was as if Shang had drained everyst ounce of her soul through that "interrogation" of his. One might question the homosapien cruelty but Ye Chong had to admit that Shang¡¯s special session was clearly effective. Lian Yue, who also had tasted Shang¡¯s course before, projected a simr sympathy towards Qiu Man through his watery eyes.

    Qiu Man was very well-informed in where she belonged, which turned out to be surprising to Ye Chong, since she seemed to be just his age while the inquiry was about something that happened over 20 years ago. How the hell does she know? Ye Chong almost had his eyes wide open upon hearing the report from Shang.

    Based on what had Shang acquired from Qiu Man, apparently her grandfather, Qiu Yuanlie was exactly one of the few very persons behind this. But what he was assigned to turned out to be merely the cleaning after the case. And yes, quite to everyone¡¯s shock that Qiu Man¡¯s grandfather , being the "cleaner" of the case, was that super Maverick everyone shunned themselves away from the whole time, which justified Qiu Man¡¯s persistent silence throughout the session. It also happened to be because of his performance in this case, Qiu Yuanlie was promoted as the leader of the Freedom Alliance¡¯s intelligence.

    It was a logical promotion, considering how he managed to wipe away everything regarding a public figure on the virtualworking system singlehandedly 20 years ago. And this was not something that even the current Mavericks could have done with technologies today. It was the brightest entry in his life Qiu Yuanlie considered for himself. So the every bit of details rted to the case were generously collected in his records, which kept Qiu Man well-informed of her grandfather¡¯s glorious act in the past. But certainly she would fear Ye Chong and the others would be taking action against her grandfather, her words could have determined her grandfather¡¯s mortality, so she insisted to keep her mouth zipped before.

    Gao Shichang was formerly the top mech designer under Prometheus Group. And Freedom Alliance - while being obviously not as established as now - had once infiltrated the group, trying to gain the fond of this amazing talent, to persuade his contribution to the alliance itself. Rather unfortunately, on one asion, Gao Shichang was made aware of their infiltration, and as much as a strong-willed person he was, he portrayed obstinate resistant towards their offers upon exposure. Gao Shichang was then given further persuasion of all sorts, including threat, bribery, coercion, anything in the bibliography of a gang. Nevertheless, the genius refused to make a move as he ventured into something more strikingly taboo to the alliance. He was involved in a secret project, which eventually became the end of his tale.

    Qiu Man imed to have never seen the projection of Gao Shichang in person. And evidently she also had no idea if Gao Shichang was the papa Ye Chong searched for long. These records were a secret report seemingly. And inside the report, there was one entry which stated that the one who executed Gao Shichang was actually the very best friend of his and that friend also happened to be the second greatest mech designer to Gao Shichang in Prometheus Group.

    No doubt, the entry with greatest amount of details was the part where Qiu Yuanlie performed his cleaning on the virtualworking system, listed from the hows to the whys. He had never seen Gao Shichang face-to-face, but naturally he must have seen the projection of this target once at least. He would probably be the only person in the entire gxy who could tell if Gao Shichang was the papa of Ye Chong, even though that so-called "best friend" of Gao Shichang could do the same as well.

    So much hassle Ye Chong had gone through yet so little information he had revealed, while also putting him under greater risk because of what he had done. It was discouraging to Ye Chong.

    Qiu Man¡¯s information on Gao Shichang seemed to have ended there as well. Well, under Shang¡¯s unique interrogating technique, quite a handful amount of information on the inside of the Freedom Alliance was obtained at least, although Ye Chong showed little interest on it. The first thing on his priority after this was to resolve the following issues.

    First off¡­ how should Ye Chong "handle" Qiu Man? He could save a significant amount of food if he could eliminate her, but it would feel too cruel to eliminate his own kind and he was not the killing type of person from the beginning anyway. He let Qiu Man off his grip in the end and decided to give her the freedom to move around in the ship, since technically there was no such deepest and darkest secret in the Cob.

    And the Cob was still sailing in this boundless-looking sea of scarlet.

    Although the mist was thick and sometimes thin, they realized something as they progressed, that the range of density of the mist was increasing noticeably. The density remained fluctuating but it was an enough worrying sight for the folks on the ship. There should be something in the front, but there was no way to tell if that thing was benign or malignant. Shang, knowing it was no longer the right stage for him, switched his ce with Mu instead. Once in a blue moon, he proactively gave his microphone away and sank behind the scene.

    The mist thickened, yet nothing had happened in the next few days.

    Ye Chong had wasted enough time anticipating nothing these few days, so on the next tick of his biological clock, he just got back to his routine mech modification as heid his hands upon the Guardian as he felt more potential with the new engine installed on the Guardian instead. He was right, the Guardian after the instation of the new engine had made a major improvement in its offenses, but it was not enough and Ye Chong remained unsatisfied. He viewed the massive inventory of his, filled with a range of precious materials which could drive any professional mad on spot, that he felt so precious that it would be a waste if he used them right now. Mu had said those materials would be unable to exert the optimum capacity in here. But he had to use them right away, as aware he was, these materials would determine whether they could make it through this time. Materials could be valuable but the values would be lost the moment the owner was lost.

    He went to Mu and grabbed the Do-Kun stone, which its performance on Harmony¡¯snce was utterly memorable. A little mixture of Do-Kun stone in the formation and thence almost skewed Instructor Hak inside the mech with its superior sharpness.

    And now, he had Do-Kun stone and an inventory of umon mineralites. He selected a few form from Mu¡¯s databank, which were the results of Mu¡¯s impable calction and involved solely the sources Ye Chong currently owned. He tried experimenting them and after wasting a tiny piece of Do-Kun stone he finally obtained the best form from what he owned. He might probably be the only person who actually used a ultra luxury like Do-Kun stone to perform experiments.

    Without further ado, he proceeded with weapon-crafting since it would be a piece of cake having the right form to follow.

    He was making a dagger. Of course, Ye Chong still had that connection with daggers. Those were something he had the most hands-on experience. Almost every transmutated energy ore rolling in the inventory along with the umon ores were dumped into the pot and a pair of twin daggers were made, in a length of about 1.5 meters. The effect was imaginably potent.

    The body of the dagger exerted a color of pale grey in ack of glow. The design was seemingly simple too without much adornment, which one could say the kind to be "easily-overlooked". That would be perfect, as long as it stayed potentially overlooked, no one would be aware of what the daggers were capable of, till the daggers got into action. Probably no one other than Ye Chong would invest a full Do-Kun stone on a pair of daggers like these. The value of those mineralites the daggers consumed would be astronomical, even without the inclusion of Do-Kun stone.

    Ye Chong was loving his new toy already. The daggers were silent, low-profiled yet formidable, handy. The sharpness of the daggers had also gone beyond everyone¡¯s imagination, including Mu. Ye Chong could not find anything that couldst under the shes of his new daggers. And everyone¡¯sment was negative towards the capability of the daggers in the first ce, which further convinced Ye Chong how the daggers would be a lovely surprise to the foes in future.

    Even if he were to fight against a warship, providing that he was not interrupted by external circumstances, he probably could slice the armor of the ship like slicing puddings.

    And the previous pair of daggers became the substitute instead.

    The only regret for Ye Chong was how he never managed to utilize the Teardrop. So based on what Mu had told, this thing was a super duper condensed battery. He would love to use it but to extract it Ye Chong would have to use a particr kind of matter, namely the Nonlinear Cobalite, which was non-existent in his inventory or he would have used the Teardrop as his pseudo-perpetual motion provider, since Mu imed that the energy was so vast that it couldst the warship several years, while being able to sustain a mech for decades or even centuries.

    That definitely could trante as the dramatic increase of warship and mech¡¯s travel. But well, the Teardrop was something so rare that what it could do mostly remained on paper.

    Ye Chong had a handful of Teardrops, he could say he had the necessary technique as well but he did not have the cobalite, which directly suggested him to put the Teardrops down and forget about them. The headache-giving lecture from Mu was not for nothing after all. He had practically mastered the technique of Teardrop¡¯s energy extraction. And he believed he would be able to extract and install the Teardrops inside the Cob at the first moment he got that very ingredient.

    But then¡­ Sigh¡­

    Oh well. Thought Ye Chong as he sank the 3 Teardrops into his bag, while passing the remaining 4 to Mu.

    He had consumed countless amount of materials in his bank these few days. He grew so familiar with those umon ores that he could tell the names and the properties of the ores at first nce, after almost tearing the metallurgy encyclopedia in Mu¡¯s databank.

    Seeing how his rich collection had half of it vaporized was giving him slight heartache, although he knew that those were gone for his own consumption.

    "Ye, something happened," said Mu through the announcement. Ye Chong sprung from his seat. There had not been anything happening these few days, which was weird. It was quiet, but too quiet. It was a torture of bearing the fear towards the unknown for the past month they travelled, that even Ye Chong felt the stress haunting him.

    On the hologramic projection, the red mist wavered like red fluid, which had visibly hindered the Cob¡¯s movement.

    That was not the crew¡¯s attention. Those red strands swimming in the red sea were something bizarre to behold. Nobody knew when these strands started appearing and nobody could tell what they exactly looked like, since sometimes the strands were thin like the hair while being able to look broad like the asteroid belt, taking the length of a sr system asionally. The number of the strands were frightening, the crew felt like they were sailing on the weeds of the red sea.

    The body of the Cob had been entangled by numerous strands, which gave him an appearance of a coated pirate ship. The strands were forceful, something the crew was uncalled for. Under the pull of the strands, the Cob was directed away from his former course.

    The strands gathered around the Cob, as they danced along the vibrance of the red sea. Few strands were fine but¡­ gazillion strands turning at the propents of their ship were horrifying.

    !

    Ye Chong, with his sharp eyes, noticed the strands broadening gradually.

    The Cob felt like a potassium dipped into a red pool. The Cob seemed to be engulfed by the red sea with the strange screeches of pulling, to their horror, the crew discovered the number of red strands had been growing worryingly.

    "Oh no¡­" Whispered Ye Chong, looking at the camera flooded by those peculiar strands. They would soon be entangled into a pupa by the red sea alive if nothing was done. They would be buried alive¡­ These red strands were high in tenacity, with the momentum the Cob was producing, it would be impossible to break through them.

 Chapter 259 - Entangled, the Red Sea II

    <h4>Chapter 259: Entangled, the Red Sea II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It looks like we have to go for the hard way. Thought Ye Chong, as sumbed to hisst resort, gesturing Shang to give a few taps on the panel. Tick! And every part of the Cob¡¯s weaponry came forth. Countlessser firing devices rotated into position, while the electromaic cannons began charging, along with the Beauty¡¯s Secretion which Shang believed to be a very drastic measure in his hand.

    They were unsure if these weapons were able to change anything, but doing nothing would surely be an imprisonment to death for everyone!

    No time to give a damn anymore!

    ZZzzzzzt!

    Allser firing units sted with the bombardment of electromaism. The hologram sparked in in white, even Ye Chong and his folks were stunned by the scene. They saw neithersers nor electromaic waves, they only perceived the brightest st. Will the unstable crossing of two energy tear the corner of gxy?! Will an explosion ur?!

    ¡­

    The expected explosion did not ur, which was a major relief to everyone. They found their attempt to be rather risky, considering how these strange misty structures in crimson was mmable by nature. They might burn a way out, but they could cause an explosion too. Assuming an explosion truly urred, never the Cob would be able to survive such a supernova-like explosion.

    Their eyes set upon the regained vision on the projection, and they staggered.

    The strands¡­ they did not decrease, not at all. Did they just dramatically multiply themselves in this brief time window? Holy Fal¡­ No way! How could that be? Firepower this dense could have smashed the toughest warship or mech, these strands should have been powdered into specks!

    But judging by what was being projected on the visual, the odd strands remained unharmed. Wait, did that mean¡­ these strands are actually immune to energy-based beams? Spected Ye Chong in his mind immediately.

    Zzt! Zzt! Zzt!

    Theser firing devices did not rest as they carried on raiding the space with a shower of beams. Now without the interference of electromaic waves, Ye Chong could see it, the scenery that stirred his disbeliefs - theser beams rained upon the strands, like actual rainnding on a red pool, where ripples were seen, nothing else happened.

    Ye Chong flinched, as his spection had been verified.

    His eyes red upon the visual, with onest hope mustered in him, the Beauty¡¯s Secretion, a creation of Ye Chong validated by the few wars he had gotten into. The corrosiveness was great that the secretion could fully corrode the outeryer of a mech very quick after contact, leading to the death of the pilot inside due to the leak of oxygen.

    Come on!

    His eyes erged, staring at that one Beauty¡¯s Secretion hovering towards the targets. It moved rather sluggishly because of the dy effect caused by the strands. And contact had been made! The uracy of the Beauty¡¯s Secretion could hardly be guaranteed in an environment like this, but well, there were tons of targets where it couldnd, so there was not much of need to aim actually.

    Beauty¡¯s Secretion sttered, Shang¡¯s Liquid sshed upon the strand. The corrosiveness was not disappointing, as it began causing few columns of emerald smokes upon the strand with the size of an arm. The strand broke into half!

    Ye Chong wanted to raise the corners of his lips, nevertheless, the corners copsed to a whole new threshold.

    The strands multiplied themselves again within that split second. Beauty¡¯s Secretion could be that potent to destroy them, but it would be too far-fetched to use it to clear a way out for the Cob. The corrosion was unable to catch up with the multiplication of the red strands. It would feel like a drop of herbicide to thewn even if heunched all secretions he possessed.

    What are these strands? Everyone stumbled upon the visual. Zhu Ling was calm, kind of. Qiu Man was already much paler than she usually was, with the hands pressed on her chests.

    "Mu, any idea what this is?" asked Ye Chong quickly.

    "Substance unknown. Composition unknown," stated Mu, with the calmness of eternity even before the death.

    Ye Chong instantly deployed Han Jia and took a quick leap into the cabin. "Mu, get the gate open, I¡¯ll go get some sample."

    "Take care."

    Before that syble of concern fell, Han Jia had already zoomed its way to the gate at highest momentum, with a n in mind.

    Sample the red strands, find out the exactposition of these strands, investigate its chemical and physical characteristics and take the necessary action against them, or else we would die here! The Cob had beenpletely tied to the red sea. Fully immobilized, no chance for him to even consider a back-out.

    The rapports between Ye Chong and Mu were great, as the timing of the gate opening was just as right.

    Ye Chong flew out of the Cob. That was when he finally had a better look on the red sea, realizing to his horror, of how dense these structures were, as the Cob had been utterly enveloped into something like a red cocoon, a quivering ball of yarn.

    Something was strange. Ye Chong discovered as he flew on. Apparently Han Jia was unaffected by the dy effects of the red strands, despite flying boldly through the densestyer. Judging by what happened to the Cob, the red mist should have a noticeably negative effect on warships, or generally any flying object. But¡­ he felt nothing on Han Jia?

    He gave a tap and Han Jia elerated towards the nearest strand at the side, which happened to have a diameter over a meter while wriggling rhythmically. It felt very tender, with partial transparency, a bit rubbery? Han Jia grabbed the strand and withdrew a dagger with the other hand.

    SSssslurp.

    The red strand was extremely slippery, with a kind of pulling force within. Ye Chong realized as he saw the strand escape the grip of Han Jia. He hurriedly seized the red strand back into his hand.

    A sh with his dagger and a lining of the mist was cleared, which recovered shortly after.

    And that was the very first debut of this new dagger, cutting red weed. At least it was not disappointing as the red strand was sliced easily. One more sh and Ye Chong had sampled a strand about 2 meters long. This should be enough.

    He was going to turn back but¡­something big wasing to his way.

    A giant red pir of a diameter over 70 kilometers swept over the rhythm of the red mist, as if a gentle breeze of a bloody spring, as towards it swung the Cob which looked like a red yarn ball on Christmas, like the granny¡¯s cane on a cleaning day.

    Thup.

    Ye Chong was in the middle of its way. His vision cked out as he felt a heavy force dragging his entire body tumbling, the sudden wham caused him to lose control over Han Jiapletely. The mech began sinking in the waves of strands, a muffling cry whispered throughout the darkened cabin, "Y¡­Ye¡­"

    After Ye Chong got back with the time, he realized he had lost the Cob as his sight was flooded with these bizarrely-aggressive strands. He could feel the waves, bouncing him mischiefs as he tried pulling himself away, it almost felt like his limbs were bound by a bunch of wriggling springs.

    Oh no. Ye Chong panicked.

    Transmission would be nearly impossible to reach Mu as long as he was inside the depth of the sea. The red mist was sticky like a viscousyer of glue, visibility zero, and now with the kind assistance of these red strands, Ye Chong could barely tell his location.

    Ye Chong calmed down shortly after, knowing that panic and fear would do him no good at the moment. Rather it would only worsen his situation, now he would need to find out where Mu and the Cob were, since obviously the survivability of being in such environment alone would be subzero.

    The red mist brewed and Ye Chong nearly was unable to find where his dagger located his body.

    He rebooted Han Jia and piloted it towards the direction of the Cob¡­ by estimation and impression of course¡­ although he remained confused, wondering what had hit him just now. The force could be said as colossal, which was not something a human like him could fight against. If there was not these strands to buffer the inertia, he could not imagine, without the friction of any form like the air, how far he would have been sent.

    It¡¯s here. It¡¯s here?

    No it should be¡­ there?

    No¡­ I could not find it. I still could not find it. Han Jia was squirming through the waving gaps. Ye Chong had searched most parts of the area but he could not find the Cob at all. Themunicator had been dead silence ever since.

    Goddammit! This bloody red mist! If it was not the mist, he could have contacted Mu despite the pulling of these strands. Even if he could not, Mu could at least get his coordination!

    He carried on searching on arger scope. Nope, no sight of the Cob¡­ This was getting nowhere. Ye Chong was forced to surrender. Practically, he should have given up way back, as he was in a foreign zone with nearly zero visibility and a waving structure. If he were to attempt marking the strands to identify his direction, it would be like marking the waves of seaweeds as one swam in the sea. It would be pointless.

    Mu¡­ Shang¡­

    Ye Chong gave a wry smile. Mu Shang had always been by his side, through thick and thin, sharing joy and grief, then a sudden blow and he was stuck in this strange zone without them. Ye Chong was lost, feeling his heart empty.

    Well¡­ I have to at least survive. Bucked up Ye Chong.

    Fortunately I retained that habit of bringing supplementary batteries and nutrition capsules with me all the time, or I would be living with non-existent possibility to leave this red sea. I would not want to be starved to dead, at a horrible ce like this.

    He then picked a direction to travel randomly. He flew straight, he would not bother anymore as all direction would hold the same odds for him.

    Han Jia was not hindered by the red sea unexpectedly, there was no dy at all, as if its usual flights in the vacuum. Ye Chong thought it was him overthinking at first, but the reality was there, which was confusing as Mu had once reported that the thickening of red sea had obstructed the movement of the Cob. The overlooked statement kept ringing in his head.

    That was not all.

    The strands were acting strangely towards Han Jia. They were rather¡­ slippery, so slippery that they felt likepletely lubricated as they slipped over Han Jia¡¯s body as it moved. No strand had caught Han Jia, not even one.

    But Ye Chong could still remember that horrendous scene of seeing how the Cob was melting in the red sea by the grasp of strands like a piece of potassium into the water, as the red strands grew over the body of the Cob at a horrifying speed. The Cob started turning into a yarn ball since then.

    Weird! Why would the strands not catch him?

    Was it because of the material of Han Jia? Spected Ye Chong promptly but he was not in any mood for researches, he just wanted to leave this mental-scarring ce as soon as possible.

    When one were to travel in the boundless space, the helpless loneliness could overwhelm one to one¡¯s homicidal thoughts, as one could not help but to wonder on what would be lying ahead, which in the decade one would meet an actual person, to where exactly one would be heading, for how long one would have to travel. It would feel like days¡­ weeks, months¡­ or¡­

    ¡­

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong flew on, with Han Jia remained at maximum velocity, as the universalw rang in his head - if you were to fight for the opportunity, you might not get the opportunity; but if you were never to fight for opportunity, you would never get the opportunity.

    Although he must admit¡­ traveling in a lubricated area of strands felt rather intriguing, assuming he was not in such endangered situation.

    His eyes set upon the waves of red strands. They seemed to be growing again, even though they were not growing as horribly quick as the time he saw back in the Cob, he could discern the growth, they were growing broader. Ye Chong hypothesized that both the red strands and the red sea should share the same matter, it could be a kind of solidification, de-solidification, condensation, vaporizing process like water but ¡­ Ye Chong was not really sure on what condition the process would be triggered.

    Most of the strands in the red sea were floating with an outrageous diameter, where some hit about a few tens kilometers. That was annoying because Ye Chong could hardly see a thing in the front, at caution he only got to reduce his velocity gradually.

    He felt inspired out of sudden as he discovered a way to preserve energy. Han Jia would act like an agile mutated ape, traveling in the woods of reddish vines around, but with way more alien sticity. Han Jia grabbed the vines and swung to the following, this was a faster approach, more energy-saving too!

    He had to save on energy since he could not reckon how far ahead he got to travel before he hit an opening, even though the travel with lower energy cost was sustained on the basis of arger demand on his piloting.

    At least he was a master pilot of some sort. The first two days were a little chaotic though as rushing through the vines would give him constant tension, which would wear him out quickly. Ye Chong was lucky to have a stronger physique than most men so the chaos onlysted for two days before Ye Chong finally adapted himself to the high tension execution.

    Of course one could say that a man would have his most potential excavated at the drastic edge of death.

    The red sea had lots of strands, much more than the area surrounding the Cob, but the density was much smaller. No doubt, Ye Chong could confirm that something about the Cob must have triggered the red mist there, which led to the aggressiveness. Well, he had yet reached the conclusion on what triggered it.

    Twelve hundred and two hundred and seventy three. Counted Ye Chong.

    His hands swung along with Han Jia upon the control panel, smoothly like a real mutated ape seesawing throughout the woods.

    The travel seemed to be endless, and Ye Chong felt he was copsing at any second but somehow his expression was depicting a hint of excitement.

    And Ye Chong started to see the red mist fading out, the strands were retreating on his way.

    Right! That means¡­ I am right! I am going out!

 Chapter 260 - Living from the Unknown

    <h4>Chapter 260: Living from the Unknown</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s sense of direction was right, the mist was in fact fading away as he hovered on. He started noticing the few mysterious regrities within the mist. There seemed to be a cycle¡­ which affected the thickness of the mist. So whenever the red mist began diminishing, the red strands would turn finer and some of them would disintegrate as well. In the midst of the mist in pale scarlet, only the strands thinner than fingers remained. The strands were outstanding as they stood in a sharper crimson than their broader counterpart, like burning me. The strength of these strands was probably far greater than the normal strands behind. Ye Chong in his Han Jia gave a careful sh to the root and grabbed stalk of them. These were far more reliable than the usual ropes, would be perfect as a lifeline.

    On little bit of curiosity, Ye Chong realized he could not even tear the fine strands apart. These were some real physic-defying threads. Well, if they were really "threads" to begin with. Ye Chong was rather intrigued by theposition of these red strands, being eager for exploration in the chemicalposition of matters was a typical character setting for an alchemist like himself.

    Without the hinderance of the strands, Han Jia started regaining its mobility. Ye Chong was very much avid for a fancy race on Mach 20, but he had to conserve his batteries, as he maintained Han Jia at around Mach 18. Still, Mach 18 was already a speed way different than what Han Jia used to travel at.

    The mist was disappearing, as Ye Chong¡¯s visibility restored. Han Jia¡¯s built-in hologramic detection system had won back Ye Chong¡¯s trust since the interference was getting ovee.

    It was weird though, that Ye Chong did not see any despite his long travels. He technically had barely seen anything else than the red strands and red sea themselves.

    In a void so vast and boundless, how could there be only a misty field of red strands? There was nothing else? Really? What is the mist for? Where do theye from? Howrge the field was exactly? Nobody knew, nobody could tell.

    Ye Chong did have that innate curiosity to venture into the unknown, but that did not mean he wouldpromise his safety and jump into a potential ck hole.

    He travelled for the following week with the digital clock ticking inside the cabin. It was a relief when he was finally able to escape from the creepy red sea. No message was received. No notification was on his screen. There was no iing signal as well. There were too many unknowns inside the gxies, so many taboos they should not fondle with. It would be a miracle if he was able to encounter the Cob by coincidence in a space like this. Ye Chong would not even dare to tell if Mu had sessfully escaped the grasp of red mist.

    He took a look around, the familiar ck airless void in his surrounding. He sighed, in relief.

    Till he lifted his head to the front, he stumbled upon the scenery before him.

    Asteroid belt¡­ Ye Chong realized the vast deadly red sea was actually wrapped by a far more enormous asteroid belt.

    An asteroid belt was nothing new in the record of exploration by humanity. The 5 major gxies alone would have a handful of ces with asteroid belts, which some people would call it "The Zone of Dead Cmity". Humanity today showed little understanding towards the asteroid belts for it contained, as the name stated, the deadliest cmity one could imagine, not only because of the demand of exceptional piloting, but also what lived inside the core of the belt. There was hardly anybody who had hit the depth of the belt.

    No one could exin how these belts were formed, while some experts imed them having the same formation of the ring of a from one sr system with the name Saturn, which was not even a good analogy to begin with. The structure of the asteroid belts was not something that was born by an explosion of or a byproduct of ck hole throwing up, it was an unknown, with unidentified danger lurking within. People could not give a sound statement for the asteroid containment, but they all could illustrate a vivid imagery of the horrendous explosion of asteroid whirlpool as it was something that could devastate probably anything nearby, which stirred up the greatest fear in mankind.

    And Ye Chong had experienced it once himself, if it was not Mu who woke up in time, he would have been permanently part of the belt now.

    But unlike those he had seen before, the asteroid belt before him was the broadest by far, as the whole red sea was fully surrounded by it.

    He took a look afar¡­ there was nothing else. He had to either venture into the belt or get back into the red sea. Wait what? No, don¡¯t be silly! Going back to that hellish ce? I''d rather walk into that asteroid belt now!

    Giving a fewmands to Han Jia, Ye Chong advanced cautiously into the asteroid belt.

    There were asteroids of all sort of sizes and shapes. There were a few with diameter about a few tens kilometers¡­ some were about the size of his fist. Ye Chong had his attention fully to his surrounding, as he monitored those hovering asteroids around him. Those were the silent most killers one could face in the space. He had to watch and took necessary actions whenever the asteroids moved, even the slightest bit, as the memory came haunting him, reminding him of his horrible experience with thest asteroid whirlpool.

    Like hell knows if there would anything funnier here!! I could not take more jokes to my life!

    There were asteroids, lots of asteroids, but it was mentally-numbing as well. It was boring yet it was something to train Ye Chong¡¯s will. After a few days of traveling in the belt, Ye Chong could already dodge the asteroids on a whim. Han Jia retreated to its below average velocity ever since they stepped into the belt, just to avoid these disorderly madness around.

    Fortunately enough, despite the amount of asteroids around him, the detection system was unaffected, as it could still give Ye Chong direction. At least Ye Chong could maintain his direction and not make the wrong turn without noticing.

    Ye Chong could feel his brain jamming. Well, anyone would have gone mad traveling in high alert for a few days straight without sleep.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

    The rm wailed.

    !

    An rm? Flinched Ye Chong, shaking his head to collect his thoughts, shifting his attention back onto that outdated hologramic detection system. The hologramic system would be far more useful than Ye Chong¡¯s naked eyes within the asteroids.

    There was¡­ sign¡­ of life?

    Ye Chong frowned. No way. Where do I find a lifeform in an environment like this? But¡­ judging by the projection¡­ there seemed to be quite a number of signs¡­

    Did I take a detour back to the ck Coves? Spected Ye Chong. It made sense since the ck Coves was a base sealed within an asteroid belt like this. The location was wless, a solid defense with countless deceiving openings for enemies to fall prey upon. It was certainly something the 3 other forces coveted and drooled at, considering how discovery of such ce would require a fateful encounter rather than blind effort. ck Coves did not rely on sheer luck anyway, as they invested a tremendous amount of workforces and financial resources on building the base itself, which simply were not something the other 3 forces could have imagined.

    So are these ck Covers?

    Oh wait, yeah. What I¡¯m thinking?

    Ye Chong could not help but to start giggling, finding he himself being too sensitive. Of course those could never be the ck Covers, the outdated detection system of Han Jia could never detect the advanced models from the ck Coves, hah! Practically most of the detection systems were deemed useless against the models of the 3 forces anyway.

    Also, judging by the figurative data generated by the system, these should be organisms, living things. But how would living things survive in harsh conditions like the asteroid belt?

    Ye Chong was feeling peculiar about this, yes, he did recognize a few living things that could survive in vacuum with the drastically mutatedponents of their bodiespared to those habituated on thes. However, that did not mean Ye Chong would buy the fact that, these particr vacuum-living lifeforms would just so happen to be in the asteroid belt where he was traveling, as the ce tantly shouted "unsuitable for living, stay here if you want to die" to him. And he spotted a few asteroid whirlpools quite frequently along the way. If it was not for his quick-reaction, he would have been inside one of the space blenders.

    These circumstances had just proven the fact that this asteroid belt was not as benevolent, benign as it appeared to be. It was a tumor, a malignant instability that could blow up any second. It would be a myth to have living things habituated here.

    He looked at the projection again, these lifeforms did not seem to be moving the slightest bit. Ye Chong felt he was unnoticed at the moment, so he grabbed his alertness and slowed downpletely. He would not want to butt his head into some territory enforced by some unidentified lifeforms and get attacked by unknown methods.

    Everything in the surrounding was unknown to him. So he had to be extremely careful, as every move he made would be taken into ount of his survival.

    ¡­ hmm ¡­

    !

    What? There¡¯s such zone inside the deadliest asteroid belt?

    Ye Chong was stupefied.

    He saw a sprout of pale lc, with buds glowing in ghostly azure. The sprout was short, with tiny leaves and well spread over theyer of the area. Almost every rock in the proximity was covered by those sprouts. The stem was slender, bearing a fruit in haunting blue, looked like illuminating the darkness of the specks hovering nearby.

    The ce was filled with floating purplish rocks at a sight afar, where the blues would twinkle like the stars in the dark.

    Ye Chong identified a few unknown organisms ying around the rocks. They were not tall, with a height barely 3 meters, with a pair of hind legs on the ground. Those were some real bulky legs which one would like to look out for. The top limbs were so short that it hardly reached out from their chests, armed with sharp ws that gave off hideous glows. Compared to their overwhelming hind legs, their body was rather feeble, their necks would gracefully wave at all directions along with the dark spikes over their purplish backs.

    Most of their kind was busy munching the glowing bulbs on top of the sprouts. There were a fewzier ones taking a silent slumber on the cleared rocks at the side.

    Ye Chong was dropping his jaws, as he never expected to see such living thing in harsh environment like this, and to top all that, those living things seemed to have taken a few turns of evolution ahead.

    Ye Chong then piloted Han Jia to hide being one of therger asteroids, since he was not sure if these organisms were naturally benevolent. He imagined that he could be skewed if he were to jump into action and alert the group¡¯s dining. Nheless, the scenery was still a major shocker to his perception of the world, he would need a good amount of time to digest all these.

    He had the necessary patience and nutrition capsules tost him throughout the observation, although it would be marvelous if the fleshes of these animals turned out to be edible. Hunting was one of the skills he probably was born with. Back on Trash, other than the Iron Lizard which stood at the topmost of the food web, there was not any animal he could not hunt.

    Moreover, as far as he had observed, these lifeforms seemed to be herbivores, which were known to be gentle by nature. Well, Ye Chong did not want to gamble just yet. The environment just turned more bizarre to his understanding. It would not be surprising if there was any funny addition to the lifeforms¡¯ characteristic.

    He analyzed the visual of the sprouts in high definition. He could confirm that he had never seen the before and it was not registered on Lunatic Guan¡¯s encyclopedia.

    He carried on observing in the dark. Of course he was enthralled by histest discovery, since he would have greater likelihood to survive with these animals around.

    !

    And as expected, there was something new to his Aliendex''s entry.

 Chapter 261 - Strangeness Everywhere

    <h4>Chapter 261: Strangeness Everywhere</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He was now about a kilometer away from those animals, but he soon noticed an opening about 300 meters wide between him and the animals. This empty space had no rocks, nothing.

    In outer space, emptiness was expected. However, here in the asteroid region, it was very odd. This empty space was like a boundary that divided the asteroids.

    Why would such two very different regions exist in such close proximity? On his side were rocks in abundance, devoid of any signs of life. However, 300 meters further out, it was a haven for life. There were nts and even highly evolved animals.

    Ye Chong might not be an expert in evolution, but he could at least understand the basics. In a harsh environment like the asteroid belt, it was usible to find microorganisms, lichen or even small insects living there. However,rge animals like the ones he saw now was pushing the limits of nature¡¯sws.

    There was only one possible solution to this dilemma. This 300-meter space of emptiness had divided these two entirely different worlds.

    What was the mystery behind this empty space?

    As Ye Chong studied the herbivores¡¯ movements closely, he suddenly felt like he had a grasp of an idea. But what was it? Ye Chong could not exactly say what he felt. That vague sensation was gone in an instant.

    Ye Chong did not panic. He continued studying the herbivores¡¯ movements, knowing that he must have noticed something significant to have had that feeling.

    He calmed himself down and observed quietly for 10 minutes. After a full 10 minutes, Ye Chong finally understood what he was seeing.

    Ye Chong¡¯s fingers danced on the controls. Han Jia picked up one of the little rocks floating around nearby and threw it gently towards the other side. Since he was hidden behind a rock, Han Jia threw at an angle upward.

    The little rock flew at a constant speed, but when it reached that empty space, its trajectory suddenly shifted. It no longer flew upwards, but began to fall downwards,pleting a parabolic trajectory.

    "As expected," Ye Chong grew confident of his own suspicions.

    Gravity - that was Ye Chong noticed. Beginning from the empty space, there was gravity! No wonder the herbivores¡¯ movements bothered him. It was gravity.

    Where he was, Ye Chong did not feel even the slightest of any gravitational pull.

    This was astonishing. Everything was too astonishing. Ye Chong had never seen anything like it.

    However, the universe wasrge. Anything was possible! He quickly epted this reality. Mankind¡¯s understanding of the universe was so dismal.

    It was not for him to figure out the reason for this miracle. Survival should be his priority. No matter the time, survival was the first thing that came to his mind. Besides, given the circumstances, he had no time to think on these matters.

    Since there was gravity, why did these rocks not fall into it? Where did this gravitye from?

    There were too many questions! However, what did they had to do with him? What he wanted, was to survive. Now, even the search for Mu and Shang was second in his list of priorities. If he could not survive, how could he find Mu and Shang?

    As for whether Mu and Shang were still living, Ye Chong dared not even consider the possibilities.

    In any case, he must survive! Ye Chong steadied himself, and immediately felt more encouraged.

    After some pondering, Ye Chong began to move. While it was risky, he really did not have many options.

    Ye Chong took a deep breath, and moved. Han Jia abruptly sprang out from behind the rock, and went full speed straight ahead. This time, Ye Chong did not care to reserve energy, and put the engines on full power.

    With Han Jia¡¯s speed at full engine capacity, a single kilometer¡¯s distance could be covered in the blink of an eye.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong felt his whole body sinking downwards, like everything had suddenly turned heavier.

    Han Jia also was obviously falling, but Ye Chong was prepared for this. The auxiliary engines tilted, and Han Jia was back on its intended trajectory.

    Just as Ye Chong reached the empty space, those herbivores immediately lifted their heads in rm. Han Jia¡¯s appearance had obviously surprised them. The animals panicked and quickly ran away.

    Ye Chong finally saw clearly how the animals moved. Their strong hind legs allowed them to jump. They hopped from rock to rock, quick as the wind. In just a few moments, the herd of herbivores disappeared from his sight. They moved almost as fast as mechs.

    Ye Chong had no time to appreciate the awe-inspiring strength of those animals, since something was going very wrong now.

    The gravity was stronger than on any inhabited! The gravitational pull was stronger than Ye Chong expected. As he entered the empty space, Ye Chong felt his body turned even heavier.

    It was like being pressed firmly into his seat. His deft hands now felt so sluggish. The abrupt gradient of potential energy made Ye Chong dizzy. Fortunately, his lengthy training kicked in, and he flew the mech without hindrance. Despite the situation, Ye Chong did not lose control of his mech.

    Han Jianded neatly on a floating rock suspended in midair. The mech¡¯s massive weight did not even stir the rock as Han Jia stood on it.

    Ye Chong quickly recovered from his dizziness. His body felt like lead, so heavy that even moving his finger was a chore. Ye Chong quickly made an estimate of the gravitational field strength, and found that it was probably about five times that of the trash.

    Even with Ye Chong¡¯s physical strength, the strong gravitational field was enough to make movement difficult. Thinking back on how those herbivores leaped, Ye Chong felt embarrassed of himself. If it was him running, he would never be able to match their speed. Those animals were strong.

    Ye Chong felt grateful. If he had been careless, those animals would be a big mess to deal with.

    Ye Chong did not continue advancing, but stayed where he was and examined his surroundings. With five times the average gravitational force, Han Jia was now less powerful inbat. Han Jia¡¯s design was not meant for battle in strong gravity environments like this. With five times the gravitational force, energy consumption would increase steeply. Han Jia would also be unable to reach its maximum speed. Besides, in this environment, Ye Chong felt like he was carrying four times his own body weight, and his hands felt five times heavier than normal. With this, Ye Chong¡¯s hands would slow down, and hisbat endurance would also decrease.

    If he did a high speed Thomas¡¯s Spin here, Ye Chong knew that he would suffer grave internal injuries from it. With five times the gravitational force, even sitting was hard.

    There was not going around the problem. Ye Chong could only exercise caution and continue on carefully. If anything was amiss, he would run away.

    The test results was encouraging for Ye Chong. There was air here, suitable for human respiration. Besides, the air quality was excellent, achieving the highest quality level possible. Even so, Ye Chong was not particrly demanding about air quality. To him, it was enough as along as the air was breathable. On the trash, pollution was at a critical level. Staying outdoors for long hours would be damaging to the respiratory tract and lungs.

    However, Ye Chong also understood that good air quality also implied that the area was suitable for life. In fact, if it was suitable for humans, it was also suitable for most living organisms.

    The air quality results was a relief for Ye Chong. The mech¡¯s air recycling system could not run forever, since it consumed energy as well. Since there was breathable air here, it was at least suitable for habitation.

    With air, wildlife and the mech¡¯s water synthesizer, he already had all the basic necessities to survive.

    Even though there was air outside, Ye Chong did not leave his mech. The environment was stillrgely unfamiliar to him, and it was safer to stay in the mech.

    Numerous floating rocks seemed to suspend in the air, as though they were supported by something invisible in this strong-gravity environment. Ye Chong could not understand how this was possible. Moreover, when Han Jia stood on these rocks, they did not move at all.

    What was this all about? Ye Chong could not for the life of him understand how these things came to be.

    "There¡¯s so much in this world that¡¯s a mystery," he thought to himself, and quickly moved on.

    Ye Chong flew Han Jia carefully, avoiding the rocks in the air as he advanced slowly.

    The further he flew, the more he discovered. There were more and more rocks suspended in the air, and there seemed to be no end in sight. Besides the purple fauna that he found earlier on those rocks, there were also a brown, lichen-like vegetation.

    In this dark space, many faint blue sparkling dots surrounded the rocks. They seemed to be scattered randomly around the rocks, and brought life to the darkness.

    The rocks were all scattered about irregrly. Ye Chong quickly found that flying was not a wise choice. With gravity, evasion during flight was a lot harder.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong was adaptable. He quickly found a wonderful alternative - leaping, just like those herbivores. Han Jie leaped from one rock to another. Since the rocks were not too far apart, it was a suitable way of moving forward. The only problem was that Han Jia was a lotrger than those herbivores. This was a hindrance when moving between the rocks.

    Besides, Ye Chong found that it was impossible to move the floating rocks vertically, parallel to the gravitational pull. However, it could be moved horizontally, and that was a curiosity to Ye Chong.

    Ever since he entered the rest mist, he had encountered so many strange things. Until now, he could not understand any of them. As he continued to meet new and unexinable phenomena, he learned to ept them quickly. After all, everything was strange around here, so different from what he knew of the world.

    While he did not investigate the logic behind the things appearing around him, Ye Chong still studied everything carefully. Learning about his surroundings in unfamiliar territory would greatly increase his chances of survival.

    As Ye Chong moved further in, the rocks grew closer together. This made Han Jia¡¯s advance even harder. In the end, Ye Chong could only fly upwards.

    He flew on for three days. While Han Jia was slowed down in order to avoid the rocks, he still covered a fair distance in these three days. However, Ye Chong noticed grimly that the energy consumed in these three days was equivalent to the energy ordinarily used up in two weeks. If this continued, the energy would quickly run out, and Ye Chong¡¯s most effective means of self defense would be gone.

    In these three days of flight, Ye Chong encountered a few herds of those herbivores.

    The only encouraging thing was that Ye Chong had finally reached the uppermostyer of the asteroid region. This was apparent from the wider expanse of empty space he reached now.

    This empty space stretched on for more than 3,000 kilometers.

    3,000 kilometers was the limit of Han Jia¡¯s scanning system. "I didn¡¯t think an asteroid belt will have such a mysterious ce," Ye Chong could not help but eximed. One can imagine the massive expanse of the asteroid belt.

    Ye Chong paused as he studied Han Jia¡¯s holographic scans. In the next moment, Han Jia quickly took off.

    Since he was at the edge of the asteroid belt, there were no rocks to stop Han Jia, and the mech advanced swiftly.

    The rocks were denser further ahead. The rocks below Han Jia grew closer and closer together. Gradually, the rocks below Han Jia formed a solid piece, like a gravelled road. Further still, the rocks were now just t earth.

    ording to Han Jia¡¯s holographic scans, whatid ahead was a huge continent.

 Chapter 262 - Attacked

    <h4>Chapter 262: Attacked</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong never imagined that he would see a continent here.

    How was this possible? Ye Chong had never seen any astronomical body like this. He had travelled far and wide, and the Five Gxies definitely did not have something like this. Almost all the astronomical bodies in the universe were spherical. This was the first time Ye Chong saw a non-spherical astronomical body.

    With Ye Chong¡¯s minimal knowledge in astronomy and astrophysics, he could not fully appreciate the magnitude of the problem that this phenomenonmanded. In fact, he was only slightly surprised by his findings. If he were to publish holographic images of this ce in the virtual world, it would be an earth-shattering shock to the world. The astronomymunity would undergo a huge revolution. However, even if he realized what this ce would mean to the world, Ye Chong would probably feel indifferent about it.

    This unique astronomical body was like a huge ind among the many smaller rocks scattered about the asteroid belt.

    As he stepped onto the continent, Ye Chong immediately raised his guard more. There were too many strange things going on here. To survive, he must quickly adapt to his surroundings.

    Returning to the Five Gxies now seemed like an impossible task. Ye Chong was alone, and had almost used up his energy cells. He did not know where he was, not even a set of coordinates for his location that would allow for a warp jump. In any case, Han Jia was not equipped with warp jump technology.

    For now, he should focus on surviving. Inside him was a strong will to live. Growing up in a harsh environment like the trash made Ye Chong fearless against dangerous environments. Caution would help you live longer, while fear will be the death of you. This was something that Ye Chong realized since he was nine.

    It was as though he had returned to his lonely days of struggling on the trash. He had only Han Jia forpany. Even Mu and Shang were lost to him.

    However, what could he do? Ye Chong made a rare expression of tion. Han Jia was far better than Winnie. Besides, he was a lot stronger than before. The only thing that saddened him was that he was separated from Mu and Shang.

    Ye Chong quickly gathered himself. Mu¡¯s calmness was a strong influence to Ye Chong, and Ye Chong rarely found himself losing his cool.

    He looked forward, and saw no end in sight. This was a huge in. The sparkling faint blue dots covered the vast in like a thin carpet. The view was splendid, enough to overwhelm any visiting artist.

    It was a pity that the only one visiting now was Ye Chong, who had zero interest and insight into the arts.

    Ye Chong was as cold as a machine, and mostly ignored the scenery. His eyes were staring straight at Han Jia¡¯s holographic screen. Every holographic system would have certain civilian functions. While military holographic scanning systems had more functionalities, it was the civilian type that was more valuable now.

    Now was not the time to use the powerful military holographic scanning system, but the all-purpose engineering holographic scanning system.

    Ye Chong recalled then that he had an engineering mech. This was the one he bought at Nine Gates of Daylight. It was bought with the insect mech that he used to mine transmutated energy ore on the primary.

    Engineering mechs were an important type of civilian mech. It could provide a certain level of security for engineers working outdoors, and had specialized engineering scanning systems that were not found in average mechs.

    Ye Chong withdrew his engineering mech, but did not push forward. Instead, he made a detailed scan of the continent.

    Scanning results indicated that there was arge amount of ore where Ye Chong was now. Unidentified ores made up 40 percent of them. The continent was t, and its size was beyond the measurement limits of this engineering mech. 98 percent of the in was covered with vegetation. This was considerably high, even whenpared against primarys that were untouched by humans. Other than the nts with light purple leaves and glowing blue orbs, and that dark brown lichen that Ye Chong had seen earlier, the engineering mech¡¯s holographic scans had identified another five additional nt species.

    Ye Chong collected specimens of each species, and stored them in the specimen storage device of the engineering mech. He was a capable alchemist, even without his tools. However, the chip that Lunatic Guan gave him had information on many ancient identification tests invented by the Guan family. These tests may be detailed andborious, but they utilized traditional methods and relied less on modern apparatus.

    From that chip, Ye Chong understood more about these nts. As the earliest field that branched out of botany, alchemy knowledge was far more useful and practical to study nts.

    With five times the gravitational force acting on him, Ye Chong felt lethargic from his study.

    Perhaps due to the strong gravity, the continent was extremely tough, feeling like alloy under his feet. The nts also boasted strong leaves and stems.

    Soon, Ye Chong returned into Han Jia. He finally used the ropedder that he had not used all this while to climb up. With five times the gravitational force, Ye Chong dared not climb up into Han Jia¡¯s pilot cabin. At this height, Ye Chong felt as vulnerable as an infant. Every move was difficult. This made him yearned for the easy movements that he could make under normal gravity. However, he quickly dismissed such useless thoughts. The only way now was forward.

    There was no choice - he had to adapt! Five times the gravitational force ¡­ Ye Chong¡¯s expression was calm, but his eyes shone brightly with determination.

    He took a deep breath, and Han Jia began marching forward on the in.

    This time, Ye Chong covered 350 kilometers. If it was in outer space, this distance would only take a short while. However, due to energy conservation and safety measures, the flight had took a full three hours for Han Jia.

    Fortunately, the journey was smooth. Aside from the three new nt species that Ye Chong discovered, there was nothing interesting. Here were a good many herbivores that Ye Chong had seen earlier. Beside them, Ye Chong did not see any other animals, much less carnivores.

    However, Ye Chong did not let down his guard. He knew that while the carnivores remained unseen, they must be here somewhere. Nature was curious this way. Even in a harsh environment like the trash, carnivores still sat at the top of the food chain.

    Ye Chong found something new again.

    Water. There was water here. In fact, ever since he saw the nts, Ye Chong had guessed that there must be water around here. However, when he finally saw it, his heart still jumped with joy.

    This was arge river. ording to Han Jia¡¯s holographic scanning results, the widest part of the river was a good 15 kilometers wide. The river was calm, but Han Jia still managed to calcte the speed of the river flow. The only question was, where did the watere from?

    This river divided the continent into two. Ye Chong pondered for a moment, before flying Han Jia across the river.

    Just when Ye Chong reached the center of the river, Han Jia¡¯s sharp rm that had been quiet so far began to ring.

    Ye Chong groaned.

    Ye Chong¡¯s reaction did not slow down due to the abnormal gravity.

    A 10-meter thick tentacle suddenly rushed out magnificently from the river¡¯s surface and came straight for Han Jia.

    The attack was sudden, but Ye Chong had enough time to react. Mech pilots often had to make decisions in milliseconds, or they would not stand a chance in modern fast-paced mech battles.

    Han Jia quickly unsheathed its two daggers and pulled its hands over the chest in a cross, the two daggers shielding before its chest. It was toote to evade using the main engines, but with slight adjustment of the auxiliary engines, Han Jia¡¯s position shifted to face the enormous tentacle.

    Ye Chong was shocked deep inside. Such a huge tentacle suggested an enormous creature under the waters. The brown tentacle was covered with curly patterns of green, making it look like a log entwined with seaweed.

    Bang!

    Han Jia flew straight towards the other side like a baseball off a bat.

    The powerful impact left Ye Chong¡¯s head spinning. This kind of attack should have been manageable, but with five times the gravitational force, the force on his body was five-fold, and the pain was unbearable. Without Han Jia¡¯s hydraulic suspension system, Ye Chong would have been squished into a meat patty.

    He felt a long absent feeling of wanting to throw up, and had to breathe deeply a few times to suppress the undesirable urge.

    Before Ye Chong could react any further, he suddenly found himself already on the other side, and still flying further. Han Jia was still flying from the momentum of the impact. One could appreciate how strong the attack actually was. Ye Chong quickly steadied Han Jia to avoid a crashnding.

    His two daggers were bloodied, a sure sign that the tentacle was injured as well. Ye Chong was confident of the sharpness of his daggers. The attacker must have suffered, probably with arge gaping wound to show.

    Suddenly, the center of the river riled up like boiling water.

 Chapter 263 - Humans

    <h4>Chapter 263: Humans</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Out of the enraged waters emerged an obelisk of a head, a terrifying creature. If not for the threerge eyes at the top of this mountain of a creature, Ye Chong would have thought it was the riverbed pushed up by some tectonic shift underneath the waters.

    Even the 10-meter tall Han Jia looked tinypared to the creature. This was thergest animal Ye Chong had ever seen.

    The three ck eyes were arranged to form a triangle, and they were staring angrily at Ye Chong.

    Then came a screech, like the sound of metal brushing against metal. Ye Chong watched the creature calmly. Aside from his slightly paleplexion, a sign of the severity of his injury due to the creature¡¯s attack, he looked like his usual self.

    Usually, Ye Chong would have been shocked to see such a massive creature. However, he was strangely very calm now, not even perturbed in the slightest. The ce was filled with too much strangeness that Ye Chong was getting used to seeing unusual things.

    He was already onnd. The creature was obviously a marine animal, probably not too difficult to handle. What Ye Chong wanted to avoid the most now were flying beasts. He knew from when he first saw the herbivores that the animals here could move very fast despite the strong gravitational force. It the herbivores were already so impressive, the animals that can fly must be even more so. More importantly, Han Jia¡¯s advantage of flying would be for naught. If he had the advantage of flying, Ye Chong would at least have the option of retreating if he could not win against his opponent.

    The creature in the river seemed to know that it could not threaten Ye Chong. It did note closer, but continued to stare angrily at Ye Chong while screeching sharply.

    If Ye Chong were to have a bird¡¯s eye view of the in right now, he would seen an extraordinary spectacle. Animals of all kinds were running away from the center that was the huge creature in the river.

    Ye Chong took another nce at the creature in the river, and immediately flew away with Han Jia.

    He had no intention of fighting with that creature. It was obviously at the top of the local food chain. Besides, Han Jia was not suitable for long rangebat, making it difficult to fight against the creature. Just the 10-meter thick tentacle was enough to cause great destruction.

    This sudden attack also led Ye Chong to be even more careful. However, to his surprise, he did not encounter any other animals as he flew on. There were a few times when he saw on the holographic screen that some animals very far away from him were running away.

    This was curious to Ye Chong. While he could not understand why this happened, theck of any animals in his way made his journey faster.

    After another full day, still nothing happened. The t in was slowly beginning to show some contours. Ye Chong even found three mountain ranges that were about a thousand meters above ground level. However, this did not obstruct Han Jia¡¯s advance.

    It was not just the geography that was changing. Here, the animals came in greater variety, much more than at the ins.

    This astronomical body was farrger than Ye Chong had anticipated. Until now, Han Jia still could not detect the edges of this continent.

    Suddenly, the holographic scanning system began to ping.

    A group of humans in weird clothing were attacking a wild animal that was about 7 meters tall.

    Humans? How could there be humans around here? Ye Chong was startled. His surprise quickly turned into uncontained joy. No one would be able to stayposed after experiencing loneliness for so long, and finally finding other members of his own species.

    However, why were there humans here?

    Ye Chong suppressed his happiness for the moment and studied those people.

    There were seven in total, all wearing a light purple shirt, probably woven out of the local vegetation. As an alchemist, Ye Chong had a keen understanding of nts. They were all small framed, probably due to the gravity. However, their movements were agile and quick, even quicker than the herbivores that Ye Chong had seen.

    Ye Chong could not help but be surprised at their physical strength. With five times the usual gravitational force, even Ye Chong himself could not manage their speed. However, their weapons were too shabby - they were all using pikes made out of some unknown type of wood.

    Were they primitives? Ye Chong was stupefied. His joy was considerably dampened. If these were primitive humans,munication would be a problem.

    Ye Chong did not expose himself, but continued to hide behind a rock from afar, watching them.

    The wild beast did not seem to be faring well against the primitives, already wounded in a few ces. An experienced hunter like Ye Chong could see in an instant that the animal would yield, sooner orter. The wild beast had antlers shaped like tree branches, sharp as knives. Its four thick, hooved feet could stomp down on a person with fatal results. Its tail was long and strangely curled into a bunch, like a woman¡¯s hair bun. However, from the holographic screen, Ye Chong could see that the tail could electrocute like an electric eel.

    The primitives must know this as well. They attacked faster and harder, hoping to end it soon.

    Just when they thought victory was close, the wild beast dimmed eyes suddenly lifted and saw Han Jia. Ye Chong saw its eyes clearly, and was very surprised. Abruptly, the animals¡¯ eyes showed horror. The beast let out a growl of hopelessness and began to fight back stronger than before.

    This sudden change threw the primitives off, and they struggled to react. They did not expect the animal to suddenly go crazy.

    There was a terrifying shriek. It came from a man, injured by the beast¡¯s antlers. The strong impact had thrown him far back, blood spilling all over him. However, the animal was absorbed in its violence to care about the attacksing from the other primitives. It lowered its head and charged, antlers pointing straight ahead while its four hooves thrummed the ground, heading straight towards its fallen victim.

    The seven-meter tall beast came charging with terrifying ferocity. It seemed to have decided to kill the man, uncaring of the pike stabbings from the other primitives.

    Cries of fear and surprise filled the air.

    Ye Chong stayed where he was, frozen, as he continued to stare disbelievingly at those primitives.

    Sang Ling bit down on his lips, watching as the reinvolt charged towards Sang Fan. The beast had suddenly gotten into a frenzy, wounding Sang Fan with its antlers. It ignored all their attacks and had escaped from their surrounding formation. Sang Ling dared not hesitate. He tightened his right arm, pike close against his arm, and threw hard. The pike flew straight towards the renvolt¡¯s head.

    Shunk! The pike embedded itself deep into the reinvolt¡¯s rump. "Aaa-oooh!" The reinvolt howled in pain, staggering for while before steadying itself and continued charging towards Sang Fan. The reinvolt¡¯s eyes were spitting fire, filled with manic rage.

    The primitives quickly aimed with their own pikes. Swish swish swish! The pikes all hit their mark, stabbing deep into the animal¡¯s rump. The reinvolt howled painfully again! "Aaa-oooh!" It was filled with anger and despair. The animal ran even faster.

    Sang Fan struggled to get up. There was a long, deep gash starting from his upper left shoulder, going down to his chest. Blood was gushing out, and he could see the bones underneath. Sang Fan braced himself against the pain, his face white as a sheet as he watched the reinvolting closer and closer.

    The reinvolt¡¯s antlers shone with a dangerous, chilling re.

    "No ¡­" Sang Ling shouted helplessly.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened. His hands swept across Han Jia¡¯s controls, light as air.

    He understood that word!

    Just when everyone thought Sang Fan was dead for certain, a silver figure came from behind Sang Fan and blocked the reinvolt¡¯s terrifying antlers.

    They only saw a blur of movement.

    The reinvolt¡¯s hooves stopped moving.

    In that abrupt shift from horrified screams to utter silence, no one understood what had happened.

    They watched in a daze as the reinvolt howled pitifully and regretfully, then dropped intoplete silence. The whole ce was silent, and everyone was confused.

    When they finally recovered, they found that the reinvolt was pinned to the ground with a huge, silver dagger, and its antlers were sliced through.

    The dagger was sharp! Everyone inhaled sharply. Sang Fan finally could not stand it anymore, and sat heavily on the ground.

    However, Sang Ling¡¯s eyes quickly looked behind Sang Fan. As the clever one, she recovered the quickest.

    She could finally see clearly the huge figure standing behind Sang Fan.

    "Heavens! Isn¡¯t that ¡­" Sang Ling could not believe her eyes.

 Chapter 264 - Sang Family Village

    <h4>Chapter 264: Sang Family Vige</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The people marched quickly ahead, one of them carrying the reinvolt over his shoulder. Everyone was quiet, thinking about the massive thing that was flying slowly behind, following them.

    It was a mech. Sang Ling recognized it. The Sang Family Vige¡¯s shrine had seven mechs on disy, but they were ancientpared to this mech. In fact, theparison was not an exaggeration. The seven mechs had been passed down for a few generations, known by every member of the Sang family.

    "Mechs really could fly ¡­" Sang Ling took a peek at Han Jia, flying above, her eyes filled with envy. In the legends, mechs could fly, but today she had finally seen it for the first time. The techniques to fly the seven mechs in the shrine had been long lost. They were now only a symbol of the courage and determination of their ancestors.

    Sang Ling quickly lost her initial excitement. She began to worry about Sang Fan¡¯s injuries. As childhood friends, she and Sang Fan were the most famous pair in the vige. Sang Fan and her were both the most capable and outstanding of their generation.

    It was this guy¡¯s fault! Sang Ling could not help but stared angrily at Han Jia. The dagger had blood from the three-eyed giant squid, it was no wonder that the reinvolt suddenly turned crazy. Just a tiny bit of the three-eyed giant squid¡¯s scent could trigger the reinvolt¡¯s fear due to its sensitive sense of smell.

    However, if the mech had not interfered, Sang Fan would have ¡­ Sang Lin shuddered. Besides, the guy had even offered medical supplies. With that offer of assistance, they really could not me him now. His medicine was truly miraculous. Just by swallowing a tiny pill, Sang Fan¡¯s breathing steadied. While he was unconscious now, his situation seemed a lot better.

    What a powerful mech! Sang Ling was impressed. The mech had injured a three-eyed giant squid. Before she met this mech, she never thought that anything could ever hurt that giant beast.

    Ye Chong sat in the pilot cabin, his face calm. Inside, however, he was not nearly so peaceful.

    These primitives spoke the samenguage as him, andmunication was not a problem. Could this be part of the Five Gxies? That was Ye Chong¡¯s first guess. Could the primitives be part of some savage tribe? That thought was quickly dismissed by Ye Chong.

    If there was really such a strange ce in the Five Gxies, it would have been discovered.

    From the primitives, he learned that they came from a ce called the Shang Family Vige. The term "vige" was unfamiliar to Ye Chong. He imagined it to be some kind of city.

    The other party was cautious against Ye Chong, and did not speak much. Ye Chong epted this easily. If it were him, he would be even more cautious. At first, Ye Chong thought they came from some savage tribe, but they had all recognized mechs. That surprised him very much.

    Nevertheless, their clothing and weapons felt very primitive to Ye Chong.

    The two parties did not exchange many words. ording to the woman in the group, any questions can be directed to the vige head.

    Vige head? What an peculiar title.

    Ye Chong quickly noticed something interesting - the group practiced strict discipline. They worked together seamlessly, delegating tasks in reasonable ways. This reminded Ye Chong of an army troop! They were very much like the Sanctuary¡¯s standardbat squad.

    This made Ye Chong suspect even more that they came from a savage tribal society.

    Ye Chong was intrigued by their physique. The seven-meter tall reinvolt was heavy, but the man heaving the prey seemed quite rxed, and did not fall behind.

    Finally, they reached the Sang Family Vige. The vige was much smaller than Ye Chong imagined. The entire vige was surrounded by a six-meter tall fence, probably to ward against animal attacks. However, if a mech were to attack this vige, it would only be too easy.

    There were no anti air attack measures, no field interference facilities, no long range attack weapons. Ye Chong made a quick assessment of the vige. His conclusion was this - if he wanted to escape, they would not be able to stop him. This made Ye Chong feel safer. While they were of the same species, andmunication was not an issue, Ye Chong still dared not be careless.

    Han Jia¡¯s simple scanning system was now quite handy.

    There were about 100,000 inhabitants here. Ye Chong shook his head. This city was too small. In the Five Gxies, any city would be home to at least a few million. Everything here was primitive, the exact image of a savage tribal society.

    The return of Sang Ling and others created a slightmotion. Sang Fan¡¯s injury had everyone busy. However, he was soon sent to a tiny purple coloured straw hut. Just as the people were about to disperse, they finally noticed Han Jia.

    "A mech, it¡¯s really a mech ¡­" A viger muttered incoherently.

    "It¡¯s truly a mech ¡­" Simr utterances were heard in the crowd, all filled with wonder.

    Han Jia was now surrounded by a dense crowd.

    When Ye Chong came out of Han Jia, the vige suddenly fall into a short silence.

    When Ye Chong withdrew Han Jia with its dimension keystone, everyone was shocked. The sight of a huge machine suddenly vanishing made quite an impression.

    Ye Chong quickly found himself stuck in the middle of the crowd, unable to leave.

    "Make way, make way please." A path quickly formed amongst the crowd. In came an old man, supported by Sang Ling, as he slowly approached Ye Chong.

    "Cough, cough, young man, how do you do? I¡¯m the vige head, Sang De." The vige head coughed twice before finally speaking slowly.

    Ye Chong was always respectful towards the elderly. He bowed slightly and replied, "Vige Head, how do you do? I¡¯m a mech pilot and I¡¯ve lost my way. I hope to have your assistance."

    Sang De nodded, and spoke to his people, "Go back to your own businesses now." The vige head was heeded. Everyone left, and only some children were left hiding in a corner, watching them.

    "Let¡¯s talk at my ce," the vige head, Sang De motioned for Ye Chong to follow.

    Ye Chong and the vige head had a pleasant conversation. Ye Chong finally had a rough understanding of the vige. Sang Family Vige was the only human settlement here. Their ancestors seemed to havee here to avoid some huge disaster elsewhere.

    Their tribe had lived here for 500 years. Before that, they came from a gxy called He Yue.

    He Yue Gxy? Where was that? Could it be an earlier name for one of the Five Gxies? 500 years ago, the gxies might be known with different names. However, Ye Chong could not be sure. He had almost zero knowledge of the Five Gxies¡¯ history.

    Ye Chong¡¯s request to stay was quickly epted by Sang De. The cunning vige head knew that this young man was a capable fighter, and could help defend the vige. As for his origin, Sang De did not care for it. If the man wanted to harm the vige, then they could not stop him. If that was the case, why not maintain a good rtionship with him?

    Besides, 500 years had passed, and they knew nothing of the advances of the outside world. Their world was still so primitive. All this while, this had been a concern for every vige head. When their first ancestors arrived here with their mechs, they had sacrificed most of theirbatants to protect the vigers. All the engineers died. This caused the Sang Family Vige to be the way it was today. Moreover, when the backup energy cells were used up, all the mechs became useless. Until today, the problem of powering the mechs was still unsolved, and no one alive knew how to pilot a mech.

    Now that they had a visitor from the outside world, and a mech pilot with his own mech at that, the Sang family¡¯s 500 years of stagnation finally had a glimmer of hope.

    However, Ye Chong was not thinking about these things. The best option for him now would be stay in the vige. He did not know how to return to the Five Gxies, and wondering around aimlessly would be foolish. This ce had too many oddities. Besides, the people here had a history going back 500 years, and were familiar with this ce. For now at least, he would not have to worry about survival.

    Ye Chong followed the young man called Sang Pu. Sang Pu was around his age, reaching 170 meters in heights, a tall staturepared to the rest of the vigers. Sang Pu did not speak much, but seemed to be a man of reputation amongt his peers. He was rumored to be the next vige head.

    "These are the mechs from our ancestors," Sang Pu exined with reverence towards his ancestors.

    Seven mechs with rusty spots all over them were disyed in the shrine. These mechs were all huge, towering at around 20 meters tall, like huge iron men. The thick armor made them look unwieldy, like a metal lump. It was apparent that mechanical techniques were still quite undeveloped back then. One had to use thickened armor to protect the mech pilot in the mech.

    A 500-year-old mech was definitely something that Ye Chong was interested in. Since he first heard about these seven mechs, his first request was to pay them a visit. The vige head agreed easily. Even the oldest mechs in a mech museum in the Five Gxies were only about 300 years old. Ye Chong could not help his excitement at these seven 500-year-old mechs!

    The mechs¡¯ internal structures were crude and simple. There were no hydraulic suspension systems. The circuits were made of metallic wires, and not photon circuits. There was no holographic scanning system, only an ancient radar ¡­

    A mech like this was far worse than the most low level Raven mech. However, Ye Chong still felt very excited. In reality, any mech engineer would be interested in these ancient mechs. This opportunity was not to be missed.

    These mechs would not be able to inspire Ye Chong with new ideas, but he still crawled into all of them and inspected in detail. In his professional opinion, mechs like these were less than basic. However, for something that was made 500 years ago, one cannot ask for more.

    Sang Pu asked, "Are these mechs still functional?" He looked at Ye Chong, hopeful. These seven mechs had been kept here for 500 years. To the people of the Sang Family Vige, they should be warriors, not historical relics.

    Ye Chong shook his head. "No. They¡¯re too rusted. Some of the jointsck maintenance, and cannot be bent anymore. Besides, they use some kind of organic fuel. I¡¯m not familiar with them." In fact, Ye Chong was already quite surprised to find these mechs so well preserved after 500 years.

    Ye Chong¡¯s reply made Sang Pu feel deeply disappointed. Ye Chong could see those emotions in his eyes. However, Ye Chong was helpless as well.

    Ye Chong was also immediately reminded of Han Jia¡¯s energy problem. The backup energy cells were almost used up. If he could not find any new and suitable fuel, Han Jia would probably end up being put on disy with these mechs here.

    Nheless, haste would not solve this problem. There would not be any energy cell charging devices here, so the only option left was to find a recement.

    For now, he could only minimize his usage of Han Jia. It was best if he used Han Jia only when desperate.

    After all, the people here had lived their lives all this while without mechs. Ye Chong believed that he would be able to defend himself, even without his mech.

    It was soon meal time. Sang Pu led Ye Chong to the vige head¡¯s house. Ye Chong saw the woman from the group that brought him here earlier. Ye Chong nodded to her slightly, and sat beside Sang Pu.

    Sang Ling humphed softly, and ignored Ye Chong as she began to eat.

    Since the woman did not greet him back, Ye Chong did not press further. Instead, he nodded to Sang De. The vige headughed heartily, "Food is simple here, nothing grand to boast about, I hope you¡¯ll like it!"

    By now, Ye Chong could tackle these social pleasantries easily. "You¡¯re too kind. Please call me Ye."

    Sang Deughed again. "Alright, I¡¯ll call you Ye, and you can just call me Vige Head."

    On the te before Ye Chong was a piece of steak, with some blue berries of some kind on the side. Ye Chong did not recognize the meat, but he knew what the berries were. On the ins on the other side of the river, there were many nts with these blue little berries.

    Ye Chong picked up one of them and studied it closely. Unlike when it was on the tip of the nt, it no longer glowed with that faint blue color.

    Seeing Ye Chong taking interest in the blue berry, Sang Pu introduced, "This is our main source of food, we call it mayaberry. Go ahead, try it, it¡¯s not bad. This steak is from the meat of that reinvolt you killed today. Reinvolt meat is tender and delicious."

    Ye Chong threw a mayaberry into his mouth and chewed. A fragrance began to spread in his mouth, with a little sweetness. He ate another one. To Ye Chong, this was far better than on the trash. He had never tasted such delicious fruits over there.

    The vige head and Sang Pu smiled, looking at Ye Chong enjoying his meal. Only Sang Ling still looked cool.

    Eyeing the steak on his te, Ye Chong took out his dagger and made to slice it.

    Sang Pu saw the dagger in Ye Chong¡¯s hands, and his eyes glowed. He urged, "Ye, can you let me have a look at that weapon of yours?"

 Chapter 265 - History

    <h4>Chapter 265: History</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    As he received the dagger, Sang Pu¡¯s calmposure gave way to an overwhelming stream of emotions. He flipped the dagger this way and that, studying it closely like a priceless treasure. Sang Ling was also staring intently at the dagger in Sang Pu¡¯s hands.

    "It¡¯s only a dagger, do they need to be so excited?" Ye Chong thought to himself, vexed.

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s confusion, the vige head exined, "Hehe, Ye, please forgive us, it¡¯s their first time seeing a metal weapon. Pu, let me have a look."

    Sang Pu quickly passed the dagger to the vige head.

    "What fine craftsmanship!" Sang De eximed, "It¡¯s sharp, tougher and stronger than bitterwood. Pu, get me a bitterwood pike here."

    Sang Pu went to a corner of the house, where a few of the pikes Ye Chong had seen earlier leaned against the wall. Sang Pu took two of them, and upon noticing Ye Chong¡¯s curiosity, passed one to Ye Chong with a smile.

    Ye Chong studied the bitterwood pike in his hands. Each bitterwood pike was around two meters long, its shaft just thick enough to grip. It felt weighty in hand. Ye Chong bent it slightly forcefully, and the bitterwood pike only bent into an arch without breaking as was usually expected. The tip of the pike was ground sharp. The shaft had natural-looking detailed spirals on it.

    Ye Chong was quietly impressed. The wood was tough. What interested him more were the rounds of spiraling patterns on the shaft. They seemed to be aerodynamically designed. Once thrown into the air, the pike would spin about itself, not only increasing the impact of the throw but also enabling steadier flight.

    Ye Chong had never seen any primitive weapon with such advanced designs. He was deeply interested in them.

    The vige head took a bitterwood pike from Sang Pu and swinged it lightly. The five-centimeter thick shaft was easily cut in half.

    Everyone but Ye Chong gasped, "Whoa!"

    "It¡¯s just like in the legends!" Sang De gently tested the dagger¡¯s edge as he muttered to himself. Everyone else looked at the dagger in his hands, enchanted by the weapon¡¯s might.

    Ye Chong was even more confused now. Legend? Daggers were quitemon, what¡¯s the fuss about? In terms of design, the dagger was not particrlyudable. It was shaped exactly like Gu Shaoze¡¯s dagger. Gu Shaoze may be a mechanics genius, but he was no weaponsmith. To Ye Chong, the dagger¡¯s angle design was horrible, but he had gotten used to it and never thought of recing it.

    In terms of design, the dagger was far exceeded by the bitterwood pike.

    After a long moment, the vige head broke his reverie and smile apologetically to Ye Chong. "Ye, please excuse me. I¡¯ve lived my long life to this day, and this is my first time seeing a metal weapon. It¡¯s just as our ancestors described."

    First time seeing? Even the most primitive savage tribes would have metal weapons! Besides, from the seven mechs disyed in the shrine, Ye Chong could see that they were at least able to build huge machines like them, the backward metallurgy notwithstanding. How can they not be able to make even a metal dagger?

    Ye Chong could not help but asked, "So you have no metal weapons at all?"

    Seeing Sang Pu and Sang Ling still in a daze, the vige head replied slowly, "None. When our ancestors first escaped to this ce, the journey was dangerous. Our poption was 1.7 million, but only half a million people arrived here safely."

    Sang De continued painfully, "The disaster came without warning, our ancestors had no time to prepare. ording to records, mechs were only newly invented, and the Sang Family tribe had thergest mech squad in the He Yue gxy, with a total of 3,000 mech pilots. Back then, mech pilot was not amon upation. The tribe leader was under tremendous pressure when he first founded the mech squad. However, most of the people believed that mechs represented the future of technology."

    The vige head spoke lowly, like narrating an ancient legend. Everyone listened to him intently, and even Ye Chong could not maintain his calm expression.

    "Back then, the disaster came unexpectedly, but the tribe leader had prepared well. All our knowledge, from the most basic metallurgy skills to the Sang Family¡¯s core technologies were recorded in a chip. This was to prevent these knowledge from being lost forever. They made 300 copies of the chip, which meant that out of the 3,000 mech pilots in the mech squad, one in ten had a chip with them. Everyone thought that, with so many copies of the chip, it should be easy to keep at least a few of them intact. After all, back then, the Sang Family was one of the four most prosperous aristocratic families in the He Yue gxy. Moreover, the Sang Family¡¯s mech squad was the strongest in the entire gxy. Everyone believed that the precautions would be sufficient. Even in a whole new world, with this knowledge, the Sang Family would thrive again without issues."

    Sang De¡¯s expression grew even more pained, and his voice trembled as he continued, "However, the unexpected had happened.

    "The only exit out of the He Yue gxy was obstructed back then, so the tribe had to break through this enormous asteroid belt. No one expected to see the terrifying Red Sea."

    "Red Sea?" Sang Ling interrupted. This was the first time she had heard of this.

    "Yes, the Red Sea," said the vige head. "It¡¯s a huge expanse of empty space, filled with a thick red mist, stretching out endlessly like the sea. Our ancestors called it the Red Sea."

    Ye Chong was shocked. Wasn¡¯t that the red mist where he got separated from Mu?

    "No one thought that this red mist would be so dangerous. The red mist interfered with the radars, it was impossible to know which direction was which. Many lost their ways in the mist. However, the disaster had only just begun.

    "Metal was actually very sensitive to the red mist. When they flew into the middle of the Red Sea, the mist grew thicker. Starships were tangled with numerous mysterious red tendrils. Almost all the mechs were deployed to cut off those tendrils. However, once the mechs exited the starships, the red tendrils would mysteriously appear and bind them up tightly, killing the pilots. The people on the starships watched as the countless red tendrils devoured their mechs."

    "So that was it," Ye Chong thought to himself. The red mist would react with metal once it reached a critical density. No wonder Cob was wrapped up tight with the tendrils. It appeared that Han Jia¡¯s skeletal parts had allowed him to escape.

    Ye Chong could not help but felt anxious about Mu and Shang. Mu and Shang were also made of metal ¡­ If only he could get in touch with them right now, then he¡¯d be able to inform them of this peculiarity, then Mu would be able to find a solution. However ¡­

    Ye Chong smiled wryly to himself. He breathed in deeply a few times and tried not to think about them.

    Ye Chong asked, "How did they escape?"

    Sang De exined, "Most escaped using the emergency pods. The pods were not made of metal, to reduce their weight. I have no idea what they¡¯re made of. Only about a hundred thousand of them escaped, and only 15 were mech pilots. They were mostly injured beforehand, and so were not deployed to cut off the red tendrils, thus surviving the incident. However, food and water were scarce, and people died along the way. When they finally reached here, the entire Sang Family was only left with about fifty thousand. Only seven mech pilots were left, and none of them had the chip. Besides, without proper medical treatment, they all sumbed to their injuries eventually. And so, we had to start again from the very beginning. Out of the fifty thousand, a few were scientists, but here, where the gravity is stronger, and vicious animals were abundant, we had no protection. In the first month, twenty thousand died of either starvation or illness. The scientists were physically weaker, and they died soon too."

    The vige head spoked with a sigh, with a saddened voice. Sang Pu and Sang Ling were both surprised. Ye Chong finally understood why this ce was so primitive.

    "The scientists wrote down everything they knew before they died, but in the end, no one could understand them. With the harsh living conditions, the only ones who survived were the physically strongerbat experts. Without any necessary knowledge foundations, they couldn¡¯t understand the knowledge left behind. The scientists had only written down their most forefront intellectual ideas, but did not provide any basic knowledge as a starting point. That is why we are what we are today," Sang De exined helplessly.

    Sang Pu and Sang Ling could only listen wordlessly.

    Ye Chong nodded in understanding. Indeed, without any foundational knowledge, forefront knowledge would only be lost to theyperson. Such was the nature of high level knowledge.

    It was no wonder that the vigers were using such primitive weapons. Given the harsh environment, they still managed to survive and prosper here. Ye Chong could not help but grow even more respectful of them.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong thought of his time on the trash, the way he struggled alone to survive, and found that he and them were not too different after all!

 Chapter 266 - Its a Deal

    <h4>Chapter 266: It''s a Deal</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Perhaps I can help you make metal weapons," Ye Chong said this casually, but it was like dropping a bomb into the room.

    "You mean it?" Even someone as weathered as Sang De could not keep his calm, his eyes shining feverently. Metal weapons might be somon in the outside world, but here it was more than a rarity. With metal weapons, the entire Sang Family tribe could make a quantum leap in strength.

    Sang De had been the vige head for so many years, and had always tried to find ways to increase their chances of survival. However, no one was able to understand the knowledge their ancestors had left behind. Now that this opportunity presented itself, how could he pass it up?

    Was this really a blessing from Heaven to the pitiful, to give the Sang Family this glimmer of hope? Old Sang De put his hands together and muttered a silent prayer.

    As for Sang Pu and Sang Ling, they were both shocked. They stared directly at Ye Chong, unable to see how this seemingly ordinary man could make such an offer.

    Ye Chong caressed the spiral patterns on the bitterwood pike, as though he did not notice their stares. In fact, Ye Chong was not offering help out of kindness - he had not be so altruistic just yet. This offer was calctively made, now that his survival depended on the strength of he Sang Family Vige. It would be in his interest to make them stronger.

    Besides, Ye Chong had other concerns. It would be difficult if he had to find a new source of energy by himself. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to let the natives, the inhabitants of the Sang Family Vige to help?

    Ye Chong also thought of his greatest concern. The Red Sea was triggered by metal, and the chances of Cob escaping was too small. However, Cob had enough food and water tost Zhu Ling, Lian Yue and Little Rock for quite some time. As for Mu and Shang, who did not need to eat, they would only hibernate when they run out of energy. Even so, Cob had enough energy cells tost the mech for a long while - Ye Chong knew better than anyone of Cob¡¯s resources.

    It was highly probable that Mu, Shang and the rest were still trapped in the Red Sea. If he could build enough skeleton mechs ¡­ No, they did not have to be mechs, any machine that could fly in space would be enough. If Ye Chong could search the Red Sea intensively, it would increase his chances of finding Cob.

    In any case, he would not leave Mu and Shang behind, of this he was certain. He remembered the time when the ster re wasing, and Mu had tried to save him by making that extremely risky warp jump.

    The bond between him and the mech was no longer that of a mech pilot and a mech. Ye Chong would sacrifice his life to save them, if it came to it. He knew that they would do the same for him, even if the odds were definitely against them. This was true, even for that usually flippant Shang.

    Of course, his n was difficult to execute, and Ye Chong was not confident of sess. Even so, he would do it. If he at least tried, the probability of sess would be nonzero; if he did not try, then failure was certain.

    This was not the first time Ye Chong had to make such a decision. He knew exactly what he should do.

    After a full five minutes, Ye Chong saw that the three of them were still caught up with their thoughts. He spoke up slowly, "Calm yourselves. I haven¡¯t surveyed this ce, so I don¡¯t know if there are suitable metal ores. Besides, I have conditions."

    Ye Chong had to thank the elders at the Aurora. If they had not provided Ye Chong with such solid foundation, he would not dare to make such a bold offer. Here, he will find no field dissociation apparatus, no metal purification devices. To process metal in this primitive environment would require the most basic and fundamental understanding of metal smelting. However, all this depended on finding suitable metal ores. If there was no ore, they would only be building a castle in the sky.

    Old Sang De answered solemnly, "Whatever conditions you have, Ye, tell us, and we will do our best to fulfill them."

    Sang Ling¡¯s expression was one of condescension and disgust. She did not think that the man would be such an opportunist. Sang Pu may have felt the same, but his expression betrayed nothing.

    Ye Chong acted like he did not see Sang Ling¡¯s expression. In fact, he truly did not care. There are no free meals in this world. He had no reason to volunteer in helping him. Besides, Ye Chong did not feel that he was having an unfair advantage in this bargain.

    Ye Chong replied inly, "I need the Sang family to fulfill my three requests. I haven¡¯t decided on what they are, I¡¯ll let you know when it¡¯s time." Ye Chong had wanted to only ask for one request, but for some reason he thought of Shang. If was that b*stard, he would definitely ask for more. Hence, Ye Chong decided in that split second to ask for three requests instead.

    "Alright." Old Sang De promised without hesitation.

    Ye Chong looked at the vige head and said, "Think carefully about this. What I ask from you is dangerous, and will need significant manpower."

    Old Sang De gave a significant look at Ye Chong and replied, "The Sang family had waited for 500 years without hope. Now that we finally have a glimmer of hope, the Sang family will not let this opportunity be wasted, no matter the risks."

    Ye Chong said nothing, but he was quietly impressed with the old man¡¯s determination.

    Sang Pu was also watching him with fervent eyes. Ye Chong would not understand their helplessness and anger at having to live such primitive lives. Now that the opportunity presented itself, how could he let it go?

    "Alright then, it¡¯s a deal," Ye Chong said this inly, as though it had nothing to do with him.

    "Aren¡¯t you scared that we¡¯ll go back on our word?" Sang Ling could not stand Ye Chong¡¯s look and blurted out. The moment the words left her mouth, she instantly regretted them.

    Ye Chong said nothing, but his eyes suddenly turned into a chilling stare. A sharp killing intent shed in his eyes. Go back on their word? If they really did, Ye Chong would make them regret it.

    Ye Chong said nothing, but it was as though the room had suddenly been plunged into deep winter. A chilling sense crawled up their spines. The three of them shuddered inside despite themselves. Every younger member of the Sang family had his or her own share of fighting against wild beasts, and was familiar with this killing intent.

    This was the first time they had encountered such a fierce killing intent! Even the three-eyed giant squid could notpare with what they were experiencing now!

    This killing intent could not be nurtured by just killing a single person. Just how many people had this man killed? Sang Pu could not help taking another nce at the dagger in his hands. The dagger suddenly felt even more chilling to the touch.

    They had thought that an angel had designed to visit them, but it was actually the devil himself!

    The weathered Old Sang De¡¯s expression was unreadable, as he smiled wryly inside. He knew not if he had made the right decision. There was never a happy ending for the man who made a deal with the devil. Who knew just exactly what his deal with this man would mean for the future of the Sang Family?

    Even with ten thousand vigers, they were defenseless against his mech. Besides, Han Jia was an advanced level mech. This was the power of technology.

    Old Sang De said solemnly, "The Sang Family had always kept our word. In the name of the Sang family ancestors, I promise that the Sang family will do its best to fulfill your requests, dear sir. If we failed to do so, may the Sang Family be damned for all eternity."

    Sang Pu and Sang Ling were horrified. Sang Ling¡¯s expression was one full of regret. She did not imagine that her careless words had led to the vige head vowing in the name of their ancestors. To the Sang Family, vowing in the name of the ancestors was a solemn thing to do. It represented the most sacred and important of vows, never to be broken.

    Ye Chong did not share the same sentiment about vows. To him, a vow was not reliable. Only strength was.

    "Alright, let¡¯s not get ahead of ourselves, at least not until I make your first metal weapon," Ye Chong¡¯s casual reply made Sang Ling grit her teeth in anger, but she dared to speak so easily again. Her carelessness had forced Sang De to make that vow, and she regretted that very much.

    "If you need any help, sir, all members of the Sang family are at your disposal," the vige head spoke up, his expression sincere. If anyone could watch from the side and learn from him, it would be most invaluable. Old Sang De had also began to speak more respectfully to Ye Chong again, calling him "sir", and Ye Chong could not be bothered to correct him.

    Ye Chong suddenly picked up the bitterwood pike beside him and asked, "Who designed the spirals on this shaft?" Ye Chong had thought they were natural, but he knew upon touching them that they were carved by hand.

    The three of them were surprised by this change of subject, and Sang Pu replied, "It¡¯s Sang Fan¡¯s work. Is there anything wrong with it?"

    "Oh, then he¡¯ll be my assistant." Anyone who could design something like this must be quite capable.

    Sang Pu looked ill at ease. "He was injured today, probably need some time to rest."

    So it was the man who was injured earlier today. Ye Chong said casually, "Then I¡¯ll wait for him to get better." He still needed time to be more familiar with this ce.

    Having a Sang family member as his assistant was also a calcted measure, beneficial in the long run. He could delegate tasks for his assistant to take care of.

    WIthout Mu and Shang by his side, Ye Chong was like a child without support. He would have to start experimenting and exploring on his own.

 Chapter 267 - Lavagold

    <h4>Chapter 267: Lavagold</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The light emitted from the fruit of Hampered Bask was warm and gentle, like a touch of morning in Spring, illuminating the entire room. It was the first time Ye Chong came across such unusual sprout, that he could not find any entry regarding it on the encyclopedia gifted by Lunatic Guan. Twinkleblue, the light-emitting nt Ye Chong found in the encyclopedia, was rather giving off a gleam of the night skypared to glisten of Hampered Bask. And so he heard that the Hampered Bask also happened to be the sole lighting nts among the members of Sang family in the vige.

    The ceiling was fully engulfed by the purplish blue vines, where at the center the Hampered Bask fruit hung like the sleeker chandelier with its petite size of being asrge as one¡¯s fist while emanating an intriguing fruity aroma. The scent was poking Ye Chong¡¯s nose, it was tickling his gourmet sense so much that on several asions he would rather remain in darkness while his hands approached the ceiling and nearly plucked the glowing fruit to have a taste.

    Ye Chong shifted his thoughts back onto the materials before him, which were staring into his eyes with their expressive foreignness. Practically speaking, judging by the materials he had discovered thus far, most of them shouted literally foreign to him. He was not even sure if he could make anything likely to be called a metallic weapon with these materials.

    This¡­ mildstone that rested in his palm with heat leaking from its partially transparent body for example, seemed to bemonly used material among the vigers. It was so domesticallymon that even the steak Ye Chong had before was grilled using it. Its rate of heat emittance was considerably sluggish, so there would never be a problem of overcooking one¡¯s food or even one¡¯s hand, although the cooking process took much longer than what Ye Chong had experienced in others. The vigers seemed to have a practice of storing a certain amount of mildstone in every room to maintain the temperature indoors.

    Mildstone was technically something new to Ye Chong¡¯s perception.

    He gave a grip, then a rub, his fingers rolled the smooth crystallization back and fro. The warmth reminded him of a mini heater.

    His approach of metallurgy identified such stone as part of the energy ore category. The basic apparatus on the engineering mech was able to return an amazing figure on the amount of energy imbued within the stone. Ye Chong would love to perform a detailed analysis on itsponent but hecked the necessary apparatus to do so. Simrly he could not carry out any meaningful experiment. Only if he was on the Cob, he would have found out a way to utilize the energy.

    And there he was, stuck on a virtually remote vige without even the fundamental facility to aid his research. As someone who had gotten use on the most avant-garde devices, Ye Chong was not feeling easy of his situation.

    "Sir, I¡¯m here," said Sang Fan at the door.

    Ye Chong flinched, as he hardly discerned Sang Fan¡¯s footsteps till Sang Fan was right by the door.

    An expert! Commented Ye Chong in his mind.

    Sang Fan was not tall, with a height about 1.65 meters. Most likely due to the effects of strong gravitational force here, all vigers turned out to be dwarfish by nature, where someone who stood 1.7 meter high could be considered as someone with the body of a model. Sang Fan¡¯s body was not the hefty kind, it was fit and lean. His eyes were lustrous as they rolled around the room actively.

    "Oh, so you¡¯re Sang Fan?" asked Ye Chong tly, even though curiosity was twitching inside him, as his mind was in a shock. Aren¡¯t you a quick healer, Sang Fan? Thought Ye Chong. He nced at Sang Fan, whose body seemingly recovered. If it was not his slightly pale face, no one could tell he was the one who had just received a heavy blow on his life two days ago.

    "Yes sir," politely the man replied. "The chief had me under yourmand." His eyes wererge upon being informed that Ye Chong was going to make weapons for the Sang vigers. His eyes wentrger when he heard Ye Chong asking him to be the assistant, he almost could feel the next step to heaven.

    "You¡¯ll be my assistant from today onwards. Learn it properly. Learn with efforts. I could see the talent in you, don¡¯t waste it," Ye Chong sounded really like one of those elderlies from Aurora.

    "Yes sir!" The formality intensified in his response.

    "To begin¡­" The first task from Ye Chong was to sample all stones and nts around the vige.

    Sang Fan did not really understand what this craftsman was saying but he did not respond with skepticism as he ran to the chief right away, since this was not a task he could handle by himself.

    Towards the task, the old chief also responded with bewilderment. It would be reasonable to sample minerals but¡­ what does he want to do with nt samples? But well, I believe this Ye Chong is somebody who would do things for a reason, not on a whim. My men! The chief waved his hand and called upon all vigers to carry out the task right away.

    All vigers from all walks of life were involved. Children, women searched the surroundings while the men would bring a few stones and nts every time they returned from their hunt outskirt.

    And within the next few days, the room dedicated for Ye Chong¡¯s research had been flooded with all sorts of stones and nts.

    On the following days what Master Ye Chong did was having tutorials with his new assistant on categorization of nts and mineralites. Sang Fan was seemingly the intelligent and quick learner. During the process Ye Chong would also brief Sang Fan on any ores he recognized, but whether Sang Fan caught it right away would depend on his own diligence.

    Ye Chong first underwent a selection process on the stones, where most of them turned out to be rather worthless in his opinion. And among the stones which he could identify the values, only a handful of them appeared to be in his recollection.

    And there was this particr ore which caught most of his attention, namely the Lavagold. It was not a kind of gold, rather it was a kind of alloy precisely speaking, as recorded in Mu¡¯s databank. Apparently, Lavagold also exerted excellent physical properties for an alloy. Itsposition was not thatplicatedpared to the others, but it was rare. In no other way than extraction from nature the Lavagold could be acquired. Researchers so far had yet performed a sessful formation of Lavagold through artificial means. And its rarity was absolute given the fact that it only appeared in a certain type of environment.

    So he was holding this piece of Lavagold ore, where curvy gold lines finely rested over the surface of the tainted pebble like a stream of melted goldva. That was probably how the ore got its name.

    "Would you go and ask your men where they got this?" asked Ye Chong as he pass the Lavagold ore to Sang Fan.

    Sang Fan responded with a flinch at first and then his expression looked overjoyed, as he sprinted away. It was the first different response from Ye Chong after hunting and gathering for so long, obviously it would mean¡­

    Wow¡­ that speed. Amazed Ye Chong as he looked the man sted off to the outside. He could actually run even under such potent gravitational force¡­ Ye Chong was certainly impressed since he had yet gotten used to such tedious environment, the gravity pull was wearing him out. And he thought his body was strong, till he saw vigers like Sang Fan running¡­

    Very soon after, Sang Fan brought the viger who found the piece of gold. The catch was, ording to the viger, the ce where the piece of gold was found turned out to be a certain distance away from the vige. To escort Ye Chong safely, a team of exactly hundred men were sent along under the lead of Sang Pu. And one could imagine how grand it would be if 100 ace fighters escorted a single man in the 5 major gxies.

    Yes, they were indeed the ace fighters. Their steps were firm and their nature was calm. Ace! Total ace! Ye Chong reminisced his encounters with the fighters from all sorts of ces before, and they could hardly fill half of the army around him. Several beasts appeared on the way but they did nothing to the army.

    Cleaving touch, simple yet brutal! The realbat! The true fighting! Shocked Ye Chong in his mind. The martial arts developed over five centuries after tasting countless ounces of blood and murder, the techniques were simplistic and direct, no fancy movement, no swing, only the sound of bone cracking after a violent m. And this, would the true brawling technique.

    Ironically, the brawling techniques that had been long abandoned in the outside world remained as the essential survival techniques here.

    Well, Ye Chong did not shame himself as an outsider when he demonstrated his speed. The army advanced pretty quickly but never once Ye Chong wasgging behind. One may argue that such instance could not prove his speed, but that little tip to the toes he made would change the story, as his body would fling itself to the front - a burst kind of speed, unlike the vigers who were stampeding in tiny quick steps at high frequency.

    The standards were there among the vigers. They were trained, Ye Chong could tell from their disciplined marching. Nobody was chattering, there was the sound of stampeding and only the stampeding itself. Ye Chong was not the chatty kind either, so his mouth remained zipped without initiating conversation, as he sank at the centermost position in the team, a protected position where the members of the outermostyer would head out from time to time to perform scouting and observation.

    Ye Chong was astonished by the discipline, he was confident that even the so-called soldiers from the 5 gxies would be wetted by their cold sweats upon seeing the quality of the army here.

    The stampeding stopped.

    "It was at the lowest point between the two peaks at the front, right when we hunted a Tandem Peeper," pointed one of the vigers at the col.

    Sang Pu waved his hand and 4 men sprinted their ways forward. Ye Chong was going to drop his jaws if he were to witness more of the unexpected speed among the vigers.

    "They are the reconnoiter, sir," smiled Sang Pu upon seeing Ye Chong¡¯s expression. "They are good runners and good fighters too." The recon- what? Reconnoiter? It was the first time Ye Chong heard of such term. Technically anyone who knew their histories well would be able to tell what a term that had appeared in the war history of humanity countless times like reconnoiter was. Ye Chong was a history-illiterate however, so such term meant nothing to his mind, although he could kind of guess what that term withplicating syble possibly meant judging by what the 4 men were doing.

    They did not actually head directly through the entrance of the ridge. Instead, theyunched themselves and climbed upon the slopes around the col. And they flung themselves over the mountain agilely. It only took them a few tens seconds before one of the patrols gestured them a proceed to safety.

    The 60 vigers at the outer circle disengaged from their team and flooded into the col immediately. "A moment sir." And Sang Pu led Ye Chong and thest 35 vigers into the col only after the ce had been confirmed to be safe.

    Well, that was probably the best justification for their survivals on this. They certainly had the skills. Ye Chong was amazed.

    The col was not that spacious, one could grasp every spot inside within one sight. Nova gold was discovered and no happy face was found on Sang Fan.

    Ye Chong had not given up just yet, as he requested the vigers to back off.

    He then deployed the engineering mech, which scared everybody else upon seeing a giant mech crawling out of nowhere. And as usual, Ye Chong the dexterous climbed right into his cabin without any rope. The difference was, nobody really cared what he was achieving. Climbing high barehanded was nothing new among the Sang vigers.

    The vigers remained in awe nevertheless, including Sang Pu the sedate one, as owning a mech was like a fantasy, a wish of the fairytale for all the vigers from Sang.

    And Ye Chong hopped off the engineering mech after 30 seconds.

    Everyone set their eyes upon Ye Chong, as they wondered the intention of Ye Chong¡¯s every move, but one thing for sure - they had faith in this young man.

    "There," pointed one corner of the col. "Dig it," Ye Chong instructed.

 Chapter 268 - Gravity Bind

    <h4>Chapter 268: Gravity Bind</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The vigers were identified as the elites for a reason. They were selected obviously for their high efficiency and disciplined obedience. Thought Ye Chong as he glimpsed at the tiny pile of Lavagold ores before him. "Here," said Ye Chong to Sang Pu. "Mark the ce down, the Lavagold content here is rich." Sang Pu nodded inprehension.

    Ye Chong immediately sank himself into the world of researches after they had returned to the vige. He remembered it clearly, every bit of characteristic of Lavagold, but never once he had been exposed to the actual ore itself, it felt like his expertise going back to square one.

    Well, he was fortunate to possess a formidable foundation of his knowledge, for he even was considerably informed of the metallurgical approaches by the ancient, which was something alien to the modernity since nobody really learned exactly how the extraction of metals worked after the invention of Maron-based separator. But Ye Chong knew it, and he believed he could extract Lavagold from its ore without the aid of the avant-garde. This was certainly one reward he got from the constant interaction with Aurora back then.

    He started reminiscing the theoretical knowledge regarding this, as he tried reorganizing all the avable options before him.

    Okay, so the only thing Ye Chong needed to do would be to find something that could burn and emit a great amount of heat. His eyes, of course, went upon the mildstone sitting at the corner. The mildstone was clearly the solution because of its immense amount of energy contained, the tricky part was, how would Ye Chong bring out the energy? How would he initiate the reaction?

    If I were to find a way to trigger the stone, then¡­

    Ye Chong who held aplete systematic knowledge of the basics recognized the core of every reaction, every equation,id within Energy itself. The breakthrough would only happen if the solution for the issue of energy activation had been discovered.

    Okay, I know where the problem is. Then I should be finding ways to solve it.

    And that was when Sang Fan observed his first Frankenstein in the vige. Ye Chong spent all day and night in his own research room and had never left the doorstep ever since. The chief sometimes would pay him a visit to check out his progress but he always was treated with ignorance without fail, as the science maniac was too indulged in his experiment. Sang Fan held tremendous respect towards this very young yet talented teacher despite the treatment. Even though the teacher kept muttering denial towards his position as a teacher, he inevitably had already be a teacher in the Sang Fan¡¯s mind.

    Sang Fan was highly impressed by the vast knowledge and that tenacious curiosity in experimentation of his.

    Sang Fan had been checking out those microchips circted among the vigers for so long, yet he hadprehended so little. His understanding gained over the years was nothingpared to those few wordsing from this young teacher.

    Ye Chong had removed the processor from the engineering model and lifted it all the way to his room to perform his research. The processor was an impable aid to his research as Ye Chong noticed he was making significant progress. The slight disappointment was, despite all that, he had yet to discover the key factor to activate the energy stored within mildstone.

    Sighhhh¡­

    Ye Chong took a gaze at thest few samples sitting at the corner. Impatience was heating his breath, knowing the likelihood of the fate of these remaining samples. Only these samples had yet interacted with Lavagold. Assuming they also showed a null reaction as an oue, the research could be in a stern dead-end. His tired eyes nced upon Sang Fan who was looking at the processor and silently he left the room. Meanwhile, Sang Fan was exerting strong interests towards the processor ever since the first eye-contact he made with it. Ye Chong had spent two hours to guide him on the application of the processor. Ye Chong had even inserted a few entries of the elementary to provide a walkthrough for Sang Fan.

    The chilly air kissed upon the heated cheeks of Ye Chong. It felt refreshing to be at the outside. Ye Chong, feeling rxed, was stretching his stiffened muscles.

    He could feel his bones fossilized after the days and nights he rooted himself by his desk. The research did not pay off sadly. That was annoying.

    Ye Chong had a sudden urge of working out for some reason, and so he began swinging his hands, pulling punches.

    The irritation clouding his head seemed to have faded away. His punches got faster and he was literally kicking alive. During the process, he began recalling the moment when he saw the few techniques performed by the vigers. It was a shocker he must admit, as it left deep impression in his mind.

    Simple. Straightforward. Sedate.

    Ye Chong¡¯s body was moving in all sorts of position, there was no pattern to his punches and kicks.

    Gradually, his techniques seemed to have changed. It was not obvious but he could feel the changes. It was getting¡­ simplified? And getting more fatal, with more twisting, unpredictable angles. The reflexivity of his body being utilized with the muscle maniption technique exclusive to the Lan family of September, allowed him to perform some really inhuman performances. The angles of his punches were getting odder.

    "Great!" Onepliment shot through his ears.

    The young man flinched as he withdrew all his moves and stood still. His control over his movements was justified through this, for he was able to pull off and pull out the techniques by his will with immediate effect.

    "Shame on me,"plimented Sang Pu, with his face filled with amazement. "Never would I have expected sir to have such skills. I actually thought outsiders like sir were those with numb limbs and eyes. But wow, the outside world¡­ much stronger than I thought."

    Towards thement, Ye Chong gave a straight, frozen face. Certainly he would be disgruntled over a senseless, stereotypicalment like this, he was toozy to have a meaningless debate nevertheless.

    Sang Pu was smiling, seemingly had guessed what Ye Chong was feeling, he said, "I guess I must be saying something really senseless to sir¡¯s perception. But I got to say, that sir must be a powerful figure in the outside world¡­ yes, with those skills."

    Ye Chong had noment.

    A moment of awkward silencepsed, the Sang man mustered his pride, "Our tribe was already one of the 4 great aristocrats in He Yue gxy way before our ancestors left the ce. I absolutely would love to know what the situation in He Yue is looking like currently. But from what I have known, pilots had already appeared back then, so were the practitioners. The martial arts practitioners were still holding dominant forces in the gxy in spite of the innovative approaches by the pilots. And yeah, Sang style martial arts were something from the high superior. Hmph, the Archipgo was a hideous ce and countless men of our tribes lost their lives when we first came. Imagine all it took just to let us stay¡­" He pounded his chest in vex.

    "Over the past 500 years, our tribe had been fighting with the most fearsome beasts as the routine. If you were the weakling, you would never survive. As you can see, everyone of us spend our days either by hunting or by all sorts of training, just to further enhance ourselves. And that includes women and children. We know we could never get an actual help from the surrounding, so we need to build our body, hone our skills. With the help of the gravity field, our generation has be much morepetent than our ancestors."

    Well, Ye Chong had to admit that Sang Pu was making sense in his words. Human beings were the kind whose most potential would be excavated under such environment. The tedious surrounding had provided the Sang vigers the best practical to train themselves. As far as Ye Chong agreed, the practical, the experience of actualbats would forever be the most effective method to improve vitality and skills. A group of collective ideology umting their strength and techniques over the centuries, a generation oveing the other generation, the gradual dethroning of martial arts over the 5 major gxies, these men in Archipgo now would no doubt be the prime of fighters.

    Nevertheless, it was nothing surprising. Ye Chong knew well in his heart, this was a decade of the pilots, for the pilots, by the pilots. The pilots would be the spotlight, the center of concern. Practitioners were potent in fact, but only in a small scope. Look how fragile they would be when they fought an actual mech, as they would get overthrown, rolling down the staircase to their previous throne.

    But thest term was very new to his conception. Gravity field? What exactly was that?

    "What is gravity field?" asked Ye Chong.

    Sang Pu was stunned for a moment, "Hah!" he chuckled. "It¡¯s my mistake sir. I had yet introduced this ce formally."

    And Ye Chong was all ears. It would be his priority to first understand the surrounding well enough, the basics, at the very least. If it was not the research that haunted him days and nights, he probably would have not forgotten the obvious primary procedure of his space exploration.

    "Sir, this piece ofnd is known as the ¡®Archipgo¡¯. Back when our ancestorsid their steps here, this very ce of our vige precisely, they had fully depleted their energy storage, so they could not conduct a proper scouting over the area. But never once we stopped stepping out, as over the time we explored the area, and to our horror, thend was nothing but danger. Not only it was filled with terrifying beasts, but also the fact that under certain condition, at some ces, something much more terrifying than the beasts would ur. Gravity field, or strong gravity region some may call it, was one of them, where every region contains different degrees of gravitational forces, they were scattered all over thend like an unforeseeable trap. When you step into one super strong gravity region, you would feel like falling into quicksand, except there would be no way out. And unlike quicksand, a strong gravity region holds no sign, no boundary, no marking with the normal space we live."

    And Ye Chong was stupefied towards the introductory chapter of Archipgo, which had utterly flipped over his entire understanding towards the world, the knowledge he had learned. How would that be possible? It was already a miracle to see an actual within the asteroid belt, which, contrary to mosts he had seen, was not even a globe technically. He could recognize the difference inary shape but would there¡­ at one corner of the gxy, that a this odd exist? Would it be possible to have drastically different degrees of gravitational force over the?

    Ye Chong¡¯s dropping jaws were priceless to Sang Pu, since it was ultra rare to see the indifferent teacher of his to suddenly get so expressive and it was because of his description on his home, "And after much exploration, we realized there could be signs to help us distinguish a strong gravity region and non-strong gravity region. For example, the nts inhabited within the gravity field have noticeable difference than the nts in normal field. Everyone in the Sang vige could actually determine if the next step they are lifting would be an invisible quicksand. And we are also able to estimate the strength of the gravity before us," said Sang Pu as he smiled proudly.

    "200 years ago, one senior of mine found a way to utilize the gravitational force, which is to perform training there. The stronger the gravity, the more burdened the body would be. Given that he no longer gained significant progress on his training in normal field, he would venture into the gravity field. Well of course, we only allow adults to perform their trainings there. Children whose bodies remain mutable are forbidden to enter the area. They would be allowed to head in only when they achieve adulthood."

    Well, if what Sang Pu said was true, the ce would be wonderful for training. But Ye Chong had a better idea, it would be great if one were to carry out pilot training there as well!

    Like¡­ he could try performing a Thomas¡¯s Spin with Mach 5 speed under 500% gravity pull, converting the figures, he would get a fancy quick consecutive trio of Thomas¡¯s Spin with a speed of Mach 10 instead! The biggest issue of traveling in mech for a pilot would be the burden to their body overtime, while this would be the core toplete all strategic movements and techniques.

    Absolutely, Ye Chong was more than excited to check out this very ce mentioned by Sang Pu, the gravity bind that strengthened your physique, the double-edged sword namely the strong gravity region¡­

 Chapter 269 - Discovery

    <h4>Chapter 269: Discovery</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Sang family vige was surrounded by the mountains, a hideous location for a living one could say, that any man, woman or child would frown upon. The beasts lurking around the corner had been technically wiped out over 500 years under the determined contribution by generations. Ye Chong, under the lead of Sang Pu, arrived by one piece of grassfield just a stone¡¯s thrown away from the vige.

    On the grassfield, an irregrly shaped circle of diameter about a kilometer was formed by the cement of a handful of rocks in different sizes. There were a few young adults carrying out their training there. They appeared to be quite young but the hushes created by the punches and kicks they pulled were not something to be overlooked.

    "And sir¡­" Initiated Sang Pu, pointing at the circle, "This is the strong gravity region I had been telling you about. This encircled area has about 1.3 times the gravity outside. We found it to be perfect for adolescences who had undergone their puberty and possessed a considerable standard of technical achievement. As you can see, these were from the local shrine afterpleting the training course by their teachers. Once they left the shrine and are dered to be atpletion of their course, they would be a warrior, a fighter, or a soldier in the field. And here, it does not matter whether you are a man or a woman, everyone must head to the shrine forbat training. This is what our lives depend on anyway."

    Sang Pu was expressing nonchnce in his words, he seemed to be unworried of the issue, although Ye Chong did discern a hint of despair within.

    "Sir¡­ your arrival had brought us hope. Your emergence had given all of us hope. I sometimes did envy you and the outsiders, as to you, owning a mech seemed to be something like we did our gravity field training, but to us, owning a mech, is a legend itself. Hah¡­ we don¡¯t really have that much to demand. We only hope for a weapon that could adequately support us through the darkest days¡­" Sang Pu¡¯s voice turned more confident, "Hmph, we are indeed, the strongest tribe here. 500 years had passed, we not only have the bravest warriors, asionally we also have the wisest few men. Ironically, nobody had understood what was written on those chips. The wisest fews eventually spent their entire life, going by the most mundane method via experiments on all kinds of things they could find around their home. And they had found mildstone, they had discovered nts which could be used as a cure, they learned about bringing us lights in the dark with Hampered Bask, still¡­ they could not find any way of the metallurgy. And likewise to their past counterparts, they died, regretfully."

    And that was when Sang Pu set his eyes upon Ye Chong, passionately. The gazested for a moment and the Sang burst outughing, "What am I doing?? I¡¯m just showing you the gravity field, why in the Archipgo I told you these? Mhm, it¡¯s alright, these aren¡¯t really much rted to you, it¡¯s just the fate of our tribe. An unchangeable fate."

    Ye Chong remained in silence. He was actually at loss of words, the proper words to tell.

    "Well!" Bucked up Sang Pu, "Take a careful look at the region."

    As requested, Ye Chong took a closer look at the gravity region, which frankly speaking, nothing particrly odd could be perceived, as Ye Chong took a second look and was bewildered by theck of difference. If it was not that visible structure by the stones, he would not even have his attention on this ordinary piece ofnd, nor would he ever think that this piece ofnd turned out to be the strange gravity region the Sang had been talking about.

    Ye Chong, looked at Sang Pu with confusion, shaking his head, "Nothing strange?"

    "And so we thought back then," smiled Sang Pu. "Strong gravity region was a ce of fatality but well, we still discovered it anyway. As mentioned before, take a look at the grasses. Of what difference they had with the grasses outside?"

    Ye Chong shifted his attention over the grasses. A momentpsed and he did observe something different. The grasses within the circle were much shorter than the grasses outside. A run in his schemata and he got it right away.

    Sang Pu saw Ye Chong¡¯s expression and knew that his teacher had gotten it, the exnation went on however, "Due to the additional gravitation, the nts within the circle would have a certain degree of differences with their outside counterparts. The greater the difference between the gravitation of both sides, the more noticeable the nts between the boundary would look. This region for example, its forces were stronger than the outside, which caused the shorter height of grasses."

    "What if there were no nts in the field?" hurriedly Ye Chong asked.

    "You let the stone guide you," answered Sang Pu, with impression in his eyes.

    And Ye Chong got it. Provided that there was a strong gravity region ahead, the tossed stone would fall with an unnatural curve. Well, that was rather a clever move, simple and practical, without needing the aid of an advanced machine. You only need one piece of rock you could find anywhere. Ye Chong could almost imagine that high and wild the rock would fly when it got tossed by the powerfully built vigers. The foreign zone might have a different level of gravity, but that should not hinder the overall velocity of the rock during the travel.

    Such creativity, such genius! Eximed Ye Chong in his mind.

    The few steps right before the circle were nothing much, the next step into the circle was¡­ lumpy¡­ one could say, as Ye Chong felt himself being pulled into the ground, his body was heavier, like tied with boulders over his limbs. Sang Pu in the meantime, was walking as normal.

    The few young adults addressed Sang Pu respectfully upon seeing his arrival. Sang Pu returned with a smile and a tap at one of their shoulders, fewpliments and words of encouragement were given then he led Ye Chong to one corner.

    Ye Chong tried swinging his limbs. It literally felt like he was in an invisible bondage or something¡­ Man, imagine the warriors who had undergone training like this, the body must be greater than the sun. Ye Chong could imagine the fact that ck Covers would inevitably lose if they were to have a fight with the warriors here, without the mech of course. They would be snapped to death in seconds.

    He took a stroll around and realized that there *was* indeed not much of a difference other than the additional weight posed onto his body.

    Within the gravity region, other than the purplish grasses that covered the area, there were a few tiny sprouts tinting the area. From a botanist¡¯s aspect, Ye Chong hypothesized these being a kind of fungi. The umbre like structure on top was thick and was adorned with few white spots. Its grayish appearance was easily overlooked, but its size was a savior for it was humongous. Most of the umbres were about a diameter of a meter, the stem was extra thick, very contented kind of texture.

    Ye Chong realized he had not seen fungi like this in his room before. As the curiosity of a chemist rang in his head, he asked, "What is this called?" His eyes watched the fungi carefully as he went to have a closer look.

    "Portabe," concisely Sang Pu responded. "We called it ¡®Portabe¡¯, it might look soft but it¡¯s actually very hard, that it felt like you are biting on a piece of leather. It is not edible. Mostly it grows within the gravity region, very reproductive, but they only grow in trios. So you won¡¯t see a mushrooming flock of them on the field. We have yet discovered what it could do¡­"

    Ye Chong gave a touch. It did feel really hard. The fleshy appearance was a lie.

    His pupils erged as he lowered his back and dug that very piece of soil with caution. He gave a stare, and another, his heart raced as his mind went wild.

    Could it be¡­

    Wait no. He still needed to confirm his wild belief. Ye Chong sprang from the ground, straightened his back, "Sir? What¡¯s¡­ wrong?" asked Sang Pu, as his sharp eyes discerned that unusual expression of Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did not reply. His eyes scurried around. And at the one other corner within the circle nearby, there were other trio of Portabe resting.

    A tip to his toes, Ye Chong flung andunched himself like an eagle to the mushrooms. Sang Pu also reacted promptly as he followed his teacher¡¯s steps upon understanding what that gaze from his teacher meant.

    Sang Pu acted like an explosive beast. It was a simple dash behind his teacher, yet it was speedy, with an indescribable grace.

    Ye Chong jumped before the Portabes and stomped to the ground, lowering himself as he searched through the gaps below.

    I knew it! Ye Chong was breathing heavily, to extinguish that bit of ring excitement, as he picked up that tiny speck of silver particles on interior of Portabe.

    The particles were of sizes of green peas, with a dull surface, mixed within the soils. Nobody would have ever noticed their existence without proper observation.

    "What are these?" Sang Pu asked, as he looked at the strange specks in Ye Chong¡¯s hand.

    "This, is what we outsiders called, metal," nced Ye Chong, he slowly spoke.

    Sang Pu was as if struck by lightning, his widened eyes gazed upon the particles. So these are metals of the myths, longed by the Sang? Sang Pu shuddered to his realization.

    Sang Pu only regained his calmness after a while. His shaking hand took one particle from Ye Chong and exerted his little bit of force, the particle ttened in his grip. His hope sank, the passion went extinguished, "What¡¯s the use of metals this soft?"

    Ye Chong gave a kick to the Portabe, beside the thumping mushroom, "What¡¯s useful is this."

    Ye Chong realized how he had been taking the wrong approach the whole time. He had been thinking of how to extract the Lavagold itself from the ore by exerting extremely amount of heat at once. So he had been desperately searching for a factor to trigger the high density of heat within mildstone to perform extraction.

    That, was the approach of a metallurgy researcher. But he forgot the fact that he was also an alchemist.

    There were already a series of tutorial of alchemy illustrating methods to obtain metals from the ore itself. However, metallic extraction was a much more simplified and convenient methodology, it had gone somon that Ye Chong already forgot the fact that an alchemist approach had ever existed.

    Not till the moment he saw metallic particles underneath Portabe, he did not realize such a forgotten fact.

    If Lunatic Guan was beside him, he probably would have been smacked on his head. Thought Ye Chong, as he smiled in wry. I had learned so much yet I only remembered this little, I hardly had anything that could be identified as a master of it¡­ Even my martial arts expertise became nothing after I came to Sang family vige.

    The root of Portabe was so deep into the earth that, it felt like a carrot from the fairytale when both Ye Chong and Sang Pu tried pulling it out.

    The remaining young adults stumbled upon the sight, it was certainly astonishing to see both grown men pulling and ravaging a poor stem of mushroom which refused to sumb to their violence and abuse. It stood firmly on the ground. "Hnnnnnng!" Both men were pounding each other, pulling a giant fungus off the ground. The scene was weird, really weird.

    The fluttering spores stuck on their bodies, their faces were looking dusty and sweaty.

    On the way back to the vige, all vigers were grinning upon seeing Sang Pu. The face was beyond their understanding and no way they could look at it with a straight face, including thedies who were covering their faces, snickering.

    His face was covered with some unknown dirts while he was shouldering stem of an unknown nt. It would have not been so impulsive if the person was an ordinary viger. But it was Sang Pu, the candidate for the next vige chief, a prestigious figure, the leader of the younger generation. That respect exerted by he himself, through that unchangeable calmness of his, now all eradicated by a stem of mushroom.

    Sang Pu was blushing red as the me, though his expression was grim. At least the blushes were covered by the spores, so nobody really saw how the next chief was feeling embarrassed.

    Ye Chong in the meantime was tailing him, his indifference remained, unlike the poor chief.

 Chapter 270 - The Cycle of Lavagold

    <h4>Chapter 270: The Cycle of Lavagold</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was holding a piece of Lavagold te in his hand. It glowed brilliantly, with ripples of curves over the surface. Imagine the craze that could happen if this piece of Lavagold ever rolled into one market of the 5 major gxies! Eximed Ye Chong in his mind. It was reasonable as a piece of rare mineral would be far more precious than a piece of jewel. So, pieces like the Teardrop, the Do-Kun stone would be obviously something of the other world, with a heavenly price if one were to describe it.

    The assistants around were expressing their overwhelmed excitement, as their eyes seemed to have been bewitched by the beauty of the Lavagold, they were intoxicated. And their eyes, when towards Ye Chong, were showing their highest regards and deepest respect.

    Yes, you heard it right. There was more than one assistant, as the crew of Ye Chong had expanded from one single man called Sang Fan to a team of 5 members, whom the chief of the vige selected from the young generation and all of them were intelligent and adaptive. Certainly Ye Chong knew the intention of the chief - he wanted more men of his to learn, whether they would learn a little bit or none, from this talented teacher of the outside world. Ye Chong would not reject this, considering having more assistants would do him no actual harm.

    The 5 men of his team, despite having a rather weak foundation in their studies, possessed a one-of-a-kind diligence. They were the potential, a y to be sculptured. Yes, one could agree that there would always be a difference in how talented a person would bepared to others, but that did not mean the innate talent could rece acquiring diligence. Though it did not mean Ye Chong would be motivated enough to teach them from the very first page of his textbook, he did not have the interest for that. d that Sang Fan was there to do the talking for him.

    While they were progressing incredibly slow on metallurgy, they were learning fairly quick on alchemy, it felt somehow as if they were made for alchemy, which was shocking to Ye Chong. So Sang Fan exined, on one asion when Ye Chong asked, that everyone here was very much exposed to the norm of distinguishing nts. And yes, the Guan¡¯s approach of alchemy was a product of the ancient botanical knowledge, and most of Ye Chong¡¯s alchemical processes were chiefly rted to nts, so no doubt the men were progressing quickly.

    And we did it!

    Phew¡­

    Ye Chong gave a sigh of relief. Although he had probably beenpletely isted from the modernity while being stuck without the tools to perform even the most fundamental process of mineral extraction, he made it anyway, as he extracted the fluid from Portabe and produced a reagent with it to extract the Lavagold from the ore instead. The joy faded away quickly however, as he calmed down, remembering the fact that¡­ he was in a race of time, where Mu Shang would never be able tost for him in all eternity.

    I wonder¡­ if Mu Shang were doing fine¡­ Thought Ye Chong, his mind sinking into a fact that seemed to be changing history anytime.

    He bucked up and spoke to Sang Fan, "Bring the chief here."

    Sang Fan responded agreeably as he set off sprinting excitingly.

    The piece of Lavagold flowed from one assistant to another, and every one of them was more than enthralled to see their breakthrough.

    Ye Chong was pondering at the side. Yes, they did extract Lavagold sessfully but it remained as a problem if they could massively extract and produce these golds. He did inquire Sang Fan on Portabe, the Sang¡¯s response was¡­ Portabe was amon fungi indeed but notmon enough in numbers, as it only grew within the gravity region. Assuming they had to go with the Lavagold option, the supply of Portabe would be an issue.

    Noises poured from the outside suddenly, as a group of people flooded into the ce, with the leading one, of course, the chief himself, while Sang Pu and Sang Ling tailed right behind.

    "Did you get it sir?" Sang Pu could no longer hold his excitement, his voice was shaking, Sang Ling was also expressing that mesmerization towards Ye Chong.

    "Mhm," nodded Ye Chong as he turned his head to the few assistants. And Sang De the really old shifted his sight along with Ye Chong¡¯s head andnded upon that piece of glittering precious resting in one of the assistant¡¯s hands. The old man¡¯s eyes sure wererge, as his breathing intensified. The assistant went to the chief and passed him the Lavagold with both hands solemnly.

    Loud gasps were heard in the room, along with few waves of whispers.

    The old chief reached his trembling hands over that piece of beauty. His hands were so shaky that Ye Chong was worried if the chief, at this rate, would have funeral a week from today.

    He had to admit that, the Lavagold was truly a beauty to behold, even for someone who had seen countless jewels and mineralites like Ye Chong, as he could imagine himself bowing before this piece of gorgeous. So it would not be far-fetched to see one man isted from the world like Sang De the chief dramatically reacting towards Lavagold. But well, Ye Chong was more concerned about its functionality rather than its beauty. Lavagold was limited in number within the 5 major gxies, and so were the researches about it, even the information in Mu¡¯s databank only contained a very vaguely described entry on it. Ye Chong did test out its functionality, briefly, of course. It could never be precisely urate, but he believed in the excellence of this piece that it would surpass the alloys containing ck Gold.

    Ye Chong learned a lot from the extraction process using alchemy¡¯s approach this time. Lots of stuffs regarding alchemy suddenly made very much sense to him ever since.

    "Sir¡­" Spoke Sang Ling, "Why does the metal look¡­ a little different than the color of the mechs in shrine?"

    "Why must the metal have the same colors as the mech from shrine?" asked Ye Chong, bewildered.

    "Because¡­ weren¡¯t mechs from the Sanctuary made out of metals too?" The vigers could see Ye Chong mming himself towards the ground.

    Pure ignorance! Oh my Fal gxy¡­ Ye Chong looked at the breasts of Sang Ling. And one word, an odd terminology from Shang returned to his mind¡­ what was it again? Dumb blonde? Wait, that was discriminative Shang said¡­ Oh. Bimbo. Yeah. I guess it fits her."Brainless with great peaks!" Shang once said, hmmm¡­ wow, first time a word from Shang that made logical sense, Shang actually wasn¡¯t talking meaningless crap the whole time¡­

    And out of sudden¡­ he missed the artificial indulgence.

    The inappropriate gaze of Ye Chong was sending blushes over her face.

    "Well¡­" And Ye Chong whispered his exnation, "This metal is known as the ¡®Lavagold¡¯. The mech inside the shrine uses a metal known as the ¡®Tritanium¡¯, an alloy." The team of assistants, including Sang Fan, all took out a handy notebook from their pocket and jotted down the lesson of the day. And everybody else was stupefied by their synchronicity.

    "So sir, what exactly is Tritanium? Which one is better? Lavagold or Tritanium?" asked Sang Fan courteously, while the other assistants were listening.

    "Find it out yourself. The processor is there." Ye Chong was toozy to borate, "For your information, Tritanium had been a goner since 300 years ago."

    The diligence of the 5 young men was a satisfying sight to the chief, he spoke, "All of you shall learn something from your teacher. He is a very talented teacher and every word of his could count, learn even the tiniest bit of it and you would live with it for the rest of your life."

    "Yes chief!"

    "Yes!" The group hurriedly showed their approval. The little instance resolved that awkward situation of Sang Ling just now.

    Sang Pu received the Lavagold from the chief and exerted brute force on it. The piece did not change at all! Not even a mark of his fingerprint! "Great!" Eximed Sang Pu and the whispers brewed again among the vigers as they stretched their neck, desperately trying to have a better look at that piece of precious.

    "Sir, would it be possible¡­" Sang Pu¡¯s eyes were passionate, "for sir to turn this into a weapon?" The very question got everybody else as they held their respiration simultaneously, the hustle and bustled settled out of the blue.

    Right, making a weapon had always been the primary concern of every Sang.

    "Well¡­"

    The eyes erged, the inhtion was intense.

    "It¡¯s very likely."

    And everyone was hurrahing for the talent.

    The old chief was delighted, very delighted, as his voice shook, "G-great¡­ whatever sir did, shall never be forgotten among our tribe. All of us, from one generation to another, shall never disregard the bestow sir made!"

    Ye Chong was not taking thatpliment happily, since obviously that piece of Lavagold would hardly do something if it was never possible to be massively produced in the first ce.

    "Hmmm¡­" Ye Chong spoke to the chief, "I did not expect the supply of Lavagold could be this rich, but I would need more Portabe mushrooms if I were to produce weapons."

    "Porta¡­be?" asked the chief, certainly he did not get it.

    "Yes, Portabe," nodded Ye Chong, "Its fluid would be the main material to extract Lavagold from its ore. But as far as I know, the amount of Portabe was not motivating here."

    "Hmmm¡­" The chief pondered, "Now that is some problem."

    "C-chief!" One hoarse voice rang from the crowd, "It¡¯s not a problem!" A shriveled looking elderly walked to the front, the strands of beard were giving him some unfriendliness¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s stare was strange so the chief quickly made an introduction, "This is our healer, Sang Ru Bei, also the most knowledgeable man regarding nts."

    That pair of little eyes of Sang Ru Bing shone, "I had researched on Portabe mushrooms for some time. They do grow solely within the strong gravity boundary, but cultivating it would not be challenging. We could take a few gravity region as a cultivation for Portabe."

    "Fair enough! I¡¯ll have you do lead the job! You could take anyone in the vige for you. Just make sure the Portabes areing!" the chief decisively stated.

    "Yes chief," replied Sang Ru Bei politely.

    "Sir¡­" asked the chief, "I wonder would it be possible to make one weapon with the Lavagold now¡­?"

    Ye Chong hesitated a moment¡­ "Hmm, this piece of Lavagold is a bit too small to make a full metallic weapon. I could make it into a few des for your spear, just tie it on the bitterwoods."

    "As you have suggested," responded the chief.

    "Now¡­" Ye Chong turned to his assistants, "Reagent No.1 and No.3, Powdered Emerald and Powdered Zinc."

    The assistants began moving. Swiftly they brought the reagents and powdered minerals to their teacher. Although they had yet mastered much on the theoretical part, they had much practical.

    Sang Fan quickly ced every utensil on the table for Ye Chong.

    The teacher would be actually producing something live! Everyone was interested and nobody was willing to leave, their necks extended, their eyes were glued upon the hands of the master, as they feared missing one moment of the show. They held the breath carefully, fearing their pointless breathing would disrupt the teacher¡¯s production.

    Blurp¡­ Blurp¡­

    Ye Chong ced the Lavagold into a container and poured the reagents one at a time. Very soon after the solid gold melted into a ssh of glittering yellow. It did not mix with the reagent however, it just reacted towards it. It felt like magic in the eyes of the vigers, even though it was merely another day of being an alchemist for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong discarded the reagents, leaving the liquid of Lavagold in the container. He then sprinkled Powdered Emerald thoroughly over the surface, which turned the liquid into a gluey texture, fluffy and tangible. It was another beauty¡­ an adorable beauty¡­ thought Sang Ling as she saw the gold dancing like cotton candy in Ye Chong¡¯s hands.

    Women could say no to cutesy things.

    The other vigers were so amazed that they did not even blink their eyes.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained unchanged, as he mumbled, "Mold," after 30 seconds.

    Sang Fan passed the mold to Ye Chong immediately.

    He took the mold and sprinkled the interior with Powdered Zinc, while his other hand lifted a piece of polished wood chip and sliced one piece of Lavagold jelly. He then took a pair of pliers, made out of wood of course, picked the jelly and stuffed it into the mold. A firm press was given and any portion beyond the mold was sliced off by the chip.

    3 minutes passed, Ye Chong lifted the mold and gently tilted it over the table.

    Klink! A de fell out of the mold, giving a clear sound on the table. Ye Chong took the de and wiped the zinc off the surface. The de was glowing in Lava Gold.

    "Done. Now, just give a nice polish on the de itself."

    The vigers were staring at the Lavagold spearhead, tantly overjoyed but they behaved themselves when they turned their head over Ye Chong, tantly respectful.

    Humans¡­ were always the frightened kind in front of the unknown.

    "So¡­" Ye Chong looked at the remaining jellies, "Have a try too," he said to his assistants, asking them to be a part of the cycle of Lavagold, from solid to liquid, liquid to solid.

 Chapter 271 - An Anxious Heart

    <h4>Chapter 271: An Anxious Heart</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Work was progressing fast. Sang Fan and others quickly got proficient at their tasks. Using alchemy to build metal weapons was easy, requiring little effort from the weapon smiths themselves. With Ye Chong¡¯s permission, Sang Fan and the team pushed strongly for the other vigers to join in. Now, almost everyone had the skills required.

    Cultivation of the gray mushrooms was also going smoothly. Sang Rubei had studied nts for years, and quickly identified the optimal cultivation conditions. They had even found a few areas with suitable strength of gravitational force to cultivate the mushrooms.

    The Sang Family Vige gave their all in these revolutionary changes. With the exception of the hunting troop, all other young men were sent to minevagold ores, while the women learned to cultivate gray mushrooms from Sang Rubei.

    The hunting troop were all equipped with new pikes. Lavagold heads were fastened to the bitterwood shafts. The sharpened and polishedvagold head gleamed with a beautiful and deadly luster, envied by the rest of the vigers. However, the thought of having one for each of them soon encouraged them to work much harder. A warrior¡¯s love for weapons was like a yboy¡¯s love for beautiful women.

    The first the new pike tips were used, the hunters returned with glorious fruits ofbor. Their first catch was thrice the number of usual hunts. Old Sang De was all smiles looking at the huge pile of dead prey. This proved the incontrovertible power of metal weapons. All the vigers treated Ye Chong with the utmost respect. This was a respect born out of the hope that he had given to them. To receive advice from the man was the dream of every member of the younger generation.

    Hence, when Ye Chong asked the vige head for more helpers, all the young people except for Sang Ling came to Sang De to volunteer. Even Sang Pu could not help but try it himself, but was lectured by Old Sang De instead.

    In the end, Old Sang De chose 10 people, all aged between 13 and 14 years old. These young people were more malleable and receptive to new ideas.

    Ye Chong needed help for his current project. He had left the metal weapon forging work to Sang Fan. Now, he was focused on his new research - the mildstone.

    It was a race against time. His objective was to save Mu, Shang and the rest. Everything else was meaningless without achieving this.

    This d*mned mildstone! Ye Chong still could not figure out how to harvest its potential energy. This was the biggest obstacle for Ye Chong now. Without energy, he could do nothing. Ye Chong knew that the metal weapons would improve the lives of the Shang Family vigers, but they would not help with rescuing Mu, Shang and the rest.

    Ye Chong was now considering the idea of using alchemy to harvest the energy within the mildstone.

    After all this while, Ye Chong was more knowledgeable in alchemy. He was beginning to learn to think from an alchemist¡¯s point of view.

    This research was never done before. In the chip left by Lunatic Guan, Ye Chong could find nothing on this mineral. However, reality forced Ye Chong to deal with it head on. He must try everything he could think of.

    Ye Chong never liked to express his emotions. In fact, he had done so but Mu, Shang had never discussed about this. He never imagined that Mu and Shang would be separated from him. It came to be that Mu and Shang had be an integral part of his life. When he was first separated from them, he was struck with moments of loss and helplessness, but he quickly found another reason to strive besides surviving - rescuing Mu and Shang.

    All this while, Mu and Shang took the role of protectors, while Ye Chong had never done anything for them. Now, they were stuck in the Red Sea, their fates unclear. Ye Chong must rescue them, but not out of so-called gratefulness. It was simply what he had to do.

    Alchemy required knowing the material¡¯s properties. This was the most basic principle for every field. Alchemy used nts, but all the nts here were new to Ye Chong. He knew less of the nts here than the children of the Sang Family Vige, but unlike them, he was also equipped with the skills of a scientist.

    To know more about the nts would require continuous experimentation. Usually, Ye Chong would do it all by himself. It would take time, but that way he would understand even more about the nts.

    Now, however, Ye Chongcked time.

    Hence, he needed helpers. The vigers here were all very familiar with the native nts, and most suitable for the role. With them, Ye Chong need only exin the experimental procedures, and leave the execution and documentation of results to them. This way, he could speed up the research significantly. Even Sang Fan was called to join in this research project.

    No one doubted Ye Chong¡¯s research. In fact, they all came, full of reverence, to theboratory that seemed so sacred to them, even though to Ye Chong, theb was badly under-equipped and primitive.

    They were instilled with knowledge of all kinds of nts from a young age. This was knowledge umted over time from the previous generations, sometimes at the cost of their lives. Their understanding allowed them to learn alchemy more easily and quickly, as they picked up the skills forboratory work. Hence, Ye Chong gave them full control of their own experiments on various nts, only asking that they record all experiment procedures and results. As for Ye Chong, he had to analyze all these results, aside from running his own experiments.

    Ye Chong was now slowly getting used to the environment of strong gravity. Even in this hectic situation, Ye Chong did not forget to train himself. Everyone here was a warrior, and Ye Chong did notck sparring partners. Ye Chong learned quickly, impressing his sparring partners. They all admired how smart he was, to pick up evenbat skills so quickly.

    Even Ye Chong was surprised at his own improvement. Ye Chong¡¯s physical strength had long reached a bottleneck, and the asional improvements were only in small leaps. Ye Chong had repeatedly thought that he had reached the limits of the human body. Now, however, with the strong gravity environment, he found that his body was also strengthening quickly to keep up. He was finally breaking through this bottleneck. It happened so fast that sometimes Ye Chong would feel imbnced in his own body. This was why, despite the urgency of his objective, he was still determined to train himself.

    As for Ye Chong¡¯s helpers, they were all busy, all the time. Ye Chong was almost embarrassed with himself, watching them so focused in their work. There was finally hope for this centuries-old tribe. The sudden burst of energy they showed had surprised Ye Chong

    His research progressed quickly. With Sang Rubei in the team, they advanced leaps and bounds. This made Ye Chong realized something - an expert was more useful than a bunch of newbies.

    Every day, Ye Chong analyzed the research results, and keyed them into the photon processor in a new database.

    Time passed by, but Ye Chong had not found a way to harvest energy from the mildstone. He was growing more anxious by the day, but was helpless at the same time.

    In the strong gravity region, Ye Chong trained intensively. The days passed, and he felt more and more pressured. If it were anyone else, he would not be so affected. However, this was Mu and Shang. He was greatly troubled.

    As he trained, he grew stronger and stronger. Ye Chong was now a formidable fighter, even for Sang Pu.

    Ye Chong swinged and kicked faster and faster. He was anxious deep inside, and could not help but let out a long howl. His voice echoed throughout thends. The usually crowded strong gravity region was empty, since the vigers had all gone to minevagold.

    It had been three months since he was separated from Mu and Shang. Harvesting the mildstone¡¯s energy, building a skeleton-made flying transport, and teaching the Sang Family vigers to fly them all seemed to be so far away. He thought of Cob, Mu and Shang, trapped in the Red Sea, and felt renewed anxiety.

    Everything in the strong gravity region became his victims. Ye Chong punched and kicked, and everything hit crumbled easily. Even the ground, tough as steel, dented in many ces.

    Before entering Archipgo, Ye Chong could punch through alloy doors with his bare hands. Now, he was stronger than the average Sang Family viger. However, Ye Chong did not feel like he had attained Jie. Lan Yixing¡¯s chip had informed him that when abat expert reached a certain level of skills, he would experienced a bottleneck. Some would never break through this bottleneck, but the ones who did will attain Jie.

    Jie experts were the most formidable. They were more knowledgeable inbat techniques than any ordinarybat expert, but most importantly, they had extra extraordinary abilities.

    Lan Yixing, for example, was able to control his muscles to a mind bending extent when he attained Jie. These were biologically impossible feats. Besides, his senses were greatly heightened.

    All these special features in Jie experts were absent in Ye Chong right now. Ye Chong believed that he must be even stronger than Lan Yixing now, but he still had not attained Jie. However, the chip had said that only a Jie expert can defeat another Jie expert.

    "It looks like I¡¯m a weirdo, after all," Ye Chong thought wryly to himself. Fortunately, he did not mind about attaining Jie or not. To him, strength was his priority. If he could defeat a Jie expert, then it did not matter if he was not a Jie expert anyway.

    The Sang Family¡¯s battle techniques had influenced Ye Chong a lot. Now, Ye Chong¡¯sbat style had changed drastically. He hadbined the essences ofbat from the September Lan family, ck Cove and the Sang family, such that his techniques could be considered an entirely different style altogether.

    Bare handedbat was not that important to Ye Chong, not like mechbat. However, he still could not find an energy recement so far. Ye Chong dared not withdraw Han Jia to train, since the remaining energy must be conserved in cases of emergency.

    After venting out his frustration, Ye Chong felt a lot better. He was about to return to hisboratory when he saw someone running to him. Ye Chong squinted, and saw that it was Sang Pu.

    Sang Pu was quick. He was by the boundary of the strong gravity region in the blink of an eye, and easily crossed the boundary without stopping.

    Seeing Sang Pu in a rush, Ye Chong guessed that he must be here for him.

    As expected, when Sang Pu saw Ye Chong, he began urgently, "Sir, pleasee quick."

 Chapter 272 - Nonlinear Cobalite

    <h4>Chapter 272: Nonlinear Cobalite</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong followed Sang Pu to thevagold mining site. The mining site was crowded, all of them strong, young men. Ye Chong imagined that almost all of the much stronger vigers must have been dispatched here. Beside the mining site was a small hill ofvagold ore, still covered in mud and not yet transported into the vige.

    The mining site was now a secured site for the Sang Family Vige. To prevent wild animal attacks, almost all the vigers were sent here to sweep the area. A security ring was also formed around the perimeter of the mining site, showing just how much the vigers cared about this mining site.

    "Sir, this way please." Sang Pu led Ye Chong to one of the dugout holes of thevagold mining site.

    This mining site was now muchrger and deeper than when Ye Chong first inspected the area. He could smell the wet earth, hear the metallic ngs from the mining work further away. The vigers did not stop working because of his arrival. They were using very primitive tools, mostly made of everthorn wood. While everthorn was not as resilient as bitterwood, it was much tougher and, considering theck of other metal instruments, a good choice of material.

    Ye Chong approached the mining dugout, and the vige miners quickly made way for him.

    The dugout was quite deep, and at the bottom was smoke-gray soil. This was odd. Ye Chong remembered clearly that the soil was brown when they first started mining. He had never seen gray soil like this before, and it was quite strange.

    Ye Chong said nothing as he leaped straight into the dugout.

    He bent down and dug up a handful of the gray soil. It felt heavy and tightly packed.

    "We came up to thisyer of gray earth today. Theyer is too hard. We only managed to dig slightly deeper after a whole afternoon, so I thought you should see it, sir." Sang Pu exined. Ye Chong did not expect there to be such ayer of hard gray soil deep under, mixed in with thevahold ore. The grayyer was extremely hard. Metal instruments might make work easier, but the vigers only had everthorn wood instruments, which made progress harder and much slower. Besides, the everthorn instruments were already quite worn out, slowing their progress even further.

    Ye Chong did not seem to hear Sang Pu, his eyes staring straight at the soil beneath. Ye Chong almost choked himself! He did not hear a word from Sang Pu, his eyespletely focused on the thumb-sized gray crystals mixed together with the gray soil.

    He carefully picked out one of the gray crystals and put it on his palm, studying it closely.

    It was nonlinear cobalite! He recognized it immediately, and was positively overjoyed by the discovery. This was one of the materials he had been searching for. Nonlinear cobalite was an important material to harvest energy from teardrop mineralite. With this mineral, the teardrop mineralite would be more than just a decoration. A teardrop mineralite powered mech or warship was truly terrifying - that was the conclusion that Ye Chong, Mu and Shang had arrived at after detailed calctions!

    However, Ye Chong¡¯s mood quickly dampened. While he was indeed searching for nonlinear cobalite, this was not what he needed the most right now. Ye Chong smiled wryly as he casually picked out a few of them. He had only three teardrop mineralites; they would not need so much nonlinear cobalite. Just as he was about to leave, Ye Chong suddenly had an epiphany.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong stood up, his eyes widened.

    He pulled Sang Pu to him and gave a few instructions before running back to the vige. Sang Pu was worried that Ye Chong mighte across any danger, and so ordered a few men to follow him back.

    Sang Pu watched helplessly at Ye Chong¡¯s quickly disappearing figure. The problem before him was still unsolved. It seemed that it was up to him in the end.

    Ye Chong ran like the wind, and finally arrived at hisboratory. The helpers stared at his rushed entrance. To them, the man was always calm and collected, to an eerie degree. Many times they wondered if he would have any other expression on his face.

    Ye Chong ignored them and went straight to his workbench.

    Night fell.

    Sang Fan was the secondst person to leave theb, leaving Ye Chong alone. As he left, he quietly closed theboratory door behind him with deference. Ye Chong waspletely engrossed in his experiment, and did not notice Sang Fan¡¯s exit.

    As he stepped outside theb, Sang Fan finally felt fatigue overtaking him. The intense work every day left him sleepy by the end of the day. It was dark outside, and aside from the patrols, everyone in the vige had slept. During the day, everyone worked long and hard. All the vigers knew that the Sang family was undergoing a transformation, one they had waited for centuries. There was no need for further motivation. Everyone did their part earnestly.

    A breeze swept by. The Sang Family Vige was like a youth, full of hope for the future as it fell silent at night. Sang Fan finally reached home, and went to bed straight away.

    Boom!

    There was a loud explosion. The violent explosion woke up the entire vige. People began to run towards the explosion site. They were the vige¡¯s elites, and responded the fastest, running out without even taking off their sleeping gowns. Soon, the entire Sang Family Vige came alive, as the vigers lighted up their homes.

    All the vigers were shocked. They had never heard such a loud sound before. With their primitive ways, there was never an explosion to begin with. However, none of the vigers showed fear.

    Soon, they found the source of the explosion. It was Ye Chong¡¯sboratory!

    The vigers got worried. The man was very important to them, the only hope for their future.

    Thick, white smoke wasing from theboratory. The smoke was so thick, it looked solid. Was theb on fire? Old Sang De was startled. He ran towards theb, ahead of everyone else despite his age, and shouted, "Pu, put out the fire!"

    Sang Pu acknowledged, his expression unchanged, but his eyes betrayed his emotions. He waved, and the vigers around him began to fetch water containers.

    Before he reached theb, Old Sang De ordered, "Cheng, go have a look."

    A dark and athletic man beside Old Sang De acknowledged, and made to run into the smoke.

    Just then, out came a man from the white smoke. It was night time, but all the vigers knew it was Ye Chong.

    Seeing Ye Chong unharmed, Old Sang De was overjoyed. "You alright, sir?"

    Ye Chong waved slightly and said, "I¡¯m fine." He was a sorry figure, his clothing covered with holes, with some ces burnt into crisps. His hair was all ruffled like a bird¡¯s nest, and his face was covered with soot.

    The vigers were curious. Just what experiment was he up to, to lead to such a violent ending?

    Ye Chong may look pitiful, but his eyes were shining with a rare glint of joy.

    He had a breakthrough! He had finally found the solution! He could now harvest the energy from the mildstone. The discovery of the nonlinear cobalite had urged him to consider, if the mineral could be used to harvest energy from teardrop mineralite, could it also be used for the mildstone?

    Ye Chong had returned to theb and began experimenting immediately. His suspicion proved to be true! He had finally found the key to the mildstone problem, but the explosion had urred since he could not control the energy release well. Fortunately, Ye Chong reacted in that split second and avoided the explosion. Even so, he was stillpletely covered in soot.

    It was only an ident, with no casualties. However, when vigers entered theb, seeing the mess inside, they found that the solid rock workbench was reduced to rubble, and gasped in surprise! What powerful destruction! Their first impression of this unknown power was mysteriousness and invincibility. They also associated this impression with the man who created this power. Ye Chong could see the vigers looking at him with reverence.

    Ye Chong was relieved to find that the photon processor was safely sitting in its corner. This was his most advanced "weapon". Ye Chong¡¯s helpers had arrived, and were shocked to see the state of theb. However, they took a nce at Ye Chong and realized immediately that it was his handiwork, and so began to clean up theb.

    In theing days, Ye Chong stopped his training routine and worked on the mildstone. Now that he found the key, research progressed smoothly. Sang Fan and others did not know what Ye Chong was doing with the mildstone everyday, but they knew that the tasks assigned to them were important. They must analyze all the native nts and ores, and record the results in the photon processor to build aplete database. While they did not understand the bigger picture that their tasks were leading towards, they still continued to work earnestly, including the elderly Sang Rubei.

    The way Ye Chong was, it would only be weirder if he exined his intentions to them.

    Every member of the Sang Family Vige were put to use, and the military discipline had raised their efficiency. When Ye Chong was done with the most important experiment and left theb, he was surprised to find that everyone was already equipped with a metal weapon. They were all jubnt and excited, and the atmosphere was a cheerful one. Not only that, even the tools in the women¡¯s hands were made ofvagold.

    With the exception of Ye Chong, no one knew what an uproar their primitive and simplevagold tools would cause if they ever made their way to the Five Gxies!

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression did not change, but he was moved inside. All of a sudden, he recalled the times when he dug out some useful treasure out of the trash mountains on the trash. Back then, he would be so happy and excited from his findings, but as he learned more and more, these treasures became fewer and fewer. Given that he had seen even the rare minerals like the Do Kun stone and the teardrop mineralite, there were not many things left that he could be excited about.

    "Sir, the database is aboutplete!" Sang Fan came to Ye Chong¡¯s side and reported.

    Ye Chong was surprised. "So soon?" He had expected the work to be dry and time-consuming.

    Sang Fan exined, "Grandpa Bei joined us, so we finished faster than expected." Ye Chong realized then. Sang Fan stood at attention, hands at his sides, looking like apletely different person. He was now more mature, only his eyes would sometimes betray his once youthful liveliness.

    In theory, he had already found a workable solution. The main experiments werepleted, and it was time to build the final product. If the engines worked, then he would be able to build flying machines. He would then be one step closer towards saving Mu and Shang.

    "How are they doing now?" Ye Chong wondered to himself, and was for a brief moment, lost in thought.

    Sang Fan looked strangely at Ye Chong. Mncholy looked odd on the face of a man who was usually cold and expressionless. "Sir must have his own stories to tell," Sang Fan thought to himself. The world outside must definitely be more interesting than here.

    "Where can I find wild animals nearby?" Ye Chong asked abruptly.

    Sang Fan broke off his thoughts and answered reflexively, "Turn left from the vige exit, and go past two hills. There are plenty there."

    "Let¡¯s go. Lead the way," Ye Chong spoke crisply.

    "Oh, alright," Sang Fan answered almost instinctively. He took a step forward, but quickly realized his own confusion. "Why do you want the animals, sir?" He groaned inwardly. Wild animals were always the Sang family¡¯s greatest enemy. In the past five centuries, all members of the Sang family had fought against the beasts. Even though they were all equipped with metal weapons now, it was still not enough to give them a definite advantage.

    The man might not know of the ferocity of the wild animals on Archipgo, but Sang Fan would, having grown up here himself. He decided to advise the man against meddling with the animals. However, he was not sure if he would seed. If the man was determined, then he would have to ask the vige head to assign him with guards.

    "I need skeletal material," Ye Chong answered sinctly.

    "Skeletal material? You mean animal bones?" Sang Fan asked, curious. It was the first time he heard of the bones being referred to this way.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Yes."

    Sang Fan heaved a sigh of relief, and his expression rxed. "I see, I know just the ce!¡¯

 Chapter 273 - Destiny Engine, Simplified

    <h4>Chapter 273: Destiny Engine, Simplified</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong followed Sang Fan. They did not leave the vige, but headed towards the back instead. Ye Chong had never been here before. His days in the vige had been spent on research almost every day, and he had never bothered to study the area. If this was in the past, Ye Chong would see it as a fatal mistake.

    Unlike in the Five Gxies, Ye Chong saw no one idling. All the vigers walked around purposefully.

    Sang Fan pointed to a cavern in the mountain ahead and introduced to him, "Right in front is where the bone dumping site is, there¡¯s plenty of bones there. Maybe they¡¯ll suit your purpose, sir?"

    The cavern entrance was notrge, probably allowing only two of three mechs to enter side by side. However, for Sang Fan and Ye Chong, it was wide enough.

    Once he entered the cavern, Ye Chong stared in shock!

    There were mountains of them! Here were truly mountains of skeletons. They reminded Ye Chong of the trash mountains on the trash, only now they were mountains of bones.

    Sang Fan exined, "The animals we hunted, we eat their meat and take their hide, but the bones are useless. They¡¯re too many of them, though, and it¡¯s not good to just throw them anywhere we wished, so we chose a ce to dump them. Usually, no onees here, except for the youngsters."

    Ye Chong recovered himself by then, and asked, "What for?"

    "The bones are strong, and sometimes colorful, making good andsting ornaments or jewelry. It¡¯s been long since people used them to make love tokens, and it has since be tradition. We call them skeleton love tokens. Every young person, man or woman, has to learn how to make them to propose for marriage. The skeleton love token must be made by hand, or it¡¯ll not be convincing." Sang Fan quickly added, "Making skeleton love tokens is tough work, relying only on water to shape the bones. The stronger the skeleton used, the better. We didn¡¯t havevagold before, so we¡¯d use rocks to shape the skeletons. Aplicated design could take months, and the chances of sess in your first try is very low. So, generally speaking, if you don¡¯t really love your partner, you wouldn¡¯t even try making this skeleton love token."

    As Ye Chong listened to Sang Fan, he could almost hear Shang sighing in his head, "These days, no matter where you are, girls are so hard to get!"

    Ye Chong suddenly turned to Sang Fan and asked, "Have you ever tried making one?"

    Sang Fan immediately blushed, and answered awkwardly, "Ye - Yes."

    Ye Chong was amused by his reaction, and asked again, "For whom?"

    Sang Fan blushed into an even darker red, and replied very quietly, "Sang Ling."

    Ah, no wonder Sang Ling had looked at him apprehensively that time when Sang Fan was injured. She was probably mad that he did not interfere earlier. They were actually a pair. Ye Chong was no longer as obtuse in these matters as he was before.

    However, understanding their rtionship did not mean approving her reaction. Everyone had their preferred style of doing things. Given the chance, Ye Chong would not change what he did back then.

    Ye Chong looked back at the mountains of skeletons, his eyes that were usually calm as ice were now burning fervently. There was probably no skeleton artisan who could stay looking at so many skeletons. Ye Chong certainly could not.

    What excited him was not the volume, but the quality of these skeletons. Ye Chong had seen plenty of skeletons himself, and he tell just by looking the properties of these skeletons. Here, in the mountains of skeletons, their quality was enough to blow his mind!

    Heavens! What was this ce? Ye Chong felt like sighing out loud. There wasvagold, then nonlinear cobalite, and other rare ores. Even the skeletons were all top ss. It seemed like the Heavens was trying topensate for the Sang family¡¯s suffering by offering these rarities during their long centuries of suffering.

    With strong gravity, skeletons of the native animals were denser than normal, and that was why they had excellent quality. Ye Chong realized this some timeter.

    After selecting a few suitable skeletons, Ye Chong and Sang Fan returned to theboratory. Sang Fan was vexed. What would the man need skeletons for? Could it be to make a skeleton love token? The thought was rejected immediately. With his cold temperance, how would he? Besides, based on the size of the skeletons, it seemed even more unlikely.

    Back in theb, Ye Chong first built a few odd-looking tools, all made fromvagold.

    What he did next left Sang Fan and the rest of his helpers stunned.

    Ye Chong used his handmade tools and began to work on the skeletons. The skeletons began to take on different shapes as Ye Chong worked, all looking odd and unusual. The helpers discussed among themselves, trying to guess what he was up to, but to no avail. However, they all agreed on one thing, which was that he was not making any jewelry at all.

    Even so, the man¡¯s craftsmanship was enough to make them jealous. The skeletons may look odd after shaping, but they were all intricate and well crafted. They were so interesting that even the vige head stopped to have a good look at the iplete projectponents when he was visiting. If someone had the master¡¯s skills, the skeleton love token he made would definitely ¡­

    The youngsters who had not made their own skeleton love tokens decided then that, when the man was finished with his project, they would ask for him to teach them how to carve skeletons. With this skill, the skeleton love tokens they make would be lovely, and the perfect gift to win the hearts of their love interests. For now, however, they dared not interrupt Ye Chong. They waited, interested and expectant of the project that he was working on.

    With Ye Chong himself doing the actual work, his impable skills were fully disyed. The young men all watched with great reverence and respect.

    Ye Chong finally stopped working. Before him were all the skeletal parts he had made, neatly arranged on the workbench.

    The moment everyone was waiting for had finally arrived. Knowing that Ye Chong wouldplete his project today, even the usually indifferent vige head, Old Sang De came to have a look himself. Together with him were Sang Pu, Sang Ling and the others. They all watched Ye Chong quietly from the side.

    Ye Chong had gone through the designs at least a dozen times, and he checked the skeleton parts until he was finally satisfied. He breathed in deeply a few times, his expression solemn, and began to put the parts together. He picked up the parts quickly, and assembled them easily and urately. He moved confidently with a sense of familiarity, as though he had practiced more than a few times, in a stunning rhythm of motion.

    Everyone in theb was surprised to no end. They did not know what Ye Chong as up to, but that did not stop them from appreciating the significance of this assembling work. Ye Chong¡¯s hands moved gracefully like a magician¡¯s, the natural flow touching the hearts of his audience. He was like the perfect image of proficiency and uracy.

    Everyone watched Ye Chong¡¯s hands as they moved here and there on the workbench. In the silent room, one could only hear the soft clink of skeleton parts being fitted together. No one blinked. They were all curious - what was the wless final product that would be born from his pair of hands?

    Ding! The final part was assembled in ce. Ye Chong looked at his work, satisfied. Considering theck of more precise instruments, he was at least satisfied with this level of work. While he was already aware of it, the toughness of the skeletons still surprised him. He had worn out at least a fewvagold tools.

    Unlike Ye Chong, the other people in the room seemed disappointed. That was because the final product looked terrible. It was made up of skeletons in various colors, shaped like a huge egg. With the exception of a few see-through holes, the surface of the egg was dull and uninteresting.

    "Sir, what is this?" Sang Fan voiced out the question in everyone¡¯s mind.

    "Engine," Ye Chong sinctly.

    Confusion showed on everyone¡¯s face. The term was too unfamiliar to them.

    "It¡¯s the core of a mech," said Ye Chong.

    His audience realized then. All their confusion was thrown out the window, reced with great respect. To them, mechs had always represented power, a most formidable and mysterious power! One of the helpers who had wanted to touch the engine quickly pulled his hand back.

    Could it be, that the man wanted to build a mech? Some of the smarter ones realized this. If that was the case, then ¡­

    Their faces lit up with uncontained joy.

    Ye Chong ignored them, however, deep in his own thoughts. The engine was designed based on the Destiny engine model. It was powered by the mildstone, which he recently had a breakthrough with.

    Now, it was time for the final test.

    Ye Chong opened a p, and slipped in a square mildstone that he had shaped earlier into an indentation inside the engine. He closed the p and pressed on the ignition button. The engine began to hiss on the workbench. The holes in the engine blew a steady airstream. Sang Fan and the rest stared in awe.

    The engine was running steadily.

    Ye Chong¡¯s face was calm as ever, but his hands were gripping tightly - sess!

 Chapter 274 - Sang Family Village - Battle for Survival I

    <h4>Chapter 274: Sang Family Vige - Battle for Survival I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    On the hilltop beside the vige stood Old Sang De and some other vigers. They did not look as assured as they usually were. Their faces were white as sheets. Even Ye Chong¡¯s expression showed a little worry.

    Far away, a ck horizon seemed to creep closer and closer towards them. They could all see it, clear as day.

    It was a stampede of wild animals, heading their way. It was a magnificent view, such that even Ye Chong, who did notck experience with grand situations, felt slightly chilled inside. The stampede was made up of all kinds of animals. However, they did not seem bothered with each other, running like their lives depended on it, as though something terrifying wasing after them from behind.

    Everything seemed tinypared to this animal stampede. Nothing could stand in its way.

    Rumble! Rumble!

    The earth shook. The stampede was loud. No one could remain calm against this adversary.

    Ye Chong was the first to recover from his initial shock. He turned to the pale vige head, Old Sang De and asked, "What¡¯s happening?"

    Old Sang De did not seem like himself, only muttering incoherently, "How could this be ¡­ How could this be ¡­"

    Everyone was panicking. Ye Chong could only turn back to look at the stampede as he waited for them to calm down. The stampede was still some distance away. Besides, judging from the direction of movement, the animals would probably pass by the ins in front of the Sang Family Vige.

    As everyone stood around in shock, Ye Chong sat in a corner as he waited for them to calm down in order to find out what was happening. He could see from their looks that they knew what was happening, but were strongly affected by it.

    Ye Chong did not panic, nor did he get too excited. He watched calmly like a third party observer. The ground beneath him shook, and the rumbling sound came like thunder from afar. Ye Chong watched calmly at the animals running for their lives.

    ¡®"What¡¯s happening?" After a while, Ye Chong asked calmly, pointing towards the stampede. He had heard Old Sang De¡¯s breathing bing calmer.

    Old Sang De answered with a trembling voice, "It¡¯s the beast stampede ¡­ The beast stampede ¡­ 10 years ¡­ There should be 10 more years ¡­" Old Sang De spoke hopelessly.

    Beast stampede? Ye Chong did not understand.

    Old Sang De vented his frustration for a while before finally calming down, and began to exin to Ye Chong about the beast stampede.

    The beast stampede happens once every 200 years. These wild animals were herded. Archipgo¡¯s beast stampede was caused by the migration of a particr species of bird. The steelbat was a bird species that lived in the deepest parts of the Archipgo, and the real king of this world. Their sharp ws and steely beaks and legs could break through the defenses of a scalex, king of thend animals. With the exception of the animals that lived underwater, the steelbats were the nemesis of all other beasts. This supremacy was a result of their ability to fly.

    The most terrifying thing about the steelbats was that they alwayse in swarms, in the hundreds and thousands.

    The beast stampede was caused by these steelbats. Every 200 years, the steelbats would migrate. They could group together and fly towards the other side of the Archipgo. Steelbats liked to kill during their migration. Any animals in their way would be killed. With the advantage of flight, they were an uncontroble killing wave. Hence, about three months before the migration began, the sensitive animals would run desperately to save themselves, hence causing the beast stampede.

    Ye Chong was speechless. He never imagined that an animal could be so terrifying. However, he quickly epted the fact. It was logical that the flying steelbats had the definite upper hand. Besides, with their offensive ws and beaks, it was no wonder that they were at the top of the food chain.

    Old Sang De felt hopeless. "I didn¡¯t think that the beast stampede this time would happen 10 years earlier. It looks like we¡¯ll have to move with the beasts. But we¡¯re not prepared this time, we¡¯re not ¡­" Everyone looked grim. Arge scale migration was not so easy to achieve. No one knew whaty ahead. Without preparation, a long distance migration like this would be disastrous for the vigers.

    "We¡¯re migrating too?" Ye Chong asked abruptly.

    Old Sang De replied helplessly, "Or what? The steelbats alwayse in huge waves. ording to our ancestors, whenever the steelbatse, they would cover the skies. The migration would take an entire month. No one wants to leave here. We don¡¯t even know what¡¯s ahead of our journey. However, we¡¯re defenseless against the steelbats." Old Sang De looked pathetic, and the people around him also wore saddened expressions.

    "The beast stampede happens three months before the steelbats migrate, right?" Ye Chong asked suddenly.

    "Yes," Old Sang De answered carelessly.

    "Three months ¡­" Ye Chong muttered as he made a quick estimation. If they migrate now, no one knew when they would reach safety. His n to safe Mu and Shang would also be ruined.

    "Those d*mned steelbats!" Ye Chong cursed inwardly at the species that he had never even met before.

    ording to Old Sang De, the steelbats were very formidable. However, Ye Chong believed that no matter how powerful animals were, they were still animals, and could neverpete against humans. If they had mechs, they would never be so afraid of the steelbats! In the Five Gxies, there were even adventurers who specialized in hunting mutants.

    "Mechs!" Ye Chong realized then. "That¡¯s right, mechs!"

    Ye Chong did a quick calction in his mind, and made his decision.

    Ye Chong asked Old Sang De, "The migration this time, how many do you think will survive it?"

    The question was the centre of Old Sang De¡¯s worries. He replied in a frail voice, "If we¡¯re lucky, maybe a third of us. The mayaberries still need another two months to ripen. We don¡¯t have enough food." However, he quickly gathered himself and said, "Don¡¯t worry, sir, we will ensure your safety. Once we reach our new home, you¡¯ll be able to help us thrive again, sir." Old Sang De looked to Ye Chong sincerely.

    "I have a n," Ye Chong said inly, looking straight back at Old Sang De.

    The atmosphere in the Sang Family Vige was hectic. Everyone busied themselves with their tasks.

    At the bone dumping site, the vigers made a long line, with Sang Ling and Sang Fan at the entrance to organize them. Every viger received some skeletons from Sang Fan, and an animal hide with a picture drawn on it from Sang Ling.

    Sang Fan raised his voice and said, "Everyone listen up, once you get your skeletons, carve them based on the drawings that Sang Ling pass to you. You must have received the tools from our good sir. You¡¯ve all made skeleton love tokens before, so this will not be hard. However, remember, you must follow the drawings exactly when you carve. Once you¡¯re done, pass the skeletons to me for inspection. If you ruined your skeletons,e here and find another one yourself. I believe you all know what¡¯s happening now. Yesterday, the beast stampede had begun. Right now, what we¡¯re doing is for the protection of the Sang Family Vige. Everyone, please work as fast as you can. Our survival depends on it. The more skeletons you carve, the better our chances to survive this. Understand?"

    "Understood!" The vigers promised in reply.

    The 300 most skillful carvers of the vige were gathered together. They worked like students, silently and intently. Leading them was the second most influential person in the vige, the healer Sang Rubei.

    The short, old man looked solemn. He spoke lowly, "Your tasks are key to our n. The drawing you see before you is your carving objective. Everyone is assigned with only one kind of part. From today onwards, your job is to carve, and only carve. Food will be sent to you. All you need to do is carve and carve. The fate of the vige lies in your hands. Let¡¯s work hard!"

    "Yes." The reply came not too loudly, but in perfect sync.

    All the women and children were assigned with other tasks by the vige head. "Those in charge of the mayaberries, your tasks remain unchanged. We are two months from harvesting, do not ck in your duties. The vige depends on you."

    A middle aged woman answered for the rest, "Don¡¯t feel sorry, Vige Head, we¡¯ll be diligent."

    Old Sang De nodded, satisfied. He then turned to the younger people around him and said, "Children, it¡¯s time for you to contribute to the vige, are you afraid to work hard?"

    "No!" The innocent, young voices replied in waves, but there was the unmistakable quality of youthful vigor.

    "Alright, you¡¯re all good children!" Old Sang De look at them warmly, patting one of them on the head in gratefulness. "Now this grandfather here has a mission for you. You see those mildstones? You¡¯ll each get a boxter. All you have to do is to shape them such that they could fit inside the box. Remember, they must fit exactly."

    "Okay," the children answered with determination.

 Chapter 275 - Sang Family Village - Battle for Survival I

    <h4>Chapter 275: Sang Family Vige - Battle for Survival I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    On the hilltop beside the vige stood Old Sang De and some other vigers. They did not look as assured as they usually were. Their faces were white as sheets. Even Ye Chong¡¯s expression showed a little worry.

    Far away, a ck horizon seemed to creep closer and closer towards them. They could all see it, clear as day.

    It was a stampede of wild animals, heading their way. It was a magnificent view, such that even Ye Chong, who did notck experience with grand situations, felt slightly chilled inside. The stampede was made up of all kinds of animals. However, they did not seem bothered with each other, running like their lives depended on it, as though something terrifying wasing after them from behind.

    Everything seemed tinypared to this animal stampede. Nothing could stand in its way.

    Rumble! Rumble!

    The earth shook. The stampede was loud. No one could remain calm against this adversary.

    Ye Chong was the first to recover from his initial shock. He turned to the pale vige head, Old Sang De and asked, "What¡¯s happening?"

    Old Sang De did not seem like himself, only muttering incoherently, "How could this be ¡­ How could this be ¡­"

    Everyone was panicking. Ye Chong could only turn back to look at the stampede as he waited for them to calm down. The stampede was still some distance away. Besides, judging from the direction of movement, the animals would probably pass by the ins in front of the Sang Family Vige.

    As everyone stood around in shock, Ye Chong sat in a corner as he waited for them to calm down in order to find out what was happening. He could see from their looks that they knew what was happening, but were strongly affected by it.

    Ye Chong did not panic, nor did he get too excited. He watched calmly like a third party observer. The ground beneath him shook, and the rumbling sound came like thunder from afar. Ye Chong watched calmly at the animals running for their lives.

    ¡®"What¡¯s happening?" After a while, Ye Chong asked calmly, pointing towards the stampede. He had heard Old Sang De¡¯s breathing bing calmer.

    Old Sang De answered with a trembling voice, "It¡¯s the beast stampede ¡­ The beast stampede ¡­ 10 years ¡­ There should be 10 more years ¡­" Old Sang De spoke hopelessly.

    Beast stampede? Ye Chong did not understand.

    Old Sang De vented his frustration for a while before finally calming down, and began to exin to Ye Chong about the beast stampede.

    The beast stampede happens once every 200 years. These wild animals were herded. Archipgo¡¯s beast stampede was caused by the migration of a particr species of bird. The steelbat was a bird species that lived in the deepest parts of the Archipgo, and the real king of this world. Their sharp ws and steely beaks and legs could break through the defenses of a scalex, king of thend animals. With the exception of the animals that lived underwater, the steelbats were the nemesis of all other beasts. This supremacy was a result of their ability to fly.

    The most terrifying thing about the steelbats was that they alwayse in swarms, in the hundreds and thousands.

    The beast stampede was caused by these steelbats. Every 200 years, the steelbats would migrate. They could group together and fly towards the other side of the Archipgo. Steelbats liked to kill during their migration. Any animals in their way would be killed. With the advantage of flight, they were an uncontroble killing wave. Hence, about three months before the migration began, the sensitive animals would run desperately to save themselves, hence causing the beast stampede.

    Ye Chong was speechless. He never imagined that an animal could be so terrifying. However, he quickly epted the fact. It was logical that the flying steelbats had the definite upper hand. Besides, with their offensive ws and beaks, it was no wonder that they were at the top of the food chain.

    Old Sang De felt hopeless. "I didn¡¯t think that the beast stampede this time would happen 10 years earlier. It looks like we¡¯ll have to move with the beasts. But we¡¯re not prepared this time, we¡¯re not ¡­" Everyone looked grim. Arge scale migration was not so easy to achieve. No one knew whaty ahead. Without preparation, a long distance migration like this would be disastrous for the vigers.

    "We¡¯re migrating too?" Ye Chong asked abruptly.

    Old Sang De replied helplessly, "Or what? The steelbats alwayse in huge waves. ording to our ancestors, whenever the steelbatse, they would cover the skies. The migration would take an entire month. No one wants to leave here. We don¡¯t even know what¡¯s ahead of our journey. However, we¡¯re defenseless against the steelbats." Old Sang De looked pathetic, and the people around him also wore saddened expressions.

    "The beast stampede happens three months before the steelbats migrate, right?" Ye Chong asked suddenly.

    "Yes," Old Sang De answered carelessly.

    "Three months ¡­" Ye Chong muttered as he made a quick estimation. If they migrate now, no one knew when they would reach safety. His n to safe Mu and Shang would also be ruined.

    "Those d*mned steelbats!" Ye Chong cursed inwardly at the species that he had never even met before.

    ording to Old Sang De, the steelbats were very formidable. However, Ye Chong believed that no matter how powerful animals were, they were still animals, and could neverpete against humans. If they had mechs, they would never be so afraid of the steelbats! In the Five Gxies, there were even adventurers who specialized in hunting mutants.

    "Mechs!" Ye Chong realized then. "That¡¯s right, mechs!"

    Ye Chong did a quick calction in his mind, and made his decision.

    Ye Chong asked Old Sang De, "The migration this time, how many do you think will survive it?"

    The question was the centre of Old Sang De¡¯s worries. He replied in a frail voice, "If we¡¯re lucky, maybe a third of us. The mayaberries still need another two months to ripen. We don¡¯t have enough food." However, he quickly gathered himself and said, "Don¡¯t worry, sir, we will ensure your safety. Once we reach our new home, you¡¯ll be able to help us thrive again, sir." Old Sang De looked to Ye Chong sincerely.

    "I have a n," Ye Chong said inly, looking straight back at Old Sang De.

    The atmosphere in the Sang Family Vige was hectic. Everyone busied themselves with their tasks.

    At the bone dumping site, the vigers made a long line, with Sang Ling and Sang Fan at the entrance to organize them. Every viger received some skeletons from Sang Fan, and an animal hide with a picture drawn on it from Sang Ling.

    Sang Fan raised his voice and said, "Everyone listen up, once you get your skeletons, carve them based on the drawings that Sang Ling pass to you. You must have received the tools from our good sir. You¡¯ve all made skeleton love tokens before, so this will not be hard. However, remember, you must follow the drawings exactly when you carve. Once you¡¯re done, pass the skeletons to me for inspection. If you ruined your skeletons,e here and find another one yourself. I believe you all know what¡¯s happening now. Yesterday, the beast stampede had begun. Right now, what we¡¯re doing is for the protection of the Sang Family Vige. Everyone, please work as fast as you can. Our survival depends on it. The more skeletons you carve, the better our chances to survive this. Understand?"

    "Understood!" The vigers promised in reply.

    The 300 most skillful carvers of the vige were gathered together. They worked like students, silently and intently. Leading them was the second most influential person in the vige, the healer Sang Rubei.

    The short, old man looked solemn. He spoke lowly, "Your tasks are key to our n. The drawing you see before you is your carving objective. Everyone is assigned with only one kind of part. From today onwards, your job is to carve, and only carve. Food will be sent to you. All you need to do is carve and carve. The fate of the vige lies in your hands. Let¡¯s work hard!"

    "Yes." The reply came not too loudly, but in perfect sync.

    All the women and children were assigned with other tasks by the vige head. "Those in charge of the mayaberries, your tasks remain unchanged. We are two months from harvesting, do not ck in your duties. The vige depends on you."

    A middle aged woman answered for the rest, "Don¡¯t feel sorry, Vige Head, we¡¯ll be diligent."

    Old Sang De nodded, satisfied. He then turned to the younger people around him and said, "Children, it¡¯s time for you to contribute to the vige, are you afraid to work hard?"

    "No!" The innocent, young voices replied in waves, but there was the unmistakable quality of youthful vigor.

    "Alright, you¡¯re all good children!" Old Sang De look at them warmly, patting one of them on the head in gratefulness. "Now this grandfather here has a mission for you. You see those mildstones? You¡¯ll each get a boxter. All you have to do is to shape them such that they could fit inside the box. Remember, they must fit exactly."

    "Okay," the children answered with determination.

 Chapter 276 - Sang Family Village - Battle for Survival II

    <h4>Chapter 276: Sang Family Vige - Battle for Survival II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong stood in front of the battalion, lead by Sang Pu. This 500-strong battalion consisted of the Sang Family Vige¡¯s strongest. They were all the cream of the crop. All thevagold mined by the Sang Family Vige had been used up by Ye Chong, converted into thevagold swords and pikes in their hands. The pikes, madepletely ofvagold, looked the same as their bitterwood counterparts. The vige head, Sang De was deeply reluctant to use such arge amount ofvagold.

    500 vigers stood silently at attention, looking capable and deadly. Ye Chong nodded, satisfied. For someone like him, who had a long history of fighting for his life, he knew that the aura emanating from this battalion could only be the result of a long history of war and killing. Only true veterans would have this aura. Even the strongest mech pilots from the Five Gxies or the Four Forces would not be like this. It had been too long since theirst war!

    The vigers here had battled against the wild beasts that were even stronger than mutants every day, due to their primitive technology. Training began since they were young, and they had grown up fighting for their lives. From this, warriors were born. Ye Chong believed that no other soldiers would be so determined as the vigers here were when it came to war.

    Ye Chong spoke slowly with a solemn and steely voice, "Our objective is to hunt. 10 days. We only have 10 days left." There was no need for more boration with this battalion. He gave the order without further exnation. In 10 days, they should have their first batch of products.

    The tension was heavy enough to suffocate.

    "Pu, you¡¯re inmand."

    "Yes sir," Sang Pu bowed and took over. Ye Chong withdrew Han Jia, slipped into the pilot cabin and flew off.

    Sang Pu looked up at Han Jia in the air, for a moment, jealous of the mech. However, he quickly lowered his gaze to the battalion and waved. "Move out."

    The battalion divided into tens of toons, quickly moving out of the vige. The 500-strong battalion moved silently. Ye Chong feasted at the sight of the toons moving around each other, covering theirrades as they advanced.

    The animals outside the vige did not notice the Sang Family Vige. They were focused on only running. However, some of the wild beasts would still run into the valley in front of the Sang Family Vige. Ye Chong¡¯s targets were these animals. No one dared to meddle with therger stampede outside, or they would risk being run over by the massive stampede before the steelbats even arrived.

    Every toon was tasked to hunt one animal. They evaded attacks as they ambushed or lured their prey, or worked with other toons to hunt the animals down. The animals were quickly killed. Ye Chong was impressed with their efficiency. The vigers battle strategies were also quite the eye-opener.

    They reminded him of ck Cove and the Sanctuary.

    They fought at close range, like ck Cove mech pilots, but their cooperative strategies bore resemnce to the Sanctuary. However,pared to the Sanctuary, they had no mechs. The instinctive cooperation between the vigers was born out of actualbat experience, and definitely more superior. They were also more experienced and knowledgeable in terms of strategizing.

    Soon, the attacks became swifter and deadlier, as the vigers got used to their new weapons.

    Ye Chong grew excited as he watched the vigers fight. His fingers moved, and Han Jia swoop down to attack.

    The vigers looked up the God-like Han Jia with reverence. What the mech did next impressed even the most elite of the vigers. Was this the true power of a mech?

    Han Jia¡¯s two one-and-a-half-meter gray daggers were sharp. No animal would be able to stop them. The mech¡¯s lithe figure danced purposefully across the sky as the vigers watched in awe. Often, the mech would take down a few wild beasts at a time. The man was as dangerous as the rumors told. The daggers reflected a silvery gleam of death, fatal in its every attack. The animals were all cut or stabbed at vulnerable ces, such as the throat or the heart. The vigers shuddered as they watched, thinking, "Thank the Heavens that he¡¯s on our side."

    The vigers ignored the dead animals, and continued to find other living ones in the valley. The hunt was still on.

    Ten days passed. With Ye Chong joining in, and the new weapons they had, the operation was fruitful, yielding more than anyone had anticipated. When Sang Pu arranged for the vigers to move the first day¡¯s kills into the vige, the vigers were shocked to see the valley covered with animal bodies, some still warm. The valley was thick with the scent of blood.

    After the initial shock, everyone was overjoyed. To them, these dead animals were food. With so many animals, it wouldst them for quite a while.

    Ten days passed in the blink of an eye. The entire Sang Family Vige bustled with activity every day like clockwork. Everyone looked tired, with red puffy eyes, but no one gave up on their tasks to rest. Everyone was working hard for the fates of their own, their families, and the vige itself. They may notpletely understand their tasks, but no one questioned the importance of them, since the tasks came from the honored man himself.

    The vigers were hopeless when they first saw the beast stampede. Some even thought it was the end of the world. The honored man, strong and mysterious as he was, however, had brought them hope.

    Everyone respected the young man from the bottom of their hearts. The man led the hunting team during the day, and continued to work until thete night.

    After 10 days, the first batch of products were finished. Spread before Ye Chong was a bunch of parts, arranged based on their functionalities. Ye Chong¡¯s helpers listened to him as he exined.

    "This engine model is quite easy to assemble. See this, there¡¯s a V-shaped wedge here. And here ¡­" Ye Chong assembled the engine, part by part. Due to the circumstances, he had vastly simplified this Destiny engine model.

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s n - through the enormous amount of animal skeletons and avable manpower, they would mass produce the simplest full-skeleton mechs and prepare for a battle to protect the Sang Family Vige.

    The enviable resources here had allowed Ye Chong to even consider this n. The skeletons were dense and tough, with excellent properties. Ye Chong did not even need to chemically process them. All vigers of age here have had some experience in skeleton carving, and that provided enough manpower to carve the skeleton parts. With skeletons umted over centuries in the dumping site, Ye Chong did not need to hunt more animals for raw material.

    More importantly, if they could not survive this trial, he would not be able to rescue Mu and Shang in the Red Sea. Ye Chong could only try his best toe up with a solution.

    The 10-day hunting spree, with Ye Chong¡¯s aid, had resulted in arge amount of meat avable for the vigers. The meat was processed and stored. The cave used to store food was almost filled up. With the mayaberries ripening in another two months, the food would be enough tost them for a long time. The 10-day hunt had depleted all of Han Jia¡¯s energy cells. However, Ye Chong did not worry about it. He knew that once the steelbats arrived, his mech would not make a significant difference in the final oue.

    When he first saw the storage cavern, Ye Chong had thought of excavating a cave for shelter. Later, Old Sang De had exined to him that the caves he saw in Archipgo were naturally formed. Digging was extremely difficult here. The earth was unusually solid, and it grew steadily harder the deeper one went. Excavating a cave enough to fit a hundred people would take a very long time, even with thevagold tools they had. Before this, they did not even consider it a possibility.

    After seeing the final assembled product, even Ye Chong was not confident of its capabilities.

    By Ye Chong¡¯s standard, this was not really a mech. Since there was no photon processor, Ye Chong could not build a conventional mech. He was actually inspired by racing mechs, the kind built for speed. From an aerodynamic point of view, the usual mech design was not suitable for high speeds.

    Ye Chong¡¯s design was based on simple principles. It must be easy to assemble, able to fly, and armed with some offensive capabilities.

    Based on these principles, Ye Chong came up with the current design.

    The mech¡¯s main body was shaped like a water droplet, with four sharp skeleton des iid on its surface, much like four leaves on a water droplet. At the tip of the water-droplet body, was a sharp skeleton spear. This spear was receable, and was firmly attached to the body.

    There were no photon circuits or the like in this thing. All the parts were connected through the most basic mechanical joints.

    While the thing could fly, in theory, Ye Chong doubted its reliability. He looked around him. It seemed that he was the only suitable candidate to test fly this vehicle.

    He opened the cabin door. Simple cabin pressurization was not a problem for Ye Chong. Ye Chong was quite satisfied with its hydraulic suspension system. Sang Fan had found a type of liquid by ident, that was quite suited for this purpose.

    "At least it¡¯s a kind of protection for the pilot," Ye Chong could only console himself so.

 Chapter 277 - Sang Family Village - Battle for Survival III

    <h4>Chapter 277: Sang Family Vige - Battle for Survival III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There was nomunication system, no photon processor, no holographic scanning system, no mechanical arm, no nothing. This was such a bare unit. If it was in the Five Gxies, Ye Chong would be too embarrassed to show it. Now though, he had no choice.

    Ye Chong sat in the pilot cabin, studying the primitive control levers, more than vexed. Was this really a control dashboard? What a joke! How can there be a dashboard without a photon processor?

    As the designer, Ye Chong was at least familiar with the control levers.

    He tried pulling the lever up, and the machine lifted off silently into the air. The Destiny engine was truly powerful, even in its simplified form. The engine was the part that Ye Chong was happiest with. The performance of a simplified Destiny engine powered by mildstone was much better than he anticipated.

    "Good Heavens, it can fly?"

    "Is this a mech?" Ye Chong¡¯s helpers all stared in wonder, discussing amongst themselves. They all looked very excited. Mechs were their biggest dreams. No one had thought that the good sir was actually building a mech!

    Swish! The mech flew off swiftly like an arrow.

    After the initial confusion, Ye Chong quickly got used to handling the control levers. He maneuvered the mech more confidently and easily. The empty sky allowed him to fly without worry.

    All in all, Ye Chong was quite satisfied with this flying machine.

    The machine¡¯s main strength was its wonderful speed. While he could not exactly measure it, Ye Chong estimated from his experience that it could reach around Mach 15 to Mach 20. This was within the atmosphere. If it was in outer space, Ye Chong believed that it could go even faster.

    Another advantage was its ability to change course. The machine was fitted with many auxiliary engines that allowed high motion flexibility in space.

    Collision - that was the name Ye Chong had in mind for this flying machine, even if it was not really a mech by any standards. It¡¯s main means of offense was the skeleton spear at its tip, and the attack method was by a collision with the enemy. Ye Chong had prepared two types of skeleton spears for the mech. One was the five-meter long spear fitted on his unit right now. At high speeds, its sharp tip could break through very thick barriers. Ye Chong believed that even Han Jia could be prated if it was hit. However, the spear broke easily, and was not suitable for prolongedbat.

    The other type of spear was only two meters long, with a thicker shaft, and looked more like a rounded stump. While it could not deal as much damage as the former type of spear, it was harder to break, and suitable to use repeatedly. With Collision¡¯s speed, Ye Chong believed that any mech would suffer a dent from the attack of this spear. It it was a mech with thinner armour, it might even be reduced to a wreckage.

    Aside from the spear, Collision also had its four sharply honed skeleton fins.

    It was obvious that Collision¡¯s power came from its excellent speed. Without it, the mech would be totally useless. If it was not for the current situation, no one would have built a machine so full of weaknesses. After all, with such a powerful engine, it could be fitted into an actual mech,plete with far superiorbat abilities, and not a simple machine like this.

    Ye Chong felt helpless in this situation. Given the resources avable, building a flying machine was already a huge sess. Collision¡¯s cabin was specially reinforced, since attack by collision was a typical self-damaging means of attack.

    Ye Chong did not have high hopes on Collision. As long as they can fight on even ground with the steelbats, he would be satisfied. It would be foolish to use the mech to battle against another mech. Collision was too fragile for that.

    Ye Chong never imagined that this third-grade flying machine that he built out of desperation, the primitive and backward Collision, would leave its deep mark in the uing battle, the legendary war that would be told for generations toe!

    If the Sang Family Vige was like a bonfire, then the birth of Collision was like feeding the rage of the fire.

    The good sir¡¯s following instructions further stoke their emotions to a higher point.

    He personally selected the 500 vigers whom Sang Pu had led into the hunting operation to be the first of them all to learn how to fly Collision. Everyone went crazy! They quickly worked on the skeleton parts, hoping to be the next ones to learn to fly Collision. Everyone realised that the dream they always had was now close within their grasps.

    The busiest vigers were Sang Fan and his team. If the 500 vigers were to all learn how to fly Collision, then there must be 500 Collision mechs ready for use. Sang Fan received permission from Ye Chong to expand his assembly team to speed up production. As the crew of skeleton carvers grew more familiar with their tasks, the parts began to arrive faster. Collision¡¯s production elerated every day.

    Ye Chong admired the Sang family vigers greatly. They were down-to-earth, hardworking, brave, and disciplined. They were excellent warriors in all respects.

    These qualities were apparent from the 500 vigers learning to fly Collision. None of them backed out. They did not fear death, onlyck of action. They improved so fast that even Ye Chong was surprised. It was as though they were all talented in flying Collisions. Their hands moved quickly, and they did not suffer any undesirable side effects from flying.

    However, Ye Chong quickly realised the reason for this. The vigers were allbat experts. Ye Chong was certain that even a Jie expert from the Five Gxies would have a hard time facing any of the vigers. The vigers were quick and sensitive, their numerous battles for survival strengthening their determination and mental fortitude. Those were the reasons for their swift improvement.

    If it were conventional mechs, they would not have improved so fast. Conventional mechs were far moreplicated than Collision. The control dashboard was more convenient for normal mech pilots, allowing them more flexibility in the mech¡¯s movements. However, for the uninitiated like the Sang family vigers, primitive control levers were easier to learn.

    The only thing they needed to learn with Collision was how to fly it.

    Ye Chong taught them everything he knew, and their performance continued to surprise him. For example, when Ye Chong taught them evasive maneuvers, they quickly came up with their own techniques, and most of them were quite effective. They quickly mastered Collision¡¯s only way of attacking. It urred to Ye Chong then that if the mechs from the Five Gxies were to face these vigers in Collision, it would not be an easy battle.

    What impressed Ye Chong the most was their cooperation. Ye Chong was not aware of this, but while the vigers approved of individual strength, then did not subscribe to solo heroism. Here, an individual¡¯s strength was too little. Without cooperation, one would live a short life.

    The intuition they developed from a long history of fighting together now provided them with a strong advantage. Everyone knew their roles, and what they could do to improve their position. This was intriguing to Ye Chong, since he knew that Collision was not equipped with anymunication device.

    Time was growing short. The beast stampede continued before the valley in front of the vige. The day the steelbats arrived was approaching. However, all the vigers felt confident, as they continued with their tasks.

    The second batch of mech pilots to receive training numbered 10,000. Their instructors were the first 500 vigers. Ye Chong handed over the training to Sang Pu, since he noticed that the man was actually an excellent instructor. Sang Pu was more skilled in strategizing and analyzing battles, unlike an amateur like himself.

    Everything proceeded as nned. There was Sang Pu for flying instructions, Sang Fan for mech assembly, Sang Rube for engine manufacture, Sang Ling for mech parts, and the vige head himself, Sang De for mildstone shaping and mayaberry harvesting. Ye Chong suddenly found himself idle.

    He thought of Han Jia with its nearly empty energy cell, and decided that it was time to do something about it. With nonlinear cobalite, Ye Chong nned to insert a teardrop mineralite into Han Jia. He was already very familiar with how to harvest energy from teardrop mineralite, so the modification on Han Jia did not take to long. He was surprised, however, to find that the teardrop mineralite could amplify the power of the Destiny engine.

    If Mu and Shang¡¯s theory was right, then this teardrop mineralite couldst Han Jia for a century.

    Ye Chong really wanted to do some research on this mysterious teardrop mineralite, but he only had two pieces with him, and they were too precious to experiment with.

    Now that he was in the mood for research, Ye Chong directed his enthusiasm towards mildstone. Ye Chong thought highly of this mildstone as well. While it was not as powerful as teardrop mineralite, it was still the only mineral here that could store enough energy to power their hopes.

    Energy was the core of modern science and technology.

    Besides, there was another thing about mildstone that Ye Chong noticed. Thest time he identally caused a mildstone to explode, he remembered the huge destructive power clearly. Milestone could definitely store a huge amount of energy. If all these energy could be released in a short burst, it would be quite destructive.

 Chapter 278 - Sang Family Village - Battle for Survival IV

    <h4>Chapter 278: Sang Family Vige - Battle for Survival IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    As far as Ye Chong was concerned, the current pattern of Collision¡¯s attack would be too simple to face against the raid. Assuming the description by the chief was true, Ye Chong would not be confident to face the battle.

    And the following days, BOOM, passed rather lively at the Sang vige, for explosions woulde roaring from the sir¡¯s research room along with columns of smoke rising to the sky. Boom! There were even times when they witnessed white light bursting from the ce. And to their disbelief, at one time the whole research foundation sted off itself after an explosion, leaving a giant crater on the ground. Boom!

    Boom! Boom! Bang! Boom!

    The miraculous part uttered by every viger in their bewilderment was, sir, without fail, had always beening out in one piece. And as time went, the daily explosion scheme had immersed itself in the routine of the vigers effortlessly. To their shocking discovery, the frequency of explosion had been drastically reduced itself over the time, in the end, no explosion had urred again.

    Klink!

    Phew¡­

    Ye Chong took a deep breath, as his squinted eyes set upon the crude-looking sphere resting in his hand. It had the size of his fist and yes he made it; it was histest invention. The craftsmanship of the appearance did not matter, for that was thest thing on his list.

    Ye Chong had invested ounces of his effort into the research of mildstone in order to find a way to trigger the explosion. He even moved everything out from his research room, including that hefty processor. And to make sure that he would not be the mortality of his own experiment, he performed every of his experiment only after putting on the Guardian.

    But well, even with the superior guard of the Guardian, Ye Chong remained rolling on the ground upon every chemical reaction. The momentum caused by the blow was not something that the human anatomy was designed for. If it was not the Guardian, he would have been counting his negative health points on the way to hell.

    At the very least, eventually, finally, the research had been aplished.

    The valley in the outskirts of the vige was the only entrance to the Sang Family vige. Ye Chong was dragged there by Sang Pu, along with Sang Fan and Sang Ling. And Sang Ling¡¯s attitude towards Ye Chong had be much more dignified, which was a little uneasy for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong passed Sang Pu a sphere, "Toss this there," he said while pointing at a slope near the valley.

    Sang Pu, although looking bewildered, did not withdraw his swinging arm, instead, his right arm tensed, as heunched that sphere all the way towards the slope at the other side. The force was so strong that one could hear sound of the wind piercing, with a thin lining crossing over the azure.

    BOOM!

    A thunderous explosion was heard, thending point of the sphere was engulfed by column of white smoke. Everybody, except for Ye Chong, was stunned by the explosion, as their face flinched with unknown horror.

    A giant crater was revealed as the column of white smoke parted away, with a size wayrger than the crater Ye Chong made near the research room before.

    Gasp! The men anddy breathed in their fear.

    "T-t-this¡­ what¡­ is this?" Sang Pu, who tried too hard to act calm, was still clogging on his words. The gigantic crater, as if exerting attraction one-of-a-kind, was taking all of their attention.

    Thump! Piles of rocks and earth slid from the top, half of the narrow valley was utterly filled.

    "Compression explosives," Ye Chong stated briefly. He was a little disappointed because the blow did not turn out to be as enormous as he presumed. Ye Chong who had seen an array of fireworks in the darkest space had an unimpressed expression of a boy seeing a simple sparkler on thest night of summer. He actually intended to process thepression explosives into some sort of an additional grenade for the vige mech. As habitually as he got whenever mech was concerned, he automatically assumed the foes to be always a mech pilot, one from the 4 forces especially.

    Missiles had taken up a dark bloody spot of history of humankind ever since war happened centuries ago. But intergctic war soon dethroned the almighty missiles after humanity shifted into the gxy. Additionally as hologramic detection system was invented, missiles again, being the slow and outdated weaponry were forced out of the stage immediately. Then the energy-based weaponry came in and took the ce, like the heat-ray guns for example.

    Ye Chong did not believe that missile-based weaponry waspletely obsolete. He himself had once used a simr weaponry, namely the Beauty¡¯s Secretion. The oue of the war had taken a turn for him in the end, even with the most fearsome ck Covers. It was not that the missiles could not cause fatal damages to the target mechs, it was simply that they travelled too slowly in the boundless space and with those advanced detection system in-built with vast scope, most missiles would have been annihted way before they touched the mech or spaceship.

    The only fact that led to Ye Chong¡¯s anti-theoretical sess was the material itself. Those missiles were solely made out of skeletons, which could go undetected by the system, thus the sess of a new silent killer in the dark.

    Of course, the concept only remained as a concept, an idea in his mind. Assuming he would really make thepression as a grenade to beunched, he would have to design a kind of miniature engine to help them navigate through the space at considerable distance or it would be hardly anything in the space than a cluster of ornaments to be smashed. Miniature engines were not the hardest part of his n, the time limitation was however, since every man and woman in the vige had been working on the Collision itself.

    That was an untick on Ye Chong¡¯s checklist. Inability for mass-production equals "out of his consideration". Ye Chong was more concerned on how he should resolve the uing problem without losing everything.

    "Great, sir!" Shouted Sang Fan excitingly, which toppled Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts, "So great! That means we got a new powerful weapon? Compression explosives? Compression explosives! This strength¡­ this marvelous strength¡­ such power!"

    "Yeah. Not that marvelous though," said Ye Chong coldly, "It did give a nice firework but it could hardly travel. No engine, no homing feature either. Not really practical."

    "Engine? Sir?" Sang Fan could notprehend, "Why would we need engines sir? Why can¡¯t we just toss it?"

    Right!

    Ye Chong realized something. Sang Fan was right, he did make a mistake. This was never an intergctic war to begin with! Their enemies were not sheltered in ayer of high quality alloys, they were merely a type of beast rampaging in the woods! With the strength of the Sang, the reachability of the explosives would be more than fearsome!

    Ye Chong began visualizing the scene where the vigersunched the grenades over the sky with their strengthpetent enough for a Jie expert. Horrifying! A tiny piece of rock could already be destructive when it was in the hand of a Jie expert, now rece the rock with an actual bomb, in the hand of the well-trained vigers¡­ Seriously¡­

    Yes! Ye Chong was inspired. Even if the enemies wereing in a mech, the continuous shower lobbed by the vigers would be annihting at close range!

    "Right, sir?" Supported Sang Ling, "Sir please do not forget we had always been guided by rock-tossing daily as we hunt. Everybody knows rock-tossing in the vige, who needs to aim anyway?" Sang Ling was right as well. The vigers had been trained to test if there was a gravity region at the front by lobbing a piece of rock. This was their bread and butter, the sole trick for their survival. So everybody must know it well to be able to lob far enough, urate enough as they pleased.

    Hmmm¡­ that means¡­

    Ye Chong got the message quickly, he began mumbling¡­ I seemed to have created a monster for the vigers¡­

    "Sir? Sir!" Sang Pu the silent one suddenly initiated, "Is it possible to block the opening of the valley?"

    Ye Chong flinched, "Umm¡­" He took a nce at the partially blocked valley, "Possible." He nodded.

    "Pu, my brother¡­" Sang Fan who could not get what Sang Pu meant, asked, "Why would we block the opening?"

    "This is the only entrance to our vige," pointed Sang Pu at the opening. "If we blocked it, that means we only have to look up for our battle. We could have lesser distraction on our guard. Also, I was worried that if it was the Steelbat that caused the beast to attack us, they would join the fight too. It would be nasty, so we block the opening, one less thing to worry."

    Ye Chong looked all impressed at Sang Pu. He *is* the candidate to seed to the vige. Thoughtful, careful to details. The other two Sangs were looking impressed as well.

    "Sir. Excuse me¡­" Sang Fan was too a quick thinker, "Is it possible to blow a hole withpression explosive?"

    "Well this¡­" Ye Chong gave a thought, "Great idea but explosion on a certain orbit of direction would require some works. I was not really an expert on this."

    The Songs were looking disappointed. It would be wonderful if they could create caves in a split second since with caves they would be able to hide themselves from the Steelbats, which also meant less mortality.

    Since the suggestion was not feasible to run at all, they eventually discarded the tempting idea. They were showing immense gratitude towards the inclusion of a new powerful weapon though. They believed they had hit the jackpot aspared to their forebears who had progressed almost nothing over the past 500 years and now they got metallic weaponry, an actual mech and even a highlypressed explosive. The vigers were very much convinced that they would once raise upon the other races again as soon as they survived the crisis this time.

    Looking at Sir who was pondering in the meantime, their eyes were overflowed with appreciation and respect. It was this teacher from the mystery, with his vast knowledge unfitting to his youth, that had brought all these gifts, striking the hope of the tribe in their luxuries.

    So the vigers received a new task from the teacher - production ofpression explosives. Ye Chong was surprised though, that this little bomb actually had taken over Collision, bing the favorite among the Sangs.

    Well, unlike Collision, the explosive was simple to use while being able to dish out significant damage, and the roar it produced was exciting to the ears of the vigers.

    The production of Collision wasing to an end as well, fortunately, or the vigers might be procrastinating over their new toy. Collision, the product of the overclocked vigers had be the standard setup at everyone¡¯s home. The mechs would flock upon sky, stampeding the ground daily. It was scenic to see about a hundred thousand mechs traveling like a military air force on a normal afternoon. Ye Chong wondered if the sky would remain that scenic if those Steelbats ever came. The scene had reminded him again the power of cooperation, the bond of a group. It was powerful indeed. But¡­ yes, Ye Chong realized one big catch he almost missed - there was no dimensional keystone, where would these hundred thousand mechs go? Certainly they could havended in their vige, however to amodate mechs of this amount would be far insufficient for a tiny vige in the middle of the valleys. Sang Pu eventually picked a in next to the mountain behind the vige. It was spacious enough to amodate those mechs, looking like the parking ce on Christmas Eve.

    Still, it would take around 10 minutes of running to travel to the in from the vige. Sighed Ye Chong, realizing that it would be actually a hassle to introduce a super hi-tech way ahead the chronological order of invention. To assure those 10 minutes of safety were assured, Sang Pu sumbed to sending off a giant flock of Collision to scout the area ahead to see if there were a nest of Steelbats.

    2 months hadpsed and everyone was given a Collision mech. And there was one instance where Ye Chong ran out of skeletons to produce stuffs, which Sang Pu immediately resolved by calling his men to hunt for more bones. It was a nice opportunity to test out Collision as they piloted the mech to hunt. And that was the first time they realized the fact that, hunting could have been this hassle-free and the beasts could have been this weak, easily conquered.

    The beasts had not scurried away from the proximity of the vige. Nevertheless, "Darkness" the once fearsome name branded in the mind of the vigers had degraded into a new hunting ground with Collision.

    It usually took the vigers a straight impale, a lift with the spear, then skeleton spears would have a few bulky animals skewed tidily on the shaft. The case where Ye Chong worried about the spears breaking had never urred, which had affirmed the vigers¡¯ confidence. And soon, after countless encounters, the vigers discovered a more effective way to eradicate their foes.

    They maintained a high velocity and travelled right above the beast. Utilizing the 4 sharp skeleton wings on the body of Collision, the des danced like the Reaper would slice upon the enemies, that one glide they only took, the Darkness would be immediately cut open, bleeding and having its inside rolling out, tainting the ground with thunderous cry. The beasts were bisected, with a clear cut upon.

    As time went, more vigers joined the troop afterpleting the training. Ye Chong got more skeletons in the inventory. But Sang Pu felt it was yet the time to stop the hunt. The Darkness had convinced him the fact that the hunt would provide the vigers the more valuable loot - experience itself!

    An on-hand fight would always be the standard procedure to power up a fighter, especially if the fighter was in a troop to begin with. Since therecked a kind ofmunicative device, the vigers had to rely on their sense of war to carry out the right action in correspondence to the situation.

    It sounded easy on paper but it was a mess, as they soon realized, a highly frequent mess. It was hard for one to even sort out friends and foes with mechs this many in the sky. They had a conference on it and Sang Ling actually gave a pretty good solution - they would dye the mechs into different colors in ordance with the position of the pilots in the team. Sang Pu would be the supreme leader, thus the bright red tone; after that the blue would follow, it would be ck, and then white at the lowest. At both sides of every Collision would have 3 types of Lightstones in different colors embedded, there would be also a te before each stone, it would be like a signal where the te could be ced down to block the beam of the stones. Thus, every secondary leaders of the team could givemands by flicking signals. Sang Ling even designed a set of codes using the stones¡¯ color as well as the frequency formunication. Ye Chong who was listening at one corner, felt impressed with Sang Ling. "Looks like she was not a bimbo after all. Shang sometimes just likes to exaggerate things¡­"

    The new codes brought up another period of tutorial among the vigers, with each of them having a booklet in the hands while their heads spinning along with their recitation.

    It was as effective as the way Sang Ling mentioned it, as the vigers were not only highly experienced, their rapports were great too. They needed no sophisticatednguage, a few blinks of different colors would be more than enough to tell them what their teammates nned to do.

    Even Sang Pu the more demanding one was showing satisfaction on his current troop. Ye Chong? Well, he was losing his head over the codes. He seriously could not imagine how a massive troop couldmunicate without a standardmunicative device but a mere set of blinking lights, especially when the vigers had actually no issue using the code while being able to have a much more coordinated expedition.

    Every viger was feeling exhrated of their improvement. The harvest of Twinkleblues marked also the end of theirst concern. The Sangs, with their blood surged from the war itself, were looking forward to this war, the battle of survival with the Steelbats.

 Chapter 279 - Sang Family Village - Battle for Survival V

    <h4>Chapter 279: Sang Family Vige - Battle for Survival V</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Here theye!" Announced the returning Collision from the woods, which stirred a storm among the vigers as they set their feet running.

    15 Collisions were sent off as a scouting team to check out if the Steelbats were approaching in reality. And there were actually 10 simr teams taking shifts to scout the surrounding daily.

    "Team Four, follow up. Now!"

    "Team Eight, carry out ording to ns!"

    The crowd disintegrated into countless afterimages of silhouettes. The Sangs sure had some rapid feet. It almost felt like a crowd of Jie experts piloting their mechs over one peak and another. It was epic, truly epic.

    This would be the most major operation the Sangs had everunched. The first batch of Collisions took flight in a number of 5000 and the sky right above the Sang vige was fully enveloped by them. Other than elderly or children who could hardly harm a fly, all vigers including the women armed themselves with weapons and started moving.

    Right at the heart of the valley there parked countless Collisions. The valley where the vige located was not that spacious to begin with, but it would be too risky to park them at the in as the Steelbats might have raided the ce before the battle happened. So after a moment of discussion, they gave up their former setting and cramped themselves. Sang De, the chief said that the Steelbats would arrive with darkness engulfing the world, with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The sky would only have one color by then, the color of Steelbats - dark, darker than ck.

    So, united we stand, stronger we grow. Thought Ye Chong.

    Apart from a safe house for the elderly and children, the remaining housing area had been transformed into the parking ground for the mechs. One could see every single shelter had at least one mechnded on it, while some were even installed with a strange kind of hook to hang those mechs. Now, while it would sound a little insane to have a mech parked on a foundation made out of twigs and leaves, it would be a different story if the mech was made out of pure skeletons, which were much, much lighter. Of course, as far as logic would apply, nobody would park their moving alloys on their wooden home, that would devastate the shelter immediately. To ensure safety though, reinforcement had been carried out on every pir of the houses, especially the safe house for the weak, that was much, much sturdier.

    There were also mechs parked on the slope. The vigers had never exited the cabin ever since, for they would spend the following days eating, battling, sleeping in the mech itself. It was those times which one would call the "emergency period" or "evacuation time".

    The only entrance to the vige had beenpletely swamped by the debris from the explosion Sang Pu caused at both sides of the mountain usingpression explosives. As nned, their remaining concern would only be the above, nothing on the ground. The mountain had be their walls of defense from technically everything on the ground.

    The Steelbats were extremely bloodthirsty during their migration, they would not halt their flight for food however. They would peck, but would not ground themselves and hunt, they would instead keep advancing, in other words, the Sang vigers would be dered as seeded the operation if they couldst till the Steelbats flew awaypletely.

    Everyone was pumped in their position, anticipating the arrival of the flying devil. Sang Tie was one of the thrilled warriors. It was one major role he got being at the frontmost line, which every viger was acting envy upon. No one would go and argue for the cement though, as they all recognized the strength of Sang Tie, who stood easily the top 100 fighters in the vige. Moreover, the most highly respected man, the teacher was giving recognition towards his piloting skill as well. That would be a solid evidence since the teacher hardly demonstrated his recognition towards things. So his poprity among thedies was well-justified.

    Sang Tie could reminisced the very scene when the teacherplimented his performance that day. It was, he strongly believed, the happiest few seconds of his life. The teacher, sir, was the idol highly regarded by all younger folks in the vige, including he himself. Never once he would dream of gliding into the air, and there sir was, zooming into the air as if a rock he tossed. The most respectable figure in the vige was no longer the chief, but the teacher, the young yet resourceful teacher.

    Okay, no time for that. He bucked up and looked upon the sky, the war was just around the corner. He did not panic however, since he, like every other man and woman in their position did, believed that they would seed as long as the teacher stood by their side. He was the leader of a rescue team of the frontline. The team was mainly consisted of the experts of the tribe, in which most of them was the students specially chosen by the teacher himself for the first flying course he conducted, including Sang Tie.

    A "course" it was called yet the teacher had only taught the piloting procedure once. Only the first batch of students to the course was the actual students of the great teacher. And of course these students, a vast 500 of them were calling it an achievement and were proud of it.

    The rescue team was formerly led by Sang Pu, who was then raised to the position of the highestmander. So in return, Sang Tie took over.

    Another chosen one by the teacher himself! Why must it be him that always get different treatment! The men seemed to be mutating into a real green-eyed monster soon. The chosen one himself was very proud of his cement though, that he even made up his mind to not shame his teacher by aplishing this mission wlessly.

    5000 mechs ascended into the sky, spiraling speedily to their respective position. Sang Tie began flicking his signals, the two beams flickered : S-T-A-Y. R-E-A-D-Y. And 500 mechs silently hovered in position behind him. They were body and soul ready. Sang Tie knew his duty well. The team he led was called a rescue team for a reason. He was there to rescue, the support to the war. If the situation was crumbling, his teammates were losing, they would have tounch themselves into the war field, to buy time for the other mechs standby on the ground.

    Sang Tie lifted his eyes, seeing teacher piloting that strong and outstanding mech in the midst of the warring troop. It was unique, it was different. A sense of respect rose as the morning sun in him. He swore, feeling pumped, it would be an honor to fight alongside sir, that he would die, with glory and no regret.

    Sang Tie was technically wrong of what he presumed. His great teacher, Ye Chong did not really intend to join the first wave. The reason he flew into the sky was merely for spectating purpose. He wanted to see what that horrifying beast of the myth actually looked. Sang Pu, themander was right next to his teacher, with simr reason that he wanted to have a direct observation on this migration phenomena that only would ur once every 200 years.

    And there they saw, a lump of darkness approaching.

    It was brutally horrifying! If the namely Darkness formed by the beast was a whirlpool, then these Steelbats would be a real abyssal darkness that would engulf the sunpletely. People were shocked. Some vigers zoned out for the first few seconds. The formation was disrupted for a quick while. D-O-W-N. O-N-E-O-O. Sang Pu gave a quick order to descend all units by a hundred meters. This move was to cover the team within the height of the mountains.

    Sang Pu and Han Jia remained at the upper. Since Ye Chong was equipped with real technology, the hologramic detection system, he was the first among all men who discerned the actual appearance of Steelbats.

    Steelbats had no feathers, the wings were two thinyer of membranes which spread as wide as 10 meters. Those pairs of legs looked so brawny that it could probably shatter a rock piece with a kick. The ws were sharper than the swords, the beak would pierce an iron wall. Ye Chong who had been hunting mutated lifeforms ever since birth could imagine the potential threats these nasty avifaunas would impose on humanity. Those ws and beak alone could murder even the most fearsome beast on ground.

    Steelbats were dark, dark as the coals; their eyes were red, scarlet as the blood diamonds. A petrifying fear they were as they soared through the darkening sky at an rming velocity. It almost felt as if they had teleported over few hundreds meters after they had just spread their wings.

    The lump of darkness came like a prelude to the storm, they were approaching, with constant cries of eagerly hunger as their membrane-wings pped in threatening waves. The air had already started to smell intense as they approached, while those sounds they made as they travelled were as if one punch on one¡¯s torso after another.

    The Sang vigers were not ordinary folks, they had been trained, and they had been trained enough to face the arrival of their nemesis. They might be argued to be inexperienced fighting against humanity, but they were truly the rival against the wildest nature. They adjusted themselves to the menacing debut of the Steelbats as they got into their battle stance on their mechs again.

    Sang Pu, with Ye Chong,nded quickly. They did not leave their mechs however. No other thing could withstand the raid of the homicidal birds on migration than the mechs made out of alloys, not even those houses with their structures remastered. Likewise to the vigers, they also hid within the mechs, for they had spent thest few days living with the mechs, as if a connection had been built soul to soul. The mechs which seemed to be the most novice in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes turned out to be the most formidable stronghold to the vigers. The mechs could be novice, still Ye Chong had that little confidence in them since they were at least made out of the finest skeletons he could find around the ce. They could be the toughest tortoise at the very least. Furthermore, Collision was named Collision as it used collision as the main form of attack, so maxing out defense would equal to maxing out the offense as well. Ye Chong even added a few moreyers to the surface, technically any physical strike would do no harm to the surface.

    Now that exins a lot, why the vigers were relying on their mechs than houses.

    And this time, they would be fighting against the lord, the topmost animal in the entire food web of Archipgo, the ruler of the ecosystem, Steelbats. The fight would be for their home, for their other halves, for the next generation, for they themselves! They held no other choice than joining the fiercepetition itself. Unlike the residents of the 5 major gxies, these vigers were strong, probably stronger than anyone else.

    Kiak! Kiak kiak kiak!

    The leading Steelbat seemed to have gotten a sniff of blood - a sign of living things around.

    Kiak! Kiak kiak kiak! Kiak Kiak! Kiak kiak kiak! Kiak!

    A piercing cry that Ye Chong had never heard before roared throughout the sky.

    Shush!

    The leading Steelbat brought onerge batch of itspatriots and raided the valley!

    The sky darkened.

    The people looked upon the clouded sky. The first collision happened secondster.

    G-O. Allmanding mechs shed the same signals simultaneously.

    3000 mechs quickly disengaged from the 5000 army as they formed a long slinking chain. S-P-E-E-D! O-O-O! They then elerated in circle and performed a rather perfect turn, like a slithering serpent rose upon its prey.

    The army actually initiated the attack!

    Spear up! Piercing spike!

    Ssh¡­ Ssh! Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

    Fleshes fell off to gravity, there was a rain of blood, as the insides of Steelbats tumbled. The skeleton spears of Collision even prated the entire body of Steelbat directly upon contact. Their body size easily turned out to be a giant bullseye to be impaled, as some of theirpatriots were instantly bisected. Their abdomens ruptured, like the explosion of a water balloon, dark red fluid sshed all over Collisions.

    The conservation of momentum was the game winner this time, as the Collision retained its eleration and smashed upon its enemies. A perfect strike! Or maybe not¡­ Thought the spectators who were hardly smiling on the ground, as their eyes reflected the deted, deformed mechs which some of them fell miserably.

    The Steelbats were carnivores for a reason as a number of them would raid upon one single Collision. They raised their ws, they charged with their beaks, and in the matter of split seconds, the Collision splintered. The specks were grounded by gravity, as well as the pilots, the sacrificed who went ttened on the ground.

    The 3000 armed forces did not hold their attack, as they zoomed all the way up with their spikes. They no longer were able to distinguish directions as they had been swarmed upon by the aggressed Steelbats. The pilots tried their best to make a turnabout but they failed, for they could be smashed into pieces by the Steelbats from the back and the front if they nked out for once. They sped up, they sped up more, to the front, striving to break through the darkness formed by the Steelbats, hoping for that silver lining of the sky toe.

    It was a brief simple collision but the danger was more than what one could get in one¡¯s entire life.

    Sang Huo, one of the vigers whose mind no longer contained a thing than brutality, remained one order constantly rung in his head, "Charge. Charge! Charge!!! Hit everything!"

    He kept charging, he pulled the lever all the way up as he felt the momentum dragging bit and bit of his sanity away, seeing his allies being crushed into specks, hearing the sound of crumbles and shes on top of his mech. Within blinking of eyes, he was thest one standing, as engulfed by the whirlpool of Steelbats.

    Blood boiled even in his veins, as he was cornered; his eyes reddened, his breathe deepened, a storm of fire raided his soul, burning thatst bit of his sanity. "Ah!!!" He rampaged.

    His hands were pulling the handles madly, the speed had been maximized! The Steelbats lost sight of their target out of sudden, as the skeleton spear pierced the iron skin of the membranes. The Steelbat blocking the way was smashed into a st of blood right after. The 4 skeleton wings at the body of Collision sliced through the air in sharp whistles. Momentum had broken through the conservation, the energy packed in that blow built up by the speed could easily cut into the bones, would be possible to slice things into half effortlessly.

    Sang Huo¡¯s sess undoubtedly had caused the will of all other men to burn to the highest height, as their mechs elerated along, pushing the de further into the dark clouds.

    There were mechs being crashed into pieces as they pushed along. The ws and beaks of the Steelbats were threatening to the flesh but not against the skeleton Collision, which would only fracture at constant attacks. Steelbats were heavy as the steel, they felting like a wrecking ball when they smacked themselves onto Collision. If it did not work once, they would do it twice. There were even two to four Steelbats aiming the same mech together, which exined why there were casualties constantly. The vigers were seriously outnumbered, it was as if they had been tossed into a pool of dark toxic, slowly corroding their senses away.

    How many Steelbats had he exactly killed? Sang Huo had already lost count, he was no longer in the mind for triviality like that. The same order echoed in his mind, CHARGE! FASTER! Fearlessly he advanced forward, he had hunted enough Steelbats for his entire life, he was more than happy to die if he had to now. He thought back those days being put under the threat of Steelbats, where one of them was more than enough to take his entire tribe out and now there he was, slicing through Steelbats like his daily skew by the bonfire.

    The lump of darkness lingered and Sang Huo had his mind all focus at the shining gap between the Steelbats, which would be his key to victory. Theck of sense of direction was not his concern, the fact that he might have been caged by the Steelbats was not his concern, what stayed as his concern was merely that lining that would lead him to sess. Sang Huo adjusted his position gradually by making minuscule turns.

    The turns were a savior to his life though, since they caused the Steelbats to miss him while being actually wounded by the skeleton des on Sang Huo¡¯s Collision.

    If there were cameras connected to the Virtual World, the forum should be exploding now. Anyone from the 5 major gxies would have been stupefied upon seeing this. Not even the intensive virtual Neurotraining stimtion could be as frightening as this. A minimum scope of turns, those were what the expert of the experts would be doing as those would wear a man outpletely within a brief moment, and those could murder the pilot by bursting the capiries.

    Whatever the Collisions had performed during the war were considered the most hideous, tedious, challenging, fatal movements any pilot of the 5 major gxies would shun themselves away from, which some of them would even address as the "impossible to do". The Sangs were the only exception to the limitation of human anatomy due to their familiarized exposure to gravity regions as well as continuous systematic military training.

    And with those, they actually had transformed the Collision, which Ye Chong assumed to be too primitive and obsolete by today''s technological standard, into a monstrous devastation. It was shocking when Ye Chong saw how passionate the vigers were, still remaining in gravity region for training even thest night before daybreak.

    For the Collision, the vitality lies within the flight itself. The way it would deal damage, the way it could cause destruction, were both about airborne movement. To master flying it would require both maturity in skills and physique, which were never issues to the Sangs, as they wielded the strength of Jie expert, the speed like Jie expert, the sensibility of space of Jie expert, the rich experience of war like Jie expert. The simplistic control of the colliding technological stone age was perfect for them and in no time they piloted the machinery their own way. They would sting, like the Lavagold to your skin, if you would darepete their bulkiness.

    Sang Huo sought that very weak point to make the next breakthrough. Within the limited space, it was solely depended on his instinct. Experience would not do the trick, only the sense would.

    Now!

    Zooooom! Hush¡­

    Sang Huo''s world brightened up, as he suddenly got back into the fine blue sky he grew up seeing. Overjoyed he was, I did it? I did it! I really did it!

    He would not be satisfied by this little triumph however, as he maintained his course, carried on ascending, he believed his brothers and sisters at the queue behind would also love to see the same sky as his.

    A nce downwards, the lump of darkness rumbled and grumbled, engulfing his entire home. He could neither tell the whereabouts of his leader, nor the safety of the vigers. Steelbats, they were everywhere.

    Kiiiaaaaaaaak! Kiak! Kiak! Kiak!

    The Steelbats cried outrageously, their ppy wings hissed excitingly. The cloud of darkness moved on to the east with the wind, a long column it was, with a portion still lingering on top of the vige.

    It was purely horrid, even for a man like Sang Huo with an iron will. Nightmarish scenery it scorched as, in the mind of Sang Huo, probably would tail him for the rest of his life. But he bucked up, as fully aware of his demise in this war, those haunting dreams would be buried together. He was one of those 3000 men who feared no death and desired the once again glory of their tribe, they were ready to sacrifice. So, Sang Huo would only concern what the war would achieve in the end.

    The sky of Sang Family Vige had be an absolute ughterhouse. 3000 mechs fired themselves into the air and smashed the first wave of Steelbats. After an analysis, both Ye Chong and Sang Pu concluded that the first wave of Steelbats was the worst they would face. So as long as the vigers survived Wave One, assuming what the chief stated about a total darkness for the vige being true, the Steelbats, as losing the necessary space to elerate in aggression, would actually be too crowded to return resistance, they would be a flying target.

    The good news was, the 3000 mechs sessfully shattered the first wave. The cost, on the other hand, was miserable, as the men werepletely engulfed by the flocks of aggressive carnivores in no time, whose mechs were mostly crushed before breakthrough even happened, while the surviving mechs would be very unlikely toe back in one piece.

    The 3000 souls and machineries did not go to a waste however. The frontlinemanders got their intention fairly quick, as the frontline seized this golden opportunity, sending their 2000 mechs to the top atmosphere next to squash these Steelbats in the cage they created themselves. The Steelbats outside carried on joining the cramped party, and they could barely lift their w to give a scratch.

    The 2000 mechs upied the space quickly, they then broke into little flocks, few hundreds of them began soaring around, like abat order. The speeding Collisions soon caused invisible slice attacks, like the de of a blending machine, which the Steelbats would bepletely dissected upon contact. The aids were also waiting for furthermand at the lower atmosphere.

    Steelbats were harmless without their speed. There were a few managed to squeeze themselves out of the web, their fate was cruel however, as a handful ofpression explosives tossed by experts shall await. Boom! Ssh! The flying beast would be falling rain.

    The vigers on the ground were feeling underwhelmed though, as there were hardly time where the Steelbats actually escaped their grip. So most of the vigers armed themselves with weapons made out of Lavagold, eagerly waiting for the falling Steelbats from the sky to give those nasty animals the final cut.

    The spawn rate of Steelbats was too great. It felt like an endless war.

    Hush¡­ Hush¡­ Zoom! A queue of mechs forced out of the lump! And the escaped had spotted Sang Huo''s mech at the topmost atmosphere as they sped towards him. The lump of darkness continued tumbling below them. There were also a tiny few of lone bats but those showed ignorance towards Sang Huo and his escaped brothers.

    Sang Huo estimated¡­ out of 3000 mechs, only 200 mates or so had survived. It was heart wrenching. He could feel the grief choking his breath. And they were actually armed and seated in a mech, imagine without the teacher''s help, the tribe would have been a goner.

    Well, at least we have survivors.

    The lump of darkness was covering almost everything that could sign him direction. Sang Huo seriously was no longer able to find the location of his vige.

    They could still survive even if they had to live in the mech for the following days, as long as the Steelbats would continue ignoring them. They were supplied with food, made out of Twinkleblue extraction by Dr. Sang Ru Bei which Ye Chong onceplimented to be as powerful as the nutrition capsules outside.

    Sang Huo first flew forward, the remaining followed him on the runaway at a loss of idea, as they flew on in their own formation.

    The Steelbats in their giant flock retained their aggression, as if on steroids, and every following wave was the most impulsive from them, that Sang Tie and his mates of the Explosives Team would have to tame those flies withpression explosives.

    The Sang''s territory was guarded, no doubt, but the mortality rate carried on rolling, so as the visiting Steelbats. It was a long fight, that it would take more than 10,000 words to write even as summary.

    It had been more than 20 days, the migration still continued, and Ye Chong felt his iron nerves would snap at any second, while Sang Pu was also dispirited. The Steelbats were ever-aggressive, they seemed to have tossed their biological clock away the moment they left their nest. The Sangs were on shift, and every shift was a consuming trip, as they flew up and down, getting so worn out that they could sleep the moment the fresh breeze of the outside hit their eyelids.

    Like seriously, which pilot would have a battle more than 2 hours? Which author would write a war scene on a single chapter that seems tost forever? It would drive people mad! Under such tension, such density, such aggression of enemies!

    The mortality rate was rolling faster when shift happened. Sang Pu felt his heart aching at first, but fortunately as people got used to the constantly irritating process of going ups and downs, no-tension to tension, back and fro, the mortality rate slowed down.

    Throughout the 20 days of high density training, the Sang vigers had transformed as they had grasped the Collision utterly. They knew the machinery so well like the back of their hands, and Ye Chong was fascinated by their self-learned capabilities.

    Speaking of Ye Chong, being the dark knight, of course he would not be the spectator the whole time!

    Han Jia''s des were slicing through the approaching Steelbats silently. It had always been a sudden fall of a few Steelbats to the ground, and the vigers who were nning to charge upon the birds - to their horror - realized one giant cut right on the neck.

    "Ming my child, look. Sir is a ughter-man. One painless slice and it''s done. Sir is the real expert, sighs, when would we get to this standard?" Sighed one viger.

    "Don''t worry, you will. IN, YOUR, DREAM. I mean¡­ we call him ''Sir'' for a reason. He''s a supetive figure, whom little folks like you and me could ever imitate. But well, I guess Pu and Tie those big boys could have some hope." The other viger was such a bitter tongue.

    "Right¡­ Pu and Tie were indeed the best in our vige. But I personally think Fan would be the greatest of them all, since you know, he''s the student of Sir himself. He learned how to make mechs with Sir, you could see his achievement very much sooner. Sighs, why am I not the chosen one back then?" The viger was feeling upset.

    "I have to agree. This boney mech was sure something, even the lord of all beasts, those disgusting Steelbats could not stand against it. If it wasn''t Sir, I guess the Sang would no longer exist. The Steelbats¡­ man, they are the demon¡­"

    "I know right¡­," sympathetically the viger approved the bitter-tongued.

    Ye Chong was certainly more experienced than the vigers, also on a different style too. Unlike the Collisions which sped to roll, Ye Chong would only need consecutive quick blinks to assassinate his targets.

    But the war had slowly changed him. A hand-on-hand battle was still the best strategy to improvise. He had enough with fancy, shy moves against these primitives, his movements had grown simplified, his sensibility of space and strength, like to Sangs, had also improved. He also gained one precious ability - the sense of timing, which was often neglected by the people outside, including himself in the past.

    He would be facing countless strikes every minute, he always was fighting a one against millions, and those were the reason he got to pick the timing. Ever since that realization, his output efficiency doubled. Sensibility of timing was a tricky thing to master, as not only difficult to word, but also difficult toprehend, but Ye Chong did it, coincidentally on this asion.

    A technique truly exclusive to Ye Chong.

    And he had also learned the power of group cooperation. He had been the lone ranger, the Solo-man, he thought he would suffice but then he witnessed what the Sangs were capable of once they got into group. So an urge to learn about that kindled inside him.

    He wished to learn that and without much time longer he actually did it¡­ at minimum output though. He stillcked that essential rapport with the vigers, which was a headache to begin with. Moreover, the vigers had been treasuring so much that he would be enveloped at the very inside. He did voice his thoughts but the words never got through. And he even got his kill stolen, at one time, finally one escaped Steelbat, he zapped towards it, going to raise his des. And¡­ hundreds of Collision shredded the beast.

    It was as if a shout from the vigers - We Shall Protect You Sir! Touching but also¡­ well¡­

    On the 23rd day, yes, finally the density of the darkness decreased, everything was pumped again. The day before this, the vigers had actually started losing patience, wondering when the hell the epilogue would happen for once. It was so discouraging that if it was not their discipline, they might have tossed their spears and gone underground for the following generations perhaps.

    Ye Chong was calling it a miracle, that they couldst this long.

    It was ending at least.

    Ironically, the following wave was so intense that as if the Steelbats, after their diminishing appearance, were shouting out to the vigers, "Just Kidding!"

 Chapter 280 - Hai Lian

    <h4>Chapter 280: Hai Lian</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Hai Lian took a nce at the Gigada*, a smug glee rose upon his lips. The Gigada seemed to be utterly exhausted and probably in only a matter of 5 minutes, it would be dead, right in his hand. Piloting "Moonlight" his loving steed, he performed a few sets of standard dodging moves in leisure. The movement of Moonlight was graceful and light, as it constantly fired dazzling gleam from its V-type Beam Shooter, making one hole after another on the body of Gigada.

    The body of Gigada was full of pores, as moving slower over the time it was, its greenish eyes were expressing deepest grief.

    Zzzt! One final beam hit right between its eyes urately. Thump! The gigantic insect rolled over its body and passed away. The greenish eyes took onest nce at the sky as they lost the glow after.

    Sigh! Shook Hai Lian, only if I have a Recursion, knocking out this thing would never take this long. I do believe in my marksmanship but a Recursion was something I might get¡­ in my dream that is. Furthermore, there has hardly been an actual Recursion in the market, no joke, it''s super rare!

    The Recursion had always been the weaponry exclusive to the Xue Lai n, which annually only a limited number of them would be flowed to the market - truly a thing with demand yet without supply. No one would have ess to it even armed with ample cash and points, other than the Aristocrats themselves. And well, I am just an ordinary folk of nowhere, I should stop thinking about it. Hah! Serves me right that I actually refused to join the Aristocrats myself. Teased Hai Lian, he felt like hurling more insults on himself.

    Well, the man was still proud of his achievement as he beamed at the dead Gigada on the ground. He knew, there was not many of them who was able to pilot their way into the cmitous asteroid belt while being able to hunt down an actual Gigada alive. The Gigada could go for a fortune in the market, hah! This was more than enough for a better, more advanced mech! Overjoyed Hai Lian was, for he got a valuable loot. The Gigada was a nasty challenge to handle, not because of its defense or whatsoever, rather it was its murdering offenses and speed, which could take out pilots quickly. Moreover its environment was the deadliest asteroid belt of history of humankind so not many pilots could be as out-of-their-mind as Hai Lian toe here.

    Hai Lian had been here for literally three years and the current spot he ughtered a Gigada was the deepest he could have ventured at the moment. He dared not to go deeper with his equipments. He hoped that after getting a better mech, he would have the capability to get into the next unknown. His curiosity was rising.

    Being a frence hunter over the course of 3 years, Hai Lian was actually quite well-known in his circle but he was the low-profiled kind of person so not many people would witness him in action. Still, a handful of Aristocrats found him, they even handed over a formal invitation to their alliance, which every of them was given a polite decline without fail.

    He adored the freedom, his spirit was for the adventure. Yes, certainly his life would improve dramatically once heid his thumb on the contract with one of the Aristocrats but he would have to give his freedom away as he lived under the whim of the others, which was unbearably horrifying as he thought in the wild now.

    Moonlight bowed down, was going to pick up the Gigada''s body. It was then¡­

    Hsssssssssssssk!

    A strange cry was heard.

    A never-before-heard strange cry was discerned. Was it a new kind of beast I have never met before? rmed Hai Lian, knowing the fact that every beast in the asteroid belt survived for a reason and for that reason he had drained half of his stamina of the day to kill a Gigada. Moonlight was hitting red as well, he would be doomed if another beast arrived!

    The cry seemed to being from the depth of the belt.

    Hsssssssssssssssk!

    An unknown beast deep inside the asteroid belt, crying in anguage he wished not toprehend, his mind was urging him to turn back, run and run fast!

    He took a quick nce at the screen. Wait, what? There was nothing on the screen? Impossible! I know my Moonlight was not that advanced of a model! But it is at least a mid-tier model! The detection system is all stable and impable! It would not be disturbed by most waves and it had been giving urate reading the whole time! But, b-b-but, why?!

    Hsssssssssssssssssssk!

    The cry was getting louder, it felt like something was slicing through the air.

    Okay, there has to be something! Judged Hai Lian right away, although his sight was convincing him otherwise. The screen was empty, emptier than ever. No, no no¡­ Fear crawled upon every inch of his skin. Okay! He got it, he knew what to do, he gave a tap on the screen and switched to Photon detection mode.

    Hssssssssssk!

    He went dumbfounded upon seeing the visual.

    What in the sr system is this?

    In the boundless sky, countless monsters gleaming in a variety of colors were heading towards him at a horrifying rate. Their bodies were narrow and long, as their bodies seemed to be installed with 4 strange des? Those were supposed to be wings but the fact that they were well-polished convinced Hai Lian enough to call them des. There was a spear at the top?

    So what animal is this?

    Chill ran down to his spines upon seeing the dense lump of monsters approaching.

    He was too stunned to run, the beasts were too fast. He recognized the speed of Moonlight even though its performance was a little subpar on the other aspects. At least Moonlight could travel faster than most mid-tiers mech, which was the main reason why he got the bravery to venture into the asteroid belt. But, Moonlight was hardly speedy in front of these beasts.

    I''m done. I just am. Hai Lian''s face was colorlessly grey.

    The beasts were as barbaric as they appeared to be. The scary part was, these beasts actually knew humane tactics in war!

    Good bye, cruel world. He closed his eyes, awaiting his death. He would not buy the story that there would be any civilized entity in the murdering asteroid belt, especially when experience taught him that, those which stayed deeper in the belt would be the more brutal.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    He waited since forever yet the immense pain, the deadly shriek did not ur, not at all.

    In tension he slowly opened his eyes. The scene before him was going beyond his understanding. The strange beasts surrounded him but there was not any attack from them. Knowing that he was surely a done-for, he actually calmed down and took a closer look at these monsters.

    The surrounding monsters suddenly rearranged themselves, opening up a way where by then themander - Hai Lian presumed - came into the scene. Wait what? Hai Lian could feel his eyeballs popping out in disbelief. Did he see a mech flying into the scene?

    It''s a mech? A MECH? The leader of these beasts was a mech? He thought he was bright enough to understand all situation, but he no longer felt his brain working by then.

    "You have been captured." The cold voice rang, which feared Hai Lian to the corner.

    And that¡­ was how Hai Lian became the captured of these beasts. Confused, Hai Lian watched on, his heart skipped a beat upon seeing a maning out of these monsters. Okay, that is enough intergctic travel today. He had seen enough strange things, he seriously hoped to call it a day now. He could imagine him getting a heart attack if this carried on for the next few days.

    So, the bloody-sounded tale of humaning out of a beast''s body was actually the army of the Sang vigers, and Ye Chong.

    The migration attack from the Steelbats had been sessfully ovee, although thest few waves for the past 5 days were manic from the Steelbats themselves, which were consuming. Even Ye Chong had to jump into action with his Han Jia. Thepression explosives were extremely helpful either as the remaining Sangs on the ground were able to blow up a hole in the lump of darkness without even the need to aim, they just had to make sure there was not any of their ally nearby.

    The battle for survival thatsted for almost 30 days hade to an end. Report had also arrived, stating mortality of 5000 men, with the first day having the most of them, the 3000 men in the first wave of attack especially. The vigers were joyful at first, then tears began streaming down everyone''s cheek. That was a major loss to the vige. Fortunately, Sang Huo and his 300 men who made it back safely had brought a happy surprise to everyone.

    Sang Huo and his men had once travelled deep into the Archipgo. The area which was once habituated by the Steelbats had been deserted, and they discovered a rich source of mildstone as well as Lavagold. The vigers raised their brows upon hearing the report since both milestone and Lavagold had both be important resources for their living. The chief immediately sent an order to find a spot where the vigers could reside with defense.

    The additional surprise was the fact that they found out arge number of caves, which also happened to be interconnected too! By a nce, the caves should be sufficient to amodate easily over few hundred thousands of residents. It was a happy news indeed as having a shelter within the hollows would be safer in a dangerous ce like Archipgo. The Steelbats would fail to nail them if they ever returned again!

    They had a discussion. In the end, the chief decided to perform a migration.

    Ye Chong followed the Sang and arrived by the cave and it appeared to be a house of treasure! Minerals were everywhere, which tons of them were new to Ye Chong! The Steelbats had been residing here for years, as justified by the scattered remnants of their ancestors. The soil was enriched by their feces, perfect for Twinkleblue ntation. And there were also a few gravity regions nearby, where the vigers could culture more Portabe!

    The Sangs felt highly optimistic of their future. With Collision and Compression Explosives, plus a strategically located home, they would be safe, safer than ever.

    Moreover, the next migration of the Steelbats would be a matter of two centuriester. The beast stampede was a headache though for it seemed to have wiped out every beast nearby. So they would face a major shortage of meat in considerable amount of time. At least they had a ntation of Twinkleblues now, so they would not actually starve badly. With Collisions they could reach hunting grounds farther than before.

    After the hustles and bustles of migration, the Sang Family Vige had once again regained its tranquility.

    During this period Ye Chong had actually achieved a few things - he had improvedpression explosives, where they blew harder than before; he also enhanced the efficiency of utilization of mildstone''s energy in the Destiny: Simplified version; he made miniature engines out of skeletons to create an actualpression missile, which travelled far and hit great, though itcked a lock-on system, the uracy was a little bit goofy. Nevertheless, Ye Chong did make use of this weakness in the end, he decided to design it into a more area-of-effect kind of explosive. He modified Collisions and added cartridge tounch the missiles.

    The skeletal resources were adored by Ye Chong the artisan, that he even once nned to make a new Han Jia out of them. Sadly Han Jia was aplexitypared to Collision, without advanced apparatuses Ye Chong could hardly make a move.

    Ye Chong headed to the chief and mentioned his first request uponpletion of these improvements. And without hesitation, the old chief gave Ye Chong 5000 men as requested, of those who happened to be the greatest fighters. Most of them volunteered themselves though, like Sang Pu, Sang Ling, Sang Tie, Sang Huo and Sang Fan, then the apprentices of Ye Chong. Lastly Ye Chong only picked Sang Fan and 6 other apprentices nheless. And therge pack of the others was ordered to remain in the vige.

    5000 Collisions supplied with sufficient mildstone and foodmenced their adventure under the leadership of Ye Chong. Ye Chong could not judge what had happened to Mu Shang and the other members but this would be what he could do the most¡­

    The Collisions zoomed into the Red Sea and performed a careful search. As expected, the red strands were doing nothing to the skeleton mechs, which were smooth-sailing without worry. Ye Chong was astonished by the fact that the Sangs possessed a great sense of direction in this, that would really exin their capability to cope with the tension in the cage of the Steelbats back then, they needed no tool to tell them where they were heading.

    They searched the Red Sea, but they could not find any sign of the Cob. There was also nothing that could be associated with Mu Shang. Ye Chong, the indifferent one, was literally feeling demotivated.

    The Collisions were the perfect transportation to conquer the Red Sea, as not only they were unaffected by the dy effects, their des were also able to cut through the strands easily, which eventually Ye Chong had a huge chunk of red strand collection in his inventory.

    Ye Chong and the men travelled from one end to another. Ye Chong was venturing into this unexplored zone. With Collisions the Sangs now possessed the ability of long-distance migration. The Archipgo was frankly not the best spot for the expansion of their tribe. It would be great if they could discover a better ce to live, that their tribe would once again strengthen back to their glory.

    Ye Chong was feeling down. Mu Shang remained undiscovered. He sighed as he could do nothing else than holding up the search for the moment. Since hecked a path to return, his only option would be to live with the Sangs. Ye Chong was certainly d to be able to help the Sangs with what he knew. He was growing on the tribe, it would a big fat lie if he imed to have no feeling for them after what they had gone through together. He too hoped that the Sangs would live better.

    Well, unexpectedly, before the search at the belt was done, they met Hai Lian.

    And everybody knew what it would mean if a mech appeared here.

 Chapter 281 - He Yue Galaxy

    <h4>Chapter 281: He Yue Gxy</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Hai Lian was very annoyed indeed. Man I sure have tough luck. I thought I was lucky enough to have hunted a Gigada for money and now I am a ve under some unknown tribe''s capture. Bravo, Hai Lian, you saved the day.

    But he must admit, he nearly dropped his jaws upon seeing the mech of the leader.

    Skeleton mech? Am I seeing things? Is that really a skeleton mech? Oh my gosh¡­ I actually witness the legendary mech with my own eyes. Yes, some may argue that skeleton mech isn''t really the strongest, but I am convinced the fact that the mech represents the top of a certain field, a master craftsmanship. As far as I know, almost every aristocrat who came to me mentioned about their research on skeleton mechs, though I have yet heard any sessful attempt from them.

    So who exactly are these people? Hai Lian was shocked, he could imagine and he swore that, if this information was leaked to the outside world, it would send fire to all the medias of the entire gxy.

    These flying "objects" were looking odd to Hai Lian on the other hand, although his instinct told him to not look down upon them. As a frencing hunter he had been talking to the beasts with his fist, so he was rather familiar with the skeletons. These flying objects must be formidable in some way as he had heard about stories of a person massively purchasing skeletons in the market back then, and as far as he eavesdropped, these materials seemed to be used for production of skeleton parts.

    And at the ck market of Nine Gates, there was a batch of skeleton parts quietly flowed into the market once. Almost every piece of them was astronomically priced. That was the first time an actual piece of skeleton part appeared in the eyes of humanity, different from its theoretical debut back then. Even though those were merely skeleton essories, they had once again rekindled the interests of humanity towards skeleton crafts, which led to an intion at the market. Hai Lian probably benefited from it the most. As a hunter he had a storage of skeletons, he could feel that happiness of his wallet exploding, the figure on his identity card ticking endlessly back then.

    A few pieces of essories were enough to stir up a rampage in the market. Now, imagine they saw aplete skeleton mech in front of them. I wonder how they would react? Maybe like the thrashing during the time when Gcly Gaga appeared. Hai Lian was pretty looking forward to it.

    Of course such thought was merely a whim rolling in his head. He would never word it. He expected himself to express full respect towards this very leader of the strange tribe., especially when he could feel pierced by the leader''s cold gaze. The leader''s browsid t like his tone. It was a fear to ovee for him toy his eyes upon the leader.

    These were some horrible barbarians. It must be the hidden troops trained by one of the aristocrats! I could tell from every gesture they made, okay, I am getting scared. I started to lose track of the happening, I could not really tell which aristocrat could own such major troops, other than the greatest three - Xue Lai n, the Ye family, the Xi Feng Tribe, but it would not make sense! None of those aristocrats possess a skeleton mech!

    And there were skeleton flying objects. 5000 of them! Such a budget! Seriously no other aristocrat could invest such a fortune. The colors though¡­ those were contradicting my assumption. As far as I know, the Xue Lai n adores the color white, whereas the Ye family prefers the color ck and the Xi Feng tribe has a thing for green. Those colors also happen to be the representation of the three aristocrats, which they would use to paint their mechs. But these skeleton flying objects were a mess! They do not have a standard color, it felt like I was caught by a group of underperforming troops or something! There are all sorts of colors, and some of them are even painted in patches of green and red, like a poorly done reskined mech from the wet market. Yet¡­ their behaviors were showing otherwise. They are solemn and stern, with convincing discipline. Anyone with eyes could tell they had undergone a long period of military training.

    Those eyes though, were very frightening to my sense. They were still, like too still, forceful which sometimes a re of their shrunken pupils would make my heart run cold. Archipgo is known to be the most tedious ce for humanity yet these men¡­ these Sang vigers I heard? They survived from the ughters from generation to generation. I also heard they had a severe war with Steelbats days ago, I know those Steelbats, they were terrifying, how in the Archipgo they handled the uncontrolled avifauna?

    Ye Chong and the tribe were not really aware of this so-called frightening stares and aura, it probably was a lingering fearsomeness because of the war back then. But it was enough to give a mind crush to Hai Lian.

    Okay, obviously, Hai Lian, these men were not the kind civilized one you would have expected. Yikes! Those stares! Stop it!

    In reality, it was all Hai Lian''s imagination. The entire tribe surrounded him as he was the first new outsider after the teacher''s arrival. No doubt they would be all rmed and curious.

    Hey! Hey! What do you want to do with me? Where do you want me to go?

    Hai Lian was called to the side by Ye Chong.

    "What exactly is this ce?" asked Ye Chong.

    Dammit you Archipgoose! Quit ying games with me! If you want to tease your enemy, do it properly! I had never felt so insulted in my entire life! Do you think I''m a fool? If there was anybody in the gxy who imed to be unaware of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, I would be piloting my mech and - with pleasure - crashed my head right into that fe! You Archipgoose! Try ying games with me again and you- "This ce, sir, is known as the Cmitous Asteroid Belt." Stated Hai Lian with wholehearted courtesy.

    It was not the first day Hai Lian went on his little adventure, he would never show his true dissatisfaction to an enemy with fearsome appearance.

    Ye Chong was finding the name pretty foreign. He tried searching the term in his mind - nope, no result. "So what gxy are we in exactly?" asked he again.

    I said stop ying games with me! Ughhhh! There''s a reason I call you an Archipgoose you twerp! I swear I am going to- "This, sir, is known as the He Yue gxy."

    "He Yue¡­ what?" Flinched Ye Chong, the name rang a bell. But¡­ He Yue gxy was not from any of the 5 major gxies¡­

    "Mister, did you just mention He Yue gxy? We are in He Yue gxy?" Sang Pu, rmed, asked frantically, which was intriguing to Ye Chong as Sang Pu had been all calm and steady till this statement toppled his rationality.

    "Duh! Where else? The ckhole?" responded Hai Lian, on a leak of his temper. Well, you love games, don''t you? Just carry on messing with my mind,e on. Wait, what did I just say? Oh no¡­ dear Hai Lian, you know that your life was still in their hands, don''t you?

    "He Yue gxy? He Yue gxy¡­," muttered Sang Pu, "Oh my lord, is this true? We had actually found our root a long time ago?" The vigers were stupefied.

    And only Ye Chong recalled by then, the ancestor of the Sang tribe once migrated from He Yue gxy to Archipgo. All these while he had been assuming the He Yue gxy being an old name of one gxy of the current 5 major gxies. But now this man''s statement seemed to be telling otherwise. So there was actually another gxy than the 5 major gxies?

    Hai Lian stared at these men, confused. Their expression seemed to be joyful but not really at the same time¡­ they did not seem to be acting though. Are they really not from He Yue? I clearly heard that mature man mentioning about He Yue being their root¡­ so ¡­ maybe¡­

    "How far is He Yue from the 5 major gxies?" Ye Chong was more concerned on this.

    "Five what? What Five major gxies?" Hai Lian was looking at Ye Chong in bewilderment.

    Aha! My hypothesis was right! I knew it! These men are not from He Yue at all! But assuming they really were from He Yue, probably they are some hidden elite troops trained by the aristocrat, who ventured into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt and disguised their transportation with camouge. They should be on some kind of top secret mission, oh no, and I actually butted in. To keep the mission as a secret, they would have to kill me!!!

    Luckily, Hai Lian, they were not from He Yue. Phew, I could finally flex my muscles. But frankly speaking, I am really curious of their origin. Man, I''m such a chicken at this, I could not even lift my mouth and ask. I guess, for now I should be as cooperative as possible.

    Sang Pu was truly the sessor to the leader, he regained his thoughts quickly and began inquiring more details of He Yue. He was more sensible in this than Ye Chong.

    Of course Hai Lian was fully cooperative, answering those inquiries without hesitation.

    Apparently, He Yue gxy did not have its own government. It was currently torn between forces. It wasplicated as not only there were numerous forces but also a vast number of frencing hunting pilots joining and forming different forces at the same time, truly chaotic. And among them, the three great aristocrats were most outstanding - Xue Lai n, Ye family, Xi Feng tribe, with their advancement in technologies as well as great battle capabilities. The catch was, these aristocrats, other than being in their respective region, were not as influential as the people outside would imagine.

    Sang Pu was all ears, and he asked a few questions from time to time.

    "Thank you very much," sighed Hai Lian in a relief upon hearing the loving phrase. His wit suggested the fact that these men indeedcked even the basic understanding of He Yue gxy. They surely would need a guide.

    Well that sounds like my safety charm! Sigh! Goodbye freedom, Hai Lian, you are eventually a bird trapped in the cage. It''s easy to say no right in the face of those pampered Aristocrats, but these are the barbarians, they would grind me for dinner if I dare to even shake my head!

    In his gxy, the outside world, none of those forces would suppress the frencing pilots. In He Yue certainly, the greatest force consisted of the frencing pilots like Hai Lian, since they easily outnumbered the 3 Aristocrats, which justified the fact that Hai Lian was still standing there under captive despite all the snobbish "No" he rubbed on the faces of those Aristocrats.

    But obviously these barbarians would never understand the fact that I''m an endangered species. Hai Lian you would be an ignorant bull if you would die simply because of a "No".

    Sang Pu then asked his men to lead Hai Lian to somewhere else after the interrogation.

    "So, what do we do next? Should we migrate again? Ask all our brothers and sisters to go back to our root?" They then had a discussion.

    "Sir, how do you see?" asked Sang Pu, with his expression as passionate as the folks by his side. It had to be the greatest wish for the Sangs to return to He Yue gxy, especially when it was near.

    "We could think about thatter. We have no idea how the ce here looks," declined Ye Chong. "Bringing everyone out could be an issue easily. We should scout the ce first, then we build a base, we would consider about the migration after all the conditions had been met. Well, for now you could go back and spread the happy news to everybody at least."

    Ye Chong might not be the most charismatic leader yet, but his decision-making was more mature than before.

    "True, sir!" His idea was approved by everybody. Their tribe had been staying in the Archipgo for generations, they had hardly seen the outside world, and only Ye Chong had the actual societal experience, so, one would of course listen to the experienced.

    "Go! Go and tell them we found home!" Sang Pu sent 10 men to spread the words.

    Ye Chong began pondering, as he confirmed the fact that there were indeed more gxies beyond the 5 major gxies, judging from the words of Hai Lian. Aplete zone of foreignness¡­

    Ye Chong began wondering if Mu Shang might happen to be there with the Cob. He discarded the idea quickly however, as he realized the probability was too measly for that to happen. The figure would further decrease assuming he would go on a search boldly at this foreign world.

    Only if they were lost in the 5 major gxies. Ye Chong would be sure of what to do. He just had to log into the Virtual World and let Mu discover and trace his energy signal.

    Will I see Mu Shang again?? Sighed Ye Chong in his mind.

    But first, I have better things to do. I should at least ensure my survival to even be able to meet them again. I knew nothing else than the hand-on-hand, I got to learn.

    I start to miss Shang''s overindulgence, at least Shang''s superior knowledge and diabolic nature would be close to my capabilities. The others¡­ well they needed my help more¡­ Helplessly Ye Chong took the g of leadership, since that seemed to be the most probable move to make for now.

    Luckily we got a tour guide.

    "Bring Hai Lian."

    "Yes sir."

    Ye Chong called Hai Lian to the front and mentioned his request.

    As expected! Thought Hai Lian, not like I have any choice though. So the free-unfree hunter epted the request without much hesitation.

    Ye Chong, suddenly had Shang''s voice echoed in his mind, "Remember, Ye, whenever the enemies agreed to your need, you should return the favor. Fair trade is fair. It''s a principle of life." Well then¡­

    "Since you have epted our request, simrly, as a fair trade, we would pay you with a price ordingly. So, tell us, what do you wish for?" The principle of life is the very basicw of human interaction, emphasized Shang. Even though Ye Chong could not guarantee to when and what extend he would abide by that principle, he would at least try learning it, since he was in fact the one sitting on the throne leading the people at the moment.

    Sang Pu and his men were looking at Sir oddly, as they believed the so-called price was unnecessary at all, since any resource in Archipgo would be as precious as a living necessity, plus Hai Lian had technically been enved by them, whatever he had performed should be unwaged.

    An inexperienced beast leading a group of iprehensible beasts - the best summary it was for Ye Chong''s current team perhaps.

    A joyful twist in Hai Lian''s show. It looked like his script did not end just there, since there was no need for a fill-in-the-nk promise in this scene! Such a charismatic man! Complimented Hai Lian. But well, the hunter''s mind schemed faster than the wind, as he said, "Thank you sir for your greatest kindness, however it would be more helpful if I could know what the lord could offer at his convenience¡­"

 Chapter 282 - A Terrified Hai Lian

    <h4>Chapter 282: A Terrified Hai Lian</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong blinked. He was caught off guard. As it was, everyone on his side had no money at all, not even a single zuan. Nheless, Ye Chong was not embarrassed over it. He never really thought highly of money, and being penniless was absolutely normal for him. Ye Chong replied, "Hmm, we have no money. But, if you¡¯re interested in that, we¡¯ll need time to pay you." Mu and Shang had told him before, that almost everyone would be interested in money.

    Hai Lian looked at the man before him, and felt like he could not understand him at all. He had just told him that they were broke without any embarrassment, like he was only talking about the weather.

    Hai Lian spoke more respectfully, "I¡¯m not too keen on money. If possible, please give me a full-skeleton mech, and I¡¯ll be most grateful." Someone as weathered as Hai Lian would know not to offer too low a price, so that there was room for negotiation.

    A full-skeleton mech. Ye Chong quietly sighed in relief. To him, it was not too difficult. Ye Chong nodded. "Alright then. However, we didn¡¯t bring any extra full-skeleton mechs. For a new full-skeleton mech, we¡¯ll need some time to deliver." It would take time, whether it was building a new one from scratch, or getting one from the Sang Family Vige.

    "No problem," Hai Lian answered quickly, afraid that Ye Chong might take back his word. Heavens, he never thought Ye Chong would actually agree to it. To him, a full-skeleton mech would more than satisfy him, and now the man had actually agreed without hesitation. He could almost jump with joy.

    He would risk his life for a full-skeleton mech, much less waiting for awhile. Besides, the other man seemed honest enough. More importantly, he understood his position in this negotiation.

    The thought of having a full-skeleton mech was euphoric. Hai Lian almost fainted with joy. What¡¯s in a full-skeleton mech? If someone were to offer a full-skeleton mech as a reward when hiring a frence mech pilot, Hai Lian was sure that many would jump at the offer. An excellent mech to a mech pilot was like a finely honed sword to a swordsman, or a beauty to a yboy; besides, this was a full-skeleton mech!

    The turn from downright miserable to absolute joy was like a dream to Hai Lian. He could feel himself enveloped in a dreamy sensation of happiness. Fortunately, the full-skeleton mech was only promised to him. If they were to present him with a full-skeleton mech there and then, Hai Lian thought he would probably faint on the spot.

    "Since you¡¯ve agreed, then let¡¯s talk about how to make things work between us." Ye Chong¡¯s voice broke Hai Lian¡¯s reverie. Hai Lian finally came to, and remembered then that the mech woulde at a price.

    "Just let me know what I can do for you, sir!" With the full-skeleton mech as price, Hai Lian submitted unreservedly to provide his services.

    Ye Chong continued evenly, "Hmm, we¡¯re not asking for much, other than that you work as a reliable guide for us. On the other hand, don¡¯t try to look into our background, and don¡¯t tell anyone about us. Any action on your part must go through my approval. Oh, right, and another thing, I¡¯ll leave the matter of our identification documents to you."

    Hai Lian nodded as he listened. The job was not too difficult, reasonable even. Sang Pu and the rest listened on the side as well. The outside world was too unfamiliar to them.

    Ye Chong took a nce at the vigers and continued, "What we have to do now is to stay low, our safety is top priority. All your ns must be based on this." He then turned to look at Sang Pu and the others and said, "The same goes for all of you."

    "Yes sir," Sang Pu and the rest bowed, answering in unison.

    Hai Lian looked respectfully at Ye Chong. He could not understand how a young man like him couldmand such respect from these people. Hai Lian himself was impressed by the discipline that this group had demonstrated. He was sure that, with the exception of the three main aristocratic families, no one in the He Yue gxy coulde close to this attitude.

    Ye Chong took a casual nce at Hai Lian and said, "Since we have an agreement, I hope you¡¯ll do your part. If you turn back on the deal, you should know the consequences to that, I¡¯m sure."

    Hai Lian could feel cold sweat rolling down along his back, down to the tip of his spine. There was a deep chill spreading from the depths of his heart. Ye Chong¡¯s casual sentence came out like a blizzard.

    Hai Lian quickly replied, "Don¡¯t worry, sir, I will do my best." He was moaning regretfully on the inside. The full-skeleton mech will note easy, indeed.

    Sang Pu, Sang Fan and the others quickly passed the word from Ye Chong to the rest. The Sang family members were all used to hunting, and had lived under thews of nature. No one understood better than Ye Chong what disaster they would cause once they stepped into human society, since he had done it before himself.

    Looking back at those days, he would not have survived without Mu and Shang. His own journey was not all stars and glory, but littered with a good many deadly battles.

    Human society was tooplicated. He was still continually vexed by it. Once, he would leave such problems for Mu and Shang to worry about; now, it was up to him to solve their predicament. Moreover, it was not just him now, but a whole 5,000 Sang family vigers. He must take every step with the utmost care.

    While Ye Chong was not familiar with this kind of problem, he was at least able to calcte the best solution, out of influence from Mu. The order he just gave was based on his considerations of the situation at hand.

    The only ones in the world whom Ye Chong would sacrifice so much for would be Mu and Shang, but this did not mean that Ye Chong would act irresponsibly. He would do his best to protect the 5,000 Sang family members, even if he would not die for them.

    Ye Chong asked, "Are you familiar with this ce?"

    Hai Lian nodded. "Yes, I¡¯ve been around for years."

    "Are there many visitors?" Ye Chong asked.

    Hai Lian shook his head. "Not many. The wild animals here are nasty things, plus thend is difficult to travel. Aside from independent hunters, and mech pilots here for actualbat training, no one reallyes here."

    Ye Chong was satisfied with that, since it greatly reduced the probability of the Sang family members being found out. Having 5,000 people suddenly visiting a city would have been big news, much less when they all looked vicious as h*ll.

    "Is there any hidden ce around here, big enough to fit 5,000 people?" Ye Chong asked.

    5,000 people ¡­ Hai Lian was shocked. He thought there would only be around two to three thousand, but now ¡­ Keeping himselfposed, he pondered over the question for a moment before replying, "Hmm, there¡¯s a valley nearby, very much hidden, and spacious. I think it should be big enough for 5,000 people. It¡¯s just that there are many wild beasts there, very vicious ones. I¡¯ve only been there once, and nearly lost my life." Hai Lian spoke of his experience at the valley with lingering fear.

    Wild beasts? Ye Chong believed that no animal would be more vicious than the ones at Archipgo. Animals that lived with such strong gravity would be so much more dangerous than the animals here.

    "Gather them up," Ye Chong spoke with a in but undefiable voice. He was beginning to ept and y the role of a leader. He was the perfect case study of a leader made, not born.

    Sang Ling bowed, and did asmanded.

    The Sang tribe was efficient. Even withoutmunication devices, they still managed to work with such efficiency.

    The 5,000-strong battalion stood in formation with a silent, imposing manner.

    "There¡¯s a valley nearby. We¡¯ll have to clear the area of wild beasts. Sang Pu will lead the operation." Ye Chong had no idea how to give orders, and only spoke in his usual way.

    "Yes sir," All 5,000 of them answered.

    Hai Lian was pale, watching the events unfolding before him. Ye Chong¡¯s seemingly unleaderly order had transformed the 5,000 people into formidable warriors. If those 5,000 people were like a sword in its sheath earlier, then Ye Chong¡¯s order seemed to have unsheathed the sword.

    The 5,000 strong formation did not move, and everyone¡¯s expression was still as sombre as before, but now, one could feel the strong, deadly aura from them. Hai Lian had never seen anything like it, and was hence pale from fear.

    "As expected, they¡¯re killers," Hai Lian thought to himself. A friend once told him that this steady but deadly aura would onlye from people who had have survived countless battles to the death. However, He Yue had never seen war for years. Why would there be veteran soldiers here? And why would there be 5,000 of them?

    Where did theye from? That was the main question for Hai Lian. However, he was also well aware of the situation, and would not risk his life for the answer.

    Under Hai Lian¡¯s guidance, Ye Chong and the rest quickly found the valley.

    However, what happened next shocked Hai Lian once again, till his face was drained of blood.

    This ¡­ This was a massacre! Heavens, who were these people? He had nearly lost his life here, but now the beasts were killed so easily that he was having a hard time to even breathe, taking in the spectacle.

    He had seen so-called infamous mech pilot squads working, but they were like child¡¯s ypared to what he was seeing now. He dared not record it, though. If he did, he was sure that their performance would cause an uproar in the world, and the cooperation they demonstrated would be a wee addition into the curriculum for mech pilot group strategies as a case study.

    That odd-shaped flying machine was packed with such destructive powers that Hai Lian himself could freeze in fear. The valley was scattered with blood everywhere. He could hear the animals howling in fear and pain. Their savage methods were enough to make even someone as weathered as him to squirm.

    Even the Ye family, known for their savage ways in this gxy, could notpare to this battalion. The Ye family preferred close rangebat, but not in the crude and brute force methods of these people, crashing into their enemies without style.

    However, the way they worked with each other was intriguing in a way that Hai Lian could not exactly describe. It was like watching a huge, bearded man swinging his tworge iron hammers around as he yelled barbarically, but all the while moving gracefully like a dancer. The contrast was mind bending.

    The clearing operation went swiftly. Only 500 people were involved, but their astonishing efficiency would satisfy even the most unyielding critics.

    Hai Lian stared at the animal bodies scattered around the area. They could all be sold for money! If all these people decided to start working as frence hunters, then the other hunters should just choose another line of work.

    Ye Chong walked to one of the bodies, took out his dagger and slit open the flesh. He inspected the animal¡¯s skeleton, and shook his head. If it were before he entered Archipgo, he would have thought these skeletons were excellent. However, now that Archipgo had raised the bar, he could no longer be satisfied with these skeletons. They were too inferiorpared to those from the Archipgo.

    Archipgo skeletons were still the best!

    Ye Chong¡¯s familiar movements and his ease around the bodies made Hai Lian understand that the young man, so respected by the battalion, must have had his own share of a bloody past.

    Ye Chong had no idea how to set camp or secure the perimeter, so he left all the work to Sang Pu.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    On a deserted in on Soundfall, a group was advancing swiftly, fast like a falling star.

    This was Ye Chong and his people. Once the battalion was settled, and instructions were given, Ye Chong led a team himself to survey the known as Soundfall. Together with him was Sang Fan and a few others. Sang Pu was left at base to handle any unexpected situations. Ye Chong¡¯s order were for them to stay hidden; if they were spotted, leave no witnesses alive. The order made Hai Lian felt a chill reaching deep to his bones.

    Ye Chong took eight people with him. Together with himself and Hai Lian, they made up a group of 10. The eight included Sang Fan and Sang Ling, and the rest were all elites like Sang Huo and Sang Tie.

 Chapter 283 - Entering the City

    <h4>Chapter 283: Entering the City</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    With the exception of Ye Chong and Hai Lian, the rest of them had no dimension keystones for their mechs. Full-skeleton mechs were too much of an attention grabber, and if they entered the city with those mechs, they would be noticed the moment they arrived. Ye Chong knew this from his experience at the Nine Gates of Daylight.

    The person left behind to defend the base was Sang Mu. Sang Mu was a socially awkward figure, but in fact he had a quick mind, a typical strategist. He was an excellent fighter, and ruthless enough to be make some of the vigers wary of him. Ye Chong¡¯s instructions to him were to protect the mechs, and retaliate where necessary. If their safety waspromised, they were to escape immediately. To Ye Chong, survival was of the utmost importance.

    The rest of them were heading towards the nearest city.

    Hai Lian was shocked. He never imagined that this lean young guy would be so strong. When he was carried by Sang Tie, the wind blowing in his face made it hard to breathe. He could barely open his eyes as the man ran like the wind. His mind was in circles, and he could not even form a coherent thought!

    The eight people advanced in battle formation, surrounding Ye Chong in the center. Soundfall had considerably weaker gravity than at Archipgo. On the other hand, Sang Tie and others were already quite fast on Archipgo. Hence, they moved so fast it was like they were running on engines.

    Ye Chong believed that even a Jie expert specializing in running would not be able to outrun them.

    With the exception of Ye Chong and Hai Lian, the rest of them wore enthusiastic expressions. They had never experienced weak gravity like this. Every Sang tribe member yearned for greater power, speed and strength. Their heightened abilities here were unprecedented, so it was only natural that they felt so excited.

    Mechs flew past them from above asionally. There came in all sorts of designs, be it humanoid or animal shaped. Sang Fan and the rest watched with awe, new to the outside world. Even so, they remained in formation and did not slow down.

    Their speed was getting a little too conspicuous, as some mechs would hover over them for a while before continuing on their journeys. Soon, Ye Chong realized the issue, and asked for them to slow down. However, even then, they were still running faster than normal.

    The city¡¯s silhouette came to view in the distance.

    After Hai Lian was put down, he took nearly three minutes to recover himself. He then took a look and found the city in view, and was bbergasted. He turned back to see the group, and found that they did not look strained or even tired at all. Even Sang Tie, who was carrying him, was breathing quite evenly.

    Hai Lian gulped heavily, his fear of the group now refreshed. What astonishing stamina! They had actually arrived here on foot! He could not help but think, also, that if they were to go at "it", they could probably go on for days ¡­ He felt a little jealous

    No one said anything. The group stayed in battle formation, wearing serious expressions.

    However, Hai Lian quickly broke off his lewd thoughts, since he saw Ye Chong looking at him.

    Hai Lian quickly spoke up, "That¡¯s the city called Foundation, I¡¯ve been there a few times. The city¡¯s under the power of the Kuri tribe. Please beware, the women of the tribe cannot be touched, or there will be trouble."

    "The Kuri tribe?" Sang Fan asked. Of all the younger Sang tribe members, only Sang Pu and Sang Fan could behave naturally in front of Ye Chong. Even Sang Ling would be behave more carefully around Ye Chong inter days.

    Hai Lian said, "Yes. The Kuri tribe is more conservative. Aside from weapons like mechs, they¡¯re quite opposed to technology. They worship nature, and pray to a mythical goddess they call the Divine Lady. So, if any Kuri tribe member makes a vow in the name of the Divine Lady, you can rest assured they mean it."

    Everyone seemed interested in this.

    Hai Lian noticed that he had everyone¡¯s attention, and continued happily, "The Kuri tribe may not be a huge tribe, with primitive technology, but seldom do people meddle with them. They¡¯re weapon enthusiasts, investing much of their efforts in weapons technology, which is above average. Besides, the tribe members are all able and eager to fight, so people usually leave them alone."

    These people listening to him were actually his employers, and the ones who will give him his full-skeleton mech, so Hai Lian reminded them, "However, the Kuri tribe is not exactly ruling the ce diligently. As long as you leave them alone, they wouldn¡¯t care what you do in Foundation city. As a result, Foundation is actually in quite a social mess. You¡¯ll see fights anywhere, anytime, so please be careful."

    As they heard that there would be fights in the city, everyone instantly raised their guard. Hai Lian quickly soothed them. "Rx, everyone. I believe that no one in Foundation would dare to mess with us." The residents of Foundation were all weathered fighters, and would probably recognize that this group was not one to be messed with.

    As they approached Foundation, the mechs in the sky grew numerous, and so did the pedestrians. Most of them walked steadily with hardened eyes. Their clothing looked weathered, and their faces even more so. Ye Chong was curious about this. In the Five Gxies, the people on the streets all walked casually, their faces an unhealthy pallor, more like sick peoplepared to the people here.

    "Who are they?" Ye Chong asked, pointing at them.

    Hai Lian took a nce, and replied, "They¡¯rebat experts."

    "Combat experts?" Ye Chong was surprised. Combat experts were rare in the Five Gxies, a forgotten line of work. Most of them only practiced in their own dojos. Here, however, Ye Chong had seen dozens of them walking around. Couldbat experts actually bemon in this ce?

    "Yes, they¡¯rebat experts who¡¯ve gone through ascetic training. Mostbat experts who reached a certain level of skill would leave their homes for ascetic training to improve their skills and harden their resolve. These people you see arebat experts visiting here to train themselves. Abat expert who hadpleted his or her ascetic training is well respected here, and is usually very strong," Hai Lian exined. However, he was immediately reminded of how crazily strong these people are. Now that was true strength.

    Ye Chong grew curious. "Why arebat experts still popr here? Shouldn¡¯t mech pilots be more mainstream?"

    Hai Lian exined evenly, "Mech piloting is indeed the popr choice, but without a strong body, it¡¯s almost impossible to improve your piloting skills beyond an intermediate level. Besides, what¡¯s a better to way to train yourself physically than going intobat training? Also, many mech pilots still die in the hands ofbat experts these days!"

    Ye Chong nodded in agreement. For someone as skilled in mech piloting as him, he knew that advanced piloting skills would require more stringent demands on the mech pilot¡¯s physical condition. Even a single change in direction, when done in half the time, would increase the demand on the pilot¡¯s physical abilities by more than half. Ye Chong had killed more than a few mech pilots outside his mech, thus he understood that mech pilots outside their mechs were usually weak and vulnerable.

    "Here, everyone learns to fight from their childhood. Since children¡¯s bodies haven¡¯t fully matured, mech pilot training is not suitable for them. Besides, learning to fight not only helps to strengthen them physically, but it can also toughen their minds. Their instructors arebat experts. Many mech pilots would eventually head outside to train themselves as well." Hai Lian added, "Mental strength is more important than skills."

    "That makes sense," Ye Chong agreed. This mindset seemed to be better than the popr mindset in the Five Gxies. Hence, the mech pilots here must be stronger than those from the Five Gxies.

    The city was surrounded by all sorts of fauna. The wide stretch of blooming flowers was an eye-opener. One could even see some beautifuldies among the flowers, tending to them.

    Hai Lian whispered, "These woman are from the Kuri tribe. They like to take care of the nts. Please don¡¯t damage any of the nts, or we¡¯ll be in deep trouble. The Kuri tribe women can be very troublesome."

    Ye Chong nodded in understanding. The view was beautiful, with all kinds of flowering nts and trees neatly arranged in a refreshing manner. Outside the foliage areas were many parking spaces. The mechs in the air wouldnd here, and the mech pilot would hop out of the pilot cabin, withdraw their mechs, and walk into the city.

    Ye Chong found that most of the mech pilots here did not use ropedders, but made their way down to the ground by themselves. As expected, the mech pilots here were mostlybat trained. They all looked like tough characters,pletely unlike the superficial mech pilots in the Five Gxies.

    Sang Fan and the rest were tense. They had never seen so many strangers before. The way they held themselves got the attention of the people around them. Hai Lian groaned inside and asked them to rx themselves, to no avail.

    Ye Chong said nothing. He understood that their habits could not be ovee so soon. He handled himself worse in the past. However, he also knew that they were standing out too much, which made it easier to get them into trouble. Fortunately, they were all strictly disciplined, and would not attack first without his order.

    When a standardbat squad in battle formation entered the scene, its members all looking serious and deadly, it was hard to blend in the background. No one dared to stay within 20 meters of them. Even the Kuri tribe women tending to the nts stood up, and gave them odd looks.

    In fact, just as Hai Lian predicted, their group stood out too much. Hai Lian saw a few mech pilot squads directing meaningful looks at them. However, with the deadly auraing from them, no one dared toe and greet the neers.

    The deadly auraing from their group was too strong. Hai Lian did not know that the Sang family vigers had just fought a war, and were still fresh from that experience.

    The people around them gossiped in low whispers.

    "Let¡¯s go." Ye Chong did not want to be stared at like some creature. Besides, their wary nces made him ufortable.

    Inside the city, Ye Chong felt like he had returned to civilization. This was not a wastnd like the Archipgo. He could see traces of technology everywhere. The wide street was filled with pedestrians bustling about, unlike in the cities where Ye Chong had visited before. In any city in the Five Gxies, pedestrians were usually rarely seen on the road. The sky was the main road of transport. Conventional transportation was reced with mechs. Here in the city, however, there were no mechs flying above them.

    The street was lined with shops, and the holographic advertisements on disy threw Ye Chong into a daze. He was reminded of Mu and Shang, and then Bai Linan, and the days gone past. Now, however, he did not know where Mu and Shang were, or how Bai Linan was doing. Truly, life unfolds in unexpected ways.

    However, Ye Chong quickly focused and mocked himself, "Since when am I so sentimental?"

    Sang Fan and the group had never seen these high tech holographic advertisements before, and they all gaped at them.

    "Bumpkins," someoneughed at them. The people around them were all looking at them condescendingly.

    Hai Lian stopped in his tracks. These onlookers must have a death wish, to mess with the group he was with. And now ¡­ He felt deeply troubled.

    However, after a long moment, Ye Chong and the others did not respond at all.

    Hai Lian did not know that Sang Fan and the others did not even know what a bumpkin was. As for Ye Chong, he was well aware of the insult, but equally uninterested in such meaningless fights. Thus, he ignored thement.

    As Hai Lian had informed him, most of the stores here sell mechs, weaponry and such. The next most popr goods were mech parts and the like. Ye Chong even found a few stores specialized in less conventional or traditional weapons. This intrigued him a lot. In the Five Gxies, stores like these were almost unheard of. Traditional weapons were more like artworks there. However, since there were manybat experts in the city, Ye Chong realized that it was only reasonable to see those stores here. As abat expert himself, he knew that there werebat experts who specialized in these unconventional weapons.

    Ye Chong asked Hai Lian abruptly, "Where can I buy dimension keystones?" He now needed arge amount of dimension keystones. Without them, Sang Fan and the rest would not be able to take Collision with them. If they found themselves in trouble, they would be more at risk without their mechs.

    Hai Lian quickly answered, "All the stores selling mech parts will have them, but ¡­" He seemed unable to continue further.

    "But what?" Ye Chong looked strangely at Hai Lian.

    "Dimension keystones are not cheap, do you have enough money?" Hai Lian looked carefully at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong realized his predicament then.

 Chapter 284 - The Three Aristocratic Families

    <h4>Chapter 284: The Three Aristocratic Families</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ever since he escaped the trash, Ye Chong had never worried about money. This was firstly due to his shallow understanding of currency, and secondly, Mu and Shang had always dealt with this issue for him.

    Now, the first problem he faced was actually about money. He knew next to nothing about ways to make more money. If it was just him alone, he would have acted with less worries; however, with so many with him, it was just not feasible to use more extreme methods.

    Ye Chong turned to Sang Fan and asked, "Anyvagold weapons?"

    Sang Fan immediately responded, "Only avagold dagger."

    "Hand it over." Ye Chong reached out his hand, and Sang Fan quickly released the dagger secured on his thigh and ced it in Ye Chong¡¯s hand. Sang Fan¡¯s dagger was made by him, the sheathe made out of tough steelbat skin, simple and practical.

    Hai Lian looked at the inconspicuous weapon with interest. Lavahold dagger? What a curious name.

    Ye Chong took the dagger and headed towards one of the traditional weapons stores. The others quickly adjusted their formation ordingly, keeping Ye Chong at the center as he walked towards the store.

    The discipline showed by the small group gathered a few interested nces, some of them with fear.

    As Ye Chong entered the traditional weapons store, the storekeeper noticed therge group and greeted them warmly, anticipating good business.

    The storekeeper smiled widely at Ye Chong as he said, "How can I help you, sir? Please have a look around, if you see anything of interest, feel free to give them a try. If you need any special weapons, our store offers custom build services. Our main weapons craftsmith is Duo Lanmen, with the title Strange. He¡¯s well suited for making more unique weapons."

    Hai Lian could not help but be surprised. He never imagined that a small store like this would have a weapons craftsmith with the Strange title. A weapons craftsmith with a title was much coveted by any powerful organization. The title denoted the specialization in their work. Duo Lanmen, for example, with the title Strange, would be specialized in unique weapons.

    Hai Lian¡¯s surprise pleased the storekeeper. Duo Lanmen was his store¡¯s main star. He would make the same introduction to every new customer, and their look of surprise was something he enjoyed very much.

    However, seeing the rest of the group unmoved, the storekeeper guessed that they must have been seasoned veterans who would not be impressed by the normal things he had on disy. On the other hand, he also knew that this kind of customers were usually the ones who would spend more. Perhaps he had a huge opportunity here. Just when he was about to show them the best products from his store, the leader spoke.

    "Do you buy weapons here?" The calm voice came from Ye Chong.

    The storekeeper paused. They were not here to purchase anything. He was heavily disappointed, but kept the smile on his face as he said, "Of course we do, what would you be selling, sir? Please give me a moment, for your reassurance, all authentication and valuation in this store is carried out by the weapons craftsmith Duo Lanmen himself. Will this be agreeable to you?"

    The group seemed dodgy to him. Best if he let Duo Lanmen to inspect whatever they had to sell, since no one would actually doubt the decision of a weapons craftsmith with a title.

    Ye Chong nodded and said, "Alright." He then turned his attention to the weapons on disy in the store.

    They were all unpopr or traditional weapons, and came in all types and shapes. It was definitely an eye-opener for him. Sang Fan and the rest were even more impressed. However, even in this store, they still kept their vignce, with their formation unbroken. Their lives in Archipgo had taught them to never let their guard down.

    A whileter, a middle-aged man came out from a deeper part of the store. He was simply dressed and looked gaunt, with a thin face. However, his eyes sparkled with life, and his hands were broad and powerful, covered with calluses.

    The storekeeper introduced, "This is the craftsmith, Duo Lanmen. Old Duo, this customer wants to sell a weapon, please have a look."

    Duo Lanmen nodded, and turned to Ye Chong. "Oh, what would you like to sell, young man?"

    Ye Chong nodded in greeting and pulled out thevagold dagger in his hand. "This one."

    Duo Lanmen took the dagger, but did not unsheathe it immediately. Instead, he studied the sheath closely, and after a long moment, asked in confusion, "What is this sheath made of, I wonder?"

    Ye Chong replied, "The skin of a kind of bird, called steelbat."

    Duo Lanmen rubbed the sheath with his right hand and praised, "Tough but resilient, dark and practical. Excellent." The storekeeper immediately felt much happier. Just by the dagger¡¯s sheath made of animal hide that Duo Lanmen had never even seen before, the weapon was gold. Old Duo had high standards, and would rarelypliment.

    Duo Lanmen suddenly unsheathed the dagger, with a sh of gold from thevagold de.

    "Lavagold!" Duo Lanmen¡¯s astonished deration came in a trembling voice.

    Lavagold¡¯s beauty was apparent no matter where it was. The dagger was entirely covered in gold, shining like molten gold.

    "What a pity ¡­" Duo Lanmen muttered expressively.

    "What?" The storekeeper could not help but ask, and everyone directed their attention to Duo Lanmen.

    Duo Lanmen exined inly, "I don¡¯t know which prodigal son did this, such a waste of material. The dagger¡¯s design is unremarkable, entirely unsuited to be made withvagold. More importantly, he¡¯d used so muchvagold to make such an uninteresting dagger. What a prodigal son, what a truly wasteful heir! This is impossible, if that man is my student, hmph ¡­" Duo Lanmen grew angrier as he spoke. The storekeeper quickly took thevagold dagger from him, the precious weapon.

    Sang Fan was now blushing like a cherry, but Duo Lanmen and the storekeeper did not notice him. The rest of the Sang family members looked at Sang Fan helplessly, while Sang Ling hid a smile behind her hands. For the moment, Sang Fan was in an incredibly awkward position.

    Ye Chong asked, "Then how much do you think this dagger is worth, sir?"

    Duo Lanmen replied, "At least 30 thousand credits."

    The storekeeper was startled, and nearly dropped the dagger. "Old Duo, you think it¡¯s worth 30 thousand credits?" The storekeeper was troubled. Even Hai Lian was speechless, gaping at the value. How could a dagger be worth 30 thousand credits? Heavens, what was thisvagold, to be worth so much?

    "Yes. 30 thousand credits is for thevagold and the dagger¡¯s sheath. The dagger itself is worthless," Duo Lanmen exined in all seriousness.

    From their reactions, Ye Chong thought that the price was appropriate. However, he had no idea what 30 thousand credits were actually worth.

    "Alright, 30 thousand credits then," Ye Chong said.

    As they exited the weapons store, Hai Lian thought he was still in a dream. That dagger had been sold for 30 thousand credits! Had the world gone mad? He was now feeling a little distracted, like in a dream. In that short exchange, he had suddenly added 30 thousand credits to his ount. Ye Chong and the rest had no cards, so the 30 thousand credits were all added into his card.

    "How much is 30 thousand credits?" Ye Chong suddenly turned to ask him.

    "How much is 30 thousand credits?" Hai Lian answered reflexively, "30 thousand credits is the price of my Moonlight." Hai Lian had always worked hard, and alone. As a frence hunter, his ie was not much. It took a few years for him to save enough to buy Moonlight. Now that he saw a mere dagger sold at 30 thousand credits, how could he still remain calm?

    Ye Chong noticed Hai Lian¡¯s mood, and knew that he was not fit to answer anything clearly. He turned to the rest and asked, "Any of you havevagold weapons too?"

    The rest shook their heads. Most of thevagold weapons were left behind in the Sang Family Vige, since they needed to fly Collision. It seemed that sellingvagold was not an option.

    With the money they have, Ye Chong and the group entered a mech parts store. Sang Mu was still guarding the mechs. If he could first solve the problem of dimension keystones for at least this group, then they would be safer when facing any danger.

    In the mech parts store, Ye Chong noted at the prices of the mech parts and realized that the 30 thousand credits were actually not worth a lot. A brainwave controlled dimension keystone cost at least two thousand credits, and could go up to 10 thousand credits.

    The group was stunned.

    "Why are they so expensive?" Sang Ling gasped. Women were more naturally inclined to be sensitive to prices. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

    Hai Lian had recovered himself then, and gave them an odd look as he replied inly, "Of course they are. Are mechs never expensive? How can youpare a mech with a traditional weapon?"

    His exnation made sense to the group. To them, mechs were the pinnacle of technological achievement. How could they not be expensive?

    Ye Chong heard nothing from the conversation. His attention waspletely focused on a mech part disyed on the holographic screen before him.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened. How was this possible? He nearly gasped out loud, unable to maintain his calm. The products listed on the holographic screen and the mech parts on disy were too unreal for him to ept.

    Nanowave guns, ck gold alloy shields, Greenwood engines ¡­ These mech equipments weremon here, and not too expensive.

    Nanowave guns were standard weaponry for the MPA; ck gold alloy shields were unique to ck Cove; Greenwood engines were only used by the Sanctuary. The top ss mechs from the Five Gxies weremon goods around here.

    What in the universe was He Yue gxy? Why would they have goods from the Three Forces? Could the Three Forces actually have originated from this ce?

    On the other hand, Ye Chong also saw many mech parts found only in Mu¡¯s and Shang¡¯s database archives. All this while, Ye Chong had thought of the mech¡¯s database as a collection of the most advanced technology in the world. His battle experience with ck Cove, MPA and the Sanctuary had suggested as much. However, Ye Chong found that he could buy their weapons here, if only at an expensive price. With money, he could buy anything. Some of the weapons were enough to make Ye Chong jealous.

    Ye Chong quickly scrolled through the introductions for these mech parts on the holographic screen.

    The nanowave guns were built by the Xue Lai n; the ck gold alloy shield by the Ye family; the Greenwood engine by the Xi Feng tribe.

    "Xue Lai n, Ye Family, Xi Feng Tribe ¡­" Ye Chong muttered to himself. Weren¡¯t they the Three Aristocratic Families, as Hai Lian had told him? What was their rtionship with the Three Forces?

    Now that he thought of it, he was now enemies with the Three Forces. If they were rted to the Three Aristocratic Families, then the chances of him having a peaceful conversation with the aristocrats would be nil. Ye Chong smiled wryly to himself. It seemed that he had just p*ssed off all three Aristocratic Families of the He Yue gxy.

    However, Ye Chong quickly calmed himself. So what if it was the aristocrats? Ye Chong was not afraid of them. After the initial shock, he regained hisposure. The current Ye Chong was much stronger than ever before. Running away was no longer his only option against powerful adversaries.

    The only thing that vexed him now was the problem ofying low, staying away from the Three Aristocratic Families at least for awhile. With their current numbers, they could only escape back to Archipgo if they were found out.

    It was fortunate that they had Archipgo as a retreat point. As long as he stayed vignt, even thebined effort of the Three Aristocratic Families would not bring him down so easily. Besides, Ye Chong was confident of the Sang family members. With their strength and readiness for war, as long as he armed them well, they would at least stand a chance.

    For now, though, they were definitely not a match for the Three Aristocratic Families. They held no advantage at all.

    Ye Chong asked Hai Lian suddenly, "How is the intelwork of the Three Aristocratic Families? Do they have power in Foundation?"

    Hai Lian was caught off guard, but replied, "The Three Aristocratic Families? Of course they¡¯re good. No one couldpete with them in terms of intel! They have people in every city, including Foundation city. Are you looking for the one of the aristocrats?"

    Ye Chong was startled by his words, and quickly said to Hai Lian, "Buy eight brainwave-controlled dimension keystones, and use the remaining credits to buy paint, of any color. Quick!" While he was not exactly familiar with the intelwork of the Three Aristocratic Families, he was however familiar with the intelwork of the Three Forces. The Three Aristocratic Families would not fare worse! With his group standing out so much, surely they would be identified soon.

    Seeing Ye Chong so nervous, the group knew that something must have happened. Sang Fan and the rest quickly raised their guard. The air around them chilled instantly, enough to scatter the other customers away from them. Some customers even quietly left the store.

    Hai Lian did not dawdle, since he saw Sang Tie¡¯s eyes fixed on his throat. He could feel a chill down his spine. He made the purchase at record time, pushing down his reluctance on spending so much credits in such a short time.

    The automatic vendor system soon delivered the goods to the group.

    "We leave the city now," Ye Chong announced coldly, and led the group out of the store.

 Chapter 285 - What a Small World

    <h4>Chapter 285: What a Small World</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The group that had just entered the city from the flower path had left a deep impression in Luo Xing. This was an elite group, he was certain of it. He could also see that they were all excellentbat experts by the way they took their steps, and the looks in their eyes. Most staggering of all was their deadly aura, one born from a long history of fighting for one¡¯s life, something impossible to fake. All the while they were here, they remained perfectly in formation, a demonstration of good coordination.

    If it were only a single person, Luo Xing would have thought he was seeing abat expert. However, this was a group of nine; or rather, a group of eight. His subordinate had identified one of them as Hai Lian, a frence hunter. Hai Lian was a familiar character to him. As Foundation city¡¯s resident officer, he was at least familiar with the local talents. Hai Lian was admirably capable, someone he wanted to have in his team, but the man had rejected his offers repeatedly.

    To think that Hai Lian was now together with this group! Just who were these people? Luo Xing was interested to know.

    If they were a group of strongbat experts, he would have immediately invited them to join his n. The Xu Lan n had always appreciated good talent. However, the group¡¯s coordination skills had shocked him. In his opinion, even the best elite groups in the n would not be able to top their level of coordination.

    These were notbat experts. They were a group of highly trained warriors. Luo Xing knew the difference between the former andtter.

    Normal people would not be able to acquire these skills. This was a mysterious force, unknown to him, emerging in the city. He Yue gxy, where the Three Aristocratic Families had ruled over for years, was now suddenly facing an unknown power. What would happen to the He Yue gxy? How could he not be worried?

    He had already sent a recording of the group back to the n. He believed that someone in the n must know something about them. He was waiting for further instructions. As for the group, he already had subordinates keeping an eye on them.

    Beep beep beep. Thems device on his desk pinged.

    Luo Xing was immediately agitated. The n had always used encrypted text to ry instructions, and had never used hisms device. It seemed that this was a big one.

    He breathed deeply twice to calm himself. Then, he tried his best to project a calm exterior as he answered the call.

    A woman in white appeared on thems device¡¯s holographic screen. Her outfit was white as snow, and her long hair reached her shoulders. Her face was cold as ice, her skin white as snow, and smooth as ss. An aquiline nose and cherry lips adorned her enchanting profile. However, her sharp eyes looked like they could pierce through a person¡¯s soul, that none could stare straight into them.

    "You are Luo Xing?" Her crisp voice rang like an icy bell, chilling the heart of its listener.

    Luo Xing replied respectfully, "I am." H*ll, it was Lady Xue herself. It looked like the group represented a significant power indeed.

    Lady Xue nodded approvingly. "Hmm, well done. It seems that our training is not wasted on you. Your vignce ismendable, the n will remember your service this time."

    Luo Xing was overjoyed inside, but he tried to keep his expression as still as possible.

    "Luo Xing!" Lady Xue suddenly spokemandingly.

    Luo Xing sobered, and answered solemnly, "Yes."

    "The n Leader¡¯s orders are to capture them, at all costs." Lady Xue ordered with a cold and stern voice.

    "Yes, mydy!" Luo Xing bowed to receive his orders without hesitation.

    Lady Xue softened a little and said, "You may use all your subordinates for this operation. The entire Soundfall¡¯s forces of the n are also at your disposal. If you need more men, the espionage division is also ready to assist. The n has informed the relevant personnel about this operation."

    Luo Xing was surprised. He did not expect the group to be so important. Rarely did orderse directly from the n Leader, and now the entire n¡¯s forces on Soundfall were his tomand. Even the scarcely deployed espionage division was avable for him. Who were those people? He was shocked, but curious. It seemed that this operation would not be easy. The espionage division was important to the n, having been concealed from outsiders for decades. Once its members were exposed, there was no turning back. To think that the n Leader would consider using them this time! This meant that the n Leader was ready to use all the n¡¯s avable resources on Soundfall to capture this group. The n¡¯s forces on the might all be exposed just for this operation.

    Luo Xing gulped. This might be an operation toorge for him to take on. The n Leader¡¯s orders to spare no resources left him nervous. F*ck, he might just die in this operation. For some reason, Luo Xing had an ill premonition.

    Lady Xue looked at Luo Xing and said, "There are some other details for this operation. Firstly, the man protected in the center must be captured alive. Try your best to capture the rest alive, but if it¡¯s not possible, do what is necessary. Secondly, I believe that the Ye family and the Xi Feng tribe must have received intel on the group as well. They will make their move. Your second mission is to make sure that the man is not captured by any of them. Remember, this is more important than the n Leader¡¯s order. It¡¯s best if we can obey the n Leader¡¯s orders, but if you can¡¯t, better to let him escape than allow the other two families to get him, understand? If it¡¯s impossible to even let him escape, then, you know what to do." Lady Xue directed a meaningful nce at Luo Xing.

    Luo Xing could feel cold sweat drenching his back.

    "Of course, the n Leader knows that your forces are limited. Ourbatants from the nearest three nts have been ordered to gather at Soundfall. On the other hand, all members of the n¡¯s Ten Pirs, excluding me and Lian, are heading your way. However, due to the distance, they¡¯ll only reach you in five days¡¯ time."

    Luo Xing was already speechless from shock. Eight members from the Ten Pirs wereing to Soundfall. The scale of this operation was unlike any that was carried out in decades. However, if they would only arrive after five days, how could they be able to help? Luo Xing smiled wryly despite himself.

    Lady Xue noticed his expression and said, "While five days is too long, this is the fastest they can manage. Fortunately, the other two families do not have any trump card mech pilots of their own on Soundfall. You¡¯re a smart man, work hard, and once the operation is over, the n Leader will make an exception and wee you as a member of the n."

    The call ended, and Luo Xing was left feeling lost. He never thought that the n would ce such great importance on the group. No, it was the man they wanted. The n Leader made it clear that the man must be captured alive, while the others were not so important. However, Lady Xue¡¯sst words were greatly encouraging. To be weed as a member of the n was a great honor. It was very difficult to be epted into the n. Some of his seniors had worked hard for decades, and never managed to be one.

    Just then, hisms device beeped again.

    "Sir, the group is leaving the city." His subordinate reported urgently from the holographic screen. Luo Xing awoke from his dazed moment, and chastised himself for being distracted. If seemed that he was really perturbed by the scale of the operation.

    "Stop them," Luo Xing ordered in a low voice. "Send out all ourbat experts and stop them. Remember, capture them alive."

    "Sir yes sir, you just wait for the good news." His subordinate sounded excited. It had been awhile since his men were stationed in the city, and they had never seen any action so far, their days spent mostly in boredom. It was only natural that they were excited for this operation. He had 30 overbat experts under hismand. They had all gone through ascetic training, and he was confident of their abilities.

    Suddenly, thems device on his wrist beeped again. When he saw who was calling him, Luo Xing felt a sudden apprehension.

    "Sir, the Ye Family and the Xi Feng Tribe mech pilots are gathering. No details yet." The low voice sounded nervous.

    D*mned, so they had begun moving as well. Luo Xing cursed the mech pilots from the two families.

    Ye Chong andpany raced along the street towards the city¡¯s entrance. Ye Chong looked grim. He had fought against the Three Forces before, and was familiar with their capabilities. He was sure that they were found out by now.

    Ye Chong never imagined that the Three Aristocratic Families of the He Yue gxy and the Three Forces would be rted to each other. They must now quickly head back to Sang Mu and the rest, so that they at least have mechs to defend themselves. Then, they must retreat as soon as possible to the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. With 5,000 Collision mechs piloted by the Sang tribe members, even thebined forces from the Three Aristocratic Families would not take them lightly.

    Ye Chong¡¯s reaction had disturbed the rest in the group. They all looked ready to kill, scaring off anyone standing in their way. The group ran with all they had, no longer hiding their true abilities. Poor Hai Lian had to be carried by Sang Tie again, for fear of dying them.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes suddenly widened.

    "Leaving so soon,dies and gentlemen? Hehe, why not stay a few more days, try out our Xue Lai n¡¯s special anchovy dish before you go." The leader hailed. The surrounding spectators heard that it was the Xua Lan n, and quickly moved out of the way. A few bolder souls stayed back to watch. These people were curious. The Xue Lai n had always been discreet, and seldom acted so openly. Who were these people, to evoke such a reaction from the Xue Lai n?

    Ye Chong ignored them. To him, words were wasted in this kind of situation.

    Seeing Ye Chong ignoring the taunt, the others followed suit. Only Hai Lian, still carried by Sang Tie, was growing very pale. To offend the Three Aristocratic Families in the He Yue gxy was the equivalent of a death wish! His life was over, he was sure. He thought of the power wielded by the Three Aristocratic Families, and wanted to die there and then.

    Seeing Ye Chong andpany not slowing down in the least, the leader turned grim. "Will you not ept our hospitality?"

    "Attack. Leave no one alive." Ye Chong¡¯s in voice struck a chord of fear.

    Sang Tie and the rest immediately sped up, leaving only an afterimage in their wake.

    Thebat experts of the Xue Lai n did not expect that the group would really attack them, and panicked as a result.

    The Sang tribe members were crude in their mech piloting skills, but they were shockinglypetent inbat. 500 years of fighting for their survival had honed their techniques and enriched theirbat experiences. Archipgo¡¯s strong gravitational force and the strong gravity regions allowed to them to reach beyond the known limits of the human body.

    Moreover, they fought with excellent coordination. Now, the Sang family, one of the Four Aristocratic Families from a time long past, finally demonstrated their strength before the world for the first time in 500 years.

    Be it physical strength, speed, endurance, or skills, or even coordination, both sides were at entirely different levels.

    This was a one-sided massacre. Their ruthless attitude, forced by Archipgo¡¯s harsh environment, was finally shown to the world. Ye Chong had no need to tell them not to leave anyone alive. It was in their nature.

    Ye Chong moved as fiercely urate as before, often targeting the weak spots such as the throat, killing with a single move without wasting any effort. The rest of them did not have an understanding of the human body like Ye Chong did. It did not really matter, in the end. Even alloy metal would break under their force, much less the human body, made of flesh and blood.

    Sang Tie andpany killed in a bloody way. Often, limbs were broken, or skulls crushed. The observers around them nearly vomited. Even Sang Ling attacked without mercy, and the people could only watch with cold fear.

    It was like wolves attacking a flock of sheep. There were no stylish moves, only breathtakingly fast movements, simple and urate. In just half a minute, the ground was covered with corpses and pools of blood. In that half a minute, one could only hear the dull thumps of punches, cracks of bones breaking, the hiss of blood flowing out of the victims, and the terrifying shrieksing from thebat experts of the Xue Lai n. The mysterious group had remained silent throughout as they went on their killing spree.

    The spectators around were all sporting an unhealthy pallor. They quickly retreated, afraid to get further involved.

 Chapter 286 - A Surging Undercurrent

    <h4>Chapter 286: A Surging Undercurrent</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The group was terrifying! The spectators were deeply troubled by their cold, indifferent expressions that did not change as they killed, like they were not actually executing a massacre, but doing something mundane and routine. Even butchers would not be so emotionless.

    The residents here were all capable ofbat at some level. They had all decided that Ye Chong¡¯s group members had demonstrated incredible strength, strong enough to qualify them as Jie experts! Only Jie experts could be so strong.

    Nine Jie experts!

    This was unthinkable! No one would believe that nine Jie experts were fighting together without seeing it for themselves. Jie experts were the strongest in the hierarchy ofbat expertise, the pinnacle of achievement in the ancient art ofbat. Generations ofbat experts thought of the Jie experts as shrouded in mystery.

    There were not many Jie experts in He Yue gxy. You can count them all with your fingers. They were mostly enlisted byrger organizations, often responsible ofbat instruction for the organization¡¯s inner disciples. They rarely showed themselves outside, only taking on the asional role of bodyguard. Even the Ye family, with the most number of Jie experts, had only five of them.

    Now, they were nine Jie experts on the streets! Just where did theye from?

    Ye Chong did not look back at the corpses, since he knew that no one would survive their attack. He said, "Let¡¯s go," and the group vanished before the spectators¡¯s eyes.

    That was too creepy! They moved eerily fast. If anyone still had their doubts about the group¡¯s strength as Jie experts, they were quickly disillusioned.

    The scent of blood filled the air. One could hear some witnesses vomiting beyond the scene.

    Up in the air of Foundation city, another form of battle was taking ce.

    300 mechs, made up of forces from three different sides, were at a stalemate in the skies. The tension was thick enough to cut through with a knife. None of the mechs dared to make any movements. Their strengths were almost equal to one another. If any side attacked first, the other two sides might just cooperate and finish off the instigating side.

    This disquieting scenario was a conundrum for the leaders on all three sides. However, none of them dared to make a move, for fear of suffering the fatal threat from thebined forces of the other two sides.

    Luo Xing was growing more and more anxious. While he knew from Lady Xue that the other two families would make their move, he did not expect them to act so quickly. Under the circumstances, he had no choice but to stay where he was.

    He could only pray that thebat experts under him would do the job. It should not be a problem, with 36 against nine. He was familiar with all thebat experts. They had allpleted their ascetic training, and a few of them were even sessors to some ancientbat techniques. All in all, these 36bat experts were a formidable force in Foundation city.

    It had decades since thest time the Three Aristocratic Families had openly faced-off one another. Foundation city was now in a critical state. Every mech pilot with a mech had slipped into their mechs right away. Given the situation, only a mech could protect them. In just 10 minutes, the sky above Foundation city was filled with mechs.

    The surrounding spectators watched in horror at the 300 mechs confronting each other. If the three sides really started a battle, the city would suffer. The more insightful ones began to wonder it this was a herald of darker times toe. Once the Three Aristocratic Families started warring against one another openly, the He Yue gxy would probably be plunged into a prolonged state of chaos.

    No one knew the cause of this confrontation.

    Just then, arge fleet of mechs wereing their way, with more than a thousand mechs. However, the people rxed at the sight of this fleet. The battle would probably note to be. The fleet came from the real ruler of the city, the Kuri tribe.

    Atst, the confrontation ended under the mediation of the Kuri tribe.

    When Luo Xing saw his 36 men, his already agitated heart skipped a beat, and his face paled.

    Nine Jie experts had killed in their merciless ways. Hundreds of mechs from the Three Aristocratic Families had nearly started a war. Kuri tribe¡¯s interference had stopped that. Tension in Foundation city was rising. These news spread like wildfire across the entire He Yue gxy. Even Hai Lian¡¯s obscure reputation grew to a household name.

    There were nine Jie experts. The number was hard to swallow. One could hear discussions everywhere about how nine Jie experts had seemingly appeared out of thin air, and killed 36bat experts who hadpleted their ascetic training. More notably, these 36bat experts were enlisted by the Xue Lan n.

    Who were these nine Jie experts? Why would they kill the 36bat experts? How were they rted to the Xue Lan n? Rumours were abound.

    Everyone was waiting for the nine Jie experts to make their next move. Jie experts were like mythical characters to the average person, enough to hook their curiosity.

    However, the nine Jie experts and Hai Lian had vanished into thin air. The term "vanish" was never more appropriately used. They had disappeared without a trace. In fact, when the nine Jie experts started killing, they received unprecedented attention. All the major forces had ordered their spies in every city on Soundfall to look for the group. Even cities ons around Soundfall received the same orders.

    However, the group seemed to have vanished without a single trace.

    The public¡¯s attention was quickly diverted to the Three Aristocratic Families. The scale of their forces deployed for the group did not escape the public eye. Members of the Xue Lai n¡¯s Ten Pirs were sent to Soundfall. The Ye family¡¯s elites had arrived on Soundfall. Xi Feng tribe¡¯s trump cards were arriving on Soundfall. The list went on and on. All attention was on Soundfall.

    An undercurrent was surging on Soundfall.

    Ye Chong had no time to consider these matters. His side was overwhelmingly disadvantaged. Any direct confrontation would be fatal to them. The group was heading as fast as they could to where Sang Mu was. Ye Chong did not care to cover their tracks any longer as they ran with all they had. He had never run like this without holding back for a long time. The rest of group noticed, and picked up their pace. However, they were not used to depending on mechs to travel, like Ye Chong. The Sang family had their own ways of running;pared to Ye Chong, they were managing more easily. After 500 years of continuous improvements, their skills were more efficient and effective.

    The group¡¯s bloody methods had left the witnesses stunned. No one had dared to follow them.

    They quickly reached where Sang Mu was.

    "Take your mechs. Tie, pass Hai Lian to me. We¡¯re returning to Sang Pu the rest as soon as possible."

    "Ok, here," Sang Tie passed Hai Lian from his hands to Ye Chong¡¯s. Poor Hai Lian, being manhandled from one person to another. He was a full adult, but was carried by Sang Tie and Ye Chong as though he weighed like nothing.

    Ye Chong withdrew Han Jia and threw Hai Lian into the pilot cabin, then entering the cabin himself. The pilot cabin was notrge, and now it was packed with just two people inside.

    Hai Lian finally recovered his senses. When he saw Ye Chonging into the pilot cabin, he quickly grew horrified. "Don¡¯t ¡­ Don¡¯t ¡­" Could he be thinking of ¡­ Even for someone who had his share of debauchery like Hai Lian, he never thought that he would be on the receiving end ¡­

    Ye Chong took a nce at Hai Lian, not understand, but he had no time to think on it further. His hands were on the controls dashboard, and Han Jia was up in the sky the next moment. Inside Han Jia, Ye Chong finally heaved a sigh of relief. With him piloting Han Jia, he would at least stand a chance in battle.

    Ye Chong thought Hai Lian¡¯s mech was too slow, so he brought Hai Lian into the pilot cabin with him instead. He never thought that this decision had led to the illusion of the group vanishing into thin air.

    Be it Ye Chong¡¯s Han Jia or the group¡¯s Collision mechs, they were all full-skeleton mechs. Full-skeleton mechs had excellent anti-detection properties that allowed them to safely evade the tight surveince on Soundfall. The group had even crossed paths with a few floti of starships along the way, but none of them were aware of their existence.

    Han Jia¡¯s holographic scanning system was so simply that it was practically useless. Collision was even more primitive, that it did not have a holographic scanning system; only a small observing window was installed. It was nearly impossible for them to notice that they were pursued, if there ever were. On the other hand, the starships were all used to relying on holographic scanning systems that they never thought of using the ancient way of optical scanning!

    However, Collision mechs had absolutely brilliant speed.

    Once they reached where the base, Hai Lian finally realised how fast the odd-shaped mechs were, and that he had actually slowed down the groupst time. He was quite jealous of them. His had prided on Moonlight for its speed, butpared to these odd-shaped mechs, Moonlight seemed to crawl like a snail.

    No mech pilot would not yearn for a mech that can fly faster, much less a speed-type mech pilot like Hai Lian, who relied more on speed than anything.

    Once back to the base, everyone instantly felt relieved.

    However, the immediate problem presented itself - where should they go next?

    Should they return to Archipgo? That was thest resort. The truth was, if they went back just like this, they would only feel dissatisfied, be it Ye Chong or the Sang family members. Since the Three Aristocratic Families and the Three Forces were closely rted, there must be some way to travel between the He Yue gxy and the Five Gxies. However, from the fact that even Hai Lian had not heard of the Five Gxies, this travelling route must be controlled by the Three Aristocratic Families, unbeknownst to outsiders. Ye Chong did the maths in his mind.

    Mu and Shang were still somewhere out there. If they had reached the Five Gxies, Ye Chong was sure that he would find them soon enough. He had sayed with the mech for so long, and had many shared memories in the Five Gxies. With Mu¡¯s meticulous nature, he would definitely keep watch of the ces where they had been together. Once he reached one of those ces, he would be able to get in touch with them.

    The He Yue gxy, however, was too unfamiliar to him. Connecting to Mu and Shang would be a difficult task.

    The group gathered around.

    Ye Chong asked, "Where in the He Yue gxy is the influence of the Three Aristocratic Families weakest?"

    "Where is the influence of the Three Aristocratic Families weakest? Let me think." Hai Lian knitted his brows together in deep thought. He knew that they had made enemies with the Xue Lan n after that previous battle. It was toote for him to back out. Besides, from Ye Chong¡¯s words, it seemed that the other two families were also involved. The only choice left for him would be to follow Ye Chong and his group to save his own hide.

    Everyone looked to the frowning Hai Lian. None of them asked Ye Chong about his story with the Three Aristocratic Families. The man had be the leader of the Sang tribe in spirit. As for the Three Aristocratic Families or whatever, they were not scared at all. 500 years ago, the Sang family was one of the Four Aristocratic Families. They too had aristocratic blood flowing in their veins. Besides, they believed that as long as the good sir was with them, the Sang family would be restored to its former glory one day.

    "Oh, right, I¡¯ve thought of a ce," Hai Lian said, excited. "Gray Valley, let¡¯s go to Gray Valley."

    "Gray Valley?" Ye Chong repeated the name as a question.

    "Yes, Gray Valey." Hai Lian seemed unusually certain of it, and quickly exined, "Gray Valley is not an actual valley, but a region on the other side of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Itprises of 124s. Originally, the ce was inhabited by some primitive tribes, but one day, some of the frence pilots who felt distasteful against the aristocrats escaped to that ce. Soon, the poption grew, consisting of people who did not like the aristocrats. They offered a helping hand to the local tribes, and gradually gained their eptance. As more and more people grew tired of the aristocrats, the poption in Gray Valley increased. They rebelled against the aristocrats. Then, Gray Valley barred any aristocrats from entering. If any mech pilot was found to be from an aristocratic family, they would be hunted down until the ends of the world. This reactiones naturally to the area¡¯s inhabitants. Any Gray Valley resident would do it."

    "So there¡¯s a ce like that," Ye Chong mused to himself.

    "The aristocrats tried to take over Gray Valley before, but their forces were met with unprecedented resistance. The united fleet of all the aristocratic families were annihted. Since then, the people knew that the aristocrats were not invincible."

    Hai Lian¡¯s mind wandered as he narrated the story. Stories about rebelling against power were always moving.

    "However, Gray Valley is a dangerous ce. Norge organization could survive there. Thergest body you¡¯ll see is a small organization, like a mech squad. Fights aremon, and the weak die fast. Mech pilots who enter the ce are all the ones who are confident of their own abilities. Someone once said that the strongest mech pilots do note from the Three Aristocratic Families, but from Gray Valley.

    "It¡¯s also thergest ck market in the gxy. In order to maintain stable trading activity, no one is allowed to attack trading fleets. That¡¯s one of the Three Death Precepts."

    "The Three Death Precepts?" Sang Fan asked, curious.

    "That¡¯s right. Anyone who vites the Three Death Precepts will be hunted down by all the Gray Valley residents. The first Precept is to not be an aristocrat, the second is to never harm local residents, and the third is to never attack trading fleets. Gray Valley residents can and will kill anyone who vites any of the Three Death Precepts, and they¡¯ll even be heavily rewarded for it."

    "Interesting," Sang Pumented casually, a flicker of excitement quickly disappearing from his eyes.

 Chapter 287 - Random Motley Crew

    <h4>Chapter 287: Random Motley Crew</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There were many routes to reach Gray Valley from where Ye Chong and the Sang tribe were now. However, all of them required the group to travel through arge part of the He Yue gxy. This was extremely dangerous for Ye Chong and the rest. While full-skeleton mechs had anti-detection properties, the probability of being discovered if they followed any of these routes was higher than 80 percent. Besides, without Mu and Shang, it was impossible for Ye Chong to discreetly bribe their way through without leaving a trace.

    Hence, Ye Chong chose another route. They would fly parallel to the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. It was equivalent to making a big roundabout along the asteroid belt. While the distance was longer, they would be inside the asteroid belt throughout the journey, which made it less likely for the Three Aristocratic Families to find them.

    ording to Hai Lian, there were norge outposts in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Most of the people there were frence pilots, and the asional small mech pilot squad there to hunt for wild beasts. Besides, Ye Chong¡¯s route would take them deep into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, where people visited. Even Hai Lian, a long resident of the area, would never have travelled to such a deep part of the asteroid belt.

    Ye Chong¡¯s n was epted without disputes. Before the battalion took off, Ye Chong ordered for all the mechs to be painted. The skeleton material was too unique to be overlooked. If they flew the full-skeleton mechs without concealing the skeleton texture, it would only be too easy to get into trouble.

    He Yue gxy¡¯s paint material was of a more high quality than the ones Chong had used in the Five Gxies. It adhered well to the surface, did not peel easily, and the colours were bright and shiny. Ye Chong did not care what colour they used. That day, the Sang tribe members seemed to have been inspired overnight to be artists. Everyone painted their mechs with vigorous enthusiasm,ughing as they went about producing their very own 3D art. Sang Ling¡¯s mech, for example, looked beautiful. It had a bright sun, shining over many of the Archipgo¡¯s wild beasts. Her painting was lifelike and exotic. Compared to Sang Ling, however, the rest of them were not as sessful. Most of their mechs were covered with patches of random colours. Together, the 5,000 mechs were an eyesore. They looked a random motley crew of inferior mechs. They looked so miserable that Hai Lian could die of shame.

    Ye Chong painted his mech in a brownish dark gray. The advantage was that his mech might be mistaken for an asteroid from afar. He was far too fond of ambushing strategies to give it up.

    Ye Chong even sent a few men back to the Sang Family Vige to inform them of the current situation, and asked that they do not send anyone out in the short term. To the Sang Family Vige, now was the time to rest and heal, and not go out wandering. The people he sent to the vige also took with them a schematics diagram by Ye Chong. This was a goods transport flying vessel that he designed recently. It was modified from Collision. It had arge body, and flew slowly. However, it was suitable for transporting goods, something that the Sang tribe needed at the moment.

    More importantly, the goods transport vessel was madepletely of skeletons, and can travel safely through the Red Sea.

    After everything was settled, the battalion set off for Gray Valley. It was a pity that they did not have a starship, or they would be able to do a warp jump and save travelling time.

    Ye Chong was now deeply troubled. For the moment, they had no money at all. Nothing. Ye Chong suddenly found that this money problem that he had never worried about was now his main concern.

    He needed money for a starship, or a dimension keystone, or ams device ¡­

    Ye Chong was poor as a pauper. If he was not together with thisrge battalion, he would have just robbed some rich household. However, now that they needed toy low, with the Three Aristocratic Families onto them like mad, robbing was out of the question.

    In fact, it was not only Ye Chong who was poor. The rest of the Sang tribe members had no money too. They looked at the eight people who followed Ye Chong into the city, using their dimension keystones to magically withdraw their mechs, and were so very jealous. Once they found out that this magical device could be bought with money, all of them became obsessed with this thing called "money".

    They even suggested robbing that mech parts store. They even formed a detailed andplete action n, but were disappointed when the good sir rejected it. Hai Lian was frustrated, since the n had actually won the approval of everyone else before it was presented to Ye Chong.

    Were these people pirates? Hai Lian felt that he himself, not entirely angelic in his behaviour, looked pure and innocentpared to them.

    However, once he saw Ye Chong rejecting their n decisively, he was slightly relieved. It seemed that the leader still had a good heart. However, Ye Chong¡¯s nextment was like a blow to his head, "The time isn¡¯t right. n¡¯s too crude. Rejected."

    After that, Hai Lian watched stupidly at Sang Pu and the rest as they discussed on ways to improve their robbing operation.

    On the other hand, Hai Lian was also annoyed that the holographic scanning system andms device on his Moonlight were removed and reinstalled onto Sang Pu¡¯s Collision. Moonlight¡¯s photon processor was also moved to Sang Fan¡¯s mech. Looking at the almost bare Moonlight, Hai Lian could feel his heart bleeding in pain. Besides, he could not fly Moonlight himself, but had to sit in with Sang Tie, that savage man. Sang Tie had a strong body odour that threatened to kill off his sense of smell. Just when did the guyst shower? Hai Lian wanted to cry.

    "What a bunch of savages!" Again and again, he cursed the Sang tribe members in his heart.

    Soon, however, Ye Chong gave the order to move out. 5,000 Collision mechs began to advance based on the designated trajectory.

    Hai Lian found it odd that the savages seemed to know the Cmitous Asteroid Belt well. They easily evaded the asteroids time and again. The difficult journey that he expected was surprisingly going on smoothly.

    He did not know, of course, that their demonstrated ease was because they had gone through for worse territories.

    The only thing that made the Sang tribe members ufortable was the fact that there were more wild animals here than in Archipgo. While the animals here were weaker than their Archipgo counterparts, they were still quite a handful. Many dead animals were left in their wake as they continued the designated trajectory.

    The entire battalion¡¯sbat power was shocking to Hai Lian. If all those wild animals were sold to the right traders, the market price for those animals would plummet to a historical low.

    "These are all money ¡­" Hai Lian was pained at the missed opportunity. However, looking at the indifferent expressions of the Sang tribe members, he hesitated. What would happen if they know that the animals could be sold for money? In the end, he kept his mouth shut. Getting to Gray Valley was their top priority right now. If the battalion lost control at this point, it would be disastrous.

    The way he saw it, the entire battalion was made of up uninitiated savages, with the exception of that half-civilized leader. Fortunately, these savages demonstratedmendable discipline, and obeyed their leader without question.

    Still, after so many days of flight, he began to realise some interesting and surprising details about the members that formed this battalion, people that he called savages.

    The Cmitous Asteroid Belt was an irregr territory, but the entire battalion had advanced without slowing down. As he sat beside Sang Tie throughout, he could see Sang Tie¡¯s every move as the man maneuvered his mech. The truth was, this was his first time seeing such a primitive control lever. However, this primitive control lever, controlled by these savages, could fly the mechs with incredible precision and flexibility.

    On the surface, the flying machine was as simple and primitive as anything could possibly be. However, after sitting in one for so many days, Hai Lian felt like he would probably punch anyone who dared to say that.

    This flying machine was anything but primitive! It could fly up to Mach 20. What mech model could do that? Besides, it could fly on for a few weeks without the need to replenish its energy supply. Where can anyone find a mech like that in the market? With a holographic scanning system, ams device and some long range weapons, the flying machine would be formidable. Besides, these mech parts would all be found in the market readily and in all kinds. With money, they could be installed instantly.

    As for these people, Hai Lian was embarrassed that he had thought of them as savages.

    Withoutms devices in their flying machines, they could notmunicate with each other. Even so, they had maintained formation for weeks. The flight was long and boring, a test of one¡¯s mental fortitude, much less when they could not speak with each other. If it was Hai Lian, he would probably go crazy. However, none of these people hadined.

    These people obeyed their orders without question. They were determined warriors, with excellentbat intuition and coordination. They were undeniably the best soldiers one could find.

    Often Hai Lianpared them with himself, and felt all the more self-conscious.

    These people had demonstrated admirable flying skills. The space around them was scattered with floating rocks, but they had never slowed down. None of them were injured so far. Besides, despite the long journey, they did not look tired at all.

    Hai Lian discovered new things about these so-called savages every day, and his attitude towards them changed in response.

    Since Sang Pu¡¯s mech now had a holographic scanning system, he was in charge of scouting their trajectory ahead.

    The journey was uneventful so far. The ce was deserted, and they had not met a single mech up till now.

    "Oh, you see mechs?" Ye Chong asked, curious. With ams device, Sang Pu could nowmunicate with him easily.

    Sang Pu replied steadily, "Yes, 62 of them. But they¡¯re surrounded by wild beasts. It doesn¡¯t look good."

    "62 mechs ¡­" Ye Chong wondered, but quickly replied, "Have they seen you?"

    "No. We were careful, they did not notice us," Sang Pu said.

    Ye Chong thought about it, and asked, "How long can theyst?"

    "About 20 minutes." Sang Pu¡¯s reply was concise.

    "Alright, let¡¯s surround them first. Wait for further orders." Ye Chong gave the orders. He had to see the mechs for himself.

    "Yes sir," Sang Pu replied. Immediately, the signal lights on both sides of Sang Pu¡¯s mech blinked rhythmically, passing down Ye Chong¡¯s orders.

    Silently, the entire battalion split up into hundreds of smaller squads, like a river branching out into countless smaller streams, flowing between the floating rocks. Everyone was excited. These days, they were only flying and flying. The squad ahead of the main battalion, responsible for clearing the wild animals fared better, but they did their work too efficiently. The rest of the battalion did not see so much as an animal hair throughout the flight. Now that there were ordersing, how could they not be excited? Even their movements turned sharper.

    "Hah, action, finally." Hai Lian nearly jumped at Sang Tie¡¯s loud voice.

    "Action?" Hai Lian asked, still blurry from his sleep.

    "Hehe, after all these days of d*mn waiting, there¡¯s finally some action." Sang Tie rubbed his hands together, his eyes positively shining with enthusiasm. However, Hai Lian could not see past the ferocity that was also present in him. He shuddered, no longer in the mood for sleep.

    The signal lights continued blinking, and the mech squads flew to their positions in an orderly manner. In just a short moment, they had the 62 mechs surrounded, including the beasts around them.

    The situation was now in his control, so Ye Chong began to study the mechs and the wild beasts.

 Chapter 288 - The Papatte Squad

    <h4>Chapter 288: The Papatte Squad</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Aw man! Eximed Old Chief Guo in his mind, as he seriously never thought he would have such a terrible day in his life before meeting these¡­ these unknown beasts. There was a wide range of beasts lurking in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, while they struck strong impression of being the most fearsome biological entities in the minds of the people outside. That might have been the case the whole time, but humanity had recorded most of these barbaric creatures - specifically those in the outer belt - in detail. With that in mind, Guo the Old Chief had been preparing himself ever since he was informed of his task venturing into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, including careful inquiries on every single entry of the creatures habituated there. He thought he had been cautious enough, since this did not only concerned his survival, but also his brothers''.

    And there he was, having bewilderment looking at the beasts, which none of them appeared to be in the entries he possessed. The beast was tedious at its appearance, with the two canines shing at the corners of its mouth, and the long dripping salivation wetting the ground dark green, while at its abdomen 6 pieces of thin des went on a fan-dancing. The entire body was fully coated with carapace, glowing in a metallic emerald, convincingly sturdy. The hexapod waved its feeble arthropod legs, the spikes over the legs were sending chills to the witness''s spines.

    Bymon sense, any unidentified creature would be far more dangerous than the known creatures, well since to get the creature identified, one must be able to first survive from it and head back to share the words, which meant¡­ Guo and his gang were in a zone unfrequented by humanity.

    These creatures were as entangling as they seemed to be. They were hunters and the preys - being the brothers of Guo - had been hunted a few. Guo the Old Chief, the one with a strong mind was also starting to surrender to the fact that this might be thest expedition of his. Such creature was fast, really fast, that their mechs failed to get rid of it by speed. The creatures were also intelligent, they were able to dodge most of the energy beams Guo had fired.

    They also travelled in groups. One could imagine the drained face of Guo when thousands of them swarmed upon his mech - it felt like the darkest day of his life, filled with green monstrosity.

    What have fate prepared for me in the end? Probably death¡­ Flinched Guo the Chief. He did not shame the death, rather he shamed himself for his inability to protect his brothers. "I shouldn''t have taken that request¡­," muttered the chief in regrets. He was requested to acquire a kind of nt namely the "Rippling Orchid". He was filled in with nothing else than the high definition hologramic visual of the said nt, while also given the estimated location of it. Guo the Chief would never ever take this stupid task in the first ce if it was not for the handsome reward and the poverty of his group.

    But sadly, I *am* a hobo, so is my group. Thought Guo, feeling bitter about how the Papatte Squad he ran was merely a group of eighty pitiful pilots being average they were as a free spirit who never desired to join the Aristocrats. The reason why they fluttered together was because they presumed it would be an easier hunt in groups. Unfortunately, their presumption, simr to their experience, was novice, as the squad did worse yearly. The best part was, most members were simple-minded, no one had the required leadership to keep the squad running. It was getting harder.

    Pilot isn''t an easy job alright? Sighed the chief. The market was toopetitive, those major squads were naturally way better than tiny weeny squads like his, whether concerning reputation, service quality or capabilities. It was a little bit easier in the past for those major squads only would take on the requests befitting to their organization dimensions, but well, as much as abundance of human resources, those once-in-a-blue-moon major operations no longer sufficed the demand of their squad members. So they began reaching those simple requests from the folks, and of course the tiny weeny squads, like the Papatte, were given a strike again.

    When was thest time Papatte Squad got an actual request? Guo the Chief could hardly remember with that atrocious memories of his, as his soulless eyes gazed upon the disorderly, to-be-disbanded squad. And there was this particr request untouched by the other squads, he thought it would be a great fortune to make as he seized support from everybody else in his squad, epted that request with determination. Although they would be handsomely rewarded, the requests were often associated with rming tasks, nobody sane would have taken those requests, which resulted them lingering on the billboard for years, since¡­ rewards were priced and life was always priceless.

    Now, that one insane person, that one snapped leader called Guo the Old Chief had taken the request. He was in a hobo squad after all, assuming he would survive this time, the money couldst for few years in his squad. Damn you these filthy wealthy men! Cursed Guo. Why must we gamble our life for a pot of nt to be viewed by them on a fancy tea party?!

    "Sir, what do you think these pests want from us?" muttered Francis Jr. through themunication channel, as he gulped, in his shaking voice.

    "Yeah, Francis Jr. has a point, these pests have been only surrounding us, do you think they want to have a dance with us?" Huang the Balloon Head had been exposed to the dead-or-alives countless times, he made a joke, a poor one though, that exposed his bit of restlessness in him.

    "I have no idea. Be calm, watch," said the chief.

    The mechs they piloted were looking obsolete but one would be convinced the fact that they had been taken great care by their owners, a loving care in fact, the maintenance was well-done and they moved with immense rapports too.

    Well, still a little shabbypared to the Sangs though, those were the real extreme. Commented Ye Chong in his thoughts.

    There scattered numerous remnants of mechs, which some of them were raging in sparks. And one could see the pool of blood tainting the body. Obviously they had a conflict, a really bad one. I had seen such beast back in Archipgo. The Sangs called them the Seraphods*. Though I never expected that I would see them in action, at a ce like this¡­

    Swarm, surround but no strike. The Seraphods seemed to favor the more sadistic approach in hunting their preys. Ye Chong was surprised over the happening but he was not really the spectating kind, as he began nning, making sure that he had seized all factors under control. "Go." Heunched hismand of attacking these emerald monsters.

    Hsssssk!

    Sang Pu did not hesitate and made his move along with the other pumped Sangs upon receiving themand.

    Hssssssssssssssssssssssssk!!!

    The ear-piercing hush was bing ear-rupturing. A wless coboration of the Sangs this time, as 500 of them broke into 50 teams and elerated themselves to the maximum, the afterimages impaled the animating ball in hideous green.

    The beasts had noticed them, but failed to react in time. Boom! They were done.

    All beasts were helpless under the mighty Collisions.

    Funny thing was the Sangs did not even bother to take on any of the beasts particrly. The movement they made was merely a fling over the sky, forming a deadly of their afterimages intersecting, as the 4 des on each Collision sliced through the armors of Seraphods.

    Hnnnnnnnnnnnngggggg! Aiiiiiiikkksssss!

    The beasts cried painfully, in grief they begged for mercy. The Sangs did not intend to give the beasts the mercy they begged, as the Sangsunched themselves into the deadly web again, crossing over the greenish weak beasts. It was a dense crossing but none of the Sangs was having issue of crashing into each other. Clearly they were well-trained, they were pretty good at piloting.

    A rain of blood tinted the area, with inner fleshes flying over the broken limbs.

    ¡­

    ¡­?

    The men of the Papatte Squad were having a short-circuit in their mind. The sudden massive strike of the unknown happened so fast that It felt like a sudden m on the keys during a concerto.

    Hnnng¡­

    Two waves of attack by the Sangs and none of those beasts could stand up. Most of themy on the ground, half-dead with pathetic cries. Nobody would sympathize them. In front of thew of nature, the sympathy of humanity was so foolish to be conducted. The third wave happened and the cries softened, soon silence raided the ce.

    "The heck had just happened?" Balloon Head was confused.

    rrghh! rgh! Ugh!

    There was a sounding from the channel. Francis Jr. was throwing up as the brutality of the scene was too intense for hisprehension. It was too impulsive¡­ a second ago those beasts were still swarming over their mechs and now the beasts were dead on the ground, so dead they could bleed a river. Okay I don''t know whounched the attack but this is kind of cruel. Thought Francis Jr.

    Practically speaking, the Sangs were not as cruel as Francis Jr. thought. This was an act of their habit, the result of their lesson over the generations fighting with the beasts as on a few painful asions the Sangs learned how the beasts would turn more ferocious as they were harmed, so thest blow to take their life was always necessary .

    The remaining 4000 Sangs were grumbling in curses at the back. "When we finally got an operation!"

    "Then it''s done, in 4 seconds!" They had been so eager to have an actual fight but the only opportunity had vanished right before them. If the Collisions were supplied withmunicative facility, one could already imagine the waves of angrymentaries flooding the channel.

    "When do we have the chance again? HUH!" Poor Hai Lian, as the voice of Sang Tie mmed right onto his ears. Hai Lian could almost hear the echoes right inside himself.

    Are they¡­ the pirates? Or the Aristocrats? Spected Guo but he could not tell.

    Pirates? No way. The pirates never wielded such capabilities, if they ever did, the entire He Yue gxy would have been plunged! The secret team of the Aristocrats? This would be more likely¡­ but they don''t seem to have a fixed color code. These greens and reds are reminding me of a circus rather than a group of trained military force of a particr aristocratic family. Sorry to say but these people look really like a bunch of scrappy troops, even scrappier than my own squad too¡­ I don''t think those Aristocrats would fancy such mischievous approach in training their men. The Aristocrats are too busy being condescending to people, they do not have time for this.

    And I must say, the flying objects were really weird. Thought Guo the chief. He was right as he immediately recognized the pros of the Collision, though he was getting shocked after one aftershock and another, not because of the mech but because of the required skills to pilot it.

    "All of you have been our captives." A young voice rang. The squad was stupefied.

    Captives? I could not think of any other group that would use such terminology than the pirates. Are they really pirates?! Deduced Guo in disbelief. Pirates don''t serve for the people! They serve for the money! Are these pirates blind? Can''t they tell we can''t even spare a penny to their cruise?

    Well, we don''t have anything to offer, take whatever you want - if there''s whatever that is. Thought Guo, getting calm.

    The Collisions were exerting pressure to their security, as the squad hopped off their cabin obediently.

    "Hmm," muttered Ye Chong.

    The leader of the pirates was surprisingly younger than I thought. This is literally a child! But wait, I am not going to take it lightly. He is a child yet he''s already leading a giant group of pirates. That is convincing enough that he is something. The other members are mainly teenagers and young adults too¡­ Sighs¡­ even childbor gotmon among the pirates. Thought Guo the Chief, getting sentimental.

    Guo was showing full cooperation in his conversation with Ye Chong, knowing his fate of being captured.

    Ye Chong, upon seeing these men, were merely having an idea of needing a local who was extremely familiar with He Yue and Papatte happened to be there. Hai Lian and Ye Chong had gone to Foundation city and probably they had been exposed. That was unfavored. It would be hard to even run the routine tasks in the gxy given that theycked the locals to help them.

    Ye Chong did not have tremendous experience with society but he was thinking thoroughly, all thanks to Mu''s education. One would use one''s thinking assuming experience could not help.

    "We are Papatte, merely a tiny group of pilots, sir."

    Upon mentioning "group of pilots", Ye Chong''s eyes lustered.

    That would be a way.

    "Hai Lian¡­," whispered Ye Chong, "would it be too eye-catching if there was a pilot squad of 5000?"

    "Not exactly, sir. It would be a medium-sized group. A squad of 5000 isn''t something given that we are in an age where hundred thousands of pilots travelled together in a squad," replied Hai Lian. "There are tons of major squads out there, like Chaniat, that group is expanded, so greatly that they have their own office at almost alls in He Yue. Not even the Aristocrats would want to mess with them, they are one of the major forces here."

    "Very well." And in one order, the Papatte Squad got their first new 5000 members, with Guo remained on his throne, although he was very much aware that the throne was no longer his.

    "Yes sir, thank you sir," replied Guo, as threatened by the cold gaze of the des.

    It was not that bad though, he knew what he was there for. He was an adornment, a cover for the pirates. Well it would be easier in that case. "Here you go, sir," he said as he handed over thest few pennies in their box. His hands were shaking, not because of a heavy heart parting with them, rather it. was because he finally got to pass this ursed economy of Papatte to someone else. Of course he would have handed this puzzling, tiring and pointless errand to lead the team! He would be too dumb if he still seized that broken g of Papatte! Finally, he got a chance to ck off. He did not have any ambition, he just wanted to live in leisure.

    Let the big men do their big job¡­

    Thought Guo, his expression looking sentimental, while his heart being overjoyed.

    And Ye Chong could already feel his headache.

 Chapter 289 - Rippling Orchid

    <h4>Chapter 289: Rippling Orchid</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "So what brought you guys here?" asked Hai Lian, confused, especially after seeing the gears Guo and his squad brought. With those gears, Guo would be as good as dead stepping into Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Hai Lian thought he was poor enough, till he saw the Papatte.

    Guo was blushing while his balloon-headed friend shouted, "Because of money, what else? Who else woulde to this cursed ce?"

    "All of you actually took a request here?" Hai Lian could not believe his ears as his eyes went wide. Did they really disregard their capabilities and took up a deadly request here? Hai Lian had been a frencer long enough to understand the working of the billboard. Every single request associated with the Cmitous Asteroid Belt was immediately ignored by most sane people, as those requests were easily the most dangerous requests ever. Nobody would take those. Wow these men actually came all the way here to die? Not even the elites of the major squads would have the courage to ept the request.

    Look what poverty had done to humanity. Save poverty, people!

    "Mhm, pretty much." Nodded Guo helplessly, "We are just here for a nt called the Rippling Orchid but sigh¡­ugh all you want, we are hobos you see. We would be disbanding in starvation if we never take up any more request."

    "I see. Now that exins it." Nodded Hai Lian, who was informed about thepetitiveness in the market, but he simply did not imagine it to be this tedious.

    "Excuse me, what is this thing you called ''Rippling Orchid''?" asked Sang Fan in curiosity.

    "A decorative nt. Not much of value." No one would have expected the answer toe from Ye Chong.

    It was surprisingly to hear it from Ye Chong as he did not look like the kind who would admire the beauty of decorative nts. Not even elderlies like Guo and his men had heard of this goofy Rippling Orchid in their life before taking up the request.

    Well, Ye Chong was still an alchemist and that encyclopedia given by Lunatic Guan had all the records he needed, including Rippling Orchid, which he had remembered by heart. The entry for Rippling Orchid was brief though, it seemed to be a material to produce hallucinogen? That was an overrated nt indeed. Commented Ye Chong, as he thought this hard-to-find nt was too demotivating for its capability. He could simply name a few other nts which were moremon and would do probably the same as Rippling Orchid.

    "Who said it is not much of value! A sprout of Rippling Orchid could cost 50,000 points!" Argued Francis Jr., blushed.

    "Fifty thousands what?" Screamed everybody. How much are fifty thousand points you asked? Hai Lian was already stunned upon knowing Sang Fan''s Lavagold dagger being priced at 30,000 points. And that little nt for ornamental purpose could go for 50,000 points?

    And people began coveting this nt, even Ye Chong was feeling a sudden urge. How in the world! Would this stupid nt! Worth 50,000 points!? How many mechs do I need to sell to even get 50,000 points?!

    To be frank, all of them were practically hobos, be it Ye Chong and the Sangs or the Papatte. They were so poor that they would want to sell themselves.

    "This is the Rippling Orchid," said Guo as he projected the visual of the nt.

    A tender little sprout with thick broad leaves flipping like a gentle breeze, the slender stem was colorful, the petals too were unique, as they were forming a perfect circle, with lines over them like ripples.

    Okay, that''s a good-looking flower. Still, how! In the world! It would! Worth 50,000 points?!

    "Is it near?" asked Ye Chong, since the encyclopedia did not state the habitation of Rippling Orchid.

    "Yes, ording to the info given by the requester. Thest sprout was discovered in this area, so we came to try our luck," stated Guo.

    "Sang Pu, send half of our men to find this nt," ordered Ye Chong as his pointed at the visual. 50,000 points, you got to be kidding me, I am so getting this nt. Thought Ye Chong. It would be a dangerous request for mere folks, but it would be simple for Ye Chong.

    "Yes sir." Nodded Sang Pu agreeably. Being the frontlinemander of the 5000 men, he was manically passionate over armory but any piece inside the armory would require currencies, which soon he redirected his focus onto finances instead.

    Everyone of Papatte had joined Sang Pu to search for Rippling Orchid other than Guo.

    There remained about two thousand men resting at the spot. They had been traveling nonstop for the past few days and they would certainly take this golden opportunity to leave their cabin at once and have some good old-fashioned face-to-face conversations without having to shout. There were still a few skeptical ones stuck in their cabin though. Soon the Sangs formed a lively crowd of chatters, where they would sit in circles, eagerly proceeded with their recreational activity - Wrestling. As much as the word had implied, it basically suggested a game of hand-to-handbat between anyone in interest within the circle.

    "Go! Go!"

    "Woo!"

    Traveling in the space with the most fundamental facilities was absolutely boring them to death. And finally they got the chance to have fun, the wrestling session was intense, there were screams and overjoyed hurrahs.

    The changes in the Guo''s expression were grabbing the interest of Ye Chong, it was rather dramatic to his taste as it literally underwent a metamorphosis from grimness to surprise to disbelief.

    It did feel like a dream for Guo the Old Chief as he watched the group of people started fighting on each other in a simple stage they created with their formation. It was not a nightmare but it was not a pleasant dream either.

    The two men in the circle were demonstrating astonishing techniques. He simply did not foresee to witness great practitioners right here! Those skills, Guo - although he did not wield even the standard moves - could confidently state them to be of the level of the top few most pilots in the major squads, only the top few, a tiny handful of them. And there he was, seeing a random two persons from a 5000 army of nowhere doing superior martial arts techniques.

    He thought it was the nature''sw of strongest to the weak.

    But the following participants were sending him more shockers.

    He almost could feel his cheek twitching.

    Thebat remained as intense as ever with the following entries.

    How the¡­ Guo could not process what was happening. Don''t tell me all of them just so happened to be the greatest fighters? Thought Guo as he looked at the wrestling men in nk dismay. 2000 greatest fighters? Two thousands of them? At here? Guo wanted to deny his spection but the reality seemed to be what he exactly spected.

    He tried shrugging such terrifying thought off.

    "Sir¡­" He shot a nce, with much consideration, "About our base¡­ where¡­ umm is it?" He carefully asked.

    "Base? What base? We don''t have a base." A direct answer from Ye Chong, there was no hesitation from his side.

    "No base?" Stunned Guo was, his mouth widely opened. Did you just tell me that you travelled with 5000 men around the gxy without a base? Even the space pirates have a ce to rest their voyages, how?

    "Hah¡­ I see¡­," replied Guo wryly, "While Papatte is a mere squad with no base as well, I wonder where sir would like to take a rest on?"

    "The Gray Valley. That''s our nned destination," stated Ye Chong tly.

    "Gray Valley?" Guo''s face was colorless, "You can''t go there. It''s too dangerous!"

    "I see? Very dangerous?" asked Ye Chong interestingly.

    "Yes, very dangerous!" Asserted Guo, "I once have a mate who travelled there. He was a way better fighter than me but the moment he got there, he seemed to have vanished. The next time I was heard of him was about his death three monthster. And he''s the third dead person among my mates." Guo was grim.

    "This dangerous?" Ye Chong was shocked. Frankly speaking, Ye Chong had seen quite a few pilots in Foundation city and all of them were quite strong in his opinion, even when put underparison with those pilots from the 5 major gxies he came. If the mortality remained that high even with their skills, the Gray Valley would be indeed dangerous.

    "Yes sir. No one would understand the deadliness of the Gray Valley unless they had set foot upon it. Did sir once have a dispute with any of the Aristocrats?" asked Guo strangely, since technically only those who showed indifference or had bad blood once with the Aristocrats would head to the Gray Valley.

    "Well¡­ only the three major ones I supposed," stated Ye Chong indifferently.

    Only? The three aristocrats? Of all families this man actually picked a fight with the three greatest ones in the entire gxy? And it did not sound like it was merely a case with one or two families judging by his wording. But well, Guo never knew the very culprit who had caused a war between the 8 Jie experts and the 3 aristocrats was standing right in front of him. This was because he got misled by the number of Jie experts involved. There were 8 of them in the case, and 8, for Jie experts, was more than enough to cause an evacuation in the local gxy.

    So did this guy hold 5000 Jie experts in the dark?

    Guo felt he had snapped at some point.

    "Maybe we could head for alternatives¡­ like a more backward?" suggested Guo.

    "Oh?"

    Ye Chong was sending a stare that Guo was feeling the chill again, "Technically¡­" He quickly borated himself, "The forces of the Aristocrats might be very influential but not influential enough to affect the entire gxy. There should be a few underdevelopeds which aren''t really aware of the Aristocrats. We could go there for now. As long as we be careful, the residents, the Aristocrats shouldn''t be rmed." As he exined he could feel his nervousness fading away.

    Ye Chong started pondering.

    "With our strength, yes, it might not be a problem if we wanted to explore the Gray Valley, but¡­" He nced at Ye Chong, "Wecked one essential - funds. Yes, I admit I do not know much about the inside of Gray Valley but I know our operation won''t work anywhere in the gxy as long as we have nothing in our wallet."

    "You made some points," nodded Ye Chong approvingly, since his men were armed with the most fundamental model of mechs. The Sangs might be formidable against the beasts but not against humanity. Humans were eventually the smarter opponent than the beasts. Ye Chong could not guarantee a victory if they were to face a group of real pilots out there.

    It would in fact be a bad timing to go Gray Valley at the moment.

    Seeing how Ye Chong was showing approval, Guo was not feeling the slightest pride. He was bewildered instead, as realizing the motive of this mysterious group being not joining any forces but to make an escape. Sighs, his bad day did not seem to be ending just yet. He did not have a choice however, if he showed anything else than cooperation, he knew what could happen to him.

    Maybe this would still be a better path than handling all those tedious works leading a bunch of unmotivated squad members himself.

    "Sir! Sir! We have found it! We found the flower!" Sang Pu''s voice was expressing joy.

    ¡­

    "Hmmmmm?"

    Fan Qing rested on her fluffy seat, as her dreamy eyes set upon the green tea engulfed within the columns of evaporations. The scent travelled through the air and tickled her senses. She was waiting for someone and that someone had about 30 minutes left till the time of their meeting. She came earlier anyway, it was her habit being proactive in an exchange after all.

    She thought back the investigation on Papatte Squad. She researched the squad to discover the fact that it turned out to be a tiny squad consisted about 80 men, while also performing rather mediocrely in their records. She even checked out the list of requests they hadpleted before, which most of them turned out the most basic, simplest child''s y in her eyes. A half-star rating also justified the fact that they were just some rowdy ruffs from nowhere.

    Being discouraged by the facts, she started to forget about her request. Probably only the hobos would go for the mission when they were starving on theirst few meals.

    "Hm?"

    And then she got a notification from the squad itself.

    "REQUEST COMPLETED."

    She was being skeptical the whole time. It was an underwhelming squad handling an overwhelming mission, chances are they should not be surviving at all. But she in fact got a notification from them. Although she believed these little rascals would not have the courage to mess with the Fan family she belonged, she prepared a cluster of guards around the corner anyway.

    She took a look at the time. 5 minutes till meeting and nobody was there. Fan Qing frowned, being one who abided by time, she disgraced theteers.

    One more minute.

    Nobody was there.

    I am leaving the moment thisst minute ticked. I''m not going to wait.

    30 seconds left.

    Her expression was stern as she took a careful sip on her tea. Her men at the corners were showing anxiety upon seeing that expression of hers. It was a definite anger and everyone knew what would happen when you enraged the influential figure of an influential family.

 Chapter 290 - A Walkthrough on Planet Yi Ju

    <h4>Chapter 290: A Walkthrough on Yi Ju</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The door to the tea room was whammed open, as a queue of people hurried in after. No doubt, the leading one was Guo Ren. She recognized him at first nce, her research was not done or nothing after all. She took a look on the time, yup, 15 seconds before the time was up.

    Fan Qing''s expression softened, as she stood up, with a smile, "Punctuality is a virtue, Mr. Guo and it looks like you possess such virtue."

    "Sorry for the wait, Miss Fan,"ughed Guo the chief.

    "It''s alright. Your squad had ventured into the darkest zone of the gxy for our family, it would be uncourteous if we could not hold that little more anticipation. By the way, who are these, may I ask?" Said she as her nce went upon the 5 silver-masked men at the back, which one of them was rather tall while the rest were a little stout by standards, though the rest looked leaner than the tall one. Well, all 5 of them still depicted that heroic imagery.

    Clearly these men were not from the Papatte formerly. Their steps were firm, which great strength could be sensed within. Fan Qing was astonished inside, though she really disliked the pretentious outfits, she did not express her feeling directly.

    "These men were the newest members in our squad. And thanks to them wepleted your request smoothly. My apology for their apparel, these were some weird traditions in their tribes apparently. Hahaha, since they swore a stern vow of chastity that only their legal other half could view their appearance. Tolerance would be appreciated, Miss Fan," introduced Guo. The five men were firing their nces around, mainly on the disguised bodyguards Fan Qing had around, which made her heart skip a beat.

    "Aw, you are being too formal. Hah, it looks like the squad is doing really, really well. Congrattions I guess?" There were all sorts of tribes in the gxy, while they also practiced extraordinary traditions, so she could understand that.

    The truth was, it was pure cooked-up crap. A good excuse though, it was a scheme suggested by Francis Jr. - five thousands men wearing a silver mask each, with Ye Chong and the other exposed 8 members hiding within, it would be a miraculous jackpot if anyone could discern them in one nce. The masks were not as costly as the real silver but a purchase in bulk always gets more cost than discount. Thus, Ye Chong crafted his own masks for the moment, just a measly five of them, and he brought 4 men along for the meeting, whom never were exposed at Foundation before. All for the safety.

    "Compliment''s appreciated but we are still nothingpared to the great Fan family." Guo was real experienced in negotiation, as he made a perfect turn, "Well, Miss Fan, for the expansion of both of our families, shall we talk?"

    "Right."

    "We have acquired the Rippling Orchid upon your request," Guo took a sip on the tea, "But the situation turned out to be¡­ a little different than what we have imagined¡­" The words were slow.

    "A little different? What is it I wonder?" Sounds like the catchphrase she had grown up seeing for a typical daylight robbery.

    "We thought we were blessed with great fortune for we found one sprout of it. However, the Lady Luck seemed to have smiled at us that day, as we found three sprouts at a time. What a surprise." Stated Guo calmly.

    "THREE?" Shrieked Fan Qing as she sprung up from her seat. Her expressive eyes were filled with incredulity.

    The sudden scream alerted her guards around, as they thought something had gone wrong and rushed to her side, circling the entire scene. Meanwhile, Guo remained nonchntly on his seat, sipping his tea, as if no other uninvited guest had joined their tea party.

    Fan Qing, feeling awkward of the unnecessary rm, waved her guards away, covering her face, "My regrets for my misconduct. And all these unnecessary staging." She wiped her sweat and regained her expression, though her heart still raced faster than ever, as her mind reyed the very scene she saw the hideous re from one of those masked men.

    "Hahaha! It''s alright, caution is a long-lost virtue, Miss Fan. I do have faith in the working of Fan family." The response was prompt, though Fan Qing knew it was merely a line on the courtesy act, she kind of grew upon the man.

    "I''m getting all the Rippling Orchid you have. Two million points. How do the great man think?" She was truly keen on those sprouts.

    One for 500,000, and 3 for 2,000,000, sounds like a deal for me. Thought Guo as he nced at Ye Chong, "You sure know how to do business, Miss Fan, it''s an honor to trade with you. Very well, that would be it."

    The quick nce by Guo was captured by Fan Qing, "Thank you for you and your impable squad."

    One masked man came to her with a specimen cab. She tried seeing through the mask but she knew she should not be doing that at the moment, as she quickly withdrew her eyes back onto the cab, which contained exactly 3 sprouts of Rippling Orchids.

    Her eyes were shaking. These barbarians actually knew to use a specimen cab to store these precious nts? "Your squad is much more interesting than I thought."

    "HAH!" Chuckled Guo. I guess wealthy family is wealthy after all, 2 millions points vaporized and she does not seem to care. Sigh, only if I am as wealthy.

    "Our squad would be heading to Yi Ju. If you have any inquiry, or would like to have more deals with us, please, do not hesitate," smiled Guo brightly.

    Their destination was surprising to her ears. Of alls, Yi Ju? Why that undeveloped globe? A ce without technology would be a bad nest for the squad of pilots like his. While Papatte should be more potent than I have expected, a potent squad like Papatte should be heading to a more popted to build their foundation. Then¡­ why Yi Ju?

    "Your n being¡­?" Confused Fan Qing was.

    "I understand your concern¡­" Smiled Guo, "We have recruited a new batch of members quite recently you see. And we would need a more spacious base for training, since we are still verygging behindpared to most squads out there, we have to pick a less popted like Yi Ju. Obviously because you know¡­ we would love to have an easier ground to stand."

    "You''re so modest!" Complimented Fan Qing emptily, though she did not buy that exnation.

    The trade was a happy one anyway.

    Two millions points were undoubtedly an astronomical figure to a single person, till it was thrown to a pack of 5000 wolves. You still thought it was still great? A single Moonlight piloted by Hai Lian would cost 30 grand, with that in the equation, 2 millions points could only get around 60 Moonlights. And Moonlight was quite a basic model too.

    Well at least it was their first sessful business, the tribe was happy, the squad was happy.

    Let''s see. A dimensional keystone would be 2,000 points. Amunication device would be 3,000. The detection system though, was slightly more costly, a whopping 5,000 points. These were still the entry gears¡­ which none of them were really superior in performance. A heartbreaking price it was to Ye Chong as he missed those days with Mu Shang''s hacking to the gate.

    Gearing one Collision would cost 10 grand. In the end Ye Chong decided to invest a million on gearing 100 Collisions in his hand. Technically these Collisions would be for their basic living - running missions of course. The remaining a million¡­ well Ye Chong would not want to make a blind purchase, as he heard Guo Ren''s estimated expenditure on Yi Ju - apparently even on a nearly isted, building a base that could amodate 5000 men would cost more than a million by any chance.

    Where are the points when I need them? Like where?! Screamed Ye Chong inside.

    He could not rush. Everything must go ording to ns. Be it the search for Mu Shang or the way back to the 5 major gxies, Ye Chong found difficulties at the moment. He got to use his patience to slowly grow his forces. He thought of Virtual World but sadly it was not a thing in He Yue seemingly, not really amon facility. The gxy did have several servers but those were exclusive to the Aristocrats or the major squads built for their needs.

    Furthermore, they did not need Virtual World somehow, the technological advancement was more advanced than the gxies he came from, that Ye Chong even started suspecting if there would be Photon Stimted Intelligence as powerful as Mu Shang, or better, Mu Shang was actually originated from this gxy! Assuming those were true, it would be too risky to log into the Virtual World for now.

    Tsk, Ye Chongcked a practical way to contact Mu Shang. He got to let it go for now. Habitually his calm thoughts reced his tensed emotions. Given that Mu Shang still survived and obviously they would, he did not have to worry for them, he should be worrying for himself in fact.

    He got to ensure his survival in He Yue first - a feasible target at the moment. His situation was looking bad but he had experienced worse, so¡­ no worries!

    ¡­

    "Wee to Terry City." They had arrived at Terry City, a city with a poption about 3 millions. Nothing particrly fancy about it. City like this was everywhere over Yi Ju. The location of Yi Ju was somewhere at one corner of the gxy, situated towards the edge of Cmitous Asteroid Belt. That was not only the reason for its unpoprity, the resources, specifically the minerals, were considerably barren. Technologically and economically speaking, it was tragedy. ntation farming was the sole pir to support the economy, although the residents were fortunate to have nted a few unique fruits known to the outside world, thanks to their climate. The catch was, as far as they were from the heart of the gxy, it would take forever to transport their crops for fortune. Merchants once showed interests but were then shunned away by the outrageous cost to even get the business running. So Yi Ju remained as barren as ever.

    And Nedved woke up one morning to see a few strangers residing in his farm. With those silver masks, they really looked dubious. The entire neighborhood was gossiping the happening. Everyone knew Nedved''s n of migration, as well as the renting of hisnd, more importantly. They coveted thisrge piece of in, with a god-saved earth in one piece. The sun and the water were both great, anything could be imagined as a good harvest.

    The next thing the neighbors realized, Nedved happily left the ce. The masked outsiders actually purchased the entirend, without a sound made. The neighbors were naturally gossip-lovers but they never wanted the new men to join. Even the dumb cowboy at one side could tell the masked men being potentially malicious. Their gestures, be it a wave or a swing, all of them looked rough. The time when they first came to Nedved''s farm, it was as if a raid of the space pirates, thousands of mechs zoomed to his ce andnded in sequence. They almost rmed the police, till they saw old Nedved acting fine towards them.

    Well, Yi Ju, as poor as it was, nobody cared about it, not even the space pirates.

    Ever since the strangers arrived, they had been rooted in their home. It was as if they did not need to eat or to sleep. Right when several theories were brewing at the futile chatters in the neighborhood, a few teams of construction workers rushed into the farm and built a Great Wall enveloping the entire ce. It took 10 days till the workers came out, exhausted.

    So what the heck are these weirdoes doing?

    Few dayster, projection was made at the door. PAPATTE, the seven-lettered word was bright and clear. And everyone realized, it was actually a pilot squad joining their neighborhood.

    Well, Ye Chong was worrying on his finance. His base was only half-done, while the bank ount was almost empty. The saving grace was¡­ the food here was surprisingly dirt-cheap, at least he did not have to worry how to feed 5000 mouths every day.

    They got to get some works to do now. They would be starving in no time if they never headed out for new requests. So he led Guo and Sang Fan with other men, headed to the local office in Terry City.

    The office was, as simr as the atmosphere of the itself, poorly decorated. A short building pitiful to the eyes,pared to those offices Ye Chong had seen on others before. It felt like he had been sent 500 years backwards. He gave a knock and entered, to see the fewzy men slothfully walking around. The billboard which contained the request? It was as numerous as those men. A pitiful few of them. The price? Don''t ask it, you will cry.

    But they did not seem to have much options there. Survival would be the topmost priority, while stealthiness throned the second. What''s wrong if we were to live tougher? At least we are still alive and kicking? Compared to the Archipgo, this was heaven. On the other than, the Papatte was agreeably joining either, they had been at the bottommost of society long enough, this was their bread and butter.

    The squad needed money, lots and lots and lots of money. As far as Ye Chong was informed, every man of his did not manage to fulfill their basic allocated resources. Assuming 10,000 points for each other, he would need 5 millions points, just for food and daily necessity. Ye Chong also thought of devices for mech, but every single piece of them would go by a price of 8 digits at the very least. Sigh, now thinking back, what luxury it was back when I build the Cob. Threebs of three different sets of the best apparatuses, astronomically priced. And now I could not even buy a nut of it.

    He consulted Guo after taking a nce at the requests on the billboard. He epted every single request that seemed doable at the moment, which most of them required a dense man force, doing some obsolete works with pitiful pay - that had justified why no squad on Yi Ju would want to do them.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong did notck the man force. His men were bored either as they sumbed to continuous training to kill the time, fortunately they had the walls to keep them low, so they would not give heart attacks to the elderlies next door. The victims, most likely wold be Francis Jr. and his mates, as they felt like amb into a pen of wolves. This was because Sang Pu could not bear to see their incapability in even the most basicbats so he forced them into training.

    And that, was how, the miserable tales of Francis Jr. and his happy mates began.

    In front of one anomaly, you would feel in; In front of fifty? You probably feel why you existed.

    Sang Fan and the rest remained loitering at the city to try finding some fortune, while Ye Chong headed back to the base alone.

 Chapter 291 - Brother and Sister

    <h4>Chapter 291: Brother and Sister</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Strolling by the road, Mi Su and Mi Qi were enjoying the scenery around them, which differed from the view they grew up seeing, with tall buildings frequented by flocks and flocks of mechs. They almost forgot the time to head home, and a man at his middle-aged, carrying luggages were right behind.

    "No wonder uncle wouldn''t want to leave, I too feel like staying here forever," said Mi Qi. For an educated man at the age of seventeen, he was rather handsome, his gestures could justify his background too. There were gazes fromdies all over the ce, from time to time. And Mi Qi, seemingly used to it, showed negligence towards the phenomena around.

    "Well, uncle had been working really hard over his life. Now he really could use some decent rest at a ce like this. It is delightful to see him feeling happy here," approved Mi Su, being the elder sister of Mi Qi. They had been good brother and sister ever since they were born in the same family.

    Beep. Beep. Beep.

    Themunicator rang on the wrist of the middle-aged man. The brother and sister held their steps and looked at him approving transmission, whispering briefly and pulling a long face after.

    "Uncle Yun, is there anything wrong?" stated Mi Su.

    "Lady," Bowed Uncle Yun, "The n''s intelligence had reported a restless activity in Lunaris. Pirates had appeared apparently."

    "Lunaris?" Frowned Mi Qi, "Isn''t that ce where we need to pass to our destination?"

    "Yes sir, the leader had sent a few more men, all for the safety," stated Uncle Yun.

    Their trip this time was to pay their great uncle a visit. While their great uncle appreciated the visit of his two young rtives, he did not fancy the visit of a crowd to his home, so the brother and sister did not bring anybody else than their loyal butler on their journey. The plot twist though, was unexpectedly the bloodshed of Foundation between the Jie experts and the Aristocrats. So rather than having those worried guardsmen by their side, they instead sent these men out to hear about the incident, while they - under the apaniment of their childhood caregiver, Uncle Yun - would pretend as some random tourists on the spaceship. It was a smooth sail to Yu Ju.

    "Brother¡­" Hesitated Mi Su, "How about we move few dayster?"

    "No way!" Rejected Mi Su right away, "The trial is just around the corner, being the son of the leader I could not be ater."

    Mi Su remained silent, she knew her brother. Having the personality from his father, whenever the n was mentioned, he would be this stern and dead serious.

    "It looks like we would need more men," concluded Uncle Yun, pessimistically. The young master and mistress had been under his care since birth, so he also caught on Mi Su''s temper.

    "Though I wonder¡­" Frowned Mi Su, "I wonder of what standard the pilots here are¡­ If there''s a squad somewhere¡­conveniently."

    To this statement Uncle Yun responded nothing, in his mind he had already confirmed the standard of the pilots here, the economy here had told everything, as affirmed by his experience being in the outside world, unlike young master and mistress who grew up in a well-guardedwn.

    But it did not look like he had any alternative either. They really needed to employ few more men.

    Beep! Beeeeeeeep!

    Themunicator rang again, but it was Mi Su''s this time.

    A nce on the caller''s ID brought a smile upon Mi Su''s face, "Yes? Sister Qing?" Mi Su jumped to the other corner of the street the moment he heard the most frightful name of the entire gxy. Uncle Yun was finding the scene funny.

    "Sister Qing, you got home?" Fan Qing''s hologram was on themunicator clear, although the forcefuldy was currently stretching on her bed. Yes, Fan family had always been in good rtion with Mi family since the brother and sister were born. All three of them had been great ymates since childhood, the brother and sister would frequent the room of Fan Qing back then.

    "Yeah, like I finally finished the task this time. Sissie, hehehe, you won''t be able to guess which squad did it!" Thedy sounded proud, well only in front of her fellow good mates. No acquaintance would see thatdylike side of hers.

    Mi Su being her ymate for years knew what the sister wanted to y, "Dous? Could it be?" Dous was a well-known pilot squad, the squad did not consist of arge number of members but they were surely all elites. The entry test to their squad was extremely harsh apparently. It would be a solid proof of strength if one was able to join them. As there were only a few members, Dous hardly epted requests on major operation. Instead, they aimed those tough, super tough missions that did not require a pack of nonsense but a well team of royal flush like them. Those missions were tough, so obviously they got paid handsomely too.

    "Dous? No!" Shook Fan Qing, she had dealt with Dous a few times before, so she knew which Dous the girl was mentioning.

    "Ummmm¡­ Trilobita?" The next name rolled in, which associated with a major pilot squad, with expansive forces over the gxy; the leader Luo Ru Feng was a public figure, very sociable among the forces, including Mi and Fan family.

    "Hohoho¡­ Nope."

    "Well I don''t know¡­," said softly Mi Su, with a smile. Her memory only contained these two names befitting to her sister''s standard, they were the frequent squads in business too.

    "I knew you can''t guess it. Let me give you a hint," giggled Fan Qing, "Half a star. The rating."

    "Half? A star?" Mi Su almost screamed, "What can a half-starred pilot squad do?" Mi Su might not be fully aware of the outside world but she knew the basic - the rating of a squad would be directly dependent on their performance inpleted tasks. Those squads with half a star were mostly at the bottom of the entire food web. The elite squads like Trilobita and Dous for example, would be unting those sparkling five stars of theirs at the public.

    "That''s what I thought too at the beginning. But they somehow got new members, and they were very much stronger. You know what, they found Rippling Orchids, back and alive, with 3 of them."

    "Three Rippling Orchids?" Mi Su covered her mouth in shock. She knew the value of Rippling Orchid, it was almost priceless and rare. She also knew how Fan Qing took forever to find them and now someone from nowhere got it, three of them. Fan Qing carried on, stretching her perfect curves again, "Guess what, they are heading to Yi Ju. They aren''t going for the developeds. Aren''t this strange you feel?"

    "Yi Ju?" Everyone rose their eyebrows.

    "Yeah, I have no idea why they would want to go that sheetty ce," swore Fan Qing, very naturally on her temper.

    "Sigh, Sister Qing, you just swore again," said Mi Su, shaking her head, "Well Yi Ju is still a pretty, brother and I are right here right now. So how strong they are, sister?" Rebutted Mi Su.

    "Hmmmmm¡­," pondered Fan Qing, "I dunno. But I think they aren''t weak, just¡­ weird. Those new strange masked men who came along for the meeting that day ain''t looking bad though."

    "Masked men?" What a weird title.

    "Yeah, weird isn''t it? The leader said it was their traditional practice, with special emphasis on the practice of chastity, vowing to death not to show faces to anybody else than their other half. Hah, Mi Su I got a brilliant idea, you should really take their mask off, see if they would fulfill their vow of death on you and perish along. Right, they would be dragging you to a hall nearby and get their tribal chief to dere both of you husband and wife. Hahahahahahahahahahaha! How romantic!" Thedy was rolling back and fro on her bed.

    "Would you be serious at once!" Mi Su gave an eye-roll, "Sister Qing, do you have their contacts though?"

    "Oh why Mi Su? Why would you want that?" Held herugh, Fan Qing looked confused.

    Mi Su then briefed Sister Qing the situation, which caused the sister''s face to drain, "Hm¡­" Pondered her again, "You could go for a try. They were a little weird that is. I''m not sure but just make sure you don''t expose your identity. Sadly I don''t have any pilot on duty there or both of you would not have to bear with this foreignness."

    "Okay, understood~" answered Mi Su nicely.

    "By the way, how was Qiqi?" asked Fan Qing.

    "AWWWWWWWWW!" Qiqi''s face was twitching, as he covered his stomach wailing, "My stomach, ouch, I''m running, kay thanks bye!" Then he stampeded away, like the deer upon seeing the carnivore.

    "Hahahahaha¡­" Mi Su was giggling, while Fan Qing, "Hmph!" was angry, "This stupid Qiqi!"

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    Deep inside the isted, long valley of mountain, a spaceship was parked there. The six letters were gasping weakly in the jungle, with their letters hardly discernible, "COXCOMB". The body of the spaceship was technically torn, distortion could be seen everywhere.

    Inside the Cob¡­ Little Rock was performing calction, while Zhu Ling was checking out the Overwing. The ace mech of the Sanctuary was now a toy in her hand. Qiu Man was sitting there silently, with Lian Yue being at the side with a look of a No.1 fan, muttered constantly. If there was someone with good hearing there¡­ the content would be¡­

    "Such perfect chin. Such curve lovingly gorgeous for a throat of a fairdy."

    "Your snowy skin, your scented breath, your gaze captivates me, tsk, tsk, tsk, the ultimate loot for the living men."

    ¡­

    "Strange. Why did that line feel so familiar?" Mu''s mechanical eyes shone upon the scenery outside.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    The elder of the Sanctuary was having a headache at the situation now. Everything grew more intense and his forces were torn around. The few best teams he sent to scout that primary never returned ever since, not even messages were heard. He was feeling bad about the situation, he had sent 5 batches away but they just disappeared like a rock into the river. The was as if a distortion disc, a ck hole, that would engulf everything at once¡­

    What happened¡­

    When he was facing theck of workforce, the authority sent him a new order, of withdrawing all ace pilots including Feng Su right back to the HQ. He was shocked of course, it was the first time seeing the authority required that much of forces that urgently in his entire life.

    But well, all he could do was tough bitterly and send hisst few forces back.

    ¡­

    "What? They don''t allow visitors? Excuse me?" Mi Su was shocked.

    "Yeah!! I was like, ''could you please let us in, have a look at the office?'' and they were like, ''No!'' with a m on the door!" Mi Su was angry, stampeding the ground, "I have never been so insulted in my entire life!"

    "That''s really weird," muttered Mi Su.

    "Indeed," added Uncle Yun, "Normally a squad would not refuse visits as this would be a good opportunity for the squad to demonstrate their strength to convince their clients to take them."

    "So did they ept our request anyway?" Tilted Mi Su''s head, asked.

    "Well! They say, ''we will talk about this on our meeting''."

    Guo the old chief was snorting at the local office, then he was wakened up by amunication by someone iming to be under rmendation of Fan Qing. Of course the man was overjoyed, but then the demand of visitation was a puzzlement¡­ "How do you think?" He consulted Ye Chong for final opinion and certainly, a low-profiled man like Ye Chong would decline directly.

    No way I would say yes to that. My base has mechs, only mechs, nothing else. And my 5000 men were almost as strong as the Jie experts, and any real expert could identify them in the tiniest gesture. If I ever let the visitors in, it would rm the entire gxy in no time!

    I do need money, but not to an extent I would lose sense of my security. I picked Yu Ju mainly because it was towards the edge of Cmitous Asteroid Belt, if anything would go wrong, I would be able to evacuate my team back into the belt anytime.

    Ye Chong was right, the Cmitous Asteroid Belt was a natural maze, withplicatedndscapes that would confuse the foes from teaming up against them. And nobody else was more familiar with the asteroid belt than the Sangs. And there was Red Sea, with Archipgo. They had a perfect hiding spot between Archipgo and Yu Ju.

    Never unt your own strength.

    Ye Chong learned the lesson the hard way before.

    Well, if the real leader said so, Guo the leader in disguise could only respond with a nod. He could imagine the frustration of the client though, as ording to the practice of pilot squads, such decline would be a bald on the record, a tant disrespect. Moreover, the client was under Fan Qing, thedy who just gave them 2,000,000 points for a few sprouts of nt. Clearly the client was something.

    Sigh, the business is off I guess.

    Guo ended the transmission and carried on his forty winks.

 Chapter 292 - The Job

    <h4>Chapter 292: The Job</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sang Fan and the rest remained at ease, sitting with their eyes closed. Old Chief Guo was secretly impressed by these mysterious mech pilots. They had the looks of a world ss pilot, at least in terms of patience. Old Chief Guo had seen Sang Fan¡¯s true face. By his judgment, the young man and their leader had a deep rtionship. Of course, the seasoned Old Chief Guo acted ordingly.

    The door of themission center opened. Everyone looked up, and immediately perked up. The mech pilots loitering about the main lobby of themission center may not be on the same level as the Sang tribe members in terms of strength, but they had a much sharper eye for customers. They knew from the behaviour and clothing of the three people entering the lobby that they were rich.

    Business time! The cking mech pilots immediately picked themselves up and rushed forward, offering multitudes of ttery. Only Old Chief Guo, Sang Fan andpany did not move. Old Chief Guo took a nce at the three and immediately ignored them. As for the rest, they did not even open their eyes.

    Of the three who came, one was a beautiful and genialdy. She was surrounded by the most prospectors.

    The three were Mi Qi, Mu Si and Uncle Yun. While they were unhappy with the way the Papatte mech squad treated them, they did not have much of a choice. Hence, they came to have a look anyway.

    Mi Qi frowned in distaste; Mi Su wore her usual thin smile; Uncle Yun adopted a t expression. He took a step forward and tactfully pushed outwards. The gathering crowd immediately felt huge pressure, and quickly stepped back.

    Old Chief Guo whistled softly at the performance. He could see that the middle-aged man¡¯s move was smart and powerful. While he did not know how it worked, it was undeniably an ingenious way of controlling one¡¯s strength.

    Sang Fan and others opened their eyes simultaneously and took a quick nce at the middle-aged man, but quickly shut their eyes again. To them, the technique was ingenious, but not very particrly useful.

    The other mech pilots might not be the cream of the crop, but they were seasoned enough. By the looks of the middle-aged man standing in front of the young man anddy, they knew that all hope was lost, and retreated with resignation.

    Mi Qi looked around the lobby, and began to approach Old Chief Guo. Old Chief Guo and hispany were standing out too much, being the only ones who did not act on their arrival. Besides, the three people with silver masks on would be conspicuous anyway in this small lobby.

    Uncle Yun¡¯s eyes gleamed the moment theynded with Sang Fan and the other two. He quickly went to Mi Qi and whispered to his ear, "Careful, my lord, the three masked people are strong!"

    Mi Qi paused in his advance, startled. He was familiar with Uncle Yun¡¯s strength. The man rarely described people as strong, not since Mi Qi was young. As such, he was surprised that Uncle Yun would call all three of the masked people as strong! However, he quickly recovered himself. Wasn¡¯t this exactly what they needed? A mech squad that could enlist three capablebat experts must be good.

    Compared to mech pilots,bat experts were less helpful. Hence, in any mech squad, hiringbat experts would not be their top priority. They were often hired only when the mech squad could afford extra manpower.

    Old Chief Guo stood up. Sang Fan and the others immediately opened their eyes and took a few seemingly casual steps that brought them around Old Chief Guo, surrounding him in the center. Ye Chong¡¯s orders were for them to protect Guo Ren.

    "Is this the Papatte Mech Squad?" Mi Qi asked. The group was too easy to recognize. Their silver masks were exactly as Sister Qing had told him.

    Old Chief Guo replied with augh, "Yes, it is. And who might you be, sirs anddy?"

    Mi Qi smiled softly in his soothing aristocratic demeanor. "We are the client who contacted you this morning."

    "Oh," Old Chief Guo was surprised, but quickly gathered himself. "Haha, so it¡¯s a customer, please forgive me."

    Mi Qi decided then and there to hire the Papatte Mech Squad. From the man¡¯s behaviour, he was certain that the mech squad was worth more than half a star.

    The trio in masks stood steadfast, their eyes still as cold as before.

    Two Collisions escorted three full-skeleton transport vessels to the docking station. 30 Sang tribe members came out of the vessel. These were the people Ye Chong sent to Archipgo earlier. They brought with them plenty of mildstones, necessary for the Collisions. Mildstones could be used for a long time, but they were a one-time energy source, unlike the rechargeable energy cells. While the mildstones they had now were not exhausted yet, it was never too early to prepare for the eventuality.

    The leading viger reported to Ye Chong, "Vige Head asked to ry to you, sir, to not worry about the vige. The steelbats showed no signs of returning. The vige is doing well. Three goods transport vessels were built, and we¡¯ve brought them all here. We brought 30 thousand mildstones, a thousand Collision parts of all sorts, and somevagold pieces."

    "I see, good job, please have some rest."

    "Yes sir!" The 30 men answered respectfully and left.

    The 30 thousand mildstones were quickly dispersed amongst the battalion members. The Collision mech parts andvagold pieces were stored in the underground depository. The fact that all thosevagold could be sold for alot brought a faint smile to Ye Chong¡¯s grim face.

    Just then, thems device beeped. Old Chief Guo came on the holographic screen.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    In the end, Ye Chong epted the request to escort three clients safely to of Ling Yuan. The sky high remuneration offered had made Ye Chong, desperate for money, ept the job without thinking too much.

    10 million credits! That was enough to buy basic equipment for a thousand Collisions! Ye Chong even considered capturing the three clients and see if he could make them offer more! Of course, that was only an impulsive thought. He was still reasonable. If they offered such arge reward, they muste from some influential background. This was not the time to make enemies with a powerful organization, unless he wanted to return to Archipgo straight away.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    A thousand mechs escorted the small starship. The three clients were in this starship, and Old Chief Guo, as leader of Papatte, naturally apanied them. Ye Chong was on the ship as well, while Sang Tie was left in charge of the 1,000 Collision mechs outside. Sang Pu was left at their base in case of emergencies.

    Aside from the 20 piloting crew members on the starship, everyone else was a member of the Papatte Mech Squad. All of them wore silver masks, except for Old Chief Guo.

    Mi Qi and the rest felt that they had made the right choice. The Papatte Mech Squad was quite something!

    With their aristocratic upbringing, Mi Qi and Mi Su were more sensitive to these matters. The Papatte Mech Squad had surprised them with itspetence. It even urred to them briefly that the Papatte Mech Squad could be a trap set by the Three Aristocratic Families.

    The strict discipline and obedience demonstrated by its squad members were simr to that of experienced soldiers. They also noticed that the Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s members did not lower their guard at any time of day. Even when off duty, they walked with a militaristic gait.

    As the Mi family¡¯s eldest son, Mi Qi had seen the family¡¯s secret troops. However, they were superior only in terms of their equipment, and would not stand a chance against the Papatte Mech Squad. While he had never seen the squad¡¯s members fight, he could tell from their behavior and movements that they were all veteranbat experts. This was coborated by Uncle Yun¡¯s judgment. When Uncle Yun spoke of the squad members, his face twitched nervously. The fact that even the calm Uncle Yun would be so perturbed was disquieting to Mi Qi and Mi Su.

    They never saw the 1,000 mechs escorting them, so naturally, they could not tell the quality of those mech pilots. However, just the 100bat experts in the ship were formidable enough. Even the Dous Mech Squad, with its numerous elite members, did not have so many skilledbat experts.

    Just how could someone produce such an elite squad? The three of them wondered nervously.

    However, in sharp contrast to the Papatte Mech Squad¡¯spetence, their equipment was horrible. They were less than junk! Mi Qi remembered when he first saw a thousand rainbow-colored mechs, his first thought was, "Are they getting homeless people to make up the numbers?"

    "What a pity!" Mi Qi had sighed then. He felt a deep sense of humiliation. It was like seeing a group of Jie experts wearing only loincloths, while remembering that the so-called elites at home were dressed in the best tapestries. It was not a good feeling.

    Mi Su spoke mildly, "It¡¯s hard to say, these mechs ¡­ Er ¡­ Maybe they can fly!" She was unsure as well, but her kind nature demanded her to defend the squad members. "Maybe they¡¯re a kind of secret weapon!" Seeing Mi Qi¡¯s unconvinced face, however, she quickly quieted down. The truth was, she did not quite believe it herself too.

    Uncle Yunmented unexpectedly in his musing. "Young Miss here might be right. Perhaps it¡¯s a kind of secret weapon. The color patches might just be a cover."

    Mi Qi curled his lips. "Perhaps." His fine features expressed his disbelief.

    Just then, Old Chief Guo brought a masked man with him and approached them. Smiling, he said, "Having a good time? Or is something amiss on our part?"

    Mi Qi quickly replied, "Your service is excellent, we are very grateful." For safety reasons, they had all adopted fake names - Fan Qi, Fan Su and Fan Yun. Ye Chong and Old Chief Guo did not suspect a thing. As someone introduced by Fan Qing, it was only natural that they were from the Fan family.

    The three of them turned their attention to the masked men beside Old Chief Guo. The masked man was tall and slender, standing out amongt the rest of the squad members, who were mostly short. They noticed during their flight that the other squad members seemed very respectful towards this masked man. The three of them were sharp, and could see that the respect was sincere. Even Squad Captain Guo would treat him with respect.

    However, with his slender looks, he did not look like abat expert. This appealed to them more. If a person who could not fight was treated with respect by so manybat experts, he must be capable in his own ways.

    Ye Chong had learned long ago how to fake the appearance of an average person. He was not too shabby either, considering he had fooled even Uncle Yun. The Sang family vigerscked this skill, their strengths entirely exposed like an unsheathed de. It had never even urred to them that they should keep their real potential hidden.

    "Who¡¯s this?" Mi Qi asked, as the three of them looked to the masked man beside Old Chief Guo.

    "This is our squad¡¯s tactician, Yang Ming," Old Chief Guo made that up on the spot. While he only just knew the man, he knew his character quite well. The boss would never be offended by this, and might even thank him for saving him the trouble ofing up with a fake name.

    As expected, Ye Chong showed no annoyance, but merely nodded in greeting to the three clients.

    The three of them were instantly impressed. It seemed that Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s admirable performance originated from this man. No wonder he was well respected despite his weak physique.

    Mi Qi¡¯s first thought was to hire the man. Just what improvements would he bring to the Mi family¡¯sbat capacity? The thought appealed to him, but he was not foolish enough to bring it up before the squad captain.

    Mi Su studied the man with slender masked man before her. The mask covered his face entirely, but she could sense something strange from his eyes. It was an overwhelming sense of apathy, as though nothing in the world could touch his heart.

    She immediately imagined a most handsome young man with a calm appearance. However, the face was a blur, like it was shrouded by a mist.

    Huh? For a moment, she felt the man¡¯s eyes studying her. It felt like an almost undetectable jolt. Her mind was curious, but her cheeks were already blushing.

    Just what would she do if she knew what Ye Chong was thinking now?

    "Another beauty! If Shang is here, he must be pretty excited!" Ye Chong suddenly thought of the yboy, Shang.

    She stole a look at him, and her heart jolted again almost imperceptibly. The calm eyes suddenly showed a rich mix of emotions. She could see his reminiscences through his eyes.

    "Beautifuldies ¡­ " Ye Chong thought of the many times Shang tried to teach him about beauties without relent. The lips behind the mask arched slightly. He was swept by a whirlwind of memories, and one particrdy in white training garb appeared as quickly as she vanished again.

 Chapter 293 - Kyajiâ€™s Death I

    <h4>Chapter 293: Kyaji¡¯s Death I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Feng Su flew swiftly across the skies in her Wings of Nirvana. She had just received orders from the Elder to return to the He Yue gxy. The truth was, she felt a little surreal receiving the order, but with the Elder himself on the holographic screen, there was no room for doubt.

    She epted her orders and left immediately. Since she was in Csebesini gxy finishing off herst assignment, she would have to pass by the Orbits during her journey to He Yue gxy. Csebesini gxy was too far from the Orbits. It would take at least a month for her to reach He Yue gxy at this rate.

    To avoid unnecessary incidents, Wings of Nirvana did not fly too fast. Feng Su even took her time admiring the view below. Suddenly, she gasped in surprise as Wings of Nirvana stopped in its tracks in the sky.

    A mech was making difficult double-sided turns just below Wings of Nirvana. It was simply too shocking that such challenging footwork was executed so perfectly. Double-sided turns was notoriously difficult not due to the piloting skills required, but the physical strength and endurance that the pilot must have to execute it. Even an above average physique would not be able to withstand the stress from this move.

    Besides, due to her extended period of time spent in the Five Gxies, Feng Su knew that the local mech pilots were all desperatelycking in terms of their physical training. Now that she found such a strong mech pilot, she was naturally surprised.

    The mech did not stop there. Slithering steps, short-ranged quick turns ¡­ The mech performed all these difficult moves one by one. Feng Su was beyond shocked. She was certain that even the average He Yue gxy mech pilot could not achieve this.

    Just what kind of monster was piloting the mech? Feng Su was unavoidably interested in the mech pilot who demonstrated such power.

    Inside the pilot cabin, Rui Bing was drenched in sweat, her white training garbpletely soaked. Thesebat moves were challenging for her. It was her first timebining a few of these difficult moves together. Surprisingly, the stress on her body waspounded in an exponential way. Even a Jie expert like her was feeling a little overwhelmed.

    Ever since she got separated from Ye Chongst time, she had been training desperately in mech piloting. Surprisingly, the one who helped her the most was Wei Yuan. With the holographic recording of Ye Chong¡¯s training, and his talented mind, he had identified the key ideas in Ye Chong¡¯s training.

    Rui Bing was the first to benefit from Wei Yuan¡¯s analysis. Wei Yuan¡¯s body could not endure the harsh training, but Rui Bing was not so limited. Hence, Rui Bing improved by leaps and bounds, but Wei Yuan continued to stay where he was, causing him much frustration.

    "Brother-inw is crazy, so it¡¯s natural that sister is also crazy!" Wei Yuan often muttered to himself, and Rui Bing always awarded him with a flick on the back of his head from out of nowhere.

    Rui Bing¡¯s daily practice was worrying everyone around her. To them, Rui Bing was always a delicate little girl,pletely ignoring the fact that she was a Jie expert. In truth, a Jie expert¡¯s body was strong, suitable for Ye Chong¡¯s style of training.

    On the other hand, Rui Bing did not expect that by spending more time on mech piloting and less onbat practice, herbat skills had improved a significant bit. It was a pleasant surprise. As a Jie expert, any improvements woulde slowly, in a timescale of decades.

    As she slipped out of her mech, a breeze greeted her, cooling her off in her wet training garb.

    A metal feather silently swept towards her. Thebined movements had left Rui Bing fatigued and slower. It was only when the feather approached closer that she heard the sharp whistle in the air. She knew something was wrong and was about to react, but her body slowed her down. She felt a numbing hit on her back before she lost consciousness.

    Wings of Nirvana slowly descended. Feng Su slipped out of the pilot cabin, her beautiful face now framing a mischievous smile. She had wanted to see who was in the mech, nothing more. However, when she realized that the mech¡¯s movements were not only difficult moves, butbat moves craftilybined together, she felt a chill.

    Combat movebinations were not achieved by just performing a few difficult moves in session, but a matter of joining them together in a reasonable and crafty way.

    It was when she saw a beautiful womaning out of the mech that she decided to kidnap her. The Sanctuary was not in the habit of wasting such a world ss talent. Besides, the mech pilot was a woman, which impressed her even more. After all, a woman¡¯s body was naturally weaker than a man¡¯s. Few women could perform those difficultbat moves. Even she herself could not have done it better.

    Usually, she would have done this the long and indirect way, and not such an extreme way. However, since she was urgently returning to the He Yue gxy, there was no time to get acquainted with the woman and win her trust. She had to resort to this distasteful method. The feathers on Winds of Nirvana could all be shot out for attacking. Of course, there were many other ways to use the feathers.

    With just a light impact, Rui Bing was hit unconscious. Feng Su had used He Yue¡¯s special technique. By hitting specific parts of the human body, some interesting results could be derived.

    For example, the point where the feather hit Rui Bing would make a person fall into a deep sleep, conducive for physical recovery. Feng Su did not want to harm the female mech pilot, after all. As a trump card, her skill level was apparent from this attack. The attack required extreme precision in position and strength, and achieving it at such a long distance was incredible.

    Feng Su carried Bing Su into Wings of Nirvana and took off.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    Mi Qi and Uncle Yun were vexed. Mi Su seemed to have developed a deep interest in the Papatte Mech Squad. Every day, she would stick around Squad Captain Guo, asking questions. Mi Qi and Uncle Yun were nervous. One really shouldn¡¯t ask about another¡¯s background so openly. Mi Qi had seen Squad Captain Guo looking ufortable more than once. His elder sister rarely took interest in family matters, so her current enthusiasm had surprised Mi Qi and Uncle Yun.

    Squad Captain Guo answered awkwardly, while the tactician Yang Ming kept his silence. This further convinced them that the Papatte Mech Squad was more than what appeared on the surface.

    Mi Qi thought the small starship¡¯s facilities were simple and crude, which told him that the Papatte Mech Squad was not doing well financially. Word was the starship was actually hired. He could not understand how a capable mech squad like this could be poor.

    However, their situation had given Mi Qi his chance. The Mi family might not be outstanding, but their financial status could best all the Three Aristocratic Families.

    He probed a few times before, and Squad Captain Guo¡¯s interest was apparent every time through his expression, but he had always chose his words carefully, stealing a nce at Yang Ming time and again. It seemed that Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s tactician was quite influential in the squad. Mi Qi also felt deeper respect towards the squad captain, to be able to act so carefully despite the offers he promised.

    That was not exactly the case, however. If Squad Captain Guo was the real leader of the squad, he would have instantly submitted to the Mi family. However, now that he was only leader in name, he dared not speak carelessly no matter what Mi Qi was offering him. The truth was, he was actually quite impressed by the Boss. Despite their financial dilemma, the Boss had remained calm as always before Mi Qi. Truly, Boss was The Boss!

    In the rear of the starship, there was a tightly guarded area. 20 people were assigned here, and Mi Qi was politely asked to leave whenever he came by. Once, he tried to test them, taking just a single step further than allowed. Just a single step. In that instant, all 20 pair of eyes behind the silver masks were fixed on him with a deadly re. He felt a chilling sensation along his spine, and did not take another step forward.

    Knowing his fault, he gave an awkward smile and slipped away. However, he was curious - just what were they guarding?

    "Once we leave this, we¡¯ll reach the Lunaris. I heard it¡¯s a little chaotic there." Mi Qi said solemnly. The Mi family¡¯s intel was rarely wrong.

    Just then, an rm red. Old Chief Guo quickly switched on the holographic screen. A silver mask reported in a muffled voice, "Large swarm of mechs spotted ahead, identity unknown." It was Sang Tie.

    Ye Chong nodded. "All members on high alert."

    "Yes sir," Sang Tie replied.

    Tension rose in the starship. Mi Qi was pale. It was his first time dealing with a situation like this. Uncle Yun was also looking grim. Only Mi Su¡¯s expression was unreadable.

    They looked around, and noticed that the Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s members all looked at ease, showing no fear. Mi Qi soon rxed under their influence.

    Through the starship¡¯s holographic screen, they could finally see the swarm of mechs clearly. Mi Qi breathed in deeply, his calmness shattered. Uncle Yun recognized the leading crimson mech. "Kyaji!"

    This was a bright crimson humanoid mech. One could almost taste the smell of blooding from it. Its left arm wielded a thick and menacing gun, while its right arm was equipped with a crescent hook, reflecting a chilling re that scared even Uncle Yun. The mech named Kyaji was famous, but its reputation was won through spilling blood. No one knew what the mech pilot looked like. They only knew the name of the mech - Kyaji.

    ording to the stories, Kyaji never left survivors.

    Uncle Yun¡¯s words made Old Chief Guo, Mi Qi and Mi Su all pale instantly.

    Ye Chong tilted his head, looking at Old Chief Guo. Old Chief Guo gulped and answered with difficulty, "Kyaji is a pirate mech, the leader of the Death Legion."

    "Pirates, I see." Ye Chong thought calmly about how queer his rtionship was with pirates in general when he turned on thems device. Sang Tie appeared on the holographic screen behind his silver mask. Ye Chong exined inly, "They are enemies. Initiate attack. You¡¯re inmand. Careful to avoid long range attacks."

    "Yes sir!"

    The three Mi family members stared at Ye Chong. Was the guy crazy, to initiate an attack on the Death Legion itself? The mechs on the holographic screen numbered at least 2000.

    The Death Legion was mostly made up of solo pirates, gathering under the name of Kyaji. While the crew had a name, it was not a structured organization. Nheless, every one of them was seasoned and capable. With Kyaji¡¯s personal reputation, the pirate crew was never once defeated. Besides, they were a sly bunch, making their way around outer space elusively, making them difficult to target at.

    The dense formation made up of the 1000 mechs around the starship suddenly spread out, divided into many small squads and flew towards the enemy.

    Mi Qi and his family watched the holographic screen anxiously. However, the holographic screen showed only the enemy¡¯s mech, and none of their own.

    Could they really be a bunch of homeless people? Had they all run away?

    There were five in a squad. They utilized evasive techniques while covering each other, confusing the enemy. Ye Chong¡¯s warning to be careful of long range weapons was ryed by Sang Tie to everyone else.

    Sir¡¯s words were thew. None of the Sang tribe members would dare to be careless. They used every evasive technique they learned from Ye Chong. Looking at their situation, Sang Tie could not help but be reminded of the days when thousands of vigers practiced flying Collision at the Sang Family Vige. It was a magnificent sight!

 Chapter 294 - Kyajiâ€™s Death II

    <h4>Chapter 294: Kyaji¡¯s Death II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Collision mechs traced graceful archs in the sky with their evasive techniques. Since the mechscked long range weapons, Ye Chong had to teach them extensive evasion techniques. It waspulsory training for all Sang family vigers. Their strong bodies allowed them to execute harder evasive moves. A simple turn, when done in three-fourths the time, would double the strain on the body, but its effectiveness in evading attacks could be quadrupled.

    Ye Chong had forgotten an important fact. If the enemy did not use their optical scanning systems, they would not be able to detect the Collision mechs, since they were made entirely of skeletons.

    The pirates could only see a small and solitary starship.

    Sang Tie quickly noticed the enemy¡¯sck of reaction to them, and figured out why. He still remembered the holographic scanning systems installed in their own mechs, and was surprised to find that the Collisions mechs were undetectable with those scans.

    Asmander, Sang Tie knew exactly what to do.

    Sang Tie ryed new orders for the squad - full speed ahead. All Collisions immediately dived towards the enemy. If anyone were using optical scanning systems, they would see the distressing sight of a thousand strangely built flying vessels flying towards the pirates like a barrier closing in.

    Sang Tie did a quick estimation of the distance between them and the pirates.

    All Collisions opened up twopartments on their sides.

    Sang Tiemanded - drop the bombs!

    2000 skeleton-made bombs wereunched towards the pirates. Sang Tie only ordered a single wave of bombing. This was not their vige, and they were unable to replenish their weapons.

    The vicious pirates only saw the lonely starship from afar, like a poormb waiting to be eaten,pletely oblivious of the iing attack.

    The ensuing spectacle was indescribably grand.

    On the holographic screen of the starship, they saw a bright eruption of light from an explosion, as Mi Qi and the rest had to shut their eyes. What a mysterious and terrible explosion! The Mi family trio stared in stupefaction. They could not understand how the pirate crew exploded so suddenly and violently.

    The pirates were simrly dumbfounded and shocked when the explosion happened.

    After the round of skeleton bombs, the Collision mechs spread out from their barrier formation into 200 squads of five, andunched themselves straight towards the pirate mechs.

    "D*mbasses, use your optical scans!" A distinctive voice roared through thems, cutting through all the noise of confusion. Abruptly, thems channel quietened down instantly. Everyone heard their leader¡¯s voice.

    "Spread out, spread out if you f*cking wanna live!" The thunderous voice roared again.

    The pirates quickly gathered themselves and activated their optical scanning systems as they pulled out into a spread out formation.

    Inside Kyaji, a man with a cold expression had a hopeless look in his eyes. He knew that the time hade. The other pirates might not realize it, but he had. Knowing that death was imminent, he felt unusually calm, devoid of any fear. He should have died a long time ago, and now, he finally would.

    Kyaji¡¯s holographic scanning system was top of the line. He had bought it at a high price, a product of the Xue Lai tribe. Even the Three Aristocratic Families could not hide their mechs sopletely from this scanning system. These mechs, however, were entirely hidden from the scans. He was shocked beyond words.

    He put his hands gently on the controls. He no longer felt dispirited, but excited, and even eager.

    Even if death was unavoidable, he would not give up without a fight!

    He tore off his clothes, baring his upper body, and roared at the skies!

    An energy beam barely grazed past Sang Tie¡¯s mech. Sang Tie was surprised. This was his first time nearly being hit by an energy beam. His eyes traced the source of the beam, arriving at a bright, crimson mech.

    Energy beams of various colours were shot across the sky as the battle went on. Fortunately, only a few of them hit the Collisions, and those that were hit were not fatally damaged. Besides, the Collision was tougher than Ye Chong expected.

    Kyaji¡¯s pilot almost had a stroke, his confidence struck down once again. He could not aim at the mechs. They were moving too fast. He had always prided on his shooting skills, but even he could not shoot down any of them. It was like a personal humiliation.

    The sniper pilots amongst the pirates shared his sentiment. The enemy mechs did not seem to perform any special evasive techniques, but for some reason, they just could not aim on the mechs. It was like their aiming system was off.

    Strange ¡­ Just what was really happening? The sniper mech pilots were bbergasted and aggrieved.

    However, Sang Tie and his battalion did not pity the pirates. They flew gracefully with their evasive techniques and flew straight into the mechs of the confused pirates.

    Collision mechs were so impossibly fast that the pirates could barely believe it, especially the sniper mech pilots. They had failed to aim at the enemy mechs, and now they saw that the mechs were faster than they had anticipated. They stood no chance at all.

    Sang Tie¡¯s mech took a slight turn and went straight for the crimson mech. The other mech seemed to realize his intentions, and waved off the other pirates surrounding it.

    He wanted a one-on-one battle!

    Sang Tie quickly deduced the enemy¡¯s message.

    A one-on-one battle wasmon in the battlefield. Capable mech pilots would usually ept the challenge, since it was a show of confidence towards themselves. If they could not even trust their own abilities, they would never be strong. This theory was widespread in He Yue gxy, with quite a few prominent mech pilots agreeing to the idea. Hence, individual heroism became a popr notion.

    In fact, one-on-one battles weremon in the Sang Family Vige as well. The challenged party would rarely back down.

    Kyaji¡¯s pilot smiled wickedly, seeing red. F*ck, he will not die without taking one out with him! He was sure that the enemy would not back down. His legacy will be a self-sacrificing end!

    Sang Tie¡¯s expression was cold as ever under his silver mask,pletely different from his usual fiery temper. He ignored the enemy¡¯s challenge, and led his troops in a straight line towards the enemy.

    Through the optical scanning system, Collision¡¯s speed was shocking to see. The pirates watched anxiously with their hearts racing.

    Sang Tie¡¯s mech flew straight towards Kyaji, followed by the other four mechs in his squad. Kyaji also flew swiftly towards Sang Tie. The pilot inside had his eyes wide open, panting heavily, but his hands were nimbly dancing on the controls, waiting for the moment of impact to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.

    They were getting closer and closer. The pirates around them stared, unwilling to miss the final moment. The Sang tribe members, however,pletely ignored the fight and continued destroying their enemies.

    Closer, closer now! Everyone held their breath as they watched the two mechs closing in on each other!

    It ended in a blur. The anticipated collision did not ur. The crescent de did not touch its target. This waspletely beyond his expectation.

    Impossible!

    Stab! He felt a crushing pain as a sharp object plunged through his body. He never found out how he died.

    Sang Tie¡¯s Collision had suddenly swerved off course just when the pirates thought he would crash into Kyaji. Instead, it graced past Kyaji¡¯s side in a blur. The mech behind Sang Tie delivered the fatal blow to Kyaji, thrusting its skeleton spear into the crimson mech. The other three mechs flew past Kyaji from its sides, tearing the mech into fragments with their skeleton fins.

    On the starship¡¯s holographic screen, a hole suddenly appeared in Kyaji¡¯s body, and the mech quickly exploded into hundreds of fragments. No one saw the attacker. They only saw a pirate mech suddenly destroyed, or being stabbed through with something. SInce the space pirates were far from the starship, an optical scan would not produce clear results. Hence, Ye Chong had used the holographic scanning system, which could not detect the Collisions.

    This eerie scene was mind bending. Mi Qi and his family felt chilled to the bone.

    Sang Tie smiled coldly behind his silver mask as he looked back at Kyaji, now a useless cloud of debris. He could not understand the idea of fighting one-on-one. After all, this was war, not some y-fighting to pass the time. To him, fighting one-on-one in these life-or-death situations was ridiculous. The Sang tribe members had lived in an environment that shaped their idea of real battles. Before they had Collisions, it was impossible for any one viger to fight against a wild beast. They had long learned to work together in hunting.

    Sang Tie looked at Kyaji¡¯s remains the way he would look at his prey in Archipgo.

 Chapter 295 - Everythings Worth Something

    <h4>Chapter 295: Everything''s Worth Something</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Death Legion was annihted silently. Despite Kyaji¡¯s menacing reputation, it still ended up destroyed, without even a body to show for it. Ye Chong had no interest in Kyaji or its pilot, of course. He just wanted to make sure that the guy was dead.

    Since he had made his move, there must be no loose ends. This was always Ye Chong¡¯s way of doing things. He absolutely would not believe that any person could survive an attack like that.

    On the starship, Mi Qi and family were white as a sheet. The Death Legion was an infamous organization in the He Yue gxy, and now it was annihted in just minutes. No one would believe what they had seen. Death Legion pirates had been around for years, making enemies wherever they went, but still they lived ever so easily, powerful as they were.

    However, the formidable Death Legion was now being casually erased from living history, under the hands of the mech squad they hired.

    Mi Qi and the family felt goosebumps all over, and a chill running up their spine.

    Anti-detection mechs!

    That was their first thought.

    Anti-detection mechs were not a new idea. Back in the days, the Three Aristocratic Families were infamous for their anti-detection technology. They had relied on anti-detection mechs to spread their power, rising to the forefront of technology in the He Yue gxy.

    However, as technology improved, holographic scanning systems became more and more advanced. Early anti-detection mechs could now be easily scanned through normal holographic scanning systems. On the other hand, anti-detection technology had reached a bottleneck and stagnated, a problem that was shared by all the Three Aristocratic Families. All these years, none of the aristocratic families have had any breakthrough.

    To many, anti-detection mechs were slowly bing a relic.

    Now, however, Mi Qi and his family had just witnessed true anti-detection technology at work!

    The multicolored mechs suddenly became an object of mystery to them. It was like seeing an old, scraggly beggar suddenly killing a Jie expert without breaking a sweat. The contrast was too strong for them to ept.

    What was happening to the world?

    The mysterious Papatte Mech Squad was now increasingly mystical to them. Such a powerful mech squad had deployed so many elites just for 10 million credits. Mi Qi suddenly felt that he had a stroke of luck.

    Old Chief Guo was also feeling a little dazed. He had seen them fight before, and it was bloody, but this time waspletely different. This was weird! This was scarily weird! Anyone who saw what happened on the holographic screen would be shocked, Old Chief Guo was sure of it. To him, what happened could be shot into a movie worthy of an award, even if he knew that he was no movie director.

    In fact, right after Ye Chong issued his orders, he was soon aware of this anti-detection issue. However, he soon frowned again, not because there was a problem with Sang Tie¡¯smands, but because Ye Chong had thought of another problem.

    Full-skeleton mechs were entirely suited for stealthy attacks, but this unique feature also made them too eye-catching. Hence, they were not suitable for normal transportation. It looked that he needed to make some normal mechs for the Sang tribe members for normal use.

    "Sigh, more spending!" Ye Chong sighed to himself. Just how much was 5000 mechs worth? Ye Chong¡¯s heart ached.

    Sang Tie¡¯s face appeared on the holographic screen. "Squad Captain, the enemy is destroyed. We have 23 injured and 11 dead." Sang Tie reported solemnly to Old Chief Guo. With outsiders around, they treated Old Chief Guo as the leader, when in fact, they were always reporting to Ye Chong.

    Old Chief Guo shuddered inside as he recalled the way they killed emotionlessly, but he braced himself and said, "Alright, get some rest."

    Ye Chong was a little surprised. Despite their advantage, they still lost so many. The pirates were indeed as powerful as rumored. He had watched the entire battle, and saw how the desperate pirates fought like a cornered animal - dangerous and vicious. If Sang Tie¡¯smands were less effective, they would have lost more people.

    It was Sang Fan who consoled him from the side, "Don¡¯t mind it too much, sir. Loss is inevitable in war." Back at the Sang Family Vige, this level of loss was all toomon. Before they had proper weapons, their hunting troops would often leave and never return. This was one of the main reasons the vige size quickly shrank to its current form.

    Mi Qi alsomended, "Your squad is excellent, defeating even the infamous Death Legion so easily, it¡¯s truly amazing." Uncle Yun and Mi Su agreed, with Mi Su stealing nces at Ye Chong time and again.

    Ye Chong took a nce at them and said tly, "You¡¯re too kind! However, please keep our squad¡¯s little trick a secret." Ye Chong was straightforward.

    Mi Qi and Uncle Yun exchanged looks. They could clearly feel the threating from the tactician called Yang Ming, fleeting as it was. Uncle Yun took a step forward and said with a serious expression, "Please rest assured, we who know the power of words will always speak mindfully."

    Mi Qi quickly added, "That¡¯s right, we¡¯ll never reveal anything about your mech squad." What a joke, Papatte Mech Squad was far stronger than they had anticipated. To think they were rated as half a star! They would never believe it now. The Mi family had always been inferior in terms of military prowess, and cannot afford to make enemies with such a powerful army. Besides, since Papatte Mech Squad was in need of funds, it was an opportunity for them to forge a good rtionship.

    Mi Qi and Uncle Yun had already given up on recruiting the tactician. They knew that the squad was too powerful for the Mi family to handle.

    Mi Su¡¯s expression was unreadable. She lifted her head to look at Ye Chong for second, and quickly bowed down again silently.

    Up next was the cleanup. This was the most exciting part of the Sang tribe members. Mi Qi and his family watched in disbelief as the Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s members did their thing.

    Mech fragments, scraps and parts were all hauled into the starship. They could hear a thunderous voice yelling asionally, "Look carefully, open your eyes wide, don¡¯t miss a thing. Sir has said to find the dimension keystone for every mech, it¡¯s good stuff!"

    Mi Qi gulped heavily. Just was were the pirates now?

    Uncle Yun sighed inside. Poverty could bend the strongest warriors. These excellent mech pilots had been forced to do something like this due to their extremeck of money. When he gets back, he must lecture those blissfully ignorant mech pilots of the Mi family.

    Mi Su covered her little mouth with her hands, watching the growing pile of trash on the starship, muttering, "How pitiful!"

    Unlike Mi Qi, Uncle Yun and Mi Su, every Sang tribe member was all smiles. Old Chief Guo was embarrassed to death. He noticed the Mi family¡¯s reaction and felt even more embarrassed!

    Ye Chong looked at the pilin mountain of trash, his eyes gleaming with excitement. It reminded him of his time on the trash. Rummaging through the trash for nuggets was routine, and a job he was very familiar with.

    He thought of old Winnie, and his excitement when he found Mu and Shang ¡­

    That was how Mi Qi and his family saw something quite odd. Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s tactician came every day to the trash pile, surrounded by a few people who listened as he taught them about all the mech parts he found. The tactician had also disassembled the parts using the tools onboard the starship.

    Dimension keystones, holographic scanning systems,munications systems ¡­

    As they watched him exin each mech part with ease, they could not help but wonder if the tactician had actually worked as a trash handler before.

    Ye Chong had never minded the way others looked at him. For now, he was actually quite excited. The pirates¡¯ mechs had wonderful equipment, a pleasant surprise for him.

    He did not know, of course, that the Death Legion pirates were all battle veterans. While they did not exactly splurge, they were still willing to spend good money on equipment that could keep them alive.

    The most interesting parts came from the mech, Kyaji. While they were only fragments now, Ye Chong could still see that the mech was well made. His eyes gleamed as he found its equipment, like the rtively intact Wintervision-III scanning system. This was a high ss product from the Xue Lai n, rarely found in the market. Ye Chong did not recall seeing it sold at the mech parts store in Foundation cityst time.

    However, its performance was the best that Ye Chong had ever seen. Ye Chong installed the holographic scanning system model in Sang Tie¡¯s mech, which made everyone else very, very jealous. It was a long time before they stopped hearing Sang Tie¡¯s foolish giggling behind his mask in the starship.

    It was too bad that the Collisions attacked with too much force. Not many mech parts were salvageable. However, dimension keystones were hard to break, so most of their loot were actually the keystones. Even so, out of the 2000 pirate mechs, they only found slightly more than a thousand dimension keystones. They came in arge variety of models, and it took Ye Chong quite some effort to set them up.

    These 1000 dimension keystones were an unexpected haul. "Hmm, robbing is actually more efficient," Ye Chong mused to himself.

 Chapter 296 - Unmanned Black Market

    <h4>Chapter 296: Unmanned ck Market</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    However, Ye Chong still had his senses with him. The crazy idea came and went.

    If he had enough tools, Ye Chong could disassemble all the trash material and make full use of them. Now, he could only throw the worthless material out of the spaceship.

    The rest of the journey was rtively peaceful, without further incident. The thousand-strong Collision escort around their starship were like ghosts, undetected by any of the other starships that they encountered. It was apparent how heavily the people these days hade to rely on holographic scanning systems.

    In another corner of the He Yue gxy, a middle-aged man gasped, "Kyaji was killed?"

    "Yes. The Death Legion was annihted, there were no survivors." On his holographic screen, an average looking man reported in a low voice.

    The middle-aged man asked, "Do you know who¡¯s responsible?"

    The other person hesitated for a while before replying, "Should be the Papatte Mech Squad. We¡¯ve looked into them. They should only be a half-star mech squad. About a month ago, they helped the Fan family to find three ripple orchids nts. They are currently escorting the Mi family¡¯s Mi Qi and Mi Su." The spy replied.

    "Half a star?" The middle-aged man frowned, and said, "The Fan family and Mi family share a good rtionship, it¡¯s only natural that they share their contacts. How strong is this Papatte Mech Squad?"

    "Unknown as of yet," the spy exined, "None of us has seen them in battle before. However, the only ones at the battlefield were the Death Legion and Papatte Mech Squad¡¯s starship. ording to our spies nearby, after the Death Legion entered the field, they never came out again. Our people also found a lot of mech remains in that area, confirmed to be from the Death Legion. Besides, we found Kyaji¡¯s remains. That is how we deduce the annihtion of the Death Legion."

    The middle-aged man quickly understood him. "You said they only have one starship? Is itrge or mid sized?"

    "Small sized," the spy replied.

    "Impossible," the middle-aged man shook his head. "Small sized starships have limited passenger capacity, not enough to destroy the Death Legion entirely. The Death Legion has 2,541 members in total." He was confident of his memory.

    "I am also confused by this," the spy admitted.

    The middle-aged man asked grimly, "Where are they headed?"

    "Lunaris."

    "Alright, keep watch on them. If they really destroyed the Death Legion, then they¡¯re a force to be reckoned with. But stay out of their sight." The middle-aged man ordered after a moment¡¯s thought.

    "Yes sir."

    On Lunaris, a squad of a thousand members moved quickly. This was a deserted ce, with only a few mechs asionally flying across the skies. With dimension keystones, the group¡¯s mobility and covertness were vastly improved. Even so, Ye Chong dared not bring too many people into the city. The Sang tribe members seemed to be unable to hide their threatening demeanor. They all looked vicious and scary, like an unsheathed de.

    He knew exactly what would happen if he brought them all into the city. The squad set camp in a deserted valley. Ye Chong was not concerned about their safety - not many could pose a risk to them. Besides, who would bring a whole battalion marching into the desertednds out here?

    Ye Chong took only a hundred people with him. Their destination was Gur city. ording to Mi Qi, no one would dare to start an open war on Lunaris, since this ce was the base of the ck Market. However, that did not mean that the ce was well regted. It was quite the contrary. The society was in a state of unrest, and small-scale battles urred every other day. Without proper safety measures, one would be at risk being killed.

    Gur city had a 300-kilometer perimeter that was a no-fly zone for mechs. No-fly zones weremon in He Yue gxy, since mechs battles happened frequently, and tend to destroy everything around them. Hence, every city would have its own no-fly zone. Any mech flying in a no-fly zone would be ruled as an enemy of the city, with heavy consequences.

    They were a hundred people, forming a standardbat squad. At the center were five people, each carrying a box. Ye Chong and the Mi family members led the way.

    Hai Lian wore his mask, carried by Sang Tie as he looked around him with interest. These days, he guarded the boxes as ordered by Ye Chong and bored to death. Now that he was out in the open, he was naturally invigorated. He was already used to being carried by Sang Tie. He adjusted to a morefortable position, but otherwise lookedpletely at ease.

    Sang Ling carried Mi Su. Even Old Chief Guo was carried by a Sang tribe member. Only Mi Qi and Uncle Yun walked on their own.

    The squad advanced quickly. Soon, Mi Qi grew pale from the exertion, panting as he sweated heavily. Uncle Yun fared better, looking his usual self, but his short breaths betrayed his stamina.

    Uncle Yun was stunned. These people were strong. All this while, Uncle Yun was confident of his own abilities, but he had never been outmatched this much before.

    It was shocking! Their pace was wearing him out, but these people showed no signs of fatigue. Those around him were breathing normally, as if they were at rest. What surprised him more was the man carrying another man, and that woman carrying the Young Miss. These two people were carrying someone, but seemed entirely unaffected. Even the tactician, Yang Ming, who seemed fragile at first, was keeping up with the group.

    If the squad members were like unsheathed swords, then Yang Ming was a sword still hidden in its sheath, showing no signs of its true potential. Uncle Yun knew from experience that this kind of people were the ones to really watch out for.

    He took a nce at the Young Master, and knew that he was not doing well. Moving quickly was actually quite strenuous, and while the Young Master was actually quite outstanding amongt his peers, he was still greatly outmatched by the squad members.

    Since when did the He Yue gxye to have such a group of strong people?

    Uncle Yun was about to give Mi Qi a helping hand when the young man suddenly stumbled. A hand reached for him, and Mi Qi lifted his head with difficulty to find Yang Ming on his side. He looked at Yang Ming with gratitude, and suddenly felt himself lifted and moving as quick as the clouds in the sky.

    The group slowed down when they were near Gur city. There were more people around them now. Hovercars breezed past them then and again. These were cars used for passenger transportation.

    Hai Lian sidled up to Ye Chong and introduced, "Gur city is the secondrgest ck market in the He Yue gxy. Actually, you can find ck markets everywhere on Lunaris, but you¡¯ll find Gur city¡¯s Unmanned ck Market the most famous one around. Of course, it¡¯s aplicated ce, where every powerful organization in existence will have ced their own men here. You can find rare goods here often, that¡¯s why the organizations try to keep an eye on things."

    Mi Qi had already recovered himself, and said with a smile, "It looks like you¡¯re quite familiar with this ce, my family also has people here. Once we enter the city, your contract will be fulfilled."

    Uncle Yun was looking at the five boxes protected in the center. He could guess that these were the things that were guarded heavily on the starship.

    After their long journey, all of them knew that the real leader here was actually the tactician.

    The squad members all looked too sharp to be ignored. All the pedestrians stayed out of their way.

    As they entered the city, they found many people on the streets. Unlike Foundation city, however, the people here were all highly vignt, their wary behavior almost transparent from the way they acted. Sang Tie and the rest all noticed the atmosphere and raised their guard even further, their deathly aura now honed to a sharp point.

    The people around them were all discreetly shocked. Mi Qi and his family all groaned inside. How could they be so inexperienced? D*mned if they got into trouble for being so obvious of their abilities! The Mi family members were all nervous, waiting for the first enemy to knock on their door.

    Unexpectedly, no one came to mess with them, right until they reached the Mi family base. Now that they were in their own territory, Mi Qi and his family all heaved a sigh of relief. The base was notified before they departure earlier on, so the Mi family¡¯s people in the area had all gathered here to protect the Young Master and Young Miss.

    With 10 million credits paid to them, Ye Chong and his squad finally rxed a little.

    After they parted ways, Ye Chong and his squad settled down in a local hotel. After some rest, Ye Chong asked for Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo and asked them, "Are you familiar with the Unmanned ck Market?"

    "I am," Old Chief Guo replied quickly, "Been here with a friend before, but that was a long time ago."

    Hai Lian shook his head. "I¡¯ve not been here before. A poor man like me can¡¯t even afford a mech, much less anything you can buy here in the ck market."

    "Alright, you lead the way," Ye Chong said to Old Chief Guo. He turned to Sang Fan and said, "Bring 20 people, and bring the boxes with you. Sang Tie and the rest stay here."

    "Yes sir," Sang Fan answered.

    Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo exchanged looks of confusion. They did not know what was in the boxes that could be so important to the boss. Hai Lian had guarded the boxes throughout the journey, and even he did not know what they were.

    "It¡¯s here," Old Chief Guo pointed towards a tall metallic building in front of them. The skyscraper pierced right through the clouds, its metallic walls shining under the sun¡¯s ways.

    "What extravagance ¡­ The entire building was made of metal ¡­" Everyone shared the same thought. Just the building itself would cost a fortune.

    As they entered the building, they only found customers bustling into the market. There was no staff, just as the ce¡¯s name promised.

    Ye Chong noticed something interesting. Most of the customers wore masks, and some even wrapped themselves up all over. Ye Chong¡¯s group lookedparatively normal. Old Chief Guo and Hai Lian exchanged smiles over the observation.

    Every level in the building was divided into hundreds of independent rooms. Old Chief Guo seemed to know his way. He brought the group into a vacant room. The group found it to berger than expected, with more than enough room to host more than 20 people.

    Inside the room was a photon processor with an inlet beneath it.

    Everyone studied the room curiously as Old Chief Guo exined, "This is a normal room, used to sell smaller items. Larger items like mechs will have to be processed on Levels 1 to 5."

    "Put the box in this inlet, there¡¯s a conveyor belt that transfers the box inside. We just have to put our items inside, key in our ount number in the photon processor, and we¡¯ll be done. This Unmanned ck Market has a good reputation. I¡¯ve never heard of any cases of fraud or missing goods. They have their own professionals to appraise the goods. The goods will be categorized based on their value and put on the auction market. However, they will take 20 percent of the value asmission. If you don¡¯t require a professional¡¯s appraisal, then your items will be categorized as misceneous, but in this case, they¡¯ll only charge 10 percentmission."

    Old Chief paused for a moment and continued, "The truth is, there are too many loopholes in this trading method, but their internal regtion is strict. After decades of revision, it has be the system that peoplee to trust today. Besides, the best thing about it is discretion. No one knows the owner of each item."

    Ye Chong nodded in understanding. He put the boxes into the inlet and keyed in the identity number prepared earlier into the photon processor.

    Soon, he was done. Old Chief Guo added, "Every room can only be used once every day. This room we¡¯re in will not be used again until tomorrow."

    "Alright," Ye Chong said, "We¡¯ll leave now."

    Old Chief Guo did not go to the door, but walked to a wall and pressed on a red button. The wall slid to the side.

    "This is the exit." Ye Chong and his group went in, and Old Chief Guo pressed another button inside. "This is the transferrer. The building has more than 900 exit points, which can be as far as the far east of the city. The transferrer will bring us to a random exit point. It¡¯s for the clients¡¯ safety."

    Ye Chong immediately felt the transferrer moving downwards. However, the transferrer moved steadily, and soon came to a stop.

    "So it¡¯s really random," Ye Chong smiled wryly to himself as he looked at the unfamiliar surroundings around him.

 Chapter 297 - The Boy Called Tanimatsu

    <h4>Chapter 297: The Boy Called Tanimatsu</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The crowd was dense. One could hear loud noise andughter here and there. Ye Chong was ufortable with the ce. Where was this ce? He looked to Old Chief Guo, the only one with experience of the Unmanned ck Market. Old Chief Guo shrugged in ignorance. He looked to Hai Lian, and found the same helpless expression.

    The Sang tribe members were also uneasy. They all looked wary, like anticipating an enemy.

    Hai Lian was quicker in mind. He stopped a passerby and asked, "Hi there, may I know what this ce is?"

    The passerby looked at him and answered impatiently, "It¡¯s the Peddler ck Market, of course. Alright, let me go, I¡¯m in a hurry."

    Hai Lian thanked him profusely.

    "Peddler ck Market?" Everyone looked confused.

    "Let¡¯s have a look," said Ye Chong. He was intrigued by therge crowd found here. Since they were not in a hurry, they might as well explore the area.

    If the Unmanned ck Market was a ssy ck market, then this was a small low ss ck market. Hai Lian had heard of it before, but this was his first time visiting the ce.

    "This is no ck market! It¡¯s an open market!" Hai Lian felt incredulous.

    The shops around them were all disying arge volume of goods. Some shops even put their mechs right beside their store entrance. It was just too odd. All kinds of parts and items were spread out to entice their customers. It was a mess.

    Ye Chong frowned. He could not understand how a dangerous and disordered ce could have so many people gathering.

    The streets were narrow, and the bustling crowd made it even more packed.

    Just then, a young boy approached the group and asked in his childish voice, "Do you need a guide?"

    Immediately, Ye Chong and his group looked to the young boy. The Sang tribe members were too intimidating, even in their gaze. The boy paled in shock.

    Ye Chong studied the young boy. He was dressed in a neat light blue shirt. It was quite worn but still clean. The boy¡¯srge eyes looked sharp. While he looked pale, it was obvious that he was trying his best to not back down.

    Ye Chong could not help but felt impressed. For a boy of around 11 or 12 years old to stand against the gaze of Sang Fan and the rest, it was an impressive feat.

    Ye Chong nodded and said, "Hmm, that sounds like a good idea."

    The boy¡¯s eyes brightened up in encouragement. He spoke confidently, "I¡¯ve lived here all my life, I know every corner of the ce. If you hire me, that¡¯ll be 20 credits a day."

    Ye Chong studied the young boy intently, and the boy fidgeted nervously.

    "Alright," Ye Chong nodded, and added, "If you don¡¯t do a good job, we¡¯ll fire you."

    "No problemo!" The young boy was so happy he almost leapt in joy. His initial gloominess evaporated. However, he quickly dived right into his role and tried to affect a polite attitude. "Gentlemen, where you like to go now?"

    "Let¡¯s explore this ce for now," Ye Chong said. With him at the helm, no one else would contradict him.

    "Alright!" The young boy led the way as he introduced, "This is the Peddler ck Market. Don¡¯t be fooled by all these low ss items you see here, it¡¯s an entirely different world further in. They usually trade in bulk here, err, meaning that they sell many many items together at once." The boy gesticted as he exined.

    A twelve-year-old boy trying to gesticte like an adult was too cute for his audience. Even the Sang tribe members with their awkward social manners smiled warmly at the boy.

    As a woman, Sang Ling was even more enraptured by the young boy. She went to his side and bent down to ask, "Little boy, what¡¯s your name?"

    "I¡¯m called Song Gu," the young boy answered loudly.

    The group followed Song Gu and the child talked about the ce. Ye Chong studied the goods in disy in the stores. Indeed, they were all low ss goods. However, there were also many odd items like rocks, skeletons and nts for sale; some were even unfamiliar for Ye Chong.

    This hooked his interest.

    Song Gu could see that Ye Chong was interested in the goods, and exined, "There are all kinds of stuff for sale here, most of them are not valuable, but yesterday some guy found a whatchamacallit rock here, heard it¡¯s worth a hundred thousand credits." Tanimatsu said this jealously.

    Almost every shop would have a spot just for these misceneous items.

    Ye Chong suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking at one of the shops by the street. His eyes widened, and he quickly approached the shop.

    Ye Chong¡¯s sudden movement surprised the group, but they quickly adjusted and shifted formation, keeping Ye Chong protected in the center.

    Ye Chong walked to the shop, where a good many items of all sorts were spread out for sale. The shopkeeper quickly arrived to tend to him with a wide smile. He saw the big group approaching and knew that he might just strike gold with this customer.

    "Hi, good sir, take a look around, lemme know if you¡¯re interested in anything. Everything is sold at a fair price here, no cheating our customers. We¡¯ve been in business for decades, our reputation is rock solid," the shopkeeper went on and on.

    Hai Lian looked at the wall, freshly painted, and twisted his lips in disdain as he muttered, "You call this a decades-old shop? Isn¡¯t this paint new?"

    Ye Chong ignored the shopkeeper and walked towards the misceneous items. He saw a metallic palm reaching out from the pile of items, and carefully swept away the other items covering it. Soon, the entire metal item revealed itself.

    It was a humanoid mech model, about 30 centimeters tall. The model seemed old, its surface dull from age, with a few rusted spots. Ye Chong studied the model quietly.

    "Hehe, you¡¯ve a good eye, sir. That¡¯s an antique, more than a few hundred years old, I didn¡¯t expect you to be a collector with such a sharp eye at your age, apologies for my rudeness sir!" The storekeeper ttered Ye Chong as he tried to recall the value that he bought the item for. It took some time, but he finally remembered that he bought it off an old man for only five credits.

    It was obvious that his customer was not a local. Just as the shopkeeper was thinking about how to cheat him, the young boy with the group interrupted, "Sir, everything in the misceneous items pile is worth 50 credits. It¡¯s the same for every shop."

    The shopkeeper red at the young boy, who had effectively destroyed all hopes for his scheming. Tanimatsu did not back down, and red back. Sang Ling humphed coldly behind Tanimatsu, her eyes staring at the shopkeeper threateningly until he shuddered.

    What a scary bunch!

    The shopkeeperughed awkwardly and continued, "The boy¡¯s right, our price is fair, we don¡¯t cheat. The item¡¯s 50 credits, if you¡¯re interested, sir. Err, what else do you need, sir? We have all kinds of mech parts and equipments, all at a fair price. Look at your guards, I¡¯m sure they¡¯re all experts. A good expert should be matched with a good weapon! If you see anything you¡¯re interested in, lemme know, price is negotiable, yes, if you buy in bulk I¡¯ll even give you a discount! It¡¯s a good buy, I¡¯ll tell you!" The storekeeper bbered on. 50 credits was not a lot, but every credit counted.

    "I see. I¡¯ll have this." Ye Chong picked up the model, and signalled for Old Chief Guo to pay.

    "What a stingy group, spending only 50 credits," the shopkeeper thought to himself with disdain. He had expected more. Even so, he still said warmly, "Pleasee again!"

    Ye Chong was in a better mood after they left the shop. Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo may not notice it, but the Sang tribe members did. Sang Fan asked despite himself, "Sir, what is that thing?"

    "Something fine!" Ye Chong sounded happy, if only by a little. He then said, "We¡¯ll return now." He was no longer in the mood for exploring, thinking only to study the model closely once they were back at the hotel.

    The Sang tribe members were not interested in exploring anyway, and had only followed Ye Chong¡¯s lead. Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo still felt like wandering around, but they dared not voice their opposition. Besides, they were also interested in the item that the boss had bought. Boss had always looked indifferent, and they had never seen him express such a strong interested in anything.

    Anything that can provoke his interest like this must be something extraordinary.

    Sang Ling told Tanimatsu the name of their hotel. Tanimatsu recognized it and immediately led the way.

    The group followed Tanimatsu as they headed towards the hotel.

    Suddenly, there was amotion ahead of them.

 Chapter 298 - A Balance of Everything

    <h4>Chapter 298: A Bnce of Everything</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    People flooded the road ahead, with constant cries and shriek of women.

    Ye Chong, upon seeing the sight, frowned. The road was already narrow at the beginning, with half of it upied by the stalls and stands. And now the little space remained was also upied by passersby. What had happened inside? Ye Chong did not care, he just wanted to head back to the hotel as soon as possible, away from this ridiculous disaster.

    Nevertheless, judging by the situation in front, it would be nearly impossible to squeeze their way out. "Is there any other path?" asked Ye Chong to Tanimatsu.

    He turned his head over, "There are a few¡­ but it would be a long detour."

    Ye Chong pondered¡­ "Follow me." And he leapt! Like an eagle soaring to the sky, he flung himself over the crowd. The remaining mates immediately understood his n as they followed quickly. Sang Ling grabbed Tanimatsu, while Guo and Hai Lian had also joined the luggage transit.

    A tipnded on one shoulder of the spectator, one more fling into the sky, advancing forward, like a group of frogs hopping over the lily pads.

    "What the hell happened!? Did someone step on my shoulder?"

    "Jesus Christ! You can''t do that for f*ck''s sake!"

    "Manners of youngsters today!"

    "Someone just wants to die today, HUH!"

    ¡­

    Of course their behavior would be treated as a typical misconduct to be cursed upon. Those spectators were something to have a living here, they were not the one to be bullied; they had seen snobbish behavior but not as shamelessly as this! The people were enraged as they chased after the jumping folks.

    "Kek!" Chuckled Sang Ling, as she ced Tanimatsu under her armpit, whistled sharp.

    The Sangs switched their positions in the air, "Make it quick." Ye Chong''s order came softly but discernible among the disciplined Sangs.

    "Yes sir!" The response came in a thunderous flock that the people flinched on the ground. The Sangs were in the air, but they were still capable to dish out something. Conquering peaks and flipping over valleys were the bread and butter of the Sangs back in Archipgo, especially when having a survival race with the beast stampede was their daily chore. Their feet could send them right into the sky, unlike those grounded folks.

    Wham! Thup! Thump!

    And crash performed by the Sangs, as they whammed upon the people on the ground.

    "The f*cking hell, don''t fly your bloody self if you don''t know how to!"

    "I''m feeling insulted."

    Well this move was certainly not okay for Ye Chong and his men. Everyone here knew at least one trick or two inbats. The men were obviously enraged by this tant provocation. Their blood boiled hotter than theva, although they had been stopped once after another by the Sangs wlessly, more and more men joined the forces to hunt those damned fools on top.

    It was a typical chase between the chaser and the chased.

    Ye Chong and his men were in a blitz of switcheroo as their afterimages intersected repetitively while delivering thend crash like falling star asionally on the chasers.

    The Sangs looked excited upon seeing the chasers tripping themselves like a strike on bowling, Ye Chong was feeling troubled though. He never knew how this wouldunch such a fiasco in Gur city, that it felt like a conformity effect, once a man started the chase, the rest followed obediently.

    The masked men were extremely skillful in the eyes of these enraged men, they were shocked as they found these masked men striking great simrity with the 8 Jie experts involved in the saga of Foundation city¡­ even though there were obviously more than 8 of them right ahead.

    12¡­13¡­18¡­20¡­?

    20? Twenty Jie experts? The figure felt unreal in the head. This would be interesting, thought one of them, as they decided to cause more havoc to test the skills of these masked individuals, to determine if they were the hidden Jie experts.

    Dammit I just wanted to get back to my room! What is this fiasco about?

    The situation grew more chaotic, as Ye Chong began realizing it would only go more off the tangent if nothing was done at his side. He had a team of well-trained troop with forces matching the Jie experts, but two iron fists still could be no match for hundred arms.

    Ye Chong''s arms vibrated, his muscles contracted and waved vigorously, Inhale¡­

    HAH! A roar struck the ce, which the people stumbled upon, knowing this cry meant nothing else than a metamorphosis, where a great martial arts practitioner hit a turning point of his strength and would undergo an pumped status, the cry was very much different than what they heard too¡­ Was that¡­

    HAH!!! Sang Fan and the remaining men screamed on top of their lungs as well. To the grounded men''s disbelief, they seemed to have seen the air particles vibrating, as waves surged through the ce. Some of the angry men had alreadyunched themselves but they fell clumsily as disrupted by the sudden roar. A handful of them remained in the air pouncing, their vitality warded them from being force-grounded, but one could see their faces paler than paper.

    Jie experts. They are the Jie experts!

    20 Jie experts screamed and this happened?!

    Ye Chong made a tip on one of the Sangs, Zoom! Heunched himself right to one of the mechs parked right outside of a mech store at the roadside. A showpiece.

    The men retaining their velocity shifted their sight to Ye Chong, wondering what in the He Yue this masked man was doing.

    Ye Chong made a flip and dexterouslynded upon the shoulder of the mech.

    "Wow!" Some of the few experts in the crowd were hurrahing, as seeing the masked man actually repositioned himself in the air without anything to support on. It felt so unreal and magical.

    Ye Chong on top of the mech''s shoulder gave a cold gaze to the ground. The street became silent. Sang Ling and the others hopped onto the rooftop of the stores nearby.

    Is he going to announce something? Spected one man in his mind, as he lifted his head up high.

    Under such a massive crowd of more than thousands, Ye Chong did something spectacr.

    He took a deep breath, he turned to the head of the mech. He raised his leg. Wham! He gave a kick right onto the cheek.

    The heck is wrong with him? That''s a mech you know! People shrieked, their eyes went wide like saucers.

    It''s made out of metal, alloys! No matter how sturdy one''s body is, it''s still made out of flesh! He''s injuri- Wait, what?!

    Crack.

    Thup.

    The sound had just shattered reality for everyone.

    The cheek of the mech began cracking, then it got chipped off, and it fell onto the ground.

    The men just witnessed a piece of alloy irregrly scrapped off from a mech with a kick.

    The remaining specks of the spider-web crack Ye Chong created fell along.

    The entire surface of the cheek was destroyed, revealing the circuits inside.

    The street was dead silent.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    "Oh my gosh! My mech! My precious!! You monster!" The man ran towards his mech after his brain rebooted from the major crash of reality. He would love to slice that b*stard into a thousand pieces but that person had vanished by the time he got to the front.

    The people were overwhelmed, as they set into another round of fiasco, trying to understand what had just happened.

    An ultimate warrior had just appeared out of nowhere, as he shattered the entire piece of alloy barehanded after setting off a threatening scream with his disciplined teammates of twenty, demonstrating inhuman airtime under their masks of no expression.

    The summary stormed upon the entire Gur city.

    Residents of He Yue gxy adored the strength, the martial arts. Those who wielded great strength would no doubt be the idol of many, not to mention real inhuman one like the masked man. It had be a tradition, as everyone disregarding gender, age or sexual orientation, would be required to learnbats since young, as long as they were healthy.

    It was as if Gur City was not chaotic enough with its scattered forces intertwining each other, now there was a new masked force, the situation would be more shaky than ever.

    ¡­

    Sigh.

    Ye Chong was moving¡­ awkwardly. His left foot was naked. Well, thanks to his dramatic kick, the boot could not withstand the force he exerted and just burst like a balloon, even the corner of his pants got torn by the splinters of his boot.

    This was another addition to his script he was helpless on. He just wanted to go back to the hotel but things just had to happen. It was as if a mischief from the author to keep him running, when would he ever have the day to settle down and run a noodle store like Grandpa Qian? It was yet another hectic beginning of his runaway, luckily he remembered the shockwave move Shang taught him before. It did not particrly create a real shockwave to drive opponents away, but at least, "It would impose a threat to the fear of the people naturally, once they recognized a greater force was before them. If you demonstrated enough strength from this, it would be as easy as philosophy."

    That was why Ye Chong picked the shockwave approach, the surprise was, he never expected the Sangs to join the round. It looked like the scream was not exclusive to the Lan family of September after all. The "Mortal Roar" required extremely expert control over the muscr system as the user would perform dramatic vibration with every piece of muscle deep inside the throat to force the greatest amount of volume.

    And Sang actually knew that. Wow¡­ The Aristocrat was sure something deep and profound to be ventured.

    Tanimatsu''s ck eyes shone with worship looking at Ye Chong. Guo and Hai Lian also joined the fandom of submissive respect. Sang Fan and the rest did not feel anything particr though. They had ample experience seeing sir in action, so they knew how far sir could go. Smashing a piece of alloy was nothing new. In Archipgo, the beasts had a way tougher skin than that piece of alloy. Moreover with the reinforcement on their strength via gravity training, their physique was not entirely shabbypared to Ye Chong. In the Sang Family, all were the martial arts elites, nothing new, nothing surprisingly, they did not respect sir for his strength.

    But well, under such drastic situation, sir actually was able toe up with such brilliant n that resolved the issue wlessly. That was something, as expected from master.

    The strength Ye Chong demonstrated was nothing in the eyes of Sangs, but something in the eyes of folks like Hai Lian and those men on the street.

    Simrly, the "n" Ye Chong came up with, was nothing brilliant to educated and strategic folks like Hai Lian and Guo. But it was brilliant to the Sangs.

    The Sangs did not admire the strength but the folks did.

    The folks did not admire the strategy but the Sangs did.

    People would always admire the same person for different quality.

    So kids, if you want to live great in this world, you have to have a bnce of everything.

 Chapter 299 - Childs Play

    <h4>Chapter 299: Child''s y</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Feng Su on her chair, was zoning out, with Rui Bing resting quietly on the bed nearby. Her move worked wlessly, which normally should leave the opponent in deep sleep for few hours, unless there was external interference to wake her up immediately. Feng Su never failed to knock her foe out with this technique.

    Though¡­ why did the head call? What did the head call her for? It was like the first time she was recalled ever since she was assigned to the Sanctuary in the 5 major gxies.

    And she had already been traveling to He Yue gxy for the past week. It was tormenting to force herself confined on the seat for the past few days. Her vitality was helpful but did not seem to be helpful enough on this long-term travel. The way from 5 major gxies to He Yue was winding, long andplicating, it was nearly impossible to perform a space warp to save their time. They were forced to travel the traditional way in the end.

    "You have arrived at : He Yue Gxy."

    The moment she heard the system notification, she sighed deeply. The pathway there was not as treacherous as one was informed, there was not many idents reported, but well assuming if any were to happen, she would be too helpless to do a thing. Say if they hit a ck hole for example, she would be directly visiting the death. Humanity¡­ was still that minuscule figure in front of the vast, boundless gxy.

    She was piloting a processed model of miniature spaceship, which its structure had been reinforced. Well, the bulkier the spaceship, the less likely it would befy. Feng Su always heard whines and wailsing from every passenger who once hopped on that flying armor. The n would even proudly bestow it the name "Flying Can", despite its superior performance. The speed was great, the handle was too, the turning ability was very active, the mech was even installed with a powerful processor too. One could basically switch to auto-pilot mode in a safe area.

    The spaceship was also supplied with nutrition capsules, tons of them, sufficient to sustain a long-term flight. It was not armed with any weaponry however, one could imagine a flying armor with superior defense but zero attack.

    And certainly the miniature spaceship could not perform space warp. She had to first travel to Halo Jade, a which one of the n''s base located, to transit to a more advanced model of spaceship in order to get back to HQ.

    The current progress¡­ she was near Lunaris¡­ It seemed like she still had to travel for quite some time. Lunaris¡­ it brought back memories, she knew it was a of ck market, and to be frank, she had been frequenting the ce before she was assigned to 5 major gxies, since it was fun shopping there - you could always be surprised when you shop. Only if she was not traveling by under an order of the head, or she would have stopped by. Sigh, she got to return to HQ as soon as possible.

    So what exactly had happened in our n? Thought she, the suspense scorched her heart.

    Jeez, no point being impatient now, hold your steer, Feng Su. A tease to herself, she made a stretch, unting one split second of her figure. It was absolutely a kind of torture to travel this far, and she was doing it alone.

    At that one second, she felt her waist stiffened. She flinched, while her expression was still, as the ace pilot of the n she had seen way too much death than risk, so she stayed calm.

    Who was that?

    An icy-looking face swirled upon her, expressionlessly

    Impossible! Shrieked Feng Su in her mind, how did she wake up? This had never happened before! She should have been unconscious! And without our unique technique to stimte her spine, she would not even lift her eyelids!

    "Who are you? Why did you do that to me? Where do you want to bring me to?" asked Rui Bing coldly. Her eyes were caught on Feng Su''s appearance, that beauty, one has got to admit that it would attract anyone from all walks of life, and she looked far more superior than Rui Bing with those dreamy eyes of hers.

    Feng Su ran her schemata in lightning speed. The girl was something, although she had no idea how the girl woke up in the first ce, she knew she was doing it right and her move should have left her unconscious at a 100% sess rate. Well then, that means the girl probably had some strange abilities to help her break out of the sleeping spell!

    Practically, Rui Bing was already at a level of Jie expert by then, while her family''s martial arts techniques had always been as iprehensible to the outside.

    "Yikes~~" Feng Su''s face twisted, as sweat dripped over her chin, looking pitiful.

    "Save your cheap acting. It doesn''t work for me," said Rui Bing tly. Rui Bing knew her strength, and her level of control over it, it would be a joke if a Jie expert like her did not know how to exert the right amount of strength to rm and not to hurt their opponent.

    Rui Bing was firm, and once she got firm, nothing will ever shake her, even when a beautifuldy was wailing in great pain.

    "If you like to act so much, just keep acting like someone would care," stated Rui Bing. She took a nce around, and found the shower room. She might be a Jie expert, but she was still a hygienically sensitivedy herself.

    She went into the shower room. Tick! Ssh¡­ Hush huuussh¡­

    Feng Su withdrew her acting and was feeling wry of the girl. She sure was something. Feng Su had cheated countless men and women with her acting before this. Anyone would have their heart melted the moment they see such a gorgeous woman moaning in pain, like there was once the guardsman of the foe even untied her to check if there was something wrong. She thought it would work always, till she met Rui Bing, who gave total ignorance, rigidly like the ice, sternly like the storm.

    Th girl probably had used some kind of binding skill on her. Only if she was facing the one practitionerst time, who fell for her acting and cancelled the binding effect on her. But well, both the personality of the girl and the properties of her skill spelled bad news for Feng Su. She could do nothing else than moving her lips¡­

    30 minutespsed and Rui Bing exited from the shower room, with her wet hair nting over her shoulders and her fair white garb. She washed her white garb too?

    "So why? Why did you knock me out?" Leisurely Rui Bing stated.

    "I meant no harm. I just saw you practicing on your mech and looking really great. I thought of being your student but I fear you might refuse, so I eventually¡­" Pursed her lips, Feng Su was looking pitiful.

    Rui Bing''s face had an avnche. It was rathermon in her field. The mood of seeing an expert while being captivated by the expertise was the frequently urred emotion in a fighter.

    Haha! It worked. Stated Feng Su in her head as she saw the desired expression on her foe.

    "I really meant no harm, sister¡­ you are really great. I had never seen any female pilot who was able to perform such technique. Not even the men I supposed, those techniques are really hard to execute," eximed Feng Su from her heart, she was in fact surprised, the sisterly greeting was a technique to express respect and favor to her foe.

    The lifting voice was exerting some sort of magic, which made people friendly.

    It would work even on a girl li-

    "Hmph!" And it did not. rmed Feng Su.

    She thought she had used her best technique, the maniption of tone, an ability she obtained while she was in the disguise of the well-known singer in the 5 major gxies. By altering the tone at specific syble, it would create hallucination to manipte the foes. Even the mentalist-pilots fell for her, their faces would blush, their controls would go wild. And with her appearance and this technique, of course she had an expansive career.

    The girl was totally immune to her voice however, as if she was speaking normal. That was Feng Su''sst resort¡­ and it did not work.

    That hmph from the foe was clearly a warning, Feng Su could hear it with her ears.

    Rui Bing on the other hand was feeling irritated by this magical girl who kept withdrawing new tricks from her sleeves, that Rui Bing feared if she lost her focus for a sec she would be captivated.

    "Okay, now I do not want to know anything," stated Rui Bing as she walked towards Feng Su, she rose her palm over the unwilling Feng Su, wham! A blow at the back of the neck. Feng Su fainted.

    She lifted Feng Su and ced back onto the bed. She should take around 20 days to wake up. Of course, if she was a Jie expert in dark, it would be less than 10 days she supposed. Though Rui Bing could determine thisdy to be rather skillful atbats, she was still nothing close to Jie expertise.

    Rui Bing walked towards the control panel and tried pushing buttons sluggishly. Her mind would utterly nk out in the past if she was pushed to a control panel but now she already had the basic idea of mech piloting, that she at least could specte certain functions on the control panel of the spaceship.

    She first prompted the intergctic map and was stunned by their position. It appeared to be literally foreign to her that she could recognize none of thes inside, not even a star. And she could not find any of the 5 major gxies on it.

    Where are we? Asked Rui Bing in her, as she nced at the fainted Feng Su. Nope! She discarded the thought of waking that trickery up to inquire. She checked out the mileage, apparently they would be arriving at Lunaris in a day or so at full speed. Based on the marks on the map, Lunaris was a inhabited with humans. Okay then¡­ she tapped the screen and maintained the course.

    As long as we have someone there, things would get sorted out themselves.

    ¡­

    A day passed and they arrived at Lunaris. Rui Bing repositioned the spaceship to fly low and started seeing the scenery on the ground clearly.

    The spaceship decelerated andnded on an isted valley, particrly the shadow of the cliff, so no one would notice it at first nce.

    She went up a slope and looked back at the valley, she smiled. Okay, it is invisible, good.

    She walked on, since her mech was no longer around she could only rely on her feet. But before leaving the spaceship, she did a few stuffs - she removed every part found on Feng Su, including the dimensional keystone and even the essories, jewelries on her apparel. She also - since she could not discover any backup mech in the ship - removed the entire battery of the spaceship to prevent this trickery from causing her issues in case she woke up early. She even broke the battery so the spaceship would be an empty can now.

    She closed the gate of spaceship so it would be only possible to get out but not to get in, unless by a brutal force shattering the whole piece of armor of the spaceship. Well of course, even if Feng Su woke up and wanted to have a walk outside, it was not an easy task to open a heavy gate of a spaceship without electrical supply either.

    Sadly, Rui Bing could not use the dimensional keystone she took from Feng Su, since it required the biological signal of the owner, unless Rui Bing murdered Feng Su¡­ So this piece of keystone was technically a piece of garbage to her. She strolled to a rushing river and thup! She tossed all essories into the river.

    Nirvana was a sad case as it was thrown into the river like pebbles, despite its capabilities and superiority.

    Take that! You trickery! Asserted Rui Bing, now that little bit of work would teach her some lesson. Rui Bing''s cold face was melting into a naive joy of a little girlpleting a big, big mission herself.

    Little bit¡­ of work? Wonder how Feng Su would explode when she knew how briefly this immature girl was thinking.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong had already been in his room for the past 3 days. The model of mech he bought was ced on the desk, along with numerous tools scattered around.

    The model of the mech was looks unrecognizable as the armor of its back was removed, revealing the refined build inside.

    The development of mech industry¡­ well there had been various theories on it, but one significant one stated that at one point, the mech development branched into two aspects - one was the mechanical mech, another would be the circuit mech.

    Yes, the very first mech was wholly mechanical, which some would call the armor as "machine armor / mecha" and the pilot as "mechanics". This did notst however, as 300 years ago, after the advanced circuits were invented, the mechanical gearing was no longer heard, the capability of a traditional mech had undergone a transformation, a leap to a new reign, and that was when people finally called it as "mech" instead of "mecha".

    And this very model, was the antique from the record of 350 years ago, when mechanical mech was at its prime. As limited by the technological standard at that period, it was unavoidable to not use a certain mechanism to make the machine armor even move. It sounded traditional yet it was innovative, breathtaking to the people that time.

    In most men, this model would be merely an antique, an adornment, which might be asionally useful in the eyes of the mech researchers. But this particrly item, was priceless in the eyes of Ye Chong.

    It has been known that skeletons do not blend well with the electrical circuit - Ye Chong learned this fact painfully when he first developed skeleton parts. But after the visit at Sang family vige, the Collision he created had brought him a new avenue to figure. As hecked the conventional tools to produce the conventional mech, the Collision was his unconventional design, being the mechanical design itself. He was not expecting much from the mech in the beginning, till he saw the power of the Collision in the field.

    It was more than sufficient in the hands of the Sangs, as they were able to perform outrageous movements on it. Their attacks were simple yet potent, which toppled Ye Chong''s initial understanding on mech performance. It was an era he was in, which demanded more variation on the same move, the fancier the shier the better, while denying the simple movements iming them to be primitive and obsolete. Thanks to the Sangs, he saw something new.

    The catch was however, he had more intelligibility on circuits than mechanism, which led him this helpless situation at the desk, as if a game-stuck when you realized there was actually a hidden path in the loop of dungeons and you did not have the necessary gear to ess it.

    The model was precious in the eyes of Ye Chong because not only it retained the form of the ancient, it was also the prime form of the ancient. He hoped he could be inspired somehow as he analyzed its structure and designs.

    Certainly, Ye Chong was astonished by the inside of the model the moment he removed the cover.

    He had spent the next three days performing calction. At least he was firm with his fundamentals, which greatly sped up his process of figuring out the working of the inside.

    It was amazing. He concluded so as he recognized the wisdom of the ancients. The design looked ridiculous toyman but it turned out to be extremely clever, that Ye Chong felt his Collision was merely child''s y, a poorly done treehouse by a 5-year-old.

    He believed that modification on Collisions would possibly bring a few levels of elevation at least, after he had understood the structure of this model.

    As he thought, his focus shifted back onto the model.

    The model was reliably the exact downsized model of the actual piece. If Ye Chong had a shrinking machine he could literally get a soldier to pilot this and go for a miniature space war. And he also realized that it was not an easier task to build this thing as well since most parts were handmade rather than manufactured like most mechanical parts today.

    It would take efforts and generous amount of time to build even a model like this.

    But who, who would actually invest these to build this insignificant looking toy?

    Compared to the 7 mechsy inside the Sang Family Vige 5 centuries ago, this was way more advanced, whether in the aspect of the design concept, the structure. It symbolized the prime of the mechanical mech era.

    The problem was¡­ there was so many things he had to learn. Other than the basics he knew nothing of mechanical mech, since as mentioned, the two aspects branched each''s way earlier. It was two worlds for mechanical science and circuit science. Ye Chong had to unfold a journey in search of the mechanical theories.

    A long, long way it was.

    On the dimly lit desk, his face was determined, looking at the puzzle left by the past.

 Chapter 300 - The White Streak

    <h4>Chapter 300: The White Streak</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Greda''s heart flooded with spite, as few days ago he finally met a lovelydy which struck his heart hard, while being heavenly fortunately single and alone she seemed on the street. He was excited as he headed over, decided to tease her to grab her attention. No doubt, thedy, being as embarrassed and introverted she was, struggled with blushes and twists, which were the trigger to his libido. Gulp! He certainly enjoyed the catcher-and-catched game with pretty girls like her.

    The downer was¡­ spectators were gathering around him, like a real dramatic crowd of them where there were literally three circles surrounding the crime scene. The passersby knew who Greda was and of course they would not have the courage to interrupt his enjoyment. He was just surprised that his routine of flirtation was getting so much unnecessary attention.

    He was in desire of withdrawing himself. Yes, he was the big guy in Gur that no one would dare to offend thanks to his father, but anyone with amon sense would know that it was always a risky ride to tour in Gur everyday, since you would never know what kind of hideous character hid in the crowd as you were teasing a fairdy at the roadside. Greda just feared his daily routine would be a tragedy that even his father would be unable to handle.

    Greda was known as the man who was born with a silver spoon, he could have abused the rules using the name of his family but he, like all other Aristocratic members, held that caution to not breach the unwritten rule in the dark.

    The situation was awkward, as it would be embarrassing to just eject himself from the ce, he was bewitched by thedy too. "What the hell!" There was a loud curseing from the crowd, with two waves of thunderous roar followed, which nearly frightened him to the ground.

    Like seriously? Could human produce waves like this? Greda remained astonished even from reminiscing it. He was unaware of the happening till he was informed about the appearance of 20 Jie experts in the field. Perhaps¡­ spected he, the thunderous roar was from these 20 Jie experts who seemed to have caused more harm than hurt.

    Well, those are some dorks. Who would want to pick a fight with Jie expert? Do they want to die? Commented Greda in disgrace regarding the victims. Sighs, and that was when the pretty girl disappeared from my sight. Life could not be perfect, couldn''t it?

    Greda''s father knew his son well enough, that he employed a group of bodyguards for him, fearing that deafening news of his son''s perish. Gur forbade the flight of mechs, so these bodyguards all fought with fists and kicks rather than fancy gadgets.

    And that was how Greda wrote a tale of him being the center of formation of a seeming gangster, as he strolled on the street. He lifted his steps proudly, knowing those truly the danger would not bother about him while the enemies he had made in the past would fear his father.

    Sighs, it''s life after all. I still could not forget thatdy. I could not be bothered with the other ordinary girls on the street ever since. They were so ordinary while she¡­ was otherworldly.

    Wait what! Shocked Greda was, as he jerked his step in front of a hotel.

    Was the God sympathizing me? His heart raced seeing that onedy. He had viewed countless women but this particr one made his heart race faster than ever. Was she the goddess? The goddess of Venus? The epitome of beauty itself?

    About 20 meters in front, a slender silhouette was swinging the curve left to right, with the fine face leaning back and fro - an adorable treat to his eyes¡­

    The hair was glossing as expressively as her eyes, telling a saddening tale he would love to know.

    Such naivety! His heart felt hammered.

    And that girl was walking towards him, oh, that girl of his memory, of his thoughts day and night. She seemed troubled as ever! She did not notice Greda apparently!

    Greda was overjoyed, he tried holding his horse as he signaled his men, who were well-aware of this young master''s style. Stampede! Stampede! They marched to her and circled her.

    "Oh?!" The girl returned from her mind wondend as she was shocked seeing Greda''s face.

    ¡­

    "Yawn¡­" Fifth floor of the hotel, few men were squatting near the window in daze. Sang Fan, Sang Tie, Hai Lan and Guo were having a men''s talk to each other. They were absolutely bored, thanks to Ye Chong who seemed to have been engulfed by the room three days ago. They dared not to head out without his permission, since they did not have a proper task to work on either.

    "You know those days, I actually hunted down a few Gigadas barehanded."

    "Really? Man you''re good, it took me forever to kill one¡­ Could you teach me the trick to do it?"

    "Well, you''re still a boy, this is something only a man knows how."

    "Hahaha¡­" Hai Lian was missing the good old-fashioned slice of life conversation¡­

    "Wait."

    "What are these men doing down there?" asked Sang Tie.

    "What else?" Hai Lan gave a nce and replied in dismay, "Flirting in public, duh?" Chatting with Sang Tie and Sang Fan was more consuming than he thought. Well if you were to chat with a bunch of butchers from the ughterhouse you would feel the same too, the topic always revolved around "Battle", "Combats", "ughter", "Bloodshed", "How great their blows were". What? Slithering Steps? The conservation and utilization of momentum? Could anyone lend me a dictionary? I need subtitles here. Those gazes, would you stop looking at me and Guo like that? We aren''t some ancient tribe who was born to kill animals to survive okay?

    My He Yue gxy, who would dare to challenge insanity like both of you? Cursed Hai Lan in his mind. Oh wait, I should lecture them something on life as well. "So¡­ ever heard of Hitting the Home Run? No it''s not about you running back to home!" You could at least say if it was a baseball term, but that''s not what I meant! You guys are cavemen for quite a reason I see¡­ "yboys? Ever tried one?" Tsk, tsk, what happened to good old elementary culture of life? You don''t even know the famous brand? "Okay, okay, how about Tomcats?" Added Guo, "It''s famous you should have watch- No? You guys never watched it?" Get a life man! Hai Lian and Guo joined forces and hurled back insults at the two Sangs.

    "Fine." Concluded that conversation, "So could both of you tell me, what ''flirting'' is?" Sang Tie looked confused.

    How in the He Yue do I exin you the terms without getting the hideous **xnation censored? See they even censored hideous'' ---exnation! No I do not intend to type the naughty word!

    "Hmph." Sang Fan gave a disdainful remark, "Such tiny circle yet they actually have 3 major loopholes there, look, my brother, those ipetent fighters there."

    Hai Lian somehow saw Guo nearly falling out of the window¡­

    Certainly Greda was unaware of the 4 uninvited guests on top. He would not care too.

    "Such fateful encounter! We are still fateful entities I see! The fate between you and I had been determined in our past life." A passionate pick-up line from Greda.

    "Shush!" The four men on top shuddered harsh, as Sang Tie looked at Sang Fan in fear, "Don''t tell me that you said the same thing when you confessed to Ling¡­"

    The focus was on Sang Fan now and he was noticeably blushing even under that mask of his, "N¡­nope! Don''t be ridiculous!"

    Hai Lian and Guo wereughing mad after exchanging nce, "A-anyway!" Sang Fan quickly redirected their steed, "Who are those people down there? Especially that disgusting guy!"

    "Greda," stated Guo, "the son of Jin Gui tribe, who seemed to have been enjoying flirtation with the authority of his father."

    "Jin Gui?"

    "Yes, I had heard things about the tribe," nodded Hai Lan. "They aren''t as many as most tribes, but they were fortunate enough to start their family at a strategic location, which contained a rich source of Lithium Gold, they were as rich as you could ever imagine. And I heard about how men in the tribe are more passionate in rtionship, that they would - with the strong sense of loyalty of theirs - fall in love with a woman once and only once in their entire life¡­ although I was unconvinced upon seeing Greda, he was the exception, being the typical yboy around."

    "Heh!" Guo added, "Every one of them was extremely wealthy, while being loyal in rtionship, which made them the best bachelor for the unmarried women. There''s even a saying, ''Don''t work, don''t hide, find a Jin Gui, you''ll go sky high.'' I guess the women would work their entire life hard enough to get the Jin Guis'' attention."

    "On the more serious note, the fighters of their tribe were very capable, known for their sturdiness and determination. I would say that''s annoying," borated Hai Lian.

    "Hmmmmmm¡­" Both Sang Fan and Sang Tie were very intrigued. The moment when Hai Lan mentioned about the fighters got Sang Tie all pumped up, that he would love to jump right off the building andnd with a taunt to fight.

    But there was a plot twist to their script, as a new character came into the scene. It was anotherdy, around her early twenties, with a body of a well puberty, her short hair emphasized her character, the hook of her nose expressed indigenous pride.

    "Greda. Thisdy is mine. Would you please excuse me?" Stated she.

    "She Xin, I don''t see the need of you in this." Greda, seemingly avoidant about this girl, replied.

    "Why, why? Greda, can''t even give your way to ady?" She knew what kind of character Greda was, that he would not anger anyone he should not.

    "Oh my great, greatdy!" Shouted Greda, holding his hands courteously, "Of course I would give my way to a fairdy like yours. But I really love this pretty you have there, please, with your kindness, spare me. I would do whatever as you pleased."

    Wow, did Greda really fall for this girl? Surprised Shi Xin was, since she was also well-aware of this yboy''s well-doings around. He hardly had promises and now he actually makes one¡­

    Shi Xin, hesitated, took a look at the girl behind her, who was in all fear, fright and surprise.

    "Nope!" Declined Shi Xin right away. She just realized her response acted faster than her brain¡­

    "Oh Shi Xin¡­" Responded Greda, his face darkened, "Are you sure you would not spare me for this?"

    Okay, something was wrong. Sensed Shi Xin, "Greda, I guess you know what could happen if you did something to our fellow Shi. Like how your father would see this for example¡­"

    Greda could not care less, "Go! Get the girl!"

    "TRY! If you want!!" Shouted Shi Xin as she guarded the girl behind, she could even sense the girl quivering. I must protect her - Shi Xin asserted to herself.

    The men were stoned by her shout, being hesitant, "What''s wrong? Now all of you are under hermand eh?" Greda''s tone was calm, yet cold, colder than the blizzard. The expressionless look was telling bloodthirstiness.

    "Lady Shi! Our apology for this!" The guardsmen reluctantly seized thedy.

    Seriously? I should have brought my own men too! At least I would not be the passive one here! Shi Xin was regretting¡­

    The four men on top were still enjoying the show. Guo and Hai Lian had grown numb over this drama, as they had seen enough brothers of the Aristocratic families doing mischief everywhere on their will. Sang Tie and Sang Fan were new to this, that they were stunned, unable toprehend even the words. Well, they did not have permission to move from the great sir either¡­

    "Ahhhhh!" The clothes were torn¡­

    "White Streak?!"

    "The White Streak Tribe?"

    In the midst of fight, the sleeve of the girl was torn, there revealing white streaks like the moon. Oh no! Panicked Shi Xin upon seeing this unfortunate addition to the setting. She shifted her eyes to Greda, I knew it! His eyes were shining bright! The White Streak tribe was known for their beautiful descendants, a treasure some men called them, that the owning these angels would be the most heavenly thing a man could ever do in his life. And the White Streak tribe suffered different tragic tales over their beauty¡­

    The white streakeddy was showing despair¡­

    Hai Lian''s body shuddered upon seeing the streaks, as he sprung from the ground, which shocked the fellow men near him. His eyes were changing¡­

    Tick! He jumped off the window.

    "Wow when did he get so brave?" muttered Sang Tie, they were five floor tall, anyyman like Hai Lian would at least break a bone or two jumping down recklessly like that¡­ The remaining three men stood up and watched in position. They would not move unless with order.

    Thump! Hai Liannded like a falling angel as he jumped off from a fifth floor. Of course he was not as overpowered as those Sangs who trained at 20 times heavier zone daily. The moment hended, UGH, blood spilled from his lips.

    The location hended though, it was perfect, being right next to the poor girl.

    He grabbed the girl without hesitation and did a quick tumble, breaking through the circle. The sudden change n situation confused everybody. They only understood the situation after the boy had left the scene.

    "What the hell!" Greda''s face was darker than abyss, as he was jumping mad.

    Hai Lian did not wish to spare his potentialst few moments of his life on viewing how the reaction of those men, he kept running with thedy in her embrace, all the way to the hotel.

    "What the hell are you guys doing! Did my father pay you to just stand there? MOVE! UGHHH!" Shouted Greda, as the men hurried their ways towards Hai Lian. It would be embarrassing if the people outside knew they actually let a feebledy out of their grip that easily!

    Hai Lian ran madly, his eyes glued on that gate of the hotel.

    Sang Tie was standing by the gate. Yes! I knew I have great brothers! Overjoyed Hai Lian was. The Sangs were short by nature, even Sang Tie the tallest with a height of 1.7 meter seemed like a potential dwarf actor in the crowd. However, when Sang Tie stood there, it just felt so reliable. When Hai Lian was getting to the entrance, Sang Tie tilted his body to the side and let the prince run in.

    *Thank you* Through the mask, his eyes was expressing that countless appreciation while Sang Tie''s eyes were firm, Hai Lian then rolled his way into the lobby.

    Sang Tie repositioned himself to block the entrance. The bodyguards gradually slowed down upon seeing this strange masked man standing by the door.

    The same mask! They were together! Spected Greda right away. His usual self would not allow him to go further as he knew how deep and dangerous Gur could get with unsightly men like these. His family, as well as himself, being the leading group in the town feared shady characters like this. How shady? Greda would say, anyone with a mask and an unknown identity would be the most dangerous as they hid themselves either because of their superhuman ability or because of their sensitive status in the society, none of these would be in the mess-with list of Greda.

    But Greda had lost his usual self minutes ago. He felt he had saw the real nemesis of his life, "Move!" Ordered him to initiate a fight, he had lost his rationality.

    Heh! Sang Tie gave a cold smile in his mask, if you want a fight, I''ll give you a quick fight. It would be a sin if I rmed sir for this.

    Sang Fan was right behind and he knew what Sang Tie was thinking, "Remember to hold back, hurt them, don''t kill them," he advised.

    Sang Tie gave a nod of understanding. The group of bodyguards was swarming upon him, so he lifted his leg and prepare to deliver his ser. kick.

    Those men were still bodyguards, as they knew what awaited them, their expression changed and the leading one clumsily avoided those afterimages of Sang Tie''s moving legs.

    The guard fell to the side while Sang Tie maintained his left feet moving, lifted his right leg and whipped directly on the guard.

    "Youchhh!" Shrieked the guard as being sent to the air and whammed upon the crowd behind.

    The crowd copsed.

    People were gasping.

 Chapter 301 - Compatriots

    <h4>Chapter 301: Compatriots</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "You should be thinking of an exnation for sirter," said Sang Fan as he patted Hai Lian, expressing concern. Hai Lian looked at Sang Fan appreciatively. The girl from the White Streak tribe was looking around in fright. Her body was shaking as confused by the surrounding. The happening had rmed the entire tribe in the building, other than those guarding Ye Chong''s room, the remaining Sangs had ran downstairs.

    Sang Ling grabbed Sang Fan to a corner immediately after her arrival, having an interrogation with Sang Fan.

    The guardsmen of Greda had tasted the kick of Sang Tie as they retreated into their trembling posture, stumbled. "What the hell are you guys doing! Move! Move! Move!" Greda''s scolding did not work as well as Sang Tie''s kick. The guardsmen were not dumb to be unable to recognize the power of the masked man. It was a total horror and their sacrifice would not be avenged by the great master. Greda''s father did not seem to be a figure to be as hot-tempered as his son.

    Greda''s face got paler, the authority of his father that had been protecting him over the days seemed to have faded away.

    Shi Xin was also in astonishment, the masked man was too potent and she even saw a few others of his kind wavering inside the hotel. She could not help but to begin specting the identity of this hidden group.

    The Ye family? I mean¡­ Only Ye family is befitting of suchbat ability among the aristocrats. They are different, very different, contrary to most practitioners, the Ye family members are all slender figures, yup, quite as slender as this masked man. Only the sole branch of Ye family could wield such strength too.

    But weird¡­ the core family members have always been low-profiled. They are the mythical figure in He Yue gxy, they had hardly revealed themselves. These men were known to be the elite, not only they possess greatmand ofbats, they are also superior in their piloting, thus being identified as one of the strongest pilot groups. Their outstanding closebat has bestowed them a recognizable position in He Yue gxy.

    Well, a team of elites of Ye family guarding a particr building. Could it be¡­ Shi Xin could feel her fear overtaking her rationality, could it be the head of Ye family himself? If it really was him¡­ Lunaris would be facing the greatest fissure in its history¡­

    WOW! The men screamed the moment Sang Tie lifted a kick again. The city nevercked a bunch of bums to help cheering the big man eh?

    But Greda was angered, as he picked a stone from the ground and tossed violently at the guardsmen, "Rubbish! Do your work already!" His expression was twisted, insanity had raided his fearsome eyes. The flirtious gentleman had long be a past.

    The guardsmen were displeased of this insulting behavior but they dared not to word it. That did not mean they would take it like a puppy undermand, one bodyguard gave a side kick and sent the rock off into the sky.

    Oh no¡­ Thought Sang Tie as he saw where the rock was traveling.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong was analyzing the model. He felt he had picked the perfect ce for his research as the room was fully soundproof and he was having his own space, undisturbed by the outside. Peace and qu-

    nk!

    Ye Chong was astonished as he shifted his sight over the source. The window was¡­ broken? There were cracks over the window, seemed to be reminding him something had happened. He got up from his seat and walked to the window.

    There were a crowd below.

    What had happened?

    ¡­

    Meanwhile, Rui Bing walked on. She had generally lost her sense of direction, fortunately she brought a generous supply of nutrition capsules and water or she would be long dead out of starvation or thirst. "Inhabited with humans my foot!" Rui Bing kicked the sand angrily, as she had hardly met with anything human.

    Her snow-white face was tainted by dirt and fatigue, her fair white garb had already been dirtied by the dust. Her determination remained untouched however, as she called it a trial, a training to her dignity.

    She marched through the sandy ce.

    She had marched for the past 10 days. With her speed being a Jie expert, the mileage would be great, she felt she had traveled half the globe yet she had seen nobody. She did encounter lots of animals though. The animals could have been a good source of food to anybody else but her, as she was a vegetarian.

    The wind was whispering through the sleeves of her dirtied garb. It was as if offering her a ride to the west.

    She looked out afar, the summits seemed to be breathing, the height varied, she could feel the life of nature, a refreshing sensation. Being a girl who grew up in the metropolitan, she had never viewed the beauty of Mother Nature herself. The chilling breeze of the peak seemed to have sent her fatigue away.

    Ah!

    She saw something! Down the slope, there seemed to be a spaceship there. Tidied her garb, she hopped down and began dashing like a white eagle.

    ¡­

    "Old Wang, how was it? Could you fix it?" asked Shi Chongming as he lowered his body.

    Old Wang did not reply, his hands constantly moving from one circuit to another, his hands shifting back and fro, from the screen of the machine to the circuit.

    Three minutespsed, "Ugh!" Copsed Old Wang, "I can''t seem to fix it. Damn! I did not expect the Refraction Spring to be broken. This thing should be thest thing to break, but why? We don''t have anything like that in our storage¡­"

    "Oh no¡­" Frowned Shi Chongming, "The Second Young Miss was still waiting inside the cabin. She was not allowed to ride a mech ever since she was born and we are 5000 kilometers away from Gur¡­ there''s no other city nearby either¡­"

    "It''s my fault." Old Wang looked troubled. "I should have ced a Refraction Spring in the storage. What should we do now?"

    "I think we could only contact the Third Young Miss for the moment¡­ see if she could send a spaceship here," muttered Shi Chongming as he turned on themunicator and hurried himself into the cabin.

    "Miss, my apology but the spaceship seemed to be beyond repair at the moment," stated Shi Chongming courteously.

    "Oh¡­ what should we do then?" Shi Yinfu''s sweet voice rang in panic, "I ha contacted the third young miss."

    "What did my sister say?" said Shi Yinfu, her gaze jumping around Shi Chongming, which confused the man, "She said Gur is in a sticky situation right now, so she hoped that we could arrive at Gur muchter. And she was out of hand. She ordered us to take our time."

    "Did something happen there?" Shi Yinfu sounded really nervous now. She had a strong bond with her young sister so she was worried.

    "Hmm¡­" Muttered Shi Chongming, "Something should have happened¡­ judging by her tone, it sounded grim. But don''t worry, the third young miss is very capable, she could handle anything."

    "True¡­ sister is much capable than I," Shi Yinfu rxed, who then sighed, looking dejected of her statement, "Well, it''s good too, we could have some leisure looking at the scenery around. Uncle Ming, how do you think?" She forced a smile.

    Shi Chongming who captured that tiny gesture of the girl, feeling his heart aching, also forced a smile, "Yes, miss. I had been the in only on a trial when I was much younger. It''s been quite sometime¡­"

    A shriek was heard.

    Shi Chongming flinched¡­ he whispered, "I''ll have a look."

    "Take care," nodded Shi Fuyin in a smile.

    He headed out and saw a running figureing towards them.

    It was Rui Bing.

    She quickly held her steps, from total mobility to zero. Such skill! Shi Chongmingplimented.

    The tainted garb, the dirty face, it must be a practitioner in training! And it was a girl!

    It was a rare sight to see a female practitioner, especially one who would undergo a tedious training like this. Only the practitioners who had mastered the skills would undergone a harsh training to further hone their skills.

    Shi Chongming was also a practitioner himself and he had undergone simr training when he was younger, so he knew how tedious the training could be, he felt impressed of the girl''s bravery.

    "My sincerest apology for causing such havoc." Being alert, Rui Bing acted politely as she bowed at the far, "Would fellow gents tell me the direction to the nearest city?"

    The voice was clear, the tone was soothing, exuding a different kind of sensation to the ears, a pleasing personality. Shi Chongming was again, impressed, for such girl maintained her modesty despite her masterly skills.

    Shi Chong suddenly was inspired. He got an idea!

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "What the heck just happened?" Ye Chong''s t voice was giving shudders to everybody. As more men had gathered by the gate, Sang Fan and his gang had started feeling stressful. Sang Tie was as if fighting the Great War, guarding the entrance surrounded by crowd. The strength he demonstrated was great, so no one dared to step to the front to provoke.

    The Sangs converged their sight at Hai Lian in disconcert, wondering why Hai Lian would want to save thisdy, since it was not a culture for them to save strangers from a fight.

    Hai Lian pulled the White Streak girl away and kneeled before Ye Chong, he begged in shriek, "PLEASE! Sir! Please save mypatriot! Please! I plead you!" He torn his right sleeve and there revealed¡­ also the same white streaks.

    "Ah!!" The girl was shocked, "Ha¡­ha¡­" Her tears were wetting her eyes, that was the firstpatriot she had ever seen other than her mother.

    Ye Chong was silent, because he was not sure of the situation yet.

    Hai Lian knocked his head on the ground vigorously as he kneeled, a typical sincerest begging position at the most pathetic plight out of the greatest desperation. His forehead was bleeding, the girl at the side was crying, pulling the arm of Hai Lian, muttering an imperceptiblenguage as distorted by her sobs.

    "Sang Fan." Ye Chong frowned, "Lift him." He pointed, at the manically behaving Hai Lian, whose forehead was stained by streams of his blood and tears. It was terrifying especially with more blood dripping from the corners of his lips.

    Sang Fan forcefully lifted Hai Lian. The strength was so great, Hai Lian could not even struggle.

    Thepatriot grasped Hai Lian, like a treasure, a long-lost brotherhood, as her tears showering her pretty face, mumbling unknown words.

    Sang Ling could not see this scene anymore.

    "Guo Ren, mind briefing me what happened?" He would like to ask Hai Lian but that guy seemed to have lost his ability to speak currently, so he asked Guo the Old Chief instead.

    So Guo gave a briefing on the backstory of the White Streak tribe, which gave a shock to everyone. "Dammit!" Angered Sang Tie, "This is inhuman! These people are cruelty! Lian my brother, no worries! Nobody would dare to even touch you with me at your side!" He tapped his chest and demonstrated deep brotherhood. The remaining Sangs seemed to be enraged of this bloody fact as well.

    Sang Tie''s passion was great, but sometimes too great with that booming voice of his. The others could feel their eardrums rupturing, including the white streak girl, "Tie!" Shouted Sang Ling, "Sir is just right here! Have some manners! If you want to shout, shout elsewhere!"

    Sang Tie withdrew himself, feeling embarrassed.

    Normally, if something tragic happened to a total stranger, Ye Chong would refuse to even express his slightest sympathy, since there were many, many more people who had suffered worse fate¡­ like he himself for example, who did not even know who his parents were. But well, Hai Lian was still a partner of his, so no way he could ignore this.

    He turned his head to Sang Fan, "Tell Sang Huo to move everyone here. We would be meeting 10 kilometers outside the city. Be prepared."

    "Yes sir!" Replied Sang Fan, the Sangs were looking happy while Hai Lian crashed the ground with his knees again, "T-t-t-t-t-thank you."

    The White Streak girl also kneeled along. Hai Lian was having blood and sweat staining his face, as they dripped to the carpet, "From n-n-n-now on¡­" His voice rang hoarsely, "My life would be yours." Worshipped he along with hispatriot.

    "What is going on?"

    "Did the masked man send a rock flying five floors high?"

    "The Masked Man is a danger."

    "They did it again?"

    The crowd was collecting at the hotel and did not intend to leave as they looked at the strange group inside the lobby.

    At this stage, it would be impossible to cover up their whereabouts anymore. They had been dragged under the spotlight. Well then, it is time to gamble again.

    Thought Ye Chong as his eyes traveled through the rumbling crowd outside the hotel, setting afar.

 Chapter 302 - Old Chief Guoâ€™s Idea

    <h4>Chapter 302: Old Chief Guo¡¯s Idea</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Three Aristocratic Families all received the information. They immediately noticed the link between these 20 Jie experts and the 8 Jie experts that appeared in Foundation city. With that, countless people were deployed to Lunaris.

    At the same time, in the auction of the Unmanned ck Market, 30vagold bullions were sold at a sky high price to a miningpany. This was the purestvagold anyone had ever seen in the Unmanned ck Market. No one knew how the 30vagold bullions were extracted to produce with such high purity. The auction may not be particrly well known, but those who participated were all aristocrats.

    In fact, the aristocrats were not interested in the 30vagold bullions themselves, but the method of extraction. However, identifying the seller in the Unmanned ck Market was more than difficult.

    In Gur city, a thousand-strong battalion were advancing fast in the deserted ins. All of them wore a silver mask. Fortunately, many of the people in Gur city wore masks too, so they did not particrly stand out. Even so, the deathly auraing from them was conspicuous.

    That said, anyone who could survive in Gur city would be intimidating.

    The hotel where Ye Chong settled down was already crowded. There were many who still were quickly making their way towards the hotel.

    Greda was already much calmer by now. He knew that he could not win, and so he said, "Fine, you¡¯re the man. Humph, we¡¯ll do it your way!" He spoke venomously. The guards around him all rxed at that.

    Ye Chong could hear the grudge in Greda¡¯s voice, and his eyes gleamed coldly. Ye Chong was in no habit of leaving potential threats alive.

    "Capture them all," Ye Chong pointed at Greda and his gang.

    Of all the spectators in the hotel¡¯s main lobby, a masked man pointed at Greda, and immediately, seven figures appeared in the room.

    "Jie experts!" Someone gasped. Just like that, all the observers were thrilled. They kept their eyes wide open, unwilling to miss anything.

    The seven figures moved so quickly that they only appeared as an afterimage. One could hear the dull sound of punchesing from Greda and his gang. The spectators could barely see the shadows of the seven figures as they attacked.

    The crowd was riled up. These must be the legendary Jie experts! No one paid attention to Greda. The yboy was notorious in Gur city, and everyone had only tolerated him because of his father. Now that he had met his match, many were happy that he finally got what he deserved.

    In less than half a minute, Greda¡¯s gang were all rounded up. Greda suffered the worst, his body covered with patches of green and ck. Sang Tie had vented all his anger from hearing the fate of the White Streak tribe on Greda.

    The arrogant gangsters were now all curling into themselves on the ground, moaning in pain. Old Chief Guo whispered into Ye Chong¡¯s ear, "Boss, the Jin Gui tribe is rich, how about we ¡­" As he spoke, he rubbed his right thumb and middle finger together.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes brightened, and he nodded. "Okay, I leave it to you."

    Old Chief Guo signalled his understanding, and approached the gang. He gave them a few kicks here and there, like he was teasing some animal.

    "Alright, it¡¯s you." Old Chief Guo pointed at a guard on the ground, and the guard turned paled, thinking that he was about to be finished off. "Get up, get up," Old Chief Guo ordered impatiently. "I¡¯ll let you go now. You¡¯ll go to your tribe leader, tell him that your Young Master has offended our master. Tsk tsk, not only that, he even wanted to harm our master. So, your Young Master¡¯s staying with us. However, our master is mindful of the good rtionship between your side and mine, and doesn¡¯t want to make things worse. As long as your tribe pays up, your Young Master will be returned to you all safe and sound. Understood?"

    Knowing that he was safe for now, the guard was overjoyed, and quickly nodded. "Understood, understood."

    "Alright." Old Chief Guo seemed satisfied. "Every guard will cost you five million credits. We¡¯ll let you off free of charge as a sign of goodwill. There are 12 guards here, so 60 million credits should be good. The Young Master is a man of status, so, let¡¯s make it 20 million credits." Old Chief Guo abruptly spoke with deep menace, "The total is 80 million credits. You have two hours. Hehe, there will be no deal after that. Understood?"

    The guard swallowed heavily and nodded vigorously. "Un - understood ¡­"

    "Then scram! Remember, two hours!" Old Chief Guo red at him.

    "Yes, yes ¡­" The guard bowed and nodded, and quickly turned to leave, like he was pursued from behind.

    Sang Tie sidled up to Old Chief Guo and walked around him, studying the man curiously as he tsk-tsked in awe. Old Chief Guo looked at Sang Tie oddly, feeling his face for a moment as he asked in confusion, "Tie, what is it? Something on my face?"

    Sang Tie replied jokingly, "Old Guo, I didn¡¯t expect you to have a few tricks yourself, been breaking thew before haven¡¯t you? Heh, what a daring sum, five million credits for one person, you¡¯re quite the greedy man."

    Old Chief Guo was embarrassed by the tease, and exined reluctantly, "I did it for the squad, we¡¯re poor after all. Besides, to these people, five million is just a speck. Look at him," he pointed at the moaning Greda, "It¡¯s probably just his casual annual allowance."

    Sang Tie looked at Greda, and felt angry all over again. The Sang tribe members had to go through so much to earn a little money, but this b*stard¡¯s annual spending was already in the millions. He could not help but gave Greda a few "extra gentle" kicks.

    "Hiss!" Greda inhaled sharply in pain, his body contorted backwards like a bow, and his eyes bulged like a fish¡¯s. The guards around him quivered in fear as they looked nervously at Sang Tie.

    Sang Ling could not help but let out a littleugh as she watched Sang Tie and Old Chief Guo doing their thing. Her cold eyes instantly melted into a blooming spring, and Sang Fan could only stare dreamily from her ce.

    The hotel was crowded, but no one dared to step into the empty space before the entrance. They all believed in the absolute strength of Jie experts. Besides, wasn¡¯t there a rumor a few days ago of a Jie expert crushing a mech¡¯s armor with only bare hands?

    Shi Xin watched indifferently, unmoved by the fight. The only thing that confounded her was the fact that Ye Chong and his group had actually demanded ransom. The Shi family and the Jin Gui tribe were close. While the Shi family had a wide and more superior influence, both sides had cooperated with each other on even ground. In any case, she still had to pay her dues.

    After some pondering moments, she made up her mind. Shi Xin stepped forward alone, bowing in the direction of the hotel¡¯s entrance and hailed, "I am Shi Xing, from the Shi family of Tian Xing Cove. Greetings." She greeted the way a junior would a person with higher seniority.

    The Shi family was well known. The crowd that had only quieted down now came to life again.

    "Shi Tiancheng has a respectable daughter!" Amidst the crowd, a middle-aged manmended as he watched Shi Xin with interested. A woman who could act so calm and dignified before arge crowd was stately and impressive.

    "Shi Xin, female, age 24. Went for external training at age 17. Her outstanding performance led the tribe leader and her father, Shi Tiancheng to recognize her as a talent worth nurturing. She was involved in a series of significant events such as the Shi and Jin family alliance and the Shi family negotiation. Besides that, on March 20thst year, she was secretly engaged, her partner remains unidentified." A fair-skinned and handsome young man who stood beside the middle-aged manmented swiftly. The middle-aged man wore a mask, and was surrounded by guards.

    The middle-aged man smiled and said nothing.

    Old Chief Guo stepped forward at Ye Chong¡¯s signal and said, "Well met, well met. What can we do for Miss Shi?" Initially, he was quite uptight, but he soon yed his role smoothly. Life was truly mysterious. A few months ago, he was still in the lowliest ranks of society. Now, he could speak on even ground with the likes of the aristocrats like the Shi family.

    Shi Xin spoke respectfully, "Begging your great indulgence, Uncle Rnd had always took care of me, and Greda is like a sibling to me. His offense to you and your own was most disgraceful. However, he is also young, rash, and ignorant. Please consider forgiving him. He would definitely see the error of his ways and make amends."

    The middle-aged man could not help but apud, "She can speak well." The young man beside him did not look so impressed. The middle-aged man sighed to himself and exined, "The girl is discreet. She¡¯s not familiar with the other party, so she chose not to speak in the name of the Shi family. She spoke only of herself, about her gratitude to Rnd, and asked for mercy based on their sibling-like rtionship. This way, not only would she not offend the other party, they might evenmend her for her willingness to repay another¡¯s kindness, and chose not to make things difficult for her. Impressive!"

    Seeing the middle-aged man being so generous of praise, the young man could not help but feel unconvinced. "These social etiquettes aremon."

    The middle-aged man took a nce at him and said inly, "To act decisively and appropriately before thousands of people, before 20 Jie experts, is that something you can do?"

    The young man was silent for a long moment in deep thought, as he finally felt shame. "I¡¯ve underestimated the situation."

    While Old Chief Guo did not like the aristocratic arrogance in Shi Xin, the girl was still alright in other respects. Heughed and said, "Miss Shi, no need to worry, you¡¯ll find out in a moment."

    Shi Xin realized then that the other party did not intend to kill Greda. She bowed again respectfully and said, "You have my sincerest gratitude," and retreated into the crowd.

    With his part done, Old Chief Guo heaved a sigh of relief and made to return to the hotel. Just then, another person emerged, leaping out from the crowd.

 Chapter 303 - The Disciples Come in Droves

    <h4>Chapter 303: The Disciples Come in Droves</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Greetings sir, my name is Zhang Sunli!" Zhang Sunli had a squarish face, with thick brows andrge eyes. He was a fine man, his muscr body reaching 180 meters in height. He was obviously a man of emotions. His palms were calloused, and he behaved courteously.

    "Oh, how can I help you?" Old Chief Guo looked curiously at the 30 year old-ish man.

    Zhang Sunli affected a look of respect and bowed slightly before replying, "Zhang Sunli has trained inbat since young, and has always worked hard. However, due to theck of a capable teacher, I¡¯ve not have much sess thus far. Your warriors are all strong, in the realm of Jie, something we all dreamed of achieving. I beg your greatest indulgence to please consider having me by your side. I would not dare to wish to be epted into your n, only that you¡¯ll allow me to assist your misceneous tasks." Zhang Sunli spoke sincerely and with determination.

    Old Chief Guo was stunned. The man was asking to be a disciple! However, he could sympathize with Zhang Sunli¡¯s desire. There were many people just like Zhang Sunli in society. Old Chief Guo himself was in his position before. However, he had chosen to train as a mech pilot instead. He had also trained hard from childhood, but without an eminent teacher to guide him, he could only barely pass as a mech pilot now.

    With this precedent in ce, others followed. The crowd began to make simr requests. "Please have me too, please have me too!"

    "That¡¯s right, that¡¯s right, if I can have a Jie expert as my teacher, there¡¯s hope for me just yet!"

    "Please ept me, please ept me. I have good fundamentals, I work hard ¡­"

    The crowd was boiling with enthusiasm as the people all stepped forward to offer themselves. Old Chief Guo was suddenly their gateway to sess.

    Old Chief Guo was shocked. He never expected people to ask to be his disciple! Zhang Sunli was also shocked. He did not imagine that his actions would lead to this madness.

    Old Chief Guo grew troubled. Ye Chong and the rest inside the hotel also turned wary. The situation was getting risky. If someone was instigating the crowd, then they might lose control of the situation. No matter how strong Ye Chong and the group was, they would not be able to handle a huge crowd like this.

    Old Chief Guo dared to linger further, and quickly ran into the hotel. Heck, given the situation, if he continued to stay where he was, he might just be overrun by the crowd.

    Ye Chong was also looking a little grim. Sang Tie quickly brought Old Chief Guo over. Just as Old Chief Guo stepped into the hotel, hisms device rang. Old Chief Guo took a look at it, and his panic dissolved away instantly. He ran to Ye Chong and cried, "Sir, our items are sold."

    Ye Chong was overjoyed. The only reason he was still on Lunaris was because the money was not yet transferred to his card. Just then, the credits from thevagold auction were registered in his card.

    Sang Fan added then, "Sir, Huo and the others are already outside the city, ready to move."

    Ye Chong ordered Sang Tie, "Get Hai Lian and the other one here, we¡¯re leaving the city." After that, he turned to Sang Fang and said, "Ask Sang Huo to prepare to receive us."

    The crowd outside was still brimming with excitement, but no one had dared to enter the hotel. The Jie experts were still scary, after all.

    Ye Chong and his group packed up. Ye Chong himself had no interest in the potential disciples outside like Zhang Sunli. Zhang Sunli himself was already buried in the crowd. Greda and his guards were of insignificance now.

 Chapter 304 - Rolandâ€™s Gamble

    <h4>Chapter 304: Rnd¡¯s Gamble</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rnd was deeply anxious. He cursed the no-fly zone around Gur city, but recalled that he had actually voted for it to be set up. He smiled wryly to himself. Greda was too disappointing. His son¡¯s usual troublemaking was tolerable, since other people would be wary of him and leave his son be. But now, Greda had messed with those Jie experts!

    Rnd had decided to pay the ransom. He would give his son a good smacking, see if he would dare do this again! "To think that he had went against Jie experts because of a mere woman! The stupid boy will die in a woman¡¯s hands if this continues!" Rnd cursed inside.

    However, the Jie experts were not trying to make things difficult for him. Rnd knew this from experience. 80 million might be a tremendous figure for themoners, but it was only a drop from the ocean for him. Why would Jie experts be in need of money? It would be such a joke. Any aristocratic would pay more than this to the Jie experts. It seemed that the other party only wanted to make a tiny show of punishment to Greda.

    Killing at the slightest provocation was not befitting of a Jie expert.

    What would Ye Chong and his group think if they knew Rnd¡¯s thoughts on them? Rnd ran fast. Even though he was Tribe Leader, he was also one of the tribe¡¯s elites when he was young, and had evenpleted his own ascetic training. He was a formidable fighter in his own right.

    Rnd¡¯s group was much more formal than Ye Chong''s. Full security measures were taken with the Tribe Leader himself making an appearance, . More than 300 guards d in ck close-fittingbat suits surrounded Rnd at the center. The group advanced quickly, but none of them showed any signs of fatigue, evenly breathing as they were. Their procession attracted attention along the way.

    Rnd arrived just when the crowd¡¯s enthusiasm in requesting eptance into Ye Chong¡¯s group was at its peak. The guards around Rnd noticed the dense crowd, and forced a way through. The people pushed out of the way turned back to glower and yell, but when they saw who it was, they forcefully stopped themselves from uttering their first words.

    Rnd and his guards entered the scene, and the crowd gradually quieted down to a deafening silence. Anyone who survived long enough in Gur city would recognise the Jin Gui tribe¡¯s leader. Now that the Tribe Leader was here to save his own son, anyone who made a misstep here will have to bid farewell to Gur city.

    "I am Rnd, greetings!" Rnd stood formally and bowed. Attaining Jie was no mean feat. Usually, one attained Jie at around 50 to 60 years of age. Hence, Rnd chose to speak in a respectful tone.

    Ye Chong and his group was about to leave when Rnd¡¯s voice grinded them to a halt. Ye Chong took a nce at Greda and signaled to Old Chief Guo. Old Chief Guo took his meaning and walked out of the hotel with deliberate ease.

    "To have Tribe Leader Rnd himself visiting, you honor us!" Old Chief Guo did not sound very honored.

    Rnd spoke pensively, "My unworthy son has behaved most inappropriately to offend you and yourpany, he deserves the harshest of punishments."

    Old Chief Guoughed. "Tribe Leader Rnd, you exaggerate. Boys are boys, it is in their nature to be petnt, he just needs a little education. Alright, back on topic, do you have money ready, Tribe Leader?"

    The crowd was stunned. A Jie expert was asking for money!

    "Here is a billion credits. Please ept it with my sincere apologies." Rnd produced a purple-gold card.

    A Tribe Leader in all his power and glory was openly negotiating with a group of Jie experts. It was too outrageous!

    Most of the people stared at the card, panting greedily. A billion credits was an impossible figure for the averagemoner.

    However, Rnd did not hand over the card to Old Chief Guo. Instead, he bowed down deeply and said, "Rnd has a request as well, if all of you would be so kind to consider it!"

    "What is this request ?" Old Chief Guo looked at Rnd, intrigued.

    "Rnd¡¯s unworthy son is impossibly stubborn, and Rnd acknowledges his inability to educate him any further. However, if he continues like this, he will never seed in life. Rnd would ask for you and your group to ept him as a disciple. Rnd would not expect him to be a Jie expert like yourselves, only that you would change his ways for the better."

    Taking a disciple? Boss would never agree, Old Chief Guo was certain of it. Before he could reject the man, however, Rnd¡¯s next words came like a bomb, "Rnd would offer 50 billion credits as the teaching fee for Greda!"

    50 billion credits! The crowd went mad! Just what in the world was 50 billion credits worth? A Moonlight mech cost 30 thousand credits. A small-sized starship was worth two million credits. A mid-sized starship was 30 million credits. Arge-sized starship was five billion credits.

    This was the price of tenrge-sized starships! Even the powerful Trilobita Mech Squad had only 15rge starships, and that was the result of decades of savings.

    Old Chief Guo hesitated, and replied, "Please wait a moment, we will discuss this."

    The middle-aged man in the crowd sighed, "The old fellow¡¯s cunning."

    The handsome young man beside him countered, "He knows nothing about the other party, how could Tribe Leader Rnd act so rashly?"

    "You don¡¯t understand!" The middle aged man said, "He¡¯s taking a gamble!"

    "A gamble?" The young man¡¯s handsome features twisted in confusion.

    "Yes. Greda¡¯s upbringing is such that Rnd can no longer make his son behave. Besides, the old fellow¡¯s busy with his own work, and has no time to take care of Greda. Rnd is gambling with 50 billion credits for a chance to mold his son into a better person. Don¡¯t forget, the Jie experts are mysterious, affiliated with no aristocratic family. If they really ept Greda as a disciple, the Jin Gui tribe might just find themselves an ally. Rnd is crafty."

    The young man was unconvinced. "But no one knows the background of these Jie experts, why would he feel that his son will be safe with them?"

    The middle-aged man took a nce at the younger man and said, "Remember, a man of status must have the right mindset. He can always bear another son, but this opportunity will not present itself again. He is now given a golden opportunity for both Greda and the Jin Gui tribe. If Greda continued the way he was, he will never be a man of substance. Rnd loved his son, that¡¯s why he¡¯s willing to invest with 50 billion credits for him, and for the Jin Gui tribe."

    The middle-aged man added, "In this world, nothinges without risks."

    The handsome young man pondered for a moment before asking, "If it was you, would you make the same decision?"

    "I will," the middle-aged man answered without hesitation.

    "Third Young Miss," an old servant came to Shi Xin. Shi Xin was surrounded by more than a dozen guards. They were either openly or discreetly protecting her .

    Shi Xin did not turn to look at him. "Uncle Hua, you¡¯re all here." Uncle Hua was one of the people she trusted most. Growing up in an aristocratic family, she would always be apanied by an attendant. Attendants oftene from the families that branch out from the main aristocratic bloodline. They were all excellent inbat and managing tasks, and they were loyal to the aristocratic family. Uncle Hua was Shi Xin¡¯s attendant. He had watched over her ever since she was born.

    Uncle Hua did not look his age. His skin was smooth and fair despite being over 50 years old. He spoke with a mellow voice, "The starship that Second Young Miss is on is stranded, should we deploy some men to assist?"

    "No need, they just got in touch with me. I asked them to take their time arriving to Gur city. The city is in a state of unrest now. Second Young Miss has always been fragile, it will not do for her to be troubled." Shi Xin asked, "Uncle Hua, did you bring the card?"

    Uncle Hua nodded. "Here. Isn¡¯t this for buying mechs from the Xue Lan n?"

    "It was. Let me have the card for now, we¡¯ll see how it goes. We might not be getting mechs." Shi Xin looked meaningfully at the hotel.

    Uncle Hua and the rest had just arrived, and was not aware of previous proceedings. However, Uncle Hua did not hesitate and handed over the card to Shi Xin.

    Shi Xin would never imagine that her second elder sister, Shi Fuyin had gotten into trouble just then.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    The group chatted amiably. Shi Chongming described to Shu Fuyin his ascetic training experience while he was younger, and Shi Fuyin could not help but gasped again and again at his misadventures. Rui Bing still looked like her usual cold self, but she was getting eager to try out this strange method that they called ascetic training.

    She realized that the annoying but beautiful woman had brought her to unfamiliar territory, a ce not part of the Five Gxies. When she first found out that she was no longer in the Five Gxies, her first thought was that she might never see Ye Chong again. The thought made her deeply aggrieved.

    Perhaps this was her fate. Rui Bing sighed quietly to herself pitifully. She was in no mood for conversation, and maintained her silence throughout the journey. No one dared to approach her for a chat, since she was obviously a cold person. Aside that, ever since her surprising demonstration of her skills that day, any admirer of hers would now be revising their judgment of their own merits.

    Just how strong was this cold woman? Shi Chongming was very curious.

    Nheless, Shi Fuyin had developed a fondness for Rui Bing, and always entwined her arm with Rui Bing¡¯s. Rui Bing was also sympathetic towards a fragiledy like her. Besides, back at home, Rui Su had always liked to embrace her as well, so the intimacy was not unfamiliar.

    On the other hand, Shi Chongming was secretly happy to see Rui Bing and the Second Young Miss being so close.

    The dry weather had caused the earth to crack beneath them. The deserted in was only asionally interrupted by a few crooked gray-brown salix willows.

    Rui Bing abruptly halted. Her expression turned severe as she listened intently.

    Everyone else was startled.

    "Careful!" Rui Bing¡¯s eyes turned sharp.

    The group was still confused when they heard a disquieting rustling sound bing clearer and clearer. Zhi Chongming grew nervous.

 Chapter 305 - Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 305: Crisis</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The cracks on the ground suddenly glowed light blue. Everyone was stunned by what they were seeing, except for Shi Chongming. Shi Chongming¡¯s face was already drained of blood as he gasped, "Blue Crown Serpents!" He had seen this animal before during his ascetic training. Back then, he had watched from up high and afar at the chilling blue light. It was only when the blue light receded that he carefully approached the ce to take a closer look. For kilometers around where the blue light had been, he could only see mechs reduced to useless wreckage.

    The already startled group turned a shade paler.

    On the ground, a misty blue light leaked out of the cracks. It would have made for an astonishing sight from high above the skies. The blue light stretched outwards for a few kilometers.

    The rustling sound became louder and louder. Shi Chongming acted first. He deployed his mech while the rest of the guards recovered from their shock and took out their mechs next. However, Shi Chongming knew that, even with his mech out, it was already toote.

    Blue Crown Serpents lived beneath the earth¡¯s surface, and only emerged asionally. They were naturally vicious and moved quickly, making them terrifying creatures. More importantly, they often appear without warning.

    The guards¡¯ mechs were already out, the pilot cabins opened. The guards rushed to their mechs like their lives depended on it.

    "Imb*ciles,e back here. D*mn it, are you leaving the Second Young Miss behind?" Shi Chongming was infuriated by the escaping guards.

    The guards stopped in their tracks and looked to each other. They quickly turned back. Shi Chongming was right. If anything happened to Shi Fuyin, they would not survive for long even if they outlived the youngdy. Unlike normal hired guards, the guards assigned to protect the aristocrats themselves were all chosen from their own n or tribe. The guards families were all with the aristocrats. If they left the Second Young Miss to escape themselves, not only would they be punished by death when they returned to the tribe, their families would also suffer greatly.

    Their escape just then was done out of instinct to save themselves. Shi Chongming¡¯s yelling had brought them back to their senses. Shi Chongming sighed to himself. The Second Young Miss rarely headed outdoors. These bodyguards were all inexperienced, and had panicked when trouble arrived.

    He stole a nce at the cold femalebat expert, and found her to bepletely at ease. Just her reaction was enough to prove her superiority over everyone else here. Shi Fuyin had always stayed close to her parents, never experiencing anything so frightening like this. She quivered in fear and held on tightly to Rui Bing, her face as white as a sheet.

    In just the blink of an eye, the blue light suddenly glowed more intensely. Rui Bing finally saw the Blue Crown Serpents clearly. Each snake was two to three meters long. The source of the blue light was a glowing pattern on its body. On its belly was a muscr protrusion and at the tip of the snake¡¯s head was a sharp horn, nked by two air sacs that expanded and contracted rhythmically.

    Rui Bing had never seen anything like it, but she was not too perturbed. Not many things in the world that could disturb Jie experts, and lesser still for Rui Bing.

    Based on the Jie experts¡¯ level in the He Yue gxy, many of the Jie experts in the Five Gxies would not be on par with them. Combat was a dying skill in the Five Gxies, so it was natural that their level was no match against the He Yue gxy. However, the Five Gxies were also home to many talents, such as Rui Bing. Her battle with Ye Chong had enabled her to attain Jie and be the third Jie expert in the Rui family. After that, with her intense mech piloting training, she had broadened her skill set and improved herself even more. It was this extra improvement that allowed Rui Bing to be on the same level as the Jie experts in the He Yue gxy.

    Femalebat experts were rare, and a female Jie expert was even rarer.

    The Blue Crown Serpents were fast, but Rui Bing¡¯s sharp eyes could follow their movements easily. The protrusion in their bellies helped them to move. As the meaty protrusion pushed, the snake could move from one ce to another in a sh of blue. The intense blue light made it even harder to see them clearly.

    The mechs out in the open were the first ones to be hit. Ding ding ding! The Blue Crown Serpentsunched themselves at the mechs, like blue energy beams raining on the metallic machines.

    The seemingly invulnerable mechs were destroyed instantly, spraying a million fragments outwards.

    Everyone but Rui Bing turned even paler. The Blue Crown Serpents were known for their viciousness, but no one imagined that the creatures could be so terrifying. Rui Bing¡¯s expression remained calm, but she was also surprised inside. These creatures were truly horrible! She was the only one of the group who could see exactly how the snakesunched their attack.

    The Blue Crown Serpents were fast. They attacked with the seemingly thin horns on their heads. Rui Bing was surprised to find that they had attacked repeatedly in the same spots. After the first wave of snakes, the second waveunched themselves to the exact spots targeted by the first wave. The tough mech armors finally gave way under these continuous and urate attacks.

    That was how the snakes could prate the mech armors. Normal people would only be horrified by the power of the Blue Crown Serpents, but Rui Bing could appreciate with her sharp senses the uniqueness of these creatures.

    The Blue Crown Serpents were not so scary themselves. It was their continuous attacks that made them terrifying.

    Shi Chongming looked at the mech fragments scattered on the ground, feeling hopeless. He looked to the Second Young Miss with guilt and regret.

    This was the limit of any mech pilot. A mech pilot without a mech would be vulnerable. Any close range attack would likely end a mech pilot¡¯s life, unless he or she had excellentbat skills.

    An alloy pole fell beside Rui Bing. She gently hooked it up with her leg and took it in her hand. The alloy pole was suitable enough to use, weighing just right and providing a good grip. While Rui Bing was confident of herbat skills, the situation at hand was not one that could be resolved quickly. With a weapon in hand, Rui Bing felt a little safer.

    What else could she do in this situation? This was a fight for survival!

    Rui Bing¡¯s aura suddenly transformed from pure coolness to intense focus, like a de unsheathed. Her long, ck hair flew a little despite there being not even the slightest breeze. With a pole in hand and her white training garb on, she looked positively handsome and valorous.

    She brushed gently on her left arm, and Shi Fuyin¡¯s right grip was instantly released. She gave another push, and Shi Fuyin was tossed in Shi Chongming¡¯s direction. Shi Chongming was startled, but he quickly reacted and caught the Second Young Miss.

    "Stay behind me." Her cool voice was absolute.

    Just then, the Blue Crown Serpents began to attack the group.

    Rui Bing¡¯s face was grim as the pole in her hand began to move. Rui Bing¡¯s movements were simple, but her attacks never missed. Once the trick to the Blue Crown Serpents¡¯ attack was known, their power was greatly reduced. Rui Bing got better and better at predicting their attacks, and her movements grew even sparser.

    She could hear painful howls and shrieks from everywhere around her, but Rui Bing kept to her attack range. She was determined not to be distracted, since she knew that protecting two people was the most she could do by herself. She could only steel her heart and continue fighting, but her attacks grew more and more ruthless.

    Shi Chongming held onto the Second Young Miss tightly, looking at the back of the figure in white training garb. Her shoulders were not exactly wide, but he felt strangely safe behind them.

    Just who was exactly this woman?

    He knew next to nothing about this colddy, except for her name, Rui Bing. Where was she from, and who was her teacher? He did not the answers to those.

    He took a quick nce at the guards around him, most of them reduced to bones. Shi Chongming felt miserable. The Blue Crown Serpents attacked like a crazy shower ofsers. Amidst the blue shes of attacks, a single pole had carved out a safe space just enough for three people to fit in.

    Whack! St! He could hear the continuous attacks from the pole. The rustling sound loomed over him like the depths of despair. Time seemed to slow down. How long could she hold on? This was the only question in Shi Chongming¡¯s mind.

    As fate would have it, Rui Bing was not the only one in a crisis.

    On Cob, Mu and Shang¡¯s bionic eyes were blinking madly. Little Rock sat in front of the photon processor, drenched in sweat. He stared fixedly on the photon processor as his hands flew across the controls. Zhu Ling watched him worriedly, and even Lian Yue refrained from his usualckadaisical and foolish manners, staying quietly at the side.

    Finally, Little Rock heaved a sigh of relief. However, his forehead was already lined with trickles of sweat, and he waspletely soaked. Zhu Ling¡¯s eyes softened as she handed over a towel for Little Rock. He returned a sincere smile to her. Lian Yue could not help but eximed jealously, "Ah, poor me, no one handed me a towel!"

    No one paid him any attention. Zhu Ling asked Little Rock softly, "What happened just now?"

    "Mu just met a really strong guy in the virtual world, and they fought for awhile. Then a couple more strong guys came to watch from the side, so I went to help. But it was dangerous, getting to the end, Mu nearly lost himself in there," Little Rock exined, still a bit shakened.

    "Impossible! Who can possibly be stronger than Boss Mu in the virtual world?" Lian Yue protested despite himself. Indeed, Mu had always reigned supreme in the virtual world. They had all witnessed it themselves. Even Shang was almost undefeatable in the virtual world. How could Lian Yue not be surprised by the news of a few new characters at the same level as Mu?

 Chapter 306 - Popular

    <h4>Chapter 306: Popr</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "I can identify four of them. As for the rest, information is insufficient for further deductions." This came from Mu. His bionic eyes were back to normal.

    "Yeah, those people are strong," Little Rock nodded in agreement. "If it wasn¡¯t for my opponent being a little careless, I wouldn¡¯t have noticed them." He behaved just as usual. To him, meeting strong opponents was a normal urrence. He did not know that he was already well beyond most of the advancedputation experts. After a pause, Little Rock spoke with a curious look, "The virtual world is very different from the one we¡¯re used to. Theputations used look nothing like from our virtual world. Strange."

    "Boss Mu, what is this ce?" The question came from Lian Yue.

    Mu paused for a moment before replying, "Information is insufficient for confirmation. 62 percent of the data fragments from my database is rted to this ce."

    Lian Yue was shocked, and howled pitifully, "You can¡¯t be serious, Boss Mu, even you can¡¯t tell our whereabouts? What should we do next?"

    "Here are three action ns, each one of them has about 70 percent probability of sess, and each has its own advantages and weaknesses. Do you have other suggestions?" Mu asked, just as the holographic screen on Cob disyed all three action ns.

    The three of them shook their heads almost in unison.

    "Due to the given circumstances, the decision will be made randomly." Mu acted quickly. The three action ns began to take turns showing on the holographic screen. When the screen finally stopped changing, only the third action n, n C, was left on disy.

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    After a good few minutes, Old Chief Guo finally came out of the hotel again. The spectators knew that the moment hade. Rnd looked at ease,cking any signs of nervousness.

    Old Chief Guo came to a stop and stood there for a moment, as if thinking to himself, before speaking inly, "We are humbled by your offer, but we have a few conditions."

    "Pray tell," Rnd gestured with his hand.

    "First, your son will not be in contact with you for five years."

    "I agree."

    "Second, we will not be responsible for his life."

    The crowd erupted into an uproar. Never had a teacher refused to be responsible for their disciple¡¯s safety. It was outrageous to ept so much money and still act so irresponsibly. This was 50 billion credits!

    Just when the crowd expected Tribe Leader Rnd to refuse, the man spoke with resolution, "I agree."

    The people were riled up once again. They stared nkly at Tribe Leader Rnd. To them, the proudly standing old fool was the most witless person ever. Nheless, some of the spectators looked thoughtful. These were mostly people who knew Tribe Leader Rnd personally. They knew that the tribe leader would never act so imprudently. There must be some scheme behind this seemingly foolish agreement.

    "We have an ord," Old Chief Guo found himself feeling oddly calm as he received the card with 50 billion credits in it from the tribe leader.

    Zhang Sunli red at him condescendingly. He stepped forward and pronounced loudly, "I did not expect that you so-called Jie experts would be so materialistic. I¡¯ve overestimated you." Zhang Sunli¡¯s words resonated with many in the crowd. They too looked at Old Chief Guo with disdain, but dared not speak up.

    Old Chief Guo took a quick nce at Zhang Sunli. He knew what the Boss was like, and did not care to waste the effort of arguing with Zhang Sunli.

    Old Chief Guo turned to go back into the hotel, when another person spoke up, "Sir, please wait."

    Recently, Old Chief Guo had been called "Sir" for more times than all the other times in his lifebined. "It¡¯s not easy to be recognized as a person of higher status," Old Chief Guo mocked himself. He turned back and found that person calling him to be Shi Xin.

    Shi Xin stepped into the empty circle before the hotel entrance and hailed, "I too would like to be your disciple, and will ept your two conditions. Here is 50 billion credits as payment, please ept it."

    Once again, the crowd exploded in an uproar. This was the biggest drama of their lives, enough to fuel gossips for decades toe. Never again would they encounter anything like this! Shi Xin¡¯s guards were all stunned. Even Uncle Hua was speechless. He quickly made a call to the tribe leader and reported the events discreetly. He decided that if the tribe leader opposed this idea, he would force the Third Young Miss back home.

    Inside the hotel, Ye Chong was already speechless. Another 50 billion credits! Why did it seem like any person could be richer than the previous one? However, why would anyone refuse money? Besides, Ye Chong needed the credits now. Even so, Ye Chong could not help but think about how poor they werepared to these filthy rich aristocrats.

    Old Chief Guo saw Ye Chong nodded, and said, "Alright, since you have this determination, please join us." He epted the card from Shi Xin and led the girl into the hotel.

    Uncle Hua was struggling with himself, but he could only watch as Shi Xin entered the hotel, unable to stop her.

    Shi Xin was already beginning to regret this. Was she being too rash?

    She knew almost immediately what Tribe Leader Rnd was scheming. Just who was behind this mysterious and powerful organization? She was sure that this group was not the full force of the organization. This was a power that could tip the scales on the power bnce in He Yue gxy. More importantly, this power was still a mystery to everyone. For now, she was the only one who could shoulder the responsibility of finding out more about this group.

    It was after this chain of reasoning that she finally came to this decision.

    "The girl has a bright future!" The middle-aged man in the crowd sighed with emotion.

    A hundred billion credits had showed itself to the world. The people could feel the temptation, but no one acted on it for fear of the Jie experts.

    Old Chief Guo entered the hotel and passed the two cards to Ye Cong. Shi Xin was observing them, and deduced that thenky man must be the leader. Too bad that they were all wearing masks, concealing their faces.

    Ye Chong said to Sang Ling, "Bring her to a room and take whatever she has on her."

    Sang Ling nodded and led Shi Xin to a room.

    Ye Chong looked at Greda, lying weakly on the floor, and said to Sang Tie, "He¡¯ll be your disciple from now on."

    Sang Tie grinned as he rubbed his hands together. "Hehe, alright." Upon hearing that, Greda instantly cked out. The rest of the group looked at him with sympathy. Greda will almost certainly live a bleak five years as Sang Tie¡¯s disciple.

    Ye Chong nodded at Greda and said, "Take what he has on him too."

    Sang Tie gave anotherugh before carrying Greda into another room.

    On the other hand, Greda¡¯s guards were all released right then.

    After a few minutes, Sang Ling and Sang Tie came out of their rooms, but the people they carried made Old Chief Guo¡¯s eyes bulged. Shi Xin and Greda were both wrapped up in nkets. Shi Xin was carried horizontally across Sang Ling, but Greda was carried under Sang Tie¡¯s arm, his white thighs showing asionally through the nket.

    "What are you ¡­" Ye Chong began.

    Sang Tie was confused. "Didn¡¯t sir asked us to take what they have on them?"

    "You took everything they have on them?" Ye Chong wasn¡¯t sure if he shouldugh or cry. He had intended for anymunication devices to be removed from them, but Sang Tie and Sang Ling had been so thorough that they had removed everything, even their clothes. He was left with two naked disciples.

    Greda was still unconscious, unaware of his naked flesh. Shi Xin, however, was wide awake, but she hoped against hope to be cked out instead, her face now flushed with embarrassment.

    "Yes," Sang Tie answered matter-of-factly. Sang Ling shared his sentiment. Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo felt like fainting. The White Streak tribe woman clinging onto Hai Lian was surprised, but soonughed heartily at the sight.

    "It¡¯s alright. What about their stuff?" Ye Chong asked.

    "All destroyed, ground to a pulp." Sang Tieughed sheepishly. Ye Chong looked to Sang Ling, and she nodded as well.

    "Alright, good work." Ye Chongmended their thoroughness.

    Extremists, the lot of them! Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo shared a bewildered look.

    "We¡¯re leaving the city." Ye Chong announced. Just like that, everyone stood up. Hai Lian, Old Chief Guo, the White Streakdy, Greda and Shi Xin were all carried by one member or another of the Sang tribe.

    Just as Ye Chong and his group was about to leave, a woman¡¯s voice suddenly came from outside the hotel. "On behalf of the n leader, Duo Huan of the Xue Lai n would like to invite you as honored guests to our ce."

    The crowd was silenced. Only Duo Huan¡¯s voice echoed in front of the hotel. The Xue Lai n hade for this group! Everyone shared the same thought.

    Amidst the confusion, a man in ck uniform stepped out of the crowd, wearing a cold expression. The sharper members of the crowd recognized this as Ye Bei, Conste General of the Ye family on Lunaris.

    Ye Bei stepped forward, reaching the side of Duo Bei and spoke in a low voice, "By the order of the Patriarch, Ye Bei would like to invite you all to the Ye family¡¯s ce to discuss some important matters."

    They¡¯re popr alright! Rnd was pleased with his own foresight. The crowd around him was already gossiping loudly again. Two of the Three Aristocratic Families had issued invitations to the group. Any organization would be envious of this honor. Xue Lai n¡¯s n Leader and the Patriarch of the Ye Family were both discreet personalities who preferred to stay in the shadows. Even those within the n or family would rarely see them in person. Now, both leaders had issued an invitation for this group of people!

    "Haha, looks like we all had the same idea. In the name of our Chieftain, Feng Wuqing of the Xi Feng Tribe would like to offer our hospitality." Feng Wuqing¡¯s calm announcement was like dropping a bomb into an erupting volcano!

 Chapter 307 - Leaving the City

    <h4>Chapter 307: Leaving the City</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The appearance of the Three Aristocratic Families was a terrible surprise to Ye Chong, and an event that he had desperately tried to avoid. The rest of the group looked troubled as well. While they did not know of the rtionship between Ye Chong and the Three Aristocratic Families, it was obvious that they were not on friendly terms. Besides, under the repeated cautions offered by Hai Lian and Old Chief Guo, Sang Fan and the rest finally got the idea of the strength of the Three Aristocratic Families. In Archipgo, one would never deliberately meddle with powerful wild beasts.

    However, since they were enemies of Ye Chong, Sang Fan and the rest of them were ready to treat the Three Aristocratic Families as enemies too.

    Hai Lian was standing beside Ye Chong. He had seen first hand Ye Chong¡¯s massacre of the Xue Lai n¡¯s members in Foundation city. He spoke up abruptly, "Sir, let me try something."

    Ye Chong wondered at Hai Lian¡¯s sudden proactiveness, and nodded. "Alright, please go ahead." Ye Chong did not know what he was nning, but since he offered, he must be confident of the n.

    Hai Lian made to walk out of the hotel, when the White Streak tribe woman clung tightly onto his elbow, her eyes filled with terror. Earlier in the room, Hai Lian had put a mask on her face, and her delicate features were concealed behind the mask. Hai Lian patted on her hands clung onto his shoulder and cooed softly, "Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be fine."

    The White Streak tribe woman looked at Hai Lian carefully, but her hands finally loosened as she said, "Please ¡­ Please be careful."

    Ye Chong spoke up from the side, "Fan, go with him, keep him safe."

    "Yes sir," Sang Fan nodded.

    The two men walked out of the hotel together, showing no fear. The people gathering around immediately looked to them. The crowd was silent. Today¡¯s drama had been suspenseful and climactic all the way.

    Hai Lian spoke, "Our leader is grateful for your kind offer. We are all honoured by your invitations. However, due to certain matters that we need to attend to, we are unable to stay here. Perhaps some time in the future, when there are no urgent obligations, our leader will visit your tribes and ept your hospitalities." Hai Lian spoke with much subtlety, but the refusal was clear. All this while, he had been a frence mech pilot with his own reputation, and had been offered recruitement more than once. As such, he had developed a certain finesse to deal with situations like these.

    The spectating crowd wasrge, and most of them were neutral parties. No matter how arrogant the Three Aristocratic Families were, they would not dare to be too forceful.

    Feng Wuqing smiled softly, his delicate features captivating the audience. "Oh, what urgent matters do your party need to see to? Our tribe may not boast argemunity, but we are always happy to lend a helping hand. Perhaps you can tell us about it, our tribe will offer what assitance we can."

    Ye Bei humphed coldly, and stayed silent.

    Duo Huan gave a softugh, which sounded like theforting ringing of windchimes. She stretched her body slightly, her curves attracting the attention of all the men nearby. Her t, smooth abdomen was exposed, showing her sensuous navel. The men around her inhaled sharply.

    Duo Huan winked at Sang Fan and Hai Lian and said, "My two handsomes, don¡¯t listen to what Sister Feng, who knows what kind of scheming she¡¯s had in mind. Why not tell me about your troubles? Oh right, the n Leader said that thest time was the result of a misunderstanding, no need to worry about it. Xue Lai n has always been the most hospitable." Her intonations hooked the attention of her listeners in the crowd. When the people around her heard Duo Huan referred to Feng Wuqing as Sister Feng, theyughed softly despite themselves.

    Feng Wuqingughed softly, and was not offended. Xi Feng Tribe ced heavy importance on mental and spiritual training. He would not be so easily offended by words.

    Hai Lian and Sang Fan were both unaffected by Duo Huan; Sang Fan due to his steady heart, and Hai Lian due to his recent encounter with a certain woman.

    Hai Lian replied calmly, "Haha, your kindness is appreciated. However, this is a personal matter that we prefer to keep to ourselves."

    Ye Bei¡¯s expression darkened, and he said coldly, "Are you really not going to give in?"

    Hai Lian was pleased inside, but he asked sarcastically, "Oh, Mr Ye, what could you possibly mean by that?" If the aristocrats really dared to make their move in front of so many people, it would be a most foolish mistake.

    "Ye Bei will not disobey the Patriarch¡¯s orders. Please don¡¯t make this difficult for me," Ye Bei sounded even colder.

    Hai Lian opened up his arms and said unabashed, "Ah, please forgive us, but we really have matters to attend to."

    Looking at Hai Lian¡¯s performance outside, Ye Chong began to understand his intentions. He called Sang TIe over and whispered a few orders to him. Sang Tie stared at him for a moment, but quickly grinned widely.

    Both sides refused to give in. Just then, Ye Chong suddenly led the Sang tribe members out of the hotel. Hai Lian and Sang Fan saw himing, and retreated to stand behind him.

    The mysterious Jie expert group¡¯s leader finally revealed himself! Everyone stared at the mask on Ye Chong¡¯s face, wandering just what kind of person was under that mask?

    When Ye Chong came out of the hotel, Feng Wuqing¡¯s thin smile vanished from his face; Duo Huan turned more serious; Ye Bei¡¯s expressionless face turned a shade colder still.

    "We¡¯re busy. We will take our leave now," Ye Chong¡¯s in voice sounded absolute.

    He led his group and began to march forward.

    "Please stay." A small group of people blocked their path. Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan watched silently from the side. Those were Ye Bei¡¯s men.

    "Are you looking for a fight? The Ye Family is powerful indeed, perhaps you¡¯ll even be the master of Gur city." Hai Lian said with mock surprise and sarcasm.

    Ye Bei stopped in his tracks.

    Some of the people in the crowd began to mock, "Yeah, it¡¯s the Ye Family, the strongest aristocratic family, what wouldn¡¯t they do?"

    "That¡¯s right, hehe, can¡¯t be part of the Ye Family without being arrogant!"

    Most of the people in the crowd were not used to seeing the Three Aristocratic Families¡¯ unbridled arrogance. Some of them looked angry, including the Jin Gui Tribe Leader, Rnd. The Three Aristocratic Families had ignored his tribe¡¯s power in this area as they went about their business - how could he not be offended?

    Ye Bei looked terrible. Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan cursed the man silently in their hearts. However, they were both anxious as well, since their own reinforcements had not arrived yet. They were also uncertain if they could hold down the Jie experts if it came to it.

    "Please step aside." Ye Chong used the word "please", but he sounded anything but polite.

    Ye Bei made his decision then. Since it hade to this, there was no need to for further restraint. He stood his ground.

    Sang Tie and Sang Ling were both carrying Greda and Shi Xin, respectively, but they were both rendered unconscious. Beside Ye Chong were Sang Fan and another Sang tribe member, Sang Heng. All of the Sang tribe members that followed Ye Chong into Gur city were all elite members of the tribe.

    Sang Heng took a step forward and reached for Ye Bei.

    Ye Bei anticipated this. Against a Jie expert, he could only hope not to be too gravely wounded. Ye Bei lifted his left hand to block, just as quickly. Sang Heng was halfway through his attack when his right hand suddenly reached for Ye Bei¡¯s left elbow.

    Ye Bei noticed the change and reacted immediately. They were both fast. The real action was over in the blink of an eye. A soft "Bam!" was heard, and Ye Bei stumbled backwards for a few steps, his face red all over.

    His stumbling backward opened up the path. Compared to him, the rest of the group was more easily dealt with. Ye Chong did not even have to move a single muscle. The rest of the Sang tribe members easily pushed the rest of the Ye family¡¯s people aside.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes shone - it was ck Cove¡¯s style alright! Ye Chong was familiar with ck Cove¡¯sbat style, and recognized it in Ye Bei¡¯s moves.

    Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan were both shocked and terrified. The three of them were all their families¡¯ representative on Lunaris, and knew each other well. Ye Bei was the best amongst them in terms ofbat, but he was now struck back with just one hit. It would be impossible for the both of them to stop the Jie experts from leaving.

    Must they really use mechs? Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan both arrived at this conclusion. However, they were also very hesitant to act on it. If they used mechs here, it would be a direct vition of the no-fly zone regtions. They knew exactly how serious this vition would be.

    Nheless, they could not just stand by and watch the group leave. Just then, a voice came from the crowd, "Brothers, Elder Wang just gave the order. If anyone dares to use mechs in Gur city, kill them!" The true ruler of Gur city had finally stepped in.

    "Yeah, yeah, that¡¯s right, let¡¯s see which d*mbass would dare to use a mech in the city!"

    "Humph, don¡¯t think that Gur city is powerless!"

    The spectators all stared openly at the members of the Three Aristocratic Families. If any of them showed the slightest intent of deploying their mechs, they would face the wrath of the crowd. Tribe Leader Rnd¡¯s guards kept vignt as well. To the Jin Gui tribe, the city was their home, and they would not allow anyone to destroy it, even if it were people as powerful as the Three Aristocratic Families.

    Curses and spites were thrown from the crowd. Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan exchanged a wry smile. They could not do anything now. Their actions were already pushing the boundaries, something that the He Yue gxy would not tolerate.

    Ye Bei¡¯s men could not stop the Jie experts. Ye Bei could only curse his reinforcements for beingte.

    Ye Chong and his group easily walked past the Ye Family¡¯s people. They immediately picked up speed.

    Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan exchanged a helpless nce, and followed Ye Chong¡¯s group from afar with their subordinates. This was the only thing they could do for now. As long as they kept the group in sight, they would still have a chance. Once they were outside the 300-kilometer no-fly zone, they will be able to use mechs. No Jie expert, however strong they were, would be able to win against a mech.

    Ye Bei recovered his calmposure, and took his men with to pursue the group.

    Many of the more curious people in the crowd followed the aristocrats as well.

    However, the distance between the three groups slowly widened. Ye Chong¡¯s group was so fast they had managed a wide gap between themselves and the aristocrats. On the other hand, the aristocrats themselves were all physically superior to themoners following them from behind. As the people following the aristocrats realized that they would soon be outrun, many of them gave up.

    Some of these people, however, ran back instead. The fools in front of them had forgotten all about hovercars!

    Both the aristocrats and Ye Chong¡¯s group were moving fast, but soon, the Jie experts began to slow down. The Three Aristocratic Families were all encouraged by this and ran on.

    Ye Chong watched as the Three Aristocratic Families pursued them from behind, the edge of his mouth lifting up into a cold smile.

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Rui Bing breathing was beginning to shorten. Her vision was getting blurry. What she saw was no longer a colourful world, but only the blue light shot towards her. It was as if she had entered a one-dimensional world, made entirely of lines. Everything around her seemed to slow down. She could see the Blue Crown Serpents more and more clearly, despite their lightning fast strikes. She could even make out all their small movements.

    Rui Bing did not know how long she had been at it. She was panting, and sweat covered her forehead, but her heart was peaceful. Against the possibility of death, she did not feel scared.

    The Rui family¡¯sbat style focused on mental training, bearing some resemnce to the concept of mentalist training in the Sanctuary. She was not an expert in purely physical exercises, but even the mental attacks that affected Ye Chong were of no use against these Blue Crown Serpents. In this battle for survival, she did not have much choice.

    There were so many Blue Crown Serpents that it was impossible to count. Besides, they were surrounded by kilometres of these flickering blue lights. They could not hope to escape.

    Under the circumstances, Rui Bing could only hold her fort. More and more Blue Crown Serpents appeared around her. These snakes could attack from all angles, with some even leaping into the air anding from above her. Seen from afar, Rui Bing and her twopanions looked like they were enveloped in a blue light cocoon. Rui Bing felt her senses turned sharper, and her instincts more reliable. If she could survive this ¡­

    Rui Bing¡¯s attacks turned simpler and simpler, as the alloy pole met its attack with greater and greater uracy. Rui Bing never let the alloy pole hit the horn on the Blue Crown Serpents; the pole would always hit the snakes¡¯ bodies.

    Shi Chongming felt a deep chill in his heart. Under the protection of the alloy pole, he and the Second Young Miss were entirely unharmed. His message calling for urgent assistance to the Third Young Miss was unanswered. His heart had chilled at that, and now, hearing Rui Bing¡¯s gradually shortening breaths, he began to feel despair.

    He never would have guessed that Shi Xin¡¯sms device was already smashed to pieces by Sang Ling.

    Somewhere far away, high in the skies, arge battalion of mechs were heading their way. The 500 over mechs were organised into five standard battle formations.

 Chapter 308 - Escape

    <h4>Chapter 308: Escape</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Thend was glowing in blue. The Blue Crown Serpent was fearsomely the pain for every man and woman who underwent their trial. You might be one of the strongest fews from your, but when you saw that deadly blue cloaking the entire ce, the immediate despair would convince you to stumble. They came from the underground and soundlessly they travelled, silently they attacked their prey. It was already death before you noticed.

    Every pilot from Ye family would have toplete such trial after passing their elementary test. Unlike the other families out there, the connection betweenbats and piloting were much closer than one could imagine, their hands were still used for closebats rather than tapping buttons on the control panel, which justified the hatred towards Blue Crown Serpent on their journey.

    Ye Qin was the significant figure in the younger generation of Ye family, who passed her trial at flying colors at the age of 18, while also being the youngest among the only 10 females whopleted the trial alive. And currently she received an order from her family, of heading to Lunaris to assist Ye Bei, who - like most youngsters in the family - had a cold, lonesome personality and a crude desire towards strength. While she disliked young men like Ye Bei, the order was an emergency, also apulsory one, with an boration stating to follow Ye Bei''s order wholly. "Who does Ye Bei think he is!?" She was not pleased by the setting this time.

    The more thought-provoking part was, what had actually happened on Lunaris, that her family asked almost every descendant of Ye they could find to help. There were war machines, 500 of them, which would be apelling sight even at the parking lot if you would ask me. In her family, you would surely be something if you were officially indexed in the family record. And there were 500 standard war machine models in standby, with 500 indexed, recognized and registered pilots inside. Those were more than enough tounch a small-scaled intergctic war. He Yue gxy had been at peace for all these years, which at most, little conflicts would happen sometimes but it would not be as outrageous as this time, where every pilot was called on.

    Ye Bei should probably know why, I''m going to have a talk-to with him once I got there.

    ¡­

    What?

    Her eyes rested upon the blue screen of despair, where the Blue Crown Serpents covered the ce. There was something different from the crawling mess she used to see. It''s a blue cocoon?! Ye Qin spotted the cocoon being constantly attacked by those Blue Crown Serpents.

    She then quicklyunched a full input on the control panel. Her Night Impaler was equipped with the most hi-tech detection system. It was powerful that it could give high definition zoom-in on any spot, like the cocoon for example. "What the¡­" There were people inside?!

    That was skillful! Complimented Ye Qin in amazement, which to her more surprise, it was a female too! The female actually guarded all the raining attacks by the serpents! The Alloy Cane literally was dancing in her waving sleeves. Ye Qin was specting if this whitedy was an apprentice of some great masters.

    But she should not be doing that. She had a mission to do, no time to stop. Well, she might not have the time, it did not mean she could not lend a hand.

    Blue Crown Serpents were always a horror to martial arts practitioners, but they would be nothing as soon as they got into the air, fighting against mechs.

    "Zi, lead two Netters and rescue those people. Don''t take too long, we won''t be waiting forever," ordered Ye Qin.

    "Yes, Ma''am. It will only take brief seconds to handle the pests." A strong young man replied on the screen.

    Three Netters zapped away from the formation and headed towards Rui bing.

    Netter was a rescuing/assisting model built with great firepower. It was armed with Lux Terrain technology, which could impose a densework of firepower to - as its name suggested - friends or foes. The weakness was, however, its speed was mediocre, so as its guard. It was born to be the stapler between different mech models in the party, while it also had tedious demand on energy consumption, that it would be a hassle to constantly resupply the battery. The appearance was Netter was peculiar, it actually looked like a m?

    Rui Bing had changed to automatic mode herself, as she swung her cane subconsciously, so she did not notice theing of the three Netters. Her ears had been drowned by the shing sounds that negated her surrender to death, repetitively mming the serpents away.

    The Netters headed towards Rui Bing in a triangr formation.

    "All in Battle Station."

    "Set the."

    "3¡­2¡­1¡­"

    Zappp! The Lux Terrain wasunched, as hundred beams sted from theunchers, forming the terrain itself.

    Netter was the model exclusive to the Ye family, as they had gotten so used to close-ranged battles that theycked a standard assistance on a long-ranged war. With this in mind, the Netter was built, to cover up their weakness, though the Ye family was notorious for their uracy. The model was then designed in a way that it did an Area-Of-Effect attack rather than the standard firing.

    The three Netters were gliding in the air, reposting the terrain like a spotlight, as the ground was painfully cut open, the Blue Crown Serpents obviously did not survive. If it was not an operation of rescue, they would have turned up the power and bombarded the entire ce, and the serpents would be ashes by then.

    Their army was leaving, as it was rather ahead of them now. Zi did not want to waste time any longer. Madam wanted to save these people, so the Netters would save them. The side quest would be aplished once theyted the folks.

    So they lowered themselves and flew by Rui Bing rapidly, they also adjusted the range of their terrain to a diameter around 5 meters. It was like a cage that isted the folks from the serpents.

    They turned up the lever, "Full Power Initiated!" The density of the terrain intensified, that every serpent would be grilled upon contact.

    Rui Bing had finally gotten out of her trance, she grabbed Shi Fuyin and Shi Chongming tightly and followed the Netters.

    The Netters moved forward and cleared out a zone with their terrain. Rui Bing began sprinting, sprinting hard, on the scorching grilled ground for her and her ally''s lives.

    She ran on and made a close escape from the aggression behind.

    She took a nce back, those horrible blue glows¡­ Rui Bing might be a Jie expert, but she still had the nature of humanity of being in fear, that she almost tripped herself. She was fatigued, drastically fatigued. The moment she confirmed her sessful escape, her adrenaline sank, that fatigue caught her steps, she panted heavily, wondering when she would fall before she noticed, hoping that she could regain little vitality from her catch of breath.

    The Netters - upon seeing the folks escaped - made a sharp turn and zoomed back to the army.

    Pant¡­ pant¡­

    "Wh¡­" Rui Bing took half a minute to finallyprehend the situation, "What was that? Who¡­ were those mechs?"

    "It''s the Ye family!" Said Shi Chongming with joy, "But¡­" His face tightened right away, "They seemed to be heading Gur¡­ what was happening there, that the Ye family would send such a huge army¡­?"

    "Ye family?" Rui Bing was choked, "Ye¡­ Ye¡­"

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    Feng Wuqing, Duo Huang and Ye Bei led their own underlings and chased the group desperately. The strength demonstrated by those Jie experts had convinced them to even consider about attacking in a No-fly zone. The 3 teams only hoped they would not lose the Jie experts for now, although fortunately the Jie experts seemed to be slowing down, as their distance did not increase.

    A No-fly zone about 300 kilometers was rather distant to be passive. Feng Wuqing and her mates were wondering if they could deploy their mechs now. "No, I don''t think that''s right. It would be really bad¡­" They agreed on the opinion and scrapped the idea.

    Thendscape was tiring ahead, as it was no longer t, rather there were slopes, even a few hills too.

    The Jie experts had already entered the area and submerged into the valley. "No! You aren''t going away!" Feng Wuqing and the mates panicked as they ran even faster.

    Ye Bei and his own underlings were ahead, thanks to their well-built physique as required by their family. *Beep* Ye Bei received a message from Ye Qin - We have entered Lunaris,ing soon. "Good!" Ye Bei was overjoyed.

    The flocks headed into the valley. The Jie experts might be strong, but there were merely 20 of them, and we have at least 300 men on our side. It would be a daydream to capture the Jie experts without our mechs, but it also would be a joke if the Jie experts wanted to annihte us.

    I would love to have a one-on-one with those Jie experts, it would be fantastic if they stopped chickening out and turned back like a man. That is too what we desired in the first ce - to cling to them.

    Ye Bei and his allies were well-prepared so no fear, no worries.

    But after they got into the valley, they changed their mind.

    They were weed by 10 teams of hundred men army standing still in formation wordlessly. The atmosphere was frightening, as their mask showed an emotionless cruelty.

    Ye Bei, Feng Wuqing and Duo Huan flinched.

    They quickly turned back to have a nce, which then they realized a few silhouettes were circting at the exit.

    Luring the foes into trap - that was the simple yet effective strategy Ye Chong came up with, as somehow that instinct he grew up with back on Trash wasing back to him and guiding him out. That was when he still piloted good old Winnie with that poor piloting skill of his, despite of which he still fought on, bravely.

    And in his cold eyes, those foes in a flock about 600 to 700 were nothing but those preys he once hunted back on Trash.

    "Charge," briefly he spelled themencement.

    The air was clouded by countless afterimages, the Sangs finally revealed their deadly fangs again.

    This speed! Jie Experts?! ALL of them?! The three aristocrats were in utter grief, as fright filled their eyes begging with mercy. The ughter happened fairly quick. Compared to those beasts in Archipgo, killing these aristocrats would be a piece of cake. There was no letup from the Sangs however, despite the foes they were fighting being weaklings. The formation was there, so was the strategy, which boosted the efficiency dramatically.

    "ARE YOU HUMAN!" Screamed Ye Bei on top of his lungs, "I KNOW YOU GO BY THE YE FAMILY''S NAME! Don''t YOU too, want to know who your PARENTS-" And he was ambushed.

    Ye Chong lifted his head straight away, the glow in his eyes shook like his will.

    Parents¡­ Parents? What a foreign word¡­ If it was not the biology lesson Shang had with him, he would have assumed he never had any parent. He only remembered his Papa, but never once Papa had mentioned anything about his parents.

    He knew it, he knew it well, that those words of rageing from Ye Bei was for no one else than him.

    He knew he went by the Ye family''s name. His name was Ye Chong. Wait¡­ Did that person know something? He should know something! Thought Ye Chong as he looked at the ambush¡­ And Ye Bei was there, on the ground, no longer mobile, no longer could word his rage, no longer able to spell out the past of Ye Chong.

    The war ended quickly. It happened to quick it did not feel like a war, "Like a street fight maybe." Laughed Ye Chong, realizing how ridiculous he was being unfocused by some triviality. The only entity I would care¡­ would probably be Mu Shang, that was what I thought. It seemed like I was wrong.

    He on his throne, looked at the Sangs repositioning themselves back into their formation, their eyes were bloodshot, their breath was frantic as the wild.

    It was a problem, Ye Chong thought.

    As long as they could not withdraw their bloodthirstiness as soon as the necessary fight had been conducted, they would be forever aimed by the enemies, they would be that bullseyes in the war field, that spotlight in the public. Nothing on them was low-profiled, which Ye Chong could not tolerate. He just wished to expand his forces in the dark, to a point where he could at least stand alone in this world.

    He was small, he was insignificant, as he stood in a boundless new world of unknown. The idea of heading back to the 5 major gxies in search of Mu Shang had already be a tale, told by a fool.

    The Sangs were great assistance, yet they were poor - finance-wise and standard-wise, yes they were impable fighters, but their skills were mere brute force exerted crudely. They could not hide their nature, so were the Collisions they piloted, which travelled so uniquely everyone on the road would look at them inevitably. Ye Chong did not even dare to deploy the Collisions to hasten their travel.

    The Sangs were great force, but they were one force that could not be deployed on a whim. Once the Collisions were exposed, Ye Chong knew what he had summoned from the defensive He Yue gxy.

    Ye Chong gave a nod to Sang Fan, who understood his intended order immediately, as he ordered everyone to deploy Collision and get into the cabin. To be frank, Collisions - despite being unnecessarily eye-catching - were the perfect tool to make a runaway, due to its anti-detection ability as well as its superior speed.

    Piloted the Collisions, they zoomed away from the scene.

 Chapter 309 - A Fortune in One Night

    <h4>Chapter 309: A Fortune in One Night</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "BREAKING NEWS!"

    "Extra! Extra! The 600 figures of the 3 leading Aristocrats - MURDERED!"

    "No one is alive!"

    The news came like a deafening blow to the residents, which spread throughout the gxy as fast as lightning, uncontrobly. The words came from those who came after on their hovercars, who also taped the gory scene promptly. The clip had be the most viewed visual online in the next month.

    The hologramic visual recited a tale, of a heartless war and a sadistic leader, convincing every resident in He Yue gxy, that a new force had arisen from the unknown.

    Theworking system was then supplied with a visual of Ye Bei against the mysterious Masked Man. Although few seconds itsted, it had caught enough attention from people. There werements, a sea of them regarding the expertise of the Masked Man, including one Jie expert namely Cao Wuxu being the most significant one, concisely summarized - "Light yet heavy, feeble yet strong." The statement had evidently confirmed the myth that those 20 men were Jie experts themselves.

    Everyone was in panic, while pessimistic ones were making wild guesses that they would lose the peace maintained in He Yue over a few centuries and they shall never have it back.

    Stories were filled at the forum board regarding the identity of 20 Jie experts, how the 600 aristocratic members followed them and deceased. And concerning the murder of 600mitted by them, the actual Jie experts demonstrated strong disagreement, "That is just nonsense!" Jie experts were known to be the greatest of their field, a one-on-five or even one-on-ten would sound doable. But one-on-fifteen? The chances were just low, and now this case had 20 against 600, which literally could be tranted as a Jie expert facing around 30 people at once and 30 of these people also happened to be an elite fighter and pilots from the aristocrats. "What are the chances to even survive?"

    Some argued that the aristocrats were losing standards, but that was not the case in reality. In fact, as far as everyone was informed, the aristocrats were stern on their recruitment, only those whose strength was fully recognized could join them. Theoretically, the 20 Jie experts should not even win.

    ¡­

    "Ye Bei! I''m here! I''m¡­ Ahh!!!" Gasped Ye Qin the moment she arrived. Looking at the bloody mess around, she knew she was toote. Her brain jammed, unable to process the scene. The remaining pilots of Ye family who came to the scene - simr to Ye Qin - they were first surprised, then they were angered. No one had once challenge the authority of Ye family over the centuries before.

    Ha¡­hah¡­ Ye Qin tried calming down, as she sent the team to search throughout the valley, and of course, she found nothing. She was not worried though, as she had already set up a group of watchers dedicated to the case this time. They would watch all the spaceships, all the mechs departed from Lunaris.

    As long as these masked men left Lunaris, her men would know. She was confident in her family.

    The next few dayspsed within twinkling of eyes, yet nothing was found. And that was when Ye Qin''s confidence began crumbling. She was not convinced of how a huge group of people could virtually vanish into thin air.

    People all over the gxy had been trying to find out the truth, the hidden mystery. And only the Mi family was the closest to the truth, but they were not that foolish to share their intelligence, especially after their parents had warned them to zip their mouth regarding this. The brothers of Mi family were not scarce in Gur, but nobody would notice them. They were not pushed to the spotlight unlike the Ye family who suffered most loss. The worry was¡­ they wondered, if it was a fortune or misfortune to have acquainted such a strong ally¡­

    "Regarding the happening, do keep it from the people."

    A request from Guo, which they epted promptly, they had to. Like seriously these masked men wiped out the army of aristocratic members like a moving ughterhouse. The Mi family would be hardly a threat if the masked men wanted to exterminate them.

    In this incident, there was too a case of both parties being in an awkward situation - Jin Gui tribe and Shi family. And that insanely priced fee of 50 billions and those 2 tough conditions to be fulfilled were easily the funnest chitchat topic after dinner.

    The reinforcement of the 3 leading aristocrats was sending signal to the people, that something was brewing. It was a chain effect whereby all forces also performed the simr military movement too.

    What about Ye Chong? Well, he had already run away safely and headed back to Yi Ju, with a bunch of resources he purchased during his journey.

    Ye Chong was rather satisfied of the loot this time. The Lavagold tes he brought were sold for 80,000,000 points, while the squad was paid 10,000,000 points for escorting Mi Qi and his mates. These were not everything, the best thing was the two fees he earned, a whooping 10,000,000,000 points. You should be counting the number of zeroes now. If someone were to interview Ye Chong regarding his feeling of earning a fortune overnight, he would be shouting, "It feels so good to shop!"

    Sang Pu''s expression was priceless when he received a request of entry from Ye Chong, who was leading a whole transporting fleet filled with tons and tons of resources, includingmunicative devices, detection system necessary for the army of Collisions. Ye Chong also purchased 5000 units of ze-III, a close-ranged fighting model of the lower-mid tier, known for its slightly morepetitive engine - a rather in model one could say, as every other aspect was average. It could be useful for the speedy kind of pilot though. It was still a better mechpared to those advanced models he saw back in 5 major gxies, while also having a reasonable, logical structure and design.

    Other than these, Ye Chong also purchased a ship of apparatuses for mech modification, and a new spaceship literally for storing medication - that ship was for the Sangs from Archipgo since they would be needing proper medication any second being in a hideous ce like Archipgo. There was also a variety of daily necessities. The Sangs felt they were dreaming when they were raided by the avnche of purchases, even Sang Pu theid-back leader could not help but to smile the whole day.

    Guess not everyone could take on a massive wallet in one night healthily.

    To avoid being suspected, all purchases were made under the name of Mi family. They were known to be merchants and obviously there would naturally be nothing wrong for merchants to make bold purchases - a better candidate than Ye Chong himself.

    The joy did notst long for Ye Chong as he realized he still had a lot of problems to resolve.

    He took a deep breath and began his SWOT analysis.

    The first thing - control of expression. This is the main problem, if I don''t find a way to resolve this, everyone would be looking at the Sangs and no one would even dare to approach them. I might have an experience or two on this, but man¡­ how should I teach them? I did not know how but I just learned it somehow, somewhere, some time ago. "Sang Pu." Well, I''ll let Sang Pu to do it, let the Sangs settle their own problem.

    "Announcement, sir has a new rule - Anyone who could not inhibit their fearing expression would be disallowed to leave the base."

    "What is fearing expression?"

    "How do we inhibit them?"

    If I know how, we would have solved it alright.

    Everyone in He Yue is watching us. I can''t let you guys out just yet. It would be bad if anyone found us out, that would be a direct confrontation to the aristocrats, an intergctic war would just happen. No, I''m not doing this, not risking it.

    "Sang Ling, any idea?"

    "I saw this dress thingy in the catalogue attached with our medication. I think it helps."

    The 5000 Sangs were figuring out a way to inhibit their fearing senses.

    "Hey, Guo!" Shouted Sang Fan.

    "We can''t know if we still look fearing. Come and be our judge."

    "You too, Hai Lian, don''t just stand there and touch those new units."

    The victims¡­ well would be Guo and the "representation" of the convention. They had to judge if the Sangs could demonstrate less threatening aura.

    "No, you got to stop ring at people for no reason," stated Guo.

    "Yeah, try smiling. Yes, bring up your corners. I''ll do it for you, ughhh. Lend me your mouth for a sec. Rx your muscle, I''ll push the corners up," said Hai Lian, who soon realized he made the greatest mistake in his life, "Nevermind, try mayb-"

    "HEY Hai Lian! You''re done yet? Come and judge for us now?" shouted Sang Pu.

    That practically summarized what happened that day, the folks were dragged from one group of Sangs to another. Only Francis Jr. seemed rather eager in this, "I don''t see why Hai Lian is ranting, Guo. If we do this, we could avoi doing those hell training." Now that made sense.

    The second issue - Collisions. Yes, the Collisions I made were impulsive, but too visually impulsive¡­ I guess no one would forget the appearance of Collisions the moment they saw them. That is why I bought the ze-III model, as a camouge sometimes.

    The thing is¡­ how would someone from the jungle know how to pilot via an intelligible glowing user interface from outer space? How should I teach them. Okay, let me try.

    "Sangs, gather up. Now let me brief you on using this new mech."

    "First, as usual, take out your keystone and deploy the mech."

    "Good, next, to move you give a few taps on the control panel, these few buttons to control direction."

    "Sir!"

    "Yes?"

    "How do we turn on the control pay nail?"

    "Why do we have to pay nails when we pilot the mech?"

    The next hour Ye Chong dried his mouth, exining on how to pilot a futuristic mech, but no one seemed to have understood him.

    Okay, I surrender. "We would try something else, I have visuals for all of you." Ye Chong prepared copies of visuals for the Sangs. "Tutorial 1 - Launching: Tounch a mech, first¡­" The visuals were ying on each projector.

    "Sang Pu." Called Ye Chong again, "Lead them on this as well, okay?" And ignoring that bitter expression of Sang Pu, a new rule had been added, "Anyone who had yet mastered control of ze-III would be forbidden to leave the base," announced Sang Pu.

    That should be it.

    Onest thing, which had been haunting Ye Chong ever since they left Lunaris, remained in his thoughts for all eternity.

    "Don''t YOU too, want to know who your PARENTS- ughh¡­" Those final words from Ye Bei.

    Who are my parents exactly? Why would they dump me at Trash in the past?

    Ye Chong had been showing negligence towards the issue, since survival was more important than some non-sensical issue of sentiments. This mystery only shed in his mind asionally, as it would be too far-fetched to even begin the search, having no clue, not even the slightest hint on where to start.

    And when he thought he would not be thinking of this issue for the rest of his life, it showed up fatefully on its own.

    The Ye family, the aristocrat which shared the same surname as his, and those words of Ye Bei, helped him to realize that he could be more closely rted to the Ye family than he thought.

    Could my parents be the members of Ye family? An aristocratic member? That sounds royal, and usible as well. A nameless child born on a one-night rtionship, what was it again? Shang told me once¡­ "One-night stand"? And due to avoidance on the infidelity and responsibility, they threw me away.

    Wait¡­ Hahaha¡­ I''m getting too Shang. I actually remembered one plot of thoseme movies Shang introduced me.

    He walked slowly to the window, looking at the barren world of Yi Ju. Out of sudden, he missed Mu Shang¡­ He missed his Papa, he missed Grandpa Qian and those days of kneading dough, he missed everything, from the simple days he used to have, which already felt like a luxury.

    "I should go on¡­" Whispered Ye Chong, "Let''s just search on." His mind was firm, his eyes were steady.

    "But to search on, there''s few more things I need to do."

 Chapter 310 - My Beautiful New Han Jia

    <h4>Chapter 310: My Beautiful New Han Jia</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the main chamber of the Ye family, an elderly was gazing at the visual. His tussled hair was as white as his beard, looking ordinary especially with those wrinkles on his forehead and those murky eyes pondering. No one would have figured that this was the current master of the whole Ye family if it was not for the chamber he was in.

    A visual of Ye Chong was projected, apparently from his participation in thepetition at Blue Ocean academy back then. His speed and sharp mind, those clear eyes of intelligence, all captured in this visual. It was the only visual with his clear appearance avable on the virtualworking world, but somehow the Ye family found it from another gxy. And it was also this visual that helped Instructor Hak to track Ye Chong that year.

    This mysterious young man kept changing his name. Was it Mu, or was it Ye Chong? I have no idea which his actual name was, although I feel strongly that it would be Ye Chong, since the surname gave more significance to us.

    "Ye Chong¡­ are you really the descendant of our Ye family?" the elderly asked. The questions fogged his thoughts. He looked through the information, of the effect and properties of the silver liquid, as well as its negative effects¡­ and how Ye Chong just so happened to survive. He knew it well, that only one with the purest bloodline of the Ye family could ovee the controlling effect of silver liquid naturally without any form of medication.

    Ye Chong was the only one user who managed to do that amongst the ck Covers. Then very likely he would be a descendant of the family, especially when his physique also depicted the exact characteristics of Ye. The elderly had been ordering men to capture this young man, as everything would reveal itself once he got this man. Nevertheless, Ye Chong was hard to get hold of, due to his extreme caution and growing strength. The order of capturing him alive was not giving much help as well. The efficiency was depressing.

    The elderly would not want to risk killing him. The underlings could be killed as many as circumstances led, but Ye Chong could not be deceased as long as he held the very possibility of being the descendant of the family. It would be a shocking news if every other core member was informed of this missing descendant, even though he could not remember any instance which involved an unnamed child.

    The sole reason that the three aristocrats managed to be in a leading position, was absolutely their bloodline, which all three families possessed unique characteristics not the ordinary folks would be able topete. Because of their extraordinary bloodline, their forebears expanded their forces slowly, forming the foundation for aristocrats today. "But there was a curse, sadly," muttered the old man. "Somehow there just is. Not only Ye family had unique bloodline, many families out there, at a gxy far, far away were different in their own way, but they somehow disappeared at some point of history. There was a family¡­ a tragic one I heard, the Sang tribe was it? Once in their glory centuries ago, and now nobody has ever heard of them¡­"

    The bloodline was once the sole factor to glory, but it was now history, as technology was developed over the centuries. The 3 main aristocrats werepeting against each other in aspects of intellects, skills and a bnced unity. These were not something doable by all descendants innately. If Ye family were to include all of the branches of their kinship, it would hit a figure about 3,000,000. The core family however, was hardly 2,000. It had been an ongoing issue on methods to preserve the purest bloodline for the next generation.

    The trump card of all three aristocrats would no doubt be their strongest pilots, whom also happened to be their best descendants. Practically speaking, taught students and descendants would share a significant difference in terms of their physique that would determine their capability being a pilot. And obviously the direct descendants of Ye family would be way stronger than a taught outsider.

    That was why the elderly found Ye Chong suspicious, because that young man was clearly having the blood of Ye family, the purest one too, but he could not find any record on any of their daughters leaving the house in the past 15 to 50 years.

    The puzzlement was, only both the purest blood of Ye family could give birth to a descendant with also the purest blood. He looked through the birth record of their family as well, and yes, the Ye family was rather strict on birth control, moreover, he was the leader of the family the whole time, no way he would have missed out anybody.

    Well, only one possibility remained then¡­ there must be one of our families who left the family and had intercourse with a female out there, thus the birth of a descendant of our bloodline¡­ ¡­ hopefully¡­ That would mean a breakthrough of the stiffening status of their bloodline preservation to the old man, since they had been told to mate within the family to ensure bloodline purity.

    It would be a major discovery if it has been proven with this person! It is all for our Ye family. I will get this boy! Thought the old man, his murky eyes lustered. He was not worried about the Jie experts following Ye Chong, any Jie expert would be smashed with the mighty firepower of mechs. His worry, was on the other 2 aristocrats though, who seemed to have noticed Ye Chong''s existence.

    Meanwhile, Ye Chong, beingpletely unaware of bing Ye family''s main target, was getting drowned by the packed schedule of his.

    Ye Chong was greatly inspired by the ancient mech model. And he had justpleted the blueprint of the improved version of Collision. The tweaks he made allowed better control and efficiency while having lesser likelihood of breakdown.

    Collision-II project would be on hold for the moment nevertheless, as the production must not be done by barehands. It would require a refined craft with the aids of those new apparatuses he purchased.

    But no one else in the base knew how to operate these apparatuses than himself. And he got to make 5000 of them from scratch? Fortunately he had the necessary experience on operating these that he was able to code a tutorial to beunched at the Sangs. Well¡­ if they still had no idea what they were doing, the gxy had this very ce called "school", but only after they knew how to control their ambience.

    Collision-II aside, I am doing an overhaul on my Han Jia. Yes, you heard it, the modification this time is pretty much going to be a remake, since every part would require to be redone. The materials, were certainly those skeletons I obtained from Archipgo.

    Every piece of skeleton is different from one another, so I have to pick carefully while altering the blueprint from time to time, it feels like piecing the puzzle together. The process is smoother this time, thanks to the stay at Sang Family vige in the past, I think my sense has improved.

    The blueprint is looking good! Well, maybe it *is* a very unique model. Look at the originality¡­

    Ye Chong was excited and the excitement had pushed him to his limits, he was very engaged during the process, that he enjoyed every second of it, as he was making his own mech, which every piece came from his own hands, finally.

    "Okay, one two three, smile."

    "Yes, keep it natural."

    The Sangs were desperately trying to inhibit their fearing ambience so no one would disturb Ye Chong.

    "Madame, have you seen the Papattetely?"

    "I haven''t, Mrs. Morrison, they have been inside their base all day and all night."

    "Right? Madame Peach, I was shocked awake by their clinking sometimes at night. I thought I was hearing things, even my husband wasining."

    "They haven''t been taking any request either. Such strange group."

    The housewives exchanged their thoughts outside with their baskets of vegetables.

    ¡­

    "I am done!" The mech waspleted, but Ye Chong was toozy toe up with a new name, so the mech remained as "Han Jia".

    Looking at his new toy, Ye Chong was pumped, his eyes were lustrous!

    The new Han Jia was much smaller than most mechs out there, with a height of about 7 meters. Its wings however, were very broad and mighty-looking, which gave an impression of a butterfly. Those wings were made out of gtin of the bones of one animal on Archipgo, while being also able to glow in blinking gold magnificently. They were perfect defense against energy-based weaponry, while being highly flexible, able to cover up the entire main body of the mech, maintaining stability in air.

    The frame of the wings were in the shape of fan, which were made out of the backbones of Steelbats, with the pointy end being the tip of Edgehog - an animal exclusively found in Archipgo, which had a whole body of spikes, the toughest spike was known as the "tip" being at the tip of its nose.

    The wings could be withdrawn, while the skeletal frame could disengage and be 12 offensive tentacles - a radical design if you would say. The attack of the tentacles would be with peculiar flexibility while having high demand on the skills of the pilot. Simr to the winds, the tentacles could also be kept in the back of the mech.

    Of course, Ye Chong would not forget his trustworthy dagger. With that installed, the joints were adorned with spikes, which certainly would be the eye-catcher if he were back in 5 major gxies, but apparently such design was verymon in He Yue, so with excitement, he incorporated it.

    And there was a new cartridgeuncher for new Han Jia, which was specially designed to storepression explosives, and possibly Beauty''s Secretion, "Now only if I have that¡­" Sadly Ye Chong was unable to find something more corrosive than Liquid of Shang.

    The engine of the old Han Jia, which the Teardrop was stored in, was removed. Yes, he eyed that Teardrop, the precious energy infinity.

    Thebination of a variety of skeletons gave bright colors while being not as eye-catching as he imagined. There was something charming about thisbination. The butterfly wings were exuding elegance, the tiny body of the mech felt like a gorgeousdy, while the spikes seemed to be reminding the foes that this girl was a tough one. Somehow Han Jia had changed its gender overnight.

    It was uncalled for Ye Chong to have produced such a mech. Regarding the feminine, "unmanly" design, Ye Chong did not seem to really care. He only wanted power and performance. "Though I must admit that, this mech is too beautiful that everyone would look at it. Not because of the color, it''s just too beautiful," frowned Ye Chong.

    Well Ye Chong forgot about this issue the moment he boarded the new Han Jia. It felt like a breeze that Ye Chong would scream in overflowing joy. The body was smaller so it was more dexterous, and much faster too. And it sailed stilly in the air.

    The tentacles were the lovely addition, for they were unpredictable, especially with that inhuman speed of his hands. But it would take a few times of practice to get used to the control.

    My Han Jia had been transformed into a beauty.

    My beautiful new Han Jia, would be surely one of the top 10 beauties among all mechs. And right when people mistook its beauty as fragility, they would soon be convinced that it was not beauty the only thing it could offer¡­

 Chapter 311 - Makeover

    <h4>Chapter 311: Makeover</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong sat at one corner near the window in the spaceship. The columns of neb were gorgeous and calming to his soul. While enjoying the precious peace and quiet he finally acquired, he looked at the reflection of himself. Mu Shang would probably fail to recognize him at first scan too. His skin was yellowish, a pale banana yellow, while also filled with reddish blemishes over his in features - rather threatening if you would ask me. The other passengers seemed to have agreed too, as they were very avoidant of Ye Chong, as if he was infected by some highly infectious horrible virus from unknown space. To be honest, Ye Chong was being stalked by the securities and was demanded to have a thorough bodycheck thrice before he even got on-board, well, since he looked too convincing to be infected.

    Such drastic approach of makeover he used was from the ancient by the alchemists. And somehow Lunatic Guan was very much into it, as there were rich entries on the stages of makeovers in her writing. Ironically, Ye Chong picked the most despised method by Lunatic Guan, as she found the method to be too substandard, while spoiling her pretty face. That costed too much for a mere disguise.

    That was not Ye Chong''s concern however. He preferred a stat-boost rather than a decorative-boost. Furthermore, this method was proven to be highly effective, altering his appearance the most - exactly what he desired.

    Bybining fluids extracted from few strange nts in a prefixed proportion, a reagent would be formed, which would give a yellowish texture and poxes to your skin that would make you unsurprising even when you slept in one of the wards at the local hospital. The reagent was not harmful to the skin and was prettysting, waterproof too. Only a particr kind of cleaning agent could remove the coloring effect.

    Ye Chong pondered long to figure out a proper disguise as he skimmed through the entries inside the chip given by Lunatic Guan, since he had hardly investigated this side of alchemy before. Quite some time was also consumed on mixing the reagent at the right proportion for his size. The other methods would require a few rare materials so it would be impractical to have all the Sangs discolored, although they seemed to be quite envious of the chameleon show their sir had performed, since it was a hassle to have a mask all the time.

    Speaking of the Sangs, as the new rule enforced, they were forbidden from leaving the base as long as they failed to hide their threatening aura. Guo and the folks were also there, as to provide assistance on Sang Pu''s works.

    Ye Chong also brought a ze-III in the keystone for usual transportation.

    He leaned against the chair and closed his eyes.

    The Ye family, what kind of family it is I wonder¡­ I came all the way here just wanting to know the family directly myself, although Sang Fan and his brothers showed resistance on this, I must.

    What also hurried Ye Chong out of the base was his fear of how hecked the understanding on the entire He Yue gxy. Practically, he could not name anything he really knew about the ce. The virtualworking world was not asmon as the one in the 5 major gxies and it was a stressful experience for him to ovee the paranoia of logging in, wondering if a super Maverick like Mu Shang would be there too. If so, it would be too dangerous. Jumping into action without knowing what you are jumping into, is certainly suicidal!

    To make the Sangs less worried, of course he was equipped with amunicator.

    Ye Chong was a figure from a thriller now, no one would dare to join his screen time. That would be perfect, he just needed some silence, though the passengers could not stop their hustling whispers. There were passionate exchanges at some spots in the cabin, which were pleasing to his tensed neurons. For once, he felt blended in the environment.

    But one particr discussion caught his attention.

    "I heard that Kyaji was killed," a blonde young man whispered.

    "Good. I was getting impatient seeing him still alive. He''s a nuisance to our society." A broad faced man in his 30s was pleased by it.

    "Are you sure?" One person was showing skepticism, "Were your sources reliable? Kyaji is still something you know, who would have killed him?" The participants of the conversation were being agreeable to this doubt. Kyaji had established the authority for very long with the brutality imprinted in mind of every person, especially those who frequented the trade market for they had heard various horror stories about the murder of known pilots in the hands of Kyaji.

    "Meh." The blonde young man disdainfully replied, "Kyaji was nothing alright? I could simply name a handful of people who could kill him effortlessly. Say¡­ the three main aristocrats, Brahmara*, Ye Yin, Huang Jiming, I swear the family would slice that Kyaji like me slicing my chicken, not to mention we have 3 godly figures I have mentioned. Even Shi Tianlun from the Shi family, Mi He from the Mi family could triumph over Kyaji easily on a one-on-one."

    "You have a point, but of all these figures you have mentioned, who would have the time to spare on defeating Kyaji?" Rebutted one person of the crowd, which stirred up a session of agreeable nodding from the others.

    This was convincing as those aristocrats had always cared about benefits, they would not even care if the murder involved strangers not belonged to their family.

    "Although I heard the one who killed Kyaji was not from the aristocrat," added the blonde man, with a vibe of mystery.

    "Who? Who was it then?"

    "I dunno¡­" The young man shrugged.

    "Oh¡­ Aren''t you that Hu Chui? Man, I really thought someone killed Kyaji at first."

    "Hah, aren''t you that notorious boy who cried wolf?"

    The man''s story started to lose its credibility in the crowd.

    "Suit yourself. The fact is, Kyaji is already dead. The mech parts had been sent to Zhou Jian. The news would being up in 2 days. Well, we would know whether I *am* that boy who cried Kyaji soon enough." The blonde young man was not annoyed by the remarks.

    Kyaji? Ye Chong flinched, wasn''t that the name of the pirate guy whom Sang Tie killed?

    Sadly the people thought the boy was blowing his trumpet again and had left the spot with disappointment. Ye Chong, however, was very much intrigued of the story. He got up from his seat and headed to the person, "Brother, greetings." Politely he began while habitually he maintained a 1.5 meter distance away from the young man, which turned out to be the most suitable attacking range of his fist - if anything would go wrong that is.

    The young man was astonished as first but quickly he exchanged the expression with a smile, "Ohhh, hello, hello, is there anything I could help?"

    "I was very much interested in your story actually," stated Ye Chong. "Regarding these few names you''ve mentioned, those Brahmara, Ye Yin, to be frank, I begged your briefing on this."

    "You gotta be kidding man!" Exaggeratedly the young man reacted, "I can''t believe there''s someone who did not know these celebs! Are you from the alternate dimension or what?"

    "My apology for that," said Ye Chong, without looking embarrassed, "I am from the other corner of the gxy, please tolerate myck of knowledge on this."

    "Mhm, mhm, alright, as long as you maintain such modesty, you''ll be fine! No worries!" The young man was acting like a teacher despite his age.

    "I know right. That''s what I thought too," said Ye Chong as he got into a posture of listening, with a smile, and a thought muttering - if this fe tried to talk more crap I am so going to drag him to a dark corner and teach him to talk concisely with an interrogating session.

    "You sure are quite a learner. Alright then, let me brief you on these celebs." The pride of the young man was fulfilled, that was like the most contented 5 minutes of his life, although those blemishes on Ye Chong''s face were pushing him away slightly.

    "You at least knew the aristocrats, did you?" asked the young man.

    "I had heard of them, were they the Ye family, the Xue Lai tribe and the Xi Feng n?" replied Ye Chong honestly, well of course he knew them, he just had an intensive dance party with all three of them.

    "Good. At least you know something. So regarding Brahmara, Ye yin and Huang Jiming¡­ they are the topmost pilots in the entire gxy. Brahmara you see, was the name of not the pilot, but the mech itself. It is the ace of the Xue Lai tribe, although no one had seen the pilot in person before. His identity has always been a mystery. Then we have Ye Yin and Huang Jiming being the ace of Ye family and Xi Feng n respectively."

    "The ace? That means they are really great, but how great?" Ye Chong was very curious on this aspect of the story.

    "''How great'' you ask? Kek, well that would be a little horrifying. They had always been fighting an outnumbered battle, with a conquering victory in the end of course. Imagine you yourself fighting a thousand elites. Yup, that great." The young man was sharing the tale proudly as if he was the witness of the legend.

    From the story, Ye Chong knew the person was just cooking up the story. One against thousand? Even if the thousand were piloting a Raven, they could murder the so-called ace pilots by their weight altogether.

    "Well¡­" Sipped the young man on his drink, "Speaking of ace pilots, they were not the only few."

    "Who else I wonder?" Ye Chong''s interest inted again, he got to admit that this young man knew how to tell stories despite being a typical trumpet blower.

    "Well, brother, you never knew, the world is so vast that there are lots of formidable figures in the dark."

    Wow, Ye Chong was impressed for the young man was actually able to spell out such universalw.

    "Like¡­ if we talk about technology, of course Xue Lai tribe is ahead of the other aristocrats. But if you mention about physical strength, Ye family would be taking that g. Tsk, tsk, I wonder with those vitality, how long they couldst on bed." An indecent expressioning from the young man, as he began munching the air, somehow reminiscing a past of his.

    "Cough." He quickly got himself back to reality, "So, these two families¡­ have their own perks, although I must say the Xi Feng n fought in quite a strange way. We could say these families are great forces, but does that mean that all the great forces in the entire gxy were in these families?"

    Ye Chong lifted his head and stared at the young man.

    "Ugh." The blemishes made the young man nearly choked his line, he swallowed his disgust, "I would say NO to that statement." And finally coughed out his words.

 Chapter 312 - The Duo from Gray Valley

    <h4>Chapter 312: The Duo from Gray Valley</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "There are so many experts in this world, as many as there are stars in the sky. Besides, in recent years, the various powerful forces around have been rtively stable, and rarely shed with each other. Without battles, the rtive strength of mech pilots is hard to gauge. People can only guess how strong a mech pilot really is. Take Bi Zhibo, for example. His name has been around for more than 20 years. His mech¡¯s called Nine mes. The man¡¯s never lost, everyone¡¯s heard of him. Compared to the three super powerful mech pilots from the Three Aristocratic Families, you¡¯ll never know who¡¯s stronger without an actual fight. But will they fight just for the name? Never."

    Ye Chong listened closely as the blonde man continued.

    "No one really knows how many elite mech pilots there are, but there should be a couple dozen. You know, once you reach a certain level of skill, it¡¯s hard to know who¡¯s better than who. Moreover, judging a mech pilot¡¯s strength is no easy task. We¡¯re looking at piloting skills, mech models used, the intery between these two factors, and the pilot¡¯s tactical skills and so on. Yeah, battle tactics are very important. Most strong mech pilots are good at strategizing, but some are better than others. You heard of Arwa before?" The blonde man asked.

    "No," Ye Chong answered truthfully. He noticed that the blonde man¡¯s chattering had attracted a crowd around him.

    "Ah, I knew you wouldn¡¯t know him. Brother, this is uneptable. Look at you, so young and all, how can you be so ignorant? You should go to a school, get a good education, or you¡¯ll be the butt of everyone¡¯s joke and easily taken advantage of," The blonde man advised sincerely.

    "Arwa is a mysterious man of skills. Rumor has it that his mech is only a normal advanced level mech, but he¡¯s a real tactical genius. He brings tactical skills to a whole new level. Besides, he¡¯s a real good pilot, and frequently won against opponents stronger than himself. One of his most famous battles is the one with Ye Yin, where he managed to retreatpletely unscathed. Ye Yin has one of the best mechs in the gxy. This was also the only time Ye Yin did not win. Ever since then, Arwa¡¯s reputation skyrocketed, cing him side by side with other elite mech pilots. Almost every aristocratic family tried to recruit him, but he rejected them all. Hehe, he¡¯s the hero of usmon people."

    Arwa was obviously a famous character. A few young people gathering around him howled in agreement. Of course, there were some who showed disdain on their faces instead. These people were mostly from rich families.

    "Later, it was said that Arwa had went to Gray Valley. Hah, he must be the best mech pilot in Gray Valley now!" The blonde man was obviously a huge fan of Arwa.

    "Humph, best mech pilot in Gray Valley? What a joke!" Someonemented coolly from the crowd. Ye Chong looked towards the source of this voice, and found an arrogant looking long-haired man.

    "What?" The blonde man and other fans of Arwa red angrily at the long-haired man.

    "Hua, don¡¯t speak nonsense," a middle-aged man standing beside the younger long-haired man reprimanded him sternly, and quickly apologized to the crowd, "Please forgive us, my friend is only joking, please don¡¯t take him seriously." The long-haired man called Hua looked unrepentant, but was pushed down onto his seat by the middle-aged man.

    The middle-aged man did not look particrly memorable, his calm face was the image of a nice guy. His gray suit made him look like a gentleman. His steady demeanor and calm personality made him easy to get along with. However, Ye Chong noticed his hands, the wide palms covered with calluses. The man¡¯s wrists were covered by his sleeves, but Ye Chong could see that his hands must be very strong.

    The middle-aged man seemed to sense Ye Chong¡¯s attention. His hands jerked almost imperceptibly, but Ye Chong saw it anyway. The other man began to study Ye Chong as well. Their eyes met, and the middle-aged man smiled to Ye Chong. Ye Chong nodded back. He was not worried about exposing his own strength. Due to his physical peculiarities, his harsh training barely left a trace in his actual physique. Even the calluses on his hands would disappear very quickly.

    The blonde man seemed to lose interest in his storytelling after the long-haired man¡¯s interruption. Ye Chong regretted it. The blonde man was an interesting narrator. Ye Chong had learned much from his stories. He kept the names of the mech pilots introduced to him close to his heart.

    Schools were not such a bad ce. The simple environment reminded Ye Chong of his days in Blue Ocean Academy. He had learned plenty from that ce, but was rudely interrupted by ck Cove. The thought of ck Cove brought Ye Chong¡¯s mind back to the Ye Family. What a troublesome ce!

    However, Ye Chong quickly dropped that line of thought. He now realized that hecked even the most basicmon knowledge around here. If he just went out to investigate as he was now, the chances of him being sessful would be less than five percent.

    Hence, Ye Chong did not rush himself. Now was the time to learn more about this society. This ce was entirely different from the Five Gxies, and a ce that he had to live in for the moment. To return to the Five Gxies would require getting involved with the Three Aristocratic Families, and he could not afford to do that right now. He would have to live in He Yue gxy for the foreseeable future. Hence, it would make more sense for him to learn how to live a better life here.

    Ye Chong did a quick calction in his mind. His talented mind was now functioning like an efficient photon processor, cool and precise. He did not act impulsively while trying to find out more about his real identity. Unlike other people, Ye Chong¡¯s upbringing had allowed him to view his problem from a very different perspective.

    It would not matter if he was really rted to the Ye Family. Ye Chong did not feel a sense of belonging with the Ye Family. To him, he would rather spend more time to investigate about his Papa. Papa was his real family. He cared about Papa, about Mu and Shang, about Grandpa Qian, about Nan Nan, about Hei Zi. Compared to these people, the Ye Family was too unfamiliar to him. Ye Chong only wanted to know who his real parents were. That was all. The rest was of no consequence to him.

    Ye Chong soon stopped thinking about the matter. Since he had made a decision, he should just act ordingly.

    Just then, the starship began to decelerate. While the deceleration was gradual, Ye Chong was sensitive enough to speed that he detected it straight away.

    "Huh, why¡¯d they start the inspection here?" The blonde man hummed to himself.

    "Inspection for what?" Ye Chong could not help but asked.

    The blonde man exined with a low voice, "Zhou Jian is amercial, and they¡¯re wary of troublemakers visiting. There are some crazy fools who¡¯d wreak havoc once theynded on Zhou Jian. The inspection here is morexed, and intended for these troublemakers. In other ces, especially where the aristocrats stay, they¡¯d be more unweing towards Gray Valley residents."

    Ye Chong nodded, understanding. If any fool were to carelessly cause destruction on the, the effects would be devastating.

    Soon, a group of officers in blue uniforms boarded the ship. Ye Chong found many of them to bebat experts. In this irregr and narrow space,bat experts would have the upper hand against mech pilots.

    The passengers on the starship were all familiar with this kind of inspection, and produced their identity cards cooperatively. Ye Chong was skeptical of the effectiveness of this inspection, since He Yue gxy¡¯s identity card management system was quite messy. Ye Chong¡¯s identity card was bought with 30 thousand credits at Yi Ju, and it was an authentic card,plete with a background history for him. Old Chief Guo¡¯s connections in the localmunity had enabled him to deal with this matter easily.

    "Is this inspection effective?" Ye Chong asked, curious.

    "Not really," The blonde man shrugged in reply. "It¡¯s just to make you feel safe."

    When it came to his turn, Ye Chong passed the inspection without any hups. The officer did not even bother to look at him. It was the middle-aged man and the long-haired man who got into some trouble.

    "You¡¯re from Gray Valley?" The Inspector, head of the officers, looked at the identity card offered by the middle-aged man and frowned. The long-haired man was immediately offended by the head officer¡¯s expression, his hostile re at the Inspector earning him unfriendly looks from the other officers back in return.

    "Yes, that¡¯s right," the middle-aged man answered calmly.

    The Inspector stopped his officers¡¯ hostile behavior and steadily said , "We¡¯re allmoners here, and hold no ill will towards Gray Valley. I hope your friend will stay in line, since there are many aristocrats around here. I hope you¡¯ll not get into trouble with them. That would be very troublesome for us officers."

    The middle-aged man bowed slightly and said, "Please don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll not cause trouble." He patted the long-haired man¡¯s shoulder, and the hostility in his gaze slowly died down.

    "Gray Valley ¡­ So they are from Gray Valley," Ye Chong thought to himself. Gray Valley residents were secretive, and never spoke of that ce when they were outside. Rumor has it that Gray Valley people were strong, but he did not know exactly how strong these two were.

    "No wonder, they¡¯re from Gray Valley," the blonde man eximed in realization.

    The inspection ended quickly. No troublemakers were identified. The starship was allowed to enter Zhou Jian¡¯s airspace.

    Ye Chong had randomly picked a starship to switch to earlier. It did not matter which city he ended up in, so there was no need to worry about it. He only knew from the blonde man that Zhou Jian was amercial.

    Commercials were convenient. Communication was easy, and many products were avable in the market. Ye Chong was now in urgent need of a few items. Perhaps he could get them here. Besides,mercials were usually easier to move freely about. Commercials were the meeting points for various powers, so the aristocrats would be more careful in these ces.

    For someone like Ye Chong, who wanted to get familiar with life in He Yue gxy as soon as possible, it was a good choice of location. "Looks like I got lucky," Ye Chong thought to himself.

    A blue ne came into view. Against the dark, enigmatic space around it, the average-sized seemed to teem with life.

    He nced at the middle-aged man, and found him smiling back warmly at him. The long-haired man beside him seemed more excited now.

    The starship made its slow way towards the of Zhou Jian. Ye Chong looked out of the observation window, lost in his own thoughts.

 Chapter 313 - Ze Xi Academy

    <h4>Chapter 313: Ze Xi Academy</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "If you have the money, I¡¯d definitely advise you to attend Engradie Academy. It¡¯s the best school on Zhou Jian, and one of the best academies in the He Yue gxy. The students are mostly from rich families, and many of them are aristocrats. But you don¡¯t look rich, so maybe you¡¯d like to try the Ze Xi Academy. It¡¯s the best school formoners, and the fee is cheap. While you, my friend, look a little older, it¡¯smon to see children from poorer families to attend night sses. They won¡¯t turn you down." Before they parted ways, the blonde man took Ye Chong¡¯s hands in his, and advised him with deep sincerity.

    Standing in front of Ze Xi Academy, looking at the students bustling in and out, Ye Chong thought it felt surreal. His days in Blue Ocean Academy came back to him. It was impossible to forget about Grandpa Qian, Xiu and Sun Xuelin. However, times had changed, and now, he did not even have Mu and Shang by his side. It was just like the time when he was a teacher in the Academy, except that now he was a student.

    Engradie Academy was a good education institution, and Ye Chong himself was notcking money, but in the end he chose to attend school at Ze Xi Academy. The fact that Engradie Academy¡¯s many students were aristocrats was enough to help Ye Chong make his decision.

    Ye Chong was in in attire, which was why the blonde man thought of him as poor. In fact, Ye Chong had never bought any clothing himself. The ones he was wearing were bought by Old Chief Guo and hispany. Ye Chong only asked that the clothing be resilient to wear and tear. Old Chief Guo knew that Ye Chong and the Sang tribe members would not be picky with fashion, so he bought the hardiest and cheapest clothing he could find.

    Ye Chong was not aware that people were often judged by what they wear. However, if even he found out, he would probably feel indifferent about it.

    "First step to getting used to living here," Ye Chong thought to himself. He had decided to put more effort into improving his social skills. He was not dumb, but was in fact intelligent; he knew exactly what he wascking of. If Mu and Shang were with him, perhaps he would have remained the same way he was before. Now, however, with Mu and Shang missing, he would have to try everything he could to find them. If he could not mix with people, then how can he find Mu and Shang in thisrge world? Without connections, how could he find a way to return to the Five Gxies from the Three Aristocratic Families?

    Unlike the matter of finding Mu and Shang, Ye Chong was not as driven to find out about his past. However, given that he had no information on Mu and Shang, but had found some information about his past, the matter of his past had be priority for the time being. For now, Ye Chong must not only familiarize himself with the He Yue gxy, but also study the Three Aristocratic Families discreetly, especially the Ye Family.

    Ye Chong knew from experience that all fields of knowledge have aplete system. Only through systematic learning would he be able to understand more deeply. This was something Ye Chong thought of when the blonde man talked about joining academies. Aside from that, themunity in schools were more isted and simpler. He should be able to avoid attention here.

    After paying the required fee, Ye Chong became an official student of the Ze Xi Academy.

    Ze Xi Academy¡¯s learning policy was liberal. Students were free to choose their desired courses. Ye Chong did not choose courses for mech piloting,bat, mech modification and the like. He knew what he wanted out of this learning experience. He chose He Yue''s history,nguage, psychology, theology, aristocracy and so on.

    When he submitted his course schedule, the teacher was surprised. It was normal to see a schedule like in Engradie Academy, but the students of Ze Xi Academy came mostly from poor families - they hoped to find a reliable job in future, and so would choose courses like mech piloting, mech modification and alchemy. "This student muste from a well-to-do family, but his clothing doesn¡¯t look like it," the teacher thought as he took a quick nce at Ye Chong, but quickly arranged for Ye Chong¡¯s courses.

    Ye Chong¡¯s in clothing, horrible looks, and quiet nature had allowed him to escape attention easily.

    The active student life, filled with brawls and arguments, all looked dull to Ye Chong, who had been through countless battles of life and death. He poured all his attention into studying. The humanities courses all demanded arge amount of reading. To other people, Ye Chong looked like a typical bookworm. To them, Ye Chong may look ugly, but his mild demeanor and quiet nature made him easy to get along with.

    Ye Chong did not know how he appeared to other people. He only focused on his studies.

    The Three Aristocratic Families were the most resilient of all aristocrats. There was plenty of historical research on them, and Ye Chong ploughed through all of them in search for clues. These courses transformed Ye Chong¡¯s mindset. If it was before, he would never had thought of searching for information from historical material.

    Sang Pu and the rest kept in touch with Ye Chong frequently. Ye Chong knew from Sang Pu that the tribe members had learnt how to better conceal their threatening aura. In fact, it was a skill that they had picked up much earlier on, but had never thought of using it now. Back in Archipgo, they had used this skill when hunting. Wild beasts were very sensitive to deathly auras, so the tribe members had to learn to conceal their aura to avoid being noticed.

    This concealing skill was already second nature to them, so no one thought of applying it now. For the moment, however, they had much more to learn.

    Francis Jr, on the other hand, was greatly surprised. "Wah, Boss, you look so ¡­ So ¡­" He could remember the word. Old Chief Guo continued his sentence, "Schrly."

    "Yes yes yes, ¡®schrly¡¯, that¡¯s right. Like a really smart person." Francis Jr looked at Ye Chong, full of admiration.

    In fact, Ye Chong had changed dramatically in these two months. His cold features were now softer on the edges. With a whole two months of courses on literature and history, Ye Chong no longer consider things in only structural and calctive terms.

    From the other end of thems device came Sang Tie¡¯s muffled voice, "Lian, what¡¯s this schrly thing?"

    Hai Lian replied, "Er, schrly, it means ¡­ It means the person read plenty, and gives the impression of being very intelligent."

    Somewhere not captured on the screen of thems device, Sang Tie beat his chest and said, "Then I want that schrly thing too."

    "Then you should go learn from the Boss."

    Hai Lian¡¯s pained groan was met withughter from the gang. It was an enjoyable call.

    Ye Chong could not help but smiled. He remembered something then, and said to Sang Pu, "Pu, remember to send someone back to the vige and teach them about concealing their aura. Everyone must learn this, especially the children."

    "Yes sir," Sang Pu answered swiftly.

    After asking Sang Pu and the rest to study those devices used to manufacture mechs, Ye Chong ended the call. He should continue reading in the afternoon. He had not finished hisst book yet.

    The truth was, Ye Chong was intimidated by all those reading at first. His mindset was almost crystallized, thinking only in terms of numbers and logic. These psychology and theology courses seemed like an insurmountable task to him. However, due to his good memory, Ye Chong managed to endure the suffering during his first month, and gradually immersed himself into this whole new body of knowledge.

    Walking in the academy grounds, Ye Chong looked no different than any other student around, except for his slightly uglier looks.

    "I say, Mi De, Ze Xi Academy is full of beautiful girls. I¡¯ve always thought the pretty ones are all at our school!" This came from a vastly overweight youngster in casual outfit. For the initiated, they would notice that his clothing was very expensive.

    At his side was another man with a hat on. "That¡¯s what you think! Those d*mbasses back at school are all so arrogant and foolish. And thosedies, they¡¯re all proud as peacocks, the lot. Hehe, thosedies, don¡¯t be fooled by their elegant looks, it¡¯s all the work of makeup. ¡®Sides, you know how rotten their lives really are." The one called Mi De was a few inches taller than Fatty. His hat was worn low.

    Fatty nodded, chewing his gum as he mumbled, "That¡¯s right, that¡¯s right."

    "It¡¯s totally different here. Look, the girls here rarely wear makeup. Now that¡¯s true beauty. Tsk tsk, their skin is porcin white. Besides, they¡¯re quite conservative, all about purity and innocence, nothingpared to the rotten girls back at school."

    Fatty nodded strongly in agreement.

    Mi De smiled cheekily and said, "Hehe, I¡¯ve visited all 75 schools for themoners. When ites to the quantity and quality of beautiful girls, mm, and the girls¡¯ temperaments, Ze Xi Academy is the best."

    Ye Chong walked past them, and heard every word clearly. However, he was thinking, just how should he analyze these two people¡¯s behavior from a psychological perspective?

    A rush of footsteps came from behind, breaking Ye Chong¡¯s train of thought. 16 of them! The assessment came quick as lightning to Ye Chong¡¯s mind.

    "You two, please leave our school, we don¡¯t wee you here!" The voice was fierce and unyielding.

 Chapter 314 - Blood Spilled from a Brick

    <h4>Chapter 314: Blood Spilled from a Brick</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Mi De whistled and said casually, "Ah, isn¡¯t that Peng Pengcha? I say, bro, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve offended each other, why¡¯re you osting me?"

    Peng Pengcha yelled angrily, "Mi, you b*stard, we¡¯re not done with that matter with Miss Tan!"

    Fatty was curious, and asked, "Mi De, I¡¯ve never heard of you dating any Miss Tan."

    Mi De waved it off. "He¡¯s only referring to Beibei."

    "Wow, you¡¯re actually interested in that kind of woman?" Fatty was surprised.

    "Don¡¯t you dare sully her name!" Peng Peng Cha was furious, and flung the brick in his hand towards the two youngsters.

    "Hehe, bro, you really looking for a fight?" "Yo, it¡¯s the Brick, a long range weapon of mass destruction!" The two of themughed, but they also avoided the attack easily. Fights in the academy grounds was only limited to bricks, sticks and the like; no one dared to use mechs. Fighting with bricks was an entirely different from fighting with mechs.

    The usage of bricks as a fighting tool first began when a student studying ancient history found out about in the textbooks. The weapon soon became widely used in almost all academies. Bricks were a kind of building material from a long, long time ago, and no longer used. It was, however, easy to make. Since there was a demand for bricks, many specialty shops began to pop up in the vicinity of virtually every academy and school. After centuries of collecting dust in the forgotten hallways of history, bricks finally had theireback in the form of a fighting tool used in schools.

    The brick flew past the two and straight towards Ye Chong. Ye Chong heard iting, and frowned. He took a step to the right, narrowly avoiding the attack.

    Ye Chong stopped in his tracks and began to listen in.

    Fatty was still reasoning with Peng Pengcha, "Sigh, I say, brother, you¡¯ve really fallen for it this time. Tan Beibei¡¯s a real slut, she¡¯s notorious in our school ¡­"

    "D*mn you!" Peng Pengcha saw red, and threw another brick at them.

    Fatty might be overweight, but he was surprisingly agile. The brick was once again easily evaded. However, the brick was heading straight towards Ye Chong again.

    Ye Chong was listening to them, and did not avoid the brick this time. He threw his fist at the brick, shattering it into dust.

    Everyone else looked in Ye Chong¡¯s direction. They only heard a loud "Bam!", and saw a white cloud of dust spreading out before him.

    Everyone was caught off guard. Even Fatty and Mi De, who were fooling around, were startled. The white cloud of dust was blocking their view of the perpetrator. Even so, the strength in the punch had surprised everyone.

    Punching a brick into pieces was easy, but crushing the brick into dust was extremely hard. This white cloud of dust was obviously the result of the brick beingpletely pulverized.

    Could this be abat expert teacher? Peng Pengcha felt a chill in his heart. Attacking a teacher was a serious matter in every school.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression grew more serious. Suddenly, his eyes glowed sharply. He looked up and around, and found a streetlight at the center of the field. The streetlight was made in vintage fashion, reaching five meters tall, with a 2-centimeter diameter. The pole was made of alloy, and carved with various motives.

    Ye Chong moved, and reached the streetlight in a sh.

    This was the time of day when the academy grounds were most crowded. When Ye Chong pulverized the brick into dust, people began to notice him. Now, his astonishing speed made everyone gasp. Peng Pengcha was already drained of blood. Mi De and Fatty were also gulping heavily.

    Ye Chong¡¯s leg kicked, striking out like a lightning bolt, not even leaving an afterimage of motion. No one around him could see his movement clearly.

    Wham! The alloy-made streetlight was forcefully broken off from its base. The students around him stared in shock. Ye Chong picked up he streetlight pole, handling the heavy alloy with ease.

    "No way!" Peng Pengcha thought to himself, horrified. Sweat rolled down his forehead as he mumbled, "I - I - I ¡­ I only threw ¡­ Threw a brick ¡­"

    Just when everyone thought Peng Pengcha was done for, the shrill school rm disrupted the silence in the academy grounds!

    No one reacted to it. The rm had never rang for thest 50 years, so no one had ever heard it before. However, the sharper students quickly realized its significance. Mi De and Fatty exchanged a look and gasped simultaneously, "The rm!"

    With that, the people around them recovered their senses. What was going on? They looked to each other, discussing potential causes of the rm. Could it be arge pirate crew attacking them?

    Mi De and Fatty signalled to each other, and made the same decision - they deployed their mechs!

    Later recounts of the event would reveal that their apparent over-reaction had actually saved their lives.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression twisted. He struck the pole deeply into the ground.

    The year 5087 of the He Yue calendar woulde to be a particrly memorable year for everyone on Zhou Jian.

    Ye Chong moved so powerfully that the alloy streetlight pole in his hands became a terrifying and deadly weapon.

    Rumble! Soil sprayed outwards as the streetlight pole was struck deeply into the ground.

    An eye-piercingly sharp and terrible cry came from beneath the earth. The upperyer of the ground rippled like waves, an eerie sight to behold.

    Suddenly, the academy¡¯s broadcast sounded, "Special alert, special alert. All students with mechs, please get into your mechs now. Students without mechs, please make your way into the buildings around you for your own safety."

    The broadcast was repeated over and over. Above them, mechs began to appear, while the students without mechs rushed to the nearest building they could find for shelter. However, many of them were still in daze, paralyzed by the situation.

    Ye Chong ignored the broadcast, his attention focused entirely on the unknown attacked underneath the ground.

    Boom! The earth before Ye Chong exploded, soil spraying everywhere around him. The academy had used real soil instead of some kind of flooring in its attempt to create a more primeval feel to the school grounds. The soil flew out and hit the paralyzed students standing nearby, and they cried in pain. However, this also shook off their paralysis. Those with mechs quickly deployed them, while the rest quickly scattered away.

    The soil exploding outwards did not bother Ye Chong. He stared fixedly on the ground right in front of him. He had targeted the other party from their breathing. The five-meter pole was struck into the ground before him, half of its length beneath the earth. Ye Chong¡¯s hands held onto the pole lightly, and felt a strong vibrationing from it.

    Sensing the energying from the pole, Ye Chong was slightly taken by surprise, but he quickly reacted. He yelled loudly and pulled out the streetlight pole straight out of the ground.

    Squeak! Another terrible cry was heard from beneath.

    The bottom half of the streetlight pole was covered in blood, and a strange smell wafting from it. Ye Chong had seen all sorts of blood, but this was the first time he saw one that had such a sharp smell.

    Ye Chong held the pole horizontally in front of him, and stared at the dark hole before him with wary anticipation.

    Squeak! A ck shadow rushed out of the hole and charged straight towards Ye Chong. He noticed a much sharper smelling from it. The ck figure moved so quickly that the people around him could not even see it clearly.

    A woman¡¯s sharp cry was heard from behind him! The fact that a ck figure had suddenly came out of the hole was really terrifying.

    Others may only see a ck figure, but Ye Chong saw it clearly. It was a rat. A rat! However, the rat wasrge, almost Ye Chong¡¯s size. Its crimson red eyes had blood vessels crawling all over them. Its thin and long tail was like a whip, and it had strong legs. Ye Chong could see the muscles bulging out of it, enough to make bodybuilders blush in shame. The rat had ws that reached 10 centimeters long, looking like knives attached to its feet.

    "It this really a rat?" Ye Chong thought to himself in disbelief.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression remained calm, however. The thing moved fast, but was no match against someone as fast as Ye Chong. Ye Chongunched himself sideways, moving along the streetlight pole. His hands were still gently holding onto the pole, so he looked like he was just sliding along the pole, and the effect was simply quite abnormal. Besides, with his speed, he moved just like a ghost!

    Another girl screamed in the background!

    Ye Chong was not distracted. He tipped the pole upwards to meet the ck figure.

    Crack! The 2-centimeter thick alloy pole was bitten in half by the creature!

    Ye Chong was surprised, but did not miss the opening. He took a quick step forwards and nted a kick on the rat¡¯s belly!

    Ye Chong used all his strength in this kick. Fighting against a creature he had never seen before, he could not afford to hold back!

    The kick was executed with the September Lan family¡¯s special technique! Ye Chong¡¯s right leg expanded and shrank in a very short time!

    Wham! The force on the rat came like a mech¡¯s attack, throwing it 20 meters back! Ye Chong still kept his eyes on the rat. If it survived this attack, the it must be even more terrifying than the wild beasts on Archipgo.

    Fortunately, the huge rat only twitched a few times before ity motionless for good. Ye Chong finally calmed himself down. All around him were terrified people. Only half of Zei Xi Academy¡¯s students had mechs. The rest of the students were still running to the nearest building in the academy they could find.

    The rat¡¯s huge body interrupted the frenzy of the students running for their lives.

    Ye Chong was about to head towards the school building in front of him when a woman¡¯s sharp cry came from behind him.

 Chapter 315 - Fight!

    <h4>Chapter 315: Fight!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing had a terrible look on her face. With the swarms of creatures outside, a Jie expert such as her was still vulnerable to the innate revulsion towards such disgusting creatures, as was typical for the fairer sex.

    When Shi Fuyin was shocked by their experience on Lunarisst time, her fragile body deteriorated even further. She had to be moved to Zhou Jian, which offered better medical facilities. With nowhere to go herself, Rui Bing decided to stay by Shi Fuyin¡¯s side. She had developed a certain tenderness towards the girl.

    Shi Chongming was out on an errand, leaving only her and Shi Fuyin. The sudden appearance of so many of those creatures outside left Rui Bing deeply shaken.

    Rui Bing witnessed with her own eyes how the urban streets were transformed into a living hell. There was blood everywhere. People who could not escape fast enough were chewed to pieces. The sight of blood, flesh and organs here and there was nauseating.

    The victims wailed in pain and distress, or shrieked in fear and despair. It was as if the world was turned inside out.

    Rui Bing stood by the window, watching the tragedy happening outside from above, feeling deeply troubled.

    Just what had the worlde to? Why was this happening?

    There was a pedestrian who could not make it in time, and his one leg was bitten off by one of those huge rats. Blood gushed out from the wound, bloodying the rat¡¯s face. The rat chewed on the leg for a few times and swallowed it. Its blood red eyes shone menacingly. The pedestrian¡¯s face twisted in pain from the sudden amputation, but before he could react any further, the other rats swarmed over him and finished him off. Rui Bing saw everything, including the expression of the pedestrian in thest moments of his life. That twisted face lingered in her mind, and her heart ached.

    Rui Bing inhaled deeply to calm herself, and began to assess the situation. However, the conclusions she reached from her observation of the situation outside gave her pause.

    The rats were strong, and astonishingly so. Their teeth could gnaw through the strongpound material used to built the walls, as easy as chewing a biscuit in their mouths.

    "If this was the case, then we¡¯re defenseless," Rui Bing thought to herself. The hospital¡¯s walls were all made of the samepound material, which could not withstand the assault of the rats.

    She would have to fight! Rui Bing¡¯s eys glowed with determination. As a Jie expert, she would not easily lose hope against hurdles like these.

    As she walked to Shi Fuyin¡¯s bed, Shi Fuyin woke up. She opened her eyes wide and looked at Rui Bing, and called sweetly, "Sister Bing."

    Rui Bing caressed her forehead and asked softly, "How do you feel?"

    "Much better," Shi Fuyin smiled in reply despite her pale appearance.

    Rui Bing looked at Shi Fuyin with sympathy, and could not help but worry. If they leave the hospital, would Shi Fuyin¡¯s condition worsen without the medical facilities avable here? There was no other alternative, however. Rui Bing gritted her teeth and said to Shi Fuyin, "It¡¯s chaos out there. We¡¯re leaving now. I¡¯ll carry you."

    "Ah!" Shi Fuyin gasped in surprised. "What about Uncle Ming?"

    Rui Bing shook her head. "I don¡¯t know why he¡¯s not back either, maybe he¡¯s in trouble." Rui Bing was right. Shi Chongming was trapped somewhere outside, and in a worse situation than them.

    Rui Bing walked to the window for another look, and knew that they could not afford to dy any further. She quickly helped Shi Fuyin into her clothes. Shi Fuyin managed awkwardly due to her weak body. She was wrapped up into arge bundle since she was still feeling chilly.

    Rui Bing walked to the bed and tore off a few strips of cloth from the bedsheet. She took a strip and carefully blindfolded Shi Fuyin with it. She did not want the youngdy to see the hellish world outside. Shi Fuyin seemed to understand her, and smiled sweetly as she epted the blindfold without protest. Rui Bing took the headphones from the bedside and put it on Shi Fuyin. The headphones had good noise-cancelling features. Once it was put on, she would not be able to hear anything but the beautiful musicing from the headphones.

    Rui Bing tied Shi Fuyin onto herself tightly. She was not scared, nor did she hesitate as she began to move.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    Ye Chong turned back to see ady holding onto some chips in her arms and frantically looking at the ground around her. The soil around her was rippling like the surface of boiling water.

    Ye Chong leaped and reached her side. He gripped her arms and began to run forward.

    tter! The chips fell from her arms. Thedy paled, and cried, "My chips, my chips!"

    She struggled in Ye Chong¡¯s hands, trying to free herself and head back for her chips. However, Ye Chong¡¯s hands held onto to her strongly like pincers, and no matter how much she tried, she could not break free.

    "Let me go! Let me go! My chips, ooh, my chips!" She punched Ye Chong repeatedly, but it was no use. Abruptly, she lowered her head and bit deeply into Ye Chong¡¯s arm!

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes turned grim, and he striked out with his left hand!

    p! The p on her face was loud and clear. Thedy¡¯s face was now imprinted with a red palm!

    "You - You actually hit me?" Thedy stammered in disbelief.

    "You¡¯re sure you want to die?" Ye Chong ignored her reaction and asked coldly. Thedy felt a chill down her spine, still not fully believing. It was still too early for Ye Chong to practice what he had learned in this short period. Given the emergency of the situation, he reverted to his old behavior of cold logic.

    If thedy replied in the affirmative, Ye Chong would definitely let her go. He did not distinguish between men and women, but he still found it hard to believe that anyone could be so stubborn given the situation. If it was before, he might just break her neck there and then. However, dear Ye Chong had progressed much since then. He would only let her go, and leave her to her demise.

    Behind them, rats emerged in great numbers from where thedy was standing earlier, and began to scatter about the academy grounds.

    Ye Chong ran faster towards the school building in front of him. He did not have time to check his bitten hand. The block was surrounded by security mechs. There were also many mechs in the skies with their weapons pointed towards the ground, fully prepared for battle.

    As Ye Chong approached the building, the mech closest to them stepped aside for them to pass through. Ye Chong slipped through and entered the school building.

    Inside the building, people were huddling in corners, crying to themselves, or just spacing off, or gritting their teeth in anger. However, they all looked panic stricken and scared. The sudden cmity had caught them off guard.

    "Madam Fei Si! It¡¯s Madam Fei Si!" "Madam Fei Si!"

    A few female students recognized the woman Ye Chong was having with him, and rushed to her. Some even threw themselves into her arms, crying. Fei Si was now behavingpletely different from before, patting the students¡¯ backs andforting them.

    Strange. Ye Chong took another look at Fei Si, now with apletely different personality, and went to sit in a corner. He needed to organize his thoughts. Everything happened too quickly, without any warning! Why were the rats like that? No, there was something else he saw. He recalled then that there were other animals as well. When he turned back to look at Fei Si, he remembered seeing animals other than the rats.

    Could they be mutants? The idea was immediately rejected. As someone who grew up on a trash, he had seen countless mutants before, but none of them were like this. These rats were even stronger than the engulfers on the trash.

    Something must have happened!

    Besides, Ye Chong found it curious that no one here had any idea of the possible causes of this cmity. If no organization on Zhou Jian realized anything was amiss before this, it would be very strange indeed!

    But why should this concern him? Ye Chong dismissed his worries. If things really got out of hand, he can always find a starship and escape to of Yi Ju. Hijacking a starship was a piece of cake for him. It was a pity, though, to end his studies here. He had just started his humanities studies, only beginning to grasp the important ideas in this field.

    No one paid much attention to Ye Chong. In the midst of this chaos, why would they pay attention to a random student?

    There were loud sounds of battleing from outside. Everyone but Ye Chong lifted their heads and looked outside the school building. They had always lived in a peaceful life, and had never seen actual battles before. Ye Chong was unaffected by what was happening outside.

    The battle was fierce!

    Ye Chong was right. There were other mutants besides those rats. In fact, it seemed as though all kinds of animals had evolved into some kind of strong mutant creatures overnight.

    Fortunately, however, they were allnd animals. None of them fly. It they could, the mechs would lose their flying advantage. Most of the mechs engaging in fights outside were teachers. They were all experienced inbat, and fought withpetence. It was their leadership that managed to keep the students calm and organized.

    Nheless, the mutated creatures were all tough animals. Even when wounded by energy beams, they could run about unaffected if they were not hit at critical body parts. Additionally, the creatures were strong and powerful, moving too quickly to aim at them. It was due to theirrge numbers that almost any random shot would end up hitting a target.

    The He Ye gxy was more specialized in long rangebat, just like in the Five Gxies. However, the current emergency required more close rangebat mechs. Without close rangebat mechs at the frontlines, the swarming mutants would quickly overwhelm the entire academy, leaving everyone at risk.

    The rats were terrifying enemies, especially when they attacked together in the dozens!

    Swoosh! A mech flew in to the school building and yelled, "Any more students with mechs? We need reinforcements! All students with mechs please get in your mech and and prepare for battle, especially the close range mechs." The mech¡¯s bionic eyes scanned through the people around and said grimly, "The situation is critical, please lend your strength! I hope you understand one thing - your lives are in your hands! Defeat will mean death!"

    The mech looked ghastly, covered with damages. Even the shield on its left arm was missing a corner, having been bitten off. Done with his speech, the mech pilot returned outside and continued to battle.

    Gradually, students began to stand up and take action. In this dangerous situation, everyone began to fight for their survival.

 Chapter 316 - Worsening Situation

    <h4>Chapter 316: Worsening Situation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong did not get up. The situation was not too critical yet. If they put all avable resources to use now, they would not be able to hold their defense line for long. However, Ye Chong also knew that he would not be given the chance tomand the defensive forces, so he did not even try to interfere. Besides, the students¡¯ mediocre abilities were not enough to interest him, not after seeing the sublimebat performance of the Sang Tribe.

    It was too bad that Sang Pu and the rest were not here. The situation was not optimistic, but not to the point where Ye Chong had to worry about his own safety. This level of danger was nothingpared to what Ye Chong had experienced before. Compared to this, the battle at Sang Family Vige was truly terrifying!

    Everyone around him looked distressed, but Ye Chong himself wasposed.

    Feiss approached Ye Chong, bowed, and said in a serious tone, "I¡¯m very sorry for my rudeness earlier that hurt you. I¡¯m an alchemist, may I see your hand? I have medicine to stop the bleeding."

    Ye Chong kept his eyes closed as he answered calmly, "No need, thank you."

    "Ahaha, Fei dear, you¡¯re alright! That¡¯s wonderful," a booming voice came from Fei Si.

    Fei Si brightened, and turned to greet him, "Uncle Jalopy!"

    The man was only about 160 centimeters tall, but he had a solid build, with angr, bulging muscles that made him look like a towering metal structure. Aside from that, his pugnacious looks made anyone who saw him cautious. The students around him were obviously intimidated by him, and kept their distance.

    Unlike those students, Fei Si cried in surprise and buried herself into his embrace, and began to weep. The old man was unused to handling emotional outbursts like this, and received her awkwardly as he consoled her. It was a strange sight to behold. A 170-centimeter tall woman was crying in the arms of a 160-centimeter tall old man. The old man had to stand on tiptoe.

    "Fei dear, what¡¯s wrong? Don¡¯t cry, don¡¯t cry, what happened?" The old man was at a loss.

    Fei Si¡¯s shoulders trembled as she continued crying. "The chips ¡­ The chips are all gone!"

    "Ah!" The old man gasped, "Fei dear, how did that happen? That¡¯s your teacher¡¯s life achievements stored in them. Didn¡¯t you store all you work these past few years in them too?"

    Fei Si cried even more then, and told him what happened between sobs.

    The old man¡¯s expression turned solemn, and consoled her, "Don¡¯t be sad, Fei dear, you¡¯re alive, and that¡¯s all that matters. Your teacher in the Heavens must also be happy for that. If the chips are gone, you can still redo your research; if you are gone, then nothing can be done to save you."

    The old man walked to Ye Chong and bowed. "Young man, thank you very much."

    Ye Chong was taken by his politeness. He opened his eyes and replied inly, "You¡¯re wee."

    "Hah!" The old manughed, and reached out his right hand to pat on Ye Chong¡¯s shoulder. "I knew you¡¯re a good man. You may not be the most handsome man in town, but then, hehe, you¡¯re no ordinary man."

    Ye Chong was not used to physical intimacy. He stayed in his cross-legged sitting position as he put his hands to the ground and pushed his whole body sliding to the side.

    The old man¡¯s eyes lit up. "You¡¯re abat expert!"

    _________________________________________________________________________

    In another city on Zhou Jian, at the tip of the highest building there, two people looked down at the tragedy unfolding below them with sorrowful expressions. These two were the Gray Valley duo whom Ye Chong had met on the starship.

    "Squad Leader, the situation is worse than we imagined," the long-haired man said grimly.

    The middle-aged man nodded solemnly. "Yes, it¡¯s worse than we imagined."

    "This is inhuman!" The long-haired younger man said angrily.

    The middle-aged man deployed his mech and said, "Enough talking, let¡¯s get to work."

    Two mechs flew off into the skies.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    Rui Bing ran as fast as she could, finding her footing on the buildings around her. Her movements were even more powerful than the rats. The buildings flew past her as she ran, leaving only an afterimage in her vision.

    A rat suddenly leaped high up like a spring straight towards Rui Bing, who was still in midair between jumps.

    Rui Bing twisted her body slightly, angling her body away from the rat in a logic defying moment, despite having no physical support to change directions.

    Rui Bing¡¯s lonely white figure stood out in the streets. The countless number of rats on the streets stared at the flitting figure. The rat that jumped up seemed to inspire the other rats, as they began to squeak in excitement.

    The rats began to leap up to attack Rui Bing, who was running along the rooftops of the shops that lined the streets.

    Rui Bing¡¯s eyes red up! This was the most dangerous situation she had ever been in her twenty over years of living, but she did not feel scared at all.

    She evaded them all! Rui Bing moved like a white butterfly, dancing her way between the rats that continued to attack her from front and back. Her small evasive steps to the left and right were enough to impress even Ye Chong. Even Ye Chong himself could not have done it better!

    All her steps were only justrge enough to avoid the attacks, but swift and effective.

    A rat in front was standing in her way with its hind legs crouched, ready for a pounce. Its crimson red eyes looked vicious. Rui Bing could even see its hind legs¡¯ tense muscles.

    Squeak! A huge rat came from above, aiming for Rui Bing. More rats wereing for her from below and to the rear. The rats were everywhere.

    Rui Bing shouted, her eyes suddenly lit up brighter than the sun! The move that she had used against Ye Chong was now executed again in all its glory! Moreover, Rui Bing was far stronger than she was back then. The power of this move was now fully realized!

    The rat that came from above was almost onto Rui Bing.

    Abruptly, without any warning, the rat froze, its eyes bulging. m! It exploded. Squeak! The rat squealed in pain. The rat fell lifelessly down from midair to the ground,nding on its brethrens that squeaked with protest.

    No attack was more terrifying than this!

    All the rats immediately stepped back, and looked at Rui Bing with fear.

    Rui Bing was now emanating an aura that waspletely different from usual. It was an intimidating quality. Her eyes seemed to sparkle with life.

    Rui Bing stepped forward slowly and calmly. All the rats stayed out of her way.

    This was her chance. Rui Bing picked up her speed and ran, but none of the rats pursued her this time.

    Arge door and a line of words came into her sight - Engradie Academy. Rui Bing heaved a sigh of relief, feeling slightlyforted, but her legs weakened for a moment and she nearly stumbled. Rui Bing¡¯s extraordinary stamina was significantly exhausted from her dangerous travel, more than she had expected.

    _________________________________________________________________________

    "Hah, so you¡¯re abat expert." The old manughed, rubbing his hands together in excitement.

    Fei Si spoke from the side, "Yeah, the student¡¯s got a few moves."

    Ye Chong closed his eyes again and ignored them. The battle was imminent, and it was best to conserve his energy.

    "Hehe, young man, let me show you something," the old man said in a conspiratorial tone.

    Fei Si quickly burst his bubble. "Right, Uncle Jalopy¡¯s a lecturer in ancient machinery. He¡¯s got many tools and weaponry suitable forbat experts, maybe you¡¯ll find a few to your liking."

    "Ancient machinery?" Ye Chong opened his eyes wide.

    Somewhere from skies came a loud cry, which was immediately followed by a few more. Everyone in the school building was startled. They all knew what this meant. Perhaps there were mutants out there that could fly after all.

    The old man¡¯s expression soured as he cursed the creatures aloud, before finally calming down again. He noticed Ye Chong¡¯s indifference, calm as he was, and asked curiously, "Young man, aren¡¯t you worried at all? Are you not afraid? If those creatures get in, we¡¯re all finished."

    Ye Chong replied, "Will worrying help? Will being afraid help?"

    The old man paused at his words, thenughed heartily, "Haha, to think that I¡¯m humbled by a mere student at my age! I must be getting old."

    The situation worsened quickly. Up in the sky, mutant birds attacked the mechs ruthlessly. The most dangerous of these flying mutants were the birds of prey, which were already dangerous before their mutation. Now, they were even more terrifying with their ws and beaks. The sky was their territory. Nothing could move swifter than them in the air, not even the best mech pilots.

    The fight on the ground was also bing increasingly violent. There were many other animals beside rats which had undergone mutation. The most disgusting of all were the insects, such as cockroaches. After mutation, they grew to the size of millstones, but even more staggering were their numbers.

    Compared to the other mutants, they were smaller, and greater in numbers, thus making it easier for them to break through the mechs¡¯ defense line.

    "Ah!" A female student¡¯s voice reverberated in the building. Girls would definitely hate these creatures. Ye Chong keenly noticed a few things: 1) All the animals that mutated had grown significantlyrger, 2) the animals all had red eyes, and 3) after mutation, the mutants became very violent and aggressive.

    Ye Chong reacted before anyone else. He stood up quickly and nted a kick on the first cockroach that came in. Whoosh! The cockroach was sent flying.

    Ye Chong¡¯s reaction reminded the people inside of what they must do. Mi De and Fatty, who were curled up in a corner, quickly stepped forward to fight. Many of the students here learnt somebat basics, and quite a few of them were actuallybat students. As such, the wave of invading insects were, for the moment, halted in their advance.

    Nevertheless, while the insects were not as deadly, they were still very difficult to kill. Such was the tenacity of these bugs.

    Ye Chong took a look around him, and his eyesnded on a statue in the center of the school building. This gold statue was of a woman, rumored to be the work of a Master of her time, Anye Luoxue. The woman¡¯s naked upper body traced voluptuous curves, and her hands reached up, joining at the wrists with her fingers curling into the shape of a lotus flower.

    Ye Chong ran to the statue and toppled it over with a kick. He then lifted the statue by the wrists single-handedly. The statue, which weighed half a ton, was summarily lifted from the ground.

    "Out of the way!" Ye Chong yelled.

    The students in front looked back and were shocked by the sight. They quickly leaped to the side.

 Chapter 317 - Breakthrough in Combat

    <h4>Chapter 317: Breakthrough in Combat</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong lifted the statue and attacked!

    Wham! The ground shook, and three cockroaches were instantly crushed into mush. Their body fluid sttered outwards, reeking an unheavenly stench. Everyone stared in shock. The golden statue did not look that strong, but in the hands of this young man, it was like a big hammer. Poor statue! The girls nearby looked at the statue in Ye Chong¡¯s hands with pity. She should be put on disy against red satin in a high ss exhibition stand, receiving the adoration of thousands of admirers. Now, however, she was used like a hammer in the hands of a man with inhuman strength. Poor she!

    The heavy statue seemed to also put a huge pressure on the people watching in the building. The old man gasped, "H*ll, I didn¡¯t think he¡¯s so violent!" He seemed to think of something then, and quickly ran deeper into the school building.

    It had been a long time since Ye Chong had to fight himself. It reminded him of his foundation training on the trash, where strength training was an important part of it.

    With his growing excitement, the heavy statue weighed like nothing in his hands, swinging around in the air. All the students and teachers watched, dumbfounded. The ground that trembled with each attack using the statue reminded them again and again that what they were seeing was really happening.

    "This is crazy!" Mi De swallowed heavily.

    Fatty nodded mechanically. "It¡¯s inhuman! Is that guy some unknown master in thebat facuty?"

    The other people in the building had the same thought. Only thebat faculty would harbour such a crazy person. They never imagined that he was actually a student from the humanities faculty. There were so few humanities students that none of them were here to recognize him.

    The statue swung over easily and blocked the path of another rat that managed to enter the building. He loosened his grip and stepped lightly, and was right in front of the rat in the next second. His hands moved, and the statue drew an arch midair. Ye Chong was now holding onto its waist.

    The people around him watched, stupefied. They saw a student carrying a half naked statue by the waist in a suggestive fashion. The female students blushed, and Fei Si¡¯s cheeks also reddened in embarrassment.

    Ye Chong did not care for these trivialities. He wrapped his hands around the statue in the next moment, avoiding an attack from the rat. Those who understood the situation regretted his move, since he was now in a most vulnerable position, with his back to the rat.

    When everyone thought Ye Chong was going to lose this time, his next move surprised them all. Ye Chong bent backwards, still holding tightly onto the statue, and pushed the statue to the back and down.

    Wham! The head of the statue hit precisely on one of the rat¡¯s paws in a decisive attack. The paw was instantly reduced to a useless lump of flesh. The rat squealed in pain.

    The people around him gulped heavily at the terrible shriek.

    Ye Chong did not stop at that. He leapt backwards in a somersault,nding on the rat¡¯s back. What happened next made everyone watching felt a chill in their hearts.

    Whish! The statue seemed to disappear from Ye Chong¡¯s hands. They heard a loud "ng!", and the rat¡¯s head suddenly exploded, blood and brain matter sttered across the floor.

    What an attack! Those from thebat faculty exchanged looks of shock and fear. None of them seemed to be able to see that attack clearly.

    In fact, Ye Chong¡¯s attack was simple. He had used the statue to strike at the rat¡¯s head. However, his attack was too fast to be observed clearly. The loud ng was from 15 consecutive blows to the rat¡¯s skull.

    Ye Chong was too engrossed in the fight to notice his audience. Calmness had always been his way, but his long suppressed fighting instincts were now finally awakened. Before he met Mu and Shang, his fighting skills might be deplorable, but he did notck the passion forbat

    However, after meeting Mu and Shang, Ye Chong was deeply influenced by Mu, and began to learn to think with cold logic. That was when Ye Chong¡¯s battle style changed markedly. It was only when he met particrly strong opponents that Ye Chong would feel his initial fervour for battle. However, even these asions were getting rarer.

    The simple bare-handed battle today had finally reignited Ye Chong¡¯s long absent feelings of enthusiasm.

    Ye Chongunched himself into the hoard of insects, waving the statue around like a scythe, attacking furiously. The only thing that annoyed Ye Chong was that the statue was unsuited for more versatile ways of attacking. He could only used it to hit directly on the enemies. There was nothing he could do about it. Ye Chong lifted the statue and hammered down again and again. Blood and flesh flew across the battlefield. The sounds of bone crushing never stopped.

    When the disaster finally ended, people would return to this school building and find that the flooring in front of the building, made of a strongpound material, had been crushed to smithereens.

    The statue was tough, Ye Chong will give it that. While it was now heavily deformed, there were no cracks on it. Anye Luoxue had created only five artworks in her entire lifetime. She was extremely fastidious regarding the material she used, and this statue was the one she took most pride in. However, this wonderful statue was now deformed beyond recognition, and covered with all kinds of gore and tissue.

    Ye Chong never imagined that the deformed statue would still be preserved in the end, ced on disy in thergest art museum on Zhou Jian as testimony to this cmity.

    Just then, the old man wheeled over a bunch of stuff with him and arrived. "Heh,ee, there¡¯s something for everyone. Haha, I never thought my job would actuallye in handy." He had with him an ancient wheelbarrow, carrying all kinds of ancient weapons, and metal machinery that the others had never seen before. The other people recalled then that the old man was a lecturer in ancient machinery, and quickly approached him. The old man was gratified and excited, realizing that his own obscure field of study that he was usually mocked for by others in the academy was finally useful today.

    Seeing Ye Chong exterminating the insects in front, the old man picked up an archace and threw it towards him, shouting, "Hey, young man, take this!"

    While Ye Chong was now in a state of heightened excitement, coolness was still his default state of mind. As his stamina slowly decreased, he gradually came out of that state of excitement. He heard the old man¡¯s voice then, and saw an archaceing towards him.

    Ye Chong immediately relinquished the statue and received thence. Thence was a long forgotten weapon, but one that Ye Chong was most familiar with, second only to daggers. When piloting the Harmony of the Winter Aria, its weapon of choice was Blue Winter, ance. Mu had even designed a set ofnce techniques through his calctions.

    Ye Chong now used these techniques. He drew straight lines or arcs across the air, attacking swiftly with the principle of maximum efficiency. His every attack with thence hit dead on target, and his footwork was impable.

    Thence was made of metal alloy, but weighed like a featherpared to the gold statue. Besides, the sharp tip of thence made it even more effective in drawing blood. As such, Ye Chong¡¯s efficiency increased sharply, and his stamina was exhausted more slowly.

    After learning so many kinds ofbat techniques, Ye Chong now had a much deeper understanding ofbat. Thence swung around unpredictably, as Ye Chong modified and improved on Mu¡¯snce techniques. They were now Ye Chong¡¯s very own set of moves. He grew absorbed in this process of creativity. His moves were highly varied - September Lan Family¡¯s moves, ck Cove basicbat techniques, and the Sang Tribe¡¯s moves were all experimented on, as he tried tobine all of them while bncing their strengths and weaknesses. Ye Chong had always learned bits and pieces of everything, and never stopped his research inbat. He had also learned under the September Lan Family¡¯s system. All these experiences that given him enough strength to achieve a breakthrough in this moment.

    The endless stream of insects had given him the best opportunity to enhance his skills.

    The tip of thence glowed, swinging around unpredictably and strangely like a firefly dancing in a summer night. The insect¡¯s tough exoskeleton crumbled easily under the assault of this pin-sized dot of light.

    The battle felt easier and easier. Ye Chong¡¯s movements grew smaller, but the tip of thence still managed to find the weak spots of those insects with surprising uracy.

    The people around him watched in awe. Ye Chong was like a magician to them. They were lucky to witness the transcendence and transformation of abat expert right before their eyes. This was a valuable experience that one can only encounter through fate. Ye Chong would never have guessed that, 20 years from now, three of the students here in the school building would be Jie experts themselves.

    This was Ye Chong¡¯s first real breakthrough. Ye Chong believed that, at least in terms ofbat, he would be able to win against Mu and Shang. He had found what Mu once called the spirit ofbat! This was an important factor inbat alongside strength, angle and timing.

    From a long time ago, Mu¡¯s strength seemed insurmountable to Ye Chong. All this while, his greatest hope was to be stronger than Mu. Now that he had achieved it however, at least in terms ofbat, he did not feel happy at all.

    "Mu, Shang, where are you?"

 Chapter 318 - My Idol!

    <h4>Chapter 318: My Idol!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Whatever that was happening, that had happened, that was going to happen on Zhou Jian struck in the eyes of everybody in He Yue gxy. And as the mass had demanded the specific broadcast, all entertainment channels - be them talkshows, musical channel or adult program - had their schedules cancelled. The streaming of Zhou Jian had upied every single channel online, with countless hologramic cameras capturing every single tragic moment at every single corner of thismercialized, advanced.

    The whole gxy seemed to have joined the historical moment, as they spectated the greatest catastrophe of He Yue gxy in the past 500 years.

    All forces avable in the gxy had been gathered, as soon as announcement was made at each faction. The leading aristocrats also sent out their best rescue team, where the Xi Feng n had a team of 10,000 registered pilots heading to Zhou Jian straightaway under the leadership of Huang Jiming, the ace pilot; while the Ye family, having also a team of 10,000, was marching their way with Ye Yin at the head; Xue Lai n had offered 8,000 of their best forces, as they held hands with an unconventional leader choice, an unknowndy whose name was Xue Nun, causing the crowd to wonder at her actual identity since the public had been expecting Brahmara the great to lead such significant operation.

    This should be the most major military operation ever in He Yue, with all the 3 main aristocrats running simultaneously.

    The fountain was there, yet fire was afar. They had tried to travel at their quickest, still Zhou Jian would take a 30-day gctic travel, what would remain at this poor after 30 days? Would the greatest army be weed with ruins and dead bodies?

    The misfortune of Zhou Jian did not end here! Thes nearby were too weak to provide any proper assistance. Only a handful of major pilot squads attempted gathering as much forces as possible. Technically, Zhou Jian had been quarantined at the moment with a severe ordering from all rulers from the surroundings of forbidding entry of any escaped of the Zhou Jian episode. Certainly, people were displeased by such inhuman decision as noises swarmed upon the government the moment it was announced.

    Spections had been given by the experts, revolving around the instance of viral mutation. Given that the experts had taken the right direction of their prediction, the virus would soon cause another apocalypse the moment the poption of Zhou Jian leaked their way to other ces of gxy.

    There was a need for quarantine, emphasized the government, as a solution to block the escape path for the Zhou Jian residents, even if it would extinguish their lives, it was the cruel regtion of humanity.

    The virologists of all known establishments including hospitals and academies had been summoned promptly to gather up at the safehouse guarded by the aristocrats, to perform research to find out that very hope to salvage humanity.

    The world was cruel, so cruel that it would shatter everyst bit of faith, sympathy and kindness of humanity. But that did not mean humanity should forsake their tenacity in pursuit of hope.

    On the screen, countless men, women, children were engulfed by the mutated lifeforms. The public was tearing up, as they once again recognized the fragility of humanity, while the camera in high-definition, as if a punishment, delivered every frame of bloodshed to everyone out there. The flying limbs, the fleeting blood, the piercing scream, the pound of flesh, they rolled, they fell, like a y of reality taken ce in front of the public.

    A hellish nightmare, a nightmarish day.

    ¡­

    Ug¡­ Ugh¡­

    Bi Bo woke up drowsily, his tiresome eyes found a girl nearby, while his ears discerned the fiasco out there. "Finally!" The girl was pleased, "You have waken up!"

    "Where¡­ are we?" Muttered Bi Bo, as he took a careful look at the girl, who had a short hair, a fine curvy brows with a pair of frightened eyes, in the uniform of Ze Xi academy - she should be a student¡­ Bi Bo was an experienced journalist, so he could tell.

    "This¡­" The eyes of the girl darkened, "This is the school''s building¡­ and you were knocked out by a piece of rock, those dirty mice had appeared so I dragged you all the way here."

    "Thank you very much!" Sincerely Bi Bo replied, he could imagine what a hassle it would be for a feeble girl like her to drag him away from the urring danger, and she never thought of running away, still thinking of saving people while she could. Such kind heart. Thought Bi Bo, who had seen enough dark side of humanity.

    "It''s¡­ nothing¡­" Blushed the girl, "Really¡­"

    Bi Bo gave a brief smile, "So how''s everything out there?" His bag was still by his side, which he quickly took a look inside - phew, the camera was inside.

    "Not looking good¡­" Frowned the girl, "A lot of injuries."

    Bi Bo took out the camera and performed a transmission to the HQ, at least he brought a super advanced hologramic camera that could transmit visual andmunication directly to the HQ.

    At the HQ of Green Media Corp., in the midst of depression, one shout from a staff broke the silent spell, "Sir! We had caught Bo''s signal! He''s still alive!"

    "Great! He sure is tough!"

    "Oh my gosh¡­ thank god¡­"

    The office had regained its liveliness in the older days.

    A good news finally, after the whole day of distressing reports¡­

    "So what are you doing!" Urged the director in a shaky voice, "Get it on already!" His mind was interpreting this as a golden opportunity to get more profit, as all other channels had been ying the visuals from the street cameras, now if Green had an exclusive report from a local journalist itself¡­

    Bi Bo''s handsome, well-proportioned face was then projected on the giant screen, his eyes remained expressive with his edgy brows, although looking all worn out and weak.

    "Bo, you fine there?"

    "Bo, take care!!"

    Those words from his colleagues were more thanforting.

    "Ahem¡­" Began the director, "Bo, are you hurt there?" When the director cleared his throat, it would mean everybody else should keep their mouth shut.

    "No, of course not." Bi Bo did not really like this director to be honest.

    "Well, good¡­" The director continued, "Forget our former n, now you only need to capture everything happening there. You could add in your own content, all to your liking, I would not interfere with your decision, on one condition : your camera, must be on the *whole* time. Simple isn''t it? How do you think?" The former n between them was to have an interview of an important function at Ze Xi academy, which was also the whole point of Bi Bo traveling there.

    The director then paused a moment, pondered, "Bo, if you did your job well, and coulde back alive, I would hand over my ce."

    Bi Bo was quiet for a sec, his hologramic lips then lifted, "I understood. I would do my best." Wow this director sure knows how to make empty promises, e back alive"? I seriously wonder if I even could see the departing port at this point. I''ll do it anyway¡­ I am a journalist, an ethical journalist who loves his job after all. I would abide by the truth and tell everybody what exactly had happened here. Even if the director never made his promises, I would still do the same.

    "Wait what?" The girl was shocked, "You''re a journalist?"

    "Yeah." Smiled Bi Bo as he turned his head to her. "I got to go." He got up quickly, "Take care." Holding his camera, Bi Bo walked to the outside, the camera was as tiny as a man''s palm, but it was mighty.

    "Ah¡­" The girl got up too, biting her lips as she saw Bi Bo leaving the building. Out of bewilderment, she followed.

    It was a horrendous scene when Bi Bo headed to the outside. All practitioners were holding all sorts of weaponry as they fought desperately against those mutated insects, as they crawled in aggression with their wriggly, disgusting appearance. "Kiassssk!" Their cries were echoing in the ears of the men, as the stench of blood followed.

    There was one particr figure which caught Bi Bo''s attention. He was standing at the center, the top position, with an ancientnce in his hand dancing wild, protesting against the brutal raid of the insects. Obviously, he got hold of the situation, which exined why the frontline had not been intruded sessfully.

    Bi Bo was amazed, as he mustered thest few words he could mention on a formal journalistic stream.

    "Wee to Green channel, we appreciate your attention as no matter who you are, what your upation is, where you are and what you strive for in life, I believe¡­ that you should be watching this very now on the broadcast. And we, Green channel, shall bring you thetest information on the incident from another perspective."

    The scene was then switched back to the studio, "Our Journalist Bi Bo was on a n of interviewing one academy on Zhou Jian, while fortunately being the survivor of the first wave attack. Now, he is trying his best to present us what exactly is going on in Zhou Jian. And by here, we, the Green Media Corp., show our highest respect towards his profession."

    The visual followed, with an intensive war apparently, of humanity against the primal nature. Thence-wielding man had be the center of attention.

    The war was hideous.

    "Based on the information we have gotten from Bi Bo, he and another survivor are currently located at one building in Ze Xi academy, "The situation was bad," they say, as they have yet to find any rescue team around. These warriors on the field were the students and teachers of the academy itself. Let us apud the bravery they had gathered, for they would not simply let their head down to violence¡­," said the hostess with her sweet voice, grimly.

    The audience rating of Green channel skyrocketed as it was the only channel with an on-the-spot report. The director then received countless sharing request from the other channels, which he, without hesitation, epted promptly.

    The audience stared at the screen, showing immense concern on the fate of Zhou Jian.

    Ance-wielding boy? Of course we know who that was. Apparently, Ye Chong, your skill had caught the attention of the public once again.

    A shy move by a potent impaler, with a cold expressionless face, sweeping the wave away, Ye Chong had ascended as the idol of every youngster out there immediately. When the world needed a hero, a nameless one had appeared with his impable skills.

    "Wow, dude, look at this."

    "I never knew ance could be this great."

    "I am going to be his apprentice."

    "So where do I sign up?"

    The replies flooded the forum board.

    "As far as we have observed, judging by the apparel of this bright young man, he should be a student of Ze Xi academy. Certainly, he had demonstrated us what a fatal attack and an absolute defense are! The situation remained under control with his contribution. Thanks to this hero, again!" Said the hostess intensely.

    "Well, well." Began one of the invited guests, "Ze Xi academy has some great students there, hasn''t it? Such skill from merely a student, I am very amazed. He is the real deal of the martial arts, maybe he is a Jie expert, if you would excuse my crazy spection. He''s really talented for his age, I don''t think it''s a sin to call him a genius." He was a martial arts practitioner as well.

    "Yes I must agree. Ancientnce has been a long-forgotten weaponry for years. Not many practitioners knew the correct way to wield it, probably he''s the only expert remains in our gxy. From his techniques we could see what kind of potential an ancientnce possesses, it''s all about the swing, the sweep and the impale," added the other guest.

    "Please, everyone, do not bother with thence alone, as this boy has some really interesting movement. You could take a look at his steps, tiny yet precise, I would say he''s a very experienced practitioner, too bad we have yet gotten any information on this boy. I am very much curious of his background. Furthermore, as you could see his aiming, somehow he seemed to be fully aware of the weak points of these creatures. It''s a cleaving attack from him at all those points to take them out promptly. Bravo! You could also have look at his chest, particrly his breath, it''s very calm, nothing unnerving could be seen, which means his vitality is at its prime. I salute thee!" This guest was clearly more knowledgeable than the previous two.

    The show went on. The glow was ring the moment he span tip of his spear. That slender silhouette he formed with the guard of his spear had been marked in the mind of the people, causing a trend of ancientncing once again. The visuals had been extracted and madly distributed over the gxy, bing an analyzed tutorial for every fanatic.

    Ye Chong was focused in his fight, being unaware of the craze out there, while thence seemed to have his soul imbued, which would reach every insecting to him.

    The carcasses of insects piled beside his swings, while his cold eyes were giving off a peculiar glow.

    As legend said, once every practitioner achieved the status of a Jie expert, a new unique ability would be unlocked.

    That was when Ye Chong obtained his new ability.

 Chapter 319 - What way?

    <h4>Chapter 319: What way?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The crossing lines of hisnce reflected in his sharp eyes. It looked like as colorful as hallucination when Ye Chong sliced through the insects of all kinds of color crowding upon him.

    What are these?

    There were blue linings over the bodies, which were pale and obscure. Ye Chong realized if he focused on one of them, the blue linings would turn clear, the dots and lines would be extremely bright.

    There were mice?

    The mouse''s eyes were bloodshot, the whiskers were as honed as its fangs. Its limbs were firm, while its dark gray fur were like rustling stiffly.

    4 lines and 3 spots to attack! On the dancing blue lines over the body of the mouse, the few lines shone bright.

    Ye Chong waved hisnce which sank into one spot quietly.

    Kikkk!!!! The mouse squealed and copsed. Ye Chong exerted onest force to take hisnce out, which then blood was spilled over the ce.

    Ye Chong was surprised. Could it be¡­

    He took a look around, as hisnce jerked, aiming those blue spots that shone the brightest in the crowd.

    Kurrrppp!

    Ssh!

    The creatures around shattered! Blood was spilling sky high.

    The camera of Bi Bo had captured this epic moment and everybody else saw it with their own eyes.

    In the rain of blood, the boy stood still with hisnce.

    The ce was soon dead silent, with everybody behind Ye Chong looking zoned out in disbelief.

    Martial arts was a well-established field in He Yue, but the potency of a practitioner had been long undermined by the emergence of pilot, where at one point people began treating martial arts as a mere form of physical training, while the Jie experts had hardly demonstrated their skills. As scarce as visuals of their performance were, Jie experts remained as a myth in the heart of the people despite their living existence.

    Their identity had been redeemed today however, as people once again beheld such amazing performance of his nameless boy. People did not know where he was from, they were not sure if he was a Jie expert himself, but his skill was an eye-opener, an epic execution convincing enough to make people pick up the knuckles and des again.

    As they realized, martial arts could be so great.

    Ye Chong was not expecting to be this influential, reality was however, if it was not his performance, the martial arts in He Yue would soon decline to a stage like its counterpart in the 5 major gxies. He was not only the savior of humanity, but also the salvager of ancient martial arts. His performance eventually became the silver bullet that prolonged the existence of martial arts for the next 500 years, whereby this very boy would be the most significant as well as the most mysterious character in the historical record of martial arts development in He Yue gxy. Teachers of the following generation would also y the visual of this boy''s performance as a motivating source at the beginning of their course.

    Over ages, people had almost forgotten martial arts, it was the first time they had seen such intensive performance.

    The world exploded, in excitement and passion.

    ¡­

    The hostess, as well as the guests at Green channel had their mouth open. A few of them were quivering over anticipation, as they gavements in slurrednguage. Bi Bo was also overwhelmed on spot, as on a few asions he nearly dropped his camera. The visual was shaking, "What the hell! Hold your camera right! You Bibbidi Bobbidi Bo!" Cursed one of the annoyed audience.

    Ye Chong was full-indulged in his new ability, he did not notice the gazillion gazesing from the outer space.

    His style had changed! A menacing strike, under the guidance of those bright blue lines, as the fleshes of the creatures flew again. The audience was stunned, seeing the striking contrast of massacre being conducted by an expressionless boy.

    Slowly Ye Chong realized the meaning of the new addition. The shining point would be the weakness of the creature, which could cost its life if pierced; the blue lines on the other hand, would be the dissecting direction, which would lead to a perfect slice if the lines were followed, causing a devastation on its body.

    Ye Chong was feeling this new ability being identical to the analytical system on the Guardian.

    He pondered so much that he did not notice the weakening attack from the creatures as he jumped into one of the crowds, into action again.

    And soon Ye Chong, in the midst of his hunt, noticed the reality.

    The carcasses were everywhere, and he could see the tails and the legs, coated in green fluids and blood, while the screams echoed within his ears.

    People were amazed. The boys were enthralled, the girls were captivated.

    That coldness of Ye Chong''s face was no longer fear-inducing, rather it had formed a marvelous portrait of one lonesome hero, whose mind was clearer than the water, stronger than the beasts as he stood upon their carcasses with pride, wielding thence in metallic glow.

    "Ye, is that you?" At another corner of He Yue, everyone on the Cob was stunned, while Mu''s mechanical eyes blinked frantically.

    Ye Chong was still unaware of the hidden cameras, as he approached the students and staff, seeing how all of them copsed on the ground out of extreme fatigue. The trainees of the alchemy department were weaving in and out of the group, giving those injured a good bandage and cure.

    The creatures at the academy had retreated, yet the war remained roaring out there. Ye Chong''s brows furrowed, there were other ces being attacked and it would be bad if this would carry on. Their forces were weakening while the waves of creatures seemed endless. In the midst of worry, a few female trainees scurried out of the building, in their drained faces they screamed upon Madam Fei Si, "Madam! Madam! Something¡­ something was making noises at the building¡­"

    "Something? What something?" Everyone had their attention on the girls, as the madam asked worriedly.

    "Ah¡­ Uh¡­" The girls seemed very frightened as they tried to squeeze that very word from their trembling lips, "Mice! I think it''s the mice!" And one of the braver ones shouted, "They seemed to be chipping the walls."

    Gasp.

    Other than Ye Chong, the people flinched, realizing the horrible ability of the rodents, it would be a terror if the mice had bitten through the walls. More people would die¡­

    It seemed hopeless, although Ye Chong did not look regretful, as he had done everything he could. A single man was still a single man against a war of millions, at least he had unlocked a new ability. He walked to an elderly, "Sir, may I ask if you still have any rtive here?" The elderly was apparently the professor of ancient mechanics. While he appeared to be worthless to every other staff, he was the priceless individual that Ye Chong needed, Ye Chong would be taking him away, by hook or by crook.

    "What a strange question," muttered the elderly while he scowled briefly. "I had been alone the whole time, I do not have any other rtive than Madam Fei Si, my mate. So I wasn''t bothered by death either." Oh no, one extra person to hold. Thought Ye Chong as he nced at Fei Is, now how in the Zhou Jian do I lift two persons away safely.

    Madam Fei Si, as witty as she was, caught the undertone of Ye Chong.

    "I am not leaving without everybody," she said firmly, although the people were confused as hell. Her statement did not shake Ye Chong even the slightest though, as he never intended to escort these two persons the gentle way. He already had a few tricks in mind to get Fei Si moving if she was being resistant.

    Without a word, Ye Chong began walking towards the outside, with the people clumsily followed, including Bi Bo.

    The rodents were taking up everyst corner of the academy. Nobody would have imagined such horror in the past. The citizens thought the rats never existed in their life, they had hardly seen them even at the valley, till they saw the entire infantry of the pest. "I can''t believe it." Nope, I believe it - Ye Chong was not surprised, he had seen the simr infantry back on Trash. They were naturally adaptive and highly reproductive that''s why.

    Unless¡­ if I¡­ If¡­

    A crazy idea came into the light of Ye Chong out of the blue, as his schemata ran rapidly on the logical chain, he then had a drastic U-turn, heading back to the building.

    He came to Fei Si at the end of the queue, "Where are the chemical stored by the alchemy department?"

    It was logical for an academy to have a storage as alchemy was a study that would require a shocking amount of reagents daily.

    "Huh?" Fei Si was bewildered, "There, not very far ahead." She pointed at one direction and said.

    "How far is ''not very far''? Be precise!" Ye Chong seemingly did not fancy the vague reply.

    "Uh¡­" It took a moment of ponder, "3000 meters? I guess?"

    3000 meters¡­ that''s 3 kilometers, I would need a mech. Thought Ye Chong as he hmmed at her reply, "You, me, there, now." Concisely he stated, "Both of you as well." He pointed at Mi De and Fatty. He knew their capabilities, they were quick catcher too, just a little timid sometimes.

    Both Mi De and Fatty of course were paralyzed by the cold gaze and stern finger of Ye Chong, they nodded their heads repetitively and walked to his side.

    This unnamed boy probably had an idea to solve the issue somehow. But why the alchemy department? Does he know alchemy? Madam Fei Si, as an alchemist herself, could not picture the rtionship of Ye Chong''s n and the alchemy studies.

    Ye Chong deployed ze-III and pinned hisnce on the wall, then he led Fei Si to the cabin, "Please, allow me toe along." A voice rang behind.

    It was Bi Bo, who also deployed a mech, courteously stating, "Please believe in my ability, as the direct descendant of head of the family himself, Bi Zhibo."

 Chapter 320 - The Descendant of the Great

    <h4>Chapter 320: The Descendant of the Great</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The line of Bi Bo was spread to all corners of the world.

    Wait, that was from the journalist Bi Bo? People were shocked upon hearing the name "Bi Zhibo", who was the very well-known pilot. So Bi Bo was the son of the great pilot himself? The people were skeptical however, wondering what had made a son of an established pilot headed elsewhere for career, like an ordinary journalist for example, since having such a father would have guaranteed him a head start for a sessful career.

    Bi Zhibo? The blonde young man had mentioned lots of names, there was one Bi Zhibo as far as Ye Chong could remember. He took a nce at the determined-looking man, "Alright," nodded Ye Chong. "Come with us."

    "Wow that is just clever!" One of the audience shouted excitingly, "That excuse had worked! Everyone, we could see more of this!"

    Certainly the audience wanted to see more of Ye Chong as they were curious to see a highly skillful martial arts practitioner transforming into a full-time pilot in the field.

    The performance of Ye Chong wassting enough to be remembered by people for a century.

    ze-III was booting there. Although it was a mere model massively manufactured from a factory, somehow it had be a mysterious model as this mysterious boy piloted it. Could it be a modified mech? The audience wondered.

    ze-III was in fact a standard closebat model that nobody really cared due to its averageponents. There were the ckgold shield of Ye family, the maic de better than those you have grown familiar with back in the 5 major gxies.

    Parrying spear was also a standard equipment for all melee models. ze-III had a bnced attack and defense, only the mobility was slightly an eye-opener which Ye Chong aimed at the beginning anyway.

    ze-III might be indecently equipped, but Ye Chong did not show any disdain. The design of the main body was still reasonable, the engine was great, the range of movement by its limbs was wide as well. Weaponry-wise, Ye Chong did not see the significance of adding more ornaments to it since the chance of his weapon breaking was pretty slim during battle. Moreover, having more weapons did not trante as being more potent in battle.

    Ye Chong held Fei Si and got into the cabin, "Hey boy!" Shouted the elderly down there, "Take great care of her! Don''t bother to see me again if she got into something!"

    Mi De, Fatty and Bi Bo also entered their own mechs afterwards.

    Bi Bo''s mech was a spider-model, with 6 gigantic legs holding a t disc body in green. There were a few ranged weapons revealed on its body, reminding the people that his family, particrly the head, Bi Zhibo was known for his godlike shooting skills, although the people wondered if the son of the legend himself would do as good. The spider mech was a radical design of ranged model, which had totally discarded the ability to fight in close-range.

    The mechs both Mi De and Fatty deployed were also the advanced models, which left Ye Chong''s mech looking quite shabby among the four of them.

    Ye Chong soon realized that those blue lines he saw before had disappeared. He could not even see the palest lining anywhere when he looked at his control panel¡­ but when he took a look at Fatty and the others, those faint blue lines would appear again. The density of blue lines probably were directly proportional to his mental concentration.

    Or the blue lines only work on living things?

    Spected Ye Chong in shock, since the ability was really new to him. He had seen simr lines and dots on the Guardian but it worked utterly differently.

    Ye Chong the sensitive fighter was very much disturbed by the constant intrusion of these blue lines, that they still felt distracting even at the palest. Ye Chong wondered if he would be seeing blue lines on every person or animal for the rest of his life, that they would be his target only awaiting to be killed forever.

    If that was the case, it would be horrifying. Ye Chong did not hate ughter but only would do it when there was a need. He would not want to be an actual bloodthirsty barbarian. And histories had taught him that any strong man would be the public enemy once he was tainted by the name of murderer, and soon his demise would arrive.

    "Are you alright?" Said Fei Si, seeing Ye Chong acting odd, "Is there anything wrong?" She was wondering if the fight had fully consumed him just now.

    One cabin and two persons felt a little crammed indeed. Physical contacts were practically unavoidable. Ye Chong would have some muscle memory at the bottom usually when the contacts happened, but the blue lines would disrupt him whenever he took a look at Fei Si.

    Sigh¡­ what a pain. Is it even good to have such ability? At least it seems to be not applicable on non-living things or I should be swallowing an energy firearm now. I wonder if I could resist the urge of slicing through those lines whenever I saw somebody in future.

    The happening was giving Ye Chong chills as cold sweat rolled over his forehead.

    "Are you seriously alright?" Asked Fei Si in concern, "Your face doesn''t look right." Fei Si thought Ye Chong was a man with great stamina, never she would think that he would be so drained after battle.

    "I¡­" Ye Chong''s eyes were wavering, "I don''t know the road, guide me."

    "Aren''t you a student here? How could you not know?" Shocked Fei Si was.

    Beep. Ye Chong showed ignorance as he activated the mech. He had been having his own study on history and literature the whole time, how would he know where the other department was?

    Upon seeing Ye Chong''sck of reaction, Fei Si zipped her mouth afterwards as she stood behind Ye Chong. There was only one seat in the cabin anyway, so Fei Si had to bow and hold the back of Ye Chong''s seat. It was so tiring that Fei Si had already started panting briefly after the activation, with her sweet breath constantly tapping the back of Ye Chong''s neck.

    It was her first time being this close to a man, she was a little nervous.

    Ye Chong on the other hand was feeling nothing other than the itch on his neck. He had a battle to fight in the end.

    They were 3000 meters away from the destination, so they had to fly, as they would only arrive at the destination in the shortest amount of time under the assistance of advanced technology. There were also mutated lifeforms in the sky, but not as many as on the ground.

    "Testing." Ye Chong turned on themunication channel and engaged with the other 3 members. "Yes, we got it."

    "Alright, let''s move." The 4 mechs zoomed into the sky, in a formation of diagonal with Ye Chong at the front.

    Bi Bo connected the camera to the slot of his mech. Now his broadcast would go in a clear view from his mech.

    The audience was anticipating.

    A mutated vulture headed towards them upon eye-contact.

    Ye Chong was already prepared for his first fight. This was just a birdiepared to the time he fought the Steelbats.

    HIs hands gently ced on the control panel. He rose his fingers and¡­ WAIT.

    He realized a critical problem as he sweated heavily, his ze-III retreated to the center of formation, "I could not attack. Protect me."

    Ye Chong was going to start his first barrage of input, but he almost forgot the fact that he was not the only one in the cabin.

    Fei Si! She was still in the cabin. He almost killed Fei Si identally and failed the whole escort mission.

    Fei Si was fragile, with a poor physique not even close to a matured man, and his mech did note with a pressure-buffering protection system. He could still do those dramatic turns but she would be killed as the drastic change of pressure would rupture her bloodstreams! It would depend on her luck if she would also be a st of flesh over the floor.

    With Ye Chong leading, Fatty and the others were once calm towards the enemy ahead. Unfortunately, their trump card suddenly withdrew himself and pushed forward the two novices who failed to react in time, as they still remained at the back.

    Dammit! We are going to crash into the vulture! Ye Chong was sweating heavier. He held the lever carefully as he feared even the slightest eleration would destroy the beauty behind.

    The mutated vulture was approaching and Ye Chong''s blood ran cold. ze-III had already taken a defensive posture but the collision urred upon contact could be fatal to Fei Si, with a chance over 80%.

    I''m sorry Fei Si. I promise I would avenge you¡­ I would-

    Zap!!

    A red beam pierced through the center of the vulture''s head.

    Kiaakkkkk!! The vulture flinched and was grounded very soon after. There was a crater on the ground, with the carcass in one piece. The vulture could be seen as very tough from this.

    The beam was fired by none other than Bi Bo at the back of Ye Chong.

    Phew¡­ Ye Chong was relieved.

    Bi Bo was in fact the descendant of the great.

 Chapter 321 - The Alchemy of Ye Chong, Returns!

    <h4>Chapter 321: The Alchemy of Ye Chong, Returns!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    AH!

    Huh?!

    Mi De and Fatty were suddenly grabbed back to reality from that st of Bi Bo, as they inched towards Ye Chong gracelessly.

    "I don''t get it, why can''t he attack out of sudden?"

    "This is ridiculous."

    The audience was having a fiasco, as they found the sudden withdrawal of the hero strange.

    And Ye Chong gave a brief exnation, which sent chills to everybody. "Did he say there''s ady bowing right behind him?" They could not imagine how Ye Chong could keep a straight face when a beauty was there, but well they could imagine how they would hate themselves if the beauty died because of their carelessness. People did fear if Ye Chong, as thest resort, would eventually neglect the beauty''s fragility and went straight ahead to avenge her by shooting down that mutated afterwards.

    Because of Bi Bo''s camera connected to the system, every exchange urred in theirmunication channel was broadcasted through Green nt channel. So the audience received a lecture about safety of others and how heroes like Ye Chong could be helpless sometimes.

    Nevertheless, the audience was a little underwhelmed by the nameless hero''s premature end of his show, as his ze-III was actually the fragility itself, since with Fei Di in, it could not take neither the slightest collision nor a sudden eleration, which had taken all its avoid-ability away.

    The unexpected guest to save the show was, however, the son of the great pilot, Bi Bo himself.

    There had been statistics on the forum board, stating the fact that Bi Bo - in the 21-time-attacks he delivered - had shot down 23 mutated lifeforms, technically meaning that he had literally killed two birds with one stone, twice. The marksmanship was amazing.

    "Are experts somon these days?"

    "We already have 2 aces out of 4 strangers, man!"

    "This is not even an official military team!"

    Back at Green Media Corp., the director''s back was wetted by cold sweat as the director seemed to be unable to stop the shudders he was making himself. Bi Zhi¡­ Bi Zhibo! Oh my He Yue, Bi Bo''s father has been Bi Zhibo the whole time? No¡­ what have I done? If Bi Bo really could not make it back here alive¡­ his father could be wiping out the entire Green¡­ I had heard stories about his insanity¡­

    "So that''s who Bi Bo actually is¡­" The colleagues stoned upon the visual, as they could not picture that Bi Bo who could hardly harm a fly being the expert of marksmanship. The hostess herself was also stupefied at the happening on screen.

    Bi Zhibo, with his eyes calmly at the screen, was watching his son taking up this sudden trial of his life. There was no pride on his expression, rather, there was worry, as he sighed, "Bo, please, make it back alive¡­"

    Some experts on forum also stated that Bi Bo was using merely a standard model of energy shooter ording to what they had observed. It was not the sniping model as one would have expected, yet Bi Bo was dealing significant amount of damage on the foes. The uracy, the skills, the mentality, with threebined, he was the most frightening silent killer one could imagine.

    Thanks to his contribution, the journey to the building was hassle-free. Those vultures were knocked down the moment they came towards the formation.

    To be honest, Ye Chong was also surprised by the Bi Bo''s skills, till a point he got to admit that ranged weaponry was far more efficient than melee strikers, and Bi Bo was the first perfect representation of that ever since Ye Chong viewed Mu Shang''s performance on Recursion.

    Ye Chong was wondering what could possibly happen if he had a fight with Bi Bo, he might share bit of possibility winning but well that was a meaningless thought, since when one''sbined force reached a certain point, there would be too many factors that could alter the oue of their battle.

    At least there was no blue lining on the visuals. Ye Chong sighed in relief, as he realized there was, luckily, still few limitations to his new ability. Sadly he did not have the leisure to test on his new ability just yet.

    "There!" Fei Si pointed at the building on the screen, in all hope and joy she asserted, "There it is!"

    "All units prepare tond!" Commanded Ye Chong.

    The surrounding of that building was rather emptypared to the disaster out there. There were mutated lifeforms, but only a few of them, which were shot down by Bi Bo promptly. They made theirnding immediately and gathered at the entrance, which seemed to closed. The building had been fully evacuated, seemingly.

    Fei Si went to the entrance, "This is where all the chemicals are stored, the security level here is high." She then took out her identification. The group was feeling thankful of not seeing any more of those mutated lifeformsing.

    The security level is high indeed. Thought Ye Chong as he saw Fei Si performed the verification process, five times, at least.

    Tick. Beep Beep Beep. The gate was opened.

    "Okay, we''re in," stated Fei Si. "Rx, the walls here are made out of super strength alloy, while the interior ispletely shut out to the outside world with its own venttion system." Those descriptions were more thanforting to the team, especially Fatty and Mi De who both copsed to the ground, being d that they somehow had found a fortress to catch their breath.

    "Wait." Fei Si was curious about the n, "You haven''t told us what the n is in your mind." The gazes of the team gathered upon Ye Chong, so were the audience before the screen.

    "Gather things." There was no direct answer from Ye Chong, "Get me Berlin''s Solution, Powdered Emerald, Powdered Seedling, also¡­" He listed around 7 more items and shut his mouthpletely right after.

    So he knew alchemy after all?!

    Really???

    Bi Bo and the other 3 were looking at Ye Chong in bewilderment.

    "Holy Lunaris! He knew alchemy!"

    "Could he stop giving himself more character settings, we are getting a headache over here!" The audience boomed, discussion exploded like fireworks, especially those professional alchemists as they began putting on their thinking cap, figuring out what those items wouldbine into.

    "Oh¡­" A random reply from Fei Si, her mind was more interested on the product of the listed items, but she had never heard of such form in her student''s days. Is he¡­ a real talented alchemist after all? Thought Fei Si, her eyes looking at Ye Chong in disbelief. Well, those materials he mentioned aremon enough to be all inside.

    Ye Chong stared at Fei Si zoning out. He frowned. What the hell is this woman doing right now? Is she actually wasting precious time standing there? How long is she going to th- "So where''s the material?" Ye Chong could not help but to interrupt her session.

    "Oh¡­ OH!" Fei Si was grounded back into reality, her face reddened, "Berlin''s Solution is around ¡­ here¡­" She was very familiar with the building itself so she would guide the team, while Bi Bo and the rest would be the freebor of the day.

    The next moment was confusing to Fei Si, for she saw Ye Chong carrying the entire cab of those mentioned items to the outside. "Do we really need all these?" Wiped her sweats, she asked softly.

    "Mhm." Ye Chong did not give a proper response as he began the alchemy process.

    Berlin''s Solution, as mentioned, was a highlymon reagent and the academy had about 300 tonnes of them in store.

    But obviously it was impossible for Ye Chong to carry out the entire 300 tonnes of them, he took 3 miniature containers, which wasbelled to store 3 tons at once and he did not seem too happy with the negligible amount, as he continuously added all sorts of materials into the solution, skillfully. Those skills, he was an alchemist? Really? The doubt remained in Fei Su''s head. And seriously, what in Zhou Jian he''s making??? Could anyone tell me?

    Bi Bo took his camera and aimed at Ye Chong''s face.

    Ye Chong''s solemn expression was projected throughout the gxy, with no longer the cold cruelty he had during the battle, but the inner focus of a craftsman. Men always look the most charming when they do their work. Absolutely, again, his expression had be the model of the youths afterwards, as they would remember the legend.

    Ye Chong was having his first timebining reagents of such sizable amount. He got to be cautious since the final product could be very harmful, if his form was right.

    Itsted for quite sometime. Ye Chong''s expression remained still, so was Bi Bo''s camera.

    Then he got up and tightly screwed the cover.

    "Alright, we are heading back," said Ye Chong to the 3 men, then he looked at Fei Si, "While you, stay here." The building was evidently safe from the mice''s attack. The structure was clearly for the security of those medications.

    "No!" Shouted Fei Si, "I am going back with you guys!" What does this guy mean I''m staying here? What I''m going to do? And I haven''t know what he had just made! So, I''m not staying here!

    Ye Chong''s brows tightened again. Sang Ling is way stronger than Fei Si. Both are females but why there has to be such a difference between both of them? Does this womanck intelligence or something? If she could use her brain for once¡­ Ye Chong did not intend to carry her along, as he was feeling unpleasant being tied by someone on the battlefield.

    If it was not the condition the elderly had made, he would have dumped this woman. As long as he wanted to take this elderly away, he would have to consider about Fei Si, but that did not mean he would spend the next few precious minutes to have a talk-to with her. Her feelings were never part of his consideration, on condition that he could carry both of them away.

    Ye Chong then deployed ze-III, disying ignorance.

    The remaining men looked at each other, bewildered.

    "Prepare to take off. We each take a container. Bi Bo would ensure the course being clear." Ye Chong had someone attained the charisma after leading the Sangs, his words somehow were very convincing and pressuring, especially with his cold gazes and how he could murder gazillion rodents without a skip on his heart.

    They deployed their own mechs immediately, nobody dared to lift their head and take a look at Fei Si.

    Hmph¡­ Fei Si''s eyes were wet, as she bit her lips, while Ye Chong carried on with negligence.

    The 4 mechs took flight in roars, with Bi Bo leading this time. "Man, Bi Bo is the man of the show this time, his spider mech has weapons everywhere!" Eximed one audience.

    They might be amazed but wonder if it was because of Ye Chong''s godlike performance before, those shootings had only won over a handful of apuse.

    So the audience was more attentive on the containers they carried.

    What are those?

    They seemed to be extremely careful about it. Mi De and Fatty were behaving as if they were embracing a timed bomb. Bi Bo was hitting on his final gambit, as he shot down every single enemy approaching right away.

    The flying disc was firing at all corners, like a shooting stronghold.

    Ye Chong was feeling great with such a strong aid.

    Under the cover of such potent firepower, they arrived by the sky above the main school building gracefully. Bi Bo had shot down everything, that those mechs formerly clearing the sky finally had the opening tond themselves to help their allies on ground.

    Pant¡­ Pant¡­

    Bi Bo''s eyes were red, his breath was heavy. The shooting was stressful, the aiming was tiring.

    He should be joining the professionals with his skill. That was what everybody else thought.

    "My gosh! Is he hacking?"

    "Is he really a reporter?"

    "Only if he''s my teammate in County Struck."

    "Like father''s like son!"

    The audience was fortunate enough to view the show today, as two super experts had emerged from the crowd, with one being the king of marksman, another being the lord ofncer. Both of their backgrounds were also unknown to the audience as well, although most of the spectators were more concerned on the lord ofncer, since it was rather logical for the son of Bi Zhibo to be this great.

    The lord ofncer, one who triumphed over a wave of mutated creatures, who also knows how to do alchemy?!

    The ground around the main school building was densely covered by rodents and insects.

    "Jezuz!"

    "Oh stop!!" The audience felt like throwing up, it was very disgusting.

    "Stay here," said Ye Chong at the channel. "Ye-Yes sir!" The two members quickly replied while Bi Bo remained highly cautious.

    Ye Chong piloted the mech to the ground carefully, right above 100 meters, the floor was suddenly open, and the container got off from his grip.

    Like a meteorite, it crashed to the ground.

    Ssh!

    3 tonnes of liquid spread throughout the ground.

    People were expecting something, but to their disappointment, the rodents seemed to be unaffected by the solution, as it just slipped through their toes.

    "FIRE! Bi Bo! Now!" said Ye Chong.

    Bi Bo was stupefied, "There''s no target for me to-" He realized something as he raised the gun again and pulled the triggered.

    A beam of light hit the container urately.

    And the next moment was again, historical, memorable, impable.

 Chapter 322 - Problem

    <h4>Chapter 322: Problem</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The blue me spread outwards quickly, and everything down below burned up into hell on earth. It was hell for the mutants! The mutants shrieked unceasingly as the blue mes blossomed. The me slowly but surely unfurled outwards!

    Interestingly, there was no smoke. The blue me burned silently. Amidst the silence, the devastating mutant shrieks were chilling. One by one, mutants were reduced to ashes, leaving only their skeletons intact.

    It was chaos down there. The insects that came into contact with the liquid were even more pitiful. Once the blue me caught onto any of them, it would quietly burn with tenacity. No matter how they rolled on the ground, or jumped, or screamed, the me would not die down. The blue me would slowly eat into their skins, and the rats would shriek even more miserably. They would burst into a rage and bite anything around them in a frenzy, but gradually, their lives would be drained from their crimson eyes. The blue me would continue to burn through muscle and flesh, until they turned to ashes.

    Everyone was shocked!

    What an eerie spectacle! What a strange blue me! Even Valiance looked eerie, quietly hovering in midair!

    Everyone was stunned by this most curious scene.

    Even though the mechs were already flying high above, the heat rolling off the mes forced them to climb up even higher.

    Even Ye Chong was shocked! He had only wanted to produce a strong mmable liquid, since he knew that almost all organisms would be wary of fire. The Bluefire chemical was the most usable of all the forms he remembered.

    In Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip, the introduction to this liquid was simple. "Bluefire is a highly mmable liquid, suitable forbustion. It originated from the Fei Family." In Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip, anything that did not originate from the Guan Family would be specified clearly.

    Ye Chong did not know of any Fei Family or whatnot, but since Lunatic Guan had described it as a strong mmable liquid, it should not be a problem.

    In fact, the description was too simple that Ye Chong was beginning to worry about its effectiveness. However, he never imagined that the liquid would be so resistant. It was a good thing that Ye Chong had thrown the bottle of liquid far from the school building, or he would have hurt the students.

    A long time ago, the Bluefire chemical form was a well protected secret of the Fei Family, which enjoyed a long history in alchemy. The mes burned blue, and served as a defense measure for students of the Fei Family. Back then, the Bluefire chemical was so famous that Ye Chong would never have imagined it. As time passed, powerful families withered, and energy weapons rose to be weapons of the new age as it predecessors faded into history. Lunatic Guan had precisely searched for the form for this long forgotten Bluefire chemical because she had seen it mentioned more than a few times in the literature left from long ago, speaking of its great power.

    However, times had changed. Even the once rare materials used to synthesize the Bluefire chemical were now but the most basic materials for alchemy. Lunatic Guan did not study the Bluefire chemical any further. She had much too many options for self defense, most of them safer and more effective than the Bluefire chemical.

    Once, the Fei Family would only produce small bottles of this chemical. No one would produce tons of it like Ye Chong did!

    The world was silently mesmerized by the quietly burning blue mes. Everyone watched the holographic screen before them speechlessly!

    Mi De could feel the goosebumps all over him. He was sweating all over, as if he was in a desert. However, his extremities were ice cold. Even his heart was nearly frozen. The thought of his mech carrying such a dangerous chemical made him shudder.

    All the students and teachers at the school building paled, be it those in the building or the ones in their mechs. They were the ones closest to the blue mes. Some of them even felt their hair curling and drying up due to the heatwave from the mes.

    The ferocious mutants were slowly quieting down now. The blue mes continued to burn silently.

    Ye Chong had already recovered from his shock. He spoke to Mi De and Fatty through thems channel, "Throw the bottles in your hand down below, take care to aim carefully."

    Ye Chong¡¯s words startled them, and Fatty nearly lost control of his mech. The two of them moved ever so slowly and carefully, flying towards the two other corners of the school building and dumping the bottle of liquid in their hands down to the ground, before sprinting back to Ye Chong.

    Bi Bo¡¯s face was white as a sheet, and even missed a few shots. Fortunately, he lit up the chemicals in the end.

    Perhaps people would slowly get used to mech battles; perhaps a battle between warships would not be staggering anymore; perhaps even a exploding would not be shocking news. Nevertheless, they were all afraid of this blue me.

    This was a primeval and mysterious force, burning so strongly that the mutants were reduced to ashes right before their eyes. It took only minutes, from just a blue me.

    Humans will always be afraid of the unknown.

    The students and teachers in the school building all stopped whatever they were doing and watched in stupefaction.

    From high above, three blue flowers burned, forming a triangle around the school building. Beside the blue flowers, little wisps of blue mes were scattered about. These came from the mutants that were burned, scurrying away madly, but quickly losing their lives to the fire. The blue me did not stop then, but continued to burn.

    The rats retreated. All the mutants retreated, running away faster than the way they first entered the scene.

    The heat from these three sources of blue mes soon began to overwhelm some members of the fairer sex. All the mechs now served as transport, since no one dared to walk close to the blue mes.

    The fire burned on for three days and three nights. Just as the people learned to fear the fire, some of them also began to realize its worth. They had all heard Ye Chong pronouncing all the ingredients for this chemical. When the blue mes began to burn, almost every alchemist began to look for the ingredients that the mysterious young man had listed down.

    However, no matter how they tried, they could not replicate the power of the Bluefire chemical. D*mn that Bi Bo! Why record only the face? Why? They did not see how the young man produce the chemical, nor the amount of each ingredient used.

    From that day on, a new problem was introduced into the field of alchemy. The problem was so well known that almost every alchemist knew about it, and can even easily recall the eight ingredients for it.

    If was not until three decadester that an alchemist called Charles solved the form for the Bluefire chemical and gained instant fame.

    Of course, Ye Chong would not know about all these. Looking down at the blue mes, he began to calcte its effective range and possible applications.

    Students who were left in the school building were escorted by the remaining mechs to the medical block, where Fei Si was. The truth was, no one wanted to stay in the school building any longer. The terrifying blue me had left a deep mark in their psyche. The medical building had a more solid structure, so there was no danger of the freaky insects entering the building.

    Everyone still looked taxed from their experience. Just the day before, they were but normal teachers or students, but in the past few hours, they were plunged into a battle of life and death. They watched theirrades being engulfed by the wave of mutant rats, or their beloved teachers swallowed up by the mutants.

    It was horrible! Everyone¡¯s eyes were filled with fear. Just what was happening to them?

    Never had they been so close to death!

    Since Ye Chong was here, there were not many casualties. Most of the victims were students who tried to stop the insects from entering the building. The teachers and students who were fighting against the rats were protected by mechs, so they were mostly safe. However, the mechs were covered with chilling bite marks. The old man himself was only slightly injured, mostly because hisbat style was simply too bold. Once he began fighting, he would be oblivious to his own safety.

    Ye Chong remained silent, sitting in his corner.

    However, no one dared to be disrespectful to him. In some ways, he was everyone¡¯s savior. His excellentbat skills and the terrifying Bluefire chemical he produced left him shrouded in mystery.

    The most curious thing about him, though, was the fact that no one recognized him. No one knew his name or specialty.

    Ye Chong closed his eyes for a very simple reason. No one would be happy to see blue lines dancing everywhere. More importantly, he was considering something. This being the matter of how to return to the of Yi Ju safely.

    Sang Pu and the rest did not know about Ye Chong¡¯s situation, and Ye Chong did not try to contact them. They would not be of help, being far away on Yi Ju. It would take some time for them to reach him. He would to have to deal with his problems alone. As Ye Chong suspected, Sang Pu and the rest were indeed ignorant of his situation. As Ye Chong had ordered for them to learn how to hide their aura before being allowed to leave the base, none of them had left.

    While Ye Chong had supplied plenty of resources for the base, they did not include any kinds of entertainment or virtual world connection facilities. Of course, the Sang Tribe had no concept of entertainment; Hai Lian and the others were being trained harshly under Sang Pu, who could not stand having mediocre subordinates, so they did not even have time to consider such luxuries.

    Ye Chong would have flew away in Han Jia in search of a starship, if it were him alone. He was not afraid of the mutants in the skies. However, he had decided to bring Old Jalopy and Fei Si with him. The old man was the most important and Fei Si was only a bonus.

    As he reached the school building, Ye Chong finally sighed in relief. The old man and Fei Si were safe for now. That meant he was finally able to head out and find a starship.

    Ye Chong deployed Valiance, ready to search for a starship. Without a starship, escape was impossible. Bi Bo, being a professional, wanted to tag along with Ye Chong, but Ye Chong¡¯s unfriendly re had him sitting back down quietly in his corner. He would not dare to fight against this killer. Besides, the fact that they had so many survivors wasrgely due to this mysterious young man. It would be unwise now to invite public wrath.

    Zhou Jian¡¯s docking zone was a wreck. Bodies lying here and there bore testimony to the disaster that had struck this ce. Numerous starships were left at their stations. The hustle and bustle long associated with this ce was absent, leaving only a dead silence.

    Ye Chong searched the bodies carefully, and soon found a starship¡¯s signkey. Based on the identity number on the signkey, he took only three minutes to find the corresponding starship. It was an ordinary midsized starship. He activated the signkey and opened the hatch to the starship. Ye Chong went inside. The ship was empty. Everything looked organized inside. It seemed that the starship¡¯s crew did not make it.

    However, Ye Chong quickly discovered a significant problem. He was only a single person. Even with the old man and Fei Si, they were only three. How could three people fly a starship? Once, Ye Chong did not have to worry about these problems. It was only now that he realized how blessed he was before!

    What a quandary!

 Chapter 323 - Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 323: Ambush</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong exited the starship. Just then, he heard a rush of footsteps. Amidst the silence, he could hear them clearly. Based on Ye Chong¡¯s sharp hearing, he could identify 12 people!

    Ye Chong bent down and hid behind the starship. He could make out a group of huge men surrounding a young boy, about eight or nine years old. The boy wore a white formal attire, looking around himself with hisrge and dark, keen eyes. The 11 men around him did not look particrly strong physically, but their eyes betrayed their keen senses.

    Ye Chong found it odd. While these men looked sharp, their physique and stride indicated that they were not particrly skilled. Another curious thing was, they all had energy guns holstered by the waist. A few of them even had energy guns in their hands. This was the first time Ye Chong had seen anyone in He Yue gxy armed with an energy gun.

    These 11 men might not be particrly skilled physically, but from their formation and the wariness in their eyes, it was clear that they were well trained. The twelve of them were walking towards a starship.

    "So the docking zone was also attacked," the young boy sighed wearily, with a sense of maturity that belied his age.

    One of the men bent down and said to him, "Young Master Ming, our ship is straight ahead. We¡¯ll leave here soon. The Tribe Leader wished for you to return home as soon as possible. She¡¯s very worried about you."

    The young boy frowned andined, "Back to that dull ce again. Just when I thought I can finally enjoy a few years outside, and now this had happened." His expression turned into one of rumination. It was cute, seeing a young boy showing an adult expression, but none of the men around himughed.

    "It must be man-made!" The young boy deduced, "Any clues?"

    "None," the leader of the subordinates shook his head. "The Tribe Leader also thinks that it¡¯s a man-made disaster, but no one knows who¡¯s behind it yet. If the perpetrator is found, they will meet death so easily." The subordinate spoke earnestly. Indeed, if the perpetrator was identified, they would be public enemy number one of the entire gxy.

    The young boy spoke ruthlessly, "If I find out who did this ¡­ Humph, d*mn it, ruining my vacation! Unforgivable!" He gesticted wildly in excitement. The subordinates around him could not help a smile this time.

    Lying in hiding near them was Ye Chong, who had nned to make use of them the moment he saw them. What hecked now were crew members for his ship. These people were here just in time! It was obvious that they were nning to fly their own starship and leave this ce. They must know how to fly a ship.

    Ye Chong was like a hunter, lying in waiting for the perfect moment. The blue lines in his sight continued to dance around. The dots and lines would shift along with the movements of the people in this group. This gave him a headache.

    As they got nearer and nearer to his location, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened.

    They were now only 10 meters apart. Ye Chong chose an excellent location, shaded from view, and with a metal te blocking right in front of him. The close distance was very much preferred by Ye Chong as abat expert.

    To get within 10 meters of a Jie expert was definitely a fatal mistake!

    Ye Chong bent his knees and sprinted, staying close to the ground as he headed straight towards the group! The ambush startled them all!

    They were too close together!

    The short distance resulted in a nightmare for the victims of a Jie expert with explosive strength.

    The man closest to Ye Chong could only lift his energy gun halfway before Ye Chongnded a gentle chop on his neck, disabling him.

    The rest of the men were well trained, and kept theirposure despite the surprise. The man right next to the young boy quickly grabbed the young master close to him. The rest of them surrounded the young master, staying between him and Ye Chong.

    Those with guns took their shot immediately without care for theirrade.

    It would be a terrible disgrace if Ye Chong managed to let them get away given the short distance between them. He stepped lightly, easily avoiding the shots. It was theirrade who got injured, but he held himself admirably and did not even sigh in pain.

    Ye Chong was surprised by their shooting skills! Just now, at least three of the energy beams barely grazed past him. In fact, Ye Chong could see from the way these men reacted, shooting back calmly despite his ambush, that they were no average bodyguards!

    However, even the best shooters would lose against a Jie expert in close rangebat.

    Ye Chong moved evasively like a shadow, making himself a difficult target. This group of men were skilledbat expertspared to most, but they were still full of holes in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes. If he wanted to kill them, they would have all been dead by now. However, Ye Chong needed all of them alive, hence the extra effort.

    The young boy was the key! Ye Chong slipped in like a fish, pushing his hands against the men!

    Bam! A few men were thrown outwards like an explosion.

    There were two left in front of Ye Chong. The man kept the young master firmly behind him, staring straight at Ye Chong.

    What a sharp gaze! Ye Chong was impressed, but also curious. Why would these people be so easy to defeat?

    On the other hand, why was he still looking so calm?

    Suddenly, Ye Chong felt a dangerous aura! He moved without thinking, stomping down strongly on the ground, crushing the flooring beneath him as he jumped to the side!

    It was this instinctive reaction that saved his life!

    An energy beam as thick as a finger shot through his arm, where his heart was just milliseconds ago.

    The pain! Ye Chong could not remember thest time he was injured, and now he had nearly lost his life. On his left arm was a bloody wound that went right through his arm, big enough to fit a finger through it. The edges of the wound were seared ck, and his skin was slightly burnt from the energy beam. Ye Chong did not have time to check if it had hit bones. As long as it was a flesh wound, a few hours was all it would take for him to recover himself.

    D*mn it, there was someone else!

    Ye Chong felt a chill down his spine. What a terrifying shooter! From the beginning of his ambush, he had moved swiftly throughout, an elusive shadow in the men¡¯s eyes. To think that the shooter could fire so urately at him despite his speed! If he had not stepped aside at thest minute, that shot would have killed him!

    The timing of the shot was also wless. Seeing hisrades being defeated one by one, thest man still managed to use his young master as bait. He must be a seasoned veteran.

    Swoosh!

    Another energy beam grazed past Ye Chong¡¯s ear and hit the ground in front of him.

    He felt a deep chill. Ye Chong could feel death closing in on him. His leg muscles suddenly expanded. This was no time to hold himself back! With the September Lan Family¡¯s techniques, Ye Chongunched himself forward, his steps seemingly light, but full of power.

    The strongpound floorings crumbled under his heavy footsteps, filling the air with debris. The dust also made Ye Chong¡¯s figure even harder to see clearly.

    Ye Chong was now giving all he had! This was the fastest he had ever been!

    He saw the man leading the young master away hurriedly, and ran towards them under the cover of the debris. As long as he could get his hands on the young master before he was shot by that hidden sniper, it would be his win.

    Ye Chong shifted his position frequently, advancing quickly like an elusive ghost. However, the danger that he felt from earlier never disappeared. Ye Chong believed that the sniper was better than this.

    Despite his indirect advance forward, he was slowly closing in on the man and the young boy.

    Three meters! Only three meters. What was three meters to a Jie expert? It was only a step away.

    Ye Chong suddenly inclined forward, making ready to leap!

    The feint worked.

    Swoosh! Another energy beam shot past, bruising Ye Chong¡¯s scalp as it hit the ground, leaving a big hole.

    The opening was there. Ye Chong¡¯s bent knees straightened,unching himself forward. The man suddenly turned around, hoping to dy Ye Chong if for a moment. He knew exactly how capable hisrade was. Even with a slight dy, this terrifying ambusher would be dead for sure.

    However, Ye Chong was still clear headed. The man saw a blur of movement and lost sight of the ambusher. Immediately after, he heard the young master¡¯s pained cries. The ambusher¡¯s hand was around the young master¡¯s neck, and he was looking coldly back at him.

    The young master wore an expression of agony.

    "Come out," Ye Chong said coldly, and finally rxed a little. He did not forget to keep his hostage right in front of him. He was still shaken by the strength of that hidden sniper.

    Ye Chong finally found the sniper. This was not due to his sharp eyesight, but the blue lines he saw. The sniper was well hidden. With Ye Chong¡¯s amateur skills, he would never have found him. Even so, the blue lines he saw showed the exact picture of the sniper in ambush.

    "What excellent camouge skills," Ye Chong thought to himself, impressed. It was impossible to see the sniper with the naked eye. Besides, the location of choice was ideal to cover hisrades. He could only see faint blue lines on the sniper, but none of the bright blue lines of blue dots.

    Ye Chong¡¯s left arm was already disabled, hanging lifelessly beside him. Blood gushed freely from the wound, flowing down along the arm, along the fingers, and finally dripping on the ground.

    Thest man standing before him spoke in a low voice, "Who might you be? Why do you attack us? I think there must be some sort of mistake ¡­"

    Ye Chong ignored the man and narrowed his eyes. He put more strength into his grip, looked straight at the sniper¡¯s location, and said, "Come out."

    The man standing before him paused. This person was strong!

    "You win," a hoarse, male voice said. The sniper finally stood up from his hiding ce.

    He could see bright blue dots and blue lines on him. If Ye Chong could still move his left hand, he would have thrown his dagger at that very moment. Having such a dangerous character near him felt highly threatening.

    Too bad his left hand was disabled.

    The ambusher lifted his hands high above his head as he came forward. Ye Chong finally saw the dangerous character clearly. The man had a square head with wiry hair, and hard facial features. There were horrible wounds spread all over his face like a web.

    The scariest part about him, however, was his hollow, lifeless eyes.

    "Hit them unconscious," Ye Chong said to the sniper.

    The sniper obeyed acted hesitation, rendering all the other bodyguards unconscious, including thest one standing. He did not y any tricks. That would be unwise against a Jie expert.

    "Bring them here."

    The sniper worked like aborer, carrying all the unconscious men into the starship that Ye Chong had opened. Looking at all the unconscious men, Ye Chong finally allowed himself some satisfaction.

    Bam! The sniper was also taken out, lying unconscious with the rest. The young boy in his grip was also given the same treatment.

    Ye Chong finally heaved a sigh of relief. His face was growing pale. Now, he must treat his wounds, or he would suffer heavily from blood loss.

    Before seeing to his wounds, however, Ye Chong took out the red tendrils and tied them all up securely. These red tendrils were a specialty produce from the Red Sea, with incredible strength. The ones Ye Chong had with him were of the finest quality. It would be impossible to escape from them with brute force.

    After all that, Ye Chong finally headed towards the medical bay. Every starship was equipped with medical facilities, since space voyages were typically very long.

    Ye Chong returned to Ze Xi Academy five hours after he left. Beside looking a little pale, with an extra hole in his left sleeve, Ye Chong did not look like an injured man. He had spent some time to treat the wounds of a few of the injured men. He did not want the captives that he went through so much trouble for to die from blood loss. His efforts and injuries would have been for nothing then.

    Fei Si noticed Ye Chong¡¯s return and ran to him in a panic. "Good! You¡¯re back. Sigh, they¡¯re infected by a virus."

    "Virus?" Ye Chong was surprised.

    Fei Si nodded. "Yes. it must a mutation of the H virus. Only the wounded students and teachers were infected." She brought Ye Chong to see a few infected students. They looked ghastly with brown spots all over their bodies as theyy curled up on the floor.

    Ye Chong was startled. "You mean, all those who were wounded are now infected?" He remembered clearly that Old Jalopy was also injured.

    Fei Si hesitated for a moment before replying, "That¡¯s very likely. In humans, the H virus was transmitted through blood. In other animals, however, they can be transmitted in many other ways."

    "How did you verify that it¡¯s the H virus? Why do some of the other injured ones still look alright?" Ye Chong asked as he took a nce over at Uncle Jalopy, who still seemed to be in good health.

    Fei Si exined, "My teacher and I study the H virus. The H virus cany dormant for an uncertain amount of time. Some will take a lot longer, and others shorter. It can go up to 10 years, or as short as 24 hours for the symptoms to show." She spoke with concern.

    Ye Chong looked straight at Fei Si and asked, "Is there any cure?" He could only be thankful that Old Jalopy was still looking alright for now. However, if the infection remained, the old man would be just like a time bomb waiting to explode.

    Where else could he find an expert in ancient machinery?

    Fei Si looked crestfallen. "It¡¯s a pity that the chips are lost. They have information on about 30 thousand over mutations of the H virus that my teacher and I have discovered. There might have been clues in them. Sigh, they were my teacher¡¯s legacy." The chips were already stomped to pieces by the mutant rats. However, she also knew that this was not the time to dwell on these matters. After some pondering, she said, "We can analyze the structure of this particr strain of H virus, and see if a cure can be derived."

    "If?" Ye Chong frowned. He did not like the word.

    "Yes, I cannot guarantee a cure," Fei Si exined helplessly, "The H virus is highlypatible with other viruses, and is frequently used for cultivation purposes. That¡¯s the scariest part of this type of virus."

    "How will you analyze its structure?" Ye Chong asked.

    When it came to technical questions, Fei Si replied promptly, "An ultra-micro analyzer will do." She added, "Only Engradie Academy has it. They have the resources."

 Chapter 324 - Chance Encounter I

    <h4>Chapter 324: Chance Encounter I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "My deardy, how can I be of service?" This came from a young man in ck formal wear. He was a handsome fine man with an air of politeness and a smile that spelt mischief; in short - he was adykiller. In fact, he had a long and sessful history of winning over girls. Aside from that, given the situation, who would reject his advances? Heughed to himself inside as he looked at the woman in white training garb before him confidently.

    If his guards had not arrived at the academy in time, the academy grounds would have been full of corpses by now. The nte Family had a thousand mech pilots stationed on Zhou Jian. While it was a pity that only 500 of them came to his rescue, Xiye was already quite satisfied. The academy¡¯s safety was now in his hands.

    When Engradie Academy was plunged into crisis, the 500 war mechs had arrived to restore order. They quickly cleared the academy grounds of mutants and rescued many students and teachers.

    As an aristocrat, Xiye understood his advantage. The nte Family was on par with the likes of aristocratic families like the Shi Family and the Mi Family. While they were still a level below the Three Aristocratic Families, it did not really matter. Here in Engradie Academy, he was free to do as he pleased. There were only two people he had to be wary about, but they did not seem to be in the school at the moment.

    He knew that true descendants of any of the Three Aristocratic Families would receive secret internal training since young. It was when they were 14 years old that they would be sent to other Academies for further studies, and always under disguise. Only the nte Family that specialized in intel would know of this secretive precaution.

    The young woman in white before him had hooked his interest. What with her refreshing aura! Tsk tsk, she must be some kind ofbat expert, and she kept a serious expression on her face. Xiye imagined her looking sweet and mellow beside him, and felt his pulse quickened. However, he also thought it odd - such a peculiardy should be famous in the academy, so why had he never heard of her? And who was that girl she was carrying on her back? Was it her sister?

    "For shame, for shame, I¡¯ve neglected my research," Xiye thought to himself.

    Rui Bing took a nce at Xiye. She was obviously not taken by the man in ck formal wear. Her expression turned cold as she said inly, "Please leave."

    "What a personality!" Xiye¡¯s eyes lit up. As an experienceddies¡¯ man, he could tell the character of the other party with just few words. He smiled sincerely and said, "Please believe me, I mean no harm. Your sister does not look well, is she ill? We have professional doctors here, perhaps they might be able to assist you." Roundabout ways to speaking were usually quite effective.

    Rui Bing¡¯s face showed hesitation. On her back, Shi Fuyin was indeed not in good condition. She could feel the heating from her back. Shi Fuyin was having a fever.

    "Thank you," Rui Bing answered sinctly, but not looking the least bit grateful. Aside from Ye Chong, she did not like talking to other men.

    Xiye bowed slightly and replied politely, "I¡¯m deeply honored to be of service!" He was secretly pleased. If she epted his help, the rest will be easier.

    Shi Fuyin was not well. However, with the excellent facilities avable at Engradie Academy, and Xiye¡¯s ingratiation, Shi Fuyin¡¯s condition was eased.

    Rui Bing ignored Xiye. She sat down cross-legged and did not move, guarding Shi Fuyin.

    Ye Chong andpany finally arrived at Engradie Academy. Together with him were Bi Bo, Mi De, Fatty and Fei Si. The rats had vanished from the streets, but it was still a horrible sight to behold. The roads were lined with corpses, and there were traces of blood and organs everywhere. Some of the bodies were already chewed to an unrecognizable state. The buildings that lined the streets were also in desperate need of repair.

    Even someone like Ye Chong, who was no stranger to chaos, was moved by the sight of the disaster. The rest of them were even more so. Bi Bo¡¯s recorder brought this spectacle to his viewers. The video caused quite a stir. Many of the audiences vomited on the spot. Fear and panic began to spread among the public.

    Mi De and Fatty quickly noticed the recorder in Bi Bo¡¯s hands. They were not like Ye Chong, who did not recognize what it was. Due to their family backgrounds, they were sensitive to reporters. Bi Bo quickly noticed their attention on him and switched off his recorder. Bi Bo¡¯s decision invited protests from the audience. Five secondster, the customer service department of the Green Channel was overwhelmed by numerous requests. The entire Group grew extremely anxious, but Bi Bo had not only switched off his recorder, but also hisms device as well.

    What happenedter, and where the nameless young man had vanished to, remained mysteries till today.

    The holographic screen turned dark.

    "Boss Mu, are we going to Zhou Jian ?" Lian Yue asked carefully. Zhu Ling and Little Rock both looked to Mu. Only Qiu Man gave a coldugh.

    Mu shook hisrge head. "No, our position is too weak for now. The probability of us being destroyed before reaching Ye is above 95 percent. Besides, it will take at least 25 days for us to reach Zhou Jian. By then, there is an 80 to 85 percent probability that Ye has left the. Many experts on the virtual world were recently focusing on Zhou Jian. I had no opportunity to hack in."

    Everyone went silent.

    At Engradie Academy.

    An ugly looking middle-aged man shook his head vigorously. "Ultra-micro analyzer? No, no. What can a young woman like you do? Don¡¯t worry, our academy¡¯s experts are all working on it, there will be results out soon. Rest assured, once the results are out, our academy will publish it all for public ess."

    Everyone exchanged nces speechlessly. Mi De and Fatty each went to one side of the overweight middle-aged man. Mi De smiled and said, "Come on now, Director. We¡¯re just using that bl*ody thing for a while, really, it¡¯s just for a moment, just a very short while."

    The Director of Teaching Affairs immediately cut him off and yelled angrily, "What bl*ody thing? That¡¯s an ultra-micro analyzer, an ultra-micro analyzer, alright? The only one on the entire!" The director gestured emotionally with his one fat finger.

    "Yes yes yes!" Fatty quickly continued the exchange, putting on a ttering smile. "Don¡¯t mind him, Director, what would he know? This ultra-micro analyzer is the most precious thing, only an aristocratic academy like ours will have. The youngdy¡¯s from a public academy, she¡¯s never seen anything so high tech. Yeah, we should let her get a taste of it, err, educating students from other academies is also one of the noble duties of our fine academy!" Fatty spoke while quietly passing a card over to the Director.

    The Director of Teaching Affairs caressed the card in a familiar gesture and immediately smiled and nodded, "You know best, fatty! Hmm, now that I think about it, you¡¯re right, we and the Ze Xi Academy have shared a long history of friendship. Assisting them with their students is also a good deed! Ha, a marvellous idea!"

    Mi De and Fatty quickly nodded and smiled agreeably while the rest of the group watched in stupefaction.

    The Director led everyone into the alchemy building, reminding them, "There are many wounded, and the academy¡¯s hospital is damaged, so the wounded students are all ced here. Please try to stay quiet and not disturb the patients."

    Everyone nodded, thinking that the Director¡¯s attitude towards the students was actually not bad.

    "Sister Bing, it¡¯s so stuffy in here, I¡¯d like to go out," Shi Fuyin spoke softly. "As expected, they are a pair of beautiful sisters," thought Xiye, who had waited near them for some time. As an expertdykiller, he knew the importance of patience. How can one expect to have a beautifuldy¡¯s willingpany without some patience? What he was doing now was akin to slowly simmering a dish, awaiting its final result.

    "Hmm, alright!" Rui Bing opened her eyes and abruptly stood up. She lifted Shi Fuyin easily and left for the outdoors, moving quickly without giving so much as a nce at Xiye nearby. If he had not helped Shi Fuyin to secure a spot for treatment, she would have physically forced the annoying man away.

    A group of people wasing from in front of her, led by a middle-aged man that looked like on of the higher-ups of the academy. Rui Bing slowed down her steps.

    Ye Chong was now having a considerable headache. Blue lines were jiggling all over his vision, annoying as h*ll. If not for his mental fortitude, he would have gone crazy. He could even feel his vision degraded because of them.

    Ye Chong unknowingly took a nce at Rui Bing,ing from opposite the corridor.

    Rui Bing stopped abruptly, her eyes glowing bright as she yelled coldly, "Who is it?" Her white training garb fluttered in the still air.

    Ye Chong felt like his head was whacked, and the blue lines vanished from his vision. This sudden change startled him greatly.

    Thedy in the snow white training garb! Ye Chong stopped walking despite otherwise.

    He looked at the woman carrying another youngdy, wearing that familiar snow white training garb. Her face was as refreshing and crisp as clear snow. Ye Chong¡¯s mental impression of the face wearing the white training garb now turned up clearly.

    The white training garb enveloped a pair of soft but callused hands. Her smooth, fair neck, and that unforgettable sweetness that he tasted on the tip of his tongue all came back to him.

    Rui Bing¡¯s eyes alsonded on Ye Chong. Did that feeling of being watchede from him? The person looked familiar, be it his figure or his movements, but the face was a stranger to her.

    Ye Chong stared dumbly at Rui BIng. He was reminded of Shang, of Mu, and of his time at Blue Ocean Academy. For a moment, he was lost in his memories.

    The rest of the group gave a curious look at Rui Bing, who was carrying Shi Fuyin. What¡¯s with the question? No one did anything strange. The Director of Teaching Affairs began to lecture, "Dear student, please lower your voice, don¡¯t disturb the other students ¡­"

    The first to notice Ye Chong¡¯s strange behavior was Fei Si. His face was nk most of the time, so the sudden emotions that showed on his face was too obvious to go unnoticed.

    Ye Chong recovered himself, and quickly thought of a very important question that needed answering. He finally stepped forward before Rui Bing.

    "It¡¯s me!" Ye Chong said. He was not sure if thedy in the white training garb still remembered him.

 Chapter 325 - Chance Encounter II

    <h4>Chapter 325: Chance Encounter II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing felt a jolt, nearly dropping Shi Fuyin from her arms. Shi Fuyin gasped sharply, holding tightly onto Rui Bing. Rui Bing seemed to not hear her sharp cry, her eyes staring straight at Ye Chong in disbelief.

    Just then, a wind blew, and Rui Bing¡¯s eyes lit up with pleasant surprise. It was the smell! While the man lookedpletely different from him, the smell was definitely his! Ever since young, he was the only man she had ever been so physically intimate with. She recalled thest time he licked her neck, and her fair neck colored instantly. It was also that moment that allowed Rui Bing to remember Ye Chong¡¯s body scent.

    This man before her was Ye Chong, she was sure of it.

    To the rest of the group, the cold eyes of thisdy in white seemed to melt in that instant, as she looked longingly at Ye Chong.

    "Could this be Sister Bing¡¯s dream man?" Shi Fuyin studied the man curiously. His almost terrifying face had shocked her. What a pitiful man! This was Shi Fuyin¡¯s first thought. However, she was also very curious of him. The others may not see it, but Shi Fuyin could see the blush on Rui Bing¡¯s neck clearly. For a man to win Sister Bing¡¯s heart, he must had his admirable traits.

    Shi Fuyin could read people¡¯s emotions easily. She could see Xiye¡¯s ttering efforts clearly, but she could also easily sense Rui Bing¡¯s coldness and even distaste towards him. Whether it was his demeanor or his actions, Xiye was full of aristocratic qualities. The fact that Rui Bing despised ttery from such a man, but loved another man like this instead was very curious indeed!

    Ye Chong and Rui Bing looked at each other in silence, remembering their past.

    No one could have not guessed the rtionship between these two. All of them stayed quiet. Fei Si wore aplicated expression. She was not sure what exactly she was feeling, except that it was not exactly pleasant.

    Could she have actually fallen for him? The idea suddenly came to her, and startled Fei Si. However, she quickly rejected it. How was that possible? The man was so cold, an apathetic fool. He was ugly, and had even pped her. There was nothing good about him at all. How could she have fallen for him? What a ridiculous idea!

    However, the image of bodies covering the floor, and of a young man holding ance steadily at the center came unbidding to her mind. She also remembered his focused expression when performing alchemy.

    Fei Si suddenly felt her cheeks burn a little. She looked around her guiltily, and rxed when she found no one watching.

    "Let¡¯s find a room," Ye Chong looked at the group around them. This was not the ce to talk.

    "Alright," Rui Bing replied without hesitation.

    Mi De muttered by the side, "No way, Boss, that¡¯s too much! You¡¯re gonna do it right after you meet?"

    Fatty nodded as well. "Yeah, that¡¯s right. Boss is Boss alright, you¡¯re too straightforward! I like it!" Fei Si heard their discussion and blushed even more. The Director of Teaching Affairs, on the other hand, looked like he was also moved by their reunion as he looked at the pair happily.

    Rui Bing looked at Shi Fuyin in her arms, and Shi Fuyin immediately offered, "Sister Bing, why don¡¯t you let me down, I¡¯d like to stand for awhile."

    Rui Bing nodded, and put Shi Fuyin down.

    In one of the rooms, Ye Chong and Rui Bing looked at each other speechlessly. After a long moment, Ye Chong finally spoke up, "Why are you here too?"

    "I was kidnapped," Rui Bing answered simply.

    Ye Chong was surprised. "Kidnapped?"

    Rui Bing nodded, saying, "I don¡¯t know the reason for it."

    "So that¡¯s how it is ¡­" Ye Chong was a little disappointed. He had thought Rui Bing would know how she arrived here. He thought of something else, and asked, "How are Grandpa Qian and the rest?"

    "They¡¯re well."

    They exchanged words back and forth like this in a in manner. If anyone were there to hear it, their jaws would drop. However, the two of them feltfortable with it.

    Suddenly, they ran out of topics to talk about.

    Silence filled the room for a long moment.

    Rui Bing lowered her head and suddenly asked a very sharp question, "When are you ready to marry me?"

    "Marry?" Ye Chong paused. He was no longer as oblivious as before, and finally had a better sense of what marriage implied. He tilted his head at Rui Bing and asked, "Why should I marry you?"

    "You kissed me," Rui Bing answered, wasting no words. Her neck was turning red again, but she kept her gaze firmly on Ye Chong.

    "Kiss" was a term that Ye Chong had seen before in books, but the actual mechanism and action involved was still a mystery to Ye Chong. However, in all the major literature that he had read, kissing only happened between people who fell in love with each other. None of the books had ever really described this act. Of course, "love" was also a bit difficult to understand for Ye Chong. However, in many of these literature he read, it was the first step towards marriage.

    "I did not kiss you," Ye Chong searched his memories for a full three minutes before he replied with certainty.

    "You did!" Rui Bing said without hesitation, and a steely resolution.

    "I didn¡¯t!" Ye Chong shook his head. He was confident of his own memory.

    "You did!" Rui Bing was unyielding.

    Ye Chong looked at Rui Bing. He never thought she would be so insistent. Could he really have kissed her? Ye Chong felt a little uncertain. He knew nothing of kissing, from the beginning of the act to the end of it, the process of it, or even the coordination required between the two parties involved. He was confident of his memories, to be sure, but in this matter at least, he was not an expert.

    Ye Chong made his final struggle. "I did not kiss you, probably."

    "You did!" Rui Bing¡¯s eyes shone with determination.

    "I did?" Ye Chong asked carefully.

    "You did!" Rui Bing¡¯s tone sounded so certain.

    It seemed that he really did kiss her. Ye Chong sighed regretfully. He did not fully understand this woman, but it was obvious that she did not take this matter jokingly. However, when did he kiss her? And what was kissing all about? The naive Ye Chong was now thinking of these questions. What would Rui Bing do if she knew?

    "When did I kiss you?" Ye Chong asked warily. He might be able to tell from Rui Bing¡¯s reply just how in the world kissing was done.

    Ye Chong watched as Rui Bing¡¯s face flushed into a deep red, the blush spreading in in view from her neck to her cheeks.

    It looked like he really did kiss her! Ye Chong¡¯s final hope was dashed. However, he really wanted to understand what this mysterious action was all about.

    Rui Bing lowered her head even more.

    Her breathing shortened and her face turned red. She had lowered her guard, looking very different from the usual Rui Bing. Ye Chong guessed that he probably would not get anything out of her.

    As expected, Rui Bing said nothing for a very long time.

    In the end, Ye Chong concluded the topic, "Well, let¡¯s set this question aside for the moment."

    "Alright. I¡¯ll be with you from now on." Rui Bing¡¯s expression returned to normal.

    He tilted his head and looked at Rui Bing, and Rui Bing understood his meaning. Without any warning, Rui Bing¡¯s eyes shone brightly with an odd light. Ye Chong felt his body tense up together with a heightened sense of danger. Just when he was about to move, he felt something like strings appeared in the empty air and bounded him up tightly.

    Almost instinctively, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes lit up. The vanished blue lines appeared once again. The numerous blue lines danced around like fishes in his vision in a fast and disorganized pattern.

    The blue lines jiggled vigorously. Abruptly, the lines all converged to a single point. His vision was empty except for a bright, blue dot.

    Without further thought, Ye Chong¡¯s throat contracted quickly, releasing a shapeless soundwave from his mouth straight towards the bright blue dot.

    Mortal Roar!

    The blue dot trembled in the air, but did not vanish. Ye Chong felt the air around him pulsating. His eyes shone even more brightly. His throat contracted again, and he released another soundwave.

    The blue dot shook more violently.

    The third Mortal Roar hit the blue dot.

    Crack! A soft sound, and Ye Chong felt the binding in him gone.

    The floor in the room was covered with broken ss. It was a mess. The air in the room continued to pulsate.

    Rui Bing said nothing, only looking at Ye Chong, but her short breath indicated that it was no easy task. Ye Chong was also breathing quickly. That short match earlier had strained him.

    "You¡¯ve improved a lot," Ye Chong said with approval.

    "You too." Rui Bing and Ye Chong exchanged a nce, and smiled at the same time.

    Ye Chong took out Guardian¡¯s dimension keystone. "For you, put it on. The voice activation code is Number Two."

    Rui Bing¡¯s face turned red once again, but she sounded an assent and epted Guardian¡¯s dimension keystone, putting it on her right hand¡¯s ring finger.

    Just then, the door was forcefully broken through from the outside.

 Chapter 326 - The Shi Familyâ€™s Fury

    <h4>Chapter 326: The Shi Family¡¯s Fury</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was Xiye outside. He had two huge men with cold eyes beside him. The two bodyguards were startled by the mess in the room, and quickly stepped forward to protect Xiye.

    Xiye looked at Ye Chong with hostility. He noticed the ring on Rui Bing¡¯s right hand ring finger, and his face twisted horribly. He remembered clearly that Rui Bing¡¯s had no jewellery of any kind before this. There was only one answer to his observation. This incredibly ugly man must be Rui Bing¡¯s old lover.

    Xiye tried hard to control his emotions. He did not immediately turned on them, but spoke politely, "Dear student, you must be from another academy. Hmm, from your uniform, it must be the Ze Xi Academy. Dear student, I deeply apologize, but due to our limited resources, we do not currently ept students from other schools."

    His politeness was not aimed to please, but his words allowed no argument. Right now, he was practically the one person who had the power to keep Engradie Academy safe. 500 mech pilots was not a force to be trifled with, especially at dangerous times like this.

    Xiyeughed coldly inside. He had seen all too many women, and they were all alike. He believed that this particrdy must have recognized the reality of things. Without his protection, she will find it difficult to survive. Who would throw away their own lives without a care? It was hardly a choice for her, but he really enjoyed watching the woman he was interested in facing this decision. It made sess felt all the more sweeter!

    Even if the woman was foolish enough to reject him, once the two of them left and she came to realize the practicalities, she would definitelye back to him begging for mercy! It felt wonderful to control someone else¡¯s life! This was not the first time for him.

    "Such is the fate of others," Xiye thought to himself with a feigned air of philosophy.

    The two guards quickly realized their master¡¯s n. One of them quickly activated hisms. If the two of them refused to leave, they had enough manpower to make them.

    Rui Bing¡¯s expression darkened. She understood the situation outside clearly. As she saw Xiye¡¯s cold eyes turned cold, Rui Bing unleashed her own sharp, cold aura like a de unsheathed. The two guards were startled, staring at Rui Bing. They now regretted not bringing more people with them as a precaution.

    Ye Chong looked at Xiye silently, his expression unchanged.

    Just then, someone spoke from behind Xiye, "Oh, what a ridiculous world this has be, since when has Engradie Academy be a certain someone¡¯s?"

    The voice made Xiye¡¯s face twitch. This was a voice that he dreaded to hear within the academy.

    Both Mi De and and Fatty entered the scene looking carefree, leaning on each other as they watched Xiye, grinning widely.

    Fatty added, "Yeah, that¡¯s right, these days, the sun must have shined too brightly that some of the nonsensical fools start to crawl outside to our world, so scary!"

    Seeing Fatty with Mi De, Xiye¡¯s expression turned sour still.

    "What do you two mean?" Xiye asked in a low voice. If it were someone else, he would have chased them off forcefully. These two, however, were the only two people he was wary of in the academy. Usually they would fool around and keep clear of his way, but this time they had chosen to get involved with his business.

    "Could they be friends of that ugly man? Friends? Humph!" Xiyeughed coldly inside. It was unwise to go against him at this time. He had thought these two were smart, but it seemed that he had overestimated them.

    "I say, handsome, you¡¯ve always been chasing girls, ruining the lives of innocent youngdies et cetera et cetera, we¡¯ve hardly bothered to get involved. Hehe, to think that you¡¯d offend someone strong today! Are you tired of living?" Mi De said this with a cold smile, and without fear. He knew exactly how strong Ye Chong was.

    "Xiye, let¡¯s be honest, you have no right to speak as you did. De and I are getting involved in this matter today, just give your best and we¡¯ll take you down. But let me warn you, you better think carefully about this, humph. In this matter, against my family and the Mi Family, humph ¡­" Fatty said this in a low voice. He may looked like a joker most of the time, but he spoke with great severity right now.

    Xiye looked at the two of them with a still expression, but he was secretly beginning to doubt himself. The Mi Family and the Bibiqi Family were at the same level as his family. If these two opposed him for real, he would have a hard time in the future.

    Just who was this ugly man? This was the main question for Xiye. Why would Fatty and Mi De put themselves out here to help him?

    "Who is he?" Xiye asked lowly.

    "None of your business," Fatty replied briskly. Ye Chong¡¯s identity was a mystery to everyone. None of them could had any idea.

    "So Mi De is from the Mi family," Ye Chong thought to himself in surprise. The Mi Family was the only aristocratic family he had some rtion to. From the looks of it, however, he had not figured out who he was. Ye Chong could not be bothered to make himself known.

    Xiye took a quick nce at Rui Bing. She stood silently beside the ugly man, her eyes shining brightly in way that was familiar to him. It was the way a woman¡¯s eyes would shine when in blessed happiness.

    He felt a deep envy growing in the depths of his heart.

    Just then, arge group of men came running towards them. They all looked strong, their stride powerful and steady. Their strength was undeniable. These were 100 of the 500 mech pilots under Xiye. Behind them were more than a hundred mechs hovering mid air, looking at them threateningly.

    Xiye was secretly overjoyed, but did not speak. Fatty and Mi De watched with horror and surprise.

    These mech pilots came in and quickly formed a barrier around Xiye. The rest of them surrounded Ye Chong and the others.

    "Xiye, what¡¯s the meaning of this?" Mi De asked grimly.

    Xiye was quite happy to see the looks on Mi De and Fatty. The pressure that they put on him moments ago vanished in an instant. He smiled unpleasantly and said, "Mi De, I suggest that you stay out of this matter. My business with them has got nothing to do with you both. People are always so eager to get mixed up in matters that they¡¯re not capable of dealing with. Tsk tsk, that¡¯s not such a good idea!" Xiye¡¯s sarcastic remark angered them both.

    On the other hand, Mi De and Fatty both understood their situation clearly.

    Fatty patted on Mi De¡¯s shoulder and exchanged a look. Fatty turned over to Xiye and said, "Very well, Xiye, we¡¯ll remember this." He turned to Ye Chong and said sincerely, "Boss, sorry about this. We were not prepared for this, and have failed. Let¡¯s leave."

    Ye Chong nodded, but did not move.

    Rui Bing took a look at Shi Fuyin and grew worried. Shi Fuyin was not well. If they leave this ce, her condition might turn even worse. Rui Bing stole a nce at Xiye, surrounded by his guards, and calcted her odds of capturing him alive.

    Shi Fuyin smiled sweetly at Rui Bing as though she had seen through her thoughts. However, she did not look scared or worried. Instead, she stepped lightly towards the Director of Teaching Affairs, directed herrge, innocent eyes at the Director, and said inly, "Is your academy really chasing us out from this ce?"

    Shi Fuyin¡¯s unusual reaction gathered everyone¡¯s attention. Mi De and Fatty exchanged a look, and saw the surprise in each other. This fragile looking youngdy managed to utter those words calmly, as though the one who was threatened was not her.

    "As expected, the Boss has unusual friends!" Mi De and Fatty both came to the same conclusion.

    The Director avoided Shi Fuyin¡¯s gaze and took a nce at Xiye. He quickly turned away and mumbled to himself, unable to say anything absolute.

    Xiye was extremely pleased. This was the best moment of his life. The people he had always been wary of were now suppressed, the fates of all these people were also in his hands. The only thing that annoyed him was that these people showed no fear at all. "Humph, just wait until you¡¯re outside. You¡¯lle back begging," Xiye thought to himself, his expression was tinged with cruelty.

    It was simply too bad, not having these beautiful sisters. Xiye looked at Shi Fuyin, his eyes filled with lust. However, he quickly rearranged his expression back to an image of politeness.

    Just then, the angry voice of a man came from afar, closing in to them, saying, "Who dares to chase out a member of the Shi Family?"

    This was immediately followed by a shing sound. The mech pilots around Ye Chong and hispany fell outwards. Arge group of people came storming towards them, and quickly surrounded Ye Chong and others in the center.

    The mechs hovering in the air under Xiye were silent. All around them were numerous mechs, pointing their dark and deadly guns at them.

    "Uncle Ming!" Shi Fuyin¡¯s eyes brightened up as she cried with joy.

    The one who came was Shi Chongming. Back at the hospital, he had left her to find the local members of the Shi Family. However, the mutant disaster struck, and he was surrounded by rats. He escaped with difficulty, and finally found the Shi Family¡¯s person of highest authority on the. When this person in charge heard that the Second Young Miss had arrived on Zhou Jian, he looked at the rats outside and turned pale. The person in charge immediately brought all his men and followed Shi Chongming to protect the young miss. Shi Chongming¡¯sms device allowed him to locate Shi Fuyin, and that was how they could quickly arrive at her location.

    As they entered, they immediately saw the Second Young Miss surrounded by a group of men. They saw red and pulled out their weapons. As Shi Chongming made his grand entrance, he heard Shi Fuyin¡¯s question, and his grim expression finally developed into fury!

    The Second Young Miss was being chased out from the academy. If this had happened, he would definitely not survive his next visit to the Family. Besides, he had watched the Second Young Miss as she grew up since she was a child, and had grown attached to her. He would not stand seeing her humiliated thus.

    "The Shi Family!" Xiye¡¯s brain exploded! The Director of Teaching Affairs suffered even more, cking out almost instantly.

    Shi Chongming was like a furious lion, his red eyes slowly scanning all the people in the room as he asked in a low voice, "Who was it who wanted to chase out a member of the Shi Family? Who was it? Show yourself!" Shi Chongming snarled. No one had dared to humiliate a member of the Shi Family like this ever before, much less the Shi Family¡¯s Second Young Miss.

    The Shi Family¡¯sbatants all looked angry. Once the order was given, they would attack. Ever since they joined the Shi Family, they obtained a sense of superiority that they could not have found elsewhere. Now that this superior status was challenged, how could they not be offended? Besides, this was the Second Young Miss being humiliated! If other people found out that the Shi Family¡¯s Second Young Miss had been humiliated right before their eyes, they would never be able to live with pride again.

    This humiliation can only be resolved with bloodshed!

 Chapter 327 - Analysis Results

    <h4>Chapter 327: Analysis Results</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Xiye waspletely bbergasted. The Shi Family! It¡¯s the Shi Family! None of the mech pilots around him dared to move. They were also shocked by the turn of events. With the exception of the Three Aristocratic Families, the Shi Family had the greatest military strength, and was the strongest of all the aristocratic families. Everyone knew not to meddle with the Shi Family.

    This soft and fragile looking youngdy was actually the Shi Family¡¯s Second Young Miss! Mi De and Fatty gaped at her. Of all the young masters and young misses of the Shi Family, only Shi Xin appeared in public more often; the rest of them were lesser known.

    Just then, arge fleet of mechs appeared in the sky. They covered the skies like a huge, dark cloud, numbering no less than a thousand. Everyone looked up at the mechs. In their current situation, a thousand mechs or more was a formidablebat force.

    Xiye began to feel hopeful. Was this the reinforcement that his father had sent for him?

    This final hope was dashed into pieces.

    "Mi Moxin, Conste General of the Mi Family on Zhou Jian, here on orders to protect Young Master De!"

    "Tuo Ge of the Bibiqi Family greets the Young Master. Please forgive our dyed arrival!"

    Xiye felt his vision darkened as he slumped to the floor.

    Xiye¡¯s full name was Hanmen Xiye. The Hanmen Family was also an aristocratic family, but his father had told him more than once to stay away from the Shi Family. Who would have thought that he would be unlucky enough to meet the Shi Family¡¯s Second Young Miss, who had never shown herself in public? Xiye paled, knowing that he was doomed.

    Mi De and Fatty looked at Xiye and smiled gloatingly. There were many unwritten rules in the world of aristocrats; open humiliation was one of the greatest taboos. Be it intentional or not, such as act was unforgivable. They did not have to lift a single finger. The Shi Family will not let Xiye get away with it.

    Xi Ye was doomed! His father was but one of the elders in the Hanmen Family. Given the situation, even the Hanmen Family Patriarch¡¯s eldest son would be handed over to the Shi Family. If they did not, it was highly unlikely that the other aristocratic families would side with the Hanmen Family in their inevitable war against the Shi Family.

    Xiye and his 500 underlings were all subdued. The Shi Family mech pilots eyed their captives with hostility. They bowed to Shi Fuyin in shame, and herded Xiye and his 500 men to the side without showing any emotion. Xiye and his men would suffer physical punishments for their mistake.

    Bi Bo watched everything from the side. He noticed that the mysterious young man had shown not even a glimpse of nervousness through it all. Did he not feel afraid at all?

    Shi Chongming quickly calmed down. He reported everything to the Lord of the Shi Family, Shi Tiancheng. Shi Tiancheng was furious, and began to n the Family¡¯s reaction to the incident. All of their forces around Zhou Jian were diverted towards that to protect Shi Fuyin. On the other hand, they took up the matter with the Hanmen Family.

    It was right then that the unspoken agreement amongst all the forces from the Three Aristocratic Families to reach Zhou Jian together was broken by the Xue Lai n, which sped up their flight towards Zhou Jian. No one knew why they elerated their travel, but the fleet from the Ye Family and Xi Feng Tribe followed suit, keeping up from behind.

    "This is?" Shi Chongming looked at Ye Chong, and asked courteously.

    Rui Bing said, "He¡¯s my husband." She said this easily and calmly. However, the sharp Shi Fuyin saw clearly that Rui Bing was beginning to blush from her neck again.

    Ye Chong took a nce at Rui Bing. She seemed to be at ease with the man. He then looked to Shi Chongming and nodded, introducing himself, "I am Chen Mu, pleased to meet you." He was not dumb enough to contradict Rui Bing.

    Chen Mu was the name. Mi De, Fatty and Bi Bo searched their memories for a certain strong character called Chen Mu, but came up empty.

    Rui Bing stood silently beside Ye Chong, saying nothing, but her eyes betrayed her happiness. Beside them, Fei Si felt an inexplicable sadness in her that she felt like going outside for a breath of fresh air.

    "Rui Bing¡¯s husband," Shi Chongming thought to himself, surprised. Rui Bing was beautiful, and not weak like the average member of the fairer sex. She was decisive in her words and actions, and was highly skilled inbat. He had never seen such a mysterious woman before in his life.

    Unlike her, this ugly man before him did not seem to have any redeeming qualities. He did not match Rui Bing at all. He looked horrible, and his body seemed weak. Aside from his calm eyes, nothing about him seemed particrly outstanding.

    However, since he was Rui Bing¡¯s husband, Shi Chongming dared not be disrespectful. After all, Rui Bing had saved the lives of the Second Young Miss and his own. This was a debt that he could never repay.

    The ultra-micro analyzer was located at the lowest floor of Engradie Academy¡¯s alchemy building. This building had over 800 levels, and stretched over arge area, proof of Engradie Academy¡¯s financial prowess.

    The Director of Teaching Affairs introduced with a careful tone, "This here is the ultra-micro analyzer. This is the person in charge of the machine, Old Xu. Any usage of the machine must be done under his supervision and guidance." The Director was awakened from his ckout through no gentle means.

    Old Xu looked quite energetic. He was a friendly person, and weed them all into theb. His skin was well kept, looking fair and smooth despite his old age. He had stubby fingers that made it hard to imagine him utilizing theplicated machine.

    Even Ye Chong was impressed by Old Xu¡¯s control of the machine. His stubby fingers moved easily and swiftly across the controls due to his familiarity with the machine that it was hard to keep up with what he was doing.

    Only Fei Si was able to understand what he was doing with the machine. Old Xu seemed to notice Fei Xi¡¯s professional observation of him, so he continued working even more seriously.

    After a full half an hour, the results of the analysis were finally out.

    Fei Si studied the results, and her expression turned grim. Everyone else including Old Xu looked to her for answers.

    "This heterogenous body is probably created with the H virus as base, cultivated using specialized techniques. It¡¯s definitely artificial," Fei Si concluded with confidence.

    The term "artificial" made everyone squirm. This meant that everything that had happened was the result of some mastermind. This was no natural disaster. There was a human perpetrator behind this.

    Old Xu looked at Fei Si, his fair-skinned finger rubbing against the bridge of his nose.

    "This virus is easily transmitted between animals, humans can also be infected, mainly through contact with blood. It uses Variant 890 of the H virus. The virus is highlypatible with other viruses, and can be easilybined with other viruses of choice. My teacher had discovered mutated variants before, but we were not ready to apply this knowledge for applications yet. I never imagined that someone else has begun to use these mutated variants." Fei Si¡¯s words brought a heavy atmosphere to theb.

    Old Xu¡¯s finger paused for a moment as his eyes shed with excitement. His reaction was noticed by Rui Bing.

    "How do we cure the infected people?" Ye Chong asked the one question he was most interested in.

    Fei Si looked to Ye Chong meaningfully and turned away. "I still don¡¯t know how topletely cure them yet, but we can use Batong liquid to synthesize a suppressor for the symptoms. It should be quite effective."

    Old Xu¡¯s finger trembled slightly on his nose.

    "Do we have Batong liquid hre?" The Director asked Old Xu. Old Xu nodded and said, "Yes, a lot of them."

    "Then let¡¯s get to it, some of the students are not looking good!" The Director urged hurriedly. Engradie Academy might be better of than Ze Xi Academy, but there were still many casualties. The conditions of the injured students were worsening.

    Fei Si¡¯s research into the H virus was extraordinary. After drinking the Batong liquid, the infected students all felt their symptoms relieved. The Director immediately offered a position for Fei Si at Engradie Academy, promising wonderful benefits, but was turned down by her.

    It was only a temporary measure, but now that they found a way to ease the symptoms, Ye Chong andpany must quickly return to Ze Xi Academy.

    Rui Bing followed Ye Chong from behind like it was the normal thing to do. Knowing that she would now part ways with RuiBing, Shi Fuyin smiled gently at Rui Bing and said, "Be careful, Sister Bing. Uncle Ming, assign 300 people to Sister Bing for her protection. Tell them that they must obey Sister Bing¡¯s orders at all times." The spoke thest sentence with steely determination. The fragile youngdy seemed to gain a tough quality in her.

    Shi Chongming nodded to headed outside to carry out his orders.

    "Mo Xin, assign 300 people to this man here. They must all obey his words," Mi De gave the order to his subordinates.

    Fatty gave the same orders, "Tuo Ge, assign 300 people to this man for his protection. Whoever dares to disobey will be disavowed by the family."

    Mi Moxin and Tuo Ge looked at their young masters, full of questions themselves. They exchanged a quick look between before leaving the room to execute their orders.

    The Director of Teaching Affairs was shocked. Just who was this young man, that Mi De and Fatty would each send 300 people for him, just when manpower was a precious resource? His wife was not a simple woman as well, for the Shi Family to send 300 people for her protection.

    Heavens, with this, the two of them had 900 people who would fight for them!

 Chapter 328 - Frightening Deduction

    <h4>Chapter 328: Frightening Deduction</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Who are these people? The Director was very perplexed, yet he did not have the courage to ask, since he was rather fortunate for both of the mysterious figures to stay silent after the happening.

    Everyone of Ze Xi academy, including students and teachers, was baffled by the scene where Ye Chong, with a whitedy by his side, led an entire pilot team of 900 and returned. There were crazy amount of deductions on his actual identity, "He has got to be from the aristocrat!", "No! He must be some leader of a secret organization!" were the entertaining ssics back then.

    Both Fatty and Mi De were no longer there, while Bi Bo finally turned on his camera after being disconnected from the entire gxy, which was exploding with agitated worries as the customer service of Green channel seemed to be overwhelmed by the iing calls begging for more. The leader of Green Media Corp. also almost had a heart attack. It was an intensive exercise as the staff got to catch their breath atst.

    Ye Chong was relieved only after seeing Old Jalopy taking down the entire bottle of Batong liquid. Meanwhile, Fei Si was very much upied being the doctor among the infected students, "We have to do something or their health would only worsen," muttered her as weaved in and out of the crowd. Rui Bing had no idea how alchemy worked so she would stand by Ye Chong''s side instead. And apparently, what Ye Chong knew of the alchemy studies was literally differentpared to what Fei Si was doing.

    After much reunion, both Ye Chong and Rui Bing remained silent, where one of them was just standing there, the other was¡­ just looking at the crowd.

    People would be very much confused if they saw this pair of typical Beauty and the Beast elsewhere, but they were in Ze Xi academy, where people would not consider Ye Chong being the beast appearance-wise, for he had demonstrated the strength of a beast, skill of a legend. The imagery of he holding hisnce as he stood in the midst of death had long reced that in appearance of his.

    He was not the beast, he was the hero. A hero in a rtionship with a beauty, that was more than typical. Nothing strange, it was reasonable.

    The audience eximed upon the close-up at Rui Bing. She was not that absolute beauty, nor she could be the definition of beauty itself, there were beauties out there who looked more amazing than Rui Bing, like Feng Su or maybe Qiu Man. However, the audience eximed because her lesspetent appearance had been enhanced by her charm - the sense of coldness while retaining a hint of chivalry - which was already bewitching enough.

    This verydy was in her white grab, while her gaze wafted around the unappealing man.

    It was a man''s dream to have such a beauty staring at him dreamily.

    It was a woman''s dream to be pure as her white garb to be able to stare at man with a chivalrous spirit like hers.

    The imagery had conquered the generation, as it became a fantasy, an ambition of the younger folks.

    "And I''m here¡­" Muttered Fei Si, wiping the sweats over her hair. The job was a tough one, as she had to go through every single patient at the ward to see the level of impact of Batong solution on the patients with different dosage.

    She gasped and walked to the couple on the show, "Get over here," said Fei Si expressionless, "I have something to talk to you." And she stormed to the school''s building.

    Ye Chong raised his brow, and quickly followed. Being somehow connected by soul, Rui Bing also lifted her steps the moment the man did.

    Bi Bo knew something was happening but he knew he was a journalist, not a paparazzi.

    Inside the empty ssroom, the three of them stood silently.

    Fei Si gave a nce at Rui Bing and turned back to Ye Chong, "I have not finished my words back there," said she indifferently.

    Rui Bing and Ye Chong looked at each other. They then awaited what Fei Si was going to say.

    The gesture of rapport pinched the heart of Fei Si, "If I was right¡­ the design of this particr heterozygote is actually¡­" Fei Si halted, she took a breath as if mustering herst bit of strength, "It is actually meant for humans¡­"

    The statement had blown both of them away.

    If the zygote was meant for human from the beginning, then ¡­

    That would be horrible¡­ any other lifeforms be the rodents or the insects, they would absorb the ipatible zygote and mutate- So that was why! That was why the raid urred¡­ "If the code would cause such boost on the creatures, while being meant for humans¡­ then!!"

    "Then those who created the codes in the first ce, they wanted to create reinforcement, an army of inhumanity!" Whispered Rui Bing, her eyes were wide.

    "Are you sure?" Asked Ye Chong grimly, his eyes ring at Fei Si.

    She took a deep breath and were very much affirmed to her answer, "Yes, I am."

    "But then¡­" Ye Chong figured out something, "If the heterozygote gic code in the virus is meant for humans, why aren''t the infected trainees mutating yet?"

    "Apparently, the virus seemed to be a failure since it appeared to have a very poorpatibility with the human body. From what I have observed thus far, the virus would cause more likely a negative effect on the body. If there was no aid given, the virus would eventually lead to death of the host because of heart dysfunction, capiries rupture as well as oversized muscr system."

    "Is there a way?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Assuming¡­" Hesitated Fei Si, "If you could find their own subject, maybe I could try."

    "What do you mean by ''their own subject''?"

    "Subjects of their experiment on this virus in the first ce." And Ye Chong immediately understood the meaning of it.

    "Old Xu!" Rui Bing suddenly broke into the conversation, "Something seemed fishy on him. His eyes were odd when you mentioned about the H-virus."

    Preposterous. Thought Fei Si as she gave a frown. Old Xu was one with such amazing hand on the control panel, she respected him. Furthermore, judging someone merely by their eyes was just ridiculous.

    Ye Chong, however, was on Rui Bing''s side, as his expression tensed up, knowing that Rui Bing could never be just seeing things.

    His schemata ran, ran wild and bright, as within seconds he had predicted the forces behind all these. It could never be a work done by one or two people. Ugh¡­ goosebumps seized him. He seriously hoped he could just grab Rui Bing, Old Jalopy with Fei Si and leave this cursed at once! This is a terrible, dark ce! Realized he.

    Beep. Ye Chong''smunicator rang.

    The screen was projecting a warning from the patrolling airforce.

    "They areing."

 Chapter 329 - The Annoying Pimp

    <h4>Chapter 329: The Annoying Pimp</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The mutated lifeforms areing!

    They had raided the entire sky - arger wave than before.

    Were those the beast stampedes from Archipgo? Thought Ye Chong.

    The leading force was obviously still the mutated rodents, since they were the typicality of reproduction itself the whole time. The new members to the army were those gigantic organisms, looking hideous with their distorted appearance. Among them, those gliding in the sky were the most harmful and aggressive as unpredictable their movements were.

    The war took ce again.

    And people understood what they had to do. Less talk, more work, survival be at top priority. They were the trained pilots of military units, they were well-informed of the thumb rule on war field.

    The 900 standby units zoomed into the sky, as they arranged at 3plete formations. The professionals were still different than those greenhorns down there. For starters, their mechs were already far superior, since the Aristocrats were very generous on military. Moreover, every formation was led by a highly experienced pilot.

    The trainees were frightened by the waves of mutated lifeforms. The battle they had before looked like a warmup now.

    The pleasing news was, at least the nameless boy brought 900 professional pilots to join their force. The building of alchemy department also provided a sturdy stronghold for their safety.

    All openings of the building had been shut tight.

    People gathered inside, hiding at the storage deep inside the building specifically, with only one corridor opened up to another storage containing their living resources. The food couldst them easily half a month, and technically most of the the materials prepared for alchemy sses were edible by nature as well. The security cameras at the exterior allowed them to remain connected to the world outside.

    Fei Si was producing something. She was the only person who had clearlyprehended the every step of Ye Chong when producing the Bluefire solution. She was, an experienced and well-supplied alchemist after all. She certainly could reproduce the same solution after one observation at Ye Chong''s hands.

    Bluefire solution would be their sole defense now. She did not ask for assistance from the trainees however, she was doing it all by herself. She had to, since one could imagine what a disaster it would be if everyone was aware of the methods to produce such horror.

    Ye Chong joined her the moment he saw her moving. Rui Bing was still standing at the side, with her eyes attracted by the man in work.

    Both of them acted quickly as a massive amount of Bluefire was produced in the end. Ye Chong nned to make a drain and pour these in to build an effective wall, but they did not have the time, unfortunately.

    The army had already arrived by the academy itself.

    Ye Chong and Fei Si had produced about 30 containers of Bluefire, 3 tonnes each.

    The war was intense when they transported the containers to the parking lot.

    Every entrance to the building 50 floors and below was shut. The rodents were no longer an issue, they only had to watch out for the flying ones. What all the gxies shared inmon was the fact that there would always be anding port and connecting tube at every floor of every tall building. One might be warned about the intrusion of these unknown flying pests via the connecting tube, but man, the people simply did not have the time to do so.

    900 mechs were assigned to every corner around those tubes. Well, it was a saving grace indeed for Ze Xi academy was just an average school, with a budget that looked as shabby as its own school building whenpared to the fancy 800 floor tall alchemy department building of Engradie Academy. The school building of Ze Xi academy had only 200 floors, so the amount of defense required to cover up the entire building was much lesser than they imagined.

    Under the instruction of their own respective leader, they guarded every of that transparent corridor connected to the building. The mutated avifaunas had insane vitality, one would not even see a scratch on their wings if it was not a critical hit. They were fearsome and aggressive as ever, while they came in flocks and retained their mobility and agility as their former entity, which were not something a machinery couldpete, a painful issue.

    And these were the starters, it would be a true horror if one would look upon the ground.

    The ground was rumbling. The ground was shaking. The waves of mutated lifeforms shuddered, the waves of mutated lifeforms went silent.

    Scarlemender was hardly 7 meter long before and with the power of the virus, it had grown into size of a mech, while bing more belligerent than before as itnded its few tonnes of weight upon the cracking ground, leaving craters behind its every step. The iron fortress of the alchemy department might notst under its attack.

    The gigantic monstrosity was not limited, they were scattered around the army and would crush any foe with the enormous impact they made on every move. At least one group of their allies lost the climbing ability with the overwhelming weight gain after mutation or it would be nasty business to deal.

    Thump! Crash! Thup! The mutated lifeforms were charging towards the alchemy department building, knocking into the walls again and again. Dents began forming on the surface, but as far as the budget of Engardie Academy guarded, the walls were not cracking yet at the moment.

    The wave this time was greater than before.

    Ye Chong deployed ze-III while Rui Bing took out the Guardian almost immediately after. The monochromic vision was very much foreign to her eyes. Bi Bo also jumped into action with his spider machinery.

    Most pilots were disappointed when Ye Chong deployed - of all mechs - a ze-III, which was a typical model for the greenhorns to be given a disdainful stare on.

    Sigh, newbie was being newbie again, let him be, let him be the hero he tried too hard to be. Thought every pilot from Mi family and Bibiqi. The guy probably was the Mr. Richie Rich they had grown up hearing. Well, that made sense when the two young masters of the families called them to take care of him. It was unbelievable for the families to waste the resources on a pathetic Richie Rich like him. Oh, look, that journalist boy called up a spider mech, must be an expert. Oh, was that a Miniature mech? Those got to be the bodyguards for this little novice there. Meh. Who else could he be? Some legendary warrior from another gxy?

    Guys, look at that eager face of his, he wants to join us.

    The pilots were rmed.

    Oh please, someone keep him at the garbage ce.

    "Sir, it would be very helpful to head back to the storage if you could. Let the men do the war for you," announced the leading pilot of Mi family air force promptly.

    "Yeah, sir, it''s safer there. We could do all the work," added the leader of Bibiqi family pilot force.

    "Fight your own war. Don''t bother me." Mi De and Fatty did once mention these forces would listen to his orders but deep inside he knew, he was not the person to give sensiblemands in war, it would be better to let the experienced do their job. Moreover, these men were not the Sangs and because of that, it was very unlikely they would listen fully to his orders.

    He made up his mind to let them do their job as they said, till the moment they began working on their formation, and Ye Chong was shaking his head violently as one of the aggressive rodents on the street.

    What is this? Are you sure they are trained?! Thought Ye Chong, although feeling ufortable to send his disdain directly as if discriminatively. Compared to the Sangs, these pilot forces were looking like a fresh graduate from military pilot school. G-nat* would have been simple to defeat if one of them, with their intelligence, realized they could have lured the G-nat to be killed by their allies and not having an endless dance from Waltz to Tango with the flying insect in the air for thest 3 minutes while being unable to take it down.

    I am not sure how potent the Sangs are in He Yue gxy. But logically, these 900 men should have been above-the-average pilots. So why? What''s all these kindergarten hide-and-seek nonsenses?

    Ye Chong was determined when he hopped into the cabin. The leaders of the 900 pilots began cursing silently. "Quick, stop him!" Sent they, a few of their allies to hold up and "kindly" escort that restless pimp back to the building.

    Bi Bo''s camera had been switched on ever since Ye Chong returned from the ssroom with Fei Si and Rui Bing. The audience got worked up upon seeing their hero getting into action again, as they anticipated the next surprise from him. He was finally alone this time, without anyone to hold him back in the cabin.

    The 6 mechs zoomed from the army and hovered near both sides of ze-III, with a n to seize ze-III first to force him grounded, so that they could get off and capture that mischievous boy back to the building. Bi Bo did not intend toe forward, instead he adjusted the angle quickly, expecting something epic soon.

    ze-III was holding a container as it flew, looking like a tortoise in front of those standard war machines. It seemed like it had been destined for the pimp to stay as a pimp.

    "It looked like the end¡­ Sigh." The audience was disappointed.

    Ye Chong frowned and muttered, "What the heck are they doing?"

    And the moment he began, people were stunned for the next 10 seconds.

 Chapter 330 - Blazing Like Fire!

    <h4>Chapter 330: zing Like Fire!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    ze-III joined the battle silently. With its appearance being unsophisticated as the 900 mechs around it, it struck the people as the next movement transformed it into an oddity. Acrobatically its metallic arms were looking stic out of sudden, they were waving gently, flexibly, making a perfect curve when the container was lobbed beyond the crowd it was surrounded in.

    ze-III''s engine had been activated once the container left its palms. And within 0.6 second, the velocity had been maximized. The manual did mention about the minimumunching time of ze-III being 0.9 second yet Ye Chong somehow saved that 0.3 second. Any folk from the spectator''s area might assume the insignificance of that 0.3 second, but to any pilot like you and me, that 0.3 second could produce miracle.

    As the required time for eleration decreased, the pressure the body had to withstand would proportionally increase. While 0.9 second was already the quickest a typical ze-III could boot - on paper that is, one could imagine how it felt to force-boot within 0.6 second. It would be easily terrifying by just looking at it.

    Booting an unmodified mech quicker than the rmended safety duration or making an illusion of sticity on mechanical arms, either of them was enough to make a few spectators spring from their seats. Now, imagine both of them happening together. Certainly people would be fixed on their seats, while their brains were jammed.

    The performance did not end here. ze-III, a model to be assumed for the novices that could barely do a thing, had somehow taken steroids somewhere in the dark. And it got into position again.

    Super short-ranged quick turns! Speckled Moon Spin! Thomas''s Spin!

    Ye Chong chained three sets of moves in a distance of less than 300 meters. The formation around ze-III had been distorted. The trained pilots were trying their best to hold this pimp up by intuition, yet every quick turn Ye Chong made, they were slightly pushed away. And Ye Chong performed 12 quick turns in a shot, excluding the 6 feints he pulled off to mislead their undertrained foes.

    Ye Chong did not spare the next few seconds as the Speckled Moon Spin pretended that he was going to leave. The pilots panicked as they broke through their formation,unching their machineries upon ze-III.

    To end the show, Ye Chong lifted ze-III from the closing crowd with a Thomas''s Spin. The containernded right within ze-III''s proximity and the mechanical arms gave a gentle flip and sent the container right ahead.

    Thest 10 secondspsed in dead silence. No one spoke, thementators all zipped their mouths. The audience was wordless.

    "Holy¡­"

    And they began screaming uncontrobly. People were jumping on their beds in their rooms, the hotel had been exploded with hurrahs. No one understood their own scream, nor their friends''. They just screamed, for this moment impossible to be put into words.

    Amazement. Pure amazement.

    The audience had been overwhelmed by the performance. The world had been dominated by a mere ze-III.

    The pilot had demonstrated something beyond the beauty of martial arts, that people would pull their hair, jumping in craze.

    Meanwhile, the 6 pilots were still unnerved by thest move, so were a majority of the audience before the screen. They could notprehend a thing that happened, but it would not stop the audience to board on the hype train.

    A strong visual impact. It was a mind-blowing scene to theymen at the spectators'' seat, while it turned out to be a mind-dominating view to the pilots. The unwritten rule of the records of history was this simple - an instance or a person would be the ssic, a known tale for the following centuries, once they were reminisced, or they were retold to the following generations of their impable doings.

    And this very visual was destined to be a legend since the day it was created. This single tape had topped every other downloads in the visual ranking within a year, and was incorporated into more than 50 types of learning materials for piloting. Certainly the number of times it was quoted in academies was simply astronomical.

    The few seconds of visual had told many, many stories. That gentle toss leading the entire scene had shown how the entire situation was under the grasp of this mysterious boy.

    People had researched it, professionally. They concluded, while the movement seemed to be all graceful and enchanting, the difficulty was of insanity. Based on the oue of their experiment, technically the number of inputs required per second would be easily gazillions in order to achieve the particr effect. One could already imagine the APM of this mysterious boy when heid his hands on the control panel.

    All these inputs, aplished within 0.6 second of eleration, were convincingly inhumane of the boy to the public. Was he even a human?

    The more intriguing was the intelligibility demonstrated by this boy. Super Short-ranged Quick Turn, Speckled Moon Spin, Thomas''s Spin¡­ all were not the most indigenous moves utilized by a senior pilot today, yet the boy had applied them creatively, within a brief 300 meter range¡­ The condensation of movements chained by the intense quick turn had once again verified the spection that the boy possessed an inhuman physique, while it also had sessfully fulfilled the goal of holding the enemies thanks to the peculiar shifts cleverly disguised by ze-III.

    Speckled Moon Spin was a shocker. A Moon Spin was typically identified by the orbit made by the mech during the travel, which formed a virtually perfect circle like the moon, whereas a speckled one would be a consecutive repetition of these rapid spins. Speckled Moon Spin was known for its minimal changes of spatial pattern during the performance, as it would almost seemingly creeping its way, in an intense velocity which was perfect for runaways. Thomas''s Spin was¡­ quite the contrary, the movement wasrge while beingparatively slow.

    The conventional sequence would be an alternation between Thomas''s Spin and Speckled Moon Spin, but this ze-III was preferring being the deviant, as it actually attempted a runaway using the slow Thomas''s Spin while using Speckled Moon Spin as its cover.

    Convention? Yes! That''s why!

    It was a little puzzling to most pilots out there at first, yet their eyes went wide open when they thought it out. Since it was a convention, the foes would assume the mech running away whenever it performed a Speckled Moon Spin, yet in actuality it was taking a cover. That would be a method to disrupt the formation of the foes! The deception would work, the formation would loosen and then the pilot would use Thomas''s Spin to drastically remove himself! Thomas''s Spin was slow but the range was more than enough to ovee the opened gap!

    The boy hadpleted 3 typical techniques within the range of 300 meters, evidently telling the foes that he was not giving them any second to ponder on counters. That would be the key to seed in a fight.

    Moreover, the timing of he escaping the siege and grabbing the falling container were impable. Assuming it was no coincidence as he managed to do that, that would be a rather frightening standard of deducing prediction.

    Thest move of ze-III was an actual technique of martial artists, though performed via mechanical limbs, which seemed so graceful however, proving the extreme APM of the mysterious boy.

    It did not sound that it lived to the crowd''s craze but it was pretty logical for Ye Chong to be this phenomenal, as he was born in an age of those who wielded great skills despised their visuals being publicized, where all of them refused to be a research material for they never wanted to risk having their weaknesses identified and thus eliminated. So an actual visual of mech performance was a hard-find. Of course the crowd would go crazy over a once-in-a-blue-moon high-quality visual in high-definition.

    The pilots who were watching the performance had been stoned, including those in the flying mechs who almost got gashed by the flying mutated lifeforms.

    The pilot of ze-III was feeling otherwise however, as lethargically he tossed the container, like a hardworking construction worker.

    And all containers had finally beenunched, Bi Bo immediately ignited the Bluefire reagent.

    Dimming Blue, the phenomena of a chemical reaction had once again bloomed, gorgeously!

    The mes of Dimming Blue were a warning sign to all the pilots who were again astonished by its overwhelming vigor.

    Soon the mes formed aplete circle, protecting the alchemy department.

    A golden figure rapidly zapped across the wall. In a winding golden line Rui Bing travelled in the Guardian. It was not her usual velocity but she was getting used to the Guardian.

    Certainly, those mutated lifeforms trapped within the circle would be the best dummy for her to practice.

    The afterimages of golden threat stacked up quickly as Rui Bing''s movements elerated. That pair of daggers sliced through the weakness point identified by the system skillfully. Rui Bing came attacking wildly like a feline with honed ws. Unlike Ye Chong, she was truly the descendant of martial arts. And a closebat model like the Guardian was a perfect match for her, especially with the strength-enhancing mechanism which could ovee the weakness of her naturally low vitality as a woman.

    The monstrosity flinched, as desperately the mutated lifeforms looked for ways to escape. Theirpatriots rapidly decreased as Rui Bing swung her des.

    The audience was feeling relieved, as the pilots seemed to be regaining the control of the situation.

    And that was when Ye Chong''s pupils shrunk drastically, upon seeing the screen.

 Chapter 331 - Battle Royale

    <h4>Chapter 331: Battle Royale</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    No time to ponder!

    By ssical conditioning, Ye Chong''s hands swept over the control panel once again.

    Hundreds of beams came from the stampede of mutated lifeforms below.

    E-Energy beam?!

    Boom! Boom! Crash!

    The beams passed by hovering mechs in the sky. They exploded, burnt and fell into a handful of meteorites.

    The plot twist was shocking to everyone.

    Apparently ze-III was the monstrosity''s main target as quite a few pirs of light came towards Ye Chong. He reacted quickly with a rough swing and dodged them gracelessly. Nevertheless, the two arms of ze-III had been destroyed by the beams. The core of the main body remained intact, most fortunately, or Ye Chong could not imagine himself joining the falling stars.

    The beams continued as Ye Chong frantically inputted newmands on the control panel. ze-III was carrying out one standard dodge after another while Ye Chong, having cold sweat over his forehead, was slowly being consumed by it. ze-III was facilitated with a standard pressure buffering system yet Ye Chong was getting wobbly by the constant drastic turns he made. The beam attack was so ferocious and dense that no matter what he did ze-III still got hit on its right leg. One could see the circuits as well as the gears dripping in ck revealed at the wreckage. How would the machinery fight with only a single leg left?

    The grand debut of ze-III was now a memory, as pathetically it hovered. Ye Chong almost saw himself bing part of the memory too, if it was not for his quick action. The audience was still in the aftermath of the plot twist, unable to react.

    The sudden raid had demolished most of the mechs in the sky. More allies had fallen in the next few minutes. Ye Chong could foresee a hundred of them had gone into debris. "No! The mutated lifeforms can''t be firing!"

    "Humans? There were snipers?"

    The pilots of the three teams realized the cold fact to their demise.

    "This is unforgivable! We are fighting for men and we get hit by them?" The pilots were enraged as they removed themselves from the stampede of lifeforms and headed towards the source of firing. They fired up all their ranged weaponry and drastically looked for that very damned target tounch a barrage.

    It was hard. The snipers were lurking within the lifeforms. Their disguise was great as well.

    The stranger thing was, despite being within the bunches of mutated lifeforms, the snipers seemed to be unnoticed by them.

    The pilots wondered, of what kind of rtionship both the snipers shared with the mutated lifeforms, that they could avoid being attacked by them. The snipers had ascended into the newest enemy of humanity.

    Little did they know, that there was Bi Bo''s camera capturing everything the whole time. The happening had been broadcasted throughout the gxy and these little assassins had be the public enemy.

    Ye Chong was unnerved, as he realized strength would not be his safety charm, since luck would also be part of the ount. At least he was not part of the major misfortune.

    The beams showered again and Ye Chong zoomed towards one of thending sites of the near building. ze-III did not decelerate even when approaching, not because it did not intend to, it was because the situation forbade it to. The beams were chasing it and Ye Chong carried on his insane APM to perform clumsy dodges to survive. He could guarantee that he would be ashes the moment he turned down his gear.

    The strength of these snipers was stronger than he thought. It had been a while since hest met pilots that could push him to the corner like this. Moreover, the snipers after him were not one or two, but literally seven of them!

    Right when he was 3 meters away from the parking site, he opened the cabin of ze-III and quickly ejected himself! Ye Chong made a peculiar twist with his body, dodging that very beam millimeters away from his waist. He could almost hear his heart pumping, his body shivering, as the twist was made out of his habitual caution, never would he expect they would fire at him even at brief second like this.

    The tip of his toes touched the ground, the muscles of both his legs contracted dramatically. Boom! A crater was made below as heunched himself like a fired arrow, all the way deep into the connecting tube.

    Another beam followed 5 centimeters from his back as he made a new twist to dodge it. The beam missed him butnded on a poor mech in the air instead. Boom! The mech swallowed its debris.

    His back was wetted by cold sweat. His neck was stiff, warning him to never turn back. A few tips he made with his toes again, zigzagging his way into the darkness of the tube.

    Was it safety? He thought.

    He was panting heavily. The brief inhumane execution consumed a majority of his stamina. His nerves were wrecked. Feeling lightheaded, he almost fell. He was drained as sweat fell off his fringe. His clothing was soaked by his sweat of fear.

    Within thest 3 minutes, he had experienced the dead-or-alive for countless times.

    It''s been a while. He thought.

    At some point of time he got so strong that he was no longer concerned about the tricks the foes seemed to know. He had always been the leading person in a battleground, unlike today.

    ze-III was still crappy as I thought! Oh my Fal gxy¡­ I would have died with this piece facing the real deal.

    The 7 men were true killers. While 6 of them seemed to have a shabbier shooting skill than Bi Bo, the strongest one of them all - the seventh man, was giving Ye Chong most fears, as thest few shots that trailed Ye Chong to the building, were by none other than him. Lady Luck was by Ye Chong''s side today but not sure if she would be, on the next battle they faced again.

    Leaned against the wall, Ye Chong could not stop panting.

    The war had gotten more chaotic. The remaining pilots were certainly not outnumbered by these few snipers. But from the aspect of skillfulness, it was battle between a whole bunch of novice and a handful of adepts.

    The pilots were angered by the sudden attack at first. But they quickly calmed down and tried to regain control of the situation. After losing around a hundred of mechs, the figure seemed to have stabilized. There were still mortality from their sides, but not at a rate as horrendous as before, while mechs of those pesky snipers seemed to have decreased as well.

    The fighting mechs zoomed towards the mechs facing the army of mutated lifeforms below, showing no fear, no retreat on their side.

    Nobody could witness the death of their teammate one after another with folded arms.

    Dead or alive. To battle or to die. The spirit was kindled among the men. They no longer feared those terrifying beasts stampeding right before them.

    In the dim sky, different kind of beams were exchanged, with asionally mes of the explosion of a fallen ally. The cruelty of war had just been tantly presented to the world.

    Bi Bo''s face was calm, yet his eyes were convincingly wild, as filled with a kind of untamed rage of a wolf in sheepskin. He was not a blind-shooter, neither he was a blockhead, soon he could already distinguish the potential rtionship between these pesky snipers and the mutated lifeforms.

    The Spider was on full fire!

    As trained by his father the great, his shooting skill was impable!

    His sequence of shooting only consisted of lock-on and fire, all within a matter of split second, while aiming every fatality of the target mechs. He had smashed 4 mechs so far.

    Rui Bing in the Guardian was observing the warfield under the guard of Dimming Blue. Her man was certainly a risk-taker, a super risk-taker too, that on a few asions he just had to gamble his life performing acrobatics to scare the soul out of her. "At least he is safe." She was relieved. All mutated lifeforms inside the circle of Dimming Blue had been cleared. She had started getting familiar with the first toy Ye Chong gave her - the Guardian.

    And nobody seemed to have noticed there was also a godlike expert here.

    Her eyes aimed those nasty mechs who tried to strike her man just now, as her body lowered, her feet sank to the ground. She made a leap, hurled herself over the boundary of blue mes, into the wave of mutated lifeforms.

    The golden figure weaved in and out of the monstrosity. The Guardian was the perfection for quick, small movements, while speed was the bread and butter of Rui Bing. She zapped her way under the enhancement of the Guardian, none of the mutated lifeforms could even catch her sight.

    Soon she approached one of those mechs. Yes. That mech was the one who tried shooting Ye Chong.

    Within the scope of darkness, countless fine white lines formed a three dimensional model of the target, rotating and erging quickly. Rui Bing was then flushed by the data stream of infinity, with the surrounding fading out and only the three crossing lines of target remained!

 Chapter 332 - Coordination

    <h4>Chapter 332: Coordination</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The dagger in her hand cut exactly where the three white lines were. While the dagger was not Rui Bing¡¯s preferred weapon, her three swipes were quick and true. Rui Bing continued advancing forward without dy, not even looking back at the results of her attack as she vanished into the endless hoard of mutants. Even the mech pilot did not realize that his mech had received three blows. Guardian had excellent anti-detection properties.

    Boom! The mech exploded without warning, its fragments spraying outwards, killing the mutants around it. Where the mech had been was not a ck spot of charred earth. The explosion was so strong that it left an eight-diameter circle of clearing.

    The ambushing mechs had scattered around the area for better cover. On top of that, the explosion went unnoticed because of the chaotic situation.

    Guardian was a miniature mech, less than two meters tall. Rui Bing moved between the towering mutants that could easily reach up to five meters.

    Rui Bing used the same method to finish off another two mechs. By then, the unusual casualties finally drew the attention of the other party. However, they did not spot Rui Bing yet, even though they were sure that someone was hiding out there and attacking them.

    When the fourth mech exploded, the ambushers finally felt a little frightened. It was a truly horrible experience to face against a powerful and invisible enemy. Up until now, they still did not know who the enemy was!

    Amidst the chaos that unfolded on the streets, the use of optical systems was disastrous. The countless number of mutants moving around on the screen and the narrow vision afforded was more than enough to confuse the viewer. Any mech pilot would surely be ovee by dizziness very quickly.

    In the flight runway, Ye Chong deployed Han Jia. After some rest, his stamina returned. He slipped into the pilot cabin easily and put his hands gently on the controls. Ye Chong exhaled softly and put his hands to work.

    Han Jia¡¯s first battle began.

    In the flight runway, Han Jia continued to pick up speed. Ye Chong¡¯s face was as cold as marble. He breathed steadily, now in his top form. As the exit grewrger andrger in view, he shivered a little in excitement.

    The flight runway was not wide, so Han Jia kept its colorful wings folded. The exit grew closer, and when Han Jia finally emerged outside, it spreaded out itsrge and beautiful pair of colorful wings.

    Han Jia flew across the sky like a butterfly, marking its first voyage into battle.

    Bi Bo was too focused recording that he did not notice the mech that silently hovered in the air like a butterfly. Bi Bo¡¯s recorder was based on optics, so Han Jia appeared clearly on it.

    Outside Zhou Jian, one could hear thedies shouting excitedly amidst the crowd as they watched the holographic screen, dazzled by what they were seeing. Women were always vulnerable to pretty things, much less something as beautiful as Han Jia. They gasped in awe at the mech, wondering what kind of mech it was.

    Han Jia looked down from above at the dense spread of mutants on the ground. Laser beams continued to shoot from below towards the mechs in the sky.

    Ye Chong quickly locked on one of the mechs. This was a red and ck mech. The pilot was an excellent shooter and a powerful fighter. The mech had brought down no less than 15 mechs. Unlike otherser beams that were slightly tinged with yellow, itssers were a bright red, and could deeply prate armor. It must be this mech that had nearly hit him. "He must be the leader," thought Ye Chong to himself.

    Han Jia¡¯s colorful wings reflected a kaleidoscope of colors from the sun¡¯s rays, sparkling like the rippling surface of ake.

    Han Jia dived with its wings folded. It shot down so fast that everyone was surprised. The mech experts all gasped in awe and stood up in excitement.

    Lightning! It shot down like lightning! The mech left behind a colorful afterimage that looked like a straight brush of rainbow.

    "That was fast," the experts all thought to themselves in shock.

    The red and ck mech erged quickly on Han Jia¡¯s holographic screen. Its every detail was captured clearly. Han Jia¡¯s mechanical palms conjured up its two daggers, both in a brown-gray that looked like wood. It looked like a bad match against Han Jia¡¯s beauty.

    The red and ck mech did not notice the impending danger as it searched for its next target.

    Gray Cross attack!

    The brown-gray daggers drew an "X" in the air. Han Jia swished past the red and ck mech with only a meter¡¯s distance between them.

    Han Jia moved so quickly that the red and ck mech shook a little from the air pressure that dropped while Han Jia passed by.

    The mech pilot inside was vignt, and knew instantly that something had flew past his mech. However, his holographic screen showed nothing at all.

    How was that possible? He was shocked. This was impossible! A terrifying thought urred to him then. Could it be ¡­

    He quickly recalled the mechs that exploded for no reason earlier. That must be it! The mystery was solved. He was anxious to warn his subordinates about it, but he never had the chance. The violent explosion swallowed him up. He lost consciousness as his vision darkened.

    By now, Han Jia was already a few hundred meters away from the mech. Han Jia¡¯s two daggers were mixed in with Do Kun stone, which made them fatally sharp.

    "Where are you?" Ye Chong asked through the publicms channel. He also activated his optical system. Han Jia¡¯s scanning system and photon processor were its most deplorable parts. It would be impossible to find Rui Bing through them. Hence, Ye Chong took to asking through the publicms channel, unafraid of being overheard.

    As expected, Rui Bing recognized Ye Chong¡¯s voice. "I¡¯m here."

    Ye Chong quickly scanned through Han Jia¡¯s optical system and found Rui Bing. The gold humanoid was leaping from one mutant¡¯s back to another at high speed.

    Guardian had a malleable shell, and was tight fitting. Rui Bing¡¯s body curves were all finely traced out on the humanoid mech. If Shang were here, he would surely be stunned by her perfect measurements. Due to her long and persistentbat training, Rui Bing¡¯s body was all muscles and no fat.

    Han Jia flew low towards Rui Bing.

    Ye Chong suddenly spoke through the publicms, "I¡¯m behind you, jump!"

    Rui Bing leaped off the back of a mutant rat without dy, jumping high into the air. Han Jia swept past her and gently held on to Rui Bing, cing her on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder.

    Ye Chong said, "We need to catch someone back, alive."

    "Alright." Sitting on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder, Rui Bing felt a sweet blessing.

    The golden woman with perfect measurements sat on the shoulder of a dazzling butterfly with colorful wings, looking through its spiral ck-and-white eyes. It was destined to be an unforgettable sight.

    No one knew the name of Han Jia. In fact, from then on, people always referred to the mech as the Rainbow Butterfly. To them, it was a name that symbolized the wlessly beautiful mech that appeared and vanished so quickly from the world.

    "Get ready," Ye Chong warned softly. Rui Bing focused herself. She switched into a half-crouched stance, readying herself. Rui Bing stood steadily half-crouched on a small spot on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder while Han Jia flew quickly through the air, a testimony to her incredible sense of bnce.

    "Now!"

    Han Jia¡¯s colorful wings disappeared, while its 12 flexible tentacles struck like lightning towards the mech that was standing in front, among the mutants. The sharp hooks at the tip of the tentacles were barely visible.

    Pak! The 12 tentacles nailed the mech firmly to the ground.

    A grey shadow swished past. Han Jia¡¯s dagger was sharp, instantly severing the four limbs off the mech, leaving only its body. Rui Bingunched herself from her half-crouched position, the dagger in her hand carving a square out of the armor of the mech.

    Guardian¡¯s dagger was called Number Two¡¯s Dagger. It was also sharp, almost as sharp as Han Jia¡¯s daggers that were mixed in with Do Kun Stone. Ye Chong never figured out much about Guardian¡¯s structure and material, and was equally ignorant of the materials and method used to craft that dagger.

    Gu Shaoze was a true genius! Ye Chong sighed to himself as he had done so for many times before.

    She lightly peeled the armor, and it flew off into the distance.

    This turn of events was too sudden that the mech pilot inside was still confused when he found himself exposed. A gold humanoid was staring at him with odd, ck-and-white eyes. It was like a dream.

    Was he dreaming? He wondered at the bizarre sight that greeted him.

    Rui Bing did not hesitate. She lightly chopped on the side of his neck, and mech pilot slumped down instantly.

    Rui Bing hauled him up without a word and leapt onto Han Jia¡¯s shoulder. Ye Chong¡¯s hands moved, and Han Jia quickly flew towards the alchemy building, into a flight runway.

    When Ye Chong and Rui Bing hauled the man into the storage room, everyone stared dumbly at them. They had been watching the holographic images on the screen, which did not show their mechs.

    Ye Chong flung the captured mech pilot towards Fei Si, and said in his calm voice, "He¡¯s probably an experimental subject infected with the virus. Please study him. He¡¯ll wake up in 10 days." What Ye Chong really meant was, "Please study him as you please."

    Just then, the holographic screen on the wall showed lesser and lesserser attacks towards the sky.

    Ye Chong and Rui Bing exchanged a nce.

    "They¡¯re escaping."

    "Yes."

    "Let¡¯s go."

    "Alright."

    Ye Chong deployed Han Jia and slipped into the pilot cabin. Rui Bing deployed Guardian, hopped onto Han Jia¡¯s shoulder and sat down. Han Jia flew off with its colorful wings as the people in the room gasped in awe.

    Fei Si watched Han Jia, with Rui Bing on its shoulder. A silent tear rolled down her cheeks.

 Chapter 333 - The Enemy Appears

    <h4>Chapter 333: The Enemy Appears</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing sat on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder as Han Jia flew close to the ground. While it was highly effective in avoiding detection, Ye Chong still flew around buildings for cover. Just in front of them, dozens of mechs were desperately flying away to escape. They never imagined that someone would be tailing them.

    After flying for nearly half an hour, these mechs finally slowed down.

    This was once a prosperousmercial area with many tall buildings. Now, it was filled with dead silence, littered with dismembered corpses. The once elegant buildings were nowpletely destroyed, leaving behind unrecoverable wreckage. The mechs quickly divided into numerous smaller squads and entered the jungle of skyscrapers.

    Ye Chong could only lock on to one of the squads, formed by only two mechs. They took many turns along the way before finally entering a warehouse.

    Could this be their headquarters? Ye Chong hesitated. Entering the warehouse required some form of identification. Forcing their way in was possible, but not without rming the others inside.

    Han Jia circled around to another side of the warehouse. It looked around, and found no one was watching.

    The mech took out its dagger and drew a square on the wall. Han Jia¡¯s other hand carefully supported this square. Inside Han Jia¡¯s pilot cabin, Ye Chong was all focused, his hands moving as fast as he could. Han Jia¡¯s delicate movements were difficult to maneuver, as evident from Ye Chong¡¯s intense focus.

    Han Jia carefully slid the square out of the wall. Ye Chong was surprised to find that, instead of a singleyer of strongpound material, the wall was made up of threeyers - a centeryer of ultra-strong alloy board sandwiched between twoyers of strongpound material.

    The ce was suspicious alright. If not for Han Jia¡¯s sharp daggers, it would be near impossible to cut through the wall with normalser swords.

    Han Jia bent over and crawled into the warehouse.

    The inside was full of stacks of boxed goods. Ye Chong quickly found the two mechs he was following. They had their backs turned to him, and were heading down an underground tunnel. Ye Chong inhaled in relief. If they had been facing him, he would have been discovered there and then.

    The underground tunnel was simple, without requiring any identification.

    Rui Bing asked softly, "Entrance to an underground sewer?" She sounded surprised. Ye Chong and Rui Bing had set a specific channel formunication, allowing them to reach each other easily.

    "So it¡¯s an underground sewer entrance," Ye Chong realized then. He would never have known about it. After all, Rui Bing had been living in this society for much longer, and was more familiar with thesemon things.

    The entrance to the underground sewer was shut tight.

    10 secondster, when Ye Chong believed that the two mechs were far enough from them, he finally approached the entrance. The lid was opened, and Ye Chong carried Rui Bing down into the sewers.

    The sewer was wider than they expected. It was about a hundred meters from top to bottom. A mech could easily fly inside. Both sides of the wall were fitted with air sterilizers every five meters, so the air was not too polluted.

    The city¡¯s sewerage system was very advanced. The drainage water flowing inside was turbid, but otherwise clear of other waste materials. A ledge separated the drainage water at the center into two streams. The ledge was interrupted by a huge support pir every ten meters, and this pattern stretched on without end.

    Ye Chong maneuvered Han Jia carefully. The two mechs in front of him were no longer in sight. However, they had only directions to choose from, so the choice was not tooplicated.

    "Which direction?" Ye Chong asked. Since Rui Bing was now hisrade, it was reasonable for him to ask for her opinion.

    Rui Bing closed her eyes as she sat on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder. She opened up her arms to feel the vibrations in the air. After five seconds, Rui Bing opened her eyes and pointed forward, "They¡¯re somewhere in front."

    Han Jia elerated without hesitation. Rui Bing sat steadily on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder, unaffected by the sudden motion.

    Han Jia¡¯s engine was silent but powerful. It flew like a ghost, slowly closing in on the two mechs in front.

    Gradually, Ye Chong began to sense that something was amiss.

    "Strange, there¡¯s none of those mutants here," Rui Bing wondered. Her expertise in spiritual training allowed her to be more sensitive than Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong realized what was wrong then. The sewer was dark, but clean. When the entire was ovee by mutants, the sewer seemed untouched. It was strange indeed.

    As they followed the two mechs from afar, the size of the sewage tunnels astounded Ye Chong. They had been flying for quite a while, and still had not reached the end. There were branches of tunnels along the way. It was practically a huge underground maze.

    It was dark and quiet in here. The air was moist, and there were patches of moss here and there. Some of the stone pirs were already yellowing from age. The asional sound of water droplets falling from above seemed to create ripples in their hearts.

    Ye Chong adjusted his holographic scanning system quickly. The two mechs had reached a multi-branched junction ahead, where many stone pirs blocked his view.

    A red beam shed in the darkness ahead.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened. He saw it clearly. The leading mech¡¯s pilot cabin was shot through by the red beam. Ye Chong was sure that the mech pilot inside would not survive the attack.

    Han Jia came to an emergency stop and hid behind a stone pir!

    Someone was ambushing here!

    The second mech pilot obviously panicked, freezing as he did. This temporary panic was equivalent to suicide. As expected, another red beam shed in the darkness and hit right on the mech.

    "Amazing shooting skills!" Ye Chong thought to himself in surprise. He could see that the red beams did note from the same ce. In such a short time, the ambusher had switched positions. More terrifying was the fact that the red beam could shoot through the mech¡¯s pilot cabin. After all, for a mech of any model, the pilot cabin was the most heavily protected part, and would have the thickest armor reinforcements. The red beam could so easily shoot through the thick armor around the pilot cabin made Ye Chong wonder if Han Jia could block the attack.

    Just who was this ambusher?

    Out of the darkness, two mechs appeared.

    One was in ck and white, in ancient heavyweight armor, with shoulder guards that curled up at the ends. The mech was covered in a dizzying pattern of ck and white, and its bionic eyes seemed half closed. It had a strange looking weapon on its back. It looked like ance, but with two crescent shaped des around its tip. It must be a kind of ancient weapon, but Ye Chong did not recognize it.

    This was surely a mech that Ye Chong had never seen before, but for some reason, it did look familiar.

    The other mech was a gray-brown mech, with a pair of creepy, blood red bionic eyes. This mech was much more slenderpared to the other sturdier looking mech. Its upper half body was shaped like an inverted triangle. Ye Chong could find at least 12 concealed shooting chambers on it. The mech held a dark red shooting weapon. One could tell from the long gun chamber that it was a quality weapon.

    Han Jia and Guardian¡¯s anti-detection properties were something that Ye Chong was always confident of. No scanning system had been able to detect both mechs yet.

    Until today.

    The two mechs abruptly turned over, and a red beam shot towards Han Jia¡¯s location. Fortunately, it was blocked by the stone pir it was hiding behind, or Ye Chong would have suffered greatly from the hit. Ye Chong reacted quickly, stepping back swiftly while shielding both Han Jia and Rui Bing behind itsrge wings.

    Pow! A soft sound was heard. A red beam shot through the stone pir and hit Han Jia¡¯s wings, leaving a small burn mark. Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief. Han Jia¡¯s wings defended well against energy type weapons, as expected.

    They were now right at a multi-branched junction in the sewer. The territory was irregr andplicated, and the stone pirs covered them well.

    The two mechs separated and approached them from both sides.

    "One each?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Yes," Rui Bing answered sinctly,unching herself forward before she finished her single reply.

    Ye Chong faced the ck and white mech. The enemy seemed to know he was facing a dangerous opponent. The weapon on its back was now held in its hands. Han Jia also took out its daggers, holding them in its hands. The wings were folded back in. In thisplicated territory, the wings would be a hindrance to motion.

    Ye Chong found it surprising that they could detect them. However, from the looks of it, battle was inevitable. If they run away now, they would most likely be shot. After all, the enemy seemed to be an extraordinary sniper mech pilot.

    If that was the case, then they will fight.

    Ye Chong met his opponent bravely. The opponent was obviously a close range mech. In this kind of territory, Ye Chong would not be worried even if his opponent was a long range mech, much less a close range one!

    Close rangebat was Ye Chong¡¯s expertise and favorite way of battle.

    "An expert it is," Ye Chong thought to himself, studying his opponent¡¯s calm and steady flight. The pilot of this ck and white mech must be a very experienced veteran. Han Jia¡¯s speed was also kept below its maximum.

    Both mechs were 500 meters apart. They charged towards each other at the same time.

 Chapter 334 - Underground Base

    <h4>Chapter 334: Underground Base</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The two mechs represented very differentbat styles. The ck and white mech fought openly, its long weapon swinging about powerfully. The mech fought carefully and continuously, leaving no openings. From abat expert¡¯s perspective, Ye Chong thought highly of him. He was like a rock among the waves, resisting all forces against it.

    Han Jia fought with apletely different style. With its wings folded back in, the slender Han Jia was just like an assassin weaving in and out of the darkness. It took advantage of the territory and its speed to circle around the ck and white mech like a ghost. Whenever the opponent had a small opening, Han Jia would swipe in with its brown-gray dagger. The ck and white mech would then be temporarily flustered. Besides, Han Jia¡¯s 12 flexible tentacles attacked without warning, a terrifying weapon to deal with.

    The ck and white mech¡¯s defense was solid. Ye Chong was surprised to find that the opponent did not use any defensive weaponry at all, such as shields or the like. It managed to block all of his attacks with just its strange lookingnce. "Excellent skills!" Ye Chong thought to himself in increasing astonishment as he fought. Moreover, whenever he slowed down just a bit, the strange lookingnce would quickly be on his tail. Ye Chong dared not slow down, and could only desperately kept maneuvering Han Jia to circle around the mech.

    Ye Chong did not know that his opponent was even more surprised. He was already giving his best, but could only barely hold against Ye Chong. The enemy fought strangely, its two daggers reflecting no light in the darkness. He grew more terrified when he noticed that the daggers had always attacked his weakest spots. Once the daggers appeared, the attack woulde in waves, leaving him no room to breathe. The tentacles were even harder to deal with, vanishing as soon as they appeared.

    No one who knew him well would believe that he was suppressed to this extent.

    Both of them were in a stalemate. It was a battle of patience. Whoever presented an opening first would receive a devastating blow. None of them expected the battle to drag on like this. However, given their situation, they could not just escape.

    Simr to them, Rui Bing and the other mech were also ending up in a stalemate.

    The gray-brown mech¡¯s red sniper rifle shot with astounding uracy, and the mech pilot was also apetent fighter. He recognized that his opponent was in a miniature mech. Miniature mechs were never a match for normal mechs. However, he was confounded by the fact that this rule did not apply in his battle now. His opponent was shockingly powerful, changing directions in mind bending ways. That was not all. He found himself unable to lock on his opponent due to her unbelievably deft footwork.

    Cold sweat began to roll down his spine.

    If it was any otherbat expert, that person in Guardian would have died a few times over. However, this was Rui Bing. In ancient times,bat experts were most afraid of weapons like arrows and bows. These long range weapons allowed a slightly trained young child to kill abat expert with decades of harsh training.

    Every attack has its counter. Combat experts thought hard on ways to ovee these deadly long range weapons, designing techniques specifically used to avoid them. However, these techniques gradually lost their use in the advent of energy weapons, and were slowly lost in history. Even if someone found out about them, they would not learn those techniques due to their uselessness.

    However, this was Rui Bing.

    The Rui Family grew to be an independent school ofbat, and keptplete records of its techniques. As a focused learner since young and a strong conservative, Rui Bing was familiar with almost every technique that could be found in her family records.

    Additionally, she was a Jie expert. She could perform a technique that was useless to someone else and achieve different and better results. Moreover, with her acute spiritual senses, she could judge situations very urately, much like the mentalists from the Sanctuary.

    That was how she managed to avoid being hit for so long. However, it was not a walk in the park for her. Rui Bing felt her stamina decreasing rapidly. Her opponent¡¯s shooting uracy was also putting her under great pressure. She could feel the threat of death every second. The red beam had barely grazed past her three times already.

    Both sides did not expect to meet strong opponents here, but they were now all in this stalemate. Each of them groaned on the inside at their predicament, but had to keep up with their own battles.

    It was the other side that finally relented. From the publicms channel came a low voice of a man, "My friend, this must be a misunderstanding. Why don¡¯t we stop fighting?"

    "Alright!" Ye Chong replied. Both sides would suffer if they continued fighting. Given that they had fought with each other for so long, they had a good grasp of their opponent¡¯s strength. Giving up the fight was the obvious choice for both sides.

    The ck and white mech immediately eased down his defenses. Ye Chong noticed, and quickly stepped back. Han Jia¡¯s daggers were hidden by its sides like a poisonous snake waiting to strike. If the opponent came back for him, the dagger would deliver a fatal blow.

    The ck and white mech vanished into the darkness.

    Han Jia disappeared as well, hiding behind a stone pir. It barely stood still when Rui Bing, in Guardian, came back to Han Jia¡¯s shoulder.

    After a full half minute, Ye Chong said, "They¡¯re gone."

    Rui Bing was breathing quickly. She had been stepping left and right avoiding her opponent¡¯s attacks, and found herself fatigued. Besides, unlike Ye Chong, this was her first time facing such a cold battle. The thought of death was also tiring her quickly. She would have fainted by now if not for her strong determination.

    The two of them were sharing a directms channel, and Rui Bing¡¯s short breathing was heard clearly.

    After a long moment of silence, Ye Chong suddenly asked out of nowhere, "Are you alright?"

    Rui Bing froze for a second before replying calmly, "I¡¯m fine." Guardian¡¯s soft mask traced every detail on Rui Bing¡¯s face, and it was now etched with a barely visible smile in the darkness.

    "I see, let¡¯s go then."

    The two mechs that led them so far were dead now, right at a junction with many branches to choose from. There was nothing left for them to do but choose one at random and enter it. Han Jia carried Rui Bing silently as they advanced further into the sewer.

    Soon, Ye Chong found that they had gotten lucky, because the number of holographic cameras along the way had suddenly increased. It seemed that they were heading in the right direction.

    Ye Chong was not unsure if the holographic scanning could detect Han Jia and Guardian now. He did not know how those two mechs managed to see them earlier. Of course, it was most likely that they were equipped with a very powerful holographic scanning system.

    However, now that they hade so far, it would be foolish to turn back.

    They followed the sewer tunnel, which was beginning to form a slope upwards. The water level dropped until finally they could see the ground beneath. There were clear signs that someone had been keeping the ce clean.

    They reached an alloy door, which stood wide open before them. After some thought, Ye Chong and Rui Bing decided to enter. As they flew past the alloy door, Ye Chong found the thickness of the door surprising. It was 10 meters thick, enough to block even the lower grade cannons.

    Beyond the door, the space opened up into a round hall. No one was there. The floor was a mess, scattered with chips of all colors.

    Ye Chong moved carefully inside, and his expression turned grim. This was aboratory. There were many virus cultivation equipment lying around, but they were all destroyed now. The containers he saw were all empty as well.

    After passing by a few rooms simr to the first, Ye Chong and Rui Bing still did not met anyone. The ce was obviously a centralboratory. Such arge centralboratory built underground must have been expensive.

    The innermost room was an archive room. Unlike the other rooms, it was left untouched, with no signs of things being moved around.

    Ye Chong came out of Han Jia, and Rui Bing withdrew Guardian. They studied the archive room with interest. The room was simple, with an empty cupboard at human¡¯s height standing in a corner. The rest of the room was filled with all kinds of chips, arranged based on their serial numbers.

    At the center was a holographic screen, showing all the feeds from the holographic cameras. Ye Chong noticed that one of the rows of holographic feeds was quickly disappearing one by one.

    Suddenly, two figures appeared on the holographic screen. One was Engradie Academy¡¯s Old Xu, while the other was a middle-aged man. They were heading towards the archive room where Ye Chong and Rui Bing were.

    Ye Chong looked around him and stopped at the cupboard. It was tall enough, andrge enough to fit them both snugly.

    "Come in," Ye Chong went in first, and yelled to Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing saw the meagre space left in the cupboard, a faint blush crawling up her neck. She hesitated for two seconds before squeezing in.

    Ye Chong quickly closed the cupboard.

    It was cramped inside as they were both squeezed tightly together. Rui Bing dared not move. Any movement from either of them made her uneasy, and her heart would beat even faster.

    They were too close together. Rui Bing could even feel Ye Chong¡¯s warm breath on her neck.

    A strange tension was growing between them.

    "You¡¯re shivering," Ye Chong said.

    "I¡¯m not," Rui Bing said with forced determination.

    "You¡¯re definitely shivering, at 92 to 136 tremors per minute," Ye Chong said this with unusual certainty. Given a watch, he would be able to narrow down his estimation even further to a more urate figure.

    "I said I¡¯m not," Rui Bing insisted with a tiny voice, biting her lips as her cheeks reddened considerably. The tight space did not even allow her to lower her head as she continued to helplessly shiver.

    Ye Chong could not understand why Rui Bing would tantly lie, but he did not ask further.

    They both quieted down. Being so close together, they could hear each other¡¯s beating heart. Ye Chong felt his mouth went inexplicably dry. His breath turned hotter, like fire, and his breathing grew heavy.

    As if sensing the changes in Ye Chong, Rui Bing¡¯s breathing shortened as well.

 Chapter 335 - Fate

    <h4>Chapter 335: Fate</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    They kept silent. Only their heavy breathing could be heard clearly in the cupboard.

    Rui Bing felt like her whole body was burning up. If she looked in the mirror now, she would see her skin all red and burning hot.

    Ye Chong smelled a distant but familiar and sweet scent once again.

    It was like setting his belly on fire. Ye Chong could not help but lower his head and did the exact same thing he did that day - he homed in on Rui Bing¡¯s exposed neck and gave a gentle lick!

    "It¡¯s the same vague but familiar sensation ¡­" Ye Chong thought to himself, his memories of that past incident now rushing back to him.

    Rui Bing¡¯s whole body tensed up like she was struck by lightning. Her hands held tightly onto Ye Chong¡¯s hands.

    Half a minuteter ¡­

    "Your hands are very soft," Ye Chongmented objectively.

    Rui Bing quickly let go of his hands, her heart racing like mad.

    Just then, Ye Chong heard two peopleing towards them. He immediately shifted his attention and focused on eavesdropping.

    Old Xu and the middle-aged man entered the archive room.

    Old Xu sighed, "So it really happened. I knew that the Gray Valley people will not just stand by and watch. They¡¯re too reckless."

    The middle-aged man¡¯s expression turned grim as he said, "Yeah, these people, they¡¯re too ambitious. Now that something went wrong, they all vanished just like that."

    "You better leave too," Old Xu said this with a helpless sigh and waved his hand, "Everything they took is fake. The core information is still here. You can find them, the serial numbers are ZX7868076, SD7865468 and RM087655. These three chips hold the core information. I always knew that there¡¯s a mole in the organization."

    The middle-aged man shook his head and said, "I¡¯m not running away too. Much of this is our fault, dying here would be fitting."

    "You¡¯re still young," Old Xu sighed again, "You still have a long future ahead of you."

    "What future?" The middle-aged manughed ghastly, "I still don¡¯t know who spread the virus. What an evil b*stard! I¡¯ll never be able to live in peace, so why not just end this now. Sigh, if not because of this, those people inside would not have noticed us so soon."

    Old Xu took a nce at the holographic screen and said inly, "They¡¯re here."

    "Well, I have noints dying in their hands," the middle-aged man said calmly, "They must have killed all our experiment subjects."

    His expression turned into one of pride. "Humph, if I have another half a year, these experiment subjects will definitely be on their level. It¡¯s a pity ¡­ Sigh, perhaps this is fate," the middle-aged man said this with waning interest, "Back then, they chased me out of Gray Valley. I thought that one day, perhaps I could ¡­ Sigh, in the end, I¡¯ll still die in their hands."

    "The onesing must be Sentry and Graycrawler. Sigh, just two of them is enough to bring us to our current situation. The ones in the know must have been wary of us, to send them two here. Humph, we would not have been forced into our current situation so easily, if not for that mole." Old Xu took another nce at the holographic screen, still furious with the mole.

    When Old Xu mentioned the names of the two mechs, the middle-aged man jerked slightly.

    Rui Bing did not hear them at all, her attention still focused on Ye Chong. Seeing Ye Chong focusing on something else made her calmer, for some reason. She could feel Ye Chong¡¯s heartbeat, and wished that this moment wouldst forever.

    Ye Chong finally understood something from their conversation. These two people must be deeply connected with Gray Valley. Ye Chong suddenly recalled the two Gray Valley people he met on the starship before, and thought again of the two mechs he encountered earlier. Just how were these people connected to each other?

    Two mechs entered the archive room. They were the two mechs that Ye Chong and Rui Bing fought against earlier.

    Old Xu and the middle-age man faced the two mechs with calm faces.

    The middle-aged man looked to the ck and white mech and mocked, "So? Is the great Bei Guang and his Sentry, Gray Valley¡¯s top fighter, unwilling to meet an old friend?"

    A short silence followed.

    Suddenly, the ck and white mech¡¯s pilot cabin opened up, and a man slipped out of it. The other mech pointed its weapon at the two men, warning them against any tricks.

    If Ye Chong were seeing this, he would be surprised to find that the mech pilot of the ck and white mech was actually the middle-aged man of the two from Gray Valley that he saw on the starship.

    "Moyan, I never thought we¡¯d meet under such circumstances," Bei Guang said after much hesitation. Ye Chong recognized his voice from the mech pilot of the ck and white mech who spoke to him earlier.

    Ning Moyan¡¯s expression was unreadable. He was silent for a full half a minute before mocking himself, "Yes, fate is truly unpredictable. The once penniless dull man is now the top fighter of Gray Valley. Me, on the other hand, once a genius, was kicked out of Gray Valley. Haha, now, I¡¯m even brought down to this miserable situation. Fate is cruel."

    "Moyan, I know that you¡¯re not responsible for what happened back then," Bei Guang said this sincerely to Ning Moyan, "I only have one question for you."

    "And that is?" Ning Moyan lifted his eyebrow sarcastically.

    "Was it you who spreaded the virus?" Bei Guang asked in a low voice.

    A great anger rose within Ning Moyan. He wanted to return a few sarcastic words, but he saw Bei Guang¡¯s expression. Old memories came back to him. The image of two little boys ying together touched the softer part of his heart, and that great anger vanished without a trace.

    He could not help but spoke the truth, "Guang, it was not me! I swear it."

    Bei Guang looked meaningfully at Ning Moyna, and Ning Moyan did not avert his gaze. After a while, Bei Guang nodded and said, "Moyan, don¡¯t worry, I will find the person responsible for spreading the virus."

    Ning Moyan knew that his once friend always kept his word. He nodded, and did not say more.

    Bei Guang turned to the other man and said with a hint of respect, "Old Xu, I don¡¯t understand at all why you would be involved in this!"

    "You¡¯ll find outter," Old Xu said calmly, "I¡¯ll just warn you a bit, those people in the know, hehe ¡­" Abruptly, Old Xu stopped there, and it was a long moment before he sighed again, "I won¡¯t tell. For you, the lesser you know the better."

    "Guang, don¡¯t investigate further into this matter. It¡¯s moreplicated than it seems," Ning Moyan advised, but he could tell from the light in Bei Guang¡¯s eyes that his words did nothing to convince him. He knew this man inside out, being his very close friend. Once his eyes lit up like that, there was no stopping him.

    Old Xu sighed softly and looked at Bei Guang. He said calmly, "Do what you have to. I¡¯m not going back to Gray Valley to meet those people. It¡¯s simpler to just die here."

    Ning Moyan showed the same calmness as he spoke, "Yeah, if you¡¯re really trying to help me, then do it. There¡¯s only suffering back there, and you know it. Hehe, and they might just not get what they wished for."

    Bei Guang knew that if he brought them back, they would probably be greeted with endless torture. His expression dimmed as his eyes betrayed his pain and sadness. He looked to Ning Moyan meaningfully, and Ning Moyan looked back at him with eptance.

    It was as though they were back to their youthful days of fun.

    Bei Guang gritted his teeth and turned around. He waved his hand in a sharp jerk.

    Two red beams shot through the dead center of Ning Moyan¡¯s and Old Xu¡¯s foreheads.

    As he turned back around, Bei Guang was already in tears. He walked to Ning Moyan¡¯s corpse quietly and kneeled down. Bang bang bang! He kowtowed three times, leaving his forehead bloody.

    His face was still covered in tears as Guang Bei stared silently at Ning Moyan¡¯s body on the ground. Ning Moyan¡¯s face looked calm, without any trace of pain.

    After a full three minutes, Guang Bei finally stood up and slipped into his mech.

    "Squad Captain, this ce ¡­" Through thems, hisrade asked carefully. Anyone could see that Guang Bei was now greatly devastated.

    He knew of the friendship between Bei Guang and Ning Moyan. They had grown up together. Guang Bei was honest and a bit rigid, while Ning Moyan was hailed as a genius. They shared a close friendship, akin to brothers. Guang Bei¡¯s rigidity had made him a bullying target, but Ning Moyan had always defended him.

    Guang Bei¡¯s current achievement was closely rted to Ning Moyan. Guang Bei had always trusted Ning Moyan since they were young. His training schedule waspletely designed by Ning Moyan. When he first met the squad captain and before they began receiving official training, he remembered seeing the squad captain still training ording to Ning Moyan¡¯s suggestions.

    Later on, for some unknown reason, Ning Moyan was exiled from Gray Valley. Guang Bei might be rigid, bu he was also extremely hardworking and reliable, so he continued to rise through the ranks. When he was finally given Sentry, he became one of the top mech pilots in Gray Valley.

    "Destroy this ce. All the useful things here have already been moved out," Guang Bei said solemnly. He was still deep in pain.

    After rapidly setting up the ultra-strong explosives, the two mechs quickly left the archive room.

    Just after they left, Ye Chong rushed out of the cupboard. He remembered the three serial numbers that Old Xu mentioned clearly.

    He ignored Rui Bing and quickly searched for those three chips among the other chips in the room.

    When Ye Chong went out of the cupboard, Rui Bing felt a momentary loss, but quickly gathered herself.

    He had a blue, yellow and red chip. After double checking their serial numbers, Ye Chong felt overjoyed and quickly deployed his mech. "Let¡¯s go," he said as he slipped into his mech. Rui Bing also deployed Guardian and resumed her position on Han Jia¡¯s shoulder.

    Down in the underground sewer, Han Jia carried Rui Bing and elerated to its maximum speed.

    Ye Chong and Rui Bing both knew that time was of the essence! They had to reach safety before the bombs exploded.

 Chapter 336 - Mech Duel I

    <h4>Chapter 336: Mech Duel I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong and Rui Bing returned to Ze Xi Academy looking pathetic. In the end, they were still caught in the heatwave of the explosion, covering them with dust. The ultra-strong explosives were powerful, raising a huge gray cloud that could even be seen from afar. This surprised a lot of people, not knowing what was happening. However, when Ye Chong and Rui Bing both returned looking miserable not long after the explosions, sharp people like Bi Bo immediately suspected that they might be involved with that incident.

    However, he was not foolish enough to ask Ye Chong about it. Now at Ze Xi Academy, Ye Chong¡¯s role was irreceable. Ze Xi Academy¡¯s higher-ups were mostly dead from the chaos earlier. Just when everyone was feeling lost, Ye Chong had appeared like a hero, turning the tide against the mutants. Additonally, the hundreds of war mech pilots that were protecting them at the academy were all here because of Ye Chong.

    Here was a powerfulbatant, capable of synthesizing the strange but deadly Bluefire chemical. His background was a mystery. Now, he had be an idol for the survivors of Ze Xi Academy.

    Only Ye Chong, Rui Bing and Fei Si were in theboratory. Fei Si stared at the photon processor, her face drained of blood as she muttered, "How could they ¡­"

    Ye Chong was also not looking so well. The three chips that he got from the underground base had all the information on theter part of their decade-long experiments. They had been experimenting on humans. No less than 300 had died from their experiments. It was terrifying.

    Ye Chong frowned as he noticed Fei Si¡¯s pale face. He spoke up, "Now is not the time for this. Can you find a cure for the virus?" It would take time to fully digest the information in the chips, but there were more important matters to attend to.

    Fei Siposed herself then, still looking a little pale, but she considered for a moment before saying, "Once I know its structure, the rest will be easier. I¡¯ll make the cure now." She remembered then that many students outside could die at any moment.

    She began to work in earnest. Fei Si was a real workaholic, as evident from her current single status. While her teacher had once advised her to spend more time on her personal matters, she still continued to work. After her teacher¡¯s passing, she had dived deeper into work in her grief. However, it was her determination that led her to be as capable as she was at her young age.

    Seeing Fei Si deep in concentration, Ye Chong took out the chips from the photon processor and put them in his bag. He exchanged a nce with Rui Bing, and they both left theb.

    Just as they were outside, Ye Chong and Rui Bing both heard amotion.

    When the people outside saw Ye Chong, they yelled, "He¡¯s here, he¡¯s back out here."

    Ye Chong frowned. A group of people were talking with the mech pilots. The 900 mech pilots that Ye Chong brought with him had suffered greatly, losing nearly 300 lives, about a third of the entire force. The Shi Family had suffered the least, proving that they were the mostbat capable of the three families.

    Bi Bo approached Ye Chong and spoke softly, "I think they¡¯re trouble."

    Seeing Ye Chong¡¯s arrival, the leader of the group approached Ye Chong and studied him for awhile before speaking, "You the one who made the blue fire?" The big guy looked strong, his muscles bulging out from hisbat suit.

    The people around quieted down at the mention of that question. The entire academy building fell silent. Many of them looked angry, as the man had spoken rudely.

    Aside from Ye Chong, Rui Bing¡¯s eyes gleamed coldly.

    Ye Chong ignored him as his eyes swept across the leaders of the three troops. The leaders of the three troops avoided his gaze.

    "Who let them in?" Ye Chong asked calmly in a voice free of intonation, but his words were powerful. Everyone held their breaths.

    The leaders looked away, as if they did not hear him.

    Ye Chong nodded, and said inly, "So this is how you treat your orders. As expected of war mech pilots." Ye Chong¡¯s expression was empty, like he was onlymenting on the weather.

    The people around looked at the troop leaders with despise.

    In the He Yue Gxy, staff mech pilots were different from average mech pilots. Staff mech plots enjoyed better benefits and higher statuspared to other mech pilots. They were professionalbatants. However, staff mech pilots were also subject to stricter discipline. One of the most important rules was to always obey their orders.

    Disobeying orders was a serious matter for staff mech pilots. It was no wonder that the people around looked at them with distaste.

    The leaders looked miserable. They were unwilling to do this in the first ce, but due to their orders, they were forced to protect Ye Chong and Rui Bing. They also took to heart how Ye Chong had easily escaped six of their mechs earlier like it was but a game, and using Valiance at that. To them, it was an act of public humiliation. The man had other mechs but had chosen to use Valiance, what was that if not a deliberate choice to embarrass them?

    They had not stopped this group of people from entering with the intention to make things awkward for Ye Chong.

    However, the seemingly rigid man had now retaliated with such sharp words. using staff mech pilots for disobeying orders was a serious matter. The hostile looks they got from the people around them had driven them into a difficult situation.

    The Shi Family¡¯s troop leader stepped forward to justify themselves, "You did not order for us to stop anyone from entering." Bi Bo could not help but humphed coldly at that. Given the circumstances, it was only natural for the staff mech pilots to be vignt and not let anyone enter as they pleased. Explicit orders were not necessary for this precaution.

    "Oh," Ye Chong nodded, eyeing the leaders again until they felt ufortable. Ye Chong¡¯s next words forced them into a tight corner, "Then I now order you to get rid of them from here."

    The leaders looked to each other, aghast.

    The big guy was furious. "Heh, what arrogance. Humph, even if Shi Sen was here, he wouldn''t dare speak to me like this. Humph, just who do you think you are?" Shi Sen was one of Shi Family¡¯s powerful members, and was very well known. The big guy said this with towering pride.

    Rui Bing, who had been silently watching all this while, could not stand it any longer. Her eyes gleamed icily as the neat bangs on her forehead swept up. She darted forward, reaching the big guy before her to p him. Rui Bing who had refined herself much both in terms ofbat and manners, would normally not be so easily angered. Even if someone yelled in her face, she could ignore thempletely. However, for some reason, she could not stand seeing someone speaking so rudely to Ye Chong.

    Rui Bing moved like lightning. It was all so sudden that the big guy could barely raise his hands to block her. Rui Bing twisted her wrists and evaded his block.

    Piak! It was a solid, hard p on the big guy¡¯s face.

    Rui Bing was angry with his rudeness, and had used some force. The big guy¡¯s face was imprinted with a clear palm. The big guy was stupefied, and could barely believe what had happened. Rui Bing was back at Ye Chong¡¯s side, as if she had not moved at all.

    Everyone gasped!

    The leaders were also shocked by Rui Bing¡¯s reaction. The cold woman in white was amazing. Her attack was like a lightning strike. If it were them, they would never be able to block her. If it was not a p, but a chop to the big guy¡¯s throat ¡­ The leaders could imagine the sound of broken bones, and their hearts chilled.

    The big guy¡¯s surprise quickly turned to humiliation and anger. He spoke through gritted teeth, "Alright, f*ck, to think that someone¡¯s b*llsy enough to p me. Hehe ¡­" He wanted to say more, but seeing the white-robed woman standing beside Ye Chong made him swallow the rest of his words.

    "Little sheet, how about a mech duel?" The big guy challenged. Rui Bing heard the big guy¡¯s insult for Ye Chong, and raised her eyebrow, pushing the big guy to take a few steps back.

    Ye Chong turned to Bi Bo and asked, "What¡¯s a mech duel?"

    Bi Bo took a nce at the big guy and replied quickly, "A mech duel match between two people with their respective mechs. There are no specific rules to it, but no one is allowed to interfere. Both sides ce their own bets."

    "Why would I want to have a mech duel with him?" Ye Chong asked.

    Bi Bo was speechless. The people around them watched Ye Chong like he was an alien. The big guyughed, "Hehe, what a coward, are you man? What a f*cking weakling ¡­" Seeing Rui Bing raising her brow again, the big guy quickly shut up.

    Bi Bo was vexed. How should he try to exin this? After a long moment, he tried with, "If you win, you can obtain whatever he bet in the duel, like money, for example, or mechs, or other things." In the He Yue Gxy, mech duels were amonality. Most people would not shy away from a mech duel, since mech pilots were widely perceived to be brave.

    "Oh," Ye Chong finally showed some interest. He turned to the big guy and asked, "What do you have?"

 Chapter 337 - Mech Duel II

    <h4>Chapter 337: Mech Duel II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ady appeared from the back of the big guy, "Greetings sir, what could I provide you I wonder?" She said with a smile of a gorgeous twenty-five. Her short hair swung, her blue suit revealed a fair white shirt which the top had been partially unbuttoned, exposing her cor bones. The fitting skirt engulfed her bouncing pound of fleshes, her calves were a sexy screamer. How alluring.

    Any trainee in their puberty would be easily hooked away by her simple bow. It was only a matter of seconds before she became the center of everyone''s attention. Her smile remained as gentle as her expressive eyes stared upon Ye Chong. The big guy withdrew himself the moment thedy made her debut.

    The stares of the trainees were as if a thunderous shout from them saying, "Provide you yourself! Nothing else!" Even Bi Bo, who had gotten used to all sorts of women, was having his heart raced a little.

    Ye Chong frowned, "What can you guys provide then?"

    Oh? Thedy''s smile bloomed. Her eyes rolled interestingly, "Instead of that, why don''t you tell us what do you need, so that we can see if there is any assistance we could provide?" It was a trade, a business from the very beginning. Whoever shed their trump card would be destined to lose! Thedy was clearly very experienced in this, and Bi Bo fancied that.

    "State your catalogue," Ye Chong shook his head, knowing if he really listed out everything he needed, thedy might as well carried the entire cargo to him right away. Well he did not know what exactly he wanted at the moment, to be honest. And these men who joined the scene abruptly, hell knows what they aimed here¡­ Wait, the big guy said something about the Bluefire. Did theye for the Bluefire reagent?

    That chemical substance was nothing valuable in particr to Ye Chong. So much work just for Bluefire? But how did they know about Bluefire?

    Meanwhile, Susan was getting irritated by this ignorant man. Just today she suddenly received a transmission from the authority, demanding her to head to Ze Xi academy with her men, look for a peculiarly ugly man and obtain the form that could produce the phenomena of Dimming Blue. Asmunicative systems of mosts had been damaged, Zhou Jian was nearly utterly offline with thest few ces remained connected to the world in signals so weak that not even the Virtual World survived from this and visuals could not be even transmitted directly to Susan. She eventually had toe all the way to Zhou Jian herself to get things done. It was quite a miracle that Bi Bo''s stream was of private connection and the broadcast was sessful. Unlike Bi Bo, Susan was running out of luck. The moment she arrived, Xiong Mocong just had to ruin her life. "You filthy pig," cursed Susan softly. Xiong Mocong possessed quite an unconventional rank in the organization, in a way that he was not a subordinate of Susan despite being under her supervision, so Susan technically could hardly enforce anything on him.

    At least the situation remained under control. It was a relief to her when she was informed that a mech duel was going to happen instead. Xiong Mocong was still something at mech duels in spite of that bad temper of his.

    All she had to do at the moment was to lure this boy into their, since clearly this boy did not look interested in a street fight without any form of incentive. This ugly boy however, gave her a different kind of sensation, a very¡­ very unique atmosphere he exuded that was unfitting to his visual age.

    The white-garbed girl by his side was also a fascination, that Xiong Mocong almost got knocked out at first. Knowing how skillful Xiong Mocong might not be aspetent in a hand-on-hand, but he should not be this bad¡­ Such horror that even a fully grown man could not hold a single attack of hers¡­

    The remaining 600 men behind were none of her concern, as she could easily discern the dispute among them at first nce, they would be an brittle wall to break, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

    "How about we heat things up? You win, you get a fancy new ride. Let''s see¡­ the new Phantom-3000? The fearsome Genocide? Or you prefer the ssic model Celestial Terra-cotta?" Listed Susan some mouth-watering bets on the duel, which none of them were ordinary models at the street market. All of those models could go easily 5 million points for sale, while being the dream ride of all pilots.

    "Holy Molly, did I hear Phantom-3000?"

    "I saved up for my entire life just to get a battery for Genocide!"

    "Lucky boy."

    "Wooooow."

    The exmation brewed along with whispers in the surrounding, including Bi Bo with his eyes wide open. "Such daring bet¡­" Whispered he, as getting intrigued of this mature-looking girl.

    Well, Ye Chong might be jumping into his mech now if it was in the past. But ever since that night he knocked a grand fortune, few million points were a thing in him no longer, especially when hecked everything else but a mech. He had enough funds to get him a handful of these so-called dream rides.

    Guo the ountant of the group actually prepared Ye Chong the Great a debit card stored with a hundred million, in a fear that this great man would be at short of pennies when he left Yi Ju. Nheless, knowing this great man was also quite a clumsy and careless one, the kind ountant broke the figure into 10 different cards stored with ten millions each. But then Ye Chong felt that was a little unnecessarily too much for his pocket to handle, so he brought 5 cards instead. Well, with 5 times ten millions each, 50 millions were more than enough to buy a dozen of these fancy rides. So, the answer was clearly¡­

    "No thanks." The deal was off.

    The audience roared again upon seeing this boy refusing such a juicy, probably once-in-a-lifetime deal, so was Susan who was literally stunned on spot.

    Okay, which sane person would refuse a condition like this? Was he fearing that he could not offer a simr bet? Hmm, well then, "Are you afraid that you could not wager something even close to this? No worries, we do not expect that, we only expect you to-"

    "Was it the form for Bluefire?" interrupted Ye Chong.

    Wait, how did he know our intention? Susan was shocked as her popped eyes ran through this boy with an unappealing appearance. Hmmm, he knew everything. Gasp! That means I had been in the inferior position since the very beginning¡­ Speaking of it¡­ I knew nothing of this boy¡­

    "What''s your name? If you would so kindly tell," bowed Susan sincerely, with her Great Valley stirring up amotion among the spectators again. Ye Chong had ascended to formally a position of an actual opponent in her list now.

    "Chen Mu." A new entry to Ye Chong''s tradition of setting up pseudonym.

    "Very well, Mr. Chen," smiled Susan sweetly, "Apparently Mr. Chen is incurious about our duel. How about the condition to be made by Mr. Chen instead? We are still on a deal here, aren''t we?"

    "One billion?" stated Ye Chong tly.

    The condition was a noise-killer as people froze their lips looking at Ye Chong. It was dead silent that somehow one could perceive that ppy sound of Bi Bo''s jaw dropping.

    Susan''s expression stiffened, "Hah¡­ Mr. Chen, I beg your pardon, maybe I was a little too consumed by the deal did I hear the figure-"

    "A billion. No more or less. Well you could also cut the duel and purchase my form with the price instead." His tone was indifferent, although feeling unconvinced of the potential value of this ordinary form. But if he were to sell it, he will sell it at a good price.

    "I''m very sorry¡­," shook Susan, "The offer from Mr. Chen was rather overwhelming that our budget could not cover." It was such a grand amount that she had to report to the authority to seek advice. "You screwed pig! Is this a daylight robbery or something? A billion? Why don''t you join the billion of gxy instead?" bellowed Xiong Mocong.

    "I''m fine if you have lost interest in the deal," replied Ye Chong.

    And Xiong Mocong almost could feel his fistunching at the shameless merchant before him, but Rui Bing''s stare was an extinguisher to his rage. Thed was a pain nail to knock, he got to behave himself. So he stood there, trying to act unmoved.

    "I see," Susan giggled. "Mr. Chen has such insightful thoughts in marketing. We could ept that outstanding offer but how would we be able to get a billion in such a short amount of time?" she said as the eyes nced at the 600 men of Ye Chong. Dammit, I should have brought more men¡­ Eximed Susan in her mind, as she once thought anybody in a young folks'' home like Ze Xi academy would be literally a nobody, but this boy seemed to be a somebody. Susan got cautious since she did not hear everything from the authority in fact, thanks to the bad signals during transmission. But she could perceive that "get the form by hook or by crook" underlying tone at least.

    "How about some of your property?" Suggested Ye Chong, based on the knowledge he recently obtained from society. Apparently "waiving property for trade", "barter" and "treaty" were a thing in history, especially during wartime.

    Susan''s pupils rolled as she forced a smile, "That''s a brilliant idea, we could consider the deal if that''s what Mr. Chen desires. Hmmm, we do have a Topazite mine somewhere in Tai Hui, though the expanse was not great, it could be sold for more than a billion. I wonder if Mr. Chen is pleased with our kindest offer?"

    Topazite? The keyword struck Ye Chong''s heart. It was a fairlymon ore, nothing really amazing of it in particr. That was not the main shocker.

    Upon seeing the tiny flinch he made, Bi Bo went and briefed him,  Tai Hui is a pretty remote, situated closely to the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. While its poption is low, being mostly the pirates, they would restore their supplies there, thus the horrible safety there."

    Bi Bo was expecting a proper decline from Ye Chong after hearing all these threatening description, who knows, "Good." A straight reply from him¡­

    Why you little prick stop spoiling my dea- huh?

    Susan was irritated by Bi Bo''s unhelpful boration but Ye Chong actually epted the offer straightaway, "Did Mr. Chen give a ''yes'' on our deal?" She could not believe her ears.

    "Yes," Ye Chong nodded.

    HAH! Susan nearly skipped as she walked. The mine had been long abandoned by her organization and never once she would see a fool falling for it today. It would be alright even if they lose. Everybody else seemed to be thinking the same, given that their eyes were in a bewilderment of seeing a drunktard nodding to a bogus deal.

    "Why don''t we have the deal now?" Susan seriously hopped that they could just make the exchange right now. Less hassle, less risk.

    "Nope. We are dueling," replied Ye Chong affirmatively.

    "Well, we would need to sign the contract then." Fearing that Ye Chong would change his mind, she quickly sent her men to retrieve the deed to the mine.

    "Fair enough."

    And so both of them signed the contract after the pilots returned with the deed to the mine. Ye Chong had also written down the form of Bluefire reagent.

    "Xiong, if you could win, ten millions." A brief sentence from Susan ignited Xiong Mocong''s will to fight. He so would love to pounce on that guy and shred him into a gazillion pieces right when the duel began.

    Xiong Mocong deployed his mech.

    "That''s the Steel Samurai!"

    "Holy Molly! It''s the Steel Samurai!"

    The audience roared again, as none of them expected that graceless-looking hulk would be the famous Steel Samurai. The Steel Samurai was known to be under none of the aristocrats the whole time, yet he was there with a group. Which aristocrat does the group belong to? They were actually able to the Steel Samurai?

    The renowned fight of Steel Samurai was the time he smashed 21 mechs, alone. Unlike its fictional naming, the fight was as real as it could get. During the time he was on his way heading home on a spacecraft. And that was when he encountered around a hundred mechs of a tiny group of pirates who held immense firepower despite the measly number, since among that hundred, 25 of them were advanced models.

    The spacecraft was only armed with 12 pilots that time. So what the legendary Steel Samurai did was, he led an army of 12 and faced the pirates boldly. With his formidability, he destroyed 21 mechs, all advanced models, with one of them being the leader. The happening was streamed and there were at least 500 witnesses to the battle.

    And thanks to this fight, the once-a-little-star had be the superstar. Well, a hot-tempered superstar too, that not many aristocrats or major organizations could please him and he chose to be the lone wolf.

    As far as you could observe, people address heroes by the name of the mech, not the pilot himself in reality, like Kyaji.

    Looking at his own mech, Xiong Mocong''s eyes had changed, as lustered with pride and overflowing will, coated in sedate solemnity.

    Steel Samurai was the name of Xiong Mocong''s mech. As its name had suggested, it was in fact a humanoid model with a steel mask covering like a samurai. The limbs were as bulky as Xiong Mocong''s physique, with the shield on the left, the sword on the right - the ssic setup for samurai. The surface of the body was not texturized, though one could see the tiny cuts as the badge of glory being the great samurai. Every inch of the mech was pretty well-maintained, with the joints exceptionally glowing as new.

    The model was simple but no one would dare to give a disdainful look on, as the moment it stood, the history of war it had undergone could be smelled. A true war machine it was, with no pointless adornment, while setting off a cold dignity.

    Ye Chong deployed Han Jia calmly.

    Han Jia, like a blossom it bloomed, had once again made its debut being the butterfly of the bolts and nuts.

 Chapter 338 - Mech Duel III

    <h4>Chapter 338: Mech Duel III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was a strange fight, an unfair fight if one were to emphasize since both parties shared a drastic difference in size. The Steel Samurai was as if the hulk in rage, ready for destruction, whereas Han Jia was as if thedy in vain, ready for dance-instruction. Interestingly, both pilots were simrly different too, in which Xiong Mocong had the bulkiness of Steel Samurai and Ye Chong suddenly looked so feeble when he stood against Xiong Mocong with that thin body of his.

    Bi Bo was ready. His journalist''s soul was calling. He would be in remorse for the rest of his life if he were to miss this duel without the camera!

    Quickly he took out his camera and was going to give a press on the ON button. Smash. A dagger came from no where and the camera splintered.

    "What th-" Nobody could stand their expensive, beloved photographic apparatus being smashed for no reason, even for Mr. Good-tempered like Bi Bo, he lifted his head, was going to throw a tantrum, yet he was stopped, as seeing Susan''s sweet smile as she yed with the other dagger of hers, "Little boy, it''s never a good habit to sneak a shot on others alright?"

    "Ha. Hahaha¡­" His rage had vaporized into an awkwardugh. She was right, Bi Bo even despised the paparazzi-like behavior himself. He zipped his mouth and sucked it up.

    "Start!"

    Both sides stampeded and jumped into the cabin. Every second in a mech duel counts! The time one took to enter the cabin would be the top determiner in the oue.

    90% of the pilots who died in a fight against the martial arts neglected such brief process.

    Xiong Mocong might have a cumbersome looking body, he was truly dexterous for he was nearly as fast as Ye Chong, in a ground-shattering movement however¡­ It felt like a plough machine, except armed with a turbo. Ye Chong was quite the contrary as he moved like a phantom silently.

    Ye Chong was slightly ahead of Xiong Mocong, even though Xiong Mocong had butted into the cabin before Ye Chong managed to sit tight.

    The first stage of a mech duel ended with a draw. It was no surprise for the Ze Xi trainees to see Ye Chong leading, since they had been well-convinced by his performance during the war, but it was a little distressing to see how the triumph he made was negligible at first stage.

    Xiong Mocong thought otherwise however, as his nce convinced him the fact that this punk turned out to be slightly faster in action, which gave him a skip in his heartbeat. He had been a frencing pilot before joining the organization so he had gotten used to the days of getting into a street fight taken in the form of a duel, which was the main source of his ie. To ensure the money flowing, he worked hard on nailing every duel yet it was the first time he encountered someone who got into position faster than him.

    So was this punk truly unlike what he looked?

    But he no longer had the chance to retreat now. He settled down and skillfully activated the engine.

    I guess the punk should also be warming up now. Thought Xiong Mocong as habitually he nced at the screen, which gave him a flinch.

    The screen¡­ is empty?

    Wait what?

    The first deduction that appeared in his mind was, the foe had hidden himself. But that was not possible, the foe could hide but never possibly this fast. He might be a few seconds ahead of Xiong Mocong but those few seconds were not sufficient to perform a camouge, not even for a elite pilot.

    Is my detection system jammed? Maybe¡­ although I clearly remember the amount of maintenance I worked on this baby. Don''t tell me the machine just has to break down at this very nick of time. My body is not ready for this.

    Xiong Mocong was experienced enough to know to turn out the photon-detection mode. The arena was not boundless like the space, so it should work, although Xiong Mocong did not see this as a good beginning for a duel.

    Right at that moment, a gorgeous-looking mech filled the entire screen, which gave Xiong Mocong a shocker as his hands reflexively bounced on the control panel.

    Such speed. The foe has already gotten right into my face!?

    He reacted promptly with a standard stance by his Steel Samurai to block the iing blow.

    Thus! The Steel Samurai was pushed a few steps back. Han Jia might have a smaller physique than the Steel Samurai, its featherweight still packed a punch under velocity.

    The Steel Samurai slightly tilted its body and repositioned itself into another stance. Thup! The next blow was blocked sessfully. The pair of daggers of Han Jia however left two shes on the shield of the samurai.

    Such defense¡­ Ye Chong was amazed as he performed a quick flip at Han Jia. Its butterfly wings quivered frantically and zapped to the back of the samurai.

    "Jesus¡­" Shrieked Bi Bo, even Susan nearly tripped herself seeing the speed. Did the feebly pretty mech just break thew of aerodynamic?!

    Impossible, how? Bi Bo who was well educated by his father believed his own insight in thew of physics.

    Xiong Mocong lost the sight of the mech. The back! His instinct shouted and intuitively he made a front tilt, a graceless self-tripping.

    A sh of shadow swung right pass the neck of the samurai, a split second before the samurai was nearly beheaded.

    Such opponent. Xiong Mocong went fully rmed, as realizing the skills of the foe being way beyond his imagination. It was as if the oue had been determined from the very beginning. The two simple blows from the foe could be very well defined as blows by a phantom. He would have surrendered if he was not at his very prime today.

    The Steel Samurai lifted itself by the arms on the ground, with the additional engines all turned on, as it began rolling away like a pinball.

    I would be shredded if I did not pull myself away from this punk.

    His n was overthrown as Ye Chong did not intend to spare him, being a person uninterested of the Tom & Jerry he was. His hands flipped through the control panel. All engines of Han Jia were on as it zoomed towards the Steel Samurai.

    Thup! Thump! Thup! Thump! Wham! Bam¡­ a barrage of attack rained upon the guard of the samurai, about 16 times.

    It was a miracle that he could take down every hit, even the audience eximed with few rounds of apuse heard.

    It was also a miracle that one could make a barrage of attack in such speed. It could have been the maximum of humanity! Be it the timing or the angle, the attack was impable, whereas the samurai - despite being put under such a terrible situation - still was able to perform a perfect guard.

    The sturdiness of the foe had stimted Ye Chong, as his hands stormed upon the control panel, into countless afterimages the input was punched. Han Jia''s next shower of attack followed, a frenzy one too, tracing the escaping samurai.

    Han Jia would be a killing machine when put into a close-ranged fight.

    The giant wings of Han Jia had been withdrawn, while the 12 tentacles were fluttering.

    Ye Chong''s eyes were glued upon the screen. He too was at his maximum. The APM was so high that one could barely see the lining of his hands on the control panel. The afterimages seemed to have disappeared. It was this fast.

    Pair of daggers, 12 spiked tentacles, kneecap attack, elbow blow, diving kick, ser strike, the moves were chained after one another, as they raided upon the Steel Samurai.

    Xiong Mocong was somehow excited by the battle, as instinct seemed to have fully taken over his mind since the continuous attack of Han Jia was already beyond the maximum of his his reaction speed, only intuition could save him. Inyman''s term, he basically had lost the control, he had no idea what was going on.

    Every spectator there, including Bi Bo and Susan were hardly able to witness the scene, as the Steel Samurai was being thrashed by a delicate-looking mech, like a punching bag.

    Ye Chong was feeling pumped as he seemed to be breaking the APM cap. Unfortunately he was so engaged in the battle that he did not notice it at that moment.

    Terrifying attack, yet also a terrifying defense there were.

    Both mechs were monstrous in the eyes of the witnesses.

    Xiong Mocong''s nostrils felt warm, bleeding had urred as he had overclocked himself throughout the battle. Physical damage could be seen happening on his body.

    Ye Chong''s eyes shone the moment he discerned the weakening of the foe. Smash! The APM cap had been broken!

    That was the very first time in history Ye Chong broke the speed cap after so long being bogged down by it. The barrage of attack by Han Jia had been enhanced, both strength and speed. The expression of Bi Bo and Susan was priceless as it was so ever-changing. The pilots around knew what it meant to break the speed cap.

    The leaders of the respective teams were getting regretful of their foolish behavior.

    Hush, shush, sh. The daggers of Han Jia danced in the air, leaving 12 afterimages.

    The Steel Samurai was still sturdy at first, till crack was heard. The elbows, the knees, the crotch and the neck were disengaged! The samurai was only able to guard 5 blows, while chewing the remaining 7. The bulky samurai had been dismembered, as the parts sttered.

    It was a mind-blowing scene as the ce got dead silent.

    The duel ended.

    And Xiong Mocong left the cabin, on a stretcher, being unconsciousness, with blood tainting his mouth and nose - a horrible sight if one may ask.

    Xiong Mocong had demonstrated enough skill as a super expert, both bi Bo and Susan knew that. His defeat was not because of hisck of skill orck of performance but the fact that he had encountered an anomaly.

    The sylphlike Han Jia was no longer as gracefully frail as it looked before, while that frail-looking pilot of such great machinery was given the look as if a great man he was.

 Chapter 339 - Departure I

    <h4>Chapter 339: Departure I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong skimmed through the data on the processor. Yup, he put in the blue chip, which contained some surprises other than some professional statistics, including a way to leave Zhou Jian. Bravo, as expected from Old Xu the wise and cautious as he had already prepared an escape path. Well, he probably never expected the virus leaking to the world while causing such havoc, an apocalypse in the history of humankind.

    Rui Bing was meditating. Her eyes were closed.

    Fei Si joined the scene promptly and passed Ye Chong a bottle of blue liquid, "This is the antivirus, though the correct dosage still required a few clinical tests." Her voice was so t that no joy was heard, as if it was a really normal thing for her to do.

    "Alright. Let''s publicize the form," stated Ye Chong.

    Fei Si stared at Ye Chong in bewilderment, as never she would expect such lineing from a person like him, since visually he would be the typical cold person who would care about the survival of the others. In addition, she was well aware of the value of the form. It could easily grant the person both fame and wealth. He should not be unaware of such fact.

    Yet he was unmoved by it? Fei Si was getting more and more confused of this mysterious boy.

    Well, it did not seem like Ye Chong had a choice - he did not fancy the fame, although he was pretty into the points. He had lots of ces to spend points on yet he had no time to utilize the form for the potential ie. It would only be a matter of time before the three Aristocrats arrived by Zhou Jian. He would be joining the imprisonment if he never made his runaway now!

    You have got to be kidding me. A mere Steel Samurai was already a supreme hard nut to crack. How about those legendary fighters like Ye Yin or Brahmara? Am I going to die? They aren''ting alone, they areing in an army, of millions!

    I would be a dead idiot if I would not make my escape now after knowing the way to go.

    "Has the professor taken the antidote?" That was his greatest concern.

    "Yes," nodded Fei Si, "he has taken the antivirus. He''s feeling better now, there shouldn''t be any problem."

    Ye Chong returned with a nod, "We are going to leave." And Rui Bing''s eyes were sprung open.

    "Leave? We?" Fei Si could no longer follow the conversation.

    "I am bringing all of you along, both you and the professor. The destination has yet to be determined for now," stated Ye Chong nonchntly.

    Fei Si flinched for a few seconds, then her face reddened, "Who are you!" She raised her voice, "Who are you to take all of us away as you wish? Have you asked our thoughts on this? No! You did not! I am *not* leaving! I am *not* going anywhere!" Her reply was firm.

    Ye Chong tilted his head, "Keep the drama." Seeing the intensity of her respirating chests, Ye Chong stated, "I am not seeking your opinion. The n has been established a long time ago."

    "Why you!" Fei Si was so caught up by her rage that she was at loss of words, with tears flooding her eyes, "Sniff¡­ sob¡­ who are you¡­ who are you to determine my future¡­ what am I to you¡­ what am I ??"

    Rui Bing gave a nce at Fei Si and turned back to Ye Chong.

    The feline''s nce was immediately understood by Ye Chong somehow as he promptly rified, "I required the professor''s assistance while she is the sole rtive to the professor. To avoid trouble she would be taken along."

    Rui Bing''s eyes glowed slightly, as she showed her understanding with a nod, while her steps approached Ye Chong.

    The statement from Ye Chong was ground-shattering to Fei Si, as she retreated her tears as well as the warmness of her face. Her eyes red at Ye Chong. For some reason, a piercing pain took over her heart, that she felt difficult to even breathe.

    With her hands on her chests, her eyes were soulless. She had no idea what she was thinking, her mind felt nk.

    Rui Bing gave a sigh, plus a scowl at Ye Chong. She moved to Fei Si, her clear voice came tingling, "Stop overthinking."

    The words of Rui Bing pulled Fei Si back to reality. Fei Si could no longer hold her emotions as she copsed into Rui Bing''s embrace to cry.

    Ye Chong could notprehend the situation. What had happened? Why was Fei Si crying? Why was Rui Bing ring at me? Weird¡­

    "Oh my Zhou Jian, what has happened?" Susan was stunned by the dramatic happening with Fei Si in the embrace of Rui Bing, as her eyes rolled between all three of them. Well, her life experience had somehow given herself a sound deduction to the situation.

    The defeat of Xiong Mocong was a plot twist to her script though. Ye Chong''s performance was solid too, so she acted pretty easygoing when she kept her promise. The mine was not much of a big deal but she still had not obtained the form! She would love to seize it right now, but there was Ye Chong with his godlike skills and his army of 600. Judging by those stares of admiration from those pilots, they would swear to obey every order of this boy probably. The world is realistic as the weak would always submit to the strong.

    Well, it seemed like she would have to make a detour on this, which was why she was trying her best to stay back at Ze Xi academy, "I could help defeating the mutated lifeforms!" She kindly offered, a perfect excuse it was while being able to approach Ye Chong better after sending Xiong Mocong back to hospitalization. Ye Chong on the other hand was puzzled by her advancement.

    And there she was, getting caught into a drama. But nobody seemed to be interested enough to spare her some attention. Well it was not like she cared, as she walked towards Fei Si with a kind smile.

    Her life experience told her that going with a roundabout would be the most effective treatment to the situation, as she always had her own way to lower the caution of the foes to achieve what she needed. Although the pesky boy whose name was Chen Mu was acting like a stone of a dump, she did not intend to give up, as she had faced the more stone of a dump before.

    Ye Chong decided to not give her a second to act, as he took a look at the time, "We are leaving," he said to Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing gave a nod. To where they would go, she would not care, as long as it was with Ye Chong.

    "Leaving? To where you guys are leaving?" Susan was alert.

    The question was given the silent treatment as Ye Chong preferred to save his words. He made a leap right to the side of Susan, which scared the soul out of her. She was going to move reflexively yet Ye Chong forbade that, his hand grabbed the side of her neck and a crack was heard crystal clear. He was immune to beauty after all, that he would not spare someone just because of her physical appearance, although that snap was only a trick to keep her on ground for 10 days which were the only amount of time he would ever need.

    He signaled Rui Bing to stay as he left the room to look for that old Jalopy man.

    It did not take him much time before he discovered the good old man was leaning against the corner, dozing off, salivating. And Ye Chong just lifted the sleepyhead all the way back to Rui Bing.

    Zzzzzz¡­

    "Oh my Zhou Jian!" The Jalopy elderly was shocked awake, his arms were waving, struggling within Ye Chong''s grip.

    Ye Chong calmly got the man to the room and ced him down, "What you fe doin'', spoiling my nice little nap?" He seemed displeased.

    "We are going to leave," replied Ye Chong concisely.

    "Leave?" The old man was astonished, "Are you kidding me? Don''t mess with the old man. Why are you thinking of leaving now, of all times? Geez, clearly you have not seen the world enough, boy. Zhou Jian has been quarantine, the entire is locked away from the world. They won''t even let us to lift a toe outside if they could not find a way to cure the virus¡­ man boys these days with their hectic attitude¡­," he muttered.

    Ye Chong was toozy to brief the angered elderly. Action speaks louder than words anyway.

    He gave Rui Bing a nod, "Let''s go." And then he lifted the Jalopy old man to the outside, "Hey! Hey! Hey! What do you think yer doing boy? You can never get out! They would crash all the escaping craft! You nuts or something?" Towards the kind advice, Ye Chong showed negligence while he took onest check in his bag, on the three chips which would be the key to their survivals.

    Rui Bing took Fei Si by her waists and caught up.

    It was midnight and almost everyone was a deep asleep. So the escape was carried out quietly, nobody had noticed how the two long shadows had vanished at the street of Zhou Jian.

    They headed to the port, the corridor to be exact. Nothing had changed. The spaceship was still there, which was the greatest relief to Ye Chong. He opened up the gate and raised his ears.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­ He walked in.

    Well, if anyone still remembers, there remained 13 captives inside the ship which technically should be unconscious and in fact they were.

    The moment when Old Jalopy saw the ship, he was at loss of word. Fei Si had also stopped weeping in the meantime, as her face was stiff. Rui Bing was calm, seemingly already immune to whatever surprise Ye Chong could bring.

    Ye Chong began working right after the gate was sealed tight. The first thing on his list was to smash everymunicative device on the passengers. Then he would wake them up.

    "Good morning. I guess all of you have already waken up," stated Ye Chong indifferently. "All of you should understand the situation now."

    "W-who are you? Why did you attack us?" The bodyguard of the child asked grimly.

    Towards the pilot who once sniped him, Ye Chong gave a nce. The bodyguard''s scarred face was dull in expression, so were his eyes, apparently unconcerned of his own situation.

    "Icked men to run the ship," Ye Chong answered with honesty.

    "Just¡­" Everyone was shocked, "Just because of this?"

    "Yes." The reply was firm.

    The little boy seemed unafraid, quite the contrary actually, that he looked at Ye Chong with total interest, "You are great," hemented as he nced at his bodyguards who lowered their heads in shame, except for the one with a scarred face.

    "Where are we going?" The little boy lifted his head and asked in the naive curiosity.

 Chapter 340 - Departure II

    <h4>Chapter 340: Departure II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong, again, showed ignorance towards the enquiry of the others, as he turned away and smashed the remainingmunicative devices in the ship. After that, he returned to the room and untied the red strands on them.

    "All of you should know what you are supposed to do. Now, get back to your respective positions, and you¡­," he said as he pointed at that scarred bodyguard, "You will be leading them." Everything once under the possession of these guardsmen had been scrapped and they had transformed into the typical unarmed men in the ship. And in terms of an unarmed hand-on-hand, they would never ovee Ye Chong, especially when they had to also take care of young master''s safety.

    Their only "option" was, to cooperate.

    "I do hope there won''t be anything funny from you guys, or else¡­" The consequence sounded severe enough that it gave chills to everyone even when it went unmentioned.

    "What the hell are all of you standing there for? Go go go! Do you want to move only when I''m captured with a knife next to my neck?" The little boy''s words rang impatiently. He did sound a little too old for his age.

    The bodyguards took a look at each other, shrugged, they headed to themander''s room.

    The little boy got up and rubbed his wrist, "Hey, don''t you think you''re a little too harsh sometimes? How could you be so mean to a cute little boy like me?" he muttered.

    People were giving off stares at this expressive boy, confused.

    And that was when he spotted both Rui Bing and Fei Si. He whistled, as a form ofpliment for their appearance, while his eyes mischievously rolled over Ye Chong, "Hmm, not bad. Never thought a dull-looking man like you could get such beauties, are thosessies your wives?"

    "Nope," Ye Chong said as he shook his head in disagreement. The answer went so naturally for some reason¡­ Ye Chong felt pretty familiar with this boy. Something of this boy¡­ was giving off nostalgia. But Ye Chong was very sure he had never met such shy, dramatic boy before. Weird, why the sensation though?

    "Well then, which one of them is?" The little boy went on inquiring.

    "It''s-"

    "Uh uh uh, I''ll make the guess." The boy interrupted, as his eyes weaved between Rui Bing and Fei Si. "Hmmm¡­" And he pointed at Rui Bing, "She''s your wife!" Affirmatively he gave his answer.

    "How do you know that?" asked Ye Chong in bewilderment. He was pretty urate, ahead-of-time-kind-of urate. Between Rui Bing and Fei Si, Rui Bing did have a gazillion times greater chance of being his wife if a marriage were to happen. Probably she would also be the only candidate Ye Chong would ever consider.

    And Rui Bing''s icy cheeks was tinted with heating scarlet. That was the first time Ye Chong admitted their rtionship between both of them, even though Ye Chong was too ignorant to be aware of the meaning of his gesture.

    "Tsk. One nce and I could tell you''re some bum from the countryside. Dull and boring, missing whichever essential of a real man. Sigh, what a waste to the white-garbedssie¡­" Shook the boy. It formed a pretty hrious contrast when a young boy like him giving offments like some elderly.

    The scarred bodyguard was sitting by his side. And Ye Chong shifted his stare. The little boy noticed the changes in Ye Chong''s expression, "You could save your stare." Stated the boy, "This dork knows only to murder, nothing else." And he brushed his sleeves, "But I must say you''re quite something, that you could defeat him easily."

    Ye Chong was quiet.

    "Oh and do you happen to have thetest issue of the yboys?" asked the boy naughtily.

    "yboys?"

    "Yeah, yboys, as in socialite, womanizer, Cob, whatever you call it."

    The Cob? And Ye Chong was reminded of his good old spaceship¡­ as well as his mechanical partner, he missed them. But he understood what the boy wanted, the boy probably was referring to some exotic visuals that Shang used to be a maniac collecting them.

    "Nope," said Ye Chong.

    "How about Snow White?"

    Is that the fairytale?

    "I know what you''re thinking of, but no. I meant the film ''Schneewittchen¡­ und die schwanzgeile K?nigin'', the ssic from a called Earth on 1995¡­ I forgot what corresponding year is that in our calendar but you get it."

    "No," replied Ye Chong.

    The name did sound like the one Shang once shouted when he was in the room alone. That was his favorite too, he kept rmending it.

    Man, this boy is seriously like a carbon copy of Shang.

    The thought shed in Ye Chong''s mind and he stumbled.

    Fei Si looked Ye Chong in his deep ponder. Towards this mysterious young man, her feeling wasplicated.

    Is it love? No! Way! I don''t not believe she would fall for someone so easily. What is it then? Why would I cry? Why would I feel so terribly sad? Why the heartache back then?

    For someone who had never experienced rtionship like Fei Si, these were so difficult, not even the most professional psychologist could give her the definite answer. Admiration? Worship? Intensity? Pride of a woman? What was it? Who knows¡­

    The little boy was feeling strange upon seeing Ye Chong''s sudden silence, as his fair hand waved before Ye Chong, "Gxy to Big Boy, Gxy to Big Boy, do you copy?"

    And Ye Chong returned to his dimension.

    "So where are we going again? Seriously you don''t bump into the armies of the Aristocrats. Not even the greatest saint could save you if that happens." The little boy''s tone wasid-back, "Meh¡­"

    The action was warming to Ye Chong, since it reminded him a lot of Shang. "I have a n in mind." Shook Ye Chong as he squinted his eyes. He got to focus.

    "Good. Call me up when it''s food time, okay?" The little boy waved again and melted into slumber.

    "Okay," Ye Chong replied concisely.

    Okay, did I just see two extraterrestrial entitiesmunicating with each other? Thought Fei Si, as herrge eyes fixed at Ye Chong and the boy, not even the Old Jalopy couldpute the situation.

    Seeing the boy asleep, Rui Bing frowned as she walked to him silently and ced the nket over him. His eyes were suddenly wide open, giggled he, "It must be a chore to get your man, right?"

    "Hmph!" Rui Bing blushed again and gave a little knock on his head.

    "O¡­" The boy rubbed his head, "It''s so painful that my little heart broke. I''m a little boy you see, can''t take even the slightest violence." And he grabbed Rui Bing''s hand and brushed her palm, fingers, "Such tender hands¡­" He seemed mesmerized¡­

    Rui Bing''s frozen eyes were looking a little ridiculed. She quickly withdrew her hand and gave a flick on his forehead. "Sister¡­ Sister¡­" Rui Bing was walking away, "Speak to me little bit more pretty please¡­" Rui Bing did not care.

    "Man, a cold girl to a dull boy," he mumbled. "Such perfect match." And he went back to sleep, snoring this time.

    Fei Si grabbed Old Jalopy to one corner, she nced at Ye Chong''s back once and whispered, "Jalopy man, where do you think he''s taking us to exactly?"

    "Like heaven I know." Shook Old Jalopy helplessly, "But it shouldn''t be a dangerous ce. He does not seem to be a bad guy to be honest."

    "Then why did he capture us?" Fei Si was really disturbed by this. Ye Chong''s utter ignorance of coldness was more heart-piercing than anything else to any girl in this world, especially like a brainiac and independent woman like Fei Si who got more easily agitated over little gesture like this.

    "Like hell I know," stated Old Jalopy indifferently, with a gentle rub on Fei Si''s head. "Sigh, it''s a pain to see a girl like you getting involved in this."

    The spacecraft was traveling at the asteroid orbit round Zhou Jian. As the location suggested, countless of asteroids hovered at the area, which were the hazard that any spacecraft would love to avoid. But there was this someone called Ye Chong who favored the contrary of praxis, that the moment he gave the order, the guardsmen were giving the gctic look of confusion at him.

    The orbit was silent with only the specks of asteroids floating in the space.

    "Take caution and dodge them," ordered Ye Chong.

    The guardsmen panicked, they never expected this young man asking them to fly into an asteroid orbit for real. It''s suicidal!

    The spacecraft had been decelerated drastically as they held the steer carefully. They were skillful, still asionally they would crash into some pebbles around and caused a quick quake in the craft. The boy woke up when his head hit the wall.

    "Dammit! Did somebody curse my forehead today?" shouted the boy.

    Ye Chong''s eyes fixed upon the screen of asteroids. "Go on." His expression unchanged. The guards were going to explode. If it was not the fact that Ye Chong was unbeatable, they would have swarmed upon him and given him a good smash.

    "Eh?" The little boy was bewildered by the happening.

    "Stop right there!" Shouted Ye Chong out of the blue.

    The steering men''s hands twitched, almost led the ship into another crash as they stopped in front of a giant asteroid with a length of 3 kilometers - a rare size of the asteroids to be honest.

    And Ye Chong deployed his mech, was going to enter the cabin, "Everybody else stays." He suddenly turned his head to Rui Bing, "If anybody does anything funny, you could do harm." He ordered his most trustworthy member of the ship. Rui Bing had already ascended as a partner of his and towards a partner, Ye Chong would show total trust.

    Rui Bing''s eyes lustered, as if a kind of joy or passion ded through the hopeless darkness, "Mhm," she replied. Her white garbs were pure, so were her gorgeous eyes and her chivalry, as if the legendary goddess of war.

    Fei Si covered her mouth in disbelief.

    "Wow, that''s so cool!" The little boy was excited, with his right hand on his chin, acting like he was pondering, "Hmmm, right. If both of them¡­ with their stamina¡­ position in bed¡­ must be interesting, innovative, the greatest of humanity."

    It was relieving that the boy knew to have hedging in his words. Imagine if Rui Bing ever caught on his words, he probably would have been lifted in the air to be given the capital punishment of domesticity.

    Rui Bing had added some solemnly to the atmosphere, that no man would dare to challenge her by doing something funny. A Jie expert was the formation of dignity themselves, especially for one of the psychic attacking master like Rui Bing.

    Ye Chong piloted his Han Jia and went around the asteroid.

    Back in the ship, people were stunned. The screen was empty the moment Han Jia left the ship.

    And Ye Chong found a dent on this piece of rock as he stopped.

 Chapter 341 - A Clever Disguise

    <h4>Chapter 341: A Clever Disguise</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Han Jia''s mechanical arm gave the shade of the rock a gentle touch.

    Amidst the silence of the boundless space, a crater was suddenly created at the bottom of the rock - that was what the stunned the folks in the ship. They could not see Han Jia but they could see what was happening. The crater was of a size that could fit a rescue craft.

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong headed into the giant piece of rock.

    His instinct was right.

    It was a spaceship.

    It was a spaceship disguised as a piece of asteroid in the space. Old Xu was really imaginative and creative. With the rocky surface of the ship, no one would have suspected the boulder when they traveled by, since one could see asteroids everywhere in space, boulders like this would be given equal ignorance as the grasses and the pebbles you see by the road. The cost of the disguise however was horrendous. It was not because of how the rocks could be expensive but it would be a major operation to coat the entire body of the ship with meteorites. Moreover, the ship would certainly be limited by its disguise for it must float, hover like the other asteroids in the space. It could neither elerate nor perform a space-jump. Consequences would be there if the ship was exposed.

    The spaceship seemed to be created quite some time ago. Old Xu was such an insightful nner, although ironically he still suffered from his inescapable fate. Sigh, fate was such a capricious being sometimes.

    Ye Chong piloted Han Jia and sank to the inside of the spaceship. There was no security measurement of any kind that required an identity verification. Ye Chong travelled smoothly, all the way to the core of the ship, themander''s room to be exact.

    Ye Chong took out the blue chip and inserted to the main processor.

    *Beep*

    "Verificationplete. Password confirmed. All program activated. Ship: Cornerstone wees the lord." A mechanical voice rang sweetly like an angel whispering to the ears of Ye Chong.

    He then prompted theyout statistics of the ship. The interior was designed fairly well, the resources were prettyplete, all units were operative, there was even an advanced alchemyboratory located in the ship.

    "Tsk, tsk. Such spaceship," said the little boy when everyone joined the Cornerstone. "Whoever thought of this idea must be a genius." He carried on giving hisments as he inspected the area. Then he spat his tongue, "Though the other ces were unimpressive." People were being transferred to the interior.

    They took a look at the surrounding, curiously wondering how there would be an unknown world hidden inside a piece of asteroid in the space. Fei Si was excited upon seeing the alchemyb. It was not spacious but those were some of the most advanced apparatuses there. Old Xu probably intended to have thisb for Fei Si, which justified its quality. Technically, the spaceship was pretty decent in terms of performance, since it was a kind of escape pod for Old Xu, of course he had to be serious building it.

    "What''s your n? Where are we going?" asked the little boy. He did not seem to be concerned of his own safety as he borated, "A strong electromaic zone had been enforced all around Zhou Jian, you can''t be thinking of space-jumping."

    Ye Chong then called up the intergctic map and began thinking.

    "We don''t head out," reminded the boy, "The design of this ship might be clever enough to swindle some random patrol guys but the armies of the Aristocrats could never miss it. It''s impossible to run, especially with Huang Jiming, Ye Yin and Xue Nun leading the armies. Those are the smart ones, extremely cautious ones too. They would be shooting down every piece of weird pebble upon seeing it on the way."

    The expression of those bodyguards was turning odd, except for the scarred guardsman, who seemed to be unmoved by the statement.

    As mentioned, there was electromaic field to interrupt the transfer, so a space-warp would be imusible. Ye Chong must travel the traditional way, which would take about forever¡­

    "What''s your thoughts then?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Hmm¡­," the little boy pondered for a moment.

    Three minutespsed, "We could go here¡­," grimly he replied, pointing one spot of the intergcticyout, "Mhm, we might indeed encounter a few regr patrolling teams but they would not be a problem. The armies of the Aristocrats should not be arriving yet, not so soon at this point of time." It was really odd to see a 6-year-old acting all grim and dead serious, even for an oddity like Ye Chong himself.

    "What''s after that?" interupted Ye Chong while the boy was exining.

    "We head here!" Pointed the tiny finger.

    "Neb? We are heading to the neb?" Ye Chong was shocked, while the men had their jaws dropped.

    "There are people¡­" said the boy, in a kind ofplicated emotions, "After the neb."

    "People?" Fei Si screamed a little. "That is preposterous! How could there be people in an interster cloud?" Even Old Jalopy''s face was twitching.

    "There is and there will be," stated the boy slowly, who sounded like an elderly who had experienced the darkest time of life, his voice rang like a lethargic drum. "In this world, not every person favors technology. Because of that¡­ there was once a great divide, a long, long, long time ago, where there was one particr group of people who fancies the morning sun and not the fluorescent lighting, the chilling breeze and not the turbine spinning. They moved out, looking for a ce, a new settlement for the deviance of humankind like them. Well, they found it, a gxy, not really a gxy though. Frankly speaking it''s merely a zone with 32 inhabitables, located somewhere in the dark, unknown by the world. They cut away contacts with the outside since then. Years had passed, nobody really knows where they are anymore¡­"

    He held his words and nced at everyone, "This is¡­ what they called¡­ the lost space zone of nature."

    The secret had been revealed and truly people had their mind blown.

    "And Xi Feng tribe came from here." A new piece of information bombarded the remaining sanity of the people. One of the three aristocrats was actually from a lost world? How could that be not shocking enough?

    "ording to records, the zone is inhabited by mainly martial arts practitioners and mentalist. With that in mind, I would say that''s the true origin of all beauty of breakthrough made in human anatomy." The little boy''s expression was showing a kind of worship, and suddenly the expression was distorted into a joy of naivety as he jumped up and down, "And now we could finally head to the legendary zone unknown to the world! I had been looking forward to go there ever since I was born!"

    "Is there really such a ce?" asked Fei Si to Old Jalopy.

    "Uhhhhhhh." The old man seemed to have been reminded of a bitter past regarding the ce, "He''s right you know."

    Little boy was shocked of the statement, for Old Jalopy actually was aware of the ce.

    "History did mention of a natural interster zone like that¡­" His profound voice was depressed, "30 years ago, when I was still 35, at the prime of a man, I was informed of a ce like this when learning the mechanics of the ancients and sadly there had barely been any actual machines created by the ancient people. So I worked hard, striving to find the ce, as I wanted - with my own eyes - to witness the working of a true ancient machines. So I, with a bunch of pals as crazy and passionate as I was, barged into the unknown zone. That was a team of 9, if I remember correctly."

    Fei Si never expected Old Jalopy to have such legend behind.

    "We found it, to be honest," stated Old Jalopy, "though it was the most painful visit we ever experienced in our life. When we got home, there were only 2 of us left, and my other friend passed awayst year."

    "Holy!"

    "Seriously?" There were exmations, including one from the little boy who tried to act all mature and experienced while he waddled to Old Jalopy, "Old man, did you really get into the ce?"

    Old Jalopy was once looking grave, but that clumsy movement of the boy brought up a smile on him, showing an unconcerned attitude to the way he was addressed, "Yes we did, boy." He rubbed the boy''s head, "Yes, we did."

    "How did it look inside?" The boy was curious.

    "Well, boy. That ce is a rather¡­" It took a while for the old man to piece his thoughts, "I can''t really describe it with words. Sigh, it''s not something one could feel with mere description. You have to experience it yourself," he said with a bitter smile.

    "Ah! Ah! Ahhh! I want to go! I wanna go!" The boy jumped in screams, finally acting like his age, though it felt like he was on a shopping day with his mom and was trying to get a toy he wanted in the shopwindow.

    "It''s very dangerous inside. We were lucky enough to survive. We even bumped into a spaceship of the Xue Lai n. I wonder what happened to them after that. If it was not our great lucky, we would have been knocked down," said Old Jalopy, with fear crawling up his words.

    Ye Chong was hearing the stories, while his eyes were all focused on the intergcticyout. Ugh, there was in fact no other workaround for the escape. They surely would encounter the armies anyhow. It seemed like they could only head to the Neb like what the boy had suggested.

    Ye Chong realized he did not have much options there.

    At least there were people who had been there before, they would be the tour guide then. Ye Chong was a little relieved, "Old Jalopy."

    "Yes?"

    "Do you still remember the way there?"

 Chapter 342 - Blue Nebula

    <h4>Chapter 342: Blue Neb</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The starship had many mechanical arms installed to ensure a safe flight through theary ring. The arms made the ship look like a mining ship. By carefully clearing its flight path of floating rocks, Cornerstone slowly navigated through theary ring. The young boy¡¯s bodyguards worked skillfully, as expected.

    Ye Chong contacted his base. Nothing much changed with Sang Pu and the rest. Ye Chong did not tell them of his situation, only saying that he had matters to attend to, and would only return to the base muchter. He also emphasized that he would be unable to reach them for a long time, and would leave all decisions to Sang Pu. Everyone back at the base was training hard, and did not even have time to guess what was happening to Ye Chong. However, even if they did find out, they would not be able to help. That was the main reason Ye Chong chose to keep them in the dark.

    The long flight was dull and uninteresting. Fei Si had already taken over the alchemyboratory, spending most of her time in that ce. She was studying the information in the blue chip.

    "Your design is alright, and workable. However ¡­" Old Jalopy knitted his brows together as he stared at Ye Chong¡¯s design schematics on the holographic screen. "Are you sure that this flying vessel is good for assault? Its means of attack are too inflexible." The holographic screen was showing a Collision mech.

    "If it¡¯s flying fast enough, and can negotiate turns easily, it can be a good weapon," Ye Chong exined.

    "It puts too much stress on the pilot!" Old Jalopy shook his head.

    "Then we¡¯ll improve the pilot¡¯s physique." There was no need to worry about the physique of the Sang Tribe¡¯s members.

    "Simple physical collision would require a strong material for the vessel," Old Jalopy continued with disapproval.

    "Oh, don¡¯t worry about that, I¡¯ve just the right material." Skeletons born out of Archipgo¡¯s strong gravity has excellent physical properties.

    "Alright, I¡¯ll give it a go," Old Jalopy hesitated for a moment before nodding.

    With assistance from a lecture specialized in ancient machinery, the Collision mech would definitely be improved. Ye Chong took the opportunity to stay close as Old Jalopy worked. The old man was surprised by his actions. Ancient machinery was a forgotten knowledge, it was his first time seeing someone expressing so much interest in the field. As someone who had dedicated his life to studying ancient machinery, nothing could make him happier than this. He was more than willing to share his thoughts and skills.

    Ye Chong seized the opportunity to absorb all the new knowledge, often bringing in questions of his own. The young boy would sometimese to join them, but he would quickly curl his lips in distaste and say, "Ancient machinery is so much more impractical than even photon circuitry." Ye Chong did not bother to exin himself.

    Rui Bing did her own training everyday. From the first day since she beganbat training under her father, she had never skipped her sessions. Persistence was the main reason that allowed her to attain Jie. On the contrary, Rui Su who had more innate talent was only an averagebat expert. Ye Chong passed on everything he had on the Sanctuary¡¯s meditation practice and mentalists to her, hoping that it would help her. Ye Chong was always generous to hisrades.

    Everyone stared on the holographic screen, holding their breath. On the holographic screen was a small fleet of starships, about 500 kilometers away from them. 500 kilometers in outer space was like a brush on the shoulder walking on the streets. There were 30 starships in the fleet, with mechs flying around them as security.

    Everyone was tensed up. If they were discovered, or if any of the ships decided to shoot in Cornerstone¡¯s direction, they were doomed for sure.

    Cornerstone flew slowly along its path. They did not elerate, for fear of gathering attention.

    Time seemed to slow down. All of them felt very anxious. This was a test of one¡¯s mental fortitude.

    Time passed, second by second.

    As the starship disappeared from view, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. They had passed their first hurdle. Even Ye Chong was feeling a little nervous just now, much less the rest of them. Those with lesser determination were now all exhausted from the tension.

    A looming threat caused even more tension than an immediate danger.

    "We really entering the neb?" Old Jalopy asked softly, his brows furrowed with worry.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Yes, we¡¯re going in!" His voice was calm but determined. He could not think of any other way to leave the quarantined, Zhou Jian. If they did not leave now and met with the Three Aristocratic Families, the situation would be dire.

    Ye Chong was not confident that his disguised face was enough to trick the Three Aristocratic Families. Every encounter with the Three Aristocratic Families spelled danger for him. That was why Ye Chong needed to leave Zhou Jian as soon as possible.

    Rui Bing did not mind where they went. She only hoped to stay by Ye Chong¡¯s side. Rui Bing caressed Guardian¡¯s ring on her finger, and her eyes softened. Rui Bing said nothing, so the rest of them kept their silence. The young boy was excited about entering the nebr, but his bodyguards all looked worried.

    As they entered the neb, Cornerstone shook violently, slowing down even more into a snails pace. Ye Chong quickly ordered for the rocks used for camouge to be expelled. Cornerstone immediately picked up speed.

    "Activate the optical systems," Old Jalopy reminded him, "Holographic systems are no use here." He added, "Allms systems are useless here, but the interster positioning system is still usable." If the interster positioning system was active, then retreat would be an avable option when necessary.

    Ye Chong and the rest did not know that, just five hours after they went in, the starship fleets of Three Aristocratic Families would pass by close to where they entered the neb.

    The neb stretched on endlessly, reaching farther than an ocean. Within the neb, stars would shine through the thin blue mist of the neb like jewels on blue satin, dazzling with all their radiance.

    The neb waspletely different from the Red Sea that Ye Chong had encountered before. The Red Sea was like a red mist that would eventually turn thicker and stickier. The neb, however, was like an illusory veil that surrounded the starship in all directions.

    The nebe was like a dreamy mist, with tiny dots of sparkling lights scattered about.

    Soon, Cornerstone grew familiar with the territory and flew faster. The neb did not seem to affect the ship.

    "It¡¯s possible to do a warp jump in the neb, but we have to first find the warp jump point fromst time," said Old Jalopy.

    "Uncle Jalopy, how did you manage to find this warp jump point?" Fei Si was curious about this.

    The question struck a sad chord within Old Jalopy. His expression sobered as he said, "We met a Xue Lai n starshipst time. They were brutes, firing on us like that. We were not match for them, so we had to run, but they¡¯re ship was much better than ours. They were about to reach us when we decided to make a warp jump.

    "I thought we were dead, but the Heavens had given us a surprise of sorts, sending us to the natural space zone."

    The young boy agreed. "Grandpa¡¯s right, aristocrats like the Xue Lai n are all good for nothing!" He waved his little fists around, as if he was also angry for Old Jalopy.

    Old Jalopy was gratified, and stroked the boy¡¯s head lovingly. The young boy enjoyed the show of affection, his eyes turning into slits like a satisfied cat. The young boy¡¯s bodyguards all felt awkward, and some even smiled wryly. The man with the de scars standing beside the boy, however, maintained expressionless.

    Old Jalopy continued his tale like he was telling it to his grandson. The young boy rested his head on his hands as he listened closely.

    "The neb was beautiful. We always admired its beauty from the outside, but it¡¯s when we¡¯re inside that I can see that it¡¯s much more beautiful here. Only by entering the neb that you can really experience its magnificence and size. Back then, our journey started out well, and so we began to rx a little. It was until the 35th day that we came across danger!"

    Now, not only the young boy, but everyone else who was unupied came to listen.

    "We came across a whirlpool. That whirlpool was too strong. We saw a that¡¯s more than a hundred kilometers across sucked into it. It was shredded to pieces before it reached the center! We were all shocked, back then. Everyone was trying our best to navigate the starship out of the whirlpool. The whole thing went on for three days. Three days, before the whirlpool finally weakened, and we managed to escape its grasp."

    Just when everyone was absorbed in his story, someone shouted, "Hey, what¡¯s that outside?"

 Chapter 343 - The Singular Wave

    <h4>Chapter 343: The Singr Wave</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the dreamy blue neb, a dark blue streak appeared in front of them. No one knew what it was. Old Jalopy¡¯s face suddenly paled. "Heavens! The Singr Wave!"

    The blue streak grew thicker very quickly.

    Everyone was shocked!

    As the blue streak grew thicker, the blue neb around the starship seemed to vibrate. Even the ship was shaking a little. Everyone onboard was keen enough to notice this. The wave appeared like a disaster on a gctic scale. Whatever hopes they had were crushed by the sight of it.

    The neb vibrated even more violently. It was suffocating to watch the endless cmitous stretch that was about to befall them. What a tempestuous blue wave! It reached up for hundreds and thousands of kilometers, and was as wide as the eyes could see.

    Everyone on the ship was devastated.

    Only four of them managed to keep their calm - Ye Chong, Rui Bing, the young boy and Scarface, the bodyguard. In fact, Ye Chong was nervous as well, his body tensed all over, but he knew that if he did not stay calm now, there would be no chance of surviving this threat.

    This gigantic natural disaster must be avoided at all costs!

    The young boy¡¯s eyes glowed up, reminding Ye Chong of Mu and Shang¡¯s bionic eyes. "Why am I thinking about that now?" Ye Chong smiled wryly to himself, and felt a little tension released from him.

    "How long do we have?" The young boy asked in a peculiar and mature voice.

    No one answered. They were too shocked. Ye Chong stared at the image from the optical systems and did some quick calctions in his head.

    Perhaps the danger had stimted Ye Chong, for he felt his mind particrly clear right then as he did the calctions quickly. "15 minutes!" It was the young boy who came up with the answer first, however. After 5 seconds, Ye Chong arrived at the same conclusion. He looked to the young boy in surprise.

    What impressive calction speed!

    The young boy abruptly stood up and rushed to the main photon processor. "Out of the way!" His youthful voice was full of authority.

    The bodyguard beside the main photon processor was shook out of his shock, and quickly stood aside.

    The young boy was too short, and he had to climb onto a chair and stand on it to reach the photon processor. His small hands pressed the controls on the photon processor awkwardly. Seeing his unfamiliar handling, Ye Chong frowned and went to the photon processor. He pushed the young boy¡¯s chair to the side and said hurriedly, "Tell me what to do."

    The young boy stared for a moment beforeughing and said, "Big guy, you¡¯re the best." He then turned serious and gave his first order, "Activate the weapons."

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands moved cross the photon processor console smoothly, a sharp contrast to the young boy¡¯s awkward controlling. The young boy was unaffected by the thought, however. He looked perfectly calm, and even Rui Bing could sense an odd feeling of maturity in him.

    "Show the weapons directory."

    "Activate the energy delivery photon circuits."

    "Activate the manual restoration system."

    "Connect the photon circuits ¡­" A long list of numbers and names of parts came of the young boy¡¯s mouth, faster than anyone could process.

    But Ye Chong heard them clearly! "What a bold n," he thought to himself as he quickly did as told. He understood the young boy¡¯s intention well enough. The boy wanted to wanted to redirect the energy on the ship to quickly improve the firepower of the ship.

    Ye Chong was surprised that the young boy was so familiar with the starship¡¯s photon circuit system. This was not something anyone would know. The starship industry was well established, and would not tolerate modifications easily, much less what they were doing now!

    The thought was set aside quickly as Ye Chong focused on his work. A series of technical terms and jargons came from the young boy, and Ye Chong had to focus all his attention in order to keep up with the young boy.

    It was a strange sight to behold - a young boy standing on a chair, staring at the photon processor with a grim expression, giving out orders non-stop; a young man was beside him, sweating all over as he manipted the controls on the console at breakneck speed.

    After three minutes, they showed no signs of stopping what they were doing. The young boy¡¯s forehead was already covered in sweat, but he was still spitting out technical terminologies as quick as he could. His blue eyes shone brightly. Ye Chong was drenched in sweat as he worked on the controls.

    After five minutes, the young boy¡¯s forehead was covered with beads of sweat, and his face was growing slightly pale. Sweat rolled down Ye Chong¡¯s cheeks like a river, but he was still focused in his task and did not look tired at all. His hands did not slow down.

    After eight minutes, the young boy¡¯s forehead had gone dry, but his face was now reddening unnaturally, and his blue eyes were glowing brightly. Ye Chong was still sweating a lot, but he was also still very tensed. His hands were still as fast as before, and he was now slightly faster than the boy¡¯s orders.

    After 12 minutes, they were finally done! The young boy was looking deadly pale, and Ye Chong noticed that the boy was a little out of breath. However, he continued to stand on the chair. While he was there funnily standing on the chair, no oneughed at him, not even Ye Chong. He had proved his own strength with his actions.

    The young boy looked at his bodyguards and said, "Everyone, take a shooting hub each. You must destroy all therge rocks around us." After that, he closed his eyes and slumped onto his chair. Ye Chong quickly swooped up him and brought him to Rui Bing. "Please take care of him."

    "Alright," Rui Bing nodded. There was nothing else she could do for the moment.

    Scarface moved first, sitting inside one of the shooting hubs silently. The other bodyguards finally got themselves together. They were deeply ashamed. In the He Yue Gxy, it was a disgrace to have the young master sacrificing for them in the face of danger.

    Everyone took their ces at the shooting hubs.

    The starship had 15 shooting hubs. They were usually automated, but can be switched to manual for trained shooters.

    Ye Chong could not help at all. There was nothing he could do in their situation now. In fact, what they were doing now had very limited effect. Perhaps only divine intervention could help them escape unscathed.

    Ye Chong stared at the holographic screen, his muscles all tensed up.

    The starship was shaking violently. Old Jalopy and Fei Si had already secured themselves. Ye Chong and Rui Bing knewbat, so it was still manageable for them.

    Only three minutes left, before the huge wave would strike on Cornerstone. Everyone looked miserable. When you¡¯re watching an endless stretch of a tsunamiing towards you, that fear that came from the depths of your heart would sear through every inch of your nerves.

    It waspletely silent, but they could almost hear the deafening roars of thunder outside.

    Even Scarface with his usual calmness had his hands whitening from gripping too firmly on the shooting controls.

    The starship was climbing upwards, but its engines were nothing against the huge wave. It was like a tiny sailboat riding a wave in the storm.

    It was close now!

    The wave was like an endless stretch of dark blue walls,ing down onto them with all of Heaven¡¯s wrath.

    Suddenly, the firstser beam was fired from the starship. Ye Chong knew that it must be from Scarface. The rest of the bodyguards quickly recovered from their initial shock as well.

    Laser beams were shot across space like rain. While theser beams looked so insignificant in the face of such a humongous wave, barely perceptible amidst the natural phenomenon, it represented the iron will and determination of mankind against nature. This was how mankind hade to their present state of civilization.

    When an ant faced an elephant, how could it just give up without a struggle against the giant animal¡¯s strength? How could it just allow the elephant to stare down at it while its huge foot came crashing down?

    Everyone did their best. Ye Chong found that the bodyguards excelled at shooting. Scarface was the best of them. It was as though he did not need to lock on his targets at all. He never stopped shooting, and never missed.

    The fact was, Ye Chong and the young boy had the same concern. The most terrifying part of the huge wave was not its sheer strength, but the rocks and other solid material that were pushed in front of its path. These rocks were highly dangerous at their speed. Besides, if the rocks were big enough, they could smash their starship into smithereens.

    Hence, the young boy had came up with the idea of redirecting the energy avable to increase the starship¡¯s firepower, then using the bodyguards¡¯ excellent shooting skills to deal with therge rocks.

    Bang! The starship was hit. The world turned upside down. Fei Si vomited all over, and Old Jalopy was not looking too good as well. Only Ye Chong and Rui Bing stood where they were, unaffected. The young boy in Rui Bing¡¯s hands was also not looking so well.

    It was surprising that the seemingly weak bodyguards could now be so capable. They firedpetently. Any slightlyrger rock that came into range would be fired upon. Despite the ship¡¯s unstable flight, they managed to shoot with tremendous uracy.

    Plop! Plop! Plop! Debris rained down on the starship¡¯s armor with an otherworldly quality. However, no one was in the mood to appreciate it.

    The rm red, and Ye Chong felt his heart skipped a beat.

 Chapter 344 - Between Life and Death

    <h4>Chapter 344: Between Life and Death</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Armor is breached, please repair immediately." The melodic voice made a shocking announcement. Ye Chong quickly returned to his position before the photon processor console. The ship was shaking violently, so he needed to direct some of his attention on keeping it steady.

    The debris was too dense. The individual rocks were small, but the continuous damage had taken its toll. The armor was breached in a few ces, leaving tiny holes in it. The holes were small, but would widen without timely reparation. When that happens, the whole ship would go down.

    Ye Chong tensed up as he stared fixedly on the holographic screen, his slender fingers flying across the console like a pianist performing a mysterious piece, or a flower unfurling its petals. His ten fingers issuedmand aftermand to the starship¡¯s systems.

    Ye Chong was like a fireman. He needed to find the breaches as soon as possible and repair them quickly. Fortunately, the starship was equipped with specialized reparation systems, or Ye Chong would have to do it all by himself. Not even 10 Ye Chongs would be enough to fix all the breaches in time.

    Ye Chong''s mind was a nk as he did the insane reparation work. He was already at his speed limit with his hands. His hands were too stressed, as they were almost going to cramp. However, there was not much time to think about all these. The longer he held on, the higher the chance of pulling it off.

    Ye Chong breathed heavily as Rui Bing watched him with concern.

    There were more and more breaches, and their chances were getting lower and lower. Unlike the calmness in Ye Chong¡¯s mind, his eyes were burning wildly as he struggled. Surrender was not in his nature.

    20 seconds more! Ye Chong¡¯s head was crystal clear. He knew exactly how long it was before the starship yielded to the breaches.

    15 seconds! Ye Chong¡¯s hands danced wildly on the console.

    10 seconds! He did not give up, gritting his teeth as he worked.

    Eight seconds! His eyes reflected the final drop of hope before the ultimate despair.

    Seven seconds! The undying me continued to dance in his eyes.

    Six seconds! Ye Chong¡¯s madness was suddenly reced by an indescribable peace.

    Was he really going to die here? Was this end of his life?

    Five seconds! Ye Chong suddenly realized that the new breaches were happening slower.

    His dreadfully calm heart beat made him hopeful once again. Ye Chong could hear every beat of his heart. Time seemed to slow down. His hands seemed to slow down and his eyes could clearly see every movement of his fingers.

    "I need to be faster!"

    He shouted in his heart. Five seconds. He now had five seconds! In these five seconds, he must not err in controlling the starship. Any mistake would bury this final hope forever.

    The human will to survive was a force to reckon with.

    Ye Chong felt like all his fatigue was swept away. His hands moved faster than ever before, and his thoughts came with unprecedented rity. With his enhanced mental capacity, everything seemed to slow down and clear up.

    Finally, just when the starship was three seconds away from exploding, Ye Chong reached a reparation speed that bnced out the damage due to the new breaches.

    The number of new breaches became less and less. Ye Chong controlled the ship steadily, not once making a mistake or dying any precious second.

    Five seconds ¡­ 10 seconds ¡­ 15 seconds ¡­

    Slowly but surely, Ye Chong lengthened the time until the starship exploded.

    When the new breaches stopped happening, Ye Chong also managed to repair all the holes in the ship.

    Sess!

    Even the calm Ye Chong wanted to raise his hands and scream. However, he found that he could not do that. He could not even move a single finger. His body felt like lead, and his head was heavy. His vision was turning blurry. If Ye Chong was still clear headed now, he would notice that his hands were trembling wildly. His hands were cramping.

    However, he saw nothing at all. His consciousness was escaping him. The light in his vision slowly faded out into darkness. He cked out.

    "Ye!" Rui Bing¡¯s face that was the nevermelting ice on the coldest in the gxy finally softened. She rushed to Ye Chong and caught him as he slumped to the floor.

    Ye Chong heard a faint cry through his slipping consciousness, and recognized Rui Bing¡¯s voice.

    He awoketer, and the first person he saw was Rui Bing. She was caressing his hands quietly.

    "You¡¯re awake," Rui Bing sounded overjoyed.

    Ye Chong said nothing, hisrge eyes staring at Rui Bing¡¯s eyes.

    Ye Chong was quiet for such a long time that Rui Bing grew nervous and asked, "What is it? Are you hurt anywhere?"

    Still Ye Chong looked at Rui Bing steadily without speaking.

    Rui Bing was even more anxious now. She put her right hand on Ye Chong¡¯s forehead. "What is it? Don¡¯t scare me like this. Speak!" Rui Bing had lost all the assuredness as a Jie expert by now.

    "You¡¯re worried about me?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Yes, of course I¡¯m worried." Rui Bing looked at Ye Chong curiously.

    "You care for me?" Ye Chong continued asking.

    "Yes, of course I care." Rui Bing¡¯s eyes were filled with concern. Was his brain affected? But how could that be?

    "Why do you care for me?" Ye Chong asked as he stared deep into Rui Bing¡¯s eyes.

    After a long pause ¡­ "I¡¯m your wife," Rui Bing said this casually. She understood immediately that Ye Chong¡¯s brain was not damaged.

    "Wife? The woman who will live with me forever?" Ye Chong remembered something like that from a book.

    Rui Bing lowered her head as she continued caressing Ye Chong¡¯s hands, and said with soft but determined voice, "Yes."

    Ye Chong saw the resolution in Rui Bing¡¯s eyes, and found himself moved by this simple deration. He suddenly remembered Mu and Shang. All this while, he had thought that only Mu and Shang would live with him, but now another person had just promised to stay with him forever.

    "Why?"

    "Because I¡¯m your wife," Rui Bing looked at Ye Chong and said this softly, but her heart was beating furiously.

    "Wife. Are you sure?" Ye Chong looked steadily at Rui Bing.

    "Yes." Rui Bing returned a steady gaze.

    "Living together forever ¡­" Ye Chong muttered to himself. Abruptly, he lifted his head and said, "Don¡¯t husband and wife kiss? Teach me!"

    Cornerstone was lucky enough to survive the terrifying Singr Wave. In fact, Cornerstone was now being pushed by the wave. They had no idea where they were now. What happened then was odd indeed. After bracing the initial force of the wave, Cornerstone became part of the Singr Wave. Debris surrounded the starship. While they were fatal before, now they were travelling at the same velocity as the Cornerstone itself, so the tiny rocks outside were now harmless.

    The young boy awakened earlier than Ye Chong. He studied Ye Chong for awhile and eximed with his young, innocent voice, "Big guy, you¡¯re so cool!"

    Ye Chong looked at himself and smiled wryly inside. He was badly injured this time. His hands werepletely swollen from wrist to the fingertips. Any small movement would invite a sharp pain. Besides, his arms and back were aching.

    "Big guy, what did you say to your wife just now? Hehe, why¡¯d she blush so much? And even ran off?" The young boy¡¯s innocent face turned evil.

    Ye Chong thought about it, and answered, "We were discussing something academic." Kissing must be a kind of skill, right? Ye Chong was not so sure about it. Too bad Rui Bing was not here to help him, so he could only make his best guess.

    "Hehe ¡­" The young boy swung his legs andughed teasingly.

    Ye Chong suddenly thought of something. "What¡¯s your name?"

    "Yu Shan," the young boy answered easily.

    It was an unfamiliar name. Ye Chong did not get anything out of it.

    After a moment¡¯s hesitation, Ye Chong asked, "Do you know Shang?"

    "Shang?" The young boy asked, curious. "Who¡¯s that?"

    Ye Chong could see every detail of the young boy¡¯s expression, but he was disappointed to find that the boy was not lying. Did he really now know Shang? Then why did he feel that both of them were so simr to each other?

    Nheless, Ye Chong was not too curious about it. He would not put himself in danger just because of a moment¡¯s curiosity. If he did not feel that the young boy was simr to Shang, Ye Chong would never have asked that question.

    "Never mind then," Ye Chong lost interest immediately.

    "Big guy, your hands were awesome!" The young boy¡¯s eyes were filled with admiration and approval. "I¡¯ve seen the records for when you were handling the ship. It¡¯s amazing! So fast, and with zero error, so cool!"

    "It¡¯s nothing," Ye Chong answered dismissively. He thought of his time on the trash, when Mu supervised his training with the steel beads.

    "Big guy, can you teach me?" The young boy looked to Ye Chong with eyes full of hope.

 Chapter 345 - Coraplatinum

    <h4>Chapter 345: Coratinum</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "No," Ye Chong declined without hesitation. While this was not some unique way of training, Ye Chong would not simply teach to someone else what Mu/Shang had taught to him. Besides, the young boy was so physically weak that the hand speed training would not be effective without a few years¡¯ worth of practice. It would also not improve their current situation. Ye Chong would notmit himself to such pointless endeavors.

    The young boy pouted with dissatisfaction. "Humph! Who cares anyway?"

    Outside the ship was an infinite stretch of the neb that surrounded the starship like a thin veil. The faint blue neb was not uniformly blue across. There were patches of lighter or darker shades here and there, irregrities that could only be noticed by careful observation.

    Suddenly, an empty space that was tens of kilometers wide appeared on the starship¡¯s holographic screen. This empty path in space was so obvious that is was impossible to miss it.

    "Ah, that¡¯s it!" Old Jalopy stood up abruptly, pointing on the image on the holographic screen with excitement.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong studied the empty path.

    After a moment¡¯s pause, Old Jalopy calmed down and exined, "30 years ago, we went along a path that looked like this to the warp jump point."

    The news was encouraging to them all.

    "But I¡¯m not entirely sure that it¡¯s this one!" After some more hesitation, Old Jalopy dered while studying the path on the holographic screen.

    Even though this was not the best oue for them, it was still good news. The young boy¡¯s bodyguards spirits were lifted. They had just gone through a massive battle and were not fully recovered yet, with the look of fatigue on their faces. Scarface, however, seemed to be his usual self with his wooden expression unaltered.

    Fei Si was alone in the alchemy room. The Singr Wave incident a few days ago had destroyed many pieces of equipment in theboratory. She was busy doing the clean up, since no one could help her with it.

    The starship slowly approached the empty stretch of space, but the question of which direction to take was a difficult one. As the only person in charge, Ye Chong decided to choose one at random.

    Flying in the empty path was no different than flying in the neb. The journey was not faster nor slower.

    How did this empty space came about? Why would there be no stars here? No one knew. The universe was filled with many unexined phenomena, too many to count. In any case, Ye Chong would not waste his time figuring them out.

    The starship flew along the empty path at high speed. Without any reference coordinates, they could not do a warp jump, and had to settle for normal flight.

    On the tenth day, the dull view outside finally changed.

    The faint blue neb was no longer there, but reced with a olive coloured neb. This olive neb was thicker than the faint blue neb. It was like a green-brown cumulonimbus, giving off a fluffy sense of texture. The scary thing about this olive coloured neb was its inherent instability.

    There were constantly streaks of light that flew across the skies in the olive neb. The further in they went, the more those streaks appeared. Finally, it was not just the asional streaks, but the whole space around them was filled with these golden fiery streaks flying around.

    The olive neb was dangerous. This suspicion was quickly proven right.

    A rock, big as a hill, slowly floated into the olive neb.

    It was like throwing a lighted match into boiling oil. The unstable neb reacted violently.

    The golden fiery streaks moved towards the rock like sharks, surrounding it closely. In the blink of an eye, the entire rock waspletely covered with the fire, leaving only a barely visible silhouette.

    From afar, the rock looked like a glowing mass of golden fire. One could make out the fiery streaks swimming in the golden mass.

    Everyone stared at the sudden change. They had never seen anything like it, not even Old Jalopy in hisst trip here.

    Before anyone could react, the dazzling gold mass changed again. It shrinked rapidly inwards. The dazzling gold mass shrinked so quickly that its diameter was halved every three seconds.

    After five minutes, the glowing rock that was as tall as a hill was two meters across. It was also shaped like a perfect spherical mass of gold.

    The spherical fiery mass slowly dimmed down, and the rock was finally exposed again from underneath. A dark redva in spherical form floated silently in the olive neb, with the asional fiery streak flying around it.

    Everyone was shocked.

    In just five minutes, the rock had been burned down to a sphericalva ball two meters across. What a terrifying power! The inexplicable power of the universe was demonstrated right before their eyes.

    Ye Chong felt a chill down his spine. If their starship had identally entered the olive neb, what would have happened? The starship would probably melt into metallic liquid, while the rest of them would probably burn up into ashes.

    Cornerstone carefully traversed the empty path, wary of identally entering the olive neb.

    It was fortunate that the young boy¡¯s bodyguards were all capable. Up until now, Cornerstone had flew without error.

    Another 10 days passed. Everyone but Fei Si had lived through those 10 days in fear. Fei Si was too absorbed in her work cleaning up the alchemyb that she did not know what happened outside, and hence, was not worried at all.

    The olive neb began to change again. The olive coloured neb that looked like a cumulonimbus began to grow faint, then turned blue. Surprisingly, the neb was filled with twinkling lights.

    The terrifying fire streaks were no longer in sight. The aqua blue neb was twinkling with blue lights, like a blue world out of a fairy tale.

    Unlike the violent olive neb, this one was quiet like the young miss of a respectable family. There was no fire, no explosions, only an all-epassing twinkling blue neb.

    Aside that, the neb was also filled with many floating rocks. These rocks came in many types, and Ye Chong could not identify most of them.

    The rocks were irregr in shape and size, but they were all quietly suspended in the twinkling blue neb.

    Ye Chong was already standing by the holographic screen, staring fixedly at it. His face was calm, but inside he was very much shaken. This was like a natural ore gallery, filled with all kinds of rare minerals.

    His eyes swept through the floating rocks, when Ye Chong suddenly widened his eyes and gasped, "Coratinum!" Given Ye Chong¡¯s cool nature, not many things could surprise him like this!

    "Coratinum? Where? Where?" The young boy rushed to the screen, his blue eyes lit up with curiosity. "There is coratinum here?" He tiptoed and stretched his neck upwards, but he was too short and too far from the holographic screen. He tilted his head in thought. Then, he turned to one of his bodyguards, waved him over and said in his childish voice, "Lift me up."

    The bodyguard quickly carried the boy up and ced him on his shoulder.

    The young boy patted on the bodyguard¡¯s head, urging him further, "Move forward ¡­ Forward ¡­ Okay okay ¡­ Stop!"

    The young boy looked up and muttered to himself, "It¡¯s really coratinum." He looked very interested.

    On the holographic screen was an irregr shaped grey-blue ore, covered with many tiny white crosses. The white crossed looked intricate, and they were all perfectly symmetric crosses. Seen from afar, coratinum looked like a grey-blue rock covered with many white spots, not standing out at all.

    Ye Chong stared nkly at the coratinum, struggling inside.

    Coratinum was something Ye Chong had been looking for all this while. It was instrumental in repairing Mu and Shang. With coratinum, the chances were higher for Mu and Shang to be repaired. However, not even Mu and Shang knew where coratinum could be found.

    "So it¡¯s actually from here!" Ye Chong stared at the holographic screen, muttering to himself.

    He suddenly thought of a question, and turned to face the young boy. "You know coratinum?" This was a rare ore, and not many would know about it. Just where did the young boye to know about this ore?

    The young boy replied dismissively, "Of course I know it. Coratinum¡¯s good stuff, a pity it¡¯s so rare. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen it for real." To him, coratinum was only some kind of rare item.

    Ye Chong turned to Old Jalopy and asked, "Professor, is this neb dangerous?"

    "Probably not," Old Jalopy answered, "Last time, Xue Lai n had attacked us from in there."

    "Xue Lai n?" Ye Chong raised his brow and considered that fact.

    The young boy was growing excited and jubnt. "Wah ¡­"

    After a long moment, Ye Chong lifted his head and said, "Enter this neb."

    The young boy looked at Ye Chong curiously. "You want coratinum? But why? It¡¯s melting point is very high, making it difficult to extract!"

    Ye Chong ignored him and looked towards the bodyguards in charge of flying the ship.

    The bodyguards hesitated for a moment, but quickly altered their course towards the neb.

    The starship¡¯s entrance into the area immediately caused a disturbance. The silently floating rocks were dense, so when Cornerstone entered the neb, a chain reaction was initiated. The rocks that were pushed off the starship collided into other rocks. Some of the motionless rocks began to move.

    This was a big inconvenience for Ye Chong and the others. With the chaotic situation, it was difficult to find their target. Cornerstone flew at its minimum speed, but the chaos continued to spread out wide.

    Ye Chong kept his eyes fixed on the coratinum, afraid to lose sight of it.

    Fortunately, the coratinum was not hit by any of the other mineral rocks. It continued to float silently where it was.

    Cornerstone was equipped with many mechanical arms, and this made it efficient for collecting materials outside. Ye Chong carefully maneuvered one of the mechanical arms himself. When the mechanical arm had the coratinum firmly in its grasp, Ye Chong finally heaved a sigh of relief.

    The coratinum wasrger than Ye Chong anticipated, weighing more than three tonnes.

    "What a big coratinum!" The young boy circled around the coratinum, caressing its natural white crosses on the ore.

    Ye Chong felt excited. With this coratinum, Mu and Shang would be repaired soon. Mu and Shang only needed the one arm and a small part of the pilot cabin repaired. This piece of coratinum would be more than enough for that, perhaps leaving some to spare.

    Ye Chong looked at the chaotic situation around him regretfully. With the rocks flying all over, it was impossible to take more of them. It was simply a pity, missing out on those rare ores. Ye Chong saw a few rare ores already floating further and further away from him.

    There was no helping it. Ye Chong ordered for Cornerstone to leave the neb.

    Cornerstone continued on its journey in the empty path.

    The flight continued on for another 20 days along the empty path. Just when everyone, including Old Jalopy, believed that they had gone in the wrong direction, or in the wrong empty path altogether, the warp jump point that Old Jalopy that been telling them repeatedly about finally appeared before them.

    The starship went from the empty path into a vast void region.

    This was a region tens of thousands of kilometers across, without any neb to be seen. If the empty path was a strange sight, then this vast empty region was even more curious.

    Old Jalopy stood up abruptly and gasped in joy, "Ah! It¡¯s here, it¡¯s here!" All of them could hear the excitement in his words.

    The dispirited crowd was immediately encouraged. They stood up and asked, "Where? Where is it?"

    "Over there!" Old Jalopy pointed towards the center of the region.

    At the dead center of the region was a t, colourful disc. On the holographic screen, the disc was further erged for viewing. What they saw now was a disc about two kilometers across, made up of nebe of all kinds of colors. There were the faint blue, green-brown and twinkling blue ones that Ye Chong and the rest had seen, and some dazzling colors such as deep red, bright yellow ¡­ It was like an exhibit of colors. The colorful nebe were dispersed in the disc without any apparent order. The strangest part was that the colorful disc had a strange and slow ripple spreading across it.

    The ripples started from the center of the disc, spreading outwards slowly.

    The center of the disc was empty, but it was like a beating heart, bringing motion to the nebe around it. It was a curious sight to behold.

    "The warp jump point is at the center of the disc!" Old Jalopy¡¯s voice sounded dreamy, like the interesting disc they were looking at.

 Chapter 346 - Child Abductor

    <h4>Chapter 346: Child Abductor</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "This is Dankwood," Old Jalopy introduced the brown-gray on the holographic screen, being the only one who had ever been there. After days of continuous flight, everyone was in a state of high tension. Now that there were no more inexplicable things around them, they finally heaved a sigh of relief.

    "It¡¯s best if wend at nighttime. The aborigines there are very sensitive to starships and the like. Once they identified us as outsiders with a starship and mechs, we¡¯ll be hunted down," Old Jalopy warned, "Don¡¯t underestimate these aborigines. They can be very scary in some ways."

    Old Jalopy looked at Ye Chong and Rui Bing and he spoke. Only the two of them had mechs here. Ye Chong nodded. It pays to listen to the expert.

    Night came, and Cornerstone made its silent descent into the sea.

    They boarded anding boat and headed for the shore. This was where Old Jalopy and his crew hadndedst time.

    Once thending boat returned into the sea, back to their starship, Old Jalopy turned to everyone and said, "Make sure there¡¯s nothing conspicuous on any of you, like dimension keystones ormunication devices." These words were actually all directed towards Ye Chong, since he had destroyed everything that the young boy and his bodyguards had on them.

    Rui Bing was wearing her snow white training garb. To Old Jalopy, she looked like a native the most. The Guardian ring on her finger was made to look like a dull ring, a design that Gu Shaoze had favored for some reason.

    Ye Chong hesitated for a moment before cing Han Jia¡¯s dimension keystone andms device into his bag.

    "Shoes too." Old Jalopy pointed at their shoes, all of them made of strong and durable material. He exined, "The shoes on this looked simr to hers." He pointed at Rui Bing¡¯s pair of white, traditional shoes that she was wearing.

    Ye Chong took off his shoes without argument, and threw them into the sea. The rest of them exchanged uncertain looks before throwing their shoes into the sea as well.

    It was quite an experience, having all of them barefoot. Old Jalopy carried Fei Si on his back as they made their advance single file. Old Jalopy borated as he walked, "I remember that there¡¯s a vige not far from here, not sure if it¡¯s still around though. They are viges around here, big and small, but no cities. The bigger viges are not that much different from cities, though. Usually outsiders are not allowed to enter a vige easily. The Hundred Tribes Vige, however, is friendly to outsiders, just like our cities.

    "Please also keep in mind not to say anything, let me deal with the talking. Be careful not to simply attack people. These people protect their own. If someone is treated roughly, you¡¯ll face the anger of the masses. However, please do what you have to when necessary. There are nows here. Killing and being killed aremon. Sigh, I once thought this was a utopia, but it¡¯s actually much more chaotic than our world. There is however, one thing that you must not do, and that is rape. Anyone who disobeys this rule will be on the kill list of every viger on the."

    Ye Chong listened carefully, taking in every detail. In this unfamiliar territory, every bit of information was valuable. Scarface showed the same level of attention as Ye Chong, while the rest of the people only looked interested. "Looks like Scarface is the only one who¡¯s seen real battle," Ye Chong thought to himself.

    They walked for roughly five hours before reaching a small vige. This vige was meagre, made up of just some dozens of families. The houses were all dpidated. Everyone but Old Jalopy watched in surprise. They had never seen anywhere so backwards and impoverished before. Even the free amodation provided at relief centers were much better than these houses.

    "Is this a primitive society?" A bodyguard muttered.

    Another bodyguard with disbelieving eyes said, "Seems to be."

    Old Jalopy exined, "They have very low material productivity here. They ce great importance on pushing the limits of the human body, and are extremely averse to technology. But don¡¯t look down on them. Growing up in this society, these people are determined fes. Besides, they are all good inbat, so don¡¯t try to get into a fight with them.

    "Hold it there!" A male voice yelled angrily.

    Two people in clown masks came out of the vige, running, each of them carrying a child in their arms. In just moments, they were already far away from the vige. Behind them, a few men were in pursuit, yelling angrily. These men all looked physically robust.

    They¡¯re strong! Ye Chong and Rui Bing exchanged a look, seeing the surprise in the other person¡¯s eyes. The two people in clown masks and the men in pursuit of them were all very strong.

    The two masked men were slower because of their burden, and were soon caught up from behind.

    The two masked men looked to each other. One of them threw the child in his hand to the other person and turned back, running towards the pursuers.

    The masked man was excellent inbat, keeping all five pursuers upied without losing ground.

    "Child abductors!" Old Jalopy gasped in surprise turned to Ye Chong. "Quick, stop them!"

    "You¡¯re sure?" Ye Chong tilted his head at Old Jalopy. The two masked men were strong. It was not a good idea to fight against strong opponents like them when they had only arrived here.

    Old Jalopy replied urgently, "Yes, of course I¡¯m sure! This is important, you ¡­"

    Before he could finish, Ye Chong was already running towards the masked men, together with Rui Bing. Ye Chong was in a ckbat suit, approaching the escaping child abductor with small, irregr steps like a ghoul. Rui Bing was in her white training garb, advancing gracefully like a swan in flight.

    The two of them usedpletely different styles, but they both reached the child abductor at the same time.

    "Who might you be, do you know the consequences of interfering? ¡­" Before he could finish, Ye Chong made his move. He darted forward like an arrow towards the child abductor.

    The abductor was shocked and was about to fight back when he found that he could not move at all!

    Rui Bi was at the side, her eyes vividly bright! The Rui Family¡¯s mental attacks were unconventional, and Ye Chong¡¯s information on the mentalists¡¯ skills had helped her greatly. She had improved again without knowing it.

    The blue lines crisscrossed in Ye Chong¡¯s vision clearly. Ye Chong gripped his hand into a fist and threw a seemingly light punch on the child abductor¡¯s throat.

    Crack! A clear sound of breaking bones. The child abductor watched as Ye Chong stepped back with two children in his arms. The blue lines in Ye Chong¡¯s vision were stimted when hest fought with Rui Bing, with desirable results. Now, they would only appear when Ye Chong was in a highly focused state.

    This made Ye Chong overjoyed. If the blue lines continued as they were before, Ye Chong was afraid that he would ultimately turn into a mad killer.

    The child abductor was not weak. In a one-on-one, he would be able to defend himself at least for awhile. However, he never imagined himself facing two Jie experts at the same time.

    Ye Chong never understood the concept of one-on-one battles. He always went for the fastest way to end the battle. On the other hand, Rui Bing did not like fighting with someone else inbat, but what the child abductor did was horrible. To her, these two masked men should die for their actions, and so she acted as she did.

    How could the masked man win against two Jie experts working together? He died almost instantly.

    The appearance of Ye Chong and Rui Bing was encouraging for the five pursuers, while the other child abductor began to panic.

    When he saw how Ye Chong and Rui Bing easily killed the child abductor, he was distracted momentarily and nearly received a punch from one of the pursuers. What an unlucky day. They had chosen to strike at dawn, when most people were still asleep and less vignt. However, they still awoken some vigers in the end. Now, these two capable fighters suddenly showed up.

    "Why are so many strong people who like to interfere in other people¡¯s business?" He thought to himself in amazement. However, there was no time to ponder further. If he did not leave soon, escape will be impossible.

    With that, the child abductor disentangled himself from the five pursuers. He was about to leave when he saw the man and womaning towards him.

    He ran away in fright.

    Ye Chong would never allow him to escape. Since he had decided to do this, he must be thorough. This was Ye Chong¡¯s principle. He passed the two children to Rui Bing. Ye Chong immediately picked up speed without them.

    The child abductor thought he had fled in time, but then he heard a swooping sound from behind. He looked back, only to see the man in ck following him closely like a ghoul. He was closing in quickly. The child abductor was scared as hell, and ran as fast as he could.

    "The forest is right in front," the child abductor thought to himself. Once he entered the forest, he would be safe. Just then, he felt a sharp pain on his back, and nearly cked out. He could hear the sound of his bones breaking. He gritted his teeth, biting into his tongue until it bled to remain conscious.

    With this determination and strength, he ran even faster and entered the faster.

    Ye Chong followed the child abductor into the forest, but quickly lost sight of his target. He was surprised by this, and searched around to no avail. There was nothing he could do about it but return to his group. At least that punch he delivered would be painful enough.

 Chapter 347 - The Village

    <h4>Chapter 347: The Vige</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When Ye Chong got back to the vige, Old Jalopy was exchanging warm greetings with the vigers. Clearly, Ye Chong and Rui Bing''s heroic act had gained trust of the vigers. The mommas were holding Rui Bing''s hands, muttering some words imperceivable afar that made Rui Bing''s face reddened as her lead lowered with a kind of embarrassed expression.

    Rui Bing quickly weed Ye Chong upon arrival.

    "Are things alright?"

    Ye Chong shook his head, "The guy ran away, he took a blow from me though."

    Rui Bing could not be more shocked than this. She was well-aware of her man''s skill, seriously what kind of human could ever escape his grip? That person must be quite a deal. Knowing her man''s battle style, he would not let go of his prey till the prey died.

    "Well¡­" Upon seeing Rui Bing''s expression, Ye Chong borated, "The guy disappeared right after he got into the woods. I felt strange too."

    "It must be your first time of encountering the Abductor, I suppose. They are the kinds who abduct not everybody but children and are extremely skillful in hiding themselves. The more puzzling the surrounding, the more confusing they get." The vigers had been mesmerized by Ye Chong''s performance before, so he was quite dignified in their words.

    Ye Chong nodded and asked on, "What does the Abductor do?"

    The vigers were shocked by his question, it seemed like amon sense for everyone here to know who the group of child abductors were. "Mister, are you truly unaware of the Abductor?"

    "Hahahaha¡­ Forgive my friends." Old Jalopy came into the scene hurriedly, "They came from the far, faraway. They aren''t really aware of the things here. Sigh, can''t help it, they are so fascinated by the scenery here that I was asked to get them over here. Hahahahaha, and so I did you see. Please don''t take it by heart if they had done anything offensive."

    "Ohh!" The vigers showed understanding, with one old adultughing brightly, "Haha, don''t have to be so formal. The Abductor would have gotten their job done if there weren''t you guys. That fine young man has some skills you know what, better than myself back in his age! The prettyssie there too."

    Old Jalopy smiled and turned back to Ye Chong and the group, "Abductor is a group of child-abductors. Nobody knows who they are and what they work for. They just hide in the dark and capture any child with potential who had never returned since then. People have no idea where the children had gone and what the Abductor wants them for. There would be a batch of missing children annually but somehow these child-abducting oddities seem to be extremely skillful. I swear they would make serious fortune if they ever utilize their skills by conducting sses, parents would send them the children themselves."

    "Right!" Sighed the man, "With their skills, people would be flocking to their sses. And words have been heard, saying how those abducted children must have a certain standard of potential, judging by how skillful and insightful those child abductors are, though it''s quite astonishing to see them here too¡­ Man, our vige actually has talented kids to be abducted. What a waste if nobody guided them to harness their talents¡­" And he took a look at Ye Chong, passionately.

    "Hahaha!" Old Jalopyughed and said, "Congrattions for the vige still having the two talented angels intact! Once they grew up happily, the condition here surely would change! Hahaha, sadly we won''t be witnessing such achievement, we have things to do or we would have taken them as apprentices." Indirectly he turned down the offer.

    "Oh¡­ Ha¡­" The man seemed disappointed, though his happy-go-lucky tone unchanged, "Well they have their own fate, their own tale to make. So, not to worry histories like us. I must say all of you seemed to have a long journey. All worn out and that, why don''t all of you get in and have a rest? I could offer some drinks and both of us, the old men could have a nice conversation."

    "Sure, sure!" Smiled Old Jalopy, "It''s been quite sometime since I ever took a journey myself. I no longer know how the outside world looks, I really would be d to get some insights from you!"

    The vigers were kind as they weed Ye Chong and his mates in group.

    The houses were broken, the pipes were broken, the barrels were broken, the people were¡­ Ye Chong was as speechless as his mates, since they had finallye to an understanding of what Old Jalopy meant when he said the ce was pretty bad in productivity. They almost thought they had turned back in time and returned to the hunting-and-gathering era. No one could see a single touch of the technologies. The fish webs were a knit of ropes, which only could be seen in the museum in today. There were fish poles, wooden chairs and porcin basins, crudely produced. What kept the oilmps ignited on wall was the fat of fishes they caught, as one could smell the fishiness of the room upon entry.

    The walls were a fascination to Ye Chong''s eyes, as every brick of them was made out of Celestine, one could even see the cuts over each piece. Apparently these bricks were removed pieces by pieces from a giant boulder of it, with bare hands. How many bare hands would that need? Ye Chong finally understood why the ce respected the potency of humanity more than anything.

    Anyone who could dice Celestine by bare hands must not be an ordinary. No one could cut Celestine into bricks even by brute force.

    The women passed them a bowl of water each, with a sweet smile. Ye Chong took a sip. Although the water was a little muddy, it was exceptionally refreshing that Ye Chong gargled it like the others. The women seemed very pleased by their reaction.

    Old Jalopy was having conversations with the vigers nearby.

    "So why are the child-abductors this active today?" asked Old Jalopy.

    "That was a question for us too. It was the first time we encountered this. If it weren''t you and your group, those children might never see their parents again. Sigh, those abductors raided our vige just because we have a weaker defense after the other major viges reinforced their security. But well¡­ sigh, we are also as harmless as you can see. If there are some people who would consider sparing their kindness protecting us, we won''t be under a plight like this. I guess we would have to send these two kids to therger vige afterwards, since both of them would never have a bright future staying with us." One of the elderly expressed. The vigers were seemingly grim as well.

    "Don''t feel bad about it,"forted Old Jalopy. "You can''t force things to happen. At least the vigers are alert enough to see us. Things would be totally different if that did not happen."

    "I had heard simr things happening in the neighboring vigers. The Wang family had informed us about the abductors days before. That was why, well, we tried hard to prepare. We would be sending the kids to Wang family maybe tomorrow. At least the family has good fighters to protect them while teaching them techniques to protect themselves. Unlike somebody, the family would be in favor of taking these kids, since they were the one eyed by the abductors at least¡­" Added the other viger, with somehow an undertone of Ye Chong taking those kids along.

    Old Jalopy was feeling a little awkward of the situation, "Well don''t look at their skills, they are still kids, they won''t be considering apprentice that soon."

    "Wei! How could you speak to our guest like that?"

    The viger whose name was Wei responded in embarrassment, since he himself was well-aware of how inappropriate his words were.

    "Hahaha¡­ Don''t mind that, we are just having small talks!" Old Jalopy tried to keep the rage down as he made a drastic turn in the topic, "Speaking of Wang, may I ask who are the Wangs? I remembered no one of the Wang family 30 years back when I traveled here?"

    "So you''ve been here 30 years ago? Well, we moved here only 20 years ago. The former vigers here had migrated to somewhere else when we came. And the Wang family joined the area on our second year here. The family is a very huge one I must say, 800,000 of them I heard? I have no idea why they moved here. We have also hardly spoken to each other, though I must say the ce had be quieter ever since their arrival. Nobody would dare to challenge the area and our days got brighter," he said.

    "This big? 800 grands of them? Such family¡­" Old Jalopy was astonished by the figure.

    "Isn''t it unbelievable? And the family had talents, lots of them. There was once a group of thieves around 300 of them scurried somewhere nearby and it only took around 50 of the Wangs to ughter them on spot. They are surely merciless when they wave their offense, no one had survived on the day. We even travelled to the Buffalo Hill and we saw an extremelyrge sackying there. And not one single thief was seen around the vige ever since." One of the vigers told the tale expressively.

    "Okay¡­" Old Jalopy frowned. It seemed like a chore to deal with this family.

    "Well don''t worry!" The elderly saw the worry in Old Jalopy''s brows, "The Wang family usually shows no concern towards the outsiders, as long as the outsiders behave. Nothing would happen! And the Wangs are rather friendly in nature. They would likely offer their help whenever we asked for it. Also, the vige of the Wang family is thergest market you could find within the area. Whatever you need, you could get it there. If you want something sold, you could approach them too, they have fair prices you know, way better than those heartless merchants. So we would get everything to the Wang family market from time to time."

    "That''s great." Nodded Old Jalopy vigorously, "Now they sound quite friendly. I''m sorry but there *are* in fact some nasty ns out there so¡­"

    And that was when a man''s voice rang by the door, "We were informed that the vige has been under an attack of the Abductor, so the Wang family sent 5 of us for assistance."

    Wow, when Wang family was mentioned, they hade.

    The elderly went to the door and saw 5 men standing in a row.

    Ye Chong was shocked. All 5 of them were fairly armed with a green suit as their uniform. They seemed reliable and strong.

    Ye Chong could tell by a nce that those men possessed some skills.

 Chapter 348 - Wang Family Village I

    <h4>Chapter 348: Wang Family Vige I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The five visiting men soon shifted their nces on Ye Chong and the others, in which theysted on Rui Bing the longest. Well, Ye Chong''s appearance was not that look-worthy thanks to his repulsive face and feeble-looking body, unlike Rui Bing who stood there like the goddess of snow with that white garb of hers.

    "Thank you for your kindest offer. The two children have been saved," replied the elder courteously.

    "Saved?" The leading young man was shocked, since the child abductors were known for their skills, it would take amazing expertise for one to save a person from their grip. "Thank you for sharing the burden!" He bowed towards the group.

    His focus was certainly on Rui Bing, as only Rui Bing had that look of an elite. Ye Chong? Not really, he seemed to be an adornment himself. The bodyguards of the young boy were considerably frail as well. Old Jalopy had quite a body but that was the only thing he had. Fei Si? Impossible, she probably would need a paper cutter to even tear a package open.

    Rui Bing was seemingly unmoved by anything. She was cool as the ice. It would sound like a total bogus if one were to tell everybody she was not an elite, especially when there was this unpleasant looking young man standing by her side. The addition of this young man simply enhanced her appearance.

    Well, despite her cool beauty, the men withdrew their stare quickly, which was quite a move of a gentleman. They looked at the elder, "The two children must be a true talent that the abductors eyed them. The master of the family intends to take them as apprentice, I wonder if that''s alright?"

    "That''ll be fantastic!" said the elder, "It would be an honor for our kids to be chosen by the Wang family. Oh how can we say no to that? Please thank on my behalf."

    Certainly the 5 men from the Wang family were enjoying the hurrahs of the people, as the leading one nodded, "Then how about we pay their parents a visit? We might need you to visit our vige since we would need to gain your consent as well. The children, I suggest to have them at our vige for the moment. Well, it was not because we do not trust the capability of the master guardian here. It''s safer when there are fewer guardsmen while there would be more ymates for the children."

    The leading one was known as Wang Meng and as one could observe he was rather persuasive since his speech literally covered almost every aspect. Two pairs of parents came out of the crowd, looking d and proud, as they believed their son would have a bright future once he joined the Wangs.

    Wang Meng smiled on. He looked at Ye Chong and the others, "Fellow guests from far, faraway, how about staying at our vige for the next two days? It''s the season of Magnosia. The Magnosia flower is pretty well-known in this area."

    The group looked at Ye Chong. He had to make the decision. No one else would dare to take the g.

    Wang Meng was feeling strange towards the reaction of the group. The stare clearly converged at that ugly boy. Did that mean the ugly boy was the leader? How? Wang Meng could not see anything worthy of leadership on that boy, especially when the great heroine was actually under his order¡­

    Wang Meng could notprehend.

    "You make the choice," stated Ye Chong, nced at Old Jalopy. It would be better for the tour guide to make the decision.

    "Hmmm¡­" Old Jalopy eventually did not decline the invitation, "We could go if it was not a trouble to the family." It would be bad if they rejected the big family right in the face¡­

    Wait what? The first person inmand is this filthy looking boy with little to none strength, while the second person inmand turned out to be that in old man, and not that exquisite-lookingdy? I don''t get it.

    Wang Meng was confused, since their perception of a leader would be someone of great strength and status, not these¡­ ordinary folks¡­ "You are being too formal. The master would be more than pleased to treat you all."

    And so they moved.

    Wang family vige felt like an ancient fortress to Ye Chong, as the tall walls stood bright withyers andyers of Celestines stacked about 30 meters high. There was also a gate? It was an eye-opener to the folks. And yes, thanks to their dramatic reaction, Wang Meng and his men had technically presumed the group to be a bunch of folks from the undeveloped.

    The ce was feeling ancient, primitive, primalpared to He Yue. They walked on the pavement of Celestine, their eyes fell on all sorts of simple carriages, their ears heard the cries of the merchants by their wooden stalls. Ye Chong was overwhelmed by the happening vige. The stalls were also offering all kinds of strange things which mostly appeared to be foreign to Ye Chong. There were skins of animals, horns of some beasts. The clothing of the vigers was unordinary¡­ they actually saw someone with only a pair of spotty pants, probably made out of skin of a kind of animal.

    "This ce is known as thergest market in the area." Smiled Wang Meng as he introduced the ce, "If you need anything, don''t be shy, just tell me and I''ll get it for you." Of course he got to be kind. Be it He Yue or Fal or the Archipgo, people adore power and would try anything to seize that power. Rui Bing was that power the men sought from the visitors, no doubt Wang Meng would have to gain her favor.

    But as time went, through his constant observation, he noticed something weird. Among the folks, only mind of two persons seemed unreadable - one was unquestionably that white-garbeddy, the other¡­ was actually their leader, the nasty-looking young man. The white-garbeddy''s unmovable expression was understandable for her clear heart and mind, but the young man¡­ Wang Meng could hardly imagine him doing mental training of anything. Well, he was in fact the leader of the folks. He surely had something in his pocket to keep his underlings.

    Out of sudden, a man dressed like Wang Meng headed quickly to Wang Meng. Whispers were heard and he stood in his position after.

    Wang Meng turned to the folks, "Fellow guests, it''s our meal time soon. It would be great if we could speed things up a little. We coulde back here tonight if you have anything to buy. The night market is always there for you after dusk."

 Chapter 349 - Wang Family Village II

    <h4>Chapter 349: Wang Family Vige II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The vige was wayrger than the folks had imagined. It took them 30 minutes that felt like forever to reach the guest room under Wang Meng''s lead.

    The entrance had a simple style, a demonstration of minimalism, with staircases made out of Celestine where scratches of age could be discerned. There were two stone statues of unknown beasts, looking solemn yet unthreatening. They were carrying a ming basin each on their back. The basin was the lighting that utilized fat-burning like the other residences in the ce and fierily they burned, with hushes made as the wind blew.

    A middle-aged woman was standing there with queues of men anddies dressed in green at both sides.

    She stepped ahead and gave a bow at the iing guests, "The family wees fellow guests." She smiled, "It is an honor for our family to be able to entertain fellow guests with our greatest hospitality, as the master has ordered. Kindly forgive us for any inconvenience caused,"

    "You are being too formal." Hurriedly Old Jalopy came to her, "You don''t have to be this ceremonial¡­" He knew the atmosphere would only be more awkward if he did not make that move.

    The woman turned to one side and rose her left hand, "Please, follow our lead, the master is waiting." The woman seemed to be in herte thirties, appearance-wise she was slightly above the average. Her figures were great, so were her manners.

    And Ye Chong quickly noticed the fact that the Celestine of the staircases was also a production of armory slicing like those he saw in the small vige before, except the staircases were more refined. Ye Chong believed the Celestine was cut promptly without any holdback from the cutter. One blow and the cutting was done, and not everyone could do this.

    The stairs were not too tall, with a height of about 10 meters. They were then weed by a square tform on top, which its surface area was around 2500 square meters. 5 wooden racks were ced at both sides, where all sorts of weapons were put on them. The weapons were unordinary, even strange to Ye Chong.

    The bodyguards of the young boy felt otherwise however, as they could not stand the primitiveness of the armory and began missing the weaponry ahead of time, like an energy gun for example. That was justifiable as they were not hardcore brawlers in the first ce. Without those guns there were just as good as the fishmongers at the market. The little boy was very much intrigued nheless as he skipped his way with the scarred man at the side.

    At the end of the tform there was another flight of staircases where it led to the guest room. And they finally saw the owner of this fortress-like ce. To their very surprise, the one who owned this stronghold where over 800,000 trained guardsmen resided, was none other than this 20-year-old girl in the room.

    "I wee you all to the vige. Please, do take a seat and taste our brilliant tea. My apology for the absence at the entrance, as my body was weak." A faint angelic sweetness could be heard in her soft voice. It sounded like a breeze on a fine morning, that it caught everyone''s attention right away.

    Her face was pale yet looking gorgeous. Her eyes were dreamy yet captivating. Her robe was green, as curing as her soul. Her hair danced over her shoulders as lethargically she turned her head. Her hands were fair as they rested upon the chair.

    "No, it''s our honor to have visited such a marvelous ce," said Old Jalopy.

    And they got themselves seated. The square wooden table was low with straw mattress at the side. There were a few dishes unrecognizable by Ye Chong. At one corner a basin of water and towel was ced, clearly that was for the guests to wash their hands. As "untechnological" as one was informed, there was no hand-washer, no processor, only table and chairs along with bunches of underlings, which appeared to be rather interesting to Ye Chong.

    The dining ce consisted of rows, with one row of table each. There seemed to be an unwritten rule, a custom where guests would be seated in ordance to their social standing. So one could determine the cement of a specific person in the group simly by the seat. The higher the seat, the more the guest was valued. Ye Chongcked the concept of this apparently, as he directly picked the tallest seat with Rui Bing next to him. Old Jalopy knew his position so he picked the lower ce with Fei Si.

    The little boy thought for a moment, took one straw mattress and sat between Ye Chong and Rui Bing. The naivety of his act brought up a smile on the sweet face of the host.

    "Hey, big guy." Whispered the boy, "Thisssie sure is hot." Rui Bing was sipping her tea by the side. She closed her eyes and the boy was rewarded with a smack on his head.

    "Oiee¡­" The little boy rubbed his head, "I made a big mistake. I forgot your wife is here. Don''t worry, Big Sister Bing." He turned to Rui Bing, "Compared to you, that woman is ipetent. Only you could handle a beast like Mister Big guy. That woman will never take him, never!"

    Ye Chong remained expressionless, seemed to be unconcerned of thements the boy had just made.

    The mistress of the vige lifted her chin with her hand, as her curious eyes reached the strange guests. The leading one on top was an ugly man? She waved her hands, calling the middle-aged woman.

    "Does he have any talent that we could not see?" she whispered to the woman.

    The middle-aged woman took a nce at Ye Chong, "He should not be an expertise in thebats." She looked at Rui Bing, "The white-garbed girl however, seemed to be one."

    "I see." Pondered the mistress as she gestured the woman back to her seat.

    "Shall we begin?" And the mistressmenced the course.

    Ye Chong began digging in. He had never tasted these food before, although he had seen a few of them on Lunatic Guan''s encyclopedia entries. He could confirm that these food was made out of natural ingredients. His pleased tongue said so. The pale greenish gtin-like piece for example, which had these tiny feathers adorned, tasted like heaven with the little scent alluring Ye Chong. He enjoyed it so much that he took a few pieces in a row.

    He was indulged in the food. He had always favored the delicacies even back when he was on Trash-12. He would try his best to improve his dining experience from day to day and the period of helping Grandpa Qian working on the noodles had given him a better insight on food. So with his slightly professional sense of edibles, these dishes were a gourmet''s experience.

    One might say Ye Chong was a bum, but the rest of the group was enjoying the food as well, that they had to chomp every piece on the table. The little boy was munching busily, had a piece in his hand, with bits of the food all over his face. He seemed to be desperately in growing an additional hand to fit his appetite.

    Most of the other Wangs at the other side were giving off a disdainful look. "Man those looks, they looked like a pig when they eat¡­"

    "Ever heard of table manners? Are they from the countryside?"

    Old Jalopy was feeling extremely embarrassed by their dining style. He would love to vanish into thin air right away. The mannerism of the ancient was well-preserved in the natural space zone, unlike He Yue gxy.

    "It''s a rare asion of having an expert fighter as our guest. What a great opportunity as if bestowed by the god. Why don''t we have a brief martial arts session as part of the entertainment today?" said the mistress, with a smile.

    The "how-about" sent chills to Old Jalopy''s spine, for he realized that he forgot to remind them of how it was a thing for people in the natural space zone to pick a fight on each other on asions like this. When one that was considered as an martial arts expert entered a major vige, there would be youngsters came to challenge, as a way to obtain actualbat experience and expand their views. It wasmon to die in a random fight like this, that no one of the space zone would show sympathy.

    Strength was everything there. The residents'' dream was to challenge the limits and ovee them!

    Natural space zone was the heaven for both martial arts practitioners and mentalists.

    With solemnity, the two apprentices of the Wang family stood at one side of the tform made out of solid rock. They gave a very formal bow towards their guests.

    Wham!

    The shadows intertwined, the afterimages interexchange, the swords interacted, their breaths interconnected, as the clinking of the des rang clear as the morning dewdrop upon the water. Everyone seemed to be fascinated by the sword-dancing, except for Ye Chong. Well, most of his mates originated from a gxy where martial arts were merely a practice to gain a better physical health in preparation for the pilot career in future. So a majority of the martial arts practitioners who retained the passion of a handbat had hardly mastered the use of weaponry, the best thing they wielded would be their fists and legs. And that was why Ye Chong''snce-swinging performance had stirred up such a craze among the audience back then.

    The bodyguards of the little boy were pretty much astonished, "How is this even a performance? This is literally a you-die-or-I-die situation!" Even Rui Bing seemed agreeable on this exmation, as her face tightened, not fearing of how dead serious the Wangs were in their training but the fact that she imagined the potency of a fully trained practitioner who had undergone a dead-or-alivebat practice on a daily basis.

    Meanwhile, Ye Chong utterly felt nothing, as he passed a nce and carried on crunching his food. Dead-or-alivebat on a daily basis? That was the bread and butter for Ye Chong ever since he was born. Back in those days when he had to pilot little worn Winnie to hunt down those horrible mutated lifeforms, everyday he imagined himself joining the trashes at one spot on the. The two apprentices were not bad but nothing worth-noting in particr, especially when there was so much good food on the table for him.

    Ye Chong was right of his intuitivement. The two apprentices were in fact not bad in terms of their attributes, and because of how simr they were attribute-wise, the fight was more entertaining than ever that it caught everyone''s attention, well, again, except for that ugly young man and naughty little boy who were too engaged with their meals.

    Is he truly talented or he just doesn''t care? The mistress could note up with a conclusion on the personality of Ye Chong.

    "Hey Big Guy. This snack isn''t too shabby," muffled the boy with sweets filled his mouth.

    "Mhm." And Ye Chong munched on.

    Be it a dead-or-alivebat, be they potentially few of the best fighters in the family, they were still humans and it was consuming to carry on a fight so vigorously. They were sweating as the intensity faded in their eyes. The swords crossed and were withdrawn.

    They looked at their guests, made another bow, "Kindlyment."

    Old Jalopy''s eyes erged. Oh no, I forgot to tell them it is also a tradition for the special guest - the practitioners in this case - to give a few words on the performance as a kind of return in the favor of the host''s hospitality.

    And nobody seemed to care!

    Ye Chong retained his ignorance and continued dining with the boy.

 Chapter 350 - Wang Family Village III

    <h4>Chapter 350: Wang Family Vige III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Come on! Somebody, say something!

    Old Jalopy was getting panicked, as his ring eyes swarmed upon the others above him. And right when his heart was bursting out of nervousness, Rui Bing lifted her lips, "Mhm, right. To be honest I am not quite a master in swordsmanship, so I can''t really provide guidance. But if I were to givements on the action¡­ it would be great if both of you could demonstrate better dexterity in every step. I believe that you could enhance your performance to a whole new level." Rui Bing was the definition of tradition herself. Certainly she was fully aware of the unwritten procedure of a typical martial arts session during meal. The tradition appeared probably during the prime time of martial arts back in the older days of 5 major gxies.

    Both apprentices gave a bright smile as they bowed, "Thank you for thements, master!" Well, whoever that could provide a word or two would be regarded as the Master, it was part of the courtesy. And Rui Bing returned a brief smile, she recognized how precious her words could be to the people when she was presumed as the Master, that even a randomment could sound highly constructive.

    The two apprentices gave onest bow and retreated.

    "Wang Zishi begs for the enlightening as well!" One young man at the opposite of the table rose from his seat and quickly bowed at Rui Bing.

    So it *is* the tradition of wrestling in actual fact! This ce actually preserved such an old tradition? Muttered Rui Bing, she was already expecting a handbat ever since the hostmenced a session as an "entertainment".

    Wrestling - a fight, that seemed like a harsh struggle of flesh and blood, being an attempt to send the opponent to the ground - was typically a showdown challenge to the guests. No worries, there was a limit enforced in the hall. Every guest could fight with only one challenger. The whole meaning of this tradition was once meant for the youngsters so they could have the opportunity to learn something from the experts of the outside world. But things have changed as time passed by. The former meaning had been long-forgotten. It became a channel for unting. When the guest feels ipetent to fellow challengers at the other side of the table, he or she could stand up and bow at the host, forfeiting the match as surrendered. And that had became the incentives of host of everyrge n, to seize every single opportunity to send off challengers, since it was a direct demonstration, depiction to the greatness of their n.

    Rui Bing stood up and bowed at the opponent, signifying eptance. Her expression was as usual, unmoved and fearless. She had experienced fights like this before, although that was when she was the host¡­

    The mistress beamed at Rui Bing, having high anticipation on her performance. It would be a perfect chance to take her into the family. Wang Zishi was the finest man in her family. She would be defeated, she would surely seek guidance, and that would be when she would be taken under the Wangs'' apprenticeship.

    Both of them, simrly, stood at each side of the tform. The man was dressed in green ancient robe, with a long sword in his hand, forming a contrast to Rui Bing''s fair white garb, wavering like a snow angel.

    What a perfect match! Eximed the mistress. Rui Bing''s beauty and Wang Zishi''s handsomeness were as if supposedly together since they had existed. The mistress took a nce at that filthy man too busy eating like a pig at the table, strongly believing that if Rui Bing had met Wang Zishi instead of that ugly man in the first ce, she would - at a probability of 100% - choose Wang Zishi, despite the currently deep rtionship between the ugly man and Rui Bing. The mistress knew it, as a woman herself.

    Wang Zishi was the definition of perfection. Hisbats were brilliant, while his features were bewitching, his personality was typically consisted of a heart of gold. Tons of women had flocked upon him but he spent these years wholeheartedly into the arts ofbats. Not to mention his talent was as great as his person, he had improved dramatically over the years and rose upon the other seniors.

    Rui Bing and Wang Zishi exchanged bows.

    Rui Bing, as she had admitted before, did not have soul-connectingpatibility with weaponry. Even though fighting an armed person unarmed would be likely a losing fight, Rui Bing remained unarmed as she stood still by the rack of weapons. She might be unarmed, but she was still an experienced fighter unarmed.

    "Mydy, wouldn''t you need a weapon?" Wang Zishi had yetunched his attack as he asked in bewilderment. The use of weaponry was the bandwagon in the natural space zone, since it would always be a plus to the fighter in abat, even for a hand-on martial practitioner who would put on a pair of knuckles.

    "Nope. I''m fine. Thank you," Rui Bing rejected politely.

    "Well then,dies first." Wang Zishi was such a gentleman, although Rui Bing did not buy that.

    "Okay." Right after that syble, an attack had zapped across the tform.

    Rui Bing was at extreme speed, as if she had just disintegrated into the space. People jumped from their seats, except Ye Chong. The host expected the capabilities of Rui Bing, but not at this level! Their eyes were flushed with disbelief.

    Ye Chong was the master of both strength and speed, Rui Bing was a person who spent intimate days with him, and she had undergone training that she could be at almost the same speed as Ye Chong. So one could imagine how horrifying her speed was.

    Wang Zishi flinched as intuitively he held the sword across his chest and kept brandishing towards the front.

    Klink!

    Wang Zishi felt a powerful force mmed upon his hand, he was so overwhelmed that he took 7 steps back.

    Holy Gxy¡­

    Everyone except Ye Chong seemed terrified. Lady Wang, the host could hold her emotion no longer as she stood up clumsily.

    Rui Bing had just condensed forces of her fist into one single orb which was gently pressed upon the handle of Wang Zishi''s sword pulled gracelessly. The overwhelming strength had just sent Wang Zishi to a losing position. It was so powerful that the alloy sword actually got slightly deformed¡­

    If the fistnded on Wang Zishi himself¡­ he might have been¡­

    The people dared not imagine the scenario, even the bodyguards of the little boy were shivering.

    Speed was everything, speed would determine whoever made the move first and it would be a torment if one were to be put under a losing position because of a martial arts practitioner''s speed.

    Wang Zishi did not even manage to reposition his sword as Rui Bing made a twist, one more punch! Wang Zishi gave a dodge by tilting his body to one side.

    Rui Bing was like her man, the kind who would spare the opponent no time, though unlike Ye Chong who strived for a dead-or-alive, she kept it professional as an exchange of skills.

    It was pretty hard to imagine a fairdy to have such hardcore battle style while wielding such offensive move.

    Rui Bing''s face was calm as the water. And that was the scary as it simply meant she was not even at her maximum yet! Wang Zishi was astounded, Rui Bing looked quite about his age, yet her skills¡­ How?

    Wang Zishi was the pride of the Wang family, the elite of the younger generation, the hope of Wangs'' future and now there he was, standing there, could not even wave his sword against a meredy. How shameful would that be if the people outside heard it?!

    Wang Zishi was not as bad as he imagined himself. His skills, though seemingly ipetentpared to Rui Bing, were much greater than those two child abductors that day. The sole mistake he made however, was to let Rui Bing to go first, WITHOUT positioning his sword right first! If he had pulled his sword and held it in a battle-ready stance, the situation would have been much, much better, yet in reality he did not.

    Ye Chong gave onest nce. Confirmed that the oue had been determined, he carried on eating.

    In spite of his ignorance, Wang Zishi''s performance remained uncalled for to Ye Chong. Wang Zishi, knowing he might not have a chance to get his sword sword as if, calmed himself and focused on doing the iing attacks while looking for that opportunity for a counterattack. His situation improved. He was the master of swordsmanship but step-shifting was still the fundamental to be mastered equally.

    The Wang family shared a rather unique kind of step, that Rui Bing even made a mistake predicting the movement once, when she thought she had surpassed the Jie expert and gained impable sense of timing and movement, especially when enhanced by the techniques of Rui family, yet in fact she missed it.

    It might be a mistake from her, but the Wangs were not looking great. The spectating Wangs knew it by heart that the step-shifting technique of Wang family had been utterly clutched by Rui Bing! Of course they never expected Rui Bing to have surpassed the Jie expert in reality. Thebats between Jie experts were a total different concept to those street fights they had.

    Wang Zishi did not gain from that mistake Rui Bing made, as her inhuman speed had already covered the only hole, via the technique quick-shifting to readjust her position, not sparing a chance for Wang Zishi to return a move.

    The steps of Wang Zishi had gotten messier. The intensity was never experienced before, so was the helplessness twitching his sanity. The opponent felt like the Great Wall, unshakeable, immutable.

    Ye Chong could not help but to take another nce. He shook his head, recognizing the talent of Wang Zishi with that pair of arms bulkier than most men thanks to his sword training while being able to stand with Rui Bing for this long, "Still¡­" He whispered and scooped one new bowl of dish.

    He was reminded of the Sangs who also wielded such sturdy flesh under the harsh condition of Archipgo while their skills were honed throughout days and nights against the beasts for survival. Their moves were much crude and straightforward, more efficient and more potent. So Ye Chong had a preference over the Sang''s style.

    Rui Bing''s knuckle stopped few centimeters away from Wang Zishi''s throat.

    "Done." she imed.

    Wang Zishi''s face was grim.

 Chapter 351 - The Treasure Pavilion

    <h4>Chapter 351: The Treasure Pavilion</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ever since that fight, Rui Bing''s poprity reached throughout the entire vige. The vigers gossiped intensely, about news of a godlike girl came and defeated the brightest star of the vige, without even letting him to wield his sword! "She is also very fair! Like the angel they said!"

    "Really?" It all happened within a day.

    Ye Chong, likewise to his fellow teammates, was fully unaware of the attention they had attracted in the vige. They were staying at Wang family mansion for the moment. Old Jalopy would love to be the tour guide but thest time he came here was 30 years ago, literally a window period of 3 decades, in which things could have changed drastically into something unrecognizable by him. And that was true, Old Jalopy was finding the ce as foreign as the others, so they grew cautious.

    That night.

    "Yi Yu, how do you view our fellow strange guests?" The mistress looked at her trustworthy assistant, with fine fingers over her chin in grim. That frail mesmerized look of hers during the meal was nowhere to be seen.

    Yi Yu was the middle-aged woman who served the guests at noon today. She pondered and she spoke, "They are indeed strange. But how¡­ I can''t really describe their strangeness."

    The mistress nodded in approval. Part of her gorgeous face was engulfed by the darkness of the room, as gravely her brows furrowed in the dimness, "Keep an eye on them for the moment. It''ll be a chore to settle that girl. Probably even Uncle Yun would have to spend a few turns with her in a fight. But we aren''t letting an elite go like this."

    "Understood, mistress," nodded Yi Yu.

    The second early morning, Ye Chong was informed by the mistress, iming that she was upied by administrative works at the moment and they had been given permission to tour the vige as they wished.

    That would be great. The entire group was very much intrigued by the happening vige, including both Ye Chong and Rui bing - the pair usually indifferent to the world - who were highly interested on the ancient establishment. Ye Chong however, also sensed a danger in this vige. That was reasonable as he was in an utterly foreign environment filled with people bearing a total different mindset than any other gxy he had visited before.

    Nheless it felt bitter in his heart when he thought of how he was getting farther and farther away from Mu Shang the more he tried to reach them. He thought by now he was exactly a few gxies away from them, but in reality Mu Shang had already arrived by He Yue gxy.

    The vige was huge, only when you were traveling by foot. The vige would be a small garden to stroll once you boarded a mech. Ye Chong was calcting how many mechs it would take to raid the entire vige. The strength demonstrated by the troops of Wang was already triggering red light in his mind. Wang Zishi was technically a pretty decent fighter, he lost merely because theck of experience. And there were a poption of 8 hundred thousands in the vige. Imagine the number of fighters aspetent as Wang Zishi in that.

    Ye Chong would never buy the statement that Wang Zishi was the best fighter in the vige.

    There must be tons of better fighters.

    And if any conflict were to happen, Ye Chong and Rui Bing might be safe but the others would be toasted. That would be an undesired situation since they would have insufficient members to operate the entire spaceship. Cornerstone would be a real stone in the corner instead of a significant foundation to his journey. It would be a major challenge to ensure safety of everybody but it did not seem like he had other main mission to attempt on his list to proceed with his game.

    The space zone was as natural as it was introduced. The vige was primeval as one could imagine, not even the slightest bit of technological interference could be seen here. Every building was made out of ys and woods. It felt like a magical theme park with ridings of peculiar-looking animals.

    There was this riding animal called Umen. Its limbs were strong, befitting to its gigantic size. Its paws were thick but it was docile in nature while being a steady ridesting in journeys. There was also an animal in the pen called Hurryw, its action was dexterous and speedy, perfect for short, quick travel, while its front paws were armed with metallic shoes which provided it some offensive aspects.

    The street was wide, flooded with crowd. Almost everyone in the strange costume of theirs was riding Umen and Hurryw around. There were rows of shops at both sides of the road, with strange items and fascinating scenery.

    "So this is the market," said Wang Meng, "As mentioned this is thergest trading space within proximity of 300 kilometers. Merchants all around the area would run their business here, so choices are fine I guess, even though still ipetent to Vige of Hundred Tribes. Do not worry, you could pick whatever you want. The mistress had just handed me arge amount of money. Keep your wallet and keep shopping." Thest sentence ran dramatically.

    It certainly feels great to shop all you want, especially when someone is going to pay the bill for you.

    Fei Si''s eyes twitched, even Rui Bing''s expression melted a little as she did intend to have few new garbs in her wardrobe. Unlike men like Ye Chong, she could not stand wearing the same garb for months.

    And that was when the men learned the painful experience of going shopping with women, as the underlings of Wang Meng carrying mountains and mountains of things. Wang Meng showed his sympathy through the constant nces, pronouncing that he would never ever go shopping with women again. He could not ept the fact that Rui Bing was not monstrous only in her skills but also when she got her shopping list. Ye Chong remained expressionless however, seemed to be unaware of the weight in his hands. His stamina and patience were something impressive.

    And that was when he suddenly held his steps and headed into one shop.

    It was rather surprising as everybody else except Ye Chong had made their purchase of the day throughout the travel, even that scarred man bought a new dagger for himself. It was as if nothing in the market could capture Ye Chong''s interests, till he stopped by that one shop.

    What is there?

    Wang Meng lifted his head and saw the name, "The Treasure Pavilion".

    Oh he sure has some good taste.

    He gave a bitter smile and followed the folks.

    The Treasure Pavilion was somehow¡­ one-of-a-kind, very much different than the other shops the folks had visited before. The pavilion was not the one with the fanciest furnishings but it just felt different. The items offered in the shop were measly, only few tens of them, pathetically measlypared to other shops, except they were given exceptional care as being kept inside a single wooden cab each.

    There were no other customers than Ye Chong and the folks. The owner of the shop was a middle-aged man who stood expressionlessly at the counter. The norm of friendly business courtesy seemed to be non-existent on that unsmiling face of his.

    Ye Chong gave a nce around and he found what he wanted.

    "How much is this?" Pointed Ye Chong at one brownish nut which had the appearance of an ostrich egg, with wavy stripes over it while exuding a particr kind of aroma.

    Nobody knew what kind of nut it was.

    "Not for sale." The owner looked at Ye Chong and tly he stated, "We only do exchanges. Get something of a simr value and we''ll talk."

    Only exchanges? That''s new¡­

    That was new indeed. Wang Meng had once heard of this fairly odd shop with odd rules and an odd-tempered owner yet having an array of oddly good stuffs. The owner''s odd temper and regtions had offended quite a number of customers when the shop first opened. Moreover the number of goodies inside the shop was envy-inducing that a handful of people coveted but all of them somehow vanished by the time things were supposed to happen.

    The owner might be odd-tempered, but he seemed to be highly respected by the mistress so not many vigers would want to cause havoc in his shop.

    "Exchange?" Ye Chong frowned with his head tilted.

    "Yeah, yeah, only exchanges, we don''t want your money," the owner emphasized.

    "Well, guess I can''t help you with that," shrugged Wang Meng.

    "What do you want in exchange for that?" asked Ye Chong.

    The owner got up and gave a close look at Ye Chong whose expression seemed convincingly determined, "Regardless of what the thing is, the deal is on as long as it''s something I''ve never seen before."

    Something he had never seen before?

    Ye Chong pondered, as he took out some red strands from his bag. The red strands about breadth of a thumb were glossing in brilliant scarlet. Those were the loot from Ye Chong''s adventure in the Red Sea back then, the remnants after the living strands disappeared, the very essence of their entity. The strands were highly durable, uncuttable using normal knife, only Ye Chong''s modified dagger so far could leave a mark on it.

    "How about this?" asked Ye Chong.

    The owner jumped from his seat and took the red strands, gave a few looks, astonishment then filled his quivering cheeks. "Very strange."

    And he gave a pull, a violent pull, a more violent pull. Thump~ the red strand was stretched, yet it never broke no matter how violently the owner pulled.

    "This is good stuff! Very resilient being! And it''s so stic! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!" The owner was very fascinated as he kept stretching the strand yfully. Wang Meng was astounded though¡­ as he realized the owner was truly not an ordinary folk, judging by how the strand was pulled, the owner was clearly very powerful of his strength. No wonder the mistress once warned them to not mess with his shop.

    "Deal?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Deal! I''m a fool if I don''t ept this deal!" He rose his brows, the owner quickly replied and happily gave Ye Chong the brown nut with both hands.

    "Okay." Ye Chong took the brown nut and left the shop right away.

    "Hold it right there,," shouted the owner.

    "Yes?" Ye Chong seemed bewildered.

    "What do you call this?" he asked Ye Chong curiously.

    "I dunno. You could give it a name yourself," Ye Chong said and walked out of the Treasure Pavilion right after.

 Chapter 352 - Brown Mistletoe Nut

    <h4>Chapter 352: Brown Mistletoe Nut</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    After leaving the Pavilion of Treasures, Ye Chong went on a full shopping spree, which was very unlike himself. Everyone¡¯s hands were full of things he bought. In just a rtively short time, Ye Chong had bought more than Rui Bing and Fei Sibined. However, Wang Meng could see that he was buying tools for alchemy.

    Was he an alchemist? Wang Meng looked at Ye Chong¡¯s slender physique, and believed that it must be so.

    "Do you have any alchemy apparatus here?" Ye Chong turned to Wang Meng and asked. "As I thought," Wang Meng thought to himself. The guy was really an alchemist. That seemed to exin why he was the leader of this group.

    He considered the examined information for a moment, but replied the man quickly, "Yes, I¡¯ll bring you to them when we get back."

    Alchemists might not be as popr asbat experts or mentalists here, but it was still a respected upation. Almost all medicine were produced by them. A group with an alchemist would have better odds surviving.

    In the free space zone, alchemists were much scarcer thanbat experts and mentalists. Knowledge session in alchemy was also more stringently conductedpared tobat experts and mentalists. An established alchemist would never take more than five students in their life. Only the longstanding aristocratic families of alchemy would have special education programs, which led to arger number of alchemists. This was why all powerful tribes would try to recruit capable alchemists.

    "What are you trying to synthesize?" Fei Si was curious. This was the first time she had spoken after so many days. Unlike Ye Chong, she was a professional alchemist with years of experience. She had wanted to stay in the starship to continue her research on the H virus. After all, the chips that Ye Chong brought from the underground base had enough content to keep her upied for a long while. However, under Old Jalopy¡¯s insistence, she had followed the group to the shore. She took a nce at the item that Ye Chong had bought. While she was not familiar with the Guan Family¡¯s alchemy, the basic principles of alchemy remained the same.

    Fei Si realized then, "Are you going to do thermal contraction?" The principle of thermal contraction was rtively obscure in modern alchemy. If she was not as knowledgeable as she was in all matters of alchemy, she would not have been able toe to this conclusion. The field of alchemy in He Yue gxy was in many ways more simr to that of the Five Gxies.

    Ye Chong nodded, "Yes."

    Their conversation made Wang Meng¡¯s heart leap in surprise. Who were these people? How could they have two alchemists with them? He could not tell how good these two alchemists were, but it was still rare to find two alchemists in the same group, much less from different schools.

    Wang Meng led the group, turning left and right, before finally reaching a straw hut. The hut looked simple, but it had a refreshing scent. Ye Chong was surprised when he recognized it as the smell of whitegrass, as recorded in Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip. The smell of whitegrass had a refreshing effect. Alchemists preferred to have some in theirboratories. However, he scoured through his memories and found that whether it was theboratories in the Five Gxies or the He Yue gxy, he had never seen this whitegrass that Lunatic Guan had described asmonly found.

    Now, he had finally found them here.

    Wang Meng knocked on the wooden door of the hut for a few times.

    The wooden door creaked open, revealing a very ordinary face of a man.

    Wang Mang bowed to the man. "Master Yan, I¡¯m so sorry to disturb you. These friends are guests who just arrived yesterday. This friend here hopes to borrow some alchemy apparatus, so I had brought them here. I hope you won¡¯t mind, Master Yan."

    This Master Yan studied Ye Chong, and Ye Chong did the same to him. The man looked simply ordinary. A face like that would be hard to notice in the crowd. However, Ye Chong was not fooled by the facade. He could see that his face was also treated, just like his own. This face he saw was only a disguise. However, it was a much more cunning onepared to his own crude treatment.

    The other party seemed to realize that Ye Chong¡¯s face was also treated. He smiled and said, "Oh, I didn¡¯t expect to meet someone with simr interests. Pleasee in." It was impossible to tell his age, and his body looked weak, wrapped in in clothing. However, an indescribable aura emanated from him. His words also had double meaning, referring both to their profession as alchemists and Ye Chong¡¯s intention of staying hidden.

    "Thank you!" Ye Chong nodded in reply and stepped inside, leading the group. Ye Chong knew from his days studying under Lunatic Guan of the many taboos and unwritten rules for alchemists. However, before they entered the free space zone, the rtionship between alchemists was nothing like what Lunatic Guan had said, as they were all quite easy to get along with.

    Here, however, Ye Chong noticed that those weird things about alchemists that Lunatic Guan had spoken about were actually quite fitting.

    Was Lunatic Guan actually from this ce? Ye Chong was struck with this thought.

    However, he quickly dismissed it. Now was not the time to think about these things.

    The straw hut wasrger than it seemed from outside, housing all kinds of equipment and apparatus. The brightly colored chemicals in the test tubes had a unique smell, hinting at their strange powers. The field of alchemy seemed shrouded in mystery.

    Fei Si stared with a gaping mouth. This was the first time she had seen such primitive alchemy apparatus. There were no photon processors, no fine control devices, no vacuum seal incubators; there was only the simplest of ssware. The ingredients here were also unlike any she was familiar with. There were no purified chemicals, only nts and minerals.

    "This is impossible!" She thought to herself, speechless. She knew the history of alchemy like the back of her hand. Alchemy was long separated from alchemy, and had be a field in its own right. But this? This was alchemy in its earliest stages, still fused with botany!

    "Feel free to peruse the apparatus here. As for the ingredients," Master Yan nced at the things that they had bought earlier and continued,ughing, "I believe you¡¯ve brought them yourselves."

    The apparatus here were too outdated. Fei Si thought that Ye Chong would definitely reject him, since she cannot imagine doing any real alchemy here.

    It was a surprised to her when Ye Chong said, "Thank you!"

    He must be crazy! Fei Si stared at Ye Chong in astonishment.

    Ye Chong took out the brown nut from his bag. Master Yan was excited to see it. "The brown mistletoe nut, a wonderful thing. Haha, this must be from the Pavilion of Treasures. I¡¯ve had my eyes on it for a long time, but I never had anything the owner¡¯s interested in to exchange for it. He¡¯d rather keep it for himself forever, but I see that you have it now." He sighed a little, envious of Ye Chong.

    Wang Meng interrupted, "Master Yan, what¡¯s this brown mistletoe nut used for?" This question was shared by everyone else in the hut. They all knew that the nut was something good, but not what it was good for.

    "The brown mistletoe nut is an extremely rare kind of ingredient to produce medicine. One asrge as this is even harder to find. It is used to produce top ss medication for wounds," Master Yan exined sinctly.

    Top grade medication for wounds was highly valuable in the free space zone, where fights often urred. Here, one could not find the technologically advanced medical treatments avable in the Five Gxies or He Yue gxy. Having first grade medication would often mean saving one¡¯s life. This was something that everybat expert wished to have with them.

    Master Yan noticed that Ye Chong had not began working yet, and was reminded of his own insensitivity. There was an unspoken rule between alchemists, dictating that no alchemist should observe another alchemist working without explicit permission. After all, every school of alchemists had different specializations, and many secret forme were considered highly valuable.

    Master Yan smiled self-consciously and said, "Let¡¯s all wait outside then, so that we do not disturb him." With Ye Chong¡¯s signal of approval, Rui Bing brought everyone else outside. Fei Si was actually very interested in seeing how Ye Chong could do alchemy with the primitive apparatus avable, but she never did speak up about it as she quietly followed the rest of the group out of the straw hut.

    The brown mistletoe nut was indeed a good ingredient to make medicine for healing wounds, but this was not its only use. Another potential of the nut was to make a strong knockout agent. Once, Ye Chong was on the receiving end of this weapon, as Lunatic Guan had used it to make Ye Chong unconscious in a matter of seconds. The short time for its effects to kick in made it an extremely powerful weapon, and an alchemist¡¯s tool of defense. However, Ye Chong was thinking of something else. If the amount of knockout agent was enough, it could make anyone within arge effective radius unconscious.

    The brown mistletoe nut had a unique scent. Ye Chong had a sharp sense of smell. That was why he could smell it from the streets, and entered the Pavilion of Treasures to obtain the brown mistletoe nut. However, he never expected it to be so hue.

    Ye Chong stared at the brown mistletoe nut, thinking through everything he knew about the ingredients and steps to synthesize this knockout agent.

 Chapter 353 - Storm I

    <h4>Chapter 353: Storm I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong mixed in all kinds of chemicals into the alchemy test tube. The chemicals in the test tube changed colors from brown to purple, from purple to red, red to yellow, then to green, and finally to a very faint blue. When Ye Chong added the final ingredient into the test tube, the liquid inside became clear as water.

    He heated the chemical slowly, evaporating the liquid until a small amount of powder was left in the test tube. Ye Chong carefully collected the powder, chewing a cloverfall leave that he bought specially for the work he did. However, work was not finished yet. Ye Chong went to another alchemy test tube. This one was filled with a ck, sticky fluid that was bubbling.

    When the ck, sticky fluid was no longer bubbling, Ye Chong carefully poured out the ck liquid inside. Once it was out, the ck liquid looked like a rubbery solid.

    Ye Chong was highly focused by now. His slender fingers moved deftly, applying just enough force for everything he did.

    Soon, he produced nine simrly sized ck spheres. These were the strong knockout agents that Lunatic Guan had used. They had a pretty name - Night Enchantment.

    Ye Chong did not use all of the brown mistletoe nut to make Night Enchantment. He used a small amount of it to make medicine for injuries. While Rock had medical facilities, he knew from his experience on the trash of the importance of having first aid medication nearby. After all, it was often that immediate assistance was needed in the face of danger.

    When Ye Chong walked out of the straw hut, it was already getting dark. Everyone was waiting for him outside.

    Everyone was relieved to see him out. Ye Chong had worked from morning till evening, and they had waited for almost a day outside. Wang Meng had arranged for someone to bring them lunch, while Fei Si and Master Yan discussed alchemy. Fei Si did not understand the taboos between alchemists in this area, while Master Yan was interested in Fei Si¡¯s very different principles of alchemy. They had an enjoyable conversation together.

    "Looks like the young man¡¯s seeded! Congrattions!" Master Yan¡¯s voice was always so soothing.

    "Thank you very much!" Ye Chong bowed in gratitude. The man had lent his apparatus for him, a very generous gesture. Ye Chong produced a medicinal pill and offered it to Master Yan, "Please take it." Wang Meng watched with jealousy. After all, this was high quality medicine, a highly coveted item for many.

    Master Yan did not expect Ye Chong to actually gift him with a medicinal pill. He quickly declined, "Now, this is too precious for me to ept!"

    Ye Chong could not help but frowned. He did not retract his hands, still holding them out in front of Master Yan. Master Yan noticed Ye Chong¡¯s expression and smiled gently. He did not insist further and epted the gift. "Then I¡¯ll help myself to it. Haha, thank you for your wonderful gift, young man."

    When they were back, it was time for dinner. The banquet was prepared by Chief Wang herself. Master Yan attended the banquet as well. It was apparent that Master Yan enjoyed a high reputation in the Wang Family. Ye Chong had went without food for almost a whole day and was dreadfully hungry, so he did not speak much, but wolfed down his food without care. Both Chief Wang and Master Yan smiled when they saw how Ye Chong was eating.

    From then on, Ye Chong and his group were treated even better. Chief Wang had found out that Ye Chong¡¯s group had two alchemists. She had even asked Master Yan about it. Master Yan confirmed their abilities, which further assured Chief Wang.

    Thus, Ye Chong and his group settled down at Chief Wang¡¯s ce. They had not decided what to do next, so staying there in the meantime was not a bad idea. Besides, they were very close to Rock from here. If anything happened, they could quickly return to their ship.

    Ye Chong found himself enjoying a rtively easy life here. He visited Master Yan every day. Master Yan had the qualities of a teacher, and was, like Ye Chong, serious and focused about his work. Master Yan was incredibly knowledgeable in alchemy, much more than Ye Chong anticipated. Both of them frequently discussed topics in alchemy. Whenever this happened, Fei Si would listen quietly from the side, since the branch of alchemy they were discussing waspletely different from what she was taught and practiced. However, she was still keen to learn, a necessary quality for professional alchemists.

    Master Yan admired Fei Si¡¯s attitude, and would often teach her new things. Fei Si benefited from their exchange, and she graduallye to understand more about the discussion between those two men. After all, she was also well learned in alchemy, and could pick up different principles easily.

    Master Yan was surprised at Ye Chong¡¯s knowledge. The young man had good memory, and a vast amount of knowledge on his fingertips. The only thing he regretted from a professional alchemist¡¯s perspective was Ye Chong¡¯sck of application skills. He felt that Ye Chong did not seem to use alchemy to solve problems often. This was perplexing to him. Why would an alchemist not use alchemy to solve problems?

    Unlike Ye Chong, Rui Bing continued training hard every day. While simple physical training was no longer enough to make her improve, she did not rx on her training. Her harsh training was enough to make beginners inbat ashamed of themselves. They would never have imagined that a Jie expert like her would still go through the most basic training routines. Outside of her usual training, Rui Bing would practice meditation, since Ye Chong had given her everything he had on mentalists.

    Of all the neers, the young boy blended in best with the locals. He spent his time with the local girls everyday. All the women thought him cute, and the young boy¡¯s affected adorable looks were indeed quite impressive. Even Chief Wang found herself fond of the young boy.

    Wang Zishi walked to Rui Bing¡¯s room. He lost his usual energetic ways, looking haggard and unlike himself. His defeatst time had struck him hard.

    He stood there like a puppet for more than half an hour, his expression unreadable. Gradually, his face hardened into his usual determination.

    "Wang Zishi humbly asked for my Lady to ept me as your disciple!" His resounding voice now sounded hoarse and low, but still clear as day.

    Inside the room, Rui Bing sat with her eyes closed, as though she did not hear a thing.

    Seeing no reaction from her part, Wang Zishi did not give up, but raised his voice slightly, "Wang Zishi humbly asked for my Lady to ept me as your disciple!"

    No one could have imagined the outrage that this request would bring to the Wang Family. Wang Zishi too could not have known the consequences of his words.

    The room was still silent.

    Wang Zishi went down heavily to his knees, and put his head to the door. His expression was hard and resolute as he spoke again with his hoarse voice, "My Lady, please ept me as your disciple!"

    Everyone panicked. The nearest Wang Family viger quickly reported this to the Chief.

    Wang Zishi had always been the pride of the entire Wang Family Vige. He was the idol of many young people. To think that a man like him would ask to be a disciple of an outsider! Tutge inbat may not be as strict as for alchemists, but for a family with its ownbat history, learning under a different school was extreme taboo.

    The news spread like wildfire to other members of the Wang Family Vige.

    All the vigers stopped what they were doing and ran towards Wang Zishi. They came in numbers, as if the ce was a huge ma, drawing the crowd in.

    The people around there were silent, however. They all felt a heavy pressure on their hearts. All of them knew that something big was about to happen. They all knew that Wang Zishi was having doubts about the Wang Family¡¯sbat style. Every member of the Wang Family could feel the sharp pain of betrayal. However, they did not say a word, for this was their pride, their model, the bestbat expert of the younger generation in Wang Family Vige - Wang Zishi. A strong sense of humiliation permeated through them. The air was filled with tension, thick enough to cut through.

    Wang Zishi was not afraid, kneeling as he was. He had thought through his decision, having had a deep struggle with himself. He knew that he would be cast aside by the Wang Family. Still he decided to do this. For him, the pursuit of mastery inbat was an ideal that he would do anything for.

    Ye Chong did not know that a scandal was about to begin. At the moment, he was still discussing alchemy with Master Yan.

    "You b*stard!" A middle-aged couple rushed towards Wang Zishi. The man saw Wang Zishi kneeling there, and his heart ached! This was once his most beloved student, the one he had high hopes for, but now he was kneeling before someone else¡¯s door to ask for tuition. His heart was wrecked, and his expression turned furious.

    The surrounding crowd gave way to the couple. The middle-aged man was Wang Zishi¡¯s teacher, Wang Lu. Wang Lu was not famous in public, but he had a good reputation in the vige. He was strong, but rarely showed it. His wife was also an expert of the vige.

    Wang Lu had a square face, with a seriousness that came naturally. His expression was even scarier now. His wife stood beside him, looking at Wang Zishi kneeling on the floor, her tears flowing down her cheeks. She knew how much effort his husband had spent on this student. They had no children, and Wang Zishi was just like their child.

    "Tell me, why are you doing this?" Wang Lu did not sound angry, his voice was unusually calm. However, Mrs Wang knew that he was actually extremely furious inside.

 Chapter 354 - Storm II

    <h4>Chapter 354: Storm II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Bang bang bang! Wang Zishi knocked his forehead hard on the floor for nine times. Every knock was like a hammer on Wang Lu¡¯s heart, and Wang Lu¡¯s face twitched with every knock.

    "Your disciple is disloyal. Your disciple has thought long and hard after the defeat that day. After 10 days of consideration, your disciple realized that, while not an expert myself, the Wang Family¡¯sbat style has many innate ws. Your disciple hase to this decision after much consideration," Wang Zishi spoke every word clearly, but the pain in his eyes were apparent, betraying how much he had suffered toe to his decision, and the determination that he had within him.

    Wang Lu¡¯s heart ached at the sight of his beloved disciple¡¯s haggard look, but was immediately angered when he heard him said that the Wang Family¡¯sbat style was wed.

    Everyone around them was silent. All the vigers looked to Wang Zishi with anger, but none of them said a word.

    "Well, well, well," Wang Lu spoke staring straight at Wang Zishi. His voice was so low and strained to the limit, so near the breaking point. "Who¡¯d have thought that the Wang Familybat style would be looked down upon by one of our own."

    With that, his eyes left Wang Zishi and went for Rui Bing, still sitting straight in her room.

    He breathed in deeply and raised his voice, "Wang Family¡¯s Wang Lu would like a match with my Lady, please do me the honor!"

    Rui Bing opened her eyes, but she sighed inside.

    From the moment Wang Zishi kneeled, she knew that this fight was inevitable. Nobat school could ept his behavior, much less letting it happen in their own backyard. Ye Chong might not understand these subtleties, but as someone who was well versed with all the rules in the world ofbat since she was young, Rui Bing knew the consequences of Wang Zishi¡¯s actions.

    She had no way of backing out. They would not let her. Even if she admitted openly that the Wang Family¡¯s style was better, it was toote now.

    Every school had their own reputation and pride that should never be stepped on.

    Knowing that words would do no good now, Rui Bing stood up and came out. She said inly, "Please go easy on me, Mr Wang."

    At that moment, Ye Chong was still discussing alchemy with Master Yan. While they frequently discussed things, they never tried to pry into each other¡¯s lives. Since they had both disguised themselves, it was clear that neither wished to share their own histories.

    At first, Master Yan did not mind the problem of Ye Chong¡¯s background. Unless it was some very obscure school, he could usually quickly tell which school an alchemist belonged to. However, to his surprise, he could not say the same for Ye Chong. As they discussed more and more subjects, he found himself unable toe to a conclusion.

    "The cottonia grass, for example, is a good neutral reagent, but its dosage is a bit troublesome, requiring a supnting technique. You can use the trister rock in powder form instead, using an alternating hot and cold treatment process, but the result is more inferior. There are 31 kinds of neutral reagents that are so sensitive to temperature, and I¡¯ve never seen many of them," Ye Chong said this with regret.

    Master Yan was surprised, shocked even. Use of the cottonia grass was a secret amongst the Qian system, and he himself had known about it due to some connections with members of the Qian system. This man here was aware of even the supnting technique! Could he be a member of Qian system?

    What Ye Chong said after that surprised him even more.

    Using trister rock powder in ce of cottonia grass was an idea that came from one of the ancestors of Master Yan¡¯s own school of alchemy.

    Who was this man? Master Yan¡¯s face was unreadable. His facial disguise was the only reason he did showed a wild range of expressions right then. That he was able to sit calmly as someone else spoke of a secret technique of his own school, which also spoke volumes of his mental fortitude. Moreover, he was chilled by the thought of there being 31 kinds of reagents - he himself could only think of 17 kinds, where the other 14 kinds were unknown to him.

    Ye Chong was quickly bing an enigma to Master Yan.

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Wang Lu was a respectable person in the Wang Family Vige, not because of his expertise inbat, but his honorable and down to earth nature. Many of the people present had never seen Wang Lu fight before. It was only now that the Wang Family vigers realize that this inconspicuous and honest elder was actually a master ofbat.

    The Wang Family¡¯sbat style specialized in sword techniques, and Wang Lu was able to demonstrate the full power of this technique. Wang Lu struck again and again with his sword in a seemingly leisurely pace, but the long sword was like a cocoon, trapping Rui Bing¡¯s movements.

    Rui Bing wore a calm expression, stepping lightly and quickly as she returned an asional blow, always enough to interfere with Wang Lu¡¯s attack. She seemed to be in a tight spot, but the reality was the exact opposite. There were not many people in this world who could fight on the same level as Ye Chong in closebat. Rui Bing and Ye Chong sparred frequently, never going easy on each other. Hence, Rui Bing did not panic while facing her current opponent.

    She observed coldly, and slowly began to understand the Wang Family¡¯s sword technique.

    Ye Chong and Master Yan were still deep in discussion. Master Yan¡¯s knowledge in alchemy was a lot deeper than Ye Chong¡¯s, and he was much more experienced as well. Ye Chong often learned something new when Master Yan recounted some of his past experiences. As for Fei Si, she could only listen to them, barely keeping up.

    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Wang Family¡¯s sword techniques were slowly revealed to Rui Bing. Wang Lu¡¯s expression turned grim, and the people around began to look worried. Everyone could tell that the longer the fight dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for Wang Lu.

    A woman in white danced easily between the raining sword attacks.

    Wang Lu understood where this was going. He was about to speed up his attack when Rui Bing made her move. Rui Bing darted forward, grazing past Wang Lu¡¯s longsword by mere millimeters and went for his body.

    Wang Lu was caught off guard. He flicked his wrist, and the sword hilt was driven towards Rui Bing. Rui Bing blocked it off with one hand, her eyes shining brightly, and swept her leg up silently into a kick.

    Rui Bing¡¯s sudden approach surprised Wang Lu, but he kept his calm. He let go of the sword in his right hand and tried to fight Rui Bing with his bare hands. He lifted his left leg up, blocking the kick from Rui Bing. Wham! A wave of energy came from the attack, driving Wang Lu backwards as he stumbled a few steps behind. Wang Lu was surprised by her strength. No one could imagine so much raw energy in a woman like her!

    Rui Bing¡¯s eyes shed, her bent left leg straightened as she swept towards Wang Lu like a white swan, staying close to the ground. That suffocating beauty harboured a cold killing intent. Rui Bing¡¯s long hair trailed behind her, her eyes ring sharp as a knife. She drew her right elbow back, her palm fisted, ready to deliver the killer blow.

    This was the moment of truth!

    Wang Lu looked deadly pale, watching Rui Binging closer and closer to him. He knew that he had lost.

    Perhaps she would kill him! Everything around him slowed down, his senses turning sharp than ever close to his death. Being the challenger himself, there was no reason for her to leave him alive. Besides, he had attacked with his sword earlier with the intent to kill, and she would definitely have noticed it!

    Wang Lu was right. Rui Bing did feel his killing intent. In challenges simr to this, Rui Bing would not usually fight to kill. However, Wang Lu¡¯s strong killing intent had finally angered her. She could clearly sense his wish to kill her. As a truebat expert, she too had her own pride! Besides, she was no longer the naive young woman she once was.

    She decided to teach Wang Lu a lesson.

    Just then, a strong sense of danger striked her.

    Rui Bing quickly angled her body as a sh of light drew across her sleeve. Rip! A long gash was left on the sleeve of her snow white training garb.

    Mrs Wang held her sword, standing before Wang Lu. It was she who ambushed her. She was feeling very conflicted inside, since ambushing like this was a huge taboo. However, she also noticed Rui Bing¡¯s intent to kill. She could not just stand by and watch her husband killed.

    The Wang Family vigers who were watching all showed embarrassed expressions, but one of them said a word. Even Wang Zishi looked conflicted. He knew that his master, Wang Lu and his wife had gone against the rules of the world ofbat, but he also found himself unable to speak out. After all, he could not just stand by and watch his master die too. After all these years of benefiting from their generosity, they were like parents to him.

    A few spectatorsughed, barely suppressing themselves. This was like a p to the face of every Wang Family member. The people were reminded then that it was not only the Wang Family vigers that were watching, but many other outsiders. However, these outsiders were also smart enough toe out and offer a few words of wisdom. That would have been equivalent to suicide.

    The Wang husband and wife stood side by side with their swords in their hands, their expressions unreadable.

    Rui Bing¡¯s face was expressionless. Her sharp re made Wang Lu and his wife felt guilty. Rui Bing knew that was nothing she could say now to change the situation. With her left hand, she tore away the broken sleeve on her right hand, revealing the white smooth skin beneath.

    Now this was just in offensive. She never imagined that anyone would forcefully break an unbreakable rule of the world ofbat. As a conservative, she was deeply offended.

    She decided to fight with all she got.

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Ye Chong stood up and bid farewell to Master Yan. He had learned much from their discussion today, just like the days before this. Master Yan, however, was feeling a little dazed. Ye Chong found it curious, but knew better than toment on it. He never would have guessed that he was the source of Master Yan¡¯s predicament.

    Ye Chong headed off, along with Fei Si.

 Chapter 355 - Storm III

    <h4>Chapter 355: Storm III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    As they walked along the street, they found itpletely empty. Many of the shops were not even closed properly, the goods still on disy outside.

    Ye Chong was surprised. Such an unusual circumstance made him wary immediately. He quickly dragged Fei Si along as he ran forward. Fei Si gasped in surprise, and was greeted by a strong headwind before she could react.

    As expected, something had happened! Ye Chong looked at the huge crowd in front, his heart missing a beat. Without a saying word, he half carried Fei Si through the crowd.

    Everyone was focused on the fight between Rui Bing and the Wang Lu couple, and no one noticed Ye Chong¡¯s movements. Besides, Ye Chong moved deftly with Fei Si, sliding easily between the people.

    Ye Chong and Fei Si reached the inner part of the crowd without drawing any attention.

    Victor Tower was the tallest building in the Wang Vige. Here, one could see the entire Wang Family Vige. It was also home to the Chief. By the window on the topmost level of the tower, stood a very old man and an attractive young woman.

    "What do you think?" The young woman asked with a tired voice. This was the current Chief of the Wang Family Vige.

    "That woman in white is a Jie expert," an ancient voice replied, sounding like an autumn¡¯s breeze. Deep wrinkles covered the old man¡¯s face, though it did not move much when he spoke.

    Chief Wang was surprised. "A Jie expert? Impossible! She¡¯s so young!" The chief was caught off guard. While she knew that the old man was never wrong, she still found it hard to believe. Rui Bing was too young, and she had never heard of a Jie expert of her age. Besides, she was deeply unwilling to make enemies with a Jie expert, but it seemed that she was left with no choice.

    The old man flicked a quick nce at the young woman and shook his head. "Age? Age has got nothing to do with being a Jie expert."

    "Then aren¡¯t Wang Lu and his wife in danger?" Chief Wang was worried for the couple. She did not want to vige to lose two capablebat experts in one go. After all,bat experts on their level were difficult to find, much less a pair of them who could work well together.

    After a long pause, the old man said, "The woman is the one in danger. She has no weapons, and it¡¯s a terrible disadvantage." He was reluctant to admit the unfair advantage offered by the swords.

    The old man was right. Rui Bing was now in a dangerous situation. She never anticipated that Wang Lu and wife could be so powerful once they worked together. Besides, she had no weapon of her own to defend herself. Wang Lu and his wife had recognized this opportunity, and chose not to attack Rui Bing directly, but sought to trap her into an indefensible position.

    The swords red menacingly. Rui Bing barely avoided their attacks more than a few times. Her movements became more restricted, and Rui Bing could do nothing about it. She was not at the point where she could block sword attacks with her bare hands yet. Besides, the couple had executed their sword techniques perfectly, leaving no openings.

    As sweat began to form on her forehead, Rui Bing¡¯s face remainposed.

    The weapons in the building were less than five meters away from Rui Bing, but both Wang Lu and his wife had positioned themselves between them. If she could get her hands on any of the weapons, Rui Bing believed that she could create an opening herself. She only needed a chance, however small it was. s, the weapons were so near, yet so far away.

    Her movements were restricted more and more.

    Ye Chong was also aware of the dangerous situation Rui Bing was in now. However, he also knew that Rui Bing still stood a chance. The Rui Family¡¯s unique attacking skills were simr to that of the mentalists¡¯. However, by his assessment, the best case scenario was both sides sustaining heavy injuries.

    He did a quick examination of the situation. Wang Lu and his wife were steadily pushing forward, but this steady advance gave Ye Chong time. He led Fei Si quietly around the spectating crowd and into their dwellings. Everyone was focused on the ongoing battle that no one noticed Ye Chong and Fei Si slipping past them.

    However, even if they noticed, they would probably pay it no mind. After all, it was a well known assumption that the only person in this strange group who could fight was Rui Bing.

    Inside the building was Old Jalopy and the young boy. They were watching the battle outside anxiously. The oue of the battle would determine their futures as well. Only Scarface seemed unperturbed.

    When they saw Ye Chong returned, everyone was overjoyed. Ye Chong quickly hushed them, and they quieted down. Ye Chong took out three Night Enchantment pills, and handed them over to Scarface. He exined with a whisper, "This is a strong knockout agent. Throw it outside with force, they will explode upon impact. The effective radius is about 15 to 25 meters, takes half a second to activate." Ye Chong exined the Night Enchantment¡¯s usage briefly.

    Scarface epted the three Night Enchanment pills without a word. Ye Chong took out a bunch of small, beige colored leaves, and gave one to each of them. "This is the bufferleaf, keep one in your mouth to stay awake."

    Everyone quickly put one of the beige coloured leaves into their mouths.

    "Get ready to move. Rui Bing will bring you to the starship," Ye Chong gave his orders sinctly.

    In that short moment, Ye Chong had done his calctions. If it was just him and Rui Bing, they could escape unscathed without issue, with a sess rate of 95 percent. The problem was bringing the rest of the group with them. If they did not escape with Ye Chong and Rui Bing, then the final result would be him and Rui Bing being unable to leave the free space zone, since they would not have enough people to man the starship.

    Ye Chong decided to stay back to cover them. This was, in fact, the only workable solution, if he still wanted to leave the free space zone.

    Everyone understood Ye Chong¡¯s intention immediately, and were moved by his offer. They respected his sacrifice. Regardless of the situation, the decision to stay back alone and cover them was not an easy one to make.

    After exining the n, the battle outside was also reaching a decisive point.

    Rui Bing was forced into a tight space. If she did not fight back soon, there would be no hope left. Rui Bing¡¯s eyes glowed brightly as she prepared to make her move!

    Just then, a figure crept up behind Wang Lu.

    Up on Victory Tower, the old man¡¯s eyes widened.

    Wham! Wang Lu was thrown aside like a sandbag. The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard.

    Ye Chong always attacked to kill!

    He did not hold back with this punch. A huge wave of power was transferred from his fist to Wang Lu¡¯s back. It was like Wang Lu was hit by a mech head on, his body now bloody all over.

    Wang Lu never expected to be ambushed. The spectators around him were mostly the Wang Family vigers. Just who would dare to ambush him in this fight? He was focused entirely on Rui Bing, having nearly being killed by her. He treaded carefully, afraid to leave an opening for Rui Bing.

    Wang Lu received the full blow from Ye Chong, and died instantly. Ye Chong looked skinny and all, but the strength that belied his physique was extraordinary. Even the Sang Tribe members, strong as they were, were no match for Ye Chong. Moreover, with the September Lan Family¡¯s unique energy amplification techniques, Ye Chong could increase the power he released by a few times over. Ye Chong had also directed his punch at a vulnerable spot on Wang Lu¡¯s body.

    Everyone was shocked, but quickly recovered.

    Ye Chong¡¯s actions were like throwing a bomb into a boiling pot of oil. After all, there were more than a few tens of thousands of people watching the battle, and most of them were members of the Wang Family.

    They all cried for blood, closing in on him, eager to shred him into pieces!

    Ye Chong did not panic, his eyes exuding an unusual calmness. At the same time, his hands were already flinging out the Night Enchantment pills he had prepared!

    Puff! Puff! The two pills hit the ground with a soft sound, unnoticed amidst the chaos. However, a defense tool of Lunatic Guan¡¯s choice was nothing but powerful!

    Without a sound or a sh of light, the entire crowd abruptly cked out, lying unconscious on the ground. This resulted in a huge, empty space around Ye Chong, who was holding Rui Bing in his arms. They were the only ones standing.

    The spectating crowd was so dense that if a random shoe fell from the sky, it would hit more than one of them. The Night Enchantment did its work perfectly.

    Rui Bing was unconscious as well, since the Night Enchantment worked on her too. However, Ye Chong was prepared for this. He brought Rui Bing closer to him, and did something that shocked everyone who was watching.

    Ye Chong suddenly lowered his head, and kissed on an unconscious Rui Bing¡¯s lips.

    Was he crazy, doing something like that at this time?!

    They were further surprised to see Rui Bing awaken in Ye Chong¡¯s arms next. Both the crowd¡¯s sudden loss of consciousness and Rui Bing¡¯s awakening was astonishing to everyone who was watching.

    The entire ce fell silent for a moment.

    Up until now, Ye Chong¡¯s n went smoothly. The ambush and the Night Enchantment pills worked perfectly. He was holding two bufferleaves in his mouth, and had given one to Rui Bing just now. That was why she had awakened.

    Just when everyone was frozen in surprise, Ye Chong hooked his bag to Rui Bing¡¯s waist, which had the starship¡¯s signkey in it.

    "Take them to the starship," Ye Chong whispered into Rui Bing¡¯s ear.

    Ye Chong pushed his hand that was around Rui Bing¡¯s waist outwards, and Rui Bing was flung out quickly like a white cloud towards his group.

    "So far so good," Ye Chong thought to himself and rxed a little.

    Now, all he had to do was hold on until Rui Bing and the rest bring their starship over here to rescue him. His eyes swept across the awakening Wang Family vigers with a cold re. He stepped past their bodies on the ground towards the weapons rack, and picked ance.

    Bring it on!

    Surrounded by arge, dense crowd, Ye Chong stood by himself with thence in his hand, his eyes burning with eagerness for battle.

 Chapter 356 - Battle I

    <h4>Chapter 356: Battle I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing felt tears welling up in her eyes as she watched Ye Chong getting further and further away from her. She held back her tears, gathered herself, and darted towards Old Jalopy and others like a swooping white bird. She knew exactly what she had to do. On her lips were a faint taste of bufferleaf and a scent unique to Ye Chong.

    "Please help us," Chief Wang pleaded. The old man shook his head grimly and said, "I will not. Wang Lu and his wife had acted dishonorably. Humph, since when has the Wang Family be too afraid to acknowledge their own ws?" The old man¡¯s tone of disdain made Chief Wang¡¯s pale face flushed in embarrassment.

    She spoke no more. From up here, she could see everything that was happening down there. She could not deny the old man¡¯s words. On the other hand, she was also unwilling to criticize the actions of Wang Lu and wife, since she understood that, should things happened in ording to the rules, then many ambitious members of the younger generation would choose to leave. These people were the backbone of the Wang Family¡¯s strength. If they left, the Wang Family would lose their power in the next few decades.

    She could not allow that to happen, and so she had quietly condoned the actions of Wang Lu and his wife. Ye Chong would never understand this extreme form of tribal spirit, but perhaps Rui Bing could.

    Nheless, no one expected an alchemist, a weak fragile person like Ye Chong could be so strong!

    The old man watched everything that was happening below and could not help but gasped, "What a strong killing aura!"

    In fact, much blood was shed down below. Melees and close rangebat were Ye Chong¡¯s preferred ways ofbat, and he excelled in them.

    Hisnce moved unpredictably, the dark tip of thence shining as bright as a star in outer space. Thence weaved an erratic trajectory in the air, ending the lives of people who never expected to die today. It was not dazzling or magnificent, but the flickering shine of the tip of thence brought a chill to one¡¯s heart.

    Ye Chong understood Rui Bing¡¯s nature. There was also no time to ask about the details of what happened earlier. He had wanted to use Han Jia, but quickly dismissed the idea.

    He knew exactly what Han Jia meant to the people here. If he deployed Han Jia, Ye Chong was certain that no one could stop him, even if he could not wipe out the entire Wang Vige. Of course, if he could escape this ce, then so could Rui Bing. Ye Chong could even carry a few people with him as they escaped. However, since they were alreadybelled as outsiders since the beginning, showing the mechs would only invite an extreme and violent reaction from the locals.

    Ye Chong was wary not only of the Wang Family members, but also of other strong fighters who took a neutral stance in this skirmish.

    These include the shopkeeper of the Pavilion of Treasures and Master Yan. These days, Ye Chong came to realize that there were more strong characters in the free space zone than anywhere he had been. These people might not be a threat to him and Rui Bing, but they would be for the rest of his group. The threat could be fatal.

    Better for him alone to be in danger than risking the entire group. He was confident of his own abilities, and there was always the option of retreating. However, if a few of the bodyguards died here, then they would never be able to leave the free space zone.

    That was an oue that Ye Chong must avoid at all costs.

    This was why he had arrived at this seemingly dangerous n that may not be perfect, or even the best option. However, in that short amount of time given to him, it was the best he coulde up with.

    In fact, Ye Chong¡¯s decision was right. Up until now, those who attacked him were all Wang Family members. He stole a nce at the neutral bystanders, seeing their look of disdain towards the Wang Family Vige, and knew that he had made the right choice.

    This allowed him to focus entirely on the battle before him.

    He did not have the leisure of contemting if this was the most dangerous situation he was ever caught up in. The waves of enemies were suppressed quickly. Compared to the battle against the mutants in Ze Xi Academy, this was a piece of cake.

    Everyone here would have been considered highly skilled in the He Yue Gxy, and the creme of the crop in the Five Gxies. Ye Chong waspleted surrounded by weapons of all kinds, and his clothing was nearly torn to shreds.

    Ye Chong moved his hands as fast as he could.

    His movements were a blur. The sound of weapons nging against each other as he blocked them did not cease since the beginning of the mass attack. Everyone was waiting for the climax of the attack to be over, but it never happened. The battle grew fiercer, and silence never came. The horrifying sound of shing weapons was stressing for the observers.

    45 seconds!

    Ye Chong had held back against the attack for a solid 45 seconds! He feet never left the ground. He was like an unyielding rock against the crashing waves of the sea.

    "What strong determination," the old man at the tip of Victory Towermented with approval.

    Ye Chong was in a sorry state. His clothes were almost gone. His shirt was full of long gashes from the weapons. Shreds of cloth were scattered in the air like butterflies.

    Though Ye Chong was fast, and had keen eyesight and minimalisticbat moves, injury was still unavoidable. His nearly naked upper body was covered with manycerations, and these bloody cuts were increasing by the second. The cuts bled, but the blood was quickly diluted by the sweat on his body.

    Even though Ye Chong was now in a tight corner, no one treated him lightly. On the contrary, they were surprised and deeply impressed by him.

    Just how in the world could someone fend against these attacks for 45 seconds? It would require incredible reflexes and rapid moves. More importantly, he must remain absolutely calm!

    The spectators also noticed with fear that, given his tight spot, Ye Chong still managed to kill 36 vigers. This many kills, in just 45 seconds!

    Ye Chong could feel his stamina depleting rapidly. The overwhelming attacks did not allow him to think. He was fighting only with his instincts. He still had three Night Enchantment pills with him, but there was no time for him to even reach for them.

    "Everyone stand back!" An ancient but thundering voice exploded from the back. Everyone looked up to see three figures leaping across roofs,ing towards them.

    "The Ancestral Hall Guards!" Someone in the crowd cried out. The neutral observers turned grim. If a young man like Wang Zishi was the backbone and strength of the Wang Family tribe, then the Ancestral Guards were the tribe¡¯sst and strongest line of defense. The Ancestral Guards were responsible of protecting the tribe¡¯s ancestral hall, and were usually not involved in matters of the vige.

    Every tribe¡¯s Ancestral Hall Guards were the the tribe¡¯s most secretive power. It was rare for them to appear at all.

    "Wonderful, Uncle Yun and the others are finally here," Chief Wang pped her hands as she dered, happy as a child.

    Just then, Ye Chong felt a the attack force from around him cking. He immediately reacted without thinking, grasping the opportunity. Like a spring unwinded, he began to attack back madly as the restrictive force around him was gone.

    Thence shone in all its glory!

    With the blue lines and dots all over his vision, Ye Chong could no longer tell one person from another. He could only see a simple mosaic of blue lines and blue dots.

    Thence struck without hesitation, aiming at all the blue dots he could see.

    The bloodshed reached its climax.

    The victims howled in pain, as dozens of people fell under his attacks, blood spraying from their wounds. Blood rained for nearly 10 meters around Ye Chong.

    Everyone was shocked!

    Ye Chong¡¯s head finally cleared up. He cursed his own confusion and switched to a more evasive stance. Mobile warfare [1] was a better strategy for his current situation.

    "How dare you!" The three people charging towards him all looked furious, staring at him with bulging eyes. Usually, they would not get themselves involved with matters of the vige, but their loyalty to the Wang Family was exceptional. Now that something so terrible was happening before them, how could they just stand by and watch?

    Ye Chong ignored their raging voices as he made his next move, slipping easily between his enemies as he attacked them all like the God of Death. Wherever he passed, blood sprayed onto the ground, and painful howls were heard. The dimly shining tip of hisnce belied its sharpness.

    The averagence turned into a living being in Ye Chong¡¯s deft hands. Everyone was vulnerable against it. Ye Chong had aimed at all the blue points he could see, and killed with every strike.

    All the spectators paled as they watched. Ye Chong could feel some of his stamina returning. His sudden change in strategy had caught everyone off guard.

    They paid the ultimate price for this.

    Just then, Ye Chong heard an almost imperceivable breeze from behind him.

 Chapter 357 - Battle II

    <h4>Chapter 357: Battle II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    An expert!?

    That was the first word shed in Ye Chong''s mind. He dodged the attack and made a giant swing. Thence knocked the back aggressively.

    Crash.

    The part ofnce shattered as the specks scratched Ye Chong''s body. Ye Chong could feel the ending of hisnce being chomped away. He was swinging a woodennce after all.

    The technique of the foe sent chills to his back. That was quite the strongest foe he ever fought since the Battle Royale. But he did not have that grace to givepliments, the assassin was clearly striving to slow him down!

    The reason why Ye Chong could travel in the crowd seamlessly was because of his speed and unpredictable steps. But if he ever got bogged down by something, like an assassin for example, he would be sieged at any moment, conflict would happen, a crowd fight would ur, he could not be confident enough to presume he would survive from another wave of that.

    Ye Chong exerted forces on the ground and backed away speedily, with hisnce directly impaled with his greatest strength!

    Thence vibrated vigorously as it transformed into a stack of afterimages which frightened the assassin who was unable to react in time and took his dagger to block.

    sh.

    The woodennce broke, as specks showered the surrounding. Wails were heard everywhere. Ye Chong also was wounded by the broken pieces, he felt the aches with few pieces stabbing in his back. The flowing blood was chilling his back. And he began charging forward.

    The assassin was¡­ pretty much done for. Ye Chong''s attack came in like a wrecking ball that whammed right not his face. Blood was spilled and he was sent flying, crashing down a few people.

    Ye Chong was able to take grasp of that assassin''s appearance for one second. It was a young man, of age about Wang Zishi''s, with a in appearance.

    "Get him!" He instructed and let off a few painful coughs.

    The vigers then realized what that line meant. That line also inevitably put Ye Chong into danger. The vigers had been attacking brutally, though their flow of attacks was highly disorganized, that was why Ye Chong survived. But thanks to thisbat order from the assassin, the situation changed as the vigers nearby all aimed at Ye Chong, not an attack but a constant clinging.

    Ye Chong was stuck.

    Above the Victor Tower, the elderly looked down. He seemed confused, "Who''s that young man just now? He does not seem too badpared to Wang Zishi, while being fairly intelligent."

    The vige owner, the mistress pondered, "Odd. I don''t think I have met this person before. Very odd, how could no one be aware of such a great fighter?"

    "Hah! Mistress, my fair mistress." Chuckled the elderly, "You too have that moment of blindness being unable to see talents." The mistress was embarrassed as it would be her mistake on her job if she missed a talent like the boy down there.

    "Well, sometimes I-" She was going to cook up some excuses but the elderly''s erged eyes stopped her, "Wait."

    "Why? What''s wrong? Did you see something?" asked the mistress.

    "He''s not from the Wang family!" he stated gravely.

    "No?" The mistress obviously was still out of the situation, "But he''s wearing a cloud robe?" The cloud robe was the apparel exclusive to the Wang family, specially forbats.

    The elderly denied her reasoning with a shake of his head, "The sword technique he used was not of Wang family." The elderly was the authority at this so his statement could not be wrong.

    The mistress was astonished, as realizing the oddity - a person not from her family, wearing the robe of her family in the crowd of her vige - what exactly would that person want?

    The ce had gone chaotic. The assassin had vanished. The mistress''s worry intensified.

    Rui Bing sprinted, with one hand holding the little boy, the other lifting Fei Si, striving to get back to the spaceship with the folks before anything happened. She got to slow down however, not because of the weight she had to carry, but the speed of the other folks. At least they were still a littlepetent inbats even though they were trained to do ranged attacks, that included the scarred man who possessed the richest experience inbats. His sense of timing was the most urate that he utilized well the 3 pieces of Night Enchantment Ye Chong gave. The timing he tossed the pill, the spot he aimed to toss the pill, both were impable, that the chasing vigers were getting cautious the more they were bombarded with a massive stunning spell. Rui Bing had also demonstrated her skills that convinced the vigers to not blindly bump ahead.

    They were fortunate because Ye Chong was the main target in the vige so the flock after Rui Bing and the folks was small to begin with. Plus the scarred man shrunk the crowd further using the Night Enchantment to keep the crowd always at a distance with the group. Well, the vigers did expect aids toe joining them soon to pin down the target.

    Unlike Rui Bing''s fun runaway, Ye Chong was having an epic fight. He was in a dangerous situation. The vigers grew more intelligible n their moves after the reminder of that assassin - to not attack but to hold Ye Chong up! He started slowing down and he had lost his only weapon ever since that speck attack.

    On several asions he almost used thest 3 Night Enchantments in his possession. Those were his trump card, thest resort to his survival. He held the pills inside the muscle of his right arms. The technique of Lan of the September had given him masterly control over his muscle, that he could alwaysunch one pill from his right arm to his palm right away on demand.

    The 3 guards chased Ye Chong at a horrendous speed. Ye Chong felt puzzled. He was already troubled enough with those vigers and now 3 obviously experts came after him.

    So heunched his first pill and flicked it to the crowd.

    Then, as if a scene of a horror movie, the vigers, hundreds of them within the proximity of 45 meters, passed out to the ground. And Ye Chong ran through the smokescreen caused by his pill.

    He panted¡­ Ye Chong was wetted by his own blood and sweat. The moisture passed by his scratches and openings, it felt like a torture that was going to dissemble him in any second.

    His lips were clipping the bufferleaf, so he was unaffected by the effects of Night Enchantment, unlike those rash vigers who charged through the smokescreen and joined the fainted crowd.

    The others who just arrived by the scene held their steps, as they realized the other identity of this terrifying person - he was an alchemist, an alchemist who did not need to do a thing to stop the entire crowd. They hesitated and stood by the proximity of Night Enchantment.

    They were waiting for the moment to break in, and swore that would be thest moment of Ye Chong. The weather was fine however, so the duration of Night Enchantment could be very much maximized.

    Ye Chong was feeling drained, hoping that Rui Bing and the folks woulde and pick him up in the spaceship right away. A spaceship could have shown these primitives a taste of the avant-garde. It was such a shame that he forgot to bring the dimensional keystone of Han Jia or the twist would have been fun.

    Everything just happened so quickly that he did not have the time to get things right.

    The fatigue was real. It was shocking for him to be still able standing there.

    The guards were getting more aggressive the longer they waited by the smokescreen, as curses were heard along with the sound of weapons brandishing. Ye Chong prayed his break couldst till the spaceship came back. His tired eyes fell upon one of the copsed vigers. He picked ance, just to calm his nerves.

    He lifted his head again, to see the empty sky.

    Time felt extremely slow for him at the moment.

    "They are not from here!" The leading viger''s face tightened the moment he saw the sinking spaceship to the sea. An outsider? Outsiders were the biggest taboo in the entire natural space zone, including Dankwood!

    Well? Good. The vigers seemed very much relieved by the conclusion. They no longer had that slight guilty on their faces. That would be the perfect reason for theirmitted murders to the authority of the vige.

    Outsiders would deserve none of their mercy.

    "Few of you, head back and report to the mistress," said the one leading. "The rest of you, stay here and guard the sot with me."

    The leading viger''s expression seemedplicated as he saw the few vigers running away.

 Chapter 358 - Battle III

    <h4>Chapter 358: Battle III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Once the folks got into the spaceship, they carried on running. No time to waste. They were well-aware of the situation - if Ye Chong got into anything, they would be that part of it too. Even though most of them came only under Ye Chong''s threat, they worked hard, striving to help out their fallen ally, including the little boy who was biting his lips stonily.

    "Everyone. Get ready in your positions,"manded the little boy. "Sister Bing, the main processor." And she ran to the processor with her maximum speed, as the stack of afterimages traced her sprint. She then ced little boy in front of the main processor.

    The little boy then quickly booted the system, while the remaining folks got to their steerings.

    "Check-ups."

    "All air venttion system: normal."

    "Engine system: operational."

    "Detection system: operational."

    He received the few notifications on the screen, as his fingers clumsily fiddled the program.

    "Spaceship Pre-departure Program: Activated."

    "Calcting energy remained. Performing optimized calction. System is ready to take off."

    Thest task before taking off had beenpleted promptly. Everyone was concentrated in holding their steerings, as taking off could get asplicated as one could imagine a ne would do. It required coordination across the ship. The tasks had beenpleted wlessly thus far. So it would be fine to take off.

    "Next-"

    *Beep*

    *Beep*

    "Warning."

    That was not a good word to hear.

    "Warning. Remaining Energy Level is less than 8%. Remaining Energy: Insufficient. Remaining Energy: Insufficient. Request unable to bepleted," said the angelic-voiced system.

    Rui Bing''s face was drained.

    ¡­

    Pant

    Pant Pant¡­

    Ye Chong was catching his breath. The air filled with Night Enchantment was slightly sweet, yet it scorched his throat every time he breathed. Sweat rolled over his bloody body. He was breathing heavily. His expression was still, yet there was blood at corner of his lips, along with scratches over his body. People were amazed by his vitality - that was the only they could do anyway as they were blocked off by the mist of Night Enchantment.

    "I have an idea!" Right when they felt helpless of the situation, a genius gave an idea, "Throw your weapons at him!"

    Oh no.

    Ye Chong recognized the voice of that mastermind! The voice was the assassin''s. He quickly reacted with a tumble on the ground right after the statement was shouted.

    He got to run, he got to run fast.

    But his stamina was below the safe level and he was surrounded by a swarm of attackers. He suspected if he couldst even a minute if theyunched their attacks again¡­

    The vigers started lobbing their weapons at Ye Chong. Sharp clinks could be heard all over the ce as the weapons showered upon the ground.

    Ye Chong pressed the ground with both his hands and knees, rolled and bounced off like a pinball.

    Weapons prated the sandy ground.

    Ye Chong was d he acted fast or he would have been turned into a dead porcupine.

    Ye Chong made another tumble to reposition himself and discerned that one nk spot, he tossed his weapon that flew through the very gap.

    Ye Chong''s arms were pumping dramatically in rhythm, then an indiscernible wave flew along. The handle of thence suddenly shuddered!

    The crowd enveloping the flyingnce felt a force mmed upon them, as they fell onto the ground.

    "What the hell!" Curses were heard again.

    And Ye Chong had made an opening for himself. He then flew into the angry crowd, grabbed thence and zapped away to the other side of the street - the direction opposite to where the guards were.

    Ye Chong knew the right moves in a crowd fight. The moreplicated the environment, the better he could act. His brain and body allowed him for the best survival. He picked the most crowded area and moved unpredictably to make sure that he would not be stuck again.

    The blue lines appeared in his eyes again, they danced as his eyes moved.

    His potential was rose again as the situation pressured.

    His eyes were soulless. He looked at the targets expressionlessly. The blue lines were forming the best angle to attack for him. He had already lost his humanity, it was all for survival or nothing. Theplicating geometrical visual of strategy, the crude yet impable attack, the overly logical calction, these had made Ye Chong a killing machine as the wildness and inhumanity engulfed him. Logical yet illogical.

    ¡­

    "Are you sure you aren''t making a move?" asked the mistress in a shaky voice, as her strained eyes looked upon the dying vigers. Her heart was aching, she had never experienced a massacre like this. She thought Ye Chong would still be a human, that he would fall at some point but he had just lost control.

    The elderly was indifferent, "Keep your sanity there and not spend your time here with me. You do not have much time. You should be heading down and try regaining control of the situation, not negotiating with me."

    The mistress bit her lips, as her eyes were then filled with disappointment. Few secondspsed in silence and she stormed out of the building.

    The elderly then stared at Ye Chong. His eyes were somehow burning with an indescribable passion.

    Ye Chong was fast, while he was agile. He would only need that little space to perform a surprise burst attack. His speed made him more unforeseeable, uncontroble. With ance Ye Chong was typically a bull in a Wang shop, that people would probably shatter upon contact.

    He was strong and merciless. His moves were painful and homicidal. The crowd was no longer as maniac and bloodthirsty as before, their body tightened as they started holding back.

    How many men had he killed? Ye Chong had already lost count. He only felt the growing weight in his arms along with his hastening breath. His body was getting worse and he was not seeing a spaceshiping to him anytime soon. It felt so hopeless that he might have lost hope at some point if he had not experienced the dead-or-alive before.

    Ye Chong did not give up. He would not give up till the veryst moment, so he would raise the chance of his survivability to the maximum! The ship was noting, but it did not mean the ship would nevere, probably Rui Bing and the folks had encountered some problem¡­

    That would be the worst case scenario, undesirable yet the most possible. Rui Bing would stille for him anyhow¡­ a mech could have been good enough.

    Then, should there be an ident!?

    Ye Chong started calcting the remaining time he could stand up.

    No time, he would have to get out of here!

    In 0.1 second, a decision had been made.

    Hisnce impaled throat of one viger, whose eyeballs popped in pain with hushes of his dying struggle as he waved his weak limbs.

    Ssh.

    His throat exploded.

    Ye Chong disappeared.

    The blood sttered upon the frightened expression of the people.

    Ye Chong sped up to the maximum and overcame the crowd. He ran, towards the street of houses, leaving the few tens corpses on the ground behind.

    Another runaway, another dead-or-alive. He was that greenhorn who did not know how to run away at first, and now he had be the adept of runaway.

    It seemed like he would be running away forever. The talented could never go unnoticed huh?

    Once he got to this street, he could escape the fate of being sieged from time to time. Well, at least, a siege consisted of smaller amount of people, that was more manageable. He had stayed long enough to know the geographicalyout of the ce.

    And that was when a roar was heard behind, "Where do you think you''re going?"

    The piercing voice impaled his soul.

 Chapter 359 - Battle IV

    <h4>Chapter 359: Battle IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong lifted his head and looked afar, his expression changed drastically. The three swords wereing, in A-formation. They zapped towards him so quick and so forcefully that the hushes by friction in air had engulfed the screams of people around.

    In the air, the faces of the three guardsmen were dead red , apparently they had consumed everyst ounce of their strength on that powerful attack.

    Ye Chong could not make it if he were to dodge, but somehow he was calm, as he gripped the pole of hisnce and stared upon the iing swords, ignoring the other attacks surrounding him.

    Emotionless, expressionless, toneless and passionless.

    No emotion would disrupt his schemata.

    His eyes were then wide open, his waist sank, tilting hisnce.

    HMPH!

    MORTAL ROAR!

    Wavelengths were mmed through the air as they began reaching the surrounding. The vigers nearest to Ye Chong suffered the most brutal death, as their eardrums felt hammered inside their nked head, with blood dripping from some of their noses.

    The people afar only felt they were overwhelmed by an unseeable force, as their uproar went settled by the waves.

    Ye Chong''s sharp eyes discerned the three swords slowing down because of his sound wave. It''s working!

    Almost simultaneously, Ye Chong''s body seemed to have mutated¡­ It was a rather creepy sight, as his muscr cells seemed to be wriggling like countless snakes all over his body from waist to the abdomen to the chest and to his shoulder,stly his arms. It felt like a seasonal migration of his muscles, as his arms began pumping and grew into lumps and lumps of bulkiness.

    It soundedplicated but it all only happened in a few seconds.

    Ye Chong had never felt such strength in his arms before! But he was losing his bnce as his feet felt light.

    Thence felt like nothing in his grip as he aimed and impaled, urately struck the three longswords.

    Klink. The three longswords cried as collusion urred.

    Ye Chong could feel a pressure on hisnce. Crack! Thence blew up due to the overwhelming strength, as countless specks it had transformed into. The muscr cells umted on Ye Chong''s arms seemed to have receive a reorganize-order, as they retreated back to their former positions.

    Spat! Ssh of blood escaped from Ye Chong''s mouth. His legs felt lighter than ever as he fell to his back.

    The guardsmen were not having an easier time either as not only the final attack consumed every bit of them, but also the fact that they were sending the swords in the air and took every pitch of Ye Chong''s roar. The forces their swords exerted might have warded them, but that would only be a damage reduction at most and it became thest straw to their vitality. They were hurt, both inside and outside.

    Ye Chong had been wounded, potentially at a worse state than the guardsmen. The muscr cells did not retreat on his will, but they were actually forced back as their formation shattered by the collision of two attacks. Ye Chong would have lost his arms if it was not for the fine build of his body. He could still breathe but that did not mean he couldst longer in the field, as he started to feel his breath getting out of pace, lungs apparently received a considerable amount of damage as well.

    When was thest time he had this? The foreign sense of danger was sending shudders to his body, out of fear yet also out of a kind of excitement.

    His body felt scorched by the pain. Ye Chong tried rxing his body.

    Breath in¡­ out¡­

    The attack had disintegrated so they were falling to the ground. Ye Chong got to rx his body as in a few seconds he would have been that sandbag crashing the arena. He suddenly made a twist on his waist, repositioned himself and tipped the ground with his legs, as heunched himself into the houses dexterously.

    The guardsmen were shocked by the sudden disappearance of Ye Chong.

    "Such horrible monstrosity!" said the leading elderly, as seemingly he was worried. The Wang family had offended an inhumanity, that had got to be the worst case scenario to the vige. The steps of Ye Chong were unpredictable, the attacks of Ye Chong were precise, thence skills were ever-changing, and he knew a sound wave attack while being colder than any merciless beast.

    "Right, we had failed the entire family, literally." The second guardsman was angry, very much eager to slice Ye Chong into million pieces.

    The third guardsman was silent as he set his eyes upon the tall Victor Tower.

    ¡­

    Pant¡­

    Pant pant¡­

    Hah¡­ Hah¡­

    Ye Chong ran. Ye Chong dashed. Ye Chong sprinted, over one slope and another,unching himself over one ground to another. Like a wounded beast, he forced his way out, fearing to even spend a split second more at one ce. He was running in a primitive vige area without any technology, there was nomunicator, there was no mech, yet he feared that very trained efficiency of the mighty Wang family force. He was still fighting as one on hundred thousands, his oue of doing that was clearer than the water he stamped on, it was obvious, tantly obvious, no deduction and no rebuttal needed.

    Most of his wounds had been cured. To be honest, he was not expecting to be given a potion from that person. He did not see the need of the person providing the assistance in the first ce. And of all potion, he got the one with greatest effect.

    A potion of the vige felt redundant, obsolete in the gxies out there, as the medical technology had expanded to whole different horizon. With an advanced pre-programmed medical machine, nobody would want to use a bottle of suspicious looking fluid, yet that bottle woulde falling like an angel to everyone''s salvation in the vige. It was what everyone dreamed for, since hell knows when you would be skewed by countless specks of wood, where the potion would be a savior.

    Salvation it was indeed. The potion made out of Brown Mistletoe Nut was healing Ye Chong at an astonishing rate.

    He would remember that favor for the rest of his life.

    He had reached his maximum, as he ran on. At least he was starting to see the woods growing denser, that should hinder the chasing Wangs a little.

    The frail twigs whipped his body as he ran intensely fast, yet the slight pain was ineffective against his shooting adrenaline. Through the forest, he traveled like an agile jaguar. The shades of the woods should have provided him the perfect camouge, yet the Wangs seemed to be not losing him anytime soon¡­

    There were 12 guardsmen hunting him down. And the Wang family had only trained 15 best guardsmen in the house. His fate was clear if he were to stop while being chased by 12 superbly trained fighters.

    Ye Chong sometimes would grab the vines and swing himself further to preserve his draining stamina.

    And hended, with a stomp that caused the branches to deform, and he jumped once more to the ground ahead.

    10 meters ahead there was a broad branch.

    That would be a gooduncher! And he elerated.

    Klink!

    A few projectiles shed by.

    That was the fifth time he got attacked¡­ He withdrew his dagger and blocked them away.

    Klink! Klink! Klink! Klink!

    His wrists felt numb as he struck them back. The force was very strong to ovee.

    Ye Chong started distancing himself from the raiders again. Apparently this was the fifth wave of assassins awaiting him in the dark. They were extremely skillful in blending themselves in the woods, while the way they treated their prey was brutal. They were highly alert as they would hide themselves again once they had missed. To pursue they would do things slow and steadily.

    The first wave gave the biggest shock. If it was not Ye Chong''s quick reaction he would have died just there. The following raids were stronger and more sudden than before but Ye Chong had already anticipated them himself, so he faced them not as clumsy as before.

    His dagger was his savior. Thanks to the Do-Kun stone enhancement, it was sharp enough to break the iing weapon at one slice. The assassins noticed the sessful counterattack as they fled the scene, back into the woods.

    Ye Chong could do nothing else than running.

    At first he thought those were from the Wang family, but it just felt different the more he fought. The Wangs would never fight such way. They were not the kind who would finish their foe without a fair fight. If they would, Ye Chong would not be alive by then.

    Although in reality the assassins were feeling more helpless than Ye Chong, they believed their attack - whether on timing, the coverage, the way they did it - was wless and perfectly demonstrated their skills, yet this ugly-looking boy had blocked everything sessfully. How depressing.

    Most importantly, they were attacking from the dark, which supposedly had given themselves a headstart, yet Ye Chong lived like an annoying cockroach.

    That dagger! Dammit! Someone break that dagger! Curses!

    The assassins were probably thinking so¡­

    Ye Chong did not decelerate, as being chased by the Wangs and the assassins from nowhere. He just hoped his speed couldst him long enough to lose these people, as he sprinted in straight line.

    The woods had gotten denser, as the path got engulfed by the darkened leaves The air felt humid while exuding a faint rotten smell.

    The light was starting to be engulfed by the trees.

    The ce got quieter, that sometimes he could hear the insect cries.

    And it became dead silent, where breeze could hardly be felt.

    Too quiet. Ye Chong was not feeling good on this. But hecked the experience necessary to judge the forest just yet.

    He slowed down at first, as hesitated. Then he made up his mind and kept running.

    At far end behind , the bush started rustling out of sudden, with 3 men popped out. Their faces were painted in green stripes, hardly recognizable, while their outfits were strange - stripes of green and yellow, a blend to the forest''s color scheme.

    "He had entered the woods." The leading onemented, as seeing the shrinking silhouette. His tone sounded relieved somehow.

    The other two was also gasping in relief.

    "Phew! Finally, we don''t have to face that horror."

    The third person nodded, "Right? He was such horror, scarier than the specter, faster than the specter too. The leader of Team T almost died in his brutality. And he has that ridiculous dagger, at least we don''t have to face him. So does this mean mission aplished?"

    The leading one halted, "¡­Yes¡­ I guess? No one had evere out of the deeper woods alive. So we don''t have to worry on this. We just have to report as what we saw. Let the authority figure this out themselves, though what a waste of a good dagger." The tone was filled with a great desire towards Ye Chong''s overpowered dagger.

    A voice rang behind them, "The Wangs have arrived! Retreat." And the shadows vanished into the forest.

    Within half a minute, arge group of Wangs appeared right next to the bush, with Furry the fair white creature popping its cherry nose to the ground.

    It rose its tiny body, as began roaring madly to the deeper woods, refusing to take a step further, as if something was convincing it to stop moving.

    "He had entered the deeper woods, apparently. It looks like our job is done. We should be working on the other outsiders instead." The speaker sounded very much rxed, this was their most desirable scenario.

    Everyone recognized the forces of Ye Chong, that they felt nothing could stop him, other than the greater Mother Nature that is. The deeper woods¡­

    "Hah¡­" It sounded as if they had broken free form their greatest fear.

    The group was wordless.

    ¡­

    "Shall we go?" One wave and the group left the fearsome depth of the woods.

    The deeper woods, silent as it acted, quiet as it was supposed to be, only had the whispers of the insects ringing in the silence.

 Chapter 360 - Dangerous Forest I

    <h4>Chapter 360: Dangerous Forest I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong''s heart grew colder the farther he walked. The ce was quiet, too quiet¡­ He was able to discern the soft chirp in the woods at first, but now he heard nothing. It was so quiet that even the rustling he made upon stepping on the rotten leaves sounded ear-piercing.

    His nerve was tensed, as rmingly he looked around constantly.

    The humidity of air chilled his chest. The forest grew denser as he walked on.

    There were all sorts of nts, peculiarly disturbing, that it felt like a nightmarish visit to a botanical garden. The sun could never reach the ce, yet the nts grew so well it was creepy.

    The greenish leaves, the colorful flowers, alluring yet soul-taking.

    Ye Chong''s heart was racing. He took a look at the nts. His alchemy knowledge had convinced him to take a deep cold breath in fear.

    Glitterbloom, Haemovine¡­ Dartelion?

    Where am I, what is this, is it hell?

    Ye Chong froze. His muscle tightened, feared to make even the slightest move. His nce eventually reached that grayish brown tree ahead of him. There was a sprout, with a body of blue stripes and countless silvery tubes all over it, that made it looked like a handle of wind chimes. Ye Chong''s heart skipped a beat again, he knew he should never make one step further.

    He recognized that nt.

    Scientific name - Argentubus Arecales, people call it "Pines of Spider Web", with a sensory proximity about 7 to 10 meters, carnivorous. Once an animal approaches the nt, the tubes would fire projectile like spider webs that contain spikes which give off deadly poison to paralyze the prey.

    In Lunatic Guan''s encyclopedia entry, Argentubus Arecales is typically rated as a Level 4 hazard. Those tubes were horrifying enough to Ye Chong that he would give a Level 4.5 for it instead. Not because of its effect but its appearance, the illustration in the entry had only a few tubes over the body, while this particr sprout¡­ had tons, so many that he lost count.

    Gulp.

    He grew cautious and thanked Lunatic Guan in his mind. If it was not her knowledge, he probably would have been buried along with the beautiful flowers, enjoying a premature death. He took a careful observation at every single spot in the woods while his mind kept eximing how fortunate he was to avoid that one nt trap ahead. If he mindlessly walked just one step to the front, he would have been dead.

    But luck would never be always by his side. He would not gamble his life on this.

    No wonder there was no animal here. No way any animal would have survived in a ce like this. The ce was literally a dangerous-nt-go-round where 80% of Lunatic Guan''s registered hazardous nts could be seen here.

    Even Ye Chong began to suspect if Lunatic Guan was once here and was scared to death like him.

    These nts had simply made the forest a typical deadly forest.

    He looked behind and checked out how many ways he could die based on the types of nts there. He got afraid that it already felt like a miracle when he remained in one piece after walking mindlessly for so long.

    So how do I leave this hell? Ye Chong was puzzled. The only relief was the fact that he needed not to worry those snipers and chasers. Since this ce was obviously a hazardous deadly zone, only outsiders like he himself would foolishly enter. The locals probably never would even consider toe here.

    It would be impossible for him to back away now. Practically he had already lost his sense of direction. The woods were so dense that every trace he made as he advanced was gone. Without experience or assistance of any apparatus, people would simply lose their way here. And Ye Chong was sure that he did note all the way here in one straight line.

    There was no longer the concept of "backing away" and "advancing forward", either of those felt literally the same to him. Maybe he would end up circting the ce as he walked.

    When the situation had gotten to its worst, somehow it would be calming at the same time.

    The first thing was not to find a way out. That would sound a little far-fetched for the moment. So, instead, he should be figuring how he would survive in here.

    Lunatic Guan''s microchip contained massive amount of information, along with the mechanism to help automatic analysis. It was so convenient that people could just carry it around, use it like a pocket dictionary that saved all the hassle figuring things out.

    If one fails to prepare, one prepares to fail. The chip prepared Ye Chong. As advised by Lunatic Guan, he should remember everything so that he would truly harness the knowledge and not let her knowledge go to waste, which he did and these knowledge he remembered had be the sole key to his survival in this dangerous forest.

    Ye Chong regained his calmness and began observing again.

    His brain ran fast, soon realized his situation was not as terrible as he first imagined. Compared to those haunting troops and those assassins sniping him at any second, he was more willing to face the forest. The forest was dense and was filled with dangerous species, but there were also quite a handful of them being edible. The edible nts not only was sulent, but also highly nutritious, which couldst him for quite sometimes - that would determine his basic necessity fulfilled and ultimately it meant he had already bought enough time for himself.

    He would need the time to familiarize himself with the forest, to have a better understanding on the characteristics of these dangerous nts. He might have a massive encyclopedia in his head, but that did not mean he totally understood every single entry of it. He recognized the nts merely because he had seen their visuals as he skimmed the encyclopedia before. There was no in-depth investigation nor practical exposure. And this little gap between theory and practice could cost his life.

    He had the patience to prepare himself.

    He carefully avoided the Dartelions, the edges of the leaves were easily the des of an actual dart as the cuticle was so hard and sharp that it could leave a cut by just sliding through it. Dartelion''s fatality was not known for its sharp leaves, the content of its tip however was the one to look out for as it was coated with a kind of enzyme that would prevent blood from clotting. You might be bleeding till you died at that one scratch you made on your careless mistake.

    ording to the description in the microchip, some alchemists would actually utilize the tip of Dartelion by coating their weapon with its secretion.

    Avoided the Spider Web, Ye Chong proceed very, very sluggishly, with his eyes carefully looking out for the dangerous nts around and¡­ below. There were sprouts of Haemovines hanging in the air, at where they spread their trochal disc, suction cup-like structure to entangle their preys. As much as its appearance suggested, once the prey was entangled, it would dete as the vines erged dramatically. Much of a draining attack.

    Ye Chong was finding the ce much more intense than Trash-12.

    He held his steps again, as stumbled upon a giant Vinesack which visibly was about few hundred years old. Its leaves were dense, with peculiar appearance as if the two leaves were tightly stuck together from edge to edge, leaving the tip unstuck however, making them like a sack, a sack between the vines. Thus its name Vinesack.

    Ye Chong first observed the trunk of the tree, making sure that there was nothing funny - especially nts like Haemovines - on it. And he advanced forward.

    He was eyeing the sacks on the tree. As the tree aged, these sacks would darken, their toughness would increase, making them a natural container. He picked the darker leaves which seemed to be at least alive for already a few decades, the darkest among them all. Pretty close to fall, since most sacks would fall naturally after the age of 50.

    Withdrew his dagger, he sliced and ¡­ realized the leaves remained firm on the tree despite his pull. He thought he could break almost everything by ident after snapping alloys like titanium yet the leaves remained in whole piece.

    He gave few more cuts and sessfully removed 6 to 7 pieces of them. These natural containers would be what he needed exactly at the moment. He then took a few fine vines to strap them over his waists.

    The juices of the tree could be a perfect ingredient for growth-inducingponent, sadly hecked the necessary apparatus for extraction, so he got to let it go.

    Now with the containers he could collect water and food, even some alchemy production for his daily life.

    The forest might be dangerous, but it also was considerably a heaven for alchemist.

    Sigh, if only he had the most primitive alchemy apparatus¡­

 Chapter 361 - Dangerous Forest II

    <h4>Chapter 361: Dangerous Forest II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong spent the third day in the forest without moving beyond 100 meters of his proximity. His face was smudged with mud, barely recognizable, though his vision was still clear.

    The night was long as he slept not more than 5 hours a day, just enough to recover his stamina. His wounds had healed themselvespletely within the three days, justifying the effect of that super potion, probably even those premium hospitals in 5 major gxies could be defeated by the pill.

    Too bad he had none of those magical pills left. Night Enchantment was also already a goner during his run.

    The three dayspsed with him scouting, observing every single nt around him. He dared not show negligence even to the tiniest sprout of weed on ground, hell knows if the weed was carnivorous as he tried recalling the few lines he captured when he studied the encyclopedia back then. As Lunatic Guan had once taught, the study of alchemy originated from the study of botanic, the study of nts. So the more ancient the branch of alchemy, the more likely it would have vast information on botanical studies.

    And Ye Chong actually remembered the few details on each nt there, which meant all these nts were part of the entries in the encyclopedia, also proving that the branch in which Lunatic Guan studied was truly something from the ancient. That was something shocking, although Lunatic Guan had never mentioned anything about the origin of her studies, not even in her chip or from her words.

    And regarding what exactly the branch he was learning, it did not seem to matter, even though what he had learned this far was beyondplication while he had literally zero foundation on the study itself. Well, as long as they were useful, they deserved to remain existed.

    He distinguished each nt he perceived, whether they were dangerous, how could they be dangerous, of what kind of danger they impose - all for preparation. He did not have tools to perform experiment to test these nts out, he could only try to reminisce that part of the nt in the encyclopedia. What he needed to do was to grasp as much as he could in his he''d at the moment, to a point where the characteristics of these nts felt like at the back of his hand, so his security would be maximized, the likelihood of his survival would increase.

    Nails, Borneo''s Heart, Layered Lavender¡­

    Names of the nts shed in his mind quickly along with a massive amount of data refreshed constantly. His main focus would be those with high hazard levels and he would spend an extra few minutes on them whenever encountered.

    Well, luckily nts as hazardous as the Pines of Spider Web were not thatmon, while having an easily discerned size. Those smaller nts with lower hazardous level could be potentially more dangerous however, like Dartelion for example, they could hide within the grasses effortlessly. One careless step and you would already be wounded.

    Well Ye Chong was cautious enough to live the next few days without any casualty.

    After the umtion period, he finally started to hasten his journey, although he still could not tell where he was and to where he was heading. These nts were hindering his sights everywhere, to a point where they felt suffocating sometimes without seeing an opening.

    On the seventh day Ye Chong started to feel at better ease moving within the forest. Certainly, at a presupposition that he was careful enough, since one mistake could cost his life.

    His appearance was bizarre. His body was hung with quite a number of Vinesacks, like a Christmas tree. Any part of his body which would not hinder his movement could be a nice hanger for Vinesacks. He did maximize the use of his fleshy hangers with additional vines, but his vining skill sucks, making him look like a package to be delivered from the fish market. He would not mind as long as those vines would not break.

    The Vinesacks contained the loots of his foraging daily.

    Growl¡­

    That meant mealtime. The stomach reminded him so, as he stopped walking and took a look around. Okay, the nts were not as dense as thest spot he stayed, there should not be a problem. Perfect for taking a break. He took out his dagger and cleared an opening on the ground.

    He got himself seated and withdrew a yellowish fruit. It was known as the Pomegold. It had a high nutritious value and was a pretty rare material for alchemy. Ye Chong made a chomp and chewed slowly. He would not end his only mealtime in seconds before the next few hours of journey. The forest bore lots of edibles but that did not mean he could let every food go to waste.

    To be honest, the taste of Pomegold did not live up to its name. It was rather in¡­ but sufficient to provide Ye Chong the energy to travel. Well, if Lunatic Guan ever knew her apprentice ate some precious food as his daily course, she might be tossing the sks at him now. Wait, not only Lunatic Guan, probably every professional alchemist would capture such preposterous sight, with their heart aching. What a waste!

    After he finished the fruit, he took out Water Bamboo at his waist. As its name suggested, the bamboo could absorb the moisture from the earth and stored within its cavity. The water was pure and perfectly drinkable. To be frank, the fluid inside the bamboo was also a precious material for alchemy reagents since it only grew in tedious environment, which caused harvesting to be more difficult, thus the rarity. Nevertheless, there seemed to be quite a number of Water Bamboos in the forest.

    The bamboo he got had 5 levels and each level was like a tiny cup that Ye Chong would use his dagger to slice open, revealing that juicy heavenly green which he would fail to resist after a sip and gargle everything.

    It tasted way better than those sugary drinks of the known branches. It had that faint scent while being refreshing at his tongue. The liquid of Water Bamboo was exceptional to the taste of Ye Chong. He kept the remaining stand however, that would be his source of water.

    He then closed his eyes and had forty winks. Well at least the dangerous forest ensured no wild animal raiding him when he was asleep.

    2 hours passed, well it felt like two hours. He opened his eyes. He stretched his body, which felt replenished at that moment.

    It was the 15th day and he started to get used of the ce, as he could already tell if the nt was dangerous at one nce. And the Vinesacks were full, of all kinds of things he believed to be useful for his journey. He did not keep those precious nts he saw on his way however.

    Preciousness could aid him nothing in survival. Those nts could be wasting a slot in his limited inventory.

    The biggest loot he got was on the 18th day.

    He forwarded with the more caution. And he flinched, as he felt something hard underneath his feet. The path of the forest before this had always been at soft and fluffy due to the additionalyer of the withered leaves. Nothing this hard was felt before, not even a piece of rock.

    He squatted after taking a nce at the surrounding. He withdrew his dagger and swept the leaves away.

    That one item revealed from the brownish leaves sent him a stunning spell, while giving him an overwhelming joy right after. His hand grew towards the item with extra care.

    It''s¡­ It''s a sk?! There''s a sk right here?

    He removed the sk from the leaves. The sk seemed to be a portable version of its typicality, with a more limited design, but that was more than pleasing to Ye Chong.

    A portable sk? Ye Chong had something in mind as he began digging with a twig, after keeping his dagger away. He could not dig the ground with a sharp de, the edges could rupture something, assuming there was actually something really helpful underground.

    There was something! There was indeed something!

    A set of skeleton, once of a rotten corpse perhaps. There was no clothing left. Ye Chong presumed the corpse had been buried underground so long that every bit of it had disintegrated. Right next to the skeletons, there were a few containers typical to the alchemyboratory, along with a few metallic essories.

    The dead should be once an alchemist. Spected Ye Chong, the evidences were pretty tant. His eyes were all glued upon the skeleton while giving zero attention on those essoriesying next to it.

    If some jewelry-fanatics were ever along, they would go literally insane the moment they perceived the sparkle within the ground. There was a silver pendant with a piece of Skylee embedded, there was also a ring made out of dark amberjade - every single piece of the essories was priceless, justifying the social-standing of the dead in the past. Well, to Ye Chong, they were not as valuable as the sks though.

    The containers were tightly sealed, which made Ye Chong hesitate to make his next move.

    Like hell knows what the containers stored! Those could be the security measures, the self-defense mechanism by this once-alchemist possibly from the ancient to hurt people. And as far as Ye Chong revealed the reagents he made in the story, all of them turned out to be extremely fatal, the Bluefire chemical was the prime example, which one could never survive once they got ignited by Dimming Blue.

    Assuming those were the contents, it would be horrible to open the containers recklessly here¡­

    Nheless, the hesitation onlysted for a few seconds, as the need of a proper container demanded Ye Chong to gamble his luck. He made up his mind - he would be opening the containers.

    He took the first container, which was tightly sealed, but well the effect of the content could not be guaranteed as it had probably been a century old.

    He turned the knob. The inside was some dark red powder half a bottle full, soon a choking spiciness raided the air.

    The heck is this? Ye Chong was bewildered, but he could not identify what it exactly was just yet. He gave it a thought¡­ and carefully poured a little bit of the powder at one thick leaf of the Liebig tea sprout nearby.

    A chemical reaction urred?!

    His nasal cavity was then choked by the tiny column of smoke. Ye Chong took a look at the sprout. The sprout had withered?! It only took a second for the powder to drain every bit moisture of the tea sprout. The thin trunk had lost its sulent strength and had shattered.

    This is an intensive dehydrating agent?! Wait, I had seen something like this in the chip before¡­ Redsand! The Redsand Dehydrator! The name struck Ye Chong''s mind.

    He then reced the cap, with extreme caution as if fearing a single particle to be freed into the wind and fall onto his body. His heart tightened, he tried calming himself.

    Such terrifying dehydrator!

    "The Redsand Dehydrator is used for extremely efficient dehydrating. It is known for its spiciness and is a secret form exclusive to the Smoke branch of alchemy."

    That was the description of Redsand in the encyclopedia entry, although the form, as the way it was referred, remained unmentioned in the chip. Never once Ye Chong would expect the "dehydrator" - while its name sounded uninteresting as Lunatic Guan briefly mentioned it - turned out to be such brutal horror. He believed, it would only take a little bit of Redsand Dehydrator topletely dehydrate a fully grown adult.

    He recalled that there was a list of instructions on using the powder in the entry as well. Apparently, in order to handle the powder properly, the user would have to apply a thick coat of proofing on the hands. The proofing was rather simple to produce, It was technically a mixture of Pagodamadens fluid with Extrafragrans powder and a hint of Chrysanthemum Balm for condensing effects. The end product would be colorless while exuding a gentle hint of aroma. It would form a film over the hands to prevent the powder from contacting the hands. The proofing had a wide range of uses. Most deadly-on-contact alchemy production would require it for general handling.

    Ye Chong did see these raw materials somewhere in the forest before.

    So was this person from the Smoke branch?

    Ye Chong looked at the skeleton, spection began brewing in his mind as his curious eyes wandered at the few other containers.

    He proceeded with his lucky draw as he opened the remaining fortune bottle, only to discover that all of the content had already decayed over the years. And Redsand Dehydrator survived the centuries probably because of its supreme quality seal. Well at least he got a few containers for professional alchemy now.

    The sks might be limited in its functions but the richness of the resources here had already provided him countless blueprints of his exciting production, since there were precious nts everywhere in the woods.

    Ye Chong was so joyful that he actually cleaned the containers using the fluid of Water Bamboo extravagantly.

    Ye Chong gave onest nce at the skeletons. On proper thought, he should bury it and he did eventually.

    Just when he was gong to toss his first handful of dirt, he noticed the essories.

 Chapter 362 - Dangerous Forest III

    <h4>Chapter 362: Dangerous Forest III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He recognized the silverlight metal. This metal was extremely malleable, and a good additive for alloys to improve malleability. However, people would not usually do that, since it was a very rare kind of metal. It was not cost efficient to use it. Ye Chong was never interested in rare but useless metals, even though he could always recognize them. Ye Chong only knew about Skylee, which was a type of gem.

    The pendant had a very interesting shape, like smoke, or flowing water. The thread circled around the Skylee gem in a whirl of fantasy. The ne was intricately carved and very impressive. However, Ye Chong did not have the aesthetic sense to appreciate it. To him, it was only a typical example of useless luxury.

    What really interested him was the dark amberjade ring; more precisely, the ck pearl on the dark amberjade ring. It was an utterly ck and wless ck pearl. Most people would think that it was naturally made, but it was not. Ye Chong recognized this pearl as the fruit of the Herro smoke tree, called the smoke pearl. Dark amberjade was a very rare kind of jade, but it paled inparison to the smoke pearl.

    In Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip, the Herro smoke tree was ssified as extinct. Every Herro smoke tree would only produce three smoke pearls. That was exactly how rare the smoke pearl was.

    To theyman, the smoke pearl was only an average ck colored bead. To an alchemist, however, it was an absolute treasure. Smoke pearls could counter almost any kind of knockout agent. Of course, there were exceptions. ording to Lunatic Guan, there were three kinds of knockout agents that could still affect a person wearing a smoke pearl - Qian system¡¯s Illusion, Hanming school¡¯s Ice, and Jiu Family¡¯s Blissful Drunkenness. However, even the three strongest knockout agents would have diminished effects when a smoke pearl was in y.

    A battle between alchemists usually ur silently, without any physical violence, or any dazzling transformations. However, it was just as dangerous as mech battles or humanbat. The oue of these battles could be decided in seconds. This gave the alchemists a mysterious facade, but the cruelty thatid within was like a nightmare to most people. For example, a person who died from the redsand dehydrator would dry up into a corpse without any water at all.

    This was a mysterious and secretive field of knowledge.

    Compared to them, the alchemists in the Five Gxies were all academics. They only did research, and lived much more peaceful lives.

    Ye Chong knew all he did about the alchemists here from Lunatic Guan. In the end, it was only a theoretical understanding of things. It was when he used the Night Enchantment that he came to truly appreciate the strength of alchemists. If not for those Night Enchantment pills, he would definitely not be able to handle the situation. The sight of a huge crowd of people slumping into unconsciousness was staggering.

    Knockout agents were alchemy weapons that Ye Chong had grown familiar with. Even with his abilities, he was easily knocked out by Lunatic Guan. The smoke pearl dark amberjade ring was a priceless treasure, and it allowed Ye Chong to freely move within the forest .

    He immediately put on the dark amberjade ring with the smoke pearl and, after some thought, the silverlight ne as well. As for the other items he found, Ye Chong did not find them particrly useful, so he buried them together with the skeleton he found.

    With this discovery, Ye Chong¡¯s difficult life in the forest turned for the better.

    With the smoke pearl dark amberjade ring on him, he did not have to worry at all about the poisonous miasma and knockout chemicals from certain nts. The few alchemy products he found might have simple uses, but they gave Ye Chong a definitive advantage.

    The resources here were abundant, giving him plenty of choice.

    His leaf pouches, which were filled with different types of ingredients, were now filled with alchemy products instead. He had treatments for injuries, insect repellents, strong knockout agents, alchemy products to cover his body scent and many more. Ye Chong never considered if these alchemy products were valuable, he only prepared them based on his needs for survival.

    He even made plenty of nutrition pills. Nutrition pills were a must-have for aged alchemists. They were made of high calorie ingredients, and could be easily absorbed by the human body. Ye Chong chose the best ingredients, such as the cray fruit, and prepared two big bags of leaf pouches of nutrition pills out of them. They were enough tost him for two months.

    "This is an alchemist¡¯s paradise," Ye Chong wondered to himself. If only he had aboratory here, equipped with all the necessary tools and devices. That would be wonderful!

    Ye Chong was in some ways an academic.

    The skeleton he found came to mind unrestrained, and Ye Chong had a newfound respect for the person.

    Time passed quickly, especially when he was busy. Ye Chong grew to like this ce. There were no fights here, and the ce provided a bountiful supply of resources. It was filled with all kinds of treasures, waiting for him to discover. These days, Ye Chong¡¯s skills in alchemy improved by leaps and bounds. Of course, many nts were sacrificed in his path to excellence.

    No alchemy would use all these precious resources carelessly like Ye Chong did.

    Ye Chong began to move more freely in the forest. The only problem was, he still could not be sure of his path.

    He advanced every day, even though he was not sure if he was only going around in circles. His leaf pouches were full of his possessions, but the weight was nothing to Ye Chong, and was not a hindrance to his movements.

    Perhaps it was due to his vegetarian diet, or the long duration spent without sunlight, but Ye Chong¡¯s skin turned fairer. With his slender body and fair skin, he looked even more like a soft-spoken gentleman. If Shang could see Ye Chong now, he would be scandalized. However, Ye Chong did not have much of an opinion on his own looks.

    With leaf pouches hanging all over his body, and a wooden spear in his right hand, Ye Chong looked like a savage. The spear was made out of ironwood. Ye Chong had happily stumbled upon an ironwood tree that was older than five centuries some time ago.

    This ironwood tree was about 150 meters tall, with such a wide girth that it needed about a dozen people to circle around to fully surround it. The ironwood tree had a peculiar look. Its branches were all straight, like an artificial product. From the bottom of the tree to the top, a branch would appear every 30 centimeters. The lowest branch was the shortest, and the length increased going up the tree. These horizontal branches spiraled up evenly. From afar, the tree looked like a pir, attached with horizontal steps that spiraled upwards.

    Ironwood was a very tough material, the hardest known wood material. The lowest branches were the toughest, and Ye Chong had chosen one that was two meters long. He would not have been able to break off the branch if he did not have his sharp dagger. Ye Chong tried to break off the lowest branch with his bare hands and found to his surprise that he could not. This was also the first time Ye Chong got to experience the difficult process of sawing with his dagger.

    Besides the surprise, Ye Chong was also overjoyed to find that the wood would make for an excellent weapon. He spent an entire day shaping the branch into a spear. He suddenly recalled the spiral patterns on the wooden spears in Sang Family Vige. They prevented slipping and offered a more stabilized flight when thrown. Ye Chong etched those patterns on the entire wooden spear he made.

    Ye Chong was very satisfied with the final product. The pitch ck body of the weapon made it inconspicuous, and its surface was evenly covered with spiral patterns. The t ends of the spear were carved with three uneven fullers [1]. The entire weapon was ck in color, but upon closer observation, one could notice that it was actually a very thick ink ck.

    The forest did notck poisonous vegetation. Ye Chong managed to extract the sap from five different types of poisonous nts, and used them to make a mixed poison. It was extremely poisonous and fatal. Ye Chong believed that it would definitely be on par with the most deadly poisons recorded in Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip.

    Ye Chong dipped the spearhead repeatedly in this poison for no less than 50 times. He was absolutely patient when it came to preparing his weapon of defense. He was surprised to find that the colorless poison further darkened the ironwood spearhead after dipping, but luckily the weapon was already ck in color, so the effect was not too noticeable.

    The wooden spear was a truly dangerous weapon, and even Ye Chong had to use it with extreme care. If he identally cut himself with the spearhead, he would definitely not survive. The poison was so strong that there would not be time to ingest an antidote, and in any case, Ye Chong did not know of any antidote for it.

    Ye Chong carefully wrapped the spearhead with his leaf pouch, and used it very cautiously.

    The forest was muchrger than Ye Chong anticipated. It had been a full month, but Ye Chong had not reached the edge of it. Of course, there was also the problem of directions, but he knew that he had traveled a veryrge distance.

    His waist was now adorned with seven blue wooden stakes. These wooden stakes were about 20 centimeters long, and looked a bit like arrows. A few days ago, Ye Chong had identally touched a bellvine shooter, which "bestowed" upon him these seven wooden stakes. They had nearly killed him, since bellvine shooter¡¯s air sac had a kind of strong hallucinogen. It was a nerve agent that caused mental disorientation and affected one¡¯s motor functions.

    It would be a death wish to wander about this dangerous forest carelessly.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong did not encounter any dangers since then.

    One day, Ye Chong noticed that the nts around him were gradually growing sparse. This was encouraging to him.

    Perhaps he was in the right direction!

    [1] Fuller - groove on the t side of a de (or in this case, spearhead), used to lighten the de.

 Chapter 363 - Valley I

    <h4>Chapter 363: Valley I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong never expected to see a cliff that soared sky high at the edge of the forest. This cliff was unlike any other. It was as though someone had forcibly chopped off the edge. The walls of the cliff went outwards going up, which made climbing up impossible. Ye Chong longed to have a mech right now. Even the simplest mech would spare him the trial ahead.

    He walked along the bottom of the cliff. Up above, the cliff reached outwards, blocking the sun and providing him shade. Cool water dripped asionally from the rocks above onto him.

    There were no signs of human activity here. In fact, there were no signs of human activity in the forest. Those Smoke school members must have entered the forest hundreds of years ago. The forest was extremely dangerous, bordering fatal. No matter how you strong you were physically, theck of alchemy knowledge would surely lead to an early death. Alchemists may be able to identify dangerous nts, but it was highly likely for them to fall prey to the likes of the web palm and the bellvine shooter due to their weak physiques. Didn¡¯t the Smoke school members who had their smoke pearls died here too?

    Ye Chong felt very blessed to still be alive right now. He was very grateful towards Lunatic Guan. Without her, he would probably be a corpse by now.

    The moist walls of the cliff were covered with moss, and smelt of moist decay.

    It might be foolish of him to walk along the bottom of the cliff, but it was also the safest. These days, getting his bearings was his number one problem when he was in the forest.

    He walked for three days. There was no need to concern himself with getting his directions right, so Ye Chong advanced quickly. He ran tirelessly like a leopard.

    At the two ends of his wooden spear hanged tworge string bags. His weapon was reduced to a shoulder pole. The string bags were not what someone with Ye Chong¡¯s crude handiwork could make. It was actually from a sarmentous nt, known as the earthlush wisteria. They grew along the ground, spreading out like a web. Ye Chong used them to make his string bags. Inside the string bags were the materials that Ye Chong harvested from his surroundings, including a multitude of alchemy ingredients inrge quantities. Ye Chong also found nts that were not recorded in Lunatic Guan¡¯s chip. He collected samples of them for analysis at someter time.

    Deep down, Ye Chong had the quirks of a researcher.

    On the third day, he finally made a discovery. Ye Chong noticed the crack in front of him, and stopped in his tracks.

    The crack zigzagged down the walls of the cliff from the top. It was very narrow, only about five meters across. Where did this crack lead to? No one knew, but Ye Chong hoped that it would bring him out of this forest.

    The forest was like an alchemist¡¯s paradise, but without the proper apparatus, it was like seeing the most alluring and naked woman before him and not being able to touch her. Aside that, his warily spent days were wearing him out. Moreover, he was also getting tired of the fruits that he had enjoyed very much at the beginning. It was too bad that he could find even an ant in this forest.

    It took only three seconds for Ye Chong to make his decision.

    Once inside the crack, it opened up into a wide space. This was no crack in the wall, but a huge valley. The entrance to the valley was narrow, but it widened up as he progressed deeper inside.

    It was like entering a whole new world.

    The dark red rocks that formed the walls were jagged. The walls of the valley were in patches of faint or intense dark red, like being washed with blood. There was no sign of life inside, not even moss, and it was dead quiet. Unlike the moist air in the forest, it was very dry in here. The air was almost scorching to breathe in.

    Ye Chong¡¯s first reaction was to feel for the bamboo water container on his waist. He rxed when found there to have enough water for him.

    He turned serious. This ce was weird, no matter how he looked at it. Ye Chong took down the string bags hung on his wooden spear, and tied them onto himself.

    He gathered his focus. With the wooden spear in hand, he advanced slowly but firmly. The solid rock felt nice below his feet, suitable for him to spurt if necessary. Back in the forest, the thick and softyer of decaying leaves under his feet made him feel unsteady all the time. Now, he finally had solid ground to stand on.

    As he moved further in, Ye Chong found that there were actually some vegetation in the valley. He could find moss in shaded corners behind some rocks. Water that seeped through the rocky walls were enough for him to replenish his water supply, even though it did not taste as good as his own water stored in his bamboo container.

    Ye Chong walked for about five kilometers from the entrance, by his estimate. He took five hours to cover this distance out of wariness.

    The day turned dark, and night came.

    Nighttime did not bother Ye Chong, since he could see clearly with just a little bit of light. Ye Chong did not stop walking just because it turned dark.

    There did not seem to be any dangerous animals in here. Ye Chong sighed in relief. This was definitely good news for him.

    The dark red valley walls seen in the dark looked like a giant sleeping creature. The cloudless sky was covered with twinkling stars.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong felt moved by the vast changes that were happening to him. The stars shone like diamonds in the sky, even though they would look much brighter in outer space. However, without the atmospheric disturbance, they would not twinkle as they would have right now. Some time ago, he was still flying a highly advanced starship; now, he was like a savage trying to find his way through the forest.

    Ye Chong smiled wryly to himself and kept on walking. There was a right turn ahead. Somewhere above eye level, a rocky part jutted out.

    Something weird then happened!

    Suddenly, the rocky part that jutted out began to glow in patches of a vivid purple, as if some purple lights were turned on!

    The palm-sized purple glowing patches continued to increase in numbers. Soon, the entire rock was covered in dense patches of purple light.

    The soft purple glow was not too bright, but it was still very visible against the darkness, making it impossible to miss.

    Ye Chong had sharp eyes. He saw everything clearly, sudden as it was. The rock was covered with a kind of seastar-like organism. These organisms rested on the rock. They were the ones that emitted the purple flow. In fact, they were glowing like five-pointed stars, but the details were lost due to the distance.

    Ye Chong turned back and ran without hesitation.

    The best strategy against an unknown threat was not to investigate, but to get away as fast as possible.

    Ye Chong did not see the strangeness that was unfolding behind him. The purple patches floated into the air. WIth closer observation, one could see that the glowing organisms were spinning about themselves very quickly, thus propelling themselves into the air. Their five soft tentacles were like five des of a propeller. By spinning very quickly about themselves, their bodies looked like purple discs, or purpleser discs.

    Ye Chong did not see this, as he was running as fast he could away from them.

    Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

    Ye Chong heard the sharp booms from behind him. He turned around and was shocked by what he saw. Heavens! The numerous t purpleser discs were alling towards him. There were so many of them, probably in the hundreds.

    They¡¯re quick! Ye Chong had thought that he was quick, but now he knew better. He was not five hundred meters away when the five-pointed star organisms caught on to him.

    Ye Chong felt a cold chill oveing him.

    He heard something closing in from behind, and quickly rolled to the side.

    Puff puff puff!

    The rock in front of Ye Chong was hit! No less than a few dozens of purpleser discs had hit on the rock. The solid rock crumbled under the attacks of the purpleser discs. They easily prated the solid rock like it was tofu.

    Ye Chong felt another chilling wave oveing him, and shuddered. He knew that his body was not as tough as that rock. If the purpleser discs hit him ¡­ The thought was terrifying.

    Ye Chong reacted quickly,unching himself high up into the air.

    Dozens more of the purple discs buried themselves into the ground where Ye Chong was.

    With death so close, Ye Chong felt his surroundings abruptly slowing down. His breathing calmed down, an ability honed through countless experiences of escaping death.

    He gripped onto his wooden spear, and his vision tuned out theser discs. Now, Ye Chong could only see fast-flying blue dots around him. His vision had once again turned into this simple geometrical image.

    While his vision became simplified, it was still the mostplicated geometrical image he had ever seen. The blue dots moved quickly, and he was not sure if he could lock on to them. The faint and short blue lines were also moving unpredictably, appearing and vanishing randomly in his vision, making it even more difficult to lock on to the blue dots.

    Ye Chong considered his situation calmly, making rapid calctions in his head. He was at the peak of his calcting abilities, abined result of extreme calmness and madness.

    His eyes shone coldly, without any trace of emotion. He was silent as a grave, his apathetic expression much like a lifeless corpse.

    His legs stepped here and there and he wielded his wooden spear with deadly uracy.

    This was a moment that would inspire anybat expert.

    Every establishedbat expert would have their own style ofbat. It could be passionate and aggressive, or continuous and gentle. It could be with overwhelming force, or strange and unpredictable. Ye Chong¡¯s preferred style was one of calction. Calmness, uracy and efficiency were all hallmarks of Ye Chong¡¯sbat style.

    Now, Ye Chong demonstrated the full potential of his ownbat style.

    The wooden spear always took the shortest route to its victim, delivering an urate and lethal blow to the purpleser discs.

    The purpleser discs came at him like heavy rain. They traced purple archs in the dark due to their fast speed. The night sky of the valley was now filled with a purple meteor shower, and at the center of this meteor shower was a young man with his wooden spear.

    The leafy covers on the ends of the spear were already torn open, exposing the ink dark spearhead beneath. Only when the spearhead met its purple glowing target that it would shine with an eerie ck.

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands were moving as fast he could manage. He was like a springpressed to its limit and then released, unleashing his strongest attack. His efficient attacks and cold, calctive mind saved his life.

    He could hear sharp cries from the purple creatures. Ye Chong¡¯s wooden spear was also damaging to them. Five-edged mollusk bodies were scattered around him, their purple glow slowly fading out. The poison on the ironwood spearhead was strong enough to kill these creatures that Ye Chong had never seen before.

    Ye Chong¡¯s breathing shortened. His stamina was depleting very quickly.

    133 of them! That was how many blue dots he had hit. They were already decreasing in numbers, but these creatures learned from experience. They switched tactics, abandoning straight lined attacks. They circled around Ye Chong, but did not easily approach him .

    This change made it even harder for Ye Chong. He could only sense the attacksing when they were near, so he could only focus himself and be prepared. The swooping sounds of those creatures as they flew around him were a heavy load on his mind.

    In his first round of attack, Ye Chong had moved his hands so fast that he exceeded Mach 20! If word of this got out, it would create an uproar in both the Five Gxies and the He Yue Gxy.

    However, Ye Chong had no perspective of how fast his hand actually were.

    Up until now, he had benefited from other people in terms ofbat and alchemy. Mech maneuvering was the only thing that he reliedpletely on real life experience to improve himself, after Mu/Shang¡¯s initial training.

    These star-shaped creatures knew about tactics!

    Ye Chong was troubled. There were at least 200 more of them. On the other hand, they were beginning to fly around almostzily, like they were drunk. With their charming sways and small sized bodies, they would certainly make for popr pets for the fairer sex. Ye Chong, however, was deeply troubled by their movements.

    After nearly half a minute, those star-shaped creatures swayed higher up unsteadily, as if they could crash down at any time.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes swept across something. He was immediately encouraged, as he now had a n.

    On the ground were his many scattered leaf pouches. When Ye Chong rolled on the ground just now, his string bags were torn open, leaving his leaf pouches all over the ground. However, he had wrapped each pouch tightly, and none of them were torn open.

    Ye Chong¡¯s n was to open these leaf pouches. Inside were more than 30 different kinds of knockout agents.

    He continued to stare upwards, wary of the swooping purple discs around him, all the while quietly moving towards the leaf pouches.

    The star-shaped creatures were smart, but even they could not guess what Ye Chong was up to.

    Ye Chong was now three steps away from the nearest leaf pouch. He was secretly overjoyed, but dared not be careless. The closer he was to victory, the easier it was to fail. He had no intention of wasting this opportunity.

    His wariness paid off.

    Swish!

    15 purpleser discs came towards him from all directions. Seen from above, one would be able to make out some crude form of coordination amongst these 15ser discs.

    While there were only 15 of them, their attack this time was many times stronger.

    Exhausted, Ye Chong¡¯s wooden spear still swung about deftly, but now that he was no longerpletely tuned in forbat, his movements were a little stalled. He only killed seven of them and avoided five.

    On his body were three bloody gashes, like being cut with a fast moving knife. He experienced first hand the power of those fast-spinning tentacles.

    The faint scent of blood in the air was very tempting for the hundreds ofser discs in the air. This was their first sess, and they were all getting excited.

    This slight dy was an opening for Ye Chong.

    Without further hesitation, Ye Chongunched himself towards the leaf pouches.

    Rip!

    The tightly wrapped leaf pouches burst under Ye Chong¡¯s pressure. The colourful powder inside was now released to the air, their colours unrecognizable in the dark.

    The air smelled of a blend of every possible smell. All knockout agents were designed to spread out wide to increase their effective range.

    In that instant, a fifty-meter radius around Ye Chong was filled with this powdery mist. The knockout agents, made of precious ingredients, were so dense that he could see through them. This wasteful use of the knockout agents would have caused a heartache in almost every alchemist, Ye Chong excluded.

    "30 over kinds of strong knockout agents, let¡¯s see how you fare?" Ye Chong thought to himself as he heaved a sigh of relief.

 Chapter 364 - Valley II

    <h4>Chapter 364: Valley II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The fact was, all the alchemy forms in Lunatic Guan¡¯s chips were very reliable. Crash! St! The star-shaped creatures fell from the sky like kites losing control. Even Ye Chong, with the protection of his smoke pearl, felt a little dizzy as he stayed in the smoky mist.

    He thought to himself, "What a strong agent!"

    Shang came to mind, for some reason. He would have loved these kinds of things. Shang was the type who was fond of sinister means of attack.

    Sigh, just when would he be able to meet Mu or Shang? From within the midst, Ye Chong¡¯s stony expression betrayed faint traces of warmth. Anyone who saw him now would have thought he was the same guy as the apathetic man they came to know. Now, Ye Chong was just a boy who missed his friends.

    This gentle moment of sentiment quickly evaporated, and his face returned to its usual coldness.

    Ye Chong crouched down and studied the weird creatures that nearly ended his life.

    The ground was covered with them. Some were still glowing a faint purple, while others had fadedpletely. They were the size of his palm, their soft bodies shaped like a five-pointed star. It was hard to notice the details of their dark purple skin in the dark, and Ye Chong did not find anything suspicious. Theyid quietly on the ground, bellies rising and falling rhythmically, looking quite adorable, with none of their earlier viciousness. Their five-pointed tentacles had a hard and sharp edge, deadly under high speeds.

    Ye Chong was not quite over with his risky encounter just yet. If he had responded slower, the odds were that he would be dead by now. These creatures were smart, whether due to their natural fighting instincts or innate intelligence. Whichever the case, they were still very dangerous beings to deal with.

    He did not know how long these creatures would stay under from the knockout agent, but Ye Chong would not risk his life to know the answer. He lifted his wooden spear, and stabbed at each and every one of those star-shaped creatures. The poison at the tip of the wooden spear was deadly. The creatures stopped moving and turned ck in color the instant they were cut with the spearhead.

    After finishing his job, Ye Chong felt a deep sense of fatigue oveing him. His legs felt heavy as lead. His entire body was drenched in sweat, and he felt cool under the gentle night breeze.

    Ye Chong did not sit down immediately. That would not do any good for restoring his stamina. Instead, he loosened up his body slowly, dragging along his heavy feet. The truth was, he was so tired that the thought of moving even a finger was overwhelming.

    Ye Chong gritted his teeth and fought against the wish to just lie down on the ground. He moved his arms and feet slightly. In the end, his effort paid off. His body did not ache as much, and he could feel his strength returning slowly. Now, he finally sat down, gasping heavily for breath.

    After half an hour, Ye Chong stood up. He felt invigorated, and no longer so fatigued.

    Ye Chong began to summarize and analyze his fight against the star-shaped creatures.

    What else was here? He did not know. However, he knew that there would be others. No one knew if there would be more of those star-shaped creatures.

    It seemed that he was really not suitable to work as an alchemist. He did not put alchemy on the same priority level asbat and mech maneuvering. He would only thought of using alchemy whenbat and mechs failed to solve his problems.

    He had unwittinglymitted this terrible mistake. Once, a long time ago, Mu had taught him to make use of all his resources and pick the most appropriate solution for each problem, and not rely purely on his preferred methods.

    If he had released those strong knockout agents and hallucinogens while he was running away earlier, those creatures would not have been able to touch a hair on him, and he would not have been in such a desperate situation. He remembered that he had ran for 500 meters away from them before they caught up to him. If, in those 500 meters, he had released some of those knockout agents, it would have been enough to deal with the whole lot of them.

    Ye Chongughed mockingly at himself before he picked up the undamaged leaf pouches. He counted them, and found that he had used almost all his knockout agents. The emergency just now did not allow him the luxury of deciding how much exactly to use.

    Back in the forest, Ye Chong produced a whole lot more of the knockout agents. The forest was rich with resources, and Ye Chong need only acquire the raw ingredients from the edge of the forest. However, he did not mind spending time on this endeavor, since it would increase his likelihood of surviving. He would not want to die just because he grew impatient.

    Ye Chong re-entered the valley this time fully prepared. He had seven leaf pouches hanging on his waist, with two of them open at all times. These seven leaf pouches were filled with strong knockout agents. The alchemy bottle filled with redsand dehydrator was also on his waist. He covered his palms with a thickyer of gum, but left his smoke pearl untouched. The two opened leaf pouches were filled with two strong knockout agents with a high dispersion rate. They formed a protective circle around Ye Chong. With the smoke pearl, Ye Chong was immune to its effects. If not for his ring, he would not have been able to use this n.

    Ye Chong did not slow down as he passed by the rocky part that jutted out from the wall fromst time. However, he was relieved to see it without any of those creatures.

    He marched on forward. The dark red walls had an oppressive feeling to it. The shady sky made the valley felt even more oppressive. There was no sound at all, not even a whisper. Even someone as mentally strong as Ye Chong frowned with worry.

    There was no soil in here. All the surfaces were made of rocks. The valley did not have any traces of human activity. The territory was uneven. However, it did not bother Ye Chong much. He could leap and climb like an animal.

    Gradually, the path along the valley grew more treacherous. There were troughs to watch out for everywhere, and it was hard to find a t surface. Ye Chong also noticed that the ground was sloping upwards. That meant he was climbing further up.

    The asional sounds of dripping water in the silent valley were unsettling.

    However, Ye Chong quickly got used to his environment. It reminded him of his time on the trash, of his solitary life before Mu or Shang made their appearance. The deste trash mountains were filled with unknown dangers, and he had to face them alone.

    Ye Chong soon dismissed those thoughts and focused on his surroundings. This was not the time for nostalgia.

    Just then, his ears caught an almost imperceptible buzzing sound.

    He immediately stopped in his tracks and focused on listening.

    It¡¯s right ahead! The sound came from in front of him, just beyond a bend.

    The buzzing sound grew louder, and it was heading towards him. Ye Chong quickly studied his surroundings, and found that the turn in front was about 40 meters wide.

    "Alright, let¡¯s do this!" Ye Chong decided on his strategy.

    He may not know what the buzzing sound implied, but it was never wrong to make the first move.

    He took down two of the leaf pouches on his waist and opened them carefully. These were two different kinds of knockout agents. They were both highly effective, and without color or smell, just like the rest of the knockout agents he prepared.

    Ye Chong spreaded them out evenly at the bend, moving with familiar ease. These two agents had an effective radius of about 50 to 80 meters, enough to cover the entire bend. A wide perimeter of knockout agents covered the entire bend.

    The valley had no wind, and that was very advantageous for Ye Chong.

    After doing all this, Ye Chong quickly retreated 500 meters back, before hopping into one of the deep troughs for cover. He wanted to see what the thing was. He must have a direct observation of this creature. If the knockout agents were ineffective, he would have to figure out something else. Of course, this was all for future preparations.

    The buzzing sound grew clearer and clearer. Ye Chong waited patiently in the trough, watching the bend closely. He was ready to make a run for it if the knockout agents did not work out.

    Buzzzz! The sound grew louder abruptly, like a plucked string of thick metal wire.

    From beyond the bend came a huge, dark swarm. The bend instantly fell into darkness.

    Ye Chong inhaled deeply, his heart racing. However, his expression did not change. He was all ready to run for his life!

    He had never seen so many flying insects before in his life. If these insects were immune to the knockout agents, then he would be in deep trouble. Combat skills were useless against an army of flying insects.

    He stared straight at the bend in front of him, full of suspense.

 Chapter 365 - Meeting a Mentalist Again

    <h4>Chapter 365: Meeting a Mentalist Again</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ssh! A ck rain came down at the bend! The ck swarm crashed down right at the bend, the dense swarm of ck insects giving Ye Chong goosebumps. He was d for doing what he did. Those insects filled him with dread as he watched.

    The buzzing sound was clear as day now. The fact that Ye Chong could still stay calm spoke volumes of his courage.

    The insects were slow and dumb. That was Ye Chong¡¯s assessment of the flying insects. However, anyone who found themselves surrounded by the insects would die horribly. To Ye Chong, these insects may not be as dangerous as the star-shaped insects yesterday, but without any alchemy chemicals or mechs to help him, he would have only one option - escape. This was not a foe he could fight with bare handedbat.

    The bend was not too wide, and with two full leaf pouches of knockout agents, the effect was quite satisfying. Up until now, none of the ck insects had flew past the bend yet.

    To any observer, these two knockout agents were the perfect insect exterminators. The ground was covered with a thickyer of ck insects. However, the insects were not exactly intelligent, and continued to fly straight into the bend.

    The insect rain continued on for a full 10 minutes. An entire flying army was thus silently vanquished.

    With the buzzing sound gone, the valley returned to its initial silence.

    Ye Chong waited for another five minutes, making sure that no more ck insects wereing from beyond the bend beforeing out of his trough.

    He studied the ck insects closely. They were thumb-sized, with three pairs of wings on their backs. Each insect¡¯s body was covered with a ck, metal-like shell. Under its pair of redpound eyes was a sharp, hollow needle. At the end of its tail was a ck, sharp needle. These two must be its weapons. The ck insects looked like hos, but had a few differences with them too. Ye Chong could not determine what they were. The universe was full of all sorts of creatures.

    He dismissed the problem quickly, since it was truly a waste of time trying to figure them out.

    The knockout agents were ineffective against Ye Chong. He gathered all the ck insects together on the ground, which piled up like a mound. In the end, knockout agents were not lethal, and they had an effective time limit.

    Ye Chong carefully took out his redsand dehydrator and sprinkled them sparingly on the ck mound. He could hear small sttering sounds, and the mound shrunk immediately like a melting snow mountain, except that it was happening all too quickly.

    Once he saw to the end of the ck insects, Ye Chong returned his redsand dehydrator back to its pouch, satisfied with its work. He would not want any of those ck insects to attack himter from behind. Who knew how long those two knockout agents were effective against these insects?

    Even though Ye Chong had won, he did not let down his guard. Instead, his two dangerous encounters had led him to be more careful.

    He advanced slowly. Thend grew more treacherous, and often times he would have to climb to move forward.

    Ye Chong was surprised to find there to be a small river in this ce. The river zigzagged its way down from high above, bringing life to the valley. Years of water flow shaped the surface of the solid rocks, leaving big and small troughs here and there like a crisscrossingwork. The river branched and converged along the troughs as it flowed down, and finally seeped through the creaks of the rocks into an underground river.

    Perhaps it was due to the water, but Ye Chong found the asional nt in this area, holding onto their lives as they sprouted from the cracks between the rocks.

    The further up he went, therger the river flow, and the more nts he saw.

    Ye Chong estimated that he must be about two thousand meters above where he started. The ground was growing level, and he could see small inds of vegetation here. The nt looked healthy, unlike the dead atmosphere in the valley. Here, the temperature was warm enough, and the weather suitable for life. Ye Chong was surprised to see animals here too, scampering off as he made his way through. The only thing that did not fit into the picture was Ye Chong himself. He looked alerted, stepping lightly in preparation, the wooden spear in hand.

    Ye Chong abruptly halted. His eyes lit up, and his pulse raced.

    He had found signs of human life! There, on the soft grassy in was the trace of human footsteps. Ye Chong crouched down to have a closer look. Judging from the freshly broken des of the grass, this person must have been here not too long ago.

    Nheless, Ye Chong did not get overexcited. That would only get him in danger. His vignce did its work once again, and he quickly calmed down. He knew nothing about this person, about whether he would be received with friendliness or hostility. Staying on his guard would maximize his chances of survival.

    Ye Chong followed the trail.

    "Who is it?" A voice abruptly sounded by Ye Chong¡¯s ear. He felt a sudden dizziness. Ye Chong was surprised, but he reacted immediately, rolling to the side into a bush. When he reached a small tree, he suddenly leapt up andnded on the tree. Anybat expert would be amazed by his feat.

    His every movement was wless. His reaction time was amazing, and his hiding location was excellent. From above the tree, he could watch everything around him while staying hidden behind the leaves.

    Logically, Ye Chong should have had the upper hand right away.

    However, he was surprised to find things not as simple as they seemed to be.

    "Humph!" The voice humped coldly out of nowhere.

    His battle instinct, honed by long experiences in actualbat, warned him of extreme danger! Right after the voice, he felt something binding his body when in fact, there was nothing around him.

    The woman in white training garb came to mind - Rui Bing! That was his first thought, which was weird! However, he did not have time to think about it. If the voice was not male, he would have thought it was Rui Bing. He was very familiar with this form of attack, having sparred frequently with Rui Bing.

    He was surprised, but stillposed.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes grew focused, and his vision began to fill up with many blue lines, swimming around like fishes.

    The blues lines were changing drastically, and Ye Chong¡¯s vision was filled with the sight of them. He did not panic, however. This was familiar to him.

    As expected, the ever-changing blue lines suddenly undergone a drastic change, and began to converge onto a spot. His vision was now all cleared up except for a blue dot.

    Unlike Rui Bing¡¯s, this blue dot was a lot fainter.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes lit up. The wooden spear in his hand came to life. A ck figure shot its way across the air.

    The wooden spear met its target, hitting the blue spot. From the feel of his hand, Ye Chong felt that he had stabbed through something, but he was surprised to find the binding on him still there! Based on his experience fighting Rui Bing, he could always make it go away once he attacked the blue dot.

    However, that strong feeling of restriction around Ye Chong¡¯s body persisted.

    "Huh?" The man hidden in the shadows sounded surprised.

    Ye Chong did not panic because of this unexpected oue. His arm muscles contracted abruptly, and the wooden spear began to vibrate at high frequency. The ironwood was strong, and when the spear vibrated, it became a terribly powerful weapon. Snap! A soft sound was heard. Ye Chong felt his body go loose, and the restraint was gone.

    Ye Chong moved without hesitation, his body now a blur. Without knowing his enemy¡¯s position, the best option would be to move fast to prevent being targeted, and try to locate his enemy.

    "Jie expert!" The hidden assaulter¡¯s voice was full of surprise, and even a little joy.

    Ye Chong turned. The man had exposed his location through his voice.

    Ye Chong¡¯s explosive power propelled him forward like an arrow!

    A mentalist!

    When Ye Chong had his first look of the attacker, his mind immediately supplied a name for him. Mentalists were a mysterious bunch, and he had not seen one for a long while. Thest time was in the Orbits.

    Mentalists were easy to recognize. They always wore a light green robe, and dressed inly. More importantly, they had a unique aura about them, and Ye Chong could easily identify them. Be it Jia Zhuo or Mr Yin, both had left a deep impression in Ye Chong.

    Mu or Shang had even interrogated Mr Yin for a lot of information about mentalist training, but it was a pity that, unlike with other skills, Ye Chong had absolutely no talent for it. He had kept practicing meditation to no avail. If meditation was not useful forbat, Ye Chong would have abandoned it a long time ago.

    This mentalist had long white hair that reached down smoothly all the way to his waist. His smooth face made him look incredibly young. Only the crow¡¯s feet showed his true age. He had a mature, weather-worn face and a refreshing smile. Donning light green clothing, the white-haired man stood out easily. Despite his heavily discolored clothing with many tears to match, he still looked like aposed gentleman.

    "What a young Jie expert!" The white-haired man did not sound hostile, and even said this with a smile.

    Ye Chong did not reply. He was estimating the distance between tem. If heunched himself forward, what were the odds of him killing the man in one blow? Mentalists were too mysterious, and even Mu or Shang did not know much about them.

    More importantly, this white-haired mentalist was very strong!

 Chapter 366 - Huang Baiyi

    <h4>Chapter 366: Huang Baiyi</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The white-haired mentalist smiled as though he could read Ye Chong¡¯s thoughts, and spoke up first, "Rx, rx, Ie in peace. Oh, you should know that mentalists are very sensitive."

    Ye Chong knew this alright. Mentalists were all about mental training. They were more sensitive than the average person. Evenbat experts with their strong six senses were no match for the mentalists. Strong mentalists could even do something akin to having premonitions, and even Mu or Shang did not understand the reason behind this.

    It was a queer phenomenon, but a true one, and Ye Chong had seen it in action himself. Back when he fought against Feng Su, the woman¡¯s fighting techniques had left a deep impression in him. The truth was, Feng Su was not all that great inbat, but he was the one who was in a tight spot when they fought.

    Ye Chong was not afraid of these abstract concepts. He knew more about mentalists than the average person. Nothing in this world is absolute. These skills were only a kind of element, like speed and strength. Mentalists were just people who were particrly skilled in this element.

    They stood with 15 meters between them. Ye Chong did not attack immediately, since he was not confident of seeding. It was obvious that this white-haired man was much more powerful than Mr Yin in the Orbits. That mental restriction on him was also more powerful than Rui Bing¡¯s. Who knew if he had other ways of attacking! WIth 15 meters between them, it would only take him an instant to cover the distance. However, he also knew that while mentalists were physically weaker, their attacks were usually faster thanbat experts.

    They attack by controlling the mind.

    That was a bit iffy. Back on the trash, Mu had told Ye Chong about the importance of having spirit when attacking. However, Ye Chong had only really achieved this with hisnce techniques, which was also when he achieved Jie. However, even as a Jie expert, he could do little in terms of controlling the mind. On the other hand, Rui Bing as a Jie expert outdid him in this field. She could even perform purely mental attacks.

    Of course, Ye Chong had no opinion on that. He was in pursuit of strength. Strength was the result of abination of factors, and not just some specific ones. Besides, everyone had their own unique ways ofbat. Ye Chong, for example, excel in physical strength and speed. The September Lan Family¡¯s muscle control techniques allowed him to perform miraculous feats with his body. Aside from physical strength, speed and mind, there were many other elements at y, such as experience and tactics.

    "Who are you?" Ye Chong asked, his in voice sounding hard and expressionless.

    The white-haired mentalist was not offended. He smiled gently and said, "I am Huang Baiyi, a mentalist." Huang Baiyi was not exactly handsome, but his demeanor and charisma were wless. His voice was calm and steady, without any awkwardness. His calm demeanor was entirely opposite of Ye Chong¡¯s calmness; the former was warm, thetter cold.

    Ye Chong was doing a lot better now, as he could partially hide his killing intent. This was unlike before, when he was like an unsheathed de, always so noticeable and not fitting in whenever he went.

    "Huang?" Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened. "Do you know Huang Jiming?" He was very touchy with the subject of the Three Aristocratic Families. As members of Xi Feng n, most women had the surname Feng, while men had the surname Huang. Huang Jiming was one of the elites of Xi Feng n. If this white-haired mentalist was from Xi Feng n, he must know him.

    "Huang Jiming?" Huang Baiyi paused in thought, and shook his head. "Don¡¯t know him. Who¡¯s he?" His expression was open, nothing suspicious about him at all. More importantly, his pulse did not change.

    He was not lying. Ye Chong calmed down. This was the free space zone, and it was very unlikely to meet a member of the Xi Feng n.

    "Is he your enemy?" Huang Baiyi asked, curious.

    "No," Ye Chong answered crisply.

    Huang Baiyiughed softly and studied Ye Chong with interest. "My young friend, how old are you?"

    "Why should I tell you?" Ye Chong asked bluntly.

    Huang Baiyi was surprised, andughed heartily. "Okay, okay. How about this? I¡¯ll ask you a question, you¡¯ll ask me a question. Quid pro quo, and you have to answer all questions posed. What do you think?"

    Ye Chong thought about it, and nodded. "Alright." He too had many questions of his own. Perhaps this man could provide him some answers.

    Huang Baiyi smiled and said, "Alright, hmm, I¡¯ll ask first. Consider that my first question."

    "23," Ye Chong answered as briefly as possible.

    Huang Baiyi¡¯s eyes lit up with surprised. "Amazing! A Jie expert at such a young age, your future is full of potential! Hmm, your turn then."

    Ye Chong tilted his head and gave it a moment¡¯s thought before saying, "I¡¯d like to know your true strength." This was what Ye Chong needed to know right now, as it will guide him in making the right decisions.

    Huang Baiyi was caught off guard, and smiled wryly. "Now that¡¯s a hard one. I don¡¯t know how much you know about mentalists. Mentalists are not like your world ofbat, where there are clear delineation of levels in strength and achievement. Mentalists have no such levels, so I don¡¯t know how to describe my true strength." He pondered for a moment before continuing, "I began practising meditation when I was six, and it¡¯s been 60 years since. I reached my first bottleneck at 30, my second at 45. As for my abilities, well, I¡¯m not too badpared to the other mentalists."

    He spoke hisst sentence lightly, but it was tinged with absolute confidence.

    Ye Chong was shocked. If this man had practised meditation since six years old, and it had been 60 years since, then he must be 66 years old now. He could not reconcile the image of this white-haired middle-aged man and an elderly.

    Bottlenecks were something that anyone strong enough will have. Reaching a bottleneck meant that that person had achieved a significant level of proficiency. To the average person, reaching one bottleneck was already considered miraculous.

    Ye Chong had only reached his first bottleneck so far. It was when he broke through this bottleneck that he attained Jie. His second bottleneck did not seem likely. This man must be quite powerful if he had broke through two bottlenecks! While he did not know if bottlenecks had the same meaning for mentalists as they were forbat experts, he was sure that this man must be very powerful.

    "Err, if you¡¯re not happy with my answer, you can ask another question. This one doesn¡¯t count." Huang Baiyi¡¯s easy and open attitude was easily likeable.

    Ye Chong shook his head. "No need. You ask." From the confident voice of Huang Baiyi, he already had his answer.

    "Are you interested in learning the skills of mentalists?" Huang Baiyi looked straight into Ye Chong¡¯s eyes, and quickly exined, "Haha, you¡¯ll know how dull life is here very soon. It¡¯s better to find something to do to pass the time."

    "No," Ye Chong answered with certainty. He had no talent in the realm of the mind. This he knew from a long history of experimentation. Besides, he was already studying arge mix of skills. What he had to do know was to consolidate them. Picking up too many skills would only leave him unaplished in all of them.

    Ye Chong¡¯s solid rejection surprised Huang Baiyi. However, he quickly recovered and nodded. "Each to their own. Some things you can¡¯t force." He spoke with equanimity, suggesting a very open and tolerant personality.

    It was Ye Chong¡¯s turn. "What is this ce?"

    Huang Baiyi took a curious nce at Ye Chong. "You don¡¯t know? How did you end up here? This is the ck Forest, the most dangerous ce on Dankwood. You¡¯re lucky, considering that you¡¯ve survived so far."

    Huang Baiyi sat down as he continued, "I know what you want to ask. However, I don¡¯t know the way out. Guess how long I¡¯ve been staying here."

    "How long?" Ye Chong could not help but asked.

    "10 years!"

    Ye Chong fell silent. For someone to live here alone for 10 years, it must be a maddening experience.

    Huang Baiyi smiled, unperturbed. "It¡¯s not a bad ce, actually. There¡¯s no war, no fights. Once, I was lonely, but now you¡¯ve arrived. I¡¯m curious, though, how did you end up here? Even a Jie expert, it¡¯s very unlikely for you to survive the ck Forest unscathed."

    "I know a little alchemy," Ye Chong answered.

    "I see! The ck Forest is an alchemist¡¯s paradise, but also a ce of death! He was spot on. Ye Chong agreed with him. ck Forest offered alchemy ingredients in abundance, and was definitely a paradise for alchemists. However, this also made the ce dangerous. The average alchemist would not survive for long in the ck Forest.

    Huang Baiyi looked at Ye Chong curiously, and said almost jokingly, "To think that I¡¯d meet a genius. A Jie expert skilled in alchemy. Haha, that¡¯s a powerfulbination of skills!" It seemed that he was familiar with all these different upations.

    Ye Chong no longer felt like killing him anymore. If Huang Baiyi was speaking the truth, then it would be important to have arade here. He knew from his experience on the trash that loneliness was a much harder fight to win againstpared to physical battles.

    However, Ye Chong did not give up. He would study this area himself.

 Chapter 367 - The Dark Secret

    <h4>Chapter 367: The Dark Secret</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Huang Baiyi was kind of a nice person. That was Ye Chong''s conclusion after interacting with him for few days. He was both well-educated and well-mannered, while he was so experienced in socialization that even Ye Chong started to grow on him.

    "Did you discover anything?" asked Huang Baiyi.

    Ye Chong was obliged to scout the area daily to look for the way out here. Well, Huang Baiyi had done that before, while being a little pessimistic, he still asked Ye Chong in a concerned manner.

    "Nope," shook Ye Chong. He in fact had yet discovered a path out here. There were technically two and two directions only, where one led towards the ck Forest, the other led up the slope to the peak at which one would be weed by the deadly cliff. It did not sound so bad if one possessed a mech. Leaving the ce would only be a matter of time even with a Raven. Unfortunately, sadly, coincidentally, Ye Chong just had nothing in his hand. The waist bag of all technology and hope in his possession had already been handed to Rui Bing during the emergency back then.

    Technology is truly strength! The truest hope!

    That was the lesson of his life.

    "Well, take your time. You would get it someday. Not like we are in a hurry anyway,"forted Huang Baiyi, who had gotten used to the ce over the course of 10 years. He was practically cold-hearted on ever leaving the ce. It was rather satisfying that god decided to bestow him apanion in thisbyrinth.

    "Mhm," muttered Ye Chong as he twisted the grilling fish. If there was no other way out, then he had to join the ck Forest again. So there was this deep pond with fish of a particr species about the size of his palm and tasted fair. It would not be a chore to get some fancy spices from the forest to enhance their meals but passing the valley had be a taboo for him ever since those horrible lifeforms approached him. Luckily his second cautious visit ended safely and meals of the following days had turned better.

    Huang Baiyi was not the carnivore in the team, he favored the berries, which the fact was peculiar to Ye Chong that it felt like a miracle when Huang Baiyi had not suffered from nutritional deficiency in the past 10 years.

    Ye Chong would get him some berries on every visit to the ck Forest, since the forest offered way better variety than the outskirt. Huang Baiyi was frail, that every tiny travel sounded like taking his life as he panted. Ye Chong was pretty much amazed of how Huang Baiyi was once able to get so high on the slope.

    "So¡­," initiated Huang Baiyi, chewing thest bit of berry, "are you sure you don''t want to learn anything about Mentalist¡­ not at all?"

    "No," replied Ye Chong promptly.

    "Uhh¡­ We would need something else to kill the time¡­," The man pondered, "Do you know chess?" with expectation in his eyes, he asked.

    "I don''t know," shook Ye Chong. Mu had never taught him the dance of chess pieces over the board, though he remembered how Mu once was engaged in the duel with Little Rock on that.

    "How about I teach you then?" Huang Baiyi remained persistent.

    "No thanks," promptly Ye Chong replied.

    "Why?" Huang Baiyi was bewildered.

    "What good can it do to me?" Ye Chong seemed more perplexed than the man.

    "Well, you could kill fair amount of time with it?" answered Huang Baiyi

    "Time is precious. Don''t just kill it." Ye Chong did not seem to perceive the man.

    "What?" Huang Baiyi''s eyes erged, "Tell me, what do you do for pastime then?"

    "Learning¡­ Practicing¡­" He went silent, "Oh and¡­ thinking."

    "What else?" asked Huang Baiyi.

    "What do you mean by ''what else''?" Ye Chong was finding the question ridiculous, "What else can I do when I have no more time?"

    Huang Baiyi''s ultimate mentalist''s mentality seemed to have cracked¡­

    "You are only doing these, everyday?"

    "Not exactly," corrected Ye Chong. "There were also biological activities like eating and sleeping to sustain my living. 90% of the time would be on these 3 activities I''ve mentioned, with 10% as the buffer."

    "I see¡­" Huang Baiyi''sugh sounded dry as the sand, "Do you find it interesting then¡­"

    "Interesting?" Ye Chong tilted his head, pondered, "It''s always interesting to see your strength improving, isn''t it?" Probably that would be his favorite pastime then¡­

    "Right, right." Suddenly Huang Baiyi felt his linguistic ability had regressed decades behind, he was at loss of words.

    ¡­

    It was a moment of silence, then he asked, "Do you have a life goal then?"

    "Life goal?" Ye Chong was astonished, as his mind chewed on the phrase with Mu Shang and Rui Bing shing by¡­ "Com¡­" Something escaped his lips, "Companion. To findpanion."

    "Good goal." Huang Baiyi was calm again, briefly he smiled, "Better than what I had in mind when I was your age."

    "My age?" That was when Ye Chong realized this very man was already 66 years old.

    "Yeah." The old man was sentimental, "When I was your age, all I thought was how to avenge myself, even till 10 years ago." His tone was filled with the bitterness of the missing youth.

    "Avenge?" Ye Chong''s brows rose. That term was not foreign to his ears, as he once, too, had the same thought. He wanted to avenge his Papa, but that mission had gone unheard in the following arcs, while he also had seen through the vanity of the world. Papa will never return even if Ye Chong went and ughtered every viin behind the scene. It did not sound like an optimal choice if he was too consumed by it. Ye Chong held the same attitude towards his identity. Probably¡­ the Ye family had something to do with him, but what about that? He never agreed to the family, and never once he thought he was rted to them anyhow.

    He had Mu Shang¡­ mhm, and Rui Bing. Well, it felt a littleplicated to define the rtionship with her but, in short, Ye Chong felt these individuals were the truest intimate he could imagine.

    Other than these intimates, he could not think of any rtionship that he should care. After countless battles as he wandered in the gxies all these years, Ye Chong had learned what to fight for.

    Sigh¡­ I shall¡­ pick a safe ce and settle down, living in tranquility after I reunited with Mu Shang and Rui Bing.

    This was his sole wish, his greatest wish.

    "Yes, to avenge." Huang Baiyi''s nostalgic voice broke Ye Chong''s schemata, "Though I no longer feel anything of it, I in fact was once a person in search of avenger."

    "Why?"

    "The n. I was from a n, a great n." Pride was heard in his words, "Well, *once* a great n. We were glorious¡­ but I had never experienced the glory¡­ There were only 13 men left when I was born. And I, was the sole descendant¡­"

    Ye Chong flinched as he remembered a portion of history he had learned before. It was a brief lesson but he was able to grasp the gist of it, in which a tribe or n would probably be dead when there was hardly a poption remained in the world. With one single descendant, it was not even possible to reproduce.

    "Our bloodline is rather peculiar, as we could pass certain traits of our family to offspring only of parents from the same tribe. Well, hah, you could say our tribe is long done-for when I was born." His eyes wailed, "And I learned the past only after I grew up. Our tribe was never this deste, as we were once the natives of the free space zone, yes, the true innate local natives. But on one day, arge poption surged the area, with a way higher technological standard inparison, though they too did not fancy the technology. They were friendly too. They even invited the few main tribes over for tea, that includes us, of course. We were the brightest after all. However¡­ after the few tribes of poption witnessed the greatness of the outsiders'' technologies, things changed, as the residents parted¡­"

    "Few members of the group imagined leaving the space zone would guarantee them the best future, while the others insisted on preserving the traditions. Eventually, as what you might have presumed, the tribe broke up as those few members left the ce, whereas the remaining slowly got buried by time."

    Ye Chong felt his brain was struck by something, "Xi Feng!" The phrase escaped, he remembered that the little boy once mentioned that the Xi Feng n was once a part of the residents in the free space zone.

    "Hm?" Feng Baiyi seemed surprised, "Never expected you would know that." He gave a smile wryly, "I thought only people of the older generation would remember our tribe." Well it seemed like he was not aware that he was already old enough to be part of the older generation.

    Ye Chong then became calm, probably the "Xi Feng n" he mentioned was not quite the tribe Feng Baiyi had told in the story, since Feng Baiyi would never expect this very young man was an absolute outsider at this ce.

    "As soon as I started getting aware of this world, I always hold one ambition, that is, to find the lost tribal members who left the space zone in the past, though I have no idea what I could do if I ever find them, hah¡­ isn''t that funny, or even ridiculous? Hahaha¡­ I just wanted to find them, after all. I tried asking around, by hook or by crook, via kind words or threatening ones, eventually I got news, bad news¡­ that those outsiders had destroyed the pathway right after ourpatriots left the ce, thus the utter istion of the space zone with the outside world, and my deepest grief¡­"

    Ye Chong was silent. He knew there must be another way that could lead them to He Yue¡­ well, at least that one path they once took turned out to be one, maybe?

    "Not too long after this, I had hit a dead end of my training, and I began wandering, looking for a breakthrough, and that was when I encountered our men¡­" Feng Baiyi''s calm eyes suddenly tightened, the mood intensified!

    Ye Chong was shocked by the pressure exerted in the atmosphere. Such mentality¡­ that it could drive Ye Chong away¡­

    Feng Baiyi quickly withdrew the tension as he gave an apologetic smile, "I''m not sure of your understanding on the expertise of Mentalist, but it is simr to the martial arts, in which there are several branches, styles holding different beliefs and masteries. And our tribe, because of our bloodline, trained entirely differently than the folks out there. So, I did recognize them, at first sight, during the first moment of encounter. They should be the direct offspring of our tribe but¡­ strangely their performance was extremely low¡­"

    "Maybe you could not understand how mentalist works but generally offsprings of our tribe are born mentalists, yet awkwardly the energy they exuded was not purely of the mentality, there was something else¡­"

    Mentalist Pilot?! The term shed in Ye Chong''s mind.

    Yes, since pilot was still the trend in the outside world and Ye Chong remembered the strength of this kind of pilot.

    "And I won. On a 1 versus 3." The statement went t, as if a report, even though it sent shock to Ye Chong''s perception. Those Mentalist Pilots of the Sanctuary were strong enough to break an entire army and Feng Baiyi could challenge a one-on-three. Of what strength did he wield? And those pilots he encountered were merely the troops at the outermost defense, imagine the pilots from the core. Of what psychic would it possess?

    "Yes, I won. But I was not pleased by it. Not at all. Instead, I was mad, utterly angered. The first time I felt the actual rage burning in my soul since I was born, as I never expected their psychic ability to be this substandard. Did they discard even the veryst bit of our tradition? Did they not? And I went on an investigation just to taste that earth-shattering truth. They had changed, thest bit of tradition had vaporized as their will. They had turned more intrusive than before. The worst part was¡­ they seemed to have an indescribable rtionship with the Abductor."

    Abductor? They are rted to Xi Feng n?! What exactly is Xi Feng n?!

    "So I began wandering again, looking for Abductors to hunt. My target was simple, I just wanted them to recognize the strength of Mentalist so that they would regret themselves and pick up the tradition they once trashed before."

    Well¡­

    Ye Chong shook his head slightly. Be it a Mentalist or a Martial Arts Practitioners, humans were still humans. They are fragile. They are frail. Fleshes only get grilled on metal and do not break through it. Mechs dominated the world for a reason.

    "I would have a careful scouting at every ce. And as soon as I seized one Abductor, the rest would never run, their nest would be busted," tly Huang Baiyi borated. Ye Chong knew the old man was not exaggerating his story, since mental maniption was the Mentalist''s game. Hypnosis, behavioral control were themon practices even by the trainees. Let alone the super Mentalists like Huang Baiyi.

    "I spent the next three years doing the same. And I did make a breakthrough since then, sadly, there was great restriction imposed on the spaceship of the free space zone. It was a hassle to even sneak in. So I lost my progress there, or they would have been a goner." The t statement was ironed with threats.

    "Wait, there is spaceship in the space zone?" Ye Chong rose, the question went word-by-word precisely, since it was unimaginable to have a spaceship, a craft of the finest technology in a primitive space zone that would go against it.

    Like how in the space zone do they have a spaceship?

 Chapter 368 - Proposition

    <h4>Chapter 368: Proposition</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Spaceships are indeed a rare sight in the space zone but they still exist, since this was not the only in the zone, and it is unavoidable to make contact with the others. I had heard that the development, the technique specifically for building the spaceships was also one of the ''gifts'' brought by those outsiders during their visit that year. Normally, a would be facilitated with only two spaceships which would be under possession of the tworgest tribes of the. For example on Dankwood, the Han family and Renlo tribe own the two limited ships, although they hardly used the ships, only during the Congregation perhaps," borated Huang Baiyi as Ye Chong appeared to be confused in his eyes.

    "Congrega-what?" Ye Chong did not quite get the foreign term.

    "You don''t know what Congregation is?" Huang Baiyi''s stare grew foreign, "With your capabilities, how would you ever be uninvited to a Congregation? Did your teacher disallow you from joining the event?"

    "I don''t know." The in, honest reply from Ye Chong was even more confusing.

    "Maybe your teacher did not wish you to be distracted by things other than the training. Well then, you have a good teacher there." Huang Baiyi was sentimental, but towards Ye Chong''s ever-confused expression, he went on exining, "A Congregation is an event that happened once every 5 years and is held on Risserd, in which all participants are the topmost experts in every out there. It is an important event in the space zone. There are many categories, but martial arts, mystic arts (the mentalist expertise mostly) and alchemy are given much greater attention, as they have the most yardsticks. Every has their own set of standards of 10 each on these categories. But, to a, 10 yardsticks are a bit less and over the top for decorative purposes, as thepetition is far greater in actuality, many people had died during the process. Sigh, all for an impractical fame. Your teacher has a better insight in this! To not let you join the event!" Huang Baiyi gave out a loud sigh, shaking his head.

    "Have you joined the Congregation before?" asked Ye Chong, curiously.

    "Yes I did." Frankly he replied, "Thrice. But I had never be a champion. Not even once." His tone remained t, as if the statement was more factual than a fantasy to he himself. It felt like a fantasy to Ye Chong however, as it was not very long since he came to this tiny barren-looking vige of the Wangs and he had already encountered quite a number of adepts. Now, set back and imagine, with the area and poption of experts multiplied into size of a¡­ Huang Baiyi was surely something for he was able to pass the selection process and joined the Congregation thrice at least.

    Not that shocked¡­ to be honest. Not like the shock-shocked, jump-shocked, scream-shocked kind of shock, not the kind like fandom on the forum discussing thetest moves of the mysterious YC, Ye Chong had met countless miracle-manufacturing experts since he encountered Mu Shang. Be those experts from the field of piloting, martial arts or the alchemy or those from the darker side like the Mavericks, these surfacing figures already had convinced him that there would always be a greater one somewhere out there, only whether known or not known to the humanity.

    "The Wangs?" Huang Baiyi sounded very familiar to every force in the ce, "You meant the family of the Segean Sea? They were great once in the past, although they were already facing regression the moment they migrated too the coast of Seagean Sea. Speaking of them, I truly wonder what had happened to them all these years¡­ But I guess their forces lingered somehow so they are still far better off than most folks like us," muttered Huang Baiyi as he tried reminiscing the past, "Oh yes, they once had quite a figure in the tribe, a Jie expert if I remember correctly¡­ he joined the Congregation too¡­ He should be in his eighties now, well, given that he''s still alive, though I remember he seemed to have banished his own skills 20 years ago¡­ on an ident? He apparentlymitted some taboo of his own kind¡­ Wait, why the Wangs all of sudden? Is any of them your teacher?"

    "Nope," shook Ye Chong.

    Okay, wow, the Wangs haven''t even shed their trump yet. Luckily I did not join the war directly or it would be bad, very bad¡­ But what about Rui Bing and the others¡­ I wonder what had happened to all of them¡­

    "Oh¡­" Huang Baiyi''s eyes, trained by encounters over ages, recognized the expression of Ye Chong, "You seek to avenge? You have bad blood with the family? Well, with your skills, I don''t think you would be terribly sorry in the fight. Wait, so did the elderly show up? Or¡­ they have a new Jie expert?"

    "They came in waves," concisely Ye Chong replied.

    "What?" Huang Baiyi was bewildered, "Don''t tell me your teacher never informed you any rules and regtion here before letting you out¡­ You can''t be challenging the authority all alone on a whim, it''s an embarrassment."

    Ye Chong was wordless. It had been a nice chat with Huang Baiyi but he would not want to reveal himself being an utter outsider to the ce, not just yet.

    ¡­

    "Sigh! Let''s stop talking about this! It''d be pointless if we are stuck here!" That was when Huang Baiyi realized they had sailed way off the course, although he was so indulged in chattering at the moment, "So, what''s your best move?" And so he initiated a new, better topic.

    "Lancing." It took Ye Chong a while to spit the two sybles. He was puzzled by the question, to be honest, since he was technically an all-rounded fighter. He was good at muscle control, exceptional in strength, speed and uracy. He was also agile in hand-on-hand, or an armed fight with his dagger. He probably was good at everything while being exceptionally good at nothing. If he were to spit something,ncing seemed to be it?

    "Byncing you meant this?" Huang Baiyi''s nce set upon Ye Chong''s woodennce. Well, Ye Chong no longer possessed a mech, so any form of weaponry would be his key to survival. He had been carrying the woodennce since forever.

    "Yeah," he replied briefly.

    "Oh! Ancer!" Huang Baiyi lowered his eyes, reminiscing again, "I do remember there were few adepts ofncing, butncers do not seem to be asmon as swordsmen¡­" Ye Chong''s nce was sending him the awkward signal, "Well, ummm, uh, since, little I know being a Mentalist, not an actual martial arts practitioner."

    "To be frank, I did once discuss the issue with the real deal before, and hisments left in my mind forever. He once said that, the weapon might be different, the technique might be different, but the core factor, the determiners to its mastery are always the same few. Do you know what those determiners are?" He looked at Ye Chong interestingly.

    "Strength. Speed. Spirit." Ye Chong said without hesitation, then he held for a while, as something came to his mind, "Maybe the Angles too. And timing. Yeah, these two should form the factor of ''Position'', both spatial and temporal. Hm, yeah, position."

    Huang Baiyi remained silent. His mouth was half open.

    "What''s wrong? Were my answers wrong?" He then went on pondering his answers earlier for the next three minutes, "It should be right." He lifted his head as he stood strong for his im.

    "You are right indeed," replied Huang Baiyi with sentiments, as he stared at Ye Chong, "You are brilliant for a twenty-three-year-old, knowing the working of this."

    "The senior said the same exact reply to me that year. In a typical martial arts execution, Spirit is not as apparent as Strength, Speed or Position, and it would only manifest itself during some asion when you had achieved a greater self¡­ which I guess you had experienced it well enough."

    Ye Chong nodded his head approvingly.

    Finally! Huang Baiyi was excited, as he finally found the lighter to Ye Chong''s interest! And they began discussing passionately on the determiners of martial arts, with focus on the factor of Spirit. It felt like a talk between a child and an adult at the beginning. The child was Ye Chong of course due to hisck of understanding on Spirit in this, but both of their positions soon switched when other factors came into light.

    Their friendship grew rapidly, as Huang Baiyi had appeared to be an inquisitive educated man in Ye Chong''s eyes, which was quite his type¡­ Hah, but the irony was, both of them knew well deep in their hearts, that the passionate conversation was merely a mean to kill time. It was only logical for Huang Baiyi to act so excitingly when he finally discovered apanion, and something that he could work hard with thatpanion.

    The motive was not the concern as Ye Chong was amazed by Huang Baiyi''s mental capabilities which appeared to be almost peculiar and otherworldly to him. The capabilities were unpredictable enough to earn Ye Chong''s respect, since¡­ well, as his policy would go - strength determines hierarchy.

    Coincidentally, Huang Baiyi was also as surprised as Ye Chong, no, maybe even more surprised than Ye Chong who looked literally like a monster with those monstrous strength inside his feeble-looking body. Ye Chong reacted quickly, like too quickly while his tenacity was great as he kept his "hobbies" at all eternity. Ye Chong had never stopped spending the rest of his day "pondering" ever since their first encounter.

    And Ye Chong, as he said, also did practices. No entertainment, no shy movement, just the good old-fashioned basic moves. Ye Chong seemed really enjoyed doing it. Huang Baiyi discerned few hundred thousands times of repetition on the same exact movement by Ye Chong as an attempt to improvise it. Ye Chong woulde to him, soaked in hot sweat after the practice everyday. Well, it would be very much shocking for a Jie expert like Ye Chong to get himself jammed on the same swing for a gazillion times.

    That was when Huang Baiyi realized the fact that Ye Chong''s skills were mostly founded by these torturing, punishing, virtually destructive training the whole time.

    Ye Chong also demonstrated his tremendousprehension and thinking skills.

    Such horror¡­

    The only thing that annoyed Huang Baiyi was how Ye Chong insisted to not even have a session on the mystic arts with him, while ironically being extremely interested in the working of mental application, although the main focus had always revolved about the ways to ovee Mentalists in a fight. One could imagine Huang Baiyi''s quivering corners as he smiled along.

    It was only a matter of time till Huang Baiyi realized he had be basically¡­ a coach, more like a training partner, to be precise. Like most wizardry, his mentality was sustaining while his physical attributes were¡­ well, it would be basically a painfulparison if his partner happened to be the inhuman Ye Chong. Huang Baiyi could feel his back withering after days of training, while Ye Chong remained alive and kicking.

    I am indeed old¡­ Hah, age is a terminal punishment.

    The sentiments rose in his head again and again,.

    He did not intend to retain his privacy however, as he never was the stingy person on knowledge-sharing, especially towards a fine diligent young man like Ye Chong. Ambition? Avenge? Appreciation? Those were no longer in his mind after being all alone in thest 10 years.

    The simple life was still attractive to him¡­ even though it was a lonesome life. Thought he.

    He knew Ye Chong would leave here one day. But his knowledge-sharing session was never getting less passionate. It was a pity however, that Ye Chong was not (and not going to be) a Mentalist.

    Sigh, probably the true mystic arts of the Xi Feng n would mark its actual death very soon. Oh well¡­ what can I do?

    At least Huang Baiyi was forgiving on this, unlike his younger self.

    Ye Chong caught that growing passion in Huang Baiyi''s session and worked harder. He might not be a Mentalist in the end, but he would acquire better understanding on the control of his spirit, his mentality, which should be able to enhance his attacks. Most importantly, he would find a way to fight against the Mentalists from Huang Baiyi''s session.

    Even though he worked extra hard on learning, never once he stopped figuring out the way to escape this dangerous forest.

    And he had just gotten a feasible proposition.

    Here''s some information.

    There are technically two directions from their current site. One descends towards the ck Forest across the valley, another ascends right up to the peak. As mentioned before, there is nothing but a deadly cliff on top of the peak where the mountains covered up the forest.

    It would be a simple task if he had a mech, but sadly Ye Chong only had a dagger.

    His preposition was¡­ well, of course not making a mech, he might be the most talented craftsman but he was not a magician. Perhaps he could make a simple glider, he thought. The peak to the ground stood at a height about 3000 to 5000 meters. If nature was kind enough to not drastically change the direction of air, at great chance he would nail a safending. That would sound less like a dead-or-alive gamblepared to a trip to the ck Forest.

    Thanks to the fundamental knowledge of mech production, Ye Chong was very much familiar to the theories of aerodynamics. A glider however, was something of the museum at that period. So Ye Chong could only design one from scratch based on calction and the knowledge he had.

    Huang Baiyi acted cooperatively the next few days, as he did not disturb Ye Chong, although a little bewildered by Ye Chong''s tantly increased duration on his pondering session.

    Ye Chong went to the ck Forest and returned with a broad log. It was quite a sight to see a feeble man carrying a giant log like toothpick. Huang Baiyi''s expression was priceless. The twigs had been removed by Ye Chong promptly, judging by the fresh cuts on the surface.

    "What are you going to do with this?" asked Ye Chong in confusion. He simply could not figure out the hows and whys.

    Ye Chong worked on, without lifting his head, "Something to fly."

    "Something to what?" Huang Baiyi could not believe his ears. He had neither seen an actual mech, nor learned aerodynamic. The only inorganic substance that could fly was probably a spaceship to him.

    But spaceship? Log wood?

    ¡­ How?

    Ye Chong carried on slicing. His dagger was the perfect tool for this. It was sharp enough to slice Ironwood, so it was nothing strange that he could cut this piece of log effortlessly. Ye Chong picked the trunk of a wood named Sandtree. The hardness and durability were great. The best thing was this kind of tree had a rather bnced quality across the entire trunk. So it would be convenient for Ye Chong to perform a calction on its center of gravity.

    No processor, no fancy technology, all Ye Chong could rely to realize his proposition was his head and his brain.

 Chapter 369 - The Seed

    <h4>Chapter 369: The Seed</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong''s life suddenly got all busy and lively. Well, it was not much of a hassle to design a glider, rather the problemid within the parts necessary for the building process - what parts would make up the portion, how they would fit in the entire dynamic and what material Ye Chong could use that just so happened to be in the forest. To figure that out, Ye Chong paid another visit to the ck Forest, in search of the appropriate materials.

    Whenever Ye Chong began crafting things, Huang Baiyi would be watching by, with interests zapping from his eyes. And every time Ye Chong demonstrated his impable control of strength exerted on even the smallest parts, gasps andpliments would escape Huang Baiyi, to be ignored by Ye Chong however.

    The breathtaking sight was justifiable. Anyone would be gasping as much as Huang Baiyi when they saw that broad log shrinking in Ye Chong''s grip gradually like magic, as Ye Chong''s hands swung gracefully his dagger.

    Huang Baiyi gave a stare at the strange parts around and set his bewilderment upon this unfriendly, withdrawn young man, as he wondered what exactly the young man was. At first, Huang Baiyi assumed the young man to be merely a hardworking student once imprisoned by his master doing training deep in the woods, and was liberated atst. But hey, crafting parts from scratch was not included in a typical lesson n of a martial arts practitioner.

    Huang Baiyi had travelled to countless ces, met with countless entities when he was young. And those parts on the ground convincingly were the essence of an ample amount of knowledge one possessed. Martial arts practitioners were no schr - it was a truth universally acknowledged. Sure there were practitioners with variation in personalities. He had seen the crude brawler, the cold-blooded, the gentleman, the tenacious adventurer, but never once he had encountered a schrly fighter, especially of such age.

    A man''s time has its limits since he was born, and every field has its own depth deeper than the sea.

    It would take generally the entire life of a person to master one single field. Martial arts practitioners would master their physique, as what their harsh training would define, with countless repetition of the same move attempting to make breakthrough and discovery. Huang Baiyi might be unaware of what field a glider would exactly originate, surely it would be a field that required massive calction.

    Unlike martial arts practitioners, it was more likely for one to encounter a schrly Mentalist.

    Huang Baiyi did not intend to inquire however, as he had technically perceived Ye Chong''s temper these days and he would not wish to disrupt their founded rtionship hard toe by because of a silly, trivial question.

    He was more concerned on the conversation with Ye Chong, of the working of the ancient mystic arts. The true Xi Feng n had died decades ago. So it was his sole wish to pass these knowledge to Ye Chong at the very least. Those were from the ancients after all, that he would not want them to permanently depart from the world along someday.

    The misfortune was, Ye Chong did not seem interested in bing a Mentalist. The fortunate was however, Ye Chong seemed intrigued of the mystic arts, although merely because it was Ye Chong''s habit to go too deep into everything.

    Huang Baiyi eventually stopped mentioning the word "Mentalist" and just instilled Ye Chong with the theories of mental maniption.

    "Alright, so, the core of mystic arts is merely about maniption of mentality, your own mentality that is. Well, of course, this is not a theory I came up during my sleep. This theory could be verified. So first off, what is mentality? Is it attitude? Is it your senses? Generally, there had been lots of definitions going on in the field, like it could mean your soul, your spirit, some said¡­"

    Huang Baiyi got pumped up as he saw that concentrated stare of Ye Chong. His aged face remained calm as he exined. Most of the ideologies were passed down to Ye Chong through the little talk of his.

    Whenever a concept was mentioned he would need to provide a generous amount of example, like an actual application of a certain technique, that was when Huang Baiyi became utterly detailed on his exnation. Ye Chong was focused even on the details. It was a journey of 60 years when Huang Baiyi began his training and he had gained temperament throughout the 10 year stay in the ck Forest. The rich experience from fights in the past, the foundation he was given when he was born, and the contemtion of 10 years, all these had made his mystic arts evolved.

    As there were too much information in every conversation with Huang Baiyi, Ye Chong had to spend a considerable amount of time to digest it daily. So the progress of glider production became halted - a pleasing sight to Huang Baiyi, although his expression remained unchanged. The approach Huang Baiyi took was tricky, revealing just enough information on how to fight against a Mentalist to pique Ye Chong''s interests and kept him busy.

    Soon aplete system of the mystic arts had been built inside Ye Chong''s head, well, only the theoretical part of course, which was more than sufficient for Ye Chong. To him, a little understanding of the mystic arts would allow him to at least not fight a losing battle against the Mentalists, although he did not seem to realize how that "a bit" was literally the entire infantry.

    Huang Baiyi believed that Ye Chong would meet the other Mentalists one day and this young man would soon realize the values of these theories as a conflict urred. Based on his observation these days talking with Ye Chong, certainly Ye Chong was the kind who would go very deep into the field once the value had been identified.

    The lectures so far were just preparatory works.

    And he looked forward to the future. He was excited, it felt like an interesting game he was ying, as he had nted a seed of the Xi Feng''s mystic arts, an unknown seed that maybe would sprout into something undistinguishable as its forebears but who cares! Xi Feng''s mystic arts remained existed in this world at the very least!

    Years back Huang Baiyi had already predicted the fall and the demise of Xi Feng''s mystic arts. He refused to ept it however. It eventually bogged him down like a giant rock on his heart, and now he had felt much more relieved. He had contributed something to the soon-lost mystic arts at probably thest few years of his life.

    Regarding those formerpatriots who had gone astray, they were no longer his concern.

    It took Ye Chong quite some time to craft the glider, but he made it anyway. It was not smooth ride, as Ye Chong had failed probably at least 30 times at certain moreplicated parts during the process. He made it, he made a glider from scratch, with only his dagger.

    Such perseverance! How I wish he would be using his talent on the mystic arts!

    Eximed Huang Baiyi in his mind.

    Ye Chong went to Huang Baiyi. "We can leave here. This glider could take both of us. The sess rate is about 70 to 85%," briefed Ye Chong.

    "Move, you could just leave me here. I don''t want to go," stated Huang Baiyi calmly.

    The reply was uncalled for. It took a moment of silence before Ye Chong couldprehend the situation, "Why?"

    Huang Baiyi smiled slowly, "I am old. I don''t feel like moving anymore."

    "Are you sure?" Ye Chong frowned, since that did not sound like a legitimate reasoning.

    "Remember the Xi Feng n I had mentioned you before? I would like to ask something," Huang Baiyi sat back slowly, "Do you think if it was right for them to leave the space zone in the first ce?" A random question from him.

    Ye Chong thought for a while. "Yes," he replied confidently, as he recognized the strength of the Xi Feng n in any of the gxy, be it the 5 major gxies or He Yue. They reached even the current space zone they were in. Anyhow, they were correct. Their decision was right. In Ye Chong''s opinion, Mentalist Pilots were far more resourcefulpared to Mentalist. The ancient force would shatter as the technological age stomped.

    "I knew it," muttered Huang Baiyi, his eyes were soulless. It took him a while to recover, "Well, it seems like I was too rigid myself. It was only a matter that they took a different path."

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "I have taught you a lot these days." His speech broke the silence out of the blue, "As part of the exchange, I would like you to do me a favor. Of course the choice lies within yourself."

    Ye Chong pondered for a short while. "State it," he said.

    "Try your best to eliminate the Abductor." The calm tone was boiling inside, "Well, if you could do it that is, since you are still fighting alone."

    "Why?" That was the second inquiry of confusion from Ye Chong today.

    "I might not have the rights to judge if they took the correct path in the past, but I could to tolerate such immorality."

    "I cannot guarantee," replied Ye Chong frankly. Although he could not perceive the point of Huang Baiyi''s anger in such act by Xi Feng n, he believed the absolute rtionship between Xi Feng n and the Abductor. He had seen quite a number of young Mentalist Pilots inside the Sanctuary back then, Zhu Ling was one of them. Probably those kids were from the outside, and likely they had forgotten how their parents looked¡­

    But those were not his concern. The whole point was the rtionship between Ye Chong and the Abductor. He could nod at Huang Baiyi''s request, but he knew his strength well enough. The promise¡­ sadly would happen at the tiniest probability he could imagine. Well, if he were given the chance to deliver the final blow, he would take it, no doubt.

    "Mhm, you don''t have to keep the promise till death." Huang Baiyi gave a smile and looked certainly relieved.

    "I''ll be leaving." Ye Chong turned away and moved to the peak, where the glider was ced earlier. Every preparation had been done. It was time to go.

    "Have a safe journey." The old man spoke softly, as he sat on the mossy ground, hunched. His brightened eyes set a silent farewell to the shrinking figure.

 Chapter 370 - Gliding

    <h4>Chapter 370: Gliding</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Han Yue took a look at the pack of Fangwolves before him. His heart ran cold as his eyes were overflowed by the rumbling pack. The people stood there, their faces were pale. It was a miracle of their training that their feet could stand still.

    Fangwolves were the typical social animal. They traveled in pack, a rampaging pack, in which they raised their furry body that reached the height of a grown man. They would wield threatening strength in their most brutal aggression. It would be a fortune if you encountered them in single or a pair. It would be your doom if they came to you in a pack. They were strategic fighters, in a coherent group, to an extent they would put any merchant group or practitioners to an absolute death.

    Han Yue''s lips tightened as his palms were frozen by the grip of the sword. A fine 28 he was, where he was believed to be freed from being the shrinking violet of early adolescence as he would march towards the grand adulthood. He might have dressed inly, without any unnecessary adornment, but no one would judge him by his look. His hands were coated with cuts and calluses, his eyes were sharper than his sword. Speaking of his sword, that was another marvel to behold, an overlooked one though.

    He was a trustworthy worker as he would make his decisions firm, that the master would respect and hand him the mission. He knew a great mission had been shouldered so he was well-prepared, as he carried an army of 300 men who possessed impable skills, enough to raid a tiny town on their will.

    And there he was, being surprised of the attack. He never expected to be surrounded by pack of Fangwolves with size that reached the horizon ahead. There should be about ten thousands of them, a formidable force, almost destructive, annihting. Unless a miracle was bestowed or he would never survive.

    Without any order from the leader, everyone in the group took their weapons out. The alchemist was producing potions promptly at a hurry behind, which were then passed to the warriors at the frontmost. Mentalists were right behind the practitioners, assisting them to avoid the critical hits using their extrasensory future sight.

    Han Yue was feeling fine with the current formation, as he took the leisure to nce at the olddy whose face was ze-white, whiter than the snowy hair of hers, looking worn out as she sank in her white cloak calmly, with her emerald bracelet as the eye-catcher. A team of men in ck guarded her, along with a white clothed girl beside. To be honest, the panicked look of the girl was getting more colorless than her clothing at the moment.

    The ten men were the adepts of the experts. Han Yue would assume he had the more diabolical side while being more strategic than the foes, yet he never managed to state the standard of the ck-clothed guards.

    "My leader, what do we do now?" Asked his assistant, with a fearful look. obviously he was at loss of ideas and was too confused to move.

    Han Yue''s eyes rested upon the olddy who was all serene and insensible. He breathed in deeply, as he heard his heart resounding. A boiling rage, "What are you so panicked about? It''s clearly either they die or we die!" His shaking hands fondled the handle of his sword, trying to regain his temperament.

    The assistance, the vice leader of the team remained in an awkward silence of embarrassment.

    Han Yue went to the front and shouted, "All in your position! Shrink your formation! Prepare for battle! The backup had been sent! Aids areing! We only need to guard for 10 hours. Remember, only t-e-n hours, as long as we made it, we would be alive, by hook or by crook!" His tone rang affirmatively and it was inspiring to the people. Staying on tight guard for the next 10 hours might be the harshest task in their whole life, but it was not impossible.

    Han Yue was looking undisturbed, yet he was sighing inside. The pack of wolves must have aimed them quite sometime ago. Based on his experience dealing with Fangwolves, he recognized the animal-unlike intelligence as they would show up in front of their prey only after they had prepared their unattainable for the aids to break through the siege. Nevertheless, he could not express that statistical pessimism of his, being the leader, thest reliance of hope, that little bit of probability was the fuel to rekindle their souls.

    The olddy seemed to be ver impressed. She could think in Han Yue''s shoes, as she had also experienced many.

    The gathering Fangwolves were howling in aggression, signing thepletion of their formation, as the thrashes waved in with the dances of fangs.

    The Fangwolves were fighting with brutal force of nature, as they manically rushed upon the formation of human at its shrinking-most. Fleshes were sshing, blood was smelled - it was nauseating but people were not bothered by the little detail to the atmosphere.

    Han Yue picked his sword and struck upon the pouncing Fangwolf. Ssh¡­ the warm blood of the cold animal showered upon him. He had no ce to run, had no ce to hide. His sight was tainted by the angered crimson. He became agitated as he repositioned his sword and gave a quick wipe on his face.

    He was a bloody man, not bleeding but bloody, like his fellowrades.

    The formation was shrinking drastically as men copsed. In the past 30 minutes, he had lost 41rades, a painful 1/6 of his current force. His heart ached in a burning rage, his longsword swung violently.

    The battle carried on, not ending but intensifying.

    ¡­

    "Okay." Ye Chong was performing the final checkup which the main focus would be examining the connective points of all the mainponents, since the parts were connected using the Emerald Vines. Such nt had a very rxed structure that offered decent durability. It was a bit of a chore to take the very lining within the nt though. At least it was rewarding. The greenish lining was fairly thin, while having lightweight. It was more than sufficient to wrap the points with 3 linings to keep the parts together.

    This was probably the simplest, the most primitive glider Ye Chong had ever imagined himself producing. It took the form of a bird literally, with two curving wings reaching the back. To achieve a better airborne time, Ye Chong had polished the surface of the wings with his dagger, since it was just a glider without engine to produce the required momentum, only with a simple purpose of carrying Ye Chong to the ground safely.

    The other side of the cliff was a terrain of grasses, where a broad winding river reached the horizon.

    Well the glider was meant for two persons at first. Who knows Huang Baiyi left the party at the eleventh hour. He thought it would be more convenient to Ye Chong but it was quite the contrary, merely because Ye Chong would have to perform his calction all over again. Fortunately, it was a simple issue to remedy, as long as Ye Chong got somebody or something else to take Huang Baiyi''s ce, like the two giant wooden crates he made for example, which contain all the materials and raw production of his alchemy series. The ck Forest offered super rare materials after all¡­ Also his woodennce had be his assistance again, as it acted as the supporting pole to carry not the sacks but those crates. One would imagine thence breaking upon hanging but Ye Chong had wrapped it withyers of Aromatic Leaves. In addition, Ye Chong added a sack to carry his food and Water Bamboos on the greenish pole.

    Ye Chong was considerably well-prepared for his next journey. He even did a new camouge. Hell knows if the Wangs could reach the other side of the world. It would be nasty if he was surrounded by a bunch of Wangs uponnding. Lunatic Guan''s encyclopedia had taught him the camouge form, in which he pick one randomly, well, since the form seemed to have the highest rating by the author herself.

    Materials were a little hard to find, but producing the potion was not hard. Ye Chong had coated his entire body with the potion, just to make sure he looked natural and not artificially duo-colored at some angle. He must admit the potion was pretty good however. Unlike the inapproachable terminal patient look he used to disguise himself before, he just looked different. Well the potion was considered a superb luxury to the outside world, only a fool like him would pour the entire bottle of gold on his body.

    Ye Chong checked thrice, okay, everything seemed fine. He would not want to gamble this, he might be a Jie expert but he would be a goner if something went wrong in the air. Man, how he missed the mechs, the fancy flying crafts he had. Seriously the glider he made felt like something he would scavenge on Trash of the ancient.

    He fixed the sack and the crates on thence.

    He reached his out beyond the cliff, feeling the airflow.

    Weather: Fine

    Airflow: Stable

    Wind: Gentle

    He inhaled slowly and began sprinting towards the edge. He was elerating and he sprung into the air at the very end. He spread his body and let the wind carry his weight.

    He glided, like a bird!

    It was quite a sensation on his adventure, as the iing wind whispered into his ears. It felt refreshing. But he regained from it quickly, as he began shifting his focus on the steer.

    He never had once "piloted" a glider but he was a talented pilot after all, he got the gist of it¡­ since the control of a glider was way more simpler than a mech. A glider was much slower too, thus more time to react. It eventually did not take long for him to grow familiar of the handles.

    It seemed like his next journey was indeed happening. The departure was seemingly sessful.

    And that was when the airflow changed.

    The gale pped upon him. It happened too quick. The glider was shaking and Ye Chong had already forgotten the gorgeous view above.

    The glider waved like a fallen leaf.

 Chapter 371 - Landing

    <h4>Chapter 371: Landing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Han Yue''s arms grew heavier as his heart. Looking at the copsing ally, his mind turned numb. ughter! ughter! ughter! His arms mechanically brandished the sword withst ounce of strength. Carcasses were on the ground, the blood could be tasted. Sometimes he wondered if he was bleeding or the blood of the fallen Fangwolves tainted his body. His clothing was torn, his arms were feeling disengaging soon.

    Three hours had passed at the battleground, the intensity of the wolves'' attacks did not seem to be ebbing away however.

    Han Yue was feeling their extra hours were merely an exchange of his allies.

    It felt hopeless.

    "My leader, take a rest. You have fought enough, leave the frontline to us for the moment." A voice was heard as a pair ofnces came from his back. He then felt being forced to the back, into the circle of the formation. The long battle hadpletely drained him. That was a handy change of pace. His loyal allies offered a switch in the nick of time. No gratitude was heard from him, as his words only escaped as the fainting pants. He begged for a dramatic recovery, just so he could return the favor better by getting back into action before things went wrong again.

    His bleary eyes nced at the standing men whose face were all worn out and getting insane somehow. It was a demanding fight, he knew. He also saw the few wounded men being forcibly dragged behind, as the few mentalists had ordered. Their extrasensory perception however had bestowed them the sensibility in the situation. Their senses, their mind and their heart made them the best strategist in group. The mystic arts seemed more ornamental at this situation, gorgeous but impractical in war field to most men perhaps. Nheless, it was the mystic arts that had be the bad luck ward of those warriors in front. The spells guarded the critical attacks for them on asions.

    The main attackers were the martial arts practitioners and alchemists. Yup, the alchemists were always the most lethal with their potions which could easilyunch a heavy AoE attack - perfect for the belligerent wolf packs. Unfortunately, the trump force of the team seemed to be diminishing, as arge portion of the raw materials had been consumed for the attacks. Soon the alchemists went dethroned of theirrgest output to the battle as they got escorted to the very center again as a non-battle member in the team.

    They could only rely on the practitioners and the mentalists now. The people who got out of the frontline was dead silent, as they gargled drinks and crunched their food supplies, striving for recovery quickest as possible.

    d that I brought quite a number of mentalists this time. I might have lost way more allies if without these mentalists. But well, not like I managed to keep most of my allies.

    Not even half of his army remained standing in the field now¡­

    He nced at the olddy again. She still retained her character - insensible and undisturbed - which was convincingly highly experienced of the spices of life.

    Such olddy! Such decisiveness¡­ I could neverpete. Probably I would lose more men if she did not call her men to join the field. Yes, she was left with 2 guards, as the other eight formed into pairs guarding four directions. Their strength were far greater than even the leader of the surrounded team, Han Yue himself, that their stance remained like a dead nail on the wall, unshakable.

    Their vitality seemed evesting as the pace of their attacks persisted. No panic, no confusion, like 8 humanoids, overclocked, unaware of fatigue and careless mistakes. Their expression remained stern and solemn, as if nothing could shake them at all.

    Thanks to the 8 guards or we would have¡­

    That was a frightening thought Han Yue had.

    When are the aids arriving?

    Han Yue could hear his heart pounding in wails as he saw the retreating men in cuts and blood. But all he could do was to wait¡­ for a flickering hope that felt unreachable.

    "Have some water." A bottle was passed to his lips. Han Yue flinched, he lifted his head to see the white clotheddy resting by his side. It was the servant of the olddy! Her fair hands were holding a container of ssy design. Han Yue''s eyes shifted to the olddy who returned him a smile at the other side. He stood up and gave a bow immediately, as his hand reached the bottle, "Thank you mydy." Thedy smiled, "You''re most weed."

    Han Yue was going to take a sip, however one wounded ally suddenly sprung from the ground as his bloody finger pointed the sky, "My leader! Take a look at the sky! The sky! W-what is that?!"

    Han Yue''s eyes traced the direction and they erged instantly, as his raising hand stopped. People were looking, with all their attention upon the sky.

    There was a tiny spot¡­ traveling rather rapidly¡­ towards ¡­ here?

    ¡­

    Ye Chong was trying to regain control of his glider. The turbulence was tormenting the sense of bnce, especially for a newbie like him. It would be a great if he couldnd in one piece, but that seemed as far-fetched as a miracle when the glider seemed to be getting hopelessly out of control. The speed was increasing. The airflow was pressing his squinted eyes.

    The lever of the glider was being frantically shifted all sides, but the oue was unhelpful. If Ye Chong was a professional in this, such wind might not be a trouble as he could have utilized the ever-changing airflow to regain momentum and control of direction. But well, Ye Chong was not a professional, so was his glider. Those techniques that sounded almost acrobatic were speaking alien in his head.

    He tried everything he could, yet the situation remained unchanged. He focused on the control, as he realized he should forget about direction to ensure at least a safending.

    Phew.

    Finally he felt the airflow slowing down - the biggest good news of his entire life probably since aplex and ever-changing airflow is the most lethal at high velocity. He could imagine himself directly crashing into the ground if the airflow refused to cooperate.

    People would have imagined an iron orb causing a crater on the ground for Ye Chong''s identalnding, but he was still human, and it was almost natural for a human like him to shatter upon crash.

    The flight had stabilized. He was feeling at great fortune when the glider actually did not get dismembered by the potent air flow.

    Finally¡­

    He quickly took that leisure to observe thendscape.

    What?

    Ye Chong might be a brave man who had broken different ces he once treaded his step on, but the dense pack of Fangwolves was an rming horror. He did not recognize the species being Fangwolves, but any social animal traveling in group would be a taboo to make contact with.

    He would love to glide a bit longer, but there was no uplifting air thrust to bring him to the sky again. And it was not possible to make drastic direction change at this point. His schemata ran wild as he watched the glider slowly descending.

    That was when he saw the surrounded men.

    He calcted thending point. Okay, he would be 50 meters away from the group at best.

    As the airflow was much more stabler at the lower altitude, the steer of the glider could be unmonitored. So Ye Chong took out those intense hallucinogens as the final preparation fornding, since he knew the fact that all sorts of these intense hallucinogens would be his best bet after his experience with smoke pearls. He had lots of these trickeries in his Vinesacks as well as the crates.

    It should be fine if I use it wisely. I should be able to escape the wolf pack alive. Thought Ye Chong, with zero mention of the surrounded men in his mind.

    20 meters beforending.

    He was prepared to jump, as he did a countdown. 10 meters¡­ 8 meters¡­ 5¡­ Ye Chong gave a gentle hop.

    The wolf pack was very much ready for this falling meal. Some of them lowered their body, going to pounce, while the others were howling endlessly.

    Gah! Ruff! Grrrr¡­

    Before Ye Chong even reached the ground, the few Fangwolves had already thrashed upon him. The bloody eyes, the cold fangs flexed as their bodies when theyunched themselves.

    Ah!

    It was a scream in the surrounded group,ing from the white clothed servant. She shut her eyes tight as she covered her mouth, fearing to behold the uing scene.

    Ye Chong decided to write a plot twist himself. He ignored the shriek and picked with hisnce, the powdered hallucinogens sprinkled.

    The Fangwolves'' raid was merely child''s y to Ye Chong, who had once spent his daily life handling all kinds of intelligent monstrosity on Trash back then. The mutated lifeforms were much, much more aggressive and unpredictable than the wolf pack.

    He retreated his legs slightly as he dodged the jumping Fangwolf. Then heunched his legs again right onto its forehead.

    O Oww O¡­

    It felt like a hammer m upon the head of the wolf, as it crashed the ground like a meteorite. It came up fast and itnded faster.

    Hush¡­ the sand tinted the air. Ye Chong regained height with the momentum he created, causing all the following attacks of those wolves missed gracefully.

    Such kick¡­ Complimented Han Yue in his mind. It could feel a little shabby as one could imagine any grown man producing such force on his kick, but this weird man was in the air, there was nothing for him to conserve the momentum to produce the attack, so he was indeed amazing.

    Well Ye Chong certainly deserved thebel "weird man" since his appearance was ¡­ pretty peculiar. His original clothing was technically burnt during the process of fighting the Wangs, then he got lost in the forest. Most of his equipments came from the things of the nature as he hung tons of Vinesacks over his body like ornaments, while a greenish fine pole was lifting two giant crates.

    It was strange , just very strange.

    When Han Yue was expecting further action to be taken by the strange man, something just happened!

 Chapter 372 - Bargain

    <h4>Chapter 372: Bargain</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Suddenly, without any warning, the fangwolves began to fall inrge numbers. Han Yue did not see how the strange man¡¯s hand was moving at all when it began.

    How was that possible? Han Yua and the rest of the group looked at the strange man in disbelief.

    "What a strange man!" Han Yue knitted his brows and whispered to himself. To him, the strange man was probably an alchemist, since wide ranged attacks were an ability unique to alchemists. However, no alchemist could attack without leaving any traces of how it was done, much less in front of a group ofbat experts. That seemed to be what mentalists could do. In terms of unexpectedness and concealed attacks, mentalists were the best of the lot. However, it was hard to imagine a mentalist killing so many fangwolves single-handedly. Could he be abat expert? His kick earlier was quite strong, but not enough to convince people that he was abat expert.

    Just who was this man? All of them were troubled by the same question.

    Ye Chong ignored the curious stares from the group. They would not be able to see his pouring movements on the glider. Beside, before he jumped down from the glider, he had opened up a few leaf bags from his waist, which contained knockout agents, thus surrounding him with a dense, colorless and scentless cloud of knockout agents. These knockout agents had some ingredients that helped them spread faster in the air, thus their effects had spread out surprisingly quickly.

    Only someone who had a smoke pearl like Ye Chong could make this n work. It was no wonder that Han Yue andpany were baffled.

    The sky was clear, and there was no wind at all. The knockout agent did not spread out as quickly as he had wished, covering only a 30-meter radius around Ye Chong. Within this radius, none of the fangwolves could stay conscious.

    At the center of thisrge hoard of fangwolves was a 30-meter radius clearing, where fangwolvesy on the ground. Standing at the center was a strange looking man, carrying two boxes. The fangwolves beyond the perimeter were unsettled, but none of them stepped closer to the man.

    Strange, very strange indeed! Despite Han Yua and hispany¡¯s rich travelling experience, they had never seen anything like it.

    Ye Chong rxed as he saw the knockout agents kicking into effect. While he had a few other tricks up his sleeves, it was better to use the simplest method. The ck Forest was full of treasures, but he would never enter it again without a mech. This meant that whatever resources he brought from that ce would deplete as he used them. Some things, like the redsand dehydrator, were things that he did not know how to replicate yet. He did not want to use them all up until he could replicate them.

    Ye Chong prepared to leave. He studied his surroundings for a moment. There was a wide river not too far away. Perhaps it would be a good idea to walk along the river.

    Seeing the strange man about to leave, Han Yue and group finally reacted.

    "Han Family¡¯s Han Yue begged for your assistance!" Han Yue shouted at Ye Chong¡¯s back. His throat was already dry from his earlier exertions, so his voice sounded cracked and hoarse.

    The Han Family? Ye Chong stopped in his tracks. Huang Baiyi once told him that one of the two tribes on Dankwood that had starships was the Han Family.

    Seeing the strange man halting, Han Yue felt relieved and spoke even more humbly, "If you can please lend your assistance, the Han Family will definitely repay you generously!" He spoke this with determination, evincing a sense of trustworthiness. He stole a quick nce at hisrades at the outer edge, fighting a losing fight, and grew even more desperate, but dared not show it in his eyes. To him, Ye Chong was one of those otherworldly respectable elites. He knew that these kind of people were often solitary, and so he treaded with care.

    "Repay me generously?" Ye Chong understood that part. He turned back to Han Yue and asked, "With what?" He asked this easily. Bargaining was something that Mu/Shang had taught him repeatedly. He remembered it well, and had basically adopted it for himself. The way he saw it, he was not rted to these people, and was thus not obliged to save them. If it was a bargain, however ¡­ He could ept that.

    A few people around Han Jie looked at Ye Chong with anger and despise. They were furious that this strange man had seen it fit to negotiate terms, given their dire situation. Every second mattered, and any one of them could die at any time. They despised him because they had thought he was some otherworldly gentleman, but he had acted sordidly.

    Han Yue thought differently. He was secretly pleased to see the man interested in his proposal. He was afraid that the man would be unmoved by these worldly pleasures. Since this was not the case, then there was hope yet. He was confident of his family¡¯s power. There was nothing the Han Family cannot do on Dankwood. His priority right now was to escort the Old Mistress back to their home.

    "What would you like to have?" Han Yue asked carefully.

    Ye Chong cocked his head to the side and thought about it.

    No matter what they thought of this strange man, they all knew that he was the key to their escaping this ce alive. Everyone but the warriors still battling against the fangwolves at the perimeter was watching the strange man closely.

    After a long moment, Ye Chong said, "Money. Map." Ye Chong was zuanless, so money was a no-brainer. He also desperately needed a map, or he might lose his way and enter the ck Forest again. That would be horrible.

    As for finding Rui Bing and the rest, he could only do that discreetly and not rely on the Han Family.

    Han Yue exhaled deeply and answered, "Of course, we will definitely fulfill your requests. However, please get us out of this ce." He was afraid that the strange man would make some weird requests. That would spell trouble for him. To the Han Family, money was only a digit. He remembered that the Lord had once said, any problem that could be solved with money was no problem at all. The map, on the other hand, was even easier. The Han Family had one of the mostplete maps of Dankwood. This was not exactly ssified material, so it would be alright to make a copy of it for the strange man.

    "Alright!" Since the man had agreed to his requests, Ye Chong was more than happy to fulfill his part. He took the two open leave pouches from his waist and held them in his hands. He then circled around the group¡¯s perimeter, and the fangwolves around them were immediately knocked out.

    All of them heaved a sigh of relief. Thebatants who had fought for too long sat down heavily, gasping for breath. Ye Chong controlled the amount of knockout agents used carefully, and the group was not affected.

    "So he¡¯s an alchemist," Han Yue thought to himself in relief. Once he knew the man¡¯s skillset, he could better fight against him. Not that Han Yue nned to go back on his words, but it was a precaution. It was better to be careful against unfamiliar people.

    "You¡¯re very skilled!" Han Yue was not ttering Ye Chong. Instead, he was genuinely impressed. The man had easily dealt with the fangwolves around them. He was confident of leaving this ce alive now. The alchemists under Han Yue were also looking at Ye Chong with deep admiration. They did not recognize the knockout agents that Ye Chong used. The man was a mystery to them. Besides, Ye Chong had used just the right amount of knockout agents, sparing them all. They were much impressed by this man¡¯s capabilities.

    "Can you see which school he¡¯s from?" Han Yue stole a nce at the strange man as he asked softly to Bibia. Bibia was from the Suyu school, and the strongest alchemist that Han Yue had brought with him this time. On Dankwood, the Suyu school was not as famous as the Qian system, but it was still quite respectable, with a long history of its own. Disciples from famous schools, like Bibiya, were often very knowledgeable.

    Bibiya himself was a short and skinny man. He had a pair of bright eyes, and they were now shining with confusion. He shook his head and said, "I don¡¯t know. He must have used a few different kinds of strong knockout agents. They must be nearly as strong as the Qian system¡¯s Illusion. His scattering methods areplicated and obscure."

    In fact, Bibia had overestimated Ye Chong. Ye Chong¡¯s knockout agents were strong, but they were still weaker than the Qian system¡¯s Illusion. It was only because Bibia had never seen Illusion in action that he made this wrong assumption.

    Han Yue asked, "Could he be from the Qian system?" There were three alchemy schools that were famous for their knockout agents - the Qian system, Hanming school and Jiu Family. Qian system¡¯s Illusion, Hanming school¡¯s Ice and Jiu Family¡¯s Blissful Drunkenness were the three most famous knockout agents. Of these three schools, only the Qian system was on Dankwood. That was why Han Yue suspected it.

    Bibia shook his head again. "No. His knockout agents are strong and aggressive. Qian system¡¯s knockout agents are gentler and longersting. These two are very different." After a few seconds, Bibiaughed wryly. "He¡¯s used more than a dozen scattering methods, and I don¡¯t know any of them."

    The other alchemists showed shock, admiration and even envy at Ye Chong¡¯s performance, just like Bibia.

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes swept across the unconscious fangwolves around him. He secured his leaf pouches once more. If he just walked into Han Yue¡¯s group like he was, they would all fall unconscious.

    Everyone looked to Ye Chong with respect. Ye Chong¡¯s demonstration was enough to win their admiration.

    The guards that were securing the perimeter quickly dashed towards the Old Mistress and surrounded her. They watched Ye Chong carefully.

    "Don¡¯t be so ungracious," the Old Mistress admonished her guards, before smiling gently at Ye Chong. "Young sir, please don¡¯t be offended, they have overreacted." At her age, she had earned the right to call Ye Chong "young sir".

    Ye Chong nodded, ignoring the guards. He did not want further trouble. He could see that these guards were strong, and he had no intention of making thingsplicated.

    Right now, he was thinking about how to help these people escape from all the fangwolves around them. If it was just him, his knockout agents would be sufficient. With the entire group, however, they were far from enough.

    He must figure out some other way.

 Chapter 373 - Green Tempest

    <h4>Chapter 373: Green Tempest</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A clear, green liquidy quietly inside an alchemy sk like a mellowdy. This was Ye Chong¡¯stest product. He had used a few precious ingredients to produce it, but he was quite happy with the final product. This was his first time producing this chemical. He had thought about it back in the ck Forest, but his tools and equipment were too simple for that. He had just used Bibia¡¯s equipment. Bibia¡¯s equipment were the most advanced avable, at least on Dankwood.

    The gentle bluish green liquid looked enticing, especially to the people who had just fought for such a long time. They were all thinking about how sweet and tasty it must taste.

    Only Bibia out of all of them was staring dead straight at Ye Chong¡¯s sk with a deadly pale expression. His eyes betrayed the horror he was feeling. Han Yue quickly noticed Bibia¡¯s situation.

    "What is it?" Han Yue asked quietly.

    Bibia did not seem to hear him, as he continued to stare at the thumb-sized alchemy sk in Ye Chong¡¯s hand. His pupils were dted from shock, as though they were losing focus. Han Yue could even feel Bibia¡¯s whole body trembling.

    Could it be ¡­ Han Yue stopped his gaze at Ye Chong¡¯s tiny alchemy sk.

    "If I may ask, is that the Green Tempest?" Bibia¡¯s voice was shaking as he spoke. He was not aware of it, but the people around him could hear his teeth chattering. They looked at Bibia oddly, not knowing why he was shaking.

    And just like that, when Bibia finished his question, all the other alchemists paled, their faces drained of all traces of blood as they stared in horror at the adorable tiny bottle in Ye Chong¡¯s hand. They took a few steps back away from Ye Chong, as though he was the god of cmity.

    The rest of the group looked baffled at the alchemists. They did not know why the alchemists behaved so out of control, since alchemists were usually of a gentler temperament, and rarely showed such extreme behavior.

    In that instant, everyone looked to Ye Chong.

    "Yes, this is the Green Tempest." Ye Chong looked at all the people around him. He did not know why they reacted so violently. The alchemists had stepped back almost in unison, their eyes filled with fear, as though he was not human, but a monster.

    Han Yue could not help but asked, "What is the Green Tempest?" No one bothered to answer him.

    Ye Chong was slightly familiar with the world of alchemy, but he knew very little of its history. He did not know of the horrible reputation of the Green Tempest, or he would not have chosen this as his weapon.

    There was once a time, long ago, when alchemists were the symbol of evil to themon people. This wasrgely due to the Green Tempest. There were no records of the name of the person who invented Green Tempest, but every piece of literature described him as a man with no morals! In just three years, he had killed more than two hundred thousand people. These people had all died from the Green Tempest.

    The most terrifying incident was one where an entire town had died in their sleep. In just one night, the flourishing town turned into a graveyard. Alchemists were not so well received back then, and this incident aggravated the situation. This particr alchemist was a wanted man on the entire, and many other alchemists joined in on the hunt. The alchemist was finally killed, but not after taking down 70 percent of his pursuers.

    That was the first time the true power of alchemists was appreciated by the public. However, it was also a huge damaging blow to the world of alchemy.

    The incident had happened on Dankwood. It was a long time ago, but all of the alchemy schools on Dankwood would have it in their records. Green Tempest was also a symbol of the peak of an alchemist¡¯s abilities. It was no wonder that they all paled upon hearing the name of this chemical.

    With the legendary substance right before them, all the alchemists were shaken to the core.

    Ye Chong could not help but frowned. "Is there a problem?" He knew nothing of its history, and so could not understand the stares he was receiving.

    "No problem, no problem at all!" The alchemists all shook their heads vigorously. What the hell, the inventor of Green Tempest was known as a man with a vtile temper. Who knew what this man¡¯s temper was like? Anyone would be afraid of such a powerful alchemist!

    After all, offending a senior would have dire consequences! Just read the history books!

    With that, everyone realized what was wrong. They might not know what the Green Tempest was, but it was obvious that they should not offend this man at all costs.

    Ye Chong would probably ignore them all if he knew what they were thinking. To him, Green Tempest was a powerful substance, but not the most damaging alchemy product he could think of. Besides, the substance can only be used under very specific circumstances. The sky must be cloudless, the wind gentle. Its intended victims must not have any kind of protective armor. If it was in the Five Gxies, he would never have a chance to use it. The substance could not act through the mostmon kind of spacesuits, much less mechs. If it was Beauty¡¯s Secretion, then he would meet no resistance. Even Liquid of Shang was scary enough that Ye Chong was unsure if it could be ovee at all.

    Here in the free space zone, however, Green Tempest was a force to reckon with.

    Ye Chong was ready to unleash its power now. Behind him, everyone watched him closely, curious to see how he would use this tiny bottle of Green Tempest. They were all soaked wet, since Ye Chong said it was the only way to stay safe from the substance. All the alchemists decided then and there to pass on this knowledge to their own teachers.

    Ye Chong opened the bottle with his left hand. A faint green smoke wafted out of the sk. His other hand inserted a yellow citrine stone into the sk, and quickly closed it again.

    The quiet Green Tempest underwent a violent transformation. It vaporized almost instantly, filling the alchemy sk with a green coloured gas.

    Ye Chong used his left hand to determine the wind direction, and nodded in satisfaction. He lifted the alchemy sk high up with his right hand, and opened it.

    Pop! A soft sound was heard, followed by a thick green cloud swirling higher and higher into the air. The green cloud held its form and floated slowly forward, carried by the gentle breeze.

    Soon, the cloud was far away from the group. Under the blue sky, the thick, green cloud looked out of ce. All the alchemists watched it closely, unwilling to miss a single detail. Not everyone could see the legendary Green Tempest in action.

    Just then, the green cloud transformed again. It began to diffuse quickly into the air. Soon, it was all over the fangwolves around them, and the green color was no longer as intense. No one would have expected the huge green cloud toe from such a tiny alchemy sk.

    Suddenly, a green colored raindrop came down from the sky.

    It was like a signal for transformation. The quiet green cloud suddenly turned violent and grew turbulent. Green raindrops began to fall from the sky.

    The green raindrops came down like a light drizzle, covering a thin green veil over the ce. It was such a beautiful sight. The maidservant in white beside the Old Mistress watched in enchantment.

    The sharp and pitiful cries from the fangwolves tore down the illusion of beauty, and shocked the spectators.

    The fangwolves looked terrible. Blood gushed out of their eyes like streams, as though it would continue on until thest drop of blood was expelled. The animals struggled to stand, but they were slowly losing their life force. Finally, they fell to the ground lifelessly, their eyes still bleeding like a river. Their blood drenched the grassy in and seeped into the earth.

    The fangwolves fell down one by one, unable to hide from the deadly green rain. Their painful cries never stopped, not until five minutester, when none of them were still alive.

    The air was thick with the scent of blood, and it was nauseating. There were no wounds on the fangwolves, except for their bleeding eyes and mouth. However, their robust bodies were now shrinking from the loss of blood.

    The green rainsted for only five minutes, but none of the fangwolves within its range survived.

    Blerggh! Someone vomited, breaking the silence. The rest followed. The warriors who had fought against these fangwolves bravely could not stand watching the horrible sight. Even the usuallyposed Han Yue looked pale. The Old Mistress looked alright, but her maidservant was already vomiting like crazy.

    Everyone looked at Ye Chong with indescribable horror. No one dared to stand within 10 meters of him. Even Han Yue avoided him.

    However, it was the alchemists who were truly shaken. They all looked lost.

    The fangwolves dispersed quickly. They were not stupid. On the contrary, they could even be smarter than humans sometimes. The green rain had dealt a devastating blow to them. The entire herd of wolves were left with only about 20 thousand of them. It was still arge herd, but no longer as impressive as before.

    Hen Yue and his group left the ce as quick as the fangwolves. No one wanted to stay a second longer, looking at the ground covered with animal bodies. It would drive them mad.

    The entire group left silently, the tension around them thick enough to cut through with a knife.

 Chapter 374 - Attack in the Night

    <h4>Chapter 374: Attack in the Night</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Up ahead was their destination, Emerald City. Ye Chong did not return to his solo travels yet, since Han Yue had not repaid him in full. It was not that Han Yue was stingy, but he did not have much cash on him. Of course, he had also been careless in not agreeing on a sum when they made their bargain. This was a vexing problem for Han Yue.

    How much should he give the man? Han Yue was deeply troubled. He had quite an amount of cash with him, about 30 Yan-zuan. That was a substantial figure for just about anyone, but paying only 30 Yan-zuan to such a terrifying alchemist ¡­ What if he offended that man? After all, the man had used the legendary Green Tempest to save them. If he did not reward the man generously, even Han Yue would think himself stingy.

    "Then ask him!" Han Yue thought to himself, but he really did not want to speak to that strange man. It was not just him. The rest of the group dared not speak to the God of Death. In fact, not even a fly could be spotted within 10 meters of Ye Chong. In the end, Han Yue braced himself and spoke to the man, and was given the reply - "Up to you."

    Ye Chong had no idea of the local currency and its value, so he came up with this reply.

    "Up to you" could mean a lot of things. In the end, Han Yue suggested to Ye Chong that he pay him when they reached Emerald City. The city was under the power of the Han Family, so it would also be more advantageous for him.

    Ye Chong studied the map, and found that Emerald City was the closest and only city within reasonable distance, so he agreed. He needed to resupply in the city anyway.

    Han Yue had quickly handed over a map to Ye Chong. After studying the map, Ye Chong found that he was quite a distance from the Wang Vige. ck Forest was muchrger than he expected. He could not believe his luck.

    On the other hand, how were Rui Bing and the rest doing? He could he be certain that they had encountered some problems. It had been so many days since, how were they?

    "Let¡¯s keep ourselves alive!" Ye Chong muttered to himself.

    After handing over the map to Ye Chong, Han Yue did not wish to stay in hispany for a second longer, and quickly took his leave. Ye Chong did not dy his exit, and saw him to the door.

    "What¡¯s that strange man doing alone in his tent everyday?" A voice outside was saying.

    "Who knows? Aren¡¯t alchemists all mysterious people?" Another voice responded.

    The first voiceughed. "Hehe, careful you don¡¯t let Bibia hear you, or you¡¯ll be in for trouble."

    "Cheh, Bibia is fine, he¡¯ll just let you suffer a bit. If it¡¯s that strange man, probably no one¡¯ll be left to im your body after."

    "Yea yea. Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t n on iming your body, who knows what kind of poison will be left on you," the other person said.

    Ye Chong wanted to roll his eyes so high up. He had heard so many simr conversations these days. No one dared to go near him, and his tent was steered clear of. Ye Chong did not n to chat with them too, so he stayed in his own tent to research everyday.

    Seeing Ye Chong always staying in, the other people began to speak more freely. They did not expect Ye Chong to be able to hear every word they said. Han Yue had kept all tents close to each other for safety reasons. Ye Chong¡¯s sharp hearing also allowed him to hear almost everything in the campsite.

    These days, he was the hottest topic of discussion.

    However, another conversation caught his attention. He focused on the weak, soft voice.

    "That strange man¡¯s crazy! So cruel! Heavens, to think that there¡¯s someone so crazy out there!" It was a woman¡¯s voice. There were only two women in the entire campsite - the Old Mistress and her maidservant. This must be the maidservant speaking.

    "Haha, Ying¡¯er, you¡¯re wrong there. The more ruthless you are against the enemy, the better your chances are of survival," the Old Mistress spoke warmly and lovingly.

    "Mistress, he¡¯s still too ruthless. Ying¡¯er couldn¡¯t sleep these days with those nightmares. So scary! He¡¯s just like his ancestor," Ying¡¯erined tenderly.

    "Oh, his ancestor? Did Ying¡¯er hear about something outside?" The Old Mistress asked, curious.

    "Yes, they¡¯ve been discussing it these days." The maidservant Ying¡¯er recited the origin of the Green Tempest excitedly.

    Ye Chong finally realized the story behind it. He thought it strange that Lunatic Guan did not mention it one bit in her chip. If only he knew, then he would not have chosen the Green Tempest. He had a few other alternatives, but the Green Tempest was the most convenient. Besides, the weather that day was very suitable for its usage. That was why he chose that weapon.

    It was not his intention to draw attention towards him. He knew very early on that it was better toy low. It he was found out to be an outsider, that would be a very tricky situation.

    "Oh, so the strange man has a very prominent teacher," the Old Mistress said.

    "Famous? How can such a bad person be considered prominent?" Ying¡¯er muttered.

    The Old Mistress smiled. "Haha, be it a good or bad reputation, aren¡¯t they all famous?"

    Ye Chong listened to them talk, and began to think. Could Lunatic Guan be a sessor of the Green Tempest¡¯s inventor? After all, Lunatic Guan had always been secretive about her school.

    However, Green Tempest did not particrly standing out in her chip. Lunatic Guan had described it with her usual in manner.

    Ye Chong quickly set the problem aside. He was interested in knowledge itself, but he did not feel a particr sense of belonging to any alchemy school.

    "It¡¯s obvious that he¡¯s not a good man. Think about it, Mistress, what kind of people want to discuss terms when it¡¯s an emergency? If he¡¯s a good man, he¡¯d have helped us earlier. Any dy would have cost a life! He¡¯s just a sordid little man, not some capable gentleman." Ying¡¯er was obviously looking down on Ye Chong.

    "Haha, that¡¯s not exactly true. He¡¯s not rted to us in any way. We can only be grateful that he¡¯s willing to save us. Besides, Ying¡¯er, didn¡¯t you notice, he never specified an exact amount of money. Think about it, if he had demanded a huge sum back then, we could only agree with it. Besides, why would anyone so powerful as himck money? If he wanted money, he¡¯d have plenty of ways to get it, no need to expend so much effort like that. As for the map, it¡¯s even more worthless. Haha, that man may not be as bad as you think," the Old Mistress said with a smile.

    "But," Ying¡¯er hesitated, and asked, "Isn¡¯t he afraid that we¡¯ll not pay up?"

    "Oh, my dear, think about it for awhile. If he can save us from all the fangwolves, then surely it¡¯s not too hard to kill us all too. Han Yue would not be as silly as you in these matters. It only makes sense to try to recruit someone to powerful. Why make an enemy with him just because of money?" The Old Mistress told her off lightly, and exined the reasonings behind their actions.

    "Yeah. But he¡¯s all cool and emotionless, not like a human at all. Sigh, Mistress, do you think he¡¯ll really kill us if we don¡¯t pay him?" Ying¡¯er asked with interest.

    The Old Mistress was silent for a moment before replying her with certainty, "He will, definitely. Ying¡¯er, there are a few kinds of people that you should never seek trouble with in this world, and that man is one of them. Remember that!" The Old Mistress said this solemnly, without her earlier warmth.

    "Ying¡¯er will remember!" Ying¡¯er answered obediently.

    There was no useful information from theirter conversation, so Ye Chong gave up on listening. He was in no habit of wasting time. All his time was spent on improving himself. Perhaps it would take a long time to gain a slight improvement, and he would probably not achieve anything given the short time he had now. However, he knew that strength was something that was gradually umted over time.

    He would never waste time.

    Before he could rx himself, his ears caught an almost imperceptible sound. In the darkness of his tent, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes lit up abruptly.

    It seemed that someone was approaching. Ye Chong could not be certain. Soon, however, he could already make out the sounds of footsteps. The footsteps were light and hurried.

    An ambush! Ye Chong was surprised, but quickly calmed down.

    He did some quick calctions, but could not arrive at an urate figure. There were no less than a hundred of them, and they were all skilled. If Ye Chong had not been concentrating on hearing that conversation earlier, he would not have noticed them. It was luck that allowed Ye Chong to notice them so soon.

    The ambushers moved quickly. Ye Chong even heard a few suppressed moans. Some people were already dealt with.

    They were ruthless! Ye Chong noted to himself. Now, he had to focus on protecting himself. Attacks with clear objectives were often done ruthlessly. Besides, Ye Chong had no ns of handing himself over easily.

    Ye Chong did not stand up. He quietly opened the leaf pouches on his waist. The strong, scentless knockout agents quickly filled up his tent. Right now, it was better to stay inside than rush out.

    For now, he could only wait for them to take the bait. Ye Chong did not move in the dark. He sat quietly and patiently like a nocturnal predator, waiting for its prey.

 Chapter 375 - Alchemy Performance

    <h4>Chapter 375: Alchemy Performance</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Suddenly, a figure rushed into his tent.

    Even in the dark, Ye Chong could see everything clearly. The person who came in wore a mask and fitting ck clothing. Only his eyes were visible. His sharp eyes and quick movements all betrayed his superior abilities.

    It was too bad that no matter how strong a person was, it was still hard to avoid an ambush like this. Ye Chong¡¯s tent was filled with a very dense cloud of knockout agents. Ye Chong would not have stayed in the tent if he did not have his smoke pearl.

    There were sharp criesing from outside. It seemed that the ambushers were noticed. Ye Chong could even hear Han Yue¡¯s angry yell.

    However, he was still focused on his immediate surroundings. It was not yet time to worry about Han Yue and the rest of the group.

    The tent was dark inside. The ambusher entered the tent and immediately went unconscious, falling to the ground.

    Ye Chong felt reassured, seeing the knockout agents taking effect. He stepped forward and caught the man in ck clothing before he reached the ground, then pushed him quietly to a corner.

    He knew howpetent Han Yue¡¯s group was. These ambushers must have nned their operation ahead of time. This meant that they were familiar with Han Yue¡¯s group too. Since they decided to attack anyway, they must be stronger than Han Yue¡¯s group.

    Fortunately, he still had many alchemy products with him. Here in the darkness, Ye Chong¡¯s ability as a fully stocked alchemist was not to be underestimated. Additionally, he was abat expert, familiar with the attack strategies of otherbat experts.

    Ye Chong offered no mercy. He put force into his hands, and the unconscious man stopped breathing immediately.

    "109 ¡­ 109 ¡­" The person outside did not enter right after, but whispered the code name of the now dead man. However, no matter how they called, the tent remained silent.

    The men in ck exchanged looks, knowing that 109 was probably incapacitated.

    The leader made a signalling gesture, and the five of them threw out the weapons in their hands towards the tent.

    Rip! The tough fabric of the tent was torn as the five weapons shot into the tent simultaneously.

    Ye Chong heard the sound of rushing wind the moment they threw their weapons and was slightly surprised. As expected, these people were not easy to deal with. That they would act so carefully even in an ambush in the dark spoke volumes of their rich experience in actualbat. This was the kind of opponent that Ye Chong wanted to avoid the most. These people always knew the best strategy against any situation, and they had very low chances of making mistakes. If it was a group of simr people, his current situation would be very dangerous.

    Ye Chong bent down forcefully, lying low to the ground. The five weapons flew past right above his head. Onence was only centimeters from his head. Ye Chong felt a chill down his spine. He was only human after all. If thatnce had hit him, he would be dead by now.

    "Careful, it¡¯s an alchemist inside," the leader warned his subordinates. He was highly alert. The knockout agents began to escape through the five holes in the tent made with their weapons. While the agents were colorless and scentless, he was also very experienced. With just an inhale, he felt a slight dizziness and quickly stepped back, surprised by the strength of the knockout agents.

    The rest of the team stepped back as well, looking at the tent warily.

    As these five people were met with resistance, the same went for the rest of the ambushers. Han Yue had brought with him elites who could react fast and coordinate perfectly with each other. The situation quickly turned into a stalemate.

    Han Yue was surprised and furious. As the strongest tribe on Dankwood, the Han Family had long since received challenges like this. However, he quickly calmed down. They were not too far from Emerald city now. If they could hold on for a bit longer, reinforcements would arrive soon.

    The opponent attacked aggressively, seemingly with a clear objective.

    Could it be ¡­

    Han Yue¡¯s heart skipped a beat as he turned to look towards the Old Mistress. As expected, they were receiving the bulk of the enemy¡¯s forces. The ten bodyguards of the Old Mistress were skilled, holding off the enemy for now. However, he could see that they were slowly losing ground.

    As it was, he was too deep in his own fight to lend assistance. The ambushers had chosen an effective attack strategy. His own forces were now scattered about, unable to converge.

    Han Yue was anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

    Just then, a loud and clear voice boomed, "Which member of the Han Family is here?"

    Han Yue was surprised, but also delighted. He used his sword to force his enemy back and shouted back, "Brother Luo, pleasee help!"

    A loud whistle was heard over the battle, and a human figure made its way towards Han Yue in an incredible speed. It was hard to recognize a person in the dark, so the figured appeared to move like a ghost. He was attacked along the way, but this person that Han Yue called Brother Luo was highly skilled. He was not hurt, but instead injured three others.

    "Haha, I didn¡¯t expect to see you here, Brother Han," the man said with a smile. He killed two people before finishing his sentence. Han Yue felt the pressure on him ease up, and his sword moved faster, seeking the throats of his enemies.

    "Brother Luo, please take care of that old woman," Han Yue pleaded.

    The man understood their urgent situation and did not dy in agreeing, "Alright." He quickly made his way to the Old Mistress. This greatly reduced enemy forces around the Old Mistress . He attacked with determination, killing with his every move.

    Han Yue understood that if he could gather his forces together now, they would be able to win.

    Ye Chong heard the loud whistle clearly, but he did not have time to investigate. Perhaps it was his luck, but three of the five ambushers outside his tent were ranked in the top ten of this group of enemies. They had expected to finish dealing with him quickly, but had encountered a strong alchemist instead.

    They decided then to kill this alchemist. In this chaotic battle in the dark, having a strong alchemist on the other side would have terrible consequences. Besides, that untraceable knockout agent just now had made them wary.

    Alchemists were usually physically weak, and would dy the speed of the entire assault team. Since an ambush depended on speed to work, they did not bring any alchemist with them. This was another reason for them to end this alchemist¡¯s life quickly.

    How did alchemists attack?

    These five ambushers were able to fully appreciate the alchemist¡¯s creativity that night!

    A few glowing blue shes shot out of the tent, fast like an arrow towards the five ambushers.

    One of them was prepared to block it with his weapon, but the leader yelled, "Don¡¯t!" That member was surprised, but he was also a seasoned fighter. He forced his body to bend awkwardly, narrowly avoiding the blue light.

    St! That blue light hit a corpse behind him.

    He could now make out the blue light to be a blue colored me. What happened next sent a chill down their spines. The thumbnail-sized blue me was like a blue flower unfurling its petals in the night, spreading across the corpse.

    The skin, the flesh, and even the bones turned to ash under the blue fire. They were horrified to see it happen so quickly that their faces were drained of blood.

    It looked like he was destined to never be a long range attacker! Ye Chong sighed to himself. If it was the Sang Tribe members, their unique throwing moves would finish those five ambushers easily. Ye Chong had improvised on the blue mes, adding a few mmable ingredients to make it burn stronger. He was the first to use the Bluefire chemical like this. It required very strong fingers to execute. No other alchemist would have the strength to do it.

    Ye Chong¡¯s alchemy performance was not over yet.

    As the redsand dehydrator, the infamous of the Smoke school, made its appearance, the five ambushers paled even further.

    They dared not to step closer to the tent anymore, but even more than that, they could not leave the alchemist alive.

    Unlike other alchemists, Ye Chong could control his strength with high precision. Besides, his familiarity withbat allowed him to have more flexibility in his choice of attack.

    He was now trying out somebat moves to use his alchemy substances.

    Blue, pink, brown, white ¡­

    Ye Chong¡¯s tent was a colorful exhibition of smokes. The smoke grew thicker and surrounded the entire tent. The smoke was so thick that it did not move despite the wind.

    The five ambushers dared not step into the smoke. Who knew if it was poisonous! The alchemy substances that they had encountered so far had left a deep impression in them. However, they could not leave. In the end, they could only watch the thick smoke from afar.

    What they fail to see was a violent transformation taking ce in the centre of the thick smoke.

 Chapter 376 - Shock

    <h4>Chapter 376: Shock</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong¡¯s hands moved quickly. He had never moved his hands so quickly for alchemy purposes. The alchemy sk in front of him was already loaded with many raw ingredients. Ye Chong was also adding all sorts of chemicals into the sk at an astonishing speed. The volume of chemicals he added was only a little each time, but he was doing it very quickly.

    His hands were a blur in the air.

    He had a wonderful idea, and now he wanted to see how it would fare in practice.

    The liquid in the alchemy sk roiled violently like boiling water. Ye Chong did not stop, however, as he continued to add small amounts of different chemicals into the alchemy sk.

    Ye Chong¡¯s expression was solemn, his mouth firmly closed. He had the smoke pearl in his mouth for precaution. He had buried the two boxes underground, and the hesitation of the five ambushers had allowed him to do this.

    When thest chemical was added into the alchemy sk, a surprising change happened!

    Boom!

    It was a low sound of explosion. His tent was burst open by the strong air pressure inside.

    A powerful wave of air rippled outwards from him, quick as lightning, and the smoke surrounding his tent was all blown away. This sudden change caught everyone off guard. The strong wind from the explosion swept past everyone in the entire campsite.

    Where the wind had blown past, the intense fighting stopped, and people dropped silently to the ground like flies.

    The only one standing in the campsite was Ye Chong. He looked pitiful, covered in all kinds of colors. His clothing was almostpletely gone but for his pants, still where they should be.

    Ye Chong looked at the people lying on the ground in the campsite, satisfied with the result. He was surprised to find that his short, creative moment earlier had led to this fine result. He had expected to only finish off the five ambushers, but this was far beyond his expectations.

    In fact, what Ye Chong had created was essentially an explosion. Of course, it was a mild explosion. Creating arge volume of gas in a very short time was, to an alchemist, a piece of cake. The small explosion had created an airstream that spread outwards, covering the entire campsite.

    This airstream was not dangerous, and would only feel like strong gust of wind to most people. However, Ye Chong did some preparation work beforehand, surrounding his tent with more than 30 kinds of knockout agents. The knockout agents were so dense around his tent that it was suffocating.

    The airstream had spread this dense mixture of knockout agents all over the campsite.

    Since their encounter with the fangwolves, Han Yue¡¯s camp had lost many people, so their campsite was not toorge in its entirety. The airstream was thus able to cover the entire campsite.

    Ye Chong¡¯s knockout agents were all strong ones. Without necessary precautions, everyone in the camp, enemy or ally, had fallen.

    Ye Chong realized then that an alchemist was more suited to ambushing. However, he quickly dismissed this idea. Those knockout agents were made of rare and valuable ingredients. If he had not stocked himself from the ck Forest, he would not have been able to win this battle. Besides, it was difficult to control the power of the explosion earlier. If was only because of his strong body that he could survive it unscathed. If it were any other alchemist, being at the center of an explosion would wound, if not kill him.

    This strategy was too expensive and dangerous.

    This was more so in the Five Gxies. In the Five Gxies, battles mostly happened in outer space. Mechs were the favored means of battle. These knockout agents would be useless.

    After all these experiences, Ye Chong appreciated the advantages and power of mechs even more deeply. Be it the Five Gxies or He Yue Gxy, mech pilots still reigned supreme. He Yue Gxy may have a ce forbat experts, butbat only served as a base for mech pilots to strengthen their bodies.

    "Why am I thinking about all this?" Ye Chongughed at himself mockingly. No power was absolute. The best strategy was always one based on circumstances.

    The violent battle was over, and it was quiet. Ye Chong quickly checked Han Yue, lying on the ground, looking peaceful. It was said that knockout agents were first invented to promote better sleep, but waster developed as a weapon of defense for alchemists.

    "Looks like I should prepare a lot of these knockout agents," Ye Chong thought to himself as he looked at the people on the ground around him, smiling wryly.

    The first to be awakened was Han Yue. Ye Chong felt that he was the best person to deal with the aftermath.

    Han Yue opened his eyes, dazed for a few seconds, but he quickly gathered himself. Ye Chong was quietly impressed by his mental strength.

    When Han Yue saw the people lying around him, however, he was bbergasted. He stammered as he asked, "What ¡­ What happened?"

    Now that was a loaded question. Ye Chong did not know how to exin it, so he kept quiet.

    "You ¡­ You did this, sir?" Han Yue opened his eyes wide, looking at Ye Chong with disbelief, speaking respectfully all of a sudden.

    "Yes," Ye Chong nodded in answer, not denying his actions. However, he did not wish to borate further. It would be foolish to exin his techniques to someone else. He switched topics, "How should they be dealt with?" Ye Chong pointed towards the enemies lying on the ground.

    If it was up to him, he would choose the simplest way, which was to give each of them a stab in the head with his spear. The poison on the spearhead ensured that he would not have to stab twice.

    However, he understood his situation, and did not want to stand out. After all, he was still wary of his status as an outsider. It would be better for Han Yue to make the decision.

    "Can ¡­ Can you wake up myrades, sir?" Han Yue stumbled over his words. For some reason, although he was always be very careful with this strange man, it was different from what he was feeling now. Every time he saw the cold face of this enigmatic alchemist, he could feel an icy chill inside. He was grateful that he was not enemies with the alchemist, or he would be dead by now.

    The thought of having his life at the mercy of that strange man sent another chilling wave over his heart.

    Ye Chong did not know what Han Yue was thinking. The way he saw it, he had only executed a slightly creative solution to their predicament. To Han Yue, however, he was already a character with legendary powers. To suppress hundreds of elite fighters quietly was not only unprecedented, but also brilliant. Alchemists were always thought to hold supportive roles. No one would have guessed that an alchemist could be this strong.

    Han Yue still did not know what exactly happened. This further increased the mystery around Ye Chong, and made Han Yue even more nervous.

    Humans are always afraid of the unknown.

    Ye Chong handed over the awakening antidote to Han Yue, and let him be. Best to leave the professional part to the professionals. He should try to be inconspicuous. However, he was not aware that everything he did so far was anything but inconspicuous.

    Soon, Han Yue awakened all hisrades. The ambushers were not so lucky. Most of them were killed in their sleep, while the few who looked like leaders were brought for interrogation.

    Ye Chong watched as lives were ended before his eyes. His expression did not change. He had seen death too many times, and had fought against it often himself. This was nothing he had not seen before.

    Han Yue was watching Ye Chong throughout the affair. He saw the cool expression underneath his colorful appearance, felt his chest tightened, and moved Ye Chong a few more levels up his danger scale.

    "Get anything from them?" Han Yue read the reports from his subordinates. They had suffered heavy casualties from the attack, with only 70 of them still alive, about half of them with injuries. Nheless, as the leader, Han Yue stayedposed.

    "None," Han Yue¡¯s second replied. He had survived the attack as well.

    "They¡¯re child abductors," the Old Mistress announced softly. She walked towards him slowly, supported by her maidservant.

    "Child abductors!" Han Yue was surprised with the information. He knew that someone like the Old Mistress would never speak carelessly. She must have her own reasons to be so certain. The Old Mistress would never lie to him about this matter, but why would the child abductors attack them?

    The thought urred to him for a moment, but he quickly suppressed his curiosity and did not pursue further. It was not for him to pry. "Mistress, I apologize for causing you distress!" He bowed to the Old Mistress, and thanked a man standing beside him, "It was an emergency situation just now, and I did not have the chance to thank you for your help, Brother Luo. Please forgive me!" He smiled widely, apparently on good terms with the other man.

    "Ah, don¡¯t even bother," the man addressed as Brother Luo replied in mock anger. The man was almost as tall as Ye Chong, and not particrly muscr. It was hard to associate him with the man who had moved fast as lightning earlier. He looked like a refined man, not too tall, but with a certain powerful charisma.

    Ye Chong¡¯s face betrayed nothing, but he felt that this Brother Luo looked familiar, even though he was certain that they had never met.

    If it was any other normal person, they would have dismissed it as a mistake. Ye Chong did not. He studied the man carefully, but could not find any clues. The feeling of familiarity was still there, however, and this made Ye Chong even more wary of him.

    Just who was this man?

 Chapter 377 - Situation

    <h4>Chapter 377: Situation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "This gentleman is?" The old mistress asked with a smile. That was also something Ye Chong wanted to know,

    Han Yue realized that he had not introduced his friend, and quickly exined, "This is a good friend of mine, Luo Shi, a famous expert on Dankwood." He turned to Luo Shi and said, "The Old Mistress is an honored guest of the Han Family." His introduction for the old mistress was vague, but Luo Shi was also smart enough not to question. He bowed to the old mistress smoothly, giving off a friendly vibe.

    "Ah!" Ying¡¯er, who stood beside the old mistress, gasped, and immediately felt embarrassed. She quickly covered her mouth with her hands, but could not help asking, "Are you the Luo Shi who participated in thest Congregation?"

    Luo Shi smiled and acknowledged humbly, "I didn¡¯t think mydy would remember a nobody like me."

    Ying¡¯er blushed again and said, "You¡¯re too modest, Mr Luo. If someone like you is not famous, then there won¡¯t be too many famous people out there." This was no exaggeration. Every participant of the Congregation were true experts. Many young experts were uncovered in each Congregation, and these young experts would usually be famous due to their participation. To many, joining the Congregation was the route to fame.

    "Mr Luo must be really impressive, to participate in the Congregation at such a young age," the old mistressmended.

    Luo Shi said humbly, "Old Mistress, you¡¯re too kind."

    Ye Chong studied the man called Luo Shi coldly. The fact that his face looked familiar bothered him.

    "And this is?" Luo Shi looked to Ye Chong with seemingly unperturbed eyes, but Ye Chong could sense that he was wary of him.

    "Er ¡­" Han Yue was troubled, not knowing how to introduce the mysterious alchemist. The alchemist had quite literally fell out of the sky, and until now, he still could not figure out what that bird-like mechanical device was.

    Han Yue realized suddenly that he knew nothing about the alchemist, not his name and age, nor where he came from and where he was going to. He knew nothing at all about this man.

    "This is ¡­" Han Yue was about to make something up when suddenly, he heard a shout, "Careful!" In front of him, Luo Shi vanished in a blur.

    A terrifying cry came from behind him!

    Han Yue quickly turned around, and saw an ambusher with ance pierced through his body. Thence was thrown with enough force to go straight through the ambusher¡¯s body, pinning him to the ground.

    Luo Shi stood before Han Yue with a calm expression. Han Yue finally realized what had happened, and looked to Luo Shi with gratitude.

    Ye Chong saw exactly what had happened. The ambusher had thrown ance towards them, probably aiming for the old mistress. However, the knockout agent must still be in effect, and thence strayed from its target towards Han Yue.

    Luo Shi moved quickly, appearing behind Han Yua and caught thence easily. His powerful and explosive motion surprised Ye Chong. Luo Shi then threw thence, which struck the heart of the ambusher.

    This series of events unfolded in a sh.

    When Luo Shi moved, Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened! However, he quickly resumed his calmposure, and his abrupt change in expression was not noticed by anyone around him.

    However, what he saw was like dropping a bombshell for Ye Chong!

    Luo Shi was strong, as he could tell that from the man¡¯s reaction just now. His movements were powerful, and he could control his strength with precision. The bodyguards of the old mistress all felt wary against Luo Shi.

    However, Ye Chong was not thinking about that. Luo Shi was strong, but that was not enough to surprise Ye Chong that much. He had noticed something else.

    Luo Shi was from the Ye Family!

    It was not hard to imagine what a shock this would be for Ye Chong. Ye Chong saw every detail of Luo Shi¡¯s movement just now, and they were typical of the Ye Family¡¯s techniques. Of the Three Aristocratic Families, Xue Lai n specialized in machinery, while Xi Feng Tribe in the secret arts. For the Ye Family, their forte wasbat, and Ye Chong was most familiar with their ways.

    Ye Chong may have learned only the basics from ck Cove, but ck Cove¡¯s style, which was also the Ye Family¡¯s style, had deeply influenced him. As he learned more aboutbat, he developed a better understanding of the Ye Family¡¯sbat style. He could recognize it anywhere. Tried as Luo Shi had to disguise himself, he could not escape Ye Chong¡¯s eyes!

    The man¡¯s name must be Ye Luo, or Ye something, and not Luo Shi.

    No wonder he looked familiar. The Ye Family might be rted to him in some way, but that was not at the top of his mind at the moment. As he studied Luo Shi closer, Ye Chong found that the man was simr to him in many respects.

    Luo Shi¡¯s physique was simr to him in many ways. His body was lean and slender, and people find it hard to imagine the sheer amount of power residing in that body. Ye Chong recalled his time on the trash, where his muscles would not growrger like normal people no matter how rigorous his training was. He remembered that Mu was puzzled by this as well, and had in the end attributed it to his unique physical condition.

    The fact was, his body was also different in many other ways.

    For example, the silver liquid¡¯s negative side effects on his body faded over time. The silver liquid, ck Cove, and the Ye Family ¡­ Ye Chong thought about all of them and their rtion to each other. Many of his earlier confusions arose in his mind.

    Could this really be due to the unique physical conditions of members of the Ye Family? He remembered that all the strong characters from the Ye Family had never looked particrly muscr, while otherbat experts would usually look huge and imposing.

    The Ye Family was in the free space zone!

    He quickly realized the implications behind this fact. His heart beat furiously despite his forced calmness. If the Ye Family was here, they must also know how to return to the He Yue Gxy!

    Xi Feng Tribe and Ye Family, two of the Three Aristocratic Families were here now in the free space zone. What about the Xue Lai n?

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    In the n Leader¡¯s office of the Xue Lai n, a beautiful middle aged woman was absorbed in the disy on her holographic screen. She wore no makeup, but her skin was fair. Her long, narrow eyes were filled with inexpressible emotions. She bit her lips together, deep in thought. This beautiful woman was the current n Leader of the Xue Lai n.

    It was interesting to note that, of the Three Aristocratic Families, two were led by women, and only the Ye Family had a man as their leader.

    However, people would not underestimate them just because they were of the fairer sex. The Xue Lai n and the Xi Feng Tribe had more female members than male, and the Ye Family was in the exact opposite situation. The Ye Family had more male than female newborns in their family, and this had always been a vexing matter for the reigning Patriarch.

    The n Leader was also troubled by something now. Too many problems had arisentely. Suddenly, the peace in the He Yue Gxy and the Five Gxies was challenged.

    The Shi Family had been active, spreading their power quickly. Intel from various sources suggested that they had a very powerful ally, However, no matter how deep they dug, they could not uncover any information on this mysterious ally. This raised the rm for the traditional powers that were the Three Aristocratic Families.

    Another issue was that in many of thetest models of mechs and weapons, traces of Xue Lai n¡¯s technology could be found. This caused a disturbance within the n, with suggestions of possible traitors. However, the origin of these mechs and weapons could not be uncovered, and this troubled her greatly. Matter like these that could disrupt the harmony of the n worried her the most.

    The Five Gxies was also problematic. Fortunately, the Xue Lai n was not the only one having issues. This was a problem that the Three Aristocratic Families would have to face together, and with the Freedom Alliance.

    Some unknown force was trying to devour the Five Gxies, and the beginnings of this force could be traced back to that primary back then. From her intel, the starships from all the Four Families had never returned. They had deployed many more starships there, but all of them were never heard from again. That ce was like a ck hole, swallowing anything that came its way.

    The most terrifying thing, however, was that the force was spreading. This created a pressure on the Three Aristocratic Families and the Freedom Alliance. However, no one could do anything about it. Xi Feng Tribe¡¯s forces in the Five Gxies were now in an unprecedented state of rm.

    Perhaps she should send out some experts to investigate the matter. The Five Gxies were indispensible for the Three Aristocratic Families. The He Yue Gxy was rich in resources, but they were still limited in supply. The Five Gxies wasrger than the He Yue Gxy, and had more unexplored territory. In some way, the Five Gxies was the future of the Three Aristocratic Families, where each Family would fight to expand their grounds of influence, and the strategic focus of the Families¡¯ futures.

    Now, however, she had another problem at hand.

    The foolish boy had found his way to the free space zone!

    She could not understand how that could have happened. There were only three extremely hidden routes from the He Yue Gxy to the free space zone, and each of them was under the control of one of the Three Aristocratic Families.

    Unlike the Xi Feng Tribe and the Ye Family, the Xue Lai n had always preferred machinery. The free space zone was not that important to the n. Hence, while the Xue Lai n also had forces in the free space zone, they had the weakest influence in the free space zone among the Three Aristocratic Families. Now that the foolish boy had found his way to the free space zone, she was very worried for his safety.

    He was her son. She knew his significance to the Xue Lai n! She could not afford to see him harmed, no matter what.

    After some pondering, she made her decision. The woman activated herms and summoned, "Siva!"

 Chapter 378 - Gemini

    <h4>Chapter 378: Gemini</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    From the very beginning to the very end, Ye Chong had not spoken a word. People of course were helpless at this, while presuming him to be a natural lone wolf. As much as people had learned about kinds like Ye Chong, the more of a expert the person was, the weirder the person would get somehow. Luo Shi was that rare jewel who had apassionate and modest personality.

    Ye Chong had grown more mysterious in the eyes of the people. The group had be supremely respectful towards this peculiar man, that even Ying''er, the white clothed servant girl was getting avoidant upon any form of contact with Ye Chong. Well, she was more interested in Luo Shi who appeared to be friendlier than most of the adepts she had seen before. They grew on each other as they exchanged more talks over the time.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong''s distant nature was part of his strategy, including the use of pseudonym which he got so familiar with. He knew the more he revealed, the less valued he would be, so he zipped his mouth to trap that mystery. The encounter with the Ye family was literally unexpected though, and he could be extremely cautious on the family. In conclusion, being distant, aloof and silent would be the best policy.

    And he seeded, very much seeded, that he simply did not see it working this well.

    He had demonstrated his strength twice ever since the encounter with Han Yue, which the two instances were more than enough to establish his status of a supreme alchemist among the people. Hisnding was as if a godsend, bizarrely potent, as he created a miracle upon arrival with the magical rain showering the ce, which reminded people of that one frightening alchemist in the darker page of the history. Ye Chong was then quickly assumed as the sessor of that destructive master of alchemy, which inevitably the fact conquered every witness there, including Luo Shi. Ye Chong''s status had already be unshakable and Luo Shi could not deny that even with his capabilitiespetent enough to join the Congregation. In the proximity of Ye Chong he was just helpless.

    Somehow people would just shun themselves away from Ye Chong as he exerted that frigidity. And only Luo Shi had mustered sufficient courage to speak to Ye Chong twice, although nothing much had changed while giving Ye Chong enough reason to be more cautious of this person, especially when he captured that flickering strangeness in Luo Shi''s eyes.

    Did he see something in me? Thought Ye Chong, that was his main concern. Luo Shi was clearly a great person and Ye Chong believed that he purposively kept the majority of his strength in dark, since¡­ the Aristocrats fancied such debut.

    However, Ye Chong had a natural talent of being cold. He was just cold, colder than the iceberg without even trying. And this time he gave a lot of efforts in being colder, that Luo Shi would be quickly pushed away by the awkward atmosphere after trying too hard to please Ye Chong.

    Throughout the whole time Ye Chong had spent days in his own tent alone, while only on asions of a hasty travel he would get out of his tent, during which there would be nobody within 5 meters of his proximity.

    After a few trips they got very much close to the next raiding point, the Emerald City. Unlike the barrenness of the other ces, Emerald City was lively, happening, as one would see a person in their harsh trainings from time to time. Emerald City was the only oasis in the area. If they wanted any supplies of consumables, it would be here or nothing.

    The guardsmen of the Han family became more rxed the moment they had entered the city, since Emerald City was their domain and their work was pretty much done once they had escorted everyone in.

    The owner of the city was not as relieved as the guardsmen however, as he was on the final term of service, the final year to be exact, after which he could return to his own tribe and enjoy the days after his 60s. It had been a heart-pounding life ever since he was assigned here at the age of 30. Certainly he would not want anything to go wrong at the eleventh hour.

    He was well-informed of Han Yue''s order since quite some time ago, and so well-prepared he was. The Emerald City was located at the boundary of the grass field, and precisely the only resting spot within the vicinity of 500 kilometers, thus the dense and busy poption, in which the harsh-training practitioners being the majority. Well, as much as Rui Bing was able to handle the punishing training, one''s strength would be justifiable the moment one was able to participate in such training. To ensure the security within the area, the defense of the city had always been exceptional. For their visit this time, the owner of the city actually relocated a portion of security from the other domain of Han family nearby.

    The plot twist was¡­ there just so happened to be a surge of the poption of alchemists to the city starting few days ago, which had rmed the owner. It was a rather sensitive period for their surprise visit, but what would their participation signify to the party?

    His call was heard as the scout returned hurriedly with information. Apparently the alchemists arrived at the city for a mysterious alchemist, one who recreated that very great Green Tempest after the fall of the predecessor. They were informed that such great man, the descendant of the historical figure, would being to Emerald City.

    "WHAT!"

    The owner almost dropped his teacup upon hearing the report.

    You ask what a Green Tempest is? It is so notorious that it should be an unwrittenmon sense known by everybody who had spent enough years living on Dankwood! And obviously the owner knew the history.

    But why would such a jinx being to my city? Of all time?

    Cursed the owner. The horrendous name of Green Tempest spelled apocalypse to him, that he would be on high alert and contacted the other towns nearby to send more forces to his city. Unfortunately, he had to wait, as the long distance forbade, they would only be arriving few dayster.

    Please¡­ please make it before things go wrong.

    Preached the owner of the city.

    "What!"

    The teacup nearly escaped his grip. Another plot twist to his thumping heart - the apocalyptic alchemist was one of the members in Han Yue''s group! To top that, one other member was known as Luo Shi, also a known figure, being one of the 10 participants in thest Congregation on Dankwood, the idol of every youngsters.

    Such handful case. Ugh¡­

    The lord was puzzled, the situation was far moreplicated than he thought.

    He could not be at ease to any of them, be it the alchemist, or Luo Shi the Great. He hoped that both of them would remain low-profiled at least, or it would be more puzzling.

    Sadly, everything happened to be quite the contrary. The moment Luo Shi sat on the mattress in his amodation, news flew throughout the city like the morning breeze. The mysterious alchemist''s cover was blown as well.

    Something began brewing in Emerald City¡­

    The city could hardly be at calm when two figures had arrived, one was the resourceful alchemist who inherited the legendary Green Tempest, while the other was the idol, the top 10 of Dankwood.

    The alchemist arrived with the news of conquering few hundreds of fighters effortlessly using his craft, which fell like a bomb in the city. People were ridiculed by it at first, since it really sounded fictional, till it was proven by the one great Luo Shi, then all the other alchemists around lost their heads.

    The amodation of Ye Chong and Luo Shi had been surrounded by people who begged for a moment of spotting the legends.

    Ye Chong did not expect the fandom to be this maniac, well at least the outside of his residence was not as jammed as Luo Shi''s. There was better peace at his ce. Those people who swarmed upon Luo Shi''s residence were mostly the passionate youngsters, which the guys were kicking alive and the girls were jumping in screams.

    The "fandom" at Ye Chong''s ce consisted of the alchemists, who came in peace as they left the ce after giving a nce.

    Ye Chong was of course uninterested in the people as he locked himself in his room, doing research day by day. The maidservant would provide meals, mostly in fear however, that Ye Chong would see her trying to control her breath while her hands shook the tray would nearly fall on asions when he lifted his head.

    Okay, into what had the rumors made out there? Ye Chongughed bitterly.

    Well, Luo Shi seemed more experienced at handling his spreading tales, as he would head out and exchange fists with the passionate youngsters out there, during which piercing hurrahs would be mming Ye Chong''s thinking mind at his ce.

    And thanks to these, the owner of the city had been sleeping "well".

    He was displeased by the fiasco certainly, but there was nothing he could do. The only relief was how the days passed peacefully. He had already received the order from the head of Han family. The escort task had been reassigned to others, and the head had sent a team of 800 expertsing to the city. So the one task he had to do would be guarding the olddy before the team arrived.

    And that was when he lost faith again.

    The most feared plot twist had happened again.

    It was during the day, contrary to what he had predicted, that someone outside the alchemist''s residence suddenly copsed as he began spilling blood from his purplish expression.

    About 50 witnesses were there.

    The alchemists were enraged as they knew what the scene would signify. Dankwood was a small, any established branch of alchemy would have fair connection with its counterparts and it would be a betrayal taken in the form of framing when an innocent was drugged.

    The victim had lost his consciousness. The alchemists had tried everything they knew. Nothing had worked however.

    They were feeling uneasy of the incident. Their eyes were filled with a frightened confusion as they looked at each other.

    How¡­ how did it even happen?

 Chapter 379 - Battle in Alchemy I

    <h4>Chapter 379: Battle in Alchemy I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Certainly the mysterious alchemist did note in peace, as he had stirred a storm in Emerald City, people were discussing him in the most frightful expression tinted with the strangest curiosity. And the sudden fall of the random alchemist in front of his house had be part of the heat that day, people were passing messages about how he just dropped, seemingly dead and nothing appeared to be able to resuscitate the fallen.

    And Ye Chong was not aware of this, obviously. He had been spending every second of his soul on researches and he would only take the incident as merely a side story at most.

    Regarding the incident, people had different versions of the story, mostly were sugarcoated with drama and iced with more things that went against the reality.

    The reality was, the young alchemist challenged Ye Chong that day. Nobody knew it, the young alchemist took action in the dark, he picked one hallucinogen that was both colorless and odorless, as just a tiny attempt to test the mysterious alchemist.

    And that was when he realized, the rumor was indeed true, while also knowing that he had underestimated Ye Chong''s capability.

    Ye Chong was not harmed by the attack, not even the slightest bit, although he detected the raid immediately, as he identified the culprit among the crowd. Without hesitation, Ye Chong returned a heavier blow, not sparing the young man a second to react.

    He too used a colorless and odorless reagent but one with a way stronger spreadability, that it would travel far enough to sneak into the young man''s respiratory system and take over his soul before he knew it. The reagent would destroy his blood circtory system, while being not directly fatal, since¡­ well Ye Chong was well-aware of his outsider identity, imagine the chaos he would cause if the mysterious alchemist, the possible descendant of the great in the history turned out to be an outsider.

    The unexpected however was the fact that he had underestimated this very reagent, namely the "Bloody Agony", not really the effect of it but how dramatic it would "kill" the victim, the symptoms were overwhelming to the witnesses that it brought fear as much as towards death. ording to Luantic Guan''s record, Bloody Agony was apparently a reagent used by the ancient tribe to perform punishment on the infidel, and Lunatic Guan just somehow managed to get its forme, to be improvised into the current horror with greater spreadability in air and strength.

    It was a taboo to "test" the others in the world of alchemist, since thepetition had always been more dangerous than any other field of expertise. Things could simply happen without any forewarning, like how the young reckless man had fallen. Testing the other alchemists would be a thing to do cautiously, likelier silently, unlike the street fights between the practitioners which weremon.

    That was the rule of thumb written in the microchip of Lunatic Guan. Well, Lunatic Guan had been fairly convincingly on her contents. Logically speaking, nobody of the more experienced would initiate an attack without being attacked at first. The experienced would only take action when they felt their entities threatened, that would be when the foe was utterly finished.

    That included Ye Chong, who grew up fighting,peting and warring. If it was not the fact that he wanted to stay low being an outsider, the counterattack would not as such.

    The young alchemist remained unconscious, unable to rify motive of his behavior. Because of that, things started to worsen, a battle in alchemy was brewing. He probably never thought of how his little gesture would have caused such havoc.

    ¡­

    "What should we do?" asked Qi Wen grimly as he looked at the surrounding.

    The room was filled with all the top alchemists on Dankwood. Every representative figures of alchemy of all kinds you could imagine, of all branches the studies had led, had hurried their way to Emerald City the very second they got informed about the arrival of the descendant of one who wielded the Green tempest.

    Qi Wei was the leader of the Qian System, which was the strongest, also the most established archaic system in histories of alchemy on Dankwood. One could still see them on top of ranking even when put underparison with the others in the space zone, and because of that, Qian System had been the chief representative of all alchemy branches on Dankwood.

    Qi Wei nced upon the experts of all different alchemy branches, as sentiments filled his mind, wondering when they had theirst reunion. Was it 10 years ago? Or 20 years? He could not remember. Probably the assembly would never happen if it was not mysterious alchemist.

    It was a silent assembly however, as nobody was willing to get the ball rolling. To be honest, the creator of Green Tempest had such renowned status that he looked like a total psychopath who had - for the next few decades - tainted the good name of all alchemists, but also he became the greatest contributor to the alchemy studies as he was the pioneer who had performed thorough researches on reagent of massive destruction and provided an utter new aspect of academy. He not only represented the inspiration of all alchemists, but also was the prime of alchemy on Dankwood.

    Such character would be a handful one to be judged, even by Ye Chong.

    The assembly room was dead silent, the atmosphere was almost suffocating, as nobody was able to do anything about the fall of the young alchemist, including Qi Wei. Well, it did not mean these alchemists were utterly incapable, the Qian System was known for their hallucinogenic productions but they knew nothing about the other branches. Disregarding that, there was one thing every one of them was sure - the action taken by the mysterious alchemist this time was hardly tip of the iceberg.

    "Uh¡­" The first who attempted to break the dead silent was a middle-aged man in ck clothing, with an emaciated face and sinking eyes, although brilliance glowed in his stare sometimes. He appeared to be one with a forgiving heart and a certain standing among the alchemists on Dankwood. He was the leader of the Incense branch, namely Fei Lidu.

    Contrary to its aromatic name, the researches of Incense branch focused on the offensive aspects while the apprentices favored provocation as they wielded their ever-changing attack styles and there were a few amazing products from their forebears. So the other alchemists would treat their provocation with caution, and ¡­ well¡­ the fallen young alchemist, as restless as he was, turned out to be part of the apprenticeship too.

    "The owner of Green Tempest did possess a deadly weapon in hand. And if the descendant of his did wield such weapon once again, I truly wonder what could possibly happen¡­ Would it be another record to the incidentst time?" asked Fei Lidu slowly.

    That was a frightening reminder to the people. The incidentst time remained rooted in the mind of all alchemists, even though had faded away from the memories of folks.

    Alchemists today struck a positive image on people. They were highly regarded and supported, certainly they would not want to lose the privilege by the same incident again.

    That was also why they hurried their way there.

    The sudden fall of the Incense branch apprentice was somehow a sign of the uing tempest.

    The room might be silent, the people might have no word, but their expression was tensed, as angered by the sudden change. Meanwhile Guang Wei gave a cold stare upon them, criticizing that low apprentice of the Incense branch. Nothing good ever came out of the Incense branch, no doubt. Thought he as he reminisced the times he was insulted by the apprentices. Nevertheless, the Incense branch was not a group which the fallen Smoke branch could simply mess with. So he could only stay quiet. The Smoke branch had sunken way back, with most skills buried by time and he, being the part of the branch, knew nothing much than a few smoky tricks and no way he could triumph over the Incense branch at the moment.

    And he was well-informed of how the Smoke branch would never have the rights of expression in an important meeting like this. It would be a cold stare-to-stare if he ever voiced a different opinion. Nothing would happen other than enraging the Incense branch. Knowing the nature of Fei Lidu being the vengeful kind, he would rather stay quiet and watch the show.

    You can never be spectator of such finale as you wish! Thought he.

    Qi Wei would not want to disrupt the current status of alchemy on Dankwood, while being undesirable of messing with Incense branch, so he tacitly consented to the raised issue.

    Other branches soon showed the same agreement, as Qi Wei''s silent treatment had affected all neutral alchemists.

    Annihting an alchemist who would likelier cause more harm than good - whether if it was right or wrong based on all sorts of consideration, would never get an absolute judgement by the people. So they showed zero attitude towards the situation, they would let the ball just roll as it wished.

    As long as they would fight in crowd, even the most potent alchemist like this uninvited visitor would fall. The greatest threat he could impose would be none other than the Green Tempest.

    Green Tempest might be notorious of the destructive it caused, but it was already a technique of the very past, that they strongly believed the evolution of their branches had already surpassed this piece of undying antique, especially when they had discovered the counter for it.

    Ye Chong was researching. He had hidden the crates underground, so those precious materials remained intact.

    The recent encounters had given him a better understanding of alchemy, while also initiating intense interests in him. He requested a massive amount of alchemy apparatuses from the Emerald City owner who certainly would nod his head hard upon meeting. The owner had sent him the best apparatus in the city, hoping that those toys would keep the boy quiet at least, since that was the owner''s sole wish - having peace and quiet.

    Thanks to the apparatus, Ye Chong''s research progressed smoothly. He had been producing all kinds of reagents unlisted in his recipe, that his table was tinted by bottles and bottles of them, like glowing stars of different colors.

    The encyclopedia Lunatic Guan provided was very rich in data and Ye Chong had just hit a small portion of it. While eximing the greatness of alchemy, Ye Chong had fully indulged himself in the fun of research.

    He had nned an escape n before, but he was at one critical point of his research, that he must dy his escape n. He was almost there, almost¡­ almost¡­

    Regarding his reward, well Han Yue had sent him on the first day they arrived at the city.

    Ironically, probably Ye Chong would never expect how the little dy he made was able to drag him into the most intense battle of sks and beakers ever.

 Chapter 380 - Battle in Alchemy II

    <h4>Chapter 380: Battle in Alchemy II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "How''s the preparation?" A voice rang within the voidness of the sealed room.

    "Everything had been prepared, only at your order now, master." Sincerely the other voice replied.

    Sharp whispers were heard then diminished.

    The voices faded as the room regained its dead silence.

    ¡­

    "I fear¡­" The voice echoed once again 10 minutester, "that all our forces would be retreating after the raid this time¡­" Lethargic and unwilling the voice sounded, "and all our efforts for the past decades would go to waste¡­" It then took another few minutes of silence for the person to make up his mind.

    ¡­

    "Go¡­ just go."

    "Yes sir!" The sincere person bowed and hurried out of the sealed room.

    ¡­

    Emerald City remained much livelier as ever, since things had been happening for the past few days and they were pretty intriguing, be it the martial arts superstar Luo Shi or that mysterious alchemist, those were the topics after dinner.

    But little the folks knew that, a battle in alchemy was brewing soon.

    Very soon.

    "Qi Wei, the master of Qian System, represents the folks of Dankwood, invites you for a meeting.*" Qi Wei''s voice was not restlessly loud, rather it sounded pumped, as he stood next to Fei Lidu, whose expression remained stiff with hands in his sleeves.

    Ye Chong walked towards the window upon hearing the call.

    It was bright summer day as Ye Chong stood by the window back then, behind the frames of fences made out of polished, sculptured wood. One should be aware that the appearance of alchemists would always be deceiving as they were the group of people who adored disguises using their tricks. Nobody knew the actual look of the mysterious alchemist as the potion had probably given him an unrecognizable mask, and no one of the city looked down upon this alchemist because of his youth.

    "The heck¡­" Ye Chong had no idea what was going on at the porch, but he immediately withdrew his rmed eyes after that, as he convinced himself to better spend the time on some researches rather than having a staring contest with strangers by the window.

    "H-" Two red lines zapped towards Ye Chong the moment he lifted his lips. The one man in ckunched an attack near Qi Wei.

    Ye Chong reacted promptly as his waists pulled him all the way down to the ground, forming an arc to dodge the attack.

    Crack. Crack!

    The two beams struck the fence and vanished in the darkness of the room. Dust began dancing in the air as the frames were crushed.

    Ye Chong witnessed the broadness of the fired beams and almost tasted them. His action grew rapid as he tumbled to the carpet and picked up his woodennce.

    Qi Wei''s eyes wererge, he only nned to have a talk with the mysterious alchemist, he just wanted to know the truth but Fei Lidu eventually initiated an attack. He looked at Fei Lidu, who looked rather rxed, "Qi my brother, don''t look surprise. We should strive for the end, rather than the mean. We had made our move, so it would be better to look for victory and not mercy." He probably meant if they nned to do something on the alchemist, it would be better to achieve an ultimate oue, and it would be very unwise to hesitate.

    Qi Wei was unpleased by Fei Lidu''s inappropriate behavior, but he had to admit that Fei Lidu was right. It would be a dead-or-alive battle once they clicked the START button.

    "You''re wise indeed, brother," replied Qi Wei briefly, as he took out bottles from his rucksack.

    The other alchemists stood quietly, with bottles in their grip. Guang Wei was at the back, for some reason his body was shaking.

    What did I just see? Guan Wei could not believe his eyes, as they somehow perceived an essory on the neck of the mysterious alchemist. The sight onlysted for 3 seconds but he was pretty sure he did see a Silver Strand Pendant, the essory he dreamed day and night, resting round the neck of the alchemist.

    Ye Chong watched the moving red beams, as his forehead was wetted by cold sweats.

    Whipper Snake? Dang, they actually sent two Whipper snakes? The beams were about thickness of his thumbs and had a dark brownish horn at the head. and dark red stripes over the bodies. They were called Whipper due to their sticity and bounciness, they would roam the ce at an unpredictable direction and an unforeseeable pace.

    The two snakes were slithering on the ground, making aggressive hisses as their crimson eyes focused upon Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong dared not to lift his eyes, never once he would imagine any human would raise such horrible beast. For real, like how? Even Lunatic Guan''s encyclopedia did not have a record on ways to tame these madness.

    His body was tense, the camouge on hisnce had been torn, he swung thence and faced the dark head at his foes.

    Snap! Klink! The Whipper Snakes suddenly zapped to both sides.

    Darn it. Cursed Ye Chong, he did predict the moves and heunched himself on one of the snakes.

    He had observed how the snake moved just now, and those movements convincingly defined danger at a whole new level. They were Whippers for their springy nature, they would bounce with their abdomen as they squeezed themselves like springs at the tightest. The momentum was so insane that even Ye Chong the speed master almost tripped himself in surprise.

    The snakes were very intelligent too. They did not attack Ye Chong with pure brute aggression, rather they utilized their bouncy body as they threw themselves to walls at both side,nded with their abdomen andunched themselves again - a reflective shot!

    Snap! The momentum intensified!

    Both snakes headed towards Ye Chong.

    Never would Ye Chong expected the snakes wing cable of such drastic direction change, it was a horror to see these Whipper Snakes elerating themselves using the conservation of momentum and fired themselves like an arrow as they straightened their body and faced their horns at Ye Chong after redirection.

    Ye Chong had no time to take any action than guarding himself with hisnce.

    Snap! The red beam struck body of Ye Chong''snce. His hands were making a shudder that he almost dropped hisnce, as the red beam went itself to the back.

    The snake actually made a reflection even on my spear? Ye Chong was shocked but there was no more time for shocker. He intended to destroy one of them before they reunited at one point andunched abined attack. But the snakes turned out to be more unpredictable than he thought¡­ He looked almost doomed in this battle.

    He remembered seeing information on Whipper Snake back in the 5 major gxies. It was a visit to one information center somewhere in the Virtual World. He read the entries out of mere curiosity and was certainly terrified by it but he never foresaw the day that he would meet such monstrosity alone¡­

    A tip to the ground as Ye Chong made an arch with his shaking eyes seeing a red beam traveling by his waist.

    The scene grew beyondprehension as two beams of light zapping around the house, elerating at a horrendous rate, to a point that awork of red web seemed to have formed in the room. The ends of the web were fading but soon they were covered by newer lines. There was a silhouette jumping around at too an insane rate¡­ what in the Dankwood happened?

    The Whippers kept throwing themselves at the walls so they would conserve momentums again and again. They were dexterous as they aimed the back of our protagonist. The velocity was increasing and it was harder for Ye Chong to even identify where the snakes actually were.

    The afterimages became longer and longer, as their body turned blurrier each time.

    In a never-before-experienced dangerous situation, the strength of Ye Chong''s focus was also never-before-experienced.

    It almost felt like he had been sent back to the past, back to the time when he still spent his days piloting Tissot, blocking those strange white glowing orbs as he did his NR training in the Virtual World. Well, he did not have a mech now unlike before, as he wielded only a piece of wood, and the foes he had to face were not the harmless virtual orbs but two wickedly vicious snakes that wanted his life.

    There was still¡­ a vast difference between a dummy training and an actual fight.

    The afterimages lost the stack as the contour grew clearer.

    Ye Chong had been cornered, he could no longer make further movement within the diminishing seconds. Whipper Snakes had elerated to a point that his eyes could distinguish no more.

    He would love to make another pointless attempt of repositioning himself within the dancing beams, but his mind reminded him to maximize his vitality to demonstrate movements the most concise possible. His respiration, his blood cirction, pace of his entire body had reached an astonishing rate.

    He was wetted by his sweats, while being unaware of it. Within that brief second as that one drop of sweat fell, he got to perform over 70 times of self-guard technique. He was unaware if that was the maximum for humanity to reach, but he was well-aware that it was already his very best.

    Yet¡­

    Pant¡­ pant¡­

    Every guard was a gamble. The momentum created by the snakes was impulsive. Ye Chong could feel his arms aching as every crash on thence felt like as heavy as a hammer m.

    Ye Chong was relying his intuition in this fight, like always.

    "Need not to worry, my brother," said Fei Lidu, with an unexpected smile, though sadistic. "The Whipper Snake would be one horrendous foe even a martial arts practitioner would be doomed to defeat, and the snakes are fighting an alchemist this time." Pointed he, at Ye Chong''s amodation.

    One keyword of Lidu''s line caused Qi Wei to stagger. Whipper Snake. "Did he actually send two Whipper Snakes?" Cries of shocker were heard among the underlings, "Oh my Dankwood, those beams were Whipper?" No one had expected the two red lights were the repulsive reptile.

    Fei Lidu was silent, with his hands crossed behind, looking proud in his eyes.

    Qi Wei gave a stare at his ally, his expression was indescribable as he quietly kept the reagents back into his rucksack.

    The alchemist was practically a done-for once the Whipper Snakes were sent. And thanks to this kill, words would be spread, about how the Incense branch had eradicated the evil and saved the day. Thought Qi Wei, as his underlings also put their bottles back into their inventories, though they seemed confused.

    If Fei Lidu could handle the alchemist himself, what was the hassle of sending everybody to the scene?

    And that was when Guang Wei looked at the happening, with a drained face of his.

 Chapter 381 - Battle in Alchemy III

    <h4>Chapter 381: Battle in Alchemy III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the record of history, there had been different eras where there would always be a particr problem that haunted humanity, such particr problem had received differentments and visionary from the great historical figures while had also puzzled folks of all walks of time - that is, if humans could truly throne themselves as the greatest entity in thew of nature? The problem might not be a problem when asked as a question itself, that it had answered itself, obviously whenever one would look into the speed, the strength, the vitality of human''s anatomy which none of those could surpass even the most ordinary beast in the gctic wild, not even those of the Jie experts.

    Most lifeforms in the gxy were never something humanity could fight barehanded. Humans would always be required assistance, assistance like mechs or supreme weaponry in order to even stand a chance to win the beasts.

    And those beasts were beasts like the fearsome Whipper Snakes.

    Fei Lidu looked all calm when he observed the havoc happening in the amodation. No one else could have recognized the potency of a Whipper Snake than himself. Countless great ones had been annihted by those slithering, zigzagging madness. It was only that his nature of staying low kept these avenging murders in dark, unaware by the people. But well, there would be times when he would need to sh his trump card and this was it.

    It was a monstrosity that could even conquer the practitioners, let alone a mere folk who only knew how to pour from one sk to another. Alchemist, oh merely an alchemist. He never worried about if his snakes would get the job done, instead, he was worried of Qi Wei''s response on this. The frowning, the heavy breaths were not a good sign of approval from a great leader of the mighty Qian system like Qi Wei. Lidu only wanted to expand the influence of Incense branch and so he did something, brutally yet strategically. But the capability of the Qian system was not something he could simply rece. Assuming if this was the lighter to the war between the two branches, these Whipper Snakes would do very little instead. Thus, it would be a no-no to enrage the Qian system.

    He knew, it would only be a matter of time till he was caught red-handed on owning two dangerous beasts. So he just demonstrated them, before things went wrong, to tell the world that he was not a pebble to simply fiddle with.

    He was right. People had been convinced, frighteningly convinced, as notorious those snakes were, while unheard rumors of them being tamable were. And somehow the Incense branch had made a miracle, of taming the untamable beast. Fei Lidu''s move was not meaningless after all.

    ¡­

    Pant¡­ Pant¡­

    Ha¡­Hah¡­

    Ye Chong''s mind had been wiped, as an exhrated intensity swarmed upon his body, the muscles of his arms and legs were jiggling, somehow demonstrating an untamed thrash due to the instincts he had formed over the long adventures in the gxy, which turned out to be his savior.

    Every bit of his muscle was wriggling beneath his torn clothing, like countless snakes the tendons intertwined and separated, tightened and loosened repetitively. Strength had been unleashed as Ye Chong''s movement grew superbly precise under the lead of these muscles. Ye Chong''s movement looked mechanical however, probably due to the over-precision of movements, which gave a rather peculiar sense to his usual dodging techniques. He dodged and flipped, the movements formed seamlessly, as Ye Chong traveled in the briefest straight lines.

    The September Lan''s technique.

    Well, probably even the forebears who created the technique would never expect such use of muscle maniption.

    Generally, Whipper Snake''s attacks were all linear attacks, which justified the quickness of the stinging attacks - the universalw of mathematics - it always would form the shortest distance if one travelled from point A to point B in straight.

    Ye Chong gradually discarded the fanciness of his movements as he moved crudely, intuitively, back to who he was inside. It was amazing, unfortunately it was done subconsciously or Ye Chong would be overpowered if he had mastered it.

    A monstrosity could be potent, but there would always be a limit to its destruction.

    Whipper Snakes were fast, while also being violent but they could never maintain their eleration for all eternity, and that was when they hit their limits, the maximum speed in simpler terms.

    Their maximum was a total horror as they had veiled the entire room in densework of scarlets with their afterimages.

    The situation had gotten a strange twist, as Ye Chong had broken his speed cap under intense pressure, which was just enough to hold the Whipper Snake''s attack. Unlike the Whipper Snake''s bouncing zigzagging, Ye Chong''s movement had been intuitive. If Ye Chong depended on his consciousness to make movements, he would have been slow, but now his muscles had taken the lead and dodging had be an effortless act for him, while bing a consuming fight for the Whipper Snakes. So they had slowed down. The situation had changed. Ye Chong was probably winning.

    In reality, it had only been few ten seconds after Fei Lidu unleashed his pets. People were waiting by the window, unaware of the snakes'' habit, anticipating the next action taken by this fairly strange leader of Incense branch.

    That was when a group of people were hurrying towards the ce.

    "Report. There are about 54 people surrounding the space before the mysterious alchemist''s amodation," concisely one person stated.

    It was odd, as it was different from what the unknown leader had expected. The leader, as experienced and strategic he was, knew it was a critical point to make decision, that a second of hesitation would possibly disrupt the entire operation. Apparently their main target was the mysterious alchemist so they had studied him carefully, while also being fully informed of his capabilities.

    "Finish them." The eyes of the leader were cold, as briefly the three sybles went.

    "Yes sir." The group then broke into 3 small parties where one of them sneaked towards Ye Chong''s amodation. Their steps were silent yet extremely agile and organized. The street was soundless as they passed by a few dead bodies.

    "Siegepleted," said one member.

    The head of this small party was a man with red string over his wrist, well, everyone was wearing ck and covered in mask, some sort of marking would be needed.

    The red-stringed wrist swung, "Attack!"

    ¡­

    Guang Wei''s eyes wererge, as he squeezed through the crowd, he felt he had lost his mind but that one thing was teasing his mind, scrapping hisst bit of sanity.

    Silver strand pendant.

    That''s the silver strand pendant¡­

    The smoke branch, the smoke branch would be resuscitated.

    If I regained my silver strand pendant¡­

    I had enough of those humiliations, those snickers, those degradingments¡­

    It was when Guang Wei thought his true strength would sink for the rest of his life.

    Then the silver lining hade from the sky.

    Silver strand pendant.

    "What the hell are you doing?" Cursed one man.

    "Oh, wasn''t this Guang Wei the big man from the Smokin'' BBQ branch? What you''re doing? You wanna show off your smoking skill when all of us are here?"

    "We are not having a BBQ party you know!"

    "HAHAHA!"

    Guang Wei was ignorant of thements he somehow grew old hearing, as he carried on forcing himself through the crowd, with his lips bleeding from his constant bites. Theughter continued, thements echoed in the space, his legs were dragging him all the way to the front.

    In the midst ofughter, no one had noticed how the few alchemists at the end of the crowd had been struck down. The assassins raided the souls of the little alchemy pioneers in their mask. The assassins were practitioners after all, and no sk-wielding potter could brace themselves against the fist and swords.

    Coincidentally, that was where Guang Wei formerly stood as the alchemists fell without sound.

    Back in the room of Ye Chong¡­

    Zap! Klink! Klink! Klink!

    Something had changed.

    The Whipper Snakes maintained their momentum and shattered the entire row of sks on the table. Ye Chong''s colorful efforts had been destroyed as they pierced the sses.

    The enormous force smashed the collection as it burst into countless pieces!

    Clouds of different colors soon flocked the ce. Those were the collection of hallucinogenic reagents. Oh no¡­ Yup Ye Chong had been working on hallucinogens ever since he recognized their importance from thest fight, and in fact this time he did again, since¡­

    Those vaporizing hallucinogens became the factor to his salvation.

    The Whipper Snakes froze in the air as they zapped through the thick clouds of hallucinogens. They fell and crashed into the wall. Because of thew of conversion of energy, they had to receive theplete impulsive energy from their kics. And there they sshed, into a st of blood.

    Ye Chong recovered from the insane fight very soon after the threat had disappeared.

    The catch was¡­ he did not even have the strength to lift his finger, as those colorful clouds had drained thest bit of him. He panted, and panted, carelessly breathed in the hallucinogens as hended to the floor with drizzles of his sweats showering the nearby ground.

    Battle¡­ the battle had ended?

    And right outside the window, something had happened again.

 Chapter 382 - Battle in Alchemy IV

    <h4>Chapter 382: Battle in Alchemy IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    What was that smell?

    Alchemists were all sensitive to smell. Who released the alchemy substance? Some of them could not help but looked back.

    "Aah!" A sharp and horrified cry came from the back. More cries followed. No one expected someone to be following them. If one of the alchemists had not been careless and identally released his alchemy substance, the entire group would have been neatly and silently wiped out .

    There were bloody corpses everywhere. The ambushers came in huge numbers, killing their victims from behind their masks. It was a chilling sight.

    However, most of the alchemists were prominent characters of the alchemy world on Dankwood, all seasoned fighters themselves. They quickly released their own alchemy substances. Colorful smoke drifted into existence, enveloping the entire ce. Human figures were vaguely visible through the smoke.

    The situation turned chaotic.

    Ye Chong sat on the ground, gasping for breath, his mind nk after strenuous physical exertion. The room was filled with imprable smoke. Ye Chong pressed his palms to the ground for support, but was cut by a fragment of broken alchemy sk. He felt a sharp pain on his hand and retracted it. The pain also woke him up from his daze.

    The ground was covered with broken fragments of alchemy sks. All his days of hard work were lost. The whipper snakes were too quick, and the broken fragments of the alchemy sks flew just as quick, spraying off like deadly weapons. It was these broken fragments that caused most of the alchemy sks to be broken.

    The smoke had a faint, sweet smell. Ye Chong jolted abruptly, cursed himself, and quickly pushed himself up, fighting against his fatigue.

    He remembered that he had synthesized a few more dangerous products. Could they be released into the air as well? Ye Chong was anxious. He knew exactly how dangerous they were. Besides, his smoke pearl was only useful against knockout agents and the like. He had no intention of trying out histest products.

    Ye Chong picked up his wooden spear from the ground in a hurry and stumbled to the front door, leaving the mess behind him. His gaze fell on the wooden box ced beside the door. A stroke of luck for him. Ye Chong brought the box with him as he exited the room.

    The sudden burst of smoke knocked Guang Wei out instantly. He never would have guessed that this would save his life.

    Looking down from above the city, it was hell down below. The ambushers had decided to attack without reservation in their brute force attempt. There were no preambles or intel gathering beforehand. The battle escted quickly.

    The maidservant who had been waiting by the door all this while was surprised to see the mysterious alchemist suddenly appearing before her. The alchemist had stayed inside ever since he arrived. She heard the ruckus from inside, but ever since she began serving the alchemist, there would be noises from within the room, so she had grown used to them.

    "What are you doing?" She saw Ye Chong with a spear in one hand a wooden box in the other, and asked respectfully. It looked like he was about to leave. She was baffled, but dared not stop him. Now, she was thinking informing the news to the Mayor immediately.

    With the box in his hand, Ye Chong felt much safer. He had kept all the maps and money that Han Yue had given to him in the box. On the other hand, he was using up more and more of his raw ingredients. His research these days were exhausting his raw materials rapidly. However, he had no choice. The price for improving himself faster would of course be higher.

    "Nothing," Ye Chong answered politely, almost reflexively. He quickly moved on to other matters, as he was struck with a brilliant idea.

    He looked around him and saw a flower vase. He picked it up and freed the vase from its flowery contents, leaving them on the floor.

    Just what was he up to? The maidservant looked at the rumored legendary alchemist, and could not figure him out. The vase was a valuable item that not even her annual sry could afford it. Even the flowers were just delivered this morning from thergest florist establishment in the city.

    Ye Chong did not reply her, only testing the material of the vase, and seemed quite happy with it.

    He immediately took out a few chemicals and began to do some alchemy right in the corridor.

    The maidservant looked at the alchemist with interest as he chucked in all sorts of strange things into the vase as his left hand swirled the vase rhythmically.

    People had given him an almost godly reputation. She watched nervously at the vase in Ye Chong¡¯s hands. Just what would this turn out into? To her, Ye Chong was just like a magician performing his magic trick.

    He looked at the final product in the vase with satisfaction. The snow white vase now carried a yellowish thick fluid. It filled almost half of the case.

    "Take a few steps back," Ye Chong said to the maidservant.

    The maidservant hurried a few steps back.

    "A few steps more."

    The maidservant took another half a dozen steps back. She steadied herself and looked at the alchemist curiously, eager to see his next move.

    Ye Chong looked solemn, holding the vase carefully in his hands. If anybat experts were here, they would notice that Ye Chong¡¯s did not tremble at all, almost like a statue.

    Ye Chong did not know why the people outside wanted to attack him. However, since he had just escaped from death, he did not feel like reasoning with them. He would teach them a lesson, one they would never forget!

    The room he was staying in was filled with many alchemy products. Perhaps it was out of habit, but most of them were dangerous or lethal ones.

    He would not enter the room now. The room was full of dangerous materials. Entering without sufficient preparation would only kill him. Besides, there was a huge variety of them. Mixing the chemicals together might lead to some surprising elements.

    Ye Chong switched the vase to his right hand, and held onto the door knob with his left.

    He took a deep breath and opened the door by a small crack, then he threw the vase into the room. Before the vase made itsnding, he quickly shut the door. After that, he pushed hard against the door, bracing for what came next.

    Bam!

    It was the sound of a muffled explosion. The door shook violently, but the quality material of gawood held.

    The maidservant was shocked. She covered her mouth tightly, trying not to make a sound. That muffled explosion had startled her, and her heart was still racing. Just what was he up to? Her dim, blue eyes betrayed her fear and uncertainty.

    Ye Chong did not linger for long, and made to leave. Leaving this ce as soon as possible was his best option for now. The maidservant was scared frozen, still standing where she was.

    Ye Chong had did something quite ruthless.

    He had thrown an explosive into the room. The explosive was much stronger than the one he used back in the tent. This explosion would definitely break all the remaining alchemy sks in his room. The room was sealed well, and the only entrances were through the door and windows. Since he had kept the door shut, the only possible venting points were the windows. The explosion pushed the air from inside the room out into the open. The air was filled with all kinds of dangerous products of alchemy.

    Not far out from the windows, the alchemists and ambushers were still in the thick of the fight. This deadly airflow was about to deal a heavy blow to them.

    The first to react were Qi Wei and Pei Libei. Both them were surprised. While they were not exactly alchemists themselves, they were involved with alchemy for years and had seen their fill. They knew how terrifying this airflow could be.

    Guang Wei was very lucky. Since he tried hard to push himself forward, he was now just between Qi Wei and Pei Libei. He had them to thank for his surviving the airflow.

    A frontal attack depended entirely on brute strength. Tricks were usually difficult to execute, especially against a ce so tightly defended as the Mayor¡¯s Mansion.

    However, they were left with no choice, since now was the time when the Mayor¡¯s Mansion was least defended. Just a few days after, not only wouldbatants from nearby cities arrive, even the Han Family¡¯s strongest warriors would be here.

    But can they really take down the ce? Looking at the stubbornly defended Mayor¡¯s Mansion, the leader of the ambush squad felt a moment of doubt.

    In the corridor, Ye Chong ran ahead quickly.

    Crash! A window was broken, spraying ss every which way. A figure darted towards him.

    Ye Chong reacted quickly, lifting the spearhead and aiming towards the throat of the attacker.

    Crush! A crimson flower bloomed! A second figure appeared behind the attacker just then, but Ye Chong pushed forward and ran right into the first attacker.

    Ye Chong was like a mech flying at high speed, while the now dead attacker was just like a sandbag. He was flung straight out the window. The person right behind the first attacker never expected it, and was caught off guard. Everything happened so quickly, and Ye Chong did not give him time to think. The second attacker reflexively tried to catch hisrade.

    Wham! The two sandbags collided! They both flew out the window.

    Ye Chong ignored them and continued running down the corridor.

    As he passed through a door with a semicircr arch, what he saw gave him quite a surprise.

 Chapter 383 - The Story Behind I

    <h4>Chapter 383: The Story Behind I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Luo Shi was being surrounded, under attack by dozens of men.

    Ye Chong did not manage to see Luo Shi fight during the ambush attack on their campsite. This was his first time witnessing the man inbat.

    He fought with the typicalbat style of the Ye Family. There were no fancy moves, and every move was either damaging or fatal. The man made evasive steps to avoid being trapped by his attackers. Ye Chong could not read his opponents urately, and he could see that Luo Shi was using authenticbat moves of the Ye Family, much stronger than the instructors in ck Cove.

    Compared to him, the instructors were basically newbies to the arena.

    Luo Shi moved with ease, never keeping still for a moment too long, preventing his attackers from trapping him. It was impossible to see skills like these in the Five Gxies or the He Yue Gxy. In those ces, mechs were the main ways ofbat.

    "Hah, you¡¯re here!" Luo Shi noticed Ye Chong. His eyes shone brightly, and he sounded oddly warm.

    Ye Chong was perplexed. He had noticed early on of Luo Shi¡¯s strange attitude towards him. Luo Shi was always trying to be closer to him. Ye Chong had thought that his disguise was blown, and became wary of the man.

    Just then, three ambushers went to attack Ye Chong.

    Child abductors! They wore the same masks that Ye Chong saw when he first encountered these child abductors. The strange masks left a deep impression in him.

    Ance came for Ye Chong, striking like a snake.

    Another longsword routed itself to stop Ye Chong from escaping. The sharp edge of the de shimmered. Once Ye Chong entered its effective range, he would have to face its continuous attacks.

    Thest man had a dagger in his hand. He was skinny, but his eyes were cold and attentive, like a cat watching its prey in the night.

    They thought of this alchemist, the man who caused theirst ambush attack to end in failure, as an even more important target than Luo Shi. The alchemist had safely arrived at this ce, thus their group that was assigned to the campsite must have failed. While they did not know how it happened, they were still confident of their abilities. Any strong alchemist would still have his or her own weaknesses. If an alchemist were to face off against abat expert, then the alchemist would be as good as dead. Besides, this was three of them against one alchemist!

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened!

    Their attacks were exactly the same as the ones he faced when he escaped from the ck Forest.

    So it was themst time! Ye Chong¡¯s eyes turned cold.

    In just a short instant, Ye Chong understood the whole story. At the first vige he visited, he had killed a child abductor, and let another one go. The one who escaped must have told of his story to his organization. Later attempts on his life must have been their act of revenge.

    Back in the forest, theplicated territory and their peculiar ways of camouging themselves among the greenery had given them a huge advantage. More importantly, Ye Chong was too heavily injuredst time till he was forced into a tight corner.

    Now, however, they would face Ye Chong, fresh from a new breakthrough. While it was only an instinctive body reflex, the leftover subconscious effects left in his body were still enough to make him even more dangerous.

    Ye Chong turned his left leg, swinging his body to the side and avoiding thence attack. The wooden spear in his right hand stabbed in the direction of the longsword. It was a simple stab, one that Ye Chong did without much thought, done almost reflexively.

    The wooden spear hit its blue spot target spot on.

    The wooden spear bounced back to him with a rattle of his right hand. Ye Chong seemed to know what was behind him. The wooden spear¡¯s shaft whipped backwards, almost softly, onto the chest of the child abductor with the dagger, ready to attack Ye Chong.

    Crack!

    A soft sound was heard. The two persons sandwich-ing Ye Chong in between fell down like puppets with their strings severed. They died horrible deaths. The man with the longsword had a stab wound in his throat, and the flesh around the wound was now in an eerie ck. As for the man with the dagger, his chest had copsed inward from a blow to his body center.

    The only surviving child abductor was shocked. They had rushed into their deaths when facing Ye Chong. The man had easily dealt with them both.

    "Wonderful!" Luo Shi eximed, full of admiration. As he finished pronouncing that single word, he had already switched position five times, killing two more people.

    Looking at the way he was, Ye Chong knew that the man was not giving it his all yet. Luo Shi must be more powerful than this.

    Suddenly, Luo Shi waved towards Ye Chong, smiling a secretive smile as he said, "Hey, brother, let¡¯s get out of here. I¡¯ve something you¡¯ll probably be very interested in." He did not seem concerned about the child abductors around him at all.

    Luo Shi¡¯s suggestion confused Ye Chongpleted.

    Luo Shi said nothing more. He made a few evasive moves and escaped from his enemies¡¯ grasp. He waved for Ye Chong to follow again, and fled outside.

    Luo Shi¡¯s departure was a relief for the rest of the child abductors. They now turned their attention to Ye Chong, but did not attack immediately. Ye Chong had just shown that he was no weaker than Luo Shi. Besides, he was an alchemist!

    The leader of this attack squad was now sighing hopelessly to himself inside. Meeting that crazy Luo Shi was unfortunate, but now they were up against another even crazier man.

    Ye Chong did not understand Luo Shi¡¯s intention, but looking at his enemies, he also knew that he should leave as soon as possible. He made a turn and fled out of the house, light as a bird.

    As the two strong men left, the child abductors all heaved a sigh of relief. Just then, however, a thunderous sound of animal footsteps came from outside, sending a soft tremor through the ground.

    The leader of the child abductors was shocked beyond belief!

    When Ye Chong left the Mayor¡¯s Mansion, he saw a group of men riding canterelles forcing their ways through the city gates.

    However, Ye Chong was more focused on the sight of Luo Shi, waiting for him not far off. Luo Shi waved at him and continued running, heading out of the city. Ye Chong considered for a moment before following him.

    The two figures leaped across houses like shadows.

    The man at the forefront of the canterelle troop took a quick nce at the two fast-moving figures with surprise. However, he kept his eyes forward and said hoarsely, "Forward, to the Mayor¡¯s Mansion."

    Ye Chong followed Luo Shi, but keeping a reasonable distance between them.

    They were both fast, and running with all they got. Emerald City grew smaller and smaller behind them. It was when they were about 30 kilometers away from Emerald City that Luo Shi finally stopped.

    Almost at that same moment, Ye Chong halted as well, still keeping a reasonable distance between them.

    He held the wooden spear in his hand, ready for anything. The wooden box was put aside.

    Seeing Ye Chong thus prepared, Luo Shi stared for a moment beforeughing and said, "No need for all this, no need at all, we¡¯re not enemies."

    Ye Chong did not respond, but asked, "Start talking, why bring me here?" He stared into Luo Shi¡¯s eyes. Shang once told him that when a person lied, he would be able to tell from the eyes.

    Luo Shi turned sombre. His next sentence was earth-shattering. Even Ye Chong could not help but show his surprise on his face!

    "Ye Chong, it¡¯s you isn¡¯t it?"

    Ye Chong said nothing, staring fixedly at Luo Shi. Inside however, he was desperately trying to figure out how he had exposed himself. In the end, he quickly calmed down. He could not understand what he did wrong, and if that was the case, then it was better if he just left it at that and prepare for battle!

    Luo Shi shook his head and exined, "Ye Chong, I mean you no harm."

    Before Ye Chong could respond, he continued, "It¡¯s not just me, the entire Ye Family means you no harm!"

    Ye Chong was unconvinced. The rtionship between him and the Ye Family was alreadyplicated as it was, and he did not wish to dwell on it any more than necessary. However, he kept quiet and listened anyway. Luo Shi had surprised him too much.

    "When you were in ck Cove, you had already drew attention from the higher ups of ck Cove. You must know how special your body is. Normally, for anyone as thin as you are, he should be physically weaker, and can only develop his speed, flexibility, reaction time.

    "But not you!

    "ck Cove quickly notified the Ye Family of this. In fact, the Patriarch grew interested in you. Hmm, I¡¯m not sure how much you know about the Ye Family, but in recent years, sessors of the family are in decline, and true descendants of the Ye Family are all worried about it. This is also why you gained attention from the Patriarch."

    Luo Shi shrugged with an air of self mockery.

    "You¡¯re very vignt, a quick learner, and strong as well," Luo Shi said this with approval, "Every attempt by ck Cove to recover you ended in failure. The Patriarch was vexed by this, but he could do nothing about it." At this, Luo Shi seemed to remember something, and grinned.

    "The real deal breaker for the Patriarch is this - you had used the silver liquid, but remained healthy and unscathed!" Luo Shi turned serious and looked straight at Ye Chong, speaking his next words with care, "Do you know what this means?"

    Ye Chong remained silent.

    Luo Shi did not answer his own question, but switched topics, "The silver liquid is an early invention, but its side effects are obvious. It¡¯s supposed to simte an element uniquely found in the blood of any Ye Family member. However, current technology is still insufficient to replicate it exactly. There is only one group of people who can use the silver liquid and remain unaffected. Just one group!

    "It¡¯s the Ye Family members!"

    The simple sentence was like dropping a bombshell for Ye Chong!

    "You used the name Ye Chong before, so it¡¯s actually convincing that you¡¯re actually from the Ye Family. However, no one expected you to be so slippery to catch. It seemed as though you always have a mysterious someone by your side, protecting you. Our operations failed every time," Luo Shi said with a wry smile on his face.

 Chapter 384 - The Story Behind II

    <h4>Chapter 384: The Story Behind II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong thought of Mu and Shang. Without their help, who knew how his life would be now? The memory of his time with Mu and Shang sent a warm feeling to his heart.

    "Then you arrived in the He Yue Gxy out of nowhere. In all honesty, we still don¡¯t know how you got here," Luo Shi smiled even more wryly.

    "Our people were still searching for you in the Five Gxies. When they saw you in the He Yue Gxy, they were shocked! Haha, you should¡¯ve seen their faces. Ye Wuqin was all just in bbergasted! It was awesome!" Luo Shiughed, obviously enjoying the memory.

    His easyughter was soothing to Ye Chong, but he did not lower his guard.

    "You know what happened next. The Three Aristocratic Families ended up all in a nervous wreck because of you. But we¡¯ve been curious, why are the Xue Lai n and Xi Feng Tribe hot on your heels too?"

    "Don¡¯t know," Ye Chong answered calmly.

    "They don¡¯t matter anyway. Hey, if you think about it, we might be brothers," Luo Shi said, excited, "My siblings back at home were all wondering who your parents are, but none of them have any obvious conclusions. The elders at home are also watching you closely."

    Ye Chong kept his expression neutral, but a strange feeling was bubbling into existence within him. Parents? What an unfamiliar term.

    "You mind if I verify with your blood?" Luo Shi looked at Ye Chong nervously, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.

    "Verify how?" Ye Chong asked. That was something he was curious about all this while.

    With Ye Chong¡¯s agreement, Luo Shi seemed to rx a little. He calmed down and exined, "It¡¯s simple. For members of our tribe, their blood will turn into a sky blue color when mixed with Bolmanshek solution."

    He chortled as he produced a transparent crystal test tube from his waist. "Good thing I brought this with me, it¡¯s providence alright. No one brings this around with them!" He flicked a finger and opened the cap. The crystal test tube was filled with a transparent liquid. Luo Shi offered the test tube to Ye Chong and said, "One drop of blood. Just one drop will be enough."

    Ye Chong studied the crystal test tube with a in expression, even though his emotions were all over the ce. His blood rushed through his veins in dysphoria.

    Perhaps, he¡¯ll finally have an answer! This was a question that had troubled him for so long, and now, he was about to find out the truth.

    Was he a member of the Ye Family?

    Ye Chong could not stay calm in spite of his usualposure. He had told himself many times that his origins should not bother him. These were matters that did not affect him in a concrete way. His biological origin was just that, and nothing more.

    However, now that the truth was about to be revealed, Ye Chong found the coolness that he prided himself on was so brittle against reality!

    His pulse raced like never before. His long, even breathing turned shorter as his blood rushed with excitement.

    Ye Chong closed his eyes and forced himself to take a long, deep breath! It took almost all of his strength to inhale this time, then he exhaled the air within him heavily outwards! All his troubles seemed to escape from him, following that exhale.

    When Ye Chong opened his eyes again, they were once again determined and focused.

    Whatever will be, will be!

    He took out his dagger and touched his index finger lightly against the edge of the de. He reached his index finger to the crystal test tube¡¯s opening and squeezed gently. A drop of crimson blood dived into the test tube. Plop! It met the transparent Bolmanshek liquid.

    Luo Shi watched nervously at the crystal test tube in Ye Chong¡¯s hand.

    The crystal clear liquid in the test tube suddenly transformed. When the blood was mixed into the liquid, it diffused quickly like smoke in air, and a sky blue color began to spread its tendrils quickly in the test tube, dying the entirety of its content in a beautiful sky blue.

    The sky blue test tube dazzled under the sun like a wless blue diamond.

    Luo Shi¡¯s face reddened as he leaped up in excitement. His loud voice carried out across the entire in as he cried, "Hahahaha ¡­ I have a new brother! ¡­ I have a new brother! ¡­" He jumped around happily like a child, an entirely different person from the gentlemanly Luo Shi that he usually was like.

    Ye Chong stared at the crystal test tube with its sky blue content.

    He was not the least bit happy. The Bolmanshek solution, now dyed a sky blue, had filled up every corner of his heart and soul. Even the softness beneath his strong and emotionless surface was affected.

    It felt salty, bitter and biting.

    "Wonderful! This is wonderful!" Luo Shi was rambling, "You¡¯re really one of us, of the Ye Family! Haha, now Ye Family has another strong member! I¡¯m so happy! Ah, brother of mine, are you really called Ye Chong?"

    Luo Shi¡¯s excitement and enthuasiasm did not move Ye Chong at all. He acted cold as always, nodding his head in reply, "Yes." Almost instantly, Ye Chong buried away the softness in his heart with his determination and coldness.

    "Hehe,ee, let me introduce myself as well. My real name is Ye Luo. You can call me Lil¡¯ Luo, or Lil¡¯ Lil¡¯ Luo. They all call me that." Luo Shi grinned widely as he introduced himself, but he quickly asked in return, "What do your friends call you?"

    "Ye," Ye Chong answered concisely.

    "No way!" Ye Luo looked at Ye Chong oddly, and did not speak for a long moment. "What¡¯s with that unimaginative nickname? Don¡¯t you know that half the people in the Ye Family¡¯s have Ye as their nickname too?"

    "I don¡¯t," Ye Chong answered without emotion.

    "That¡¯s no good, that¡¯s no good at all, let¡¯s change it," Ye Luo shook his head vigorously like a tidal wave, and suggested, "How about Lil¡¯ Chong, or Lil¡¯ Lil¡¯ Chong¡¯s fine too ¡­"

    "How did you recognize me?" Ye Chong cut him short. This was another question that had bothered him from the start.

    "¡®Cause I¡¯m smart," Ye Luo answered with a pleased expression, almost beginning to spill out his entire thought process. "No one expects you to enter the free space zone. They¡¯re probably still trying to guess where you would be hiding. Hehe, try and guess, how did I find you?"

    Ye Luo looked at Ye Chong with mischievous eyes, just begging for Ye Chong to ask him.

    Ye Chong stayed as he was like a wooden stump, and refused to budge.

    Ye Luo waited for a good few minutes until he was convinced that Ye Chong was not going to ask him, before he began, "Alright alright, I¡¯ll tell you. What a downer, like those emotionless guys back home, so boring. The thing that exposed you was the glider."

    Ye Chong¡¯s eyes widened. He finally realized what the problem was.

    "Han Yue told me that you appeared from the sky, riding some bird-like thing. I was curious then. In the middle of my journey, I also dropped by the ce where you were attacked by the fangwolves, and found the glider. That¡¯s when I knew that you are an outsider like me. The locals wouldn¡¯t know things like these.

    "Besides, you didn¡¯t respond much when you saw me. Hehe, you wouldn¡¯t know it, but here¡¯s the thing. The Three Aristocratic Families have some influence in the free space zone, but we can recognize each other almost instinctively. After all, we¡¯re outsiders here. We can usually tell if someone¡¯s from which aristocratic family. You, are obviously not from any of the Three. Later on, you revealed your excellent skills in alchemy. We knew early on that you were an alchemist, so I immediately thought of you.

    "Even then, I wasn¡¯t sure. There are only three routes to enter the free space zone, and each of them is guarded by one of the Three Aristocratic Families. Security is tight, and it¡¯s virtually impossible for outsiders to enter. So the fact that you are here came as a shock to me too.

    "But you exposed yourself just now. Hehe, I¡¯m not much of a mech pilot myself, but not many people can top me inbat. Your moves earlier have a very faint influence of the Ye Family style. Haha, it¡¯s very faint, but you can¡¯t fool me. What do you think? I¡¯m good, right? That was when I was certain that it¡¯s you."

    Ye Luo looked openly pleased with himself.

    Ye Chong was also impressed. Ye Luo may behave like a child, but he was a very detailed person.

    "You¡¯re really good atbat! As expected of one of the Ye Family, to reach this level by self taught. You don¡¯t know how many of our brothers and sisters back home are just swooning over you. But you gotta be careful of Ye Yin. That man¡¯s just very close minded. When ites to mechs, only about two or three in the family can match against him evenly. I¡¯m way behind in that, but if it¡¯sbat, hehe, then he¡¯d better not mess with me." Ye Luo seemed to be quite confident of hisbat abilities.

    "Ye Yin ¡­" Ye Chong said the name softly to himself. It was said that he was the number one elite of the Ye Family.

    "When are you thinking of going home?" Ye Luo asked, "The Patriarch is going crazy just waiting for your return."

    "I¡¯m not," Ye Chong answered with steeled resolve.

    "You¡¯re not? Why not? Don¡¯t you want to go home?" Ye Luo looked at Ye Chong curiously, then he seemed to realize the problem. "Maybe you likebat as much as me? Haha, that¡¯s wonderful, finally there¡¯s someone to apany me. Hehe, you don¡¯t know how often they asked me to go home, but I ignored them every time. Those people just slip into their mechs every day. Here, though, is wherebat is mainstream.

    "I¡¯m going to defeat all thebat experts in the free space zone before I go home!" Ye Luo announced meaningfully.

    Ye Chong was quiet however, his eyes wandering. It was hard to figure out what he was thinking inside.

    Just then, a few ck spots appeared in the distance.

    Ye Chong and Ye Luo looked up in unison, and exchanged looks. Ye Chong¡¯s was cold and calm, but Ye Luo¡¯s was hot and feverish.

 Chapter 385 - Pursuit

    <h4>Chapter 385: Pursuit</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Both of them quickly dived to the ground, hiding in the tall grass. It was difficult to notice them, even up close.

    Dozens of people ran past them not too far away. From between the des of grass, Ye Chong could see that their eyes were full of fear and dissatisfaction.

    What a speedy retreat! Ye Chong and Ye Luo exchanged a look, and saw the surprise in each other. The child abductors had attacked fiercely inrge numbers, and had the obvious advantage. However, they were now forced to escape in such a short amount of time.

    "That¡¯s too fast," Ye Chong thought.

    The child abductors were all running with all they had. Some of them fell down on the way, but no one gave them a second nce. Those who fell tried to get back up, their faces contorted horribly as their eyes told the story of their deep despair. They gritted their teeth and did not yell for help, their faces pale, possibly due to fatigue.

    They knew what awaited them ahead, and knew that no one would stop for them. If it were them, they would never dy escaping because of another person.

    Soon, everyone was gone, leaving behind the few people who fell down on the grassy ins.

    The escaping group was now just visible as ck spots in the distance.

    Ye Chong and Ye Luo stood up.

    "They sure lost quite fast! Han Family¡¯s elite squad is truly powerful. If it¡¯sbat, they¡¯re probably on par with our guys back at home. Aristocrats are aristocrats, I guess. Either they stay quiet, or they roar like thunder," Ye Luo mused.

    The few injured child abductors in the grass saw Ye Chong and Ye Luo, and recognized them both immediately in fear.

    Ye Chong nodded, agreeing with him.

    Both of them ignored the injured child abductors and spoke to each other as though they were not there.

    "Let¡¯s go after them," Ye Luo said, his face full of excitement.

    "Why?" Ye Chong looked at Ye Luo, curious.

    "Intel from the Family suggests that the Xi Feng Tribe might be behind the child abductors. The Family would like to confirm this. The power behind the child abductors has always been a mystery. Besides, I¡¯m tired of seeing those sick ass. Hehe, is this an opportunity or what?" Ye Luo rubbed his hands together with enthusiasm.

    Ye Chong thought of Huang Baiyi.

    A rumbling sound came from afar. The ground shook trembled slightly, and the child abductors all showed horrified expressions.

    "I say, those guys will never let their enemies escape just like that, it¡¯s not their style at all. Now they¡¯re finally here. Hehe, let¡¯s get on the bandwagon," Ye Luo said with twinkling eyes as the cavalry beyond approached them.

    The cavalry came like a tsunami. They consisted of only about 200 men, but sounded like an army of thousands. The uniform sound of hoofbeats created a huge pressure of subjugation and power.

    Ye Chong and Ye Luo stood out like a sore thumbs in the grassy ins.

    The leader gave amand and the entire cavalry shifted directions towards them.

    The thunderous sound of hoofs beating closed in on the two of them with increasing pressure. The cavalry did not slow down. The animals stepped heavily on the grass, bringing soil and broken des of grass up with their hooves, marching out a deep trail through the in.

    What a powerful force!

    Ye Luo stood in a dignified manner, his earlier easy demeanor gone without a trace. He was now back to the man that Ye Chong first came to know. Ye Chong stood silently, his expression unchanged. This was a magnificent spectacle, but for someone like him who had seen wonders in the space between gxies, and fought against hundreds and thousands of mechs in outer space, this was only a small scale event.

    Be it Ye Chong or Ye Luo, they maintained their standing positions, unperturbed.

    The calvary closed in.

    500 meters ¡­ 400 meters ¡­ 300 meters ¡­

    The leader at the front of the army lifted his right hand smoothly.

    The cavalry came to aplete abrupt halt. The entire cavalry stopped just 10 meters away from the two men. The motion was executed while maintaining their formation perfectly.

    The thunderous sound of their advance stopped abruptly, and the grassy in was now silent.

    The soldiers sat on their canterelle rides without expression. Their aggressive rides were now docile as amb.

    Han Yue was beside the leader.

    Han Yue saw Ye Luo and smiled. "I see that Brother Luo is here. Thank you for your help back there." He saw clearly how Luo Shi had took on one of the enemy forces, so that their reinforcements could arrive in time.

    Han Yue then introduced him to the lead rider, "This is the young andpetent fighter, Luo Shi. Gehong must have heard of him."

    The man called Gehong was surprised. "Luo Shi! An elite of the Congregation, it¡¯s an honor!"

    Ye Luo smiled gently and said, "You¡¯re too kind. And you are?" Seeing Ye Luo acting all courteous, Ye Chong found it hard to reconcile this image with the child-like Ye Lu he had seen just now. The transformation was too ring, like switching characters entirely.

    "I am Han Gehong!" His hoarse voice was low and ufortable to listen to. His cold profile made him seem difficult to approach, and the killing aura emanating from him was strong enough to keep Ye Chong and Ye Luo on their toes.

    This was an unfamiliar name. Ye Luo looked to Han Yue, and the man exined, "Gehong is usually with the Tribe Leader, and rarely shows himself." Ye Luo seemed to ept the exnation, but Ye Chong could see the wariness in Ye Luo.

    "This is?" The hoarse voice spoke again. Han Gehong looked towards Ye Chong, his cold eyes revealing a moment of surprise. Ye Chong looked like the odd man out, with his wooden spear in hand and a wooden box by his feet. When Han Gehong saw the ckened spearhead, his eyes widened and lit up with recognition.

    Ye Chong remained silent.

    Han Yue panicked. This was not a man they could afford to offend. He quickly whispered to Han Gehong, "He¡¯s the alchemist."

    Han Gehong took another nce at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong¡¯s silence was almost unbearable. Han Yue quickly spoke up, "We¡¯re pursuing the escaping child abductors. What are your ns?"

    Ye Luo turned serious and said, "Brother Han, you¡¯re too kind. With the kind of kinship between us, I refuse to just stand by and watch. Besides, the child abductors are notorious for their absolutely deplorable actions. We will try to our best to assist. If you can provide us with two canterelles for the asion, and we will return them after." Ye Luo made his request without feeling embarassed at all.

    Han Yue looked at Ye Chong curiously. He had anticipated Luo Shi¡¯s agreement in helping him, but Ye Chong came as a surprise. Aside that, from Luo Shi¡¯s behavior, it seemed that the two of them had forged a closer rtionship. Luo Shi¡¯s use of the term "we" and the request for two canterelles had Han Yue nning ahead for all kinds of possible scenarios.

    "Of course," Han Gehong easily agreed, his hoarse voice grating against the ear. "With two able men with us, we¡¯re more prepared against the enemy."

    Two riders shared rides with theirrades, leaving two canterelles for them.

    Ye Luo climbed onto one of the canterelles in one flowing motion.

    "Excellent riding skills!" Han Gehong apuded.

    Ye Chong looked at the canterelle before him. Now this was a problem. He had never ridden a canterelle. As the people in the Five Gxies would say, he had no driving experience at all, much less a driving licence.

    The canterelle was asrge as a rhinoceros, with four strong legs and a short neck. Its entire body was covered with grayish ck fur. Its tworge eyes glowed with a kind of animalistic violence. Ye Chong could tell that the ck horn on its forehead must be strong and hard. Secured on the canterelle¡¯s back was a ck saddle.

    From Ye Chong¡¯s point of view, this was probably the most primitive medium of transport ever.

    Ye Chong climbed onto the canterelle without hesitation. The canterelle was momentarily agitated, and Ye Chong felt slightly unstable. To the rest of the people watching, however, his upper body did not move at all.

    Han Gehong¡¯s half lidded eyes seemed to lit up. He was now curious of this alchemist. From his movements, it was obvious that this was his first time riding a canterelle. However, he could also see that this alchemist had a very strong waist.

    Han Gehong¡¯s eyes fell on the wooden spear in Ye Chong¡¯s hand again, feeling perplexed.

    An alchemist? Was he really an alchemist?

    However, there was no time to further consider it. Han Gehong waved his arm down and spoke in a low voice, "Advance!"

    The entirely cavalry moved instantly. Ye Chong felt the canterelle beneath him rush ahead, and he nearly fell backwards. However, his strong waist supported and maintained his sitting position.

    Not that it mattered, but his rigid riding made him look mightily ungraceful amongst the other riders.

    "Rx, so long as you don¡¯t fall off, you¡¯re good. These canterelles are well trained, they¡¯ll follow the cavalry without needing you to direct them," Ye Luo shared his experience with Ye Chong from beside him.

    The cavalry advanced with their canterelles, following the tracks of the child abductors.

 Chapter 386 - Moon King

    <h4>Chapter 386: Moon King</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    No one expected the pursuit tost for five days. The enemy''s strength, inspired by desperation to survive, was astounding. While there were some escaping child abductors left behind along the way, there were still many who continued running tenuously. After so many days, even Ye Chong felt a sense of admiration for these child abductors.

    The cavalry no longer looked down on the child abductors, and instead, showed respect for their determination.

    Han Gehong did not order his cavalry to move faster, but continued their pursuit steadily from behind.

    However, something unexpected came up.

    Looking at the forest in front of him, Han Gehong could not help but knitted his thick, bushy brows tightly together. Everyone knew that the child abductors were good at hiding in the forest. They were all experts inbat in the forest.

    This battle had nearly wiped out the entire force of child abductors on Dankwood. If any of them escaped, it would be troublesome. If they enter the forest to pursue, they might not find all the child abductors. On the other hand, these remaining child abductors would surely fight back viciously, given their desperation. The forest also provided them a huge advantage.

    These days, he had chased after the child abductors at a steady pace, hoping to wear off the enemy¡¯s determination and avoid casualties on his side. He took great care of his subordinates, and would not want any of them to be harmed due to their pursuit. No one expected there to be a forest in this area.

    Could this be fate?

    "These few remaining ones will probably not cause any more great harm," he thought to himself.

    After discussing with Han Yue, the two of them came to an agreement on their next move. There was still business to attend to in Emerald City, and they did not want to waste too much time here.

    "Never expected to see a forest here. We¡¯ve made a mistake this time. There is still some business we need to attend to in the city, we¡¯ll head back immediately," Han Yue said to Luo Shi and Ye Chong from his ride.

    "Sigh, it is Heaven¡¯s will. Perhaps it¡¯s not their time yet, don¡¯t worry too much about it, Brother Han. We n to head east from here, towards Abyss City. It¡¯s a shame that I cannot apany you back to Emerald City, Brother Han!" Ye Luo¡¯s expression was one of regret.

    "Of course not, Luo Shi. If we did not get the help from you both, the Han Family would probably have fallen. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. If therees a time when you need help from our Family, just send the word over and we will do all we can!" Han Yue said this solemnly.

    After a pause, he continued, "It¡¯s still some distance from here to Abyss. Take these two canterelles with you. That way, you would not be too burdened by your travels."

    Ye Luo shook his head and declined Han Yue¡¯s generous offer. "These quality war canterelles are not easy to tame, and it¡¯d be waste to use them for simple travelling. We appreciate Brother Han¡¯s offer, but we¡¯re nning to get there on foot, and enjoy the scenery along the way."

    "If that is so, then I bid you farewell! Safe travels to you both!" Han Yue bowed to them both, and Han Gehong did the same.

    Ye Luo returned the gesture. "Safe travels to you as well!" Ye Chong said nothing and simply bowed back to them.

    Han Yue and Han Gehong, together with their cavalry, marched into the distance.

    "That Han Gehong is strong," Ye Luo looked in the direction of the cavalry where they had vanished and said.

    "Yes, very strong," Ye Chong agreed.

    Ye Luo looked on with yearning. "There are so many strong people in this world, too many to count. I¡¯ve thought that at my level, I¡¯m probably quite close to the limits ofbat world. Later, when I arrived at the free space zone, I realized how wrong I was! There are so many strong people here, be it the famous, the nameless, the young, the old, the men, or the women ¡­ There¡¯s so, so many of them! Ever since then I decided not to return. Do you know? My childhood dream is to be the bestbat expert, and not a mech pilot.

    "I¡¯m going to stay here and search for the essence ofbat!"

    Ye Luo¡¯s young and determined voice echoed throughout the grassy in.

    Ye Chong looked at Ye Luo, and felt a sense of forlornness. Here was Ye Luo, so sure of his goal in life. What about himself? It seemed that he had never thought about it before.

    Was his goal to survive? To find Mu and Shang? What about after that?

    Ye Luo interrupted his thoughts. "Hehe, however, if I want to stay here, then I gotta help deal with the Family¡¯s business here, to earn more freedom. Come, let¡¯s go find those tenacious ass!"

    "You can find them?" Ye Chong asked Ye Luo. The child abductors knew the forest like the back of their hands. Ye Chong knew that he would not be able to find them himself. Could Ye Luo have some trick up his sleeves?

    Ye Luo stared at Ye Chong as if thetter was an idiot for a long moment, and said, "Brother, do you not know that there is such a thing in this world called a mech?"

    Its body was all jet ck with a matte finish. Only the barbs at the joints glistened with warning. The mech was tall and slender, at a standard 12 meters tall. It did not look unwieldy at all. Be it the joints or its limbs, the mech was perfectly designed.

    There were crescent des at each of its wrists, and a parrying spear on the inside of each arm. A ck shield that looked like a cogwheel hung on its back. Ye Chong could tell from its aerodynamic surface that it was a weapon that could be flung out. The sharp edges of the cogwheel design reminded Ye Chong of the strange star-shaped creatures he encountered in the valley.

    Unlike the thick legsmonly found in mechs, this mech sported a pair of long, slender legs, like a woman¡¯s. The knees were covered with barbs, typical of ck Cove. However, the tips of the feet were fitted with crescent des too. Ye Chong imagined what would happen when those legs do their kicks.

    Besides, Ye Chong also found that the mech¡¯s alloy material was unlike any of the alloy he had seen used for ck Cove mechs.

    "Not bad, right?" Ye Luo stood before his mech, smiling widely. "This now is top of its ss. There are no more than 50 mechs of this level back at the Family. I suck at mech piloting, but well, my dad¡¯s the Patriarch, hehe, so I get to enjoy the perks." Ye Luo smiled like one of the extravagant sons from rich families.

    Ye Chong did not seem to hear him. He was studying the mech, entranced.

    Mechs from the Three Aristocratic Families were undoubtedly the best of the known universe. Xue Lai n¡¯s mechs were elegant; Ye Family¡¯s were minimalistic; Xi Feng Tribe¡¯s were inspired by nature. The Three Families had very different motives of design, and they stayed true to their own styles. The onemon feature shared by their mechs was attention to detail.

    In terms of manufacturing, every tiny detail was scrutinized, every one of them studied intensively through calctions and repeated experimentations to produce the perfect design. This was something that Ye Chong realized as he got to know the mechs from the Three Aristocratic Families.

    This mech in front of him was a perfect example.

    The mech¡¯s proportion and measurements, positioning of installed parts, and even the streamlining designs of the leg curvatures were all perfect in Ye Chong¡¯s eyes! The concept of minimalism was expressed perfectly in this mech¡¯s design. Aside from the parrying spear and cogwheel shield on its back, the mech had no other weapons. However, in a way, every part of the mech was a weapon. Some may find the mech too simple, but for someone trained in the eye like Ye Chong, every detail of the mech was the result of its designer¡¯sbor and wisdom. Every detail contributed to a slight improvement in the mech¡¯s performance, but as the improvements were umted, the end result could be staggering.

    Ye Chong was moved by the mech¡¯s design. Mu and Shang¡¯s information archive had nothing on this mech model.

    This mech could probably represent the peak of ck Cove¡¯s mechs, and reminded Ye Chong of Mu and Shang. Overall, this mech was still slightly inferior to Mu and Shang, it was still the mech closest to Mu/Shang¡¯s level that he had ever seen, despite its different design conceptpared to his friend.

    Standing before this mech, Ye Chong realized that his knowledge in mech design was trulycking.

    Ye Luo was entirely pleased to see Ye Chong¡¯s entranced look.

    "What do you think? About this mech," Ye Luo asked on purpose.

    "Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! No, it¡¯s perfect!" Ye Chong muttered to himself, answering out of reflex. He probably was not too self aware at the moment.

    "You like it?" Ye Luo asked with a wide grin.

    "Of course," Ye Chong replied in all earnestness. He thought Ye Luo¡¯s question strange. After all, he could not imagine anyone saying that they did not like this mech!

    "Then consider it a gift to you." Ye Chong snapped his head to look at Ye Luo upon thetter¡¯s calm offer.

    "What? You don¡¯t want it?" Ye Luo wagged his eyebrows mischievously.

    "Why?" Ye Chong asked, straight to the point.

    Ye Luo shrugged and said matter-of-factly, "I¡¯m not interested in mechs, at all. Hehe, don¡¯t you see how new it looks? It¡¯s actually been used a grand total of three times, and I¡¯ve used it only as a scanner every time. You know, its scanning system is actually not bad." Ye Luomented on his mech¡¯s capabilities like it did not matter to him.

    Ye Chong felt for the first time an impulse to yell at someone! Using a mech like this as a scanning device was just a pure waste of heavenly resources. There was no way around it!

    "That¡¯s why, I¡¯m giving it to you. After all, we¡¯re family," Ye Luo said this like he was gifting Ye Chong a hand towel, "It¡¯s waste for me anyway, and you¡¯re skilled enough to pilot this mech.

    "That¡¯s why, it¡¯s a gift to you. Remember, it¡¯s name is Moon King."

 Chapter 387 - Target

    <h4>Chapter 387: Target</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Changing the owner of a mech was troublesome business, but Ye Chong did not mind it at all. Ye Luo was a little impatient, however, mumblingints to himself as he followed the procedure, step by step. When it was finally done, Ye Luo heaved a sigh of relief, as if he had just rid himself of a terrible burden. Moon King required a blood sample for authentication, and this reminded Ye Chong of Mu and Shang. He remembered clearly that Mu and Shang was also activated by blood.

    Ye Luo was bbergasted by Ye Chong¡¯s confusion at this point. "What? Now look here! This is a first ss mech, a Mandate ss mech! What? You¡¯ve never heard of it? Mandate is the name of the ss for this kind of mech. I may not use this mech often, but it is definitely a world ss mech! Humph, this machine here can only be used by true descendants of the Family. Without blood authentication, we might lose it to outsiders! Come on, brother, this ismon knowledge!"

    If that was the case, then Mu and Shang ¡­ Ye Chong remembered the moment Mu and Shang was activated clearly.

    When Ye Chong entered Moon King¡¯s pilot cabin, he was astounded by the luxurious instations and equipment inside!

    The engine was the heart of a mech, and the photon processor the mech¡¯s brain. Ye Chong had heard of this metaphor a long time ago. Moon King¡¯s photon processor model was unfamiliar to Ye Chong.

    Nheless, it was astonishingly quick in itsputations, and never ceased to work. Even right now, it was continually scanning its surroundings and updating its statistics. If Ye Chong was not aware of Mu/Shang¡¯s photon processor, he might have believed that this was the most advanced photon processor in the universe.

    Of course, that was a purely physical assessment. Compared to Mu/Shang, they were at very different levels. Mu and Shang had a self-aware PSI, with a mind of its own. This photon processor, however, was only a dead object, albeit with massiveputational power!

    The sleek, crystalline texture of the control console was one of the most beautiful that Ye Chong had ever seen. The console was a pure jet ck with awork of red lines criss-crossing on top, dividing the ck universe that was the console into multiple segments. The main controls had a matte finish, giving it an excellent feel to the touch.

    The flexible hydraulic suspension system felt like a water cushion all around him.

    Ye Chong initiated the control console, activated the photon processor, and began to initialize Moon King.

    He was once again in the familiar world of mechs. Memories of his earlier training and battles came back to him. After a long time away from mechs, Ye Chong felt excitement boiling in his veins.

    It had been too long since hest felt this excitement!

    Being a mech pilot ¡­

    Ye Chong recalled the time when he was younger, piloting Winnie. Back then, his dream was to find a few good mech parts from the trash mountains. Later, when he met Mu, his life changed drastically.

    How many mechs had he piloted since then? Ye Chong could not remember himself. He had flown mechs of various levels, and even interesting mechs such as Han Jia and Guardian. These were fortunes that he did not even dare to wish for when he was younger.

    He had learned how to build mechs, and even designed full-skeleton mechs. No longer were mechs unfamiliar to him. It was hard to find things that could excite him the way when he was younger. He had learnedbat, alchemy, and many, many more.

    However, what was the one thing that he desired the most?

    Ye Chong asked quietly to himself.

    His one wish had always been very simple! Ye Chong caressed the smooth console. He removed himself from his fascination in Moon King¡¯s beauty and extravagance. The puzzlement and indecision in his eyes vanished, reced by a clear vision.

    A mech pilot! The desire to excel as a mech pilot had always been an integral part of him!

    He must survive and be stronger!

    He must be the strongest mech pilot, a mech pilot worthy of piloting Mu and Shang!

    Ye Luo never would have guessed that gifting Moon King to Ye Chong would bring about such a huge impact on thetter.

    Ye Chong explored Moon King¡¯s controls systematically. He must now familiarize himself with Moon King¡¯s various peculiarities. Of course, this was not enough. For an advanced level mech like this, Ye Chong would need some time to unleash its full potential. Every tiny detail of the mech was the result of careful deliberation, and this meant that the pilot must be more skilful in controlling the mech.

    Ye Chong was no longer in his earlier moment of amazement. He was now just a mech pilot, studying his mech calmly.

    Soon, he grasped the basic controls of the mech. Moon King¡¯s controls were designed quite well, and he did not have to do much to understand the system. Now, as long as he did not encounter any particrly strong opponents, he should be able to take care of himself just fine.

    With a mech, it would be much easier for him to look for Rui Bing and the rest of his group.

    However, now was not the time to think about that problem. On the holographic screen, a few of the escaping child abductors were disyed. Moon King¡¯s scanning system was powerful, unaffected by theplicated terrain of the forest. Both scanning range and uracy were not significantly impaired.

    Moon King signalled to Ye Luo in a fluid motion, a demonstration of Ye Chong¡¯s mastery in controlling the mech.

    The mech lifted its right arm, slightly bent, with all the fingers curling inwards into a fist except for one that pointed towards a particr direction in the forest. The two crescent des by the wrist were like crescent moons hanging in the sky.

    Ye Luo grinned.

    __________________________________________________________________

    Huang Zheng was dealing with the final stages of the task handover. The higher-ups had instructed for him to leave the ce. The Tribe will send someone else to take over matters in the free space zone.

    The truth was, he never liked the free space zone, and he did not like his job too. However, with orders that came directly from Tribe Leader, he simply had no choice. Besides, he knew what the significance of this ce to the Xi Feng Tribe. Hence, despite feeling more than unhappy with his current job, he still went about his duties diligently.

    Now, someone was finally here to take over him.

    As abatant inclined for battle, he was not interested at all in administrative duties. If he was not sent here, perhaps he would have earned the right to pilot a Phoenix ss mech by now. He had long yearned to pilot a Phoenix ss mech, but the requirements for their pilots were strict. His current abilities were not enough to satisfy those requirements.

    However, rumor had it that the colleague who was sent here to rece him had just only been awarded a Phoenix ss mech. How wonderful it must be for that person!

    As he looked at the people bustling around busily around him, he could not help but feel repulsed. He had always maintained his view regarding the cooperation between the Tribe and the Abductors. While the Abductors were not directly dealing with him, he still felt disgusted by those people.

    Now, atst, he could leave this wretched ce! The thought was cating for Huang Zheng.

    There were not many people here today, so he knew that they were up to something big. Almost all of their men were deployed. He did not care to ask them about it, however. After all, what else could they be up to but trouble?

    He looked down at all of them with disdain.

    Just then, a few heavily injured men stumbled into the base. Everyone stared at them in surprise, momentarily halting their tasks.

    Looking at them, Huang Zheng had an ill premonition.

    _______________________________________________________________________________

    A huge, functioning base of operations appeared on Moon King¡¯s photon processor. Iris, Moon King¡¯s scanning system, performed splendidly once again. The structure and interior details of the base were all disyed on the photon processor. Even the obscured corridors in the base were captured by Iris.

    When Huang Zheng saw a mech approaching, he knew something had gone terribly wrong!

    When he saw the mech clearly, his face went pale!

    "No one gets away!" Ye Luo¡¯s loud voice from afar made Huang Zheng panic even further.

    The jet ck Moon King floated silently in midair, its 12-meter bulk radiating the Ye Family¡¯s unique sense of menace of beauty. Everyone was shocked to the core.

    Huang Zheng looked around him, and quickly retreated to the base amidst the chaos.

    He rushed to his room, bursting through the door, and opened all his drawers. Huang Zheng looked at the information inside them, his eyes shining meaningfully.

    He drew in a deep breath and fed all the information in the drawers into the shredder beside his desk.

    Crunch crunch crunch! When all the information was reduced to micrometer dust, he finally exhaled in relief.

    Now that he was done, he drew up straight, fully alert.

    What he had to do next was to fight for his own survival!

    He did not know the name of the mech outside, but he could tell that it as one of the Ye Family¡¯s Mandate ss mechs. As for how a Phoenix ss mech would fare against a mech of equivalent ss in the Ye Family, no one knew.

    Mandate, Pheonix and Hexalice were not names of specific mechs, but mech sses. They refer to the mech ss for each of the Three Aristocratic Families, respectively, that was just below the top ss mechs. Mechs of these sses were rare, and their pilots were rigorously selected.

    Perhaps he could feel out the true power of these legendary Mandate ss mechs!

    Huang Zheng¡¯s eyes burned with eagerness for battle.

 Chapter 388 - First Battle

    <h4>Chapter 388: First Battle</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

    Ye Chong nearly jumped off from his seat. What was that? There seemed to be an rming from Moon King. Had something been detected?

    It was a shocker when he took a cautious look at the screen.

    Was that a mech? There''s mech here?

    A green mech had flown out of the base.

    The Xi Feng tribe¡­ It must be. Thought Ye Chong upon recognizing it at first nce, well since typical Xi Feng was typical, that their mechs were of the same typical design portraying the beauty of Mother Nature itself. The green mech that just flew out for example, took the appearance of a bird with that pair of dark green wings of its. Such an eye-catcher they were.

    And this mech was not an ordinary one. The level was different. Reviewed Ye Chong in his mind. Based on his encounters with the Xi Feng members, only those great ones would be the rightful owners of those great wings.

    The dark green wings spread out neatly like films of leaves which were metallic foils in actuality. A green metal was a rare sight in the industry when all those grayish and darkish minerals filled the boundless sky. A chivalrous kind of elegance could be felt from the mech''s pale green main body.

    It was pretty surprising to encounter a mech at a ce like this, especially a mech with such standard.

    "It''s the Phoenix!" eximed Ye Luo.

    Ye Chong would love Ye Luo to brief him on this particr strange machine called "The Phoenix" but the green mech was not patient enough to wait apparently. The Phoenix rushed towards them after spreading its wings fully, like an eagle to its raid, gracefully yet forcibly.

    The air was giving off piercing cries as the metallic wings sliced their ways forward.

    Such speed! Ye Chong was shocked. As expected from an advanced mech of the great Xi Feng! Ye Chong could not help but topliment in his head.

    Well, of course, Ye Chong would face such foe with the same courtesy!

    Drawn the parrying spears, Moon King made a slight swing and shifted itself from course of The Phoenix.

    The foe had seemingly predicted Ye Chong''s move as it made an aerial ace, a fancy turn back towards Ye Chong, while three red beams weed Ye Chong from the metallic wings.

    The beams zapped through the body of Moon King. That was a close shave.

    Ye Chong wiped his cold sweat, as realizing how his once-nightmare had returned, the impable attacks haunting him from the future! Exclusive to the Xi Feng n, who held the ability to foresee his moves!

    It had been quite some time since Ye Chongst held the steering, he could certainly feel the numb strangeness convincing him theck of awareness in battle. The Moon King would have been shot dead if the beams came from a mech of the Xue Lai n, since their mechs were known for the horrendously urate ranged attacks.

    Dang! He got to retrieve that battle sense in the briefest time, or this would be thest chapter of a supreme soldier! But the strangeness was really distracting, it was slowing him down especially when Moon King was also something new to his hands. Was he fighting a losing battle?

    The foe had powerful ability to read his cards while countering all of them the whole time. The red beams always came at a frightening timing, like for few times Ye Chong was almost a goner as he could no longer cope with the attacks.

    Ye Chong only managed to make drastic turns from time to time, that it felt like a training back in his NR Training days. No doubt, it was a painful experience to make sure he lost that unhelpful dizziness while making him highly agile in battle. The training course designed by Mu consisted of an astronomical amount of turn practices daily.

    Ye Chong was investing all his strength, in making turns.

    Was he at the training center again? He felt so because he was forced to perform all techniques he knew. He did a few sets of Condensed Multiple Turnings, one Thomas''s Spin, then few U-shaped Splits¡­ what else? What else? His brain ran through the entire skill list, as he already made Moon King withdraw the parrying spears which seemed like a pure burden by then.

    The foe raided Ye Chong every few second like an aggressive serpent in the dark. One moment Ye Chong let down his guard, a beam woulde at him and he would be a no-more.

    Meanwhile, Huang Zheng looked at this mech which was making insane amount of turns like a chihuahua on fire, confused, very confused.

    The heck he''s doing? And Huang Zheng thought he had seen enough of the battlefield to perceive the situation. The scene was beyond hisprehension that his eyes just erged themselves.

    Ye Luo lifted his head, staring at the dancing Moon King with an opened mouth. On the ground he stood, no word was heard other than the soft whimpering from his mouth as the corners twitched.

    That¡­ that is¡­ one strong guy¡­? I s-supposed?

    Ye Luo never fancied the pilots, however he had undergone simr training when he was much younger. Making turns was the bread and butter of a closebat model, while also being the hardest to master. Certainly to cope with the torturing experience of drastic turns, a pressure buffering system was already created to aid the pilots, however every turn would pack a different punch at the pilot''s body and those punches would only be magnified over time, like abo stack.

    Multiple turns at the quickest would be extremely wearing to one''s physique. So the examination on this category always had a considerably high rating of difficulty, and truly, only the superior pilots could execute it well.

    But hey, how many turns had this fe made? Ye Luo could feel the insanity just from counting the turns, and Moon King did not seem to be stopping anytime soon.

    At this point the rating of difficulty would only go higher as more drastic turns consecutively performed. Let''s see¡­ 10 stars? 12? 15? Do we see ratings this high back in our family?

    Huang Zheng''s head was pounding as much as Ye Luo, as cold sweat dripped his forehead. The control panel waspletely wet. It would have been a chaos of short-circuit if it was not the exceptional water resistance of the technological amazement.

    He was at the edge of losing himself. He recognized the strength of the foe, as his heart sank and rose as quickly as that dark-glowing mech.

    The ming will had extinguished. The passionate heart ran cold.

    The turns the foe made were in true continuation. Every set consisted of moves perfectly chained. The foe had be unpredictable, even when inspected with the Xi Feng''s exclusive ability.

    That means! Huang Zheng realized something.

    The speed of the foe changing had surpassed the limit of his foresight!

    Who is this pilot? When did the Ye family have such talent?

    Ye Yin? Was that Ye Yin the whole time?

    That name rang horror in his head.

    It must be Ye Yin! Only the topmost pilot of the family could perform such terrifying moves!

    So I finally met Ye Yin¡­

    Muttered Huang Zheng, being unsure whether it was excitement or fear that seized his heart. It was good news that he had the opportunity to fight against a legendary figure but it was also bad news that he also had the likely opportunity to survive.

    Ye Chong, being unaware of the actuality, was risking his life to make more moves in the air. His greatest record had been set, which consisted of a 15-minute non-stop rapid multiple turns and his body did not feel like stopping.

    Mu had once told him that every advanced move wasposed of multiple basic moves. As long as one was able to master the basic moves, the advanced move would be cake walk.

    That was easy to say. It was a highly investing process to put more points into the basic skills. Ye Chong only could achieve such standard after countless harsh, mundane trainings. Nothing cake-walk at all.

    Bear in mind that Ye Chong was the one who smacked an advanced mech with a Raven, merely because of a faster execution of basic moves.

    One could see the movements of Moon King maturing over time at close observation. The operation had been streamlined and the direction improved.

    Ye Chong was regaining the familiarity quite quickly. He could feel confidence surging in him again as he finally had the leisure to take a nce at the foe, who had been¡­ hovering¡­ there¡­?

    Well, he was not the hesitant kind like Huang Zheng.

    The Moon King rolled into a ball out of sudden. It was a strange sight to see aplete-metallic mech to curve into a perfect ball¡­

    The Gear Shield of its had fallen into its grip.

    Moon King then bloomed like a monstrous abyss as the gears guided the shield, spinning towards the foe maniacally in blueish sparks.

    The blue lining travelled like a shooting star.

    Boom!

    Huang Zheng did not expect the attack after being confused by the extreme turns. He nearly threw his handle just to make a clumsy dodge but it was toote!

    The shield had struck at left chest of the mech, few centimeters away from the actual cabin. Sparks were bouncing around mischievously like a child.

    ALERT! ALERT! CRITICAL DAMAGE! ALL SYSTEM DOWN.

    Under the rms that had gone haywire, the pale face of Huang Zheng froze.

    A dark shadow was erging quickly in his shaking pupils.

    The shield lifted itself back into the air. Moon King wasing, with its parrying spear.

    The afterimages had returned, as the fair hands of our hero waved upon the control panel.

    The parrying spears had pierced the open wound soon as the shield returned to the back of Moon King.

    Moon King treaded the chest of the foe with grace, with the knees slightly bowed. One tramp and momentum sent both away.

    Boom.

    An unofficial long kiss Huang Zheng good-bye.

    The mech had transformed into a fireball.

    "God dammit! Can''t you just make your dramatic tramp AFTER you identified a proper direction to do so!?" Ye Luo cursed as one piece of the fallen mech almost smashed him. He ran back and fro as being showered by falling armors, "This is madness!"

    The Moon King, the silent killer, was a gorgeous angel with the arms crossed at its chest. The des at the wrists glossed in the air, while the soulless mechanical eyes looked at the world.

    It felt like judgement when it came.

    An apocalypse when it left.

 Chapter 389 - The Search

    <h4>Chapter 389: The Search</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was a close match for Ye Chong, as it felt like it had been centuries since hest battled on a mech. Ye Chong was considered fortunate that Huang Zheng''s performance dropped as drastically as he fell with that silly mistake of his. Technically piloting Moon King as a mere transportation was not an issue, still that did not mean that Ye Chong would acebating on a test drive.

    Other than the sheer luck, it was the endless loop of daily basic training that saved him. If it was not because of theses sets of movement techniques seamlessly connected, he would not be able to reveal that opening by the foe. If he did not manage to unearth that opening, well, it would have been a different tale, who knows¡­

    Ye Luo was giving off a stare as if he was looking at a monster when Ye Chong got off the cabin. Our hero had grown up being given a strange stare at, so he took it pretty well.

    "Don''t judge a pilot by the badges. I must admit that is very true. You *are* a born pilot. It turned to be not an entire sphemy for Moon King to be in your hand. It is an honor in fact."

    And there Ye Chong was, making colossal eye-roll in the dark.

    OOH. "sphemy" huh? What happened to whichever that "sphemy" when you used Moon King as a giant walking detector?

    Well of course, the salty line rang only inside Ye Chongs mind, since this very pretentious being was still the one who gifted him the Moon King. It would be a bad timing to hurl saltiness at the moment.

    "So, you call this mech ''The Phoenix''?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Not exactly. People don''t call this model ''The Phoenix'', rather it is a name for one rank of mechs in the Xi Feng tribe. Generally, ''The Phoenix'' is pretty much on top of all units in the Xi Feng tribe, with only ''The Phoenix Lord'' above. To be frank, ''The Phoenix'' was one rank lower than Moon King but it is remarkable for you to master the battle control of the mech so quickly. Yes it is!" Ye Luoplimented.

    "What exactly is its battle control?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Beats me. Where should I get that answer for you? Do I look like Dr. What?" Ye Luo responded irresponsibly. That was when Ye Chong realized the fact that this ex-owner of Moon King had only piloted his baby no more than thrice. If that was the case, Ye Chong did sound silly for his question.

    "So is this the strongest mech of the Ye family?" Ye Chong asked as he thought about the rank system mentioned by Ye Luo. So, above the Phoenix, there was only the Phoenix Lord and the Phoenix shared a simr standard with the Moon King, judging from these premises, the Moon King should be quite superior in the family.

    "Nope," Ye Luo shook his head in disagreement. "Only Brahmara, Huang Jiming and Ye Yin own the one true, greatest mech in the entire gxy. Well, if you ask me which one is slightly better, I can''t tell. I don''t know, nobody knows, the great trio had never fought against each other before, although we all strongly believe that all three of them are at the same level. They are extremely low-profiled when ites to the name of their models. Ye Yin seems to know the names but I don''t really care. Never ask particrly."

    He carried on, "The three aristocrats had been leading the world in mech development, as the generation of their mechspsed as quick as the sunrises and sunsets, even supreme models like this would be reced every 20 years or so, longer than the average mechs below still." He looked above and pondered.

    "Hehehe!" He sneered and borated upon Ye Chong''s curious eyes," 20 years ago, it has twenty good old years. It was the time when the finest mech of each family was notoriously loud in the fields, unlike the generation who never hit the bright outside today. Well, those pilots of the finest craft did not seem to have a good ending anyway. Back to my story, during that decade, somehow the top yer of Xue Lai n and our family just vanished one day. Don''t ask me the hows and whys, we too have not arrived at a satisfying theory on this. The top yer of Xi Feng tribe though, had a tragic death at the free space zone. Well, it is more like aical death to me if you ask. The person just got a fine slice-through before he could even deploy his mech. It was a mentalist who did this, I heard, to be honest I never expected a mentalist of such capability exists in this world. Only the core members of the three aristocrats knew the news while the world outside remained confusingly oblivious of it as they saw the top yers of the three families just vaporized without sight. You know it was a big news when it flooded the headlines of everywork back then." Said Ye Luo teasingly.

    Somehow¡­ Ye Chong somehow felt he knew who that mentalist was. The story reminded him of Huang Baiyi. Ye Chong wondered if Huang Baiyi was that legendary mentalist who knocked out the top yer of Xi Feng in one turn.

    "So what would happen to these men?" Ye Chong asked as he pointed at the men trembling like little animals. Certainly they could never release these men since that would expose two of them as trespassers here.

    "I don''t know." Ye Luo shrugged and said, "Knock them out for the moment I guess?" And both of them leaped and mmed the men.

    "HAH! Look what I''ve found!" Ye Luo said as he brandished themunicator in his hand proudly. "Gimme a sec." And he dialed to make reports to the authority.

    "Okay, we''ll let them do the remaining." Another irresponsible willful demonstration from Ye Luo as he tossed themunicator to one corner.

    "The Xi Feng tribe does have something to do with the Abductor. Probably those newbies in their base are poor little kids being abducted from the free space zone. Jeez, talk about hypocrites. I seriously once thought those of Xi Feng tribe are the good guys." Stated Ye Luo disdainfully.

    Well¡­ Ye Chong was silent. He knew the odd rtionship between those two like centuries ago, but he did not intend to spit everything since it would involve Huang Baiyi.

    They carried on searching in the base. Even though Huang Zheng had wiped out all the main data stored at the processor, there remained lots more things waiting to be wiped out. From this one could see how the authority of Xi Feng tribe was still sane since the supports given to the Abductor were rather limited in the end, as overpowered technologies that could wreck the entire space zone like the mechs were not seen here.

    "Get going. We are leaving and we must be fast, can''t be waiting for the adults to get home. They would drag me all the way back into this prison again. Man, I can''t. I can''t," Ye Luo said intensively.

    The request was not something against Ye Chong''s will, so no doubt he would ept it. To begin with, he was not rted to this ce anyway.

    And they left.

    "Well where are you going next, pal?" Ye Luo asked as he rubbed his nose.

    "Here." Ye Chong took out a map he got from Han Yue, with his finger positioned at the areabelled "Wang Family Vige". Yup, he would be looking for Rui Bing, he would want a reunion right away. Rui Bing was his pal, his mate, hispanion. He could not care less if the others survived, but towards Rui Bing, he could not showplete negligence.

    "Wait, this far?" Ye Luo was shocked. Based on the location, it did look insanely distant. He estimated the distance on paper with his hands, then magnified the figure in proportions, he thought of their speed and the time it would need. "Okay," he said as he scratched his chin and got an answer, "It would take about a month and a half if we walk fast enough."

    "Uhh, you do know we have a mech, do you?"

    "Oh¡­"

    That one line from Ye Chong rang coldly, smashing the tensed expression of Ye Luo.

    "Right."

    Absolutely, the mech was impably rapid. A travel that was about a month and a half by foot onlysted less than two hours by mech.

    However¡­

    "Ugh¡­" Ye Luo''s face was pale, as he copsed on the ground with his insides rumbling, soon he began discharging his soul and he felt like it would only be a matter of time till his bile fell out along.

    Ye Chong stood by innocently.

    "Remind me¡­" He gasped, "T-that¡­ that I am not taking a ride from you¡­ a¡­again!" Ye Luo tried standing up, and he fell. Another round of puking.

    It was a nightmare for a condensed ride.

    It was more than a nightmare when the cabin could not fit two persons naturally and Ye Luo could only travel in Moon King''s grip. That was surely some first-ss seat on a fancy flight. The Moon King did not travel fast, the iing gales rubbed on Ye Luo''s face, those were not a problem Ye Luo thought, as he actually found the experience expressing.

    Well, at first he thought so.

    Ye Chong felt it would be too dull and ipetent to just fly in the air. His sense of ipetency only intensified after that close fight he had which convinced his unfamiliarity with the mech. So he would not want to waste any chance of practicing on the Moon King.

    And so, in the dark, when the gorgeous moon hung over the nightfall, the Moon King attempted multiple extreme moves in the air, from the moment itunched till itnded somewhere near Wang Family Vige.

    Ye Luo''s safe flight then transformed into the most chaotic rollercoaster ride in the history of humankind as he finally understood how hisundry felt when he cleaned them. There were tumbles, then sharp turns, insane lifts and torturing falls. Sudden elerations and random jerks weremon in this ride. The worst part was¡­ Ye Chong seemed to be so indulged in the session that he forgot Ye Luo was in his grip.

    "Stop!"

    "NOOOOOO! I SAID STOP!" Ye Luo screamed helplessly.

    Ye Luo, being part of the Ye family, was strong by nature. A saving grace it was. Still it felt half of his soul had dropped somewhere on their way when they had finallynded. There was never a time when he would appreciate the ground so much.

    Ye Luo''s spiteful stare had triggered the motherly sympathy in Ye Chong, as heforted, "It always hurts on your first time at the back. I''ll try a different position when you ride on me next time. Don''t worry."

    Ye Luo who was standing on his waists suddenly crashed to the ground again. The puking continued.

    It took about 30 minutes till Ye Luo got a hold of himself.

    His face looked drained, his legs were shaking.

    Ye Chong looked fine, but he was pretty rmed by then. This was because they had treaded the territory of the Wangs. He must not be recognized or he would be done for.

    Well he took a different camouge this time, hopefully it would help. "Hmm¡­" On second thought¡­

    Ye Chong took out a bottle of camouge form and passed it to Ye Luo.

    "What''s this?"

    "Something to change your look."

    "OH?" Ye Luo''s eyes lustered out of the blue as he proactively massaged the solution on his face.

    At this point, Ye Chong was confident enough to say that Rui Bing must have gotten into something.

    The detection system of Moon King was strong that they found the sea where he parked Cornerstone. But somehow, he failed to connect to themunicator inside his steed under the sea.

    Did something really happen to them?

 Chapter 390 - Everyones On The Move!

    <h4>Chapter 390: Everyone''s On The Move!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the dark, Ye Chong looked at the vige from above, looking for that figure he recognized, that had been imprinted in his mind. The capability of Iris had once again been demonstrated to Ye Chong as search performed. He had detected all sorts of things, the mobile and the immobile yet Rui Bing was not there. He got to admit that the three aristocrats were quite something for they were able to reproduce such master craft in mass. He knew Moon King was the standard model used by the family and a standard model could never represent a family''s potency, yet Moon King remained as a spectacr technological amazement to Ye Chong, be it the design of the main body, the little details on all parts, the liquid pressure buffering system.

    Moon King was the finest craft he could ever imagine.

    And that was only the standard model for the slight rookie. Imagine the topmost craft of Ye family.

    Ye Chong was intrigued, very intrigued.

    "Okay, be honest, tell me who are you looking for." Ye Luo could hold it no longer. It felt like a gctic myth to see a desperate search performed by such an indifferent man who would not give a damn even to a meteorite.

    "Companion." The keyword popped up in his mind after the input.

    "I see." It all made sense to Ye Luo by then. Still¡­ it felt off? "So¡­ A boy or a girl?" He decided to give his hypothesis a try.

    "A girl," replied Ye Chong briefly.

    "OOOOOH!" Everything had made sense! Ye Luo gleefully responded, "And I was wondering why the desperation, so it''s a woman after all. Tsk, tsk, no wonder you were in such a hurry. Is she your wife?"

    "Wife?" Ye Chong was unaware of such term, "You mean¡­ life partner?"

    "Yes, yes, yes. You caught on quick!" Ye Luo''s expression was mischievous.

    "ording to the information on the table, statistically, a likelihood of 50%," stated Ye Chong, the statistic seemed about just right.

    Ye Luo was tittering. That was probably his first time seeing a man giving such an odd reply in such a serious tone. But as too strange this man was, he eventually exploded into pure chuckles.

    And there Ye Chong was, confused again.

    "Was there something wrong?"

    "Uh, n-nope. Hahahaha¡­ nope. Really! Nothing wrong at all! Tssshh Tshh¡­" Ye Luo responded with an expression indistinguishable of whetherughing or crying.

    "Hah¡­" It took quite some time for Ye Luo to calm down, still one could see the corner of his lips twitching sometimes.

    "That exins a lot. I finally knew the reason you refused to get back to you family. Sigh, the likelihood would surely fall to 1% and below if you ever reunited with our family." Ye Luo''s face tightened, as remembered something.

    "Why?"

    "Don''t you know? All descendants of the family are forbidden to mate with the outsiders." Ye Luo sounded bitter as he spoke.

    "Nope. Can''t understand at all," replied Ye Chong promptly.

    "Alright¡­" Ye Luo patiently exined, "It was not only a thing in our family. It''s the same for all three aristocrats. I am not sure about the perks of the other two bloodlines but they do have the same mating rule as ours. Only member with member of the same family, just to make sure our bloodline remains pure, which is why our family has always been extremely authoritarian on our marriages. Sigh¡­ including me." Ye Luo looked sad as he spoke, "No freedom¡­ no liberty at all. I am the son of the head of the family yet I can''t even choose my own wife. Oh, by the way, hehehe, for your information, I have a wife, only in name though. I can''t really remember when west met, but it felt like two years ago¡­ she has her own life and I have mine. And I''m not going home to lose my life." He looked persistent, "Well, if you ever went back home you''re gonna be at home for good." Shrugged Ye Luo, his eyes were surrendering to the reality, although with slight disgust.

    "It''s my life, as determined by my own fate. And I decide my own fate." Ye Chong sounded intensely tenacious in that faint line of his.

    Ye Luo was showing admiration in his eyes, but something appeared in his mind, he frowned, "You know, we were very bewildered when you first showed up. We really wondered who your parents were, well, since you really do have the absolute bloodline of our family so your parents must be inside the house, yet we could not find any relevant record on you."

    Ye Chong was silent.

    "Meh, that aside, let''s do something more fun. Say¡­ we get down and grab a few guys since who knows, maybe they know where your wife is. We could ask them a few questions, *kindly*." Suggested Ye Luo, diabolically.

    ¡­ (Meanwhile at the other ce) ¡­

    Feng Su gave her dimensional keystone thest few caress before handing it over to the chief with a heavy heart. The Wings of Nirvana¡­ the mech who had been through the thick and thin with her. It might not be the top-ranked model in the Xi Feng tribe but it was a highly regarded model in the Sanctuary.

    It was already an unfortunate beginning when she was suddenly knocked out by that white-garbed woman. Thanks to her stunning spell, Feng Su had stayed nicely on the ground for quite some time after that. The only joy was, also because of that stunning spell, she managed to make a breakthrough in her mentality as she woke up much earlier than Rui Bing expected.

    It took almost forever for Feng Su to find the Wings of Nirvana then, that it felt like a miracle when she found that revealing wings under the river.

    But maybe, it was god''s mercy of giving her a chance to bid a proper farewell to her old Wings. It was probably the time for the old Wings to go for real. Feng Su was feeling a lot as she stared upon this new mech - the Phoenix Lord. Well it was the mech rank she would see in her dream every night but unexpectedly it felt odd when she really looked at it with the correspondent keystone in her grip, as she realized how she missed her old Wings.

    Nevertheless, regtion existed for a reason and the tribe demanded her an immediate upgrade, so she took it obediently. This new piece of mech, her new Wings, would need a name, that would set as monument reminding Feng Su that old friend of hers, and that would be¡­ "Wings of Memorial." Whispered she as she got into the cabin quickly.

    She had been assigned to the free space zone to take over Huang Zheng''s duties. The authority presumed Huang Zheng''s incapability in the administration while recognizing Feng Su''s vision and this being the perfect opportunity to train her. So there she was, departing, as the chosen one of the tribe.

    Beep! Beep!

    Themunicator rang, she nced at the iing code. She shuddered and picked up immediately, "Yes?"

    "Lord Feng Su, please head to the chief''s room right away. You have 15 minutes." The voice was cold.

    Chief''s room? Chief?

    Does that mean¡­

    "Ah!" She tried to sound calm but her spection seized her sanity.

    "It has been confirmed." The chief was grim as he spoke, "Huang Zheng is dead. Our rtionship with the Abductor has been exposed to a certain degree. Fortunately Huang Zheng had erased all data at the base, I would call that a saving grace, maybe we have not been exposed beyond help. You would be taking care of these right after you got there. Cease all ongoing operations with the Abductor for the moment. Do you understand?"

    "Yes, chief," replied Feng Su.

    The old chief nodded happily, "Your vision had always been great. You also performed exceptionally in the Sanctuary, keep up the good work and hopefully you would not let us down."

    "Yes, chief!"

    ¡­ (Meanwhile at the other corner of the gxy)¡­

    "You seemed to have mastered the method. With this, your mathematical capability should be about my standard now. And you still have more rooms for expansion. You are far more talented than Ye. Nheless, you have a long way to go if you want to be a professional Maverick." Stated Mu/Shang tly at Little Rock.

    "Yes, I know," nodded Little Rock expressionlessly, "Regarding that, when would I get the information from you?"

    "About 5 dayster. I would need some time to prepare." Mu/Shang gave an estimation after a moment of calction.

    "Alright." And Little Rock zipped his mouth and turned back to the processor.

    Zhu Ling put her practice on hold and gave a nce at Little Rock, who then returned a smile at her.

    "Ahahahahahahahahaha!" That was when Lian Yue''s insanity roared throughout the ship, "Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! I got it!" Lian Yue exited theb and waddled to Zhu Ling, grabbed her silky hand, muttered, "Ling my girl, look at this! I did it! I had finallypleted the blueprint of this engine''s modification! See what a genius I am, praise me¡­" His two hands were caressing the fair hand of hers, endearingly.

    Towards such act, Zhu Ling only lifted her leg, "Ow ow ow o¡­" A thump was heard as Lian Yue fell onto the ground.

    Qiu Man took a look at the busy folks, feeling emotional. The members of the ship might seem scarce at strength, but she knew the power of these folks in his heart.

    A supreme machine with imaginably two different personalities, an aloof mathemagicians, a truly talented genius in engines, and a female warrior from the dark and¡­

    "Yeah, me myself, ady strategist behind the scene."

    Suchbination¡­ how much strength would it produce I wonder¡­

    "Any news on Ye?" asked Mu/Shang.

    "No. They had not found anything on him. Ye seemed to have vaporizedpletely, somehow¡­ None of the aristocrats have found him at the moment. " Reported Qiu Man as she ced the information down. She looked at that handicapped machinery, whom people called it "Mu/Shang". After countless nces, it still felt like a new surprise whenever she looked at it.

    Like who, who was capable of creating such intelligence?

    Thought she as her thin index finger scratched the polished chin of hers. She was trying to focus. She was well-aware of the importance of the disappeared boy to this handicapped mech, so she could not risk putting herself into a bad situation because of a little trickery in the search.

    She might be important in this group but that did not mean she was irreceable. This handicapped mech had another side apparently, whose nature was cunning and dark, that her little tricks had been long read before she even initiated them.

    "Also, the Shi family wished that we could provide them some techniques, on the engine for example." Her eyes shifted at the rolling genius on the ground.

    "What''s your opinion?" asked Mu/Shang calmly.

    Qiu Man had an idea in mind apparently, "I believe we could reveal the unimportant portion of our techniques but we would need a corresponding payoff from them."

    "For example?"

    "A nodeboratory at the Virtual World. That''ll be great." Qiu Man gave a thought as she nced at Little Rock.

 Chapter 391 - Resolution

    <h4>Chapter 391: Resolution</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    And so, Ye Chong and Ye Luo headed to the street and picked two "lucky" guests for the inquiry. No human being was harmed during the process yet unfortunately no answer was obtained either, while the vigers'' replies formed a perfect tie, that the group of outsiders was never again heard after they had vanished into the water.

    "They have to be in the water," thought Ye Chong as he immediately deployed Moon King and sank right to the bottom of the ocean. He found Cornerstone. Right, there was one hope and he walked around it. Cornerstone was intact, the gates were sealed tight, no visible damage from the outside. He could not open the door because obviously the overwhelming pressure would swallow and crush everything inside.

    He decided to give a knock, then several knocks, at every corner of the sunken stone. There was no response from the family inside sadly. Ye Chong''s hope sank hard as the stone, as probably they had abandoned the ship a long time ago.

    But, where else could they go? Where else?

    Ye Chong was puzzled.

    Unlike the average poption ons of the 5 major gxies, Dankwood was a little neighborhood with merely a handful of residents. That sounded like hope to most people, but not to Ye Chong. Difficulties were there, it still felt like a needle in the haystack since he did not have a single clue.

    "Where are you¡­?" whispered Ye Chong.

    ¡­(Meanwhile at Ye family)¡­

    "You mean that nonsensical being belongs to our family?"

    "If you could use more head than your body, you would have seen the obvious, brother."

    "Excuse me, maybe because I invested more useful strength than pointless thoughts unlike somebody¡­"

    It was chaotic. The seniors were debating¡­ well, almost quarreling, and the juniors were watching with their curiosity on what had made the calm and monosybic seniors beat their tongues hard. It had been quite some time since the family got rather lively, all thanks to that one report from Ye Luo.

    To summarize, Ye Luo''s report had basically illustrated two issues, one was the oue of Ye Chong''s bloodline verification, and the other being the association between the Xi Feng tribe and the Abductor.

    The evil Abductor being rted to the religious tribe should have been the main focus of the discussion¡­ but Ye Chong''s infamous entry seemed to have monopolized the discussion board.

    "For thest time, no. No way he can be the descendant of our family. As clearly the record shows, there is nothing that indicates Ye Chong being part of ours. In the past *fifty* years! We never had any pair of descendants leaving our home since then. So it is impossible for him to be part of our family, we cannot let someone in when he has a dubious identity. It is clearly a potential threat and I am not allowing a threat to walk into our house," said Ye Juxing, the second authority after the leader.

    Hisplexion was fair, a shaved face with features of a gentleman, looking possibly feeble in a highly active family but no one would look him down. He was an expert and certainly the one able to take the second throne of the family would have a few tricks under his sleeves. He was a known fighter back in his youth, who stood a great possibility of surpassing the top fighter Ye Luo in his days. Fate was cruel nevertheless, as he withdrew himself on a broken heart, a sad end to his rtionship during which he requested to take over the administration of the family instead.

    His days ended when Ye Luo had suddenly disappeared one day. And after that the head of the family, on several asions, had requested him to resume his brawling days but he refused persistently. Ye Yin the current legend in the field, was technically an apprentice of his. He had been watching Ye Yin for ages.

    Ye Juxing was a stern teacher, an unbiased one too, thus the respects from the rtives and trust from the leader himself. He had been in charge of the mating administration of the family for the past few years, hence his statement ran steadily true like an iron fist.

    "I do not agree to your proposal," stated Ye Guangxing, with a grim expression that looked odd on his puffy face when he used to smile all day. He was one of the only few nonbat members in the family for strange diseases wasted his body since he was young. He could not join the usual training but he was one great administrator too. And he worked hard for the position today.

    Ye Guangxing''s sharp eyes nced at the other members around, as silence permitted, "The family has been suffering a lower and lower fertility rate for thest few years, and it would only be a matter of time before the family dies out itself."

    The members were convinced as fear tinted their eyes. They knew the fact well but they were helpless at it. They had attempted different possible solutions but the fertility rate had only gotten worse.

    "Yes, Juxing you are right at this. I had taken a look at our record. Judging from the instances, I am dead sure that this fellow is not someone from our family, the catch is, Ye Luo''s report, which had illustrated that the person had demonstrated all the typical characteristics of our kind. On paper he is not our family but in reality he seems to own even the purest bloodline of our kind. So, is it possible for us to make a wild guess that, the existence of this child could be the key to preserve the purity of our bloodline even when we are connecting to the others?"

    That was a daring statement.

    "Moreover, what can this little boy do even if he had stepped into our house when we would be watching his every move at every single second?"

    The room was noisy out of sudden, people were exchanging their ideas, while Ye Guangxing took his seat rxingly.

    The oue of the discussion was clear. Everyone agreed that Ye Chong should be joining the family. No objection, no second discussion.

    "I wonder how this Ye Chong guy looks¡­"

    "Beats me. I did hear several stories of him being quite a strong pilot. I am more curious of what model the head would bestow him."

    "Is he really that great?"

    "Well you could try him when he gets here."

    The corridors were filled with simr discussions ever since then. Ye Yin had to turn away from such discussion every single time. He was not being sensitive but there was one topic that felt diforting. People started to wonder whether Ye Chong or Ye Yin would be the top fighter of the family. Ye Chong had be a myth, and like all myths, his strength got "mythicized" too.

    Whenever the crowd had left, Ye Juxing and Ye Guangxing would give a quick look at each other and smile briefly. Then they left. It happened so instantly that no one really noticed this little exchange between them.

    ¡­(Meanwhile back to Ye Chong)¡­

    So Ye Chong heard from Ye Luo, tale of a great martial arts practitioner somewhere here. The practitioner was so great that Ye Luo felt the urge and must to drag Ye Chong all the way there. Ye Chong was not interested in street fights when his heart was all over Rui Bing''s whereabouts. But well, it was not like he had any idea on the search so he just joined Ye Luo in the end.

    To the Abyss.

    "So where is this expert you told me about?" asked Ye Chong, as they wandered in the city.

    "I''m looking for him, don''t you see?" replied Ye Luo with an irresponsible shrug.

    "So practically you have zero idea on his location, right?" The rhetorical question struck the discussion.

    "Hah!" Laughed Ye Luo shamelessly, "As I''ve said, I *heard* it, I only knew him from the word of mouth."

    "Heard? So your information contains a considerable amount of uncertainty, which I would suggest to give up. Also, I would not be joining any of your search ns without a certain level of intelligible certainty." Ye Chong sounded like Mu¡­

    "Oh Chong, please don''t do this to me."

    "Ye. Call me Ye. How many times I have to correct you on this again?"

    "Everyone on the street has that name. I can simply name a number of Ye''s I know. Chong sounds way better in my humble opinion."

    And the exchange went on, as they walk the street.

    Guang Wei was strolling the street mindlessly. It felt like a miracle that he survived the alchemy war back then but it also felt like a debacle. He thought he had foundpatriots yet it turned out to be a disappointment.

    Sigh¡­

    If it was not the impact of the war he would thought he must have a dream.

    The silver pendant! The Silver Strand Pendant the branch had lost for years! That mysterious alchemist must be the hermit of his branch!

    But sigh¡­

    Sighing was the only thing he could do.

    "Call me Ye so no one gets hurt, especially you."

    "Please Chong, be my guest."

    The argument caught his attention. He was pondering something and he was disrupted. He was enraged and decided to take a look at the noisy two. He wondered what was so important that these two men must quarrel at the street, he was going to shout but that chest of one man gave him a shudder.

    His mind was nk. His stance was stoned.

    "I am not doing a pointless kill."

    "Did you chicken?"

    They walked away.

    "Hold it right there you two!" Guang Wei realized something.

    The two Ye''s carried on arguing as they never expected anyone recognizing them. But Guang Wei continued shouting and sprinted towards them.

    Pant¡­ Pant¡­ "Nobody moves." He spread his arms and blocked their way. It was an exercise too overwhelming for an alchemist like Guang Wei, he thought he would lose his breath in front of these two looking confused. His face was red and his eyes were ring huge at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong and Ye Luo exchanged nces in bewilderment.

    Thup.

    Sob¡­ Sob¡­ Guang Wei grabbed Ye Chong by his legs.

    Ye Chong backed off, Ye Chong backed off slowly, that Guang Wei lost bnce and hit the ground by his chin. His face was covered in mud, his lips bled slightly.

    He got up promptly and kneeled down, words were choked by his tears, "Oh, are you my seniors! You must be my seniors, all these years I''ve been looking for you, and I have finally found you¡­ Could you imagine into what demise our branch had fallen?" The misery, the emotion was overflowing, that he cried out loud.

    "Uhh¡­ Chong, do you know him?" Ye Luo asked with awkwardness as he rose his index finger at the worshipping Guang Wei.

    "Nope," Ye Chong gave a firm reply.

    "Then what in the Dankwood he''s¡­"

    "I dunno."

 Chapter 392 - The Smoke Branch

    <h4>Chapter 392: The Smoke Branch</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Hey, big guy. Hold your melodrama. Let''s talk, don''t act like assie," reminded Ye Luo kindly since Ye Chong did not seem to buy Guang Wei''s tears.

    Ye Chong followed the stares of Guang Wei and realized that he had been eyeing the pendant round his neck. His fingers stroke the chain calmly, "ck Smoke Ring! Was that the ck Smoke Ring?" And Guang Wei went into another screaming session upon seeing the ck jade ring on Ye Chong''s hand.

    At that point Guang Wei was fairly convinced that this man would be the descendant of the long-lost smoke branch, the senior that he thought he would never meet for the rest of his life, since the Silver Strand Pendant would represent the connection to the branch, while ck Smoke Ring would highlight the superiority in the branch.

    He must be the leader of the smoke branch!

    Oh my alchemy, finally! I''ve foundpanion! An group! Amunity! Guang Wei felt it was the happiest day of his life. Was he dreaming? To verify that he gave a bit on his arm.

    Yeooouch! He shrieked. The immense pain had convinced his reality.

    It is real! I am not dreaming!

    And Ye Luo''s look on Guang Wei seemed sympathetic for some reason¡­

    Ye Chong removed the pendant from his neck and held it in front of Guang Wei, "Do you recognize this?"

    "Yes, my lord!" nodded Guang Wei vigorously and gave a dramatic kneel-down-of-worship as he sincerely greeted. "Greetings to the supreme leader of the smoke branch!" Ye Luo seemed to hear the ground shattering from the worship.

    "I am not the leader," shook Ye Chong, while being in an bewilderment as he never expected how these essories would have such association to the smoke branch.

    "You *are* the leader!" insisted Guang Wei, as he worshipped. "Your apprentice might be witless but not foolish enough to not recognize these signs of your great leadership," his voice grew emotional towards the end.

    Ye Luo gave a thug on Ye Chong''s sleeves, signing him to take notice of the surrounding crowd.

    "Well, follow me then." The t voice felt as if godsend to Guang Wei.

    Ye Luo did not manage to show Ye Chong that legendary figure in his tale, but at least they had toured the city enough to pick a quiet spot immediately.

    "Take it." Ye Chong passed the pendant to Guang Wei, who was in total confusion. Ye Luo too did not foresee Ye Chong handing such a luxury to a stranger.

    Yes, the Silver Strand Pendant was precious for its material, literally precious, astronomically priced, especially when it was a known token of a certain ancient branch.

    "You must be the apprentice then," said Ye Chong tly.

    And Guang Wei nodded quickly.

    "I am not of the smoke branch, and these essories came to me on merely coincidence. I''ll give you the pendant. Not the ring, however, since I still have business to do with it."

    Ye Chong pondered a moment and carried on, "The ownership of these two items is ratherplicated to be rified, but for the ring I''ll use 5 alchemy recipes inpensation." Stated Ye Chong firmly. The ck Smoke was very useful to him, that he did not intend to let it go simply.

    And there Guang Wei was, all confused again. All these years he had been a nobody and suddenly one earth-wrecking instance crashed into his life.

    Ye Chong gave a nce at Guang Wei, assuming the silence as eptance, as he picked up a stick from the ground, writing recipes on the sand.

    There were a gazillion recipes in Lunatic Guan''s chip, so it was not hard to fork out a few recipes on spot.

    So Ye Chong randomly picked 5 recipes, though none of them belonged to the smoke branch, they were mostlyparable to even the legendary Redsand Dehydrator created by the smoke branch.

    "Alright." Said Ye Chong, his back straightened, the stick to the ground, "You can have these form." Onest nce at the perplexed man, then he turned away, with Ye Luo hurriedly followed on one gesture.

    "H-how could you! Every form of smoke branch is stored in this pendant!" Somehow a shocking fact was squeezed out of the confused man''s lips, that he regretted it immediately after. He felt he must be the most foolish apprentice in the entire world.

    Ye Chong gave a long stare at Guang Wei, whose face was drained by then. He had just remembered that this monosybic man was the notorious alchemist of destruction, that it would merely take the alchemist a drop of sk to kill him.

    The hell I said? Why must I be so foolish?

    He closed his eyes, gulping frantically, bidding a hectic farewell to everybody he knew in his mind.

    But the supposed pain did not arrive.

    "Here''s some Redsand, and 2 hallucinogens. Take them," the voice rang coldly.

    He opened his eyes to see the three sks on the ground. The two men, the leader had disappeared¡­

    "Well, well, well. Never knew you are such a kind person, tsk, tsk, tsk," teased Ye Luo, though he seemed very impressed of Ye Chong''s kindness, since not everyone would be able to give away such precious on a whim.

    Ye Chong continued walking.

    Ironically, little he knew that, the kindness he bestowed had changed the entire alchemy field on Dankwood. In 10 years or so, the smoke branch had ascended as the strongest branch on Dankwood, and Guang Wei held tremendous gratitude towards this mysterious alchemist, that he despised the heartless Fei Lidu and spent the rest of his life pressuring the Incense branch.

    ¡­(Inside the spaceship at somewhere else)¡­

    The cluster of stars seemed gorgeous on the current course, as Ye Yin stood before the opened window. His face was stern, cold as if ice-crafted. One might assume the Ye family to be as physically unattractive as Ye Chong but that was not the case. Ye Yin was much more handsome than Ye Chong, taller than Ye Chong, fitter than Ye Chong too. He exuded a more unfriendly sense than Ye Chong, that he felt like an ice statue on top of the iceberg.

    His long hair rested on his shoulders. His eyebrows were fine. His nose was well-proportioned that he looked like the typical handsome man of the fairytale. His partially-closed eyes were long and sharp at nces. His resting lips were as if part of the frozen.

    People would walk by cautiously, as feared they would trigger an avnche.

    Ye Yin was assigned as the leader of the operation this time. Yes, the operation to bring Ye Chong home. He was well-aware that it would never be a friendly home-weing operation, it would feel more like a retrieval of something the family owned from the beginning. Well the authority stated to bring Ye Chong home alive. They did not show concern on how the said person would get to home.

    "Whacha thinkin?" A sweet voice rang by his ears. Jenny Ye was probably the only person who would not fear of Ye Yin''s coldness since they grew up together. They had been friends since childhood. And as a matter of fact, only three figures of the Ye family could do something to Ye Yin the iced - the leader, Ye Juxing and as you would have probably guessed, Jenny.

    Ye Yin''s gaze softened upon resting on the face he recognized.

    Jenny was not an absolute beauty. She would probably be considered as slightly above the average in thewn of the three aristocrats. She was very popr in the family nevertheless, because of her gentle nature and a heart of gold.

    You would have thought Ye Yin and Jenny Ye would make a perfect couple, sadly, that was not the case as long as the marriage rules enforced, not even Ye Yin the great could be the exception.

    But nobody would want to hit on Jenny because of their known rtionship. And Jenny worked hard to improve herself in order to remain by Ye Yin''s side. She was also a pilot after all, a great one too, even though shecked actual practice. Fortunately, the leader and Ye Juxing were loving enough to frequently arrange missions for both of them.

    "This is like the¡­ fifth mission we are together?" asked Ye Yin softly.

    Well the iced man had just spoken with the gentlest voice of the XY poption, it would be a jaw-dropping moment if there was spectator.

    "Yup!" Jenny smiled sweetly. Her smile somehow melted the heart of Ye Yin.

    It was silence afterwards as both of them stood next to each other, looking at the stars.

    "We have arrived at the free space zone, sir!" One pilot rushed in to report, as realizing he had probably spoiled the moment.

    "Mhm." The heart was frozen again, as he responded tly, "Inform the rest to inspect all units before departure." He did not turn as he spoke.

    "Yes sir!"

    And Jenny seemed to be fairly captivated by the firm linings on Ye Yin''s physique.

    ¡­ (Meanwhile back to Ye Chong)¡­

    Ziingggggg¡­

    The dimensional keystone of Moon King vibrated.

    Ye Chong held his steps.

    "What''s wrong?" asked Ye Luo.

    Ye Chong lifted his right hand, revealing the dark glossy bracelet. That was the keystone of Moon King. A fine craft, with pieces of leaves over the curve, that one could even see the patterns on the leaves. An elegant design. Ye Luo did not appreciate the beauty however, "No man would wear that!" Ye Luo used to have it in front of his chest but well Ye Chong still preferred it over his wrist. That was what the design was for after all.

    "It''s vibrating¡­"

    "What? That means there''s message from the family. Let me see that." Ye Luo was curious, "Why there''s a message now? Was it because of the Abductor?" He did report the family on the incident of the Abductor and well, Ye Chong too¡­

    "It should be about something," he said. Well, the case of the Abductor was more action-worthy than Ye Chong, that was what he thought though.

 Chapter 393 - Ye Luos Proposition

    <h4>Chapter 393: Ye Luo''s Proposition</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Both of them sneaked out of Abyss City right away.

    The message was that effective on grabbing both of their attention.

    The message was rather brief yet it was a full-fledged alert, that caused almost-strained expression on Ye Luo''s face, while Ye Chong looked only a little sterner than usual nheless.

    "How? Just how?" asked Ye Luo as he depressingly looked at Ye Chong. Te message basically requested Ye Luo''s assistance in "escorting" the lost descendant. And he was not stupid and was fully aware of the underlying meaning.

    Ye Luo could not figure however, Ye Chong being the top priority to the family.

    Ye Chong frowned, especially after discerning that one name on the list - Ye Yin, the top fighter of Ye family, being the leader of the operation this time. Such a brilliant timing he thought, that he was all alone in free space zone and would be fighting against a massive army of well-trained pilots.

    Ye Chong''s gaze was frigid. He was not one who liked one''s fate to be manipted by people and not in such manner, most importantly. He had been resistant in bing part of the filthy aristocrats like Ye family. Who cares if he might be rted to the family from any perspective, he would not join them, he would never be joining them.

    And Ye Chong got very much irritated. An unknown rage brewed inside him!

    The reasons why Ye Chong had been working hard improving himself were, first to seek survival, second to dominate his own life, those were his limits, the ultimate goal of his life, but there must be somebody or some group in his way!

    How could he not be mad?

    As time passed Ye Chong had changed. There was development in his strength, as well as in his personality. Thatpetitiveness started to appear in his soul, that he would never let somebody to take charge of his life!

    Ye Chong did not thrash the ce out of rage. Instead, he grew more rational, even crueler, to figure out a way to guard his losing freedom.

    Ye Luo smiled bitterly at the angered beast, wondering why the leader of his family would take such extreme measure in capturing it. Was Ye Chong really this important that an expedition had to be formed to get him back? He doubted it, he truly suspected it but he was convinced by his father''s sense, well, since this operation would never initiate without his father''s permission.

    And thanks to this sudden operation, he was on the fence.

    Ye Chong turned to Ye Luo and remained silent, his cold gaze was expecting a rification of some sort from the unofficial representative of Ye family.

    "Don''t look at me," shrugged Ye Luo, "I am too busy for this. I had given you my Moon King, and I saw nothing. Yup, saw nothing on the bracelet at all." Ye Luo carried on mischievously, "Hah! Ye Yin is a pain in my eyes. Chong, please, be my guest, teach him a lesson. Also, you would probably be stuck behind the walls once you get ''invited'' back to your home. You won''t be smiling if you are staying in thewn everyday."

    Ye Chong felt relieved for some reason.

    Practically, Ye Luo could do him no harm on this. If Ye Luo would choose the family over Ye Chong and pick a fight with him, Ye Luo was about the same standard as Ye Chong. Ye Chong knew it well after the few brief matches they had together in thest few days. Moreover, Ye Chong had a mech, so it would not be hard to eliminate Ye Luo if things went wrong.

    However he refused to fight Ye Luo, for some reason, probably because Ye Luo was the person who gave him Moon King. Thought Ye Chong as he picked an excuse to rationalize his perception.

    "Oh, right, almost forgot," Ye Luo remembered something, "The Moon King is installed with an automatic identification device. We got to tweak that, in a way they would not find you out immediately. Well, though I think they haven''t know the fact that you own the Moon King now. The device allows Moon King to identify the other mechs from my home, the fun part is, you can easily obtain their information as long as they are of a lower rank than Moon King. Hah! If that happens, just be the catfish. They surely would not notice. It would be an impable camouge, well, except if you encounter Ye Yin. I can''t help you on that. Good luck with him if you did meet him by all means. Oh, onest thing, most importantly, assuming you ever get caught, don''t tell them that you got these information from me!" Said Ye Luo gleefully, with grace on his childish face. It was a smile of unstoppable freedom.

    Ye Chong felt something warm in his heart, but he said nothing.

    "With their speed, they should be arriving Dankwood in no time. So you should leave as soon as possible," pondered Ye Luo with his head tilted.

    "Leave Dankwood?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Yup," Ye Luo nodded as he formed a proposition for Ye Chong. "Dankwood is not a big to begin with. It would only be a matter of time till they get to you. But if you sneaked your way out of Dankwood, they would not be able to track you straight away."

    "How do I leave? Do I board Moon King?" Ye Luo''s proposition made perfect sense, Ye Chong then further inquired with interest.

    "Don''t think about Moon King. You can''t do a space-jump with that. Well, I did hear Xue Lai''s Brahmara has the specs to perform a good space-jump. But well, we need to have a n B, a more usible n. Hmmm¡­," Ye Luo reminisced the records, "Hm, there are two spaceships on Dankwood, one at Han family, another at the Renlo tribe."

    Ye Chong gave a nod, Huang Baiyi did mention simr things before.

    "Well for Han family, you could forget about them. We did help them out twice this time, but they aren''t the kind who would return the favor on situation like this. No doubt they might ept our request for help, but you would be right out of the bag if that happens." He lifted his head and gave a straight gaze at Ye Chong, shrugged again, "Don''t think that those magical make-ups of yours could help. Yes, you could use those makeover fantasy to deceive most people, except for Ye Yin. I can 100% guarantee on that, you won''t be able to hide your way out of Ye Yin''s grip. He''s just downright horrid."

    Ye Yin huh? The top fighter of Ye family had such ability? It gave Ye Chong extra horror the fact that this man could win over Ye Luo''s pliment".

    "So you are left with the Renlos. Fortunately their defense isn''t as strong as the Han''s. You have Moon King, it should not be a problem to sneak in. I am not sure if they are on the move at the moment. Just go back to Han family if they doesn''t click for you," proposed Ye Luo, gleefully again on his next boration, "¡­ since I know where both families parked their rides."

    ¡­

    Moon King hovered silently in the dark sky.

    Ye Chong observed the hologram projection carefully inside his cabin. Ye Luo left right after he had guided Ye Chong the way there. He did not intend to join Ye Chong''s big runaway apparently

    Ye Luo, before leaving for good, had a nce at the residence of the Renlos, "Chong, you have my Moon King. Please, by all means, do hold them longer," he mumbled. "You will never like Ye family. I''ll be happier too the longer you hold, hehehehe¡­"

    Then he became calm, with fingers rubbing his chin, "Should I leave as well? I had seen enough experts on this, I should leave too, hah, mhm, I''ll go Han family."

    He smiled and ran away promptly.

    The Renlo actually had quite a formidable defense, that it would be a chore to infiltrate without a mech. But Ye Chong had Moon King, so it would be a pice of cake.

    He watched and memorized theyout of the areapletely.

    A sudden leap, a sudden sink, like a phantom Ye Chong traveled inside Moon King. He made his way into the spaceship without rming the guards.

    The spaceship was probably the most ancient model Ye Chong had ever seen, that he seriously doubted if the model was a pioneer model from the early era of interster travels.

    The circuits could be seen everywhere. They were fully exposed on every tile. Well, it felt like an antique Ye Chong was in, since such circuit-formation technique had already joined Trash decades ago. The current leading technique had was much more matured since it allowed an integration of the circuitworks inside the body. Other than this, the ship was wholly made out of metals. Ye Chong could not identify any material that was light and durable.

    He ventured deeper into the ship to be weed by a shroud of metallic smell. There was no processor, a kind of giant device with dense electronic circuits was found instead.

    Ye Chong had no time to act all fascinated by the primitiveness of this spaceship, as he had already perceived footsteps approaching him!

    "Like dude, how many times had we conducted an operation in these 6 months? I am getting crazy soon!" a young voice ranted.

    "Shh, don''t spit it so loud. If the manager heard this, you are very much done-for."

    They seemed to be pushing something towards Ye Chong, since Ye Chong heard the wheels rolling on the floor.

    "I don''t care if the manager heard this!" But the young voice seemed to have softened drastically. This manager was seemingly someone they should not cross. "Like seriously, we used to go on an operation once or twice a year at most! And look what we are doing now! All the operations nonstop for 6 bloody months! I had forgotten how my house looks now!"

    "I must agree it has gotten a bit too frequent recently. Our brothers had gotten tired. And I too, felt truly worn out by this."

    The voices had gotten closer and Ye Chong quickly took a look at the ce, he got to find an escape path as soon as possible. And he spotted a door not far from him. He then tiptoed into the door with his back lowered.

    It looked like a storage, with all sort of boxes there. A joyful sight to Ye Chong, the storage would be a perfect ce for hiding! Without hesitation he picked a corner and curved into the box.

    It was a good timing as the two persons got into the storage right after he hid himself. Through the gap, Ye Chong could see them sending the simr metallic case into the storage.

    "We must tell the manager."

    "You tell it then, you are the senior here."

    "Nah, the junior does the work for junior."

    "What do you mean¡­?" The voice trailed off as they left the room.

    The metallic door was shut tight.

    Perfect¡­

    Ye Chong rested at the corner after ensuring his safety, as he began recollecting his thoughts.

    But something happened that his thoughts got disrupted.

    His body began shivering helplessly.

    Was it me or the room got much colder than before?

 Chapter 394 - Falling Sick

    <h4>Chapter 394: Falling Sick</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    D*mn! The room was actually a freezer. He was inside an actual freezer! Ye Chong quickly rummaged through the boxes in the room, and found them all to be filled with food.

    The temperature was dropping fast. Ye Chong felt like he was in the dead of winter.

    No! If he did not leave this ce soon, his body will quickly lose warmth. Having a strong body did not mean he was immortal. Ye Chong had studied biology before, and knew that if he stayed put, he would not be able to hold on for long. The cells in his body would die from losing too much heat.

    He walked towards the metal door carefully, and listened for any sounds outside. No one was outside. It seemed that the situation was not too severe yet.

    He pushed the door with his hand, but the metal door did not even budge.

    Ye Chong felt his heart turn colder, and not because of freezer. The door was locked from outside! Ye Chong tried pushing harder, but the door did not move at all.

    It looked like he would need his dagger. Ye Chong took out his dagger and operated on the metal door. The dagger''s edge was very sharp, and cutting his way out should not be too difficult.

    Just as the dagger''s sharp edge touched the metal door, Ye Chong abruptly stopped. His mind was racing!

    Using brute force to make his way out would not be too difficult, but it would leave tracks. This was a food storage room, which meant that the crew would definitely visit the ce some time during their journey. They would notice the damage he caused and be rmed, possibly even conducting a full search on the entire starship.

    Ye Chong had intended to leave Dankwood undetected. If he forced his way out, that would be definitely achieved. If he left any tracks, the Ye Family''s absurdly powerful intel would definitely allow them to find him easily.

    After a long moment''s thought, Ye Chong returned his dagger to its sheath. After all, he could always use itter when the situation demanded it.

    This was a freezer storage room for food. The crew woulde here to get more food when the timees. He could wait for a better opportunity to escape, instead of forcing his way out.

    With this decision in mind, Ye Chong calmed down and returned to his corner to sit down, with the wooden spear by his side. The alchemy materials and raw ingredients in the wooden box were already mostly exhausted from recent battles. After giving some to Guang Wei, there was also not much medicine left. In the end, Ye Chong bundled everything into a pouch he bought in Abyss City, together with the reward that Han Yue had given him.

    When Ye Luo saw him producing so much money from the box, the man was stunned. Han Yue had rewarded Ye Chong with a huge sum that even someone as wealthy as Ye Luo felt envious about it. Ye Luo had teased Han Yue for being unfair by paying Ye Chong so much and paying nothing to him, despite both of them helping Han Yue.

    There were 30 small green metallic rods, all thick as a thumb, with their surface etched with some intricate patterns. Aside from the emerald colored exterior, Ye Chong did not find anything particrly valuable about these metallic rods. He had never seen this kind of metal before, but he had no devices at hand to analyze them.

    Ye Luo called them tilia crystal rods, and each of them represented a huge sum of money. As for how much they were really worth, Ye Chong had no idea. The tilia crystal rods were made of very hard material, it was no wonder they were a form of high value currency. When Ye Chong took out half of the tilia crystal rods and offered them to Ye Luo, he grinned and declined them.

    If only Mu and Shang were here, then he could just pass all these things to them for safekeeping, and not worry about them himself.

    Now that he thought about it, Mu and Shang were the only mech Ye Chong had seen that could store objects in the alternate dimension.

    As Ye Chong sat down, feeling moreposed, he began to think.

    Once he escaped, he would once again be separated from Rui Bing and the rest. Reuniting with them would not be so easy anymore. He felt a sense of loss, but there was nothing he could do about it. Ye Luo was right. Staying on Dankwood was too dangerous for him. Besides, he could not find out anything about their current situation and whereabouts, and it was almost impossible for him to sought them out.

    On the other hand, if he could really find them, it was not necessarily a good thing. Against a strong force like Ye Yin, Rui Bing and the rest would constantly be in danger, and he would also be more restricted in his options. It was after considering all these that Ye Chong finally decided to leave Dankwood.

    In any case, he should prioritize on surviving first, so that he may live to meet with the rest in the future. Ye Chong made his ns with cold calctions, unaffected by his emotions.

    Fate was unpredictable. Comrades who were with him today might be forever out of reach the day after. Ye Chong was not a sentimental kind of guy, but he could not help but sigh. Usually, such emotions were impossible to find in him, since he was already used to being strong and alone. However, he was still human, and a young 20-over-year-old one at that.

    Ye Chong sighed quietly, and thought of Mu and Shang. Abruptly, he was struck with a deep feeling of longing for Mu and Shang!

    "Mu, Shang, where are you?" The young man''s weak mutterings resonated clearly in the cold freezer.

    Ye Chong was falling sick! He was sure of it. This was already the 15th hour in the freezer! His patience had led him towards this quandary.

    He had been to manys, but none of them as cold as this freezer. In the Five Gxies, any decent clothing would have thermostats, and people rarely fell sick because of the weather. Now, Ye Chong was only wearing clothing made of in nt fibre, given to him by the Mayor back in Emerald City. Dankwood did not have seasons, but wasfortably warm throughout the year, so Ye Chong did not wear thick clothing.

    Instead, Ye Chong had chosen light clothing for convenience.

    As for temperature, Ye Chong was not quite familiar with the idea of it. He only knew that it was very, very cold right now! If no one visited soon, he would decide to force his way out.

    He may not be a doctor, but he was quite sensitive of the condition of his body. He could feel his himself growing weaker, and his stamina was depleting very quickly.

    If this continued, his situation would be very dangerous!

    Ye Chong had always taken his health seriously. Back on the trash, hecked medical supplies, so falling sick was risky business. Moreover, since Ye Chong''s body was always robust, he seldom fell sick.

    Even so, he had never spent so much time at such a low temperature. His emotional troubles did not help him too. All of these factors finally led to him falling sick!

    Cold! His entire body was cold! Ye Chong shuddered. His situation was at an absolute worst. His body was weak, and he could no longer remain clear headed. Ye Chong''s strong body did not help him against the extreme cold.

    Just when Ye Chong was about to force his way out, he heard footsteps from outside.

    Ye Chong could feel his body weakening, but his mind was still working. He quickly hid back into his corner. He could feel his movements slowing down, but could only smile wryly at himself.

    Ching! That was the sound of a mechanical door unlocking, and the door opened.

    A man stepped inside, and shuddered as he entered the freezer, muttering, "So cold! Who turned down the temperature so much?" He shook his head and headed towards one of the metallic boxes in the corner. He opened the lid and bent over to rummage over its contents.

    The man had his back towards Ye Chong.

    How could Ye Chong miss this hard won opportunity? Despite his clouding mind and shaking body, Ye Chong''s rationale told him that this was not an opportunity to be missed!

    Ye Chong bent down to pick up his wooden spear, and tried his best to control his numbing legs as he tiptoed past the man and escaped from the d*mn freezer.

    As he exited the freezer, the sudden rise in temperature nearly made Ye Chong stumble.

    His vision was bing blurry, and Ye Chong could feel his mind slipping. His body was weak, and he could not find his usual strength. He believed that even an average nobody could kill him easily right this moment.

    His legs were so tired he could barely move them!

    He must find a safe ce quickly! Even with his condition, Ye Chong''s mind still retained a small degree of consciousness!

    With his blurring eyesight, Ye Chong felt like he was flying!

    If anyone saw Ye Chong right now, they would be very much surprised. Ye Chong was not moving as slow as he felt. On the contrary, he was still agile, and would even react evasively when he heard any sound around him.

    However, Ye Chong was not aware of this.

    He was focused on only one thing - finding a safe ce!

    He was now operating entirely on autopilot, and his evasive measures were only the result of his long honed battle instinct!

    Ye Chong saw a door through his darkening vision, and made his way through the door without hesitation. He could feel himself almost at his limit!

    Ye Chong tried to open his eyes to study the room he was in, but his eyes would not respond to his beckoning. No matter how he tried, his vision was gradually slipping away.

    Darkness! Total darkness! Ye Chong found his visionpletely engulfed by darkness.

    Ye Chong did not know how he managed to hide himself in this darkness, but as he felt his whole body enveloped in this darkness, he finally felt relieved! He lost his final moments of consciousness, and cked out with the wooden spear still firmly in his grip.

 Chapter 395 - Wei Youâ€™s Kindness

    <h4>Chapter 395: Wei You¡¯s Kindness</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Wei You finished everyone''s final checkups, ensuring that every crew member was fit for duty, and signed her name on their medical reports. After her long hours of work, she was exhausted. However, this was part of her job. With her job finished, she passed on instructions to the nurses working under her and returned to her room.

    She was the medical officer in charge onboard this starship, and was responsible for the health of all crew members.

    As the medical officer in charge, she had her own private cabin, unlike the nurses who worked under her. They had to bunk together, with a few of them in each cabin.

    She opened the door and headed for her bed. The ship was about to depart, and she missed her own soft bed at home.

    Suddenly, she saw a stick, a ck colored one, extending out from under her bed.

    She could not help but frowned. Who''s idea of a joke was this? What a bunch of morons! She felt a little angry.

    Space travels were long and dull, and crew members often felt the stress from their journeys, which could lead to psychological issues. Besides, this starship was mostly run by strong and healthy men. This was probably the work of some sex deprived b*stard.

    Wei You humphed coldly. She had her standards, and could not care for such vulgar men.

    "Come out, or I''ll report you to the Captain!" Wei You yelled. The captain was interested in her, so the rest of the crew would usually stay clear of her. While she did not reciprocate his interest, it was still a useful form of protection.

    No reply came from under her bed.

    "Are you looking forward to the brig?" Wei You said this more coldly, her eyes reflecting her determination.

    Still, there was no reply.

    Wei You groaned. Could this man really be that bold? Or was there no one underneath her bed at all?

    Wei You bent down to look.

    "Ah!" She could not help but gasp.

    There was a man lying underneath her bed!

    Just then, the ship''s broadcast system came to live. "Attention all crew members, attention all crew members, this starship will depart in five minutes."

    The man was unconscious. Wei You could tell from her professional experience that he was ill! The countdown for departure had already begun, and she can no longer send this man out of the ship.

    Wei Yuan''s fear was much diminished when she learned that this man was only a patient. As a professional and excellent medical officer, she immediately calmed down when it came to matters of her specialty.

    Wei You pulled the man out from under her bed, and it was not as difficult as she had expected. The man was lighter than she thought. With such a thin body, he must be physically fragile, it was no wonder that he fell sick! Wei You drew this natural conclusion.

    "Who''s this?" Wei You looked at his face and frowned again. How did he get onboard? The ship''s security was tight, she recalled. Besides, her ship was docked right in the center of the Tribe''s territory. Outsiders would never be able to reach this ce, much less board the ship.

    However, Wei You did not worry about it further. She was only a medical officer, and her duty was to tend to her patients. She performed all the routine checkups on the man with ease.

    "So he caught a cold?" Wei You nearlyughed out loud after finishing the checkup. Illnesses like this were usually found only in older people. For the average healthy person, it was nearly impossible to catch a cold. Even for women, people seldom fell sick because of the weather.

    This man must be really weak! Most people in the free space zone had to undergobat training since young, and developed strong bodiester in life.

    Right now, she was no longer on guard against this man lying on the floor. She was a medical officer, but she had undergonebat training herself, and did well in itpared to other medical officers. She could probably deal with this weakling in no time.

    As she administered suitable medication for this weak man, Wei You began to study her unconscious patient.

    The man was very thin that she suspected chronic malnutrition. His looks were average, nothing eye-catching about him. However, Wei You found it bizarre that the man, even unconscious, was holding tightly onto a wooden stick. "Oh, not a wooden stick," Wei Yuan noted to herself as she found the stick to be a spear.

    Abat expert? Could he be abat expert? However, this weaklingbat expert was probably no use at all! Wei You shook her head,ughing at the thought. Her moist, red lips curved up into a thin smile.

    With his weak condition, he would probably need a few days to wake up. Wei You pondered to herself.

    "Mu ¡­ Shang ¡­" The man muttered incoherently. His soft voice broke Wei You''s thoughts, and she reached to feel for his forehead. Once again, she frowned. The man had a high fever!

    What a stupidly weak man! Wei You looked at the man on the floor helplessly with some condescension, but dutifully administered the necessary medication for him .

    The sudden vibration under her feet told her that the ship was already airborne.

    "What should I do with you?" Wei You rested her smooth chin on her fair skinned arms as she studied the unconscious man lying on the floor.

    Should she hand him over to the Captain? This seemed to be the best solution. However, she did not feel like seeing the Captain. She felt disconcerted every time his fervent eyes met hers.

    "I should help him recover first," Wei You told herself. The man seemed so weak. So long as she was cautious, there should be no danger to her.

    The man on the floor uttered the asional incoherent word or two, his forehead still burning unnaturally hot.

    Ye Chong''s illness was more serious than Wei You had expected. All this while, Ye Chong had been operating under extreme stress, as he always kept his guard up high. Ever since he left the trash, he had been living in this condition.

    No matter how strong or cold of a person he was, he was only human!

    Despite his strong physique, this sudden illness triggered by freezing temperatures had snowballed into a serious condition. The seemingly benign cause of illness had led to a chain reaction, and Ye Chong''s mental endurance finally yielded to the pressure.

    It was now the fifth day!

    The man''s fever had subsided, but he was still unconscious. If Wei You was not certain of the cause of the man''s illness, she might just begin to doubt her own abilities.

    The man''s physical condition was deplorable! Even someone who was born weak should have awaken by now. How could this person still be unconscious?

    She felt grateful for the fact that none of the crew members were this weak, or she would have to stay as close to that person as possible to monitor his lifestyle. A man like him would be nothing more than a waste of space!

    Just then, a knock came from the door.

    Wei You jolted in surprise, and quickly stuffed the man back underneath her bed. She wondered what the story was with this man, who still held on tightly to his wooden spear in his unconscious state. Wei You had tried to relieve him of his weapon, but no matter how she tried, she could not get the spear out of his hands.

    "Cursed wooden stick!" Wei Yu cursed the weapon, which was difficult to hide one way or another. Sweat began to form on her forehead. If anyone found out that she was hiding away someone in her cabin ¡­

    And if they found that person was a man ¡­

    Wei You suddenly realized that not reporting her findings to the Captain immediately back then was a terrible mistake, cing her in a very difficult position.

    The knock came again.

    She looked back at her bed, saw nothing was amiss, and sighed in relief.

    Looking into the mirror, she breathed in deeply for a few times, calming herself down, and assumed her no-nonsense face.

    Wei You opened the door.

    As expected, it was the Captain.

    "Can I help you?" Wei You asked coldly.

    The Captain was young, at only 29 years old. Usually, an important position like this would not be given to such a young person. However, this young man had stood out among the other candidates with overwhelming superiority, and had finally gotten the job. The other candidates had all epted his sess without apprehension.

    His name was Ren Zeri. Not only was he one of the famous elites of the younger generation in the Renlo Tribe, he was also clear headed and unconventional in his methods, with a wide variety of tricks up his sleeves. Witnessing his handsome presence, Wei You felt an illogical sense of aversion. She knew that the Captain was the dream lover of the nurses on this starship. Every day, past his working hours, the Captain would be surrounded by women forpany.

    Ren Zeri always had an unreadable smile on his face, with mesmerizing eyes like the stars in the night sky. This was the pair of eyes that manydies described as "electrifying". This was the pair of eyes that Wei You always felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding every time she looked into them.

    Perhaps this was why she could not ept his advances.

    Ren Zeri leaned against the door, used to Wei You''s coldness. He smiled sweetly as he said, "It''s my break now, and my schedule''s empty, so I thought of asking our excellent medical officer out for a drink. What do you think?" He then leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Mo said that he has some Aoyuzu Fragrantica. It''s a rare opportunity, let''s go have a try!"

    Aoyuzu Fragrantica ¡­ Wei You could no help but felt her resolution weaken. As a doctor, she knew that Aoyuzu Fragrantica tasted exquisite, and had cosmetic benefits as well. However, it was a high ss luxury item produced in small amounts, and almost impossible to find in the open market.

    Every woman has a deep yearning for beauty, and Wei You was no exception.

    However, the image of that unconscious man in her room came to mind unrestrained, and Aoyuzu Fragrantica did not seem so attractive anymore.

    Just as she was about to decline his invitation, Ren Zeri''s expression changed to one of bafflement, tilting his head as though he was listening to something.

    She felt her heart skip a beat!

 Chapter 396 - Coldness Underneath His Disguise

    <h4>Chapter 396: Coldness Underneath His Disguise</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Who''s in there?" Ren Zeri asked in a low voice.

    "What are you talking about?" Wei You spoke with forced calmness, but was betrayed by the panic shown in her eyes.

    Ren Zeri forced his way through the door. He heard it clearly, the sound of another person''s breathing in the cabin. As an elite of the Renlo Tribe''s younger generation, he was confident of his hearing.

    He saw no one else in the cabin, but Wei You''s panicked expression told him that there must be something amiss.

    He stood at ready and focused on listening. Immediately, he heard a soft sound of breathing from underneath the bed.

    "Humph!" He eximed coldly. To think that someone else would dare to aim for his target! He felt a rising anger in him. Ren Zeri''s interest in Wei You was not announced in public, but mostly everyone on the starship knew about it. That was why no one dared to make their advances on Wei You.

    How dare he!

    "Don''t hide now! Come out!" Ren Zeri said to the person underneath the bed. His expression was grim, and his eyes were now chilling instead of mesmerizing.

    How dare you! Ren Zeri felt his fury rising even more. What angered him most was the fact that Wei You had chosen to protect this man. He had always treated her well, but she never cared for him, and now she was protecting another man! How could he not see red?

    No reply came from underneath the bed.

    Ren Zeri ridiculed him further, "What''s the matter? Getting cowardly are you? I''d like to see how it is who''d dare to steal my woman!"

    Wei You, who was panicking as she watched from the side, now blushed at his words and cried, "Please mind your words!"

    Ren Zeri ignored her protest and fixed his eyes at the bed.

    There was still no response from underneath the bed.

    Ren Zeri could stand no longer and bent down to look underneath.

    A man, as expected! Ren Zeri nearly went berserk. Wei You had hidden a man in her cabin! The sight pained him deeply. Reality had delivered a huge blow to Ren Zeri''s ego. That was why he did not notice that the man was actually unconscious.

    Ren Zeri dragged Ye Chong carelessly out from underneath the bed.

    "What are you doing?" Seeing Ren Zeri''s rough treatment of her patient, Wei You could not help but protest loudly.

    Ren Zeri noticed then that the man was not actually a crew member, and he was in an unconscious state.

    "Huh?" He gasped, and asked lowly, "Who is this?"

    "I don''t know." Wei You hated Ren Zeri a lot, but considering he was Captain, she still answered truthfully.

    "You don''t know?" Ren Zeri returned the question mockingly. "Then why are you hiding him under your bed?"

    Wei You did not know herself. "I don''t know how he got onto the ship. He''s caught a cold, and is currently unconscious."

    "Haha! Knocked out because of a cold?" Ren Zeri was first stunned by her words, thenughed at them. "Why are you hiding a useless weakling like him under your bed like he''s someone precious?" Inhabitants of the free space zone were all strong and healthy, and would never catch a cold like that.

    Wei You agreed with his assessment of the man''s weak condition, but Ren Zeri''s words grated on her still, and she humphed coldly and looked away.

    Ren Zeri continued mocking, "What a piece of trash. Without your help, how could he have boarded this ship? I didn''t think that our respectable medical officer, Wei You, would fall in love with such a useless man! Tsk tsk, what a surprise!"

    Ren Zeri''s degrading words about her patient and his assumption of her patient''s rtionship with her angered Wei You. "Please mind your manners. My taste in men is none of your business."

    Wei You feel threatened by her Captain''s craziness. She decided then that uponpleting their current mission, she would make a formal request to leave this ship.

    Ren Zeriughed as he anger peaked. "Haha, none of my business, none of my business indeed!" He stoppedughing abruptly and switched into a nastier tone as he said, "My dear medical officer, don''t tell me you''ve forgotten that anyone who did not board this ship by proper procedure can be killed outright by crew member! And you, hehe, have hidden away an illegal stowaway, and assisted a terrorist in boarding this ship. Oh, right, this useless trash can''t be considered a terrorist."

    "You ¡­" Wei You''s face paled. She would never be able to clear her name. The consequences of the charges against her were severe. Once Ren Zeri reported this to the ones upstairs, she would face a terrible fate.

    "Well?" Ren Zeri raised his brows and walked to Wei You. He lifted her beautiful but unnaturally pale face and said, "Am I right? It''s not just you, but your parents and your siblings will all be involved. They will face strict interrogations, and have a bleak future ahead of them. They will never rise in their ranks again. They will be treated with disgust and ridicule by the masses. All of this, just because of you, my beautiful medical officer!"

    Shedding his everyday disguise, Ren Zeri''s words came through cruelly and without emotion. His every word hammered down onto Wei You''s heart. Her face grew paler as she listened to his grand speech.

    With his fingers tracing her smooth chin, Ren Zeri saw the fear growing in the woman''s eyes and felt a rush of ecstasy!

    His long hunt for his prey was finally over. Coldness and madness shed in his eyes!

    He knew that this woman would never escape from him again. From now onwards, she would always be his! Heughed madly inside at the thought.

    However, he was not going to let her off so easily.

    "You must realize your situation fully now. That''s right, why keep a useless trash like him? You have your family and your bright future to think about! A trash like him is of no value to you, so just kill him! It doesn''t matter how you do it. As long as you kill him, it will be like nothing ever happened!"

    Ren Zeri stoked her smooth chin, his gentle voice radiating cruelty.

    "No ¡­" Wei You declined out of instinct. She was a doctor, trained to save lives. Killing someone, and an unconscious patient at that, was impossible for her.

    He felt Wei You''s vulnerable body quivering as she struggled helplessly. Ren Zeri smiled a thin, cold smile.

    "Don''t worry, it''s but an easy matter. He''s unconscious now. When you kill him, he won''t feel a thing! Besides, as long as you kill him, I won''t tell on you, and you''ll be free." Ren Zeri''s words were full of persuasion.

    Wei You trembled even more. Ren Zeri did not speak as he savored the results of his efforts.

    Wei You closed her eyes, losing herst bit of hope.

    "Kill him!" Ren Zeri uttered these two words slowly but clearly, and Wei You shuddered.

    Wham!

    A muffled sound came without warning. Ren Zeri felt a sharp pain on his side, and his body was flying backwards in the next moment like he was hit by a hammer. He crashed loudly on the wall behind him, and slumped to the floor.

    Wei You only felt the hand lifting her chin slid away through her closed eyes.

    She opened her eyes wide and saw another pair of cold eyes.

    Ignoring Wei You''s surprise, Ye Chong shook his limbs, testing them. After staying down for so long, it was only natural for him to feel unnatural to movement.

    He heard the conversation between the two clearly, and could make out the situation they were all in.

    "You saved me?" Ye Chong asked, his voice hoarse.

    Wei You dumbly stared at Ye Chong , entirely caught off guard.

    No quick answer was going toe from Wei You, so Ye Chong directed his attention towards the man who had tried to persuade her to kill him.

    He had attacked with the blunt end of his wooden spear, but it was a heavy blow. The man would not survive without a broken bone or three.

    Ye Chong walked to Ren Zeri, who was now lying in an unconscious heap against the wall. Ye Chong''s attacks always ended in some form of injury or death. He did not intend to kill Ren Zeri yet, so he did not go all out. However, it was enough to seriously injure the man, for he did not have Ye Chong''s strong physique.

    "Ah!" Wei You gasped, awake from her daze. Ye Chong frowned as he looked to her, and Wei You quickly covered her mouth.

    Her bright eyes were not filled with surprise and curiosity, mixed with lesser bits of fear and loss.

    To think that a weakling like him could be so strong! It was unthinkable!

    Ye Chong trained his eyes away. The woman was his savior, after all, and he would at least be courteous to her. He looked back at Ren Zeri and began to search him.

    Wei You watched as the man searched Ren Zeri and removed all of his belongings. She suspected that this seemingly fragile man was actually a thief by trade.

    Poor Ren Zeri. He had nothing on him now except for his underpants.

    Just below his chest, a part of his body copsed inwards, where his rib cage suffered some broken bones. By Wei You''s professional assessment, Ren Zeri had at least three broken ribs, and they were probably reduced to numerous fragments.

    Ye Chong''s blow had nearly killed Ren Zeri.

 Chapter 397 - The Power of Useless Trash

    <h4>Chapter 397: The Power of Useless Trash</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Wei You looked at Ren Zeri, and could not help but felt pity and sympathy for him.

    However, it was obvious that Ye Chong did not share her sentiment. This was the b*stard who had coerced the woman to kill him. Still, Ye Chong did not want to kill him, since it would be more troublesome. He reached for the copsed part of Ren Zeri''s body and poked.

    Wei You''s face twitched at his action.

    Ren Zeri felt it immediately and cried out in pain.

    "If you don''t want to die, please stay quiet." Ye Chong''s voice was as cold as a winter breeze, which made Ren Zeri understood his situation immediately.

    He looked at the seemingly fragile young man before him in fear, his face drained of blood. The pain in his side told him exactly how strong this young man was! Funnily, he had thought the man was but a useless piece of trash!

    He decided to do exactly as told and shut up. He did not want to die, and from the cold look in the other party''s eyes, he knew that the man would have no qualms in killing him.

    Who was this young man? Was he from the the Tribe? He had never heard of such a strong person in the Tribe! Ren Zeri was not quite as strong as Ye Chong, but he could at least read his opponent''s ability well.

    "Are you the captain of this starship?" Ye Chong asked.

    Ren Zeri nodded quickly and said, "Yes!" He knew which way the wind blowed, and that his life was in the hands of this man. They were not an even match at all. This man was so strong that it was almost unimaginable. In this closed space in the starship, the man could obliterate every single crew member onboard single handedly.

    He was certain that the man was not out of his mind. From the look in his eyes, the young man had an extraordinary calmness in him. People like these are terrifying. They could always analyze their surroundings, taking into ount all the factors at y, and would seldom make mistakes out of being emotional. The truth was, this kind of coolness was something Ren Zeri had always strived for. Unfortunately, he realized that he was light years away from this young man in this regard.

    If this young man killed everyone onboard, he would only condemn himself to being trapped in outer space all by himself. Ren Zeri believed that the man was definitely aware of this.

    Hence, what he had to do now was to cooperate. Only then would he be able to increase his chances of survival, even though it was still ultimately out of his hands.

    "What''s your flight destination?" The question was important, and at the top of Ye Chong''s priority list.

    Guang Hua," Ren Zeri answered honestly.

    "Guang Hua?" Ye Chong frowned in contemtion. The name was familiar, but not one he could put a finger on immediately.

    Good thing his memory was excellent, and he quickly remembered where he had heard of it. On the chip Lunatic Guan had given him, Lunatic Guan had asked him to visit her home vige once he finished his sybus. Lunatic Guan''s home vige, May''s Night Ridge was in a city called Line Shaft on Guang Hua. This Guang Hua that Ren Zeri was talking about might be the same as the one Lunatic Guan was referring to.

    "Is there a city called Line Shaft on Guang Hua?" Ye Chong asked Ren Zeri.

    "Line Shaft?" Ren Zeri looked puzzled. He shook his head and said, "I''m not sure. We always docked at Guang Hua for a very short time. If you''re going to any ce on Guang Hua, I can find you a guide once we''ve arrived on that."

    Wei You currently looked Ren Zeri and found it hard to believe what she was seeing. It was like a dream to her. This cool and rational Ren Zeri waspletely different from the one moments earlier. The cruel and mad Ren Zeri had vanished without a trace.

    "How many days until then?" Ye Chong asked again.

    Ren Zeri heard the young man''s voice rx, and he knew that his life was spared for the moment. He replied respectfully, "Our flight will take another 20 days."

    Ye Chong began to do his own calctions. Just then, Ren Zeri asked, "Please, may I have my wounds treated?"

    Ye Chong could not help but look at him in a new light, and nodded in assent.

    Ren Zeri turned to Wei You and spoke earnestly, "Doctor Wei You, sorry for the trouble!"

    For some reason, Wei You was deeply unsettled by this Ren Zeri. The young Captain''s expression had always been cold and emotionless, but somehow Wei You found this polite version of Ren Zeri a lot more dangerous.

    Ye Chong took a nce a Wei You and spoke to Ren Zeri inly, "Don''t have any funny ideas of your own, or I will kill you." Ye Chong spoke without intonation, but one could discern the chilling threat behind his words.

    "Please don''t worry, I would not dare to risk my life!" At this moment, Ren Zeri was still able to manage a naturalugh, but this pulled on the muscles in his side, and his face contorted in response.

    Wei You approached Ren Zeri cautiously. Too many things had happened today. She was only a medical officer, unused to situations like this, and now her mind was all over the ce. No longer was she in her professional calmness. Now, she was just like a shocked little girl.

    Ren Zeri smiled gently and said, "Doctor Wei You, please don''t be scared. I will not harm you, and besides, I can''t really harm you the way I am now!"

    With that, Wei You made her final few steps towards her new patient.

    Everything on Ren Zeri was removed by Ye Chong. It was a precaution, and to prevent Ren Zeri frommunicating with anyone else.

    Perhaps it was due to her professional side taking over, but Wei You quickly recovered from her fright and began to inspect Ren Zeri''s wounds.

    What horrifying strength! As Wei You studied his injuries, she was very much surprised. It was hard to tell from external symptoms that the injury was caused by a stick. Perhaps even a hammer could not do so much damage!

    Three of the ribs were broken. The center one was nearly reduced to dust, while the other two were also broken at a few ces. Wei You believed that the other bones in the vicinity probably suffered a few cracks as well, but that would have to be verified with professional equipment.

    Fortunately, Wei You''s cabin was stocked with plenty of medicine, and Wei You herself was gentle in her treatment. Nevertheless, Ren Zeri was still white as a sheet from the pain, sweating profusely and groaning asionally.

    Soon, Wei Youpleted the treatment. By then, Ren Zeri was at the edge of copsing, but he still maintained hisposure.

    As soon as she finished with her work, Wei You hid behind Ye Chong instinctively. This brought Ye Chong''s train of thought.

    "How long was I out for?"

    "Five days," Wei You replied in reflex.

    Ye Chong looked straight at Wei You and asked, "You saved me?" This was the second time he asked this question.

    "Yes." Wei You''s quiet answer was almost imperceptible.

    Ye Chong turned back to Ren Zeri.

    The Captain was in pain, but he was focused entirely on Ye Chong. He was surprised by the killing intent he saw in the man''s eyes. Was he going to kill him?

    However, his sharp mind informed him quickly of the reason for Ye Chong''s killing intent.

    From their conversation earlier, Ye Chong could tell that the woman had saved his life, and killing Ren Zeri would save her a lot of trouble in future. However, that would also leave a trace of his presence in the ship. The Renlo Tribe would never figure out who he was, but if the Ye Family found out about this incident, they would.

    This was something Ye Chong was trying to avoid.

    Understanding Ye Chong''s concern, Ren Zeri quickly made a vow, "Don''t worry, I will never threaten Ms Wei You again, I swear this in the name of my grandmother!"

    Wei You felt a huge weight lifted from her chest. In the free space zone, swearing in the name of one''s grandmother was something invible, and no one would go against their word in this case.

    Ye Chong, however, did not believe in words. He believed in power. He would use his own methods to deal with this problem.

    He remembered a trick Shang had taught him back on Blue Ocean. Perhaps he could try it out now. Unlike his previous experience, however, Shang had already learned all about the opponent back then.

    "Where does your family live? How many are there? What are their names? ¡­" Ye Chong''s series of questions made Ren Zeri pale even further. He understood what Ye Chong was trying to do, but dared not utter a lie. Whenever he looked into the man''s cold eyes, his heart would squirm.

    Ye Chong asked for every single detail. Since he was not exactly experienced in interrogation, he could only ask based on his experience. Ren Zeri spilled the beans, giving everything he knew about all his rtives, including their names, addresses and whatever tiny details he could think of.

    After double checking his information forpleteness, Ye Chong faced the two people around him and repeated every single piece of information that Ren Zeri had given him, word for word. Ren Zeri could no longer keep his calm, looking at Ye Chong like he was seeing the Devil himself.

    "I will crosscheck all of them." Ye Chong''s t announcement shattered thest ray of hope in Ren Zeri. He was now so infinitely grateful for not lying earlier. Many of the crew members on this ship could attest to the authenticity of the information he provided, and that was why he did not dare to lie. On the other hand, there was also Wei You right there, who knew much about him.

    Now, he hadpletely given up on exacting revenge on Wei You.

 Chapter 398 - Predicament

    <h4>Chapter 398: Predicament</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    20 days of flight was not too lengthy. For someone as used to space travel as Ye Chong, it was like a walk in the park. However, the ship was too technologically outdated and he was ufortable with the design. He stayed in Wei You''s cabin every single day. The rest of the crew were oblivious to the presence of a powerfulbat expert on the ship. Of course, that was due to Ren Zeri''s cooperation.

    Ren Zeri''s working hours dropped to its minimum, and the crew members watched him visit Wei You''s cabin very often.

    It looked like the rtionship between their Captain and Wei You was developing rapidly! Of course, this development was celebrated by some, and mourned by others. However, many of them were curious - how did their diligent Captaine to neglect his work out of love? That was not his style at all!

    Nheless, no one was particrly unhappy with it. They had travelled this route many times, and it was a safe route. Their work was easy, and aside from avoiding the asional asteroid in their path, there was not much to worry about during the flight.

    Ren Zeri did all he was asked of, and did not make any funny moves. Everyday, when he looked into the terrible, emotionless eyes of that young man, any thoughts of betrayal would vanish without a trace. In the face of absolute power, he had no room for negotiation.

    A strong person like him would be terrifying to deal with, especially now when they were face to face. He could not make out this young man. He had never heard of anyone like him. All the strong personalities that he recalled were notpatible with the young man. So young, but so strong - could only be the Congregation elite, Luo Shi, who fit the description. He had seen Luo Shi before, and this young man was nothing like him.

    Nheless, all of this was not important. What was important was his own pitiful life.

    The starship finally docked at Guang Hua, and all the crew members cheered with joy. As they finished unloading all the goods on their ship, they finally earned the three days of free time to themselves. The crew members all left the ship in good spirits, ready to put their time to good and proper use.

    Ren Zeri, Wei You and Ye Chong were thest to disembark the ship.

    "Do you have any requests?" Ye Chong looked at Wei You and asked calmly, "As long as it is within my powers, I will do it to repay your deed of saving my life."

    Wei You replied with respect, "I do not ask for much, I just hope that my family can be safe." After all these days, she knew just how strong this seemingly fragile young man was!

    "Oh, that''s not too much to ask!" Ye Chong looked to Ren Zeri, and thetter barely suppressed a shudder.

    "Eat this." Ye Chong produced a red pill from his pouch. He was not sure if his earlier threats would work. He was too inexperienced in this matter, and felt the need to take precautions.

    Ren Zeri took the pill with trembling hands. He knew he had no choice in the matter as he swallowed it in one gulp.

    "Come over here," Ye Chong waved to Wei You and said.

    Wei You quickly stepped forward to Ye Chong''s side, and Ye Chong whispered for a while by her ear.

    Ren Zeri could feel his heart palpitate like mad. Of course he knew that the red pill was no candy, and he could already guess what wasing for him.

    As expected, Ye Chong said to him, "The pill you took just now is a slow acting poison. It''s not lethal, but you''ll need to take regr medication to control its symptoms. I''ve told her the form for the medicine. She will prescribe it to you every half a year. I''m counting on you two the next time I return to Dankwood. If anything happens to her, your entire Tribe will face my wrath."

    Ren Zeri''s face twitched, and quickly agreed to his terms.

    Ye Chong''s final sentence was a clear threat. However, only he himself knew that it was pure gibberish. When would he return to Dankwood? Possibly never! No one understood better than him the wandering lifestyle that he was soon to embark on! However, for the sake of scaring Ren Zeri, he lied anyway. He believed that, with this degree of threatening, it would be highly unlikely for Ren Zeri to harm Wei You.

    Wei You was also satisfied with the current arrangement.

    He was a goner now for the rest of his life! Ren Zeri''s face was ashen, but there was nothing he could do!

    "Farewell, both of you!" Ye Chong disappeared like a ghost, further impressing the fear into Ren Zeri.

    Ye Chong did not enter the nearest city, but instead flew Moon King for a few hundred kilometers before he settled down near another city.

    In the middle of the night, Moon Kingnded silently on a clearing about 80 kilometers away from the nearest city. The holographic screen told Ye Chong that there was no one within 30 kilometers of him, so Ye Chong was not worried about being noticed.

    He decided to enter the city the next day.

    Out in the darkness of night, as he sat alone in the grassy ins, Ye Chong felt a deep sense of loneliness. Heughed out bitterly. Loneliness was something he had gotten used to. Despite the fact, he still felt strange every time he was alone.

    He quickly suppressed this bout of emotions. He was used to employing the rational side of his mind to handle his sadness most of the time.

    Could his episode of sickness caused him to grow weaker in the head?

    Ye Chongughed mocking at himself, and dismissed the thought. It was better to deal with more practical matters now. However, he soon found that he could not n anything ahead, since he had no useful information at all.

    Be it his aim to finding Mu and Shang, or searching for Rui Bing, he had no idea where to start with them. He did not even know how to return to the He Yue Gxy, much less the Five Gxies.

    He should focus on surviving! That was the only aim that he could work on and n ahead for now, and something he should definitely do first. He did not understand why the Ye Family would treat him like this, but he would not allow anyone to control his fate, not even the Ye Family, despite the fact that he was probably very closely rted to the Ye Family!

    He and he alone would determine his own fate!

    Ye Chong analyzed his situation carefully. While the future was very much unclear, Ye Chong knew exactly what he must do now.

    It was simple! He must prepare for any possible encounters with the Ye Family troops and fight for his own fate!

    On the other hand, Ye Chong would never expect that the Ye Family was facing the same predicament. In fact, it was not just the Ye Family, but all the Three Aristocratic Families were having a tough time cracking their heads.

    In the study of the Ye Family Patriarch, a few of the most important members of the Family were gathered. Ye Juxing, Ye Guangxing were there too, and the atmosphere was grim.

    "I believe you all understand our current situation. There''s no need for pleasantries now. The reason everyone is gathered here is to discuss the matter of allocating more manpower to ck Cove," Ye Family''s reigning Patriarch looked around him and cut to the chase.

    Ever since setting up ck Cove, the Ye Family had never sent out anyrge scalebat support to the ce. Not only the Ye Family, but the other two Aristocratic Families had also followed this unspoken rule.

    Deployingrge scalebat support to the Five Gxies in recent times was unprecedented. More importantly, it would affect the Ye Family''s long term battle strategy and the Family''s very future. Hence, the Patriarch had treated this decision with great care.

    "Has ck Cove not uncovered anything about the matter?" One of them asked.

    The Patriarch shook his head. "No. They have suffered heavy losses in this matter, without the results to show for it. The Five Gxies have always been an important military base of operations, and we will not lose it." The Patriarch''s words set the foundation of their future ns - they must not give up on their resources in the Five Gxies!

    No one seemed to object to his words. The importance of the Five Gxies as a strategic military base had been established a long time ago, an idea that was impressed deeply upon everyone present.

    All of them kept silent, for no one knew how to quite handle their current predicament.

    Reallocation ofbat personnel was not as easy as it seemed. After so many years of fine tuning, an eptable bnce of powers was achieved not only in the He Yue Gxy, but on every, and in almost every city.

    Any relocation ofbat personnel would affect the local power bnce greatly. Moreover, the other aristocratic families led by the Shi Family had been more aggressive recently. Disrupting the power bnce now would have imaginable but undesirable consequences.

    The He Yue Gxy would enter a new age of chaos!

    For the Three Aristocratic Families, stability was of utmost importance. Chaos in the He Yue Gxy would not benefit them in any way. On the contrary, their powers would be greatly diminished due to the chaos, and that was something they must avoid at all costs.

    "What if, Ye Yin is ordered to return?" One of them suggested.

    Ye Juxing shook his head and exined, "Ye Yin''s return will not help much with the situation. What we need now is a sizable military force. Currently, we have only 15 thousand mech pilots avable."

    Everyone except for the Patriarch and Ye Guangxing inhaled in surprise. 15 thousand mech pilots was a strong military presence, but it seemed that the Patriarch believed that it was not enough.

    Had the situation in the Five Gxies reached the point where such drastic measures were necessary?

 Chapter 399 - Wok-firing

    <h4>Chapter 399: Wok-firing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was not aware of the disaster that befell the Three Aristocratic Families, but even if he was, he would have probably dismissed them immediately. He was not good enough of a strategist to take advantage of the situation, unlike Shang.

    Just then, he had rescued an honest looking Flora Adept. This Flora Adept was in his thirties, and his was entirely covered with mud. He was trying to pick a barleygrass nt when he slipped and fell into a swamp. Ye Chong heard his anxious cries for help as he was nearby, and helped him out of it.

    Flora Adepts were people who specialized in gathering nts in the wild. ording to Lunatic Guan''s chip, the upation had as many specialization branches as the alchemy field in the Five Gxies.

    Ye Chong never imagined that he would meet a Flora Adept himself.

    Zhao Ying was very grateful for his help. "Thank you very much, Sir. I would''ve died if not for your help." He rubbed his hands together, but found them to be covered in mud. Zhao Ying blushed and quieted down for a while before bracing himself and said, "Perhaps you''d like to visit my ce?"

    Zhao Ying''s house was small and simple. His wife was not exactly beautiful, but she was warm and friendly. When she found out that Ye Chong had saved her husband''s life, she was even more weing. His daughter was only about 7 years old, and obviously a shy girl. She hid behind her father''s figure, her head poking out carefully as she studied the stranger with her tiny, curious eyes.

    Linrose tea and marinated plum meat - the Zhao couple offered their best dishes to Ye Chong.

    A honest couple and a shy but curious child - this absolutely normal family made Ye Chong feel a long forgotten warmth. He remembered his Papa, he remembered Mu and Shang, and he remembered Grandpa Qian. Those who knew him would notice how the cold, hard lines on his face softened a little.

    After their meal, Zhao Ying chatted with Ye Chong, but it was apparent that thetter was not used to conversations of this nature. Zhao Ying did most of the talking while Ye Chong listened. Now that the honest, good natured Zhao Ying met a person who was even more rigid and quiet than him, he spoke a lot more than he did that day than the past ten days in total.

    From Zhao Ying''s stories, Ye Chong found that the life of a Flora Adept was difficult. He could feel the emotions that filled Zhao Ying''s in and awkward descriptions.

    Zhao Ying went to gather pants every day, while his wife would process the nts that he collected roughly. Their main source of ie was through selling these roughly processed raw materials. The couple had never learned real alchemy, and were only amateurs. Hence, they often forced by customers to sell their things below market price. The two of them worked hard every day, with just enough to feed their own daughter.

    "Ying,e over here, what should I do with this barleygrass?" Zhao Ying''s wife asked.

    Zhao Ying remembered his lucky reward today, that he had found a barleygrass. However, he sat down in dejection and said, "Never mind that, I don''t know what to do with it too. Let''s just sell it tomorrow. Just do your usual work, I''ll apany the good sir for a while and join youter."

    Zhao Ying turned to Ye Chong and said with pained regret, "Sigh, we''ll sell it cheap tomorrow. I don''t know if it''s still of value."

    Ye Chong understood him. Barleygrass must be dried within five hours of picking it, or its value will be reduced by half at least.

    "Let''s go have a look," Ye Chong said lightly, and stood up himself.

    Zhao Ying was caught off guard, and felt anxious. "Let''s just sit here, it''s too messy inside."

    However, Ye Chong was already on his way inside before he could finish speaking. Zhao Ying could only follow him inside.

    It was full of smoke inside, and it was an unpleasant smell. This was the result of many types of nts being dried together. Ye Chong could not help but frowned. From his professional perspective, this was very unsafe.

    He saw a few simple and primitive drying tools. Zhao Ying''s wife was sweating all over as she worked on the nts heaped on the side.

    The fire was not controlled well, and her methods were wrong, and the order drying was also mixed up.

    Ye Chong could not help but shook his head in his mind. No wonder their dried nts could not be sold at a good price. Alchemy materials prepared like this could only be considered as low ss items.

    Zhao Ying''s wife was surprised to see Ye Chong inside with her. She quickly stood up, wiping her hands on her apron and she said with embarrassment, "How did you get in here? It''s too messy in here!"

    Just then, Zhao Ying arrived as well.

    Ye Chong said nothing, but went straight to the drying tools. Zhao Ying and couple looked at him in surprise as he poured everything in the drying wok into the waste tank, and reached out with one hand.

    "Get me the barleygrass."

    Here in the room full of smoke, a young man worked in concentration with the drying wok. Beside him, a man and wife watched him with their respectful eyes opened wide, for fear of missing a single detail.

    "Use a small fire. Apply equal force in both hands, and don''t use water. The order of wok-firing is from bottom to top, from the roots to the shoots. The roots should turn a burnt yellow, and the stem into a light purple. The leaves should be brushed and cleaned with water for three times every round, and the leaves should be thoroughly dried before starting each round.

    When the final product was presented before the Zhao couple, Zhao Ying could not help but shudder. By the looks of this dried barleygrass, it would definitely sell at a good price!

    The honest Zhao Ying did not spend much time dwelling on how much the barleygrass could sell, but instead focused on remembering every detail that Ye Chong had described earlier. He knew that with this skill, they would never have to live so poorly anymore!

    Seeing Zhao Ying''s thoughtful expression, Ye Chong could see that his message was received in the way he intended.

    Bang! Zhao Ying pulled his wife with him as they kneeled and knocked their foreheads on the ground heavily for three times with grateful expressions. This honest man could only repay the young man for giving their lives a chance with the simplest of ways.

    "Not bad, not bad at all. It''s dried well, this barleygrass looks excellent. I say, Zhao Ying, this does not look like a work of your quality." The customer, Old Zhang raised his head and took a nce at Zhao Ying, then at Ye Chong beside him. He knew better than anyone of Zhao Ying''s skills. Thetter''s processed materials were only bought by few people in the city.

    Zhao Ying chuckled good naturedly and said nothing. Old Zhang noted his reaction, and smiled. "Alright, the Gods probably remembered your hard life and rewarded you with blessings. For this barleygrass, I''ll offer you 50 altwhite silvers, what do you think?"

    Zhao Ying nodded vigorously. That sum would be enough tost the family for awhile. Seeing Zhao Ying''s gratefulness, Old Zhang could not help but smiled as he produced 50 altwhite silvers. However, Old Zhang was focused more on the silent, expressionless young man who was with Zhao Ying.

    Zhao Ying epted the 50 altwhite silvers carefully, kept them in a bag with even more care and kept the bag close to him.

    "Gramps, do you know how to go to Line Shaft City?" Zhao Ying asked Old Zhang. It was for Ye Chong.

    "Line Shaft City?" Old Zhang eyes went to the silent Ye Chong and replied evenly, "Why? Zhao Ying, do you want to go to Line Shaft City? It''s very far away."

    "No, no," Zhao Ying answered honestly, shaking his head. "It''s my friend here who wants to go, but he doesn''t know the way. I thought of asking you, since you''re more knowledgeable, and must surely know about it."

    Old Zhang exined with a nostalgic low voice, "I''ve been to Line Shaft City when I was young, but the ce is very far away, and I can''t tell you the specific directions off the top of my head."

    "Then do you have a map?" Ye Chong asked. With a map, his journey to Line Shaft City would be greatly simplified. With Moon King''s speed, he can go there whenever he wanted. The return trip would probably take less than an hour.

    "A map?" Old Zhang looked at the young man, surprised. He shook his head and said, "No. These days, who wouldn''t keep their maps away like it''s a secret treasure?"

    Zhao Ying panicked as he heard the man''s reply, but Ye Chong remained calm.

    "The young man sure can keep himselfposed," Old Zhang thought to himself. He continued, "However, there''s a tradepany from my group heading to Line Shaft City soon. I can ask for you if they''d be willing to bring you with them." Old Zhang was familiar with making these arrangements. Tradepanies had security escorts, and there was strength in numbers. Many would ask to tag along for their journeys.

    After some thought, Ye Chong replied, "I''ll be very much grateful, Gramps."

    Old Zhang went to his group, and soon ushered Ye Chong and Zhao Ying to join him. He led them to a middle aged man.

    To Zhao Ying, the middle aged man was the image of authority. With his magnificent clothing, it was no doubt that he was a man of status. To Ye Chong, however, the man''s face had an unhealthy pallor. His skin looked loose, like the kind of person who looked stronger than he really was. His clothing was too eye catching, and unsuited for physical exertions.

    "This is Caravan Leader Yu," Old Zhang introduced the man to the two.

    The middle aged man had two mustaches that curled slightly upwards at the edges of his mouth. He had high cheekbones, and his eyes looked sunken. He stood there and yawned twice throughout.

    "Who''s going to Line Shaft City?" Caravan Leader Yu askedzily.

    "Me." A short and slightly chilly answer reverberated in the air. Caravan Leader Yu immediately jolted awake. He began to study Ye Chong, his narrowed eyes revealing a certain sharpness in the man. "Oh, young man, what business do you have at Line Shaft City?"

 Chapter 400 - Adepts in the Dark

    <h4>Chapter 400: Adepts in the Dark</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Looking for someone," replied Ye Chong concisely, as usual.

    "I see," responded Caravan Leader Yu, with his eyes squinted as he observed Ye Chong''s flimsy body, "Alright," said a young man looking for someone in Line Shaft City, he must be either an apperentice in search of a teacher or a young businessman in search of fortunes.

    Leader Yu had visited the city frequently enough to learn the fact that it would take tremendous effort to remain standing inside the city. Well, what kind of ce L.Shaft City was, you asked? It was the true city of alchemy and about 30% of the alchemist poption would prefer squeezing themselves in this tiny city.

    Well, the boy sure sounded persistent in his search. He must be looking for an actual somebody in this city. Maybe! Maybe if I get him along, I''ll be able to learn somebody great in this city.

    Leader Yu knew the underlying value of this better than anybody else. The chances might look slim but it would be a fair deal with little to none investment.

    The wise merchant had caught the flipping coin, as he made up his mind.

    "The merchant team is leaving in 3 days," smiled Leader Yu, "You would need to make your way here early 3 dayster though. I need to do some arrangements after all."

    "Arrangement?" Ye Chong was finding the term odd.

    See, a greenhorn, as expected. Thought Leader Yu, his expression remained the same, as he began exining patiently, "The journey there is long and tiring. For everyone''s safety and an easier time maintaining the course, we would need to arrange everyone into different teams."

    "I see."

    Ye Chong then spent the next two days at Zhao Ying''s ce. Ye Chong was growing fond of this modest man, that he eventually taught a few cultivation methods of sprouts in the end. The cultivation of sprouts was the primary technique an alchemist was ought to master. But well, different branch would have different techniques regarding cultivation, especially when a certain kind of sprout was involved.

    Regarding baking, it had way higher demand on factors like the control of heat and tossing of woks. The materials produced by the Bakers were very weed by the alchemists. So an advanced Baker would be a highly respectable figure, since they created the flow of fortune with their baking. Their products were sold at a much higher price in the market too.

    Whatever Ye Chong had learned might be iparable to those advanced techniques by standard Bakers, but his skills were still effective even thoughplicated, including the methodology of his baking. He knew some baking but these techniques would not suffice a standard license, anyway it would suffice for Zhao Ying''s family living.

    "You all should be getting home," said Ye Chong calmly as he stopped by the merchant''s ce.

    Zhao Ying, in apaniment of his wife and the little girl, sent Ye Chong to the ce. With a heavy heart he said, "Take care¡­"

    Zhao Ying''s wife then handed Ye Chong some food, "You are a good man, my lord!" Said she appreciatively, "God will watch over kind men like you! I had prayed with my girl yesterday, you would have a safe journey ahead!"

    Ye Chong gave a nod, took the food with him and turned to join the merchants.

    He was not the kind who would be chattering on a farewell.

    The merchant''s ce was very busy.

    "Are you all set? Bear in mind that the journey is very long ahead, and you would be very sorry if you are unprepared. Take more of those medium sacks. Don''t forget to ce the silicas in every sack!" Shouted the leader with his hands on his waists.

    Leader Yu was looking drunk two days ago but he looked great today. "Oh?" And he saw Ye Chong, "If it wasn''t that bright young man that day, are you all set?" Said he passionately, like weing a friend.

    "All done," nodded Ye Chong.

    That was when arge crowd flooded into the ce. Taken a few steps back, Ye Chong shifted himself away from the scene intuitively.

    The caravan leader was not a slow person too, as he reacted as soon as Ye Chong, though he took a brief sprint towards the group instead. His wrinkles held a raised smile on his face, "Holy Merchy, what have brought my fellow VIPs here? Please, be my guest, do join us." The snobbish caravan leader had been all sincere and humble, his back remained low ever since.

    The leading person of the group was an elderly who looked gentle with his fair white beard in his seventies. Somehow he exuded a sense of solemn superiority even by just standing there. The servants had their backs lowered, anticipating a new order from the lord. Of course, he was a known figure, who would not know the owner of this city himself?

    Except Ye Chong maybe, as his eyes rested upon the followers, instead of the wise old man.

    The few followers, somehow sensed Ye Chong''s gaze, moved their sight onto Ye Chong.

    Those were sharp eyes!

    Ye Chong''s pupils shrunk drastically! His right foot hit the front, putting himself in a battle stance.

    All was part of Ye Chong''s self-defense mechanism upon his survival instinct.

    It had been quite some time since he felt such intensity off someone, not even Ye Luo could make him this alert.

    5. There were 5 of them, 5 adepts in the dark. Ye Chong squinted his eyes, his heart raced, upon realizing how there were 5 hidden beasts waiting to devour humanity through the threatening gazes of theirs.

    Right when Ye Chong went into his stance, the 5 followers also moved and positioned themselves!

    Their eyes focused upon Ye Chong. The one at the front overreacted slightly as his body was fully straightened towards Ye Chong, almost sending fists.

    There was one middle-aged man standing right next to the 5 adepts. He was wearing a green apparel, having a goatee, and was apparently astonished by the sudden change in atmosphere.

    The actions were taken at microlevel, soundlessly, that no one had noticed the brewing storm.

    Ye Chong''s mind ran wild but he took no hostile action at the moment.

    Who were these five adepts? Ye Chong could sense their hostility that was almost as close as those from the Sanctuary. They would be pure horror at a ce without mech like this. And Ye Chong could recognize the goatee man being an alchemist, an adept too.

    Ye Chong stood still, and he did not want to stir up anything. Ye Chong could already imagine himself deploying Moon King if he were to fight these 5 men at once. There would be no way this would turn out to be a mere street fight - it would be a war.

    Ye Chong''s decision was fair, as the followers withdrew their hostility, though their eyes remained sharp.

    It was a quick fight in the dark, through gazes.

    "Hah! Yu, my old pal, your business seems well!" said the lord on top of his lungs, as he gave a friendly chuckle.

    "It is all thanks to your brilliant leadership, my lord," caravan Leader Yu was shocked by the suddenpliment as he spoke, "As you can see, the ce is very organized, if it was not your generosity, little merchants like us wouldn''t be able to survive."

    If there would be a perfect time to butter up the authority, it would be now.

    "You''re so modest, pal," the lordughed, "Your business has expanded great enough, I''ve already heard of it before this." And his tone changed, "Brother, I''m here for a request this time."

    "Look at what you''ve said. Keep those courtesy, how would I ever reject your request my lord? If you want anything, just send men to inform us, you don''t even have to take the trouble toe all the way by yourself. All merchants would give their fullest to help the lord!" His smile was twitching however¡­

    Dang please don''t tell me he''s here for money¡­

    "It''s simple really. These few friends of mine would like to pay Line Shaft City a visit and I just so happened to know that your merchant group is heading to the city as well, so I thought of bringing them here, see if you could make some arrangement."

    "Hah! My lord, again, it''s only a small request, you don''t have to be so formal. As long as you made the order, we would achieve it by hook or by crook. In this case, yes, certainly yes, no problem!" Leader Yu was probably thanking god that it was a simple request, as he quickly nodded at it. His eyes wandered upon the few followers and his experience told him that these were some figures that he should try fawning on, especially when they came under the apaniment of the lord himself.

    The lord gave few nods satisfyingly and whispered the followers.

    Then he left under the escort of his guardsmen.

    Yup, those 6 persons whom Ye Chong took alert of remained.

    The leader weed the 6 new members with great hospitality. They were cold towards his passion however, that Leader Yu assumed they must be some great figures who had experienced worldliness.

    Before Ye Chong noticed, he got assigned to the same team as the 6 new rascals.

 Chapter 401 - The Mysterious Ridge of Mays Night

    <h4>Chapter 401: The Mysterious Ridge of May''s Night</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Arbeni, anything particr on this fellow?" asked the man behind his dark mask, as he slightly tilted his head to the other 5 members in his team. The man had a bulky curve, with over-sized muscles all over his arms and legs that they seemed capable of shaking the earth. His eyes were bloodshot, looking violently destructive.

    "Can''t feel anything," said Arbeni behind his cloak, his expression was almost imperceivable, though his eyes lustered with desire asionally.

    "Liu Sheng?" Turned the masked man to another person, "See anything?" he whispered.

    Liu Sheng yawned and tried lifting his drowsy eyelids, "Nope." His lethargic voice trailed off as he went seemingly asleep.

    "Dong Mo, Sisko, notice anything?" The masked man seemed very inquisitive at this.

    "N¡­a¡­h¡­h¡­h¡­," said Dong Mo. Was Dong Mo actually there? The masked man was talking to his stack of afterimages as if. Ye Chong would have probably noticed this anomaly assuming he was right there. The body of this Dong Mo guy was apparently ever-vibrating at a very high frequency, that his voice sounded blurry as his look.

    "Tackan, would you stop?" Sisko sounded irritated. The voice was menacing like a condensed fury. Sisko was considerably athletic at his appearance simr to a small hill on the ground, while Tackan was looking merely like the herd down the hill. Sisko''s stare was much more fearsome than anybody else.

    Tackan showed negligence towards Sisko''s annoyance as he turned to thest person of his team, "Kurdi, how about you?"

    Kurdi was the only nonbat member among the six of them. He shrugged, "To be honest, I am still out of the situation. So why the panic, could any of you tell me?" his goatee shook as he spoke.

    And it was a moment of awkward silence after that.

    It took several minutes for the mood to set, "Well, he''s strong!" said Tackan sluggishly.

    That was when the eyes of Arbeni celestially shone within his cloak. The statement seemed to have captured their attention, even Liu Sheng''s ever-drowsy eyes suddenly went forcibly open and Dong Mo had¡­ elerated, his silhouette grew fuzzier. Sisko gave a bright smile, with veins pumped hard once on his forehead.

    "Very strong?" Kurdi was startled by the mutation of his teammates.

    Well his inquiry went unanswered however.

    It had been quite some time since Ye Chong felt such unsettling feeling inside him, as he had probably encountered the strongest group in his entire life. The entire team, other than the alchemist, consisted of fighters who very likely had surpassed standard of the Jie experts.

    5 Jie experts on the ride. What a trip.

    What are they doing here though?

    That was the first doubt emerged and lingered in Ye Chong''s thoughts.

    They are very dangerous.

    The instinct had struck the red alert.

    Ye Chong was considering quitting the party since their entities were enough threatening to his safety even without having an actual conflict. Ye Chong could just feel death from the gazes of their eyes.

    Ye Chong was not sure the performance of an average fighter on Guang Hua but he was fairly certain that these were the top fighters on the. The alchemist on the other hand, Ye Chong could not tell just yet, but judging from the fact that this alchemist could remain in their party, he must be something.

    Well, if Ye Luo is here, he probably would be hopping around in excitement¡­

    Thought Ye Chong.

    It was some nonsense in his head but it helped loosening his nerves.

    He had been plotting several escape ns in his mind. These fighters might not impose threats to him if he were to run away. He was pretty confident in his agility after all.

    Ye Chong was in a party of 7 and he was treated with good hospitality. Under the constant interaction initiated by Caravan Leader Yu, both the group of mysterious men and the caravan leader grew closer. This was not a good sign to Ye Chong, he became more cautious upon seeing how the group was capable of inhibiting their brewing violence, including the giant in their group. He simply did not imagine how the bulky man could put up such a friendly smile whenever the leader approached him. That was a masterly control.

    Ye Chong eventually looked like the more antisocial member in the party.

    During the journey, the leader started sharing some of the folktales and local cultures he knew. It was rather interesting to be frank.

    "I assume all of you have not been there before eh?" asked Leader Yu.

    "Mhm, right, our visit this time is to behold the wonder of the city of alchemy," said the goatee guy with an impressed look.

    "Hah! Certainly Line Shaft City does not have this name for no reason. Once you''ve been there you will see how almost everything is of the alchemy, by the alchemy, for the alchemy. I must say, brother, you shall prosper there with your talent! Lots of works to do!" Another cheappliment from Leader Yu, "Yes, say if you shouted for an alchemist, 4 out of 5 men would be turning back on you. Imagine that strange sight! I too stumbled upon the happening on my first visit. There were simply too many alchemists there. You could see the bum-looking elders sitting by the street, whom you could employ with measly cost for a good whole day. Don''t judge them by their apparel though, they are still the top alchemists, when they are outside the city of course. Any top alchemist would only be part of the folks once they stepped into the city."

    The leader carried on sharing his tales, while Kurdi shed his smile from time to time, and gave noments. The rest of the group was slightly interested in the talk, but Ye Chong was that number one audience to the storytelling.

    He did not know much about the city but he would not doubt every statement illustrated by the leader. The city surely had standards since it was the ce where Lunatic Guan was trained. She was an insane genius after all, and a ce where an insane genius could be trained must be insanely brilliant.

    "Every month the market would be a marvel. You could see all sorts of strange, rare materials over the street. As long as you have fortunes, or maybe some connections, there''s nothing you can''t buy. The marketce of Line Shaft City is known to have thergest collection of raw materials. We even have our own branch there and not just any merchant could open a store there as they wish. Only the big businessmen would be able to set up their own spot in the market, and only the real deal of alchemy ingredient could stay. Like seriously, no one would be interested on the normal stuffs," somehow the leader sounded proud as he spoke. Then he realized something, "Oh my atrocious memory, I forgot to ask you brother," he looked at Ye Chong and said, "To which part of the city are you heading?"

    And Ye Chong suddenly got spotlighted.

    "Ridge of May''s Night!" Ye Chong remembered his destination well.

    The name turned out to be a mood-changer as everyone else''s expression changed dramatically, especially Caravan Leader Yu and Kurdi, even the 5 potential Jie experts jerked on their steps almost simultaneously.

    Ye Chong saw every detail of the scene, as confused he became. What kind of ce is the Ridge of May''s Night?

    The gazes at Ye Chong turned peculiar, that felt unexinably ufortable.

    The leader''s face was drained as his muscles seemed tightened. The only thought remained in his head was all the horrified cries demanding him to distance himself away from this very strange young man. Cold sweats hadpletely wetted his back and Kurdi was not looking good either.

    Somehow there was envy, some hostility and bewilderment in his eyes.

    "So¡­ how do you get to the ridge?" asked Ye Chong.

    The leader was trying to say something but his dehydrated throat held him. He tried spitting something but he just panicked.

    He is actually a person associated with the ridge? He is one figure that I should never mess with! I thought I only managed to grab a chance to know someone from the city, but no! I''ve hit the jackpot! And it''s the worst jackpot ever! It''s somebody from the ridge! The ridge! Thought the leader.

    If he knew that Ye Chong was someone of the ridge, he would have summoned a few men to carry Ye Chong on an altar or something. He seriously wondered what bad luck had gotten him into this. The leader could not help but to wail in his mind.

    All because of that old man! Why, of all persons, he sent this boy? Curses!

    The leader urged himself to say something, yes, the boy of the ridge was speaking, he got to reply, or how ill-manner he would look? He could not mess this up!

    Ye Chong once thought the leader had seizures because of the visibly tightened muscles, till he saw the streaming sets over his body.

    He said nothing and just stared on.

    The leader''s sweating intensified!

    It took 3 minutes for the leader to say a word, "I don''t know!" He screamed, "I know nothing at all!" Caravan Leader Yu thought joyfully that he finally was able to unmute himself, but the first few words he uttered did not seem all that well.

    Ye Chong assumed that was a dead-end to his enquiry, so he just turned away and pondered with his eyes closed.

    That was a relief to the leader. For once he thought he would be a goner since Ye Chong had not even made a gesture for the past few minutes. At least Ye Chong had ended the conversation himself.

    Judging from the leader''s reaction, it did not seem to be a good omen. The 5 adepts too reacted towards the ce with fear.

    But what kind of ce is the ridge? Ye Chong got particrly curious.

 Chapter 402 - Deja Vu

    <h4>Chapter 402: Deja Vu</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was Feng Su''s first visit to Line Shaft City. If it was not because of how she had to pass by Guang Hua on her way to Dankwood, she probably might never have the chance to visit the city renowned with alchemy marvels. Guang Hua was a known within the Xi Feng tribe. Unlike the other aristocrats, the Xi Feng tribe was originated in free space zone, so it was natural for a member of the Xi Feng tribe like Feng Su to recognize the status of this.

    Speaking of alchemist, the best training ground for alchemist should be He Yue gxy, particrly the aristocrats of the gxy. The aristocrats not only were able to preserve the traditional system of alchemy but also happened to be well connected to the other system from the 5 major gxies. Judging from this, theirbined system seemed to have a better odds of making a breakthrough.

    In reality however, none of the aristocrats was able to harness the potential of their gxy. None of the families was able to be the representative of He Yue gxy. Thus, He Yue gxy eventually was not able to surpass the historical branches on Guang Hua, despite all the superior conditions it could offer.

    There was one incident that every Xi Feng tribe members would remember. On one year, the Xi Feng tribe relied on the Abductor to expand their forces in free space zone. The Abductor had broughtrge batch of children to the tribe, precisely all talented children, whom were all sent to the Sanctuary, ording to what Feng Su knew.

    Nevertheless, there was a plot twist on their side soon, as somehow the enormous Abductor organization on Guang Hua disappeared in one night. They did not manage to reveal the culprit. They did hear the motive was to find a child however. That would be a good clue but the batch of children that year was simply too huge to trace. Moreover these children were distributed rapidly to all parts of the tribe. The case hit the dead-end and nothing new discovered d ever since.

    All forces of Xi Feng tribe withdrew themselves promptly from Guang Hua. They had a massive evacuation. The Abductor never managed to escape however. The foe seemed to be rather cruel by nature that none of the abductors left the alive. The Abductor thought the organization was well-camouged as several alliances had been made with knownmunities, unfortunately those friendly alliances offered nothing than a blind-eye towards the incident.

    Because of that, the tribe had drastically weakened in the free space zone. Other than Xi Feng tribe, the two other aristocrats somehow took the same action, as they also withdrew their forces on Guang Hua.

    Guang Hua then became a forbidden ce to the tribe.

    Luckily Feng Su had the one-and-only opportunity to have a visit. The lively street was a rxing sight to her, probably because of the fresh green nursery gardens around. The scent of flowers wafted through the air, that reached Feng Su''s nose behind her purplish veil. She might have hidden her captivating face carefully, but her curves were still something that grabbed sufficient attention. Well she had gotten used to those sights, so she could not care less.

    The tough trainings she had undergone recently did not leave a mark on her enchanting physique. She could not help but to smile upon looking at the crowd around her, as she reminisced those days when she was an undercover at the show business. But those days were already history. She had gotten worn out by the constant training and battles. It was great to be able to experience the tranquility again.

    "Hah! We are there guys! Line Shaft City!" a deep voice rang thunderously behind her.

    Feng Su frowned, feeling her mood spoiled.

    She made a fancy turn to have a careful look at the inconsiderate pedestrian. And she realized, it was not a person but a group.

    Her eyes shone in the brightest fear, wondering where these experts came from.

    Yup, you guessed it. Feng Su had encountered Ye Chong''s party who had just arrived at the city.

    Feng Su gave a quick nce at the members, her heart rumbled with intense peculiarity as she lowered her head, trying to hide her astonishment.

    5 experts. There were 5 of them, and they were Jie experts.

    Feng Su had obtained her title as a Jie expert not too long ago. She also rode a Phoenix Lord graded mech by then. Her extrasensory was enhanced by her training so she could already sense the potency of these men at one nce.

    And she thought that would be her biggest surprise, but the young man next to the 5 Jie experts was far greater shocker. There was something imperceivable of him. He might look like an ordinary man by sight, but Feng Su could notice how the 5 Jie experts maintained a visible distance with him.

    It can''t be. Could this young man be far stronger than the 5 Jie experts? That was a preposterous hypothesis that stirred fear in Feng Su. These 5 would have the greatest strength for they were the Jie experts, yet they feared this boy, assuming he was stronger, then what he would be?

    The strangest part was, Feng Su actually sensed some familiarity on this boy. His face gave her a deja vu. She seemed to have seen him before, but she was pretty sure that she had not.

    But why, why the deja vu?

    Ye Chong recognized Feng Su at first sight. Her exceptional style and charm were already imprinted in his mind. Certainly, it was not because of his puberty. Firstly, Feng Su gave him a painful lesson during the battle. Secondly, Shang once got so obsessed of this beauty that he had to recite her highness on a daily basis. Ye Chong was somehow drilled with the term "curves" upon association with Feng Su.

    Ye Chong did not expect to encounter Feng Su however.

    Ye Chong''s brief awe got perceived by Feng Su, which affirmed to her intuitive spection that she had met this man before.

    Tackan and his mates seemed to have reacted towards Feng Su. They were warriors after all. The countless fights they experienced had already given them the sensibility, that they could tell Feng Su was a Jie expert at first sight.

    Their gazes, imbued with theirpetitiveness, were fired upon Feng Su.

    Ye Chong could feel the pressure just by the side. Feng Su tried her best to control her naturalpetitiveness from going wild. She almost felt like picking a fight but she should not.

    The reason was clear. If it was a one-on-one, she probably could win. But a group fight? That would be far-fetched. Assuming they fought, she doubted she could evenst till the moment she fully deployed her mech, especially when that unknown boy was right there.

    Feng Su''s schemata ran wild, figuring a way to eject herself from the scene. She had never visited free space zone before, but she was informed that this ce could be a ce of the untamed who thirsted battles from time to time. A conflict could be happening soon.

    And that was when Sisko made a whistle. A very ear-piercing whistle, that the passersby covered their ears and avoided him.

    "As expected of Line Shaft City, I never expected that I would encounter a female Jie expert, a gorgeous beauty too. Such surprise, ha, ha, ha," Sisko''s facial muscles quivered awkwardly, it looked exceptionally scary with his body size.

    Meanwhile, few pedestrians were giving off dismissive stares. It was nothing strange as this was a ce of alchemy after all, that martial arts practitioners - the presumed uneducated barbarians - should not be visiting. And Sisko could potentially be the most barbaric barbarian ever, judging by his look.

    The size of his arm was almost the size of one''s thigh. The muscles were solid metal that flick made by his fingers would create an echo.

    "You are such sweet person," said Feng Su, in her battle stance, "I am no Jie expert, I am just an ordinary girl you see¡­" Her angelic voice rang, which seduced the fellow pedestrians sessfully. Ye Chong was pretty impressed of her improved voice of seduction.

    "Hahaha, keep your little trick,ssie," smiled Sisko, with his lump of veins resting on his forehead like a serpent.

    "Liu Sheng, do the talking for me," turned Sisko, as he shouted at the sleepy head behind. "Okay," replied Liu Sheng lethargically as he took a step forward, with a metamorphosis urring on his face that he became pumped and lively out of sudden.

    "It''s an honor!" he said. "That we are able to speak with such a beautiful Jie expert. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Liu Sheng, and these are my mates, Sisko, Dong Mo, Arbeni, Tackan and Kurdi," Liu Sheng''s tone was calm but somehow an intensity could be felt.

    Gasps were heard from the pedestrians. Clearly they recognized those names.

    "What about him?" whispered Feng Su, as her fair finger pointed at Ye Chong.

 Chapter 403 - Guan Qingheng

    <h4>Chapter 403: Guan Qingheng</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Uh¡­," Liu Sheng once looked all pumped and ever-ready but now he somehow had lost all his will as he dropped his head.

    "Oh¡­," a soft sigh could be heard from him, the lowered head was a countermeasure to his embarrassment of being never the center of attention in the eyes of this fairdy. Owing the fact that Liu Sheng was pretty handsome naturally, the gesture worked wlessly as he could perceive the quick squeak from the females around.

    Sadly, there were not many girls around here. Thought Liu Sheng. If he was doing this at other cities, he probably already had a fans'' club performing a massive passing-out when he did that.

    Feng Su''s stress had vanished immediately. She was much relieved upon seeing how effective her question was.

    Ye Chong had be the focus again.

    Who is he?

    Whispers rustled among the pedestrians while Liu Sheng''s expression remained uneasy. Ye Chong had already be their main target at first sight, especially when he exerted a far stronger danger than this female Jie expert with a fading charm, thus the awkward silence.

    An unpredictable threat would always impose the greatest danger.

    Ye Chong stayed as an unknown to the group, as it had been revealed that he was associated with the May''s Night Ridge the moment they attempted to interview him. That was the red g to hold the interview session, as they pulled themselves away from this boy.

    Nobody would want to have anything to do with the May''s Night Ridge, not even those Jie experts like Tackan''s group. They would want to avoid chances of conflict as much as possible, since those of the ridge too possessed highly-refined skills for martial arts.

    "Guan Zhufeng. Call me that," stated Ye Chong tly.

    It was ¡­ a foreign name. The 6 of them exchanged nces promptly to verify their impression.

    They felt the name was foreign, so was Feng Su. The pedestrians were in major bewilderment however, wondering what this ordinary-looking boy had done on the top fighters of Guang Hua.

    Tackan and his mates were well-known among residents of Guang Hua, but Guan Zhufeng? Nobody had heard of such name before. They might be in the city of alchemy, but the citizens were pretty much informed of martial arts practitioners like Tackan''s group.

    All 6 of them were the top fighters of Congregation. The 5bat members were the Jie experts who were esteemed for being the facade of martial arts field on Guang Hua when alchemy was the main trend. That was justifiable by their involvement in the Congregation every year. They were the only actual members among the 10 selected practitioners, while the rest of the participants were merely fillers.

    Kurdi was the most known figure among all six of them however. The reason was simple, he was an alchemist. For someone who was able to join the Congregation, Kurdi had all the rights to receive respects and admiration from people. He was still young too, with lots of potential there.

    One could imagine the group sparkling in their poption while being avoidant of this ordinary boy, that was just weird.

    "Pal, wanna join the Congregation with us?" said Arbeni out of the blue, as the other members fired passionate gazes at Ye Chong. They had been in a search of martial arts experts on Guang Hua, they really hoped to have morepanions on their way there. The group had spent the past few years putting up facade for Guang Hua''s martial arts, they certainly would want new blood.

    The 5bat members would fight with each other as practice to look for that breakthrough on their way searching for new member. On one congregation they encountered Kurdi the alchemist who had joined them promptly. Kurdi joined because he hoped to have subjects to test on his new reagents.

    They thought their journey would be fruitless, but they literally encountered 2 Jie experts this time. How could they stay calm on this? Ye Chong was a helpless case however, thanks to his unpredictable standards and his rtionship with the ridge. They would want to talk it out, instead of using brutal force. But Feng Su? Well, that was one bird which could be captured with bare hands.

    There was already a crowd around them.

    It would be an honor for someone to represent the and join the Congregation. People looked envious upon Ye Chong, nobody would say no to that invitation.

    "Sorry, not interested," the cold line fell upon heating atmosphere.

    The group was confused, wondering if their ears had gone wrong.

    "Pal, aren''t you going to consider it at least?" Arbeni''s voice sounded a little irritated.

    They might be afraid of the one from May Night''s Ridge but the pride they umted over thest few congregations had gotten into them. It was an insult from this boy that challenged their pride after all.

    The pedestrians were not foolish and could recognize the brewing storm as they backed off right away. A massacre could happen any second soon when it involved Jie experts.

    Both Feng Su and Ye Chong were surrounded by the 5 of them. Kurdi had already removed himself from the scene, he was just a feeble alchemist after all.

    "How about this pretty? Fancy our invitation?" asked Liu Sheng firmly.

    Feng Su''s expression remained still, as one perfect line had popped in her head, "I was very much in high admiration towards Mr. Guan. As long as he said yes, I am all fine." That was truly a perfect bounce to the question.

    Ye Chong was feeling ufortable from the constant stares of the 5. He remained calm however, as his eyes were indifferent.

    He tried holding his adrenaline, "I have something to do at the ridge."

    It was then a silence.

    Pure, dead silence. Every pedestrian literally dropped their tongue upon hearing that unbelievable line.

    "So he is from the ridge?"

    "The May Night''s Ridge¡­"

    "No wonder he refused to join the Congregation¡­"

    "And no wonder he looked all calm even when he was surrounded by 5 congregation representatives¡­"

    Everything made sense with that key phrase now.

    May Night''s Ridge.

    ¡­ (Meanwhile at the other side of the street)¡­

    Guan Qingheng was the second leader of the purchasing team this time. That was not the first time he had taken this mission. He looked unexcited merely because of how this job was always a pure boredom. Generally, any position that was regarded the second, the vice, as the supportive role to the first would be an idle position, since only the first, the alpha, the supported held the more authority.

    What could he do anyway? The Guan family had fallen horrendously all these years. He was fine with his position but it would only be a matter of time for Guan family to be kicked out of the ridge if nothing had changed.

    Guan Qingheng was worried. The issue never failed to vanquish his joy.

    It could not be helped. Guan family had been joining the meeting as more of a listener at the ridge. The familycked originality, invention, new blood, thus the falling status on the ridge. The purchasing mission never ran really well too. This was because the family''s status had fallen to a point that nobody really would treat the orders seriously.

    The newest ranking had not been put up on the board, but the worries lingered, since there would be an evaluation in a year or so, which would determine status of the 14 families on the ridge. That would likely be the moment Guan family got officially kicked out of the ridge.

    He pondered deeply as he walked the street.

    "I have something to do at the ridge."

    One line from somewhere caught his attention.

    At the ridge? May''s Night Ridge? Guan Qingheng flinched.

    He lifted his head.

    No one from the outside would know much about May Night''s Ridge, not even the merchants by the street, since only the top merchants had connection to the ridge in the city. Most people did not even know how the ce looked. The residents of the ridge had hardly left the ce either, as they would be too busy mastering the arts of alchemy under the strict enforcement of themittee. Unless one was of the purchasing department, one would probably never have a chance to leave the ce, they were even forbidden to join majorpetitions like the Congregation.

    And there was this guest who wanted to do something at the ridge?

    Guan Qingheng was surprised, as he dashed towards the crowd.

    May Night''s Ridge, a mystery, a forbidden area, the sanctuary of alchemy.

 Chapter 404 - Admiration

    <h4>Chapter 404: Admiration</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Guan Qingheng forced himself into the crowd, and that was when he saw Ye Chong and Feng Su at the center. His sight fell upon Ye Chong eventually. Feng Su might be an attractive precious beauty in the city, but for someone who grew up at the ridge, she was just average.

    The sudden participation of Guan Qingheng did not grab any attention. He might be from the ridge, but as much as the ridge was known to the people, the citizens hardly knew him. Probably only those merchants from the authority would recognize him at nces. But practically speaking, he only shared professional rtionship with the merchants, thus his identity remained as a top secret among the traders.

    "I *am* certainly curious of Mr. Guan''s association with the ridge. Please, do tell us, my Brother Guan, some rifications would have helped resolving misunderstanding. We highly respect those from the ridge, so we would not allow imposters," said Arbeni sluggishly, his rage seemed to have vanished.

    Brother Guan? The boy was part of Guan?

    Guan Qingheng had heard something interesting seemingly.

    Even though May Night''s Ridge had never failed to stir up fear in heart of the people, it was not a ce with a frightening sight in actuality. The ridge was an establishment with total 14 families, 14 slots open for families to be honest. Themittee would reevaluate the resided families every so often and any underperforming family would be banished from the ridge while newer family would take over. Those who were banished because of below average contribution rate would be forbidden from revealing anything of the ridge to the public, or the family would be cklisted permanently while receiving severe punishment from the ridge.

    Guan Qingheng observed Ye Chong carefully once more. He was holding a wooden spear, the dark tip was not particrly eye-catching, the scent of the spear however¡­ Guan Qingheng could smell the hidden scent of fatality.

    The spear was coated with poison. And he roughly estimated the strength of the poison.

    That was some strong poison! The expression of Guan Qingheng changed, as he spected the superior standard of this boy''s alchemy.

    He then decided to observe quietly at the moment.

    "It''s top secret. Sorry about that," stated Ye Chong. It was not because he was being uncooperative, rather it was because he simply had no idea what Lunatic Guan asked him there for. She never told him anything else other than visiting the ridge.

    But one thing for sure, he did not like being threatened. He had tried his very best to control the hatred as he did not wish to fight the 5 men but that did not mean he wouldpromise at any condition.

    Mu''s calmness had influenced Ye Chong deeply but being sociable was never his arsenal.

    Assuming a conflict were to happen, Ye Chong would still fight.

    He looked at the group with his cold eyes, like a beast with its back lowered, ready to pounce at intensity.

    The unspoken hostility had triggered the group.

    Feng Su was feeling bad of the situation. She could not believe this familiar-looking boy would decide to initiate a fight right here. It would be bad, the ending of this boy would be unimaginable.

    Ye Chong did a quick calction. To be frank, the chance of his victory was slim, negligibly slim. He could only rely on the intense toxic on his spear at the moment.

    The battle did not just happen right away, showing that the 5 fighters still remained cautious of Ye Chong because of his identity.

    "Since Mr. Guan has something to do at the ridge¡­," said Liu Sheng unhurriedly, "I guess we shouldn''t be holding you back too much¡­ Providing that you have finished your business there, would you kindly join the Congregation with us?"

    A battle did not ur. Instead, immense tolerance was unexpectedly given.

    Taking a step back was not in Tackan and Sisko''s script, as their face tightened, even though they stayed quiet.

    Their behavior had justified their attitude, as Ye Chong had been given the equal status in their mind, judging by the stare, since it was natural for the strong to look at the weak from above in free space zone.

    "I cannot guarantee this," said Ye Chong frankly. He could sense the sincerity in Liu Sheng but he could not confirm his schedule when he did not know what could happen at the ridge.

    Feng Su could not believe her ears. The boy was such a fool. Everything would have been fine if he just nodded his head!

    The reality was quite the contrary. The group gave a smile of admiration upon hearing that line of Ye Chong.

    "Hah! Great! Such an honest man!" Laughed Sisko, "I like you. You are different from those who just lie their way out! They assume one tant lie would have settled us but on countless asions we had settled them instead! Hahaha!"

    The pedestrians shuddered¡­

    Feng Su''s tiny heart pumped vigorously. She was so d that she kept her mouth shut throughout the conversation just now. She really thought of making up a white lie to get away from this.

    "Alright, alright," smiled Liu Sheng. "We don''t need your guarantee. In 30 days we would be waiting here for you. If you did not make it, we would wait for another, till the day you arrive."

    "Okay!" nodded Ye Chong firmly.

    "So, my fairdy, we hope for your participation in this Congregation. Please, do join us, will you?" said Liu Sheng as he shifted his sight upon Feng Su. His tone was much more insistent, unlike before.

    Feng Su could feel her blood freezing just from the sights of these experts.

    Her fair face had just turned snow-white from the pressuring atmosphere created by them.

    Her eyes, filled with helpless spite, wafted upon Ye Chong pitifully, as her curves grooved in nervousness.

    Such a pitiful sight! And the group seemed to have lost their morality among the pedestrians. How could they force such a weak beauty into this war? The pedestrians would love to voice their anger, but well they were not the Jie experts and never wanted to be the punching bag.

    Come on, save the girl, Guan.

    Save her.

    "I''ll be going," said Ye Chong, neglecting Feng Su''s begging stare. He gave a nod at the group and turned away.

    Feng Su felt she had lost hope as she closed her eyes, with tears dripping.

    "Are you still a man?" said one girl from the crowd. She could not bear with this anymore! Disdainfully she shouted as she stepped to the front.

    "Right! Are you still a man?"

    "How could you do this?" The crowd''s anger had been initiated.

    "You might be from the ridge, but you are one heartless, weak man!"

    "So people from the ridge are shameless as you eh?"

    Guan Qingheng was feeling uneasy from the showeringments. Man the fame of May Night''s Ridge¡­

    It was a massive verbal attacking from the crowd, that even the Jie experts flinched.

    Ye Chong did not see the need in this. He believed his action was reasonable. Why the criticisms?

    "So all of you would like to have a word, eh?" said Sisko, angrily.

    Then the noises disappeared. Sisko''s eyes had murdered the aggression in people. The pedestrians were looking frightful upon his nce, some even squeezed back into the crowd.

    "Save your pity act. Move," said Liu Sheng.

    Poor Feng Su, she did not even have the chance to redeem herself. She did not manage to even summon her ride. She could not run away and certainly she could not call for help.

    Well, she got to be cooperative at the moment, probably, in order to find the next chance to have a hit-and-run.

    A mech owner like her only needed one thing at the moment. Timing, timing, the most natural thing hardest came by. Dammit, only if this boy spoke for her, but no, he was leaving.

    Ye Chong sneaked into the crowd right after.

    Crack! Thus! On his way he disabled the few attackers who tried to disrupt the heroes in the dark. That was when the pedestrians realized he was no coward, he was a savior!

    The crowd was totally silent now, especially when they heard the piercing wails of the tumbling men on the ground.

    Ye Chong indifferently walked out of the frightened crowd.

    Well first thing''s first, guess I should ask people around for the ridge''s location.

    "You''re going to the ridge?" said one man from his back.

 Chapter 405 - Withering Heart

    <h4>Chapter 405: Withering Heart</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Withering Heart

    Ye Chong had been watching this person for awhile, who was tailing him ever since he left the crowd. He was about to make his move when that person spoke up first.

    "Do you know May''s Night Ridge?" Ye Chong stopped walking and turned around to ask.

    Guan Qingheng did not answer Ye Chong, but studied this young man in front of him instead. Up close, Ye Chong gave an even deeper impression to Guang Qingheng. Such weathered eyes could hardly be found on a 20-over-year-old. The coldness in those eyes were also decidedly uninviting.

    "Is your surname Guan?" Guan Qingheng pondered for a moment before asking.

    That was an interesting question. Just from Guan Qnigheng''s question alone, Ye Chong could deduce a lot. He could not help but thought of Lunatic Guan, and nodded. "Yes."

    Guan Qingheng appeared puzzled. Of the 14 Tribes in May''s Night Ridge, only the Guan Family had the surname Guan. However, all these years, only the Eldest Young Miss and Youngest Young Miss had left May''s Night Ridge. This young man was probably around 20 years of age - could he be the son of the Eldest Young Miss? Guan Qingheng immediately dismissed the silly idea. How could he evene up with such an impossible answer? Could the Eldest Young Miss possibly bear child at 10?

    However, the fact was that only the Eldest Young Miss and Youngest Young Miss had left May''s Night Ridge for as long as he remembered.

    The Guan Family was in decline, but it was still a true Elder Familypared to the other families. The Guan Family was one of the Five Elder Families that founded May''s Night Ridge, and up until now, its entitlement for a ce in the Ridge had never been challenged. For the newer members of May''s Night Ridge, they would probably have branches outside of the Ridge. For the Guan Family, which had stayed in the Ridge for who knew how many years, it would not have any branches.

    "Perhaps it was a coincidence that this person also had the surname Guan," Guan Qingheng thought to himself with a little sadness.

    "What is your business in May''s Night Ridge?" Guan Qingheng asked. After all, the Ridge never dealt with outsiders.

    Just then, a voice came from behind Guan Qingheng, "I saw, Vice Squad Captain, we should be going." The female voice sounded a touch cynical and mocking.

    Guan Qingheng scrunched his eyebrows slightly together. He need not turn around to know that it was Shi Mingbei, Squad Captain of the procurement squad.

    Ye Chong looked up to see the woman who interrupted them. She was about 20 years old, with her right hand hovering right by her waist. This was a standard stance for an alchemist. As she approached them both slowly, her right hand never left her waist, where many small pouches hung from her belt in a way that was not easily noticeable. Her fingers were long, and seemed capable of quick movements.

    Ye Chong assessed the female alchemist to be very capable.

    For the uninitiated, however, she was an entirely different person. Here was a flirty youngdy with neat, white teeth, a coquettish smile on her face as her hand rested on her waist while she walked towards the two men. Her slender waist looked like a fragile willow branch, and people could not help but gulped as they watched from the side.

    "Oh, who''s this young man here? I say, Vice Squad Captain, when did you get acquainted with such a handsome young man? And you didn''t even introduce him to me, it breaks my heart!" Sheined teasingly.

    Guan Qingheng seemed to try his best to ignore her antics, and replied coldly, "You jest, Captain Shi." Everytime he saw this woman, he could not help but feel repulsed by her.

    Shi Mingbei was from the Shi Family [1]. The Shi Family was admitted into the Ridge in thest Ridge meeting. Unlike the historical Guan Family, the Shi Family operated in a more utilitarian manner. This allowed the Shi Family to expand their influence rapidly. Their members could be found in many of the important departments of the Ridge Council.

    Guan Qingheng never liked the Shi Family. Besides, his position in the procurement squad was awkward - he was 35, and Shi Mingpei 24, but their positions did not reflect their ranking in seniority.

    "Has our Vice Squad Captain forgotten about the rules of the Ridge? This young man here is going to suffer from it!" Shi Mingbei had an attractive smile, but her eyes were shining with a cold gleam.

    Guan Qingheng''s eyes widened as realized what was happening.

    A sweet scent wafted in the air. Shi Mingbei smiled even more invitingly, her eyes narrowing into two crescent moons.

    As he studied the two conversing individuals, Ye Chong''s nose twitched, and his brows lifted in surprise!

    A cold exmation! The wooden spear in his right hand suddenly turned around and striked!

    "Ah!" A woman cried in pain! A shadow hit Shi Mingbei''s left shoulder, the huge momentum throwing her backwards,nding her heavily on the ground.

    Crack. Guan Qingheng''s face twisted with dread. Good hearing may not be an alchemist''s trademark ability, but he could still hear the clear sound of bone cracking. Almost every alchemist was experienced in treating injuries, and Guan Qingheng could tell that Shi Mingbei''s scap sustained a highlyminuted fracture.

    Shi Mingbei''s expression contorted in pain. Her beautiful face was no longer visible under the torturing pain she felt. She gritted her teeth, her right hand reaching for her waist! She did not know how the other person noticed. She should have used an even stronger alchemy substance.

    She finally reached her waist, but stopped abruptly, her entire body freezing like a statue. She dared not move. Arge bead of sweat trickled down from the tip of her nose. Her face was white as a sheet, and her eyes were filled with terror!

    A jet ck spearhead was less than a millimeter away from the tip of her nose!

    She could even see the patterns on the spearhead, and the unique scent that came from the ck spearhead.

    Being admitted to May''s Night Ridge implied that the Shi Family was an exemry in the field of alchemy. As one of the more capable members of the Shi Family, Shi Mingbei was of course well versed in alchemy.

    She knew exactly how dangerous the poison on the tip of the spearhead was! She did know the exactponents of the alchemy substance on the spearhead, but that did not stop her from deducing its effects. She could tell that even a tiny scratch on her skin from the spearhead would kill her before she could even reach for the antidote.

    The spearhead stopped less than a millimeter away from the tip of her nose. The air around her seemed to stop flowing. Already she had forgotten the pain from her injury as she stared at the spearhead, the symbol of death. She dared not move a muscle, in case her opponent thought she was fighting back. Any minor movement from her enemy would give her a fatal ending.

    Her back was drenched with sweat as she felt a chill down her spine.

    She watched without moving as the spearhead moved downwards slowly.

    The spearhead finally stopped at her waist.

    Rip! She felt a chill at her waist. As the spearhead lightly graced her skin, she felt goosebumps all over her, and the terror in her eyes intensified.

    The spearhead had ripped arge hole in her clothing, and the fair skin underneath attracted the eyes of passersby like bees to honey.

    Ye Chong''s eyes were cold and emotionless. He bent down and began to search Shi Mingbei''s waist with careful movements. Even while bending down, his other hand was holding the wooden spear steadily, as though his two shoulders belonged to two different human beings.

    To the passersby, it was easy to mistake the situation as that of a young man using a wooden spear to threaten the youngdy and take advantage of her.

    "You wretched b*stard, how dare you act so recklessly? Stop now!" A loud cry interrupted the silence around them. This same script is used for every opening act of chivalry, no matter the era.

    Ye Chong did not seem to hear the voice at all.

    Shi Mingbei''s was growing more and more scared. The person in front of her was too terrifying, and impossibly calm! The loud reproach did not seem to affect him at all. Both his hands were still working steadily, and she could see that he was still moving carefully as before. The spearhead did not waver from its position.

    She very much regretted her actions right now.

    Ye Chong searched carefully. An alchemist''s pouches or bags were very dangerous to mess with. Lethal poisons and the like were often part of their belongings.

    Finally, he found it. Ye Chong felt relieved.

    In the third row of bags, sixth from the left, Ye Chong poured out some light green powder. As the powder was poured out, the air was filled with a pungent smell. However, Ye Chong poured all the green powder into his mouth without hesitation.

    "Who are you?" Even with her unnatural pale face, Shi Mingbei could not help but ask. That this man had noticed her secretly administering Withering Heart and managed to find the cure for it meant that he was no ordinary person.

    However, Withering Heart was a concoction unique to May''s Night Ridge. How could he know about it? Even she, from the Shi Family, had never heard of the chemical before joining May''s Night Ridge.

    Withering Heart was a peculiar drug. Once a person inhaled it, that person''s heart would stop beating after 24 hours, and there would be no traces of the drug being used. That person''s death would by all ounts seem natural.

    Every new family that joined May''s Night Ridge would be gifted some forme from the Ridge Council. These forme could help the new residents improve themselves quickly. Withering Heart was one of the forme.

    Ye Chong straightened himself, his eyes never leaving Shi Mingbei''s waist. The cold, emotionless look in his eyes made Shi Mingbei''s heart race in fear.

    "B*stard! You hear me?" The man who cried earlier roared in anger when he saw Ye Chong ignoring him.

    "Tell me, why?" Ye Chong''s t voice had a chilling undertone.

 Chapter 406 - Where Do You Come From?

    <h4>Chapter 406: Where Do You Come From?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Withering Heart was described in great detail in Lunatic Guan''s chip, enough to make Ye Chong suspect that it was one of Lunatic Guan''s own inventions. That was how Ye Chong managed to identify the drug the moment he smelled it.

    Inhaling Withering Heart carelessly, even in small amounts, would have highly detrimental effects. For someone who knew so much about Withering Heart like Ye Chong, he was aware of the consequences.

    Since his life was threatened, Ye Chong retaliated.

    The truth was, Ye Chong was not too angry about it. These situations were normal for him. On the contrary, he was feeling very calm. He was more interested in the motive behind the woman''s attack. His reckless killing in the past had taught him much, and he had since learned to think before jumping to conclusions. Besides, this woman was most likely from May''s Night Ridge. He was not intimidated by May''s Night Ridge per say, but Lunatic Guan had asked to visit the ce, so he decided to tread with care.

    If it was his younger self, Ye Chong would probably have just killed the woman who ambushed him outright. Now, however, Ye Chong did not mind stopping at some light form of punishment.

    His cold, severe voice reverberated in the air, and everyone around him felt shuddered involuntarily!

    "You ¡­ You ¡­" Shi Mingbei stuttered through gritted teeth. She was afraid. All her life she had been bold and daring where others wavered, but now she was truly afraid!

    "B*stard, what''s there to proof by bullying a woman?" The man was loud, but Ye Chong could hear the fear and weakness behind his facade.

    In any case, Ye Chong did not pay much attention to the man. He was focused entirely on the woman who had ambushed him.

    "How dare you!" A low and menacing voice was heard.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong felt dangering towards him. He leapt to the side without hesitation.

    Swish swish swish!

    Half a meter away from where he stood, green smoke wafted into the air. There was a sharp, unpleasant smelling from a small puddle of green liquid on the ground. The liquid corroded the floor, which turned charred ck. The green smoke came from this small puddle.

    What a powerful corrosive, definitely no less powerful than the Liquid of Shang!

    Ye Chong watched the spot nervously.

    A menacing looking middle aged man was looking at Ye Chong coldly. He wore a brown, old shirt, which Ye Chong could see was full of patches. His sunken cheeks gave him an angr look.

    Ye Chong did not fight back. That move was obviously just a warning. If the man was serious, that green liquid wouldnd exactly where he was standing, and not half a meter off the mark.

    Guan Qingheng''s expression turned respectful when he saw the middle aged man.

    The middle aged man studied Ye Chong for a moment, and went straight to Shi Mingbei. He crouched down, examined her, and muttered, "Hmm,minuted fracture, odds of recovery are at 70 percent."

    When Shi Mingbei saw the middle aged man, she immediately turned docile like a kitten, and much of the tension was drained from her face.

    "What happened?" The middle aged man finally stood up and asked inly. Both Guan Qingheng and Shi Mingbei did not reply.

    "Who are you?" Ye Chong stared fixedly at the neer. The middle aged man felt very familiar, with an aura that he could identify as Lunatic Guan''s. This aura made Ye Chong feel threatened.

    The middle aged man turned around and scrutinized Ye Chong closely.

    What sharp eyes! Ye Chong did not expect an alchemist do have such piercing eyes.

    "Are you the one who injured her?" The coldness in the middle aged man''s voice could not be missed.

    The bystanders who were standing around before the middle aged man appeared had all vanished. Even the brave man who yelled at Ye Chong scurried away quickly when he saw the middle aged man.

    "Yes," Ye Chong answered with his usual brevity. He was prepared to make his move any moment now, as his muscles tensed in anticipation. The September Lan Family''s techniques shone brightly through him. Ye Chong could now control all the muscles in his body in incredible ways, and unleash astonishing power.

    Unexpectedly, the middle aged man did not attack, but looked at him straight in the eye and asked without expression, "Why did you hurt her?"

    The middle aged man was the exact opposite of Lunatic Guan. One was severe and rigid, the otherzy and carefree. Logically speaking, they were two entirely different types of people. However, Ye Chong could not help but be reminded of the teacher who introduced him to alchemy, Lunatic Guan, when he looked at the middle aged man in front of him.

    "Self defense!" Ye Chong answered as briefly as possible. His answer surprised the man, from the look in his eyes. However, the middle aged man quickly recovered himself.

    He turned to the other two and said, "Both of you, describe what happened." His calm words were undefiable.

    Guan Qingheng was intimidated by the look in the middle aged man''s eyes, and told the full story.

    When Guan Qingheng described Ye Chong''s wanting to enter May''s Night Ridge, the middle aged man stole a nce at Ye Chong, and Ye Chong saw the sh of disbelief in the man''s eyes. When the man heard that Ye Chong imed to have the surname Guan, the middle aged man no longer tried to hide his surprise as he watched Ye Chong keenly.

    Ye Chong was not afraid, and looked back calmly at the man.

    When the man heard that Ye Chong could recognize Withering Heart, his expression turned serious.

    After Guang Qingheng was finished, the middle aged man turned quiet, thinking to himself. After a while, he lifted his head and asked, "You said you''re going to May''s Night Ridge?"

    "Yes." Ye Chong nodded.

    "What business do you have in May''s Night Ridge?" The middle aged man continued. He was indifferent in nature, but this hooked his curiosity. He believed he was good in reading people, and this young man seemed the calm type, who would not do something for no reason. He must have his reasons for going to May''s Night Ridge. More importantly, the young man had said that his teacher asked him to go, and that was strange. All alchemists knew of the rules of May''s Night Ridge. If this young man could recognize Withering Heart, then how could he not know of the rules? On the other hand, he was also interested in knowing how Ye Chong could recognize Withering Heart.

    As expected, Ye Chong replied, "My teacher asked me to go to May''s Night Ridge. It''s her hometown." Lunatic Guan did not specify exactly what she wanted him to do there, so Ye Chong could only provide a vague answer.

    "Ah!" All three of them gasped, including the injured Shi Mingbei.

    "You teacher is?" The middle aged man look at Ye Chong solemnly.

    Guan Qingheng''s face reddened, and his breathing turned short. The surname Guan ¡­ His teacher ¡­ Hometown ¡­ These words shed in his mind, and he shuddered at the thought that came to him!

    "Her surname is Guan," Ye Chong replied. He did not know Lunatic Guan''s full name, after all. Guagn Qingheng''s breathed even faster as he gulped anxiously.

    "Guan?" The middle aged man took some time to digest that information. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he lifted his head to look straight at Ye Chong with an odd expression.

    After a full half a minute, the middle aged man finally spoke again with great difficulty, "Is your teacher a woman?"

    "Yes!" Ye Chong nodded calmly as he answered.

    "Ah!" Guang Qingheng could not help but gasp again, unable to suppress his excitement. He could guess roughly who Ye Chong''s teacher was.

    The middle aged man looked at Ye Chong with mixed emotions, and said, "I believe I know who she is. I will report your matter to the Ridge Council, and the Ridge Council will make the final decision. Before the decision is made, you cannot enter May''s Night Ridge." He then turned to Guan Qingheng and said, "You are temporarily relieved of your duty as Vice Captain of the procurement squad. Bring this young man to the Ridge Lodgings to stay in the meantime, see to his needs while the Council makes its decision." He spoke like a man of high ranking, as though Guan Qingheng was his subordinate.

    "Yes Sir!" Guan Qingheng epted his orders immediately, his eyes positively radiating with joy, like Ye Chong was some kind of living treasure. Even Ye Chong could not help but feel a little irked. He did not understand why the man would behave that way.

    "You will return with me for now," the middle aged man said to Shi Mingbei. "Yes Sir," Shi Mingbei assented respectfully, bowing her head low. However, Ye Chong saw the hate in her eyes right before she bowed. She was trying her best to maintain a meek expression on her pale face.

    "Wait!" Ye Chong cried coldly. The middle aged man was about to leave, but now he turned to Ye Chong and asked, "What other questions do you have?"

    Ye Chong looked at the man calmly in the eye and asked something wholly unexpected, "What do you have to prove that you''re from May''s Night Ridge?"

 Chapter 407 - Proof

    <h4>Chapter 407: Proof</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Proof?" The middle aged man was stunned for a moment, his rigid face breaking into a thin smile. "As expected of her student! You think just like her. Well, what proof do you have in mind?"

    Guan Qingheng and Shi Mingbei were both very, very surprised. The rigid middle aged man had shown such open emotions. It was unthinkable. Even more unthinkable was the fact that someone actually asked for proof of their identities as Ridge residents!

    Well, how should they prove themselves? Ye Chong began to think.

    The middle aged man studied Ye Chong with interest.

    If Lunatic Guan was really from May''s Night Ridge, then she must have been a member of the alchemy school here. If this man was really from May''s Night Ridge, then he muste from the same school as Lunatic Guan.

    The information in Lunatic Guan''s chip had a huge variety, and knowledge from other schools such as Green Tempest were abundant. Ye Chong had studied long and hard before identifying information that were from her own school.

    If they were indeed from the same school of alchemy, then the man must be well versed with this information.

    "I''ll ask you three questions. If you can answer them, I''ll know you are from May''s Night Ridge," Ye Chong said calmly. Skill based knowledge cannot be faked, after all.

    "Oh," the middle aged man seemed interested as he replied, "Alright, ask away." Guan Qingheng and Shi Mingbei were still shell shocked as they stared at the middle aged man.

    "The questions must not be too easy," Ye Chong thought to himself. However, he quickly came up with his first one, "What is the core principle of the Supnting technique in alchemy?"

    This question was one that Ye Chong had spent a long time studying Lunatic Guan''s chip before realizing the answer to it. In terms of difficulty, it was not the hardest problems presented in the chip, bu Ye Chong found it to be an important principle in Lunatic Guan''s school of alchemy.

    The silence that followed was so intense that you could hear a pin drop!

    The middle aged man''s expression was focused. He bowed his head in thought, his eyes shining brightly. He grinded his feet against the floor unconsciously, but to the people who knew him like Guan Qingheng and Shi Mingbei, it was a sign of him in deep thought.

    However, both Guan Qingheng and Shi Mingbei did not study the man closely. They toopsed into thought. The two of them were not as learned as the middle aged man, but they were still far more capable than the average alchemist. They too were trying to answer this question.

    After 10 minutes, the three of them stayed as they were without moving at all.

    After 30 minutes, Guan Qingheng''s forehead was covered with sweat, and Shi Mingbei''s pale face grew paler still. The middle aged man continued to grind his feet against the ground, digging a shallow depression in the ground.

    After one hour, Guan Qingheng was the first of them to give up. He was drenched in sweat, and he was no longer looked alert, his face drained of blood. Prolonged deep thinking exhausted one''s energy at an astonishing rate. He sat down heavily on the ground and panted, without care for his image. Only his eyes looked at Ye Chong intently.

    After another half an hour, Shi Mingbei gave up as well. Her beautiful eyes were full of puzzlement. Just who was this young man? Was his teacher really from the Ridge? To her, the young man seemed more and more mysterious.

    After three hours, the middle aged man inhaled deeply, his eyes clearing up and he shook his head and said, "I''ll need about half a year of research to answer that question, and only if things proceed smoothly. I cannot give you an answer right now." He sounded tired. The long thinking session had exhausted him greatly.

    Ye Chong was patient as a saint. He watched the middle aged man think for three hours straight without even a trace of impatience, and his expression was still calm andposed.

    Ye Chong shook his head. "If you can''t answer this question, the next two are a lot harder. I''m sorry, you failed to prove your identity with by providing an answer." His calmly delivered verdict made the middle aged man blush, but he quickly got himself together.

    Ye Chong did not mean to be sarcastic. He was only stating a fact. His next two questions were so hard that even he himself had not managed to solve them. He had wanted to build up the difficulty of his questions, but did not expect them to fail at the first question.

    They had failed to answer such a simple question. Ye Chong was a little disappointed by them He was convinced at this point that the middle aged man was not from May''s Night Ridge. He believed that anyone from Lunatic Guan''s school should at least be able to answer that question, even if that person was not on the same level as his teacher.

    Ye Chong did not know it, but May''s Night Ridge waspletely different from what he imagined it to be.

    Now, Ye Chong was interested with another question - why did these three people try to get on his good side now? Ye Chong felt wary.

    That woman in particr had attacked him, and he saw her vengeful eyes from earlier clearly. He knew her type. Given the chance, she would not hesitate to exact revenge on him.

    Ye Chong had initially thought that they were from May''s Night Ridge, so he tried to prevent the situation from escting. Now that he was convinced that they were not of the Ridge, Ye Chong felt the need to eliminate them. He did not want to leave any loose ends that would haunt himter.

    His entire body tensed up in an instant to a state of preparation. Ye Chong looked at the three people with the eyes of a hunter.

    Guan Qingheng''s long harboured negative feelings evaporated. He felt refreshed like never before, and his heart was filled with joy. If this young man was really her student, then there was hope still for the Guan Family. Guan Qingheng believed that the young man would not ignore the Guan Family''s situation. Perhaps that was why she had asked him toe here.

    Unlike the other two, he was a true member of the Guan Family. Ye Chong''s question may have stumbled him, but it further reaffirmed his assumption. He remembered clearly that right before she left, the only project that she had notpleted yet was on the Supnting method. To think that she had reached such heights in her research!

    As expected of her student!

    Even this student of hers was not an average joe! Guan Qingheng looked at Ye Chong with approval. What a calm and steady young man. No matter how he looked at it, Guan Qingheng was fond him.

    "Tsk tsk, such a young talent, you don''t see them everywhere! I say, he''ll probably rise into one of the Guan Family''s leading characters," he thought to himself.

    Guan Qingheng''s eyes never left Ye Chong.

    Huh, what''s with him?

    Guan Qingheng was shocked. Killing intent! The words came to him immediately, and he was caught off guard. However, with his sharp mind, he instantly understood the importance of this moment.

    "Wait!" Given the urgency, Guan Qingheng cried out loud without care for appropriateness.

    Everyone looked to Guan Qingheng, and even Ye Chong held back his next move.

    "Err, em, err, that ¡­ That ¡­" Guang Qingheng did not make any sense. Suddenly, an idea came to him, and he spoke more fluently, "I know how we can prove our identities."

    "Oh?" Ye Chong''s eyes were fixed at Guan Qingheng. The other two looked to him as well.

    "If your teacher is really the one we''re talking about it, I believe you''ll know these." Guan Qingheng looked proud.

    Ye Chong watched him silently.

    Guan Qingheng''s fervent eyes focused on Ye Chong as he pronounced his next words slowly, "Tassleflower Red, Ghue Solution, Blue Thread Cultivation Method, Byered Liquid Tempering Technique!"

    As Guan Qingheng spoke every name, the middle aged man''s expression turned more and more respectful, while Shi Mingbei looked confused. She had never heard of any of them.

    Ye Chong''s calm expression did not change. Guan Qingheng turned anxious. If this young man had never heard of these terms, then ¡­

    "What can these prove?" Ye Chong asked.

    It was the middle aged man who exined, "If you are really her student, then I believe you must have heard of these terms. These are the May''s Night Ridge Guan Family''s most famous inventions in thest century. If I remember correctly, the Byered Liquid Tempering Technique is your teacher''s work."

    Shi Mingbei realized then what they were talking about. She immediately felt self conscious. The Shi Family had only joined May''s Night Ridge for a short time, and could notpete with the older residents such as the Guan Family.

    Ye Chong looked at all three of them quietly, and they began to feel nervous.

    Guan Qingheng''s heart was racing. His mouth felt dry, and it was difficult to breathe.

    "Alright, you have given your proof." Ye Chong nodded. The terms that Guang Qingheng had said were all in Lunatic Guan''s chip. They were quite specialpared to the other contents in the chip. From their records, he could see that Lunatic Guan had never stopped working on improving on them. Of all of them, the Byered Liquid Tempering Technique was modified the most. Ye Chong could see no less than five versions of the technique, and thetest version had an unmistakable influence from the Five Gxies.

    To think that they all originated from the Guan Family! Ye Chong gained a much better understanding of the reasoning behind the organization of information in the chip. Many of his earlier confusions were now cleared up.

    Hence, he nodded.

    At that moment, Guan Qingheng nearly died of happiness!

 Chapter 408 - Stories of the Past

    <h4>Chapter 408: Stories of the Past</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ridge Lodgings was only a normal looking house. From the outside, no one would have guessed that it was a building under May''s Night Ridge, the Sacred ce of Alchemy. A normal looking brick wall ran along the building''s perimeter, reaching seven meters tall, so that outsiders could not see within. Poisonous vines grew along the walls to discourage intruders.

    This seemingly normal ce was of course not easily recognized by themon people. However, an alchemist would definitely keep a wide berth. The surroundings of the building was littered with all kinds of traps. These traps were devised from nts, and they could be toxic, hallucination inducing, numbing, or harmful in many other ways. They were so many that Ye Chong felt overwhelmed just looking at them. The way the traps were designed were also impressive.

    As expected of the territory of May''s Night Ridge! Ye Chong grew thoughtful. Perhaps only May''s Night Ridge could afford such methods. Up until now, Lunatic Guan was the most powerful alchemist Ye Chong had ever met. May''s Night Ridge, Lunatic Guan''s hometown, was even more interesting due to the fact that his teacher came from this ce. Many times he had wondered if May''s Night Ridge was the zenith of alchemy.

    "You have the smoke pearl, so most of these traps are useless against you. However, it''s better to err on the side of caution. There are some traps here that would be troublesome even for members of the Ridge," Guan Qingheng warned with concern. As a resident of May''s Night Ridge, he recognized the smoke pearl on Ye Chong''s hand immediately.

    Guan Qingheng understood that the Guan Family''s future would very likely depend on this young man.

    They slowly made their way across, avoiding the traps. Ye Chong and Guan Qingheng reached the house about 10 minutester. Inside the house was an entirely different scenery. Unlike the dangerous terrain outside, the courtyard inside was like arge garden. Flowers bloomed freely, and the air was thick with the scent of flowers.

    In between the flowers, many gardeners were tending to the nts with care. These people ignored Ye Chong and Guan Qinghengpletely, not even lifting their heads in acknowledgement.

    The green environment did not exactly lifted Ye Chong''s spirits. On the contrary, he was secretly cautious. He could recognize most of the nts here, and they werergely famous for their harmful qualities or rarity.

    Guan Qingheng led Ye Chong to a room, which was fitted with all the essential sundries and items for afortable stay. The materials used were well selected, and the craftsmanship was outstanding. However, the room did not feel extravagant at all.

    "This is the guest room. Please stay here for now. Once the Ridge Council approves your entrance, we will return home. I believe that the Tribe Leader must be anxious to see you," Guan Qingheng said with a smile.

    "Tribe Leader?" Ye Chong raised his brows in confusion. "Why would he want to see me?"

    Guan Qingheng was taken aback by the question, but smiled as he said, "You must be unaware of what''s happening right now. The Eldest Young Miss is always like that, hehe, she must have kept you in the dark."

    "Eldest Young Miss?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Yes. Do you know your teacher''s name?" Guan Qingheng asked.

    Ye Chong shook his head and answered firmly, "I don''t." Ye Chong had only ever knew her as Lunatic Guan, and nothing else.

    "As I suspected!" Guan Qinghengughed wryly and mumbled to himself, "The Eldest Young Miss is still as the same as before." He noticed Ye Chong''s confusion, however, and described the Eldest Young Miss to him.

    Based on Guan Qingheng''s description of Lunatic Guan''s looks, they appeared to the same person. However, they had very different personalities. ording to Guan Qingheng, Lunatic Guan was a extremely hardworking woman. However, Ye Chong remembered her as azy drunkard, a bad influence overall.

    Nheless, since she appeared roughly as Guan Qingheng described, Ye Chong was ready to believe that Lunatic Guan was the Eldest Young Miss that Guan Qingheng was talking about.

    As Guan Qingheng exined patiently, Ye Chong began to understand his teacher more.

    "The Tribe Leader is busy with administrative matters that there was not much time left for alchemy. The Eldest Young Miss was quick to take up leadership in our Tribe''s research efforts. Back then, the Eldest Young Miss was extremely talented, and no one in the Ridge can outmatch her. That was a good time for our Guan Family. The Byer Liquid Tempering Technique was the invention of the Eldest Young Miss when she was 14 years old. When people in the Ridge heard of the news, they knew immediately that the Guan Family was gifted with a prodigy," he spoke softly with deep pride.

    "Almost everyone in the Ridge believed then that the Guan Family''s position in the Ridge would be secure for at least five decades toe. However, an incident ured unexpectedly two yearster. That year, the Youngest Young Miss went missing." Guan Qingheng''s open expression turned grim. He spoke through gritted teeth, "Those d*mned child abductors, they should all be killed! In fact, they suffered heavily after. Humph. How could we allow the Ridge''s power to be challenged? Back then, elites from all 14 families of the Ridge were deployed. All the Abductor''s bases of operation on Guang Hua were cleansed with the child abductors'' blood."

    Ye Chong was no stranger to bloodshed, but as he could not help but shuddered inside as he listened to Guan Qingheng. He could imagine just how horrible a scene it was back then.

    "Unfortunately, we still did not find the Youngest Young Miss. You should know that the Eldest Young Miss loved the Youngest Young Miss very much. Soon after the mass attacks, the Eldest Young Miss left the Ridge quietly to find the Youngest Young Miss."

    The Youngest Young Miss that Guan Qingheng was talking about must be Zhu Ling. Ye Chong now understood Lunatic Guan''s background better. This meant that Zhu Ling''s hometown was also May''s Night Ridge.

    Regrettably, Zhu Ling, Mu,Shang and the rest were lost to him. Ye Chong said nothing, and continued listening to Guan Qingheng.

    "After the Eldest Young Miss left, our Tribe almost went stagnant with progress. Since almost all the huge projects were rted to the Eldest Young Miss, her departure caused us to halt most of these projects. Everyone in the Tribe tried their best, but we did not achieve much progress. The Guan Family''s status in the Ridge took a nosedive, and we have now reached a critical situation!"

    Guan Qingheng stole a nce at Ye Chong. Ye Chong was still calm as ever. The truth was, he could understand roughly why Lunatic Guan asked him to visit the of Guang Hua. However, Lunatic Guan must not have put too much hope in him. After all, Guang Hua was a in the free space zone. It was no guarantee that he could make it here.

    Perhaps, her leaving this chip behind was only an act of desperation, clinging onto herst bit of hope!

    As though the idea had hit a soft spot in him, Ye Chong''s icy cold heart thawed a little.

    Guan Qingheng grew frantic when he saw Ye Chong''s indifference, and said, "You are the student of the Eldest Young Miss, please do not just ignore the Tribe''s crisis!" For the moment, he did not speak as respectfully as he was earlier, pleading to this young man.

    "Dear God! Please, please, don''t let him be as irresponsible as the Eldest Young Miss!" Guan Qingheng prayed inside, but quickly recalled then that Ye Chong''s teacher was a very irresponsible person by nature. He felt a sense of foreboding.

    Ye Chong did not answer Guan Qingheng, but asked a question of his own, "Who was the woman just now?"

    "Are you talking about Shi Mingbei?" Guan Qingheng was taken aback by the question, but quickly resumed his respectful behavior, hoping to win the young man''s favor. "She is of the Shi Family."

    "Shi Family?"

    "Yes. There are 14 families in the Ridge. The Shi Family has been epted to enter the Ridge in thest Ridge Council meeting. Their members are generally more active." Guan Qingheng sounded disapproving of them.

    "Why did she attack me?" Ye Chong was curious. He could figure out her motives.

    Guan Qingheng exined, "You have never been in the Ridge, so you''re not familiar with our internal affairs. No information from within the Ridge must be known to outsiders. Thisw is absolute. However, the Ridge cannot avoid contact with the outside world, hence it was inevitable that some outsiders would find out details of the Ridge without meaning to. Members of the Ridge are divided when ites to the policy against these outsiders. On the one hand, some believe that a warning is good enough. Most of the older members of the Ridge, like our Tribe, are on this side. On the other hand, some believe that information about the Ridge must never be known to outsiders, and will take drastic measures to ensure this. Supporters of this view are mostly the newer families and tribes, and the Shi Family is one of them. There is no official decision on the right policy, however, so both sides have decided to not interfere with each other."

    "I see," Ye Chong replied without expression.

    "Don''t worry too much about it. It''s only a small matter. Once the Ridge Council approves of your entry, it won''t be an issue anymore. Then, if you''re looking for pay backter, there are many ways to go about it. The Ridge usually does not care for such matters," Guan Qingheng offered his advice, with a touch of sadness in his eyes.

    The crux of the matter was, will the Ridge Council approve of Ye Chong? In the past few years, the Ridge had been receiving new blood faster than ever before, and the situation within the Ridge had grown moreplicated. Guan Qingheng was uncertain about the final oue.

 Chapter 409 - Entering the Ridge

    <h4>Chapter 409: Entering the Ridge</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Guan Zhengyuan was livid when he left the Ridge Council meeting. A middle aged man drew up to his side from behind and spoke with regret, "Zhengyuan, I tried!" This middle aged man was the super alchemist that Ye Chong encountered earlier.

    Guang Zhengyuan smiled bitterly and said, "Yan, please. The kid''s life would''ve been forfeit if it wasn''t for you. I haven''t even thanked you for that."

    The middle aged man''s cold face mimicked his bitter expression. "Don''t worry about that. We''ve grown up together, and I''ve always thought of Ling as a sister. I feel so guilty, now that I failed to ensure her student''s safe passage into the Ridge."

    Guan Yuanzheng seemed to remember his sister''s mean antics, and could not help but smile on his face. "My dear sister, I wonder how she''s doing these days. If it wasn''t for the Shi Family this time ¡­" The thought of the Shi Family brought down his mood once again, and his eyes burned with the fire of anger.

    The Shi Family had interfered, causing the unexpected oue from the Council meeting.

    "The Shi Family!" The middle aged man humped coldly. The atmosphere turned tense as the man looked into the distance and said calmly, "It''s been a long time since I was in the field, people seemed to have forgotten about me!" As a close friend of his, Guan Zhengyuan could sense that the man was having the urge to kill.

    Guan Zhengyuan knew exactly how powerful his good friend was. Before Guan Ling [1] became famous, Yan was the unchallenged number one alchemist amongst his peers of the younger generation. Guan Leng''s entrance into the scene had robbed him of his glory. Later on, the Ridge Council had given him the position of Head Envoy, and so he was often away from the Ridge. With that, his fame within the Ridge fell. Nheless, Guan Zhengyuan knew that his good friend had grew to be extraordinarily capable during his many years away.

    Besides that, Yan had the backing of the Hua Family, an aristocratic family that had a long history like the Guan Family. All these years, Yan and the Hua Family had assisted the Guan Family, or the Guan Family would have been pushed out of the Ridge by the newer residents of the ce, led by the Shi Family.

    Older aristocratic alchemy families such as the Guan Hua Families were more moderate in their actions, unlike the more arrogant and bombastic younger families. The Shi Family''s actions had really offended his good friend this time. Guan Zhengyuan was not particrly talented in alchemy, but he was always better at grasping the bigger picture. That was why thest head of the family had entrusted the position to him, and not the then most talented alchemist in the family, Guan Ling.

    Guan Zhengyuan understood that, once Yan made his move, it will ignite the war between the old and new forces within the Ridge. This war would be waged on an unprecedented scale.

    However, that was not on the top of his priority list at the moment. He was now thinking about his sister''s student, now staying at the Ridge Lodgings.

    "Yan, do you think that the boy can enter the Ridge?" Guan Zhengyuan asked with concern.

    Hua Yan''s expression was odd when he replied, "I don''t know, but Ling''s student is definitely not someone mediocre!"

    Back in the Lodgings.

    Guan Qingheng looked terrible. He never expected the Council''s decision to be this.

    "So?" On the contrary, Ye Chong was calm. He was used to all kinds of trouble. To him, there will always be a solution to the decision of the Council, no matter what it was.

    "The Ridge Council wants you to enter the Ridge alone, without any guides," Guan Qingheng forced the words out of his mouth.

    "Oh," Ye Chong still looked asposed as ever, without any emotional response.

    "What do you think of the security around the Lodgings?" Seeing Ye Chong''s response, Guan Qingheng asked him.

    "It''s excellent," Ye Chong answered truthfully. In fact, it was the most powerful alchemy based defense system he had ever seen. Each trap was all well designed, packed with a mean punch, and the traps worked together in goodbinations. Even with Ye Chong''s smoke pearl, he would not even try to breach the Lodgings'' walls by himself. Ye Chong believed it to be out of his league.

    Guan Qingheng looked positively hopeless. "Compared to the route that leads to the Ridge''s entrance, these are child''s y. The road to the Ridge is a hundred times more dangerous! You may not know it, but every new technique invented would be first tested on the route. Anyone who left the Ridge for a substantial amount of time would not dare to enter the Ridge by themselves. Ever since the day May''s Night Ridge was founded, people have never stopped improving the security along that route." In fact, Guan Qingheng himself had always took extra care when he made his way in or out of the Ridge, for fear of triggering any traps.

    Wasn''t this clearly meant to kill him? Looking at Ye Chong''s indifferent behaviour, Guan Qingheng cursed inwardly at the people in the Ridge Council.

    "I see." Ye Chong thought about the situation for a moment.

    "Alright, I ept." With his evenly delivered announcement, Guan Qingheng could hardly believe his own ears.

    _________________________________________________________________________

    "What? He epted?" Shi Mingbeiughed coldly. Her face was unnaturally pale, and her shoulder was wrapped up in thickyers of bandages. Her voice was filled with deep hatred as she said, "What a stupid idiot, let''s see you escape this!"

    The Shi Family''s head watched Shi Mingbei with an aching heart, and consoled her, "Don''t worry, he''ll die for sure. No one can travel the route themselves and survive. There is no person alive on this world that has of that kind of strength."

    Just then, someone stumbled in panickedly and said, "Bad news! Bad news! My Lord, the Hua Family is here for trouble!"

    The head of the Shi Family''s lifted a single brow with deliberate indifference, and asked, "How dare the old foolse to challenge us! How many are there?"

    "Only - only one of them!" The person stuttered, obviously shakened.

    "Humph, for shame! It''s just one person, and already you''re panicking, a disgrace to the Shi Family!" Shi Wuwei felt humiliated by his subordinate''sck ofposure, and scolded him out loud. He turned to Shi Mingbei and said gently, "Rest here for now, I''ll go and take a look." Shi Mingbei nodded meedly.

    Hua Yan stood before the door of the Shi Family''s house calmly. Already there were five people lying unconscious by the door. Hua Yan was in his typical rigid self, but his lone form was like a towering figure in the eyes of the Shi Family. Everyone in the Shi Family looked at him with deep respect and fear.

    "Is this what the Shi Family''s capable of?" Hua Yan asked coldly, with a killing intent radiating off him. The Ridge Council had never been against challenges between families, but in fact encouraged them. That was why challenges like these weremon.

    This was a time of turmoil for May''s Night Ridge. This was the day the long forgotten member of the Ridge, the elite of the younger generation of his time, Hua Yan, challenged the Shi Family by himself, defeated nine of his opponents and left with ease!

    The Ridge was in an uproar! Hua Yan''s former glory was restored once again. The Hua Family''s fame rose because of the incident. This incident also marked the beginning of the war between the old and new factions in the Ridge.

    After many years of peace, May''s Night Ridge was once again troubled by challenges between families and tribes. The Ridge was plunged into disorder. Despite the escting situation, the Ridge Council remained silent on the matter. The most peaceful families were the Hua Family and Guan Family. The Hua Family, with the Grandmaster level Hua Yan as their protector, was unchallenged. The Guan Family was also left in peace, since Hua Yan had warned against any hostility towards the Guan Family.

    Unlike the Hua and Guan Families, the other 12 families were all involved in the mess that followed. As the situation worsened, Guan Zhengyuan was also affected. He knew that the peace at the Guan Family was only temporary. If things continue as they were, sooner orter someone woulde and break the peace. In the end, Hua Yan was of the Hua Family, and the Hua Family had their own status to protect.

    Guan Zhengyuan understood his situation clearly. The time for a reshuffling of the Ridge''s power hierarchy was upon them. Unfortunately, the Guan Family was the weakest of all the contenders.

    Ye Chong knew nothing of the situation in the Ridge. However, even if he was aware, he would have been unmoved by it all.

    Guan Qingheng led Ye Chong to the route that would bring him to the Ridge''s entrance. Along the way, Guan Qingheng continued to impress upon Ye Chong a rough overview of the route, about where the traps were and ways to avoid them. He even drew a sketch of the ce for Ye Chong. However, he knew that despite his efforts, the traps were well designed, and one who had never travelled the route would find it hard to imagine the treacherous ce.

    "So I just need to make my way there?" Ye Chong pointed at the destination marked on the Guan Qingheng''s sketch.

    Guan Qingheng nodded. "Yes, once you reach that point, you''ll be safe. There will be someone waiting for you there. Aside from the territories of each family residing in the Ridge, there are no other traps within. If you can travel this route and survive, the other traps will not be a problem for you."

    After a good round of warnings, Guan Qingheng took ast, worried nce at Ye Chong and took his leave.

    On this very day, the Ridge was unusually silent. No challenges were issued anywhere in the Ridge. Everyone was focused on the event that was Ye Chong''s attempt to enter the Ridge. The reason for Hua Yan''s challenge against the Shi Family was well known. Almost everyone believed that the young man would never survive the journey. What worried them was Hua Yan''s response once the young man died along the route to the Ridge.

    To them, the young man was already dead the moment the Council made its decision!

    Ye Chong looked at the time, and sat down, doing nothing else.

    He sat, and waited for five hours straight. Night came, and the route towards the Ridge was enveloped in darkness. Soon, the ce was pitch ck, imprable to sight.

    In the darkness, Ye Chong stood up, his eyes shining as bright as the stars. Before him, Moon King stood silently , with its half lidded bionic eyes looking into the distance. The two crescent des on its wrists gleamed coldly in the night.

 Chapter 410 - Homecoming

    <h4>Chapter 410: Homing</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sicilique was nodding off idly at the end of the route that led to the Ridge. In his dreams, he was still cursing the old geezers in the Ridge Council. Those d*mn old fools, to think that they would order him to wee the young man to the Ridge. Sicilique was not exactlyzy, but he waspletely uninterested in this meaningless task.

    The young man was obviously set up to die, how could he possibly survive the route towards the Ridge? Everyone in the Ridge knew that. That night, the Ridge was silent. The streets were empty.

    The recent chaos in the Ridge had also affected the Pawe Family, which he belonged to. Challenges were issued here and there, and the Ridge was filled with battle hungry people overnight.

    The peace today was like the calm before the storm, and it was suffocating.

    Hence, when Sicilique was here, he decided to just sleep for the night. When the time came, he would just report to the Ridge Council and be done with the whole affair.

    He was in deep sleep when he felt someone pat on his back.

    "Who is it?" He was angry. It was alreadyte at night, who dared to mess with him now? More importantly, he was interrupted from a very nice dream, and that made him very angry. He was mostly muttering, but in fact his sleep had not quite left him.

    "Please, are you the one sent to wee me?" A cold but polite voice inquired.

    "Wee you ¡­" Amidst his sleepiness, Sicilique''s brain awakened violently. He opened his sleepy eyes and saw a slender, thin and unfamiliar young man looking back at him. Sicilique was beyond shocked.

    "Ah!" Sicilique''s sharp cry broke the peace of the night, like a cat which had its tail stepped on.

    "You ¡­ You ¡­ You''re the one ¡­ The one ¡­ Who''s entering the Ridge?" Sicilique stuttered incoherently.

    The man was not speaking clearly, but Ye Chong understood him. He nodded and answered, "Yes."

    It was destined to be a day of unrest. Guan Family''s young member had sessfully travelled the route that led to the Ridge. The news spread like wildfire across the Ridge.

    It came down onto the Ridge like a bolt of lightning!

    Everyone in the Ridge understood that this Grandmaster level alchemist''s return would disrupt the power bnce in the Ridge. No one slept well that night.

    Ye Chong was brought straight to the Guan Family. In fact, when the Ridge Council was informed of the oue, people had expected Ye Chong to undergo a round of questioning by the Council, but it never happened. Instead, he had went straight to the Guan Family. To everybody''s surprise, the Council had adopted an odd strategy in this situation, opting to act as though nothing had happened.

    Sicilique left the Guan Family feeling jealous of thetter. With such a strong alchemist joining their ranks, the Guan Family would be able to survive their crisis.

    Every alchemist knew that a Grandmaster level alchemist was far more powerful than their average counterparts, despite being outnumbered.

    No one doubted the power of this mysterious young alchemist of the Guan Family. The route was the only way to enter the Ridge, and it was littered with traps that represented the best of the Ridge''s alchemist abilities. To travel the path unscathed was an act no one in the Ridge could promise to reenact. In fact, even the now famous Hua Yan had once admitted that he could not travel the route by only his own abilities. Now, who would dare to question the strength of this young alchemist? Who would even think of questioning his power?

    The Guan Family was lit up brightly, its members celebrating. Ever since Guan Ling left the Guan Family, the ce had never seen so much activity before. Every member of the Guan Family was jubnt. As an aristocratic family with a long, celebrated history, they had more pride than average people. All these years, however, the cruel facts of reality had borne down on them. They could only watch from the side as other families received more benefits and enjoyed their prestige. Often, they had to quietly endure the condescending res from other people.

    The long endured pressure was finally shed, and every Guan Family member stood tall and smiled widely. Those who had witnessed the birth of the Eldest Young Miss, Guan Ling, were still alive, and they repeated again and again the story of the Guan Family''s former glory.

    Now, they finally had hope, a hope to rebuild the Guan Family''s name. As a student of the Eldest Young Miss, the mysterious young man was sure to be greeted warmly by the family. The fact that he survived the route to the Ridge unscathed further propelled his reputation skyward.

    The only thing that perplexed them was the wooden spear in Ye Chong''s hand. An alchemist with a spear? As expected, the student of the Eldest Young Miss was no ordinary person.

    Right now, Ye Chong was in Guan Zhengyuan''s room.

    "You are Ling''s student?" Guan Zhengyuan kept a calm expression, but his betrayed the happiness in him.

    "Ling?" Ye Chong frowned in thought. Was that Lunatic Guan''s name? Guan Ling? Ye Chong seemed to remember something like that. The man who had taught to skeleton carving skills, Old Ge, probably mentioned that to him before. The memory was from long ago, but Ye Chong with his vivid memory could recall it. Lunatic Guan this, Lunatic Guan that. That was how he had thought of her for so long, and he had forgotten her real name instead.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Yes." He was, however, watching Guan Zhengyuan''s neck. There hung a familiar looking Red Liquor.

    "How is Ling doing now?" Guan Zhengyuan asked anxiously.

    "Dead," Ye Chong answered factually. Lunatic Guan had asked Zhu Ling to find him, but she herself did not make an appearance. Zhu Ling''s expression was also telling.

    "What?" Guan Zhengyuan was surprised, and his face contorted in pain, his voice trembling from shock.

    Ye Chong watched Guan Zhengyuan quietly, unsure what he should say next. In the end, he stuck to the truth, "She probably died saving Zhu Ling. The probability is about 80 to 90 percent."

    "Dead ¡­" Guan Zhengyuan muttered to himself. He seemed lost. His eyes dimmed into a lifeless glow, and he seemed to have grown much older the next second.

    Ye Chong did not know what to say. He had alwayscked the skills in handling situations like this. More precisely speaking, he waspletely clueless about what to do.

    Guan Zhengyuan lifted his head abruptly and asked with a hoarse voice, "Zhu Ling? Who is this Zhu Ling you spoke of? Why would Ling go and rescue her?"

    "Zhu Ling is her sister."

    "What? Sister?" Guan Zhengyuan''s hands reached for Ye Chong, his lifeless expression suddenly brought to life again.

    Ye Chong sidestepped him easily.

    "Ling found our sister ¡­ Ling found our sister ¡­" Guan Zhengyuan looked like he was losing it, and Ye Chong thought of giving him a moment to gather himself.

    Fortunately, as head of the family, Guan Zhengyuan was able to resume his calmness quickly. He looked at Ye Chong with determined eyes and asked, "And my sister? Where is she?"

    Ye Chong answered inly, "We got separated."

    "Separated?" Guan Zhengyuan grew anxious again, and asked, "Where?" He looked just about ready to start the search right away.

    "The Red Sea."

    The name of the ce was unfamiliar, but he still ordered a tribe member in and quietly gave a few orders. After listening to his orders, the subordinate looked at Ye Chong with disbelief, and quickly left the room.

    Guan Zhengyuan asked more questions about other things, and Ye Chong answered them all truthfully. When he heard that Guan Ling had passed on all her knowledge to Ye Chong, Guan Zhengyuan was positively overjoyed.

    He spoke to the tribe member outside his room, "Bring Jin here."

    He then turned back to Ye Chong and said, "Jin is my daughter, and the most capable alchemist in the Guan Family." He looked proud of his daughter. However, he added regretfully, "Compared to Ling in the past, however, she still has a lot to catch up."

    Just then, Ye Chong heard a girl''s voice from outside said, "Dad, you called for me?"

    "Yes,e in," Guan Zhengyuan replied.

    A young woman came in through the door. She was about 12 to 14 years old, with a height of about 140 to 150 centimeters. She looked fragile and pale, perhaps due to theck of sunlight outdoors. Her long hair reached her shoulders, and her eyes glowed with life. Ye Chong studied this youngdy called Jin.

    "Jin, this is Brother Zhu Feng, a student of your aunt. You will learn from Brother Zhu Feng from now on, understood?" Guan Zhengyuan said sternly.

    Guan Jin acknowledged obediently, then addressed her Brother Zhu Feng sweetly. Ye Chong still looked like his usual cold self, but he nodded to her as greeting.

    Guan Zhengyuan was satisfied with his daughter''s behavior, and smiled gently to her. "Alright, bring Brother Zhu Feng to his room to rest. He must be tired. Ah, and don''t forget about our meal time."

    Guan Jin eded.

    "This way please, Brother Zhu Feng. Mind the steps." Zhu Ling sounded melodic and airy. If Shang were here, he would definitely be swept away. However, Ye Chong obviously was immune to it. Even Feng Su''s bewitching voice could not move him, much less the voice of the inexperienced Guan Jin.

    Guan Jin quickly noticed that her usually effective measures were not working on Ye Chong. She decided to switch tactics, and said, "Brother Zhu Feng, it''s still too early for our next meal. Why don''t we visit the alchemyboratory?"

 Chapter 411 - Ye Chongs the teacher again!

    <h4>Chapter 411: Ye Chong''s the teacher again!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Guan Jin was the most carefully fostered member in Guan family, that she had her ownboratory, and freedom to research on whichever branch of the alchemy. Not even her father, the leader of the family could have a word on her preferences.

    The room was filled with all sorts of utensils. The air was fresher than what one would expect in aboratory thanks to the superior air venttion. This was the first professionalboratory Ye Chong witnessed in the free space zone. He was not familiar with most of the apparatuses there. He recognized a few since he had seen them in Lunatic Guan''s encyclopedia entries before. Well, he was not a novice and he could guess the functions of these foreign utensils at one nce.

    He did enter the ce however, as he had perceived 8 spots of threats while he stood by the entrance. Speaking of entrance, there were three of them.

    Thedy seemed to be rather skillful at handling these reagents. The anesthetic she added remained at the specified area ever since. Spreading of fluid did not ur - now that was not something any alchemist could do.

    Knowing that it was an anesthetic, Ye Chong let down his guard, since the smoke pearl in his possession was the counter to all hallucinogens and anesthetics. So he walked into theboratory as usual, and as he had expected, he was unaffected by the reagent.

    Guan Jin''s cherry lips slightly opened in disbelief upon seeing Ye Chong walking in nonchntly. She did not expect the little mischief she created would cause any visible trouble to Brother Zhu Feng since she only wanted to see his countermeasure for this, she was eager to verify the frightening rumor about him after all. But then ¡­ he did nothing! Literally nothing!

    Guan Jin''s passion in her gaze intensified.

    Ye Chong did not notice Guan Jin''s passion stare however, as he had been distracted by these strange utensils on the table. Certainly the alchemy system was different between one gxy to another. From the perspective of apparatuses, the 5 major gxies had an upper hand since they had the avant-garde technologies after all. The precision of analyzing mechanism and processor were far more superior than those in the free space zone. When it came to historical background however, the position changed. No way the studies of alchemy in 5 major gxies couldpete with those of free space zone. Any alchemy aristocrat could easily have history of over a few centuries.

    Regarding the learning difficulty, the system of free space zone outweighed the one in 5 major gxies. The 5 major gxies did analysis at best, with the aid of technologies but alchemists in free space zone could rely none other than their own senses.

    Based on Lunatic Guan''s records in her chip, she seemed to have thoroughly understood and absorbed the system of 5 major gxies. Theter part of her research was indistinguishable of its system. She probably hadbined both systems at one point. Ye Chong could not help but to marvel at Lunatic Guan''s insane luck. She was born in free space zone and was raised at May Night''s Ridge, the heavenly ce of alchemy, while being able to learn about the alchemy system in the 5 major gxies. With all these he strongly believed no one else in this world could have surpassed her.

    Ye Chong noticed that one sk on the table.

    "Are you trying to improvise the Byered Liquid Tempering Technique?" asked Ye Chong as he pointed at the utensils near Guan Jin.

    "Mhm¡­," she blushed, as she bit her lips, "I wanted to try¡­ since father told me that this was aunt''s masterpiece in the past. She always wanted to improvise it. So I would like to try¡­ see if I could make a little improvement¡­ just a little would''ve been great¡­" It was not sentiments that filled her voice, it was pure embarrassment. She should not have brought Brother Zhu Feng to theb, now everyone in the ridge would know she wanted to "improvise" her aunt''s technique and she would be aughing stock for she overestimated herself.

    Ye Chong lowered his back and observed these used utensils carefully. He was pretty surprised of the progress. The little girl failed at this attempt, but she was heading to the right way. As expected, this girl was talented after all. Ye Chong could not imagine a girl could have such understanding on alchemy even before adolescence.

    Does Guan family only give birth to geniuses?

    Shouted Ye Chong in his mind.

    "You are right at this." He decided to offer some advice, "But you did a few parts wrong. The tempering technique basically achieves extraction by splitting the liquid membranes, and your hypothesis should revolve about this core concept. The shape, the membrane, remember."

    Guan Jin''s brows furrowed as she pondered. "I got it!" Then she shouted while jumping, "I know what you mean! I finally got it!" And she excitingly rushed to her table and began mixing the reagent again. She was very attentive on her research, her hands moved gracefully as she added more things to the mixture, as if Ye Chong was not there.

    Ye Chong was impressed since he always had a soft spot for a diligent researcher. Well, he was one too and he believed only those who diligently researched would hit the top of their field.

    Ye Chong did not say a thing as he started strolling in thisboratory.

    The aristocrat was sure something. Theb contained a rich collection of reagents, which teased Ye Chong''s curiosity deeply, that he finally jumped into action and started producing his own reagent too.

    The apparatuses in theb were fairly unique. He knew how to use them but hecked the actual experience, thus the clumsy movement of his hands. He enjoyed the process of exploration nevertheless.

    It took him a moment to grow familiar with the apparatuses. He breathed in relief as he ced one sk down, that was when a pair of watery eyes appeared before him.

    Guan Jin was staring at this strange brother of hers. She found him peculiar as he should be a very experienced alchemist, yet he was clearly unfamiliar with most of the apparatuses in theb.

    Weird.

    This student of her aunt was filled with mysteries¡­

    "Did it work?" asked Ye Chong, lifting his head.

    "Yes! Yes! Indeed it worked!" Guan Jin smiled brightly, as if her dream came true.

    Ye Chong responded with a nod. He wanted to tell her something but he did not.

    The improvised technique was not the ultimate. It was not final, simply because Lunatic Guan had never stopped improvising the technique ever since. The attempt Guan Jin did this time was merely the first version. Ye Chong zipped his mouth not because of sympathy or confidentiality, but the fact that theter versions would require high-end machines. So it would be pointless to tell her.

    "I can''t believe it!" said Guan Jin proudly, biting her finger, "I can actually improvise my aunt''s technique!" Her eyes were filled with zing passion.

    "It''s meal time!" And someone came shouting.

    ¡­ (At the dining table) ¡­

    It was a feast on the dining table as Ye Chong chomped vigorously. "So today, Brother Zhu Feng taught me on improvising the byered technique¡­" Reported Guan Jin to Guan Zhengyuan, and the others gave a friendlier stare at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong''s chopsticks danced, the bowl was tingling yet his eyes remained low.

    The tale of "Little Alchemist, Big Creation" had spread throughout the family rapidly. Ye Chong noticed it because of how courteous everyone acted towards him in the house.

    Well, he had gotten used to such treatment back when he taught the Sangs on crafting. He still was a little uneasy however so he spent most time in theb. There would always be a few young men standing by his side. Guan Jin on the other hand would be her pretty assistant.

    Ye Chong was rather puzzled by this. Lunatic Guan''s microchip had been kept inside his bag. And the bag was not with him at the moment. He could have just passed the chip to Guan family but he could not. There were too many contents in the chip, several centuries would have easily passed if he had to write everything out from his memory.

    He would not be able to ept such fate. But which one to write then? Which would be able to convince the family to let him go?

    The worst part was, Lunatic Guan''ster research was beyond the family''s understanding since her research had incorporated techniques from both systems of the gxies. It was soplicated that even Guan Jin was showing that iprehensibility towards his writings, eventually Ye Chong only could exin from the most fundamental to at least make sense in his teaching.

    Well, that had earned more respects from the family however.

    Little Ye Chong knew that, the ultimate factor to Guan family''s resurrection was not the refined theories and techniques created by Lunatic Guan, but those basic approaches from the 5 major gxies.

    The ridge was chaotic these few days, as the generations fought each other. It was bing moremon to see different forcesing to challenge the family, that mortality increased drastically.

    But Guan family was at peace. Nothing happened ever since Ye Chong came.

    But visionary elderlies like Guan Zhengyuan knew conflict would one day arrive and, "The leader would like Mr. Zhu Feng to move to the entrance. Someone hade for a challenge."

    That was when Ye Chong was demonstrating the molecr qualitative approach in ss.

 Chapter 412 - The Strange Path

    <h4>Chapter 412: The Strange Path</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Challenging an entire family on something is absolutely not a simple task. It requires technique and a savage bravery to shoulder the risk. Unless in aw''s film, you probably would never see a nobody challenging a prestigious family out of nowhere. So it is only natural to see a well-known person challenging someone else''s home.

    Guan Zhengyuan was at the porch. He could not help but to take a deep breath upon seeing the crowd. The Shi family came for real, with an army of 35 experts which probably equalled to one-third of the entire family. And Guang Zhengyuan could perceive the diabolic cunning nature in their eyes. He might not be the best alchemist but he was at least experienced to know that the entire family of his would likely be unable to handle such intrusion.

    Whatever that is going to happen, happens. Sighed Guan Zhengyuan in his mind. Looks like he could only rely on Ling''s students now¡­

    Guan family would regain its esteem and rise again, if they won that is. If they lost, it would be a news in the ridge that would lure all other new families who coveted the single slot of residence at the heaven of alchemy. When that happened, Guan family would perish.

    That was when Ye Chong exited the porch with the noises crowding behind him.

    Countless stares rested upon him. There were respects, envies, doubts and confusions¡­

    So that is the alchemist who took a shortcut back to the ridge? The crowd began rustling again. It was the first time for the majority to see such a young alchemist.

    Ye Chong''s arrival had increased the intensity of the ce. Ye Chong was fairly calm but a few of the crowd had already their hands wetted. He was leading the group of young apprentices of Guan family, looking fearless and excited. They were anticipating Teacher Zhu Feng''s performance, for he was so great in his teaching that they felt the need to have a cult for him. So to those challengers who blindly came for our family, are you ready to have your butt kicked?

    Ye Chong was pretty aware of the situation. At this point he probably would be the only person to take the challenge, since he knew the apprentices of Guan family were matchless against the foes in front of them. He did teach them a few new tricks but it surely would take some time for them to master those skills.

    Simply, no way they would win against the challengers.

    He was the only hope, he thought as he helplessly walked towards Guan Zhengyuan.

    "If it wasn''t for my Zhufeng," said Guan Zhengyuan with a bright smile, as if liberated from the pressure exerted by the Shi family.

    "Mhm," nodded Ye Chong. The next question however came so unexpectedly that almost everyone tripped their steps, "So¡­ how do people do this ''challenge'' thing usually? Is it a contest?" That was a good¡­ question¡­

    "Haha¡­" Laughed Guan Zhengyuan joyfully, "Nothing much. Just some troublemakers wanting some troubles at our porch."

    "I see," Ye Chong nodded. The word "troublemakers" made perfect sense. And suddenly he had a thought - if it was Lunatic Guan, how would she handle these troublemakers? Ye Chong knew Lunatic Guan well, in most cases, she would annihte the entire army and take a sprint to Shi family''s home for another massacre.

    "Zhu Feng, please do not hesitate, you could do whatever you want with them. Even if you want to shatter the ground, be my guest." Guan Zhengyuan''s tone was calm, frigidly calm, the typical tone one would use when mentioning the public enemy. His words were crudely tranted as - all you can smash.

    "Whatever I want?" Ye Chong''s face was filled with the you-sure confusion.

    Guan Zhengyuan looked at the army of Shi family, smiled, "Yes, whatever you want."

    And Ye Chong vanished, a faint voice rang, "Alright."

    There Ye Chong was figuring out a strategy to finish this fight in shortest time possible.

    It would still be the ssic brawling. Picking the right strategy suiting to the situation is vital to the battle, that was the lesson he learned from all battles he had experienced. So, brawling it is.

    He had activated the techniques of September Lan style as his assassination went. He did not have his wooden spear with him but being barehanded actually made him better.

    The fox joining the hares in the pen - that would be the analogical summary of what happened next.

    The alchemists were utterly unprepared towards Ye Chong''s assassination. As known an alchemist was just fragile in front of a martial arts practitioner. They could not react to his overwhelming speed in time. They could not even move a muscle when facing this Jie expert.

    Ye Chong zapped through the crowd, with his afterimages stamped on every corner.

    Crack¡­ Crack¡­ Klink¡­ Crack¡­

    Those were the sound of throats breaking.

    It felt like autumn all over again, when the nuts cracked.

    The formation of Shi family army was dense to begin with. And Ye Chong was simply talented at crowd control. They were fighting a losing fight anyway since their sks contained a massive poison which could have hurt their allies if simply thrown.

    The ughterhouse ran smoothly.

    The wails continued.

    22 secondspsed.

    Corpses were all over the ground. Dents could be found over the throats. Ye Chong was expressionless as he stood back.

    It was a total massacre.

    Thought the spectators in fear.

    Nobody would have expected this young alchemist being also a martial arts practitioner, a brutal one too. He was indifferent, satanically indifferent that he did not even bother to have another look at the bodies on the ground.

    The apprentices would probably be having nightmare tonight. Guan Jin''s eyes went wide like saucer, her face was pale as in disbelief she looked at the kind, inquisitive Brother Zhu Ling being at the bloody pool.

    God of ughter¡­

    Thought Guan Zhengyuan, feeling his heart just skipped a beat. Somehow the title appeared in his mind.

    People were expecting a battle in alchemy but this young man simply finished everybody without using a single sk, that was something new in the ridge. No one had done this before. May Night''s Ridge was a residence filled with alchemists, there was no practitioner before.

    Finishing challengers with brutal force¡­ would this count as victory¡­? There were debates regarding Guan family''s sess since the ridgemittee never said one would be allowed to take on challenges only with alchemy.

    There was one thing that did not require debates however - Guan family was untouchable and should never be touched! Ever since that incident, no one hade to their porch despite all the bloodshed at other families.

    Ye Chong had demonstrated the cruelty of war to the people. The brutal gruesome side of the war too. They had never seen a hand-on-hand before and Ye Chong had shown them. People were stunned and became very convinced that Ye Chong would be a true horror because of the fact he knew both alchemist and martial arts.

    Shi family had suffered a great loss this time. One-third of the family''s force got all wiped out in less than a minute. These master-alchemists-to-be were not even able tost till the end.

    The debate went on as people argued, "What''s wrong of using martial arts when taking on challenges anyway?"

    Guan family remained low on this, as they had their gates tightly shut and forbade everyone from leaving the house.

    The incident had also affected themittee, that Guan family was assigned with the most resources this year. Guan Zhengyuan was very delighted since that only signified the elevated status of his family in the ridge.

    5 dayster, Guan family had also submitted a report on possible improvements that could be made on byered liquid tempering technique. That was an earth-shattering discovery. The ridge was shocked again. The technique was an invention by Guan Ling and was recognized as the top recent invention years ago. Attempts on improving the technique had been ongoing ever since, but nobody had seeded so far. And they actually submitted a report on it?

    People once doubted the standard of that mysterious boy till they saw the report. They were totally convinced. On the cover page the author might be "Guan Jin", the daughter of the family, but everybody could feel the contribution of that someone between the lines.

    It looked like Guan family was hopeful of resurrection, while the other families were bitter at it.

    Why can''t it be our family that gets a talent out of nowhere?

 Chapter 413 - Training

    <h4>Chapter 413: Training</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It did not take long for Ye Chong to notice the fear in everyone''s eyes upon seeing him. Seeing them backing down all the time was puzzling at first but he understood the cause very soon after. May Night''s Ridge could be a mysterious ce of wondrous alchemy to the people outside. The residents in the ridge might possibly be the strongest alchemist he could find anywhere else, but they eventually were just a bunch of researchers isted from the hustle and bustle of the outside world, that they had never once witnessed the bloodshed of an actual war. In Ye Chong''s eyes, they were just weak.

    "Brother Zhu Feng, I have a proposition," said Guan Jin, seeing nobody around. She had spent most time with Ye Chong so she could say she knew Ye Chong the best. No doubt Ye Chong was an extremely dangerous figure but somehow she felt a kind of security being with him. Brother Zhu Feng would be a tamed, friendly animal as long as he was never enraged. Naturally he was neither odd-tempered nor hot-tempered, after all.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong could definitely feel her talents in alchemy, she might be the brightest student in Guan family. Sadly he did not have the microchip with him. He could have taught her all the essentials with it.

    For example, the Guan''s automatic analysis mechanism had always been a mystery to Ye Chong regarding the exact concept that made it work in the first ce. To him, the mechanism probably was the most valuable and brilliant invention in the chip, as it was the solid proof of Lunatic Guan''s vast knowledge of alchemy.

    Guan Jin was a born alchemist. Ye Chong believed her future would still be bright even without the aid of the mechanism. Strangely the little girl showed no fear towards him, while being ever-mischievous, a little perplexing to be honest. She was the exact opposite to the other apprentices who were loyal and modest in the family. Well, perhaps it was her personality that she always was able to create surprises in alchemy.

    "Brother Zhu Feng¡­," her watery eyes blinked in the harmless innocence, "why don''t you go challenge somebody too?"

    "Challenge who?" He took a look at the little girl biting her index finger.

    "Yes! Yes! Challenge!" shouted Guan Jin cheerfully. "It doesn''t feel good to always get challenged by people. Brother Zhu Feng it would be better if we go and hit on somebody else instead! Let''s keep hitting them till they never wanted to hit on us anymore!" said Guan Jin, in the most innocent expression possible. That was quite a contrast.

    Somehow Ye Chong was reminded of Lunatic Guan. They were still from the same family after all. The same brutal honesty, the same brutal inquisitiveness. Ye Chong seriously could imagine Lunatic Guan flipping out then crashing Shi family''s home right away, and she would not stop till the entire building turned into debris.

    Sentiments aside, Ye Chong was processing Guan Jin''s request.

    Does Guan Jin''s proposition make sense?

    Pretty much. Concluded he. It would be far better to initiator instead of a receiver in wars. The odds would be likelier on their side.

    "Can I assassinate?" It would be simple if Ye Chong was allowed to assassinate. He already had an impable n in his mind - he would pilot Moon King at a dark, cold night and make his way to Shi family, then he would raze the entire building to the ground, everything would be aplished in few seconds of pure silence. It would be smooth and-

    "Nah¡­," shook Guan Jin, "I don''t think so." Guan Jin seemed intrigued by his n at first but luck was not doing them a favor, "Themittee had just set up a new rule days ago. Challengers are not allowed to use strategies other than alchemy, or themittee would be stepping in. It is no good for you to raise your fist, since only you know how to use your fist in this ridge. If a bleeding war happened and no sk was thrown, our family would be taking all the me. Not good, bad n." Obviously that new rule was a countermeasure for a monstrous fighter like Ye Chong.

    Guan Jin seemed to be a fairly good strategist at her age, like too good, that people would have given her the strangest stare if they heard her exnation. But Ye Chong had already recognized her talents even in wars.

    Well, challenging other family in light was something prettyborious to Ye Chong, since that would be just another war of territory while exposing all his cards at once. He never fancied everything being put under the spotlight, that was simply dangerous.

    Ye Chong did not mind helping the family out on some chores, since Lunatic Guan was his teacher, but that did not trante as he was willing to do everything. His own security was still the top priority.

    "Not interested," shook Ye Chong, as he declined Guan Jin''s offer.

    "H-how could you¡­," tears welled up in her eyes, "How could you simply reject me so? Oh Brother Zhu Feng, how could you say no even to a cute girl with a simple request like me?" she said pitifully, with her shaking voice. She was fairly confident in her trick, since even her father would forgive her whenever she put that face on.

    Well, she was facing the wrong foe today. Ye Chong was unaffected by her weeping expression.

    "If you don''t mind, I could teach you a trick or two onbats," said Ye Chong, which was a surprising suggestion to Guan Jin.

    "You want to teach me onbats?" Guan Jin was bewildered.

    That was probably the moment Ye Chong regretted his generosity the most. He intended to teach only Guan Jin at first, who knows Guan Zhengyuan got informed of this and became excited, "All the apprentices, join your teacher now!" Then Ye Chong got an additional 30 students in his fighting ss.

    Well, Ye Chong did not show resistance towards the unexpected turn of event however. He knew that students could benefit from arger group since they could have partners for practicalbats which would be the best method to improve their skills.

    The Guan apprentices were certainly excited but they behaved themselves in front of Ye Chong, since this teacher was also that murderer who finished over 30 challengers in less than a minute.

    Ye Chong took a careful look at bodies of his students. He did not seem very pleased.

    "From today onwards, you will be learning martial arts," said Ye Chong concisely on the first ss, to the hell.

    Speed is the key term in winning an alchemy war. The shorter time the better, be it the time taken for making the potion, or the time needed before the effects of the potion activate. In a ce like May Night''s Ridge, there were countless poison that could activate in 0.1 second. One might ask why the rush, but it was always that 0.1 second which determined the oue of the war. Thus Ye Chong first trained them to create the deadly poison the quickest possible. The form he chose was simple yet very effective.

    Yup, it all relied on the speed of their hands again, just like how Ye Chong almost broke his hands during Mu''s special training course in the past.

    To encourage these students, "Look," he decided to demonstrate his own speed, "If you work hard enough, you could be like me too." Said he after executing an intense acrobatic performance with his hands.

    "Wow¡­" The kids were simply amazed.

    Well that was not Ye Chong''s maximum speed. A real quick hand-movement would be one that lost its silhouette. Certainly that would be very helpful in wars but people could learn nothing if Ye Chong demonstrated that instead.

    The passion in students did notst the moment the mundane training began. They never failed to end up looking muddy, swollen and sweaty. Contrary to Ye Chong''s expectation, no one had put up their white g just yet, not even Guan Jin the blooming princess.

    Other than physical training, they also had research training to do. They were required to find out the optimized application of offensive reagents. And that was when practical came in handy. To be frank, a war between alchemists was still fatal even as a practice. idents still happened asionally under supervision of few senior family members.

    Everyone looked calm nevertheless. And Ye Chong realized how thepetition between families could be cruel at the ridge.

    He started estimating the time he had to spend there. Well, he did not intend a permanent residence there. He came just because of Lunatic Guans request and it already felt like the time to go. This was not a good ce for permanent resident after all.

    The young apprentices learned rapidly. They still needed more time to further improvise their alchemy training but they were already given the best foundation. Under these intensive trainings, it would only be a matter of time till a horrendous army was born and perhaps nobody at the ridge could have a chance against them.

    Too bad Ye Chong would be leaving soon and none of the afterstory would have anything to do with him.

    But wait, there was onest thing to do. He had to examine his students after the training.

    He decided to test them with an actual war. They would be heading to Shi family to initiate a challenge. Of course, the one knocking on Shi family''s door would never be him. That would be a job for Guan''s apprentices.

 Chapter 414 - An Awesome Strike

    <h4>Chapter 414: An Awesome Strike</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Ridge Council, themittee of the ridge, determined almost everything in May Night''s Ridge. Its headquarter was known as the Ridge Council House and had been the solemn, unshakable establishment in the heart of all residents in the ridge for it had been rumored that the House had existed along with the Ridge.

    It was a rather ancient building, with stone walls covered in thick mosses, tangling scented vines over the roof and every corner. One would hear the chimesing from the roof whenever the breeze came by. The corridor was made out of woods, that each step creating gentle squeaks. The handles of the corridor were unadorned and ssy.

    It was such a fascinating ce that it had be an ultimate goal to every resident in the Ridge, that one day they would be able to step into the House and present their own findings.

    Ever since the Ridge was founded, the House had been in charge of evaluating all families'' development of alchemy studies, and certainly every single project or invention would require approval from the House itself. Themittee was a wise one that would generously reward talents in the ridge. Not only these contributing researchers would receive helps on finance and materials, they would also gain ess to the House''s database, the reference room which contained all records, the unknown dark secrets of every other branch starting from the establishment of the Ridge. Guan Ling the very genius surely had tasted this nectar of knowledge before, the precious forms of other branches in microchip were originated here as well.

    And today, the first meeting of the year wouldmence. This time with the goal of assessing the report on critical temperature control submitted by Guan family.

    The head of the council was an wizened old man in histe seventies. His expression was almost imperceivable withyers of wrinkles. His eyes were looking muddy, his hair was messy. His apparel was torn, discolored and tainted.

    Guan Zhengyuan''s eyes were bright the moment he spotted the old man, as hurriedly he led his few men there.

    "Just a moment please, leader."

    The old man held his steps upon call. He chuckled as he turned to Guan Zhengyuan and waited him ahead, "If it wasn''t Zhengyuan."

    "Are you well all these while?" said Guan Zhengyuan with a bow. The apprentices bowed as well.

    "I am in my seventies. I can''t do very well, but not really bad either. I must say, Zhengyuan, brilliant job this time. The first report for the meeting this year¡­ happened to be from your family I reckoned? It is certainly unexpected."

    "It''s nothing really. All thanks to Zhu Feng and Yan. You know how I do in alchemy, I can''t really help much," said Guan Zhengyuan honestly, with modesty of a child.

    "Oh, Yan? You meant the one who did the report this time? Guan Yan was it? Who is that?" muttered the old man as he nced at the report in his hand.

    "That''s Yan," Guan Zhengyuan quickly grabbed the shrinking violet at his back. "Come, have a word with our chairperson."

    "Greetings¡­," mumbled the young man.

    "Hello to you too. Alright, alright, leave the gentleman alone, Zhengyuan, you''re frightening the rabbit," chuckled the old man again, with a loving look at Yan.

    His murky eyes then went upon Ye Chong, "So this must be Ling''s student¡­ Zhu Feng¡­ was it?" Well, Ye Chong was still otherworldly by nature, as he exuded simply a different kind of aura than the other Guans. It was not strange that the old man would recognize him right away.

    "Zhu Feng, pleasee and have a word too," said Guan Zhengyuan sincerely.

    "Zhu Feng has met the head right here," said Ye Chong formally, the traditional Guan style greetings, with a bow.

    "Fair enough. You did well after you got back home. You certainly did not disappoint your teacher. You know I''ve been by Ling''s side since she was very young. She''s intelligence, also hardworking. Please keep up the good work and let the name of your teacherst in harmony," lectured the elderly.

    Although Ye Chong couldn''t really recall anything Lunatic Guan was expecting of him, he could tell the kindness in the words of the old man. "Understood," said Ye Chong. The conciseness did not seem to please Guan Zhengyuan, even though the old man seemed to like it very much.

    "Alright, it''s time to go. The meeting is starting soon. Get prepared, Yan, well, don''t panic, just present whatever you know," exhorted the old man.

    This was the first annual meeting this year. Every member of the House had attended promptly, along with representatives from all 14 families who were highly interested in thetest creation of the new celeb, Guan family.

    Guan Yan''s shaking eyes shifted upon every little pair of gazes below. His breathing hastened, his cheeks were red and he could almost hear his heart thumping. He needed water¡­

    It had been a dream for him to stand there and expound his findings but he never really expected the day toe, this fast¡­

    He tried pinching his face, wondering if it was a dream.

    "Guan Yan." And he heard his name announced, it would be time for him to speak up.

    His legs were melting as if, his head was buzzing for no reason. He was searching for that one familiar face in the hall, through every corner and stopped atst.

    Mr. Zhu Feng was there, standing at the corner silently. He looked calm. No encouragement, no lecture, no m and p to wake him from his daydreaming. Somehow, Guan Yan had calmed down.

    Shi Wuwei''s face was grim as he watched Guan Yan presenting rxingly. He was not in a good mood to be honest. Shi Mingbei next to him was looking at Ye Chong too. Their expressions were indescribable.

    Technically, every representative of other families looked with an indescribable expression as well. They never expected such a heavy plot twist, such aeback from a banishing family. Their stares enviously were projected at Guan Zhengyuan. And everybody knew who the real culprit of this mutation was, it was no one other than that indifferent young man at the corner.

    Looking at Guan Yan, Ye Chong was feeling odd too. At first he presumed Guan Jin would be the talent who would discover a breakthrough the first. But fate was strange and capricious, eventually it turned out to be Guan Yan the silent and ordinary one who made the breakthrough.

    The hall was silent, with Guan Yan''s innocent voice resounded in the space. The audience was listening to him attentively, while being unaware of the horrible happening out there.

    ¡­(at the outside)¡­

    Guan Jin was biting her finger as she proudly looked at the porch of Shi family, whererge pile of bodiesid. The survivors of the family were looking frightful.

    "What? Nobody wants a challenge?" asked Guan Jin innocently as she lifted her tiny chin, leading a row of young Guan apprentices.

    10 points to Guan family.

    0 to Shi.

    It was a shocking figure. Guan Jin led 30 trained apprentices to hit on Shi family, as an mini examination for the trainees while being also a form of demonstration to the families outside.

    Of all timings! Thought Shi family in fear. They were truly unlucky today. Shi Wuwei, the leader of the family had already brought the adepts to the House, while the other adepts had headed out for a mission a while ago.

    No one would have expected being raided when the family was at the weakest.

    The remaining members did not take the challengers seriously at first, since¡­ well those were just a bunch of primary schoolers¡­ with the leader being a 12-year-old girl.

    They thought they could kick these children back to kindergarten while receivingpliments from the leader, but things just changed.

    Nothing shy, nothing fancy, the children were simply fast. And it was such insane speed that destroyed everything the Shi''s knew about battles, as they started to realize how unnecessarily shy their moves were. Combination of potions? That did not matter. The appropriate countermeasure for the little attacks? That never existed. The chance of fighting back? Wait, they could fight back?

    The army of children felt like the chivalrous swordsmen whose strikesnded rapidly. The attack had been done before the foe even drew the sword.

    "Teehee~ Good bye Shi family!"

    Guan Jin led the army away in bright smile of victory.

    On that day, two things happened. And every family held their sks. The two incidents seemed unrted at first, till they involved Guan family. The House meeting, the Shi massacre.

    It was a sign, a sign of Guan''s resurrection, resuscitation of hope.

    Of course the family raised again as they stepped on the bodies of Shi''s. The Shi family had weakened dramatically. It had been rumored that Shi Wuwei fainted after coughing a ssh of blood upon returning home.

    The raise of Guan family actually created a brief peace period in the ridge.

    People were anticipating the next war, between Guan family and Shi family. IT would be a never-before-seen major war between tworge families, and the oue of this war would affect the bnce of forces between the old and new generations in the ridge.

    It was a brewing storm.

 Chapter 415 - Encounter

    <h4>Chapter 415: Encounter</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Right when everyone anticipated the next massacre to happen, when people were expecting that mysterious boy from Guan family to jump into action again, Ye Chong was already prepared to leave the ce.

    Guan family had once again risen. They might have sunken for ages, however they were still a family from the ancient. They had the potential from the very beginning, They onlycked a little spark to light up the fire.

    Ye Chong strongly believed that Guan family was practically unshakable now, not even Shi family could touch them. And possibly the family would grow stronger, pulling distance with other families over the time. Guan family had not only an army of fighting alchemist, but also a skillful alchemy researcher like Guan Yan. Ye Chong had given the sparks they needed, Ye Chong had unlocked a new gate for their future, well it might be just a small gap at the moment, but they were growing fast.

    They remained fearless even if there were challengers at the doorstep now. Ye Chong reckoned Guan family would continue the hand speed training after the sess this time. Guan Jin the talented would surely be a great force for the family in future.

    But well, it was time to leave. To be honest, Ye Chong had no idea why he must leave but the feeling was strong in him.

    He took onest nce at Guan''s residence below. "Phew¡­" At least he had another job done. He gave a few taps and the Moon King left the ridge silently like a phantom.

    In the midst of night silence, a few red spots were disyed on the projection.

    Something was there!

    Ye Chong turned on the detection system immediately.

    Zoom in!

    Those were 7 mechs, heading towards him in a standard formation!

    Ye Chong could identify the leading mech, while the rest¡­ he had never seen the 6 models before. But he knew those mechs belonged to Xi Feng tribe.

    The leading mech was Phoenix Lord. Ye Chong had smashed one before, though a close fight it was. And the experience of that battle had left deep impression in him. Based on a typical Xi Feng lineup, the other 6 mechs should be a rank lower than the Phoenix Lord.

    The Phoenix Lord mech had a rather stunning appearance thanks to its giant pair of green wings. The other mechs also had simrly ted the outeryer with dark green, thus the invisibility at night.

    Ye Chong could hear his head buzzing¡­

    He had just encountered 7 mechs. If he was able to pick his opponent, he would choose Xi Feng tribe during an one-on-one without hesitation. However, Xi Feng tribe would be the worst opponent choice in a group fight, since it had been widely known that the Xi Feng tribe had the most impably cooperative trained army among the 3 aristocrats. They were feeble as singled out, but they were almost indestructible in a group.

    Well, since Ye Chong was the protagonist of this novel, in order to survive, he had no other choice but to run.

    Unfortunately, it was toote for him to make an escape as the 7 mechs had charged towards Moon King in a perfect curve formation.

    A handful of beams had formed into a giant webting Moon King.

    Ye Chong swung his handle to dodge. To fight against Xi Feng tribe''s mechs, you got to make the move first, anythingter would be solely regarded as toote.

    The Moon King''s course remained unpredictable while doing most beams fired by the foes. Moon King managed to block the two beams with its shield, but it felt like a close shave to Ye Chong since he always found difficulty with ranged attacks. Assuming the foe had a godly sniper like Mu, it probably would only take a trigger to finish him off.

    Ye Chong did not stop his fingers. A small break would have costed his life. Non-orderly Wavy Leap, the first fancy move he had mastered, came into his aid again. Certainly the technique had matured tremendously as the curves had a wider tangent, the velocity was unforeseeably faster.

    The dark Moon King moved like a phantom, as shrouded by the night, dodging the beams.

    The 7 mechs maintained their wless formation as they zoomed behind.

    Ye Chong could not find the right timing to attack.

    There was a prairie not too far away from Line Shaft City.

    Feng Su took a look at the sky.

    Those are¡­ those are my people!

    She shouted in her mind.

    They must be here for me!

    She thought as she looked at the barbarians, who seemed to have noticed her disdainful stare, that she immediately withdrew her stare out of fear.

    Tackan and these barbarians¡­ Feng Su cursed.

    She had been spending the days like a caged canary, as she was being watched the whole time. There was not a moment where she could deploy her mech and run. Not only that, she was forced to conduct all kinds of training and engage in all sorts of battles. They were real barbarians for they never thought of showing mercy towards a girl like her.

    I think my Jie expert training would''ve been easier than this.

    If this isn''t hell¡­

    She would receive the stare of untamed wrath whenever she lifted her steps beyond the boundary, that she believed she would be immediately ughtered if she ever ran.

    "Hmmmmm¡­ weird¡­," muttered Liu Sheng as he looked upon the sky, "I have never seen such meteor shower before¡­"

    "So what? It''s your turn to train her," said Sisko impatiently.

    "Again?" Liu Sheng flinched and shrugged at Feng Su. "Well, you have to work hardssie. You don''t get to train with me everyday."

    Feng Su bit her lips. The veil on her face had already been shredded into a million pieces during her battle. Well, at least these barbarians seemed uninterested of her presence.

    But they were lunatics! They were simply maniac! They had some really ridiculous thoughts onbats, that she cannotprehend! They never had breaks between dummy and fight practice. It was terrifying to Feng Su to perform such sadistic training every single day! Moreover, those were not ordinary fight practices, as they fought with their lives! The first time she saw their "demonstration" she thought these barbarians just had issues with each other and wanted to resolve with murder!

    Her pretty face was now tanned. Her smooth hair was puffy and stuck with grasses. She was no longer that seductive singer before. But she made it here, although she was sweating, asionally bleeding, she made it with maximum efforts and her lips bitten.

    Over the days Feng Su could feel the changing attitude among the group, during which asionally she would see the slight admiration in their eyes.

    Despite all the chaotic training, Feng Su did improve greatly under immense stress. Her physique had elevated to a whole new level. She was frail, even as a Jie expert before and that frailty was more apparent when she fought with these barbarians. She could now tie with any of these men, well, given that the fight did notst longer than 15 minutes, since she was still limited by her stamina.

    During the process, Feng Su once given up the idea of running away. The attacks from these barbarians were uncertain, that she would neverst more than 5 minutes if she did not invest 100% of her efforts. She could lose since they showed zero tolerance towards agger.

    Well, her time to run hade. She was right. The 7 mechs came for her indeed.

    Feng Su was expected to arrive Dankwood and take over the admiration works there a long time ago, but the tribe had never received any reports since then. So they were pretty positive that Feng Su had bumped into something. The authority decided to send off all the forces to look for her.

    The plot twist was¡­ they encountered Ye Chong. Ye Chong''s mech, which was presumably an advanced model of Ye family, and that was more than enough to cause alert in the searching team. They did not intend to take action at first, till Ye Chong ran away promptly, which convinced them that something fishy was going on. Everything made perfect sense, as only Ye family''s Mandate model could smash a Phoenix Lord of the tribe, which was the exact model Feng Su was piloting.

    It was a one-on-seven fight, which justified the confidence in the leader of Team Feng Su.

    They then arrived by a mountain range, which looked like a resting beast in the dark.

    That spelled good news to Ye Chong, as his hands danced upon the control panel.

    The Moon King made a bouncing turn as the body shook slightly to get out of the foes'' lock-on. Right when the 7 mechs tried to reposition their crosshairs, Moon King made a high leap and zapped through the mountains.

    The chasing mechs did not halt at all, as they reformed into a perfect diagonal, following this Ye model.

    The piercing cries of the mechs shattered the silence of the woods, as birds flew away.

    Both parties gradually lowered their flight.

    That was not a good sign to Team Feng Su, as the leader frowned, knowing that it would be a goner if the foe had run into the woods, "Everyone on your mark, turn to manual aiming, ready to fire on my call."

    Their processor had been taking forever to relocate the crosshair on the ever-moving foe. So they got to do it the traditional way.

    Well, as expected from a Mandate ss¡­

    Complimented the pilot from Team Feng Su.

    The model was good enough, but the pilot was greater. Those were some masterly controls he witnessed, with all turns made on the most impable timing which managed to disrupt their paces of shooting.

    They must not let their prey escape into the forest, as not only it would be more harder, it would be also more dangerous. The foe was a melee model and forest like this was wholly its territory.

    A Mandate ss pilot must be a melee expert. No exnation required.

    The pilot must be.

    Frankly speaking, if the foe was not outnumbered, the oue of the battle would have been the other way round.

    "Leader, manual aiming is not possible," stated the man in themunicating channel.

    "I know, such a lively prey, livelier than the animal."

    "True, he''s piloting a Mandate, not some random instant mech at the supermarket after all." They sounded very excited somehow¡­ probably it was the first time they chased a Mandate.

    "Switch your mode," the leading pilot instructed. "All units switch your single-targeted aiming to area-aiming. Remain manual."

    "Yes, sir." They understood it was not the time to mess around.

    "Lock onplete."

    "Lock onplete too."

    ¡­

    "Group firing calibrationplete. Ready to fire at once." Heavy breaths were heard in the channel.

    "FIRE!" the leading pilot shouted.

 Chapter 416 - Huang Jimingâ€™s Battlelust

    <h4>Chapter 416: Huang Jiming¡¯s Battlelust</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Countless thinsers converged into a point, merging into a single, thick beam that came down from high above. The mountain ranges were illuminated as bright as day by the brightser beam.

    Theser beams were merged together after frequency-phase synchronization, and the result was an extraordinarily powerfulser beam. Now, the beam was so powerful that its cross section was muchrger than its individualponent beams.

    The seven mech pilots looked at the holographic screen with bated breath and eyes wide open. Thebined power of theser beams from seven mechs was enough to destroy even a Mandate ss mech. However, this power came at a price with an obvious weakness.

    First, the beams must be synchronized perfectly. While this was done, the mechs would not be able to move or evade attacks as freely as before. In the vital seconds of battle, this would endanger the mechs significantly. Secondly, activating all of the beams would deplete energy quickly. One round of shooting would exhaust one third of a mech''s energy cell at full capacity.

    Experienced mech pilots would know to employ this method only when evasion maneuvers were not necessary, or the result would be death!

    The seven mech pilots felt like their blood was boiling with excitement! Terminating a Mandate ss mech would bring them not only glory, but also the Tribe Leader''s personalmendation. The Tribe had never defeated a Mandate ss mech before.

    Thebined beam attack wasplete! They opened their eyes wide open. The next moment would be the most glorious and unforgettable moment in their lives. They must see with their own eyes the me that came from the explosion of this Mandate ss mech.

    The enemy''s dead for sure! Up until now, they had never heard of anyone surviving abined beam attack. Abined beam attack was like a sharp, double edged knife - it was rarely used, but every unsheathing of the de would end in casualties.

    Suddenly, their eyes widened even further! Every one of them wore the same expression of disbelief, as if they had just seen a monster.

    Thems channel was dead silent!

    How was this possible ¡­ How was this possible?

    What were they seeing?

    Abruptly, one of the mech pilots broke out of his trance, and moved so quickly to rewind the holographic screen recording it was like he had gone mad. When he started the screen recorder a moment ago, he wanted to record down the moment when the Mandate ss mech exploded into pieces as a piece of his most prized memory. However, he never imagined that he had recorded a scene that had to be seen to be believed.

    The holographic screen re-yed the entire scene faithfully.

    Seen from high above, the night sky and the dark mountain ranges formed the background of the scene. A ck mech disguised itself in the dark, making it difficult to notice. The ck mech never stopped with its evasion maneuvers - simple ones, grand ones, wide angle deflections, short range and high speed zigzagged evasions - the variety was enough to confuse and impress the observer with the mech pilot''s deft skills.

    Just then, an impossibly thickser beam ripped across the night sky. The devastatingly powerfulser beam was enough to make the mech pilot who released it shudder inside.

    No one could possibly survive thisser beam! No one!

    However, the impossible had happened.

    On the holographic screen, the Mandate ss mech suddenly blurred - the mech had gone beyond the effective range of thebined beam attack with astonishing speed as theser beam barely graced past the mech and hit the ground. Theser beam was very powerful. It hit the ground with a loud "Boom!". Arge hole was left in the ground, the surface charred ck and smoldered, all signs of how terrifying the attack really was.

    On the holographic screen, the mech was nowhere to be seen.

    The other six mech pilots had awaken from their shock. Thems channel burst into chaotic exchanges. The first mech pilot continued to stare at the holographic screen, his mind nk.

    Ye Chong wiped away cold sweat from his forehead! That was close. If that beam had touched him even slightly, he would not escape without injuries. The truth was, he knew that this sess was partly due to luck. To think that his unlucky streak would finally break at this moment to save him!

    Without further hesitation, Moon King dived into the forest. The uneven territory and Moon King''s excellent anti scanning abilities would make him very hard to find.

    As expected, the seven mechs left not long after.

    The recording of the scene was sent back to the base of the Xi Feng Tribe as soon as possible.

    A knock came from the door of the Tribe Leader''s office.

    "Come in," the beautiful Tribe Leader did not lift her head as she continued to work on the documents on her desk.

    The door was pushed open, and in came a young man. "Tribe Leader, you called for me?" It was a gentle voice, pleasant to hear. The man wore a friendly, positive expression that was infectious for anyone who saw him.

    The Tribe Leader finally lifted her head. She looked at the friendly young man before her and could not help a little smile as she said, "Ah, it''s Jiming,e over here."

    The young man looked meek as he approached the Tribe Leader. No one would have guessed that this shy and mellow young man was one of the Legendary Three of the He Yue Gxy, and Xi Feng Tribe''s most skilled personnel, Huang Jiming.

    "Come and look at this recording," the Tribe Leader activated the room''s holographic screen.

    On the screen was a rey of the scene where Ye Chong avoided thebined beam attack.

    Huang Jiming''s gentle expression turned severe, and his warm, friendly charisma transformed into a sharp coldness. His whole body radiated with power. In just an instant, the disguise that he wore in his everyday life was swept away. No one would doubt the status of the current Huang Jiming as Xi Feng Tribe''s most skilledbatant.

    The Tribe Leader was not unsettled by his sudden change. On the contrary, she looked satisfied.

    "A Mandate ss mech? What a strong opponent! To think that the Ye Family has someone so capable besides Ye Yin! Giving a Mandate ss mech to this pilot does not do him justice." Huang Jiming now sounded low and solemn, like he transformed into apletely different person.

    The Tribe Leader looked troubled as well. "This came from the free space zone. There''s still no news from Feng Su. She''s officially missing. We have people searching for her, but there''s no news yet. This Mandate ss mech was encountered by a search team on Guang Hua. Feng Su''sst known location was also on Guang Hua."

    Huang Jiming narrowed his eyes. "If Feng Su were to battle with him, it would not be terribly difficult for him to kill her. I''m just curious. For such a capable mech pilot, the Ye Family should have given him a more advanced mech, but instead he got a Mandate ss."

    "Is he really that strong?" The Tribe Leader seemed appalled.

    "Yes." There was an undertone of battlelust in Huang Jiming''s voice. "He is probably on the same level as me, Ye Yin and Siva. Any differences in strength would be almost negligible."

    "Since when did the Ye Family had such a powerful expert?" The Tribe Leader lowered her head in thought.

    Huang Jiming stayed silent, staring at the holographic screen.

    The Tribe Leader asked abruptly, "How did he do it?"

    Huang Jiming sounded impressed as he exined, "His evasion maneuvers were excellent. He had kept on with his evasions, and when thebined beam attack happened, he had made a short range high speed change in direction. The change was notrge, but it was executed fast enough that it looked like a blur on the screen. Our mech pilots had aimed manually, so they could not help but respond to the sudden change in direction of the enemy. This is a mistake due to a long training history, and skilled veterans are especially susceptible. The mistakemitted in aiming caused the beam to be slightly off target, which was how the mech managed to survive. Since the change in direction was short ranged, our mech pilots could not detect it. This subconscious mistake could not be detected by the pilots at all. The more capable the shooter, the more effective this trick is. Besides, notice that his high speed change in direction was done with elerated speed. That was how his final wide angle evasion move allowed him to avoid thebined beam attack."

    "Do you think you can execute the same moves?" The Tribe Leader asked.

    "With great difficulty," Huang Jiming answered honestly. "This man had managed to survive abined beam attack, and more importantly, he timed his moves well, so well that his every change in direction was timed perfectly. His final wide angle evasion move was even more impressive. Even a slight dy would have given him a different ending. On the other hand, to be honest, the guy''s just extremely lucky."

    "Strange, why would the Ye Family send such a skilled mech pilot to the free space zone?" The Tribe Leader muttered to herself.

    Once again, Huang Jiming stayed silent. Suddenly, he lifted his head and said, "Tribe Leader, I''d like to visit the free space zone."

    "You want to head to the free space zone?" The Tribe Leader seemed troubled. "Oh, Jiming, you know all too well that the Tribe is in dire need of military strength. If you go to the free space zone now ¡­" Seeing Huang Jiming''s determined expression, the Tribe Leader could not finish her sentence.

    The Tribe Leader''s office fell into silence.

    After a full 10 minutes, the Tribe Leader finally relented with a sigh. "Alright, go. However, please be careful. The Tribe has no men to spare right now, so you can only go alone."

    "Don''t worry, Tribe Leader. I''ve yet to meet a person who is good enough to kill me," Huang Jiming said with this unshakeable confidence.

 Chapter 417 - Preamble

    <h4>Chapter 417: Preamble</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong could not tell if he was lucky or not. That he encountered the Xi Feng Tribe''sbat squad was definitely unfortunate. However, he had survived theirbined beam attack, and in that sense he was extremely lucky. In the end, Ye Chong was not a born and bred Ye Family member - Moon King''s many special features were designed just for the Ye Family, so for an outsider like Ye Chong who did not receive specialized training from the Ye Family, it was impossible to unleash the full potential of the Moon King.

    It was still too short a time for Ye Chong to familiarize himself with Moon King. Aside from his final move, the rest of his executions were not up to his standards. Had it been otherwise, a standard Mandate ss mech would be more than enough to deal with abat squad from the Xi Feng Tribe. Nevertheless, Ye Chong dared not test this out himself. He was still unfamiliar with Moon King. If it was only the Phoenix ss mech, he would have gotten the job done. Unfortunately, there were other mech sizes with it, and Ye Chong remembered Xi Feng Tribe''s group strategy well enough.

    When Ye Chong left the mountain ranges, half a month had passed since that day. In this half a month, he tried everything he could with Moon King, since it was his biggest trump card. The more advanced the mech was, the more skilled its pilot should be to draw out its full potential, else the end result would be even worse than using a low ss mech. Hence, it was important for every mech pilot to use a mech that was best suited for him or her, and not simply choose the most advanced mech avable.

    The Mandate ss mech was the most advanced mech that Ye Chong had ever maneuvered before. Themands wereplicated, and on an entirely different levelpared to low level mechs. Somemands were designed to fit the Ye Family''s internal training, and hard to understand for outsiders.

    Ye Chong spent most of his time on these particrmands. He could only explore them slowly. Without understanding these specialmands, it would be hard to make use of even half of what Moon King was truly capable of.

    His hard work paid off, as shown by his current capabilities. Ye Chong believed that if he met the seven mechs again, he would have at least a 70 percent chance of defeating them. However, this sess came at a price. Since Ye Chong did not understand all the specialmands, every time he initiated one of them, he could only wait nervously until the mech performed its preset maneuvers.

    Once, on the ground, Ye Chong initiated one of the unknownmands, and Moon King suddenly turned around and went head first into the ground. Ye Chong nearly vomited from the violent movements. Later, he found out that it was actually a Three-step Zigzag Retreat. Surprises like this happened often and exhausting, even with Ye Chong''s strong body and mind.

    Ye Chong tried all 326 unknownmands in Moon King. This allowed him to be familiar with the mech and understand more about the Ye Family mech piloting skills.

    Feng Su was not doing much better than Ye Chong. The hellish training bore down heavily on her. Whatever weakness left in her was reced with a steel determination. Her eyes gleamed coldly with the readiness to kill. Tackan and his group kept her under strict watch, monitoring her every move. All her belongings were taken away, including her dimension keystone. They would only return them to her after the Congregation.

    "Let''s go. Seems that the guy''s noting back," Tackan said with disappointment.

    A young man with a wooden spear in hand walked towards them slowly.

    Ye Chong''s arrival was met with joy on Tackan''s side. Ye Chong stole a nce at Feng Su, and kept his surprise to himself. She looked like she had suffered plenty these days. She now seemed more ruthless due to Tackan and his gang''spany. For some reason, Ye Chong suddenly felt indifferent about her situation. If Shang were to see her now, would he still call her a beauty?

    __________________________________________________

    Mu and Shang was not aware of Ye Chong''s situation. They were now very busy. Due to the Shi Family''s cooperation, they had rapidly obtained a huge amount of resources. Thepletion of their first virtual world nodeboratory marked a significant improvement in their strength. Little Rock, the rigid genius, was the main star of theboratory. Hisputing skills were astonishing, and even Mu and Shang were thoroughly impressed.

    The virtual world was not asmon in the He Yua Gxy, but any slightly powerful organization would enter the virtual world. After all, information exchange in this ce was unparalleled. This also made the virtual world more singr in purposepared to that of the Five Gxies, but also more dangerous.

    Mu and Shang''s nodeboratory had been attacked for no less than two dozen times. The strength of each attack was unimaginable in the Five Gxies. Aside from the first three attacks, where Mu lent a hand to Little Rock, the rest of them were dealt only by Little Rock himself, showing his extraordinary skills as a Maverick. With solidputational skills for backing, careful nning and endless patience, Little Rock grew stronger and stronger as he fought in the arena of the virtual world.

    By now, He Yue Gxy was in a state of great tension. Therge scale military personnel reassignments by the Three Aristocratic Families were hard to miss for the curious ones, and even Little Rock could acquire plenty of information in this regard in the virtual world. Nheless, the Three Aristocratic Families did not exin their movements. No one knew where the military troops were reassigned to. They seemed to just vanish into thin air.

    This created anxiety for other local forces. For second tier aristocratic families like the Shi Family, it was very important news. Currently, they were amassing power, and needed a certain period of peace to adjust to their size. Once the war amongst the Three Aristocratic Families began, the He Yue Gxy would be plunged into a state of chaos, and the Shi Family must do its best to survive the turmoil.

    Just what was the Three Aristocratic Families were up to? No one had an answer to that question.

    "Sister Bing, don''t worry too much. Brother Ye will be fine," the little boy looked up at Rui Bing and offered some words offort. Around him were dozens of huge men, looking around anxiously as if expecting an enemy. No one expected the Young Master to go to the of Risserd. Now, almost the entire force of the Xue Lai n on that was converging onto his location.

    When Ye Chong was separated from them, they failed to find him. Left with no other choice, the young boy asked for assistance from the n''s forces on Dankwood. Still, there was no news of Ye Chong. With the uing Congregation, thergest event in the entire free space zone that was organized every four years, they believed that Ye Chong might just show himself there. It seemed like a usible idea. After leaving enough men to continue the search, the young boy and hispany headed for Risserd. They never would have expected Ye Chong to leave Dankwood for the of Guang Hua.

    In Flying Moon City, on Risserd. As the Congregation drew near, the number of strong individuals sharply increased in the vicinity. Where Jie Experts were rarely seen in other ces, they were noticeable everywhere here. It was no wonder that the young boy''s bodyguards were all nervous.

    Using mechs here in the open would be too conspicuous, but without mechs, they were helplessly weakpared to thebat experts around them. Moreover, the Youngest Young Master had always been eager to make trouble, thoroughly enjoying himself in the process.

    Looking at the curious eyes of their Youngest Young Master, the bodyguards could not help but feel dread for their future. Finally, Xua Lai n''s Risserd force leader could not stand it anymore, and said, "Youngest Young Master, let us return home for now. It''s better if wey low for now. Master Siva will be here in three days. Until then, your safety ¡­"

    "Lil'' Siva ising?" The young boy was surprised, and did not wee the news. He mumbled, "That guy, he''s just so boring." Hearing the Youngest Young Master referring to Siva as Lil'' Siva made the other bodyguards'' expressions turned ufortable. Siva was the strongest of the n, a mysterious character to most of the n''s members. There were numerous legends about him, but no one had seemed to have seen his face.

    It was strange to hear Xue i n''s Number One being referred to like a boy by another seven-year old boy. However, despite their odd expressions, none of themughed. Perhaps the Youngest Young Master was the only member of the Xue Lai n who dared to use the nickname "Lil'' Siva".

    Rui Bing was lost in thought, and did not seem to notice her surroundings. Her usual clear expression was now clouded in misery. After being separated from Ye Chong, she had been in a poor mood. Every time she thought of the numerous enemies that he faced, her heart ached; every time she recalled him getting further and further away from her, her heard bled. Until now, there was still no news of him.

    Seeing Rui Bing''s worried face, a sh of concern appeared in the young boy''s eyes. Suddenly, he thought of something, and tugged at Rui Bing''s sleeve and said, "Sister Bing, I''ve an idea."

    Rui Bing refocused herself. "What idea?" The young boy was mischievous, but smart. Perhaps he really had something useful.

    "Think about it, Sister Bin. The Congregation is attended by all strong individuals in the free space zone. Besides, I think that the names of those ranked in the first 10 will be spread to every. If Sister Bing can make it into the first 10, your name will be known throughout the entire free space zone." The young boy was already imagining it in his head as he said this.

    Rui Bing could not help but feel disappointed. She shook her head and inly said, "I have not been interested in those things since a long time ago."

    "No, not that," the young boy quickly exined, "If your name is known in the entire free space zone, then Brother Ye will surely know about it, right? If Brother Ye knows that Sister Bing is on Risserd, he will surely find a way to get here as soon as possible. Then you''ll be able to see each other again."

    Rui Bing jolted in realization, and froze in thought. After a long moment, she acknowledged his point softly. Her eyes cleared up until she looked like her usual self. Her eyes reflected an immovable determination.

    No one would have guessed that Ye Chong was also heading towards Risserd right then.

    In fact, Ye Chong was not the only one heading towards Risserd ¡­

 Chapter 418 - Feng Suâ€™s Transformation

    <h4>Chapter 418: Feng Su¡¯s Transformation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "We are now heading for Risserd. Both your candidacies in the Congregation are settled. Hehe, we from the of Guang Hua will surely surprise them all," Liu Sheng chatted eagerly with Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong received an entirely different form of treatmentpared to Feng Su, but thetter did not hold anything against him, since this was the result of their difference in strength. Ye Chong''s strength was acknowledged by everyone here, including Feng Su herself. The first to fight against Ye Chong was Tackan, and everyone else watched with interest, eager to be next themselves. If it was someone else, they would have been intimidated by the fierce res from so many strong people. However, for Ye Chong, who had spent time at the Sang Family Vige, it was only child''s y.

    No matter who Ye Chong fought against, everyone else would be there to watch the battle. After all, it was a rare opportunity to watch an expert fight. Watching him fight was important in improving themselves. After attaining Jie, any kind of improvement would be hard won, so Tackan and his group had came up with this method after much discussion.

    Feng Su was surprised every time she saw the young man fight. She felt increasingly familiar about the young man, but could not remember who he really was. She was confident of her feelings, and believed that she must have seen him before. It was only a matter of time before she remembered him.

    Nheless, this was the free space zone. She had never been here before. No one should look familiar to her here, so why was she having this strong sense of familiarity? The question vexed her.

    Feng Su had fought against Ye Chong countless times, but she was defeatedpletely every single time. Ye Chong never held back. He never particrly liked her anyway. It was just that sometimes seeing her reminded him of Shang, and that made him more wary. After all, he and the Xi Feng Tribe were in conflict.

    Now that he was stronger, Feng Su''sbat style no longer impressed him as much as when he first saw her. He could even tell how she made her tricky moves. Ye Chong was not a mentalist, but Huang Baiyi''s influence had given him a strong theoretical understanding of mentalist skills, stronger than Feng Su''s. Xi Feng Tribe''s mentalists failed to inherit a lot of their predecessors'' knowledge. In terms of mentalist skill theory, Ye Chong was definitely superior.

    However, Ye Chong did not tell any of this to Feng Su, but adopted an apathy towards her instead.

    "These are the youngdy''s things, best if you keep them. I''m just a careless guy, I might just lose them somewhere." Liu Sheng handed over a small bag. After some time of getting to know each other, Ye Chong and the six in the group had formed a strange form of friendship.

    "Okay." Ye Chong took the small bag. He opened it to inspect, and found a dimension keystone inside. Without betraying his findings, Ye Chong epted the small bag quietly. The dimension keystone itself was not particrly valuable to him. All advanced level mechs of the Three Aristocratic Families would keep their owner''s information in them, even after the master''s death. Hence, outsiders would almost never be able to get their hands on advanced level mechs from the Three Aristocratic Families. It was extremely unlikely to have a person like Ye Luo, who would willingly give away his mech.

    However, Ye Chong still epted the bag. With the dimension keystone in his hands, Feng Su''s usage of her mech would be for him to decide. Without her mech, Feng Su was like a toothless tiger, unable to touch him. Otherwise, Ye Chong would never have one of Xi Feng Tribe''s advanced level mech pilots so close to him.

    The starry sky outside the starship was mesmerizing. Ye Chong suddenly had an impulse to just leave the starship with Moon King. It must be a wonderful experience, flying Moon King in outer space.

    Ye Chong and the rest of them were now in a starship, albeit a very ancient one. Fortunately, Ye Chong had experience with it, so he was not too surprised. Feng Su, however, was seeing a starship this old for the first time, and could not hide the surprise in her eyes.

    "First time riding a starship, huh?" Liu Sheng grinned widely. Once he grew close to someone, he would turn very friendly. He had asked his question because for most of the residents in the free space zone, few of them had ever sat in a starship.

    Seeing the ancient starship, Ye Chong nodded a little helplessly and replied, "Yes, first time."

    "Hehe, don''t worry. You''ll get to fly with her again in another four years. You know, the first time I flew in thisrge metal can, I got dizzy as hell. After that, I got used to it. Truth be told, she flies too slowly, this one. Such a bore!" Liu Sheng shrugged and exined, affecting a weathered tone.

    The starship was far fromfortable, and itcked in facilities, nothingpared to the luxury of Cob. Ye Chong nodded in agreement. "Yes, you''re right." He could not help but notice Feng Su, who was holding on against Sisko''s fierce attacks. He was surprised to see her improve so fast.

    Hearing Ye Chong''s agreement, Liu Sheng continued, encouraged, "Sigh, ain''t that it? The journey''s long and dry. If only I can bring along ady or two to help pass the time!" Liu Sheng looked regretful.

    Ye Chong''s attention was diverted to the fight between the two. Feng Su seemed to show an unusual persistence, and her rare retaliations were sharp, disrupting Sisko''s rhythm.

    Observing the battle from the outside, Ye Chong realized that Feng Su''s special ability must have been awakened. Initially, Ye Chong had thought it odd that Feng Su, a Jie expert, performed so weakly. However, after watching her fighting against others repeatedly, he gradually realized that firstly, sheckedbat experience, and secondly, her special ability was not yet awakened.

    Xi Feng Tribe had a long history in mentalist training. What would their special ability look like? Ye Chong''s apathy was broken by a sudden curiosity.

    "Huh?" Even Liu Sheng began to notice something was amiss.

    Sisko was very strong. His bulky muscles showed as much, making him look like a small tower of a person. His muscles bulged up with angr edges, which gave him a scary look. He was ill tempered, and fought like a mad berserker. His overwhelming attacks was also a pain for Ye Chong. His techniques were simple and practical, with no flowery moves, aiming to win by pure strength. Besides, his stamina was just as impressive as his muscles. He could sustain his attacks continuously for long periods of time.

    Before hisrge, towering figure, Feng Su looked just like a seven year old girl standing before arge man. A mad beast fighting against a weak and beautiful woman - this was the proverbial beauty and the beast.

    Usually, Feng Su could only brace herself against Sisko''s attacks like a tiny boat weathering a storm in the middle of the sea. Her strength was like a mosquito''s against Sisko - they were onpletely different levels.

    Today, Feng Su remained on the defense, barely holding off her opponent, but with all the expert eyes studying the fight, of course they would notice that something was different!

    However, the only one who knew exactly what was going on was Ye Chong. He understood the situation even better than Feng Su herself. Huang Baiyi''s education on mentalists allowed him to make an urate analysis of the situation.

    "Hmm, Mental Foresight, a very practical skill." Ye Chong thought to himself as he watched Feng Su grew steadier and more rxed in her battle.

    The transformation of a Jie expert was often over in a second, but this short moment was the culmination of all earlier experiences, none of which could have been skipped over.

    Feng Su moved like a delicate butterfly, avoiding the continuous blows with ease. It was as if she could predict Sisko''s every move. Often when Sisko had just began his attack move, she already had begun her evasion.

    It was a strange sight to behold. The two of them were like a pair of coordinated lovers. Soon, Sisko''s attacks could no longer touch Feng Su. His every attack was avoided, and that frustrated him to no end. However, Feng Su could not pose a threat to Sisko too, since she could not hope topare against the man''s strength or speed.

    Ye Chong''s mind was turning quickly, trying to figure out a way to ovee this special skill. Huang Baiyi had said that it felt like watching an event on rewind in his head. The fierce battle no longer held his interest. He lowered his head and began to think.

    Once he began, Ye Chong did not stop thinking about it for three days. In these three days, Feng Su had challenged another four of the group. Aside from Dong Mo, who had won against Feng Su with great difficulty, the other three had ended up in a tie against her. Of course, as an alchemist, Kurdi was not one of Feng Su''s opponents.

    These battles eventually led the group to acknowledge her status as an equal in the group. Strength determined everything. Since she was strong, she would receive equal treatment.

    On the fourth day, Feng Su approached Ye Chong.

    "Please return my things to me," Feng Su demanded coldly. She heard from Liu Sheng that her bag was not in the hands of this young man. After spending so many days enclosed in the ship, her dark skin had turned fair again. Her former beauty was once again presented to the people around her.

    Ye Chong lifted his head, annoyed by the disruption in his thought process.

    Ye Chong looked at Feng Su, and was surprised to find that she looked a little different. She was imbued with faint a sense of confidence found in skillful experts.

    "Please return my things to me!" Feng Su repeated her request louder, raising her eyebrow.

    Ye Chong studied her silently for half a minute before replying in a gentle but determined voice, "I refuse."

    Returning her things to her! Ye Chong was not like the other six ignorant people. To return the dimension keystone to this strong and definitely not friendly mech pilot was something that Ye Chong would never do.

    The other six in the group looked towards them, surprised. They could not understand why Ye Chong would deny this perfectly reasonable request.

 Chapter 419 - This Young Man Is A Little Cold

    <h4>Chapter 419: This Young Man Is A Little Cold</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    She suddenly reached out with her right hand, her hand fisted and aimed towards Ye Chong''s weak spot.

    If she had learned anything at all recently, it was all of the qualities that make for a finebat expert. That punch came abruptly without warning. Her battles against Sisko and his group these days had made her more confident of herself.

    Ye Chong leapt back lightly in a seemingly impossible step, avoiding the blow.

    Tackan and the others immediately began to follow Ye Chong''s every move closely. After her transformation, Feng Su was bing a problem to solve for them. They could not find her weakness. They wanted to see how Ye Chong would deal with her.

    The situation looked precarious, but Ye Chong''s expression was calm and collected, without any changes.

    He avoided the blow, but the danger was not over yet. Feng Su seemed to have anticipated Ye Chong''s move. She stepped lightly on the ground andunched herself forward, straight towards Ye Chong. She pulled back her fist, ready to punch.

    Feng Su''s eyes were fixed on the young man before her. She could even see every movement of his muscles.

    Ye Chong''s brows knitted together. His upper body was rigid as his right arm suddenly extended out like a whip towards Feng Su.

    That seemingly impossible motion caught the attention of Tackan and his group. They had never seen Ye Chong use this move when fighting against them before. Everyone stood up instinctively and approached the fighting pair.

    The September Lan Family''s muscle control techniques allowed Ye Chong to execute bizarre movements. These movements were all surprising and difficult to predict.

    This time, however, it did not hinder his opponent, much to his surprise. As if she knew exactly what Ye Chong would do, Feng Su suddenly bent down and evaded Ye Chong''s right arm, her right fisting towards Ye Chong like a bolt of lightning.

    "Roar!" Ye Chong suddenly cried out! Mortal Roar! It was also a technique of the September Lan Family.

    A formless sound wave spread out rapidly away from him.

    Unexpectedly, the wide range attack had affected the observers more. The ones who were watching immediately howled in pain, blocking their ears with their hands as they retreated quickly.

    The one closest to Ye Chong, Feng Su, was affected the least. Just as Ye Chong began his Mortal Roar, she had already slipped backwards quickly, and only the aftershocks of the attack managed to ruffle her hair.

    Once again, the distance between the two of them was widened.

    Feng Su''s eyes turned serious. As expected, this young man was the hardest of the group to deal with. She did not initiate an attack again. The Mortal Roar had made her wary.

    Ye Chong began to look at Feng Su in a new light. This new Feng Su was more difficult to deal with than he had imagined. Ye Chong had fought with Feng Su before this, and her current powers of foresight were much stronger than before. Her foresight ability now was enough to make Ye Chong feel threatened. Even that Mortal Roar, an attack that had almost no precursor moves, had been easily avoided by her. This foresight ability was truly powerful.

    These few days, Ye Chong had been thinking about the weakness of Feng Su''s special technique. He knew that every technique would have its own weaknesses, elements that could not be handled well by the technique. If this blind spot was properly taken advantage of, winning would not be an issue.

    Huang Baiyi had said that mentalists were more sensitive than most to changes in their surroundings due to long periods of mental training. In this respect, mentalists were even better thanbat experts. Besides, they were very sensitive to threats. For someone as powerful as Huang Baiyi, he would literally be able to tell the exact moment someone had thoughts of killing him.

    Mental Foresight was based on these two kinds of sensitivities.

    It was not tooplicated to exin it, but to reach Feng Su''s level of ability would require very long periods of hard work and an element of luck. Even knowing the theory behind this technique, Ye Chong still could not figure out how to fight her. If she could avoid an attack like Mortal Roar, then Ye Chong could not even be certain if it was because of Feng Su''s instinct or her sensitivity to her surroundings.

    These were two entirely different concepts.

    If it was instinct, then Ye Chong would not worry too much about it. Even Huang Baiyi had admitted that the skill was not always urate. The man''s instincts were urate only about 20 to 30 percent of the time. Only God would have a perfect instinct. If someone of Huang Baiyi''s level could only have 20 to 30 percent uracy when ites to instincts, then Feng Su would definitely not be better than that.

    If it was due to the sensitivity to her surroundings, then the problem became much harder. This was unlike instinct, its uracy not attributed to luck, but to skill. Besides, any person trained as a mentalist would be mentally strong enough to avoid careless mistakes.

    The two of them stared at each other without moving. As he stared coldly at his opponent, Ye Chong suddenly felt his body temperature rising. This new experience had got him excited!

    The paradoxical emotion of calmness and excitement were melded together perfectly in him once again.

    Tension filled the air between them. The others who were watching were also excited. Battles of this level were hard to find, and they had a feeling that the young man was about to fight for real! Everyone kept their eyes peeled, for fear of missing a single detail.

    Ye Chong concentrated like never before. Blue lines appeared in his vision, somerge, some small, and blue dots in a variety of brightness.were scattered between these blue lines.

    Facing an unknown threat, Ye Chong''s special technique from attaining Jie now revealed itself.

    Dangerous! Ye Chong''s entire being was radiating with danger that felt like a solid barrier. No one expected to see that typically calm andposed young man to be so strong! Tackan and his friends began to feel terrified. They retreated slowly, trying their best to avoid attention.

    Feng Su''s expression changed. Her opponent''s strength had far exceeded her expectations.

    "Well, take them if you want. I don''t care much for them anyway. Heehee, it''s a gift to you, remember that, think of it as a love token, so take care of it!"

    Just when everyone thought a colossal battle was impending, Feng Su suddenly smiled, stretching her curvy waist. Her curves were once described by Shang as the most beautiful of all, and she was now as bewitching as ever. Even more enticing was herzy and teasing demeanor, done in an entirely natural way.

    The coldness in Feng Su left, and was reced with devilish charm. Her smile was like a spring breeze, thawing the ice of the earlier cold tension.

    She stretched her neck smoothly and without wariness before Ye Chong, all the defensiveness gone from her every move, as though Ye Chong was her lover, quietly studying her beauty.

    This abrupt twist waspletely unexpected, and Tackan and his friends could only stare with their mouths open wide, sighing unconsciously.

    Ye Chong studied Feng Su quietly, a dangerous aura still emanating from him.

    Feng Su''s hair was shook loose from her hair band due to Ye Chong''s Mortal Roar. Her dark, gleaming tress flowed down along her body. Feng Su stole a quick, yful look at Ye Chong, and quickly looked away. Her slender, fair handsbed through her hair softly in a feminine fashion.

    Suddenly, everyone felt the dangerous aura vanish from the room.

    Ye Chong turned away coldly and left, without looking back at Feng Su.

    As Ye Chong finally disappeared from view, Feng Su''s tense body finally rxed. No one noticed that her back was already covered in sweat.

    In theing days, Feng Su behaved obediently, the ruthless character in her hidden deep inside. She was once again the beautiful and mesmerizing Feng Su from before. Her every move was tantalizing, the very image of the Devil''s charms.

    Even Sisko, whocked aesthetic appreciation, was beginning to look at her more.

    The only one who was unaffected was Ye Chong.

    Feng Su spent the most time with Ye Chong. She noticed now that as long as she did not interrupt his thought, the young man would not care about whether she was near him.

    More discouraging was the fact that, no matter how she tried to seduce him, the young man seemed to have a heart made of stone, and he never budged.

    This frustrated Feng Su to no end. On the other hand, the young man had tied her small bag onto his waist, where she could almost reach it.

    But she never would! She believed that if she tried that, the consequences would be unbearable. Would he kill her? It was more than likely! She would not risk her life for that. Every day, she could only watch her bag on the young man''s waist from afar, cursing the stone hearted young man.

    One thing vexed her as well - could the young man actually recognized what was in her bag? She sat beside him, thinking about it. The young man was also deep in thought, and she dared not disturb him.

    Could he have recognized the dimension keystone? Could he be an outsider, just like her? If this was the case ¡­ Her pulse quickened!

    Ye Chong was very sensitive to his surroundings, and Feng Su''s suddenly elerated pulse rate broke his train of thought. He took an odd nce at Feng Su.

    Noticing Ye Chong''s gaze, Feng Su returned it with a sweet smile, and quickly lowered her head.

    Ye Chong did not mind her, and continued on with his thoughts.

 Chapter 420 - Arriving At Risserd

    <h4>Chapter 420: Arriving At Risserd</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "To join the Congregation is not hard at all. Hehe, I''ve done my homework. Risserd has 20 ces reserved, 10 more than others. As long as you can beat one of them, Sister Bing, the rest will be easy." The young boy rested his chin on his hands as he exined with a smile.

    Rui Bing thought about it for a moment, saying nothing.

    The general, leader of the young boy''s bodyguards, said oddly, "Master Siva should be here by today! Why has he not shown himself?" The legendary Number One of the Tribe was someone he respected a lot, that was why he was beginning to feel nervous.

    The young boy rolled his eyes and said, "Lil'' Siva is here already. You just don''t know it."

    "Where? Where?" The general looked around him, but could not see the person he admired so much.

    "No need to find him, you won''t find him anyway. Lil'' Siva never likes toe out in the open," the young boy said this like someone who knew it best.

    "Huh, when did you get this?" Fei Si lowered herself and studied the pendant hanging from the young boy''s neck. The pendant was made of some unknown material, shining with a dim metallic glimmer like a coin, covered with strange patterns.

    "So huge!" The young boy did not answer her as he stared nkly at the exposed point between her open cor.

    "So naughty at such a young age! You asked for it!" Fei Si blushed and flicked her finger lightly on his forehead.

    Fei Si''s action made the bodyguards around them immediately ufortable.

    The young boy rubbed his forehead andughed suggestively. "Sister Fei Si ¡­"

    Seeing the young boy''s odd expression, Fei Si blushed again. She raised her hand in the act of hitting him and said, "Humph, guess I''ll have to teach you a lesson!"

    The young boy quickly ran away, but stillughing weirdly as he left.

    "What? You haven''t found him?" Huang Jiming sounded disappointed. He had arrived at Guang Hua for some time, but there was no news of the Mandate ss mech. It was like the mech had vanished into thin air.

    "Yes, Master Jiming. We have kept all known Ye Family''s base of operations on Guang Hua under surveince, but there''s still no sign of the mech. There''s also no news on Madam Feng Su yet. We believe that she must have met with a fatal ident." Xi Feng Tribe''s temporary person in charge on Guang Hua reported respectfully. Ever since the Abductor incident, Xi Feng Tribe had removed nearly all their forces from Guang Hua. These days, they only allocated limited resources discreetly on Guang Hua. In searching for Feng Su, the Tribe had used all personnel on the, and even reassigned people from nearbys to assist in the search.

    "Hmm, the search for Madam Feng Su must not cease," Huang Jiming spoke with a low voice. Feng Su may not be enjoying as high a reputation as Huang Jiming himself in the Tribe, but she was very popr. Feng Su was not originally from the Xi Feng Tribe, but she had attained Jie from her own efforts, and was conferred a Phoenix ss mech by the Tribe Leader herself. This was an honor that was unprecedented. Huang Jiming admired her for this as well. Of course, the other reason was her otherworldly beauty. Many mech pilots in the Tribe had a crush on her, and Huang Jiming himself could not help but felt curious of the young woman too.

    Since the Mandate ss mech was nowhere to be found, Huang Jiming felt deted. He asked, "So, what''s there to do in the free space zone?" This was his first time in the free space zone. Rumour had it that this was where the Tribe originated from, and that was one of the reasons he wanted toe here.

    "If Sir would like to sightsee, Risserd would be a good choice. The quadrennial Congregation is about to begin. If Master Jiming is avable, it is an event that might be worth your attention. Many experts would gather there. There are no mech pilots, but thebat experts, mentalists and alchemists present are much stronger than our people."

    "Oh, a Congregation?" Huang Jiming''s interest was instantly piqued.

    The starshipnded smoothly.

    The only families that owned starships on Risserd were the Yan and Huang Families. These two families were the Big Two in the entire free space zone. They also had the longest historiespared to any other tribe in the free pace zone, and enjoyed high reputation. The two families gave birth to many strong members, and they often took up half of Risserd''s allocated openings for the Congregation.

    Guests for the Congregation this year were handled by the Yan Family.

    When Ye Chong and hispany left the starship, they found that the dock was almost full with other starships. It seemed that many Congregation members from others had already arrived. The docking area of the Yan and Huang Families was thergest in the entire free space zone.

    Ye Chong and his bunch did not stand out much. Guang Hua was an alchemist center, but it was already below averagepared the entire free space zone in terms ofbat.

    As they left the ship, staff members appeared for ushering. This was not the first trip for Tackan and his friends, so they were familiar with the procedure.

    Ye Chong andpany were led into the Yan Familypound. Every''s Congregation representatives would be provided with special amodation.

    "This will be where you stay throughout the Congregation. Our Family will provide your meals. If you have other requests, please let us know. We will do what we can to assist you." The usherer from the Yan Family bowed formally, but he could not help but steal a nce at Feng Su. Female Jie experts were rare, and female Jie experts who could attend the Congregation were rarer still.

    Of course, more importantly, this was a very beautiful Congregation contender. She would definitely rank high in the lineup of the most beautiful female Congregation contenders in history.

    "Alright." It was Liu Sheng who replied with courtesy. No matter how bad they behaved normally, it would not do to act carelessly in the Yan Family.

    The Yan Family disciple disciplined himself as well as someone from an aristocratic family ought to, quickly directing his attention away from Feng Su,posed himself, and said, "I hope you will all feel at home. Thest group of Congregation contenders will be arriving tomorrow afternoon. The Family head and wife has prepared a banquet to wee all of you. Please honor us with your presence!"

    "Of course! We''ll be sure to join you," Liu Sheng answered swiftly.

    Liu Sheng''s attitude must have won the usherer''s favor, for the man smiled as he said, "You must be tired from your long journey. Please rest well." He then left their house.

    "It''s best if everyone stayed within the building. Any sightseeing of the area can wait until after the Congregation. If you have to leave for urgent matters, remember to bring your weapon with you," Liu Sheng advised the group seriously, but the words were obviously meant for Ye Chong and Feng Su. They were the only neers. The rest of the group did not even deign to pay him any attention.

    "Is it really that dicey out there?" Feng Su asked in surprise.

    "Dicey?" Liu Sheng chuckled carelessly and said, "That word doesn''t quite describe it. Many capable people died right here every year, you know? Risserd has another name, called the Pro''s Graveyard. Don''t think that Jie experts can do as they please here. The Jie experts here, hehe, you''ll know exactly how strong they are very soon."

    Ye Chong ignored him. He did not intend to go out anyway. Sightseeing was not one of his hobbies. Besides, he did not want to get into trouble. While his looks had been altered, making him difficult to be recognized, it was still better toy low. Ye Chong understood the importance of that.

    Feng Su thought about it for a moment, and returned to her room as well.

    The Congregation, a spectacr event that many had dreamed to be a part of, did not excite Ye Chong at all. The only reason he was here was because he had promised Tackan and his group, and also because he was a little curious of all the experts that were said to surface in this event. However, he would mostly observe the Congregation without getting involved. This was only a chance to expand his worldview. He did not care to think about what role he should y in the event.

    Because of his intentions, Ye Chong was quite rxed, while Liu Sheng and others were all stressed out.

    Dinner was sent over by the Yan Family''s people. The meal was excellent, and Ye Chong went into a good mood because of it.

    After dinner, when Ye Chong was about to return to his room, he suddenly heard Feng Su said, "I want to go out for a walk, anyone want to apany me?" Her sweet voice was tempting.

    Liu Sheng andpany could not help but frown. They did not expect Feng Su to actually n to head out.

    Just when everyone was at a lost, a calm voice came from behind them, saying, "Don''t go out."

    It was Ye Chong. He had reached the door, and stood before it to stop her from leaving. Letting Feng Su out? He knew exactly who Feng Su was. It was impossible for the Xi Feng Tribe to be powerless on such an important. If he let Feng Su out now, she would surely return with a whole squad of mechs to kill them. It would be toote for him then.

    "You''re stopping me? Why?" Feng Su asked calmly, as though Ye Chong''s objection was expected.

    The others looked to Ye Chong. They had noticed the strange rtionship between the two of them. When Ye Chong first refused to return Feng Su''s bag, they had already thought it strange. The fact that he was stopping her from leaving now was even more confusing. Was he worried about Feng Su? The cold look on Ye Chong''s face ruled out that possibility.

    "No particr reason." Ye Chong did not budge.

    "You know who I am, don''t you?" Feng Su''s eyes were fixed on Ye Chong as she asked this question out of the blue.

 Chapter 421 - Heroes Are Gathering

    <h4>Chapter 421: Heroes Are Gathering</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Yes," said Ye Chong with a firm nod as he did not intend to decline.

    "What¡­" The reply was part of Feng Su''s prediction but it still sounded shockinging from Ye Chong''s mouth, "What *are* you¡­?"

    "I can''t tell you."

    "Do you really think you could defeat me?" Feng Su said in a threatening tone. If the foe was fully aware of her identity as well as her hand, her security would be very much breached.

    The atmosphere grew cold as Tackan stood up with the rest. As being unaware of the exact rtionship between the two persons, they did not state their stance yet. It simply was not the time yet, they should observe for now. They identified someone''s stranding by the strength and Feng Su had earned their respect with her strength, thus she shared the equal status with the entire team.

    "Do you think you could leave here safely if I went all out?" That was thest nail to the coffin, seriously Ye Chong no longer had a way out without a fight. Tackan and the others started frowning. The group had already divided against itself before the Congregation even started. A battle would take ce, and very likely it would be a dead-or-alive battle. The others looked at the silent two worrisomely. They did not intend to get involved in the conflict however, as a sign of respect towards the strong.

    "Your physic abilities are pretty good," initiated Ye Chong, "but they do not impose threats on me. Your coordinationcks practice," said Ye Chong briefly which had caused Feng Su''s eyes to erge.

    "Coordi-what?" Tackan sounded confused, so were his men. That was the first time they heard of such term.

    Feng Su''s rationality sank deep into the abyss, as her quivering eyes set upon that frail-looking silhouette at the door. It was not strange for outsiders like Tackan''s group to not understand the term "coordination", since it was a specialized term that meant the coordination between one''s mentality and body in Mentalist''s studies.

    But how in the world does he know "coordination"? That is a term only known by the real professionals, an umon term in the field too¡­ Wait, he said my coordinationcks practices¡­ so¡­

    Feng Su was not foolish, she realized the weakness of her ability the moment Ye Chong mentioned it.

    She had very good mental foresight but her body could not follow the pace of her vision, causing a tiny dy between each session and that was more than enough to cost her life!

    Feng Su''s face went all chalky out of sudden, as her biggest weakness - which she herself never realized - just got revealed by one stranger. Her will to battle extinguished, as being truly horrified.

    Horrible¡­ This boy is horrible¡­

    Her eyes went frightfully wide.

    Her only reliance had been revealed to be totally unreliable. Her trump card was flipped right to the floor by her foe. The fear in Feng Su''s eyes was fully captured by Ye Chong, who acted all calm and unreadable. Well, it did take Ye Chong a few days to identify the issue of Feng Su''s foresight ability. Feng Su might be one of the few top mentalists among her tribe, but Ye Chong had way better understanding and experience with mentalists'' studies. So he eventually saw it, the very weakness of her future sight.

    It only took one simple line from Ye Chong to shatter everyst bit of confidence in Feng Su.

    Feng Su red at Ye Chong, with the vanishing entity in her eyes.

    The staringsted for about 10 minutes and Ye Chong remained indifferent. Tackan and the rest had be fairly cautious of this boy, as warning of not messing with him kept ringing inside their head.

    Feng Su then stormed back into her room without a word.

    ¡­ (Meanwhile)¡­

    Ye Yin sat right next to Ye Luo.

    "Didn''t you say that he might being for the Congregation?" asked Ye Yin nonchntly.

    "As you''ve heard, he *might*, the modal verb is used to express possibility. If I wanted to say he''sing for sure, I''ll use the modal verb *must*."

    "What do you mean?" asked Ye Yin angrily with a raise of brows.

    "Alright, alright¡­," Ye Luo repliedboriously. "Keep your ''I''m Ye Yin the Great'' look, how many times must I remind you of this? Stay low! Stay low! You must stay low! At this rate you seriously could begin counting the number of eyes at us now."

    "I too, must remind you," Ye Yin tried inhibiting his fury, "It is the leader''s order to bring him back! Are you implying a mutiny on your side?"

    "Holy Ye!" Ye Luo exaggerated his tone. "Didn''t I look cooperative enough? Which part of me said ''mutiny''? Did I betray anything? Do you know how many connections I''ve utilized in order to get you on this ship? You said you wanted to go to the Congregation, then I got you to the Congregation. Without a single hesitation. Please stop using the innocent!"

    Ye Yin, the number one pilot of Ye family was finding this Ye Luo a handful child to have on a ride. Well, Ye Luo had always been that troubling child in his eyes since childhood. Ye Yin was the first pilot in the family, while Ye Luo was the first martial arts practitioner in the family. Both of them achieved something in the end. Moreover, Ye Luo was also the eldest son in the family, thus his fearless attitude towards Ye Yin. The mission of escorting Ye Chong did not work well this time, although Ye Yin identallyted Ye Luo eventually. He could not be simply letting Ye Luo go, since Ye Luo was the one who submitted the report to the family, he *must* know Ye Chong''s whereabouts.

    He would love to cooperate, but Ye Luo was never the cooperative kind in the family, not even under every sincere plight and Ye Yin could not force him to work his way. This Ye Luo was shameless enough to remain the same stubborn even after being ced on a guillotine, and Ye Yin hated that to the core. Ye Luo agreed to "assist" him only when Ye Yin used the name of the leader in the first ce.

    And that was why they headed to Risserd, as Ye Luo said that Ye Chong could be joining the Congregation this year. Ye Luo was fine with the operation, on one single condition - only Ye Yin would be allowed toe along. Well Ye Yin was confident in settling Ye Chong singlehandedly, he was the top fighter in He Yue gxy after all.

    Hah, the truth was, Ye Luo told Ye Yin that it might be likely to see the boy at the Congregation merely because Ye Luo wanted to join the Congregation himself. Yes, it was a fabrication to gain a free ride to the Congregation. He was qualified being the ace of Dankwood''sst congregation anyway. Regarding the leader''s "ultimate order", he did not care. He would love toe alone but certainly Ye Yin would never allow that.

    Ye Luo must attend the Congregation, by hook or by crook. He was willing to kill in order to attend the event. He would kill himself if he did not make it.

    Well, so, Ye Luo, by making an excuse of bringing his brother to have a mind-opening operation, dragged Ye Yin to the ship. Those dismissive looks from the crew members had asionally enraged Ye Yin a few times.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    "Who¡­ should we¡­ mess¡­ with¡­," muttered the little boy, with thumb on his chin, as he skimmed through the list.

    Both Yan and Huang families are too skillful to mess with, so they are a big no-no.

    So¡­ hmmmm

    The little boy pondered, "Ah¡­" He reached out his fleshy finger, "He''ll do," with a smile at the beautiful sister near him.

    ¡­(Congregation ~ the day before~)¡­

    Something happened that caught everyone''s attention, even before the eventmenced.

    Doc Danelles, the top fighter of Risserd had apparently received an appointed challenge from a white-garbeddy at his amodation.

    Every other fighters nearby were rmed, as they watched Danelles epting the challenge like a man.

    The oue? He lost and he sincerely transferred his rights to this white-garbeddy.

    Everyone agreed as they backed off.

    The discussion started brewing among the residents, not on the strength of thisdy, but on that freezing charm of hers. It took only a few days for Rui Bing to be the hottest topic for the Congregation this year.

    "Rui Bing? Are all females this strong today?" muttered Huang Jiming at one corner of the hotel''s lobby. Congregation is so intriguing. I have never see this in the tribe, maybe¡­ maybe I should join too.

    Somehow the thought had caught onto Huang Jiming.

    He would not be joining as a martial arts practitioner, since he knew his fists well. Alchemy? Nah, he could not even differentiate a tube and a sk. He could try his luck joining as a mentalist though, since his Xi Feng tribe was the local resident of free space zone while being the few top tribes of master mentalist, although most of his descendants had moved on to piloting. He believed he could still do something with his mentalist capabilities.

    I might not be able to find that fe, but at least this sounds entertaining enough.

    Thought Huang Jiming with a bright smile, which somehow caught the attention of the waitress who poured too much tea in the cup.

    Andter in the afternoon, a rather handsome mentalist had sessfully joined the show too. All females in Flying Moon City started following his news right away.

    People were excited, even before the Congregation had officiallymenced. The participants literally spelled a different congregation this year.

    "Alright, we are going for the dining party," reminded Liu Sheng drowsily. "Yawn¡­ wake me up when we hit main course."

    Rui Bing took a look at her invitation, she passed a look of confusion at the little boy. She did not move into Yan family''s residence like other participants.

    She just got her invitation.

    "Go, just go, why won''t you go?"ughed the little boy, who somehow had be manager of Rui Bing''s fighting career. He seemed pretty passionate about it too. "But remember to tag me along, Sister Bing!" he said as he reached out his fleshy arm.

    Huang Jiming also had just received the invitation. Yan family the host did not reckon the sudden participation from both of them so the invitation got a bitte. Anyway Huang Jiming took a look at the invitation interestingly, he could feel his blood heating up. How could he be not excited when he would be seeing all other experts from their respective fields?

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    "What? Wait, what? Come again? You are going? Excuuuuseee me? They invited *me*, not you. Look at the name, it says ''Ye Luo'', L-U-O, there''s no Y-I-N behind." There Ye Luo was, shouting in his room, "They did not invite you, so why are youing? Huh? Hmm? You would like to follow me? You want to stay by my side at every single moment possible? Do I look not straight enough for you? Please, they might think you are some hobo looking for free food or something. You are still a known celeb alright? So stay royal. What? You don''t care? Alright, alright, alright, here''s my white g, juste along. Just pretend you are also invited. Happy?" said Ye Luo helplessly to Ye Yin.

 Chapter 422 - A Stones thrown away fromâ€¦

    <h4>Chapter 422: A Stone''s thrown away from¡­</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The host of the Congregation was Yan family this year, and it has been a tradition where there would be a dining party like this before everymencement, you could encounter with fellow participants here to socialize a little since it was a rare opportunity to have experts this many in one hall.

    This dining party was the prime event in free space zone, while there was the leader of Yan family and the olddy showing up at the party this year. Certainly the leader of the hosting family was renowned, but the olddy was no simple figure either.

    Because of the annual event, Risserd had gathered all sorts of youth talents from every corner, and no doubt the Abductor once showed up and attempted to seize a prey or two.

    So what this olddy did was, she allied with the few known forces on Risserd, like Huang family for example, and had wiped out every base of the Abductor on Risserd. The mission was sessful, which had won over respect of the people towards the olddy.

    She had never joined the dining party before, but somehow this year she decided to show up.

    Ye Chong tailed Feng Su obediently. He had to follow at every of her steps since it would be horrible if she had a chance to work on something. He could not help but to shudder even to the slightest thought of Feng Su calling a whole flock of Xi Feng mechs to hunt him down.

    But in no time Ye Chong realized how he had just invited trouble himself.

    Constant stares came from the other Jie experts at the venue, which raided upon him like an arrow shower. Why the stare? Feng Su did not show up in her veil of course. Her absolute beauty had been presented to the folks again.

    She worked a little harder dressing up herself this time. This fine violet one piece was the finest thread from Yan family upon request. With her dreamy charm, she certainly looked like a blooming violet. Her lovely waists had sketched sexiness with her low and opened cor, as the corbones breathed in the air, revealing the glossy smooth skin of hers under the gentle light of the hall.

    She was not the only woman but she might be the only and also the fairest woman in the room. Those female martial arts practitioners, mentalists, alchemists might have greater skills than her, but they knew nothing about the vibrant life, so it was wholly the duckling to the swam, a strong contrast.

    Feng Su had dominated the entire hall with her beauty once again.

    Well¡­ because of her superb beauty, Ye Chong felt like that toad on the lily pad nearby¡­ which caused some unidentifiable furying from the sightseers¡­ he was feeling uneasy with the constant res that his back had been soaked wet despite that indifferent expression of his.

    Hah! Snorted Feng Su, feeling great as she nced at Ye Chong. She had been cracking her head finding a way to pressure Ye Chong but she seemed out of luck. Now, all she had to do was to groove in the hall and he would be sweating heavily by the attention, of envy of course.

    "Hmm~" With a seductive smile, Feng Su leaned against Ye Chong as she wrapped herself upon him.

    At that moment, Ye Chong could feel the army had reced their ammo to throwing knives, it was no longer an arrow shower of re, but a raid of thousand knives! His hands even began shivering!

    Disdainful snorts and hmphs echoed in the room. If it was not because of their respects towards the host, Ye Chong probably would have been sliced into the cluster of stars.

    "Don''t y with fire," whispered Ye Chong in a warning tone.

    "Hah!" Feng Su giggled as the grip tightened, "Like this?" The entanglement intensified!

    "Don''t you like it? Hmm?" whispered Feng Su, breathing into Ye Chong''s ears.

    "Hmph!" snorted Ye Chong.

    Feng Su flinched as her head retreated.

    It was no ordinary snort. Ye Chong actually performed a Mortal Roar just now, a miniature version of it of course. But Feng Su was pretty close to Ye Chong, so even a miniature version could pack a punch to her.

    It was a simple gesture yet fairly identifiable among the Jie experts, Ye Chong then felt the showering attack reduced drastically.

    Feng Su then behaved herself as she backed off.

    "OH! IF IT WASN''T LIU!"

    "YES! IT''S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE WE''VE MET!"

    The hall was spacious, while also being crowded. Greetings of reunion could be heard roaring in the room all the time. They were martial arts practitioners after all, and they sure had a strong diaphragm, they literally enunciated their courtesy, which caused the noises.

    "This is a dining party?" Feng Su''s expression was dull, well, she was once a somebody of the showbiz in 5 major gxies and had joined various socialites'' party before, but never once she had seen such a messy party.

    Tackan and his group had made a wise decision of distancing themselves from both Ye Chong and Feng Su. It was simply heart burning to see both of them exploding randomly during the event.

    Again, Ye Chong, to stay low, had dragged Feng Su all the way to one corner and sat down.

    But little did he know that, there was one handsome man observing them.

    "Oh my!"

    "Is that¡­"

    "Gasp¡­"

    If Feng Su''s arrival created the first uproar in the party, then Rui Bing must be the second storm tonight.

    Rui Bing, in her white garb, was leading a cute little boy into the hall.

    Her chilly charm, tinted with the slight tenacity and the chivalry of a true fighter, had grabbed the attention of the people.

    Feng Su might be identified as "seduction" itself but Rui Bing, she would be "ambition", "dream" and "confidence".

    Rui Bing walked in as usual, unaffected by the fiasco as to center she walked the boy, who was waving to the Jie experts around shyly.

    "Oh my gosh¡­ you''re so cute!"

    "Let me pinch your face!"

    The female Jie experts seemed fairly interested in the puffy boy.

    The front suddenly got silent, which made Ye Chong lifting his head in peculiarity, but well, he was at the corner, so he could hardly see a thing. He gave up eventually since he wanted to stay low.

    But little he knew that, at a spot a stone''s thrown away from him,id the person he had been searching for ages!

    Rui Bing led the little boy to the other corner. Like husband, like wife, Rui Bing was too someone who did not fancy the attention but she did not fear getting involved in something like Ye Chong. Perhaps that was why Ye Chong could somehow ept her for the rest of his life¡­ simrity¡­

    "Would you stop following me like a paparazzi?!" Ye Luo freaked out softly as possible, "Oh my Risserd, people must be thinking we are legally married or something! Why must you be this close? Two steps away from me please, and how many times must I tell you¡­ stop doing that ''I am Ye Yin the Great, bow before me'' face! Don''t you feel tired doing it all day? Please, greet the other guests upon encounter, courtesy of humanity, we are a family of courtesy after all!" muttered Ye Luo.

    And one could see the vein bloating on Ye Yin''s forehead.

    "Hello there, how are you feeling tonight?"

    One guest came to them and Ye Luo had professionally turned into a gentleman, "Well certainly, great, how about you? You look gorgeous tonight."

    "Alright, see you at the event itself."

    And the guest left, Ye Luo''s face copsed, "I said two steps, nothing more and nothing less! Don''t keep the gap too far, you retreat inside your mech at a warfield after all, you''re now a tortoise without shell and I could imagine someone smashing you with their feet, man, do you know how martial arts should have led the field and not¡­"

    The veins bloated again!

    "Are you Mr. Luo Shi?" asked one serviceman politely.

    "Yes, yes I am!" smiled Ye Luo, as transformed into a gentleman again, "What''s the matter?"

    "Thedy is aware of your attendance and would like to have a chat with you." Said the serviceman with an inviting gesture.

    "The olddy? Of Yan family?" Ye Luo was confused upon the serviceman''s nod. How would the olddy of Yan family know him? He might be a somebody in the gxy, a handsome somebody, but he did not think he would make an elderly in his seventies a big fan of his¡­

    "The olddy requested me to invite you himself. Please, take this path. I believe everything would make sense after you have met him," said the serviceman with a bow.

 Chapter 423 - Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 423: Reunion</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong rested at one corner silently with Feng Su, who looked tamed like a kitty upon recognizing the fact that more mischiefs would only cause more pain in her.

    Her stare wandered upon the surrounding, as panicked she was, knowing that she would be utterly helpless as long as Ye Chong was there. Her expression stayed calm however, and her beauty still attracted a considerable amount of gazes even at the corner.

    A handsome man approached them with a friendly smile.

    But the hustle of the crowd held his step.

    Apparently the head of Yan family and the olddy had showed up at the hall. Ye Chong looked over to the other side, his eyes went soulless upon recognizing that one face¡­

    The host was a total stranger to him, but the olddy¡­ she was the enemy!

    Yes, it was the same olddy he spotted on Dankwood, whom the Han family escorted to safety in the midst of chaos.

    No wonder the Abductor had eyed her! He had remembered stories about this olddy. Wait, there was somebody else. Ye Luo? Was that Ye Luo? Ye Chong spotted that great man who smiled brightly next to the olddy.

    He came?!

    Well, Ye Chong soon calmed down, it was just natural to see Ye Luo, the participant of the Congregationst year to be in the same venue this year. He just thought they would not be reuniting anytime soon. Fate was surely capricious.

    Ye Luo''s eyes turned threatening the moment he spotted that indifferent young man in the crowd. He knew Ye Chong''s little camouge trick and he could see through it, but his perception changed the moment he saw Feng Su. He quickly withdrew the hostility in his eyes, though his gaze at Ye Chong turned odd.

    Ye Yin''s expression changed when he identified that smiley man who exchanged gazes with him in the crowd. The man was smiling, yet he could feel the pressure.

    They might have put up their act wlessly but people in the hall were no folk, as other guests could discern the slightest change in atmosphere.

    Feng Su too sensed the atmosphere as she shifted her focus to the two men between the crowd. She looked at Ye Yin, then the smiling man, she flinched.

    Simrly, Ye Chong, as he looked into the crowd, flinched too.

    Feng Su was surprised of Ye Chong''s reaction since that was the first ever shudder she ever saw on him. What had made him shudder?

    Ye Chong froze at the corner, as his eyes fixed upon that white waving silhouette.

    The little boy would like to see the olddy and the head of Yan family, as Rui Bing led him to the front.

    She nced across the crowd and suddenly she stopped. The little boy felt strange, as sensed the inertia, he shook her hands a few times but Rui Bing remained frozen on the ground.

    He lifted his head, just to be shocked of Rui Bing''s expression.

    Two fresh streams of tears rolled off her pale cheeks, as her empty gaze fixed afar.

    The little boy wanted to say something but his pendant was buzzing.

    The atmosphere turned more intense.

    The experts evacuated themselves soon after they confirmed the change in atmosphere, while the olddy had been led to the corner as well.

    After the ce had been cleared out, they realized the situation was not simple as they had assumed.

    There was not one, but two pairs of exchanging gazes.

    Ye Yin versus Huang Jiming, the angry vs the smiley.

    Ye Chong to Rui Bing, the speechless vs the tearing.

    Ye Chong had never experienced such sensation before. Something was urring in him upon seeing Rui Bing in tears, and he once thought he had a heart of ice.

    The little boy had expressed the calmness not of his age, as he recognized the strange man at the opposite upon perceiving Sister Bing''s expression.

    He might have put up a camouge, but he was still Sister Bing''s partner.

    Feng Su distanced away from Ye Chong quietly.

    Ye Chong no longer sensed the surroundings. His senses became numb, the noises gradually faded away with the silhouettes of people. His alertness was toned down as he only saw that white garbeddy with that pair of teary eyes.

    Safe. Feng Su had sneaked to Huang Jiming''s side.

    "Wow, I never knew there would be drama¡­"

    "It''s the Congregation, the big shots always have all sorts of business going on in the dark." The crowd whispered as they looked at the 7 people at the center. The 7 people certainly had something fishy going on together, especially after a few guests had identified Rui Bing and Huang Jiming, the two sudden challengers at the center. And there was Feng Su, the pretty yet deadly Jie expert, Ye Luo the trusted fighter by the olddy, along with the few unknown experts there. All casts had arrived, the camera should be rolling.

    "Hmm¡­ I have seen that young man somewhere before¡­," muttered the olddy as she pointed at Ye Chong. "Send the men to investigate everyone at the center, fast!" Ordered the head of Yan family as immediately caught on the olddy''s gesture.

    "And I thought I''ll never meet you again. This is pretty exhrating if you ask me," initiated Huang Jiming, with his signature bright smile, though his tone was grim.

    "Right¡­," replied Ye Yin, with an indescribable bloodlust and a stoned expression of his. "It''s been three years eh¡­ since ourst encounter."

    Ye Luo nearly dropped his jaws as in confusion he poked Ye Yin a few times, "W-who is he? Your enemy? But I had never heard of this? When did you have an enemy?" Well, Ye Luo was a horrible pilot anyway, so he never had the chance to face an opponent like Huang Jiming. Furthermore he did things with fists rather than the mechanical handle, so he was not aware that Huang Jiming, the smiley man before him, was one of the top 3 legends.

    "I''ll say we are more like rivals," corrected Ye Yin gravely.

    "Hah!" Laughed Huang Jiming, "I like your choice of word!"

    Ye Luo could not resist but to tten his lips.

    Oh? So you''re ying the deep game with me now? Ugh.

    He thought as he looked at Ye Chong.

    Wait a sec.

    He looked at Huang Jiming whom Feng Su stood next to, then back to Ye Chong where Rui Bing was standing opposite to.

    The covetousness struck him, as he sprinted to Ye Chong, "Oh my, so that''s your Lady Luck eh? Tsk, tsk, tsk, I mean, Ladies* Luck. That exins why I never have such luck. By the way, which one is your¡­ you know¡­ the one and only?"

    Ye Chong promptly raised his finger upon Rui Bing, "Her."

    Ye Chong''s little gesture of indirect confession came as a heavy blow at Rui Bing, as she dropped her head. Her tears had stopped, seemingly evaporated due to the heat building up on her cheeks. Rui Bing had always been demonstrating the mighty side of her, being a Jie expert; but only when Ye Chong was there, Rui Bing would reveal that little girl inside.

    But well, Ye Luo had just spoiled the moment.

    "Man, brother, I must say, how could you be a two-timer when your son is already this old?" said Ye Luo as he pointed at the little boy next to Rui Bing.

    If it was not because of the location, Rui Bing would have fired something from her sleeves.

    "Well, well, well, it''s been three years, time sure flies huh¡­," muttered Huang Jiming. "I wonder if Mr. Ye had lost his skills, I feel eager to try¡­"

    "Try me," replied Ye Yin firmly.

    Ye Yin walked towards the exit without a single thought and Huang Jiming followed him with a smile. Feng Su hurriedly went after the smiley man.

    The little boy''s pendant was vibrating so vigorously that even Ye Chong could begin hearing the buzzes.

    "What is that?" Ye Chong took a look, and he almost copsed, "Mu/Shang!" He recognized the pendant, it was the dimensional keystone of Mu/Shang. Certainly it had to be! Even if he turned blind, he would know it upon touch.

    He ran towards the little boy and was going for that reunion, but then he realized at closer look, that it was not Mu/Shang''s dimensional keystone. The pendant did have very simr appearance as the keystone, not only design but also the texture. The difference¡­ well, he could see it now, there were different patterns on the surface.

    "Brother Ye, you know Brah?" asked the little boy in bewilderment, "Who''s Mu/Shang?"

    The pendant vibrated harder!

    "Sister Bing, Brother Ye¡­ we should be going outside. Brah wants to walk¡­"

    Ye Chong grabbed the little boy up by his cors, as he held Rui Bing''s hand tightly.

    Rui Bing''s heart was warm, as she quickly seized that powerful hand of the one she loved. She would not want to lose it again, the very treasure of her life.

    Ye Chong exchanged nces with Rui Bing, he made a tip with his toes and he zoomed to the outside. In the wind the little boy struggled, "No¡­ I want Sister Bing. I''m calling for child abuse!" The pendant vibrated in specific rhythm, seemingly protesting for the boy as well.

    A battle was happening and Ye Chong decided to treat that protest with ignorance.

    Feng Su was following that smiley man. Ye Chong would presume that he was from the Xi Feng tribe. On the other hand, Ye Luo and that cold-blooded man seemed to be in one team too, he must be from Ye family.

    Then, a battle must be happening, judging from their exchange, a battle from the past.

    Ye family versus the Xi Feng tribe.

    How could one miss it?

 Chapter 424 - The Staring Contest

    <h4>Chapter 424: The Staring Contest</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The two were already at their positions when Ye Chong finally left the building.

    Ye Chong whispered, "Where''s my bag?" And Rui Bing passed him his bag right away. Ever since Ye Chong had disappeared, Rui Bing had been taking great care of the bag.

    The first thing to do would be to take out Han Jia''s dimensional keystone. Ye Chong still had Moon King with him but that was not truly his own mech after all. It might be a better model than Han Jia, but Ye Chong felt greater potency with Han Jia.

    The two men were standing 50 meters apart. Huang Jiming had Feng Su at his side, while Ye Yin still had Ye Luo right next to him. Ye Luo insisted on staying because he reckoned that person being one major pain to Ye family. Ye Yin was the top pilot of the family, and this man was able to make Ye Yin this agitated, surely the man had something up his sleeves.

    "Wait, I remember now¡­," whispered Rui Bing with a soft cry, "I knew that woman. She''s the one who kidnapped me to He Yue!" Rui Bing finally recognized Feng Su. She did not hate Feng Su for the wrongdoing however. If it was not for her, Rui Bing would never meet Ye again. She felt like thanking Feng Su too. Well, it was not like Rui Bing had a bad time entirely with Feng Su. Rui Bing could not help but to smile when she remembered the mischief she had done to Feng Su before.

    To be honest, Feng Su also recognized Rui Bing immediately, but she was too busy to have a personal reunion at the moment as she was standing next to this man who was once her idol, being the strongest in He Yue, and now fighting against that cold man at the opposite. She knew the cold man, it was clear, crystal-clear.

    The world''s biggest collision. Ye Yin versus Huang Jiming, happening soon¡­

    She thought of joining the battle but her mech was still with that indifferent young man who was too busy holding his wife''s hand. Technically she would be useless in a fight without her mech. She did improve on her strength recently but that was not enough to face the brawny Ye family. Moreover Ye Chong was there too, his wife was also an obstacle she had to ovee before she could even touch her keystone.

    The will to battle burned high in both parties. They could no longer hold onto anything else. Being a Jie expert, the top fighters in the gxy, the world might be able to limit them even if there were not much things they would truly care, but obviously the free space zone was called "free" not without a reason.

    If Feng Su was fighting, she might have a moment of consideration on the effect of deploying her mech in a primitive zone like the free space zone. Both Ye Yin and Huang Jiming did not care, however.

    Simultaneously both deployed their own mech!

    And that was when Ye Chong first witnessed the two mechs of the topmost hierarchy in the field!

    Ye Yin''s mech stood about 10 meters tall, with a polished surface glossing inplete ck that did not feel metallic at all. Its streamlined body looked like "speed" itself with its undersized yet vicious appearance. The elbows and the knees were installed with spikes, while the body and limbs were covered in armors of fitting design. Ye Chong was smart enough to see the trickery behind the design, as those pieces of armor could form a perfect shield whenbined. Something seemed off nevertheless. Ye Chong could not identify its weapons. Did he not install one then? No way. Declined Ye Chong his spection in his mind. Any melee model must have a kind of weapon in spite of its exceptional quality. He must have hidden it somewhere.

    Huang Jiming''s mech was also beyond his perception. It was a mech in fainting green, of height slightly taller than Ye Yin''s mech - about 12 meters approximately, with a body adorned by all sorts of feather engravings that glowed in emerald like the viridescent stars twinkling on one night. Ye Chong spected that those engravings must have a certain type of contribution in the battle. Unlike the other winged mechs in Xi Feng tribe, this mech had no wings. Instead, it had a bundle of 7 plumes, which extended into the air, fluttering in life. It felt like the tail of the Phoenix. Its short weapons were the two Awlbills, which acted simrly like the beak of a bird that pierced the enemies. For long-ranged weapon¡­ Ye Chong had not found it.

    This was Ye Chong''s first time of encountering an iprehensible mech. It was his lucky day probably, for he met two strange mechs at once.

    Right when Ye Chong was eximing at the design of those mechs, the pendant beeped again¡­

    That was when the third mech showed up in the sky.

    The mech had a snow white main body, a pure mechanical design due to its every part being diagonal. It seemed pretty tough with a stern face in which the mechanical eyes beeped rhythmically in blue. The sky blue stripes were the addition to the minimalistic design, which gave it a sense of grace. The two mechanical arms were holding a giant sky blue ray gun.

    Even though Ye Chong was known to be an illiterate in ranged weaponry, Mu/Shang''s education had bestowed him the sensitive sensibility on ray-based shooters. And no doubt, he could not control his breath the moment he spotted that gun. He did not know the exact model but the weapon just shouted deadly to him. The barrel was much longer than what he normally saw, while there was aplex-looking optic above. It should guarantee at least uracy. The additional barrel below should serve a different function but Ye Chong did not have a hunch on it. Right on the mech''s left arm there rested a sma shield activator, which clearly was installed for blocking attacks.

    Other than the weapon, the mech gave Ye Chong a fairly strong deja vu for some reason. It resembled Mu/Shang somehow¡­ though at most details they were different.

    The debut of this uninvited guest was certainly astounding.

    "Brahmara!?" shouted both Ye Yin and Huang Jiming together, their faces turned pale instantly. They nced at each other, then they sprinted towards their own mech respectively.

    Brahmara visited the world from above. It did not perform an attack, rather it did a quick dive, all the way to the ground andnded before the little boy.

    The mech stood before them, looking solemn and threatening.

    The mech ced down its mechanical left hand. The little boy beamed at Ye Chong and Rui Bing, as he lifted his tiny step over the palm, "Sister Bing, Brother Ye, I''m getting onto Brah. I''ll be going, if you would excuse me." And there he was lifted to his cabin. The gate opened and he clumsily rolled in, after waving at the two stunned adults.

    Brahmara?

    Did the two men say Brahmara?

    Ye Chong was pretty sure he heard the name. Cold sweats dripped off his chin. Although it came unexpectedly, he finally knew who the third legend was¡­

    "Put on your mech," instructed Rui Bing.

    And Ye Chong deployed Han Jia immediately!

    The beautiful butterfly was reintroduced to the audience. Ironically, the audience turned out to be the legendary pilots in He Yue this time!

    Ye Yin, Ye Chong, Huang Jiming got into their respective cabin almost at the same timing.

    Whether to join the battle, Rui Bing did not hesitate, as she promptly deployed the Guardian. As long as Ye Chong was in there, nothing should be hesitated.

    Han Jia was looking frail in front of the three giants of history, that it might be blown to the other corner of the gxy upon a group apuse from its foes. The mech of Ye family was fearsome, the mech of Xi Feng tribe was refreshing, the mech of Xue Lai n was sturdy yet graceful. On this stage, Han Jia was exuding a different kind of beauty, while the Guardian had also a unique charm with its brilliant gold as it sat on Han Jia''s shoulders.

    Feng Su and Ye Luo? They would be at the spectator''s seats this time, since Ye Chong had their mechs. "Are we watching this?" Both of them exchanged nces. And the next second, they were no longer within the sight, as they had scurried for their lives.

    You got to be kidding me! These mechs could easily demolish the entire Flying Moon City! And you asked me if I''m staying to watch?

    They seriously hoped they had wings so that they could flee in time.

    The other guests were absolutely stupefied.

    "Wait!" And finally one man regained his senses, "Outsider! They are the outsider!" he screamed, as the key term unfroze the silence.

    The head of Yan family stared at these monsters in dismay.

    Ye Chong and his foes did not have the leisure to entertain these primitives as they zapped into the sky.

    Battle Station!

    The armor at the waists of Ye Yin''s mech suddenly slid upwards, revealing the cartridge inside, from which 17 pieces of Spikedrops flew out and began revolving about its body like a school of ck swimming fishes.

    Huang Jiming''s glowing engravings shone ringly out of sudden as the 7 plumes collected, forming ayered stack blooming like flower, as a guard to its weak spots. The concealed chamber had been opened, the mech was ready to fire, as the mech armed itself with the Awlbills.

    The gun of Brahmara had performed an analyzed lock-on. At this location, through this angle, the fired rays would hit on anybody in the shortest time possible. The sma shield had been equipped, as the sma particles flocked in curvy outline at the edge.

    Ye Chong was ready. The 12 tentacles had been disengaged from Han Jia''s colorful wings. The daggers had been withdrawn while the wings were fluttering as a kind of warmup.

    Rui Bing was all set. The Guardian kneed slightly on Han Jia''s shoulder, ready tounch itself at any second.

 Chapter 425 - Mayday! Mayday!

    <h4>Chapter 425: Mayday! Mayday!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Inside the cabin of Han Jia, Ye Chong was having cold sweats all over his body. His face was pale as he stared at the flickering digital snow on the hologram.

    He could not see a thing out there.

    Such electromaic interference! Han Jia''s detection system had been impaired¡­ Ye Chong briskly changed to Photon detection optic. Although such mode offered a narrower scope of vision projected in a lower resolution, at least he could discern something at the outside! It was his only choice!

    "Can you see them?" asked Ye Chong in the channel.

    "I can¡­ but¡­," Rui Bing responded, "It looks foreign to me. There are many lines¡­ in different directions and the mech with a tail has the most lines¡­," she said slowly as she tried making out the strange view she got.

    Ye Chong shifted the camera to Huang Jiming''s mech.

    So that is what those engravings are for!

    Ye Chong was shocked while also finally recognizing the situation upon view.

    Meanwhile, the opponents were simrly surprised.

    Skeleton mech? Miniature mech? Those were certainly not the standard models both Ye Yin and Huang Jiming could see everyday. They were well-informed of the capability of a skeleton mech, but the miniature mech¡­ "So the mech was with the boy the whole time¡­," whispered Huang Jiming. They knew the origin of this technological masterpiece by Gu Shaoze. All aristocrats were intrigued by his newest craft as they set up strong surveince around him, but Mu made a lucky crash. Eventually, every member of the aristocrats died. Nobody survived other than Gu Shaoze and Number Two.

    But after they left Ye Chong, the pair of misfortune still encountered their second crisis, the MPA. In the battle, Number Two met her demise from protecting Gu Shaoze who showed strong resistance in handing over the mech.

    The MPA intended to take him back to the base under escort, but they bumped into the spaceship of Fred the Great. Under the conflict, Ye Chong forced himself into the warship and discovered the fainted brilliance. Gu Shaoze, breathing the final few bit of his soul, passed the Guardian to him atst.

    The aristocrats acknowledged the existence of the Guardian, even the specifications of it, as they would receive reports of the mech from time to time. And after the few escapes Ye Chong made using the Guardian, they were convinced and started to reevaluate its capabilities.

    The anti-detection ability of both skeleton mech and the Guardian was a shocker to the 3 legends.

    They had also switched to Photon mode detection.

    The 5 mechs hovered in the air, anticipating the big battle.

    But no one dared to make the first move.

    It was andmine, silent yet lethal, blowing up upon touch.

    Huang Jiming, Ye Yin and Brahmara knew each other well. They were at a simr level in battle and would only wound each other in the end if they fought.

    In addition, there was a skeleton mech with unknown skills and an unforeseeable Guardian mech. They could not imagine how both of them would make a joint attack and how strong the attack would be.

    The 3 legends might be the top pilots from their respective families, but certainly they would not be initiating a war on a whim.

    Any move from the mech would trigger something major now, not even the slightest gesture should be allowed.

    It would be a pure disastrous chaos once a bullet got fired.

    Sigh¡­

    Huang Jiming and Ye Yin were feeling dull, since they presumed a quick and fearless fight against each other at first but the sudden participation of Brahmara killed the fun, not to mention the other 2 mechs hovering nearby.

    They discarded the thoughts of an one-on-one atst. This was because anyone who initiated the fight would clearly be the punching bag for the others. Literally, nobody in He Yue gxy could ever survive the chained attack by any four of those mechs. The first to move would be the first to go.

    None of them dared to flee too. Their back would probably be shot if any of them decided to turn back and run away.

    The 5 mechs remained still.

    "Brah, let''s team up with Sister Bing and Brother Ye," said the little boy childishly.

    "Identity: Unknown. Judgement: Not Possible." The machine beeped emotionlessly.

    "It''s alright. They are good friends. How about you try connecting them¡­ I can talk," said the little boy to the projection.

    "Negative. Proposition: Rejected as unreasonable."

    "It would really work! Come on!" said the little boy in agitation.

    "Order from the leader: Your safety is the priority," said Brahmara firmly.

    "Leader, the tribe leader, you always throw this excuse to me! Who care about the leader! Brah you sometimes are just bad!" muttered the boy in an unsatisfied tone. He got up but he sat back obediently atst.

    If only Ye Chong could see the setup in the cabin, he would be jumping in amazement. The hydraulic suspension system was of royalty. Probably that was the reason why Brahmara would have the little boy inside the body.

    "This is getting boring. Keep standing there guys, I''m taking a nap," mumbled the little boy with a disappointed look, as hey down. The seat wasrge and asfy as a bed.

    The hologram dimmed slowly as a soft luby yed inside the cabin. In no time the boy began snoring as joining the sheeps at the ranch in his dream.

    Well, meanwhile, nobody was enjoying the same leisure he had.

    They remained still for the next 3 hours.

    It surely was consuming for them to remain at high rms for such a long time. Brahmara had the advantages of automatic judgement intelligence but it would consume much more energy than the other models.

    The guests on the ground were finding the giant crafts strange in the air. Being naturally the residents of the free space zone, the foreign mechs were enough to distress the rm and summon the army to kill the outsiders. These outsiders were in the sky now nheless, so these Jie experts could only watch them.

    The guests were not the least entertained few. Ye Luo and Feng Su were feeling worse as their respective families would be having a massive war in no time and all they could do was exchanging nces since their mechs were not with them.

    Staring at the projection with full focus, Ye Chong felt his stamina draining quickly.

    Out of the blue, the dimensional keystone of Moon King vibrated on his wrist.

    The vibration, again? He received the same vibration when Ye family sent Ye Luo the order to escort him home.

    What kind of order had arrived this time?

    Ye Chong gave a quick nce at other mechs. He prompted the keystone interface after making sure that there would not be any move for the next few seconds.

    "Mayday! Mayday! The pathway to free space zone is under attack by unknown force! I repeat the pathway is under attack! All battle units are required to head for assistance! All battle units are required to head for assistance! Coordination would be given! Emergency! Emergency!"

    Ye Chong quickly switched the interface off after viewing the distress call.

    Little did he know that, the other pilots had received a simr call as well. Unlike Ye Chong''s indifference, their faces paled right away. Even Brahmara had turned on the rm to wake the boy up in shock.

    Unlike Ye Chong, they all knew the message behind this call!

    The pathway was specifically the connection between He Yue and the free space zone. There were 3 pathways in general, under the ownership of the three aristocrats respectively, while these pathways were the only connection to the world outside. One may argue that Ye Chong had walked a different way before and the gxy was boundless, but Ye Chong managed to survive only because of his protagonist''s luck, any folk could have died walking down his way.

    Assuming all top pilots received the simr call, viewing from a bigger picture, all three pathways were under attack. The aristocrats valued these pathways so they were under great guard by the families'' own men. It should not have a problem but the pilots were receiving the distress signal. The guardsmen were losing! What else would that mean?

    They could already imagine how furious the invasion was!

    Once they lost the pathway, they lost the way home!

    Something strange then happened in the free space zone.

    Countless mechs were seenunching into the sky one after another. In less than 3 minutes, the entire sky above Flying Moon City had been crowded by over 300 mechs. The experts on the ground were looking pale, as no one would have expected such an enormous technological force hiding in the dark.

    The 300 mechs soon moved into their respective team.

    "I would assume that all of you have heard the call. We''ll hold this fight at the moment. It''s time to go, it''s an emergency after all. Now if you would excuse me," initiated Huang Jiming. His friendly tone now sounded hectic as he piloted his mech zooming into Xi Feng''s team.

    Ye Yin and Brahmara said nothing as they flew to their respective team.

    The ground began shaking, the ground shattered as three spaceships emerged! They flew and joined the hovering team ordingly.

    To face the unknown danger, the three aristocrats had summoned all forces they had hidden within the free space zone over the years.

    And on others in free space zone, countless mechs had sted off into the air too. They went into the giant spaceship, left the and came to the main army in intense eleration.

    All bit of strength was collecting gradually.

    And Ye Chong was seeing an empty sky before him.

    He was bewildered. Something did seem to have happened¡­ should he move?

    On second thought, maybe not. Whatever that was happening to the three aristocrats had nothing to do with him.

    But then, while everyone was being unaware, the change hade.

    It really hade without forewarning.

 Chapter 426 - Disorder

    <h4>Chapter 426: Disorder</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Poor Feng Su. Huang Jiming had left in a hurry, and did not seem to consider her situation. Without her mech, she did not know what was happening. However, seeing so many mechs rising into the sky, she knew that something important must have happened. Ye Luo was also in a simr position as her.

    The sudden departure of the Three Aces allowed Ye Chong to finally rx. He did not know what had happened, but it had served to defuse the current situation. These three mechs must be the most advanced mechs in the universe, and they left a very deep impression in Ye Chong. He was still awed by the machines. Compared to those three mechs, Han Jia was like a glorified piece of trash. Aside from the skeletal material and engine, Han Jia was surpassed by the three mechs in all respects.

    For the first time ever, Ye Chong felt a sense of jealousy. No mech pilot would be exempted from this reaction upon seeing those three mechs.

    However, this was obviously not the time to stare into space. Ye Chong took a nce at the fierce looking Congregation experts below, and began to think about how to leave the ce.

    Feng Su was about to leave when Han Jia, carrying Guardian, swooped down to met Ye Luo and Feng Su. Without time to properly introduce each other, the two mechs carried one person each and went back into the skies.

    In fact, Ye Chong had took everyone along a huge turnaround and returned to Flying Moon City. They quietly slipped into Rui Bing''s ce. When Old Jalopy, Fei Si and the rest saw Ye Chong and Rui Bing, they were pleasantly surprised.

    After the initial joy of reunion, Ye Chong quickly asked Ye Luo about the emergency beacon he received.

    Ye Luo and Feng Su finally realized what had happened. Both of them paled instantly.

    "How''s that possible?" Ye Luo looked distressed and in disbelief. "How''s that possible? The military strength at the Gateway is formidable!"

    Feng Su was quiet, but also looked like she could not quite believe what had happened.

    Seeing theck of reaction in Ye Chong, Ye Luo exined, "You probably don''t know about this, but the defense in ce at the Gateway is very strong. If something happened to the Gateway, the Tribes people in the free space zone will be unable to go back. That''s why the Gateway was guarded heavily ever since it was created. Emergency beacons are only released when the situation is very dire. Once the beacon is received, any and all personnel must rush to the Gateway as soon as possible. Heavens! What could possibly have happened?"

    Ye Luo''s exnation cleared away the mysteriousness of the situation for everyone else not in the know.

    "Who did this?" Ye Luo thought hard about it, knitting his brows together. "Who would have such power? Could it be Gray Valley?" In He Yue Gxy, the only force that would dare to challenge the prowess of the Three Aristocratic Families is the mysterious Gray Valley.

    "Impossible," Feng Su replied inly but sure of herself. As everyone looked to her, she continued, "The Gateway is too narrow, and cannot supportrge troop deployment. Besides, a great number ofbat units are assigned to guard the Gateway, with a huge number of support units nearby. Even if it''s Gray Valley, they can''t possibly enter the Gateway."

    "That''s right. The entrance is so narrow, you can''t haverge troops going in. How did they arrive here?" Ye Luo agreed upon hearing her analysis.

    "Are there other ways to enter the Gateway?" Ye Chong interrupted.

    Ye Luo and Feng Su exchanged a nce and replied in unison, "There are none!"

    Ye Luo added, "To create the Gateway in the first ce, the Three Aristocratic Families had each exhausted a huge amount of manpower and resources. The space around the Gateway is unstable, and dangerous to travel. All these years, this area around the Gateway is stillrgely understudied."

    Feng Su suddenly had a terrible realization. She looked horrified as she said, "We''ve forgotten something! The Gateway is too small forrge troop mobilization. That means we cannot hope to receive support from He Yue."

    As she finished her sentence, everyone looked even more distressed.

    Sensing the growing tension around them, Ye Luo managed augh and said, "Don''t worry, our forces in the free space zone are powerful. Besides, the Three Aces are all here. It shouldn''t be a problem to secure the Gateway."

    Ye Luo''s wordsforted them all to a certain degree. It was true that the Three Aces were all here, so there was nothing to worry about. Ye Chong was still pondering on what Ye Luo and Feng Su had both said, and felt that the situation might not be so simple.

    He Yue Gxy was truly plunged into a state of disorder.

    News of the attack on the Gateway had reached the Three Aristocratic Families as fast as physically possible. Now, all three families were in a panic! Not only were the Three Aces all in the free space zone, Xue Lai n''s only son and the Ye Family''s son, Ye Luo were also there. Besides, there were many other of their own people in the free space zone. If they really met an unfortunate fate, it would be a loss that the Three Aristocratic Families cannot possibly recover from!

    The sudden attack brought about a sense of danger that the Three Aristocratic Families had never felt before.

    Emergency rescue efforts were immediately made!

    All three Families deployed their military forces in a scale that was unprecedented. All their bases of operations also received orders to operate in their highest alert level.

    Tension spread across the entire He Yue Gxy like wildfire. As the military forces of the Three Aristocratic Families were mobilized, the other forces in He Yue reacted ordingly. For the moment, He Yue Gxy was in a state of chaos.

    The Ye Family''s Patriarch read the reports of the battlefield with a look of distress. The Gateway was too narrow, and could not fit in theirrge troops. As they mobilized squadron by squadron into the Gateway, none of them returned. Until now, they had no idea who was inside. The Gateway was like a ck hole, swallowing anything that entered it.

    Xi Feng Tribe''s Chieftain and Xue Lai n''s n Leader received the same reports. Of course, they were also simrly distressed by it.

    Ye Chong and hispany left Flying Moon City as soon as they could manage. Since their identities as outsiders were uncovered, it would be dangerous to stay any longer.

    The group reached a valley not far from Flying Moon City.

    Ye Luo led the group and exined quietly to Ye Chong, "This is one of the Ye Family''s base of operations. I''ve been here before. The localbat troops must have all been deployed, but the transport division is probably still here. We''ll tag along with the transport division and meet up with Ye Yin. That way, we''ll find out what''s going on. Hmm, don''t worry, he won''t recognize you from your looks right now. I won''t tell on you. It''s safer to return to He Yue Gxy. The free space zone is a good ce, but not one that''s suitable for you."

    Ye Chong nodded in assent. If Ye Luo wanted to expose his disguise, he would have done so long ago. While he only knew Ye Luo for a short while, Ye Chong found himself oddly trusting of the man. The two of them were ahead of the group, and their exchanged whispers were not noticed by the people at the back.

    Ye Luo had been here before, so the people at the base recognized him. Ye Luo''s position in the Ye Family was high, and since his father was the Patriarch, people here paid him respect. With his presence, Ye Chong andpany were not questioned, but were instead cordially received.

    The base was full of activity. Various engineering mechs made their ways across the base, moving energy cells and otherbat resources, or doing final checks on their starship.

    "Luo!" The person in charge of the base, Ye Pang, was a childhood friend of Ye Luo''s. Ye Pang looked like a refined man. He wore frameless spectacles and well ironed clothing, looking like a gentleman. He was relieved to see Ye Luo. "Wonderful! You''re alright! I was worried about you, that something might have happened to you."

    Ye Luoughed. "Hehe, what could possibly happen to me, no one''s a match for me! It''s not easy to get rid of me!"

    Ye Pang raised his brows at him and said, "With your lousy mech piloting skills, you won''t need an enemy to defeat you, you''ll probably just crash into a wall all by yourself."

    Ye Luo had nothing to say to that.

    Ye Pang took a sweeping nce at the people around Ye Luo, and did not ask him about them. He understood his childhood friend well. Ye Luo may seem like a careless fool, but he was actually smart and sensible.

    "What''s the situation?" Ye Luo asked. Everyone looked to Ye Pang, for this was the question that was on the top of their minds.

    Ye Pang shook his head. "Don''t know yet. We just received the emergency beacon here. I don''t know what''s going on too. We are packing up as fast as we can, and will be ready to leave in another five hours."

    "Pang, you''re always the smartest of us all. What do you think of the situation?" Ye Luo looked at Ye Pang with concern.

    Ye Pang pushed his spectacles up with his index finger and said lowly, "That truth is, I''m not very optimistic about the situation. Our forces in the free space zone are too scattered, and it takes time to gather them together. What we need the most now is time. I don''t know what happened at the Gateway, but the situation must have reached a critical level. I fear ¡­" Ye Pang did not continue.

    "Fear what?" Ye Luo asked quickly.

    Ye Pang looked pained. "I fear that by the time we arrived, it will already be toote!"

    Everyone went silent at that.

    Ye Luo managed a smile and said, "You exaggerate, Pang. You must be wrong this time. The Gateway is guarded by six mech squads in total, how could they be beaten so quickly?"

    "Well, I hope so." Ye Pang said softly.

    "Pang, who do you think is attacking us? I can''t make head nor tails of it." Ye Luo scratched his head in puzzlement.

    Ye Pang shook his head. "I don''t know that as well. But I''m certain that it''s not someone from He Yue or the free space zone. I''ve done the math. Taking the Gateway by force will require at least the strength of 20 mech squads. Besides, I still haven''t figured out how they managed to enter the Gateway without being noticed."

    Everyone went silent again.

    Ye Pang finally broke the silence. "Everyone, please follow Luo onto the starship for now. I have my duties to attend to, and cannot apany you all, please forgive me!"

    The group thanked him profusely. Ye Pang smiled gently at them and turned away, his eyes lingering on Feng Su only for a moment longer before he returned to his duties.

 Chapter 427 - Attack

    <h4>Chapter 427: Attack</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Five hourster, the starship was ready to leave. Ye Chong and hispany were on Darvill, the same ship that Ye Pang was on. Darvill was loaded with plenty of energy cells and other war resources.

    Ye Pang invited everyone to the bridge. Since this was a transport ship, the bridge was quite spacious. As the starship began its steady flight, most of the crew could now leave to rest, leaving behind only a skeleton crew to operate the ship. However, no one was in the mood to sleep. This was the first time since the Gateway was opened for an emergency beacon to be received. Everyone was nervous, and people could be seen gathering everywhere around the ship, discussing the incident with worried looks.

    Ye Pang lookedpletely different from earlier. He wore a smart looking ck uniform, with a leaf emblem sewn on the cor and on each sleeve. The beret on his head made him look like a military officer.

    "Why''d you wear this?" Ye Luo could not help but ask as he saw Ye Pang, and evenmented, "You look ridiculous!"

    Ye Pang took off his beret and threw it onto his desk. He nced at Ye Luo and said, "You''re still as ignorant as before! It is a rule of the Family for any division to bebat ready whenever an emergency beacon is received. We are nowbat ready! Do you understand? It''s going to be a waste of time exining this to you, you probably don''t remember any of the rules anymore."

    Ye Luo was speechless at that.

    "What would all of you like to have?" Ye Pang smiled at the rest and said, "Make yourselves at home. I''m from the logistics division, so we still have the good stuff here."

    Ye Luo grinned at Ye Chong and said, "The man''s got everything. Just let him know what you''d like to eat and drink."

    However, no one was in the mood to consider their meal preferences, and simply asked for the host to decide for them.

    Ye Pang noticed their mood. He summoned a subordinate and whispered a few orders. The subordinate left quickly, and soon returned with a tray of snow white cups. The golden liquid in the cups had a very strong and pleasant aroma. Everyone felt refreshed by the smell.

    "Srnimbus Soup! You sure know how to indulge!" Ye Luo took one of the cups eagerly and downed it all in one gulp.

    Ye Pang was horrified to see the way Ye Luo finished his drink. "Drink it slowly, this isn''t in water! What a waste to offer you this!"

    Ye Chong took a cup and sipped. A strong taste permeated every corner in his mouth, with a slight sharpness that was refreshing. His stomach warmed up, and he felt as though all the hair follicles on his skin were stimted. It was sofortable that it made him want to sigh in pleasure.

    Srnimbus Soup was one of Risserd''s cuisine specialty. It was a rare product, and only people like the Yan Family and Huang Family could afford to have a bit of them every year. Who knew how Ye Pang got his!

    For the moment, everyone indulged in their drinks quietly, and the bridge fell silent.

    Ye Pang rested his chin on his hands, his head lowered in thought.

    "Our journey will take approximately six days. However, I believe that thebat troops ahead of us would reach the Gateway about three days ahead of us. That means we will receive news of the situation in three days. By then, I believe we will have a better understanding of what''s happening," Ye Pang exined slowly.

    Later events proved that Ye Pang''s estimations were urate.

    On the third day, they received news from the frontlines.

    However, the news brought a gloom over everyone''s mood. More precisely, they had received an order from the people ahead of them, directing all transport ships to a specified rendezvous point. Nevertheless, together with the order was a summary of the events that unfolded thesest few days, the one thing that everyone was worried about.

    Ye Yin and the others were defeated in their first wave of attack! Everyone was shocked by the news. Ye Yin was almost like a God to many in the Ye Family. No one expected him to ever lose!

    However, the attacker of the Gateway was also identified.

    It was a kind of unknown lifeform, and they came inrge numbers. They attacked viciously, and were terribly aggressive. From the reports, it was still difficult to ascertain the nature of this lifeform.

    In their first contact, the attack of the unknown lifeforms had surprised all those present. If Ye Yin had not grasped the situation quickly and ordered for a swift retreat, they would have suffered a lot more casualties. Nevertheless, in their brief first encounter, the Ye Family had lost 300 mechs, a total of 300 mech pilots.

    Every Ye Family member on the transport ship was scared and concerned. How could the Ye Family be so defenseless? When was thest time the Ye Family had suffered so many casualties? 300 staff mech pilots were a formidable force, no matter how one looked at it.

    Ye Yin had decided to retreat for the moment, consolidate all theirbat forces, and prepare for the next attack. Hence, he had ordered for allbatants and transport ships to rendezvous at the specified location.

    "Ye Yin you useless fool!" Ye Luo cried out loud. 300 Ye Family members were dead, just like that. As a Ye Family member himself, how could he not feel pained?

    Ye Pang took a long exhale, opened his eyes, and shook his head, disagreeing with Ye Luo. "Ye Yin made the right decision. This unknown lifeform must be very powerful for Ye Yin to act so passively."

    Just then, a sharp rm came on in the ship!

    "All crew members at your stations, all crew members at your stations! Unknown lifeform detected approaching the ship at high speed!" The monitoring officer''s voice came through, trembling with fear.

    Everyone was caught off guard. It was like a bomb was set off in the ship.

    Ye Pang stood up quickly and headed for the bridge. Ye Chong and the others followed him.

    In the bridge, Ye Pang looked calm and steady. This managed to soothe the panicking atmosphere in the bridge.

    "What happened?" Ye Pang asked in a low voice.

    "Captain, please ¡­ please look at this!" The monitoring officer put on a video feed on thergest holographic screen in the bridge.

    On the holographic screen, against the dark background of outer space, a small swarm of unknown lifeforms were heading towards them.

    Ye Chong had never seen them before. Each of them was like a sphere, enclosed with purplish ck armor tes, with an eye on each te. It was an eerie looking lifeform. The eight purplish ck spheres flew in a straight line across the dark space at high speed.

    Just then, the unknown lifeforms seemed to have noticed their starship as well. On the holographic screen, each sphere extended its body from its balled up state, revealing a long, t body. The sides of the body were lined with horrific looking des. On the head of each creature were tworge feelers.

    These lifeforms directed their course towards the ship.

    Ye Pang suddenly frowned . "Check their speed!"

    "They''re ¡­ They''re at Mach 15!" The monitoring officer stuttered. Ye Pang''s expression turned grim instantly. The rest of them were all still finding it hard to believe.

    How fast was Mach 15? Shockingly, terrifyingly fast! In fact, there were hardly any mechs that could achieve this speed. Starships, on the other hand, fared much worse, especially one like their transport ship.

    These unknown lifeforms were rapidly approaching their starship.

    On the holographic screen, it was even possible for everyone to see the slight vibrations of the two feelers on the foreheads of these creatures.

    "Could it be?" Ye Pang muttered to no one in particr.

    The seven creatures stopped their approach about 20 kilometers away from Darvill, and began to circle around the ship.

    Ye Pang could no longer keep hisposure, looking even more grim. "This is bad! They must be scouts of some kind!"

    "What do we do?" Ye Luo was already panicking like mad.

    "Sigh, we can do nothing. We have nobatants onboard this ship. Allbatants were already deployed to assist Ye Yin. This ship is also not a warship. I can do nothing to them!" Ye Pang sounded profoundly helpless.

    "Do we need them gone?" Ye Chong finally broke his silence.

    Ye Pang took a nce at Ye Chong, and nodded. "If they are scouts for arger swarm of creatures, we''ll be in big trouble if we don''t get rid of them! The rest of the swarm mighte down on us!"

    "Alright! Then I''m heading out!"

    Ye Chong took out Feng Su''s dimension keystone from his bag and passed it Feng Su. He said to her with an undefiable voice, "You''re going with me."

    Feng Su epted her dimension keystone and quietly agreed. She knew that the only ones with real battle experience on this ship were this cold, apathetic young man and herself. Guardian might be a powerful mech, but it could hardly travel in outer space.

    Ye Pang felt a glimpse of hope, but felt worried as well. "We don''t know how dangerous these creatures are, you ¡­"

    "We''re heading off to prepare ourselves." Ye Chong cut him off and turned away to leave the bridge. Feng Su immediately followed him.

    Rui Bing bit her lips, watching Ye Chong leave without stopping him. She understood that Guardian would only be a burden in outer space.

    Ye Chong and Feng Su were weatheredbatants, and they were quickly done with preparations.

    "A Phoenix ss mech!" Everyone in the bridge was surprised. No one imagined that such a fragile looking beauty would be one of the elites of their enemy, the Xi Feng Tribe! Ye Pang, however, looked like he had guessed as much.

    When Han Jia appeared before them, everyone gasped again in admiration! Han Jia''s beauty was a marvel to behold!

    "Configure yourms!"

    "Comms configured!"

    "Begin mech assessment!"

    "Mech assessmentplete!"

    "All the best. Prepare forunching. In five, four, three, two, one. Launch!"

    Two hatches slid open.

    As all eyes watched nervously on the holographic screen, two mechs with their engines ready dived into the vast outer space like two brilliantets!

 Chapter 428 - The Perfect Kill

    <h4>Chapter 428: The Perfect Kill</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Seven unknown lifeforms formed a straight line, like a snake, as they continued circling around the starship. Compared to these agile little creatures, the starship was like a slow and dumb old cow.

    All seven creatures were clearly disyed on Han Jia''s holographic screen. What agility! Ye Chong was quietly surprised. These unknown lifeforms were flying about smoothly in space with astonishing grace. Ye Chong believed that even the best mechs could not achieve this level of agility.

    It was unfortunate that he was a bad shot. If they had a sharpshooter like Mu or Shang right now, they would only need seven shots to end the battle. As a close range mech, Han Jia''s attack range was much smaller. The only thing that Ye Chong could only rely on was Han Jia''s speed.

    Han Jia could go up to a jaw-dropping Mach 20!

    Aside that, he had Feng Su behind him. While he did not know how well Feng Su could fight with a Phoenix ss mech, her strength when using Wings of Nirvana long ago had left a deep impression in him. Ye Chong would never doubt the power of advanced level mechs from the Three Aristocratic Families. Of course, the likelihood of someone as useless as Ye Luo having a mech as powerful as Moon King was just about nil.

    Ye Chong and Feng Su did not exchange a word, but Ye Chong believed that Feng Su would know what to do. This was the power of coordination between experts!

    Ye Chong''s hands flew across Han Jia''s controls in a blur.

    Han Jia elerated abruptly!

    No matter the time and location, speed could always make one''s blood boil in excitement.

    While the crew members of Darvill were notbatants, almost everyone in modern society would know a thing or two about mechs.

    "Wow!" The surprised gasps lightened the mood in the starship. The holographic screen was like an eye ma, demanding the attention of everyone onboard the ship. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the holographic screen, astounded, including Ye Pang. At the beginning, the starship''s holographic scanning system could not pick up the two mechs. It was only when they switched to optical mode that they were able to see the two mechs on the holographic screen. The impressive anti scanning abilities of the two mechs inspired hope from the crew members in them.

    The Phoenix ss mech had not done anything just yet, but the mysterious and beautiful mech was also making everyone feel excited.

    Mach 20! After Lian Yue''s modifications and the use of teardrop mineralite, Han Jia could now reach stunning velocities!

    Han Jia''s speed also left Feng Su with feelings of fear and awe. She had never seen a mech at such terrifying speed! Han Jia''s abrupt eleration also disrupted her rhythm. However, she was a weatheredbatant, a true veteran, and she immediately adjusted herself. All her hidden shooting chambers were activated.

    The holographic screen''sbat locking system was initiated. To ensure perfect uracy, she did not lock on to all the targets, but chose to focus on only two of them. She had never seen these creatures before, and had no idea of their defense systems.

    She did not fire yet, but waited calmly for the right timing.

    At Mach 20, 20 kilometers were covered in a breeze.

    Back on the starship, everyone watched the holographic screen attentively. Mach 20 would put a very huge pressure on the human body. Piloting the mech would also be much more difficult. At this speed, there would not be much time for the mech pilot to think before acting.

    Ye Chong fixed his gaze at the unknown lifeforms. As they grewrger andrger on the holographic screen, he maintained his calm. Unlike other mech pilots, he had been to Archipgo before, and had encountered all sorts of weird creatures. He was not troubled by the fact that his targets were still unknown to them.

    At Mach 20, he did not have time to even consider these things. He was exceptionally focused right now, his hands resting slightly on the controls, ready to move.

    The unknown lifeforms were very sensitive. The feelers on their foreheads twitched. They were about to get away! Han Jia''s astonishing speed had made them nervous.

    Just when they were about to leave, dozens of purple coloredser beams shot across the dark sky of outer space!

    These dozens ofser beams directly hit two of those creatures! None of thesers missed. The two creatures were full of holes in an instant.

    All the crew members watching the holographic screen on the starship cheered jubntly!

    The sudden attack made the nervous unknown lifeforms go into full blown panic!

    The momentary pause in their motions just as they were about to leave was key. They were now in a mess, but still close to each other.

    The two dozen tentacles on Han Jia''s wings were released abruptly. Han Jia''s hands were now holding two daggers.

    Han Jia charged into the panicking creatures like a shooting rainbow!

    Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong''s eyes widened, and his hands began to fly across the controls!

    Ye Chong did not know how fast his hands were moving right then, but he knew that he was giving all he got. This was because he knew that, at Mach 20, he would fly past the creatures in an instant, in less than a hundredth of a second, and he would need to attack them in this short time frame.

    Is this the limit of the human body?

    He did not know about that, but he did know that this was a golden opportunity!

    The arching tentacles shot out like a snake uncurling itself, straight towards it victims! The greyish daggers were hard to see in the darkness of outer space, and only Ye Chong in his mech could see its dim glimmer briefly pass through his vision.

    Two unknown lifeforms were thoroughly destroyed by the tentacles. At Mach 20, even a tiny rock could be devastating, much less with these strong tentacles!

    Han Jia flew right into one of the creatures.

    It''s a homerun! The creature was sliced open like it just flew into the sharp edge of a knife, its body split into two as ck colored blood oozed out of its remains. Its two body parts flew rapidly outwards. Ye Chong''s eyes were burning with a desire to fight. He had waited for this moment. At the instant he flew into the creature, his hands began to move again.

    Under the disbelieving gazes of everyone on the ship, the mysterious and beautiful mech made a very slight course adjustment! It was like a beam of light reflecting off a mirror at a very small angle.

    This abrupt directional shift was packed with much more power than Ye Chong had anticipated at Mach 2. The momentum change was enough to make someone as strong as Ye Chong felt instant dizziness and nausea.

    The course correction was so small that it was almost impossible to notice.

    To Ye Chong, however, it was enough.

    Ye Chong held back his difort and activated his final attackmand that was set up earlier.

    One of the tentacles reached out and tore through one of the unknown lifeforms, its sharp tip ripping a straight tear through the soft body of the unknown lifeform at Mach 20. By the time the ck colored blood and intestines began to pour out, Han Jia was already far away.

    Han Jia was like an unhindered arrow, shooting past the weak formation of the unknown lifeforms. In that short instant, it had achieved its most important objective.

    It had killed four of the creatures. The one creature that Han Jia flew into was in fact already cut into two by its dagger.

    The destructive power of both Ye Chong and Han Jia were fully demonstrated in this extremely short moment!

    For thest part of the battle, Ye Chong believed that Feng Su would be able to deliver wlessly. Feng Su''s first shots had been perfectly timed, and even the most critical mech pilot would be satisfied with them. It was her perfect shots that allowed Ye Chong to achieve his glorious body count. Xi Feng Tribe''s mech pilots had always been known for their excellent timing.

    Ye Chong tried to regte his own body as Han Jia slowed down. The dizziness had put him into a very vulnerable position.

    Mach 20 was truly very stressful for the body! Ye Chongughed ironically inside. If this was a fight against another mech, his situation would have been very dangerous.

    Right now, Han Jia was like aet that was flying out of control, drifting off into space along its inertial trajectory.

    Ye Chong was right. Thest unknown lifeform was swiftly dealt with by Feng Su. She had even taken another shot at the creature which Ye Chong had torn open its abdomen, just to be safe.

    Ye Chong finally gathered himself and flew Han Jia slowly back to the starship.

    When Ye Chong and Feng Su were back on Darvill, they were weed warmly like heroes.

    Everyone looked at them with eyes filled with the fire of hope. In this age, a strong mech pilot could easily win the admiration of others. Everyone was still basking in the afterglow of the glorious and perfect victory. Ye Family''s people had a higher standard, of course, but they still thought that the battle just now was just extraordinary.

    Feng Su''s perfect timing, Ye Chong''s brute strength and Han Jia''s Mach 20 speed had be an unforgettable memory for each of them.

    This battle had greatly raised the morale of everyone onboard the ship.

    However, Ye Chong was unmoved by the looks of admiration shot at him throughout. He was now focused on the bodies of the two unknown lifeforms that they had carried onboard.

 Chapter 429 - Strength in Numbers

    <h4>Chapter 429: Strength in Numbers</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Of all the dead creatures, only the two that were stabbed with Han Jia''s tentacles were mostly preserved. Ye Chong was left with only these two bodies to bring back with him. It was the first time humanity had seen this lifeform, and it was important to study it.

    "I hope that this unknown lifeform is different from the ones Ye Yin and the others encountered. If they are the same species, then we''re in trouble!" Ye Pang looked solemn as he said with a sarcastic smile.

    Ye Luo asked, "Why?"

    "There are only two possibilities if they''re one and the same. One, these unknown lifeforms are spread across a veryrge area; two, they are already very close to us! Which one would you choose?" Ye Pang could not help being scornful towards him.

    "Neither!" Ye Luo shook his head frankly.

    Ye Chong ignored as he lowered himself down to study the two dead bodies. Once, in order to solve a problem that was particrly awkward in nature, Ye Chong had dedicated some time in biology. Nevertheless, his meager understanding could not help him much. What would really do him good was experience.

    The purplish ck shell was very hard, but not thick, else Han Jia''s tentacles would not have been able to pierce through them. The creature''s belly was soft, without the shell to protect it. The sharp des on its sides were dangerous. The eye on each armor te now looked lifeless. Ye Chong was beginning to believe Ye Pang''s theory that these mysterious creatures were actually scouts of some kind.

    From their battle earlier, it seemed that these creatures could move very fast, but their attack and defense were weak, typical of scouting type organisms.

    Ye Pang did not want to invoke more panic in the crew, so their discussions were held in the medical bay. The technical side of things will have to be left to the ship''s professional medical officer, and see if they could get anything useful out of the bodies.

    As the group left the medical bay, they passed by excited faces discussing the battle earlier as they walked along the ship''s corridors. When they saw Ye Chong, the devotion in their eyes was like that of his number one fans. Ye Pang and Ye Luo were mostly ignored, and this annoyed Ye Luo. As for Feng Su, the crew members treated her more carefully, since she was from the Xi Feng Tribe.

    Rui Bing trailed along behind Ye Chong, never leaving his side.

    After dinner, Ye Pang invited Ye Luo to his room.

    "Who are those people?" Ye Pang asked in a whisper.

    Ye Luo scratched his head and said, "Err, that''s a difficult one."

    Ye Pang sniffed at him. "What''s so difficult about it? Even without you telling me, I know. Isn''t that the one that the Family is searching for?"

    Ye Luo was surprised, "Huh, how did you know?"

    "What''s so hard about this simple deduction? Look at you, so trusting in him. I know you like the back of my hand. Without researching his background thoroughly, would you have brought him here? Where are we heading to right now? To He Yue Gxy. If he''s a friend of yours from the free space zone, would you have brought him along to He Yue Gxy? Err, of course, if it''s your girl I suppose that''s possible." Ye Pangstment made Ye Luo blush.

    "The mech that he deployed, I know instantly that it''s the goods. A full-skeleton mech! I may have served for a long time in logistics, but I can still tell. He''s very strong. I think he''ll even be ranked in the single digits in the Family. If I remember correctly, the man that''s very simr to one of our own is also a very capable mech pilot. So, I made a guess. But you, oh so gullible, admitted it straight away, you''re so useless!" Ye Pang looked at Ye Luo with disdain.

    Ye Luo was offended now. He curled his hands into fists, cracking his finger joints to intimidate Ye Pang. "Small Fry, I''ll let you know, don''t you go showing off in front of me. Hehe, I can bring you down with just one hand."

    Ye Pang was unfazed by his show. He looked at Ye Luo meaningfully and sighed. "Boorish Luo, I can''t figure you out. Why''re you helping him? You''re dead if your father finds out!"

    Ye Lu''s expression was unreadable. "I don''t know either. I just know that he won''t want to return to the Ye Family. Even I am not fond of the Family. Besides, what right do we have to order him back? I despise people who like to force their will onto others. On the other hand, I actually enjoy hispany. Had I realized the situation earlier, I would''ve never reported back about him."

    "Sigh, Boorish Luo, recognize the reality of things. He is just a single person, and can never defeat the Ye Family. In the end, he will be subdued." Ye Pang could not help a sigh.

    "Small Fry, it''s this part of you that I cannot stand! Reality? F*ck reality! Just look at me, hehe, hasn''t the Family been asking me to go back since forever? Humph, I won''t. See, they can''t do nothing to me. Besides, I do what I think is right, and I have no regrets! I know exactly how the Family is like. Small Fry, with your level of abilities, you shouldn''t have needed to stay in this run down ce and be some no-good Chief of Logistics."

    Ye Pang could only smile bitterly at that. "Logistics isn''t too bad, suitable for someonezy like me!"

    "You! Sigh ¡­" Ye Luo seemed to remember something, and lost his initial excitement. He sat down in dejection, and it was a long moment before he spoke again. "What''re you going to do with him?"

    "Do? I''ll do nothing, since it''s none of my business!" Ye Pang looked like hiszy old self again. However, he could not help but asked, "I can guess about the young man, but what about the woman? A member of the Xi Feng Tribe? What''s their rtionship? What about the rest in the group?"

    Ye Luo shrugged evasively and said, "I don''t know, you ask them."

    Ye Pang was speechless.

    The ship did not encounter any more of those unknown lifeformster on. This was a great relief for the crew members. Another piece of good news was that they had met another transport ship along the way. The meeting between the two ships brought a joyful cheer to their crews.

    In the infinity of outer space, loneliness was frightening. Hence, havingpany along was undoubtedly the most joyful thing to happen to them.

    As they approached the rendezvous point, they met more and more transport ships. Soon, almost every hour brought about a new ship of the Ye Family to join them. This managed to soothe the nerves of the crew and its passengers.

    The rendezvous point was on a small not far from the Gateway entrance.

    The was notrge. Its surface was now covered with all sorts of starships, with mechs flying in and out of them constantly. The had be a busy military base.

    With coordination from the ground, Darvill finallynded on the small. Here was all the military power of the Ye Family in the free space zone, converged on this. After receiving the emergency beacon, allbat units had went straight towards the rendezvous point as soon as they could.

    Ye Pang was not invited to the operations meeting. On Darvill, the only one entitled to attending the meeting was Ye Luo, but of course the man did not care to join the others. He declined to attend the meeting.

    Nevertheless, Ye Pang still managed to uncover some information through other means.

    In the bridge, only Ye Luo, Ye Pang, Ye Chong, Rui Bing and Feng Su were there.

    Their expressions were not encouraging.

    Darvill''s encounter with the unknown lifeforms was reported to Ye Yin''s subordinates, so the two bodies of the creatures were taken away from them. They had already ascertained that these unknown lifeforms were one of a few kinds that were attacking the Gateway.

    The situation was more serious than expected.

    When Ye Yin and his men arrived for backup, it was already toote. The entire Gateway was swarmed with a few different kinds of unknown lifeforms.

    This was the worst situation that everyone had hoped to avoid! Once the Gateway was lost, they would have to clear it should they ever want to return to their homes.

    After many days of contact, they now finally had some understanding of these mysterious creatures.

    The creatures may not look alike, but they all had somemon features - high aggression, and a strong propensity to devour anything that was made of metal or pure energy.

    There was not much left of the mechs that were destroyed in their first wave of attack. The creatures had swallowed up most of the metal pieces like hungry ants.

    Just thinking about it make one''s flesh creep.

    Clearing up the Gateway was now the main problem.

    "Small Fry, you got any good ideas?" Ye Luo looked to Ye Pang.

    Ye Pang shook his head. "None. However, I think that the most important thing we should do now is to understand more about these creatures. It''s all we can do for now. We know next to nothing about these creatures, much less their weaknesses."

    Ye Luo seemed to be disappointed with Ye Pang''sck of ideas. Ye Chong, Rui Bing and Feng Su did not speak, only observing the two of them.

    Though he usually stayed quiet, Ye Chong spoke up this time. "What of the Xue Lai n and Xi Feng Tribe?"

    Everyone paused to absorb his words.

    "That''s right! I wonder what happened to them?" Ye Pang seemed to give it some thought. If they had also encountered the same unknown lifeforms, they would probably not fare any better. The thought of the Three Aces being stuck in the free space zone was almost ridiculous to even consider for Ye Pang.

    Soon, however, they had no time to consider how the other two Families were doing.

    After resupplying, the Ye Family''sbat division was ready to move out.

 Chapter 430 - Back to the Wall

    <h4>Chapter 430: Back to the Wall</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong spent most of his time watching the many, many battles that unfolded on the holographic screen on the starship. There were not many mechs and starships in the free space zone, hence there was not a lot of energy cells in storage. Ye Pang had already brought along all the energy cells from Serbe. Now, they could only watch as the war waged on.

    The war was shockingly violent!

    The Gateway''s entrance was very narrow, a naturalndscape for defense. That was why they were able to hold the line so far.

    From the narrow entrance, swarms of the unknown lifeforms would emerge from time to time. They never came inrge numbers, they never seemed to stoping either. From the beginning, the number of unknown lifeforms that had emerged from the entrance had never diminished, showing no signs of exhaustion from the other side. This was a constant worry for everyone around, afraid of what would happen in the long run.

    Their own forces were weakening as the days passed by. Heavy casualties would follow every time enemies were sessfully terminated. However, no one backed down. Everyone knew that the narrow Gateway was the only reason they were still alive, and not consumed by the unknown lifeforms.

    There was nothing else to do but fight on. Ye Yin looked terribly grim. He could not find a way out of their predicament.

    Jenny Ye looked at Ye Yin''s grim expression beneath his long hair, sympathizing his situation. She consoled him softly, "Look at you, you look so gloomy that it''s going to rain soon. Don''t worry too much. Here, drink this." She passed a thermos over to Ye Yin.

    Ye Yin saw that it was Jenny, and his eyes flickered warmly. He agreed and took the thermos from Jenny, finishing all the soup in it.

    Jenny Ye watched lovingly as Ye Yin drank his soup with concentration, but her heart ached for him. This man whom she loved, he was shouldering to much unwanted burden! Beneath his handsome but cold exterior was a heart that was only human.

    "What''re you thinking?" Ye Yin asked suddenly. Now that the soup was finished, he watched her closely.

    Jenny blushed slightly. She pulled the thermos out of his hands and feigned nonchnce as she said, "Nothing much. Yin, don''t give yourself too much pressure! You''re doing your best, no one will me you."

    Ye Yin said nothing, only watching Jenny Ye quietly.

    "What is it?" Jenny Ye saw that Ye Yin was in a faze. She shook her tiny hand before his eyes a few times, saying with mock anger, "What are you thinking? How could your mind go wandering while talking to me?"

    "Oh. I''m thinking, I will definitely bring you home! Definitely!" Ye Yin said this with unyielding resolution.

    Anyone could see that the war was not favoring the Ye Family. Theirbat forces continued to diminish. Almost every round of battle would end in deaths on their side. Seeing their own die before them continuously was a heavy blow to their morale. One could frequently hear people sobbing in the middle of the night. They were at their lowest point in spirit.

    Nheless, the immediate problem presented to them was a practical one - energy cells! The free space zone did not have production factories for energy cells. Their energy cells were running out. Once they used them up, all the mechs and starships would turn into useless metal bulks, and the war would be over.

    Dozens of unknown lifeforms emerged again from the Gateway''s entrance.

    The mechs that were guarding the entrance immediately went forward to fight them.

    30 mechs formed a standardbat squad. Five mechs elerated abruptly, leaving formation and heading towards the unknown lifeforms. When they were close enough, they suddenly split up and headed off into five different directions.

    The creatures immediately pursued the five mechs like they were hunting their favourite prey, splitting off into five groups. The decoy mechs were all flown by the best mech pilots. They traced five beautiful arches across the starry sky like the stamen of a flower. Then, they each flew past a group of five mechs, and the creatures plunged straight into the surrounding formation of the five mechs.

    The suspenseful close range battle began!

    The strength of the Ye Family''s mech pilots were thus fully demonstrated. Mechs and creatures rushed towards each other like medieval knights in a joust. When the moment of impact arrived, however, the mech pilots of the Ye Family could always execute the appropriate evasion moves and deliver the fatal blow to these unknown lifeforms.

    However, the creatures were also terribly capable of retaliating. Despite bearing audience to simr fights for numerous times, Ye Chong still find them shocking. The creatures could move their heads deftly, and their strong teeth would always leave deep bite marks on mechs.

    These creatures, which they had called crustdes, had very strong exoskeletons. The purplish ck shell tes on them shone with a metallic glimmer. They had six pairs of wings. Their bodies were t and short, measuring about three meters long. Their heads could move around flexibly, and their teeth were strong enough to bite through certain kinds of metal. The crustdes were very sensitive to metals. ording to research, their hard armor tes had a high metal content. Hence, their armor tes were very strong, and well suited for self defense. Their shell tes would change, and even evolve significantly, ording to the types of metal ingested.

    Crustdes would fly up to Mach 12, about the same as the Ye Family''s mechs in the main battle force. Since the creatures could also fly well, they were difficult opponents to fight against.

    Now, most if not all of the creatures that came out of the Gateway entrance were this type of lifeform. The ones that Ye Chong and his group had encountered were never seen again.

    The Ye Family''s mechscked long range weapons, so they were forced to fight at close range.

    Ye Chong pondered on their situation. Of the Three Aristocratic Families, the Xue Lai n must be best equipped to fight against these crustdes.

    Rui Bing sat quietly beside Ye Chong. She would apany him and watch the battle on the holographic screen every day. She did not say anything, but only sat quietly with him. Her snow white training garb looked as graceful on her as before. Her eyes were calm and resolute.

    "What? The Three Families are ready for an alliance?" Ye Pang gasped in surprise.

    Ye Luo noded. "Yes. I just got the news. Looks like the other Families have also suffered heavily, so they are hoping to form an alliance now. Oh, by the way, Ye Yin has agreed."

    Ye Pang stroked his chin as he mused, "An Alliance of the Three Families. It''s not a bad idea. To think that we, the Three Families, long time enemies with each other, will agree to an alliance in the face of a disaster. Hehe, it sure is interesting." He thought of something then, and asked, "What about the Gateway?"

    "Seal the entrance. Ye Yin has decided to seal the entrance," Ye Luo replied.

    Space around the Gateway entrance was extremely unstable. It was engulfed in a light yellow neb. Within the neb were strong electromaic radiations that covered a wide spectrum. The maic fields in the neb were also constantly realigning. This made the area dangerous. Even the tough lifeforms were cautious of the space around the entrance.

    300 energy cells were bundled together. They now floated before the Gateway entrance.

    All of Ye Family''s starships had pulled away, giving a wide berth.

    Everyone onboard Darvill focused on the holographic screen.

    Dozens of crustdes emerged threateningly from the Gateway entrance. They noticed the energy cells immediately and flew towards them.

    Just then, a red beam shot at the energy cells!

    The holographic screen lit up, and everyone had to shade their eyes for the moment. When their vision cleared up, the Gateway entrance was no longer on the holographic screen. Instead, they were looking at an endless stretch of light yellow neb.

    The massive starship fleet carried the hopes of its passengers, heading towards the Xue Lai n''s Gateway entrance as fast as it could.

    Ye Pang looked at the dense presence of starships from his window and smiled. "We''ll probably never see something like this again. Isn''t it magnificent?" After the rendezvous, the starships from all the Three Aristocratic Families were huddled together without order. Darvill was now right beside one of the Xi Feng Tribe''s starships.

    "I want to return to my Tribe," Feng Su looked at Ye Chong and pronounced her every word clearly. Everybat personnel was precious in their situation.

    Ye Chong thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Alright."

    Feng Su looked around and nodded to the people around her. "I wish you all the best! Farewell!" Everyone watched silently as Feng Su left. Given the circumstances, whatever personal conflicts they had with her were rtively insignificant. Besides, Ye Chong had never really developed a grudge against her.

    The Three Aces from the Three Aristocratic Families gathered together.

    "Hehe, fate is truly mysterious. To think that we would actually fight side by side!" Huang Jiming smiled warmly.

    Ye Yin ignored him and turned to Siva. "Why don''t you exin the situation here."

    In the operations room, two humans and one mech discussed their predicament. It was an uncanny sight.

    Siva''s bionic eyes shed intermittently. "Our initial battles were sessful. The crustdes could not harm us. However, once we enter the Gateway, we suffer heavily."

    An image appeared on the holographic screen in the operations room. The massive being in the image caused the two humans to inhale sharply.

    "This is a new kind of unknown lifeform. We call them mollusc bristleworms. They looked likerge caterpirs, but covered with sharp spikes on them. Each spike was about seven to eight meters long, and many crustdes were hanging from it.

    Siva''s electronic voice reverberated in the operations room. "The interesting thing about these mollusc bristleworms is they could absorb energy weapon attacks, the mechanism for this is unknown. They move slowly, reaching up to Mach 6. Their bodies are covered with pores that could spew out a grayish green gas. This gas has been shown to weaken metal structures. Afterputations, we''ve determined that the massive being in the image is formed by about six thousand five hundred mollusc bristleworms."

    The number was enough to trigger another sharp inhale from the two listeners. Six thousand five hundred mollusc bristleworms with slight variations in colour intensity formed a massive dragon-like colourful being. It was a terrifying beast.

    "We have ascertained that the entire Gateway had only these six thousand and five hundred mollusc bristleworms. We have killed most of the crustdes. The rest of the crustdes can also be handled by our side. Your forces must deal with these mollusc bristleworms. Be aware that we have energy to only supply one final attack!"

    Siva''s electronic voice never wavered.

 Chapter 431 - Chaos Itself

    <h4>Chapter 431: Chaos Itself</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong carefully inspected every part of Han Jia. The prelude of war was haunting the atmosphere within the ship. Being a cargo vessel, because of itsck of proper defense mechanism, it would be a gamble whether if they could even pass the pathway. All forces had already been sent to the frontline, so nobody would be saving them, only they could save themselves.

    The n was to st off with maximum firepower at one point and zap through the pathway before things happened. That would be far riskier since a defenseless vessel like Darvill might be crashing into clusters of Crustdes in the course. But they had no other option. The forces of the three aristocrats were subsiding drastically, the families could no longer disperse their military forces to escort the vessels.

    Meanwhile, the crew members of Darrell were rather relieved of having a super fighter in their ship since that would simply trante as a likelihood to survive.

    The entrance to the pathway was a narrow one. So, the ships must travel in almost like a queue, where one tailed the other. If it was not Xue Lai''s achievement in the battle before, this massive evacuation would never happen. Xue Lai n was far ahead of the other aristocrats, they had already hit the center of the pathway, yet countless Crustdes raided them and they were helpless, eventually sumbed to requesting help.

    It took about 5 days for the giant fleet consisted of the 3 aristocrats to travel through the entrance entirely. Darvill was currently at the core of the fleet and passed through the tiny gap on the third day of the course.

    Unlike the tiny opening before, the interior of the pathway was rather spacious, so the fleet could finally breathe.

    It felt like another world inside¡­

    The leading ship of the fleet was on full fire, as shower of beams shed densely with the opposite.

    A war had already happened!

    The fleet was traveling sluggishly, as Xue Lai n and Xi Feng tribe had teamed up to fight back on full force. Beams of different colors shed through the wave of aggressive Crustdes.

    The happening ahead was transmitted to the hologram projections of all ships behind. It was a stunning visual which people would stumble upon.

    And now they finally could understand the reason the squad of each family had fallen, as they recognized the seriousness of the attack.

    Xue Lai n and Xi Feng tribe shone on this stage, for they had great technologies specialized in ranged attacks. Thesers sliced through darkness like a meteor shower, as they seared the purplish dark cloud of Crustdes.

    The joint attack of two families might be impable but the number of Crutdes was overwhelming, that a handful of them survived even under the dense of fired beams. Of course, they would notst when they reached the second defense line, where the Ye family was standing. The mechs of Ye family wielded a pair of iron fists, shredding the remaining arthropods.

    Han Jia was hovering near Darvill. He did not advance forward, since he knew the frontline had already be a ughterhouse. An additional man or two would not change a thing.

    Han Jia, the skeleton mech was invisible in most detection systems, so no other ships had actually noticed its existence in the dark.

    Looking at the fireworks ahead, Ye Chong could not help but to sigh, as finding his strength insignificant in this gctic battle.

    HNNNNGGGG!

    Suddenly, a Crustde flew by, seemingly unaware of Han Jia.

    It was heading towards Darvill rapidly!

    Ye Chong could even see its jaw pping excitingly.

    Wait, it did note for me?

    Ye Chong was confused, but somehow the insect ignored him in fact.

    Wait¡­ does that mean¡­

    Ye Chong had an idea. He wanted to test something.

    Han Jia remained static like a piece of meteorite in the space, anticipating the arriving arthropod.

    500 meters.

    The course of Crustde unchanged.

    300 meters.

    Unchanged.

    100 meters.

    Unchanged?

    Ye Chong''s spection was getting verified. The truth was revealing.

    3 meters¡­

    HHNNNNNNNGGG¡­

    Han Jia waspletely ignored. The daggers were drawn, the shadow danced, then the insect was bisected as it passed the unseen. Do-Kun stone was still the hardest. Thought Ye Chong as he looked at the sliced phylum.

    The wave of Crustdes looked endless. There were simply too many of them that casualties started to be heard of mechs from both Xue Lai n and Xi Feng tribe ahead.

    The force was weakening. The Crustdes within the fleet were increasing as manically they pounced upon the giant spaceships.

    Their jaws were destructive as the metallic armors of the ship were scrapped like polystyrene. One ship was rather unfortunate to have been raided by over hundreds Crustdes, a nightmarish scene it was. A spaceship''s armor was dense by nature, but it would only be a matter of time till everyyer was torn and a rupture would ur.

    Ye Chong could not help the other ships as Darvill was also surrounded by a huge flock of Crustdes.

    His test had proven the fact that Han Jia was undetected by these hungry pests. That would be perfect as Ye Chong would truly be an invisible hunter. It would be assassination all over again.

    The pathway was getting chaotic. The fleet had ceased, the spaceships were trying to catch up with each other, yet covered by the gnawing insects. The space had already been flooded with pieces of shattered mech and carcasses.

    Boom! One ship had blown up as the space suddenly turned bright. The fleet panicked as the ships started clogging the course.

    Crustdes were innately small arthropods but the fact they fed on metals was simply a horror. A few spaceships exploded next.

    And there Ye Chong was, feeling sentimental of his helpless insignificance again. The only he could do was to protect Darvill at all costs. He might be able to walk past those vicious insects undetected, but that did not mean he would be safe at all time.

    !

    And there he almost got hit by one of the debris from the spaceship explosion. The debris was visibly 1 kilometer long, Ye Chong could be crushed just because of the momentum conserved.

    The ce was chaotic, could be almost the chaos itself, that Ye Chong spent most of his attention span on the iing pieces.

    ¡­(Darvill''s Main Control Room)¡­

    The members were rmed as they scurried in the room, from one control panel to another, even Ye Pang the unshakable one began shaking a little.

    Who cares about that magic mech out there anymore! We have an invasion to handle!

    People were trying to minimize crashes with the other spaceships as the course had been utterly disrupted. They were fully attentive because a slip of the finger, a careless mistake simple could have killed the entire crew.

    Well Ye Chong was rtively calm as he took cover within the giant Darvill under the heavy debris shower.

    Tick!

    The gate of Darvill opened out of sudden, soon a golden silhouette tumbled its way out.

    Rui Bing?

    Why did she¡­

    Ye Chong was surprised. The Guardian was formidable but also limited in a space war like this, so why?

    "Why did youe out?" asked Ye Chong grimly in themunicator channel prompted.

    "I want to fight with you!" said Rui Bing firmly.

    Ye Chong wanted to convince her by saying how the Guardian was simply not made for such environment but Rui Bing did something¡­

    She demonstrated martial arts.

    Rui Bing hopped onto on one pole sticking out on the deck and transformed into a beam of golden light bouncing off on another pole. Ye Chong was seeing Rui Bing bing a kind of golden reflection moving from one pole or handle to another.

    And because of theck of gravity, it did not take Rui Bing much effort to main her momentum. She was literally zapping like electricity, but the consumption was not as dramatic as it looked.

    This idea''s not bad¡­

    Ye Chong was impressed of Rui Bing''s adaptability, although he did perceive one weakness immediately. The movement allowed Rui Bing''s mobility but it would be highly dependent on the objects around, Rui Bing would need to always find something to hold in order to make another leap. Moreover, it was always possible for her to bounce off at a wrong angle, that she might send herself into deep space. It would be a tragedy by then¡­

    "Rui Bing, I think-" She seemed to know what Ye Chong was thinking as she made a tap on the ship and bounced off Darvill.

    What was she doing?! The Guardian had only miniature engines, there''s no engine that promoted a directive aerial travel! You can''t find any handle in the boundless space!

    Ye Chong was hurrying his way to Rui Bing but Rui Bing was undisturbed, as she leisurely tapped a button on her waist, a rope was released and fired upon the body of the ship behind. There was a sucker at the end of the rope which helped fixing the rope on the ship firmly. Rui Bing stretched forward a little, then like a Yo-yo she was pulled back to the ship.

    Ye Chong then noticed the additional rectangr metallic box at Guardian''s waist.

    "Ye, Pang got me this," said Rui Bing, with slight joy in her chilly voice.

    "Be careful," said the indifferent voice. Rui Bing felt the 3 sybles warming her inside up nevertheless, "Alright," she said.

    Rui Bing then had a stroll across the body of the ship. Her skill picked up as she grew familiar of theyout of the ship. She began brisk-walking. It was not far-fetched to say the Guardian was made for Rui Bing. The dagger of the Guardian was greatly honed and unstoppable even in the raining attack of the hard Crustdes. Rui Bing also had the sense to aid her on performing critical attacks efficiently. Crustdes might be fast but they were there to be ughtered once they touched Darvill. Rui Bing was getting better on her moonwalking.

    Thanks to Rui Bing, Ye Chong had more liberty in the space.

    There was one ship of Xue Lai n next to Darvill.

    "Holy Xue Lai, what the heck was that?" one observer screamed exhratingly.

    The crew members then quickly shifted the camera to that "something".

    "What''s wrong? Hey¡­ Fei She''er! Talk to your captain!" said the captain loudly.

    What the hell is my sailor talking? Stop making this into a cruise of a horror movie.

    "Fei She''er!" Intense anger could be heard in the elevated volume of the captain.

    "Ah!" Fei She''er lifted his head, turned his head only to see the horrifying face of the captain in anger, "No sir! I mean, yes captain, sir, mister, I-I don''t know, please take a look¡­" And he instantly sent the visual of his camera to the giant screen in front of the captain''s seat.

    The boundless space.

    The chaotic walkway to the world outside.

    "What is there, Fei She''er, do you think it is funny to trick your crew? Would you like to work at the-"

    "Captain!"

    A few Crustdes showed up in the screen. They became restless upon seeing the ship as quickly they charged towards it.

    "Ah!" The crew member could not help but to scream. The captain''s hope sank, they would be soon good-as-done once these disgusting insects touched the ship.

    The shell of the arthropods shone in purplish dark metallic glow, reflecting the fireworks afar. The jaws were opening and closing in belligerent pace of hunger, as their purple brown eyes covetously projected in a high definition zoom-in on the screen.

    Hope had sunken. The ship would be blowing up. And there was nothing they could do. A few members decided toy back and close their eyes.

    "Captain!"

    Something was shing in the dark. A de seemed to have swayed across the closest arthropod which then turned into two pieces with countless droplets of purplish ck fluid hovering in the space.

    That was the first.

    Then second¡­ third¡­ forth¡­

    The Crustdes had all died?

    "D-d-d-did a miracle happen? Did god decide to help us?" muttered one man.

    "Quick!" The captain seemed to have thought of something, "Turn on Photon-mode, now!"

    Under photon mode they might have a limited vision, but the colors were richer. As the explosion had be a seeming firework upon regaining its colors. Beams were crossing and forming a colorful engulfing the world ahead.

    But no crew member had the attention on the scenery. They were all staring at that petite beauty at one corner.

    It was a mech gorgeous as the butterfly, with a spread of rainbow wings adorned by glittering stars of liquid gold. It hovered in pride within the void, as it set its eyes upon the floating carcasses.

    Two days.

    Chaos itself had visited for two days, which caused several explosions across different ships. The pathway was almost clogged with all sorts of rubbles, be them from the spaceships or the mechs.

    The progression was nearly zero on their course within thest two days, as they literally inched their way ahead. The beams of light remained dancing and Ye Chong had lost count of the number of Crustdes he had sliced.

    It was the third day of visit by chaos itself.

    Ye Chong started seeing a decrease in the number of Crustdes in the space.

    Has it ended?

    Wait, no!

    He realized something¡­ as goosebumps ran over his skin.

    Instinct told him that the crucial moment which would determine the oue of the war had arrived!

    He waved at Rui Bing and zoomed ahead.

 Chapter 432 - Fight for Your Destiny!

    <h4>Chapter 432: Fight for Your Destiny!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "It would depend on all of you," said Brahmara.

    Ye Yin''s expression was somber, with the little flicker of light remaining in his soulless eyes.

    He had witnessed everything in the past three days. Xue Lai n and Xi Feng tribe suffered the greatest loss as they lost at least half of their men being at the frontmost line. It was also known as the highest amount of casualty in the record of history in the past few years.

    Nonbat units in the fleet also suffered a considerable amount of damage due to limited energy supply. These ships were not assigned abative role in the evacuation, so they were only given the energy amount for basic flights. In their n, most of the batteries had been given to the mechs of frontline. They had to, or the frontmost defense line would neverst beyond three days. The only saving grace was, most of the goals of the evacuation had been achieved this time, though with a great cost.

    The clouds of Crustdes had slowly faded away, as the giant ones had probably been wiped out. Their minions were still everything nevertheless. Ye Yin had a much important mission to carry out thus they decided to treat these pests with ignorance.

    There was onest obstacle in their course.

    The mollusc bristleworm, 6000 of them or so.

    These bristleworms had gathered up and formed into a gigantic conglomeration, which wriggled like a dragon of darkness as it stood in the way of the fleet.

    Ye Yin''s eyes were dimmed as he looked upon the giant monstrosity. How many people would he have to lose in order to get home? How many people could survive in this ever-going fight? It took a few moments of silence for him to muster that inner voice of his, his eyes sharpened, "Go as nned. Attack!" shouted the ultimate order.

    The mechs retreated and the fleet reformed as the ships elerated.

    The ships hovered across the pathway at the front.

    These ships were empty and were moving under pre-programmed piloting.

    The ships sped up dramatically.

    Mach 8

    Mach 10

    Mach 12!

    The empty ships were leading their own parade as they hurriedly charged towards the wriggling ugly monster.

    These vessels had been modified with additional engines to give him stronger thrust, thus the ability to hit Mach 12 effortlessly.

    It was not easy to defeat the conglomerated worms. Ye Yin and the rest had cracked their head thinking up a n. The conglomeration was imaginably massive. One bristleworm would be about 40 meters in length, 6 to 7 meters in breadth. Now, multiply the figures by 6000 to get the estimated size of the monstrosity. It was simply horribly giant that mechs felt like the ants before the anteater. It would be impossible to sh through the monster with insufficient momentum. Things would only work if the fleet drilled its way through.

    All the ships were travelling at maximum speed. Ye Chong was a little astonished by the grand view as he saw the distance decreasing between the fleet of empty ships and the monster.

    The bristleworms seemed to have noticed the iing fleet as the surface of the monster was quivering. The monster turned restless as it began thrashing.

    The 50 empty ships then sank into the body of the monster.

    Boom!

    The monster had been pierced at its weak spot, as it began squirming in immense pain.

    The bristleworms leaked out of the conglomeration upon contact, as they began scurrying around in panic. The empty ships continued "drilling", to the deepest of the monster.

    And at the next moment, the monster copsed, as a wave of bristleworms engulfed the pathway.

    The bristleworms were writhing everywhere frantically, where clouds of green smoke escaped from their bodies and cloaked the entire ce.

    The fleet could only see the green sea ahead while making out the shape of those little squirmy silhouettes.

    "A-all units ahead!" Ye Yin''s calm voice cracked a little, as heunched the final gambit of entire fleet. His mech had first initiated the move, as it travelled ahead at full speed.

    No doubt it was a final gambit for them, as the release of those green gases had an effect that promoted disintegration of metals. The metal would gradually lose its particle cohesion upon contact, resulting a highly brittle structure that eventually would break down on its own due to the overwhelming artificial air pressure controlled inside the ship. In simpler terms, Brahmara had expected the effect to go on full swing in a duration of about 3 days, that would mean they would be a goner if they did not arrive at He Yue gxy within the period.

    It was just natural to die without the protection of any spaceship or mech.

    But, that was not all. ording to calction, they would need 4 days to fully walk through the entire pathway and they had just hit the middle. Halving that and they still needed 2 more days topletely exit the ce, given that nothing happened that is. Nheless, the green worms were still there, at worst case scenario Ye Yin and the army must finish the battle in less than a day!

    Time was no longer money, rather it was solely life to them at the moment. They must leave the pathway in 3 days, by hook or by crook, or else!

    The main force of the second phase would be Ye family this time. Both Xue Lai n and Xi Feng tribe had fully consumed their military forces. They had to take a break from battle also because of how bristleworms werepletely immune towards energy-based firings, like those beams. So, they started clearing up the course instead. The remnants of Crustdes were everywhere. A cleanup would be needed.

    Ye Yin had only 852 war machines left and they had to clear a way out in the midst of those green waving madness at the very least.

    It would be either dead or alive! They were ready!

    The 852 units took a cone-shaped formation, with Ye Yin, the strongest pilot of the family leading at the tip of the cone.

    Ye Yin''s mech was once a rare sight even hidden from his own family, and now it had made its debut to every ally. The 12 Spikedrops were circting around its body, the afterimages of the momentary travel had veiled the mech in faint darkness.

    Ye Yin led the army and advanced forward.

    "Wait, he came too?" Huang Jiming was shocked as he got up from his seat, staring at that petite silhouette gracefully hovering in the projection.

    The pilot''s hands fluttered over the control panel. Han Jia''s wings spread and silently flew behind the battle units.

    Huang Jiming had kept photon mode on the whole time, since he at first intended to observe how Ye Yin would look in action, never once he would expect Han Jia would being. Back on the staring contest in Risserd, this skeleton mech had impressed well enough. Sadly he never had the chance to have a duel with the pilot due to the sudden change of events.

    Feng Su was right next to Huang Jiming, as her expressive eyes set upon that butterfly in the projection. Her lethargic face before had suddenly turned lively, as she reminisced those times she challenged this indifferent young man.

    "DETECTION." Beeped the mechanical eyes of Brahmara, as prompted the projection of Han Jia.

    "Ah! Brother Ye¡­"

    Little Ye Chong knew that, the moment he hit the stage he had be the center of attention among these legends.

    Ye Yin stared upon the misty world. Without hesitation, he had advanced forward, with the other mechs tailing after.

    Inside the green mist, one could barely discern a thing. The detection system had be almost good-for-nothing thanks to the interferences caused by these mists. The scope of detection had been squeezed into a negligible range, and their vision had been limited.

    With such limited vision, one could hardly perform any dodging in a traveling mech. But well, Ye Yin never nned to try dodging anything anyway. Thus, he maintained his velocity and drove along.

    One bristleworm came out of nowhere and mmed upon Ye Yin''s face.

    The circting Spikedrops suddenly charged themselves, drilling into the body of the worm. One could see the worm vibrating because of the intensiveness of the drilling which the immense pain had caused the worm to try curling itself at countless failed attempts.

    And it exploded, bing the bits of fleshes hovering in the space. The Spikedrops had shredded the bristleworm into countless pieces.

    Ye Yin did not stop, as he kept up with his speed. These worms were vulnerable against his mech, not even their spikes could break the mech''s armor.

    The rm had been wailing in the mech however, as the processor constantly prompting an alert illustrating the damage the mech received.

    It must be those gases! The emission of bristleworms could break the mech of a top pilot in the gxy, let alone those folks'' mechs behind him. Ye Yin started suspecting the validity of Brahmara''s calction¡­ wondering if they could evenst for 3plete days.

    But they had no other choice. They only could charge on.

    They would have a likelihood to survive as long as they left this nightmarish ce as soon as possible.

    He looked at the approaching sea of worms rumbling ahead. The battle will burned up high in his eyes, while his hands danced upon the interface. His mech then zoomed into the sea!

    It is time! Time to fight, fight for your destiny!

    Ye Chong stepped into the green mist. No doubt he turned blind like Ye Yin, he had far inferior detection systempared to Ye Yin''s mech. Looking at the white buzzing screen, Ye Chong could not help but to switch to Photon detection mode.

    The camera was flooded with an overflowing green, from which a bristleworm suddenly jumped at Han Jia. Ye Chong was slightly shocked as he tapped the control panel promptly and lifted two shes with his daggers. A secreting cross was seen on the body of bristleworm. That was not the final blow. The body of that worm was about 40 to 50 meters, so the tiny cross would not kill, even though the worm was already wriggling in pain, emitting more green gases to the surrounding, during which its tail mmed upon Han Jia.

    Ye Chong responded quickly as Han Jia covered up itself with its wings.

    The strength of this m was beyond his expectation as Han Jia was sent far away like a whipped badminton.

    That thing was sure huge for a reason¡­ Thought Ye Chong, he did not intend to waste more time on this random enemy. A wounded beast would be far more dangerous than a normal beast, ording to his experiences dealing with these wild lifeforms.

    Han Jia gracefully turned away from the wounded caterpir and flew forward. And then it jerked, as Ye Chong realized a major issue without a functioning detection system - he had lost his direction.

    Ye Chong was at an awkward situation, knowing that these bristleworms were forceful by nature since those strong spaceships could get stuck,pletely immobilized within their embrace.

    Han Jia was at least far more agile than the gigantic spacecrafts. It could easily swim through the sea of worms. It did not take long for Ye Chong to notice the hidden system behind the sea of worms. Apparently, the appearance of the worm determined a certain kind of rank in its own hierarchy. The greener the worm, the higher rank it would be¡­ since only the dark green bristleworms could emit those gases. The paler ones were seemingly younger so they were unable to perform such defense mechanism.

    The hierarchy was justifiable as Ye Chong saw the unnoticed grouping where a dark green bristleworm would always lead three to four paler ones at a spot.

    Ye Chong piloted Han Jia carefully, dodging one bristleworm to another, realizing he had possibly ventured too deep into the sea of worms, as the surrounding grew denser. He also noticed that he was practically invisible too, assuming he did not open fire at these worms.

    Hmm¡­

    Wait, could it be these bristleworms have the same sensibility of metal as the Crustdes?

    Ye Chong had something else in mind¡­ but he could not put it together somehow¡­ He tried harder, recollecting his thoughts as waving the handle over these pests, to the center of the sea.

 Chapter 433 - Bristleworm Hunt I

    <h4>Chapter 433: Bristleworm Hunt I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Not only Ye Chong, Ye Yin and the others were facing trouble in the mean time. At first, they assumed these worms knew no other defense mechanism than the emission of green gas, at least none of other possible defense mechanisms could wound their armor of machinery. But then, like Ye Chong, they started to recognize the strength of these worms as amplified by sizes. These pests were peskier than the men imagined, especially when these pests were highly sensitive of mechs, that these bristleworms would notice upon approaching.

    Team Ye Yin was severely outnumbered. This fight would not be cake walk, even though so far there had not been any visible casualty in his team. Ironically, there had not been any visible progress in their travel as well.

    The bristleworms were apparently unaffected by their own emission, their sensibility and mobility were still the same capable, unlike the mechs which had beenpletely slowed down due to the waves of these entities. A mech without speed would lose arge portion of its offensive capacity.

    Yes, speed is what made a mech the fast and furious, the core of its existence!

    Well, probably only Ye Yin''s mech remained the same fast and furious as before, as luckily he had his Spikedrops guarding him with their efficient pration which cleared out all bristleworms within the vicinity, making Ye Yin the sweeping pilot among his team.

    The other mechs of Ye family were not as strong however, as they were swarmed by the bristleworms and that prevented them from elerating freely as their will. Certainly, a mech''s weaponry could harm these fleshy worms easily, but only to the extent before size became a matter. Once they faced arger entity of the pests, the attack would no longer be fatal, only would anger the entity, causing uncontroble havoc instead.

    Ye Yin could not help but to feel powerless at the sight of the endless worm waves ahead. It was as if he was stuck in a bog of depression when he thought of their n of making a clear-out in less than a day for the fleet.

    His hope was sinking but not his hands on the control panel.

    The fight must go on.

    Ye Yin''s mech had a stronger engine than other mechs and was armed with those unpredictable Spikedrops, that was why he was far ahead of his team especially when he programmed the Spikedrops to directly destroy the insides of bristleworm upon contact.

    Soon he realized he had lost his teammates.

    But there was something else that caught his attention, as he saw a tiny conglomeration of about 50 bristleworms on the projection. It was peculiar because the empty fleet before had prated the giant conglomeration, yet there was still this lump before him, that was unseen before in thest few hours.

    The conglomeration sluggishly crawled to the front, with the neighboring pale bristleworms letting the way out, as its size increased when the greener ones joined it gradually.

    This is not right¡­

    Ye Yin''s heart quivered.

    Was that a new cycle?

    Did the gigantic conglomeration they spent 50 ships to defeat start its formation this way?

    Assuming Ye Yin was not making a wild guess, then this small lump would very likely be the seed, the beginning of it. A sense of crisis rose in Ye Yin''s mind as he imagined the happening if the lump continued the process.

    A new giant might be forming very soon!

    They no longer had the leisure to modify empty ships to perform another drill attack! The conglomeration must not happen again!

    In 3 days their shelter, the mechs would be disintegrated, they would die!

    Ye Yin discarded the n of heading back to his team. Instead, he had something in mind, regarding this growing lump of madness.

    Ye Yin carefully followed the wriggling lump, his mind rapidly formed a basic n on an attack. All he needed would be a good timin-

    Something happened!

    The lump seemed to have been stimted by something as it began wriggling vigorously. In the space without air, Ye Yin could hardly hear a thing but somehow he imagined the monster was shrieking¡­

    How?

    The visual on his projection turned fuzzier over time. Ye Yin realized that the closer he approached the monster, the stronger the interference his detection system received. He could barely make out the shape of the worms around now.

    As expected, this blob monster was not a simple task.

    Thought Ye Yin, as his will to destroy it became firmer.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Ye Chong was not doing great as well.

    In short terms, he was finding chores for himself. The green mist was ineffective on his Han Jia, which gave him the freedom to do anything in the sea of green worms, as long as he behaved.

    But the scene before him, and his thoughts, there seemed to be a direct connection between each other.

    Strange¡­ be it bristleworm or Crustdes, why are they so sensitive over metallic objects? Especially when bristleworms favored objects that contain high amount of energy activity. These worms were truly the natural enemy of humanity! Be it metal or the energy, those are the natural necessity of humanity today. Aplete contradiction, both these worms and humanity could never co-exist!

    But that has not much to do with me¡­ I should be thinking a way to escape here. If it was not because I could not amodate both Old Jalopy and Fei Si in Han Jia, I would have just headed back to the fleet and pick up both of them, then leave this ce with Rui Bing. It would not be hard when these worms could not see Han Jia at all.

    Oh well¡­

    Thought Ye Chong as he shifted his focus back to reality.

    Back on Trash, Ye Chong had several asions with different mutated lifeforms and of course in Archipgo he had tasted beast stampede, the century event before, so he was practically an experienced monster hunter himself.

    From his observation this far, he noticed the hierarchy among the worms, so technically there should be a leader, or a mother queen somewhere. From the premise, if Ye Chong could find out the leader, maybe things would change.

    Hmmm¡­

    That was when he discerned a silhouette shing by through his eyes'' corners.

    Silhouette? He searched the camera immediately.

    No way Ye Chong was seeing things. The sea of worms was green, and a ck silhouette had just passed by, Ye Chong was not color blind to have mistaken a random piece of meteorite.

    It did not take long before Ye Chong discovered that silhouette. The darkish shape was traveling forward, much faster than the bristleworms. Without hesitation, Han Jia prompted its engine and chased after that silhouette disappearing in the deeper sea.

    The distance was decreasing and Ye Chong began discerning the details of the silhouette.

    It was ¡­ Wait, what!

    Arge bristleworm¡­ arge greenish ck bristleworm!

    The leader? Is this the leader?

    Such thought popped up in Ye Chong''s mind, his heart raced, ording to his observation, the greener the worm, the darker the green was, the higher in rank, probably. And now this worm was much more greener and darker than all other minions he had ever seen, so it must be!

    Ye Chong carefully piloted Han Jia. He must retain his stealth, he must not alert the leader worm.

    While he was specting if he was too lucky, the next scene had proven his theory.

    The bristleworms around were opening a way for this sludgy-colored bristleworm.

    Then, Ye Chong saw one random dark green bristleworm crawled out of the wave and followed the leader which seemed to be purposely slowing down, allowing contact with the follower. Soon, they made contact, and they had merged!

    As Ye Chong hovered his way, he spotted more and more worms joined the leader, as if a maic force pulling them.

    In no time the greenish ck worm had been enveloped by the minions.

    A conglomeration!

    The fact was starkly clear! It was the miniature conglomeration of the gigantic mess Ye family''s fleet had cleared before.

    That would mean¡­ the worm must be the queen!

    Ye Chong decided to make a move, right away! Or he would only miss the golden opportunity to assassinate the queen.

    Han Jia elerated and emerged right behind the moving chunk.

    The tentacles of Han Jia turned alive and sprung up.

    On Ye Chong''s projection, he could perceive a tiny gap in between the lump of dark green bristleworms.

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong''s skeleton tentacle made a stab!

    He got it!

    Yes! It wor-

    Before Ye Chong managed to celebrate, a strong force sent Han Jia far, faraway.

    Ye Chong did not panic as he tried to regain control of Han Jia.

    The worms on the queen began squirming frantically. The living sea of worms turned dead out of sudden.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    The bristleworms around Han Jia started moving rapidly, all towards Han Jia they hopped and pounced!

    Oh no¡­

 Chapter 434 - Bristleworm Hunt II

    <h4>Chapter 434: Bristleworm Hunt II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It looked like Ye Chong had poked the wrong beehive.

    The waves were tumbling! Millions of bristleworms flooded towards Han Jia. The green mists were rolling as restless the sea had gotten, bing a whirlpool as attracting countless bristleworms from all corners to the center where Ye Chong was standing.

    The sudden change of the sea had alerted the others.

    Ye Yin could not control his emotion despite being the top pilot of Ye family, as astonishment was overflowing in his mind. The sea was struggling, the tiny conglomeration was seemingly shrieking somehow¡­ Before he could realize, he began seeing scratches over the body of the dark green bristleworm.

    Huh? Ye Yin flinched, what''s going on?

    The bristleworm covering the conglomeration somehow started cracking, as the number of scratches increased dramatically over its body.

    The bristleworm was squirming in a more frantic manner, but its struggle was pointless, the cuts were still increasing like the engraving of curses haunting its entire entity.

    In less than a second, the dark green bristleworm had gained about 21 new cuts. Ye Yin knew it was a nasty amount of cuts in such a brief window, it was a typical quick attack that was a chore to get rid of.

    But who? Who was making such dramatic attack?

    Ye Yin felt confused as he observed the projection carefully to see nothing else around the conglomeration.

    Atst, the bristleworm had a full convulsion and jerked twice before it copsed into immobility.

    Before Ye Yin could regain from his astonishment, the second, the third worm got attacked. The invisible killer was so efficient that even Ye Yin felt a little underwhelmed of himself. Also, clearly the target of the invisible killer had always been the conglomeration itself as he or she seemed to be shing through the bristleworms-crowd outeryer.

    Could it be?

    Ye Yin had something in mind, as he turned on photon mode.

    A petite and gorgeous skeleton mech was attacking the tiny conglomeration continuously.

    It was him the whole time?

    Ye Yin remembered that indifferent young man he had seen before. Certainly he was shocked, he might not have spoken to this young man personally before, but the bloodthirsty charm, the unspoken violence of this young man could never be forgotten upon nce!

    Throughout the history, Ye family had conducted various researches on producing a full skeleton mech but they had never made any observable progress thus far. And now Ye Yin, the top pilot, was seeing a wlessly crafted, fully functional skeleton mech with a splendid design and a unique set of weapon. No doubt, this must be a masterpiece!

    Skeletons were perfect against the traditional detection system, that it was an eye-opener even to Ye Yin who had been to various battlegrounds.

    Why is he here? Who exactly is he?

    He could not help but to think about it.

    But obviously it was not the time to be pondering these now.

    The skeleton mech was spending all its strength attacking the lump.

    Could it be¡­

    Ye Yin saw the entire wave swirling over the skeleton mech aggressively. It was such a horrifying sight to see thoservae crawling every seeable space and engulfing the mech. Ye Yin remained calm, as he was still a brave and bold pilot after all.

    If it was not for the sluggishness of thoservae, both of them might have been crushed into pieces.

    The sea was waving, slowly but steadily.

    Judging from the change of event, Ye Yin no longer had time and was left with two choices. One would be to leave the sea before the bristleworms blew up in hostility upon thebat order of the queen; another would be to kill that forming conglomeration before all bristleworms had arrived. The first n was feasible as he could escape safely in time with his speed. The second n would kill that chance for him as the ce would turn imaginably inescapable when all bristleworms had clogged the entire course here.

    Ye Yin made up his mind in a brief while!

    The Spikedrops connected themselves from one end to another, forming a chain like a dark lightning and zapped into the conglomeration ahead.

    In the meantime, Ye Chong was watching the lump before him.

    The queen waspletely embraced within theyer of bristleworms. Ye Chong could only see the fleshes of those dark green worms, the sight of the queen was imperceptible at the moment.

    Ye Chong was almost certain however, that the greenish ck silhouette was the queen in fact. It was no longer a hypothesis, the queen must be the queen.

    Ye Chong had no better n than killing the queen. That was the only thing he could do being all alone, though he could not imagine the oue. Still, who cares! What other choices he had anyway?

    Without hesitation, Han Jia raised its nce" like the mythical pdin and charged towards the foe!

    Well, Ye Chong did not really perceive medieval terms like nce" or "pdin", even if he had been once exposed to history before, thanks to Shang. He was not sure if people had done this before, if he was the pdin, but it was all for survival!

    It was not only for his survival, but also for Rui Bing, Old Jalopy, and Fei Si! They were the reason for his reckless-looking action! They were the one thing worth risking for!

    His slightly hollow face was looking colder than usual, like a statue made out of ice, as he stared upon the projection in the dark, with his hands dancing into stack of afterimages above the interface.

    All tentacles of Han Jia started swaying, with the the pair of daggers brandishing quickly.

    The body of the bristleworms were generally 6 to 7 meters in diameter. Yes, they were rather toorge to take critical damages by a tiny dagger.

    Only if these bristleworms never had immunity towards energy-based firings or Ye Chong would just toss a fewpressive bombs and blow them up.

    The vitality of these bristleworms was great, that they did not seem hurt despite the dense cuts over the body.

    Ye Chong was agitated, as the barrage intensified!

    If 10 cuts did not work, I''ll just do few tens more!

    Ye Chong''s hands sped up.

    That was what happened on the other side when Ye Yin watched the cracking action on the covering bristleworms.

    Han Jia made a fancy swing and pulled distance away from the conglomeration to perform a speedy thrust!

    Han Jia could not elerate to the maximum due to the limited space that allowed travel, but the attack was significant as it made a giant dent on the covering bristleworm. The bristleworm fell off in pain.

    Ye Chong was inspired, as the instinct of the battleground had given him an idea. He pulled the lever and lifted Han Jia in the air again. Thup! It crashed into another bristleworm.

    There was a little twist this time, Han Jia was holding the dagger and had stabbed it deep into the body of this bristleworm. Before the worm could take any action, Han Jia made a rapid flight across its body, making a clear cut from the head all the way to the tail. If only Han Jia''s dagger was longer, Ye Chong could have make a deeper slice of ham out of this thing.

    Due to the deep wound, the bristleworm could not help but to curl up and fell off tumbling in pain at the side.

    Everything went as expected.

    That was practically what happened when Ye Yin watched the diamond cuts over that bristleworm on the other side. Ye Yin was stunned and could not help but topliment the agility of the boy.

    But efficiency-wise, in reality, Ye Chong might not be as great as Ye Yin assumed since Ye Yin was the one with a mech enveloped in floating Spikedrops which seemed to prate anything while providing seamless control. Those were something Han Jia could neverpete. To defeat a bristleworm, all Ye Yin needed to do was to make those Spikedrops pierced into the body and cause destruction inside, unlike Ye Chong''s Han Jia which required all the momentum and brute-force he could muster. Ye Yin was able to kill the bristleworm so, but Ye Chong could only injure it at most. It was undeniable as Ye Yin''s Spikedrops were literally a meat-shredder, no worm could have ever survived that!

    Throughout the whole process Ye Chong had never noticed the one extra mech at the opposite, since his vision was limited by the scope of photon mode detection. If it was not for unique entities like Ye Chong''s skeleton mechs, the photon mode visual would have been long terminated in use.

    Ye Chong''s hands did not stop. He knew there was not much time left. He must eliminate the queen before thervae arrived as backup. He did not even have the time to take a nce at theingrvae behind.

    His brain was surprisingly calm as he calcted the angle and direction of his every sh and stab. Another bristleworm had fallen! Then the next! The next after!

    Ye Chong began perceiving a thin darkness within theyers of bristleworms. He knew it was working as his hands elerated.

    Meanwhile, Ye Yin noticed the eleration and reinforcement of the skeleton mech''s attack. Without hesitation, he also jumped into intense action. Wise people do think alike, after all. They always would catch on something upon a simple nce or gesture.

    Ye Yin presumed a discovery made by the boy.

    The row of two dark green bristleworms was revealing a clear lining of darkness.

    Han Jia backed out, which Ye Yin went stupefied of.

    He''s nning to run? At this point?

    In the midst of Ye Yin''s bewilderment, the butterfly had reappeared once more as Han Jia spread its colorful pair of wings. Before Ye Yin could react, like aunched arrow, Han Jia zoomed towards the conglomeration.

    It was like a rainbow.

    A twilight of the aurora.

    It was so ring that Ye Yin covered his eyes a little.

    Meanwhile Ye Chong was staring at that thin lining between the bristleworms on the projection. He got to focus and act fast! His hands moved vigorously, at a threatening speed that the air inside the cabin was vibrating along with his fingers! Ye Chong opened his eyes wide, as adrenaline tinted crimson on his pale cheeks.

    Now!

    The afterimages ended as his hands returned to the control panel. Onest button!

    Han Jia the petite had somehow transformed into a bomber as suicidally it performed an epic dive towards the amalgamation.

    Right before contact, the petite mech finally revealed its deadly torn, the dagger it trusted that stabbed right into the thin gap between bristleworms.

    Thump.

    Ye Yin somehow could hear the sound despite theck of air in the space.

    Han Jia skimmed quickly over the two bristleworms.

    And after Han Jia had moved away, the gap was squirting the dark fluids of the entity within!

 Chapter 435 - A Silent Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 435: A Silent Retreat</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There were carcasses everywhere in the pathway.

    The urrence just now was too bizarre to even be reminisced, as the expression of people froze when viewing the green sea. Thest scene was haunting them, as if imprinted in their head, as they felt their thumping heart still at their throat.

    The thrashing sea of worms had turned lifeless all of a sudden.

    Things always look bizarre to people if there seems to be ack of transition between the move and still. And certainly the event a moment ago was more thanprehensibly bizarre to their senses. Their heart was cold as blood seemed to have stomped the brake heavily in the bloodstream. The bizarreness of the scene was one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen in their life.

    A dead sea of worms was absolutely more horrifying.

    People stayed bewildered till the first carcass flowed out of the green mist, then they realized all bristleworms had been dead.

    How did they die? Nobody knew!

    What exactly happened in the sea? Nobody knew!

    Those were the mysteries that remained unexined in the mind of the people, not even those pilots of Ye family who managed to escape the dying sea could give a proper exnation as confused they looked as well. They did see more things than most people in the sea and no way they could forget it for the rest of their life - an entire space of worms died in wave at once, it was a grand mass suicide.

    Rui Bing was standing on top of Darvill and nearly copsed upon seeing Han Jia returning in one piece. She finally got to rx. Darvill was well taken care of, not even a scratch could be seen.

    Among the entire fleet, only Ye Yin and Ye Chong knew the context of the death of bristleworm sea. It was a very brief war, that Ye Chong actually presumed that he had done a good job being low and unnoticed, yet in actuality Ye Yin had seen his every action.

    Ye Chong never wanted to be given the attention, especially under a period like this.

    So he withdrew himself quickly after that, before Ye Yin could catch up with him. Ye Yin would love to know at which ship the mysterious skeleton mech was hiding but he discarded the thought soon after, since the amalgamated army of the three aristocrats was simply too gigantic to perform a search. Moreover, such action would only trigger the hostility in the other families. Most importantly, he did not have the time. The journey must go on, before his ride melted into void.

    The fleet had regained its liveliness as the crewmembers started moving on with the next phase of their n. Unlike before, fear and panic were no longer visible on their faces, instead there were joy andughter.

    Ye Yin was ridiculously busy at the moment, being the topmander of Ye Family, he had tomunicate with representatives of the other families to coordinate from time to time. Then there were tasks to be assigned to his crew, there was also a report to be written that he would need to calcte the casualties urred in the process. He could have asked others to handle these trivialities, but well, the report would go to him forption in the end anyway.

    Only when he could catch his breath, he would remember that beautiful skeleton mech, performing those impable and urate strikes, calmly yet ferociously in an impaling force. And thinking of it would give him shivers of excitementing deep from his heart all the time.

    The excitement did notst however, as soon he would be engulfed by therge piles of documents and inquiries from his crewmen asking for permission.

    Meanwhile, both Ye Chong and Rui Bing were sort of having a honeymoon on Darvill, with Old Jalopy and Fei Si. It was only natural when Ye Pang was the leader of the logistics department. They might no longer have any battery in the storage, but they at least could afford the finest wine from thest century and premium tea leaves from the other corner of gxy. Old Jalopy and Ye Luo were hogging on the bottles of Chateau Lafite at night, while slurping Tieguanyin in the afternoon.

    Sailors of the Darvill were overjoyed upon the sight of the exit, as they hugged each other celebrating their survival.

    Once they passed the exit, they would arrive at He Yue.

    The entire fleet was over the moon.

    The sailors had been thinking of their home, especially after such a cruel war they had witnessed. They missed home, their families, the warm and cozy bed.

    Shrieks of joy were heard in the ship the moment Darvill travelled past the exit.

    Ye Chong, Rui Bing, Old Jalopy and Fei Si were all in one room. Well, Ye Chong called them there.

    "We are leaving," said Ye Chong concisely.

    The room was silent.

    Fei Si opened her mouth¡­ and she shut it back up.

    There was no other timing better than now. Once they entered He Yue, the fleet would face another reformation, which meant a likelihood ofmotion happening. It would be perfect to leave.

    "W-w-whatever. *hup* You saved our lives after all *hup*," muttered Old Jalopy who was a little drunk he after that epic drinking with Ye Luost night.

    Ye Chong and Rui Bing both left the room after giving a nce at Old Jalopy and Fei Si.

    "Grandpa¡­," Fei Si insisted expressing something but Old Jalopy opened his eyes wide, he was pretending the whole time. Old Jalopy looked at Fei Su''s slightly sunken cheeks, sighed, "Girl, stop thinking. The world is no longer peaceful. It''ll only get messier over time¡­ Just go with him¡­ You still have years toe by, it''s more important to survive."

    Fei Si''s eyes reddened upon his words as she burst into tears within Old Jalopy''s embrace.

    "Sigh¡­" Old Jalopy gave a gentle pat on Fei Si''s back.

    ¡­ (At the other spot) ¡­

    "So, you''re leaving?" asked Ye Luo softly.

    Ye Chong nodded.

    "Right, it is a good timing to leave in fact," nodded Ye Pang approvingly.

    Ye Luo remained silent for a moment, "Let me show you something." And he suddenly prompted the hologram projection in the room.

    It was an intergcticyout of He Yue gxy, with a few red spots on it.

    "It just came from our family. Did you see those red spots? Something happened¡­" His voice got low, "Spatial distortion."

    Ye Chong looked at the projection in nk dismay.

    "It''s just a friendly reminder from me," borated Ye Luo, assuming that Ye Chong received a shock of his news. "You should not be traveling at these spots, it would be too dangerous. You probably didn''t know, before the pathway was raided, we have already received several notifications on spatial distortion at different ces. We wanted to send our experts to investigate but things changed, the pathway got attacked. Our family was suspecting if these anomalies were somehow rted with these unknown creatures¡­"

    Ye Luo then walked to Ye Chong, with a sharp re into his eyes, as word by word the warning went, "You can go wherever you want, I would not care less. But, never, ever, hit, your, path, to, these, ces. They. Are. Dangerous."

    Ye Chong stared at the projection.

    And as mentioned before, reformation of fleet happened and it was truly amotion. The gxy was Xue Lai n''s territory after all. They did not intend to fight however, as they had received orders to shift all the military forces away from the zone, to show their respect towards the return of the formidable warriors and a sign of wanting peace.

    That was when one gate of Darvill opened, as a small ship flew out quietly.

    The reformation involved shuffling of spaceships. So in the midst of themotion, no one noticed the departure of the little ship.

    The ship weaved in and out of the moving spaceship and soon disappeared in the boundless space. The other ships were too busy heading back to their own family to take notice of the ship.

    The little ship then elerated, all ording to n. Surely, both Ye Luo and Ye Pang had already nned an escape path for Ye Chong''s references. The path was one cleared out by the Xue Lai n as a returning route for Ye family and Xi Feng tribe after the reformation, but well Ye Chong treaded it first.

    The ship was supplied with sufficient batteries. Those were part of the supplies sent by the Xue Lai n for Darvill that Ye Pang generously took arge box of them to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong once imagined the entrance to the pathway leading to free space zone would be a remote zone as well. He never expected the three entrances to the pathway were surrounded by a lively space zone.

    The fews near Xue Lai''s pathway were a collection of well-developed business zones where flocks of vessels woulde for trades all the time. Ye Chong got to admit that Xue Lai n had a pretty tight mouth on this. No one had really heard of it.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    "Captain, we received an SOS signal from a lifeboat nearby," said one sailor on Risson the intergctic long travel cruise.

    "SOS signal?" frowned Captain Airi. All these years he had been working on the cruise, yet he had never heard of an actual ident of spaceship in this zone. He seriously wondered which greenhorn was leading the unlucky ship, that an SOS signal eventually arrived to his ears.

    "Try contacting them. Ask them what is happening," ordered Captain Airi.

    "They imed to be traveling at long distance the first time and seemed to have lost contact with their mothership on an unattended control."

    I knew it. Greenhorns these days¡­ Sigh¡­

    "Escort them into the ship. But, remind them, they would have to pay if they broke anything in the process," said Captain Airi helplessly.

    The captain would not be low on guard if he was receiving the same signal at other space zone. But really, the space zone he was traveling now was indeed a secure one, that it sounded strange to him to have received an actual SOS signal from an ident. He had been traveling at this course for 10 years, and had heard of the same story a few times, that the newbies could not handle their ship well and requested assistance.

    Ships today¡­ sigh¡­ what happened to standards?

    But I can''t be merciless and turn them down, can I?

    Thought the kind captain.

 Chapter 436 - Dragon-Tiger Match

    <h4>Chapter 436: Dragon-Tiger Match</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Zhang Yu looked out the window into the starry sky, feeling a little bored. Long space travels were dry and uninteresting, especially to someone like him, who had lost interest in a great deal of things.

    The ship''s broadcast system suddenly came online. "Attention all passengers! Attention all passengers! Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be redirecting our flight to Yi Ju. We apologize for the inconvenience!" The broadcast went silent after that.

    Zhang Yu''s face twitched. They were hijacked! That idea immediately came to him, and he activated thems device on his wrist almost instinctively.

    The ship went silent for a moment, and then all hell broke loose! The passengers looked furious. Some of them even demanded to see the Captain. However, Zhang Yu noticed that a few people in the crowd kept their calm, with wary looking eyes.

    Zhang Yu felt a vibration from hisms device. He lifted his wrist to have a look, and felt even more troubled. Hisms device registered nothing. Allmunication signals onboard the ship were disabled! However, he was slightlyforted by the fact that his distress message had been sent out. Now, he could only hope that his all-powerful friend could help him.

    Without being obvious about it, he deleted the distress message from hisms device as he sat quietly on his seat. Any overreactions right now could potentially invite trouble.

    In the captain''s cabin, Ye Chong was with Rui Bing, Old Jalopy and Fei Si. Beside them, an innocent looking alloy chairid broken on the floor. Everyone in the ship looked shaken. They looked at the four of them with terrified eyes, especially at Rui Bing. With her icy beauty, she was like as terrifying as a cannibal to the crew. A moment ago, Rui Bing hadshed out with a kick without warning, breaking the alloy chair into its current sorry state.

    Captain Airi coughed. "Cough, cough. Everyone, let me remind you that while you are strong enough to force us to reroute our flight, I urge you to reconsider. This flight route is under the protection of the Xue Lai n. If we really reroute our flight, I believe that the Xue Lai n will react ordingly." His words were meant as a warning - they should really reconsider!

    "Thank you for your warning," Ye Chong answered politely. It must be said that Ye Luo and Ye Pang''s n was quite effective.

    Looking at the young man''s indifference, Captain Airi knew that he would not change his mind. Without any other choice, the Captain gave his orders to the crew members, "Reroute our flight. Our destination - Yi Ju!"

    Ye Chong went to the control panel, and immediately shut down all externalmunications. Since they were still in Xue Lai n territory, news of the ship being hijacked would have devastating consequences.

    "Please arrange for amodation for mypanions, thank you." Ye Chong spoked politely to the Captain.

    Little Rock entered the virtual world as he usually did.

    Now, his daily job was to get intel through the virtual world. As the virtual world nodeboratory was built, his power increased tremendously. He was now the main source of intel for their group. Little Rock''s abilities improved quickly. His extraordinaryputational skills allowed him to explore freely in the world of mathematics as he learned more and more. He was not a true super duper Maverick! Even Mu and Shang mostly left this matter to him.

    Huh?

    Little Rock looked at the distress message he had just received in surprise. Skytreader was one of his few friends in the Maverick circle. He was a well established Maverick, and one of the few Mavericks in the He Yue Gxy who worked solo.

    What happened to him?

    Little Rock quickly opened the message.

    He can see that the message was pre-crafted. There was no other information. This meant that his situation must be dire. The man must have thought of him when in whatever critical situation he found himself in. Somehow, Little Rock felt touched by this knowledge.

    However, he quickly dismissed the sentiment. As a Maverick, he must first and foremost be calm.

    He must move quickly!

    First, he must find where the message was sent from. Five minutester, he was able to locate the sender.

    Sender location: the Long Distance Travel Starship, Victoria. Message origin location: near Sol Latitude.

    Three minutester, everything there was to know about Victoria was disyed before Little Rock, including its internal schematics, which Little Rock dug out from the Starship Management Office.

    "There must be some ident," Little Rock thought quietly.

    Sol Latitude''s virtual world was particrly well defended, and this surprised Little Rock! He was no longer the amateur of old, and he knew what this special kind of defense meant.

    Could it be ¡­

    However, this was obviously not the time to explore Sol Latitude''s mysteries. Sol Latitude might be well guarded, but that could not stop a Maverick like Little Rock.

    Thending dock did not have records of Victoria''snding. ording to their schedule, the ship should have docked at the by now. This meant that something had happened to Victoria.

    Was the ship hijacked?

    Little Rock frowned.

    Victoria''s externalmunications were cut off. Little Rock tried to reach the ship in vain.

    This did not discourage Little Rock. On the contrary, he was feeling excited about the fight ahead! Not giving up was one of the main reasons he had be a powerful Maverick. He was rigid, but strong and determined, never one to cower before obstacles.

    "Then, a battle it is!" Little Rock''s tiny frame radiated with a strong battle intent!

    "Boss ¡­ Boss ¡­" A young man stumbled into the room, speaking panickedly.

    "What is it?" The one called Boss was a middle aged man, and he frowned at the interruption.

    "Someone ¡­ Someone hacked into our regionalwork. We lost all our holographic feeds!" The young man gulped repeatedly as he stuttered out his words.

    "What?!" The middle aged man could no longer stay calm. He pushed away his desk and abruptly stood up, bbergasted.

    On the holographic screen, one could see that a Maverick was making every move with speed and calmness. Like most traditional swordsman, every move was clear but unbeatable!

    "Dragon-Tiger Match, what are you up to?" The middle aged man muttered to himself.

    In Xue Lai n''s virtual world control center.

    The air was thick with tension. Every working staff wore a grim expression.

    "First defense node failed ¡­"

    "Second defense node failed ¡­"

    "Enemy is hacking the third defense node¡­ Third defense node failed ¡­"

    A beautiful feminine voice delivered the words that sounded like they came from a nightmare. Every one of them in the center looked pale.

    "Surveince system is lost!" This sentence hammered down heavily on their hearts!

    On the holographic screen, a handsome tiger-man and a lovely dragondy were intimately clinging onto each other in an intensely suggestive way, but everyone looked at the image with nothing but fear in their eyes.

    "Dragon-Tiger Match, what are you up to?"

    On that day, a powerful Maverick called Dragon-Tiger Match shocked the entire He Yue Gxy. In just three hours, 35s including Sol Latitude at the center lost their surveince systems.

    The arousing image of the handsome tiger-man and dragondy entwined together spread across the entire He Yue Gxy.

    Dragon-Tiger Match was actually Little Rock, but the symbol was designed by someone else.

    ording to tradition, every Maverick would have their own symbol. Once, when Little Rock, Mu and Shang discussed about it, Shang had volunteered to design his.

    In this respect, Little Rock was remarkably simr to Ye Chong - he left it all to Shang.

    Hence, by drawing inspiration from "Fiery Battle of between Dragon and Tiger" and "yboy", Shang presented his design of the symbol in all its glory, and called it the Dragon-Tiger Match. When Zhu Ling saw the symbol, she had blushed deeply for a whole 30 seconds. The beautiful dragondy looked very much like Zhu Ling, while the handsome tiger-man looked like Little Rock.

    Little Rock was satisfied with the design. He may not know much about aesthetics, but he did know that this symbol would only take up a bare minimum of resources from the photon processor.

    From then on, the enticing Dragon-Tiger March had be Little Rock''s very own symbol.

    Little Rock did not have time to think about how impressive his work was. He alone controlled many, many holographic feeds, all the while fending off waves of counter attacks from the other side. There was no time to think about anything else.

    The counter attacks were strong!

    Little Rock was sweating all over. The neverending waves of counter attacks exhausted him, but he held on.

    An event of such a huge scale had caught the attention of all the Mavericks in the He Yue Gxy! Many of them were keeping a close eye on the proceedings. However, every Maverick was astonished by the power of Dragon-Tiger Match. Little Rock''s strength was deeply etched into their hearts.

    Found it!

    Little Rock felt encouraged. One of the holographic feeds had Victoria in it.

    Little Rock quickly essed his star chart, and began to analyze Victoria''s trajectory to deduce its destination.

    Just when everyone was trembling in excitement at this unprecedented war in the virtual world, Dragon-Tiger Match did something else that once again demonstrated his prowess!

    Suddenly, Dragon-Tiger Match vanished into thin air, gone from the virtual world in an instant. No matter how hard they looked, no one could find him. When the control center staff members regained control of the surveince system, they found to their surprise that all their information, including voice passcodes, were unaltered from before. Dragon-Tiger Match had left without leaving a single trace!

    The incident that sparked a lively conversation all around had started without warning, and ended without just as abruptly! People began to guess the identity of this Dragon-Tiger Match, but more were talking about the alluring symbol of the dragon-tiger couple.

    It was said that long after the incident, He Yue Gxy''s manyrge pornographic magazine publishers tried hard to find out who the mysterious Maverick was. They hoped to obtain the rights to use the symbol. From a professional point of view, using the symbol as the cover of a porn magazine was absolutely ssic!

    However, the perpetrator behind it all, Little Rock, was now staring fixedly on the holographic screen that disyed the flying starship, Victoria!

 Chapter 437 - Reunion II

    <h4>Chapter 437: Reunion II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In that moment, Ye Chong felt thunderstruck. He froze for while, but this momentary calmness was immediately broken by a surging warmth from deep down, that spread out to every inch of his skin.

    "Mu ¡­ Shang ¡­" Ye Chong still sounded calm, but everyone in the Captain''s cabin noticed the unusually strong emotions in his voice. Captain Airi looked at the young man with disbelief. He never imagined that the apathetic young man could actually speak with such rich emotions.

    The holographic screen was silent for half a minute, then a one-armed mech came into view. Even when missing an arm, the blue and white alternating lines on the mech were gorgeous and elegant.

    "It''s me!" Mu and Shang''s electronic voice made it hard to discern the emotions behind it. His blue, bionic eyes shed excitedly. Of course, a mech''s emotions was a tricky subject.

    "I finally found you!" Ye Chong breathed a long exhale in relief.

    The reunion with Mu and Shang brightened his mood from thinking about the problems at Yi Ju. He, Mu and Shang were much more than just normal friends.

    However, be it Mu, Shang or Ye Chong, they did not like to waste time reminiscing on the past. Ye Chong quickly described his current situation to the mech.

    "Understood. We will meet up with you as soon as possible. Estimated time of arrival is 15 dayster, with an error margin of seven days." Mu or Shang did not give Ye Chong any advice, only briefly stating his time of arrival. Even so, Ye Chong was overjoyed. After being separated with the mech for so long, he had truly missed them.

    Rui Bing stared at the one-armed mech on the holographic screen, and thought it looked familiar.

    Mu suddenly spoke up, "Oh, Shang has asked to speak to you. It''s not his time to surface yet, but given the circumstances, I have agreed to his request!"

    In the next moment, the mech''s voice changed abruptly. "Little Ye, hee, it''s been too long! You''re looking more and more handsome. Aha, so you''ve actually won over Bing Bing so quickly!" Shang''s voice sounded just as naughty as he remembered.

    Rui Bing''s face instantly reddened.

    Her blush made Shang even more excited. "Bing Bing, my dear, what stage are you at with our little Ye? How''s it going so far? Err, I say, Bing Bing dear, you gotta be more proactive in some matters, our little Ye is just clueless all the time. Ah, you''ve gotten so huge, it''s different from the numbers in my database, looks like it''s time for an update. I gotta say, Bing Bing''s maturing quite splendidly ¡­"

    Shang was just bbering at Rui Bing with so much excitement that Ye Chong was basically ignored.

    Rui Bing was now blushing even more intensely.

    Everyone in the Captain''s cabin stared at the holographic screen in astonishment. They did not expect the mech''s cold, mechanical attitude to undergo aplete shift!

    Listening to Shang''s constant bbering, Ye Chong did not feel impatient at all. Instead, he felt a warmness enveloping him. Yes, very warm indeed.

    ___________________________________________________

    On Yi Ju, the Papatte Mech Squad had be the dominating force in the area. Ever since the Papatte Mech Squad arrived in Yi Ju, the pirates nearby all vanished without a trace. Unlike other mech squads, the Papatte Mech Squad had never weed visitors. Even when Yi Ju''s Governing Officer, Torres had asked for a visit, they had firmly refused the man.

    However, no one expressed any dissatisfaction in this matter, since the fact was that the Squad was just too powerful!

    All their external affairs were handled by a man called Old Chief Guo.

    All residents on Yi Ju knew that any mission given to the Papatte Mech Squad would bepleted without a hitch. From the beginning, the Papatte Mech Squad had achieved an average sess rate of 98 percent. Besides, it was rumored that the Papatte Mech Squad had strict discipline. Even locals in Terry City had never seen the mech pilots leave their base, much less interfere with local affairs.

    The only thing that puzzled them was why a mid sized mech squad as strong as Papatte would choose to stay so far out in the universe. What''s stranger was the fact that they only ever epted missions in the vicinity. No matter howrge the reward offered, they would always refuse missions far from Yi Ju.

    Every once in awhile, there would be many resources shipped to the base. Thergemercial fleets had given Terry City''s economy a strong push.

    The isted mech squad was a mystery to all the local residents.

    However, on this day, things changed!

    The door that led to the Papatte Mech Squad''s base had opened without warning. Countless odd looking mechs flew out to the skies. The peaceful base was suddenly filled with activity.

    All the areas around Yi Ju came under control of the mech squad. All starships and mechs were ordered to stay aground. In one day, Yi Ju was plunged into a state of emergency.

    Torres had been sweating nervously since 8 o''clock that morning. The cool autumn weather suddenly felt annoyingly hot. He was already drenched in sweat all over. Sweat beads covered his fair, chubby face. His tiny eyes were filled with terror and panic.

    "What are they doing?" Torres gritted his teeth. When he first heard of the odd movements of the Papatte Mech Squad, he had immediately flew on his own starship to Terry City. After all, while the Papatte Mech Squad had remained low key during they stay, their dominance in the area was already established among the locals on Yi Ju.

    The presence of a towering force in his area of governance was a huge problem for him. However, there was nothing he could do about it. Yi Ju was secluded and economically backwards, with a low poption. As a Governing Officer chosen by his people, Torres did not have much military power at his disposal. Besides, his job was mostly an empty title, without much to do.

    Unexpectedly, the arrival of Papatte Mech Squad had made his life easier. Since their arrival, the pirates that appeared asionally in the area had all gone without a trace. Besides, the Papatte Mech Squad seemed to practice tight discipline. Their members had never created trouble, and even helped maintain peace in the neighborhood. He had always thought well of them.

    However, he had received a report from his subordinate today that the Papatte Mech Squad was performing arge scale operation. This shook him very much, since the mech squad be grown to be a local power that could no longer be ignored. Their every move would affect Yi Ju greatly.

    Even so, he was not too worried. No one understood Yi Ju better than him. This ce had nothing to offer, and besides, the Papatte Mech Squad had a clean track record.

    He had wanted to meet the person in charge of external affairs, Old Chief Guo, for a chat to understand the situation. However, halfway through his flight, he had encountered the mechs from Papatte Mech Squad, despite his holographic screen showing nothing around his ship.

    He was ordered tond immediately!

    "The Squad has taken control over the airspace around Yi Ju! All flight vessels pleasend immediately! All flight vessels pleasend immediately! In five minutes, all aerial targets will be attacked! The five minute countdown begins now!" The cold voice of a man came through thems, his emotionless delivery convincing Torres that should he failed tond his ship in time, the other party would attack him without hesitation! Given his position, of course Torres was able to grasp the gravity of the situation.

    "Sir! Our holographic scanning systems show no targets!" A crew member reported with a voice that betrayed his fear. Torres could almost hear the man''s teeth ttering together.

    "In three minutes!" The cold and t voice came through thems once again.

    The crew member shuddered.

    Torres gritted his teeth, and forced his next words out, "Land immediately!"

    The crew member seemed relieved to hear that. He maneuvered the ship tond as soon as possible, almost wishing they could just teleport themselves there!

    Torres and his shipnded safely. Torres had wanted to speak with the Papatte Mech Squad pilots, but the man had left in his flying vessel immediately after another warning.

    "If you go airborne again, we will shoot to kill without further warning! Please value your lives and cooperate! Thank you!"

    Torres watched as the mech turned smaller and smaller in sight, until it finally vanished in the sky. He looked grim as he gave the order, "Prepare ournd transport, we must reached Terry City as soon as possible." Torres was no longer angry, but felt deeply troubled instead. What were they trying to do?

    In just a short span of time, the entire airspace around Yi Ju was cleared of all but Papatte Mech Squad''s mechs.

    Papatte Mech Squad''s unusual behavior had incited all kinds of rumors on Yi Ju. People were panicking. However, no one dared to step out and protest, since rumor had it that a starship was shot down for refusing their orders. Even though the Papatte Mech Squad had always maintained a low profile, the locals never doubted their strength.

    Every resident of Yi Ju knew that something big must have happened. Or else, why would the low key Papatte Mech Squad suddenly behaved so aggressively?

    What was going to happen next? Everyone waited with dread! Whateverrge event that was about to ur, how would it affect the locals? Would their lives be changed forever?

 Chapter 438 - Reunion III

    <h4>Chapter 438: Reunion III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "You are Zhang Yu?" Ye Chong studied the man in front of him.

    Zhang Yu was also giving Ye Chong the same look of assesment. He was a little perturbed. He was asked to the bridge alone, and this special treatment unsettled him. However, he believed that he had managed to maintain a calm impression. He nodded and said, "I am."

    "Alright. From now on, you will be under our protection," Ye Chong stated inly.

    Zhang Yu stared in shock at the young man. The first thought that came to him was, had he encountered the legendary organization called the cartel?

    Torres rushed to Terry City, just in time to see a starship making itsnding. Around this starship were no less than a thousand of those weird flying vessels as its escorts.

    Looking above from the ground, the fleet felt immense and powerful.

    What an incredible show of power! Torres turned solemn. From the looks of it, the new arrival must be someone extraordinary. However, the starship did not seem to fit the story. Logically speaking, any person of status would have flown in arge high ss starship, and not an average long distance starship like this one. This civilian starship would not have been enough to satisfy anyone of status, be it in terms of safety orfort.

    The scene was odd indeed. It was like seeing arge group of bodyguards in tuxedos carefully escorting a poorly dressed beggar.

    As expected, the starshipnded in the base of the Papatte Mech Squad. Torres no longer hesitated. He ordered his subordinates to drive him to the base.

    Sang Pu, Sang Tie and Sang Ling all looked at Ye Chong, filled with emotions.

    "Sir ¡­" "Sir!" "¡­ Sir ¡­" The three of them spoke up simultaneously.

    Ye Chong looked at them, and felt a surge of emotions from within. Sang Pu was beginning to have the bearings of a leader. He stood there before him with a grace that befitted a man of power. Sang Ling had grown even more beautiful. Sang Tie looked just the same as before, but with a more matureposure.

    "I''m back," Ye Chong said softly.

    "Sir is back!" "Sir is back!" The base was filled with roaring cheers of joy. This man had taught them how to build Collision mechs, survive the Beast Stampede, and leave Archipgo. Everyone of the Sang Tribe loved him from the bottom of their hearts.

    When he began to introduce the others in hispany, there was a bit of an issue. Most of them were fine, but Ye Chong had no idea how to introduce Rui Bing.

    "She is ¡­" Ye Chong tilted his head, unable to continue the sentence. A friend? He rejected the notion immediately.

    "Wee, Ma''am!" The sympathetic Sang Ling stepped up to give him a hand. The rest of the Sang Tribe realized the situation then. So it was Ye Chong''s wife. No wonder he was embarrassed. They had all learned under Ye Chong, and since they called Ye Chong "Sir", it was only natural to call his wife "Ma''am".

    Even with Rui Bing''s steady character, she blushed deeply at the greeting.

    Everyone''s attention was focused on Rui Bing. They were all curious about the wife of their young teacher. Their intense gazes were directed instantly to Rui Bing, leaving Ye Chongpletely ignored.

    Sang Pu noticed Rui Bing''s dilemma. He stole a nce at Ye Chong, smiled, and came forward to help Ye Chong and Rui Bing out of their awkwardness. He raised his voice to the crowd, "What''re you all standing here? Get to your jobs now. Sir is finally back, and he''ll need his rest. Go on now, go on." It seemed that Sang Pu had won the confidence of the people. They all left with reluctance.

    Sang Ling smiled at Rui Bing and said, "Young Ma''am, let''s go."

    News of the young teacher bringing back ady as beautiful as a Goddess spread like wildfire throughout the entire base.

    _____________________________________

    Before them, the area around Yi Ju was shown on a holographic screen, suspended in midair. A bright red dot glowed on the projection.

    "This is one of the areas that is spatially unstable, and the closest one to us. It''s not clear yet if these areas of spatial instability were the first signs before those creatures appeared." Ye Chong exined the situation briefly.

    Everyone who heard Ye Chong describe the war at the Gateway entrance were horrified. They had heard of the Three Aristocratic Families. Their mech fleets were recognized as the strongest in the entire He Yue Gxy. They even had the Three Aces leading the assault. Even so, the war had cost a staggering number of casualties. At the end of the war, only less than 20 percent of thebat force survived.

    It was not hard to imagine the devastating aftermath.

    Sang Pu and the rest looked grim, but none of them showed fear. Before meeting Ye Chong, they had all lived very dangerous lives, and were far more mentally resilient than the people in the He Yue Gxy. Besides, no matter how strong this unknown lifeform was, it was only an animal, and the Sang Tribe had more than enough experience dealing with strange and unknown animals in Archipgo.

    "That''s a very dangerous area!" Sang Pu smiled bitterly, pointing at the holographic screen as he said, "Look, if those unknown lifeforms really appear here as Sir said, then ourmunications with the Tribe back home will be affected. If the creatures move towards the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, then ourmunications with the Tribe will be severed entirely!"

    On the holographic screen, the red dot expanded rapidly, soon bing a red zone. The red zone was like a red colored barrier, blocking the route between Archipgo and Yi Ju.

    "War it is!" Sang Tie dered roughly. He looked at Ye Chong with fervent eyes. For someone as battle hungry as him, the recent peace was getting dull.

    "War it is!" Sang Ling nodded in agreement. No matter what, they could not afford to have theirmunications with the rest of the Tribe severed. She looked at Ye Chong inquiringly.

    Sang Pu said calmly, "I agree with them. War it is!" He looked to Ye Chong.

    The three of them looked to Ye Chong.

    "War it is!" Ye Chong said with determination.

    Tores did not see Ye Chong, but was greeted by Old Chief Guo. Old Chief Guo himself was unclear of the situation, about how to exin things to Torres, so he chose to dy the man. Torres was getting anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

    If the base looked busy in the short moment before Ye Chong''s arrival, it was now positively crazy with activity.

    Ye Chong called for Zhang Yu. The man''s main duty was to establish contact with Mu and Shang''s side. Yi Ju was technologically backward. The virtual world infrastructure here was almost nonexistent. Sang Pu and the others knew nothing about technology, and so never thought of working on it.

    Nevertheless, Zhang Yu was knowledgeable enough in the basics to build a signal emitter that could be connected to the virtual world from scratch, using bits of odds and ends. The equipment was still quite primitive, but since Mu and Shang would only arrive in about two weeks, it would not be an issue.

    Ever since he knew of Ye Chong''s rtionship with Dragon-Tiger Match, Zhang Yu agreed to cooperate without dy. Besides, once he found that his job was to establish contact with Dragon-Tiger Match, he felt even more excited.

    Sang Tie was sent to Archipgo. Since Yi Ju''sbat force was not enough, his task was to bring back at least another 10 thousand men and resources for the war.

    Old Jalopy was quick to dive into the work of improving the Collision mechs. He was a true expert in mechanics. His extreme working hours were shocking. On the third day, with his eyes red and bleary, Old Jalopy presented his first schematics with improvements. Everyone was impressed by his dedication.

    Only people like Ye Chong and Rui Bing, who had seen the war up close, would understand why Old Jalopy would work so desperately.

    In the end, Old Jalopy''s experience in mechanics was worth far more than Ye Chong''s amateur knowledge. His modifications were simple but efficient. After someputations by the photon processor, the maneuverability of the Collision mech was improved by 17 percent, and the energy efficiency increased by 9 percent. The statistics were trustworthy, having been provided by Mu himself. Even Ye Chong was impressed by the modifications. More importantly, the modifications to Collision mechs were not too extensive, and could be done in a rtively short time.

    Ye Chong waited no longer. He gave the order to modify all the Collision mechs.

    Monitoring work on the spatially unstable area never ceased. The entire monitoring equipment setup was obtained from a schoolboratory by Torres. Ye Chong began to like the man because of his assistance.

    In fact, Torres had guessed the gist of the situation when he knew of the monitoring equipment, so he cooperated without dy. With Yi Ju''s highest official cooperating, Ye Chong and his group could work more efficiently.

    For example, the passengers onboard Victoria were left for Torres to handle. They were swiftly dispatched to the appropriate facilities on the.

    War is money consuming.

    Ye Chong could finally appreciate this expression. In just a few days, Sang Pu and the rest had used up a good part of their savings after so long. All the resources and equipment they used had to be bought. More importantly, all the many different kinds of high quality long range weapons were so expensive that Ye Chong balked at the price tags. The war was also going to happen in wide, open space, unlike the tightly confined battlefield at the Gateway entrance before.

    Yi Ju was economicallycking, with nothing to spare. Torres could not offer much help in this regard.

    Ye Chong watched as their savings depleted rapidly. It was a vexing problem, and he would have to figure out a way to ovee it.

 Chapter 439 - Prediction

    <h4>Chapter 439: Prediction</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It must be said that earning money had be a most difficult problem for Ye Chong right now. He was not ready with a solution for the problem, and could only wait for Mu, Shang and the others to arrive in the meantime.

    Right now, he focused mostly on monitoring the area with spatial instability. Since they had no specialized devices to measure spatial stability, they could only use the simplest method of having patrol units monitor the area at all times.

    Ye Chong had been there himself, but since he did not have any specialized measurement device with him, he could not find warning before the instability onset.

    Yi Ju''s externalmunications were now under the control of the Papatte Mech Squad, and this wasrgely thanks to Zhang Yu. Communications between the others and Yi Ju were severed, and Yi Ju became isted.

    Due to theck of natural resources, Yi Ju had never been under the scrutiny of the Three Aristocratic Families. This was a that even pirates would not care to plunder from.

    Aside from that, the Three Aristocratic Families themselves were fully upied. In fact, there were seven areas with spatial instability in the He Yue Gxy. The Three Aristocratic Families had four within their territories. The Ye Family had one, and so did the Xue Lai n. The Xi Feng Tribe was unfortunate enough to have two within their territory. The other three areas with spatial instability were scattered around the He Yue Gxy, and one of them was near Yi Ju.

    The Three Aristocratic Families were now fully prepared for war. The Xi Feng Tribe had reacted the strongest, gathering nearly all their military personnel back to headquarters for defense. The war strategies deployed by the Three Aristocratic Families had alerted the entire He Yue Gxy instantly. The Three Aristocratic Families had kept the incident at the Gateways under wraps, so the outside world had no idea of the terrible war that they had just survived. Hence, the rumor mill began to churn out all kinds of theories. None of the Families spoke up. They offered no exnation of their behavior.

    "Have you figured out what happened?" Xiao Wan stared at the man in front of her, asking with a stern voice. A ck and smooth damask wrapped around her silhouette, showing her perfect curves. She had a silent quality about her that spelled power. The woman was like a ck colored lily in full bloom, invoking a sense of dignity and elegance.

    The middle aged man before her answered respectfully, "Not yet. The Three Aristocratic Families kept a tight lid on things. We have yet to uncover any useful intel." The man''s looks were not look particrly outstanding, but his peaceful expression was soothing. His hands were huge and strong, covered with old calluses. It was Gray Valley''s elite, Bei Guang.

    Beside Bei Guang was a younger man in a simple outfit. He had thick eyebrows, and his shoulders were wide. His short hair was as rigid as steel rods. A short stubble made him look even more manly.

    Xiao Wan turned to the younger man and asked, "Arwa, what do you think?"

    The down-to-earth looking man was Gray Valley''s famous genius tactician, Arwa!

    Arwa pondered silently for a while before replying, "Recent activities of the Three Aristocratic Families are indeed strange. From theirtest overall military formation, they are probably not trying to start a war with us, but defending themselves against someone else. Right now, we know nothing about their situation, and it''s hard to figure out the truth behind their actions."

    Xiao Wan turned on the photon processor in the room. Her fair and slender fingers pointed elegantly on the image that was projected onto the holographic screen. "This just came in from the Research Consortium. There''s something interesting in the report, you can have a look at them." Xiao Wan smiled gently and invited them to view the report.

    Bei Guang and Arwa exchanged nces. Interesting? The Young Miss rarely described anything as "interesting". The two of them quickly turned their attention towards the report.

    The report was done professionally, but also in a straightforward manner. They finished reading the report quickly. After they were done with the report, they looked to each other again and noticed the fear in each other''s eyes.

    "In this report, areas seen with spatial instability in the He Yue Gxy were identified. Coincidentally, four of these areas are where the Three Aristocratic Families have concentrated their forces. For now, we do not know if this is purely coincidental or otherwise. Unfortunately, Gray Valley also has an area with spatial instability.

    By then, Xiao Wan was no longer smiling. The other two men also looked grim. They had finished the report. They had also noticed the coincidence that the Young Miss spoke of.

    Xiao Wan looked faintly concerned. "If this is not a coincidence, the situation would be very serious. The Three Aristocratic Families must know something, or they would not be so nervous. The area with spatial instability is within the territory of the Koure Mech Squad. However, I doubt they can keep the situation under control. We need to start making preparations. Sigh, Gray Valley is too disordered. Many years of conflicts has damaged our own strength. I''m afraid that this time ¡­"

    Xiao Wan did not finish her sentence, but both Bei Guang and Arwa understood her. Gray Valley''s internal strife was unknown to the outside world. Throughout history, only the invasion of the Three Aristocratic Families managed to bring everyone together. Xiao Wan and they only represented one of the many powers in Gray Valley. It would be hard enough to keep themselves safe from the impending threat.

    In fact, Gray Valley''s power structure was quite strange. Of all the organizations in the area, the Research Consortium was the most peculiar.

    The Research Consortium treated every power and every mech pilot in Gray Valley equally. It was an entirely independent organization, not belonging to any other force in Gray Valley. The Research Consortium had set up aprehensive set of exchange rules. Everyday, the Research Consortium wouldmission a good number of missions, such as finding some unique raw ingredient or obtaining ssified information from some organization or aristocratic family. They did not care about the methods used to achieve these missions. As long as you can aplish the mission, you will be rewarded with an appropriate number of credits.

    These precious credits can be exchanged for knowledge of certain skills, or, for individuals, they could be exchanged for a top ss mech that could not be found in the market. Any true resident of Gray Valley would know that the technology offered by the Research Consortium was at least on par with that of the Three Aristocratic Families!

    Bei Guang''s Sentry and Hua''s Graycrawler were both from the Research Consortium. The Consortium was truly capable in technological matters.

    In Gray Valley, the Research Consortium was the ultimate power, and no one would dare to cross them.

    Xiao Wan pondered on the issue for awhile, then resolutely dered, "Order Hua to return immediately. Order all our men who are stationed outside Gray Valley to return. We are now in the highest state of emergency."

    "Yes, Ma''am!" Bei Guang and Arwa replied in unison. They knew that the Young Miss may look weak, but she was in fact quick to decide, with a mind of her own. Besides, she understood the bigger picture better than the two of them. The orders from the Young Miss had greatly surprised them, since they did not think the situation was so serious. Nheless, they obeyed without hesitation.

    The reason for this was simple - the Young Miss was never wrong in her decisions. Her astuteness and wisdom had long impressed both of them.

    As the two of them began to leave, Xiao Wan called on Arwa. She smiled and said, "Arwa, if everything went well, your new mech, Pioneer, should be in your room now. It''s thetest product by the Research Consortium!"

    Arwa was surprised and overjoyed to hear that. He kept his emotions hidden as he replied respectfully to Xiao Wan, "Arwa will definitely repay this favor, Young Miss!"

    Any mech pilot would have probably dreamed of piloting a first ss mech, much less a tactician prodigy like Arwa. As a normal citizen, Arwa had always flown in average mechs. No one would have thought that the prodigious Arwa was not born talented. In fact, he could not afford better mechs due to his financial situation. Hence, he could only use normal mechs to fight against others. There was nothing he could do but figure out tricks to win. As he spent more and more time strategizing, he slowly developed his reputation as an ingenious tactician.

    Although he was proud of his reputation, any mech pilot would yearn to own a first ss mech! However, the amount of credits required to exchange for a mech of that ss from the Research Consortium was nearly impossible to achieve by any single individual.

    To think that this dream of his all these years was finally realized! On the other hand, he was touched by the importance the Young Miss had ced on him. Of all the mechs offered by the Research Consortium, Pioneer was ranked at number nine in terms of the number of credits required to exchange for it! Compared to this, Bei Guang''s Sentry was only at the 45th, while Graycrawler was at 67th.

    It was evident how powerful this mech was. How could he not be touched by the Young Miss?

    Bei Guang had been in his position before, and understood Arwa''s emotions right now. He patted the man''s shoulders and smiled. "Why''re you still standing around here? Go have a look at your new mech!"

    Arwa chuckled out loud at that, and quickly rushed out of the room.

    Bei Guang watched as Arwa disappeared from view, and could not help butughed quietly himself. He turned to the Young Miss and bowed. He then left the room, closing the door behind him.

    Now that she was the only one left in the meeting room, Xiao Wan sighed deeply and sat back down, massaging her temples with her fair hands. She did not look as calm or capable as she was just now. Now, she only looked tired.

 Chapter 440 - Coming Together Again

    <h4>Chapter 440: Coming Together Again</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was a lively sight inside the Papatte base, as it was the prelude of war. The Sangs were fearless against their uing challenge however. They looked extremely excited. It was the time where they felt their existence, as they had gotten used to war. War had already be the part and parcel of their life.

    Ever since they got to Yi Ju, it had been always one training course to another. There was not a time where the Sangs could actually jump into action. They had obeyed the orders without questions but inside them, there was a thirst to express their passion thoroughly in battle.

    Even though they were unaware of the exact urrence, it was tantly obvious that something would be happening soon, and it would be big. Feeling pumped, they worked hard, like a bunch of hungry tigers loitering in the woods.

    The one interesting "urrence" in the base was about Rui Bing. "She''s Teacher''s wife?!" The screaming line had determined Rui Bing''s fate being forever high-profiled among the Sangs, as curious they were of her, since no ordinary woman could have been the great teacher''s wife after all.

    And as they had expected, Rui Bing was no ordinary woman, as she demonstrated her strength and earned the Sangs'' approval with her fist. It was still a ce where fists would speak louder than words. You could not be teacher''s wife if you were not as strong. Thought the Sangs, the simple thumb of rule of life.

    Rui Bing liked the ce a lot, since she would never have the time without a foe to fight. She was more of a true martial arts practitionerpared to Ye Chong who was the teacher. She held an entirely different prospect on martial arts mastery. That was probably why Ye Chong''s style was more towards efficiency and experience while Rui Bing gave more attention on self-discovery and breakthrough.

    And¡­ Mu/Shang had arrived!

    That was one exciting news to Ye Chong, since it had been his ultimate goal of finding them ever since they lost each other. Ye Chong could not help but to reminisce the old days with Mu/Shang on Trash.

    Those were the good days¡­

    Thought Ye Chong, his heart felt warm, as the corners of his lips raised.

    He missed Mu/Shang, especially when they were the problem-solver upon encounter. The capability of Mu/Shang had been long imprinted in Ye Chong''s mind, even when he was no longer that wimpy, incapable boy who lived with the trashes.

    The meeting room went silent however, when the visual of the outside got transmitted. People were shocked upon the sight of a gigantic fleet sluggishly traveling towards them in the space.

    There was an unspeakable tension when the Cob was taking the lead.

    It was a fleet made out of 1000 spaceships of different sizes. None of them was a warship, still the enormous fleet was a grand sight to behold.

    Imagine this. In the dark boundless spaces, thousands of spaceships were traveling together in a dense formation across the milky way, in which one would have a length of 10 kilometers and the other having 5 kilometers at average. How impactful it was! They were like a school of sharks, swimming soundlessly in the space.

    "Holy¡­," muttered Guo the old chief upon the sight.

    The others'' expression was priceless too.

    "T-teacher¡­," Sang Pu gulped, as he mumbled his inquiry, "I-is this that friend you''ve mentioned before¡­?"

    "Mhm." Ye Chong nodded, "Yes it is." If it was not the Cob that took the lead, probably Ye Chong would need a moment or two to confirm the identity. He was too familiar with the ship. Back on those days, Ye Chong gave in so much to finish the entire modification process of the ship. So no doubt he could identify it at first sight.

    But Ye Chong got to admit, he was particrly curious of how Mu/Shang escaped the Red Sea. The fleet was so grand he could already imagine themotion it caused when it appeared above Terry City.

    Back when it happened, the sky of Terry City darkenedpletely. Torres nearly dropped his jaw when he saw it. Such force, thought he, which force exactly were they from? The fleet was a colorful mess with all different models of spaceship, obviously they were not from the aristocrats.

    Torres did not have the time to figure that out however. The visit of the massive fleet was one problem demanded to be resolved immediately, since of where in Terry City could he find a parking space for theirnding? The government of the city was almost non-existent and Torres was assigned to be the government itself, as he would supervise on all administration works being the supreme administration leader on Yi Ju.

    ¡­(In the Meeting Room)¡­

    "Ye, I hereby present you the digitalized wedding registration certification for both you and your wife. There are 36 styles and arge palette of colors to be chosen upon preferences. Legitimacy: 100%. Difficulty of execution: 0.03. Service would be provided without any charges. Furthermore, based on the trend of the climate changes on Yi Ju since thest 30 years, it has been predicted that within the next 60 and 120 days, the biological reproductivity would be highly feasible, thus the best period of offspring formation." Stated Mu. That was the first thing he said upon seeing Ye Chong. The mechanical voice was ringing a jaw-dropping fact.

    Rui Bing''s face reddened rapidly and Ye Chong was stupefied, "Mu¡­"

    "It would be usible to- JUST GET HER! Take out your vertical stick and start the ride, Ye! Ride on the horse,dy! Intimacy is the best policy!" Screamed the mechanical voice expressively, "Certainly. When ites to the actual technique itself, mhm, Ye, I trust your ability, I have a grand library of information here." The change of tone was uncalled for¡­

    "Shang¡­" Cold sweats were streaming on Ye Chong''s face.

    Luckily there were not many people in the room, or the embarrassment was unimaginable. Other than the group on the Cob, there was only Ye Chong and Rui Bing. The Sangs were already sent to the outside before this, since¡­ Mu/Shang was a little¡­ too advanced for the primitives¡­ It would also be better the lesser the number of people knew.

    Mu/Shang did not change much physically. The wound from the left shoulder across the body to the waist remained as shocking as before. Ye Chong might have encountered all kinds of advanced models before, including the legendary trio of He Yue themselves, still, somehow something on Mu/Shang caught him. It was the grace and simplicity that no other advanced model couldpete, even with that visible scar over the body. Ye Chong believed, if Mu/Shang was unblemished, he would look as good as the legendary trio.

    Well, of course, not anybody could simply harass Ye Chong like that, not even Lian Yue the mboyant genius.

    "What had actually happened? Where did you guys get the spaceships? Did you guys seize a fleet?" asked Ye Chong. That was the only sound reason he could think of, though the chances were slim. The Cob was the only warship in the entire fleet. It was nearly impossible for one single warship to take control of the whole fleet. But then, there was Mu/Shang, both of them were the key to unlock the impossible. Who knows what trickery both of them had pulled off.

    "This is our own spaceships. A total 902 of them. Most of them contained specific apparatuses and facilities for production," exined Qiu Man.

    "Our own spaceships?" Ye Chong did not hold grudge against Qiu Man but her way of saying it was simply odd.

    "Both Shang and I made a n after losing you." Beeped Mu, "By utilizing the techniques in the database, we triggered a mass production under coboration with other forces. These spaceships are most of the oues of the production. We had performed a transfer."

    Ye Chong finally got a grip of the situation.

    "Unfortunately, due to time constraint, we could only transfer a majority of them, which the remaining¡­ had benefited Shi family," stated Qiu Man spitefully. Although she did not agree to the operation at first, she epted her destiny and had invested a lot of her efforts. Nevertheless, the masterpiece had been given away, definitely she would be dissatisfied.

    "Shi family? Which Shi?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Shi family of the Tian Xing Cove."

    "Oh, Shi Xin seemed to be there too," said Ye Chong as he thought back his past with Shi Xin and the Jin Gui tribe. Both Shi Xin and eldest son of the Jin Gui tribe had be his apprentice and¡­ well they did pay arge sum of money for the apprenticeship. Thanks to that "tuition fee", Ye Chong could remember them well.

    "Did you rob her?" Qiu Man looked shocked, like how Ye Chong thought of the same thing upon seeing Mu/Shang''s fleet. The others did not seem surprised as robbing her seemed like what Ye Chong would do.

    "I did not. She came for me herself. Mhm, she did give some money," said Ye Chong.

    "No way. Shi Xin seemed like a rational person from what I''ve heard. How would she make such a foolish mistake? Well, if she was on our side, then I do have some workaround to do. Heh, I''ll make Shi Tianhu that old fox to spit out everything rightfully ours," said Qiu Man, looking charged as she pondered of her master n on maximizing this new chess piece on the table.

    "So Mu¡­ how did all of you get out of the Red Sea?" asked Ye Chong.

 Chapter 441 - Good News & Bad News

    <h4>Chapter 441: Good News & Bad News</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "We used rubber. We quickly produced a massive amount of rubber that enveloped the entire body of the Cob utilizing its cohesiveness which separated the metal surface from the sea," exined Mu/Shang. Now everything made perfect sense. Ye Chong could not help but to be amazed at the creativity of the solution. Although it sounded rather in as concisely Mu/Shang described, the reality must be way more thrilling than Ye Chong imagined.

    "Who thought of this?"

    "Shang."

    Oh it was Mu, as expected fro- wait, Shang?

    The answer was beyond Ye Chong''s expectation.

    Ye Chong then opened up the entrance and called in the Sangs. There were several things to do. For starters, Sang Pu would lead the Cob crew to the resting room. Sang Ling would be having a discussion with Qiu Man regarding the arrangement of the following tasks.

    "There, Ye."

    And finally Mu/Shang''s dimensional keystone had returned to the front of Ye Chong''s chest.

    "Ye, what are you nning next?" asked Mu.

    "Hmm¡­" Caressed the keystone pendant round his neck, "We''ll talk about it after this," said Ye Chong.

    "Mhm," Mu/Shang agreed.

    The return of Mu/Shang was a boost to Ye Chong''s forces. The facilities and apparatuses had been all transferred to safety almost immediately after that. Yi Ju was a neither rich with resources, nor crowded with poption, but it was a abundant with freends however. Miles and miles ofnd was under the ownership of the Papatte Squad.

    And an industrial area was then found not far from Terry City a few dayster. It was a medium-sized area that had included production line of all weaponry and essories, processors andseruncher. You could even find machines producing the valve pieces for mech hydraulic stabilizer and the keel of a medium spaceship. As long as they got the resources, they could produce almost anything.

    This was when Mu/Shang shone with hisputational power. The running production lines were forming aplete circuit of mass production. In other words, such industrial area was already capable of mass-producingplete mechs and spaceships, as well as a few of other end-products.

    The industrial area was livelier than ever the moment it was fully established. Tons ofser firing devices were first to be produced since Yi Jucked such type of offense the most. The team had to allocate most resources on ranged weapons since most of Ye Chong''s mechs were closebat models, other than Mu/Shang. And none of these models could wield a manual firearm efficiently in the battlefield.

    So they chose to produce these automaticser firing devices. Even though such devicecked uracy, it could achieve a 100% uracy as long as it fired in mass with the other devices - perfect for tower defense.

    Furthermore, Mu/Shang had brought a few spatial monitors which could be a big help in observing unstable area in the space, allowing Ye Chong to make the necessary move when distortion urred.

    The Sangs were ever-moving even when they were not assigned to the usual patrolling tasks. After Ye Chong''sst encounter with bristleworms, he outlined a charging training course for them.

    Themunicative facilities had also been renewed, now under Little Rock''s supervision with Zhang Yu as the assistant. The Virtual World server on Yi Ju had reached an astonishingly high level of security now with both of them.

    Ye Chong had been in themander''s room most of the time. ording to the data he had been receiving, the unstable space zone ahead was further destabilizing at an rming rate - that was not a good sign for everyone. The atmosphere of themander''s room was grim as most people''s expression. If the spatial destabilizing rate had reached the limit way before the arrival of Sang''s reinforcement, what could happen to them?

    ¡­ (Meanwhile)¡­

    "What? You found Xin?" shouted Shi Tiancheng as he sprung from his seat.

    "This¡­," muttered Uncle Hua as he passed the report carefully to the leader of Shi family, "the report of our intelligence from Virtual World. It''s a letter. The sender ims to know the whereabout of Lady Shi¡­ but they are only willing to tell it when you speak to them personally." Uncle Hua was Shi Xin''s personal bodyguard since childhood, there was strong bond between them.

    Shi Xin seemed to havepletely vaporized from the world ever since she joined the apprenticeship under those Jie experts. Shi family took all the efforts in searching her, yet not even a clue was found. Shi Xin was Shi Tiancheng''s daughter, one with the highest hopes too, among all his descendants. Shi Xin had never disappointed his father. She was decisive and capable, a very careful person who rarely made mistakes in her work. Her charisma had somewhat pushed her to be the unsaid leader among the youngsters. Almost everyone in the Shi family presumed her to be the next leader of the family. Shi Xin''s decision of joining the Jie expert was never an issue for Shi Tiancheng, for he was also curious of these mysterious fighters, but never once he thought Shi Xin would step into the dungeon herself straight off without giving a thought or two. Such move would only be deemed as reckless in the eyes of the elders like him. It was a reckless mistake, a fatal one too.

    The whole family had never stopped looking for the talenteddy all these years.

    And right when they were losing hope, this letter came, certainly the leader was agitated.

    "Alright, prompt the transmission." It only took a few seconds for Shi Tiancheng to make up his mind.

    Staring into the tiresome eyes of the leader, Uncle Hua left the room after giving a few nods.

    The gxy had been restless all these days. First there was a major reformation among the aristocrats, which caused people of He Yue to fear, including Shi family that began retrieving their dispersed forces. Then one important working partner of the family left without a word. Shi Tiancheng had been withstanding immense stress thest few days, it was not something describable to the outsiders.

    Shi Tiancheng took a deep breath and tapped the interface.

    "Hello there, Mr. Shi, we meet again." The captivating woman speaking with a familiar tone shocked him.

    Qiu Man was still a negotiator after all. Shi Xin, the figure almost-in-the-oblivion of most people on Ye Chong''s team, had be the most valuable chess piece in her hand. Shi family not only had returned every single property once owned by Mu/Shang in the past, but had also submitted arge amount of material goods to her. Simrly, the Jin Gui tribe had coughed out some goodies for Qiu Man. She sure had some persuasive skill, that it made Shi Tiancheng, leader of Shi family and Rnd, leader of Jin Gui tribe forked out every bit of gold in their pocket.

    Well, that ie had resolved Ye Chong''s most puzzling financial crisis. They had been rushing their productions these few nights that Mu/Shang had consumed a great deal of resources in their inventory. Yi Ju did not have its own mine, so they would need a constant supply from the market or they would have to terminate the operation.

    Everything went smooth, till one report from Sang Pu, which caught Ye Chong''s attention.

    To avoid any distraction on every running operation, Ye Chong had seized control of all areas around Yi Ju and forbade any transportation from approaching. But on today, a small team of mechs somehow had trespassed in the area. And the guarding Sangs attacked without hesitation.

    It was good that they had guarded the ce but¡­

    Ye Chong looked at the remnants of these mechs¡­

    Those mechs¡­ were the invigting models¡­ of the aristocrats.

    And the next report, within the proximity, 3 spaceships had been detected.

    It was an unlucky day for Ye Chong.

    Of all times, the aristocrats just had to be rmed now, when he was engaged in all sorts of preparatory works¡­

 Chapter 442 - Its Coming!

    <h4>Chapter 442: It''s Coming!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The three aristocrats did take prompt actions in fact, as Ye Chong detected a few suspicious mechs wandering within his vicinity from time to time. Those were very sneaky mechs that had been only observing the Collisions moving in the area the whole time. No action was already taken thus far but Ye Chong was informed of their existence.

    Facing an unknown force from the corner of the gxy, the three aristocrats decided to tackle it with great caution under a tricky period like this.

    These mechs were already a distraction to Ye Chong. The rate of spatial instability was ticking fast and Ye Chong simply did not have the time to entertain these uninvited guests.

    Sang''s reinforcement did not seem to be arriving soon. Once the spatial anomaly urred, the reinforcement would be stuck at the Cmitous Asteroid Belt and failed to reach Ye Chong''s site.

    The entire Yi Ju was on high alert, ready to battle anytime.

    And that was when onest plot twist was added to their script, as a few blurry visuals were spread in thework¡­

    There were a few threads created with the following titles:

    "A Mysterious Force on Yi Ju!"

    "Stronger than the Stronghold, Mission: Unknown!"

    "Strange Skeleton Aircraft''s Higher than the Sky, said experts."

    "Who are They? What do They Want?"

    "Friend or Foe? Aliens on Yi Ju!"

    Spections about Ye Chong''s property and his army flooded the Virtual World board. Photos were clearly taken from afar, as the rity was horrible. But it was also such horrible rity that further enhanced the mystery brewing on Yi Ju. The reformation in the three aristocrats was then having their attention shifted upon this mysterious activity.

    All sorts of stories were on the board rapider than Little Rock''s fingers busy tapping the keyboards trying to eliminate those posts. It only took a few moments before the news got to the station. Several talk shows were hosted regarding the controversy on some of the most popr news channels.

    "Hello and wee back to Gctic Whisperer. I''m your host and today we have a very special guest, known as the specialist ahead of the time, Mr. Uda. So, Mr. Uda, what''s your view on the mysterious force that had engulfed Yi Ju recently?" asked the host.

    "Uhh¡­," replied Uda carefully, "We have yet to receive sufficient information regarding the force that had been active recently. I can''t really name the possible kind of organization the force associates with¡­"

    "There have been rumors iming that they are the pirates, do you agree?"

    "Impossible!" Uda shook firmly, "This is obviously a baseless spection. It''s clear from those pictures avable on the Virtual World. We could see a well-disciplined army that carries out tasks systematically in the organization. To be honest, I personally think that this force is pretty close to the ace pilot squads of all three aristocrats in terms of standards. So they can''t be pirates, especially when they have a standardized equipment, which it would be impossible for a group of mere burrs to achieve."

    "Such insightful analysis, as expected from Mr. Uda! As mentioned by ourmentator, the organization sure is strong, which debunks the spection that they are merely pirates. Still, people are confused, Mr. Uda, regarding the reason why anybody would pick a ce with such horrible environment like Yi Ju as a military base for training. As far as we could discern from these shots, the army not only is stationed at Yi Ju itself but also had formted a strong defense system on the. So, why and how, Mr. Uda?"

    "Umm¡­" Uda did not seem really confident at this, "I do have the same question as everybody else. Yi Ju has substandard productivity while itsnd resources are poor. Its location is rather dangerous as it was close to the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, far from the developed area with bad transportation. Every aspect is so poor that a sane person would never consider investing materials to build a base here. However, ording to what we have found, apparently a group known as the Papatte pilot squad had appeared on this a few years ago. So I would believe that they have their own reasons to be there. Regarding why they built the defense grid, it should be rted to their main goal I suppose." Suchnguage skill of squeezing out an emptyment¡­

    "So, Mr. Uda, do you think there might be a type of association or two between the defensive behavior of the force and the recently initiated reformation among the three Aristocats?"

    "There might be," said Uda.

    That was when the visual of Collision got projected to the audience. It was nearly indistinguishable with the motion blur.

    "This is the visual we had obtained at the exterior of the area. This aircraft with a unique design seems to be their main equipment in executing tasks. It was pure coincidence when we got hold of the aircraft''s appearance, as somehow this bizarre looking aircraft possesses an excellent anti-detection capability that our staff managed to take a shot of it only because of an idental flick on the photon mode button. I am pretty sure Mr. Uda has some good insights on this strange bird," said the host.

    "Certainly, we were also astonished by the visual when we first saw it, that we consulted countless mechanics on the aircraft. Most of the mechanics believed that it could be a skeleton aircraft. Well, I believe most pilots and any of our friends whose job has something to do with mechs would know what a skeleton mech is. The concept of building a fully skeleton mech had been proposed years ago but none of those aristocrats managed to realize it. Never once we would expect the blurry aircraft we see right now is really a skeleton aircraft. There is actually someone who is capable of building a skeleton machine. It is simply amazing!" said Uda, with a little more excitement towards the end.

    Skeleton Mech - the terminology that had once vanished in the mind of the people - had rekindled in the discussion today. The almost-impossible craft to create was found on the with the mysterious force, no doubt the mystery had intensified of the in the eyes of the people.

    Few pairs of eyes were soon found somewhere afar from Ye Chong''s vicinity, those were the curious people from all fields. Some of them were the intelligences of different forces, there were also mere reporters and some insane mech fanatics who would like to check out the legendary skeleton mech with their own eyes.

    They sure would like to have a better look, but none of them had mustered the courage to step beyond the boundary. Even if they did, like one of the reporters who recklessly piloted a mech one meter into the territory, they would be chased upon a team of those strange-looking mechs right away.

    And none of them had survived.

    The floating pieces in the space were reminding people of the cruel truth, that the mysterious force''s army was formidable and inhumanly efficient. The outsiders gave up their thoughts of even trying. It was the army''s cruelty that warned the outsiders to back off. No exnation, no talking, one st and the intruder would be a goner.

    Somehow the outsiders could feel the horrible gazesing from the inside of the strange mechs.

    Zoom! The outsiders'' mechs backed out immediately, which some of them decided to stop only after traveling a few hundreds kilometer away from the boundary.

    Ye Chong hated being the focus but he did not have any feasible solution in getting rid of that. The truth was, even Little Rock had given up on stopping the waves in the Virtual World.

    Something was happening and Ye Chong''s team was watching the projection carefully.

    "T-30 minutes till the limit. With an inconsistency of +/- 3%," said Mu.

    Mu''s monotonous speech somehow calmed Ye Chong''s mood.

    30 minutes till the moment of truth.

    Thought Ye Chong, taking a deep breath, as he turned and nodded at Sang Pu.

    "Team 1 into the air now! Team 2 and Team 3, standby," ordered Sang Pu through themunicator.

    Above Terry City, a thousand Collisions hadunched themselves into the air. These Collisions were no longer the outdated model you saw back in Archipgo, as improvised its design by Old Jalopy while revamped its engine by Lian Yue the genius.

    It was quite a view to have 1000 mechs in the air at once, but nobody could ever witness it as the citizens had been evacuated to the underground.

    The reporters beyond the boundary were almost thrashing in excitement upon seeing the 50 teams of army of 1000 Collisions appearing in the neighboring space zone of Yi Ju.

    Most programs had been cancelled and were reced with the streaming of this view.

    "After days of silence, the mysterious organization had finallyunched its first operation. As you can see, we are streaming the historical moment for you, stay tuned as you could see a thousand aircrafts traveling in the area. They have demonstrated great discipline and have aplete formation. Their army is enormous but not out of control. If you were here with us, you would be feeling the intensity by just looking at the skeleton aircrafts themselves¡­ Not even the aristocrats'' reforming army could beat this intensity¡­"

    The hologram screens in the heart of different cities were projecting the same scene, which the pedestrians jerked their steps clumsily and had a view upon.

    The hustles and bustles of cities had stopped, as people set their eyes upon history.

 Chapter 443 - Inevitable War! I

    <h4>Chapter 443: Inevitable War! I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Into the outside!" As Sang Tie was not in Team 1, the leadership went to Sang Mu who sent off that flinty stare of excitement to the uing battle.

    The army of a thousand mechs looked grand off the air yet appeared to be a mere cluster in the boundless space. Sang Mu did not intend to disperse the army at the moment.

    "Formation!" he said, as the mechs reformed into a giant cone shaped arrangement.

    "This is brilliant!" eximed the reporter. "We have just confirmed that there are a thousand of these skeleton aircrafts in this army alone! We could see the impable formation of the army as they took the orbit of the boundary!" The reporter seemed shocked, "Ah? Are they elerating? Oh my gosh, that is fast! So fast! Show me the measurement now, hmm, Mach 10, Mach 12¡­ it''s adding up, Mach 15? They had reached Mach 15. Anyone who has piloted a mech before would know how difficult it is to keep the handle under control at speed of Mach 15. The miracle is there folks! The formation remains the same wless even at such a high velocity. We should be giving our apuse now! This is a well-trained army! It just makes me start to anticipate their following move!" The news was broadcasted throughout every corner of He Yue gxy.

    To the people it felt like a show, a performance of this strange team of skeleton aircrafts traveling in the space. The people were astounded by the stern glow of Sang''s army which differed itself from the typical heroes. Sang''s army had demonstrated the fear of masses, in the coherent ultimate order that had imprinted the visual of the Collision army in the heart of the people.

    This was day of history, when Sang family was once again mentioned in the entire He Yue gxy.

    The Collision, after Lian Yue''s improvised engine system, could travel up to Mach 22 in the space, which Mach 20 was a critical point. The maximum speed an advanced mech could travel at would be Mach 15, only a super mech could maintain a velocity up to Mach 20. Mach 20 was the maximum mainly due to the issue of oveing weight of the body and the friction that the body had caused during the travel. However, with a mech made out of not metals but purely skeletons, as well as Lian Yue''s Destiny engine model, fueled by mildstones exclusive to Archipgo, Collision had smashed the cap effortlessly while maintaining the shocking velocity of Mach 22.

    "Turn on all firing units. Battle Station!" ordered Sang Pu sternly.

    Little Rock and Zhang Yu in their helmets started inputtingmands. They were the keyponents of this operation, as not only they had to control the firing units ording to the orders, but also they had to ensure the confidentiality of the entire transmission.

    The activation program had beenunched on allser firing units in the zone.

    Beeeeeep¡­

    The pale bluish glow began collecting on the muzzle of all firing units, like a cluster of pale blue stars kindling in the dark void.

    People were fascinated by the beauty, yet a little afraid.

    Theser firing units, of those Ye Chong purchased earlier and those Mu/Shang had produced with the newly established industrial area, made an astonishing sum of 500,000!

    Yes, five hundred thousand firing units were installed densely in this tiny zone round Yi Ju. People would be convinced that this will be an unbreakable stronghold that no fleet would have the courage to rashly reach the glowing blue stars. There were 500,000 of them, when the Cob only had 180 firing units in the past.

    It took Mu/Shang and Little Rock three days to arrange the optimum locations for these 500,000 units.

    "Oh my He Yue gxy, this is gorgeous! The most breathtaking view I have ever seen! A perfect, solid defense of countlessser firing devices. This must be the mostplete firewall I''ve ever seen! I seriously had lost count, how many units are there exactly? It''s shocking!" The reporter had lost his senses in words. It was not a rare sight to see a force to go full hostile in He Yue gxy, but never once people had witnessed one force to go this far.

    At first people were certainly fascinated by its beauty, but the perception of fear soon would remind them of the cruelty of war!

    But Ye Chong and his army did not really care these nonsensical details. Yi Ju was lively. There were all sorts of procedures to run through, inspection before departure, instation of energy cartridges,pressive explosives instation and inspection, second inspection and so on. The entire Papatte base was like the clock, ticking as countless gears turned to each other, all working towards a goal, to show something to the world.

    Well, the one that got really busy as a bee was no one other than Little Rock, and Zhang Yu too!

    The Mavericks decided to join the party, as they stepped into Yi Ju''s virtualworking system upon the broadcast. Mu/Shang had foreseen this way back so he had formed a virtual world defense team with Little Rock and Zhang Yu and they hadid all kinds of traps around thework. Those were not the misleading signs one would see on the pathway to Yi Ju''s database, but they were the pure explosives. It was not hard to set up such devastation for Mu/Shang and Little Rock the decent Mavericks. It was all for the transmission''s confidentiality. It was fine for Little Rock to even conduct such brutal strategy on thework.

    But the Maverick mob was a little overwhelming this time. It felt like a wave submerging Yi Ju''s virtual world. Some of the Mavericks logged off the moment they spotted the traps, while the remaining was the Maverick-savvys and overconfident yers who wanted to have an adventure online. Of course, it was not easy to discover the source code of the opponent himself even for these expert yers in Maverick field, but was it not fun to face such a strong foe?

    Little Rock and Zhang Yu fully focused themselves on the iing attacks. Mu/Shang had something else in hand so he could not provide assistance from time to time. Everythinging in the virtual world would be under Little Rock and Zhang Ye''s responsibility. Their defense was formidable, but these Mavericks arrived like the assassins, capable of stabbing them in the back at any second.

    The two of them were highly attentive, they could not rx.

    Well, the other members in Team Ye Chong were not having a fun time either. The space was destabilizing soon it seemed, as the rate of spatial instability was climbing. In 10 minutes, the rate would hit the limit.

    They had no idea what would possibly ur once the limit had been reached, not even Mu/Shang could find any applicable information on this off the Virtual World. All they got was a news extract where there had been a simr urrence about 20 years ago. But the news extract wrote the incident so briefly that there was no value of analyzing at all.

    Team 2 was ready tounch.

    Ye Chong and his members were staring at the projection in the meeting room. The cameras around that unstable space zone were transmitting the visuals for them.

    Around 90% of poption of the entire He Yue gxy were watching them. Within thest hour, Yi Ju had probably gained the attention quintupled the attention it had in its entire time of existence before.

    The group was holding their breath, as anticipating something to happen.

    In 10 minutes, space would be destabilized, yet the 10 minutespsed like centuries, even Sang Pu the calm leader was sweating heavily on his head. Ye Chong looked indifferent however, "As expected from the teacher¡­ calm as the water¡­," whispered Sang Pu.

    T-1 minute.

    Everyone stood up from their seats as they looked upon the projection.

    What would happen? The atmosphere was nauseating. The pressure was building.

    Ye Chong looked at the ticking figure on the processor, "Team 1 into Battle Station, equip all firing units, prepare to shoot onmand."

    The order came like a bomb and his teammates were shook awake from the dismay of anticipation. Sang Pu looked at the rolling number on the processor, his eyes erged.

    The figure was¡­ speeding up?

    The rate was increasing quicker?

    The 1 minute they were supposed to wait had been decreased visibly.

    Well, the Sangs were body and soul ready for this possibly apocalypse. They had been countless before.

    The Sangs maintained their formation, as began elerating beyond Mach 15.

    The space was actually destabilizing.

    Ye Chong could see it.

 Chapter 444 - Inevitable War! II

    <h4>Chapter 444: Inevitable War! II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    ¡­(Papatte Squad Base Interior)¡­

    Everyone had their eyes glued upon the projection. They were stupefied upon the reading, including Ye Chong who no longer could hold his chilly expression.

    "S-s-s-s-spatial Distortion Rate: 90%!" The voice of their observer muttered in fear.

    ¡­

    "Spatial Distortion Rate: 100%"

    A ck spot was discovered at the center of the area right next to Yi Ju. Despite the voidness of the space, the ck spot looked very obvious, like a burnt spot of a drawing of night sky. It was darker than ck, dark-right horrifying.

    Within twinkling of eyes, the ck spot had grown in size at a horrendous rate! It began reaching the surrounding, as forming into a particr shape.

    Disc. A circle, a perfect disc-circle.

    ck disc phenomena¡­

    Ye Chong could not help but to flinch upon the sight.

    He remembered his adventure at the underground cavern primary. That creepy view was probably unforgettable till the day he died.

    A perfect circle of darkness that hovered in the air, from which a limb of an unknown beast would reach out with an ear-bleeding scream!

    The strong deja vu was hitting his head.

    "Mu, wh-what would happen¡­ assuming we attack the disc!?" Ye Chong tried being calm in his inquiry. Although he had no idea what the disc would bring this time, provided that it was the same unidentified creature from his underground adventure before, they would be losing and they will lose.

    "Negative. Oue: Unknown. Unable to calcte," answered Mu right away. "Spatial Destabilizing Rate : >60%." That was a no-no to Ye Chong''s n.

    In all spatial studies, a spatial destabilizing phenomena would be the most terrifying thing the schrs could ever imagine. Providing a destabilization urred, the space would technically copse and half of the entire He Yue gxy would be affected. The worst part was, everything would be happening in matter of mere minutes.

    Before they noticed, the ck disc had reached the diameter of 20 meters.

    It was still erging, like the fear in Ye Chong''s heart as he watched the ck disc on the projection. Thest spatial distortion he saw at the underground was hardly 3 meter long in diameter. And this ck disc had hit the diameter of 20 meters within thest few minutes!

    The reporters started to notice the strange phenomena beyond the boundary, as they readjusted their cameras towards the bizarre circle in the center.

    "Oh my, what in the He Yue is that?" asked the reporter, with a never-before-felt excitement in him, "I had never seen such fantasy! The ck circle seems to be a ck hole, unlike a ck hole, it does not suck. Hah, at least we are safe you see. It looks so gorgeous that I wonder if it''s the most perfect circle in the entire gxy? The peculiar part is, we were unable to measure its breadth, it''s simply too thin! Oh my, it''s still growing, growing like puberty. The diameter now¡­ hmmm¡­ approximately 50 meters !"

    The scene had been broadcasted across universe. People stopped their works, people ced down their phone, as with an unintelligible expression they looked upon the projection.

    "What¡­ is that thing? Oh my He Yue gxy¡­" One customer in the bar was opening his mouth wide, that the beer he was pouring went overflowed.

    "It''s so round and ck¡­ and looked very deep."

    "I don''t know, I think I had seen something simr on my wife¡­"

    "Dude, I''m eating!"

    Somehow the bartender got pped.

    "We are still unable to identify the phenomena at the moment. Was it the gate to hell? Or was it a portal to an alternate dimension? Or was it some gadget-went-wrong by a robotic cat from the future? Hehe¡­," said the reporter mischievously, "but I believe that the mysterious organization has an earth-shattering secret associated with its recent operation and the hole!"

    Ye Chong did not seem interested in having any association with this hole. His fear intensified, as his sweat fell harder.

    The ck disc was still growing! The diameter? It had reached 800 meters.

    Ye Chong quivered a little as he reminisced thest encounter with this spooky disc.

    What woulde out this time¡­

    Time waspsing sluggishly, it felt as if the disc was sucking the flow of time¡­

    On the projection, the disc remained growing and Team 1 had started shifting towards the exterior.

    3 hours and 5 minutester¡­

    The ck disc had stopped, while achieving a diameter of 22.6 kilometers¡­

    A ck circr area of an approximate 23 kilometer diameter did not seem that impressive in the voidness of space. But, if one was able to take a look near the area itself, it would be breathtaking indeed. It was a giant, perfect, abyssal circle, with an unmeasurable breadth. Nobody knew what it was, and why it was there.

    But people were convinced that, they no longer had the leisure to crack jokes, not even the reporter just now. His tone had turned grim, like the atmosphere of the entire gxy.

    In the past 3 hours, countless scientists and schrs hadunched a detailed discussion on the phenomena, yet nobody could provide a sound exnation.

    Darkness defines death, death defines destruction.

    So what would this unknown darkness bring to the gxy?

    Was it apocalypse?

    The spection popped up in the mind of the people.

    The ceased growth of the ck disc was a nerve-calming sight to people. Just when they thought it was only an adornment to the space, things happened!

    Dark, purplish scarlet gases began rolling out of the t circle. The gases did not spread however, only surrounding the dark disc constantly.

    In no time the disc had been fully engulfed by the dimly reddish gases.

    The cloud of gas was grooving, as if given life.

    It was a creepy sight.

    Out of sudden, a dark purplish lightning zapped by quickly.

    It was a sign. Countless sparks started bellowing within the clouds.

    Although the broadcast had no sound, somehow people could imagine the cracking sound of a typical aggressive spark.

    Everything happened rapidly. In 5 minutes, the cloud of gases regained its serenity.

    "It is expanding," alerted Mu.

    "Mhm." Ye Chong had already noticed the growth of the gases after the spark-reaction ended.

    And that was when the rm went off.

    "Warning. Unidentifiable Creature Detected! Warning. Unidentifiable Creature Detected! Poption: Unknown. Poption: Unknown!"

    Within the purplish cloud, a dense flock of red spots could be discerned.

    Heavy gasps were heard in the meeting room.

    Ye Chong somehow calmed down again, as he looked at the frozen Sang Pu, "Attention, Team 1. Attention, Team 1. Retreat right away. I repeat, all units retreat right away! Prompt your weapons, fire at order!" Ye Chong seized themandership and ced the order promptly.

    Sang Pu, who just recovered from the shock, had his face blushing.

    That was when the reporters noticed the gliding army of the mysterious organization had evacuated themselves from the area. The stranger thing was, allser firing units had been redirected towards the cloud of gases.

    "Team 2 into the space now! Team 2 into the space now! Confirm location before entry," said Sang Pu after he got hold of himself.

    Ye Chong''s eyes were staring at the screen, in which the red dots were growing as well, those red dots were¡­ they were charging towards the edges of the cloud! They seemed to be very capable at speed! Ye Chong could start discerning the silhouette of their appearance now!

    !

    Sang Pu''s eyes wentrger than Collision, as anger filled his gaze, veins were bloating on his forehead, his lips were almost muffling up themunicator. His fingers were trembling on the grip.

    "All units, radius vector 6 to 9, radius vector 12 to 15, ready to fire uponmand!"

    Little Rock and Zhang Yu in their helmets were rapidly tapping the interfaces on the processors, as they redirected the firing device to the ording scope.

    The unidentified creatures were arriving. They were charging very quickly towards them.

    One had already left the cloud!

    The second! Third!

    A blob of sweat rolled off Sang Pu''s cheek, as his respiration grew heavier.

    The appearance of that unknown creature had been fully captured by the camera, everyone in the meeting room had seen it clearly.

    Sang Pu''s tightened fingers rubbed against themunicator, "Fire!" he shouted upon seeing the unknown creatures pouncing.

 Chapter 445 - Inevitable War! III

    <h4>Chapter 445: Inevitable War! III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The dark, starry sky was lit up.

    Numerousser beams fired together, raining down onto the mysterious creatures. Words cannot describe this magnificent sight. Theser beams fired from the beam guns were all in a faint red color. Each beam gun fired approximately 120 shots per second.

    In just a few seconds, hundreds and thousands ofser beams tore through the wide, open space!

    Theser beams were tightly concentrated like the holes on a sieve, heading towards the mysterious creatures.

    Laser beams were bright, but usually observable with the naked eyes. However, the holographic screen was now saturated with an intense brightness that would eye hurting!

    The power of theser beams from the beam guns shocked the people watching from inside the meeting room.

    Ye Chong stared dumbfounded at the red beams on the holographic screen. This was a n that he ,Mu and Shang came up together, but the effect was much beyond his expectations. He never put much hope in theser beam guns.

    Laser beam guns were invented quite some time ago, but they had never been the primary means of assault in the past. These weapons were practically immobile, mostly inurate, and consumed energy like a sponge would absorb water. Hence, they had never been widely used. Compared toser beam guns, long range mechs could shoot far more urately.

    Of course, more importantly, be it the Five Gxies or He Yue Gxy, it had been a long time since an actual war had happened.

    Ye Chong never imagined that their creative use of theser beam guns wouldter change people''s perceptions about these long abandoned toys. Despite the many ws of these weapons, they had an overwhelming advantage in at least one respect - they were cheap.

    Everyone in the meeting stared the holographic screen that was nowpletely saturated in bright red.

    Sang Pu was even more puzzled. If he could not see anything on the screen, then how could he direct his men?

    The meeting room was in an uproar in the next instant.

    Just like in the meeting room, this bright light was seen from every other corner in the He Yue Gxy. Surprised by the sudden brightness on their screens, many people cried out in fear and quickly shut their eyes. The weak hearted ones were even more shaken.

    Compared to Sang Pu and others, members of the public who were watching the live broadcast were surprised even more, since they had no warning at all.

    The entire He Yue Gxy was in turmoil.

    The reporter''s cry of surprise was also broadcasted to the entire He Yue Gxy. However, the reporter managed to act professionally as befitted a man with his rich experience in the field. He immediately switched to a filtered feed of the spectacle. This filtered camera was rarely used in interviews, and reserved for more unusual asions, like this one.

    By now, the spectators had mostly recovered from the assault on their eyesight.

    When they opened their eyes again, they saw something that would forever be burned in their memories!

    Since a filter was used, the holographic screen was now in various shades of green. However, on this thoroughly green screen, numerous light beams drew straight lines across the sky. The entire holographic screen was filled with these bright light beams. The light beams shed and vanished, but the number ofser beams in the screen continued to increase.

    Everyone was shocked.

    The entire He Yue Gxy, be it in bars or in the city square, as long as the holographic screens were showing the live broadcast, the people watching them were all dead silent.

    Theser beam guns rapidly depleted their energy reserves, especially when they were firing so intensely. This was another reason the beam guns were not favored - they could not be used in a prolonged assault.

    Five minutes! The energy cells in eachser beam gun could only sustain a total of five minutes of firing in maximum capacity.

    After the five minutes, the holographic screen finally dimmed. During the firing, Ye Chong and the Sang Family Legion had not thought of using filters, a sign of theirck of experience.

    Theser beams left an afterimage thatsted for three seconds.

    The bright holographic screen was like a huge ball of glowing yarn, and right now it was slowly unravelling, losing brightness with every second that passed. Theser beams that once lit up the sky, providing a dazzling performance to the people, were now slowly vanishing from the universe.

    Ye Chong and his group could finally see everything there clearly now.

    Silence! The meeting room was dead quiet, so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

    They were all wearing colorful expressions. Everyone''s mouth was wide open as they stared dumbfounded at the holographic screen. However, many of them quickly recovered and looked away, feeling sorry for the creatures. Most of them sharply inhaled, and one could hear all the sharp inhales across the room.

    The holographic screen showed a terrible sight that even a warmonger like Sang Tie with a heart of stone could barely continue watching it. The destruction caused during the five minutes before was devastating!

    Outside, floating around in space were many of the creatures'' dead bodies. They were pieces of flesh, torn off limbs, and organs flying around. All the creatures received multiple wounds, and most of them were just full of holes. It was hard to wholly preserved bodies. This was a problem for Ye Chong and hispany, since it was difficult to reconstruct theplete image of these unknown lifeforms.

    That round of assault was simply too violent! Ye Chong believed that even Mu or Shang would not be able to survive an attack like that. In fact, no mech could survive an overwhelming attack like that. Ye Chong thought that this intense firing assault was more powerful than a warship''s cannons, especially against small sized enemies like mechs.

    Ye Chong made a note to himself that should he find himself within range ofser beam guns, he should run away as quick as possible.

    Ye Chong now knew that the devastation they wrought was being broadcasted to every corner in the He Yue Gxy. He Yue was not a peaceful ce, but the conflicts were often on a small scale. There had never been anyrge scale military warfare. Most of the people here still lived rtively peacefully, and had never seen anything so shocking as this! If even the Sang Tribe members were affected by this battlefield, how could themoners even manage?

    The horrible images of flesh, innards and severed limbs were everywhere. The reporter was daring enough to focus the feed on those things.

    Everyone who was watching the holographic screen turned pale, their eyes widening with fear.

    Blergh! Someone finally could not hold it anymore, and vomited. Like a catalyst, people began to vomit everywhere. The sound of people throwing up did not stop. Here and there, people bent over to empty their stomachs.

    Here and there were sounds of vomiting, children crying, adults swearing, nonsensical mutterings ¡­ The symphony of chaos began as fear spread amongst the people. It was as if the apocalypse was here!

    Ye Chong and the Sang Tribe Legion''s reputation skyrocketed overnight. However, they were mainly famous for their violence! This caused most starship fleets and mech squads to stay far, far away from Ye Chong and his Sang Tribe Legion for a long time after.

    Nheless, Ye Chong and the Sang Tribe Legion would not have minded being known for this particr reason.

    Ye Chong studied the holographic screen quickly, summarizing the results of their assault.

    Ye Chong may look calm on the outside, but on the inside he was shocked. He could already identify some crustdes among the unknown lifeforms. However, there were more types of unknown lifeforms here than thest time when he and Rui Bing were at the Gateway. He had not seen many of them before.

    It was a pity that their bodies were now mostly unrecognizable.

    Ye Chong''s eyes fell on the huge, dark fuschia colored gas cloud on the holographic screen. This cloud was so huge that it seemed to fill up the entire background of the holographic screen from every angle.

    He focused on the gas cloud intensely, as though he could see through it by pure willpower.

    Abruptly, he noticed something and leaned forward. His gaze turned even more prating, and his expression turned slightly grim. He stared at the fuschia colored gas cloud without moving.

    No one in the meeting room noticed Ye Chong''s expression change. After the initial shock, they were now discussing excitedly about the brief assault earlier. Everyone was talking about the surprisingly powerfulser beam guns. That magnificent spectacle was just amazing! They had never seen arge scale war before, and never before had they thought of fighting in this way. This experience hadpletely altered their perception of war.

    The Sang Tribe members were natural warriors. They were all physically and mentally trained forbat. While they were not as familiar with modern weaponry as even the average mech pilots were in the He Yue Gxy, they understood battle far more deeply than the so called elites here.

    This round of battle was an eye opener to them. Like Ye Chong, they had an innate sensitivity to all thingsbat.

    Ye Chong was now speaking with Mu/Shang.

    "Mu, it is growingrger?"

    "Yes. It''s rapidly expanding, and it''s now 56 percentrger than before," Mu reported with characteristic precision.

    Ye Chong felt his heart skip a beat!

 Chapter 446 - Inevitable War! IV

    <h4>Chapter 446: Inevitable War! IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He suddenly remembered about the mollusc bristleworms and crustdes. Mollusc bristleworms were immune to energy weapons. They evolve by absorbing energy, while crustdes evolve by consuming metals. Were there any other creatures that were simr to mollusc bristleworms here? After all, in the span of just a few minutes, theser beams that were shot towards this purplish gas cloud was packed with a lot of energy!

    Ye Chong had already recognized some of the bodies as that of the crustdes, so it was a real possibility that the mollusc bristleworms were also here. Ye Chong was not particrly worried about them. He knew that the Collision mechs would be effective against them because of his experience fighting against those creatures.

    Ye Chong was more worried about the existence of other kinds of creatures that were simr to the mollusc bristleworms.

    Evolution was a powerful and frightening ability. Take the crustdes as an example. The more metal they consumed, the more metallic their armor tes would be. Their armor would be tougher, and their teeth stronger.

    After encountering the crustdes and mollusc bristleworms, Ye Chong had never seen any other creatures that could evolve as fast as those two.

    Pure energy and metal were the conditions for their evolution. However, they were also the most important resources for humans. Based on this principle alone, without regard to the aggressive behavior of the unknown lifeforms, humans and these creatures were intrinsically ipatible. This was also the decisive factor that turned both sides into enemies.

    However, Ye Chong was probably the only who was thinking about this at the moment. Most of the people were still watching the holographic screen, some of them cursing the mysterious battalion that was simply too menacing and terrifying! Look at those countless bodies floating in space, the proof of their callousness!

    Nheless, Ye Chong was not the kind of person who would think about how he was a part of humanity. He would never willingly shoulder the burden of saving humanity. The only thing he cared about was the danger that these creatures posed to the people he cared about.

    The purple gas cloud was rapidly expanding, and Ye Chong thought it looked like a huge purple heart, expanding with each pulse.

    The purple gas cloud was now spanning across 700 kilometers. However, it did not turn any thinner. It was still as thick as before. 700 kilometers was the equivalent length of about 120 starships joined lengthwise. Such a massive object was still considered smallpared to the scale of the universe, roughly the size of a slightlyrger asteroid. However, to the Sang Tribe members who were still flying around it, it was a solid threat.

    "It''s unimaginable! Heavens! What''s happening? Was this mysterious battalion actually here to fight against those unknown lifeforms? It''s too devastating! We had no idea where these unknown lifeformse from, but the incontrovertible fact is that these outsiders that came from far away have beenpletely destroyed by a powerful force! Is it possible for these unknown lifeforms to survive an attack like that? I bet nothing could! Even the most sturdy starship in the world will be destroyed by that round of attack.

    "The ce has be a devastating battlefield! May I remind the audience that minors should be apanied by adults while watching this program." The reporter had by now recovered from his shakened state, and began to speak more fluently. However, one could still notice the slight tremble in his voice.

    Along the Hyperbolic Flight Route, a fleet made up of approximately 50 starships were flying at constant speed. As the He Yue Gxy''s fifthrgest flight route, it was extremely busy. The number of starships that traveled along Hyperbolic Flight Route had also steeply increased ofte. Ever since the Three Aristocratic Families relocated their military personnel, most of the main flight routes were greatly affected. Due to the fact that the Hyperbolic Flight Route was not under the control of the Three Aristocratic Families, however, flights along this route were not just unaffected, but had increased by a few magnitudes.

    Captain Craig sat quietly in the captain''s cabin, resting his mind. There was nothing in particr that demanded his attention throughout the flight. The Hyperbolic Flight Route had always been quite safe. Rarely would space pirates dare to do their marauding here.

    The 50 transport ships that made up the fleet were all carrying war resources. There were high performance energy cells, mechs and mech parts. High performance energy cells could store four to five times more energy than normal energy cells, and were thus much preferred. However, due to itsplicated manufacturing process, they were also very expensive. Aside from the Three Aristocratic Families, only two other hugepany groups could produce them, and only in limited numbers. All their products were sold by wholesale agents, and they were never sold individually. Every year, all the manufactured energy cells would be sold out to these wholesale agents.

    Captain Craig served as a Captain under one of these wholesale agents. With 35 years of flight experience, he was widely respected by his peers and the wholesale agent.

    Currently, he was being assigned for an important mission. The amount of goods to be transported this time was unprecedented. Of the 50 ships in the fleet, 25 of them were loaded with high performance energy cells. Craig knew that this was roughly the volume that his employer would purchase for an entire year!

    For this mission, Craig had made a whole range of preparations. All 50 ships in the fleet did not look particrly conspicuous from the outside, but they had all gone through extensive modifications. All the crew members assigned to this mission were handpicked, and they were all excellent mech pilots. All of them werebat ready, and stood a chance even against mech pilots from the Three Aristocratic Families.

    Craig was confident because of these reasons. Additionally, he had been directing fleets along the Hyperbolic Route since he was 18. He knew the route like the back of his hand.

    "Captain!" A crew member interrupted his rest. He opened his eyes and asked in a low voice, "What is it?"

    "Please look at this, what is it?" The crew member pointed towards the holographic screen.

    The screen was filled with the image of a huge and seemingly boundless purple gas cloud.

    Whatever was going on along the Hyperbolic Flight Route did not gain any attention from anyone else. Right now, the center of all attention was in a secluded area where Yi Ju was.

    Ye Chong''s expression was grim.

    The first one to notice was Sang Pu. Soon, like a chain reaction, a second person noticed, then a third person ¡­ Gradually, everyone in the meeting room noticed Ye Chong''s grim expression. The lively discussion in the meeting room quieted down until it waspletely silent. Everyone looked to the young man. Even the slowest of them had figured out by then that the situation was not as optimistic as they thought.

    If it were anyone else, they would have thought he was worrying for nothing. However, this was their young teacher, whom they had revered as a God ¡­ No one in the Sang Tribe would doubt him.

    Ye Chong watched unblinkingly at the holographic screen, unaware of the stares he was receiving.

    Everyone else looked to the holographic screen that he was watching. Shown on the screen was still a purple gas cloud. They stared at it for a long time, but did not notice anything amiss.

    Just then, Ye Chong spoke, "Pu."

    "Ah." Sang Pu paused at the sudden call, but quickly responded, "Sir ¡­"

    "Did you see any bodiesing out from the purple gas cloud?" Ye Chong asked a curious question.

    Sang Pu looked like he was recalling every detail of the event before. He then looked up and replied firmly, "No, Sir. I didn''t see any bodiesing out."

    The exchange between Ye Chong and Sang Pu attracted the attention of everyone else in the meeting room.

    Ye Chong took a nce at Sang Pu, and asked, "Do you think there could be more unknown lifeforms in the purple gas cloud?"

    "Inside the purple gas cloud?" Sang Pu was surprised, then the feeling turned to dread. "Could there be more of those creatures in there?"

    Sang Pu''s question caused the mood in the meeting room to turn serious.

    Right then, Ye Chong received iing from Mu. "Ye, be careful, the purple gas cloud''s range has extended to where we ced ourser beam guns."

    Mu''s words sent a jolt to shock to Ye Chong. He abruptly looked up. The massive purple gas cloud on the holographic screen had indeed reached the area where they had ced their beam guns. Theser beam guns disappeared one by one into the expanding purple gas cloud, like they were swallowed by the massive thing.

    Ye Chong felt dead calm right now. He quickly identified the key factors in y.

    "Mu, make aparative analysis on the rate of expansion of the purple gas cloud, for before and after our attack."

    Mu''s reply was swift. "The rate of expansion had increased by 7.67 times after the attack."

    "As expected! It''s absorbing energy!" Ye Chong muttered to himself.

    The exchange between Ye Chong and Mu was unknown to Sang Pu and others. To them, it seemed that Ye Chong was only in deep thought.

    "Send some men into the purple gas cloud to investigate what''s inside," Ye Chong said to Sang Pu.

    Sang Pu nodded in understanding. He immediately opened hisms channel. "Sang Mu, send 50 men into the purple gas cloud, investigate what''s inside. Any discoveries should be transmitted live back to base. If signals are disrupted, record your findings, but you must bring the recordings back. Understood?" Ye Chong had left all the actualmanding of the Sang Tribe to Sang Pu. When it came to battles, Ye Chong had a natural instinct, but this did not imply that he would be an ablemander. Hence, he had never interfered in the particrs ofmanding their forces. This was a fact that he had understood early on. It was best to leave some things to the professionals.

    On the holographic screen, Sang Mu nodded. "Understood."

    The 50 Collision mechs made up their firstbat wave.

    From their first wave of Collision mechs that were flying around the edge of the purple gas cloud, 50 Collision mechs broke off from the group. They immediately formed five squads and plunged straight into the purple gas cloud.

 Chapter 447 - Inevitable War! V

    <h4>Chapter 447: Inevitable War! V</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Their worst fear happened. Once the 50 Collision mechs entered the purple gas cloud, they lost contact with base. Little Rock, who was in charge ofmunications, reported this anomaly the moment he noticed it. The news caused the atmosphere in the meeting room to turn dreadful.

    It was now obvious that the purple gas cloud could block electromaic signals. This meant that mechs that entered the purple gas cloud would no longer be asbat effective. The world inside the cloud was not suited for battles using mechs.

    What was within this purple gas cloud? Could there be more of the mysterious creatures?

    No one had an answer to that. However, they were under no illusion that the investigative probe into the purple gas cloud was going to be easy. An enormous swarm of menacing creatures had just emerged from within the gas cloud. Who knew what else was awaiting inside?

    In fact, Ye Chong and the Sang Tribe members in the meeting room back at their base were not the only ones who were interested in the investigation squad that was sent into the purple gas cloud. The frontline reporter had also noticed their movements.

    "Oh! After that extraordinary scene earlier, there''s now new movement from the mysterious and powerful organization. We can see here that 50 odd looking full-skeleton mechs had formed into squads of five and entered the purple gas cloud. I believe this must be scouts they were sending out. What could possibly be inside this purple gas cloud? More strong unknown lifeforms? And what about the ck spherical thing we saw just now? Is it still there? Truth be told, even I am feeling an urge to enter this mysterious purple gas cloud to investigate further!" The reporter''s voice was still a little unsteady, but he was otherwise back to normal.

    Everyone''s attention was on the rapidly expanding purple gas cloud on the holographic screen.

    Minutes passed, but no Collision mech flew out.

    The people in the meeting room at the base were feeling more anxious by the moment. Everyone was worried. They knew that with each passing second, the odds of survival for the 50 Sang Tribe members would worsen by a little more.

    After three minutes, the purple gas cloud expanded even more, but they still did not see any Collision mechsing out. A sense of foreboding was heavy in the room. After all, Collision mechs could travel up to Mach 20. Even if the purple gas cloud was a few timesrger than it was now, the time psed should have been enough for the mech pilots to make a few roundtrip flights inside the gas cloud.

    It was quiet in the meeting room. No one said a single word.

    Five minutes passed. By now, almost all theser beam guns they had set up were consumed by the crazily expanding purple gas cloud, as shown on the holographic screen. From Little Rock''s side, they learned that allmunications with theser beam guns were lost. Hopelessness spread in the meeting room. They feared that the worst had happened.

    The second attack squad had arrived on the scene. Two battalions with a thousand Collision mechs each skirted around the edges of the purple gas cloud, one following the other. It was a marvel to see how they managed to stay in formation throughout their flight. Every turn was made in perfect sync. It was a graceful performance.

    Just as the second attack squad waspleting half of its circr circuit about the purple gas cloud, a Collision mech suddenly emerged from within the gas cloud, flying erratically like a candle fire dancing in the wind. It looked like its engines would give way at any moment.

    "Ahh!" There was a uniform gasp in the meeting room, and the people inside stood up almost simultaneously.

    The Collision mech was bruised all over. It must have just survived a terrible fight. The four skeletal des on the mech were all broken. Only half of the colliding spear on its frontal tip was still attached. The main body of the Collision mech was covered with damages.

    "Assist the mech! Quick!" Sang Pu could no longer keepposed as he roared his orders into thems channel!

    There was no need for his orders. The second attack squad had noticed the Collision mech that came out of the purple gas cloud almost instantly. A hundred Collision mechs abruptly elerated and left formation, tracing a hundred beautiful arches in space. Their target was the heavily damaged Collision mech.

    "Comms is on! We''re linked to the mech." Little Rock''s announcement was like music to the ears.

    "Be ¡­ Beware ¡­" The mech pilot''s voice came through intermittently, sounding tired and forced. The brief words were followed by a series of coughs and heavy breathing.

    A sense of dread overcame the people who were listening. They were all experienced fighters. Of course they could deduce that theirrade was heavily wounded, and in a very dangerous situation!

    Before they could think on what he was warning them about, something drastic happened on the holographic screen!

    Suddenly, dozens of figures slipped out of the purple gas cloud. Their target was the damaged Collision mech.

    To assist the heavily damaged mech, the Collision mechs that were approaching it had all slowed down. This sudden turn of events had caught them off guard. The mechs that were at the frontlines were in immediate danger due to their deceleration. Collision mechs relied on speed. If theycked the velocity, things would not look good for them!

    The unknown lifeforms moved quickly. Just as the two sides were about to sh, the Sang Tribe demonstrated their excellent coordination in the battlefield once again!

    The Collision mechs that led the assist made a very steep angled turn towards the side and backwards, leaving an empty space of 25 meters across in their wake.

    Before the audience could make sense of the maneuver, the Collision mechs from behind charged forward without slowing down!

    Mach 22!

    The next 20 Collision mechs in the formation charged ahead like 20 bullets, flying so very close to one another to squeeze past the 25-meter opening, and straight on towards the unknown lifeforms.

    In that short instant, the leading mech pilots and the second wave of attacking mech pilots never spoke through thems. They did thispletely out of battle instinct and the spirit of coordination! Moreover, the Sang Tribe members disyed their top notch mech piloting skills. Even at Mach 22, they were to execute such a tough maneuver. Even the most critical mech pilots would be impressed by them.

    Both sides shed into each other with loaded momentum!

    Blood and flesh exploded everywhere! Skeletons and armor broke into pieces! It was not exactly a magnificent moment, but it was disturbingly brutal.

    The 20 mechs collided head on against the 20 unknown lifeforms.

    On the holographic screen, severed limbs and chunks of flesh exploded outwards. Skeletal fragments were scattered around the battlefield.

    Everyone in the meeting room felt a sharp tug in their hearts.

    There was no sound, only a live feed of what had happened. A battle in space was done inplete silence.

    To the averageyperson, everything was over in an instant. They could barely react to the incident, and most people could not even make sense of what had ured. However, in the meeting room at the base, Ye Chong and the Sang Tribe members, all veterans ofbat, had seen everything clearly.

    Shock ¡­ Disbelief ¡­ Dread ¡­ These emotions colored the expressions of the people in the meeting room.

    "How could this be?" Someone finally cried out.

    Their emotions were to be expected. The sh had ended with all 20 Collision mechs destroyedpletely. None of the mechs survived intact. Some of the mechs lost all but one of its skeletal des, with thest one dangling precariously from its mother body. Some mechs fared even worse, showing a deep gash that cut from the tip all the way to the tail. It was a miracle that these mechs did not explode right then.

    Collision mechs were a symbol of indestructibility for the Sang Tribe. Now, they had met their match! The enemy was able to cause this degree of damage with just their bodies. They must have incredibly tough bodies to achieve this.

    Ye Chong was also shaken to the core. As inventor of the Collision mech, no one understood the Collision mech better than he. Archipgo''s skeletal material were as strong as metal alloys. However, even such a strong material could not hold against the unknown lifeforms. Aside from the few mechs that Ye Chong did notpletely understand, he believed that these creatures could fatally damage every other kind of mech in existence.

    Ye Chong stared at the unknown lifeforms that came out of nowhere on the holographic screen, his expression guarded despite the growing turmoil in his heart.

    These creatures were about 12 to 15 meters tall, the average height of most mechs. They had a light gray exterior that had with a metallic shimmer, suggesting tough skin. The creatures looked muscr, with lower limbs that were far thicker than their forelimbs. The feet had ws that seemed to be made of metal too.

    The head was a conical shape, long and sharp. The narrow, long eyes in dark red were chilling to watch.

    Behind the creature was a thick tail, its main tool of offense. Ye Chong saw that at least 15 of the 20 Collision mechs were damaged by the tails. The tail was about 15 meters long, looking thick and strong, with a ck glistening surface. However, the most terrifying bit was the tip of the tail, light red in color, looking like an arrowhead but with longer des that pointed backwards at the sides.

    On its back were dozens of ck colored armour tes that shined like polished alloy armor ting, an obvious means of defense. The chest, however, was smooth and bare. There was nothing there except for the muscr lines.

    The Sang Tribe watched the unknown lifeforms on the holographic screen unblinkingly. They were awed by the destructive power of the creatures'' tails, and found their agility in outer space hard to believe.

    Unlike them, however, Ye Chong was entirely focused on the hands of these mysterious creatures!

 Chapter 448 - Inevitable War! VI

    <h4>Chapter 448: Inevitable War! VI</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong would never forget those hands! They were very simr to the one that emerged from the circr ck hole in the cave underground - angry crimson lines against ck colored skin, with strong webbed fingers. These pair of hands had left a very deep impression in Ye Chong. He could never forget what happened in the underground cave.

    The only thing that was different this time was that the hands had only five fingers each, unlike the eight fingers he sawst time. The number of digits was different, but that was just about the only difference that mattered.

    A simr ck hole, and simr hands ¡­

    Were these two events rted in some way? Ye Chong stared at the unknown lifeforms on the holographic screen, pondering the question. Ever since the ck circr hole appeared, the idea had been bugging him.

    Aside from Ye Chong''s pondering, the rest of the people in the meeting room were all captivated by the battle that was unfolding on the holographic screen.

    The first round of collisions had happened in only a few seconds. However, it was enough for the Sang Tribe members to know what to do next.

    The sudden attack was like a signal that marked the beginning of the next round of battle!

    The 30 Collision mechs behind the 20 before them were already preparing themselves before the actual collision. They had no time to analyze the results of the first round of attack. The 30 Collision mechs charged towards the now wounded unknown lifeforms.

    In that short first attack, the mech that was blocking the path to their enemies had cleared away. In other words, the 30 Collision mechs had a clear path towards the enemies.

    The 30 Collision mechs had enough distance to elerate!

    Many of the Sang Tribe members in the meeting room looked flushed. For these battle-eager people, nothing could make them more excited than what was about to happen next! elerated Collision mechs were deadly weapons of war!

    It seemed that the wounds affected the movements of these unknown lifeforms. However, they also made an urate assessment of their situation. The 20 creatures flew away quickly, hoping to escape back into the purple gas cloud.

    However, how could they hope to run away from the 30 Collision mechs that had targeted them?

    It was right then that another attack squad that was circling nearby began to approach the center of the fight. The third wave of attack had prepared themselves to be airborne to assist.

    Mach 22 was almost impossible to imagine for anymoner. Of all the people who witnessed the next few moments, many of them only saw a blur.

    When they finally made sense of the situation, they could only see 16 pairs of menacing red eyes slowly losing the life in them. The creatures floated helplessly in space, their wounds rapidly frozen , leaving behind pale bodies.

    Of the 20 unknown lifeforms, only four made it back to the purple gas cloud. The rest of them died in battle.

    The unique fighting style of Collision mechs, their strength, and their top notch speed fascinated the audience. If the first round of attack was too fast to follow, the second round of attack was clear as day. Even so, few people understood the details of what had transpired.

    That''s because the Collision mechs were too fast! Nheless, this was exactly what got people excited. Not everyone in the He Yue Gxy would be a mech pilot, but they would certainly know a thing or two about mechs. For most people, they were not interested in unknown lifeforms. After all, you could always find more of them in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. There were plenty of them over there.

    Mechs and velocity were concepts that were easier to rte to, and far more interesting.

    The news channel seemed to understand the taste of its audience. Right now, the holographic screen was reying the scene earlier, with a professional set of analysis results disyed on the sidelines, revealing a shocking Mach 22!

    All the spectators in the He Yue Gxy were blown away! The odd looking flying vessels became the hottest topic everywhere. Just when the numbers came out, many mech manufacturingpanies faced an overwhelming number of calls from their call center, inquiring if thepany could produce or at least buy those mechs for them.

    However, the people in the base meeting room on Yi Ju did not share the good cheer.

    Killing 16 out of the 20 creatures was a satisfying result. However, when taking into ount that 24 Collision mechs were damaged, and 50 Collisions mechs were deployed in the battle, it was a truly worrying result. In the second round of attack, with 30 Collision mechs against 20 wounded creatures, they still suffered four casualties, and let four of the creatures escaped.

    This showed how strong the unknown lifeforms were inbat - they were at least as powerful as Collision mechs!

    Additionally, despite being hit with such a powerful momentum, the unknown lifeforms did not explode into pieces as did the other wild beasts the Sang Tribe had fought against before. Their bodies were mostly intact, a sign of how tough they were.

    "Recording is transferred over," Little Rock reported briefly as his usual way. The Collision mech was now being escorted back to base, but the condition of the mech pilot inside was still undetermined.

    Of the 50 people who went in, only one came out alive. It was a grave statistic. The Sang Tribe members had always been close to each other. Sang Ling''s eyes were already red with tears. The rest of them went silent.

    Ye Chong took a sweeping nce of the people around him, and said, "Let''s have a look."

    The Sang Tribe members lifted their heads. Their lives back in Archipgo had always been dangerous. Battling for life was an integral part of their lives. The death ofrades was not umon. With their sorrows momentarily suppressed, everyone looked to the holographic screen. They were also curious about the horrors in the purple gas cloud that left only one of the 50 Collision mechs alive!

    As the recording began to show, they all saw an endless stretch of the purple gas cloud.

    The purple gas cloud was dense, and visibility was low. Nevertheless, the mech pilot had quickly switched on the sodiummps at the front of the mech.

    As holographic scanning became mainstream, few mechs would be equipped with lighting systems like this. Strangely, the more advanced mechs and starships would often be found equipped with them. Ye Chong had installed sodiummps for the Collision mechs to help the Sang Tribe travel across the Red Sea. Themps were not big, and they came at a low price.

    Who would have thought that the sodiummps would actually be put to good use!

    Despite the bright sodiummps, however, visibility did not extend beyond a kilometer. As a precaution, the mech pilot had slow down his Collision mech.

    The Collision mech drifted slowly in the vast, purple gas cloud. This went on for about half a minute without incident.

    Everyone in the meeting room as holding their breath, watching the recording as though it was happening to them right now.

    Only Ye Chong kept his calm as he watched the recording silently.

    Just then, the scene on the holographic screen changed. Something came into view in front, but the dense purple gas cloud made it hard to make out what it was.

    The mech pilot noticed immediately. He dimmed the sodiummps and slowed down his mech even further. The Collision mech cruised forward warily.

    As he inched closer towards the object, the view became clearer. However, whatever it was had such a strange shape that it looked like nothing at all.

    Suspense grew in the meeting room.

    Getting closer now, and clearer still. The Collision mech approached the thing in front of it, and now they finally saw what it was.

    Thick columns of flesh in a dark, purplish shade were growing in a frenzy, spreading outwards like tendrils. The dark purple columns were so thick that even the thinnest parts wererger than the cross section of a Collision mech. The soft bodied creature had tendril-like columns for its body, in a dark purplish colour that was even more intense than the color of the purple gas cloud. The columns looked like part liquid, part solid. As they expanded outwards in all directions, any column that got into the way of another would merge with its counterpart like liquid.

    There were many dark colored spots on the skin of the soft bodied creature. The spots seemed to be connected to the ck threads that ran inside and along the columns, vaguely visible from the outside. Like a primitive forest expanding its territory, the soft bodied creature grew into a forest of fleshy columns. On these columns were many purplish ck clumps. It was from these clumps that purple gas was released.

    This was such a otherworldly spectacle that even the Sang Tribe members with their numerous encounters with all kinds of animals were dumbfounded. They stared in amazement at the holographic screen.

    The mech pilot the Collision mech was lost in the moment for a while, before quickly snapping back to attention. He flew the mech carefully, creeping up to the rapidly expanding soft bodied creature.

    The soft bodied creature was so huge that the spaces between the irregrly growing columns was enough to let the Collision mech pass.

    The mech pilot hesitated for a moment, before choosing one of therger spaces to pass through.

    It was like entering a forest. The flesh columns extended here and there like vines and branches in an irregr pattern. The Collision mech had to slow down even more to avoid the unevenly thick columns.

    As he flew further in, the flesh columns became thicker and thicker.

    The mech pilot flew well, dodging all the obstacles as he maneuvered his Collision mech onwards without dy.

    Ye Chong estimated his speed to be at about Mach 7.

    After two minutes of uneventful flight, the only thing that changed was the thickening of the surrounding soft bodied columns. However, this made the spaces between the columns wider, allowing the Collision mech smoother passage.

    Suddenly, the annoying purple gas cloud disappeared, and the view cleared up.

 Chapter 449 - Inevitable War! VII

    <h4>Chapter 449: Inevitable War! VII</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    What they saw was a whole jungle of purple fleshy columns, criss-crossing one another. It was like entering the human body, watching the blood vessels in the human system.

    On the holographic screen, the mech pilot tried to use his holographic scanner, but to no avail. In the end, he switched back to optics. However, without the purple gas cloud obscuring the view, he could see a lot clearer here.

    The purple fleshy columns here were much thicker than the ones they had seen earlier. The spaces between them were alsorger, allowing the mech to fly more easily across.

    Huh, what''s that?

    On the holographic screen, they saw manyrge vesicles protruding from the purple flesh columns. These vesicles hung from the columns, enveloped in ayer of semi-transparent skin. Something seemed to move inside. Through the semi-transparent barrier, one could see that the ck threads inside the purple columns all converged in the vesicle, ultimately connected to the creature that rested inside.

    The mech pilot braced himself and ramped up the intensity of his sodiummp. The light was offensively bright, and lit up arger area around the mech. However, what it revealed shocked the people who were now intently watching the recording. Just as themp turned brighter, one could see the vesicles growing all over the purple columns. It was eerie sight.

    The Collision mech carefully approached one of the vesicles. Everyone in the meeting room leaned forward unconsciously as they watched the holographic screen with undivided attention. They were all curious about the vesicles, eager to know what was inside.

    The mech pilot was very skilled. He approached a very huge column, and kept his mech suspended without moving around.

    The sodiummp''s bright light shone onto the nearest vesicle, illuminating its every detail.

    Within the semi-transparent envelope was a crystalline fluid. Thin, ck threads connected to the creature thaty curled up inside. The threads seemed to be suspended in some kind of liquid. The creature inside was the kind that they saw earlier, the strong ones.

    The creaturey peacefully inside the vesicle with its eyes closed, with no traces of the violence and menace that it showed earlier.

    However, this ck colored creature was slowly changing. Its exposed tail was slowly turning red.

    "Heavens! It''s evolving!" Someone in the meeting room cried out.

    At that moment, the creature inside the vesicle opened its eyes without warning. Its maroon red eyes gleamed coldly under the sodiummp''s illumination.

    The mech pilot was surprised. However, before he could react, it was already toote. The holographic screen''s view turned into static. It wasn''t hard to figure out that the mech pilot was attacked. The attacker must be the unknown lifeform. Some of them could even make out the moment when the creature burst out of its vesicle.

    "Is it evolving?" Ye Chong asked Mu.

    "Calctions indicate that the probability for that is at 72 percent," Mu presented his opinion.

    72 percent. That was a very high probability,ing from Mu. Ye Chong thought over the situation. He could see the vesicles popping out all over the purple columns just now. If every vesicle contained one of those creatures ¡­ That was a line of thought that Ye Chong could not follow.

    Basically, from the battle earlier, Ye Chong could discern that the unknown lifeforms were just as strong as Collision mechs when in battle.

    "Mu, do you have any suggestions?" Ye Chong asked.

    "It will have to be up to you. There is not enough information for me to make a reliable rmendation." Ye Chong felt helpless with Mu''s reply.

    Time passed, minute by minute. The meeting room was silent. The people inside had long stopped discussing, and were now looking to Ye Chong.

    Indeed, as Mu said, they had too little information to work on. However, Ye Chong was weighed down by the decision he was contemting. If the creatures were really still evolving, then it would be a good opportunity for all of them.

    However, that was only a conjecture. What if they were not evolving? Even if they were, could they still fight while evolving? What if they had finished evolving?

    The thought made Ye Chong shiver inside. Those numerous vesicles must number more than five thousand. If all the creatures inside them hadpleted their evolution, they would be a threat of apocalyptic proportions for Yi Ju. The five thousand mech pilots of the Sang Tribe would not win against these creatures.

    Yes. If that''s the case, why not make his gamble now?

    Ye Chong was extremely opposed to making gambles in his decision making process, since it was an unreliable methodology. He was more used to arriving at a decision after careful calctions. However, the current situation had forced his hand. He knew too little about these mysterious creatures, and Ye Chong believed that he knew more about the creatures than anyone else in the meeting room. However, whatever more he knew would not make a difference.

    Ye Chong gritted his teeth and gave his order, "Allbatants, prepare for war." If they do nothing now, they could only wait for the inevitable worst oue. Ye Chong understood this much, at least.

    "To think that I''lle to rely on luck," Ye Chongughed mockingly at himself inside.

    Everyone in the meeting room acknowledged the order. The battle hungry Sang Tribe was already eager to move out and fight. Everyone in the meeting room turned excited at once. Even Sang Pu looked flushed with anticipation.

    "Ye, your decision is very dangerous," Mu spoke up after a long moment of silence.

    "It''s the only way," Ye Chong smiled bitterly and said. "Mu, do I have any other choice?" From the beginning, Ye Chong had thought that they were at most two kinds of creatures - the mollusc bristleworms and crustdes. He never expected to discover even stronger enemies. Now, even escaping would be difficult. The purple gas cloud was expanding rapidly. Besides, considering their abilities to evolve, those mysterious creatures would definitely be stronger and stronger! There were seven areas with spatial instability across the entire He Yue Gxy. Perhaps the day wille that Ye Chong and group will no longer stand a chance against the creatures. Ye Chong had never thought about fighting for world peace, but he believed that if they do not stop the creatures now, they would soon lose their homes to the enemy.

    After going through all the trials and tribtions, Ye Chong had gained experience and perspective. No longer was he the little boy who only knew to run away.

    "Based on avable information, calctions indicate that this is the best decision." Mu''s assessment gave Ye Chong confidence. "It''s too bad that the creatures seemed to be immune to energy weapons, or I would have been able to help out." Mu''s words brought a warm sensation in Ye Chong.

    "Mu, don''t worry. Oh, right, how''s Shang doing recently? I haven''t seen him in awhile."

    "He is doing some self recalibrations, it will take about three weeks."

    Five thousand Collision mechs gathered at a point 300 kilometers away from the purple gas cloud.

    Ye Chong''s order was simple - destroy! Destroy everything inside! Destroy the flesh columns, the vesicles, and anything new they find inside. Images of the purple columns and vesicles had been transmitted to every mech of the Sang Tribe.

    The five thousand Collision mechs were organized into fivebat units. Since Collision mechs required arger space to battle effectively, it would not do to have too many mechs together.

    The fivebat units elerated along the edge of the purple gas cloud. Every mech switched on its front sodiummps, lighting up their way forward. Seen from afar, they look like fireflies flying in the dark starry skies in outer space, circling the purple gas cloud.

    Aside from the fivebat units, there was another smaller, inconspicuous unit that consisted of 100 Collision mechs. These Collision mechs surrounded a mech in the center. The tiny and beautiful humanoid mech in the center stood out amongst the Collision mechs.

    Yi Ju''s movements drew the attention of the frontline reporter immediately, and the interest of every viewer around the Gxy. They had just seen the power of these strange flying vessels a moment ago. To them, the strange flying vessels were even stronger than the mechs produced by the Three Aristocratic Families. Many envied at the chance tomand two thousand mechs like these.

    However, when another three thousand of them went airborne, the people watched with dropped jaws. This mysterious force was bing more and more of an enigma for the viewers.

    From the looks of it, arge scale war was about to happen.

    Just when the audience was glued to the holographic screen, the news channel feed switched, the war in the outer space reced by a reporter with a grim face.

    "Dear audience! Apologies for interrupting you all. I have some unfortunate news to share with you. The news that we received earlier has just been confirmed. Regarding the ident that happened on the famous Hyperbolic Flight Route, more than 39 starships are confirmed missing. The number of missing people is unknown, but estimated to be no less than five thousand.

    "Our reporters have arrived at the scene. This is direct feed from them."

    The image switched again, and the people watched as a purple gas cloud materialized on the screen, simr to the one they had just seen.

    "Ahh!" Many cried out in shock.

    The reported spoke grimly, "This mysterious purple gas cloud is very simr to the one we found at Yi Ju. Our guess is they are exactly the same. RIght now, it is expanding very quickly. For now, we have not seen any of the mysterious lifeforms that came out of the purple gas cloud like at Yi Ju ¡­"

    Before the reporter could finish, a sharp cry from one of the reporters on the scene was heard. On the holographic screen, arge wave of the unknown lifeforms emerged from the purple gas cloud, their presence looming over like a huge cloud as they flew towards the reporter''s starship.

 Chapter 450 - Just a M.E.S.S

    <h4>Chapter 450: Just a M.E.S.S</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    ¡­(The Gray Valley)¡­

    Bei Guang, Arwa and Hua were sitting right at the opposite of Xiao Wan, formally. Their expressions were grim, even Hua, the usual joker of the team, had be steadier than before. The moment thedy summoned them they felt truly bewildered, as it was in the middle of the night - 4.40am to be exact.

    It was Xiao Wan who shattered the silence of the witching hour, "We have just received an update from our intelligence. At 7.14pmst night, the destabilized singrity at the site of Koure Mech Squad had been detected with instances of anomaly. At 9.30pm, the squad had sent men to investigate where none of them survived. 2 hourster, the area of these purple gases had taken the entire base, during which they faced an immediate invasion. And all surrounding forces had received frequent distress signals from the squad."

    And there was no more.

    The three men flinched upon the statement of thedy. It had been an unwritten rule for all forces to avoid sending out distress signals to others till critical situation. Clearly there was indeed something that night, that caused that demise of a great squad.

    Was everyone wiped out that night at the site?

    Thought the three of them, while exchanging frightful nces with each other. They were pretty close with Koure. They recognized the hard work the squad had undergone to even get into the ranking. Koure might not be apetent squadpared to them, but obviously one unknown force which possessed the capability to eradicate Koure could eradicate them as well.

    "How is the squad at the moment? Has the culprit been identified?" asked Bei Guang. They were shocked by the incident, yet their posture remained undisturbed.

    "¡­ I do not know¡­," muttered Xiao Wan. "But we did not receive anymore updates from them¡­ since 4 hours ago¡­"

    That was an evident statement to their demise.

    The three men looked more frightful than before.

    Xiao Wan was not looking good either as she borated, "All surrounding forces had sent their aids, striving to find at least a survivor from the squad. But, to be honest, we knew nothing from there so far, nothing at all. Regarding the culprit of the invasion this time, we should be receiving an update this noon, probably¡­"

    "Which force did that I wonder¡­," mumbled Hua. "What should we do now?"

    Xiao Wan looked at Arwa, "How do you think, Arwa?"

    Arwa gave the question a serious ponder. He might have a in look of one from the vige, but immense wisdom could be perceived in his eyes. A moment of silence passed and Arwa raised his head, "The situation is unclear at the moment. We could only prepare for the worst. I believe, by 6 o'' clock tonight, we should have identified the culprit. It would not be toote when we make the necessary adjustments by then."

    "What about both of you?" said Xiao Wan, her eyes on the rest.

    "Well, we could only do that for now, it seems¡­," said Bei Guang helplessly. To be frank, what Arwa had suggested was truly the sole thing the group could conduct. They were the minority after all, unlike the great aristocrats who probably had sent off their military forces, crying for war on such situation. Moreover, any other drastic measures could force them out into the light, that would be bad.

    "Very well¡­," nodded Xiao Wan. "We''ll observe at the moment, while preparing for the worst. Keep an eye on the situation." Xiao Wan was feeling agitated of the confusing situation. Well, Gray Valley had never been orderly in the eyes of folks, but somehow there were marks of specific unwritten rules wavering in the area, which only natives like Xiao Wan would know.

    And at this point, Xiao Wan somehow felt that these hidden rules which had existed over centuries at Gray Valley would face their demolishment soon¡­

    It was just her gut feeling that had been rumbling for days.

    The three men exchanged one final nce, before they left the room.

    Xiao Wan seemed to have deted, literally the moment the three men left the ce. All the strength she had mustered seemingly escaped through her breath after the conversation. Shepletely slumped on the chair the next 5 minutes. The irritation pulsed in her soul, growing, as she got up and booted the projector in the room.

    "We are now streaming thetest update of¡­"

    That was when Xiao Wan''s pupils shrunk to the extreme, as she zapped from her slumber with her back straightened.

    ¡­ (At Ye family)¡­

    The core members of Ye family stared upon the projection. There was the leader himself, the strategists named Ye Juxing and Ye Guangxing as well as the top pilot Ye Yin who stood right behind the three of them. They looked indifferent, an expression frozen solid of devastating grimness. Ye Luo was also there and apparently was at the other end of the extreme on his expression. He was fairly expressive, biting his teeth, cursing out loud and his father, the strict leader of the family, did not lecture upon his misbehavior for some reason.

    It was a major battle.

    Ye family had summoned an astronomical force for the operation this time.

    There were warships, a whooping 300 of them. And that was only the 1/3 of the entire Ye force in He Yue gxy, which consisted 1000 units.

    Warship had always been an rming sign for residents of all gxies. Be it the 5 major gxies or He Yue gxy, the aristocrats could only craft their units behind the curtain.

    Ye family was generally defenseless in this war as theycked the ranged force necessary against the foe, most of their mechs were melee models so they needed to draw out whatever they can fire at the foes, especially after that encounter at previous war. The cannons of their warships were certainly formidable and could be considered as the design suitable on small crowd-control, crowd of those monsters for example.

    The reality was not as simple as they imagined however. They were going to face unknown creatures emerging from the fearsome purple mists due to a destabilized anomaly. It was not going to be like a in day at a pest-controlpany during their fight against crustdes and bristleworms.

    The firepower formed by 300 warship units did not hold those ferocious monstrosities long, as Ye family was clearly outnumbered while the family was facing a much more agile, fearless mob than before.

    Eventually Ye family could only bring out their army of mechs, as an attempt to regain control of the situation.

    A war of fist-against-fist would always be a closebat, that a punch could cost a wound on oneself, even for the experts like those of Ye family. The war field was then transformed into a ughterhouse. The authority was tearing in silence as they witnessed their apprentices heading for the inevitable death, like the moth to the me. It was an irony as they were reminded of the early 10 to 20 years they trained these new blood.

    The apprentices had demonstrated great discipline as they fought bravely against the unknown lifeforms from the alternate dimension. They attempted holding back the monsters with their guard at their best. The 8 mech squads of Ye family were slowly engulfed by the waves.

    8000 mechs guarded the iing blows of these monsters from one wave to another. The 300 warship units had never held their fire since then. But there were too many casualties, the authority of Ye family was being driven up to the wall. 3 mech squads had beenpletely engulfed in less than 30 minutes. The figure was ticking fast that they had lost count somehow.

    The destabilization urred right in the territory of Ye family, so there was nowhere for the family to run. They could only fight at best. In no time 2/3 of Ye family''s force in He Yue gxy had been summoned there.

    That was only the beginning however¡­

    ¡­(At Xue Lai n)¡­

    They were fighting, they were fighting with all their might.

    But, unlike Ye family, the Xue Lai n was at an upper hand in the war.

    A team of total 15000 units, consisted of all models in the n, had swarmed upon the destabilized area. They were calm bracing for the war.

    The firepower of Xue Lai n had engulfed the wave of monsters instead.

    It felt easy peasy as they saw the carcasses hovering in space.

    ¡­till they saw one anomaly they failed to notice at first.

    Logically, if there was nothing in the purple mist, the beams should travel through the gaseous entity effortlessly. But¡­ somehow, the beams were not passing, something seemed to be holding all the iing beams inside the mist.

    The purple mist was expanding rapidly.

    That was when Xue Lai n felt the stress. They quickly summoned about 500 units into the mist yet none of those had returned. They had been bombarded the purple mist with all their weaponry for thest 30 minutes, nothing had happened nevertheless.

    And somehow, the more they fired, the quicker the mist spread¡­

    "Hold your fire!"

    They eventually had to pause and watch.

    ¡­(At Xi Feng tribe)¡­

    The Xi Feng tribe was probably the real tragic one among the aristocrats, as their territory sat right between two spatial anomalies.

    The leader of the tribe was looking pale, paler than those men behind.

    There were far more casualties in the Xi Feng tribe, at least more than what the tribe had expected. They could do nothing other than seeing theirpatriots exploding in the voidness of the space.

    As they were being sandwiched, the mechs at frontline were literally halved to handle iing attacks of both sides, leading to an insufficient firepower.

    The monsters broke through their firewall easily and their ws had led a dramatic increase in the number of casualties.

    Explosions and cries were head from the transmission of all men. The ring light of their mates blowing up shone upon their stumbled expression.

    What¡­ what are they¡­

 Chapter 451 - A Sneak to the Mist

    <h4>Chapter 451: A Sneak to the Mist</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Fei Si, mydy, here are the carcasses of other creatures in the field. Hope to hear your impable analysis soon," said Sang Jing courteously with a bow towards Fei Si.

    Fei Si first took a look at this fine-looking young man, then the pile of carcasses behind. "Alright, take them in," she nodded and muttered numbly.

    Sang Qing ordered his men to move all the dead unidentified creatures that they had obtained from the frontline to Fei Si''sb. Fei Si was the expert of virology and she was provided with a well-facilitatedboratory under Mu''s advice. It was not a spaciousboratory but it was certainly equipped with the most advanced models thanks to Mu/Shang.

    Ye Chong would sometimes carry out a few alchemy experiments inside theb but theb had be Fei Si''s home ever since she got the key. She had be the top virologist on Yi Ju and had been spending the time on studying the content of the few microchips Ye Chong gave her back then.

    The Sangs were utterly stupefied by the advanced technologies ced in theb. They had been staying in Archipgo, away from the avant-garde decade for long, so they could not help but to show tremendous respect towards any knowledgeable figure like Fei Si.

    "ce all of them here," said Fei Si, pointing at the vacuum container.

    "Yes, ma''am." The Sangs then hurriedly ced all the dead creatures into the container. Well if the carcasses still qualified as "creatures" visually, that is. Most of the carcasses arrived dismembered as the result of thestser mass fire. Sang Qing, the experienced fighter, also could not help but to draw his breath the moment he saw the pile which defined the intensity of the frontline.

    "Alright, you may leave now," muttered Fei Si as she began investigating the minced fleshes in the container.

    Sang Qing exchanged nces with his men, "Yes mydy." And they left, with Sang Qing gently closing up the doorst.

    The moment Fei Si heard the door closing, she lifted her head, with her eyes looking a little dazed.

    She then quickly regained herself and gave a sigh, as she fiddled with the body parts.

    Her brows furrowed very soon after. She knew the carcasses had been dismembered into an indistinguishable state, yet she could simply tell the variety of creatures involved in the pile. At one nce this far, she could already identify at least 11 different types of creatures.

    Most of these creatures had a dark purplish skin¡­ with another simrity - they all had metallic glow. She took out theser dagger, sliced one piece of the skin and ced in her hand for close inspection. Fei Si was feeling fascinated as no way she would have been convinced that it was ayer of epidermal tissue if she was not the one who sliced the piece off herself. It simply felt like a piece of metal. The texture felt like a piece of dark purplish metal film somehow¡­

    Fei Si carefully put the piece into the processor. It took a while for her to ponder the correct setting on the analysis mechanism. Well, she had never seen the creature before, only pure instinct of experience could guide her a little.

    And here came the report.

    There was one particr section that caught Fei Si''splete attention. The skin actually consisted of metallicponent, up to 40%! And theponent was new to Fei Si, she could only name it as a type of metallicponent of a particr organism.

    She then extracted more pieces from the limbs of the other animals, which appeared to be distinct from each other. The conclusion? It intrigued her a lot. All these pieces consisted of at least 40% metallicponent.

    These were probably the animal with tissues of the highest amount of metallicponent she had ever seen. She then picked up a few strands of muscr structures for analysis. The report showed that the muscles also contained a higher amount of metallicponent than most identified lifeforms in the world, the skin still had a far higher amount nevertheless.

    Hmmm, these lifeforms apparently had strong reliance on metallicponents.

    That was Fei Si''s first conclusion.

    "Oh, look at the time." It was already time to eat. She was so indulged in her research that she had lost the sense of time.

    Even though it was mealtime, she would remain in herb, which as if became her dining room. One of the storage in theb had been renovated into her own kitchen, while the ingredients would be sent by the people ording to the schedule.

    As she was going to have her meal, at one nce she caught an anomaly in a transparent container that caused her to have goosebumps. She held her steps, as her eyes disbelievingly fixed upon the vacuum container.

    "W¡­what is that¡­?"

    ¡­(Meanwhile at the outside)¡­

    The purple mist reached its surrounding wildly, and it grew into an uncontroble size in no time which thousand mechs looked pea-sized upon it. Sang Pu nced at his mates around him, the voidness of the space somehow bewitched him, reminding him of the scenery back in Archipgo and the Red Sea, the beast stampede phenomena and darkness.

    Sang Pu was a little bewildered of his thoughts. Those were distractions he supposed, as he took a deep breath and kept focused, with his voice rang profoundly, "Charge!"

    5000 Collisions were in battle position, as they tumbled their ways towards the growing purple mist.

    It would need no caution if it was destruction they aimed in the first ce. All units had been elerated to the maximum, with their sodiummps at the front switched on at once, forming steam of shooting stars into the purplish entity.

    "Attack!" In the meantime, Ye Chong had also prompted hisbat order.

    100 Collision units had built a diagonal formation with Han Jia at the center as they charged towards the purple mist.

    Entry seeded, but Ye Chong realized something. The misty region was a challenging environment to fight. Allmunication channels were down, the mens'' rapport was solely their channel while only the light beams could converse the mens'' thoughts. And Ye Chong had aced none of those.

    Mollusks¡­ there were mollusks everywhere, forming a jungle as if when Ye Chong made his venture. A jungle of mollusks veiled by purple mist.

    It was a sad development when Ye Chong realized there was no more glow around him.

    He had lost the 100 alliance units.

    Unlike the Red Sea, this ce was moreplicated with the lower visibility, even Sangs were facing issues on putting all men under the supposed rapport.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong did mention one simple goal of their run - destruction, utter destruction.

    Whenever they encountered these mollusks, they would charge without hesitation as long as these strands did not look oversized to them. In no time, the mollusks would squirt a kind of fluid as somehow they lost their firm texture. So the Sangs rolled on, raising the des of Collision and sliced through everything.

    It was simple to fight the thinner strands - just roll, no technique. Regarding the thicker ones, they would give a careful slide across the edge of the strand, to cause leakage through the cut on its body which would eject moisture, turning into aid, withered dark purplish film. Ye Chong joined the scene muchter, so he saw all these films hovering in space.

    Well, Ye Chong was feeling an easier time without the theatrical formation by his men. Han Jia was enjoying a quick glide in the sea.

    It was hard to tell directions in the mist. Ye Chong could only know friends or foes by themps. He did not employ that tactic anyway. Han Jia would just travel silently in the dark.

    He was well-aware of the insignificance of one or two mechs in this operation. And he was also very much informed of his incapability of giving impromptumands. It was a salvation for him to not lead the operation this time or he could imagine a total mess when he mademands in such aplex surrounding.

    Intuitively he was still a lone wolf. Ventured into the purple mist, he had his own aim, that would be, to find the leader of these strange creatures! He reminisced the time he fought in the pathway back then. The bristleworm he struck in the end must be the leader, the queen of all bristleworms. Applying that premise, there must be also a queen somewhere here.

    "Mu, have you found anything?" whispered Ye Chong as his eyes were glued upon the visual.

    "This is a very peculiar group of creatures. No rted resources could be identified in my databank," stated Mu calmly.

    A sh then lustered in Ye Chong''s visual, which shocked him to make a drastic evasion.

    It was one of the Collisions, which slid by Han Jia.

    No, it was not an ident of ipetent piloting.

    The pilot of the Collision had been attacked!

    Ye Chong could see it, a giant scratch across the entire body of Collision, passing by the cabin. Ye Chong could also discern the ssh of blood in the purple mist. The pilot was a goner.

    And there must already be a conflict ahead!

    Han Jia was given themand to elerate, as it zoomed ahead.

 Chapter 452 - Deep into the Mist

    <h4>Chapter 452: Deep into the Mist</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The path started clearing up as Han Jia dived into the core of the region. As shown in the visual before, the center was unaffected by the veiling spell of the purple gases.

    But that was also when Ye Chong found out the intensity of the conflict!

    Although theirmunicative channel had been disabled, the Sangs were uninfluenced by the situation. To the Sangs, they had already fought in worse battles before.

    The unexpected catch was, the number of these red-tailed creatures were far more conquering than what Ye Chong saw in the visual.

    "Mu, can your detection system work here?"

    "Negative, Ye. There has been a heavy electromaic interference here. It''s a regret I could not provide you with the assistance you probably need for real." Mu''s cold tone did not sound regretful at all!

    Well, it was not like Ye Chong expected any visible assistance from this machine.

    The nk zone in the purple mist was far more spacious than he imagined. It was so spacious that it could run a pinball tform for all Collision units.

    The red-tailed creatures with pointed head were everywhere as they lunged themselves at the Collisions. It was a more astounding scene than the beast stampede before. Yes, the flood of monstrosity in the beast stampede phenomena before was clearly muchrger, but Ye Chong could at least see the technologies triumphing over the wild, unlike this time¡­ where both Collisions and the red-tailed creatures held simr strength. It always took a few intensive struggles before one would let go the other.

    The casualties this time¡­

    Ye Chong refused to imagine it, his heart grew colder as he watched.

    The unknown creatures were too strong! They might be slower than Collisions, but they were way more agile in terms of making turns, which remedied their weakness of speed. Furthermore, their tails were one formidable weapon they could pull. The spike at the tip was sharp, so sharp that it could cause critical damages on Collision. The shell on top of the creature''s back was fairly sturdy, that even the des of Collision would shatter upon contact.

    And they seemed invulnerable againstpressive explosives too!

    Ye Chong once thought he knew a lot as the teacher, but he found the urrence iprehensible. The casualty would only increase at this rate. Ye Chong pondered, his grave eyes stared at the field.

    The Sangs soon took a different strategy. They held their explosives and withdrew themselves from thrashing with the unknown creature. They reformed their army into severals all teams with about 10 units each. In battle stance they charged at high speed, not towards any of the creature, but merely towards the front.

    The situation changed?

    Hundreds of groups threw themselves like the dancing knives in the ck zone, forming another ughterhouse, a familiar sight to Ye Chong. Even without anymunicative measures, the rapport had once again united the Sangs, no actual collision urred between them.

    The attack was dense, the team was highly organized, the action was rapid.

    Collisions were strong at their greatest momentum. The creatures had been surrounded as they lost the space to make any activity. With that they also lost the ability to create agile evasions. The Sangs seemed to be winning.

    Ye Chong was absolutely amazed by Sang Pu''s talented charisma and the discipline of the Sangs even in the worst scenario. They always managed to create miracles with their unity.

    They were born for war! They were born to fight!

    Ye Chong did not stay for too long, as he proceeded with his infiltration n.

    Obviously the teacher was always that solemn, shining figure among the Sangs, even in the battlefield. The teacher''s Han Jia never once left his sight of the chaotic battlefield. Ye Chong was fist and kick ready for those unknown creatures'' attack, yet they always got crashed away by one giant flock of Collisions whenever the creatures tried jumping at Ye Chong. Before one of the creatures couldunch its deadly sting, it had already been shredded into countless pieces after the swarm of Collisions left. It was basically a chain reaction during which the Sangs would attack, spot danger on teacher, protect the teacher, charge, flood, confirm target neutralized and head back into position.

    Thanks to the highlypetent Sangs, Ye Chong''s hands seemed to have never touched any of those unidentifiable creatures from the other world. Not even one, it was literally zero and did not feel like increasing.

    "Ye, you have seemingly be the burden of this war. Your existence has been deemed abundant as you have disrupted the flow of the entire warring system," stated Mu, who did not appear interested in saving Ye Chong''s face.

    Ye Chong whimpered, his jaws were quivering, "Mu, as expected from your insensibility."

    "I have only stated the ultimate truth. And an ultimate truth does not require sensibility."

    "Tch!" Ye Chong was displeased by the statement but somehow his heart felt warm.

    How long have I not spoken to Mu like this?

    Back in those days, it felt like a norm to have Mu teasing me all day and night. I thought my life would feel better without his bitter tongue around.

    Well, Mu is right on this. I *am* a burden here.

    Thought Ye Chong, as he looked at the thick mollusk on the way. He had an idea, as he piloted Han Jia, prompting a direction-change and a thrust towards the strand.

    The mollusks were much thicker here, which their diameter hit few kilometers. Ye Chong flew along one mollusk, only to spot a few giant tumors on the surface, in which the unknown creatures rested peacefully. Somehow Ye Chong had a strange idea that¡­ those creatures were in a kind of uterus¡­

    As Ye Chong ventured into the center, the strands grew thicker, darker as well, with the dark linings increased inside them. The strands entangled each other, like the few eldest woods in the forest. Such dense environment was not favorable for Collisions, so Ye Chong could no longer spot his allies around.

    At one point the giant strands had eventually conglomerated, forming a shield which isted the inside from the outside.

    Han Jia squeezed itself into the gap between the mollusks, it weaved in and out of the forest of mollusks as it ventured deeper.

    Ye Chong felt he had arrived at one gigantic tree hole somehow¡­ as darkness engulfed him. It felt like another world, where nothing from the outside could reach, not even lights, not even the sound of the void. Ye Chong was on high alert as he turned on the lights.

    Han Jia advanced with the two beams of light carefully.

    A few times the camera turned at the mollusks around and Ye Chong could already discern the decreased number of tumors on the strand bodies. The mollusks outside were like branches fully bore with fruits, yet the mollusks at the interior had hardly a few of these "fruits". It was strange, but Ye Chong would not let down his guard just yet, as he noticed one particr thing in the silence.

    There were fewer tumors, but the creatures slumbering inside were glowing in sharp crimson tails, far brighter than the pale reddish of the tails Ye Chong had seen at the outside. From Ye Chong''s experience, would that mean the redder the tail, the stronger such creature is? Ye Chong subconsciously nodded at that, as he presumed these unawakened beasts to be the greater beings in their kind.

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong began destroying these potentially greater threats in the darkness.

    Han Jia''s wings spread into 12 spiky tentacles andunched themselves at the tumors. Unlike the rmed beasts out there, these beasts were more fragile while being unable to sense anything in their sleep. It only took a gentle poke at the tumor, then ejection of liquid would urred, in no time the shell and the skin of the unknown beast would turn tainted.

    It only would take a few more hours¡­ or a few more minutes pessimistically before the weakest beasts waking up into the strongest few in their kind perhaps.

    That was Ye Chong''s thought as he continued destroyed these unripe blobs, expressionlessly. It might be cruel but both Ye Chong and Mu probably would consider this appropriate. It was the safest countermeasure to the brewing danger after all.

    "Mu, do you see any connection with the monster we encountered at the underground back then?" said Ye Chong as his hands danced upon the control panel.

    ¡­

    "Probably¡­" It took a while for Mu to give a figure, "At a chance of 81 to 85%."

    Exactly. Thought Ye Chong. Wise people do think alike, that was exactly his thought that there should be a connection between both creatures.

    Han Jia went deeper.

    "Wait¡­," whispered Ye Chong as he felt something odd.

    The deeper he travelled, the lesser the tumors on the strands, while the redder the tail turned, the stronger the beast could be¡­ if that was the case¡­ assuming quality was taking over quantity¡­

    He looked at the surroundings, the tumors had reached a minimal amount. As he flew about 1 kilometer deeper, he finally found another tumor. But that tumor¡­ the color of its tail was giving him a quick heart attack.

    Ye Chong immediately broke the tumor and killed the glowing crimson on its tail. No drama, a quick sessful blow. It was then Ye Chong felt relieved and continued traveling.

    But then theter journey only drained more colors on his face.

    He zigzagged through the strands and had already lost count of the distance he travelled. But roughly¡­ he reckoned he had travelled a distance about 10 kilometers away from that giant tumor just now.

    That was the frightening part - he had never encountered a single tumor in the past 10 kilometer course.

    It was indeed an anomaly which stressed him up the wall. What could be there ahead? At such circumstance it would be either the queen or the wormhole to another dimension. That would be one thing he was very much certain of, he was in fact traveling towards the core of the area.

    The diameter of these mollusks had reached a length which Ye Chong could not estimate at nces, even those dark, vein-looking linings were broader than before. There were strange glowing fluid flowing inside them.

    It almost felt like Ye Chong had taken a trip from one bloodstream towards the artery near a pumping heart.

    The fluid inside the linings was making rhythmic movements towards a single direction, working exactly like the pulses.

    Ye Chong looked upon the ce where the linings could no longer be discerned far ahead. His eyes slightly shut as he inhaled deeply and made a dramatic exhtion. The calming respiration was carried out for a few cycles before he sprung his eyes open.

    He pulled the lever and Han Jia zoomed towards the darkness ahead.

 Chapter 453 - The Opened Eyes under the Light

    <h4>Chapter 453: The Opened Eyes under the Light</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Fei Si, with her body lowered, was carefully rotating that piece of flesh she tore down from the unknown creature. Something had urred at the fresh cut she made just now. There was supposed to be a dent at where she made the sh but at her second nce, the dent had been filled with a newyer of muscle, of a darker color than the other remaining tissues in the body, had been generated.

    Wait, does this mean that the creature possess the ability of regeneration? Wait¡­ never mind.

    Fei Si gave it a thought at first, but she turned her own hypothesis down very soon after. It was not rare to see a biological entity having the ability of quick regeneration, but entities with such ability would never "regenerate" themselves in such a strange manner.

    Then what is it?

    Fei Si''s heart was inted by an immense curiosity, that hunger had been long forgotten.

    She inched towards the filled lump and extracted a bit of it for analysis. The analyzing facility in herboratory could help! It was the top-notch model after all, with a top-notch price of course, and a top-notch customer service which would require the buyer to order it 2 years in advanced. She seriously wondered how Mu/Shang just took it out for her like magic, as it was notmon even in most well-established research institutes.

    And this piece of fine technology was one of the reasons why Fei Si had lost herself in research. She was not assigned in a grandboratory, but the facilities were the luxury, the finest which every piece of them had appeared in her dreams at least once or twice.

    Apparatuses were the bed of rose in heart of all researchers. They would seek the ultimate as maniacally as how pilots would seek the best mech in the world.

    "Analysis: Complete." The result had been generated. The notification was sending her a bit of sentiments, as she remembered those days she would have to camp at theboratory three days just to wait for a hologram of report.

    The report was a projection of a three-dimensional curve diagram, which looked like a box of yarn balls as strands of different color intertwined each other, the machine simply had a lot to tell judging from the curves alone.

    It was not hard to get a report, anyone who knew how to input data could generate a report just fine. The hard part was, to make sense of these messy-looking influx of information, it all depended on the experience as well as the capability of a researcher.

    Fei Si was very experienced of this. She just took a sit as her eyes searched through the running curves through the y-axis. Her major was microbiology and she got a very good teacher to provide her the necessary foundation. She also had an intensive tuition with the chips Ye Chong obtained from the underground base. So she was pretty much the best one could find in the gxy.

    A few microchips which looked like a lengthy textbook might be identified as trash for most people, but not for a microbiologist like Fei Si. To her, the chips were God''s gift. They contained all important information revolving about the working of the entire Gray Valley, illustrated with solid research data that touched the very core of microbiology, which were precious and probably required countless lives topile.

    These chips contained the blood and sweat of people, literally. The information was built in the darkness of humanity. These experiments had always been carried unaware by the mankind, as simply they had gone against the norms of society, be it byw or morally. If it was not Ye Chong, Fei Si might never be able to learn from the dark. Judging from the folders, Fei Si believed the researchers were carrying out experiments on biological modification using virus. And because of these data, Fei Si''s understanding towards biology was no longer limited to microorganism alone.

    The diagram was a realplication but Fei Si would take on that challenge passionately, as she knew deep in her heart, that only advanced lifeforms would draw such colorful beauty with seemingly endless properties. She could already conclude that these organisms had undergone several evolution at one nce.

    She quickly prompted the three-dimensional line diagram she created based on the piece of flesh before forparison. She believed she would be seeing an interesting difference somewhere between both charts¡­ Once she had located the difference, she would be able to identify the concept of how such phenomena happened.

    She looked across from one curve to another attentively.

    And that was when her ncended upon one crimson curve. Her heart raced! Fei Si somehow felt difficulty in her respiration because of her excitement. "Is it the one¡­," she whispered as she turned her head to the other diagram for verification.

    Yes, it is!

    "Ah!" She could not help but to make a scream.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Ye Chong was traveling along the bloodstreams. The gentle glow in the ck linings was guiding his way towards the one destination he fought hard for.

    Han Jia was taking caution as it glided ording to the flow of the fluid, while its pilot was peering at the way ahead illuminated by the two giantmps.

    The lights of sodiummp were surely pretty limited in terms of visible range. And thanks to this forest of mollusks, detection system was deemed trash, not even photon mode could help visualizing the surrounding. Ye Chong could imagine himself toasted if he ever encountered raids from any entity in such environment .

    But he did not have many options in hand. He could go ahead, that was the only thing he could do, simply because he no longer remember the way out.

    It was another travel of a distance about 10 kilometers, which felt forever as Han Jia was traveling at speed of a tortoise for all the caution it could muster. Ye Chong could see the bloodstreams, like river, were collecting intorger linings as he moved. The rhythm started to be more visible too.

    Eventually, at one point, Ye Chong was seeing a thick lining that looked like a ck rubber tube, which probably had a diameter of about 5 meter.

    He was right at his guts'' feeling. He began getting a little panicked.

    He gave his limbs a few stretches, with emphasis on his hands which would act as his sword and shield in this colosseum of scarlet woods. He got into the battle position as he somehow sensed a high intensity of danger!

    The same thicker linings had further collected themselves ahead.

    As Ye Chong travelled, he stopped by one pooling point where arge irregrly shaped lump could be found. The lump was more than 30 kilometers in diameter, literally looking like an aster. The lumps were covered fully in vine-like structures, on which a tumor could be found. The tumor was not particrly outstanding in terms of size but somehow Ye Chong could feel his heart thumping vigorously.

    The once-countless linings had collected themselves into thest 7 giant tubes, leading to this particr tumor. The fluid was pumped into the tumor from time to time, yet the content of the tumor did not seem to be moving at all.

    Obviously¡­ Ye Chong could be very confident that the thing inside the tumor would bring a disaster.

    The bright beams of Han Jianded upon the tumor. There was indeed an unknown creature resting inside. But the heart stopper for Ye Chong was, the tail of the creature was dim crimson. As Ye Chong shifted his nce above, one thing caught him.

    6¡­ the unknown creature had 6 toes on its foot!

    Ye Chong felt his throat itching as his breath intensified, cold sweats were dripping off his chin, his back was alsopletely wet.

    It was a gctic story, it was not strange to see a super evolved organism having an odd number of toes, but, the catch was, the feet somehow reminded Ye Chong of that giant hand which reached him from the dark disc back at the underground cave. The giant hand had 8 fingers and no way he would remember such a horrifying detail wrong.

    Furthermore, the minions out there were having only 5 toes each foot. Ye Chong knew it sounded very far-fetched as clearly both the hand underground and the red-tailed creatures were two entirely different species but¡­ this little simrity and what he was seeing at the moment were¡­

    Assuming there was a connection between the number of jointed parts on the limbs¡­

    "Ye, stop thinking!" Mu''s voice was no longer monotonous.

    One horrible assumption had appeared in Ye Chong''s mind.

    Ye Chong quickly got himself out of his mental schemata. The chilly back was reminding him the rumbling emotion in him just now.

    Mu was right. He might not be informed of the current biological condition of these creatures, but they should be harmless as long as they were inside the strange womb, judging from what he experienced on his way there of course.

    The beam of sodiummps were converged upon the tumor. Ye Chong had no more hesitation as he directed Han Jia to propel towards the tumor.

    Ye Chong could see every bit of the creature slumbering within the biological confinement. Its eyes were sealed tight, not affected by the light stimtion, like a baby it rested, and probably like a baby it would die!

    As Ye Chong flew towards the tumor, Ye Chong could see the details better, as his hands were ready above the control panel. The tentacles of Han Jia had been disengaged, and had raised themselves, prepared forunching.

    Now!

    Ye Chong''s hands disappeared above the control panel, as the afterimages rolled upon the interface. The 12 tentacles zapped towards the tumor.

    *blob*¡­

    *blob*¡­

    *Thup!*

    That was when the closed eyes were opened, revealing the dead red pupils rolling in peculiarity under the white light.

 Chapter 454 - Turnabout

    <h4>Chapter 454: Turnabout</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was dead silent in theboratory, that Fei Si could hear her hectic heartbeats. Her face was pale as her erged eyes peered at that one specific set of red curves among the messy lines on both diagrams. That one specific attribute illustrated in red curves, while having the same levels in the beginning, had diverged at one point of the y-axis.

    Fei Si''s eyes traced the line of deadly scarlet. Her heart was racing.

    The curve¡­ the diverging point was leading to¡­

    "It was an evolution¡­," muttered Fei Si.

    If Fei Si was the very expert of the other branch of biology, maybe she was making a wild guess and she would not be able to confidently address such baseless assumption. But the process of evolution was highlymon in her field of microbiology, which justified her extreme familiarity and sensitively on the specific characteristics of a typical evolution act illustrated on a line diagram. She wanted to prove herself wrong, knowing the iron rule of the world of biology, a species would always face a proportional increase in both difficulty and the time needed toplete the evolution cycle the higher the level of the said species was.

    Reality was quite the contrary however, it was indeed an evolution.

    Fei Si was pretty sure.

    Still, if it was really an evolution, all the fundamentals she had learned in biology would be flushed to ck hole. The species had produced an anomaly, which went totally against whatever she knew about evolution. "C-could it be¡­?" There was something else in her mind. Perhaps it was the unique attribute of such species. "But what is the trigger? What promotes their evolution?" mumbled Fei Si as her eyes rested upon the sample.

    ¡­(Meanwhile back to-

    Klink!

    Under the bright beams of sodiummps, a few sparks bloomed before Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong''s will sank a little upon seeing his barrage being blockedpletely. All 12 propelling tentacles crashed into something, causing the sparks in the crimson woods.

    It had been confirmed. This unidentified creature had a higher development than the minions outside. On top of its height about 12 meter, simr to Han Jia, its head rested as enveloped by a thick shell like a helmet of phylum, which made it different from itspatriots. The darkyers of shell were as if made out of ck gold alloy with its fancy gloss. Its red tail had been raised, pointing towards Han Jia. That was the creature''s efficient guard which ceased every iing attack of Han Jia just now.

    Both of them stood still.

    The opened eyes were cunning-slim, emotionless whenever the crimson pupils rolled from one corner to another. The beast was hovering soundlessly, observing the gesture of its intruder.

    Han Jia had already withdrawn its daggers from the sheath. Those were its royal knights, the impable, reliable arsenals on its team, which had never once disappointed it.

    Ye Chong raised his hands and-

    Dammit!

    Ye Chong''s pupils went wide like saucers.

    The unknown creature which was under the spotlight a moment ago, had vanished.

    His hands began storming upon the interface, prompting a forward thrust on Han Jia as it charged towards the vesicle rapidly. The camera behind beeped as captured imagery of a shing red at where Han Jia stood before. It was a close shave. The creature did make use of its speed. Ye Chong could feel the cold sweat rolling off his back.

    Han Jia was actually installed with photographic cameras at most directions which their angles would form an enclosed scope of vision, allowing Ye Chong to know whatever happened in the surrounding. It was smart but not practical enough, unlike the full hologram readings today, the photon mode vision had a lot of limitations, but it was still better than being utterly blind.

    He might have dodged the tail-whip, but that did not assure his safety, not just yet.

    Something had shed on one corner of the scope! Ye Chong was astonished as his hands danced again.

    Han Jia had a quick slide. The sh came by and Han Jia was not managed to dodge itpletely. Wham! Ye Chong lost his sense of bnce as he saw the interface tumbling before him. Clearly Han Jia had been struck!

    Such strength! Ye Chong was astonished. The blow just now was almost as vicious as a direct diving-kick from abat mech model.

    Ye Chong tried to respond but that was when he tumbled again. The hydraulic system did not relieve the impact either.

    The creature somehow reappeared right next to Han Jia just now. Ye Chong did execute a simple dodge but the tail was the hazard that sent Han Jia off crashing the vesicle like a shooting star.

    It was fortunate that Han Jia did not get hit by the tip of the creature''s tail or the spike would have caused Ye Chong some real trouble.

    Certainly the membrane of the vesicle could not withstand such momentum. Leakage urred as soon as Han Jia crashed and was engulfed by the cytosm.

    Ye Chong made a quick response by giving a firm press on the control panel the moment Han Jia was whammed. Han Jia, at the second getting enveloped by the vesicle, spread out its wings, making the drastic endeavor.

    Han Jia was losing momentum as Ye Chong saw before him a dark red lining swung, which sent him chills to his spine.

    Before the lining faded out, Ye Chong''s hands elerated again, to the maximum of his APM.

    Han Jia lowered its wings again, forming dynamic within the vesicle. With the thrust it created in the fluid, Han Jia turned on all engines and sped upwards!

    Han Jia broke the membrane sessfully!

    But the scarlet beast was hovering in the air, eyeing its prey breaking free.

    Ye Chong was having cold sweat, wondering thest time he got driven up to the corner like this. It was nerve-wrecking as he watched the hovering beast.

    The beast had agility, speed and a deadly weapon being its tail - the necessaryponents to build a killing machine. What made the beast more deadly was its night sight. It was unaffected by the darkness, unlike Ye Chong who moved around like a blind man within the limited vision illuminated by sodiummp. All detection systems were useless and Ye Chong felt he was fighting a losing fight.

    The surrounding was not doing him a favor at all!

    He got to be calm, be cool, be icy cool, there must be a solution somewhere.

    One opportunity to make that turnabout!

    He respirated deeply, as rhythmically his chest inted and deted like an ordion. The heat in his mind was eliminated and that was how his eyes turned crystal clear once again.

    Han Jia rested on the surface of the vesicle, with the twin daggers crossed before its chest.

    Ye Chong''s mind ran wild. He must get something done but he had no idea what to. Oddly the beast seemed undisturbed as its front legs crossed before its head. Ye Chong would want no more thrashing from the foe, he decided to make the strike first!

    Han Jia turned on its engines.

    Ye Chong''s only vision now would be the photon detection mode. Too bad he was notpetent and talented in being a mentalist or he could have foreseen the beast''s attack. But well, judging from the overwhelming velocity this beast could attain, probably only Huang Baiyi the hacking mentalist could make the necessary foresight before things happened. Still, Huang Baiyi would be a clumsy greenhorn in flicking the interface.

    ¡­

    Okay, enough idle thoughts. Those are not important.

    The beast is important, as well as my own life.

    What?

    The beast snickered as its silhouette vanished in the screen.

    Ye Chong brandished the sodiummps desperately, yet the beast acted faster than his lights.

    Ye Chong''s eyes scurried upon every camera projection, the beast had vanished into the darkness and no way he could perceive its movements in the dark.

    Streams of sweat rolled off Ye Chong''s forehead. Ye Chong seized his breath in intensity. The muscles on his face were twitching, guiding one stream of cold sweat into his eyes.

    Ugh.

    Ye Chong squinted his eyes as scorched by the salty uneasiness. His squinted eyes were forced open, yet his sight remained blurry. He dared not to move a muscle on his limbs, as his hands rooted themselves onto the interface. He red upon the projection, trying to see things.

    And that was when the projection at the right caught something shing by.

    Now!

    Adrenaline boiled within Ye Chong as his heart was pumped with agitation, screams of himself could be heard in his head. A deadly struggle as his APM had increased beyond limits, once again.

    Ye Chong would certainly be joyful of seeing another improvement in his speed, but maybe he might not have the life to taste it some other time.

    He must strike the beast!

    He must take the beast out!

    He must live!

    Han Jia took a strange step backwards as the dagger on its right shed upwards to one side of its rib.

    Klink!

    Ye Chong could hear the heavenly clinking as his eyes caught the sparks in the darkness.

    He did it!

    He did it!

    The left dagger thrusted upon the sparks.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong heard something, the microphone caught the sound of the ughterhouse. He had made the stab and it was real! The bit of blood on the dagger justified it!

    The beast had been wounded!

    The fact made Ye Chong excited, as he saw a shadowy figure flew towards the far in the tunnel of lights created by his sodiummps.

    The beast is running away!

    Han Jia chased the beast without hesitation.

    Ye Chong was pretty confident that the cut he made was a critical one, as now the beast had turned more traceable in the light. The vanishing movements could no longer be observed. The beast seemed terrified as well for it maintained a single direction in its runaway, which made tracing it much easier within the range of the sodiummps'' projection. The mollusks around had a simpler structurepared to the outside, that was also why Ye Chong managed to keep the beast in his eyes.

    The beast ran.

    The human chased after.

    Both towards the outside of unknown.

 Chapter 455 - Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 455: Reinforcement</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sang Pu''s heart sank! One by one, the mysterious creatures tore out of the vesicles. In the next moment, the battlefield was turned against them! The Sang Tribe''s advantageous position and their attack rhythm were disrupted immediately. The difference in strength between both sides was too huge!

    In the span of only 10 minutes, the number of unknown lifeforms increased by the thousands! The Sang Tribe was forced to react passively. However, none of the mechs attempted to escape by themselves. On the contrary, they maintained their rigid formation and fought ording to n! The Sang Tribe''s discipline and mental fortitude were once again demonstrated in practice, although this time it was witnessed by an army of unknown lifeforms.

    Sang Pu tasted bitterness. He could see that if the situation continued as they were now, they would notst for long. However, there was no way he could get in touch with their young teacher now.

    D*mn it!

    ____________________________________________

    Fei Si looked at the report in her hands, containing thetest results from her experiment. Should she send them over? She was hesitant about this. The truth was, Uncle Jalopy was the only person she was familiar with in this ce. She was only a researcher, and could not be certain if the report in her hands were actually of any value.

    At that moment, a knock came from the door. "Anyone here?" It was a woman''s voice.

    Who could visit at this hour? Fei Si was curious. She replied, "Pleasee in." She had never locked the door to theb, since Ye Chong would sometimes visit to conduct his own experiments. Besides, as long it was within the base, they should all be safe.

    A beautiful woman came in.

    "So it''s her?" Fei Si thought to herself in surprise. She had seen this woman before. Her name was Qiu Man, and she seemed to be one of Ye Chong''srades before her time. Qiu Man was in charge of coordination between divisions and resource allocation. However, since resources for theb were specially ordered, she had discussed business with Qiu Man before.

    Why would she be here?

    "Miss Fei Si, how do you do? I''m Qiu Man." The woman''s tiny, rosy lips moved. Her watery eyes gleamed with professionalism. After all these years of practice, she had now transformed from a typical Young Miss into apetent diplomat.

    While this was not the first time she saw Qiu Man, Fei Si still found herself awed by the woman''s beauty as she stood before her, and felt ashamed of her own looks. After all, Qiu Man was a rare beauty. Moreover, her graceful conduct made her the center of attention wherever she went.

    Qiu Man was already used to the way other people looked at her. She smiled and said, "Pardon me for not making an appointment beforehand, I hope I''m not interrupting Ms Fei Si''s research."

    Fei Si gathered herself and shook her head in reply. "No, you''re not. How can I assist you, Ms Qiu Man ¡­"

    "I was doing some coordination and just happened to pass by. The door was open, so I ventured to drop by for a visit," Qiu Man exined with a smile. She had always been interested in theb, and she could tell how much importance Ye Chong, Mu and Shang ced on it. Hence, since she happened to pass by, she could not help but came wondering in.

    "It''s alright, my experiments were justpleted." By now, Fei Si had recovered from her awe of Qiu Man''s beauty, and resumed her usual coolness. "If Ms Qiu Man is interested, you''re wee to visit anytime."

    Qiu Man''s gaze shifted to the unknown lifeform''s body in the transparent chamber, and asked with interest, "Oh, is that the creature''s body delivered from the frontlines?"

    "Yes." Fei Si nodded. "My experiment just now is rted to it."

    "Did you find anything?" Qiu Man studied the damaged flesh, her face showing no signs of fear as she asked.

    "There are a few peculiar findings, but they will have be to further explored."

    "Peculiar findings?" Qiu Man lifted her head, looking intrigued.

    "These unknown lifeforms were all part of the same group, and share many traits. For example, when they evolve, or more precisely speaking, under the right conditions, they can evolve in a very short time! This is the fastest evolution that I have ever seenpleted in any higher forms of life." When it came to matters of her professions, Fei Si spoke with confidence and ease.

    "Evolution?" Qiu Man sounded troubled. "What changes would ur after this evolution?"

    "Based on what I know now, it will mainly be an increase in muscr strength and toughness. Performance wise, there will be improvements in both strength and resilience. Besides, their outer protective armor would be further strengthened," Fei Si exined in detail.

    Qiu Man''s expression turned grim. She pondered for a moment before asking, "You said that if the conditions are right, they canplete their evolution in a very short time, yes?"

    "Yes, the experiments seemed to suggest that."

    "What are these conditions? Exactly how short is a very short time?" Qiu Man asked anxiously.

    Fei Si could not understand why Qiu Man looked so nervous, but she still answered with care, "Thus far, I have identified two conditions that can trigger an evolution in these creatures. The first is pure energy, and the second is metal. It''s too early to tell if there are other triggers. As for the time required to evolve, this depends on the amount of pure energy or metal absorbed. What this means is, the more pure energy or metal they get, the faster they evolve. However, I have not figured out the mathematical rtionship amongst these three elements."

    Qiu Man no longer looked at ease. She dragged Fei Si along, running out of theb as she said, "This is a very important finding. We need to inform the frontlines as soon as possible ¡­"

    The situation was getting worse.

    If this continued, they would be finished sooner orter. Sang Pu observed the war happening around him with reddened eyes. Every Collision mech''s explosion was like a stab to his heart! He must do something soon, or else ¡­

    He desperately tried to calm himself down.

    More of the creatures continued to emerge from the flesh columns. They were now awakening on a massive scale. The ones still within the vesicles were still vulnerable, but once they awakened, it would be a true disaster for the Sang Tribe. What was happening now were just like the early signs of an impending cmity. One by one, the unknown lifeforms escaped from their vesicles. Sang Pu also noticed that they were now emerging from the vesicles at an elerating rate. His heart sank further and further as he watched.

    If this continued on, everyone would be done for! Sang Pu bit down on his lips, his eyes red with emotions as he continued to observe the war. The Sang Tribe''s battalion of Collision mechs no longer held their earlier advantage. Not only that, their adversaries were getting stronger and stronger. He could see swarms of the unknown lifeforms targeting individual Collision mechs, wilfully pursuing them. Had the Collision mechs been slower, or the Sang Tribe members less skilled in flying their mechs, they would have suffered even more casualties by now.

    Pursuit ¡­ A tight pursuit ¡­ As he watched the unknown lifeforms pursuing the desperately escaping Collision mechs, Sang Pu''s mind suddenly cleared up.

    A bold idea came to him.

    The reporters who were watching the purple gas cloud closely from outside were now getting jumpy. Since therge fleet of strange flying vessels entered the purple gas cloud, none of them came out. The purple gas cloud''s perimeter was now clear of the flying vessels, which allowed the reporters to approach the purple gas cloud closer.

    However, what happened earlier still brought a shudder to their hearts. Those unknown lifeforms were obviously hostile. What if one of them came out just as they were close to the purple gas cloud? The reporters had no confidence in fighting for their survival. Hence, despite theck of the odd flying vessels outside, none of them dared to go closer.

    A long time had passed, and still nothing happened at the purple gas cloud.

    Just when the reporters were hesitating, someone cried out, "Heavens, look at that!"

    Tens of thousands of strange looking flying vessels and starships appeared from the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. The massive ragtag fleet was a magnificent spectacle on the holographic screen.

    However, when the impressive fleet got closer and closer, the feeling of magnificence gave way to a sense of disbelief. In terms of numbers, the ragtag fleet was definitely imposing. However, all the flying vessels and starships came in a random assortment of colors. They looked like a cloth with many random patchings. In short, they looked like a joke. This was the same for each of the tens of thousands of flying vessels and starships.

    What was this? A beggar''s parade?

    Viewers of the live feed on the news channel were nowughing out loud. Some were doubled over withughter.

    Abruptly, theughing stopped.

    Sang Tie travelled with urgency, bringing with him a supportbat with 30 thousand men! That''s 30 thousand Collision mechs! Travelling along with him were 300 starships, all filled to the brim with mildstones and spare parts for Collision mechs. That was the reason the entire fleet''s arrival was slightly dyed.

    They finally reached Yi Ju.

    However, when Sang Tie saw the massive purple gas cloud, he was taken aback. He quickly got in touch with the base. When he found out that their young teacher and Sang Pu had gone into the purple gas cloud, his expression turned even more grim.

    "Allbatants, prepare yourselves!" Sang Tie gave the simplest and most straightforward order.

    30 thousand Collision mechs immediately separated from the ragtag battalion, flying all over the ce. It was a grand spectacle, seeing 30 thousand mechs flying in the same area. Sang Tie''s order was enough to let the rest of the Sang Tribe understand what they were about to do next.

    The 30 thousand Collision mechs showed no disorder as they flew to their positions. The 300 starships turned around in the opposite direction and headed for Yi Ju as fast they could tond.

    Even with the Sang Tribe''s brilliance in piloting, it still took five minutes for everyone to take their positions. In these five minutes, the 300 starships had alreadynded on Yi Ju.

    Sang Tie wanted to just charge straight into the purple gas cloud, but he could not! Without Sang Pu, he was now themander of the battalion, and that meant suppressing his own impatience. His every decision would have to be made carefully, since it would very well decide the fates of these 30 thousand members of kin and himself. Sang Tie had prepared the best they could afford. These 30 thousand members of the Sang Tribe were all the mostpetent in the Tribe!

    Ye Chong had asked for Sang Tie to bring only 10 thousand men, but after the Vige Head listened to Sang Tie''s story, he immediately asked to gather 30 thousand men. No one doubted the Vige Head''s decision. With that, Sang Tie found himself armed with 30 thousand of the best warriors from the Tribe.

    30 thousand Collision mechs took their positions outside the purple gas cloud. The smallest basicbat section consisted of 10 mechs. Every 10 of these sections formed a squad, while every 10bat squads formed apany. A total of 30panies presented themselves in perfect formation.

    With 30 thousand mechs achieving this wonderful formation in just five minutes, what more can you ask for?

    This huge and orderly battalion filled up a significant space in the vast universe, and it was a wonder to behold.

    "1st to 10th Company, prepare to engage! The rest of the battalion, shift to echelon formation [1]." Sang Tie''s voice rang in thems channel.

    Every Sang Tribe member could feel their blood boiling! Borned with an inclination for battle, they had never been in a war of this scale before.

    "On my mark!" Sang Tie''s eyes widened and bulged. He was about to say "Charge!" but then he noticed something at thest second.

    On the holographic screen, a single Collision mech suddenly burst out of the purple gas cloud, heading towards their battalion.

    Before Sang Tie could react, a huge swarm of Collision mechs came out of the purple gas cloud.

    What was going on? Sang Tie was taken by surprise.

    "Attention, 1st to 10th Companies, fly right through us! Full speed ahead! Attack!" From thems came a voice that was familiar to everyone in the Sang Tribe.

    It''s Pu! Sang Tie recognized his voice and was overjoyed by it. While he was still far from illuminated by what was happening now, it was instinct for everyone in the Tribe to obey Sang Pu''smands.

    The 10panies at the front elerated without dy, and shot towards theirrades that emerged from the purple gas cloud.

    Since Sang Pu had ordered for them to fly full speed ahead, all 10panies had elerated to their maximum speed in the shortest time possible.

    Both sides were flying at extremely high velocities. Collision mechs could exceed Mach 20 at their maximum speed, the power of their engines at full st was formidable. Besides, since both sides were flying at over Mach 20, any head-on contact, no matter how minor, would most likely end in disaster.

    Many viewers of the live news channel gasped, and some even closed their eyes, unable to continue watching.

    Both sides did not slow down, and they were now about to reach each other! The most terrible ident in the history of spaceflight was about to happen.

 Chapter 456 - Crossover Tactic

    <h4>Chapter 456: Crossover Tactic</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The 10 thousand Collision mechs were like neatly and tightly arranged nails, flying at over Mach 20 with an astonishing power of destruction. No mech or starship could be left untouched by an attack of this kind of force.

    Among all the viewers of their imminent sh, no one would believe that anything could be unscathed from a crash like this! Each of the mechs were only 25 meters apart in their formation. This was an almost negligible distance in the scale of the universe.

    What was more unbelievable was the fact that the thousands of Collision mechs that emerged from the purple gas cloud were flying straight into thepanies without slowing down. Had they gone mad? Both sides were flying at over Mach 20 - collisions at this speed would break even the strongest material used to build the mechs.

    Were they nning to die? Was this a suicidal attack?

    Just when everyone was puzzled by their strategy, the smaller swarm of Collision mechs changed formation again. They regrouped, repositioned themselves and adjusted their distances, all in just five seconds, without any signs of dy.

    In those five seconds, the messy swarm of Collision mechs that came out of the purple gas cloud reformed into dozens ofbat squad units. All of this achieved while travelling at over Mach 20.

    Thems channel was silent. No one said a word. Only the asional heavy breathing was heard. In these precious five seconds, Sang Pu did not give any orders. He believed that every Sang Tribe member would understand his intention. Sang Tribe members were all excellent warriors, and to be chosen as frontline soldiers meant that they were the cream of the crop. They were all raised to trust in each other.

    Five seconds! This was a suspenseful five seconds, and an unforgettable moment. What extraordinary sight would appear when tens of thousands of mechs crashed into each other? Everyone looked at the holographic screen without blinking, holding their breaths. Be it in the bars, public squares or schools, or in individual homes, as long as the holographic screen was on, these five seconds were filled with deafening silence.

    Even the wordy frontline reporter had kept his mouth shut as he watched in silent awe.

    Just what kind of people were they?

    ________________________________________________________________

    Sang Pu''s eyes were fixed on his holographic screen. Right now, he was no different than any other member of the Sang Tribe. He would have to use his own strength and skills to fight for his own fate.

    After bursting out of the purple gas cloud, the holographic scanning systems on the Collision mechs had begun to function again.

    The huge presence of the 1st to 10th Companies registered clearly on the holographic screen. This was not his first time doing this, but he could already feel the electric jolt of excitement shot through his veins. He could even hear his own breathing grow shorter!

    Getting close now ¡­ Closer still ¡­ The huge wave of Collisions mechs rushed towards him on the holographic screen. In that moment, Sang Pu felt like a withered leaf, riding the massive waves of a tsunami - he could die at any moment! Sang Pu did not know who was piloting the mech that would go right past him, but that did not matter. The point was, if he really crashed into that mech, both their mechs would disintegrate into pieces, and his own body would explode into a thousand pieces, just like his mech! The mech showed no signs of avoiding him as it flew straight ahead towards him. The mech upied almost two thirds of his holographic screen - they were very close to each other now! He could even see the patterns on the Collision mech, unique to their skeleton material.

    Roar! His blood sang with exhration. Sang Pu felt a rush of excitement like never before.

    Now!

    His dted pupils shone with battlelust, and his hands moved the mech''s control lever.

    To the side, then push forward. His hands moved the lever steadily without dy, just a smooth gesture on the controls.

    Sang Pu''s Collision mech wriggled to the side, smooth as a fish, and flew right past the other mech that wasing towards him! There was no time to think. At over Mach 20, Sang Pu flew his mech through the 25 meter gap between the mechs in front of him, and continued his trajectory.

    There were no signs of collision! Sang Pu did not need to check to know that he was safe. His tension finally released, and he felt the fatigue of the war overwhelming him.

    Every Sang Tribe member knew about Collision mechs like the back of their hands. Unlike He Yue Gxy''s mech pilots, the Collision mechs were their only choice of weapons, for they had no other options. They could only think hard about new ways to fight with the Collision mechs. They did not think about upgrading their mechs, or changing the weapons installed, or buy newer models, since Collision mechs were practically theirpanions, their trusted weapon in the face of battle. That was why every Sang Tribe member who had their own Collision mech would take very good care of them, and knew every tiny detail of their mechs!

    That was why Sang Pu did not need to check to know that his mech did note into contact with the other mechs.

    However, now was not the time to rest. Sang Pu shook himself awake, suppressing his joy of having survived the stunt, and forced himself to calm down as soon as possible. He understood his duties asmander of the entire Sang Tribe. He was not just an average soldier. Soldiers could perform outstanding feats through their excitement. Amander, however, would benefit more from staying calm. Only calmness can help him make the right decision.

    Sang Pu was not aware that his mech''s skeleton wings and that of the mech that flew past him were separated by less than 10 centimeters back then. At a speed of over Mach 20, any minor contact would be have its implications amplified. If he had steered five centimeters more to the side, his ending would have been different.

    Sang Pu quickly calmed down, and began to assess his surroundings. The mechs that came out of the purple gas cloud with him had all survived the flight. Sang Pu had not anticipated Sang Tie''s arrival, and had only nned to lure the unknown lifeforms out of the purple gas cloud. This would considerably strengthen their position. With thems system online, they would be able to coordinate attacks more effectively. Theck of numbers can be ovee with better strategizing. Besides, outside the purple gas cloud, their holographic scanning systems would allow them to see better, and get a better sense of the overall situation.

    He was surprised to find Sang Tie and the readily assembled battalion. An idea came to him, and Sang Pu was reminded of abat technique that they had often practiced in the Sang Family Vige - crossover flying. This was something they came up with themselves. It consisted of two mech squads flying through each other, through the gaps between the mechs in each squad. This was a very dangerous strategy, and would require highly skilled mech pilots. After all, if both sides were flying at high speed, the mech pilot would have little time to react when flying through the gaps. Failing this would cause them to suffer casualties from both squads due to the impact. This strategy was designed to use against enemies in tight pursuit, and Sang Pu thought this was just the right scenario for it.

    However, Sang Pu also knew that, despite their familiarity with this technique, they had never done it on such arge scale, with tens of thousands of mechs involved. Besides, they had not used this technique in practice before, and practices never involved flying at such a high speed. He could not be certain that every Collision mech would survive this. Nevertheless, it seemed that they did far better than he expected. Only a few mechs had collided with each other.

    Sang Pu knew that it was time to turn the tide of the war.

 Chapter 457 - In Tight Pursuit

    <h4>Chapter 457: In Tight Pursuit</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

    Sang Tie''s Collision mech burst through several unknown lifeforms like an arrow through bullseyes. However it was more like ripping through the bullseyes, in a more precise sense. The strong bodies of the unknown lifeforms exploded into countless pieces from the strong impact.

    The Collision mech''s frontal defense was also its strongest, that was why attacking with their collision spears in fronts was their preferred method of attack, and the safest one.

    They rained down like heavy downpour!

    Beside Sang Pu, numerous Collision mechs flew past him towards the unknown lifeforms. The mechs hit fast and hard. Every collision ended with a shower of blood, apanied by separated body parts.

    One of the creatures tried to turn back and escape, but it never stood a chance! A brief sensation of pain came from its waist, with a shocking amount of power that was passed into the creature, and it spun away uncontrobly. Just then, it noticed a familiar looking lower body flying away from itself. A momentter, an excruciating pain shot up from below, and it almost cked out. As it looked down its body, it found an empty space below its waist, where blood was gushing out violently.

    Its eyes bulged out as it stared at its missing lower body in disbelief. Its face convulsed from the pain, and before it could react any further, it felt another sharp pain, and then it lost consciousness.

    A Collision mech''s skeleton fins had easily sliced its brain in half. It happened so fast that the convulsed expression on the face remained on its face, where the slightly bulging eyes were filled with horror and disbelief.

    Without air in outer space, sound could not travel. However, the continuous wave of collisions carried on where the mechs where. Every time a mech crashed into flesh, it sent a jolt of shock into the hearts of the spectators. Here, the power of strength and speed, of brute force and primitiveness, and the story of life and death was told in its entirety.

    The enemies were everywhere. Sang Tie and others did not even need to aim for their targets. In fact, given the chaotic situation, aiming for targets was a foolish idea.

    Sang Tie understood that. Their mechs were closely arranged together like ab, and the teeth of thisb were sharp. What would it feel like to bebed through with a tool like this? Sang Tie and his men demonstrated it all, leaving trails of flesh and blood!

    The attack happened so fast that all the viewers could barely breathe under the suspense. It was too violent! Compared to an exchange ofser attacks in outer space, this war was even more vicious and shocking. People breathed heavily as they watched. The holographic screen remained silent, but the explosive and continuous assault via collisions could almost tear the screen apart.

    Compared to what was showing now on the holographic screen, the so-called grandly staged movies were like child''s y. People watched in fear at the battle unfolding on the holographic screen.

    He Yue Gxy was apetitive ce, where forces stood against one another, but for the average person, life was usually peaceful and safe.

    However, the world had changed! They suddenly realized that death and war had arrived so close to them. Fear began to spread among themoners. Adults covered the children''s eyes. They did not want the children to witness such a bloody and dreadful scene.

    Sang Tie''s expression was steel cold. They were doing well so far, killing so many of the unknown lifeforms that he lost count of. The battle was like a war in hell for the people in the He Yue Gxy, but for the seasoned warriors like Sang Tie and his tribe, it was only battle as usual. After their battle during the Beast Stampede,rge scale battles were no longer unfamiliar to them. In this respect, the Three Aristocratic Families wereckingpared to them.

    Sang Tie may look like a rough man, but he was in reality a man of detail. He even had some talent in warfare. Soon, he noticed subtle changes in the battlefield. Since the Collision mechs kept running into the unknown lifeforms, they had begun to slow down. Without enough speed, Collision mechs were less effective in attacks, and every member of the Sang Tribe knew this.

    Just then, a slightly weary voice from Sang Pu came through thems, "Companies of the first attack wave, leave the battlefield immediately, take care to stay in formation."

    "As expected of Sang Pu, to understand the situation at the frontlines even without being there, and grasping the timing well," Sang Tie thought to himself, praising the other man. Without further dy, the surviving mechs of the 1st to 10th Companies spread out and left the battlefield.

    The sudden departure of attackers was a great relief to the creatures, but before they could head back to the purple gas cloud, they realized in horror that another wave of attack was upon them!

    This time, the creatures received a devastating blow.

    Red-tailed beast - Ye Chong named the creatures as such. Of course, Mu had no objections. After all, red-tailed beast was better than being called Number One Lifeform or something. All the signs seemed to suggest that this particr red-tailed beast was the leader of the herd. Ye Chong decided to finish it off.

    Ye Chong knew that the wound he inflicted on the creature earlier was in part due to luck. Ye Chong was not used to relying on abstract ideas like luck. Would his lucky streak continue? The thought never urred to him at all.

    The best strategy now would be to pursue their enemy and thoroughly defeat them, solving the problem once and for all.

    Ye Chong gave his all, pursuing the red-tailed beast.

    It looked like he was quite lucky after all, to have kept up with the beast so far. Given the chaotic environment, even Mu''s scanning system would be useless, much less Han Jia''s holographic scanning system. He could only rely on the sodiummp and stay on the enemy''s tail. It was not easy.

    The red-tailed beast was heading outwards quickly.

    Ye Chong was grateful for his earlier decision of destroying all the vesicles in his path. If any red-tailed beast suddenly appeared here right now, even the most average red-tailed beast would put him at a great disadvantage.

    The one escaping would not be this particr red-tailed beast, but himself.

    Ye Chong kept his eyes wide open, wary of making mistakes. In thisplicated environment, he could lose his target at any moment. Once he lost his prey, it would be impossible to find it again.

    There would be a huge, thick flesh column at the next turn, Ye Chong remembered clearly. He had entered the center region of the purple gas cloud from there.

    He grew anxious immediately. Just now, Sang Pu and the rest were still fighting against the red-tailed beasts out here. The fight must be going on viciously. If he wanted to surround and attack his strong and destructive target out there, they would certainly pay a high price for it. Besides, it was more spacious out there, with more gaps around them for the beast to go through and escape.

    It seemed as though Ye Chong''s pursuit was about to end in failure, as the red-tailed beast went halfway through the flesh column. However, to Ye Chong''s surprise, the creature suddenly turned tail, as if in fright, and headed off in another direction.

    Ye Chong was surprised for a moment, but quickly reacted and continued his pursuit. The red-tailed beast momentary pause allowed Ye Chong to close the distance between them.

    What happened out there? Ye Chong was baffled. However, he pushed the question aside quickly and concentrated on chasing the wounded red-tailed beast.

    The red-tailed beast was very familiar with the area. Had it not been wounded, Ye Chong would not have been able to keep up for so long. Even so, Ye Chong still had to give all he had to keep up.

    This posed a challenge to his mech maneuvering skills. There were turns everywhere. An average mech pilot would have turned dizzy in the pursuit. Even though short ranged turns were one of Ye Chong''s better moves, he was also affected by the rough flight. Nevertheless, he suppressed whatever difort he felt and continued on. He knew that this was his best chance to finish off the red-tailed beast. If he missed this chance, the next time would not be so easy.

    Ye Chong followed the red-tailed beast as best as he could.

    Just then, after avoiding another flesh column, Ye Chong felt the space in front of him open up, but his heart sank. He and the red-tailed beast had entered the empty space where all the normal red-tailed beasts were.

    However, what Ye Chong found was enough to leave even someone as rigid as him bbergasted!

    Floating all round him were dead bodies of the red-tailed beasts. These cold, gray bodies floated around peacefully in the space around him, too many to count. The flesh columns nearby were also turned into a mess, thoroughly destroyed, leaving no more fluid in their flesh. Their dark gray surfaces looked dim and lifeless.All the vesicles on the flesh columns were also destroyed.

    The red-tailed beast that just entered the area froze in ce for a moment, then looked back at Ye Chong.

    Its crimson red eyes were now shining in the color of blood, with its face twisted menacingly.

    Ye Chong felt all his hair rise. He quickly readied himself for battle. A beast at bay will put up a desperate fight. That was the nature of things. Ye Chong had no wish to die here.

    However, much to his astonishment, the red-tailed beast turned and ran, moving even faster than before.

    After a short pause, Han Jia elerated and continued its pursuit.

 Chapter 458 - Out of the Purple Gas Cloud

    <h4>Chapter 458: Out of the Purple Gas Cloud</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The cold bodies of the red-tailed beasts were everywhere. This was a hindrance to Ye Chong''s pursuit. The wounded red-tailed beast moved deftly, easily moving between the bodies. Had it not been wounded, Ye Chong would have lost it long ago. It was a pity that Sang Pu and the rest were not here, or the beast would never stand a chance at escaping.

    Ye Chong did not know that Sang Pu and the rest were destroying the flesh columns around them somewhere not far away. However, due to the flesh columns between them and theck ofms, they had passed by each other without noticing.

    The red-tailed beast was injured, but Ye Chong would not have been able to tell had he not seen how fast it could actually move beforehand. Knowing its true abilities, Ye Chong could see that it was actually moving quite a bit slower right now.

    Han Jia continued its pursuit, avoiding the obstacles along the way. Ultimately, however, Han Jia was just a machine, and not as agile as the red-tailed beast. It was only because of Ye Chong''s superior flying skills that he managed to keep up.

    An environment like this, with obstacles floating around everywhere was the least preferred for mech pilots, and the most dangerous. It would be difficult for long range mechs to aim, and equally difficult for close range mechs to fight in this environment, since they could not elerate as much as they would like, fighting with their full potential, without putting their lives at risk.

    Of course, there were exceptions. Sniper mech pilots, for example, would loveplicated ces like these. Besides, they were good at concealing themselves, and long distance single-shot kills made them the most fearsome killers that concealed themselves in the dark.

    Ye Chong considered Mu to be an excellent sniper mech pilot. However, the ce he was in now was too strange, such that even Mu''s scanning system would not work. Ye Chong could only rely on his own to keep his target in sight.

    The red-tailed beast seemed to realize that the ce was no longer its territory. It flew towards the edge of the purple gas cloud, intending to leave.

    This was good news for Ye Chong. He knew that once they were out of the gas cloud, the odds would be in his favor.

    As he flew by rows and rows of flesh columns, Ye Chong soon noticed that they looked thinner and thinner.

    They were now near the edge of the purple gas cloud. Ye Chong estimated around half a minute before they werepletely outside the purple gas cloud.

    As the red-tailed beast in front of him continued its swift escape, Ye Chong concentrated on his pursuit. Here in the purple gas cloud, if they got separated any further, he would not be able to see his target.

    Whoosh! A red-tailed beast burst out of the whirling purple gas cloud like a bolt of lightning. In the next instant, a mech swooshed out in pursuit of the creature.

    They were finally outside!

    In that instant, Han Jia''s photon processor began to function normally again. The red-tailed beast''s image became clearer, and this was a relief to Ye Chong.

    Just then, Mu spoke up, "Ye, I just received a message from the base."

    "What message?" Ye Chong''s eyes were on the holographic screen as he asked.

    "It''s about a report by Fei Si on these creatures," Mu exined calmly.

    "Report?" Ye Chong paused slightly. Why would they send over a report at this hour? However, he quickly focused. "What''s it say?"

    "Fei Si''s research showed that these creatures can undergo evolution very quickly. There are two main catalysts for their evolution - pure energy and metals." Mu''s voice was characteristically mechanical.

    "Pure energy and metals?" Ye Chong frowned, but his eyes never left the holographic screen. With the photon processor and Mu''s aid, he would easily keep up with his target, allowing him some room to think about this problem.

    "Could it be that energy weapons are ineffective against them?" Ye Chong reached the crux of the issue quickly. He thought of the mollusc bristleworms, which could absorb energy beams.

    Ye Chong looked at the back silhouette of the red-tailed beast and frowned again. The mollusc bristleworms were immune to energy weapons, but they moved slowly and were not particrly aggressive. However, the red-tailed beasts were entirely different animals. They were fast and agile, with astonishing power in them. The bright red tips of their tails were a dangerous threat. If these creatures were immune to energy weapons, it would be a huge problem!

    "That would have to be confirmed by experiment. Should we begin now?" Mu asked methodically.

    Ye Chong felt helpless as he stole a nce at the starship some distance away from him, and rejected the idea. "There''s too many people now." He understood Mu''s idea of an experiment. If Mu or Shang suddenly appeared before their massive audience, it would be shocking news to the world. Ye Chong had begun to have an inkling of where Mu and Shang came from. He must be closely rted to the Xue Lai n in some way, even though he was not sure of the details.

    However, both Ye Chong, Mu and Shang did not mind the topic so much. After experiencing so much together, Ye Chong did not hold too much issues like his own origin, or Mu''s and Shang''s. Right now, he only wanted to return to the Five Gxies and spend time on his interests, like research. Even if he could not return, living a peaceful life in the He Yue Gxy would be fine. As for Mu and Shang, the mech would of course be uninterested in the story of their own origin.

    It was truly regretful for him that such a simple wish could not be so easily granted. With the sudden appearance of these unknown lifeforms, war had officially begun. War between men would have room for mercy, but it would be not be the case for war between different species. The end result would usually be the elimination of one of the two species involved.

    Fei Si''s report had proved that much. Pure energy and metals were the catalysts for the evolution of these creatures. These two elements were also essential for human survival. With that, the ipatibility between humans and these creatures was obvious.

    This war would not end without the annihtion of one of the two species.

    The He Yue Gxy would not be peaceful for long time ahead. For some reason, Ye Chong could no help but sighed at the thought. What were the Five Gxies like at this moment? Would he be able to have peace there?

    Ye Chong was not particrly ambitious. He did not feel like some protagonist in this war. The main yers on the human side were probably the Three Aristocratic Families. Perhaps, when the Sang Tribe won this battle, they would also rise to be one of the main yers too.

    In fact, Ye Chong was also not particrly dedicated to the Sang Tribe. The way he saw it, he was helped by the Sang Tribe, and had in turn assisted them himself. Based on the principle of equal exchange that Mu told him about, they did not owe each other anything.

    The only reason he returned this time was to ensure that the Sang Tribe was not entirely destroyed due to their ignorance. Now that they were winning, he had no business here anymore. After killing this red-tailed beast, Ye Chong nned to bring Rui Bing and Little Rock with him and find their way back to the Five Gxies.

    The war in the He Yue Gxy would only worsen in the future. Ye Chong did not mind the fight, but he would not fight for meaningless ideals. Fighting for himself - that was his motto.

    Perhaps, returning to the Five Gxies would not be such a bad idea.

    "Mu, where are Sang Pu and the rest?" Ye Chong broke off his train of thought, took a look at the red-tailed beast on the holographic screen, and asked Mu.

    "Still in the purple gas cloud. Sang Tie had brought 30 thousand men with him, and they are now all in the battlefield." From the moment he left the purple gas cloud, Mu and Shang had kept in touch with the base.

    Ye Chong acknowledged the mech. He was not worried about Sang Pu and the others. He could not offer help in terms of directing the battalion, Sang Pu was more than equipped for that. Besides, with Sang Tie''s 30 thousand strong reinforcement, they should be able to handle themselves.

    Mu reminded Ye Chong, "This red-tailed beast is heading for the Cmitous Asteroid Belt."

    "Right," Ye Chong replied softly. Han Jia continued its pursuit. If Mu or Shang made their appearance now, they could give long distance shooting a try, but Ye Chong did not want that. Mu''s and Shang''s origin story must be extraordinary. He might not mind it, but other people would. The Xue Lai n, for example, would surely do something if they knew about Mu and Shang. If history was any indication, they would probably opt for some dangerous and hostile approach.

    On the other hand, long distance shooting was Ye Chong''s Achilles heel. He had no choice but to continue chasing the beast.

    Once they entered the cmitous asteroid belt, beyond the eyes of outsiders, Mu would be free to do his thing. More importantly, the red-tailed beast was ultimately only an animal, and had limited stamina. Han Jia, however, was powered by teardrop mineralite, and could fly longer than anything else.

    Ye Chong could not help but felt impressed by the red-tailed beast''s strength. Despite its injury, Han Jia still needed to keep all its engines at maximum power to keep up with the creature.

    The chase was noticed by the reporters who were following the war closely.

    "Look at that," one of the reporters cried out in excitement, "Just now, an unknown lifeform and a mech had burst out of the purple gas cloud. Here, we can see the creature clearly."

    The image of the red-tailed beast appeared more clearly on the holographic screen.

    "Wah!" The reporter could not help but gasped. "This is the clearest view we have of the unknown lifeform so far. Dear viewers, you can see that this unknown lifeform is different from the ones we had seen before, it''s back ¡­"

    The reporter suddenly changed topic. "Let''s talk about the creatureter. Now let''s look at the mech behind it."

    "Huh?" The reporter gasped again in surprise. "Here is a regretful news for all our dear viewers. The mech''s anti-scanning system is excellent. Our holographic scanning system cannot capture it. What you''re seeing now is a feed from our optical system. It''s not too clear, and we can hardly see the how the mech looks like ¡­"

    As the reporter made hismentary, the red-tailed beast and Han Jia vanished into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, one after the other.

 Chapter 459 - New Insights

    <h4>Chapter 459: New Insights</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong did not expect the chase tost for 24 days.

    Had it not been for Mu, Han Jia''s holographic scanning system would not have been enough for him to keep up with the red-tailed beast. On the ninth day, he began to consider end the pursuit and return to base. Inside the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, numerous rocks andary bodies of sizes were everywhere. It was easy to lose one''s way, and even Mu could not guarantee identifying their location.

    However, Ye Chong decided to continue his pursuit for a very specific reason.

    Once they entered the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, Ye Chong deployed Mu immediately. With that, they quickly verified that the red-tailed beast was immune to pure energy attacks. Perhaps it was not immune to all kinds of energy based weapons, but Mu''s Recursion rifle was at least ineffective against it.

    Of course, that was only one of the reasons Ye Chong continued the pursuit. What made him continue on was an incident that happened on the ninth day, which was the day that he began to consider giving up the chase.

    He remembered clearly what happened that day. He was very tired then. He would not have been able to survive for nine days without his strong determination and Mu''s assistance.

    The red-tailed beast was alert and cunning, with astonishing stamina. Even after nine days of continuous pursuit, the creature showed no signs of fatigue. It seemed to understand Han Jia''s weakness, and always flew into areas with many obstacles.

    This spelled much suffering for Ye Chong, who had to keep up his concentration in order to avoid the floating rocks all around him. That was why he was exhausted physically and mentally sooner than expected.

    There was another concern, and that was the food supply. Han Jia''s food storage was always full, as it was Ye Chong''s habit. Besides, he had quite a number of nutrition pills. However, he had to take into ount the return journey. Besides, there was always the possibility of losing his way in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Allowing for some unexpected incidents, the food he had was barely enough. After all, long distance travelling in outer space was meant to be done with starships, not mechs.

    At Han Jia''s maximum speed, nine days of flying amounted to a very huge distance. This meant that they were deep inside the asteroid belt by now. Mu had warned Ye Chong time and again that the further in they went, the more likely it was for them to lose their way. Even with Mu''s help, the probability of losing their way right now was already at 41 percent.

    However, just when Ye Chong decided to turn back, the feed from the holographic screen made him stop in his tracks.

    After days of escaping, the red-tailed beast did not look so good as well. Its ck outer shell gleamed with a faint metallic glimmer, much fainter than when Ye Chong first saw the creature. Its crimson red eyes still looked obstinate and alert, but the veins that began to show in the eyes indicated that it was not at its best. The creature''s body looked shrunken and weaker, like it could give up at any time. Only the red tipped tail continued to shine brightly and threateningly.

    The creature seemed to have sped up. The minor change immediately got Ye Chong''s attention. After days of pursuit, he was getting used to their normal flying speed and rhythm.

    In front of the creature was a innocent looking rock. The rock was not particrlyrge, about three meters across and roughly spherical, with an inconspicuous dark brown exterior.

    The red-tailed beast behaved oddly for the first time in their long chase. Ye Chong stopped whatever he was upied with and observed closely.

    The red-tailed beast approached the rock, and stabbed its tail into the rock. The tough rock seemed to be easily prated by the creature''s tail. The tail went all the way in, and Ye Chong gasped at the spectacle.

    What was the creature doing? One the one hand, he was surprised by the strength of the creature''s tail, and on the other hand, he could not understand what it was doing.

    The red-tailed beast rattled its tail. Crack! The rock fragmented into dozens of pieces and exploded outwards. It was chilling to watch.

    The red-tailed beast now held in its tail a fist-sized yellow rock that glowed faintly.

    A transmutated energy ore! Ye Chong recognized what it was immediately, surprised by what he saw. These transmutated energy ores often stored a significant amount of energy. Before this, he managed to gather a lot of these transmutated energy ores from the underground cave. That was also where he obtained a few teardrop mineralite, encountered the eerie ck hole, the eight-fingered hand, and that chilling screech.

    "Ye, it''s an energy ore!" Mu sounded surprised.

    Ye Chong nodded without replying. His expression turned grim, and he began to feel nervous.

    The red-tailed beast looked excited, and swallowed the transmutated energy ore without dy.

    Ye Chong felt his heart skip a beat!

    Right after that, he watched with horror at the red-tailed beast''s transformation. The shrunken muscles on the creature turned robust in an unbelievable speed, and the flesh that began to fester around the wound that Ye Chong left on it began to heal crazily fast. The creature''s dim outer shell began to shine with life again.

    In just a short instant, the red-tailed beast seemed to be revitalized. Without the light red flesh that now healed over the wound, Ye Chong would have thought that it was all an illusion.

    After the transformation, the red-tailed beast suddenly turned around and looked at Han Jia, which was still approaching it.

    The fatigued red eyes were now lively and alert, they looked sharply at Ye Chong with an intense yearning for revenge.

    It seemed to consider charging towards Han Jia, but after a moment''s hesitation, it turned back round and darted off ahead.

    "Mu, it swallowed a transmutated energy ore," Ye Chong said with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

    "Yes," Mu sounded unmoved as usual, "It looks like Fei Si''s report is reliable. The creature is most likely evolving."

    "Evolving ¡­" Ye Chong seemed to have thought of something. "Seems like it could detect where the transmutated energy ores are."

    "The mechanism behind this behavior is still unknown, but based on what we have seen, it seems to be the case. The probability is between 60 to 90 percent," Mu replied him.

    "Mu, if it can find enough transmutated energy ores, will it be able toplete its evolution?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Based on Fei Si''s theory, evolution required two elements - pure energy and metals. On the other hand, we do not know the required amount of each element for evolution toplete. However, given the environment in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, and the fact that there are no natural predators, the probability for the creature toplete its evolution is significant, higher than 67 percent," Mu offered his analysis calmly.

    Ye Chong understood the mech''s point. The Cmitous Asteroid Belt was aptly named, but it was in fact also a treasure trove. Here was a sea of countless of rocks, containing all kinds of precious ores. If it wasn''t for the dangers that lurked within, the ce would have been invaded by mining ships. To this creature, however, the ce was like heaven. Ye Chong knew that so long as it did not encounter anyrge scale disasters like the asteroid whirlpool, the other animals would generally not pose a threat to the red-tailed beast. The creature could detect energy ores, and would probably have no trouble detecting metal ores as well. If it had spend enough time in this ce searching for energy and metal ores, it would soonplete its evolution.

    Ye Chong was still chilled by his memory of the eight-fingered red-tailed beast he saw in the underground cave. Just a screech was enough to stop even Mu. Even though he had improved a lot since, he was still barely on par with Mu. Ye Chong would not wish to face such a dangerous creature ever.

    Ths red-tailed beast he was chasing now was still far less powerful than the eight-fingered creature he encountered, but it had the potential to be one. No matter how one looked at it, the creature had an extensive memory, and was not the type to forget. The intense emotions of hatred and revenge in its eyes reminded Ye Chong constantly that it was a growing time bomb!

    Based on past experience, the best to solution against this kind of threat was to nip it in the bud. Ye Chong decided right then to kill the red-tailed beast before it ever reached its final stage of evolution.

    It was now the 24th day. Ye Chong had continued his pursuit for 24 days. It was like a long game of hide and seek between the red-tailed beast and Ye Chong.

    In the 15 days that came after, Ye Chong did not allow the red-tailed beast to feed again. Mu''s excellent scanning system allowed him to detect energy and metal ores in the rocks as well. With Mu''s extra long distance shooting, he would destroy any rock that the red-tailed beast found and targeted! Everytime the scattered remains of the rock exploded in its face, the red-tailed beast would look pained, perhaps from the physical blows, or perhaps by the thought of losing its meal.

    Hence, in the 15 days since Ye Chong witnessed it feeding, the red-tailed beast never ate another energy ore. Its body no longer shine so brightly, and it began to fly slower. Ye Chong was like a skilled hunter, patiently stalking his prey. With Mu''s assistance, the red-tailed beast grew weaker and weaker, with no chance of nourishment.

    The creature had tried a few times to turn back and face its pursuer to fight, but every time it did this, it could never find the strange pursuer. This greatly discouraged the creature.

    More importantly, it was now facing another predicament!

 Chapter 460 - The Ferocious Mech Squad

    <h4>Chapter 460: The Ferocious Mech Squad</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It had been surrounded, a more precise word would be "besieged", by 30 metallic figures that looked rather simr to the one which broke its cradle in the first ce. The sight was growing hopeless to the beast. The situation already felt hellish when it encountered the one knife-wielding machinery at first, now there were more, 30 of them.

    Had the creator of this world decided to end its life there?

    The beast regained its serenity. Knowing its fate, its arms crossed over its shoulders, as soundlessly it hovered in the space, at center of the siege formed by the 30 machineries. Its expression was undisturbed, yet its shaking tail with a raised tip and its quivering pupils had exposed the fear of death as well as the desperation for an escape within itself.

    The beast intended a gush from the fis!

    Because of its worsening condition and that metallic figure who stood in the dark with the deadly weapons, a gush did sound far-fetched at the moment.

    It was indeed not an easy job to do.

    Sneered the beast which had given up the thought of escaping alive. Its tail glowed redder than ever, in deste vain to unt its one-of-a-kind beauty, as if recognizing the moment being thest of its life.

    Yet strangely, the expected crowd attack did not happen.

    Did the machineries aim to capture me alive?

    Thought the red-tailed beast, as its eyes grew colder.

    Hidden within the shards of asteroid, Ye Chong was finding the scene odd.

    There were¡­ actually mechs here? Not only a single mech too¡­ a school of 30 mechs¡­ in Cmitous Asteroid Belt, the deadliest ce of the universe?

    It was really strange. Yes, there would be squads who came for space-expedition to grab some loots for the moneybags but no squad should be insane enough to venture into the depth. Ye Chong knew the depth well enough after spending thest few days wandering here. The depth was far more dangerous than what he heard from the people outside. If it was because of Mu''s guidance or the red-tailed beast''s sense of danger, Ye Chong probably had lost his lives countless times.

    He took a look at the mechs, which their models appeared to be model to him. These mechs resembled nothing of the 3 aristocrats.

    He then sank within the shade of one giant rock, as he watched the situation.

    Certainly Ye Chong did not expect the mechs to be capable of eliminating the beast. He piloted Han Jia to sneak towards the crowd.

    "Mu, any info on those mechs?" muttered Ye Chong.

    "No," replied Mu.

    So from where these mechs came from? Ye Chong was feeling odd. It was the cmitous space zone after all, only the real pilots would risk their livesing in as if cake walk. But these pilots did not appear to be under the aristocrats, while their mechs had a rather bizarre design. That aside, he should be figuring out a way to eliminate the red-tailed beast before things became handful.

    Under the cover of the giant rock, Han Jia arrived behind the beast with stealth. It was not the time to strike yet. It simply was not. Ye Chong knew it after days of hunting the beast, which appeared to be the one of few most alert creatures he had ever encountered.

    Behind the rock, Ye Chong took a better look at these mechs.

    ¡­ (Meanwhile) ¡­

    Scholes was the leader of the scouting group under Arwa. And Arwa had been leading the entire second army consisted of different trained groups ever since he took over themandership. Reformation had been done with Arwa''s leadership, with extra attention on the scouting team which only members of no more than 9 remained after the massive dismissal conducted. Scholes was fortunate enough to be the one of the only few "survivals" from the waves of reformation who managed to even grab the g. He did not hold spite towards the changes however.

    The reason was simple.

    Who exactly was Arwa you ask?

    He''s the strategist! The most talented one at Gray Valley!

    It felt like a dream when people heard him in the army as the leader. His charisma would convince even the greatest man to be his little serviceman. But well, if one were to mention about the real dignified figure in the troop, the figure would not be Arwa, but the mistress herself.

    Regarding Arwa''s motive of joining Xiao Wan''s alliance, lots of theories had been heard among the people. Some imed that Arwa fancied the beauty of the mistress, while the others stated that Arwa coveted the heavenly offer made by the mistress of Xiao family. It was indeed the hottest topic at that period whether it was true or not.

    The members of the family army were very clear of the truth however. There was no love, no greed involved between them, only one simple loss to a gamble. Arwa had technically lost his bet and agreed to stay back to take over the second army. The leader of the first army remained as Bei Guang, certainly.

    The moment Arwa was announced to be themander of the second Xiao family army, the whole Gray Valley almost crumbled.

    And now they were on an operation, with Scholes leading the intelligences. Scholes had a rather hefty body, looking more sizable with his 180 centimeter height. His eyes expressed an unperturbed solemnity. He had never failed an operation ever since he was given the leading g.

    The current situation was a little handful for him however. "Are there actually enemies here?" he frowned. The unknown creatures had been a pain in their eyes since these monstrosities had showed up disrupting the harmony after eradicating seven forces in Gray Valley. The catch was, the monsters had only gotten more handful ever since.

    Fortunately the research team had formed a massive group in alliance with all talents from the forces around, dedicated to eliminating the unidentifiable creature. The group had also received a substantial fund from the research team of Xiao family itself.

    Arwa was afraid of raids urring at the side wings of the alliance army so he allocated arge flock of scouting units at both wings. And definitely he was right at his worries, the unknown threat indeed existed.

    "Any other enemies?" asked Scholes profoundly with fret tumbling inside him.

    "No sir. Within the proximity of 150 kilometers, no other enemies had been detected."

    Then¡­ is this beast a lone entity?

    "All units take caution, into battle station!" Even though Arwa was not aware of how a creature that travelled in packs ended up alone being surrounded, he made hisbat order. It would not be easy to take out this red-tailed monstrosity. But Scholes believed that they should have a better time as the beast was clearly outnumbered, a 30 vs 1. The research team had also discovered that the beast was not 100% invulnerable towards energy-based firing, as there was actually a limit to its energy absorption ability, once the limit was reached, any extra energy-based firing would deal solid damage.

    Apparently, people outside the Gray Valley had named the monster as the red-tailed beast. It did not sound like a proper name but it dide from somewhere called Yi Ju which was the only ce where such beast had been exterminated, under the attack of a really¡­ strange army called the Collision army¡­ The world wanted to know what happened behind that fortress but it was too hard to ovee the defense so there was little to none information regarding them. There were all kinds of stories regarding the army, but that was not the main point. In short, people had epted such in name.

    Red-tailed beast.

    ording to his previous experiences with the beast, under normal circumstances, a firepower formed by all 10 ranged units should be able to take the beast out, let alone 30 of them. "All units fire!" Scholesunched his attack.

    Hundred beams showered upon the red-tailed beast, like a spotlight for its death. ring the dark space turned as res blinded the ce.

    Scholes sighed in relief. He witnessed the scene, with rity that the red-tailed beast did not dodge. It should not survive.

    Wait, what?

    Scholes''s pupils erged as popped at the projection.

    How in the Gray Valley¡­

    After the beams faded out, the red-tailed beast was at the previous position, hovering, unharmed.

    Chills ran down the neck of Scholes as magic somehow had urred.

    The red-tailed beast, hovering at the center of the siege a moment ago, had vanished, right in front of everybody.

    "Ah!" A shriek was heard in the channel.

    "Vegan!" The eyes of Scholes twitched in anger.

    The young folk in his early 20s, his smile was friendly and bashful, had be a no-more.

    "All units change your weapons, a 3x3 now!" rampaged Scholes.

    The mechs had switched their weapons, going for a close-ranged formation. With the melee weaponry, triangr formations were spotted, with three mechs at a unit each.

    The parry, the cover and the guard, in a formation of three musketeers the mechs charged.

    And there Ye Chong was, all dazzled by the quick switch of armory by the little squad as he watched them behind the rock. He was surprised by how the squad coped with the situation so promptly. The switch of weapon was truly a game changer. The attack type switch from ranged to melee perplexed Ye Chong however. Clearly those mechs were ranged units by default, but why? Why would the leader think of using melee weapons?

    After a moment of observation, Ye Chong finally knew why. The switch of weapon that became the salvation to their losing fight highly relied on their one-of-a-kind formation. The triangle would form an active cirction, where one unit would perform contact with the red-tailed beast while the other two would deliver extra hits from the sides. When one poked and retreated, the other would make a strike, the cycle continued.

    The amazing part was how these mechs fought the red-tailed beast so fearlessly that it almost felt like a suicidal fight. They were willing to poke the beast and initiate a new cycle to gain more time for their mates to ready the following attacks.

    The other triangles would also give a brief assistance or two if the musketeers faced issues during the process.

    They might not be the greatest pilots, but they did have the bravery of the greatest. Ye Chong could not help but topliment their ferocious formation.

    Well, the red-tailed beast was going to lose. Ye Chong could see that. The red-tailed beast had stuck itself inside the triangle. The red-tailed beast was strong enough to wound the three units, in which one had lost its arm because of the tail attack and the others were heavily damaged. The mech that lost its arm was under a very dangerous situation as the circuits had been exposed to the space, an explosion could ur at any second. The pilot did not seem bothered however, as the pilot carried on punching the red-tailed beast with thest arm.

    The other triangles appreciated the sacrificial strikes from their mate. They hadpleted another formation at all four directions.

    Boom!

    One of the heavily damaged units had blown up.

    The shockwave produced was able to shake the red-tailed beast as it rolled into the new formation. That was also when the other two damaged allies joined the stars in a consequent explosion.

    That was ferocious.

    Ye Chong was shocked. It was rare to see someone being so ferocious in achieving goals, and everyone seemed the same ferocious throughout the squad.

    The red-tailed beast shall be doomed.

    It could no longer make any move. It got stuck. The closebat units would have destroyed it within seconds if it was not the fact that the beast tried struggling, fully utilizing its agility and iron tail.

    And the other mechs had freed from the triangle formation as they got into their battle position, transforming into a cage of firepower, enveloping the beast, shrinking.

    A few secondster, the red-tailed beast had new scratches over its body.

    Ye Chong felt sentimental of the situation, not because of the fate of the beast but how a group attack would work wonders nevertheless. It took Ye Chong forever to make a single sh on the red-tailed beast with his pair of super daggers made out of probably the strongest mineral in the gxy, yet it only took the squad seconds.

    And the situation changed, before Ye Chong finished sighing.

 Chapter 461 - Unwilling - Scholes from the Scouting Group

    <h4>Chapter 461: Unwilling - Scholes from the Scouting Group</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The crimson tip of the tail shed through the void, like a strike of bloody lightning, right onto the waist of a mech. The metallic coating was not able to provide the mech the necessarily robust to take the strike well. A quick flick by the tail and the mech had shattered, with its remnants sshing onto its allies nearby.

    That was the 9th mech the beast had destroyed.

    And that was not game-changing enough for the beast as one could discern all the bleeding scratches over its shrunken epidermis and dull fleshes. The only recognizable part of its former glory was probably the glowing tail which somehow shone brighter after tasting the demise of the others.

    The fight had intensified since then, as people apparently had lost their mind trying to take that beast down. The situation somehow had lost control, that even Ye Chong decided to stay at stealth.

    This little group of mechs were all ranged units by default, yes, their unique formation might be capable of providing the versatility in the field but they still were not born to do closebats. It took them real blood and sweat to corner the beast.

    It was literally a life for a life!

    Ye Chong could not help but to exim at their brutality.

    The beast had been driven up the wall in fact, as it no longer took the attacks with dodges but thrashes. Wielding its indestructible tail, at every thrash the beast made, a new scratch would appear over its body while one more mech would blow up immediately.

    The fight seemed ever-ending. Scratches were increasing, whereas the foes were decreasing in number. It was no more a fight of offense but pure endurance.

    Ugh. The eyes of the red-tailed beast twitched, as it felt a drastic pain sliding over its abdomen. The beast did not back off as it held the mech forcibly with its tail raised and stung the foe. Like a spear, the tail pierced the mech''s body and unexpectedly the mech dropped its weapon and sped the beast promptly. Both of them tumbled and the mechanical hands were grabbing the two hands of the beast. The scene looked odd, as if it seemed to be about love and war between the machine and the beast. But nobody at the scene was amused by it.

    Scholes and his teammates were having their eyes peeled, as they backed away from the center of the battle and chained up to form a circle.

    The red-tailed beast kept struggling, but it had long lost the strength to fight back with its body, eventually its tail was stinging randomly, piercing the iron threat again and again, which every sting carried a few gears and nuts away. The mech was as if one from Trash, technically a trash itself, yet its mechanical arms remained gripped over the beast tightly.

    Ye Chong was impressed by the bravery of the pilot. The cabin had been prated by the beast at least thrice and probably the pilot would survive with a likelihood of less than 1% inside. Nevertheless, he fought not for his life but for a greater likelihood of his teammates.

    Ye Chong''s pupils shrunk as his hands slowly reached the control panel.

    Phew¡­

    He started adjusting his respiration. He took a deep breath and he felt ready to jump into action. His eyes gradually opened as he captured every bit of the happening in the projection.

    He was anticipating, the chance to make that one deadly kill!

    Certainly he had no idea what uing ns these suicidal units had but he was pretty sure that these members of the ferocious squad would not forsake the opportunity seized by their dying teammate.

    The red-tailed beast started to feel the weight lifting from the grip, as its tail searched the inside of the mech. The beast was very confident that once enough drilling had been made, the metallic threat would be exiled, permanently.

    But Scholes did not want that to happen.

    "Charge!" shouted Scholes manically, as he was no more the less-talker, the one bound by discipline. Veins were bloating over his body, as he pulled his throat, screaming on top of his lungs, leading his members, charging forward.

    The mech flexed, armed with a melee weapon, zooming towards the red-tailed beast.

    "Charge!!!" The other members had joined the spiritual scream of their leader in themunication channel.

    The remaining mechs fell upon the red-tailed beast one after another like a meteor shower.

    The red-tailed beast mustered all its strength to escape the attack, yet the piece of junk had hold it back from moving an inch. The mech had only half of its body left but was managed to clench onto the beast till the end. It was then Scholes''s alloy sword passed the abdomen of the beast.

    The beast felt the rush of heat surging through its opened abdomen, as blood squirted like the pain. The cut was deeper than the previous, which it would hit the intestines another 5 centimeters deeper.

    Somehow, perhaps because of the intensity facing death, the red-tailed beast had unleashed its maximum once again.

    Its red eyes had gone bloody while its crimson tail had glowed hotter, as its body ballooned dramatically with its muscles pumped vigorously. The blood capiries had broadened, the face had been squeezed into something unrecognizable other than agony.

    Snap.

    Its shoulders withdrew as the remaining body of the mech snapped with a crisp.

    The beast twisted its body and dodged the mech speeding towards it, with its tail ready for action again.

    Thump! A dent was seen on the passing mech.

    The red-tailed beast gently broke the two remaining arms over its body.

    The following sequence gave a shock to Ye Chong. The red-tailed beast acted rapidly, other than the first mech that gave its abdomen a sh, the remaining units could not even scratch it.

    Oh no¡­

    Ye Chong was going tounch itself, but he did not, upon the change of events.

    These mechs could put up with the beast only because of their strange tactics which put the beast within their siege in the first ce. With their impable formation, the speed and dexterity of the beast could not be seen. And they had discarded their formation a long time ago. A beast in a free space was not something they could handle with mere force, especially when they had lost half of their units.

    The situation had changed and surely the oue was undeterminable.

    Ye Chong stayed calm and remained seated as he viewed the wild match. The oue of the squad was none of his concern, despite the little admiration he had in them. He had seen countless deaths all the years and no doubt dying with glory would be the best bet for most losing fights.

    He had his focus on the red-tailed beat, as looking for that opportunity to interrupt the match.

    The red-tailed beast might be at an upper hand in this but Ye Chong could see the possibility of this inted animal rupturing!

    The red-tailed beast was not at full health at the beginning of this fight. Ye Chong had been hunting it down for the past few days. It would be solely unnatural if the beast could remain kicking alive.

    The beast was fighting with maximum aggression as it broke through the 3x3 triangr formations effortlessly with its speed. And in a second it had prated 6 units in the space.

    The beast did learn from its mistake as it would make its runaway after every touch on the foe, which failed the suicidal attempt of those pilots.

    But was it true that the beast would win?

    Maybe not.

    Thought Ye Chong, who observed the scene as if the hunter watching the hare hunting the fox.

    As expected, the beast was slowing down. Scholes and his team might not discern the change in speed but certainly Ye Chong felt the strength ebbing away from the beast.

    Another 6 units, destroyed.

    The beast decelerated drastically, with each turn it made bing more and more lethargic, that Scholes could now see the beast weakening, yet unfortunately he was remained with only thest 3 units.

    They were almost there¡­ Just a little bit more and they would win, yet their defense was thin as paper¡­

    After so much sacrifice, so much agony, Scholes clenched his fist, unwilling to ept defeat.

 Chapter 462 - The Back of Various Colors

    <h4>Chapter 462: The Back of Various Colors</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He set his eyes upon the beast which had been going after thest two members in his squad. An overwhelming grief had emerged in him. For this fight, a majority of his army had been wiped out after giving their very best shot, they had been sacrificed, for safety of their homnd.

    Yet¡­

    Their goal¡­

    Was so near¡­ yet so far¡­

    The leader nced upon the scraps hovering in the space, containing with the broken limbs and what not. He almost could hear the final shout of his soldiers before they joined the stars. It was the ce where his allies rested and probably it would be the same for he himself.

    It was fate, that he would be weed with a premature demise to his glory.

    Soundlessly a mech traveled to the back of Scholes. Scholes on his mech was unaware of the uninvited guest, likewise the remaining allies were.

    Looking at how the beast was having a fun time ying with his mates, Scholes was enraged as it was none other than pure sphemy to the military. He gave a tap on the interface andunched the energy shooter!

    The beamnded upon the dark shell of red-tailed beast urately, causing little sh in the void whichter revealed the unhurt beast after fading away. The strike did not cause damage but unnecessary attention as a result.

    The beast was alerted of Scholes''s existence and it seemed displeased with itsrge bloodshot eyes.

    Scholes maintained his position and let the beast charge towards him. His hands were away from the handle, unintended to make a move.

    The red tail was shining brightly in the dark like the sun.

    The distance between them was decreasing rapidly as the silhouette of the beast grew clearer on Scholes''s projection. For some reason, he felt inner peace upon the scene.

    Perhaps, he would be joining the stars with his allies here.

    He thought with a weak smile on his face.

    But he would not want to make a pointless sacrifice. It might be a meaningless attack on the beast with his firepower alone but he was a pilot and as a pilot, one would fight till the end.

    The report regarding the beast had been sessfully sent to their base. Arwa themander should have received it at this moment. And this was a little relief for Scholes.

    At least he had done something. He had fulfilled thest few responsibilities being the leader of the scouting team. And now, he would fight till the end, to die in glory as what true pilots would do.

    His eyes were glowing with spirit as he looked at the charging beast. His fingersnded upon the interface as his nose formed frost on the visual. He was waiting, waiting for that very second the beast made contact with his mech. Some may ask why he did not try to evade, it was simple - one did not evade oneself from a strikeing with a supreme speed like this.

    But little did Scholes know, there was one mech right behind him, firmly attached like a remora with the same exact posture as his mech.

    It was Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong stared at the approaching beast calmly. His former n was to wait behind this mech for the moment the beast attacked it, but miraculously the pilot of the mech somehow read his mind and had lured the beast to himself.

    Would that mean Ye Chong had been discovered?

    That did not matter. He wanted a hunt and he was there to get it.

    He looked at the beast that seemed to be decelerating drastically as losing its glow. Its muscles were also deting, looking feeble than before.

    "That should be a side effect of its biological behavior," Mu stated, which fit Ye Chong''s spection, "Under normal circumstances, an overly excited organism would suffer from a rather undesirable side effect after the end of the strong energy influx."

    "Mhm, all its attributes are dropping." Ye Chong seemed rather agreeable in this, "Too bad, we would have a better chance if the beast took out the two mechs first."

    "Your proposition is grasping," stated Mu indifferently.

    Well as grasping as it may sound, it was just a proposition, which came out of Ye Chong''s mouth randomly. The war field was always ever-changing to him, he could not make a bargain when there was an opportunity fair enough.

    Ye Chong''s pupils shrunk as he anticipated the arrival. He was well-prepared for an assassination.

    Scholes''s eyes were soulless. His heart was pumping slow. His mech was in a typical battle stance, where it had shield on the left and sword on the right while making a slight bow on its body.

    The beast was too fast! It was at least a few times faster than Scholes. He did prepare himself to embrace the attack but the speed was still a shocker to his eyes. The beast was so fast that its silhouette had lost its shape, turning blurry like an illusion.

    It is time!

    "Hah!" Scholes shouted as he pulled the trigger. All the trainings he had undergone years before were meant for this moment!

    The cabin was roaring with the rms, the shing red lights were intensifying the atmosphere.

    His mech had been prated, as expected from the tail. But Scholes did not bother his leaking air as he punched in the followingmand smoothly.

    The left arm first withdrew itself, while the shield sprung upon the face of the beast. Under the shield, the mech''s sword awaited.

    Thup! The shield mmed the beast right in the face. Scholes was feeling joyful of the first step seeding. It took him a while to n this. The shield would be an undercover for his lethal attack!

    He made a swing.

    It''s the end! The end!

    His sword was feeling light however. The expected blow was not there. His mind nked the moment he realized he missed.

    That was his only opportunity to save his mates.

    And he failed.

    He tried everything yet it turned out to be pointless. The beast was too fast. He was very sure that the sword was right on the waist of the beast, nevertheless he missed. The beast could doge his attack despite the injury.

    Scholes could hardly say a thing, as his swollen eyes looked at the screen in disbelief. His hands were gripping the control panel, so tight that the blood flow had been held, paling.

    "No way¡­" he muttered, his head was wailing like the rm in the cabin. "Impossible¡­" He could not figure how it happened.

    He wanted to run for his mates but that beast¡­ was there, not too far ahead, hovering¡­ in pieces¡­ with its head facing right at Scholes. The reddish eyes had dimmed out. The pieces seemed to be made by a highly sharp de.

    What had happened?

    What had happened in the world?

    Scholes looked at the surrounding in bewilderment. Nothing alive was around.

    Then¡­ how¡­ how di-

    "Leader! L-leader! Take a look! Radius vector at 44 degrees, photon mode!" The surviving mate shouted in excitement.

    Vector to 44 degrees¡­

    Turn on photon visualization¡­

    Scholes made the adjustment ordingly, ignoring the wailing rm.

    And there he saw a strange-looking mech zooming away from the scene. Because of the limited resolution of photon mode projection, he could not make out the exact appearance of the mech, all he saw, was its tiny back of various colors.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    "Well, Mu, we finally got food." It was not a wild goose chase after all. Han Jia was indeed given arge food supply in the beginning but most of them had been consumed during the course in thest few days. Ye Chong probably would be starved till death if he did not get himself supplied soon enough.

    The run was sessful and he got what he wanted. He managed to discover one storing unit of nutrient capsules among the scraps before he left the field. And sure he was feeling great.

    "Mhm, still, Ye, we need to find a ce with actual supply. Furthermore, we need to obtain a reliable reference on our current coordination," said Mu.

    "So¡­ you need this you say?" Ye Chong pointed at the few pieces of mech entangled in thorns. These almost disposableponents seemed to contain the important information both Mu and Ye Chong needed. Apparently they were once a part inside the processor.

    "Yes, Ye. But first we have to remove the microchip inside."

    "Remove?" Ye Chong looked at the giant piece and wanted a confirmation, "Mu, you mean, you need me to take the tiny piece out of this giant metallic object?" He could do any parts without problem, except for the processor, which was known to be the mostplicatedponent in a mech. Removal of certainponents would require extreme care and skills.

    "You are correct."

    "There is no facility specialized for this. There is no tool and all I have is a pair of giant mechanical arms and you want me to take the piece out? It''s like asking me to make a club sandwich with Han Jia''s daggers. The piece will shatter before I even ced a finger on it."

    "I know it is challenging, but Ye, we have no other option," stated Mu calmly, indirectly highlighting the fact that ranting would not help the situation. "To increase the sess rate, I suggest you to take a few more pieces. If it breaks, it would be a practice for a better chance on the next. You did take my suggestion without consideration, it is motivating."

    Ye Chong looked at the floating pieces resting in Han Jia''s giant hand. He could not help but to sweat.

    "Oh, by the way, Ye, I have a good news for you."

    "What kind?" All Ye Chong had in mind was a feasible method to remove a tiny piece out of the brokenponent. His reply was half-baked just to keep the conversation going.

    "Shang''s reorganization seemed to bepleting and ording to our agreement, we would be having a switch. He would be by your side for the next Hundred And Fifty Three days. Enjoy while itsts."

    "Which part of that equals to good news!?" muttered Ye Chong. Shang was so influential that mentioning his name alone could give Ye Chong headache.

 Chapter 463 - Gray Valley

    <h4>Chapter 463: Gray Valley</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Shang''s recalibration was not done yet. Ye Chong did not have to handle that problem. What he needed to do now was solve another particrly difficult and technical problem - given that he was without any tools, how should he remove a photon processor chip without damaging it?

    This was a very hard problem. However, technical problems would hardly trouble Ye Chong for long. What could really stump him were problems that involved people.

    This time was no exception.

    After destroying two remnant pieces, Ye Chong finally seeded in extracting the photon processor chip from the third piece of remnant. Ye Chong had used the skeleton tips from the tentacles on Han Jia''s back in the process. They were his indispensable tools.

    It took Ye Chong quite some time to figure out how to maneuver the flexible tentacles precisely. After days of practicing with the mechanism, he finally got used to maneuvering the tentacles with ease. Ye Chong had a habit - he would always rte anything he knew about withbat.

    After extracting the chip, he considered about ways to improve the variety of attacks using the tentacles.

    Mu was busy with hacking past a security algorithm that protected the chip. They needed information from this chip. In fact, the best way to get information was to capture the three survivors. However, Ye Chong did not do so, for reasons he did not know himself.

    Mu''s hacking smoothly progressed. The algorithm was hardly challenging with his superior calction skills. He was soon able to make a copy of all the information contained in the chip.

    "Ye, I know where we are now," Mu interrupted Ye Chong''s train of thought.

    Ye Chong turned his attention to the mech. "Where? Did you find a star chart?"

    "Yes, have a look yourself." Right then, a star chart was projected onto the holographic screen, which showed variousary objects of different sizes.

    "The terrain here is very unique," Ye Chongmented after studying it for quite awhile. The environment disyed in this star chart was unlike any he had seen before.

    s with a faint red glow in the star chart were inhabited. Theses were surrounded by a dense cloud of gray colored dots. Ye Chong recognized it immediately as the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    The inhabiteds were all located in the center of the asteroid belt,pletely surrounded by asteroids. Ye Chong was intrigued by whoever first discovered the ce, to be able to find a ce for live to flourish within a ce that was known to invite death.

    "We are right here." At the edge of the region where the inhabiteds were all gathered, a blue spot glowed, indicating their location.

    "How far are we from the nearest?" Ye Chong asked. For the moment, their highest priority was to replenish their supplies. Han Jia had no issues, since it was powered by teardrop mineralite. Mu and Shang, however, needed to recharge. Ye Chong also had to perform extensive maintenance work on Han Jia. After so many days of flying in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, Han Jia was damaged in many ces. The asteroid belt was truly as dangerous as its name suggested. Han Jia was an excellent mech, and Ye Chong apetent mech pilot. Mu was also instrumental in warning them of imminent danger. That was they all survived the asteroid belt. Now, however, Han Jia''s damages needed to be mended.

    "About 18 days of flight," Mu answered after doing his calctions. Han Jia was not equipped to make warp jumps, so they could only stick to normal space flight.

    "Anything else?" Ye Chong asked. Any and all information regarding this unfamiliar ce would be invaluable.

    "Yes. Based on the information in the chip, it seems that the 19s and 15 star clusters that were all inhabited and gathered in the center of the asteroid belt is Gray Valley," Mu provided this shocking revtion.

    "Gray Valley ¡­'' Ye Chong muttered to himself. He had heard of this ce since he first found his way to the He Yue Gxy, but he never expected to arrive in Gray Valley in this manner.

    Gray Valley, a symbol of mystery to the most of He Yue Gxy''s inhabitants. Aristocrats were feared everywhere in the gxy, but here they were miscreants to be punished. Gray Valley residents rarely head out, hence the outside world did not know much about them. If He Yue Gxy''s inhabitants knew so little about them, it was only natural that Ye Chong, the isted persona that he was, barely knew about them too. The only thing he remembered about Gray Valley was their appearance during the virus disaster, the strong and capable Guang Bei and that underground base of operations.

    To think that he was once again thrown into unfamiliar territory! Ye Chong was speechless. After all these years, it looked like he was still wandering from ce to ce.

    "Mu, what''s our probability of sess in returning the way we came from?" Ye Chong asked.

    "ording to calctions, less than 3.2 percent." Mu''s reply ruled out Ye Chong''s n of going back the way they came from. "There''s also something else that''s important."

    "What is it?"

    "Gray Valley is now in a state of emergency, ready for war. They were also attacked by the red-tailed beasts. Therefore, Ye, we must be careful." Mu''s warning gave Ye Chong pause.

    "They were also attacked by the red-tailed beasts?" Ye Chong asked quickly.

    Mu replied, "Yes. The mech squad we encountered earlier is the scouting team from the Xiao Family''s 2nd toon. Their mission was to search the area for the possibility of small groups of red-tailed beasts infiltrating the ce."

    "What a mess." Ye Chong was getting a headache. Now that they were in a state of war, it would be difficult for him. Besides, there were the red-tailed beasts to worry about. If the Sang Tribe''s Collision mechs were here, he would not be so troubled. However, now that he had lost contact with Sang Pu and the others, he had no choice but to run should he encounter a group of red-tailed beasts.

    Long distance travelling in outer space was dull business, but Ye Chong was used to it. He spent time considering his obstacles in the pilot cabin throughout the flight, as per usual.

    Ye Chong and Mu''s destination was a called Henna. This was the closest inhabited to them. During the 18 days of flight, Ye Chong encountered a few scouting troops. Fortunately, Mu''s holographic scanning system and Han Jia''s excellent anti-scanning system allowed them to avoid detection.

    The scouting mechs were mostly in squads of 30. Based on the frequency of their encounters with these mechs, Ye Chong and Mu discussed and concluded that Henna was probably not in a dire situation, and unlikely to be the frontlines of their battle.

    Ye Chong would not wish to rush to the frontlines. All frontlines of any kind of war promised to be life threatening. No matter how strong he was, he would be helpless against the kind of massive death machine that was war.

    _________________________________________________

    "Han Jia needs maintenance." Ye Chong inspected Han Jia and arrived at this conclusion. Many of Han Jia''s joints showed minute cracks that would not hamper its performance just yet, but were still nuisances that could lead to disasters. Any strong collisions could make the cracks growrger.

    For now, Ye Chong had no skeletal material at hand, and no maintenance tools. This was an issue for him.

    They were now in an abandoned factory on Henna. The owner had left the factory, perhaps due to the war. The equipment here were mostly destroyed. There was nothing useful around here.

    This was not a problem for Ye Chong though. Having grown up on a trash, he had plenty of experience in simr situations. Ye Chong assembled a sr energy converter, after rummaging through the stuff lying around and patching them together. It could convert sr power into a conventional form of energy for charging.

    Ye Chong connected the sr energy converter to Mu, and heaved a sigh of relief.

    Here in the messy, abandoned factory, Mu stood still as he recharged. The sr energy converter was not very efficient, and Mu would need 36 hours to fully recharge himself. In these 3 hours, Mu would remain quiet and stationary.

    Mu and Han Jia stood side by side, while Ye Chong sat on the floor and looked up at the two mechs, and for the moment, was lost in thought.

    The rays of sunset reached through the windows into the factory, reflecting off Han Jia''s colorful exterior into a dazzling lightshow. Mu''s body was almost imperceptibly glowing . The orange sunset dyed the mech into a charismatic palette of orange and yellow. The mech''s amputated arm stood out palpably.

    Seeing Mu''s lost arm reminded Ye Chong of the good amount of coratinum he left in that starship in the free space zone. Back then, he had risked himself obtaining the metal, thinking about using it to rebuild Mu''s arm. In the end, however, he lost the starship. Perhaps the young boy had taken the ore, or maybe it was still left in the depths of the sea on Dankwood. There was now only one Gateway left open to the free space zone, the one controlled by the Xue Lai n. The other two Gateways were destroyed.

    Ye Chong did not imagine himself having any leverage to ask for the n''s permission to use the Gateway. He connected with the young boy, but it would be foolish to think that a child could y any part in helping him in this matter. Besides, he had kidnapped the young boy in the first ce.

    After sorting out his thoughts, Ye Chong felt that the idea was unrealistic and abandoned it.

    He stood up to stretch his limbs. Mu would need 30 over hours to finish recharging. Han Jia''s maintenance work would have to be dyed for the moment. Without any suitable material or equipment, all the maintenance work he had in mind could not be carried out.

    Just then, he heard a noise from outside.

 Chapter 464 - Shangâ€™s Reasoning

    <h4>Chapter 464: Shang¡¯s Reasoning</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong hid behind a damaged part of the wall and peeked out from behind to look outside.

    About a dozen golden colored mechs whizzed past the sky. The sound was from their speedy flight across the air. Their velocity slightly surprised Ye Chong. The mechs must be flying at no less than Mach 17 or 18. After all, they were now within the atmosphere. It it was in outer space, even reaching up to Mach 20 was not particrly difficult.

    To think that he was lucky enough to see their advanced mechs just as he arrived in Gray Valley! They mechs were now vanishing dots in the sky. Ye Chong watched them in a daze. It was a pity that they flew so fast that he could not make out what they looked like. However, their dazzling gold left a deep impression in him.

    Ye Chong returned to Mu and Han Jia''s side still thinking about the golden mechs. However, he quicklyposed himself and began to work on the technical issues that he was facing.

    _________________________________________________

    The atmosphere in the control room was tense. They had just received news from Scholes, informing them of a very powerful red-tailed beast in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. The situation was dangerous for them.

    After receiving the report, Arwa sent out a squad of 300 mechs as reinforcement.

    However, they received no word from them until now. Arwa had a bad feeling about it, and he began to feel nervous.

    The red-tailed beast had appeared at the border between the asteroids and Gray Valley. What would this mean for them? All this while, he was worried that the creatures would manage to go around their defenses and attack them. That would be a problem. Now that all the powers within Gray Valley were coordinated by the Research Consortium, they had managed to set up an effective defense. Recently, the attacks from the red-tailed beasts were beginning to falter.

    Even though they had not begun tounch their attacks into the purple gas cloud that first appeared and started it all, people were beginning to feel hope. Indeed, what was there to worry about? Morale was high; resources were stocked up; the military was sufficiently manned; the Research Consortium was offering all kinds of technical support. Thebatants were also the best of theirmunity. So far, they were doing quite well.

    The situation had been quiet so far, except for the daily mech troops deployed by the United Army to engage the legion of mysterious creatures.

    Despite all this, Arwa sensed a dangerous undercurrent through it all. He would mention it asionally during meetings with themanding officers, but helpless against the indifference that he would receive. In fact, hecked evidence to prove his suspicions. As the war progressed, the red-tailed beasts received substantial damage. That was certain. They were not like humans, who could resupply themselves almost indefinitely. It was only natural that they were faltering now.

    Still, Arwa had sent many scouting squads at their nks out of wariness. To think that he would receive news of a red-tailed beast sighting today!

    What surprised him more was the fact that the scouting squad had been greatly overwhelmed by the creature! Scholes was one of the better mech pilots under him, and his abilities were undoubted. Arwa was very surprised to learn that the scouting squad led by the man would be forced into a desperate situation.

    "Sir, reinforcements have reached the 13th scouting squad. They will be back to base in five hours," the operator''s report interrupted Arwa''s thoughts.

    "However ¡­" The operator hesitated.

    Arwa knitted his brows together. "What is it?"

    "ording to reports from our reinforcement troops, only three mechs survived," the operator forced the words out of his mouth.

    Suddenly, the control room went silent.

    Only three survived out of the 30 mechs. It was a fatality rate of 90 percent! What in the world happened?

    Everyone in the control room exchanged looks of fear and distress.

    Five hourster, the reinforcement troops were back. When the three surviving mechsnded in the base, people finally realized how devastating the fight had been!

    Scholes and his two survivingrades were called to the Commander''s Office immediately after they exited their mechs.

    Arwa was shaken by the tired, pitiful and scared looks of the three faces he greeted.

    "You must be tired! Please have a seat," Arwa spoke gently to the three subordinates. ording to protocol, they should have reported to their superiors while standing. Arwa activated hisms and said, "Bring three meals in here. Make sure they''re warm." After that, he returned to his own seat.

    The three mech pilots looked gratefully at their superior. Half a minuteter, food arrived.

    Arwa made a gesture. "Please eat first. Your reports can wait."

    The trio was ravenous, and ate quickly. Soon, nothing was left on their tes, and they looked much better. The three of them abandoned their empty tes and waited for Arwa to ask his questions.

    "Alright, now tell me exactly what happened." Arwa nodded towards Scholes, signaling for him to speak.

    _______________________________________________

    "Ye, it''s been too long! I have missed you," Shang dered without meaning it at all.

    Ye Chong did not expect the one to emerge after recharging to be Shang. This was to be a problem.

    "Where are we heading now?" Ye Chong asked, straight to the point.

    "Oh, Ye, you''re still so boring. Sigh, it''s been a long time since west saw each other, and you don''t even try to do some catching up with me, tsk tsk ¡­" Shang affected a mood ofint.

    Ye Chong was speechless. He decided to ignore the mech. He was thankful that at least he could control whether the mech was out here or not. The alternative was unbearable.

    Ye Chong withdrew Shang into his dimension keystone without hesitation.

    "Ye, you''re too cruel! How dare you put me back into this empty space of nothingness?" Shang sounded resentful.

    Ye Chong ignored himpletely and went into Han Jia. He activated the holographic scanning system and began to search for the nearest city. Shang continued to mutter constantly to himself, but Ye Chong was determined to ignore him.

    Soon, Ye Chong found a city 320 kilometers northwest of their location. He flew Han Jia out and away from the factory without dy and headed in that direction.

    Shang seemed to know that his behavior would do him no good, and so he switched tactics. "Ye, what do you think is the first thing we should do when we arrive at the city?"

    "Study its surroundings." Ye Chong''s answer was brief and to the point.

    "Oh, righto! Ye, I agree with your assessment." Shang sounded exaggerated. He continued asking, "Then how do you think we should go about doing this?"

    Ye Chong was confused by why Shang would start asking about these things, but they were practical matters, and so he answered readily, "Take in thendmarks, memorize thendscape of the ce." This was a method that Ye Chong has used plenty of times when he first arrived in a new area. History had proven that is was very effective, and Ye Chong had managed to escape from danger many times because of his familiarization with the area early on.

    "That''s right, that''s exactly right. This method will help you tremendously. But, Ye, is that all you can think of?" Shang was now like a cunning man with a bait.

    "Oh, what else is there?" Shang''s way of asking had hooked Ye Chong''s interest.

    "When you arrive in a new and unfamiliar ce, there are many things to do. Getting familiar with the surroundings, as you say, is one of them. However, there are other important matters that cannot be ignored. For example, getting to know the local forces at y, the rtionship between these forces and so on. This will help you avoid getting involved in local power ys, which can be very dangerous. Another example will be the local culture. After all, some local cultures can be dangerous to outsiders. I suggest that you first make a few escape ns, so that when any unexpected incident urs, you can make better decisions," Shang spoke eloquently.

    Ye Chong considered his suggestion and thought they sounded reasonable. "Do continue."

    Shang was secretly pleased at Ye Chong''s reaction. He was afraid that Ye Chong would ignore him, and that would be just too dull.

    "All of that''s not enough. Ye, a lion will stand out when it is within a herd of sheep. People will be able tell that you''re different from the others very easily. That will invite trouble to you. Wary people will try to probe you, to see if you''re dangerous. I must say, Ye, that that will be the beginning of your troubles!" Shang sounded helpless as he came to this conclusion. To him, Ye Chong and Mu were too straightforward and rigid, both in behavior and action. They did not seem to understand the idea of indirect approaches with their confined minds!

    "You''re right." Ye Chong agreed with Shang. Many times he had gotten into trouble just like that.

    "Hehe, Ye, don''t panic. There are many solutions aside from calctions to solve these problems. Err, perhaps you can think of it as a situational calction." Shang sounded pleased with himself.

    "A situational calction?" Ye Chong muttered to himself in thought.

    Shang continued, "So, when you first arrive in a new area, it''s very important to blend in with the surroundings. A lion will of course stand out within a herd of sheep. But if you can disguise yourself as sheep, wouldn''t that make you safer?"

    "Yes, you''re right." Ye Chong gave it some thought and agreed with him.

    Shang suddenly changed his tone. "Of course, there are many other way of self defense. If a lion found itself within a herd of sheep, it can demonstrate its prowess to the sheep so that they would not mess with him. This is what we called intimidation, as discussed before." His tone changed again. "However, I must say, Ye, there are not many sheep here, as most of them are wolves. One wolf might not win against one lion, but a pack of wolves can. Besides, in this time and ce, it''s very difficult to determine if you''re facing sheep or wolves."

    Shang''s metaphor was simple, but Ye Chong could grasp the idea behind it.

    "Do you think what I said make sense?" Shang asked.

    "Yes," Ye Chong replied in the affirmative.

    "Then, I suggest we use the first method to enter the city. What do you think?" Shang sounded weird.

 Chapter 465 - Disguise - Not as Easy as it Seems

    <h4>Chapter 465: Disguise - Not as Easy as it Seems</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong looked up at the city, and felt a sense of familiarity. This was practically a modernized version of a city from the Five Gxies. Buildings soared into the skies. Mechs of all kinds tore through the air above. It was the exact opposite of the He Yue Gxy. As he walked into the city, the feeling grew stronger. There were holographic ad projections everywhere. Countless mechs flew between the metallic buildings. Even the pedestrians on the streets walked with hurried steps. It was very much a city in the Five Gxies.

    "This is Gray Valley?" Shang sounded unbelieving.

    Ye Chong shrugged. "I think it''s weird too."

    Ye Chong was wearing abat uniform, and did not stand out in the crowd. Along the way to the city, he and Shang had discussed about psychology. Of course, it was only to be expected that Ye Chong failed marvelously to understand it. Suddenly, Ye Chong realized that he was infinitely pathetic when it came to this area of expertise. Right now, he waspetent inbat, mech piloting, alchemy and even mech maintenance. However, when it came to psychology and sociology, he could only draw a nk.

    Shang had exined with long paragraphs of theories about how important psychology was inbat. Of course, Ye Chong was convinced by him. Convincing Ye Chong can be a simple but challenging task. As long as your arguments were convincing, Ye Chong would agree with them. However, if the arguments were hollow, he would not ept them no matter who they came from.

    Ye Chong was not walking on the streets like an inconspicuousmoner, and no one looked twice at him. The holographic screen at the exposed public square was showing the news. Aside from the constant mentions of the war in the news, there were almost no signs of the war here in the city.

    "Ye, this looks like a good ce," Shang proimed excitedly.

    Ye Chong looked around his surroundings and said, "The situation''s not clear yet, we need to do more research."

    Ye Chong walked the streets casually, seemingly without purpose, but he was in fact memorizing all the streets.

    However, they quickly faced an urgent problem - they had no money! Earning money had always been one of the more difficult problems for Ye Chong, and also one of his weaknesses. Fortunately, he had Shang with him now, and there should be nothing to worry about. Back in the Five Gxies, Mu could provide an almost endless supply of currency, which Ye Chong remembered clearly. Shang must be able to do something simr!

    "Well, if I can hack into the virtual world, money will not be a problem," Shang said, but his next words dashed any hope Ye Chong had of this option, "However, Ye, regretfully we do not have that ability as of yet. I tried to hack into their virtual word just now, but failed."

    "Failed? Why?" Ye Chong was surprised. Shang''s calction skills were slightly inferior to Mu''s, but he was still very good at it. In the past, Shang had always did it with ease. Why would he fail this time?

    Shang sounded surprised as well when he replied, "The virtual world here is a bit weird. Their calctions arepletely different from what we know, and that means I have nowhere to work with. What a strange ce. Oh, forgot to mention one thing. When I entered the virtual world just now, I''ve triggered their rm. We need to leave here ASAP."

    Ye Chong wanted to roll his eyes. This b*stard ¡­ He was about to pick up his pace and leave the ce when Shang''s d*mned voice came again, "Ye, don''t do anything unnatural. You should walk at a natural pace, wear a normal expression, and walk away from here casually. That way, you won''t attract suspicion. Do you want everyone who see you to suspect that you''re a bad guy?"

    Ye Chong forced down whatever explosive motion he was about to do with his legs. Despite his masterful control of muscr power, the effort still left him a little uneven.

    He stepped out with his right leg and resumed his normal walking pace. His expression did not change, not because he was a master of disguise, but because his face was naturally inexpressive.

    "The more natural you behave, the easier people are going to ignore you. You may exist here and now, but you are effectively in a blind spot," Shang philosophized.

    Just then, a group of men in yellow uniform walked in their direction.

    "So strange, there really was an rm just now. Isn''t it from here? I don''t see anyone suspicious," one of them said.

    One of hispanions shrugged and said, "I don''t see anyone suspicious too. Maybe he left already."

    "So soon? Impossible," one of them said, unconvinced. "When the rm rang, we were just around the corner, and didn''t see anyone suspicious. I say, the rm is probably from a technical error."

    "Right, right, I think so to, it''s happened before ¡­"

    The group of men walked past Ye Chong just like that. One of them took a nce at Ye Chong, and his eyes did not linger.

    Shang''s theory was effective! If it was his earlier self, he would have ran away right then, attracted attention, and disaster would surely have followed.

    Shang seemed to know what Ye Chong was thinking, and said, pleased, "Hehe, Ye, told you so. Nothing in this world is more effective and mystifying as psychology."

    Ye Chong did not care for Shang''s im, but he was beginning to be convinced of the importance of psychology.

    "Ye, your disguise just now has plenty of room for improvement. Your walking posture, for example. You should step more firmly on the heel than on the toes. And your pulse, breathing frequency, etc etc. If they had a professional spy with them just now, you would have been spotted. A sessful disguise involves many aspects, and at its core is psychology." Shang had a particr enjoyment in stepping on Ye Chong''s self esteem.

    "Alright," Ye Chong replied and began to make adjustments. Soon, he had resumed his natural walking manner.

    "Hehe, good, good. Ye, you learn fast. However, when anyone looks at you now, they''ll be able to tell that you''re someone who''s capable inbat."

    Ye Chong tilted his head and asked, "Why?"

    "Your pace and breathing are very precise. You should know that the average person''s pace and breathing fluctuate in some broad range. The truth is, Ye, you are born with traits ideal for disguise. Your body is not particrly muscr, which gives an impression of vulnerability. Your hands show no signs of training, and while they are not as smoothpared to the beautifuldies, they''re still on the fairer side. After all, these are the hardest parts to fake."

    Shang was now plenty excited, to discover this interesting puzzle. What joy! Once, Mu had given Ye Chong all kinds of training routines, and he could only watch from the side while Ye went through all of them with rigidmitment. Now he knew how wonderful it felt like! He almost suspected that Mu was secretly enjoying it as well, toe up with so many training routines.

    Hmm, perhaps he should start preparing richer content and organized training for Ye Chong. The thought of the wide variety of training routines that Mu introduced to Ye Chong inspired Shang to prepare an evenrger scaled training schedule.

    Hence, Ye Chong''s suffering began.

    Stance, breaching, pace, gaze, and even the muscles underneath his clothing - Ye Chong had never experienced a training routine harder than this. Repeating the samebat move for a hundred times was easy for Ye Chong, but how could he maintain ax gaze for 10 minutes? Ye Chong felt like a tiny drum was constantly ying in his heart. Even five seconds was too long endure, much less 10 minutes.

    Five seconds of distraction was enough for him to die half a dozen times! The thought spontaneously came to him every time.

    On the contrary, the harder routines that camete were easier for Ye Chong. This include making his eyes look uninterested, but still keeping a high vignce of his surroundings.

    Ye Chong felt like mming his head against the wall. He had never imagined that it would be so difficult to disguise as someone ordinary. He had very quick reactions, and this sensitivity was hisrgest obstacle when in disguise. For example, whenever he heard light footsteps behind him, he would automatically prepare himself physically to engage. Thisbat instinct was already deeply entrenched in him that it was almost second nature.

    After a long struggle, his stamina was depleted more than he expected. More importantly, he was mentally exhausted. This training was unlike anything he had done before.

    As he walked on the streets, Ye Chong practiced different training routines. In Shang''s words, these exercises did not involve any huge movements, and can be done even while walking. The advantages of disguising as an ordinary person were so obvious that it needed neither Shang''s exining nor Ye Chong''s figuring out. Hence, Ye Chong practiced disguising as hard as he could. He had a virtue, which was to give his all in learning something once he decided that it would be useful to him.

    So far, however, he realized that he did not have much talent in this field.

    Ye Chong abruptly stopped in his tracks and looked up at the huge holographic screen in the public square.

    "Urgent hire for close range mechbat instructors - Research Consortium." It was arge block of sentence, with no dazzling light and sound effects. Underneath it in smaller size was an address. The ad stayed on the screen for a whole five minutes.

    "Hmm, looks like a good way to earn some money," Shang spoke up in Ye Chong''s mind.

    "I agree," Ye Chong nodded and said. They had no money at all, and the problem was a significant one. He could only rely on his own since Shang could not enter the virtual world. Ye Chong had actually nned to find a mech maintenance shop and assembly shop to earn some cash.

    However, this job as a close range mechbat instructor might be worth a shot.

 Chapter 466 - Undesired Side Effects

    <h4>Chapter 466: Undesired Side Effects</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong stared at the ad on the holographic screen, lost in thought.

    He remembered when he first escaped from the trash. In the past, mechs were still new to him. Back then, long range mechs were mainstream in the Five Gxies, and few people would choose to use close range mechs. Now, he actually saw an ad for hiring close range mech instructors.

    He gathered his thoughts and decided to try it out.

    Ye Chong never had much luck in asking for the directions in the past. However, under Shang''s guidance, he found that everything went smoothly this time. With a polite tone, mellow voice, and a rxed stance, the passerby that he stopped to ask for directions quickly pointed to him in the right way. Moreover, the person even offered to bring him there.

    After aplishing this, Shang said happily, "Ye, this is the power of socializing. Often, it is more useful than brute force."

    Ye Chong silently agreed. Shang was right. Compared to grabbing someone by the throat and demanding for directions, this method was a lot more effective.

    Ye Chong began to train even more earnestly. This caused him to arrive at the hiring location in a deep state of fatigue.

    It was all too tiring! Shang had required that his disguise looked as natural as possible. This was not a problem for ordinary people, but a huge problem for Ye Chong! He was already used to being calctive and precise, and could control his breathing to be rhythmic with less than a 0.01 second difference between breaths. However, this so-called natural behavior that Shang described, with natural pulse, natural breathing, natural pace, natural muscr state, natural stance, natural gaze ¡­

    The training did not require him to move so much, but it was extremely tiring! Besides, Ye Chong had given his all into this training. Soon, undesirable side effects began to kick in.

    _______________________________________

    Brahm studied the lifeless young man before him, and frowned.

    How could people like thise to try out for the position as instructor? He smiled coldly inside. No one had tried to make trouble with the Research Consortium''s hiring process so far, but this young man must be quite daring. Given the currently urgent situation, close range mech pilots were one of the highly demanded upations. Frontline battles did not cease, but the higher-ups had still ordered for them to hire a new batch of close range mech pilots.

    Brahm immediately categorized Ye Chong as one of the troublesome youngsters in the neighborhood. He had never heard of any instructors at such a young age, with the exception of a few proteges. As for this particr young man, he looked skinny and sluggish, with eyes that stared nkly and a wooden expression. If this young man can be an instructor, then Brahm himself could very well be promoted to Commander.

    Brahm''s voice was strict. "We''re hiring close rangebat instructors here. Unrted personnel are advised to leave."

    The young man seemed unfazed, and did not prepare to leave, while still looking weary and tired.

    Ye Chong was feeling extremely exhausted! This exhaustion was unlike the physical kind, but of the mental kind. It was as if there were two personalities inside him, one destroying the other. No wonder Shang had said that physical pain was nothingpared to mental pain. Shang had even given him examples, like interrogations. Only by finding a psychological weakness in the interrogated could one be able to extract the necessary information.

    So it was like this! Ye Chong could feel a headache beginning inside his head. His whole body felt heavy and weak, and his condition deteriorated.

    There were only six people in the waiting room.

    Ye Chong was not in his best condition, but he still managed to take note of his surroundings. He heard the hiring officer''s words, but did not think that it was directed to him. Ye Chong found his mental focus bing more and more hazy.

    Unrted personnel? He was here to be interviewed, and therefore not an unrted person. Hence, Ye Chong filtered away the wordsing from Brahm.

    "Are you here for the interview?"

    Ye Chong could not understand the hostility in the officer''s voice, but he was not offended. Not that he had the energy to get worked up anyway.

    "Yes," Ye Chong replied weakly, and resumed his silence. His training required a lot of mental concentration, and his mind was beginning to have a splitting headache. His mental condition was worsening, and his thought process was heavilypromised.

    Brahm was furious seeing the young man replying without even looking him in the eye. He wasted no more words and passed a card with the number 231 on it to Ye Chong.

    "This is your number. You''ll only need to go through a test in actualbat. If you pass, you''ll be hired," Brahm exined coldly.

    "Okay," the young man acknowledged him and took the card, then entered the waiting room.

    Noticing so many people lining up in front of him as he entered thebat test arena, Ye Chong decided to find a spot in a corner and rest. He was too tired, and desperately needed to rest. Shang had not expected the huge strain his training routines had created for Ye Chong, and was not quickly modifying his training n ordingly.

    The fact Ye Chong had gone to sleep right before facing the test was a deplorable action that the all the hiring staff observed with contempt. Since when was the Research Consortium underestimated like this?

    There were many forces at y in Gray Valley, but only the Research Consortium held the highest power. They controlled all thetest tech, and had it not stood up when the red-tailed beasts appeared, the current alliance would never have been formed. So far, every round of recruitment by the Research Consortium was attended by capable men and women in Gray Valley, but even the most arrogant of them would not behave in a challenging manner.

    If the Research Consortium''s own guards were here, they would surely have chased out this young man. Anyone who could join the Research Consortium would be talented, capable, and vain. These days, as the power of the Consortium expanded in Gray Valley, they became even more conceited.

    There were many within the Consortium who were against the recruitment this time. However, since demands from the frontlines were urgent, they had to lower their standards and hire close rangebatants inrge numbers. They had so few close rangebatants that it was hard to even allocate some of them as instructors. Hence, right now they needed to hire a group of instructors to train new mech pilots, as preparation for the war at hand.

    It was generally believed by the Research Consortium and the Alliance higher-ups that the war would continue on in the near future, and this belief continued to strengthen day by day. It was because of this that the Research Consortium decided to organize close rangebat training. Gray Valley did notck talents, but, just like most other ces, long range mech pilots were more prevalent. Fortunately, most of the locals here have good fundamentals. Almost anyone can be qualified asbatants with the right training. Since close range mech pilots who fought at the frontlines were precious manpower that each force and organization would prefer to keep to themselves, it would be almost impossible to ask for them to be instructors.

    Hence, the current hiring round was established.

    The staff decided that although they could not outright throw the young man out of the room, there were other ways to teach the arrogant man a lesson.

    Ye Chong never imagined that he had unwittingly offended all the hiring staff.

    Even if he knew, however, he had better things to worry about. His situation was dire. As he had no experience in his kind of training, it had obviously overwhelmed him. This caused a series of undesirable side effects.

    Ye Chong found to his despair that he could not quite focus his thoughts. It was like having worms crawling around inside his head. Even with his eyes closed, he could not rest. It was torturing, not being able to rest despite being so very tired.

    If anyone were to attack him right now, Ye Chong was not sure if he could avoid it.

    "Who''d have imagined that this training in disguise has such annoying side effects?" Ye Chong thought to himself bitterly. It was fortunate that Shang was with him, or he would have been entirely defenseless.

    With his distracted eyes and rigid facial muscles, Ye Chong looked like a century-old zombie. Everyone who walked passed him looked at him with disdain.

    "Number 231! Number 231! Please report immediately to thebat zone for your test!" A hiring staff yelled loudly.

    Shang spoke up, "Ye, it''s your turn."

    "Oh," Ye Chong replied weakly, and stood up with shaky legs.

    The hiring staff yelled again, "Number 231? Where are you?"

    "Here, " a tired voice replied from a corner of the room.

    Sweep! Everyone in the room turned to look at the source of the voice. It came from azy, weary looking young man half slumped against the wall, with his right hand lifted up shakily.

    "Bravo, Ye, bravo!" Shang sounded most excited. "You''re now definitely qualified to be the Most Depressed Youngster of the Year!"

    Most depressed youngster? What kind of d*mned award was that? Ye Chong did not even have the mood tough mockingly to himself. He mind drew a nk. Everything he saw looked like an illusion. The effects of overusing his brain were dead serious!

    No matter the time and ce, Ye Chong''s aura of intensity was hard to disguise, but now he looked like an entirely different person.

    Shang was positively exhrated. "Ye, your disguise now is superb! Tsk tsk, I didn''t expect you to learn so quickly. Changing your whole aura is the hardest trick! Hehe, Ye, if some beauty happened to see you now, she''d fall head over heels for you ¡­"

    Ye Chong decided not to reply to Shang. Even keeping his eyes open was a chore right now.

    The people around him were giving him nces that spelled condescension, disdain, confusion ¡­

    "What''re you standing there for? Hurry up!" The hiring staff looked annoyed.

    Ye Chong felt like he was walking in a daydream. The people around him shook like apparitions. Every step felt like a walk on clouds, as though he could stumble at any time.

    To the rest of the people, this obvious depressed and tired young man was walkingzily, with his eyes barely open. The rest of the people who came for the interview shook their heads. How can someone like him be here? It was a joke! Combat skills were necessary for every close rangebat mech pilot. Hence, these mech pilots were expected to walk steadily with a focused gaze. This young man was obviously not fit for the task.

    The rest of the interviewees looked insulted. To them, the presence of this young man was a humiliation to them all!

    The distance from his corner to thebat test arena was only a mere 50 meters, but Ye Chong thought it felt like a mile away.

    Phew, finally there! Ye Chong never expected to be weakened to this extent. Just 50 meters had cost him dearly. In fact, Ye Chong could hardly think clearly right now. Had he been more sensible, he would have given up on the job.

    Ye Chong stood rigidly in the test arena with his mind nk.

 Chapter 467 - Instinct

    <h4>Chapter 467: Instinct</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Taylor looked at the spiritless young man in front of him. He was an experienced close range mech pilot, and could of course read his opponents well. What he saw was baffling - what was a man like this doing participating in this test?

    There were two parts to thebat test. The first was in hand-to-handbat, and the other mechbat. Bothponents were dangerous in their own ways. The hand-to-handbat test right now could result in minor injuries, or even death.

    "Are you sure you want to participate in this test?" Taylor asked the young man out of concern. Taylor was strong and looked brutish, but he was not unkind.

    The other man did not react, his eyes half closed. It looked like he was sleeping.

    Taylor knitted his brows together, offended. He had warned him out of kindness, but waspletely ignored in turn.

    With that, Taylor humped coldly, stepped forward and reached out with his right hand towards Ye Chong''s shoulder. As the other man did not respond, Taylor decided to just fling him out of the arena.

    Taylor''s move won the admiration of the hiring staff who were watching. His move was clear cut and fast, as a professional would have done.

    Taylor was an examiner, and it was only that he was capable. He had been conducting a few rounds of thesebat tests earlier, and the audience had witnessed his moves. Everyone there believed that the young man was about to be thrown out of the arena. However, some of the hiring staff thought that they were too easy on the young man. However, knowing that Taylor was in charge of the test, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

    What happened next in the arena waspletely unexpected!

    Ye Chong''s condition did not improve. Shang''s training conflicted heavily with his natural instincts. The mental strain on him caused his mind to simply nk out.

    However, despite his terrible condition, there was one thing that he had yet to lose!

    Instinct! Honed by thousands and millions of training sessions, forged in the crucible of repeated encounters with life threatening battles - his instinct!

    Ever since his life began on the trash, Ye Chong had grown up withbat as an integral part of his life. After all these years,bat was already second nature to him.

    Hence, when he detected the danger that wasing, Ye Chong''s body moved on its own.

    The rest of his body remained still while his right shoulder pulled back, and his hanging right arm reached up smoothly like a snake, striking towards Taylor''s right hand like a thunderbolt. The power of the September Lan Family''s secret technique - its second-to-none ability in muscle control was unleashed in all its glory.

    If Taylor''s right arm was caught by Ye Chong''s right arm, the former''s arm would surely be broken in several parts.

    The unexpected turn of events shocked everyone outside the arena!

    Taylor''s eyes turned cold. He flipped his right wrist and met Ye Chong''s right hand with his.

    m!

    The clear sound of forceful contact reverberated in the entire arena. It was not the sound of punching or blocking, but more like a the crack of a whip.

    The clear sound was like the opening note of a melody.

    m m m m ¡­

    Without warning, a series of thunderps sounded rapidly, one after another.

    Those who were watching stared in astonishment. They were thoroughly surprised. What was happening now waspletely different from what they expected. The two men traded blows in moves so quick that it was hard to make them out individually.

    Taylor''s attack seemed to have triggered some part of Ye Chong. With the external stimulus, Ye Chong''s body reacted in the most natural way - it retaliated!

    The battle was unusually fierce. Within the arena, the two men moved quickly, leaving afterimages that blurred out the original fighters. The viewers could only see human-shaped shadows moving about.

    However, the unceasing sounds of attacking and blocking one another made the fight even more exciting to watch. Such an awesome battle could hardly be found anywhere. The spectators leaned forward as much as they could, opening their eyes wide, for fear of missing a single detail.

    From the looks of it, the two men fought with equal prowess. However, the level of ability that they showed was shocking. How good was Taylor? When he was testing the other interviewees, the people had roughly guessed his worth. However, from this current test, it seemed that the man had hidden most of his full potential. Even the few people who had passed the test earlier paled right now, grateful that they were not tested like this.

    Taylor''s true strength was impressive, but understandable. After all, how could a person be an examiner without the ability to back him up?

    More shocking was the man fighting against Taylor right now - Number 231! From the beginning, everyone had thought that he was probably some useless hoodlum, but now it seemed that he was actually very strong. Of the few hundred people watching, none could tell that he was faking it. This skill that he demonstrated was an unpleasant surprise to many, and one of them was Brahm. He recalled the way he spoke to the young man earlier and felt a chill ran up his spine.

    Finger, wrist, elbow, shoulder, knee, leg - there was no body part that this young man could not twist to his own will. The usual physical logic that bound the average human body did not seem to apply to him.

    Close rangebat was Taylor''s specialty. He never expected to be suppressed by someone else using the same technique!

    Suppressed - that was the word. To outsiders, both of them seemed to be equally strong. However, Taylor knew that he was actuallypletely under the control of his opponent!

    The other man could attack in physically impossible ways, his attacksing from the most unimaginable angles. Moreover, the man had enough power behind his punches. Fighting in this small arena, Taylor could feel that the strength in his opponent''s attacks never faltered, while his own hands were growing numb.

    A strange body, making strange attacks, but stranger still was the expression on the man''s face. It was wooden and inexpressive. The transparent gray eyes looked unfocused. Every time he met the man''s eyes, Taylor felt a chill crawling up his spine.

    Ye Chong''s mind was nk. He did not know what he was doing. His mind was overly exhausted that he sumbed to a state of unawareness. Everything he did was not the product of prolongedbat training.

    His condition was a very unusual state. Everything he did was out of instinct. If his body sensed danger, it would immediately react. The reaction was quick, requiring no explicit thought to execute it. That was why, driven by instinct, Ye Chong was able to move so quickly, and his reactions were more straightforward and sensitive. It was in this state that Ye Chong finally reached a whole new level in terms of the speed of his hands.

    Ye Chong''s hands could already move at a speed that would astound most people, and now, he was even faster. Taylor could only hold them off with no room to do anything more against his continuous attacks. However, little did he know that, due to lesser attacks from him, the degree of retaliation that he received from Ye Chong decreased as well.

    Ye Chong''s every reaction was in response to threatening external stimuli. When Taylor could not afford to make any attack moves, Ye Chong fought back less as a result of instinct.

    While Taylor could not understand the reason for it, he did notice the pattern, and it was a huge relief. Once he stopped initiating attacks, the opponent would also fight back less.

    A couple of times he slowed down in his moves, and as expected, the other man did not attack back as much. Once, he tried to first hold back his attacks, then suddenly strike out!

    The strike nearly cost him his life.

    Before he could even reach the corner of the other man''s sleeve, his opponent seemed to have foreseen his attack, and suddenly hit back with an abrupt increase in intensity. Had he not been prepared for it, Taylor would have died right then. However, a few punches barely grazed past his face, and the pain and shock from it was enough to make him sweat.

    This strange young man was like a hedgehog, not to be touched. If you leave it alone, it would be no danger. If you identally touched it, the sharp spikes would definitely prick you.

    Taylor had the feeling that this strange young man was a little off in the head, but he was also grateful of it. Had his opponent been normal, this fight would have turned out differently.

    Now, his highest priority was to make the strange young man stop fighting. As he tried desperately to block his opponent''s attacks, Taylor thought hard. He dared to speak up and leave an opening. It would be fatally dangerous to present an opening when fighting against someone so strong.

    Suddenly, an idea came to him.

    Hence, the audience watched something weird happened.

    Both men began to slow down their movements. The afterimages disappeared. It became easier and easier to follow their every move.

    Both men traded blows in slower and slower rhythm. In the next moment, it was like watching two elderlies trade punches.

    This was puzzling to the audience. What kind of fight was this?

    Taylor slowly rxed himself, moving his around softly like waving off mosquitoes, afraid to trigger any crazy reaction from the young man again.

    It worked, to his surprise. He made himself move even more slowly and non-threateningly, and his opponent''s attacks immediately lessened drastically.

    When the time came, Taylor stepped back abruptly like a startled rabbit. Just as he was out of range of the young man, thetter immediately froze on the spot.

    Taylor stared at the rigidly standing young man before him, making sure that he would not fight back again, and heaved a long sigh of relief. He wiped off the cold sweat gathering on his forehead, saw the people who were watching them with astonishment, and blushed.

    Fortunately, he was as skilled inbat as he was in formalities. He cleared his throat and announced, "Number 231 has passed the test. The next test is mechbat."

    Good thing he was only in charge of hand-to-handbat. If this was an actual fight ¡­ Taylor shuddered at the thought.

 Chapter 468 - A Pilot with no Mech

    <h4>Chapter 468: A Pilot with no Mech</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong eventually regained himself, though not really in his prime at the moment. There was a drought happening in his throat, an earthquake in his head. His focus was everywhere that he could only let off a bitterugh.

    How did I get to the field? What had just happened? Oh my Fal gxy, is this the execution?

    He somehow knew something but he could not recall.

    "Number 231, Number 231, please proceed to the mech practical test area."

    Number 231, that''s me. But¡­

    Ye Chong was confused as he looked at the strange and frightful gazes from the surrounding. He felt respect but it was a different kind of respect, not the one he got when he was with the Sangs, there was¡­ something else?

    "Mu, what just happened?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Oh nothing," said Shang briefly. "You passed the test."

    "Mhm," muttered Ye Chong as he forsook the question. Passing the test was part of his expectation, if that was the case, nothing should be wrong. Well, if Ye Chong could not pass the test, something must be wrong.

    But then¡­

    Ugh! For Fal''s sake, my head is pounding again!

    "Shang, my head," said Ye Chong firmly.

    "It''s typical. You just need a short rest. The pain would fade away a momentter. No aftereffect. Hahaha, Ye, rx~ It''s not like you''ll be on the wheelchair after this. No permanent damage I promise. Mhm, I indeed had improvised the training course. So, you are fine, just give your body some time¡­"

    It did not sound all fine from Shang''s tone. Ye Chong knew this partner notorious of the abominable conduct of his. He began wondering of what reason in Fal he even nodded to this training course in the first ce. He missed Mu, at least Mu was constructively helpful, unlike somebody.

    Nevertheless, despite the despicable tone, Shang was apparently speaking the truth, as Ye Chong could feel the pain lifting, although his focus was scattered as before, at least the cloud of agony was parting away in his head. He had always been highly confident of his will and tolerance towards pain, but such kind of headache was something too much to be part of the training. It was simply too dangerous,Ye Chong literally lost control of his body the moment he went out of focus.

    So, he must never be back to that condition anymore.

    And Ye Chong was pretty certain that Shang the genius did not foresee such horrible consequence of his "impable" training, or Shang would never allow Ye Chong to try it at the beginning.

    Dragged the steps which felt boulders, Ye Chong could hear his mind giggling pitifully. It was as if his legs were made out of tentacles, he could not feel his thighs.

    The bit of warmup did act like a form of basic recovery to his strength, which was relieving. Seriously he would not want to encounter anything at the moment, he would be passive at the situation if something happened.

    The mech practical test area and thebat test area were in two different venues. Under the escort of the staff, he made his way to the mech test area. He can hear the passionate clinking of two machines brawling the moment he stepped into the zone.

    It felt like not Brahm''s day today, he thought he had met a weakling, during which he took the encounter roughly and did not watch hisnguage. Who knows he was then assigned to escort Number 231, the "weakling" he presumed, to the mech brawling zone. The dried tears over his face¡­ he felt he would need to make a dive to a ck hole at the moment, so he could just vanish for good. He was just an ordinary working staff after all and he had just messed with the wrong person.

    Please, god, hear me out. Save me from this barbarian!

    The way to the next area was torturing to him as he guided Ye Chong. He imagined his every step being thest on the way.

    It felt heavenly the moment they arrived by the gate. "Thank you, sir, good bye!" And Ye Chong could no longer find Brahm in the next second.

    "Ye, can you still fight?" asked Shang in concern.

    "Uhh¡­" Ye Chong could feel his body recovering, he tried lifting his limbs, "No problem. I guess." Well, what defined as "problem" to Ye Chong was probably the problem of self-security, which technically tranted as whether Ye Chong could guard himself from attacks. But he was still far from what he usually was. The fainting effect was something he still shunned.

    He was not in his prime but he would not want to miss the only opportunity to make a fortune. He would kill for a piece of gold or two right now, as he had nothing in his purse, unless he decided to live the following days with nutrition capsules which tasted like dirt, or he would need real cash for real edibles. To leave Gray Valley, he also needed some information, what kept the broker talking was also the pile of real cold cash.

    He gazed into the area as he observed the mech of the examiner, which was a traditional humanoid unit that wielded a sword and shield, nothing particrly strange, although he must admit that the examiner was a good pilot. The mech moved steadily as waving forcibly upon its opponent, threatening it certainly looked. The opposing pilot was tasting every sh and dash the examiner made, with no chance to fight back.

    The tight chain of attacks was truly a puzzlement, especially when the examiner did not seem to be holding back even under a winning fight, at all.

    He had experience, a strong mentality.

    Judged Ye Chong in his mind.

    There would be a handful of counters to take such type of pilot out. It should be cake-walk except Ye Chong was half-drunk at the moment. He was not sure how far he could fight on the field. Technically no miracle would happen when you fought a pilot like the examiner, he was not the kind who would make silly mistakes and giveaways. It was justifiable as Ye Chong observed no opening on the mech''s defense.

    At the spectators'' area, the youngsters were watching the fight excitingly as their loud conversation was able to reach Ye Chong.

    "That sh. Such an examiner. The opponent could not even fight back. Man, only if he''s our instructor, we would not need to recruit these clowns, I mean, look at these people who came for the audition, not even 10 out of the hundreds could have a chance fighting the examiner." Said the ck-haired boy.

    "Him as our instructor? In your dreams! The examiner had just returned from the frontline, he kills the red-tailed beasts like slicing salmons. Did you know? He had killed over 10 of those horrors. So, don''t even think about him instructing us. I had heard rumors that it took the authority countless attempts to even get him to the field. Rather than making such stupid daydream, why don''t you think about the right ss to attendter?"

    The ck-haired boy was aware of his sleep-talk so he just proceeded with the next topic, "So Xi Qing, which instructor''s ss are you joining?"

    Xi Qing was a young man with golden hair and a rather mature feature for his age, though his expression seemed to retain the youth''s naivety, "Number 79 seems alright, I mean, his attacks are pretty outstanding. The only problem is whether if he would teach us seriously. Number 140¡­ hmm, seems fine as well. White, how about you?"

    The ck-haired boy scratched his head, "I dunno. I still find the examiner the best."

    "White, please." Shook Xi Qing, "Please have your attention back onto the participants, or you would be getting nothing in the end." Apparently, his advice had fallen upon deaf ears, White was having his eyes glued on the examiner still.

    The Research Consortium had invested a lot in conducting the training ss this time. Almost every city with fine infrastructure would have a training ss itself, to which the consortium had provided bountiful rewards, like an advanced mech model for example. Anyone who could pass the training as well as the final examination would be rewarded handsomely.

    The consortium had made consecutive efforts in promoting the ss. They had slogans like, "Protect Yourself, Your Family, the Gray Valley" and produced heroic imagery of those pilots from the frontline, which had attracted enough attentions from the youngsters who wanted to join the tower defense of Gray Valley. Well the Research Consortium was influential to an extent indeed.

    Among the youngsters, some did strive for protection, some however wanted the rewards and the pride. They were hitting the same path anyway - they would be giving their future to the war field.

    "Yes? You don''t have a mech?" The staff was perplexed by Ye Chong''s statement.

    "Mhm," muttered Ye Chong expressionlessly. He must be the pilot with no mech, since any mech of his collection was clearly a thing that would hoard attention. No Han Jia, the wings wererge enough to be on the news. Skeleton Mechs? The whole gxy would know by then. Shang? Hah. He never appeared in Ye Chong''s mind, not even once. He did have Valiance but that mech clearly defined itself from the outside with He Yue designs.

    Hmm. It looks like he had to do something else.

    Ye Chong was nning to leave.

    I mean, a pilot with no mech? Even I myself find this ridiculous.

 Chapter 469 - Experiment Unit

    <h4>Chapter 469: Experiment Unit</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Hold it right there." A voiceing from a middle-aged plump man stopped Ye Chong, .

    It was the top leader of the recruitment, Mr. Powell.

    "What do you mean by that?" asked Powell, slightly displeased, when he apparently overheard the exchange between Number 231 and the staff, in which Number 231 was making his withdrawal from the recruitment drive.

    If it was not of all timings, Powell just so happened to be walking by the test area while spotting that drowsy-looking boy making suchment he would not have run all his way to the boy. The boy had given him an epic fighting scene, nearly unforgettable in his mind, in which those afterimages danced to crosses as the sounds of raiding punches and kicks came raining like a storm. To be frank, Ye Chong had technically drained everyst ounce of vitality of Taylor in that battle. So Taylor had to call it a day early, while requesting a new examiner to take over. Powell asked Taylor''s opinion in the following moves and Taylor''s replies were rather shocking. In his gasping words, Taylor illustrated his losing fight with this boy, on how he was just barely holding the giant''s step which he would never have a chance to ovee the whole time.

    Well, Powell had zero knowledge onbats but he felt he had gotten a fish on the hook, arge one too!

    So Powell came all the way to check Number 231 out, but never he once expected that this Number 231 was going to leave for good. He got to do something to stop Number 231.

    He listened to his staff to get a grip on the situation.

    "He has no mech?" Powell flinched, that was never part of his prediction. A pilot with no mech? It sounded as far-fetched as finding lights in ck hole, or picking blues from the red-tailed beasts.

    "Just a moment, young man." He would not let Ye Chong go just yet, "We do¡­ have a few new units in the storage¡­ Mhm, and by that I meant the closebat model," he muttered, in suggestive tone to his staff.

    "Yes sir but¡­ the newest closebat model contains only the experiment unit. Other than that we only had a few ranged models and a handful of abandoned units," replied the staff.

    "An experiment unit?" Powell frowned.

    "Yes sir, it''s been there¡­ for 5 to 6 years. Part of the failed experiment¡­ I heard¡­," replied the staff sluggishly.

    A product of a failed experiment? Powell finally understood the situation, of how this experiment unit ended up at his storage. The consortium liked experimenting modification and creation of all sorts of mech, which resulted in an enormous amount of experiment failures that ended up in the storage for the rest of all eternity.

    "Well, are you willing to try? We could only offer you this mech." Said Powell, with little hesitation. That was the only thing he could say anyway, he had already lost faith in the situation, like which insane fellow would agree on piloting an failed produ-

    "Okay." Ye Chong actually nodded at the offer.

    Ye Chong felt it was at least a mech to work things on. It was not like he would be lose anything for piloting a mech with issues. So, why not?

    "Okay?" Powell was confused, butter his eyes lustered with impression, "Okay. He''ll lead you to the storage for the unit."

    And there Ye Chong was, at the storage which looked spacious with only a few mechs standing by the piles of parts.

    "If you are wondering about the space, well, the storage used to be full. Thanks to the war, the frontline demands all sorts of resources they could use, so most of the mechs in the storage had been sent there and we are only left with these few experiment units," said the staff, who led Ye Chong to the corner.

    "And among them, this is the only closebat model. You can try it now." The staff pointed at one mech covered in dust.

    The mech had been spending thest 5 years with the dust. It was at a horrible location to be noticed and nobody liked to have their duty roster at the storage. When Ye Chong first saw the mech, he had only perceived a giant lump of dust. The working staff did not intend to even approach the dusty history an inch closer.

    Ye Chong did not mind however, as he had spent probably his younger days at the filthiest, terrifying entire globe of trash before. The dusty history was just something normal.

    He ced his hand over the mech, as if giving a new life, he forcibly swiped over the surface, the dust of the ancient danced in the air under the dimmp.

    The working staff had already retreated himself. He needed not to watch the young man, not like there was anything worth to keep an eye on in the storage.

    The identity of the mech had finally been restored as the dust took off.

    It was a mech with ck and white stripes, yet without the usual metallic glow of the mechs out there. It was something different from what Ye Chong had encountered in the past. It exuded some kind of ssiness not very attention-seeking to his sense. Most humanoid units would have a bnced proportion across the limbs and the main body. However this mech was having an inted set of limbs, just like someone who overtrained the arms and legs and missing out the body. There was a tiny V-shaped shield on the arm and that was the only thing considerably as "weapon" on its entire body.

    Ye Chong, as a mech mod technician, was absolutely interested in freakish mechs like this.

    He uncovered the cabin, in which he saw a triangr control panel - a design again different from what he used to see, likewise the buttonyout.

    Ye Chong could not help but to boot the tutorial from the processor, so he could have an idea on how to move the limbs at least.

    It took Ye Chong about an hour to have a rough idea on how to make the basic moves and also the reason why no one who would be interested of even touching this freak for the past 5 years.

    It was a unique mech. Ye Chong had witnessed and also created countless strange mechs but this one was truly unique.

    This mech was a closebat model, precisely, a closebat model onnd*, purely forbats onnd. Itsck of versatility had determined its doomed fate of being part of the storage since its creation.

    There was only one thrusting engine for really basic aerial mobility. Again, it was a thrusting engine, so what it did best was probably only thrusting, it would not turn as flexibly as one imagined. So the aerial mobility was a jetpack mobility, which had determined the fact that it would never fight in the air since anyone even from the flea market knew an aerial battle required mobility and dexterity.

    But well, this mech was not as useless in Ye Chong''s eyes.

    As long as it was deployed at the right ce, it would go well.

    Ye Chong thought to himself.

    The secondary engines were installed on the limbs of the mech, which gave horrendous strength to those arms and legs. Technically, Ye Chong imagined the mech to elerate using the explosive sprinting ability. Those secondary engines were not for eleration but a form of strength reinforcement. Unlike most mechs, this design was rather humane, to an extent that it also required a point to exert the momentum like how humans ran on ground for example, but that was a big no-no to most pilots who desired the elegant turns in the air.

    So to amodate such unique battle style, the designer also gave an overhaul to the control panel which turned out to be a horror to most pilots. It was so revolutionary that no pilot would stay upon opening the cabin.

    That was why, the mech had been living with the dirt, at the darkest corner of the storage.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong saw that outstanding luster in this mech. The designer must be a great Maverick, Ye Chong could see this from the programming of the processor itself, especially when calcting the gravitational force bncing, in which Ye Chong believed to be the best he had seen so far. Generally, the processor would calcte the center of gravity of the mech on every action while producing the appropriate recalibration coping with the changes. This mech provided the most motion stability among all units Ye Chong had deployed so far.

    The strength of the limbs was a plus when engaging a closebat, which transformed the mech into a total nightmare since it could just strike like Hercules.

    And Ye Chong then found arge inventory of gadgets in the storing unit of the mech. Apparently, to maintain its mobility on ground, the mech was not armed with heavy weaponry. Instead it went with the gadgets.

    There were parrying spears,ser swords, shurikens, de underfoot, arm guard, springing knife on knees, elbow thrust¡­

    This mech was literally a humanoid weaponry. Ye Chong was amazed by the design, as all these gadgets were hidden perfectly across the entire body. The designer was a genius, or probably a lunatic, a super lunatic!

    The pilot of this mech had to have a certain degree of foundation on martial arts, especially the appropriate method to exert strength so one could maximize the mech''s speed on foot. It sounded like Ye Chong, who was blessed with September Lan''s techniques and martial arts experience. To be honest, the mech looked like arger version of the Guardian.

    Well, the only problem left would be this odd control panel.

    He had grown onto the traditional designs and it would take a considerable amount of time before he got familiar on this bizarre interface. And it would be horrible if he pressed the wrong button when he thought he knew what he was doing inbat.

    Habit was something that killed adaptability and probably himself!

    Ye Chong, who was left with no option, eventually started practicing on this mech. At least he was not resistant to the bizarreness of the mech since he had been piloting all kinds of mechs over the years.

    The storage was shaking as there was a bulky mech jumping and skipping, crashing into racks around, like a newborn to his steps.

 Chapter 470 - A Clumsy Debut

    <h4>Chapter 470: A Clumsy Debut</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was far-fetched even for the greatest pilot to familiarize himself with a new mech within a few hours, especially when the mech was so "outstanding" itself. If one was working on a standard model, one could at least make the necessary dodges and shes during a simple audition like this, but Ye Chong was not with the norms it seemed.

    The mech not only had a non-mainstream battle style but also a funny interface. It took Ye Chong 5 hours to pass the tutorial - how to move the mech and not look like someone who graduated from pilot school yesterday.

    Ye Chong was aware of his limitation yet he still worked hard in mastering the controls. Well, he had long discarded the thoughts of getting through the recruitment, knowing the standard of this examiner who swung steadily like a true warrior on a war field, unlike Ye Chong who was piloted an anomaly while being in a deviated health condition. Everything felt unrealistic but so relieving too¡­

    Ye Chong, without being burdened by the obliged victory, was having fun fiddling the controls of his new toy. Throughout the curious learning on the new mech, he started to feel its potential, a great potential too. To be honest, he had a stunning collection of mechs, which simply deploying them would grab unwanted attention, so this new mech, well, would be a pretty good alternative when he needed some mechanical help. He had made up his mind, that he would be "borrowing" this mech from the storage after the recruitment drive ended.

    It should not be hard and nobody would actually cared he reckoned, since there was nothing much in the storeroom, there was no guard too and Shang approved this n.

    When Ye Chong was indulged in something, he would lose the sense of time. He wondered if it was because of the tranquility he got when he studied something or the validity of Shang''s statement that he would recover in no time, as he was truly recovering rapidly and he had felt normal at the moment.

    "Number 231. Please, proceed to the test area." It was till the working staff called him from outside the storage when he realized the hours passed.

    5 hours hadpsed and he only felt the hunger as he smelled the scrumptious food on the table aside. Without hesitation he ran towards the table gracelessly and the working staff was rolling his eyes in the dark, wondering why Mr. Powell the leader was giving so much attention on this boy. The disdain in his eyes intensified when he saw Ye Chong gargling and crunching like a caveman.

    After Ye Chong had filled himself, he finally started checking out the running examination.

    It was another examiner, whose mech was much advanced model than the previous, Ye Chong could tell from the enhancement in speed and dexterity. The examiner was more skillful as well, since he was able to demonstrate more shy moves which were challenging to execute consecutively, consisting of epic turns and dodges. The youngsters were hurrahing.

    The mech was also a humanoid mech armed with a sword like the examiner before, but looking way cooler with a purple metallic edge on its armor and a golden glow from itsser de.

    As Ye Chong observed, he could not help but to shake his head. Those moves were surely shier than the examiner before but they only could serve decorative, staging purpose. This examiner was weaker as he had actual openings between each of his moves. It was merely because the moves were chained so rapidly that there seemed to be any opportunity to attack, unlike the examiner before who had an impable defense on his every move.

    Xi Qing was also shaking his head.

    "Xi Qing, what''s wrong?" asked White.

    "Nothing. I just find this examiner much weaker than thest. I just afraid that he would affect the standard of our new instructors."

    "What? Xi Qing, how so? Why would you feel that he''s bad? I think he''s pretty good, I mean, look at his steps, they look so cool! His turns are unpredictable too. How I wish I could have his standard one day¡­," said White.

    Xi Qing was silent since then, knowing that White was the typical deaf ears to his words so he just kept his focus at the field. He was worried as none of the examiners was satisfying to his eyes thus far.

    It was then the candidate was struck down by the examiner''s shy side kick. Announcing the candidate''s defeat, the youngsters were totally excited as a fiasco could be seen at the spectators'' area. Xi Qing had noment on this, he just crossed this candidate out on his handbook.

    "Number 231, Number 231, please proceed to the test ground."

    Xi Qing then wrote "231" on his handbook and just watched.

    Powell was on the top of the area, having the best view of the fight.

    "Finally¡­ 231 is on¡­" Muttered he as he reminisced the few epic scenes conducted by this mysterious boy. He was enthralled. "But well¡­" He went cold quickly, as he remembered that the boy was merely a pilot with no mech. "How much can I expect from a pilot with no mech?" He still retained a little expectation on this boy nevertheless.

    "Hahaha!!"

    "Look at that!"

    "What is that¡­ thing¡­"

    The moment Ye Chong entered the field in the experiment unit, people wereughing uncontrobly. The mech did look awkward¡­ as if some deformed baby. It took a few minutes for the mech toplete its debut as unlike most mechs, this mech just dawdled its way to the center.

    "What?" Powell could not believe his eyes, never once he imagined the experiment unit being such a failure. He would never let Number 231 pilot it if he did.

    Upon seeing the disproportionally designed machine, Xi Qing shook his head again, the tip of his pen was going to make the first sh of the cruel cross, but it stopped. "On second thought¡­" Xi Qing decided to watch the fight first.

    In the midst ofughter, there was a group of people watching Number 231''s entry in dead silence. They were the following candidates and had witnessed Number 231''s performance before.

    They were convinced by Number 231''s strength and surely one with such strength would possess a mech befitting to his capabilities. They would not look down upon the mech because of its appearance.

    They were anticipating more surprises from Number 231.

    Ye Chong was calm, as he seemed to have recovered to his prime.

    If he were to fight against the examiner before, he doubted he would stand a chance. But he was going to fight a different examiner and against this examiner, he felt he had a better chance.

    The examiner was none other than a piece of vase, one with only the outside. That was Ye Chong''sment as he perceived the showy tendency of this examiner. He was not sure if the unting habit came from the examiner himself or it was a side effect of the screams by the spectators. Ye Chong felt everything was unnecessary and pointless. It was a poor habit that he could utilize to maximize his likelihood to victory!

    Moreover, this examiner seemed to fancy turns a lot. Making turns was the bread and butter of Ye Chong''s battle after conducting the intensive training course designed by Mu. He had a deeper understanding of turn-leaping during his adventure and he believed the experience would be helpful in this fight.

    Ye Chong was looking still above the triangr control panel, as the mech clumsily sank in the ground.

    "Start!"

    The opposing mechunched itself towards Ye Chong. The pilot seemingly wanted a quick fight, which indirectly could be tranted as the pilot did not see Number 231 a worthy opponent in his eyes.

    Ye Chong was not reacting towards the examiner''s arrogance.

    Ye Chong''s mind captured a few spots. The left rib, the right knee! If he was piloting Han Jia, he was confident to attack any of those critical points within the few seconds. Then it would indeed be a quick fight, as the examiner wished, just the oue would be different to what he presumed.

    Too bad Ye Chong was not piloting Han Jia.

    Ye Chong eventually had to give up the one golden opportunity to attack since he was sitting in a piece of failed experiment unit.

    His hands foreignly inputted a fewmands, which prompted the mech to make a heavy stomp and a guard with its arms.

    Xi Qing shook his head helplessly as he found Number 231''s moves to be rather jarring.

    Certainly the candidates were feeling the same too. They were surprised.

    "When did they allow greenhorns to join the consortium?"

    "Talking about standards¡­"

    Ye Chong was on his guard. A guarding mech would have a smaller and manageable movements, while giving higher demand towards prediction on the foe''s moves. Well that was not challenging to Ye Chong, at all.

    He had a n in his mind. The experiment mech curled itself up, waiting for the attack!

 Chapter 471 - Fissure Strangle

    <h4>Chapter 471: Fissure Strangle</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Hahah ¡­"

    "Haha ¡­ Oh my God ¡­ It''s too much ¡­ Ohh ¡­ No no no ¡­ My stomach hurts ¡­ Hahaha ¡­"

    The entire audience in the mechbat test arena was roaring withughter. The young people on the stageughed even more tickled, doubling over withughter. Even Brahm could not help but smiled.

    It was truly a very amusing spectacle. The examiner circled around the strange looking mech while attacking, but the metal stump could always avoid the attacks with all kinds of weird movements. It was not just weird to watch, for the mech itself looked like an oddball, so the end result wasedic instead.

    The odd mech suddenly put its left hand and feet to the ground, attempting to do a side flip and avoid the examiner''s attack. The thickset metal limbs of the metal stump flipped unceremoniously to the side, and crashed into the ground during its unsteady maneuver. The huge fellow crashed down loudly like a building, kicking up dust that covered the examiner''s mech in ayer of dirt.

    This invited even moreughter from the floor.The youngsters who were bending over themselves, catching a breath, nowughed again, but their faces showed the pain they were now experiencing in their abdomen.

    Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong felt helpless. He had wanted to enter amand to do a horizontal step, but the mech had done a horizontal flip instead. Surprised by the mistake, Ye Chong keyed in another erroneousmand, and the mech went off bnce and crashed into the ground.

    Ye Chong was already used to making a series of mistake in a row by now. There was nothing he could do about it. The controls were ced differently than he was used to, and that was a very fatal weakness inbat.

    The only reason he had not lost yet was his ability to read his opponent''s intentions and react ordingly. Of course, there was also a bit of luck involved. Else, he would have lost a long time ago.

    Even so, he was now ying apletely passive role.

    The examiner was also puzzled and annoyed. No matter how he looked at it, he had the advantage, while the d*mned Number 231 could not even afford to attack him. However, the clumsy metal stump was incredibly lucky, avoiding all his attacks in ridiculously humiliating ways every single time. This annoyed him to no end.

    However, he had decided to end this fight with a killer move!

    "Humph, let''s see if you''ll avoid this!" The examiner thought to himself, his eyes ring inside the pilot cabin. He was now positively furious.

    The examiner''s hands flew across his controls, entering the necessarymands. His mech retreated unexpectedly, widening the distance between him and Ye Chong.

    Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong''s face remain expressionless, but the deep calm in his eyes was tinged with worry.

    "So? How''s the test going?" A casual voice asked from behind Brahm.

    Brahm turned over to see a middle-aged man, his upper half body naked, walking towards him. He slung a towel over his shoulder, and his muscles glistened with undried sweat.

    Brahm considered for a moment and replied, "It''s getting interesting."

    The middle-aged man sat down heavily beside Brahm, looking surprised. "If even you think it''s interesting, it must be very much indeed."

    "Well, see for yourself." Brahm nodded towards the test arena below.

    "Hehe, I will," the other man said without meaning it as he dried himself with his towel.

    Brahm turned his attention from the fight to the man sitting beside him, and spoke earnestly, "Tong, thank you for this." The man called Tong was the examiner who piloted the mech with the shield and sword. He was sent here on a mission, and since Brahm received orders to help with the instructor''s hiring process, he had volunteered for to be a guest examiner.

    Tong waved off his words. "It''s no big deal, don''t worry about it. I haven''t had a chance to fight sinceing back from the front line. It was enjoyable to say the least."

    "How''s the situation at the front line? You know that the news we get here is mixed in with gossip and rumors, it''s hard to figure out what''s really going on." Brahm sat up straight and looked at Tong.

    Tong shook his head. "We''re not doing so well. So far, we''re in a stalemate. People die at the front line everyday. We know too little about those creature." He paused, looked around them for eavesdroppers, then leaned closer to Brahm and said in a low voice, "Not long ago, Arwa''s scouts found a very strong red-tailed beast nearby, right at the edge of the asteroid zone. Only three out of 30 in the scouting squad came back alive."

    "What?" Brahm turned pale, but quicklyposed himself. He looked around to see if anyone noticed, then leaned towards Tong and spoke shakily, "What you''re saying is ¡­"

    The two of them exchange a long lok. Tong nodded solemnly and said, "Yes. The higher-ups are wondering if there are other red-tailed beasts that have already infiltrated Gray Valley."

    Brahm''s face was drained of blood. He was a nonbatant still, having never been on the battlefield, and he was shocked by the news. Tong patted Brahm lightly by the shoulder to soothe him, and said, "Don''t worry too much about it. Even if they''re here, the soldiers will fight them first." He added, "Don''t tell anyone about this. It''s ssified military information, hehe." However, from the way he told it, it did look like he cared much for so-called ssified information.

    Suddenly, the spectators in the arena roared in excitement, attracting their attention.

    Two light yellow trails dissolved like crystals into the air.

    At the beginning of these two trails were the examiner''s shiningser katars [1] that he held in his hands.

    The examiner sat in his pilot cabin, his eyes full of disbelief.

    He ¡­ He missed!

    How was that possible? That was his first thought.

    He had used a very difficult technique just now, but also a very aggressive one. This was a move that he had practised for a long time, but until now, he could rarely execute the move sessfully, so he never used it in actualbat. Now, since his opponent was not dangerous at all, and the fight was dragging on, he decided on impulse to try the technique.

    This time, he miraculously executed the entire move, and that made him so very happy.

    He knew that, with this difficult move executed, his opponent would surely fall, either injured or dead. That was out of his control.

    However ¡­ He missed!

    What happened? His excitement from executing the attack movepletely was immediately doused with cold water. He had anticipated victory, but missed at the veryst moment. It drove him mad! It all happened too quickly that he could not figure out what went wrong.

    Ye Chong panted heavily. That was a very dangerous moment that strained him to the extreme. However, he keyed in themands on the controls quickly, without dy.

    From the moment his opponent stepped back, Ye Chong knew what trouble he was about to face.

    Fissure Strangle!

    This technique was quite famous, though Ye Chong though it was impractical. However, he must admit that once the move was executed, it would be very damaging to the enemy.

    If he had Han Jia, this Fissure Strangle would be child''s y to counter. Before his opponent could finish the preparatory moves, Ye Chong would have ample time to thoroughly conceal his mech.

    However, he did not have Han Jia, but an experimental mech! Ye Chong quickly gave up on attacking, and decided to block and avoid instead. Ye Chong''s quick assessment saved him. He had immediately identified the three locations that his opponent would hit. This gave him 1.5 seconds to act on it.

    However, it was in this 1.5 seconds that Ye Chong keyed in themands on his triangr controls panel that he was unfamiliar with. During the process, Ye Chong even made a mistake, but this was quickly corrected with his extraordinary hand speed. By the time he corrected his mistake, theser katars were already before him.

    Ye Chong''s mech bent its left leg and lunged its right leg backwards for support. Its body arched slightly. The left arm held up its V-shaped shield to the front, and the right arm reached down to the ground for support. The mech went into this strange stance.

    Wham!

    The first to be destroyed was the V-shaped shield. It was smashed to pieces by direct impact from the attack. However, the opponent''s movement was halted, and that was Ye Chong was waiting for.

    With the right arm and both legs against the ground, Ye Chong''s mech pushed forward! The mech''s engines were all installed at the limbs to increase their power. Hence, thebined power of all three engines boosted the mech''s speed and power tremendously!

    Ye Chong''s mech was like a springpressed to its limit, then released.

    Bang!

    A deep buzzing sound of metal against metal hurt the ears of the audience.

    Ye Chong''s mech had crashed straight into the examiner''s mech. Since the attack was upwards, the examiner''s mech flew back in the opposite direction at an even higher speed.

    Everyone who watched this could not help but think of an ancient sport - billiards! Weren''t these two mechs just like two billiard balls colliding?

    The entire arena was shocked into silence for a good 10 seconds. Then, a thunderous roar of apuse came from the stage. Everyone was won over by the battle.

    The two mechs faced each other once again. The examiner''s mech still looked untouched, but Number 231''s mech had only half of its shield on its left arm. Everyone knew that Number 231 could no longer rely on the shield for cover. It would lose, sooner orter.

    Even so, the audience cheered loudly for for the wonderful performance by the unwieldy looking mech just now.

 Chapter 472 - Making an Exception

    <h4>Chapter 472: Making an Exception</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    To the audience, Ye Chong''s loss was inevitable. However, Ye Chong himself did not think so. In fact, he believed that victory was close at hand. Even if his opponent tried Fissure Strangle on him again, he would be able to block without his shield. Perhaps it was due to the fighting moves, he no longer felt too tired anymore. Of course, he still stuck to being passive, waiting for his opponent''s next move.

    Tong took a look at the arena, surprised. "So you really do have a few capable subordinates here. This guy can use Fissure Strangle, must be a capable man. Hmm, that candidate is also doing very well, blocking that Fissure Strangle attack. You should make an exception and hire him. If the fight goes on, he could get hurt."

    "Alright." Brahm nodded. He activated hisms and quietly spoke orders. Right now, his mind was mostly upied with the shocking news that his friend brought to him, and his attention on Number 231 was temporarily redirected.

    If Tong knew that Ye Chong was actually using a mech that he had only began to use just hours ago, he would have taken back his words. Brahm was a nonbatant, and did not realize the difference it would make. However, since Tong said the candidate was eptable, he must be worth recruiting.

    Suddenly, Tong''sms device rang. He looked surprised, and said, "Something''se up, I''ll be leaving." He began to move in haste.

    Brahm looked at Tong''s retreating silhouette for a moment before yelling, "Tong, stay safe!"

    Brahm, who was practically running towards the exit, waved his hand in acknowledgement without looking back.

    As Ye Chong stood prepared for the next attack, he received a notice that he was recruited, and that came as a bit of a surprise. Of course, his examiner was equally surprised. He did not understand why Number 231 was hired. To him, Number 231 was not up to standard at all. More infuriating was the fact that Number 231 had made him look so humiliating! He was already nning to trash Number 231 on the arena, but now it was all over. He was dissatisfied with how it turned out!

    However, he was also powerless against it. He knew that Brahm was still the person who had the power to make the final decision.

    The decision left all the other candidates in an uproar.

    How could blocking a Fissure Strangle attack once qualify a person to be epted? That was too bizarre! The candidates outside the arena discussed the oue with dissatisfaction. In fact, most of the people believed that the only reason Number 231 managed to block the examiner''s Fissure Strangle attack was due to luck. Can luck be the reason someone was hired? No one could understand the final decision of the hiring board.

    White stared at the arena in disbelief, then shouted angrily, "F*cking cheat? He''s hired? How can someone like that be hired? Are they crazy? Xi Qing, if someone like that is hired, no one will want to train under him. Has the hiring board turned scatterbrained?"

    Xi Wing looked to the arena and muttered, "It''s hard to say, White!"

    White turned over and looked at Qi Xing like the man was an alien. "Xi Qing, since when are you brain damaged as well?"

    However, most of the candidates were more well behaved than the youngsters who were from the stage above. They were mostly older, and cared more about themselves. It did not matter if another extra person was hired. Their sry would not be reduced just because they have an idiot as a coworker.

    A few of the candidates who had passed the test eyed the dumb looking mech, musing to themselves.

    Ye Chong exited the arena gracefully, ignoring all the stares he was receiving.

    The examiner could not stand seeing his opponent being so at ease and mmed angrily on his controls.

    Beep beep beep! An rm sounded. The examiner panicked. Did he just break his controls console? He quickly ran a self assessment, but could see nothing wrong. The frantic rm made him nervous. Soon, his forehead was covered in sweat.

    Hidden below the left side of the chest of his mech was a deep impression, an injury that was hard to notice. From the fresh wound, it was easy to discern that it was due to a strong impact. The position coincided with an important photon circuit node. The armor was bent inwards and blocked the photon circuits, which caused the rm to sound.

    That damage was caused by the elbow edge of Ye Chong''s mech. The mech''s elbow had a protrusion that was designed to be concealed when the arm hung down naturally. Only when the mech bent its arm would the weapon reveal itself menacingly. The elbow protrusion was made of very strong alloy, and while it was not exactly sharp, its power was amplified by the strength of the mech''s arms.

    When blocking the Fissure Strangle attack, Ye Chong had sneaked in a hit on his opponent. Ye Chong had never seen the examiner''s mech before, but he could still guess at its internal structure, and had chosen to hit that exact spot.

    Since the photon circuits were damaged, it would be immediately noticeable after the attack. Only after some time would his opponent''s mech began to show difficulty in movement, and maybe even be impossible to operate. That would be his chance to strike back!

    However, Ye Chong found himself epted by the hiring board before his nifty trick had borne fruit.

    The candidates who were still waiting for their turn in the arena looked at the examiner''s mech curiously, for it had not moved since the battle was dered over, and the examiner had not asked for the next candidate to step inside.

    The examiner was now sweating profusely. He was now frustrated at himself for not keeping calm earlier! Now that he had damaged his own mech, the uing tests will have to be carried out by his colleague. On the other hand, he was devastated that his beloved mech was not responding to hismands anymore.

    He did not rte this damage with Number 231 at all.

    The truth was, the attack was over too quickly, and Ye Chong had attacked discreetly, such that no one, including the examiner, noticed anything amiss.

    It was when the mech was moved to the maintenance workshop that the damage was discovered. However, the examiner still did not think that it was caused by that infuriating Number 231.

    It was thest day of the tests, and there were only about seven or eight candidates after Ye Chong. Soon, the tests werepleted. There were 25 who passed the tests, and Ye Chong was ranked thest.

    Ye Chong did not mind the ranking. When he received part of his upfront sry, he finally heaved a sigh in relief. Of course, there were other benefits. The affluent Research Consortium had offered generous remunerations to attract more capable people from the public. Aside from the huge upfront payment, there were other benefits, such as receiving their very own advanced level mechs. These mechs were not avable in the market, and produced by the Consortium itself. Most candidates were enticed by the advanced mechs.

    Of course, all candidates would have to sessfullyplete their training before receiving these benefits.

    Ye Chong''s mech, the so-called failed experiment, was not sought by other people, so he became its owner in the end.

    The Research Consortium provided luxurious amodation for all of them. Everyone had their own rooms, which were spacious and full of amenities, and designed to look high tech. The building also had its own mech training ground and gymnasium.

    After Shang verified that the room clear of surveince, Ye Chong felt relieved.

    "Shang, are you still unable to hack into the virtual world?" Ye Chongid on the bed and asked out loud. He was beyond exhausted at this point. Everything that happened today had drained him mentally in unprecedented proportions, and he was now dead tired.

    Shang replied helplessly, "I''m not done with decoding their calctions yet, so for the moment, I can''t get in." Without ess to the virtual world, Shang could not do anything, and the mech was very, very annoyed about it.

    "I see," Ye Chong replied almost in reflex. He felt sleep ovee him, and he was soon gone to the world.

    When Ye Chong woke up, it was in the dead of night. After resting, much of his physical and mental stamina had recovered. He greeted Shang and ordered a meal. Then, Ye Chong activated the photon processor in his room and put on his hyperlink helmet.

    Shang may not be able to enter the virtual world, but he could.

    Ye Chong wondered about in the virtual world. It was already veryte into the night, but there were still many people in the virtual world. The virtual world here was unlike the virtual world in the Five Gxies, but Ye Chong was in no mood to explore. He focused on finding the information he needed.

    Once he arrived at an info center, he would be able to make inquiries. Most of it would be publicly avable, but since it was free of charge, it was only to be expected.

    Ye Chong needed a microphoton repair device to mend the small cracks that were spread across Han Jia''s armor.

    Staying in this unfamiliar territory without Han Jia, would leave him in a vulnerable position.

    After about half an hour, Ye Chong found what he was looking for.

    The microphoton repair device was a high precision device. Onlyrger research institutions or universities would have them, like the Research Consortium and the infamous Hepburn-Ladee University. On Henna, only the mechboratory in Centuria University had them.

    "Centuria University," Ye Chong muttered to himself. He quickly looked up its location. As thergest education institution on Henna, Centuria University was easy to find. He could even look up the generalyout of the university.

 Chapter 473 - Bad Omen

    <h4>Chapter 473: Bad Omen</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was alreadyte at night, but the city was still glowing with life. Crysound City was only an average mid-sized city in Gray Valley that did not stand out in any way. However, due to its location near the edge of Gray Valley, close to the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, it became a resupply station for people before entering the asteroid region. Mech squads and individual mech pilots would frequently enter Gray Valley through this city, and it was this influx of outsiders that drove the local economy.

    Nheless, the recent appearance of the red-tailed beasts had ignited an all out war. Since nt Henna was close to the front line, people began to move inwards to the inner parts of Gray Valley. The local economy was severely affected. Even so, Ye Chong still got to see the city illuminated in all its glory.

    Centuria University was not far from where Ye Chong was. It was about 30 kilometers way, in fact. He chose to get there on foot to avoid being noticed. Before setting out, he also changed his clothes as Shang advised. For this, he had even made a trip to the nearby store.

    Currently, Shang behaved in an honest and helpful manner, perhaps contemtive of his earlier mistake. The clothing that he chose was verymon looking, but its ck and gray colors made it well suited or blended in the dark at night.

    30 kilometers was not too long of a distance for Ye Chong. After about 40 minutes, he arrived at the perimeter fencing of Centuria University. Ye Chong found out from the virtual world that Centuria University had stopped all sses due to the war. The spacious university grounds were now empty, and all of its buildings were closed down.

    Ye Chong headed towards the mech experimentboratory, following the route he had memorized beforehand.

    The university was pitch ck. Ye Chong moved quietly like a fox, slipping past the university buildings.

    "Mech Experiment Laboratory" - the gold embossing stood out in the night, and Ye Chong breathed a sigh of relief as he saw them. However, his troubles were not yet over, such as the current issue of entering theb. If it was before, he would have just withdrew Han Jia and force his way through the door. Now, however, he would not.

    Since Henna was close to the front line, local security would be on high alert. It was only reasonable for a huge university''s mech experimentboratory to be guarded by security. If he triggered the rm, the local military force, nervous from the war at hand, would definitely finish him off without hesitation. More importantly, the microphoton repair device was toorge to move. The best option he had was to repair Han Jia right there without attracting any attention.

    The problem now was, how could he enter theb without triggering the rm?

    Ye Chong asked, "Shang, got any ideas?"

    "Hacking in is impossible. The calctions used here arepletely different from what I know of. Besides, once I enter the virtual world, I''ll be discovered. Hmm, if that''s the case, let me think ¡­" Shang was also vexed by their predicament.

    Ye Chong waited quietly for Shang''s answer. Mu was the expert in this field, and Shang was not so bad himself; Ye Chong himself, however, was absolutely clueless about it.

    "Hmm, perhaps we can cut off its energy supply, shut down the entire security system, then we can force our way in." Shang provided his opinion after a long moment of consideration.

    "Alright! Let''s do that," Ye Chong said decisively.

    "Ye, just 500 meters opposite, beneath the seventh streemp, there''s a underground photon node. Let''s check it out," Shang provided more concrete instructions.

    With Shang''s directions, Ye Chong went to the seventh streemp. Just beside the base of the streemp was a light green colored manhole cover, measuring about 5 meters across. The cover was made of some kind ofpound material.

    The cover was firmly in ce, but since there were no rms set for it, Ye Chong forced it open. Beneath the cover was a dark hole. A flight of stairs ran down along one side of the inner wall, going downwards. Ye Chong went down the hole without dy, and put the cover back in its ce on his way down.

    He switched on thems device on his arm. The holographic projection that came from it helped light his way in here.

    "Hmm, this must be the photon node for the surrounding buildings," Shang offered unsure. He was no longer as powerful as he wished to be without ess to the virtual world. Now, he could rely on the knowledge in his memory archive to assess his surroundings.

    Six three-meter all metal cabs were arranged side to side to form a hexagon, and Ye Chong was now in the middle of them all. All six cabs were locked.

    "Ye, try and open the one in front of you," Shang suggested after some thought.

    The strong alloy lock was broken easily. Ye Chong threw it to the floor and opened the cab, and he was instantly baffled by what was inside. "What next?"

    Right before his eyes were numerous small lights blinking irregrly like the stars in the night sky. They lookedplicated and intricate, and grandly stretched out like the sea.

    Ye Chong did not expect to see such aplicated structure in the inconspicuous cab. Since he was rarely involved in this area of expertise, he did not know what to do with them.

    Shang replied swiftly, "That''s the one. Let me look at its internal structure." He added in a mutter, "This kind of technical work should be done by that stiff guy, Mu. Now I''m the one who''s gonna lower myself to this level, what a waste of talent! Such is life ¡­" He seemed to be struck by the oddities of life.

    Despite hisining, Shang made short work of the photon node.

    "Ye, find the 316th row, the 705th light pin from the left. Break that light pin and you''re ready to go," Shang said confidently.

    The 316th row, 705th light pin from the left. Ye Chong could feel his eyes going blind. The light pins were so tiny and numerous, and they were all blinking to their own rhythm. However, since Shang had came up with a solution, Ye Chong could only start counting.

    "Ye, Ye, you missed one."

    "Ye, that''s the wrong row."

    "Err, Ye, are you so degenerated inside that you can''t even do simple algebra?"

    Shang''s incessant and annoying bberings bombarded Ye Chong. This was a difficult task, and those blinking lights made his head hurt. WIth Shang''s constant interruption, even Ye Chong''s legendary patience was challenged.

    "Shang, please stop talking to me. I need silence, silence!" Ye Chong could not help but emphasized the word "silence".

    "Alright alright! I''ll be quiet." Shang saw that he was in no good mood, and quickly turned obedient.

    WIthout Shang''s interruption, Ye Chong quickly located the light pin. Unlike finding the pin, destroying was a piece of cake. It was only then that Ye Chong realized, he should have just destroyed all the light pins. That would have been way faster and easier. "Looks like I''m still not calm enough," Ye Chong noted to himself.

    No matter. Now that they were finished with this, they were already halfway there. The only thing he needed to do now was to force his way into theb and find the microphoton repair device.

    Ye Chong was about to lift the manhole cover when Shang whispered in warning, "Ye, don''t go out, something''s happening!"

    Ye Chong''s heart sank. He quickly stopped moving. Shang was usually a joker, but he would also be serious in the face of danger. Right now, he recognized the seriousness in his voice.

    "There are 12 mechs and five red-tailed beasts. There are red-tailed beasts here? Strange!" Shang muttered to himself.

    Red-tailed beasts. Ye Chong was shocked. How could there be red-tailed beasts here? When Ye Chong made his inquiry about the microphoton repair device, he also did some research on Gray Valley''s current affairs. There were a lot of information on this in the virtual world, and it was also the hottest topic. After spending some time digesting those information, Ye Chong finally had a better grasp of the situation in Gray Valley.

    The front line and the rear - these were two keywords that kept popping up. War in the front line was going on strongly, but the rear was very stable. Every source of information seemed to coborate on this fact.

    Henna was at the rear, why would there be any red-tailed beasts here? Could it be ¡­ Ye Chong quickly sensed the implications. Either the front line was breached, or the red-tailed beasts were beginning to attack from the rear. Whichever the case, the red-tailed beasts were here now, and this meant that the situation in the rear was about to change drastically. Perhaps, the rear would no longer be safe anymore.

    Ye Chong frowned in thought. He was not concerned about the overall situation, but if the rear was getting dangerous, then he would also be in trouble. Without anyone else with him, his power was limited, and barely enough to tip the scales of battle in this war. More importantly, once the peace was disturbed, people would begin to grow nervous, and public safety would bepromised. If the red-tailed beasts started appearing inrge numbers at the rear, the situation would be even more grim. Perhaps the entire Gray Valley would descend into chaos.

    "Hmm, they''ve started fighting each other," Shang reported excitedly. "Hmmm, good skills there, sigh, too bad that move was not chosen well. Ye, these guys are not as good as you. Huh, strange, this red-tailed beast looks strong," Shangmented sporadically as he enjoyed the show.

    Ye Chong did not have Mu/Shang''s holographic scanning system, and could not see what was happening outside. However, he could hear faint sounds of fighting through the cover above him. Soon, the battle grew more heated, and the faint sounds grew clearer and more frequent.

    Ye Chong quietly climbed to the manhole cover and lifted it a little. The battle outside unfolded before his eyes.

 Chapter 474 - Three Mechs

    <h4>Chapter 474: Three Mechs</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It''s the red-tailed beasts!

    There were 12 mechs, all different looking, fighting intensely against five red-tailed beasts. Bang bang bang! The sound of collisions never stopped. Whenever one of them crashed into the ground, it was enough to make the earth shake.

    The red-tailed beasts were about the same size as the mechs, but they move more flexibly. Despite being outnumbered, they did not seem to be fighting at a disadvantage. The five red-tailed beasts evasively moved from building to building. The 12 mechs could not surround the creatures, and could only run around to keep them in sight.

    Crash! Rumble! Dust was flying everywhere, as neither the red-tailed beasts nor the 12 mechs were particrly careful moving around the buildings. The red-tailed beasts were tough creatures, and the 12 mechs were also very strong. They chased each other around, destroying the buildings in their wake. Soon, all that was left was rubble.

    Bong! There was a loud but dull sound. A strong wave of dust then hit Ye Chong in the face. Ye Chong instinctively shut his eyes, but he knew he was in trouble. That sound was very close to where he was. Could it be ¡­

    When Ye Chong regained his sight, his heart turned cold.

    The mechboratory was reduced to rubble. Everywhere was filled with debris, and dust was blown away from the center that was originally theb. A red-tailed beast emerged from the dust and debris, hurling itself onto one of the mechs in the air!

    "D*mn!"

    Ye Chong and Shang cursed almost in sync.

    Ye Chong pushed the cover away and came out. He bent over, taking cover behind the dust, and quickly entered the now defunct mechboratory.

    Looking at the microphoton repair device on the ground, or what''s left of it, Ye Chong knew that his n had gone to waste.

    He studied his immediate surroundings. Both sides were deep in the fight. The 12 mechs were strong. Perhaps they were from some kind of elite squad. Each of them could take a red-tailed beast head on by themselves.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong saw one of the mechs, one in red and ck, with a shield and sword as its weapon, was pinned down by a red-tailed beast. Upon closer inspection, Ye Chong recognized the pilot - it was the examiner who used an average shield-sword mech earlier that day. These two mechs were very different, as this shield-sword mech was much more advanced than the average one he saw earlier. The maroon red alloy sword looked like it was covered with blood, and the huge shield was as dark as night. Together, they made the mech look like a killer from Hell.

    It was not hard for Ye Chong to recognize the simr ways these two mechs moved.

    However, he was rarely over curious, and without a mech to protect himself, the current situation was dangerous for him. Since the microphoton repair device was destroyed, he should leave as soon as possible.

    Ye Chong was about to leave this dangerous ce when Shang suddenly spoke up, "Ye, careful, mechs iing!"

    Ye Chong quickly hid behind one of the damaged walls. Given theplicated terrain, it would be difficult to notice him, even with holographic scanning.

    Almost as soon as Shang finished his sentence, three ck dots appeared in the sky. They came swiftly, and Ye Chong watched them grewrger andrger. There were three golden mechs, and they were fast! Ye Chong was surprised. However, when the three golden mechs finallynded, he felt a sense of familiarity.

    Where had he seen them before?

    Ye Chong recalled then of the 10 golden mechs he had seen at the abandoned factory, before he entered Crysound City. No wonder they looked familiar. He had seen them before. These golden mechs had a left a deep impression in Ye Chong. They could fly up to Mach 16 within the atmosphere. Their speed was truly astonishing!

    Ye Chong doubt he could make a mech that could fly so fast himself if he had not been using skeleton material to his advantage,.

    The three golden mechs join the fight without dy.

    The three golden mechs looked different from one another. One of them had a typical sword and shieldbination; one had twin swords; thest one preferred to fight at very close range, using small weapons that looked like parrying daggers.

    The golden shield was covered with dark red patterns of roses. The golden sword in the mech''s right arm was polished like a mirror. The mech was logically designed and well bnced.

    It was the samebination of sword and shield, but the golden mech''s had its own fighting style. Every move was bold, quick, simple and effective. The sword and shield worked together seamlessly, as the mech pilot fought gracefully with these weapons.

    The twin curved swords were four meters long, thick at the back and thinner towards the des edge. The swords were sparingly decorated, with only a sharp point at the handles. The mech with these golden twin swords had no means of defense, opting for the more extreme choice of attack. Without proper defensive tools, it protected itself through its attacks instead. The mech was brave and aggressive. Ye Chong noticed that this particr mech''s arms must be specially designed, as they could move a lot faster than its twopanions.

    Thest golden mech had a smaller and morepact build. Since it weighed less than the two other mechs, it could turn and move more deftly. It was simr to Ye Chong''s clown mech, but much more superior in terms of design and build material. The mech pilot behind this mech was also quick to attack, making nasty strikes and blows that kept its enemies on guard.

    Three elites!

    Ye Chong made a quick estimation, and his face turned serious.

    If the 12 mechs earlier were considered strong, then these three mechs were absolutely masters of their art! He was also a bit shaken by the fact that these three mechs were probably from the same organization, despite their very different designs. The gold colored alloy material was like the ck colored ck gold, probably a special kind of alloy.

    Ye Chong believed that every part of the three mechs, every curve of them, were the result of countless experimentations. The organization behind these mechs must have excellent mech manufacturing talent. These three pilots were also very gifted, and Ye Chong knew that the organization must have more than these three working for them. After all, he had seen 10 of those golden mechs flying across the sky just the other day.

    Putting Ye Chong''s surprise aside, the bnce of the fight outside was now changing quickly with the new arrivals.

    The 12 mechs obeyed orders from the assassin-like golden mech and suddenly flew into the distance, leaving the five red-tailed beasts behind. They stopped when they were beyond the furthest of the five red-tailed beasts, and began to fly inwards. The 13 mechs formed a circr barrier, staying close to each other.

    Ye Chong understood their intentions immediately.

    They wanted to surround the red-tailed beasts, slowly restricting their space. Once the red-tailed beasts were forced towards the shield-sword mech and the twin-sword mech, who were at the center, these two powerful mechs would slowly kill off the creatures.

    The battle proceeded as Ye Chong expected.

    The 12 mechs closed in slowly towards the center, covering for each other in the process. The small-framed golden mech circled around their formation, assisting whichever mech that was attacked by the red-tailed beasts.

    The n worked. Ye Chong was able to witness the abilities of the two golden mechs surrounded in the center!

    The golden shield-sword mech lured three red-tailed beasts towards itself, its sword swinging about like a huge shield, and the actual shield in its left hand defended itself wlessly. By matching its pace and use of weaponry, the mech sessfully drew three red-tailed beast towards itself. The three red-tailed beasts attacked madly, but the mech defended itself perfectly, blocking all of their attacks! The mech had simply warded off all the attacks from these three red-tailed beasts.

    Strong! Ye Chong was impressed. He had never seen such a powerful defense. Ye Chong himself was more of an attacker, and he was always more inclined to attack, be it in hand-to-handbat or mech battles. Even so, his defense was also quite good, mostly due to his strong determination and understanding his opponents well. However, he was still inferiorpared to this golden shield-sword mech when it came to defense.

    The golden mech with the two swords may attack ferociously, but Ye Chong thought the pilot was only just capable. Ye Chong''s specialty was in attacking. The mech with the golden twin swords was strong, but not stronger than himself. If Ye Chong used Han Jia, he could kill off all five red-tailed beasts himself.

    The way he saw it, these five red-tailed beasts were not as strong as the six-fingered red-tailed beast he was pursuing before this.

    Could it be that the red-tailed beast''s evolution increased its power not linearly, but in an exponential way? The seemingly unrted question came to Ye Chong.

    If that was the case, would the red-tailed beast also require an exponential increase in resources to evolve further up thedder?

    Suddenly, the battle that was going on faded into the background. Ye Chong was suddenly plunged into the issue that was totally unrted to the battle in front of him.

    Ye Chong had already identified the number of digits as an indication of the red-tailed beast''s evolution level. From Fei Si''s research, it seemed that these creatures needed pure energy and metal to evolve. If that was the case, there must be some kind of rtionship between the power gained from evolution and the two elements that led to it.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong remembered that the creature in the underground cave of that primary had a teardrop mineralite clutched in its hand, and seemed to realize something from it.

    However, Shang interrupted right then, "Ye, they''re gone!"

 Chapter 475 - Only â€œ1â€

    <h4>Chapter 475: Only "1"</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The 15 mechs had already left, leaving behind an almostpletely destroyed Centuria University in the silent darkness. The red-tailed beasts were brought away, leaving no trace of their presence.

    "Looks like we''ll have to figure out something else," Ye Chong said helplessly as he looked down at the broken pieces of the microphoton repair device.

    Shang offered, "Ye, you should spend more time on Muscle Man, it''s more practical that way." The so-called Muscle Man was the experimental failure that Ye Chong got from the mechboratory. Muscle Man was named by Mu, in the hopes that the mech would intimidate its enemies whenever it appeared. Ye Chong did not care about something as meaningless as naming his mech, so he did not argue with Shang about the mech''s name.

    "Hmm, looks like you''re right." Ye Chong nodded. It sounded like a better n.

    The trip back was uneventful. Perhaps by taking enough rest during the day, Ye Chong did not feel sleepy. Hence, he went to the mech training ground in the building instead.

    The Research Consortium really made room in their budget for them. In this average building, located in this average city, the facilities provided were luxurious. Take the mech training ground. Not only was it twice asrge as its average equivalent, the training ground was also equipped with many support devices. They could capture the mech pilot''s movements from any angle and ry them to the photon processor in a corner of the room, so that the mech pilot could study them and correct their movements. Besides, the training ground was equipped with a great variety of amenities that overshadowed the usual standards.

    It waste at night, so therge training ground was empty. This suited Ye Chong, since he did not like people watching him while he trained.

    Ye Chong withdrew Muscle Man, climbed up the mech and entered the pilot cabin.

    He looked at the triangr control console and inhaled deeply, quieting his mind to begin his training.

    Unlike other mech pilots, Ye Chong did not rely on particr models of mechs. Ever since he left the trash, he had switched from one mech to another in no time at all. Every time it happened, he would have to get used to the new mech, so the process was not unfamiliar to him. The only thing made it more difficult this time was the weird structure of the control console.

    There was a solution to this problem - he could change the console for a standard one. That would reduce the time he needed to get familiar with the mech. However, that would severely affect the mech''sbat ability. The effect was severe enough for Ye Chong to throw this solution out of the window.

    Start from the beginning, then!

    Ye Chong looked at the triangr control console before him, his heart burning like fire! When had he ever been afraid of challenges?

    He began to work. Ye Chong studied the console little by little, like a total beginner. It was like returning to his time of harsh training on the trash. He felt himself filled with purpose and hope.

    On the empty training ground was a clumsy looking mech. It stumbled like a baby learning to walk, slowly and clumsily executing various movements. Its every move was fueled by the determination of its pilot!

    Just how difficult was it to train so intensively for five hours straight?

    Ye Chong was sweating all over, and panting heavily. His legs felt sluggish.

    Ye Chong returned to his room and slept right away. Just 15 minutes after he returned to his room, the rest of the recruited staff began to wake up. In just a few moments, the empty training ground was full of mechs. Some of them noticed with interest that Number 231 was missing. This made the few who were curious about Number 231 disappointed. However, they quickly gathered themselves and began to train in earnest.

    It was a fact of life that regardless of one''s upation, the path towards exceptional performance wasmitted and harsh training. All the mech pilots here knew this, and dared not waste their time dawdling.

    When Ye Chong woke up, it was already noon. ording to instructions, he should head towards the meeting ce. He was thest person to reach there. Ye Chong sat in thest row of the hovercar without a single word.

    The hovercar started just as he sat down.

    "Good day, everyone. We are now heading towards the training camp. From now on, you are the first batch of official instructors from the Research Consortium''s Crysound City branch. Congrattions for passing the tests! I''m honored to work with all of you." The one who spoke was a bald man. The top of his head shone brightly under the hovercar''smps.

    Heughed and said, "Almost forgot to introduce myself. I''m Senda, Mr Powell''s second, and the person in charge for this activity. If you have any questions, feel free to speak up now. Since this is our first time organizing something like this, please forgive us for any unanticipated inconveniences."

    Everyone looked at him, but no one said anything.

    Senda did not mind it, and continued, "Since none of you have questions, then let me talk about today''s agenda. After we arrive at the training camp, we will separate into groups. You will receive your group number, and the students who attend our training camp will get to decide which group to join. Of course, each group cannot have more than 20 members. If any group reaches this limit, it will be removed from the options avable for the students. Hmm, based on the number of students we have this round -" he looked over the mech pilots in front of him and grinned, "- we''ll have exactly 20 students for each group."

    As the bald man exined their itinerary for the day enthusiastically, Ye Chong did not share his sentiment. His mind waspletely upied by the triangr control console. At first, he thought the console was just weird, but his earlier exploring led him to notice that there was some kind of logic to the way the buttons were ced on the console. The stressful training exercise back then did not allow him to focus and think about it, but now that he had quieted down, he automatically began to analyze the problem again.

    Once he entered into this silent mood, Ye Chong could not be disturbed. He did not hear anything that Senda was telling them excitedly.

    It was not until the hovercar stopped that his thoughts were interrupted.

    "Shang, what did he say just now?" Ye Chong felt lost looking at the other people moving into the training camp, and could only ask Shang for help.

    "Don''t disturb me," Shang replied impatiently, "I''m busy." The mech resumed its silence.

    Ye Chong shrugged helplessly. Luckily he was at the rear of the group, and no one noticed him. Shang had been behaving these two days, perhaps because he knew that he nearly caused trouble for them bothst time. The mech was also oddly quiet. Whenever Ye Chong asked about it, he would just say that he was busy. Ye Chong did not know what the mech was busy about, and could get nothing out from Shang.

    Fortunately, without the mech''s insufferable interruptions, Ye Chong felt more at peace.

    The instructors entered a meeting room, where a big holographic screen was ced in the center. On it were a row of numbers running from one to 25. Soon, each of them was given a number. Ye Chong'' number was thest one - 25.

    Senda stood up. "Alright, everyone. You should have your number by now. This will be your group''s designated number. Next, it''s time for the students to make their decisions." He turned to a working staff on the side and spoke a few words, signalling that they were ready.

    The staff barked an order, and the digit below each of the numbers on the holographic screen began to climb up rapidly. In just 25 seconds, Group 5 was full. The mech pilot assigned with that number grinned widely. The faster a group was filled up, the stronger the instructor was as perceived by the students.

    The other groups gained more and more members, but under the number 25 was the digit "1". This digit refused to budge.

    Three minutester, all the other groups were filled up, but Group 25 still only had "1"!

    Everyone in the meeting room stared at Ye Chong. Sitting at thest row, holding thest number, with his group still not filled up, Ye Chong''s posture was calm and at ease. His expression did not change, and he stared back unfazed at everyone else.

    ______________________________________

    "Oh cr*p, I was too slow! There''s only number 25 left, what do I do now?" One of the students looked devastated and upset.

    Another student beside him added salt to his wound by saying, "You''re the one who''s slow to decide. I told you to be quick, but you hesitated as usual. Now you''re done for. Number 25, I heard he cheated, how else could he be hired? In any case, I''ll never join his group."

    "I should''ve just picked a random number, anything is better than this." The student who picked 25 looked regretful.

    Xi Qing looked at the two of them quietly, and turned away. He had chosen Number 25 immediately, and he was the first to do so. That was why he was the only one who was under Group 25 so far. When White found out that he chose 25, the man thought he was crazy. However, Xi Qing knew what he was doing.

    He quickly went to the gathering point for Group 25.

    The atmosphere in the meeting room was in awkward. On the holographic screen, the digit under the number 25 froze at "1". The other groups were all taken up, but even so, the digit below the number 25 did not change! The meeting room was now silent, but more than a few of them looked at Ye Chong with disdain, mockery and contempt.

    What did this imply? It simply meant that the students, knowing they had no other choice, still did not want to choose Number 25. It also meant that no one believed in Number 25. Oh, that was not strictly urate. The "1" on the holographic screen told everyone that at least one person supported him still!

    Sitting in thest row, in thest ce of all the groups, Ye Chong lookedpletely unaffected!

 Chapter 476 - Airhead?

    <h4>Chapter 476: Airhead?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The clock was ticking¡­ so was the number of students enrolling to Instructor Number 25. The number froze for quite a while because of obvious reason - the students at first were reluctant to serve apprenticeship of this clearly impotent, air-headed instructor who got in his position probably by questionable means. But well, it was not like they had many options to begin with.

    One could hear the teasing giggles and snickers resounding in the room, which Ye Chong seemed unaffected of. People might have looked down on his capabilities in teaching, but frankly they were very impressed of his high stress resistance. Most new instructors would have sunken under the table, deep into their grief if they were given a barrage of humiliation. This new instructor was rather young yet he was the same calm.

    It took literally 15 minutes for Ye Chong''s group to fill uppletely.

    "Alright, folks, we would proceed with the stage. The consortium had assigned staffs to escort all the groups to their respective site. The instructors would then lead all trainees to the training ground. So, the instructors can now meet with their trainees. Should you have any inquiries, pleasee see me. I hope we would have a fruitful and joyful training here," Senda sounded relieved. He was apparently feeling uneasy of such atmosphere.

    "Follow me," said one workman hurriedlying from the other end. He and the other members were on standby for the escorting session.

    Ye Chong responded with a nod and quickly followed. Nothing happened at the meeting room affected him actually. He was preupied with the unique interface of his new mech. He had been thinking the workarounds of dishing out the most damage, so he was silent the whole time.

    "Well, yeah, tsk, you have been looked down," said Shang, with an inhibited dissatisfaction. Shang was never the humanitarian with a heart of gold, it was rare to hear Shang speaking with such a tone.

    "Look¡­ down? I don''t care where they ced their eyes?" Ye Chong was not sure what Shang meant since he had never bothered to observe the meeting room.

    "Not that. They are seeing nothing in you, not even your strength."

    "Oh¡­" Ye Chong finallyprehended the new phrase, "That''s good? Why must I have them seeing something in me? I don''t want their attention?"

    Well, Ye Chong had a point. He would be better off being the unnoticed boy in the group. Shang could not really counter that argument.

    "Mhm¡­" Shang was taking a different approach, "You are right of what you''ve said. But they aren''t paying much for us tost here you know. We need more money and you know that. At this rate we might be stuck in Gray Valley for good."

    "Right," nodded Ye Chong, "You have a point." Based on the information they had obtained from the virtual world, the consortium had the few exits under their enforcement, the strictest one too. It appeared to be no one could pass through the pathway without permit, not even a space rock, while only those cargos from He Yue could get the certificate of permission. Those merchants owning those cargos did not have an easy time either, as they had to undergo heavy inspections before they could reach the other side of the world. It came to both Mu and Ye Chong''s agreement that they were going to stay in Gray Valley for quite some time.

    Since they would very likely be stuck for the next few months, the problem proposed by Shang would truly be a problem in no time. Ye Chong was very well-aware how it would be a trapping horror without gold in his pocket.

    "They would be determining your pay based on the number of trainees who passed the final examination, and certainly the strength of these trainees too. Well, they are rather generous on that side of the payment."

    "I understand," said Ye Chong tly, as he caught the underlying meaning.

    When Ye Chong had arrived at the site for Group No. 25, the trainees were already there, whose eyes were mostly, as one had guessed, filled with the disdain as if towards the filthiest dirt on their.

    "Would you like to have a word? Or proceed with the training directly?" asked the worker.

    "To the training ground." Ye Chong was the decisive kind who held the virtue of "less talk, more work".

    "Hah!" One voice came from the group, "With your standards, I''m better off as the teacher. Shameless."

    "Right?"

    "Who are you to teach us?" The students were seemingly reluctant to be taught by this air-headed bum from nowhere.

    The working man was finding the situation awkward as he never foresaw such dramatic reaction.

    Ye Chong stared at the bunch of noisy kids in their early puberty.

    "What? Want a piece of me? Hahahaha!" The trainees wereughing as the fiasco intensified.

    Ye Chong frowned, he was enraged not because of the humiliations, but theck of action, time-wasting behavior of these young trainees. He could tolerate everything other than wasting time. He felt the need to take action, in order to cease such ridiculous waste of time.

    Ye Chong''s step crushed the ground as he vanished.

    Xi Qing, who was watching Ye Chong at the dark corner, had his heart raced. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, he was sweating as heat raided his throat.

    Could it be?

    His premonition was proven right as soon as he heard that loud cracking sounding from the loudest guy in the group.

    And the fuzzy silhouette of the instructor regained its structure.

    Am I seeing things?

    Xi Qing rubbed his eyes. His face was cold.

    The guy was now in the instructor''s hand, passing out. He was the one who started the entire angry mob attack.

    What?

    Xi Qing could feel a never-before-experienced chillness crawling his back.

    He could not believe how his eyes failed to capture the instructor''s speed. He did not manage to observe every gesture of this instructor. He did not even know how the instructor did the back-and-fro seizing. It was as if a giant skip of multiple animation frames in between.

    The rascal might have started themotion, but he was not the ordinary street bullies one would see on the street. He and the others were capable of joining the consortium training after all. These rebellious young men and women were potent to a certain extent.

    Themotion died off the moment the youngsters saw their new ssmate resting in the cradle of the devil. They could not remember an actual thing of the incident just now. They only could recall a shadow shing by. The instructor soon grew rming in the eyes of these trainees as clearly the instructor could take them out before they knew a thing.

    The worker was dropping his jaw.

    "Move," instructed Ye Chong, with a nce as he walked towards the training ground with the fainted trainee in his hands.

    They had to cooperate, unless they wanted to leave the world before adulthood.

    Meanwhile Xi Qing was experiencing a boiling excitement in him after the sheer cold fear Ye Chong gave him. He knew he was right! He betted the right person! Expectation filled his head, as he wondered how much more surprise the instructor could bestow him.

    Contrary to the other groups who were making bubbly, happy go lucky screams in their training ground, Ye Chong''s group was brewing wordless, dust-rolling intensity on the field. The other groups were sending mockery through their eyes upon finding out the center of the dullest void being Group No. 25.

    "This would be the training ground for your group from now on. The amodation locates right nearby. It should fulfill most of your daily necessities. If you have any need, feel free to call me or contact Mr. Senda. Now, if you would kindly excuse me¡­" The escort seemed to have an utter change in his tone after the incident.

    "Thank you. Take care," replied Ye Chong concisely.

    Ye Chong was pretty happy of the size. The training ground could easily amodate the 20 trainees he had.

    The trainees were observing their new overwhelming instructor carefully, with curiosity in some of them and passion in the others.

    And they would all y the Red Light, Green Light game, quickly silenced themselves into obedience the moment Ye Chong turned to them.

    They were holding their breath, with fright in their eyes.

    "Oh?" Ye Chong remembered he was lifting a problem and there he dropped the fainted trainee.

    Thump! The trainees could hear the horrible ending of Humpty Dumpty on their mate. The problematic trainee rubbed his eyes and appeared to be under his sleeping spell.

    Ye Chong decided to provide assistance in breaking the spell.

    Ye Chong clipped the sleepy trainee, his eyes searched for a safending point. There was a pool. A perfect target. And he gave a skillful toss, lobbing the trainee.

    Ssh!

    The eyes of the trainees erged drastically as they had just observed an inhumane acting from their new instructor. Imagine they were the walking sandbag instead!

    "Ah!" The trainee was instantly waken by the cold water. He quickly crawled out of the pool and dawdled towards the group, with confusion and fear in his steps.

    "In your line. 5¡­4¡­," said Ye Chong.

    The trainee began sprinting, as if losing thest bus in the night. He only regained his soul when he got back to the line.

    Ye Chong was silent.

    The training ground was silent.

    The trainees were dead silent.

    They would not want to anger this instructor a little. It was irony when they just called the instructor an airhead a second ago.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    The trainees were in fear of the never-ending silence, wondering if the instructor was nning the next diabolical execution to the misbehaved.

    The reality? Ye Chong was discussing with Shang regarding the minimum amount of pay he would need in order to progress, with details on the approximate number of sessful trainees.

 Chapter 477 - Aiming High

    <h4>Chapter 477: Aiming High</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Based on the detailed rules of payment determined by the consortium, both Shang and Ye Chong discovered that they would need at least 15 trainees to pass the examination or 7 of them with superior performance in order to attain the target ie. That spelled a total challenge as it meant either the group became the top group in the entire course or both Shang and Ye Chong would have nothing. Well, if they managed to attain the target they would need not to worry of having an empty wallet for a long time, given that they did not have to pay like a king. There was also a specialized war machines given as one of the rewards by the consortium. Such model was a hard find in the market so Ye Chong could probably make a fortune out of it even if he did not intend to pilot it.

    It came to a realization that Ye Chong''s job requiredmitment. The consortium would pay one handsomely assuming one managed to produce what the consortium wanted. And clearly within short term Ye Chong would not find any job with higher pay than this. Both of them agreed to this. Shang could not generate figurative funds from hacking the virtual world of Gray Valley, so it was not like those days where Ye Chong could get money from nowhere before.

    15 trainees who passed the test ¡­ or 7 of them who performed really well¡­ Ye Chong took a nce at his students. His face was grim.

    Most of these students had been trained to do battles from afar since childhood. A lot of issues would surely arise if Ye Chong conducted a melee training. It boiled down to habits eventually. They had been wired with techniques of being a pilot, they had been taught to fight with ranged weaponry.

    It would not be simple to alter any habit.

    Fortunately, these pilots did have a good foundation. They were capable of piloting mech skillfully, which was a relief to Ye Chong.

    The trainees stood obediently in front of the grim instructor, as silence magnified their heartbeats.

    "Now, I want you all to deploy your own mech andplete the obstacle course," said Ye Chong, pointing at the obstacles far ahead. "One by one," he continued.

    So these trainees deployed their mechs. In no time the training field became a giant parking lot of mechs. Ye Chong could see mechs in all sorts of color and shapes. His eyes did catch a few to his favor. He used to pilot the aged rusty Winnie back on Trash-12 everyday, bearing with the worn out seat and the glitchy interface. These youngsters were lucky to be born with a silver spoon, or¡­ at least not born among the trash.

    Ye Chong walked till the very end of the line, only to find out that all of these mechs were ranged units. It did not sound feasible to run a melee training ss when they were running with firearms andunchers. He eventually prompted the training n provided by the consortium and discovered that all melee units had been sent to the frontline recently. There was no closebat model left and for the trainees Ye Chong had to order a new batch of mechs, probably borrowed from somewhere else owned by the consortium.

    And it would take 5 days for the mechs to arrive.

    "You," Ye Chong pointed his finger at Xi Qing and said, "You would be the monitor from now on, watch the trainees on my behalf."

    Ye Chong had noticed Xi Qing from the beginning since he was the only student who was calm and silent the whole time. The dramatic nature of a child in puberty was nowhere to be found on him.

    "Yes, sir," Xi Qing epted the assigned position which stirred envy among the other trainees.

    "Start the obstacle course."

    The mechs booted and zoomed towards the starting point one after another. They elerated over the open pathway and decelerated to make perfect dodge through the obstacles. Ye Chong was impressed. These trainees were exceptional in piloting, much greater than the average pilots in the 5 major gxies.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong frowned, realizing that these trainees needed no closebat models but a better physique. Their vitality couldst fine in ranged battles. But when it came the shes of iron fists, they were fragile. Constant collision and thrust were typical in mech-brawling. A pilot could still be worn down quickly under the protection of hydraulic system.

    These trainees would not be able to handle it. Well, naturally it was because their physique had yet undergone aplete puberty. So Ye Chong checked out the facilities in the field. Within the next few minutes, he got an idea.

    "Okay, off your mechs now."

    "Go there."

    "Grip the handle."

    "Yes. Now do as I count."

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "Hah¡­," Xi Qing rubbed his sore arms, he could feel his limbs falling off after the few days of training that felt like a walk down the hellish path. They were given heavy trainings, nonchntly by the inhumane instructor. The list of training just increased uncontrobly while his face remained as expressionless. No one dared to speak up.

    They did power training the first session, then reflexibility training the second and reaction training the third¡­

    And Xi Qing once thought he was given harsh trainings since he was born. The term "harsh training" had been given a whole new definition after the past few days. It was tough, that he actually nked out as he ran the pavement. He thought he was bing a mech. A fully mechanized athlete. They had a quota, regarding the number of training they had to fulfill and people were training dead.

    They were convinced that the instructor would listen to nothing else than performance, judging from his surprising act on the first day of the course. The air-headed instructor was one destructive hulk as convinced by the time he took toplete their training. The instructor took only half of the time they did toplete the training.

    He was not the babysitting kind of instructor as he would leave the group at the center and pick one corner to conduct his training. That was when a few of them thought they could take some short breaks themselves.

    But little they knew that, the instructor knew it. He was one with the eyes of Odin and managed to identify the ckers to chastise them. Yes, it was severe to an extend that it sent them chills simply from thinking it.

    The instructor probably nearlymitted several murders on one day, sworn by every trainee who witnessed the scene of "punishment". They almost heard the siren of the ambnce wailing when they perceived the strange cracksing from those students who turned ppy on the ground afterwards. They had recognized the cruelty of this instructor. There would be no tolerance towards misbehaving students from him.

    They spent the next few days in panic, fearing that they would enrage the instructor.

    The special training designed by the instructor had been lethargically repetitive. It looked simple, with only a few moves to be conducted¡­ for the rest of the day of course. A gazillion times it felt. None of them actually fell out of the line surprisingly.

    Their tenacity shocked Ye Chong as well, especially when he knew he had 3 female trainees in the line. He was expecting the females, whose vitality was gically lower than the males, to copse the first yet they managed throughout the entire course. He did not have them in his top 15 potential sessful trainees at the beginning but now¡­ perhaps he would need to reconsider.

    Hmm¡­

    Ye Chong had been quite busy thest few days too. He did not only carry out his own training but also pieced together the designing concept of the strange mech, particrly its interface, the efficient way to use it. Once he got the heck of it, he improved dramatically on his control. Theyout was actually not an utter mess on the triangr interface. There was a sense of logic behind.

    So Muscle Man had gotten less graceless, as both strength and dexterity were fully demonstrated under Ye Chong''s control. The boys and girls were fascinated by his improvement. They had never imagined a boulder to be able to move with such agility, as if they were watching a ballet performed by an elephant. It did not make sense but it just happened. The instructor was moving like a baby in the mech a few days ago, and now he was moving like an assassin from one corner to another.

    They had stopped doubting the instructor''s profession. They were fully convinced by it. The air-headed instructor was no longer air-headed to them. He had ascended as an unspoken legend, well-respected by the trainees who felt pumped conducting his training.

    The first phase of his training course had ended. Ye Chong was astonished by themitment of these trainees who hadpleted everything from A to Z. He acknowledged the difference in terms of standards between pilots of Gray Valley and others from the outside. These pilots from the Gray Valley were far more superior than all those so-called heroic young pilots he faced back in 5 major gxies.

    Well, Ye Chong could not observe much changes on his trainees'' physique. It was expected since the physical training would be carried out throughout all phases of the course. But he knew that these trainees had changed, their physique had certainly improved to certain extend, at least ready for a mortalbat.

    The mech units Ye Chong ordered had already arrived for quite some time, while the other groups had already initiated their pilot training.

    "Very well, we would be conducting mech training today." Ye Chong could hear the squeak of excitementing from the trainees the moment the keywords were uttered. They were going to make a leap of joy but their feet jerked upon seeing the expressionless instructor.

    Kids were still kids¡­ after all.

    Sighed Ye Chong, seeing the tant smiles on the children.

    They were good pilots yet they remained as a group of undisciplined children. Compared to the Sangs, Ye Chong could not talk battle spirit or fighting will or the royalty of being a soldier serving their own survival. Back on those days, he would only need to give a word then the Sangs would conduct the training themselves. Well he could not expect much. They were children and they were not meant to be made into soldiers. Also, Ye Chong''s training course was too packed to include discipline training.

    "Now, in line, take your new mech," said Ye Chong upon leading them to the storage.

    The machines were glowing in cold metallic colors, like a line of resting beast awaiting for release. The trainees could feel the whispering growls from the lifeless machinaries.

    "Wait! That''s D-6!!" screamed one of the trainees.

 Chapter 478 - D-6

    <h4>Chapter 478: D-6</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A mech was usually meant forbats - treading the war field, firing missiles andsers to annihte the enemies - unless it was a nonbat model, a moremercialized unit, like an engineering model for example, instead of weaponry it was "armed" with ore detecting mechanism as well as the other devices; the maintenance model was equipped with professional maintenance tools and was meant to repair all sorts of damage on a mech or a spaceship. There was also the rescue units which, as the name suggested, was created for rescuing wandering pilots sending SOS signals.

    There were a good array of professional models yet most people associated mech withbats, which was true to a certain extent. It was always war the mechs created in the gxies but well, simr to the professional models, there were different kinds of warring models in the market. There were ranged units, melee units, supportive units, crowd control units, short-ranged assassinating units and so on. The list could go forever.

    Most of these units could serve well in a battlefield. But there was hardly any of them which was made for pure massacre that lived up to the "less on the fancies, more on the blood" spirit - a mere killing machine with simplistic design, which would make the other advanced models look like the Knock-Down Hitman. Usually the real killing machine could only be seen in the dark, under development of well-funded organizations and would not show up at the war field easily. It was the monster, furnished with irregr weaponry, the questionable weapons threatening to all civilizations, which stirred up debates upon introduction.

    It was umon at the market even in Gray Valley, let alone the 5 major gxies, not even the warpetitive society in He Yue gxy had such model flying around freely.

    As the introduction led, D-6 came into your imagination. Yes, as you would have guessed, D-6 was the model, a true, pure murdering model. The concept of its design had always revolved about maximizing destruction.

    "D-6. A humanoid melee attacking model, fast in both mobility and reaction, created solely for thebative members of the consortium."

    The brief introduction was confusing to Ye Chong. There was nothing helpful in the one-liner. Well, he was a mech artisan, a mech maker, he needed no manual to pilot D-6. His understanding was far more in-depth than the others, that he could identify the capabilities of the unit at first nce.

    Ye Chong was a little astounded, as he did identify theplete bloodthirstiness in the design. The designer, to pursue greater mobility, forsook a portion of the mech''s protection capacity. The cabin exterior was flimsy, that Ye Chong doubted if its pilot ever survived in the missile shower. The offense was different too. Unlike most melee attackers, it was not holding an alloy sword but a pair of knives - made out of unique minerals, with an ominous curve. There was no shield, as mentioned, a weaker defense. An all-out offensive unit with additional mechanisms hidden somewhere on the body. Ye Chong had yet figured them out but surely those were not meant for salvation.

    Ye Chong realized something when he looked at D-6.

    What would these trainees be?

    They would probably end up at the war field anyway.

    Ye Chong was not being sentimental but somehow there was something heavy in his chest. The design of the mech was radical yet it was a superior unit in fact. The catch was, it was not meant for beginners, it would require a more exceptional, experienced handling or it would only drive the pilots to destruction itself, before creating any. Ye Chong would not be convinced that there was nobody, in the entire well-established researching organization, who had realized the problem that they should not provide a D-6 to a bunch of children in the early puberty. Ironically, there he was, with his bunch of children in their early puberty, standing by a line of D-6s.

    They probably needed more force, and they needed it fast.

    Ye Chong shook his head. That was never his problem, neither it was part of his decision. "Take your mech, pick any," he said before he left the room. "Xi Qing, watch your ssmates." The students seemed really eager to try.

    He sauntered on the empty training ground, as his ears perceived fading heyhoos probably from his trainees who just got their new toys. He stopped at one random point and sat on the ground. His eyes were lifted upon the murky day, his soul wandered somewhere.

    ¡­

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Xi Qing was caressing his new D-6 in simmering exhration. From today onwards, he would be the sole owner of this unit. He was not one who was born with a silver spoon. His first mech was a birthday present from his uncle 5 years ago. He had always wanted a brand new mech of his own. He trained hard since he was much younger. He was a quick-learner so he performed much better than the majority of his age despite the more inferior model he possessed.

    The motive he participated this training course was simple. He was eyeing the rewards. One of the scarcity would also be scarce of options. The consortium offered a lot, the consortium would be his only hope to ascend into something. The entry requirement of the consortium recruitment was harsh, that one should give up if one was an average resident in the Gray Valley.

    So Xi Qing was enthralled when he saw the recruitment announcement. Certainly his strength was ipetentpared to the adults but he considered himself exceptional enough to have at least caught the authority''s attention. And yes, he was right, he passed the entry test. He was almost there. He would embark on his career working in the top-notch organization after this training! He knew, the recruited would eventually be in the war field. It was never a white-cor upation to begin with.

    It was a treacherous path. But his heart, the will of a youth, thirsted for an adventure, advancement, an opportunity to mark down his own history!

    It would be worth, regardless of the danger threatening his life out there. Xi Qing believed so his hands stroke the machinery. D-6 was standing there soundlessly yet it seemed to breathe homicides. It was love at first sight for Xi Qing when Ye Chong lifted the gate of the storeroom.

    Xi Qing might not have the money to shop at the mech market but he had professional understanding of it and absolutely he recognized to what category the D-6 belonged immediately. "The consortium is sure generous in this. They actually gave trainees a D-6!" whispered Xi Qing in exmation. The consortium produced all types of mechs but they would not put everything on sale for the public, like D-6 which was purely for their own army. It was efficient in destruction, though not as notorious as the other known units, well-rmended by most experienced pilots. In the ck market, the price of a D-6 could probably purchase a dozen ofs or a bag of dwarfs. The letter "D" meant nothing else than Death, not exclusive to the foes clearly.

    "Everyone, on your mech, the training ground. Three minutes!" said the instructor coldly through themunicator.

    And they leaped into the cabin clumsily upon waking up from their daydream.

    20 D-6s formed themselves into 4 tidy lines on the training field. It looked like a great formation of war field, except it appeared like a silly parking lot to Ye Chong the war savvy. He could identify a range of openings in this slightly rectangr formation, as he stood at the front in Muscle Man.

    "Into 4 teams. From today onwards you''ll remain in your current line. Other than the daily physical training, I''ll also conduct lectures on mastering this mech you are piloting," said Ye Chong.

    The trainees were excited. They had been bored by the repetitive physical training to death. And there was finally a change.

    Klink! A loud noise interrupted Ye Chong.

    The wall behind Ye Chong was cracking and falling.

    "Watch out!" shouted one trainee who perceived the premonition.

    A dusty mech emerged from the rubble and zoomed towards the instructor. Nobody could react in time, other than the real soldier in the field.

    Ye Chong was far more experienced than all the trainees in fights. The moment he heard the clinking and thumping he had alreadyid his eyes on the projection. Muscle Man was indeed an experiment unit, but it was creation of probably a genius. The detection on the unit was impable. It might be a failure by the consortium but it was an expensive, exceptional failure.

    Ye Chong knew there was a meching for him.

    It was a D-6. And it was not a raid, judging from its orbit. It looked more like a machinery going out of control.

    Ye Chong had two options. Th first would be to make a simple dodge. That would be undesirable as the mech would crash into the formation of his trainees after he made the dodge and escaped the ident professionally. None of his trainees would be able to dodge in time.

    So he was left with the second option.

    Muscle Man drew a half-circle with its right leg, leading to a twist and a sink to the earth. The mechanical structure descended with the arms slightly curved over its body, leaving the two giant palms open at the sides.

    Ye Chong expressionlessly added moremands.

    Now!

    Afterimages of his hands slid over the interface.

    Crash!

    The uncontroble D-6 crashed into the hand of Muscle Man.

    An ident would happen soon.

    D-6 first collided with the right hand. The conservation of momentum had dented every part of the palm. Muscle Man immediately held the bottom of D-6 with its left hand.

    The engines of both its arms wereunched straightaway. The mechanical legs were exerting greater strength on the ground which burst into sttering mud as the legs submerged.

    "Ah! Ahhh!" The pilot of D-6 felt a jerk and an uplifting force and began screaming in fear. D-6 then zoomed through the small gap and past Muscle Man''s back.

    There was another mech! Ye Chong was shocked as he saw a mech rapidly approaching in the detection system.

    Such speed. Ye Chong squinted his eyes, trying to make out the appearance of the mech. But it was too fast, he could only perceive the red color.

    Was that a raid?

    Muscle Man withdrew its legs and its arms reformed into a battle position, like a mechanical jaguar, ready to pounce.

 Chapter 479 - Crazy Training I

    <h4>Chapter 479: Crazy Training I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong watched emotionlessly as the mech closed in on him. He was ready tounch his attack once his opponent was within range. However, to his surprise, the mech spread its wings and swooped up, grazing past Ye Chong''s head.

    What was that about? Ye Chog looked at the rapidly climbing mech, unable toprehend the pilot''s intention. Muscle Man could only fight on the ground, and was useless in aerial battles. Still, Ye Chong prepared himself. Muscle Man''s right leg pushed backwards, and the mech leapt forward and turned around, adjusting its position.

    The anticipated aerial attack did not ur. The mech in the sky changed its course and flew towards the damaged D-6.

    The mech was quick, and caught on to D-6 soon enough. Its two mechanical arms rested lightly on D-6, then its wings angled to make a U-turn in the air, and the two mechs ended upnding somewhere not far from Ye Chong.

    "So it''s going to rescue D-6," Ye Chong thought to himself. After ascertaining that the mech was not hostile, Ye Chong resumed a more neutral stance.

    Now, he could finally examine the mech that appeared out of nowhere. It was in gold and light red, giving off a feeling of elegance and magnificence. The mech''s body was slim and well bnced, with a strong sense of femininity. The wings on its back wereposed of small and colorful feather pieces, like a pair of rainbow wings. The left arm had a diamond shaped shield, while aser sword''s hilt was secured to its right leg, near the knee.

    It was rare to see protective fins on close range mechs. Usually, protective fins were used for to stabilize atmospheric flight, and long range mechs would definitely benefit from them. For close range mechs, however,rge and vulnerable fins would be easy target. Besides, since close range mechs were built to be physically stronger, they were often much heavier than long range mechs. The mech in front of Ye Chong was clearly designed for long rangedbat.

    This long range mech was actually used for close rangebat. Ye Chong could already guess who it was - it must be one of the instructors from a nearby training ground. D-6 should be piloted by one of the instructor''s students.

    "I''m so sorry. My student lost control of his mech and interrupted your group, please ept my humblest apologies," a pleasant female voice said.

    "Oh, it''s alright," Ye Chong replied calmly. It was as he expected.

    "I am Group 16''s instructor, Shen Ruxue. I don''t know your name yet. Perhaps you''ll ept my invitation to dinner as repensation," from the mech''s audio broadcast came a mellow female voice. All of Ye Chong''s students who overheard her looked jealous of him. Shen Ruxue had gathered the most attention amongst all the instructors, since she was the only woman instructor, and a beautiful one at that. Many students were eager to join her group, but before they could, the 16 spots were snatched up very quickly.

    Ye Chong looked at the time, and declined, "Sorry, I''m busy." In fact, he was getting rather impatient. His entire training schedule was jam packed, there was no time to spare. Now, this instructor from Group 16 was saying all these useless words. To him, it was just a waste of time.

    "A prettydy!" A joyful voice appeared in Ye Chong''s mind. Ye Chong sighed inside. As expected, she had gotten Shang''s attention! He knew that Shang was far more interested in beautiful women than he was, and could be very stubborn about them. More importantly, Shang''s bbering never failed to tire his listeners, and even Ye Chong could not take him on.

    "Wah, Ye, it''s a real prettydy. Heavens, finally, something interesting in this dark existence of ours! Yes, her measurements, body shape, weight, it''s all in my archive now. Ye, she''s asking you out for dinner, what an opportunity, go for it! Why not?" Shang was practically shouting in excitement.

    Ye Chong kept his mouth shut and ignored Shang.

    Shen Ruxue did not expect that Ye Chong would reject her. She was slightly taken aback, but quickly replied with some anger in her tone, "I see, you don''t think I''m worthy. Then consider my invitation a shameless attempt. Goodbye!" With that, she lifted that damaged D-6 and took off, flying towards a neighbouring training ground.

    "Sigh, Ye, don''t be so rigid! Wow, look at these numbers, it''s wonderful, her measurements are almost perfect, she''s definitely first ss!" Ye Chong could imagine Shang shaking his huge mechanical head, blinking his blue bionic eyes erratically as he muttered indulgently.

    A thin smile appeared on Ye Chong''s lips, but he ignored the mech still, and focused on his new students.

    "Everyone, get familiar with your mechs. You must at least pass Level 3 of the directional change arena."

    Ye Chong''s cold voice echoed across the training ground. All his students gathered themselves and quickly moved their D-6''s towards the directional change arena, forgetting whatever nonsense ideas they were having.

    "Ye, what do you think about that Shen Ruxue''s capabilities?" Shang knew exactly how to gain Ye Chong''s attention.

    As expected, Ye Chong began to rewind his memory to what happened earlier. He thought about it for a moment and replied confidently, "She''s good. But I don''t know what else her mech was capable of." Ye Chong may not have fought against her before, but he could still tell that Shen Ruxue was a top notch mech pilot.

    "I see, such apetent pilot. Ye, you have to watch out," Shang switched the topic so quickly that Ye Chong though it odd.

    "Why?"

    "She''s strong, much stronger than her initial performance suggests. Besides, I suspect that she''s trying to get closer to you," Shang analyzed calmly, unlike his usual exaggerative self.

    "Trying to get closer to me?" Ye Chong was shocked.

    "Yes. I noticed something before the ident ured. Hehe, that pretty girl was having a practice battle with that D-6. That D-6 lost its bnce because of a direct attack from her. They were about 571 meters from the perimeter fence when it happened. With her skills, she was definitely capable of stopping the D-6 before it crashed into the fence. However, she let the D-6 went down anyway. This means that she''s nning something." Shang sounded so cold and calctive now that Ye Chong thought he sounded like Mu.

    "Why would she do that?" Ye Chong stroked his chin, deep in thought.

    However, Shang replied irresponsibly, "How would I know?" Then, he suggested slyly, "Sigh, Ye, talk to her when you have the chance, what''s the harm in that, hehe ¡­"

    Ye Chong waspletely unmoved by Shang''s suggestion, and returned to his job.

    Ever since the wall fencing was damaged, no one came to repair it. Students from both groups kept quiet about the incident as well, and did not report it to admin. Of course, Ye Chong thought it was a bother to do such a thing, while his students hoped against hope for the wall to be torn down, so that both groups could train together! Strangely, no one from the other group reported the damaged fence to the staff as well.

    Hence, the two groups began to interact more frequently. Mechs would asionally be seen flying through the hole in the wall to meet their friends on the other side. Ye Chong did not bring up the issue. If his students followed his training schedule, he saw no reason to interfere with their personal time.

    That was what Ye Chong believed in. He would practice with Muscle Man every day, and would often be thest one to leave the training ground. The students grew respectful of their reserved instructor. The man might not be particrly strong, but his determination alone was a rare quality. Of course, Ye Chong did not know that he had inspired his students. Ye Chong grew more and more familiar with Muscle Man, to the point where he knew that he would be able to win against the instructor in the sword-shield mech!

    The students imagined that their instructor was like a monster machine that never tired. His training routine was always so dry, and his moves were too simple and straightforward. However, the instructor repeated his training every day for tens of thousands of times.

    They did not know how strong their instructor was inbat, since they had never hadbat training so far. Their instructor had only asked them to repeat the most simple exercises.

    However, even these simple exercises nearly drove them crazy!

    At first, they were asked to crash their D-6s right into some targets, and repeat the crashing until all their targets were destroyed.

    This simple training became a torture to every student. They had to watch their target growrger andrger in their eyes before crashing right into it. The fear involved was enough to make one hesitate. At first, many students would close their eyes at thest moment before they crash. Moreover, these high speed crashes were still dizzying despite the protection offered by the mech hydraulic suspension systems. Often the students would throw up violently right after they exit their mechs. However, their instructor was not known for mercy.

    Done throwing up? Get back to crashing!

    Even Xi Qing vomited all over himself, his face pale from the ordeal. This crashing training went on for three days, and the students crashed into their targets for many, many times. The fear that initially haunted them soon turned into numbness.

    This crazy training shocked the students who came over the fence from Shen Ruxue''s group. It was quite some time before any of Group 16''s students dropped by for a visit.

    After the first step in their training, they were asked to fly their D-6s at high speed towards a target, make a turn when reaching 3 meters away from the target, then sh out with a sword and hit said target. What Ye Chong asked for was simple - sufficiently high speed and uracy in hitting the target. Sufficiently high speed referred to the maximum speed of the D-6. uracy in hitting the target meant hitting no further than 10 centimeters off center.

    The training was so difficult that the students could only gape in disbelief. Most of them cursed their insane instructor quietly. Who in the gxy would fight against an enemy at their maximum speed? After all, the faster a mech was moving, the harder it was to pilot it. 10 centimeters? Were their enemies going to be flies?

    However, upon seeing their instructor''s apathetic expression, the students braced themselves for this impossible training.

 Chapter 480 - Crazy Training II

    <h4>Chapter 480: Crazy Training II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Shen Ruxue watched the students at the opposite training ground, doing their crazy routines, and reflected to herself that Group 25''s instructor was indeed not an ordinary man. She did not harbor anyplicated designs for Ye Chong, as Shang had suggested, but she was a touch curious of him, so she tested him. As expected, the widely mocked instructor of Group 25 was stronger thanmonly believed. However, she could not tell exactly how good he was.

    She found out from a few female students of Group 25 that their serious looking instructor was very good atbat, and though his mech piloting skills were still indiscernible, he would not be too shabby in it.

    Shen Ruxue gave up on further ns of probing him. It was clear from Group 25''s training routine that their instructor was no kind person, but a ruthless character. She did not want to be involved with someone like that.

    Ye Chong subtly nodded as he watched the students crashed fearlessly into the obstacles. The students were so used to long range attacking that they would often widen the distance with their enemies unconsciously. They would afraid of getting close to their enemies, a psychological barrier that almost every long range mech pilot would have.

    Ye Chong believed that if they could not endure this training, then that they would never bepetent close range mech pilots. To ovee this psychological barrier, Ye Chong had prepared these seemingly violent exercises for them.

    Now, the exercises seemed to do the trick. At least the students were now all immune to this instinctive fear, though whether the training itself would leave an emotional scar was another matter that Ye Chong did not consider.

    His students were mostly trained inbat, and even some of the female students could qualify as half of an expert. Afterpleting these two exercises, his students discussed mechbat among themselves. Ye Chong did not interfere. He felt that it was way easier for them to fight in their own ways before making his observations on them.

    However, he was surprised to see that the students fought almost like they were in a serious battle. A few of them must have acted more boldly after oveing their psychological barriers.

    These students were good! Especially the one called Xi Qing. He could always keep his calm, even when in a dire situation, and would often be able to win despite the odds against him.

    "Well, I should pay more attention to him," Ye Chong thought to himself.

    Ye Chong''s life became more routine-like. Everyday, he would spend most of his time training his students, and the rest of the day would be dedicated to training with Muscle Man or entering the virtual world. Shang, however, seemed to have disappeared, doing who knew what.

    The hottest news in the virtual world were about sightings of red-tailed beasts, casualties and body counts etc, during this time. Some people were able to deduce that the red-tailed beasts must have found a way into Gray Valley. One of the most shocking media out there was a holographic recording of a red-tailed beast swallowing arge amount of energy cells, and then evolving.

    This holographic recording sent a message to the people - these creatures could absorb pure energy. Ye Chong was not surprised when he saw the recording. It was just a proof of Fei Si''s hypothesis.

    The infiltration of the red-tailed beasts into Gray Valley ignited a riot. In just the blink of an eye, Gray Valley was plunged into mayhem. Public safety waspromised, and news of battles between humans and red-tailed beasts becamemon.

    When the red-tailed beasts entered the atmosphere, their physical advantages were amplified. Humans often had to pay a high price to kill them. The frontline was no longer the only ce in need of close range mech pilots - this specialized skill set was in high demand in every city.

    Fortunately, the humans were still sessful in defending the center of Gray Valley. However, Ye Chong could see that there were more and more red-tailed beasts that entered Gray Valley.

    On somes, people no longer dared to wander far from the city, for fear of encountering red-tailed beasts in the rural areas. The cities were more like fortresses, protected by loads of armaments. Resident mech pilots volunteered to keep their homes safe, that''s why the red-tailed beasts did not manage to breach the cities yet.

    The situation would only get worse. Ye Chong looked at a chart that showed the frequency of incidents rted to red-tailed beasts across time. The graph was climbing up steeply.

    Crysound City''s security measures were tightened. The streets were mostly empty, except for the asional passerby. Fortunately, with Henna nearby at the frontline, military presence was strong in the area, and it was still generally safe for the locals.

    "Ye!" Shang finally came out of his lengthy hiding.

    "Shang!" Ye Chong greeted in surprise.

    "Hehe, I''ll let you in on good news ¡­" Shang sounded excited.

    ______________________________________

    Xi Qing dragged himself slowly towards the nutrition tank. He lifted the lid on the tank and slipped unceremoniously into it. The nutrition fluid in the tank would rapidly replenish whatever nutrients his body needed, so that he could physically recover as soon as possible.

    Once upon a time, such a luxury would have been unattainable for him. He had long heard of its various benefits, and now that he had the chance, he had used the tank every single day. The nutrition tank was effective, but being submerged inside was very ufortable. It was like having millions of ants biting every muscle and bone in your body. For that reason, not many people actually used it.

    Xi Qing gritted his teeth, looking tortured, but he was holding on. A few students walked past the nutrition tank room and saw Xi Qing submerged in the nutrition fluid. They looked impressed. This designated group leader of theirs was at least respected by his members.

    The nutrition fluid reached up to his neck, spinning fast so as to encourage faster nutrition absorption and produce a massaging effect. Xi Qing thought of his instructor, and wondered if he had made the right choice.

    He knew that his instructor was definitely stronger than what his performance during the test suggested. However, no one knew exactly how capable he was. So far, the man had not participated in mechbat practice with them. They were also going through the most simplest and driest of trainings. Even so, the instructor had demanded very high standards in these trainings!

    Nheless, he hadpleted them! Xi Qing''s lips lifted into a faint smile. He was the first in his group to havepleted their training ording to their instructor''s standards. At first, no one believed that anyone could have done it as their instructor wanted, Xi Qing included. To think that he had really achieved it! The joy of sess made the pain in his body fade into the background.

    The instructor had said, he remembered clearly, that he would personally teachbat to any student whopleted the trainings. This was the part that he had been waiting for. He would be able to tell how strong his instructor really was, and whether or not his judgment had been wrong.

    However, Xi Qing''s happiness did notst long. He had always thought that, with the Research Consortium taking part in the war, it would be over very quickly. However, the war had progressed to its current state, one far more serious than he expected.

    When will this war end? Xi Qing wondered, lost in thought.

    ________________________________

    Arwa''s expression was frozen. Bei Guang looked simrly aggrieved too, and did not say a word. No one dared to approach the Xiao Family''s 1st and 2nd toon Commanders, not with the way they looked.

    Arwa suddenly burst out in rage, "Those fools, are they suicidal? Didn''t they know that is no different from killing ourselves? Who the f*ck suggested this idea, I''m going to end him -"

    Arwa''s outburst came from within the meeting room. The guards who stood outside kept their silence. They could not understand, just what kind of horrible thing that someone had done to make even their calm toon Commander Arwa explode in anger.

    "The Alliance made the decisionst night. Basically, 80 percent of the members agreed to this battle n," Bei Guang said with a low voice.

    "Are they nuts? 80 percent? This is crazy! We don''t even know what''s inside. It''s insane to gamble all we have in this full on attack!" Arwa''s face was one of disbelief. The Alliance had decided on a battle nst night, one that would gather all their military forces and charge right into the purple gas cloud!

    Bei Guang''s face betrayed no emotion as he continued, "They all have their own men, and it is thanks to mediation by the Research Consortium that they had all joined in the war. With more and more red-tailed beasts infiltrating from the rear, they face a huge pressure and want to return to protect their own territories. You may not know this, but He Yue Gxy is in chaos right now, perhaps even more so than us. The red-tailed beasts are spreading. Aside from Yi Ju and its surroundings, where the collision army is, the other ces are all in a state of unrest. These people are just afraid that we will end up the same at the rear."

    Arwa remained silent for a long while before forcing out a question, "What about us?"

    "The Young Miss has agreed to it," Bei Guang replied softly.

    Arwa slumped into his sofa.

    "Perhaps the situation is not as bad as you think. The attack will be led by the best and brightest of the entire Gray Valley! Even the Golden Army of the Research Consortium is participating," Bei Guang consoled Arwa.

    Arwa was about to say something, but changed his mind and instead uttered, "I really hope so!"

 Chapter 481 - Crazy Training III

    <h4>Chapter 481: Crazy Training III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Xi Qing''s long awaited personal training by the instructor himself had finally arrived. He had prepared long and hard for this day.

    The two mechs faced each other. One was Xi Qing''s D-6, and the other, Ye Chong''s Muscle Man. Everyone in Group 25 halted their training and came to watch the fight. The instructor''s ability in mech piloting had always been a mystery to them. They would certainly not miss out on the chance to watch him fight in his mech.

    "You attack first," Ye Chong ordered simply.

    "Alright," Xi Qing was overjoyed and replied excitedly. He made his move instantly.

    D-6 lowered itself down, pushing itself forward with its bent legs. Its engines were on on full power, and both hands were already armed with swords. As Xi Qing watched the awkward looking mech growingrger andrger in his eyes, he realized that he was feeling very calm inside.

    The mech seemed to ignore his move and did not react. Xi Qing was patient, and did not get worked up because of it.

    Close the distance, get in position, strike his target!

    Xi Qing cleared his mind of all distractions as he types themands quickly on his controls. The two swords in D-6''s hands rotated, their hilts now pointed to the front.

    Wham! The mech''s legs stomped heavily on the ground, and as its engines swerved in another direction, D-6''s movements became a blur.

    Geometrical veering!

    D-6 elerated abruptly to its maximum speed, and the sword in its left hand silently pointing towards Muscle Man''s throat. His right hand held its sword back, a hidden threat that could strike out at any time.

    The students who were watching all gasped in surprise. The series of movements were so fast that it caught them off guard. Some of the more pretentious students began to imagine themselves at the receiving end, and considered their chances of avoiding the attack - they quickly concluded that they would not be able to do so. These pretentious students felt humiliated upon this realization.

    Xi Qing had put a lot of thought into this attack. He was smart, and knew that the instructor would most likely ask him to attack first. He would be given that advantage. Hence, he came up with this strategy! He was confident that it would be able to at least cause trouble for the instructor, if not outright defeat him.

    Strategically speaking, this was an example of a prepared attackunched against an unprepared opponent!

    Muscle Man''s body grewrger andrger in his eyes. D-6 had already locked on to his target. However, Muscle Man did not move still. Could his instructor fail toe up with a countermove? Impossible! Xi Qing dismissed the thought immediately. However, he could not afford to consider it further. He would not want to disturb his momentum just because he could not read his opponent''s intention.

    Now! Xi Qing''s eyes glowed. He quickly entered his presetmands.

    Just then, the inert Muscle Man began to move!

    Knees bent, lunge forward, attack! The clumsy Muscle Man was now like a human fighter, its every move deft and fluid. Its huge body and unwieldy limbs produced a sharp contrast with its movements. The paradox was strange to watch.

    Muscle Man suddenly elerated to a point 30 degrees to the right of the D-6 while swiping out with its left leg.

    Xi Qing was secretly pleased. In all the possible scenarios he considered, this was one of them. His instructor would be able to escape his own attack range and change the fighting dynamics between them.

    Of course, if Xi Qing had anticipated this, he would have a countermeasure in ce!

    D-6 swiped out with its right sword, took a right step back, then shed downwards with the sword in its left hand.

    Both mechs were moving fast. D-6''s right hand sword was going for Muscle Man''s throat, while its left hand kept the mech from escaping. Their instructor was about to lose! The students watched anxiously. It was not exactly shocking if their instructor lost, but Xi Qing''s attack was truly vicious and well nned! It did not surprise them that their instructor would lose.

    As expected, Xi Qing was a capable man! Everyone looked to D-6 with admiration.

    Just when everyone thought the fight was over, Muscle Man finally ovee its passive role and did something that everyone who was watching would never forget!

    Muscle Man did not pull back its left leg, which had missed its target. Instead, its right leg suddenly kicked upwards towards D-6''s left rib. It was strange to see Muscle Man with both its legs not touching the ground, while its upper body bent down in a physically staggering manner as D-6''s right hand sword grazed past its face.

    His opponent''s move waspletely unexpected by Xi Qing. Nevertheless, he did not panic. So far, he had the upper hand. As long as he did not make any mistakes, he would win this round.

    D-6 twisted its body to the side, avoiding Muscle Man''s right leg while its left hand directed the sword towards Muscle Man. Even though Muscle Man had thick armor, Xi Qing that knew that this premeditated strike would definitely cause significant damage.

    With both its feet off the ground, Muscle Man once again did the impossible, rotating its body in midair like a top! All the students watched in astonishment as Muscle Man turned into a blur from its fast movements, thinking - how did he do it?

    ng! A sharp sound of metal against metal was heard. The sword in D-6''s left hand hit against the rapidly spinning metal body and was flung away into the distance, like it was being repelled away by a hammer!

    Xi Qing was in danger! Everyone who was watching realized this immediately. With the sword in its left hand gone, D-6''s chest was wide open. In the blink of an eye, the bnce of the fight shifted dramatically.

    Muscle Man suddenly reached out and grabbed onto D-6''s left hand. Since Muscle Man was bulky, and currently spinning very quickly, D-6 lost its bnce instantly.

    Wam! Muscle Man''s two thickset mechanical legs mmed into the ground intimidatingly.

    Shoulder punches, knee kicks ¡­

    D-6 never had the chance tond properly as it received all the attacks helplessly. The students had been trained for long distancebat since they were young, and had never seen such a violent fight. The two mechs that stood over 10 meters each now fought against each other in close quarters. Every hit was enough to make one cringe. The ground seemed to be trembling as the students watched in suspense.

    Dust was sent flying all over the ce as the two mechs fought, but the dull and loud sounds of metal against metal could still be heard clearly.

    Soon, the yellow dust settled.

    The students could finally see the two mechs. A sharp parrying spear was pointed straight at D-6 throat, barely five millimeters away from its target. The parrying spear gleamed with typical metallic coldness. At the other end of the parrying spear was a huge and seemingly unwieldy mechanical hand.

    The students gave a thunderous apuse, finally releasing the excitement that had been building in them. They cheered as loud as they could, waving their hands excitedly as their faces blushed with eagerness.

    Through the hole in the fence, Shen Ruxue watched in shock.

    The real lifebat training had stirred up all the students, encouraging them to train harder. They were all eager to learn directly under their instructor. However, their instructor had said that only those whopleted his training ording to his standards would be personally taught. Hence, the training ground was lit up with burning enthusiasm as the students underwent their training impatiently, unwilling to be left behind.

    The one who was envied the most on the training ground was Xi Qing. Their instructor had spent almost all his time on him. However, it was Xi Qing who felt the gloomiest of them all. After just a few rounds, his instructor could read him like a book. Hence, his situation turned depressing. Everytime he fought against his instructor, he would be beaten to the ground, and everytime he trained, he would have to be fully alert. Whenever he stood in front of his instructor, he could feel a killing aura emanating from him. His instructor would make his killing aura more and more intense that it chilled him to the bone. Once, his mind went nk until his instructor''s mech pointed its parrying spear at him, pulling him out of his fear.

    "He must have killed people before! And more than a few of them!" Xi Qing thought to himself, but never had the courage to ask his instructor about it.

    On the other hand, Xi Qing could feel himself remarkably improving every day. He no longer paralyzed in fear at his instructor''s killing aura. He finally understood why the instructor had ordered them to practice those dry and basic moves. Whenever he suffered under the overwhelming attacks from his instructor, there was no time for fancy moves. Besides, Xi Qing had noticed keenly that his instructor had almost always used those basic moves, but executing them faster! These basic moves became powerful weapons when done by the instructor himself. He never had the chance to fight back whenever he fought against his instructor.

    However, this intense daily training with his instructor would notst long. The other students were beginning toplete the training that the instructor had set for them.

    Every since Ye Chong''s fight with Xi Qing, the other students were all eager to get their chance. Five dayster, all the students seeded inpleting their training.

    Ye Chong never went easy with his students. On the contrary, he dialed up his killing aura to stimte his students. He was not skilled in teaching, and could only rely on this method. Fortunately, the students were all fast learners. Aside from that, the dailybat training sessions allowed him to get used to Muscle Man faster. Hence, Ye Chong decided to treat thebat training as his own training, and kept on it everyday from dawn till dusk.

    Ye Chong never knew that his actions made his students even more respectful of him. The way they saw it, they had a verymitted instructor who would always train all day long, and with each and every one of them. They were also intrigued by their instructor''s stamina. Surely it took a lot of strength to be able to fight all day!

    Little by little, Ye Chong began to gain respect from his students unawares.

 Chapter 482 - Situation

    <h4>Chapter 482: Situation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Ye, we have a situation," Shang said with concern. In front of Ye Chong was a holographic screen showing the star chart of Gray Valley. There were many areas highlighted in red. Gray Valley looked like a sick patient covered with angry rashes, in a critical situation. The red zones were areas where red-tailed beasts were sighted.

    Shang and Mu had worked together and decrypted Gray Valley''s virtual worldputation system. After oveing this difficult obstacle, Shang slipped quietly into the virtual world to gather useful information.

    There was a spike in news rted to red-tailed beast recently. Cities began to feel the pressure, and the number of casualties were hiking up crazily. Even the atmosphere within the training camp had grown tense. People were no longer smiling so easily. Everyone was training hard.

    All this while, everyone in Gray Valley had been confident of winning the war. However, the situation had descended quickly into chaos.

    Ye Chong studied at the bruised star chart quietly. He considered for a moment and asked, "How is security like right now at the Gateway towards He Yue Gxy?"

    "Hmm, from what I gather, security hasxed recently, but no enough for you to pass through," Shang replied.

    Shang was better than Mu in analyzing intel. This surprised Ye Chong, and it was only after Shang exined that he understood why. Shang was a pro in psychology, and could often deduce useful information from seemingly irrelevant information. This was a quality that Mucked.

    Financially speaking, they could afford to leave where they were, but they had decided to stay instead. If they left, they might encounter the red-tailed beasts in outer space, and that was dangerous. Leaving Henna right now would be a risky move. Even with Ye Chong''s extraordinary abilities, it was still necessary to act cautiously in the current state of unrest.

    In a society of unrest, the power of just one person was like a drop in the ocean. Hence, after discussion with Shang, Ye Chong had decided to stay and observe the situation.

    Every day he trained himself by training his students, and his students'' attacks became more and more violent. Even Xi Qing could not keep his cool. Ye Chong understood them, and did not hold back himself. In the end, he organized them into groups of five, and he would fight each group in turn. This allowed the students to practice coordination, while giving him some kind of challenge.

    However, to Ye Chong''s surprise, his students were not capable of any kind of strategizing. He had to teach them how to coordinate amongst themselves, how to choose their positions.

    If only one of the Sang Tribe members were here. In terms of strategizing, the Sang Tribe would take first ce, and the Xi Feng Tribe ced second.

    Shang took unexpected interest in his task. He gatheredrge volumes of recordings about strategizing and tactics from the virtual world, analyzed them, then came up with an original Shang''s Theory of War. To Ye Chong''s astonishment, Shang''s theories were very effective.

    Shang was positively euphoric with Ye Chong''s acknowledgement, and remained in that state of excitement for the next few days.

    Ye Chong used Shang''s theories to teach his students. Unlike Mu''s precision and uracy, Shang operated in a whole other realm. His methods were simple and flexible. For example, Shang had designed a form of coordination for five-person squads. It did not demand fixed roles for each member, but instead acted as a guide for the members to respond to each other''s movements. However, the squad members were restricted in the ways they could respond ording to Shang''s theories.

    Ye Chong did not study his theories deeply before he began to teach them to his students. Af first, they improved very slowly. However, these theories and Ye Chong''s richbat experience helped the students improve in their coordination skills tremendously and in a very short time.

    Now, Ye Chong''s battle with the five-member squads were no longer so easy. The students, in turn, became even more respectful of their instructor. They knew exactly how powerful they were once they acted as a squad, but even so, their instructor had won against them decisively, every single time.

    Just how strong was their instructor? No one had the answer to that question, but Ye Chong was slowly bing something of an enigma to them.

    Ye Chong oddly noticed that the working staff in the training camp did not seem to pay much notice to them. The staff who came daily in the beginning no longer visited. Such arge scale training camp was now apparently left to their own devices. Had something happened?

    Ye Chong did not care, and continued to focus on his training every day. His students benefited from training with him, and vice versa. He never had the chance to train against multiple opponents before this. Additionally, the students may not be particrly capable, but they were now fighting with Ye Chong''s typical style - simple but effective. These little Ye Chong''s offered Ye Chong himself a decent challenge.

    Five D-6''s whooshed across the training ground in a seemingly random manner, but in fact they had already surrounded Ye Chong. Each mech was covered by two mechs on its sides. If Muscle Man attempted to target any one of them, the other two mechs would step in to interfere.

    Inside his pilot cabin, Ye Chong''s dull eyes began to show a tiny ripple of emotion.

    His students were getting better and better at coordination. Their deceivingly simple positions had actually set up three traps for him. Each student alone was still very much inferior against a veteran mech pilot. However, they were still new to mechs, and there were no habits that they cannot change yet to suit their teamwork. Besides, they were now at an age where they could absorb knowledge like a sponge. They were also all hardworking and persistent. That was how they managed to form such a real lifebat worthy squad in such a short time.

    Making things challenging for Ye Chong meant that they were now quite strong. Ye Chong might not mind his sry too much, but he believed that if his students took the exams now, they would definitely pass with flying colors.

    Now, however ¡­

    Ye Chong took a sweeping nce at the five D-6''s, having no intention of making it easy for them. He fought each training battle with all he got. That was his secret to improving himself. It was also why his students could improve so quickly.

    Ye Chong understood their coordination methods more than they did themselves. Aside from that, the students were still far from invincible even though they had already improved a lot.

    Ye Chong made a bluff to attack the frontmost mech, then quickly turned back, creating an opening in the squad using this sudden motion. He then forced himself into this opening, creating a moment of confusion in the squad.

    The confusionsted for only two seconds, but it was enough for Ye Chong.

    He made sudden veers, quick bursts of attacks, bluffs behind bluffs¡­

    The five D-6''s were quickly unraveled, losing their formation. Two of them lunged at Muscle Man, trying to buy time for theirrades to get back into formation. Ye Chong pbviously did not allow it to happen.

    He made another convincing bluff, changing directions three times in a row, and escaped the two D-6''s. H then pushed himself backwards in a few powerful steps, putting himself between the two D-6''s.

    Muscle Man used amonly seen move in hand-to-handbat - pushing his elbows back to strike - and began his attacks.

    Muscle Man was like a wild beast, unleashing all the energy that threatened to burst through its body. The mech''s attacks were like waves in a tsunami. The earth groaned every time it stomped its heavy legs onto the ground. Bang bang bang bang! The steps sounded like a war drum, and it made the students who were watching tremble in excitement. Dust was sent flying all over the training ground as the D-6''s were thrown out of the field, one by one.

    The observing students discussed about the details of the fight, and even the students in the D-6''s climbed out of their pilot cabins to join the discussion. Instead of dejection, their faces showed eagerness.

    Ye Chong did not use Muscle Man''s assault weapons. This was done not out of concern for his students or making things more difficult for himself. He knew that if he used those weapons, the D-6''s would be damaged, and they would lose a lot of time while the mechs were sent to be fixed.

    Even so, he was slowly feeling the pressure. His students were improving very quickly, a truly surprising turn of events. They threw themselvespletely into the battle, and were not distracted by anything that was happening outside of it. Perhaps the worsening situation in Gray Valley was a driving factor.

    "Ye, something''s wrong!" Shang interrupted Ye Chong''s training, sounding panicked.

    A news header appeared on Muscle Man''s holographic screen.

    "Alliance Frontline Thoroughly Defeated!" The red letters looked menacing.

    Ye Chong read on, and his expression turned grim.

    A few days ago, Shang found out that there was to be arge scale military operation at the frontline. Ye Chong found himself thinking about that piece of intel as he read the news. It seemed to havee from an interview with a few mech pilots who survived. The United Army had gathered all avable forces in a bid to kill all the red-tailed beasts in the purple gas cloud and end the war, but had instead lost the battle. It was said that less than 10 percent of the soldiers returned alive. More importantly, arge group of red-tailed beasts were heading their way! The creatures were pursuing the retreating soldiers, and may force their way into the heart of Gray Valley.

    Ye Chong spoke in a low voice, "Shang, show Gray Valley''s star chart."

    A star chart showing Gray Valley in the center leapt up into Muscle Man''s holographic screen. Ye Chong studied the chart, and his heart sank even further.

    Eastlight was the closest to the front line, and right behind it was Henna.

 Chapter 483 - Reaction

    <h4>Chapter 483: Reaction</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Oh, by the way, Ye, just a moment ago, all the Research Consortium staff had left the training camp. This means that, as of now, we are the only ones left in the camp," Shang addedzily.

    "They left?" Ye Chong raised a brow.

    "Yes, they just got the news too. Ye, by tomorrow morning, probably the whole of Henna will have known. If we''re leaving, we gotta be quick. Remember to bring the students with you. Tsk tsk, can''t be amander without soldiers. Ah, the girl''s here to see you." Just as Shang finished, Ye Chong noticed a mech approaching him.

    Shen Ruxuended her mech hastily, not far from Muscle Man. The students saw that the female instructor was here to see their instructor, and quickly gave way. Their instructor was a silent man, but a hero nheless, and it was only natural for a hero to have a beauty with him.

    Shen Ruxue came out of her pilot cabin, looking nervous. Ye Chong came out of Muscle Man as well. Shen Ruxue quickly came forward and started clumsily, "Did you notice anything unusual in the camp?"

    "What''s unusual?" Ye Chong''s face betrayed nothing.

    "The staff are all gone, and I can''t reach any of them. Something''s not right, I think we might have a problem," Shen Ruxue said anxiously.

    Ye Chong studied Shen Ruxue for a moment, and recalled Shang''s words. Of course they were leaving Henna, it was only a matter of how. Leaving would require two things - a starship and defensive measures. The starship would be easy. If he worked together with Shang, hijacking a starship was a walk in the park. The problem now was securing their safety while they were travelling. Henna was surrounded by areas where red-tailed beasts were known to prowl. They would not survive the journey in outer space without enough defensive measures.

    Ye Chong quickly made his decision. He would tell everything he knew to this woman. "The front line has copsed in defeat. The Research Consortium staff have left."

    Shen Ruxue turned pale. She saw that Ye Chong was not joking, and finally understood the situation they were all in.

    Back in the training ground, 40 D-6''s lined up in two neat formations. In front of them, 40 students stood in two groups of formation as well. Shen Ruxue stood beside Ye Chong, still in a daze. She was still trying to digest what Ye Chong had told her. Suddenly, she noticed something odd. Why would he be the first person she thought to ask? Could she have inadvertently acknowledged that this apathetic instructor of Group 25 to be stronger than her?

    The 40 students noticed how they were two groups gathered in the same location, and did not understand what was going on.

    Ye Chong looked at them all, and said inly, "The front line has lost. The red-tailed beasts will reach here very soon. The Research Consortium staff have left. You have two hours to bring your families here. I will have an escape n ready."

    The 40 students stared nkly at Ye Chong as he looked to the watch on his wrist.

    "The time is now 1420, meet up back here at 1620." His cold voice was devoid of emotion.

    After that, Ye Chong said nothing more, showing only a serious expression.

    Ye Chong''s students looked to each other, then quickly climbed into their mechs and went their separate ways. They trust in their instructor, and besides, the recent behavior of the Consortium staff had roused suspicious.

    Shen Ruxue''s students still looked shocked and doubtful. They exchanged looks, but none of them moved.

    Shen Ruxue sighed to herself, and spoke up, "Everyone, go now. His words are true, let''s not waste time."

    Her students looked terrified, but quickly rushed to their mechs. Shen Ruxue had already been acknowledged by her students, winning their trust.

    "Ye, these 20 students have to be drilled," Shang emphasised on the word "drilled".

    Ye Chong assented. He understood what Shang meant. If these students failed to follow orders in future, it would be a big problem. Better to train them beforehand. However, time was something they were short of right now, so it would have to wait until after hijacking their means of escape.

    Allowing the students to return and bring their families along was Shang''s idea. Shang exined in detail to Ye Chong the reasoning behind it. There must be many family members for all these students, and it may seem like arger burden on their escape n. However, it was the only way to persuade the students to leave with him. Besides, if they encountered any danger, the students would naturally fight with all they got to protect their families. On the other hand, the starship wasrge enough to amodate everyone with room to spare, requiring no further effort from Ye Chong.

    Shang concluded that it was an all-benefits-and-no-harm bargain.

    Ye Chong mused over his reasoning, realizing that there was a lot of thought was put into this seemingly generous offer. Shang and Mu are truly very different!

    "Let me reintroduce myself. I am Group 24''s instructor, Shen Ruxue. I think that we''re going to be partners in the foreseeable future." Shen Ruxue finallyposed herself, and realized that she did not know this instructor''s name, only referring to him as Number 231. In fact, the Research Consortium did not require real names and information in order to be hired. This was a norm in Gray Valley. There were no countries in Gray Valley, and territorial boundaries were many andplicated. It was too easy to forge an identity.

    "Jay!" Ye Chong replied to Shen Ruxue with his fake name that Shang had conjured up for him. Ye Chong did not feel guilty at all for lying about his name. It was bing second nature.

    Shen Ruxue asked straightforwardly, "Do you have a n?"

    Shen Ruxue''s skin was tanned, probably due to prolonged outdoor activity. Her body was all muscles and no fat, and her fittingbat uniform traced her curves clearly. She had short and clear cut hair, a sharp chin and arching eyebrows. Upon closer inspection, he found that this female mech pilot actually refreshing, with perfectly bnced facial features.

    The now calm Shen Ruxue looked honest and open,cking the typical shyness found in other women. She smiled when she noticed Ye Chong''s gaze on her, unannoyed by it. She could see that this Jay guy was not leering at her.

    Ye Chong found himself impressed by her a little more. He had always been very choosy with hisrades. So far, the only ones that he acknowledged asrades were Mu, Shang and Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing ¡­ That training garb, white as snow, the girl who sat high and straight ¡­

    Ye Chong quickly gathered his thoughts and replied calmly, "I have many."

    "Many?" Shen Ruxue looked surprised. She studied the reserved man beside her, and could not see anything unusual about him. She was about to ask him some more when Jay closed his eyes and sat down. Shen Ruxue hesitated before joining him on the floor.

    Ye Chong was conversing with Shang.

    "Ye, I''ve checked all the starships in the docking zone. Today, there are a total of 125 starships scheduled for departure. 16 of them arerge-sized starhips. Six of these are already filled up with goods. Two of them carry maintenance parts, while the other four carry goods including energy cells. Our main options are these four starships."

    Shang paused, unable to hide his excitement. He was always more interested in these kind of activities.

    "These four starships are not too heavily guarded. However, the one called Haskel has the weakest security. Hence, this will be our main target."

    Ye Chong listened closely, taking in every detail.

    "Haskel will leave at 2250, but her crew will assemble at 1900. Our operation must be carried out before 1900. Ye, I will first hack into their control photon processor to take over their starship systems. I believe this operation will not too difficult for you, but there are a few things to keep in mind. To avoid causing any damage to the starship, I think it''s better if you don''t attack with mechs. Haskel''s crew will keep the starship flying, so their safety is of the highest priority."

    Ye Chong thought through Shang''s n and did not see any obivious holes. They decided to go ahead with the operation.

    By then, some of the students had already returned with their families. Since they were brought to the training camp so abruptly, they looked mostly confused and afraid. The families discussed amongst themselves in bafflement. Most of them looked at Ye Chong doubtfully.

    Xi Qing was from Crysound City, so he was the first toe back. He brought not only his family members, but also his good friend White. White himself had no surviving family members since his parents died two years ago.

    Xi Qing settled his family down before rushing back to Ye Chong, panting. White remembered Number 231 as a failed instructor, and could not believe that the front line had lost. He was only here because of his friend. In fact, he believed that all this trouble was some trick yed by the failed instructor.

    "Instructor, what do we do next?" He had hurried to and from his home, and could barely catch his breath. However, deep down, he was feeling excited. Shen Ruxue was now looking at Xi Qing.

    Ye Chong opened his eyes, took a nce at Xi Qing, then dropped a bombshell, "We''re hijacking a ship."

 Chapter 484 - Haskel

    <h4>Chapter 484: Haskel</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    At dock, it was a lively sight. People were walking towards all directions. Everything was peaceful. Apparently the news of defeat had yet reached the ears of the folks. Spaceships, easily a thousand of them, came in different sizes, were parked at every empty lot at the docking zone. There were ships leaving while there were also ships that had just arrived from a long journey.

    Ye Chong were leading his party, consisted of Xi Qing, White and two random trainees whose names were Zhao Gang and Shu respectively. The two trainees were the outstanding performers in the group other than Xi Qing. Zhao Gang was a brave fighter, a careful one too, while Shu was a rather strategic, situational fighter with a stern, cold personality. Three of them were the best students who had won over Ye Chong''s trust with their capabilities.

    Well, Ye Chong never knew he was actually educating his trainees. Having them inpany would no doubt be a strategy to broaden their horizon while providing them opportunities to learn further about the world outside the ssroom. Ye Chong did not intend to do that, he just felt their skills could mature faster, while being able to have a safer journey through this apaniment.

    Other than White, who looked confused and tensed, Xi Qing and Shu were looking calm. Zhao Gang was excited in the meantime.

    Ye Chong, on the way to the docking zone, gave a briefing on the few dos and don''ts while stealing a ship. Yes, they were going to steal a spaceship. Nope, it was not proposed by Shang the evil genius but Ye Chong after a few thoughts himself. Ye Chong believed it was necessary to show these children the true, gruesome side of wars. They were calm and intelligent but they were still children who had never experienced wars, a dead-or-alive situation. And Ye Chong was well-aware of how the uing journey would impose peril on them. There could be red-tailed beasts anywhere, there could also be pirates or any opportunistic robbers who eyed at their fragile appearance.

    He had these four children with them, so they could have a careful look, a direct experience on what battles truly were. Well, there was not much risk to be frank, Ye Chong was capable to settle most dangers by himself, so it should be a golden opportunity for the children. Shang not only agreed but also was very much impressed at his idea.

    Ye Chong''s group of children did not catch any attention inside the decking zone. Soon they had already arrived by Haskel, the target this time.

    It was a giant spaceship.

    Thought the children when they spotted Haskel. Their faces were pale.

    "Please don''t tell me we are stealing this giant¡­" They looked at Ye Chong in utter doubts.

    Stealing a gigantic spacecraft while there were only 5 of them? That was insane. It would be a game-over before yer 1 hit the gate!

    The children thought they would be sneaking into a tiny, overlooked spaceship at one corner. But hell they were wrong.

    Haskel was a spaceship with a length about 17.8 kilometers, categorized as Large in spaceship sizing. One could hardly see over 100 units of such model in Gray Valley, especially when half of them were under the consortium''s examination.

    Xi Qing could feel his tininess as he set his eyes upon the ship. The instructor almost sounded like a crackpot when he pointed at the ship. The n felt bizarre to Xi Qing, as his heart raced. To be honest, he was pessimistic with the n. It was clear that Haskel was under careful guard. There should be a kind of defense mechanism that would prevent intruders. It was certainly a fight against the whale yet he did not retreat. The instructor might sound like a crackpot but he was a careful strategist. It must not be a wild ning from him. It was the trust that kept Xi Qing in line.

    His lips cracked as he licked slowly. He had never conducted anything this exciting since he was birth. He looked at his mates whose gestures too had been stiffened by the electrifying thrill. The docking zone was busy. People were upied by the loading schedule. No one bothered toy even a nce at the strange group of children awkwardly lifting their steps.

    They then shifted to a dark corner. Ye Chong looked at his trainees, "That, is Haskel. The target this time, just in case any of you was lost. There are 9 entrances. We would be infiltrating through the 7th entrance. Now, the important information. Listen, I would only say it once." Anticipation intensified as Ye Chong stared the children with his soulless eyes, "Act fast. No survivors."

    What?

    Xi Qing flinched. His horrified eyes looked back into the abyss of the instructor''s eyes. He and his mates lowered their heads.

    Was Xi Qing right on this? The instructor is indeed a real deal? A ferocious killer?

    White was astonished.

    Ye Chong turned away after giving his finalmand, with no spare time for the novices.

    "Shang, how''s the preparation?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Done. Make your move~" said Shang in rxation.

    "Move!" He turned back to the children and urged them, before sprinting towards Haskel, with the children followed.

    The 7th entrance was empty. There was nobody but the gate to the corridor was shut.

    How do we even get in there?

    Xi Qing was very bewildered, as he observed the gate while they ran.

    It was a gate with extremely, almost colossally thick armor, made out of probably a highly dense and strong alloy. No one could break in with brute''s force while the instructor did not seem to be deploying his mech anytime soon. He just sprinted on.

    They were approaching the gate, crashing soon. The instructor did not seem to be decelerating. Instead, he elerated.

    Were they going to do a meteor strike on the gate? The group was confused. At the next millisecond, the gate suddenly opened itself, as if connected to the instructor''s will. The timing was impable.

    The children''s eyes wererge.

    Did the instructor make an "arrangement" beforehand?

    Who is he?

    That was when the children realized the monosybic instructor, who lived up to the action-speaks-louder-than-words spirit, could be a somebody.

    But well, they had to steal a ship. No time for figuring that out at the moment.

    The corridor was illuminated by themps at first. But it went outpletely the moment they went in and heard a loud shout which shocked them.

    "Who are you!?" Shouted from the interior, which a hmph, thump and dead silence followed. The children hesitated as their steps jerked, "Follow up!" Ordered the instructor ahead, which caused them to elerate.

    They then passed by a man passing out on the deck, with a distorted neck.

    Oh the cruelty. The children was having cold sweat.

    The instructor just moved on indifferently, which sent chills to their soul. They thought they knew their instructor, that maybe they had "tamed" him, but the horror returned. It was not because of his strength, but his indifference towards the dead, as if he once crawled out of the corpses and stood upon them after an apocalypse.

    There were impression, fear and curiosity in their mind. A veryplicated feelings they reckoned.

    "FOCUS!" Frowned Ye Chong as he shouted and turned back as he ran.

    The children went back to the reality and followed Ye Chong carefully.

    Xi Qing was surprised that the instructor seemed extremely familiar with theyout of this ship. He did not have any form of reference with him, nor he ever got lost. He did not even look at the signs, or try checking out the rooms. And he had a shadow partner somewhere in the ship, who provided impable assistance.

    As the instructor said, "Act fast. No survivors," the instructor was efficient in taking out his foes. The foes always copsed before they could take any action. It was then Xi Qing was reminded of the instructor''s insane brawling skills again. The most memorable one this time? He would say the battle of 1v12, whichsted only 48 seconds. None of the 12 men survived!

    Dead bodies were everywhere, with distorted expression and anatomy. Blood painted the ground.

    Xi Qing could feel his inside getting restless, and he heard White throwing up. It was a signal when he smelled the death. He finally could not hold the disgust wrenching his inside as he puked. Zhao Guo and Shu also halted and omitted.

    Ye Chong stopped and looked at the trainees.

    "Man, Ye, your students are weak," teased Shang.

    "It''s always the most unbearable the first time. They would do better the next." Replied Ye Chong.

    "Well, if we have the next that is. To be honest, I am very much worried when we are having a bunch of kids in the team," said Shang.

    "More is better than nothing," responded Ye Chong.

    "Oh?" Flinched Shang, "Hahahah! You are right. It''s still better than getting stuck here forever!" He seemed to have remembered something, "Oh yes, Ye, almost forgot, I need to open the air valve for you. The smell must be unbearable. These kids need to learn about hygiene, particrly the right spot to discharge their lunch, seriously, who else is going to take care of their mess after this?" Ranted Shang.

    "It''s alright," said Ye Chong. The smell was nothingpared to Trash-12. He was used to that.

    "The kiddos had done discharging. Ye, we need to catch the time," reminded Shang. The quicker theypleted the operation, the less likely things would go wrong. Shen Ruxue was guarding the base at the moment and honestly both Ye Chong and Shang had little confidence in her capabilities.

    "Mhm," said Ye Chong, as he looked at the children standing up after the overwhelming disgust, appearing pale.

    Well Xi Qing felt better after throwing up, though fading fear lingered in his thoughts. He nced at the instructor who still looked indifferent. His heart skipped a beat for a sudden, for some reason.

    "Let''s move, we are running out of time," said Ye Chong calmly as he began heading towards the gate with a password lock.

 Chapter 485 - Take Off

    <h4>Chapter 485: Take Off</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Once the algorithm exclusive to Gray Valley had been decoded, Mu/Shang the legendary top Maverick managed to demonstrate hacking to the gate. Within twinkling of eyes, Mu/Shang had seized the control of the entire spaceship. No one on the ship was able to discern the sudden change of ownership. Well, even if any of the sailors noticed the phenomena, Mu/Shang had full control of all sealing gates. None of these observant workers could leave their room.

    And that was how Ye Chong leisurely cleared the deck.

    In reality, he did not literally clear everything. Although he did have aplete list of thesebative obstacles to knock down, he did not have the time. The news of defeat arrived Henna way faster than Shang had predicted, as he detectedmotions in certain areas. And both Ye Chong and Shang were fairly convinced that it would only be a matter of time till themotion reached every corner of the.

    Other than the time left being insufficient, Ye Chong found the defense of the ship to be weak, *too* weak in fact. There were only a few teams of trainees patrolling on the ship, which was umon for a spaceship. He did weaken the defense further by taking out all the leaders but he seriously would not want to be weed with some unknown surprises hidden in the shipter. Well, still he hadpleted all the tasks for his n. It took him and his vani apprentices an hour or so. Speaking of the vanis, they had been drilled the bloodthirstiness and had started learningbats the true way.

    They were superior but were still not a match to the adults singlehandedly. So they would fight in pairs, taking out enemies in a joint attack. That¡­ was not exactly as efficient as one would have imagined. The shouts and punches lingered in the emptied vessel whenever Ye Chong cleared out every target in sight. Those came from the hardworking trainees of his who were still handling two enemies in pairs. Ye Chong would not provide assistance. It would be a quick kill of not only enemies but also opportunity if he would. These living dummies would promote quick growth for his students. No doubt!

    Haskel was chaotic, as the remaining crew realized they had lost control of all electronic units. The sealing gates were tightly sealed. So they were technically stuck, with their own fear as well as and-mowing killing machine.

    The indifferent young man and his 4 violent minions had shattered the security in the crew, as the pilots were smashed.

    No one could stop the ughterhouse, the pack of hungry wolves. The surviving crew was confused though, since it appeared that these attackers had a specific set of targets, that they spared the few crew members, as they walked the crew members by, as if the crew members never existed.

    People were restless, as they awaited the deadly time. Never once they expected such a severe security breach, especially conduced by such barbarians. They were the fourthrgest weapon supplier in Gray Valley and certainly they spoke louderpared to the folks on the street. No organization would want to mess with them. Gangsters? They ran away before the safety pin was even pulled from the grenade. And the irony? Despite the weaponry and authority they gained from it, their fate was going to be determined by a few young men raiding their ship.

    *Beep* That was when every single screen of theirmunicators shone.

    "Fellow crewmen, I believe all of you are fully aware of what had just happened to your ship. I''m sorry but the ship now has switched its owners. All existing contracts would have their ownership transferred to the new boss of Haskel. Should you have any ''inquiry'', just ask, you have all the *rights* to do so. Hehehehe¡­" The rascal voice rang like a blizzard upon their back. There was a pause, then the rascal voice continued, "As all of you had done a great work, there won''t be any reformation necessary, we would take off in 2 hours. Be prepared or the consequences might be ¡­ undesirable. Hmmm, hah! Don''t be afraid, you''ll be ever safer than ever as long as you do your works right. You have me on your side, well except if you want to switch side, then I''ll¡­" The threat was clear in this one.

    *Tick* And the screen turned off. Silence returned.

    The crew members were looking confused, at a loss of idea on where to start at first. But that realization came simultaneously on each of them that they jerked, as if gotten electrocuted, and began walking around getting into position. They were unaware of the hijacker but they were fully informed of what bloodshed the hijacker had created outside, and they absolutely would not want another bloodshed to happen.

    The leaders had been ughtered. The crew members, the pawns remained in the field and they should be doing what pawns were supposed to do.

    ¡­

    "Phew." Ye Chong let out a sigh of relief after securing the ownership of the ship with Shang. He might have a long health bar, but after so long he still got tired. His students, Xi Qing and the rest had already blended with the floor after copsing.

    Although they looked dead tired, Ye Chong insisted them to pilot a miniature vessel to escort the other trainees and their families.

    Another hourpsed in the process. Out of the 40 trainees, only 33 came. The 7 missing trainees? They were from Shen Ruxue''s group. So, it was naturally justified. Everyone dropped their jaws upon seeing the gigantic Haskel. They could not imagine how Ye Chong hijacked the entire ship with only 5 of them.

    The trainees were astonished in the beginning, but excitement soon colored their expression. It was a dream-came-true for most of them to be able to fight on a such a giant spaceship.

    Shang had made the arrangement. So there were sailors to lead them to the amodation.

    Right after the newly joined passengers settled down, the screen was turned on again.

    It was a projection of the entire pathway, towards which crowds were flooding. Noises, screams, of fear and agitation could be heard. The crew members held their steps as they looked upon the screen, again bewildered of the happening.

    What happened?

    "I believe you have seen what was going on the screen. I hereby inform all of you a bad news. The front-line had fallen. The alliance had lost. And by that I also believe you all should know what it means." Said Shang, as the visuals changed rhythmically, of every corner of thergest city on Henna where citizens were frantically scurrying everywhere.

    It was hell on Henna.

    It was dead silent in Haskel.

    "This ce has already been turned to hell and very likely most of the residents would not be able to escape this. Any form of migration, evacuation, transfer would not be possible." The tone was cold, so cold that it ached the crew members.

    "There is no time for sentiment. All of you are not in a position to do that yet. Now, think of your fate ¡­ and fight for it. Think of your family, your wife, your children. If you want to die right here and right now, then so be it. But what would happen to them? What would be their fate? Would they even have a future? No, save the thinking. You don''t need to think about that. All you need to think is to live. Yes, to live. We just need to live. But what could guarantee our living? The armor of Haskel? The weapon of hers? No. It''s your contribution! Every bit of your strength and every ounce of your courage, to fight for the next break of dawn." It came tly yet it struck every single crew member in the room.

    Ye Chong was rather impressed by Shang for he was able to raise the will in the people with simply a few words.

    "Ye, we are going to fly. We have to depart now or we might crash into other spaceships," suggested Shang. He was right, the pathway was already chaotic. There was no longer anything recognizable as traffic. They got to force their way into the space.

    "Mhm, let''s go," nodded Ye Chong.

    "All crew member, prepare for departure." The order was passed and soon they could hear the loud buzzes made by the heating engine, along with the cracks of the unmoved crates onceid next to it.

    Haskel was departing, as gradually the ship left the ground.

    Passengers, sailors, their eyes upon the crowding citizens in most fear on the ground. There was sentiment but there was also no time. They should not be sentiment as they could not even guarantee their own tomorrow either. They were d for being able to leave Henna safely, while they also worried their uing fate.

    As they bade a silent farewell to Henna with a heavy heart, Ye Chong and Shang were having discussion.

    "Ye, what makes you think that?" Shang was rather curious. It was a pretty creative idea from Ye Chong.

    "I dunno. It just came to my mind somehow."

    "If you want to do that, we got to do it now," muttered Shang. "It''ll be a major operation you know?"

    "Right," Ye Chong nodded, "We do not have much time left. At least it''ll be unlikely to encounter any red-tailed beast in the nearest course around."

    "Wowie, Ye, you actually turned smart," Shang chuckled. "Well, let me take here for you. ording to your n you''ll need to reform thebat units on the ship or it''ll be pointless even if we managed to aplish your brilliant idea."

    "Okay," responded Ye Chong, without a doubt. He headed to his trainees.

    Time is gold.

    No one should understand the meaning of this proverb better than them right now.

 Chapter 486 - Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 486: Preparation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Bach was the top person in charge of the maintenance department in Haskel. He was known for his giant, ring, bloodshot eyes as well as his thundering, eardrum-rupturing mortal howl, "Move harder, punks! The captain did not pay for you sissies to tell me things won''t work! Hurry up! We have a long pier of reinforcement to do, yes? What, impossible? What did I say just now?" The scowl was twitching, "Make it possible!" Father Bach, or maybe more fashionably, Daddy Bach, was in his blue cored uniform tainted by thest few continuous days of work, he had not been sleeping ever since. Stain of oils were over his body, his hair was tussling, the red eyes intensified.

    This was the third day in a row.

    It almost felt like a dream, of an endless war.

    Everything felt so unreal to him but the senses had convinced him. For starters, the ship which he had been serving for almost five years got hijacked, without a single forewarning. It felt as if the hijacker hacked in and assassinated everyone. The following news was utterly earth-shattering even for an experienced sailor like him - the frontline had failed, the army had been defeated. He believed nobody on the ship would buy the news if it was not the broadcast by the new captain. They would not be foolish enough to even approach Henna if they ever foresaw this.

    It did not make sense however. How would it be possible for the frontline to crumble simply without a sign? There were arge flock of pilots, in their formidable mechs guarding the gctic boundary, "Or we are indeed fighting against monstrosity this time, that we could not hold it back?" he muttered in bewilderment.

    He was at loss of hope upon hearing the news. Disbelief, confusion, frustration flooded his mind, till the hijacker voiced motivation which flushed all those away, that he realized, "Yes, he is right, I could not just stop here. I have things I would fight for." Thought he, reminiscing the mischievous, innocent giggle and smile of his granddaughter. "I am not saying goodbye to my granddaughter." And the old workman felt all pumped again, "Not just yet."

    As ordered he sprinted back to his work station, only to receive a detailed proposal of heavy modification from the new "captain".

    Certainly, Father Bach recognized the entire purpose of this modification at first nce. He had been in lead of ship maintenances since 20 years ago. "Alright sir." And he epted the proposal promptly, without hesitation and paying attention to the hideous deadline creeping behind the page.

    "All workmen, gather up!" He called upon all members and made the arrangement right away. His charisma had won over the respect of his men and they were fairly informed of how this operation could determine their survival, thus the hard work, the overwork. Father Bach could not remember thest time he had even a forty winks, the corners of his lips were getting blisters from the constant friction out of restlessness.

    "Hurry! Right there, strengthening."

    "Someone, I want something welded here right now. It''s not sturdy enough."

    The hoarse voice echoed within the spaceship.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Ye Chong was as busy as a bee too. He was racing with time as he had to gather up as many pilots as possible and he managed to get 177 of them eventually. It was a figure within his expectation but he was not entirely confident of this force. Only if he had the Sangs, then he probably would need a mere 50 of them to keep the journey safe.

    Well it was not the time for him to sigh over his bad luck. He had works to do. He had to train these pilots, which a majority of them was ranged attackers.

    He did not intend to shuffle the whole force with his 20 trainees. The trainees had founded a considerably impable rapport with each other. It would only weaken his trainees if he broke them up. They should not impose a major issue, unlike these new pilots. He did not expect much from these pilots.

    But he had to recognize the fact that these pilots were far more experienced than his trainees, at least they had fought in a war field, not inside a ssroom. Simr to the trainees, these pilots had a kind of bond among themselves, so a formation could be discerned whenever they engaged in battles. Well, that left Ye Chong with the basic patch works then. It sounded easy but not as effortless as one imagined. These pilots had a formation and the formation was probably drilled deep into their head. It would be a chore to alter it.

    He needed assistance. So he called Shang. His n was simple. He would first torture them with hands-on fights again and again, then Shang would point out their mistakes in reys of various angles. It was rather fortunate that these pilots were very much aware of their life-dead situation, so they worked diligently. They were changing. Their attack patterns were changing, but not up to Ye Chong''s standard. No doubt these pilots would defeat his trainees in a one-on-one, but it would be a different story if they were in a five-on-five.

    ¡­

    "Captain. We have received an alliance request from ships nearby," announced a crewman, as in the projection several spaceships had just left Henna clumsily. The crewman was not clear of the new captain''s identity. He seemed¡­ pretty mysterious since the crew members had never seen him in person, not even in corridors but somehow he seemingly knew everything that happened in the ship. It felt creepy at first, since it almost felt like there was a pair of eyes following them everywhere, watching them all the time. However it was only a matter of time till they got used of being monitored. The new captain was very charismatic, as well as capable. Well, sailors were simple beings, as long as one could provide them the safety, the identity and creepiness were no longer an issue.

    "I see. Ignore them. We are at a different course anyway," rang the voice of Shang next to the crewman''s ears.

    Regarding their big runaway with children, both Ye Chong and Shang had a long discussion. With reference to Shang''s collection of information he detected in the surrounding, they eventually came into an agreement tond on Duodania, a near the pathway to He Yue gxy. A few factors came into their consideration. First off, stability. The pathway was obviously guarded by arge troop which could provide them security. Compared to the red-tailed monsters from another dimension, humans were at least something whom Shang and Ye Chong could reason with words. Second and most importantly, opportunity. Assuming one day the red-tailed beasts had invaded the area, the guard would be dispersed and that would be when they got the best opportunity to run all the way back to He Yue gxy again.

    "Course change! ording to new coordinate!"

    Haskel made a turn and exited the orbit that those spaceships travelled, heading to Duodania.

    On their way there, they could sometimes see spaceships of various sizes,ing from behind, frantically heading towards all sorts of directions at full speed. Within only a few days, the news of the crumbled frontline had reached the entire Gray Valley, stirring up fright in people. Haskel was advancing at highest velocity too. No one other than Ye Chong and Shang knew how fast those terrifying monsters would reach the ship, so their blood was boiling the whole time, fearing of missing that one important split second of their life.

    "W¡­we are finally done." Whispered Bach, with his reddened eyes looking at the fully transfigured spaceship in relief. It took the team days and nights to finish the modification. Luckily they were supplied with sufficient materials as well as masterly craftsmen.

    "T-tell the cap-" And Father Bach had fallen into slumber. "Father Bach!" Shouted one man as he quickly went to grab the copsing old man with the others.

    *BEEP*

    *BEEP*

    "Emergency. Emergency. Allbat units into position now. Allbat units into position now. Nonbat units please evacuate to safety. Nonbat units please evacuate to safety." Wailed the rm.

    Ye Chong had returned to the captain''s room, where a giant holographic screen was there, disying 28 red-tailed beasts charging towards them.

    The crew members were shaking in the captain''s room. Their faces were pale. They had heard of the monster before, and they once thought they were mentally prepared for it, but the stress was too overwhelming in actuality.

    "Everything''s done?" asked Ye Chong to Shang.

    "Jajajaja, we just finished, Ye. Looks like the Lady Luck is on our side today."

    "Mhm, okay, I''ll be going. Ask the crewman to send the things to Exit No.13," said Ye Chong as he left the room.

    Allbat units were already in their respective position, with anticipation searing their patience.

    Ye Chong walked up to these pilots, with his eternal indifference in his staring eyes, he said, "I know all of you are probably afraid of what is ahead. But it is pointless to be afraid. There is no time to act afraid. There is no way back now." A moment of silencepsed, as if he was building up for the ultimatemand, "Either we or the monsters are going down today."

    Ye Chong was not a born motivator but he did feel a need to say something. So he did.

    Well, contrary to his expectation, that one random line worked pretty well among the pilots, as he could see the worries fading on their faces. They looked steadier by then.

    "Follow me," said Ye Chong, heading towards Exit No.1.

    The 13th exit was the smallest pathway of the entire ship, with a mere diameter of 30 meters, initially meat for the safe boats.

    But the exit looked totally different to the folks today, as they were weed by broad, reinforced metallic bars, a dense arrangement of them. These bars looked so sturdy that it should not bulge even when a mech crashed into it at full speed. The exit had appeared much narrower than before. Well it took an expanding design, where the point where they were standing was the narrowest and the pathway would open up as they travel.

    "This, would be our battlefield," said Ye Chong, which confused the folks.

    "What did he say?" There were whispers.

    "Group of 5. On shifts. Watch on your formation and strategies." That was when they realized the meaning of the design. With such space, only 5 mechs could fight at the same time. And the narrowing pathway would help "filter" the raiding beasts to a more manageable amount. That exined all the reinforced metallic bars.

    So that was Ye Chong''s n.

    The catch was¡­ how Ye Chong would be keeping the beasts busy here? How would he ensure that the beasts would only be intruding from here? Given that the beasts could be smart enough tounch a full attack over every corner of the ship, the n would fail immediately.

    "R-r-r-reporting. The batteries are here, s-sir," said one crew member, his voice trembling in anxiety.

    Ye Chong responded with a nod, gesturing them to leave. It felt like amnesty for the members that they fled the scene like a free bird.

    So there were over hundred fully charged batteries piling up behind them.

    "Battle station," said their leader, in a firm voice.

 Chapter 487 - Maiden Battle

    <h4>Chapter 487: Maiden Battle</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Five D-6''s quickly took their positions. Xi Qing was in the squad assigned as their first line of defense. The other students were also in their mechs, acting as backup. Ye Chong was in Muscle Man.

    Swish! The alloy door behind them shut close. Next, the hatch for Passage 13 opened up. The corridor lost its atmosphere as air rapidly escaped outwards. However, the people were unaffected, held in ce by the starship''s artificial gravity.

    The passageway was long, and it was dark outside, in outer space. They waited anxiously for the red-tailed beasts to arrive.

    While they could not understand how their instructor was so certain that the creatures woulde this way, they prepared themselves nheless.

    "Get ready!" The instructor''s voice came through theirms, his low voice magically calming their hearts.

    The passageway darkened, and all five mechs took a step forward.

    Three red-tailed beasts entered the passageway in a straight line, moving quickly.

    Xi Qing understood his role in their first line of defense. As the leader of his squad, he must be the main attacker . He was at the front of the squad, the most dangerous position.

    They were fast! Even though they were informed earlier, the speed of these creatures still surprised him. The creatures were over 10 meters tall, with crimson red eyes and a tail with a red tip that trailed behind them like an asteroid. Xi Qing had seen them before on the news many times, but it was still fearfully choked now that he was facing them in the flesh.

    He did not panic, however. No longer was he the young freshie that he used to be. Even with just one time of real lifebat experience, he was now more mature than many of his peers. His D-6 lowered itself and crossed its two weapons, forming a blocking motion. He did not guard his nks, since hisrades would. His instructor had told them that once their partners were with them, they should be trusted. He remembered this well enough.

    ng! A strong blownded on the two curved des as Xi Qing''s mech was pushed behind, but he managed to slow down his opponent at the same time. Everyone there knew the power of a high speed attack. Only when the red-tailed beasts slow down would hisrades have a chance.

    In that moment, the two D-6''s beside Xi Qing lunged forward towards the attacking red-tailed beast, slowed down by Xi Qing. They restrained the creature from attacking Xi Qing.

    The other two red-tailed beasts slowed down as well, hindered by the first one in the front. The passageway was too narrow for them to take advantage of their agility.

    Ye Chong had chosen this battleground after much thought. The red-tailed beasts could move far more deftly than mechs. If it was too spacious, the students would face a very challenging fight. Ye Chong himself had experienced it first hand. In the narrow passageway, the red-tailed beasts would not be able to make full use of this advantage. It would be a battle of brute force. A mech''s exterior were more durable than the skin of a red-tailed beast. So long as no vulnerable parts were hit, the mech could be repaired and ready for the next battle.

    The narrow terrain could not fit in too many mechs and red-tailed beasts together. Besides, Ye Chong did not have enough manpower anyway. This would allow them to survive longer.

    On the other hand, once Passage 13 was under their control, they could severmunications between the red-tailed beasts within and outside of the passageway since Passage 13 was heavily fortified.

    There was also another important detail. There was artificial gravity inside the starship, unlike the floating sensation in outer space. This meant that Ye Chong could join in the fight with Muscle Man. Muscle Man could only fight on the ground, a disadvantage that Ye Chong was painfully aware of. However, he dared not use Han Jia. Han Jia had many small cracks on it. Using the mech without prior maintenance would very likely open the cracks even wider. Ye Chong did not know if Gray Valley had any skeletal material, but to find skeletal material of the quality found in Archipgo would almost definitely be impossible. Besides, Ye Chong had spent so much time training with Muscle Man. It felt like a waste if he could not use it. He knew that the students were still greenhorns, and those mech pilots could barely contribute to the fight. This made him the strongestbat personnel they had. It was one of the reasons Ye Chong thought of this brilliant idea. Passage 13 was not the only passageway that was modified.

    To make the red-tailed beasts enter Passage 13 obediently, Ye Chong had stored arge amount of energy cells behind him. He knew that these terrifying creatures craved for pure energy. The six-fingered red-tailed beast that he pursued some time ago seemed to be able to sense energy ores in rocks. Ye Chong was not sure if these normal red-tailed beasts would be just as sensitive, but now it looked like it was working.

    In the battleground, three red-tailed beasts and five mechs were deep in their fight. The hatch behind the red-tailed beasts was closed. In other words, the creatures were trapped inside. Despite that, no one rxed. The three red-tailed beasts fought powerfully as they tried to break through the surrounding formation of the five mechs in quick, agile movements. The red-tipped tails hit violently against the mechs'' weapons, a scary sight for the mech pilots who were watching from outside the fight. However, these five mechs managed to keep the three red-tailed beasts contained throughout it all.

    From their initial awkwardness, these five mechs were now beginning to get the hang of the battle. While they were initially overpowered, now they could force the battle into a stalemate. Xi Qing was still the main attacker while the other D-6''s covered him, trading ces as they made sure each red-tailed beast was at least engaged by two mechs at a time.

    Ye Chong watched the battle, quietly approving of his students. He could see that Xi Qing was already in the flow of the battle. Ye Chong recognized him as a talent, had spent more time on him than the other students and offered him more guidance.

    Xi Qing fought with simple but effective moves, almost like Ye Chong. While he was the main assault member, he was also the squad''s leader. This required him to see the bigger picture of the battle. Now, he was doing just thatpetently.

    He used the advantage of his role as main attacker to move around freely, and swapped ces with the four mechs as required. He did not target any particr red-tailed beast, but instead continued to distribute their attacks equally on all three of the creatures. He led outstandingly, allowing his squad members to coordinate smoothly with each other and press on their enemies with their numbers.

    With this, they slowly turned the tables and gained the upper hand. The red-tailed beasts seemed to notice that the hatch behind them was shut, and began to look nervous. The way they looked at the energy cells longingly was noticed by Ye Chong.

    The battle was beginning to be favor Xi Qing and his squad.

    The battle situation was unexpected. The red-tailed beasts were rumored to be very strong, and the fact the frontline was defeated made these creatures look even more intimidating. Now, however, they looked like they were only about as strong as some advanced mech pilot. Could the rumors be mistaken? Then why would be the soldiers at the frontline lose? Or was it because thebat strategy that their instructor taught them was too good?

    The young mech pilots could not help but steal a nce at the clumsy Muscle Man. Muscle Man held his position steadily like an unmovable mountain. The cold, bulky machine looked lifeless. The pilot within did not seem inclined to get involved in the fight.

    The five mechs fought with growing momentum, while the three red-tailed beasts were starting to panic.

    Xi Qing''s D-6 suddenly came out of its safe position amongst the other four mechs. It twisted around to the back of one of the red-tailed beasts engaged with two D-6''s and striked out with its two curved des towards the creature.

    Blood sttered. An X-shaped wound was carved into the back of the red-tailed beast. The creature froze in pain, and the two mechs engaging it took the opening. Four curved des came for the red-tailed beast from four odd angles. The creature tried to avoid them, but was still cut open on its left shoulder. It froze again in pain, and this when its throat was fully exposed for Xi Qing.

    Xi Qing recognized the opportunity. He maneuvered his mech calmly, driving the curved de in his hand towards the creature''s throat!

    Blood sprayed out like a blooming flower. With his target eliminated, Xi Qing ignored the red-tailed beast that was now crumpling down backwards and head towards the other four mechs.

    The other two red-tailed beasts red as they saw theirpanion killed, and dashed towards Xi Qing, trying to stop him from returning to the protection of hisrades.

    However, just as they moved, four des glimmered coldly before them, and stopped them in their tracks. Two of the mechs had seen Xi Qing in danger and came forward to assist.

    With that, Xi Qing returned to his squad.

    As he reunited with his squad, Xi Qing quickly slipped behind two of the D-6''s. His own D-6 moved behind and between the two mechs, taking his position per their strategy. As Xi Qing moved, the other two mechs adjusted their positions, going into proper formation.

    It all happened so quickly, but it was also the turning point of the battle. Under Xi Qing''s leadership, the remaining two red-tailed beasts were handled steadily by the five D-6''s without rushing their attacks. With one red-tailed beast down, the other two soon failed to defend themselves, and died one after the other under the the attacks of the five mechs.

    The five students had killed three red-tailed beasts!

    Five students had killed three red-tailed beasts, without incurring a single casualty - this was something that happened right before everyone''s eyes, but it still felt like a dream, impossible to believe. For the moment, everyone felt a little uncertain.

 Chapter 488 - Along the Way

    <h4>Chapter 488: Along the Way</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong looked gloomy.

    The first battle under Xi Qing''s lead had gone perfectly, but this perfect first time also came at a high price. Because Xi Qing''s squad had performed wonderfully, the other mech pilots began to underestimate the red-tailed beasts.

    However, this incorrect supposition was quickly overturned!

    The second squad fought against three red-tailed beasts as well, and four of the squad were injured inbat. Had Ye Chong not stepped in to help, they would have all lost their lives. Even so, the four of them received significant injuries. Fortunately, Haskel had medical equipment onboard, even though it would still take 10 days for them to fully recuperate.

    The wake-up call once again reminded everyone of how dangerous the red-tailed beasts were.

    There were no more casualties inter battles, but Ye Chong still looked gloomy. Hisbat power came not from the adult mech pilots, but from his very own 20 students. Those were his capable fighters. However, four of them were injured.

    These 20 students had formed squads of five, so it meant that Ye Chong had just lost one out of fourbat squads. What''s more, it was a loss that could have been avoided. Ye Chong had nned meticulously to create this strategic environment to reduce the natural advantages of the red-tailed beasts. Hence, he could not help but feel let down that he had lost a squad so soon into their journey.

    "Ye, don''t worry too much. They''ll be good as new in just 10 days," Shang offered a rare constion.

    "Alright," Ye Chong replied.

    Shang did not seem to notice Ye Chong''s mood as he dered excitedly, "Ye, today''s battle proved that your method works. As long as we keep this up, it shouldn''t be a problem."

    Ye Chong quicklyposed himself and corrected Shang, "You mean, if we don''t encounter anyrge groups of red-tailed beasts."

    "I suppose you''re right," Shang mused, "If we encounter arger group of them, then we''re screwed. However, if our deductions are correct, the odds are in our favor."

    Ye Chong and Shang had done extensive analysis when deciding on their flight course, and had chosen their current route in the end. It was not the fastest route, but their calctions suggested that it was the one with the lowest chance of encounteringrge groups of red-tailed beasts.

    Killing more than 20 red-tailed beasts was a feat that raised the morale of everyone on the starship. The crew all looked hopeful and energetic.

    Now, the crew discussed mostly about the brilliant ways in which the students defeated the creatures. The four casualties that Ye Chong thought avoidable was ignored in these discussions. To them, four casualties and none dead were definitely a good oue in killing off 28 red-tailed beasts. Where before they had felt hopeless against the mysterious creatures, now they allowed themselves to be optimistic.

    Even the mech pilots who did not participate in the battles were encouraged. The red-tailed beasts were not invincible. They knew this now as fact. With this glimmer of hope, they began to train themselves even more.

    They realized that the students won against the red-tailed beasts because of their unique coordination strategies. That would be their key to survival. Recognizing this, they began to train in earnest, even without Ye Chong''s reminder.

    The maintenance crew got busier and busier .They would have to fix all the mechs that were damaged from the daily trainings. These mechs would be returned again and again to the maintenance section due to the trainings. To avoid interrupting their training sessions, the maintenance crew worked diligently withoutint.

    The entire starship was filled with enthusiasm! The desire to live, whether courageously or cowardly, had never been too different.

    __________________________________

    Xiao Wan looked tired. In front of her was Arwa. The genius tactician had lost a lot of weight, but he was still in high spirits.

    Arwa had a sense of foreboding about the war, but in the end, the United Army had been defeated quite decisively. The man was famed for his tactical skills, but he was ignored by all the higher ups back then. No one had listened to him.

    The unprecedented loss ended with about one third of Gray Valley''sbatants losing their lives in the purple gas cloud.

    Arwa had been acting cautiously seen the beginning of the war, and his caution paid off. He recognized the situation for what it was, and quickly made adjustments. By then, they were already surrounded by red-tailed beasts.

    These creatures were intelligent - they could n ahead! Arwa realized this with shock. Was it a coincidence, or had the creatures been waiting for this moment? Without more time to consider it further, Arwa decided it must be thetter!

    Arwa was none other than Gray Valley''s number one tactical genius! In the moment where death seemed to close in, he calmed himself down and made a series of adjustments. In retrospect, his adjustments were wise. Just when they were all surrounded, Arwa''s adjustments had allowed them to break through the creatures and escape.

    The 1st toon was destroyed. Commander of the 1st toon, the infamous Guang Bei, was lost in the war.

    Only 200 mechs survived and escaped. It was a terrifying and ghastly aftermath. After escaping, Arwa immediately brought his 200 mechs to their base and the Young Miss, began their retreat.

    Arwa came from a poor neighbourhood, and had endured through countless difficulties since his childhood to be the tough person he was today. Despite their great defeat, he did not lose his bearings, but handled itpetently as he always did.

    His only concern was the Young Miss. This defeat was too heavy a blow on her. She was regretful, ashamed, pained, lost ¡­ All these emotions haunted her, and she looked more withered every day. Arwa may be a genius, but even he could not help her. He could only do his best to protect the Young Miss until she recovered.

    Fortunately, his subordinates were all trustworthy, and hisst desperate attempt had led to their survival. They were all very grateful for him, and obeyed his orders to the letter.

    Much to everyone''s surprise, Arwa decided not to stay at headquarters, but instead stole a midsized starship from there and head towards Duodania. Arwa had his reasons. Headquarters was not close to the frontline, and the bulk of the red-tailed beasts would probably reach there very soon. Even if they did not arrive, the base was no longer save. Their meager number ofbatants would not be enough to defend the ce. Even without the threat of the red-tailed beasts, ambitious local organizations would be enough to overwhelm them.

    In the bigger picture, Arwa believed that Gray Valley would ultimately be lost to the red-tailed beasts. Gray Valley was no longer an option. It was better for them to leave now. He had the same idea as Ye Chong - with security at the Gatewayxing, he and his men would be able to enter He Yue Gxy unnoticed. Together, they would be able to reform the Xiao Family''s army.

    What he was worried about was the Young Miss. She had fainted the moment she heard of the news of their defeat. When she came to, she was filled with despair, and continued to behave passively so far.

    _____________________________________

    Ye Chong had already encountered a few small groups of red-tailed beasts. They never have more than 30 of them in each group. The number of casualties had gone up to nine, but they were mostly Shen Ruxue''s students or Haskel''s mech pilots.

    Luring the red-tailed beasts into the narrow passageways with energy cells, shutting the hatch, then killing off the red-tailed beasts with their acquired advantages - this was abat strategy that everyone had gotten used to in the past few days. They were getting more efficient in it. Everyone had participated in at least one of the battles against the red-tailed beasts. Even Shen Ruxue fought against the creatures herself. These experiences had improved their strength over time.

    However, they were also no longer feeling optimistic. The red-tailed beasts were appearing more and more frequently. Once, they encountered two groups of red-tailed beasts in the same day. It was only when Ye Chong entered the fight himself, killing seven red-tailed beasts with Muscle Man that the tension in the air was slightly relieved. Ye Chong''sbat prowess had astounded all the other mech pilots.

    Haskel''sbat ability had also gathered the attention of many others. Many starships that they encountered along the way were impressed by Haskel''s defenses, and stayed close to the ship. In just a short time, Haskel became surrounded by a good variety of starships. There were small and midsized starships, transport ships, and even a midsized warship. The warship was fitted with menacing looking cannons, but they only managed to look powerless. Here was a gathering of all kinds of random starships.

    They relied on Haskel for protection. Whenever the red-tailed beasts appear, they would slip behind the ship''s hull. Only when Haskel had killed all the creatures would they slowly return to their positions around the starship.

    Annoyingly, the number of starships around Haskel was growing rapidly. Each day saw a few more starships joining the fray. There were now three warships with Haskel. Most of the starships were civilian ss, without any firepower or resources Ye Chong and group could use. The warships looked threatening enough, but were powerless against the red-tailed beasts.

    It was real predicament, dealing with these starships!

    "Shang should worry about this!" Ye Chong thought as he headed towards the training ground.

 Chapter 489 - Lets Be Heroes Today Onwards!

    <h4>Chapter 489: Let''s Be Heroes Today Onwards!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Meanwhile, Arwa was also very puzzled of the same problem.

    He did manage to break free from the siege of the monsters with his 200 pilots who were certainly the top 200 he could ever imaginemanding. They encountered a few unapanied red-tailed beasts on their way but none of these beasts imposed an issue as they would strike the beasts down before anything else. There were tiny flock of wandering spaceships that witnessed the scene and decided to join them without hesitation. As the knightly mighty army of Arwa struck down more beasts, there seemed to be more spaceships tailing them as well¡­

    It should not go out of hand this fast under normal circumstance but it was that one slip of tongue of Arwa''s man that reacted vigorously among the wandering spaceships from all corners. "My lord Arwa, he¡­ uh¡­ opps¡­"

    It was as if there was a light of hope when the spaceships realized the owner of the leading spaceship was no one other than the greatest strategist, Arwa himself. The fleet was growing rapidly, which could be a little issue for Arwa.

    But can I just abandon these folks? No¡­ If I do¡­ my name would be¡­

    If I took them? I don''t think I could protect all of them, we are slowing down too¡­

    Arwa was facing a dilemma.

    The young mistress had not recovered from thest shock, her eyes were soulless and that was something to worry.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    "Are you sure?" said Ye Chong, bewildered as his eyes set upon the list of supplies in his hand. He could not perceive the motive of Shang''s decision.

    "I just got a really bad news," said Shang slowly, "The pathway to He Yue gxy has already been engulfed by the red-tailed beasts. Although I still could not identify from where they came, I highly suspect these were the red-tailed beasts from He Yue gxy itself."

    "He Yue''s own variation?" flinched Ye Chong.

    "Mhm," Shang responded grimly, "I had simted several calctions yet there is no usible way that the red-tailed beasts could reach the pathway when they were far behind us. So where did these beastse from? The first possibility is that they had infiltrated in small batches since the time before; The second¡­ the pathway had received severe attacks from the gxy itself. The second seems more probable by the way."

    Ye Chong nodded, as he remembered the few red spots on Ye Luo''s intergcticyout. In an approving tone he replied, "There are several potential spawning locations of the red-tailed beasts in He Yue. So it is indeed likelier for the second assumption."

    "Thus my current proposition would be to sail slowly. We would make use of the time to reform our force, so that we could at least attempt to force our way in even if no opening could be found when we arrived," said Shang proudly.

    "Force?" Ye Chong gave a raise of brows as he waved the list in his hand, "By force, you meant them?" Haskel had been followed by over 300 spaceships. It was already a gigantic fleet. Even if they pretended each ship was carrying passengers of a mere number of 300, they would have achieved 100,000 easily with this fleet.

    "Well, the likelihood of us returning to He Yue gxy is pretty low, at least in short terms. So I believed it would be better if we have a paradigm shift. We could make use of the force we have. You might think it mostly consists of citizens who could hardly hurt a fly, but I must remind you to not look down upon them. There could be talents hidden among them. To craft diamonds one must always start from the filthy ores. We have ample time to train a batch of pilots. These citizens should have sufficient foundation to be trained. So our only problem would be time. As long as we did note into arge flock of red-tails beasts, then we would be spared on time. And we would no longer have nothing in our hands. We can go anywhere we want once we got the strength. And so, we fight. We would fight."

    Ye Chong was astounded of this strange sensation in his mind. He seemingly was no longer speaking to a handicapped artificial indulgence. It was as if he was speaking to a hero, one with ambition, a wild ambition and intrepid wishes.

    Could this be Shang in the past? Is this how he once was?

    "Jajaja~ Ye, good news. Mu has permitted my n. So I''ll be staying on manifestation till we got back to He Yue gxy, unless something happened which is unlikely under my intelligence." Shang did not seem to notice Ye Chong''s expression.

    "Shang, how did youe to this n?" asked Ye Chong.

    "HAH!" The artificial indulgence was proud, "Told you to watch more movies! Yet every time you turned a deaf ear to my advice! It took me a long time to formte this master n with reference to 180 well-known film productions of the mafia genre as well as the heroes making histories. See? You were impressed by my idea too. Were you not? Hahahahahahaha!"

    Ye Chong felt a strong nostalgia filling his heart upon hearing the uncontrolledugh of this artificial indulgence.

    He is still the Shang I knew.

    "Well then, let''s be heroes today onwards!" smiled Ye Chong.

    Shang was immediately stupefied as the beeping chuckle stopped.

    ¡­(On the other side of the gxy)¡­

    Yang Ming marched to the captain''s room, he wanted to respond to the message. Well, the captain was his uncle and technically every single man and woman inside the ship was his family. Including the other 5 spaceships nearby, they were all Yangs. The Yang family was a mere small tribe which consisted a poption of barely over 2000.

    They performed a migration upon a prompt decision of the chief since the hearing of the frontline copse, and they were in this fleet at the moment considering how it might be safer hiding themselves in a massive crowd. Yang Ming thought it was a standard crowd without hierarchy at first, but he realized how there was one single ship leading them silently.

    It was a gigantic model named Haskel.

    And after the first encounter with the red-tailed beasts, he finally knew how Haskel managed to be ahead of all ships. Haskel was not only a leader, but also a guardian!

    He was presented with the formidability of the ship''s forces. The red-tailed beasts came in one wave and another and somehow Haskel was able to attract them like a powerful ma while swallowing all of them in one go. No beast had left the ship ever since they got in.

    It was a mystery in Yang Ming''s eyes.

    So where are they from? Which forces do they belong? What is the motive?

    Questions mushroomed in the head of Yang Ming yet he had no way to answer them. Haskel was the silent one, like the angel who would escort the fleet to salvation. On the other hand, the followers were noisier as they would exchange information at least once a day. There was once they mentioned about Haskel and one of them imed that Haskel belonged to a military group.

    There were spections but surely they could confirm that Haskel was strong!

    And today was different.

    All spaceships received a message from Haskel, the very first throughout the entire course. They were requested toplete a survey. It waspulsory for every member on the ship, both passengers and staff or Haskel would no longer provide any form of protection to any uncooperative unit.

    To be frank, if the survey was passed at the beginning, the threat would slip their eyes without notice and probably most ships would just quit the party themselves upon the indirect disrespect. However, in the past few days the ships had witnessed the heroic acts of Haskel so the situation had changed as it had be an unconditional, unsaid agreement among them to have Haskel as the leader.

    Yang Ming was there toplete the survey. He would be reporting to his uncle in regards of the questions given. Those were some basic questions, such as Your Strength, Your Favorite, Your Health Condition and Your Experience in Piloting. In no time Yang Ming had done the survey, though in total bewilderment. Of all times, why would people on Haskel want to know these trivialities now?

    In the next 5 hours, 5 spaceships were expelled from the fleet. Yang Ming was told that these spaceships were the unconvinced rebellions of Haskel''s request. The survey was ignored and no action was taken. They thought nothing would happen till Haskel sent a new request, demanding them to leave the fleet immediately. Well, of course, simr to the survey request before, they showed ignorance. Eventually 3 warships suddenly surrounded these 5 spaceships and they got held back. The people on those ships could do nothing else than bidding a silent farewell to the fleet.

    Such event had gained greater obedience from the other spaceships. They realized it was not a time to crack jokes. It was a period where red-tailed beasts could be anywhere in the gxy and these spaceships had left the fleet. Well, their fate was instantly imaginable and certainly the remaining spaceships would not want to join them.

    The more horrifying part was, somehow Haskel was fully informed of everything on each spaceship in the fleet, including their vessel, the supplies they contained.

    Very soon after, Haskel announced a sequence of measures to be conducted. Even though Yang Ming knew he would never be able to get anything from his uncle regarding the measures, he was given a mission to transfer to one of the medium-sized spaceships for training.

    Speaking of training, Yang Ming was as average as you and I. His physique was average, his strength was average, his dexterity was average and his piloting skill was average too but there was one particr feature that probably caught the leader of Haskel - his talent in machines. That also happened to be the core module of his training on the ship too. He was transferred there, along with 3 otherpanions who shared the same talent as him. Apparently there were also other modules too which had taken a handful of other Yangs he knew. Well, no doubt he had the greatest envy towards the Yangs who got assigned to pilot-training.

    Nobody suspected a thing, since it was amand from the great one. Haskel must have a well-trained army. It almost seemed natural for Haskel to have one, probably at least a few hundreds of them. They were the group who slew red-tailed beats effortlessly after all. It would be a golden opportunity for the folks to be trained by these experts.

    However, Yang Ming did not feel anything in particr. He was more interested in the machines he would be touching. Clearly, Haskel wanted more forces for theymenced trainings for ordinary, almost good-for-nothing youngsters like them at such a critical period. So he had to work hard!

    Inside the transporting unit, he clenched his fists as he looked at his family who remained on their own ship, waving exciting shouting an unheard goodbye to him.

    Haskel, once hollow was now filled with a massive, lively crowd, like an opening day for a military camp. The youngsters could not help but to jump around, enthralled for they passed the first phase of inspection. The survey was a kind of interview while there was the second selection process right inside Haskel. The qualified would receive notification regarding them joining the official pilot training sessfully. The unqualified, sadly, had to take the transport back to their own ships right away.

    There were 1500 members who passed the selection process, and they were quite a talent too because of their physique and mech understanding. There were also 200 adult pilots who would receive a different training in order to amodate them in the war fieldter.

 Chapter 490 - At Full Force

    <h4>Chapter 490: At Full Force</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Xi Qing simply did not expect him bing leader of a squad consisted of over 600 members. He was very thrilled at first, finding everything in hismand so interesting but it was not long till he realized that it was more of a responsibility than mere fun of pointing people around. The first few dayspsed like years to Xi Qing, his nerves were tightened by both demand and stress. Nevertheless, he managed to shoulder the consuming responsibility few days after.

    Every 5 persons would form a team and every 5 teams would form a group. The conglomeration went on as every 5 groups would form a camp and every 5 camps would form a squad. Both Shu and Xi Qing were themanders of the squad.

    As nned, the head leader of team leaders would receive a detailed guide onbat tutoring. No doubt passion burned high within every young man''s soul, including Xi Qing who went on a reading spree like a famished tiger. The young men were certainly young, were clearly inexperienced but they worked hard, harder than they imagined.

    It was not only about pride, or dream.

    It was about their survivals!

    Xi Qing was new. Not everyone wholeheartedly identified him as the leader, since obviously in the eyes of the people he was none other than an immature brat who had not even undergone his pubertypletely. It was a joke, a bad one too. Not once in their career of handling the steer they had heard a mere boy leading a squad of 600.

    Well, there should have been dramas, but again, interaction between pilots had always been rather simple and straightforward. People recognized Xi Qing when he destroyed 30 mechs with his team. Shu acted the same too, as if having an invisible bond with Xi Qing, though his style was way harsher - he spoke with his fists, not machines, proven as he was standing by the pile of 10 few people copsed.

    And the discrimination was only the beginning. There were a whole crew of people waiting to see them fall. They had to train this batch of newbies to master strategic formations within the shortest time possible. It was the whole point of their position and it was difficult, realized Xi Qing. Their indifferent instructor had given them a whole set of standard training course yet there were a lot of details to be taken care of.

    He was almost dead beat after the training. Yup, almost. Both Shu and Xi Qing were still mentally strong beings. They would not fall, especially with such a golden opportunity in hand. This might be the only chance they could show themselves before hitting adulthood. Frankly they might just be one of the minions if they resigned, given their age. So they had a head startpared to most people of their age.

    They put in their everything in training the newbies, that they would even have a professional discussion with each other at night. Assuming they met an issue unable to be sorted out among themselves, they would always look for the instructor.

    And the instructor sure was an amazing wise figure, for he was always able to sort out their problems in a few words, that it felt like a knock on their head whenever the answer was revealed to be really simple. It made them fairly curious of the instructor''s background. It was tant that the instructor had led a massive operation before, while usually only themanders of the well-established military hierarchy of the Research Consortium or the leader of a gigantic pilot squad would have such a rare experience. Only either-or, there should not be any other possibility, especially when the instructor was pulling off a typical standardized military management on them. They were in Gray Valley, probably the instructor was from Gray Valley, so the instructor should be the one inmand of the consortium''s military.

    Well, if only the instructor nodded on their spection right away.

    He never admitted to any of the hints they hurled.

    The boys were very intrigued yet they could not get a definite answer from the instructor. They were also running out of time so they could only set their gossip aside.

    Meanwhile the instructor, Ye Chong was pretty satisfied of both Xi Qing and Shu''s performance. It was far-fetched for two newbies to produce such work. Theirprehension was great that they immediately caught on whatever he said and illustrated other simr ideas. For example, there was once they discussed the details on the training course. Both of them worked with their members and formted a diverse course. The two of them even suggested apetition system which seemed to have fueled the enthusiasm among the members as the members worked like thest day of their life daily. The squad eventually improved dramatically.

    Ye Chong had hardly contributed anything throughout the process. He was not that super great one as imagined by the boys. It was Shang who nned everything, from the hierarchy, the training course to the little handbook ofbat tutoring in the hands of Xi Qing and Shu.

    Whatever Ye Chong actually did was measly while most of them were demonstration of pure violence, like forcing himself into a spaceship to perform supply "reorganization". Well, he could have just asked someone else to do it for him most of the time.

    Haskel was rumored as a spaceship of the arms dealer, yet ironically, little Ye Chong knew, there was indeed a vessel of the arms dealer inside the fleet.

    The owner of this vessel named methrower was a second-ss arms dealer, Wu Guang. He was an opportunistic merchant who gathered up everyst few pennies around him to bulk purchase closebat models upon seeing the war scene of the frontline. He believed there would be market and he would get profit. So he frantically loaded the 2000 units to the ship and wanted to zoom towards frontline as soon as possible.

    Too bad, he was an opportunistic merchant with bad luck. Before he even started seeing res of the frontline, he was already informed of the fall. He practically exchanged everything he had for a risk to be a part of the meteorites. He was smacking his head, calling himself foolish and almost wanted to jump into vacuum but well it would be better if he ran.

    So on his way running to somewhere, he discovered this vey strange fleet. In the end he got to the back of the queue and sneaked into the fleet.

    Throughout the course he had witnessed the legendary Haskel clearing out every red-tailed beast encountered. He was very d to have joined this fleet uninvitedly, till one day he got a request from Haskel, kindly asking him to "contribute" all his closebat models.

    He wanted a negotiation but clearly he was negotiating with the wrong person. The negotiator was extremely skillful, even annoying, that he had not gotten a way to free himself from this awful deal. Every line from the negotiator was convincing enough to shut him up. Eventually he only could give all his mechs sincerely, with both hands. He believed, the negotiator would be an excellent merchant if he started doing business for real. The sole regret was he never managed to see this negotiator in person.

    Soon the 2000 units were distributed. The "Fighter" model was not exactly a high-end tier among the closebat units but was the only option for the trainees. Once the new pilots got a mech themselves, the training would be more efficient.

    Alright, all things seemed settled. And Ye Chong realized, he was rather bored¡­ He had nothing needed to be taken a look at. There were Shang to monitor the fleet for him and Xi Qing watching the training for him with Shu. Speaking of the two boys, they were maniacally training their members. It looked like training but definitely did not sound like one, as people could hear the loud mming and thrashing echoing in the spaceship everyday.

    Xi Qing and Shu had surpassed their teacher, that they did training more dead serious than Ye Chong. Mortality, casualties were none of their concern. They actually had 35 trainees wounded or passed out one day.

    The mechanic trainees were arranged to be assistance of actual mechanics in the spaceship. Under the arrangement, every mechanic was naturally assigned with at least two assistances. As Shang had suspected, there were indeed a great deal of talents hidden among the folks in the fleet. He actually found out a masterly mechanic in the crowd, along with 30 advanced mechanics. The technician team alone was far more superior than whatever Haskel had in the beginning.

    That was fun but Ye Chong was really bored¡­

    ¡­(Meanwhile at the mechanics'' site)¡­

    "Take a careful look now. This pressure-control valve is the most important part of the entire structure. It is what determines if this would be a machine or a piece of trash," said Harrell as his hand adjusted the valve constantly. There were 12 young men surrounding him as he exined working of every part in details. They were all ears to his words, and Yang Ming was one of them.

    Underneath that snowy white hair of the master, Harrell had rosy cheeks of a child. The years he spent wielding the wrench had given him a strong physique. His voice was forceful to reach almost corners of the room. Being one of the top masters in Gray Valley, he was low-profiled. He declined any form of services associated with a particr force. He preferred getting indulged in his research at home alone.

    Nevertheless, he was a rational person. He understood how every ounce of strength mattered at the moment. So he decided to provide assistance the best he could, and he offered himself bing the head engineer of the entire modification operation. As inspired by Haskel, he had provided a new modification n.

    Most features highlighted in Haskel''s version of modification blueprint were retained, except the few new additions of offenses Harrell added. It had a simr concept, where the battery would still be the bait, inside a pathway which formed like a trap. So that would at least provide basic defense mechanism for the other spaceships.

    But it was tricky to execute. The weaponry involved just be strong enough to prate the defense of red-tailed beasts.

    It took great efforts among Harrell and the other advanced engineers to devise a proper n. Of course, Ye Chong gave a few touches too, since he was that one genius who happened to know much about the almost-forgotten field of ancient mechanics.

    Well, that was probably his greatest contribution during the period.

    Ye Chong yawned, looking at the clusters outside the window.

    "Ye, I want to y a game," said Shang, a rather preposterous proposal at a period like this.

    Ye Chong was bewildered. It was a foreign term of luxury to him. He grew up without games to be honest. He had been racing with people, with money, with time. Never once he stopped strengthening himself and had something called¡­ "Game¡­?"

    "Jajaja¡­" Shang knew how to keep the boy interested, "Let''s y a game that could strengthen yourself. Well, you could think it as a kind of training if you want to."

    "Okay." Shang seemed pleased by the response.

    "Take the helmet."

    And Ye Chong, still bewildered, ced this strange, out-of-nowhere virtual world helmet on top of his head.

    "Hehehehe, Ye, here we go~" Shang sounded excited¡­

    "So am I, Ye." A cold voice rang in his head, unexpectedly.

    "Mu?" Ye Chong was shocked. He was supposed to in a kind of hibernation¡­

    "Hehehehehehehe, Ye, it took me some efforts to get Mu to join us. Well, the game would be fun with Mu here¡­ Sinc-" Said Shang proudly, since it was indeed almost-impossible to get the artificial intelligence of cold logic to join the a game. "I''ll exin the rules," Mu interrupted.

    Shang''s shback was interrupted.

    "Okay." Ye Chong went focused. He knew it would be fun.

    If it was a game that caught Mu''s interests, very likely it would be¡­

    Wow, this would be exciting.

 Chapter 491 - The Mu-Shang Treaty

    <h4>Chapter 491: The Mu/Shang Treaty</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The game was simple. It would take ce in a simted environment of Gray Valley. All three of them would have a fleet each. It would be a kind of Battle Royale. Thest one standing would win the game.

    That sounded simple¡­"Sounded" simple.

    Day 1: Ye Chong was the first to leave the game. Mu won in the end.

    Day 2: Ye Chong again became the spectator in the first 10 minutes. Shang, with a twist, won in the end instead.

    Day 3: Ye Chong lost everything in the first round. Mu won.

    Day 4¡­ Day 5¡­ Day 6¡­

    The days went on.

    Haskel was leading the gigantic fleet as they advanced forward. The fleet was having intense training. The modification project was carried out aggressively. Everything was smooth outside, contrary to what was happening inside Ye Chong.

    He was troubled, very troubled. He was tortured, as if a real torment.

    They had yed the fleet game for 20 days already and he was always the first to leave the war field. If it was not his chilled personality, he would have flipped out. He settled down and figured, formting a new strategy again and again.

    Everyday when he became the spectator, he would observe the exchange between Mu and Shang. Well, it would be easier for Ye Chong to understand the dynamic of a war field from a god''s view being a spectator. Gradually, he started seeing something.

    Both Mu and Shang won on a rate of 50:50 while both of their performances were shocking to Ye Chong. Mu had fully expressed his efficiency and horrifying logical processing ability, as every step of his was meaningful and ahead of time, well-connected to each other. This could be seen especially during the few micro-matches where he clearly had an upper hand. Meanwhile, Shang took a different approach. His strategy was rather unpredictable, always able to surprise Ye Chong. A twist would take ce the moment he waspletely cornered. It was hard to imagine a humanoid to contain such cunning, creative schema in things.

    One thing''s for sure, Ye Chong was not able to harm either of them. Neither of the artificial intelligence''s approach could be imitated by him momentarily, yet either of their strategies could set him on fire. As long as one side of Mu/Shang turned against him, he would be joining the spectators'' seat in no time.

    He started learning, bit by bit. He wanted to learn how Mu/Shang handled their own fleets. He had the brain for it, he was naturally talented in learning. Even though he was always the first to leave the battleground, the time he remained in it increased considerably over time.

    It had been over 20 days. They had at least yed 200 games and Ye Chong won none of them, nor hested to theter phase of each game. It was a horrible experience to lose so quickly that usually people would have given up and lost faith in life at the 100th game mark, unlike Ye Chong.

    He was the one who had undergone far worse, far more boring training before. Moreover, it was not like he had no knowledge in his head. He had experienced a great deal of battles with individuals from all walks of life, even an actual war consisted of hundreds or even millions. The war game he had with Mu/Shang resembled greatly to whatever he had encountered in real life before. A lot of the details he had missed in the fights before somehow came to his attention out of a sudden after each game with Mu/Shang.

    Ye Chong had always perceived himself as anybody but amander. When he was with the Sangs, Sang Pu was themander in every operation. He had no idea why Shang would suddenly think of training his charisma, his capabilities as an actual leader. Well, if the game had only shang, he could have pretended it as the artificial indulgence being indulgent and capricious again, but there was Mu too.

    What made the logical, the probable, the feasible joined such pointless-looking game?

    Wait, could it be that even Mu felt the need of training my capabilities as a leader?

    When Shang mentioned about "being a hero" that day, he thought the artificial indulgence was making a joke, since it was clear, almost amon sense, aw that he wanted something else in his life, as known among the three of them. Mu was more understandable in his behaviorpared to Shang. He hardly interrupted whatever Ye Chong was doing, he only would, when there was a need, a need to improvise for better efficiency.

    So judging all the premises¡­

    Ye Chong''s heart skipped a beat.

    Does Mu seriously think I need this? These thinking training?

    "HAHA! Take that you tin can!"

    And the explosion in the field recaptured his attention. "What was I thinking¡­," muttered Ye Chong as he put his attention back to the field.

    Meanwhile in the field, it was the final stage of the game. Both Mu and Shang would be taking out either of each other soon. Mu had cornered Shang. Obviously, Shang would lose the game. Well, if only Shang did not have anything up his sleeves, he was the professional, awarded actor to y victim and eventually engulf people with his pte. Given Shang managed to perceive one opening in Mu''s formation, he would make a turnabout. Mu could certainly processed Shang''s pattern of behavior, only if there was a pattern to begin with. It would still be a 50:50 even if Mu had produced a trend on Shang''s behavior, let alone Ye Chong who did not have a superputer brain.

    To be honest, Ye Chong preferred Mu''s battle style which weighed everything on urate calction. The catch was, such style required everything mathematical, logical. Creativity, picking openings, ying off tricks were not allowed at all. If one did any of those, one would n to fail. Ye Chong had not the necessary mathematical capabilities, he could only sumb to any of the techniques that looked useful to him between Mu and Shang.

    Humans learned from their mistakes and only pressure could make them grow. Ye Chong''s style had changed noticeably over the time fighting against the two extremes. His vision had improved greatly. Nevertheless, he was too engaged in handling Mu/Shang that he did not notice a thing on him.

    Both Mu and Shang were too strong!

    The exmation kept ringing in his mind.

    Few weekspsed again and finally he couldst to theter portion of the match. Well, that only happened about 3 months since the game had started. Ye Chong used to feel powerless in every match, that it felt like he was lifting the wrong weight - everything felt too much to handle. However, as time passed by, he got stronger and would not give up even if he was losing. He would look for a turnabout to make.

    Such tendency had gotten stronger each match.

    In one match, he was left with only 100 pilots alive but somehow he managed to break free from the siege. He then allocated these 100 pilots in every gap between Mu and Shang''s proximity, which the techniquested him to the middle of the game. Even though he was wiped out atst, it gave him the confidence to work harder.

    Three months were not too long for an intergctic trip. However, the fleet had changed.

    The fleet constantly received requests from neighboring spaceships. The request was epted of course, but with one condition - obedience. Most spaceships joined the fleetstly since Gray Valley was chaotic at the moment. They might have lost the freedom but they got protection in the end.

    Both Shu and Xi Qing seemed different than before. Xi Qing had turned calmer, yet bold. He really had the look of amander now. People respected him.

    Shu had gained a different charm. He had sses on him, looking schrly with his slender body. Not a single dirt or wrinkle could be found on his uniform. His tone was gentle as his personality yet people were seemingly cautious of him. Even the crew members who were not under his lead did not dare to speak senselessly in front of him.

    They were also from the extreme, still they worked with each other well. Their instructor had been looking engaged inside the Virtual World, so they had to shoulder the duty of leading the team instead. They nned things carefully, fearing that something would go wrong. So their rapports grew.

    It was not simple to seek a living in a chaotic world. Most spaceships in the fleet hadpleted the assigned modification. They now had traps to provide better security.

    Nheless, both Xi Qing and Shu had never put the spaceships against the red-tailed beasts.

    These little clusters of red-tailed beasts would be perfect for training their troops. Even though that would inevitably lead to some casualties but it was the only best way they could currently think of.

    They looked at the report. Hmm, 1704 red-tailed beasts cleared since the past 3 months, while having 52 deaths and 109 wounded. It might look like a pessimistic figure, yet it was more than enough to shame those actualmanders at the front-line.

    Such tedious training was extremely effective in bringing up the troops. Now both of the squads had reached a number of 2000. Xi Qing and Shu should feel proud for they were able to achieve this in as little as three months.

    However, none of them were smiling, not even a brief lift of their lips'' corners.

    There had been discovery. The detection, the rm had been wailing more frequently. The likelihood of encountering red-tailed beasts had been escting, now that they would at least have an alert of red-tailed beast flocks everyday. Well, there were more opportunities to train troops. The rapports turned stronger among the soldiers too. But, the stress of safeguarding the people only increased at a horrendous rate.

    And today, they had encountered the 5th flock of red-tailed beasts.

    "We can''t be doing this forever!" said one of them as they looked at each other. Worries were locking their brows.

    ¡­(Back to Ye)¡­

    "Ye, we are taking a break from the games now," said Mu.

    "Sigh." Even though Mu''s decision was almost unshakable, Shang ranted, "Looks like we won''t be having more fun anytime soon."

    Taking a break. That indicated there would be more.

    Well, it was a relief for Ye Chong. He really could use some breathers at the moment. He seriously could not imagine how he spent thest 3 months. The matches were endless, with the two extremes pressuring him the whole time. He had to fight back yet it was challenging. His nerves were tightened for so long. They did have short breaks in between but those were the time when Ye Chong would collect his thoughts on whatever happened on the field before.

    He removed the helmet and remembered his squads and the two great leaders-to-be. He wondered how they were doing since he had been ying games for so long and it was Shang who provided the little bit of guidance to the outside world during the game.

    Xi Qing and Shu were troubled indeed. And they were happy to see the instructor marching towards them.

    They immediately briefed the instructor on the situation and awaited his wise words. To them, the instructor was the core, the soul of this fleet¡­ uhh¡­ maybe the instructor and his mysterious friend*.

    Ye Chong tried calling Shang, the mastermind.

    "Yeesss¡­?" said Shangzily.

    Ye Chong repeated the summary, wished for a discussion.

    "Oh, that?" Shang waved Ye Chong away in nonchnce, "Sorry, can''t help you on that buddy. Hah. You do know why Master Mu epted our treaty of ying games in the first ce, right? Oh you did not? Here''s the thing. He agreed on condition that I would no longer be interfering with your works. It''s all up to you now. Can''t help it, mate. I do not want my days ahead without any form of entertainment, like the games we had for example. Sorry, bruh."

    And he faded out.

 Chapter 492 - Deduction

    <h4>Chapter 492: Deduction</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The starry sky stretched on to the edges of the universe. Nebe red in brilliant colors like ephemeral space clouds. This familiar sight brought on a different emotion within Ye Chong. Looking back, he could see that Mu had already been nning for his independence. If there was only one person he could trust in this whole wide world, it would definitely be Mu/Shang. Mu''s support was always there, and even Shang with all his pointless tricks had never disappointed him. That Mu and Shang woulde to an agreement on this meant that they both believed that he should be independent.

    There was no dread, no fear, no sense of loss - Ye Chong continued as usual. Nothing seemed to have changed, but something still felt off.

    Now, he had no one to discuss his next steps. Ye Chong stared at the star chart of Gray Valley on the holographic screen in a daze. In thest few months, he, Mu and Shang had been ying their games with Gray Valley as the scene. Ye Chong could visualize the star chart with his eyes closed. He could even tell the minerals that could be found in each corner of the ce.

    After Mu and Shang cracked Gray Valley''s virtual world encryption, they scoured through the virtual world for all the information they could get that was rted to Gray Valley. Hence, their game, set up in Gray Valley, was at least 70 percent uratepared to reality.

    On this star chart, the red zones continued to expand. The red zones indicated where red-tailed beasts had arrived, and the color intensity told the frequency in which the creatures were sighted. The star chart was updated everyday as Shang continued to gather intel. Mu and Shang had decided to not interfere with Ye Chong''s role in strategizing, but they would still offer technical assistance. Since Shang''s intel came mostly from the virtual world, it was hard to gauge its uracy. There was a lot of uncertainty involved.

    Even so, the information was an important reference for Ye Chong.

    Though he was unfamiliar to the silence on Mu and Shang''s part, Ye Chong tried to concentrate. He rested his chin on his hands, staring at the holographic screen while his mind raced through possibilities.

    The situation was serious! That was Ye Chong''s first conclusion.

    A few months ago, he would not have concluded anything meaningful from the star chart. Now, he could make at least make a few deductions from the uneven red stains on the star chart.

    From the star chart, it seemed that the red-tailed beasts were beginning to spread throughout Gray Valley. However, most of the area was still a light red. This meant that the creatures did not appear so often. Ye Chong focused on the ces where the red was the most intense, and a terrible image of disaster came to mind. He imagined how the intense red would spread like wildfire across the entire Gray Valley.

    More importantly, the Gateway towards He Yue Gxy was now decided in red-tailed beast territory. Shang had colored the area around the Gateway in dark red as the frontline. Even without the color, Ye Chong would have deduced the situation over there. That the heavily guarded Gateway was yielded to their enemy showed just how strong the red-tailed beasts were.

    Their n to head towards Duodania would have to change. Ye Chong was not confident that they would be able to break through the red-tailed beasts at the Gateway with their current strength.

    Where to, then?

    Ye Chong frowned. The huge expanse of Gray Valley seemed to offer no refuge for them. Ye Chong was confident of his own ability that, should they not encounter arge group of red-tailed beasts, they should be able to fight back, at least.

    The dreadful redness seemed to taint every corner of Gray Valley. It was like a star chart marred with blood, or a map punctured with the jaws of death.

    Their prospects were bleak, leaving not enough time for Ye Chong. Their slower flight had also allowed the red-tailed beasts behind them plenty of time to catch up.

    However, Ye Chong was not worried about that. He was more focused on the distribution of red-tailed beasts in the star chart. He had seen how the spread of redness on the star chart changed over time. The hidden intention of the red-tailed beasts troubled him.

    At first, Ye Chong noticed that the main army of the red-tailed beasts was advancing very slowly, even slower than their own starship. With the frontline army defeated, their final hurdle was removed. The red-tailed beast army should have overwhelmed Gray Valley by now. Ye Chong could not understand why they hesitated.

    It was only a monthter that Ye Chong began to catch a glimpse of the truth.

    On the star chart, the dark red areas spread out like four tentacles. Two of them stretched out along the edge between Gray Valley and the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. These red-tailed beasts pushed forward quickly, and were already ahead of Ye Chong''s ship. The other two formed the main red-tailed beast army. They advanced slowly but steadily, undeterred by any human forces they met along the way.

    Ye Chong''s time spent on the games were worth it - he could tell roughly what the red-tailed beasts were trying to do.

    The red-tailed beasts knew how to n their battles! Thispletely surprised Ye Chong. The red-tailed beasts that he saw near Yi Ju were a disordered bunch that fought only by instinct. It was thanks to this that the Sang Tribe did not lose even more people.

    He could not deduce what happened to cause this change in the red-tailed beasts without any further information to work on. However, that was a problem to be filed away forter.

    If he guessed right, the two red-tailed beast forces moving quickly along the boundaries of Gray Valley would converge at a single point, creating a circle of creatures around Gray Valley. The two main forces within would simply plough through the inside regions with unstoppable vigor.

    What made the red-tailed beasts opt for this strategy? They could have just pushed forward with a single main force.

    Surround and destroy! The thought came to Ye Chong almost instantly. A chilling sensation followed swiftly. Could it be ¡­ Could it be that chasing away the humans was not enough for them?

    Ye Chong considered the possibility and found it to be highly likely! The armies at the nk were advancing quickly, ignoring thes that they passed by. They may not be as powerful as the main army, but once both armies join forces, they would act as a strong barrier that would prevent anyone from escaping Gray Valley. The main forces could then take their time destroying the inhabitants within.

    Was this really the case? Ye Chong''s calmness gave way to nervousness. His back was drenched in cold sweat. The results of his deduction had shocked him.

    Ye Chong quickly calmed himself down and repeated his deduction process. He reached the same conclusion for three times.

    He no longer paused to wonder at the cruel designs by the red-tailed beasts. What he needed now was an answer to an important question.

    Where would the two nking red-tailed beast armies rendezvous?

    It was an important question, and one that might be the key to their survival.

    It took a long while, but in the end, Ye Chong''s eyes focused on a particr point on the star chart.

    Xi Qing and Shu were beside Ye Chong, quiet as mice so as to not interrupt their instructor.

    Just then, the rm rang, startling all three of them.

    "Warning, red-tailed beasts sighted, there are -" The reporting crew''s voice trembled, "- there are 1,632 of them!"

    Xi Qing and Shu paled!

    1,632 red-tailed beasts! This was almost the sum of all the red-tailed beasts they had ever encountered before this. It was no wonder that they both looked shocked.

    On the holographic screen, the red-tailed beasts looked like a swarm of angry hos,ing towards them.

    Ye Chong gave his order calmly, "Round up the starships. Allbat personnel to your designated stations. Get ready for battle!"

    "Yes sir!" Xi Qing and Shu gathered themselves then, acknowledged their superior, and rushed out of the room. They were now even more impressed with their instructor. To be so calm and collected despite their predicament, he was obviously a man far more capable than themselves.

    This time, they would attack with all they have.

    "Hurry up - energy cells - over here!"

    "Pressure valves checked, passageway hatch checked -"

    "In your positions now. Please head to Position 2 -"

    "Group 1, secure Passage 1. Group 2, secure Passage 2 -"

    __________________________________

    The entire fleet waited in suspense. The ships stayed close to each other. Crew members dashed through the corridors, yelling at the top of their lungs. Eyes were opened wide, faces were flushed ¡­

    Five Fighter mechs took their positions at their designated passageway. Behind them were four other squads as backup.

    "Squad Captain, do you think we''ll win this time?" One of the mech pilots could not help but asked through thems.

    Their captain replied without hesitation, "Nonsense! Of course we will!" Then, he added unsurely, "I say, Major, don''t you start chickening out. Hehe, if you''re not up to it, I''ll have you switched out!"

    They all knew that the first wave of red-tailed beasts would be the strongest, and it would most likely be their make or break moment. Hence, the mech pilots for the first round of engagement were the bravest, and had the most casualties. They were also the heroes among them all, a symbol of courage, and respected by everyone in the fleet. People call them the spearheads.

    A few of themughed in thems. Some began to jeer, "Haha, Major, wanna switch with me? Hehe, I always wanted to be a spearhead -"

    Major flushed red, all the way to his neck. He growled like an angered beast, "Get lost! Who''s chickening out? Squad Captain, I''ll show you how to crush those ass! I''m a f*cking spearhead!" His hoarse voice was filled with pride and eagerness for battle!

 Chapter 493 - Changes I

    <h4>Chapter 493: Changes I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Yang Ming [1] panted heavily, drawing air greedily into his lungs. His arms hung beside him, trembling, and his fingers were white from overexertion. Around him were a few young people lying around.

    Yang Ming was not skilled enough to repair mechs, but he could still handle structures that were not overlyplicated. He was still young by all standards, but still earned respect from his peers due to being a student of Harrell the Great. Besides, being young was the norm in the fleet. One could see young people in almost every major department.

    Yang Ming had also proven himself. As the main person in charge of the ship''s structural maintenance, his track record had been immacte.

    "Passage 9 is shut. Maintenance crew, please enter immediately." Yang Ming heard the announcement. His hands stopped shaking.

    "Folks, time to move out!" Yang Ming sounded hoarse. He went to hisrades and patted them on their shoulders.

    The exhausted young people opened their tired eyes, and struggled to stand up.

    Yang Ming noticed their fatigue. He was feeling overworked as well. The war was not over, however, and so they could not rest yet. There were eight of them in charge of the starship''s structure. With no one to support them, experienced maintenance crew members became heavily relied upon. They must repair the damaged mechs as soon as possible. The battle at the frontline may not even be as vicious as they had it here.

    Yang Ming and the crew entered Passage 9.

    It was a mess inside. Bits and pieces of the red-tailed beasts were lying everywhere. The air was heavy with the scent of blood. This was not his first time seeing this, but Yang Ming still felt a wave of difort.

    At the same time, he felt more encouraged every time he saw this. Even hisrades were proud of their battle results.

    "Heh, another three! I counted them. We got 11 dead on our ship, it''s a big win!"

    "You''re too easy to satisfy. Just 11? I say, we gotta get at least 20!"

    "Dude! 20? What''s so good with 20? Of course we gotta aim for 30!"

    "Haha -"

    Yang Ming managed a smile on his face as he continued working, going through the structure of the passageway. The red-tailed beasts were strong, and their desperate struggles before they died could easily damage the passageway. They needed to repair all the damaged parts so that the passageway could be reused.

    Ye Chong sat in Haskel''s control room. On the holographic screen, the red-tailed beasts came in waves towards their fleet. As the lead ship, Haskel was their main target.

    Ye Chong watched with a calm expression. He was not at the frontline of their battle this time, which was unusual. Given the scale of the battle, one man''s strength was insignificant. In this entire fleet, he was the only one capable ofmanding! Xi Qing and Shu were good fighters, but still inexperienced in battles of this scale.

    The three months of games yed against Mu and Shang were immensely helpful. Ye Chong could now maintain a calmposure as he studied the bigger picture and gave orders to his men, almost like a veteran general.

    Battles that resulted from encountering enemies had always been Mu''s forte. He could unleash the full potential of their avable resources. This was something that not even Shang could do, much less Ye Chong. Even so, Ye Chong learned from both Mu and Shang, and he had been trying to emte Mu''s methods. If he did not improve himself, how could he expect to hang on until the end of the battle?

    Unfortunately, he was short of hands, and limited in options for their means of offense!

    This group of red-tailed beasts were cunning, choosing to focus on the starships that were the furthest out. They would wait for the right time and single out a ship to focus their attacks on.

    So far, Ye Chong had lost five starships.

    This strategy looked familiar! Ye Chong thought back to this one time during his games, where Shang had used this strategy to devour himpletely. Ye Chong remembered the battle clearly. He had watched his own soldiers slowly destroyed by his enemies, and the helpless feeling throughout was unbearable. However, what Ye Chong remembered most about that particr game was not his sense of helplessness, but how Mu had managed to defeat this particr strategy of Shang''s!

    Ever since then, Ye Chong felt that his perspectives had widened even further.

    The explosion from one of his starship''s illuminated his features. Ye Chong decided to make some changes to his n.

    __________________________________________

    Arwa was donned in neat military attire as he stood up straightly before Xiao Wan. He looked calm, but his eyes betrayed the gratefulness he was feeling. The Young Miss was finally looking invigorated!

    Xiao Wan still looked worn and tired, but her eyes now showed steely determination.

    "Thank you for all your effort these days!" Xiao Wan expressed sincerely.

    Arwa bowed slightly, "It is my duty."

    Xiao Wan watched Arwa in his stiff military uniform and felt a wave of emotions rushed up to her. Arwa had never liked wearing it, and he was the only one in the Xiao Family army who refused to wear the military uniform. It was only a small gesture, but Xiao Wan could see that he was doing all he could for their current predicament. Arwa had always looked like an honest youngd from a rural vige, but now he had the charisma of a general.

    "What''s the situation right now?" Xiao Wan asked.

    "It''s not looking good," Arwa looked worried as he exined, "We''ve lost our best opportunity!"

    Xiao Wan understood him. She knew that Arwa was referring to the war at the frontline. Arwa had been openly against it, but his lowly position meant his opinion went ignored. After the war, there was little left in the Xiao Family Army. Even the 1st toon''s Commander, Guang Bei, did not make it. Xiao Wan''s heart ached at the memory.

    Arwa knew that he had misspoke, and quickly added, "However, we''re not without hope."

    He had the Young Miss''s attention now. Arwa quickly borated, "I''ve gathered many mech pilots along the way. We now have 1,500 mech pilots. It''s not exactly an army, but enough to bring us to Duodania. Once we enter the He Yue Gxy, we''ll be alright!"

    Xiao Wan was confused. "Isn''t He Yue Gxy also invaded by the red-tailed beasts?"

    Arwa exined, "The red-tailed beasts are also in the He Yue Gxy, but the ce isrger, with enough room for us to find a ce to settle down. Besides, the He Yue Gxy may be at war now, but it''s core areas remain unaffected. We can find a ce toy low in the meantime. I think that once the aristocratic families got rid of the red-tailed beasts, they will most likely be weakened as well. It will be our chance to rise again. On the contrary, Gray Valley is small, andcked the space for us. Additionally, with our defeat, half of Gray Valley''sbatants are gone. It''s only a matter of time before Gray Valley falls under the control of the red-tailed beasts." It was in moments like these that Arwa looked like the genius tactician that he truly was.

    Xiao Wan considered Arwa''s analysis carefully.

    Arwa made sense, but this would mean them leaving Gray Valley, the ce she grew up in. It was also nearly impossible for them to ever return.

    "You think that it''s more to our advantage to move to the He Yue Gxy?" Xiao Wan asked after a long moment.

    "Yes!" Arwa replied firmly without hesitation.

    Xiao Wan took a deep breath and made her decision, "Alright! Then let''s try our luck in the He Yue Gxy!"

    Arwa was pleased to hear that. "Thank you, Young Miss!"

    "Thank you? You can thank me for sending Guang Bei to his death in a pointless war." Xiao Wan looked sad as she said this, with a hint of self mockery.

    Arwa could only sigh quietly to himself. He remembered something then. "Young Miss, right now we are in urgent need of close range mechs. Without them, we''ll be heavily disadvantaged against the red-tailed beasts."

    "Close range mechs!" Xiao Wan pondered on it, then lifted her gaze to Arwa, "What do you suggest?"

    "We steal them!" Arwa forced the words out of his mouth.

    "Steal them?" Xiao Wan did not look troubled at all, as though it was a natural decision. She mused, "From who?"

    She looked at Arwa meaningfully and said, "You probably thought of everything already, so let''s hear it."

    Arwa chuckled and said, "Sharp as always, Young Miss. There are not many organizations with close range mechs now, and most of them are too strong for us. In the end, the Research Consortium seems to be the best option."

    "The Research Consortium?" Xiao Wan looked hesitant, but did not reject the idea immediately. "The Research Consortium is too powerful for us to meddle with. I believe that it will be difficult."

    Arwaughed. "Maybe not. The Research Consortium''s intel has always been the most reliable in Gray Valley. Nothing escapes them. News of defeat at the frontline must have reached them. The Research Consortium is powerful, but they don''t have many mech pilots. If that''s the case, their best option is to gather their people and focus on defense. Besides, they''re mostly cowards. I believe that the Consortium''s headquarters must be empty by now. In the haste of their retreat, they might have left something in their warehouses. These things are now free for all. Hehe, why not take them for ourselves? Of course, it will depend on our luck."

    Xiao Wan thought through Arwa''s words. She clenched her teeth and made her decision. "Alright! We''ll do as you say!"

    Note:

    [1] This is also YC¡¯s fake name back in Chapter 291!

 Chapter 494 - Changes II

    <h4>Chapter 494: Changes II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Green Arrow was one of the midsized starships in the fleet. It was also one of their 12 warships, with 125 mech pilots. ording to Ye Chong''s designations, each warship would have a Company of pilots.

    Today, Green Arrow was led not by its usual leader, the 5th Company''s Sergeant, but by Captain Xi Qing. Not only did Xi Qing himself was sent to Green Arrow, he also brought another four Companies to the ship. This brought the number of mech pilots onboard the Green Arrow to 250.

    Xi Qing boarded Green Arrow when the ship retreated deeper into the fleet to reorganize its crew.

    "Thank you for your hard work, everyone!" Xi Qing nodded in greeting and respect to the mech pilots and gestured for them to remain seated.

    He looked around, and saw that everyone had their attention on him.

    "Now, there''s a very difficult task to be assigned to you. Are you scared?" Xi Qing smiled.

    "No way!"

    "Hell no!"

    "Captain, when has any one of us said we''re scared?"

    "That''s right, just say the word and we''ll get to it!"

    ¡­ ¡­

    They sounded loud and energetic enough. Some even stood up in protest.

    "Alright! We have good people fighting with us!" Xi Qing said with pride. "However, the task we have is hard enough that we''ll need another four Companies to fight alongside us. I hope we can all work together and take down those creatures!" Xi Qing made a downward shing motion with his tightly clenched right fist.

    "Yes Sir!" Everyone roared out.

    _____________________

    The red-tailed beasts were numerous like a locust gue, and they had many starships in the fleet. The fragile parts of the starships had all been fortified, so the red-tailed beasts could not do much to them. For the moment, the battle had reached a stalemate. The red-tailed beasts stayed together despite their numbers, maintaining theirrge formation. Since Ye Chong''s side could not send out any ships to battle it out, he could only be on the defense. In short, the red-tailed beasts held the active position in the battle.

    Suddenly, three starships left the fleet and came out.

    The three starships immediately drew the attention of the red-tailed beasts. In fact, Ye Chong''s fleet was too strongly defended that the thousand-strong red-tailed beast army was like an ant before an elephant. Even though many red-tailed beasts were drawn away by the energy cells and left the main army, the great majority of red-tailed beasts were still in formation.

    The sudden movements from the three starships was a striking turn of events in the battle.

    The red-tailed beast army went for the ships without dy. They were much faster and more agile than the starships. The starships made all sorts of evasive maneuvers to no avail.

    The crew members in the three starships heard what sounded like raindrops falling onto their ships. In just a moment, the red-tailed beasts were crawling all over the three ships. It was a terrifying sight.

    Major''s forehead glistened with sweat that went rolling down his cheeks. He was panting heavily. He was in an agitated state right now. His face was unnaturally red, and his breaths were short andboured. He knew that the stakes of this battle had never been higher. How much higher, he did not know.

    "Open the hatch!"

    The heavy metal hatch in front of him opened silently.

    Major straightened himself. He held his breath as he locked his gaze at the hatch exit. Right now, he was like a wild beast ready to unleash its full strength.

    Five red-tailed beasts came into the passageway like predators that smelled blood.

    Behind them were several more red-tailed beasts.

    Five Fighter mechs were already positioned into a defensive formation. The red-tailed beasts rushed in like a ck tsunami wave, reaching the Fighter mechs in an instant.

    Bang bang bang bang bang!

    Under the continuous impacts, all five Fighters were forced back a few steps! The red-tailed beasts had strongly collided into them. The creatures did not fare too well themselves, looking slightly taken aback. However, they continued to swiftly move, sticking to the sides to allow more of their kind to enter the passageway.

    "Hold your positions!" Major shouted. Veins showed on his temples, but his hands moved quickly. He knew that this was not the time to retreat. If they did not hold their position now, they would be pushed further back and closer to defeat.

    Wham! Major''s Fighter stomped into the ground, pushing the mech forward.

    The squad members understood each other perfectly. There was no cowardice in these spearheads! They all knew without Major''s reminder that they must not back down now.

    The four Fighter mechs adjusted themselves and pushed forward, pushing against the ground or the side walls. They found themselves right behind Major''s mech again in no time.

    "Go to hell!" Major yelled as he ran straight into one of the red-tailed beasts that wasing in. His Fighter''s metal fist connected with the red-tailed beast''s arrowhead tail, creating sparks.

    The strong impact nearly through Major off bnce, but the Fighter suddenly reached out with its left mechanical arm and grabbed onto the red-tailed beast''s right ankle.

    With its ankle caught, the creature was surprised, and whipped its red arrowhead tail towards the mech''s throat.

    The Fighter anticipated it and narrowly avoided the attack.

    This short exchange made a whole world of difference for the red-tailed beast. The four Fighter mechs criss-crossed over, and the trapped red-tailed beast was cut into eight pieces.

    Major breathed heavily as he stared at the dead red-tailed beast. The passageway was now full of red-tailed beasts. There were no less than dozens of them inside, and it was a terrifying idea to deal with.

    The other red-tailed beasts were unaffected by the death of one its own. They were staring yearningly at the energy cells behind the mechs.

    Major and his squad regrouped into formation. The next part of the battle was going to push them to their limits.

    Just as the red-tailed beasts were trying to enter the passageway, the three starships with red-tailed beasts crawling all over them were slowly making their way back to the fleet.

    The other starships quickly made way for these three starships, now filled with very dangerous cargo.

    These starships were very close to the three starships. They all kept their passageway hatches open. An energy wave that was very familiar to the red-tailed beasts faintly but clearly came from within, despite the main attraction in the three starships.

    The red-tailed beasts that could not fit themselves into the passageways were drawn by the energy cells of these starships along the way. Soon, the red-tailed beasts began to drift away in twos or threes away from the three starships towards these distractions.

    There were too many energy cells around them such that each passageway would only attract a few red-tailed beasts.

    The number of red-tailed beasts on the three starships reduced gradually over time. It was like watching a huge block of ice melt from a warm breeze, bit by bit.

    Xi Qing saw the empty space before him and felt the worry in him rxed a bit. It was time!

    He knew that the decisive part of the battle had arrived!

    Seven starships that had prepared themselves now surrounded the three starships. The few red-tailed beasts that remained there suddenly realized that there was a much stronger energy waveing from around them!

    They got excited immediately and quickly abandoned the three starships for the other seven starships.

    With so many red-tailed beasts drawn away, the remaining creatures were few enough to be absorbed by these ten starships.

    There were not many red-tailed beasts left in outer space. Most of them had already been lured into the passageways of the ships. Only a few slower ones were still outside.

    Suddenly, all ten starships closed their hatches shut.

    Now, the red-tailed beasts that were still outside began to sense that something was amiss, and began to panic. They could sense an impending threat and wanted to leave, but found that there was nowhere to escape.

    The seven starships had formed a small but tight surround formation. The space between them could only allow one or two red-tailed beasts to pass through at any time. Here was also where squads of mechs were now in position. In outer space, a single mech could never hope to win against a red-tailed beast, but now the mechs could make up for this disadvantage by their strength in numbers.

    Lure the enemy, disperse their forces, and surround them. Ye Chong''s n had been executed perfectly so far.

    The red-tailed beasts struggled more fiercely than Ye Chong had anticipated. The battle took ce for almost five hours.

    The firstrge scale battle by Ye Chong''s fleet ended with their victory. The battle had been won with fine results. After the battle, the number of red-tailed beasts killed totaled up to 1,431 of them. They even managed to capture 20 of the creatures alive, which would be very important for research purposes.

    This victory against the red-tailed beasts was unprecedented, a win on thergest scale ever recorded in Gray Valley.

    The entire fleet basked in joy of their triumph. Everyone saw hope in their survival, having witnessed how they could take control of their own fate. The battle was a strong boost of morale for all the crew members.

    Nheless, Ye Chong could not be happy with the tallied numbers at the end of the battle. They had lost close to 500 mech pilots, and suffered 300 more casualties. The casualty rate was at 50 percent, while death was close to a third. This victory was hard won. If they repeated the same battle a few times, there would be nothing left of the fleet.

    The only thing that Ye Chong could appreciate was the fact that while they had lost many mech pilots, their overall battle strength had been elevated. Experienced mech pilots were different from newbies. An army that had fought an actual, hard won war was different from an ordinary army.

    In the end, Ye Chong regretted nothing. He had already done his best, leading a batch of freshies and obtaining such a result. Even Shang was a little surprised.

    Little did he know that this victory had given him much more than that.

 Chapter 495 - Changes III

    <h4>Chapter 495: Changes III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Instructor, we have five starships requesting to join our fleet," Xi Qing reported to Ye Chong. Standing beside him was Shu, donned in a neat uniform. Ever since their victoryst time, many starships approached them to join their fleet. So far, the fleet had expanded to include 800 ships, and total number of crew members added up to 250 thousand. Even the number of warships had gone up to 10.

    Before these five starships, the fleet had epted requests from 33 other starships on that same day.

    "Alright," Ye Chong did no mince his words, "Just proceed ording to protocol in future." Since many starships continued to join their fleet, the whole process of filtering and epting requests and assigning them to groups had been streamlined. Shang yed an important part in this, having set up most of the rules himself.

    All epted ships must obey orders from Haskel. They must also report their inventory, subject their crew members for inspection, and take part in battles of the fleet. This meant that all ships in the fleet would be at Ye Chong''s disposal.

    Under usual circumstances, these conditions would be unthinkable. No one would willingly offer their freedom up. However, the desperate need to survive overrode all other priorities right now, so no one gave up a fight.

    Ye Chong did not know that the one responsible for spreading the news of their victory over the red-tailed beasts was actually Shang. Ye Chong''s fake name, Jay, was now a symbol, a symbol of fighting against the red-tailed beasts. In areas where the red-tailed beasts were not an immediate threat, people took notice of this mysterious and peculiar fleet. Their leader, Ye Chong was at the heart of their discussions.

    The victory had also raised Ye Chong''s reputation in the fleet. His orders were obeyed to a tee by loyal subordinates. The crew members worked diligently, taking pride in their leader. The mysterious partner of his slowly faded into the background. Later members of the fleet did not even know that he existed.

    Another result of the victory was Ye Chong bing almost a worshipped hero to all his crew members.

    Hence, despite the strict rules of eptance, many still wished to join the mysterious fleet. Ye Chong never rejected any of them. Ever since their victory, they had suffered a huge loss in number ofbatants that would benefit from replenishment.

    Ye Chong looked at the two young men before him and said, "Keep up with the training, we don''t have much time left."

    Xi Qing and Shu felt the gravity of the order, and saluted in reply, "Yes sir!" They did not exactly how much time they needed for what, but they also knew that some questions were better left unasked.

    Ye Chong was satisfied with the performances of both Xi Qing and Shu. It was because of them that he had more time to think about other things.

    "How many energy cells do we have left?" Ye Chong asked abruptly.

    Xi Qing and Shu exchanged a look. Shu stepped forward and said solemnly, "Instructor, we''re here because of this matter. Ourst battle used up many of our energy cells. High intensitybat trainings are also exhausting our reserves quickly. Currently, we have only 3,600 energy cells. We are in need of an emergency resupply."

    "That''s right. Our fleet is too massive right now. We''re using up our energy cells at an astonishing rate. If we don''t resupply soon, we''ll probably ¡­" Xi Qing made his point clearly.

    Ye Chong paused in thought. He had neglected this important matter. He called up Gray Valley''s star chart as he asked, "Where''s the closest resupply point?"

    "The S.S. Iron Scorpion," Shu replied with barely suppressed excitement beneath his calm exterior, "It''s a space station built by the Research Consortium, and one of their base of operations. There should be a huge stock of energy cells there in storage," He added mischievously, "And maybe even a good load of mechs and starships."

    Xi Qing said nothing. He was with Shu on this. The Research Consortium was a heavyweight in Gray Valley. Everyone here held the Consortium with regard. Gray Valley''s existence was closely rted to the Research Consortium. All these years, the Consortium had used their skills in technological advancements to improve Gray Valley as a whole. However, in this red-tailed beast disaster, the Consortium had done nothing effective apart from bringing together organizations from all parts of Gray Valley to form an alliance.

    On the contrary, they hadter chosen to do something that could almost be described as stupid - they left everyone behind and escaped. This was a huge disappointment for all the people who put their hopes in them. Xi Qing and Shu had experienced this firsthand. Ever since the frontline copsed, the Research Consortium had done nothing meaningful to the people. It was as if they had simply vanished.

    Ye Chong did not hesitate. "Have allbat personnel be prepared." Ye Chong did not share the sentiment that normal Gray Valley inhabitants had. From their early escape on Henna, Ye Chong could tell that the Research Consortium was not actually not very powerful. Besides, their situation was urgent, and he could not afford to be picky.

    "Yes Sir!" The two young men saluted.

    ___________________________________

    The ten warships guarded ten starships, carrying 2,500 mech pilots in them. The procession was heading towards S.S. Iron Scorpion. Behind them were 50 midsized transport ships, all without cargo.

    Ye Chong had deployed almost all hisbatants for this operation. Out of the entire fleet, he was probably the only person who knew exactly how dire their situation was. If his estimations were urate, they would be doomed once the two nking red-tailed beast armiespleted their surrounding formation. It was a race against time. Ye Chong spent most of his time thinking these days, but could note up with any viable solution.

    All those thoughts had strained him. His eyes were bloodshot. It was torture, knowing the intentions of the red-tailed beasts but unable toe up with a solution.

    On top of all that, he now had the pressing issue of running out of energy cells! Knowing how desperate their situation was, Ye Chong hardly cared who the S.S. Iron Scorpion belonged to. After all, how could they be more dangerous than the red-tailed beasts?

    Besides, he had 10 warships with him. These were useless against red-tailed beasts, but a formidable amount of firepower in usual warfare.

    All this while, the power of those warships were suppressed. The 10 warships came from different organizations, and these organizations were all demolished. These days, the warships were pushed around like decorations since they were useless against the red-tailed beasts.

    They were once glorious! Warships - their reputation was enough tomand respect and privileges wherever they went.

    Hence, when Ye Chong gave the order, all 10 warships readied themselves swiftly.

    Mercury, the first warship to be incorporated into the fleet, was honored with the designation Warship 1.

    "Everybody listen up! I want everyone to give me your 110 percent today. I won''t forgive anyone who''ll screw up! F*ck, we''re the g*ddamn warship Mercury, born for war! Today, we will show Mercury''s true power! Sir Jay is watching us, our future will depends on our performance today! You hear me, m*therf*ckers?!" Mercury''s Captain barked menacingly.

    "Yes Sir, Captain!" All crew members replied back thunderously. They had felt suppressed enough as it was.

    The entire warship now operated in the highest state ofbat readiness. Crew members dashed across the corridors, going about their duties with vigor. Warships were important resources for every organization. They were staffed by crew members who went through the strictest selection procedure. Right now, Mercury was like a power machine came to life.

    "Shooters, to yourbat stations."

    "Calibrating shooting RPM. Activating weapons system."

    "Energy cells in ce."

    "Logistics crew is go."

    ¡­

    Mercury was not the only one. All 10 warships looked eager forbat. All cannons were deployed from their hatches, the menacing cannon barrels giving off a dark, chilling shine. Each cannon was fitted rows of energy cells with their safeties off, ready to refuelled or reced on the go.

    Ye Chong was taken aback by the eagerness of the 10 warships, but it was better this way. He had been worrying about them due to their mercenary backgrounds. Perhaps they would only work for the pay. Seeing them like this lifted his heart a little. With 10 warships on his side, even taking down the S.S. Iron Scorpion by force would not be a problem

    Unlike the warships owned by the MPA or ck Cove that Ye Chong had seen in the Five Gxies, the warships in Gray Valley and He Yue Gxy were much more potent. With more firepower, higher firing uracy, better ship maneuverability and armor defense systems, these warships were far more powerful than their counterparts in the Five Gxies.

    Xue Lai n had thergest warship fleet. The Ye Family and Xi Feng Tribe also had their own sizable warship fleets. Every noteworthy organization would keep their warshipspetitive as a sizable force for war in outer space. The Research Consortium owned thergest warship fleet in Gray Valley, but now even their whereabouts were unknown.

    Nevertheless, their opponent this time was Gray Valley. While members of the Consortium had always behaved unusually, their higher-ups had done nothing for the war this time. What would they do when faced with a direct challenge of power? Every inhabitant of Gray Valley had known the Consortium for its indomitable power. They could not help but doubt the oue of this sh of powers.

 Chapter 496 - Changes IV

    <h4>Chapter 496: Changes IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    What was the Research Consortium thinking?

    This was the question that everyone in Ye Chong''s group was asking. No one was on the S.S. Iron Scorpion. It was like an abandoned city. The base was a mess. Things were scattered everywhere. Even the memory chips, which probably contained ssified information, were simply left lying on the floor. The staff must have left in a rush.

    What happened here? What happened to the Research Consortium? Ye Chong could not understand.

    "What a nice piece of real estate! Too bad we can''t use it. Would''ve been the perfect ce for headquarters," Shang sounded regretful. Ye Chong did notment further. It was true that the S.S. Iron scorpion was a wonderful choice for their base of operations. However, defending this ce right now would be suicidal. The space station itself was of no value to Ye Chong.

    Over the years, the S.S. Iron Scorpion was fitted with world ss facilities. It was apparent that the Consortium spent a lot of effort in designing the space station.

    With 500 mech pilots aboard, the ce would practically be a castle, fortified by soldiers. Taking down the ce with Ye Chong''s army would not have been possible.

    Ye Chong realized then the naivety of his optimism.

    Fortunately, the Research Consortium''s unexined retreat had benefited him.

    Ye Chong raised his voice abruptly, "Find the warehouse immediately!" A base like this must surely have a huge warehouse. That was their primary concern right now.

    Ye Chong could only hope that the warehouse was not empty.

    "Instructor! We found the warehouse!" Xi Qing reported to Ye Chong excitedly. Few people in the fleet were qualified to call Ye Chong "instructor". Most were his former student like Xi Qing and Shu. Most of the students worked at the grassroots level. They were Ye Chong''s most loyal supporters.

    The warehouse was located at the inner parts of the S.S. Iron Scorpion. Its structure waspletely made of alloy to fortify it against attacks. Even a direct hit from a warship cannon would not be able to prate its tough walls.

    The heavy alloy doors silently slipped open to both sides. It was dark inside the warehouse.

    As the lights were switched on, the hopeful crew members quieted down, so much that one could hear a pin drop.

    Inside the warehouse were stacks and stacks of goods. All the things were arranged methodically by their ssifications. Some still had their identification barcode on them.

    "This world is too crazy!" Ye Chong muttered to himself. He did not know why he said that, but the words seemed to spill out from his mouth.

    After the initial shock, everyone recovered quickly. They looked overjoyed, but their ingrained discipline allowed to remain rtively calm.

    Ye Chong waved his hand in a single and decisive stroke, "Take them! Take them all!"

    After nning for the retrieval of all those resources, Ye Chong returned to Haskel. He was very happy with the operation. Perhaps the only people in the operation who were disappointed were the battle-hungry warship crew members. They had expected to demonstrate their strength to Ye Chong, but did not even get to fire a single cannon in the end. Once again, their roles became redundant.

    The Research Consortium was rich! Even someone as unmoved by money as Ye Chong was amazed by their wealth. The mountain of resources in the warehouse had left him a little shell shocked.

    However, what happened to the Research Consortium? He knew from intel that the Research Consortium was a organization that specialized in technology, butcking in military strength. Nevertheless, their findings in the warehouse seemed to suggest that this was not the case. Ye Chong could tell that the S.S. Iron Scorpion was built as a military base.

    All the signs suggested that the Research Consortium had left in a hurry, without time to organize themselves properly.

    Well, in the end, what did all these had to do with him? Ye Chongughed at himself wryly. If the Research Consortium had not left in a hurry, the resources in the warehouse would not have been left behind for him. Right now, he should worry more about his own predicament.

    Ye Chong''s expression turned heavy.

    "Ye, don''t look so sulky. Beware the wrinkles! Wrinkles are humanity''s worst enemies! But I gotta say, Ye, you''re doing not so bad recently Haha, keep it up!" Shang continued slyly, "Ye, I''ve been setting up a database of beautifuldies recently. Would you like a copy? Hehe, it''s got a chapter on Bing Bing!"

    Ye Chong had nothing to say to Shang''s bbering.

    Just then, the inventory list arrived for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong looked at the lines and lines of huge numbers in the inventory list, and realized once again just how much they had gained this time!

    There were enough energy cells tost them quite a while. The fleet will not have to worry about energy cell supplies. One of the things that surprised Ye Chong was the number of mechs they acquired. They now had 5,000 D-6''s! Ye Chong wondered what the true purpose of the S.S. Iron Scorpion really was.

    These 5,000 D-6''s would be enough for Ye Chong''s 2,500 mech pilots to use and swap turns. D-6 had much higher specs than Fighter. After the mech pilots got used to these mechs, Ye Chong''s army would be significantly more formidable.

    Numerous other things were retrieved from the warehouse. Ye Chong had ordered his subordinate to empty the warehouse, after all. Xi Qing and Shu executed his orders to the letter. Not even a single piece of paper was left in the warehouse. Even all the memory chips that were scattered on the floor in the base were salvaged. However, the information within them would have to be organized.

    As the joy from their stroke of luck wore off, Ye Chong''s frown returned.

    The problem of energy cell supplies was resolved, but the main and most crucial problem remained. They had to figure out how to escape the surrounding formation of the red-tailed beasts.

    He still did not have a viable solution.

    The red-tailed beasts were much faster than they were. As the two nking armies of red-tailed beasts were pushing their way forward as fast as they could, they were now left far behind. In other words, they were already in the trap of the red-tailed beasts, it was only a matter of time before they werepletely enveloped by the enemy. Once that happened, there would be no escape.

    Haskel was still in a joyful atmosphere. The crew members in thems rooms were discussing excitedly about all the things that they managed to acquire. Their jobs did not require much from them. Most of the crew were either sitting or lying around, enjoying a cup of hot tea while they chatted with theirrades.

    Thems room should have been a very important ce in a starship fleet. It was rare for to see its staff unupied like this. After all, they needed to ry orders from the fleetmander to the ships in the fleet, and mediatemunication between other ships and the main ship. It was a very important job. However, their respected and beloved Sir Jay rarely used thems room. His orders were usually directly given to Xi Qing or Shu.

    "Say, how much do you think we got this time? I heard that we''re filthy rich now! The things pile up like mountains!" One of the staff said.

    "Of course, tsk tsk, the Research Consortium is wealthy after all. I''m so jealous!" Another staff replied from his half-lying position on a chair.

    Thems room staff leaderughed and teased him, "Then go to the Research Consortium, why don''t you? Hehe, don''t worry, no one''s gonna stop you."

    "No way," the staff replied shaking of his head, "I wanna still live. Who else but Sir Jay who helped us survive right now? The Research Consortium? If they can help us , the S.S. Iron Scorpion would not have been left empty."

    All around, people who were listening no longer felt so chatty. All this while, they had high hopes on the Research Consortium. However, reality is cruel. The Research Consortium''s powerlessness had chipped away the confidence of Gray Valley''s residents in them.

    Suddenly, the mainms activated. The shrill beeping rm cut through the silentms room. The staff froze in surprise for a moment, exchanging looks of confusion before someone finally yelled, "It''s Sir Jay!"

    Everyone quickly got into position and linked to the mainms.

    Ye Chong''s holographic image came up on thems. His calm voice came through like winter breeze, "Hear me. All ship captains with more than two decades of experience, meet me in the control room, immediately!"

    "Yes sir!" All the crew members saluted.

    Crack! The holographic image of Ye Chong vanished, and the staff members heaved a sigh of relief. Sir Jay had abruptly passed down an order through them, and it had caught them off guard.

    "Back to work," the staff leader said solemnly, all traces of his earlier congeniality gone. Everyone went to their stations and busied themselves. They must ry Sir Jay''s orders to every starship in the fleet as soon as possible.

    The anxious undertone in Sir Jay''s voice was noticed by the staff. They tensed up immediately, and went about their tasks quickly. They were also feeling unsettled. Sir Jay had always been a symbol of invincibility to them. If anything could trouble the man, it must be a very big problem indeed.

    They ryed Ye Chong''s orders as quickly as possible, worded most strictly to every ship captain in the fleet.

    About 10 minutester, all captains with more than two decades experience in their position were gathered in the meeting room. They had dropped whatever was upying them when they received the order and rushed for the meeting. Discipline in the fleet was strict. No one would dare to challenge Sir Jay''s authority. By the time they arrived, Xi Qing and Shu were also present.

    Those who were close to the two approached them to ask about the meeting, but it seemed that they too were unaware of the reason behind their gathering.

    Just then, Ye Chong entered the meeting room.

    Everyone stood up and salute, and Ye Chong saluted them back. Of course, Ye Chong was not the one who came up with these protocols. All the fleet''s rules were Shang''s doing. The effect was apparent, however. Everything was organized, and managing the fleet''s personnel no longer felt like a messy job.

    Ye Chong minced no words, and went straight to the point.

    "Currently, we face a problem that threatens our very survival!"

 Chapter 497 - Changes V

    <h4>Chapter 497: Changes V</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Gray Valley''s star chart was brought up before the surprised ship captains. Ye Chong stood in front of the star chart, facing his audience. He spoke solemnly, "This is Gray Valley. The red zones mark where red-tailed beasts were sighted. This is our current location." He pointed to the S.S. Iron Scorpion on the star chart. He then traced his finger towards the region with the most intense red color and said, "This is the front line, where we came from."

    Everyone watched in silent gloom.

    "Let me tell you something. The Gateway that leads from Gray Valley to He Yue Gxy is already invaded by the red-tailed beasts. It''s still unclear where these red-tailed beasts came from."

    "Ah!" The people were shocked. A few even stood up. Xi Qing and Shu exchanged a look of despair. The news was a horrible blow to them all, shattering their hopes of escaping to the He Yue Gxy.

    However, Sir Jay seemed to think his audience was not shocked enough. He continued, "Have a look over here, and here." He pointed to the two nking red-tailed beast armies that were racing along the edges of Gray Valley.

    "Shang, run the simtion," Ye Chong spoke quietly to Shang.

    "Sigh, so I''m just your grunt, yeah?" Shang sulked with a face.

    The red zones on the star chart began to change. The two nking armies pushed forward at an astounding speed to form to a red enclosure.

    The two armies finally converged!

    After that, the red-tailed beasts spread out and formed a red barrier, splitting Gray Valley into two. The main army of red-tailed beasts in the center began to push their way forward.

    In just a few short moments, the region within the surround formation turned red through and through.

    The meeting room was dead silent. Everyone looked pale.

    They may not be war tacticians, but this straightforward simtion was easy to understand.

    Was this their ultimate fate?

    In the end, they would never escape the terror of the red-tailed beasts. Could it be that all their efforts so far were for naught?

    The tension in the air was suffocating. The star chart that was dyed red reflected in the eyes of the audience.

    For 10 minutes, no one in the meeting room spoke. Everyone felt a chilling sense of despair.

    What a bunch of motley crew! Ye Chong shook his head inside. In the end, the fleet was made up of random amateurs who would be devastated when facing truly challenging odds. If it was the Sang Tribe, they would never react so passively.

    Ye Chong could not appreciate what the red-tailed beasts meant for these normal people. He had killed countless red-tailed beasts himself, so the creatures did not scare him. Normal people, however, thought of the red-tailed beasts as invincible adversaries. Before Ye Chong carved his first victory, Gray Valley had never won against the red-tailed beasts in anyrge scale battles.

    While theirst victory was encouraging, this obstacle once again reawakened their perception of the invincibility of the red-tailed beasts.

    Ye Chong thought that he should not let the silence continue. He spoke up then, "However, we are not entirely hopeless." Everyone looked up at that, turning their intense gaze to Ye Chong. That''s right, didn''t they still have Sir Jay?

    "As you can see, the two nking red-tailed beast armies will converge near Kasent. Our only chance is to go beyond Kasent before they converge," Ye Chong described the situation calmly.

    As Ye Chong finished, a few of the captains expressed their disappointment, "How''s that possible?"

    "That''s right, it''s just impossible! We''re too slowpared to the red-tailed beasts."

    "How is that a solution?" Someone mumbled inint.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong looked at the noisy captains. His gaze turned cold. Without further indications of his mood, he tapped his index finger lightly on the desk.

    Someone noticed that Sir Jay did not look happy, and quickly reigned in theining captains. A few of grumbling captains saw Ye Chong''s expression and realized what they had done. Their faces paled, and they shut their mouths immediately. Gradually, the grumbling sounds quieted down.

    This time, only the sound of Sir Jay''s index finger tapping on the desk could be heard. Each tap hammered down on their hearts. No one dared to speak. Sir Jay''s authority in the fleet was absolute. No one dared to defy him. All the captains here had seen plenty of people in their lives. They could tell exactly what kind of man Sir Jay was. This man can kill without blinking!

    Xi Qing and Shu were still too young to understand these things.

    Ye Chong ignored the captains and turned to the very quiet Xi Qing and Shu, "Next time, if anyone causes a ruckus in the meeting room, escort them out immediately."

    Xi Qing and Shu could read Ye Chong''s dissatisfaction in his voice. They were terrified by this, and quickly stood up and saluted, "Yes sir!"

    All the captains were still shocked, but none of them dared to voice their opinion. They knew that they had behaved disgracefully.

    Ye Chong looked around him, his gaze turning colder still. All the captains lowered their head, unable to meet his eyes.

    "We are not discussing the possibility of achieving this. This is our only chance, for me and for all of you!" Ye Chong emphasized every word, then resumed speaking normally, "Of course, I face a very difficult problem, or I would not have gathered everyone here. It''s impossible to go so far using conventional flight routes. I call all of you here to ask, does anyone know of any warp jump points that can bring us to the vicinity of Kasent?"

    The ship captains looked to each other speechlessly. They felt that Sir Jay was being naive in this matter. If there was such a warp jump point, people would have noticed it and used it frequently.

    Gray Valley was shaped like a hourss, and Kasent was at the waist of this hourss. Besides, there was simply no warp jump point nearby that could bring them past Kasent.

    This wasmon knowledge. Surely Sir Jay would know about it?

    Just then, one of the captains raised his hand hesitantly, "Sir Jay, I - I know of a ce, maybe - maybe we can ¡­"

    The captain was arge man, about 50 years of age. There was a noticeable scar at the corner of his right eye. His eyes twinkled like he was hoping to share something.

    "Alright, think about this problem for now, let me know if you have a solution. You may return to your stations. Remember, we''re running out of time. Hmm, I will also not have rumors spreading around." Ye Chong pointed to the captain who raised his hand and said, "You, stay!"

    All the other captains took their leave. There was now only Ye Chong, Xi Qing, Shu and the captain who raised his hand.

    "Alright, you can speak now," Ye Chong said.

    The captain looked relieved. "Sir Jay, I know of a ce. It''s a warp jump point. From there, we can reach the vicinity of Spectre."

    "Where is it?" The rest of the people in the room were encouraged by the news.

    The captain was hesitant, he shared his information, "It''s in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt."

    Xi Qing and Shu both looked taken aback. They looked at the captain with wary eyes. If he tried anything funny, they will react immediately! The Cmitous Asteroid Belt, he said. This ce was named so because of the numerous dangerous thatid within. Unpredictable asteroid whirlpools found inside could destroy even the strongest starship ever built. The chances of them surviving the Cmitous Asteroid Belt was no higher than when fighting against the red-tailed beasts head on.

    This captain must be nning something behind their backs!

    Was he trying to destroy the entire fleet? Xi Qing''s eyes burned with rage, while Shu''s eyes turned cold.

    "The Cmitous Asteroid Belt? Where do we enter, what is the general location of the jump point? And how did you know about it?" To the duo''s surprise, Sir Jay did not seemed angered, but was instead asking curiously.

    With that, the captain continued without dy, "If we proceed at 33 degrees to the radius vector, it will take about 15 days for us to reach the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Once we''re in, it will be about another three days before we get to the warp jump point. I remember it''s location clearly, at (79, 23, -661, Y). As for how I found out about it ¡­"

    He smiled wryly, "Truth is, I was a space pirate."

    Ye Chong still looked calm when Xi Qing and Shu expressed their surprise.

    "Haha, this was more than 20 years ago. Back then, we were pursued by one of the Research Consortium''s tracking squads. We nearly lost everything, with 16 of us still alive. However, the tracking squad did not stop pursuing us. We were desperate enough to enter the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. It was then that we discovered the warp jump point. We didn''t know where it led to back then. However, anywhere was better than the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Haha, we were also growing desperate. Food and water were running out, and our energy''s almost exhausted. It was a gamble we had to take. In the end, we won."

    The man seemed to age further as he recounted his memories with a bit of nostalgia and self-mockery.

    Shang suddenly spoke up, "Isn''t it said that no one could ever leave Spectre? How did you escape?"

    The captain shook his head. ''We didn''t approach the, but simply fly along the edges of the asteroid belt. No pirate dared to go near Spectre, it''s an unwritten rule."

    The Cmitous Asteroid Belt ¡­

    Ye Chong tapped his finger lightly on the desk, deep in thought.

 Chapter 498 - Change VI

    <h4>Chapter 498: Change VI</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was now between a rock and a hard ce. The warp jump point offered by the former space pirate was the only escape route he had, but if they really entered the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, just how much of the fleet would survive the journey?

    They would probably suffer heavily.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong was not an indecisive person. Entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt offered a chance to survive, but not entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt would lead to certain death. The choice was obvious.

    To the Cmitous Asteroid Belt!

    Once word got around the fleet, it ignited an uproar. Soon, Haskel received requests from a few starships to leave the fleet. Ye Chong let them leave without dy.

    Once these ships left, many others followed. What were the implications of entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt? This was a ce of death, a ce with dangers that no human could defend against. Entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt was suicidal. Besides, the strategy of the red-tailed beasts was only a guess. Sir Jay might be powerful, but he could still make mistakes. His prediction was not supported by any strong proof.

    Their assessment of the situation waspletely opposite to Ye Chong''s. Entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt would lead to certain death, but the intention of the red-tailed beasts was still suspect. The choice was obvious in this way.

    Ye Chong did not stop any of them from leaving. Their departure would reduce the overall strength of the fleet, but to him, that was actually preferable. These doubtful people would otherwise be a ticking time bomb to the fleet. They might behave unpredictably should they encounter any dangers ahead.

    He would rather let them leave than have this risk in the fleet.

    For the people on those departing ships who wished to stay, Ye Chong epted them all. Many of them were the mech pilots and technical staff who worked under him. They had trained under Ye Chong''s rule, and thus were more loyal than others. The mech pilots who were trained by Ye Chong himself in particr had all stayed behind.

    As soldiers of the frontlines, they realize that without Sir Jay, they would be powerless against the red-tailed beasts. It was because of Sir Jay that they were no longer mediocre mech pilots. Now, they could hold their own against the red-tailed beasts. Leaving Sir Jay would spell their deaths. Besides, with Sir Jay in the fleet, they would face any danger ahead together.

    If that was the case, what else was there to be afraid of?

    The fleet''s army shrunk dramatically. There were now only 500 ships left, carrying about 150 thousand people. To Ye Chong''s surprise, the remains of the fleet were stronger than before. Not only did they manage to retain allbatants, the ratio of technical staff was also higher. In terms of resources, they lost little else but the energy cells allocated to the departing starships.

    All in all, the situation was still under his control.

    Ye Chong reorganized the fleet immediately, consolidating the fleet hierarchy. The fleet had seemed toorge and unwieldy before this. Back then, with a smaller proportion ofbatants, he needed to allocate more of them for defensive measures.

    Now, however, things were much better.

    Since the decision was made, let''s do this! Ye Chong gave the order for the fleet to advance towards the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    It would be another 15 days before they reach the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    In these 15 days, Ye Chong did not n to be idle. His mech pilots trained as usual, but the maintenance crew were kept busy in their every waking hour.

    All the starships received orders to fortify the hulls. This must be achieved in these 15 days. Ye Chong had been in and out of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt a few times. With Mu and Shang''s aid, and a bit of luck, he had managed to do so unscathed so far. Hence, he understood the ce much better than others.

    The Cmitous Asteroid Belt''s biggest danger was its asteroid whirlpools. Therge and small rocks in the whirlpool could reduce anything to dust. However, if that captain was right, it would take them only three days to reach the warp jump point. The chances of them encountering an asteroid whirlpool in that time was low.

    From Ye Chong''s experience, the asteroid whirlpools were usually in the deeper parts of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. They rarely urred near the boundaries. Therefore, they should prioritize in protecting the hulls of their ships from being damaged by the floating rocks in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    Most of the ships were civilian type, much weaker in structurepared to their warships. It was necessary and urgent for them to strengthen these ships at their vulnerable spots to make them tougher.

    The 500 starships must be fortified in 15 days. The order sounded like an impossible task. There were quite a number of maintenance crew members in the fleet, but strengthening 500 starships in 15 days was still too much.

    Hence, the job demanded practically all hands on board. Only the mech pilots were spared for their training.

    _____________________

    Yang Ming''s eyes were bloodshot, but still he gritted his teeth and held on. The others around him all shared his present state of having barely any sleep for days.

    His hands were sluggish. Days of work had pushed him to a state of extreme fatigue. His lips were cracked, his eyes sunken. His mind was a nk as he repeated the same old tasks.

    He needed to sleep! He felt that if he closed his eyes for one second, he would just fall asleep instantly.

    However, he could not sleep, not when time was pressed. Every second he squeezed out to work might just save another man''s life.

    Yang Ming and his family had decided to stay behind with Sir Jay while the other starships left. He and his family believed that Sir Jay was the only one who would lead them to triumph.

    Yang Ming''s foundation was excellent, and his constant work and practice recently had finally earned him the status of a fully certified maintenance crew member. His rise in status earned more respect from the people around him, and even more responsibilities.

    Even now, Yang Ming trusted Sir Jay. The man was not too much older than Yang Ming, but he idolized their leader. Yang Ming was hardly the only young person in the fleet who idolized Ye Chong. Most of the people who chose to leave had been older.

    The strong and wise Sir Jay had saved from the brink of death, leading them himself in theirrge scale victory. If not for Sir Jay, they would have perished in the hands of the red-tailed beasts. What reason was there not to follow him?

    When the order came, Yang Ming immediately buried himself in work. Unlike other people whoined about not having enough time, he knew how desperate their situation really was. He also knew that hisrades shared the sentiment, onlyining out of frustration.

    "Lil'' Yang, get some rest," a hoarse voice came from behind him, sounding concerned. It was Father Bach!

    Father Bach watched the bookish young man with an aching heart. To him, Yang Ming was a good role model for all the young people in the fleet. He was young, smart and eager to learn. While he looked soft, he was strong in character. Besides, Yang Ming looked good enough to gain admiration from a good many youngdies in the fleet.

    Yang Ming was pleasantly surprised. "Father Bach." Yang Ming felt self conscious, and a little uncertain. Father Bach had a strong reputation amongst the technical staff in the fleet. With him leading the logistics and maintenance departments, there was nothing they needed to worry about. This hearty man, the fair and skillful Father Bach, enjoyed profound respect from Yang Ming.

    Father Back patted Yang Ming on the shoulder with his thick and calloused hands,plimenting him, "Good work. Now leave it to me."

    Yang Ming nodded, hoping to reply back with something, but his parched throat refused toply. He quickly went to a corner to drink some water.

    Father Bach began to concentrate on his work.

    Yang Ming''s gazended on Father Bach''s broad shoulders. He felt relieved, and sat in the corner to rest. Sleep enveloped almost the instant he closed his eyes.

    A young woman walking past saw Yang Ming curled up asleep in the corner and felt an ache in her heart. She trotted off to fetch a nket and covered him with it. Later, she returned to put some food and water beside him.

    500 starships was arge figure for a fleet of starships. To fortify them all was likewise a formidable task.

    This was a war against time.

    If they could notplete the job in time, the civilian ships without fortified hulls would not be able to withstand the impact from the rocks in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Once a starship exploded, the rocks in the vicinity would be shot about even more violently. It would be catastrophic for the fleet.

    Nheless, they could not afford to spend more time before entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. The red-tailed beasts were in tight pursuit behind them. If they caught on to the fleet, it would be very messy business. If the red-tailed beasts caught on to the fleet in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, they would never survive the trip.

    The floating rocks were everywhere in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, advantageous for the red-tailed beasts but dangerous for mechs. This unfair battleground would not yield a desirable oue.

 Chapter 499 - Changes VII

    <h4>Chapter 499: Changes VII</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Yang Ming woke up with a grumbling stomach. He was positively famished. Then he noticed the food and water left beside him. He paused in surprise before devouring them all.

    He also noticed the nket on him after that. His heart warmed at the gesture, and he tried to guess who had done it for him. In the end, he could not reach a satisfying conclusion, so he left it at that.

    Father Bach was no longer there. The fortifying work for this starship was done.

    Finishing his food gave new energy to Yang Ming. He activated hisms and reported to his superior, "Id W47236 maintenance staff Yang Ming is done resting. Seastar maintenance is done. I''m now on Seastar, awaiting further instructions."

    His superior responded swiftly, "W47236, on top of the points for your working attitude and results, we will be awarding an extra five points as incentive. Now, please assist with starship Virienko. The transport vessel is already in position for you at Passage 5. Godspeed."

    Yang Ming saluted, "Thank you. I''ll head for Virienko immediately." Points were important in the fleet for various purposes such as promotions and benefits. Each job that Yang Ming took would be rewarded with points. If a job was done with extra diligence, more points would be awarded. Everyone working in the fleet would obtain points. Details of this point system could be found in the Points Manual introduced by Sir Jay.

    The Points Manual was painstakingly detailed. Each job would be associated with a certain number of points. If a staff died in battle or due to their work, their points would be converted to mary or other relevant forms ofpensation for their heirs as per their will.

    However, most staff members did not treat the point system seriously. Usage of the fleet''s resources were monitored strictly. They were not paid with money for their work, and even if they were, there was nothing to spend it on. Hence, the workers did not mind how many points they earned, Yang Ming included. He now had 820 points, the highest amongst his peers.

    Of course, none of them realized how this neglected point system wouldter benefit them tremendously.

    Yang Ming entered Passage 5 and found the vessel waiting for him.

    After verifying his ID, the vessel brought Yang Ming to Virienko. The vessel was a very small flying ship with a maximum capacity of 10 crew members. It was about five meters long, like a space car, used mainly for transportation between ships in the fleet.

    Soon, they reached Virienko.

    It looked like he was the only maintenance staff on Virienko. There was no sign of any fortification work on the ship yet.

    He began to inspect the ship''s main structure to determine which ces to fortify.

    Suddenly, he heard the loud whirring of aser welder. Was there another maintenance staff around? He quickly traced the source of the sound. Communication between maintenance staff would help speed up progress and reduce the chances of making mistakes.

    He made a turn and, as expected, saw a maintenance staff member crouched on the floor, hard at work.

    Since the man had his back to him, he could not make out the staff''s face. However, this particr staff was welding with good precision, and Yang Ming admired that.

    He approached the man and greeted him, "Hey, bro, where you at now?"

    The man turned over, "I''ve only just begun."

    When he took in the man''s face, Yang Ming froze on the spot like he was hit by lightning. It was a good 30 seconds before he responded with disbelief, "Sir - Sir Jay!"

    Ye Chong''s expression was inert. He nodded and said inly, "Right, let''s get to work."

    "Yes sir." Yang Ming quickly took out his gear.

    It had been a while since Ye Chong had to do maintenance work himself. It was necessary now. Time was precious, and every bit of manpower counted. Ye Chong was experienced in maintenance work. After all, he had done all kinds of maintenance work looking back. Fortification work, like this one now, did not require any specialized technical expertise. Compared to the upgrades he did on Cob before, this was a walk in the park.

    Yang Ming stole a nce at Sir Jay. He was surprised to see their leader knowing how to weld, and doing it even better than him. The truth was, he was simply shocked. To most people in the fleet, Sir Jaymanded respect as their superior. This same man was now right before him, sitting on an alloy bench casually, focused on his work, just like any other maintenance staff member.

    Soon, Yang Ming gathered himself and began to concentrate on his work.

    For two hours, the two of them did not exchange a word. They worked fast and made smooth progress.

    Yang Ming put down hisser welding gun and massaged his arms. Using theser welding gun was mentally straining. The human arm was also not as durable as a mechanical arm. A maintenance staff member would usually have to rest awhile after long hours of work. This was to rest both the mind and body.

    He looked to Sir Jay and found the man putting down hisser welding gun as well, though he had covered arger area than Yang Ming by now.

    "Sir Jay, do you think that we''ll survive this?" Yang Ming asked abruptly. It was a foolish question, he realized.

    Ye Chong lifted his head to look at Yang Ming. His reply was steady, "Of course."

    Silence descended on the two once again.

    For 15 days, the entire fleet worked tirelessly on this massive fortification operation.

    In these 15 days, a rumor began to spread in Gray Valley, one that was directly rted to Ye Chong.

    The people who chose to leave the fleet were many. Some formed their own fleets, but most decided to go at it alone.

    Rumors of Sir Jay spreaded wherever they went. When they were in the fleet, externalmunications were controlled by Shang. Now that they had left, theirms returned to normal.

    Since too many people were spreading the tale, multiple versions of it were born. There were also pretenders who came up with their own stories, further muddying the waters. This resulted in all kinds of colorful rumors about Sir Jay.

    At the same time, another topic was gaining traction in Gray Valley, and that was Sir Jay''s assessment of their situation. Of the captains who left the fleet, some had attended the meeting that Sir Jay called for. It was through them that Ye Chong''s assessment of Gray Valley''s situation was leaked to every corner of Gray Valley.

    Ye Chong''s assessment was greeted in all kinds of fashion. Some agreed with him, some did not, and some stayed on the fence. However, in the next dew days, more and more starships were seen flying past the vicinity of Kasent.

    Arwa heard of it as well, but his sources were more dependable. Of all the new ships that he recruited to his own new fleet was one led by a captain he had known personally. This captain had attended Ye Chong''s extraordinary meeting.

    The captain told him everything as Arwa further probed, of Sir Jay''s assessment of the situation and the exact location of the warp jump point in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    Arwa asked for every single detail. This Sir Jay had came out of nowhere, and Arwa was interested in that. No one had won so victoriously against the red-tailed beast before Sir Jay''s battle. This was not a feat that can be achieved with just good luck. As the captain divulged more, Arwa felt even more awed. This Sir Jay sounded more powerful than the rumors suggested. He had organized his fleet in an interesting manner, and devised original but effective strategies to fight against the red-tailed beasts. This mysterious Sir Jay was strong. He seemed to be invincible, a man with a cold and calm mind who never made mistakes.

    What a terrifying person!

    He exchanged a look with Xiao Wan, both of them recognizing the fear in the other person''s eyes. Besides, they noticed something curious about Sir Jay - he did not seem to be afraid of the red-tailed beasts. In fact, history had proven that he could win against those ugly monsters. Newbies who had only been trained for a few months by the man himself could already hold against the red-tailed beasts. This was enough to embarrass people with higher authority, including Arwa himself.

    Arwa''s fleet still could not hold itself against red-tailed beast armies that were slightlyrger than a small group. Sir Jay had defeated these red-tailed beasts, strong and fast creatures that were also vicious and cunning. Arwa knew that it was not hard to find a mech pilot who could fight against a red-tailed beast one-on-one. There were probably mech pilots who could fight and win against a few red-tailed beasts.

    However, in the grand scale of things, strength from a single person was insignificant. No one could single-handedly turn the tables of a full blown war. This was why conventional armies were crushed by the red-tailed beast armies.

    Arwa had always believed that only strong mech pilots could form an army that could win against an equal number of red-tailed beasts. This Sir Jay, however, had challenged his very understanding of the war. He did not know when he first heard the rumors that this legendary fleet''s army was made up of young people who had only been training for a few months. The information he got from this old captain made him realize it, and he had thought he had heard wrong the first time.

    The fleet''s achievement was all connected to theirmander, Jay. The man had built the fleet from scratch, its every inch a shadow of the man himself. His war strategies were also unique, and Arwa was thoroughly impressed by them. Arwa had always been called a genius tactician, but now he realized that someone was way ahead of him.

    Arwa felt excitement, admiration, respect, and a little fearful towards this mysterious Sir Jay. It was a little difficult to deal with all these emotions.

 Chapter 500 - Hope to Live I

    <h4>Chapter 500: Hope to Live I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    And because of this, his concern towards this fleet and this mysterious Master Jay only got stronger over time. He had been trying all sorts of channels to obtain information regarding this fleet. Unfortunately, it was fruitless most of the time. This Master Jay apparently had a method of his own when it came to management. The fleet was made out of utter folks yet they had the discipline of an actual military troop. That was mission impossible to him. He felt that was the core issue of his capability. Xiao Wan might be the supreme leader of this fleet, but hardly she had interfered Arwa.

    And this time around, Jay''s fleet had performed such an overhaul that it was beyond his expectation. Since in his viewpoint, it was hard to unite an army of a variety. Any bit of ember on the haystack could strike a forest fire. The fleet could disband on its own upon crisis. So he had been treading the ground carefully, handling the fleet with care.

    It wasn''t him alone but everyone who had interests on this fleet would probably never expected that the instructor, Ye Chong did not really concern on the day the fleet disbanded.

    The size of the fleet had decreased, contrary to everyone''s expectation. It felt like the worst move to make at this period since not only it would weaken the entire force, but also it could kill the confidence in people.

    That should have been his final conclusion, but the old captain of the fleet had given an exnation which changed his mind.

    The old captain basically pointed out Jay''s judgement in the situation, which Arwa actually noticed. Jay should have other channels to get the necessary intelligence. It was evident as he at least knew the severity of raids of red-tailed beasts around the gxy. Getting good intelligence had been Arwa''s biggest problem. The Xiao Family''s army was actually dead despite the mention of its existence to the public. Furthermore, they had not even established a workingwork of intelligence. So Arwa was literally blind to the outside world. He could not make a fair judgement.

    Technically, yes, one would very likely be destroyed if one traveled into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, be it Jay''s fleet or Arwa''s. Not even the trained army could survive the asteroid belt, let alone this fleet conisisting ordinary citizens whose mentality and strength were probably far weaker.

    That exined the shrinking size of Jay''s fleet. Everyone just left the party before they marched into the mouth of the giant cmitous beast.

    Even though Jay had led them through one victory against the red-tailed beasts and another, they were no longer facing red-tailed beasts but nature itself. The universalw of nature. A thing that humanity could never conquer.

    Nheless, Arwa agreed to Jay''s decision¡­well¡­ assuming Jay was right on his intelligence.

    Arwa himself was confident that he would make the same decision given that he got the same intelligence as Jay. He had sufficient experience fighting against the notorious brilliance of the cunning red-tailed beasts. He had witnessed the copse of the front-line and had surely tasted that close-shave moment of his life. It was the most agonizing event in his memory.

    The mysterious Master Jay rather took the most treacherous path of the gxy, gambling with his and his fleet''s lives, than gambling with the odds of the red-tailed beastspleting the very siege that would swallow the entire gxy.

    What would that imply?

    Arwa''s schemata ran rapidly.

    That would imply that Jay was very confident of the intelligence he had obtained as well as his own judgement. That was why he took the greatest risk.

    The conclusion was a little beyond Arwa''s expectation. But there was already no time for him to act surprised. He should be figuring out their next move. Assuming Jay was right about his judgement, that would mean a capital punishment for Arwa and his fleet. Based on the old captain''s illustration, Arwa could make out of location of Jay''s fleet which was much closer to Kasent. Jay should be presuming that his fleet would not be able to go beyond Kasent before the red-tailed beasts finished their circle. Well, neither could Arwa''s fleet.

    The options had be clear then - either Arwa followed the nned course as before, disregarding Jay''s change of course or he would follow Jay into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    Arwa was getting indecisive on this, as he was fully aware of what his decision could bring to him as well as the entire fleet. Arwa was bing more impressed of Jay, on how Jay could pick the treacherous path so calmly. It certainly required ounces of courage.

    Currently Arwa was 70 or 80% convinced of Jay''s judgement. He might as well followed Jay into the asteroid belt but that would inevitably lead to massive casualties which might disband his fleet immediately.

    While Arwa was hesitating, Ye Chong no longer was troubled by any of these.

    The people in Ye Chong''s fleet had been working from day to night not noticing the hours passing by. A few of them started to run out of stamina that they fell. Their weights were dropping significantly yet their spirit burned high. On the other hand, the folk mechanics like Yang Ming had already a few of them copsed. None of them were retreating however, some of them even used stimnts to keep them working.

    All of them knew how much each second would matter. It was a race with not only time but also fate as well as the Reaper. Under the lead of these mechanics, the entire fleet was enthralled carrying out the operation, including their indifferent leader, Ye Chong.

    T-1 to Cmitous Asteroid Belt and they managed to finish the strengthening of every spaceship in line. Half of the technicians, included Yang Ming, fell down. Their blood and sweat had inspired the others, especially the young pilots who eagerly awaited the next phase of the operation once they entered the deadliest zone of the gxy.

    Ye Chong took a day off earlier. Being the sole leader was far more upying than any other position, especially in a timing like this, without the help of the artificial intelligence. He was the most experienced person regarding the asteroid belt.

    The asteroid belt was boundless like the sea with the clusters of irregrly shaped rocks hovering around. The gigantic fleet was looking like a dust particle whenpared to it. Most passengers were mentally prepared for the adventure but they were still overwhelmed by the difference in size when they marveled at the belt itself.

    That was when they received an order from Master Jay to proceed. The firm voice rang profoundly in the ears of everybody, which calmed them somehow. No worry, no bewilderment or hesitation could be found in their eyes.

    The Cmitous Asteroid Belt is the greatest view in the gxy.

    Then we shall be greater as we conquer it!

    Confidence rocked in the heart of every sailor, as their actions became more efficient.

    "Shrink the formation. War units take care of both wings."

    "Allbat units into position."

    "Mechanics standby in your positions now."

    "Medical units on standby too."

    ¡­

    A chain of orders came from Haskel and spread throughout the entire fleet. The captain''s room on every spaceship was now the busiest, liveliest spot in the whole spaceship. All sorts of micromands, signals were passed around from people to people, through the public address system.

    The fleet then reformed into a diagonal, as they gradually moved towards the asteroid belt. The members could already make out of the shapes of each asteroid hovering in waves.

    It was another period of dead silence after the instruction had been passed and carried out. Everyone was staring at the hologramic screen.

    They were close.

    They got closer!

    The entire fleet was traveling like a diagonal shuriken striking at the piece of patterned te of rock.

    Because of the fleet''s colossal size, it was impossible to dodge every asteroid perfectly. They were forcing in, as they could see the handful of rocks being bounced away by the armor of their ships. It was like a domino when it happened. One rock being bounced away would hit into another piece of space rock, the momentum went on, like a droplet of water into a pot of boiling oil. The waves of asteroids started boiling¡­

    There were asteroids crashing into the fleet like cannonballs, specifically the spaceships at the outermostyer.

    "All onto steers! Hold it, do not tilt!"

    "Stay calm! Stay on speed!"

    "Mechanics perform inspection now!"

    The voices of captain were chilling the atmosphere in the midst of silence.

    There were nomand from Haskel. Ye Chong did not influence the other ships, as he knew it was just the prelude before the storm. If they could not even settle this problem on their own, theter would be unimaginable.

    Spaceships were not made for asteroid belt travels, especially the deadly ones. Its size would disrupt the pulling forces between each peacefully traveling asteroids, which could be dangerous. Mechs, however, were more suitable for asteroid belt travels. Their size as well as the mobility gave them better safety, well except if there was a whirlpool in the end, that would be a gamble.

    Thump. Klink. Bump.

    It was like a rain of asteroids as a few sizable rocks just hit the armor like meteor shower.

    Fortunately, there had not been actual damage to any of the spaceships, although dents could be seen on the ships¡­ It was a painful sight to the captains.

 Chapter 501 - Hope to Live II

    <h4>Chapter 501: Hope to Live II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The warships at both wings were not having a fun time being the first line of defense, as they were preupied with the task of destroying therger space rocksing towards them. The damage caused by the collision between these space rocks and the spaceship would be horrendous. It would be easily a critical hit on any spot of the other ships. So they had to crush them before the space rocks could touch them, as what Master Jay ordered.

    They might be as busy as bees, but they were better offpared to the transporting spaceships. Their armors were far thicker, to begin with. Every single part of their warship was armored. As long as collision on the same spot did not ur consecutively, they were very much safe.

    The fleet traveled steadily towards the depth of the asteroid belt.

    It was the second day of prating the asteroid belt. Clearly the density of asteroids had increased 3 times more than the day before, which consequently stressed the people more. Haskel remained at the center of the entire formation so no space pebble could even touch it.

    There had not been any form of casualties at the moment. The crew members had a boost in will, as they seemed to have seen a light of hope despite being in probably the darkest, the most treacherous corner of gxy. Nheless, the leader, Ye Chong did not seem particrly happy with the situation.

    "This isn''t right," Shang said without cheekiness in his tone. "There is high activity in asteroid region." Worries were flooding his beeping, "It could destabilize at any moment, especially with our intrusion. There is a considerable amount of possibility that an asteroid whirlpool could ur." He was not entirely wrong. The Cmitous Asteroid Belt was known deadly for its great deal of unstable regions which were identified to be frequented by whirlpool phenomenon. If Ye Chong was traveling alone, he would have chosen to leave the area right away.

    "Mhm," replied Ye Chong. He was as worried as Shang but there was no workaround for him at the moment. The area of this region was exceptionally sizable. They had been traveling on the shortest course to perform a space jump. Yes, they could have made a detour but there would be no guarantee that they could avoid the entire region safely while only consuming more time. The shortest course was estimated to be a three-day travel, yet they would need to spend a few more days breaking the rocks if they took a turn. The longer they took in the asteroid belt, the more risk they would get.

    "Shang, calcte the chance of us, at maximum as well as the current speed, being able to pass this region before a potential whirlpool phenomena urred."

    One was not meant to travel at maximum speed in Cmitous Asteroid Belt. With these asteroids, the spaceships would only be hindered. Not only the spaceships would be damaged greatly, the space would be further destabilized. The damage was not an issuepared to the chance of being sucked into a quantum singrity.

    Ye Chong had no idea what the maximum destabilization the space could take before a whirlpool phenomena would ur. Thus, he asked Shang to perform simtion on both properties to get a basic reference on whether an asteroid whirlpool could form; if so, they also had to find out the timing when it urred. They must not be the passive ones here. They must do something, however, the eleration would highly increase the likelihood of the formation. So, which would be a better choice then?

    5 minutespsed, "5%," muttered Shang." Assuming the fleet elerated, the likelihood of a safe escape would be 5% higher." Then he added, "That is Mu''s calction, by the way." Even though Mu did not provide the entire sequence of calction, Ye Chong was fairly convinced.

    "Alright, we have to leave this dangerous area as soon as possible,"manded Ye Chong firmly after a moment of ponder.

    5% might not look like something in the eyes of most people, but that could be the very feather that tilted the scale of life for Ye Chong.

    The fleet was speeding up upon hismand.

    The asteroid shower intensified!

    The domino of asteroids were breaking up.

    The zone was destabilizing rapidly!

    The activity was getting stronger, as the fleet sped up.

    Boom!

    One spaceship at the end of the fleet was crushed by a giant spaceship with a diameter of 300 meters right in the body. The spaceship blew up.

    That was the first casualty.

    People could not help but to flinch at the scene. Simply no one would have survived that explosion. They could not do a thing to the situation. They were already upied in saving themselves.

    It was as if the wails of people rang in their ears. They were watching out for the rocks, but their lips were tight.

    Ye Chong remained in themander''s room, his eyes soullessly gazed on the holographic screen. He saw everything through the projection. He must think for the entire fleet. He needed to be calm. He had to make decisions that would cause the least casualties. That would what a leader like him should do. He did not have time to mourn for the dead.

    "Shrink further. Formation - 20 meters away from each other," said Ye Chong. The crew members quickly passed the order to every spaceship. Ranged firearms like warships were scarce in the fleet. Most of their firepower came from the closebat models. Although the models allowed them an easier time dealing with red-tailed beasts, such setup gave them a lethal weakness - vulnerable to ranged attacks. It was clear, that the space rocks would cause horrible damages if they were not destroyed at range. They might have strengthened the armor of each spaceship but it was only effective against the smaller asteroids. Therge ones would be an overkill.

    The density of the rocks was great, as if an actual sea of rocks. The fleet was as if an icebreaker, opening a way further into the frozen ocean.

    The first explosion seemed to be a trigger.

    A trigger for more casualties.

    Just when Ye Chong''s fleet was struggling in the asteroid belt, Arwa was leading his fleet into the asteroid belt.

    Eventually, Arwa chose to follow the Master Jay.

    He did receive a number of objections from his men but he had his authority of giving ultimatemand like Ye Chong. His order was unchangeable. At least Xiao Wan was fully supportive on his proposition. He thought everyone would be against him at first, that was a relief.

    And it was when the news of his decision reached the entire Gray Valley.

    People were confused, of how the two greatest leaders had made the exact decision, one was the military genius, Master Jay who first wiped out the wave of red-tailed beasts sessfully; the other being Arwa, the wise strategist who managed to break through the siege during the front-line copse.

    It was a signal for the people, that probably it was a right decision to head into the asteroid belt.

    The moment when Arwa ordered for a full eleration into Cmitous Asteroid Belt, Kasent suddenly had a massive migration.

    Residents on Kasent were preparing to migrate, as countless spaceships could be seen zooming into space. With the hope to live, they headed for the world beyond their reach.

    On 6 a.m. the third day, arge wave of red-tailed beasts was detected at the few watching points near Kasent.

    And that was when people who was trying to travel beyond Kasent jerked their steps. The spaceships approaching Kasent were elerating to the maximum right away, while the distant ones took a turn and ran towards the warping point within the Cmitous Asteroid Belt frantically.

    Ye Chong was unaware of the happening outside, but he knew he was in hot water. It was as if they were treading on thendmine area. They might have 5% more likelihood if they travel fast, but once a whirlpool phenomena urred, the likelihood would drop to 0% immediately. No argument would be needed. It was undeniable.

    ¡­(Meanwhile at the mechanics)¡­

    A new mechanic took over Yang Ming''s position. He had not fully recovered. He overclocked himself too much. It was true, he wanted to work more, so he dragged himself to the front-line, he had to chase the time, he had to repair all the damaged armor or the ship would be sinking if they got hit by another space rock.

    It was a tiring a task to fix it. It was a tugging war. He could hear the panicked voice of the messenger passing updates on the damages. There seemed to be a new area dented.

    Well, he eventually did not need to even hear the messenger speaking. Every quake urred at the ship was sufficient to convince him that there was another collision urred. He had a handful of assistants around him. It felt like a stormy ride to him, especially when he was working on the repair. The pebbles were hitting the armor like bullets.

    And now he got reced.

    Finally he could take a break¡­

    He almost tripped on himself when he got off the tform.

 Chapter 502 - Hope to Live III

    <h4>Chapter 502: Hope to Live III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He wanted to close his eyes. He coveted that warm, fluffy bed in his room. But reality hit him, reminding him that there were far more important things to do. He tried to rx by sitting at the corner, with a mug of warm water in his hands and a dry bread in his mouth. He had to restore his stamina as soon as possible. With that in mind, the hollow eyes were reflecting the glow of the res urring sometimes out there.

    "Man this ce is just hell." He heard Stringy the repairman, the mechanic, ranting out loud opposite him. His curly hair reminded people of the rounded strings at the workce, so they called him Stringy.

    Yang Ming was smiling, showing agreement on what Stringy had said. He took a few sips. He would love to give a word or two but his throat was cracking from drought.

    Suddenly, the ship shook violently, that the water escaped Yang Ming''s grip and shattered on the ground.

    Both Yang Ming and Stringy looked at each other, their eyes were illustrating the same thoughts - the ship was collided by something huge again, during which their eyes reflected another blooming re in the dark void.

    Yang Ming was a little bewildered upon seeing that onest sight illuminated by the explosion.

    It was chaos. A mayhem. Rocks of different sizes were flying everywhere, hitting on anything that stood in their way, be it a spaceship, or another piece of rock. The fleet was having a hard time maintaining the ever-deforming formation.

    Those days felt heavenly now when they only had to fight red-tailed beasts.

    Before the re faded, one could see that young face of Yang Ming, at loss of joy belonged to someone of his age,plicated with horror, worries, nostalgia¡­

    Was the exploded spaceship a prophecy of what they would be in the near future?

    And somehow Yang Ming could hear the answer, uttered firmly and indifferently by Master Jay, shing by in his mind.

    "Area B-3 has been struck! Area B-3 has been struck! All technicians please proceed promptly! I repeat, all technicians please proceed promptly!" The rm broke Yang Ming''s schemata.

    "Kek¡­ my bottom hasn''t even rxed on the ground and they got new task for us," said Stringy with a smile, revealing the pair of yellowish buckteeth of his. He got up and headed B-3 fast.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Ye Chong did not look pleased. It was the first time the crew members had seen such expression on their Master Jay. One could already imagine the crisis they were going to face.

    "Ye, the destabilization! It''s climbing!" alerted Shang.

    Honestly, Ye Chong had already perceived the worsening situation even without Shang''s reminder. He had already lost 25 spaceships at this point. Way before the fleet sank into the rocky sea of Cmitous Asteroid Belt, Ye Chong had already reallocated most members of the 200 ships at the outermost spaceships to the 300 spaceships at the protected center, which included Haskel that got fairly crowded at the moment. There remained about 20 crew members on every ship at the outermostyer of formation.

    The formation consisted of 3 protectionyers upied by those 200 ships, the sole duty for them would be to protect whatever inside.

    20 members on each ship at theyers, totaling up to 4000 members guarding the 3 levels of shell for the people.

    And all 4000 of them volunteered themselves.

    Ye Chong was having headache when he plotted this. He knew what the people on those ships would eventually be.

    But Shang gave him a suggestion way back - instead of ordering a random few, let the members volunteer themselves.

    He felt it could be an effective way¡­ however as expected from Shang''s intelligence.

    It was effective, too effective.

    Only on the third day after the announcement, he had already received 30,000 applicants for the positions. Under Shang''s assistance, Ye Chong picked out 4000 out of those atst.

    And they had already lost 25 spaceships, which meant at least 500 men had lost their lives.

    The destabilization rate was increasing.

    Nheless, mortality rate was not the only oue of the explosion. The explosion had created waves which had negatively affected the stability of the asteroid belt. It was obvious that the destabilization shared a directly proportional rtionship with the chance of a whirlpool phenomena formation.

    It was a major loss. Not only they lost a portion of their forces on every explosion, but also they faced a higher risk of being destroyed by an asteroid whirlpool.

    If they could not figure out a counter for this, they would lose everything in the end, even their lives.

    Ye Chong ground his teeth, he thought of conserving forces at first, but he no longer had the option, he must do something. He had to let go off thest bit of forces, "Order : Combat Unit A, battle station."

    Themander''s room of Haskel got busy as every spaceship containing the pilots was heard. The saving grace was, none of the spaceships with his trained pilots blew up.

    10 spaceships containing the pilots readjusted their direction and had their gates opened.

    "Charge!"

    "Go! Go! Go!"

    "Charrgggeeee!"

    In 5 seconds, the order was carried out. The pilots hopped into the waves of asteroids in their mechs.

    Within a minute, the entire Battle Unit A, consisted of 1200 D-6s had been fully discharged from the ship.

    They traveled in small groups, with 3 units each. So 400 small groups swam across the ocean of rocks freely like fishes. Mechs were far more flexible than spaceships in an environment like this. Their mission this time would be to hold up theing asteroids - slowing them down or destroying them directly - anything that could work but safety would be their first priority.

    Ye Chong regained control of the situation the moment he sent the 1200 mechs into the asteroid belt. The units would be the that helped filtering the asteroids, which lessen the protecting units'' burden.

    The pilots were not having an easy time however. They got to be focused. There were far too many of asteroids around them. They might be trained soldiers, but the environment were far too consuming for their mentality. One could never predict an asteroid. It was like an assassin that would give one''s back a stab when unnoticed. There was no second life, it was no game, it was war.

    Ye Chong was the first to realize the issue. For some reason, he had amazing intuition on battling, not even Mu/Shang could do it better.

    "All units revolve about the spaceship. Maintain coordination."

    No one had doubted a single word Ye Chong had said, as they executed the order right away. The wandering mechs had now gathered up and reformed themselves about the spaceships. They would only leave their orbit when an asteroid was approaching them.

    A few of them would get onto the iing rock itself and sted off to pull the rock aside, while there were also members who would knock themselves into the rock from the side to deviate the orbit of the rock away from the ship. Some of them would also smash the asteroids with their weapons. If it was not D-6 they were piloting, everything felt like walking on thread.

    Ye Chong''s order was very effective. The situation was under control again.

    After the first few iing attacks, the bond between pilots grew stronger. As they were revolving about the spaceship, they would not have to worry about the rocks hitting them behind. And they believed in each other, letting their mates taking up the sides beyond their viewing scope, so it was less of a chore to protect the ship. Most essentially, they would confirm the coordinate upon seeing a giant rock beyond their control heading towards a specific spot. Then they would inform the warship tounch a stronger firearm to crush it.

    It was a shame they had no ranged units or they would be having a winning fight. Only the real giant among the asteroids could do actual harm to the spaceship. They could have shoot everything down if they had ranged weaponry.

    Because of the recent exposure to red-tailed beasts, Ye Chong had gained a habit of prioritizing closebat models while almost all his trainees were made into melee fighters as well. A single type of troop would be the strongest in a particr situation while being the weakest in the others. Ye Chong had never foreseen the travel to Cmitous Asteroid Belt, especially with such a substandard army.

    This would be a good lesson, that no one could ever predict anything, even if you had a supeputer to check out the trend. Murphy''sw still stood strong. If anything could go wrong, it would go wrong. It was also this uncertainty that gave the world an irresistible charm.

    But Ye Chong did not fancy the charm, so did the crew members on Haskel, as they all were tensed as ever. Master Jay (Ye Chong) had hardly an expression in the past but this time the grimness could be easily perceived by the crew.

    They might have regained control of the situation, but Ye Chong remained pessimistic on it. He nned to discharge thebat units on the third day of travel, as a guarantee to lead them to safety, since based on the intelligence he had in hand, the density of the asteroid belt grew dramatically greater the deeper they ventured. And it was only the second day, he had already sent out his trump card.

    Right when Ye Chong was worried of the danger tomorrow, the Gray Valley had something happened.

    ¡­(Somewhere near Kasent)¡­

    A small team of mechs were carrying out their routine patrolling.

    They had heard stories of red-tailed beasts showing up nearby, so they were assigned to watch out the area for the people.

    "Wh-What is that! Holy Kasent!" screamed one of the pilots.

    The others shifted their sight onto the screen.

    They could feel goosebumps crawling every corner of their skin.

    It was a conglomeration¡­ a massive, dense, rumbling wave of red-tailed beasts dashing towards them¡­ The pilots could perceive the sizes of the beasts being about the size of a standard mech model. The skin was glowing in dark. The beasts seemed bulky with their muscles, the scarlet tip of their tails were swinging in aggression. The dark-red pupils of theirs were somehow illustrating the death.

    "RUN! TALK LATER!" One of them shouted, which woke the others up from their astonishment. They turned up their engines and ran at full speed.

    "Sec." And one responsible pilot remembered his duty and recorded everything to be sent back to the base on Kasent.

 Chapter 503 - Perseverance I

    <h4>Chapter 503: Perseverance I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When the video reached Kasent, the entire exploded in chaos. People had begun to move to Kasent since a few days ago, but many still harbored illusions of their own. Besides, it was difficult for the civilians to find starships that allowed them to hitch a ride. For the moment, many civilians found themselves stuck on the.

    It was mayhem in the cities. Mechs were flying around everywhere, trying to escape. asional explosions happened when mechs ran into each other. On the ground were the anxious masses, carrying their belongings and holding onto their children, their faces betraying fear and hopelessness.

    The docking zones in the cities were also in a mess. The starships were all trying to depart, and the crowds on the ground were all trying to get a ce on the ships. People were crying, yelling, begging ¡­ The glorious cities were now reduced to a living hell.

    The docking zone control centers were overwhelmed. Without instructions from control, the starships lifted off by their own discretion.

    Suddenly, two starships in the air collided into each other. One of the ships suffered heavy damage to its tail engines, while the other ship lost its half its starboard side hull armor.

    The two ships lost bnce and began to spin in the air, struggling to regain their bnce.

    It was all futile in the end.

    The two starships wobbled their way down from 900 meters up, like drunken sailors, and crashed heavily into the docking zone crowded with both starships and people.

    Boom! Boom! Two loud explosions followed, and two humongous mes red out. Debris sprayed out from the center of the explosions.

    The two fallen starships acted like ignition, and the docking zone, full of fuel, exploded.

    One by one, the starships exploded like a chain reaction.

    All around them, the crowded masses suffered from the explosions. They barely had time to scream before the mes engulfed them. People who were further away from the starships did not escape the effects of the explosions. The debris and fragments from the explosions came at them, burning hot and fast, piercing their bodies, cracking their skulls.

    The injuredy in their own pool of blood, struggling, wailing in pain or fear. No one was left standing in the docking zone.

    The predictions of the mysterious man, Jay, had finally came true on this day. The Heavens did not give the people who doubted or hesitated a sliver of chance. Reality was cruel and determined.

    Only a meager few survived the incident. The rest had paid the full price of their decisions with their lives.

    Just as Jay predicted, the red-tailed beasts arrived on Kasent three hourster, andpleted their surrounding formation. Two hourster, they had secured the surrounding areas of the.

    Thus, Gray Valley was divided into two parts.

    The people who were surrounded by the red-tailed beasts panicked. When news of the invasion spread, ships that were headed for Kasent immediately turned back and headed for the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, hoping to get to the rumored warp jump point. They had no other choice.

    The lucky survivors and the people who were watching from afar now witnessed the sudden appearance of a legendary genius. If the truth of Jay''s victory before was not yet ascertained, no one doubted his abilities this time.

    Jay''s reputation rose to a whole new level. People honored him, praised him, worshipped him. In short, he was put on a pedestal.

    The mysterious man Jay became an enigma. To the average person, he was the symbol of invincibility, and Gray Valley''sst hope.

    The people hoped that the man would appear once again. They prayed that he would survive the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Many volunteers had began their journey to Spectre, hoping to join the remarkable fleet. They believed that the mystical Sir Jay would once again be victorious.

    _______________________

    Ye Chong ordered for the ships to elerate past this unstable region, but the floating rocks were too dense for higher velocities. They were still advancing slowly.

    Casualties were reported every day, but never on the same scale as what happened in the beginning.

    Ye Chong dared not be careless, however. It was already the third day, theirst, in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. This was the most crucial part of their journey.

    Distance-wise, they were already very close to the warp jump point. It was only 1,800 kilometers away. Usually, they would cover this distance in just an hour, but now they would have to take 12 hours.

    They finally flew past the unstable region, but as the fleet advanced further, the pressure on them grew. Ye Chong was forced to assign all remaining 1,300 mech pilots on protection duty. With more manpower, their situation improved slightly, but five hourster, the situation became more difficult.

    Ye Chong had no more extra personnel at his disposal.

    With only seven more hours to go, they could only soldier on. The rest of the journey would be the most dangerous and hardest part of their flight.

    To reduce areas exposed to risk, the starships were positioned very close to each other, but this did not improve their situation by much.

    The mech pilots guarding the starships in their mechs were exhausted, and they were beginning to suffer from casualties. Before this, none of the mechs had been reported damaged. Now, as the danger around them increased, they had finally reached a breaking point.

    Ye Chong was deeply troubled by this.

    The rocks all around them came crashing down on the starships like a heavy downpour. In just three minutes, they lost 50 mechs. It was no wonder Ye Chong looked so troubled. At this rate, they would lose all their mechs in just two and a half hours.

    This was uneptable for Ye CHong.

    However, no amount of tricks and strategies were going to save them this time. The fleet members would have to persevere.

    Ye Chong decided to step into the field himself. He had no concept of how leaders should not be in the frontlines.

    He believed that every bit of effort would push them further towards victory.

    Hence, he made his move!

    Among the entire fleet, only Xi Qing, Shu and the other students had seen Ye Chong inbat. The rest had never seen Sir Jay fight. Even Xi Qing and Shu had never seen Ye Chong fight with a mech. To them, Sir Jay was their leader, more suited for strategizing.

    No one realized that Sir Jay''s expertise was in fact not in strategizing, but in actualbat!

    When Sir Jay decided to step into the field himself, all of Haskel''s crew members were dumbfounded. They stared at their leader in disbelief.

    Ye Chong did not give them the chance to object, only turning his back to them and leaving with determination.

    When news of Sir Jay''s decision came through thems to the mech pilots who were struggling outside, everyone thought they had heard wrong.

    When Ye Chong''s Han Jia exited Haskel''s Passage 1, them channels were flooded with thunderous cheers. Everyone felt their exhaustion evaporated. They were invigorated, they were ready to fight!

    Ye Chong did not know how his actions had brought about this boost in morale in his soldiers. In fact, he believed that while he had improved from before, there was still much for him to learn before he could be a true leader.

    Ye Chong only hoped that he could do his part in fighting for their survival. That was all.

    The beautiful Han Jia danced across the dark outer space that was raining asteroids. Its beautiful body moved economically and with great precision. The mech was fast and powerful, a mechanical wonder to behold.

    The mech pilots were surprised to find Sir Jay much stronger than they were. No matter how he asteroids rained on Sir Jay''s mech, his agile mech would always be able to avoid the rocks, or used its weapons to deflect them.

    Some of therger rocks became Sir Jay''s weapons. He used his mech to change the course of these rocks to collide into other rocks that wereing towards them.

    Sir Jay''s skillful and confident maneuvers had affected all the mech pilots. Thems channels once again roared with cheers. All the fleet members felt encouraged.

    Right then, Sir Jay''s mech was not the only one showing off. Beside him was a one-armed mech in blue and white. Its right arm held a Farqua sniper rifle. The unremarkable sniper rifle turned formidable in the hands of this mech.

    The unknown mech pilot fought with extreme calmness. His shots never missed. The mech bnced between long range sniping and wide area coverage, demonstrating the skills of a long range mech in this dazzling battle.

    The unknown mech pilot worked well with Sir Jay. They coordinated their movements perfectly. Sir Jay adjusted his position ordingly as the one-armed mech went about its near-supernatural shooting spree. The deadly rain of asteroids was no challenge for the two mechs. Shots of thick and thin blue lines fired through the air like a blooming flower, while the small and nimble Han Jia did its petal dance around the shots.

    No one knew who the mech pilot in the one armed mech was, just as no one knew that Sir Jay was an ace mech pilot. Only the very first few members of the fleet could guess that the mech pilot in the one armed mech was the other leader they had, the one who never showed their face.

    In the end, Shang could not help but interfere in this critical situation.

 Chapter 504 - Perseverance II

    <h4>Chapter 504: Perseverance II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Perseverance II

    Of course it made a world of difference when Ye Chong and Shang worked together!

    Sir Jay''s fleet members got a morale boost because of his reputation amongst his people. To them, Sir Jay was walking the talk, impressing on them his will to fight till the end!

    The performance of Sir Jay and his mysterious and strong partner was like an adrenaline injection to the fleet members, giving them strength to carry on.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong never expected this.

    It was too long ago since he had fought side by side with Shang. Now, he was enjoying the moment.

    The rocks came from unexpected angles, and fast enough to strain him. Once, he was in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt by himself, giving chase to a single six-fingered red-tailed beast. Now, he had brought with him an entire fleet, massive enough to feel the effects of dangers within the asteroid belt.

    The rocks came in waves like animals in a frenzy, attacking him ferociously and aggressively.

    Instead of being afraid of this danger, Ye Chong felt very excited. He felt like he was unleashing all the energy that he had been saving recently. Every ounce of blood in him boiled angrily. The pores on his skin opened up, and he felt an electrifying sense offort running through him.

    Nheless, his mind was still calm as ever. He enjoyed this sensation of calmness and excitement mixed together. Shang''s appearance relieved him of the many feelings that he kept hidden in his heart.

    Shang had not warned Ye Chong before he came out.

    Fighting alongside Mu and Shang was an incredible experience. From the first time he set eyes on Mu and Shang, Ye Chong had never thought of flying the mech himself, but more as a friend, a teacher. As he grew older, one of his driving forces was to be stronger than the mech one day, so that he would earn the privilege of piloting the mech. However, deep down in his heart, Mu and Shang had always meant the same to him - the mech gave him meaning, like a student trying to prove himself to his teacher.

    Mu and Shang''s identity was a sensitive issue. The mech seemed to be closely rted to the Xue Lai n. Hence, Mu and Shang preferred to stay in their dimension keystone most of the time. Besides, for a long time, Mu and Shang had been separated from Ye Chong.

    They had long since fought together, side by side.

    Just how powerful could Ye Chong be in his state of excitement?

    Everyone in the fleet was shocked by Ye Chong''s strength! Close range mechs could usually do little against these rocks due to their limited attack range. However, Sir Jay''s attack range was about six timesrger than a normal mech squad''s. He did not even seem to be pushing himself.

    The one-armed mech also had an astonishingly wide attack range. The mech covered an even wider range than Sir Jay, with it''s long range capabilities, amounting to about 10 timesrger than that of a normal mech squad.

    The two of them were fighting at the position where the fleet was receiving the heaviest damage, at the very front tip of the fleet.

    The timely involvement of Ye Chong and Shang managed to stabilize the situation. The number of mech pilot casualties and deaths reduced drastically.

    Additionally, with the two super powerful mech pilot clearing the path at the front line, the fleet advanced significantly faster. The seven-hour journey could now be achieved in four hours.

    Everyone felt optimistic again. They believed that the fleet could now reach their destination safely.

    As the people expected, their situation was now under control. If everything went smoothly, they would arrive at their destination in another four hours if they held out.

    Would thesest four hours go as smoothly as they hoped for?

    Perhaps Ye Chong and Shang were the only ones in the fleet who did not share this optimism. The fleet was safe for now, but they were only pushing their luck ever closer to their limit.

    The fleet was like a spring, stretched longer and longer, not breaking at first. However, if the spring never stopped stretching, it would eventually reach a point where it would break.

    Will they reach their destination before that breaking point, or not?

    Deep underneath Ye Chong''s state of calmness was a feeling a dread.

    In fact, Ye Chong''s feeling was warranted.

    30 minutes before they reached their destination, when almost everyone in the fleet felt that they were going to make it after all, they reached their breaking point!

    After more than three hours of intensebat, Ye Chong''s body was beginning to tire. His defences were weakening. If even he was feeling the pressure, the other mech pilots suffered even more. Ye Chong was a little surprised to find the other mech pilots holding out for so long. Little did he know that it was a lot to do with him putting himself at the front line.

    Bang bang bang bang bang bang! Suddenly, six balls of mes went up in the dark sea of asteroids. Six mechs had exploded!

    Mech battles usually did notst very long. It was rare to have two sides of equal strength drag the battle on for an hour or two. Piloting a mech required concentration. If the fight dragged on, the pilot''s mind would eventually be dulled.

    This was a very risky state to be in. Mech pilots who reached this state wouldmit even the simplest mistakes, not because of theirck of training, but due to reaching the limits of what their mind and body would take. Of course, stronger mech pilots would not fall for this weakness so often. They could fight longer, and were mentally stronger.

    The explosions of these six mechs were like the opening lines of the climax act. All at once, the other mech pilots began to show signs of breaking down.

    One by one, the mechs began exploding again like fireworks. Thems ryed horrified cries, the loud sound of explosions, and the deadly silence that followed. The explosions happened again and again, and it was hard to keep track how many they had lost.

    Even in the midst of the battle, Ye Chong was following their situation closely.

    They were now in the situation that he had feared and dreaded.

    Given the criticality of their situation, any dys on their side would have serious consequences. Ye Chong gave his next order without hesitation, "Allbatants, return to your ships!" The exhausted mech pilots could do little now. In Ye Chong''s words, the oue did not warrant their efforts.

    The mech pilots took their orders and dragged their tired selves back to the fleet.

    As they made their way back, mechs continued to be hit and destroyed, leaving scattered debris in space. The mech debris crashed into the starships, damaging the hulls.

    Ye Chong realized that they had reached the most critical moment of their journey.

    He felt an unusual calmness descended upon him. "All ships, full speed ahead!"

    They could not escape from here. Instead of dying in the asteroid shower, it was better to go full speed ahead for the slightest chance of survival.

    With the mechs gone, the starships on the outer edges of the fleet were now directly exposed to the asteroids.

    Their hulls, already dented in many ces, were now even more distorted as they received the full impact of the asteroids outside. However, the ships stayed in position, shielding the ships on the inner parts of the fleet from the rain of asteroids outside.

    The fleet members in these ships knew that the inner ships carried their wives and daughters, their families and friends, their hopes. All this while, they had only watched Sir Jay leading a bunch of young people fighting against the red-tailed beasts for the basest reason - to survive.

    Now that they needed people to step up, they volunteered themselves.

    They did not view themselves as particrly honorable people. They were only betting their own lives for their families, their loved ones, to give them a chance to live. There were no regrets.

    The starships on the outer edges held their positions with difficulty. The fleet members ignored the heavy shower of asteroid on their ships as they guarded the ships inside the fleet.

    One of the ships took a direct impact from an asteroid over a hundred meters in diameter. It was a critical blow to the ship.

    "Captain, we lost our gyroscope!" A crew member reported anxiously.

    The captain had over 30 years of experience in his position. The corner of his eyes ended with wrinkles. His hair was in a shade of light gray. Right now, he looked entirely calm. All 200 starships on the outer edges were led by experienced ship captains, since their mission required not only their courage, but wisdom as well.

    The experienced and wise captain made the right decision, "Switch to emergency manual mode, maintain our flight speed and adjust our course outwards, away from the fleet. Inform the other ships immediately." If their starship lost control in this critical moment, the other ships behind them would be affected, and the fleet would lose its formation. The asteroids would then be able to pass through the opening, crashing directly onto the ships within the fleet.

    Their starship slowly left the fleet as another ship went in to take their position.

    "Wonderful!" The ship''s crew cheered. They were satisfied, not at all saddened by their impending deaths.

    "Get the ship under control, keep our ship parallel to the fleet. Let''s send them on their way," the captain ordered calmly, his expression dignified, as though it was the natural thing to do.

    The starship kept its hull parallel to the fleet. The ships that passed by were shielded from the asteroids by their starship. It was only for a few seconds, but it was the best they could do. As the fleet advanced further ahead, the crew members of the starship watched it leave from their windows, bidding farewell in theirst moments.

    Every ship that passed by them saluted their sacrifice. Mothers and daughters and lovers felt tears in their eyes. In the inner parts of the fleet, family members of the crew cried devastatingly.

    The captains were all seasoned veterans, but they were still pained by this turn of events. However, they knew exactly what to do so that their sacrifice was not in vain.

    The fleet advanced, full speed ahead.

 Chapter 505 - Perseverance III

    <h4>Chapter 505: Perseverance III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The damage inflicted by the asteroids waspounded as the ships elerated. While the warships continued to fire their cannons at therger rocks that assaulted them, the other starships gave up on evasive measures and focused on advancing as fast as they could.

    At the forefront of the fleet were Ye Chong and Shang, feeling the pressure mounting on them.

    The asteroids were nowing faster at them. Ye Chong had to concentrate harder, dealing with the dangerous and life-threatening rocks. If any of the asteroids hit the ship directly, the chances of his own survival were near non-existent.

    Shang had reced his energy cell five times. He was now at the tip of the front most starship in the fleet.

    All they could do now was buy more time with the ships.

    Directly exposed to the asteroids, the starships began to fall one by one, losing control or exploding into mes. The fleet did not slow down because of these casualties. The asteroids in the area were disturbed by the rapid advancement of the ships.

    The starship leading the fleet was exposed to most danger. It would have exploded a long time ago if not for Ye Chong and Shang holding the line. The hull was damaged beyond repair, but the starship continued stubbornly, leading the fleet.

    Back in their ships, the mech pilots sat ory down on the floor, looking up at the holographic screen that was showing Sir Jay and the one-armed mech fighting their battle.

    No one made a single sound throughout.

    The captains who were still alive shouted at their crew, ordering for them to push their way forward.

    Abruptly, another ball of mes went up in front. Another ship had exploded! The ships following from behind did not decelerate as they plunged right into and through the explosion.

    Time seemed to slow down. Every second stretched on for longer than it should be.

    Ye Chong felt his hands growing heavier, but he could not afford to slow down. He could hardly think at all, much less keep up with their situation. He was now holding the line as best as he could. Sweat seeped through hisbat uniform. He was panting heavily. His eyes were set on the holographic screen in front of him as he reacted ording to the asteroids that came towards him. He could no longer anticipate and react as before. He was now operating entirely on instinct.

    Shang was shooting less frequently now, but Ye Chong knew that it was not due to Shang himself. The Farqua sniper rifle was overheating.

    However, to the eyes of the mech pilots who were resting in their ships, Sir Jay''s mech was still moving ever so swiftly, attacking with great precision. The one-armed mech was still shooting the asteroids in a dazzling and crazy show of blueser beams.

    They were still not capable enough to tell that Ye Chong and Shang were now in a dire situation. If Ye Chong and Shang were in control at the beginning of their fight, they had now lost that control, dragged into the rhythm set by the asteroids that came crashing down on them.

    After who knew how long, Ye Chong felt his mind slowing down even more. As his senses began to dull, someone yelled in thems, "Look! Over there!"

    Ye Chong felt reinvigorated. He knew that they were almost there!

    Right in front of them was a clearing, about 25 kilometers across and 150 kilometers long. The warp jump point''s marker was there.

    There were no asteroids in this stretch of space. The flying rocks mysteriously avoided entering the ce.

    The fleet pushed their way into the clearing without resistance.

    "It''s here! It''s here!" The former space pirate felt overwhelmed by emotions. The captain had stayed in Haskel''s control room, since he was the only one who had ever been to this jump point. He faced a tremendous amount of pressure throughout the journey. Many in the fleet treated him with animosity, believing that he was the cause of their predicament. Some suspected that the jump point was a lie, as they had never heard of a warp jump point in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt before.

    Besides, the dangers they endured recently that led to the sacrifices of many of theirrades were directly due to this captain''s idea. If he did not suggest this warp jump point earlier, would Sir Jay have thought of a better n, perhaps one that did not require so many sacrifices?

    As all these thoughts overwhelmed him, the former space pirate finally burst into tears.

    The fleet was finally safe as they entered the clearing. In that moment, after more than three hours of intensebat, Ye Chong felt drained. He could barely lift a finger.

    The fleet members were overjoyed. The joy of having survived put them all into a celebratory mood. True, they had not done their warp jump, but it felt like a sess already! This interesting stretch of empty space had also convinced them of the reliability of this warp jump point.

    When Ye Chong returned to Haskel, he was greeted like a king! The surviving starships aligned themselves in formation, like an army awaiting the king''s inspection. Every fleet member saluted their leader. As Ye Chong entered through Haskel''s hatch, everyone on board came to wee Sir Jay, the man who had once again led them to victory. They stood in two lines, crowding the narrow passageway.

    Ye Chong had no choice but to step out of Han Jia.

    In reality, he looked like a mess. Sweat had covered every inch of his uniform, like he had juste out of a shower. His face was glistening with moisture. Drops of sweat dripped off the ends of his hair.

    "Salute!"

    Everyone stood at attention, saluting him with formality.

    "Wee back, Sir!" Xi Qing and Shu bowed in unison, in an attitude that was close to worship.

    "Wee back, Sir!" The 900 odd crew members greeted thunderously.

    Ye Chong did not know quite how to react. He had never experienced anything like it. He was more used to the silent way the Sang Tribe worked under his lead, no bells and whistles. What he needed was rest. Even a single step forward felt like hard work right now.

    He quickly gathered himself, waved at them and said unceremoniously, "Back to your stations."

    The one-armed mech had mysteriously vanished, but no one dared to pursue the matter. What else could they do? Ask Sir Jay himself about it?

    In the wake of the joy of surviving, they began to grieve for the people they lost.

    Ye Chong and his fleet recuperated for eight hours in the clearing. Who knew what was awaiting them on the other end of their warp jump! If they encountered a threat in their exhausted state, they would be incapable of even the barest self-defence.

    Ye Chong did not spend all eight hours resting. In fact, he was pretty much restored after five hours. In these eight hours, the fleet reorganized itself, and the tally for casualties was done.

    The figures were shocking.

    Of the 150 starships ced on the outer edges of the fleet, only three survived. Six of the starships positioned deeper inside the fleet were lost. Of the 2,500 mech pilots they had, 600 lost their lives while another 400 were injured. Now, Ye Chong had only 1,500 mech pilots with battle-ready capacity. Most of the mech pilots died while retreating to their starships. The entire fleet suffered a total of 8,641 deaths.

    However, now was not the time to contemte on this matter. They faced a bigger problem, which was the actual warp jump itself.

    Ye Chong made ns for all kinds of scenarios they might encounter after the jump, especially in deciding on a rendezvous point in case some ships got lost from the fleet. Ye Chong had been mostly lucky in the past, but warp jumps were prone to idents in general, and the stakes were high this time. There was no room for carelessness.

    After the preparations were made, it was time to leave. It was at this moment that Arwa''s fleet reached the edges of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    "Sir, we are a go," Xi Qing reported nervously. Besides him, Shu''s expression betrayed nothing, but his tightly clenched fists showed how anxious he was as well.

    Ye Chong nodded, "Let''s go." Unlike Xi Qing and Shu, Ye Chong had been through more dangerous situations than this. All the preparatory work was done. The mech pilots were rested and ready forbat.

    If the former space pirate was right, they would reach Spectre on the other side of the jump. Their preparations would be warranted.

    Spectre was a strange ce. Rumors were abound about the. It was shrouded in mystery ever since Gray Valley came into existence. Starships that went close to the simply vanished into thin air.

    At first, many confident explorers went to investigate, but none of them came back. The became notorious. In the end, the Research Consortium had to set up an outpost in the vicinity to stop people from getting too close. Gradually, Spectre came to be a ce that no one dared to approach. Not even the space pirates felt adventurous. It became an unspoken rule to space travelers of all trades.

 Chapter 506 - Spectre I

    <h4>Chapter 506: Spectre I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Most people did not believe him when the former space pirate captain said that the other side of the warp jump point was Spectre. No one had left the vicinity of the alive before - this wasmon knowledge for everyone from Gray Valley.

    When Ye Chong inquired further, the captain exined that he and his crew were also shocked to find that they were very close to Spectre after they made the warp jump. They left immediately, and by whatever good luck the Heavens bestowed onto them, their escape went without a hitch. It was after they quietly circled their way around the Research Consortium outpost that they finally felt relieved.

    Spectre was a dreadful ce, but this sentiment could not be appreciated by Ye Chong, who was not from Gray Valley.

    The empty stretch of space they were in was long enough for the ships to elerate towards the warp jump point.

    Everyone held their breaths when the first ship did the jump. On the ship were 500 mech pilots, all in battle gear, ready to engage. They were chosen to go through first out as a safety precaution. No one knew what was on the other side.

    The first starship elerated, then elerated some more, and finally disappeared in a stream of light.

    The second ship went, then the third ship ¡­

    Haskel, Ye Chong''s ship, went in fifth.

    _________________________________

    Beyond Gray Valley, the situation in He Yue Gxy was worsening. The entire gxy was now in a state of unrest. The Three Aristocratic Families were all dragged into the war against the red-tailed beasts. The Ye Family fared the best, but they were all barely holding the line. An army of red-tailed beasts had taken control of the Gateway that led to Gray Valley. No one knew what was happening over there. However, the news wasforting to many of the people in He Yue.

    Right now, starships carrying numerous civilians came in waves towards Yi Ju for shelter.

    The Sang Tribe, a bloodline with a long history, finally resurfaced into the world. The Colllision Army was no longer the assorted crew that people seemed to believe at first. They were the only army that had ever destroyed a red-tailed beast army. The Collision mech that looked like half fitted junk metal had be the symbol of power, a mech that many dreamed to have.

    People who could manage long distance space travelling all went to Yi Ju to seek protection.

    The Sang Tribe never rejected these refugees. Yi Ju was secluded, with a sparse poption. Massive in-migration led to rapid developments on Yi Ju. Schools with high reputation all relocated to the. The Sang Tribe had inherited Ye Chong''s thirst for knowledge, rendering special assistance to any academy that wanted to move to Yi Ju. They had first priority, and would sometimes even be aided by transport ships and escorts from the Sang Tribe.

    That was not all. Highly skilled workers could apply for protection through the virtual world. The Sang Tribe would request, out of their strong influence, for the local authorities to send these people to Yi Ju. Nowadays, the Sang Tribe was a dominating force. People could hardly afford to say no to their requests. The routes that led to Yi Ju were cleared. In just a short moment, countless fleets bearing the gs of the Sang Tribe made their way towards Yi Ju.

    Almost 70 percent of all the educational institutes in He Yue Gxy had relocated to Yi Ju due to the Sang Tribe''s policies. The was now full of talents in all fields. The once backwards Yi Ju had grown into a with a huge advantage in technical skills and knowledge. Plenty of civilians were moved to thes around Yi Ju. Currently, the sevens around Yi Ju were under the control of the Sang Tribe. However, the cautious Sang Tribe did not expand its territory too quickly. Rapid expansion of power was dangerous to the Sang Tribe, which did not have enough people to back its power.

    Most of the members in the leadership were from the Sang Tribe, such as Sang Pu. Qiu Man was tasked with government affairs. In fact, much of the governing structure came from her suggestions. Her expertise in this area won the approval of Sang Pu and his people, and she was unanimously voted to be the highest authority in matters of governance. On the other hand, Sang Pu was made leader of the Collision Army.

    Qiu Man examined her situation expertly. She knew exactly what to do to survive. If she made any funny moves right now, it would be like digging her own grave. Their public enemy number one now was the red-tailed beasts. Who knew when Ye Chong would return! Qiu Man harbored a deep fear for that reserved young man.

    Without Ye Chong with them, the Sang Tribe did not sink into a state of chaos. On the contrary, they took the opportunity to expand their forces.

    Nevertheless, searching for Ye Chong had be the top most priority for the Sang Tribe. They had sent out massive search parties to find Ye Chong. Little Rock had even set up a cutting edge virtual worldboratory. He had much help from the education institutions that moved in to Yi Ju on this. With ess to the virtual world, and Little Rock''s terrifyingpetency, he had set up backdoors in almost every corner of the virtual world in He Yue. These backdoors allowed him to monitor almost everywhere in the gxy, except for some central areas of the Three Aristocratic Families. He hoped to find Ye Chong through these backdoors.

    Currently, the Sang Tribe faced a dilemma. Of the Three Aristocratic Families, the Xue Lai n, which fared the worst, had sent representatives to Yi Ju, requesting for assistance.

    To help, or not to help. That was the question.

    It was a difficult problem for everyone.

    Should they decide to help, they would have to deploy the entire Collision Army. The safety on Yi Ju would bepromised. Besides, the journey over would be long, and the risks too high. They would definitely suffer heavily from this endeavor. Most of the Sang Tribe members were against this option. They would rather not sacrifice their own to help outsiders.

    On the other hand, rejecting the Xue Lai n was not a simple matter. News of the Xue Lai n''s request had somehow spread amongst themon people, invoking a massive uproar. These days, almost all the councillors of the education institutions and people of high status or reputation hade forward to Sang Pu and Qiu Man, asking for them to lend assistance to the Xue Lai n. It was not only the survival of the Xue Lai n at stake. Living in the vicinity of Xue Lai n''s headquarters were numerous civilians.

    If the Sang Tribe openly rejected to assist the Xue Lai n, themon people would surely turn their backs to them. The Sang Tribe''s long nurtured rtionship with themon people would be shattered. This would endanger their future as a whole. This was a conclusion that did not require Qiu Man''s expertise to reach. Even a brute like Sang Tie understood the consequences.

    The Sang Tribe was a strong militant organization. Their Collision mechs and outstanding war tactics made them the strongest force on the human side of the war. These were the advantages of the Sang Tribe. Their disadvantages were on the technical side of things. The Sang Tribe''s scientific and technical knowledge were primitivepared to that of the Three Aristocratic Families. These would be the bottleneck of the Sang Tribe''s development moving forward. It was why Sang Pu and the leadership spent so much effort in recruiting the education institutions and high skill workers. They had enough talents for now, but still far from developing a technical edge.

    If they did not handle this request properly, all their efforts before will go to waste.

    If only their good sir was here! That was probably what most of them were thinking. In critical moments like these, they needed a leader who was willing to make decisions and act on them. However, their leader, Ye Chong was nowhere to be found at the moment.

    __________________

    After all the starships did their warp jumps sessfully, Ye Chong exhaled in relief.

    However, it was not time to rest just yet. This ce was rumored to be cursed, and it intrigued Ye Chong.

    This was a dangerous ce!

    Ye Chong organized his fleet into groups of starships so that the fleet would not be thrown into confusion if they were under attack.

    "Conduct a maximum range scan of our surroundings." This was Ye Chong''s second order, right after they organized the fleet.

    "Sir! Red-tailed beasts sighted!"

    Everyone paled when they heard the report. Even Ye Chong looked disturbed. They had rested, but the mech pilots were still far from being at their best. They were not fully ready for battle.

    It was terrible news indeed if they encountered any red-tailed beasts right now!

    Ye Chong did not panic, however. Calmly, he said, "Show me the feed."

    "Yes sir."

    On the holographic screen were a few red-tailed beasts, floating in outer space, watching the brown colored that was Spectre. They were oblivious to the starships that were now behind them. Ye Chong was calm by now. They had no choice but to engage. They were too close to the red-tailed beasts. The odds of escaping were not in their favor. The red-tailed beasts were so much faster than their starships.

    Instead of escaping, they should initiate an attack!

    On the other hand, Ye Chong noticed that the red-tailed beasts were scattered around in a disorganized fashion. There were not too many of them, about 200 in total. To Ye Chong''s fleet, this was only a tiny army.

    Abruptly, Ye Chong stood up. "Zoom in and focus."

    The staff in charge quickly executed the order.

    "Zoom in further."

    The image was further erged.

    "Focus on the red-tailed beast."

    Parts of a red-tailed beast took up the holographic screen.

    Ye Chong''s eyes twinkled. He said lowly, "The upper body!"

    The camera angled towards the creature''s upper body. The edges were blurry now, but the zoomed in view drew everyone''s attention to something peculiar on the holographic screen.

 Chapter 507 - Spectre II

    <h4>Chapter 507: Spectre II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Wounds!

    The red-tailed beast''s upper body was covered with many small wounds that were hard to see from afar without zooming in.

    Upon closer inspection, Ye Chong found that the creatures all looked tired and spent.

    Ye Chong was surprised. He pondered on their situation, then asked, "Is Shu here? Xi Qing?"

    "Here, sir!"

    "Here, sir!"

    Shu and Xi Qing answered simultaneously through thems.

    "Take 500 mechs each and kill those red-tailed beasts. Remember! Take it slow and steady!"

    "Yes sir!" The two of them acknowledged.

    The two young men were doubtful. Before this, Sir Jay had never asked them to initiate an attack. After all, they held the disadvantage in outer space. This time, Sir Jay had even asked them to drag on the battle, which was contrary to their fast paced battles before.

    Even though Sir Jay''s orders sounded unusual, they believed that there must be some reason behind them.

    1,000 mechs came out from their starship and silently creeped up to the red-tailed beasts. The 200 over red-tailed beasts were absorbed in watching something, oblivious to their ambushers.

    It was when the 1,000 mechspleted their surround formation that the 200 creatures realized what they had fallen into.

    Just when everyone expected a vicious battle to take ce, the 200 creatures seemed to panic and tried to escape.

    This was unusual, too unusual!

    Xi Qing and Shu quickly noticed that something was different this time. Before, the red-tailed beasts they encountered would never give up without a fight. They had never seen a red-tailed beast flee from battle, much less an entire army of 200.

    They began to understand what Sir Jay was thinking, but now was not the time to consider it further.

    Xi Qing and Shu gave the same order, "Noose strategy!"

    The noose strategy was designed by Sir Jay himself. Sir Jay had designed 13 strategies, and the noose strategy was the ninth. This was a typical strategy for when one had the advantage in numbers. It involved surrounding one''s enemies, not engaging them directly, but slowly whittling down the enemies'' stamina.

    In past battles, Xi Qing and Shu had never used the noose strategy, since mechs could never keep up with the energy and strength of the red-tailed beasts.

    While this was the first time they were using the noose strategy, they had no problem executing it. After all, they were by now familiar with all 13 strategies designed by Sir Jay.

    The 1,000 mechs spread out wide, grouped in twos or threes. They blocked the red-tailed beasts, kept them surrounded and upied. All the groups worked together, doing their parts, moving swiftly. They did not initiate attacks with the creatures, only stopping them from escaping. Like a noose, they wrapped around the enemy''s neck, an inescapable death trap.

    Soon, the noose strategy''s effects became noticeable. Xi Qing and Shu also noticed by then what was wrong with the red-tailed beasts. It seemed the creatures had survived an intense battle, and were now exhausted from the fight. The 1,000 mech pilots may not have fully recovered, but they were more than enough to deal with these 200 exhausted red-tailed beasts.

    After half an hour, none of the red-tailed beasts managed to escape. More importantly, they were able to catch 30 over red-tailed beasts alive. They had never had a live catch before.

    Living red-tailed beasts would be invaluable for research purposes. This would allow the human side to find ways to eradicate these creatures. However, this was irrelevant to Ye Chong. He had no specialists on his end, and no effective way to contain these red-tailed beasts. In the end, he ordered for the 30 over red-tailed beasts to be killed as well.

    With the 200 over red-tailed beasts dealt with, the tension in the fleet was relieved. It was bad news to encounter these creatures right after they escaped the dangers of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    Ye Chong considered the situation. The red-tailed beasts seemed to have survived an intense battle, and they were watching Spectre. What happened here? What were they fighting against? Humans? Or other organisms?

    The red-tailed beasts must have ended the battle not too long ago. They were watching something, and what was that supposed to mean? Ye Chong went through the details he observed and tried to understand them.

    From the degree of exhaustion they were experiencing, the other side must have given them a good fight. However, both sides were probably an even match, or the red-tailed beasts would have escaped long ago, and not stay behind and watch.

    They were watching Spectre.

    What happened there? The dirt colored had dark brown streaks across it. There was hardly any greenery. From the looks of it, Ye Chong would have thought it was a barren, unsuitable for life. However, he also knew that there were all kinds of weird living things in this world. If this apparently barren harbored life, he would not be surprised.

    He decided to investigate. He had a feeling that they would find something interesting.

    This was not the kind of feeling that mentalists have, not their strong premonitions. Even so, Ye Chong could not ignore his gut feeling. He knew that whatever he felt was the result of his umted experience. There must be something that his conscious mind did not quite grasp, but understood somewhere deeper in his subconscious.

    Xi Qing and Shu objected to Sir Jay''s risky decision, but they were powerless against him. They could only beforted by the fact that Sir Jay was an excellent mech pilot, and his mech was of no ordinary make. No matter what was down there, he should have no problem defending himself.

    Ye Chong took Han Jia and flew towards Spectre. Shang was with him.

    "Sigh, ain''t no prettydies there, I don''t understand why you insist to go!" Shang said disapprovingly, then added something that Ye Chong simply had no reply to, "Could it be that you''re so deprived that you don''t really care anymore? Err, doing it with an animal? Or it this some cross-cultural kind of love?"

    Even with Ye Chong''s solemnity, he could not help but rolled his eyes. He did not answer back, since he knew that Shang would only get more and more into it if he did.

    Shang continued with mock earnestness, "Ye, you gotta control yourself, Bing Bing is waiting for you! Take it easy, take it easy now."

    Ye Chong could not stand it anymore. "Shang, can you shut up?"

    "Hehe, Ye, how about I share my divinedies album with you? It''s all thetest graphics! Actual size holographs, urate measurements, best collection in town. I''ll add on thetest Dragon Tiger Battle vid for free, what d''you think?"

    Ye Chong ignored the mech.

    "Alright alright, looks like I have to bring in the big ones. You''ll definitely love ''em. Bing Bing, Feng Su, Lunatic Guan, or Qiu Man. Just tell me which one you want. Ye, I''m only offering since we''re such old time friends," Shang continued to entice him.

    Ye Chong was unmoved. He kept his eyes fixed on the holographic screen.

    Shang sneered, "Ye, people shouldn''t suppress their emotions, it''s not healthy! Man''s gotta do what he has to do. What''s the use of having a big heart? To love them all of course -"

    Abruptly, Shang''s bbering stopped.

    Not knowing what he was up to know, Ye Chong remained silent.

    After three minutes, the mech still did not say anything.

    Five minutester, it looked like Shang had simply disappeared. Ye Chong grew worried and asked, "Shang, what is it?"

    It was 10 secondster when Shang repliedzily, "Mu was saying, a man has to be strict to himself. Devotion is the best option."

    "What''s that supposed to mean?" Ye Chong could not understand.

    "I asked him that too," Shang continued listlessly.

    The mech exined, "In the end, Mu said, ''It conserves energy.''"

    Ye Chong did not quite understand that, but he nodded, "Yes, Mu''s right." It did not matter what Mu really meant, but conserving energy was always a good thing. He did not muse further on the rtionship between being devoted and conserving energy.

    The two PSI''s and one human pondered on a very human topic.

    ¡­

    Spectre had a thick atmosphere, so Han Jia had to slow down during its descent. Shang had came out of its dimension keystone and flew alongside Han Jia.

    Not knowing what was underneath, Ye Chong moved cautiously.

    The two mechs descended rapidly.

    "Fly straight ahead," Shang told Ye Chong. Shang''s holographic scanning system was much better than Han Jia''s after all.

    Ye Chong followed his lead.

    Mountain ranges sprawled across the ground below. Deep valleys separated the mountains. Han Jia and Shang flew along one of the mountain ranges.

    "Ye, look!" Shang no longer sounded light-hearted. He was now in serious mode.

    Han Jia''s photon processor brought up a video feed.

    It was a red-tailed beast! A dead one, it seemed. It was lying quietly on a rock. Its face was peaceful, and its dark crimson eyes looked back lifelessly.

    Han Jia and Shangnded beside the body of the creature.

    "Died not too long ago," Shang concluded. There was still some warmth in the body, but the skin had started growing loose.

    Ye Chong quickly noticed something else. "Shang, over here!"

    Han Jia leaped to a spot not far from the creature''s body. Therey the remains of a damaged mech.

 Chapter 508 - Spectre III

    <h4>Chapter 508: Spectre III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There was a rather giant hole at the cabin of the mech, which should be the "creative" work of the red-tailed beast. Ye Chong shook his headN no one would have survived from that tail attack under such circumstance. Ye Chong had seen this model before, twice - the first being back in Crysound where he saw 10 golden units zooming by in the sky at the ruin; the second being at Centuria University, during which 12 mechs were fighting against 5 red-tailed beasts, the golden mechs joined as a trio and stole the kill immediately. That was the only time Ye Chong ever saw the golden mech performed.

    Well, the pilots of the trio were not particrly good, not aspetentpared to himself, but they certainly had no problem handling the red-tailed beasts even in a 2 on 1 fight. Practically speaking, only an elite could fight off a red-tailed beast alone.

    Judging by the debris of this mech, it should belong to the series of those golden mechs, though the weapon setup was a little different - the mech was wielding a golden ancientnce. Ye Chong believed in the capabilities of this ex-pilot, he or she should be about the level of the trio he encountered.

    But that would be odd. Assuming they were at simr levels, it should not be a problem for this pilot to knock out one red-tailed beast. The pilot should have won. And that was when Ye Chong noticed the few tiny scratches around the debris. Theyout of the scratches were messy, which some looked pretty new on top of the older ones. However, these scratches weren''t old. That would mean the mech had suffered a considerable amount of damage before encountering a red-tailed beast. It was in another fight, an intense fight too.

    Han Jia proceeded with his team, only to discover more debris of mechs along with carcasses of the red-tailed beasts. Some of the carcasses still looked fresh, while some had darkened with dried body fluid all over the body. And again, the debris resembled the same mech series Ye Chong had first spotted. The shocking discovery however was the burn marks across the carcasses which was clearly caused by heat ray firearms. They also found out a golden mech armed with ranged weaponry. It was a goldenser shooter, of a real, non-streamlined mechanical design with the code "G-Z" printed.

    It was the first time Ye Chong saw a ranged weapon that could hurt the red-tailed beast.

    "Such gun!" Shang hurriedly discarded his Farqua and picked the G-Z up, "I knew it, it''s a good gun," he muttered. Well, it was a good gun indeed, but¡­ it looked kind of odd being held in the hands of a blue-white mech. Gold with blue and white?

    Shang turned on the gun and shot once. A golden beam with breadth of an arm escaped the muzzle and created a crater on the rock nearby. Clear burn marks could be seen around the edge of the crater. The golden beam had a strong color, the energy seemed highly condensed, probably the most condensed ray Ye Chong had ever seen, not even theser cannon of a spaceship could be this condensed. Aser fired by spaceship weaponry might be far brighter and broader but could never be as condensed as this, which exined why the golden beam could cause actual damage on red-tailed beasts.

    The next discovery after G-Z was the number of debris around.

    They had at least discovered over 200 scraps of such golden mech model around, while the carcasses of red-tailed beasts should go up to 400. That would mean¡­ at least 200 supreme pilots had been here, while¡­ there were more ahead of them.

    Ye Chong was pretty much astonished.

    No word could be used to describe the earth-shattering experience he had.

    If there was only one pilot or a pair of these pilots, Ye Chong would not be surprised as it would clearly be just another tragedy of exploring pilots being engulfed by the beasts. But there were at least 20 of them, all elites and whoever owning them must only be from either of the aristocrats, or an organization with a simr authority - an authority as strong as the Sangs perhaps.

    But they were in Gray Valley, so obviously, only Research Consortium could have owned these!

    Research Consortium was the sole force that could possibly fight against the aristocrats¡­

    However¡­ would that mean¡­

    Ye Chong pulled the lever and proceeded, his spection grew stronger in his head, as he sighted more debris and carcasses, the craters and the burns.

    It must be a brutal fight.

    Both Ye Chong and Shang remained silent. Caution would be the topmost priority now. The ce was tantly a hazardous zone. They had heard stories about Spectre and there was simply no way the folks could cook up these stories out of nowhere. There must be something going on, although Ye Chong had yet encountered anything that spelled "hazard". There were only surprises so far. He never expected the consortium would send men to check out here, arge troop it was too. It was a relief however, the sight of these debris had proven that the consortium frequented this area, they must be watching out from somewhere too.

    Han Jia dashed forward with Shang wielding G-Z as followed carefully behind. Shang would cover Ye Chong if anything went wrong. They elerated, disregarding the messes around them.

    Ye Chong had fully recovered from the shock.

    They could not find anything alive.

    They then took a break after five minutes. They seemed to have found the target.

    It was a valley of a breadth about 5 kilometers, where one could see the steep, rocky walls below the cliff into nothing. The dust on the ground would swirl asionally as a gale blew by. The valley supposed to look grand, but it was all clogged by the metallic debris and bloody carcasses. Ye Chong could imagine the smell of bloodshed.

    "Ye, 3534 dead red-tailed beasts had been detected," reported Shang something important.

    Now Ye Chong could estimate the scale of the war, though the figure was a bit of a shocker to him. They discovered over 200 carcasses the very first moment they got to Spectre, summing all up the number of red-tailed beasts should reach about 4000, which was a horrible number for humanity.

    That exined the heat detection from some of the carcasses by the system. The carcasses were indeed fresh. It was not war of a single day, the war must havested for days - that would justify the piling carcasses.

    Both Ye Chong and Shang then zoomed to the very bottom of the valley and hovered a few meters above, they certainly would not want to tread upon the disgusting bin of the ughterhouse.

    Ye Chong took a look around, something caught his eyes. There seemed to be a piece of rock loosened from the edge of the wall. He zoomed in with his camera and revealed a corner of an alloy te behind the rock. The piece of rock was leaning against the wall, so one would not be able to see anything unless from side.

    It was a camouge!

    An alloy te¡­ It must¡­

    It must be a base! There''s a base right here?

    Ye Chong suddenly worked up.

    The discovery alone was more than enough to make the entire Gray Valley boil. The creepy, Spectre, had a secret base. For what? Why? Those would be the interesting part of the story. Spectre had always been rumored as the most terrifying, ghostly, paranormal ce by the residents in Gray Valley. Well, the name "Spectre" was self-exnatory. But the discovery of this gate started to make Ye Chong feel that if those rumors were an intended propaganda to keep this base forever in the dark.

    "Kek!" Shangughed, "Spectre of the Spectre huh?"

    Ye Chong''s mind ran fast as he suddenly remembered the golden debris they encountered before. Perhaps, those elite pilots were not camping somewhere near Spectre but in Spectre itself! Right inside this base! Well, that would make better sense. No way the consortium would invest its precious elite workforce in guarding a haunted merely for "safety" of the people who would "identally" trespass the area. The workforce was meant for guarding something really, really important on the, like this base for example.

    They pulled the rock off and system said it was another pitch darkness weing them.

    They turned on holographic trantion to reveal a pathway within. The gate was huge, about 200 meters tall and 300 meters long. The two pieces of alloy were tightly shut together and were covered with a thickyer of rocks. It was a clever design to utilize the darkness and the rocks of the valley to keep everything in stealth.

    Han Jia flew into the gap between the gate. Shang tailed after and prompted the holographic detection system to project the visual.

    It was a region far more spacious than Ye Chong imagined beyond the gate. It almost felt as if it wasn''t a base. It felt more like a city, like the Nine Gates City, the same underground urban jungle he had been to!

    And Ye Chong was not wrong. He was weed by also a city, only much morerger than Nine Gates! His sight could not reach the end of it despite viewing from height. The city seemed to have far more superior technology than Nine Gates. Well, the height of each building justified it. Even the lowest building had a height of 20 kilometers, while mechs were flying smoothly inside.

    The top of the sky was giving off a gentle white light. You would never be able imagine how there was a white glowing off your head, showering towards every zone within the proximity of a few hundred meters. It was a really soothing glow yet it gave the entire city daylight. It was as if Ye Chong was the god, bestowing the underground the light. Ye Chong took a closer look at the top, only to find out the source of light being a kind of moss¡­?

    The roof of the underground world was veiled by ayer of glowing moss.

    Ye Chong thought Nine Gates was the greatest, that it could send him a stunning spell, that he thought he would be immune to anything else ever since, yet he zoned out a little upon seeing the city.

    The catch was¡­ despite it being the probably the fascination of civil development itself, the city was silent, horrifyingly silent, like a dead city.

    Ye Chong lowered the altitude, only to see something.

 Chapter 509 - Spectre IV

    <h4>Chapter 509: Spectre IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    On the ground it was a familiar sight.

    Bodies of people, carcasses of red-tailed beasts, debris of mechs and the stench of blood.

    The city looked all grand and majestic afar, yet it turned out to be a hollowed sculpture at a closer look. There were sshes of blood over the fair white wall, and the buzzes of flies.

    The stench of blood circting in the air seemed to have grown spiking and choking in Ye Chong''s nose.

    There were far more deaths in the citypared to the outside. The pilots outside were at least armed tost a few turns from the red-tailed beasts'' attack, but these were the ordinary citizens which probably immediately pounced to death. Their uniforms had rified their identity. They were the nonbat units, the technicians perhaps. Not many golden mechs could be seen around. Instead, the standard models filled up the streets, of different colors yet all unarmed.

    Ye Chong might have undergone countless wars and seen countless deaths, yet the sight was shaking him a little.

    Judging by the size of the city, the poption should have easily 300,000, yet Ye Chong could not see, or even hear any survivor around.

    Everything was dead, both the people and red-tailed beasts.

    Including the red-tailed beasts here, the figure should already be over 5000. That was enough to cause a mayhem in Gray Valley.

    Ye Chong could now synthesize the entire event in his mind. So this city should be an important investment by the Research Consortium to perform something, which could be justified by the vast number of elite pilots around. And to make sure that there would not be any uninvited guests from Gray Valley, they had begun spreading creepy rumors about Spectre. They probably paid a few people to get the ball rolling.

    But somehow, one day, unfortunately, the red-tailed beasts could smell them underground, so the beastsunched an attack upon them. Nheless, simrly, the red-tailed beasts were also unfortunate as they had underestimated the vastness of consortium''s force, so the war was too intensive and hadsted for too long.

    The red-tailed beasts still fought hard for some reason, which led to the scene now.

    "Follow me, Ye." It sounded like Shang''s usual tone of big discovery, as he zoomed away the moment thest syble rang.

    And Ye Chong hurriedly pulled the lever tounch Han Jia''s engine.

    The city was utterly destroyed. One could already call it a ruin for real. Both Han Jia and Shang weaved in and out from one crumbled building to another, rapidly.

    Out of sudden, Ye Chong''s face looked drained, as he spotted something on his screen.

    There was a small group of red-tailed beasts barraging the alloy gate where a golden mech stood behind it.

    The golden mech''s sword was broken into half and the mech itself was full of scratches. Its shield was long gone and it was holding the thrashing beasts back at its best. It was protecting someone, a man seemingly who looked wounded at the back.

    The beasts were having fun apparently, as Ye Chong could identify a few chances to break through the defense and annihted theirst two targets. Yet, the beasts never did it and just thrashed blindly.

    Ye Chong could also see the mech losing anytime soon.

    "Shang, go!" he shouted and instantlyunched himself towards the mech. It was no longer an issue of identity, whether the raided pilot being a friend or foe. Under the attack of red-tailed beasts, every human would be his friend.

    Zap!

    A golden beam took over Ye Chong and struck on head of one of the red-tailed beasts.

    The broad golden beam, as if the judgement from heaven, prated the skull of the beast.

    The other beasts, upon noticing the sudden attack, got panicked.

    Klink!!!

    The three crimson arrows crushed the struggling golden mech, which one of them pierced the cabin. The pilot probably had been sacrificed.

    Even the calmest snow hill would have an avnche due to spark of heat. That was Ye Chong''s feeling when his eyes lost the glow and fully elerated his Han Jia.

    The golden mech should be dead, yet its arms began constricting the 3 tails that impaled its body.

    The 3 red-tailed beasts were struggling to withdraw their tails, while their one freepatriot was going to help them, yet - *Zap* another golden ray passed by Ye Chong and sent that red-tailed beasts rolling on the ground.

    Han Jia pulled out its daggers and stormed by the three red-tailed beasts.

    "Awrrrrrr¡­" Their eyeballs erged drastically, as they wailed loud. A fine lining of blood was streaming off their neck.

    Thump! Thup! Thump!

    The three heads had fallen to the ground.

    The golden mech was still gripping the tails and did not take any further action, as if stoned.

    Well, that was a clear sign.

    Ye Chong sighed softly as he looked into the opened cabin. The pilot was already dead.

    He gently pulled the mech to the side. Ye Chong had high respects towards the sacrifice. The pilot had fulfilled his or her duty - to protect the people - till the very end. Shang lifted his new toy, "G-Z" and walked to Han Jia''s side.

    There was a moment of silence till Ye Chong turned to the wounded man behind.

    Ye Chong got off Han Jia and walked to this man.

    The man had a square face and thick brows. He might look weak, still he exuded a kind of solemnity. Nevertheless, he did not seem to be in the best shape at the moment. There was a severe cut on his left chest. The cut started from his corbone, all the way to the end of his ribs. Ye Chong could see the bones revealing from the open-wound.

    He frowned, such injury, he thought. The chances of surviving would be very low. He could help bandaging simple injury, but this was far too serious. Ye Chong was not a certified physician after all.

    The man''s lips wriggled, as he breathed faintly his words.

    "¡­Bag¡­bag¡­ potion¡­ blue¡­ potion¡­" That was what Ye Chong heard when he approached the man.

    He naturally lowered his eyes and noticed there was indeed a bag, about size of his palm, resting at the waist of the man. The design seemed luxurious yet not practical enough for Ye Chong''s taste. The number of buttons were not helpful in getting things out of the bag. A bit of his strength was applied and the buttons hopped everywhere.

    There was a blue potion, as the man had said, inside an injection-gun for medical uses probably. Ye Chong took the gun out and brandished in front of the man, to convey understanding.

    The man used the ounce of strength he mustered to make two nods.

    Ye Chong removed the cover at the needle tip and stabbed it into the right arm of the man. He pressed the trigger and injected everything into the man.

    "Ahhh¡­ HAHHHHHHH!" The man roared profoundly like a beast, as his body vibrated vigorously. For the past 30 seconds he shuddered continuously and slowly regained his serenity after.

    The former pale face of the man had now be rosy.

    Right when Ye Chong was showing deep concern towards this man, the changes of event were not in his script.

    The man was no longer weak, as he got up like a normal person. Ye Chong intuitively grabbed the neck of the man and pushed him down the ground. If the man would like to do anything funny, his neck would be ripped.

    "My, my, rx, I meant no harm," said the man wryly.

    Ye Chong''s hand was not moving an inch.

    The situation was getting strange. This man was horribly injured, breathing dead a second ago and now he had fully recovered while having the mood to sound cheeky. Furthermore, the wound was still bleeding on his chest, anyone with such wound would have copsed at this point, yet he was standing up.

    "I am fairly intrigued. Who are you guys? How do you find this ce?" the man asked curiously, as if there was no hand wrapping his neck.

    There was no reply from Ye Chong. He red right into the man''s eyes and asked, "Who are you?"

    "Hah. I''m Kui," the man introduced himself, with a bright smile.

    Kui? I had never heard that name before.

    "What is this ce? What''s that blue potion and what is it for? "

    Kui raised his brows and looked at Ye Chong interestingly, "This ce is known as the central base of the Research Consortium. The scientific name for that blue potion is called Nerve-sustaining Reagent. Its effect is to give a person with injury beyond healing an additional 5 hours to live at maximum. Within the 5 hours, the person would act as if unhurt, not feeling any form of pain. But the person would die the moment after that. The side-effect of this potion? Well, it makes the person impossible to cure."

    Kui sounded so calm, as if he was not the one who took the potion.

    Ye Chong observed the parts of Kui. His skin and his physique showed nothing about the warfield. He should be a nonbat member. Well, Ye Chong never expected this futuristic city being the central base of the Consortium. He once thought this was a mere base for a more major scientific research project. That exined the overwhelming number of guards around.

    Ye Chong loosened his grip and sat in front of Kui.

    "Haha¡­ Looks like we are on business?" Kui smiled briefly upon seeing Ye Chong''s gesture.

    He was rxed at first, till he looked at Shang, his pupils shrunk drastically, "You are the people of Xue Lai n?!"

 Chapter 510 - Unexpected Profit I

    <h4>Chapter 510: Unexpected Profit I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Uhh¡­ Wait¡­ Never mind¡­," he muttered, shaking his head right after the out-of-the-ce question, "No way, yeah, no way. The Xue Lai n is also in a sticky situation now, no way they could have someone here for treasure-hunting¡­ although that model bears a resemnce to Xue Lai''s model a lot¡­" Pondered he.

    His confused sight fall upon Shang again but this time, the expression changed, "Wait, is that¡­ no¡­ impossible¡­ forget it¡­," he thought deeply with his eyes partially shut.

    "We aren''t from Xue Lai," said Ye Chong, with a tilt made towards the man. "Do you recognize this mech?" The man''s statement was truly intriguing, Ye Chong had been fairly curious of Shang''s identity the whole time.

    "Huh? Uh, umm¡­" His eyes grew clear, "I think I made a mistake, sorry." He looked at Shang again, "I don''t recognize this mech, not at all. That aside, how did you guys find this institute in the first ce?"

    Ye Chong, a little disappointed, sat up and briefed the man his adventure there.

    "Mhm¡­" Nodded Kui, "It is not easy to make such judgement at times like this. I''m certainly impressed by your decisiveness. You''re pretty much a hero, one with a fortune too."

    Ye Chong had no interest in thepliment, he just took a look around, "Anyway, what had happened here?"

    "We got attacked," Kui replied expressionlessly with slight grief in his tone. "About 6000 red-tailed beasts came to the ce we did not manage to hold them outside. They intruded the base and a massacre happened. Nobody had survived, I presumed. Until now we still have no idea of how these beasts discovered our secret base. I guess they smelled us, but who I''m kidding with?" Kui''s eyes reddened, he became choked in tears.

    "Why none of you seek assistance from the outside?"

    "Nah, we aren''t as lucky as you, hero boy." Shook Kui, "Our transmission towers were destroyed by the red-tailed beasts upon arrival. We could not send anything out. It was a long defense war thatsted for months and we thought time would be on our side, that someone or some ships would notice the warring here ande to rescue, but no one hade. There was indeed our army camping near the, but they were fully unaware of the existence of this central base."

    There were regrets in his word.

    Upon recalling the chaotic moves by the Consortium recently, Kui''s words made sense to Ye Chong out of sudden.

    "I see¡­"

    "What did you see?" asked Kui.

    Ye Chong then briefed Kui the terrible actions taken by the Consortium in Gray Valley. Kui could not help but to feel even more remorseful, as he began wailing and thrashing a little.

    It took a while before Kui became calm again, he stood up, his lifeless eyes gazed upon the ruins of the once-magnificent, "Well¡­ Looks like it''s the end for the Consortium," he muttered.

    Ye Chong did not reply. The Consortium was no longer what it used to be. It was an organization with only name by then. It was evident as this very ruin was formerly the center of the Consortium, the consolidation of all their forces, the core of the entire research magnificence, and it fell, as the war arrived uninvited. It was only natural for Kui to have such dramatic reaction upon seeing such a formidable organization being wiped out unknown to the public.

    "Well!" Rose Kui, "Let''s go. I''ll show you around. I''ll let you see the area with the best, the topmost, the highest end technologies in the entire Gray Valley. It should not look shabby evenpared to the the core of the Aristocrats! Theboratory of Consortium!" He turned away with thest bit of pride.

    Ye Chong followed the proud man, as curious he was towards the mysterious consortium.

    The security was pretty tight there, as they had to hold their steps before a locked gate every 20 meters. Kui turned his face to Ye Chong, "This is the only pathway to theboratory. And hardly anybody knows the code."

    "So what are you in the Consortium?" asked Ye Chong, with instinct screaming at him that Kui must not be a simple subordinate in the Consortium.

    "Me?" Hah! I''m just an engineer," replied Kui indifferently.

    Just an engineer? Likely story. It sounded like a tant lie to Ye Chong, but he did not see the point in pursuing it. He moved on with another question, "Why did your organization decide to build the center here?" There was nothing peculiar about Spectre. To Ye Chong, Spectre was just like the others, he could not see the point of investing so much time and money on building a base here, especially when the Consortium worked so hard on fabricating horrifying rumors just to keep people away.

    "Well, this has always been the biggest secret of the Consortium but there''s no longer a need to make it a secret, not anymore, I guess," said Kui casually. "At first¡­ Mhm¡­ probably some time before the Gray Valley has been established¡­ we discovered something here."

    "What was it?"

    "We found a handful of Teardrops and a very unstable phenomena, a distortion window." Kui''s description reminded Ye Chong a lot of the underground cave where he also discovered a few Teardrops and the distortion horror.

    "Regarding Teardrops, it need not to convince people of its rarity I believe. We were more interested in the window. The Consortium was fully invested in Space Science researches. And clearly a spatial distortion phenomena would be a hidden shortcut to the other gxy, also another gxy unknown to the people would be a giant treasure chest to be opened. You know about the Aristocrats, don''t you?"

    Ye Chong nodded.

    "All the three Aristocrats owned a shortcut that would lead them to the Five Gxies, respectively. And these 3 pathways were also an unstable spatial distortion phenomena when they were first discovered. Perhaps you were unaware of this, it''s alright, it''s a major secret among the Aristocrats, not many residents of He Yue knew it," smiled Kui.

    "I know, I am from the Five Gxies, after all," nodded Ye Chong.

    Kui nearly tripped himself upon hearing the statement, "You''re a resident of the Five Gxies? Which?"

    "Fal."

    "Oh?" Kui took a careful look at Ye Chong, "Not bad. You were able toe this far. Though, how do you associate with the Aristocrats?"

    "Not much of an association." Shook Ye Chong, "I was being hunted."

    The interest intensified on Kui''s expression, "Hunted¡­ huh? Well, you must be really something that the Aristocrats could chase you all the way here. And you survive well too. Which of the Aristocrats?"

    "Hah¡­" Ye Chong smiled bitterly, "All three¡­"

    Kui was stupefied and heughed out loud, "Ahahahahaha! Man, you have such luck. All three families want you dead? Hahaha! Seriously I wonder what you have done that it could drive all 3 families this mad!"

    "They were too strong¡­," said Ye Chong briefly, "And I felt threatened of my life."

    "Well¡­" Shrugged Kui, "Let''s not talk about that. No point of dwelling in the past. You are in luck now, the Aristocrats are too busy to even track you. Still, it almost felt impossible for you to get back home now."

    Ye Chong was speechless. That had always been the pain in his heart.

    "And here we are," reminded Kui. "This is the room where we store the chips, containing every report, the oue of our researches. Well, they''ll be piling dust anyway so feel free to take any if you like. Every research was a brave and tremendous attempt by the researchers who drained themselvespletely for their passion. Some even took their whole life just for a small piece of report. If they knew their life effort eventually became part of the ruins unknown by the people, I guess we won''t have a fine reunion when I met them in heaven," said Kui, a little sentimental.

    Ye Chong was astounded.

    It was ¡­ a giant library of microchips. A sea of them specifically, in all sorts of colors,beled by an array of categories, stored chronologically as well as based on the field involved.

    Ye Chong could see at least 300,000 microchips there,

    "Hehehe¡­" Shang was there, stunned. yet his beeps formed unintelligible giggles, "Ye, we''ll be rich. We will be rich!"

    Ye Chong''s breaths intensified. He was sort of a researcher after all and he certainly recognized the value of these data streams. These would be strength, the greatest strength and wealth, that one could use to build a family aspetent as the Aristocrats.

    "If you want to know the exact number of chips here, sorry, I don''t know." Kui sounded really depressed, "We started from Space Science, then Mechanical Researches, and then the Biological Science today. We almost have every scientific field covered. We even have a breakthrough in ourtest research but well¡­ you know what happened. An annihtion, as if a punishment from the heaven¡­"

    Ye Chong''s once excitement had also been assaulted by the raining tails of the crimson beasts, the bloodshed of the researchers.

    "You sure are interesting," smiled Kui as he looked at Ye Chong''s expression.

    "Why don''t you give me some rmendations?" asked Ye Chong. There were too many chips here, he really would appreciate someone giving their opinion on the choices. Well Kui should be fine with this, if he truly intended to give him the chips, that is.

    "Uhh¡­" Kui flinched and hurled a smile promptly, "Okay, what do you need?"

    "Which field do you guys have most researches on?"

    "Hmmmmmmmmmmm¡­ At first, we focused on Space Science, as I''ve said, then Mechanical Science, did you see the mechs out there? Yup, those are our creations."

    "Nah, keep those," shook Ye Chong. Space Science was too foreign for Ye Chong''sprehension, while Mechanical Science? It was interesting to see those gold fighters flying out there but they were not the best mechs out there, especially whenpared to the aces of the Aristocrats.

    He was a mechanic after all. He believed he could build a better mech if he had sufficient materials.

    So yeah.

 Chapter 511 - Unexpected Profit II

    <h4>Chapter 511: Unexpected Profit II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Kui looked at Ye Chong with an unreadable expression, "Well, looks like you know your stuff!"

    He continued, "We got interested in biological research about a century ago, and made great discoveries." He sounded modest, but Ye Chong could see that he was filled with pride.

    "I''ve always been interested in biology since I was young. I believe that life is the world''s greatest mystery, and the pinnacle of all secrets." Kui looked nostalgic as he recalled, "That''s why I''ve been involved in the field since I was very young. In the end, I ended up in research just as I wanted. You can''t imagine how much better we are in biologypared to other people. We have a lot to catch up in spatial science and mechanics whenpared to the Three Aristocratic Families, but even all three of thembined will not be a match for us in biology."

    Kui sounded proud just then, and a little arrogant.

    Ye Chong said nothing. He did not doubt Kui''s im. The Three Aristocratic Families were not known for their strengths in biology. Ye Chong knew little about biology, but he was familiar with one field that was intimately rted to biology, and that was alchemy. Lunatic Guan''s extraordinary alchemy skills still continued to amaze Ye Chong. He still could not figure out the Guan Family''s auto-analytics mechanism that Lunatic Guan came up with.

    Nevertheless, he did not approve of Kui''s deration that biology was the world''s greatest mystery. The way he saw it, every field of knowledge had its own intricacies, and it would be meaningless topare between them. Kui''s view was too biased.

    "Have you studied biology before?" Kui asked.

    "No, but I''ve learned alchemy for a while."

    "Alchemy?" Kui grew excited, "Not bad, not bad, alchemy is a branch of biology."

    He lowered his head in thought, mumbling to himself, "Perhaps, giving it to him will be a wise choice."

    Ye Chong did not catch his expression. He was still talking to Shang.

    "Ye, this guy is definitely not some average Research Consortium engineer," Shang warned Ye Chong, sounding certain of himself.

    "Why do you say that?" Ye Chong asked. He did not see anything particrly outstanding about Kui, apart from his easy going demeanor.

    "Humph, there are too many signs of suspicion! How would a normal engineer know so many secrets?" Shang noted disapprovingly, thenughed, "But Ye, don''t worry about it for now, he''s not looking to mess with you yet."

    Kui seemed to reach a decision then. He looked up at Ye Chong and said, "Come with me."

    Kui walked out of the memory chip room and entered another corridor. The corridor went downwards. A travetor moved them along the corridor.

    Kui turned back to Ye Chong and said, "Better keep that. You can''t fly in here. If the system detects any flying objects, security will automatically retaliate."

    "He''s right," Shang whispered to Ye.

    Ye Chong obeyed and withdrew Shang.

    Ye Chong and Kui stood on the travetor as it brought them further down along the sloping corridor. On both sides of the travetor were exhibits separated from them by ss. All kinds of weird flora were within these ss chambers. Ye Chong recognized some of them, but not for most of them.

    Kui had his head lowered, fully absorbed in whatever he had in mind.

    Ye Chong watched the nts passed by in a daze. There were many real life specimens here that he had never seen before, which he recognized only through Lunatic Guan''s chip. This was a learning experience for him.

    Alchemy was something quite different of all the skills that Ye Chong had picked up. He had not spent much time in it, but instead had relied on Lunatic Guan''s auto-analytics mechanism to ovee most of the obstacles he came across. However, he realized that alchemy was a very useful skill, and had always appreciated the opportunity to learn more when it presented itself.

    "How many do you recognize?" Kui asked from behind him.

    "115," Ye Chong answered without dy. He was always sensitive to numbers, a habit he picked up from Mu.

    "115?" Kui sounded surprised. "You know that many?"

    Ye Chong replied, "Yes, but I''ve only seen 52 of them in real life. The other 63 are from a memory chip my teacher gave to me."

    "Who''s your teacher?" Kui looked agitated.

    "Her name is Guan Ling." Ye Chong was surprised that he remembered her name at all. The silhouette of the woman with a wine ss in her hand, leaningzily against the door frame as her eyes gazed outwards, lost in thought, came to his mind unbidden.

    "A beauty, lost at a young age," Shang sighed.

    "Guan Ling?" Kui looked like he was trying to recall something, and then it came to him. He looked even more surprised as he said, "Guan Ling ¡­ You mean Guan Ling of May''s Night Ridge on Guang Hua?"

    Now it was Ye Chong''s turn to be surprised. "You know her?"

    Kui did not answer him. He was studying Ye Chong closer, not quite believing it, "You are Guan Ling''s student? You truly are Guan Ling'' student?"

    Ye Chong nodded,"If you mean Guan Ling of May''s Night Ridge on Guang Hua, then that''s right."

    "Wonderful! Wonderful! Haha!" Kui was almost jumping with joy, "Haha, and I was worried you might not have the basics! So you''re Guan Ling''s student! The Heavens smile upon me, now all my work will not go to waste! Haha!"

    Ye Chong could not understand Kui''s excitement, and repeated his question, "You know her?"

    It took another three minutes before Kui finally calmed down. "I''ve been to the free space zone when I was younger. That''s where I first heard of Guan Ling. She was very famous in the alchemy circle in the free space zone, it''s a pity I''ve never met her in person. I''ve studied a few of her products. She is truly an amazing alchemist. I was worried that you might not have the basics, but there''s nothing to worry about now."

    Basics? Did he mean basics in biology? Ye Chong was confused.

    "Shang, do you think he''ll just give it to me?" Ye Chong asked Shang in his mind.

    "Who knows? Sigh, it''s not a photo album anyway. People nowadays are losing their creativity, look at the lousy gifts theye up with ¡­" Shang mumbled inint.

    Ye Chong realized that he was asking the wrong person.

    He asked Kui directly, "What are you offering me?"

    Kui paused a bit beforeughing, "You''re blunt, but I like that!" He then smiled teasingly, "You''ll know when you see it."

    The travetor moved them forward at an even pace. Ye Chong estimated that they had covered about five kilometers.

    Kui was beginning to look pale. His chest was no longer bleeding, but the skeleton within was exposed. The flesh around his wound was beginning to turn gray.

    Kui saw the look Ye Chong was giving him and smiled easily, "Don''t worry. The product''s reliable, there won''t be any idents. We still have two hours, plenty of time."

    Ye Chong was silent. Underneath Kui''s easy demeanor was so much regret and dissatisfaction.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong thought of something. "How are you rted to the incident on Zhou Jian?"

    Kui''s gaze turned sharp. "How''d you know it is rted to us?"

    This was the second time Ye Chong saw Kui became alert abruptly. The first time was when he saw Shang. However, he was not afraid. "I was there at Zhou Jian, and saw some of you from Gray Valley."

    Kui''s gaze softened. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes betrayed the pain he felt in his heart. He recovered soon and said, "That was an ident. A virus ident. A core member of the virus experiment group was isted from his colleagues. We were too busy with the experiment to notice. By the time I realized, that member had already left and went into hiding. Nobody thought he''d escape Gray Valley to the He Yue Gxy. We kept looking for him, but to no avail. We heard of the incident soon after it happened, but it was already toote."

    Kui whispered in a low voice of this little known secret.

    "I see," Ye Chong nodded and said nothing else. What Kui said better matched with what he knew.

    He did not do anything to Kui. It was not his ce to get involved. Besides, the Research Consortium was almostpletely gone by now. Thest member, Kui, had only another two hours left to live.

    "We''re here," Kui said.

    They still had to pass through three passcode protected doors to reach their destination.

    This was the most peculiarboratory that Ye Chong had ever seen. There were many mech parts, and all kinds of odd culture containers. Some of them were huge, holding something that was barely visible inside. There were also many other apparatus that he had never seen before.

    "This is the Research Consortium''s most important and forefront technology," Kui exined solemnly, "I don''t know whether it''s the right decision to give them all to you, but I don''t have much time left, and I have no other choice to make." He looked at Ye Chong and said earnestly, "I believe that you''re capable of continuing our work here."

    Ye Chong was baffled. He could not understand Kui.

    Kui took Ye Chong further into theb without another word. Ye Chong could feel the reverence the man had for his mission emanating off him.

    The further they went in, the more cluttered the ce was. Ye Chong''s interest deepened. He could see that many of the culture containers had mech parts in them. There were mech mechanical arms, mech mechanical legs ¡­ These mech parts had tissue growing all over them. Some were nt based tissue, and some were muscle flesh.

    Kui did not slow down as he went further in. Ye Chong could only set his curiosity aside and followed.

    "Thisb has been here ever since the Research Consortium was born. The spatial window is also here in thisb. All these years, the Research Consortium has ventured into many fields of research, but no matter if we''re talking about spatial technology, machinery or biology, all the best workse from thisboratory. Only the top scientists can enter thisb. It''s the dream of every researcher in Gray Valley to step into this ce. It is a symbol of prestige and true capabilities.

    "You see how messy theb is? Can''t do anything about it. All of our best research works are here. Anything you see can be highly valuable, so no one dared to touch them. No one has ever figured out what exactly we have here, much less talk about the value of these things. That''s how the things start to umte over time, ending in up what we see today. Of course, another reason for this was that all the people who made their way in were very busy! No one wanted to waste time cleaning up someone else''s mess."

    Kui said all of these with a mixture of pride and helplessness. Theb was in such a mess that Ye Chong found it difficult to decide where his next step should be. He could even make out some ancient machinery items, their dull luster telling of the long history behind them.

    "Hey, Ye, look''s like a treasure trove in here. We have to go through this ce thoroughlyter! Tsk tsk, leaving them behind in this secluded ce is such a waste," Shang''s eyes glowed like a miner who saw gold.

    Kui was not aware, of course, that a greedy someone was enticing the solemn looking Ye Chong right at that moment.

    "In some ways, the Research Consortium is over," Kui sounded devastated, "but I wouldn''t want these things to be forgotten just like us. They are the result of hard work from so many people. It''ll be truly regretful if they vanish from the face of the universe just like that. I''m not a researcher myself, but I can understand this at least.

    "You are a hero. Haha, perhaps you don''t think it suits you, but that''s how I think it is. It''s not too bad, losing to you. Of course, it helps that you''re not from one of the Three Aristocratic Families. More importantly, I have no choice! Haha!" Kuiughed heartily, and Ye Chong could sense no sadness behind it.

    "This base is yours. Take your time to explore around, find anything that interests you. I believe that there are many things that you will find curious and exciting. I had wanted to pass over to you the Research Consortium''s allies. After all, the people may be gone, but the Consortium can still live on. However, forget about that. Those people are all mediocre but ambitious fools. When I heard you talking about what they had done, do you know what I felt?" Kui turned to look at Ye Chong.

    "What?"

    "Humiliated! Furious!" Kui''e eyes glowed in anger as he spoke through gritted teeth, "Those useless ass! They''re smearing the name of the Consortium! Arrogant fools, all of them. And when danger strikes, when their strength is needed, they all refused to step up. Cowards! They are the Consortium''s greatest embarrassment! Their actions are unforgivable!"

    Kui waved his arms around as he growled with intensity.

    Ye Chong watched Kui in his emotional state without a word. The Research Consortium''s members were useless, that was true. He knew that the Consortium would forever lose the confidence of the people, and never recover their former glory.

    Half a minuteter, Kui finally calmed down. "Those untrained civilians could win against the red-tailed beasts when they''re with you. You''re stronger than me in this. If that''s the case, I''ll be at peace knowing that everything is given to you. I know that, with everything in here, you will rise so much faster. Leave the useless failures to themselves."

    Kui suddenly frowned then, "Let''s move faster, I don''t have much time left."

    The two of them quickened their pace, and soon reached a veryrge culture tank.

    The container tank was about 15 meters tall and 10 meters wide. Inside was a murky solution, where arge humanoid shaped figure of about 10 meters tall was submerged in. The culture tank was connected to many colorful tubes outside. The tubes were connected to the tank on one end and other devices on the other end.

    Kui looked up at the tank, speaking as though in a trance, "You see that? That''s the result of ourtest research."

    "What is it?" Ye Chong was a little taken aback.

    "A mech!" Kui smiled mischievously, then turned around to make adjustments on the apparatus around them.

    "It''s not fully formed yet? Sigh, there''s not enough time," Kui muttered to himself as he studied the apparatus. His hands moved quickly as he worked.

    The solution inside the culture tank drained away rapidly. Through the transparent walls of the tank, Ye Chong finally had a good look at what was inside.

    This was not a mech, this was a human!

    A 10 meter tall person! The face had strong angled contours, an aquiline nose, thick lips and dark eyebrows. The eyes were tightly closed. It was like a strong and huge giant.

    There was a very archaic looking ck helmet worn on its head, with a tall red feather rising up tall from the helmet. The body was covered with ayer of form fitting ck colored armor, which made it look like the God of Death came from hell himself. Its wrists, elbows, waist and knees were decorated with a bright red flower. This did not tone down the intensity of the humanoid''s appearance, but made it look even more enigmatic and treacherous.

    Was this really a mech? Ye Chong was deeply shaken.

    "What''s your choice of weaponry?" Kui observed Ye Chong''s expression, pleased with himself. "Originally, we wanted to make it an armor of gold and bright red, which suits our style more. However, weter find that the ck colored alloy improves the physical properties of the armor a lot more, and made the armor morepatible with biological substrates. That''s how the ck colored alloy came to stay. However, since pure ck is the Ye Family''s signature appearance, we decided to add these Hell Blossoms. These represent death and chaos."

    "We prepared an array of weapons for the mech. Heh, those fellows just do what they want. Look at that, almost all of those are its weapons. Someone even made it a weapons backpack, which can hold around six weapons at a time.

    "It''s the beginning of a new age! It''s a bio-mech! First of its kind in the universe! Three generations have worked on this project, culminating into our sess today! We started out with nt based matter since it''s structure is simpler, but we gave that upter for more advanced life forms. This mech is the one we''ve been working on. The skeleton is made of metals with the best physical properties. We then grow muscle tissue over the skeleton using culture growing techniques. The bio-mech is more flexible than mechanical mechs. Its fingers are almost identical to a human''s. The skeleton frame is not exactly like a human''s, as we have improved upon it in many ways. Based on well-established principles in mechanical mechs, we produced an original skeleton frame design that preserves the agility of the human form while improving its structural integrity. The muscle tissue is modified with a virus, giving it 30 times the strength of normal alloys, and 5.52 times the flexibility of human muscle tissue."

    Ye Chong listened to the shocking figures in a daze. Even Shang was rendered speechless.

    "Information ry is via neurons, much faster and uratepared to photon circuits. The neurons are connected to the mech''s bio-photon processor. This bio-photon processor is the only one that we made sessfully. It''s powerful, and you''ll exactly know how powerful it is once you try it out. Besides, even though it''s a powerful photon processor, it does not result in a PSI." Kui took a nce at Ye Chong.

    "The armor is grown with muscle tissue, which greatly enhances its defensive functionality. Its holographic scanning system,ms system and all that are thetest from the Research Consortium. Many of them are just fresh out from theb oven. This mech is the essence of the Research Consortium''s most advanced skills and knowledge.

    "It can go up to Mach 30! Compared to the Three Aces from the Three Aristocratic Families, it doesn''t differ by a lot! This bio-mech may not be the fastest mech in existence, but its power for short ranged movements has no equal! This is attributed to the unique muscle tissue of the bio-mech. Unlike mechanical mechs that mimic life, this bio-mech is the real thing. It moves like a real life animal, the king of close rangebat!

    "You may not know this, but the Research Consortium spent almost a third of its research budget on this project. The schematics and design for the bio-mech has been modified for no less than three dozen times. Its every muscle tissue, every armor piece, every piece of skeleton, was the highest achievement of the Research Consortium.

    "Its name is - Celest!"

 Chapter 512 - Unexpected Profit III

    <h4>Chapter 512: Unexpected Profit III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Celest had shocked Ye Chong beyond words. It basically overturned everything he believed in about mechs. This mech was new territory.

    "Cough cough!" Abruptly, Kui coughed violently, and brought Ye Chong back to the present. He turned to see Kui''s chest rising and falling rapidly, his face reddening quickly.

    "It''s time," Kui smiled at Ye Chong, returning his gaze.

    For some reason, Ye Chong felt deeply sorrow for the man. He watched quietly, not knowing what to say.

    Kui''s expression turned solemn and he spoke, ignoring his condition, "Celest is not invincible, though. There isn''t enough time, and it''s not quitepleted yet. Take off the armor on its leg and have a look."

    Ye Chong did as told, and saw exposed metallic structure underneath the ck armor. The metal structure was half covered by muscle tissue, but the other half was exposed and shining with a typical metallic glimmer.

    "ording to the schedule, Celest needs another 15 days toplete. However, I don''t have much time left, I can''t see itpleted." Kui looked at Celest with an unreadable expression. He was equal parts dismayed, regretful, proud and hopeful.

    "Take it," Kui smiled at Ye Chong, "Celest is yours, our legacy will live on. You must take care of it, the leg will be its weakest spot. Moreover, maintenance work on Celest will be tricky. You have to study enough biology to know how to do it, or the bio-mech will be useless if it''s too heavily damaged. Don''t worry about minor scratches since it can heal itself, much like actual living organisms."

    "Thank you!" Ye Chong bowed to Kui respectfully.

    Kui waved away his gesture, "Don''t worry about it. Take care of the mech, and unleash its true potential. And, if you''re interested, expand on our work. I will be eternally grateful."

    "I will," Ye Chong said. His voice was soft but resolute.

    Kui smiled, satisfied. He took out three memory chips and a ring from some hidden corner. "These three chips contain the bulk of the Consortium''s research work in three different stages across time. The chips are made of special biological material and have arge memory space. They can only be read with a bio-mech, Celest''s bio-photon processor. Haha, all the mechs out there are fakes, to confuse outsiders. This is Celest''s dimension keystone. Take it. But first, you have to enter Celest and activate it. Take anything in here that catches your eyes.

    "Look," Kui pointed towards the mainframeputer in theb, "All the information is there. You can check it out yourself. This ring unlocks the information."

    Celest''s dimension keystone was a simple metal ring. Ye Chong put it on his finger, and the ring tightened immediately like a life animal,tching on to his finger. He could not take it off now.

    "The dimension keystone has other features. A lot of our work on spatial science is incorporated into this dimension keystone. You''ll find out more when you try it out yourself." Kui was pale as a sheet by now.

    "Cough," he coughed out a mouthful of blood.

    "It''s time," Kui smiled wanly, "I''m so lucky to have met you.

    "Live well." Suddenly, Kui fell backwards.

    Ye Chong was surprised, and quickly stepped forward to catch him.

    Ku had stopped breathing. Ye Chong felt something slippery in his hands. He looked down and found that Kui was already bleeding everywhere. His skin was cracking all over into many tiny slits, where blood began to flow out.

    Kui''s pulse and breathing stopped.

    Ye Chong put him down. Right after that, the man''s body immediately burst open like a balloon. His bone and flesh exploded into a mess.

    The blue poison was strong, that was for sure. Ye Chong looked at Celest. The bio-mech stood with its eyes closed, like a magnificent warrior. He looked back at Kui''s ruined corpse and felt sorrow for him.

    The joy of obtaining Celest was dampened by Kui''s death. However, Ye Chong recovered quickly, and began to inspect the bio-mech.

    The more he looked, the more surprised he was.

    He realized then that the Research Consortium was at the forefront of biological sciences.

    Celest''s pilot cabin was at its chest. Unlike the metallic pilot cabin in normal mechs, Celest had a pilot cabin made of organic material. There were modified nt substrates andpound materials used everywhere in there. The pilot cabin''s oxygen supply system was unique. A kind of nt that Ye Chong had never seen before made up its main structure. It could producerge amounts of oxygen, maintaining the bnce of airposition in the pilot cabin. The insides of the pilot cabin were covered with these green nts. They exuded a nice, faint scent that was refreshing.

    The most interesting part of the mech was its bio-photon processor.

    It looked nothing like any of the photon processors that Ye Chong had seen before. The object was a semi-transparent hemisphere, suspended on top of the main control console, made of some unknown material. It was soft like taffy, and malleable as well. For example, it could stretch out into a thin, t disc to disy images.

    If a memory chip was put on top of it, the photon processor would engulf the chip and disy the information within.

    Aside from the usual controls, the photon processor can be essed directly via brain waves. ced beside the pilot''s seat was a helmet. Through it, the pilot canmunicate directly with the photon processor and even control the mech through the helmet.

    However, this novel method of using brain waves required the mech pilot to be mentally well trained. Ye Chong felt that a mentalist would be able to better make use of this bio-mech. He himself had no talent in skills of the mental sort.

    The weapons were just staggering.

    He felt like he was looking at a weapons exhibition. There were all sorts of them, from archaic weapons to modernser based weapons. There were too many for the mind to absorb. The weapons were mostly in ck and red. It seemed that the researchers had put in a lot of effort to make the weapons look matching with Celest. Many of the weapons were either carefully polished or decorated with patterns, mostly out of aesthetics. Longer weapons like the archace and spears were either foldable or could be easily disassembled.

    Ye Chong also saw the weapons box that Kui mentioned. It looked like a ck colored emergency medical box. On top of the box was arge, red flower. The weapons box had an autotch that could be secured to a slot on Celest''s back. The pack itself could store up to six weapons. When inbat, the weapons could be essed from the sides of the box, making it very handy.

    He picked a ck colorednce of archaic design, a dark red colored alloy sword, a diamond shaped shield, aser cutter, 20 auto lock-on shurikens, and a small sized egg-shaped light grenadeuncher.

    There was a slot on Celest''s wrist, which could hold two parrying spears. Han Jia''s daggers were taken, while Celest''s original daggers were left behind.

    Shang also had a huge makeover. The G-Z was relinquished in exchange for a high uracy sniper rifle, Pierce. Shangmended its shooting uracy and impressive rate of fire.

    Celest also had a cutting edge engine. It was suitable for both short bursts and long distance flight. The only thing Ye Chong thought regretful was the fact that the engine ran on conventional energy sources.

    This was not a big problem. Ye Cong had a few teardrop mineralites on him still. Just one would be enough to solve his problem. Ye Chong had wanted to modify Shang''s energy source as well so that he could run on teardrop mineralite. Shang''s body structure was unique, and any modifications would require all kinds of equipment. That was an issue that he could not solve before. However, here he was now, in the most advancedboratory of the Research Consortium. What more could he want?

    Han Jia was heavily damage. The mech already had many tiny cracks on its structure in the beginning. After that intense battle in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, it was now close to breaking down. Ye Chong thought that Celest was an impressive mech, but Han Jia was still easier to use. However, upon closer inspection with the equipment around him, Ye Chong found that the mech was now beyond saving. It was not only the exterior that was damaged. The mech''s internal parts, such as the engine, were also showing many cracks that he could not hope to repair.

    Ye Chong was surprised to find Han Jia so heavily damaged. He knew that the mech was in bad shape, but the severity of it left him taken aback. He had been flying in a mech that could have broken down at any moment. The thought left him with a chill down his spine.

    Han Jia was the mech that he had used the longest. All these years, he and the mech had conquered powerful foes here and there. However, it was now time to retire it. Ye Chong suddenly thought of Kui. If Han Jia had a conscious mind, it would probably count itself luckier than Kui.

    When Ye Chong realized what he was thinking, he was surprised that such a bizarre idea came to his mind.

    He took out the teardrop mineralite in Han Jia. The teardrop mineralite was truly the pinnacle of all energy sources. It remainedrgely unchanged after such long usage.

    Now, Ye Chong faced his next obstacle.

    Celest''s unique structure presented a challenge. Ye Chong knew little about the bio-mech, much less how to modify its engine to use teardrop mineralite.

    He recalled then the bio-photon processor in the pilot cabin.

    "Perhaps it''s worth a shot," Ye Chong thought to himself. Celest''s pilot cabin was at the mech''s chest, where the armor was thickest. Ye Chong slipped into the pilot cabin and approached the photon processor. It looked like liquid metal, or a chewy candy. Ye Chong found the photon processor''s appearance odd.

    Ye Chong held the teardrop mineralite in his hand for a moment, hesitated, then finally ced the mineral on top of the bio-photon processor.

    The bio-photon processor engulfed the teardrop mineralite quickly, like a slug eating its meal.

    Crack crack crack! There was a series of faint noises. The bio-photon processor glowed suddenly in a rainbow of colors.

    "Structure evolutionmencing," Ye Chong heard a cold voice spoke.

    "Skeleton fortificationplete!"

    "Structural fortificationplete!"

    ¡­

    The cold voice spoke again and again from the bio-photon processor. The pilot cabin was changing rapidly. The green nts growing along the walls turned a brighter green. The controls altered into a morefortable texture. The bio-photon processor itself changed the most, the semi-transparent glob now a fully transparent crystalline hemisphere.

    Ye Chong still had a shred of calmness left in him. He spoke to the voice, "Commence full inspection of the mech''s structure immediately." He needed to have at least a general understand of Celest as soon as possible.

    The bio-photon processor replied sternly to Ye Chong''s order, "Commencing."

    When Ye Chong saw the numbers disyed on the bio-photon processor, now changed into a holographic screen, he was shocked once again.

    The teardrop mineralite had been moved to the engine. The original energy storage space was no longer there, having been rendered obsolete by the bio-photon processor in favor of the teardrop mineralite, and therefore relinquished. Celest''s iplete leg grew new tissue quickly, triggered by the vast energy source it received. The bio-mech was now fullypleted. Its muscles and the external metal armor fit into each other seamlessly, providing a whole new level of defense.

    The original muscle tissue was also triggered to evolve by the teardrop mineralite. Under the bio-photon processor''s assessment and modification, Celest''s body structure was now enhanced.

    Since the armor was also able to absorb energy, it now shined in a polished jet ck, like molten ck metal.

    After some calctions, the bio-photon processor found that the remaining energy in the teardrop mineralite was enough to for Celest to fly for another 62 years. This meant that Ye Chong did not have to worry about its energy source for a long time toe.

    It was a pity that there was not enough space around him right now. He would have liked to test the mech.

    After that interesting series of changes, Ye Chong did not do anything more to Celest. He had not figured out what happened just now. Celest was a mystery to him. This was new territory to explore. What he did just now was just a lucky guess. He would not try it again.

    Shang''s modification works were also progressing rapidly. Theb was well equipped, offering advanced machinery that would never be found outside. Shang would have been able to fix his arm had there been enough coratinum. Unfortunately, the rare metal was not found in the Consortium''s inventory.

    Ye Chong regretted it very much. Fixing Shang was his greatest dream. He thought of the huge mass of coratinum in the sunken starship in the free space zone, and felt like jumping straight into the sea to get it.

    However, even escaping Gray Valley was a problem for him now.

    Ye Chong quicklyposed himself once more and began to search theb with Shang.

    _________________________________

    Arwa''s fleet had entered the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Arwa was not the only one who had been into the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Mech pilots from Gray Valley and the He Yue Gxy would often brave the journey in their younger days. This risky endeavor offered thembat experience, allowing them to improve faster. More importantly, they would do anything to get the money to fund their journey, be it in mech repairs or buying more advanced mechs. Many of the mech pilots came from a poor background, and had to work dearly for their dreams.

    The Cmitous Asteroid Belt was deadly. Almost every mech pilot would hear the same story from their seniors. Nheless, many were brave enough to enter the ce. Mech pilots would enter either solo or in groups, but they would usually keep near the edges of the asteroid region.

    Their mechs were not like Ye Chong''s, equipped with almost infinite energy. Hence, they had to stay near the edges. Starships were still the default choice for long distance space travel. No mech can achieve long distance space travelling without a starship.

    However, no one had ever heard of a starship entering the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. That would be suicidal! Rocks were flying everywhere in the asteroid belt, enough to destroy even the strongest hulls. With the massive structure of a starship, avoiding the rocks would be impossible. That was what made the journey dangerous.

    Entering the asteroid belt with a starship fleet was even more unimaginable.

    However, in just a short space of time, two starship fleets had already entered the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    No one knew if Sir Jay''s fleet survived the journey, but now Arwa''s fleet was already following his footsteps.

    Arwa''s experience was not enough to guide him in this journey. He would need his wisdom and trust from his people.

    Like Ye Chong, Arwa was not short of followers. The young genius tactician was a hero of themon people. He was widely respected in Gray Valley, especially amongst the middle lower ss. Countless young people viewed him as their role model.

    Before Jay appeared, Arwa was the most famous young man in Gray Valley. However, Jay''s appearance had robbed him of the people''s attention. Now, the only person who could be on the same level as Jay was Arwa.

    Arwa approved of Jay''s assessment of their situation, andter facts came to prove his judgment. His fleet members trusted him even more after that. They called him and Jay as the Twin Stars of Gray Valley. Peoplemended him and Jay, calling them Gray Valley''sst hope.

    In fact, there were also many people who disagreed with this sentiment, especially Arwa''s supporters. They thought that Jay was a genius in truth, but stillckingpared to the experienced Arwa.

    Whenever his subordinates vented their frustrations about this, Arwa only smiled.

    He knew exactly how strong Jay was! He was a truly formidable opponent. In fact, he believed deep down that of the two of them, Jay was probably more likely to bring everyone to victory.

    This was a humbling thought. Arwa was a generous man who thought little of fame and self-interest. However, underneath it all was a sense of pride that few knew about.

    This was their first day in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. So far, the fleet progressed slowly and smoothly. No one cked, however. They all knew that this was just the beginning.

    As expected, they faced tremendous pressure on the second day. This was apparent from the casualties they suffered.

    Arwa remained calm. Underneath his amiable appearance was a resolute heart. Whenever Xiao Wan watched his not-quite-handsome profile, she would feel a touch sentimental. The man was much wiser beyond his age.

    Arwa knew that his fleet had a strong advantage that Jay''s fleetcked.

    They had long range weapons.

    Jay''s fleet had almost no long range weapons. While this allowed him to face the red-tailed beasts more easily, it would render them powerless in the asteroid belt. Arwa''s fleet had long range weapons, powerful ones, and this made their journey in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt much easier.

    Onlyrge rocks could damage the ship''s hull, and their weapons allowed them to destroy theserge rocks before they hit.

    However, the threat of the Cmitous Asteroid Belt was far more severe than Arwa and his fleet mates could have imagined.

    They were not aware of how Jay''s fleet had pushed their way through the rocks, creating stronger currents of asteroids in the ce that were far more dangerous than before.

    It was only on the third day that they came to realize this mistake.

 Chapter 513 - What Happened?

    <h4>Chapter 513: What Happened?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Their fleet travelled along the edge of a huge asteroid whirlpool. Arwa had noticed it fast enough, then ordered the fleet to react in the nick of time for them to escape the pull of the massive whirlpool. Nevertheless, the incident had cost Arwa 62 starships.

    It all happened in just under 10 minutes.

    An even more pressing issue for them was to avoid the whirlpool by going around it. This extended their three-day journey to five.

    No one knew how much these two extra days would cost them. All of them, Arwa included, were grateful for their narrow escape.

    They suffered heavy casualties on the third day, when the rocks around them were too dense for their weapons to handle. The asteroids breached their safety parameter and crashed onto the starships. Arwa had not fortified the ship hulls, and this oversight costed him dearly.

    The seemingly tough hulls of the starships crumbled easily under the impact of the asteroids.

    Arwa''s heart ached as the starships exploded, one after another. Each starship carried a few hundred people in them!

    His face turned paler and paler. Xiao Wan watched and sympathized with him, but she could not say nothing to console him. There was nothing she could do about their situation.

    No one knew that, despite Arwa''s pale expression, he was still as determined as ever. He knew that this was the time for them to persevere.

    ________________

    Ye Chong yed around with the dimension keystone in his hand. Kui had said that Celest''s dimension keystone had other uses.

    The dimension keystone was a fine thing. The Research Consortium did not specialize in spatial science, but they had some incredible results. This dimension keystone had incorporated almost everything they knew in spatial science, including the most practical ability of dimension storage. This dimension keystone was the epitome of dimension storage technology.

    The Research Consortium had only began to dabble with spatial science when it was the field''s golden age in He Yue Gxy. The Three Aristocratic Families had focused mainly on mech dimension keystone technology, but the Research Consortium chose to study dimension storage.

    The Three Aristocratic Families had prospered due to their choice of specialization. The Research Consortium, however, were not rewarded for their efforts in the field. Nevertheless, their dimension storage technology was also one of a kind, like Celest''s dimension keystone.

    Celest''s dimension keystone could be used to storerge objects. It was more advancedpared to the dimension keystones designed by the Three Aristocratic Families. In terms of storage, the keystone had its own interesting features. The dimension keystone technology that the Three Aristocratic Families worked on were based on a one-on-one rtionship - a dimension keystone can only be linked to one mech.

    The Research Consortium''s dimension storage technology was based on one-to-many rtionships. This meant that the same dimension keystone could be linked to multiple objects, and transfer them into the alternate dimension.

    Dimension storage technology was in some sense a very useful mechanism. However, the cost was high, and the new approach meant that they were not able to establish stable one-to-many rtionships for dimension storage just yet. Later on, the field matured, resulting in well established dimension storage technologies today. However, the Research Consortium had missed the opportunity to surpass the Three Aristocratic Families by then.

    Ye Chong did not know how much stuff this inconspicuous metal ring could hold.

    He found that, the better something was, the more people liked to make them look mediocre.

    No one would have guessed that the inconspicuous metal ring was such a priceless treasure.

    Ye Chong began to search theb.

    Kui had said that theb was the center of all research in the Research Consortium since its founding. This ce was home to the best products of every generation of Consortium members. Ye Chong tranted that to mean that everything in theb was gold.

    He started out by picking them out slowly, but in the end found that there were too many things here, and he did not recognize most of them. The ring on his finger did not so much as beeped, like it was a ck hole. He decided then to just store everything away into the ring. He did not know how many things he had taken in the end, much less what they were.

    However, there was one thing he could be sure of - they were all good stuff.

    He even took away all the equipment in theb.

    He also threw away his bag and put his belongings into the ring. It was safer that way, after all.

    Ye Chong was like a locust gue, scouring the ce clean. Theb was huge, and despite moving quickly, it still took him awhile to clear all the things inside. These were things umted over hundreds of years by the Research Consortium! Later, Ye Chong worked almost mechanically. Where at first he would be pleasantly surprised when he recognized something useful, he now worked without thinking.

    He stopped abruptly, and looked in front of him.

    There was a ck circle floating not far ahead of him. He had reached a corner of theb without knowing it.

    The ck circle was almost identical to the one he had seen before. The first two times he saw the ck circle, unpleasant things followed. In the fIrst time, he nearly died in the underground cave of an attack, and the second time he had saw a red-tailed beast appeared.

    He recalled what Kui had said. They had first found teardrop mineralite and an unstable spatial window right here.

    Could this be the unstable spatial window?

    Ye Chong knew nothing of spatial science. He did not even know what a spatial window was. His mind was filled with questions.

    What was beyond the spatial window?

    The ck circle hovered eerily in theb.

    Ye Chong decided to circle around the ck circle. Who knew if it was dangerous!

    Best to be careful.

    Ye Chong wanted to go around the ck circle because he saw more things in the corner. He wanted to keep those things in his ring too. The circle looked eerie, but Ye Chong thought he should be safe if he left it alone. After all, the circle had been here for years. If it was dangerous, the Research Consortium would have put safety measures in ce.

    Ye Chong walked around the ck circle without incident.

    He looked down and began to go through the items in the corner. It was a secluded corner, the things there were already gathering a thickyer of dust, a sharp contrast to the sparkling clean outlook of the other parts of theb. This was curious. He did not pull all the things into his ring right away, but crouched down to inspect them instead.

    At that moment, unbeknownst to him, the ck circle behind him began to alter.

    The ck circle began to expand, then contract, expand, contract ¡­

    It pulsed rhythmically like a human heart without a sound. Ye Chong was absorbed in whatever was in his hands at the moment and did not notice anything amiss behind him. He was surprised at what he found. The object he had in his hands was strange. He had never seen anything like it.

    A light blue colored fungus grew on a pink colored colloid object.

    The fungus looked weird. It had thin tendrils, like human hair. The tendrils did not lie down, but instead swayed in the air like seaweed in water. Ye Chong did not recognize this organism. Lunatic Guan''s chip had no records of anything like it.

    Could this be some new species?

    Ye Chong carefully brushed away the dust and took the entire rubbery object.

    Behind him, the ck circle had switched from pulsation to gradual expansion. The two-dimensional ck circle now expanded like a balloon towards it surroundings.

    Ye Chong put the pink colored colloid and the unknown blue fungus into his ring and stood up.

    Suddenly, his vision turned ck.

    The ck circle had swallowed him whole. Immediately after, the darkness began to shrink inwards, growing smaller and smaller.

    Right after he finished modifying his engine to run on teardrop mineralite, Shang noticed that he had lost contact with Ye Chong. By then, the ck circle was already a ck dot in the air. It exploded in a bright light and disappeared.

    Shang gasped, "Ye!" He was out of the modification workshop in an instant.

    When he reached theboratory, it was already empty.

    Shang searched like crazy for Ye Chong around the entire base, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Ye Chong had simply vanished into thin air.

    ________________

    Ye Chong only felt his vision darkened. He fainted in the next moment.

    When Ye Chong opened his eyes again, he was stunned!

    All around him was arge stretch of greenery. This was a forest. Therge girth of the trees told him that this was a well preserved primary forest.

    How could this be? There was no forest on Spectre! Ye Chong had asked Shang to scan the entire before he set foot on Spectre. They found no signs of life on that barren.

    Now, he found himself in the middle of a dense forest.

    What happened? What had happened to him? Ye Chong looked at his hands in disbelief. The ring was still on his finger. The pink colored colloid and blue hairy fungus that he kept at thest minute were also intact.

    Ye Chong tried to withdraw Celest.

    The bio-mech appeared before Ye Chong. Its tall figure gave Ye Chong a sense of control and security.

    Just as he felt the tension eased, he realized abruptly that he had lost contact with Shang. That made him panic. He tried desperately to call to Shang, but got no reply.

    About 10 minutester, he gave up trying. There was no reply from the mech. He knew that he was separated from Mu and Shang once again.

    Ye Chong felt horrible.

    It felt worse than thest time. Much, much worse.

    How did hee to this ce? How did he got separated from Shang? He knew nothing about his situation. He knew nothing, and he had nothing to work with. This made him felt terrible about it, since he did not know how to find Mu and Shang now.

    Two hourster, Ye Chong finally picked himself up. It was very rare for Ye Chong to be affected for so long.

    He set aside the issue of Mu and Shang. His priority right now was to find out where he was.

    He withdrew Celest and climbed into its pilot cabin.

    Celest''s appearance had changed a lot after taking in the teardrop mineralite. The only thing that remained the same was his solemn face. Ye Chong gave the order for the bio-photon processor to activate its scanning system.

    Celest opened its eyes for the first time.

    This was a huge forest. Animals were abound. However, Ye Chong did not recognize any of them. He also found that the forest was divided clearly into two regions.

    A dark and thick mist separated the forest into two parts - one was full of light, and the other was under the dark shade of the mist.

    The dark mist seemed to produce a strong electrical interference. Celest could not probe the dark region.

    "Unidentified flying object found," the bio-photon processor announced suddenly.

    ¡­

    Today was Ban Meng''s first day flying. As a beginner who had just passed his test, he could only fly in the beginner ss Wood Kite. He was not bothered by it, however, since he could only afford a Wood Kite. His dream was to fly, high up into the sky. As a physically robust but mentally simple fellow, flying was not an easy task.

    Ban Meng was strong and muscr. No one would challenge him in a fight. However, he was severelycking when it came to parapsychic abilities. He would not have had the skills to pilot a Wood Kite without working as hard as he did.

    Ban Meng was the lowest end model for beginners. It had the shape of a bird, and was made up of 125 pieces of splitbark wood.

    Ban Meng carefully maneuvered the trackball. His parapsychic senses were so weak that he could just barely fly the Wood Kite with the lowest end control device that was the trackball.

    When Ban Meng was a kid, he had once saw a some airshow pilots execute all kinds of air performance tricks. Ever since then, Ban Meng began to dream of flying one day.

    To fly, he would have to get a flying license. He had not heard of anyone who could fly without the aid of some aircraft. Even the strongest parapsychic could not do that. However, when little Ban Meng found a dream for himself, he was told that he had no talent in parapsychic abilities.

    His own history proved that beyond doubt. He was physically strong, much stronger than his peers. However, he had no talent whatsoever in parapsychic abilities. Even though little Ban Meng was simple minded, he was also very stubborn. Fortunately, his family was able, not too poor, and could ept his chosen direction in life.

    In school, Ban Meng was teased by his ssmates. It was simply too funny to see a 17-year-old only just cleared to fly a Wood Kite!

    All the aircrafts operated on the same principle - the pilot flies their vessel with a trackball. Usually, a qualified pilot would have to satisfy two requirements. Firstly, the pilot must be skillful enough in parapsychic control and aircraft maneuvering. Secondly, the pilot''s physical condition must be able to withstand the act of flying. Ban Meng had no trouble with the second requirement. He was strong as a horse. Even his teachers advised him to switch tobat ss.

    It was the pilot''s parapsychic strength that controlled the trackball. This was Ban Meng''s greatest weakness. Despite all the effort he put in, he did not have enough inborn talent. If anything, he had only upgraded himself from a weak afterglow to a tiny candle in a huge room.

    Nheless, he did not give up. His teachers sympathized with him and were often lenient. It was simply unfortunate that parapsychic abilitywas an innate talent that could hardly be improved by one''s efforts.

    Little by little, Ban Mengbored his way to sess, as he finally earned the license to fly a Wood Kite.

    The Wood Kite wobbled as it flew. Ban Meng was in its pilot cabin, tensed all over. He was focused entirely on controlling the trackball. He knew that he was already way off course.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong saw the odd aircraft. It looked like it was made of some kind of wood, which was weird. Such a primitive aircraft can only be found in museums where he came from. The gray colored wooden panels formed the aircraft. Ye Chong thought it was strange since the wooden structure looked terribly unsafe to fly in.

    A wooden structure could not withstand high speed flight, since it had very low endurance.

    Ye Chong also found it odd that, while the aircraft was not moving very quickly, it was already stretching the limits of the wooden structure.

    Ye Chong considered the aircraft for a moment, and decided to bring it down first.

    Zing!

    An auto lock-on shuriken shot out of Celest''s weapons pack and flew straight towards therge wooden bird.

    Bullseye.

    There was a loud sound of impact.

    The wooden bird disintegrated into pieces midair. Next, Ye Chong saw a man in the middle of the wooden scraps, free falling and screaming for his life.

    Zing! Another shuriken spinned its way towards the man.

    ¡­

    Ban Meng waspletely caught off guard by the attack. He did not know why his Wood Kite suddenly went into pieces in the air. Was he cheated by the aircraft trader? He was furious by the thought!

    However, he was swallowed in panic in the next moment. He felt himself falling and began to scream without knowing it. The wind bellowed loudly in his ears. He could not hear anything else. There was only one thought on his mind - he''s dead! He was going to die!

    Just when all hope seemed lost, he felt a force on his neck, like something was pulling him backwards!

    Wham! There was a low rumble, and he felt all the wind forced out of his chest.

    Bang! There was pain on his back. He had hit on a tree branch.

    Before he could scream again, another strong force gripped on his shirt, suffocating him. His body shook, and his fall was stopped forcefully.

    The entire incident caught him off guard. He was only an ordinary 17 year old teenager, untrained for situations like these. He was still confused about what had happened to him.

    When he gathered himself, he found himself hanging high up in the air.

    He was more than a dozen meters above the ground. The discovery scared the life out of him. He could not help but prayed, "Dear God, please help me!"

    Fortunately, his position seemed to be rtively stable, and thatforted him. Now more in control of himself, Ban Meng decided to try to get himself down to the ground as soon as possible. Falling down from this height would definitely kill him!

    He looked down again and noticed that somewhere down there, a ck haired man was studying the broken wooden parts of his Wood Kite.

    "What''s so interesting about a Wood Kite?" Ban Meng thought to himself.

 Chapter 514 - Ban Meng

    <h4>Chapter 514: Ban Meng</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Huh, that''s not right, maybe this person saved me?" Ban Meng realized then that he did not know how he came to stop falling. He looked behind him and was shocked by what he found.

    A huge, ck colored nail or something had pinned him onto a tree through his clothing.

    Ban Meng swallowed with difficulty. He felt a chill running down his neck. If the ck object had been off course by an inch, his head would have been gone.

    Perhaps this person had really saved him. Ban Meng considered it for a moment. He may look like a brute, but he was capable of being reflective.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong studied the broken wooden parts of the wooden bird thing. He was surprised, having never seen any aircraft like this one. The gray colored wood felt light in his hand, but they were tough material. He knew this from their pieces on the ground. The parts may all be disassembled, but each wooden part was still undamaged.

    This, to Ye Chong, was iprehensible. Ye Chong had used his first shuriken in attack mode. It was a powerful weapon, capable of tearing through normal mechs. Even advanced mechs would not be left unscathed.

    This wooden bird, however, still had all its wooden pieces intact despite losing its structure. The material was strong, that much was clear.

    Ye Chong tried to bend one of the wooden boards with his hands.

    ¡­

    Ban Meng saw something he had never seen before. The man down below was bending a five-centimeter thick splitbark wood into a semi-circr arch with ease.

    How - how was that possible?

    Ban Meng stared with bulging eyes, speechless. He had never heard of anyone capable of doing that. He could almost hear the sharp creaking sound from the bent splitbark wood.

    This was too scary! Was this man from the wild or something?

    Crack! The splitbark wood in the man''s hands broke into two.

    Ban Mang stared at the man below like he was a monster. He had no words to describe what he was seeing!

    ¡­

    Ye Chong frowned. The wood was hard! Harder than normal alloy, in fact. No wonder it was used to build the aircraft. The material was strong enough. Ye Chong knew exactly how strong he can be. His force just now would have broken an average alloy panel into pieces.

    The gray colored wood in his hands had broken into two, the edges in an almost uniform zigzag line.

    "This is a suitable material to build a mech," Ye Chong thought to himself. It was strong enough, and more importantly, it was lighter than skeletons. A mech that was built from this material would be very powerful.

    On the other hand, he did not know about the other properties of this wooden material. He would need specialized equipment to study it. Physical properties of the material were only the beginning in the list of things to check before deciding if it was suitable for mechs.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong saw a spherical object amidst the heap of wooden material.

    Huh? What was that?

    It looked a lot like the bio-photon processor in Celest''s pilot cabin, although thetter was more transparent. Ye Chong picked up the object and immediately noticed another difference. The bio-photon processor was fluid, almost like liquid, but this semi-transparent ball was hard, like a kind of mineral.

    "What''s this?" Ye Chong lifted the round object in his hand and looked up at Ban Meng.

    Ban Meng answered reflexively, "A trackball!"

    He suddenly realized that the man was actually looking at him, so he cried out, "My hero, please let me down!" He smiled in a ttering manner. This man he was dealing with was definitely no ordinary person. He was probably a sharpshooter. Ban Meng had heard that experts usually behave weirdly. He did not want to be on the wrong side of this man.

    Hero? Ye Chong suddenly thought of Kui. Kui had called him that. However, the man with a big heart had already returned to the ashes, full of regret and dissatisfaction.

    The thought reminded him of his being separated from Mu and Shang, and that squashed whatever curiosity he was feeling right then.

    Ban Meng suddenly felt some movement from his shirt. He looked back and was shocked! The ck nail thing was moving like an animal, trying to get itself out of the tree.

    "Aaaahh - !" Ban Meng shrieked with his piercing voice. The ck nail thing released itself from the tree. Ban Meng felt the pull from behind him loosen, and then began to fall.

    Ye Chong took a nce at the screaming Ban meng and caught him easily.

    Ban Meng had his eyes shut and was still screaming shrilly. It was such a sharp voice that even Ye Chong could not handle it. He pushed, and Ban Meng was flung away like a sandbag, his scream following him.

    Ye Chong focused back on the semi-transparent ball in his hand. What was this trackball thing for? Ye Chong could not figure it out.

    Ban Meng finally found solid ground directly under his feet, even though it was a puddle of mud. He stopped screaming and stole a careful nce at the man. He must be very strong, to throw him away so easily. It would take an expert to do that.

    "What is the trackball for?" Ye Chong asked simply without looking at Ban Meng, but his tone demandedpliance.

    "To control the Wood Kite," Ban Mang answered carefully. "Are you testing me? You''re testing me withmon knowledge? You think I''m retarded?" Ban Meng thought with reproach.

    "So it''s called Wood Kite," Ye Chong thought to himself. More questions came to him - how was this trackball used to control the aircraft. Was it a new kind of photon processor?

    Ye Chong could not understand it at all. It seemed that he would have to rely on the young man before him.

    "What''s your name?"

    "Ban Meng," Ban Meng replied. He had never thought of himself as timid, but whenever he looked into the man''s eyes, he would shudder involuntarily.

    "Where is this?" Ye Chong looked around him, apletely unfamiliar ce to him. He knew nothing about this ce. This was definitely not somewhere he had been before.

    "It''s Duality Forest, of course," Ban Meng said with a pout.

    "Duality Forest?" Ye Chong searched his memory, but could not find anything close to it. Through Celest, he had seen how the forest was divided into two by a dark mist. That must be where the name came from.

    "Where''s the nearest city?" Ye Chong asked. If he could find the nearest city, he would be able to find out his exact location. All his problems would be solved then.

    "Yedda," Ban Mang answered cautiously.

    Ye Chong frowned. Another city he had never heard of. He had a bad feeling about this.

    Seeing Ye Chong frowning made Ban Meng''s heart skipped a beat.

    "You, lead the way," Ye Chong pulled Ban Meng up and said. Ban Meng was lost. He did not know what to do next.

    "Directions, now," Ye Chong said without expression.

    Ban Meng felt his heart skipped another beat. He quickly said, "To the west, just go straight to the west, cross a river, and you''ll arrive at the city."

    Ye Chong withdrew Celest, which was hidden somewhere out of view. He then pulled Ban Meng along and began to run.

    "Waah!" Ban Meng''s piercing scream started again. Birds flew out from the treetops, startled.

    Ban Meng saw the trees went past him in a breeze. The headwind was strong enough to keep his eyes from openingfortably. He was utterly shocked!

    Fast! They were too fast!

    He shuddered. How could any human move so fast? This was faster than him in his Wood Kite. Moreover, the man leaping from tree to tree so deftly that it was just hard to believe.

    Ban Meng could not describe his feelings right then. His mind drew a nk. Ye Chong carried him by the waist, so he was facing downwards. The ground drew close and retreated repeatedly as they advanced.

    After a short while, he was beginning to feel nauseous, so he shut his eyes.

    Gradually, he calmed down. He realized that the man was not actually aggressive. At the very least, he did not hurt him.

    "Is it this one?"

    Ban Meng opened his eyes and saw a huge river. It was about a hundred meters wide. The current was strong, bringing up waves on the banks. The river was lined with trees, and the shore was made up of weathered oval stones.

    Ban Meng stared in disbelief. How was this possible? How were they already here at Raging Waters?

    In Wood Kite, he would need at least two hours to reach this river. How did this man arrive here in half an hour? Was he using an aircraft?

    Ban Meng''s eyes instinctively went to Ye Chong''s legs, and saw only a pair of daggers.

    He looked back up at Ye Chong. The man''s face was still devoid of expression, as though the demanding journey did not affect him at all. Even his breathing was even.

    "Is it this one?" Ye Chong looked calmly at Ban Meng and repeated his question.

    Ban Meng''s eyes met Ye Chong''s, and his heart squeezed.

    He was about to reply when Ye Chong seemed to notice something, then abruptly threw him to the side.

    Ye Chong turned around quickly and looked.

    In front of him was a strange animal that he had never seen before. It was the size of a cow, and had two red eyes that gleamed ferociously. Three legs supported its body, and one of it was stepping on a rock. On its head was a curved horn, ck with rings of yellow on it. On its back was a tail, covered with spikes.

    "A tribos!" Ban Meng cried with a trembling voice.

    They were doomed! He never imagined they would encounter a tribos. This was sheer bad luck! Ban Meng felt hopeless. Only a full armed shooter could triumph against this fierce creature. The animal can move very quickly, and no human was a match against it.

    The leg of the tribos that was stepping on a rock suddenly pushed, and the animal lunged at the man.

    Ban Meng wanted to close his eyes, but he was not fast enough even for that.

    What happened next happened so fast that he could not react in time to them.

    The man''s figure blurred.

    Strip! There was a soft but clear sound, like paper shredding.

    The man appeared behind the tribos out of nowhere. Ban Meng did no see how he got there, even though his eyes never closed.

    St! The tribos, which was already in midair during its lunge, fell heavily on the river bank.

    The tribosy on the river bank unmoving, like it was dead. From where Ban Meng was, he could see a thin line of blood on the tribos'' neck.

    A few secondster, blood sprayed out of the wound like a burst from a high pressure pipe. The pebbles on the bank were dyed red.

    Ban Meng stroked his own neck unconsciously as he watched.

    This incident was not even worth mentioning for Ye Chong. The so-called tribos was the typical example of an enemy that was all bark but no bite. Be it in terms of speed, strength or strategy, the creature was far more inferiorpared to the red-tailed beast.

    He walked to Ban Meng and said, "Where to next?"

    So cool! That was so cool! Ban Meng could worship this man like he would a God. He believed that even their own expert shooters would not be able to kill a tribos so easily when unarmed.

    An idol, definitely an idol! Ban Meng could see the halo above the man''s head.

    Sweep! He felt a strong force moving him, and then he was sent flying.

    Ssh! He traced an arch in the air andnded in the river. All the fanciful thoughts he had were thrown out the window.

    "Waaahh - Save me! There''s man-eating fish in here -"

    ¡­

    They finally reached their destination.

    Ye Chong looked up at the strange city before him.

    The sky was busy with all kinds of aircrafts flying around. The aircrafts were odd. Even Ye Chong with all his experience with mechs had never seen anything like them. Some of the aircrafts looked like the one Ban Meng was in.

    The people in the streets threw suspicious looks at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was wearing something unusual. He was also carrying Ban Meng, who was drenched and covered with mud and grass. It was hard to go unnoticed like that. Ye Chong looked around him and realized the problem immediately.

    "Where''s your house?" Ye Chong dumped Ban Meng on the ground.

    "My house?" Ban Meng jerked like he was electrocuted. "What''re you thinking, man? Look, we don''t know each other very well. I answered everything you asked about, I cooperated, and didn''t give you any trouble. So why don''t you just let me go ¡­"

    Ban Meng was almost crying as he pleaded. Ye Chong''s actions informed had him that it was in his best interest to cooperate, and that was what he did. He was afraid that Ye Chong would harm his family, so he could only beg for mercy.

    "I''ll be staying with you for awhile," Ye Chong said, sinct as ever.

    "Staying with me?" Ban Meng was surprised. He looked Ye Chong up and down, but found the man looking back without any sense of embarrassment at all. He recalled how strong the man was, and forced down whatever words of rejection he wanted to say.

    "How long?" Ban Meng asked carefully, He would not want a troublemaker in his home. Besides, it would be hard to make him leaveter.

    Ye Chong thought about it for a moment. "Three months."

    "Three months!" That was too much for Ban Meng. "No way, bro, my family is poor. Why don''t you try asking the rich people? They have more than enough to spare, and with your abilities, I don''t think they''ll even think of rejecting you ¡­ " Ban Meng was pleased at himself foring up with that one. He was never one for being smooth with words. Perhaps the day''s adventure had triggered something in him.

    Ye Chong said nothing. He only raised an eyebrow and eyed Ban Meng''s throat for a bit.

    Ban Meng felt a chill that ran down to the depth of his soul. Visions of the tribos with its red eyes and bleeding neck came back to him, and he shuddered involuntarily.

    Heavens! How could he have forgotten who he was dealing with?

    Ban Mang panicked. This was his first time dealing with someone so strong, and did not know what to do now. However, he did not want to bring Ye Chong back to his house. The man spelt danger!

    Ban Meng tried to speak up about it, but when he saw the man''s eyes turned colder and colder, he blurted out, "No problem! No problem at all!" The moment the words came out, Ban Meng wanted to p himself.

    "Lead the way," Ye Chong said without expression and turned away, his eyes shing with a hint of mischief. The truth was, if the young man had really rejected him, Ye Chong would not really kill him. He would make him suffer a bit, though.

    Ye Chong suddenly felt like he was one of those antagonists in the movies that Shang told him about. This made him miss Shang again. The mech was annoying like hell, but Ye Chong thought of Mu and Shang like his brothers. No one would hate their own sibling for being annoying.

    "I wonder how they''re doing?" Ye Chong wondered with a sigh.

    _____________________________________________________________

    Shang had ordered for the entire fleet tond on Spectre. Ye Chong had vanished from the base, so the source of the problem must be around there somewhere. Shang would not leave without getting some answers.

    Besides, the underground city had plenty of resources and was well hidden. It was perfect for their hideout.

    Shang had also ordered for the remains of the mechs and red-tailed beasts on Spectre to be dealt with. After a sandstorm, all traces of the battle between both sides were gone.

    The widely praised fleet led by Jay vanished silently, just like that. People thought that they perished in the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    ________________________________________________________________

    Arwa''s fleet survived the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. Although his fleet suffered heavily, it did not stop him from bing a legend!

    Many people requested to join his fleet, and his reputation rose to a whole new level.

    He did not know that right after he made the warp jump, a group of people were hidden on the nearby Spectre, watching their every move.

    Everyone thought that Jay, a man who could potentially be a legend, had vanished along with his mysterious fleet in the vast expanse of outer space.

    Who knew when they would reappear again?

    _______________________________________________________

    Ban Meng led the way listlessly, ignoring the strange looks he was getting from the people on the streets.

    "As long as you cooperate, your family will be safe," Ye Chong said inly. His abilities backed his words.

    Ban Meng jolted in reassurance, but quickly lost his optimism. He cursed inside, "F*ck, my family be safer if you''re not around!"

    He did not say them out loud, however. He led the way with a slouch.

    Ye Chong studied his surroundings with interest. Everything here was new to him. He saw no metals around him. Most of the things were made of wood. As a result, the buildings were not tall. Most of them reached up to three storeys only.

    "Why is there no metal here?" Ye Chong asked Ban Meng.

    Ban Meng replied offhandedly, "Metal? What''s that?"

    Ye Chong had nothing to say to that. He considered the problem, and held out his dagger for Ban Meng to see, "Something like this."

    "They''re heavy!" Ban Meng took the daggers and studied them closely. "This dagger''s material is strange, so heavy ¡­" He put this hand to the sharp edge of the dagger.

    Ye Chong wanted to warn him, but he was toote.

    A drop of blood bled out from his finger. He hissed. "It''s sharp!"

    "What is this? Why is it so sharp?" Ban Meng looked more lively now and asked Ye Chong curiously.

    "You''ve never seen it before?" Ye Chong asked.

    "No, never," Ban Meng replied with certainty.

    Were there really no metals around here? Ye Chong found it iprehensible. Metals are everywhere. Even Archipgo, the secluded backwater, had metals. How could there be no metals here? Was it because there were no metal ores, or because the people here had not learned how to extract metals from the ores?

 Chapter 515 - This World Is Too Dangerous

    <h4>Chapter 515: This World Is Too Dangerous</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    As Ye Chong considered the issue, he saw Ban Mang toying his dagger with great interest. He said calmly, "The dagger, you can have it."

    "Really?" Ban Meng was overjoyed.

    "Yes." Ye Chong still wore an emotionless expression, but Ban Meng felt like kissing the man. Ye Chong''s daggers were not top of the line, but were in fact only extras. Guardian''s daggers were first ss, but since he had given Guardian to Rui Bing, he could not possibly keep the daggers for himself.

    "Then what do you use for cutting here?"

    "Laser des." Ban Meng now had a different impression of Ye Chong. Thetter looked like a careless man, but was in fact quite observant. Since he gifted him such a precious item, the man must not mean harm to him, else he would not have offered this unnecessary gesture. After all, their different in strength was too great. Ban Meng now paid more attention to Ye Chong''s questions, but he could not help but wonder - did this man know nothing at all?

    "Laser des? Let me see one."

    Ban Meng fished out a block that was about two fingers wide.

    Ye Chong took it and studied the thing. His fingers wrappedfortably around the block, which was probably made of some kind of unknown type of wood. The block was about 10 centimeters long, and a centimeter thick. It was in a light green color, with a hook on one end and a green colored rock near it. On the other end was a red button.

    This was aser sword!

    Ye Chong recognized it instantly. The green rock must be the energy source, while the red button would activate the sword. Ye Chong pressed the red button. As expected, a white coloredser shot out from the other end, long and thin like a sword.

    The whiteser sword looked solid. The edges of theser were well defined.

    Ye Chong crouched down and traced theser de lightly on the ground. He did not feel any resistance in his hand, but the ground already had a deep mark in it.

    What a powerfulser sword! Ye Chong''s face betrayed nothing, but he was shocked inside.

    Laser swords were not exactly high tech stuff. Ye Chong had used them before. Nevertheless, there were technical difficulties with making them, such as controlling the energy channelled into the weapon and the focusing of this energy. The more focused theser energy was, the clearer the edges of theser sword. This would result in better and cleaner cutting results.

    These technical difficulties had long gued the improvement ofser swords. Based on what Ye Chong knew, noser sword could be focused so urately. This was why most advanced mechs preferred ally swords instead of theirser counterparts.

    Besides, whenser swords were used in battle, the materializedser de itself could be unstable. However, when Ye Chong tried to cut the ground with theser de he had, the de did not waver at all.

    This was a highly advancedser de!

    "Hey, you two, you''re destroying public property. That''s a penalty of 30 ao!" An old woman in a red shirt approached them menacingly.

    Ye Chong turned and looked at the olddy.

    Ban Meng could feel his head explode. Heavens! How could he be so careless? This olddy''s going to die! If the man was offended, then ¡­

    Ban Meng could see the bloody aftermath in his head. Blood would color the streets today.

    "Whatcha looking at? What? You gonna argue? Lemme tell ya, this grandma''s been here on the streets since 30 years ago, hehe, and I''ve never seen anyone make trouble here! You''re too young to mess with me, little boys," the old woman red at them as she pulled up her sleeves, showing the tattoo of a green dragon on the wrinkled skin of her arms.

    F*ck! They''re truly f*cked now! Ban Meng lost all hope he had. He knew that the stranger from the woods was not open for negotiations. The tribos was killed like it cost him nothing. How would he stand being scolded like this? The legendary characters of great strength had always killed whenever it pleased them. They treated life like it was worth nothing at all.

    If this man started a massacre, his life was over! Heavens, whichever deity was listening, please save him!

    "Money, get your money."

    Ban Meng kept his eyes shut. He dared not watch. It would turn bloody, for sure.

    "Get your money!"

    Huh, wasn''t that the voice of that cold hearted man? Ban Meng realized, and opened his eyes.

    The first thing he saw was Ye Chong tilting his head at him and calmly signalling for him to pay up.

    The old woman was still ring at them. Ban Meng quickly said, "Alright alright alright! Money! Money!" Ban Meng quickly took them out of his wallet.

    It was unexpected, really, that the man was actually not as bad as he thought. Ban Meng had heard of how famous experts usually a bad temper and would intimidate the weak.

    "Hmph, that''s more like it," the old woman snatched the money off Ban Meng''s hands and stuffed a penalty ticket into them.

    Ye Chong did not seem to be perturbed by the incident. He turned to Ban Meng and said, "Let''s go."

    Ban Meng stole nces at Ye Chong as they made their way to the former''s house. He could not figure out the cold stranger.

    The two of them travelled the rest of journey in silence.

    "Well, here we are," Ban Meng said in a whisper. It was a three-storey building, with a courtyard about 200 square meters wide.

    Ban Meng pushed through the door and announced, "I''m back."

    "Meng Meng is back! Why''re you back sote today?" A woman''s voice asked from inside the house. She came to the door, and turned out ot be a beautiful middle aged woman. She wore an apron, with her hair tied up into a high bun. She was surprised to see Ban Meng''s sorry state. "What happened? Weren''t you flying with your Wood Kite today? How''d you end up like this? Did something go wrong while you''re flying?"

    "That d*mned store keeper, he sold me a spoiled one, it disassembled while I was in the air!

    Ban Meng exined through gritted teeth. He did no know that his Wood Kite was destroyed by the cold man behind him.

    "Long as you''re okay!" Ban Meng''s mother got a small towel to clean his face.

    When she was done, she noticed Ye Chong. "This is ¡­"

    "He''s a ssmate. His parents are outstation, so I asked him to stay with us in the meantime." Ban Meng lied easily with his eyes open. Ye Chong was surprised.

    "Aunty," Ye Chong greeted her politely.

    "Come in,e in! We''ll dly have you, make yourself at home, don''t be shy!" Ban Meng''s mother had never seen his strange outfit before, but she greeted Ye Chong warmly. Ye Chong''s expression had changed by then. The lines on his face no longer looked so cold and hard. Instead, his face had softened, and hisnky figure gave the impression of a bookish young man.

    Ban Meng stared a Ye Chong in disbelief. He could not understand how the cold stranger could conjure up this image of a meek young man, like he was simply harmless.

    Ye Chong ignored the stare he was getting from Ban Meng and followed thetter''s mother into the house.

    It was hard to discern if the furnishings in the house were of what quality or style, and Ye Chong could only ignore all the unfamiliar things lying around. Now was not the time to investigate them.

    He sat quietly like a well behaved young man.

    Dinner was sumptuous. Ban Meng''s father was always busy with work, so he ate with some haste.

    They gave Ye Chong a room of his own.

    When it was only him and Ban Meng together upstairs, Ye Chong quickly pulled Ban Meng into his room. It was only then that Ban Meng saw traces of the man who could kill a man, no, kill a tribos, without blinking.

    "What do you want?" Ban Meng tried to stay calm.

    "I have a question," the meek young man now looked like the cold stranger he first came to know.

    "What is it?"

    Well, where should he even begin? Ye Chong was troubled. Everything here was unfamiliar to him. He remembered Ban Meng''s Wood Kit then, and thought - safety first!

    First, he needed to know who or what could pose a threat to him.

    "Who''s the strongest person here?"

    "Strongest? You mean Yedda. Well, let me think, it should be Duo Ka. He''s a Level 6 shooter!" Ban Meng said uncertainly after some thought.

    "Shooter? What''s a shooter?" Ye Chong continued with his questions.

    "Heavens, boss, are you from outer space? Don''t you know what a shooter is?" Ban Meng shouted unnecessarily loudly. He quickly quieted down at Ye chong''s raised eyebrow.

    "Err, how do I exin a shooter? Shooters, they have the strongest parapsychic control. They shoot without missing, the strongest warriors in the world," Ban Meng exined the best he could.

    Ye Chong had an inkling now. They were long range fighters. It should not be surprising, given how advanced they were inser tech. Ye Chong frowned at the thought, however. If theirser tech was so advanced, theirser guns must be very powerful. Close range mech pilots dreaded the threat posed by long range mechs and their weapons.

    What was parapsychic control, though?

    "What is a parapsychic, hmm, how should I put it? If you have parapsychic abilities, you can use it to control aircrafts and even weapons." Ban Meng waved around as he exined, but did not quite exin the concept.

    "Demonstrate it for me," Ye Chong said.

    Ban Meng blushed at his own ipetence in parapsychic control, and said with difficulty, "My - my parapsychic sense is too weak."

    "I see," Ye Chong switched topics, "Do you have weapons here?"

    "Weapons?" Ban Meng jolted in surprised. "What are you nning?"

    "I want to see them." Ye Chong thought Ban Meng''s overreaction was weird.

    "I don''t even have the lowest level flying license, how can I have any weapons? To own a weapon, you have to obtain at least an intermediate level flying license. Your parapsychic control must also be above Level 4. More powerful weapons will have stricter requirements," Ban Meng exined.

    "Where can we get the weapons?" Ye Chong asked.

    Ban Meng shook his head. "You don''t have a license, people won''t even sell them to you."

    "I can steal," Ye Chong said easily. He was surprised that weaponry was controlled strictly here. Where he came from, mechs could be bought anywhere and by anyone.

    Poor Ban Meng looked pale. He swallowed heavily and said, "You really shouldn''t. Every weapons store has a judiciary police station right beside them. The officers are all very strong. Criminals are shot to shreds the moment theye close."

    "If that''s the case, we''ll need to n ordingly," Ye Chong seemed to consider the possibility.

    A madman! Definitely a madman! If this man really went to rob the weapons store, they will be in big trouble! Ban Meng quickly said, "No need to rush! I have a friend with single barrel heatgun, I''ll show you tomorrow."

    Ye Chong thought about that for a moment, then nodded, "Alright."

    "What level is the Wood Kite that you flew today?" Ye Chong thought of something else.

    Ban Meng blushed again "The lowest."

    Ye Chong nodded, thinking through the facts. The local technology was indeed unique. Even the lowest level aircraft could only be disassembled by his shuriken attack, and not be blown to bits. Ye Chong did not underestimate the Wood Kite or theser de he saw. On the contrary, he treated them cautiously. He did not know what else in this unfamiliar ce could threaten him.

    Besides, he still did not quite the whole parapsychic thing that Ban Meng talked about.

    "Get some rest." Ye Chong''s words sounded like a grant of mercy to Ban Meng.

    (The next day.)

    School, to Ye Chong, was a ce that was much easier to understand.

    They looked about the same no matter where he went. This particr school was not too big, but Ye Chong could see all kinds of aircrafts here. He could tell from Ban Meng talked about it that this school was only an average one, neither at the top nor at the bottom in ranking.

    He also noticed the way many students were giving Ban Meng mocking or condescending looks.

    "Do they not like you?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Probably," Ban Meng answered with affected casualness.

    "Why?"

    "No reason, other than the fact that I want to be a pilot despite being weak in parapsychic control." Ban Meng was used to his situation already, but Ye Chong could still make out the disappointment he felt in his voice.

    "Why not switch careers? You''re more suitable forbat," Ye Chong suggested.

    "Combat? What use is there forbat? It''s a useless skill," Ban Meng said disapprovingly.

    Useless? Ye Chong thought that was a strange assessment. Combat was not useless. Even in the Five Gxies where the profession was slowly disappearing,bat experts were still recognized as a treat for mech pilots. He Yue''s Ye Family and the Sang Tribe were even famous because of theirbat expertise. In the free space zone,bat and alchemy were the two most mainstream professions. This was the first time he had heard ofbat being described as useless.

    "Who told you that?"

    "Everyone in the world knows it. Parapsychic control is the only measure of one''s true strength. People without parapsychic control are useless," Ban Meng shook his head and said with confidence, "The weakest student club we have in school is thebat association. Hehe, it has only three members. Anyone from the shooting club can win against all three of them single-handedly."

    Ye Chong did not bother to argue for the advantages ofbat.

    Ye Chong followed Ban Meng into his ss, and Ban Meng could only go with the flow. The cold man would not follow his advice just yet. Ban Meng''s ssmates saw him bring a stranger into ss, and threw him looks of bafflement. Ban Meng could only brace himself and ignored them.

    "Hey, lil'' Ban Ban, you brought a friend?" A guy with a weird hairstyle approached them. On his scalp was a strip of hair running in the center from the front to back. The look he gave Ban Meng was not friendly.

    The guy turned to Ye Chong looked him over. "I say, brother, why''re you with this piece of sheet? You a piece of sheet too?"

    The ss roared withughter at that, and Ban Meng''s face flushed.

    Ye Chong looked like a bookish, meek student by all means. No one would have guessed the strength he had in him.

    "Watch your words, Duo Fei! Don''t think you''re so great just because your dad''s a Level 6 shooter, you''re just relying on your old man''s reputation!" Ban Meng talked back with a red face.

    Duo Fei''s father was Duo Ka, the only Level 6 shooter in Yedda city. Duo Fei had always been proud since he was young, and did not like people suggesting how he was only relying on his father. Duo Fei smiled coldly, "Okay, Ban Meng, I see that you''ve forgotten your ce in the short time since we''vest met. Hehe."

    He walked away with a cold smile after that.

    The other students in ss watched Ban Meng in surprise. They never imagined that Ban Meng would actually talk back, given his usual submissive behaviour. Little did they know that Ban Meng was actually afraid that the ignorant people around him would offend the ruthless stranger, so he went out of his way to prevent that from happening.

    Ye Chong and Ban Meng sat in thest row. Ye Chong was not interested in such childish confrontations, much less be offended by them. The way he saw it, if you had a problem with someone, you should just take him out, simple as that. A battle with words had no practical value.

    "Why didn''t you just fight him?" Ye Chong asked Ban Meng, and added, "You don''t have to look out for me."

    "Of course I wasn''t looking out for you!" Ban Meng cursed inside. Not even everyone in the ssbined was enough to bring down this man. Ban Meng was afraid that Ye Chong would kill everyone in school. He would be in so much trouble if that happened.

    "He''ll lose if he fights you," Ye Chong deduced from the two student''s physical outlook.

    "What''s the use of fighting? He has a license, and weapons. It''ll be easy for him to kill me," Ban Meng said, disagreeing with Ye Chong.

    "Then you should kill him first." Ye Chong''s words were a chilling reminder to Ban Meng that his decision to interfere earlier was the right one. This man had probably killed people, repeatedly.

    The teacher entered the ss right then. He was looked like an average joe, middle-aged.

    The teacher did not so much as nced at Ban Meng and his new friend before starting the ss.

    Today''s ss was on some techniques in parapsychic control.

    Ye Chong listened in for a while before realizing what parapsychic control actually was. Parapsychic control was very simr to the mental skills that mentalists had. Parapsychic control focused on concentration, but mentalist training emphasized more on a diffused way of mental control. Nevertheless, the two operated on the same principles.

    Knowing this, Ye Chong felt that he should be even more careful now. It was hard to predict the powers of skillful mentalists. He knew this from experience. How difficult would it be to fight against a professionally trainedbatant with mental abilities like these? Ye Chong could not be sure.

    This was a very dangerous world. He shouldy low and stay inconspicuous - that was Ye Chong''s first conclusion.

 Chapter 516 - Kristen

    <h4>Chapter 516: Kristen</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Student next to Ban Meng," said the teacher as the sharp eyes zapped to Ye Chong''s side abruptly, "Answer the question : Is Tertiary Control the optimum choice of all controlling methods? Justify your answer."

    Ye Chong collected his thoughts and gave his answer gradually, "No, I believe it is not, as Tertiary Control, despite its advantage of multiple connective control, is not as superior as Primary Control in terms of concentration and liberty, but I believe Tertiary Control is unique in its own way¡­," Ye Chong''s voice trailed off.

    Ban Mang''s eyes were wide as his jaw. The students were astounded, even Duo Fei had a brief astonishment in his disdain.

    "Right. Your understanding might be slightly different from the textbook answers, but you managed to provide us a brand new angle on this issue. Impressive,plimented the teacher.

    Ye Chong sat down calmly.

    "How the hell did you know that? You told me you don''t know parapsychic at all!" ranted Ban Meng the moment Ye Chong got himself seated.

    Keep acting! Keep acting you pretentious snob!

    red Ban Meng.

    "I just so happened to know it," replied Ye Chong casually. It was Huang Baiyi''s works, he wanted a fitting apprentice to be his sessor after all. It was a shame that Ye Chong did not have the necessary talent and more importantly, the interests to master the neurokine studies, even though Huang Baiyi pumped everything he had discovered all these years right into Ye Chong''s head. So Ye Chong was technically a genius on paper, but not in the neurokine battlefield.

    School day was long and it was finally over. Throughout the whole day, Ye Chong seemed to be the dead serious studentpared to Ban Meng. Other than the asional antisocial moments as he interacted with the other students, Ye Chong appeared to be the expert in other fields. It usually only took a keyword from the teacher before he made pronounced association with the technological system he had learned for years.

    One''s unfamiliarity in a field was mostly due to theck of association, the crossing point between two different systems, like technology and culture for example. Once the point had been found, Ye Chong had a much better understanding on the rules and regtions here.

    Well, the most helpful, as well as the most essential information should be the location - where exactly was Ye Chong? And how was he supposed to get back to He Yue from here? The sses were not a problem to Ye Chong but he had to get home one day.

    He gave it a thought and felt great suspicion of that ck disc, the distortion disc, the odd "spatial window phenomena" Kui imed. But how did it work? He had been walking around the edge for long yet something just had to happen at the worst timing.

    There must be something going on in there.

    Unfortunately, Ye Chong was not gifted in Space Science. The long chain reaction of Physics form were beyond hisprehension.

    So there remained one sole task at the moment - he had to make himself a part of this ce, as soon as possible, to ensure his survival before he made it back to He Yue at least. Then from there he would begin plotting an actual escape n or perhaps trying to contact Mu/Shang.

    The ss bell was wailing.

    "Come, I''ll show you the weapons," said Ban Meng, a little rxed upon seeing the hyperactive child beside him acting normal today.

    "Mhm." Ye Chong got up and followed Ban Meng to the otuisde.

    "Hmph." Duo Fei did not seem pleased of the two boys getting along.

    ¡­

    Sauntering on the street, Ye Chong was seemingly serene, without that panicked look-a-round when he first arrived at this city. Ban Meng, meanwhile, was ahead of him, appeared to be pondering as his head lowered.

    "Yup, we are here." They were at a rather quiet corner of the city. There was awn, or perhaps a garden, an isted ground from the hustles and bustles.

    That was when Ye Chong felt something.

    Beep!

    A silver crane flew towards them!

    Light grenades showered the ground.

    Ye Chong squinted his eyes as time began flowing slow. The world had be a slow-motion, the sound of light grenades faded out as his gaze converged upon the flying crane, on which fine linings like a spiderweb were formed.

    The Jie expert was leading the show today.

    That was Ye Chong''s exclusive move.

    He could discern every firing in his eyes, the orbits, the shapes - traveling like a logical, mathematical calction before him.

    The spiderweb vanished upon the breeze and his pupils rxed.

    Boom! Crash! Boom!

    The grenades bombarded the surrounding, veiling up the dust, smudging choking the two boys.

    "Duo Fei! Dang it!" said Ban Meng angrily. He recognized that crane! The Silver Arrow! He knew Duo Fei would seek revenge for the humiliation he got today!

    Good-for-nothing boy is sure good-for-nothing.

    Thought Ye Chong as he looked at the silver crane.

    Like really, if you have problem with Ban Meng or me, why don''t you just get down and fight immediately? Save both parties'' time, plus, this method of assassination could do barely a thing to us.

    Ye Chong did not really perform evasion, since as he had said, he would be hardly hurt by these grenade showers. Moreover, the smudge would give him a good camouge.

    "Which silly brat is messing up MY ce?" The thunderous voice bombarded , as a beauty with brownish long hair stood with a stomp behind them. She was wearing a leather camisole, revealing the bouncy pairs as well as the fair, lean long legs which contributed to her enchanting curves in that tight apparel. The crimson lips were clipping a lighted cigarette as her slim arm wielded a broad tube about her height.

    "Ugh!" She spat the cigarette, as she lifted the clearly heavy tube over her shoulders. Her eyes were ring like an owl.

    "Get the hell down here, right now!"

    And a beam was fired from the tube, all the way towards Duo Fei''s crane.

    Meanwhile, Duo Fei was still in his triumphalism from the victory of social service of putting the trash at the right ce, as his smiley eyes fixed upon the dirty face of Ban Meng. "Sometimes trash needs to learn his ce," he muttered as he was going to pilot the crane away.

    But who knew? A broad beam just passed the right wing of the crane.

    Duo Fei, upon the sound of explosion, looked at the ground.

    Holy Dopamine! A woman was lifting a fearsome looking cannon, cussing him in the worst anger he could imagine.

    A hand-carried single barrel light cannon? That was real heavy firearm! Silver Arrow would be joining the ground if it got hit by that st!

    Duo Fei frantically elerated his crane and ran away.

    Geez! Why are there so many lunatics on the street today? Duo Fei seriously begged for a wormhole to send him somewhere lightyears away.

    "Dang it. It''s been so long that my sense got numb. I actually missed that b*stard!" cursed the beauty as she mmed the cannon to the ground.

    Crash! The ground cracked like the aftermath of a meteorite fall. One should be able to imagine the weight of that handheld whale now.

    "So why is this twerp here?" said she, ignoring Ban Ming, her eyes focused on Ye Chong.

    "My cousin, my beloved sis, I am just inviting my friend to see your masterpieces. He has passion for weaponry," said Ban Meng.

    Yes, that was Ban Feng''s cousin, named Kristen.

    "This twerp?" Kristen did not sound impressed, "You are telling that this pea-sized kiddo wants to check out my weapon? With the breadth of his arm he can''t even hold hand of ady throughout a Sunday movie night, and he wants to hold a cannon? You''re kidding me, right?"

    She approached Ye Chong, in a confrontational manner, "Kiddo, go y with your action figure or something. These weapons are dangerous."

    And Ye Chong could feel an aroma crawling into his nose.

    Well, it appeared that thess did not intend to let Ye Chong in, so he began pondering¡­ he thought about a way to go in, whether the simple way or theplicated way.

    Mhmm, he seemed to fancy theplexity better, since well¡­ the simple, straightforward manner of him doing things always got him in the way eventually.

    "I believe it could be appropriate to recognize the requirement of matching the weapon-type to its user''s physique but I also believe there is no absolute corrtion between them," said Ye Chong, like a bookworm on an academic debate.

    "Oh c''mon sis, you got to show us," pleaded Ban Meng, simply because he did not want the walking bomb beside him to blow up at the moment.

    "You seem to know something, eh, twerp. Why don''t you get free huggies from me, a you cute little thing!" Kristen, ignored her cousin again, reached out to Ye Chong, feeling like to squeeze the little boy into her gorgeous spheres.

    And Ye Chong quickly took a step back, dodging the seductive grip of Kristen.

    "Oh?" Kristen seemed impressed, "I did not expect you to be a tonic lover. I like you," said Kristen as her arms wrapped upon her spheres, with a suggestive smile, "Well, if you want to view my weapons, it''s all here. As long as you behave¡­ for starters, lifting this with one arm, like me?" She pointed the ground-shattering cannon she used just now, Kristen gave Ye Chong a proposition.

    "This?" Ye Chong tilted his head.

    "Yes, this. I *love* strong man who could lift things like a superhero." She winked, the smile had brewed into something else¡­

    Hah! Of course this. I can''t be asking you to lift me a toothpick. Nerds like you will never be able to lift this cannon. It''s a heavy firearm about 150 kg, probably thrice of your weight, which only beefy men could wield fine, or maybe a monster like myself. Please, Ban Meng, if you want to bring guests over, bring the real deal alright? At least the boy is cute, let me teach him some lesson.

    Ye Chong walked towards the cannon and bowed. He did not lift it right away, instead he gave a careful observation first.

    It was indeed a powerful cannon, but itcked dexterity, as well as the necessary frequency to make it applicable in all war scenes.

    That was Ye Chong''sment.

    Meanwhile, Kristen was waiting that drama to happen, as she looked at Ye Chong. She presumed that quiet staring by this boy a clear sign ofck of confidence.

    After analyzing the strength of the weapon, Ye Chong already had a judgement in his mind. He reached his hand upon the cannon. A simple lift, "Is this what you want?" He looked at Kristen, he did it.

    Kristen almost lost her eyeballs as astonished by the scene, "H-h-h-how???"

    Ban Meng sneered, the indifferent boy was pretty strong alright? His cousin would soon face doom.

    Ye Chong stared at Kristen calmly, contrary to how Kristen looked at him like a monster. Well, Ye Chong was confused of the meaning of the trial since 150kg was not considered lightweight but not exactly super heavy either. In He Yue gxy, almost everyone could lift such weight, especially the Sangs, who probably could lift it like a school bag.

    So why the shock? Ye Chong was bewildered.

    "Oh my lord, so you''re actually an expert. I can''t believe my eyes would fail me one day." A mocking smile from Kristen, her face cold like the hail. Towards the drastic expression change, Ye Chong was still calm, with the cannon in his grip.

    "Fine," she said and gave an unfriendly stare, "Come in." And she led the guests in.

    The whole room was filled with different weapons.

    "Look, once broken considered sold," said Kristen coldly, which after that she stormed out of the room. She still had works to do on her desk outside, as she put on her blue working uniform and a cap.

    Ye Chong was having fun touring the never-before-seen weapons before him, while Ban Meng had nothing else better to do than sitting at his reserved quiet corner.

    Ye Chong picked a weapon up and very soon after he ced it back.

    After moment, he had a conclusion in his mind. These weapons were all wooden. Though it might sound unimpressivepared to the metallic giants out there, these wooden weapons were not toys. They seemed to be made out of extraordinary woods¡­ which bestowed them excellent physical attributes almostpetent as the alloys and they all prominently shared a characteristic - a greatpatibility with energy condensation.

    So probably that was why these energy firearms were all wooden. And yes, Ye Chong did not miss any weapon. There was in fact no metallic weapon inside the room. Well, it was a little odd, did the ce produce no metal at all? He felt like investigating this at some point.

    He was presented with an array of energy firearms but Ye Chong had hardly used one before. He did craft it once, Farqua for Mu/Shang was his work, though under Mu/Shang''s supervision. That session alone was sufficient to educate him the very basic of energy firearm.

    The structure of such weaponry was notplex yet it produced amazing projectile. He was not sure if it was because of the characteristics of these woods, but these firearms did appear to be much smaller than he imagined while they also used a kind of partially opaque crystallization as the energy source. Ye Chong had never seen such crystallization before. Although the energy content was far lower than Teardrops, it was far greater than the batteries used in the armory of ships from both Five Gxies and He Yue Gxy.

    Such a strange ce¡­

 Chapter 517 - Product

    <h4>Chapter 517: Product</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong could not help but to shake his head. Design-wise, there was nothing particrly stunning about the these energy based weapons. The striking performance should be because of its superior materials. And regarding those, to be frank, Ye Chong had never seen such bizarre-looking woods and crystallization, while they did convince Ye Chong that they could be the best candidates to produce energy based weapons.

    Nevertheless, he felt it was a total waste of decent materials when they were used to make such weapon type, especially when the design was poor to begin with. It was never humanistic to begin with. It looked crude, there was not even an aiming assisting device installed on every weapon. No wonder they were meant for spiritual shooters, nobody could aim their arrows even at a giant without neurokic aids.

    Certainly the marksmen well-trained on their parapsychic would be perfect for this overly innovative weapon. They would need no assisting device in aiming. Their powerful spirits would be more than enough to help them reveal the enemies within the proximity at the shortest time possible, while producing firing at a humbly 100% uracy.

    But that was only if the enemies were *within* the proximity.

    How about a distance farther away from their proximity?

    Ye Chong had always been fighting in the gxies, where wars between spaceships and mechs in the void were so far the mostmon, in which each unit would be easily over few hundreds, even thousands kilometers away from each other. Would this weapon-design be practical? He remembered Huang Baiyi once taught him that, the chance of somebody expanding their parapsychic senses hundreds meters beyond their proximity would be hardly 1 / 120,000,000. Even the teacher himself could only sense things at most 60 kilometers away from him.

    Well, perhaps, the Mentalists here might be godlike but only godlike. They could have performance like a god but they were still human and there would always be a limit in the anatomy, a slope hindering the growth at a point, where it would be too hard to further improve their spiritual sensitivity.

    Furthermore, the designer should be focused on maintaining the performance of the weapon while minimizing the demand on the user''s mastery, or the weapon would have no point to exist. It was the thumb rule that every weapon designer should abide by. No use of create a giant toothpick that was too hard to use.

    "Mhm? Not of your taste eh?" ridiculed Kristen, which shocked Ban Meng awake.

    Ye Chong did not lift his head, he just gently ced the weapon down. "Just checking it out a little," he said.

    That was when someone came to knock on the door.

    "Who the-" Kristen frowned as she stormed towards the door.

    "Greetings, Ms. Kristen," greeted a man with his partner. The man was in a dark-green patterned skirt, standing next to ady in a pretty chivalrous attire.

    Kristen''s brows loosened, "Mr. Mo, what brought you here?" Mr. Mo was a wealthy merchant, well-known for his gentle and courteous nature in the city.

    "Ms. Kristen." Mr. Mo smiled, "This¡­ is a friend of mine. She just got back from the Mist, well you see, she might have gotten back alive, but her weapon was damaged during a fight with the beast. So she wishes to get a fitting weapon from a talented designer, so we came to you, Ms. Kristen, you are known for your god-given hands. I hope our visit did not cause you any inconvenience."

    "Hmm¡­" Kristen gave a nod, "Well, if it''s Mr. Mo''s friend, then it''s my friend too. No problem. Well, all these are avable, take any you like. But before that, as you know, I don''t do purchases here. I only do trades. So you''ll need something special to exchange."

    Mr.Mo took a look at thedy next to him, who nodded as she replied, "Alright, I wonder if you are interested in the amapo wood¡­" Her voice was hoarse and deep.

    "Amapo?" There was glow in Kristen''s eyes, "Okay, no problem. Pick anything you like."

    Thedy nodded and began browsing the weapons on the rack in silence.

    She had rapid eyes, it was as if she was seeking that fateful moment of connection with one particr weapon among the crowd, instead of actually inspecting them. Well she did take a few of them to have a look but she, like Ye Chong, would ce it down right after. A few minutespsed and she looked at Kristen.

    "That''s all you have?" She sounded disappointed.

    "Uhhh¡­" Kristen halted for a moment, "Sec." She walked to the other room and brought out a few boxes onto the table, "These are the precious of my works. Some of them were my old masterpieces." She opened up the boxes and thedy expressionlessly moved to the table.

    This time, instead of a quick window shopping, she gave a careful inspection on every piece. She would give a grip, a brandish, a caress before cing them down. 10 minutespsed, "Well, you have good weapons but they do not fit my hands well," she shook.

    Kristen was feeling helpless. She would love to grab that amapo wood but it was very difficult for a shooter to get a weapon that felt nice to the grip. It almost felt like a real need of fate or fortune sometimes. Nothing technical there.

    "Is there¡­ anything else?" asked thedy as she looked at Kristen with expectations. Those masterpieces were indeed excellence so she seemed more interested now. She was truly in need of a fitting weapon.

    Kristen wanted to shake her head and cancel this deal remorsefully but something came into her mind - that imagery where this strange boy also shook his head upon seeing her crafts. Perhaps¡­?

    "I''m sorry. I have no other weapons here."

    "I see¡­" Thedy was literally disappointed, "Well, can''t help it I guess. At least I manage to behold these masterpieces today."

    "BUT!" The tone changed drastically on Kristen.

    "Ms. Kristen, do you happen to have one more thing in the drawer?" Thedy returned to her attentive self.

    "Perhaps, he could help you out," said Kristen, with her finger pointed at Ye Chong.

    Wow, poor boy.

    Ban Meng was terrified by Kristen''s behavior. It seemed like she got a new target to shoot, and it was the cold-hearted man too. Someone would be hurt, really soon.

    Thedy looked at Ye Chong in bewilderment, "You mean¡­ this young man?"

    "Yes. This young man seems to have a unique understanding on weaponry. Perhaps he could give some help," said Kristen.

    Ye Chong was not astonished by the plot twist. His expression remained frozen. And it was this frozen expression that convinced thedy that maybe the young man was in fact a master craftsman in disguise.

    "Hello, sir. I wonder if you could help me out?" she asked, with a formal bow upon Ye Chong.

    "How much?" asked Ye Chong after a moment of consideration with his head tilted, "How much is amapo wood?"

    It was an unexpected question which resulted a total dead silence in the next 30 seconds.

    It was unexpected because a real professional craftsman would not ask such silly question. Premium materials like amapo wood were obviously something that not a man could afford simply because he had enough money for it. No mechanic would ask a question like this! Only an outsider, a novice, ayman would question the value of amapo.

    Like really, if he doesn''t know the value of amapo, how would he possibly be a good craftsman?

    That was what everyone had in mind.

    "Well." Kristen was the first to react, she said, "If you could get that piece of wood, I''m willing to buy it with 1,000,000 Ao."

    Hmm¡­ sounds expensive?

    Ye Chongcked the concept of the value of Ao but it looked like a colossal amount. He did need more pennies in his wallet,pared to some precious piece of wood from nowhere, considering how he had a full inventory of premium materials in his ring.

    "Okay," said Ye Chong.

    The girl, upon realizing the whole intention of Kristen''s little gesture, could feel the blood fading away from her cheeks. The atmosphere was cold, as her eyes popped at Kristen.

    Kristen too had a pale expression, with regrets tinting her face. She could sense it! The upheaval in the atmosphere, the brewing blizzard, thisdy, she must be an expert, at least a Level 5! Only somebody Level 5 and above could exert such pressure! She was ying with fire the whole time?!

    Ban Meng was looking for a rathole at the corner just to make sure he could run away in time.

    Mr. Mo was calm, as expected from a merchant, but there was somebody else, unaffected by the storm.

    That was Ye Chong.

    Mr. Mo was naturally unaffected since he was in a kind of association with thedy. But Ye Chong? The boy who did not evenprehend the value of amapo wood was actually feeling nothing in the atmosphere?

    Thedy was finding this boy strange as she withdrew her expression.

    The atmosphere lightened, as calming as before.

    "I would need to borrow the facilities here, the materials too," said Ye Chong.

    "Alright." Before Kristen the owner could give her approval, the girl had already nodded her head and replied. She then nced at Kristen who acted like a poor scalded kitten by then.

    "Any requirements for your weapon?" asked Ye Chong.

    "Prability. High frequency of shooting, with sufficient uracy. Adaptability in different climates," she stated her requirements.

    "What about sizes? The weight?"

    "Not too huge, preferred it portable, a weight less than 40kg."

    "Are you left or right-handed?"

    "Left! I''m left-handed!" Thedy sounded a little excited now, well that was probably why she could not find a fitting weapon without a hassle. She was left-handed and weapons for left-handed person were hard to find to begin with.

    "Lay both of hands, with arms wide spread."

    Thedy obeyed the request and spread her arms across, "Alright, done," said Ye Chong after a quick nce.

    Kristen was stunned by the conversation between thisyman-looking boy and this clearly talented shooter. She never imagined of having such inquiry before a purchase. She usually just made whatever that popped up in her mind and ced the products on the rack for the customers to choose.

    Ye Chong went to Kristen''s seat before. He would need the materials here.

    His gaze firstid upon a pale blue stick on the table, about 90 centimeters long, with white glitters across the body. He observed that most weapons on the rack were made out of such wood.

    Well, be it the name or the functionality of these materials on the table, Ye Chong had zero knowledge regarding them. So he yed safe anyway, starting from themon material.

    Thedy was not impressed by his choice. Speckled blue fir was a prettymon wood in the market, almost every standard weapon was made out of such wood. There was hardly any advanced, premium weapon when this wood was involved, since its tolerance towards energy firing was not high, so it would work like a toy, to be frank.

    Ye Chong was silently calm.

    He was not aware of the capacity of this piece of wood, so he intended to first figure out the maximum energy tolerance of this wood. The method would be simple, obviously he had to carry out an experiment.

    The methodology was rather simple. He would be carving a simple circuit over the surface of speckled blue, then he would trigger the flow of energy from the crystallization, and he would amplify the energy flow during the process.

    Yes, little bit more, okay, more¡­

    Boom!

    The speckled blue broke into two.

    Okay that would be the highest energy tolerance, which was a bit surprising to Ye Chong to be frank. It was a rather high figure, much higher than the alloys he had seen before. That exined why all the wooden firearms now!

    Now that Ye Chong had gotten the figure, he had a n.

    He did not utilize any of the facilities avable, since he was not familiar with them. The oue would not be optimum if he used an unfamiliar apparatus, especially those facilities were parakically demanding. They required much more careful handling due to the enhanced sensitivity of humans under parakinesis.

    "Where''s my dagger?" asked Ye Chong towards Ban Meng at the corner.

    Ban Meng hurriedly took out the dagger and threw to Ye Chong.

    Once the dagger was withdrawn from the sheath, Kristen was immediately overwhelmed. No one at the ce had noticed the bit of shock going on in her pupils.

    It was a dagger made out of something she had never seen before. The people were shocked into silence, as they could hear their intensifying breaths.

    Ye Chong lifted the dagger and gently scratched the surface of speckled blue randomly.

    The films of the chipped wood fell off the ce.

    Ye Chong was concentrated, as his hand danced across the wood, yet like a machine it crossed the surface, with uracy like manufacturing machine. The films of wood were all identical. It was the uracy that captured the attention.

    Within twinkling of eyes, the speckled blue had transformed into a smooth, wless rod in Ye Chong''s hand. The body was polished, the fair white spots were like the cherry blossoms on spring.

    That was not it. Ye Chong intended to hollow the rod, so he could make it an actual cannon tube, which was the trickiest part of the entire crafting process, since the inner wall must not contain any w to ensure proper energy transition.

    He cautiously crafted a circle at the cross-section of the rod.

    Be it thedy or Kristen, with their enhanced senses by parakinesis, both of them could see the detail in Ye Chong''s craft and certainly they were again amazed by it. It was a perfect circle, that almost felt like he drew it with a precise geometric apparatus, and it was just a simple cut promptly from his dagger.

    Ye Chong then drew a simr circle at the other side.

    The depth of the cut, the diameter, the shape of the circle, everything was precisely identical. It was astounding!

    Ye Chong then put the dagger down and reached his hand into the pocket, looking for something.

    It was a curious sight, as the people wondered what Ye Chong would be pulling out from his pocket.

    Well, the reality was¡­ there was nothing in his pocket. It was just his typical smoke and mirrors, a camouge to what he was doing. The thing he wanted was resting inside the dimensional keystone.

    So he just dug into the pocket, which eventually gave him a bottle of dark green fluid.

    Everyone was confused yet fascinated at the same time, as they looked at this half bottle of fluid.

    It was actually a very strong corroding agent, which was obtained on one of Ye Chong''s adventure in the Consortium base on Spectre back then. Ye Chong was familiar with such agent, he created Liquid of Shang after all.

    Rather than figuring out on "how" to hollow the tube, Ye Chong had an idea on "what" to hollow the tube.

    Only if he had Liquid of Shang, with its excellent capability, a simple drop could have fulfilled the task for him. Well, he was not aware of the name of this green bottle, he knew it was a corroding agent merely because of the warningbel on it. There were a rack of them back in the base, but Ye Chong could not bring everything away, so he just picked a random bottle.

    Fortunately, the bottle had a dropper at the cap, which saved him a lot of trouble. The curiosity intensified so much that everyone could not help but to reach their neck like a giraffe, popping their eyes just to see what the heck was going on.

    Oh, before hollowing the tube, he got to test the capability of this agent. So Ye Chong stacked 3 pieces of speckled blue he took from the table and he dripped the agent.

    Ssssss¡­

    Sizzling was heard as a column of green smoke rumbled. The board was being corroded at a perceivable rate. The board was then pierced, with an irregrly shaped hole which reached all the way through even the table itself.

    A horrified gasp could be heard in the room.

    Such corrosion!

    Kristen, Mr. Mo and Ban Meng had a colorless face by then, even thedy was feeling uneasy at the sight.

    Ye Chong was a little surprised but his expression remained unchanged.

    He pondered for a moment before he finally made his move.

    Using the dropper, he first sucked about 15 drops of the agent.

    His left hand rested with the wooden rod standing. His right hand holding the dropper and with extreme caution, he pressed the valve of the dropper.

    The atmosphere was intense. Whether it would be an invention or an ident, it all depended on this very drop now.

    A thin stream of liquid flowed out of the dropper.

    Before the liquid reached the cross-section of the rod, Ye Chong reced the dropper with a speed of lightning.

    The people could see nothing than a brief afterimage.

    And that was thest straw to thedy''s crumbling serenity. Her expression changed!

    The withdrawn right hand returned to its position, clipping the rod to support the other hand this time.

    The stream of liquid was traveling in slow motion in Ye Chong''s eyes.

    It dripped, itnded and touched the surface, the gradual sizzling was heard again.

    Ye Chong began rubbing his hands.

    Chnnngggg!

    The rod started vibrating, as the resonance bounced all around the room.

    Thedy had lost the colors on her face atst.

    The rapid spinning rod allowed the liquid to contact and corrode the surface uniformly. Ye Chong''s eyes focused upon the rod as his rubbing hands tried to control the angle and momentum of the rod.

    Such technique wouldplicate anyone on strength control, even the master of strength control himself.

    It almost looked like an acrobatic performance in the eyes of the people.

    The hollowed space of the tube grew deeper andrger, the sizzling grew louder.

    And out of sudden, silence returned.

    Ye Chong stopped rubbing his hands and took a careful look at his craft. The inner wall had a satisfyingly even surface. To be frank, he was not particrly confident in this exaggerating performance. But really he could not summon a whole table of professional apparatuses right from the keystone, it probably would frighten the people and cause havoc, so he sumbed to this pretty crude, primitive method instead.

    He liked his tube. It looked fine.

    After the most challenging step had been done, nothing else should stop Ye Chong. He already had a blueprint of the beam shooting circuit in his mind. He decided to go for the not-soplicated design that would produce a decent projectile, with a twist of course.

    He had to make a few changes, considering how this gun would use no battery but a tiny light crystallization. He would revolve the circuit about this crystallization and pick the mostmon trigger he observed from all the weapons here. Regarding the more effective trigger, hecked the necessary research for it. He also needed to reverse the circuit so it would fit the left-handeddy.

    Throughout the entire process, Ye Chong had only used his dagger and the corroding agent. He used nothing else.

    "Done," said Ye Chong, as he calmly presented his craft to thedy.

 Chapter 518 - Organization

    <h4>Chapter 518: Organization</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was a long slim tube which the white spots scattered like powder snow upon the sky blue body, about 1.65 meter in length, 34 kilograms in weight, of a condensed structure which could be disengaged into several parts that could be againbined into different forms of miniature firearms. A fancy mix-and-match design that could be equipped on one''s arm, thus the convenience of shooting upon free will. The weight of the miniature version had hardly 8kg weight which also contributed to portability.

    "Do you have a ce to try this out?" said thedy, with intense expectation brewing inside her. She had never seen such revolutionary design before, it was extremely foreign to her eyes yet miraculously fitting to her hands. She had the urge to test the strength of this new weapon she was bestowed upon. It was that passion every shooter like her had which drove her. "Is there any ce to test shooting?" said she loudly.

    Kristen was shocked back into reality, she nodded hurriedly, "Yes, yes, yes,e with me!"

    They arrived by the basement under her lead. She unlocked the gate and turned on the lights, "This is the shooting room, the standard setup." She gave a brief introduction before retreating herself to the "auditorium" at one side with the rest of the crew who were equally interested of this strange-looking weapon.

    Into position! Without further ado, thedy raised the gun and made her first shot promptly.

    A stream of red beam about breadth of one''s thumb struck the very center of the bullseye. Her uracy as a professional had been justified, still she could not hide that excitement of a little girl on Christmas as she hurried her way to the front to remove the bullseye from the attachment. She was there to examine the strength of the new weapon, likewise the others. "Such strength!" Astonishment filled Kristen''s words upon seeing the charred edges of the pierced center.

    A standard setup was the typicality in most shooting rooms, where bullseyes were made out of nubis stones which had a mediocre energy-absorbing attribute, perfect for making bullseye but not protective shield due to its brittleness. People used such material to examine the capabilities of an energy-based weapon.

    And that red beam just prated a 5 centimeter thick bullseyes made out of energy-absorbing stones.

    The few spectators froze upon the astounding sight.

    Mr. Mo could not help but topliment dramatically, "I might be considered a novice when ites to weapon but this ray gun has earned my fondness. Such masterpiece."

    Thedy lowered her head, caressing that gun with a unique appearance lovingly. It needed no word to describe her joy at the moment.

    Ban Meng coveted that new toy, he continued marveling at it mindlessly, unaware of the stream of saliva dripping off his mouth''s corner. Kristen, his cousin had her mentality shattered to the ground, the invention of this ray gun had utterly deconstructed what she knew about weapons for the past few years. It was only a stick made out of speckled blue yet it actually impaled a piece of nubis stone. She could not believe her eyes, reality was standing right there. She was the witness to every step, every flick of finger thedy made. The mystery intensified¡­ she could not help but to have questions overloading her head.

    Howes it could make such strong shoot? What is that structure? How the heck did it even work? What are the effects of this strange design? What is the concept behind it?

    She could even imagine the shape of eachponent involved, however, she could never replicate the design. It was of techniques she had never seen before, it was of foreign structure design, everything was unfamiliar to her, even the way the boy crafted the gun was something revolutionary. These were so new that she realized, to her horror, that she hardly learned anything from this master craftsman.

    And that was when thedy performed a multi-shot whichnded across the bullseye like a shower. None of the beams had missed. It was a goddess''s uracy that had mesmerized everyone at the scene, well, except for our craftsman, Ye Chong. He was terrified since he realized how thedy could be a highly skilled parakic shooter and it would be a hard nut to crack if he did not have Celest by his side. His schemata ran wild, piecing together a feasible plot to handle such opponent.

    "Mhmm¡­" Thedy ced the ray gun down with satisfaction, she loved its portability and the hand-on experience, everything felt truly made for her, that it almost felt like a part of her.

    "Here is your reward, as promised." Thedy passed Ye Chong amapo wood with a hint of respect in her hoarsely spoken words. The amapo woodpiece was about size of one''s palm, a grayish brown with cravings like the shell of the turtle. It was totally differentpared to what Ye Chong had seen in the workshop. He could feel the weight the moment the wood was ced onto his hand. But, other than the strange craving and the slightly greater weight inparison, he could not tell anything extraordinary about this wood.

    "Oh, allow me to introduce myself," said thedy formally, "I''m Sha Ya, a Level 8 shooter."

    The moment the title was mentioned, the atmosphere seemed to have frozen.

    Ban Meng felt he was in trance upon hearing the rank. Did a Level 8 shooter, an almost-mythical figure just walk into his cousin''s ce and begin walking around and actually performed her skills? He nearly pinched his cheeks to confirm he was not dreaming.

    Kristen had never regained her color since thest shock. A level 8 shooter? Were her ears acting up? She was impressed of her courage, that she virtually offended a Level 8 god!

    Ye Chong remained expressionless. He was not aware of the meaning behind that title.

    Ye Chong''s indifference did not enrage Sha Ya, as she took out a piece of golden leaf from her pouch, "This is plucked from the Darkniss. A token of appreciation for your great work."

    "Golden leaf?!" Everyone was so close to making a leap, even Mr. Mo.

    The golden leaf was reflecting the world in amazing shine, where the veins could be clearly discerned, as if the finest gold craft of a piece of leaf. But Ye Chong could tell it was not a sculpture, rather it was truly something offered by nature.

    It should be from a highly "metalized" nt.

    "Thank you," said Ye Chong as he took the leaf, now a little intrigued of the "Darkniss" Sha Ya mentioned.

    "I should be the one thanking you." She looked overjoyed, "I have been searching for a fitting weapon and I can''t believe I''ll every my hand on one." Her words were sentimental as she recalled the journey she took in search of her weapon.

    "Alright, I have to go now. I''m staying at Bisley City. If you need any help, don''t hesitate, call me up. Asking someone on your behalf works too," said Sha Ya, well, she was in fact the right person to provide solid help.

    Ban Meng fired his stare of pure envy at Ye Chong for this inhuman boy was actually able to win over a level 8 shooter''s friendship. It was as if dreams.

    "See ya." And Sha Ya left. Ye Chong walked to Kristen and lifted the piece of wood. "Let''s trade," he said.

    Ye Chong, with his pocket full of a million ao and a new ally in his social circle, led Ban Meng back home. Ban Meng had be one of Ye Chong''s believers by then, he was overawed by Ye Chong''s capabilities.

    "I need a house. Large and somewhere isted. Would you help me?" asked Ye Chong abruptly.

    "Uhh¡­ let me think¡­" Ban Meng began searching for the matching item in his mind. That sounded sufficiently a good news to him, he would never want a potential explosive to follow him home daily. It would be great if he could send this walking bomb somewhere else.

    Then a ce came into his mind.

    ¡­

    They took a few detours and finally stopped by one house.

    "How about this ce?" asked Ban Meng, as he looked at this particr house which fulfilled Ye Chong''s requirement - it was spacious, about 3500 meter^2 including thewn, while being at a quiet corner of the region close to the Duality Forest. He could not imagine any visitor frequenting here. It was a pretty good deal too - 100,000 Ao and it was all Ye Chong''s.

    "I like it," Ye Chong nodded expressively.

    "Of course! Let Ban Meng make the choice, it''ll never go wrong!" responded Ban Meng proudly.

    "Right. You can go now," ordered Ye Chong the guest-vanquisher.

    "Geez, that fast?!" Ban Meng sobbed, "Fine, good bye."

    And he left.

    The quiet home was very quiet again.

    It was rather empty as there was nothing else than the few pieces of furnitures. Well, that was what Ye Chong desired. He needed a ce to sleep and store his loots.

    He quickly deployed Celest which stood there solemnly at his service. Ye Chong hopped into Celest and performed a thorough scan to see if there was anything suspicious.

    To his rxation, system returned no detection of any form. He had finally some me-time and actual security to think about his next move.

    What would be my priority? To find Mu/Shang of course.

    Where''s Mu/Shang? They must be at Gray Valley.

    Well, if that''s the case, I would have to first return to Gray Valley, or He Yue gxy at the very least. Only then I would have the slightest chance of reuniting with Mu/Shang or the Sangs if I have to. Next, we shall reconnect the pathway connecting both He Yue gxy and Gray Valley.

    Alright, the ultimate goal would be to return to either of the regions.

    But then¡­ how should I do it¡­ Hmm¡­

    Wait¡­

    Ye Chong remembered the three microchips Kui gave him, which contained researches by Consortium involving Space Science, Mechanical Science and Biologic Science. And he did mention something about Space Science that interested Ye Chong. Perhaps the answery within that chip.

    He took the chip out and slid it into the processor of Celest.

    "Reading¡­"

    "Wee to the Directory."

    "Please select from one of the avable processes:

    1. Read data

    2. Create database

    3. Perform Simted Calction"

    Ye Chong dazed at the prompted interface. He had zero knowledge regarding Space Science, it would take forever before he mastered the basics, he had no more time to initiate his first Space Science ss.

    "Perform Simted Calction," stated Ye Chong.

    "Error : Database not found. Database required for operation," replied the processor coldly.

    Ye Chong sighed, "Create database."

    "Command received. Creating database, estimated time remaining : 5hours 30minutes."

    And Ye Chong rooted himself at the seat for the next 5 hours and 30 minutes, finally after that, "Perform Simted Calction - Ways to Travel to He Yue Gxy." Somehow Ye Chong could feel his heart twitching by the little searing anticipation growing in him.

    "Creating the necessary tform¡­

    ¡­

    Creationpleted!"

    "Inserting the given properties¡­

    ¡­

    Insertionpleted!"

    "Simtion performing¡­"

    "¡­"

    "Calctionpleted. Estimated time needed: 32years 5months 23days." The time length was so unexpected that Ye Chong''s mouth remained partially open.

    THIRTY TWO years?! He could not ept that¡­ It would be too long to fix anything¡­

    Ye Chong was blown at first, but he took a breath and calmed down, "How to reduce estimated time needed?"

    "Processing¡­"

    10 secondster, "Matching Solutions found:

    1. Provide more properties for calction

    2. Enhance memory processing ability."

    "How to enhance memory processing ability?" asked Ye Chong.

    "To enhance memory processing ability, you could:

    1. Enhance my capacity.

    2. Connect additional processing unit."

    Enhance the capacity? The preposterously vague idea was immediately scrapped. Ye Chong was too unfamiliar with such avant-garde mechanism. He could not even find the sealing board to unscrew.

    He could add in more processors by producing them but¡­ he naturally did not excel at it.

    "How to produce processor?"

    "Error: Insufficient information." The reply was not helpful¡­

    And that was when Ye Chong recalled the second microchip that contained Biologic Science researches. Well, a standard photon processor might sound far-fetched at the moment, but he could have crafted a bio-photon processor like Celest''s. The chip should contain the necessary information. He quickly reced the chip and booted the interface.

    "Wee to th-"

    "How to produce bio-photon processor?"

    "To produce bio-photon processor, you would need¡­"

    The reply was also extremely helpful. Most materials mentioned were unavable within his grip, especially when most of them required additional handling like cultivation.

    Well¡­ he got to build a biological scienceb then¡­ It would be a major project, still he had toplete it. To never give up on even the slightest hope was his motto since childhood.

    The saving grace was he scavenged everything useful from the Consortium at their centralb back then, including those technological fascinations, or he would have to really start from scratches.

    Though bestowed with fancy technologies, there were still lots of works to do.

    The kingdom of organisms, the flora and fauns, were already different across regions, let alone acrosss and across the gxies. Most materials used by the Consortium could not be found here, especially samples of a few organisms.

    The first feasible move would be to establish a working database which contained attributes of the native organisms at his ce. But before that, there was onest thing he got to do first. Security, security, security. He might have not detected anything, that did not guarantee he would be safe from unwanted attention in the future. He would not want to be pointed with a parakic firearm before he even began assembling the new processor.

    He first examined woods like speckled blue using the facilities avable. He was able to identify that speckled blue had three times the energypatibilitypared to most metals. That was not it, Ye Chong had also performed other examinations and the conclusion? It was earth-shattering! All these nts were excellent on both energypatibility and physical attributes, which made them few of the best materials to produce any sort of machines. The downside however, was the poorpatibility with circuit¡­ which justified the non-existent photon processors here¡­

    After understanding the attributes of these materials, Ye Chong could finally produce a stronger and a more efficiently designed weapon.

    Ye Chong made bulk purchases on the mentioned materials, including the "honorably mentioned" speckled blues. He began a massive production.

    With these utilities he got from Consortium, he no longer would need to rely on dagger to carve simple weapons. His efficiency elerated the progress significantly. It only took him 7 days to produce over 100 types of weapons.

    He then installed these firearms at all corners of thewn, while equipped them with an advanced detection system. Any unauthorized personnel or "thing" would be destroyed immediately.

    A real tactical annihtion!

    The instation points were all after Ye Chong''s careful calction which formed a firewall that covered the entire region. No blind spot while being tenacious. Most of them were the real heavy firearms, they were heavy to be carried around but they would be perfect for a fixed point tower defense. A prime example would be the Spheric Beam Scattered Launcher, whichunched 160 spheric light beams in one wave thrice per second, covering up proximity about 4 meter^2.

    It was the wlessness of this firewall that made any intruder defenseless. It was a denselyyered security which was unknown at one nce. The prability of these beams were much stronger than the little toy gun Ye Chong made for Sha Ya and the detection system further enhanced their uracy.

    The only problem was¡­ the defense matrix would need a processor to providemand. Celest''s processor? That intelligibly expressive processor? Maybe not.

    He then sumbed to one processor previously installed on one supportive unit in his inventory. It was not a powerful processor but was more than enough to take charge of basic matrix management.

    Now, he could sleep atst.

    Area 9 meters away from his amodation was his territory.

    The day seemed to be ending.

    But his work had just started.

 Chapter 519 - Under Attack I

    <h4>Chapter 519: Under Attack I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong decided to make this his biology researchboratory. After some basic fortification works, theb was now secured. This allowed him to devote his attention to other matters.

    Ye Chong left theb in Celest. He did not head for Dual Forest, but went upwards instead. Celest climbed higher and higher into the sky. Everything on the ground receded further and further away.

    Ye Chong wanted to do a full scan of the to help him gain a general understanding of the native environment.

    Suddenly, a light beam came out of nowhere, directed towards Celest.

    Ye Chong reacted swiftly. Celest twisted its body in the air, and the light beam narrowly shot past the mech''s body.

    "Unidentified flying object!"

    "Unidentified flying object!"

    "Unidentified flying object!"

    ¡­

    A series of rms ear-piercingly red. Dozens of varying flying vessels could be seen on the holographic screen, heading in that direction.

    Old Wei was 41 this year, and a Level 4 shooter. He was at an age where shooters were in their prime. Today, he had nned to visit Dual Forest with his friends to gather some ashram grass. Their group was strong despite having only a few members since they were all Level 4 shooters. Besides, having worked together for years, they were now a solid team that performed more effectively than most other groups.

    Suddenly, Old Wei received a parapsychic message from his friend, "Look, what''s that?" Shooters usuallymunicate with each other via parapsychic messages. There were many advantages to using this method, especially duringbat. It was the most direct and clear way ofmunicating with each other.

    Old Wei could sense the strong emotions of surprise in his friend. He knew that his friend must have found something interesting. It was not umon to see unusual things in Dual Forest.

    The other five in the group received the same message at the same time. The seven flying vessels made a turn together in perfect coordination.

    Old Wei now saw what made his friend gasped in surprise!

    It was a giant in ck armor!

    The giant was at least 10 meters all, and it was shooting up fast into the sky, like a rocket.

    Old Wei was shocked. As a Level 4 shooter, he was no stranger to unusual things, but this was his first time seeing such arge giant human. The ck armor seemed to be made of an unknown material. The eerie red flowers on the armor looked like blood spilled in midnight. The ck pack on the giant''s back also had a huge red flower on it. Old Wei felt a chill ran down his spine. He felt his heart clenched tightly.

    The giant''s eyes were half lidded, like it was looking out afar. Were they looking for something, or simply staring out hollowly?

    The most shocking thing was, the giant could fly! Old Wei did an estimate, and found that the giant must be faster than his own flying vessel at maximum speed.

    "Heavens! What''s that?" Someone eximed.

    "Yea, what a huge giant, and with armor too. Tsk tsk, that''s awesome!"

    "Look, guys, there are many others who''ve seen it now. Let''s go get a closer look." Indeed, with such a huge giant materializing in the air, it was hard to go unnoticed. Many flying vessels were now trying to approach the giant.

    "Sure!" "Alright!" The suggestion was weed by the rest of the group.

    Old Wei could not help but interrupt them, "We should still be careful. Safety first. We''ll back down if anything looks weird." Old Wei could not understand why he said these words, but he was aware of his own nervousness.

    "Yes, Old Wei''s right." This came from their captain, Re Guming.

    The seven flying vessels flew towards the giant in battle formation. Right then, they saw someone shooting at the giant.

    "Is he crazy?" Everyone cried out in an uproar. No one knew what the giant was. Shooting it like that would only be a show of hostility.

    What would that shot cost them? Everyone began to worry. An experienced shooter would never make such an idiotic mistake.

    The captain, Gu Reming, spoke in his deep voice, "It''s a bunch of yboys. They''ve always been reckless. Let''s not get involved. They''re in for some deep trouble." Gu Reming spoke coldly. They did not think highly of these so-called yboys.

    Everyone in the group trusted their captain''s assessment. Besides, they could tell from the way the giant avoided the shot so easily that it could fly well. The more experienced shooters all stayed back, watching from afar. They could see that something was wrong, and did not want to be there when the giant retaliated.

    The yboys got even more excited when they found no one elsepeting with them for the giant. They showed off their fancy tricks in the air as they closed in on Celest, still trying to shoot the mech.

    The yboys may be nasty, but they were still a powerful bunch. Most of them were at least Level 3, and there was even a Level 5 among them. Besides, they had the advantage in numbers.

    Their flying vessels were also of top quality, more powerful than the average shooter''s. In the next moment, Celest found itself dealing with a full blownser assault from all sides.

    It was impossible to not be angry at this attack that came out of nowhere, but Ye Chong kept his calm.

    His hands were a blur on the controls.

    The giant in armor extended its limbs, twisting its joints in odd angles and avoiding all thesers directed at it.

    The giant was wrapped in bulky armor, but its body moved easily like it had no bones inside. Its limbs twisted in impossible angles, defying all reason.

    Old Wei was shocked. It was like seeing a huge, brutish man with a bearded face that bulged at all the wrong angles, but the face was smiling gently like the man did some delicate sewing with a needle in hand. In short, it was like watching a paradox.

    The rest in his group were also stunned by what they saw.

    "That - that''s a monster!" Someone blurted out.

    "What a strong body!" Someonemended.

    "Someone''s going to suffer," said their captain solemnly.

    A bright purple flying vessel with two pairs of wings was doing some difficult stunts in the air, making flips and turns like an airshow pilot. The Snakeshot, Big X, Lateral Shift and other magnificent disys would usually be seen only in practice flights.

    The pilot was showing off his multitude of dazzling tricks.

    Ye Chong thought it odd that the purple flying vessel was flying around it but not attacking.

    However, he had no intention of asking the other party about it. The flying vessel was already within Celest''s range of attack. Ye Chong flung out his shuriken without hesitation.

    The fast spinning weapon was very destructive. It also had auto lock-on technology to make it fatal.

    Zing!

    A ck dot shot towards the purple flying vessel.

    When the shuriken came within range of the pilot''s parapsychic sense, he noticed it right away. The purple flying vessel did a turn and avoided the attack, quick as a bird.

    How could such a slow weapon hit a Level 5 shooter? The purple vessel''s pilot was proud of himself. He was also the strongest shooter in his team. As a qualified shooter, they would not be hit by something so slow. Parapsychic sense was fast as lightning. Shooters faced the threat ofser weapons from their enemies that coulde at any time. Such a slow moving weapon must be an inferior product, it was no wonder he could avoid it so easily.

    Just as the pilot was basking in his own sess, he noticed that the ck dot had made a turn as well and was now heading towards him again.

    Huh? How did that happen?

    No matter. The pilot maneuvered his flying machine skilfully and avoided the ck dot once again. The ck dot was slower than his own flying vessel, and much more slowerpared to his parapsychic sense. The young man was confident that the weapon would never hit him.

    Suddenly, the ck dot came within his parapsychic sensing range again. He was still the target of that weapon.

    The young man began to realize that something was wrong. He could sense the ck dot more clearly by now, and could make out what it was. If he was really hit by that spinning object ¡­ A vision of his flying vessel exploding in the air came to him.

    Impossible! He was scared by the vision. He was a Level 5 shooter. How could he be hit by the slow moving ything? What a joke!

    Perhaps due to his nervousness, the pilot did not avoid the attack so gracefully this time.

    An innocent, tiny mistake was deadly in his situation. The shuriken gave him no chance. It followed the purple flying vessel closely, closing in the distance until they were only 30 meters apart. The Level 5 shooter could now sense every detailed structure of the shuriken with his parapsychic sense.

    However, he was no longer at ease as before. Despite being hailed as a natural born shooter, he did not have much real lifebat experience. Usually, he would only fly around with his yboy friends. Ever since he was born, he had never suffered any fallbacks. Most of Yedda knew of the yboys and their background, and would leave them alone.

    They never knew how cruel real battles were,pared to their make-believe practice battles.

    The pilot felt an immense pressure on him like never before. It was suffocating him, and his flying vessel did not obey his wishes as keenly as it usually did.

    Some people would fight back when under pressure, while others would break.

    This pilot was obviously not of the former. He was now feeling afraid, very afraid.

 Chapter 520 - Under Attack II

    <h4>Chapter 520: Under Attack II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was this fear that made him lose his confidence as he flew his flying vessel. What would happen in this fast paced battle if the pilot hesitated?

    Scared out of his wits, the pilot did not realize that he was flying towards the strange giant that he had been making fun of.

    When he noticed, it was already toote.

    The passive giant in ck armor moved. Zing! A dark red alloy sword shot out of the weapons pack on its back andnded in its hand. The giant did a swipe and a sh, the sword seemingly meeting no resistance, and the bright purple flying vessel crumbled into pieces in the air.

    Old Wei and his group members were stunned speechless.

    They did not make out exactly what the giant did, but they could see that behind the swipe-and-sh attack was abat veteran of great experience.

    This allowed them to conclude that the giant in ck armor was highly threatening.

    The yboys had never seen battles like these. They usually spent their time showing off their tricks, but had never seen realbat and spilled blood. Now that their strongestrade was killed, they panicked. Some of them began to cry.

    Duo Ka and his beloved fighter machine headed towards Dual Forest. He heard that people saw a giant in ck armor, reaching over 10 meters tall, and wanted to see it for himself.

    Duo Ka''s fighter was a light blue colored Blue Flounder II. Nicknamed Blue Lightning, it was a fighter vessel that was first designed more than a decade ago. The fish shaped fighter had two fins that arched inwards. Right above the pilot cabin in its main body was a fixed wing that looked like a shark''s dorsal fin. This was the iconic structure of the model. The fighter was packed with powerful weapons. It had long range shooting capabilities, and could even fire high explosive grenades.

    The model was over 10 years old, and was now in its seventh iteration. Nevertheless, Duo Ka never thought of switching to a new fighter. For more than 10 years, he had used and maintained his fighter. He was probably more familiar with his fighter than with his wife. Curiously, the fighter was like a lucky charm for the man. He had survived against impossible odds time and again with his fighter.

    "Duo Ka is here," Gu Reming was the first to notice his arrival. He quickly passed on the news to his friends.

    Old Wei looked around and saw Duo Ka''s blue, old model.

    Duo Ka enjoyed a high reputation in Yedda, since he was the only Level 6 shooter in the city. For shooters, Level 5 separated the mediocre and the skillful. A shooter would be considered a pro if they reached Level 5. Levels 3 and 4 were not exactlymon, but most shooters fell into these two levels. To go one level up from Level 4, however, was a challenge that all shooters will face. The difference between Levels 4 and 5 was more qualitative. A Level 5 shooter can easily win against a few Level 4 shooters. The difference in strength was so apparent, that many shooters found themselves never achieving Level 5, and could only ept the fact with regret.

    Going further up the hierarchy, the second challenge was in going from Level 7 to Level 8. This was much harder than the first challenge. With talent and effort, and some luck, a shooter might just cross the gap. Level 8 shooters were considered geniuses, but the legendary Level 10 shooters were even rarer, and mostly from the past.

    Yedda''s citizens recognized Duo Ka''s old, blue model, and quickly made way for him. They were excited at his appearance, for Duo Ka was Yedda''s best shooter, and rarely fought in public. There were many Level 4 shooters here who would like to see Duo Ka fight, and hopefully gain some insight from it.

    Duo Ka was just in time to see Celest''s swipe-and-sh and attack. His face turned serious at that. He recognized the bright purple fighter. The pilot reached Level 5 at a young age, a rare talent. However, it seemed that he would not survive. Duo Ka sighed inside, regretting the loss of a genius.

    The giant''s skills surprised him. As Yedda''s only Level 6 shooter, he could discern more than the average person. He sensed great strength behind the giant''s every move.

    On the contrary, he was not surprised by the giant''s huge figure. The universe was vast and full of mysteries. It was not impossible for a giant to exist.

    More surprising was the red longsword and armor. He recognized the material, though he did not know its name. He had seen trace amounts of the element in the darker half of Dual Forest. There were more in sandy areas, but only in bits and pieces. He had heard from an elder that these elements were everywhere in that the inner parts of Darkniss, where they came in a variety of colors. Even the nts in the inner parts of the Darkniss were unusual. The creatures that resided in the inner parts of Darkniss were all mysterious and powerful. The inner parts of Darkniss were ces that only shooters who reached Level 8 or above could afford to explore. It was a dangerous and elusive ce.

    Could this odd giant be from the inner parts of Darkniss?

    Duo Ka was shaken by where his thoughts lead. However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. The heavy ck armor, the dark red sword, and the ck weapons pack on its back were all made of materials that could only be found in the inner parts of Darkniss.

    If that was the case, how did the giant escape from Darkniss? ording to his seniors who had entered Darkniss before, the creatures in there seemed to obey certain rules, having clearly delineated boundaries of activity. This was why none of the creatures from within Darkniss had ever been seen outside.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong did now know that an expert was watching him. He was now on the aggressive. Without their strongest fighter, the rest of the yboy gang was no threat to Ye Chong.

    He had already destroyed three aircrafts. Celest was faster and more agile in the skypared to these fighter aircrafts. The disparity in their strengths was clear.

    Duo Ka decided to act. He may not like the yboys much, but he knew their parents, and could not simply watch from the side as they died in the giant''s hands.

    Aim, fire.

    A blueser beam shot out from the front of Duo Ka''s fighter, aimed at the giant''s throat.

    Ye Chong had been fighting carefully. He had the upper hand in the battle, but he was still surrounded by many other aircrafts which might ambush him at any time. His vignce saved his life.

    Celest did a Thomas''s Spin, while the blueser barely grazed past the mech''s cheek.

    Ye Chong was surprised, and looked around to see the blue aircraft. The other aircrafts were watching from a distance, but the blue one had inserted itself into the clearing that was his battleground.

    Ye Chong stopped attacking the aircrafts. He felt an intense sense of danger emanating from the blue aircraft.

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong executed the move he was most familiar with - Non-Orderly Wavy Leap. Celest zigzagged in the air like a weightless spirit, defying allws of physics with its every twist and turn. No one understood what he was doing.

    Fiveser beams shot towards the spots where Celest was at almost the same time.

    The shooter was skilled! Of the fiveser beams it avoided, three nearly hit Celest.

    The blue beams continued to strike, leaving Ye Chong barely enough time to process them. Duo Ka did not have the habit of talking it out.

    The Level 6 shooter was powerful. The shooters around him watched in awe. There were no bells and whistles, but his solid techniques were enough to suppress the giant. Each shot was faster than the one before it. A normal shooter would not have survived the assault.

    Ye Chong was experienced in defending himself against long range attacks. Ever since he chose to specialize in close rangebat, he had faced all kinds of long range mechs time and again.

    However, he was now in a very, very precarious situation!

    Compared to all the ambushing or sniping he had survived, this time was much, much worse. The shooter barely took time to aim between shots. Theser beams came strongly at urate and dangerous angles that made Ye Chong''s life difficult.

    Celest had switched its alloy sword for a diamond shaped shield. Even so, avoiding the shots was hard.

    Ye Chong suddenly recalled a conversation he had with Mu a long time ago. He had once asked Mu if the mech was the strongest attacker. Mu had said no. When Ye Chong asked why, Mu had said that his attackscked spirit.

    Ye Chong remembered that particr exchange right now. He knew now how deadly a skilled and focused shooter could be. Strength, speed and spirit - of the three elements, the spirit was the most neglected. However, when excellent spiritual training met long range shooting, the result was a deadly long range attacker.

    Xi Feg Tribe had its mentalists, but Ye Chong felt that the shooters here were the ones who truly unlocked the potential ofbining spiritual training and shooting.

    Ye Chong was not in control of his thoughts. He did not know why he was thinking about all these irrelevant thoughts when in the midst of a battle.

    He did now know that his body was fighting back in the most direct way right now.

    Evasion!

    Evasion and shooting are like twins or nemesis to each other. In the Five Gxies, long range mechs had been developed for a long time. In this time, evasion techniques were also innovated at an astonishing rate.

    Ye Chong''s evasion techniques were all over the ce.

    Irregr Veers, Parallel Retreat, Thomas'' Spin, Speckled Moon Spin ¡­

    Effective evasion techniques worked not only to avoid the enemy''s attacks, but also to interrupt the shooter''s rhythm of attack. Only then could a close range mech close the distance between itself and its opponent. The evasive techniques were all designed to confuse, to make the shooters shoot off target.

    Celest moved like a ghost, avoiding all the bluesers raining down on it.

    If Duo Ka''s shooting was impressive, Celest''s evasion measures were even more astonishing to the observing shooters.

    They could not figure out how a massive figure like this giant could make such impossibly deft movements in the air. Compared to the giant, their aircrafts looked unwieldy.

    Duo Ka turned grim. He had not wounded the giant so far. The giant was too fast, using evasion techniques that he had never seen before. So far, he could not do real harm on the giant.

    Ye Chong was also having a hard time. His hands never stopped moving. The blue aircraft never stopped shooting its blueser beams. All he could do now was avoid being hit at the mech''s vulnerable spots.

    Duo Ka decided to ramp up his attack. The giant was too slick to tackle.

    He activated all the guns on his aircraft, and even put his rarely used high explosive grenades into the fray.

    Ye Chong noticed Duo Ka''s change in strategy instantly.

    However, he could not think of any solution aside from trying his best to defend himself. His hands moved faster, turning into a blur on the controls console.

    The sudden increase in intensity of the battle came as a surprised to the onlookers. The battle turned more violent as Duo Ka''s fighter began spitting outser beams with even higher frequency.

    The giant''s diamond shield was already covered with holes, all from theser beams that hit it.

    Without the shield, theser beams would have hit on Celest''s main body.

    Ye Chong held on with difficulty as he tried to figure out another way. He must get out of his situation quickly. Just then, a high explosive grenade hit his shield.

    Bam! The air cracked with a loud explosion, together with a bright sphere of white light that hurt the eyes.

    The explosion was so powerful that it broke the diamond shaped shield into pieces. Celest was pushed to the ground from the shockwaves of the explosion.

    Then, Ye Chong cursed himself for being an idiot.

    The battle had started suddenly, and Duo Ka''s attacks were so intense that Ye Chong did not have time to think properly. He now realized that fighting a bunch of crazies in the sky with his close range mech was just turning the odds against him.

    On the contrary, the dense forest down below was a close range mech''s home ground.

    Celest curled into itself, sted its engines at maximum and shot down like a meteor to the bafflement of the onlookers.

 Chapter 521 - Under Attack III

    <h4>Chapter 521: Under Attack III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Of course Duo Ka would not let it go so easily. In fact, he was curious of the giant in armor. Another concern he had was, if the giant was really from within Darkniss, it would spell trouble for all of them. Could it be that something terrible happened in Darkniss?

    The problem was a crucial one, for him and for the City of Yedda. Yedda was at the edge of Dual Forest. If the creatures residing in the mysterious Darkniss could cross the Dessert and Mist and enter Dual Forest, it would be a disaster to all of humanity. Besides, Yedda would be the first in line. These creatures that only Level 8 shooters could handle would surely bring about devastation. Would there be a bloody massacre? Or would humanity itself go extinct?

    The answers all lie within this giant.

    Duo Ka turned his fighter and dived into the forest in pursuit.

    An excellent shooter would not lose their target easily. They would rely on their parapsychic sense to locate their prey, and not their eyes. Parapsychic sense was harder to fool.

    The sudden twist in events led to puzzlement amongst the onlookers.

    Ye Chong stared at the ground that grewrger andrger in view. Celest was too fast, almost at its maximum speed. Any carelessness on his part would have heavy consequences.

    Ye Chong ced his fingers lightly on the console. His breathing was short, not out of nervousness, but because the evasion techniques earlier had drained a lot from him. However, Ye Chong did not have time to regte his breathing now. This was truly a terrible situation for him! He had never encountered such a suffocating round of assault. Thesers never stoppeding, and they were all on mark. Ye Chong could not imagine what it would take to fire so quickly and at such high uracy. Once, he had thought that only Mu and Shang could do it. Now, he could only marvel at the talents found in this world. In the end, he had to give his all just to keep himself from being shot. He had sumbed into a semi-conscious and half-crazed state, and his hands had moved that much faster.

    Now, his mind was concentrating only on the forest. There was no room for further consideration. The blue aircraft had followed him closely from behind.

    Ye Chong stopped breathing abruptly. His eyes gleamed as his hands danced across the controls in a blur.

    Celest stretched its limbs out midair, bending them slightly as it continued to crash downwards. The mech was about to hit the ground. Duo Ka was anxious. Any aircraft that went shooting down at this speed would definitely be reduced to useless debris. Could it be that this giant be able to withstand the impact?

    Just as Dou Ka felt concerned, the giant suddenly slowed down in its trajectory in a seemingly physics defying instant. It was now on level with the treetops. The giant pushed its hands and feet against the branches and extended them again like unwinding springs. It was using the trees to slow down its descent.

    Creak crack creak!

    The branches gave way as Celest crashed into a tree with a girth that went a few meters across, bringing the tree down with it. The huge tree crashed into the ground, kicking up soil and dust into the air. Seen from above, the giant had seemingly vanished into the dense forest under the cover of dust.

    "Do you think you can get away so easily?" Duo Ka thought to himself with a cold smile.

    The dense forest was Heaven for a close range mech like Celest. Celestnded its feet heavily into the soft ground and continued pushing forward, making use of the momentum from its descent. Its body tilted, its left leg extended out straight, and its right leg bent into an arch. The left leg traced a long gash into the earth like a plough.

    Finally, a chance to catch his breath. Ye Chong panted heavily. Once he entered the forest, theplicated terrain would be disadvantageous to long rangebatants. The branches that crisscrossed irregrly everywhere would make it difficult to aim. If they were to fight in the air in the forest, the canopy leaves would prevent light from entering their battleground.

    Suddenly, a blueser beam shot through the leaves and right through Celest''s thigh!

    How was that possible? Ye Chong''s chest tightened. He immediately made Celest dash forward. Ye Chong felt the threat behind him growing stronger and stronger. Cold sweat ran down his back. He could almost smell death itself. It was too long ago since he had a simr feeling!

    The opponent pressured him constantly, suffocating him. So far, he had reacted passively without returning an attack even once.

    The terrain had not affected his opponent one bit! Ye Chong felt his calmness slowly gave way. However, he knew that he should not slow down now. If he did, the next blueser beam might just shot through Celest''s throat.

    ¡­

    In fact, the forest did hinder Duo Ka. The shooter shook his head in dissatisfaction. Theplicated terrain made it harder for him to shoot. He had aimed at the giant''s throat, but shot its thigh instead. Nevertheless, a shooter will have to be at least above Level 5 to bebat effective in the forest. Lesser shooters would be more severely affected.

    Without a fighter aircraft, fighting against a creature as strong as this giant would be suicidal. The difference strength would be too great. If the first shot missed, the consequences would be deadly.

    The forest was not suitable for flight. Besides, the giant had shown how agile it could be. Duo Ke thought it was terrifying that the giant could move so quickly despite its bulky size, even faster than a fighter aircraft.

    There was no other option for him. Duo Ka flew his fighter close to the ground, waiting for the right time to attack. As long as he kept close to his target, there will be plenty of opportunities.

    ¡­

    Stay calm! Stay calm! Ye Chong reminded him repeatedly.

    He forced himself to slow down his breathing. It worked. As his breathing slowed down, his mind became calmer. Throughout the whole exercise, his hands never slowed down.

    There must a way! Ye Chong told himself. As long as he was calm, he would figure it out.

    His rich battle experience allowed him to stay in control despite the imminent threat. His gaze turned clearer.

    What was his opponent''s strength? Astonishing shooting uracy and frequency, unhindered by the environment.

    But that did not sound right. Ye Chong recalled then something that Huang Baiyi once told him. A mentalist was best suited for a t and open battleground, since the open space allowed the mentalist to spread his senses further. If that was the case, this forest should be effective against mentalists.

    However, why was the shooter able to hit him? The shooter must have very strong parapsychic sense!

    Ye Chong realized suddenly that the shooter had hit Celest''s thigh. Back when they were fighting in the open, the shooter had always aimed for vulnerable spots such as the throat. Now, it was the thigh that was hit! Ye Chong concluded then that the forest was making things difficult for the shooter.

    Having arrived at this conclusion, Ye Chong felt encouraged. His eyes gleamed brighter, and his mind began to race through possibilities.

    ¡­

    Duo Ka frowned again. That the giant was able to move easily through the foliage came as no surprise. What made him frown was the fact that it appeared to be experienced in fighting in the forest, taking cover behind the tree branches. Duo Ka could sense the general location of the giant, but it was not enough for him to shoot urately. Besides, he could not understand how the giant''s movements were not affected by the wound on its thigh. Once again, he marvelled at the strength of this creature!

    Since urate shots were out of the picture, Duo Ka decided to try a different strategy.

    Wide coverage high explosive grenade attack!

    ¡­

    Celest''s holographic scanning system was highly advanced. This was not something Ye Chong got to enjoy every day. Aside from Mu and Shang, the best holographic scanning system he had ever used was Moon King''s. However, Moon King was still slightly inferiorpared to the best mechs.

    Celest was the culmination of the Research Consortium''s best research works, which included its holographic scanning system. It was as good as the holographic scanning systems of the Three Aces from the Three Aristocratic Families, and the result of three decades of research by the Consortium.

    This allowed Ye Chong to observe the blue fighter''s trajectory clearly.

    Suddenly, hundreds of grenades rained down on him.

    Ye Chong had a taste of the grenade earlier. They were highly explosive. Celest''s diamond shaped shield had been sted into pieces from just one of them.

    However, if it was not a direct hit, Celest would probably remain intact.

    With his calmness restored, Ye Chong was now a formidable opponent. He did not panic, His hands moved even faster, but steadier.

    As the grenades came down, Celest demonstrated its impable evasion techniques once again.

    Boom boom boom boom!

    The explosions never stopped. Where the giant had been moments ago was now a wreck of blown branches and leaves.

    Old Wei watched from afar, and thought the situation odd. He had only met Duo Ka a few times, but the man he knew was not one to kill without mercy.

    "Strange," their captain, Re Guming sent the message to his group members. He too noticed that something was not right.

    Duo Ka never liked to use the high explosive grenades, since they were low uracy weapons suitable only for wider coverage. Shooters who strived for uracy never liked imprecise weapons like these.

    Now that Duo Ka had used his high explosive grenades, what could it possibly mean?

    It meant that Duo Ka was ready to do anything necessary to kill the giant. Why was that, though? Could there be a story behind this? Re Guming and Old Wei both considered the situation. The other shooters who were watching had also realized something was amiss.

    Duo Ka noticed that the giant had left his first attack range, and immediately shot out another round of grenades.

    With one giant fleeing in front and a fighter attacking without reserve from the back, the forest was quickly marked with a long trip of burnt clearing, about 500 meters wide and over seven kilometres long. All the trees in the clearing were burnt to a crisp, and the ground was marred with holes. Such a violent and nonsensical attack left the onlookers confused.

    Had Duo Ka gone mad?

    Ye Chong piloted Celest through the shower of grenades, slippery as a fish. The attack did not leave any significant damage, only coating Celest with ash.

    Ye Chong did not understand why the shooter was so keen on destroying him, but he was now thinking of how to get rid of the shooter.

    So far, he had not figured out a way to ovee the shooter''s precise aim.

    What was the shooter''s weakness? The fighter, of course! In fact, while the shooter had given Ye Chong a hard time, the shooter''s fighter was the only thing that made him so powerful against Celest.

    The aircrafit was fast, flying at around Mach 22 to Mach 25 by Ye Chong''s estimate, and much faster than Ban Meng''s Wood Kite. It was obviously something top of the line. To reach this speed within the atmosphere was extraordinary. Even Celest could only reach up to Mach 30, and that was in outer space. Here within the atmosphere, air friction reduced that maximum speed to about Mach 28. Ye Chong was surprised by the fact that this primitive aircraft packed so much power in it.

    Nevertheless, the aircraft''s speed could not ovee a weakness of its primitive structure -aircrafts were simply not a very flexible transport. Evenpared with average mech models, aircrafts would be found wanting. They were only suitable for flight within the atmosphere. They obeyed aerodynamicws, and had only one engine at the tail of the aircraft. Every change in direction had to be achieved with a curved trajectory. Turning around required the aircraft to make a U-turn. The faster the turn, therger the U-turn must be. These aircrafts could not change directions instantly like mechs can. Since the shooter''s parapsychic sense had a limited range, this provided Ye Chong with an opportunity.

    If he could make use of this opportunity well, he would be able to escape the opponent''s pursuit.

    Celest suddenly stepped on a thick branch and fell backwards. As the mech''s body became parallel to the ground, its legs pushed strongly and its engines sted at maximum power. The giantunched backwards like a cannonball.

    Ye Chong could see the blue aircraft grazed closely past him from above.

    The giant''s abrupt move backwards left Duo Ka unprepared. He quickly changed his fighter''s trajectory, but he had a feeling that his efforts would not be enough.

    He was now beyond shocked by the giant''s behavior. He never thought the creature would have such intelligence, to recognize his weakness in such a short time and figure out a countermove. What a scary being!

    If this giant was really from Darkniss, then the creatures that resided in that ce must be terrifying. Duo Ke felt a chill down his spine.

    There was no room for his pride or dignity now. He chose the safest option - ask for help!

 Chapter 522 - Under Attack IV

    <h4>Chapter 522: Under Attack IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The trees around him receded as Ye Chong made his way forward. He did not care to look at the blue fighter above him. He needed full concentration just to avoid running into trees. It was dangerous to fly at high speed in the forest.

    Fortunately, he had not run into anything so far.

    This was not easy, even for him. After all, one needed to staypletely focused and calm when flying so fast. Any mistakes would cost him dearly.

    The onlooking shooters were surprised to receive Duo Ka''s call for help. To think that a Level 6 shooter, Yedda City''s ace, would ask for help from the mediocre Level 3''s and 4''s.

    Old Wei was taken aback when he got the message, and so was Re Guming.

    Nevertheless, as a worthy captain of the group, Re Guming reacted first.

    "Get ready for battle! But keep each other safe."

    If even a Level 6 shooter cannot kill this creature, then their group of Level 3 and 4 shooters could hardly make a difference. That was what Re Guming believed. However, since Duo Ka had put down his ego and asked for help, it could only mean that Duo Ka had good reason to kill the giant.

    There was no time to ask Duo Ka for details, but everyone knew that Duo Ka must think that this was a situation serious enough to call for everyone''s cooperation.

    Duo Ka had a respectable ce in Yedda. Thus, in the next instant, all the fighters stood up and joined the battle.

    However, in the short pause when the other shooters were still deciding what to do with Duo Ka''s request, Duo Ka had lost track of the giant through his parapsychic sense.

    Celest was moving as fast as it could, racing pass the trees like a madman. Even so, running through the forest would always be slower than flying over it.

    However, Ye Chong''s holographic scanning system allowed Ye Chong to see more around himpared to the other shooters. He could see everything that was happening in the sky around him.

    His allowed him to slip past the aircrafts. If the shooters were all as strong as the one in the blue fighter, Ye Chong would have lost his life that day.

    Fortunately, the other shooters who joined the fightter were all much weakerpared to the shooter in the blue fighter. The forest had stopped them all from tracking him down.

    Ye Chong stepped out of Celest and withdrew the bio-mech into its dimension keystone. He looked up at the aircrafts that flew past him and jumped headfirst into the river.

    He went straight down to the riverbed. "It should be impossible for their parapsychic sense to prate the waters, much less when they are flying so fast," thought Ye Chong.

    Once he shook off the blue fighter, Ye Chong''s extensive experience in escaping allowed him to get out of his predicament.

    Down on the riverbed, Ye Chong kept his pulse steady. Holding one''s breath was a practice that manybat schools would teach. It was therefore not a challenge for Ye Chong. He could even ride the current and move further downstream.

    The overgrowth of seaweed kept his figure hidden as he made his way forward. Once, he saw a huge freshwater creature, but it barely spared a nce at him before swimming away.

    When Ye Chong withdrew Celest, the shooters were doomed to failure.

    This was because they never thought the giant was actually a machine. They had believed that it was a living organism, despite how ridiculous it seemed to be. Perhaps the idea of the giant being a machine would be even more unbelievable to them.

    News of the giant''s appearance in Dual Forest spread quickly in Yedda. Duo Ka''s battle with the giant was also discussed heatedly. The fact that hundreds of fighters were unable to find the giant in the end left the incident shrouded in mystery.

    Many people asked Duo Ka about his thoughts after the encounter, but aside from his look of concern, Duo Ka refused toment further. The shooters who had helped Duo Ka in the forest were indignant at his silence.

    On the other hand, Duo Ka had left Yedda in a rush soon after the fight that day to God-knows-where.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong returned home on the second day. He had made a wrong turn earlier and had to make a huge roundabout.

    Once back home, Ye Chong finally felt safer.

    The battle had left a deep impression in him. The shooter in the blue fighter left him shaken. It was good that there not many shooters like that one, or he would be toast.

    The thought of that blue fighter gave him a headache. So far, he could not think of an effective way to fight against the blue aircraft. If he had a long range mech, he would be able to take advantage of the mech''s mobility, agility, andrger holographic scanning range to overpower the blue aircraft.

    Unfortunately, he was a close range mech expert. To win against his opponent, he would have to get close.

    Celest, a biomech that could escape detection from holographic scanning systems, could not hide against the shooter''s parapsychic sense.

    This meant that if Ye Chong was in danger, he would not be able to defend himself. He would not use Celest again for fear of creating another incident like that yesterday. Ye Chong would not count on his luck holding out every time. He decided to not use his mech until he had a solution to this quandary.

    Ye Chong''s investigation stopped. He had wanted to use an auxiliary mech to study the life forms in Dual Forest, but it seemed that the n would have to be scrapped. Auxiliary mechs were not designed forbat. If he was engaged in a fight again, he would bepletely defenseless.

    Ye Chong rested at home for two days before fully recovering,pletely unaware of the uproar that the whole affair had caused in the city.

    Two dayster, when Duo Ka brought 12 Level 6 shooters back with him, Yedda City trembled with excitement. Something was going to happen, and everyone knew it! People quickly pointed out that it was a direct reaction to the giant incident two days ago. The 12 Level 6 shooters were a formidable army! Could the giant held some kind of secret that was worth the effort of 12 Level 6 shooters?

    Ye Chong was oblivious to these events.

    Once he was fully rested at home, he began to analyze the battle two days ago. The first thought that came to him was that he was too unfamiliar with the local workings. If he had known earlier how strong the shooters here really were, he would have found himself in deep trouble earlier.

    However, he was alsoforted by how fast Celest was recovering. In just two days, the hole in its thigh had all disappeared without a trace. The battle was a close one, but Celest did not suffer any irreparable damage.

    The bio-mech was much superior than local primitive aircrafts, but Ye Chong found himselfpletely suppressed by his opponent that day. It was not a good feeling at all!

    However, Ye Chong was also patient. He knew exactly what he had to do now - get to know the in-and-outs of this new world better.

    He must investigate with care, or people would notice something was amiss. If that happened, he would never be able to escape.

    "Someone''sing," the photon processor in the room alerted him.

    Ye Chong quickly directed his attention to the holographic screen, wary of this intruder. He lived in a secluded ce, and did not expect any visitors.

    On the holographic screen, Kristen dragged Ban Meng by his ear and yelled at him, "Is it here?"

    Ban Meng nodded quickly," It''s here, it''s here!" He pleaded, "Cousin Sis, please let go of my ear, it''s going to fall off."

    "Humph, and wouldn''t you deserve it! You''re the one who was lying, showing off even right in front of me. That''s just stupid," Kristen argued with disdain, but she let go of his ear.

    Ban Meng mumbled to himself but did not talk back.

    Kristen walked to Ye Chong''s front door and put her right hand on it. She hesitated for a moment, her expression unreadable.

    After a good half a minute, she finally made her decision. She clenched her right hand into a fist and knocked heavily on the door.

    After a while, the door opened with Ye Chong behind it. He asked tly, "What is it?"

    Kristen blushed deeply, but could not utter a single work.

    "I''m closing the door," Ye Chong announced calmly.

    Kristen felt indignant at that. She immediately pushed her chest forward and dered proudly, "Hey, boy, don''t think that you''re so cool just because you have a few tricks up your sleeves. You rude b*stard, is that a way to treat ady?"

    Ye Chong said nothing, his hand swinging the door close.

    Kristen panicked and quickly put her foot in to stop the door. "Wait, wait, I''ve something to say!"

    "Say it." Ye Chong was unmoved.

    "I - I want to be your student," Kristen was blushing red as a tomato now. She seemed encouraged by her confession, and announced loudly, "That''s right, I said it. Tell you what, I want to your student. Seeing as you have some good moves there, I''vee here to be your student. What do you think? You gonna ept me?"

    "No," Ye Chong was ready to close the door for good now.

    Kristen panicked again, "Wha - you - you''re not epting me? This prettydy here is asking for you, and you said no? How can you be so heartless -"

    Ye Chong had no patience for this. His hand went for the door again.

    "Hey hey hey, wait a sec, I''ll give you amapo wood for teaching fees, how about that?" Kristen sounded anxious.

    Ye Chong considered for a moment. Amapo wood was not valuable to him, not even worth a bunch of ordinary nt specimens. He rejected her, naturally, "It''s useless to me."

    "How about a million ao?" Kristen could read him easily. She could see what Ye Chong was thinking of just now, and realized that she should switch tactics.

    Just as Ye Chong was considering this new offer, she upped her game, "Make it two million ao."

    Ye Chong made his decision then, "Deal." He needed money.

    Kristen burst into a grin, "Wonderful! Hehe, you should''ve just told me, I can afford to pay you. And just when I was getting nervous, haha!" Kristen was not exaggerating. As a famous weaponsmith, she did notck ie.

    Ye Chong opened the door and let Kristen in.

    Ban Meng wanted to follow her in, but the door was shut in front of him.

    "Humph, ass, both of you," Ban Meng muttered inint, but only quietly to himself. He went back alone. Ever since he met the cold and emotionless man, his life made a turn for the worse. This time, he had to bring his cousin sister all the way here, dragged by the ear, and he was not even invited inside.

    Ye Chong closed the door and put out his hand, "Pay first."

    "For real? Are you a man? I''ve never seen anyone so blunt," Kristen groaned, but upon seeing Ye Chong''s stony expression she conceded, "Alright alright, I''ll pay up."

    She produced two green cards and handed them to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong epted them unabashed.

    "Hey, now that I''m your student, where will I be staying?" Kristen asked.

    "Staying?" Ye Chong threw an odd look at Kristen, "You''ll stay at your own house."

    "No way, the student has to live with the teacher. How else can I learn from you?" Kristen shook her head in protest, then smiled and said, "Don''t worry, I''m not interested in your skinny figure. I''m more into the muscr type."

    Kristen looked at Ye Chong up and down suggestively.

    Ye Chong ignored her look entirely and said without expression, "You can stay here if you want to, but there are rules."

    "What rules?" Kristen asked, curious.

    "You will have your own space, but there will be restricted areas." Ye Chong looked serious about it.

    "Why?" Kristen asked, intrigued, "You hiding something here? Scared I''ll find out about it?"

    "Either you agree or you stay elsewhere," Ye Chong said without expression, his voice turning cold.

    For some reason, Kristen felt a chill from his response. She mellowed, "Alright alright, I agree, not that I care."

    "Then you''ll stay there," Ye Chong pointed towards a small house at the edge of his courtyard.

    "What, you''re asking me to stay there?" Kristen studied the house in disbelief. It was so small that it would amodate only one person.

    Ye Chong did not deign to exin. "Is that a yes or no?"

    "I''m staying," Kristen dered with grievance, but Ye Chong was unmoved by her. Before he turned back to his own house, he said, "You''re allowed only to move around your house and the courtyard."

    "What?!" Kristen looked her own little house and the empty courtyard, and wanted to cry.

    Ye Chong returned to his own house and worked on his door. Now, the door can only be opened from inside. If no one was inside, the photon processor will scan if the person outside was Ye Chong, and allow only him to open the door. If the door was forced open, it will trigger a defense system that will blow the intruder to bits.

    ¡­

    Kristen felt extremely bored.

    She never saw Ye Chonge out again after her first day there. Her so-called teacher never left his house. She could not understand how someone could stay indoors for so long. More importantly, she had been surviving on simple rations all this while.

    The ce was too secluded. No one was willing to send meals over. Besides, she was ordered to stay in her own space, which was her tiny house and the courtyard. There was nothing she could find here that she could use to cook a proper meal.

    On the third day, she could no longer stand it. She went to Ye Chong''s door and knocked.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong''s stony expression appeared through the crack in the door.

    Kristen could feel a dam of resentment within her burst open when she eximed, "Just what do you think you''re doing? I''ve been living out here alone, what about my meals? F*ck, it''s been three days, and I''ve learnt nothing new, so you tell me, right now, are you going to teach me or not?"

    Kristen was practically spitting her words out as she rolled up her sleeves in agitation.

    Ye Chong found it a curious request. "Should I be providing you meals?"

    Kristen wanted tough. She grabbed Ye Chong by the cor and said, "Of course, you think I live on air and sunshine? Let me tell you, you got paid so you need to act responsibly -" She stopped abruptly, caught up with an idea, and blushed.

    Even with his cor grabbed by her, Ye Chong was unaffected. He tilted his head in thought, and asked earnestly, "You really think that I should be providing you with meals?"

    Kristen was stunned. She spat back, "Of course!"

    "I see," Ye Chong replied calmly, "Since this was not part of our initial arrangement, please pay up for your meals."

    "You - you -" Kristen pointed at Ye Chong, unable to continue.

    Was he in the wrong? Ye Chong did not think so. They had agreed that he would be her teacher, not caregiver.

    "Fine, fine by me. I''ve never seen anyone so greedy. Fine, I''ll take care of my own meals. But since I''ve paid you two million ao, how can you just leave me alone outside?"

    "You cane to me if you have questions." Ye Chong''s reply could drive her crazy.

    After awhile, Kristen calmed herself down and said with a cold smile, "Hehe, I have questions, loads of them, just you see, boy."

    Kristen was not joking. She had plenty of questions ever since she saw theser gun that Ye Chong built. Now, she began to go through them, one by one.

    ¡­

    Back in Dual Forest, a group of 13 were at where the battle against the giant took ce, deep in discussion. They were Duo Ka and the 12 Level 6 shooters he brought with him.

    "As you can see, this is where we fought that day," Duo Ka pointed at the forest.

    No longer was the ce all lush greenery. The ground was full of broken branches and twigs. There were holes in the ground, where the grenadesnded. The soil was charred from the explosions.

    Everyone in the group looked solemn. They had been suspicious of Duo Ka''s narrative, but now that they were here, they believed him.

    The fallen trees and broken branches here told them how intense that battle was that day.

    They knew how strong Duo Ka was. If the battle escted to this degree, the giant must be formidable, and if what Duo Ka said was true, it was very worrying indeed.

    All the shooters here werebat veterans. They identified the damages caused by the giant with ease.

    "Look here," one of the shooters pointed at a huge footprint in the ground. It was imprinted a good 30 centimeters deep.

    The other shooters exchanged wary nces.

    "The foot size suggests a 10-meter height, alright. Hmm, it must be quite heavy. I''m curious how a bulky creature like that can fly, and move with such agility. It''s remarkable." The one speaking was the tracking expert of the group.

    They continued to search the forest. The giant left obvious marks in the forest, and this allowed them to follow its tracks easily.

    They tried to guess the giant''s methods and its intentions.

    When they finally reached the river, all traces of the giant were gone.

    "It must have flown away from here," the tracker suggested. The group agreed with him. However, it was no easy feat to escape the extensive search by the aircrafts. How did it manage to slip away unnoticed? Why did it choose to fly when it reached this river? Was this a coincidence or was there some other factors at y?

    The 13 shooters all had questions of their own.

    "Let''s not rush things. We should stay in Yedda in the meantime. I think that this giant will re-appear soon enough, and we''ll get our answers then. Besides, Du Ka had said that the giant is not a threat to us. Let''s treat this as a vacation of sorts," someone in the group, their leader perhaps, offered.

    His words relieved the tension in the group. Someone added, "Duo Ka''s sponsoring our vacation!"

    "Haha!" Everyoneughed.

    "Of course!" said Duo Ka warmly.

 Chapter 523 - The Mysterious Stony Man

    <h4>Chapter 523: The Mysterious Stony Man</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "This problem is rted to many principles. Firstly, do you understand Herb''s Law?"

    "No," Kirsten looked lost.

    "Then let us begin with Herb''s Law ¡­" Ye Chong did not look impatient. He was a picture of patience and serenity.

    For the past few days, Kristen became absolutely convinced of Ye Chong''s abilities. She felt grateful for taking that bold step in asking this young man to be her teacher.

    Kirsten had asked about everything she did not understand in the past few days. In fact, they were now still discussing only her first question. She did not imagine that there was no much knowledge involved in just a simple question.

    It was on the fourth day that she finally figured out her first question. However, in these four days, Kirsten felt that she was getting more than she hoped for.

    There was something she could not understand, however. How did her teachere to be so knowledgeable at such a young age? Whenever they talked, she felt a deep respect for him. All this knowledge was so mysterious and interesting. It was a fully structured and developed field of knowledge, built uponyers andyers of understanding and discovery.

    "Let''s stop for today. We''re going out to buy something," Ye Chong said inly.

    Kirsten looked up in surprise, "We''re buying something?" In the past few days, his teacher had never left his house except to impart his knowledge to her. As long as she did not ask him questions, the man would stay inside his house with the door shut.

    "I need samples ofmon raw materials. Please give me a list of them," Ye Chong said to Kirsten.

    "What do you need them for?" Kirsten thought it was a very strange request. As a weaponsmith, she had to understand the properties of basic materials at the beginning of her career. In fact, while there were many materials that were suitable to make weapons, only a few of them weremon.

    If they wanted samples of all the materials, it would cost quite a sum, and she did not see how it was necessary.

    "They''re useful." Ye Chong''s reply did not convince Kristen, but she also knew that if Ye Chong did not feel like exining to her, no amount of asking was going to get her anywhere.

    "Boy, I have to warn you, this is going to cost you at least a million ao. Think it through," Kristen advised despite herself.

    "I see, that''s not a problem."

    ¡­

    After so many days of staying in her tiny house, eating simple rations, Kristen felt wonderful as they finally went outside.

    "Say, boy, I didn''t get your name yet," Kristen took a side nce at Ye Chong.

    "Ye Chong," the man himself replied, his eyes looking straight ahead. It had been too long since he used his real name. All this while, he had been going under fake names. For some reason, Ye Chong felt bitter at the thought, but he quicklyposed himself.

    "Ye Chong? That''s not a bad name," Kristen said, but still teased him a bit, "But it sounds too ordinary."

    Ye Chong ignored her.

    Kristen was like an eye ma on the streets. Her clothes were revealing, and her body curved enticingly at the people around her. She carried herself with passion and allure; her red lips moved seductively.

    She was tall, almost as all as Ye Chong.

    Unlike Kristen, Ye Chong looked like an ordinary dude. He looked ordinary, wore simply, and perhaps only the sharpest eyes could see the confident ease and calmness in his eyes.

    Many of the onlookers looked at her sympathetically, and this made Kristen even more pleased. She turned back at Ye Chong but found that he was not looking at her. This angered her.

    "Boy, you have a woman?" Kristen suddenly thought of the question and asked him.

    Ye Chong considered it for a moment before replying, "I guess so." An image of a woman in white training garb came to mind.

    Kristen was instantly hooked on the topic. She continued with excitement, "Wow and wow, didn''t think you have it in you. Your skinny ass got you a woman? But I gotta say, you''re being too irresponsible, what do you mean by ''I guess so''? You either have one, or you don''t, you don''t ''guess'' okay? What a loser, no wonder I don''t fancy you."

    Ye Chong darted a nce at Kristen, thinking about how she get along swimmingly with Shang.

    Kristen red at Ye Chong, her arms akimbo, "What''re you staring at, am I wrong? I hate men who''re careless like you!" Her furious expression made her look even more stunning. Some of the onlookers around them wished they could interfere and lend her a helping hand.

    Ye Chong remained stony and expressionless, so Kristen lost interest in the subject. Suddenly, she thought of something else. She approached Ye Chong and whispered in his ear, "Honestly though, what''s it like?" She asked and wiggled her eyebrows meaningfully.

    "It was good," Ye Chong replied without thinking. The memories he had of "tasting" Rui Bing were carved deep into his mind.

    "Hahahaha!" Kristen gave up herdylike image andughed loudly, doubling over with one hand on her stomach. She did not realize that Ye Chong was not talking about what she meant.

    Ye Chong did not feel embarrassed. He only found it strange - was it really that funny? Why could he not appreciate the joke?

    Ye Chong watched Kristen calmly, waiting for her to finishughing.

    Thus, a strange scene presented itself on the streets. A woman in revealing overalls wasughing beside herself, while a man stood in front her emotionlessly, watching her.

    Everyone who walked pass them stared in bafflement.

    Fortunately, no one interfered to "help" Kristen. Most of the people here knew her. She was beautiful, true, but she was also bad tempered and an odd character. Moreover, she was a Level 4 shooter. It would make anyone think twice before getting involved with the beautifuldy.

    Kristen finally stoppedughing.

    "Are you doneughing?" Ye Chong asked calmly, "If you''re done, let''s keep moving. If not, do continue."

    Kristen was speechless at that.

    ¡­

    Kristen trailed behind Ye Chong, confused by the man in front of her. Sometimes, he was so good tempered that all the teasing would simply roll off him, like he was made of stone. Other times, he felt so dangerous that even minor things could get him worked up.

    You never knew what his next step would be. Kristen was confident of her looks, and knew that many were seduced by her beauty. However, this man here had always looked at her with such clear eyes. His expression was always so t and calm, as though nothing in the world held his interest.

    A man at his age should be passionate, ambitious and eager to please. However, this man did not look anything like that.

    Kristen can call him "boy", tease him all she wanted, and he would never mind. She remembered clearly of a teacher she had once who always ordered her to be respectful at all times.

    This was a strange man. Everything about him was a mystery to her. He was much more knowledgeable than his age suggested, and Kristen suspected that he was probably the most skilled weaponsmith in the world.

    Currently, the man had made a very strange request. Such a skilled weaponsmith was willing to spend a million ao to buy all kinds of raw materials. Was he just bored out of his mind? He was also such a money-grubber, or at least as far as Kristen could see.

    "We''re here," Kristen pointed to a light green colored building, "It''s thergest material store here. You can''t get everything in the list, but you should be able to get most of them."

    Ye Chong nodded, "Alright."

    The shop was spacious inside. They sold all kinds of raw materials, and would even buy them from customers. Many shooters would sell their haul here in the shop.

    "Wee, Miss Kristen!" The storekeeper saw that it was Kristen, and came to greet her. Kristen was a famous local weaponsmith, and her weapons were popr around. She was an important customer of the store.

    Kristen nodded in greeting to the storekeeper. Suddenly, she pped her head lightly in annoyance and said to Ye Chong, "Ah, I forgot that this is Mr Mo''s shop. We could''ve just visited him directly. Hehe, I think you must have left quite an impression in himst time."

    The storekeeper was surprised. Kristen was a huge customer in the store, but he never knew that she knew the boss himself. Besides, from what she was saying, it seemed that this man beside her also knew Mr Mo. This made him wary.

    "Oh, so it''s Mr Mo''s store," Ye Chong nodded in recognition. It was just a short peek, but Mr Mo had left a good impression in him.

    Ye Chong studied the inside of the store. There were not many people around, but one of them got his attention.

    It was a woman in thin, white clothing. She wore a strange hat that had a thin veil covering her face. What caught Ye Chong''s attention was not her clothing, but her aura.

    It reminded him of someone he had not spent only a brief time with - Huang Baiyi.

    One was an old man, the other a youngdy, but they shared a certain kind of aura.

    The woman seemed to notice his gaze, and turned her head over slightly.

    In the next instant, Ye Chong felt a kind of wave go through him. This felt very familiar! In his time with Huang Baiyi, the man had wanted to pass down his knowledge to Ye Chong. To do this, he had demonstrated many ways mental waves can be used. Huang Baiyi was surprised to find that Ye Chong, despite hisck of talent in bing a mentalist, was very sensitive to mental waves.

    It waster that he realized something - Ye Chong was not sensitive to mental waves in particr, but to every detail in his surroundings. This sensitivity he disyed was off the chartspared to normal people. It was what allowed him to notice even metal waves, something that normal people could not detect.

    Ye Chong did not like the feeling - it was like he was being scrutinized without permission.

    He twisted his upper body slightly to the left and right, and got free of the mental waves. He had achieved nothing through his meditation training, but it allowed him to be familiar with mentalist powers. Getting free of the mental waves was no challenge at all. A lot of things are like this - when you do not understand it, you may feel that it is full of mystery, but once you realize what it really is, you will find that it is really nothing special.

    "Huh?" It was a faint gasp of surprise.

    Ye Chong heard it, however. As suspected, it was her. Ye Chong''s expression did not change, but he was now more vignt.

    "This is the list. We need 50 grams of each," Kristen and the storekeeper did not notice Ye Chong''s interaction with the woman in the corner.

    The storekeeper was disappointed when he heard they only wanted 50 grams, but when he saw the entire list, he was simply speechless.

    After a long while, he managed topose himself again. "Forgive me, Ms Kristen, but do you really want everything on this list?"

    "Yes," Kristen replied after looking to Ye Chong and did not see him opposing.

    The storekeeper handled the business professionally. He did not inquire further into their reasons for buying those materials, but instead said, "Of all the items in your list, our store can directly supply 3,112 of them. There are another 424 which we do not have in stock at the moment. If you''re amenable to it, we can acquire the items from other stores for you, but it will take longer, about a week''s time. Do you need these 424 items?"

    Kristen looked at Ye Chong again, and saw him nod. She replied, "Yes, all of them."

    The storekeeper saw both times when Kristen looked to Ye Chong, and felt even more cautious of them. Not only did this man knew his boss, even the wild and intractable Kristen was obeying him. Who was this man? He did not the answer to that question, but he did know that this was a man he could not afford to displease.

    "Since there are many high value items in your list, the price is a bit high. The total is 1.7 million ao. As you are our honored customer, you will receive a discount of 20 percent as per our store''s policy. The total after discount is 1.36 ao," the storekeeper exined to Kristen after checking his calctions.

    Ye Chong paid straight away. The storekeeper was pleased with the huge transaction. He said, "Since there are many items in your list, we will package andbel them in detail. Your items will be delivered to you this evening. The remaining 424 items will be delivered in a week''s time."

    Even Kristen was not unaffected by the huge 1.36 million ao trade they had just made. She cursed Ye Chong inwardly for being such so wasteful. However, when she looked at the man she called a money-grubber, his expression was simply serene, as though he felt nothing at all.

    There was nothing left to do here, so Kristen and Ye Chong turned to leave.

    "Please wait," a soft female voice spoke from behind them.

    No one saw the cold gleam that shed in Ye Chong''s eyes right then.

 Chapter 524 - This Woman Is Up To No Good

    <h4>Chapter 524: This Woman Is Up To No Good</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Kristen turned in response, and saw the veiled woman in white. Her graceful body curves were visible through the thin fabric of her clothes.

    "I heard that Ms Kristen is the best weaponsmith around here. I''d like to purchase a weapon from you," the woman bowed slightly in greeting.

    Kristen fixed her eyes on the woman, looking her up and down passionately. "I say, to think that I would meet someone as beautiful as you are! How may I address you, dear?"

    Standing beside them, the storekeeper felt goose bumps all over when he saw the look in Kristen''s eyes. He thought of the rumors about Kristen and felt like warning hisdy customer, but he said nothing in the end.

    The woman in white smiled, "I am Shu Mo''er."

    "You''re so gentle, Miss Mo''er, no wonder I like you," Kristen held Shu Mo''er hands eagerly.

    Shu Mo''er was ufortable with Kristen''s enthusiasm, caressing her hands like that. She felt her body turn rigid.

    "Aha, is that so?" Shu Mo''er replied awkwardly.

    "It''s true! You feel just like a long lost friend," Kristen held her hands even tighter.

    "Haha, you have a way with words, Ms Kristen," Shu Mo''er pulled her hands back as she said.

    Kristen put her arm over Shu Mo''er shoulders like it was the only natural thing to do, "Haha, Sister Mo''er, don''t call me Ms Kristen like I''m some stranger. Just Kristen, or Sister Kristen."

    Shu Mo''er hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "I will."

    "What kind of weapon do you want, Mo''er? Just pick one from my ce, I''ll show you everything I have," Kristen offered generously as she lightly pinched the other woman''s shoulders teasingly.

    Ye Chong was certain by now that Kristen would get along splendidly with Shang. For the moment, he chose to y a silent part. He did not know why the woman in white looked unsettled, but this might just be the perfect chance to understand her more.

    Shu Mo''er bowed slightly, saying, "I''ll be most grateful, Sister Kristen," as she slipped out of Kristen''s embrace easily. Kristen smiled sweetly with her tantalizing red lips, "Sister Mo''er, won''t you show me what you look like now?"

    Ye Chong silently approved of Kristen''s methods.

    Shu Mo''er hesitated, but soon replied, "The veil is for convenience of travelling, please forgive me, Sister." She took off her hat and showed her face.

    She had an oval face. Her skin was smooth and tender, her eyes shining ck. Her delicate nose was matched with small lips. Long hair reached her shoulders. She looked graceful and serene. As Shu Mo''er lifted her veil, the store went silent in awe.

    "You''re so beautiful, sister, even I can''t help but adore you," Kristen''s eyes sharpened as she said this. She licker her moist lips, an act which was also appreciated by the other customers in the store.

    Ye Chong was unmoved by all that. He did not know this woman''s background, but her strength was enough to make him wary. Besides, since this woman had tried to probe him, and now greeted them, Ye Chong could only think that she must be up to no good.

    "Please forgive me," Shu Mo''er apologized to Ye Chong and Kristen as she put on her hat. Her face was once again veiled, but anyone who had seen her face would never forget its beauty.

    Since her arms were hidden behind her long sleeves, Ye Chong could not make out how strong she really was.

    "And how should I address you, sir?" Her soft voice was like a refreshing sprinkle in spring.

    "Ye Chong," he replied with a precise and strong voice that erased all traces of her graceful demeanor.

    Shu Mo''er smiled almost imperceptibly at him.

    "What kind of weapon are you looking for, sister?" Kristen asked enthusiastically.

    "Um, I haven''t quite decided, do you have a suggestion, sister?"

    Ye Chong smiled coldly inside. This was obviously a pointless conversation. What kind ofbatant would not know their weapon of choice? This woman was up to no good.

    Kristen had not thought about that. She considered the question for a moment, one hand on her chin, "Hmm, your weapon must not be too heavy, or it''ll just be a drag. It must be powerful enough, else your pretty self gets into trouble if you lose. You have a tiny frame, so the weapon shouldn''t be too long."

    After a long while, Kristen could not think of anything suitable. She said, "Sister, why don''t youe over to my ce? You can pick and choose from there."

    "You have my thanks," Shu Mo''er answered with a thin smile.

    Kristen put one arm on her waist and waved off her thanks with her other arm, "Don''t worry about it, you''re just my kind of girl, sister."

    Ye Chong felt his body shudder for no reason.

    The three of them left the store together.

    "Come, sis, let''s go to my ce," Kristen invited her warmly.

    Shu Mo''er answered softly through her veil, "I thank you very much, sister."

    Kristen smiled teasingly at her, "You''re too courteous, sister." She turned to Ye Chong and said, "You can head back first, tea - I''ll be back after Sister Mo''er here chose her weapon."

    "Okay," Ye Chong said briskly and turned to leave.

    "Will Mr Ye not join us?" Shu Mo''er asked in surprise.

    Kristen groaned, "He''s just a dull guy, more like an eyesore if hees with us. He''s like a rock."

    Shu Mo''er smiled, "Mr Ye is a very interesting man."

    "Interesting?" Kristen scoffed, "That guy can''t say anything worth noticing."

    Ye Chong walked along the streets, thinking of Shu Mo''er. He must be careful of her, that was for sure. The woman had something up her sleeves, perhaps because he had gotten her attention by escaping from her mental probing. Ye Chong did not know how strong she really was, but she must be pretty strong. It was this gut feeling, and his dangerous battle days ago that made him even more vignt.

    There was not much he could deduce of Shu Mo''er. They had only met briefly. He quickly moved on from the topic to another - that of money. Now that he had spent 1.36 million ao in one go, he still had about another million left.

    Ye Chong knew that he had zero sense in financial management. His research work was going to cost a lot. Without an ie source, he would be broke very soon. He did not want to worry about money again. There must be some kind of solution out there. However, he did not know what it could be, as he simply did not know much about finance in general.

    What a dilemma! He would have to take his time and figure out something.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong began to move to the side, into a corner.

    It was a narrow alley, but deep and very quiet.

    Ye Chong walked to the end of the alley and turned around. He asked calmly, "Who are you?"

    There were two men, one tall and the other short, with guns in their hands. They were surprised that Ye Chong noticed them following him. However, they quicklyposed themselves.

    The shorter guyughed, "Hehe, bro, you can only me yourself for being careless. Tsk tsk, I say, you don''t look like it, but that''s some money you got in your ount. Just hand it over."

    The taller one red fiercely at Ye Chong, looking wary. His gun was pointed at him.

    Ye Chong felt like rolling his eyes. To think that he would be robbed like this! Shang would definitely have a field day once he found out.

    Ye Chong had no intention of wasting time with these two. Skilled shooters were powerful, but these two here did not even merit his attention. Ye Chong leapt like a spring,unching himself into the air.

    When a shooter fought against abat expert one-on-one, the shooter did not have any significant advantage. A shooter may be able to predict their opponent''s moves with parapsychic sense, but they could not react as fast as abat expert. As a Jie expert, Ye Chong himself was even faster. In the short time before a shooter could fire their gun, abat expert could do all kinds of damage. Combat experts were the true masters of close rangebat. Abat expert with excellent mental training would be even more powerful.

    To these two shooters, the man in front of them seemed to have just vanished into thin air.

    Ye Chong spread his arms wide like a pelican. He appeared suddenly between the two men and reached out with his hands towards their throats.

    Just a light twist in his hands, and the two men would die.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong showed hesitation! A strong mental wave had reached him.

    Ye Chong attacked, breaking the necks of the two robbers with a crack. He bent down low and slid backwards, then sprang up with his toes like a cat and got onto the wall. He took a quick nce at the alley before turning around and began to run.

    It was only then that the two corpses slumped to the ground.

    A man with bushy eyebrows appeared in the alley. He was just in time to see the bodies copse and the figure that made its escape.

    The man looked unsettled. He dashed towards the two bodies. His face twisted when he saw the unnatural twists of their necks.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong got home, still shaken from the incident. This world was too simply dangerous. Having met two very strong people in just a single day, Ye Chong was shocked! Could this world be full of so many strong people? The world felt more and more threatening to Ye Chong.

    He had thought that people on level with the blue fighter''s pilot must be rare enough. To think he actually met two today who were just like the pilot! Today''s events told him that the mentalists in this world were far more powerful than those in the free space zone.

    What a terrifying ce!

    Ye Chong had been to many ces, but his strength had always kept him safe, be it in the Five Gxies, He Yue Gxy or the free space zone. This world, however, had put him in a dangerous position.

    It did not feel good to be forced to lie low.

    The items from the store arrived soon after. Ye Chong decided to stop thinking about the problem for the moment. Here, the only person who could help him was himself. He was confident of finding a solution to his predicament. He had survived harsher times. His determination was honed long enough to withstand the challenges around him.

    The items filled up his courtyard.

    The store was meticulous, havingbelled every one of them.

    Ye Chong wasted no more time. He began to do his research. He needed to analyze all the materials here. It would be a huge project - huge in the sense that there were many items to go through. However, since Ye Chong had very advanced equipment at his disposal, the real analysis work should not take him too long.

    Now, all he needed to do was create a database of information for all these materials.

    Ye Chong worked with full concentration. In this state, his mind was like a speedy processor. He soon discovered that most of the materials here had high energy content. It was like the natural ingredients here could absorb the rich energy around them.

    When it came to the semi-transparent crystal that locals used as their energy source, Ye Chong could not withhold his surprise any longer. The crystalline body was pure, with an enormous energy density. Ye Chong had never seen anything that could store so much energy aside from the teardrop mineralite.

    From the receipt, Ye Chong noticed that the crystal itself did not cost a lot. This meant that the crystal was amonly found material here. What a blessed human world! Energy was a necessity for all human societies. They had plenty of them here.

    Using this crystal as an energy course could boost the engine power greatly. Ye Chong finally had a glimpse of why the primitive aircrafts here could fly so fast. With this wonderful power source, and incredibly light but strong wood material, it was no wonder the aircrafts here were so fast. The wood materials were even lighter than the skeletons that Ye Chong used!

    This ce was so blessed with natural resources that it was really unfair!

    Ye Chong looked at the big piles of materials in his courtyard with excitement. Who knew what other surprises awaited him there?

    For the moment, however, he would have to stop working, since Kristen hade back.

    Kristen was back, alone. Ye Chong did not ask her about Shu Mo''er. However, seeing Kristen looking a little dreamy did make him a little curious.

    ¡­

    Shu Mo''er was feeling happy today, having met someone quite interesting. She had thought that a small city like Yedda would just be boring, but it seemed that there were still people of note here.

    That the man could escape her parapsychic sense so easily told her how powerful he was. Besides, she was interested in particr with his methods. The man had a cold expression, but Shu Mo''er thought he looked cute.

    As for the overfamiliar Sister Kristen, Shu Mo''er squirmed a little when she thought of her.

    She was surprised to find that the man who seemed to be younger than Kristen was actually her teacher. When she asked Kristen further about Ye Chong, she could not believe who he really was. In the end, however, she believed the woman. She could tell that underneath Kristen''s affected indifference was a sincere respect for him.

    When she found out that Ye Chong had used speckled blue fir wood to make aser gun for Level 8 shooter Sha Ya, a gun that could shoot through five centimeters of nubis stone, Shu Mo''er thought that her heart could burst with intrigue.

    Sha Ya was a name that she was familiar with. Both she and her teacher knew the shooter.

    This man had built such as powerful weapon for a Level 8 shooter at a young age, and even had his own mysterious powers. No matter how she looked at it, Shu Mo''er felt that she had gained plenty today.

    Beneath her veil, Shu Mo''er smiled very softly. She had already arranged for a visit to Kristen''s little house.

    Shu Mo''er returned to her lodgings. She opened the door and found a bearded man sprawled outzily on the sofa in the living room. He had a bottle in one hand, and he looked drunk.

    "Edward, you''re toozy. There''s such a nice weather outside, the air is refreshing as well," Shu Mo''ermented, displeased, as she wrinkled her nose in response to the alcohol smell in the air.

    Edwards took a side nce at Shu Mo''er and broke into a grin, "Our lil'' Mo''er is back. How''s it going? Do anything fun today?"

    "I met an interesting person," Shu Mo''er said with a smile. She took off her hat, revealing her charming features.

    Edward took a gulp from his bottle and burped. He muttered, "Interesting? Even an ant will be interesting to you."

    "Edward!" Shu Mo''er chided him with a re. Edward quicklyughed it off, "Lil Mo''er, Duo Ka and the rest are in the study, go find them."

    "Humph!" Shu Mo''er pouted and fixed him with another angry re before she stomped off to the study.

 Chapter 525 - Pressure

    <h4>Chapter 525: Pressure</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Duo Ka''s study wasrge. It could host a dozen people and still felt spacious. Currently, there were about seven people in there. Some were sipping tea; a few were chatting quietly in small groups; some were resting their eyes; some were already asleep, and even snoring a little.

    "Lil'' Mo''er is back." This came from Duo Ka, the owner of the house.

    "I''m back," Shu Mo''er nodded obediently. She was adored by everyone here. They would all offer the beautiful and kind youngdy their utmost attention and generosity.

    However, do not be fooled by her innocent looks. She was not shabby at all, qualifying herself as a Level 6 shooter at a very young age. This showed how talented and hardworking she was. Besides, she had morebat experience than many shooters of her age, and that was quite rare.

    "Did you enjoy yourself today, Mo''er?" Wei Zheng asked. His age was closest to Shu Mo''erpared to that of the rest in the group. At 24, only 4 years older than Shu Mo''er, he was also considered a genius shooter.

    Shu Mo''er did not like Wei Sheng for some reason. Logically speaking, Wei Zheng was remarkable in both his looks and heritage. Wei Zheng came from an aristocratic family. He was a well-bred young man who would always have a mesmerizing smile on his face. He conducted himself gracefully in a pleasing manner. Besides, as an heir of the Xi Ding Tribe bloodline, he was absolutely handsome. After all, the Xi Ding Tribe was known for their men''s good looks.

    Many women would have thought of Wei Zheng as their dream partner, but Shu Mo''er was an exception. If Wei Zheng was not as skilled as he was, or part of the group, she would not have cared to tolerate his presence. Even the drunkard Edward was betterpany than Wei Zheng.

    However, Wei Zheng seemed to treat Shu Mo''er with exceptional interest, and that was a bother to Shu Mo''er. The man had asked to apany her on her trip today, and Shu Mo''er had spent a long time convincing him to stay behind.

    She did not feelfortable talking to him, but Shu Mo''er still answered him obediently, "Yes, I did. Thank you, Brother Wei."

    Wei Zheng smiled handsomely, "That''s wonderful."

    "What did you do today, Mo''er? I see that you''re quite happy," Duo Ka asked with interest.

    The subject of her outing today filled her with excitement, "Uncle Duo Ka, Mo''er met a very interesting person today!"

    Duo Ka looked at her withplete adoration. He asked with a smile, "What could possibly make our Mo''er so excited?"

    "Haha, maybe our Mo''er has met the man of her dreams," the joke came from Peng Acha, the oldest in the group. The man had a drunkard''s nose, and his hair grew uncontrobly like a wild bush. He often behaved like a child, and liked to make jokes.

    Wei Zheng still had a smile on his face, but his eyes widened meaningfully at the joke.

    Shu Mo''er quickly exined herself, "No, that''s not it! I met a very skilled weaponsmith today. He''s built a weapon for a Level 8 shooter before."

    "Oh, so Yedda has someone like that?" The rest of the group who were resting had all sat up by now. They were curious of this news.

    Duo Ka frowned, "That''s impossible, I would have heard of it if there''s someone like that. If you''re talking about a skilled weaponsmith, the only one around is probably a woman called Kristen. However, skilled as she is, even she was not good enough to make a weapon for a Level 8 shooter."

    Shu Mo''er smiled, pleased of herself, "Hehe, I''ve met that Kristen today too. She''s the weaponsmith''s student." Shu Mo''er''s expression turned a little odd at the mention of Kristen. That woman was a little scary!

    Wei Zheng caught her look. For some reason, his eyes turned colder, but his smile was even wider.

    Duo Ka was surprised. "Kristen''s teacher? I''ve never heard of that. If it is Kristen''s teacher, then I suppose it''s quite possible."

    Shu Mo''er teased them, "By the way, you all know this Level 8 shooter."

    "Who is it?" Peng Acha asked, curious.

    Shu Mo''er dered victoriously, "Sha Ya. You all know her. It was said that she exchanged a piece of amapo wood for the weapon. I heard that it was aser gun that could shoot through five centimeters of nubis stone."

    Everyone was riled up by the revtion. "Five centimeters of nubis stone? Amazing!"

    Shu Mo''er felt even more pleased of herself, as if she was the one who made theser gun. "You wouldn''t have guessed what the gun''s made of."

    "What is it made of? It is wood from the star birch tree? Or nightmist fir?" Peng Acha asked, intrigued.

    "Hehe, you''re wrong!" Shu Mo''er was close to Peng Acha. She smiled teasingly, "I knew you couldn''t guess it. I was very surprised when I found out. Theser gun was made of the mostmon material - speckled blue fir wood."

    "Impossible!" A few of them broke out simultaneously.

    The ones who still looked sleepy moments ago were now wide awake. They exchanged looks of concern. It was surprising news, indeed. It was unheard of for a weapon made of speckled blue fir wood to shoot through five centimeters of nubis stone.

    "Lil'' Mo''er, bring to that person now! Hah, I must get me one of those!" Peng Acha''s eyes were practically shining. He was eager to visit the mysterious weaponsmith immediately.

    Shu Mo''er looked hesitant, "Peng Peng, that man''s weird. I couldn''t even get through to him. Besides, Sha Ya had traded amapo wood for herser gun. What do you have to trade?"

    Peng Acha was crestfallen, "Nothing. Amapo wood can only be found in the inner parts of Darkniss. This old friend of yours isn''t capable of entering that dangerous ce."

    "Be patient, Peng Peng, I''m also trying to figure out a way. Since we''re going to here for a while, let''s take our time ande up with a n," Shu Mo''er consoled the older man.

    The rest of the group went silent. Amapo wood and the like could only be found in the hands of Level 8 shooters. They were all only at Level 6, arge gap of strength from Level 8.

    Just then, someone rushed into the study. It was a man with bushy eyebrows.

    "Naver, what is it?" Zong Wen asked. He was the group''s leader. Zong Wen had a thin face and a pair of keen eyes. He was 40 this year, the prime age for shooters. Naver was usually more reserved andposed, but his panicky look today alerted Zong Wen.

    Everyone directed their attention to Naver.

    Naver raised his eyebrows in agitation as he exined, "I met someone."

    "Who was it?" Zong Wen asked, concerned. Naver would not be surprised by just anyone. Who amongst them did not have an enemy or two? Could Naver have encountered of his enemies?

    "I was walking around the streets today when I sensed that someone was being robbed close by. I headed towards that direction, but saw something shocking. A single person had killed the two robbers," Naver spoke in a low voice. His expression was grim.

    Peng Acha smiled at the man, "I say, Nav, you''re just overreacting. What''s so surprising about one person killing two robbers? If it was me, humph, even seven or eight will be a piece of cake."

    Everyone else looked to Naver in confusion. Peng Acha had voiced their question out loud.

    Naver shook his head and borated, "It''s not umon for one person to be able to kill two robbers, but what if he did it with his bare hands?"

    "His bare hands?" Everyone turned concerned.

    Naver nodded, "Yes! The robbers had aser gun each."

    Now that shut the rest of group up. How many of them in the group could stand against two robbers unarmed? Soon, everyone concluded that it would be impossible for the man to fight the two robbers with his bare hands unless the robbers were not shooters themselves.

    "The two robbers were shooters. One is Level 3, the other''s Level 4," Naver added, thus eliminating even that possibility.

    "That''s impossible. Even a Level 8 shooter can fight against two armed shooters with their bare hands," Wei Zheng said sceptically.

    Naver inhaled deeply before he continued, "I saw it myself! They were fighting just in range of my parapsychic sense."

    The rest in the group believed him then. They knew that while the eyes could be fooled, their parapsychic sense could not. Besides, this calm Level 6 shooter''s parapsychic sense was definitely trustworthy.

    "That man was callous. He only attacked once, twisting the necks of the two robbers. I inspected the two bodies, and found that their throats werepletely destroyed!"

    Naver''s low voice sounded like it came from a dream, delivering a shocking piece of news to all of them.

    The study was quiet and heavy with tension. Each of them was considering their odds against this terrifying man.

    Naver looked up at his group mates, and smiled bitterly, "I havee to realize that if I were to face the man one on one, I will definitely lose."

    His words shocked the rest of the group.

    Zong Wen forced a smile and said, "Don''t underestimate yourself like that. You''re a Level 6 shooter. If your words got out, those who don''t know us might think that we''re just a bunch of useless thugs."

    Zong Wen''s words were encouraging to his group members. It was true that they had all qualified themselves as Level 6 shooters. That set them apart from the rest.

    Naver looked even bitter as he said, "I said that because when the man made his move, my parapsychic sense could not pick him up at all, much less lock on to him."

    "How''s that possible?" Now, even the calm Zong Wen was shaken. The rest of the group too looked rmed.

    Seeing everyone''s reaction made Naver calmer, for some reason. He borated, "It''s true. He moved fast, like lightning. I couldn''t sense him clearly. He seemed to notice my parapsychic reach. From the moment he made his move, my parapsychic sense lost track of him."

    He looked like he was reliving the moment as he said, "I had never seen anyone move so fast, so deftly before. His hands are strong, being able to crush the throats of the two robbers in just one attack. The robbers never had time to shoot. He was simply too fast. Besides, he was able to jump up a wall three meters tall without any assisting device, just his legs. I had thought I was watching some kind of fox or something."

    "Did you see his face?" Zong Wen asked.

    Naver shook his head in reply, "No, only a shadow."

    When Naver was finished, everyone went into deep thought. In just a single day, they hade across two very strong people. Could this small city of Yedda actually be harboring so many masters of their art?

    ¡­

    Ye Chong ignored Kristen, who was behaving lifelessly. He had much to do. He had just finished inspecting some of the materials that he had used before. He now understood the properties ofmonly found materials like the speckled blue fir wood. This was all thanks to the high end gadgets from the Research Consortium. The equipment was all highly advanced. Some were even unheard of in public. The Research Consortium''s secretly built devices were now benefiting Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong had a solid foundation in weapon making, especially when it came to the underlying principles of the weapons themselves. He had the elders in Aurora to thank for this knowledge. It was why he was able to adapt to these new materials quickly and easily.

    The defensive weapons that he built earlier were crude since he was not familiar with the materials. Now that Ye Chong had a better understanding of the materials, he decided to modify those weapons ordingly.

    ¡­

    He took out all the weapons that were hidden in the courtyard.

    Kristen stared at him with her mouth wide open. She was absolutely bbergasted!

    What was he trying to do?

    She never knew that this seemingly empty courtyard was hiding so many deadly weapons! The corners of the courtyard and the edges of the walls were all hiding weapons. Even more extreme was a stone block at the center of the courtyard that could be slid to the side, revealing beneath it a cannon array that consisted of 49rge-caliber photon cannon barrels. There were no less than five of these cannon arrays in the courtyard.

    Kristen was shaken. All this firepower was enough to arm a military outpost.

    When Ye Chong began to dismantle these terrifying weapons right in front of Kristen naturally as though it was only part of his daily routine, Kristen felt that she could go mad right there and then!

    No, the one who was mad was this man! This man was the real crazy!

    Kristen was also chilled by her observation of Ye Chong. The man looked entirely peaceful and calm when he was modifying the weapons. He did not look like he handling dangerous materials, but only doing something very ordinary, like sipping his tea. Besides, he worked swiftly with familiar moves. It was obvious that he was experienced in the business. Kristen swallowed heavily.

    When Kristen saw Ye Chong sitting on arge cannon that could bring down a fighter with a single shot, munching his lunch, she finally fainted.

    Thest thought she had before she cked out was how crazy her world had be!

 Chapter 526 - Paying the Price

    <h4>Chapter 526: Paying the Price</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It took Ye Chong three days to finish modifying his entire defense system. In those three days, Kristen watched how Ye Chong disassemble and reassemble the cannon barrels with ease. Her initial fear had now dwindled down to normalcy. By the third day, she began to lend Ye Chong a hand.

    The heavyweight firepower was an eye-opener to her. As a person who was dedicated to the art of weapon making, the power of the cannon arrays made her realize just how insignificant her earlier works were! Kristen had always been inclined towards violence. When she got over her initial shock, she began to study the small but powerful weapons.

    However, theplicated structure soon overwhelmed her. She knew that her own knowledge was only some of the basics of whatever education system that Ye Chong subscribed to. It was too early for her to study these cannons, but this did not stop her from admiring them. If Ye Chong was not there to stop her, she would have loved to take a few shots with those babies and see if they were really as powerful as Ye Chong imed.

    There was something else that was curious about these weapons. They could not be controlled with parapsychic sense. How then should the user aim? Ye Chong offered no exnation on this part.

    The truth was, Ye Chong was toozy to exin. It would take at least days for him to help her understand. Right now, he was short of time and could not afford to spend time on helping her.

    Three dayster, his work was finished. All the cannons were hidden once again, leaving no traces of their presence in the courtyard. Kristen was infinitely impressed by this.

    Just then, Ye Chong received an alert from the photon processor in his house. Someone was approaching them. Ye Chong entered his house quietly and shut the door. He activated the holographic screen and saw a man and a woman approaching him. Ye Chong recognized the woman as Shu Mo''er. The man, however, was a stranger to him.

    What were they here for? Ye Chong frowned.

    He came out of his house and shut the door.

    A knock came from the door.

    Kristne went to open it, and he heard her voice of joyful surprise, "Sister Mo''er,e in,e in."

    Shu Mo''re smiled warmly, "Sister Kristen, I''m here to visit."

    Kristen giggled happily, "You finally turned up, I''ve been waiting for days."

    Ye Chong watched them coldly from the side. He was more convinced than ever that this Shu Mo''er had ulterior motives. His eyes glistened coldly as he watched from behind Kristen.

    The two of them entered the courtyard. Shu Mo''er greeted Ye Chong, "Good day to you, Mr Ye Chong."

    "Good day to you," Ye Chong returned the gesture. He may not believe that such superficial gestures were necessary, but he was also no longer the greenhorn he once was. His past experiences allowed him to be long familiar with these kinds of tactics.

    Shu Mo''er did not wear her veil today. Her wless countenance was presented to everyone around her. Just a short nce at her face was enough to make people notice her graceful presence.

    "This is my friend, Wei Zheng," Shu Mo''re made the introductions. Ever since she found out from Kristen of Ye Chong''s address, she began to n her visit. However, Wei Zheng had insisted on going with her. Zong Wen was concerned about her safety, especially because of Naver''s encounter with that mysterious person. Everyone felt that their safety was threatened, and agreed that Wei Zheng should apany Shu Mo''er. Shu Mo''er did not want to reject Wei Zheng openly, so she agreed.

    "How do you do," Wei Zheng smiled in greeting to Ye Chong. Ye Chong caught the fleeting hostility in the man''s eyes.

    As expected, they were up to something. Ye Chong reminded himself to be alert. He decided to act without reserve should a fight be inevitableter.

    Kristen whistled and gave Wei Zheng a flirtatious look. She smiled teasingly and said, "Hey there, handsome!" Wei Zheng did a double take on her, but greeted Kristen graciously.

    "Are you inviting us in?" Shu Mo''er asked Kristen with a smile.

    Kristen replied with another one of her mesmerizing smiles, "Oh, you''re wrong about that, sister. I''m not the master of the house." She was not stupid. Ye Chong had warned her to never enter the house without his permission, or suffer the consequences. Earlier, she did not fully appreciate his meaning. However, the past few days of seeing all those cannons were like a refresher course to mind her conduct.

    Her teacher, this expressionless man of stone, was not as harmless as he seemed to be. Beneath his emotionless shell of an exterior was an intense will to kill.

    If she was not allowed to enter the house, how could she expect the visitors to be given exception? Thus, she passed the request to Ye Chong.

    The three of them looked at Ye Chong expectantly.

    Ye Chong replied with his stony face, "I''m sorry, the house is not ready for guests."

    No one expected him to reject them. This was an extremely arrogant and rude attitude towards his guests.

    The atmosphere in the courtyard turned heavy with awkwardness.

    Shu Mo''er looked shaken. Wei Zheng looked worse. They had never been treated like this before. As Level 6 shooters, anyone who met them would offer their utmost respect.

    Kristen never thought that Ye Chong would reject them so quickly and decisively. She wanted to say something, but Ye Chong''s cold look at her made her swallow her words.

    Ye Chong was not interested in socialising with them. He did not know these two people. Besides, he had never like people who came to him with hidden motives. Moreover, the equipment and life specimens in the house would surely kick up a riot if these two saw them.

    Wei Zheng had a huge ego, and he could not stomach Ye Chong''s outright rejection.

    He asked gravely, "What do you mean?" Shu Mo''er kept quiet.

    Ye Chong looked straight into Wei Zheng''s eyes and said, "Did you not understand me?"

    Wei Zheng stared back at Ye Chong, looking seriously offended.

    Ye Chong''s expression was calm. His whole body''s muscles were rxed, but ready to move at the slightest provocation! No one would suspect the terrifying strength he had in his slight figure.

    Shu Mo''er was already prepared to interfere from the side. However, she did not n to help Wei Zheng, but to separate the two of them should they fight. If they killed a weaponsmith just because they were denied entrance, their reputation would be tarnished. Shu Mo''er knew that Wei Zheng was not as easy-going as his smile often suggested.

    Wei Zheng''s eyes gleamed. Just when everyone thought he was about to attack, he suddenlyughed, "Haha, Mr Ye is a man of character. Since Mr Ye is not free today, we''lle visit another time. Farewell."

    Wei Zheng went out the door. Shu Mo''er fixed Ye Chong with a long, meaningful nce before going out as well.

    Kristen groaned in anguish and studied Ye Chong for a moment. She said, surprised, "Didn''t think you had it in you, boy. You should know that they''re both Level 6 shooters. You''re doomed if you fight them head on!"

    "Oh," Ye Chong replied with disinterest, but did not argue with her. Words would achieve nothing. The fact was, when Wei Zheng locked onto him with his parapsychic sense, he was confident of breaking free and defeating both the shooters. However, he did not do that, but chose to restrain himself. He did not know how strong a Level 6 shooter was. He only knew that the woman called Sha Ya was a Level 8 shooter. Thus, a Level 6 shooter should not be a problem to him.

    Nheless, the man''s strong parapsychic sense came as a surprise.

    The look in Wei Zheng''s eyes told Ye Chong that this thing between them would not end so easily. Ye Chong was not afraid of trouble. It did not matter how strong his opponent was.

    "They''re here to help Duo Ka. Rumor has it that it''s because of the 10-meter tall giant in ck armor that appeared in Dual Forest. Even with hundreds of fighters, the giant could not be caught. Strong, right? I don''t know what kind of crazy thought Duo Ka had, but he went to get a bunch of Level 6 shooters. There are 13 of them now, including Duo Ka. What a team! They''re waiting for the giant to re-appear, so they''re mostly idle right now," Kristen whistled through her tantalizing lips.

    "I see," Ye Chong finally found out who the pilot behind the blue fighter was. So it was Yedda''s ace, the Level 6 shooter Duo Ka. He finally understood how strong a Level 6 shooter could be. His horrible experience with the blue aircraft was still fresh in his mind.

    If 13 aircrafts of that calibre were to join forces and fight him, escape would not be easy.

    "Now you know," Kristen mocked, "Hehe, I''m curious if you''re really hiding something in there that no one should find out. Now my dear Lil'' Mo''er and the handsome Wei are both gone, don''t you feel sorry them?" Kristen affected a look of pity.

    Ye Chong ignored Kristen''s drama acting. He was thinking about Celest. He must not use the bio-mech here again, it would be too dangerous.

    ¡­

    Night came. Ye Chong was organizing his files. Results from the daytime''s analysis were out. These were thest batch of numbers. He needed to organize the data first. Kristen had already gone to sleep. The morning''s incident had drained her.

    Suddenly, an rm sounded - "Intruder alert."

    Intruder? Ye Chong had his suspicions.

    He activated the holographic screen and saw Wei Zheng on it.

    Wei Zheng had gave some excuse to slip outdoors. He still could not let go of the morning''s humiliation. His pride could not ept that unjustified treatment! Shu Mo''er and he had both kept the incident at the courtyard a secret from the rest in the group.

    If they caused trouble and were found out, people would think they were bullying the weak. Their image would be tarnished.

    What if they were not found out, though? Wei Zhengughed coldly inside, his handsome face looking a touch menacing. Shu Mo''er had shut herself in her room, still bothered the incident. What use was that? The d*mned man was probably still pleased at himself for rejecting them both.

    The thought of that wretched man''s expressionless face made Wei Zheng even angrier.

    He quickly headed towards Ye Chong''s courtyard. His strong parapsychic sense allowed him to avoid the dangers around him. He wanted to know what that man was trying to hide in his house. Perhaps there would be some ultimate weapon, and wouldn''t that be a gift to him?

    If the man found him out ¡­ Wei Zheng''s eyes shed with killing intent. Some things had to be done.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong was speechless. Wei Zheng''s movements looked like some amateur''s act. Ye Chong could not understand it. Stealing or robbing required skills, and a man of Wei Zheng''s level should not have even bothered with this dangerous attempt.

    Ye Chong looked at the holographic screen with cold eyes. He had made his decision.

    If it was earlier in the day, Ye Chong might be worried about hisrade joining the fight. However, since the man had opted to enter his ce at night, the man definitely deserved what he was about to give next.

    A few dark holes appeared in the thick walls surrounding the courtyard.

    Wei Zheng was still about two kilometres from the courtyard. Since this was near Dual Forest, there were no people around. Hence, he had simply moved without concealing himself.

    What could a weaponsmith possibly do? He was a Level 6 shooter! Wei Zheng was conceited in this respect.

    Suddenly, he felt a threating towards him.

    He stopped running and spread his parapsychic sense further out.

    His expression twisted as he stumbled backwards quickly.

    Aser beam, thick as a finger, shot a deep hole into the ground where he was standing earlier.

    An ambush! He finally demonstrated his abilities as a Level 6 shooter, taking out hisser gun and sensing his surroundings with his parapsychic sense. He was furious. The day had been hard on him. He had met a despicable man in the morning, and now had to face an ambush at night.

    However, he did not lose his calm despite his anger. In fact, he was very collected right now. With theser gun in hand, he would shoot the moment his parapsychic sense informed of anything suspicious.

    How dare they ambush him! Were they looking to die faster?

    Huh, there was nothing around him! His parapsychic sense picked up no presence of life around him, much less an ambusher.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong watched how Wei Zheng stepped backwards to avoid his attack, and felt more impressed by the man.

    Nheless, he was not ready to stop attacking just yet. His defensive system was now finally serviceable. This was an excellent opportunity to test it out.

    ¡­

    Anotherser beam set Wei Zheng stumbling to the side again to avoid the shot. Wei Zheng was almost bursting with anger by now. He still could not locate the ambusher.

    Had his parapsychic sense been stretched to maximum range, he would not have been able to avoid those two attacks.

    Wei Zheng hid himself carefully behind arge tree and studied his surroundings. The rash impulse within him dissipated, reced by extreme care.

    His first thought was, could a Level 8 shooter be ambushing him?

    Ignoring the fact that there were no Level 8 shooters in the city, a Level 8 shooter would not have missed the first two shots. However, how could he not detect this shooter''s presence?

    Could the man''s house be home to a Level 8 shooter? Wei Zheng was stunned by the realization. If that was true, it would exin why the man refused their entrance. Wei Zheng was still aware of how inferior he waspared to a Level 8.

    He was beginning to regret his mission. This was going nowhere. Nheless, he was grateful for being alive. If he could still avoid the ambusher''s attacks, then perhaps the ambusher did not want him dead. It seemed that he should be prepared to suffer tonight, but his life would not be endangered.

    Unlike Wei Zheng''s interpretation of events, Ye Chong had attacked without reserve. Wei Zheng was able to avoid both attacks due to his own abilities.

    If Ye Chong''s defence system had only two shooting stations, he would only be able to make Wei Zheng suffer, but not truly endanger his life.

    However, what were the odds that Ye Chong had only two shooting stations?

    Five straightser beams shot across the air.

    Wei Zheng felt them the moment they left the guns. This time, he was terrified! Five simultaneous shots! This must be a Level 8 shooter! The stronger a shooter was, the higher the shooting frequency. A Level 8 shooter can make continuous shots feel like they were shot at the same time. This increased their firing range and power, and made it harder to avoid.

    Wei Zheng was proud, but he was also capable. He quickly raised his gun to his chest to block the attacks!

    Theser gun shed in a brilliant white. The other fourser beams graced pass his figure and burrowed into the ground.

    Wei Zheng was sweating all over. Hisser gun, made of ckthread wood, had a thumb sized hole on it. It felt hot to the touch.

    Was this a test? Wei Zheng felt uncertain. He was absolutely terrified. Of the fiveser beams that were shot, four were used to block his escape routes, and the final one to hit him directly. If he had tried to avoid the final shot, he would have been hit by one of the other beams.

    If he had not thought of using his own gun to block the final shot, he would be dead by now.

    Ye Chong was greatly surprised by Wei Zheng''s performance. Even he himself would not be able to avoid all fiveser beams without a bit of luck. This shooter had managed to hold out for so long, and he was only a Level 6 shooter! What if he was a Level 8? Shooters were truly terrifying!

    Ye Chong mused as he activated a few other shooting stations.

    In fact, Ye Chong wanted to test his cannon arrays. That kind of wide range attack would be perfect for a long rangebat loser like Ye Chong. However, since the attack would cause quite a ruckus, he decided to abandon that tempting option.

    With 12ser beams attacking him all at once, Wei Zheng finally felt like giving up! In that moment, he could only think of how much he regretteding here!

    Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!

    Sevenser beams hit him, leaving seven bloody wounds. One of them was right on top of his heart. Poor Wei Zheng, a Level 6 shooter, had died without knowing who had attacked him.

    When Ye Chong arrived at Wei Zheng''s location, the man was already dead.

    Ye Chong considered the situation for a moment, then lifted Wei Zheng''s body and vanished into Dual Forest. Two hourster, he returned. The body was already destroyed, leaving no traces behind.

    Ye Chong had first returned to his house and came out with a bottle full of liquid. He bent down to Wei Zheng''s body and put a small and prickly grayish green seed on it. He then emptied the liquid in the bottle on the seed.

    Soon after, grayish green vines began to sprout. They grew quickly and soon blended into the forest background. All traces of the body were covered by the nt. The grayish green vines of the nt blended in with the other nts, an effectively camouge of the nt itself.

    This was a fast growing nt borne from the Research Consortium''s studies. It was originally designed to rapidly transform the soilposition in arid or harsh environments, such as the desert. The liquid in the bottle was a growth catalyst for the nt.

    Done for the day, Ye Chong returned quietly to his house.

    All the items had been analyzed, and Ye Chong had also finished with assembling the information into a database. Aside from the 400 over rare nt specimens that still had not arrived, Ye Chong was basically done for now.

    After some consideration, he deposited all his equipment into Celest''s dimension keystone.

 Chapter 527 - One Against Three

    <h4>Chapter 527: One Against Three</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When Shu Mo''er got up from bed, it was nearly midday. She had gone to sleep unsettled the night before. When she got up, she found everyone in the group looked concerned.

    She went to Pang Acha and asked, "Peng Peng, what''s the matter with everyone?"

    Pang Acha replied lowly, "That boy Wei Zheng went outst night and hasn''te back since. We''re just a little worried."

    "Ah," Shu Mo''er gasped, "He hasn''t returned?"

    "Yea, Naver and Duo Ka are out to find him. They''ll be back soon," said Peng Acha, worried.

    For some reason, the expressionless man who had kept her awakest night came to Shu Mo''er''s mind ¡­ She had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

    Just then, Naver and Duo Ka came back. They looked unsettled. Peng Acha approached to ask, but Naver shook his head, indicating that they did not find anything.

    "Wei Zheng is capable. We should not worry about it too much, perhaps he''lle back some timeter," Zong Wenforted his group members.

    They thought to themselves, "That''s right, Wei Zheng is a Level 6 shooter. How could he get into trouble in this small town?"

    They felt better after that.

    Shu Mo''er quietly pulled Peng Acha to the side and whispered to him, "Peng Peng,e with meter, I''m heading somewhere."

    Peng Acha tilted his head, curious. "Where? Don''t go around wondering at this time, what if something happens to you?"

    "I''ve got business, okay? Pleasee with me. Besides, what could possibly happen when you''re with me? We can ask ckbrow there toe with us." Naver''s eyebrows were thick and dark, and they earned him a nickname.

    Peng Acha considered her request, then rubbed his nose and agreed uneasily, ''Alright alright, sigh, you and your business."

    Naver was also easy-doing with the young woman, so he agreed as well.

    "Lil'' Mo''er, where are we going?" Along the way, Peng Acha looked around him and kept asking Shu Mo''er about their destination.

    Shu Mo''er was helpless against the old man''s enthusiasm, "You''ll know when we reach there."

    "Is it rted to Wei Zheng?" The silent Naver finally spoke up.

    Shu Mo''er hesitated for a moment before nodding in reply, "Yes."

    Peng Acha was scandalized, "What? Lil Mo''er, you should''ve told us earlier! We could''ve brought a few more with us!"

    Shu Mo''re shook her head and said, "I wasn''t sure. It''s just a gut feeling. Best not to involve the others before we''re certain."

    The trio picked up their pace.

    "It''s here," Shu Mo''re said, pointing towards a huge residence.

    Ye Chong had noticed their arrival the moment they entered the range of his defence system. He sighed to himself, "They alle, in the end."

    A knock came from the door, then he heard Kristen''s cry of excitement, "Sister Mo''er!"

    Ye Chong came out of his house and watch Shu Mo''er and herpaniosn enter his courtyard.

    Shu Mo''er greeted Ye Chong, "Mr Ye."

    "Ms Shu Mo''er," Ye Chong nodded in reply.

    The man looked calm. Shu Mo''er could not see anything wrong with him. She was now even more uncertain of her suspicions. Still, she asked, "Mr Ye, have you seen mypanion who came with me yesterday? We''re looking for him."

    "Yourpanion yesterday? Mr Wei Zheng, yes?" Ye Chong shook his head, "Didn''t he leave with you?"

    If Shang were here, he wouldmend Ye Chong''s calm performance.

    Ye Chong''s reply was a disappointment to Mo Shu''er. The man''s eyes were clear and honest. She was mostly convinced by his words.

    She turned to Kristen. Kristen asked, surprised, "What is it? Sister Mo''er, did something happen to that handsome man?" She did not seem to be faking it. Kristen was unaware of everything that happenedst night. Her reply convinced Shu Mo''er that Ye Chong was not lying.

    Shu Mo''er broke into a smile and said, "It''s nothing. He went outst night but didn''te back yet, we''re just worried."

    Peng Acha was studying his surroundings the moment he crossed the door, looking around the empty courtyard. Naver said not a word, his eyes focused on Ye Chong.

    Shu Mo''er looked at the closed door behind Ye Chong and felt tempted. She asked with a smile, "Mr Ye, perhaps you might be open to let us visit your weapons workshop today?"

    The house was empty inside. Ye Chong had stored away everything in Celest''s ring. However, Ye Chong realized what a big mistake it was. No weaponsmith''s workshop would be empty. That emptiness itself was something unusual.

    "I''m sorry, it''s still not convenient today." Ye Chong declined outright, just like yesterday.

    Naver and Peng Acha exchanged a look, then split up and walked to separate sides, forming a triangle with Shu Mo''er.

    "I''ve been thinking, Mr Ye, we admire your skills, so why won''t you let us visit your workshop?"Naver asked, looking Ye Chong straight in the eyes. Naver thought he looked familiar, but could not figure out why. Nheless, the sense of danger that came from the man had drawn his attention.

    Ye Chong acted as though he did not see their tactical positions. He replied calmly, "I''m not used to it." His breathing had begun to slow down. Underneath his cloths, his muscles were gradually rxing, so that he would be prepared for any sudden movements.

    "Can''t you make an exception?" Naver''s hand was reaching for theser gun on his waist. He did not speak loudly, but he sounded suspicious and threatening.

    Peng Acha and Shu Mio''er did not know why Naver insisted, but they followed his lead and stayed vignt. Never may be a taciturn person, but he was treated business seriously, and had hisrades'' trust.

    "Apologies," Ye Chong offered simply.

    Naver finally reacted, in part due to Ye Chong''s obstinacy, but also because he now knew why the man looked so familiar.

    That silhouette! It was the same one he had seen in the alley that day!

    Naver''s eyes widened. His right hand reached for hisser gun. Ye Chong''s cruelty had left a deep impression in him. A shooter''s instinctive reaction when threatened was to reach for their weapons.

    Naver never realized that his reflex was a crucial and dangerous mistake.

    Peng Acha and Shu Mo''er saw his reaction, as they were also paying attention to him. Naver''s reaction was a signal for them - a signal for battle!

    It was a signal for Ye Chong - a signal that meant his opponents were starting a fight!

    Both sides moved almost simultaneously. Ye Chong and Peng Acha did so without hesitation. Both of them were battle veterans, and trusted their own judgments.

    Ye Chong directed power into his rxed muscles. He disappeared from view in a sh.

    Parapsychic sense!

    Ye Chong felt it abruptly, stopped moving towards Naver. He leapt backwards just as a redser beam grazed past his chest.

    Peng Acha had saved Naver in the nick of time.

    Naver quickly got on with what his doing. He cursed his own foolishness for being distracted. He did not attack Ye Chong immediately, but pulled out hisser gun and fired towards the sky.

    Boom! A dazzling and colourful beacon exploded in the sky. This was a distress signal for the group. Everyone would receive the signal immediately. After Naver recognized who Ye Chong really was, he realized that the situation had be much more serious than they thought.

    Of course Ye Chong understood the significance of the beacon. However, he was busy holding off Peng Acha. As the eldest in the group, he was also the most experienced. His parapsychic sense held onto Ye Chong tenaciously. Ye Chong tried to break free of it a few times, but it always found him back.

    Ye Chong dared not stay in the same spot for too long. He knew that shooters could aim at him with their parapsychic sense and shoot him. Hence, he needed to avoid being locked on by their parapsychic sense.

    He moved so quickly that he looked like a shimmering apparition. Avoiding the parapsychic waves from locking onto him was possible due to how they worked. Parapsychic wavese from the person using it. By moving very quickly, Ye Chong disrupted the parapsychic waves around him, making the feedback to the user tooplicated to decipher.

    This meant that he had to be constantly moving to be free of the shooters'' parapsychic sense. This was not too difficult for him. He could control his muscles freely. No one else could manipte bodily energy like he could.

    Peng Acha was abat veteran. He did not panic when he saw that Ye Chong could break free of his parapsychic sense. Instead, he made the right choice of ramping up his parapsychic waves.

    In some sense, parapsychic waves were like water waves. As Peng Acha strengthened his own parapsychic waves, the analogous water would be denser, making it harder for Ye Chong''s motion to disrupt the waves.

    Ye Chong instantly upgraded the man''s threat level.

    There was no choice but to move faster himself. Ye Chong leapt around like a shadow, never touching the ground longer than necessary.

    Peng Acha countered ordingly. His parapsychic sense may not be able to help him aim, but he could still fire based on experience. Theser beams were more dangerous to Ye Chong than Peng Acha''s parapsychic sense. Theser beams almost hit him a few times.

    Shu Mo''er cried out anxiously, "Mr Ye, we only want to have a look, nothing more. Why don''t you meet us halfway, don''t make this difficult for both of us." Kristen quickly ran into her own house. Level 6 shooters were not her specialty. More importantly, she was shocked to find Ye Chong holding out against three Level 6 shooters. He was strong!

    "Looks like I''ve hit the jackpot!" Kristen muttered to herself, excited for the discovery.

    "If this continued on, I''ll be forced into a passive role," Ye Chong thought to himself.

    His eyes gleamed. He always had a good grasp of the bigger picture.

    Ye Chong dived forwards and pushed with his feet. He slid towards Naver, staying close to the ground.

    Shot after shot followed Ye Chong, leaving a neat row of holes behind him.

    Ye Chong watched the as thesers lit up again and again behind him. Still, he pushed forward, determined. He narrowed his eyes, seeing the thick and thin lines dancing in his vision, and the dim and bright spots.

    His Jie expert''s skill - lines and dots that herald death.

    Now!

    Ye Chong suddenly sprang up from the ground, his hand gripped into a sharp fist. His target was the brightest spot in view - Naver''s throat.

    If he was on target, the man would be dead for sure.

    Ye Chong''s sudden movement surprised everyone else, even Naver himself.

    Ye Chong''s sudden appearance before him left him stupefied.

    The world seemed to slow down. Naver could see everything in front of him clearly. He could even make out every single hair no Ye Chong''s face, and his dark eyes that shined with killing intent and apathy.

    It was a strange experience. After his initial shock, Naver felt like he was an onlooker to the scene. There was no joy or grief, only peace. His own movements were so slowpared to his attacker''s. A simple thought came to his mind -

    "Ah, so it''s possible for a human to move so fast."

    Ye Chong attacked steadily and precisely. Just as his fist was about to meet Naver''s throat, he felt danger closing in on him - parapsychic sense! Abruptly, his upper body arched backwards as made a backward flip with his figure.

    Aser beam shot through the space right between Ye Chong and Naver. It was Shu Mo''er to the rescue. She looked pale, biting down her lip as her pointed herser gun at the two of them.

    Just when the three shooters thought that they were out of danger, Ye Chong once again demonstrated his terrifying strength.

    His body was still in midair when Ye Chong twisted his body like a boneless piece of flesh. His legs seemed to expand and contract against all logic. He then directed his legs towards Naver''s chest.

    Wham!

    It was like the sound of a drum. Naver cried out in pain, flying backwards and hitting himself against the wall behind him. He coughed out blood, spraying it onto the wall like bizarre art.

    "ckbrow!" Shu Mo''er cried out in despair. She never imagined that her suggestion would take such as devastating turn.

    Ye Chong folded his legs back in a little and immediately pushed himself sideways when his feet touched the ground. Anotherser beam shot past him.

    Ye Chong traced Z''s on the ground, the footwork designed for evasion. He never stopped moving his upper body as well, vibrating like a shadowy presence.

    Peng Acha was no longer allughs and jokes. He was now very calm. He understood that his objective now was not to kill the enemy, but to protect the injured Naver and shaken Shu Mo''er until Zong Wen and the group arrived.

    However, just as he began to switch tactics, Ye Chong noticed it as well.

    He had extraordinary sensitivity when it came to battles.

    Since the enemy went on defensive, his target now was Shu Mo''er. The beautiful young woman looked devastated and pale, which was simply pitiful.

    However, her opponent was Ye Chong, a man of war who did not know pity.

    Ye Chong moved even faster. Since the battle began, Ye Chong had never once stopped moving, and he had never slowed down.

    He had been moving around every corner of the courtyard. No one could predict where he would go to next. They could only y catch up with his shadow.

    What terrifying stamina! What terrifying speed! However, the most terrifying thing about him was his cold and calm heart!

    No opening or opportunity escaped him. It was as though he was born for battle.

    Ye Chong rushed towards Shu Mo''er. He was now executing high speed veers. This was the first advanced move that he had learned in mech piloting. It was derived from the Non-orderly Wavy Leap. Ye Chong had always been able to show remarkable power and endurance inbat. The harmless veers turned deadly in his hands.

    Shu Mo''er stared nkly with her eyes wide open. She was still trying to ept that Naver could be dead. All of this was because of her. She felt deeply guilty and regretful.

    "Mo''er!" Peng Acha was terrified. He released shot after shot carelessly, hoping to stop the scary and cold man for as long as he could.

    Pwoosh! Ye Chong''s left shoulder was shot. The attacker''s careless shots had wider coverage, and made it more possible to hit his target. However, the shooter would also lose his attacking rhythm this way. This was dangerous for the shooter. Hence, shooters would normally avoid shooting without aiming unless necessary.

    Ye Chong did not slow down from the pain on his shoulder. His eyes shed, and he suddenly made another veer.

    Ye Chong took 13 steps along a curved trajectory. His sudden change in direction made Peng Acha miss his target. Fwish fwish fwish! The ground was covered in holes.

    Ye Chong moved quickly. He closed in onto Peng Acha, now only half a meter from his left. Since Peng Acha had been shooting without aiming, he had lost his shooter''s rhythm. This created a spot of vulnerability in him.

    To Ye Chong, Peng Acha was now like a castle without its guards.

 Chapter 528 - Opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 528: Opportunity</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    D*mn! Parapsyhic waves again! This one felt entirely different from the three in his courtyard. Ye Chong understood immediately that they were from their backup.

    Ye Chong leapt forward, breaking free of the parapsychic waves and at the same time delivering a punch to Peng Acha. Peng Acha reacted immediately, letting go of theser gun in his hand and raising both arms up to block Ye Chong''s attack.

    However, he did not know how much power was packed in Ye Chong''s fist.

    Ye Chong''s fistnded straight onto Peng Acha''s crossed arms - or rather, Peng Acha managed to block Ye Chong''s fist. Both Edward, whose presence Ye Chong noticed, and Peng Acha were thankful for the block.

    However, Ye Chong''s attack was so powerful that Peng Acha''s arms crumbled easily under the impact. The effect brought to mind a single word - obliteration. No one could ignore the pain from suffering broken bones in both arms. Peng Acha screamed in pain as he was pushed backwards from the attack, and subsequently cked out.

    Ye Chong felt helpless. These shooters were all very strong - he was stopped every time he tried to kill one of them. Nheless, two of the shooters had lost their battle capacity. Now, his opponents were their reinforcements.

    There were 13 shooters in total. Wei Zheng was dead, and two were heavily injured. Shu Mo''er was still out of it, and he only needed to stay vignt around her. This meant that he was left with 9 shooters.

    A group of 9 Level 6 shooters was a formidable force. Ye Chong could fight evenly against three of them in the courtyard just now because they were all close to him. In short range exchanges, Ye Chong''s powerful moves were effective even againstbat experts, much less the weaker constitutions of these shooters.

    Now, however, Ye Chong had lost this advantage.

    One by one, new and distinct parapsychic waves enveloped Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong retreated backwards quickly. He saw five of the shooters on the wall surrounding his courtyard, surrounding him. They hadser guns in their hands, and were giving him looks of hatred.

    There should be 9 of them, not five! Ye Chong did not know where the other four were, but he knew that everyone in the group was here now. He could sense the nine distinct parapsychic waves around him.

    Dozens ofser beams shot towards him from all directions.

    Zong Wen''s expression was grim. The opponent was very strong. Their timely interference was the only reason their threerades were not dead by now. What a strong enemy!

    Aside from the wound on his left shoulder, the man seemed unscathed. This man was not a shooter, but his strength had made them all wary. He did not seem human at all, moving even faster than an animal. He was also very strong, hurting Peng Acha like that. How could any human possess this amount of strength?

    Zong Wen''s eyes scanned towards Peng Acha, lying unconscious at a corner. Bones protruded out of his arms, bringing a chill down Zong Wen''s spine, despite his long experience with violence.

    On the other hand, the man could sense their parapsychic waves. Zong Wen shook his head inside. He had to continually reassess the threat level of this man. Every time he thought he understood his opponent''s abilities, the man would surprise him again with something extraordinary.

    He could not lock on to the man with his parapsychic sense at all. This came as a shock to Zong Wen. Shooters were strong because of their parapsychic sense. If their parapsychic sense failed, they would lose their greatest advantage.

    Ye Chong moved, fast as lightning.

    He dared not slow down even the slightest bit, for fear of being locked on by their parapsychic sense. Ye Chong knew that the next shot that hit him would definitely be fatal. No, there may be more than one shot. Sha Ya''s demonstration of continuous shots had left a deep impression in Ye Chong.

    Laser beams came down onto the courtyard like a heavy shower. Ye Chong once again surprised his opponents by twisting and turning at physically impossible angles. His body parts were so flexible that he could execute all the physically impossible moves almost easily.

    It was an eerie sight, watching a man avoiding theser beams that rained down him. The shooters who rarely missed now found themselves a target who continued to slip through their attacks.

    Gradually, the shooters felt a chill blossoming in their hearts. This man was so mysterious and unpredictable! The afterimages in his wake made him look like a spirit that came from Hell.

    Ye Chong was having a rough time. He was now rendered passive, and could not get close to his enemies. That put him at a heavy disadvantage.

    Ye Chong was never used to staying on the defence for long. He searched for a n to retaliate.

    He pushed down with his right hand and rolled to his left, curling into himself as he did and reached for the dagger by his thigh. Daggers were always Ye Chong''s favorite choice of weapons. The one he usually had on him was given to Ban Meng, but this one was made using the Research Consortium''s equipment. He got his metal alloy material from disassembling a mech''s part.

    Ye Chong aimed at Zong Wen. He did not recognize the man, but felt that he was the leader of the group.

    Zong Wen realized something was wrong the moment Ye Chong threw out his dagger. Zong Wen''s parapsychic sense informed him of the dagger, which also alerted hisrades.

    None of them sensed any parapsychic waves before the dagger was thrown. They found it hard to believe that there were still long range weapons in this world that did not rely on parapsychic aiming.

    Ye Chong had attacked by aiming with his eye, throwing the dagger with his hand, and deciding the strength of the throw by experience. None of the three relied on parapsychic abilities, so he managed to surprise the shooters.

    Zong Wen reacted quickly - he aimed hisser gun at the iing dagger and fired.

    The dagger was fast, but not as fast as parapsychic reaction.

    Theser beam hit the dagger in midair, creating a brilliant spark.

    Theser beam itself did not have significant momentum. It caused damage through the high energy intensity, melting or evaporating its target.

    However, melting or evaporating a solid dagger in a short time was not easily achievable. Dozens of shots could only chip off a small part of the dagger. This was because the dagger was made of metal alloy from a mech part, which had highly defensive properties by design.

    Zong Wen''srades realized the issue. They quickly focused theirser beams at the dagger.

    Ye Chong finally witnessed the incredible uracy that Level 6 shooters were capable of. Theser beam shower in the courtyard disappeared as they all converged onto a spot in the air. None of the beams were off target.

    Ye Chong was in awe. Even in He Yue Gxy, it would be very hard to find a mech pilot who could aim and shoot so well. In this world, shooters of this calibre seemed to be everywhere.

    The dagger had bought precious time for Ye Chong. He felt all the pressure on him relieved. His n had worked. Ye Chong''s eyes gleamed with a coldness that could rival the severest winters.

    Ye Chong stood up straight and did not move.

    He inhaled deeply, expanding his chest like a balloon, and activated his throat muscles.

    "Roar!"

    Mortal Roar! This was the September Lan Family''s special technique. A powerful sound wave exploded outwards from Ye Chong in all directions.

    The sound wave disrupted the air around him. The shooters were all very sensitive to their surroundings. This advantage, however, was now turned against them.

    Their parapsychic sense allowed them to notice the powerful sound wave, but they could do nothing as the sound wave interfered with their parapsychic sense. The sound wave was fast, and theirser guns were useless against it.

    The five of them screamed in pain. Ye Chong had spent a long while preparing for this attack to ensure that it would disable his opponents in one blow. He had used the dagger to win him a short but very precious amount of time.

    Thus, the sound wave was stronger than any that he had created before.

    The dagger''s handle was still a solid piece, but there were no moreser beams directed at it. What was left of the dagger drove itself into Zong Wen''s corbone, the sound of bone breaking barely audible through their screams.

    Ye Chong panted heavily. The battle had nearly exhausted him. There were still four shooters left, but this did not make Ye Chong panic.

    The four shooters in hiding might be affected by his Mortal Roar attack.

    He looked around him warily. His left arm hung down loosely. Blood trickled down from the wound along his arm, reached the tip of his now tired fingers and dripped to the ground.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong''s body went rigid. His calmness was finally shattered.

    Two distinct sets of parapsychic waves, much stronger than any he had encountered from the shooter group, were now locked onto him. These two parapsychic waves were so strong they felt almost like solid restrains on him, much stronger even than what the most powerful mentalist Ye Chong had met, Huang Baiyi, could achieve.

    Being locked on, Ye Chong did not move a muscle. Doing anything rash now would not be wise.

    These are very powerful shooters! Ye Chong''s mind raced through possible scenarios. Why would these powerful shooters show up sote into the fight, when theirrades were heavily injured?

    p! p! p! A pping sound reverberated in the empty courtyard.

    A group of people entered the courtyard, led by a middle aged man dressed in loose, ck clothing. He was tall andnky, with short hair that shot up rigidly. The man had a cold aura about him. He said with an almost imperceptible smile, "Wonderful, wonderful, absolutely wonderful."

    This middle aged man was nked by two men, both withser guns in their hands. One was bald and looked belligerent. The other was a smaller man with keen eyes.

    These two were the ones who had locked onto Ye Chong. Their parapsychic waves were strong. Ye Chong studied the people in the group of neers, and found a familiar face - Sha Ya.

    Sha Ya gave Ye Chong an apologetic look. There was another man beside Sha Ya. He had a callous feeling about him, and a very sharp gaze.

    "This ispletely unexpected, absolutely unexpected. Sha Ya had said that there''s a very skilful weaponsmith around here. I had just nned to drop by out of curiosity, but instead got to witness such a splendid battle. This trip is worth the effort."

    The man in ck clothes studied Ye Chong with admiration. Ye Chong found the man''s gaze ufortable. It felt like there was some mixture of condescension in the way the man looked at him.

    "Rx, rx, we''re not here to start a fight. Oh, by the way, we''ve handled the four shooters were who hiding themselves."

    Ye Chong felt relieved as the parapsychic waves around him vanished. However, he sensed another two almost unnoticeable parapsychic waves probing gently around him. Ye Chong kept this to himself.

    "Who are you?" Having recovered a little, Zong Wen asked the leader of the group.

    The man gave Zong Wen a look of contempt and said, "You have not earned the right to know my name. However," he took a nce at Ye Chong and continued, "- his presence here benefits you. Looks like this is your lucky day! Well, let me introduce myself. I am Sun Sieha." He ignored Zong Wen entirely and bowed to Ye Chong with a smile on his face.

    "Sun Sieha!" Zong Wen gasped, thenughed bitterly, "To think that I could meet with the ace of the Royal Pce. I am indeed lucky. Myrades, the four you mentioned, perhaps you would consider granting them mercy?" Zong Wen was now worried about his fourrades.

    "Oh, you mean those four? To be on the safe side, I had them all killed just now," Sun Sieha said with a smile, like it was only some unimportant matter.

    Zong Wen vomited blood. This racked up a series of violent cough. Nheless, Zong Wen kept his hateful gaze fixed on Sun Sieha.

    Sun Sieha was not interested in Zong Wen. His attention was all for Ye Chong.

    "You are truly astonishing. No one has ever trained themselves physically to this degree - you are the first in history. I know that no one in this world can top you when ites tobat. Besides ¡­" he reached a hand out to Sha Ya, and she quickly passed theser gun made of speckled blue fir wood to him. Sun Sieha caressed the weapon gently, and said softly, "Besides, you''re also a fine weaponsmith. Please allow me to express my admiration of your skills."

    He bowed again to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong raised his right finger slightly, like he was about to form a fist with it. His actions were immediately greeted with a warning look from the two men beside Sun Sieha.

    Sun Sieha behaved like he did not notice Ye Chong''s movements. He said, "Your skills are extraordinary, and I am a man who values talent. You are definitely a talent." He bent down and picked up what was left of the dagger, now a small piece of alloy, and smiled at Ye Chong, "You surprise me, and that is a wonderful feeling to have. This heavy rock can only be found in Darkniss. I''m curious, how did you manage to survive Darkniss alone?"

    Ye Chong stayed silent.

    Sun Sieha did not mind it. He continued with all smiles, "Of course, all of that doesn''t matter. What matters is, I need your strength. Power, status, money, these are all within your reach if I just said the word," Sun Sieha said persuasively, "Together with us, you''ll find that all your life before this moment was only a waste of time. People will now kneel to you in respect. They will worship you. You can live a life of unimaginable luxury. Those in power will try their best to gain your favor. Women wille to you in droves, if only you wished for it. If you want to continue with your research, that''s also fine. The Royal Pce has all kinds of invaluable resources at your disposal. You can pursue any field that you''re interested in, and you won''t have to worry about the expenditure at all.

    "What do you think? Join us!" Sun Sieha looked at Ye Chong with burning desire.

    Ye Chong asked calmly, "Why should I join you?"

    "Why?" Sun Sieha doubled down inughter at Ye Chong''s reply as though it was the funniest joke he had ever heard. Sha Ya and the rest in the group also gave Ye Chong an odd look. They were baffled to see Ye Chong still not appreciating the reality of his situation.

    Ye Chong''s calm expression betrayed nothing.

    Sun Siehaughed for almost five minutes before he finally stopped himself. He looked at Ye Chong now with a half-smile, and said almost conversationally, "Why? Hmm, I have to say, you''re just cute. Well, there are many reasons. For one, our group is made up of only Level 8 shooters. There can hardly be another team as strong as ours out there. Moreover, I have the Royal Mandamus Order, which gives me the right tomand anyone. You have no right to refuse me. Besides, don''t forget all the benefits I listed down earlier. It''s a good bargain.

    "Of course, all those reasons do not matter," Sun Sieha said with a smiled, but his eyes had turned cold, "The most important reason is, do you have a choice in this matter?" Sun Sieha was pleased. He enjoyed this feeling of power,pelling others to obey him. He looked at the other man with interest. This was an exchange that he had plenty of experience in. All of them chose topromise and give in, in the end, and this man would be no exception.

    At the same time, two strong parapsychic waves were locked onto the man. The bald man and the smaller man beside Sun Sieha looked prepared to kill if necessary.

    "You''re wrong," Ye Chong shook his head and said. His cold eyes met Sun Sieha''s eyes for the first time. His voice was calm and full of confidence. As he finished his sentence, his right index finger pressed down onto his wrist.

 Chapter 529 - Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 529: Agreement</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Defence system activated."

    "Targets locked."

    A male mechanical voice spoke up in the courtyard, surprising everyone in there. They looked around but could not find the source of the voice.

    Abruptly, the courtyard came to life. Ground panels slid open, exposing a hole underneath them.

    Crack crack crack! There were sharp sounds of metal parts in motion.

    Five strange weapons emerged from the holes before the crowd.

    A dozen or more thick cannon barrels rose up slowly from the holes, moving by themselves. They all turned to direct their aim towards Sun Sieha and his people.

    Sun Sieha and his people were shocked. They never thought that the courtyard hid such powerful weapons. The cannons were huge and intimidating. No one doubted their destructive power. Besides, they were made by a very skilled weaponsmith. If he could build aser gun out of speckled blue fir wood that could shoot through five centimeters of nubis stone, then these cannon arrays must be terribly powerful.

    The people exchanged looks of horror and surprise. They never thought that there would be military grade weapons here, much less five of them.

    The sudden turn of events had shocked everyone. The atmosphere in the courtyard was tense. No one dared to move a muscle. Hell, any one of the cannon arrays here could st them into kingdome. Even a Level 8 shooter would be useless against these killing machines.

    The courtyard was dead silent. Sun Sieha''s face was stuck in an awkward smile. His forehead was covered with beads of sweat.

    This calm young man was still not done with surprising his guests.

    Swish swish swish! A series of noise surprised Sun Sieha and his people once again. They looked around and felt even more shaken by what they saw.

    The walls around them were covered with holes. Each hole had a long and thin cylinder sticking out. As a Level 8 shooter, Sun Sieha immediately recognized them - they were all guns!

    Being pointed at by hundreds of guns was terrifying. The pressure would drive people mad.

    Even a mosquito would be shot to scraps by these weapons, much less human beings. The weapons had no blind spots in the courtyard. Once the weapons fire, they would all surely all be shot full of holes.

    Ye Chong''s defence system finally came to good use.

    The short man beside Sun Sieha stole a nce at Ye Chong, his face tense under pressure.

    Ye Chong said coldly, "It will be best if all of you don''t try anything stupid." Everyone obeyed him. The short man looked away from Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did not feel too optimistic about his situation. He knew that the apparent advantage that he gained did not exactly put things in his favor.

    Level 8 shooters would not be easily manipted by other people. If they were forced to fight for their lives, Ye Chong would be in serious trouble.

    Nevertheless, it felt good to be on the same level as his opponents. When Ye Chong was fighting against the Level 6 shooters, he had wanted to activate his defence system. However, since they were all standing on the walls, Ye Chong decided not to.

    Ye Chong sat down unceremoniously on the ground. His stamina was exhausted, and he was injured. He needed to rest. He knew that Sun Sieha, as a smart man himself, would not do anything irrational at this point.

    Once he understood his situation, Sun Siehaposed himself. He looked at Ye Chong, sitting on the ground, and said in a rxed manner, "As expected, you are a man of surprises. Even I am impressed by this. I believe that we can start negotiating on even ground now." He was implying that Ye Chong was now qualified to speak with him as equals.

    "Are you a member of the Royal Family?" Ye Chong suddenly looked up and asked Sun Sieha.

    "I am," Sun Sieha answered proudly. He took a nce at Ye Chong and asked, "Could you be interested in the Sieha Family?"

    "What other countries are there besides this one?" Ye Chong ignored his question.

    Ye Chong''s question surprised Sun Sieha. He did not expect the other man to be in the mood to discuss these irrelevant subjects. However, this was exactly what he hoped for - someone who could surprise his enemies. Sun Sieha had already begun to think of Ye Chong as his subordinate. Only through conversation could he understand this man even more.

    "Well, there are three main countries. Aside from the Sieha Family''s Eastern Cloud, the other two are Western Frost and Southern Land. As for the smaller countries, there are many of them, more than a dozen," Sun Sieha gave a brief overview.

    This was Ye Chong''s first time knowing more about the society atrge on this.

    Ye Chong looked straight at Sun Sieha and asked, "What is your position in the Royal Family?"

    Sun Sieha was surprised by the question, but answered happily, "Don''t you worry about that. I am the only Prince, the only heir of the Family." Ye Chong''s question got him excited.

    Ye Chong was beginning to form a n of his own. Sun Sieha must have a lot of people working for him, and plenty of support from others. He would be powerless in a battle against the Prince''s army being alone like he was now. Instead of making enemies, cooperating with the Prince might work better for him. He would be able toplete his research with help from the Prince. His research required a lot of manpower and resources, and both of them cost too much. If he had only himself to rely on, he might never evenplete his research work. The thought forced Ye Chong to consider working with the Prince.

    Their situation now allowed him to negotiate effectively, given that he had enough strength to speak as an equal to the Prince.

    "I''m not interested in your proposal just now," Ye Chong''s words brought a look of disappointment to Sun Sieha''s face.

    Ye Chong ignored the man and continued calmly, "However, I believe that we can reach an agreement with different terms."

    Sun Sieha burst into a smile, and asked with interest, "Oh, what terms do you have in mind?"

    Ye Chong went off tangent, "That''s not important right now. First, let us have a look at the power of these cannon arrays."

    As Ye Chong finished, the cannon arrays turned, redirecting their aim from the people to the sky.

    "Target locked, wide range sweeping mode engaged," the electronic voice announced. Sun Sieha thought to himself, "As expected, the man has a partner." However, he thought Ye Chong''s actions were strange. A demonstration to scare them was hardly necessary.

    Everyone saw a burst of light as the cannons fired.

    Numerous light grenades wereunched into the air. A bright spark was produced whenever a grenade was shot out of the cannon barrels. Thebined brightness from 49 cannon barrels was ring. The bright lights blinded everyone for a few seconds.

    They all looked horrified.

    The weapons were terribly scary!

    No one saw exactly how the cannons worked, but their parapsychic sense allowed them to feel every minute detail of the cannon arrays. The power condensed in each photon grenade was shocking. The cannons in quick sessions, all 49 cannon barrels covering the sky with a photon shower. They were all stunned by how destructive these weapons were.

    Rumble rumble!

    The earth shook as explosions were hearding from afar. Everyone went pale from shock. They had all underestimated the power of these cannons despite preparing themselves for the worst.

    Sun Sieha''s eyes were shining with rapture. He stared at the cannon arrays hungrily.

    "What do you think?" Ye Chong asked Sun Sieha calmly.

    "They''re absolutely powerful! Weapons fit for the God of War!" Sun Sieha muttered to himself. He was in a state of half madness.

    "I can sell them to you." Ye Chong''s calmly delivered sentence was almost as shocking as the demonstration with the cannon arrays.

    Sun Sieha cried out excitedly, "Wonderful! I''ll have all of them! Name your price!" These cannon arrays were not particrly useful for him personally, but they were truly weapons of destruction, and the Prince could appreciate their value.

    Ye Chong shook his head, "I have other conditions."

    "Tell me," Sun Sieha said, now calmer.

    Ye Chong said, "I will sell two of these cannon arrays to you every month. You will pay 20 million ao for each of them. All our deals in future will be in the form of a trade."

    "No problem," Sun Sieha replied without thinking.

    "Besides that, I need a Level 8 shooter as my personal bodyguard. I will pick one from your group. I have the right to from my own security detail."

    "No problem," Sun Sieha added, "You can choose any Level 8 shooter from my subordinates. Your security detail cannot consist of more than five thousand men. On the other hand, you can only sell your weapons to me, and not to other organizations." In fact, Sun Sieha would be more than willing to assign all his Level 8 shooters to protect him. The man was valuable, an asset that any country would not hesitate to protect. Sun Sieha believed that Ye Chong was even more valuable than he previously thought. The man''s outstanding close rangebat skills were outshined by his other skillset.

    "I agree. However, personal weapons are exempted from this rule. In addition, no one can restrict my movements. Under no circumstances will I be interrupted from my research," Ye Chong said.

    "No problem. You can even stay in the Royal Pce if you want to. Do anything you like. No one will interfere with your life. However, you must return to the capital with me." Sun Sieha understood well that talented people like Ye Chong valued their freedom more than anything, hence he quickly agreed to the term. Nevertheless, anything would have its drawbacks, just like freedom. This talented man would definitely benefit him, but he was to fall into the hands of another organization, the consequences would not be in his favor.

    "Agreed," Ye Chong nodded. The deal was made. He felt satisfied by this oue. Once he was done tackling some difficult problems, no one would be able to stop him from leaving.

    "Today is a day worth remembering. I believe this agreement between you and I is worthy of a ce in our historical records." Sun Sieha was also satisfied with their agreement. He felt very excited about it. The terms of their agreement were all empty promises in the end. Once the man was in the capital, how could he hope to escape from the Prince''s grasp?

    Kristen was in a daze. The deadly battle had suddenly turned into a peaceful negotiation. Her teacher had be a Royal weaponsmith.

    Perhaps she was in a dream. She never knew that Ye Chong, who never showed much about himself, could handle the situation so well. He had conducted himself with confidence andposure.

    Ye Chong had little choice in the matter. It was hard toe to a peaceful resolution. This was the best way he could think of. His experience had thought him how to deal with matters with more flexibility and even creativity.

    The five cannon arrays were all sold to Sun Sieha. Ye Chong''s finances were secure. 100 million ao was enough to sustain for a quite a while.

    Ye Chong chose Sha Ya as his bodyguard. The truth was, he was more used to relying only on himself. However, he had asked for a Level 8 shooter for other reasons. Sha Ya was the best candidate, since he got to know her before Sun Sieha.

    Strong people would always gain respect from the people around them. From the looks in the eyes of these people in the courtyard, it was easy to see that they all respected the young weaponsmith for his skills. The magnificent demonstration with the canon arrays had left a deep impression in them.

    To them, Ye Chong was a mysterious character. He was young, but more knowledgeable than anyone else in weapon making. Moreover, he was an excellentbatant. His muscles could perform extraordinary feats, making him a threat for anyone around him. Besides, he seemed to have a partner hiding somewhere. They all heard the mechanical voice clearly. This further intensified the air of mystery around the young man.

    Kristen''s status was now elevated. As the great master Ye Chong''s only student, her position was significant. It looked like the two million ao she had paid to be Ye Chong''s student turned out to be her best investment ever.

    Sun Sieha received a letter, which came from a Level 7 shooter. The shooter hade straight from the capital just to deliver the letter to Sun Sieha.

    Sun Sieha opened the letter, and was surprised by what he read.

    "Return to the capital immediately." The order to Sun Sieha was simple and direct.

    Ye Chong did not need to pack. He deposited the defence system''s photon processor into Celest''s ring. Until he could build one himself, every photon processor was very precious to him.

    Ye Chong and Sha Ya flew in the same fighter. The group headed for the capital in their fighter aircrafts.

    The fighters were all high grade aircrafts, and could fly at very high velocities. Even the pilot with the lowest qualifications was a Level 7 shooter.

    They arrived at the capital when the sky turned dark. The night sky seemed to devour the capital like a giant beast.

    This was the capital of Eastern Cloud - Su City. It was a city that had existed for more than 3 thousand years, and in thest 2 thousand had served as the country''s capital. This was also thergest and most modern city Eastern Cloud country.

    Aircrafts flew by here and there in the sky, decorating the night sky with colorful lights.

    Expecting Sun Sieha''s return, his guards had all prepared themselves to receive him. Sun Sieha had a good reputation amongst the country''s soldiers. He was the most outstanding Price in the history of the Sieha Royal Family, and also an excellent war general. As he had proven himself capable, Sun Sieha often headed outside the Pce since he was young to assist themon people with their difficulties.

    Sun Sieha''s butler, Ba Luomeng, was also there to receive him.

    "This is an important guest of mine. See that all of his requests are met during his stay," Sun Sieha said to his butler.

    Ba Luomeng bowed in reply, "Yes, my liege!"

    "This is my butler, Ba Luomeng. I have some urgent matters to attend to in the next few days. Just let him know if you need anything," Sun Sieha informed Ye Chong hastily before making his way to the Pce.

    Of course Ye Chong was not interested in what Sun Sieha was up to. In fact, he wished the Prince would just busy himself with work and forget about him. However, that was only wishful thinking.

    "Dear Sir, it is nowte in the hour. Would you prefer to dine first, or have some rest? Or maybe a shower? Please let me know if you require anything, and I will do my best to see to them. If they are beyond my capabilities, I will ry your request to the Prince," Ba Luomeng inquired with care. He was 50 this year, with wrinkles at the corner of his eyes and a slightly overweight figure. He had served the Sieha family since he was about 10 years old. Having served the family for more than 40 years, he knew from the way the Prince spoke that this was a very important and significant guest.

    The guest was a very young man, with a beautiful woman beside him who was looking around her curiously. Could this be the Prince of another country?

    Ba Luomeng had his suspicions, but he was not foolish enough to ask for more information. As a servant of the Royal Family, he should only do what was required of his duty, and nothing more. He had seen many people who had vanished because of their curiosity. All these years, he was trusted by the Prince because he knew what questions not to ask.

 Chapter 530 - Fish and Net I

    <h4>Chapter 530: Fish and Net I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The millennia old Su City was now in a period of instability. Rumours of the King''s passing were hotly discussed amongst themon people. No one knew who started the rumours, but it was now circting around the city. Sun Sieha''s return to the capital yesterday seemed to bring some truth to the rumours. Everything that was happening seemed to be rted to this unconfirmed news.

    Prince Sun had rushed to the Royal Pce soon after he reached the capital yesterday, and had not left since. The people of Eastern Cloud loved their King, Ze Sieha, father to Prince Sun. Ze''s reign was transparent and efficient. Under his rule, the country had prospered and grown stronger, threatening to topple Southern Land''s position as the strongest country in the world.

    By midday, the Royal Pce finally made an official announcement of the King''s passing. The people mourned. Citizens of Su City put whitebell flowers on their person as a sign of grieving. Everywhere on the streets, the people looked mournful, wearing a tiny whitebell flower on their chest.

    It was a busy and chaotic day. The new King would ascend the throne on the same day as the former King''s passing, as was Eastern Cloud''s tradition. There was no dispute on who should inherit the throne, as Sun Sieha was the only Prince and heir. He would lead his people and continue forward.

    The people were sad, but they were also hopeful for the future of their country. No one doubted the capabilities of Prince Sun, or rather, His Majesty the King. He was widely respected by those in the army and the government, and also themon people.

    Nheless, not everyone shared this optimism, especially the older government councillors. The old King was kind and merciful, but the new king was entirely different. He had served in the military when he was young, and even today, still had control over a majority of the country''s armies. He was stern and decisive, with very little hesitation for violence and killing. Besides, his ruthlessness was a cause of wariness for the councillors.

    After Sun Sieha was crowned King, the instability in Su City gradually dissipated. Su City reverted back to its daily hustle and bustle, unhindered by the sudden change in power, just as the old King had wished for.

    On this seemingly ordinary day, a new era of ruling had begun.

    Ye Chong wondered the streets of Su City, with Ba Luomeng as his guide. Trailing behind him was his only student, Kristen, and the Level 8 shooter who had been assigned to him, Sha Ya.

    Ever since witnessing the fierce battle that day, Kristen behaved like apletely different person in front of Ye Chong. She was obedient and never acted arrogantly in front of Ye Chong again. Ye Chong was unused to her mannerism at first, but since Kristen would be less likely to cause trouble this way, he chose to let her be.

    Kristen''s quietness, Sha Ya''s seriousness and Ye Chong''s characteristic indifference made them look like the coldest trio ever existed.

    How long had it been since Ba Luomeng acted as a tour guide? He could not recall exactly, but it might be 20 years ago, or was it 30? To ensure that his honoured guests were satisfied, he had even brought along a younger servant, Man, with him. He had not felt like leading the tour himself at first, since he was already quite old, but in the end he could not get over worrying about the guests, and went along with them.

    Perhaps because the strict, old butler was with them, Man started off being a little awkward. However, he slowly opened up and spoke with more enthusiasm and humour. Kristen giggled at his antics, narrowing her eyes into a smile. Even the ever serious looking Sha Ya could not help but smiled. Man was just over 20 years old. He had a strong body and a witty character. Growing up in the streets of Su City, he was familiar with its every twist and turn, making him the best tour guide one could hope for.

    Ye Chong found something strange about the ce. There were rarely any aircrafts in Su City. Upon inquiring, he found out that the area above Su City was restricted airspace. All aircrafts mustnd or take off at thending field outside the city. If they entered the city''s airspace by mistake, they could well be shot down by the city''s aerial defence system.

    The first thing to do was to find a ce to settle down, only then can Ye Chong n his future in earnest. He had a rough idea of what to do, but there were many details that he needed to think on. Without Mu/Shang by his side, there was no one else to help him. He must take care of everything himself.

    Sun Sieha''s former Royal amodation was not ufortable, but Ye Chong thought it safer to find a ce of his own.

    Ba Luomeng may not be an outstanding tour guide, but his status in themunity of nobles and aristocrats was unquestionable. Soon, he was able to gather a list of people who were interested in selling their house ornd.

    Ba Luomeng did not cross the line of his duties. He only asked Ye Chong for details the property such as house andnd size, but not the purpose of his venture.

    "I have what you asked for," Ba Luomeng bowed respectfully and reported, "You had asked for a wide piece ofnd, and a quiet and peaceful environment. There are many manors like these around Su City. There are currently 13 who were interested in selling. Here are the top three. If you think they''re not suitable, please wait for a few days as we will have more information by then.

    "The first manor is located south of Su City, right beside a river with an excellent view. It belongs to the Count of Sware. Price estimate puts it at around 50 million. It''s about a hundred kilometres from Su City. The second manor is located at the border of Su City. The house was built by a sculptor, then sold at a high price to Sir Bikki. It has a rather unique architecture, with a valuation price of about 80 million."

    Ba Luomeng took a quick nce at Ye Chong, saw him listening intently, then cleared his throat and continued, "The third one is located to the north of Su City. It is the furthest away, at about 300 kilometers from the capital. Thend area for this manor is also thergest. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and is the most affordable of the three. You can purchase it for about 15 ao. Besides, you will also gain ownership of thend around the manor, which is about 25 square kilometres in area."

    Good views, pleasant architecture and the like did not interest Ye Chong. In the end, he chose the third one. Being the furthest from Su City, it would also allow him to stay as far away from theplicated ce as possible.

    From the books he read, he understood that the capital would always beplicated. He was not weak and helpless now, but he still needed time to figure out ways to fight against his enemies.

    From the games that he had yed with Mu/Shang, Ye Chong learned that if he stood out before making sure he had the strength to back his y, failure would be a very likely oue. Instead of doing that, he should focus on lying low and finding more effective ways to best his enemies.

    Once, Ye Chong had fought in a very straightforward and simple manner. With his superiorbat skills and Mu/Shang as his backup, he had managed to survive more than a few close calls.

    As Ye Chong grew more experienced, he became more appreciative of strategizing. The one event that truly convinced him of this was when he had to lead his fleet to survival. Whether it was in real life situations or in the game that Ye Chong yed with Mu/Shang, he had to force himself to change his methods. One would always grow fastest when through actual experience.

    There must always be room for change. Ye Chong did not have a rigid mindset. He had realized that there could be easier ways to tackle the same problem. This realization helped him a lot. Whenever he was facing a problem, he would always ask himself if there was a better solution to it.

    Nevertheless, despite his continuous personal growth, Ye Chong''s innate personality made him inclined towards more aggressive methods.

    ¡­

    When Sun Sieha finished with Ba Luomeng''s report, he broke into a smile. He immediately gave the order for Ba Luomeng to assist with Ye Chong''s purchase.

    "Now this is definitely not on me, it''s all your doing," Sun Sieha thought to himself. He had been vexed by the problem of controlling Ye Chong, but now he just felt likeughing out loud. Behind him, a mapid open, showing the location of Ye Chong''s manor of choice. Close beside it was a marking that represented a military camp.

    ¡­

    Ba Luomeng received his orders from Sun Sieha and worked even more cautiously. He had only been giving a routine report to the King. He could understand how busy His Majesty must be right now, newly ascended to the throne, with many important matters to see to. Hence, when Ba Luomeng received a direct order from Sun Sieha , he was very much surprised.

    "See to it immediately." The order was simple, but as a long time servant of Sun Sieha, Ba Luomang could tell that His Majesty ced great importance in this matter.

    Once again, he was struck by curiosity of the honoured guest. Who was he, to warrant so much attention from the King?

    Ba Luomeng worked efficiently. Hepleted all the necessary paperwork for Ye Chong''s purchase on that day itself.

    As the actual buyer of the manor, Ye Chong could appreciate deeply how very much more expensive the manor waspared to houses in Yedda City. Fortunately, the deal included the 25 square kilometres ofnd around the manor.

    The owner''s gratefulness havingpleted the transaction seemed a little odd to Ye Chong.

    All of this was too unfamiliar to him. He could barely understand how a transaction worked. Besides, Ba Luomeng''s demonstrated expertise convinced Ye Chong that he should just let the butler deal with the matter.

    Now that he owned a house of his own, Ye Chong did not want to stay in Sun Sieha''s ce any longer. He, Kristen, Sha Ya and the manor''s former owner bid farewell to Ba Luomeng and flew off to the property of interest.

    Since he could not use Celest, Ye Chong had to fly with Sha Ya in her fighter once again. Kristen had her own fighter, but it was far inferiorpared to Sha Ya''s fighter.

    This was also Ye Chong''s first time seeing thending field. The field was almost asrge as an entire city. It was split into many different sections, which were used fornding or take-off. All round thending field were rows of storehouses used to store the aircrafts. When shootersnded on the field, they would hand over their aircrafts to thending field staff to store them, and retrieve the aircrafts themselvester.

    Some rich families would even build their own miniaturending field in their own backyards.

    Soon, Ye Chong found the manor he had purchased. Once he was here, he realized howrge it actually was. The manor itself was about 15 square kilometres wide, built along the slope of a mountain, giving it an air of magnificence. Together with thend around it, the totalnd area was close to 40 square kilometres. As long as he was not building arge warship, the space was enough for him to do as he pleased.

    There was a smallnding field in the manor, which could amodate up to 100 aircrafts. When they arrived at the ce, the servants had already gathered by thending field to wee them.

    Both buyer and seller finalized the transaction swiftly.

    "Do you need them?" The former owner of the manor was a businessman. He pointed at the servants and asked Ye Chong respectfully. He would not dare to be rude towards this young man, since the official witness of their transaction was the former butler of His Majesty the King.

    "No," Ye Chong shook his head.

    The businessman nodded, "I understand." He had expected this. A man of his stature would not deign to hire his servants. The higher a person was up the socialdder, the higher the requirement for their servants.

    The matter of servants had never crossed Ye Chong''s mind. He did not n to hire any housekeepers here. Soon, all the servants were sent away by the former manor owner. As the businessman took his leave, the manor nowy huge and empty, like a lifeless pce.

    Kristen and Sha Ya exchanged looks of bafflement. They did not understand what Ye Chong was thinking.

    ___________________________________________________________

    Du Feng was inspecting his soldiers in training. He walked past each of them with precise, measured steps. His eyes were sharp. None of the soldiers dared to look into them. His parapsychic sense covered the entire training ground, so that he would know if anyone waszing around.

    He was the highest ranking officer in this military camp, but he did not like to watch his soldiers from high above, in his office. Instead, he preferred to walk under the sun and monitor his soldiers up close.

    Du Feng had a stern face thatmanded respect. All the soldiers here respected and feared him, except for one - his second inmand, Li Gui.

    Li Gui was an easygoing man. He could chat up almost anyone, and was close to the soldiers in the camp. Li Gui had a close rtionship with Du Feng. They had met each other during their freshman bootcamp. Later, they had fought side by side through numerous battles. Their friendship had strengthened because of their shared history.

    "Old Du, Old Du,e here!" Li Gui waved at Du Feng from a shaded corner of the camp.

    Du Feng took a sweeping nce at his new soldiers, and gave some orders to the training officer before heading towards Li Gui. Since he suffered a particrly heavy injury some time ago, Li Gui''s health never fully recovered. Hence, he had moved to a more secretarial position, working for Du Feng.

    Du Feng never acted like he was Li Gui''s superior.

    He walked to the shaded corner and felt refreshed. He sat down heavily beside Li Gui and said, "I say, Gui, it''s a very hot day today, why''d youe out all the here? Careful that you don''t go down on of a heatstroke, or your siblings wille bother me again."

    "Come on, don''t you tease me just because my body ain''t what it used to be two years ago. Don''t forget who could wipe the floor with your *ss once upon a time," Li Gui looked at Du Feng with mock disdain.

    Du Fengughed dryly, "Look at you, so sensitive, I was only joking." Indeed, Li Gui was once much stronger than Du Feng, but his physical condition had declined sharply ever since his injury.

    Li Gui nodded towards the training ground and asked, "How''s the new batch?"

    When it came to military matters, Du Feng turned serious. He replied with a look of concern, "They''re barely passable. I''ve found a huge problem with them."

    "What is it?" Li Gui asked.

    "All the new soldiers in this batch have reached Level 4 in parapsychic control, but their physical condition is deplorable. Some of them would even faint because of standing under the sun for too long," Du Feng said with a stern face.

    "Well, that is a problem," Li Gui nodded in agreement. This was amon issue with shooters in general. Shooters often focused on training their parapsychic sense, but not on their physique. This was especially obvious when screening for new soldiers. There were no requirements on the physical fitness of new recruits, as long as their parapsychic control was at least level 4. The problem of physical fitness was a long enduring one. Li Gui was one of its casualties. He was never particrly strong physically, so his injury had caused his abilities to decline sharply.

    "What do you n to do?" Li Gui asked.

    Du Feng looked helpless. "What can I do? These freshies will have to be toughened up. I have to say, thought, these freshies like toin about physical training, hehe."

    "Poor fellows," Li Gui watched sympathetically at the new recruits carrying out their training.

    "It has to be done. Better to suffer a bit now than to lose their livester," Du Fengmented, all pragmatism.

    "Yeah," Li Gui agreed with him. As soldiers who had been through actual war, they both knew it for a fact. Suddenly, Li Gui remembered something and muttered, annoyed, "All this chatting, and I''ve nearly forgotten about something important."

    "What is it?" Du Feng asked, curious.

    Li Gui said, "You probably haven''t heard of it, but the nearby manor''s changed hands."

    "Changed hands? Who''s the new owner now?" Du Feng asked with interest, "Heh, that guy''s probably had enough of us and finally sold off his manor. I wonder which unlucky b*stard bought the ce. Not that I''m ridiculing them, but that ce, it''s quite suitable to build a military camp there, don''t you think? Why build a manor? However, it''s been quite a convenience for us too. Thanks to your idea of using that ce for drilling exercises, we''ve saved quite a lot of expenses. Now that there''s a new owner in the house, I wonder who they are, where theye from, have you figure them out?"

    Li Gui shook his head and replied, "No, but I heard that there are only three of them."

    "Three? That can''t be right," Du Feng said in disbelief, "That ce is worth at least 10 million ao, who would spend that much money just toe here and suffer? I know rich people, they all like to enjoy themselves. What''s there to do here for those three? Spending 10 million for a ce in the middle of nowhere is just ridiculous."

    "I haven''t got the details yet, it sure feels like a strange deal. I think we should stay off their backs first, who knows if they''re rted to someone high up? That businessmanst time didn''t have any backing, that''s why he never so much as squeaked. These three, though, we should look into them first," Li Gui suggested.

    "No way!" Du Feng panicked, "The drilling sessions are all nned out. We''re not expanding the camp just yet, where else can we go for practise drills?" Li Gui and Du Feng had always arranged for drilling exercises to be held at the manor since there were more buildings there, and because the surroundings were more realistic. They had conducted a few nighttime infiltration exercises and counter infiltration exercises at that ce with good results. Hence, Du Feng was adamant to make it their official training ground.

    The former owner of the manor was only a normal businessman, who could not do anything against the arrogant and intimidating soldiers. Besides, the only problem the businessman would have was ack of good sleep. There were never missing items, and no one was ever hurt in the manor. Hence, the former owner had refrained fromining.

    "Why don''t we get Lil'' San to have a look? Guy knows people like no one''s business, especially the nobles and aristocrats. If they''re really from upper society, he would recognize them," Li Gui suggested after some thought. This Lil'' San that Li Gui mentioned was born a noble. He was sent to the military by his family because of his frequent wild adventures outdoors.

    "Alright! Let''s do that!" Du Feng agreed immediately. He marched quickly towards the training ground and yelled out loud, "Ren San, fall out!"

    A small and cunning looking man left his formation and followed Du Feng to meet Li Gui. Li Gui whispered by his ear as Ren San nodded asionally, his eyes looking around eagerly.

    After a moment, he left the military camp under the jealous looks of his fellow militaryrades.

 Chapter 531 - Fish and Net II

    <h4>Chapter 531: Fish and Net II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In therge and empty manor, Kristen and Sha Ya found themselves at a loss. They exchanged a sympathetic look before following Ye Chong from behind. Ye Chong ignored them both. He took his time going through every corner of the manor. When the tour was over, he already knew what to do. Building a stronghold was not a difficult task for him.

    Even so, the operation would be quite extensive, and had to be done step by step. This ce was muchrger than his little courtyard. He could nrger scale defences, but it would require much more work.

    Sha Ya suddenly looked up, alert. "Someone''s here." She was looking at the top a hill.

    Ye Chong followed her gaze and saw three figures on the hill. They were very far away, making them hard to make them out. The figures seemed to be watching them. "A Level 8 shooter is so sensitive," Ye Chong thought to himself, impressed.

    "Do you know them?" Du Feng asked Ren San. He would not want to lose an excellent practice site for nothing. In fact, a military establishment like theirs did notck funding to build their own training ground. However, Du Feng noticed that his soldiers, be it freshies or veterans, were always more alert and enthusiastic when they entered the manor. All the simtion grounds that they had built never quite had this effect. Du Feng was generously funded, but buying the manor would never be approved by his superiors. In any case, even he thought it was not really justified.

    Ren San picked up his binocrs and watched for a long moment. Finally, he shook his head decisively and said, "Never seen them before. They''re all unfamiliar faces."

    "Could they be nobles from somewhere else?" Li Gui asked warily.

    Ren San rejected his suggestion confidently, "Don''t seem like it. They''re clothes are too casual. No noble will dress like that. Besides, look at the way they walk, there''s no grace. If any noble dared to walk like that, they''d surely be dragged back to etiquette ss."

    "So you''re saying they''re not any kind of noble or councillor?" Du Feng was feeling better already.

    "Definitely not!" Ren San dered.

    Du Feng and Li Gui exchanged smiles.

    They did not see the moment when Sha Ya looked up and right at them. If they saw this, they would never have acted so carelessly. If the woman could sense them from so far away, she was surely ¡­

    ¡­

    "You''re in charge of security," Ye Chong said to Sha Ya. Perhaps only someone like Ye Chong would ask a Level 8 shooter to protect his living quarters. However, Ye Chong thought it was his best option. A shooter was much more effective than holographic scanning in rtively short distances.

    "Yes sir," Sha Ya acknowledged solemnly. Now that Ye Chong was her master, she must carry out all his orders with absolute dedication. Besids, Sha Ya''s experience told her that those three figures must be nning something for them.

    Ye Chong and Kristen began to clean up the manor, while Sha Ya took up her gun and patrolled thend.

    The previous owner did not stay here long. This was obvious from the simple and shabby furniture. This made Ye Chong''s life easier, however, since he did not have to spend much time cleaning up the ce.

    Kristen looked at Ye Chong, bbergasted. She had never seen anyone lift something that was hundreds of kilograms with one hand, carry it outside the house and easily flinging it more than 50 meters away.

    Was this guy even human? Kristen looked a little difited.

    Ye Chong worked like a machine, fast and efficient. Soon, he had emptied the building closest to him. Almost all the furniture were thrown out, leaving an empty house.

    Kristen could not understand what Ye Chong was up to. Those were still serviceable furniture. Kristen''s heart ached whenever Ye Chong threw one out, smashing it into pieces.

    This was a retro style building. Green creepers covered the outer walls of the house, giving the structure a touch of ssical elegance. There were about 20 to 30 buildings like this on the manor''snd. This particr building was situated closest to the centre. Since the servants rarely came here, the ce was covered with dust in every corner.

    The building was a little fancy to his liking, and not sturdy enough, but Ye Chong was satisfied with is location. The building had its back facing the precipitous cliffs. He decided to make this his control centre.

    However, all of the work will have to wait till tomorrow. Right now, he had no materials to build his weapons. All the equipment and items in Celest''s ring were too sensitive to bring out, since they were lightyears ahead of local technology. Without proper defences in ce, he would not take them out.

    Night came. The manor was far from the city, away from the electric lights and urban noise. Here, insects sang in the gentle breeze, bringing peace to thend.

    Up on the hilltop, Du Feng said to Li Gui happily, "Hehe, looks like we got lucky. The neer''s not some untouchable person. We''ll just proceed as usual. Hehe, let''s wee them with real action."

    Li Gui looked concerned, but seemed hesitant to speak up.

    Du Feng noticed his expression. He patted Li Gui''s shoulder and said nonchntly, "Don''t worry, even if they''re really some noble or other, nothing''s gonna happen. Do you think His Highness, no, His Majesty now, will really kill us all? We''ll just be forced to apologize or something, as long as we don''t go overboard. We can also take this opportunity to see if the new owner''s a toughy or some loser."

    Li Gui thought it over and feltforted. He looked at Du Feng in surprise, "I never noticed that you''ve got so much brains in your head. That''s some nning ahead there."

    "Heh, I got that from you," Du Feng looked pleased, but he tried to brush it off. Li Gui wanted tough at his antics. However, Du Feng''s next sentence quickly dissolved his good mood into bitter annoyance.

    "However, if apology''s really in order, you''re the one who has to go. You''re shameless, and you''re smooth with words, who else better to represent us all?"

    Soon, it was time to begin the drill session. Du Feng gathered himself and turned serious. He was always serious in carrying out their drill sessions. This was why he earned the trust of Sun Sieha.

    "Begin!" Du Feng''smand sounded like a threat to the enemy, marking the beginning of their training. He would be at the hilltop, observing the entire exercise.

    In the darkness, Sha Ya came out of her meditative state. She opened her eyes that gleamed with killing intent. Like a slippery fox, she stood up silently and picked up theser gun by her knees.

    She pushed open the door slowly, but was interrupted by a male voice from a dark corner, "Someone''s ambushing us." Sha Ya nearly jumped up in surprise. She turned to look to the source of the voice.

    It was Ye Chong. She exhaled deeply, reverting back to calmness.

    Both of them exchanged a look without a word, only nodding once to each other. Immediately after that, Sha Ya was surprised to find that the man had simply vanished out of sight.

    Sheposed herself, calming her mind. Then, she reached out with her parapsychic waves.

    ¡­

    This was Lin Dai''s fifth nighttime drill session. By now, he knew his way around the manor, perhaps even better than the previous owner. He enjoyed training here. The thought of running around some noble''s house was exciting. He knew that hisrades shared the sentiment. Every time after their training, they woulde together and talk about how the owner had to silently endure their trespassing. If they were lucky, they could even catch the sight of a female servant taking a bath.

    Who would not like this wonderful ce?

    There were manyrge trees nted on the manor''snd. At night, the ce was dark. The terrain wasplicated due to the many buildings built on thend. They must stay alert at all times to avoid biting the dust. He was very experienced in this respect.

    Lin Dai hid himself in the trees, his camouge helping him blend into the surroundings. He had already spread out his parapsychic sense around him. If anyone entered his range, he would attack.

    He was patient. In fact, all veterans were patient hunters, waiting for their prey.

    Someone wasing!

    An "enemy" entered his parapsychic sensing range. He drew hisser gun and fired without hesitation, hitting his target.

    ording to the rules, the soldier who was hit must leave the battleground immediately. The light beam from the gun was not harmful, but it would leave a mark where they were hit.

    Lin Dai whistled quietly. Score! This meant that even if he were to be hit tonight, he would not lose any marks for tonight''s drilling session.

    Bending over his waist, he began to move between the trees. He knew that the attack had exposed his location. He must quickly move to a new location.

    Suddenly, a hand appeared from behind him and covered his mouth.

    He wanted to scream. This was against the rules! He tried to remove the hand with his own, but the attacker''s hand did not budge. Before he could say anything, he felt a pain in his neck, and his vision went dark. He lost consciousness. Thest thought in his mind was - who was this motherf*cker?

    Ye Chong put the man down carefully. He did not look at the man again. That twist had broken the soldier''s neck, definitely.

    Ye Chong did not care to ask for their purpose of being here. The way he saw it, there were not many reasons that could lead a group of fully armed shooters into his manor. He looked around for his next target.

    Sha Ya shared his perspective. However, unlike Ye Chong, she noticed that these men were actualy soldiers! What were the soldiers doing here? Regardless, there was no reason for them to be here. This was private property. She had the right to defend this ce. Others might be intimidated by the military, but not Sha Ya - she was a Level 8 shooter, at the top of the shooter hierarchy. These Level 4 minions were not even worth the effort.

    The military had many strong shooters of their own, but Level 8 shooters were still very rare. Most of the soldiers were Level 5 or 6. To qualify for Level 8 required not only hard work and talent, but also a bit of luck. The organized and stable lifestyle of a soldier did not encourage them to grow into Level 8 shooters. Most of the shooters who achieved Level 8 were independent and experienced.

    No one would dare to disrespect a Level 8 shooter, not even Sun Sieha.

    Sha Ya lifted theser gun in her hand. Every Level 8 shooter had survived countless battles. Weaker minds would never achieve Level 8. To be a Level 8 shooter was not just a matter of skills.

    A Level 8 shooter was so much stronger than a Level 4. Sha Ya handled the soldiers with ease. Every shot brought down another soldier. She did not have to hide herself, for her parapsychic sensing range was dozens of timesrger than the soldiers. She moved fast, and fired smoothly, unlike these young soldiers.

    Sha Ya was like a bright spark in the dark. Her expression was cold and merciless. Her every shot was fired without hesitation. She fired shot after shot without stopping, never missing her targets.

    The soldiers cried in pain, breaking the silence in the manor.

    Up on the hilltop, Du Feng and Li Gui noticed that something was wrong. They realized that they had made a huge mistake, or more precisely, they had overlooked a simple matter. There was another kind of people, aside from nobles, that they should never mess with - strong shooters.

    Du Feng spoke through gritted teeth, "All of you, with me." He led his soldiers running down the hill towards the manor. He could not just stand and watch his soldiers killed one by one.

    The soldiers heard him, and quickly followed Du Feng, rushing down the mountain.

    Li Gui looked pale. He turned around and said to his guard, "You, go back to camp and ask all the capable soldiers toe here, get all the Level 6''s and above. Come with their fighters! Quick!"

    The guard was surprised, but made a quick bow and retreated to their camp.

    Du Feng was a strong man, so he led the charge down the hill. He was panicking inside. It was a massacre down there. The crazydy, some high Level shooter, had dared to kill so many soldiers from the Royal Military. His eyes burned with rage.

    When Du Feng arrived, Sha Ya had already cleared her immediate surroundings.

    She kept her gun up and walked towards Du Feng. There was not a single person alive around her.

    Du Feng felt pained. These were all soldiers that he raised and trained! Despite his emotions, Du Feng conducted himself professionally as a military leader should.

    "Who are you?" Du Feng asked, barely containing his anger.

    Sha Ya stared coldly at Du Feng and said, "I should be the one asking you that."

    Du Feng''s expression darkened dangerously, "I serve the Royal Military as Brigade Commander of the 1st Legion, 5th Brigade."

    "Why do you allow your soldiers to enter my manor?" Sha Ya asked sternly. She was quietly surprised to find that they were from the 1st Legion. The 1st Legion was infamous in the entire country of Eastern Cloud. They served their duties with greatmitment, and had been in the favour of every King that had ever ruled the country. Nevertheless, Sha Ya was not afraid of them. She was a Level 8 shooter, and had a master who was powerful enough to back her up.

    "How dare you kill soldiers of the Royal Military?" Du Feng''s eyes were red with anger. He red fiercely at Sha Ya.

    Sha Ya was unmoved by his feelings. "By thews of Eastern Cloud, if anyone were to trespass a property while armed, the property owner has the right to defend themselves. I believed you know that, Brigade Commander."

    The soldiers around Du Feng were outraged by her statement. They were proud men, not used to having their egos offended. The soldiers cried out in protest and readied their weapons.

    "You dare?" Sha Ya lifted an eyebrow.

    One of the soldiers ignored whatmon sense should tell him and raised his gun. Before Du Feng could stop him, aser beam shot right into the centre of the soldier''s forehead. The soldier opened his eyes wide in disbelief, and fell headfirst to the ground.

    "Anyone moves, that happens," Sha Ya looked at the soldiers coldly. The killing intent in her eyes showed that the Level 8 shooter was very much p*ssed off.

    Ye Chong was running in the dark. He had killed no less than a dozen men. Even so, he was less efficient than Sha Ya. The shooter''s skills allowed her to decimate the enemies with terrifying efficacy.

    In just a short while, all the soldiers who invaded the manor were killed. Now, Ye Chong saw both sides of the battle facing off each another.

    The soldiers stared at Sha Ya, but none of them moved. Ye Chong did not expect that his decision to have a Level 8 shooter bodyguard woulde in handy so quickly.

    Hidden in the shades of the trees, Ye Chong considered the situation and made his decision. The trees provided him with good cover. He made his way quietly to the back of the soldiers.

    "Fine! We''ll remember this."

    Du Feng was so furious inside. He wanted to just charge ahead and crush his enemy. However, he also knew that the difference in strength between them was too great. The shooter was good, unlike anyone he had ever encountered. They might have the advantage in numbers, but not enough to cover the disparity between them.

    He would not let this matter rest like this, though. The military was not short of skilled shooters.

    Du Feng grieved deeply for the soldiers he had lost, for he had watched them train and grow into fine young men. He regretted not bringing more capable soldiers with him, or their opponent would not have dared to challenge him so openly.

    He decided to take revenge for those soldiers, even if it would cost him his job!

    Just then, a swarm of ck dots appeared in the sky, far away. A low humming sound came from that direction.

    Sha Ya looked slightly perturbed, but Du Feng looked to kill.

    Fighters! Those were fighters!

 Chapter 532 - Fish and Net III

    <h4>Chapter 532: Fish and Net III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Du Feng was overjoyed - the fighters were right on time! Even a Level 8 shooter could not stand against an attack from so many fighter aircrafts. This was why even Level 8 shooters would cave in to the power of an entire country. A high Level shooter was stronger when armed with a high spec fighter.

    Aerial advantage, higher velocities and stronger firepower - these were all the advantages that an aircraft would gain over an armed shooter. A whole squad of fighters was an even staggering enemy. This formation, usually reserved for an actual war, was now deployed for battle.

    Sha Ya stayed calm. She had spread her parapsychic sensing range to the maximum.

    High in the sky, the fighters came closer and closer. The low humming sound was now loud enough to shake the ground.

    Sha Ya focused her gaze and pointed her gun up. She fired once, theser beam shooting through the clouds.

    Bang! A fighter exploded into a fireball the air. The red fiery mass expanded like a blossoming flower.

    The explosion waspletely unexpected. No one thought that the shooter would fire first when the odds were very much against her favour. The aircraft formation was momentarily disturbed.

    Du Feng signalled to his men to prepare to retreat. If they gain distance away from the terrifying woman, the fighters would be able to shoot freely without worrying about friendly fire. Sha Ya was busy dealing with the aircrafts to notice them.

    Du Feng and his soldiers had worked together for a long time. They understood him immediately.

    Just when they were prepared to leave, a silhouette suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

    When Ye Chong saw the fighters, he knew that their situation was about to get worse. If theye within the fighters'' range of fire, they would never be able to escape, no matter how strong they were. The enemy would be merciless against them. They will have to face a full blown aerial attack. Even Ye Chong could not survive that.

    Hence, Ye Chong made his move.

    Ye Chong hid in the shadows like an assassin. It was now time to make the killing move.

    He dashed out like a leopard, powerful and agile.

    His target was Du Feng. From the conversation between the man and Sha Ya, he knew that the man was the leader of the other side. These were professional military men. He noticed that, perhaps even before Sha Ya. As someone who had led an army before, he could recognize the military characteristics of these people.

    This made Ye Chong act more carefuly. Military men were skilled inbat, especially in coordinated movements. Soldiers in a group yed distinct roles when inbat. This meant that the more people involved, the harder it was for them to coordinate. Group coordination was also what differentiated military personnel from themon people. When fighting one-on-one, the difference in strength was not obvious; pitch them against each other in groups, and the military men will win for sure.

    Ye Chogn moved quickly, but the veterans could still notice something was amiss. These soldiers had survived actual wars, and that made them more sensitive to their surroundings.

    They all turned nervous.

    This was the crucial moment, a moment of life and death. Ye Chong did not hold back.

    He moved, quick as lightning, strong as thunder!

    With his upper body bent forward, Ye Chong charged towards the soldiers in front of him, intending to bulldoze right through them. His body posture unchanged as his shoulder ran into one of the soldiers. His shoulder muscles vibrated quickly, and the soldier was flung away, crying out as he did towards the side.

    Ye Chong inclined his body slightly and sped up, moving through the soldiers like a sharp knife.

    The soldiers cried out in rage and dear. The situation plunged into chaos.

    All the soldiers that Ye Chong passed by would fall. No one was a match against his one-strike attack. He was now like a human-shaped fighter. He could control every single part of his body to act as a weapon.

    An attack without reserve from Ye Chong was terrifying! Blue lines danced in his vision as he moved quickly amongst his enemies, and Ye Chong would always find the perfect opening to strike out.

    A Jie expert was the pinnacle of abat expert''s achievement. This kind of close range attack was perfect for one to fully demonstrate his powers.

    In just the blink of an eye, Ye Chong found his way to Du Feng. Behind him was a trail, wide enough for one person. On both sides of the trail were dozens of soldiers, lying silent on the ground. Ye Chong never left anyone alive when he fought like he meant it.

    The fighters were already angled downwards, a signal that they were about to start shooting.

    Ye Chong moved without dy. He closed in towards Du Feng and wrapped his right hand around the man''s neck, gripping tightly onto his throat.

    The sudden turn of events took all the soldiers aback. Even Du Feng could not manage a reaction before he felt Ye Chong''s hand around his throat, and felt himself lifted up in the air.

    With his left hand around Du Feng''s waist and his right hand sping the man''s throat, Ye Chong retreated backwards quickly. The muscles on his back wriggled like snakes, repelling anything that came in its way.

    The aircrafts were even closer now! Ye Chong felt a strong and dangerous pressureing down on him, like when he was in Celest, during the battle in Dual Forest.

    In the next moment, he found way his to Sha Ya''s side.

    By then, the closest fighter was less than two kilometres away from them. This was close enough for the fighter to start shooting.

    Ye Chong was unafraid. He kept his hand firmly on Du Feng''s throat. Du Feng''s face was turning blue, but he could not even make a sound. He tried to break free, but the other man was too strong for him.

    Standing besides Sha Ya, Ye Chong''s expression was cold and emotionless. The killing intent emanating from him now troubled even Sha Ya.

    The fighters did not seem to slow down. They were stilling at full speed. The sight of aircraftsing down from above at high speeds was a tremendous pressure on the enemy, an effective strategy to weaken the other side''s morale. Every soldier well versed in military tactics would know this. Even so, few could stand straight without flinching when seeing the fighters approaching. Only a shooter with a strong mind could face this pressure.

    Photon grenades rained down heavily. Sha Ya''s eyes shined brightly. Ye Chong remained emotionless and unmoved.

    Tak tak tak tak tak! The photon grenades hit the ground around Ye Chong and Sha Ya. Sha Ya frowned slightly, turning her face to avoid the rocks that came flying from the ground.

    Ye Chong stood still like a statue, allowing the rocks to hit his face. His right arm was extended straight, his hand around Du Feng''s throat.

    One by one, the fighters flew past their heads. The photon grenades came like heavily. Ye Chong and Sha Ya were surrounded by potholes in the ground all around them. The t earth had been repeatedly assaulted and worked to a looseyer of soil.

    Ye Chong remained in his posture. When Li Gui arrived, Du Feng was already half conscious. Li Gui immediately ordered for the fighters to stop firing.

    Ye Chong finally let his hand go slightly loose. Du Feng inhaled sharply for new air and woke up. Once he was awake, he felt like yelling. However, the other man seemed to know what was about to happen. The hand tightened on his throat again, and Du Feng could no longer make a sound.

    Li Gui saw the interaction between them. He knew that they were against a difficult foe this time, a very stubborn one. Both of them were very strong. Li Gui could see immediately that the woman was a Level 8 shooter. The man, however, puzzled him.

    If this man had note out and snatch Du Feng, Li Gui would never know that someone was hiding in the dark. The man was like a shadow, with seemingly inhuman strength. Li Gui remembered thetter clearly.

    Li Gui had seembat experts before, but their moves were only mostly for show. They would overpower normal people, but definitely not shooters.

    This man had broken throughyers of defence to reach Du Feng. There were no less than a hundred soldiers around him when it happened. From the beginning, no one seemed to be able to stop this man. Li Gui had inspected the soldiers on the ground. They were all dead from a single attack.

    Li Gui was surprised by the other party''s ruthlessness. It reminded Li Gui of the killing machines from the military''s special division. They were rumoured to be cold blooded killers who were trained to kill with a single attack. They were also cruel and merciless, prioritizing their mission above all others.

    Should he ask the man about his identity? Li Gui thought not. Even if the man was from this special division, they were ordered to never expose themselves.

    Li Gui went silent for a while before finally speaking up, "Your conditions?"

    Li Gui believed that the man must recognize their current positions. A person who could assess the situation and strike where it hurts would not be oblivious to these things.

    "Why do you trespass my ce?" Ye Chong could not figure it out.

    Li Gui answered truthfully, "It was a military drill."

    This answer was obviously not enough for Ye Chong and Sha Ya. It was only natural for them to defend their house when it was invaded by armed troops in the middle of the night! Having a drill session on private property was just ridiculous.

    However, Ye Chong had no wish to inquire further. He signalled for Sha Ya to take over. Sha Ya was more experienced in dealing with these matters.

    Sha Ya considered for a moment, the said, "Have your soldiers leave the manor immediately. No one is allowed to enter this ce again without our permission."

    "Agreed," Li Gui replied after some thought. In any case, their priority was to save Du Feng first. Making a verbal agreement was not hard for him.

    Sha Ya looked into Li Gui''s eyes and said, "You must swear this by your honour as a shooter."

    Li Gui was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

    "This will encourage trust on both sides," Sha Ya exined calmly. She was a seasonedbatant, and would not be so easily soothed.

    Li Gui went quiet for a while, then vowed solemnly, "I, Li Gui, swear by my honour as a shooter that I will carry out the terms of this agreement diligently, else my parapsychic abilities will vanishpletely."

    Sha Ya nodded, satisfied. Swearing by one''s honour as a shooter was a significant gesture that no one would think of going against.

    Ye Chong released Du Feng to Li Gui after that.

    To Sha Ya, the matter was considered settled. Ye Chong felt differently. He was certain that the soldiers would return as he had seen the strong desire for revenge in Du Feng''s eyes. Ye Chong was familiar with that look. He wanted to just kill Du Feng and end the whole incident. People like the Brigade Commander would always be a threat, waiting to strike again.

    However, not was the right time. He looked up at the fighters circling his manor. If he had set up his defence system here, Ye Chong was confident that he could take down all those aircrafts.

    Time was running short. Ye Chong felt danger pushing itself closer and closer towards him.

    ¡­

    Du Feng had awakened halfway through their journey back. He was not injured. He walked beside Li Gui, looking exasperated. The entire army moved without a sound. They were still shaken by losing so manyrades in a very short time.

    Li Gui understood Du Feng. He advised his friend, "Don''t be consumed by revenge. Those two were too strong, we can''t take them on. There''s nothing we can do about our defeat."

    Du Feng kept silent. He knew that. Even so, regret and hatred upied his thoughts. If only he did not allow those soldiers to enter the manor, all of this could have been avoided. If only he was not so hasty, choosing to investigate the neers'' background instead of rushing things, they would not have suffered like this.

    80 lives were lost! Du Feng''s heart ached at the thought. Many of those soldiers were even more senior than him.

    There was nothing he could do now. If he had not been caught, those two would definitely have been shot to bits by the fighters! However, even thisst hope of revenge was lost. Du Feng regretted it so much that he wanted to cry.

    Having worked together for so long, of course Li Gu knew what Du Feng was feeling. He consoled the man, "Just let go of this matter. We''ll take it slow, there will be a chance for revengeter." Both he and Du Feng could not just nothing about the 80 lives they had lost.

    But ¡­ But ¡­

    Du Feng recalled Li Gui''s vow, and felt dispirited. He was a shooter too. Of course he knew how important that vow was. He would never seek revenge while having Li Gui pay the price.

    Li Gui seemed to read Du Feng''s mind. He smiled and said, "It looks like you guys still haven''t understand what I meant by my vow earlier. I am not useless, but I will never be a shooter again. If that''s the case, what does it matter if I lose my parapsychic abilities?"

    Du Feng stopped in his tracks. He felt a deep sadness rising in him. He wanted to say something, but could not find the words to express himself. His eyes turned moist.

    "Gui, do you think we''re right or wrong in doing this?" After staying quiet for a long time, Du Feng asked suddenly.

    Li Gui considered that for a moment and said, "Old Du, it''s pointless to think about being right or wrong at this point. Now that we''re here, it''s hard to say who''s right or wrong. Indeed, we''ve been reckless, but now that so many of our brothers have died, how can we be at peace if we don''t do something for them?"

    "Right," Du Feng lowered his head and responded quietly.

    Suddenly, a soldier came rushing towards them from the front.

    "What is it?" Du Feng and Li Gui were the first to notice that something was wrong.

    The soldier approached the two men and reported through gasping breaths, "Sir, the - the Legion Legate and his troops are here in our camp. He asked to see both of you immediately."

    ¡­

    With the soldiers gone, Ye Chong no longer felt like going to sleep. Sha Ya was the same. Kristen surprised everyone by sleeping through the entire ordeal.

    Hence, Ye Chong stayed up thinking about how to quickly set up a defence system that could protect them as soon as possible. Sha Ya practised meditation in her own space.

    As the day grew brighter, Ye Chong took Sha Ya and Kristen with him and entered Su City again. He decided to start building the manor''s defence system starting today.

    Ye Chong already had information on around 3,112 items in his database. These were allmon materials that did not cost much. With better understanding of the properties of these materials, he was now better equipped to choose the best materials for different purposes. Knowing which material and which properties were suitable to build weapons, for example, was basic and necessary knowledge.

    Ye Chong quickly made a shopping list. Money was not an issue to him now. He also ordered raw materials that could only be found in Su City, since there was greater variety here. Ye Chong''s database was about to expand again.

    With the raw materials handled, Ye Chong moved on to the next step. He flew a huge transport aircraft to his manor.

    This was Ye Chong''s first time seeing a transport aircraft. It wasrge and bulky, slower than a fighter, but steadier.

    By the time hended, the materials were all delivered and stored in the empty buildings. These elegant and refined buildings were now reduced to warehouses.

    Kristen wanted to see how Ye Chong built his weapons, but was dragged away and locked outside instead.

    It had to be done. Ye Chong knew that his methods must be kept secret!

 Chapter 533 - Fish and Net IV

    <h4>Chapter 533: Fish and Net IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Most of these materials were made of wood. Their physical uniformity was somewhere between skeletal materials and metals. They were better than skeletons, but not as uniformly dense as metals. This meant that the production ofrger wooden structures can be automated, and Ye Chong need only tweak the smaller detailster. The modern technology embodied in the photon processor provided a great convenience in this process. Ye Chong can design the structure on the photon processor, and the intelligent machines would process the raw materials ording to the design''s requirements. This saved him a lot of work.

    Unfortunately, Ye Chong had very few photon processors with him. Only a few machines and some auxiliary mechs had photon processors, and all of them had only average performance. The only advanced photon processor he had was in Celest, but it was just a single one. Ye Chong needed Celest around him at all times for safety reasons, and could not leave it in his base for research purposes.

    Ye Chong was skilled in mechanical work, but he only had a shallow understanding of photon processor technology. However, photon processors were exactly what he needed right now, and highly advanced ones in fact. Only powerful photon processors can perform urate modelling and help him find his way home.

    The only n he had now was to build a bio-photon processor. However, bio-photon processor technology was one of the main content in the chip that Kui gave him. It would not be easy to understand it. He would need to learn things step by step. Fortunately, Ye Chong was notcking of patience.

    Recent events had also prevented him from focusing on the material in Kui''s chip. He knew perfectly well that only by having the strongest weapons could keep his enemies at bay.

    Hence, he decided to build a massive defence system this time.

    ¡­

    Jay''s fleet, the mysterious force that everyone had once put their hope on, had vanished as mysteriously as it first appeared. Soon, people began to forget about it. It was mentioned less and less in conversations. All eyes were now on Arwa''s group.

    Compared to Jay, Arwa seemed to have received Heaven''s blessings. The man now had the strongest power in Gray Valley. Xiao Wan may not be a great leader, but she was a good diplomat and an excellent second inmand. Arwa and Xiao Wan had now switched roles, as the woman had asked to serve as his second.

    Indeed, Xiao Wan waspetent in her role. She reorganized the existing organizations that had asked to join them so that Arwa may focus on military affairs. The truth was, Arwa had benefited the most from Jay''s prophecy. He was able to showcase his military prowess to everyone in Gray Valley and built a solid reputation for himself.

    He was much luckier than Jay. In fact, luck may have yed a very important role in how events had yed out.

    After he sessfully made his escape from the Cmitous Asteroid Belt, he had be a man of no equal, and Gray Valley''sst hope. Thus, when he spread the word to recruit new members to his fleet, many had replied back enthusiastically. These smaller yers all converged into his fleet. Many young people hade to protect their families and their homes. His fleet expanded rapidly. Almost all of the resources avable in Gray Valley were now in his hands.

    True to his reputation as a genius tactician, Arwa managed his fleet effectively. He led the growing fleet, absorbing new members day after day. The fleet made a roundabout way towards the vicinity of Kasent and began to fight back. They would engage in surround and destroy operations or more aggressive attacks. The war was hard, and they lost many times more lives than the red-tailed beasts that they killed due to a generalck of battlepetence. Nevertheless, they won in the end!

    They managed to stop the red-tailed beasts from advancing beyond Kasent.

    Gray Valley was now separated into two regions, with Kasent marking the border. Compared to Ye Chong, Arwa was much more experienced in tactical operations.

    Here in the vicinity of Kasent, the fleet had built many garrisons to defend the waves of attacks from the red-tailed beasts.

    To prevent the red-tailed beasts from repeating their strategy, Arwa had ced many surveince stations around the Cmitous Asteroid Belt.

    The situation quickly stabilized. The victory had boosted Arwa''s reputation even further. Gray Valley''s residents worshipped him. However, Arwa did not rx himself. No one knew how long their current stability may continue. When the red-tailed beasts were finished devouring all the food within their territory, they would surely all converge at Kasent. That will mark the beginning of the final battle between both sides.

    By then, who knew how much the red-tailed beasts would have evolved? Arwa could not say for sure, but he knew that the red-tailed beasts would definitely be much stronger than they were now. For now, they needed time to gather their strength. All the mech pilots needed training, especially the younger ones. He must do everything do to train them all to be close range mech pilots.

    Factories churned without stopping, as they were allcking precious resources for war.

    No oneined. They all knewy ahead if they lost this war. The Gateway that led to He Yue Gxy was still under the control of the red-tailed beasts. Fortunately, the Gateway was too narrow for the red-tailed beasts to conquer the other gxy as well. If they lost Kasent, the entire Gray Valley would fall into enemy hands.

    This was a battle they cannot afford to lose. Desperation drove these people to do extraordinary work.

    Everyone, be it human or red-tailed beast, was racing for the finish line. Could the humans gather enough strength and resources for war before the red-tailed beasts absorbed all the energy and metals and underwent evolution?

    The first one to strike would have the upper hand.

    ¡­

    Spectre was busy with life when Jay and Arwa were both trying to cross the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. As time passed, the ce reverted to its usual peace and quiet, as people no longer felt interested in the deste and uninhabited.

    No one knew that the seemingly lifeless was actually harbouring a starship fleet -Jay''s mysterious fleet.

    They had taken over the Research Consortium''s former headquarters. Mu/Shang became the fleet''smander. Some in the fleet were unhappy with this change, but the earliest members of the fleet all remembered the mysterious partner of Sir Jay. With Shang''s inclinations, he was able to solve these kinds of issues much more easily than Ye Chong.

    The Research Consortium had left behind a highly advanced base with wonderful facilities. The things stored in the warehouse showed how rich the Research Consortium once was. These resources were more than enough for the midsized fleet. Even though Ye Chong had already emptied the centralboratory, the otherbs still had valuable treasures of their own.

    As the fleet settled down in the base, its members trained hard every single day.

    Aside from close range mech pilots, Mu also began to train long range mech pilots. The Research Consortium''s long range weapons were proven to be effective against the red-tailed beasts. Moreover, long rangebat was Mu''s specialty. Had Ye Chong not been so devoid of any talent in this field, he would have be an extraordinary long range mech pilot.

    The current Spectre was now true to its legends. All mechs and starships that went close to the would mysteriously disappear.

    All of them were kidnapped by Mu/Shang. Not everyone agreed with this forceful recruitment, but Shu had supported the idea adamantly, while Xi Qing agreed quietly. Thus, this kidnapping n developed into a full blown operation. In just a short time, the fleet had grown three timesrger. Those who were kidnapped had all chosen to stay when they found out that this was Sir Jay''s fleet.

    Compared to close rangebat, long rangebat training was easier. Besides, the grandmaster Mu himself had crafted aprehensive training routine for the mech pilots. Xi Qing and Shu were in awe of their new leader.

    Here in the base, everyone trained hard for the day when they would once again show themselves to the world and restore Sir Jay''s glory.

    ¡­

    Du Feng asked in a slow voice, "What you''re saying, Sir, is that we should just let this go? That''s 80 lives of our own! Sir, when has the 1st Legion ever suffered this much humiliation?" Beside him, Li Gui thought of adding something too, but did not say anything in the end.

    Sitting in front of Du Feng was the 1st Legion''s Legate, Ming Xiao. Ming Xiao was about 60 years of age. He had a clean shaven face, which made him look like an ordinary thin elderly. Sitting next to Ming Xiao was a middle aged man with a cold, expressionless face.

    Du Feng had exined the entire incident to Ming Xiao, but Ming Xiao had forbidden them from exacting any kind of revenge. Du Feng could not understand it. He knew his superior well. The thin old man was in fact quick tempered and highly defensive. Du Feng had thought he heard it wrongly when the old man asked him to let the matter go.

    Ming Xiao''s face turned solemn as he red at Du Feng and said, "It''s not so simple. Let me tell you, I still haven''t forgotten that you started this whole debacle. Humph, I''ll deal with youter."

    Du Feng could read between the lines that the old man was keeping him out of trouble, but the thought of those 80 men he lost just made him furious. He wanted to continue arguing, but suddenly felt a strong tug from behind him. He turned back and saw Li Gui shaking his head at him.

    Du Feng trusted Li Gui, and knew that the man would not try to harm him.

    "Alright, you''re both dismissed. I have things to discuss with Sir Huang," Ming Xiao waved them off in dismissal.

    Outside the office, Du Feng looked frustrated. He confronted Li Gui antagonistically, "Gui, why''d you stop from me from speaking just now?"

    Li Gui was familiar with his friend''s temper, and was not offended. He smiled and said, "Come on, don''t XXXXX. What kind of man yells at his best friend?" Du Feng felt embarrassed. He knew that he was in the wrong.

    Li Gui immediately turned serious and said, "Indeed, the situation''s not that simple. Think about it, the Legate pays a sudden visit. That in itself is unusual. Besides, didn''t you see how Sir Ming Xiao''s expression changed when you were exining how we got into trouble with the three neers? Maybe the Legate is here because of those three."

    Du Feng recalled what happened in the office and felt riled up again.

    Li Gui took a nce at Du Feng and continued, "There''s something else. That Sir Huang was not properly introduced to us, but even Sir Ming Xiao seemed to offer him great courtesy. He must be someone important. You remember also, don''t you, that Sir Huang seemed very interested when you were recounting the incident. He even interrupted you to rify some details. I suspect that he is here because of the new owners of the manor."

    "Those men came with Sir Huang, what do you think of them?" Li Gui asked abruptly to Du Feng.

    Being absorbed in Li Gui''s narrative, Du Feng replied without thinking, "They''re strong!" Du Feng remembered all of them clearly. They all looked expressionless, but Du Feng could tell that those few men were definitelypetent.

    Li Gui continued asking, "What Level do you think those shooters are?"

    "That''s hard to say," Du Feng replied hesitantly.

    Li Gui gestured the figure eight with his hand.

    Du Feng looked shocked.

    "Of course, it''s just a guess, but I think they''re not far from that," Li Gui added.

    Du Feng kept silent. Li Gui''s words were often prophetic.

    "Certainly, these men are not your average shooters! No, they must be exceptional! Not everyone canmand the powers of these men. Think about it, even our Legion has only but a few of them. Exactly three of them, I''m sure you know. But that Sir Huang has brought seven of them with him. That''s eight in total, including Sir Huang himself. Who can possiblymand a force like this?"

    Li Gui did not hesitate to surprise his friend, "Only His Majesty!"

    Du Feng was stunned.

    He never imagined that those threemoners could gain the attention of the King.

    Li Gui went silent. He knew that he needed to give Du Feng time to absorb the news. In fact, Li Gui could still feel his own heart thumping heavily as he too was surprised by his own conclusion.

    Nevertheless, being seasoned as he was, he quicklyposed himself.

    He tried to delve deeper. There was something missing, he felt.

    Suddenly, Li Gui''s eyes lit up in realization.

    "I understand now!" Li Gui''s exmation shook Du Feng out of his confusion. He quickly asked, "Gui, what is it?"

    "I think I understand what Sir Huang and his men are here for. His Majesty must be very interested in these threemoners, that much is obvious from the people he had sent here. However, if the King only wanted to protect the manor owners, he could have just sent guards to the manor directly. Instead, the King had ordered Sir Huang to visit our camp on the quiet. This seemed to suggest something to me," Li Gui''s eyes shined with wisdom as he exined.

    "And what is that? Gui, stop keeping me in suspense!" Du Feng asked anxiously.

    "I think that His Majesty has sent Sir Huang here partly to protect them. On the other hand -" Li Gui hesitated to continue.

    "Just tell me!" Du Feng urged him.

    Li Gui looked around them. Seeing that they were alone, he whispered, "On the other hand, I suspect that if those three people try to leave, or do anything suspicious ¡­" Li Gui made a cutting motion with his hand.

    Du Feng felt his heart went cold.

    "It''s only a suspicion. Who knows what the real story is? But if things are really as I suspected, then that will be the only time for us to make our move," Li Gui said, his eyes glistening brightly.

    "What if they do nothing?" Du Feng asked.

    "Then we will do the same!" Li Gui looked at Du Feng and replied, slowly but firmly.

    Both menpsed into silence.

    After a moment, they both received orders from the Legate to return to the office.

    They exchanged a quick look before making their entrance.

    Sir Ming Xiao had reverted back to his inconspicuous look. The sharpness in his gaze had faded.

    "Listen to me now, both of you. If I hear that you get into more trouble again, humph, I''ll not let you off so easily! I think you''ve missed a good ol'' whipping from me, you *sses! Humph!" Sir Ming Xiao berated them loudly.

    Du Feng and Li Gui had both trained under the Legate personally. He would not go easy on them both. Both of them had received his whipping when they were younger, when he was only a Brigade Commander. Despite the fierce berating, it was clear that he meant to keep them out of harm''s way.

    "Yes sir!" Du Feng and Li Gui replied together, touched by his concern.

    Ming Xiao nodded, satisfied. "That''s more like it! Come, let me introduce to you, this is Sir Huang!"

    Du Feng and Li Gui quickly bowed in greeting. Sir Huang took a nce at Ming Xiao and lifted his chin a little, "I''ve heard that you two are Sir Ming Xiao''s beloved soldiers. Indeed, you look like excellent military men. My men and I will be staying here for some time, I thank you for your hospitality," he spoke coldly. His words were cordial, but it still brought a chill to his listeners.

    The two men in question quickly returned the gesture, despite their difort, "You''re most wee, Sir Huang. Please let us know if there''s anything we can do for you!"

    Sir Ming Xiao smiled and said, "Sir Huang''s position is unique, so you can stop with your guessing. As long as you obey his orders diligently, His Majesty will not forget your services. The camp will operate normally, as Sir Huang will not be interrupting with your affairs. However, any orders from Sir Huang must be carried out to the letter, understand?"

    Both men epted their orders in quiet surprise, "Yes sir!"

    Sir Huang finally broke into a thin smile, but it only brought a sinister look on his face.

 Chapter 534 - Expenses

    <h4>Chapter 534: Expenses</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong took theser gun that he had justpleted and tried to aim. The truth was, Ye Chong did not improve very much in long range attacking, mostly because he did not train himself in it. He had chosen to specialize in close rangebat since the very beginning. However, this did not mean that Ye Chong waspletely clueless about long rangebat. On the contrary, he had studied the art deeply.

    Long range attacks will be the main threat of close range mech pilots. Every close range mech pilot would study about long range attacks to learn how to avoid them.

    Ye Chong was no exception. However, unlike other close range mech pilots, he was lucky enough to have an expert, Mu, to help him out. Mu had in fact given Ye Chong aprehensive training program for long range mech pilots.

    Shooting was basic knowledge for all long range mech pilots, but was not enough by itself. Knowing how to predict a target''s movements was also crucial to be apetent long range mech pilot. Unfortunately, Ye Chong had stumbled at the very beginning of the list of prerequisites. That was why he always thought that hecked talent in long rangebat.

    Shooting was the most basic requirement. Ye Chong had never mastered it before, but could he have changed over time?

    Ye Chong lifted theser gun and aimed, narrowing his eyes like a hawk. Every object in the room showed up clearly in his vision. He had hands that were as precise as mechanical instruments, allowing him to make the slightest adjustments in any way, even though these movements were still new to him.

    Fire!

    Ye Chong steady arms did not move at all when his right hand pressed onto the trigger, and aser beam shot out of the gun, hitting squarely on a ck dot on the wall. Puff! A thumb-sized hole was left on the wall. Sunlight from outdoors flooded through the hole.

    Sha Ya arrived quickly, in an alerted state. She was puzzled when she saw nothing was wrong, but left Ye Chong to his devices.

    Ye Chong looked at the hole in the wall, momentarily taken aback.

    Was that it?

    Surprised by his action, Ye Chong lifted the gun and fired a few more times. All of them resulted with the same uracy.

    Ye Chong stayed where he was, stunned.

    In fact, the result was hardly surprising. Compared to his younger self on the trash, he had grown so, so much. He had improved in many respects, such as muscr control, observational skills, and understanding inbat. If his abilities were represented as numbers, his current numbers had increased many times overpared to when he first started. This kind of gradual change often happened unnoticed. If the current Ye Chong were to try his hand in the training routines that he had practiced with before, he would find himself managing all the harder parts with ease. Ye Chong was surprised but also happy with the massive changes within him.

    Ye Chong may not have focused his training in long rangebat, but many of the close rangebat skills he picked up were also essential for long rangebat.

    However, this was still the first step. Shooting on a fixed target was the most basic training for every long range mech pilot.

    Ye Chong soon realized the reason for his improvement. He was not overwhelmed by happiness due to his achievement, but instead felt a little mncholic. All his efforts throughout the years, his hard earned victories through sweat and tears had allowed him to be who he was today. His hands had moved faster and faster; hisbat skills had developed from the initial mimicking to a Jie expert''s level; he had started mech piloting with the most basic Raven, and ended up with Celest today; he had also learned alchemy, and mech manufacturing, and more ¡­

    Who could understand the hardships that he had endured throughout it all?

    And who had he be today? "What''s with me being so emotional today?" Ye Chongughed at himself mockingly.

    Soon, Ye Chong relieved himself of these emotions. He had never allowed his own emotions to trouble him for long. All feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or tiredness woulde to pass. In the end, the only way to solve any problem was calm thinking, courage in making decisions, and the perseverance to carry out the necessary actions.

    Ye Chong was now still a beginner in shooting. If he wanted to improve himself, he must train hard. His current level would not be threatening in actual battle. However, Ye Chong did not dismiss this skillset. Even though his shooting could not be very helpful in actual battle, Ye Chong realized that it presented a new pathway for him.

    Indeed, he could not be like the shooters in this world who could aim with their parapsychic sense. However, he had something they did not have - holographic scanning. Of all the long range mech pilots he had encountered, none of them could aim through mental control. Nevertheless, they were still excellentbatants. Even Xi Feng Tribe''s mech pilots were aided by holographic scanning systems.

    He had an advantage in shooting distance.

    Ye Chong finally had a few peaceful days for himself. Unexpectedly, the soldiers did note knocking to seek revenge. In these few days, Ye Chong drew up a n for the main structure of the manor''s defense system.

    12 cannon arrays did not feel like enough for the huge manor, but they would at least provide some form of protection against aerial threats. The holographic scanning system for the manor was already set up. With the manor at its center, Ye Chong now had a 120-kilometer radius ofnd under surveince.

    The military base was only 40 kilometres away from Ye Chong''s manor. This allowed Ye Chong to feel safer. Knowing the enemies'' every movement was a desirable oue.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not lower his guard. There was no huge response from the camp, but it would still send scouts to spy on them regrly.

    Ye Chong did not react to that. As long as the soldiers did not invade his space like that night, he would not retaliate. This kind of spying activity was useless against him. Unless they had a highly advanced mech like Mu and Shang, they would not prate the thick walls around the manor. If they tried to trespass the manor, Ye Chong''s defense system would identify them and initiate an attack.

    Ye Chong was now more than capable of setting up an effective defense system. Every weapon was ced strategically and well hidden. The rich greenery on the manor''snd and the uneven terrain was also to his advantage.

    Ye Chong built a good number of heavyweight firearms in a few days, with enough time in his hands. Aside from the 12 cannon arrays, he also installed more than 600ser guns all around the manor. Besides the high uracy firearms, Ye Chong also created a new kind of weapon that he called the Hive.

    Each Hive was a set ofser shooters arranged into a matrix, like a beehive. Each Hive could fire up to 144 shots simultaneously, where eachser beams was separated from the ones around by 20 centimetres. This was a weapon designed to take on the more capable shooters. The attack hadrger coverage, so that even if the enemies noticed the attack with their parapsychic sense, they would not be able to avoid it. Besides, the Hive could adjust its shooting angle through the control photon processor.

    The only disadvantage of this weapon was its high energy consumption. Nevertheless, given how energy rich materialse easily in this world, and at affordable prices, it did not really matter.

    Ye Chong was inspired by the G-Zser gun structure of the Research Consortium when he developed this new weapon. The final product was devastatingly powerful with the excellent raw materials he found on this. Even an aircraft would be destroyed by this weapon.

    Hence, Ye Chong modified some of the Hives to haverger spaces between thesers. These modified ones would be used to target aircrafts.

    Now, Ye Chong''s defense system was making headway. He could continue with his research, being safer against external threats.

    ¡­

    Sun Sieha was very busy. There were too many matters that required his attention. Despite all the preparations he had gone through since he was a child to inherit the throne, and despite his long experience in governance and military affairs, he still found himself strained by the workload. He could now appreciate the pressure that his father once faced.

    Nevertheless, all the work did not make him forget about the weaponsmith called Ye Chong.

    The mysterious young man was such an interesting character! Whenever he had a moment''s idleness, he would think about that cold young man. A smile woulde to him whenever he thought about how he was forced to an impasse that day. Being a proud man, he would only ever think favorably of talented and skilled people. However, he quickly dismissed all of these subjective thoughts and emotions. He was King, and he needed to consider every matter from the country''s perspective.

    Sun Sieha''s expression reverted to his usual coolness. He considered for a moment, then summoned, "Ask Master Karu to seee see me!"

    "Yes, Your Majesty!" A guard hastily left the King''s study.

    Sun Sieha tapped his finger rhythmically on his desk, thinking about the report he had just received. The report informed him of the conflict between the 1st Legion''s Du Feng and the cold weaponsmith. Du Feng''s defeat did not surprise him. If the weaponsmith could not hold his own against the Brigade Commander, he would not have been able to force Sun Sieha to an agreement that day.

    How would this conflict affect future events? This was what he needed to consider.

    Just then, a guard interrupted him, "Your Majesty, Master Karu is here."

    "Let him in," Sun Sieha said.

    Master Karu was 77 this year, and one of Eastern Cloud''s most prestigious weaponsmiths. Sun Sieha had gotten to know the man when he was young. He was confident of the man''s skills.

    Master Karu entered the study and bowed to Sun Sieha, "Your Majesty, you summoned me?" Master Karu''s hair had all turned white. He looked sharp despite the deep wrinkles sprawled all over his face. He was obviously unimpressed by Sun Sieha interrupting his work.

    Sun Sieha smiled, unoffended, "Master Karu, please have a seat. I have something to ask you."

    Master Karu nodded and sat down.

    "Have you seen the cannon array, Master Karu?" Sun Sieha asked.

    When Karu heard the question from Sun Sieha, his eyes lit up immediately. He replied quickly, "I have, I have! I''ve done a round of tests on the cannon array. It is truly powerful! Where did you obtain this powerful and huge cannon array, Your Majesty?"

    Sun Sieha smiled and did not answer him immediately. Instead, he continued calmly, "I have seen the abilities of that weapon, but, from your professional viewpoint, Master Karu, you must surely understand more about it. Could you exin the weapon to me briefly?"

    "I see," Master Karu nodded, his eyes shining enthusiastically as he spoke more quickly, "Begging Your Majesty''s indulgence, but this officer of yours has never seen anything so powerful and yet so lightweight. It''s built with advanced technology, and the design is unique. I have never heard of anything like it. The most interesting part of the cannon array was its internal structure. I believe that it is designed based on knowledge that is far beyond everything we have learned in the field. It''s much smaller than our main cannons, and much lighter. Some of our more powerful aircrafts can probably lift these cannon arrays. If we can produce these cannon arrays on arger scale, our military strength can be improved by at least five-fold. However, I regret to inform Your Majesty that despite all the hours of studying the weapon, there are still many aspects about it that I cannot figure out."

    Sun Sieha was at first overjoyed, but his mood took a nosedive at Master Karu''s final sentence. "Master Karu, do you think you can reproduce this weapon?"

    Master Karu confessed, "Your Majesty, there are still many things that I do not understand about this weapon. The weaponsmith behind this cannon array must be truly extraordinary! May I enquire as to how Your Majesty came to obtain this weapon?"

    Sun Sieha had hoped that Master Karu could at least reproduce the cannon array, but his hopes were dashed. He was heavily disappointed, and replied dismissively, "I bought it."

    "You bought it?" Master Karu was shocked. "What country could possiblye up with such advanced weaponry?"

    Sun Sieha shook his head and exined, "It''s not a country, just a weaponsmith."

    Master Karu was even more surprised now. "Which weaponsmith? Who is the person behind this masterpiece?"

    "His name is Ye Chong."

    "Ye Chong? I have never heard of the name," Master Karu sighed, "To think there could be such a talented man in this world. This Master must be skilful enough to start his own school of teaching. What a capable man, but unknown to the world. He must not think highly of fame and status. Where is this great man now? If it pleases Your Majesty, I would like visit him as soon as possible to know more."

    "Great man?" Sun Sieha had an odd expression his face.

    "What is it, Your Majesty? This Master is many times more capable than this officer of yours. I am more than willing to admit that," Master Karu said solemnly.

    Seeing Master Karu''s seriousness and his white hair, andparing the old man with the cold young man, Sun Sieha could not help but exined, "Master Karu, this great man you speak of is in fact only in his twenties."

    "Impossible!" Master Karu rejected the idea immediately. He looked straight at Sun Sieha and said, "Your Majesty, please do not jest with me in this matter. It is not funny."

    Seeing how serious Master Karu was, Sun Sieha could only rify, "I''m not lying. He really is only about 20 years old. He hade to Su City with me, and now lives in the vicinity of the capital."

    Master Karu saw that Sun Sieha was being honest. He muttered to himself with an unreadable expression, "20 years old! 20 years old! Can there really be a person who was born a genius?"

    He gathered himself and asked urgently, "Please introduce me to this weaponsmith, Your Majesty."

    Sun Sieha thought of Ye Chong''s cold and uninviting face. He frowned and said helplessly, "Let''s set this matter aside for the moment. We''ll talk about itter. Don''t worry, Master Karu, I will put you in touch with him."

    Master Karu was puzzled by Sun Sieha being troubled by the matter. He asked gently, "With such a talented man by your side, why would you feel troubled, Your Majesty?"

    "I am worried about the cannon arrays."

    "If that weaponsmith is willing to sell, then Your Majesty can always purchase more. What''s there to worry about?" Master Karu could not understand.

    "He''s only willing to sell two of them every month. Moreover," he took a nce at Karu with a pained expression and continued, "Each cannon array costs 20 million ao."

    "20 - 20 million ao ¡­" Master Karu was speechless.

    Sun Sieha nodded and added, "That''s 20 million ao for each cannon array. It''s alright to buy a few more of them, but it will be impossible to arm the entire military with it."

    "This price ¡­" Master Karu could not say another word for a long while. Finally, he managed, "What a sky high price! I have inspected the cannon array. Based on the materials used, it should cost no more than 8 thousand ao."

    When Master Karu revealed this, Sun Sieha felt even bitter about it. He was silent for a long moment before groaning angrily, "What a thief!"

    Master Karu mused quietly, "It''s expensive, but the technology is worth the price. Your Majesty, you should be careful, if another country is able to procure one of these weapons ¡­"

    Sun Sieha nodded, understanding him. "Don''t worry, I have an agreement with him. Eastern Cloud has exclusive rights to purchase his weapons."

    The guards in the Royal Pce saw a strange scene today. As Master Karu left His Majesty''s study, he looked listless, muttering to himself, "Just 20 years old ¡­ A genius ¡­ 20 million ¡­"

    The day also became even more difficult for the guards because of their King. After Master Karu had left, His Majesty looked so grim that the sky seemed to darken as well. All the servants and guards behaved warily as the atmosphere in the Pce turned heavy with tension.

 Chapter 535 - Kristenâ€™s Project

    <h4>Chapter 535: Kristen¡¯s Project</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There were many, many things that Ye Chong needed to attend to.

    Shooting practice was absolutely necessary. If he could be an effective long range attacker, he would no longer be so helpless against shooters, especially when he was in his mech. This skill was crucial for his survival, and must be prioritized above all else.

    Modifying his base was a massive and long term operation. With a basic defense system in ce, his safety was at least not a concern. This job can be dyed forter.

    Studying the contents of the three chips from Kui was an equally long andborious effort. There was so much knowledge in those chips that Ye Chong could not possibly hope to master them all in his lifetime. Nevertheless, he had no choice, for he needed to get back home. How could he stay here? Mu, Shang, Rui Bing, the Sang Tribe ¡­ Ye Chong suddenly realized that he was no longer the isted and lonely young man he once was.

    He must return, no matter what it takes! Ye Chong tightened his fists, his gaze determined. No matter how long it would take, no matter how much work it would require, he will return to them.

    Compared to these three tasks, the rest were not as important. He did not need to socialize or bow down to another person''s wishes. He only needed to do his research in his base, by himself.

    Ye Chong exhaled deeply. There was work to be done. It was no use for him to ruminate on his thoughts.

    Ye Chong thought that the hended on was very interesting. The ce had an abundance of natural resources and lifeforms. There was enough energy here to mass produce energy crystals. This was the reason native nts were highlypatible with pure energy, and why the had highly advanced energy maniption technology. Nevertheless, Ye Chong found that the technology here had developed in an unusual way. Their theories and other fundamental research works were much too primitivepared to energy maniption technology.

    There was also a very significant weakness in this ce - there were no metals. The nts here had excellent physical properties, but they were still nt based material, limited by what nt cells could achieve. There was no expertise like alchemy to harvest the nts in a more scble manner. In fact, the natives gathered their nt materials by simply harvesting them from nature. Ye Chong thought it was a very backward method.

    Ye Chong''s extensive knowledge allowed him to assess the local technology from a wider perspective.

    Of course, in the end, all of these were not relevant to him. He could not be bothered to get involved. What he needed to do now was improve his own situation through the resources avable to him. Abruptly, he had a feeling that this was just like the game he had once yed with Mu and Shang. He was biding his time in a secluded ce, strengthening himself, until the time came for him to strike out.

    Ye Chong reminisced on his difficult but fulfilling days. A thin smile brightened on his face, as he felt a warm, eager sensation bubbling within him.

    Let them see, he will be back soon enough.

    ¡­

    A month passed quickly enough. It was time for Ye Chong''s trade with Sun Sieha.

    Sun Sieha came as nned. Together with him was an old man with white hair - Master Karu.

    This was the first time for both of them in visiting Ye Chong''s manor. Master Karu looked around curiously. Most of the buildings had been modified by Ye Chong such that they no longer fit into the leisurely nature of the manor. Sun Sieha controlled himself more, but his asional wandering gaze betrayed his own curiosity towards this ce.

    Sun Sieha was naturally apanied by his guards. However, he also knew that Ye Chong did not like many visitors. Thus, he only brought five of them. The way they conducted themselves suggested that they were all Level 8 shooters.

    "You''re here," Ye Chong greeted the King nonchntly.

    Sun Sieha did not behave like the King he had be. He only nodded back in an equally casual manner, "Yes, I am."

    That the two of them would speak to each other so casually surprised Master Karu and the guards. Master Karu knew Sun Sieha well enough to know that the King was a very strict person who would only be more amenable towards truly capable people. However, this degree of friendliness was a little too much ¡­

    The guards were also shocked. Their immediate suspicion was that the young man might be His Majesty''s illegitimate son! However, when they saw Sha Ya, they immediately tightened their guard. A Level 8 shooter can pose a serious threat to His Majesty! They quickly surrounded the King to protect him.

    Sun Sieha was annoyed by their overreaction. He waved them away unhappily, "Stand down."

    He then turned to Ye Chong with a smile and asked, "Are they ready?"

    "Yes," Ye Chong nodded and pointed towards two huge boxes casually ced under a tree. The boxes were elegantly designed, caved with many intricate patterns. These two boxes were Kristen''s work. As Ye Chong''s first assignment to her, she dared not ck on her job. She chose the materials herself, and added many decorations on the side. The boxes ended up looking like fine artwork.

    Sun Sieha took a nce at the two boxes and nodded. Two guards immediately went for the boxes.

    "Pay up," Ye Chong put out his hand without dy.

    Sun Sieha looked a little helpless as he replied, "Here you go."

    Master Karu watched their interaction with amusement. He had never seen anyone speak to the King like this. The young man did not seem afraid of His Majesty at all.

    "This is Master Karu, Eastern Cloud''s most prestigious weaponsmith. He asked to be introduced to you, so here he is now," Sun Sieha made the introductions.

    Master Karu smiled gently, his wrinkles showing underneath his smile, "I wouldn''t call myself Master in front of this great talent, Master Ye. I am here to learn from you."

    "You are too kind," Ye Chong responded out of courtesy.

    Sun Sieha said to them, "Enjoy yourselves then. I won''t be bothering you. Sigh, what a carefree life you have, I''m just jealous of you."

    Sun Sieha then took his guards with him and left Ye Chong''s manor.

    Master Karu asked carefully, "May I visit your workshop? I''ve tons of questions regarding the cannon array you made."

    "Sure," Ye Chong replied after some thought.

    Ye Chong brought Master Karu to a red and white colored building. "This is my workshop," Ye Chong introduced. Having learned his lesson, Ye Chong had prepared this particr building for his cover. Everything inside were normal equipment that locals used to build their weapons. In fact, Ye Chong rarely came here himself. It was Kristen who frequented the ce often. She had bought most of the equipment in here.

    Thus, when Ye Chong brought Master Karu into the building, he surprised Kristen, who was working inside. The woman was quick to notice that the old man was no ordinary person.

    "Teacher," Kristen greeted Ye Chong, as was proper. Ever since she witnessed Ye Chong''s prowess in battle, she never behaved arrogantly towards him again.

    "Ye Chong''s student?" Master Karu thought to himself, intrigued. Kristen''s beauty also led him to consider a possibility - could this cold, young man actually be interested in beautiful women? The thought came and passed.

    "Mm," Ye Chong nodded in acknowledgement. He introduced the old man to Kristen, "This is Master Karu."

    "Mas - Master Karu!" the words stumbled of Kristen''s mouth. She could not believe her eyes.

    Master Karu was pleased by Kristen''s reaction. Heughed it off, "I didn''t think that Master Ye would have such a beautiful student. You make me jealous."

    "Kristen, my student," Ye Chong introduced Kristen briefly,pletely unmoved by them. Regardless of why Ye Chong had epted her as a student in the first ce, he was actually impressed by her. Kristen was talented, hardworking and determined. Ye Chong did not have much time to teach her. Usually, he would just pass some basic knowledge for her to study by herself.

    Kristen did notin about his teaching methods, but instead focused on absorbing new knowledge given to her.

    Ye Chong always had a soft spot for hardworking people.

    "Are you really the one and only Master Karu?" Kristen was overjoyed. Every weaponsmith would know the name of this old man. As Eastern Cloud''s iconic weaponsmith, he was an idol to many, including Kristen. Seeing her long admired idol made Kristen a little emotional.

    "Haha, I don''t think anyone would be interested in pretending to be me," Karuughed it off. He thought the girl was amusing.

    His attention turned to a few items on the desk, which looked like unfinished work.

    He asked warmly, "Are these yours?"

    Kristen blushed and nodded almost imperceptibly, "Yes." She felt embarrassed to let the honorable Master Karu to see some unfinished work of hers. For someone of her level, Master Karu might just be left unimpressed ¡­

    Master Karu picked up one of them and inspected it carefully. He wanted to know how good this young man''s student was. A student''s abilities were usually a good reflection of the teacher''s. Of course, there were exceptions to the rule.

    Master Karu nodded, "Not bad. This energy activation chip''s structure is interesting. Your workmanship is good. Ah!" Suddenly, the old man gasped in surprised.

    An energy activation chip was every weapon''s coreponent. It was used to extract energy from energy crystals. This energy was then focused using otherponents into a directed beam of energy, capable of damage. The energy activation chip was second in the hierarchy of weaponponents that required great skill. Theponent that demanded the most skills was the focusingponent.

    Master Karu had spent more time than both Kristen and Ye Chongbined in building weapons. Of course he could identify all the elements necessary in an energy activation chip.

    This particr chip looked strange. It was only the size of an almond nut, with aplicated internal structure. However, Master Karu could make out every detail of the structure.

    "What energy grade is this energy activation chip for?" Master Karu asked Kristen warily.

    Kristen answered without hesitation, "Three million Lux."

    Master Karu could barely contain his shock as he repeated shakily, "Three million Lux?"

    "Yea," Kristen answered, feeling worried. The energy activation chip that she built was much smaller than thosemonly avable in the market, but the great Master Karu might not find it impressive enough.

    What a humiliation! Kristen felt her cheeks burning up. She stole a nce at Ye Chong and found him looking pretty much expressionless, not the slightest bit angry with her. Kristen groaned inside. She could never make out Ye Chong''s moods. Her previous teacher had always minded his image very much, especially amongst others in the same trade. If she happened to embarrass his in front of his colleagues, she would suffer for sure!

    Karu''s eyes shed with fear. Making a three million Lux energy activation chip at this small size was a difficult feat. An energy activation chip had a veryplicated internal structure. Any kind of miniaturization was hard to achieve. Besides, the higher the energy grade, therger an energy activation chip must be to amodate. In his own workshop, an energy activation chip designed for three million Lux would have been at least the size of a fist. This particr chip was only the size of an almond!

    The seasoned Master Karu did not let his expression betray his thoughts. He smiled at Kristen and said, "Three million Lux, that''s a heavyweight there. What do you n to install it in?"

    Kristen''s mature, womanly face turned shy as she replied, "I was thinking of making aser gun." Ye Chong had built twoser guns at five million Lux earlier. One was for his own training, and the other for Sha Ya to rece her gun made of speckled blue fir.

    Kristen wanted one as well, but Ye Chong thought it was unnecessary, and did not make one for her.

    Hence, Kristen thought of building a high energy gradeser gun for herself. These days, all the new knowledge had inspired her greatly to try out some things. Of course, building a five million Lux weapon was beyond her. In the end, she settled for three million Lux.

    The highest energy gradeser gun one can get from the market was at 1.5 million Lux, and at a sky high price. Kristen was not confident of building this three million Lux weapon, but she wanted to at least try it out. Master Karu was a legendary weaponsmith. Kristen thought that, if she could do it, surely it would be a piece of cake for Master Karu!

    Aser gun!

    Master Karu was shocked beyond words. How can a three million Lux energy activation chip be used for aser gun? If Ye Chong had not been standing calmly beside him right then, Master Karu would have thought he heard it wrong.

    Kristen looked embarrassed, but Karu could see that she was serious about her work.

    No wonder the energy activation chip was made to be this mall. The weird internal structure was probably why the chip could be made this small.

    Karu felt an impulse to disassemble the energy activation chip to its basic parts there and then and study its design. Fortunately, he was a seasoned man. He suppressed his emotions quickly. A quick nce to the side showed Ye Chong looking calm as usual. Master Karu managed a smile and said, "Master Ye is indeed outstanding. The chip''s structure is unique." In fact, he felt that the energy activation chip was in a league of its own. However, it was only natural for a weaponsmith who could build the cannon arrays to be able toe up with something like this.

    Ye Chong shook his head and rified, "The design is hers." He fixed his gaze on the energy activation chip for a moment. There was still much room for improvement, but he thought Kristen''s proactive attempt a worthy and meaningful effort.

    Karu was now shocked beyond words. Could it be that even Ye Chong''s student was as capable as this? Minimizing the size of an energy activation chip had always been one of the difficult problems in weapon building. Now, however, this young man''s student was able to solve that problem by herself, without help from her teacher.

    "This ¡­ This is ¡­ " Karu''s thoughts slowed down to a halt. For the first time ever, he considered the possibility of having grown too old himself to catch up.

    Master Karu quickly gathered himself andughed, "Haha, looks like our country, Eastern Cloud, will have another Master in its grace. Master Ye has an excellent student!"

    Kristen was ovee with joy, having beenplimented by the great Master Karu. She felt like she was walking on clouds. At the same time, she felt greatly relieved. She stole a look at Ye Chong, but the man still looked as expressionless as ever, not showing any signs of happiness or contentment.

    "If this is your student''s work, perhaps I may be able to purchase the rights for this technology on behalf of Eastern Cloud?" Master Karu inquired carefully, looking at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong did not care. "It''s hers, you can just discuss with her."

    Karu''s wrinkled face stretched into a wide, cunning grin. He said to Kristen, "Dear Ms Kristen, we are willing to offer 30 million ao to buy the rights for this energy activation chip technology. You will receive five percent of every energy activation chip sold for 20 years from now. What do you say?" Karu could tell from experience that this chip would allow their country to be at least three decades ahead of other rival countries in terms of technology. The price he offered for this advantage was not high at all.

    Kristen felt a little dizzy. She stared at Karu in amazement, then looked to Ye Chong''s calm face for help.

 Chapter 536 - Everyone Has Their Own Problems

    <h4>Chapter 536: Everyone Has Their Own Problems</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Kristen was not unfamiliar with trading, but thergest amount that she had ever dealt with was two million ao, and that was when she asked to be Ye Chong''s student. She did not know how to handle this huge sum. Naturally, her thoughts went to her teacher, Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong was experienced in dealing with huge sums, but usually the numbers mean nothing much to him. He was not experienced, nor was he expert in it. However, there was one thing that he was better at than Kristen - no matter the situation, he could still remain calm.

    When Ye Chong saw Kristen looking to him for help, he considered the offer by Master Karu for a moment and said, "The price is eptable, but with some alterations. She will get 10 percent from every three million Lux graded energy activation chip made. For simr models at other energy grades, she will get five percent for each of them."

    Ye Chong knew what Kristen''s energy activation chip meant to Eastern Cloud. Once they fully integrated this technology, their weapons will immediately reach a new level of power, and the first people to own these weapons were surely the military soldiers! In summary, Eastern Cloud''s military was about to get a massive upgrade.

    As a man who had led a whole fleet before, Ye Chong knew that replenishing an army''s resources would cost a lot. If it were the army of an entire country, the amount would be staggering. The process of upgrading would be gradual, but the total expenditure remained the same.

    As long as they continued to offer better and better technology, improving the energy activation chip to other energy grades and for more kinds of weapons, they would be able to benefit a whole lot more! How much more could they make? Ye Chong could not offer an estimate.

    In the short term, their ie might not seem significant, but two or three decadester they will reach an impressive sum. Ye Chong would leave this ce sooner orter, but Kristen would still be here, and Ye Chong knew how to alter the terms to her advantage.

    Ye Chong spoke calmly, but his words did not invite arguments.

    Master Karu''s face twitched. The man was a thief! It may not seem obvious, but Master Karu understood the n behind Ye Chong''s suggestion. Compared to his original proposal, they would now earn eight times more. In particr, "simr models at other energy grades" meant that as long as they were manufacturing energy activation chips with simr structure, at any energy grade and for weapons, Kristen would be able to benefit from them all.

    Karu knew the value of this small energy activation chip, or he would not have felt the urgency of acquiring rights for the technology. He believed that by acquiring the rights for this chip, they would be able to use it for all their weapons, regardless of energy grade. "What a sly b*stard!" Master Karu thought to himself, wincing at the huge cost it would take. He could be grateful that the country was paying for it, instead of him.

    Besides, Karu could not do anything against the young man''s calm and confident expression. If it was anyone else selling the energy activation chip technology, they would surely be enticed by the 30 million ao offer. However, this young man''s student here ¡­ Did sheck money? Her teacher would get 50 million ao every month for the cannon arrays - it was robbery!

    These two were not in desperate need for cash. However, His Majesty would probably not agree to coerce them through other methods.

    Karu hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing, "Very well!" Did he have a choice? He saw the zed look in Kristen''s eyes and could not help but sighed to himself - when this young girl looked back at this agreement many years from now, she would appreciate how her teacher had helped her earn so much more.

    What a fortunatedy!

    The formalities of the deal were left to Karu and Kristen. Since it was possible to negotiate, Karu would not consider using other less courteous means. Since he knew the magnitude of financial impact this agreement would have, he drafted out the contract meticulously to avoid future disputes.

    Kristen signed the contract without fully understanding the details. She waspletely overwhelmed by the 30 million ao offer in the agreement. She still remembered clearly how giddy she felt when her teacher had sold off a cannon array at 20 million ao. Nevertheless, the money was not hers. This time, she was unprepared for the 30 million ao offered to her. It had momentarily left her stunned.

    "Would Master Ye be avable in the near future?" Master Karu asked respectfully.

    Ye Chong nearly said no, but then he hesitated, and asked, "What is it?"

    "There will be a weapons design contest soon, perhaps Master Ye would be able to volunteer some time to serve in the contest''s judge panel," Master Karu asked expectantly. If he could get this heavyweight to be a judge, the contest would surely be something to look forward to!

    "A weapons design contest?" Ye Chong inquired.

    Master Karu smiled and exined, "The King organizes the contest every four years as a way to encourage weapons development in Eastern Cloud. There will be many impressive weaponsmiths who will partake in this contest. There are many parts to the contest, such as live demonstration of the weapons andparisons between theories. In the past, each contest has served as a tform for many new ideas to be introduced to the public. These young contestants may not be excellent weaponsmiths, but they can offer some bold ideas. These ideas are very valuable to us. Besides, this weapon design contest coincides with thergest and most well attended weapons trading market in Eastern Cloud. A good weapon is often expensive, so many shooters from other countries will visit the market to explore their options," Master Karu tried his best to persuade Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong considered the offer for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright." Ye Chong had initially thought to decline, but then felt that it would be a good opportunity to understand the general state of technology in this world. Understanding the level of technology of Eastern Cloud, and perhaps even of the entire, would definitely provide him with great insight.

    Karu was overjoyed. "Excellent! With Master Ye as part of our judge panel, theing contest will surely leave its mark in history!"

    Ye Chong waved off thepliment tly, "You''re too kind, Master Karu."

    Karu left Ye Chong''s manor with a sense of aplishment. There were still many questions that he wanted to ask about, but today''s oue had far exceeded his expectations. That tiny energy activation chip can surely bring about a revolution in Eastern Cloud''s military weapons! He looked forward to it.

    On the other hand, today''s trade agreement had also allowed him to get to know the cold, young man personally. Knowing an expert weaponsmith like him might just pay off in future.

    Karu respected the young man, but also felt that he could not hope to reach the same level as him. Even his student could improve an energy activation chip to this extent. Surely her teacher could do far more! The man was a mystery, but Karu was certain that the young man was far more capable than he was, and probably the most skilled weaponsmith in the world. Once upon a time, Karu had thought he had reached the pinnacle of weapons making, but now he found himself still at the bottom of the hill, looking up hopefully.

    Nevertheless, the young man''s cold and emotionless face dampened Karu''s excitement.

    What a difficult person to read! Karu dared not y any tricks with the young man. He could finally understand why the King felt so dissatisfied but helpless against him. Inparison, his beautiful student was more naive. Perhaps she would offer a point of vulnerability.

    Of all the intel His Majesty had informed him of the young man, most of them were about his student, but there was almost nothing on the young man himself. They only knew that he came from Dual Forest. Both Karu and Sun Sieha were relieved that Ye Chong''s student, Kristen, was a bona fide Eastern Cloud citizen.

    ¡­

    Kristen watched as Master Karu left their ce. She was still feeling high from the exchange. Ye Chong had returned to his own building. That was a restricted area for Ye Chong only. Even Kristen was not allowed inside.

    "Time for practice," Ye Chong thought to himself as he took in a deep breath. He picked up his gun smoothly, his eyes sharp as knifes. The gun fired again and again, always hitting the moving targets that flew around in the building.

    After this long period of training, Ye Chong had improved a lotpared to before. He had once studied the long distancebat training manual. Unlike before, he could nowplete the trainings much more easily. His muscles moved ording to his will. His eyes were sharper than ever. Moreover, his calction skills aided him in shooting moving targets.

    Still, he was only taking beginner steps towards bing a long range mech pilot. There was still a long way ahead of him. Nevertheless, it was already a huge improvement for Ye Chong. At least theser gun no longer served a decorative purpose in Ye Chong''s hands. Ye Chong did not hope to be a shooter like the ones in this world. It was simply impractical for him to aim for that.

    Besides, Ye Chong felt that shooters were only powerful midrangebatants. Only a mech fitted with a holographic scanning system could be considered a true long range attacker. On this, 30-kilometer midrange shooters were the main highlights, but Ye Chong thought the distance still too restrictive. Besides, an average shooter''s parapsychic sense could only expand out to six or seven kilometres away.

    Parapsychic abilities strengthened a shooter''sbat abilities, but it also restricted a shooter''s potential.

    Ye Chong believed that the advantage of long range attacks was not fully realized in shooters.

    Celest was not significantly faster than its opponents, but it could veer and turn much easily than others. Ye Chong learned from his previous battle experience that he could use this advantage to shake off a shooter''s parapsychic sense. However, once he became a true long range attacker, the hunter would be the hunted.

    The problem of fighting using Celest was thus solved, but Ye Chong was not easily satisfied.

    The test results for all the items he had bought in Su City were ready. All this information was entered into Celest''s database. Since he could not build photon processors yet, thebat mech Celest was used a temporary storage drive.

    Ye Chong studied the numbers and picked a few interesting materials.

    Candygrass secreted a very sticky slime. The slime was chemically stable, suitable to be used as a binding agent. Weapons heremonly used a kind of binding agent derived from the Japonicum nt, but the slime from candygrass was 15 times stronger than the former. Ye Chong called it candyglue. He also found that this candyglue could be used for binding metals together, with far better results than traditional soldering. However, the only drawback was the slime secretion from each candygrass nt was very little. This was why the ingredient never became mainstream.

    It was not a problem for Ye Chong. As an excellent alchemist, this was an interesting problem to look into. He just needed some time.

    The Grimacing Creeper was also a cheap and neglected species. Its surfaceyer had a specialponent that allowed it to absorb parapsychic waves. This was one of Ye Chong''s most important findings so far. He was overjoyed to find the natural anti parapsychic property. Ye Chong had always been vexed with the shooter''s parapsychic waves. If he could extract theponent to make anti parapsychic products, Ye Chong was confident that no aircraft would ever be a threat to Celest again.

    So much to look forward to!

    There was work to be done, though. Ye Chong was mentally prepared for them. No matter how hard this was going to be, he must produce this anti parapsychic material.

    At the same time, things were not going well for Du Feng. He was gued with nightmares of that horrible night where hisrades died right in front of his eyes, and the shadow that lurked in the dark. Often times he would be woken up from his dreams, finding himself covered with sweat. However, there was nothing he could do. Sir Huang was always either going about his business secretively or staying in his room. Du Feng could not glean his intention.

    On the other hand, Du Feng was facing problems at work. Many of the new recruits could not keep up with the physical training. His camp had never suffered so much outside of actualbat. He was also helpless against this issue.

    "Gui, what do you think we should do now? We can''t go on like this. I''ve been to the patient ward yesterday. Those little brats have all copsed, injuring their muscles. They won''t be getting up jumping for at least a couple of weeks," Du Feng sighed worriedly as he watched the few remaining new recruits on the training ground, pushing themselves beyond their weak bodies.

    Li Gui looked concerned as well. "You''re right, Old Du, it''s bad. I went to the medical officer yesterday to get to know more. The officer said that these guys are all too weak, plus our training is too intense for them to keep up."

    "I guess we''re out of luck for the friendly match between the new recruits," Du Feng said, dejected.

    Li Gui shook his head, "That''s not quite the case. I''ve heard that almost all the military camps have the same problem with their new recruits. Some of the camps even lost two thirds of their recruits. I think that His Majesty will have to be informed of this problem soon."

    Du Feng looked up at that, "That may be a good thing. His Majesty is wise, he will not let this problem remain."

    ¡­

    As Li Gui expected, the issue was brought to Sun Sieha just two days ago.

    Sun Sieha looked deeply concerned. He was upset with having this issue so soon after he took the throne. As someone who had trained with the military since he was young, Sun Sieha thought highly of the military, more so than his father. He knew that if the issue was not resolved soon, the young shooters will suffer many casualties once they were in the field. As a King who intended to expand his kingdom to the entire world, this was a problem that must be solved.

    The military department held a meeting to discuss the issue, while Sun Sieha listened patiently to the suggestions from his military officers. All of them agreed that that the military''s unreasonable prerequisites for new recruits had caused the problem they faced today. Besides, it had be a norm to expect shooters to prioritize parapsychic training over physical training. All the military officers expressed their concern over the matter.

    Sun Sieha understood that this was a problem that needed solving, but altering a worldview that had long gone unchallenged was not an easy task. He could have used thew to change the prerequisites for new recruits to encourage physical fitness, but Sun Sieha was not na?ve to believe that it would work straight away.

    As a worldly ruler, Sun Sieha knew exactly how hard it was to change a person''s beliefs.

    They could only be persuaded, not forced. Sun Siehabored over the problem, trying to think of a solution.

    The sky darkened. Time flowed pass unnoticed while Sun Sieha was deep in thought. Suddenly, Sun Sieha thought of Ye Chong, the best expert in close rangebat.

    Sun Sieha''s eyes lit up in the darkness. If anyone were to see him now, they would surely be reminded of the fact that their King was a level 8 shooter as well.

    In just three days, Sun Sieha made his second visit to Ye Chong''s manor.

 Chapter 537 - Isolated Training

    <h4>Chapter 537: Isted Training</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sun Sieha left Ye Chong''s manor in a good mood. People began to wonder why. In Su City, Sun Sieha''s every move was under silent scrutiny. The councilors and officers were all trying to figure out their new, strict ruler. That His Majesty had visited the same ce twice in three days and returned to the pce in a good mood each time was of course highly suggestive.

    The more experienced people had already gotten hold of information regarding Ye Chong and his group, including their conflict with the 1st Legion. Details of that exchange were scarce, but it was said that 80 soldiers had lost their lives, that Du Feng had been held hostage, and that there was a Level 8 shooter in the manor. These three points were all shocking by themselves. To think that the owner of the manor had such power!

    Besides, it was now known His Majesty''s former butler, Ba Luomeng had served as witness to the purchase of the manor. This information suggested once again of the close rtionship between the King and the owner of the manor.

    The nobles, on the other hand, were surprised by the 1st Legion''s reaction to their defeat.

    Every noble knew of how Eastern Cloud''s 1st Legion was too proud and overbearing. Their Legate, Ming Xiao, was a short tempered man. He did not bother to be respectful to anyone but the King himself, and easily took offense. Nheless, since he was a military top dog with rows of medals to show it, everyone in the government, be it the Prince or the most favored councilor in the cab, would be very mindful in dealing with him.

    Contrary to their expectations, Ming Xiao had kept quiet about the matter, and did not retaliate. The arrogant and trigger-happy 1st Legate behaved like peacekeepers, never speaking of the battle again. Even Du Feng himself stayed passive.

    This was shocking to all those who were familiar with the 1st Legion. Who in the world were they dealing with? There was not enough information to glean the manor owner''s identity, but one thing everyone could agree to was this - no one can afford meddling with the man in question.

    A mysterious manor, owned by a mysterious man - Ye Chong did not know that his name had already reached the ears of the top officials in the Eastern Cloud government. It was a piece of intel that was spread quietly but surely.

    For now, however, everyone focused on two immediate matters - the King''s birthday celebration three monthster, and the weapons design contest a week after the celebration.

    The first event was important, that went without saying. With a new ruler on the throne, it was a golden opportunity for the officials and nobles to leave a good impression. Those who performed well would be rewarded ordingly, but those who did not will suffer certain consequences. His Majesty, being thebat enthusiast, had also passed down the order to organize a nationwidebat tournament at around the same time. Anyone who won, no matter their profession, age, or methods, will be granted the title of Master, and could even have an audience before the King. If the winner was interested in bing a government official, His Majesty would grant the position immediately. Of course, a huge mary sum would be part of the grand prize.

    The councilors were all unsettled by this. The tournament was not as simple as it seemed to be. Since the tournament would be just three days away from the quadrennial weapons design contest, Su City would be flooded with an unprecedented volume of visitors. The weapons design contest was attended by weaponsmiths from around the world. Some of them would even arrive at Su City a month ahead of time. For those who were looking for a better weapon, there was also the huge weapons trading market for them.

    The councilors must first deal with the problem of security. With so many skilled weapon users entering Su City at once, they must ensure the safety of Su City and their King. This was the first issue that they must deal with.

    No one knew why His Majesty suddenly fancied having thisbat tournament. They all knew how this tournament would attract battle enthusiasts across Eastern Cloud like bees to honey. Perhaps Su City might not even be able to amodate everyone by then.

    Nheless, there was nothing they could do about it. His Majesty was intent on carrying on the event, giving the order without prior discussion. Those who tried to speak up were immediately discouraged by the cold look from their King. Besides, they had no reason to speak up. It was His Majesty''s birthday celebration. Would it not be suicidal to be a killjoy right now?

    Thus, they could only try their best to handle the situation.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong frowned. Evern since Sun Sieha left his ce, he fell into long period of deep thought. His shooting exercise had to stop. He was preupied with the discussion with Sun Sieha that day. If it really worked, then an important step in his n would bepleted earlier than expected. This was very important to him.

    However, Ye Chong was not confident of it. This gave him a headache.

    There were more people sneaking around the manor recently. Sha Ya had expressed her interest in the matter. However, Ye Chong ignored them. As long as they did not step into his property, he would let them be. If anyone tried to enter his manor, they will not leave the ce alive.

    Ye Chong called both Sha Ya and Kristen to him.

    Sha Ya and Kristen shared a look of puzzlement. Ye Chong rarely asked for them.

    "I''m about to undergo three months of isted training. Kristen, I''ve given you everything you need to study in this period. You need only learn to understand them. Remember, you must understand them thoroughly. I will test you after my isted training isplete. Sha Ya, you will join me in my training."

    Sha Ya could not hide her surprise. Kristen acknowledged his orders. She will need a long time to figure out what Ye Chong had given to her. She did not mind Ye Chong''s isted training, for the man rarely came out of his building most of the time anyway.

    On the other hand, Sha Ya waspletely taken by surprise. She did not expect to be his training partner.

    Ye Chong had arranged for this isted training with a very specific goal in mind. He was preparing for Eastern Cloud''s nationalbat tournament two months from now. Sun Sieha had visited himst time to discuss this matter. He hoped that Ye Chong would enter the tournament. Ye Chong had declined immediately at first. To him, time was too precious to be wasted on unimportant things like this.

    However, Sun Sieha hade prepared. He made an offer that Ye Chong could not refuse. Soon, the ever pragmatic Ye Chong agreed to the King''s terms.

    Since he had agreed to participate, he must make the necessary preparations. Ye Chong had note up with an effective strategy to fight against highly skilled shooters, and it bothered him. While making his entire body vibrate could shake off a shooter''s parapsychic sense, a Level 8 shooter would be immune to this move.

    A Level 8 shooter''s parapaychic waves felt strong and dense. Ye Chong''s quick movements could not hope to disrupt the waves.

    Ye Chong had prepared one of the buildings in the manor for this isted training. Of course, the training ground was essentially an empty building, the floor covered with ayer of wooden nks.

    "This is your weapon," Ye Chong said and passed a small and silverser gun to Sha Ya. The silver material had a good texture. The gun was simple, but with a streamlined design. Sha Ya felt it fitfortably into her hands. She instantly fell in love it.

    Ye Chong saw Sha Ya caressing the gun appreciatively. He said, "Thisser gun is only at 10 Lux, harmless against the human body. If you''re interested, I''ll modify the gun after this training to about three million Lux. Take it aspensation for being my training partner. What do you think?"

    "Done!" Sha Ya agreed immediately, feeling pleasantly surprised.

    "The gun is no different than your averageser gun, aside from the energy grade."

    Sha Ya loved the feel of the gun. She looked even more absorbed in the weapon as she tossed the silver gun around in her hands.

    "You need to attack me with all you have. Theser gun can fire a thousand times after each recharge. All you need to do is to fight me like in actualbat. Do you understand?" This was Ye Chong''s n. He could not think of anything else. Perhaps through actualbat, he would be able to figure out some countermove.

    Back when Ye Chong was negotiating with Sun Sieha in Yedda city, he had already had this idea when he asked for a Level 8 shooter. If Level 8 shooters were a kind ofmodity, they would be very precious and invaluable. Without Sun Sieha''s assistance, Ye Chong would find it very difficult to get a Level 8 shooter''s help.

    Initially, Ye Chong did not see finding an effective way to against strong shooters as a very high priority. It could be der. However, Sun Sieha''s visit had pushed this problem up the prioritydder.

    Sha Ya nodded, understanding Ye Chong.

    They stepped away from each other to gather distance, then Ye Chong signalled for Sha Ya to start.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong felt an extremely powerful parapsychic wave locking onto him. He felt it immediately. It was like being watched by a snake, and it made him highly ufortable.

    He moved! Ye Chong leapt away, bouncing off the wooden nks on the ground.

    Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh! Threeser beams hit Ye Chong between the eyebrows, throat, and heart, respectively. Ye Chong looked perturbed. It Sha Ya was using a normalser gun, he would already be dead three times over.

    Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh! Another six shots were fired, all of themnding on Ye Chong''s body. Ye Chong looked simply terrible.

    ¡­

    Kristen''s life did not change much due to Ye Chong'' isted training. Whenever she passed by the building that functioned as the training ground, she would always hear non-stop explosions or sounds of impacts. Kristen was initially shocked by the noise, but had soon grown used to it.

    Kristen shook her head and muttered, "They''re both crazy, I''m not gonna be a part of it." She turned back and headed towards her own weapons workshop. After she sold her patent to Master Karu, her confidence got a boost. This encouraged her to try even more new things. She would try her best to understand the new knowledge she got from Ye Chong through experimentation.

    Kristen could see that Ye Chong was uninterested in weapons. He was a mystery to her, but all the knowledge he imparted were solid gold. Kristen knew that this was an opportunity that should not be wasted, so she worked hard to make it count.

    ¡­

    As the King''s birthday celebration got nearer, more and more people came to Su City. Thebat tournament that His Majesty announced earlier was now a hotly discussed topic in Eastern Cloud. Perhaps the true experts, like Level 8 shooters, did not need to prove themselves, but the tournament was very attractive for younger people who wanted to test themselves.

    It had been very long since Eastern Cloud had arge scalebat tournament like this. The only way to be a government official of Eastern Cloud was through the military, starting from the bottommost rung. Since His Majesty would be watching the entire tournament, it was a splendid opportunity for the younger generation to gain fame and status!

    Unlike in Su City, Ye Chong''s manor was rtively peaceful.

    In the training building, Sha Ya had felt growing admiration towards Ye Chong, who was trying hard to execute evasive manoeuvres. She had never seen anyone persist for so long through harsh training like this. Even she was starting to feel tired. She had not stopped shooting with herser gun yet. Who knew many shots she had taken? After so many days, she had exhausted enough energy crystals to make a huge pile.

    Nevertheless, Sha Ya held on. Every time she saw the tenacious figure trying to avoid her shots, she felt invigorated and motivated to carry on. For two whole months, she had not rest more than necessary. She aimed and fired every single day through sheer determination. Her hands were aching by now. After shooting so frequently and intensely for a long period, the act of shooting felt like second instinct. She could not fire much faster than before. The tiny silver gun had be a part of her, obeying her every thought.

    She Ya realized that her stagnating skills were finally improving once again.

    What about her training partner? She Ya wondered, looking at the shadow of the silent but determined man.

 Chapter 538 - Breakthrough

    <h4>Chapter 538: Breakthrough</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong looked exhausted. Even his strong body was pushed to the limit as he trained intensively every single day for so long. In these 80 days, Ye Chong had to run almost constantly to avoid theser beams. He ran and ran like a leopard in the forest, dodging theser beams that never stoppeding from Sha Ya. In the end, he could only hold one thought in mind - run for his life!

    Ye Chong''s explosive power was impressive. Sha Ya had seen that before, but she now found his stamina equally formidable. He could move quickly in the training ground throughout the entire day, never slowing down. Being a Level 8 shooter, the quick movements and afterimages did not affect her performance much, but staring at someone moving so quickly for so long had also affected her. After the first day, Ye Chong was so tired he could just copse onto the floor, while Sha Ya could only see everything vibrating in her vision.

    On the second day, Sha Ya changed tactics. She closed her eyes, since her parapsychic sense was more reliable than her vision at this range. The only thing that surprised her was how Ye Chong had returned to the training ground on time, as though nothing much had happened the day before.

    The first thought that came to Sha Ya was - was this person really human?

    Naturally, Ye Chong defaulted to running on this day. Ye Chong ran wildly in the small training ground, but every time he did a quick veer, theser beam would still find its mark. Nevertheless, he continued running undeterred.

    At the end of the day, Sha Ya could hear and was appalled by Ye Chong''s heavy panting. Ye Chong no longer moved so quickly and easily. His every step and every turn became heavy stomps on the wooden nks beneath him. A few cracks would show on the reinforced wooden floorboard. Sha Ya knew that by now, Ye Chong was running on hisst reserves.

    Whenever this happened, Sha Ya would start counting down. However, Ye Chong was able to hold on until the end of training. By then, Ye Chong was already drenched in sweat. A thick vein throbbed violently on his forehead.

    For 80 days, the routine repeated itself.

    Sha Ya found it difficult to imagine how a slim body like his could store so much energy!

    She found that the young man before her had shattered her beliefs on what was possible. Ye Chong''s intensive and perhaps masochistic training won Sha Ya''splete respect and approval.

    This did not mean that Sha Ya was starting to have feelings for Ye Chong. It was in fact a feeling of respect from one strongbatant to another.

    Shooters were sensitive to their surroundings. Their parapsychic sense allowed them to notice the details in their environment. As a Level 8 shooter, she could sense the tiniest details around her.

    Ye Chong''s breakthrough happened on the 57th day. The number did not mean anything in general, but it held a special meaning for Sha Ya. On this day, Sha Ya had witnessed a breakthrough of the strongestbat expert in Eastern Cloud, and perhaps in the entire world. The man had finally found a way to shake off a Level 8 shooter''s parapsychic sense.

    She did not know he achieved it, but Sha Ya could feel the moment when her parapsychic sense lost contact with Ye Chong. She quickly tracked him down again, but Sha Ya knew that a person like Ye Chong would have noticed the slip on her side, no matter how temporary it was.

    Sha Ya was right. Later, Ye Chong became harder and harder to lock on to. Sha Ya found it harder and harder to keep track of him with her parapsychic sense.

    Sha Ya knew that Ye Chong was not yet a threat to the authority of shooters in general, but from that moment on, the dominance of shooters would gradually fade over time.

    Ye Chong was very, very tired! However, he could not afford to be careless. He knew that this opportunity was hard toe by. Every second was precious to him. He must quickly familiarize himself with this feeling, so that it could be instinctive to him. Only then could he fight on even ground with Level 8 shooters.

    At the beginning, Ye Chong did not really have a n. He could not do anything against parapsychic waves. Hence, he decided to just let Sha Ya attack him. To defeat an enemy, one must first understand them. Ye Chong endured Sha Ya''s powerful parapsychic waves every day as he tried his best to avoid her attacks that never seemed to miss the mark.

    The method was effective. Soon, Ye Chong grew familiar with the feeling of being targeted. In the beginning, he would always feel highly threatened whenever he was locked on by the parapsychic waves. Later, he gradually got used to the feeling.

    A monthter, Ye Chong could already sense minute details in Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves. If Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves were like water, then Ye Chong was beginning to understand the physical properties of the waters. This was a priceless advantage. How often was it that anotherbat expert as good as he was could train with a Level 8 shooter continuously? Every Level 8 shooter was a master in their own right. They had good reason to be prideful.

    This was something very important. Ye Chong was not an actual mentalist. He knew the logic behind the skill, but he could not have a more personal and fundamental understanding of it, not like Huang Baiyi or Sha Ya. Now, however, as he continued to train with Sha Ya without stopping for weeks, the shooter''s powerful and repeated demonstrations allowed Ye Chong to familiarise himself with parapsychic abilities at an astonishing rate.

    Once he had a better understanding of parapsychic abilities, Ye Chong''s rich battle experience, calm mind and Jie level skills allowed him to find a way to conquer his foe in a rtively short time.

    When Ye Chong tried it for the first time, it was actually him using one of his special skills as a Jie expert. He had tried it before, but to no avail. When he tried it again this time, he could see in his vision a strange curving line of blue that blinked quickly out of existence. Ye Chong had never seen a wavy line like that before.

    Before this, Ye Chong used his special ability, he would only see straight or angr lines, but never curved.

    Ye Chong following the blue curve instinctively. In that moment, he felt a relief over his entire body, like a man walking in water suddenly finding all the water drained away. Ye Chong would never forget that sudden moment of ease.

    In that moment, Ye Chong felt a sudden burst of joy in his heart. As he continued to push his limits every day in his training, he was straining himself both physically and mentally near his breaking point. Now, all the tension in his body was released. Overwhelmed by his emotions, Ye Chong quickly lost control of this state of freedom, and was locked on by Sha Ya again.

    From that moment on, Ye Chong was able to avoid more of Sha Ya''s shots. Ye Chong soon found the key to escaping Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves - he must be calm, as calm as the waters. This was not difficult for him. In fact, it was his strength.

    As Ye Chong grew more familiar with Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves, the mysterious wavy line appeared more frequently. They looked different each time. In the end, Ye Chong could easily move through Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves. There were more lines in his vision now, giving Ye Chong more options.

    Ever since he attained this ability as a Jie expert, Ye Chong seldom spent time on it. Ye Chong had many ways to do battle, and this unique skill had only been used a few times.

    The skill was crucial to escaping Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves. Ye Chong never expected it.

    Why did it not work before, but turned out to be so effective right now? Ye Chong could not understand. Later, Ye Chong realized that he did not actually understand much of this unique skill of his. He had never thought to question the logic behind his skill. When he first discovered what he could do, Ye Chong found it hard to believe. He had thought that anticipatory skills like this would have been more reasonable to be found in strong mentalists like Huang Baiyi. It did not make sense to appear in him, someone who had no talent in mentalist abilities. Nheless, since he rarely needed to use the skill, Ye Chong did not think of it further.

    This breakthrough changed Ye Chong''s perspective of his unique skill. It was not anticipatory, like a mentalist''s abilities, but more like a vulnerability pointer, the result of heavyputation! This was why the skill did not work at first. As Ye Chong grew more familiar with Sha Ya''s parapsychic waves, his brain was able to process all the information and determine the weakness of her senses.

    From this point of view, his unique skillset did not seem so mysterious after all, but Ye Chong finally understood how powerful it was. With his usual abilities, Ye Chong would not be able to determine the weakness in Sha Ya''s parapsychic sense, but this unique ability could.

    When using this unique skill, his brain could process information close to a hundred times faster.

    What a terrifying ability!

    Judging by the oue, the isted training was a sess. Not only did Ye Chong get the breakthrough that he desired, his strong body had also improved significantly after the long training. After three days of rest, Ye Chong''s body was restored to top condition. He realized then that the energy in his body made him feel veryfortable.

    "I didn''t think you would actually seed. Congrattions," Sha Ya spoke with a low voice. She congratted Ye Chong sincerely. Ye Chong''s determination and hard work could sometimes squeeze a little sympathy out of her stone cold heart. In these 80 days, she had witnessed how Ye Chong had trained himself. The floorboards had all crumbled into tiny little pieces evenly across the training ground. Step a little harder, and the boards would disintegrate into dust. This was all the result of Ye Chong''s training.

    After the isted training, Sha Ya finally realized how Ye Chong earned the skills that did not fit with his age.

    Ye Chong had already recovered from the ecstasy he had felt earlier from his sess. He epted Sha Ya''s congrattory words calmly, "Thank you. And thank you for training with me all this while. I would not have seeded without you." Ye Chong meant what he said. Without Sha Ya''s serious and active participation in their training, he would not have been able toe up with his countermove in such a short time.

    Sha Ya smiled, and her face lit up instantly. She spoke with a sigh, "I have never seen anyone so crazy and yet so calm like you. No need to thank me. The training has helped me a lot as well. I''ll have to thank you for helping me improve myself."

    "Yourser gun will be done tomorrow." Ye Chong had a very straightforward way to expressing his gratitude.

    "I''ll hold you to it, then. But I''m curious, how did you do it?" Ever since Ye Chong first slipped her senses, Sha Ya had tried to change her own parapsychic waves to keep him targeted, but Ye Chong could always find a way to escape her. Slowly, it became harder and harder to keep Ye Chong locked. Now, it was simply impossible.

    In fact, Sha Ya was also worried. The current Ye Chong was a real threat to shooters. If Sha Ya was not on Ye Chong''s side ¡­

    Ye Chong replied with a weird expression, "I''m not sure."

    Sha Ya nodded in understanding. She knew that the man was not trying to hide anything. At their level, there were many things that could not be exined.

    On the second day, Ye Chong presented the silverser gun to Sha Ya. Kristen had also handed over the money from three months'' worth of cannon arrays to Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong''s life returned to normal. Without the intense training, his daily routine went on a slower pace.

    A breakthrough in hand-to-handbat was great news for Ye Chong. It meant that as long as a shooter was not in an aircraft, they would not be a threat to him. Hence, Ye Chong now need to consider the problem of aircrafts. If he could solve that one as well, then his two most urgent problems would be dealt with.

    In this world, aircrafts were like mechs.

    As a Level 8 shooter, Sha Ya''s fighter aircraft was very advanced. It was custom made from an aircraft manufacturer. Eastern Cloud had many aircraft manufacturers, but not many could actually design them. Feinscott Company was one of them that could. Sha Ya''s fighter came from thispany. It''s name was Redsound.

    Compared to othermon stock aircrafts avable in the market, Redsound had a few obvious differences. Its body was almost fully triangr. Only when one stepped to the side of the aircraft could one notice the aerodynamic curves of its two wings. In the atmosphere, the aircraft could fly as fast as Celest due to its more aerodynamic design, while Celest encountered more air resistance.

    Sha Ya looked pained while Ye Chong disassembled Redsound into pieces until he finally found the fighter''s engine.

    The engine''s design surprised him. This was the first piece of advanced technology that he had seen in this world. The engine''s design was based on very advanced principles, but not as powerful as Celest''s. Local raw materials were key to high performance. They were lighter but with excellent physical properties.

    Redsound was mainly made of a kind of red coloured wood, called woodrift. It was the lightest wooden material, but with equally excellent physical properties. It was also very costly. Redsound was a very expensive aircraft. Since it was very fast, and the aircraft''s body very light, it was a difficult aircraft to fly. Only the truly skilled Level 8 shooters would buy this model for their own use.

    Ye Chong shook his head. The aircrafts were designed for atmospheric flight only. This made them impractical. Celest may be about the same speed as Redsound in the atmosphere, but it would definitely be faster than the aircraft in outer space. Besides, Celest was much more flexible in application than Redsound. The only reason Redsound could pose a threat to Celest was a device in it that Ye Chong did not understand - the trackball.

    She Ya demonstrated using the trackball. Ye Chong fond the blinking lights intriguing. To him, the trackball was like a photon processor controlled by parapsychic waves.

    Aiming and firing via one''s parapsychic sense made it a much faster process than targeting the enemy through holographic scanning and keying inmands in the photon processor. This was why Celest was at a disadvantage against aircrafts.

    This mysterious crystal-like trackball was the most powerful part of the fighter.

    It was unfortunate that he did not have the least bit of parapsychic abilities to use it.

    Just then, Sun Sieha arrived for a visit.

    Ye Chong wondered to himself if every ruler in this world had so much time in their hands.

    When Sun Sieha''s gazended on Ye Chong, his expression changed. The bodyguards around him reacted as well.

    Sun Sieha inhaled deeply and regained hisposure. He smiled and said, "What a surprise, what a really pleasant surprise! You really are full of surprises."

    Ye Chong ignored Sun Sieha''s emotional outburst and asked him tly, "Why are you here?" He frowned and added, "The nationalbat tournament is still some time away."

    Sun Siehaughed dryly and said, "Can''t I just visit with no particr reason? I heard that you''ve been busy with training, so I''d thought of dropping by to visit you. Since you''re done, might as well take you out to have some fun."

    Sun Sieha''s guards were already used to the way their King interacted with the young man. His Majesty never could do anything against the young man.

    Ye Chong continued watching Sun Sieha quietly, waiting.

    Sun Sieha was not used to Ye Chong''s resistance against both forceful and friendly treatments. His eyes shed with a cold re, but he quicklyposed himself and exined, "This is all part of the n."

    "I see." Ye Chong looked at Sun Sieha. He did not fully understand the King''s way of doing things, but he knew that Sun Sieha was not the kind of person to spend time carelessly.

    ¡­

    Prince Desnio''s mansion was located at the most prosperous area in Su City. Music was frequently heard from inside, and people would looked towards the mansion enviously. Evening balls at the Prince''s mansion were well known in Su City. The ce was always served by the best liquors and beautifuldies. Of course, the mansion was also a hotspot for talents. Famous musicians would perform at the parties, where people were served by the best chefs in Eastern Cloud. It was an entertainment centre made for nobles. Being invited to the Prince''s evening balls was considered as a mark of status. Only by attending the evening ball could anyone be viewed as epted by the noble society. Many people would derive all kinds of schemes to get an invitation. In the ck market, a nk invitation card to the evening ball could be sold at a sky high price.

    Desnio was Sun Sieha''s uncle. His title as Prince was one of great importance. Sun Sieha had once stayed at his uncle''s ce for a long time when he was young, and shared a close rtionship with him. The Prince was of high status, but he never stepped out of line, and never involved himself in politics. Instead, he focused on organizing his evening balls.

    Nheless, no one would forget the political influence that Prince Desnio had. Besides, the new King on the throne further improved his position. However, the Prince continued to maintain a low key presence, and never make any statements on the state of politics and governance.

    Prince Desnio''s evening ball was the favourite of all nobles. The ce was uniquely decorated, and had an easy ambience. It was the first choice of the nobles for a ce to rx and socialize.

    Prince Desnio was a stout man. His face was always slightly flushed, and his voice was loud and energetic.

    "Hah, Duke Warren, I haven''t seen you here in a long while. Did you find somewhere new to have fun? You have to tell me," Prince Desnioughed happily when he saw Duke Warren, and went to embrace him.

    Duke Warren could not step back in time, and was quickly crushed by Prince Desnio''s bear hug. He was hurting and annoyed as he said, "Not so tight, not so tight, do you want to crush this old bag of bones?" Duke Warren was one of the most influential councillors in court during the previous King''s reign. His hair was all white, but his skin was smooth and well care for despite the tired look on his face.

    Prince Desnio looked Duke Warren up and down and eximed in surprise, "What''s the matter? Could it be thatst night, you ¡­" He smiled suggestively.

    "I don''t have the energy for that at this age," Duke Warren smiled bitterly.

    "Then what is it?" Prince Desnio asked, puzzled.

    Duke Warren looked even more bitter as he exined, "It''s His Majesty''s celebrations. His Majsety announced a nationalbat tournament out of the blue. I''ve got all hands on board just for this, and still it''s not enough. I am going crazy from the workload these few days, and I happen to have the time to visit today to de-stress."

    "Why don''t you have enough manpower?" Prince Desnio was baffled. As the Home Secretary, he controlled almost all the manpower avable in Su City. How could he not have enough people?

    Duke Warren looked positively frustrated. "The King''s birthday is almost upon us. We need people to usher ambassadors from other countries, and representatives from local authourities."

    "That''s true," Prince Desnio nodded.

    "You must have heard that the King wants to organize that d*mnedbat tournament for his birthday," Duke Warren said, obviously unhappy with the decision.

    "Hah, of course I have. That got me excited for a good while. It''s been so long since we did anything interesting. We''re going to have a battle between the strongest in the world, isn''t that exciting?"

    "Oh, certainly. If I don''t have to organize the event, of course I would agree to having the tournament. What an excellent source of entertainment!" Duke Warren raved sarcastically, "But of course, I am the one who''s in charge of organizing this thing. By God, I swear, I''ve never worked so hard in my life. Look, my wrinkles are beginning to show."

    Prince Desnio did not, in fact, spot any wrinkles on Duke Warren''s face, but he could see how tired the man was. Prince Desnio asked, "Why''d you work yourself into a twist?"

    Duke Warren nearly burst into tears as heined, "There''re too many people, way too many of them! The entire Su City''s flooded with visitors from all across the country. The King''s birthday celebration, the nationalbat tournament," Duke Warren counted weakly with his fingers, "and the weapons designpetition, all happening within a week of the King''s birthday. Don''t you know that any one of them is enough to give me a headache? Now that I have to deal with all three together, it''s just driving me crazy!"

    Prince Desnio gave sympathetic look at Duke Warren and said, "My good Duke, you must take care of yourself."

    Abruptly, the Duke''s expression smoothened, all traces of his emotional outburst gone. He said solemnly, "Nevertheless, it is our duty as councillors to serve the King." Duke Warren looked around them as Prince Desnio gave him a look of disdain. The Duke then lowered his voice into a whisper, "Rumour has it that the King announced his decision to organize the nationalbat tournament after a visit from that manor. Honestly, do you think it''s got something to do with the manor''s owner?"

    Prince Desnio smiled warily and spoke just as softly, "Hehe, I don''t know. There are so many rumours going around about that manor''s owner. I''m toozy to go through them."

    "What are you talking about, gentlemen?" A loud voice suddenly interrupted them.

    Both men looked up to see the 1st Legion''s Legate, Ming Xiao. Even in this function, he wore a neat military uniform that stood out from the crowd. Ming Xiao approached them with a ss of red wine in hand.

    "To think that Sir Ming Xiao would grace this evening ball with his presence, it''s like the sun rising from the west!" That was Prince Desnio''s thorny greeting to Ming Xiao.

    The legendary hot-tempered man, Ming Xiao, did not take offense. He smiled easily and said, "I was bored to death recently, and heard that you serve excellent snow ms here. Since I had some time tonight, I decided to give them a try."

    Warren eximed with bordering rudeness, "Sir Ming Xiao is famous for his discipline, but now he''s slipped up for a te of snow ms. Tsk tsk, it''s not easy, not easy at all. I say, my Prince, you have to reward that chef of yours."

    "That I will," Prince Desnio continued the mockery.

    Ming Xiaoughed loudly, and looked at the two of them with a smile that was not exactly friendly, "Ah, one of you is the mighty Home Secretary, and the other a Prince. What could you possibly be discussing about so enthusiastically, so secretively? Could it be something of national importance? As a military man, I cannot help but feel curious."

    Everyone around them was listening closely to their exchange. Sie Ming Xiao, Duke Warren and Prince Desnio were best friends when they were younger, but the gap between them grewrger andrger as they reached adulthood. The military had an unpleasant rtionship with the rest of the government, especially between Ming Xiao and Duke Warren. The Prince acted as a mediator between the two.

    "I heard that Sir Ming Xiao''s beloved student, Du Feng, had lost many of his soldiers some time ago. The Prince and I were thinking about paying a visit. Brigadier General Du Feng has served his country well. His soldiers must also be strong and capable. Their loss is also the country''s loss. We think it prudent to express our condolences," Duke Warren said coldly.

    Ming Xiao was momentarily taken aback, but he quickly regained hisposure and said, "Oh, I wonder where you heard of that, Duke Warren. Sigh, the rumour mill is quite a force to reckon with! No wonder His Majesty repeatedly emphasized that spreading fake information is a serious crime. This is the reason, this is exactly the reason!"

    Now it was Duke Warren''s turn to be taken aback. Ming Xiao made it clear that His Majesty did not wish for this information to be widespread.

    Prince Desnio looked at the two hostile men helplessly, and offered, "I say, look at you two, why so serious? Comee, let''s have all have a drink!"

    Just as the Prince was about to raise his ss, a servant rushed to him in a panic and whispered something by his ear.

    Ming Xiao and Duke Warren were standing closest to the Prince, and they heard everything. Both men exchanged a look, then quickly broke eye contact, wearing an odd expression.

    His Majesty had arrived!

 Chapter 539 - The Evening Ball

    <h4>Chapter 539: The Evening Ball</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When Sun Sieha and Ye Chong presented themselves at the back door of the Prince''s mansion, Prince Desnio and his twopanions were already there waiting.

    Sun Sieha looked at the three of them with their heads bowed low, and nodded, "No need to announce us." The three of them nodded in an understanding. When they saw the cold man standing beside their King, the three of them felt unsettled.

    "This is ¡­ Erm ¡­ Master Ye Chong. He''s a master weaponsmith, and a closebat expert," Sun Sieha briefly introduced Ye Chong.

    The three of them realized then that the man was an excellent weaponsmith. No wonder the King treated him well. They ignored the part about him being a closebat expert. There were no Masters in close rangebat anyway. The King was probably just being nice to the man.

    Sun Sieha turned to Ye Chong and introduced their audience, "This is Prince Desnio, my uncle. This is Duke Warren, Home Secretary. Hmm, you can contact him if you need anything."

    Duke Warrenughed and said, "Anything you need, Master Ye, just drop me a message." He was not a fool. If the King made this offer to the man, he must be a very important man to the King. It was only appropriate to curry his favour, or at least be on good terms with the man.

    "This is Ming Diao, Legate of the 1st Legion," Sun Sieha pointed at Ming Xiao and said. Ming Xiao nodded at Ye Chong with a smile.

    "This is the most exclusive evening ball in Eastern Cloud, where nobles and aristocrats liked to congregate. Hehe, of course, there are also many beautifuldies. Getting to know nobles will be beneficial for you."

    "I see," Ye Chong nodded and turned to leave.

    When Duke Warren and the other two men saw Ye Chong, they knew instantly who he was. They thought it strange, the way His Majesty spoke to that man. A popr rumour sprang to their minds - that the young man was actually the King''s illegitimate son. They all knew how strict the King was. He rarely spoke to anyone with such cordiality.

    Nevertheless, they dismissed the thought immediately. Prince Desnio, as the host, took care of his guests. He quickly asked the man, "Do you need a servant to show you the way?"

    "No," Ye Chong replied crisply, not mincing words.

    Sun Sieha shed a mysterious smile, but quickly reverted to his royal solemnity and said to the other three men, "All of you, meet me in the study." He then led the way himself, having been familiar with ce due to his long stay with the Prince when he was younger.

    Duke Warren, Ming Xiao and the Prince understood that the King had matters to discuss with them, and quickly followed him.

    Ye Chong went the evening ball alone. This was a freeform function. Aside from invitation card, everything else about the evening ball was not restricted in any form. Dainty dishes and excellent liquor were served in every corner of the function room. There were also some quieter corners with plush sofas and tasty finger food, more suitable for conversation. At the centre of the room was an empty clearing, which served as the dance floor.

    Ye Chong had attended events like this with the Shang Family. That experience was not particrly a pleasant one, but unlikest time, Ye Chong at least knew how to conduct himself this time.

    Ye Chong took a ss of wine from one of the waiters and headed towards a quiet spot in the ballroom.

    The truth was, Ye Chong had no idea what the n was for today. However, since Sun Sieha had actually went to his ce, he decided to go along with his n. Ye Chong did not understand Sun Sieha, but he knew that the man was not one to do anything unnecessary.

    There were a few people sitting in the corner where he was. They were mostly talking in a low voice, but with Ye Chong''s excellent hearing, he could hear exactly what they were saying. Some of the nobledies had their pet dogs in theirps as they sat around in a circle, chatting about minor affairs.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong noticed someone approaching him.

    A young man with a ss of red wine in hand approached Ye Chong, seated on his sofa, and greeted him, "Hey, man, are you bored, sitting alone by yourself? Haha, I''m feeling bored too. I don''t know why these people all look so excited, don''t they get tired too?"

    This young man was obviously from one of the noble families. His skin was fair and smooth, and his demeanour was friendly and inviting. He sat down naturally beside Ye Chong and sighedfortably.

    "Hah, I still don''t know your name. Mine''s Yise," the young man spoke warmly to Ye Chong.

    "Ye Chong," Ye Chong replied sinctly.

    Suddenly, Yise nodded towards the dance floor and asked, "Say, Brother Ye, what do you think of thatdy in the centre of the dance floor?"

    Ye Chong followed Yise''s direction and saw a beautiful woman dancing joyfully at the centre. The woman had long, flowing hair down her back. She had charming eyes and an innocent smile. A white dress wrapped tightly around her thin waist, and flowed downward and out like a flower. Even Ye Chong, who did not appreciate aesthetics, could see that she stood out from the crowd.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong was not interested in the topic. He looked away and said, "She looks alright."

    "Oh, my goodness! That''s Miss Man''er - Su City''s number one beauty, Shu Man''er. She''s the goddess to many of our young elite men! If you''re not interested in her, could it be ¡­" Yise gave Ye Chong an odd look.

    Shu Man''er. The name reminded Ye Chong of Shu Mo''er. Perhaps they were rted. Ye Chong turned back to look at her, but could not quite decide on the matter.

    "Haha, brother, now you see her! You said she''s just alright, but look at you now! Hehe, your eyes betrayed your thoughts. I know that look in you. Of all the people in Su City, 80 percent of them will look like that when they saw Shu Man''er. Of the other 20 percent, 10 are women," Yise said, pleased with himself.

    "What of thest 10?" Ye Chong got interested at that.

    "They''re blind," Yise dered.

    Ye Chong suddenly had an idea, and began to study Yise. He was surprised to the find man''s build suitable forbat. His figure was well bnced; his bones were strong and thick; his movements were coordinated. However, one look at his smooth skin and Ye Chong and could tell that the young man had never suffered in any way.

    "What''re you looking at me like that for? Let me tell you, I''m not interested in men," Yise said with an odd tone.

    Ye Chong turned away.

    Suddenly, the dance floor erupted into chaos. Ye Chong heard a barking sounding from there. Everyone in the ballroom turned to look.

    When the barking sounds began, Yise looked shocked, "D*mmit! Which b*stard brought a snowhound in here? This is going to be very dangerous!"

    "Snowhound? What''s that?" Ye Chong asked.

    Yise replied anxiously, "It''s not a thing, but a species of wild animal. They''re small, like a dog, all furry and adorable. But if it suddenly goes mad, things go south very fast. The animals are quick and aggressive. Someone probably thought it''s just a cute pet."

    "I see."

    "We''re in trouble now. They don''t allow weapons in here. All the guards are outside," Yise looked panicked.

    Suddenly, the barking sound got slower and slower to Ye Chong. Yise paled. He saw the mad snowhound now, and it was heading straight towards them.

    Ye Chong saw the animal too. It was norger than the small pet dogs that the nobledies had on theirps. It''s body was covered with thick fur, which made it look a snowball, but its eyes were now red. The adorable little mouth was now salivating menacingly.

    Ye Chong''s eyes turned cold. He had his fair share of dealing with wild animals, and this one was definitely ssified as a threat.

    The four limbs hidden underneath the animal''s thick fur were powerful. The snowhound moved too quickly to be captured. It had already bit into the throats of three servants now.

    "No no no -" Yise was trembling all over.

    Ye Chong picked up a butter knife from the table. As Yise watched with hopeless eyes, the butter knife slipped through his fingers and shot out.

    Swish! Crack! Both sounds were heard almost simultaneously.

    The snowhound was pinned down on the floor by the butter knife. The knife had entered at its throat. Blood spluttered out along the knife. The glow in the animal''s red eyes gradually faded. Its four limbs struggled in vain as it gurgled through the blood in its throat.

    Everyone was shocked by this sudden turn of events. Many of them looked at the now innocent and adorable snowhound with pity. Some of the nobledies even tossed a look of hatred towards Ye Chong. No one bothered with the three dead servants, who were now being removed quietly by the other servants from the ballroom.

    "Thank goodness you struck out so quickly! Brother, you saved my life! By the way, that attack was way too cool, can you teach me?" Having survived the danger, Yise was now getting excited.

    "Snowy!" Ady''s voice cried out with grief.

    The youngdy approached the snowhound, stuck to the floor. Tears sprang out from her eyes. She crouched on the floor, caressing the now lifeless snowhound and began to sob.

    Ye Chong recognized her as Shu Man''er, thedy who was at the centre of the dance floor.

    A few energetic young men soon appeared beside Shu Man''er. They were enraged what caused Shu Man''er to cry so pitifully.

    "Which m*therf*cker did this? Come the f*ck out!" the young man yelled to the crowd.

    "Han, how many times have I told you, we nobles should curse! I''ll forgive you this time though. Humph, some fool is feeling very daring tonight," a young man with pointy eyes said in an androgynous voice.

    Both of them nked a handsome young man whose charisma shined like the sun. This young man had a solid, angr face, like it was carved out or marble. He had an air of authority about him. The young man looked around at the crowd. As the other people quickly lowered their gaze, the young man finally found his eyes on Ye Chong.

    Of all the people around him, Ye Chong was the only who held his gaze.

    "Did you do it?" the young man asked slowly but confidently.

    Ye Chong nodded, "Yes."

    Standing beside Ye Chong, Yise panicked and whispered to Ye Chong, "That''s the son of the 2nd Legion''s Legate. His name''s George. A young man, but already a Level 6 shooter. He''s always been interested in Miss Shu Man''er, and the most likely candidate to be Shu Man''er husband. However, ording to my sources, Miss Shu Man''er did not seem interested in him."

    "The dog is Man''er''s beloved pet, why did you kill it?" George asked firmly.

    "A dog? That''s a snowhound!" Yise could not help but spoke up from beside Ye Chong.

    George shed him a sharp look, and Yise quickly shut up.

    "As long as you apologize to Miss Man''er, I''ll let the matter go. What do you say?" George looked at Ye Chong.

    Yise did not expect the situation to be so easily resolved. He was overjoyed and was about to agree with the young man when Ye Chong gave a reply that made his heart sank.

    "No," Ye Chong replied firmly.

    George and his twopanions looked surprised. The two friends of his were about to throw insults when George lifted his hand to silence them. He asked lowly, "Will you not give face?"

    Ye Chong looked at George with cold eyes. He could not understand why the man''s logic was so bad. He had only acted as protector, so why should he apologize to thedy?

    Just then, Shu Man''er, who had been sobbing all the while, stood up abruptly with tears all over her face and approached Ye Chong. She bowed down gracefully and said, "Sir, I''m sorry. I didn''t know that Snowy was a snowhound. I''m really sorry for terrifying you."

    Shu Man''er apology was like a p to George''s face. George''s expression looked terrible right now. He did not think that Shu Man''er would make it so awkward for him.

    His eyes shed ruthlessly as he said, "So it''s just me who wants this after all, I understand! However, I cannot let things stand as they are. I request for a duel with this man!"

    The crowd burst into an uproar upon his announcement.

    "George, are you crazy? This is between you and me, don''t get anyone else involved. This is not his fault. I didn''t know that Snowy was a snowhound, and that led to this terrible mistake. I''m the one to me!" Shu Man''er said in a panic, and shot an apologetic look at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong thought it strange. Why would his opponent waste time with words? He should have just acted, like he was about to do now.

    Ye Chong closed the gap between him and George so quickly that the crowd only saw him when he appeared before the other man.

    Georged looked startled and was about to react when he felt a tight grip on his throat. His feet left the ground.

    Ye Chong held onto George''s throat and lifted him up easily.

    The entire ballroom went silent immediately. Everyone looked at Ye Chong with horror. George was the son of the 2nd Legion''s Legate! Was he suicidal? As for thebat experts amongst them, they were shocked because Ye Chong had moved so quickly!

    Was this the limit of human speed?

    At the moment, the entire ballroom was dead silent.

    Ssh! Crash! The guests dropped their sses. The crowd panicked again, knocking down tables and chairs and cutlery and even other people.

    "Let him go! Don''t hurt the man!"

    "Do you want to die? How dare you do something like this?"

    "Young man, think carefully about this. Don''t do anything stupid. You have to think about the consequences, think about your family ¡­"

    ¡­

    "What''s going on?" Prince Desnio''s low voice managed to silence the crowd once again.

    The guests saw the man standing behind the Prince and were all startled. They quickly bowed and greeted, "Your Majesty!" When did the King arrive? Some of them immediately thought of the young man who started this whole incident.

    Suddenly, everyone was down on their knees, leaving only Ye Chong holding onto George''s throat.

    "What happened? Isn''t that Aliz''s son?" Sun Sieha saw Ye Chong lifting George off the ground and asked incredulously.

    "He asked for a duel," Ye Chong briefly exined the situation.

    George, that idiot! Sun Sieha cursed the troublesome man inside. Had it been anyone else, he would have just let the matter slide, but this was the son of the 2nd Legion''s Legate.

    "He''s no match for you," Sun Sieha said with a smile, "Just let him go. Don''t mind his antics."

    The guests were surprised by their King''s words. They all knew that His Majesty was a Level 8 shooter. If even His Majesty thought that George was no match against the young man, then thetter must be very strong indeed! On the other hand, the King had sided with the young man immediately without asking for details of the incident. This implied that the young man was greatly favoured. Who in the world was this young man?

    "Switch," Ye Chong said, and held out five fingers. Ye Chong was not impressed with Sun Sieha. He had attended this evening ball without understanding why, and now he had to deal with this nonsense.

    Sun Sieha could see that Ye Chong was not happy. He looked at the five outstretched fingers and felt helpless and pained, but still he nodded, "Alright." Inside, he cursed Aliz again for having that useless son. He will get the money from Aliz to settle this.

    None of the guests understood the exchange between Ye Chong and Sun Sieha. Only Duke Warren had a glimpse of the story behind it. He lowered his head and felt deeply unsettled.

 Chapter 540 - Place Your Bets!

    <h4>Chapter 540: ce Your Bets!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong took a look at Sun Sieha, saw him nod, and released the man in his grasp. Once George was released, he immediately fell kneeling to the ground, coughing violently with his hands to his throat. As Ye Chong had suffocated him for too long, his face looked purplish due to theck of oxygen.

    He threw a hateful look at Ye Chong for having embarrassing him so greatly in front of all the other nobles.

    Ming Xiao saw the look George gave Ye Chong, and frowned. He thought to himself, "What a foolish boy! Can he not see where the wind is blowing? This is not a man he can afford to be enemies with!" Ming Xiao and Aliz were close, so Ming Xiao decided to warn his friend about his son, and hope that George would not cause further incidents.

    Some of the important figures in the government were disappointed as they watched the handsome young man react inappropriately. George had seemed to be a smart man, but in the end he proved that his was little more than his looks.

    As George coughed violently against the silent background, all the other guests looked at Ye Chong in surprise. The nobledies who had stared at him with hatred now squirmed in their own corners, looking very afraid. The others who had tried to advise him or scold him were now terribly regretful of their actions.

    "Haha," Sun Siehaughed, but the coldness behind his voice reminded all the guests of the rumours of their King''s severity and willingness to kill. All the guests turned fearful, including Ming Xiao, Prince Desnio and Duke Warren.

    Ye Chong stood where he was with an air of nonchnce. He was more wary than afraid of Sun Sieha. He understood that his rtionship with Sun Sieha was one of equals. While he may seem to be under many restrictions imposed by Sun Sieha, the truth was in fact the opposite. Ye Chong did not need Sun Sieha, but Sun Sieha needed Ye Chong. From this perspective, Sun Sieha was the one who was more restricted, instead of Ye Chong.

    Besides, with the recent breakthrough, Ye Chong was now feeling at his best. He had nothing to be afraid of. This did not mean that he would act carelessly, however. Staying calm was second nature to him, even now.

    For example, he was now trying to figure out the reason for Sun Sieha''s invitation to this evening ball, and would even visit his manor just to do that.

    Sun Sieha must have some good reason for this.

    The truth was, Ye Chong had no experience in politics. He could only figure things out through careful thinking. He could not be confident of the results of his deductions, but he was sure that he would one day understand what it was all about. When that day came, he would be able to conduct himself more appropriately. He would be better, and stronger! Growth was achieved through umtion of knowledge and skills over time.

    Never stop thinking, never stop trying - that was Ye Chong''s belief.

    "I''ve only been King for a while, and seldom had time to see you all. It''s nice to see all of you having a good time," Sun Sieha said, but his in words were full of authority. No one dared to raise their heads. Of course, the notable exception was Ye Chong.

    "Haha, enjoy yourselves to your heart''s content, no need to be nervous. Well, as long as your work is finished, the asional indulgence in leisure is not a bad pastime. However ¡­" Sun Sieha raised his voice at the end, building suspense in his audience. Some of the guests shuddered.

    Sun Sieha looked around him, satisfied with the response that he invoked, and continued slowly, "As long as you havepleted your duties, it is fine. If anyone were to overindulge and neglect their duties ¡­ Haha, well, I suppose I need not borate," Sun Sieha said with a pleasant face, but the guests were all terrified.

    "Oh, by the way, let me introduce to you," Sun Sieha motioned to Ye Chong, "This is Master Ye Chong, Eastern Cloud''s most remarkable weaponsmith. With Master Karu''s rmendation and my approval, the man will be appointed as our country''s Chief Weaponsmith."

    The nobles know now who the young man really was! Some of them thought of how Master Karu, their former Chief Weaponsmith, was willing to pass on his title to this young man. It meant that Master Karu approved of the young man''s capabilities.

    There were also nobles from other countries amongst the guests. They immediately felt wary - did this mean that Eastern Cloud was having a huge cab changeover?

    "You may not know this, but Master Ye Chong is also a close rangebat expert. I believe you''ve seen his demonstration," Sun Sieha said with a smile, "In fact, before I met Master Ye Chong, I never thought that anyone could possibly pose a threat to shooters. However, not too long ago, I saw someone who could. This was when I first saw Master Ye Chong. He was fighting against 12 Level 6 shooters! The shooters suffered seven casualties!" Sun Sieha dropped the bomb in the evening ball. The guests huddled together in quiet discussion, giving Ye Chong looks of fear and wariness. George, who had just straightened himself, looked terrible. He now knew how strong his opponent was.

    Only someone as strong as a Level 8 shooter could hope to fight against a dozen Level 6 shooters all at once. Even a Level 7 shooter could barey manage it. Moreover, this young man had injured or killed seven of the 12. That itself was shocking. Could this young man actually be as strong as a Level 8 shooter?

    The taciturn young man suddenly became an enigma to his bewildered audience. He was like a huge beast that came out of the wild, staring down at his prey.

    Sun Sieha was happy with the guests'' reaction of curiosity mixed with fear. He wanted this to happen. As a member of the Royal family, he knew the power of the nobility. He also knew that tonight''s evening ball would cause a huge uproar amongst the nobles.

    "Your Majesty, I don''t believe it!" Someone uttered suddenly. This bold and loud voice drew stares from the other guests. The ones who knew the voice chuckled quietly to themselves. They were in for a good show.

    The man who spoke was more than six feet tall. He had broad shoulders, muscr arms andrge hands. His square face had a pair of bushy eyebrows, under which two eyes shone brightly.

    "You don''t believe it? Do you question my words?" Sun Sieha''s face immediately turned dark. His gaze sharpened with threat.

    "Mang, you idiot, how dare you? Apologize to His Majesty!" Ming Xiao, who had remained passive throughout, finally spoke up. Mang was one of his soldiers. At a tender age of 18, he was physically impressive and had above average skills in parapsychic control. He was already a Level 6 shooter. Ming Xiao liked his straightforward nature, and frequently had him by his side. However, the man was poised to cause trouble tonight.

    Sun Sieha waved at Ming Xiao to silence him. He eyes locked onto Mang sharply. The atmosphere in the function room tensed up. All the guests held their breath. The new King was known to be unmerciful. Who would dare to disagree with the King openly? Many of them were worried about Mang. It would not surprise them if the King ordered for the man to be executed right then.

    The young King was long known for his violent tendencies. When he was Crown Prince, the previous King had ordered his son to first serve as Brigade Commander as part of his training. Once, when his subordinates werete for a meeting, the then Crown Prince had killed 18 soldiers with his own hands. From then onwards, everyone knew that Sun Sieha was not to be messed with. As His Majesty roamed thend in search for talents, his ruthless nature showed. Many shooters died in his hands. The King did not have a good reputation amongst the independent shooters out there.

    However, no one doubted the power of the Royal Family. The military force was under hismand, while the government officials had expressed their loyalty to him. Besides, with Prince Desnio''s full support and his own ability as a Level 8 shooter, the present King had even more supporters than his father before him. With apetent and fair ruler, everyone knew that Eastern Cloud was about to rise above her rivals.

    Their King had absolute power in Eastern Cloud!

    If anyone dared to speak against His Majesty, it would be an act of suicide!

    Time seemed to slow down in the evening ball. The guests sweated nervously. Mang seemed to realize that he had made a mistake, but still he straightened himself despite his flushed cheeks and kept his mouth shut.

    "You don''t believe me?" Suddenly, the King softened, as though he was only asking something inconsequential.

    Mang was taken by surprise, but he replied on instinct, "I - Of course I don''t! Only a Level 8 shooter can hold himself against a dozen Level 6 shooters. This young man is strong, but how can he be more powerful than a Level 8 shooter?" The guests agreed quietly with Mang. They had the same suspicion, but not the imprudence to simply voice it out.

    The King continued, "How can I make you believe me?"

    "Unless - Unless ¡­" Mang was stuck with the question. He panicked, but quickly figured out something, "Unless he can defeat a dozen Level 6 shooters again, right before our eyes!"

    When the guests heard Mang''s suggestion, they all shook their heads inside. Things were not quite so simple. Every battle was different, and there were many reasons for the oue to go one way or the other. In a different location, against the same number of opponents, the result would surely be different.

    Sun Sieha smiled coldly and said, "That''s a bit unreasonable, don''t you think?"

    Mang blushed even deeper. He also realized the holes in his reasoning.

    "However," Sun Sieha continued with a cold smile, "I think it''s a wonderful idea." He suddenly turned to Ye Chong and asked, "Ye Chong, what do you think?"

    Ye Chong finally realized why Sun Sieha wanted him at the evening ball. Since it was part of the agreement they hadst time, Ye Chong had no reason to reject the idea. He nodded and said, "Sure!"

    Was this guy crazy?

    The nobles looked at Ye Chong with disbelief. They never imagined that Ye Chong would agree to such an unreasonable request!

    Sun Sieha looked at the nobles and smiled, "I''ve heard that there are many Level 6 shooters amongst you. Choose any 12 of them. Let us witness a demonstration of this lesser known form ofbat. However, it''s a little dull to simply enjoy the battle. We should have a betting pool, with no limits on the betting amount. Hmm, let''s have the Prince be the organizer."

    The sensible Prince Desnio stood forward and bowed to his guests, "Since His Majesty requested it, well, let me organize this round of betting. Don''t worry, we have top notch facilities forbat, and a great variety of weapons to choose from. There will also be pre-match massage services and snacks for everyone. Of course, special services will also be seen to, if you''re interested."

    The guests chuckled at Prince Desnio''s introduction. Even Sun Sieha smiled.

    Soon, 12 Level 6 shooters were named. They include experiencedbatants from the military, like Mang, but most of them were young nobles. George was one of the better known young nobles, and his prowess as a shooter was also widely recognized. The most surprising candidate was Shu Man''er. No one expected the seemingly fragile young woman to be a Level 6 shooter.

    The experienced shooters threw careful looks at Ye Chong. They saw how quick the young man was earlier. Nevertheless, they were confidence of themselves. An experienced Level 6 shooter was much stronger than their less experienced counterpart. The veterans felt that Ye Chong could only stand a chance against a dozen newly promoted Level 6 shooters.

    As the young nobles, they were all eager to jump straight into battle. They did not believe that Ye Chong could defeat 12 Level 6 shooters all by himself. Some of the noble families chose their strongest disciples to represent them, hoping to draw favourable attention from the King.

    Sun Sieha smiled almost imperceptibly, seeing how eager the nobles were. He started by saying, "Well, since we''re betting and I actually suggested it, I''ll ce my bet on Ye Chong. How much should it be? Let''s go with a 10 million."

    Duke Warren was keeping a close watch on the King''s behaviour. He caught the smile on the King''s face, and looked at the hesitant nobles in the function room. Duke Warren had an inkling of what to do next. He smiled and said, "Since we''re betting, I will make my bet too. I bet 10 million that the 12 shooters will win." He then stood to the side quietly. He was happy to see a quick nce from the King towards him, but kept it to himself.

    Ming Xiao stroked his chin and grinned, "Your Majesty, I''ll ce my bet as well. 10 million against Master Ye Chong. I believe that Master Ye Chong is capable, but a dozen Level 6 shooters is still quite a challenge." The Legate''s eyes gleamed with mischief.

    "ce your bets now! You can only ce one bet. No changes in the betting amount!" Prince Desnio announced loudly to his guests.

    With Duke Warren and Ming Xiao taking lead, the rest of the nobles no longer hesitated. They did no bet a lot, but all of them wanted the chance to win a bet against their King. It did not matter how much they win in the end. After all, how many people can boast about winning a bet against His Majesty?

    Ye Chong suddenly spoke up from beside Sun Sieha, "50 million on myself." Sun Sieha''s smile froze awkwardly. Ye Chong ced a bet of 50 million, but he only betted 10 million. Even if he won, he could only get a sixth of the betting pool. He was about to raise his bet, then remembered that Prince Desnio said the amount cannot be changed. The King felt the loss acutely.

    Just then, George spoke up as well, "I bet 50 million! The shooters will win!" George threw a vengeful re at Ye Chong. Ming Xiao frowned again, thinking about how insensible the young man was.

    As expected, Ming Xiao saw His Majesty''s eyes narrowed a little. This was bad. The boy was about to cause trouble. When the match was over, he will send people to drag the young man back to Aliz.

    The rest of the nobles were excited by the bets from Ye Chong and George. Shu Man''er spoke up with her clear voice, "I bet 20 million."

    "10 million from me!"

    "10 million!"

    ¡­

    The nobles who had someone representing them in the shooters team ced the most bets to show their support. Each of them contributed no less than 10 million in the betting pool. 10 million was a negligible sum to them. It would not do well for their reputation to bet too little, but betting to much would be an offence to the King. They were not as foolish as George.

    In the end, the total amount in the betting pool surprised even Prince Desnio. "Well well, this is great. Let me announce the betting amount in the pool. We have 60 million betting for Master Ye Chong. As for the 12 shooters," he looked around at his guests and continued, "they have 160 million going for them. Haha, it''s a spectacr betting pool."

    Sun Sieha calcted his winnings and threw a bitter nce at Ye Chong. All that easy money was snatched away from him, but there was nothing he could do about it. He felt miserable just thinking about it.

 Chapter 541 - Battleground

    <h4>Chapter 541: Battleground</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Prince Desnio''s mansion was located in the metropolis of Su City, where every inch ofnd was priceless. Even with his wealth and power, it was impossible to have a battleground here in the capital. The Prince had a battleground about 30 kilometers from the capital, however. The distance was not an issue for the excited nobles.

    As the guests all head towards the battleground, Ye Chong naturally went in the King''s vehicle, apanied also by three important figures of the government. This honour given to him was a chilling statement to the other nobles.

    "I regret to inform that the battleground was onlyst used when His Majesty was young and staying with me. It had been neglected since. However, not to worry, everyone, the facilities in this ce are definitely the best avable in Eastern Cloud. Of course, the avable terrain options are not as advanced as in professional battle rings. Your understanding is much appreciated," Prince Desnio introduced his ce, rxed in his role.

    It was a huge battleground, with an area of about five or size square kilometres. Desnio and his guests were now entering the audience chamber. Here was a huge screen that showed the actual battleground. If Ye Chong were here, he would have been greatly surprised. The feedcked the resolution offered by 3D holographic imaging, but it was still impressive. The audience chamber was luxuriously decorated. There were plush sofas for everyone, and the servants had already prepared finger food and drinks for the guests. The live feed on the screen was only 2D, but it was still very clear. Besides, they had used more cameras to provide the audience with more viewing angles of the match.

    The nobles took their ces, leaving the front seat for His Majesty. The King was present at this duel hosted by Prince Desnio, apanied by both Duke Warren and Sir Ming Xiao. The nobles quickly realized that this was probably the grandest match ever organized in the history of Eastern Cloud. Many of them looked very excited, for they had chanced to be present in this asion too by pure good luck.

    As the host of this match, Prince Desnio stepped up to the speaking podium. He sat down and drank some water, preparing himself.

    "The battleground is now set for Option One of the avable terrains, in what we know as the Hills. I believe that you''re all very familiar with this one. However, ours is not the standard Option One, but a slightly modified version of it. Ah, I believe you know why. This is a terrain that many people are familiar with. To ramp up the suspense, we have made some alterations to the terrain. If anyone thought that being familiar with the terrain would serve as an advantage, they would be seriously mistaken."

    Sun Sieha studied the familiar battleground on the screen, his expression softening as he felt nostalgia creeping into him. He had loved to y here when he was younger. As he grew older, it became an important ce for him to train himself inbat. This was a ce full of memories.

    Prince Desnio continued chattily, "This is a medium sized battleground that can amodate up to 40 shooters. Since thends are hilly, it serves as a test for not only a shooter''s aiming and parapsychic skills, but also their ability to assess their environment and strategize ordingly.

    "Hah, I believe you can''t wait for it to begin now!

    "I''ll be brief. To make things interesting, Master Ye Chong and the 12 shooters will draw lots and enter the terrain from two different entrances. This means that they won''t know where the other side is. Each side must try to locate and defeat the other in thisplicated terrain.

    "The 12 shooters are all armed with professional V shaped fluorescent guns used for matches. The shots will leave a fluorescent mark on the target, which will only fade away after three days. To date, no one has been able to remove this fluorescence, so there will be no issues on fairness. Alright, our mod team has already made some minor modifications to the guns of the 12 shooters. The shooters have checked their weapons, and there are no issues to report.

    "A gun is like an extended limb of a shooter. Hence, every shooter must be very familiar with their weapon, as every qualified shooter would be. Old Ming once told me that his soldiers must all be very familiar with their guns, even if it means being less familiar with their wives. But if you want to do that, hehe, you have to sleep with your gun instead of your wife for three years. All of you here who work under Old Ming, better watch it, don''t just huddle close with your wife and forget about your gun, or else, hehe ¡­"

    A few snickers came from the guests. Ming Xiao was Legate of the 1st Legion in name, but as the second most important figure in the government next to the King, he also had many nobles backing him. Ming Xiao was not offended, but grinned widely at the tease. Beside him, Duke Warren only humped coldly, unimpressed with the joke.

    Sun Sieha looked at the two rivals and smiled withoutment.

    "Alright, back to the match. Well, our Master Ye is a man of character. Hmm, of strong character, I suppose! I don''t know about his weapon building skills, but seeing Master Ye''s moves earlier, I think no one doubts hisbat abilities. Master Ye Chong was able to throw a butter knife made of silvercore wood and pin the fast moving snowhound on the ground. My servant reported to me nervously that the butter knife had embedded itself five centimeters into the ground after it went through the snowhound. You can imagine how much strength it takes to do that. An urate and powerful shot. We look forward to Master Ye''s performance."

    Pince Desnio looked up at his guests and continued slowly but confidently, "Master Ye Chong has demonstrated to us another form ofbat - close rangebat. There are no parapsychic waves, no guns involved. Master Ye Chong has overhauled everything we''vee to understand about battle. If Master Ye Chong can win against these 12 Level 6 shooters, then ¡­" Prince Desnio paused and looked around at his guests solemnly, "A new form ofbat will be presented to us. It does not rely on parapsychic sense or guns, but only on physical strength and techniques. This is what I think I believe Master Ye can break the dominance that shooters have in our world."

    The people listening from below, especially the military men like Ming Xiao, began to feel the gravity of the situation. Their expression turned serious. Despite the incredulity of it, what would happen if Ye Chong really won this match?

    Anyone who could win against a dozen Level 6 shooters would be strong enough to be called a master in his trade. Even in Eastern Cloud, such a person was not easy to find.

    They must consider the possibility of Ye Chong''s form ofbat and its implications in their line of expertise.

    "Fortunately, we will witness this importance match live on screen. Moreover, Master Ye is of Eastern Cloud, and our Chief Weaponsmith. No matter what happens due to Master Ye''s demonstration inbat, we, Eastern Cloud country, will be the first to realize it, and the first to respond to it. Once we seed, we will be leading the world into this new age!"

    Prince Desnio''s speech had invigorating. Moreover, it managed to intrigue even the nobles who were not interested in shooters or the like. Even Sun Sieha''s eyes were gleaming with anticipation. Making Eastern Cloud stronger was an ambition that he thought about day and night.

    "Master Ye does not have any weapons with him. I''m curious, how will he fight against the shooters? However, Master Ye does not look nervous at all. He''d not worried about himself, but we''ll see about that. I think that this is going to be a very memorable battle.

    "Both sides are now making their final preparations. In the meantime, let me talk more about this terrain. As I mentioned earlier, the battleground is based on our standard Option One, the Hills, but with slight modifications. Option One is a hilly terrain, known for itsplicatedndscape. Mine, in particr, has mountains built with actual mountain rocks, making the area even harder to navigate. The terrain is extremelyplicated. Parapsychic waves will be affected greatly, since the feedback will be less urate than usual. Only an experienced shooter can decipher useful information from inurate parapsychic feedback. Besides, a shooter needs to be physically fit enough to navigate the terrain, since there is a lot of climbing involved.

    "Alright, that''s all for introduction of the terrain. Ourbatants have all entered the battleground."

    Everyone, including Sun Sieha, shifted their gaze towards the huge screen.

    "Aha, Master Ye and the other 12 shooters are entering from entrances that are directly opposite to each other. This means that they will need some time to locate the other side. For now, let''s rx and take a drink," Prince Desnio narrated lightly, but no one looked away from the screen.

    "Let''s start with our 12 young shooters. Hmm, not bad, they''re maintaining a neat formation. In fact, the best ce to be right now is somewhere high enough for vantage point, where their parapsychic waves will not be too severely affected. However, in this terrain, climbing is going to be difficult no matter where you are. Ah, Mang looked like he''s trying to climb, but he''s given up quickly. Without the right tools, it''s hard to scale up the mountains here.

    "Our beautiful Miss Man''er looks fantastic in herbat uniform. I think many of our young men here must feel even more drawn to her now. Despite her meek outlook, Ms Man''er is actually a Level 6 shooter. Truly a surprise to us. But from the way she conducted herself steadily in the battleground, I think we''re all convinced that she''s the real deal."

    Prince Desnio knew the taste of his audience. The camera panned and zoomed towards Shu Man''er. The guests responded immediately with some whistles from the younger crowd.

    Sun Sieha looked at Shu Man''er on the screen and suddenly thought of something. A cold look shed in his eyes. He signalled for one of the nearby servants to approach him and whispered some orders to the servant. The servant bowed and listened, then rushed out to see to the task he was entrusted with. No one but Duke Warren and Ming Xiao, who were sitting beside the King, noticed this little exchange.

    On stage, Prince Desnio was continuing, "Personally, I think that this battle will end up with both sides meeting each other without expecting it."

    "Alright, let''s move on to our Master Ye, the man of surprises. What kind of surprise are we in for now?"

    The screen shifted towards Ye Chong.

    "Master Ye is not in a hurry. He seems to be used to this kind of environment. Oh, just to keep everyone from second guessing, let me make some rifications here," Prince Desnio affected an air of seriousness, "this is the first time I''ve seen Master Ye. The man has never been to my battleground before."

    Some of the nobledies hid their smiles at the Prince''s act.

    The night was turning out to be quite enjoyable. The women settledfortably in a warm room, sitting on plush sofa cushions with their pet dogs on theirps as they listened to the Prince''s narration. It was a cosy experience. The younger nobledies could not help looking at the young King, sitting at the front, as they tried to devise ways to get closer to him.

    "Master Ye seems to be quite rxed, or at least he looks rxed. Oh, looks like Master Ye is thinking of going to a higher point. The hills are quite difficult to climb. Hmm, Master Ye did not bring any tools with him. In fact, Master Ye continues to surprise me. I have no idea what he''s about to do next. Let us wait and see."

    Suddenly, the Prince gasped audibly in the audience chamber. The audience cried out in surprise at nearly the same time. "Ah! Master Ye has begun climbing! Heaven, he''s fast, very fast! He''s just like a monkey, no, he''s even better than a monkey. Without any tools, the man is scaling up the nearly vertical cliff. It''s incredible! It''s just incredible!"

    The audience could not help but stood up to watch Ye Chong on the screen. He had truly shocked them all. Ye Chong was climbing a rocky hill that was over 30 meters high, with an almost vertical ascent. Despite this, Ye Chong was scaling up the hill with apparent ease.

    To the audience, this was an impossible feat. They would not have believed it possible without seeing it for themselves. Since Ye Chong was moving too quickly, they could not see how Ye Chong could scale up the cliff without the aid of any tools.

    "Ohh!" Prince Desnio was wild with excitement. With his huge build, he looked like a huge chimpanzee in frenzy, "This is amazing! Master Ye has brought to us a surprise like no other. Heavens, this is not humanly possible. Even with the right tools, I''m sure that no one can climb the hill so quickly. Now that he''s reached the peak, Master Ye has an advantage in the match. If he was a shooter and with aser gun in hand, I''m sure that we can already announce him as the winner."

    "However, the crux of the matter is, our Master Ye is not, in fact, a shooter, and he has no weapons with him. Right now, I''m thinking about our shooters, who always thought that physical fitness is not important. If they were to watch this match, I''m sure that they will realize their mistake. If a shooter is physically strong, well, not to the point of Master Ye here, but if the shooter can at least climb up to a high enough vantage point, then the advantage gained from it, hmm, need I say more?"

    The audience considered Prince Desnio''s words, especially military personnel like Ming Xiao. This frequently ignored problem was now brought to surface. It was because they were witnessing Ye Chong''s extreme way ofbat that they were able to reflect on their thought bias with seriousness.

    A thin smile appeared on Sun Sieha''s face. No matter the oue of the actual match, he had won where it mattered. Perhaps the match was enough to convince people that it was wrong for shooters to neglect physical strength in favour of parapsychic control, but he could already see their conviction wavering.

    Just then, the servant who left earlier returned to the audience chamber. He presented himself before the King and whispered something by his ear. He spoke quietly enough that even Duke Warren and Ming Xiao, who were sitting beside the King, could not hear him. Even so, both men sat facing the screen, pretending to be absorbed in the match.

    After the servant was finished, Sun Sieha''s smile turned a touch colder. He waved away the servant and directed his attention back to the huge screen. Now, both Duke Warren and Ming Xiao noticed the ghastly look that shed in the King''s eyes. They were both chilled by what they saw, but pretended to see nothing at all.

 Chapter 542 - Strength and Wickedness

    <h4>Chapter 542: Strength and Wickedness</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong did not have to think much about the match. The terrain that Prince Desnio described asplicated was not a hindrance to him. Back on the trash, he had travel in much worse ces every single day.

    He soon located the 12 shooters. He headed towards them without dy. Ye Chong moved easily across the hilly terrain. His seemingly fragile body was packed with explosive strength. His legs were like springs,unching him higher and further than any normal human being!

    "Heavens! What''s that I saw? What was that?" Prince Desnio stood up in excitement and eximed, "Is that running? Or is that flying? I can''t imagine anyone able to jump around like that so freely. He''s so fast it''s like a lightning bolt. This goes against allws of gravity. Has Master Ye trained his legs to possess this much power? It''s incredible! Oh, I''d like to have Master Ye as my teacher, so that I would one day be able to run like that too. I''ll walk the borders of Eastern Cloud with my own legs!"

    All the nobles were just as excited as Prince Desnio. They stared at the screen with bulging eyes. Many of the younger nobilities even considered asking Ye Chong to be their teacher. Ye Chong''s amazing abilities had left them thoroughly impressed.

    Prince Desnio was excited, but he still had a shred of calmness left in him. "Master Ye''s performance is beyond our imaginations, but it is still too early to decide who will win tonight''s match. After all, our shooters are equally capable. Their parapsychic senses are almost at the speed of light. Who will emerge as the champion tonight? Master Ye, or the shooters? No matter the oue, we can be sure that both sides will sh into each other magnificently."

    Ye Chong''s face was as expressionless as usual. He ran towards the 12 shooters. His movements reminded the audience of a leopard running through the woods - fluid and powerful.

    In fact, this was easier than facing against the 12 shootersst time. Before this, it was an open ne in his courtyard whereas this time it was a hilly environment that heavily favoured Ye Chong. Even without his recent breakthrough, Ye Chong was sure he could deal with three shooters at a time with no issue, much less in his current improved state.

    After the isted training was over, Ye Chong had rested for a few days. Now, when he ran, he could feel so much energy flowing through his body. He ran faster and faster, hearing the wind bellowing loudly in his ears. As Ye Chong elerated, his body moved like a spirit on the huge screen, leaving a long afterimage behind his fleeting figure.

    The audience members were all on their feet by now. They had never seen anything quite like this! Of all the people in the audience chamber, only Sun Sieha was sitting calmly, enjoying his red wine. On one side, Duke Warren was standing up, gaping at the screen. On his other side, Ming Xiao was not faring any better. He had crushed the wine ss in his hand into pieces, sshing red wine all over his attire. The man was oblivious to it all, however, as he continued to stare at the blurry figure on the huge screen.

    The distance felt a little short for Ye Chong.

    The 12 shooters were already in sight as Ye Chong slid down from above a hill. He did not slow down as he slipped past the hilly terrain that stood in his way. He slithered forward like a ck bolt of lightning. It must be terrible to run into any obstacles at his speed, but Ye Chong did not seem to care. Besides, he was without a scratch so far! He controlled his trajectory easily, avoiding all the sharp protrusions along his way.

    As he approached the shooters, Ye Chong moved even more carefully. The shooters were no threat to him, but he would take no chances.

    He began to vibrate all his body parts at high frequency. His strong body was the only reason he could execute such an impossible feat.

    His figure now appeared like an unrecognizable blob on the huge screen. No one knew what was happening, except for Sun Sieha. It was enough tomand an even greater sense of mystery in Ye Chong for all the nobles who thought themselves well learned.

    Ye Chong stepped lightly, approaching the shooters with a Z shaped manoeuvre. Theplicated terrain made it an excellent battlefield for Ye Chong. He could easily find anchor points to make his next leap.

    Ye Chong''s first contact was with George. Perhaps the man was still feeling vengeful, but he was leading the shooters team right then. He had the most excruciating experience today. "Excruciating" was no exaggeration. The man did not seem to realize that his enemy was just close by yet. He was still searching carefully with parapsychic sense.

    George was one of the best shooters in his generation. A duel was amon way for nobles to resolve conflicts, especially for the young. Naturally, for people of higher status like Duke Warren and Ming Xiao, the extent of the duel escted to an entirely different level.

    George was familiar with the Hills. He was deeply humiliated earlier tonight. Never had he been humiliated in front of so many people before. Most importantly, he would leave a bad impression in the King.

    It was simply terrible!

    The thought of that twice cursed b*stard made George grind his teeth in anger.

    Humiliation - it was a monumental humiliation! He must avenge for it with his own hands!

    He waspletely defenceless just now, but he thought that was because his opponent had ambushed him. That was against the rules ofbat,cking the grace that nobles should have. The d*mned bumpkin! George could not stop cursing Ye Chong.

    He also did not forget Shu Man''er. His nce turned towards Shu Man''er, who was not far from her. The woman had dared to leave him in such disgrace. He will see to it that the Shu Family paid the price. He never thought much of the Shu Family.

    Suddenly, he saw a blur in his vision.

    "What was that?" He cked out before he could even react.

    Ye Chong struck out fast,nding a chop on George''s jugr vein and rendering the man unconscious.

    It all happened so quickly, but the veterans like Mang responded just as quickly. Mang called out, "Everyone, look out!" Now was the time when the difference between the experienced shooters like Mang and the nobles showed. The nobles all reacted clumsily, unsure of what to do next. The veterans had already begun firing on instinct.

    They could not lock on to Ye Chong, but they also knew that it would be very difficult to avoid being shot at in this narrow space around them. They fired without thinking about theirrades, knowing that the fluorescent beams were harmless. What they aimed for was the team''s win. As long as they could defeat Ye Chong, it did not matter if anyone on their side got shot. Shu Man''er surprised everyone by also having her gun out almost immediately. Her wless face showed calm and seasonedpetence. Nevertheless, she had not fired yet for some reason.

    Despite their experience, the shooters were no match for Ye Chong, especially because this was thetter''s specialty - close rangebat.

    Before the shooters responded properly, Ye Chong had lifted George and threw him towards them like a sandbag.

    George''s body twisted in the air and was shot by hundreds of fluorescent beams. The fluorescent beams were harmless, but it could beams could prate clothing and leave a mark on his body that would not disappear for at least three days. In just a few seconds, George''s body was already covered with hundreds of fluorescent spots, glowing through his clothes.

    The nobledies hid their smiles behind their hands. Some of the middle aged women looked like they wanted to just pounce on him.

    Wham! The sandbag that was Georgended on a shooter. By now, poor George had hit a few rocky protrusions, leaving him almost unrecognizable.

    On the huge screen, the camera captured clearly the fearful expressions of the shooters. The nobles lost any pretence of calmness by now. What were the shooters up against? Ming Xiao looked positively flustered. Mang was a soldier under him, and he knew that the man would not show such an expression unless something extremely unsettling had happened.

    What were they up against?

    Mang felt his heart skip a beat. If he was not seeing it for himself, he would have thought the other guy was just a spirit or something. That was the only way to exin why he could not lock on to the guy with his parapsychic sense. Nevertheless, Mang was an experiencedbatant. He did not panic. Instead, he suppressed his fear and began to think - the opponent must be doing something to avoid his parapsychic aim, but what could that be?

    Ye Chong did not give him the chance to figure it out. He disappeared behind a hill.

    His disappearance relieved the tension in the shooters. They exchanged looks of confusion and fear.

    Shu Man''er was looking very pale. She had her back against a rocky pir, which gave her a sense of security.

    Suddenly, a hand appeared from behind her. She felt numbness in her neck, and slumped down to the floor. Herser gun fell onto the ground.

    The shooters'' parapsychic waves were already spread around them. They still could not sense Ye Chong, but they could easily notice Shu Man''er dropping to the ground .Before they could actually turn towards Shu Man''er, the woman was already sent flying towards them.

    Upon seeing Shu Man''er with her eyes tightly shut, two of the nobles exchanged a look - they could not possibly fire at her. Both of them nodded and spread out their arms, hoping to catch her. If she were to hit the rocks just like that, how could the beautiful woman possibly take it? Even if she only got a scratch, it would be a most regrettable injury!

    Seeing Shu Man''er looking so pitiful, the only thought that came to them was this - they did not mind losing if they could save Shu Man''er.

    Thus, they sacrificed themselves!

    Shu Man''er was flying with so much force that it threw them both back against the rocky cliffs. Both men vomited blood and cked out with Shu Man''er in their arms.

    Mang was caught by surprise. It all happened so quickly that he could not stop the two shooters before they went out in such a ridiculous fashion.

    "D*mn!" Mang cursed loudly. Their opponent was despicable!

    Many of the nobles shared Mang''s sentiment. They felt sympathetic, seeing Shu Man''er being tossed towards the two shooters. Many of the younger men even protested out loud, but were stopped by their seniors.

    Sun Sieha smiled reluctantly and set down his ss. "Can''t the man win more gracefully?" He thought to himself. With Ye Chong''s skills, he hardly needed to resort to these base tricks to win against the young shooters. That would have helped him more with his ns ahead. Now, everyone became more interested in Shu Man''er instead of the important things. Those young men looked angry enough to storm the battleground.

    That d*mned Shu Man''er! His n would have gone perfectly had she not interfered. Sun Sieha''s gaze sharpened for a moment. He would allow no one to y tricks with him ¡­

    ¡­

    Ye Chong did not know what Sun Sieha was thinking about right then. He was still fighting ording to his own weird and unpredictable strategies. He must consider the most efficient, safest and fastest way to end the battle.

    ¡­

    Ambush! It was an ambush! Ye Chong never showed himself at all. He always attacked from difficult angles, like from behind or above them. Anything around them could be a weapon for him. Even tiny rocks turned wicked and harmful in his hands.

    Mang was hit by a tiny rock on the forehead and cked out straight after.

    The most terrifying thing was not the tiny rocks imbued with wicked intentions, but the fear that continued to haunt every one of them. Danger lurked in every dark corner. The enemy was like a spirit that could appear out of nowhere. The fear was paralyzing!

    Strength and wickedness - these were the main themes of the glorious match that night.

 Chapter 543 - His Majestyâ€™s Gifts

    <h4>Chapter 543: His Majesty¡¯s Gifts</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    In the end, it was hard to tell who won the match. Ye Chong''s unique way of battle was surprising to everyone, but his ambushing style also left a bad taste in many of the guests. In particr, the way he threw Shu Man''er was received with strong disdain and disapproval by many young shooters.

    The only thing that Sun Sieha was grateful for was how the match was poised to be the hottest topic amongst the guests of the evening ball. Based on his experience, word of the battle will reach the entire capital by tomorrow. He did not really care if they liked Ye Chong. He only wanted them to be more interested in close rangebat.

    The night''s event came to end. All the guests looked excited. Some of them could see therger picture behind this duel, while others only saw it as impressive entertainment.

    The guests bid each other farewell courteously and gracefully, and left on their vehicles.

    Ye Chong sat beside Sun Sieha. He was happy with today''s foray. The boring evening ball turned out to be fruitful after all. That was all that mattered for the pragmatic Ye Chong.

    Just when Ye Chong thought Sun Sieha was going to send him back his manor, a servant approached their car and said, "Your Majesty, she''s here."

    Sun Sieha''s eyes turned cold as he nodded to the servant.

    After that, a woman was brought to them. Ye Chong saw that it was Shu Man''er.

    Shu Man''er was only rendered unconscious during the battle, but did not sustain injuries. She looked a little haggard.

    Upon seeing Sun Sieha, Shu Man''er panicked and quickly went down on her knees, "Your Majesty!"

    Sun Sieha ignored her. He looked at Ye Chong with a smile and said, "You probably don''t know this, but her elder sister is Shu Mo''er, the Level 6 shooter that you fought againstst time."

    Ye Chong listened without expression.

    "The Shu Family, well, it''s not especially powerful or something, but it does have these two capable sisters. I''ve had all the Level 6 shooters who survivedst time investigated. That is how I came to know that Shu Mo''er is Shu Man''er elder sister. Who could have known that the famous beauty, Shu Man''er has an equally impressive elder sister? Tsk tsk, if those young nobles found that, the Shu Family will find itself busy with visitors."

    Sun Sieha spoke casually, but his eyes were cold and stern.

    "I left Shu Mo''er alive because of her teacher, Mei Wu. You see, Mei Wu and I have a shared history. I spare her student out of respect," Sun Sieha had an unreadable expression when he said this, but he quickly gathered himself.

    "Humph, but the sisters are wrong to assume that having Mei Wu''s support allows them to get away with things," Sun Sieha''s voice turned cold as he continued.

    Shu Man''er shuddered.

    "Look at me," Sun Sieha ordered.

    Shu Man''er lifted her head. Her pale face framed a pair of eyes filled with terror

    "You have good looks," Sun Siehaplimented with a nod, "and talent. A Level 6 shooter at such a young age. There is potential in you."

    Shu Man''er bit her lips and shuddered again.

    "It''s really a pity!" Sun Sieha shook his head regretfully, "You made a terrible and malicious decision despite being so young." He turned to Ye Chong and continued, "You''re not aware of this, but she exchanged the energy crystal in herser gun for the duel to a radioactive crystal. Hehe, no one knew about it! Radioactive crystals can fireser beams with high radioactivity. You won''t feel it when you''re shot, and it''s not noticeable by the audience. However, you''re in for a nasty rideter. Your bones will slowly turn to mush. It''s like a slow acting poison."

    Ye Chong felt chilled by this discovery.

    "Shocking, isn''t it? I was also surprised when my subordinate reported to me. It''s not every day you encounter such a malicious trick. I''m wonder, though, does she always have radioactive crystals on her? But I can''t be bothered to investigate further. Keeping and using radioactive crystals without permission is a crime that''s enough to make the Shu Family suffer," Sun Sieha said with a smile to Ye Chong.

    "Forgive me, Your Majesty, please forgive me!" Shu Man''er sobbed as she pleaded, knocking her forehead on the ground repeatedly.

    Sun Sieha ignored herpletely and continued slowly, "There are people in this world who assumed that they''re smart, while everyone else is foolish. The truth is, she is the one who is foolish and na?ve, don''t you think?"

    "Please forgive me, Your Majesty!" Shu Man''er was crying.

    "Your Majesty, she is here now!" A guard announced with a cold voice. At the same time, they all heard Shu Man''er gasping, "Elder Sis!"

    "Man''er! Why are you here?" Shu Man''er asked , surprised.

    Shu Man''er knew that she had screwed up mightily this time. She grabbed Shu Mo''er''s dress and cried again.

    Shu Mo''er noticed Ye Chong then. She looked back at her sister, who was now crying all over the ce, and seemed to deduce something from it. She cried out usingly at Ye Chong, "You, what did you do?"

    "How dare you? Show your respect to the King!" The guard yelled at her, then kicked Shu Mo''er from behind her knees. Shu Mo''er cried out in pain and fell onto the floor on her knees.

    Sun Sieha smiled coldly at her and said, "Shu Mo''er, I am not killing you now in consideration of your teacher, but don''t think I will not do it in future. No one can stop me, not your teacher back then, and definitely not you!"

    Sun Sieha seemed to recall something unpleasant from the past. His expression twisted menacingly before he finally got a hold of himself. However, his eyes were still shining threateningly when he said to Ye Chong, "I give these two women to you."

    "I don''t want them," Ye Chong said calmly.

    Sun Sieha was taken aback. "Do you know what other people are willing to do to obtain these two sisters? Why won''t you have them?"

    "They''re a nuisance," Ye Chong replied with one lifted eyebrow.

    "A nuisance?" Sun Sieha was surprised, butughed out loud, "Haha, indeed! You''re absolutely right, absolutely! However, I, Sun Sieha, never ept returned gifts." The King said this with an air of dominance.

    Ye Chong could not be bothered to respond. He stepped out of the car and said, "Remember to send the money over." He then vanished into the night.

    Sun Sieha watched with amusement as Ye Chong made his exit.

    He then turned back to the two women and said coldly, "From now on, you are both his. I don''t care how you do it, but you must stay with him. If you can''t achieve this, humph, then the Shu Family has no reason to continue existing. If you can get him interested in you, then you''ll both be rewarded. Of course, the Shu Family will also benefit. You know what to do." The King took onest look at the two sisters of the Shu Family, then waved them off. The two women left escorted by the King''s guard.

    Shu Mo''er looked very pale. Her arms were around her young sister, who was crying herself into a mess. Her lips were already bleeding from biting too hard on them. Ate night breeze caressed her long hair. Her determined gaze showed how humiliated, lost and hopeless she felt.

    ¡­

    Yi Ju was now a very busy ce. Skyscrapers covered thend, bringing life to the once quiet and deste. It was now one of the most modernizeds in the vicinity. High endmercial centres and the advanced academic institutions could be found on this.

    The Sang Tribe did not expand rapidly, but even so, they already had 52s under their power. These 52s had Yi Ju as their center. The area became a newly established territory, known by people now as the Yi Ju Zone.

    Since Ye Chong was not there, the Sang Tribe could only decide through a vote on how to respond to the request for assistance from the Three Aristocratic Families. As expected, about 80 percent of them did not agree to travel so far to their aid. However, Sang Pu and his team gave them enough reason. ¡­

    ¡­

    Qiu Man''spetence in governance and Sang Pu''s military strength allowed themercial centre known as the Yi Ju Zone to flourish like never before. The greatest benefit they derived from this position was having enough funds. Neers who chose to move to the Yi Ju Zone also brought in plenty of resources and, more importantly, advanced technology.

    As for the research organizations which were short of money, it was decided that the government would extend financial assistance to them, even in the form of loans. This was because Qiu Man had enough funds. She had been trying to figure out how to spend the money in a way that could encourage growth in the ce. This was one of the measures she hade up with.

    Aried was short, and had been looked down by others because of this ever since he was a young boy. Nevertheless, he was an unconventional genius. This was because his theories were not acknowledged by any known research center, which refused to fund him because of his weird ideas.

    He arrived on Yi Ju to escape the red-tailed beasts. He saw the new policy in ce to help academics, and decided to just try it out.

    To his surprise, he passed the initial and a few subsequent interview rounds, and finally made it to the final round of interview. He also managed to meet a few legendary figures in the Yi Ju leadership, including the legendary beauty, Ms Qiu Man.

    "Ms Qiu Man is more beautiful than the rumors suggested!" Aried thought to himself.

    Qiu Man was used to this kind of attention. She coughed softly and smiled at the man, "You must be Mr Aried. A pleasure to meet you. We have looked over your proposed subject, ''V-shaped Spatial Techniques''. We were not familiar with your subject before this, so we have asked for opinions from a few experts in spatial science. They all agreed that your proposal is interesting. They cannot prove that it will work, but it is worth a look. Hence, we have decided to invest in your project."

 Chapter 545 - Another Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 545: Another Negotiation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It almost felt like a dream came true for Aried, as he stood before this brand newboratory filled with facilities of the wonders he saw every night. And he wasing with a filled pocket, a plump pocket full of gold to assist him in verifying the beliefs, the hypothesis in his mind, even though by terms he would have to let go of most of his research oues to his counterpart. It was still a deal, if it was not their sponsor, he would still be living in his dreams which never would manifest into reality.

    He was also assigned an apprentice by Qiu Man, named Sang Kan.

    It was a curious addition to hisboratory since the Sangs were the brightest family on the entire Yi Ju. They were the true rulers of the as they filled up most authoritative positions in the hierarchy. They once vanished yet they had recently resurfaced, out of the blue. They remained mysterious in the eyes of the people, with their Collision army rocking the world.

    Sang Kan was assigned as an assistant but he was more like a student in theb. Hecked the foundation of Space Science, however that did not obstruct him as Aried liked this little shy boy who put actual effort in learning. He was a quick and intelligent learner too, technically a perfect student for a 60-year-old researcher like Aried. Aried hoped that Sang Kan would be able to be his sessor at one point, so whenever this young boy asked about anything, Aried would be more than willing to provide answers.

    The Sangs were almost everywhere on Yi Ju. One could see them serving every industry with theirmon diligence despite having a weak education background. Most masters adored the Sangs and that led to a bunch of green-eyed monsters in the apprenticeship.

    The Sangs were developing rapidly, as countless medication as well as apparatuses were being transported to Sang Family Vige which had received aplete overhaul by then. The poption was blooming, life standards were elevating, yet their gratitude towards the great teacher, Ye Chong remained. They would probably still be living in the caves if the teacher never came.

    Compared to those established aristocrats who had livedfortably in glory for too long, the Sangs were hard workers. And today, a growing trend of emigration could be discerned among them, especially the youngsters who were required to firstpletebat training at Archipgo since the old chief still recognized military training as an essential part of their lives. In the meantime they were also required toplete basic academic training.

    So once the training waspleted, emigration would ur. Those who passed the examination would head to Yi Ju escorted by the cargo fleet. On the, they would be relocated to all sorts of industries under apprenticeships of all known masters.

    They lived up to Ye Chong''s spirit as they swarmed upon the mechanic industries, while there was hardly anybody striving for the philosophies.

    Every Sang worked intensely in the industry, as they had been abandoned by the world for too long. They had to chase after the footprints of the century as their blood boiled with their innate will to fight. It was a simr spirit to Ye Chong. Their lives had improved and no way they would want to turn back. They would charge, they would advance forward, with more glories and gold!

    The name of their great teacher had slowly faded away from the mind of the residents on Yi Ju, yet remained in the heart of every Sang who strived in search of their supreme spiritual leader.

    The search was never once halted all these years. The Sangs had invested a considerable amount of workforce and assets yet there was no voiceing from their leader in the outer space.

    It was heartbreaking.

    Well, little the Sangs knew, their supreme leader was also the same, heartbroken somewhere at another corner of gxy.

    ¡­(Back to Ye Chong)¡­

    Early in the morning, people crowded Ye Chong''s manor. They were of the nobility who grew extreme interest in his style after witnessing the battle that day. They would like to be his apprentices and with their prestigious social status in Sun City, they believed they could gain their teacher''s attention with a petition!

    That was what Sun Sieha would love to see. He was over the moon.

    In the midst of the fiasco, Shu Mo''er and Shu Man''er stood among the crowd, without a single fatigue visible on their expression, as their chilly charm captured the attention of all young men around.

    Everything went as Sun Sieha predicted. The oue of the duel had reached the entire city in one night, the story grew sensationalized the more lips it reached, that Ye Chong had literally be an entity as if the demon in thetest version of the story. Nevertheless, the noble family had seen opportunities in this devilish young man, especially under His Majesty''s constant effort of promoting hand-to-handbats. So they sent all their best descendants to join the martial arts festival.

    Mastering parapsychic sense would almost unavoidably involve one''s talent, and not everyone was gifted with such talent, including a majority of the noble descendants in the city. Under the "helpful" culture promoted by forces in Eastern Cloud, they were humiliated by those gifted shooters of the upper ss. It was darkness ahead for their future, until a spark showed up and illuminated the entire world for them, someone who was able to defeat 12 Level 6 shooters singlehandedly with brute force, someone named Ye Chong.

    Passion had warmed the entire city.

    And when Shu Man''er came to the scene with her sister, the atmosphere had only intensified further.

    "Is that Shu Man''er? Wait, two of them?"

    "Shu Man''er has an elder sister?!"

    "Wow you are slow on the news, man. Yes, she has a sister and both of them are Level 6, under the same master. Shu Mo''er was once unknown to the people only because she had been training at the outside alone."

    "Tsk, such sisterhood. How many men''s hearts must they shoot this time?"

    "Meh. They would shoot everybody except you. Didn''t you know? They want to be Master Ye''s apprentice. If you want to at least have a nce upon their fairness you have to be fast, since they could be having a wild goose chase. Mhm? Well, Master Ye did not seem interested in taking them. Why, you ask? Think with your knees, what kind of a figure is Master Ye? He''s the top craftsman in this Eastern Cloud! He could fill up his entire bank ount even by just crafting a toy! Do you think he needs to carry out tuition sses for extra cash? Don''t you remember he leisurely won a hundred and fifty million in thest duel? Even the ruler feels like a hobo, that he would speak with cautious courtesy as he talked to Master Ye in person. He has both fame and money, no one would want to mess with him. So? What conclusion can we get? Taking in apprentices is totally unnecessary and bothersome for our Master Ye. Don''t forget Master Ye had said it before, only twenty apprentices at most. Be there or be square. Don''t be sorry if you just so happen to be the person after the next when there was only one slot left. Imagine if you get it, you get to be with the two beautiful sisters. Those eye candies are more than convincing, so you see¡­ hmm?? Where did yo- Hey! Don''t get on your mark yet! I''m not done yet!"

    ¡­(Back to Ye Chong''s manor)¡­

    "Hey! Master! Take me!"

    "No! Take me! I''ll clean the floor!"

    "I''ll clean the floor and the bathroom!"

    "I''ll clean the floor and the bathroom and thewn!"

    "I''ll clean everything, including maste- wait, stop punching me, ah!"

    There was a giant crowd awaiting the great one to speak. And the great one was having a headache figuring out a solution. Formerly, he only intended to take a mere few members of nobility as apprentices, as agreed to the conditions with Sun Sieha. Then that "few" members had be that "few flock" of members. He could see at least 3000 people standing by the gate, while there would be new fans joining ever few so often.

    Out of sudden, an unmarked fighter machine zoomed towards Ye Chong''s manor, Ye Chong could tell it was Sun Sieha''s.

    It soonnded at thewn. It was, in fact, Sun Sieha who exited the crane and he was alone this time, there was no guardsman.

    "I think this is more than what you told me," said Ye Chong as he nced at the crowd outside.

    "Hah!" Sun Sieha responded, "Hah! It''s just¡­ an ident. I really had no idea these youngsters could be so fanatic about your achievement."

    "I might have decided to cooperate with you on an agreement." Ye Chong was expressionless. "But this has clearly gone overboard."

    Sun Sieha sighed helplessly, "I did not expect these to happen. I thought the crowd would appear only after you had won the national tournament at least. But the poprity grew so rapidly. I do not think it is usible to turn down everything at this point. It would be a good chance to massively take in apprentices though, don''t you think?"

    "This is beyond what we have agreed." Ye Chong shook his head.

    "Alright then. What''s your proposition?" Sun Sieha obviously could do nothing to Ye Chong. He thought Ye Chong was a typical simple boy but in actuality Ye Chong was such a plotter, a cunning one too! Sun Sieha could not criticize, both instances they had dealt contained no loophole, which left Sun Sieha no choice but to obey whatever proposed. It was a terrible feeling for a lord to bow before another lord.

    "If you are doing something beyond the agreement, you''re against it. For that, you have to pay." Ye Chong began proposing, "I have no issue in taking in these people, with conditions however."

    "What conditions?" Sun Sieha''s brows raised.

    "First, based on the current situation, I do not see the need in participating the tournament, thus I would like my entry to be revoked."

    "Hmm¡­" Sun Sieha pondered, "Not much of a problem, still you have to at least perform something during the tournament, like a showcase with a Level 8 shooter. Also, you have toe and attend my ceremony. I mean, basic exchange of courtesy? You would do me a favor right?"

    "Okay." Ye Chong fully agreed on this. He would no longer need to invest pointless efforts in that national tournament. He would save time as time was the most precious to him.

    "Moving on, I have total free will to make the ultimate judgment upon these people."

    "Sure!" Sun Sieha was nonchnt. "No problem! Kill as many of them if you wish, all of them would never be seeding the family business. Nobody would be against you just because you killed a few nobodies."

    "Third, once any of them hadpleted my training, I own the priority in choosing them, while all the procedures in our agreement formerly remained unchanged, my authority remains."

    "Okay, sure," replied Sun Sieha promptly. He was joyful that the master did not make a preposterous offer this time fortunately.

 Chapter 546 - Lets Get It Big!

    <h4>Chapter 546: Let''s Get It Big!</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It certainly felt great for Ye Chong to finally reach an agreement with the ruler of the city, especially when it was a win-win situation. Both of them got exactly what they wanted.

    Apprenticeship? No problem. It was the bread and butter in Ye Chong''s story.

    It was not the first and surely not thest.

    The processor had helped him undergo the first selection process to kick out impotent students but still there were about 1800 pupils to be further selected. Ye Chong did not seem pleased with the number of people.

    And so, one week right before the ceremony, a news had blown up the entire city - the master craftsman of Eastern Cloud, a legend who defeated 12 Level 6 shooters with his own fists, had announced the official opening of recruitment for apprentices. It was not a rumor nor it was an urban legend cooked up during somebody''s teatime. It was a fact, a pronounced order from the lord of the city himself, the royalty.

    The brewing rumor before had been verified, and obviously the residents were immediately convinced. The rumornded in the city like a bomb as the citizens heard the story of Master Ye defeating those advanced shooters while being unconvinced. It was too horrifying that it felt fictional until the royalty confirmed everything and Master Ye became a celeb soon after and there was a huge crowd at Master Ye''s ce, a veryrge crowd in fact.

    The announcement detailed Master Ye''s intention of picking up new apprentices, with a "requirement" which felt more like a "giveaway" to most of the citizens upon hearing it. Technically, one just had to be below 16 years old while having a healthy, functional body to join the audition. Once being admitted and passed the selection process, one would be given not only wages from the royalty monthly, but also an opportunity to work for the government right away given that one passed the final trial.

    Those in poverty had seen a silver lining in the sky. The youngsters were lured by the stable ie as well as free amodation and food, unlike those born with a silver spoon who were not particrly attracted enough to hit the street and force themselves through the crowd to read the announcement on the wall. However, upon hearing the news through their ownwork they remained interested as it was the sole pathway towards a bright future for those untalented in their family.

    Crowds were flooding towards Ye Chong''s manor, almost smashing the gate. Sha Ya with her ray gun was standing next to Ye Chong with a tensed expression, feeling lightheaded as she imagined if an actual uprising could happen, which a Level 8 shooter like her could never handle single-handedly.

    There were at least a thousand of them.

    "Hey kiddo! You started yet? Ain''t nobody have the whole day for this! Make your move already!"

    "You heard him!"

    The crowd had grown restless as seeing the master standing still for the entire time.

    That was when a flock of something came with an aerial wail.

    It was a flock consisted of 40 transport units as well as 120bat units, with a crest of royalty glossing under the sunlight.

    "Wow! It''s the royal military! Man that''s wicked cool!"

    "Wow!" Exmations were heard as the people lifted their head upon the sunny sky. Those were the royal guards, although they did not form a huge organization, they were the best shadow fighters under his majesty, mysterious and hardly seen by the people.

    As mentioned, they were supposed to be thest line of defense for his majesty, and they should not be here unless dered state of emergency. The royal guards'' sudden debut was surprising to the nobles, as they had yet witnessed such a huge operation in the past. 40 transport units, 120bat units, clearly one would not have witnessed that unless an invasion urred.

    Before the people could react, thebat units dispersed themselves. Like ants crowding a sugar cube, they circled around those transport units while they graduallynded forcing the people away on the ground.

    People were curious as they were marveled at the shining crest. The royal guards were truly mysterious, even to those members of noble family. The transport units were visibly pricey for their design and the maximum weight they could withstand, and to be honest, even the first military force of the country only owned 80 of these, while on this probably insignificant asion the royal guards had sent off 40, which displeased Du Feng and his mates a bit.

    "Formation!" The guards shouted on top of their lungs as people saw the armed men marching off the transport units with no mercy in their eyes. The royal guards were astonishingly efficient as 4000 of them got into their formation in 3 minutes.

    "Dang¡­" Du Feng muttered as he watched from the hill faraway.

    "As expected from the ultimate defense line of his majesty," said Li Gui grimly, "You could feel the violence from a single stare. I feel the weakest of the force would have shooters of at least Level 6."

    "Hmph," Du Feng snorted, "I can''t nitpick anything. I mean, look at their equipment. Tsk, tsk, they just came in 40 giant crafts while we were looking like hobos standing here with our stic toys."

    "I must agree," nodded Li Gui, "We aren''t at the same level as those royal guards. I do envy those fancy stuffs they have but it''s pointless to drool at them. I''m more curious of the purpose of their visit here, to be frank, especially when the royal guards only move upon his majesty''s order. Why would his majesty send so many guards here? Did he intend to annihte Master Ye?"

    "Nah¡­ Too much of a hassle to just ''annihte'' that Ye guy. A flock ofbat units could have bombarded him into ashes, they don''t even need to get into their formation," Du Feng rebutted.

    The transport units sted off into the air again, as thebat units tailed them zooming into the distance faraway.

    At the front of the formation, there stood a buffed man with a scar which reached to his left eyes from the corner of his lips, looking like a giant centipede resting on his face. It was stunning and menacing¡­ especially with his warrior physique standing there at a height of 185 centimeters.

    His cold eyes nce around, his right hand was lifted, with his index finger pointing at the sun.

    An order had been given.

    The two frontmost rows of the guards disassembled themselves from the formation and had withdrawn their guns.

    "Siege!"

    "Siege!!!!!" The leaders of the both rows screamed as the guards began running, spreading as they hit the path ahead. The ray guns were aimed at the people, as they surrounded the entire crowd. People could not help but to back off a bit with a wryly smile seeing the cruelty in the guards'' stare. There were several waves of parapsychic attack and people were overwhelmed, not even the talented Shu sisters could stand against the waves, let alone those untalented folks who were shaking on their feet.

    The scarredmander expressionlessly trooped towards Ye Chong through the opening at the crowd. He gave a formal greeting, bowing, "Instructor Liao Sang reporting for duty upon his majesty."

    Ye Chong responded with a nod, "From now on, you and your subordinates would be under mymand until you receive a return order from his majesty." The scarred man reminded Ye Chong of that super sniper back in the free space zone, the bodyguard of the little boy, who also had a scar across his face, just not as bulky as Liao Sang.

    "Yes sir!"

    Th arrival of royal guards was a salvation to Ye Chong''s plight, as it made every folk behave themselves. Themotion subsided as everyone knew what would be the consequence if any of them threw an egg at Master Ye.

    Ye Chong waited, sitting still till 4 o'' clock in the afternoon, while staring at the crowd of 20 thousand outside. The young men were restless at first, but they learned to be patient as they knew there would be an audition, and they would have a better performance if they preserve their stamina by resting on the ground. There were people who once disbelieved the announcement of royalty which seemed too good to be true, but the dramatic debut of the royal guards convinced them in every bit.

    Did the royal guards solely serving the king actually came all the way here, with theatrical entrance, only to assist Master Ye in the audition? Where else could one find such grandness of a school open day?

    Nevertheless, that was when the people felt a little uneasy. The fact that the king was so convinced of Master Ye''s capability and sent his best men for assistance, then there is no doubt Master Ye would have very high standards in recruitment. Their fate would be at his great mercy and the likelihood of getting through the first stage had dampened.

    And then¡­ in the midst of intensity, Ye Chong stood up.

    Attention stormed upon him as people hurled their gazes at him with a rapid turn at their head, including the scarred man, who had been fairly curious of this Master Ye ever since he got the order from the royalty. He had never gotten such unusual order from the royalty before in his entire life serving the king. What kind of mission was this anyway? It''s not that he had better missions to do, in fact they had hardly receive any interesting order as they spent most of the time training in the field, which eventually made them the stronger military forcespared to the standard guards.

    So finally they got something to work on and it turned out to be a mere leisure for Instructor Liao.

    It was certainly strange to Instructor Liao for Master Ye was able to earn this much of trust from his majesty when his majesty was a person of discipline and paranoia. He had barely trusted anybody, well, not to an extent that he would give his guards away on a whim for a recruitment drive.

    Instructor Liao was intrigued, but not from a political aspect. He just wanted to see who Master Ye was, the one who finished 12 Level 6 shooters single-handedly that managed to convince his majesty.

    Heavy breaths could be heard in the midst of sudden silence, as people anticipated the great master to announce his requirements.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "So¡­" Ye Chong begun.

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    "All of you have been admitted. We''ll meet here at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Laters would not be entertained. Dismiss."

    "What?"

    "What did the master say?"

    People were dumbfounded as rustles were perceived at the crowd. "Am I drunk? Or is the master drunk? Or is everybody drunk?"

    "The master orders dismissal! So move now!" Instructor Liao raised his voice impatiently upon seeing rustling crowd. "You have 10 minutes! Anyone who stays after that would be immediately executed!"

    And there was nobody at thest syble uttered, well, except the Shu sisters.

    "Knock them out," said Ye Chong as he pointed at them.

    "Yes sir!" Instructor Liao sauntered to the sisters to deliver a surprising blow at their necks. They cked out before they realized. "Gui Gui!" Instructor Liao did not even bother to take a look at those beauties as he shouted his soldier. Gui Gui had a pale face of a ghost, as if albino that even her fingers were pale as snow. It was quite a contrast to those well-tanned men in the armor. Her eyes were cold as ice, her actions were smooth as the ze, which appeared rather threatening to the soldiers.

    "Get these girls to your camp. Anyone who dares to taste them would be sliced!" Instructor Liao shouted.

    Gui Gui responded with a formal bow, "Yes sir." She sauntered to the fainted sisters and lifted them to her shoulders and retreated to her former position in the formation after all.

    Gui Gui''s existence was an eye-opener to Ye Chong. He had raised his own army before so he knew how an army worked. It was rare to see a female blending so well in the army especially when it consisted a majority of males. The discipline was there and there was unity among them. One could clearly see the standard of this army.

    So the next problem would be a proper training ground that could amodate a crowd of 20,000. However, it was not that difficult to solve.

    That aside, there had not been much progress in his research. Though he did achieve something, including the instance where he finally crafted a few processors from scratches, despite being pretty substandard for its low level of processing ability ording to the record in the microchips. Rather useless if one would say. It was not difficult to craft yet it was made out of Ye Chong''s blood and sweat and that was under the assistance of those fancy stuffs like the organic cellr unit of these processing units he scavenged from Spectre. It might take him centuries before he made one out if without these stuffs.

    The processors he made might not be powerful but he found somewhere to use them.

    Ye Chong utilized the materials avable and crafted simple mechs based on the design of a few engineering units. He attached the processors to them and made them into servant units. They served different functions so they had different designs. Theycked intelligence so they served one single function each but these were more than enough! They would help the mundane work!

    Theyout of his manor had already been plotted under the assistance of his detection system. Chen the processor had provided him the optimal proposal for the construction, all he had to do was to insert these partitioned tasks to each servant units, then magic would happen.

    That sounded like a breakthrough by Master Ye but he never had the chance to test these units and he was given this major project to handle. So he only could use these units right away, to build a giant training dojo that could amodate therge crowd. Well it was not an exquisitely designed dojo to begin with. So it was not entirely unmanageable. If he had those standard engineering units he could have finished the construction in 30 minutes.

    But he only had these simple bots.

    Instructor Liao was setting up the base camp. He and his army did not need help from Master Ye. Setting up camp was the bread and butter for military.

    The night came slowly as the soldiers chatted happily round the campfire. It was a joyful trip with such a simple mission, especially when their routine consisted of march-till-fall activities back in the training camp.

    Gui Gui sat at one spot silently. Her pale face convinced people they were as if sitting by her ghastly me. Nobody had the courage to sit next to her. She was the only female in the army and people feared her, not even Instructor Liao would get closer to her. The sisters remained unconscious as ced at the wilted patch of grass nearby.

    Instructor Liao gave a fierce bite at his drumstick and he closed his eyes. A strong wave of psychokic spread to the surrounding, reaching everybody who zipped their mouth all of sudden and began meditating nearby.

    "Listen up punks! If any of you ever fall asleep meditating tonight, I''ll give him a taste of my personal training the morning after!"said Instructor Liao fiercely. "Close your eyes! In silence! Meditate. Nobody open their eyes till informed!"

    "F*cking hell, you incapable kiddos and yourck of training just pisses me off every time." Instructor Liao threw his anger as he brandished the bitten drumstick which was then tossed into his huge mouth to be chomped, along with the bone, into a million pieces while he strolled out of the camp.

    Gui Gui, who seemed to sense something, got up and tailed after.

    Instructor Liao gave her a nod upon seeing her. They headed to the southwest corner of the manor agilely like beasts on a runaway. Such speed from capable shooters.

    At one bush on the slope, they peeked something shocking.

    There were a handful of strange things gathering up into a team.

    The leader seemed to be a spider-like creature, with 8 long feet and a t broad cavity. It was a machine, with a pronounced height about 5 meters, a breadth about 10 meters. It looked terrifying.

    "What the hell are those things?" Instructor Liao could not help but to inhale as he trembled a bit.

    Gui Gui''s eyes erged for a brief moment and she responded softly, "Looks like a new kind of machine to me."

    And out of the blue, the spider reached its de-like cavity to the ground. Before Instructor Liao and Gui Gui said something, ring lights came from the de and peeled the ground off!

    Both of them were shocked toplete silence and their eyes erged like saucers.

    The beeping continued as the spider creature reached its beam of light across.

    A floating truck equipped with shovel were following after, moving those rocks sliced off the ground, further polishing the rocks underground. In the end a rocky training dojo could be identified. The process went on as the beam shifted to the edges and shaped the dojo into square.

    Then there was a 4-legged machine about half a meter talling into the scene with its square box on its back, with a broad beam discharging from below which left a row of perfectly circr dent on the ground. It looked like a ¡­ mini pile driver?

    The two soldiers continued observing, only to see more and more strange machines joining the construction. They were small and had bizarre designs yet somehow the two soldiers could perceive the functions at one nce.

    But well, what the heck? Was this construction going a bit too fast?

    Instructor Liao nced at his clock. What? It had only been an hour and there was a dojoing out of nowhere? That looked more like a paranormal activity to both of them by then.

    "Holy crap. Those are pretty good stuffs!" said Instructor Liao, rubbing his palm eagerly with his eyes peering at that spider machine. Who cares if it sliced the ground well? It would be the best machine for slicing people! Instructor Liao might be from the highly regarded royal guards but he had neverid his hands on such an interesting machine before.

    So many stuffs to get! Especially that strange liquid! Instructor Liao could sense the surface of the rocks growing stronger by times! The liquid could be the key to an unbeatable stronghold! Simply spray them at the walls then their stronghold would not even bulge under the deadliest shot! Talk about a great defense!

    "Who was that?" asked Ye Chong as he heard something. He did not notice them before because of the distance and he was concentrating on his work, but it was that loud voice of Instructor Liao that alerted him.

    "Hah! It''s us, Master Ye." Instructor Liao was not feeling shy at all, as he greeted Ye Chong normally. Gui Gui pondered awhile before she followed the instructor.

    Ye Chong took a look at both of them who nodded at him and he got back to his work. The dojo had just been coated with ayer of strengthening reagent. It was notpleted yet. It still needed another reagent or the pirs would break because of the temperature change.

    The miniature mobile sprinkler was looking like a floating cocoon in the air as Ye Chong caught it and began pouring in a pale greenish liquid.

    "Master Ye, what is this? What does it do?" asked Instructor Liao interestingly, approaching Ye Chong.

    "These are strengthening reagents," replied Ye Chong as he poured the fluid. "It further strengthens the structure of a material specifically, unlike the normal reagents."

    "Oh¡­" Instructor Liao nodded although he wasn''t sure if he understood. "That sounds great! Can it strengthen the structure of a human body too?"

    Ye Chong sealed the lid tight and sent the sprinkler off to the training ground.

    "Back off," instructed Ye Chong.

    "Why?"

    "It''s highly toxic."

    Instructor Liao was smiling as the corners of his lips shook, while Gui Gui was already nowhere to be seen nearby¡­

 Chapter 547 - Festival

    <h4>Chapter 547: Festival</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Liao San could not help but to return to the base camp with bitter resentment.

    Curses! If it was not because I had no other choices¡­

    He whined, expressing his hatred towards the merchant who had just pulled a daylight robbery upon him. Fifty million? Was he out of his mind? Was he aware of how many tons of weapon one could purchase with fifty million? Those thieves at the logistics were as if angelspared to this satanic entity!

    If he did be the head of the logistics, hell knows what could happen¡­

    Liao San shuddered at the thought of it.

    Well, the story was not as terrifying as Liao San had described. Liao San only enquired Ye Chong regarding those funny toys he had at hiswn, whether Ye Chong could sell to him one of them. Ye Chong did nod to the request promptly, "Only at a cost of fortune," he said. Liao San was overjoyed, it was not going to be a problem as long as the pennies could seal the deal for him. The royal guards had all the money they wanted so no hassle if it only involved money. Yup, not a problem, till Ye Chong made his offer directly, "50 million, per piece." There were 5 of them, so that would be a whooping 250 million for all 5. "Oh, and you only get to make the purchase once. Only once, I would not sell them anymore after this."

    Such bargain¡­

    Liao San froze at the offer. This was not a daylight robbery anymore. This was clearly a daylight pige! The royal guards might be very well-off, that did not mean they would agree on a mindless deal! No way in their pride they would withdraw thatrge portion of their funds just for a few pieces o- "Well apparently you aren''t that interested, I''m sorry¡­" That was when Ye Chong shrugged, looking regretful. Liao San almostunched his fists on that pretentious thief! But he remembered that this very thief was also the very master who defeated 12 Level 6 shooters single-handedly. His fury then was nowhere to be found.

    Eventually he just watched Ye Chong nonchntly leaving on his moving sprinklers.

    In actual fact, he had not recovered from the shock just now. Ye Chong did finish constructing a training ground within two hours. If only such efficiency was found in military construction, the kingdom would be formidable, terrifyingly formidable. Well, if he had those machines in the first ce that is.

    This became his fantasy atst. Even the military would hesitate at the price of these machines. It was 250 million after all, only to be boomed into nothing by a single missile from the enemy if unlucky.

    Unlike Liao San, Ye Chong found his offer rather reasonable. These automated engineering units contained far more precise and advanced designpared to those he sold to Sun Sieha. Well, even the cannons were sold at 20 million. How would these fully automated engineering machines be much cheaper then? It took Ye Chong great effort to craft them too, since most minerals in the recipe were not local. He had to eye those in his inventories, which were limited from the beginning. But he did not, he had to preserve them. So he sumbed to the use of woods at the ce, though obviously both the quality and versatility would be very inferiorpared to metals. These wood pieces might add up to something but the process was not simple. Moreover, the machines had a built-in processor, low grade, a good stuff still. 50 million was totally fine for the magnificence.

    Ye Chong did not feel anything in particr regarding the rejection. He was not in need of filling up his pocket anyway. His pockets were both full in fact, with the 150 million he won from the gamblest time and the monthly ie of 40 million from the royalty. He had not maximized these newly crafted machines too. He would not want to sell it away only to go through the tedious process of crafting new ones again.

    Currently, Ye Chong''s manor was too crude to be called a base so, there will be renovation. An underground base it would be! It would not only be much safer, but a more concealed spot too. Furthermore, he only needed these machines to do all the jobs for him. He did also think of adding more members to the construction team so he could get his base faster.

    ¡­(Meanwhile back at Sun Sieha)¡­

    "What?!" The moment when his majesty heard the report from Liao San, the entire pce could hear his raging scream. "Liao San are you from Stone Age or something? Have you never seen this much of money at our royal ount before? And you backed away from a mere price like this?" Unlike Liao San, his majesty could well recognize the value behind these machines. He would buy them at any cost, even twice the price Ye Chong offered. He had heard from Master Karu before, Ye Chong did possess a craftsmanship of technology 50 years ahead of them at the very least, thus the high respects towards his every craft as they were rather intrigued to study them.

    The only chance to buy probably the greatest invention of the decade had just been swept to the drain under the hasty decision of his own man. How would his majesty not rage at this?

    Five forty in the morning, there was an army of people standing before Ye Chong''s manor. No one would certainly miss such a great chance of ascending as one of the talented members of the society for theycked the gift in mastering parapsychic sense. They also thirsted strength, authority, wealth, glory like the shooters but it was thatck of gift which had given them the capital punishment of their life in the first ce so Ye Chong''s tutorial came like a silver lining in the sky for them.

    The crowd cloaked the manor like a cluster of dark clouds, yet there was only silence, concealed in a certain obedience as the royal guards watched with stern solemnity.

    It was 6 in the morning as Ye Chong nodded at Liao San.

    "Time''s up!" Liao San''s scream echoed in the midst of silence, brutally like his voice rang, the guards broke into a line of formation, blocking theters after the master''s nod.

    "Order!" Ye Chong raised his voice. "You have 30 minutes to break them into groups of 50, each with a leader."

    Liao San had an eyeroll upon seeing the slothful folks. It was not an easy chore to ce these slow rolling eggs into different baskets but Ye Chong was themander, his order stood and absolute obedience was expected from Liao San. Liao San was still an experiencedmander after all, "Yes sir!" Liao San replied on top of his lungs as he turned to the folks with a threatening re, "The 400 of you punks get over here! Each of you pick a number of 50, by hook or by crook, I want to see groups here!" Well he had 4000 subordinates, so he only needed to that the 1/10 of them to get thembs into the pens.

    The 400 soldiers came out of the team promptly as they sprinted towards the people at a speed of a beast, a brutality of a beast too. If someone decided to not obey them, violence would be served. The soldiers sank into the crowd and dragged a number ofdies, putting them into a team, including the Shu sisters.

    In no time 400 teams could be discerned at the field.

    Ye Chong was going to hold a ss of 20,000. Assuming he did recruit the students by traditional interview and the mundane meet-and-greet, it would take him forever. So these are the things to be discarded for efficiency, especially when these people came from all walks of life, all colors of soul, a military approach would be better, something that was considered bread and butter for him - just like the time he did with the Sangs. The approach would be the most secure, with the least likelihood of seeing rebellion.

    The group of people marched into the newly built training ground. No doubt they were fascinated by the magnificence, they had never seen a training field such colossal, a visual impact clearly it was. There were all sorts of strange machines, the ground was polished like mirror yet felt sturdy like rocks. "Such budget¡­" some people whispered. They could not imagine the potential amount of investment behind this foundation. Moreover, the training ground was situated at the valley between two slopes, making it more mysterious.

    As there were the actual military soldiers leading their way, everybody got into their position almost immediately after. Ye Chong was on the stage of rock at the front of the ground.

    It was going to be an assembly, with a speech from Ye Chong. Everybody expected that as they lifted their head, including the royal guards who were as curious of what inspiring words woulde from the great master.

    Ye Chong gave a look around. "I am Ye Chong, and I''ll be your teacher today onwards," he spoke slowly, "which means, the entire valley would be off-limits. Nobody would be allowed to leave. Training would be touch but no failure would be allowed, no one would be retreating, no one I repeat."

    The folks were shocked but they remained calmed as pressured by the constant re from the soldiers nearby.

    "All of you might have not been exposed to closebats, but it is totally fine, learn it today onwards but I must warn you, it would have a much higher physique requirementpared to those shooter trainings. So, for starters, there would be physical training to boost your base stamina."

    "Move!"

    The crowd boiled as they were shouted to jog. Well, that sounded really simple, even the folks felt bewildered, annoyed of the pointless-looking training.

    Thatsted till the close-50th round of the jogging session, during which most of them almost tripped themselves fainting, that was also when they were informed that food would not be provided to anyone who failedpleting the run

    Liao San skillfully pressured these folks like his own soldiers and it was quite a sight to see a crowd of twenty grands running in the dusty field. One could hear the roaring gasps along with the frantic sshes of the soldiers'' whipping.

    These folks were just a bunch of spoiled brats grown up in wealth and their physique was weak to begin with. A number of them just suffered a force shutdown and copsed during the run. But no unconsciousness could salvage them as a ssh of cold water was given by Liao San, "RUN!" Themand rang thunderously again.

    On the first day, only 1/3 of the crowd could finish the run, which most of them consisted of those from the poverty. They were fed generously, though they were still fatigued. That was when they understood the joy of a hard-earned meal. However, they knew it well enough, that the training was just the beginning. Oh well, it was fine, the bowl of rice turned more sumptuous as they looked at the so-called noblemen lying dead on the ground.

    The training course on the second day was again a run of 50 rounds. There were improvements as more people were able toplete the course.

    Liao San had loved every second of the training. It was so fun to mess with punks this many, especially when they were the spoiled nobilities who reacted ridiculously towards any form of harshmands.

    Life in the valley was as boring as one could imagine and the folks had been charred by the sun in the past few days. Their lips were cracking, even the lovely girls like Shu sisters. Gui Gui was heartless enough to press them moving. Their fair white skin had been grilled gracelessly.

    "I wanna go home!"

    "Please, let¡­ let me die!"

    "Did I ask you to leave?"

    The boys were whipped to forget the ipetent thought, putting them to the ground. And nobody asked to leave after that.

    The run of 50 rounds had be something effortless for everyone on the 7th day, and Ye Chong decided to increase it to 80. "Take over everything from here," said Ye Chong, "The next thing I will check on this team would be the result, and that would be only when everybody could run 300 rounds and every hundred rounds should not take more than an hour and half. That would be the passing line. It better be within a month."

    Alright, that sounded tedious indeed, even to a trained soldier like Liao San who frowned upon it. Ye Chong had a lot of works to do and that was the entire point he asked Sun Sieha to send his royal guards to the ce.

    In the next few days, Ye Chong crafted a few more engineering units and they had dug 20 meters into the ground under his manor.

    That was one thing off the list and now there would be a festival by Sun Sieha. That posed zero attraction to Ye Chong but Sun Sieha sounded persistent in his words, "Oh well, I''ll go and check this festival out¡­"

    On the day, Sun Sieha sent his men to pick Ye Chong up.

    Ye Chong got to the pce which had been furnished with bouquets of flowers and a fresh red carpet all the way to the throne. The guards were well-dressed as their chests rose high as their spirits. The conference room was upied by guests who were clearly from the simr majesty, acting as the noblemen themselves.

    Ye Chong had again, attracted everybody''s attention the moment he entered the room. He was the cover story of the recent news after all. Nevertheless, he was a person hard to get hold of. He did not bother to haveplete interaction with anybody than his majesty. The lord clearly adored this fine young man and the wealthydies were intrigued as well.

    Ye Chong picked a corner and got himself seated, as he could feel the constant stares from the people. That certainly did not feel good, he rather became the invisible man of the party room.

    He closed his eyes as he maintained his breath in rxation.

    Thedies seemed unimpressed by hisck of socialization as they retrieved their passionate stares and resumed their gossips.

    "The lord is here!" Announced one guard as Sun Sieha walked into the room. Loud apuse was heard as people stood up, the royalties bowed, "Long live the lord! The greatest birth of them all! God''s with the lord!"

    "It''s more important to have all of you to be with me." Waved Sun Sieha politely.

    The following schedule was mundane. Technically the royalties led their family to greet Sun Sieha while Sun Sieha would return them some warmpliments. It felt like a reunion during the new year and the repetition bored Ye Chong while the interviews, of those fathers presenting gifts along with their beloved sons or trustworthy militarymander, made Ye Chong question the meaning of his existence.

    "The Western Frost is here!" Announced the guard, disrupting the friendly atmosphere of the conference room. Western Frost¡­ the country had been Eastern Cloud''s nemesis yet they had sent a man there on a festive night of Eastern Cloud''s greatest leader. What was the meaning of this?

    A moment of hostility was found in Sun Sieha''s glimpse, "Oh," he forced a smile, "Such rare guest, let him in."

    The messenger was a middle-aged man, with nothing unique discernible in his physical appearance, while a cage in dark cloak followed, about 5 meter tall.

    "Mu Chen came under themand of my lord from Western Frost, to greet your majesty a happy birthday."

    Sun Sieha grinned stiffly, "Please, get up."

    "How was the king of Western Frost? I''ve been hearing news of his illness." Concerned Sun Sieha, as part of the act of making conversation.

    "Our king has been in the pink of health. Your Majesty had our gratitude. I do wonder however, of where Your Majesty had perceived such news."

    "In the pink of health eh¡­" Sun Sieha nodded. "Great. I still would be amused in the next few years then. I must say your king is rather a decent opponent to y with, unlike the fool in Southern Land. I''ll certainly be lonely if I would lose such an opponent." The words came sharp.

    "Long live King Sun Sieha!" shouted the royalties as impressed by words of his majesty.

    Mu Chen''s expression changed. He had heard various stories of the new king in Eastern Cloud, though quite a number of them were degrading. He was informed that the new king had charisma and it was totally justifiable while also terrifying as Western Frost would have a hard time dealing with this king.

    "Thank you for thepliments, Your Majesty. As ordered by my lord, I havee here to deliver this wonderful gift."

    "Oh." Sun Sieha gave a smile, "I must say I''m rather intrigued, of what gift your lord has prepared for me. It must be great, so great¡­"

    "My lord has told me that Eastern Cloud is and rich of crops, unlike Western Frost which had been blissed by the frigidity¡­ However, our men are the bravest, for our shooters were able to venture deep into Darkniss and capture this mysterious beast, only to be given to Your Majesty as a token of our diplomacy. I heard that only the true brave ones could ovee such beast and I had never seen the strange beast before. I deeply apologize for the abruptness for we were short of time. I was not able to inquire Your Majesty regarding this beast. I believe that Your Majesty is fully aware of such beast, even have witnessed it before, since ¡­ Eastern Cloud has also a handful of brave ones? So please, your majesty, enlighten me, a mere nobody as well as the other people from Western Frost, who are also intrigued of your greatness."

    "I see." Sun Sieha snorted, "There was such strange beast? Well, show me then, let me see how strange it is."

    "Yes, Your Majesty. Immediately." He pulled the cloak away.

    Sharp gasps were heard in the crowd, even thedies dropped their cups and fans.

    Ye Chong sprung from his seat, his eyes were ring.

 Chapter 548 - Contest

    <h4>Chapter 548: Contest</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    A red-tailed beast! It was a red-tailed beast! Ye Chong could not believe his eyes. This was the creature, alright. It was a juvenile, with a pair of light red eyes on its angr head. It was young, but the eyes betrayed its vicious nature. The creature looked worn out. The five-meter tall cage was too small for it, such that it must curl in on itself to fit inside. There were no visible injuries on its body. The light red colored arrowhead tail was not fully mature yet. The red-tailed beasts that Ye Chong had seen before had arrowhead tails that were crimson red in color. The maturity of a red-tailed beast was not determined by its size, but by the color of its tail - the redder the arrowhead tail, the stronger the creature.

    The only thing that surprised Ye Chong currently was that this creature had five fingers. By his experience, an eight-fingered red-tailed beast was the pinnacle of strength, while six-fingered red-tailed beasts were equivalent to a human tribe''s chieftain. Five-fingered red-tailed beasts were not very strong, but they were still quite capable of destruction. This particr red-tailed beast he was looking at had a blue tinge on its body, and he had never seen anything like it before.

    Why would there be red-tailed beasts here?

    Ye Chong was intrigued. He never expected to have red-tailed beasts in this world. He heard it clearly from the ambassador - Darkniss, the ce where the creature was from. Ye Chong had heard of Darkniss a few times. He knew that there were metals there, the so-called gravestones that Sha Ya and the others had told him about. There were also nts like Gold Leaves in the ce.

    Suddenly, a bold idea came to Ye Chong - could the red-tailed beasts have entered He Yue Gxy from Darkniss? Was Darkniss home of the red-tailed beasts?

    Ye Chong found himself face with many questions.

    Sun Sieha did not recognize the red-tailed beast. He asked with faint surprise, "So it''s a mysterious creature. Call Xuan Ning here, perhaps he''d seen it before."

    The other councillors were also curious of the creature. Few of them had ever seen any animal as big as this. The red-tailed beast looked worn out, but they could still imagine the strength that came with it.

    Mu Chen maintained a thin smile on his face throughout.

    After a moment, Xuan Ning arrived. He was a man in his thirties, with thick eyebrows on a pair ofrge eyes. He looked like an honest and respectable man.

    "Xuan Ning, reporting for duty!" Xuan Ning saluted in military fashion.

    "Alright. You''re here because I''d like you to have a look at this strange creature. It was captured in Darkniss. Have you seen it before?" Sun Sieha asked gently.

    Xuan Ning looked towards the huge cage ced in the centre of the assembly room, and then quickly averted his gaze. "I have, Your Majesty."

    "Oh, tell us more." Sun Sieha grew interested. He had travelled far and wide when he was young, but had never been to Darkniss, known for its dangers.

    "Five years ago, when I had just reached Level 8, I decided to visit Darkniss. Darkniss is known to be home to many strong creatures, and is a good ce for training. I invited two friends toe along. They were Level 7 shooters. The three of us made our preparations for the visit."

    Xuan Ning recalled what happened back then. Everyone in the assembly room was absorbed in his story.

    "We entered the Desert from Dual Forest. The journey was smooth at first. The sandlizards did not hinder us. We moved quickly. Later, we encountered sandscorpions. That was horrible. The sandscorpions always appear in hundreds or thousands, spread out for dozens of kilometers. Fortunately for us, there were no sandstorms, or we would haveid down our lives there. After that, we entered the Mist, where a perpetual purple mist covered the area."

    Ye Chong felt his heart tightened. He had heard of the Desert and the Mist, but he never knew that the mist was purple in colour. However, even he was aware of it earlier, he would not have associated it with the red-tailed beasts, for he had not seen the creature here yet. For now, it was still too early to tell I the purple mist was the same as the one he had seen in his own world.

    No one noticed Ye Chong''s unsettled look. They were all absorbed in Xuan Ning''s story.

    "Visibility is low, but as shooters, our parapsychic sense helps us to navigate. In the Mist was a thick forest. Vines and branches surrounded us. Humidity was high, and there was no sunlight. It was a ce that was difficult for shooting. We were lucky to have avoided anything really troublesome. There was only a pack of gliresaurs we had to deal with."

    Xuan Ning described his experience mildly, but his audience could imagine how terrifying the battle must have been.

    "After we crossed the Mist, we finally entered Darkniss. There is no sunlight in Darkniss, but there are strange nts that give off light in there. There is also flowingva that glows a fiery red here and there, painting a red tinge on anything you see in there."

    When Xuan Ning began to talk about Darkniss, his voice turned low and serious.

    "Once we entered Darkniss, we proceeded carefully. We knew the ce was dangerous. We walked along one of theva flows that was about 20 meters wide. However, we had our first dangerous encounter on our first day in Darkniss. We were attacked by 14 ck-striped gray dragons. They were huge, standing up to about seven or eight meters tall. The creatures were fast in the air, and had strong and sharp beaks and ws. All three of us were injured from that battle. The dragons swooped down from above. We shot them to death, but they wereing down too quickly. We were injured by the gravestones that were sent flying from their crashing into the ground. Fortunately, we were not too heavily injured, and the experience taught us to be more careful. We would never have survived the visit otherwise."

    Xuan Ning looked like he had not fully gotten over the encounter yet.

    "After that, we encountered other creatures, but none were as strong as the ck-striped gray dragons. On our 13th day in Darkniss, we lost our way. We were panicking. That was also the day we met one of this strange creature. Our records don''t have anything on it, so that was our first time seeing it. The one we met was stronger than this one in the cage. It was fighting against a pack of ck-striped gray dragons. There were no less than 30 of the dragons dead on the ground when we saw them. The ck-striped gray dragons were fast, but not as agile as the unknown creature. Its arrowhead tail was quick and deadly. The sharp beaks and ws of the dragons did not leave any marks on the unknown creature. We stayed in our dark hiding spot until all the ck-striped gray dragons were killed by the unknown creature. We counted the number of dragon bodies on the ground. The tally came up to 55."

    The people in the assembly room were disturbed by Xuan Ning''s story. They realized now how powerful the creature in the cage was. Some of them almost called out for the guards. The red-tailed beast seemed to notice the fear and panic of the people around it. Its light red eyes gleamed condescendingly.

    "Oh, so this officer did not catch the strange creature," Mu Shenmented with mock surprise.

    Xuan Ning ignored him entirely and continued, "This creature is not yet mature, but no human can catch it alive. I don''t think it''s possible without deploying a huge fleet of fighters."

    "Then how do you think this particr animal was caught?" Mu Shen asked Xuan Ning with a smile.

    Xuan Ning replied coldly, "Aside from strong creatures, Darkniss also has all kinds of poisonous things. Any shooter who visited Darkniss would know that water puddles found in the ce are not safe to drink from. I''ve seen a tumoric bear drank from a puddle where tiny blue flowers were growing. After that, the tumoric bear became weakened. Its body had a shade of blue, just like this creature we have here. I would guess that this creature had drank the same kind of poison, and waster found by someone. The fact that there are no visible wounds on this creature supports my theory. What do you think, Sir Mu?"

    Xuan Ning spoke confidently, supporting his argument with sound evidence. He looked at Mu Shen sharply.

    Mu Shen squirmed inside and replied with a softened tone, "As mentioned earlier, I know nothing about these things. Sir Xuan Ning has opened my eyes. Sir Xuan Ning is truly knowledgeable." Xuan Ning''s deductions were urate. The creature was not captured by them. It was a tribute from a few shooters who entered Darkniss to the King of Western Frost.

    Xuan Ning was not interested in exchanging further words with Mu Shen. He bowed to Sun Sieha. "Your Majesty, I take my leave."

    Sun Sieha was pleased to see Mu Shen intimidated. He was familiar with the temperament of this particr subordinate of his. "Alright, you may leave."

    Xuan Ning turned to bow to the other nobilities in the assembly room. The nobles returned the gesture before Xuan Ning left the assembly room.

    "Who is he?" Ye Chong asked the person next to him.

    The noble recognized Ye Chong. He immediately replied respectfully, "Master Ye, he is the Commander of King''s Guards, one of the strongest shooters in Eastern Cloud. He reached Level 8 by the age of 25, and a man of great experience. He is said to be the shooter closest to reaching Level 9 in the past five decades."

    "I see." Ye Chong nodded and turned away.

    The noble finally had a chance to talk to Ye Chong, but Ye Chong did not give him a chance to continue the conversation. He simply closed his eyes again.

    The remainder of the meeting was dull and uninteresting. Ye Chong began to feel sleepy.

    Nheless, there was something important he had to doter - his demonstration show for the National Combat Tournament.

    Ye Chong kept his word to Sun Sieha, and did his part to the letter. Sun Sieha admired this side of him.

    That afternoon, the National Combat Tournament officially began.

    ¡­

    Duan Qian had arrived in Su City five days ago. In these five days, he got to know the flourishing city. Duan Qian had delicate features, and an air of naivety typical of young people. However, he had a certain steadiness in him. Unlike other shooters, his gait was confident. He was here for the National Combat Tournament.

    He had his eyes opened in these few days. Su City was crowded with people. There were Level 6 and 7 shooters everywhere. Half the people on the streets were shooters, and half of these shooters were at least Level 6.

    Strong fighters from all over Eastern Cloud hade to gather in Su City, but no one dared to cause trouble. Duke Warren had assigned Xuan Ning, a close aide to His Majesty, to be in charge of security in Su City. Xuan Ning was a big name known to all shooters. He was the strongest of the strong, known not only for his strength that was close to Level 9, but also his ruthlessness. Thus, Su City became even safer than usual.

    Duan Qian had registered for the Combat Tournament and received his schedule. He was due in the first round of the Tournament, for better or worse.

    Where there was apetition, there would be a betting pool. However, no one could find any information on Duan Qian. To everyone''s surprise, the Shooter Association did not have his name in their records.

    Duan Qian was not a shooter.

    He was born in a family withbat history. His father was a namelessbat expert, who worked as a merchant. Since he was prone to sickness when he was young, he began to learn a few moves from his father. They were not particrly powerful moves, but they kept him healthy. Later on, he was found to be talented in parapsychic control, and sent to study under a capable shooter.

    He was everything people expected from him. Even though he was the youngest student of his teacher, his parapsychic energy was the strongest. His teacher hoped that he would achieve Level 6 by age 16. That would be an achievement worthy of a prodigy in the world of shooters.

    Duan Qian was not interested in being a shooter, however. His interesty inbat. Once, he channeled his parapsychic energy into abat move without intending to, and crushed a rock with his fist. That made him even more eager to study thebination ofbat and parapsychic energy.

    With this objective in mind, Duan Qian trained hard. His inborn talent helped him grasp some key points in this endeavor. However, his decision to go down this path was met with strong resistance from his parents and teacher. His father, who taught himbat in the first ce, was against him. They thought that a shooter who could reach Level 6 by age 16 would have a much better future than abat expert.

    Nevertheless, Duan Qian persisted. He trained even harder so that hisbat skills could one day be good enough to prove them wrong.

    He did not give up on parapsychic control forbat. Instead, he trained his parapsychic control just as hard. Currently, his parapsychic control was just as good as that of a Level 6 shooter. Since his parapsychic control was strong, he could quickly detect his opponent''s intentions and changes in their parapsychic waves. Besides, his own parapsychic waves could interfere with other shooters effectively.

    To qualify for the National Combat Tournament, he had fought his way from early local matches to Su City. His teacher and parents were shocked by his achievement.

    Young people were often ambitious. Some wanted fame, others wanted money. Duan Qian wanted to let the whole world know that shooters were not the only strong fighters!

    Duan Qian was now in the Tournament resting area. The Tournament would begin with a Demonstration Contest before his turn came.

    The idea for a Demonstration Contest was conceptualized since long ago. It was mostly participated by long-time and well-knownbatants, who would fight against each other and exin the intricacies captured within the battle. The concept was popr amongst the audience. For this national level tournament, the participants were most likely the topbatants in the country. True experts would have better insights inbatpared to amateurs - all shooters knew this. It was a rare opportunity to listen to these experts talk about their specialty.

    ¡­

    (In Eastern Cloud Combat Stadium.)

    The Combat Stadium could house 200 thousand people at a time. In terms of area coverage of any building structure, it was second only to Su City''snding field. The national Combat Stadium was now filled to the brim with people. Sun Sieha''s arrival brought on the first wave of excitement in the stadium. The crowd cheered, and Sun Sieha felt invigorated by his people. He waved to them in greeting as his image was disyed on a huge screen for everyone in the stadium to see.

    "Long live the king!" The voices from 200 thousand people thundered like a tsunami wave.

    Sun Sieha''s body shook a little as his emotions overcame him. No king would be unmoved by the strong passion of his people.

    Mu Shen was also invited to watch the tournament. He was briefly unsettled by the thundering cheers, but quicklyposed himself.

    "My brave warriors, let the fighting begin!" Sun Sieha''s short and powerful announcement marked the beginning of the National Combat Tournament.

    Prince Desnio was tasked with hosting the Demonstration Contest and the first match by the king himself, probably because of his colorful narration of Ye Chong''s matchst time.

    "Alright, my friends, the wildly anticipated National Combat Tournament has just begun. I know that many of you have been waiting for this. Let me just say that that is exactly the same for me.

    "First up is the Demonstration Contest. The Demonstration Contest this time is the most special out of all the ones we''ve held. I think you can all guess which two masters will be going on stage, right? Haha!" Prince Desnio grinned slyly.

    "Let me ask you all, who is the most popr person recently in Su City? Is it His Majesty? Oh, no it''s not, even though it''s His Majesty''s birthday today." Prince Desnio joked about Sun Sieha, but Sun Sieha did not mind his uncle''s jest. He smiled in return.

    "It was one man against 12 Level 6 shooters, and that man now has 20 thousand students under him. The first Master in close rangebat in our country, and possibly in the whole wide world - Ye Chong! Let me tell you, Master Ye is not only a Master in Close Range Combat, but also our Chief Weaponsmith. Today, you will all get to witness a form ofbat that was never seen before. I guarantee that you will be surprised. Truth is, I''m a big fan of Master Ye, not just because he''s a strong fighter, but also because he''d won 10 million ao each from Legion Legate Ming Xiao and Duke Warren in a bet." Prince Desnio added with humour.

    "A Master in Close Range Combat? What kind of title is that?" Mu Shen thought to himself with disinterest.

 Chapter 549 - How Does One Look Fabulous?

    <h4>Chapter 549: How Does One Look Fabulous?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "And who will be Master Ye''s opponent? You wouldn''t have guessed it! Haha, it''s time to reveal the answer! Let us call out his name - Xuan Ning!" Prince Desnio cried enthusiastically.

    "Oh, it''s Xuan Ning!" "Xuan Ning!" The crowd roared fervently.

    Xuan Ning was a very influential figure in Eastern Cloud, with many loyal worshipers. He was the symbol of strength and power, a 30-year-old shooter in his prime, and a small step away from reaching Level 9. It was an achievement that few could hope to match.

    The audience in the National Combat Stadium erupted in joy. It did not matter whether thebat matchester were up to expectation - the Demonstration Contest itself was worth the trip here.

    Ye Chong and Xuan Ning entered the ring at the same time, and studied each other.

    "Good day," Xuan Ning greeted without expression.

    "And to you," Ye Chong returned the gesture with equal coldness.

    This was only abat demonstration. They were only required to show a few moves, not actually put up a serious fight. Sun Sieha''s request was simple - Ye Chong only had to show a few moves, and make them look stylish and pretty enough to dazzle the audience.

    A mock battle was challenging for Ye Chong. After all, he never had the talent for pretending.

    Duan Qian looked at the two men in the ring with excitement. He had heard about the appearance of a Close Range Combat Master in Su City, but had missed the deadline to be enrolled as Master Ye''s student when he arrived in Su City. Besides, rumors were hardly worth trusting.

    He knew now that the man was real, and did not want to miss out. Rumors could be lies, but only true Masters could enter the Demonstration Contest. This meant that Master Ye''s abilities were convincing enough for His Majesty and the other experts.

    Duan Xian felt a mixture of emotions as he watched the young man in the ring, who was only a few years older than him. On the one hand, he now knew that his decision was right - he was not the only one fighting for his path. On the other hand, this young man had qualified to be a Master, and he was awfully jealous of him.

    Ye Chong and Xuan Ning would notpete in any special terrain. The ring was only a t stone-paved stage of a thousand square meters.

    Xuan Ning wore no expression on his face. No one knew what he was thinking. Ye Chong was the same. Both men looked serious.

    They moved at the same time.

    A strong and overpowering parapsychic wave spread out through the entire stadium. It came from Xuan Ning, a super strong parapsychic!

    Duan Qian was shocked. Prince Desnio was shocked. All the shooters who were watching went pale. The strong parapsychic wave made them feel like tiny ants at the foot of a mountain, facing tremendous pressure from Xuan Ning''s power.

    Only Sun Sieha and a few Level 8 shooters could maintain their calm, but their eyes betrayed their emotions. They all knew that Xuan Ning was strong, but this was beyond even their expectations!

    Shooters below Level 4 had their parapsychic control damaged by this powerful wave of parapsychic energy. It would hinder their parapsychic training in future, but if they manage to ovee this obstacle, they would reach greater heights than they could ever imagine.

    Xuan Ning was as powerful as his reputation suggested!

    From the audience seats, Xuan Ning was the size of an ant, but everyone was now feeling afraid of the ant-sized human they were watching. Even some of the Level 8 shooters were studying Xuan Ning with mixed expression.

    The strong parapsychic wave from Xuan Ning did not affect Ye Chong too much, since he had an equally strong mind to hold himself against Xuan Ning.

    Ye Chong made his move.

    "Alright, a performance it is," Ye Chong thought to himself helplessly as he ran across the battle ring.

    "Wow! He''s fast!"

    "By God, is he flying?"

    "Mama, look, superman!"

    ¡­

    The audience grew noisy again. They had never seen such extraordinary skills! Ye Chong could cover seven to eight meters with every step. It was simply unimaginable for themon people, but they were seeing it right now with their very own eyes!

    "My God!" Duan Qian''s hand went to his chest in utter surprise. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. His eyes were wide open as he followed the figure running in the battle ring.

    Ye Chong remembered Sun Sieha''s request - be stylish, be dazzling. The truth was, Ye Chong did not have many stylish moves in his book. He had always gone for simplicity and efficiency.

    Now he was stumped - how could he create this visual spectacle?

    Xuan Ning was also surprised. He had heard of Master Ye''s means ofbat, but he did not give it much credibility.He was startled by how fast Ye Chong was running right now.

    The young man was skilled!

    When he saw that Ye Chong did not intend to make a move on him, Xuan Ning knitted his brows and reigned in his parapsychic energy. The audience felt the pressure on them suddenly relieved.

    Just when Ye Chong was wondering what would count as a stylish performance, he felt the parapsychic waves around him recede, and then abruptly, had a vague sense of being locked on to.

    Ye Chong turned his attention to Xuan Ning. His eyes were cold and emotionless - his first reaction to anything that might be a threat to him.

    Xuan Ning''s eyes were also directed at him, cold like a snake''s.

    Ye Chong''s upper body vibrated - his entire upper body turned into a blur. That vague sense of being targeted disappeared immediately, and Xuan Ning''s eyes widened in surprise.

    By now, Ye Chong had forgotten everything about Sun Sieha''s request to be stylish and whatnot. All he could see was the battle.

    Ye Chong dashed forward like a bolt of ck colored lightning, leaving a ck zip of afterimages in the audiences'' vision.

    The opponent was far stronger than Xuan Ning expected. He looked more rmed as he lifted the fluorescent gun in his hand.

    At the same time, an even concentrated parapsychic energy covered the entire battle ring. The audience did not feel it at all. The parapsychic energying from Xuan Ning was even more powerful than earlier. The range was smaller, but the energy was more focused, almost thick enough to touch it.

    This was the true strength of a Level 8 shooter. They had almost full control of their parapsychic energy, managing the range of their parapsychic waves with great precision. Level 6 shooters could not achieve this. Besides, the strong parapsychic waves were difficult to interfere with.

    Ye Chong''s eyes narrowed. Dozens of thin blue lines appeared in his vision.

    At the same time, Ye Chong''s body turned almost fluid - he twisted and turned in seemingly impossible ways, but his moves were smooth, and his steps were quick and unpredictable. It was like watching a fish swimming in water, but it was also a chilling sight to behold.

    Xuan Ning was rmed - he found that he could not lock on to Ye Chong with his parapsychic sense.

    If a shooter could not detect their opponent with parapsychic sense, then their defeat was almost certain. Xuan Ning braced himself. Ye Chong was getting very close to him now. That fleeting figure danced menacingly in front of him.

    "He''s strong!" Xuan Ning thought to himself. However, he would not give up so easily. It was difficult to find such a strong opponent. He would not waste the chance.

    He decided to use a technique that he had recentlye up with, one that he had not fully mastered yet!

    Xuan Ning was a Level 8 shooter. Non-shooters saw him as the most likely candidate in the world to be the next Level 9 shooter. In fact, he was only a hair''s breadth away from Level 8, but this infinitesimal step felt so far away. At this level of expertise, things were not so simple. One would either grasp the key to advance further, or not. The gap might take a single day or a decade to cross.

    This was a key opportunity for him!

    Before 200 thousand spectators, Xuan Ning did the unthinkable.

    He closed his eyes.

    Just as the fight had escted, he chose to close his eyes! Was he mad? Some of the shooters in the audience stood up in surprise. Onlooking Level 8 shooters could not help but feel intrigued.

    They could decipher more of what was happening in the battle than low level shooters. While the real truth was far from clear, they could see that a moment ago, Xuan Ning was at a disadvantage.

    This was a huge surprise to the Level 8 shooters. They never imagined that Ye Chong could threaten a Level 8 shooter! Even thebined strength of a dozen Level 6 shooters could not hope to ovee a Level 8 shooter. Nevertheless, they now waited eagerly for Xuan Ning''s next move - what would he do now?

    Xuan Ning, the shooter closest to Level 9, was worthy of his reputation. How some Level 8 shooters were stronger than their peers could probably only be truly understood by Level 8 shooters.

    Now that Xuan Ning was at a disadvantage, he did something utterly unexpected. What was happening?

    The answer was obvious to the Level 8 shooters - this was almost certainly Xuan Ning''s new technique!

    No one doubted Xuan Ning''s talent. In fact, only geniuses can ever hope to reach Level 8. Everyone had different goals in their lives, but it was better to know the limits of one''s ability beforehand.

    Xuan Ning closed his eyes, and the world around him quieted down.

    All the noise around him faded. His parapsychic sense informed him of every detail in his surroundings. In this clear view of the world around him, there was a smudge that he could not lock on to.

    A cold and eager smile appeared on his lips.

    Ye Chong did not care what his opponent was trying to do. Never fight passively in response to the enemy - that was one of his principles inbat.

    However, Ye Chong noticed abruptly that something was wrong.

    The dozens of clear blue lines in his vision were disappearing at an rming rate.

    Ye Chong was caught off guard. He had never experienced this before, even with Sha Ya.

    The blue lines in Ye Chong''s vision were always changing. Sometimes they were gone in the blink of an eye. If he did not make use of these openings, he would be locked on by his opponent.

    Ye Chong had no time to figure out his situation. He tried his best to change his form ording to the blue lines. The blue lines seemed toe to live - they were changing very quickly, giving Ye Chong less and less time to follow them.

    Ye Chong lost his initiative in the battle. He must now follow the blue lines, which were the gaps between the opponent''s parapsychic sense. However, the blue lines were getting fewer and fewer. They were disappearing very quickly, giving Ye Chong lesser options and time to fit himself into these openings.

    On the other hand, his opponent''s parapsychic waves seemed to have transformed. The blue lines in Ye Chong''s vision were no longer clear. Instead, they appeared blurred and sketchy, and the lines twisted constantly.

    While Ye Chong focused on staying with the blue lines, he suddenly found himself getting further and further away from Xuan Ning.

    For the audience, it was an odd sight to behold.

    Xuan Ning stood unmoving with his eyes closed. Ye Chong never stopped moving, changing positions quickly. No one could see Xuan Ning''s parapsychic waves clearly. They did not know what he was doing. On the other hand, Ye Chong''s quick leaping motions and his long steps that reached over half a dozen meters captivated the audience.

    Teenagers, especially, thought that the afterimages behind Ye Chong as he moved were simply too cool!

    Ye Chong gathered his thoughts. He realized the severity of his situation. If this continued on, he would never get close enough to Xuan Ning. The shooter might not able to threaten him as well, but that would only result in a stalemate between them.

    Ye Chong noticed the rocks that paved the battle ring, and realized his next move.

    Ye Chong cried out abruptly - Mortal Roar!

    An invisible soundwave rippled quickly outwards from his position.

    Mortal Roar was not dangerous for a Level 8 shooter. Ye Chong knew that from his experience with fighting Sha Ya. However, Ye Chong did not intend for his attack to harm Xuan Ning. He only wanted his opponent to feel the vibrations.

    Xuan Ning had never encountered this weird soundwave attack before, and was affected by it, as expected.

    This tiny disturbance had amplified results in Xuan Ning''s parapsychic waves. The number of blue lines in Ye Chong''s vision spiked up immediately.

    Ye Chong did not hesitate. He was standing at the intersection between two blue lines.

    This opening was enough for him!

    Ye Chong stomped his right foot heavily into the floor of the battle ring.

    Boom! A low booming sound reverberated in the stadium, hammering into the hearts of the audience. Some felt like vomiting in the aftermath.

    Something incredibly shocking happened in the battle ring.

    Cracks appeared on the rock pavement, beginning from Ye Chong''s right foot and spreading outwards.

    Xuan Ning felt the ground shook. He was greatly surprised, and could no longer maintain his calm.

    Ye Chong stomped with his right foot again.

    The tiny rock fragments on the ground bounced up.

    Ye Chong yelled again. He aimed his right leg at a palm-sized rock and kicked.

    The rock zipped towards Xuan Ning like a cannonball.

    The audience was shocked. Prince Desnio was shocked. Duan Qian was shocked. Even Sun Sieha was shocked!

    Xuan Ning was also shocked!

    He aimed hisser gun and fired continuously at the rock. The rock was moving quickly, but he could still lock on to it. Nevertheless, his body could not react fast enough to avoid the rock! He could only hope that the rock was destroyed before it reached him!

    However, amidst this emergency, he had forgotten something very important. Theser gun in his hand was not his usual weapon of choice - the top of the line Seahorse Eye. Instead, it was only a fluorescent gun used for contests! The fluorescent gun could only prate clothing to reach human skin, but it would not do a thing against a rock!

    "It''s over!" Xuan Ning quickly realized his situation. His heart sank. He could detect the rock clearly with his parapsychic sense. The rock was so fast that it would injure him even at half the speed. If he was hit anywhere vulnerable, he might even die from it!

    Where was the rock targeted at? His head, of course!

    Ahh!

    Xuan Ning''s eyes bulged. A thick vein popped up on his temple. At the brink of life and death, Xuan Ning demonstrated his astonishing potential.

    Ye Chong suddenly felt the parapsychic waves around him disappear.

    Boom!

    The rock exploded three meters away from Xuan Ning, and sprayed a rain of debris outwards.

    The entire stadium went quiet.

    Xuan Ning stared with bulging eyes for five more seconds, and then fell backwards. He crashed heavily into the ground and fainted.

    Ye Chong realized then that he had nearly killed Xuan Ning. This was indirect proof of Xuan Ning''s strength. The shooter made Ye Chong felt threatened. Ye Chong did not feel particrly regretful. He looked towards Xuan Sieha and shrugged helplessly.

    A stylish performance was too difficult for him!

    Sun Sieha was livid. He had almost had his strongest subordinate killed by that guy! D*mn, that idiotic worm, did he not understand that this was just a demonstration contest?

    When he saw Ye Chong shrugged at him, Sun Sieha could no longer reign in his anger anymore. He roared at his councilors, "What''re you looking at? Where''s the doctor? Get a f*cking doctor to check Xuan Ning!" The infuriated Sun Sieha cursed in front of his councilors for the first time ever.

 Chapter 550 - Puzzled

    <h4>Chapter 550: Puzzled</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong became a national celebrity overnight because of this battle.

    The entire Su City was trembling in excitement! The entire Eastern Cloud country too was trembling in excitement! News of the battle spread like wildfire form the nation''s capital to every corner of the world. Western Frost and Northern Lands had already received the news. Other smaller countries would soon follow.

    The world was shocked!

    Xuan Nin was the creme de creme of all shooters. Ye Chong''s victory over the man cemented his reputation as a Master in Close Range Combat.

    Residents of Su City were all excited. Ye Chong''s method ofbat was strange, but they were all grateful to have witnessed that historic battle! Besides, Ye Chong never imagined what a marvelous experience his battle with Xuan Ning was to the audience. When the battle ended, Ye Chong had already amassed a great deal of followers.

    The first ever Master of Close Range Combat in Eastern Cloud, and in the world, hade from Eastern Cloud. This was the pride of every citizen of Eastern Cloud. The people saw Ye Chong as one of the most important people in Eastern Cloud. However, to members from other countries, Ye Chong was a man they respected, feared and hated. A Master in Close Range Combat was not of a particr interest to them. However, some of them, like Mu Shen, quickly found out the worrying news that Ye Chong was epting arge batch of students.

    For now,bat became the most popr choice of upation, but the otherbat schools were only superficial in nature. Only Master Ye''s school was considered realbat.

    There was no need for advertising. Ye Chong''s personal brand was already strong. Young people who missed out on Master Ye''s first batch of student intake were now eagerly waiting for the nned second intake.

    Compared to Ye Chong''s explosive impact, Duan Qian''s emergence as one of the Top Eight contestants was only average news. Duan Qian was nicknamed "Young Ye", but he hated the nickname as much as he respected the man himself.

    No prodigy would settle for being in ced second.

    People in Eastern Cloud began to eagerly participate inbat. That was what Sun Sieha intended all along. Soon after, Sun Sieha announced a series of initiatives to encourage the trend, such as distributing standardbat training manuals written by Ye Chong. The

    manual found its way to other countries in no time, and would be the most important piece of literature in the next few centuries.

    At the same time, the military announced stricter requirements for recruitment in terms of physical fitness. They also advertised positions for people good inbat with alluring benefits, but no one had answered the ad so far.

    A storm was raging in Eastern Cloud. Many events that ured in this time heralded the beginning of a new era. Shrewd people like Mu Shen would realize that Eastern Cloud was slowly amassing greater and greater power.

    Ye Chong did not care. When the demonstration contest ended, he returned to his manor immediately, leaving Duan Qian no opportunity to ask him about studying under him.

    When Ye Chong returned to his manor, the first thing he did was call for Sha Ya. Ye Chong asked Sha Ya, "What''s Darkniss like?"

    Sha Ya took a curious nce at Ye Chong. She did not know why Ye Chong called her urgently to ask about this. "Darkniss? Why are you suddenly interested in the ce?"

    Despite asking the question, Sha Ya knew that Ye Chong would not answer her. She paused for a moment, then answered, "Darkniss is a strange and dangerous ce. Usually, only shooters at Level 7 or 8 can enter and survive Darkniss. Surrounding Darkniss is the Desert and the Mist.

    There is always dust in the air in the Desert. It''s a wastnd, where wildlife is rare. However, creatures that call the Desert home are strong. However, as long as you avoid the terrible ones like the sandscorpions, shooters at Level 6 and above should be able to do just fine. The Desert is not too dangerous, but it''s impossible to fly in a fighter in there because of unpredictable sandstorms.

    After the Desert is the Mist. The ce is as humid as the Desert is dry. The Mist is actually a forest, shrouded in very thick purple mist. The foliage is dense. Without strong parapsychic sense, it''s better not to enter the Mist, since visibility is too low. There are many wild animals in the Mist. Most of them are insects, the rest are usually small. However, the creatures there usually move in groups. There are also many dangerous nts in the area, making it an overall dangerous ce."

    Ye Chong asked, "The mist, it''s purple?" Sha Ya nodded. "Yes."

    Upon seeing Ye Chong going quiet again, Sha Ya continued, "After the Mist, you enter the heart of Darkniss. Darkniss is underground, where the light never shines. You can see red moltenva everywhere in the ce, flowing like rivers. Darkniss has no sun, but there are more nts there than even the Desert. I''ve always found it odd.

    "The animals in Darkniss are all very strong. Any slip ups can turn out to be fatal. There are gravstones everywhere in Darkniss. Gravstones are a unique resource found only in Darkniss."

    Ye Chong knew that this so-called gravstone was actually metal. They most likely exist in the form of metal ores in Darkniss.

    "Shooters who enter Darkniss usually collect gravtones. They are rare materials that can be exchanged for better weapons from weaponsmiths. The amapo wood you sawst time is also from there. Darkniss is rich with natural resources. Since the geography and environment there is vastly different, the things you find there are also very different from what we usually have out here. Unfortunately, few people can survive Darkniss. The Mist and the Desert that surround the ce make Darkniss imprable by flight.

    Ye Chong suddenly remembered the red-tailed beast sent from Western Frost. He asked, "Have you ever seen a creature with a red arrowhead tail?"

    Sha Ya thought back to her experiences, and then shook her head. "No, never. There are too many kinds of lifeforms in Darkniss, and they are all very strong. We try to avoid their territories as much as possible. The creatures in Darkniss always kept to their territories, and will never exceed their boundaries."

    "Oh." Ye Chong was intrigued. "They never go beyond their territories?"

    Sha Ya nodded. "That''s right. It''s a strange thing. Ever since Darkniss was discovered, people worry about the creatures escaping the ce into our world. You know, there are too many powerful creatures in there. To date, we have recorded more than a few species that are as strong as a Level 8 shooter. Some are even stronger still. No one knows if there are even stronger creatures in there. If these creatures escape to our world, no country will be prepared to defend itself.

    "However, from the beginning until now, nothing like that has happened. Oh, now I remember something. There was a sighting of a giant wrapped in gravstone armor in Yedda City. That creature disappeared soon after it appeared. Duo Ka and his friend were worried about it, but ¡­" Sha Ya always felt sorry for Duo Ka''s group, but since Ye Chong was involved with the deaths of those shooters, she quickly stopped herself from speaking further.

    Suddenly, she remembered that Ye Chong was also in Yedda City at the time. She asked, "Didn''t you hear about it?"

    Of course Ye Chong knew of it. That giant in ck armor was Ye Chong''s mech, Celest. Ye Chong now understood why he was attacked by Duo Ka when he flew Celest in the forest.

    "I did," Ye Chong answered, feeling a little awkward. He quickly focused back on Sha Ya''s words. If these territories were real, why did the red-tailed beasts escape the ce? Ye Chong would not believe that the vicious red-tailed beasts would obey these territorial boundaries. They were inherently aggressive and prone to expanding their territory. Besides, from the way the red-tailed beasts yearned for pure energy in his own world, it seemed more than odd that the red-tailed beasts would leave this ce. The had so much energy lying around for them.

    However, the fact remained that the red-tailed beasts had never left Darkniss. It was strange.

    Since Sha Ya knew nothing about it, Ye Chong found the whole problem shrouded in mystery. The only way he could find answers was to enter Darkniss himself.

    Nevertheless, it was a little early to actually visit the ce. If even Level 8 shooters had to tread carefully in the ce, Ye Chong could imagine how dangerous it was. Without sufficient preparation, Ye Chong would not embark on this journey. He would never put his life at risk so easily.

    Since all the mystery originated from Darkniss, Ye Chong had to start nning. The students that he had neglected before now had his full attention. It was impossible to enter the inner parts of Darkniss by himself. If the red-tailed beasts really lived in Darkniss, he would expect them to move in packs.

    Ye Chong was allowed five thousand people for his own security detail. That was what he and Sun Sieha agreed to when they first met. In the more recent agreement where he agreed to help Sun Sieha encourage closebat in Eastern Cloud, Ye Chong had asked to choose them personally. He could also pick them from any of the soldiers in the military, barring high ranking officials and soldiers of the 1st Legion.

    Five thousand was enough. He could not afford to pay for more. Despite his wealth, it would still cost him a lot to care for five thousand soldiers. He could hardly expect Sun Sieha to provide him with allowance.

    Money was not the most important issue. More important was the fact that all the shooters did not meet his requirements. Ye Chong thought that their midrangebat abilities were not very useful. The fighter aircrafts were also too primitive. Ye Chong did not want to train them into close range mech pilots like him. Long rangebat was more advantageous in this world. There was enough energy and suitable raw materials to that end. However, Ye Chong had never seen anyone as physicallycking as these shooters since he left the trash.

    Their weak bodies could endure flying a fighter aircraft, but not a mech, especially in making sudden turns. Ye Chong would not have this.

    Given the circumstances, Ye Chong could only train his soldiers personally. That was why Ye Chong began to pay great attention to their training routine.

    Once Ye Chong set his eyes on them, the students suffered. Training became more and more vigorous, in the form of all sorts of training routines that were weird and unheard of. The 20 thousand students suffered like never before. They ran every day till their legs gave way. Their limbs trembled when they ate their meals.

    Ye Chong also prescribed a heavy dose of medication to prevent injuries and strengthen their bodies.

    There was a fluorescent green liquid that smelled like vomit. Each student held a cup of this liquid in their hand. They all had weird and suffering expressions stuck on their faces. Even the devil instructor, Liao San, could not help but pity them. He thanked the stars for being assigned as an instructor and not a student!

    Gui Gui could empathize with them as well. She tossed a rare look of pity at the female students, who looked about ready to cry, but could not help taking a few steps back. The smell was terrible.

    Everyone had their eyes on the tform above, where Master Ye was standing without emotion. The students had been isted from the outside world throughout their training, but news of Master Ye''s victory over Xuan Ning still found its way in here. Ye Chong''s reputation skyrocketed to new heights. People worshipped him. Morale was high amongst the students.

    This green liquid, though ¡­

    The fluorescent green liquid was still steaming hot, but the nauseating smell was wearing

    their nerves down.

    The first to drink it was Shu Mo''er! She shut her eyes and swallowed everything in her cup in one go.

    This surprised everyone, including Ye Chong.

    With the first example set, the rest of the students no longer resisted. They chucked the liquid quickly like it was bitter medicine.

    The truth was, despite the nauseating smell, the taste was actually not that bad.

    The liquid turned out to be very effective. There were fewer people injured after their medication. From then onwards, the liquid became a daily prescription.

    Ye Chong looked downwards at the suntanned young people. Their bodies were much stronger than when they first started, but still far from Ye Chong''s ideal. The process cannot be rushed. How many of these 20 thousand people could pass? Ye Chong had no idea. He announced the next student intake to shorten the time between intake rounds.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong was impressed by the military behavior that the students had adopted. This wasrgely thanks to Liao San, who acted as chief overseer. His actions had influenced the 20 thousand students. Since he was a military man at heart, he had managed the students in a military style.

    Liao San thought it was a waste of his talents as a Vice Captain of the Royal Guards to serve as an overseer of the students, but he always executed his duties withplete dedication.

    As expected, the students were familiar with the military way of doing things. It was exactly what Ye Chong needed.

    Since the celebration and the National Combat Tournament hade to an end, Ye Chong could finally focus on other things. He wanted to modify his manor again. It was too sparsely armed for an actual base of operations.

    ¡­

    Sun Sieha looked at Xuan Ning, still unconscious, and felt terrible. Xuan Ning was a powerfulbatant, but Sun Sieha appreciated the man more for his general capabilities and loyalty. He had groomed the shooter personally to be who he was today. Additionally, Xuan Ning was an honest man with a military air about him. Sun Sieha liked him very much.

    How could he be so careless, allowing a crazy person to fight against Xuan Ning? Sun Sieha was vexed. "He''s a madman, a killer!" Sun Sieha cursed Ye Chong repeatedly.

    In the end, however, he was the one at fault. Sun Sieha knew exactly what kind of man Ye Chong was. He also knew Xuan Ning just as well. He was too focused on how to elevate Ye Chong''s reputation to consider the personalities of these two men.

    Xuan Ning was serious, straightforward and ready to kill. Ye Chong was even more serious, more straightforward and more ready to kill!

    The sh between them was inevitable!

    Sun Sieha was also puzzled about something else - Ye Chong''s second student intake. Ye Chong had asked for the intake, and Sun Sieha had agreed to it happily. However, now that he had time to think about it, there was something strange about the whole deal. Ye Chong was not interested in taking students at first. He had to offer quite a few things to get the man to agree to it. Now, however, Ye Chong had asked for another batch of students. Of course Sun Sieha was puzzled!

    Sun Sieha could not understand the motive behind Ye Chong''s actions.

 Chapter 551 - Xuan Ningâ€™s Visit

    <h4>Chapter 551: Xuan Ning¡¯s Visit</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong had built 62bor machines. Eachbor machine was fitted with a low level bio-photon processor. Ye Chong did not mind the rtively primitive photon processors, since they were easy to make.

    Using unidirectional culture methods, Ye Chong could growrge numbers of low level bio-photon processors in a short time. It was the actualbour machines that took time to build. Local wooden materials were as hard as metal alloys, but not as easy to process as metals. There were many minor tweaks that Ye Chong had to manually interfere with. Without this manual part, he would have built 620 machines, and not just 62.

    The machines were designed to doborious physical work, so Ye Chong named them appropriately so. There was now arge heap of earth at the rear courtyard of his manor. Ye Chong had dug 60 meters further down from hisboratory. Kui''s chip had information on how to build underground bases, and all the experience they gathered from building the base on Spectre.

    This was immensely helpful for Ye Chong. He could have only managed a small underground basement by himself, and not arge underground base.

    The base was notplete yet. There were piles of earth everywhere, but the ground was already paved with rock tiles. Ye Chong had used natural materials like rocks to save cost.

    Laboratory 1 was done. The flooring wasrge and there were smooth bs of rock, with naturally urring indigo streaks. These rocks were cut with high intensityser beams. The air cirction system was up. Energy and water supply were settled. Laboratory 1 was 1,600 square meters wide, with a squareyout. The space wasrge enough for Ye Chong to move all the equipment he kept in the buildings topside down here.

    After he moved them in, Ye Chong divided Lab 1 into many smaller sections. Theb was small butplete. Ye Chong nned to do all kinds of research work here. He built a fewbs that he needed most first. However, it would take fiveboratories to store all the equipment he kept in Celest''s dimension keystone.

    The control station for the entire manor''s defense system was also moved underground. The manor was not perfectly secure for now, but it was safe enough. It would be difficult to get him from 60 meters above. The buildings on the ground were only for distraction.

    It would be impossible for anyone to break into his underground base, since the surroundings were monitored by a holographic scanning system.

    After a few days of intense work, Ye Chong could finally take a breather. Lab 1 was now a fully functioningboratory. Ye Chong had spent a lot of effort in building his underground base. He did not have specialized equipment for the task, and had to do many things by hand. Ye Chong had no trouble with general construction engineering, but an underground base was usually constructed with many specialized machinery. Ye Chong had never seen or even heard of most of them. He could only build those machines roughly based on their functions. Without Ye Chong''s solid foundation of knowledge and rich experience, he would not have been able to build those 62bor machines.

    Finally, he had a rtively safer base of operations. It was the result of hard work. Ye Chong looked at his base that was still under construction, and felt overwhelmed by emotions. It seemed that he had never had a base that he could call his own before this.

    However, how long would he be staying here this time?

    After spending an entire week in his manor, Ye Chong had to leave. There was still something else that demanded his attention - the Weapons Design Contest. He was to serve on the judge panel.

    Before that, however, there was a guest that required his attention.

    Xuan Ning''s visit took Ye Chong by surprise. Xuan Ning was also the third person, aside from Sun Sieha and Master Karu, to have set foot inside Ye Chong''s manor.

    If it was anyone else, Ye Chong would have refused to entertain them. Xuan Ning, however, merited his attention.

    Xuan Ning looked like apletely different person. Before the battle, he was like a de that shone threateningly; now, he looked like the image of peace.

    Ye Chong took a long nce at Xuan Ning, and asked, "You''ve reached Level 9?"

    Xuan Ning smiled. "Yes. To think that I would reach Level 9 because of you! I thank you for this."

    "No need to thank me. It''s all because of your own effort." Ye Chong shook his head. He could see that the man''s ascension had in part was due to him, but the circumstances were not pleasant. If he was forced to make a breakthrough because someone tried to kill him, saying thank you would hardly be his response.

    The first thing Ye Chong would do after achieving his breakthrough would be to kill that b*stard.

    The way he saw it, Xuan Ning had no need to thank him.

    Xuan Ning did not argue. Heughed and said, "That''s up to me to decide."

    "Well, you''re right." Ye Chong nodded. He was never interested in changing another person''s mind. He asked Xuan Ning, "Why are you here?"

    "Nothing much. I just felt likeing to see you," Xuan Ning shook his head and said. "I see. You can leave now then." Ye Chong did not mince words with Xuan Ning.

    Xuan Ning smiled. "I was just about to leave."

    Sha Ya could not understand the exchange between those two men, but news of Xuan Ning''s ascension to Level 9 was definitely shocking. If word of this went out, it would definitely cause another wave of excitement. She watched enviously at Xuan Ning''s retreating figure with mixed feelings. The first Level 9 shooter in five decades was born. Sha Ya turned her gaze back on herself - a Level 8 shooter, still far from reaching Level 9. When would she ever attain that level of ability?

    Ye Chong was also watching Xuan Ning when he suddenly had an idea. He looked to Sha Ya and said, "Come with me. I''ll walk you through my battle with Xuan Ning, perhaps you''ll get some inspiration from it."

    Ye Chong understood Xuan Ning''s ability better than most people. He even understood Xuan Ning''s final parapsychic attack. The details were worthless to normal people, but they were priceless to Sha Ya.

    When Ye Chong was done, he left Sha Ya to her thoughts and headed for the training ground.

    Dust was flying everywhere on the training ground. Liao San was yelling; the students were panting heavily; footsteps stomped heavily on the ground. The ce was full of activity.

    Now that these people had began to grasp the rhythm of running, they were no longer suffering as much. Some of them picked up certain running strategies and improved their stamina faster. However, this kind of stamina training was limited in purpose. There were other ways to further improve the students.

    Soon, Ye Chong would be able to select students with desired qualities from them. A qualified mech pilot must first train their stamina, and then their shooting. Long range mech pilots ced more emphasis on shooting, but Ye Chong was not worried about that part. Eastern Cloud hadws that allow only license holders to use guns, but really, who had never used one before?

    "Take it slow," Ye Chong consoled himself.

    Eastern Cloud''s Weapons Design Contest was held every four years. The event was not only about weapons design, but alsorge scale weapons trading. Weaponsmiths with any degree of reputation could sell or auction their more outstanding products in the concurrent Weapons Trading Market. Well-to-do weaponsmiths would prefer to exchange their goods for raw materials that were hard to find.

    Shooters woulde to barter goods that they had collected over the years, in exchange for some high grade weapons that they had longed for.

    As the head of the judging panel, Ye Chong only needed to be present for the finals of the contest. He had plenty of free time on his hands.

    ¡­

    The public square wasrge. Weaponsmiths put their weapons on disy, while shootersid out all kinds of rare materials. The stalls were packed closely to one another, but everyone looked about ready to burst with excitement.

    Ye Chong had his eyes opened by all the weird and interesting things and raw materials on disy in the stalls.

    The only thing that made him ufortable was the fact that everyone recognized him wherever he went. They would rush in to greet him, to curry his favor, or to ask him to ept a new student. Ye Chong could barely stand the enthusiasm and excitement despite his calmness.

    Ye Chong found his way out of the crowd, a mean feat by all ounts, and quickly bought a cloak. The gray colored cloak had a mask attached, so that he could hide his face. There were many people dressed in these cloaks, people who did not want to stand out, like Ye Chong. The outfit did not stand out in the crowd.

    Ye Chong had a fewser guns that he made himself on him. Perhaps he could trade them for something good.

    He was not interested in weapons. He mostly wandered around stalls that had raw materials on disy. Many of them were metals, or gravstones, as the locals called it. Few shooters could survive Darkniss by themselves, but shooters at Level 6 or 7 would form groups to brave the dangers of Darkniss. Their target was almost always the gravstones, unique to Darkniss.

    A good weapon was usually not avable for cash. Famous weaponsmiths were usually not in need of money. They preferred to barter, and gravstones were popr amongst weaponsmiths.

    Ye Chong, on the other hand, was more familiar with metals than any other raw material. Metal ores and minerals did not interest him. In fact, Celest''s dimension keystone stored more than a few high grade metal alloy products.

    Ye Chong searched around. Suddenly, something in a stall manned by a bearded man caught his eye.

 Chapter 552 - A Faint Clue

    <h4>Chapter 552: A Faint Clue</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was a pink coloured colloid object, thick as a brick. Numerous thin blue hair-like protrusions grew from its surface. These blue hair were swaying gently like seaweed underwater.

    Ye Chong recalled seeing something like that in the base on Spectre. He did not have time to investigate what it was then, but now was his chance to learn more about it.

    The thin hairs on the pink colloid object was some kind of fungus that Ye Chong had never seen before. Having inherited Lunatic Guan''s knowledge in alchemy, there were not many fungi species that Ye Chong had never seen before. This blue colored fungus must be extremely rare. Ye Chong knew that Lunatic Guan''s chips recorded many species that he had once thought to be rare. The fact this blue fungus was not in the chip told him how scarcely seen it must be.

    The universe was vast. It was only inevitable that Lunatic Guan had not seen all the fungi species that ever existed. Ye Chong did not think it odd. The specimen he saw the first time was hidden in a corner, along with many other junk and things, covered in dust. The researchers at the Research Consortium must have not thought much about it. If it was not for the weird shape of the fungus, Ye Chong would have forgotten that he had it in Celest''s keystone.

    At the moment, he had found another identical specimen in Su City - a pink colored colloid object, on which the fungus grew. If it just the colloid of the fungus alone he was seeing, he would not have been so surprised to see it. This specimen, however, was nearly identical in both parts of the whole. Besides, given how scarce the fungus is, it was most likely that it could only survive under very specific environmental conditions.

    How was this new specimen rted to the one he found earlier?

    Ye Chong studied the bearded man. His hands were covered with thick calluses, the mark of a long history in using guns. Besides, his gaze was steady and confident. Ye Chong put him down as a shooter of at least Level 6.

    Ye Chong squeezed his way to the bearded man''s stall and picked up the pink colloid. He inspected it closely to make sure that it looked the same as the one he had. It most likely originated from the same ce as the specimen he had.

    "What is this?" Ye Chong asked.

    The bearded man looked up at Ye Chong, and could not glean anything from his form, now covered entirely in a gray cloak. The man shook his head. "I don''t know either."

    "You don''t know?" Ye Chong looked at him, surprised. "Where did you get it from?"

    "My father brought it back from Darkniss during one of his trips. He was heavily injured then, and passed away not long after," the bearded man replied quietly.

    "Darkniss?" Ye Chong was shocked. He did not expect that. If this fungus came from Darkniss, then where did the specimen he found in the Research Consortium''s basee from? Both specimen were obviously the same thing, and came from the same ce. Ye Chong was not sure if the fungus was artificially grown or naturally urring, but if it was really from Darkniss, the odds were that it was a natural form of life in there.

    Ye Chong remembered something else. He had arrived in this strange world from the Consortium''s base. Could the base be rted to this world in some inexplicable way?

    The bearded studied the man under the gray cloak, who was now holding the pink colured colloid in his hand and deep in thought. The bearded man felt invigorated. The thing was something he got from his father when he was young. His father died soon after the trip to Darkniss, and never told him more about the mysterious colloid. Later on, he tried to investigate more about it, but no one had seen it before. After so many years, that strange thing still looked exactly the same as it was the first time he set eyes on it. He no longer felt so intrigued by it anymore.

    He was now a Level 7 shooter. He had hoped to get a nifty weapon from this weapons trading market. Ever since he reached Level 7, he had visited Darkniss a few times, but mostly in the outer regions. The Desert and the Mist were not suitable for air travel, so a handy weapon was very important.

    In all his years travelling to and from Darkniss, he had amassed some things of value. He brought them all to this weapons trading market in the hopes of exchanging them for a decentser gun. This man, now, was interested in something he had. However, from the looks of it, he did not know what the pink object was either.

    The bearded man''s disappointment showed.

    "Are you selling this?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Only for bartering. I want aser gun, at least 4 million Lux."

    Ye Chong exchanged one of his own handmadeser guns for the colloid object. The bearded man seemed satisfied by the trade. He knew exactly how much the gun was worth. The power of aser gun at 4 million Lux varied greatly, depending on whether it came from average manufacturers or a Master level weaponsmith. This was why capable shooters would ask for customized weapons from weaponsmiths.

    After the trade, Ye Chong saw nothing else of interest. The day''s catch was worthwhile, however.

    Ye Chong returned to his manor andpared the specimen he found in the Research Consortium''s base and the one he just bought. Except for the size and shape, they were exactly the same thing. Ye Chong made queries from his chip, hoping to find something from the Research Consortium that could tell him where the specimen came from, but to no avail.

    First was the red-tailed beasts; then the ck circle; now there were two colloid fungi of the same species - one hidden in a corner of the base back in his world, and another from the inner parts of Darkniss. He had also found himself mysteriously transported to this strange and unfamiliar world. All the facts were here. Ye Chong knew that all of them were rted in some way, but how? All the signs pointed toward Darkniss.

    Perhaps the only way to answer all his questions was to visit Darkniss himself. Ye Chong looked at the holographic scanning, where many young people were training hard on the training ground. He dismissed the idea right away. It was folly to think he could survive a solo trip to Darkniss. These young people he was training were still too far away from being realbatants. Some things cannot be rushed. Nheless, what if he only aimed to do a simple exploratory visit?

    Ye Chong thought that might just be manageable. Everything he knew about Darkniss came from secondary sources. He cannot make the right decision without having a more objective understanding of the ce. Bringing so many people into Darkniss without more information was very risky.

    Ye Chong considered the n. If he were to enter Darkniss himself, that would not do at all. He did not even know how to get there. Sha Ya can act as his guide. She was experienced. However, just the two of them did not seem enough. Perhaps Xuan Ning would be willing to join him? If he offered a goodser gun for the man in exchange for his services, what were the odds of him agreeing to it?

    ¡­

    For the past few days, Sha Ya spent her time indoors in deep thought. Ever since Ye Chong shared with her the details of his battle with Xuan Ning, she fell into a mood. Ye Chong understood what was happening. He had been through it before. This was not the time to interrupt her.

    Having decided on his n of action, Ye Chong went to the training ground. He inspected the young people there and found himself happy with their progress. Liao San was training the new recruits with passionate. The young recruits all looked sunburnt, with some of them even developing freckles. Nevertheless, they were in high spirits. Even the nobilities looked like they have had aplete personality makeover.

    Ye Chong even more surprised by Gui Gui''s personally led women''s division. Thedies no longer cared for their appearance. They looked exactly like the men. Only the Shu sisters still retained their fair skin. Shu Mo''er threw a cold look at Ye Chong, while Shu Man''er looked haunted and very, very scared. Ye Chong''s gaze did not linger on them both. Only their results mattered. He did not mind their hostility towards him.

    After briefing the instructors on thetest training routine, Ye Chong returned to Su City. He flew amonly seen aircraft, the Butterly-3. It was a popr model which required parapsychic control on its tracking ball to fly it. Ye Chong did not have parapsychic abilities, but flying the aircraft presented no difficulties.

    In fact, Ye Chong had thrown out almost all the mechanical parts in the Butterfly-3, leaving only its hull. Ye Chong exchanged the tracker ball for a control lever, simr to the one in the Collision mech. The engine was also modified to fly much faster than the average Butterly-3. The aircraft was used only for transport. Ye Chong''s manor was quite a distance away from Su City.

    "You''re looking for Xuan Ning?" Sun Sieha was baffled. He stared at Ye Chong, trying to figure him out.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Yes." He did now know where Xuan Ning lived, and had to resort to this other option.

    Sun Sieha turned to his side and gave the order, "Have Xuan Ninge to my study." A guard immediately rushed out to execute his duties.

    Sun Sieha turned back to Ye Chong and studied him for a long moment. He offered slowly, "You really messed things up for me this time, you know? It was just a demonstration contest. Did you know you nearly killed Xuan Ning?"

    Ye Chong looked calm. "I''ve told you before, I only know how to fight."

    "Fine." Sun Sieha gestured with a wave. "''I''ll not pursue the matter further. Xuan Ning has benefited from the ident. A Level 9 shooter, hehe. Eastern Cloud finally has a Level 9 shooter."

    Xuan Ning entered Sun Sieha''s study then. He saw Ye Chong and could not hide his surprise.

    "Your Majesty." Xuan Ning made a proper greeting to Sun Sieha.

    Sun Sieha smiled. "How many times have I told you, no need for the formalities. Well, this time it''s Master Ye who hase to see you."

    "Oh." Xuan Ning looked even more surprised. "What would Master Ye like to discuss with me?"

    "I''d like to invite you on a trip to Darkniss."

    "Darkniss?" Xuan Ning and Sun Sieha exchanged a look of puzzlement. He Xuan Ning asked, "Why would Master Ye want to visit that ce? Are youcking any raw materials? As far as I know, the Royal Family has all kinds of rare materials in stock. You don''t have to risk the trip to Darkniss."

    "That''s right," Sun Sieha said with augh, "We can talk about how much you''d want to buy."

    Ye Chong shook his head and made his thoughts clear. "No. Are you willing to go? If yes, what are your conditions?"

    Xuan Ning took a long look at Ye Chong. He considered the invitation for a while and then replied slowly, "Apanying Master Ye on a trip to Darkniss is fine with me. There is no need forpensation, consider it a token of appreciation for assisting me in achieving Level 9. Having said that, I have my formal duties. The trip would require His Majesty''s approval." Ye Chong turned his gaze to Sun Sieha.

    "Well then!" Sun Sieha affected an expression of unwillingness.

    "What do you want?" Ye Chong did not beat around the bush.

    Sun Sieha blushed briefly, but quickly returned to business. He considered the question for a moment, and then said, "I''m fine with having Xuan Ning apanying you. However, in exchange, I want all the information required for us to build your cannon arrays." Ye Chong''s cannon array was a powerful weapon, but each one cost the nation 20 million ao, an expenditure that Sun Sieha could not afford. He had long wanted to get his hands on the weapon''s schematics, since the weaponsmiths he hired could not replicate the weapon. Now that the opportunity presented itself, he jumped for it without hesitation.

    "Alright." Ye Chong''s reply was swift. The technology behind the cannon array was not exactly advanced. He had a lot more technical knowledge to offer than that. Offering the cannon array technology in exchange for the assistance of a Level 9 shooter was a good trade.

    "Hah!" Sun Sieha was overjoyed. He was prepared to bargain with Ye Chong, but he man had agreed without arguing. Sun Sieha was happy with the oue, but he could not help but wonder why Ye Chong wanted to visit Darkniss so suddenly.

    "I''lle to you when I''m ready," Ye Chong said to Xuan Ning. He then turned to Sun Sieha. "Send your men to my ce for the schematics." With that, he left Sun Sieha''s study.

    "What do you of his foray into Darkniss?" Sun Sieha asked Xuan Ning.

    Xuan Ning could not understand it as well. "I don''t know. Master Ye is an mysterious and unpredictable man."

    Sun Sieha nodded without a word. In any case, now that he had the schematics for the cannon array, the military would be able to arm themselves with this weapon on a massive scale. Western Frost and Northern Lands would both tremble under the might of the powerful cannon arrays.

    "I look forward to that day!" Sun Sieha thought to himself. His eyes lit up fervently.

    ¡­

    When Ye Chong reached his manor, Master Karu arrived right after him.

    Master Karu was breathing heavily. "I say, did you forget that you''re in the judging panel? Quick,e with me, to the contest, we''re all waiting for you. Also, hand me the schematics for the cannon array. I''ve been trying to figure out ho1 to build the weapon but I can''t make head nor tails of it."

    Ye Chong remembered that he was supposed to serve as a judge.

 Chapter 553 - Xi Yan

    <h4>Chapter 553: Xi Yan</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    When Ye Chong and Master Karu arrived at the contest venue, the contestants had already waited close to an hour. No one showed any signs of impatience, however, for they observed a clear delineation of status between them.

    Master Karu sighed in relief and said to Ye Chong, "These are the works that made it to the finals. Have a look at them, and rank them as you see fit."

    There were five people standing in front of Ye Chong. The youngest was just a teenager, who had an air of youthful stubbornness. The oldest sported a long white beard and sharp eyes. There was a woman among the five. The five of them greeted Ye Chong and Karu respectfully. Standing around them were six other people who also bowed respectfully. They were members the judging panel, and some of Eastern Cloud''s best weaponsmiths. Two of them held government positions. These two showed particr admiration for Ye Chong.

    Master Karu was in their ranks as well. His was a legendary name in the field of weapons building. Ye Chong''s recent appearance was remarkable enough that he had reced Master Karu as Chief Weaponsmith of Eastern Cloud, putting him on the same level of the other judges. Compared to Master Karu, Ye Chong was had a more mysterious and interesting background.

    The Master level weaponsmiths who were now bowing to Ye Chong were curious about him. So far, there no weapons out in the world that bore Ye Chong''s name. The two weaponsmiths who were serving the Eastern Cloud government were full of expectations. They looked to Ye Chong like a student would to their teacher. They knew more about Ye Chong than the other four judges.

    Ye Chong''s works were all treated as ssified information by His Majesty Sun Sieha and Master Karu. It was simply impossible to sell his works openly in the market.

    The five contestants were all curious, but also nervous.

    Ye Chong turned his attention to the five weapons arranged on the disy tform.

    The first was aser gun. Its purple colored body waspactly designed, made from the wood of purple camphor. The weaponsmith behind it must be skilled and experienced to have produced this weapon. The gun had sparse decorations, but it had character behind its minimalism. The entireser gun was in a dark purple color unique to purple camphor wood that spoke of hidden power within. It was also a very powerful weapon.

    The second was aser sword, rarely seen in Eastern Cloud since there were not manybat experts who used this weapon. Theser sword was 1.7 meters long, with wavy edges like mes. The wavy razors could move quickly like a high speedser saw, capable of terrifying destruction. The wavy razor operated independent of the mainser sword, but they were both fitted together perfectly. Theser sword held a solid form, and could cut through objects without so much as a flicker. Laser swords were obscure weapons, but this one made the cut to the finals.

    The third was an individual photon orbuncher. Theuncher looked like a big wooden box, but inside was a scary lookingunch barrel. The interesting thing about this weapon was its energy reloading method. Heavy firepower weapons like this consumed energy quickly, making it difficult to maintain a steady stream of attacks in battle. However, this particr photon orbuncher needed only three seconds to reload. Hence, in theory, if a person carried enough energy with them, they could use maintain pressure on the enemy effectively. It was terrifying weapon.

    The forth was a set of shurikens. The star-shaped shurikens were elegantly designed and aerodynamically shaped. This was also an obscure choice of weapons. However,pared to theser sword, this shurikens set was perfect for shooters, especially those with strong parapsychic sense. The designer of the shurikens had put much thought into the design. He used the tracking ball in conventional aircrafts to control the shurikens. After all, the miniaturization of tracking balls was one of the outstanding issues for weaponsmiths. This weaponsmith had not seeded in that yet, but he had introduced a new concept. Shooters could have a certain level of control over the shurikens through the tracking ball via parapsychic control. Even though the precision of control wasckingpared to in aircrafts, this was still a remarkable achievement.

    The fifth was not a weapon per say, but an engine. It looked quite ordinary, an assembly of colorful mechanical parts and gears that made it look like a patchwork. Master Karu told him that the engine did not draw any attention from the judges at first, but once it was examined with specialized equipment, they found the engine to be shockingly efficient. Nevertheless, none of the judges understood the reason for it, and this made them uneasy.

    This was one of the reasons Master Karu insisted Ye Chong toe for the judging session.

    Ye Chong quickly ranked the weapons. The engine was no doubt in first ce, followed by the shuriken set, the jaggedser sword, the photon orbuncher and finally, theser gnu.

    Everyone waited with deference for Ye Chong to exin the mechanism behind the engine. It was a rare opportunity to hear a Master speak of his field. Even Master Karu looked eager to listen.

    "The engine is well designed. Unlike themon design used in this country, the weaponsmith hase up with an original design - I call it the double-U structure. The double-U structure improves energy consumption efficiency, which is why this engine is more efficient than normal engines." Ye Chong pointed at the work that he ranked first. "Besides, the weaponsmith behind this engine has put much a lot of effort into building it. He used different materials to make different parts. The overall oue ismendable."

    Everyone listened closely to Ye Chong''s exnation. But what he said so far was not enough to satisfy the judges, especially people like Master Karu.

    Ye Chong did not have the patience to go into the details. He took apart the engine with familiar ease. "The cushioning here is too thick, you should reduce it by a third. Besides, this exhaust pipe is not necessary, take it off. Here, too, you should add a pressure valve." Ye Chong pointed at different parts of the engine andmented casually. He was familiar with the engine''s structure, since it was a ssic example of the double-U design that he had seen before in his own world. However, this particr engine was only a prototype whenpared to the fully developed double-U design in his world. Some small tweaks were in order. However, the weaponsmith behind the engine must be talented to havee up with this original design.

    The youngest of the five finalists looked very emotional. Master Karu sighed quietly to himself. Ye Chong was the real thing. Hisments were delivered without enthusiasm, but the modifications he rmended showed his true abilities!

    Some of the judges looked unconvinced. Ye Chong''s exnation of the engine was brief and superficial. Moreover, he had given rmendations after just giving a brief look at the engine. His words sounded more like nonsense.

    There was enough equipment provided for the contest to perform those modifications immediately. The young man quickly did the changes as Ye Chong suggested.

    When the engine was tested again for performance, everyone was shocked by the results - the engine''s efficiency had risen by 20 percent!

    Those who doubted Ye Chong earlier now felt only admiration and respect for Ye Chong. Master Karu looked at Ye Chong like the man was a monster - how can a man make a few simple suggestions and produce this staggering result?

    Facts are the most convincing form of argument. No one doubted Ye Chong again.

    Ye Chong benefited from the experience as well. Aside from theser gun, the other weapons were all well designed. He was also impressed by the creativity expressed in them. The young man who designed the engine looked simr to Lian Yue. Theser sword felt like a weapon he could wield with ease. Laser swords had one advantage over metal alloy swords - they were lighter and easier to carry. This particrser sword could extend to 1.7 meters, but when theser was deactivated, the hilt was only the size of a dagger. Of course,ser swords had the weakness of being dependent on an energy source.

    "Is thisser sword for sale? I''m alright with bartering too." Ye Chong asked. In the end, specialization matters. Only a dedicated weaponsmith could produce an excellent weapon like this sword. Ye Chong could not hope to emte the work. Of all the work presented in the finals, only theser sword was suitable for Ye Chong. Theser gun was definitely out of question. Ye Chong could build an even better one. The shuriken set required parapsychic abilities. Ye Chong could build an even more advanced grenadeuncher than the photon orbuncher. As for the engine, Ye Chong already designed a few engines himself. There were also many engine designs in Kui''s memory chips. Only theser sword was of use to him.

    Master Karu was taken aback. Never before had a judge asked to buy a weapon from the finalists. He felt a little awkward, since this might set an undesirable precedent. The request was also unfair for the contestants, since the judges were the ones who decide the winner of the contest.

    Master Karu would have declined if it was anyone else, but this was Ye Chong making the request. He could not afford to offend Ye Chong, no matter the reason.

    Master Karu looked inquiringly towards the other judges, who were now looking anywhere but at him.

    Master Karu rubbed his nose andughed awkwardly. "That ¡­ That would be ¡­"

    "Is there a problem?" Ye Chong looked at Master Karu.

    Master Karu exined hesitantly, "Usually, the works of the finalists will be sold at an open auction at the end of the weapons design contest ¡­"

    "I see." Ye Chong nodded and went quiet.

    Master Karu felt unsettled. He threw a nervous nce at Ye Chong. If he offended the man today, how could he hope to live the rest of his life in peace? He knew that this inconspicuous young man had the world''s most advanced technology at his fingertips. His Majesty was always trying to pry some of that knowledge out of him.

    "I am truly honoured that you are interested in thisser gun!" A middle-aged man stepped forward and said. He was the man behind theser sword. His name was Xi Yan, age 40. He was not too old for a weaponsmith. Xi Yan looked a little thin. His eyes shone intently against his dark skin.

    "ording to the rules of the contest, none of these works can be sold before the final results are out. However, the contest did not forbid me from gifting my work to Master Ye Chong. Am I right, Master Karu?" Xi Yan asked suddenly.

    Master Karu was surprised by the question, but he nodded in reflex. "A gift, that is not forbidden."

    "Then we''re all good!" Xi Yan smiled. His next words surprised everyone else. "I willingly present myser sword as a gift to Master Ye Chong, and I am pulling myself out from the contest."

    "What?" Master Karu and the rest were shocked. Bing a finalist in the Weapons Design Contest was the highest honour for any weaponsmith. Of course they were surprised by Xi Yan''s announcement.

    "I only have one request." Before anyone could recover, Xi Yan looked intently at Ye Chong and said, "I hope to be a disciple under Master Ye Chong. I will follow Master Ye Chong for the rest of my life."

    This was another bomb for the audience. The other contestants quickly saw the rationale behind his decision. They all saw how capable Ye Chong was.

    Everyone in the room looked at Ye Chong. Discipleship was a strict practice, just like in the Five Gxies.

    Ye Chong was surprised by the offer as well. He considered it for a moment, and then replied, "You can study under me, that is not an issue. However, you must be prepared to live a life of constant travelling, unable to return home." "A life of constant travelling" was only a cover. What Ye Chong meant was Xi Yan must be prepared to never return to his home.

    Master Karu was shocked. "A life of constant travelling"? His Majesty would never let him go far. He must warn the King about this soon. If Ye Chong fell into another country''s hands, the consequences were unbearable.

    Xi Yan smiled easily. "Xi Yan has always lived alone. Don''t worry, Teacher. From today onwards, Xi Yan will always be by your side." Xi Yan was secretly overjoyed. Unlike other contestants, he did not study formally with any teacher. He was mostly self taught, ever since he was young. Everything he achieved today was the result of his own extraordinary hard work. He had always yearned for a worthy teacher to study under, and now he had found one. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He did not care about his ranking in the contest. He was only a technician at heart. Besides, he was already 40 years old. Who would want to have such an old student?

    Ye Chong nodded. "Alright, you''lle with meter." Xi Yan had good fundamentals. With a bit of push, he would improve very quickly.

    Xi Yan was not like Kristen. He could follow Ye Chong all the way. A skilled disciple like him would be of tremendous help to Ye Chong. Kristen would stay in Eastern Cloud in the end. She had family and friends here. Even if Ye Chong found his way back to He Yue Gxy, he would not take her with him.

    The other contestants were jealous of Xi Yan. They had teachers already, and besides, they had family that they could not leave behind.

    Fate granted him the chance to under a great weaponsmith like Master Ye Chong. No wonder they were jealous of Xi Yan.

    Maste Karu stared while Xi Yan was being epted by Ye Chong as a disciple. Anyone would try to hire a talented man like Xi Yan to work for them. Now that Ye Chong hadid im, no one else could hope to get their hands on Xi Yan again. Even His Majesty tread with care when dealing with Ye Chong. Master Karu did not believe that he would be able to convince any of Ye Chong''s disciples to betray him.

    "At least he''s still in Eastern Cloud," Master Karu consoled himself.

    Ye Chong then continued to exin the workings of the other weapons by the finalists. His words were precise and to the point. Everyone was absorbed in them. To them, Master Ye Chong seemed to have a keen sense. He could point out minor changes that could lead to significant improvements. Everyone was impressed by his abilities.

    Ye Chong did not care about what his audience was thinking. He only found the designs of these weapons inspiring.

    It was a day after all!

    After going through all five weapons, Ye Chong took Xi Yan with him and left. The rest of the audience were still entranced by Ye Chong''s exnations and miraculous suggestions.

    Xi Yan sat behind Ye Chong in his Butterly-3 as they flew towards Ye Chong''s manor.

    Xi Yan was intrigued by the Butterly-3''s manual control mechanism. Ye Chong seemed more like invincible than ever. Xi Yan always thought that piloting an aircraft required a licence, and a licence could only be obtained by having parapsychic abilities. A person without parapsychic abilities cannot fly an aircraft. Xi Yan never imagined that a person without parapsychic abilities can fly an aircraft. It was simply unthinkable!

    Xi Yan''s eyes widened as he watched Ye Chong maneuver the control lever.

    Ye Chong noticed his curious stare at the control lever, and offered some exnation, "Mechanical parts allow easier control. I don''t have parapsychic abilities, so this modification is necessary."

    Xi Yan nodded, not fully understanding him.

    The view around them was receding quickly. Xi Yan hesitated for a while, but finally blurted out, "Teacher, this Butterly-3''s engine is modified, right?" The Butterfly-3 was flying much faster than its normal counterparts.

    "Yes, but not by a lot. The hull is from the original aircraft. Only the engine, protection system and main body of the aircraft were modified. I''ve also changed the weapons system." Ye Chong replied casually.

    Xi Yan was already in cold sweat. The engine, main body, protection system and weapons system were all modified - how could he call that "not by a lot"? Those were basically the mainponents of the aircraft.

    "Careful, turbulence ahead." Ye Chong interrupted Xi Yan''s thoughts.

    Suddenly, the world around Xi Yan started spinning wildly. Everything was spinning in his vision. It made him want to throw up badly.

    Ye Chong stared straight ahead, unmoved by the disturbance. His hands pushed the levers here and there.

    The Butterfly-3 did a big turn in the air, and then charged forward in a corkscrew motion, drilling its way through the turbulent winds with brute force.

    Swish!

    The aircraft escaped from the region of turbulence.

    Thending field of Ye Chong''s manor came into view. Ye Chong pulled the control lever upwards. The aircraft abruptly shot upwards, and then dived straight towards thending field. Behind him, Xi Yan looked very pale.

    When they were barely a hundred meters from the ground, Ye Chong abruptly pulled the control lever up again. The aircraft''s nose lifted as it began to level with the ground.

    Finally, the aircraft decelerated sharply andnded safely on thending field.

    Xi Yan, now pale as a sheet, supported himself on the hull as he made his way out of the cockpit. When his feet finally touched the ground, he bent over and began to vomit.

 Chapter 554 - Always Be Prepared

    <h4>Chapter 554: Always Be Prepared</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sha Ya was still isting herself, thinking about Xuan Ning''s battle. Ye Chong arranged for Xi Yan''s amodation without much difficulty. There were many empty buildings at his ce after all.

    He must start making preparations since Xuan Ning had agreed to the trip.

    Ye Chong took out both samples of the colloid fungi. He wanted to find out what was special about them. He assembled all the testing equipment avable to him and began to examine both specimens thoroughly.

    To his great surprise, all the equipment yielded no results. It was weird!

    This was his first time encountering this problem. It was not until the third day that he realized that the fungus could avoid all senses. Electromaic wave scans were ineffective against both specimens. Ye Chong had never seen anything with this unique attribute. It felt a little magical. He took Krisen to the samples and made some experiments. As expected, parapsychic waves were ineffective against the two colloid fungus samples.

    This was treasure! Ye Chong quickly recognized the importance of this colloid fungus. If he had enough of them, he might be able to derive some form of substance that could help him avoid being locked on by parapsychic waves.

    However, two specimens were too little, even for just one mech. Fortunately, Ye Chong was a brilliant alchemist. If he could find a way to cultivate them inrge batches, Celest would be a true Kind of Darkness. All forms of detection would be ineffective against the bio-mech.

    This shocking discovery was encouraging for Ye Chong. The two colloid fungus specimens were very useful for him!

    Since Laboratory 2 waspleted recently, Ye Chong decided to set it up as an alchemistboratory. He even fitted theb with its own independent HVAC system [1]. There were even facilities like temperature-controlled rooms and a vacuum sealed room. About half of all the equipment Ye Chong salvaged from the Research Consortium''s base was rted to biology. With all these advanced equipment, Lab 2 became the most well equippedboratory in his base.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong had the Guan family''s auto-analytics mechanism to figure out the best way to cultivate the colloid fungus. It would have taken him years to figure it out himself otherwise. Ye Chong had made a copy of this mechanism. One was with him; the other was with Mu and Shang.

    Once again, Ye Chong marveled at the usefulness of the Guan Family''s auto-analytics mechanism. He suddenly thought of Lunatic Guan, and felt an emptiness inside him. Some prodigies suffered cruel fates despite their extraordinary gifts, like Lunatic Guan and Gu Shaoze.

    Ye Chong tried his best to push away these negative thoughts. He looked up at the photon processor that showed the form for the colloid fungus'' cultivation medium.

    Penthorum Ison, Mica-cobalt, Shigaran Zinc ¡­

    Ye Chong frowned. It was a list of metals.

    Strange! Ye Chong had never seen a cultivation medium form like this. ording to this rmended form, the colloid fungus thrived in a metal rich environment. Ye Chong suddenly had an idea - if this colloid fungus really came from Darkniss, perhaps the ce was really had an abundance of metals!

    The form seemed to suggest this. However, Ye Chong now had a another dilemma. Metals were easy to find in his own world, he only needed to pay for them. This world, however, produced no metals. All the obscure metals listed in the form were impossible to find.

    Unless ¡­

    Unless he went to Darkniss. There were some metals amongst all the things that Ye Chong salvaged from the Consortium''s base. However, they were only enough to cover half of what was on the list.

    Ye Chong''s dream to mass produce the colloid fungus would have to wait.

    Nevertheless, the discovery had further convinced him of the necessity to visit Darkniss.

    Sha Ya was still upied with her thoughts, and Ye Chong still needed to prepare for his trip. Anyone who knew Darkniss would describe it as a very dangerous ce. Ye Chong did not want to lose his life from this trip to Daniss because ofck of preparations on his end.

    People have talked that about most of the water in Darkniss was poisoned. Hence, food and water supply was an important issue. On the issue of food, Ye Chong could make nutrition pills. The high energy pills were tiny and easy to carry. As for water, Ye Chong had a few ideas, but none were safe enough. In the end, Ye Chong decided to just bring enough water into Darkniss. It was the safest way.

    Ye Chong took some time off to visit the training ground. All the students, be itmoners or nobilities, yielded to the militaristic social structure in the training camp. They improved quickly. Their stamina was much better than before.

    Liao San could not quite understand the reason behind all this. He had diligently performed his duties as Ye Chong asked him to, and he had seen the students improve. Their bodies were tougher, and they were stronger and more resilient. But so what? Even a normal shooter could kill them with a single shot.

    What baffled him even more was how their wise King was also very keen in this business.

    Ye Chong did not exin himself to Liao San. Instead, he called out the top 200 students who performed the best in stamina and rate of improvement, and then proceeded to teach them a few basic moves. These strange moves were supposed to improve flexibility.

    These 200 were the best of the 20 thousand people in the training camp, but the new routine nearly killed them. Three of them quickly suffered from torn muscles, leaving the other 197 of them screaming in pain. The rest of the students in the training ground were appalled.

    Ye Chong did not react to the cries of pain and suffering. He stared emotionlessly at them as they performed the new routine from beginning to end. If anyone shied away from the pain, Ye Chong would step up and help them personally with their new moves. This was always followed by a terrifying shriek of pain. As a bystander, Liao San felt his skin creep. He thought Ye Chong would make a good interrogator.

    When Ye Chong was satisfied and announced that they had all passed, the students felt immensely relieved. Ye Chong then ordered them to each those new moves to the rest of the students. After all the suffering they had been through, these 200 people now studied the rest of the students running in the training ground, ready to pass on the experience.

    Ye Chong did not spend too much time there. He had much to do. He just received the news that the second student intake was full. There were 50 thousand students in this round! The battle between Ye Chong and Xuan Ning had led to the former''s celebrity status. Hence, allocations for the second intake were fully taken up in just two days.

    Now, Ye Chong had to build another training ground that could house 50 thousand people as soon as possible.

    The 50 thousand new students arrived soon after Ye Chong was finished with building the second training ground. To Ye Chong''s surprise, there was one student who was actually skilled inbat - this was Duan Qian.

    Duan Qian could not get the chance to meet Ye Chong before this, so he applied for the student intake immediately when he knew about it.

    Duan Qian soon caught Ye Chong''s attention. Duan Qian had an air about him that was unique tobat experts, and Ye Chong could sense it a mile away. After testing Duan Qian''s skills, Ye Chong found himself impressed. It was hard enough to meet anyone good inbat in this world, who could absorb his teaching with ease. Since Duan Qian looked excited, Ye Chong decided to leave the second batch of students to him. He thought that Duan Qian should be able to handle teaching the basics. Besides, Liao San would be there to assist him.

    When Ye Chong went to his manor, Xi Yan was there to greet him.

    Xi Yan informed him respectfully, "Teacher, the raw materials your ordered for have arrived."

    "I see." Ye Chong quickly made his way to the warehouse, with Xi Yan close behind him. Recently, Xi Yan noticed from his interactions with Kristen that his own level of expertise was far below Kristen''s. He could not understand many of the things that Kristen had built, and it was baffling and annoying. It was some time earlier that Xi Yan found out Kristen had improved this much after studying under Ye Chong for less than a year. It was invigorating news for him, since it showed how learned and capable his teacher was. Xi Yan felt hopeful for his future.

    Ye Chong had ordered some high strength materials this time, such as wood from the hardy linden tree. This material wasmonly used to build aircrafts due to its impressive physical properties. From the volume of Ye Chong''s order, Xi Yan could not be certain what they could be for, since they were more than enough to build an aircraft.

    Soon, Ye Chong brought out a stack of paper to both his students.

    Xi Yan and Kristen exchanged a look of confusion before studying these papers. They were schematics of strange mechanical parts. Details of each part were listed down extensively.

    "Can you build these mechanical parts?" Ye Chong asked them both.

    Kristen went through the schematics and considered the question. She replied frankly, "Most of them should not be a problem, but some are a bit tooplicated for me. I may have some trouble with them."

    Ye Chong looked at Xi Yan. Xi Yan remained quiet. He studied the schematics closely, and then shut his eyes in contemtion. After awhile, he opened his eyes again and replied firmly, "No problem. I can make these parts."

    Kristen was a little surprised. One could tell from this difference that Kristencked the fundamental skills and experience that Xi Yan had.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Both of you should stop whatever you''re working on now and concentrate on making these parts. I need two of each."

    No one would question Ye Chong''s order. Besides, these strange mechanical parts had hooked their curiosity. What would the end product be once they finished making these parts?

    Ye Chong was a man of surprises. What form of surprise would they be having this time?

    The curiosity was enough motivation for them both. They worked tirelessly to build these mechanical parts. Xi Yan''s solidpetency in building these mechanical parts impressed Kristen.

    After seven days and seven nights, the parts were all done. The empty floor of the warehouse was now scattered with all kinds of parts.

    Xi Yan and Kristen both sported bloodshot eyes. They had been working without much sleep in the past few days, but still they kept their eyes open for fear of missing out on any single detail. They wanted to know what the result of their seven days of hard work would be. They could sense that Ye Chong ced heavy importance on this project.

    Both Kristen and Xi Yan werepetent weaponsmiths. The mechanical parts were built up to Ye Chong''s standards. However, Ye Chong did not immediately assemble them together. Instead, he took out a pail of light yellow liquid and used a spray gun to spray the light yellow liquid evenly on the surface of these mechanical parts. Ye Chong had prepared a strengthening solution to improve the physical properties of these parts.

    Xi Yan and Kristen studied the spray gun in Ye Chong''s hand with interest.

    After that, Ye Chong began assembling the parts as his students watched from the side.

    Ye Chong did it slowly enough for Xi Yan and Kristen to understand exactly what he was doing.

    Slot two linden wood bars together and secure them with mortise and tenon - you get working mechanical arm. Glue 18 curved surfaces together, and you get a pilot cabin the size of a house ¡­

    Xi Yan and Kristen watched with amazement as Ye Chong continued with the assembly. Despite their wildest imaginations, what they were seeing right now was still too much to process.

    Ye Chong worked with ease, and began to assemble faster. He lifted the heavier mechanical parts with one hand, like they weighed nothing at all. His hands could do anything - high pressure hammering, hole puncturing, heavy weight lifting ¡­

    A strange artificial product made of natural raw materials was built.

    When it was finallypleted, the massive object casted a huge shadow on its observers. Xi Yan and Kristen both watched in quiet astonishment. They had no words to describe what they were feeling right then. Only their eyes revealed how much their worshiped the creator of this miraculous work.

 Chapter 555 - Spider

    <h4>Chapter 555: Spider</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was a huge machine that reached up to almost seven meters. It was shaped like a spider, but with legs that reached up to 10 meters long. The proportion of the main body wasrger than that of a normal spider. That was where the pilot cabin was. Eight long mechanical legs supported the pilot cabin body above the ground. Xi Yan and Kristen werepletely hidden under the machine''s shadow.

    An adult human looked so weak and tiny before this gigantic object. Kristen and Xi Yan looked up at the staggering machine that reached up to two storeys tall. They had never seen such a strange machine. Thispletely overhauled their perception of machinery.

    "What ¡­ What is this?" Kristen muttered under her breath,pletely taken aback by this machine! Xi Yan had a nk expression that showed howpletely surprised he was.

    The thing was obviously a machine. Its eight slim but powerful legs could move with great flexibility. There were no decorations of any kind on the machine. All the mechanical parts were in in sight. The machine was abination of technology and nature that gave it a quality of strength and power.

    "This is only a shell. There are many other things to work on." Ye Chong exined to them both. He was their teacher, and it was only right for him to provide some exnation.

    Ye Chong abruptly grabbed onto Kristen and Xi Yan and hopped onto the back of the huge spider. His sudden movement startled the two students, but they soon became preupied with their immediate surroundings. They had never seen such a strange and massive machine.

    "This is the pilot cabin." Ye Chong lifted a hatch door and gestured inside, then slipped into the cabin. Kristen and Xi Yan followed.

    The pilot cabin wasrge enough to fit eight people.

    "There''s still a lot to add onto this machine. There is the engine, and weapons system. Hmm, we should also add extra armor around the crucial parts." Ye Chong stood calmly inside the pilot cabin.

    His two students werepletely won over by his skills.

    "Teacher, this ¡­ What do you call this? Can it move?" Xi Yan asked haltingly.

    "A name. Hmm, let''s call it Spider." Ye Chong said, "It can walk and move on hilly terrain, but it''s a lot slower than an aircraft." In fact, the Spider was probably the first ever mech built entirely of nt materials that mimicked a terrestrial animal.

    Kristen and Xi Yan were of course unimpressed by Ye Chong''s casual naming for the machine. Such a magnificent being should at least be given an equally impressive name, like Destroyer of Worlds or something.

    "What''s it used for?" Kristen was curious about this. She had spent more time with Ye Chong than most, and knew that her teacher would not spend so much effort on a useless piece of furniture. Nevertheless, she did think that this huge spider would make an excellent centerpiece.

    "Transport for people or resources." Ye Chong provided the exnation after some careful thought. He had designed this huge pilot cabin with the intention of entering Darkniss stocked with enough water and supplies. Ye Chong added, "Hmm, and also for amodation." The huge spider will of course be properly armedter, but Ye Chong thought that Sha Ya and Xuan Ning would be his main defense line.

    Kristen and Xi Yan exchanged a look of disbelief. This magnificent thing was only used for transport, while also doubling as a mobile outdoors camp. Xi Yan thought it was more than excessive.

    In the next few days, Ye Chong continued to improve the Spider.

    Engine, holographic scanning system, air cirction system, weapons system ¡­

    The Spider''s exterior also received a makeover, since Kristen and Xi Yan thought that the exposed mechanical gears and parts were simply unaesthetic. Hence, they added ayer of armor on the Spider''s legs to hide the gears at the joints. This addition made the Spider looked even more like the real thing from afar.

    Ye Chong also made extensive modifications to some crucial aspects, such as building the entry to the pilot cabin under the Spider''s belly. This was because Sha Ya and Xuan Ning were not good climbers. Ye Chong also calibrated the center of gravity of the Spider until he was satisfied that the pilot cabin did not shake too much when the Spider moved on hilly terrain.

    It was truly a marvel to see the seven-metre tall Spider ran across the mountains. Kristen and Xi Yan were both shocked when they first saw the Spider burst into a run.

    Ye Chong left Xi Yan and Kristen with some basic learning material inside a mini projector that could fit into one''s hand. This was basically what Ye Chong was teaching them so far. He did not hesitate to share all his knowledge with them. During his time at Aurora, the elders there never shied away from talking about their expertise. They always answered his questions patiently and with great detail. Thus, Ye Chong came to recognize them as necessary qualities in a teacher.

    The two students received the mini projectors like it was treasure. They had never seen anything like it. Studying the object brought them no closer to understanding how it worked. They were intrigued by the device, but also captivated by the new and deep knowledge inside it.

    ¡­

    Sha Ya finally emerged from her room.

    Ye Chong gave her a lookover, and then asked, "You''re done?"

    "Yes." Sha Ya nodded. After so many days of thinking without much rest, her low and hoarse voice now sounded dry and tired as well. "Thank you."

    Ye Chong frowned when he noticed how pale Sha Ya was. "You need a good rest." Sha Ya''s fatigue was apparent. She looked weak. Her days of contemtion were exhausting.

    Sha Ya nodded and returned to her room once more. She knew that she was in bad condition.

    After three days of resting, Sha Ya emerged looking sharp and energetic. She agreed readily when asked to apany Ye Chong to Darkniss.

    Xuan Ning received Ye Chong''s notice as well, and arrived early at his manor.

    When Xuan Ning saw Sha Ya, he remarked in surprise, "You have improved by a lot."

    Sha Ya smiled and did notment further.

    Xuan Ning turned to Ye Chong and said, "His Majesty hopes that you will bring a few more people with you. He has a few Level 8 shooters in his service, and suggests that you bring them along. You are, after all, Chief Weaponsmith of Eastern Cloud. If anything were to happen to you, I cannot possibly exin myself to the King." By now, everyone in Su Cit knew how important Ye Chong was to their King, Sun Sieha.

    Ye Chong shook his head. "This is only a simple expedition. It would be inconvenient to have too many people. Besides, I have only made preparations for three of us."

    "Oh, what sort of preparations?" Xuan Ning was intrigued. What would a Master weaponsmith do as preparation?

    Sha Ya was also curious. Having shut herself in for so long, she did not know what Ye Chong had been up to.

    "Come with me." Ye Chong led the two shooters into the warehouse. The shooters exchanged a look, and then followed him.

    When the door of the warehouse slid open, Ye Ching could hear both of them inhale sharply behind him.

    "What is this thing?" As expected of a Level 9 shooter, Xuan Ning recovered quickly from his surprise. He moved closer to the huge spider and looked up, still in a daze.

    "It''s called Spider, and it is our main means of transport. The speed iscking, but otherwise it''s quite serviceable." Ye Chong briefly introduced his creation.

    Since the two shooters were crucial to his mission, he must let them get familiar with the Spider as soon as possible.

    Ye Chong led them to the belly of the Spider. Hiss! A door slip open, and then a ropedder was let down.

    Ye Chong went up first. The two shooters quickly followed him up the ropedder.

    The pilot cabin was no longer empty. There were now three chairs that could spin freely, with six huge screens that covered 180 degrees of vision. Each chair came with a firearms control lever for shooting. The seat at the center had a control panel. That was Ye Chong''s seat.

    The wall of the pilot cabin was lined with a thickyer of bushy lc colored nt. It could produce enough oxygen for three people.

    At the rear were two big rooms that function as storage space. This would be where they store drinking water and energy crystals, and even some repair tools and extra parts.

    When Ye Chong began to demonstrate how to pilot the Spider to run around the manor, both Xuan Ning and Sha Ya had already fallen in love with the machine.

    "Can you build one for me? Just name the price." Xuan Ning asked hesitantly. The machine was awesome, it was practically a moving castle. Besides, the huge storage space could carry plenty of water and food. It was very useful for shooters who liked to explore the wilderness. Moreover, the machine could move very quickly even on hilly terrain. Xuan Ning would very much like to own a Spider.

    Sha Ya was quiet, but her keen eyes betrayed a simr interest.

    Ye Chong looked at them. "After wee back from Darkniss, I''ll build one for each of you." As long as Xi Yan and Kristen prepared the gears and parts beforehand, the actual construction would not take too much of his time.

    "Oh, wonderful!" Xuan Ning was overjoyed. Sha Ya caressed the firearms control lever like a lover.

    "Shall we leave now?" Xuan Ning lost all hisposure as a Level 9 shooter. He was like a child eager to try out histest toy.

    "Wait. We still need to bring these." Ye Chong pointed at a huge pile of supplies in a corner of the warehouse.

    These were the supplies they had to bring with them for this expedition. Ye Chong made full preparations for his trip to Darkniss.

    With all three of them working, the supplies disappeared onboard quickly. It helped that Ye Chong was practically a weightlifting machine.

    Sha Ya pointed at a box, filled with bottles of liquid. "What are these?"

    Ye Chong threw a quick nce at them. "Testing solutions." From the nk looks he got from the shooters, Ye Chong knew that exining to them would be a hassle. He said, "You''ll find out soon enough." He then continued with moving the box onto the Spider.

    Soon, everything was moved onto the Spider. The storage rooms were now packed.

    Xuan Ning looked at the packed storage rooms andmented, "That''s enough tost us for months. If only I have one of these long ago, I would have explored every corner of Darkniss by now."

    Sha Ya was quiet throughout, upied with her thoughts.

    Of course, Ye Chong was not nning on piloting the Spider from his manor. They were still some distance away from Dual Forest. At the speed the Spider was moving, it would take them God knew how long to reach Darkniss.

    Ye Chong called Liao San and asked for a transport aircraft. The transport aircraft, nicknamed Big Mushroom, could manage a heavy load. A Spider was no trouble for it at all.

    When the transport aircraft docked in Yedda City''snding field, it attracted a lot of attention. The transport aircraft was of an expensive model. Only selected elite military troops would have them. Besides, the symbol of the Royal Guards on the aircraft was simply eye-catching.

    The Spider, carrying Ye Chong and the two shooters, emerged into the open from the transport aircraft.

    This ignited amotion in Yedda City''snding field. "Heavens, what is that monster?" The huge spider ignored the onlookers and left.

    Thending field was situated outside Yedda City, so Ye Chong and his crew did not have to go through Yedda City itself to enter Dual Forest.

    It wasmon for shooters looking for an adventure to hang around in the outskirts of Dual Forest. The sudden appearance of this massive thing was shocking. Fortunately, the mechanical nature of the Spider was easily recognized. Once the shooters realized that it was man made, they did not feel so frightened anymore. Some of the bolder shooters even trailed behind the machine out of curiosity.

    Dual Forest wasrgely made up of gigantic trees. These trees had a thick canopy that blocked most of the sunlight to the ground. Trees below the canopy were stunted and weak from theck of sunlight. This was thew of nature. The strong grew stronger bymanding most of the resources; the weak turned weaker, with no hope of ever absorbing enough sunlight to be just as gigantic, not unless the huge trees around it fell and give way.

    The forest did not hinder the Spider''s advance. It weaved its way easily through the scattered trees on the forest floor. The weaker trees were simply bulldozed over. The shooters who followed the Spider were jealous of the pilot behind the machine. How nice it would be to own a Spider too.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya could tell that Ye Chong was experienced in controlling this kind of machine.

    They were full of anticipation for their expedition to Darkniss.

 Chapter 556 - The Amazing Spider

    <h4>Chapter 556: The Amazing Spider</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The wild animals in Dual Forest were all scared away by the gigantic neer. In the end, Ye Chong and his crew crossed Dual Forest without being challenged by any of the native creatures. Xuan Ning felt annoyed, for he had just learned how to maneuver the Spider''s weapons system.

    The shooters who were following the Spider suddenly found themselves travelling all the way across Dual Forest. Most of them had never ventured deep into Dual Forest, for the ce was home to many vicious animals. It was simply too dangerous for them! Now that they had actually crossed the entire Dual Forest, all the shooters felt excited. They had all run with all they got just to keep up with the Spider in the past few days. The weaker shooters were left behind long ago.

    Xuan Ning frowned, "What''s with their foolishness? Staying alive is more important than satisfying their curiosity."

    Ye Chong and Sha Ya understood him. The shooters were able to reach so far inside here because of their Spider, and not their own strength. Once they were no longer under the protection of their Spider, the dangers of the ce would surely overwhelm them.

    Ye Chong and his team did not have time to care for their survival. These shooters must now make their way back to Yedda City by crossing the entire Dual Forest again. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya both knew that only shooters of at least Level 6 could survive the journey. Of all the shooters following behind them, only a few were that skilled.

    Xuan Ning saw Ye Chong''s eyes lingered on him. He said to Ye Chong, "Forget about them. We should be on our way. Shooters who cannot think calmly are foolish. We''re not their babysitter."

    Sha Ya threw a pitiful nce at the low level shooters. They had realized the situation they were in now, and had started to panic.

    The three of them did not stay behind to help. They would not dy their expedition because of these shooters.

    Without the Spider, crossing the entire Dual Forest would take around 20 days. Even capable shooters like Xuan Ning and Sha Ya would take that long. This was because the only way to travel was by foot. Besides, in order to avoid the territories of the vicious native animals, they had to make detours and risk losing their way.

    On the other hand, Ye Chong and his team sat inside the Spider''s pilot cabin, enjoying their drinks and sporadic conversation while the Spider made its way through Dual Forest. It took only five days toplete the journey. Along the way, the Spider stormed through anything in its path. Xuan Ning was astounded by the sight of all the animals that practically leaped out of their way. Once, the Spider unknowingly crashed into the home of a flock of sharpbeak cuckoos. Over a hundred sharpbeak cuckoos scattered to the skies, making for an impressive spectacle.

    Even therger animals were cautious around the huge spider, for they had never seen it before. They stayed back and did not initiate any contact. Hence, the Spider carried its three passengers and led the group of low level shooters behind it across the entire Dual Forest.

    Once they exited Dual Forest, the environment around them transformed quickly.

    There was less foliage. The air was dryer. The groundposition turned sandy.

    On the third day after leaving Dual Forest, there was not a tree in sight. The ground was t. The wind bellowed. There were no nts, no humans, no animals - it was a wastnd. This was the Desert.

    The wind grew stronger and stronger, kicking up tiny rocks that hit on the Spider. Cling! ng! The graveled terrain was a picture of destion. The uninteresting surrounding was uninspiring.

    Nevertheless, Xuan Ning was sitting up straight and looked serious. "I think a sandstorm ising."

    Beside him, Sha Ya shared the same thought. "Agreed."

    Ye Chong heard them. He focused on the holographic screen and keyed in a series ofmands. Xuan Ning approached him and asked curiously, "What are you doing?"

    "Releasing the Hummingbirds." Ye Chong answered without looking up.

    "Hummingbirds? What are they?" Xuan Ning thought he was just like some curious child who could not help asking questions.

    Ye Chong continued keying in themands. "Hummingbirds are small surveince devices that can increase surveince coverage area."

    "I see."

    Four Hummingbirds were released from the Spider into the outside world. They headed straight for the skies.

    The Hummingbirds transmitted their video feed onto the screens. Despite the strong wind, the Hummingbirds maintained steady flight and provided clear images of their surroundings.

    "D*mn it!" Sha Ya and Xuan Ning cursed simultaneously.

    On the screen, the sky had darkened some distance away from them. The sandstorm cast a dark shadow on the ground. The most dangerous thing in the Desert was not therge army of sandscorpions or the vicious sandlizards, but the natural phenomenon known as the sandstorm. Strong winds could lift huge rocks into the air. If hit by any of them, the result would be nothing short of a swift death.

    Even if someone could avoid being smashed by huge rocks, they would not be able to avoid the sand flying all around them. If unlucky, they would find themselves buried deep under tons of sand, something not umon in the Desert.

    Ye Chong and his team had not even reached the heart of the Desert when this sandstorm hit them. They were most unfortunate.

    Just then, the video feed shook. Ye Chong quickly ordered the Hummingbirds to return, but by then he had already lost one Hummingbird to the sandstorm.

    There was only one thing left to do now.

    The huge spider raced across the empty desert wastnd, with a massive sandstorm close on its tail.

    The Spider was not fast, and the sandstorm caught up quickly. Its passengers were now witness to a powerful force of Nature.

    Bam bam bam! Rocks and pebbles rained down on the Spider''s armor. Larger rocks would shake the pilot cabin. Not even a Level 9 shooter can survive the sandstorm. Xuan Ning felt unsettled by this realization.

    "It''s d*mn lucky that I didn''t encounter a sandstormst time. F*ck, no one can survive this." Xuan Ning could not help cursing. Ever since he reached Level 9, his personality had undergone a 180 degree change. He lost his rigidity and became more open and easygoing. Once upon a time, he would never have cursed openly like this. Ye Chong thought the behavior change was curious. None of the mentalist principles that Huang Baiyi had taught him said anything about personality changes.

    Sha Ya looked nervous. "Yes, I was quite lucky too the few times I''ve been here. I never encountered a sandstorm before. It''s highly unlikely for anyone to live through this."

    The pilot cabin was hit again, and shook violently. Xuan Ning was nearly sent flying from his half lying position. He put his hands to his stomach and gritted his teeth, enduring the pain.

    The screen informed them that the Spider was hit by a rock of over half a meter in diameter. Xuan Ning looked even more unsettled.

    Ye Chong was expressionless. "The wind is too strong. We have to stay put and wait for the storm to pass."

    "It''s our only option." Xuan Ning and Sha Ya exchanged a look of helplessness. The Spider was shaking violently from the buffeting of the winds. Large rocks would hit them intermittently. It was impossible to travel in this condition.

    Ye Chong keyed in a series ofmands in the control console. Xuan Ning looked curiously at Ye Chong at the control console. Everytime Ye Chong did something at the controls, the Spider was bound to respond in some way. Xuan Ning thought that the Spider was full of surprises, just like its creator.

    Whrr! Aser gun was activated outside the Spider. It fired eight times on the ground, leaving eight deep holes. The holes were arranged in two rows of four. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were still trying to figure them out when the Spider stepped its legs into the holes. The Spider''s body lowered as a result. The pilot cabin was lowered to the ground. The Spider''s legs now had a tight grip on the ground. The holes were just deep enough for the joints of the legs to bend at the surface of the ground.

    Creak creak creak! A grappling mp came out from each of the leg''s joints and sunk itself into the ground.

    Suddenly, the pilot cabin stopped shaking. Despite the rocks raining down on the Spider, the pilot cabin did not move at all. The three passengers felt none of the violent shaking anymore.

    "So you can do this too! This is neat!" Xuan Ning praised. The thought of Ye Chong giving him a Spider after they returned from Darkniss sent a jolt of euphoria through him.

    "Sleep." Ye Chong did not care to indulge him. He switched off the lights in the pilot cabin, and all of a sudden they were shrouded into darkness.

    Xuan Ning eximed in annoyance. "Why''d you turn off the lights? It''s so dark."

    Sha Ya was not used to being in the dark with someone else, much less with two men.

    Just when she was about to speak up, Ye Chong''s answer silenced her. "It''s to conserve energy."

    Xuan Ningined, "Conserve energy? How much energy can you save like this?"

    Ye Chong ignored him, and Xuan Ning soon quieted down.

    The pilot cabin was dark and quiet. Its passengers were most likely asleep now.

    The storm continued for a full day before it subsided. By then, the Spider was mostly buried under the sand, leaving only a small part of its back exposed. Even so, there was a thinyer of sand on its back.

    Fortunately, Ye Chong had fitted a powerful engine for the Spider, or it would have been impossible for them to climb out of the sand. The Spider lifted its body, and all the sand was shaken off.

    The Spider began to walk. There was a disc of about 1.5 meters in diameter at the end of each leg to prevent the machine from sinking into the sand.

    With the help of these eight discs, the Spider moved quickly across the sandy terrain. The sandy mounds did not slow the machine down.

    "Ohh, this is amazing!" Xuan Ning eximed in excitement. "Haha, when I get myself one of these, I aming to Darkniss every year for vacation. This is so much fun!"

    Ye Chong focused on the screen in front of him. He ignored Xuan Ningpletely as he piloted the Spider on its way forward.

    When the Spider reached the peak of a 100-meter tall sand dune, it brought its eight legs to the center and linked all the discs at its feet together to form a huge board. The Spider then glided down the dune on the board.

    Sha Ya and Xuan Ning had never seen anything quite so interesting. The Spider was like a toy for them. Xuan Ning was jumping up and down like a little boy. On the contrary, Sha Ya''sposure was more like a Level 9 shooter''s.

    The Spider travelled more easily and quickly on the sand dunes.

    "If we follow this direction at our current speed, we will leave the Desert after roughly three days." Xuan Ning pointed to the front and said to Ye Chong. He still looked energetic, with a seemingly unlimited capacity for excitement. Sha Ya, on the other hand, was already over the initial phase of excitement.

    Their luck seemed to have turned for the better after the sandstorm. Aside from the two sandlizards that had immediately took off after being surprised by their transport, they had encountered no other wild animals. Three more days, and they will be out of the Desert.

    The Desert was a strange ce, interspersed with drought regions and sandy regions. In the past few days, they had already crossed a few of them.

    It was all sand and rocks, but Ye Chong still noticed the subtler details. The deeper they went, the more metal ores there were in the drought regions. He could see these metal ores now at their location. The ores were mostly soft and tiny. The sand was more fine as they went deeper into the Desert.

    Ye Chong had the Hummingbirds outside throughout their journey. The holographic scanning system was disrupted, and could not provide enough scanning range and detail. Ye Chong had no otherbat mode holographic scanning system aside from the ones on Celest and Moon King, but he did not want to use his mechs. Fortunately, the Hummingbirds provided him with some improvement in holographic scanning results.

    However, they were soon running out of luck. ording to the live feed from the Hummingbirds right now, there was a sea of sandscorpions in front, advancing towards them like a swathe of dark clouds.

 Chapter 557 - Carmic

    <h4>Chapter 557: Carmic</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sandscorpion colonies were a deadly threat in the Desert, just like the sandstorm. A colony of sandscorpions could stretch out for miles, and they moved at an astonishing speed. An encounter with a scorpion colony would be pretty much like signing your own death warrant. A sandscorpion was about the size of a human fist. Just a drop of venom from the tip of its tail would be fatal. Besides, the sandscorpion could release a highly corrosive poison from its tail.

    Sandscorpions always appear in the thousands. They could move much faster than a normal human. Shooters who encountered a sandscorpion colony never make it out alive. There was no way to deal with so many sandscorpions.

    Xuan Ning looked troubled. "We''re really down in luck. First it was all peaceful but now look what we''ve got in our hands."

    Sha Ya had already made her decision. She turned to Ye Chong and said, "We should run fromthem."

    Every field of expertise has its advantages and disadvantages. A close range fighter like Ye Chong would be able to outrun the sandscorpions. Any capablebat expert would be able to run for at least a few days non-stop. Shooters, however, could not do this. Their weak bodies could not carry them fast enough away from the sandscorpions. Besides, sandscorpions were known to be tenacious in pursuing their prey, making it difficult for anyone they had set their sights on.

    Even a Level 9 shooter like Xuan Ning would not be able to handle the sandscorpions.

    The Spider was not fast, but it was still faster than the scorpions. Nevertheless, if they ran for it, their schedule would be interrupted. The disgusting insects were famous for their tenacity.

    Ye Chong did not bring the Spider to a run. Instead, he went to the storage room and disappeared inside.

    The sandscorpions had discovered the huge spider by then. The Spider presented itself as a feast for the sandscorpions. It was terrifying to see the huge colony of insects marching towards the Spider. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya both look stricken.

    "Are you trying to test the Spider''s anti-corrosive properties?" Xuan Ning looked deeply unsettled.

    Sha Ya had already reached for herser gun. The feel of the weapon gave her a sense of security. She watched the approaching sandscorpions on the screen nervously.

    Both shooters did not know how to pilot the Scorpion, or they would have had the Spider running by now.

    They did not know what Ye Chong was up to. It was not Ye Chong''s nature to give up so easily, but they could not fathom what he could do given their current situation.

    No sound came from the storage room after Ye Chong disappeared inside it.

    10 minutes passed.

    Finally, Ye Chong came out from the storage room with two test tubes. The first test tube was filled with a green coloured solution, while the other was filled with a light yellow solution. The solutions were clear as crystal and sparkled under the light.

    Xuan Ning forgot about the sandscorpions for a moment and stared wide-eyed at the solutions. "What are these?" Sha Ya was also looking at the two beautiful test tubes with great interest. Women seemed to be innately drawn to pretty glowing things.

    "Shavill root extract and Wanda extract." Ye Chong offered two technical terms that were foreign to both Sha Ya and Xuan Ning, but he did not borate further.

    Ye Chong directed his attention to the screen. While he was inside the storage room just then, the sandscorpions had already gotten very close to them.

    The insects were at most 500 meters away. This was a difficult situation for anyone to be in. When Xuan Ning looked at the screen again, he was shocked by what he saw. "Run! Run -"

    Even Ye Chong was surprised by Xuan Ning''s loud shriek. Who knew that a Level 9 shooter could be shocked to this extent. Sha Ya could not help rolling her eyes. She felt her cheeks turn red out of embarrassment. How could Eastern Cloud''s number one shooter turn out like this? His name was enough to tame even the most arrogant and powerful shooters of their time! As a professional in the same field, Sha Ya thought he was an embarassment.

    Crack! Ye Chong nted a chop from behind Xuan Ning''s neck. The man''s eyes rolled upwards as he slumped quietly to the ground.

    Sha Ya gaped in bewilderment at Ye Chong. How could anyone treat a Level 9 shooter like that? She could hardly believe what she saw.

    "He''s too noisy," Ye Chong exined calmly.

    Sha Ya threw a sympathetic look at Xuan Ning, but blurted out, "How long will he be out? Should we give him a tranquilizer? It''s safer that way."

    Ye Chong held the two test tubes in his left hand while his right hand flew across the control panel, keying inmands.

    The Spider began to retreat backwards. The soft footing beneath it did not affect its movements. They began to distant from the sandscorpions. However, the colony was too big to escape so easily.

    Sha Ya could not understand him. If he wanted to escape, why wait until now? Was it not a little toote now? And what were the liquids in the two test tubes for?

    Suddenly, Ye Chong opened the firing chamber, where a cone shaped grenade with four tail fins slid out.

    Sha Ya had never seen a grenade before. Aircrafts usually use photon grenades, powerful pure energy weapons that ran on energy crystals. She had never seen a solid weapon like this.

    Nevertheless, it felt natural to see something unfamiliar whenever Ye Chong was involved, especially weapons. After all, he was the Chief Weaponsmith.

    Ye Chong put down the two test tubes in his left hand and took the grenade instead. He had made preparations for their expedition. He knew that pure energy weapons were only suitable for a narrow range of situations. Besides, these creatures had outer shells that were very resistant to energy base attacks. Other weapons like corrosion grenades and highpression explosive grenades were more up to task. Ye Chong had a thing for auxiliary grenades. He was a wide variety of experience in putting them to good use.

    For this reason, Ye Chong prepared all kinds of grenades for this expedition. He had space to store them. Right now, he was using a high explosive grenade, fitted with a miniature engine at its tip. Without using any tools and with the other hand controlling the Spider, Ye Chong opened the bottom part of the high explosive grenade.

    Sha Ya simply stared. She had never seen a human hand move so deftly!

    Besides, she was curious as to what Ye Chong was about to do.

    Ye Chong removed the explosives inside the grenade and reced them with the solutions in the two test tubes. He then secured the casing at the bottom of the grenade very carefully, leaving the Spider''s control panel while he focused on this task.

    Sha Ya had never seen Ye Chong move with such deliberate care. She held her breath while Ye Chong worked.

    Ye Chong lifted the grenade carefully in his hands and sent it sliding back down the firing chamber.

    When the hatch of the firing chamber was closed, Ye Chong felt rxed. Sha Ya could hear his breathing pace change. It took only a short while to modify the grenade, but Ye Chong was already sweating on his forehead.

    Sha Ya knew the kind of person Ye Chong was. He did not panic even when fighting against a Level 8 shooter by himself. However, he was clearly nervous when handling those two test tubes. What could be so terrifying about the beautiful solutions in those test tubes?

    Ye Chong ignored the sweat on his forehead and resumed typing on the control console.

    "Target identification." A red cross appeared on the screen. Ye Chong moved the red cross to the center of the sandscorpion colony.

    "Target locked."

    Next, Sha Ya heard a low rumble from the firing chamber that Ye Chong opened earlier. She saw Ye Chong focusing on the screen, and followed suit.

    There was an almost imperceptible sh at the center of the red cross. Sha Ya noticed the tiny sh of light on the screen.

    "This must be the strange ''weapon'' that Ye Chong slid down the firing chamber," Sha Ya thought to herself. She watched the screen with anticipation.

    Abruptly, a cloud of yellowish green smoke exploded in the center of the sandscorpion colony.

    The thick smoke spread out quickly from the center. Sha Ya was surprised by how fast the smoke was spreading.

    When Ye Chong saw the smoke, he immediately had the Spider retreat at full speed. The Spider jolted backwards.

    In the next instant, the yellowish green smoke had engulfed all the sandscorpions. The Spider could not outrun the mist. Ye Chong immediately keyed in newmands for the Spider.

    "Close all venttion openings. Activate cabin oxygenation system. Pressurize the cabin."

    The Spider stood still as the mist finally reached it. The Hummingbirds were still in the sky, however, and the video feed from them informed them of what was happening outside.

    The thick yellowish green mist unfurled on the ground like a monster, spreading at an rming speed.

    Both the Spider and the sandscorpion colony found themselves shrouded by the thick mist. It was impossible to see them from the sky, outside the mist.

    Sha Ya was confused, but began to have an inkling of what was toe.

    She stole a nce at Ye Chong. The man looked serious as he looked at the screen without a word.

    Gradually, the mist began to subside. Xuan Ning awoke then. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Oh my, what''s with the soreness? Huh, there''s a mist?" Xuan Ning was startled by the image on the screen. He straightened up immediately. "Impossible. There is no mist in the Desert. Why is there a mist? And it''s in a yellowish green color!"

    He turned to the other two people in the pilot cabin in surprise. "Did someone fart?" Ye Chong and Sha Ya simply ignored him while he wallowed in embarrassment.

    The mist was thinning out. Ye Chong was happy to find that the mist was behaving as he expected.

    The mist subsided as quickly as it first appeared. Soon, it was gone without a trace.

    "Wah!" Sha Ya looked terrible. Her eyes betrayed the shock she was feeling. She doubled over and vomited.

    Xuan Ning looked pale. He watched the screen in horror and muttered, "This, this is impossible ¡­"

    All round them was a five-kilometer radius of blood and dissolved flesh. Nothing in sight was left alive. The sand was covered with mushy insect bodies. The blood was quickly absorbed into the sand beneath it, forming ayer of dark red crust on the ground. Above theyer of crusty hundreds and thousands of sandscorpion exoskeletons. Only the toughest parts of the exoskeletons remained, which was the sting on their tails!

    Sha Ya threw up violently. Despite her long experience inbat, she had never seen or heard anything quite so bloody and devastating. The pilot cabin was filled with the stench of vomit.

    Ye Chong was unaffected by it. He tapped a few times on the controls and the air inside the cabin was freshened up. The vomit was cleaned up by an automatic cleaning machine.

    Sha Ya straightened up, her face white as a sheet. She stared at Ye Chong in horror.

    Sha Ya felt a deep terror inside her. The man in front of her was like the Devil in all the legends she had heard of! No, he was even scarier than that! If this "weapon" was used on humans ¡­ Sha Ya felt goosebumps all over her. She seemed to understand now why Ye Chong had nothing to be afraid of, not even a Level 9 shooter. After all, what was a shooterpared to this?

    It was a terrifying thought!

    Xuan Ning was uncharacteristically quiet, but his sharp eyes revealed how shaken he felt!

    If this weapon was ever used on Su City ¡­

    A sh of killing intent came and went from Xuan Ning.

    Ye Chong ignored the horror of his twopanions. Personally, he thought that this fell shortpared to the time when he used the Green Tempest. This time around, he did not have the materials to formte the Green Tempest. Besides, the wind conditions and humidity in the Desert were not suitable. Hence, he opted for the Shavill root extract and Wanda extract. When mixed together, these two solutions produced a very poisonous and corrosive gas called Carmic, which meant "to dissolve". [1]

    Even so, Ye Chong had used thisbination with great care, since both solutions were highly unstable and very dangerous to handle.

    Fortunately, the weapon worked perfectly. For a person like Ye Chong, who cared only about results, it did not matter if he ended up with a disgusting and bloody scene.

 Chapter 558 - Crossing the Mist

    <h4>Chapter 558: Crossing the Mist</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    After solving the problem of the sandscorpions, the trio did not encounter any other creatures along their journey in the Desert. Xuan Ning no longer felt lively . Sha Ya looked pale, perhaps from all the vomiting. Ye Chong could tell that Sha Ya was afraid of him. It was not the first time people looked at him this way. Every time he used alchemy, people would be afraid of him. He was used to it already.

    Ye Chong never minded the silence around him. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning thought the Desert was an uninteresting wastnd, but Ye Chong could study his surroundings with great detail and undivided attention.

    They must be arriving in thest drought region of their journey. Some of the rocks on the ground would sparkle with a metallic luster. There were more metal ores here. Ye Chong could see that most of them were low quality metal ores. Unless he had ess to good extraction technologies, the ores would be useless to him.

    There was a trend here that he had observed - the further in they went, the more metals there were around them.

    "Beyond this ridge is the Mist," said Xuan Ning. Three days had gone past, and the shooter had now recovered himself from the shock.

    This was a huge white-colored rocky structure. It was not tall, and had white jagged edges all over its bald surface. It looked more like a small hill of about 300 meters tall than an actual mountain ridge. The structure extended for a very long distance like a natural barrier. Huge rocks were randomly stacked next to each other, forming this ridge structure. Many parts of the ridge were unsuitable for climbing.

    Of course, to Xuan Ning and Sha Ya, the mountain barely reached 300 meters; to Ye Chong, it was only a small hill.

    Under Ye Chong''smand, the Spider made its way quickly towards the hill.

    The Spider''s eight legs allowed it to move across the uneven terrain easily. Obstacles that were impossible for humans to cross were easily leaped over by the Spider.

    Xuan Ning could not help but felt emotional. "Machines are so powerful. This Spider must be more valuable than 10 Level 8 shooters. I wonder, were the decades that I spent in honing my parapsychic abilities all in vain? If I used all that time to study engineering, what would the oue be instead?"

    Sha Ya looked at Xuan Ning, shaken by his words. She found it hard to believe that a Level 9 shooter would say those words. Shooters were mentally tough and determined people. This was why they were stronger thanmon people. However, the first Level 9 shooter in the past five decades, Xuan Ning, had just made this surprisingment. Sha Ya found herself very much surprised.

    Ye Chong shook his head. "Everything has limitations. This applies to machines as well as parapsychic abilities. Your people understand too little about parapsychic abilities, and have not think of other ways to make use of them. That is why you feel like this now."

    "What other ways?" Xuan Ning was inspired by Ye Chong''s words. Sha Ya, on the other hand, could not keep up with the conversation.

    Ye Chong did not borate further. He had to concentrate on driving the Spider.

    The truth was, he had long realized what he shared just now. In terms of mental abilities, he had never seen anyone as powerful as the shooters of this world. Even the famed mentalists from Xi Feng Tribe fell short. Nevertheless, the shooters used their parapsychic abilities in very limited form. Xi Feng Tribe fared better in terms of application variety.

    Xi Feng Tribe''s mentalists did not parapsychic abilities as strong as shooters at Level 5 or 6, but they had already mastered skills such as movement restriction. Experts like Huang Baiyi could even fight with him on even ground in close quarters. Unlike mentalists, shooters lost theirbat abilities the moment they lost their guns.

    Besides, Xi Feng Tribe''s people had excellent battle coordination strategies, second only to the Sang Tribe, as the result of their mentalist skills. A normal mentalist mech pilot from Xi Feng Tribe was only on par with a fresh Level 3 shooter in terms of parapsychic strength, but the former could use their abilities in more creative ways.

    When the Spider crossed the white rocky ridge, the environment around them transformed markedly.

    A thin purple mist shrouded the ce, blocked by the white rocky ridge on one side. The thin mist added a hint of mystery to everything in sight.

    The ce had higher humiditypared to the Desert.

    "This is the Mist." Sha Ya said to Ye Chong when she noticed Xuan Ning was still deep in thought. Ye Chong was the leader of their expedition to Darkniss. He had also surprised Sha Ya with his demonstration in the Desert. Sha Ya had graduallye to think of Ye Chong as the decision maker for their group of three.

    "The mist here is thin, but it will get thicker as we go on."

    Ye Chong soon found that the light purple colored mist was highly disruptive to the holographic scanning system. The image on the screen was no longer clear. If the mist was to grow thicker as they progressed, then the Spider''s holographic scanning system could no longer be relied upon.

    "There''s interference here. Both of you are in charge of security and direction. I''ll clear the path." Ye Chong ordered the two shooters like it was the natural thing to do.

    "Alright," Sha Ya replied.

    After staying quiet for so long, Xuan Ning felt excited again. "Hah, this is what I''ve been waiting for. There wasn''t a chance to shoot since we first started, my hands are getting itchy." He eagerly reached for the firearms control lever in front of his seat.

    Now that the two shooters were ready for battle, Ye Chong opened the hatch for the twoser guns they were controlling. Theseser guns were more likeser cannons. Laser guns graded at 4 million Lux were considered quite powerful, but the Spider''sser gun could reach 12 million Lux. They were powerful monsters. Even an aircraft''sser cannon never exceeded 8 million Lux. The Spider''s weapons, the mother of allser guns, could also swivel around easily.

    Ye Chong now had a Level 8 shooter and a Level 9 shooter behind his two very powerful weapons. Surely they must be enough for his own security.

    Here in the Mist, the ground began to feel uneven. There were trees growing around them sparsely. As Sha Ya warned earlier, the mist was getting thicker, and the holographic scanning system was rendered useless. Ye Chong turned it off and switched to optical mode.

    Ye Chong remembered the purple mist back in Yi Ju. The purple mist there was also disruptive to their holographic scanning system. It was impossible for holographic scanning to prate the purple gas cloud.

    Ye Chong realized that the purple mist here and the one he saw in Yi Ju was eerily simr, and felt rmed by the consequences.

    "Left ¡­ Left ¡­ Right ¡­ Right ¡­" Xuan Ning directed excitedly. He had to y the role of their holographic scanning system.

    Under Xuan Ning''s direction, the Spider moved at a moderate pace. Since, Ye Chong could not see the ground clearly, the Spider could not move with the stability they enjoyed back at the Desert.

    There were more trees now. The Spider had to avoid them frequently.

    "Stop!" Xuan Ning said.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong asked.

    Sha Ya said to Ye Chong, "Ahead of us is a thick forest. I don''t think the Spider can enter." She remembered the forest clearly. No one who had been here before would be likely to forget the dense foliage.

    Xuan Ning exined earnestly, "It''s difficult to travel in there. The forest is dense, with creepers all over the ce. There are swamps too. If you get stuck in one, you''re dead already. Many shooters lost their lives here." He added, "Spidey here can''t go inside, I''m afraid. What a pity." He caressed the firearms control lever regretfully, having not fired a single shot from it yet.

    "How long does it take to cross the forest?" Ye Chong asked after some thought.

    Xuan Ning reached for his memories. "We spent seven daysst time."

    Ye Chong turned to Sha Ya. The shooter smiled bitterly. "I wasn''t so lucky. I spent 14 days in the forest, nearly went crazy from it."

    The two shooters looked at Ye Chong. The forest was too dense for the huge Spider to move through. Nevertheless, they were reluctant to let go of the Spider.

    Ye Chong considered the duration of seven to 14 days, and did some mental calctions. After a while, he nodded. "I have a n."

    "What?" Xuan Ning and Sha Ya looked at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong said nothing as he lowered his head and began to type on the control console.

    A piece of armour on the Spider''s left side slid open, revealing a weapon underneath. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were using their parapsychic waves to monitor their surroundings. The movement did not escape their notice.

    Suddenly, the Spider reached the first leg on its left towards the back to retrieve the strange weapon. Tap! The weapon was activated. They heard a whirring sound that came from fast rotation - it was aser saw!

    "It''s huge!" Xuan Ning eximed. Theser saw was about nine meters long and three meters wide. It was a really huge weapon. However, the handle was small enough to store inside the Spider''s body.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya understood what Ye Chong''s n was. They exchanged a look and cried out in unison, "It''s a good n!" This way, they would not have to leave the Spider. The past few days were enough to make the two shooters love the Spider to bits.

    With the hugeser saw clearing the path, the Spider could now advance faster. Any physical obstacles in the way were cleared or cut to pieces as the Spider waved its front left leg. Xuan Ning could only stare in amazement. "This thing''s amazing! I say, what else do you have hidden in the Spider? Thisser saw is d*mn powerful, haha, you have to fit my Spider with one too."

    Ye Chong had originally wanted to bring a ship cannon, but the Spider could not bear the weight. The cannon would have cleared a path in the forest with just a few shots. However, since the ship cannon was too bulky, heavy and energy consuming, he had ditched the idea.

    Theser saw was more than enough to clear a path in the forest.

    The forest was humid, and the nts grew wildly. Unfortunately, Ye Chong could see none of it from inside. This forest would surely be home to very valuable nts. Ye Chong had to be careful when maneuvering the Spider on softyers of dposing leaves on the ground. Besides, they were unlucky enough to have encountered a few swamps along the way. Fortunately, Ye Chong was able to react just in time in every encounter. The Spider''s many legs helped. As long at least one leg was not caught in the swamp, they would be able to break free with no issue.

    Xuan Ning was very excited. The Spider''s weapons were crazy powerful.

    There were norge animals in the forest, only small ones, but Xuan Ning was still eager to test out his gun. It was like firing a cannon at a mosquito - now that was exhrating!

    Where before they had to worry about being attacked by harmful nts, now it was a negligible issue. The Spider was solid enough to resist attacks from these nts. Ye Chong had also closed all the airways that led outside. They were now running on an isted air cirction system. Tranquilizing gas that came from the nts could no longer affect them.

    There was also the problem of the swamps. If they were travelling on foot, they would have died many times over. The Spider had kept them intact throughout the journey.

    Theser gun was such an overbearing weapon. Xuan Ning wanted to try it out himself.

    Ye Chong could not see anything around him. He only hoped to cross the Mist as soon as possible. Without help from Xuan Ning and Sha Ya, the forest was too dangerous for him.

    The Spider waved its hugeser saw left and right. The thickser beam allowed the Spider to advance unhindered.

    It took only three days for them to cross the Mist. By then, the mist was bing thinner. When the image on the screen cleared up, Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief.

    All around him was a long stretch of crimson colored wastnd. The crimson earth supported no nt life. The t earth extended towards the horizon with no end in sight. Compared to the dense forest that was teeming with life, this deste ce was a sharp and unsettling contrast.

    "The Red Wastnd is not a very big ce. Judging by the speed of the Spider, we should be able to reach the entrance to Darkniss in a day and a half."

    Sha Ya studied their surroundings and said to Ye Chong, "That way." She pointed at an angle towards the left.

 Chapter 559 - The Terrors of Darkniss

    <h4>Chapter 559: The Terrors of Darkniss</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    After travelling in the Red Wastnd for some time, the trio finally reached the entrance to Darkniss. When Ye Chong saw the entrance, he was stunned.

    In the middle of the endless stretch of wastnd was a t, ck colored circle. It was 15 meters across, and suspended about 20 centimeters above the ground. It was like a gateway to another world.

    Ye Chong was familiar with the ck circle. He had seen it more than once. There was one in the underground tunnel, one on Yi Ju, and one in the Research Consortium''s base on Spectre. The size of the ck circles varied, but they were all ck, perfectly circr, and suspended in the air. The simrities were there.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya noticed Ye Chong''s muted surprise. They had never seen that expression on him.

    Xuan Ning was curious. He asked, "What is it? Have you been here before?"

    Ye Chong quickly recovered himself and shook his head. "No."

    "Let''s go inside," Sha Ya interrupted them. "I always felt unsafe at the entrance. Let''s go inside now."

    "Alright." Ye Chong nodded. He moved the Spider closer to the ck circle, ready to step through it. People with strong parapsychic sense had better instincts than normal people.

    Xuan Ning smiled. "I once had that feeling too, but now I sense something new. The entrance feels unstable, but it''s actually quite the opposite. A Level 8 shooter can sense its instability, but once you reach Level 9, you can sense that there is a very stable structure underneath the instability."

    Xuan Ning had just finished speaking when a ripple appeared on the ck circle.

    "What was that?" Sha Ya gasped. She had never seen the entrance ripple like that.

    Ye Chong looked at Xuan Ning. Was this really stable?

    Xuan Ning look perturbed. "Something''s not right. It became unstable suddenly, like it was stimted by something." He closed his eyes and reached out with his parapsychic sense to the entrance. He had the strongest parapsychic sense of the three, and could detect the most minute details.

    "Huh?" Xuan Ning opened his eyes wide and turned to Ye Chong with a weird expression. He said, "We should step back."

    The Spider retreated about 10 meters away. The effect was immediately apparent. Once the Spider began retreating, the ripples at the entrance reduced until it eventually became t again.

    Ye Chong and Sha Ya could not understand what was happening.

    Xuan Ning turned his attention to the ring on Ye Chong''s finger. He hesitated before speaking again, "Your ring is a little odd. It was the cause of the instability at the entrance."

    Ring? Sha Ya looked at the inconspicuous ring on Ye Chong''s finger. It did not look particrly interesting to her.

    "Celest''s dimension keystone?" Ye Chong thought to himself in surprise. How was the ring responsible for this?

    Ye Chong suddenly remembered the time when he was in the Research Consortium''sboratory on Spectre. The spatial window in the corner of theb had transformed abruptly and sent him to Dual Forest. Could that be rted to his ring too?

    Xuan Ning saw the confusion on Ye Chong''s and Sha Ya''s faces. He exined, "I don''t know what happened either, but I can sense that the ring was causing the entrance to be unstable. The structure of the entrance seems to be affected by it. Once we back off, the entrance returned to normal. It looks like distance is key here. Hmm, the entrance feels normal now. The structure of the entrance is stable."

    Ye Chong lifted his right hand pointed at the ring on it with his left hand. "This one?"

    Xuan Ning nodded. "That''s the one." He saw the inquiring look on Ye Chong and shrugged. "Don''t ask me why because I don''t know either." Ye Chong''s ring looked ordinary. He could not understand what was happening as well.

    Sha Ya watched Xuan Ning admiringly. This was the difference between Level 8 and Level 9. Xuan Ning could sense the structure of the entrance with his parapsychic sense, and even feel it transforming. What a powerful skill! Sha Ya never imagined that parapsychic sense could do this. Level 9 was almost a legend. People could only imagine what a Level 9 shooter was capable of. She just witnessed the true strength of a Level 9 shooter, and it was much more powerful than anyone could have imagined!

    Ye Chong considered their situation for a moment and pointed at the entrance. He asked, "What is its structure like?" He was also curious about Xuan Ning''s ability to sense the structure of the spatial window. His parapsychic sense was strong!

    Xuan Ning shook his head in chagrin. "I can''t say for sure. It''s strange and mysterious! I don''t know how to express it."

    Ye Chong tried again with a more straightforward question. "How can we safely pass through the entrance?" He did not want to spend too much time on this problem. The fact that Celest''s dimension keystone could disrupt the spatial window was already a very important piece of information for him.

    Xuan Ning looked at Ye Chong. He could see that the man would not leave the ring behind. He considered the problem for awhile. "If we could approach the entrance fast, it should not be a problem."

    "I see," Ye Chong nodded. His fingers tapped on the control console, and the Spider lunged towards the entrance without warning.

    Xuan Ning was thrown backwards. He hit the back of his head on his seat and screamed like a madman. Xuan Ning roared, "Can''t you at least warn us?"

    Sha Ya threw a pitiful look at Xuan Ning, the admiration she felt for him fading fast. She marveled at how a Level 9 shooter was helpless against the unpredictable man, Ye Chong.

    Once the Spider was close to the entrance, ripples began to form on the t surface again. Ye Chong ignored the ripples and focused on piloting the Spider. The Spider charged head on towards the ck circle and went right through it.

    The surroundings turned dark. The image on the holographic screen waspletely different now.

    It was very, very dark. Only a faint light allowed them to see their surroundings. The sky was dark. There were stars and moons in the sky. Nevertheless, darkness was not the only thing that defined this ce. There was also a bright, hot red in sight -va.

    Hotva flowed like rough waters, sshing violently as they went along deep trenches. The fiery waves could reach up to 8 meters tall. Despite being in the Spider, they could still feel the heat emanating from theva.

    There was a main branch ofva river that was about 30 meters wide. It branched out into thinner flows going downstream, like roots of a tree.

    Ye Chong had never seen anything so magnificent. He was distracted for a moment.

    "Leave the entrance now!" Xuan Ning shouted panickedly. "Quick! It''s bing unstable!"

    Ye Chong quickly focused himself and pulled the Spider away from the ck entrance.

    The ripples on the entrance subsided once more and became t again. Ye Chong watched the spatial window, suspended in midair, and felt fascinated by it. This ce waspletely different from the Red Wastnd outside, but just by stepping through the "door", they had arrived in a whole new world. The whole process was even more mysterious than warp jumps.

    Unfortunately, Ye Chong knew very little about spatial science. He did not understand the working principles behind them.

    Xuan Ning was still not over his shock. "Good thing we left quickly, or we would be in deep trouble."

    Of the three of them, Xuan Ning was probably the only one who truly understood the severity of their situation just now.

    Sha Ya said to Ye Chong, "We are now in Darkniss. We call that huge river the Lava River. Usually, we will travel along the Lava River. The River will sometimes change its course, but the general direction is the same. This way, we will not lose our way."

    Darkniss - this was Darkniss!

    Once they were in Darkniss, both Xuan Ning and Sha Ya turned serious. Their hands never left the firearms control lever. This made Ye Chong even more wary.

    The Spider walked along the Lava River. Everything they saw was tinged red due to the lighting from theva.

    It was just a short while before Ye Chong found a few pieces of high quality metal ores along the way. Darkniss was truly the ce to find gravestones. The bright redva would also have familiar circr patterns that were actually metals in liquid form.

    Soon, Ye Chong understood why Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were nervous. They encountered a pack of 80 ck striped gray dragons. It was rare to see such a huge pack. These dragons usually move in packs of 20 to 30.

    Ye Chong saw his first ck striped gray dragon.

    The animals were beaked and had sharp ws. Their bodies were gray with ck stripes, and reached up to three meters long. Their wingspan, however, was close to 10 meters long. They flew fast and were aggressive in nature.

    The Spider wasrge and hard to miss. The ck striped gray dragons thought that this unfamiliar creature would taste delightful.

    Xuan Ning reacted first. He was nervous since they first stepped into Darkniss.

    A thickser beam shot right through a ck striped gray dragon, leaving a 30 centimeter wide circr hole in its wake. The dragon stopped breathing immediately. Its wings froze and it fell straight down from the sky.

    Lasers began to fire. Xuan Ning''s attack marked the beginning of their battle. Sha Ya reacted quickly as well. The ck striped gray dragons fell one by one like loose kites, kicking up dirt as they crashed into the ground.

    The sudden attacks surprised the dragons, but they were soon angered by them. The dragons screamed sharply and pped their wings, making their way towards the Spider.

    Ye Chong did not expect how fast these creatures could fly. Without a mech, he would have trouble dealing with these dragons. Since they were diving from a high altitude, the attacks from these ck striped gray dragons must be very powerful. Even thin alloy boards would give way to their attack.

    Fortunately, shooters were the bestbatants at medium range. This battle was perfect for them. Ye Chong did not have to worry about his safety, since he had a Level 8 shooter and a Level 9 shooter with him. The ck striped gray dragons were strong, but not enough to threaten these two excellent shooters.

    Ye Chong even had time to enjoy watching the marksmanship of these two shooters.

    They were both very good at what they do. Almost none of the shots missed. Besides, they were not using normalser guns, but super powerfulser guns at 1.2 million Lux. Every shot was powerful enough to prate the bodies of the ck striped gray dragons, which were rtively weaker beings in Darkniss. Even if the shot missed any vulnerabilities, it would still affect their flight speed.

    Soon, both shooters gained the upper hand. The powerful firepower aimed at the dragons suppressed their movements. Their flying formation was wrecked. Dragons continued to fall from the sky. However, this pack of dragons was stubborn. They were quick and agile in the air. Since Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were still not used to the Spider''s two mainser guns, they were shooting down the dragons fast enough.

    There were still at least 40 dragons in the air still, but Ye Chong was not worried. He could see that Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were already getting better at using theser guns. This was obvious from their increasing firing frequency.

    The battle was in the favor of Xuan Ning and Sha Ya. As time passed, their advantage increased further.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were both concentrating. Their eyes were closed one-sided so that they would not be distracted by anything visual. On the contrary, Ye Chong was just an observer, enjoying the intense but uninteresting battle.

    Suddenly, he caught a movement at the corner of the screen. He quickly turned his attention that particr corner on the screen.

    There were only dark rocks and nothing else there. However, Ye Chong was certain that he saw something earlier.

    Ye Chong maneuvered the holographic scanning system to perform a detailed search on that area. The screen was showing the opposite side of the Lava River.

    "Huh, what''s that?"

    There was some hair jutting from behind a rock. Something was wrong! Ye Chong focused on the situation. Those hair must be from some animal! The hair was ck and shiny, standing up straight like needles.

    Ye Chong took a peek at the ck striped gray dragons in the air and dismissed the idea of using the Hummingbirds. Of the four Hummingbirds he prepared, one was lost in the sandstorm, leaving only three with him. This was not the time to use the Hummingbirds.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong had no intention to sit just sit back and do nothing. He had many options to choose from. His hands quickly tapped on the control console. Suddenly, the Spider''s tail armor slid open to the sides. A cannon array rose up slowly from inside. Animals that knew to hide from its enemy were much more dangerous - this was something Ye Chong knew very well.

    Compared to the 49-barrel cannon array that Ye Chong sold to Sun Sieha, this cannon array had 81 cannon barrels, each thicker than that of the original model by a third. These 91 cannon barrels formed a nine-by-nine cannon array. The long, smooth cannon barrel were tightly arranged together.

    When the cannon array was activated, both Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were momentarily distracted by the danger that emanated from the weapon.

    "What is he trying to do?"

    That was the thought that came to Xuan Ning and Sha Ya. The ck striped gray dragons were already under their control. They could not attack, but they could not run either. Winning was only a matter of time. If that was the case, why would Ye Chong suddenly activate the cannon array?

    They also did not know beforehand that the Spider was armed with this weapon.

    Ye Chong aimed at the ck hair that protruded from the rock on the screen, and pressed down hard on the firing button.

    Each cannon barrel in the cannon array could fire 10 shots of spheric photon grenades per second. These grenades were highly explosive.

    Boom! The cannon array roared!

    810 spheric photon grenades were shot towards the target that Ye Chong had chosen.

    The grenades allnded within 15 meters off the target. The resulting explosion was massive!

    The loud explosion was enough to send a whole person shaking. Close to a thousand grenades exploded at the same time. Ye Chong''s target area now had a big mushroom cloud over it. The explosion had destroyed all the rocks around as well. A shockwave sted out visibly from the center of the explosion.

    Aooh! Two low howls came from a distance.

    When the dust settled, Ye Chong saw in front of him two ck colored leopards with an inch-wide stripe of white on their backs. There was also a small patch of white fur on their foreheads that contrasted beautifully against the ck sleek fur on their bodies. The animals had an elegant build, with four muscr limbs; nevertheless, they were now in a tight corner.

    There were small, charred holes on their ck fur. The animals were injured all over. Some of the wounds were still bleeding. Despite their injuries, the animals moved with grace. They stared at Ye Chong coldly.

    Beside the two leopards was a third one, lying on the ground. It suffered far worse injuries than itspanions. Its body was a bloody mess. This was the animal that Ye Chong saw earlier, and the one who was hit the most from the st. With close to a thousand photon grenades exploding within 15 meters from the target, no animal could survive the attack. Its twopanions were also injured from the explosion.

    "Snowshade leopards!" Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were following Ye Chong''s actions closely. They saw the two wild animals now and gasped in surprise. Ye Chong could hear the fear in their voices.

    These animals must be avoided at all cost! Ye Chong made the decision immediately. His hands moved across the control console, and the Spider began to run.

    To think that he would encounter three snowshade leopards! He only saw one just now. As expected, nonbat holographic scanning was unreliable! Ye Chong did not know what was so scary about these snowshade leopards, but he trusted the judgement of Xuan Ning and Sha Ya.

    The two snowshade leopards watched their now dead and unrecognizablepanion, and then looked their beautiful fur, now marked with hundreds of charred holes. They howled again!

    Aoooh!

    The ck striped gray dragons heard the howls and quickly made their escape.

    Before the echoes of the howls disappeared, the two snowshade leopards ran.

    The Spider ran as quick as it could. Both Xuan Ning and Sha Ya had already directed theirser guns at the snowshade leopards.

    "I say, what''d you do to get in trouble with the snowshade leopards? My God, there are three of them!" Xuan Ning almost went crazy with the thought.

    Sha Ya bit her lips down tightly, and kept very quiet. She was obviously nervous as hell.

    Ye Chong did not expect a Level 9 shooter to feel so rmed by the snowshade leopards. It seemed that they were in big trouble.

    Ye Chong soon experienced the terror of the snowshade leopards first hand.

    On the screen, he saw the two snowshade leopards raced towards them like bolts of lightning. They were fast! Ye Chong found it hard to describe exactly how fast they were! They were running on the ground as fast as a mech could fly in the air. It was that fast!

    The two snowshade leopards could run as fast as a mech. This was a strong visual impression. Their every step on the ground resulted in cracks in the earth. They were so powerful that it was paralyzing to just think about it. Their streamlined bodies ran like the force of nature. They charged like a heavyweight mech. The ground shook and rumbled at their every step.

    It was impossible to lock on to them because of their speed.

    The two snowshade leopards seemed to be wary of the Spider''s cannon array. They darted left and right as they made their pursuit.

    High speed veering, Non-orderly wavy evasions, Sidestep Bursts, Z-steps ¡­

    Ye Chong stared nkly at them. What was this? The animals were practically demonstrating how a professional close range mech pilot would long avoid long range attacks.

    No wonder Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were so afraid of them.

    "To think that we''d see these monsters right after we enter Darkniss. Our luck sucks." Xuan Ning shrugged casually. "Oh, by the way, you should know that energy weapons are ineffective against snowshade leopard. Their fur is a tough protective material. Oh, I don''t know if these 1.2 million Lux gradedser guns are good against them."

    Ye Chong did not know if the two mainser guns could harm the snowshade leopards, but he did know that a concentrated attack of spheric photon grenades could pose a threat towards them.

    The Spider was still running for its life. The cannon array that rose from its tail swiveled round easily.

    The snowshade leopards were too fast for their nonbat holographic scanning system to lock on to. Even if Ye Chong decided to deploy Celest now, it would be useless. The only weapon could harm the snowshade leopards was the cannon array - that was what Ye Chong thought.

    Boom boom boom! The cannon array fired. To Ye Chong''s surprise, the two snowshade leopards were able to avoid the intense grenade attack aimed at them.

    "Once snowshade leopards start running, their sixth sense would be greatly enhanced. Even I can''t lock on to them. The photon grenades are slowpared toser beams, so they can avoid them without difficulty. This is the interesting bit about snowshade leopards. Once they start running, they seem to be hypersensitive to energy. It''s impossible to hit them withser beams. They are the nemesis of all shooters." Sha Ya exined to Ye Chong while firing a few shots at the snowshade leopards. The animals avoided her attacks easily. Sha Ya was looking a little pale. She had never encountered these deadly creatures before, despite having heard of them for a long time.

    Sha Ya had just finished speaking when the snowshade leopards closed the distance between them even more. They were now only three kilometers away. The distance was getting smaller at an rming rate. The only thing thatforted Ye Chong was the fact that the leopards were separated from them by the Lava River. If the snowshade leopards wanted to attack them, the must first cross the Lava River. However, the thinnest part of the River was 20 meters across. It formed a natural barrier between them.

    The two snowshade leopards ran quickly, leaving a clear trail of footprints behind them. Each footprint was surrounded by cracks in the earth.

    The animals got closer and closer to the Lava River, but they showed no signs of stopping.

    They reached the edge of the River and leaped into the air!

    Ye Chong''s eyes widened. At the moment the animals made the leap, he could already tell that they would be able to make it to the other side. Ye Chong pressed down on the firing button without dy.

    At that moment, twoser beams shot out from the Spider towards the snowshade leopards, still in midair. This was the perfect opportunity shoot! Xuan Ning and Sha Ya took their shots together instinctively.

    The two snowshade leopards suddenly twisted their bodies in seemingly impossible ways, and bothser beams missed their mark.

    Another twoser beams followed. Both Sha Ya and Xuan Ning were the best of the best in their field. Despite knowing how strong the snowshade leopards were, they would not give up without a fight!

    The snowshade leopards showed exactly how superior they were by twisting their bodies again in the air, despite having no foothold to support their movements. Bothser beams missed once again. The creatures had terrifyingly powerful and agile bodies.

    Nevertheless, Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were both set on killing the two snowshade leopards before theynded. Another twoser beams were fired!

    The oue this time was different. Xuan Ning''sser beam hit at center of the forehead of his target, right on the white patch of hair. Bang! The snowshade leopard''s head exploded while the body crashed heavily onto the rocks on the other side of the Lava River.

    Sha Ya''sser beam missed by just a fraction. It graced the ear of the other snowshade leopard as it made itsnding.

    With only half an ear left from theser beam attack, the snowshade leopard''s cold eyes turned red. It sprinted from the pain, running even faster than before, leaving only an afterimage in its wake!

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya looked horrified. That was their best chance at killing the showshade leopards. Now that they had missed the opportunity, they were all done for.

    However, Xuan Ning quickly recovered himself. He saw Sha Ya with her bloody lips, feeling guilty about having missed, and said to her with a consoling smile, "It''s not your fault. You did your best. Truth is, I wasn''t sure if I could hit my mark just now. They''re too fast. If I hadn''t reach Level 9, I would have died if I ever encountered them before this. We killed one snowshade leopard, and that''s quite amazing already. Haha, thisser gun is quite awesome, it can kill even a snowshade leopard."

    Sha Ya kept quiet, but she looked soothed. Xuan Ning was right. She did her best. The snowshade leopards were terrible monsters that lived in the inner parts of Darkniss. It must be fate that they encountered these animals so near the entrance of Darkniss.

    If Xuan Ning and Sha Ya could miss, Ye Chong''s amateur shooting would not harm the snowshade leopard at all. Nevertheless, Ye Chong was not about to give up now!

    An auxiliary grenade silently flew out of the weapons chamber. It was directed not at the snowshade leopard, but above the Spider.

    The snowshade leopard moved like a bolt of ck lightning. It was too fast to aim at! When the auxiliary grenade reached 10 meters above the ground, the animal was already two kilometers away. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya had missed the opening, but still they did not give up. They continued firing at thest snowshade leopard.

    Their attacks were in vain, however. The snowshade leopard stared angrily at the Spider with its blood-red eyes. It avoided all theser beams with ease.

    When the auxiliary grenade reached 50 meters high, the snowshade leopard was one kilometer away from the Spider.

    At 50 meters above the Spider, the grenade exploded, but with no sound or light effects.

    By then, the snowshade leopard was 300 meters way from the Spider.

    On the screen, they could see the ferocity in the blood-red eyes of the snowshade leopard!

    Suddenly, the Spider activated the hugeser saw in its leg. It seemed that Ye Chong opted for a close range battle as hisst resort.

    The snowshade leopard''s whiskers quivered as though it wasughing at his effort. The animal did not slow down. Instead, it twisted its body andnded heavily on the ground on all fours.

    Boom! Even from inside the Spider, Ye Chong and the two shooters could hear the animal made itsnding.

    Where the snowshade leopardnded, the ground fragmented. The animal borrowed momentum from itsnding and darted towards the bottom of the Spider.

    Only Ye Chong saw what happened. Both Xuan Ning and Sha Ya only saw a blur, and lost sight of the snowshade leopard.

    Crack! The snowshade leopard had bitten off the Spider''s leg that held theser saw. Both the dismembered limb and theser saw fell onto the ground. The fast rotating edge of theser saw buried itself into the ground.

    Boom!

    There was a deafening sound.

    The three of them felt a strong blowing from below them. Suddenly, the world was sent spinning. The image on the screen turned and turned. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning were both thrown out of their seats towards the pilot cabin''s inner wall.

    Ye Chong reacted the fastest. He gripped tightly onto his seat, counting the seconds.

    Now!

 Chapter 560 - An Idea

    <h4>Chapter 560: An Idea</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The huge spider rolled on the ground. The snowshade leopard''s attack was powerful enough to flip the spider, which was many times its size, upside down. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning, who were inside the pilot cabin, were both dizzy from the hit. Only Ye Chong maintained his calm. However, he was also surprised by the strength of the snowshade leopard.

    Even Ye Chong could not flip the huge spider over, despite how strong he was. The snowshade leopard was much stronger than he was. The animals were small but powerful, and moved very quickly. They knew how to move evasively, and their fur served as good defense. They were very powerful creatures!

    Nevertheless, all creatures have their weaknesses .The stronger an animal was, the harder it was to identify its weakness. However, this weakness would also be very dangerous for the animal.

    Ye Chong took a nce at Sha Ya and Xuan Ning. After determining that they were uninjured, he focused back onto the fight. Ye Chong closed his eyes and listened, as the world outside turned quiet again.

    Ye Chong''s hearing was sharp. This was a trait that allbat experts valued.

    Ye Chong stepped lightly towards the entrance of the huge spider. The spider had its belly towards the sky. The entrance was thus above Ye Chong''s head.

    He carefully opened the hatch and listened to the outside. There was no sound at all.

    Ye Chong came out of the huge spider and soon found the snowshade leopard. The powerful creature was now lying quietly on the ground, as though it was asleep.

    It seemed that the knockout agent was working perfectly. Ye Chong sighed in relief. The snowshade leopard was powerful. Ye Chong would not fight against them without a mech. This encounter was quite a close call. It had been long since Ye Chong had been in such a dangerous situation. He did not expect to encounter such a terrifying animal so soon after they entered Darkniss. Ye Chong believed that this creature was as strong as the red-tailed beasts.

    Darkniss was a terrifying ce.

    Ye Chong held his breath and took out a strong poison. He opened the sk and waved the opening before the snowshade leopard''s nose a few times. The snowshade leopard convulsed, then subsided. It was good policy to be careful. The snowshade leopard''s strength had shaken Ye Chong. He did not want any more surprises. He turned his attention towards where the snowshade leopard had attacked the huge spider. There were cracks on the surface now, proof of how strong the attack was.

    It seemed that he had to change the armor in that area. Fortunately, he brought the tools just for asions like this.

    Just then, Sha Ya and Xuan Ning crawled out of the huge spider with difficulty.

    Both of them stopped before the snowshade leopard and studied the creature with curiosity and fear.

    "What a scary thing, it''s so strong," Xuan Ning sighed, "I''ve heard of these creatures, but now I know that the stories fall short of the real thing. I think only a Level 10 shooter has afortable advantage against this animal." Nevertheless, he quickly added for Ye Chong''s benefit, "Of course, you''re an exception." Ye Chong had many tricks up his sleeves. The snowshade leopards were tamepared to the man himself. Xuan Ning would rather face three snowshade leopards than Ye Chong.

    Sha Ya carefully moved closer to the snowshade leopard. "Isn''t the snowshade leopard usually in the inner parts of Darkniss? Why are they here?"

    "Who knows?" Xuan Ning shrugged. He seemed to think of something, and his expression quickly turned serious, "It''s been strange in recent years. Usually, the snowshade leopard and those red-tailed creatures live in the inner parts of Darkniss. We encountered a poisoned red-tailed beast just recently, and today we encountered a snowshade leopard. Perhaps something has happened in Darkniss recently."

    Ye Chong heard him, and asked, "How will that be a problem?"

    "It''s a huge problem," Xuan Ning exined, "Here in Darkniss, every species has their own territories with very strict borders. The further in you go, the clearer these boundaries are. The snowshade leopard, for example, never wondered beyond their own territory. That we saw a snowshade leopard here near the border of Darkniss means that we''re in serious trouble."

    "Why is that?"

    "Think about it. If these three snowshade leopards left Darkniss, entered Dual Forest, and then went into Eastern Cloud, they would definitely raise havoc. What if it wasn''t just three, but a whole pack of snowshade leopards? There are many powerful creatures like this in Darkniss. If they all left Darkniss, no one can stop them. It will be the end for us all."

    Sha Ya agreed with Xuan Ning. "It''s a very important signal for us, seeing the snowshade leopards near the entrance into Darkniss. I have a bad feeling about this."

    "Haha, let''s not worry too much about it. If we continue deeper in, perhaps we''lle to understand the reason for it all," Xuan Ning forced augh and said.

    Ye Chong was not particrly worried about their concern. He was, after all, not really from Eastern Cloud. He climbed back into the huge spider''s pilot cabin and took out a specimen collection apparatus. He wanted to take a few tissue samples from the snowshade leopard. The creature was strong and fast, and its fur could block energy weapons effectively. It was the only animal Ye Chong knew that was as strong as the red-tailed beast. It was hard to believe that there was so much power in this small animal''s body. The animal''s muscle structure must be close to perfection.

    This was very important for Ye Chong. Celest''s muscle structure, despite being the product of the Research Consortium''s endless resources and manpower, was still a long way from the snowshade leopard. If Celest could have a muscle structure as strong as the snowshade leopard''s, it would definitely be a more powerful and terrifying weapon.

    Celest''s ability to evolve implied that it had the potential to be improved upon.

    Ye Chong carefully extracted samples from various parts of the snowshade leopard. He would be able to grow them into arger tissue mass with the same properties back at his ce with only a tiny sample,. He would then figure out a way to rece Celest''s muscle structure with the snowshade leopard''s. Of course, there were still many technical issues in the whole process, but Ye Chong was confident that he could solve them when the time came.

    The snowshade leopard''s fur was a strong defenseyer. Ye Chong had to put in some force to collect the tissue samples.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya paled as they watched Ye Chong''s every move. To them, Ye Chong''s operation was both creepy and scary to consider. What an evil man, to exploit an animal even when it was dead! Moreover, the vacuum specimen container next to Ye Chong was a mystery to both of them.

    They both watched as Ye Chong took out hisser sword and dissected the snowshade leopard like it was only a routine job. It was a bloody mess. They suppressed the urge to vomit and quickly went back into the huge spider.

    Ye Chong picked up biology very quickly with Kui''s three chips. This was obvious from the way he went about the dissection. He began awkwardly, but soon became familiar with the moves.

    Ye Chong returned to the pilot cabin with his vacuum specimen container, satisfied with the day''s rewards. The danger was beyond his expectations, but so was his reward.

    In biology, a tissue sample was sometimes enough to change everything.

    For the moment, they could not continue forward. The Spider needed repairs. Naturally, Ye Chong was charged with the technical work. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya sat together on a huge rock, drinking and enjoying some snacks while Ye Chong did his work. It was a pleasant moment. Having survived after being so close to death, they found that even sitting around drinking and chatting was one of the best things in life.

    Ye Chong worked quickly. He was much more skilled in machinery than biology. Besides, he was well prepared for the incident. He had all the tools and spare parts he needed.

    Soon, the three of them were back in the Spider and on their way.

    For some reason, the rest of the trip went smoothly. Aside from an encounter with a few ck-striped gray dragons, they did not see any more creatures that were as scary as the snowshade leopard.

    Sha Ya and Xuan Ning were still curious about Ye Chong. He seemed to picking up everything he could see along the way. It was understandable when he collected rocks or things that weaponsmiths may be interested in. However, he would sometimes collect even flowers, grass and moss. When they came across puddles, Ye Chong would also collect water samples.

    Sha Ya and Xuan Ning were baffled by Ye Chong''s strange behavior, but they knew that they could not stop him. Hence, they could only actively ignore him.

    Ye Chong was absorbed in his collection activity. Darkniss was like a hidden treasure to him. There were so many metals here that even he did not recognize, and all kinds of new nts. There was a huge variety of metals in this ce, and all in great amounts and high purity. It was a real treasure trove of natural resources. Many of the nts were also valuable ingredients for alchemy.

    Metal was very important to Ye Chong. He had plenty of processing equipment. If he had metals, he would be able to build numerous things, such as mechs, or even starships.

    If he could build a base here ¡­

    Ye Chong was moved by the thought.

 Chapter 561 - Going Further

    <h4>Chapter 561: Going Further</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong collected a great deal of mineral samples. Fortunately, the Spider had enough storage space to keep them. Darkniss was truly a ce of treasures. Ye Chong kept thinking about it. If there was a ce like this in the He Yue Gxy or the Five Gxies, people would definitely try to gain control of this ce, no matter how strong the creatures who lived there were.

    Nevertheless, here in this world, only shooters at Level 7 and above could enter. This made Darkniss an unexplored territory. This same ce was like a beacon for Ye Chong. Ye Chong was more familiar with metals than any other material. He believed that he if could build a base in here, it would offer him many important advantages. In particr, it would speed up his progress in finding a way to return to the He Yue Gxy.

    This was a n for the future. In the short term, he did not have the ability to build a base here. Building a base here without enough power in Darkniss would be like serving himself on a silver tter to the animals that lived here.

    His objective in visiting Darkniss this time was clear - he wanted to have a better understanding of the ce.

    They walked along Lava River and continued forward.

    ¡­

    This was their seventh day in Darkniss. The Lava River was already far behind them.

    "No one''s been here before, I''m sure. We are very likely the first humans to enter this ce," Xuan Ning said with a smile, "This is all thanks for this Spider. We wouldn''t have been able to go so deep into Darkniss."

    The huge spider was slower than a mech, but it was still much faster than walking. It would take a shooter like Sha Ya more than a month to cover the distance traveled by the Spider in seven days. As far as Xuan Ning and Sha Ya knew, no one had ever stayed in Darkniss for so long.

    The terrain around them was now very differentpared to a few days ago.

    The forest was thicker. There were more metals around, lying on the ground in small pieces. The sky was darker. Lava was not spotted as frequently as when they first entered Darkniss. Most of them were tiny branches ofva flow. There were more fluorescent nts as well. Some of them looked like trees covered with metal hooks that shined in a bright white color, giving the illusion of a metal tree with dazzling silver flowers.

    During the asional breeze, thousands and millions of spores would scatter into the wind, glowing a faint purple light like in a fairytale.

    There were all kinds of nts in here, many that Ye Chong had never seen before. The golden leaf that Sha Ya gave to Ye Chong when they first met came from a nt that was seen everywhere in this ce. The nt had a significant metal content. Probably up to 90 percent of the nt''sposition was metal. This made the nts robust enough to survive the harsh environment.

    There was a kind of t, ck colored weed. The leaves of the weed were at least 15 meters long. Ye Chong thought of them as alloy ropes. They were flexible and resilient, much stronger than even the usual alloy ropes. These ck colored weeds grew in wide patches on the ground. They were a strong species that could be seen everywhere they looked.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya had never been so deep inside Darkniss before. They looked around them curiously. Ye Chong, however, was rtively calm. He had seen too many strange things, such as the Archipgo where the Sang Tribe lived. That was also a ce full of inexplicable things.

    The wild animals here were sensitive creatures. Most of them would stay away, watching the huge spider from afar.

    The animals here were not huge. The Spider was rtively bigpared to anything else here. They had not yet encountered any animals that reached 10 meters tall, like the red-tailed beast.

    Ye Chong quickly noticed that the wild animals here kept to their own territories. Apart from that, they had seen nothing strange along the way. Why, then, would the snowshade leopards appear near the entrance of Darkniss?

    Ye Chong suddenly thought of something. He asked, "Where do the snowshade leopards live?"

    "I don''t know," Xuan Ning and Sha Ya answered in unison.

    "Didn''t you say that no one has evere so deep into Darkniss? How do you know about the snowshade leopards?" Ye Chong asked.

    Sha Ya replied, "I''ve seen the snowshade leopard in the autobiography of a legendary shooter. It''s written by the only Level 10 shooter in the history of Eastern Cloud."

    Ye Chong looked to Xuan Ning, who nodded and said, "I also knew about it from Lascher''s book. The book describes the snowshade leopard''s characteristics and great strength."

    "What you''re saying is, someone has been here before, and perhaps even deeper inside?" Ye Chong found the crux of the matter.

    "Who knows? Lascher''s been dead for over 300 years. Can''t ask a dead soul, can I?" Xuan Ning said jokingly.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong pointed towards the screen and cried out, "Someone''s here!"

    "What? Are you joking? How can anyone be here?" Xuan Ning asked in disbelief.

    Sha Ya followed Ye Chong''s finger and looked. "There''s someone here!" she gasped.

    To the front and right of the Spider was a cliff. At the foot of the cliff was a huge rock, which a person was standing on. Around the rock were dozens of horned tyrasaurs.

    Horned tyrasaurs were not huge, reaching the height of an adult human when standing. Each horned tyrasaur had a single horn on its forehead. Its body was covered with many tiny scales that offered strong protection. They were fast and aggressive animals. A lone horned tyrasaur was not as strong as a snowshade leopard, but the animals often hunted together in a pack of dozens. They were also capable of impressive coordination, and were difficult to get rid of.

    Fortunately, they had only encountered a few horned tyrasaurs along the way. The Spider''s two powerful mainser guns and the pair of capable shooters onboard helped them ward off the animals effectively.

    Now, they were watching a single person facing off against a whole pack of horned tyrasaurs! From the looks of it, the person was fighting calmly in a way that suggested experience.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were both bbergasted. There was a human right here! They exchanged a look in disbelief to what they were seeing. Xuan Ning had been so certain that no one would be able to go so far into Darkniss without Ye Chong''s Spider, but now, someone was obviously here before them!

    Who could possibly be so strong?

    Unfortunately, they were too far away to make out the person''s face.

    In the short instance when they were hesitating, some of the horned tyrasaurs surrounding the rock had already fallen to the ground. The rock was about 10 meters tall, and the animals could not reach up far enough. They could only leap up seven to eight meters high. It was a mystery how that person managed to get onto that rock.

    The person had aser gun, and was shooting at them with no hurry.

    The mysterious shooter''sser gun did not seem particrly powerful. It was, in fact, much weaker than the two mainser guns of their Spider. However, the shooter was patient, firing shot after shot with great uracy at the same spot until the scales of the horned tyrasaurs finally crumbled. It took about five shots to kill a horned tyrasaur, but Ye Chong had never seen anyone fired so fast before. The averageser gun became a terrifying weapon in the shooter''s hands.

    Sha Ya looked anxious. Even Xuan Ning, as a Level 9 shooter, was sweating.

    "Do you know the shooter?" Ye Chong asked.

    "I can''t see the face," Xuan Ning said as she narrowed her eyes, trying to identify the shooter. Sha Ya shook her head as well.

    Ye Chong moved the Spider a little closer. By the Spider''s third step, all three of them felt something.

    Parapsychic waves! These were strong parapsychic waves!

    Now it was Ye Chong''s turn to be surprised. He estimated at least 15 kilometres between them and the shooter. That the shooter''s parapsychic sense could extend so far out was amazing! Xuan Ning''s eyes lit up. For the first time since he reached Level 9, he extended his parapsychic sense as far out as he could reach.

    Sha Ya extended her parapsychic sense to her limit as well.

    Ye Chong quickly calmed himself down, being in the middle of all three strong parapsychic waves. He returned his attention to the screen.

    The unknown shooter seemed to notice their presence, and looked towards them.

    By now, they could all see the shooter''s face. To everyone''s surprise, the powerful shooter was actually a woman!

    When Xuan Ning saw her face clearly, he shivered. His expression was one of shock and disbelief when he cried out, "It''s her!"

    Ye Chong threw a side nce at Xuan Ning and asked, "You know her?" Sha Ya looked to him as well.

    "Quick, help her," Xuan Ning said firmly, "I''ll exinter."

    Ye Chong heard him. He immediately had the Spider running towards the woman. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning went to their weapons stations without dy.

    With a Level 8 shooter and a Level 9 shooter behind the Spider''s powerful weapons, the horned tyrasaurs were quickly overpowered. The Spider''s two mainser guns could easily tear through the horned tyrasaur''syer of scales.

    The woman was surprised by the powerful weapons of the Spider. However, she gathered herself quickly and continued firing at the horned tyrasaurs.

    In just a short moment, most of the horned tyrasaurs had already fallen, leaving only about a dozen of them left. These survivors realized their terrible position and escaped without looking back.

    The huge spider brought three of its riders towards the huge rock.

    The rock had a smooth surface, with no anchor points for climbing. It was hard to imagine how the female shooter got onto the rock. The woman took onest nce at the huge spider, then slid down along the surface of the rock. She kept close to the rock and made her way down smoothly.

    Ye Chong was surprised by her maneuvre. If he had not seen her shooting the horned tyrasaurs, he would have thought she was abat expert, and a pretty good one at that.

    Xuan Ning lowered his voice and said, "She is Mei Wu. Mind your words." He took a look at Ye Chong and felt the advice wasted on him.

    Mei Wu sounded familiar. Ye Chong tried to recall when he had heard that name.

    Sha Ya had aplicated expression on her face.

    The three of them came out of the huge spider, and Ye Chong finally had a good look of the woman called Mei Wu. She had long eyes and thin lips, with an air of apathy about here. She wore an old and gray coloredbat uniform, and had aser gun of an old design in her hand.

    Mei Wu watched the neers. When she saw Xuan Ning, her eyes lit up in recognition. "So it''s Sir Xuan. Seems that thisdy is safe thanks to you." Her voice was sharp and stressed with mockery.

    Xuan Ning bowed in greeting. He shrugged helplessly and said, "You''re too kind. I hope I was not interfering with your fight. How did you get here? His Majesty has missed you all these years."

    "His Majesty?" Mei Wuughed coldly. "Looks like he finally got the throne, just as he wished. Missed me? Just what kind of rtionship is there between us? Since when did he dictate where I should be?"

    Xuan Ning had nothing to say to that. He kept his head bowed low and his mouth shut.

    "Whatever, it''s not your fault anyway. You don''t have to look like that. You''re his subordinate, and you''ve got nothing to do with me." Mei Wu sighed, as though she had remembered something.

    Ye Chong watched the two of them, amused. He finally remembered who Mei Wu was - she was the Shu sisters'' teacher. What luck to have met her in Darkniss.

    Mei Wu studied Xuan Ning for a moment and asked, "You''ve reached Level 9?"

    Xuan Ning nodded obediently and replied, "Yes, just recently."

    Mei Wu smiled coldly and said, "He''s going to be very happy about this. Tsk tsk. A Level 9 shooter. Eastern Cloud''s got herself a symbol of power alright."

    Xuan Ning did not know how to respond to that either.

    Mei Wu turned to Ye Chong and Sha Ya. "These your friends?"

    "Yes. This is Ye Chong, Master weaponsmith. This is Sha Ya, a Level 8 shooter."

    "Oh, a weaponsmith." Mei Wu studied him with interest. "Do you makeser guns? I need a new one. This one''s too old for me."

    "Aser gun," Ye Chong considered, "That can be done, but what do you have to trade for it?"

    Xuan Ning was rmed by his words. He quickly interfered, "Just get theser gun. We''ll pay for it." "Really, this guy offends people so easily," Xuan Ning cursed Ye Chong inside.

    Mei Wu raised an eyebrow. "I will pay for my own things, thank you very much." She turned back to Ye Chong and said, "What do you want? Money''s out of the question. I haven''t left Darkniss in a long while."

    "You - You''ve been staying in Darkniss all this while?" Xuan Ning was shocked.

    Mei Wu replied nonchntly, "Why, yes, is that a problem? By the way, do any of you have energy crystals with you? Mine''s almost used up. There is no way recharge energy crystals here, and going outside is too much of a hassle."

    Xuan Ning shuddered as his mind caught onto an idea. He asked Mei Wu carefully, "Did you ¡­ Did you also reach Level 9?"

    "Yes, what about it? Are you the only one allowed to do that?" Mei Wu threw a side nce at Xuan Ning with an unreadable expression. Sha Ya looked surprised. She had met another Level 9 shooter!

    Xuan Ning looked overjoyed. He asked excitedly, "When - when did you reach Level 9?"

    "Don''t remember, it''s been awhile." Mei Wu cut him short and turned to Ye Chong. "You haven''t said what you want."

    Ye Chong considered for a moment. "You must be familiar with Darkniss, having lived here for so long, right?"

    "Just so so. I didn''t venture too deep inside. The animals there are too strong for me. Besides, I don''t have a suitable weapon," Mei Wu exined frankly.

    "I need you to be our guide. Take us on a tour to the ces you''re familiar with. In return, I''ll make you aser gun, and throw in some energy crystals into the deal too. What do you say?" Ye Chong asked.

    "Deal," Mei Wu agreed happily.

    Ye Chong had a fewser guns with him. He had wanted to use them for trading at the weapons design contest. However, he did not find anything interesting there except for the rubbery germ. Hence, he stored all theser guns in Celest''s dimension keystone. Ye Chong went back into the Spider and pretended to search in the storage room. He then withdrew aser gun from the dimension keystone. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning did not know what was in the storage room of the Spider, which was why they did not suspect anything was wrong.

    Mei Wu took theser gun from Ye Chong and examined it. Her eyes lit up in approval. "Nice one!" It was an honestpliment, but her voice was still ufortable to listen to.

    Ye Chong considered that particrser gun to be only average, but Mei Wu thought it was an excellent model, and loved it immediately. It was fortunate that she did not see Sha Ya''sser gun. Hers was even better.

    "Did you build this huge spider?" Mei Wu looked at Ye Chong from head to toe with admiration. "As expected of a Master weaponsmith. Not bad, not bad at all." She suddenly remembered something, and looked curiously to Xuan Ning. "I seem to remember you have your own duties. Why would the King allow you toe here?"

    Xuan Ning exined, "His Majesty has reached an agreement with Ye Chong. I''m here to assist him."

    Mei Wu smiled coldly. "He''s still the same as before. He''ll use anything he can get his hands on." She turned back to Ye Chong and rxed a little. "Are you looking for raw materials? I remember weaponsmiths are fond of gravstones. Let me show you this one ce I''ve been to."

 Chapter 562 - Mei Wu

    <h4>Chapter 562: Mei Wu</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong''s group travelled with more confidence, with Mei Wu as their guide. Mei Wu was familiar with the area. This was obvious from the way she led the group. She was also generous withpliments about the huge spider that Ye Chong built.

    Xuan Ning decided to inform the King of Mei Wu''s whereabouts once they left Darkniss. As for theplicated rtionship between Mei Wu and the King, it was not his ce as a mere government servant to get involved.

    Mei Wu was not aware that her two students were suffering under Ye Chong. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning knew, of course, but they were not foolish enough to bring up the topic. This powerful shooter was known for her unpredictable temper. It was not difficult to imagine her just shooting them all if she found out.

    Mei Wu had been living in Darkniss for years. Aside from the annual trip to the world outside to resupply, such as getting energy crystals, she spent the rest of her time within the darkness of Darkniss. It would be much easier for her to go outside with the huge spider as transport.

    Mei Wu had a paleplexion, for she had long since been exposed to sunlight.

    She was a tenacious woman who survived the loneliness and dangers that lurked in the shades of Darkniss. That itself made her impressive.

    Mei Wu treated Xuan Ning badly. She was also not interested in Sha Ya. A Level 8 shooter could not interest a shooter like her, who had passed the Level 9 mark. Ye Chong, however, was something else. Mei Wu had a bad temper, but she was also cunning. There was no reason to offend the Master weaponsmith whom she wanted something from.

    She wanted the Spider. The Desert had sandstorms, while the Mist was a stretch of suffocating foliage. Aircrafts were useless in these environments, but the Spider could easily traverse through them. This was very useful for Mei Wu.

    Darkniss was rich with minerals, but there was not even the slightest bit of energy crystals in this ce. Mei Wu could tolerate having mediocre weapons, but she could not live without energy crystals. Every trip to the outside world for energy crystals was a great hassle for her. If she had the spider, she could bring more energy crystals with her in every trip, enough tost her a long time.

    "It''s here. This ce has plenty of gravstonespared to its surroundings. I found it while hunting a horned tyrasaurs a few years ago." Mei Wu pointed towards a wide clearing.

    Ye Chong was bbergasted.

    The ce was once ake, but now that the water had all dried up, what was left behind was a shallow impression in the ground that was the bottom of theke. There were all kinds dazzling and colorful minerals in the soil, scattered about the clearing. They shined with a metallic luster than was absent in the other gravstones Ye Chong had seen along his journey in Darkniss, perhaps because they were cleansed byke water long ago.

    The entire clearing was about five or six square kilometres wide. There were palm sized gravstones everywhere in this clearing.

    It was incredible! Ye Chong estimated no less than two dozen rare minerals in this wide clearing. Just a tiny bit of the rare minerals would greatly improve the properties of normal metal alloys. That was why the rare minerals were valuable. The rare mineral ores here were enough for him to extract a significant amount of rare minerals. They could be used to strengthen alloy structures, or improve alloy resilience, or improve their heat capacities ¡­

    Ye Chong decided very quickly that this was an important ce. He immediately made a mark on his 3D holographic map. Mei Wu had never seen a map like that before, but she kept her curiosity in check to maintain her impersonal image.

    However, she could tell from Ye Chong''s reaction that the man valued this ce. She was secretly pleased by it. She knew from their first round of negotiation that Ye Chong was a practical man. The best to deal with people like him was to make solid offers.

    Now that she knew what Ye Chong was interested in, she could better n her next moves. There were a few others like this that she knew about, and they would give her enough leverage. The fact soothed her. She had also never seen such a detailed map like the one on the Spider. She respected Ye Chong even more because of it. She did not feel any parapsychic waves from Ye Chong, but she also knew that a Level 9 shooter could never build a weapon as good as a Master weaponsmith.

    Ye Chong made detailed markings in his map whenever they arrived at a new ce. The map recorded every spot they had been in Darkniss, including the local distribution of nts and wild animals. With this map, his next visit to Darkniss would be much easier.

    When Ye Chong was finished, Mei Wu slowly asked, "Well? Are you satisfied?" All the coldness vanished from Mei Wu as she asked with an alluring smile. Sha Ya felt her heart skip a beat, then berated herself for it. She thought to herself, "What a beauty! She didn''t look like she was in her thirties at all." Xuan Ning thought to himself, "No wonder His Majesty still misses her."

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong was immune to her expression. He could not understand the expression at all, much less respond to it.

    On the other hand, he did understand what Mei Wu was trying to say. "Yes. Do you know any other ces like this? What do you want in exchange?" Ye Chong asked calmly. Mu and Shang had taught him repeatedly about the rule of equal trade. Of course, most of the time, it was only appropriate to be used on people on the same level as him. Fortunately, Mei Wu was one of those people.

    "I know of three more," Mei Wu said as she reverted back to her cold attitude. However, her eyes betrayed her satisfaction with their negotiation method. It was much easier to deal with smart people. "I want a Spider."

    Ye Chong expected that much. He considered it for a moment and said, "I can''t give you this one, since we need it to leave Darkniss. If you want it, you''ll have to wait until I enter Darkniss next time."

    "Alright," Mei Wu agreed eagerly, and followed up with a question, "I don''t understand, why are you interested in Darkniss? Is it the gravstones?"

    Ye Chong nodded, then shook his head. "It''s not just the gravstones. You''re familiar with this ce. Have you ever seen an animal that''s about 10 metres tall, with a red-tipped arrow tail?"

    Xuan Ning knew immediately what Ye Chong was talking about. He stared at Ye Chong and asked, "So you''re interested in that? Why didn''t you tell me sooner? Just say the word, and His Majesty will give it to you."

    Mei Wu spoke up sharply, "Don''t mention the b*stard Majesty in front of me again, Xuan Ning, or I''ll put a hole in your head! Humph, I''m still way ahead of you as a shooter." Mei Wu lifted her chin and stared down arrogantly at Xuan Ning.

    Xuan Ning felt himself showered in cold sweat. He quickly bowed his head and nodded, "Of course, of course!" Sha Ya stared at him. Who would have thought that the infamous Xuan Ning would cower before a woman just like that? And what was Mei Wu''s rtionship with the King?

    Mei Wu breathed heavily with her right hand on her chest, and recovered after a while. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and gathered herself. She shook her head at Ye Chong and said, "I have never seen that creature you speak of. However, if you''re talking about an animal that size, you will probably need to go deeper into Darkniss."

    "Have you seen this before?" Ye Chong took out the colloid fungus. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning studied the thing in Ye Chong''s hand. They did not actually know why Ye Chong wanted to visit Darkniss. They also did not recognize the thing in his hand.

    Mei Wu took the colloid fungus in her hand and scrutinized it. Abruptly, she lost herposure. "Why do you have this?"

    "You recognize it?" Ye Chong kept his gaze on Mei Wu.

    Mei Wu nodded with a trace of fear in her eyes. "Once, I was chased by three slitherlizards. I couldn''t throw them off my back, and so I decided to run further into Darkniss out of desperation. Fortunately, I did not encounter any other wild animals along the way. I ran and ran for a long time, it must have been at least three weeks. It was then that I came across a meadow. The entire field was covered with this kind of fungus that you have. I was exhausted by then, and at my limit of parapsychic control. I thought that was it for me. When I saw the field, I simply slumped onto it. Once I was on the ground, I didn''t have to strength to get up again. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end, but to my great surprise ¡­"

    All three of her listeners keenly followed her words.

    "The three slitherlizards left, just like that. I didn''t think much about it back then. I was too tired, my eyes won''t open. I fell unconscious. After some time, I woke up and saw a red patch underneath me. I was so shocked I quickly shot up from the ground.

    "It was so quiet in the field. There wasn''t a single sound. The long hairs of the nt swayed in the wind. I looked closer and realized that it was not grass at all, but a kind of thin, hair-like nt. I call that ce the Sea of Threads. I didn''t see other animals in the Sea of Threads. I was scared of what I found, but then something else happened that made my truly afraid. Out there, I couldn''t spread my parapsychic waves!"

    "What?"

    "Impossible!"

    Sha Ya and Xuan Ning gasped.

    "I was horrified! I never experienced that before. Never! A shooter without parapsychic waves cannot defend themselves. I ran away from the Sea of Threads without dy." Mei Wu smiled bitterly. "I wasn''t so lucky on the return trip. I encountered many powerful creatures along the way. It was a dangerous trip, and I was badly injured from it, but in the end I got back home, alive. That was the most horrifying experience I ever had."

    Mei Wu could still recall the horror she felt from that incident. Beside her, the three listeners were chilled by her story as well.

 Chapter 563 - Return

    <h4>Chapter 563: Return</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "How do I get to the Sea of Threads?" Ye Chong asked. He would be able to understand better by going there himself. However, Ye Chong believed that Mei Wu was being truthful. That she could not use parapsychic waves in the Sea of Threads was a fact that matched what he knew about the colloid germ. Perhaps the three slitherlizards had left because they could not sense Mei Wu''s presence.

    Mei Wu looked at Ye Chong in surprise. "You want to go there?" She was baffled. "Why are you so interested in the Sea of Threads?" Sha Ya and Xuan Ning both looked at Ye Chong with surprise as well. They were curious why he would brave the dangers to see that ce.

    Ye Chong did not answer, but continued to look at Mei Wu.

    Mei Wu saw the determination in his eyes, but still she shook her head "We''re too weak to do that now. Do you know how strong the wild animals are along the way? I was luckyst time, avoiding all their territories. The return trip was horrible. Besides, I don''t remember the way."

    "There are four of us, and there''s the Spider. Aren''t we enough?" Xuan Ning asked, sceptical. They were two Level 9 shooters, one Level 8 shooter and a Master weaponsmith. It was a powerful and exclusivebination.

    Mei Wu tossed a look of ridicule at Xuan Ning. "Just because you''re a Level 9 shooter, do you think you can go anywhere? Humph, without this huge spider, you wouldn''t have made it here. A Level 9 shooter like you who are so up about himself despite not honing his skills is no better than a Level 8 shooter."

    Xuan Ning''s cheeks flushed. He knew that Mei Wu was right. They were both Level 9 shooters, but Mei Wu was far more powerful than him.

    Mei Wu looked at Ye Chong and said firmly, "Even if we are two times stronger than we are now, it''s still impossible. I know the strength of those creatures."

    It seemed that the matter will have to wait. Barging further into Darkniss on impulse was too dangerous. Ye Chong can be patient when it mattered. He remembered about the three snowshade leopards, about how strong those animals were. He asked, "We saw three snowshade leopards a few days ago. Are there any of them nearby?"

    "Snowshade leopards?" Mei Wu looked surprised. "You saw snowshade leopards?"

    Xuan Ning described their encounter with the animals to her. Mei Wu considered the incident and muttered to herself, "You killed three snowshade leopards, in part due to having the huge spider, and also due to Ye Chong''s unpredictable poison attack. There was also a geographical advantage, with the Raging River in the way. Without these conditions ¡­" Mei Wu did not finish her sentence. She just looked at the three of them quietly.

    A win was a win. That was how Ye Chong saw it, unlike what Mei Wu and the two shooters thought. The shooters felt that the Spider was only an essory, not a person''s own battle ability. That was why Mei Wu chose to train herself in this dangerous ce, all alone. Ye Chong admired her resolution. After all, this kind of training required tremendous courage. However, Ye Chong believed that anything that could help him win was also part of himself. This was a difference in perception.

    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya lowered their heads and heeded the stronger shooter, Mei Wu''s words. Ye Chong was unmoved by her conclusion. He asked calmly, "Where do the snowshade leopards live?" If the animals lived nearby, he could never have a base here. The creatures were too strong. His base would be torn down as soon as he built a new one.

    "I don''t know," Mei Wu answered, shaking her head. "I never saw any snowshade leopards nearby. They must live further inside Darkniss. Where did you see them?"

    "Near the entrance of Darkniss."

    "That''s not possible!" Mei Wu looked unsettled. "Snowshade leopards live only in the inner parts of the Darkniss, perhaps even further in than the Sea of Threads. I''ve never encountered creatures as strong as the snowshade leopard."

    Ye Chong asked, "I heard that the animals in Darkniss stay within their territories, and will not move about freely. Having stayed here for so long, do you think that''s the case?"

    Mei Wu nodded solemnly. "People do say that. The wild animals in Darkniss often have a clear territory of their own, and will seldom go beyond their boundaries. There are exceptions, though, like when the three slitherlizards were chasing me. It rarely happens, and that was my only experience with it. If you really met snowshade leopards, they must have been chased by other creatures, or chasing something."

    Ye Chong and his twopanions considered her words.

    Mei Wu paused, and then added, "There is another possibility ¡­"

    The three of them looked at up her. Mei Wu hesitated before saying, "It''s possible that something strange is happening in Darkniss."

    Mei Wu saw the puzzled look in her listeners, and exined, "Darkniss has always been a stable ce. However, it is also constantly changing. I have lived here for years, and felt it, but I can''t exactly describe the nature of this change."

    Ye Chong and hispanions thought about what Mei Wu said. Personally, Ye Chong was more inclined to believe in the third scenario. If it was only the snowshade leopards that were the anomaly, then the first two scenarios were more usible. However, since the country of Western Frost had found a red-tailed beast in Darkniss ¡­ Ye Chong considered both events together, and felt that the third scenario was more likely.

    It seemed that they would not be solving this mystery anytime soon. Mei Wu brought Ye Chong to the other threeke beds. There were so many rare mineral ores there Ye Chong wanted to just harvest them all and bring them home. However, that was an impractical wish. The Spider had limited storage, and it was unwise to use Celest''s dimension keystone in front of these three shooters. Besides, these rare minerals were not particrly useful without normal alloys.

    Ye Chong decided to build a base in Darkniss no matter what. However, he would have to think about exactly how he was going to achieve that.

    Ye Chong made detailed markings on his map for these three locations.

    When the Spider brought all four of them to Mei Wu''s ce, Xuan Ning took one look at it and felt like crying. "You ¡­ You''ve been staying here all these years?"

    It was a cave, fitted with some simple furniture made of rocks. The ground was covered with a thin and softyer of brownish grass. It was very bare. The only things that suggested this was a human''s house were the artificial lights in the cave and a food heater. These were the most basic appliances in a normal house. The light and heater both ran on energy crystals, but they consumed energy at a very low rate. The heater would not attract wild animals since it did not generate fire when operating. Just a small distance away from the cave was a source of spring water.

    Even the poor people of Eastern Cloud lived in better conditions than this. The thought of Mei Wu living in this cave by herself all this while, isted from society, and having to hunt for her own food, made Xuan Ning''s heart ache for her.

    When Sun Sieha was a young man, he liked to travel around the world. Xuan Ning was his guard back then. He knew all about His Majesty''s rtionship with Mei Wu. As the three of them travelled around together, Xuan Ning came to think of Mei Wu as the King''s rightful partner. Later on, Sun Sieha and Mei Wu got into a quarrel, and Mei Wu abruptly left him. Mei Wu was being childish back then, but still mildpared to her solitary and unpredictable nature right now. Ever since that incident, His Majesty''s character changed. He turned colder and apathetic. The King never had a partner after that, and many of the government officials worried about it.

    Xuan Ning had thought that Mei Wu would surely be the Queen of Eastern Cloud. Hence, seeing Mei Wu living like this in Darkniss brought tears to his eyes.

    Mei Wu seemed to read his thoughts. She softened a little and said, "Life is alright here. The dangerous and harsh training that I went through all these years made me improve so quickly you can''t imagine it." She paused, and then continued, "You just reached Level 9. You don''t know what it''s like to be Level 9 yet. You know too little about parapsychic control. Living in Su City, you will never achieve Level 10. Others have taken the path I chose now. Don''t waste your time persuading me. I will not leave here until I reach Level 10."

    Xuan Ning assented quietly to her wishes. He knew how obstinate and extreme Mei Wu can be. There was nothing he could say to change her mind.

    Ye Chong was not interested in the history between Mei Wu and Sun Sieha. He took out half of the energy crystals stored in the Spider and gave them to Mei Wu. Life in Darkniss was much better than Ye Chong''s life on the trash, and still better than the Sang Tribe''s life in Archipgo. Before the Sang Tribe met Ye Chong, they did not even have metals, much less advanced weapons likeser guns.

    That night, Ye Chong and his group stayed in the cave. In actual fact, it was impossible to tell day from night in Darkniss, as the sky was always dark in here. On the second day, Mei Wu led them in the Spider to continue their exploration of Darkniss.

    The whole exploration took 25 days, as Mei Wu was familiar with a huge part of Darkniss. Sometimes, they encountered wild animals on their way. It was then that the three outsiders experienced exactly how strong Mei Wu was.

    Her strength was not only expressed in her shooting skills. It was hard to imagine a shooter climbing 30 metres up a smooth cliff. In addition, she moved with great agility. Ye Chong thought she was fit enough to learn properbat. He also thought her parapsychic control was far superiorpared to Xuan Ning. She could also restrict her opponents with her parapsychic waves, much like how mentalists restrict their opponent''s movement. Her parapsychic waves were much stronger than Xuan Ning''s, but they could cover a wider area. She also used her parapsychic waves in many extraordinary waves. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya could only watch in fascination.

    Xuan Ning could see that he would never reach Level 10, unless he left everything behind and dedicate himself only to being a shooter, just like Mei Wu. Without doing this, Level 10 would forever be out of reach.

    Ye Chong said to Mei Wu, "The next time I enter Darkniss, I''ll bring you the Spider."

    "Alright." Mei Wu looked assured. She believed that Ye Chong would not lie to her. "You should leave now. I''m going out to hunt." Mei Wu nodded to the three of them and turned to lead the way, vanishing quickly into the darkness.

    Xuan Ning watched her retreating figure with mixed emotions. He wanted to say something, but could not find the words. "His Majesty should decide on this," Xuan Ning sighed inside.

    Thus, Ye Chong''s trip into Darkniss concluded. He was quite happy with the oue.

    His experience at the entrance to Darkniss told him that Celest''s dimension keystone had an effect on spatial windows. He also collected tissue samples of the snowshade leopard. There were many more other specimens in the storage room. He had drawn a detailed map of one part of Darkniss, including the locations of the minerals. There was also a clue to the colloid germ - the Sea of Threads.

    For a single investigative trip into Darkniss, he had learned far more than he expected.

    Ye Chong and hispanions left Darkniss without dy. The road back was much smoother. Mei Wu had marked the general territorial boundaries of the wild animals on their map. Hence, Ye Chong and his group made their way out of Darkniss with rtive ease.

    The path that their Spider cleared out in the Mist was still there. The nts here grew quickly, but not quickly enough to cover the path. They had no incident in the Desert as well. There were no sandstorms, and the sandscorpions were pretty much wiped out by Ye Chong. The trip was smooth, but Xuan Ning, who should have appreciated this rapid travelling the most, looked upied with his thoughts throughout the journey. Ye Chong and Sha Ya were not the talkative type, and so the trip back wasrgelypletely without conversation.

    Once they arrived at Yedda, a transport aircraft was there for them. They took the aircraft back to Su City.

    Ye Chong began to organize the results of their expedition. There was a lot ofplicated information to sort through, and none of them immediately applicable.

    "Sigh, there''s so much to be done," Ye Chong sighed to himself as he thought of the huge pile of specimens waiting for him. He felt daunted but fulfilled.

 Chapter 564 - Mech Pilot Training Program

    <h4>Chapter 564: Mech Pilot Training Program</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong got busy with his work again, but it was not as though he had ever been idle.

    First signs of sess in the students'' training were now apparent. Three months was a long time. With the hellish training designed for them and special medication that Ye Chong prepared with alchemy, the students improved at an astonishing rate. Now, they no longer looked as fragile as they were a few months ago. No one dared to ck when the vicious Liao San was in charge. Everyone was pushed to their very limits. For those who could not keep up, horrible consequences awaited them. Instructor Liao was notorious on his one-on-one extra sses.

    Even Duan Qian, who was used to the realities of training, could not help but felt stricken whenever Liao San whipped his students. In these three months, Duan Qian improved the most. As a mostly self-taught person who had struggled to understand things by himself, he now had professional guidance. It was only natural for him to improve so quickly.

    Besides Duan Qian, there was also another group of students who were improving quickly. These students had excellent physical qualities. Their talent inbat was revealed through the training program. The surprising thing was, almost a third of these students were from noble families. They lived in good conditions, much better than their poorer counterparts. However, they did not devote themselves to training before this, living a life of pleasure and idleness. Nevertheless, with Instructor Liao, all students were equal. They could only train hard like everyone else. Their physical advantages made a difference in the oue.

    Soon, Ye Chong picked out these students to undergo a whole new set of training. The other students watched jealously at the selected students, while the ones who were chosen puffed up their chests with pride.

    To Ye Chong''s surprise, Shu Mo''er and her sister were also amongst these fast improving students. They had improved so quickly that even their instructor in charge, Gui Gui, would asionallypliment them. Ye Chong had no bias against the sisters. Here, the only that mattered was one''s true abilities.

    The students that he selected came up to five thousand, which was the number that Ye Chong had agreed upon with Sun Sieha. Ye Chong cleared up a space for their training ground in his manor. Duan Qian would be in charge of general training, while Liao San as assistant. All the students groaned when they saw Liao San there. They had thought that they could escape Liao San''s grasp, but Ye Chong had assigned the instructor to them again.

    The training routine for the students changed drastically. Physical training was still an important part of the routine, but Ye Chong had also introduce the steel beads training that he had the most trouble with to them. Ye Chong did not have steel beads, so he had to make metal beads with the rare metals found in Darkniss.

    If anyone from He Yue Gxy or the Five Gxies saw this, they would be shocked! What a waste of heavenly resources! On the wide training ground, five thousand students sat and pushed around colorful metal beads on a wooden board in front of them. These metal beads were all made from rare metals!

    After setting aside a very small amount of these metals for analysis, Ye Chong used up all the metals he brought back to make the metal beads. It was just enough for the five thousand students. After all, the Spider''s storage room was nearly full with the mineral ores.

    The students were clumsy at first, but Ye Chong did not worry about that. He had also taken a long time to get used to the training.

    The training program started in full force. Sun Sieha never came to bother him again. It was a wonderful life!

    Ye Chong dived straight into his research. There were so many things he needed to study, but even so, he would take time to train with Celest every single day.

    His underground base was mostlypleted, and his fiveboratories were done. Additionally, Ye Chong had built a mech training ground for his own use.

    He had begun growing snowshade leopard tissue, but in order to use them to upgrade Celest, he would have to be familiar with the bio-mech''s structure. Celest was the product of the Research Consortium''s most advanced technologies, and probably had the mostplicated structure. Even with the chips Kui gave him, it would not be easy to understand Celest''s structure.

    Ye Chong devoted all his attention to research.

    In this world, nothing beats dedication. Ye Chong was a man of dedication.

    Nevertheless, the scale of his work was farrger than he expected. He did not expect it to take him six months to rece Celest''s tissue with that of the snowshade leopard. Of these six months, five of them were spent on studying and research. The actual upgrade happened in thest month.

    Armed with snowshade leopard tissue, Celest was now more powerful than Ye Chong could ever imagine. He was already impressed with the explosive strength of the bio-mech''s original form. After the upgrade, Celest''s strength almost doubled. How much power was that exactly? Ye Chong was not sure. He only knew that piloting the upgraded Celest would be a strain on even his own strong body. Celest also had its engine tweaked. Wood from this world had greatpatibility with pure energy and low density, making it suitable for building an engine. Ye Chong picked the best wood he could find, even though the price was shockingly high. The wood itself had cost 50 million ao.

    It looked like he would have to train himself further! He must be able to unleash the full potential of Celest.

    Ye Chong gained something else from his intense research work. Each day, he immersed himself in the most advanced biological theories and experiments. This improved his understanding in the field greatly. He was now able to build his own photon processor. Of course, the photon processor he made was notparable to Celest''s, but it was at least an average level photon processor, which was good enough for him.

    After hiding in his underground base for six months, Ye Chong emerged to find Xi Yan waiting for him.

    Xi Yan quickly approached him. "Teacher, Sir Xuan Ning had dropped by three times when you were gone."

    "Did he say anything?" Ye Chong asked. He recalled abruptly that he had promised the man a Spider.

    Xi Yan shook his head. "He only asked when you''d being out, then he would leave."

    Ye Chong nodded. "Alright. Xi Yan, get Kristen and make two sets of mechanical parts for the Spider." One for Xuan Ning and another for Mei Wu - he might as well build them at the same time.

    Xi Yan nodded. "Okay." Recently, Xi Yan felt like as though he had been reborn. His teacher had taught him not only about weapons, but also machinery in general, and it opened his eyes on things. Once upon a time, he only knew how to build weapons, but not the logic behind the building process. With his teacher''s guidance, he could now see things clearer than ever.

    He was thoroughly impressed with Ye Chong.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong went to the training ground, and found the atmosphere there thick with concentration.

    Ping ping ping! Metal beads hit against each other, sounding like a thunderstorm. Every student focused on the wooden board before them as they flick about the metal beads on the board, quickly and deftly. Not one of them noticed that Ye Chong had arrived. Liao San was circling around the students, keeping a tight watch over them.

    For normal students, the metal beads training did not only improve their hand speed, but also their reflex. Many of them could barely stand six months of this dry form of training. However, Liao San said that the king had ordered for anyone who failed to go through the training to be sent tobor camp. Once the announcement was made, no one thought of giving up again.

    The fact was, human had infinite potential. Even students with only average talent were forced to their current level of expertise due to the intense training they underwent.

    ¡­

    Sun Sieha wondered how the students would turn out at the end of Ye Chong''s training. That was why he gave that harsh order, to prevent the slippery ones to escape training. His Majesty''s words were final, this wasmon knowledge. No one doubted if the order would actually be carried out. Hence, they pushed themselves to keep up with their training. There were many rumours of people never returning frombour camps.

    Sun Sieha was also very busytely. His men had finally digested and understood the technology in the cannon arrays that Ye Chong built for him. The problem now was how to mass produce the weapon. Even though Master Karu finally knew how to build the weapon from scratch, Sun Sieha knew that Ye Chong had already taken so much money from him by now.

    He did not feel good about that at all!

    Nevertheless, he had no time to think about Ye Chong. Right now, he must focus on the cannon arrays. The military had concluded that if they could be armed with the cannon arrays on arge scale, their overall battle capacity would be at least doubled. Their battle strategies would also be modified to incorporate the cannon arrays.

    Almost all the military factories were ordered to produce the cannon arrays. Sun Sieha waited patiently for the rtively low cost but very powerful cannon arrays to be fully incorporated into the military. There was also the technology they had bought from Kristen to inject into Eastern Cloud''s military.

    Once these changes were incorporated into Eastern Cloud, their military would be the strongest in recorded history. What more could demand Sun Sieha''s attention so much? His ambition was fuelled by the endless possibilities! Ye Chong''s role in this important matter also drew the attention of spies from other countries. They began to show up more frequently around his isted manor.

    It was not a problem for Ye Chong to worry, however. Sun Sieha waved his hand, and thend around the manor was dered as military property. Unrted personnel were not allowed to trespass. Every morning, royal guards who worked directly for the King would bury a few bodies on thend. This was a routine mission for them.

    Ye Chong ignored all of these. It was not rted to him anyway. He did not care if Eastern Cloud had the strength to wipe out other countries. He did not need so many people on his side for now. Besides, soldiers who did not pass the basic requirements were only a drag on the army''s overall strength. The five thousand soldiers he had under him right now were far from passing the basic requirements.

    Ye Chong estimated another three months was needed for the hand speed training for the students to satisfy his minimum requirement. Their physical stamina was good enough now, after their vigorous training. However, Ye Chong still made physical training a part of their schedule every day. In fact, physical training was the goal of all their training sections. Physical fitness was a necessity for mech pilots.

    Ye Chong did not expect much from his students in terms of hand speed - he would happy as long as they could reach Mach 5. When Ye Chong demonstrated his maximum hand speed, all the students were stunned.

    They could not see the metal beads at all. They were only shadows, like Ye Chong''s hands. The sound of metal beads colliding against each other sounded like a stampede. Even Liao San swallowed with difficulty as he watched Ye Chong''s demonstration. It was when Ye Chong dered the minimum requirement for them that the students heaved a sigh of relief.

    Those who passed the hand speed requirement would begin another training set. However, only three students passed so far. They were Duan Qian and the Shu sisters.

    The three of them were each given a strange keyboard, with keys arranged neatly on it. If any mech pilots were around, they would recognize it as the control console in a mech. The keys were arranged exactly as it would be in a normal mech. They were also given a list ofplicated key sequences. Ye Chong''s task for them was to memorize all the sequences and type all of them as fast as possible. To pass, they must type at least 90 key sequences of Level 3 difficulty in one minute; typing 120 key sequences would be considered outstanding.

    The keyboard''s design was simple. Ye Chong ced an order of five thousand identical keyboards from a random manufacturer.

    If he wanted to cultivate five thousand mech pilots, he would need five thousand mechs.

    Five thousand mechs were a lot, no matter how one looked at it. The raw materials required were staggering, and the actual manufacturing part was time and energy consuming. There was the photon processor, holographic scanning system, engine ¡­ Too much technology were involved!

    The typing training for these three students would be all for nothing if they did not have mechs.

    It was a serious issue, but Ye Chong did not lose his cool because of it.

    If he had enough metal, the problem would not be so dire. Ye Chong had the best equipment with him. Automating some of the manufacturing process should not be difficult. However, in order to obtain metal, he would have to enter Darkniss.

    To ender Darkniss, one must be strong enough. To be strong enough, these students must be mech pilots. To be mech pilots, these students must have mechs.

    It was a chicken-and-egg problem.

    What if he used wood to build the mechs? The wooden material he found here had excellent physical properties, but they were not suitable for buildingplex structures, like mech parts.

    It seemed that he would have toe up with an alternative for his students as a temporary solution. Ye Chong quickly found apromise. Designing machines forbat was not a challenge for him.

    Ye Chong dismissed the option of fighter aircrafts. Aircrafts could not change direction as easily as he liked, and they were impractical in outer space. The most important things for his students to learn were how to manage the force that came from high speed turns, how to lock onto their enemies, how to shoot, and how to coordinate as a team.

    In short, his new machine must be able to move with great flexibility and fitted with a photon processor, a holographic scanning system, long range shooting weapons, and a safety system.

    Not long after he breached in fresh air again, Ye Chong returned to his underground base. Three dayster, he returned outside with a detailed schematic.

    This time, his assistant was Xi Yan. When Xi Yan saw the schematic, he was dumbfounded.

    "Teacher, what is this?"

    It was a spherical machine, about six metres in diameter. Two straight belts crossed over each other on the surface of the machine. The belts were just shy of a metre in width, and had 16 holes evenly perforated in each of them.

    "It''s a training vehicle. Your task is to simply its structure. This is to improve its stability. Understand?" Ye Chong asked Xi Yan. He had picked Xi Yan because he was more experienced than Kristen.

    "I understand." Xi Yan nodded absently as he stared at the schematic.

    Ye Chong gestured with a wave. "Alright, off you go." He then left the dumbfounded Xi Yan to tend to other matters.

    A dayter, Xi Yan visited Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong studied his schematic and nodded, satisfied. He made some minor tweaks as he said, "Good work. Hmm, the structure is simplified by a lot. How much will it cost to build this thing?"

    XI Yan did not understand the logic behind this training vehicle. The structure was not suitable for flight. It was not aerodynamic, unlike an aircraft. Besides, it had a higher drag than aircrafts, and would fly much slower. The only good thing about the vehicle was its great flexibility in changing directions. The two belts that on the sphere had 16 engine exhaust expellers that could make the machine travel unpredictable trajectories.

    What was the cost of this machine? Xi Yan had to pause and consider the question. "What material are you using?"

    "Hanatsubaki wood." Ye Chong''s reply came instantly.

    Xi Yan paused again. Hanatsubaki wood was the cheapest wooden material round. He replied frankly, "If it''s Hanatsubaki wood, we can build one for about three thousand ao."

    "I see. Find a manufacturer to build five thousand of these. That will be 15 million ao."

    "What about the engine?" Xi Yan asked.

    "Use the LLK-1 model. I remember that each costs about a thousand ao," Ye Chong said.

    Xi Yan knew the numbers. "We get discounts for bulk buying. Five thousand of them will cost around four million ao." He could understand his teacher''s reasoning. The LLK-1 was a very old model. There was no reason for anyone to buy the engine, except that it was cheap.

    However, training five thousand people was not easy. Just the training vehicle would cost him close to 20 million ao. If he wanted to build aircrafts for his students, he would only be able to pay for less than a thousand of them.

    There were also the photon processor and holographic scanning system to consider. He should not forget the safety system too. Ye Chong would not want the students he had trained with so much effort to lose their lives because of inadequate fittings in theirs training vehicles.

    It was all too much!

    All threeponents required Ye Chong''s personal attention and effort. It was so much work that Ye Chong felt like he was pushing his limits.

    ¡­

    Down in the underground base, in his alchemyb, were many culture containers. Ye Chong needed five thousand bio-mechs for his five thousand students. Fortunately, a bio-photon processor was not too different from its mechanical counterpart, or Ye Chong would have to work himself to death trying to figure it out. Even so, growing the cultures was a challenge. It was a magnificent view, to see five thousand culture containers all ced in the sameb.

    Building the holographic scanning systems was even more exhausting. Without familiar metals to work with, he had to use native raw materials. Fortunately, Ye Chong had already run an analysis on allmon materials for their properties, or the job would have been impossible. To save time, he had created a simplified version of the holographic scanning system. Even so, he could only make a hundred of them every day. It will take two months for him to build enough for his entire army. This was the simplest holographic scanning system found in Kui''s chips.

    With some calctions, Ye Chong knew that he could not finish the safety systems himself. Hence, he went to Sun Sieha. Naturally, His Majesty was more than willing to help him. He immediately called for Master Karu.

    Master Karu studied the schematics with barely suppressed excitement, and asked to buy the rights for it without hesitation. Of course, Ye Chong would still earn royalties, and Sun Sieha would have to build five thousand sets of them for Ye Chong, free of charge, as part of the contract. Both Sun Sieha and Master Karu were prepared for Ye Chong''s nasty contracts, but they knew how important the technology was, and so had agreed to the terms without argument.

    With the five thousand sets of safety systems handled, and a long term source of ie in his pocket, Ye Chong felt satisfied with his decision.

    Now, it was his turn to do the hard work. Five thousand holographic scanning systems to go!

 Chapter 565 - Army of Glutinous Rice Balls

    <h4>Chapter 565: Army of Glutinous Rice Balls</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    He might really die from this! Even though he chose the simplest form of holographic scanning system, building five thousand of them was really exhausting. However, since Xi Yan was there to help, he was able to finish making them ahead of schedule.

    Just then, the five thousand training vehicles that Ye Chong ordered had arrived. Ye Chong had to expand thending field area to amodate all the training vehicles. Fortunately, his manor wasrge enough.

    All five thousand training vehicles were neatly arranged on thending field. As seen from above, they looked like a neat disy of five thousand glutinous rice balls.

    The training ground of the five thousand students was very close to thending field. However, the students were all focused in their training, and did not think to look around them. By now, 60 percent of the students had passed the hand speed training, leaving only 40 percent of them to go. However, these students were very close to passing already. It would probably take only another week for them to join their other cohorts.

    The students who passed were now learning about their very own keyboard models. Theplicated key sequences were a headache. They did not know what they mean, but had to memorize them anyway. However, they were given no other choice but to forge ahead.

    This was a test on memory power. The more intelligent students quickly stood out.

    Ye Chong found that one of the students used only three days to memorize all the key sequences, and another three days to type 150 key sequences of difficulty Level 43.

    Even Ye Chong was impressed by the student. Some talented people would find themselves unnoticed by society until they were given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. Then, they would shine more brightly than anyone else.

    This student was obviously talented. Ye Chong would definitely pay special attention to him. The student was not Duan Qian or the prominent Shu sisters, but a young man who had only had average results in previous trainings. His name was Appilok, and he was singled out by Ye Chong from the other students.

    He would receive even stricter training. Ye Chong would personally train him to be a qualified mech pilot.

    Appilok''s first hurdle was physical stamina. He had gone through the physical training all this while, but that was far from enough, the way Ye Chong saw it.

    All the students were curious about the five thousand spherical machinesid out not far from their training ground. Even their instructor, Liao San, had his interest piqued. Ye Chong was officially known as a Master Weaponsmith, and those were obviously histest creations. Liao San had been hoping to get one of Ye Chong''s Spiders for a long time, but he knew he did not rank high enough in the government to request for one.

    The five thousand training vehicles were a huge motivation for the students, especially when they found out they could have one for themselves if they passed the training of typing key sequences.

    Moreover, once they knew that the training vehicles could fly, the students cheered out loudly with joy. All of them, except for Duan Qian and the Shu sisters, were only average people. They were trained in parapsychic control and hence, never flew an aircraft before. They had been envious of shooters for a long while, but now found themselves given the chance to fly as well.

    Ye Chong could not sympathize with their emotions, but he could see that their morale was high. This surprised him, since the typing test was a very dry training. However, this was good news for him. Of course he preferred that they stayed that way.

    Ye Chong was dead tired after finishing all five thousand holographic scanning systems. Xi Yan was also exhausted. However, Ye Chong did not take a break. There were too many things that demanded his attention.

    Getting used to the upgraded Celest was one of his main priorities. A child holding a heavy axe was more likely to injure himself than others. To Ye Chong, Celest was now like that heavy axe. It was a powerful tool, but he would need time to master it.

    Appilok watched Ye Chong in quiet surprise. He was not even surprised this much when he was brought to the training ground in the manor''s underground base. Ye Chong demonstrated the most basicbat moves, and would do so hours at a time, repeating the moves over and over again. It was hard to imagine a master inbat expert to spend so much time in basic training every day.

    Appilok understood how fortunate he was and appreciated this opportunity given to him. He forced himself to go through the dull training every day. He reminded himself always to learn from Ye Chong.

    Appilok was very talented, at least in the mind. Ye Chong felt that he was born to be a mech pilot. The young man had a calm mind and excellent memory. He was alsomitted and dedicated. The only thing hecked was physical fitness. His body was not naturally suitable forbat. Ye Chong had trained him for a long while, and he had indeed be stronger, but still far from ideal. However, he disyed exceptional skills in other areas, especially in strategizing.

    Appilok was more suited to be a long range mech pilot. However, Ye Chong did not have a long range mech. That would have to wait until he build a base in Darkniss.

    With Ye Chong''s personal teaching, Appilok improved much faster than the other students. Even Duan Qian was envious of the special attention he was getting. Duan Qian was the second fastest improving student in the cohort. He had the best physical buildpared to the other five thousand students. No one who worked hard enough to reach where he was would have a mediocre mind.

    Duan Qian was the first to enter a training vehicle. When the spherical training vehicle alighted from the ground, everyone below watched him enviously. Suddenly, the training vehicle spiralled uncontrobly like a balloon losing its air, andnded heavily on the ground. When Duan Qian emerged dizzily from the machine, the training ground was silent, and then exploded inughter.

    More students began their practice in flying their training vehicles. When they entered their training vehicles and saw the control console looking exactly like their training keyboard, they finally realized what the key sequences were all about.

    Being new to flying, they were not afraid to try out their training vehicles. Everywhere in the sky were wooden balls, flying around in different trajectories. Often, a training vehicle would go out of control and crashnd into the ground. After a while, the training vehicle would begin its shaky ascent into the air once again.

    Ye Chong was grateful to have installed the safety systems. If they were not in ce, the students would have been crushed into meat patties when they crashnded from high above. Now, they would only feel dizzy in the aftermath.

    The students who were up in the air were having fun, but the ones who were still down below and the royal guards stationed around the manor were in for trouble. With so many training vehicles crashing down unpredictably, anyone who found themselves in the way would die for sure. Hence, from the day Duan Qian began his flying training, the royal guards moved their camp 150 kilometres away. Together with them were the students that were not selected by Ye Chong. The students who were still have not passed continued their training in Ye Chong''s manor.

    Liao San roared at them, "You little m*therf*ckers, hehe, if you don''t buck up, get ready to be crushed! Hell, you ask me if there''s a safer ce? Haha, are you idiots? Can''t you use that rusted brain of yours? It''s the sky! That''s right, the sky! If you don''t wanna be hit, f*cking pass your training. The faster you get up there, the safer you are. Then you get to choose who you wanna crash into! Of course, whichever f*cker thinks of crashing into me, you know what happens to anyone who murders a General of the country!"

    These students were scared to death, and moved their hands even more quickly. Ye Chong had thought they needed at least a week or two to pass their training, but in the end it only took them three days.

    From this incident, Ye Chong also learned that a desperate situation was the most effective way to harness a person''s full abilities.

    Inspired by this realization, Ye Chong decided to incorporate this concept into the rest of the students'' training program. If Shang were here, the mech would definitely be more ruthless than him.

    Oh, Mu/Shang ¡­

    Ye Chong suddenly felt his heart all warming up. He looked into the distance and gripped his hands together into tight fists.

    Liao San came to report to Ye Chong. "Sir, I just received orders to leave for my original post."

    Ye Chong was surprised. Liao San was a good instructor, He never questioned Ye Chong''s training program, and would perform his tasks diligently. Without Liao San, Ye Chong would have to deal with the students personally. With his current jam packed schedule, that was hardly feasible.

    Ye Chong frowned. "What happened?"

    "His Majesty gave the order." Liao San exined in a serious tone. "The conflict between Eastern Cloud and Western Frost has escted recently. The border is now under a very real threat. War could happen at any moment now. As His Majesty''s Royal Guards, we are bound by duty to protect the King."

    Ye Chong understood the situation. He considered for a moment and nodded calmly. "Alright. All the best to you. Oh, by the way, bring Xuan Ning''s Spider to him." It was no wonder that Xuan Ning did not have time toe for his Spider.

    "Yes Sir!" Liao San bowed to Ye Chong and left.

    After Liao San''s departure, Ye Chong immediately made his way to the training ground. He felt a strong sense of urgency. War was imminent. With Eastern Cloud''s military fitted with new weapons, they were now much stronger than ever. Sun Sieha had waited for this day for a long time. War would begin soon enough.

    Once the battles started, the current peace would be broken. It would also be the best opportunity for Ye Chong to leave. Ye Chong knew that with Eastern Cloud''s current strength, winning the war was a matter of time. When Eastern Cloud won the war against Western Frost and Ye Chong had not left by then, leaving would be much harder, especially when he was taking five thousand people with him.

    The best time would be when Sun Sieha was focused on the war and not on him.

    Ye Chong already knew where they would be headed for.

    The students enjoyed theirtest training program. It was much more interesting than typing meaningless key sequences in their keyboards. Besides, for many students, flying was the dream of their lives. After all, whether it was in Eastern Cloud, Western Frost of Northern Lands, only shooters were allowed to fly.

    To these students, the training vehicles were like a miracle. The holographic system allowed even normal people to know what was outside their line of sight. There was also the photon processor thing, which was equally fascinating. The training vehicle was slower than an aircraft, but more flexible in the air. It could even fly as close as five meters away from the ground.

    That was what Ye Chong had asked from his students. They must learn how to fly in low altitudes. Every day, Ye Chong would lead his students flying in the air. Appilok''s personal training had to stop. Now, he trained with the rest of the students.

    The entire Su City found out about those strange aircrafts. People were shocked at first, but soon grew used to them. Rumours had it that the manufacturer who built Ye Chong''s training vehicles received a lot of enquiries about those strange aircrafts.

    The students flew further and further distances. Long distance flight practices becamemon. It was hard to say if it was more fascinating or funny to see a swarm of five thousand balls flying high up in the sky, but the sight left a deep impression in anyone who saw it.

    The students would sometimes even venture out for thousands of kilometers, like an actual fleet of aircraft. This had alerted local authorities at first. However, once news of Master Ye Chong''s weird aircraft spread across the entire Eastern Cloud country, the local military rxed.

    No one would raise a fuss about Master Ye Chong for something so inconsequential. Some of the soldiers even took the initiative to greet the students.

    After this long period of training, the students flew better and could execute formations, at least in form. However, Ye Chong knew that the students were only still not capable of facing an actual battle. The only thing he was thankful for was that his students could shoot very well.

    The military''s recent new fittings also brought Ye Chong a fortune. Ye Chong prepared to buy new supplies, but found that the government now had a tight hold on all resources due to the state of emergency in the country. Hence, Ye Chong went to Sun Sieha.

    "What do you need so many things for?" Sun Sieha went through Ye Chong''s very long list, dumbfounded.

    Ye Chong replied calmly, "Refitting."

    Sun Sieha realized then that Ye Chong wanted to make new gear for the five thousand students. No wonder he needed so much resources. He had heard of how people referred to Ye Chong''s team as the Army of Glutinous Rice Balls, andughed. "Alright, you can have them. However, you know that we are in a state of emergency right now. Everything will cost 20 percent more, agreed?" Ye Chong''s fortune came mostly from Sun Sieha. Even the King was getting jealous of his wealth. How could the King possibly let go of this wonderful opportunity?

    Ye Chong nodded without expression. "Agreed."

    "Are you upgrading your Army of Glutinous Rice Balls to, well, an Army of Dumplings? Hehe!" Sun Sieha teased. Since the training vehicles were round, and flew slowly and even shakily in the sky, people nicknamed the group as the Army of Glutinous Rice Balls.

    Ye Chong ignored him and left with the King''s approval letter for his supplies.

 Chapter 566 - Leaving

    <h4>Chapter 566: Leaving</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Batches and batches of raw materials were sent to Ye Chong''s manor. Even though they were sold 20 percent above market price, Ye Chong thought it was worth it. He spent most of his money on raw materials, especially the rare ones, and was always offered than he needed. Sun Sieha''s letter also helped him with the purchases.

    In Su City, all the businessmen were also nobles. When they found out through their sources that the great Master Ye Chong was visiting, they all tried to curry his favour. Ye Chong responded to them coldly, but never stopped them from offering their services. This was a pleasant surprise for the businessmen. Building a rtionship with this man of status was a wonderful opportunity!

    No one asked him what the materials were used for. After all, it wasmon for weaponsmiths to store raw materials. Besides, Ye Chong had the King''s approval. In the end, Ye Chong received more raw materials than he expected, and some of them did not even cost him a single ao. A few of the businessmen even gave him the transport aircraft that came with the materials.

    Kristen gaped at the materials and asked, "Teacher, why you do buy so much of them?"

    "They''re useful." Ye Chong did not exin. The truth was, Kristen was a good student. She was talented and hardworking, and she improved quickly. More importantly, she was young. However, Ye Chong did not n to bring her along. That had been decided early on.

    His students'' training continued without pause.

    Ye Chong began to reorganize his five thousand students. He was no longer ignorant of military structures. He incorporated strict status rankings, rules, and practiced reward and punishment just like in the military. Ye Chong was familiar with these concepts.

    Ye Chong promoted students who performed well in their training to low ranking military officers. The effect was immediate. The five thousand students conducted themselves more professionally, no longer behaving as free and easy as they once did.

    Here on the training ground, the five thousand students stood in formation, all standing straight and with a serious expression on their faces.

    Ye Chong stood in front of them without emotion. The students were afraid of Ye Chong. Rumor had it that Master Ye Chong had the authority to form a five thousand strong security detachment. This was exciting news to him. To be able to serve someone as prominent as Master Ye Chong in Eastern Cloud was a great honor. From now on, their lives would be heavily influenced by Ye Chong. Anything that Ye Chong do in the future will directly affect the course of their future.

    "From now on, you are my personal security detachment. Any of you who object to this, please step forward." Ye Chong spoke with a normal tone.

    All the students could not hide the excitement on their faces, but tried they did as they stood even straighter. Today, the rumor was confirmed. Their future was secured.

    Ye Chong''s in voice continued to reverberate in the air. "As my personal security detail, you will follow me wherever I go. You will leave behind your families, your homes. I''ll allow you 10 minutes to reconsider."

    No one moved. Ye Chong was not aware that leaving home wasmon in Eastern Cloud, especially for young shooters. They would travel far and wide to hone their skills. The journey was hard and dangerous. Few made it back.

    Ye Chong was satisfied that none of them left. These young people were far from actual warriors, but they were molded ording to Ye Chong''s idea of an ideal soldier. Ye Chong was not interested in shooters. He was more in need of shooters who could pilot mechs. However, almost all shooters could not do this. Their bodies were simply too weak. A shooter who could pilot a mech would be very powerful, especially against creatures like the red-tailed beasts.

    Nevertheless, it was rare for anyone apart from pure geniuses to excel in both mental and physical abilities.

    These students would be Ye Chong''s basis of protection. Ye Chong distributed all the money he had left to the students, for them to send back to their families. This gesture improved his reputation amongst the students even more.

    Ye Chong called Xi Yan out. "Of all the weaponsmiths you know of, do you anyone who is good but has few close social ties?"

    Xi Yan considered the question and replied, "I know a few."

    "Give me the list of names and addresses," Ye Chong said.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong went to Master Karu.

    When Master Karu heard that Ye Chong was here to visit, he dropped everything he was working on and came to him. He knew that Ye Chong was not here for a chat, so he asked, "Why are you here to visit me? How can I help you?"

    Ye Chong handed over a list of names to Master Karu. "I need these people."

    Master Karu scanned the list briefly and said, "Of course." He turned to speak to a servant, and then went back to Ye Chong. "You''ll have to wait a moment. Why do you need them? Don''t you already have two students?"

    Ye Chong found a good excuse. "I have an operation, and I need the manpower."

    "I see." Master Karu''s interest was piqued. "Is this a huge project?" Larger projects often needed the coborative strength between many weaponsmiths. That was why Master Karu thought to ask. When Ye Chong mentioned an operation, the first thing he thought of was arge scale project.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Yes."

    "Haha, you should''ve just told me that. There''s no need to find outsiders to help you when you can get them from me. Hmm, I''ll assign 20 weaponsmiths to you." Master Karu offered warmly.

    He did not wait for Ye Chong''s consent before he called out a group of weaponsmiths. When Ye Chong saw them, he realized what Master Karu was trying to do. These so-called weaponsmiths were all young and inexperienced disciples only. They would not be able to offer any real help.

    Master Karu had offered manpower to Ye Chong, but he was actually hoping to send these students out to learn from Ye Chong. Hopefully, they would return with much greater abilities than before.

    Ye Chong looked straight at Master Karu and kept quiet.

    Master Karu blushed awkwardly, and then coughed lightly. "You know, don''t you, that the situation is a bit dangerous recently. We''re also having a shortage of manpower here. These are the only people I can give you. You should teach them a few when you''re free, err, and in exchange, they''ll work for you, likebor work and stuff."

    Ye Chong continued looking quietly at Master Karu.

    Master Karu was feeling guilty now. Since Ye Chong refused to speak for a long moment after, he coughed again. "Sigh, you people, why so serious? How about this, I can offer you somepensation?" Master Karu asked, testing the waters.

    "Whatpensation?" Ye Chong''s reaction was exactly what Master Karu had hoped for. As long as Ye Chong was willing to negotiate, all was well. If they could make this work, he would not lose anything from the negotiation.

    Hence, Ye Chong bargained for some more valuable raw materials from Master Karu before "grudgingly" epting the 20 young weaponsmiths. Master Karu''s raw materials were much more high quality than the onesmonly found in the market.

    Throughout the negotiation, Ye Chong only spoke a few words, and mostly kept silent. Master Karu was happy with the oue, and grinned widely. Soon, the people in Ye Chong''s list of names were brought to them.

    Master Karu changed his whole bearing into one of great seriousness, and cleared his throat. "By the Eastern Cloud''sw of war, you are all conscripted. From today onwards, you will serve your country without reserve. Master Ye Chong here will be in charge of you. Your duty is to assist and obey him. If you disobey your orders, you will be charged with treason!"

    The weaponsmiths all looked shocked by Master Karu''s stern announcement.

    Master Karu turned back to Ye Chong, and the stern expression vanished immediately. He winked yfully at Ye Chong.

    With that, Ye Chong brought the valuable raw materials, the 20 young weaponsmiths and the eight clueless civilian weaponsmiths back to his manor.

    These weaponsmiths were divided between Kristen and Xi Yan. They spent half the time learning, and the other half making weird mechanical parts ording to the schematics given to them. With thirty people working together, they were now much faster.

    The war began very soon after.

    Eastern Cloud now had a tense atmosphere. Prices for all goods and items soared. However, Ye Chong was not affected. When he and his Army of Glutinous Rice Balls were training, they were slowly making their way towards the central region of Eastern Cloud instead of the border without drawing any attention to them.

    On this day, 10 days after the war first started, Ye Chong suddenly gathered all his students.

    Five thousand training vehicles were all in position. The students were all inside their vehicles. After more than a year''s training, they now looked like capable soldiers.

    Ye Chong led their operation this time.

    Ye Chong asked Xi Yan, "Ready?"

    "Ready, teacher," Xi Yan replied. He took a long look at Ye Chong, then boarded the transport aircraft. Everyone else was there, except for Kristen.

    There were five transport aircrafts, all modified by Ye Chong. They were piloted by five of the students, respectively.

    "Move out."

    Ye Chong announced the beginning of their flight just like usual. The five thousand training vehicles, or more precisely, the 4,995 training vehicles and five transport aircraft took air at the same tie. They were flying towards Yedda City.

    Ye Chong turned back to look at his manor, which grew smaller and smaller in view. He watched without expression.

    "Goodbye, Kristen."

 Chapter 567 - Ye Chongâ€™s Preparations

    <h4>Chapter 567: Ye Chong¡¯s Preparations</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Sha Ya was already waiting at Yedda City. She was sent to the city ahead of time. Though she did not know what Ye Chong was up to, she obeyed Ye Chong''s orders dutifully. Knowing how strong Ye Chong was, she left for Yedda City feeling assured that Ye Chong did not need her protection. Here in Eastern Cloud, abandoning one''s master was a despicable act. Sha Ya was grateful that her master was not that of a bad person.

    When Sha Ya saw the massive army arriving, she was still caught off guard. She was used to seeing all five thousand training vehicles together, since they all flew together during the usual practice flights. However, this was the first time they had a few transport aircraft tagging along. She threw Ye Chong a look of bafflement, but discreetly kept her questions to herself. Sha Ya had already contacted the local authorities and prepared supplies for the army. Ye Chong and his security detachment replenished their stock of food and water here. Yedda City authorities were used to this. Master Ye Chong was a local celebrity. Besides, they were already used to having the Army of Glutinous Rice Balls restock their supplies in the city. Since they could im for reimbursements every time the army resupplied, it was a good opportunity for the local authorities to profit from it.

    Instead of flying in her own aircraft, Sha Ya boarded the transport aircraft that Ye Chong was on.

    Ye Chong had modified the transport aircraft for greater load, better flight stability and slower flight. More importantly, the aircraft can nownd vertically on the ground, bypassing the need for anding field. These were all functions that normal transport aircraft and fighterscked.

    "What''s our next stop after the resupply?" Sha Ya asked. Sha Ya was one of the few people in the Army of Glutinous Rice Balls who had actual battle experience. She was also a shooting instructor for the army. Sometimes, she would lead the group of young recruits herself out for training. Everyone in the army knew her.

    Ye Chong replied with an air of calmness, "Dual Forest."

    Sha Ya was surprised. "That''s too dangerous! They''re not ready to enter Dual Forest." Dual Forest was not particrly challenging for Sha Ya, but it would be a very dangerous ce for the inexperienced young soldiers. Sha Ya thought that the students would need at least another year''s training to be ready to enter Dual Forest to practice actualbat. Surely her master understood this, but why did he still choose this course of action? Sha Ya did not think Ye Chong was the kind of person to train his soldiers without regard of their lives. This was clear from the way he designed the protection systems for the training vehicles.

    Ye Chong replied without expression, "If we move quickly enough, there should be no problem."

    "You want to enter Dual Forest?" Sha Ya gasped.

    Ye Chong nodded. "Yes."

    To enter Dual Forest would mean ¡­ Sha Ya began to have an inkling of what Ye Chong was nning.

    Dual Forest was full of tall and imposing ancient trees. Strays of sunlight found their way through the foliage, leaving scattered shadows on the grassy floor below.

    The students were hesitant. This was a dangerous operation. Shu Mo''er was the only one amongst them who had been here. Not even Duan Qian and Shu Man''er had visited Dual Forest. Nevertheless, all of them were aware of the risks of entering the ce.

    The transport aircraftnded. The hatches opened up, and a huge spider walked out of it. Another Spider followed from behind, then another Spider, and another, and another ¡­

    There were 40 Spiders in total. The first Spider looked leaner and more agile than the other 39, which had arger pilot cabin. Ye Chong and Sha Ya were in the first Spider, the only one designed for battle. The rest of the Spiders were built for transport.

    Duan Qian and the other students had a simple order - follow the first Spider. The training vehicles were not fast, but they would fly quietly in the air while following the Spider. Besides, their smaller built allowed them to navigate through the forest more easily. All five thousand training vehicles slowly ascended until they were about five meters from the ground. They maintained this altitude and followed the first Spider in a long line. The five thousand training vehicles were separated from each other by three meters, and formed a long line behind the first Spider.

    At the leading position was a student called Fisher. He was the best pilot in the army, especially when navigatingplicated terrain. Hence, he was assigned to the first position. Since all the training vehicles used identical photon processors, geopositioning systems,ms systems and holographic scanning systems, all the training vehicles can be programmed to follow the route taken by the first training vehicle.

    Ye Chong gave the order, and the army began its journey into Dual Forest. Many members of the public saw them, but none dared to follow.

    The fully armed Spider led the army, with Ye Chong and Sha Ya in it.

    Dual Forest did not cause them any distress. The creatures in Dual Forest all remembered the terrifying Spider. None of them approached to challenge its power. Having been here before, Ye Chong had the Spider marched full speed ahead, wasting no time investigating the route.

    His time, they took only two days to traverse Dual Forest.

    The students were all excited, having never been into Dual Forest. The looming trees and scattering wild animals that they saw along the way had gotten them stirred up.

    After Dual Forest was the Desert.

    Sha Ya watched the deste ce with cold eyes and reminded Ye Chong, "We need to go pass the Desert as quickly as possible. The longer we spend time in here, the riskier it gets."

    Ye Chong nodded. He shared the same concern. With such arge army and so much cargo, the only ones who werebat ready were him and Sha Ya. This meant that he and Sha Ya had to ensure the safety of the students.

    It was a difficult situation, but Ye Chong also realized that this was the best chance to escape. Once he missed this window, it would only get harder to leave. Ye Chong had prepared extensively for this operation. Without Mu/Shang''s help, he had to figure things out himself. Fortunately, this was not his first time leading an army. Compared tost time, he was now moreposed and mature to deal with the situation. This was an improvement for him.

    Before this, he had arranged for the students to practice long distance flights frequently. Yedda City and its vicinity were amon destination for them. Hence, they had had no trouble so far. The local authorities thought they were only having another routine training session. No one imagined that this was actually an attempt to escape.

    Moreover, Ye Chong had taken great care when designing the so-called glutinous rice ball training vehicles. They were designed mainly with this escape operation in mind. The vehicles did not fly fast, but they were small and agile. As long as they did not encounter a sandstorm, they should be able to reach Darkniss without a hitch. Of course, Ye Chong had also prepared many other tools for contingencies.

    The operation was sudden. Not even Sha Ya was informed of it. Ye Chong wanted no surprises. The students, whom he had promoted now to be his security attachment, were also oblivious. They only thought it was one of the more important training exercises that Ye Chong would lead sometimes.

    Ye Chong released the Hummingbirds. He used all 16 of them, instead of four. The students were too vulnerable now. Ye Chong had to be extra careful to reduce the odds of an ident.

    All 16 Hummingbirds took off into the air, sending back images to Ye Chong in his Spider.

    All good so far! Ye Chong sighed in relief. The sandstorm was his biggest concern. They were in luck this time. Everything was going smoothly so far.

    Ye Chong dyed no further. He ordered the army to advance as quickly as possible.

    320 training vehicles separated from formation and went to the 40 Spiders. A hook came down from each training vehicle, which was now attached to a mounting ring found on each of the Spider''s legs. Eight hooks secured each Spider, which was then lifted by eight training vehicles into the air.

    Ye Chong hade up with various scenarios in crossing the Desert, and found this to be the fastest way to get them across. He had also insisted that every student pass their training in lifting objects in a team. The students now realized the significance of their seemingly pointless training before this.

    Weather in the Desert was unstable. The longer they stayed there, the more dangerous it would be. What was the fastest way to get across the Dessert? It had to be flying.

    All five thousand training vehicles took off into the air, with the 320 training vehicles carrying the Spiders positioned at the center.

    Now suspended in midair, Ye Chong did not spend his time idling around. He looked grim, or at least that was how Sha Ya perceived it. She knew the pressure that Ye Chong was facing now. The n was simply too crazy for her to ept!

    She could see that Ye Chong had made plenty of preparations for this operation. Now that Ye Chong decided to leave Eastern Cloud, Sha Ya felt that she understood her master better. However, she still could not understand why Ye Chong would choose to bring an army of inexperienced students to Darkniss. It looked like a suicidal operation, at least to her.

    "Why are you bringing them there?" Sha Ya could not help but asked. The matter puzzled her greatly.

    Ye Chong did not answer. He kept his gaze firmly on the holographic screen, where the live feed from the Hummingbirds were disyed.

    The training vehicles were slow, but still much fasterpared to the Spider. Since there was no sandstorm, the students flew without meeting much resistance. With the exception of Shu Mo''er, none of the students knew they were now in the notorious Desert.

    Being ignorant of the facts, they traveled without pressure.

    After a whole day and night, they finally crossed the Desert. With no sandstorms, and with improved fighter aircraft, the Desert was actually not too dangerous for a shooter.

    Now that they arrived in the Mist, it was still dangerous for them, especially for people without parapsychic sense. Nevertheless, Ye Chong had prepared for this as well. The training vehicles were now all linked in a straight line with hooks and mounting rings. As long as the leading training vehicle was heading in the right direction, the army would be able to advance without issue. For this part of the journey, Duan Qian was assigned as lead. He was one of the few students who had parapsychic sense. The Spiders were also linked to each other with hooks. This deceptively simple strategy was also very effective. In the Mist,m channels were no longer usable. It was the only way to keep them together.

    With thems down, the students faced a challenging situation. The longer this went on, the more likely for the students to have a mental breakdown. With no view of ormunication with the outside world, it was a harsh situation for the inexperienced students to deal with.

    Ye Chong did not to stay long in the Mist. He had also prepared the army for this.

    Just outside the forest, his Spider came to a halt. Behind him, the training vehicles all crashed gently into the vehicle in front of them like a domino effect. The students were also used to this part thanks to their training. No one panicked. They simply stopped their training vehicles, and the whole army came to stop as well.

    Ye Chong came out of his Spider, and took out a big heap of mechanical parts. These parts were all big, some even bigger than Ye Chong.

    Sha Ya looked at Ye Chong, confused.

    Ye Chong quickly assembled the parts. After five minutes, Sha Ya something she had never seen before - a big *ss photon cannon!

    The barrel diameter was seven meters across, enough to fit a few people in it. Sha Ya swallowed with difficulty. She felt a little numb.

    Ye Chong redirected the cannon''s barrel, and then began to fill it up with energy crystals. He stopped at 50 of the energy crystals. Sha Ya was shocked speechless. This was simply too crazy! The world had gone crazy!

    A ship cannon! Ye Chong was familiar with these. He had thought of building one ever since hisst visit. It was easier to clear out a path using a ship cannon.

    Hence, he brought one with him this time.

 Chapter 568 - All Going As Planned, Right?

    <h4>Chapter 568: All Going As nned, Right?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong''s huge cannon surprised not only Sha Ya, but also Duan Qian. His parapsychic sense kept him in touch with anything happening around him.

    Ye Chong made further calibrations. Five minutester, he was done.

    He inhaled deeply and pushed the button to fire the weapon.

    Boom!

    A massive photon beam shot out soundlessly from the cannon barrel, a silent beam of dazzling light. Ye Chong narrowed his eyes. Even through the dense mist, the beam was still too bright to see with the naked eye.

    The beam vanished soon enough, but Ye Chong had to wait a second for the afterimage from the beam to vanish before he opened his eyes again.

    In front of Ye Chong, a 10 meter wide cylindrical passage was formed. In this passage, all the nts were destroyed, leaving only charred marks on the ground. The heat from the photon beam had essentially vaporized everything in its way. Ye Chong could even see a red spot at the end of the cleared passage that was the Red Wastnd, but the mist soon covered the entire passage.

    The view reverted back to in purple.

    Ye Chong was happy with the oue. He did not look back at the ship cannon, which was now just useless. Ye Chong did not use rare materials to construct the cannon, but opted instead formon materials. The ship cannon was toorge, making it too costly to use rare materials. Besides, the ship cannon was not too important for Ye Chong. It was only needed for this single shot. Since the ship cannon was made of normal materials, it could not withstand the energy load from the first shot.

    However, this was enough for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong went back into his Spider and advanced into the passage. Behind him, the other Spiders followed. Duan Qian caught up as well. He was still shocked by that powerful cannon shot. If it was directed at a person, even the edges would take off any limb or finger in its way.

    Nevertheless, Duan Qian quickly focused back on his task. As leader of the army, and given the arrangement of the training vehicles, his duty was important. If he had any missteps, the students him would all be in danger.

    All the students were now tensed. They could only know what to do next from the pulling force of the hooks on their training vehicles. Even though they had gone through this training repeatedly, they were still very nervous when it came to the real thing. Some of them were already sweating all over. The pressure on them was immense.

    The Spider moved very quickly, but also carefully. A line of Spiders were trailing behind Ye Chong. Ye Chong had chosen a special batch of students to man these Spiders. The Spiders had a control console identical to the ones in the training vehicles. Hence, the maneuvring part was mostly simr.

    The only thing the Spiders needed to be careful about here were the swamps. Ye Chong had repeatedly taught these students how to free themselves of obstacles in swampy areas. As for the training vehicles flying at lowtitudes, they need not worry about the swamp.

    Ye Chong''s teachings did not go to waste. The students traversed through the swamps without issues behind him, and did not hamper the army''s advance.

    In the end, the army crossed the Mist without trouble.

    Once they reached the Red Wilderness, Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief. He had made all the preparations he could think of, but still he felt nervous throughout the entire journey. The students were too vulnerable. If they were normal mech pilots, Ye Chong would not have worried so much.

    Ye Chong ordered the army to rest here for one full day.

    The Mist did not take them too long to traverse, but it was a test unlike any before it for the students. The mental stress was exhausting for the inexperienced students. Since the Red Wilderness was safe, Ye Chong had ordered the army to stay here and recuperate for an entire day.

    The students had never seen so much of the world in their entire lives as they had in these few days. This made a lot of them excited, but got some of them nervous. They had never been in such a dangerous situation before. Nevertheless, the students still gathered and talked eagerly over their meals.

    Sha Ya looked at the young and na?ve faces of the students, and sighed inside.

    "These students, how many of them will survive this?" Sha Ya directed the pointed question at Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong replied calmly, "The ones who qualify will survive." Ye Chong did not think he was being cruel. He had been treated more ruthlessly than this before. The way he saw it, those who were not fit enough would be left behind. To survive, one must be strong enough, simple as that. It was a rule of Nature, and of human society.

    The rule was fair to all, even to himself. There was no cruelty or kindness to speak of.

    Sha Ya went quiet. She could not understand Ye Chong''s reasoning. She thought Ye Chong was being contradictary. He can stand being humiliated or told off, but he would kill anyone whom he ascertained to be a threat to his life. There would be no warning before he made his move. A cold and cruel man like him had, however, chosen to spend so much effort on his students, and would even care for their welfare.

    Ye Chong was not in this operation alone. He and Sha Ya stood guard. The Red Wilderness did not have any dangerous creatures, but Ye Chong knew that there were other shooters here. Darkniss did not belong to any country. Its borders were connected to multiple countries, so it was possible for them to encounter shooters from other countries.

    Any shooter who could reach the Red Wilderness must be quitepetent. If they showed up, the inexperienced students would not be a match for them. Hence, Ye Chong and Sha Ya had to babysit the students.

    Now that they were here, Ye Chong did not have to be too discreet with his actions.

    He withdrew Celest.

    When the huge figure that was Celest appeared before everyone, they were all bbergasted. The entire camp went silent. Everyone was shocked.

    Celest''s 10-metre tall figure was intimidating. ck armor covered its entire body, leaving only the face exposed. The giant had sharp angles on its face and half lidded eyes. On its helmet was a red feather that shot up toward the sky like a me. There were eerie decorations of red flowers on its wrists, elbows, knees and waist. The giant carried a ck box on its back, which also had arge and splendid red flower on it.

    "The giant!" Shu Mo''er cried out, looking very pale. She and her group had gone to Yedda City because of the giant that Duo Ka spoke of. That was also how they came to know Ye Chong and got into a conflict with him. Shu Mo''er felt like her brain was about to explode.

    Ye Chong threw a cold nce at Shu Mo''er. Celest''s pilot cabin opened up just then.

    Under the close attention of hisrge audience, Ye Chong entered the pilot cabin. He would not have time to enter Celest if any shooter were to appear suddenly. Ye Chong did not have watch his actions too much here. Besides, there should not be any fighter aircrafts here. Even if there were, Ye Chong was not afraid of them. The upgraded Celest was so powerful that not even its pilot, Ye Chong, knew exactly what it was capable of.

    It would not hurt to be too careful. Ye Chong always chose the option that guaranteed the best results, even if it might be a lot of work.

    The rest of the army watched with surprise, awe and disbelief as Celest finally moved!

    Celest opened its half lidded eyes that shone brightly with life. Its eyes were devoid of emotion, just like Ye Chong''s eyes.

    Celest stepped forward slowly, its heavy footsteps hammering into the hearts of its audience.

    In the pilot cabin, Ye Chong tapped on the control console with familiar strokes and activated its holographic scanning system. Celest''s holographic scanning system was far more advanced than its primitive counterpart in the training vehicles. In fact, its holographic scanning system was top of the line.

    There was no one around them. Ye Chong had given an order for Celest to expand its holographic scanning range to its maximum.

    After this precautionary step, Ye Chong did not stop to rx. To the inexperienced students, the past few days had been very stressful, but Ye Chong considered them to be all part of his normal life. His mind was much tougher than normal people.

    Time should never be wasted. This was one of Ye Chong''s core principles.

    Now, what should he be doing? Training, of course!

    Training had been a huge part of Ye Chong''s life. Whenever he had the time, he would dedicate himself to practicing. No matter how dry or basic the routine, he would repeatedly practice them. At his level, he might only be able to perform a basic move one millisecond faster after a million repetitions, but still he never faltered. This was why he could be so strong, and continue to be stronger and stronger.

    Despite the audience, his training routine was not disrupted.

    Ye Chong began his training as usual. First was the basics. Ye Chong never gave up on fundamentals. This was because Mu had once told him that allbat moves were made up of the basic moves. He never forgot this lesson, and held onto it as one of his training principles.

    When Duan Xian saw the giant in ck armor began to practice basic moves, he was stunned.

    He never imagined that he would get to see a 10-metre giant in ck armor performing basicbat moves like abat expert.

    It was mind-bending, to say the least!

    He was abat expert himself, and could see that Celest''s every move was actually designed for battle!

    More surprising was the fact that the giant could move deftly and quickly despite its size. Duan Qian found himself shaken by this observation. If a massive fist was able to strike out so quickly, it must be very powerful.

    Compared to Duan Qian''s more informed observations, the other students only saw the giant moving about. Nevertheless, it left quite an impression for them. The giant was huge, like a small hill. It was so heavy that every step shook the ground beneath them. The students who were sitting on the ground felt this more acutely than others. They could feel the weight and power behind the tremors that radiated through their bodies.

    When a small hill in front of you was moving faster than a fighter, and more agile than a leopard, that feeling was simply ¡­

    It was simply too exciting!

    Ye Chongpletely ignored his surprised audience as he immersed himselfpletely into his training. After the basic moves, he moved on to moreplicated battle moves.

    When had the students ever seen such a dazzling disy of mechbat? Every punch and kick was powerful and imposing. They could even hear the air whistling whenever the giant struck out quickly.

    Duan Qian watched with his mouth gaping. Thebat moves that the giant was performing were already moreplicated than what he had learned so far. His biggest question now was, just what in the world was this giant?

    Ye Chong did not know that his training demonstration hadpletely convinced his students of a mech''s strength. When the students were offered the chance to use mechs as their weapons, there would be no objections. This was because they had seen Ye Chong train in one. Unlike shooters, they did not have so-called shooter''s pride, and could ept mechs faster.

    When Ye Chong was finished, he finally noticed the worshipping stares from his students.

    He was not pleased because of this. In fact, he felt nothing at all. He rarely cared about how others saw him.

    He only stayed true to himself.

    Ye Chong did not exhaust himself from his training, since he must be prepared for enemies. Even so, he was already drenched in sweat by now. Ye Chong panted slightly, and focused on recovering.

    Waiting and guarding his students were both tasks that required patience, but that was always a quality of Ye Chong''s. Perhaps what he was doing now seemed dry and uninteresting, but Ye Chong could always find the energy to continue and persist in doing them.

    There were no surprises so far, and thisforted Sha Ya. By now, the students had gotten used to having the giant moving among them.

    The army soon reached the entrance to Darkniss, with Ye Chong and Sha Ya leading the students.

 Chapter 569 - New Beginnings

    <h4>Chapter 569: New Beginnings</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong did not let his students enter Darkniss without taking precautions. He had a student drive a Spider, with Sha Ya onboard. Ye Chong''s orders to Sha Ya were simple - eliminate all creatures within a 10 kilometre radius around the entrance of Darkniss. Ye Chong believed that with Sha Ya''s capabilities and the Spider''s firepower, this should not be too hard to aplish.

    If Sha Ya could drive a Spider, she would be even stronger in battle. Sha Ya might not be able to pilot a mech due tocking physical fitness, but the Spider would not be too hard for her. It seemed that she would have to be trained for the Spider soon. Right now, every form of resource was precious.

    Ye Chong and his students all waited at the entrance to Darkniss.

    Three hourster, Sha Ya returned. Ye Chong knew that the work was done. He quickly ordered for everyone to go through the entrance.

    It was a strange looking spatial window. Many of the students were intimidated by it, but they dared not go against Ye Chong''s orders. In the end, all the students entered the spatial window.

    Ye Chong was thest one to enter Darkniss. Celest''s dimension keystone would affect the spatial window, so he had to keep Celest back into its own dimension and cross through the eerie ck circle that was suspended in midair. There was a weird sensation the moment he crossed the boundary between spaces, but Ye Chong did not have time to study it in detail.

    Once in Darkniss, Ye Chong found all the students huddled together nervously. The dark and mysterious Darkniss was now before their very eyes.

    Even the bold and daring Duan Qian looked a little unsettled. He approached Ye Chong while his eyes wandered and asked, "Teacher, what is this ce?"

    The students were now officially Ye Chong''s personal security detachment. By right, they should address Ye Chong as "sir". However, a few of them, like Duan Qian, still called Ye Chong "teacher". Ye Chong never cared about titles, and so he did not bother to correct them.

    "Darkniss," Ye Chong replied inly.

    "Darkniss?" Duan Qian paled instantly. He gulped heavily and asked, "Teacher, why are we here?"

    "That''s right, Sir, it''s too dangerous here, let''s turn back."

    "Sir, only Level 7 or 8 shooters cane here!"

    The students all spoke up, tensed. They wanted to leave right away. Darkniss was no tourist attraction. It was the most dangerous ce in the world. Any random creature in this ce could tear the army apart. None of them imagined that Ye Chong would bring them here to Darkniss.

    Ye Chong ignored their outbursts and looked towards Sha Ya.

    Sha Ya nodded. "The perimeter is clear."

    Ye Chong nodded slightly, and then turned towards his students.

    "Fall in."

    Ye Chongmanded softly without expression. He was not loud, but the coldness in his voice went straight to the hearts of his students.

    The rowdy crowd went silent immediately.

    The students squirmed under Ye Chong''s gaze. They realized immediately that their master was angry! In the next moment, all of them scurried towards their positions.

    Their training was still worth something. In just a few moments, five groups in formation presented themselves before Ye Chong.

    It was silent once again.

    All the students were nervous. If it was Instructor Liao who got offended, the consequences would be unthinkable. However, even the short tempered Instructor Liao was always respectful towards Ye Chong. To the students, Ye Chong was even more intimidating than Instructor Liao. All the students kept their mouth shut.

    "You are all members of my security detachment. You are in no position to disobey my orders. You have two choices - to obey or disobey me. I will kill anyone who disobeys me." Ye Chong''s announcement was delivered quietly and tly. Even so, he made his point very clearly.

    All the students were shaken by his words. They regretted for all theints they were making earlier.

    Indeed, their master was even scarier than Instructor Liao!

    Sha Ya stood expressionless beside Ye Chong. However, she was also unsettled by Ye Chong. The killing aura from Ye Chong was unlike any she had encountered before. She had her share of vicious and ruthless shooters, but Ye Chong''s aura was markedly different from theirs.

    His was calm and unassuming, but solid and undeterred. It was clear that he was a veteran who had been through a lot.

    "From today onwards, we will set our base here. From now on, you will live here. I will teach you how to fight, and provide you with new weapons. However, this is Darkniss. Only the strong will survive."

    Ye Chong exined the situation to his students clearly, leaving no illusion.

    When he was done, he turned to leave. He knew that the students needed time to digest the information. Ye Chong approached the weaponsmiths, who were also white as a sheet. The weaponsmiths were all trembling with fear, with the exception of Xi Yan. Xi Yan was not unafraid, but he was confident that his teacher did not force all of them here to Darkniss simply to die.

    "Gentlemen, we have no time to be scared. We need to start working now, unless you want to camp out here in the wilderness tonight," Ye Chong said to them, and turned to leave. Xi Yan was the first to react, following Ye Chong from behind. The rest of the weaponsmiths exchanged looks, and slowly came to ept their situation. They still looked scared, but they all got up and followed Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong had originally nned to have about eight weaponsmiths to help him, but now there were 30 of them, including him. Even though the 20 young weaponsmiths were only of average abilities, they were still precious manpower for Ye Chong.

    The more energetic and resolved students, like Duan Qian, realized what they must do very quickly. They started to unpack the load from the 40 Spiders. Ye Chong had already prepared many tools for them. The machines were tooplicated for Duan Qian and the other students to understand, but the weaponsmiths learned how to use them quickly. They would use the tools to build simpleser cutting machines.

    The weaponsmiths were surprised by the fancy new tools. This helped to soothe their fear and boost morale. They immersed themselves in their work soon enough.

    As for the design of their base, Ye Chong had already drawn up the ns in his manor.

    The simpleser cutting machines could be fitted onto the training vehicles and used to cut huge rocks into blocks of five metres by two metres. Once they got familiar with the machines, each block would take only 15 seconds. The simpleser cutting machines were easy to maneuver. Ye Chong taught his students how to use them, and then they got down to business.

    They cut out blocks of rock from the cliffs nearby, and used the mps fitted into their training vehicles to move the blocks back to base.

    Here in the darkness of Darkniss, the first signs ofrge scale human activity emerged.

    The armed Spider was given to Sha Ya. Her task was to learn how to maneuver the Spider, and then patrol the perimeter to kill any wild animals that tried to trespass.

    Work progressed quickly. In just seven days, they were nearly done. Ye Chong used the binding agent derived from candygrass to glue the blocks of rocks together. Just a tiny amount was enough to keep the rocks firmly in ce.

    Their base looked like a standard stronghold. It was hexagonal when seen from above. This stronghold constructed with rocks was only for temporary use, but Ye Chong did not neglect in its functionalities. The stronghold could amodate the entire army, with room for specializedboratories and mechanical workshops. There were also three physical training grounds and 15 standard mech training grounds. There was an infirmary as well. There were only a few types of medication avable, and no advanced equipment, but Ye Chong had still allocated space for the infirmary.

    The stronghold was heavily armed. Ye Chong installed manyser weapons for the base. All the weapons of the stronghold were connected to photon circuits, even though it was time consuming to do so. When Ye Chong first started designing the base, he had been vexed by the problem of armaments. The safety of the base was of the highest priority. Without enough firepower, it was impossible to survive in Darkniss.

    urate aiming could be achieved if he had sufficiently sophisticated photon processors and holographic scanning system. Ye Chong did not have both. Hence, he had to switch tactics. He recalled the battle around Yi Ju, whereser weapons were used. Even the powerful red-tailed beasts were curbed by theser weapons, provided the weapons were powerful enough and in great numbers.

    Theser weapons did not require sophisticated photon processors and holographic scanning systems. Instead, it relied on wide coverage attacks at high energy intensity. The disadvantage to this approach was that it was highly energy consuming. Fortunately, Ye Chong did not have to worry about energy supply.

    Energy crystals came cheap in Eastern Cloud. He purchased a sizable amount of energy crystals without spending a fortune. The energy crystals that he brought with him for this operation were enough tost them quite some time. Apart from that, once they established a firm position in Darkniss, they would have enough power to return to Eastern Cloud as an independent force. By then, it did not matter if they wanted to purchase or resort to other means ¡­

    Either way, it would not be so difficult! That was Ye Chong''s conclusion. Once his stronghold was armed, thesers would cover all directions around the base.

    Ye Chong finally rxed a little with the weapons installed. All the students felt relieved as well. After sleeping overnight in their training vehicles for the past week or so, they could now rest within the safety of the stronghold. The structure was muchrger than they thought. Such a massive stronghold was nearly the size of a small town. It was something for them to feel proud about, having built the stronghold themselves.

    Now, they felt more hopeful for their futures!

    No one had ever built such a massive and grand structure in such a short time. They thought that Ye Chong was truly a man of wonders. What other miracles would he bring to their lives?

    The students could not wait to find out!

    Ye Chong took out everything he kept in Celest''s dimension keystone. All the weaponsmiths stared at the great variety of equipment that Ye Chong conjured out of nowhere. When Ye Chong dered that they could use the equipment, the weaponsmiths, including Xi Yan, cheered with joy.

    Everyone was now in the stronghold. t floorboards and cosy rooms awaited them. After all the hard work, the students were all smiles at their new home.

    Ye Chong was not satisfied with the rock structure of the stronghold, since the rocks did not offer enough protection. Once they could extract metals on arge scale, Ye Chong would fit the rocks with thick metal shields. That would make this a real stronghold. When that happened, even the red-tailed beasts would not threaten Ye Chong.

    After a resting for half a day, Ye Chong summoned everyone.

    From this moment onwards, the students must learn. They must learn how to fight and improve their capabilities. The weaponsmiths must learn new mechanical concepts.

    Ye Chong demonstrated how to use a photon processor. Everyone had their own photon processor. These bio-photon processors were not very powerful, but they were more than enough for the students to learn how to use the machines. Here in the stronghold, all the photon processors were connected, and can be used formunication. Ye Chong had prepared basic course material from a wide variety of subjects and stored them in the photon processors. The students would study in this way. That was how Ye Chong studied when he was in the Five Gxies.

    No one had ever seen such an advanced way of teaching. Only Xi Yan knew about it when Ye Chong gave him memory chips and a learning machine earlier.

    It was like living in a dream. Everything was new and intriguing. The students soon forgot about the darkness in Darkniss, and instead bean to think about the warmth and brightness in the stronghold.

    Next, Ye Chong announced that the first 100 students who mastered the course material would get their own mechs.

    The students were all invigorated by this reward. They already knew what a mech as, and looked forward to being a mech pilot as described in their photon processors. The peaceful stronghold was now filled with determined students who were eager to learn. The weaponsmiths had a better appreciation of what was offered to them. They studied everyday with great diligence. All the knowledge in the photon processors was new to them, and far advanced than anything they had learned. How could they afford to waste such a wonderful opportunity?

    Just as everyone was absorbed in their learning journey, Ye Chong visited the nearby Lava River unnoticed. The stronghold was positioned strategically. It was near the entrance to Darkniss on one side, and separated from the rest of Darkniss by the Lava River, a natural form of defense. It would take an extraordinarily powerful creature like the snowshade leopard to cross the Lava River, which stretched a few dozen meters across.

    Bright redva flowed sluggishly in the Lava River. When theva encountered a drop in the riverbed, it would crash down and ssh like magnificent fireworks. Simply standing by the River, feeling the heat wavesing from it, made breathing difficult for Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong watched theva slowly flowing pass him, where bright red wavy stripes would frequently emerge. Lava was formed when rocks melted. Metals would often be melted in the process as well. These metals in liquid form were responsible for the bright red stripes.

    Ye Chong nned to extract these liquid metals. If he could figure out a way to extract them, they would be metals of high purity. Extracting the metals in this way would also save time, effort and energy.

    However, the problem of extraction remained to be solved.

    After observing for a while more, Ye Chong returned to the stronghold.

    He went to hisb and began to work. This went on for three days. When he finally emerged from theb, he called for Xi Yan and a few of the younger weaponsmiths.

    The group went to the Lava River in a Spider. Xi Yan and his colleagues had no idea what Ye Chong was thinking of.

    Ye Chong unloaded all the things in the Spider and directed his men to work. After two hours, they constructed a small building by the River. The building housed a photon processor and holographic scanning system, withplicated piping works and a confusing control console.

    They then used an excavator to dig three trenches about a hundred metres from the building. Each trench was a hundred meters long and 15 metres deep. A thick pipeline ran along the building, connecting to three metre-wide ditches at the farther end. These three ditches continued downhill at a 30-degree slope, until they were connected with the three trenches, respectively.

    "What is this?" Xi Yan looked at the strange building by the Lava River, and could not figure it out. The heat from the Lava River made him ufortable.

    "It''s a liquid metal auto-extractor." Ye Chong pushed the activation button.

    The pipes that reached above the Lava River lowered themselves into the River. Then, bright red liquid was pumped out through the thick pipeline, flowing down along the first ditch until it reached one of the trenches. Through the holographic scanning system, they could track exactly where the liquid metal was.

    Suddenly, a mechanical w suspended above the River lowered itself into theva and emerged again with a ck colored object the size of a human head.

    Ye Chong saw Xi Yan''s confusion, and exined, "That''s solid metal. It''s melting point is too high for theva to melt it. This kind of metal is even more valuable." Xi Yan and the other weaponsmiths began to understand what they were seeing. Ye Chong added, "The mechanical w and the pipeline are all made of metals with high melting points."

    Xi Yan and his team were all interested in the auto-extractor. They went inside the building and studied the machinery inside, marvelling at the details of the structure. Ye Chong saw how absorbed they were, and had to return to the stronghold himself. He left the Spider behind for them to return with. Ye Chong found that Spider to be an excellent means of transport within Darkniss. They were easy to use, and did not move too quickly, perfect for beginners.

    The liquid metal auto-extractor was linked to the main photon processor back at the stronghold. Once a trench was filled up, it would redirect the liquid metal to the next trench. When the liquid metal in the first trench had cooled down, Ye Chong would send people here to retrieve the solidified metal block.

    The solid metal block was still a mixture of different metals, and had to be further processed. However, this was much easier than mining for metal ores directly.

    On the third day, the first trench was filled up. Ye Chong had to send 50 training vehicles to move the huge solid metal block back to the stronghold.

    The metal block was stored in the warehouse. Ye Chong had not built his metal istor machine yet, but he ordered the students to cut the metal block into many smaller pieces.

    Time was precious. All the weaponsmiths were assigned to help Ye Chong build this huge machine.

    One of the many devices Ye Chong obtained from the base on Spectre was a metal istor, but it was only suitable forboratory experiments, not forrge scale processing. Ye Chong had to build arger metal istor based on the smaller version, or his goal to extract metals on arge scale would never be realized.

    Ye Chong was beginning to appreciate how hard it was to start from scratch!

 Chapter 570 - Two Shooters

    <h4>Chapter 570: Two Shooters</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Lava River was like an endless source of treasure, full of natural resources. However the liquid metal obtained from it cannot be used directly, since it was a mixture of different metal elements that must isted out from the mixture. The metal istor machine would do the trick, but even though there were now three huge blocks worth of metal in the warehouse, Ye Chong was still not done with the machine.

    Therger version of the metal istor was more difficult to build than Ye Chong anticipated. He spent nearly half a month just to build the machine.

    Thepleted machine was about 20 metres tall. Just standing before this huge machine made people realize just how small humans were.

    The small metal pieces cut from therge metal block were transported to the istor machine via a conveyor belt, and would leave the machine in purified forms of different metal elements. These pure metal elements would be delivered to different zones. Each element had its own unique zone and processing procedures. The huge metal istor worked efficiently,pleting the elemental istion processing work in just half a day.

    The weaponsmiths could hardly believe what they had achieved. They never imagined that they would be able to build such a wonderful machine in their lives. While Ye Chong was the one who did the heavy lifting, they were still grateful for having being part of the construction.

    By now, they were all convinced of Ye Chong''s abilities. Such aplicated piece of machinery was unheard of. They did not even think it was possible. Additionally, they never imagined that the gravstones could be used in this way, producing pieces of beautiful and pure metals. The pure metals looked otherworldly. They now realized how underused the gravstones were in their hands.

    Having seen first-hand what they could achieve, the weaponsmiths studied the materials in their photon processors with even more fervor. As long they studied hard, they would be able to master this mysterious field of knowledge.

    Ye Chong was basically working as the engineer of the army. With heaps of pure metals lying around, he must use them to build something in order to unleash their full potential.

    Even in the He Yue Gxy, such a huge metal istor machine was challenging to construct. However, Ye Chong had forcefully brought the machine into existence. He was the biggest benefactor of this endeavor. With this experience, it should be easier the next time he wanted to build otherrge machines.

    Now, he must prepare a smelting furnace. Only with the furnace could he be able to produce metal alloys. Alloys were much tougher than pure metals, and could exhibit physical properties not found in normal metals. Ye Chon had many types of alloys in mind to produce. He would be able to produce alloys on arge scale with the smelting furnace.

    The advanced equipment at Ye Chong''s disposal had been very helpful. Theboratory grade advanced smelting furnace allowed him to produce high quality metal alloys. These alloys were abundant, but they were sufficient enough to build mechanical parts forrge machinery.

    The most important thing now was for the stronghold to be able to produce its own machinery. Ye Chong had to put his personal training sessions on hold to study more about machinery. Fortunately, with his strong foundational knowledge and years of wide experience, he would usually be able to find his way throughplicated issues after tinkering with them for some time. Even when he found himself stuck, there were still the three chips left behind by Kui for him. The three chips contained details of all the research work done by the Research Consortium since its formation. Some of the technical skills described inside were not very advanced, but what theycked in depth was made up with breadth. Ye Chong thought of the chips as his very own encyclopaedia.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong''sms device rang. Ye Chong did not have manyms devices for all the students. Only a few of the main personnel had one, such as Sha Ya, Xi Yan and Duan Qian. The other students could only watch them with jealousy.

    Ye Chong took the call. It was Sha Ya.

    "What is it?" Ye Chong did not mince words.

    Sha Ya replied with her characteristic hoarse voice, "We have a situation. I spot two shooters nearby." Sha Ya was the only person in the army who did not address Ye Chong as "sir" or "teacher".

    "Where?" Ye Chong asked calmly, but he had already set aside his tools and stood up.

    He hurried towards Celest, which he stored nearby, and climbed into its pilot cabin. He walked quickly but calmly. He had always left Celest close by in case of emergencies, so that he could leave as soon as required.

    "In Grid D9-F4." Sha Ya was familiar with the geopositioning system on the photon processor by now, and responded quickly. She added, "They''re 20 kilometres away from me, and they have not spotted me yet. I''m sending over my exact location."

    "Keep an eye on them and maintain your distance. I''ming over," Ye Chong replied sinctly. Celest lifted off just as he finished.

    The advantages offered by the holographic scanning system were apparent in situations like this. Even a simplified version of the holographic scanning system was more powerful than parapsychic sense. This advantage gave them the upper hand to initiate contact, and was especially important in the event of a war.

    Celest was fast. Here in Darkniss, Ye Chong piloted the mech without reserve.

    Ye Chong had long anticipated this day. There were not many Level 7 or 8 shooters, but most of them would definitely visit Darkniss to challenge themselves. However, these two shooters were in D9-F4, which was not near the entrance of Darkniss. Were they already here before his army?

    Ye Chong was not worried about Level 8 shooters, but a Level 9 shooter like Mei Wu would be cause for concern. He still did not know exactly how strong Mei Wu was. It was rare for Ye Chong to not be able to gauge his opponents. That was why Ye Chong did not seek Mei Wu when he arrived in Darkniss.

    Ye Chong soon located Sha Ya''s Spider. Sha Ya''s daily routine was to patrol the perimeter of their stronghold. Her job was to kill any approaching wild animals and to look out for trouble.

    Sha Ya noticed Celest in the air. She could not figure out how the massive thing could fly so high up in the air.

    Up in the air, Celest looked as powerful and indifferent as a God.

    Celest''s holographic scanning system was far more powerful than the Spider''s. Ye Chong''s holographic feed showed a much clearer image than the one Sha Ya received. Ye Chong transmitted the clearer feed to the Spider below.

    On the holographic screen were two shooters, advancing cautiously. They had theirser guns out, and had backpacks. Ye Chong noticed that their outfit was different from the shooters he had seen before.

    "They are shooters from Western Frost," Sha Ya reported confidently. Western Frost and Eastern Cloud were enemy countries, but the animosity did not extend to its resident shooters. Level 8 shooters like Sha Ya were not interested in contributing towards their countries. They were more interested in improving their own capabilities, and did not care for materialistic gains. Aside that, high level shooters never had to worry about money. Their visits to Darkniss would always yield enough returns for them to buy high quality weapons from the weaponsmiths and enough to spare for a decent living.

    Hence, nationality did not matter much for high level shooters. Sha Ya knew high level shooters from other countries personally, and had a close rtionship with many of them.

    "How strong are they?" Ye Chong asked.

    Sha Ya pondered for a moment. "About Level 7 or 8." Shooters were always keenly aware of their kind.

    "Capture them." Ye Chong considered, and then gave the order. If the two shooters were captured, it would be easier for him.

    "Alright."

    Celest and the Spider moved out together. High up in the air, Celest shot towards the two shooters. On the ground, the Spider moved its eight legs quickly, unhindered by the uneven terrain.

    However, Celest was much faster than the Spider. When Celest was about five kilometres away from the shooters, they finally noticed the bio-mech. By then, it was already toote.

    Five kilometres was a very short distance for Celest. It was just a short sprint away.

    The massive figure in the air came as a shock to the two shooters. Celest was so fast that they could barely react. One of them managed to pull the trigger.

    Aser beam shot straight at the massive figure.

    The two shooters felt relieved, but quickly realized in disbelief that something was wrong.

    How was this possible?

    Theser beam that could have shot through all kinds of wild animals left only a charred mark on the giant''s armor.

    Before they could fire the second shot, a huge spear, wider than a pail in diameter, was directed at them. The giant held the weapon in one hand and pointed the cold gleaming tip at the two shooters.

    The two shooters froze, looking very pale. They dared not move, for fear of being crushed into mush by the massive weapon.

    The giant behaved oddly. It simply held onto the weapon and pointed it at them, but did nothing else. Just when the two shooters were still trying to figure it out, they saw a huge spider, about seven metres tall, running towards them. It was almost twice as fast as a biped tyrasaur.

    Heavens! What were these things?

    The shooters nearly cked out from shock and fear. Here was a 10-metre giant and a 7-metre spider right in front of them. Had they arrived in a world of giants?

    Both shooters remained absolutely rigid. Even their fingers were frozen in motion.

    The shooters stared in horror as the huge spider made its way towards them eagerly.

    When Ye Chong and Sha Ya brought the two unconscious shooters back to the stronghold, people barely noticed them. The students were all focused in their studies. They had all the course material with them, and knew exactly what they had to do. However, there was simply too much knowledge to absorb, so the students had to work as hard as they could manage. They did not need further reminder from Ye Chong to study hard. The students understood their situation. No one dared to take shortcuts. As Ye Chong had told them, only the strong will survive.

    Besides, the first 100 students who mastered their course material will get their mechs in advance. This was enough motivation for the students. They had seen the huge metal blocks extracted from the Lava River recently. These strange materials looked enticing. They could not wait to try their hands on actual mechs.

    Ye Chong and Sha Ya were now getting ready to interrogate the two shooters. Ye Chong had confiscated their weapons. Personal firearms like thoseser guns could not harm Celest. Only firearms from fighter aircrafts could pose a threat to Celest.

    Shooters without their weapons could not threaten Ye Chong.

    Sha Ya looked at the two unconscious shooters, and asked with a grimace, "Should we wait until they wake up?"

    "No need." Ye Chong picked up a pail of cold water and sshed them mercilessly.

    Sha Ya shuddered inside, feeling sympathetic towards the shooters. With their abilities, they would have been treated with respect no matter where they went. Even if they captured, they would never be treated so harshly. Only Ye Chong would treat high level shooters just like anyone else.

    The two shooters woke up slowly, shuddering from the cold.

    It was a harsh treatment, especially for shooters. They were very sensitive to their surroundings. Even the cold would be magnified in their senses. The two shooters, now awake, looked very pale. Their lips had turned blue-ck as they shivered from the cold.

    Sha Ya looked at them sympathetically and asked, "What are your names?"

    "Albinia." "Lotesh." The two shooters answered with trembling voices. They were shocked and terrified, and not fully themselves yet. What they saw today was simply too strange to be true, it felt more like a nightmare.

    Both shootersid themselves bare to Sha Ya''s questioning.

    As suspected, they were from Western Frost. They had just reached Level 8, and wanted to try out their skills in Darkniss. However, they came across a terrible ident.

    Then, they recalled the giant, and the huge spider ¡­

    The shooters exchanged a look of disbelief. Could it be ¡­

    "You two ¡­ The huge spider ¡­ The giant ¡­" Albinia faltered.

    Sha Ya noticed Albinia''s wrist then. She looked into his eyes and asked, "Who is your teacher?"

 Chapter 571 - Important Intel

    <h4>Chapter 571: Important Intel</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Albinia paused. He quickly grasped the significance of the question and replied, "My teacher is Levent. And you are ¡­" If he could figure out how they were rted, his situation might be improved.

    "Levent. As I suspected ¡­" Sha Ya felt relieved.

    She noticed Ye Chong looking at her, and exined, "I know Levent. We worked together before. He likes to put on a green colored string as a bracelet on his wrist, and often shows it off, that''s why I remember it. Looks like his student inherited the quirk."

    Albinia was overjoyed. It was quite fortunate for thedy to know his teacher.

    "What do we do with them?" Sha Ya turned to Ye Chong. Since they were students of a friend, she hoped Ye Chong would not kill them. However, she also knew that Ye Chong was never hesitant in killing. Albinia and Lotesh waited in suspense like it was the Day of Judgment.

    Ye Chong asked, "How did you enter Darkniss?" The question was a curious one. Every country, including Western Frost, Eastern Cloud and Northern Lands had an entrance to Darkniss. Ye Chong had heard of it, but he did not know the details.

    "We started from the Wilkinson Range, then entered the Maze Tunnels through the Snowy Ridge. From there, we entered Darkniss. We went deeper and deeper inside for I don''t know how long, and then we got lost and couldn''t find the entrance anymore," Albinia exined haltingly, looking vexed. It was easy to tell from their tattered clothing that the past few days had not been easy for them.

    Wilkinson Range, Snowy Ridge, Maze Tunels - Ye Chong had not yet heard of these ces, and thus could not quite understand the context. Sha Ya, however, was familiar with them. She exined, "Western Frost has another entrance into Darkniss, different to one in Eastern Cloud. Northern Lands also has its own entrance."

    Ye Chong understood the crux of the matter immediately. "This means that we can enter the other two countries from Darkniss?"

    "Theoretically speaking, yes. However, we don''t know where the other two entrances are. Besides, it''s easy to lose your way in Darkniss. It''s easier to cross the border the usual way, even with the war happening right now. No one has tried to enter another country via Darkniss."

    Sha Ya exined calmly. She was already used to Ye Chong''s obvious questions. She had realized early on that Ye Chong was often oblivious to many things that people thought of asmon knowledge, but familiar with deep and technical knowledge. She found it curious at first, but got used to it eventually.

    Albinia and Lotesh doubtfully stared at Ye Chong. They never imagined that someone would actually ask something like that.

    "What do we do with them?" Sha Ya asked Ye Chong again.

    "Let them stay, and have them join the training. Start at the very beginning."

    Ye Chong''s orders changed the course of life of these two shooters.

    That there were multiple entrances into Darkniss was important intel for Ye Chong. It meant that he would be able to ess Western Frost and Northern Lands if he found their entrances.

    That was the main point for Ye Chong.

    Darkniss was full of natural resources, but it also had two fatal weaknesses. Firstly, Darkniss had no energy crystals. All production works would halt without them. The mechs they built would not be able to run without an energy source. Both Western Frost and Northern Lands sold energy crystals at a very affordable price.

    Secondly, Darkniss did not offer enough food. Ye Chong had brought a lot of food and nutrition pills with him, but they would run out one day. There were five thousand mouths to feed, and nutrition pills were too wasteful to be used for daily meals.

    For now, with the war going on, Sun Sieha would not try to start a fight with Ye Chong. It would not be too difficult for him to enter Eastern Cloud for resupply, especially for these non-military resources. Moreover, Ye Chong''s unique weapons might just earn him another huge sum.

    However, once the war between Eastern Cloud and Western Frost ended, Sun Sieha would definitely start restricting Ye Chong''s ess to these important resources, and perhaps even direct national military force at him. It was hard to tell whether his five thousand strong security detachment was enough to take on the military by then.

    If Ye Chong could find the other two entrances, his situation would be vastly different.

    Ye Chong could head to Western Frost and sell a few pieces of good tech to even out the military strength between the two countries. If Western Frost could start to defend itself using the new tech, it might even be able to ovee Eastern Cloud. The war mighte to a stalemate eventually.

    That was the ideal scenario for Ye Chong. If he could sell some of his weapons to both countries, he would be thergest weapons dealer, hidden from in sight. Ye Chong was not a money grubber, but he needed it to fortify his stronghold. Besides, all the resources required to train his five thousand men also tranted to money.

    Ye Chong could even consider recruiting soldiers from Western Frost to expand his army.

    If that did not work out, he could always head for Northern Lands. That country was also rich in natural resources, and sold food products cheaply. In this scenario, Sun Sieha would find it hard to notice Ye Chong''s presence, and it would buy Ye Chong more time to strengthen his position.

    Ye Chong did not have definite ns in the long term yet. Whether he chose to enter deeper into Darkniss or to other areas, he would first need to have enough power on his side. This power woulde not from Celest or Sha Ya, but his five thousand students. However, these students needed time to develop and mature, and that required a lot of resources.

    Ye Chong had to see to this problem.

    That Albinia and Lotesh could reach this ce by foot meant that the entrance into Western Frost was not too far away. With Celest and its geopositioning system, Ye Chong did not have to worry about losing his way. Anywhere he travelled before would be recorded in the system.

    Nevertheless, that would have to wait.

    For now, Ye Chong faced the issue of the smelting furnace. Compared to the metal istor, the smelting furnace was much easier to build. Ye Chongpleted the machine in no time. He first designed the furnace structure on the photon processor, then sorted the mechanical parts of the furnace. After that, he used the Research Consortium''s high precision processing equipment to build the mechanical parts. Thest part was the assembly.

    The final product was a 15-metre wide smelting furnace. The weaponsmiths were no longer so surprised by his creation. Humans are highly adaptable to new things, after all.

    This was no ordinary furnace. Ye Chong hadbined the smelting furnace with processing machinery. Thus, the machine could directly work on the products of the smelting process.

    After the smelting furnace, Ye Chong needed to build metal strengthening machinery, high precision processing equipment, surface processing equipment ¡­

    When Ye Chong was done building all the machinery, three months had already passed. By now, the warehouse was stocked with new metal blocks every day. All the purified metal pieces were simply stored inside as well.

    Atst, the full set of automated mechanical processing machinery waspleted. This production line was powerful. It was the result of applying all of Ye Chong''s knowledge. There were signs of influence from the Five Gxies, He Yue Gxy and even Gray Valley''s Research Consortium.

    The entire production line was approximately 1.2 kilometres long. All the machines were connected into an actualrge scale production line. Any engineer from the Five Gxies or He Yue Gxy would be astonished by it. Such arge scale production line was usually owned by huge manufacturingpanies only.

    This was more than enough to build gadgets and machines for five thousand soldiers. In fact, it was enough for provide for 50 thousand soldiers.

    Moreover, Ye Chong did not have enough technical experts with him, and he could not possibly spend all his time on the actual manufacturing. Hence, he designed the production to bepletely automated. What Ye Chong needed to do now was simply to key in the desired procedure in the main control photon processor, together with other details like the shape of the mechanical parts to build and so on, and the production line will take care of the manufacturing.

    Today, the production line began working for the first time.

    Ye Chong keyed in the necessary details into the photon processor.

    The metal pieces prepared earlier were moved via a conveyor belt to the mouth of the smelting furnace, and fed vertically into the furnace. After that, all the other machinery began to light up.

    Xi Yan and the other technical crew watched the long production line nervously. The production line hummed and grumbled while the crew watched with anticipation. Ye Chong had spent three months toe up with this massive beast. They were all curious what the beast could do.

    "It''sing out, it''sing out!" One of the young weaponsmiths pointed at the oddly shaped mechanical parts that were churned out and cried out excitedly.

    Ye Chong picked up one of the ck colored parts. It was a diamond-shaped armor for the limb of a mech, coated with ayer of ck paint for protection. The entire mechanical part felt heavy in hand, with an excellent feel to it. Ye Chong tested the hardness of the armor with his fingers, looking satisfied with the oue.

    With this production line, he would soon be able to arm all his students.

 Chapter 572 - Nascent I

    <h4>Chapter 572: Nascent I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    On the training ground, five thousand students fell in formation. They were as quiet as mice. All of them looked eager and excited. Their attention was fixated on the 100 mechs arranged in front of them.

    Mechs - these were actual mechs!

    Each mech was a standard 12-metre tall, in dark blue and ivory white. ck armour protected its legs. A sma shield activator was installed on the left arm. Once activated, the mech would be shielded by ayer of sma. On the mech''s back were four foldable wings, which enabled the mech to fly smoothly within the atmosphere.

    The huge figure of the mech did not look sluggish at all. Itsnky structure andpact design made it look powerful. The blue and white colouredser gun in its hand was sparsely decorated with details. This was Ye Chong''s preferred style.

    If Mu/Shang was here, he would definitely recognize what inspired this mech.

    Harmony of the Winter Aria - it was a mech that Ye Chong once used before in the Five Gxies. Of course, only the mech''s exterior mimicked the original. Ye Chong always found the Harmony a very excellent mech. It had manymendable features. There were the foldable byer wings, and the Hummingbirds, and the auto lock-on shurikens. Ye Chong had based many of hister designs on these features. As a close range mech, Harmony of the Winter Ariacked some bite in its main body, but as a long range mech, it was perfect. Ye Chong kept the name of the mech for these simpler incarnations.

    The most time consuming, difficult and expensive part of the mech was itsser gun. Called the G-ZS, it was an improved version of the G-Z, much powerful than its predecessor. Theser gun was not made of alloy metal, but of one of the best wooden material found in this world - the Oceanic Cyathea wood. The body of theser gun was in blue and white stripes, characteristic of the Oceanic Cyathea, giving a mysterious and expensive feel to it.

    Another part of the mech that utilized high quality wood was the engine. Ye Chong spared no expenses in building these mechs. He used the best wooden materials he could find when wood was more suitable than metal. Hence, the mechs ended up with excellent specs.

    Ye Chong did fit this mech model with anything weapons other than theser gun and sma shield, not because he was unwilling to, but because the studentscked the skills to fully utilize them. The more weapons there were to choose from, the more skilled the mech pilot should be. It was better to specialize than to learn bits and pieces of everything. Thus, Ye Chong gave each student aser gun, albeit a very powerful one.

    Ye Chong''s expectation of his students was simple enough - they must learn all kinds of shooting techniques, such as sniping, continuous firing and suppressive firing. Ye Chong''s own standards were much higher than in the Five Gxies. His students would have to learn advanced military tactics, coordination strategies and so on ¡­

    Hundreds of Harmony of the Winter Arias were arranged neatly before the students, like soldiers ready for inspection. In the bright lit training ground, the beauty of these mechs was fully disyed to the students.

    They stared with their eyes wide open, breathing heavily. Even the more cool-headed Duan Qian and Shu Mo''er could not hide their yearning for these mechs.

    Ye Chong watched his students, who reminded him of himself piloting Winnie a long time ago. Once, he had also longed to own a more capable mech, just like them now.

    Today, Ye Chong could not find that kind of longing in him anymore. As his continued to see more and more of the world, piloting all kinds of mechs and fighting more and more wars, he could no longer be truly surprised by anything.

    Ye Chong thought of his days of wandering and fighting all these years, leading him further and further away from his ideal way of living, and felt a little bitter.

    However, he quickly gathered himself. Looking at the eyes that burn with eagerness and longing, Ye Chong smiled inside.

    "Your results are out. As exined earlier, students ranked in the first 100 will get their mechs ahead of the rest. The following are the names of these students."

    The training ground was silent. All the students held their breath and listened.

    First in the ss was Appilok. This talented man had surpassed Duan Qian and Shu Mo''erter in their training, and became the first student to own a mech. Duan Qian and the Shu sisters were next in the list.

    The students who were not in the name list could only watch the first 100 students jealously.

    These 100 mechs were important in encouraging the students to study. They had studied knowing how cool it would be to be the first ones to own a mech. Young people were often na?ve and impulsive. If Ye Chong had dered earlier that everyone would have their own mech, the students would not have worked so hard. After so long in the outside world, Ye Chong had learned to y tricks of the mind, something he would never have considered earlier in life.

    With these mechs, the students improved quickly. However, this was also a vulnerable and risky period for Ye Chong. If they were to be under attack by arge herd of wild creatures at this stage, they had only the stronghold''s defense system to keep them safe. If the defense system was breached, the students could not be expected to fight the wild creatures.

    Ye Chong had thought ofing to Darkniss by himself, but he rejected the idea in the end. It was simply too risky. He was especially wary of the red-tailed beasts. He had never seen those creatures singly, as they were always in packs. If that was the case, he did not stand a chance against them. Circumstances forced him to settle with training these five thousand young men to advance him ns. It would take longer, but his chances of sess would be much higher. Ye Chong did not want to die before he saw Mu/Shang again.

    Mechs were still continuously churned out by the production line, but for now, Ye Chong had to focus on grooming the students to bebat ready.

    The students were quick to improve in their basic shooting training, especially for the Shu sisters, who were already shooters before they joined the program. The rest of them were not as advanced as the sisters, but they were also not unfamiliar with shooting. With their own mechs, their skills improved even more quickly. Besides, it helped that the training was so specialized and intensive.

    Ye Chong then decided to divide the 100 students into 10 groups, and let them battle against each other. Of course, these mock battles were carried out with practiceser guns.

    The gamified training routine was well received by the students. They enjoyed the battles very much.

    Ye Chong thought of many ways to keep them motivated. He came up with a strict point system to rank the students ording to their individual performance, and then designed a reward system based on these points.

    As the whole reward system came into shape, things proceeded more smoothly in the stronghold.

    Mechs were released in batches and given to students ording to their scores. A monthter, all students had earned their very own mechs. Currently, Appilok had the most points. His team had a winning streak of 121 rounds and counting, way ahead of the other teams. As leader of his team, Appilok earned more points than other students. Shu Mo''er and Duan Qian had more points from shooting practice, but their total number of points was behind Appilok''s by a wide margin.

    Appilok was an excellent leader.

    There were quite a few students like Appilok. They were not good physical fighters, but they could keep a level head duringbat and had a good grasp of the battle''s flow. Often, their superior battles strategies led their teams to victory.

    Ye Chong knew that this training could never rece actualbat experience.

    So far, Ye Chong''smando troop consisted of 314 students. They performed well in all aspects of training, and were also outstanding in group battles.

    Ye Chong decided to bring them out to experience realbat.

    The only way to train real soldiers was through actualbat experience.

    Themando troop moved out fully armed. While Ye Chong was gone, the stronghold was left to Sha Ya and Xi Yan. Ye Chong briefed them before he left.

    Ye Chong flew in Celest. Behind him, 341 Harmony of the Winter Arias followed the bio-mech into the air, forming a fleet ofbat mechs.

    Down on the ground, the sputtering Lava River was only a thin red line. The students yed around with their holographic scanning systems to look around them. They were frightfully curious, since Ye Chong usually did not allow them out of the stronghold.

    Behold, Darkniss! Why was it different from expected? Wasn''t it rumoured that Darkniss was a very dangerous ce? In the darkness, Darkniss was as quiet as a sleeping infant.

    They did not notice a small opening in their formation due to their distraction. Ye Chong, who was feeling tense throughout the flight, saw it immediately.

    "Concentrate. It''s dangerous here."

    Ye Chong and hismando troop were flying towards where Albinia and Lotesh came from. Those two shooters were currently drained from their physical training. They were shooters, and now they had to undergo aplete physical training program. Wasn''t that simply exhausting?

    Ye Chong did not bring them with him. It would be best if they could find the entrance to Western Frost in this run, but he would not mind if they did not.

    It was half an hour into the practice flight, and they had no idents yet.

    However, Ye Chong was feeling more nervous. They were now entering uncharted territory. He had never gone so far this way before.

 Chapter 573 - Nascent II

    <h4>Chapter 573: Nascent II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing looked at dojo before her. Her ownbat dojo was now thergest in the entire Yi Ju zone. The students consisted of Sang Tribe members and people who joined the Yi Jumunity. Rui Bing did not attempt to make the Rui Family''sbat techniques secret. She was more open minded about these things after attaining Jie.

    She still wore her signature white training garb. Her aura as abat expert made her stood out from the other normal, gentle women. To the students in the dojo, she was the untouchable Goddess. The Sang Tribe felt this particrly strongly. Rui Bing''s rtionship with Ye Chong was no secret among the Sang Tribe members. Anyone who tried to get closer to Rui Bing would be taught an unforgettable lesson by the Sang Tribe.

    The Sang Tribe members inherited Ye Chong''s ruthless and cunning way of doing things. To them, the ends always justify the means. Even Sang Pu and Qiu Man did not discourage this mindset in their subordinates.

    Rui Bing loved the Sang Tribe. They were a disciplined group of people. Even though they were now the only dominating power in Yi Ju Zone, they did not ck in their duties. The Sang Tribe members were like natural born warriors who were eager to absorb new knowledge. Their lives were very organized, and perhaps dry and uninteresting in the eyes of outsiders, but they enjoyed it very much. Theirck of knowledge did not allow them to control every side of Yi Ju Zone, but Rui Bing believed that given enough time, they would be the final winners.

    She could feel the love and care from all the Sang Tribe members, all because of one man.

    Rui Bing watched her students practicing in the dojo, sweating profusely, but her mind was elsewhere. Was her sister alright? How was her mother doing now? Where was Grandpa Qian? What about the naughty little monkey, Wei Yuan?

    What about him? Where was he right now? Was he okay?

    Rui Bing sighed quietly inside, though her expression betrayed none of her thoughts.

    More and more students joined her dojo. The people who came to the Sang Tribe for help in the midst of disaster now realized the importance of power. The Sang Tribe was also very passionate aboutbat. Theirbat skills came from their experience fighting against wild creatures, designed to kill in the most efficient way. However, when it came to the overall system of theirbat moves and its efficiency against humans, there was still much they could learn from the Rui Family''s techniques.

    ss was over. All the students bid farewell to Rui Bing. After that, Rui Bing tidied up the ce. Even though she was now considered by others to be of high stature, she still preferred to do these things herself.

    Now, she was going to visit Aried. Now that was an interesting fellow. He won a research fund from Qiu Man, and now had his ownboratory, located close to her ce. Rui Bing was not used to living with other people. Since Sang Pu and Qiu Man were getting busier and busier with all the administrative and management work, Rui Bing had found a ce of her own near the dojo. Later, she got to know Aried, who became her neighbour.

    Aried was a short and petite man, but he had a loud voice. "Haha, Lady Bing is here." Aried lookedpletely different from his earlier abject life. He now looked like a bright and sharp old man with a perpetual blush on his cheeks. He liked the polite and kind young woman, despite her deceptively cold appearance. Aried was making some headway in his experiments. He was overjoyed by this, but he did not know anyone well enough, other than his students and Rui Bing, to share the good news. Thus, he invited Rui Bing to visit hisboratory, to witness these moments that he thought would go down the history books as moments of triumph.

    Standing respectfully beside Aried was his student, Sang Kan. At the moment, Sang Kan looked like an obedient and meek student, all gentle and courteous, but Rui Bing knew that all members of the Sang Tribe were powerfulbatants, having lived in the Archipgo.

    "Grandpa Aried, how do you do?" Rui Bing greeted Aried with a cold expression.

    Aried did not mind her. He knew that she was only cold on the outside, but was in fact a warm and kind young woman on the inside.

    "Ma''am," Sang Kan greeted Rui Bing, sending a blush onto her whiteplexion. Nevertheless, she acknowledged softly. All members of the Sang Tribe addressed her in this way.

    "Haha,e ine in, we''ve been waiting for you. Sigh, to think that I would live to see this day! I can die happily now!" Aried sounded gratified. He had always been looked down upon because of his small stature, and became a social recluse because of this. Moreover, despite all the effort that he put into his research, people never acknowledged his work. Today, however, he had his ownboratory and incredible results to show the world. After decades of being scorned, he could finally prove himself. Hence, he felt the urge to share his victory, and thought of the one person he was currently close to - Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing consoled him, "Don''t worry about it. Your name will be forever etched into the hearts of the people."

    Aried felt encouraged by Rui Bing''s words. The thought of leaving a mark in history made him emotional.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan watched the emotional Aried and went thoughtfully quiet.

    After a moment, Aried recovered himself. He blushed and said, "Well, let''s get to it."

    This was Rui Bing''s first time in Aried''aboratory. She felt overwhelmed by the all theplicated equipment inside.

    Aried was prepared for his demonstration. All the relevant apparatus were already in position. A beautiful andplicatedwork of glowing blue circuits lit up theboratory, giving it an air of mystery.

    "We have built the first model capable of opening a spatial window, called the V-1. Currently, we employ spatial warp jump technologies that bring us from to, but the process is still time consuming.

    "Long ago, I''ve began to wonder if there are simpler ways for us to ovee our limitations in space and time. That is the basis of my theories. In our universe, under specific circumstances, we can create a spatial window, like a physical window in the wall, that connects two points situated very far from each other.

    "Do you remember that battle? The one with the red-tailed beasts?" Aried felt excited, seeing Rui Bing listening to him intently.

    Rui Bing nodded. "I do."

    "Then you must remember the ck circle that continues to expand. That is a spatial window, transforming in a strange way. Before that, I always thought my theory was only just that, a theory, but when I saw that spatial window, I knew that I was right."

    Aried exined. His cheeks were flushed, and his hands balled into tight fists. Rui Bing did not interrupt him. She knew that Aried needed someone to listen to his story.

    "Later, when I followed the refugees to Yi Ju, I saw Officer Qiu Man''s funding offer and decided to try my luck, and ended up winning the funding. It was like a dreame true. This was a hard won battle. From the first day theb was set up, I began thinking about ways to implement my theories. Sang Kan and I tried everything, and finally came up with this machine, V-1, before you."

    In the empty space at the centre of theboratory was a machine.

    On top of the rectangr base wasplicated a V-shaped support structure on top, covered with many confusing photon circuits and nodes. The V-structure was nearly twice a human''s average height. The rectangr base had even more photon nodes on it, blinking like the stars in the expanse of outer space.

    "Alright, let''s see what the V-1 can do." Aried, who was leading his audience, turned back to grin at Rui Bing. "Don''t'' worry, it''s perfectly safe. You can go closer to have a look. We''ve tried this many times without issue."

    Sang Kan operated the V-1 with familiar moves. Theplicated photon nodes on the rectangr base did not faze him. He tapped on the photon nodes quickly, knowing exactly what to do.

    The photon nodes on the V-structure began to move. As Sang Kan continued to operate the machine, the photon nodes moved faster and faster.

    Zip zip zip! On the two legs of the V-structure, the blue coloured glowing dots began to converge.

    Suddenly, a ck circle appeared silently between the two legs of the V-structure. The circle began to expand.

    Rui Bing was familiar with this view. This was exactly like the time with the red-tailed beasts.

    Rui Bing felt anxious, but seeing Aried and Sang Kan looking at ease calmed her down.

    Finally, the circle stopped expanding when its radius reached about two metres wide.

    Aried and Sang Kan heaved a sigh of relief. They had done this many times, but never with an audience. Having Rui Bing with them made them nervous. Fortunately, nothing went wrong. Sang Kan felt greatly relieved, despite what his calm appearance suggested. It would be so embarrassing if he were to screw up before Ye Chong''s partner.

    Aried turned to Rui Bing, pleased, like a child showing off his new toy. "What do you think? Not bad, right? I''m presenting this to Qiu Man tomorrow. We''ll need time to figure out how to make out of this technology. This will lead to a paradigm shift in the spatial sciences." He added, "I''ll be sure to call you over again the next time we have something new." Aried looked like a mischievous, innocent child.

    He did not notice the ck circle behind him suddenly expanding again, quietly.

    Rui Bing noticed it first. She dashed forward and caught Aried''s sleeve. Before she could pull him away, her vision turned ck, and the circle swallowed her inside.

    In the instant, Rui Bing lost control of herself, and felt a strange sensation unlike anything she had ever experienced.

    The strange sensation did notst longer than a second. Rui Bing saw her surroundings changed instantly.

    She was shocked, and turned around just in time to see the ck circle behind her rapidly contracting. It happened so quickly that Rui Bing could hardly respond to it.

    The ck circle vanished silently in the air, leaving no traces behind.

    Rui Bing stared at the empty space where the ck circle once was, unable to understand what transpired.

    "Ohh," Aried cried out in pain, having fallen to the ground, bringing Rui Bing back to her senses. Beside the old man, Sang Kan was studying his surroundings intently.

    "Where is this ce?" When Aried calmed down, Rui Bing asked without dy. Beside him, Sang Kan seemed surprised but vignt.

    "Huh, what happened?" Aried stared around him, curious. "What is this ce? How did we end up here?"

    Rui Bing knew immediately that Aried could not tell her more. She described what happened in detail to Aried, hoping that the information could help him.

    After she finished, Aried frowned and pulled at his messy hair, muttering, "Instability? What happened? What did it go wrong ¡­" He ignored Rui Bing''s questions after that. Sang Kan quickly exined, "Ma''am, please don''t expect any answers from him now. He''s like that whenever he''s thinking. He''ll be back with us soon enough."

    Rui Bing looked at Aried, absorbed in his thoughts, and decided to follow Sang Kan''s advice. She began to study her surroundings. Safety was of the highest priority, now that they were in unfamiliar territory.

    The purple mist all around her was very thin.

    Rui Bing was taken aback by the purple mist. It reminded her of the one she saw in the battle at Yi Ju.

    Sang Kan looked solemn and careful as well. He did not take part in that battle, but the Sang Tribe had been discussing it ever since it happened. He knew every detail of the battle, including the purple mist.

    Nevertheless, the purple mist they were seeing here was much thinner than the one near Yi Ju.

    For now, they priority was to figure out where they were.

    Sang Kan carried Aried, and exchanged a look with Rui Bing. They advanced carefully. Sang Kan left a marking of the Sang Tribe where they first appeared, so that they could find their way back.

    The ground was hard, and the thin purple mist reduced visibility. However, both Sang Kan and Rui Bing had sharp eyes. This was a barren wastnd that harboured no life, only rocks.

    Rui Bing asked, "What happened?"

    "I don''t know. We''ve done the experiment many times before, and never once did we encounter anything like this." Sang Kan was also vexed. They talked as they advanced quickly. Both had strong legs and could move quickly. Aried did not notice himself being carried by Sang Kan. He looked like he was in a trance, oblivious to his surroundings as he continued muttering to himself.

    Sang Kan was obviously used to situations like this. They seemed to be moving quickly, but were in fact still holding back power in case of emergencies, allowing them enough time to react.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong had been careful, but they still ended up in a situation.

    They encountered a pack of gold-striped ck dragons. These creatures were very simr to the silver-striped ck dragons, except in their skin colours.

    The gold-striped ck dragons were quick. They noticed Ye Chong and his fleet from a distance with their sharp senses.

    "There are 62 of them! Be careful!" Ye Chong''s loud cry initiated the battle.

    The students panicked a little from the sudden encounter. A moment earlier, they were still enjoying the scenery in Darkniss. However, their harsh training kicked in quickly. All the mechs raised theirser guns and fired. Ye Chong frowned. Blindly shooting at the enemy was hardly effective.

    Nevertheless, a few of the gold-striped ck dragons were hit. They cried out in agony and fell from the sky. The rest of the pack pped their wings and picked up speed. This change of pace surprised the students. Their shooting rhythm was thus disrupted.

    Ye Chong understood immediately that he must bring the gold-striped ck dragons under control, or the students will suffer heavy casualties.

    From the first few moments of the battle, Ye Chong discerned that these gold-striped ck dragons were much stronger than the silver-striped ck dragons. The 314 mechs had only shot down five of the creatures and wounded another eight. If Shang were here, he would haveughed out loud at their achievement.

    The dragons were quick, and moved unpredictably in the sky. Unless they were hit somewhere vulnerable, the creatures could still fight. They were obviously powerful creatures.

    Creatures like these were the hardest to deal with.

 Chapter 574 - Nascent III

    <h4>Chapter 574: Nascent III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong said, "Appilok, you''re in charge." He then left the mechs with Celest. Appilok''s personalbat skills did not yet qualify him as a member of themando troop, but Ye Chong still brought him along. Amander needed actualbat experience as well. An experiencedmander was more useful than a mech pilot, especially when they had a sizable mech squad.

    Ye Chong did not have time to consider the details. He charged Celest straight into the pack of gold-striped ck dragons.

    Celest charged with determination, like a dagger driving itsef into the heart of the enemy.

    The gold-striped ck dragons were infuriated by the open challenge. A few dozen of them pped their wings and shot up higher in the sky, then folded their wings and dived down towards Celest.

    Just when it looked like Celest was about to be charge straight into the pack, the bio-mech suddenly made a quick swerve, tracing an arc in the air, and graced past the dragons. The dragons missed their target and howled, and then shot upwards again.

    Ye Chong had angered this few dozen of gold-striped ck dragons. They broke off from the pack to pursue Celest.

    Ye Chong''s deceptively simple swerve had impressed his students. Celest had charged into battle with strong determination! All the students had thought that it would crash into the dragon pack.

    It was, however, a feint. That sharp swerve was timed and executed perfectly. The gold-striped ck dragons had missed their target by only a narrow margin. It was hard to imagine how theirmander could time his move so precisely.

    The students who followed Ye Chong in this operation were the best of the five thousand, and felt proud of the fact. However, seeing Ye Chong''s maneuvor reminded them of what it really meant to be skilled. Whatever pride they had were squashed immediately.

    Appilok was the first to react. He was rmed when he saw the other gold-striped ck dragons charging towards them, and ordered, "Our targets are everywhere, fire in all directions. Those who score higher than 90 points in sniping, fire at will." Ye Chong''s swerve had given them the space to start shooting without needing to worry about friendly fire.

    The students heard the order and reacted to it.

    Ye Chong could not spare his attention for the students. He now had to face the pack of dragons behind him. There were 26 of them. These creatures were weaker than the red-tailed beasts, but still, Ye Chong had to be careful dealing with 26 of them together. Any misstep, and he would be defeated by these so-called weaker foes, and that was just not worth it.

    Celest executed Slithering Steps, widening the distance between it and the dragons with its high velocity. The gold-striped ck dragons would not give up so easily. They pped their wings and continued to pursue.

    It seemed that their efforts were rewarded. The dragons closed in on the bio-mech as they pped their powerful wings. Their blood red eyes reflected their eagerness to draw blood.

    It was long since Ye Chong had piloted a mech forbat. It was only now, in battle, that Ye Chong was reminded of his capability as a mech pilot. In that moment, he recalled how he once dreamed of owning a respectable mech and bing a qualified mech pilot. The thought came and went in a sh. His eyes focused on the holographic screen. Right now, he felt so proud for having reached so far.

    Ye Chong moved his hands across the control console without hesitation. He had no idea how fast his hands were now. It the students saw how he was piloting his mech now, those who felt proud of their hand speed would be so very embarrassed.

    Return Charge! Celest decelerated and turned back in only 0.9 seconds.

    Ye Chong''s vision blurred. Return Charge was a strain on his body, pushing himself to his limit. He did not panic, however. This was not his first time doing it. He just needed to wait for his vision to clear up. It would be over soon, and he needed to be prepared for the next step.

    Ye Chong counted the milliseconds as the holographic screen appeared in his vision clearly once again. He could now see the panicking gold-striped ck dragons on the screen.

    Ye Chong''s gaze sharpened. He typed in the relevantmands quickly on the control console. 10 slender fingers tapped the keys rhythmically like raindrops in a storm.

    Celest''s Return Charge surprised the gold-striped ck dragons. They panicked, but since they were focusing all their energy on speeding up to chase their enemy, they could no longer move around as easily as before.

    Celest charged with absolute determination, undeterred by anything in its path. In that short time, the weapons pack on its back delivered ance into Celest''s hand. Celest assembled the foldednce with itsrge mechanical hands. It charged at the dragons with thence in both hands.

    By then, Celest had reached the dragons.

    The bio-mech dived straight into the enemies, who were still flying straight at it, unable to react in time.

    Ye Chong assessed the spacing between the gold-striped ck dragons in that short instant. He captured their positions, angels, and movements ¡­ Then, his hands moved ordingly.

    The de glistened coldly!

    In just a short moment, Celest''s jet ck archace had torn through the throats of seven gold-striped ck dragons. Behind him, a trail of blood mist followed. The bio-mech had chosen the optimal path of destruction.

    Ye Chong was now a master in power control, timing and mech maneuvering. He was still as calm as he was before, but steadier and more mature.

    The attack would not have been so destructive if his younger self had executed it. Ye Chong had gradually be better and better at this.

    Celest shot through the dragons like a spear, but thence was not all Ye Chong had to work with.

    When Ye Chong charged through the dragons, he also released 19 auto lock-on shurikens.

    The shurikens flew in the darkness like slithering snakes.

    Sharp whistles prated in the air. The auto lock-on shurikens were fast, and produced a sharp whistle due to air friction. With 19 of them released, the shrieks were enough to send a shiver into the bones.

    This was the main attack. 16 of the dragons were hit straight on.

    Only three of them escaped narrowly.

    The more attacks were made in a short instant, the higher the impact on the enemies. This series of attacks was achieved in that short instant when Celest charged through the gold-striped ck dragons.

    The rich variety of urate and well-timed attacks was wless.

    The remaining three gold-striped ck dragons were shocked by the turn of events, and pped their wings in an attempt to escape.

    Ye Chong would not let them. Celest traced another arc in the sky and stopped one of the dragons. The scared creature was no longer fierce and powerful. It fell easily to a shot from Celest''sser gun.

    The other dragons did not manage to escape as well. The shurikens cut them into shreds. All 26 gold-striped ck dragons perished in Ye Chong''s hands. None of them escaped.

    Ye Chong was happy with the battle. He could feel himself improving, and more importantly, he could feel how powerful Celest was! Celest was an extraordinary mech. The battle would have ended so quickly otherwise. It showed especially in its agility and ability to execute sprints. Ye Chong had never seen another mech better in them. Celest had demonstrated its prowess in this battle.

    Ye Chong directed his focus back to his students.

    They had already gathered themselves after the initial shock. The 300 over mechs were now fighting against 36 gold-striped ck dragons, without proper coordination. The newbies were weak, as expected. These were only gold-striped ck dragons; what is they were red-tailed beasts? Ye Chong was not sure if the students could survive an encounter with them.

    Nevertheless, he did not feel dejected. It was only to be expected that inexperienced mech pilots were weak. Once they grew familiar withbat, all the skills that they learned from training could be fully put to use. This process would not take too long.

    They would need to go through at least 10, or maybe seven or eight real battles, to be an effectivebat force. In a massivebat troop, personal battle prowess was not as important as coordination among the troop members. Lower level squad leaders must be able to assess the battle and attack rhythm, while the overallmander in charge must be able to assess the bigger picture of the battle urately.

    A troop with experienced mech pilots would be advantageous. This advantage would multiply by folds throughout the entirebat troop. Besides, the pilots would be able to obey theirmander''s orders to the letter and affect the battle oue.

    Only actual battles could turn a mech pilot into a soldier. In this sense, the mech pilots in Ye Chong''s starship fleet had all be soldiers, perhaps even elites. They had survived countless intense battles, especially when they were crossing the Cmitous Asteroid Belt. These fierce battles could help a mech pilot grow quickly, honing their minds to be stronger.

    The mech pilots in the starship fleet were much stronger than these students. Ye Chong had to train the students from scratch, but he did not give up. If he could train the mech pilots before, he would be able to do it again. Besides, this was the dark and dangerous Darkniss. There was no shortage of enemies to fight against. Ye Chong''s only concern was to make sure the battles were harsh and cruel, but did not result in too many casualties.

    The students were now eagerly discussing the battle in theirms channel. That was their first battle, even though Ye Chong thought it was really not that much of a fight. They were 314 against 36 - was that really a battle? Ye Chong thought it was nothing to be proud of. After all, the mech pilots he first trained in the starship fleet could win with five against three when they were battling the red-tailed beasts. These students were still far off from the mech pilots there.

    "Take it slow, no rush," Ye Chong reminded himself. His gaze wandered further into the depths of Darkniss.

    ¡­

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan treaded carefully in the thin, purple mist. This was unfamiliar territory. Who knew what monsters lived here? Sang Kan carried Aried, moving quickly. The Collision mech was only a recent mode of transport. Before that, the Sang Tribe were a huntermunity.

    He was better than Rui Bing when it came to stealth.

    Rui Bing''s expression was cold and unyielding, unfazed by the unfamiliar environment around her. She treaded lightly, like a gliding bird. Her snow white training garb fluttered in the wind. She was like a dancing swan, her expression clear and determined.

    Both of them had incredible stamina. They ran for a full day and night.

    The scenery around them changed gradually. The ground was now covered with light greenery, and the air turned moist. The greenery was actually moss. As they traveled further, Sang Kan found a source of water. Knowing how to test the water for safe ingestion was a necessary skill to survive in the wild. Sang Kan knew the drill. He used whatever he had on him to make a water container.

    Rui Bing was not surprised with Sang Kan''s skills. The Sang Tribe was simr to Ye Chong in many ways. They were survivors. What surprised her more was how Aried could live in his own mind for an entire day without drinking. Rui Bing found herself impressed with Aried. Hismitment and passion were probably the reason for his sess.

    Rui Bing still had the nutrition pills that Ye Chong gave her earlier. She could not bear eating them before this, but now they would save their lives.

    With the nutrition pills, food was not an immediate concern, so they advanced even faster. However, they both knew that it was a matter of time when the pills ran out. They would starve to death if they did not find an alternative source of food. However, they had not seen living creatures so far.

    "What''s this?" On the third day, they made a discovery.

    It looked like skin shed by some cylindrical lifeform, about two fingers wide. Sang Kan had found it. The discovery was invigorating.

    Rui Bing studied the dead shell. It was thin, semi-transparentyer in light purple, with wrinkles on it.

    Sang Kan carefully nudged the shell gently. As expected, the centre was empty.

    The two of them exchanged a look. Rui Bing shook her head to indicate that she had not seen it before. Sang Kan shook his head as well. Despite his wide hunting experience, he was always uncertain.

    They continued their advance, but at a slower pace. The discovery was good news. Anything was better than an endless stretch of nothing.

    The purple mist grew thicker, and this made them even more vignt.

    As they advanced further, more and more of the shed skin were found on the ground. Some were over a metre wide, and about seven to eight metres long. Humidity was rising as well, but the empty shells looked dehydrated.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kang found something else.

    A purple flesh column as thick as an arm nted itself in the ground, extending its other end into high up into the sky, as far as the eye can see. The higher it went, the thicker the flesh column.

    "Red-tailed beasts!" Rui Bing and Sang Kan cried out softly in unison. Rui Bing''s gaze turned sharp and deadly. The hostility was not without reason. The red-tailed beasts were humanity''s greatest enemies. The number of people who were killed by these creatures was staggering.

    After the great war near Yi Ju, plenty of the flesh columns were sent to Yi Ju for research. Rui Bing and Sang Kan both recognized it well.

    Nevertheless, there was something different with this particr flesh column they were seeing. Unlike its solid and firm flesh columns they had seen before, this one was dehydrated and wilting, like it could fall off the mother body anytime. Rui Bing and Sang Kan knew now where the shed skin came from.

    Research into the flesh columns had always been important in Yi Ju. They hoped to understand this alien creature and defeat it. Research showed that the flesh columns were hardy creatures. As long as the core was alive, it would not appear dehydrated or wilted. The Sang Tribe called the powerful and regenerative mass of tissue the Flesh Nest.

    Was something wrong with this Flesh Nest?

    Just then, Sang Kan heard something. He cried out in rm, "Something''sing!"

 Chapter 575 - Nascent IV

    <h4>Chapter 575: Nascent IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing deployed Guardian immediately. She had watched Sang Kan thest few days and was confident of his abilities. Sang Kan saw Guardian, and quickly hid behind Rui Bing, carrying Aried in his arms.

    Guardian was infamous amongst the Sang Tribe members. It was one of the most well known mechs for the Sang Tribe. Its capabilities were described to epic proportions. However, few had ever seen Rui Bing use it. As the Sang Tribe members were all deeply respectful of Rui Bing, no one dared to request a demonstration from her.

    "It''s all worth it if I can see Ma''am use Guardian," Sang Kan thought to himself delightfully. Once he returned, this would be quite the story to impress his friends. However, the thought reminded him of how the three of them had gone missing. Sang Pu and others must be searching for them by now.

    The honest young man turned anxious. Their young teacher was still missing, and now even his wife was gone. What would happen now?

    Sang Kan could imagine the chaos that transpired in Yi Ju right now. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he got. However, there was nothing he could do. He looked at Aried in his arms, deep in a trance, and sighed. If only it was just them. With Ma''am Rui Bing gone missing too, the situation had worsened many times over.

    Rui Bing did not know how unsettled Sang Kan was right now. She was focused entirely on Guardian''s ck and white vision.

    When Rui Bing entered Guardian, her vision was all white for a moment. Then, numbers began to run on the top right corner of her vision. Soon, Guardian''s vision cleared up and became normal again.

    Rui Bing rxed. If Guardian could not be used in the purple mist, she would have to work with Sang Kan to kill the red-tailed best.

    The statistics shown to her did not help her at all. Rui Bing focused on the white lines in her vision. There was purple mist everywhere around them, but through Guardian''s eyes, the environment around her looked simple and clearer.

    Soon, Rui Bing located the enemy.

    As expected, it was a red-tailed beast!

    Rui Bing''s eyes shed dangerously. She charged towards the creature fearlessly.

    Guardian''s dagger was a mighty weapon, but it had a silly name - Number Two''s Dagger. However, every time she used this weapon, Rui Bing could feel the emotions behind these in words. She did not know Gu Shaoze, but had heard of the miniature mech''s origin from Ye Chong.

    "I am your Guardian!" Rui Bing felt more confident every time she used this mech.

    The wind whispered in her ears as Rui Bing charged towards the red-tailed beast like a gold asteroid. Her expression was focused, and her clear eyes hid a softness behind them.

    Here in the purple mist, the red-tailed beast was highly sensitive of its surroundings. It noticed Rui Bing as well. The gold figure gave off an enticing smell. Its eyes glowed with want and hunger.

    Red-tailed beasts loved metals. The better the properties of the metal, they more they liked it.

    Rui Bing moved quickly. It was only expected from Jie experts. With Guardian amplifying her strength, Rui Bing was now as fast as the red-tailed beast.

    Rui Bing stepped lightly. She was next to the red-tailed beast in an instant.

    ¡­

    Appilok panted heavily. Thems was flooded with the sound of heavy breathing. Even the likes of Duan Qian, who had better stamina than most of the students, were also breathing heavily.

    This was their fifth battle. The 151 metalbeak falcons looked almost skeletal, but they were surprisingly tough, and more resilient than the gold-striped ck dragons, which looked tougher than they actually were. None of the metalbeak falcons tried to escape, right until thest one that died in their hands.

    This was the hardest battle they had so far. The four battles before this were all on a smaller scale. This time, even with Ye Chong dealing with 40 metalbeak falcons all by himself, leaving only 111 of them to the students, they still had a hard time dealing with the creatures.

    They won in the end, but no one was cheering. They had suffered their first casualties. Five were dead, and seven heavily injured. Most of the students led normal lives before this. They had never been subjected to such as cruel experience.

    They watched theirrades exploding into balls of fire, listened to their pained shrieks in thems channel - these young men experienced the harsh reality of battle for the very first time. The ones who died were alive only yesterday, but were now irreversibly lost to them. The students grieved. Many of them began to cry.

    Everyone was breathing heavily. They needed to recover quickly. Who knew when the next battle wasing.

    No one med Ye Chong. He had done all he could. If he had not dealt with the 40 metalbeak falcons by himself, themando troop would have lost at least a fifth of its members. They all understood that this was something they had to endure, having chosen their path as a soldier. Besides, they were mostly people of great determination, and had eventually adapted to their situation.

    The students looked at Celest. Theirmander was strong! If they could all be as strong as theirmander, this would never happen again! This was what the students thought as they gripped hands tightly into fists.

    The students all believed that theirmander was worth their loyalty. No one would have chosen this useless bunch of youngsters for this ambitious training. There were plenty of people just like them in Su City. They were scorned by others, and led mediocre lives. Even the nobles amongst themcked a decent future because they did not have talent in parapsychic control.

    It was theirmander who changed their fates, who trained them and fitted them with mechs.

    Who would want to train someone useless? Who would equip them with such luxurious weapons that rival even the equipment of the Royal Guards? As a descendant of the Bayer Family, ced in charge of Eastern Cloud''s military logistics, Darren Bayer once did the math and concluded that thebined cost of all the standard equipment provided to a Royal Guard was not even enough to afford theirser gun. It showed how much importance theirmander had ced in them.

    Most of them even believed that theirmander had brought them here into the never-ending darkness of Darkniss with the sole purpose of training them.

    Themander had given the best gear, the best training, and had even led them personally into battles with all kinds of powerful creatures. That they could now be strong enough to fight against the creatures of Darkniss was all thanks to theirmander.

    They were only normal people, not even shooters. How could they not be grateful for him? How could they not love him?

    It would be unforgivable for any of them to not train seriously, or to treat their duties lightly. Casualties were to be expected. Everyone knew how often shooters were hurt or killed. To have 10 Level 6 shooters born out of 100 Level 4 shooters was already considered remarkable. Of the remaining shooters, 40 would remain as Level 4, while the other 40 would die inbat. Shooters had to fight to improve themselves, and casualties were inevitable inbat.

    "We''re going to back to base."

    Ye Chong''s in announcement was like music to their ears.

    ¡­

    The red-tailed beasty dead on the ground, a thin line of blood on its throat. Blood was slowly pooling around its neck.

    Sang Kan was full of admiration for Rui Bing. As expected, Ma''am was as strong as their young teacher. What an impressive strike of the de!

    Rui Bing stored Guardian as Sang Kan quickly approached the red-tailed beast to study it.

    The faint red tail told him that this was a young red-tailed beast, not yet evolved. It only had three fingers.

    "No wonder it fell so easily," Rui Bing thought to herself.

    Sang Kan took out his own dagger. Due to Ye Chong''s influence, daggers became a popr weapon for the Sang Tribe members. However, they would only ever carry one made out ofvagold, mined from the Sang Vige. Sang Kan began to dissect the red-tailed beast. He knew which parts were edible, and which parts were not. ording to his experience, meat from the red-tailed beast was obviously edible, and should taste just fine.

    Rui Bing was not used to the bloody scene. She quickly stepped aside.

    Sang Kan worked through the flesh of the red-tailed beast, feeling regret for not bringing his Collision mech with him. With his mech, the red-tailed beast would not have been a threat. He had not kept the Collision mech''s dimension keystone on him to prevent it from affecting the spatial stability in theboratory.

    Huh? Wait a second! Sang Kan''s hands stopped moving. He felt like he had just realized something, but could not quite get a hold of it.

    The dimension keystone! That was it! He finally knew why they were now in this strange new world! It was the dimension keystone! Rui Bing was wearing Guardian''s dimension keystone! That must be the reason. Sang Kan was overjoyed by this realization.

    Beside him, Aried was still in a trance. Sang Kan quickly went to him and shook him strongly, but the old man did note out of it. Nevertheless, Sang Kan was experienced with this. He took the water container off his waist and sshed Aried on his head, ignoring the waste of drinkable water. Rui Bing watched him in puzzlement.

    The trick worked.

    Aried''s eyes cleared up. He felt himself wet, and raged, "You monkey, Kan, you ruined my hair!" He self-consciouslybed through the few remaining patches of blonde hair on his head.

    "Old man, I figured out what went wrong with the experiment," Sang Kan offered excitedly.

    "What?" Aried was surprised. "What was it?"

    "The dimension keystone! That''s why!" Sang Kan exined to Aried. "Madam Rui Bing had her dimension keystone with her. It must be the dimension keystone that affected the spatial window."

    "Dimension keystone?" Aried gaped at Rui Bing. "Lady Bing, did you have your dimension keystone on you?"

    Rui Bing nodded.

    "Sigh, it''s all my fault, I forgot to tell you. The dimension keystone is based on simr principles with the spatial window, but if they got too close with one another, there would be abnormalities. It''s my fault for not telling you this." Aried looked vexed and dejected.

    The three of them finally realized what went wrong. Even so, there remained the problem of getting back.

    "D*mn! Something''s headed our way again!" Sang Kan said in rm. "It''s too dangerous here, we must leave quickly."

    There were 11 red-tailed beastsing towards them.

    Rui Bing took out Guardian again and charged towards the enemies. Sang Kan carried Aried on his back and followed from behind.

    The gold miniature mech enveloped Rui Bing within. Her every movement was a blur of gold coloured shadow. Rui Bing knew that now was not the time to hold back. Besides, she felt nothing but hatred towards the red-tailed beasts.

    Rui Bing rarely had to fight herself, whether it was when she was beside Ye Chong or on Yi Ju. Her strength was a mystery to most. Now that she was fighting with reserve, Sang Kan could only watch to his great astonishment.

    She moved with the intent to kill.

    11 red-tailed beasts were not too much of a strain on her. The dagger in her hand moved with a life of its own. If Ye Chong wielded his dagger like a venomous serpent, patient but deadly and with no stylish moves, then Rui Bing wielded her dagger like a swan flying across ake, close to the water''s surface, with effortless ease and grace.

    These were two different styles, but with equal deadliness.

    In just a short moment, all 11 red-tailed beasts had the same bloody line on their throats. As Sang Kan followed Guardian from behind, the 11 red-tailed beasts fell to the ground, blood spraying from their necks.

    The three of them continued running through the purple mist, with Sang Kan leading the way. Rui Bing could not understand how he could figure out directions in this ce.

    Soon, Rui Bing and Sang Kan noticed something. The red-tailed beasts here were much weaker than the ones they encountered near Yi Ju. The creatures here were mostly three-fingered, with some two- and single fingered exceptions. The armor on their backs were a light gray, no the shiny ck they were used to seeing. The flesh nests here looked like they were dying from ack of water and nutrition. The skin on the flesh columns wrinkled from theck of moisture. There were no flesh vesicles like the ones they saw in the holographic feed.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan did not understand the flesh nests well enough. If Ye Chong or Fei Si was here, they might have been able to glean something useful.

    However, it was certainly good news that the red-tailed beasts here were weak.

    Despite not encountering any strong red-tailed beasts, the three of them still decided to leave this ce as soon as possible.

 Chapter 576 - Distance I

    <h4>Chapter 576: Distance I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The journey back to base was not without difficulty. They encountered a few more waves of wild creatures, and suffered more casualties. Ye Chong did not interfere too much, as he decided to let the students do most of the fighting. His objective was to train the students. Being overprotective would not serve this purpose. As long there were no mass casualties, he would refrain from interfering.

    This process of elimination was cruel, but necessary.

    Once they were back to base, everyone felt relieved. In the next few days, Ye Chong did not bring them out for more battles. Instead, he ordered them to analyze their fights. The analysis process would help new soldiers mature faster, and help them understand more about teamwork.

    The students had now experienced the cruelty of battles first hand. No one cked in their roles. That would be like giving up one''s life. When battling in groups, survival relied on more than just on individual strength, but also teamwork.

    Xi Yan approached Ye Chong. "Teacher, all the backup parts for the mechs are done. What do we build next? The metals in the warehouse are piling up. If we don''t use them fast enough, we''ll have to build a new warehouse." Xi Yan was now the manager of the technical division in their base, leading a busy life.

    Ye Chong took a moment to appreciate how plentiful Darkniss was. It was a huge metal wondend, more than enough to satisfy the needs of five thousand people. All the liquid metal they harvested from Lava River was now starting to challenge the capacity of their warehouse.

    The backup standard mechanical parts for all the mechs werepleted, and still they could not use up the metal stored in the warehouse. Ye Chong never imagined that he would one day face a problem of having too much metal in his hands.

    He considered the issue, and then said, "Build armor for the stronghold''s outer walls. Hmm, change all the support structures to alloys too."

    "Yes sir," Xi Yan agreed readily. Indeed, a stronghold made of rocks was risky. To Xi Yan and hisrades, Darkniss was a dangerous ce. Fitting metal armor to the stronghold was a sizable operation, but not asplicated as building mechs. It should not take too long for them. Besides, he would be able to solve the problem of overstocking metals in the warehouse.

    "We might as well expand the stronghold while you''re at it. Extend five kilometres outwards. Do this in stages, from one corner of the stronghold to the next." Ye Chong reminded Xi Yan of the precautions. Safety was always their utmost priority. When the modification work was underway, the stronghold''s defences would be lowered. If any wild creatures decided to attack the stronghold while they work, it would very well be very fatal to them.

    Xi Yan nodded in understanding.

    Ye Chong thought of another problem. He asked Xi Yan, "How are they doing?"

    Xi Yan knew that Ye Chong was referring to the technicians. He smiled and said, "Those guys are giving it all they got, they know it''s a chance of a lifetime. Since Teacher has offered so much precious knowledge to them, they''re learning as fast as their minds can take it."

    "How''s their progress?" Ye Chong asked.

    Xi Yan considered the question. "Not bad, especially the younger ones. They learn faster. However, the others are more experienced, so they''re ahead of the group. I think, though, the younger people have more potential, but it will take time to nurture them."

    Ye Chong nodded and thought about his assessment. He then said, "Divide them into groups of five, and allocate ab for each group. If they need any materials, they can get them from you, but if they require equipment, have them figure it out themselves. Hmm, they''ll have ess to all the equipment avable."

    Aboratory needed a lot of equipment to be functional. Ye Chong hoped that the technicians could get more hands-on experience. They must first learn how to use the advanced equipment avable to them, and then move on to building their own equipment. Thetter would be hard, requiring not only a firm base of fundamental knowledge but also physical strength to tinker with nuts and bolts. Ye Chong did not expect all of them to reach this stage, to all be Masters. Instead, he hoped that this arrangement could help them absorb new knowledge faster.

    Xi Yan nodded, understanding the reasoning behind Ye Chong''s decision. "Alright, consider it done."

    The battle analysis session was finally over. Ye Chong was surprised by the thick reports that the students handed in to him. They were doing much better than he expected. In the reports, the students pointed out the mistakes and oversights made during battle, and ways to rectify them. The analysis was detailed but holistic. Aside from a few minor things, Ye Chong found them to be perfectly eptable.

    Appilok, Duan Qian and Shu Mo''er had also handed a personal report each. Duan Qian and Shu Mo''er focused more on the details of the battles, but Appilok''s lengthy report surprised Ye Chong the most. After he was finished reading it, he decided to make Appilok themander of his soldiers. When Appilok was put in charge in their first venture outside, he had convinced the other students of his abilities. Had he had not made a few crucial decisions in battle, they would have suffered even more heavily.

    In the next few days, tension gradually seeped out of the students'' minds.

    On the training ground, it was easy to identify which students who had seen actualbat and which did not. The former trained with more specific goals in mind.

    Soon, Ye Chong arranged for another round of real battle experience. This time, Appilok was made leader. 100 students were chosen from the firstmando troop, and were each in charge of five students who had never seen real battle. Ye Chong could not be there every time for his students. He must let go for them to learn to be truly independent.

    600 mechs eagerly left the stronghold. They were about to experience the realities of actualbat.

    Back in the stronghold, the students who were left behind trained even harder. They knew that their turn woulde, and the only way to stay alive when it happened was to be a capablebatant.

    Ye Chong, who stayed behind as well, went to hisboratory. He wanted to build a pulsed signal ry station, one big enough to cover the whole of Darkniss. Ye Chong was familiar with pulsed signal ry stations. Back on the trash, he had lived right beside one. Pulsed signal ry stations were the main medium and the fastest way for inteary information transmission.

    There were many reasons to a pulsed signal ry station. The most important one was to keep the mechs connected to the stronghold no matter where they were. Another was the possibility to send out drones like the Hummingbirds to study Darkniss.

    These were two practical and urgent functionalities that Ye Chong needed.

    Pulsed signal ry stations were not too much of a challenge for Ye Chong. The technicalities were not an issue, and his stock of luxurious and advanced equipment was definitely enough to build one.

    The main issue he faced was power. After all, if the ry station was to cover the whole of Darkniss, it would have to send out and receive strong signals, and be active at all times. The operation was highly energy consuming.

    Since Ye Chong did not have many energy crystals at the moment, considering that his students still needed them for their training, he would have to find the spatial windows that lead to Western Frost or Northern Lands soon. Eastern Cloud would be thest resort.

    Even with limited amount of energy crystals, Ye Chong decided to go ahead with building the pulsed signal ry station. It was simply too important for the stronghold. As for the matter of re-stocking energy crystals, if Eastern Cloud was not willing to sell them to him, he would take them by force. Ye Chong considered thetter as a viable alternative. Even though he had grown familiar with Sun Sieha, he would not hesitate to rob the King.

    Seven dayster, a tall metal structure towered over the stronghold. The students watched with intrigue. The pulsed signal ry station was 135 metres tall, visible from afar. The red blinking light at the peak of the tower was like a beacon in the dark sky of Darkniss.

    The pulsed signal ry station was not the handiwork of Ye Chong alone. Aside from the initial design, he had left most of the work to his apprentices. Ye Chong only needed to teach them how to use theplicated equipment. He would repeat his teachings to them for as many times as necessary. These people were the backbone of the technical division, and must be nurtured with care.

    The pulsed signal ry station took longer than he expected toplete, but Ye Chong considered it worth the effort.

    In the following days, Ye Chong continued to work on other projects. He built a good quantity of improved Hummingbirds. These drones wererger than the original version, and could fly longer. Each improved Hummingbird was fitted with a miniature holographic scanning system. The drone would be able to perform scans and send the result back to base.

    The improved Hummingbirds allowed them to explore Darkniss on arger scale. The drones cost little, and were easy to make. Since exploring Darkniss was a long term operation, the Hummingbirds were not fitted with any defenses. If it was to encounter an aerial creature like the gold-striped ck dragon, it would most likely be destroyed. That was only a small trouble for Ye Chong. The Hummingbirds were used primarily to avoid human casualties.

    Hence, Ye Chong took to building 100 improved Hummingbirds, and then released 50 of them into the wilderness. He also set up ams station in the stronghold, and assigned some students to the ce. Ye Chong was confident that he would uncover all the secrets of Darkniss with the improved Hummingbirds flying out there,.

    ¡­

    Deep in the purple mist, Rui Bing and Sang Kan ran and ran. Rui Bing''s Guardian still gleamed without blemish in its characteristic gold. Sang Kan carried Aried on his back and trailed behind Rui Bing.

    For the past few days, the trio had left a bloody path in their wake.

    Madam Rui Bing was strong! Guardian was strong!

    Sang Kan had to give it to her. His help was not needed so far. The red-tailed beasts were not a threat to Madam Rui Bing at all. Most of all, Rui Bing had good endurance, never showing any signs of faltering.

    Sang Kan was not afraid of the red-tailed beasts that came for them. Compared to the Beast Stampede, this was child''s y.

    This was Day Five. They had been running in the purple mist for five days. Sang Kan did not need a watch to know how much time had passed.

    The red-tailed beasts here were not powerful. In fact, they were pitifully weak. The flesh nests did not look right too, but the three of them could not spare time to ponder on their observations. Their priority was to get out of the purple mist as soon as possible.

    In the past few days, Rui Bing had killed many, many red-tailed beasts. This was probably why there were fewer of them attacking in thest two days.

    Thus, they advanced much faster than before.

    The purple mist was now growing thinner. It was encouraging news for all of them, and they hurried along the way. Aried was having the easiest time of the three. He was shocked at first, carried on Sang Kan''s back, but had slowly gotten used to it. Mostly, he upied himself with his own thoughts, and then went to sleep when he got tired.

    "Sang Kan had wide,fortable shoulders to rest on! What a good student I found myself," Aried mused to himself.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan both had good stamina, but all the running in the past few days was taking a toll on them. Rui Bing had to fight on top of running, and she was beginning to look tired.

    On Day 10, they finally emerged from the purple mist.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan looked back at the purple mist, feeling very much relieved. Aried yawned indulgently on Sang Kan''s back.

    The three of them rested for a while, and then continued on their way.

    The terrain began to transform again. Instead of an endless stretch of tnd, there were now mountain ranges around them. Curiously, some of the mountains were bald, but others were covered with lush greenery. There was a sense of discord in seeing these mountains in between each other.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan exchanged a look, and saw the wariness in each other''s eyes. The stranger a ce looked like, the more likely it was to harbor strange things, and these strange things were more often than not dangerous to them.

    Suddenly, they heard a scuffling sound from one of the bald mountains some distance away. There was a cloud of dust on that same mountain.

    The two exchanged a look, and decided to investigate. They were near the dust cloud in no time. On Sang Kan''s back, Aried yawned again and proceeded to nap.

    When Rui Bing and Sang Kan went closer, they saw that it was actually two wild animals fighting.

    However, both Rui Bing and Sang Kan, who were not frightened by anything they had encountered in the purple mist, found themselves rmed by what they saw.

 Chapter 577 - Distance II

    <h4>Chapter 577: Distance II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    There were two wild animals fighting. They looked like panthers, but with a small patch of white hair on their forehead. Rui Bing and Sang Kan had never seen such a strong panther. These two were deep into the fight, too absorbed to notice the two human observers near them.

    They were strong and quick, leaving holes in the ground wherever they fought. Even rocks around them were vulnerable. Just a single swipe from their paws could smash the rocks into pieces. The panthers dashed around like heavyweight mechs, shaking the ground beneath them.

    One of the panthers was flung against a cliff. Huge rocks rained down from above, kicking up a cloud of dust everywhere. Through the dust, Rui Bing and Sang Kan heard roaring from both panthers, and the sound of rocks crushing. The low rumbling sounds of impact were terrifying.

    Both panthers were facing off against each other in a fierce battle, but Aried was still snoring lightly on Sang Kan''s back.

    To their surprise, the fight between the two leopards did not end conclusively. After a stalemate thatsted for minutes, both animals left the field simultaneously.

    When they were far away, Sang Kan heaved a long sigh of relief. "What powerful animals! Even back in the Archipgo, we don''t see many that are so strong. Additionally, they look intelligent." The Sang Tribe was experienced in fighting wild animals. They had a better understanding of wildlife than normal people.

    Sang Kan wasplimenting the panther animals. He had seen many wild creatures, and hunted almost all of them, but never had he seen such powerful panthers. The Sang Tribe had always respected strong creatures. Of course, this did not mean they would hold back when fighting against said creatures.

    Rui Bing said nothing. She was still nervous from their encounter with the two strong panthers. They had extraordinary strength and speed. Their intelligence made them terrible foes to deal with.

    The two panthers also made Rui Bing and Sang Kan more nervous, despite having left the purple mist.

    They advanced more carefully. Even though there did not seem to be many of these panther animals, who knew what other creatures lived here?

    The long mountain ranges were interspersed with barren and green mountain peaks. This phenomenon did not scare them. Back in the Archipgo, there were much scarier things like strong gravity regions. Besides, there was nothing much they can do except to move forward.

    They moved quickly but carefully, for fear of drawing the attention of native wildlife. These creatures could survive despite living near the red-tailed beasts. It showed how strong they were. They must be extra careful now, moving in the territory of these unknown creatures, or suffer the consequences.

    Fortunately, with the dense foliage around them and Sang Kan''s experience as a hunter, their problem of food and water was promptly solved. Sang Kan could always find some tasty wild fruits or other food sources for them. Rui Bing and Aried, both inexperienced in surviving in the wild, enjoyed their food.

    They dared not build a fire to grill meat, to avoid attracting the attention of strong wild creatures. Those two panthers they encountered earlier would have been enough trouble to deal with, even with Rui Bing''s Guardian. Besides, Aried could hardly defend himself. If it was just Rui Bing herself, she would not have needed to be so careful.

    The mountain ranges stretched further than expected. They could only see mountains all around them. Every time they crossed one mountain, another woulde into view. Fortunately, they did not encounter anything stronger than the two panthers they saw earlier.

    Their journey was long and uninteresting. They crossed the mountains day after day for three months, but still remained within the mountainous region. The weather changed unpredictably, being stormy in one moment, then windy in the next. Even Sang Kan was wet all over, much less his teacher, Aried. Rui Bing, however, had Guardian to shield her.

    Soon, Aried fell sick, perhaps due to the rain. This put their travels to a halt. Aried was old. It would be dangerous if he was left untreated for too long. Since they had no medication in hand, Sang Kan had to find suitable nts in the forest to treat him.

    Aried''s temperature fluctuated wildly. He was now barely conscious. Rui Bing and Sang Kan worried for him. They found a cave and settled down.

    ¡­

    Ye Chong kept a firm hand on the stronghold''s expansion. The students took turns going out to seek battle, and the results were apparent. As more and more realbatants were produced, the overall battle capacity of his army increased significantly. From the highest casualty rate of 20 percent at the beginning, they were now able to reduce their casualty rate down to nearly zero. The students got more and more used to fighting. However, there were now only 4700 students left in the stronghold.

    Currently, there would be students heading out for battle every day. They would bring back with them the animals that they hunted. The wild game was delicious, much tastier than the basic nutrition in the stronghold. As a result, the students became more motivated to head outside for battle experience.

    With the aid of the improved Hummingbirds, exploratory work into Darkniss progressed quickly. For now, Ye Chong had already increased the coverage area by 125 timespared to when he first started. However, the operation had also cost Ye Chong more than three thousand improved Hummingbirds.

    Ye Chong did not find the spatial window to Western Frost, but he did find the one that led to Northern Lands. This was an important discovery, as it would directly affect the future of the stronghold.

    The war between Eastern Cloud and Western Frost did not extend to Northern Lands. Ye Chong had already found seven shooters in Darkniss, and he had held them all captive. Without fighter aircrafts, the shooters were defenseless against their mechs.

    Life in the stronghold was structured. Even though it felt a little dull to some of the students, most of them were happy with their current situation. They were living the dream of their lives, achieving greater strength through their own hard work and earning respect from other people.

    They no longer had the look of naivety or impulsiveness. They were steadier and more trusting of each other, working together in a tightly knit team. While their individualbat skills were not as good as the mech pilots Ye Chong once led, they still qualified as realbatants.

    The stronghold was expanded once again. It now lookedpletely different from before. Thick metal armor covered the outer walls. The buildings looked modern, including a tall pulsed signal ry station. Mechanical work stations were built in neat lines. The stronghold was interspersed with training grounds here and there ¡­

    Su City looked like a small, backwards vige inparison. The students were proud of their new home. The shooters that Ye Chong abducted hated him at first, but slowly eventually warmed up to the power that lied within this mysterious stronghold.

    Only the strongest could be at the top of the food chain. This was the rule wherever one went, including Western Frost and Northern Lands. Those who were epted to serve the strong would see their service as an honor. Learning was highly encouraged in the stronghold. The students interacted with each other frequently and openly. It was hard to find another ce like this outside. Shooters usually kept their knowledge of parapsychic control to themselves. They would only ever discuss it with their students or people they were very close to. Here in the stronghold, the shooters could look up many theories on parapsychic control. Sha Ya told them that it was the work of theirmander. Besides, Sha Ya herself had shared her own ideas generously with them. Thus, the shooters quickly fell in love with the ce.

    The fact was, openmunication was very helpful in improving the skills of a shooter.

    The onlyint the shooters had was the physical training. They could not understand it - why would shooters need to train their bodies? Every time someone raised the issue, Ye Chong felt like bringing them to Mei Wu, a Level 9 shooter even more powerful than Xuan Ning. However, considering their current circumstances, he would have to put the thought on hold. Fortunately, here in the stronghold, no one dared to disobey him. Even Sha Ya would diligentlymit herself to physical training. She had seen Mei Wu''s incredible skills, and so felt more driven to train herself.

    Mechs were not suitable for these shooters. Ye Chong prepared Combat Spiders for them instead. These Spiders were smaller than the original model, and more flexible in motion. It was meant for a solo pilot, and fitted powerful weapons, a shooting system and a holographic scanning system to aid them. This greatly improved their capacity asbatants.

    Never wastebat resources - that was Ye Chong''s principle.

    ¡­

    A thousand mechs fell in formation in front of Ye Chong. This was now a mature army with structured leadership. Through actualbat experience, the current thousand-strong mech army was formed. The other students watched jealously at their peers. Those students were personally chosen by theirmander. They knew that this was a very important mission. Theirmander would be leading them personally. It had been a long time since theirmander took the helm. The fact that theirmander had finally stepped up told them how important the mission was.

    Besides the one thousand mechs, Ye Chong also had 10 Combat Spiders with him, led by Sha Ya. The rest were Transport Spiders, carrying goods. There was a massive troop of 800 Transport Spiders in total. The stronghold had enough resources to overwhelm their warehouse. They must find a way to exchange extra resources for other necessary goods.

    Ye Chong decided to stock everything in the warehouse into the Transport Spiders.

    The massive troop formation moved out towards the spatial window that led to Northern Lands.

    Due to thebat exercises they were having all this while, nearly all the wild animals around the stronghold were wiped out. Where once there were animals popping out frequently, now it was simply quiet.

    However, the students were already used to it. Two months ago, they had started to venture further away to hunt those delicious wild beasts.

    The wild creatures of Darkniss were smart, and avoided the massive troop formation from far away. Those that survived their encounters with mechs panicked even more. They quickly moved further into Darkniss.

    After seven days of flight, the troop reached the spatial window to Northern Lands. They had already set up surveince devices nearby. They would be able to see anyone who tried to enter Darkniss from here.

    With seven shooters from Northern Lands leading the way, the troops maneuvered its way safely through the dangers along the way.

    After 14 days of flight and on foot, they finally reached one of the cities near Darkniss, called Ganming City. Ganming City was famed for producing a kind of high quality wooden material known as Gan wood.

    "The trading volume is too big. We need to discuss with the merchants first. I don''t think there''s anyone around who can take all we have," Jin Weidong said, looking worried. He was the strongest of the seven shooters from Northern Lands, the one with the highest reputation. He was also only second in strength to Sha Ya amongst all the shooters under Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong''s troops did not enter the city. They hid in the mountains nearby instead. There were too many of them, and would certainly raise a few eyebrows if they showed themselves. Besides, no one here had seen mechs before.

    Ye Chong did not need to remind his students to set up their positions ording to the terrain. This time, they were not facing vicious beasts, but more dangerous opponents - humans.

    Three hourster, Ye Chong''s students had the mountain under control. They set up a temporary signal station that covered a radius of 2500 kilometres around them.

    Jin Weidong''s advice was sound. Only tradesmen withrge businesses can handle their request. Besides, the materials they wanted in exchange can only be obtained from such tradesmen.

    There were not manyrge scale businesses in Ganming City. They would have to venture to further cities to find suitable merchants.

 Chapter 578 - Distance III

    <h4>Chapter 578: Distance III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Spiders could not be brought along, of course. Ye Chong settled for taking 10 shooters with him. The students had no dimension keystones for their mechs, and could not follow Ye Chong with the machines outside. 200 of the mechs lifted off and went high up into the sky. The mechs had protection systems that shielded their pilots from the thin atmosphere at high altitudes. The students flew a few hundred kilometres above the ground. Mechs were hardly visible when they flew only dozens of meters above the ground. Even shooters in their fighters could not extend their parapsychic waves so far out.

    These mechs were put in touch with Ye Chong through theirms. If Ye Chong was in danger, they would dive from the above surprise the enemy. These 200 mech pilots consisted of the best shooters in the stronghold. Many of them scored 95 or above in their sniper training, and some had even began to practice ultra-long distance sniping.

    Ye Chong''s safety was almost guaranteed with his bodyguards above him.

    Ye Chong brought the 10 shooters with him and went on his way.

    They did not linger in Ganming City. With locals like Jin Dongwei leading the way, their journey went along smoothly. In fact, Ye Chong''s security detail was extravagant. Of the 10 shooters, the weakest shooter was Level 7, as most of them were Level 8. Sha Ya was already approaching a breakthrough. Her aura was intimidating, and even a short nce from her was terrifying.

    When Level 8 shooters were approaching Level 9, their mental state would be strained. This would affect their personality and charisma. Xuan Ning, for example, was all gloomy and serious before he reached Level 9, but when he finally came through, all the suppression on his mind vanished.

    Level 7 and 8 shooters were the strongest fighters that most people would encounter. Even the Royals and nobles rarely had many with them. Shooters were aplenty, but the strong ones were rare. It was in to passers-by that the shooters protecting Ye Chong were strong. They could not help but wonder who Ye Chong was.

    Fortunately, here in Northern Lands, no one recognized Sha Ya, or Ye Chong''s identity would have been exposed.

    Ye Chong did not know how much he was standing out right now. Sha Ya and the other shooters did not anticipate it as well. When Jin Dongwei and hisrades noticed the odd nces they were getting, they realized their mistake. However, when they look back and saw Ye Chong''s indifference, they thought this was his intention all along, and did not speak up.

    They did not now that Ye Chong simply did not care about how other people saw him.

    Among all the shooters, Sha Ya was the only one who understood Ye Chong. However, she had problems of her own. She looked impatient, which was almost unheard of in strong shooters, known for their calmness. There was an urge in her gut that she could not resolve. She felt more and more pressured, and this made her agitated. She knew that she needed an opportunity, like the one when Xuan Ning was nearly killed by Ye Chong. However, Sha Yacked that kind of opportunity right now. This made her even more agitated, and the aura emanating off her changed as a result.

    She was the strongest of the 10 shooters. Her aura was unintentional, but shocking. No one dared to stay within three meters around her. Even the Level 8 shooter, Jin Dongwei, kept his distance.

    Being sensitive to parapsychic waves, Ye Chong noticed Sha Ya''s condition, but he could not help her with it. Sha Ya was like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

    The fact that Sha Ya was improving so quickly was directly rted to Ye Chong. He had described his battle with Xuan Ning in detail to her, and then brought her into Darkniss, leading to their encounter with the powerful Mei Wu. Mei Wu''s method ofbat was curious to Ye Chong, but an important eye opener for Sha Ya.

    Ye Chong''s security detail of strong shooters had already put him on the spot, but Sha Ya''s dangerous aura drew even more attention from the people around thm.

    When Ye Chong''s group walked the streets, Sha Ya''s dangerous aura silenced all the noisy bargaining sounds around them. It was only when they left that the people wiped their foreheads, covered with sweat, as they looked at the backs of the scary group of people before continuing on with their bargaining. Sha Ya was like a legendary sword of immense power, surprising anyone who had their eyes on her.

    Ye Chong and his shooters advanced quickly, since people all gave way to the group.

    They were heading towards Maroon City, thergest and wealthiest ce in the vicinity. It was also an important city in Northern Lands, with strong military presence.

    The journey to Maroon City cannot be made on foot. They would have to fly in aircrafts. Jin Dongwei and the other seven locals had retrieved their fighters from Ganming City''snding field. Sha Ya, Albinia and Lorest had to rent three aircrafts. Jin Dongwei footed the bill, for he was well-to-do and a generous man.

    Ye Chong and Sha Ya shared their transport. Sha Ya''s aura was unsettling to other people, but hardly an itch to Ye Chong.

    Maroon City was muchrger than Ganming City, and with more people. Aircrafts and fighters cut across the skies continuously. Thending field was busy. Ye Chong and his group had to wait for five minutes to get the all-clear fornding.

    Maroon City''s perimeter walls were made of a kind of dark red colored rock. When Ye Chong and his people finally touched down, they were just in time for sunset. The evening rays spilled over the rocks like raging fire.

    Once they were in Maroon City, they could feel the life radiating from the ce. The streets were wide, and full of people. There were more strong shooters here, much more than in Ganming City. Sha Ya''s strong aura was still noticeable. Stronger shooters were more likely to appreciate the power and significance of her aura.

    In terms ofvishness, Maroon City wasparable to Su City. The people dressed in excessive and luxurious fashion. Even the buildings looked extravagant. The hotel that Ye Chong and his group checked in was even more luxurious than Sun Sieha''s quarters before he was made King.

    Jin Weidong seemed to read Ye Chong''s mind. He exined with a bitter smile, "Northern Lands is prospering. With the recent good weather, our people are able to live without worries. As our borders remain peaceful, the King and government officials take to indulging themselves in pleasure. This profligate lifestyle has spread throughout Northern Lands in recent years." The other shooters from Northern Lands were silent. This was their country. Even though they were unhappy with the Royal household, they were still concerned with the fate of their country.

    Ye Chong nodded in agreement and made noment. Western Frost was a cold wastnd, but its people were strong and resilient. Eastern Cloud always had an inclination forbat, and was now led by an ambitious King, Sun Sieha. While Western Frost and Eastern Cloud were now at war, the victorious party would definitely being for Northern Lands next.

    All this did not matter to him, however. Northern Lands was and of plenty, and that worked to his favor.

    Ye Chong said nothing more for the rest of the night.

    Early on the second day, Jin Weidong brought Ye Chong to the Yu Family''s Establishment. The Yu Family was the biggest supplier of raw materials in Maroon City, and one of thergest tradingpanies in Northern Lands. Word was the family had a good rtionship with the local military.

    "Yu Family''s Establishment" - these three words were etched deeply into the signage outside the building. There were no fancy introductions, but the sign left a strong impression.

    The person who ushered them was a friend of Jin Weidong. When the man saw the shooter, heughed. "Old Jin, didn''t you go to Darkniss? How''d you find the time to visit this store? Did you found yourself something interesting?"

    The man was warm and courteous. He had a supple body, with a small beardy patch on his chin that lent him a schrly air. He was surprised by the sight of Ye Chong, surrounded by all the shooters, but quickly contained his emotions. "And this is?"

    Jin Weidong smiled and introduced, "This is my master, Mr Ye. We''re here to offer arge business with your establishment." He said to Ye Chong, "Sir, this is Mr Yu Changqing, one of the managers of the Yu Family, and an old friend of mine."

    Ye Chong bowed in greeting. "Mr Yu."

    Yu Changqing quickly returned the gesture. "Oh, let''s not be too formal. Come in,e in." He gestured for Ye Chong and his guards to enter.

    In the waiting room, Ye Chong seated down. Yu Changqing treated him with a very expensive drink - the Cleansing Sip. No details were discussed yet, but he could see that this was a very important customer.

    "I''m here to sell this." Ye Chong never beated around the bush. He produced a metal block.

    It was a rectangr block of pure metal that gave off a dazzling lustre.

    Yu Changqing hummed quietly in surprise and took the metal block in his hands. He studied it closely and said, "I''ve never seen an ore so purified. The shape is angr, from processing, I believe." Yu Changqing sounded intrigued, but he was secretly disappointed. Was this the business that Jin Weidong was referring to? Pure ores like this were hard to find, and considered to be highly valuable. However, this tiny block was hardly arge business.

    Ye Chong said, "Mr Yu, please evaluate the worth of this ore."

    "Gravstones are rare, you can''t find them easily in the market, but a pure like this is even rarer." Yu Changqing considered for a moment, and then offered, "This piece of gravestone is worth 500 thousand ao thereabouts."

    "I see. How much can your establishment ept?"

    Yu Changqing paused in confusion, then jolted eagerly. "Does Mr Ye have many of these gravstones?"

    Ye Chong nodded without a word.

    "How many more?" Yu Changqing asked carefully.

    "Many."

    "A thousand?" Yu Changqing tried again.

    "More."

    "10 thousand?" Yu Changqing continued to ask, feeling a little anxious.

    "More."

    "50 thousand?" Yu Changqing looked shaken.

    Ye Chong finally stopped with his suspenseful single-word replies and nodded.

    Yu Changqing inhaled sharply. He had never dealt with such arge transaction before. His heart jumped wildly.

    Just then, Sha Ya turned abruptly to look behind her inside the waiting room. After a while, she looked away.

    Yu Changqing inhaled deeply and turned solemn. "You are not joking, Mr Ye."

    Ye Chong shook his head. "No."

    Yu Changqing tried to calm himself down andposed his thoughts. "If we''re talking about so many gravstones, we cannot offer a price as high as when selling a single item."

    "How much?" Ye Chong asked.

    Yu Changqing cleared his throat and said, "350 thousand for each item, at most."

    "Alright." Ye Chong did not try to bargain.

    Yu Changqing kept his ecstatic joy to himself. He then offered hesitantly, "We also hope to be Mr Ye''s exclusive buyer." He exined, "If so many gravstones be avable in the market so quickly, the price will drop. I believe that is not something Mr Ye would wish for."

    Ye Chong nodded again. "Alright."

    "As for payment," Yu Changqing continued hesitantly, "We can only pay in installments. Since the amount involved for 50 thousand gravstones is huge, we cannot produce so much cash in time."

    Ye Chong shook his head this time, and Yu Changqing''s heart skipped a beat. However, the former''s next words brought a smile to Yu Changqing''s face again. "I don''t want cash. Your payment will be made in terms of other goods."

    Ye Chong produced a long list of items for Yu Changqing.

    The man studied the list meticulously up until thest item, and then said, "This shouldn''t be a problem. However, I need to discuss with the other managers to finalize our contract."

    Ye Chong nodded. "Alright." He then left with his bodyguards to return to their hotel.

    When they finally left the shop, Yu Changqing quickly returned to the waiting room. The empty waiting room now had another upant. The man had long, narrow eyes and an aquiline nose. His expression was cold.

    "Did you figure them out?" Yu Changqing sat down heavily and massaged his temples.

    "They''re strong!" he man with the aquiline nose said coldly. "All of them were at least Level 7. The woman is the strongest! She noticed me, even without using her parapsychic waves."

    Yu Changqing was shocked. "That''s impossible! How can she notice you without her parapsychic sense? Surely it''s a coincidence?"

    "The woman is strong!" The man ignored Yu Changqing. "Jin Weidong had also improved. What do they want?"

    Yu Changqing recalled the items on the list. "Energy crystals, mainly. Food, and some other more expensive raw materials."

    The other man looked suspicious. "What do they need so many energy crystals for?"

    "I don''t know." Yu Changqing shook his head. He could not understand them either.

    "What do you think of the deal?" The other man asked.

    "I think it''s workable." Yu Changqing was calmer now. "Gravstones are rare materials. If we keep its supply under control, gravestone prices should not fluctuate too much. They''re selling it cheaply, and they only want other goods in exchange. We benefit from both parts, and it''s a huge sum."

    The other man went quiet for a while before saying, "Discuss the details with them tomorrow. I will look into their backgrounds."

    Yu Changqing nodded.

 Chapter 579 - A Brutal Fight

    <h4>Chapter 579: A Brutal Fight</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "That''s the seventh." Lotesh whistled and smiled. The number of spies around them had spiked in numbers, and some of them were even trying to force their way in.

    Lotesh thought they were idiots. No one would miss what Level of shooters everyone in the group was. They must be suicidal to attempt to break in. Besides, the intruders were all average amateurs; he could deal with all of them himself.

    Unlike Lotesh, who was basking in his own ego, the other shooters in the hotel room looked concerned. Ye Chong simply looked calm. Things were progressing rather unexpectedly. Usually, people would hesitate to challenge a group of their caliber. Now, however, they were having close to a dozen spies around them, all of whom were ipetent.

    Jin Dongwei and his experiencedrades could tell that was amiss.

    Sha Ya abruptly opened her eyes, and spoke up with her hoarse voice, "Soldiers iing." At the same moment, Ye Chong received a live feed from the mech pilots hovering high above him.

    There were about 500 soldiers, looking ready for battle. The people in the streets looked shocked, and stepped aside to give them passage. Northern Lands had been peaceful for a very long time. The people had seen such arge military toon in recent times.

    "We''re leaving," Ye Chong announced.

    The shooters exchanged looks, and followed him.

    "Kill the spies." Ye Chong''s order was delivered in a in but cold voice.

    Jin Dongwei and his men prepared themselves, theirser guns out and ready to fire. Parapsychic waves radiated out from their group.

    The parapsychic waves from three Level 7 shooters and seven Level 8 shooters radiated out simultaneously like a deadly tsunami. The parapsychic waves were a warning for anyone who dared to move against them.

    Spies who ignored the warning found aser beam shot straight through their brains.

    No one had seen such a rampant group of people before. The strong warning behind their parapsychic waves stopped anyone for stepping up to speak with them. Northern Land shooters had mostly feltcent. Aside from those were determined to hone themselves, most shooters were not as mentally strong as their Eastern Cloud and Western Frost counterparts.

    It was not hard to imagine what would happen when a flock of sheep were to be met with a group of vicious butchers.

    Maroon City was an important city in Northern Lands. There were many capable shooters, at Level 7 or 8, in the area, but these capable shooters preferred to be more careful. They stayed in the background and watched, and would not get involved without good reason. To them, Ye Chong''s group was a mystery, and too strong to casually mess with.

    Ye Chong and his group exited from the backdoor of the hotel and ran. The 10 shooters stopped spreading their parapsychic waves, and the group vanished without a trace.

    The people around the hotel dared not probe with their parapsychic waves for fear of retaliation from their aggressive opponents. Those were experienced with this kind of situation would realize that the best course of action for now was to do nothing at all.

    The group ran along the back alleys. Their physical training back in their stronghold was now put to good use. The shooters would not have managed to run like this before their training.

    The back alleys twisted and turned. Soon, even Ye Chong could not figure out where they were heading. He was about to reach for a map of Maroon City when a few strong parapsychic waves epassed them.

    Sha Ya hummed coldly and lifted herser gun. A singleser beam shot through the walls, and someone inside shouted in pain.

    "You''re good!" A low and solemn male voicemented from the shadows.

    A few men walked out of the shadows of a building nearby. They were led by the man with an aquiline nose at the Yu Family''s Establishment. He was now smiling coldly. Around him were half a dozen shooters, all studying Ye Chong''s group without fear.

    "I was wondering, who in the world could have 10 strong shooters as bodyguards? Never did I imagine that you are Eastern Cloud''s Chief Weaponsmith, Master Ye." The man spoke slowly, looking pleased with himself.

    "No wonder you have gravstones of such high purity. Tsk tsk, the Heavenly Gods have smiled upon our Yu Family! Compared to Master Ye, what''s 50 thousand gravstones? I just didn''t expect Master Ye to be so vignt and decisive. Impressive! My presence would not have been required otherwise." The man with the aquiline nose was allpliments, but his eyes were shining with triumph.

    "The soldiers are closing in on us," Jin Dongwei warned Ye Chong quietly.

    It was obvious what the man with the aquiline nose was trying to do - he wanted to stall Ye Chong, and he had the right people to aplish this. The shooters around him were all at least Level 7. When it came to an actual battle, they would not be a match for Ye Chong''s group, but stalling the group would not be difficult.

    As the soldiers came closer and closer, they could now hear the steady rhythmic sound of footsteps from behind them. Time was running out. The soldiers were only another turn away from Ye Chong and his group.

    The man with the aquiline nose was pleased with himself. Everyone knew how powerful this Master Ye was. He was known as the best weaponsmith in the world. The man yed an important role in emboldening Eastern Cloud to challenge Western Frost in an all-out war. Eastern Cloud encountered little resistance in the war because of their weapons. The country''s cannon arrays were terrifyingly powerful. This oue was all because of Master Ye.

    If the Yu Family could get its hands on him, the Family would be a power of no equal in Maroon City. The city''s military was already under the Yu Family''s control. This man could potentially help the Yu Family overturn the current government and begin its reign over Northern Lands.

    The man with the aquiline nose looked at Ye Chong with fervent eyes.

    Ye Chong was unmoved by all of it. He slowly activated hisms device. The man with the aquiline nose had never seen the device before. He was curious but remained vignt. He had enough strength on his side to stall his opponents, but winning was out of the question.

    He needed just another half minute, and it would all be over.

    "High explosive grenades, wide coverage!" Ye Chong said quietly and without much emotion, but the man with the aquiline nose could sense that something was wrong. He did not have time to consider the implications of Ye Chong''s words, for a very powerful parapsychic wave had locked onto him in the next moment.

    Sha Ya''s eyes glowed intensely.

    The man with the aquiline nose had been wary of his opponents, so he reacted quickly. He released his parapsychic waves as well. Two strong parapsychic waves superposed each other. The air around them turned unstable.

    Jin Dongwei and hisrades were surprised. They did not imagine that the man with the aquiline nose was on par with Sha Ya. The other shooters on the enemy''s side were also surprised by Sha Ya''s strength.

    Sha Ya had been trying to suppress her urge to fight for the past few days, but she could finally unleash herself now. Her opponent was taken aback by her willingness to fight, and immediately upped his game as well with his parapsychic waves.

    It was an intense sh of wills between two powerful shooters! The air around them became unstable. Jin Dongwei and hisrades dared not unleash their own parapsychic waves.

    These two Level 8 shooters were about to reach Level 9. There was a qualitative difference in their parapsychic waves. This trade of blows was truly magnificent. The particles in the air vibrated, creating a blurry vision for anyone within range.

    Creak crack! The walls around them began to crack. The cracks spread out more and more like a spider web. Boom! A loud sound was heard. The walls around them exploded into pieces, spraying debris all over them.

    The other shooters were caught in the aftermath. They dared not move, and could only stand still like puppets while tiny brick fragments were sent flying all around them, leaving lines of scars on their face and hands.

    Sha Ya and the man with the aquiline nose were deep into battle when the students high above in the air received Ye Chong''s instructions.

    "High explosive grenades! Targets are grids H-36 to H-38. Wide coverage attack."

    The order was ryed to everyone in the squad. All the mechs adjusted theirser guns and locked onto their targets.

    "On my mark." Appilok no longer sounded like a na?ve young man. He was now calm and steady.

    The students ced their hands over the control console and held their breath.

    "Open fire!" Appilok howled.

    Two hundred pairs of hands moved.

    Countless photon grenades rained down from the sky.

    When the soldiers realized what was happening, it was already toote. They had nowhere to hide. The high explosive grenadesnded right on top of them. The alley ways were narrow, and the soldiers were marching close to each other. The attack was devastating.

    None of them survived! No one would have. About 3000 spheric high explosive grenadesnded in the five-by-70 meter region within two seconds. The attack was powerful enough to wipe out the ce many times over.

    All of this happened within two seconds. When the dust finally settled, nothing was left. No building or brick survived, much less a person. There was a massive hole in the ground, where the moist yellow earth was smeared with flesh and blood. It was an eerie and shocking sight.

    The powerful explosion happened just nearby; of course the man with the aquiline nose heard it. He knew now what Ye Chong''s words meant. He did now know where the grenades came from, but one thing was clear - the attack had turned the tables on them.

    Jin Weidong and hisrades studied the man with the aquiline nose and his shooters with hostility.

    Sha Ya noticed the emotional conflict in her opponent, and attacked without dy.

    The man with the aquiline nose felt like he was falling into an abyss. Victory was so close, but he was suddenly condemned to defeat. The abrupt change in his position overwhelmed him, much more than the despair he was feeling right now.

    He knew that he would not survive this. There was no chance of that. He could tell from the ruthless methods they had resorted to just now.

    If that was the case, let them all die together! His gaze sharpened. He unleashed all the parapsychic strength he had in him without reserve.

    Sha Ya paused in surprise, and then made her decision.

    Ye Chong''s eyes narrowed. His vision was filled with dancing blue lines that shed into and out of existence.

    Jin Weidong and the other shooters realized something was wrong. They sensed great danger approaching.

    Boom! The man with the aquiline nose exploded!

    His parapsychic energy propelled his body parts as they flew outwards like des. In his final moments, he unleashed power that could onlye from a Level 9 shooter! His parapsychic energy was now in solid form. The tiny pieces of flesh were flying faster than any average human could see.

    Sha Ya felt the dangering towards them. Suddenly, she cried out loudly and gathered all her parapsychic energy in front of her.

    Everything in Ye Chong''s vision seemed to slow down. He could see all the tiny pieces of parapsychic energy in front of him despite how fast they were moving. The blue lines in his vision stopped moving so quickly as well.

    Ye Chong moved as fast as the wind. He intercepted two pieces of parapsychic energies with his dagger. One of them was flying towards Jin Weidong''s heart, and the other towards Lotesth''s throat.

    Cling ng! Ye Chong''s wrist shook a little from the impact.

    Sha Ya''s hair stood up. Her eyes red terrifyingly.

    Wham! Sha Ya was sent flying backwards, three metres away from where she was standing. She received the bulk of the attack, and fell unconscious from the blow.

    Stab! Shunk! Shluk! There were sounds of weapons going through flesh. The shooters on the side of the man with the aquiline nose suffered the most. Their bodies were covered with holes. Blood gushed out from various parts of their bodies. The light in their despairing eyes slowly went out.

    What a terrible attack!

    Ye Chong was the only who was unhurt. If Ye Chong had not blocked a few of the parapsychic energy piecesing towards them, there would have been at least three deaths on their side. However, every one of them was now suffering from injuries of various degrees.

    Sha Ya was unconscious as well. They had suffered a heavy loss.

 Chapter 580 - Darkness, or Light?

    <h4>Chapter 580: Darkness, or Light?</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong was rarely ever truly angry, but this time he felt p*ssed off. The Yu Family! His expression was still as cold as before, but his eyes betrayed the deep apathy that he felt towards his enemy. He lifted his head and looked towards a nearby corner.

    "To think that Yu Ze was capable of such a powerful attack just before his death. As expected from the Yu Family''s ace. It''s a pity ¡­" An old man stepped out from the corner. He had white hair and wrinkles all over his face. Despite his obvious aging, his eyes were still sharp.

    Ye Chong coldly studied his opponent. He could sense an aura from this old man that was simr to the one he found on Huang Baiyi. Huang Baiyi had a very unique aura that Ye Chong remembered very well.

    The old man took a long look at Ye Chong and solemnly said, "No need to be nervous, Master Ye. I am Yan Zhongli. As a representative of Maroon City''s Yan Family, I would like to offer a deal with Master Ye."

    Ye Chong took a nce at Jin Weidong. Jin Weidong whispered by his ear, "The Yan Family is the secondrgest aristocratic family in Maroon City, second only to the Yu Family, although they have always kept a lower profile. Yan Zhongli is one of the famous elders of the Yan Family. His strength is unknown." Jin Weidong had a close shave with death today. If Ye Chong had not blocked that fatal piece of parapsychic energy towards him, he would have died for sure. Nevertheless, he was still injured. His left shoulder was punctured, and he looked very pale.

    Ye Chong returned his attention to the old man. He was not afraid of him. The old man had an aura simr to Huang Baiyi, but he was stillckingpared to the mentalist.

    "Our Family would like to discuss about the 50 thousand gravstones that Master Ye was going to sell to the Yu Family. Our Family would like to establish a long-term business rtionship with Master Ye." The old man was neither haughty nor humble. He seemed to be very capable in these matters.

    "As for the terms of the arrangement, Master Ye will not have to worry. We will follow the terms that you have agreed with the Yu Family. What do you think?"

    Ye Chong looked at the old man and asked about something else, "Have you started attacking the Yu Family?"

    The old man did not look ufortable by his inquiry. "Master Ye reads the situation well. The Yu Family is wealthy, but they do not have a strong foundation. In fact, they had allocated almost all their best people in order to secure Master Ye. We expected Master Ye to have contingencies against this situation, but we did not expect them to be so overbearing. As such, we had to modify our ns. I believe the Yu Family should be taken down by now." The old man spoke with great confidence.

    Ye Chong felt his heart went cold. Few people knew about the business between him and the Yu Family. That the Yan Family could know so much meant that they had a spy deeply embedded within the Yu Family. The Yan Family had ns, and the patience to carry these ns. They responded ordingly when things went south for their enemy. The Yan Family was truly powerful! Ye Chong''s anger vanished quickly. He knew that with the Yan Family''s capability, the Yu Family would be thoroughly wiped out.

    Ye Chong took a long look at the old man, and then expressionlessly said, "Alright. The deal will be Ganming City." Ye Chong helped his fellow injured shooters up and led them away.

    "We will be there." The old man''s reply came from far behind him.

    Ye Chong did not dy their departure. They left Maroon City as soon as possible. Maroon City was already in chaos, but the Yan Family had started bringing back order to the city. "It is over. The Yu Family is over." Ye Chong thought to himself. He brought everyone out of the city without hesitation.

    Back in the wilderness, the mechs that protected Ye Chong from the sky came down andnded. Ye Chong and the shooters went on the mechs and flew back to their temporary camp outside Ganming City.

    They had just got out of a pinch, and the shooters were still shaken from their experience. Since they received treatment in time, they were now firmly towards recovery. Sha Ya was still unconscious, but Ye Chong did not worry to much. Xuan Ning told him that it was normal.

    All the medication in their base came from Ye Chong. The medication he prepared via alchemy was very effective. The students and shooters all loved them.

    The Yan Family was highly efficient. Three dayster, they arrived in Ganming City with all the supplies they promised.

    As a sign of goodwill, they offered an additional 20 percent of goods at no charge. Ye Chong was relieved to see all the supplies they got. There was also a handsome young man among the Yan Family''s representatives.

    Yan Zhongli smiled and made the introductions. "This is Yan Huan, of the Yan Family. I am too old to be travelling frequently. Yan Huan will be our point of contact for our business in future. Please take care of him, Master Ye."

    Yan Huan bowed respectfully to Ye Chong. He was informed by the head of the family beforehand that Master Ye was not to be offended.

    The exchanged proceeded quickly. Since there was simply too much supplies, Ye Chong could not move them all at once. Thus, Yan Huan rented almost all the warehouses in Ganming City for Ye Chong to store his supplies. The lease was effective for three years, for Yan Huan was a shrewd businessman.

    Jin Weidong represented Ye Chong in the business side of things. He acted diligently, prioritizing the interest of the whole over individual interests. He was also more familiar with Northern Lands.

    Yan Huan proposed a new deal to Ye Chong through Jin Weidong. They would like to buy his cannon arrays, or simr technologies.

    Ye Chong agreed without hesitation. He now had the means to mass produce items. If he did not put his production line to good use, it would only be a waste of space. Besides, Ye Chong found it easier to use metal alloys than wooden material to build the cannon arrays.

    However, Ye Chong asked for something else in return. He wanted supplies, but also shooters, and Level 6 shooters in particr! Jin Weidong thought it was odd. What did his master want shooters for? In Darkniss, mech pilots were more useful than shooters. Even Level 7 and 8 shooters like them had limited power in Darkniss. In this new deal, it seemed that his master was asking for at least a few hundred Level 6 shooters. They all knew that their master was a strange man, but everything he did was for a reason. This request, however, was a mystery to them.

    The Yan Family had a wide influence in their society. They agreed readily to the terms.

    When Ye Chong and his people prepared for their return, all the Spiders were jam packed with supplies. Even Ye Chong''s dimension keystone was filled to the brim. His dimension keystone had reached its storage limit for the first time. Even so, half of the supplies were still in the warehouses in Ganming City.

    After dealing with the matter, Ye Chong let Jin Weidong and a few men stay back to look after the remaining supplies. He then led the rest of the army back to their stronghold in Darkniss.

    The trip back was uneventful. Ye Chong was happy with the fruits of theirbor. They obtained the goods, and even found a long-term business partner. This would give them time to store enough supplies, especially energy crystals.

    When they arrived at their stronghold, Sha Ya woke up. She had reached Level 9. Ye Chong was not surprised, but he offered his congrattions anyhow.

    ¡­

    Rui Bing and her twopanions continued their journey. She and Sang Kan were relieved to find that Aried was getting better already.

    They walked for a long time, climbing an endless chain of mountain ridges. The further they went, the darker the surroundings. Daytime turned shorter, while nighttime stretched on longer.

    Today, they reached total darkness. Darkness was always intimidating, but that was only true for Aried. Both Rui Bing and Sang Kan were strong-minded people who would not be fazed by darkness.

    They continued their advance, hoping against hope. They did not know whatid ahead, but one thing was for sure - all the ces they had been were suitable for human life.

    Aried continued to think about how they could return to their world.

    "We need to find a spatial window. The spatial dimension here is unstable. There must be another spatial window, somewhere. As long as we find that spatial window, our chances of returning will be improved." Aried said carefully.

    "By how much?" Sang Kan asked.

    Aried did not tone things down for his student the way he would for Rui Bing. He red at Sang Kan and said, "From one in a hundred million to one in ten million."

    Even Rui Bing was a little disappointed by the answer.

    Aried noticed her disappointment. He hesitated for a while, and then continued, "I suspect that this is actually a world that leads to many others."

    Both Rui Bing and Sang Kan looked to Aried.

    Aried continued carefully, "Of course, it''s just a hypothesis of mine. Hmm, a hypothesis that is not yet proven. The spatial dimension in this world must be lower than other worlds, that''s why the spatial windows came to be."

    Abruptly, Aried went off tangent. "We found red-tailed beasts here, right?"

    Sang Kan nodded in puzzlement. "Yes. What''s that got to do with this?"

    "You remember how the red-tailed beasts first appeared. They came through spatial windows. So, I think that this is very likely the homeworld of the red-tailed beasts. They were able to reach the He Yue Gxy through spatial windows. I don''t know how many packs of red-tailed beasts there are now. Err, let''s call them hordes. How many tribes of red-tailed beasts do we have in the He Yue Gxy?"

    "Seven. Six, now." Sang Kan''s reply came quickly. He followed the topic closely.

    "Right, there are six now." Aried continued. "This means that there are at least six spatial windows that lead to the He Yue Gxy. Besides, if those are naturally urring spatial windows, and if they were disrupted by interference, then they will reappear again after some period of time."

    Rui Bing broke her silence and asked, "How long will that be?"

    "10 years, 20 years, it''s hard to say," Aried replied without muchmitment.

    Even so, his words were encouraging to Rui Bing and Sang Kan, who were both starting to tire from their journey. There were six gateways to the He Yue Gxy alone. This was good news indeed.

    As they entered this dark territory, the terrain became t, and the darkness loomed ever more intimidatingly. However, Sang Kan found the ce to be very simr to the Sang Family Vige. With the exception of the high gravity zones, this ce was too much like the Sang Family Vige. Sang Kan also made himself some primitive weapons that were typical of the Sang Tribe. The weapons were deadly tools in Sang Kan''s hands, for he was almost physicallyparable to a Jie expert.

    What awaited them ahead? Would it be darkness, or light?

    ¡­

    The stronghold was still as organized as Ye Chong left it. The students were now carrying their battle practices deeper and deeper into Darkniss. The gateway to Western Frost was found, but Ye Chong did not n to make use of it in the near future. He now had enough resources tost him awhile.

    The metal alloy cannon arrays were built quickly. Not much technical skill was required to build this weapon. The alloy cannon arrays were exchanged for an endless stream of supplies. The stronghold warehouse was almost full. Expansion works for the warehouse continued every day.

    Aside from the supplies, they also had new shooters. Who knew how the Yan Family got their hands on them? Ye Chong was certain that there must be some informants of the Yan Family mixed inside, but what did it matter? They would not understand his ambitions.

    The shooters were all at least Level 6, and obviously military. That was exactly what Ye Chong wanted.

    Ye Chong built two more strongholds, one at each of the entrances to Western Frost and Northern Lands. Each stronghold was manned with 500 mech pilots. He must protect himself with his own men.

    Afterpleting these two strongholds, Ye Chong relinquished his conservative approach and began to push his way deeper into Darkniss. He took control of the few ces he knew to be rich in metal ores. He also visited Mei Wu''s dwelling, but did not find her there. Hence, Ye Chong had to bring the Spider back to his stronghold.

    Ye Chong was not aware that his actions had thrown the natural territories of Darkniss''s inhabitants into disarray. Animals moved in hordes to the inner parts of Darkniss. They were not as strong as the animals in the inner parts, but they made up for it in numbers. The millennia old boundaries in Darkniss were disrupted. A new era of chaos was imminent.

    Ye Chong did not have the time to notice the movements of these wild animals. He now had enough resources in his hands. Besides the metal ore sites that Mei Wu brought him to, he also located a few more ces rich in metal ores.

    This meant that the n he had in mind could finally be set in motion.

 Chapter 581 - You Are My Strength

    <h4>Chapter 581: You Are My Strength</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing and herpanions came to a stop. In front of them was a meadow of some kind. This was not grass, not exactly. The hair-like nts were vertical and swayedzily. Rui Bing and Sang Kan could not quite find the words to describe it. In the end, Aried came up with a name that they both agreed with.

    Sea of Threads - exactly what Mei Wu called it.

    "Something''s off." Rui Bing quickly realized that something felt wrong around the Sea of Threads. She could not use her sensitive mental waves here.

    Sang Kan asked, "What''s wrong?" He excelled in strength and speed, but not in mental skills, so he could not detect the changes.

    Rui Bing did not know how to exin it to him. In fact, she had never experienced anything like it. When Rui Bing deployed Guardian, she was shocked to find that her vision was simply an empty sheet of white, despite being able to see in the purple mist earlier on.

    "I can''t use Guardian here." Rui Bing''s words sent a chill to Sang Kan and Aried. Rui Bing was the mainbatant of the trio, and Guardian was key to their safety. If Guardian was of no use, they must not stay here.

    It was impossible to imagine what would happen to them without Guardian if a threat showed up. Sang Kan and Aried exchanged a nervous look. They were not expecting this.

    "Do we continue forward or not?" Aried asked slowly.

    Sang Kan looked to Rui Bing, who was standing straight and still. Her white training garb pped in the wind. Rui Bing stared at the endless Sea of Threads. It was quiet but for the sound of the breeze. Rui Bing could not help but recall the face of a cold, young man.

    "When are you ready to marry me?"

    "Marry? Why should I marry you?"

    "You kissed me."

    "I did not kiss you."

    "You did."

    "I didn''t!"

    "You did!"

    "I did not kiss you, probably."

    "You did!"

    ¡­

    Words from the past came back to her. A red blush crept up Rui Bing''s fair skinned neck. Rui Bing felt her cheeks turned hot. She took a deep breath in. Her tired body was suddenly filled with strength again. Emotions overwhelmed her. Rui Bing''s gaze became clear and determined.

    She looked into the distance and spoke softly, "Let''s go!"

    ¡­

    Ye Chong kept a tight rein over the stronghold expansion works. With enough resources in his hands, he began to advance further into Darkniss. They were camped near Mei Wu''s cave dwelling. Building a small base had be a familiar task for Ye Chong''s men.

    It took only three days toplete the stronghold.

    Close to the stronghold were piles of metal chunks. Ye Chong now had 27 liquid metal auto-extractors in ce. There were also 13 metal ore sites and six mineral reserves under his control. Production never stopped at these ces to provide Ye Chong with enough metal. He now had enough resources to be an independent force in the He Yue Gxy or the Five Gxies, and this was just the beginning of his mining operations. There were still many resources that he had not begun harvesting. He had enough resources from the current production sites. The only expansion he had in mind was the rare mineral reserves. It would be a waste to mine resources without putting them to use.

    Thetest base, Stronghold 4, now had its perimeter cleared of wild animals. Armed with mechs, the students were now the dominant power in Darkniss. To the right of the stronghold entrance was a 10-by-2.5-kilometer field that they had cleared and ttened.

    There were only smooth and t rocks in this clearing.

    The students had gotten used to seeing new and interesting things as part of their daily lives. They would not settle for their old, primitive lives ever again. Besides, Ye Chong took care of their families through certain channels. Their families received heavy marypensation, and this gave the students peace of mind. Thus, they continued to serve theirmander with undying loyalty.

    Theirmander demanded more and more improvement from them. Their training became much harder than when they first started. By following the sequence of base training, actualbat, analysis, and finally, specialized training, they improved at an astounding rate. They could feel this improvement in actualbat. Wild creatures that were difficult to kill at first were now easy prey.

    Nevertheless, they did not try to venture too deep into Darkniss. Caution was a quality that Ye Chong never stopped emphasizing to them.

    In the 10-kilometer long clearing, a huge metal structure was slowly erected. The structure reached from one end to the other. The weapon-smiths worked on this structure every day.

    Was theirmander thinking of building a metal stronghold? The students were curious, but no one asked themander himself. They were not yet so bold. The engineering works continued, and the metallic structure grew from a simple framework to aplicated piece of technology. Everyone could see that the metallic structure was a huge and intricate project. This must be a huge and miraculous work of engineering - all the students thought so.

    ¡­

    After 13 days of non-stop running, Rui Bing''s lips began to crack. She looked tired, but the determination in her eyes did not waver.

    They did not have much drinking water left, and had to ration it carefully. There was no water in the Sea Threads, but they must cross it as soon as possible. In the past 13 days, Rui Bing and Sang Kan never stopped running as quick as they could manage.

    Sang Kan looked exhausted too. He had Aried on his back all this while. He was so tired even lifting a finger was hard work. However, he was as resilient as any member of the Sang Tribe. He neverined in the past 13 days.

    The Sea of Threads had a uniform appearance. There was nothing else but the light blue colored threads. They saw no other creatures, and no source of water. This wide piece of earth sustained only one species of life - the light blue colored threads.

    "Look!" Aried cried out excitedly from Sang Kan''s back as he pointed in front of them with his trembling hand.

    The terrain was changing quickly. They were almost out of the Sea of Threads! Sang Kan and Rui Bing were both invigorated by the news. They picked up their pace and ran for it.

    After stepping past thest blue thread, Sang Kan finally yielded to his fatigue. His legs gave way and he fell face down. Aried cried out in surprise as he fell forward.

    Rui Bing gathered thest of her strength and went to catch Aried in his fall.

    The trio looked at each other, a tired mess, and smiled.

    After some rest, Sang Kan struggled up to his feet to search for water. He could already sense the moisture in the air. There must be water close by.

    Soon, he found a watering hole. It was a smallke. The surface of theke was still as a mirror. Sang Kan was overjoyed. He found many animal footprints around theke.

    "This must be drinkable water," Sang Kan thought to himself. Nevertheless, as a safety precaution, he still checked the water for poison. To his delight, the tests showed that water was indeed safe to drink. He quickly helped himself to it. It felt wonderful to quench the thirst from so many days of running.

    He took out his water pouch, filled it up, and was about to return to Rui Bing and Aried when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

    He bent down to inspect the ground.

    He recognized whatever he saw, and ran as fast as he could to Rui Bing and Aried.

    "What is it?" Rui Bing saw Sang Kan''s expression and knew that he must have found something.

    Sang Kan passed his water pouch to them and said to them with a funny expression, "I found human footprints! There are people nearby!"

    "Ah!" Rui Bing and Aried gasped in surprise. The water pouch that was about to reach Aried''s lips stopped moving abruptly.

    "It''s human footprints, I''m sure of it. They are by theke over there, probably by a woman. Beside her footprints were many other animals footprints. I think she was being pursued by the animals." Sang Kan did not look too excited when he said this. To them, humans might pose an even bigger threat than animals, especially strangers.

    The news came as a shock to all three of them.

    Sang Kan added, "The footprints are fresh. They must have been left not more than two hours ago."

    This was encouraging news. They did not expect there to be any humans in this ce. They had thought that they were the only ones who were lost and trying to find their way home in this dangerous ce. It was wonderful to know that there were other humans here.

    Nevertheless, they did not immediately set off to find these humans, but took a rest instead.

    Rui Bing sat up straight and closed her eyes. Her hands rested naturally on her folded knees. A Jie expert. For a Jie expert, this was the most basic and fastest way to recover. Sang Kan simplyid down and slept, snoring so loudly that even Aried felt like sleeping.

    However, Aried kept his eyes open wide to keep watch for the group.

    An hourter, Rui Bing opened her eyes and Sang Kan stopped snoring. Sang Kan carried Aried on his back as usual, but he secured Aried''s position with a rope this time. He also had a spiral patterned wooden spear. The wood he found was so hard that he bent hisva gold dagger while making the wooden spear.

    His steps were light and vignt. Silently, he crept forward in a half bending position.

    Rui Bing followed close behind him. She did not use Guardian for now.

    They arrived back at theke and refilled their water pouches. Sang Kan continued to study the footprints around them.

    "I don''t recognize the animal footprints here. We have to be careful." Sang Kan was an experienced hunter. This was obvious throughout their journey so far. Both Aried and Rui Bing trusted his judgment.

    The three of them proceeded carefully along their way for an hour when they heard the howl of a wild animal.

    Howl! The cry echoed around them. The ground began to tremble, as if thousands of animals were heading their way.

    Sang Kan and Rui Bing were both rmed. Aried paled quickly.

    In the valley below them, a herd of wild animals were running in a wild stampede. They looked like they were startled by something. The herd consisted of all kinds of animals. Some were so huge they reached up to 16 meters tall, and every step they took shook the ground like a heavyweight mech would. The smaller animals were all agile creatures. They leaped along the cliffs of the valley, making their way forward in powerful leaps.

    "There!" Aried pointed towards the front of the stampede.

    In front of all the animals was a small figure, running as fast as the animals.

    She did not look particrly strong to Rui Bing or Sang Kan, but she was also much faster than normal people. However, her stamina was failing. She was beginning to slow down.

    "I think she''s carrying something like a gun on her back," Sang Kan said grimly.

    The woman was slowing down. Her steps were getting uneven. Rui Bing and Sang Kan knew that she could not hold on for much longer.

    "Save her!"

    Both of them exchanged a look, and then rushed towards the woman.

    However, the woman was more capable than Rui Bing and Sang Kan expected. She slipped into a narrow crack in the cliffs. The narrowest part of the crack could only allow three people in side by side. The animals behind her were not fazed by her attempt. The smaller animals followed her into the crack.

    The gun on her back slid down smoothly into her hands. She shot without aiming. Swoosh swoosh swoosh! Theser gun began to fire.

    Within the crack, animals began to scream in pain. Soon, animal bodies began to pile up at the entrance of the crack. However, the animals outside continued to force their way in like they had gone mad.

    "She''s a good shot!" Rui Bing and Sang Kan looked at each other in surprise.

 Chapter 582 - Request for Connection

    <h4>Chapter 582: Request for Connection</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Mei Wu felt unusually calm. She understood the severity of her situation. Panic would only hasten her death. She never stopped shooting with herser gun. The weapon made by the emotionless young man, Ye Chong, was powerful. She had gotten used to this weapon by now.

    A quick mental calction told her how many energy crystals she had left in her backpack. Mei Wu sighed. She would probably die here, today. She did not feel scared or panicked. Instead, she felt relieved, as though she had put down a heavy burden.

    Suddenly, she thought of Sun Sieha and the times they shared together. A mesmerizing smile appeared on her pale face. The bloody chaos in front of her faded into the distance.

    Who was that? Mei Wu sensed the presence of other humans, and quickly jolted awake from her reverie. She felt disgust towards herself. How could she be thinking of him at this time? She was an idiot! Mei Wu regained her calm and hardened herself again!

    She carefully maintained her shooting rhythm as she reached out with her parapsychic waves.

    There were three people! Two men and a woman.

    They were fast! Mei Wu "saw" the woman jump 300 meters down from a cliff, and thought she was dreaming.

    The young man carried an old man on his back and leaped down the cliff just as easily. Mei Wu was shocked.

    These two people were strong, especially the woman in white. Mei Wu had never seen anyone like them. As a woman herself, Mei Wu knew that members of her sex were born physically weaker. It was after she reached Level 9 that she understood the importance of physical strength. Hence, she began to train her body.

    These two people had far surpassed her in this regard.

    Something else surprised Mei Wu - when her parapsychic wave reached the woman, she had looked up at her! Were they shooters? If so, where were their guns?

    An even bigger issue presented itself - were they here to help her?

    Sang Kan was familiar with this kind of situation. He leaped his way forward between the rocks on the cliffs. The spiral patterned wooden spear in his hand struck quickly, killing an animal with every attack.

    His moves were simple and efficient. Sang Kan always hit the weak spots of these wild animals. It was obvious that he was experienced in fighting against wild animals. After all, he had never seen the animals here before.

    Rui Bing followed closely behind Sang Kan. She did not deploy Guardian yet. The terrain was tooplicated, and there were too many animals around them. Guardian''s vision would be severely affected. The myriad of white lines and numerous statistics in her vision would have been more troublesome than helpful.

    Sang Kan leaped up high in the air. A horned tyrasaur saw him, and jumped towards him as well. Its sharp teeth dripped with saliva that smelled of rot. Its eyes glowed viciously. Sang Kan reacted immediately. He bent his legs just in time to avoid getting bitten, and then kicked hard on the head of the horned tyrasaur.

    Every member of the Sang Tribe was just as strong as Ye Chong. When Sang Kan kicked, the horned tyrasaur''s brain cracked open, and blood gushed out.

    The horned tyrasaur crashed heavily into the ground, and was quickly stepped over by the other animals behind it. The animal was stomped into a bloody mush.

    Rui Bing''s white training garb stood out among the wild animals. She treaded lightly among the animals like a white butterfly.

    The trio headed straight towards the crack. They could only save the woman by being there. Sang Kan and Rui Bing reached the entrance to the crack soon enough.

    Mei Wu did not hesitate. She turned herser gun to the side, leaving a small gap in the opening enough for one person to pass trough. It was obvious that these three people were here to help her. This was encouraging news to Mei Wu. With their help, she might just survive this.

    A horned tyrasaur saw the opening and went for the crack.

    Suddenly, a sharp wooden spearhead went through its throat. Its body convulsed as it eyes turned dim. The wooden spearhead vanished, and the horned tyrasaur slumped to the ground like a puppet with its string cut. Sang Kan carried Aried and slipped into the crack, quick as a fox. Poor Aried had never seen battle like this. His aging face was now pale as a sheet.

    Rui Bing followed swiftly.

    "Who are you?" Rui Bing asked with five parts gratitude, three parts watchfulness and two parts admiration.

    "Sang Kan." "Rui Bing." Sang Kan and Rui Bing introduced themselves briefly. They knew that it was important to establish trust quickly. "Aried ¡­" Aried spoke shakily.

    "Mei Wu is grateful for your help. Your assistance will be repaid," Mei Wu said solemnly as she continued to shoot at the animals.

    "Let''s get this over with first." Sang Kan did not trust Mei Wu''s words so readily. He said inly, "Begin by telling us what is happening right now."

    "I don''t know." Mei Wu smiled bitterly as she continued firing. "The natural order in Darkniss was disrupted recently. Many wild animals started moving towards the inner parts of Darkniss, while the animals that lived deeper inside started to move outwards."

    Darkniss. Rui Bing and Sang Kan exchanged a look. They finally knew where they were, even though the name did not ring a bell. They looked at Aried, who shook his head too, indicating that he did not know the name.

    "This is huge stampede. Think, did you do anything? Or did you take something?" Sang Kan asked calmly. He knew animals. A stampede as huge as this must be for a reason. Besides, these wild animals were clearly focusing their hostility on this woman.

    "You think I did something?" Mei Wu''s expression turned sour. No one dared to talk to her like this before.

    Sang Kan ignored her indignation. He threw a cold look at Mei Wu. "I know about animals. They wouldn''t treat you like this if not to avenge for something. Besides, all the animals are focusing on just you. There must a reason behind this."

    Sang Kan continued, ignoring Mei Wu''s look. "No need to re at me. I''m just telling you what I know. If you don''t care for your life, we won''t bother to save you." Mei Wu''s expression became unreadable. Sang Kan smiled coldly and added, "Don''t try anything funny, or I''ll kill you."

    The Sang Tribe were never a people of kindness and generosity. Their leader, Ye Chong, was also a man who believed in only strength. Hence, members of the Sang Tribe were easily influenced by Ye Chong''s way of doing things.

    Mei Wu''s chest tightened. She understood the warning directed towards her. The young man was cold and ready to kill, but the woman in white beside him was unreadable. Mei Wu could not figure her out.

    Suddenly, amotion started in the stampede, interrupting their exchange. The animals turned even crazier as they began to force their way into the crack without care for their lives.

    The pressure on Mei Wu increased. One of the animals was able to breach her defense line.

    Sang Kan darted forward and struck his wooden spear into the creature.

    Rui Bing summoned Guardian and stepped into the fight. The situation quickly got out of control, to everyone''s surprise.

    The battle turned bloody. Rui Bing and Sang Kan stepped in pools of blood. Inside the crack, the air had the stench of blood. The animals behaved even more crazily, perhaps due to the scent of blood.

    In just a short moment, the crack''s entrance was piled up high with animal bodies. Rui Bing and Sang Kan had to climb up the body pile to fight the animals. Mei Wu''s gun was out. She had only onest piece of energy crystal left. Now, she could only watch quietly as Rui Bing and Sang Kan fought.

    Mei Wu''s retreat from the battle put more pressure on Rui Bing and Sang Kan. Sang Kan thought it was crazy that his wooden spear was still intact so far. The Sang Family had long battled against wild animals, and now Sang Kan used all the moves and strategies he learned to fight. His inhuman strength allowed him to easily stab into the flesh of these wild animals.

    On the other hand, the woman struck fast but without much killing intent. Mei Wu found it difficult to believe that something like Guardian existed. Rui Bing wielded her two sharp daggers impressively.

    Rui Bing focused on the battle. She had fought enemies as strong as these animals before. Compared to that fight against the Blue Crown Serpents, she had Guardian this time, which made it easier for her.

    Rumble! The ground shook. Rui Bing quickly took a few steps back. The pile of animals bodies they were stepping on suddenly copsed. The animals outside were pushing the bodies away. The four humans inside the crack inhaled sharply at the turn of events.

    Rui Bing was so focused on the battle that she did not see a blinking light in the top right corner of her vision. It was a hailing signal.

    ¡­

    The armor for the warship''s hull was almostplete. The amount of metal alloy it took to build the armor was staggering. Ye Chong had used up all the rare metals he dug up from a few mineral reserves just for these armor tes. Any piece of armor te used on the hull could sell for a sky high price in the Five Gxies of the He Yue Gxy. This must be the most luxurious and expensive warship armor in the world. However, it also had the best defensive properties.

    Ye Chong had done the experiments. Even a ship cannon would need at least 10 shots on the exact same location to breach the hull armor.

    Once the hull armor was installed, the general shape of the entire warship was visible to everyone who could see it. The 10-kilometer ship length was decided based on the Sabre, the first luxury ss n grade starship Ye Chong had ever seen. Back then, Ye Chong was so greatly impressed by the magnificence of the Sabre. Now, his people were feeling the same thing. They gaped and stared at the massive being, unable to believe their eyes.

    The ship was massive even when seen in outer space, much less onnd. It was an impressive and staggering view.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong''sm device rang.

    Ye Chong connected the device. His expression turned serious, and he rushed inside the stronghold.

    Ever since the pulse signal ry tower was set up, Ye Chong organized ams room just for it. Students in thems room were responsible for connecting to and receiving information from the Hummingbirds.

    "What happened?" Ye Chong entered thems room and asked without preamble.

    The students quickly stood up in greeting. "We identified an unknown signal carrier and tried to establish contact with it. However, the other party has not responded so far" After a long period of training, the students now behaved more professionally.

    "Unknown signal carrier?" Ye Chong''s eyes widened. He had used public, unencrypted signals for his pulsed signal ry tower. This was because no one else in this world would use pulsed signals. As long as a device was fitted with ams device, it would automatically search for pulsed signals in the surroundings, especially public ones. However, connection can only be established when both parties agreed to it.

    Ye Chong asked in a low voice, "Can you get their location?"

    "Exact location is unknown, but we have a general estimate. It''s much deeper inside than the furthest we have been." A student replied.

    Who could this signal carrier be? Was it from the He Yue Gxy or the Five Gxies? Was it from a starship or a mech?

    "Keep requesting for a connection." Ye Chong gave the order without dy.

    "Yes sir." The student replied. Everyone in the room could see that theirmander ced great importance on this unknown signal carrier.

    Ye Chong sat inside thems room without expression. He stared unblinkingly at the connection request disyed on the holographic screen.

    "Request for connection ¡­ Request for connection ¡­"

 Chapter 583 - Breathe

    <h4>Chapter 583: Breathe</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Rui Bing focused on the white lines that danced wildly in her vision. The white outlines she was seeing were changing too quickly. She would not be able to follow them without full concentration. Guardian could move much faster than the average mech, but it was also just as hard to pilot.

    The golden figure moved quickly around the wild animals, striking with wless uracy. Mei Wu watched in awe as the mech battled.

    Wham wham wham! Something was ramming into the cliffs. A few savage mammoths decided to charge repeatedly at the crack, since the entrance was too small. The savage mammoths were over 15 meters tall. They usually moved slowly, but they were also powerful creatures that other animals avoided as best as they could.

    The strong rock structures cracked, and then fragmented. Rock slivers fell to the ground, kicking up dust that shrouded the entrance of the crack.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan felt even more pressured. They had to slowly retreat from the entrance. There were too many animalsing at them. Sang Kan was beginning to feel sore at the hands.

    Sang Kan was already covered in blood. His clothes were soaked in blood that gushed and sprayed out of the animals he killed. His ghastly hands looked like he had dipped them in blood. The ivory white wooden spear he used was red from one end to the other. Only the spiral patterns etched into the weapon allowed Sang Kan to keep a firm grip on it.

    Seen from above, Rui Bing and Sang Kan looked like coral reefs that stopped the animal wave from advancing any further.

    "What did you do?" Sang Kan screamed at Mei Wu. He had only ever seen animals this crazy during the Beast Stampede, but that had natural causes. These animals, however, were clearly directing their aggression at that d*mned woman!

    Even killing the pup of the leader of a herd of animals would not have incited this madness. Moreover, these animals were clearly of different species. That d*mned woman must have done something!

    A killing intent rose in Sang Kan. If they continued with this, the old man, Madam Rui Bing and himself were most likely going to die here. Madam Rui Bing did not say anything about that, since she was a kind spirit, but how could he allow Madam Rui Bing and the old man to die here with him?

    All members of the Sang Tribe were obligated to protect their good sir''s wife. This was an unspoken rule, and Sang Kan knew that anyone of the Sang Tribe would not hesitate to offer their life for hers. If anyone was worth the lives of the Sang Tribe, it was their good sir and his family!

    This was not a promise, but a belief - a very pure and simple belief.

    Just as Sang Kan began to consider throwing the woman out of the crack, Mei Wu yelled, "I remember, I remember now!"

    She quickly took off her backpack and emptied its contents on the ground. There were all kinds of things in her bag.

    "I was drinking by the river when I saw a few animals fighting for this. I took it from them by force, and then arge herd of animals starteding after me. I don''t know if this is the cause ¡­"

    Mei Wu lifted a tiny object near her. It was shaped like a water droplet, and looked like something rubbery.

    Rui Bing took a quick look at it and gasped, "Teardrop mineralite!" She had kept guard of Ye Chong''s bag before, and had seen the things inside it. Hence, she recognized what this was.

    "Ma''am, what is a teardrop mineralite?" Sang Kan asked immediately.

    "I don''t know, but I''ve seen it in his bag before ¡­" Rui Bing replied quickly, just as she felt a sudden wave of attacks from the animals and had to refocus back on the fight.

    Sang Kan felt invigorated by the news. "You mean the good sir''s bag?"

    Rui Bing nodded as she moved her hands even faster. The animals were pouring in more strongly. Rui Bing could feel her stamina seeping away.

    Now Sang Kan had a dilemma. Anything the good sir kept with him must surely be useful.

    However, the animals did not give them time to consider the matter. When they saw the teardrop mineralite in Mei Wu''s hands, they got all riled up. Their eyes red hungrily and greedily. For a moment, the attacks subsided.

    Boom!

    After that short moment of peace, the next wave of attacks came even more strongly!

    The animals charged without bothering about the creatures whether they would be stepped on or their own safety. It was madness! All the animals, big or small, went crazy! The savage mammoths headbutted against the cliff, disregarding the wounds on their foreheads. The animals that were already in the crack pushed their way forward, while the animals behind them tried to step on the ones in front of them. At the front line, the animals attacked Sang Kan and Rui Bing, howling wildly. Their eyes glowed madly.

    The entire valley was erupting with madness.

    "Woman! Keep the teardrop mineralite out of sight!" Sang Kan felt like he could not hold on much longer. The animals, stimted by the teardrop mineralite, were beginning to overwhelm him.

    "Should I throw it away?" Mei Wu asked panickedly.

    That was a good idea. Once they throw away the thing that started all this, the animals would surely begin to fight each other for it. They would be able to escape safely.

    Just when Sang Kan was about to agree, something else came up.

    Aooo!

    Low howls came from the distance. The mad animals suddenly quieted down, and then scrambled away like their lives depended on it. The creature that was engaging Rui Bing and Sang Kan abruptly turned back to escape. All the animals that were crowded around the entrance of the crack dispersed rapidly. The animals ran like they were scared of something. Many of them were stomped to death in the process.

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan both looked rmed.

    This low howl was very familiar! On their first day in the mountains, they saw two ck leopards fight. This howl was identical to the one they heard back then.

    "Snowshade leopards!" Mei Wu looked even more frightened. Her face paled, and her eyes betrayed the despair she was feeling.

    As the animals made their escape, the valley became empty all of a sudden.

    Four snowshade leopards stepped majestically into view. The small patch of white hair on their foreheads matched them elegantly. They held their heads high as they observed the other animals scrambling away for their lives. Their eyes glistened with arrogance.

    The other animals were obviously very afraid of these four snowshade leopards. They ran for their lives.

    Caw!

    A sharp cry pierced the air. A dozen gold colored dragons appeared out of nowhere. These dragons were simr to the gold striped ck dragons, except that their bodies were gold colored. Their skin had a metallic luster. Their beaks and ws were long and sharp, and they looked half translucent.

    "Gold Dragons!" Mei Wu muttered, her face white as sheet. What was it about this teardrop mineralite that drew so many powerful beasts?

    Rui Bing and Sang Kan were not shaken by their appearance yet. They had never heard of the Golden Dragons, and did not know of their strength. More importantly, the crack was narrow. The creatures were close to 10 meters long and cannot hope to enter the crack. They had only to deal with the four snowshade leopards.

    Nevertheless, they did not feel particrly lucky. These four snowshade leopards were enough trouble. They were quick, powerful and intelligent. Back in the mountains, they avoided these creatures because of their strength. There was no avoiding now, however.

    "What do we do?" Aried asked, terrified. "Do we throw away the teardrop mineralite?" Sang Kan was asking the same question himself. If they threw away the teardrop mineralite, would the snowshade leopard and the Gold Dragons fight over it whilst they escape? That would be the best scenario for them. The teardrop mineralite was not worth their lives.

    Sang Kan have given up all hopes to keeping the teardrop mineralite. If the snowshade leopards were not involved, he might have considered it still. However, he knew that their situation now did not allow it. They were barely strong enough to fight against these four snowshade leopards. He remembered clearly how strong they were.

    Another loud cry broke the silence!

    The four humans felt like their ears were being hammered in. Aried screamed painfully and tumbled onto the ground with his hand over his ears. Mei Wu looked terrible as she covered her ears. Sang Kan looked shocked.

    A red-tailed beast! It was a red-tailed beast, with six fingers! The creature hovered in the air with its angr head, and its back shielded with thick armor. Narrow, crimson eyes stared back without warmth. Its dark red arrowhead tail flicked attentively behind it.

    Instead of being even more panicked, the sight of the red-tailed beast calmed Sang Kan. He knew now that they must not surrender the teardrop mineralite, no matter what. The snowshade leopards were stillrgely unknown to them, but this was a devil they knew.

    Six-fingered red-tailed beasts were strong. Even their good sir and Han Jia could only manage a very close win. Sang Kan did not know their odds of winning, but even so, he would not throw away the teardrop mineralite. Red-tailed beasts were interested in only two things - rare metals and pure energy. Sang Kan and Rui Bing understood now why there were so many animals attacking Mei Wu.

    Energy was the key to evolution for all the wild animals in this ce.

    If the six-fingered red-tailed beast reached the end stage of its evolution, they would never stand a chance to survive. Perhaps the other animals could evolve as well. Why else would they be so interested in the teardrop mineralite?

    Sang Kan and Rui Bing were still puzzled. The red-tailed beasts they encountered before this all had only two or three fingers, much weaker than this one. Where did this six-fingered red-tailed beaste from? They had only ever encountered a six-fingered red-tailed beast during the war at Yi Ju. Their good sir was the one who faced the beast.

    Now was not the time to solve mysteries. Sang Kan made his decision. He said, "Let''s retreat further inside." Rui Bing and Sang Kan brought the other two people further inside the crack.

    The further in they went, the narrower the space. Now, all they could do was hold the fort. Their position could only fit a single file. Mei Wu and Aried were almost squeezed by the sides of the crack.

    Rui Bing had a moment to catch her breath and she saw the blinking request signal in her vision. She was taken aback - why would there be pulsed signals in this ce? She epted the request without thinking.

    "Careful!" Sang Kan warned Rui Bing from behind her.

    Things were happening quickly now. The four snowshade leopards were closest to the humans. One of the snowshade leopards suddenly charged into the crack. The other three waited outside, staring greedily at the red-tailed beast and the Gold Dragons.

    The red-tailed beast and the dragons did not move from their positions. They were too big to enter the crack, and could only watch while the snowshade leopard went inside.

    The other three snowshade leopards waited outside in a half crouch, vignt and prepared. The red-tailed beast and the Gold Dragons were obviously cautious of the snowshade leopards, for they did not initiate an attack.

    "Who are you?" Them was connected, and a voice that Rui Bing dreamed of day and night for a very long time spoke to her.

    Rui Bing froze like she was struck by lightning.

    "Careful!" Sang Kan was watching Rui Bing closely, and was surprised to see her stop moving so abruptly. The situation was precarious. He quickly leapt into the way and struck out with his wooden spear.

    In the narrow crack, the snowshade leopard charged towards them, as fast as a mech. Sang Kan was terrified by it. Nevertheless, he struck out with all his strength, determined to do what he must. The wooden spear shrieked as its cut through the air.

    Crack! The snowshade leopard''s front ws caught the spearhead. Sang Kan''s spear broke into two.

    Pow! Sang Kan flung backwards like a sandbag. His body scraped against the cliffs on both sides, smearing the rocks with blood.

    At the tip of the spearhead was a tinge of red.

    The snowshade leopard was surprised to find itself injured, and growled in anger. The ck fur on its body went upright.

    The creature leaped into the air without hesitation, aiming behind Rui Bing for the heavily wounded Sang Kan.

    The sound of Sang Kan''s wooden spear breaking brought Rui Bing back to the fight. Tears fell silently from the corner of her eyes. She could not afford to answer them right now, she had to save Sang Kan! Rui Bing pushed her feet back and lunged at the snowshade leopard!

    "Who are you?" Ye Chong repeated his question, but there was no reply. Nevertheless, he heard clearly of the warning "Be careful!" and the intense fight that was going on. He also heard the other party''s heavy breathing.

    Ye Chong gestured for silence. Thems room was silent except for the shing sounds and heavy breathing.

    Ye Chong closed his eyes and listened.

    The breathing sounded familiar ¡­

    Where had he heard it before?

    Ye Chong tried to capture the rhythm of the breathing, and the strangely familiar sound behind the breathing. Human breathing was like footsteps. They sounded the same for different people, but he could always identify minute differences for each person.

    Why would it sound so familiar to him ¡­

    Ye Chong searched in his memory desperately. The sense of familiarity was growing stronger and stronger. He was this close to knowing the truth. He felt a very rare sensation of panic growing in him.

    Ye Chong forced his heart to calm down.

    Wait a minute! Besides the sound of breathing, there was also another sound - the sound of weapons shing! Ye Chong closed his eyes to listen for patterns in this fierce battle.

    The weapon must be something like a dagger ¡­ That must be a sh ¡­ A stab ¡­ A parry ¡­

    The movements slowly came to him, bing clearer and clearer. A figure appeared more and more vividly in his mind.

    Ye Chong opened his eyes wide.

    "Rui Bing, hang on!" Ye Chong shouted through thems, reaching straight to Rui Bing''s heart.

    Rui Bing''s face was covered with tears!

    Ye Chong turned to his students. They had never seen an expression like that on him before.

    "Gather everyone immediately!" Theirmander left thems room with his order, delivered not with his usual indifference, but a strong desire for murder.

 Chapter 584 - Allow Me

    <h4>Chapter 584: Allow Me</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong sat in Celest''s pilot cabin. His gaze was cold and ruthless. Behind Celest was a huge fleet of mechs. Ye Chong had brought all the mechs in the stronghold with him. He did not bring any shooters, since Spiders were too slow. He cannot afford to be slow.

    All the students in the current stronghold, and all the students from Stronghold 2 and 3, had received the order assemble.

    "There''s a spike of animal activity in Grid Z-10." The report came quickly from thems room back at the stronghold. They had released all the Hummingbirds they had.

    The ck colored Celest led all 4,500 mechs across the sky.

    "Full speed ahead. Destination is Grid Z-10." Ye Chong gave the order without emotion to his entire army.

    The army elerated. The whirring sound of engines rumbled in the night sky. All the wild animals in their way quickly made their escape.

    "What''s the mission this time, do you know?" Duan Qian whispered his question to Appilok.

    Appilok shook his head. "I don''t know, but the Commander is in a bad mood today, so watch out." As a qualified leader, Appilok was sensitive to his surroundings.

    "The Commander called for soldiers from the other two strongholds too. It''s d*mn scary." Another student joined the conversation.

    "Enough with the questions. Just fight the way you''re trained to." Appilok warned in his low voice. He had been in this leadership position for awhile, and was beginning to develop a charisma of authority.

    No one knew what their Commander intended for them in this mission, but they could sense that it was different from their usual training. This was obvious from the way they were flying their mechs. All this while, the Commander had taught them to be cautious, and to always keep an eye on their surroundings while flying at medium speed, so that they could respond in time. Now, however, the army was flying with maximum speed, charging their way through the forest.

    The students were no longer amateurs like they used to be. They maintained formation despite flying at maximum speed.

    As they got closer to their destination, Ye Chong noticed something was wrong. Below them,rge herds of animals were running away in panic. This unusual sight caught the attention of the students as well.

    Everyone felt rmed, and braced themselves for the battle. Darkniss was no stranger to them. Those survived so far were not careless idiots. All the careless people were already dead. Besides, Z-10 was a grid they had not covered before, and that made it an extremely dangerous ce.

    The sight was shocking. Tens of thousands of animals were running for their lives, as though something wasing after them.

    The students were all unnerved. They recognized many of the animals here, and some of them were powerful creatures that they hesitate to engage. Most of the animals were unfamiliar to them, however, and that them even more dangerous.

    Ye Chong was the exception. He knew Rui Bing''s strength. These animals would not have caused her much trouble. The truly strong creatures were further in front of them. Despite the fact, he felt invigorated knowing that he was that much closer to Rui Bing.

    Celest elerated, ignoring the panicking stampede down below. The students were worried about his safety, and quickly followed him.

    4500 mechs covered arge portion of the visible sky. None of the creatures challenged them in their way. Their journey was unexpectedly smooth.

    Finally, they arrived.

    Ye Chong saw a dozen gold colored Gold Dragons. When he saw the red-tailed beast, his eyes widened. Finally, he saw the snowshade leopards guarding the entrance to the crack. Ye Chong finally knew why Rui Bing could not afford to answer him earlier.

    Both the Gold Dragons and the red-tailed beast noticed their arrival.

    Ye Chong suppressed the murderous emotions he was having and delivered his orders coldly, "Draw them away. Be careful, they are very strong."

    All the students were shocked. They had never heard theirmander describe anything or anyone as "strong".

    Celest immediately separated from the fleet and dived straight for the ground.

    In just a short moment after Ye Chong''s order was given, Appilok had already came up with the army''s strategy.

    He gave the order without dy, "All troops, target straight ahead. Fire!"

    All 4500 mechs fired theirser guns in unison.

    The darkness in Darkniss was lifted momentarily.

    Celestnded under the illumination of theser fires. The giant in ck armour was as steady as a mountain. The red flower on its back looked beguiling in the light.

    It was a magnificent sight, to have 4500 mechs firing at the same time. 4500ser beams shot across the sky, directed at the 12 Gold Dragons and the red-tailed beast. These mech pilots were not as urate as shooters, but they made up for it in numbers by shooting all at once.

    After the first round of fire, Appilok and his army retreated without dy.

    They soon realized how lucky they were to have done so. Of the 12 Gold Dragons, only two were lightly injured. The red-tailed beastpletely avoided the attack.

    Nevertheless, both the Gold Dragons and the red-tailed beast were angered by this provocation. Caw! The Gold Dragons shrieked as they pped their gold wings, and charged straight for the mechs. The students were surprised by how fast the creatures were. The red-tailed beast studied the mechs coldly and followed behind the dragons.

    All the mechs retreated at full speed.

    It was quiteedic in fact, to see a dozen Gold Dragons and a red-tailed beast pursuing an entire army of over 4000 mechs.

    At first, some of the mechs tried to fire back at them whilst retreating, but they never hit the creatures. The animals could not fly as fast as mechs, but they were more agile in the sky. The fact that they could even theirser beams made the students realize that they should stop wasting energy.

    Lucky for them that the Commander''s orders were to draw the animals away, and not kill them.

    Hence, the students stowed away theirser guns and ran for their lives. At maximum speed, Harmony of the Winter Aria was very fast. It was now a battle of velocities. The battle had reached a stalemate, but it was good news for the mech army.

    However, they were also getting further and further away from their Commander.

    Celest hadnded at a good spot. It was standing right next to the crack. From here, it could look down inside the crack.

    Ye Chong immediately stepped out of Celest and jumped down into the crack, withdrawing Celest back into its dimension keystone at the same time.

    Rui Bing held on with all her strength. Her face was still wet with tears. She tasted something salty by the corner of her lips. It might be tears, or sweat. The snowshade leopard was too strong. In the narrow space in the crack, there was no room to dodge. This was a battle of physical strength. She was just a woman. Her arms were beginning to feel sore. Few men couldpare to her tenacity.

    Nevertheless, she must not give up. Behind her were Sang Kan and Aried. Sang Kan was still unconsicous, and Aried could not fight.

    More importantly, a voice had told her to hang on!

    Hang on! She gritted her teeth and fought on, despite feeling her arms getting more and more tired, and despite her heavily sweat-drenched training garb. Her breathing was beginning to lose rhythm. It was like breathing in fire with every breath. Her legs felt so very heavy ¡­

    Hang on!

    The fight was intense. With every sh, Rui Bing felt her daggers slowly slipping out of her hands, but still she held on to them.

    Time was passing so very slowly ¡­

    Crash! Suddenly, a few rock splinters fell down from above. Then, arge figure followed suite,nding right in front of her.

    "Allow me."

    These two words were delivered without emotion. There was no anger, no emphasis, not even an inflection. It was as calm as she remembered it to be. However, these two simple words brought tears to her eyes once again. She bit down on her lips to stop herself from speaking. Her legs nearly gave way beneath her. She reached out with one trembling hand to support herself on the cliff beside her, but refused to move her eyes away from the deceptively slim figure. Her vision was getting blurry, and she could only see blurry figure. She really wanted to see him clearly ¡­

    Tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

    Ye Chong crouched down with his hand lightly holding onto his dagger. He had saw Rui Bing''s movements, and knew that she was at her limit.

    For some reason, Ye Chong felt terribly murderous, like something he had been suppressing for a long time had burst.

    The snowshade leopard sensed the strong killing intent radiating from Ye Chong. As a sensitive and intelligent creature, it now felt hesitant to attack.

    The man and the animal stared at each other for a full 10 seconds.

    "Guardian." This was Ye Chong''s next sentence, brief and precise.

    A hand covered with soaking wet white training garb passed an inconspicuous ring to him. Rui Bing said nothing throughout it all.

    Ye Chong took the ring and put on Guardian. He was familiar with this part. There was a lot of sweat in Guardian, left by Rui Bing. This filled Guardian with a very familiar scent that reminded Ye Chong of many obscure memories from long ago that he had yet truly forgotten about. As Ye Chong put on Guardian, he was immediately soaked in Rui Bing''s sweat. Rui Bing had fought a very difficult fight.

    Ye Chong breathed in the familiar scent without expression.

    The snowshade leopard studied the gold colored human in front of it. It was puzzled by what it saw.

    Ye Chong did not give it time to figure him out. An emotion he could not quite describe was struggling inside him.

    He made his move!

    Ye Chong lunged like a bullet towards the puzzled snowshade leopard, leaving an afterimage behind it. He was full of energy, and his attacks were more deadly.

    Compared to Rui Bing, Ye Chong''s attacks were more ruthless, direct, and powerful! Ye Chong was feeling murderous. His attacks had no room for mercy.

    Ye Chong did not feint. His first move cut out a patch of ck fur from the snowshade leopard. His second move was a dagger strike at the snowshade leopard''s front paw. The snowshade leopard screamed in pain and froze.

    Before it could react any further, Ye Chong kicked at the center of its soft belly. Ye Chong delivered the attack without reserve. It was an attack so powerful that the snowshade leopard''s strong body was tossed backwards.

    Aoo - The creature went silent before it midway through its painful howling. Ye Chong had chased after the snowshade leopard''s body before it touched the ground, and left a bloody hole where the white fur patch on its forehead was.

    Wham! The snowshade leopard that was still alive moments ago now crashed heavily into the ground, kicking up dust inside the crack. Its eyes slowly turned lifeless.

    Everything happened so quickly that it was hard to keep up with the fight.

    Mei Wu was bbergasted. She knew Ye Chong as a weaponsmith. How could he be ¡­ She turned her gaze towards the snowshade leopard''s dead body, and thought it felt like a dream. When she saw a single person able to hold out against a snowshade leopard for so long, she already thought it felt surreal.

    Now, she saw another person killing a snowshade leopard in under 10 seconds. Heavens! Was he even human? Mei Wu thought she must be going mad.

    Rui Bing had calmed herself down by now. She was a Jie expert, and had better control over her emotions than normal people. Aside from the fresh tears on her cheeks that she had not wiped dry, she looked like she always did. She did not care to wipe her tears, since Ye Chong''s battle had had her full attention.

    Her eyes showed how happy she was. She could feel Ye Chong''s improvement since shest saw him. He was much stronger and faster than before. More importantly, he was alive, and standing right in front of her.

    Before this, Ye Chong would not have been able to kill the snowshade leopard so easily. Just as Ye Chong knew Rui Bing''s strength, Rui Bing also knew Ye Chong. She knew that he was strong enough to deal with their current plight. Rui Bing tried to regte her breathing so that she could recover her strength quickly and help Ye Chong, no matter how little she could offer.

    Rui Bing kept her longingness to herself and closed her eyes. Her expression became serene, and her breathing slowed down.

    Given a little time, a Jie expert could achieve plenty more.

    The mechs that were pursued by the Gold Dragons and the red-tailed beast suddenly scattered in all directions.

    The animals were surprised - which ones should they go after?

    In that short moment of hesitation, a few hundred mechs were still in front of them. They were two squads. The red-tailed beast chased after one of the squads, while the Gold Dragons went after the other.

    When the other squads were out of sight of the animals, they all switched directions in unison.

    "Assist the Commander," Appilok ordered with his low voice.

    Everyone was feeling panicked. They had carried out the Commander''s orders sessfully, but now they were worried about his safety. 4000 mechs regrouped and headed towards where their Commander hadnded earlier.

    Ye Chong had killed a snowshade leopard, but he had also angered the other three snowshade leopards waiting outside. They charged towards Ye Chong without hesitation.

    Bang! Wham! The three snowshade leopards were like three heavyweight mechs. They sped up inside the narrow crack. Rocks cracked under their paws. The sudden disturbance shook down some of the loose rocks from above.

    Ye Chong bent his knees and leaned forward. He held both daggers in a cross.

    Inside Guardian, Ye Chong''s vision was filled with ever-shifting white lines. Even so, Ye Chong maintained his calm. The daggers in his hands never once trembled.

    They were closer now! Closer!

    Ye Chong opened his eyes.

    With a soft yell, his knees straightened like a spring, and his body shot forward at an incredible speed. He was even faster than the snowshade leopards.

    Where he stood before were two footprints deeply impressed into the ground.

    The three snowshade leopards grew bigger and bigger in his eyes. He was fast!

    Now! Ye Chong leapt and pulled his hands in. He crashed into the first snowshade leopard with his left shoulder.

    The first snowshade leopard was sent flying backwards. It lost control of its movements and blocked the way of the other two animals.

    The other two snowshade leopards reacted remarkably well. They did not slow down because of their injuredpanion, but instead leaped up towards the rocky walls on both sides. They bounced off the walls and barely avoided the first snowshade leopard that was thrown backwards, slipping past theirpanion from both sides. The entire process was smooth and streamlined.

    Ye Chong hadnded on his feet by then. His curled feet pressed deep into the ground from the heavy impact.

    At the instant Ye Chongnded, his leg muscles rippled like waves. This was the September Lan Family''s muscle control technique! The energy from his feet, amplified further by Guardian, was terrifying!

    Ye Chong flitted in a gold shimmer of light towards the two snowshade leopards, unafraid of them.

 Chapter 585 - Take Guardian

    <h4>Chapter 585: Take Guardian</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong opened his arms to both sides and flicked his daggers up, tracing two shiny golden arcs in the air.

    "Aooh!" The two snowshade leopards growled lowly, showing their teeth as they headed for Ye Chong. Their snow white teeth gleamed coldly against the dark. Their twisted their bodies and narrowly avoided the two daggers, losing only a few clumps of ck fur from the attack. The ck fur that was cut off from them scattered into the winds.

    Ye Chong knew that the upper hand he had at the beginning was only temporary. The fact was, his situation was dire. The snowshade leopards were strong creatures. They were quick and agile, with immense strength. He killed the first snowshade leopard easily because it was caught off guard, and because Rui Bing had exhausted much of its stamina. He would not have been able to kill it so quickly otherwise.

    The other three snowshade leopards he was dealing with now were still full of energy. They were furious of the death of theirpanion. Ye Chong must now fight against three angry snowshade leopards. This put him in a tough spot.

    He must stay calm. Everything slowed down around him. His thinking became clearer. The impact earlier had thrown back one of the snowshade leopards, but it was also left his shoulder numb. That was why the other two snowshade leopards avoided his daggers so easily.

    These two snowshade leopardsnded and growled lowly. They arched their bodies and stood one before the other, and charged towards Ye Chong like two bullets.

    In that instant, Ye Chong saw every minute detail. He put his arms down and bent them, and then drew his elbows backwards against the heads of the snowshade leopards.

    Bam! The snowshade leopards hit right onto Ye Chong''s elbows and cried out in pain.

    Elbow moves were powerful in all schools ofbat. Besides, the snowshade leopards had run right into them.

    Ye Chong sensed the impact of his attack on the snowshade leopards. They were momentarily frozen. It was the perfect opening. Given an extra tenth of a second, Ye Chong would have been able to kill both creatures with his daggers.

    However, Ye Chong did not make use of the opening. Instead, he dashed forward and pulled his daggers in front of him into a cross. A golden cross appeard in the darkness.

    ng! It sounded like the sh between two metal weapons, but it was actually from the ws of the first snowshade leopard shing against Ye Chong''s daggers. The snowshade leopards had very strong ws.

    The powerful impactbined with Ye Chong''s backwards momentum sent a heavy blow to Ye Chong''s arms. He felt a surge of energy into him and nearly stumbled backwards.

    Ye Chong knew that if he lost control of his body right now, the consequences would be very serious.

    When his feetnded on the ground, Ye Chong stomped heavily into the rocks and shed the dagger in his right hand upwards. The snowshade leopard in front of him retreated quickly in response.

    Next, the three snowshade leopards began tounch themselves against Ye Chong''s defenses like three ck bolts of lightning.

    Ye Chong did not move from his position. He blocked all the attacksing form the snowshade leopards.

    The daggers swiped and shed wherever Ye Chong needed them to. They shed against the enemies with a metallic ring every time. The sounds of impact never stopped. In the darkness, fiery sparks appeared all around Ye Chong that quickly disappeared.

    The ws of the snowshade leopards were as tough as Guardian''s daggers. The force behind the attacks from both sides caused sparks in the air.

    The three snowshade leopards were smart. Even in the narrow space within the crack, they were able to move around easily. Besides, they could coordinate their movements with each other. That made things particrly difficult for Ye Chong. The three snowshade leopards took turns attacking him. They were fast, and attacked at an astonishingly high frequency. Every attack was powerful. Even someone as strong as Ye Chong found it challenging to fight them.

    Ye Chong waspletely absorbed in the fight. His mind was focused entirely on the swift attacks that kepting at him. He was almost at his limit. Any distraction or hesitation on his part would most certainly lead to his death.

    There was no joy or sadness in him. His body moved almost thinking. His hands, elbows, shoulders, knees and legs all moved flexibly as though there were no bones inside him. He executed all these impossible moves with ease.

    They were fast!

    Ye Chong''s focused mind allowed him to see everything around him in slow motion. He must find the perfect timing and ce to attack by studying theplicated array of white lines in his vision. This required a mind capable of fast calctions and a long history ofbat, both of which he possessed.

    The truth was, he was now at a disadvantage. On t, open space, he could still hold himself against the three snowshade leopards and wait for his opportunity; but here in the narrow crack, there was no room to avoid attacks from the animals. In fact, he could not allow any attacks to get past him at all. There were people behind him that he needed to protect.

    Ye Chong gritted his teeth and held on. His only option was to fight to the end. This was a battle of tenacity and patience. The first one to give up would lose.

    Ye Chong moved his hands as fast as he could. Any opening on his side would only lead to more openings, and from then onwards he would be finished.

    10 minutes!

    Ye Chong maintained his incredible speed for that long. He performed perfectly. If his battle against the first snowshade leopard demonstrated his explosive offensive moves, then his battle now against the three snowshade leopards demonstrated his unyielding defenses.

    His moves were all fast and strong, blocking all the attacks that came his way!

    20 minutes had passed! Ye Chong''s defense was still wless. The three snowshade leopards never once breached his defenses.

    Inside Guardian, Ye Chong''s face was tinged in an unhealthy red. His eyes were opened wide, and his facial muscles were convulsing. Sweat rolled down his distorted face.

    He was at his limit. He knew that if the snowshade leopards stopped attacking now, his legs would give way.

    Nevertheless, he was not ready to give up just yet. Surrender was not in his nature. Even with his stamina nearly depleted, his mind did not lose its calm.

    The snowshade leopards were also slowing down! As someone who was also sensitive to changes in the battlefield, Ye Chong did not fail to notice that as well. Snowshade leopards were strong, but not invincible. As the ones on the offensive, they were using their energy much faster than Ye Chong.

    They were slowing down and growing weaker. They panted heavily and kept their eyes on Ye Chong, unwilling to give up. To them, the teardrop mineralite was ¡­

    The gold colored Guardian was like a machine, never resting for a second. The snowshade leopards had never fought against anything so strong and resilient. That was only natural, since they were at the top of the food chain in Darkniss.

    The three snowshade leopards red at Ye Chong from a distance. They were breathing heavily. They arched their bodies and stood side by side.

    This d*mned gold figure was still right in their way in the middle of the crack.

    Ye Chong waspletely exhausted. His muscles felt like they were no longer his. He could no longer make his muscles ripple like before. Underneath his unwavering body, his legs were shaking very slightly, but this was not visible from outside the mech.

    "D*mn! Muscle cramps!" Ye Chong thought to himself as his expression hardened. His legs had suffered the most during the battle. After all, he used his legs to absorb all the impact from the animals.

    He had finally reached his limit.

    Rui Bing had recovered some of her energy. Her eyes glistened with concern. She knew how difficult those 20 minutes must be or Ye Chong. A single snowshade leopard had exhausted herpletely, but Ye Chong had to deal with three snowshade leopards at the same time. These three snowshade leopards had entered the battle in top condition.

    Ye Chong was inside Guardian, so Rui Bing could not see his face. However, she could tell from his slowing movements that something was wrong. This made her worried.

    She did not know that Ye Chong was alreadypletely exhausted. To her, Ye Chong was unbeatable. Whether it was before or at this very moment, be it in the Five Gxies or in this strange new world, she hadplete confidence in Ye Chong.

    Even so, she was ready to assist him.

    Fighting side by side with Ye was her favourite thing to do.

    "Fire!"

    Suddenly, the sky lit up in a dazzlingser disy. In the blink of an eye, the entire crack was illuminated withser beams. The three snowshade leopards vanished in the light without even the time to howl.

    In front of Ye Chong was a neat rectangr impression in the ground. The hole was three meters deep. Smoke curled up from the charred rocks in the hole. The rectangr hole extended from in front of Ye Chong all the way to the crack''s entrance. The cliffs on both sides inside the crack were also charred.

    Ye Chong looked up and saw row and rows of mechs, each pointing theirser gun inside the crack. They were the ones who fired.

    Ye Chong exhaled slowly and came out of Guardian.

    Rui Bing saw his pale face and quickly stepped forward.

    Ye Chong said, "We''re going back. Take Guardian." He slipped Guardian''s ring to Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing epted the inconspicuous looking ring with barely an expression, but her hands held onto the ring tightly.

    "Good sir, this is teardrop mineralite," Sang Kan spoke up.

    Only the Sang Tribe called him that. Ye Chong turned to Sang Kan, and saw him holding Mei Wu''s backpack.

    "You''re from the Sang Tribe?" Ye Chong could not help but asked.

    Sang Kan had just only turned conscious. There were still traces of blood by the edge of his mouth. He bowed down and answered with respect, "Yes."

    "Then you''lle with me."

    "Yes sir."

    Ye Chong trusted the Sang Tribe. Sang Kan was excited to hear Ye Chong''s words. He did not think much of his injuries. The Sang Tribe were strong people. They had always been in a tough war against nature. The injuries he had now were nothing. Serving their good sir was an unimaginable honour.

    Appilok and his soldiers did not descend from the sky. Ye Chong had always taught them to put their safety at the highest priority when in battle. They were never big on formalities.

    Their reinforcement was timely. Any longer, and Ye Chong would have been in danger.

    It was a marvellous simultaneous firing. Appilok hadmanded all 4000 mechs to do so. The mechs all hovered right above the crack and arranged themselves inyers to ensure that the attack was powerful enough. Each mech shot at a slightly different angle, so that all 4000 mechs could fire into the crack that was only a few dozen meters long.

    The effect was devastating, as was evident.

    To ensure Ye Chong''s safety, all the mech pilots that were firing closest to Ye Chong scored 95 and above in shooting.

    It was a one-hit kill. Appilok was slowly bing a mature and effective leader.

    "Depart." Ye Chong did not linger. This was not the ce to reminisce; besides, he was never one for reminiscing.

    There was finally time to catch his breath. Ye Chong slowly recovered his energy. The battle just now was so intense that he barely had time to breathe.

    When Mei Wu saw the mechs, she was astonished once again. She had seen many things today that felt surreal. Rui Bing and Sang Kan had already surprised her greatly. Then Ye Chong arrived, and she was even more shocked. It was hard to imagine how a Master Weaponsmith could kill a snowshade leopard, andter defended himself against three snowshade leopards for 20 minutes and survived without a scratch.

    A flying giant ¡­ Massiveser guns that could fireser beams thicker than the ones a Spider could fire ¡­ They seemed to be made of gravstones ¡­

    Mei Wu felt like her entire worldview was overhauled.

    Ye Chong did not ask Mei Wu about her involvement. He had too many questions that needed answering, but this was not the ce to discuss them.

    Celest''s ck figure was as solid as a mountain. Its half lidded eyes seemed to stare down condescendingly at the world. Rui Bing put on Guardian and rested her rtively small and slender figure quietly on Celest''s shoulder.

    Ye Chong carried Rui Bing and led his army back to their main stronghold. When they arrived, Ye Chong''s first order was, "Have the two squads draw the animals to the stronghold."

    Their stronghold was now heavily armed, unlike when it was first built. They could use their armaments in the stronghold on the red-tailed beast and the 12 Gold Dragons. It was the most efficient way to deal with the creatures, and Ye Chong was all for efficiency.

    When Mei Wu saw the massive stronghold, she looked about to choke.

    When was this ce built? Why did she know nothing about it? It was just a stone''s throw away from her cave.

    She felt slightlyforted when she saw Sha Ya, a familiar face. Mei Wu was once very confident of her own strength, but she now felt very tiny. "No, that''s only because they are too strong," Mei Wu consoled herself so.

    The 12 Gold Dragons kept a tight pursuit on the mech squad as the hundreds of mechs made their way back to the stronghold. The Gold Dragons were too frustrated by the chase that they followed the mechs towards the stronghold.

    Once the Gold Dragons were within firing range, the stronghold''s weapons fired without warning.

    A dense web ofser beams engulfed the Gold Dragons.

    "Are these really the ruler of the sky, the Gold Dragons?" Mei Wu watched silently as the 12 Gold Dragons were shot full of holes. She felt a chill creeping up her spine.

    That was terrifying!

    10 minutester, the six-fingered red-tailed beast was also drawn to the stronghold. However, it was smarter than the Gold Dragons. It stopped itself right beyond their firing range.

    "Erge the image." Ye Chong ordered.

    The holographic screen zoomed in on the clearly figure of the red-tailed beast.

    The dark red arrowhead tail was evidence of its strength. Six fingers - that was the strongest red-tailed beast that Ye Chong had never killed.

    He remembered clearly that that six-fingered red-tailed beast was the leader of its "pack". He remembered that odd event clearly.

    If a red-tailed beast could be the leader of a "pack", than what about this red-tailed beast?

    Where did ite from? Was it a leader?

 Chapter 586 - Stronger

    <h4>Chapter 586: Stronger</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The six-fingered red-tailed beast was wary of the stronghold. It studied the stronghold from afar. After about half a minute, it turned back to leave.

    Ye Chong was curious about where the red-tailed beast came from. Killing a red-tailed beast had no practical value for them now; it would be far more useful to find out where the red-tailed beast originated from. However, the animal seemed intelligent. Perhaps he should just kill it? If the leader of a "pack" of red-tailed beast was intelligent, then killing off the "pack" would be many times more difficult. Ye Chong was confident that he could kill the animal right now. His strength had mostly recovered. He could kill a six-fingered red-tailed beast using just Han Jia, much less Celest. Besides, he had also be stronger.

    However, killing it would mean that he could not investigate where it came from!

    After considering his dilemma for a few seconds, Ye Chong came to a decision.

    Ye Chong gave his order without emotion. "Send a hundred students who scored 95 and above in mech piloting to follow the red-tailed beast. Report all observations back to base."

    "Yes sir." Appilok immediately went to organize the mission. He knew the students well, and would know who were the best to send for this mission.

    The mechs were already on standby. They took off from the stronghold and followed closely behind the red-tailed beast. A pursuit required good piloting skills. The pilot must have good spatial awareness and be able to predict the target''s next move.

    After making the arrangements, Ye Chong turned to his new arrivals.

    "How did you get here?" Ye Chong looked at Rui Bing.

    Rui Bing looked calm. She replied softly, "It was Aried. He was doing spatial experiments when an ident happened."

    "Is everyone else alright? Did they find Mu and Shang?"

    Rui Bing nodded, and then shook her head. "The Sang Tribe is alright. Yi Ju is developing quickly. They are all very busy. Did you and Mu and Shang get separated? Before I left, they still do not have news of Mu and Shang."

    "We got separated in Gray Valley." Ye Chong exined.

    Sang Kan could not help but interrupt them. "So you were in Gray Valley! No wonder we couldn''t find you. Everyone was looking for you. We searched the entire He Yue Gxy but could not find you. The red-tailed beasts have taken the Gateway to Gray Valley, so we did not go there."

    Ye Chong nodded. He turned to Aried. "You are Aried? A spatial scientist?"

    "That is correct, sir." Aried had heard of this man, so he knew immediately to be respectful. After all, the authorities in Yi Ju were his only sponsors.

    "What experiment were you conducting?" Ye Chong was curious. What kind of experiment would sent them safely to Darkniss?

    "We were doing an experiment on spatial windows. I discovered that we could use high energies to create spatial windows. My goal was to create faster and more convenient ways of travelling. The theories behind my experiment are¡­"

    Aried turned lively once he began to talk about his experiments. Ye Chong did not stop him, but listened patiently instead and interrupted with the asional question. This made Aried even happier.

    "What caused the ident?" Ye Chong asked.

    Aried shrugged. "I didn''t know that Lady Rui Bing had a dimension keystone on her."

    "Dimension keystones can affect spatial windows?" Ye Chong realized there was something to it. He recalled the circumstances in which he was sent from the base on Spectre to Dual Forest. There was also his first time entering Darkniss, when Xuan Ning told him that his dimension keystone had a strong effect on the entrance to Darkniss, which was also a spatial window.

    Ye Chong decided then to let Aried continue with his research. Perhaps he could help them find their way home. He also decided to let Sha Ya assist him. After Sha Ya reached Level 9, she was able to detect very minute changes in spatial windows. This would be of tremendous help to the spatial scientist.

    "Where did you get the teardrop mineralite?" Ye Chong took out the thumbnail sized mineral. It was veryrgepared to all the teardrop mineralites in his hands. Darkniss had no natural reserves of energy crystals. He was sure of that. In his effort to reduce their dependence on external supplies of energy crystals, he had allocated a lot of time and manpower into searching for energy crystals in Darkniss, but the results were disappointing. So far, he had found nothing.

    It was simply incredible to see a teardrop mineralite here in Darkniss. The teardrop mineralite had attracted so many wild animals. Even the snowshade leopards and red-tailed beast had showed up. It was odd and surprising.

    He recalled the time when he obtained his teardrop mineralite. There was the dark spatial window, and the eight-fingered red-tailed beast. Teardrop mineralite¡­ Spatial window¡­ Red-tailed beast¡­ How were these three rted?

    Mei Wu answered him with reverence. "A few days ago, I was returning from one of my expeditions when I noticed numerous animal bodies along the way. I was curious, so I followed the trail of bodies until I reached ake. There, I saw two slitherlizards fighting each other for that thing. I thought that was strange, so I took it from them. I didn''t think much of it since I did not recognize it. Later on, animals began to chase after me. I was lucky that thisdy and her friends hade to my aid."

    She could see that Rui Bing and Ye Chong were more than simplerades in arms, so she treated Rui Bing with equal respect. The strongestmanded respect. This was an unspoken rule, and especially pronounced among shooters. High level shooters and low level shooters were different in status, and in other respects as well.

    Mei Wu thought Ye Chong''s physical prowess was beyond what she had ever imagined. She had saw how he killed a snowshade leopard, and then held out against three snowshade leopards for 20 minutes. She was shaken by the experience. Everything in the stronghold was challenging her imagination, and the creator of them all was this cold, young man in front of her.

    12 hourster, the students who were trailing the red-tailed beast returned to the stronghold. Based on their report, there was a very narrow crack in the Sea of Threads. The red-tailed beast had disappeared into the crack. The students marked the location of the crack so that they could find their way back to itter.

    Ye Chong went to inspect the crack himself. It was well hidden, and right smack in the middle of the Sea of Threads. Ye Chong did not enter it since he could not see what was inside. However, he had decided to bring a squad with him into the crack when the time was right. He suspected that the snowshade leopards and the Gold Dragons hade from the same ce as well.

    Rui Bing and the other two new arrivals were strong additions to Ye Chong''s army. They had also produced a very subtle change in the stronghold. Ye Chong could only sense this change minutely, but he could not quite describe it. In the end, Ye Chong gave up trying to figure out this highly difficult and almost impossible problem for him, and proceeded with his grand n of development.

    All of his students did not have dimension keystones for their mechs, but this was quickly solved since Aried was here. For an aplished and knowledgeable spatial scientist, it was not a difficult problem to solve. Ye Chong passed all the information on spatial science in the three chips he got from Kui to Aried. The scientist appreciated it very much, and dived straight into them.

    Sha Ya was ordered by Ye Chong to assist Aried. Despite having nothing to do for now, she remainedposed and at ease. Compared to when she was Level 8, she now had an improved state of mind.

    Work on the starship was still in progress. The construction was not interrupted because of the incident. Resources continued to pour in from Northern Lands, so Ye Chong did not have to worry about supplies.

    Training for the few hundred shooters from the trade was going smoothly. Shooting exercises were easy peasy for them. There was less physical training, but more practice on usingplicated weapons and group strategies.

    Ye Chong did not n to have them pilot mechs. Their jobs would be to man the warship.

    Rui Bing followed Ye Chong around like his shadow. Wherever Ye Chong was, she would be there as well. She rarely spoke, and always looked serene. She looked charismatic in her white training garb. Everyone in the stronghold knew of her close rtionship with Ye Chong.

    Rui Bing was no longer wearing the white training garb that she had on when she first arrived in this new world. Jin Weidong had brought her presents when he visited the stronghold. When Rui Bing saw the new sets of clothing he had brought her, her calm expression brightened up. The other subordinates in the stronghold were jealous and impressed by Jin Weidong''s initiative.

    Ye Chong ordered for Jin Weidong to bring a few more sets of training garb. Rui Bing''s expression revealed nothing, but Jin Weidong could see that she was quietly overjoyed.

    Sang Kan continued to work under Aried, but spent most of his free time with Duan Qian. Duan Qian was always beaten to a pulp by him, but the former was a resilient and strong character who refused to give up. Sang Kan was impressed by him, and offered guidance freely to the young man. Duan Qian improved by leaps and bounds.

    Mei Wu obtained the Spider promised to her by Ye Chong, and saw the Shu sisters in the stronghold. However, she maintained her distance with her two former students, and left them after a few words of greeting. She was a Level 9 shooter, and she would not bow down to another master other than herself. However, she did think that it was good for her former students to find such a strong character as their master.

    Shu Mo''er and Shu Man''er had changed a lot. They were now just like any other student. Despite having many admirers, they never reciprocated. Even Shu Man''er was no longer as cheerful as she once was. She responded coldly to any attention from her admirers.

    The warship was still under construction. The massive operation would take a long time. It was fortunate that Darkniss was rich with metals, or the operation would have taken forever. Even so, it would be a long while before the ship was ready.

    Besides the warship, the stronghold was also being reinforced for the second time. All the students were using the first batch of Harmony of the Winter Aria. These mechs were made of normal metal alloys due to the avability of materials back then.

    Now that Ye Chong had discovered a few more mineral reserves, he had enough to spare despite building the warship to upgrade the mechs with better metal alloys. Ye Chong even found some rare metals to upgrade Guardian''s specs.

    All these engineering works were proceeding in organized fashion. The weaponsmiths under Xi Yan''s lead were no longer inexperienced newbies. After so many huge projects, they were improving fast.

    Eastern Cloud and Western Frost were still in the thick of war, and that was good news for Ye Chong. Now, he no longer had to behave under Sun Sieha''s watch. Ye Chong was not ambitious, but that did not mean he would bow down to power.

    The students trained hard. Having seen the strong wild animals such as the red-tailed beast, they realized that they were stillcking in strength. In the pursuit of the red-tailed beastst time, a few students had nearly died under the arrowhead tail of the creature. They were no threat to the strong animal at all, and this made them frustrated.

    From theirbat experience, they begin to devise better group strategies in battle.

    Troop leaders like Appilok had to conduct more simultaneous shooting practices, while the other students had to practice shooting like crazy.

    As a result, the shooting scoreboard in the stronghold was refreshed much more frequently. The leading score went higher and higher. The students who trained harder than others in shooting wouldter be the infamous "sniper division" of the army. Circumstances forced all the students to improve as a whole very quickly.

    They were slowly bing stronger! Ye Chong could sense it.

 Chapter 587 - Imminent Departure

    <h4>Chapter 587: Imminent Departure</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The warship was almost ready. Ye Chong was now bringing troops to the Sea of Threads. He had synthesized a special transparent gel that could hide all kinds of electromaic signals. Ye Chong used this transparent gel on their mechs and the warship. By applying ayer of this gel on the exterior, the mechs and the warship would be effectively invisible to the enemy. The only way to detect them would be by direct visual observation. Compared to full-skeleton mechs, the gel offered better stealth, since it was also effective against red-tailed beasts.

    Thus, the demand for this colloid fungus in the stronghold skyrocketed overnight.

    The wild animals around the Sea of Threads were not as strong as the likes of the red-tailed beast or the snowshade leopard, but they were still formidable. Hence, Ye Chong led the expedition himself. Harvesting work would have to be done manually since all signals would be impeded here. The remaining problem was about how to build a small harvesting base here.

    Aside from harvesting, Ye Chong was also interested in the crack that ran along the entire Sea of Threads.

    Construction of the harvesting base proceeded rapidly. This was all thanks to Sha Ya. Sha Ya found that the para-psychic wave nature of the ce could stimte shooters to improve quickly. Hence, Ye Chong ordered all the shooters to serve as workers in the Sea of Threads. Sha Ya was proven to be correct. Once their para-psychic abilities were inhibited, the shooters rapidly improved. They became excited of their work because of this. In the end, they arranged to sleep in the Sea of Threads, a ce that even the red-tailed beasts were afraid of.

    The mission to investigate the crack proceeded with great caution exercised.

    The crack that ran along the Sea of Threads was very well hidden. It was blocked entirely by an ancient tree that was over thirty meters tall, and was only visible up close. The tree had a thick main stalk at ten meters in diameter, making it look short and strong. The purplish brown bark of the tree was as hard as metal. The leaves were also in a dark purple shade, with a strong metallic luster.

    Compared to the thick girth of the tree, the crack was very narrow, barely five meters wide.

    Only Ye Chong and Rui Bing went on this investigative expedition. Ye Chong thought that the students were already good in battle as a team, but their individual strengths were stillcking. If he and Rui Bing encountered any dangers that they could not fend off, they could always pull back much easily.

    Rui Bing put on Guardian, which traced her bodily curves faithfully. She sat quietly on Celest''s shoulder.

    His archace was not a suitable weapon in the narrow crack, so Ye Chong took out his parrying spear.

    Celest carried Rui Bing and entered the crack with half lidded eyes.

    Once they were inside, the view brightened. This was a naturally formed valley. They could see the marks left by tectonic shifts in the past.

    It was very quiet in the crack. Not one sound was heard. Ye Chong and Rui Bing kept their guard up since they saw animal skeletons scattered along the bottom of the crack. Even skeletons of very powerful animals like the red-tailed beasts and snowshade leopards weremon in here.

    This made Ye Chong and Rui Bing felt even more wary. The skeletons told them how dangerous the ce was.

    "Be careful." Ye Chong warned softly. His eyes never left the holographic screen.

    Rui Bing acknowledged quietly and switched her posture. She put one hand on Celest''s shoulder for support and bent her body forward slightly, so that she could be ready to attack when necessary. Her daggers were already in her hands.

    Suddenly, a mist began to spread inside the crack. The white mist clouded their view instantly. However, it did not affect Celest''s holographic scanning system.

    Ye Chong looked at the stats from the photon processor. "This mist is poisonous."

    Rui Bing nodded. "No wonder the animals died here."

    Celest carried Rui Bing and advanced quickly. The terrain wasplicated, with rocky protrusions here and there.

    Aooh! They heard a quiet howl.

    They were surprised by it, and carefully approached the source of the sound. It was a snowshade leopard. It had inhaled a lot of white mist. Its body had some odd blue tinge. The snowshade leopard stared sadly into the mist as it howled weakly. The unchallenged animal of Darkniss, the snowshade leopard, was now so weak that even a human child could kill it.

    Ye Chong observed in a neutral tone, "The poison is strong."

    Just as he finished, the snowshade leopard went motionless and stopped breathing.

    They continued to see animal bodies along the way. Some of them were extremely tenacious. There were signs indicating that they had stayed in the crack for a long time before the poisonous mist invaded their bodies and caused them to be immobile. Nevertheless, the mist was not immediately fatal. It weakened the animal''s body until it was left with only skin and bones, and finally died of starvation.

    Rui Bing could not bear to see these animals suffer. Whenever she saw any animals that were still alive, she would end their suffering with her dagger. When the animals died, their eyes showed relief.

    The crack was long. It took Ye Chong and Rui Bing five days to travel along it. Ye Chong soon found a pattern in the release of the poisonous mist. Only parts of the crack would be shrouded in the mist at one time. If you were fast enough and understood the pattern of the mist release, it would be possible to traverse the crack and survive.

    So far, Ye Chong saw no signs of the six-fingered red-tailed beast. It had most likely survived its journey through the crack.

    On the fifth day, they finally reached the exit out of the crack.

    The exit brought them to the mountains.

    Rui Bing stared at the mountains for a while. "We''ve been here before. The mountains extended far into the distance. This is close to where we first came to this world. If you go further along this direction, there is a flesh nest of the red-tailed beasts. However, we only ever saw low level red-tailed beasts there, not six-fingered ones."

    Ye Chong made a mark on the map and eyed the seemingly endless mountain ranges. He said to Rui Bing, "Let''s head back. We wille back hereter."

    They returned to the stronghold as fast as they could.

    "Opening a spatial window required vast amounts of energy. Naturally urring spatial windows usually draw energy from objects with high energy content, like the teardrop mineralite. I don''t know whether the red-tailed beasts found those naturally urring spatial windows or if they created their own, but they obviously know how to use teardrop mineralite to erge spatial windows. Naturally urring spatial windows are not very big. It''s usually enough to fit just one mech. The spatial window that the red-tailed beasts traveled through is obviously a lot bigger."

    Aried reported his findings to Ye Chong. Sha Ya was tremendously helpful to him. He could study the structure of spatial windows through her. Aried never imagined it possible for someone to sense the structure of spatial windows without the aid of any equipment. It was miraculous!

    Even in the He Yue Gxy, no equipment could do this!

    Since Sha Ya did not have relevant background knowledge in spatial science, her descriptions were vague. Nevertheless, she was of great help to Aried.

    "I am now studying how to erge spatial windows. As long as we have high energy materials like the teardrop mineralite, it should not be a problem. Of course, there must first be an existing spatial window to work on. That would be much easier than creating a spatial window from nothing." Aried exined frankly. Compared tomon scientists, Aried''s career path had been harder, exposing him to all sorts of human factors in the research process. Sometimes, Aried behaved more like a businessman. He would try to conduct his research in the direction favored by his investor. This would help him financially. He knew what Ye Chong needed and wanted right now, and had structured his research ordingly.

    Ye Chong frowned. He needed to find the way back to return to the He Yue Gxy, not erge spatial windows. He asked, ''How will that be useful?"

    Aried said, "If you want to bring that starship back with you, it would be very useful."

    "I see." Ye Chong nodded,mending him. He continued asking, "Do we have a way to find the path back to the He Yue Gxy now?" This was a problem that exasperated him the most.

    Aried shook his head. "That will depend on our luck. If we can find a spatial window that leads back to He Yue Gxy, then all our problems will be solved."

    "Where can we find a spatial window that leads to the He Yue Gxy?" Ye Chong could not help but ask. Bio-photon processor technology here had improved somewhat, but they were still far from building an advanced bio-photon processor.

    Aried hesitated, and then exined his hypothesis.

    Ye Chong went into deep thought. After a long moment, he looked up and said, "Your theory makes sense, but we have searched the surroundings of the Sea of Threads. Aside from the spatial windows to Northern Lands and Western Frost, there are no other spatial windows. If your hypothesis is correct, it should have been just by the Sea of Threads."

    Ye Chong had already searched his end of the Sea of Threads with his Hummingbirds. All the empty spots on their holographic map wereplete. Ye Chong had discovered many ore reserves in the process, but did not mine them since the warship was nearpletion. He only extracted rare minerals from them. Ye Chong kept thinking about Mu and Shang''s lost arm. He now had enough materials to restore it. Aside from extremely rare materials like the Do Kun stone and coratinum, he had sufficient amounts of other rare materials in his hands.

    The students from the stronghold were now aware of the Sea of Threads, but they dared not enter the strange ce yet. However, all the wild animals roaming near the Sea of Threads became target practice for them.

    ¡­

    The massive object could fly. All the students in the stronghold looked bbergasted. Aried would look at them with a face that said he thought the students were all ignorant barbarians.

    When the warship first went airborne, it immediately dived sideways and crashnded. This was probably because the crew was feeling nervous. Fortunately, the hull was tough and safety measures were in ce. No one was hurt. Eventually, the crew got familiar with flying the warship.

    Ye Chong named the warship Darkniss. Thevish materials used for this ship were unrivaled. Just the materials used to build this warship could be sold at a sky-high figure.

    There were 70 passageways built for the mechs inside to exit and engage. The ship cannons were powerful, but not the most advanced. Nevertheless, they were made of top quality raw materials, and thus were still very deadly. Besides these, Ye Chong also added a very important upgrade - shooting stations. These shooting stations were manned by professional shooters. They were more urate than auto lock-on systems, and certainly much better than simpleser firing devices.

    These shooting stations were difficult to maneuver, and were built especially for the shooters. Without atmospheric interference, shooters could extend their para-psychic senses further in outer space. These shooters were used to aiming at thumbnail sized targets. If it was something over ten meters tall like a mech or a red-tailed beast, their aiming would be wless. To unleash the maximum potential of their aiming uracy, the training program for shooters include studying a mech''s structure andmonly vulnerable parts in wild animals. Shooters could not withstand the physical burden of piloting a mech in battle, but that problem was moot when they were shooting from a warship.

    This amazing idea immediately improved a shooter''s value in battle significantly, despite Ye Chong believing that shooters had limited capabilities before this. Every warship was vulnerable to close range enemies; for Darkniss, their firepower was strongest at close range.

    "Looks like it''s time to depart," Ye Chong muttered to himself.

 Chapter 588 - Return I

    <h4>Chapter 588: Return I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    All the students and shooters returned obediently to their designed stronghold under Ye Chong''s orders, where they awaited for further instructions. Even Jin Weidong was asked to return to the stronghold. Before this, he was asked by Ye Chong to purchase arge amount of supplies.

    The warehouse was bing thergest structure in their stronghold. It was fully stocked with supplies. Their next expedition was going to take a long time. They would most likely not return to their stronghold very soon. Ye Chong had used up all the food they had to make nutrition pills, so that they could bring more of them. Nutrition pills were not appetizing, but they were small and convenient to carry about. Besides, it provided all the energy and nutrients they needed.

    As a precaution, Ye Chong made enough nutrition pills tost everyone in the warship for three years. Huge containers of nutrition pills were neatly arranged on the ship. The ship''s cargo hold was also loaded with other supplies. No one knew whatid ahead of them. The better prepared they were, the more likely they would survive. Ye Chong was never one toin aboutplicated preparation works.

    He had also brought many top grade energy crystals to make sure they had enough power in Darkniss. Even the vastly influential Yan Family took a lot of effort to procure all the energy crystals they needed. Ye Chong paid an equivalent price for these energy crystals. However, the energy crystals still did not seem enough for him. The teardrop mineralite would be his backup power source for the warship Darkniss.

    Nevertheless, he could not use up all the teardrop mineralite he had. If they really found a spatial window that led to the He Yue Gxy, the teardrop mineralites were necessary to make the spatial window wider.

    All the students had their orders. They knew that a long journey was ahead of them. These young people were very excited by the prospects. Many of them dreamed of adventuring in uncharted territories, but no one knew what their destination would be. The shooters were used to it, however. Every Level 6 shooter had their fair share of risky expeditions.

    Jin Weidong and hisrades tried to glean some information from Ye Chong about the expedition, but they all failed.

    In fact, they were only worried that Ye Chong would want to attack another country. Eastern Cloud was now at its peak in power; Northern Lands was prosperous; both countries were too powerful to make an enemy of. They knew exactly the kind of military strength Ye Chong had. Ye Chong had soldiers from all three countries, but Western Frost nationals were outnumbered by the other two.

    They hoped that Ye Chong would not attack any of these countries. As long as Ye Chong did not attack their home countries, they would be more than willing to follow his lead. Hence, Jin Weidong and hisrades were worried that Ye Chong would choose Western Frost as his next target. After all, Ye Chong was now a man with great power, and no man in his position would be anything less than ambitious.

    When all the preparations were done, Ye Chong ordered for them to depart.

    They left three strongholds behind, leaving everything but some of the high precision equipment. Ye Chong never returned to these strongholds. These three abandoned strongholds wereter on viewed as miracles. Shooters who ventured into Darkniss were all afraid of these three magnificent structures. Anything that tried to approach the stronghold would be killed. The overwhelming firepower was terrifying. No one knew that the strongholds were actually unupied. Ye Chong gave the extra supplies he had to Mei Wu. He had invited Mei Wu to join him for this expedition, but Mei Wu had politely declined.

    It was only 400 yearster that Darkniss was essible tomon people. The mystery behind these three strongholds were gradually unraveled then. That was another story, however, that had nothing to do with Ye Chong now.

    Ye Chong''s order to abandon the strongholds surprised his students. They could not understand why theirmander would abandon them, considering how sturdy those buildings were and all the things they left inside. Having lived in the strongholds for so long, some of the students missed the ce.

    Themander''s orders were to be followed to the letter, however. Building another stronghold would not be a challenge anyway. That was how the students consoled themselves. Nevertheless, they soon grew used to life on their ship.

    When Jin Weidong and hisrades saw their ship heading towards the Sea of Threads, they all felt relieved. Darkniss was now Ye Chong''s territory. Since the students hunted outside everyday, the animal poption in Darkniss had greatly reduced. Despite the threat of these humans, the animals did not dare to migrate further inwards beyond the Sea of Threads.

    The warship Darkniss flew at a low altitude, a suffocating presence in the darkness of Darkniss. The animals on the ground could not fathom what this giant being was. Theyid low and trembled in fear, hiding their heads inside the fungus threads.

    The Sea of Threads seemed so wide and endless. The threads swayed gently, creating an illusion of ripples in the field of colloid fungi. Harvesting works on the Sea of Threads did not seem to affect it much.

    "Switch to optical view." The wide and spectacr view of the Sea of Threads came onto the screen.

    Inside the warship, people gasped in awe. They had never ventured into the Sea of Threads before. Even the harvesting works were done only at the edges of the ce.

    Once they were inside the Sea of Threads, all connections they had with the strongholds were lost. The Sea of Threads blocked all forms of signals.

    The Sea of Threads was dead quiet. There was nothing but the wide field of blue threads. As time passed, the crew became bored of this monotonous view.

    Crew members in the bridge remained on duty, while the rest of the students resumed their normal routines. Warship Darkniss had all the facilities they needed. Crew members could train like they did before onboard the ship.

    Of course, the ship was not fitted with any entertainment facilities, as was Ye Chong''s wish.

    Warship Darkniss maintained a high velocity course through the Sea of Threads. There were no obstacles in their flight path, and no wild animals to disrupt their journey.

    The flight went on smoothly! It took only three days for them to clear the Sea of Threads. The colloid fungi did not interfere with the ship''s flight capabilities, but they were a natural deterrent for wild animals. Since animals in Darkniss were sensitive creatures, they harboured a deep and primitive fear against the Sea of Threads, where their senses were significantly affected.

    No animal had ever tried to breach the Sea of Threads. Even the six-fingered red-tailed beast had chosen the dangerous path in the crack to cross the Sea of Threads.

    Once the students realized that they were out of the Sea of Threads, they felt most energetic. The students looked at the holographic screens in their rooms, curious of what was outside.

    Before Matron Rui Bing and herpanions arrived, no human had ever set foot into this ce. Sha Ya had never heard of the ce. Even the most legendary shooter in history, Lascher, had never been here before. Sha Ya studied the unending mountain ranges on the holographic screen, carried away by its magnificence.

    Ye Chong followed Sang Kan''s directions and direct the ship towards where they first arrived in this world.

    The 10-kilometer long warship flew less than three kilometers from the ground. Seen from down below, the structure was terrifying. As the ship dragged its shadow across the earth, the wild animals ran away as fast as they could. Even the snowshade leopard made its escape without dy. The students felt proud that the powerful animal was so intimidated.

    The warship did not fly too quickly, since the area was unfamiliar to them. For everyone''s safety, Ye Chong decided against a speedy course towards their destination.

    "Sir, we found something." A crew member reported excitedly through them device in Ye Chong''s ear.

    Ye Chong felt invigorated. They had been flying for days without anything interesting to show for. He asked promptly, "What is it?"

    "We scanned the area and found no metals or energy crystals in the vicinity." The students had learned to use the word "metal", which was actually just gravstone.

    "No metals or energy crystals?" Ye Chong thought to himself in puzzlement. This new ce was separated from the familiar Darkniss by the Sea of Threads, but these two ces were in fact not too far apart. How could there be such a huge difference in the environment? This was a qualitative distinction, not a quantitative one.

    As Ye Chong considered the matter, the crew member continued, "We also found traces of mining."

    "Mining?" Ye Chong opened his eyes wide. The first thought that came to him was - were there any other humans in this ce?

    "Link the feed here." Ye Chong ordered calmly.

    Ye Chong studied the holographic screen intently. There were traces of digging on the ground, and some holes left behind. Ye Chong studied the marks and dismissed the possibility of human mining. He could not think of any human tools that would leave marks like these. The holes were uneven in width and depth. Some of them looked like they were left behind a long time ago.

    Soon, a mech emerged from the warship Darkniss to collect earth samples from these holes. Analysis results soon confirmed that there was a much higher metal content in the earthpared to its surroundings. The holes must have been where metal ores were buried.

    However, scanning results from their warship concluded that there were almost no metals in this ce.

    This might seem like a petty issue for some, since they no longer needed metals, but Ye Chong thought of a different and rted problem. This was because he knew that animals like the snowshade leopards and red-tailed beasts were dependent on metals. Now that they were no metals here, they would have to find another ce to survive.

    Was this the reason for the invasion of the red-tailed beasts?

    Ye Chong could not be sure, but he could tell that this was probably a huge contributing factor. WIthout metals and energy crystals, these animals could not live and prosper in this ce.

    If he was a red-tailed beast, he would definitely find a new ce to call home.

    However, Ye Chong could not understand how the red-tailed beasts could possibly manipte spatial windows. It was an infinitelyplicated skill. He went through his memories, and found that that might not be the case. He remembered the red-tailed beasts entering He Yue Gxy through spatial windows, but the creatures had never used spatial windows in battle.

    He remembered also the eight-fingered red-tailed beast he saw in the underground cave and the spatial window in there. Ye Chong had obtained a sizable amount of teardrop mineralites that time, and met the red-tailed beast for the very first time. That spatial window must have been a naturally urring one.

    Perhaps Aried was right. Perhaps this new ce had many naturally urring spatial windows.

    Ye Chong felt excited about the implications of his deductions. If they could really find a spatial window that led to the He Yue Gxy, he would be able to return to Mu and Shang.

    In the whole wide world, only Mu and Shang, Rui Bing and a few other people meant so much to Ye Chong.

    Darkniss made its slow way forward. They encountered snowshade leopards and Gold Dragons, and even stronger animals. Curiously, they did not see any red-tailed beasts. Their territories must be entirely separate from these other creatures.

    Sang Kan had an excellent sense of direction. He did not even lose his way in the Red Sea, much less in a ce where he had traveled through before.

    On the bridge, Ye Chong stood upright before the holographic screen. Rui Bing was in her white training garb, standing quietly beside him. The students all knew of Matron Rui Bing''s quiet temperament, but they respected her regardless. On the one hand, she was theirmander''s wife. They all heard Sang Kan referred to Rui Bing as Madam, so it was only natural for them to assume this. Besides, Ye Chong never corrected their way of addressing her. This further convinced them that they were right about Rui Bing''s status.

    The Matron''s strength was another reason she gained respect from the students. Few knew exactly how powerful she was, but Sang Kan was easy to gauge. After all, he was always eager to train with the students. Even someone as strong as Sang Kan spoke of the Matron''s abilities with great respect.

    Whenever the Commander went on an important operation, he would only ever bring the Matron with him. This further increased the mystery surrounding Rui Bing.

    "Sir, look!" A crew member cried out suddenly and pointed in front of them.

 Chapter 589 - Return II

    <h4>Chapter 589: Return II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The thin purple mist in front of them was very familiar to Ye Chong.

    "It''s the flesh nest of the red-tailed beasts. We came across it when we passed through here. There were only weak red-tailed beasts here, with one or two fingers only. Their flesh nest seemed to be having some kind of trouble. They are deteriorating rapidly." Rui Bing spoke up softly beside Ye Chong. This was where she and Sang Kan had first encountered the flesh nest.

    "Prepare for battle." Ye Chong quietly gave the order. The crew members of the warship got to work immediately, like fast moving parts of a high precision machine performing their functions with definite uracy. Thebatants moved into position, while students in the first line of defense entered their mechs, standing by at their designated passageways.

    Shooters and students in charge of the shooting stations were already in position. Powerful shooters like Sha Ya were tasked to monitor their surroundings with their parapsychic sense. The other shooters were all on standby for the imminent battle.

    The warship Darkniss slowly but steadily entered the purple mist.

    Within the purple mist, the holographic scanning system could not be used. They could only rely on the parapsychic sense of the shooters. Fortunately, Darkniss had Sha Ya, a Level 9 shooter of the highest caliber. Her parapsychic sense could reach further than any normal shooter could ever imagine. With her guidance, they need not worry about missing their shots.

    Sha Ya closed her eyes. Her hair seemed to blow in the wind, despite the still air around her. Calm and seemingly endless parapsychic waves radiated outwards from her.

    After five seconds, Sha Ya reported their first targets. "Five degrees from the radius vector, 11 kilometers ahead!"

    A crew member close to her keyed in the numbers into the photon processor and marked it as a target. The information was then ryed to everybatant''s photon processor. The entire process took only 1.5 seconds.

    "Fire!"

    Right after Appilok gave the order, numerousser beams pierced through the purple mist.

    Appilok was now a fully grown battlemander. Ye Chong put him in charge of their first line of offense, and he did not disappoint. Each mission waspleted with flying colors. His victories convinced the other students to respect him as their leader, and this allowed him to lead the army more effectively.

    A sharp and angry cry reverberated in the purple mist.

    The thickser beams from their warship''s cannons were highly destructive, leaving a clear, straight path in the purple mist. In that moment, Ye Chong saw their target. It was the center of the flesh nest. Ye Chong did not know what was at the center of the flesh nest, but he remembered seeing his first six-fingered red-tailed beast at the center of a flesh nest.

    Thebined firepower from 67 ship cannons were enough to destroy a small of about 300 kilometers in diameter. Their attack on the flesh nest ensured total destruction.

    Countless furious red-tailed beasts charged at their warship. Since the ship was covered with ayer of transparent substance derived from the colloid fungus, the creatures did not notice its arrival earlier.

    Leading the creatures was a red-tailed beast. Its crimson red eyes glowed in anger. Its face twisted menacingly.

    Ye Chong did not go out to meet the challenge this time, since he knew it was not necessary.

    As expected, the red-tailed beast immediately drew the attention of the shooters at their shooting stations. By then, the red-tailed beasts were only five kilometers away from Darkniss. At this distance, most of the shooters could already sense it.

    One by one, their parapsychic waves radiated outwards.

    They locked on to their target! This was the advantage of being a shooter.

    The red-tailed beast noticed the parapsychic waves.

    Red-tailed beasts were sensitive creatures. Ye Chong knew this from first hand experience. He saw evidence of it during his pursuitst time. The creature could detect metals hidden in rocks, far better than many of their specialized equipments.

    The red-tailed beast seemed affected by its discovery. It looked scared, but Ye Chong could not know for sure. It was the animal whisperer, Sang Kan who studied the red-tailed beast and stroked his chin in thought, and thenmented, "It''s afraid!" The Sang Tribe understood wild animals, almost as well as they knew themselves.

    How could this red-tailed beast not be afraid?

    There were nine shooters above Level 7 who locked on to the red-tailed beast, and attacked it simultaneously. It was a terrifying experience, to be locked on by shooters above Level 7. After their training in the Sea of Threads, the shooters improved significantly in their parapsychic energies. A few of the Level 7 shooters were fast approaching Level 8. Their parapsychic energies were much stronger than before. The red-tailed beast''s high sensitivity amplified the sense of being threatened by the parapsychic waves.

    It was enough to frighten even a wild beast!

    The six-fingered red-tailed beast turned to run. It stepped behind the other red-tailed beasts than ran past it, using them as cover.

    Ye Chong looked at the escaping red-tailed beast without expression. He was not concerned about the habitat of the red-tailed beasts. In some ways, Ye Chong was a utilitarian. He would only make choices that benefited himself. These red-tailed beasts were atent threat. They were weak now, but once they entered the He Yue Gxy, they would surely be able to acquire enough metals and energy to evolve quickly.

    It was a terrifying prospect. Hence, Ye Chong did not allow them mercy. Rui Bing supported him in this. The invasion of the red-tailed beasts had pushed humanity close to the brink of extinction. It was still unclear how many humans had died because of them. This was not a matter of good and evil, but of the conflicting rtionship between two different species. Sang Kan did not really hate the red-tailed beasts. Few of the Sang Tribe died from the red-tailed beasts. The Yi Ju Zone was already cleared of red-tailed beasts. Neers from the Sang Vige could only get to know these horrible creatures through records and conversations with their seniors.

    Nineser beams, each only as thick as an arm, shot out from their warship. Theser beams pierced through the horde of red-tailed beasts and converged into a single point.

    The red-tailed beast stared in disbelief at the nine holes left in its body. Blood gushed out from its wounds. An anguished howl pierced through the purple mist!

    Laser beams continued to rain down on the other red-tailed beasts. The animals cried out in pain. The purple mist was tinged with the color of blood. The army of red-tailed beasts in the air fell into disarray. One by one, the creatures fell from the sky.

    Ye Chong''s unique strategy using the shooters was paid off in full. All red-tailed beasts that came within range of their parapsychic waves never stood a chance. They were all shot down before they could even think of escaping.

    As expected, the red-tailed beasts were mostly with one or two fingers. They were weak. This made Ye Chong more confident of his hypothesis. Perhaps there really was a spatial window that led to He Yue Gxy around here.

    There was no suspense in their battle anymore. The red-tailed beasts were thoroughly defeated by the powerful warship, Darkniss. The entire battle was firmly controlled by Ye Chong. The red-tailed beasts never posed a threat.

    None of the mechs on Darkniss were deployed to achieve their victory. Only the shooters and the ship cannons were used. It was a result that even Ye Chong was satisfied with.

    The battle was over very quickly. The purple mist in the area began to disperse. It disappeared quickly without warning, like it was following the footsteps of the red-tailed beasts.

    Before the warship Darkniss was the dreadful aftermath of the battle. The bodies of red-tailed beasts were everywhere on the ground, their blood still seeping into the earth that they had lived on for centuries.

    Besides the bodies, there were also many flesh columns. As Rui Bing informed him, these flesh columns were dying. They were dehydrating quickly. It was obvious that they were perishing.

    Ye Chong was not particrly excited about their victory. The red-tailed beasts were rtively few, and only weak and immature ones at that. Who knew how many red-tailed beasts were still alive in the He Yue Gxy? They had invadeds and taken control over massive supplies of metals and pure energy. How many of them had evolved? Even Ye Chong could not stay calm thinking about it. Compared to the red-tailed beast he pursuedst time, this one was much weaker.

    They found no other lifeforms in this ce aside from the red-tailed beasts. Compared to the lush and plentiful mountain areas, this ce was like a wastnd.

    The terrain was t, suitable for using the Hummingbirds.

    50 Hummingbirds were deployed in all directions to scout their surroundings. Live feeds were ryed directly to Darkniss. The warship was slowly heading towards where Rui Bing first arrived in this world.

    "It''s here." Sang Kan''s sense of direction was reliable as ever. The crew members were no longer surprised by his skills, and this was a let down to Sang Kan.

    The site did not look any different from their surroundings. It was simply more deste than where the red-tailed beasts lived.

    All the Hummingbirds were deployed, but they had found nothing of interest.

    Darkniss did not linger around. It continued forward at constant speed. Ye Chong sent 13 squads out to widen their search range. The mechs fanned out in all directions from the warship.

    It was on the 10th day when the environment began to look different. The t terrain began to show mountains and even mountain ranges. However, these mountains looked different from the ones they passed by earlier. Thend and the mountains were all barren. There were no signs of life everywhere around them.

    Here, they discoveredrge numbers of dried skin. These were the skin shed by dehydrated flesh columns. This meant that the red-tailed beasts once lived here. They found a few more ces with dried skin, but did not see any red-tailed beast or their skeletons.

    Could it be that the red-tailed beasts that invaded He Yue Gxy once lived here?

    This seemed to be the most natural exnation. From their scouting efforts, it seemed that there were no other red-tailed beasts around other than the ones that they had killed.

    Ye Chong learned nothing more about spatial windows during this period, a problem that he was most concerned with. Aried was ready to exin why they found nothing at all. Naturally urring spatial windows were periodic. They would often disappear for awhile due to external factors. However, if the surroundings of the spatial window were not disrupted, it would reappear after some time.

    The terrain around them became more and moreplicated. More precisely speaking, it became more and more fragmented. The mountain ranges gave way to numerous hills of rocks and pebbles. The rocks were easily disturbed, and would roll down with the slightest touch.

    "Warning. Warning. Spatial instability straight ahead." The warning rm red abruptly, surprising everyone in the warship. Ye Chong and Aried, however, felt invigorated.

    Spatial science was known to be deep and mysterious. What happened before them now further reinforced that image.

    Everything around was dead silent. There was only the asional sound of something cracking.

    All the crew members saw something absolutely eerie. A rock of about five to six cubic meters suddenly began to fragment. Thin cracks spread across the rock like spiderwebs, slowly covering its entire surface. Nothing else around the rock was behaving weirdly.

    Boom! There was a soft sound of explosion. The rock burst into countless tiny fragments, like broken ss.

    All the crew members were horrified to see this. Inside the warship Darkniss wasplete silence.

    Aried had an odd expression on his face, a mixture of joy and fear. He muttered to himself, "Cracks in space ¡­ There really are cracks in space ¡­"

 Chapter 590 - Return III

    <h4>Chapter 590: Return III</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "No!" Aried jolted out of his trance and shouted. "Stop! Quick, stop the ship!" His face was drained of blood.

    "Halt!" Ye Chong gave the order without dy. Darkniss slowly came to a stop. Ye Chong looked to Aried and asked, "What is it?"

    Aried stuttered, "This is spatial crack¡­ No¡­ There are cracks in space¡­ It''s unstable¡­" He was not making much sense, perhaps because of feeling too nervous.

    Ye Chong frowned. "Try again."

    Aried inhaled deeply and gathered himself. "There are cracks in the space around here. These are small regions of chaotic spatial dimensions. These cracks in space move slowly, and anything in its way will be sliced into pieces. Our bodies cannot withstand spatial cracks. Besides, they are not visible to the naked eye. This ce is dangerous. If our warship encounters a region with spatial cracks, everything in the warship, including us, will be cut into pieces." He pointed to the holographic screen. "Just like that rock!"

    Everyone in the bridge looked horrified.

    Aried paused for a moment, and then continued to exin quickly. "Spatial cracks are caused by instabilities in space. So far, there are no theories to exin their method of formation, but the cracks are threats to us, without a doubt. Spatial cracks can destroy anything in this world, no matter how strong it is. However, few spatial cracks were ever observed, located in only a few ces with spatial instability. We have too little research on them. I don''t know much about them myself."

    Ye Chong looked calm. Hisposure soothed the panic in his crew members, for they trusted theirmander. They believed that he would think up a way to counter this threat.

    "What do you suggest?" Ye Chong asked Aried. He was the expert in this matter. Surely he must have a n.

    "We have no sensors to detect spatial cracks on this ship, so we can only build one from scratch. Quick! I need a good engineer." Aried did not hesitate to ask for what he needed. This was not the time to be polite. If they were to find themselves in the path of a spatial crack, they would be finished.

    "Alright! I''ll help you." Ye Chong did not hesitate to lend a hand either. He was the best man for the job on the ship.

    Just as the two men began to leave, Sha Ya broke her silence. "Perhaps I can help."

    Everyone looked at her. She still wore her typical calm expression, but her voice no longer sounded so hoarse. "I can sense them."

    Aried stopped to absorb her words, and then blurted out with joy, "Right right right, how could I have forgotten about you? You can sense the structure of spatial windows. These spatial cracks will not be a problem for you."

    Zeep! Suddenly, one of the holographic screens went dark. Someone reported, "Hummingbird 311 was attacked and destroyed." From the other holographic screens, they could see clearly how the Hummingbird was destroyed. It was on its way back to the ship when the entire bird structure suddenly copsed into pieces. It was chilling to watch!

    Everyone watched the Hummingbird silently broke into pieces in midair. It all happened in less than a second, without any warning. Nothing came into contact with the Hummingbird when it happened. The machine simply burst into pieces just like that, without any clear indication of why or how it happened. It was still uncertainty that left a strong impression in the crew.

    "30 degrees off the radius vector!" Sha Ya suddenly raised her voice.

    The bridge burst into activity after the initial silence. Crew members quickly directed the warship towards the right.

    Ye Chong shook his head inside. These students needed more experience and training. His expression betrayed none of his thoughts. He knew that, as their leader, he must maintain a calm image so that his soldiers could stay calm as well.

    As expected, the students quickly recovered from the initial shock and panic. They listened carefully to Sha Ya''s instructions and directed their ship ordingly. Darkniss advanced as slow as possible.

    The bridge was silent except for Sha Ya''s directions. Aside from the few crew members in charge of flying the warship, the other crew members held their breaths and stared at the holographics screens.

    Sha Ya knew the terminologies. She had gone through the same training as these students. Moreover, she had good spatial awareness. Darkniss flew without any issue.

    Nevertheless, everyone on the ship did not rx. In fact, they were tensed. They had seen rocks of different sizes crumbling on the screens. Of all the Hummingbirds they deployed, only three made it back. The others were all metal scraps now.

    Ye Chong took a nce at Sha Ya, focused on her parapsychic feedback, and then turned to Aried. "Will there be danger ahead of us?"

    Aried smiled bitterly. "I don''t know. Spatial cracks are rarely discovered, and they are too dangerous. Any experiments done on them were by powerful and resourceful research organizations. Someone like me never stood a chance. I''ve never heard of any significant results from their research so far. We know simply too little about them."

    Ye Chong went quiet. He considered for a moment, and then asked, "Is it possible to have spatial windows around here?"

    Aried nodded. "Where there are spatial cracks, it is very likely to have spatial windows too. As long as there is enough energy to stimte it ¡­"

    Aried and Ye Chong exchanged a look.

    Aried suddenly got excited. "Spatial windows, right, it''s spatial windows! There must be spatial windows that lead elsewhere in this ce! Perhaps the red-tailed beasts entered the He Yue Gxy through here. Right! It''s very likely the case!"

    The possibility for returning to the He Yue Gxy was real. Standing beside Ye Chong, Rui Bing''s eyes gleamed with hope.

    "We need to survive this first." Ye Chong''s calm voice shook Aried out of his excitement. Aried considered their situation for a while, and then raised his head. "We can only rely on Sha Ya for now. Regions with spatial cracks are usually not very big. They are actually regions with spatial instability. Once the region reached a certain size, space will copsed back into itself. Based on the current speed, however, it will take a few days."

    Everyone looked towards Sha Ya, who had shut her eyes and looked very peaceful.

    The warship had flown for two days. Aside from the one time when it brushed past a spatial crack on its side, the journey was uneventful. The close call left a half-meter deep gash in the thick hull armor. There were crack marks inside the gash. Everyone felt chilled when it happened, but the hull was soon repaired.

    Ye Chong had never flown a ship so slowly, but he had no choice. Some things were best left to the professionals. This was something Ye Chong learned a long time ago.

    "Sir, there''s something you should see." A crew member''s tense voice broke the silence in the bridge.

    Ye Chong looked up.

    On the holographic screen was a ck spatial window, suspended in the air.

    "A spatial window!" Aried sounded jubnt. He was also repeating himself a lot. "It''s really a spatial window, oh, my god ¡­"

    The spatial window was about 15 meters in diameter. The ck circle floated quietly in the air, as soundless as their surroundings.

    "What''s that?" Rui Bing spoke up, pointing somewhere close to the spatial window.

    Ye Chong followed her finger and looked. His eyes widened. He reached out with his right hand and shouted, "Halt!"

    The crew members quickly stopped the warship. Ye Chong looked up towards the holographic screen and fixed his eyes on it.

    "Zoom in there."

    The holographic screen zoomed in on the lower left corner, providing finer details.

    It was a human shaped figure, like a human y statue. That statue wasrge. It was in a half sitting position, but it was probably as tall as a mech when standing up.

    This was the only thing Ye Chong and his people had seen in this ce that bore simrities to humans. Was this something natural or manmade? If it was manmade, then who made it? Why make this y statue at all?

    Things made an eerie turn with the sudden appearance of a y statue and a spatial window. The sitting y statue was a mystery.

    "Sha Ya, are there any dangers around the spatial window?" Ye Chong turned towards her and asked.

    "It''s very dangerous!" Sha Ya replied solemnly. "There are many spatial cracks around the spatial window, and they are moving faster than the ones we have seen before."

    "How do we get closer to the spatial window?" Ye Chong looked at Sha Ya.

    Sha Ya held his gaze for a moment before closing her eyes again.

    After about 30 seconds, she reopened her eyes and stated inly, "There is a path. It''s not wide. We can only travel on foot."

    "Alright, let''s go." Ye Chong did not hesitate.

    Sha Ya led the group. Rui Bing followed closely behind Ye Chong. They firstnded via a small transport ship. However, even this itself wasborious. What should have taken only one minute took them 15 minutes instead. There were no obvious signs of danger around them, but they were in fact surrounded by spatial cracks. The three of them proceeded with great caution.

    After theynded, Sha Ya led them both on their slowly journey forward. She closed her eyes and kept her parapsychic sense focused on their immediate surroundings. She walked quickly without opening her eyes. Ye Chong and Rui Bing followed her closely. They veered left and right, and sometimes stepped backwards. Sha Ya''s physical training was effective. She could not run as fast as Ye Chong or Rui Bing, but she had improved significantly.

    It took them only 30 minutes to to reach the y statue.

    Sha Ya could not understand why Ye Chong was so interested in the y statue that he would risk approaching it. This was not uncharacteristic of him. Rui Bing said nothing as she quietly watched after Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong walked to the front of the y statue. He could see it much clearer from here. This was man made, he was certain of it.

    The earth on the surface of the statue looked loose. Ye Chong nudged it a little, and a huge chunk fell off.

    Underneath the earth was something ck in color. Ye Chong''s eyes widened. His pulse spiked up. Quickly, he began to dust off the earth covering the statue.

    There was a lot of earth, about 50 centimeters thick. They were mostly fine soil or dust. How many years would it have taken for so much dust to gather?

    Rui Bing and Sha Ya saw him moving, and promptly went to help him.

    Five minutester, they cleared away all the dust and soil. The three of them were covered with dust, but they did not seem to notice. Their attention was entirely on the huge object in front of them.

    It was a ck colored mech. Despite its age, many of its parts still looked brand new. Ye Chong quickly noticed that it was heavily damaged. It must have gone through a very intense battle.

    There was a big hole in the pilot cabin. Something sharp must have pierced through it. This attack was fatal. The mech pilot would have never survived it. This was also the biggest damage dealt on the mech.

    The mech had a dark metallic luster. Ye Chong was familiar with this metallic feel and texture. The mech had a distinctive logo of a long leaf on its surface. Ye Chong had never seen this mech before, but he was certain of one thing.

    Ye Family''s mech. This was a ssic, advanced level mech of the Ye Family!

 Chapter 591 - Return IV

    <h4>Chapter 591: Return IV</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The mech was well preserved. Aside from the damages it received, the other parts did not look like they had aged much. Of the Three Aristocratic Families, Ye Chong was most familiar with mechs from the Ye Family. He had piloted many of the Ye Family''s mechs. With the exception of Ye Yin''s mech, he had used even a Mandate ss mech, Moon King. Most of the Ye Family''s disciples could not hope topare with him.

    This mech, however, did not look like a familiar model. Ye Chong could, of course, ascertain that it was no ordinary mech. From the thickyer of dust and soil covering it, he knew that the mech had been here for a very long time. Thus, this mech must be a very old model of the Ye Family. It was only natural that he had not seen it before.

    The pilot cabin was heavily damaged, so it was easy to open the hatch and enter. Of course, only someone crazily strong like Ye Chong could lift the damaged pilot cabin hatch up easily with his bare hands.

    Ye Chong and Rui Bing entered the pilot cabin while Sha Ya waited outside. It was a tight fit for both Ye Chong and Rui Bing inside the pilot cabin.

    The controls inside the mech''s pilot cabin were arranged very differentlypared to modern day mechs. This was further proof of the mech''s age. On the pilot seat was a pile of skeletons, probably the pilot''s. Ye Chong and Rui Bing carefully avoided the skeletons, but Ye Chong could not help but notice that there were many broken bones in the pile. The mech pilot must have suffered grave injuries before death.

    Ye Chong''s attention finally went to the control console, which waspletely intact. Usually, the control console would have a memory chip that automatically recorded all information on the mech, including holographic recording. By inspecting the contents of this chip, one could know all about the mech.

    Mechs from the Three Aristocratic Families were guarded with proprietary technology. Only a person of the Ye Family''s bloodline could ess a mech of the Ye Family. Ye Chong had seen how it worked with Moon King. He did not know why he had Ye Family blood, but Ye Luo''s test suggested that he did.

    The second time was easier. Ye Chong took out his dagger and made a small cut on his finger. He pressed a drop of blood onto the control console. Rui Bing watched Ye Chong quietly, feeling sorry for him.

    "Identity authentication is sessful. ess granted." A bionic voice suddenly spoke up, surprising them both.

    Ye Chong was not surprised by the fact that he was granted ess, but he was surprised by the mech''s energy cell capacity. After so many years, the mech still had power! Since when was energy cell technology so advanced? He found it odd, but kept his curiosity contained while he began to look through contents of the mech''s memory chip.

    Zip! Suddenly, the holographic screen lit up.

    "Shang, prepare for battle!" The first words that came from the video on the holographic screen caught Ye Chongpletely off guard. Shang. He did know if this "Shang" was the same one as his friend. "Perhaps they share the same name," Ye Chong thought to himself. The man who said those words sounded cautious.

    Ye Chong continued watching the video.

    "Wah, what''s that monster, it''s so ugly!"

    Thatment hit Ye Chong like a lightning bolt. His body froze as he stared at the holographic screen.

    Shang! That was definitely Shang''s voice! Ye Chong could not believe his ears. How was Shang rted to this mech? He thought of Mu and Shang''s mysterious past and how he lost his memories. All of that remained a mystery so far. Shang had said that Mu''s consciousness had emerged after his. Before Mu was born, Shang was the only consciousness in his body.

    Could it be ¡­ This was his chance to know about Shang''s origins. Ye Chong''s heart raced.

    "Haha!" The manughed easily. "Shang, as usual, I''m the striker, you''re the defense! I''m doing all the heavy lifting here, so you better to look after my wife and son, Shang!"

    "Stop bbering! Lil'' Luo Luo, can''t you just get to it already?" Shang soundedzy and insolent.

    "Wife, watch how your husband kill this monster! Son, don''t you dare pee in your mother''sp." The man sounded proud of himself.

    A woman hidden from viewughed softly.

    Suddenly, a creature appeared on the holographic screen. A red-tailed beast! Ye Chong''s gaze focused on the animal. He hit the pause button to freeze the video.

    One, two, three ¡­ Ye Chong counted to himself ¡­ There were eight fingers! Ye Chong''s heart skipped a beat. Eight fingers. He had only seen one eight-fingered red-tailed beast, and that was the most powerful one he had ever encountered. Could this red-tailed beast be the same one that he saw?

    Ye Chong could not be sure.

    As the video continued, the image began to shake violently. The red-tailed beast was constantly shifting around the mech,ing in closer and then moving away again. Ye Chong believed that this was probably some battle strategy of the mech pilot.

    After a while, Ye Chong was able to gauge the mech pilot''s abilities. He was very strong! Not considering the mech''s capabilities, Ye Chong thought that this man was at least on the same level as Ye Family''s ace, Ye Yin. No, this mech pilot was probably stronger than even him. He was obviously more experienced than Ye Yin.

    Even Ye Chong himself only had a 50-50 chance of defeating this mech pilot. However, since Ye Chong had Celest, he was sure he would be able to best this mech pilot. Celest had much better specs than this old mech. Besides, after its upgrade, Celest had be much stronger than before. If they used the same mech, Ye Chong believed that he would be on about the same level as this mech pilot.

    Ye Chong saw the date indicated on the video, and found that it was recorded 26 years ago! To have this level of ability 26 years ago was amazing! 26 years was a long time for a mech pilot who could learn fast, enough to have several breakthroughs at least.

    The mech pilot was strong! Ye Chong felt deep respect for him, as he would for anyone who proved to be strong.

    "The Three Aristocratic Families are no longer what they used to be," Ye Chong thought to himself as he continued to watch the 26-year-old recording.

    However, what did it matter to him? He did not care about the Three Aristocratic Families. Ye Chong did not know where that thought came from. Even though he was of the Ye Family bloodline, he never felt anything special for the Ye Family.

    Lil'' Luo Luo ¡­ Ye Chong suddenly recalled the legendary Ye Family''s ace 20 years ago - Ye Luo. Could this man be Ye Luo? Ye Chong thought it highly likely. Perhaps only the Ye Family''s ace could reach this level. Ye Chong never expected himself to one day think of this so-called Ye Family''s ace, someone he was inspired by and thought highly of, to be just another opponent of equal strength.

    Only the strong would have this level of confidence in their own abilities. Such was Ye Chong''s situation.

    Ye Chong continued to watch the holographic recording.

    The battle was intense. This red-tailed beast was very strong. Ye Chong thought many times that the mech pilot could hurt it, but the creature easily avoided these attacks. Ye Chong imagined the battle himself. If he was in the mech pilot''s position, fighting against this eight-fingered red-tailed beast, could he win?

    Ye Chong studied the holographic screen closely, not noticing the sweat that was already forming on his forehead. Rui Bing looked at Ye Chong worriedly, but bit down on her lip and forced herself to keep quiet.

    More and more sweat formed on Ye Chong''s forehead, which then rolled down his neck.

    Suddenly, Ye Chong''s breathing turned shorter. His eyes gleamed meaningfully. Ye Chong''s body jolted as he broke out of his trance. Ye Chong panted heavily, but his eyes showed that he was now calm and collected as usual.

    Rui Bing heaved a sigh of relief.

    "This red-tailed beast is powerful," Ye Chong inly. He looked back at the holographic screen. The red-tailed beast had a firm upper hand. If it was not a red-tailed beast, Ye Chong would have thought it had parapsychic abilities. The animal fought like Xi Feng Tribe''s mentalists, with the ability to predict its enemy''s next move. Compared to the mentalists, however, it was far stronger.

    Even Xi Feng Tribe''s Huang Jiming, their so-called ace, would have a hard time dealing with this creature''s attacks, much less normal mentalists.

    The battle soon turned critical.

    Shang''szy demeanor was reced with great solemnity. He provided support fire from behind Ye Luo. With his assistance, the battle came to a stalemate.

    The animal was able to evade even Shang''s gunfire. Ye Chong''s expression was somber. Shang was inferior to Mu when it came tobat, but the difference was very slight. Ye Chong had never seen any mech pilot able to best the mech.

    However, this battle recording showed that thebined effort of Ye Chong and Shang was only just enough to hold the eight-fingered red-tailed beast at bay.

    It was a terrifying though! A chill went up Ye Chong''s spine.

 Chapter 592 - Return V

    <h4>Chapter 592: Return V</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Judging by the current state of the battle, it was almost certain that the battle would end in a stalemate. The red-tailed beast was stronger, but Shang and Ye Luo working together put them on equal ground. The only thing that Ye Chong could not understand was why Shang remained stationary throughout the battle.

    Shang was azy fellow, but he always treated battle seriously. Besides, this was a critical situation. Why would the mech choose to fire his weapon while remaining at the same position? Shooting from a stationary position was easier than shooting and moving at the same time, but thetter was more effective and powerful in actualbat. Moreover, Ye Chong knew that Mu was a particrlypetent shooter.

    Why, then, did Shang choose to shoot from a stationary position?

    Ye Chong suddenly remembered that Ye Luo mentioned his wife and child earlier. Were they sitting inside Shang? That would exin why Shang did not move about. A child could not withstand the pressure from these motions. The holographic recording had limited information. Ye Chong had to make guesses based on what was avable to him.

    The battle soon turned to a stalemate. Ye Luo and Shang worked together seamlessly like they had done it hundreds of times. The red-tailed beast tried to escape the Ye Family mech''s control but to no avail. Shang''s long range suppression fire also restricted the animal''s movements.

    Even so, victory for Ye Luo and Shang would be very difficult. They did not know how to achieve that for the moment. Ye Luo could keep the red-tailed beast at bay, but not injure it.

    "Luo, there''s someone on the trash! I''ll ask him to look after the baby, then we''ll take care of this monster together." A woman spoke with determination through thems.

    "Trash" - Ye Chong frowned at the word. He noticed a in the background for the first time, and then his heart raced. It looked very familiar!

    Wasn''t this the trash that he had lived on for more than a decade? Could it be ¡­

    Ye Chong felt his mouth turned dry.

    "Alright, is 20 minutes enough?" Ye Luo replied swiftly. The longer the battle dragged on, the worse it would be for them. Once the animal identified the pattern in their attack coordination, they would quickly lose control of the battle. Shang could not execute any evasive maneuvers with the baby inside. It was simply too dangerous.

    "Stay safe." The woman sounded deeply concerned, but did not dy her departure. She went straight for the nearby.

    Ye Luoughed and replied smoothly, "Don''t worry, wife, if we can''t beat it straight, we''ll outsmart it!"

    Once Shang left, the pressure on Ye Luo escted. It was obvious from the recording that he was in a dire situation. The red-tailed beast was agile and fast, much faster than a human could react to it. Ye Luo had never seen anything like it. He was momentarily at a loss.

    Nevertheless, despite the dangerous situation he was in, Ye Luo was still the ace of the Ye Family. Every time the red-tailed beast''s arrowhead tail went for him, he could avoid by a hair''s breadth.

    The tail of a eight-fingered red-tailed beast was much stronger than one with six fingers. The arrowhead tail was ck in color, and moved like it had a life of its own. It was faster and stronger than its weaker counterpart. Ye Chong watched with a sinking heart. He knew that if he were to encounter this eight-fingered animal, he would probably not make it out alive.

    The red-tailed beast seemed to be able to predict its opponent''s movements. This was just like a mentalist. This made the animal even more dangerous, and Ye Luo suffered because of it. The eight-fingered red-tailed beast was much stronger and faster than a Jie expert. Its arrowhead tail was also a formidable weapon. From the looks of it, the animal also had parapsychic-like abilities. This made the animal an even more dangerous enemy.

    The battle progressed with Ye Luo being overwhelmed by his opponent. The red-tailed beast managed to brush past Ye Luo a few times, but Ye Luo was also fast enough to survive them with only scratches to show for.

    Suddenly, the red-tailed beast seemed to realize something, and began to attack with even more vigor.

    This was the turning point of the battle.

    Ye Luo''s situation became even more dangerous. He received multiple injuries in just a short while. This was only five minutes after Shang left.

    The battle turned vicious. Ye Chong heard Ye Luo yelling furiously now and then. One of the best mech pilots alive was forced to retaliate with all he got. The red-tailed beast began to sustain injuries as well, and this made it more cautious. The animal began to move more slowly.

    This gave Ye Luo a chance to catch his breath. Ye Chong could hear him panting heavily in the recording. However, it was still 10 minutes until Shang returned!

    These 10 minutes were like hell on earth.

    The red-tailed beast did not give Ye Luo long to rest. It charged again. The battle continued as before, with Ye Luo at a heavy disadvantage.

    The red-tailed beast''s figure suddenly appeared on the holographic screen. Just as it was about to brush past Ye Luo, it suddenly turned around and striked out with its tail towards Ye Luo.

    Crack! The arrowhead tail destroyed one of the auxiliary engines.

    Just like a dam with a piece of its wall chipped off, this led to a chain reaction. Ye Luo reacted quickly, but it did not stop him from descending further into a tight corner.

    Ye Chong shook his head. Even he could not turn the tides of the battle were he in the mech pilot''s position. The man was in great danger. His death was imminent.

    "Luo!" His wife cried out through thems. Ye Luo had almost lost control of the fight, and his life.

    Aser beam went straight for the red-tailed beast, hoping to force it away. The red-tailed beast was cunning, however. It knew that this was its final chance. If the two humans were allowed to join forces again, it would not survive the battle.

    The animal braced itself for theser beam attack and went for Ye Luo.

    The arrowhead tail prated Ye Luo''s pilot cabin! The recording shook violently. Scraps of metals were flying everywhere. The red-tailed beast''s tail went through the left side of Ye Luo''s abdomen. Ye Luo was stuck to the animal''s tail. Blood sprayed everywhere!

    "No!" The woman screamed with grief. Countlessser beams were fired.

    Ye Chong saw Shang''s full form for the first time, with a blue-white energy gun in its hand. Shang''s image quickly vanished as the holographic recording switched back to the pilot cabin''s interior.

    Ye Luo groaned, but his hands were still typing fast on the control console.

    The red-tailed beast was about to pull out its arrowhead tail when the mech brought its two arms in and caught the animal''s tail tightly in its grasp.

    The red-tailed beast froze. All theser beams fired by Shangnded on the animal''s body. Like rocks thrown against a marsh, the back of the red-tailed beast was littered with holes.

    The red-tailed beast looked like it was in pain. Ye Luo did not wait for it to recover from the shock. The mechanical arms pulled the mech towards the animal. The two of them were close to each other now. The red-tailed beast did not expect its enemy to be able to retaliate still.

    The mech''s knee crashed heavily into the red-tailed beast''s abdomen. Ye Family''s mechs were designed like porcupines. A mechanical joint like the knee would always be fitted with barbs.

    Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Luo could not endure much longer. He vomited blood all over the pilot cabin. Hisst counterattack was done with his final breath.

    Wham! The red-tailed beast''s face twisted. It wriggled like it was mad. The mech could no longer hold on to the red-tailed beast and was flung away.

    Ye Chong saw tworge bloody holes in the abdomen of the red-tailed beast.

    "No!" The voice was devoid of hope. There was the sound of blood dripping.

    Rui Bing''s eyes reddened. She inched closer towards Ye Chong by instinct, and Ye Chong felt his chest tightened.

    On the holographic screen, the red-tailed beast charged towards Shang like a mad animal. The two figures grew smaller and smaller on the holographic screen. Ye Chong noticed that Ye Luo''s mech was flung towards a spatial window. This was probably where the red-tailed beast came from.

    By now, Ye Luo had stopped breathing. His final attack had drained all life from his body.

    The recording turned dark, and then shed. There was a loud crashing sound, and the recording shook. Ye Chong knew that this was when the mech crashed into the ground.

    Things quieted down soon. What Ye Chong saw on the holographic screen now wasparable to what he could currently see outside the mech. The mech must havended where it was today.

    The recording became silent. Nothing changed.

    Ye Chong pressed fast forward until three dayster. The multiply injured red-tailed beast emerged from the spatial window. It looked even more pitiful than before. Basically, the animal was shot full of holes. One of its arms was barely connected to the body.

    This was probably how Shang lost his arm. Ye Chong realized that the woman must be dead. When he found Shang, the mech''s dimension keystone indicated that it had no master. Only when a mech pilot died would a mech automatically refresh its dimension keystone to a nk te.

    However, it seemed that the red-tailed beast was also gravely injured. It looked bloody all over.

    The red-tailed beast turned to Ye Luo''s mech with a hungry look on its face. However, it quickly shifted its attention to the mech''s surroundings and hesitated.

    "The mech''s surroundings? But there''s nothing there on the holographic screen!" Ye Chong thought to himself in bafflement.

 Chapter 593 - Antecedent

    <h4>Chapter 593: Antecedent</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "Could it be the dimensional crack you told me before?" Rui Bing recalled with tears welling up her eyes after seeing the visual just now. She might have experienced parting with loved ones but she was still a rather simple person who only fought with her fists and kicks for justice and love. Her voice was muzzled by her nasal as she spoke.

    "Mhmm, maybe," Ye Chong nodded in agreement.

    In the visual projected, the harshly wounded red-tailed beast had a moment of hesitation before it left the ce for good, and the motion looked still for the next few minutes. If it was not the dust particles rolling on the ground, Ye Chong would have assumed the visual had ended. It was clear that this mech was installed with a powerful detection system, or a powerful energy system, more precisely speaking.

    The visual was fast-forwarded at drastic speed and Ye Chong could see the constant harassment by other red-tailed beasts 26 years after that. The detection had never stopped working for the past 26 years and certainly had justified its outrageously longsting energy reserve.

    Towards theter part of the visual, Ye Chong finally understood why that red-tailed beast left the scene at first, as well as how the mechsted till now - perhaps, the prey was not meant to be consumed after all. As Ye Chong continued observing, he saw a small pack of red-tailed beasts being shredded into countless pieces upon approaching it. The densely formed crack of dimension seemed to have distorted them into a swirl of flesh.

    The mech was apparently a fly-trap for the red-tailed beasts, captivating and deadly.

    The red-tailed beast that decided to leave the mech alone had 8 toes, while these seemingly blind red-tailed beasts had 5. From this, Ye Chong could specte that red-tailed beasts with more than 5 toes could sense the dimensional phenomena, though it was a wild guess.

    As time passed by, Ye Chong witnessed the massive migration of the red-tailed beasts while the timestamp matched the period where red-tailed beats were first seen, at an abrupt asion, in He Yue gxy.

    This ce was obviously a real ce of death with these spatial distortions around. Ye Chong gave up counting the deformed carcasses piling up by the mech as he shifted his attention to the number of packs of migrating red-tailed beasts. There were 57 packs of them that attempted a migration in thest 26 years and only 12 of them actually made it.

    The strange thing was¡­ only a handful of them were spotted at He Yue gxy, so where were the rest? No one knew, but clearly a majority of theirpatriots had been ughtered mercilessly by the dimensional cracks.

    There were a few of them scouting the escape path and mostly they were sacrificed. Ye Chong''s spection could be true, judging how the scouts all had more than 5 toes and they also happened to be the leader of their respective packs. Their leadership made them take up the most dangerous task ever while their innate ability only gave them a partial chance of survival, as they still needed luck in order to survive.

    Ye Chong was not able to perceive their full departure however. The record seemed to have not captured the exact manner the red-tailed beasts "transported" themselves via the spatial window.

    Nevertheless, this mech contained precious information, arge amount of them.

    And one of them mentioned Shang.

    Shang had always been a total mystery to everyone and this time Ye Chong had something like a biography about this tactical ally of his, which included a clear,plete visual of him in his prime.

    There were bits of information about Ye Luo and the pilot of Shang, but those failed to grab Ye Chong''s attention. His sole interest was always on either the friend or the foes, Shang or the red-tailed beasts in this context. Ye Chong believed he hardly associated with Ye Luo and the family.

    While still being remained in the shock after witnessing the destruction caused by the dimensional cracks, Ye Chong began reading the journal entries stored in the processor. There was nothing particrly futuristic about storing a journal for mech pilots. No fancy hologram projection, no audio record, it was just an ordinary page of words written by the pilot as believed to be about rather significant events. It was more manageable, perhaps, for space exploration pilots to keep their journals in text form since it had a smaller file size. It also seemed like the "ck box" for the mech since the journal was stored at the most well-protectedponent of the processor.

    Ye Chong evaluated each entry carefully. The journal was concisely written yet every single sentence was terrifying to both Ye Chong and Rui Bing.

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    It was my 17th birthday today. I was gifted ''Lazunite''."

    Lazunite was probably the name of this mech, which was abination ofzunite and nightfall.

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Lazunite was a great ally. It''s been 3 months since obtained. Lost only in the 39th round in n war. The other n members was defeated by Lazunite in less than 10 moves."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Free space zone, encountered strong enemies of 20, defeated 19 and had a draw. Departed home, during which Xue Lai n scouting team encountered, all destroyed."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Another encounter with the Xue Lai team. 110 casualties this time, smashed 42, wounded 17 and the rest escaped."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    The third time encountering Xue Lai, with 178 units. Utilized the geographical benefits, smashed about half of the group, escaped the scene safely."

    ¡­

    The following entries seemed muchter¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Age: Over 30. Skills: honed apparently. A master of oneself, ranked the top. Improvements were significant. No one in the n could defeat me. Overjoyed."

    ¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    A man with broken heart, without the will to fight. The greatest depressiones from the heart. Sigh."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Encountered arge group of Xue Lai, presumablying to challenge for fun. Cleared 2/3 of the entire army. We might be the greatest nemesis to each other, not even the other aristocrats couldpete."

    That was when Ye Chong clicked the next entry and saw something.

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Xue Lai had a backup this time. A formidable foe. Possibly their top mech model Shang."

    That was it.

    That was really it. Ye Chong erged his eyes, as finally confirming Shang''s identity, being a mech of the Xue Lai n, the top-notch model too, 2 decades back. That exined his capabilities even today, handicapped. Ye Chong could not help but to marvel Shang at his prime.

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Shang challenged. Pilot: Unknown. Fought 10 days straight, oue: negative."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    20th day. Oue: negative."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    A few fights had been done with Shanging back. Oue: negative."

    "Oue: Negative."

    "No oue after the battle."

    ¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Shang had won over my respect. Intend to ally. Lack of a method however."

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    A gentle touch, a fateful encounter truly. The top pilot of Xue Lai n was a woman! Her name was Yu Yu. Heart: pumping fast. Body temperature: rising."

    ¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Formed a party. No regrets in life, not anymore!"

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Utilized pathway of Xue Lai and entered 5 major gxies. Rapports grew, travelling in rxation. Hope the journey never ends!"

    ¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Officially engaged. Today was the marriage. Not even the difference of our family could stop us from getting married. We shall hide from the world, away from the families. Now I finally realized where my heart was broken."

    ¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Yu Yu was pregnant. Felt happiness. Jaws were sore from long hours of smiling. If Ye Juxing saw this, he would beughing."

    ¡­

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    Our child was born. Yu my love was fine. It was a boy and he was named Ye Chong."

    Ye Chong froze, his logical formtion of mental schema had gone chaotic! He seemed to have no longer recognized the world.

    It took him a while to recover from the shock, during which he realized his hand was held by Rui Bing.

    Her eyes were passionately on Ye Chong, her lips could not help but to constantly biting each other upon perceiving Ye Chong''s confused stare and a tighter grip.

    Somehow these little gestures had given Ye Chong a kind of strength. His eyes grew clear as he nodded at Rui Bing, returned her a grip too. Rui Bing''s face reddened while her eyes fixed upon Ye Chong''s.

    Ye Chong''s parents had been revealed. It had always been a concept more foreign than the red-tailed beasts, the unknown creature across dimension to Ye Chong whenever it came to "home" or "family". He only knew, the closest term to such sense of belonging, "Papa".

    He finally realized which Trash the girl in the visual mentioned was, and the recipient too, as well as Shang''s point of existence.

    So, they were his parents. Out of the sudden, Ye Chong had a strong urge to see their faces. He tried searching through the database, only turning out to be a wild goose chase. He could not see a clear visual of them, and could only pick up a few brief lines from the recording.

    He repeated the recording countless times, listened with a passion like it was the first time he heard it.

    He imprinted these voices in his head, then he carried on reading the journals.

    "XX Month XX Day XX Year

    The bloodline of our Ye Chong had always been our worry. What could happen if blood of Ye family and Xue Lai n came into connection? But the oue was, surprisingly, positive. The blood test result reflected a clear characteristic of Ye family. Our son would have a great body like his father. Yu my love had conducted test on our son''s Xue Lai bloodline too. The result matched, perhaps he could inherit the intelligence and powerful calction ability of his mother. Well, the downside was, as his mother stated, it was not confirmed even among their own kind.

    But, I believe we had made a major discovery! The marriage across both families would not taint and kill the bloodline! This would be significant to both Ye family and Xue Lai n, though I am not sure if it is applicable on all families. Still, I strongly believe that this would be quite something for every family in the gxy!"

    Ye Luo no longer sounded concise as he was in this entry. One could almost feel his excitement from the writing.

    The entry exined everything!

    Ye Chong finally understood how he was able to activate Mu/Shang, while having the bloodline, thus the inhumane physique of Ye family.

    His mind ran fast, as he pieced everything together.

    The reason of his appearance on Trash.

    The motive of the MPA, also the Xue Lai n hunting down Mu/Shang upon seeing him.

    The exnation to the fading effect of the toxic of silver liquid in ck Coves.

    The strangely terrified reaction of Mu upon seeing the 8-toed w underground that time.

    The reason why Mu/Shang''s database contained mostly information from Ye family and Xue Lai n.

    Yes, it all made sense, made perfect sense!

 Chapter 594 - Teardrop and Spatial Window

    <h4>Chapter 594: Teardrop and Spatial Window</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong took the journal, along with the microchip that contained the mentioned visual out of the mech. No expression could be perceived on his face, not even Rui Bing could discern the thoughts of her man.

    Ye Chong then booted the energy management system of the mech for further investigation.

    There was onest question unanswered, what kept the mech running for so long? What kind of energy source?

    And the details on the glowing interface answered him, as what he had suspected - it was Teardrop, which was not a far-fetched choice for a superior model from a superior family. What he found far-fetched however, was the fact that Shang never thought of utilizing Teardrop for his own energy consumption, despite also being a superior mech model.

    No wonder the red-tailed beasts were catching the mech like moths to the me. All these while, it was because of the energy signature, not the mech.

    Ye Chong was not sure how these beasts would use a Teardrop but he was very sure that these beasts wanted it hard.

    He dismounted Teardrop and took a look at the circuit. The materials involved might have been considered top-notch back then, but now they appeared obsolete in the eyes of Ye Chong who had mined an inventory full of rare minerals from Darkniss before.

    His calm eyes shifted to the piles of dusty bones across the seat, there might not be words from him but his heart was rumbling with somethingplicated.

    Was that ¡­ my father? My true father?

    His mind spoke softly, never believing that it would be such a reunion with his father when it happened.

    "Ye," Rui Bing''s heart ached upon the grimly indifferent expression of Ye Chong, "Let''s bury our father." Her hands gripped Ye Chong tight.

    He responded with a nod as he began picking up the crumbling bones piece by piece.

    Both of them exited the mech. Ye Chong withdrew his dagger, an action foreign to the bewildered Sha Ya as he started digging a hole on the ground to ce the pieces.

    The experience was not particrly new to Ye Chong since he was also the one who buried Papa back then. He still could remember it like it was yesterday. It was so sad that he feared as Papa was his only rtive who had taken good care of him since he was young.

    Ye Chong might be apathetic at times, but he was still a child back then. There was fear in him, over losing his only close rtive who had been taking care of him since he was still crawling the ground.

    And now he was there, watching his signpost of blood and flesh disintegrating into the ashes on the ground. It was aplicated feeling of seeing a reunion having to go like this.

    "Let''s salute your father¡­," said Rui Bing softly.

    He was not entirely clear about this concept of saluting people but he just imitated Rui Bing''s action as he bowed before the tomb thrice.

    Ye Chong intended to leave the scene afterwards, as he looked at that old damaged Lazunite gasping for air on the ground. The mech was beyond repair and onlyponents like the detection system were working as if yesterday, with a few glitches that could be fatal to the pilot.

    Let ashes be ashes.

    Let memories remain as memories.

    Let the mech stay the ce it was, with its owner for all eternity.

    "We are going back," said Ye Chong hoarsely to Sha Ya who was unaware of what happened in the abandoned mech far away from her. Nevertheless, she was fully aware of what should be asked and what should not, so she just remained quiet and followed the order as they returned to Darkniss.

    Ye Chong''s crew had been following their leader for quite some time so they could tell his mood despite his apparent indifference. Their leader might be a wise and calm one, unexpressive of his emotion yet they demonstrated cautious obedience, as part of their deep respect to Ye Chong their leader.

    "My lord, perhaps we could use this window," said Aried as he inched towards Ye Chong.

    "What do you propose?" replied Ye Chong as he got back from his deep thoughts. He did not see how one could utilize this dimensional window that broke the surrounding with horrendous cracks, other than killing the ce of course.

    "Sir, the cracks are fading away," added Sha Ya.

    "Fading¡­" Ye Chong flinched, "away?" That was a plot twist.

    "Wait, Sha Ya, did you say ''fading away''?" Aried was astonished too, "Impossible! We did not detect any high energy activity at the surrounding, at least not high enough to stimte the disintegration."

    High energy¡­ activity? Minerals?

    Teardrops?

    Was it because of Teardrop?

    The thought shed in Ye Chong''s mind.

    The dimensional cracks were far more denser at Lazunite yet¡­

    Could there be a rtionship¡­ between the space distortion activity and Teardrops?

    "Sir!" Screamed Sha Ya, "There are formation of dimensional cracks around us! It''s increasing!"

    Ye Chong jumped up from his throne.

    I knew it! It is the Teardrops! It has to be! The Darkniss utilized Teardrops as the source of energy. Of course Aried could not detect any high level of energy activity nearby!

    We *are* the high level energy activity itself!

    "Avoid them, Sha Ya, you''ll lead us!" Ye Chongmanded as he turned to Aried and said, "We MUST get through the dimensional window, now! Tell me what do you need!"

    "But¡­ but¡­ my lord¡­ We aren''t aware of where the dimensional window leads t-"

    "I KNOW!" Ye Chong interrupted as he looked at Aried. "We can go anywhere but it''s definitely not here! Leave now!"

    Aried replied, "Y-yes sir," giving a few dramatic nods.

    "What do you need? Report!" said Ye Chong.

    Aried pondered for a few moments, "Teardrop. Give me one Teardrop." It was a confident reply from him.

    Without hesitation, Ye Chong removed a Teardrop and passed to Aried.

    The crew members got busy as bees in the control room, while the rest were looking at the hologram that reflected their uing fate.

    As we all know, piloting a giant warship to perform hectic and minimal evasion was an art, a tremendously challenging movement that required precise coordination.

    Therefore it was justifiable to see the crew members being this tense, as a long chains ofmand was uttered in shrieks from time to time, from one member to another.

    The dimensional cracks were forming at a moderate rate round the ship, which was the saving grace for the crew. If the cracks came a bit faster, they might have to join the stars.

    Aried led Sang Kan to the dimensional window as surrounded by a formation of Level 8 shooters. Even though they could not clearly feel the structure of the dimensional window like their Level 9 counterparts, at least they could tell the location.

    Aried and Sang Kan began setting up the apparatus, which were all the creation of Aried. Thankfully the ship was well-facilitated, so it did not take him long to build these, especially with the microchip from Ye Chong that contained insane amount of space science information. The Consortium was their aid, ironically.

    There were a few blueprints and Aried had built machines upon them, yet no test was actually performed before.

    It was a set of 14 silver round disks about half a meter in diameter, withplicated circuits over them. Aried and Sang Kan ced these disks right below the dimensional window.

    The crew was curious. Aried was the schr to them so they were interested in histest experiment.

    Both Aried and Sang Kan first connected all 14 disks and the wiring took them about 30 minutes. They spent the next 10 minutes performing final check.

    Aried gestured Sang Kan to back away. He hesitated and eventually left Aried alone far ahead.

    Aried was grim, as he installed the Teardrop on the centermost disk.

    Beep.

    The disk glowed with sea blue energy flowing through the entire circuit over the surface. In no time, the energy reached the other disks too.

    Aried was relieved, the apparatus seemed to be working. He began sprinting, sprinting towards the warship. Sang Kan grabbed the running man over his shoulders and ran hurriedly as well.

    The moment they got back to the ship, the dimensional window was morphing.

 Chapter 595 - Return

    <h4>Chapter 595: Return</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Ye Chong looked this strange sending nostalgia to him. He was having mixed feelings.

    Trash-12. The where he grew up. He recognized every piece of trash on this. The abandoned spaceships, themander''s throne with a broken cushion, the pile of rusty cogs giving one the sharp stench even by just looking at it.

    It had been 10 years since he departed from Trash-12 and this filthy home of his remained filthy as ever.

    Ever since the Big Bang, the had lost its life. Those overwhelming monsters Ye Chong once terrified of, had all been vanquished, annihted, wiped, as if Judgment Day. He strolled through the pile of debris which looked as if before. Leading Rui Bing, they got home, Ye Chong''s home in the past.

    "Where is this?" asked Rui Bing.

    "Home. I grew up here." The indifferent reply from Ye Chong made Rui Bing grab her man tightly. She could not imagine her beloved living on this trashy ce alone as a child before.

    Ye Chong''s home remained the way when he departed back then. Nothing was touched. No footprint of the notorious Engulfer was even discerned around his home. The Engulfers once always outnumbered the other species with their reproduction, and now they stayed as history, a faint vor wafting in the pte of Ye Chong. It was a shame to be no longer able to taste some lovely roasted Engulfer.

    Well, at least, as conveniently as azily written Sci-fi, the daring gamble of the crew plunging into the dimensional window led them to Trash-12. Ye Chong did not notice the window at all, as it was cleverly hidden behind a few space rocks.

    Aried was talented after all, since he picked the right blueprint that produced a window expander. The Darkniss eventually passed through the distortion seamlessly. Nevertheless, the window disintegrated not too long after they hadnded on Trash-12. Aried''s hypothesis was, the disappearance of the dimensional window could be due to the intensive energy stimtion produced by the machines, which led to destabilization.

    Well, assuming that was a dimensional window created by nature, a new one should being, though the catch was, no one would know how long it would take, and no one would ever know if it still led to the same ce.

    Trash-12 was dead, not surprisingly to the denizen. It was meant to be a giant space rubbish dump. The residents around the had already been migrated to others. The red-tailed beasts might have devoured the entire gxy as attracted by the metals in it, yet they were never interested in the metallic junks on Trash-12. The junks were substandard after all. They remained on the same spot as ever, quietly.

    Ye Chong knew Fal gxy well. He had the necessary information of the entire gxy the moment he left Trash, thanks to Mu/Shang.

    There was no signal to transmit anything. Apparently the connection had been cut away from the main transmitter a few lightyears away. Well, it made sense. Who would transmit things from a rubbish dump anyway?

    Ye Chong, as his instinct told, decided to head to Blue Ocean first. It was the where he first met Rui Bing, in her loving white garb and Grandpa Qian, at his little noodle shop. All was fine till a strike came to the Five Gxies and everyone on Blue Ocean was forced to migrate. Rui Bing and the people he cared moved to Csebesini gxy and no one knew what had happened to this blueish after that.

    They got back to the ship and led the ship to the coordinate of Blue Ocean.

    It was a shocking scene when they got there.

    It almost felt like a blue Trash-12 when they hopped off the. The same ruins, the same silence, the simr stench, the same dead atmosphere. The buildings had fallen. The streets were scattered with yellowish wallpapers. Mechs rested the ground with broken arms. The city waspletely destroyed as they saw the puddles of brownish water tainting the street.

    They tried shouting but only echoes returned. There was nobody but the packs of red-tailed beasts which just marched before Ye Chong fearlessly. They were the survivors to this chaotic ce. Their adaptability gave the citizenship here.

    It was expected by Ye Chong, well he was the one who witnessed the higher ranked, 8-toed red-tailed beasts after all.

    "No one survived," reported Sang Kan grimly, who saw the destruction by the terrifying beasts the first time. He was utterly blown. He could see how developed the city was in its former glory and now¡­ But, fortunately, he did not discovered dead bodies around, not arge number of them, probably everyone managed to escape before chaos ensuedpletely.

    The production line was probably the area that suffered the most damage due to its abundant supply of batteries. Well, a production line was there¡­ which now only the scraps remained. It was a fact universally acknowledged, that a red-tailed beast in possession of an actual berserk must be in want of immense energy. Ye Chong could verify this fact, throughout all his encounters with the red-tailed beasts, it had and only had always been a snatch of energy. And unfortunately, it had always been the wealthy, authoritative groups that possessed excellent sources of mineral energy, while they, despite their colossal amount of currencies, might not be able to have the security that would protect them from the strike of red-tailed beasts, though they were great runners when it happened. Nheless, Darkniss had far greater rare mineral inventory than these big shots in the Five Gxies.

    It was the nature of red-tailed beasts topete for resources, but it was apparently not their nature to utilize these energy resources for evolution. Well, if such ability was inborn for them, the gxies would be a goner by then. Extracting energy from minerals by humanity was seemingly an art, a hardly understood magic in the eyes of these beasts. Red-tailed beasts, in spite of their intelligence,cked the actual capability of creation. To get energy they only knew how to steal. Certainly, they would steal candies from only babies, they would never pick anything of their own size. If they did, it would only be destruction for them. However, humans, while being possibly the right baby to steal candies from, turned out to be rather resilient to the beasts.

    The production line was obviously destroyed. Nothing was left for Ye Chong. He needed information, regarding the current situation in Five Gxies, on the warfare between red-tailed beasts and humanity.

    That would be the only signpost for their discretion.

    They were blind at the situation for the moment.

    How many "ns" were there amodating these red-tailed beasts?

    Where were these ns?

    What could Ye Chong do now?

    Eventually, perhaps driven by nostalgia, they headed to Csebesini. While Rui Bing was kidnapped away to He Yue gxy, Grandpa Qian and the others resided there. Moreover, judging by the intergcticyout, Csebesini might hold the greatest likelihood of survivals. Well, geographically saying, it should.

    Csebesini was not practically thergest among all Five Gxies, yet it was the transition area interconnected with the other 4 gxies. Csebesini had always been the neutral member of the party, with an open, weing policy that attracted flocks of talents from all over the universe. There was an influx of poption during the chaos, making Csebesini no longer the overlooked gxy among the five as rapid development ensued.

    "That was valid till¡­ well, I got knocked out and brought to He Yue," said Rui Bing.

    "Sir, we detected threats." Right after Ye Chong got back to Darkniss, the alert came.

    There was a small team of red-tailed beasts detected on the visual. Ye Chong, after a careful observation, deduced that these red-tailed beasts were of a far higher rank than those they encountered on Darkniss before. Yup, even higher than those he fought on Yi Ju. The toes were clearly more than 3 on each. The leader was 5-toed. From Ye Chong''s experience, a 5-toed red-tailed beast could have been a supreme leader of a smaller n in Darkniss, yet this 5-toed beast he was seeing merely came from a small team.

    One could already imagine the difference in levels now.

    They had evolved?

    At least the beasts would not evolve all at once out of sudden. In order to initiate evolution, which was to gain that extra toe, to go up in rank, they would need a certain amount of minerals and energy which would increase tremendously each stage of evolution.

    The red-tailed beasts seemed to be unaware of Darkniss, probably because of the distance as well as theyer of colloid fungus extract the crew applied at the body of Darkniss.

    Ye Chong remained cautious as ever nheless.

    He sent 100 mechs off to fight. Appilok who was the suprememander of the mech military unit of the entire crew led the army, showing the extreme careful measures Ye Chong took.

    Appilok did not find this an overkill. He, like the other members of the crew, was fully aware of the ranking system among the red-tailed beasts.

    100 mechs went into a curvy formation, inching towards the 28 red-tailed beasts. Like Darkniss, the mechs were also coated with colloid fungus extract so they were invisible to the red-tailed beasts. Appilok was not noticed immediately, even though the leading red-tailed beast seemed to be able to feel his existence as it nced at the ce where Appilok stood. The captain remained undiscovered, even though it was a terrifying scene to behold on the visual in the ship.

    Appilok was calm, unshaken by the threat. Fire was held despite seeing the beasts beingpletely inside their range of weaponry.

    Timing and range were the prime factor to determine a sessful assassination.

    It was not the speed or the strength of the beast that threatened the crew. It was the extrasensory that could assist the beasts in dodging all attacks while making one.

    The best way to eliminate the pack would be to fire at close range, densely.

    Theser guns were initiated, charging.

    And it was that quick charging of mech weaponry that rmed the red-tailed beasts.

    They began scattering!

    "Fire." Appilokmanded calmly.

    The 100 beams flew over the air and struck upon the 28 beasts.

 Chapter 596 - Desperation

    <h4>Chapter 596: Desperation</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Abined beam attack was the technique the team had been studying.

    In theirtest discovery, the distance and the consistency of their shots were the most important, so by utilizing the processors to improvise, this was the oue of their research.

    16 red-tailed beasts had turned into 16 puddles of honebs, yet it remained an unsatisfying sight to Appilok. Logically speaking, it was a war of 28 against 100, carried out as an assassination yet only a majority of the wave was cleared - 16 killed, 12 remained. A dense firing that failed rather horribly in Appilok''s record. However, he was not puzzled. Being themander, one must not only wield the charisma but also a mind in peace during the war, in order to make the right decision for the goods of his men.

    His previous experience in the warfield had justified that.

    "Attack in groups." The next order had been given.

    The team Ye Chong was leading now turned out to be much moreplicated than before. They had been trained, "improvised" during the ample time they had in Darkniss. Ye Chong did not supervise most of their programs, being a man who was particr about results the most. During the process, Appilok, thanks to thepetition and the consistent exposure to practical fights, matured in his leadership.

    It was because of thisck of limitation from the author, most of themanders'' ideas were managed to manifest. To be frank, Appilok was the brightest one among them, a genius, literally one made for war strategist whom Ye Chong believed to be on par with Arwa the legend in Gray Valley.

    He was also a passionate learner with an open mind. On asions where Duan Qian and the others came up with ideas, he would take all of them once proven effective. He just had that practicality from Ye Chong.

    100 mechs were segregated into 10 small groups.

    They had a detailed set of procedures which was meant to remedy the situation. Everything must be nned beforehand, even if the warfield was capriciously ever-changing. If changes happened, an army could break into chaos for not knowing how to adapt to the situation as a whole.

    And this was one of them, based on a highly modified version of Ye Chong''s training course by Appilok.

    A unit consisted of 10 mechs could fulfill the necessary dexterity and offense density for the war.

    The pilots were shooting calmly. They did not really have to aim. tThey just had to follow the arranged shooting point at an assigned pace. Still, abined attack that would form an Area-of-Effect attack engulfing the red-tailed beasts straightaway.

    The technique was as effective as one could see. No masterly evasion could save any of these red-tailed beasts. Their number shrunk drastically, so were their sanity.

    The group led by Appilok remained on hold of their fire. They were ones who scored 98% and above for shooting, the aiming bot themselves. Apparently after the misfortune of the 6-toed red-tailed beast escape, the trainees grew tremendously maniac over mastering their uracy. That was when the grading set Ye Chong was overthrown as a new, more demanding training came to them in which only less than 10% of the group managed to pass in the first ce.

    There was hardly anybody who scored above 80% and the trainees certainly had tasted the hardship of their training. It was drilled in their head so hard that they could not help themselves but to lift their guns to aim whenever they spotted something moving. Despite all that, the training was very effective. Their performance was climbing while a few of them, driven by their passion, were able to obtain a perfect score.

    Those who scored above 95% were considerably a true sniper mech pilot. And among the approximately 4000 trainees, only 234 of them managed to earn thisplete liberty of unsupervised shooting in the warfield. The normal pilots would inform these snipers to clear the more troubling foes. These snipers also had the responsibility of protecting themanders in the dark. So, in order to carry out these tasks, Ye Chong had produced them a mech model specialized in target-locking.

    The red-tailed beasts were eventually swarmed upon by thebined beams.

    A sudden raid unforeseen by the red-tailed beasts it was.

    One of the red-tailed beasts managed to escape thebined attack, bleeding as it held its throat in disbelief.

    One mech next to Appilok ced down the gun. He made the shot.

    It was a rather quick fight, as only the leader of the red-tailed beasts remained on the field, in immense fury of course. It was always the one breaking the field and now it was the one going to be broken. Its enemies had never decreased, which brought confusion to it. It had wrecked arge number of them at different ces before, it almost felt like a bunch of walking target dummies to the beast yet¡­ how? When did these metallic target dummies got stronger?

    Then thest beam came, blinding its eyes, then its life.

    ¡­(In Darkniss)¡­

    Ye Chong had been observing the field.

    The red-tailed beasts had definitely evolved, as expected by Ye Chong though. So his surprise was because of capabilities of not the beasts but his trainees.

    He had never put in actual effort in training these trainees as he was already preupied by lots of mundane and puzzling works. He was only the mastermind, not the master coach, even during the R&D process of their military techniques.

    Appilok was indeed a genius!

    First step had beenpleted and there was no time for more exmation or even celebration. This would only be the beginning.

    He was right.

    There were more red-tailed beasts, a whole lot more of them.

    The entire Fal gxy had been raided by red-tailed beasts. He was unsure of the situation in other gxies. He must follow his n - to Csebesini!

    Darkniss, thanks to the special coating at its armor, was totally invisible to all detection system from distance. Ironically such attribute had also put them at disadvantage. They were undetected, therefore the red-tailed beasts literally crashed into them during the journey. The beasts could not see them, yet they could sense its existence.

    The battle units were busy as bees while showering the beams upon the beasts, at an attempt to wipe them out quick. On one wave, one 6-toed red-tailed beast made a close escape, after which the number of red-tailed beasts increased in the following waves. Darkniss was in the dense sensory of countless red-tailed beasts, thus losing its former invisibility.

    That was when the red-tailed beasts made their first full swing attack.

    Darkniss maintained its high momentum as the bloody carcasses trailed. It sounded like a simple kill-and-go but both Appilok and Ye Chong could smell the uing trouble. The red-tailed beasts seemed to alling for them. The war grew harder each day and mortality was perceived on Darkniss.

    "The number of red-tailed beasts encountered yesterday was a 20% increasepared to the day before yesterday, while on today, at this point of time, the figure had exceeded the day before, with a potential to reach a 50% increase." Reported Appilok, with slight worry.

    "The figures¡­ they are climbing¡­"

    Appilok looked at Ye Chong while he further borated, "Yes sir, I believe, all these were an organized attack. And no doubt the figure would only increase further. Unless wee up with a feasible n, we would be surrounded soon. We had lost 28 men today, with 6 injuries too."

    Ye Chong nodded, he knew the situation well. The mortality was because of fatigue. The trainees never had the chance to rest given how frequent the waves came, thus certain amateur mistakes which obviously costed their life during the process.

    At one point, the pole would snap, the Darkniss would fall.

    And they still were 3 days away from warping point to Csebesini.

    Ye Chong pondered.

    "Reduce the range of defense. All pilots must rest. Now." He turned his head, "The shooters would take over and they must at leastst for a day. Sha Ya, you''ll take this mission."

    "Yes," nodded Sha Ya in serenity. She walked away.

    Appilok gave a sigh of relief.

    "Order them to retreat now. All units would be prohibited from the warfield for the rest of the day."

    "Yes sir!"

    The mechs surrounding Darkniss began heading back to their mothership. during which they covered for each other.

    And the red-tailed beasts were smiling.

    It was an opportunity to attack.

    They flooded upon Darkniss, like locusts.

 Chapter 597 - Escape

    <h4>Chapter 597: Escape</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    Without any forewarning, countless beams spurted out of Darkniss. Compared to thebined attacks by the sniper mech pilots, the parapsychic sensible shooters were much more capable at delivering consistent urate attacks, as their beams rained rhythmically at an exact order, causing Darkniss to look like aser porcupine.

    The dense wave of red-tailed beasts were impaled by the lights.

    The most fearsome part was how almost every red-tailed beast was ughtered by their throat. The aiming was more inhuman than the beasts themselves. Only 5 survived with severe injuries while the rest was killed on spot.

    Among the crowd, a few packs of highly ranked red-tailed beasts even decided to retreat immediately, as fear imprinted on their distorted expression. It was the first time Ye Chong seeing such fright in them. What had seriously caused them such fright?

    A few thoughts and he realized why. He recalled the content of the visuals left on Lazunite the abandoned mech, on which the log said only high-ranked red-tailed beasts could escape as they led their subordinates. Thus, they must possess a kind of sensibility like Sha Ya. Given that, they must be able to sense the overwhelming parapsychic forcesing from Sha Ya and the others.

    It was an army consisted of 600 Level 6 shooters, under assistance of 3 Level 7 shooters and 6 Level 8 shooters, all under Sha Ya who was a Level 9 shooter. The forces exerted was so grand that even an airhead like Ye Chong felt the illogical distress taking over him, while those low-ranked red-tailed beasts tripping dead as they sprinted.

    Well, a monster remained as a threat even when it was in fear, be they tripping or running away. Sha Ya did not intend to let them go. She might be a strong shooter, but that did not convince her to be boastful and hot-tempered. Her strength had also given her temperance, a rity in mind.

    That was when she convinced the world, what a true expert like a Level 9 shooter was, as she raised her weapon and poured 66 beams which bloomed like blossom from the cabin.

    None of them missed.

    50 5-toed red-tailed beasts and 16 6-toed red-tailed beasts had been pierced.

    Even Ye Chong had a second of bewilderment upon the sight. A 6-toed red-tailed beast was not much of an issue for him. He probably could clear a small wave of them in his Celest, but Sha Ya only raised her firearm and arge pack of the beasts vanished in blinding lights.

    The sailors in Darkniss were feeling pumped.

    Jin Weidong, after the training in Sea of Threads, had his skills dramatically improved like the other shooters, while they seemed to have a sign of elevating to Level 9.

    The amount of effort to go from Level 8 to Level 9 was almost astronomical, yet they were making something.

    Thanks to the shooters who were able to dish out massive damage, the battle was ending rather soon after.

    Nheless, a new wave had arrived.

    Ye Chong knew there would be a new wave very soon as he could see how organized the attack was. Clearly the red-tailed beasts wanted to win the war by outnumbering humanity.

    The war was strangely intense.

    The energy meter on Darkniss depleted quickly. Luckily the Darkniss utilized energy crystal as its source of energy, which contained far more energy content than the batteriesmonly used in the Five Gxies. And Ye Chong had an inventory full of them. If he did not supply enough energy crystals they probably would inevitably lose the battle due to an immobile ship.

    Darkniss was traveling at full speed and any iing red-tailed beast was immediately killed.

    That sounded simple, but the ship was stillgging behind the schedule even under the godly hand of Sha Ya, as the waves only thickened each time. The red-tailed beasts were fearless, unafraid of death, as they came back again and again, pouncing at Darkniss.

    Many of the shooters had fully depleted their parapsychic strength as they copsed at the cabin. The medical team was running from one corridor to another.

    Sha Ya remained as the most amazing warrior at the scene, as her shooting frequency and uracy were retained at high levels. She was not only strong but also very sustainable in war field, which had won over respects of the shooters. At this point of time, only Jin Weidong''s team could catch up with her shooting pace. Well, Ye Chong could see them losing the race soon.

    Sha Ya had maintained shooting at a high frequency, high uracy for SIX hours. The data was astounding to the folks. She was given the Ye Chong treatment by the people as they wondered if she was a human. They thought only the master could have honored such inhumanity, yet there was Sha Ya, deconstructing their perceived idea again.

    And finally the war seemed to being to an actual end.

    The mortality of red-tailed beasts was beyond their control. The shooters estimated at least 7000 kills in the past 6 hours, which the figure was sufficient to form a "n".

    Ye Chong lost about 361 shooters, all because of extreme parapsychic fatigue.

    ording to the shooters, apparently it was not a norm for them to fight a long term war, since most oues happened in split seconds for them. Ye Chong did not want to drain them at first, but he was left with no other choice. The pilots had fallen and he had no backup force.

    Fortunately the fatigue was not fatal to them, though it was hard to tell when they would wake up again - not a good news for Ye Chong.

    The pilots would at least need 10 hours to regain their stamina. And so far only 6 hours hadpsed while most of the shooters had copsed. If they had encountered another wave as frenzy as the previous, there would be problems.

    But the wave seemed to have ceased, as Ye Chong looked at the floating carcasses around the void. It was a horrendous sight, a nightmare fuel. The crew members had gotten used to such sight however.

    The escaped red-tailed beasts did not flee from the scene right away. Instead, they tailed Darkniss at a fixed distance. They were alert yet no action was taken ,yet.

    Well, as long as they did notunch the attack, Darkniss would be safe.

    Ye Chong sighed in a relief. He needed that catch of his breath.

    As long as theysted the following hours, all would be good.

    The shooters did not leave the firing chamber, they remained as alert while eyeing those beasts far behind. They needed tost till the pilots got back online.

    Therge pack of red-tailed beasts army were following Darkniss and no one knew what could happen next. It was such a restless situation. But at least the captain seemed calm at the moment. The crew members believed everything was still under Ye Chong''s control.

    Clearly they would be led to safety!

    The captain was the greatest!

    That was how the trainees saw Ye Chong. They knew it well, on how they would remain as the most peasantly peasant, the most trashy trash in the world if they did not meet the master. So, everything was for the master, by the master, of the master.

    The faithfulness was almost a blind one. Appilok might have been their military leader, but it was this indifferent quiet young man who had given them the necessary mental support.

    Ye Chong loved the obedient red-tailed beasts, as he prompted Darkniss to travel faster towards the warping point.

    It felt strange the following days. The red-tailed beasts, as if they had been given enough punishments, behaved. Ye Chong could not foresee their next diabolical n but he was feeling much more at ease. After all, his pilot army had fully recovered, all ready for battle. Most of the shooters had also regained consciousness.

    Even if the red-tailed beasts decided tounch the attack, he could take them all just fine.

    "Captain!"

    And that was when he could already see the warping point.

    He looked at the marching red-tailed beasts behind, a brief smile cracked his usual coldness, "elerate, prepare for space warp."

    "Perform space warp!" shouted the sailor.

    Engines were all turned on, Darkniss sted off into¡­

    nothing?

    That was what the red-tailed beasts witnessed.

    In the midst of confusion, the giant metallic enemy disappeared.

    Well, they might have evolved but this entire space-jumping Einstein rocket science was beyond theirprehension.

 Chapter 598 - Mutual Understanding

    <h4>Chapter 598: Mutual Understanding</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The warship Darkniss had justpleted its warp jump when it stumbled upon a situation.

    A full blown war was happening right in front of them. Ye Chong stayed in the background. He needed time to assess the battle. The fleet was huge, with probably over a hundred ships.

    Ye Chong soon came to the conclusion that the fleet must belong to some aristocratic family, or a powerful organization. This was apparent from the starship designs. The fleet had encountered arge group of red-tailed beasts. From the looks of it, the battle had been going on for some time. Mech squads were scattered about the fleet. They seemed to be inferior to the red-tailed beasts, but had the advantage in numbers.

    After observing the battle for a while, Ye Chong found himself taken aback.

    "What rotten skills." Sang Kanmented dismissively. He had good reason to look down on the mech pilots. The mechs werecking in both group and solobat abilities. He found the mech pilots to be quite disappointing.

    Nevertheless, Ye Chong shook his head. This surprised Sang Kan. He did not think he was wrong. If all the students on their ship were on par with those mech pilots, he would definitely terminate their instructor, with or without the good sir''s orders.

    Ye Chong did not exin himself as he continued observing the battle. After a while more, he felt even more certain of his spection. It seemed that the Five Gxies had been progressing in his absence. Darkniss had ughtered many red-tailed beasts, and Ye Chong knew that exactly how his students would fare against the mech pilots from the Five Gxies. Any average mech pilot from He Yue Gxy would be considered a professional in the Five Gxies.

    Even He Yue Gxy''s mech pilots were unlikely to win against red-tailed beasts, but these mech pilots from the Five Gxies were able to force the war into a stalemate through their advantage in numbers. This was a big surprise for Ye Chong, since he never expected the Five Gxies to survive the red-tailed beasts.

    These were his thoughts that he did not share with Sang Kan.

    Sang Kan studied the war with a look of puzzlement. There must a reason for the good sir to disagree with him, so he looked harder at the battle to see what he was missing. After a while, he hummed in surprise. "The fleetmander is good!"

    Next to Ye Chong was Appilok on standby. He nodded andmented solemnly, "An expert! It''s incredible!" He looked very serious.

    By now, many more people had noticed this. The truth was, the mech pilots inbat were not particrly skilled, or just simply weak, but they had kept the war at a stalemate despite this. There must be an outstandingmander who could identify the enemy''s vulnerabilities andmand the fleet ordingly.

    The scariest part was, themander had excellent insights. Whether it was in the bigger picture of the smallest details, themander had nned wlessly. The mech pilots carried out their orders without hesitation or doubt. Hence, the war had arrived at a stalemate.

    Appilok looked more and more shaken. His forehead was beaded with sweat.

    What a terrifyingmander! He could not help but felt that he may never reached that level of skills. However, he quickly reigned in his own emotions. All the mech pilots trained by Ye Chong were mentally tough. Appilok quickly rectified his attitude. His eyes glowed with ambition.

    In fact, Appilok was asking too much of himself. He was still young, and had not received proper leadership training. Everything he learned was through experience. Only a genius could reach where he was given the circumstances. As long as he continued to learn and gather experiences, he will certainly reach greater heights.

    Sang Kan could not appreciate themander''s skills, but Sang Pu definitely would have.

    The warship Darkniss did not draw any attention afterpleting its warp jump. Appilok and others looked to Ye Chong. They were waiting for his orders. Should they go to the rescue, or not? If not, where should they go next? Ye Chong must make decide for them.

    Ye Chong''s wandered to one of the starships on the holographic screen. Suddenly, his expression turned into a mixture of emotions. Rui Bing quickly noticed the changes in him. She found it curious. Ye Chong rarely showed an expression like that. What had he seen?

    She followed Ye Chong''s gaze and could not help but gasped.

    In the warship''s bridge was a woman of about 28 years of age, with a few burly men and an old man standing around her at attention. She wore gold rimmed sses that rested on her small nose. Her gentle face showed great determination. Her eyes were sharp, following movements on the holographic screens around her as she tapped lightly and rhythmically on the main control board.

    "Squads 10, 19 and 21, assist starship Mo Yun immediately." Her voice was deep and silky.

    The burly men around her were not affected by her seductive voice. They quickly passed the order down. Starship Mo Yun looked like it was still faring well, but no one questioned her orders. They believed that the Young Miss must be right.

    As expected, just as the three mech squads arrived at Mo Yun, the situation turned sideways. Arge group of red-tailed beasts had arrived.

    All the crew members were in awe of their Young Miss''s almost prophetic abilities. Without her, they could not have survive for so long.

    Ye Chong and his crew saw what happened as well. Appilok looked taken aback. More sweat appeared on his forehead. Even in the highlyplex situation they were in, themander was able to pinpoint the enemy''s next move precisely. It was shocking!

    "Prepare to assist." Ye Chong''s order brought Appilok back to the present. He could read nothing from hismander''s expression, and did not know what he was thinking.

    Appilokposed himself. "Yes sir!"

    Despite seeing the chaos outside, Appilok did not hesitate and ran out of the bridge. At the same time, orders for their mech squads to prepare to deploy began to ring throughout the warship.

    Rui Bing stood beside Ye Chong and looked at the holographic screen worriedly.

    "Young Miss, look!" A crew member pointed at one of the holographic screens and gasped in surprise.

    There was no need for his warning. Gu Qing saw what was happening. She kept this region under close watch. If she had anymore elite squads, she would have deployed them all to that region. It would give her the power to control the course of the war. However, she had lost almost all her elite mech pilots. There was not enough manpower to undergo this task.

    A hundredser beams shot through the red-tailed beast horde. The animals scurried about in confusion.

    Gu Qing was surprised. Her breathing turned rapid, bringing a blush rising to her cheeks. The poker faced burly men around her finally could not help but swallowed deeply.

    Gu Qing did not seem to notice. She was focused entirely on the holographic screen. There was nothing at all to see. She responded swiftly with a loud order. "Quick, switch to optical mode."

    The crew members around jolted awake from their reverie and rushed to switch to optical mode.

    The image on the screen changed immediately.

    A fleet of about 500 mechs were pushing their way into the horde of red-tailed beasts.

    The mech were powerful. In particr, theirser guns could shoot a big, bloody hole in the creatures. Their battle strategy was unique, with clear roles of offense. The mechs at the front line all fired in unison, while the mechs behind them guarded the nks and rear. This unique strategy and with their powerfulser guns were enough to open a path in the animal horde with ease.

    Nevertheless, Gu Qing was not surprised because of this. Instead, she saw how the mech squad had chosen the perfect time and location to make their entry. This showed that their leader was capable.

    If this strong mech squad was led by an excellentmander, they would surely make a name for themselves.

    Gu Qing knew what she had to do next. She gave the order without dy. "Squads 1, 5, 9 and 16, disperse and surround the red-tailed beasts. Keep them distracted."

    "Squads 3 and 7, move towards the starships. Make way."

    This was all she could now. Now, she could only hope that themander of the other party understood her actions.

    She stared at the holographic screen in suspense. Her orders were actually a huge risk. If the other party did not understand her and respond ordingly, the war would be lost for good.

    She did not notice that her knuckles were turning white from gripping too tightly. Her characteristic calmness yielded to the pressure in this decisive moment.

    Appilok quickly noticed the changes on the other side. He was slightly taken aback, but also deeply impressed. Without further dy, he rounded up the entire squad and traced a beautiful arc in space. The mech pilots demonstrated their remarkable skills in this maneuver. They made a sharp veer without losing formation.

    Gu Qing immediately felt relieved. She knew that the other party had understood her.

    Gu Qing studied the holographic screen with amusement as the mech squad charged straight in. Squads 3 and 7 had drew close to the starships around them to make way for the squad. Thus, these neers could unleash their maximum potential.

    The battle oue was decided.

    Gu Qing was only interested in a few things now. Where did this powerful mech squade from? Who did they serve?

 Chapter 599 - Xi Ding Defense Line

    <h4>Chapter 599: Xi Ding Defense Line</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The Gu Family of Tian Luo Gxy - a widely influential aristocratic family, was now in great danger. As a historical empire of the Tian Luo Gxy, they had a strong base in the Gxy, but nevertheless were helpless against the red-tailed beasts. In recent years, the Gu Family began to decline. With the disappearance of Gu Shaoze, the Gu Family lost a technical genius. For Gu Qing, she had lost someone very important to her.

    Gu Shaoze was her only younger brother.

    The ramifications wereplicated. Gu Shaoze was the designated heir to the Family. His disappearance plunged the Gu Family into a state of turmoil. People who meant ill towards the Family began to make their moves. The lower level members of the Family panicked. When Gu Qing had moved past her grief, the Gu Empire was nearly destroyed.

    All this while, Gu Shaoze had never liked dealing with family affairs. The one who really ran the Gu Empire was his sister, Gu Qing. In this crisis, Gu Qingmanded the Gu Family''s most loyal servants without hesitation. Few people knew of this powerful group who served the direct line of the family. They existed precisely for situations like this.

    Gu Family''s internal affairs were swiftly managed. Gu Qing then took a series of precautionary steps to stabilize the Gu Family''s inner circle. The lower members of the Family witnessed for the first time the determination and austerity behind the mellow facade of the Family''s Eldest Young Miss.

    Nevertheless, the Gu Family suffered losses because of the ordeal. Gu Qing faced the situation bravely, but just as the Family regained some of its power, the red-tailed beasts striked.

    The invasion of the red-tailed beasts began at Tappero Gxy. The creatures spread rapidly across the entire Gxy. Few people managed to escape. Most of the residents in the Gxy lost their lives in the invasion. The once prosperous Tappero Gxy fell quickly. People from the other four Gxies were shocked and afraid. Gu Qing soon realized that they must leave Tian Luo Gxy as soon as possible.

    However, the red-tailed beasts expanded their reach faster than she expected. The Family only managed to pack their most important assets on their starships. They did not even have time to load normal supplies.

    Not many people managed to escape from Tian Luo Gxy, but the Gu Family survived. The Gu Family was not the strongest military presence in Tian Luo Gxy, but stronger organizations had fallen despite the fact. This was mostly because of Gu Qing.

    Gu Qing was a masterful leader. Without her, their fleet would have perished.

    After all the hardships they had been through in their escape, all of the Gu Family fell in line behind their Eldest Young Miss. No one imagined that their Eldest Young Miss, who was ced in charge of managing their Empire, was also capable inmanding a fleet. The truth was, the older generation had groomed her to be her brother''s advisor. This gave her the opportunity to learn these skills.

    Her military strategies allowed the Family to bnce the odds in the war. Her outstanding capabilities as their leader brought them so far. However, the Family had paid a heavy price for their survival. Only a fifth of the starship fleet survived so far in their journey.

    Just as they were feeling grateful for arriving in Csebesini Gxy, the red-tailed beasts appeared.

    ¡­

    Where did this squad of mechse from? Gu Qing watched the holographic screen in bafflement. She was surprised by the strength of the neers. All of mech pilots were extremely skilled. So far, none of the mechs were damaged or lost.

    Besides, they totaled at least 500 in numbers.

    Gu Qing had never heard of any organization with this much power. She was very curious about their background.

    Appilok was focused entirely in the battle. He was also in good spirits, having been inspired by the performance of the other party''smander. Appilok led his squad with exemry skills. The red-tailed beasts were taken aback by his strategies, and were momentarily caught off guard.

    After recuperating for a few days from theirst intense battle, the students were restored to their best conditions. They had been bludgeoning their way through red-tailed beasts in this new world. Thisparably small horde of red-tailed beasts were a walk in the park.

    The battle ended quickly.

    None of the red-tailed beasts escaped. Ye Chong learned his lesson. If they encountered red-tailed beasts, never let any of them escape alive, or risk being attacked by an evenrger hoard of them.

    Gu Qing forced herself to calm down. A 15-kilometer long extravagant warship had suddenly appeared behind her. Anyone would be surprised by it. Gu Qing found herself chilled once again by the numerous surprises she had today.

    She studied the cold, young man before her carefully. He must the captain of the warship.

    Ye Chong took a measured nce at Gu Qing, and spoke after a moment''s consideration. "Are you from the Gu Family of Tian Luo Gxy?"

    Gu Qing was taken aback. Could this young man be rted to the Family? Sheposed herself and nodded. "Yes. I am the current head of the family, Gu Qing. And you are?" Gu Qing spoke confidently and steadily like a true leader, betraying no signs of her anxiety.

    "Do you know Gu Shaoze?" Ye Chong shook off his memories and asked. He admired Gu Shaoze deeply. Anyone who could design a highly desirable mech like Guardian must be very talented.

    Gu Qing''s expression froze. All the calmness she showed vanished. Her eyes lit up with hope. Overwhelmed with emotions, she reached out to grab Ye Chong''s hands and asked, "You - Do you know where Shaoze is? ¡­" She choked up.

    Ye Chong carefully avoided Gu Qing and replied tly, "You need to calm down."

    Gu Qing felt like she was struck by lightning. She lowered her head and bit down on her lips until they bled.

    After a while of silence, she looked up with a calmer expression. The Gu Family''s people around her all looked sorrowful. They knew how close she was with her younger brother.

    Ye Chong saw Gu Qing looking calmer, and began to tell her the story of his encounter with Gu Shaoze. When Gu Qing heard him speak of Gu Shaoze taking hisst breath, her eyes dimmed with grief. However, the grief was quickly reced with calmness.

    Only when Gu Qing caressed Guardian''s smooth surface that the grief in her eyes surfaced once again.

    Rui Bing sighed quietly and consoled her softly. Gu Qing could not help but hugged Guardian tightly and sobbed loudly. The rest of the people left the room to give her space.

    With Gu Qing onboard, Ye Chong finally had a better understanding of the situation in the Five Gxies.

    The only ce that was considered safe was Csebesini Gxy. The Gxy was able to fend off the red-tailed beasts because of the massive establishment of what they called the "Xi Ding Defense Line".

    When the invasion of the red-tailed beasts first started, Csebesini''s authorities quickly began works on the Xi Qing Defense Line.

    123rge space stations formed the center of this defense line. All the space stations were always on standby, with enough supplies to assist other space stations or defend themselves. Between the space stations were numerousser gun satellites that ensured total destruction of any enemies that attempted to trespass.

    Compared to theser beam gun that Ye Chong had used before, these were used on a much grander scale. People from around all around Csebesini Gxy came together to build this defense line, protecting their home. So far, none of the red-tailed beast hordes had breached their defense line.

    The red-tailed beasts could not do warp jumps, so they need not worry about ambushes. Word was when the defense line was almostpleted, a horde of red-tailed beasts attacked. They had no choice but to send mechs out for battle. After sacrificing nearly a thousand lives to buy them three more hours, the defense line was finallypleted. The first thing the soldiers manning the space stations did was to open fire at full capacity.

    More than a thousand red-tailed beasts were shot to ashes. Ever since then, the Xi Ding Defense Line became the strongest defense for mankind. Under its protection, residents of Csebesini Gxy could live in rtive safety.

    As more and more people joined Csebesini, the defense line grewrger andrger. Xi Ding Defense Line now consisted of three inneryers and three outeryers of defense. The number of space stations increased from the initial 123 to 360. It was nearly impossible for the red-tailed beasts to breach this defense line.

    When Rui Bing heard that Csebesini was safe, she felt greatly relieved.

    Gu Qing hoped to seek protection under Csebesini, and Ye Chong agreed to it after some thought. He did not exactly need to enter Csebesini Gxy for now. The defense line would keep the Gxy safe from red-tailed beasts, at least in the near future.

    Instead, he needed to return to He Yue Gxy as soon as possible to regroup with the Sang Tribe, and then clear the Gateway to Gray Valley and reunite with Mu/Shang. However, since Darkniss needed to replenish its supplies, he agreed for a trip to Csebesini Gxy.

    Gu Qing was soon grateful for deciding to join Ye Chong''s fleet. They encountered a few hordes of red-tailed beasts along the way, but Ye Chong''s mech pilots made easy work of the creatures.

    The mech pilots were strong! They were even stronger than the best soldiers in the Family. Their mechs, on the other hand ¡­ As the head of the Gu Family, which was also arge mech manufacturer, Gu Qing appreciated the power and significance behind these mechs. Besides, how did these people manage to hide their massive warship from holographic scanning?

    What were these people?

    Gu Qing was also pleasantly surprised when Ye Chong agreed to train the Gu Family''s mech pilots.

    The results were apparent in theing days. Gu Qing was not abatant, bu she could see that her mech pilots were quickly transformed from their training.

    Gu Qing wished the journey would go on longer, so that her mech pilots could improve themselves. Given their circumstances, it was highly desirable to havepetent military strength.

    "This is the Xi Ding Defense Line."

    Gu Qing made the introductions. She behaved carefully on the warship Darkniss. Even though she was head of the family, she was not foolish enough to unt her position in front of Ye Chong. She answered all questions from Ye Chong and Rui Bing without reservation, and did not actively seek to understand the warship she as on. Nevertheless, she was still able to deduce some shocking results from the subtles signs around her.

    This was a very powerful military organization. They had impressive tech and capable mech pilots. Strict discipline was enforced by an outstandingmander.

    Gu Qing spoke frequently with Appilok, but mostly on military strategies. Appilok was eager to learn and experienced in battle. He was also creative but meticulous, making him an excellentmander. This was a truly powerful legion of soldiers, no matter how she looked at it.

    However, Gu Qing did not fail to realize that the cold young man was the real person in charge of this warship. In fact, Gu Qing got along well with Rui Bing. They rarely spoke of Ye Chong, but whenever he was mentioned, she always noticed the deep admiration shown by the crew members around her.

    What a mysterious young man.

    Countlessser gun satellites were scattered along the defense line. The massive space stations were in sight.

    It was possible to enter Csebesini Gxy through spatial warp jumps and bypass the Xi Ding Defense Line. This provided the humans a route inside. Nevertheless, manybatants were stationed at the warp jump points to prevent attacks by space pirates.

    "Oh, herees a big one." The surveince staff member whistled. "Luxurious starships are rare these days."

    Another staff member peered at the 15-kilometer long starship on the holographic screen andmented without enthusiasm, "Yeah, but the military''s gonna get a big kick from this. They liked this kind of ship."

    "True. The ship is just the right size to be modified as a warship."

    Ye Chong had ordered for the colloid fungus substance to be removed from the ship''s hull to avoid suspicion.

    Finally, they entered Csebesini Gxy. Skyscrapers and mechs dominated the skies. The Gu Family members were moved to tears upon this familiar sight that once had seemed so far away from them.

    Compared to them, Darkniss''s crew members felt very curious instead.

    It was hard for arge starship like theirs to avoid attention.

    Soon, a mech squad approached them.

 Chapter 600 - Walking a Tightrope

    <h4>Chapter 600: Walking a Tightrope</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    200 mechs were heading their way, fast. In the many years he was away, the mechs models in the Five Gxies had changed a lot. Ye Chong could no longer tell their make. These were probably a prefabricated model. The mech had a pair of gray and blue colored fins and apact body. It was designed for better flexibility in movements.

    Appilok frowned. He could see that these mechs were inbat mode. He could not ept this open disy of hostility.

    He took a nce at Ye Chong, and the man shook his head. These 200 mechs were no threat to Darkniss. Their warship had the toughest hull in the world, and can surely protects its crew from normal mech attacks. Ye Chong did not want to escte the situation. Once upon a time, he would have opened fire without hesitation. However, now that he had grown mature, he realized that he had no time to instigate unnecessary altercations.

    "Let me handle this." Gu Qing offered. She was the head of the Gu Family, after all. This was usual business for her.

    Ye Chong nodded. It was better to have Gu Qing deal with this kind of problem.

    Both parties were soon in contact.

    "Please identify yourselves." A cold voice hailed them.

    "Gu Family of Tian Luo." Gu Qing replied sinctly.

    "Wee to Csebesini Gxy." The usherer spoke rigidly. "We wee anyone other than space pirates to our Gxy. Immigration is notified of your arrival. They will soon assign you with amodation. Please lend us your cooperation."

    "I see." Gu Qing replied inly. Of course she knew what sort of amodation they would be getting. However, they should just be thankful that they survived. It was impossible to keep Gu Family whole given their circumstances. Csebesini Gxy''s authorities would never allow any forces that could threaten their position to regroup.

    "By ourtest military rulings, allrge starships will be expropriated and modified as warships for our defense against the red-tailed beasts. We will offerpensation ording to the market price of your ship."

    "What?" Gu Qing was taken aback. She realized what a huge mistake this would be, and quickly replied, "No!"

    Sweat beaded on her forehead. She understood very well the nature of this conflict. Ye Chong would never give up his warship.

    "Please reconsider." The other party''s hostility was clear. It was only to be expected, since anyone who seek their protection must pay the price. All the aristocratic families that came this way had surrendered theirrge starships without argument.

    Gu Qing saw Appilok gesturing to his subordinates in the background and began to panic. Her mind raced for a solution as she spoke, "We need to keep our starship. You may have all our supplies onboard. In exchange, we will not seekpensation."

    "I''m afraid that''s not possible. I must abide by the military rulings." The other party pushed her.

    The crew of Darkniss had never been treated this way before, and felt indignant about it. If Ye Chong was not here, they would have shot down all the 200 mechs in front of them. Even Sha Ya looked angered. She had only ever been humiliated like this twice - once by Sun Sieha, and another by Ye Chong. One was the King, and the other her master. These, she could ept.

    Shooters ced great importance in honor and respect. The unreasonable demands made by the other party was clearly a challenge to them.

    Appilok gestured towards a crew member besides him. Thetter nodded in understanding.

    Ye Chong did not want to escte the situation, but he would not simply lie down inpliance. Besides, Ye Chong could tell from the other party''s attitude that there was no room for negotiation.

    If that was the case, a demonstration of greater power would encourage greater cooperation.

    Ye Chong nodded at Appilok. Gu Qing saw them, and closed her eyes in despair. She knew that once the fight began, they would be put on the defensive.

    Appilok was prepared to give the order. "Warning fire!"

    12ser beams shot out from Darkniss towards the mechs.

    The throats of 12 mechs were shot. The mechs lost their bnce fell from the sky. Boom! The 12 mechs made 12 craters in the ground, kicking up dust around them. None of the mechs exploded, but they were already rendered useless.

    When the ship fired, Wei Zheng''s immediate thought was, "Are they crazy? Don''t they understand the situation they''re in? Don''t they realize that they are the ones seeking protection here?"

    When the 12 mechs were shot down, Wei Zheng was surprised by their uracy. He was also relieved when the mechs did not explode. After all, he had a close rtionship with his subordinates.

    However, the next thing he thought of chilled him to the bones. He now realized the distance between him and the ship, and how difficult it must be to shoot down the mechs at the throat without making them explode.

    Sniper mech pilots!

    Wei Zheng swallowed heavily. He thought he was going crazy. Sniper mech pilots, at least a dozen of them, were on that ship. What could this possibly mean?

    It meant that ¡­ He wanted to turn tail and run, knowing that hisrades were easily shot down from this distance. In other words, if they started shooting at each other, he would be first to be shot down.

    He could the God of Death running the de of His scythe against his face. The cold sense of dread spread across his entire body.

    Sniper mech pilots were known for their abilities to turn the tides of a battle. The first thought that people usually had on sniper mech pilots was not how strong they were, but how rarely they came by.

    There were 12 sniper mech pilots in this starship, and Wei Zheng found himself paralyzed by the thought.

    One sniper mech pilot was scary enough, but if 12 mech pilots banded together ¡­ Wei Zheng felt goosebumps all over him.

    He immediately sent out a request for backup. It was better to let the higher-ups handle this.

    Wei Zheng ordered his men to back down slowly. The longer they stayed so close to the ship, the more nervous he felt.

    However, fourser beams quickly graced past the four mechs at the rear end. This warning stopped the entire squad''s retreat.

    "Consider your next actions carefully. Your provocative actions will only threaten your safety ¡­" Aser beam shot past his mech''s throat, off by a mere centimeter.

    Time seemed to pass so slowly that it drove Wei Zheng crazy. He and his men all felt nervous. No one expected to encounter such a difficult visitor. The Gu Family of Tian Luo was not your average aristocratic family. Everyone sighed quietly about their misfortune to have to deal with this arrogant organization.

    The other starships from the Gu Family did not know what was happening, but since Darkniss had fired, it was natural to assume that there had been a disagreement with the mechs. Having travelled together for awhile, they hade to think of Darkniss as one of their own. Since the mech pilots of Darkniss had also trained their mech pilots, they were more ready to side with Darkniss.

    Thus, they made their move.

    The starships immediately broke their current formation and regrouped into battle formation. All the ships raised their battle rms. Thebatants rushed to their positions.

    Gu Qing watched their reactions with worry. It seemed that they would have to go along with Darkniss. After the initial shock, she quickly gathered herself and reassessed their situation. I turned out that this might be a good opportunity. Ye Chong''s background was a mystery, but she knew how much power he had on his side.

    She had been focusing on going to Csebesini Gxy that she had not considered about joining forces with him. The risk was great, but then the Gu Family would remain together. It also meant that the Gu Family''s fate would be tied with this man.

    Gu Qing was always decisive. She made her decision quickly.

    With ordersing directly from Gu Qing, the other Gu Family members acted more confidently. They were now prepared for a shootout.

    The Gu Family''s adamant disy left Wei Zheng deeply unsettled. The backup squad was still not here, and he cursed them inside for being so eager to share his better moments but refused to show up when trouble arrived.

    Wei Zheng did not know that the matter had shocked Csebesini''s authorities. This was the first incident of its kind ever since the red-tailed beasts appeared. Their opponent was the Gu Family, but no one wanted them to set a precedent for fear of the many unpleasant consequences in future.

    If they set a precedent, new visitors would surely imitate them. The local authorities would find their position in jeopardy.

    Hence, they gave strict orders to the soldiers stationed nearby to destroy the Gu Family''s fleet if they refused to follow orders. To deter other parties from disobedience, the authorities decided to stream the battle live to Csebesini Gxy.

    Since soldiers were deployed to the warp jump point to prevent space pirates from entering, there were many soldiers in the vicinity, numbering close to 100 thousand.

    News of there being 12 sniper mech pilots reached the local authorities as well. This made them even more determined to annihte the neers. Sniper mech pilots were like a nightmare, enemies that were well concealed and impossible to avoid.

    30 thousand mechs advanced towards the Gu Family''s fleet. They were the closest to the fleet, and the first to arrive.

    Darkniss slowly flew out to the front of the fleet. Its massive hull raised more than a few jealous eyebrows. It would be so wonderful to have a huge starship like that. The 15-kilometer long starship made it look like a fortress in outer space, or a mobile high ss headquarters.

    Everyone''s attention was on the starship Darkniss.

    Under their curious attention, the seemingly harmless Darkniss finally bared its menacing teeth.

    "Open weapons ports."

    "Energy at max."

    "Target locked."

    ¡­

    Thems channel was flooded with chatter. The warship''s crew members executed their duties methodically. The warship''s armaments were brought to life.

    Darkniss opened up its weapons ports, revealing huge ship cannons for all eyes to see. The cannon barrels were thick and intimidating. The energy core radiated a faint blue light that illuminated the dark hull of the ship.

    The viewers inhaled sharply. Thems channel on Csebesini''s side went silent.

    One, two, three, four ¡­ 46! There were 46 ship cannons. It was a staggering number.

    The warship was not done yet, however. 600 shooters were now in position, and the 600 gun ports all opened, pointing theirser guns at the mechs outside.

    This was a day that many would never forget.

    The passageways opened, and rows and rows of mechs came out.

    This left the viewers shocked.

    Harmony of the Winter Aria was one of the more fancy mechs that Ye Chong had used. It was also the Ji Family''s best mech model. Since these mechs were built withrge amounts of rare alloy metals, the mechs shone with a unique metal lustre that made them look even more solid and elegant.

    Theirser guns were based on the work of the Research Consortium from Gray Valley. One could tell immediately that they were unusual weapons.

    This world had gone mad!

    Suddenly, there were so many identical advanced level mechs. All the mech pilots could tell that these were top quality mechs.

    People inhaled sharply in thems channel.

    A single mech of this quality would not have warranted so much attention. However, the simultaneous disy of over 4000 Harmony of the Winter Aria was an impressive sight.

    The difference between having one advanced level mech and 4000 of them was more than about numbers.

    As the broadcast went life, viewers were treated immediately with a view of the 4000 mechs. "The Gu Family of Tian Luo chose not toply with the local authorities, and had responded provocatively. To ensure the safety of all residents, local authorities have -" The newscaster stopped short when she saw the image on the holographic screen.

    She had just received orders from the higher-ups and could barely absorb the news when she saw this shocking image. Whatever she had nned to say was forgottenpletely.

    The viewers watching the holographic screen, however, were in an uproar.

    "Oh my God! What''s happening?"

    "They''re gorgeous! What mech is that, and where can I buy it? Do you think I can book one?"

    "What a strong presence ¡­ That''s f*cking swell!"

    ¡­

    Unlike the mech pilots at the scene, the public weed the image. The local authorities did not expect this, and could not respond in time. They had acted first and made Csebesini into thest haven in the world. People rushed towards the Gxy for protection, encouraging acts of bribery and illegal agreements ¡­ The local authorities turned corrupt very quickly. They were no longer who they used to be.

    30 thousand mechs positioned themselves firmly in front of the warship Darkniss firmly.

    These mechs were on apletely different levelpared to the ones from Csebesini. The Gxy had more soldiers, but their opponent had a warship! That was a weapon that could turn them to ashes. Themander of the Csebesini army was able to glean some details and make certain conclusions. He could tell that the opponent was much more capable in battle. For example, over 4000 mechs were deployed into formation in under five minutes. His own army would need at least 15 minutes to achieve the same thing. This tiny detail told the difference in strength between both sides.

    He was facing an elite army, what could he possibly do? He had strength in numbers, but themander knew that the difference in strength between them could not be bnced with their numbers. Besides, there was that warship. Themander could only stare at it enviously.

    Many of the viewers were gratified to see the local army being put in their ce. After all, most of the people who escaped to Csebesini were taken advantage of. It was satisfying to see someone put up a fight to the local authorities.

    Records would show that the official channel viewership at the time reached a record high of 42%, breaking the previous record of 11%. The newscaster never recovered from her shock to continue her script.

    Everyone followed the event closely.

    Ye Chong, however, decided to make his next move as he noticed arge army of mechs heading his way.

 Chapter 601 - General Xi Ding

    <h4>Chapter 601: General Xi Ding</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    On the holographic screen, one could see countless mechs heading their way towards the mysterious warship. The tens of thousands of mechs were apanied by over a hundred warships. The Five Gxies had always banned research on warships until the red-tailed beast invasion began.

    These warships were clearly influenced by the Three Aristocratic Families from He Yue Gxy, but it was a mixture of influences from the Three Families that failed to achieve their core qualities. These warships were like trash in Ye Chong''s eyes. Ye Chong believed that these warships must be the work of the Three Aristocratic Families'' employees sent to the Five Gxies. Besides, the warships were modified from normalrge starships, which had a very different structurepared to a proper warship.

    Without further dy, Ye Chong ordered Appilok to fire.

    The first weapons up were Darkniss''s ship cannons. Ye Chong always believed in the importance of ship cannons, especially in a battle between warships. The ship cannons could determine their very survival. The few warship battles Ye Chong had seen left a deep impression in him. An individual''s strength was almost negligible in a battle between warships.

    All of the ship cannons on Darkniss were made from the extremely rare Belfang metal alloy. Belfang metal alloy was usually reserved for high precision mechanical parts. It was never used to build ship cannons, not even in He Yue Gxy.

    Five thickser beams shot out from the ship cannons. People only saw a bright sh that momentarily blinded them.

    The five warships were hit instantly. Their thick hulls did nothing to shield them from theser beams. The ships exploded into pieces under the attack.

    Boom! All five warships exploded simultaneously into five dazzling fireballs in space that engulfed the metal carcasses. The explosion sent out fragments of metals flying outwards at high velocities, which then hit the mechs surrounding them and sent those mechs crashing down. A few of the mechs exploded immediately in midair. Ye Chong knew exactly how to destroy a warship. Traditional ship cannons usually did damage by piercing the target''s hull. Unless the cannonfire hit something vital like the engine or energy cell storage, the enemy ship would not be heavily damaged.

    The ship cannons on Darkniss firedser beams and spheric photon grenades. This highly unstable weapon would explode with the slightest amount of contact, and cause great damage to the enemy ship.

    The devastating firepower from Darkniss shocked the viewers andbatants alike.

    It felt like their hearts stopped beating for a short moment. They had expected conflict of some kind, but not for the warship to actually fire at them so ruthlessly.

    Ye Chong''s actions had surprised them so much that they were momentarily paralyzed.

    The local authorities who were following the incident closely were also shocked. They looked at each other in fear, for they expected such an unyielding opponent. Nothing like this had happened ever since the invasion of the red-tailed beast.

    If the other party had not presented themselves so professionally, they would have looked more like space pirates.

    Suddenly, them device on their desk rang.

    They jolted out of their surprise and activated them without thinking.

    "You imbeciles! Who the f*ck ordered them to attack? Are you blind? Do you not see how powerful the opponent is? Are you dragging me into your f*cking act of suicide?"

    A man roared through them device loudly, threatening to bring the ce down.

    "General ¡­ General ¡­" Someone in the room tried to exin. The man yelling at them was not someone they should mess with. He was the person with highest authority in Csebesini''s military. Xi Ding Defense Line was his handiwork. It was because of him that Csebesini Gxy became thest haven in the Five Gxies. His reputation in Csebesini Gxy was unrivalled.

    "Don''t ''General'' me. Let me tell you *ssholes, I''ve allowed you to make your little profits all this while, so who the f*ck caused this huge mess? Which f*cker ordered it?" General Xi Ding continued to st at the people without reserve.

    The meeting room was dead silent. General Xi Ding was a man with a temper. No one in their right mind would dare to speak against him when he was mad.

    The General cut the line in rage. After that, his personality changedpletely. All the rage vanished, reced by a deep coldness. Deep wrinkles carved into his stone-like face. His hair was snow white, but his cheeks were a blushing red.

    "Do we have a background for the warship?" The General asked as he looked at Darkniss on his holographic screen.

    His assistant shook his head. "None. The fleet is the Gu Family of Tian Luo, but we have checked their records and found nothing about a warship like this."

    "The Gu Family of Tian Luo?" The General chuckled coldly. "They''re not capable enough to build this warship. They are a dying empire, a mere shadow to their past. Get Hua and his people in here."

    The assistant quickly activated hism device and spoke a few words. After a moment, a few men entered the General Xi Ding''s office. This was a group of roughly a dozen people of different build.

    "Do you know this warship" General Xi Ding asked without preamble and pointed at Darkniss on the holographic screen.

    The group directed their attention to the screen.

    After a while, a pale young man spoke up, "General, that warship is probably not from the Five Gxies. It seems to be influenced by the Xue Lai n, where I''m from, but the overall design is different."

    Another thin man said, "Hua is mostly right about that. The warship is definitely not from the Five Gxies, but there seems to be some characteristics of my n, the Ye Family."

    General Xi Ding looked towards a woman, who spoke respectfully, "I agree with them both. Regrettably, I see no signs of influence on this warship from my tribe."

    These people were the highest level personnel sent by He Yue Gxy to the Five Gxies. The invasion of the red-tailed beasts affected both ck Cove and the Orbits. If even He Yue Gxy was faced with the threat of these creatures, how could their outer branches hoped to survive unscathed? They escaped from their headquarters and finally reached Csebesini Gxy. In the end, they were caught by General Xi Ding, who had kept an eye on them from the start, and chose to cooperate.

    General Xi Ding considered their words for a moment. "So the warship is not from the Five Gxies. If it came from your home gxy, then how did it arrive in Csebesini Gxy? Didn''t you say that the Gateways were overrun by red-tailed beasts?"

    The group looked shocked, but Hua finally spoke up for them. "We don''t know how they arrived here too, but it''s true that we lost the Gateways. Perhaps they managed to bring the Gateways back under control?"

    The group felt encouraged by this possibility. They were resident of He Yue Gxy, and missed their home. They had chosen to cooperate with General Xi Ding so that they could live to return home one day. However, they had received no news from their main families back there so far.

    "Do you think this warship is capable of taking back the Gateways?" General Xi Ding asked as he reyed Darkniss''s ship cannon attack and the warning shots on Wei Zheng''s squad on the holographic screen.

    "Impossible!" Everyone in the group gasped in surprise. General Xi Ding was greatly surprised by their reaction. Could this amount of power be insufficient to bring the Gateways back under their control?

    General Xi Ding had heard of the story about the "homeworld" for mech pilots. It was said that everyone there was strong, and that the best mech models were made there. He had no ulterior motives towards He Yue Gxy. Any one of the organizations here could easily overpower his own. It was simply not his ce to even consider the possibility.

    The abilities of these people in his room further convinced him of his decision. These people were extraordinarily capable, but they were only considered average in that ce called He Yue Gxy. Besides, their technology far surpassed what was avable in the Five Gxies. When the invasion of the red-tailed beasts first started, Hua and the others had provided invaluable technical knowledge that ensured the survival of Csebesini Gxy.

    However, since the group had described how powerful their main families were, General Xi Ding had hoped that they might be able to annihte the red-tailed beasts. He knew that Csebesini alone could not hope to win the war against those creatures.

    As time passed, the red-tailed beasts grew stronger. Csebesini was progressing, but the time needed to develop and incorporate the necessary technology to survive was too long. The red-tailed beasts were expanding too rapidly.

    Csebesini Gxy might not live to see the day these creatures were defeated. General Xi Ding was old, but he hoped to leave behind Csebesini Gxy as a safe and peaceful ce for the younger generation.

    When General Xi Ding heard the group''s reaction, he looked deeply disappointed. Hua quickly recovered from his surprise and exined, "General, I think you misunderstood. We''re saying that is''t impossible for this warship to be so powerful. Even our main family''s warships cannot achieve that amount of power."

    General Xi Ding looked towards the other members of the group. They all nodded in agreement.

    "Then, do you mean that they are capable of taking back the Gateways?" General Xi Ding asked carefully.

    "Absolutely!" Hua replied with certainty. He looked up and said, "General, I''d like to speak to them."

    The reinforcements sent to Wei Heng were ordered to stand down and wait for their next orders. Everyone in the reinforcement troop felt relieved. They saw the attack earlier, just like General Xi Ding. They were mightily intimidated, but they could not disobey orders from their superiors.

    Ye Chong received a request from the party to negotiate a truce. This was a first for him. The other party had also ordered for their army to retreat 130 kilometers back as a sign of goodwill.

    Having encountered this situation for the time, Ye Chong was unsure what to do next. Should he continue firing, or not?

    He looked at Gu Qing, who smiled back in understanding. "Looks like their higher-ups have a more urate assessment of their situation. They must be intimidated by your strength to have asked for a truce. The one who gave the order should be the real mastermind behind Csebesini."

    A truce was the most desirable oue that Gu Qing hoped for. She knew that if Ye Chong were to attack without reserve, the 10 thousand soldiers around them would not survive the battle. Csebesini could not afford this loss, so a truce was the natural conclusion to this incident. The only thing that surprised her was how urate the other party''s leader was able to gauge the strength of their warship with just a few shots from their ship cannons. It was very fortunate for both sides. As thest haven in this world, Csebesini did notck capable personalities.

    Thus, members of public watched how the arrogant soldiers restrained themselves. Was this really Csebesini''s army? People rubbed their eyes and watched in disbelief.

    Regardless, the warship Darkniss left a very deep impression. No one would have imagined that the next time the warship appeared before them, it would bear news of victory and hope.

    The results of the negotiation was not know to the public, but the warship quickly left and disappeared from sight. It had appeared mysteriously, and left in simr fashion. The Gu Family fleet was left behind, but the incident had won them celebrity status in Csebesini Gxy. They became the only aristocratic family to enter Csebesini Gxy without being torn apart, a feat envied by many.

 Chapter 602 - Saving Xue Lai Clan

    <h4>Chapter 602: Saving Xue Lai n</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    ''Sir, we are approaching the Gateway," Hua said respectfully to Ye Chong. In He Yue Gxy, the strong earned respect from the people. Ye Chong''s strength was enough to earn respect from them all. They also hoped that he would be bring them home with his warship.

    Once outside Csebesini, they were constantly interrupted with red-tailed beasts. Hua and the others also felt shaken by what they saw.

    Where did this warship''s crewe from? Hua and his people always broke out in cold sweat whenever they saw them in action. Were these people still humans? They killed the red-tailed beasts like a hot knife through butter. Words can barely describe their strength. Even those crew members who looked so weak and fragile managed to surprise Xi Feng Tribe''s Feng Yan.

    She knew that mentalists of their level were considered geniuses in their Tribe, and yet there were hundreds of them on this warship. Since when had such masterful mentalists became somon? Besides, these people were so young ¡­ How could this possibly be true?

    As the warship Darkniss advanced, they encountered more and more red-tailed beasts. Hua and his people went from greatly surprised to being numbed by their battles. In fact, any casualties thebatants suffered would have surprised them even more.

    The presence of Hua and his people did note as a surprise to Ye Chong. As someone who had seen all the best fighters from the Three Aristocratic Families, these branch members could hardly surprise him.

    The main reason Ye Chong allowed them toe along their journey was because they knew where the Gateway to He Yue Gxy was. Based on what he knew, there were three Gateways that led from the Five Gxies to He Yue Gxy, each controlled by one of the Three Aristocratic Families. Ye Chong had spent time in the Orbits and ck Coe before, but he did not know the way to these Gateways. Fortunately, he now had people from all the Three Aristocratic Families to lead the way.

    Rui Bing wanted to visit her mother and Grandpa Qian, but she held back. Now was not the best time to visit them. Xi Ding might just take advantage of it.

    In the end, Ye Chong chose the MPA to help him. They traveled using the Gateway under Xue Lai n''s control. This was the closest Gateway to Csebesini.

    "This is the Gateway to He Yue. We controlled this Gateway, but the red-tailed beasts were too strong. In the end, we had to retreat to Csebesini." Hua spoke with mixed emotions. He was secretly worried. He never doubted the n''s power, but it had been a long time since the red-tailed beasts took over the Gateway, and there was no news from the n ever since. They did not send any reinforcements to the Gateway, which was a worrying sign.

    He feared that the n was in danger as well.

    Here at the Gateway, Ye Chong and his people were met with strong resistance. There were far more red-tailed beasts here than anywhere they had been. This suggested to the humans that the red-tailed beasts were intelligent, such that they knew to guard their important assets.

    There were casualties daily, but only with minor injuries. So far, the battle still leaned towards Ye Chong. His mech pilots had experienced countless battles in a short period. They were now true war veterans, honed sharper and sharper by their battles.

    The improvements in the shooters were particrly obvious. No shooter had ever fought so intensely and frequently. The fact was, battle experience was tremendously helpful for them to improve. This was especially true for shooters at Level 7 and 8. Ye Chong could appreciate better now why Mei Wu chose to stay in Darkniss.

    To conserve their overall strength, Ye Chong would sometimes join the battle with Celest. Whenever this happened, the students who were not assigned forbat would enjoy his performance, asionally offeringmentaries on the side.

    Compared to the group battles by the other mech pilots, Ye Chong''s solo fights were more interesting. His preferred style was close rangebat, fought with a mixture of cold calction and explosive power. The students were always engrossed in his fights. If the warship had viewership records, Ye Chong''s fights would definitely hold the highest record.

    On the other hand, disciples of the Ye Family could only watch with astonishment. The Ye Family, famed for close rangebat, could not hope topare with this average looking young man.

    Finally, they made it through the Gateway!

    Hua and his people were overwhelmed by emotions.

    However, the deserted view before them caught them off guard. The base was an abandoned wreck. Buildings were damaged everywhere, and covered by a thickyer of dust that suggested long absence of its previous upants.

    "Impossible!" Hua gasped with a trembling voice. The view had left him shaken.

    50 thousand soldiers were stationed at this base! The n ced great importance on this ce - he knew that very well. Nevertheless, the base was now empty.

    He knew that with only a small group of people guarding this narrow Gateway, the red-tailed beasts would no be able to pass through. He also knew that the elders in the n could see this too.

    So why, why did the n abandon this ce?

    Perhaps the situation escted far beyond his imagination. His chest tightened at the thought.

    They were finally in He Yue Gxy. Everyone, including Ye Chong, Rui Bing and Sang Kan, felt greatly relieved. They must now quickly make contact with the Sang Tribe.

    Ye Chong did not notice Hua''s emotional turmoil. He was focused entirely on reaching out to the Sang Tribe. It was a simple task - as long as they had ess to the virtual world or a ce with pulsed signals, they would be able to get in touch with the Sang Tribe. After all, they had the infinitely capable Maverick, Little Rock, on Yi Ju.

    However, things were made difficult for them. All the infrastructure around them was thoroughly destroyed.

    Darkniss headed towards Yi Ju. They were now crossing Xue Lai n''s territory.

    "Sir, we have a situation." Someone reported sinctly. After surviving so many battles, the crew members were no longer easily unnerved.

    "Ah!" Hua gasped. His body was shaking.

    In front of them was a beautiful light blue colored, but it was deep in war.

    All around the,ser beams were fired here and there. Mech squads apanied by their warships fired against the red-tailed beasts with great tenacity. The red-tailed beasts were fast, and the mech pilots could barely aim at their target. The creatures did not fight with any visible strategy, bu they were gaining the upper hand. The battle was at its peak. asionalser beams shot on Darkniss''s hull, igniting sparks.

    Just a short distance away from the was a huge cloud of purple mist.

    "Sir! Please, I beg you! Please save our n!" Hua suddenly turned to Ye Chong and kneeled down heavily as he begged. Tears streamed from his eyes. He never imagined that his ride home would end with him seeing the like this.

    The other members of the Xue Lai n quickly went down on their knees as well and asked Ye Chong for help.

    On the holographic screen,ser beams intertwined while mechs and red-tailed beasts pursued each other madly. For a moment, Ye Chong was lost in thought.

    Appilok looked towards Ye Chong with a tilt in his head. He waited for Ye Chong''s signal.

    Ye Chong quickly recovered himself. It had only been a few seconds. Suddenly, one of the mechs on the screen caught his attention.

    "Siva!" Ye Chong gasped.

    Hua jolted, and looked up hopefully. "Sir, do you know Master Siva?"

    Siva dodged left and right, avoiding all the attacks from the red-tailed beasts. However, the strength from a single mech was limited, and not enough to turn the situation around. When Ye Chong saw Siva, he could not help but remembered about the young boy. Rui Bing looked towards him, and Ye Chong saw her sharing his thoughts.

    Did his mother belong to this Tribe? Ye Chong felt a mixture of emotions rising in him. A strange bitterness silently crept inside his heart.

    Soon, Ye Chongposed himself and studied the battle on the holographic screen with a calm eye. He made his decision quickly and nodded at Appilok. "Prepare for battle!"

    Appilok was expecting it. In fact, before Ye Chong gave his order, all thebatants were already in position. Since battles became more frequent out here, they had chosen to eat and rest near their stations.

    Hua and his people were overjoyed that Ye Chong agreed to readily. They always thought of Ye Chong was a cold man.

    However, Ye Chong''s next words chilled their burning enthusiasm. "Our target is the purple mist. Full speed ahead!"

    Ye Chong knew the red-tailed beasts like no one else did. In some ways, he was more of an expert than Fei Si, an expert on the red-tailed beasts.

    The flesh nest was the core of the red-tailed beasts. Only by destroying the flesh nest could they get rid of the red-tailed beasts thoroughly. The flesh nest was crucial to the growing poption of red-tailed beasts and their evolution.

    It was a drastic measure, but also a very risky one.

    Ye Chong knew that once he started attacking the flesh nest, the red-tailed beasts would rush towards it. If they did not destroy the fleshpletely before the creatures arrived, they would never have a second chance. They must leave the purple mist before the red-tailed beasts arrive so that his mech pilots could be put to use.

    With the colloid fungus substance spread on the warship''s hull, Darkniss flew unnoticed towards the purple mist.

    Everyone felt nervous. Besides Ye Chong, no one else knew what was in the purple mist.

    The ship cannons were charging now, but the real weapon Ye Chong relied on was the 600 shooters on the ship.

    Once they entered the purple mist, all holographic systems would be down. When that happened, they could only rely on the shooters, who had parapsychic abilities.

    The purple mist had no effect on them.

 Chapter 603 - Heaven and Hell

    <h4>Chapter 603: Heaven and Hell</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    It was not the first time they entered purple gas cloud zone, yet Ye Chong still was affected by the intense atmosphere. It was rare to see him this tense. This was in contrast with the calm crew members, who would probably never understand what encounters their captain had on his first visit here. This was the ce where Ye Chong met a 6-toed red-tailed beast and obviously it turned out to be a close battle that haunted him as if yesterday.

    The purple cloud this time was a lotrger than the one on Yi Ju before. And Ye Chong was very aware of how it went directly proportional to the size of the red-tailed beasts n.

    The war also raged on at the gxy betweens. Be it the red-tailed beast or the Xue Lai n, they were both having a hard time in the war. The Xue Lai n had deployed their best soldiers armed with the ssic beam firearms. It might be a ssic model yet remained as lethal to the red-tailed beasts. It was only natural to Ye Chong as the Xue Lai n had the most technological talents among all the 3 aristocratic families. I mean, even the consortium could produce an impable weapon like the G-Z.

    However, the foes were not too weak either. So it remained as a difficult fight ahead for the Xue Lai n.

    Ye Chong''s soulless eyes fixed upon the lively war-field, like a killer he was.

    He was looking for a target.

    He had just found one.

    Darkniss thenunched itself into the purple cloud.

    Back at the main control room, a shooter was assigned to lead the way. The ship was dead silent, as the crew members kept their mouth shut and let the professional do the job.

    "Target: Radius Vector at 25 degrees. FIRE!"

    "32 degrees, NOW!"

    The beams struck at the joints of the nest like lightning.

    Arge explosion urred and the purple cloud nest had turned chaotic. Certainly it was the work of the highlypressive grenades. Not even the hardened joints of the nest could withstand the explosion.

    The damage the grenades had caused was beyond Ye Chong''s imagination. He watched therge area of the nest blowing up as a single grenade fell like a shooting star.

    Darkniss eventually passed the purple cloud zone and hit the interior of the nest. "Photon mode!" That was when Appilok noticed the effectiveness of these grenades on the tendrils.

    The tendrils were turned into sshes of disgusting fluids. No sound was heard yet the explosions were convincingly epic. Fluids were discharged from the tumors of the tendrils and flooded the ce.

    The capability of the grenades was a joyful sight to the crew members. They had been long terrified by the horrendous-looking tumors which hung like a resting monstrosity. Ye Chong had to admit that there were more tumorspared to his adventure on Yi Ju.

    The tumors were the breeding chamber of the red-tailed beasts after all. There were at least 100,000 of them.

    In the midst of explosion, Ye Chong was at first relieved, till he saw something ahead.

    There were suddenly a pack of red-tailed beasts sprinting towards Darkniss, about a thousand of them. The grenades rained upon the red-tailed beasts, sending them backwards, yet not even a scratch could be seen on them, while they seemed to have been enraged.

    Their previous victorious experience had them convinced that nothing was undefeatable as long as theyunched their piercing tails together. They strongly believed that this giant piece of scrap would once again, like the other scraps they had destroyed before, be pierced into ashes.

    They were given the light treatment again, as they turned blind for a moment. They were unperturbed however, as they had experienced simr urrences before and they were unharmed in the end.

    They evaded the attacks as usual and they were nning to make their attack.

    SPRINT!

    Wait¡­uhh¡­

    Something felt strange on the neck¡­

    Uhh¡­how¡­why is it getting darker¡­

    I can''t¡­feel my toes¡­My tail was¡­hitting something?

    ¡­(What actually happened?)¡­

    Brahmara, also known as Siva, danced with its de on the war-field, even though its grand debut had yet caused to turn the tables on the situation.

    "Chief, we are not in a good situation now." Reported an elderly.

    A middle-aged woman nodded. She could see the situation as clear as the elderly. She was the chief whom the elderly was reporting to after all. Nheless, she could not think of a solid n, not just yet. The war with the red-tailed beasts hadsted much longer than she had imagined. The situation of her n had only worsened each day. Their territory had shrunk and the war with the red-tailed beasts had only grownrger.

    This was the only left for them. It was such irony that an animal was able to corner them.

    The Xue Lai n, unlike the theoretical oue due to their technological advancement, was actually the worst among the all 3 aristocrats.

    Still, it was this stress of being cornered that had initiated their potential.

    It was a retreating fight at first, as the Xue Lai n army retreated from the vigorous attacks of the red-tailed beasts. They might be weak but they were sure tenacious, much more tenacious than the red-tailed beasts had expected. The retreating wave soon stood still and braced the attack well.

    The chief continued watching the situation.

    She had been a chief for over 20 years. Her days as a chief passed restlessly. She was ever-cautious, knowing her responsibilities. If she was given the choice, she would not have sat on this bed of rose. Unfortunately her sister disappeared one day out of sudden, so, being the sole heir she was, she had to hit the throne.

    It was god-blessed for she never made a wrong decision as a chief. The people liked her all these years. It stirred her a little as she realized her caution for the entire term.

    "Chief, please look. Something had happened!" Notified Lady Xue, one of the servants.

    Lady Xue might be known as her maidservant, but she was treated as her own daughter. Lady Xue was intelligent and probably the most talented person among the younger generation. Though not as talented as Yu Shan, her son. However, Yu Shan was ursed by his top-notch intelligence as his growth had ceased as a child. Despite being 24 years old, he still had a body and mind of a 7 to 8 years old child.

    It was as if a sign of envy from god, to show all humans were equal. Yu Shan was gifted with his amazing intelligence in mechanics yet was probably "handicapped" since he was born. Nheless this did not stop him from his great contribution to the n.

    One would never know, the top yer of the Xue Lai n, the creator of Brahmara turned out to be a boy from Nevend.

    Ever since Shang had disappeared with the chief''s sister, the Xue Lai n had lost its greatest yer, but well, fate was capricious, as if god would like to watch dramas, almost simultaneously, the top pilots from the other families had disappeared too. Ye Luo from the Ye family vanished while the top pilot of Xi Feng had been murdered in the free space zone.

    Yu Shan had watched the growth of Brahmara ever since it was created. They were like brothers and the chief, being the mother, was proud of them. Yu Shan was talented but that did not assure him a good chief. Well, at least he had Brahmara, so he was rather invincible.

    Only if Shang was there, it would feel more like a family.

    The chief missed both Shang and her sister. Shang should be still in this world, perhaps, even though she was sure that her sister was no longer the owner. The new owner was some boy named Ye Chong. All these while she had been trying to figure out the rtionship between Ye Chong and her sister. She would want to lift the cover and check Ye Chong out but Ye Chong turned out to be a rather ferocious and hostile person. It was supposed to be a reunion yet it ended with bad blood as both of them were quite hot-tempered at first too.

    The puzzling part was the fact Yu Shan seemed to be have grown fond of Ye Chong, while Ye Chong took good care of him. Yu Shan was a nitpicker and he technically had no friends in the n. It was almost surprising when she heard him confessing his fond over Ye Chong. Ye Chong had also asked Yu Shan about Shang before. Well, that justified one thing - he owned Shang.

    Brahmara was a production based off of Shang''s design by Yu Shan, while it involved more of the newer technologies, even though the materials involved remained inferior.

    Brahmara was probably as strong as Shang in the past, though the chief was neverpetent as her sister. The chief''s sister was a firm figure, a supportive leader and she missed her.

    "Chief!"

    And she put her sentiments away, shifting her focus back onto the battlefield.

    "What''s the issue now?" She said grimly. Being a chief for so long, she had mastered the skill of hiding her emotions.

    "The red-tailed beasts seemed to be retreating!" Reported Lady Xue, in a bit of confusion.

    "Retreating?" The chief was bewildered as well. The red-tailed beasts were indeed leaving the ce¡­ hurriedly¡­ but why? What had triggered their fear so much?

    She knew the beasts well after battling them for so long. The red-tailed beasts might haveunched their attacks frantically but they fought on orderly rapports.

    They might be locked in a stalemate but the red-tailed beasts were obviously winning. There was no point for the red-tailed beasts to retreat.

    So why, what made them?

    Could there be a plot twist?

    Clusters of red-tailed beasts scurried from the scene as they ran towards the purple cloud zone in fright.

    The chief rolled her eyes, "Send orders to Brahmara ¡ª Hold the beasts back, no matter what! They can''t leave just yet!" The chief could foresee their n, and she would certainly not allow it to happen. She might not be unsure of the situation inside the purple cloud nest, but she would not allow them to get what they want!

    Well, that was what she could do anyway. They must do something!

    The pilots sent the order promptly, as they were also aware of the sudden change among the red-tailed beasts. They would not confront the red-tailed beasts, instead they would confuse them with strange attacks.

    The pilotsunched their mechs upon the red-tailed beasts, chasing after them, shooting beams from all sorts of direction to knock the beasts off the track. The beasts were struggling to run away.

    This was where the superiority of ranged attacks of the Xue Lai n shone.

    The beasts were killed one by one by the crimson beams. It was not because of the impable uracy, it was because the beasts were struggling to protect their nest by taking the beams themselves.

    It took about 30 minutes for them to arrive at the nest.

    That was probably the countdown to the fall of their nest ironically.

    Why they were trying so hard to protect the nest?

    Had they lost their mind?

    The entire Xue Lai n was not sure of what had happened to the red-tailed beasts, but one thing for sure, it was a golden opportunity to fight back.

    It was no longer a battlefield for the n. It was instead a training ground for them to practice shooting, an easy training too, as the red-tailed beasts were too frantic to perform any proper evasion. They were not even trying.

    It was probably the most thrilling battle ever. No more strategy, no more tricks, no more counter attack, no more piercing red tails, no more evasion, it was just shooting.

    It was a release of fury umted over the past few weeks of warring the red-tailed beasts for the Xue Lai n.

    The wave of red-tailed beasts was shrinking drastically while the living ones still ran towards their nest in panic.

    It was a dense wave at first, once countless. But in less than 10 minutes, about only a thousand remained.

    That was when something actually happened at the nest.

 Chapter 604 - A Warning Shot

    <h4>Chapter 604: A Warning Shot</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    For long, the purple cloud zone had been andmark of space, haunting the intergctic travelers like a lump of aggressive horror as if there was something that sucked the entire space in.

    It almost felt like an absolute truth of eternity till the Xue Lai n witnessed the changes urred.

    The purple clouds were boiling, vigorously rolling. With a diameter of more than a few thousands kilometers, the sight was shocking.

    People of the Xue Lai n were stunned, "W-what''s going on?" Whispered the chief as she watched the sight in disbelief. Her men were the same, bewildered.

    The pilots screamed, overjoyed a momentter, though they had no idea what had actually happened. It seemed like a great chance to fight back and they decided tounch themselves upon the red-tailed beasts that headed to rescue theirpatriots.

    Ye Chong, in the meantime, had discovered a simple way to clear the crowd.

    Highpression grenade.

    The ssic which had been long forgotten by history, had resuscitated in Ye Chong''s hands as it would devastate the entire structure of purple cloud area. One single explosion could clear arge area of the bush. This was a much better alternative than beam firearms which hardly prated the tendrils.

    The shaking explosion wrecked the whole area, as fluids sprayed the space rocks, the shreds of the unborn red-tailed beasts filled the space. Even the most wicked monster would be the most fragile at their infant stage.

    Ye Chong looked at the screen again after the grenades were hurled.

    A 6-toed red-tailed beast was making the evasion clumsily in the midst of explosion, its body was tainted by the dried fluid from its prematurely dead offspring while a piece of meat from an unknown part of itspatriot also dangled on one of its shoulders.

    Sha Ya was the first person who discovered the escaped beast. Whispers passed quickly among her mates and all the crosshairs went upon the running beast immediately.

    The target was clearly of a high rank. It had six toes after all! That was one exciting dummy for shooters to practice aiming! The shooters traced the beast quickly with their weapon. The anticipation brewed on as they wanted to make that outstanding headshot to impress the others, till Ye Chong, in a cold tone, ''''All fire at once."

    Sha Ya knew the captain well. The captain was never a person who liked to have things done rather than being entertained. The orders were passed through whispers again.

    Reformation urred as the shooters spread into 2 batches of 300 each, where one would clear the iing pack of red-tailed beasts while the other, under Sha Ya''smand, would make massive fires at the 6-toed elite.

    The waves of parapsychic attack ambushed the elite like a roaring shock-wave.

    Ye Chong could see the raging fear inside the frozen pupils of the red-tailed beast. It was biting its teeth as it stumbled upon the attack.

    As the leader had said ¡ª kill it right off and no more messing around, Sha Yan executed the order wlessly.

    The fired beams rained upon the beast like a giant bar of glowing fence that sealed off the beast entirely. There was no gap to escape. The red-tailed beast would soon be killed.

    And then they missed.

    Strangely, they did. Against thew of physics, they did.

    The beast unleashed its potential as its body distorted itself to fit into the gap of fence. It was close but the red-tailed beast managed to survive with only a few beams that brushed against its body, of which one charred a 5 centimeter deep wound on its shoulder.

    The shooters were of course stupefied. The strategy they just employed was one specialized for handling a dexterous target like red-tailed beasts and adjustments had been made from time to time to improvise, yet this red-tailed beast hacked its way through their light fence attack.

    The red-tailed beast then further twisted its body.

    "It''s running away!" Whispered one shooter sharply. Their experience told them that a wounded beast would make its runaway frantically. They were quite right, a hint of fear could be discerned in the bloodshot eyes of the red-tailed beast.

    Right when the light fence passed through the surviving beast, an additional set of beams were fired, like the three musketeers dived through the gaps of the fence, prating the body of the beast.

    The center of the forehead was bleeding, the throat was bleeding, the heart blew up. The distortion remained on the anatomy yet the soul was lost in the fierce eyes of the red-tailed beast, glowing dimmer each second.

    It was Sha Ya whounched the arrows. She predicted the escape and added the shots.

    The one plot twist after another had excited the Xue Lais as they first tasted victory of oveing the beasts. The army of red-tailed beasts had further shrunk into a measly hundred.

    The anticipation grew stronger!

    The purple cloud had begun fading away as the supporting tendrils broke down. The shooters managed to knock out most of the red-tailed beasts yet a few tens of them were approaching their destination.

    The beams could not reach them!

    And Sha Ya was puzzled thinking of a way to hold the beasts.

    That was when a bursting flock ofser beams smashed the remaining beasts.

    The field was silent.

    What¡­ just happened? The purple cloud area should have been the nest of the beasts.

    "HOLY!" One person was screaming at themunication channel, "What the heck is that! Guys, switch to photon mode!"

    Then they finally saw it, a giant warship.

    No one would actually craft a gigantic warship. A simple spaceship could have been more superior because of its speed and dexterity. Only lunatics would make a warship this giant. Sha Ya believed this was by far thergest warship she had seen in her entire life. The most ridiculous part was how they were literally blind to this whale-sized monster the whole time.

    The body of the ship attracted attentions. A Zika-ranked ship body that firedser beams thatnded the fatal spots of the red-tailed beasts urately. The warship traveled slowly in grace, like a king on his debut to the peasants at the street. For some reason, the running mechs ceased moving and went into a hostile position.

    A few mechs were then zooming towards the mech out of nerve-wrecking curiosity.

    It was only natural for humans to react with aggression towards the unknown.

    ¡­(On the ship)¡­

    Everyone knew whose ship that was.

    Appilok was on it, giving a new order, with an indifference one had seen countless times on their supreme leader. "Perform warning shot."

    And the next barrage ofser beams crossed the void.

    The bewildered Xue Lai n was terrified.

    "Enemies?!" The old chief was feeling unease, her army was already drained and no way they could take another wave of attack.

    The beams were reaching the mechs.

    It was too fast! The plot twist was too fast! The Xue Lai n never saw iting.

    It was the same flock of beams that broke the red-tailed beastspletely in one go. No doubt, they would be doomed!

    The beamsnded, yet fortunately they only hit the ray guns the mechs were holding.

    The ray guns exploded.

    A warning shot in fact it was.

    Xue Lai n, once excited by their victory, was again chilled to their bones.

 Chapter 605 - Return of Legend I

    <h4>Chapter 605: Return of Legend I</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The modern hologram detection system clearly could not capture the appearance of this giant in space. It was shocking to the crew when they saw the warship through photon detection mode. A few crew members started estimating the distance between both parties. That was quite far for beams to even hit the mechs, let alone to hit them with such uracy. All 10 shots made contact at the joints between the ray gun and the mech itself! None of them missed.

    Sniper? Sniper mech pilot!

    That was the first phrase that popped up in people''s mind.

    That did not look good, thought the chief of the Xue Lai n as colors were drained from her face, "Order! Do not attack until further notice." She could tell the missing hostility of the foes. Well, if the foes were hostile, the entire n would have been toasted instead.

    It was a warning shot, obviously.

    No one was foolish enough to move a muscle even without her order, especially when the immense fatigue that raided them after the biggest threat in their career had been eliminated. The uracy of the beams convinced them to have their hands off the interface too.

    So, Ye Chong finally met the chief of the Xue Lai n. It was a private meeting only involving both of them, as demanded by Ye Chong.

    She looked at Ye Chong at the strangest curiosity. The young man appeared to be fairly ordinary for the leader of a gigantic warship. He did not seem trained judging by his slender physique, but it was that indifferent charisma of him that convinced her his identity.

    Ye Chong scanned the chief in a fickle disbelief, for he could not imagine such a feeble woman to be the chief.

    The chief never knew the name of this indifferent young man before her, though she had given countless missions of capturing the person named Ye Chong.

    She never thought of it.

    It was not far-fetched for that to happen to be honest. Over the years Ye Chong had changed, a part of his graceless nonchnce had been coated with an unknown charisma. That was why the chief did not recognize him, "I am Ye Chong." till he introduced himself.

    The chief had lost the colors on her face again. She knew that name, she knew that name too well. She had been given lots of reports regarding this man disgraced by her people before the red-tailed beast incident.

    She frowned as corners of her eyes wrinkled in dismay, Ye Chong could not help but sigh at her reaction of suppressed fear.

    Perhaps¡­ perhaps¡­ she could be rted to his mother.

    Sadness filled him as he thought so, though his expression remained unchanged.

    The chief was expecting to be killed for what she had done before, she closed her eyes and prayed for a peaceful death, "Hey." And Ye Chong gave her a microchip, "Load this."

    Her eyes went wide as saucers when she opened her eyes. That was a pretty ancient microchip, justified by the model number printed on it - about one decade ago.

    But why? Of all times? An outdated microchip?

    In slight confusion she inserted the chip to the processor.

    The Xue Lai people were getting restless on their ship. Their chief had been somehow "led" to the suspicious-looking warship that almost killed their people just now. It was not a good feeling as they felt they had just fed the chief to a hungry tiger.

    Back on Darkniss, Appilok nced at Sang Kan, "Kan Kan, how do you think?" Said he as he looked at the Xue Lai n, "Our leader asked us to wait."

    "Yeah, what else can we do?" Sneered Sang Kan, "Like what could they do anyway? Remember what they did to our teacher? They are fortunate to have yet encountered us back in the He Yue gxy."

    Appilok wentpletely silent as he knew he had just opened a wrong conversation.

    "Shhh, careful with your words." Scowled Rui Bing, "You don''t know the entire truth, Sang Kan."

    Rui Bing was right, she had seen the visual, she had checked out the logs. She knew the actual connection between Ye Chong and the Xue Lai n, and certainly it did not feel good to hear something offensive from an outsider who knew nothing like Sang Kan. She believed she would not be able to face this meeting if she was the one instead.

    Sang Kan pulled a funny face at Appilok and went quiet.

    A momentpsed and Ye Chong returned, with a loss of vitality that never had urred to him in front of the people before him. "We are staying here for the next few days, keep your guards up." He gave a quick order and stormed into his room. Rui Bing sniffed and followed.

    Appilok and Sang Kan were confused, while the shooter team led by Sha Ya were bloodthirsty enough to fire those Xue Lai n members into beehives any second.

    "What the hell is going on?" Sha Ya could not help but curse.

    Meanwhile, the Xue Lai n were joyful to hear the news, as the chief announced Ye Chong''s identity.

    "It''s the descendant of Ms. Yu Yu! That exins A LOT!" Ye Chong''s chivalry had been justified as the senior members hurrahed.

    The Xue Lai n was feeling pumped as they knew Ye Chong being the offspring of two greatest legends from the different aristocrats.

    Ye Chong ignored the joyous calls of Xue Lai however. In the next few days he never left Darkniss. Possibly because of the fact that his mother belonged to the n, he did not perform any kind of execution on them, despite all the things they had done before. But that did not mean he would like them, since he felt no emotional connection to any of them other than the little boy. Same goes with his feeling at Ye family, he probably would only talk to Ye Luo.

    He was too tired to entertain the family "reunion" as he lingered on Darkniss.

    Sang Pu was working at the deck, till themunicator woke him up from his mundane routine, but who would that be at this timing?

    The number appeared to be strange to him. Confusing enough.

    "Hello?"

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Sang Tie had been officially assigned as themander of the Collision army, and he was conducting training with the new trainees now. These were the members newly transferred from the Sang Family vige.

    "STAY UP! WORK HARD! THE SANG FAMILY HAS NO TRASH!"

    The family today was grand, "¡­all thanks to our teacher¡­ he would certainly be pleased if he sees how great our family has be today¡­" There was sentiments in his eyes. It had been depressing news when Ye Chong disappeared along with Rui Bing.

    Themunicator rang at his waist, it was Sang Pu.

    "What is this fe calling at this time?" He took the phone.

    "Uh huh¡­ Really?? I don''t know what to say¡­ this is¡­" A joyful news it was, that Sang Tie''s hands were shaking, "Alright! I''ll be there soon!"

    The new trainees were bewildered at theirmander''s expression. It was never seen before. "Everyone gather up. Call the rest of the trainees. All be here in 30 seconds or I''ll break your legs for sure!" Shrieked Sang Pu.

    Half a minuteter, the Collision army rolled to the center¡­

    ¡­(At another ce)¡­

    Sang Ling led the sixth army which guarded the front line, which was the boundary of Yi Ju. The Collision army had been the main defense force of the Sang tribe and they had impressed the world after that fight against the red-tailed beasts. Many different forces had formed alliance with them that they managed to expand their territory to all the surroundings. They were great but they were low in number, so they forced six different armies that camped on differents tobine. The sixth army was ranked thest but they offered the greatest offense, though most people remembered the sixth army merely because how most of the members weressies.

    "Meeting now." Sang Ling stormed into the meeting room, her subordinates were astonished by her panicked reaction.

    The intense ambiance was shattered by her speech after a moment of adjustment, "I had just received an order from Mr. Sang Pu." Both Sang Pu and Sang Ling might have been brother and sister but Sang Ling would formally address her brother at the workce. Sang Ling seemed to have matured a lot after her marriage with Sang Fan.

    "So regarding this¡­"

    The people anticipated.

 Chapter 606 - Return of Legend II

    <h4>Chapter 606: Return of Legend II</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    "We are going to pick up someone this time."

    Her subordinates were intrigued - picking up someone? Who? With an army of such size? Wait!

    A few of the subordinates seemed to have realized the only person who was capable to grab such attention from the leader, as excitement tinted their expressions.

    "The first, third and fifth army would be joining us too."

    Four out of the six armies scattered across the surrounding space zone of Yi Ju had been called up for the big mission this time. This was probably thergest operation in the entire history of the Collision army, the soldiers were astonished by the details, wondering what man of what gxy could waver the armies so easily.

    "Also¡­" Sang Ling, as if the news was not shocking enough, decided to give a few more juicy details, "I have just received updates, that, the Collision armies had departed, while there were also armies sent by the 12 other smaller tribes, following our lead." The so-called smaller tribes were ethics who had close connection to the Sangs, the Jin Gui tribe for example.

    "Oh¡­" The subordinates were quiet, as it was quite the overwhelming information for them.

    "All departments get ready. Departing in 4 hours. Destination : Xue Hui." Sang Ling looked at her subordinates, "Dismiss."

    ¡­(Meanwhile, at theboratory on Yi Ju)¡­

    The Core Mathematics Laboratory was the most advanced mathematicalboratory on Yi Ju, as well as the known facility in He Yue gxy, led by certainly none other than the boy genius, Little Rock with his group of professional researches.

    "Ahem¡­" Little Rock initiated, as he cleared his throat, "Everyone, put down your work in hand. We have a situation here. " Both Little Rock and Zhu Ling were already happily married for two years by then. Although Little Rock remained as a shrinking violet, he had turned more vocal throughout these years.

    "We need to take over all the cameras hovering between Yi Ju and Xue Hui. I also need a few men to keep an eye on any suspicious activity on the Virtual World. All these is to make sure the transmission is smooth."

    ¡­(Meanwhile at Qiu Man)¡­

    The greatdy was negotiating with a major cooperation which was having different opinions in their uing deal. "No, I''m not giving in for this, and you know that." Qiu Man''s tone was strong as her personality, as well as her gaze, till her secretary stormed into her office and whispered a few words into her ears.

    Her expression changed, "What?" Gasped she, "Sorry, no more deal today. Some other time maybe." And she left the office.

    Yi Ju had be the most developed in the entire He Yue gxy by then. It was also the safest due to the powerful army led by the Sangs which annihted the whole wave of red-tailed beasts nearby.

    The was peaceful for months, till today, people were gasping out of astonishment as they spotted countless gigantic mech units zooming by the sky. It looked as if a prelude to a war.

    "Wowie, what''s going on today?"

    "Such army, Is there something happening?"

    "I h-h-hope not." The person, as if terrified by the wartime before, replied hesitantly, "B-b-but well! Even if there is something going on, our Collision army is unbeatable!" His statement went proudly.

    "True that."

    "Well, check out the news, and we''ll know."

    Having that said, this day was bound to be the historical day in the gxy.

    The massive army movement had alerted the residences in the gxy, that the Sangs had to pass out announcement promptly to rify that the movement was merely an escort trip, not one that marched to a war.

    But wait, they are going to Xue Hui?

    Isn''t that the home of Xue Lai n? When did the Sangs have something with Xue Lai n?

    On record the Sangs had once coldly declined all requests from the aristocrats and this totally contradicted their current movement.

    So why? Who or what had caused the army to make such a drastic move?

    This was the first time the Sangs left the Yi Ju area, with an official document announcing the purpose of their trip.

    The mysterious figure was sure great.

    The tribes around fancied the authority the Sangs built up over these years and they had provided ample supplies for their journey. This was probably the only golden opportunity they could get to butter up this strong army to ally with them since the Sangs were the extremely low-profiled group among the others.

    Different tribes contributed their own elites to join the fleet led by the Sangs and the fleet grew over time. The residents were anticipating the mystery to be revealed, regarding the master behind the entire scene. That was when a microchip was sent to the Ye family under the escort of the elite of Xue Lai n, the very elite himself, Brahmara.

    The microchip stirred up a storm at the Ye family who was already troubled by the hurricane of red-tailed beasts shower.

    The Ye family immediately sent off a fleet to Xue Hui, by where they met the representatives from the Xue Lai n as they zoomed their way to Xi Feng tribe.

    The development caught the attention of people again, as theories brewed, regarding this figure that had the ability to gather the forces around under his lead.

    The aristocrats had joined each other, fighting against the red-tailed beasts.

    The red-tailed beasts were terrifyingly formidable, that the aristocrats had to retreat on almost every asion. If it was not the Sangs, the people would not have survived.

    The Sangs were as if the silver lining in the sky, though victory remained far, far away from them.

    The unity of the aristocrats, would that signify a real peace? A true victory?

    Zuo Mi was a sailor who worked really hard at the ship, and somehow, as if fueled by something, there was not the slightest fatigue discernible on his face, as he walked in and out of the corridor constantly to get his tasks done.

    Countless fleets arrived by to load themselves with the necessities, Zuo Mi was assigned to guide the ships to the port. The number of mechs and giant warships had kept him pumped somehow, "Wow, we actually still have so many allies around us!"

    It was the confidence that fueled him, he realized, confidence towards the future of humanity.

    The mass media was promoting the movement, of the growing army all traveling towards the same destination - Xue Hui.

    Zuo Mi was exhausted by the work as he fell asleep after his meal, only to be waken up by the noises, "The Xi Feng is here!" One of his colleagues shouted.

    He got up and ran towards the window to witness the arrival of this great ally which signified thepletion of the intergctic alliance of aristocrats and it had certainly attracted participation of more forces around.

 Chapter 607 - Finale. New life and where things ended

    <h4>Chapter 607: Finale. New life and where things ended.</h4>

    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion

    The brewing movement outside did not affect the crew in Darkniss the slightest. To Appilok and his subordinates, the He Yue gxy was somewhere beyond their reach and they certainly did not bother to follow the news. As long as they got their tasks done assigned by their leader, they thought. Team Ye Chong resumed their routine, they were undisturbed as usual, unlike the Xue Lai n.

    The n had guests.

    TOO. MANY. GUESTS.

    They had to supply their workforce with untrained youngsters by shoving them to the front desk straight away to greet each massive group of guests, like the newly surfaced Collision army which arrived at Xue Hui first, as they were rather eager to reunite with their master, Ye Chong.

    "Sir!!" That was what Sang Tie screamed upon seeing Ye Chong again. He was very, very excited, that he could not contain that emotion in him as he spoke, "H-H-How have you been?"

    The rest of the family was stunned, a majority of them was the former army trained by the master himself back at the Sang family vige, in which a few of them even had hand-in-hand Collision mech tutorial with the master. The respect or more precisely the worship had grown into a profound passion in them, towards Ye Chong.

    Ye Chong stared at Sang Tie and rested silently, sentiments sprouted in him, as he almost could not recognize Sang Tie at first nce. He looked a bit more different than Ye Chong remembered. Things had changed apparently, not only Mu, Shang and Rui Bing had changed, the Sangs too had grown. That was joyful news indeed.

    Little Ye Chong knew, again, what he brought to the world hundreds of chapters ago, the grand gathering he caused was a major historical event in the chronicles of the gxy. The adjectives towards the event might be all "great", "grand", "amazing", "never-before-seen", but only the people who were fortunate enough to be participating the event itself would know how exciting it was.

    "Mhm¡­" A moment of silence and Ye Chong asked, "Have you all contacted Mu and Shang?" The juniors were confused, but the higher ranked Sangs knew what the master was talking about.

    Sang Tie shook, "Nope, I imagined them with you."

    Ye Chong was quiet again, his mind ran fast.

    If Mu and Shang did not join the Sangs, they must be still at the Gray Valley.

    Oh Mu and Shang, how are both of you? I miss those days¡­

    Thought Ye Chong.

    ¡­(Meanwhile)¡­

    Reporters from all corners of the gxy had arrived on Xue Hui, only to see the one person who was able to wield the few aristocratic forces across the universe so easily. But they had no luck, the hunt might be just a wild goose chase as the mysterious figure never really showed up in person. The reporters, having their hope sank, were feeling agitated by theck of development of newsworthy stories. They knew where the figure was, yet they could hardly do a thing. There was only onest ce, of the entire gxy, where the reporters had never been to - the same mysterious gigantic warship that came out of the nowhere, the Darkniss. Juicy information was perceived from the Xue Lai n on different interrogations with them, iming how destructive Darkniss was, as well as how the mysterious figure led the entire crew of sniping Shooters.

    The reporters waited on as they observed the formation of an alliance between the aristocrats under the lead of Sangs.

    ¡­(Two weekster)¡­

    The He Yue gxy alliance had been officially established, which only familiar names were involved ¡ª the Sangs (the majority of the alliance, about 20%), the aristocrats (15% each) and the leaders of other minor groups. The authority of the Sangs was once again perceivable in the eyes of the people, they were the newly emerged force that had overtaken the three aristocrats.

    The reporters were opening their eyes wide as they skimmed through the list. No. No¡­? There was not a single name that seemed to have association with the mysterious figure, and Darkniss had never attended the alliance meeting and formation ceremony - the ship did not even have its gate opened once.

    This alliance was much stronger than any of its former, as it took up 3/4 of the whole military force in the He Yue gxy and certainly they would need amander befitting to its greatness - Sang Pu. He was called and rushed to Yi Ju.

    People were very intrigued of this new force as high hopes were given upon them to clear out the pack of red-tailed beasts destroying the gxy. The residents were very aware of the fact that this very army shall determine the fate of the He Yue gxy.

    That was when Darkniss stealthily departed, with 10 Sangs'' warships under his lead, on which 400 pilots boarded each.

    ¡­(Meanwhile, at Team Sang Pu)¡­

    "We finally got it through." Sang Kan breathed in relief as he nced at Sang Fan, who joined Sang Pu from their home tomand the army of 4000 Collisions. Sang Pu felt more secure if they were able to allocate more men in the rescue mission of Lord Mu and Shang, but their teacher, Ye Chong, disapproved for the teacher felt the number was more than enough.

    In this vast gxy, probably only Mu and Shang could provide Ye Chong such security. Mu and Shang was so capable that even Ye Chong felt more confident in their works than himself. Mu and Shang might be facing the fearsome red-tailed beasts, but he believed that the artificial intelligence and indulgence could clear the wave effortlessly as long as they had their turn to attack.

    From the Xue Lai n, Ye Chong had already obtained the firsthand information regarding Mu and Shang''s whereabouts in Gray Valley. His machine buddies were much more stronger than their former self 20 years ago, not even the new ace of the Xue Lai n, Brahmara, could bepetent in terms of performance. However, it might still be a different story if it was a one-on-one. Technically, Mu and Shang was a far better all-rounder than Brahmara.

    It was a smooth sail for the following days, as the alliance, under Sang Pu''s lead, managed to clear out several nests of red-tailed beasts.

    All thanks to their great teacher, Ye Chong who shared his experience with Sang Pu while pointing out the exact ways to get rid of these pests.

    And the Xue Lai n finally had the time to catch their breath, as they began producing their new weapon, the Red Vapour III. The n was still an aristocrat for a reason. They only needed a short period to recover and grow stronger.

    The fragile nest made out of tendrils had be the fatal weakness of the red-tailed beasts. Humans could disrupt the reproduction of these beasts immediately by destroying the nests, though it still was a trouble to face the beasts themselves.

    The beasts were running to all corners, while the alliance were unable to stop these running monstrosities. The people were pleased however. It was a form of victory after all. It would be only a matter of time till the red-tailed beasts had their justice served.

    Nevertheless, the clusters of red-tailed beasts that escaped to all corners of the gxy were rather impossible to bepletely eliminated. So one had to admit that the gxy would no longer be as peaceful as it once was.

    Meanwhile, Ye Chong did not bother much about the gctic war happening out there. He had his own war to fight. Darkniss, under the escort of his fellow 4000 Collisions, was traveling safely from one stop to another.

    The pathway to Gray Valley was not as dangerous as he imagined, the waves of red-tailed beast were far less frequent.

    But how?

    Right in the midst of confusion when Ye Chong activated the portal to Gray Valley, one of Sangs'' fleet stayed behind and joined Xue Lai''s army at the entrance to the free space zone.

    This separate team had a different mission, which was, to retrieve a sunken vessel under the navigation of Old Jalopy and Fei Si.

    Why the vessel?

    Well, something was in there.

    Coratinum, the essential material to repair Mu and Shang.

    So the one fleet parted ways with Darkniss at the portal to Gray Valley and certainly the two ships had to test their transmission.

    "Is it working? Was there any signal?" Asked Ye Chong to Sang Fan.

    The little warship of the Sangs might not be as grand as Darkniss but it had a far superiormunication system created by the Core Mathematicsboratory, one led by Little Rock and his team of researchers. The system was very powerful in capturingmunicative signals and it clearly had convinced people the power of that one boy genius.

    ¡­(Meanwhile somewhere at Gray Valley)¡­

    Yang Ming was heading to Vincent. He was no longer that apprentice under Harrell the Great thanks to his continuous effort in mastering the mechanics. By then he had be the foreman leading his own group of mechanics to Vincent where the front line was pleading backup repairmen in fixing their broken armory.

    Even though Sir Jay (Ye Chong)''s disappearance had once caused a bit of trouble in his fleet, he and his men managed to build a new miracle under the lead of Lord Mu and Shang.

    They had been strengthening their fortress, utilizing the ample resources found on Spectre where they founded their main base too - all thanks to the impable n by Lord Mu and Shang.

    And it was that one ident urred during their fight with red-tailed beasts which exposed the beasts'' vulnerability - the nest.

    Because of that, they managed to safeguard their territory by wiping out all nests in Gray Valley, as about 30% of the red-tailed beast poption remained. The red-tailed beasts were less threatening without their nest. They were nerfed, and had be the training monsters for pilots to farm their contribution points.

    The name of Lord Mu and Shang the Great was heard again throughout Gray Valley.

    Mu and Shang had seized control of the majority of areas in Gray Valley and in no time they would taste the real victory, the end of the war once they opened up the pathway to the He Yue gxy.

    The catch was, for some reason, despite being one step before victory, Lord Mu and Shang insisted on not leaving Spectre, and the men knew the lord was waiting for Sir Jay. And this capricious lord had been very, very mysterious to even his own men, that only Sir Xi Qing and Sir Shu had met the lord in person, yet they were forced an oath of silence whenever the lord was mentioned.

    When would the waiting days end?

    The men were anticipating the finale.

    "Sir! We had detected signals!" Reported one member to Yang Ming.

    "What kind?" Frowned he as he muttered, "Impossible¡­ we have controlled everything here, how can there be new signals?"

    "I don''t know sir¡­" Responded the crew member.

    "Hmmm¡­" He then made his decision, "Report to the base on Vincent. Try performing a transmission with the signal after that. Stay on guard." He would not want to risk as he was leading not a warship but an ordinary spaceship, filled with ordinary repairmen which were under guards of a small group of pilots.

    ¡­(Back to Darkniss)¡­

    "Sir!" Ye Chong was alerted by the visual, he could not believe he actually encountered an ordinary spaceship in Gray Valley. A few more nces and he noticed the name of the ship painted at the body - FLEET JAY: G-044.

    A spaceship that started with the code "G", it had to be a spaceship for the maintenance team, but the name "Jay"? Ye Chong finally remembered something as he had an awkward smile. A hint of joy filled his head.

    Seems like Mu/Shang had quite some fun here, eh?

    The transmission prompted!

    *BEEP BEEP*

    "Jajajajaja! If it wasn''t our boy!" The familiar beeping tone prompted.

    ¡­(Back to Team Sang Pu)¡­

    The army was winning! The wave of pilots gradually engulfed the purple cloud zone. It was a strategic move as they tried luring the red-tailed beasts to leave their nest, only to demolish their nest using highlypressive grenades after the beasts had reached a certain distance.

    The red-tailed beasts panicked but the army did not fight them directly yet. The army decided to drag the run to wear the beasts out so they would have an easy kill in the end.

    Of course, it worked like a charm.

    It was an idea by our protagonist, Ye Chong, after all.

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    He Yue Calendar Year 2455 April 14th - Lord Mu/Shang officially resigned from his position in Sir Jay''s fleet. Both Xi Qing and Shu took over the position. All system remained unchanged.

    He Yue Calendar Year 2455 June - the veryst nest of red-tailed beasts, destroyed.

    He Yue Calendar Year 2456 - the alliance of the 3 aristocrats and Sang family joined the Xi Ding defense line on Csebesini in the Five Gxies tounch full attack at the homeless red-tailed beasts.

    He Yue Calendar Year 2457 - the situation in Five Gxies grew stable, making the finale of the apocalypse.

    Throughout the years, the human poption on both He Yue and Five Gxies slumped. He Yue gxy suffered 70% loss in the figure while Gray Valley lost about 50%.

    The Five Gxies had the worst, where only 20% of the poption remained, while having a number ofs in barren.

    It was as if a wipe of civilization.

    Humanity only regained bit of the former peace before 3 yearster. Under the motivating policy by the governments, people started reliving the barrens. Nheless, there were still clusters of red-tailed beasts out there, so they were obliged to migrate in groups, guarded.

    That was where pilots shone again.

    It was another golden age of pilots.

    The apocalypse had ended for so long yet Blue Ocean was deserted, in an ironic forgotten situation being a developed trading before. Its resources had been long drained so itcked the basic attraction to the people in the outer space. Those who returned to the were actually because of either the nostalgia or the sense of responsibility. No one would consider visiting otherwise.

    Well, fortunately, as society regained its vitality, Blue Ocean retrieved its spotlight due to its strategic location. The poption improved, so was the infrastructure. A mini trading center was even established at a few spots across the.

    ¡­(And at that one shop by the street)¡­

    The children were running happily, chasing the torn puppets which looked like the red-tailed beasts with their mech action figures. Columns of steam could be discerned from one side. There was an aroma wafting in the air, of delicious beef. The sound of dough pping the board could be heard.

    An indifferent young man, in the robe white as the uniform of his beloved, was rolling the dough. A gorgeous girl, in her white garb, waving her long, dark hair asionally as sweated slightly, was slicing the braised beef pulled from the bowl. An old man was resting at his bamboo chair, breathing serenity.

    "Ye¡­ Umm¡­" The thin slice of beef fell into the steaming bowl of pork stock, "I still want a daughter¡­" Mumbled Rui Bing, biting her lips.

    "OKAY!" Said Ye Chong, spirited, as he mmed the dough to the board, "I''ll work on that tonight!"

    *BEEP BEEP* At thewn, a handicapped mech was grabbing the vacuum cleaner with his only arm, "Rating - Cleanliness: 7, Humidity: 3, Dust Amount: 2. n B: Executing."

    At the attic, a row of cradles stood peacefully¡­ "WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" till a piercing cry of child broke the silence. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! BOOOHOOO! BOOOHOOOOO!" As if a prompt by the conductor of an orchestra, the rest of the children joined the music. Sha Ya, formerly in her meditation, opened her eyes wide and sent the children into mid-air. The children were floating, as if gravity was lost, as they began giggling, grabbing the air.

    They gradually swam towards Sha Ya, as they, in great curiosity, made strange cries.

    And being the fairy godmother of these children, Sha Ya knew the children wanted their entertainment again.

    "Oh well, it''s time for the magician to perform again! Hiya!!" She waved, in excitement of a party clown, as she whispered, "Sigh, I should have joined Weidong and the other mercenaries¡­" That was probably the 1520th time where Sha Ya made the same remark.

    And upon hearing the conversation happening at the front kitchen, another remark which urred also the 1520th time was heard again, "They sure are the couple inbat. Fight great in field, fight great in bed¡­ We are going to run a dojo soon at this rate."

    "GAHH! GAH GAH GOO GOO! TCH!" The 4 little devils were brandishing their meaty arms, furrowing.

    "Sigh¡­ alright alright¡­" Sha Ya turned to them and waved her hands, "Here we go again."

    The fairy godmother started her magic show again.

    And they lived happily ever after.

    ¡­

    Fin.

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    Credits:

    Trantors:

    Jack - the sarcastic bad boy

    Mole - the sincere kind gal

    Editors:

    Sporesan - the funky editor

    Tscvanessa - the quiet editor

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    Trantor''s live reaction to the ending:

    What???? That''s it?

    What happened to red-tailed beasts? They did not clear them entirely?

    What happened to the whor- I mean, the other waifus? What happened to Xue Ling? Rui Bing''s sister? I wanted some group "activities".

    Basically the author just spent 3 to 5 paragraphs describing, again, how amazing Ye Chong was as he brought historical movement and the whole world was showering him attention, and they formed alliance, and a timeline skip, and the end?????

    My whole life has been a lie. I don''t want to live on this anymore.

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    Author''s note regarding the ending and reader''s feedback:

    Hah~ I saw how all my beloved readers not epting this ending, well, that''s quite a conundrum isn''t it?

    As much as you want to say it sounds rushed, I actually had plotted this ending way back, like ¡­st year (Fun fact: this book took the author about 2 years to hit this ending, so he probably meant he thought of this ending somewhere back on Year 1). It was not a rushed ending that came out of nowhere.

    Back when I was also a reader, reading other amazing stories like you, I always hoped that the epic tale would never ever end, but when those authors put up a rather unsurprising ending, I felt quite disappointed actually.

    The story started off tempestuous and certainly at some point, the storm would subside and all it''s gonna end rather inly. It''s a pretty natural way to write a story, in my opinion. This is the kind of ending I imagined way back.

    Well, a few readersmented that I still got a lot of holes uncovered. Regarding that, I believe that it is impossible to rify everything, to cover every ground in a book. So, it''s fine, as long as the major issues get covered.

    Moreover, I felt a lot with this ending, as it provides readers the space for imagination. The 8-toed red-tailed beast leader has not been caught, while clusters of red-tailed beasts lingered on every other corner in the gxy. The peace had not really arrived, a war could still happen. Don''t you think it''s interesting to end the story at a point where there''s still a lot of potential everywhere?

    At least, the story could still continue, in its own way, in the heart of the readers.

    Phew, and I''m finally done. Such a chore for me, but well, haha, such a chore for everybody. A writing thatsted for about 2 years, it would be a big lie if I say I still have that strength (Trantors: US TOO).

    Well, it''ll be a period to catch a breath. I do feel much more relieved, though I''ll be going into another war soon.

    (The author then promotes his next novel, wow, this is literally heart-dead writing)

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    Trantor''s Note II:

    The author did a bit poorly for the ending as he technically briefed through several rather important scenes where I felt he could have put in lots of feelings in them to stir the emotions of the readers.

    Those scenes could be made more impulsive.

    So yeah, again, I juiced them up. I also added the author''s note, I hope that those could lighten up your sentiments leaving this novel LOL. I had extended this chapter as much as I could.

    We are also here to promote our next novel. If you have liked my odd satire on the author''s writing and liked mole''s decent trantion, we would like to invite you to the our uing project.

    Stay tuned!

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!